Month: April 2025

Explosion and Fire in Carabobo (Venezuela) Hospital

Richard Barnes

George Orwell’s astonishingly prescient novel, 1984, describes a mechanism whereby events — whether historical or current — which are embarrassing to the regime are cast into the “memory hole” or are “memory holed”. 

When I first read the novel in my teen years, I immediately identified the memory hole with Pravda, the official news organ of the late Soviet Union Communist party. Years later, during the “Iran-Contra” hearings I was astonished to see live examples of real-time memory holing in our own country. I found myself in a location which was playing the hearings live, so I had a pretty good understanding of what happened in the hearings on that particular day. 

However, watching the news that very evening and then reading the news the following morning, I had the distinct feeling that the “reports” of that day’s hearings were either utterly dishonest or the reporter was at another hearing with no relation to the event labeled “Iran-Contra Hearing”. It was breathtaking.

And eye-opening. 

I recalled my father telling me about Walter Duranty, the New York Times reporter whose mendacious reporting about the glories of the Soviet Union won him a Pulitzer prize which to this day has not been revoked let alone denounced despite the knowledge that his reports were utter nonsense — to put it charitably. I had believed that Duranty was an exception. However, after Iran-Contra, I was not so sure.

Now, of course, such shenanigans are so commonplace we run the risk of shrugging them off without pausing to consider the danger such actions pose to us as a free people. 

In January of this year, an explosion and fire shook and damaged the pediatric area of a hospital in the city of Valencia, in the Venezuelan state of Carabobo. El Carabobeño, a local newspaper, carried a snippet on the event, noting that they had been unable to get an “official” explanation as to the cause and the extent of the damages, other than that there were no casualties and all affected patients had been successfully evacuated.

The Caracas Chronicles also carried a short article on the event, noting that it was not the fire brigade or any government agency that had contained and eventually extinguished the fire: “It was not the fire brigade; the catastrophe was averted by the doctors, the nurses, the janitors, and other employees.” 

The reporter — whose name is withheld — makes a serious observation:

There are many reasons this barely made the headlines, even within our own state. There weren’t any casualties and with so many crises in our country, it is impossible to keep up with them all. Power outages lasting several hours are still common in Carabobo. But we cannot ignore censorship as a key factor. As soon as we were discussing how to handle work the day after the fire, there was a consensus not to make any public statements. It is not like most health workers support the government; far from it. But they fear the consequences of speaking out. And I include myself in that. I’m only human.

I did a quick online search of this event and found nothing (apart from the sources noted above. In fact, in one AI-generated reply, I was told there was no report of such an event!

In effect, this episode has been memory holed.

Our liberties are precious, including our freedom to speak the truth as we see it. These liberties came under serious attack during the recent “plague” years when even respected doctors and physicians were silenced or mocked into oblivion. Common folks — laymen — who questioned the wisdom of coercive actions taken by local and federal agencies were threatened and even dismissed from their employments. Now even the former persecutors are acknowledging, however indirectly, that the objects of their virulence actually turned out to be right. But no apologies, much less sincere mea culpas have been forthcoming.

We must defend our liberties or we shall lose them.

One way to defend them is to support — however we may be able to — an organization or person who, with integrity has been speaking truth especially in these past 5 or so years. They have been doing a work for us all. And they have paid a price. Such people can be relatively easily identified.

I’ll close this post with one more quote from the above-mentioned reporter:

The same state that normalized Carabobo’s blackouts — very likely causing this fire — is the same state that fuels a climate of fear, making it nearly impossible to even talk about these problems, let alone solve them. I still remember a little girl with a fractured leg. She had a fever and had to be evacuated that night, with nurses administering medicine outside to keep it under control. She kept repeating, “Don’t make me go back to the hospital! I’m scared!” Because of the incompetence of the corrupt elite that rules us — people who will never set foot in a public hospital — Venezuela’s most vulnerable children are forced to endure trauma. And as if that were not enough, the fear of speaking out against the dictatorship has left people just like the hospital that night: in complete darkness.

