Es que Chávez a veces se las pone bombita y ustedes nada que batean ese Home Run.
Lo ultimo de Chavez es agarrarse zonas verdes y parques para, disque, construir viviendas para refugiados Todos sabemos que eso es un error craso. Todos, incluido el mismo Chavez. Todos sabemos que muchas de esas viviendas, y cuidado si no la mayoría, irán para afectos del proceso que poca pinta de damnificados tienen (la damnificación mental del chavismo es otro asunto)
Y ustedes todavía nada. Dejan que unos pocos vecinos del centro protesten las torres que quieren clavarnos en el Paseo Vargas (sin hablar de revivir el terminal de la muerte debajo del las Torres Simon Bolívar que de las vibraciones se van a terminar de caer). Dejan que un pobre concejal de Chacao defienda los parques.
Una pregunta: si gracias a su brillantísima estrategia electoral ganan el 2012 pero que Chávez ya tuvo tiempo para cogerse los parques, ¿Que van a hacer? No se, pero yo que ustedes empezaría a tratar de parar algunos de los problemas que un Chávez alocado de populismo electoral trasnochado va a crear de aquí al 20013 porque la herencia ya está bien pesada a estas alturas. ¿O será que ustedes no se han dado cuenta todavía que el chavismo está deliberadamente mierderizando el centro de Caracas para convertirlo en un antro chavista de donde al que no le guste que se vaya? ¿En febrero 2013, creen que les darán via libre en el centro para llegar a Miraflores?
Es que hay tantas maneras de aprovecharse de esa burrada de Hugo. Déjenme ayudarles un poco:
- El ahora: protesten por la contaminación, la falta de servicios, que se los van a quitar a los que ya viven allí, que va a aumentar el crimen, que va a ponerse aún peor el trafico, que el pueblo ni al metro podrá entrar, que habrá menos trabajo en el centro, que si los cultivos hidropónicos de Chávez, etc...
- Culpabilizar a Chávez: que nunca les hizo casas, que esas serán demasiado caras, que por el precio de una en Caracas se hacen dos en Maracay, que no crea trabajo para que tengan vidas dignas, que si no fuese por Chávez hace tiempo que se hubiesen ido en esos ranchos, que en 12 años el no hizo nada para ayudarlos y que ahora lo que hace es aprovecharse de los damnificados, etc... No piensen en los cálculos de votos porque al final, cuando la gente se concientice un poco, por cada voto que pierden en un refugio, si es que lo tenían, se ganan dos en el centro de Caracas y el 23 de enero.
- Preparar el futuro, demonstrar que tienen ideas practicas para mejorar a Caracas, y por ende al país. Decir que Caracas está saturada, que la gasolina barata solo beneficia a los ricos en sus colas con aire acondicionado. Ofrecer descentralizar al país y darle a los gobernadores, chavistas o no, los poderes y recursos para desarrollar sus regiones, construir viviendas, crear fuentes de trabajo. Insistir que la solución no son viviendas en el paseo Vargas pero trabajos de verdad con los cuales la gente se pueda comprar una casa de verdad, en los mejores sitios de la república y no en el infierno que Caracas se volvió bajo Chávez.
- Demonstrar valor. Decir que la "solidaridad" no lo justifica todo, y menos el abuso; que no se puede compremeter el futuro de los del 23 de enero por regalarle casas a los damnificados que lo son por culpa del gobierno de Chavez para empezar. Que hay que trabajar para todos y al mismo tiempo y no pretender que los damnificados son los únicos que lo son, porque el crimen, el desempleo, la escasez nos tiene a todos damnificados.
Y paro de contar. Pero si yo, pobre columnista de Internet, logro conseguir tantos argumentos para rebatirle el pico de plata a Chavez, ¿como es que ustedes nada todavía? Diganme: si en lo obvio no son capaces de montarle una buena campaña en contra de Chávez, ¿como lo van a hacer en temas mas abstractos? ¿Que hace Ledezma? ¿Por que no se esta cosiendo los labios en el Paseo Vargas? ¿Por que no lo están acompañando?
No electricity? No problem! Have a free day, but dress in red!
Gustavo Coronel publishes a memo that was circulating yesterday in the offices of the electric utility company of Venezuela, CORPOELEC. You know, the company that brings you regular power outages all across Venezuela, though less in Caracas because, you know, the higher up of the regime cannot be inconvenienced.My translation of the memo, signed by a certain Iraima Alfonzo Durand, Human Talent coordinator of CORPOELEC, You cannot make up such titles...
We bring to the knowledge of all workers and workeresses [word coined by the editor, following the character of the bolibanana official address code] of CORPOELEC that the company will grant May 2 as a free day only to those that will attend tot he march of May 1 "International Labor day". To this effect supervisors will monitor participation at the march.
CORPOELEC ratifies its wishes to accompany its workers in such an important date.
"The working 'pueblo' builds the socialist fatherland!"
So there you have it, a true measure of the "spontaneous" workers participation at the Chavez party march which, we are told, will also serve as the official launching of Chavez reelection campaign, As if we had not noticed already tha the has been in campaign since last October....
No need to comment further, but I cannot resit to ask the question: what will happen to those that either chose not to march or prefer to march with the trade unions?
Superman acquires the Venezuelan citizenship
We read some days ago how Superman was considering ending his US-citizenship. Blogger Daniel was rumbling about that.
In case you don't believe me, just go to the CNE site online and type his Venezuelan ID: 4308005.
Let me tell you something: I don't know if Superman has already relinquished his US citizenship, but I can tell you he is, according to our Consejo Electoral Nacional, a Venezuelan citizen.
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| Superman decided to go to Venezuela because he saw how crime has gone over the top |
In case you don't believe me, just go to the CNE site online and type his Venezuelan ID: 4308005.
I have a hunch: Superman is from the opposition, as he was not "randomly" selected to become a member of the local electoral board.
If Superman does it.....
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| Superman telling US president he does not want to be US citizen anymore.... |
(hat tip FW who also dryly comments that Superman was an illegal alien to begin with, when the Kents found him).
Child mortality in Venezuela: the broader picture
One of the things the Venezuelan government likes to boast the most is how child mortality has gone down since 1999. I am more than happy about that. Still, I wonder: was that not to be expected? I just took the official statistics from the government INE site (2010 is a forecast, I suppose) and plotted them here. In military green you see the Chávez period.
Below you see the reductation rate across the years. From red you se how fast child birth keeps going down.
I let you interpret the numbers. It would be interesting to compare the evolution with other Latin American countries, like I did when we put the Human Development Index in perspective.
Pre-Chávez progress, reduction of child mortality per year
-2.99 -3.09 -3.19 -2.08 -2.12 -2.17 -2.22 -2.27
Chávez's government, reduction of child mortality per year
-3.09 -3.19 -3.3 -3.41 -3.53 -1.94 -1.98 -2.02 -2.06 -2.11 -2.15 -2.2
Cartas a la MUD: Gadafi y franco tiradores en Venezuela; no soy yo, lo dicen otros
Pues bien, todavía nada sobre Libia, Gadafi y franco tiradores en preparación. ¿O es que no es con ustedes el asunto?
Miren, Julio Cesar Pineda, que fue embajador allá, les pide que reconozcan al movimiento rebelde organizado. O por lo menos que expresen su apoyo a la gesta, quejándose de los maltratos y matazón que propina Gadafi a los civiles, a bombazo y tankazo limpio. ¿Es mucho pedirles que por lo menos expresen simpatía oficial con esa gente?
Y si creen que Chavez no se esta preparando para la represión en el 2012, leanse el articulito de Teodoro Petkoff en Tal Cual hoy. Miren, si no tienen para comprarlo, o no lo leen por Internet, se los pongo aquí abajo. ¿Dirán algo sobre ese asunto? Si les parece mas importante discutir que si Rosales sera el candidato, que si tarjeta única, es irrelevante mientras eviten discutir asuntos tan graves como los fusiles Dragonov. Si ustedes quieren que defendamos el voto, tienen que darnos motivaciones para ello. Y por ahora, nada de ese se ve en ustedes.
