Hugo Chavez

www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18616380

Goodness gracious me!

Embalmed versus "stardust"...I'm opting for the latter.

That was extremely interesting, Tegan! Thank you

and Ho Chi Minh although (before his death obviously!) he specifically said that he didn't want that. On a recent visit, we were trouped past it. I could hardly look - gruesome!!

There was talk about doing away with Lenin's tomb but as far as I know it's still there. However, the government no longer pays for maintaining his body so, as private subscriptions decrease which they inevitably will over time, he'll go all spotty, discoloured and mouldy and have to be put somewhere less visible.

It's very interesting to hear about the political conspiracies and the way that both left and right wing attempt to destabilise regimes and remove leaders of state. We can only judge on what we are fed in the media. I travelled in Venezuela in 2005 and found the slums and the violence in Caracas shocking. In spite of the good that Chavez did with the oil money in terms of free healthcare and education there was an almost complete absence of local government. That unsung hero that keeps the UK ticking over so well. For a start they didn't have a local tax base both decent houses and slums were most often built upon unregulated plots so no property taxes were collected or at least not enough of them. As a result there were heaps of litter alongside all of the roads and deep craters not just potholes in the road. So in spite of Ken's visit re advice on local government, at the time I went it had had little impact. One thing I loved about the country apart from its staggering beauty outside the urbanised areas was the unique absence of American and British influence so that there were many things I saw there for which I had little reference points for from Anglo Saxon culture. It had a big impact on me and I wish I could go back there. So I can only hope that the death of Chavez does not mean a worse future for the Venezuelan people.