Guess who’s a-calling?

New Chávez mobile will ring a bell on most Venezuelan years. But does it come with customizable ringtones?

Self-elected President Hugo Chávez, the fruity “generalissimo”, supreme ruler of poor, shafted Venezuela, recently launched a "revolutionary" mobile phone (Chinese tech by ZTE, so you know it's the genuine communist article) assembled locally and called The "Vergatorio".

That is downright rude! Well, with Venezuela’s government (block)head, no surprises here. The fella should be mentioned in Webster’s under “awkward”. Now, ok, let's look at the name's context; in local lingo could be interpreted as something like “the great one". But I guess Chávez realy meant "majestic, enormous, gigantic big one”. That actually makes it worse.

Now, ok, there is nothing wrong to try and provide a cheap option for a country used to a very few of them for everything else, but why must Chávez always make everything so “3rd. rate soap opera” like?

I can’t fail to associate it to the Chávez’s opponents' rallying cry, “Why don’t you shut up!” ( available here: www.zedge.net/ringtones/562597/por-que-no-te-callas-ringtone ), based on that (in)famous incident that catapulted Spain’s short-tempered King Juan Carlos to internet stardom, and driven Spain’s relations with Venezuela to a new low.

I wonder if he will allow any ringtone download features…