No soy yo el que tiene tiempo mencionado esas cosas, ahora hasta Teodoro lo hace. A ver y empiezan a escuchar un poco antes de que se vuelvan completamente irrelevantes.
LOS FUSILES DRAGUNOV
SIMÓN BOCCANEGRA (a.k.a. Teodoro)
Uno de los mecanismos represivos utilizados por las tiranías de Gadafi y Assad, en Libia y Siria, respectivamente, es el de los francotiradores. Sujetos armados con fusiles de precisión, colocados en lo alto de los edificios, disparan sobre las multitudes, pero seleccionando los blancos, con un claro propósito de infundir temor y de causar el mayor daño posible, porque sus víctimas son muertos seguros. No se trata de la policía o los militares disparando a lo loco, al bulto, sino de expertos que donde ponen el ojo ponen la bala. Puede apostarse a que las armas utilizadas por esos francotiradores son los fusiles Dragunov, fabricados en Rusia y con fama de contarse entre los mejores del mundo para el tiro de precisión a larga distancia.
Pues bien, el gobierno de Chacumbele ha hecho una crecida importación de fusiles Dragunov desde Rusia (se habla de 5 mil de ellos) y se está desarrollando un intenso programa de entrenamiento para estos tiradores altamente especializados, mayormente con entrenadores cubanos a cargo de esa enseñanza. Los cubanos, por supuesto, están muy familiarizados con los Dragunov, puesto que se trata de armas que vienen desde la era soviética y la Fuerza Armada cubana, ya se sabe, cuenta con armamento proveniente de la antigua URSS.
Ahora bien, Chacumbele siempre habla de los Dragunov como parte de la preparación para hacer frente a las fuerzas de un invasor extranjero, presumiblemente, los gringos. Pero, siendo bien improbable tal invasión, surge una pregunta inevitable: ¿Para qué son exactamente esos fusiles Dragunov, con sus respectivos tiradores de excelente preparación?
Miren, Julio Cesar Pineda, que fue embajador allá, les pide que reconozcan al movimiento rebelde organizado. O por lo menos que expresen su apoyo a la gesta, quejándose de los maltratos y matazón que propina Gadafi a los civiles, a bombazo y tankazo limpio. ¿Es mucho pedirles que por lo menos expresen simpatía oficial con esa gente?
Y si creen que Chavez no se esta preparando para la represión en el 2012, leanse el articulito de Teodoro Petkoff en Tal Cual hoy. Miren, si no tienen para comprarlo, o no lo leen por Internet, se los pongo aquí abajo. ¿Dirán algo sobre ese asunto? Si les parece mas importante discutir que si Rosales sera el candidato, que si tarjeta única, es irrelevante mientras eviten discutir asuntos tan graves como los fusiles Dragonov. Si ustedes quieren que defendamos el voto, tienen que darnos motivaciones para ello. Y por ahora, nada de ese se ve en ustedes.
No soy yo el que tiene tiempo mencionado esas cosas, ahora hasta Teodoro lo hace. A ver y empiezan a escuchar un poco antes de que se vuelvan completamente irrelevantes.
LOS FUSILES DRAGUNOV
SIMÓN BOCCANEGRA (a.k.a. Teodoro)
Uno de los mecanismos represivos utilizados por las tiranías de Gadafi y Assad, en Libia y Siria, respectivamente, es el de los francotiradores. Sujetos armados con fusiles de precisión, colocados en lo alto de los edificios, disparan sobre las multitudes, pero seleccionando los blancos, con un claro propósito de infundir temor y de causar el mayor daño posible, porque sus víctimas son muertos seguros. No se trata de la policía o los militares disparando a lo loco, al bulto, sino de expertos que donde ponen el ojo ponen la bala. Puede apostarse a que las armas utilizadas por esos francotiradores son los fusiles Dragunov, fabricados en Rusia y con fama de contarse entre los mejores del mundo para el tiro de precisión a larga distancia.
Pues bien, el gobierno de Chacumbele ha hecho una crecida importación de fusiles Dragunov desde Rusia (se habla de 5 mil de ellos) y se está desarrollando un intenso programa de entrenamiento para estos tiradores altamente especializados, mayormente con entrenadores cubanos a cargo de esa enseñanza. Los cubanos, por supuesto, están muy familiarizados con los Dragunov, puesto que se trata de armas que vienen desde la era soviética y la Fuerza Armada cubana, ya se sabe, cuenta con armamento proveniente de la antigua URSS.
Ahora bien, Chacumbele siempre habla de los Dragunov como parte de la preparación para hacer frente a las fuerzas de un invasor extranjero, presumiblemente, los gringos. Pero, siendo bien improbable tal invasión, surge una pregunta inevitable: ¿Para qué son exactamente esos fusiles Dragunov, con sus respectivos tiradores de excelente preparación?
Spaniards in Venezuela
EFE says Venezuela is one of the countries with the largest amount of Spanish citizens in the world: some 173456 registered Spaniards. According to the report in the American continent only Argentina has more Spaniards. I suspect the actual number is higher as many Spanish citizens don't bother to register. And I am sure the number was much much much higher a decade ago: since the Boliburguesía rules Venezuela, since the expropiations have skyrocketed and since the murder rate has more than tripled, Spanish citizens and their children have left Venezuela in droves. Many of my school friends whose parents fled from Franco Spain to Venezuela decided to migrate to their parents' homeland in the last few years. This is a tragedy as many of them contributed greatly to the development of Venezuela and many of them are highly skilled. When I mentioned this to some hard-core Chávez supporters they have just replied: "que se vayan, no los necesitamos" (may they go, we don't need them).
Chávez is obsessed with our native American and African roots...at least he pretends to be (never mind he hasn't granded them the land rights they want, among other things). He does not seem to recognise Venezuelans' background is as much Spanish as anything else.
I hope one day those Spanish Venezuelans who are in Spain will have reasons to go back.
Merkel erhöht die Löhne der Deutschen um mehr als 20%
Schmarrn, das hat sie nicht getan. Stellt es aber Euch mal vor. Stellt Euch vor, über 92% des deutschen Exports Deutschland ist Erdöl und Merkel kann eigenhändig und ohne jegliche Rechenschaft Milliarden in das eine oder andere Projekt umleiten, für dies oder das andere verwenden, wie sie will. Stellt Euch vor, der Beamte, der das alles theoretisch überwachen muss, ist ein Fan von ihr, der seit Jahrzehnten so eine Regierung haben wollte wie ihre Regierung. Stellt Euch vor, die ZDF und die ARD würden Tag für Tag sagen, alles was Merkel tun will, ob sie das tut oder nicht. Stellt Euch vor, 70% der Deutschen können keinen anderen Fernsehsender sehen. Stellt Euch vor, nur 30% der Deutschen haben Internetzugang. Stellt Euch nun vor, ein Drittel der Deutschen haben einen Job beim Staat und sie denken, dass wenn Merkel die nächsten Wahlen verlieren würde, sie auch arbeitslos werden. Nun denkt mal darüber nach: 50% aller Deutschen arbeiten als Strassenhändler oder illegale Taxifahrer. Da sie wenig verdienen, können sie bei den CDU-Supermärkten super billig kaufen. Stellt Euch vor, Merkel sagt ständig beim Fernsehsender, die Oppositionellen seien Landesverräter. Stellt Euch vor, die Geschichtsbücher werden umgeschrieben, um Merkel und ihre Partei als das Beste darzustellen, was Deutschland in 500 Jahren hervorgebracht hätte.
OK. Das ist mein Land, Venezuela.
Der Militärführer, der seit 1999 mein Land regiert, hat in seinem Twitterkonto @chavezcandanga folgendes geschrieben:
Nur in Lohn- und Pensionerhöhungen habe ich in den letzten Tagen etwa $3 Milliarden bewilligt!#wirsiegen2012!!
