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Venezuelan president says PlayStation is 'poison,' leads children down 'road to hell'
digg_url = 'http://www.joystiq.com/2010/01/18/venezuelan-president-says-playstation-is-poison-leads-childre/'; Venezuela's extreme leftist president Hugo Chavez recently took aim at the PlayStation and non-indigenous toys in his weekly radio-TV show, Alo Presidente. According to the AFP, Chavez stated, "Those games they call 'PlayStation' are poison. Some games teach you to kill." El Presidente had previously knocked Nintendo for promoting "selfishness, individualism and violence." He believes video games reinforce capitalism which, of course, is "the road to hell." Chavez would like to see Venezuela making "educational games" instead of Super Murder Simulator VI and "little indigenous dolls" in place of Barbie. Venezuela's (sometimes paranoid) government outlawed violent games last October in an effort to curb the country's extremely high violent crime rate.
Venezuela shows off locally-produced El Vergatario phone
There are already cheap phones in the world, yes -- but very few can claim to run under $14, and even fewer can claim to be made in Venezuela. In fact, the C366 "El Vergatario" -- introduced by none other than Hugo Chavez himself -- will be the very first phone ever produced on Venezuelan soil, a partnership between the government and minority outside investors including Chinese manufacturer ZTE. It'll cost 30,000 bolivar when it goes on sale, and plans are already in place to offer it throughout Latin America and the Caribbean (to anyone not expecting fanciness like cameras or media players, anyhow).
Venezuela begins semi-cheap PC rollout
Well they're no OLPCs -- heck, they're not even as cheap as some Dell systems that you can buy in China -- but Venezuela has finally begun rolling out its long-promised, domestically-produced computers in a move designed to give the South American country more technological independence. Consisting of four models (three not-ugly desktops and a laptop) ranging from a relatively inexpensive $405 to a "did Sony make this one?" $1,400, the machines all run an unspecified Linux distro powered by 1.5GHz to 3.0GHz Pentium IVs (desktops) or a pretty high-end 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo processor (notebook). Santa Chavez and his revolutionary elves have apparently been handing these out like candy to domestic interests since last year, and are now in the process of ramping up the scope and scale of production so that more components can be produced in-house while sales channels become international. These so-called "Bolivarian Computers" are currently being manufactured by a joint venture between the Venezuelan Ministry of Light Industry and Commerce and Chinese company Lang Chao's Venezuela de Industria Tecnológica, with the latter company apparently unafraid of getting nationalized like so many of its colleagues.
Hugo Chavez to give out free PCs to Venezuelans?
While we're not sure what happened to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's $6.26 million plan to manufacture $350 "Bolivar" PCs with unnamed Chinese manufacturers, it seems as though that project's apparent failure hasn't set ol' Hugs back at all -- CNET is reporting that Venezuela is planning to enter the oddly crowded PCs-for-undeveloped-regions market, alongside such players as Intel and OLPC. Details are pretty light, as you'd expect, but apparently Venezuelan authorities are contacting Asian OEMs about building the machines, which will be funded by oil profits and either heavily subsidized or given away free to people in various Latin American countries. It's a nice idea, but we're wondering why these "authorities" don't just call up any random catalog reseller and place an order -- last we checked, you could spec out a laptop at retail for under $500, so we can't imagine the wholesale revolutionary-discount price would be over $300. And hey, we just might know someone who'll laser-etch Hugo's face on the lids for cheap -- feel free to give us a call, El Presidente.
Venezuelan lawmakers wary of Mercenaries 2, suspect US government agenda
According to a recent Associated Press report, Venezuelan lawmakers are concerned that the US government has influenced the development of Pandemic's Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, which is set in the South American country and features missions based on real-world events. Lawmakers fear that the game supports an agenda that seeks to invade Venezuela and overthrow President Hugo Chávez."[Mercenaries 2] sends a message to Americans: You have a danger next door, here in Latin America, and action must be taken," says lawmaker Gabriela Ramirez, "It's a justification for an imperialist aggression."Pandemic, creators of Full Spectrum Warrior, which is based on a simulation commissioned by the US Army, defended its decision to set the game in Venezuela, stating, "Although a conflict doesn't necessarily have to be happening, it's realistic enough to believe that it could eventually happen."While claims of a US government led conspiracy rank really high on the 'paranoia meter,' there's no denying that Mercenaries 2 echoes politically charged sentiments that have been around in video games for decades. Remember Rush'n Attack?
