Update on mall closings: when improvisation is a state policy

Today shopping centers and malls were in havoc: the government yesterday gave sign of backtracking from its December decision and nobody knew really what was going on.

In other words, after a reunion with the representatives of the malls the government learned:
  • actually there had already been a decrease in electrical consumption nearing the 20% from the August levels!  
  • That in Venezuela malls and shopping centers were more than just a collection of shops and food courts: there were actually offices, public services, safety centers, food distribution centers, etc....
  • That chavistas and anti chavistas alike had no where else to hang around and that for once they were on agreement on something!
In other words, if sometime in November or early December the vice president had met with the representatives he met with on Tuesday, all this ridiculously sad story would have been avoided. 

Instead we are left with yet another shinning example on how this government operates: permanent improvisation to try to accommodate the silly, crazy and vulgar utterances of the beloved Supremo in his multiple cadenas and speeches.  The notion of long term planning has been lost long ago except for the lone goal of keeping Chavez in Miraflores at any cost.  And the notion of consultation with the concerned sectors is lost except under duress and as briefly as possible.

But what can you expect when the reelected chair of the Nazional Assembly Cilia Flores declared fresh from the expected vote that Obama was worse than Bush?  Contact with reality and sense of proportions  have  been long lost by people who know try to think about what Chavez wants to say before he thinks of it.  I just finished "La Fiesta Del Chivo" and today session at the Nazional Assembly had nothing to envy to the Senate sessions of the Trujillo era.....