Stellt Euch vor, die Merkel darf das so tun.
Ps. die Inflationsrate beträgt aber mittlerweile über 30%, die höchste Inflationsrate Amerikas.
Ps. die Inflationsrate beträgt aber mittlerweile über 30%, die höchste Inflationsrate Amerikas.
Minimum wage hike for fake prosperity
It is difficult to overstate how idiotic and useless is the recent decreed wage increase. Never in the economic history of Venezuela was such a measure been so populist and yet so useless and so bearing of dire consequences for those who think today that they got their long due. We can start with today's cartoon of Weil at Tal Cual to illustrate at the very least how useless the minimal wage increase is:
The monster about to eat that family is not only the inflation monster, it is also the lack of safety net in the country as the citizen is plagued with deficient public services, insecurity and what not. No amount of minimum wage increase can help you when there is no electricity at home, that your local Barrio Adentro is closed, that you lost your job because your boss went bankrupt, that you cannot get a new job because nobody is hiring, that food is cheap at Mercal but only when you can find it, that if you get some stipend from some "mision" you risk been robbed of it on the way to your ranchito, etc, etc...
But of course, the higher up of the regime, fattened through these last 12 years, and surrounded with Body Guards at tax payer expense have lost touch with that reality long ago, though they do sense the grumbling. So, applying what works for them, they throw some money that is not theirs, from their high but not ivory towers, with the paradoxical result that they will make it all the worse.
Why will this time around the minimum wage increase will make things worse? Are we not talking of not that much money to begin with?
Historically in Venezuela all have agreed with the existence of a minimum wage. Since that minimum wage was rather low, all bosses, including the state, were able to live with. There was a time when the government met with trade union leadership and business representatives to fix the minimum wage in a realistic way and even on occasion decide a scaled pay increase for all wages below a given level. Purchasing power for the masses was helped somewhat to avoid a recession, and trade unions promised to moderate other demands for a while if such wage increases took place. But chavismo has done away with that because in its imagery it is essential that any benefit, ANY, no matter how silly and useless that one might be, appears as granted by the beloved bolibanana leader.
Unfortunately the economic pseudo policies of Giordani have had a very negative impact. First, they have squeezed the middle wage sector. Under chavismo the higher salaries have increased more than the lower ones, at least in the public sector. For example a High Court justice takes today at least 30.000 a month (not disclosed, and not counting other benefits such as body guards) while the janitor down the hall makes 1.500. That is, at the very least, the wage spread in the public sector is 20 fold and if we were to ad all benefits I suspect that we would find figures in the 30 fold range just for administrative positions, something unacceptable in civilized countries but OK in XXI century socialism. I suppose that in productive positions you could have a rationale for wage spread, except that state enterprises in Venezuela are all half broke, which would make the spread there even more obscene.
I think today, depending on whom you believe, more than half of the employees of the public sector make less than two minimum wages. This has been deliberate because it has been one way to pay handsomely the higher up echelons, those that must support actively the regime with all of its moral and financial corruption. This way, through money, fidelity is hoped for.
For example my S.O. makes less weekly than I do but keeps receiving strange bonus here and there which make his position as a bureaucrat more finacially rewarding than mine as a business manager with real responsibilities. Of course, my S.O does not support the regime but his hard work and technical skills are what allow some of his colleagues in his echelon to do the political work that they could not do if in fact they had also to run the country. This equally explains why the country is floundering since too few technically savvy people like my S.O. are left in public administration as they are pushed away irremediably by the politics of the system, directly or indirectly.
The effect in the private sector has been different because only big companies are able to survive the onslaught of chavismo attack on private property. As a result Venezuela today is a mix of small business and large one with a smattering of multinationals. Large companies, say, more than a 100 employees, have more ways to face out the tug of war with the regime that assaults them with everything in the book, from constant hikes in the minimum wage to deprivation of currency for essential imports of raw material and spare parts. Smaller companies simply do not have the means to afford a Human Resources department or the lawyers to fight back the regime regulations. As such they are surely squeezed out of the economy event though they are the bigger job creators.
And this leads us to why is this time the minimum wage increase such a drama for the country. Besides being insufficient (it is around 25% while inflation is more than 30%) it will this time around increase inflation and joblessness. The percentage of salaried people that will "benefit" from this measure is higher than ever and thus the inflationary impact will be felt with an added 3 to 5 % tot he already expected official 25% for this year. Not to mention that higher wages will expect some sort of adjustment, maybe not a 25% but at the very least a 15%. And people making less than twice the current minimum wage will be pushed down in the remuneration scale, many down to minimum wage.
But this wage hike comes in the heels of a brutal devaluation in January which has not been processed through yet as the regime is still stalling on the price control adjustments it must do while business lose money or stop production altogether. You can easily imagine that this time around very weakened companies are not going to be able to face such wage adjustment and thus we can expect unemployment o keep going up as the public sector is clearly unable to increase its payroll.
Finally, another demagogic measure is now forcing all business with less than 20 employees to pay fro their workers lunch, in cash. There was a reason for these small companies not to be forced by the lunch law: they do not have the resources to manage such a mandate. I remember a few years ago when the limit was pushed down to 20 employees and that we had to pay for lunch: that year our earnings were almost wiped out. Since then we have been unable to make any significant investment to improve productivity and production, investments being now limited to the preservation of the business. In fact, our payroll is this year ten less than it was 3 years ago. Granted, it is not only due to the Cestaticket, but our stagnation started then and ever new governmental regulations forbid us to grow.
In short, the wage increase this time is going to make matters much worse for the country as no other measures are taken to face down the economic consequences of a decade of ill management by Giordani, the lone finance minister in the world to have kept his job through 4 devaluations.
If the regime were to have taken some other serious financial measures to counter inflation, maybe that minimum wage increase would have been meaningful. But it has not done so nor plans to do it. Inflation is already been fueled through all the subsidies that the regime already employs, subsidies that could be better used to increase Venezuelan productivity through, say, repaired highways, electrical stability and the like. More subsidies will be required for Mercal and others, in an electoral year and as such that minimum wage increase will ad more fuel to the crisis while workers will find out that the 15% they receive in May will be totally eaten out by the time they receive another 10% in September. If they still have a job, that is.....
This time around minimum wage workers will not even enjoy for a few months a fake prosperity.
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| There you go, your new minimum wage! |
But of course, the higher up of the regime, fattened through these last 12 years, and surrounded with Body Guards at tax payer expense have lost touch with that reality long ago, though they do sense the grumbling. So, applying what works for them, they throw some money that is not theirs, from their high but not ivory towers, with the paradoxical result that they will make it all the worse.
Why will this time around the minimum wage increase will make things worse? Are we not talking of not that much money to begin with?
Historically in Venezuela all have agreed with the existence of a minimum wage. Since that minimum wage was rather low, all bosses, including the state, were able to live with. There was a time when the government met with trade union leadership and business representatives to fix the minimum wage in a realistic way and even on occasion decide a scaled pay increase for all wages below a given level. Purchasing power for the masses was helped somewhat to avoid a recession, and trade unions promised to moderate other demands for a while if such wage increases took place. But chavismo has done away with that because in its imagery it is essential that any benefit, ANY, no matter how silly and useless that one might be, appears as granted by the beloved bolibanana leader.
Unfortunately the economic pseudo policies of Giordani have had a very negative impact. First, they have squeezed the middle wage sector. Under chavismo the higher salaries have increased more than the lower ones, at least in the public sector. For example a High Court justice takes today at least 30.000 a month (not disclosed, and not counting other benefits such as body guards) while the janitor down the hall makes 1.500. That is, at the very least, the wage spread in the public sector is 20 fold and if we were to ad all benefits I suspect that we would find figures in the 30 fold range just for administrative positions, something unacceptable in civilized countries but OK in XXI century socialism. I suppose that in productive positions you could have a rationale for wage spread, except that state enterprises in Venezuela are all half broke, which would make the spread there even more obscene.
