Yes. By agreeing to
participate in last Friday's (7/2/14) Drake stunt Rihanna has set in motion a
series of unfortunate set of events. Primarily she's managed to force herself
onto the agenda of the Winter Olympics when she would have been better advised to
keep an extremely low profile.
In turn this error
has prompted wave of negative stories in the US gossip press. For example Kanye
West now apparently wants to kick the living daylights out of Drake and a
simple photograph with a fan has started rumours that Drake is now dating
someone else. This is interesting because it is actually an example of the
"community containment" that Rihanna's CIA handlers are trying to pretend
that forcing her into a relationship with Drake represents. Basically people
in the Los Angeles/Hollywood celebrity community have noticed how stupid
Rihanna was being and are now making up negative stories in an effort to make
Rihanna realise the error of her ways.
The Drake stunt has
had a much more dramatic impact in Venezuela though. Arguably since US slave
owners tried to mitigate their losses by moving south at the end of the US
civil war Venezuela has had this problem a small group of ranchers and
plantation owners who think it is their divine right to buy and sell everyone
else. Obviously everyone else is less keen on that idea creating a lot of
tension. During the Cold War this tension was exacerbated with the US backing
the Capitalist ruling class through the School of the Americas and the Soviet
Union backing the working class through their own similar program.
Following the end of
the Cold War Venezuela's working class found a hero in Hugo Chavez who became
the populist but ultimately ineffective President 1999. The ruling class
hated this and (possibly with US help) set about trying to overthrow Chavez in
a series of violent coup attempts. Chavez managed to survive these but couldn't
survive cancer dying young in office in March 2013. Almost immediately an election
was held and in late March 2013 Chavez's heir Nicolas Madura narrowly defeated Henrique Capriles who was supported by the ruling class. Unfortunately the
ruling class failed to respect the result of this election and used their power
to destroy Venezuela's economy provoking anti-government protests that have
continued pretty much since the election,
Yesterday (13/2/14)
unidentified gunmen attacked one of these demonstrations killing three. It is
now being claimed that one of those killed was a big Rihanna fan and Rihanna
has taken to Twitter/Instagram to pay tribute. This is of course a pretty
transparent attempt by the Venezuelan government to draw attention to the
ongoing protests and discredit the protesters by associating the protesters with Rihanna
who in turn is closely associated with the CIA. It also has the effect of
promoting discussion (and possibly reinforcing) the claim that Rihanna was
responsible for the series of uprisings - some popular, some engineered - that are
commonly known as the 'Arab Spring.'
As with most
countries in South America Venezuela shares a border with Brazil. Brazil has
also recently been gripped by a wave of anti-government protests. These are
mainly driven by poverty and a slowing down of Brazil's economy that due to a
sudden influx of foreign money that was fleeing the 2008 economic meltdown that
crippled developed market. The recent wave of market instability has been
caused by that money suddenly flowing out of South American markets but I'm going off on a bit of a tangent.With
most people not really understanding the finer points of the international financial
markets and inflationary pressures the Brazilian protesters have largely
directed their anger at the cost of Brazil's staging of the 2014 World Cup and
the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Aside from the
protests, the economic worries and preparations for the World Cup and the
Olympics Brazil has also recently come under a lot of pressure to accept
Rihanna concerts in an effort to trigger a damaging South American leg of the
Diamonds World Tour. In an effort to take the pressure off Brazil Vogue magazine
arranged for Rihanna to visit the nation for a photoshoot which would allow the
Brazilians to have a good look at her without having to endure a concert.
Unfortunately this visit didn't go to plan and due to Rihanna giving everyone the silent treatment actually ended up increasing the
pressure on Brazil.
In response Brazil
decided to register their displeasure by killing one of Rihanna's fans.
Therefore Venezuela's decision to repeat the trick of killing a Rihanna fan was an attempt to enquire
what was going on between Brazil and the US while attempting to raise the
possibility of Brazil and Venezuela co-operating on their respective
anti-government protests. Of course a general trend towards people killing
Rihanna fans is not going to do wonders for Rihanna's career.
Although I don't
think they are directly connected - yet - the situation in Venezuela is
remarkably similar to the current situation in Thailand. There the Born to Rule
protesters have had a recent run of bad luck. Firstly their attempt to overturn
the results of the recent snap election which is expected to reaffirm the
government's popularity was thrown out by the courts. Today the police have
moved in to break up the protest camps in the capital. This is all an attempt
to make the protests seem less like a coup attempt whilst the Olympics are
going on. After all the Thai team's arrival during the parade of nations was an
extremely awkward moment. With the Thai coup attempt seemingly being triggered by
Rihanna's recent disastrous visit the fact I'm now having to discuss it
alongside the situation in Venezuela is hardly helping to break the association
between Rihanna and political unrest.
Finally producers who
have been working with Rihanna recently previewed on the Internet an
instrumental version of a song they've been working on. Although this is far
from a finished song, doesn't include Rihanna's vocals and may not make it onto
any album it's clear the song is intended as another dull ballad about the ups
and downs of Rihanna's fictional love life - I believe this genre is known as;
"Opera for Retards." The the timing of the preview is supposed to
promote discussion about whether Rihanna is going to release two quite poor
albums or one rather good album this year. I for one am confused why this is
even being discussed.
19:40 on 14/2/14 (UK date).
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