Hugo Chavez: 3 Minute Man

No More Singing in Those Long Showers, Kids

Venezuela has been experiencing a record drought resulting in water shortages that have led its president, Hugo Chavez, to publicly support a cold, three-minute shower. According to Chavez, the water level in Guri Dam, which is the country’s largest, is 30% percent below its last record low. Chavez partly blames El Nino, the phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean that brings about variation in climate from time to time, but he also emphasized his belief that the rich use more than their fair share of water. He blasted wealthy Venezuelans who have swimming pools and wash their cars compulsively. He also blamed them for wasting electricity with a TV set in every room.

IPS News reported that agribusiness leader, Antonio Pestana, told them this year’s rice harvest would yield between 3,500 and 4,000 kg per hectare, while last year’s average yield was 4,500 kg per hectare. Another expert, Eulogio Chacón, head of the Institute of Environmental and Ecological Sciences at the University of the Andes in southwestern Venezuela, told IPS that the drought was also affecting coffee crops not only in Venezuela but in Colombia and other countries in the region.

Venezuela’s rainy season usually runs from April or May to October or November, while the rest of the year is the dry season. In this year’s rainy season, which is about to end soon, there just wasn’t enough rain and plans to ration water are already underway. But Chavez feels that Venezuelans could do a lot more to help by knocking off that singing in the shower and just sticking to basic cleaning in no more than three minutes. During his televised cabinet meeting, Chavez was quoted as saying: “Some people sing in the shower half an hour … No kids, three minutes is more than enough.”

Chavez also went on to say: “If you are going to lie back, in the bath, with the soap and you turn on the — what’s it called — the Jacuzzi, imagine that. What kind of communism is that? We’re not in times of Jacuzzi.” Chavez also indicated he is not asking anyone to do anything he doesn’t do himself: “I’ve counted, three minutes, and I don’t stink.”

While there can be no doubt that the water shortage is a serious matter, there really are a great many songs that are less than 3 minutes long. We’ve certainly had our share of water shortages in this country, so if singing in the shower is ever frowned upon in the USA, I still think if we choose our songs judiciously, we may even be able to fit in two songs in a three minute shower.

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Tags: hugo, nino, world leaders