I think today, depending on whom you believe, more than half of the employees of the public sector make less than two minimum wages. This has been deliberate because it has been one way to pay handsomely the higher up echelons, those that must support actively the regime with all of its moral and financial corruption. This way, through money, fidelity is hoped for.
For example my S.O. makes less weekly than I do but keeps receiving strange bonus here and there which make his position as a bureaucrat more finacially rewarding than mine as a business manager with real responsibilities. Of course, my S.O does not support the regime but his hard work and technical skills are what allow some of his colleagues in his echelon to do the political work that they could not do if in fact they had also to run the country. This equally explains why the country is floundering since too few technically savvy people like my S.O. are left in public administration as they are pushed away irremediably by the politics of the system, directly or indirectly.
The effect in the private sector has been different because only big companies are able to survive the onslaught of chavismo attack on private property. As a result Venezuela today is a mix of small business and large one with a smattering of multinationals. Large companies, say, more than a 100 employees, have more ways to face out the tug of war with the regime that assaults them with everything in the book, from constant hikes in the minimum wage to deprivation of currency for essential imports of raw material and spare parts. Smaller companies simply do not have the means to afford a Human Resources department or the lawyers to fight back the regime regulations. As such they are surely squeezed out of the economy event though they are the bigger job creators.
And this leads us to why is this time the minimum wage increase such a drama for the country. Besides being insufficient (it is around 25% while inflation is more than 30%) it will this time around increase inflation and joblessness. The percentage of salaried people that will "benefit" from this measure is higher than ever and thus the inflationary impact will be felt with an added 3 to 5 % tot he already expected official 25% for this year. Not to mention that higher wages will expect some sort of adjustment, maybe not a 25% but at the very least a 15%. And people making less than twice the current minimum wage will be pushed down in the remuneration scale, many down to minimum wage.
But this wage hike comes in the heels of a brutal devaluation in January which has not been processed through yet as the regime is still stalling on the price control adjustments it must do while business lose money or stop production altogether. You can easily imagine that this time around very weakened companies are not going to be able to face such wage adjustment and thus we can expect unemployment o keep going up as the public sector is clearly unable to increase its payroll.
Finally, another demagogic measure is now forcing all business with less than 20 employees to pay fro their workers lunch, in cash. There was a reason for these small companies not to be forced by the lunch law: they do not have the resources to manage such a mandate. I remember a few years ago when the limit was pushed down to 20 employees and that we had to pay for lunch: that year our earnings were almost wiped out. Since then we have been unable to make any significant investment to improve productivity and production, investments being now limited to the preservation of the business. In fact, our payroll is this year ten less than it was 3 years ago. Granted, it is not only due to the Cestaticket, but our stagnation started then and ever new governmental regulations forbid us to grow.
In short, the wage increase this time is going to make matters much worse for the country as no other measures are taken to face down the economic consequences of a decade of ill management by Giordani, the lone finance minister in the world to have kept his job through 4 devaluations.
If the regime were to have taken some other serious financial measures to counter inflation, maybe that minimum wage increase would have been meaningful. But it has not done so nor plans to do it. Inflation is already been fueled through all the subsidies that the regime already employs, subsidies that could be better used to increase Venezuelan productivity through, say, repaired highways, electrical stability and the like. More subsidies will be required for Mercal and others, in an electoral year and as such that minimum wage increase will ad more fuel to the crisis while workers will find out that the 15% they receive in May will be totally eaten out by the time they receive another 10% in September. If they still have a job, that is.....
This time around minimum wage workers will not even enjoy for a few months a fake prosperity.
La conquista de Falcón
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| Falcón: cada punto representa aprox. a mil electores que no votaron en 2010 |
Falcón tiene como gobernadora una chavista cuyos familiares son militares que participaron en el golpe de estado del 92. Falcón tiene un par de refinerias y mucha gente depende de PDVSA. Aparte de eso, Falcón tiene una importante cantidad de descendientes de esclavos que fueron olvidados durante mucho tiempo por el poder central...y aun lo son, pero el poder central sabe aparentar que ahora sí son oídos. Los milicos saben, si llegan al centro de Falcón, hablar sobre Chirinos y una de las primeras sublevaciones de esclavos. Los milicos se hacen pasar por la continuación de una revolución eterna y no por un nuevo gobierno militar cleptocrático. Me pregunto: ¿pueden las fuerzas democráticas ofrecer una posibilidad más atractiva en 2012?
En Falcón unas 210 mil personas no votaron en 2010. La mayoría de ellos viven en dos municipios: el de Santa Ana, donde está Coro, y el de Carirubana, donde está Punto Fijo. En Punto Fijo hay una mayor cantidad de chavistas y una mayor densidad de personas que no votan. Depende de las fuerzas alternativas analizar su situación y ofrecer un mejor concepto - pese a la demagogia y las solucions a corto plazo que presenten los militares a base de petrodólar.
Little signs that things are not well in Venezuela
Reading El Universal today was a depressing exercise. I counted at least a dozen articles, from economy to the red pages, that related how bad things are turning in Venezuela. With no hope for improvement in sight.
A couple of years ago chavismo decided to take over the Hilton Hotels of Venezuela. Easy, they did not renew the concession and that was that. One, the Anauco Hilton, is (was?) the only hotel downtown Caracas where a minimum of comfort and security could be obtained. Heck, all the sandalistas of the glory bolibanana years used to go there, to be closer from the action, so to speak. Well, in two years the hotel has gone bankrupt because, hold tight, the government sends over there all of its guests and does not pay the bill.
That is right, in the very same rapport of the Tourism ministry (which means the situation is probably worse) the state OWES the now called ALBA Caracas 36.688.219 bolivares, that is, 8.532.143 USD. More than 8 MILLION of dollars. Even if we get full tariff at, say, 250 USD a night, that means the hotel did not receive payments for a whopping 34.128 nights. Which means that it is as if 94 rooms remained empty for a full year, except that they were not. By the way, that 36 million figure is roughly a third of what the hotel billed.
I can imagine that, the Libyan delegation, to name one, right now in Caracas. Guess who will pay for that one.... And are all the Cubans hosted there (or Piedad Cordoba) paying their bills?
If to bad administration and a deadbeat mentality (not enough oil money coming in?) you add the agricultural disaster of the regime, then you get in another item that the cheese production of the country dropped by 8.35% you can start worrying. this is bad becasue Venezuelans eat a lot of cheese for their arepas, a very basic staple, in particular lower socio-economic classes.
Why did the cheese dropped? Well, the price control is the main culprit as inflation has been around 30% and the prices have been fixed for more than a year for many type of cheeses. Since cheese makers are bound to produce 70% of the cheese they make at controlled price, it is clear that by now they cannot compensate the loss with the 30% which is "control free". Other culprits are the price of milk, the bad state of the roads, the invasions, etc, etc... For the first few months of the year it seems that production is keeping its down-spiral. But the regime does not care much, preferring to import cheese for its Mercal, while the Venezuelan local industry goes slowly but surely bankrupt. yes, that is right, the regime prefers to fiance foreign producers rather than allow for a reasonable cost system in Venezuela.
So there you have, two items that speak volumes of what the priorities of the regime have become and how things are now managed: f..k you to those that lose money becasue of the regime policies. Do not be surprised as things get worse in coming months.
Chavismo cynicism in plundering
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| Downtown luxury free if you are pro Chavez |
That is right, in the very same rapport of the Tourism ministry (which means the situation is probably worse) the state OWES the now called ALBA Caracas 36.688.219 bolivares, that is, 8.532.143 USD. More than 8 MILLION of dollars. Even if we get full tariff at, say, 250 USD a night, that means the hotel did not receive payments for a whopping 34.128 nights. Which means that it is as if 94 rooms remained empty for a full year, except that they were not. By the way, that 36 million figure is roughly a third of what the hotel billed.
