Chicken-shit “progressives”
I shouldn’t be surprised that even the U.S. “progressive” websites never get anything from Latin America even remotely correct. On “Americablog” I read a post “Bolivian president says genetically modified chicken can turn you gay“. I’m naturally skeptical of most U.S. media when it writes about Latin America, and this is not the first time U.S. “progressive” sites have spun quotes from Evo Morales to misrepresent the man, simply bought the U.S. imperialist spin on Latin American and presented it (just because the present U.S. administration is domestically more to their taste) unchallenged, nor that John Aravosis posted arrogantly anti-Latin American (mis) information.
Of course, the commentators on Americablog were all going on about cocaine and having a grand time, never bothering to look at the source: Noticias24, not exactly the most reputable of news outlets, even by Venzuelan standards.
What the President of Bolivia said was, and I quote:
Cuando hablamos del pollo, el pollo que comemos, está cargado de hormonas femeninas, por eso los hombres cuando comen este pollo tienen desviaciones en su ser como hombre”, entre otras deficiencias, tales como la calvicie prematura, como así aceleraciones irregulares en el metabolismo en las mujeres al nacer a la vida reproductiva.
I don’t think there’s a reputable scientist in the world who would disagree with Evo that hormonal-laden meat may be bad for you and may affect ones metabolic system. As to causing baldness, I think the jury is out on that one, though the 50-year old Morales doesn’t look bad for his age.
Good genes or free-range chicken?
His remarks were made in Tiquipaya, at the climate warming and environmental summit that the U.S. media is ignoring in favor of “talks” among the policy honchos of the big countries that don’t follow the U.S. line on climate change about possible common agreements that might be expressed at a later climate change summit that will be held in air-conditioned rooms in Cancún. The Bolivian summit is a gathering of farmers, indigenous groups, environmentalists, and representatives from the countries undergoing the worst of climate change, and is meeting outdoors and living in tents.
mexfiles.net 
Aravosis lost me long ago, specifically because of his attitude toward Latin America and the US role there.
The BBC isn’t doing much better: http://bit.ly/8Zit9P
I lost interest in Americablog last year; he just puts his foot in his mouth too often. Also, he used to be a Log Cabin Republican, and it shows,
sometimes.
I feel bad for the other 2 or 3 main commentators, who are competent (Joe Sudbay and Chirs in Paris)…. but he has lost most of his original audience over the last year, at least from the names in the comments.
steve
it’s the truth
Time turned it around nicely too, too
http://www.time.com/time/quotes
C’mon. I wouldn’t defend a head of state that so blatantly talks without scientific basis. And while he didn’t specifically say ‘gay’, it’s hard to think of what else did he mean when he said ‘feminine’ hormones cause ‘deviations’ in their being as men. This is definitely him pandering to nationalism at the expense of scientific facts. Please don’t defend that, he’s not the victim here.
I don’t think you can blame US media/progressives on this one – El Pais, for example had a video and the original soundbite and still wrote that Morales had claimed hormone chicken makes you gay – my Spanish is pretty good, but at what point do you trust the native speakers to correctly interpret a remark like that? I’m still not clear what “desviaciones en su ser como hombre” – spoken with a slight chuckle – are supposed to be.
Morales’ comment was very vague and could have referred to the impact of feminine hormones on male sex drive or fertility or various other functions. The corporate press – and expecially right wing bloggers – embellished the quote and, predictably, negleted to mention that the Bolivian constitution that Morales fought for and won explicitly bans descriminations based on sexual orientatation.
Appropriately enough, I learned about this whole incident by reading a negative review of Oliver Stone’s film “South of the Border”.