another brief reportback

MIERDA i stubbed my toe. that was sunday night, and it was deep and bloody. but the venezolanas were prepared and i received my first visit with a real doctor in over three years, excepting a late night visit with a friend�s father back when i had the pneumonia. and this first real doctor visit was with a CUBAN doctor. his name was roberto, a handsome man in his early thirties, who had worked for two year periods in Belize, Guatemala, Haiti, and now Venezuela, as is required and requested by Cuba for all of its medical professionals. But he had gone above and beyond and done it for longer than the usual. Perla Marina, a slightly older Venezuelan volunteer who was sweet as honey, took me to him, and we chilled, joked around, and I got real medical treatment.

I can only be briefly go into the events of yesterday, the march, the delegations, etc. First, all seven hundred or so estadounidenses met at one of the bases, and the highly impressive turn out from Chicago groups like the Batey & Zocalo delegation and the University of Hip Hop, Geny Y, and Southwest Youth Collaborative delegation, both which had organized entirely on their own, were very apparent.

Most national delegations, from the 300-person Angolan delegation from the MPLA to the Algerians who are with their National Student Union, are with only one organization which is usually connected with their equivalent of our Communist Party (which in virtually all cases are very moderate). This is a large disappointment, but it was something I had anticipated. Some delegations also have their Socialist Party present.

The Cubans too are almost entirely from their youth communist group, but i was fortunate enough to meet up with the Cuban who coordinated my trip back in 2000. We hadn�t seen each other since, and lost contact, but he ecstatically charged after me and offered to show me some of the more militant local and international activists in a neighborhood I had heard of previously known as something like 23 de febrero. I will correct that later if it is incorrect.

As we drove in, we saw the beautiful and coordinated delegations from Brazil, Viet Nam, Guyana, Algeria, Western Sahara, and elsewhere, and we felt ashamed. But the most exciting part of the day for me came early on in the march, when I found the 20 members of the PANAMANIAN DELEGATION. And they did not disappoint. At the sight of this insane Panamanian-American they were immediately jubilant and welcomed me into their group. Every single one dropped their email on my note book or gave me their card, and eventually we had all eighty of the Panamanians together. Only three of them were comrades from my trips to Panama, but they were easily one of the funniest, loudest, most festive and most militant groups, largely along with other West Indian delegations from St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. For those who wonder where I get my louder-than-a-megaphone vocal cords, apparently it�s in my blood.

But what was most impressive to me about the Panamanian delegation was the politics. They had one of the most diverse delegations in the entire festival politically, almost all youth from the University and some from the unions, and virtually all of the over nine or ten heavily divided Marxist groups in the University were present. As the Panamanians explained to me, they left their ideological contradictions and divisions in Panama, because here in Venezuela at the Festival they are one. And I saw not one moment of tension between groups. Indeed, they proudly told me that the real language of our country is the kiss. For most of the rest of the day I stuck with them, although forays into the crowd found me warmly embraced by most of the rest of the delegations. particularly affectionate were those from Peru and Granada, among others, but all were warm and eager to trade contacts and take pictures.

Before I go, I must give special mention to Iraq. There was one Iraqi delegate in the march, a Iraqi Communist Party member from Canada, but later three unaffiliated radical Iraqis who study in Canada seized the Iraq sign and took over the delegation. The day ended with a speech from Chavez, but the estadounidenses were rude enough to walk out (forcing me and others who wanted to stay to come along to our buses). It is obvious that I will have the best experience when I am with my second delegation- the Paname�os!