I can imagine that, the Libyan delegation, to name one, right now in Caracas. Guess who will pay for that one.... And are all the Cubans hosted there (or Piedad Cordoba) paying their bills?
No more cheese
If to bad administration and a deadbeat mentality (not enough oil money coming in?) you add the agricultural disaster of the regime, then you get in another item that the cheese production of the country dropped by 8.35% you can start worrying. this is bad becasue Venezuelans eat a lot of cheese for their arepas, a very basic staple, in particular lower socio-economic classes.
Why did the cheese dropped? Well, the price control is the main culprit as inflation has been around 30% and the prices have been fixed for more than a year for many type of cheeses. Since cheese makers are bound to produce 70% of the cheese they make at controlled price, it is clear that by now they cannot compensate the loss with the 30% which is "control free". Other culprits are the price of milk, the bad state of the roads, the invasions, etc, etc... For the first few months of the year it seems that production is keeping its down-spiral. But the regime does not care much, preferring to import cheese for its Mercal, while the Venezuelan local industry goes slowly but surely bankrupt. yes, that is right, the regime prefers to fiance foreign producers rather than allow for a reasonable cost system in Venezuela.
So there you have, two items that speak volumes of what the priorities of the regime have become and how things are now managed: f..k you to those that lose money becasue of the regime policies. Do not be surprised as things get worse in coming months.
Cartas a la MUD: ¿Por que no le dan duro a Chávez con el genocidio de Gadafi?
Nos enteramos hoy que una misión Libia, del lado de Gadafi, llego a Caracas para pedir ayuda. Son varios, nos dicen.
¿Y ustedes no van a decir nada?
No se, pero a mi me parece que debe haber alguna manera de aprovecharse de la situación. Desde que Gadafi decidió arrimarse ya hay tal vez 30.000 civiles muertos en Libia. También ya vimos todos como las tropas Libias están repletas de mercenarios que se esconden entre la población civil para su tarea sucia, como la reconquista falla de Misrata. Bueno, por lo menos lo vimos los que no dependen de Globovision o VTV (los otros canales venezolanos no cuentan).
¿Ustedes no creen que algo se debería decir al respecto? ¿No sería bueno saber que no todos los venezolanos apoyan a un genocida? No le tengan miedo a Chávez, total, con cualquiera escusa el los va a vincular con "el imperio". Por lo meno si ustedes condenan a Qadafi repetidamente, acusan a Chávez de colaborar con un genocida, implican que tal vez lo que quiera hacer Chávez es usar mercenarios cubanos para matar a civiles venezolanos, podrían por lo menos obligar a algunos chavistas a pensar en el asunto.
¿O es que no es verdad lo que acabo de escribir? ¿No creen que es su deber alertar a la población? ¿O por lo menos silenciar farsantes como yo, si es que lo soy, por querer sembrar el miedo? No es que se les pida hacer idioteces como Donald Trump, pero, recórcholis, no sigan perdiendo tantas oportunidades de hablar.
MUD: ¡Digan algo! No es con el silencio que se motiva al pueblo opositor.
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PS: a partir de ahora, cuando se presente la oportunidad, escribiré mensajes cortos sobre fallas obvias de la MUD, ofreciendo el inventario anticipado del por que se perdieron las elecciones de 2012. Información veraz y balanceada como dice el inefable e infame lema de Venevision, al ofrecer también la lista de los responsables de la dictadura.
¿Y ustedes no van a decir nada?
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| Combates en Misrata, según Paris Match |
¿Ustedes no creen que algo se debería decir al respecto? ¿No sería bueno saber que no todos los venezolanos apoyan a un genocida? No le tengan miedo a Chávez, total, con cualquiera escusa el los va a vincular con "el imperio". Por lo meno si ustedes condenan a Qadafi repetidamente, acusan a Chávez de colaborar con un genocida, implican que tal vez lo que quiera hacer Chávez es usar mercenarios cubanos para matar a civiles venezolanos, podrían por lo menos obligar a algunos chavistas a pensar en el asunto.
¿O es que no es verdad lo que acabo de escribir? ¿No creen que es su deber alertar a la población? ¿O por lo menos silenciar farsantes como yo, si es que lo soy, por querer sembrar el miedo? No es que se les pida hacer idioteces como Donald Trump, pero, recórcholis, no sigan perdiendo tantas oportunidades de hablar.
MUD: ¡Digan algo! No es con el silencio que se motiva al pueblo opositor.
---------------
PS: a partir de ahora, cuando se presente la oportunidad, escribiré mensajes cortos sobre fallas obvias de la MUD, ofreciendo el inventario anticipado del por que se perdieron las elecciones de 2012. Información veraz y balanceada como dice el inefable e infame lema de Venevision, al ofrecer también la lista de los responsables de la dictadura.
Keiko and Ollanta
If you want to read something that will affect more our future than the preceding post, you can go and read the trashing that Jaime Bayly does to Vargas Llosa who had the temerity to chose Ollanta Humala over Keiko Fujimori. Now, certainly Mario can chose whomever he wants for Peru, but after having said two weeks ago that having to chose between Ollanta and Keiko was like choosing between Cancer and AIDS it seems indeed a little bit indecent for him to choose this fast when he has still 1,5 months to make up his mind. Not only he has all that time to make a rational decision, but someone with his notoriety should use that time to sell himself to the highest political bidder in order to extract as many democratic guarantees from Keiko and Ollanta as possible. As such Vargas Llosa endorsement is not only a major blunder for himself, showing him way more whimsical and impulsive than we would have thought, but it might even hurt Ollanta as Vargas Llosa is not the most popular politician in Peru.
As for yours truly he cannot find anything to reproach to the logic of Jaime Bayly who, as an avowed buffoon, shows this time way more rationality than others, including Vargas Llosa. We must remember that in ancient times, the court the jester was often the one closest to the the truth and rationality, allowed through his rank to say what others could not dare to say.
As for yours truly he cannot find anything to reproach to the logic of Jaime Bayly who, as an avowed buffoon, shows this time way more rationality than others, including Vargas Llosa. We must remember that in ancient times, the court the jester was often the one closest to the the truth and rationality, allowed through his rank to say what others could not dare to say.
Die rote Korruptionsmaschine der venezolanischen Militärs
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| Schon wieder ein Dekret während der Ferien |
Blogger Miguel hat schon darüber geschrieben: Chávez hat schon wieder gegen alle Gesetze regiert und ankündigt, wie er Staatsresourcen ohne jegliche Kontrolle, ohne Überwachungsmechanismus benutzen wird...als ob es sich um sein eigenes Taschengeld handeln würde.
Der Putschist von 1992 hat ein Dekret verabschiedet, um noch mehr Petrodollars nach eigenen Gutdünken benutzen zu können. Er tut das immer wieder, wenn die meisten Menschen im Urlaub sind, damit die Proteste weniger werden.
Für jedes Fass Öl werden seit vielen Jahrzehnten Steuer erhoben. Das ist ganz normal. Jetzt hat Chávez aber viel mehr Geld und noch weniger Kontrollen nötig. Wenn der Preis eines Fasses jetzt zwischen $70 und $90 schwankt, wird 80% des zusätzlichen Geldes einem neuen Fond zufliessen. Wenn der Preis zwischen $90 und $100 liegt, wird nun 90% des zusätzlichen Geldstroms als Zusatzsteuer diesem Fond gehören. Wenn der Preis über 100 kommt, wird 95% zum Fonds gehen.