Berán and Sinatra

Richard Barnes

Although the Golden Encyclopedia of Music focuses primarily on what is generically grouped as “classical”, whether composers, instruments, interpreters, performances, and more, it also includes singers and musicians who are considered influential and excellent interpreters of popular ballads. So although the encyclopedia, rightfully, includes longish articles on eminences like Johann Sebastian Bach, it also includes a brief entry for Francis (“Frank”) Albert Sinatra. Significantly, it has no entry for The Beatles or any of their members. One may disagree with the inclusions or exclusions; however, one ought to recognize that if the volume is going to include 20th Century popular music it surely must, and does, acknowledge Sinatra.

Although I knew about Mr. Sinatra since my childhood — he was ubiquitous for over half the century — I did not pay much attention to him until 1980. It was that year that he made news by actually commenting — at the end of a show — about the cultural and political state of our country. This was so unusual for him — not that he wasn’t known for having his political preferences; but he did not discuss such things as part of his on stage repertoire. Very different from just about every two-bit performing seal today!

Sinatra’s comments on that occasion urged his audience to seriously consider voting for Ronald Reagan in November of that year. Reading some of the newspaper accounts, you’d be forgiven if you got the impression he had called for the return of the ice age or a resurgence of the Black Death. As it turned out, most folk understood perfectly well what he meant and voted accordingly.

It was in that decade that I bought my first Sinatra albums and began to appreciate his craft — from a layman’s perspective. I learned that he’d swim under water every day, when a younger man, to strengthen and expand  his lung capacity. The experts may disagree with him as to the efficacy of that exercise; what impressed me was his absolute dedication to his vocation. How he made every song “his own” was also something that awed me.

My father still lived in the early 80s and in conversations he’d recall how influential Sinatra and his music were in the 40s and 50s, although the rumors of underworld connections bothered my father enough that he refused to buy any more of the crooner’s records and it was only towards the late 70s that he softened a bit, admitting that he was indeed a very good singer, and in some cases — From Here to Eternity, for example — a good actor as well.

It was in the early 80s that my beloved Aunt Sarah and Uncle Luis (“Wichy”) began tuning in to a Frank Sinatra radio station in Miami. They enjoyed reminiscing with the music, which was pretty clear and “listenable”. 

I personally do not like all his songs — some of which I find suggestive and unnecessary — but his oeuvre is most impressive and for the most part worth listening to every once in a while. By the late 90s my favorites came down to three albums:

Only the Lonely — According to the connoisseurs, Sinatra was best known as a wee-hours-of-the-morning, sad crooner. If so, this Capitol album from 1958 surely is the epitome. This is the sad and longing Sinatra singing for the waning generation of the late 50s.

September Of My Years — This Grammy award-winning (when the Grammy meant something) album of the year, asks and does not quite answer the question many middle-aged men ask themselves: who am I? This is the album that has one of the songs he is most identified with, “It Was A Very Good Year”. It also has one of my favorites: “The September Song”, which I first heard sung by Jimmy Durante in New York (on television).

Everything Happens To Me — Two years before his death in 1998, Sinatra worked with his daughter to compile his favorite songs released by his recording company, Reprise. Significantly, although he released songs and albums into the 90s, the selections in this album were all recorded between 1962 and 1981. This album is an echo to Only The Lonely with most of the songs in the same nostalgic category. “The Gal That Got Away” and “Summer Wind” give you an idea. This is not a “hits” album; it is simply what he preferred to sing.

In 1983 I took my fiancé to a Frank Sinatra benefit concert at the Fox Theater in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s not for nothing that he’s known as the best entertainer of the 20th Century. The next day, as we told my mother and dear friend, Mrs. Eleonora Berán, about it, she shared an anecdote involving her late husband.

In the early 60s (for the life of me, I cannot remember the exact year), Mr. Berán was flying from Caracas (Maiquetía) to Miami. At the ticket counter he was informed that the entire first class compartment was unavailable. Mr. Berán, who had a confirmed first class ticket refused to accept this and demanded to speak to management. He was then informed that Frank Sinatra was flying back to the USA and had purchased all seats in first class to fly alone. Mr. Berán was unmoved. The airline spoke with Mr. Sinatra who accepted Mr. Berán. The entire flight, Sinatra was in the first row, on the right window seat; Mr. Berán, in the last row on the left window seat. They were the only two passengers in that section. 

Mr. Berán said the service was very good! As in a very good year.

Frank Sinatra in Caracas in 1982

Lunch and good conversation with Mr. Berán in Venezuela in 1978