Venezuela's Wonderful Electoral Registry (chapter XXIII)

Do you know somebody with the surname J? I do not mean J., I mean "J". Not even the Chinese can beat that with their Southern Chinese Ng.

In Venezuela there is apparently a guy who has as full name this: "José C J". C is supposed to be his unabridged middle name and J his full surname. Check him out, his ID is  17074225, according to the National Electoral Registry. He voted in 2010 in one of the most pro-Chávez parishes of Venezuela. 

Among other surnames in that voting centre we see Bailón (person that dances a lot) and Perdigón (pellet). I had never heard those surnames before but there are also a few Bailones and Perdigones in Spain, according to Spain's Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas. There is no one in Spain whose surname is J, though. He must be Czech or Chavista.

Venezuela: sinking in ignorance

Another report about the state of things in Venezuela: we keep sinking when it comes to international standards. The Global Competitiveness Index came out and it shows how Venezuela is now at position 124. Last year it was at position 122. There are 18 countries worse off than us, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa plus a few others like Yemen and Haiti. When it comes to education in general Venezuela doesn't seem to do it so badly, "only" position 84 or so...but then that position is based on data coming from the national government, without independent verification. Do you know why the Chávez regime refuses to take part in the PISA programme of the OECD? (as opposed to the government of the opposition in Miranda, until now led by Henrique Capriles)

Free Bolivarian Fall

Because it prefers to lie.

Let's go back to the report: "Venezuela (124th) continues to fall in the rankings, despite a slight improvement in its overall score". I am sure the Chávez government and its foreign sycophants will really try to see the positive: some score went up. They won't tell you the truth: Venezuela is being left behind.

We read that the tertiary enrolment rate is very high (8th) - something that does not surprise me at all, but it is because I have always known how much of a farce a lot of university faculties have become. Students at Venezuelan universities often do not have the level of a 12-year old pupil in a developed country. The Chávez government, instead of working on improving primary and secondary education firstly, forces universities to accept everyone, even if they are functional illiterate.

On page 366 you can see how Venezuela's GDP evolved since the early eighties until now compared to the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean. In spite of the fact Venezuela's profited from the longest oil boom in history - thanks, China -, the rest of Latin America as a whole just caught up...and that is putting everyone else together - Haiti and El Salvador with Chile and Brazil. In reality lot of countries have overtaken Venezuela. But remember: Venezuela is the Latin American nation that spent the largest amount of money in importing weapons in 2010 according to Russian sources!

Hat off to reader Guido