Es wäre schön, wenn so ein Fonds transparent und im Rahmen einer pluralistischen Diskussion eingesetzt werden könnte. Der Skandal ist aber, dass nur der venezolanische Militärführer die Kontrolle hat und keine Rechenschaft ablegen wird. Theoretisch könnte der berüchtigte Contralor General Clodosbaldo Russián die Rechnungen überprüfen. Er und seine Beamten sind aber alle pro-Chávez. Russián ist vor allem bekannt geworden, weil er alle Gegner des Militärführers, die Konkurrenz darstellen können, einem Amtsverbot auferlegt. Chávez denkt, dieses verfassungswidrige Dekret sei ganz koscher, weil die vorige Nationalversammlung kurz vor ihrer Ablösung ein Ermächtigungsgesetz für ihn vorbereitet hat, um allerlei Dekrete zu verabschieden.
Der Militärführer sagte, mit diesem Dekret wird das Geld direkt "an die Leute gehen". Natürlich entscheidet er allein, welche Menschen was wie wann bekommen. Blogger Miguel errechnet, Chávez wird US$ 11.5 Milliarden extra haben, wenn der Erdölpreis dieses Jahr bei $105 pro Fass bleibt. Das wäre mehr als genug, um viele Geschenke vor den 2012-Wahlen zu kaufen.
Von nachhaltiger Entwicklung und Transparenz werden wir nichts sehen.
Clownish revolution: how to reinvent history
One of the things that puzzles me is the way the Chávez regime can reinvent history. Basically, the vast majority of Chávez's honchos are either military coup mongers or former AD politicians who now wear red shirts and a group of extreme lefties who were supposed to be the foes of the military who are now in power. So now you have in power people like Rodriguez Chacín, one of Chávez's former ministers, who was killing people in the IV Republic in his special commando against the left winged guerrilla and you also have people like Soto, who was a guerrillero and is now president of the National Assembly.
He has been governor of Monagas since 2004. His brother, Pedro, has been mayor of the Cedeño Municipality since 2004.
Here you can read in Spanish a tacky article about how Pedro Briceño used some of the petrodollars to refurbish a school that badly needed it. He is described as a big patron:
"In the event...school director Alejandro Cabezas...thanked the local mayor for the work...specially for the water service, which was working only partially for over 30 years now...now, thanks to the mayor...Cabezas defended the Briceño administration..."
And that municipality is one of the most pro-Chávez in Monagas. Isn't that mental?
| | municipio Cedeño | estado Monagas |
| 1982 | | |
| 1983 | | |
| 1984 | | |
| 1985 | | |
| 1986 | | |
| 1987 | | |
| 1988 | | |
| 1989 | | |
| 1990 | | |
| 1991 | | |
| 1992 | | |
| 1993 | José Gregorio Briceño | |
| 1994 | José Gregorio Briceño | |
| 1995 | José Gregorio Briceño | |
| 1996 | José Gregorio Briceño | |
| 1997 | José Gregorio Briceño | |
| 1998 | José Gregorio Briceño | |
| 1999 | José Gregorio Briceño | |
| 2000 | | |
| 2001 | | |
| 2002 | | |
| 2003 | | |
| 2004 | Pedro Briceño | José Gregorio Briceño |
| 2005 | Pedro Briceño | José Gregorio Briceño |
| 2006 | Pedro Briceño | José Gregorio Briceño |
| 2007 | Pedro Briceño | José Gregorio Briceño |
| 2008 | Pedro Briceño | José Gregorio Briceño |
| 2009 | Pedro Briceño | José Gregorio Briceño |
| 2010 | Pedro Briceño | José Gregorio Briceño |
| 2011 | Pedro Briceño | José Gregorio Briceño |
Venezuela's historical humunculus
Neurologists have found out how perception and feeling for different body areas are mapped in our brains. They came up with a funny humunculus that show how some parts take a bigger chunk of the brain's resources than what one would initially expect.
It would be interesting to do research on the Venezuelan average brain, even if figuratively speaking. How much attention do we pay to such things as planning or to beach?
It would also be interesting to know how our historical records are structured and how they differ to those of Mexicans, Chileans or Europeans. Of course: that is not possible.
History and historical manipulation have been used over and over again to direct and manipulate complete nations. That was the case in the Fertile Crescent. That was the case when the English Americans started to invade native American areas in they saw as their "Manifest Destiny". That was the case in Russia and Venezuela.
Humboldt wrote in the first half of the XIX century only two main events seemed to be part of the Venezuelan's historical memory: the Conquista and the Independence war. He also wrote Venezuelans did not feel a very strong link to the history of their ancestors from Europe or from the original America. I would add they did not feel much link to their African ancestors either.
And that is one of the reasons why the military caste in Venezuela, starting with Bolívar, and then our politicians, have managed to manipulate Venezuelans with particular success. They have transformed Bolívar and some "heroes" into some weird "Gods" and they have declared themselves the priests who do what the Gods wants.
If you ask 10 Venezuelans in what century - more or less - the Spaniards arrived to Venezuela, most of them would not know. If you ask them how their mother tongue, Spanish, came to be, from what language it derives, you will be surprised at the answers. If you ask them a little bit about what social systems native Americans had, you will often hear quite a lot of amazing myths. That is the reason why Chávez can say in an Aló Presidente that native Americans were socialist, did not have kings or slaves and were 2 meters tall. That the reason why a third of our 300+ municipalities are called after a military caudillo.
Every Venezuelan knows the date when Bolívar was born and the day he died. That's not so hard, anyway: those are holidays in Venezuela.
Most Venezuelan books about history suck. They suck big time. The pathos, the kitsch you find is incredible. The very few foreign books about Venezuelan history you will find are not very different, with some exceptions. The Bolívar cult is promoted, other aspects of Venezuela's development are completely forgotten or just glossed over in an incredible manner.
That is why I am trying to write a little bit more about Venezuelan history beyond myths in Wikipedia.
I wish Venezuelan historians - the real ones - would start to become more prominent. If they do, they will have two big enemies: the government and the military.
I wonder what happened to the ideas the Academy of History announced.
Kate and William
Is there anyone among the readers of this blog that can possibly care less about that darned wedding than yours truly? Admittedly I am at a disadvantage by mentioning the embarrassing business......
What do you want to read?
Here you see the feedback I have got so far about what readers want to see in this blog. Please, send me an email or a message if you have more concrete suggestions. Thanks!
Votes so far: 59
posts in German about Venezuela | 18 (30%) |
ideas for Venezuela | 17 (28%) |
what Chavismo is doing | 17 (28%) |
what the alternative forces is doing | 18 (30%) |
attacks against democracy | 12 (20%) |
Venezuelan history | 10 (16%) |
Venezuelan economics | 26 (44%) |
Venezuela's nature | 12 (20%) |
Venezuela's culture | 15 (25%) |
Venezuela-Europe relations | 14 (23%) |
Estimates about what's going to come in Venezuela | 20 (33%) |
background (mindmaps) about Chavismo | 12 (20%) |
background (mindmaps) about alternative forces | 9 (15%) |
data on politics outside Caracas | 10 (16%) |
science & technology in Venezuela (I know there is almost nothing, but I could try) | 7 (11%) |
Votes so far: 59
Killing Venezuelan campesinos 12 years into Chávez's rule
Journalist Setty sent me an interesting article (in English) published in Venezuela Analysis some time ago about the killings of Venezuelan rural activists and the lack of response from the government.
Venezuela Analysis is a site maintained by foreign lefties who are very much pro-Chávez. Lenin would have had a term for them. Now: in spite of the site being pro-Chávez, some of the people writing there are idealists. Even if they very often just churn out articles based on propaganda feeds from Chavismo, they also get useful information from low level groups - not from the powers that be -.
About 250 Venezuelan rural activists have been killed in the last few years and no one has payed for that. The article is about two of the last cases. Farmers link the security forces, the military, to the killers..."people from the IV Republic"...and the big landowners. This is year 12 of the so-called revolution. And which landowners are these? Are they all anti-Chávez or pro-Chávez or it's the same to them? I remember Chávez pal Rodríguez Chacín had a hacienda that is thousands of hectares big. Is he a landowner too? Is the owner of La Malagueña -whoever that is- a landowner? What is really happening with the land reform? How many farmers have their own land now and how are they using it?
