Læs om det, bl.a. i Register Hardware:
An end to the sale of violent videogames in Venezuela has moved one step closer to becoming a reality.
Venezuela’s National Assembly recently considered the Prohibition of Video Games and Toy Weapons bill, which it subsequently approved after just one debate.
The bill’s exact details aren’t widely known, but the title suggests that all videogames – violent or not – could face sales restrictions in the country.
Before the bill can be written into Venezuelan law, it must be debated and approved during a second National Assembly session – and then rubber-stamped by President Hugo Chavez.
Exactly how the bill’s supporters envisage a ban on violent videogames contributing to a reduction in the country’s colossal crime rate is a mystery. A link between the violent crime and violent games has never been proven.
Før vi griner alt for hånligt og overlegent, er det naturligvis værd at huske, at der også er politikere på vore breddegradder, der har været inde på noget af det samme – senest i Tyskland. Selveste Hillary Clinton var ude at forlange en undersøgelse med henblik på et forbud af det berømte GTA San Andreas.
Ikke desto mindre er det stadig ret dårligt nyt. En ung mand fra Venezuela beklager sig højt og klart over den nye lov:
The law scapegoats gamers for the obscene levels of violence in our country (see below), and goes to extraordinary lengths to criminalize gaming, to the point of holding out long jail terms to people who buy the wrong kinds of games.
It’s no joke. Last year, on a trip to the US, I was able to buy a Nintendo DS for my brother, and a puzzle game that deals with using weapons to defend the fish stock of penguins in Antarctica, Defendin’ de Penguin. Early next year, when the law kicks in, bring such a game could land me in jail for 3 to 5 years, for importing forbidden violent games, as the penguins use snowball guns to ward off walruses, foxes (in Antarctica? OMG think of Biogeography!), polar bears and the Yeti.
The law is just the latest nail in the coffin of Venezuelans’ right of dissent and broader civil liberties. A pitiful attempt to blame video games and toys for the widespread lethal violence in our country, instead of a defective judicial structure, systemic corruption and governmental (purposeful?) ineptitude to deal with the problem.
I am 26 years old. Ever since I can remember Venezuela has been a very dangerous place. Every year the body count seemed to climb higher than the previous year. Being on the streets after dark, especially in the big cities, became a little bit more dangerous with each passing year, no matter who was in power or how high prices for our oil rose.
I believed it was just a fact of life. Then, ten years ago, Hugo Chávez came to power promising change at every level, promising a new, less corrupt, wealthier, safer society. Most of my friends and family voted for him, to register their contempt for our traditional politicians, because they wanted justice and a decent country.
Ten years later, we are indeed wealthier, thanks to a feverish oil boom, but the country’s also falling deeper into debt, issuing bonds and getting loans even from the despised Capitalist tool that is the IMF, and printing money like there’s no tomorrow, while our electric system collapses, many staples are hard to find on store shelves, our hospitals are rotting and corruption and crime are still getting worse. […]
Let’s put this in perspective. Last year, we had almost 14,000 deaths due to crime, out of a population of about 27 million people. Let’s round it up to 28 million, and make some calculations: If Bangladesh had our murder rate, there would be 125,000 murder victims there every year, if the US had our murder rate, we would be talking about 150,000 deaths due to crime, if Japan had our problem, there would be 60000 Japanese dead due to crime every time our pretty planet goes around the sun. If China and India had our levels of violence, we would get rid of 1,100,000 people every year.
The numbers of death due to violence do not seem so big in Venezuela due to our smallish population, but this a serious problem that is only getting worse after almost 11 years of Bolivarian rule. The number of people mugged, assaulted and robbed are much greater than that. Some relatives of mine have been shot and stabbed, most of my friends have been robbed at least once, and I had to jump from a bus in motion to avoid being robbed a month ago, in Mérida, where I live, a university town that not so long ago used to be relatively safe. In Valera, where my parents live, it is unwise to go out after 9 in the streets, and after 8:30, it gets really difficult to find public transportation.
So, will the government correct its strategy, accept that we have a huge problem that has to be solved ASAP and will follow its rhetoric and work along the communities to tackle crime (Death penalty and traditional top-down approaches won’t work)?
No. Instead, it will blame the gamers for the problem.
Sørgeligt.