In Monagas the governor, a former AD politician who is now, as many others, a PSUV-man, and his brother, who is a mayor of one of Cedeño municipality, have been repeatedly associated with big landowners who have been attacking farmers. The ones saying that are farmers and low-key political activists.
Land tenancy in Venezuela is still, after several "land reform processes" through the decades, in a feudal state. It is time for the alternative forces to develop solutions to this problem and approach the hundreds of thousands of people who for so long believed Chávez could deliver.
I wonder who is up to the job...bringing about justice and sustainable development in those regions won't be an easy task.
Terrorist you, you, you you
The Venezuelan ambassador in Belarus (in Belarussian here) condemned the terrorist attacks in Minsk on the 14.4.11. That's correct, who would not? Now: who did it?
Comrade Américo Díaz Núñez said the following: when I first went to Belarus...everybody told me I was going to the most peaceful and stable country in the world. It is obvious such action...are aimed at destabilizing the situation of the country".
Wao...that's how insightful a pro-Chávez mind can be. What else are terrorist acts aimed at? The question would be: who did it? Who benefits the most? I frankly don't know. Was it a group who is against Lukashenko? Or was it the Belorussian KGB or someone next to them? Let's see. Then came the pearl: Mr Díaz said "the West" is carrying out media terrorism by letting the news about the terrorist attack in Minsk be so short and disappear so soon.
I wonder: what is the Chávez military regime doing by supporting the Gaddafi regime until now and by completely silencing any information about the hundred of people murdered by the Syrian regime in the last weeks? If you speak Spanish, you can browse through the kind of news the Venezolana de Televisión has on Syria.
Detail on the side: a decent diplomat should know Belarus was indeed stable and relatively peaceful - the murder rate is higher than in Western Europe but it is definitely much much much lower than in Venezuela. He should not be told that. It seems he need people to tell him that when he was going there years earlier.
Second detail on the side: in this Spanish article you can read some rumblings from that ambassador about Colombia. The only thing I wanted to call your attention to is the last sentence:"May Bolívar enlighten us to get out of this labyrinth created by the imperialist government of Mr Bush!"
The sentence is as kitsch as it can be. Caudillo Bolívar is definitely a God for these people and they will act as irrationaly as anyone who is into a cult, never mind what Bolívar would have said or not about it.
My complete stance on MUD' primary date (first and last words)
So this is the thing: Opposition parties reunited in the MUD (roughly “Unity table”) have defined a date for the primaries; to choose our candidate for presidency. That would be next year in February. As always, I’m running late. Bloggers here and there, in English and Spanish had already spoke out their anger, their disagreement with the MUD’ decision and later on, their desire to turn the page – or not – and move on to the political campaign. But I prefer to take my time to speak out things, thoughtfully considered; than to be in the unnecessary spotlight of controversy.
As most, I strongly disagree with MUD’ decision. Presidential elections are supposed to be at the end of 2012 (we think, not that we are entirely sure of this, by the way…); so February does seem to me like too late to pick the candidate that is going to struggle against Chavez amazing machinery campaign, power and intimidation in the hope to beat him at the ballot boxes. I can name loads of reasons to support my stance. But I don’t think is important to state why I think February 2012 is too late and could put our only hopes in serious risk. What it really matters is that my disagreement with the way MUD’ took this decision is stronger than the decision itself.
The opposition parties (or most, the ones who were agree on delaying the date), took this decision against the claims of the citizens they should answer to. I don’t know if there is an stats proof anywhere but it does seem to me that the general mood of those of us who consider ourselves part of the “opposition” was to make those primaries this year; as soon as possible. The sooner we had our candidate elected; the longer was the time we had to make him/her stronger. More importantly; the opportunity for the Revolution to do anything “legal” to prevent this person to run for the office against the “great leader” itself, could be weaker. I never heard in the streets, in the radio, in the endless dinner talks between my family or at my office; a single comment of anyone in favor of delaying the elections. Everyone wanted them to be as soon as possible.
Maybe it’s true. Maybe it’s not. But the message most opposition parties at MUD are giving us is this: “we want some extra time to make our candidates stronger for the primaries; so they can beat the guy who’s now the strongest (that would be Capriles, Miranda’ governor)”. Even worse, they are also sending me this message: “Maybe, if Capriles continues to leads the pools, the government will disqualify him; and with him out of the game, our candidates could take his place. But of course, we need time for that”. None of the messages is telling us they hear their voters at all.
They are playing their cards. And that’s ok, that’s totally legitimate, I have nothing against it. After all they are politicians and that’s what politicians do (among other things, of course): they calculate their moves and work to get access to power positions, so they can act from them. But they are forgetting something. They are forgetting the moment and the context they are acting in. They seemed too much into their game to understand that this country is suffering a crisis; and thus this is no time to be politician in that sense.
This is the time to act not rather like a rescue team. We expected them to be the fire-workers that would save us – or at least try - from the fire that is consuming Venezuela little than little; and perhaps even start to plant over the ashes. We wanted water, oxygen, an opportunity to breathe again in a place where all doors seem to be closed or about to close. We definitely did not expected them to throw some more flammable material.
I hope their mistake will no bring any further consequences. I hope that in opposition primaries we can vote and select the candidate we want; not the candidate they want or, more likely the candidate we had no choice but to vote for him because the one we really wanted was disqualify by the Revolution (I lost count of how many times I have had to make that nasty kind of vote). I hope that once this candidate gets elected, there is still enough time for him to make campaign, and to convince some ni-nis to vote for him on presidential elections. I hope the Revolution, in this remaining year and a half, makes enough mistakes to become more unpopular than what it already is, thus leaving us the road free and saving MUD’ leaders by the bell.
But either way I want to remind them (I wish I could tell them, but I have no access to them) that authoritarianism, dictatorship, fascism and all those things and attitudes we so deeply despise of the Revolution; do not belong only to Chavez and his comrades. They are inside each one of us. After all, in what other way you can explain the fact that Chavez – a military and promoted of a failed-bloody- coup d’ etat was elected by an overwhelming majority of Venezuelans back in 1998? And in this overwhelming majority many, many of you were included. Don’t tell me again the story of the deprived and old political parties and the hope Chavez represented for the low classes. The fact is when an entire country makes a vote of faith to a man who betrayed democracy in such an open and offensive way; is a country without democratic nor political culture. This is a country that has Chavez and all what he represents: authoritarianism, dictatorship, fascism in the blood, in the genes, in the most deep part of each one of their citizens.
We all have Chavez inside us, and even when we are working against him, we sometimes end up acting just like him. When you guys from the MUD took the decision of delaying the primary’ date against what your voters think, following personal interests and putting in risk the sake and hopes of an entire country; you acted just like a Bolivarian Revolutionary. It is really painful for me to say this. And I know I’m earning more than one eyebrow and a few “dis-follow”, plus million critiques as I write this. But I think it is important to speak this out, out loud, to force us to face our own inside demons. We have to recognize that the biggest and hardest battle we have to lead is not against a regime, or a political system, but rather against ourselves. We have to work in a different direction, work to strengthen our almost inexistent political culture and conscience; work to promote in the internalization of our democratic values.
But every time we make a cult around out own personality. Every time we refuse to let others take the microphone and participate. Every time we discard an argument because of the person and not the argument. Every time we shot our ears. Every time we consider ourselves way too important to hear others because a couple of radio stations called us to hear our opinion. Every time we look at someone as it was less than us because of their social class, their origins or their short number of professional qualifications (aka foreign institution’ diplomas). Every time we believe that is not important what we say but how we say it, and we write it in a complicated language just to brag about ourselves. Every time we take good use of “la viveza del venezolano” and pass over others just to achieve a personal benefit. Every time we do that, we act like Revolutionaries. Like the Revolutionary type we don’t like. Like the Revolution that has harmed us so much. Like the system we don’t want for our country.
But we want to be different, don’t we?
So please, lets act different!
Long – and- important PS: As I promised at Twitter, this will be the fist and last thing I will say on this issue. I will now pass the page and focus on the primaries, and the elections that follow immediately. If there is any help wanted, to promote vote in Venezuela or abroad, to promote awareness abroad, to announce something, to denounce anything… I’m here.
Long and important PS 2: On the other hand, I can say here and now that I have acted sometimes or carried an attitude that should be more characteristic of a Revolutionary than of someone who is against it. There have been times (hopefully not many) when my actions or my attitudes have been everything but democratic. It would be a good exercise to recall some of those anecdotes in this blog. In the meantime, I realized that long time ago, I already posted one of those here.
I want you to understand that I’m disappointed with this MUD’ decision, but at the same time I’m equally guilty of similar actions. I bet many Venezuelans like me can say the same, if they dare. We always complain of the limits this government puts to democracy. And that's all right. But what about the limits WE put to democracy?
PS 3: While this stance is yes, visceral (after all, this whole blog is... well, visceral). Miguel offers his rather more rational stance. I share it instead of the stances of others, because this one differs from mine, or at least try to see the things with a positive point of view. It takes some notes from Venezuelan history and it does have a good point. Miguel, I wish I could be agree with you. But more than that, I hope you are right. You are older and you have more knowledge than me, so let's hope you are right, for the sake of all of us.
As most, I strongly disagree with MUD’ decision. Presidential elections are supposed to be at the end of 2012 (we think, not that we are entirely sure of this, by the way…); so February does seem to me like too late to pick the candidate that is going to struggle against Chavez amazing machinery campaign, power and intimidation in the hope to beat him at the ballot boxes. I can name loads of reasons to support my stance. But I don’t think is important to state why I think February 2012 is too late and could put our only hopes in serious risk. What it really matters is that my disagreement with the way MUD’ took this decision is stronger than the decision itself.
The opposition parties (or most, the ones who were agree on delaying the date), took this decision against the claims of the citizens they should answer to. I don’t know if there is an stats proof anywhere but it does seem to me that the general mood of those of us who consider ourselves part of the “opposition” was to make those primaries this year; as soon as possible. The sooner we had our candidate elected; the longer was the time we had to make him/her stronger. More importantly; the opportunity for the Revolution to do anything “legal” to prevent this person to run for the office against the “great leader” itself, could be weaker. I never heard in the streets, in the radio, in the endless dinner talks between my family or at my office; a single comment of anyone in favor of delaying the elections. Everyone wanted them to be as soon as possible.
Maybe it’s true. Maybe it’s not. But the message most opposition parties at MUD are giving us is this: “we want some extra time to make our candidates stronger for the primaries; so they can beat the guy who’s now the strongest (that would be Capriles, Miranda’ governor)”. Even worse, they are also sending me this message: “Maybe, if Capriles continues to leads the pools, the government will disqualify him; and with him out of the game, our candidates could take his place. But of course, we need time for that”. None of the messages is telling us they hear their voters at all.
They are playing their cards. And that’s ok, that’s totally legitimate, I have nothing against it. After all they are politicians and that’s what politicians do (among other things, of course): they calculate their moves and work to get access to power positions, so they can act from them. But they are forgetting something. They are forgetting the moment and the context they are acting in. They seemed too much into their game to understand that this country is suffering a crisis; and thus this is no time to be politician in that sense.
This is the time to act not rather like a rescue team. We expected them to be the fire-workers that would save us – or at least try - from the fire that is consuming Venezuela little than little; and perhaps even start to plant over the ashes. We wanted water, oxygen, an opportunity to breathe again in a place where all doors seem to be closed or about to close. We definitely did not expected them to throw some more flammable material.
I hope their mistake will no bring any further consequences. I hope that in opposition primaries we can vote and select the candidate we want; not the candidate they want or, more likely the candidate we had no choice but to vote for him because the one we really wanted was disqualify by the Revolution (I lost count of how many times I have had to make that nasty kind of vote). I hope that once this candidate gets elected, there is still enough time for him to make campaign, and to convince some ni-nis to vote for him on presidential elections. I hope the Revolution, in this remaining year and a half, makes enough mistakes to become more unpopular than what it already is, thus leaving us the road free and saving MUD’ leaders by the bell.
But either way I want to remind them (I wish I could tell them, but I have no access to them) that authoritarianism, dictatorship, fascism and all those things and attitudes we so deeply despise of the Revolution; do not belong only to Chavez and his comrades. They are inside each one of us. After all, in what other way you can explain the fact that Chavez – a military and promoted of a failed-bloody- coup d’ etat was elected by an overwhelming majority of Venezuelans back in 1998? And in this overwhelming majority many, many of you were included. Don’t tell me again the story of the deprived and old political parties and the hope Chavez represented for the low classes. The fact is when an entire country makes a vote of faith to a man who betrayed democracy in such an open and offensive way; is a country without democratic nor political culture. This is a country that has Chavez and all what he represents: authoritarianism, dictatorship, fascism in the blood, in the genes, in the most deep part of each one of their citizens.
We all have Chavez inside us, and even when we are working against him, we sometimes end up acting just like him. When you guys from the MUD took the decision of delaying the primary’ date against what your voters think, following personal interests and putting in risk the sake and hopes of an entire country; you acted just like a Bolivarian Revolutionary. It is really painful for me to say this. And I know I’m earning more than one eyebrow and a few “dis-follow”, plus million critiques as I write this. But I think it is important to speak this out, out loud, to force us to face our own inside demons. We have to recognize that the biggest and hardest battle we have to lead is not against a regime, or a political system, but rather against ourselves. We have to work in a different direction, work to strengthen our almost inexistent political culture and conscience; work to promote in the internalization of our democratic values.
But every time we make a cult around out own personality. Every time we refuse to let others take the microphone and participate. Every time we discard an argument because of the person and not the argument. Every time we shot our ears. Every time we consider ourselves way too important to hear others because a couple of radio stations called us to hear our opinion. Every time we look at someone as it was less than us because of their social class, their origins or their short number of professional qualifications (aka foreign institution’ diplomas). Every time we believe that is not important what we say but how we say it, and we write it in a complicated language just to brag about ourselves. Every time we take good use of “la viveza del venezolano” and pass over others just to achieve a personal benefit. Every time we do that, we act like Revolutionaries. Like the Revolutionary type we don’t like. Like the Revolution that has harmed us so much. Like the system we don’t want for our country.
But we want to be different, don’t we?
So please, lets act different!
Long – and- important PS: As I promised at Twitter, this will be the fist and last thing I will say on this issue. I will now pass the page and focus on the primaries, and the elections that follow immediately. If there is any help wanted, to promote vote in Venezuela or abroad, to promote awareness abroad, to announce something, to denounce anything… I’m here.
Long and important PS 2: On the other hand, I can say here and now that I have acted sometimes or carried an attitude that should be more characteristic of a Revolutionary than of someone who is against it. There have been times (hopefully not many) when my actions or my attitudes have been everything but democratic. It would be a good exercise to recall some of those anecdotes in this blog. In the meantime, I realized that long time ago, I already posted one of those here.
I want you to understand that I’m disappointed with this MUD’ decision, but at the same time I’m equally guilty of similar actions. I bet many Venezuelans like me can say the same, if they dare. We always complain of the limits this government puts to democracy. And that's all right. But what about the limits WE put to democracy?
PS 3: While this stance is yes, visceral (after all, this whole blog is... well, visceral). Miguel offers his rather more rational stance. I share it instead of the stances of others, because this one differs from mine, or at least try to see the things with a positive point of view. It takes some notes from Venezuelan history and it does have a good point. Miguel, I wish I could be agree with you. But more than that, I hope you are right. You are older and you have more knowledge than me, so let's hope you are right, for the sake of all of us.
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