Sunday, July 16, 2006

The Margabel House by Gerver Torres Does Gerver Torres have a sense of humor or is he just very cynical these days? The Margabel House by Gerver Torres With the discovery of the Margabel house, a number of problems have now been solved in the country all at once. First of all, there is the problem of housing. Now that we have discovered that almost 2.3 million people can live comfortably in a single home, there is no doubt that the accumulated housing deficit we have in the country, of roughly 1.7 million units, that was considered necessary to house 10 million and a half of all Venezuelans, can be solved by building five Margabel-style houses and we even have some space leftover. It also happens that since the number of new people that need housing every year is around half a million, what we will need afterwards is to build one house every four or five years. The second problem that is proven that it should never have existed is that of transportation. It just so happens that the 2.3 million people that live in Margabel registered in the Electoral registry in six states which are far part from each other: Anzoátegui, Cojedes, Falcón, Guárico, Sucre y Vargas. This surely means that they work during the day in these states and then they return to sleep in Caracas, where the famous house is located. This proves that the means of transportation are more agile and efficient that people want to admit. The third problem is that of public services. We see that 2.3 million people can live in a reduced space without anyone complaining about the lack of water or any electrical failure. Those that say that public services in Venezuela fail, do no want to see the reality of the Margabel house But the most urgent problem solved by the Margabel house is that of the ten million votes that President Chavez needs in December. With 2.3 million votes per house, the President would be all set with less than five of those homes. However, it would be very convenient for the CNE to add up the numbers right, because of they get tangled up in the numbers and instead of including five Margabel-like homes, they include fifty, they could make the President win with 100 million votes. 8:47:41 PM    comment []

Chavez and Venezuela take sides in the Middle East I don’t like to write about international affairs, but the Chavez Government has somehow gotten involved in the Middle East dispute unnecessarily taking sides and using the term “Zionist” in a pejorative way which simply shows the ignorance of the members of the National Assembly as to what the terms means. Since I suspect that Iran is behind this whole conflict, I guess I should not be surprised, somehow Chavez finds some affinity with the Iranians, but I bet he had never met one before he became President. He probably now believes that they are his blood brothers. But they are not; they are religious zealots taking advantage of Chavez’s political position. Very sad for Venezuela to take sides and find the Israeli Government questioning not only the Assembly’s statements, but Chavez’ own words when he blamed the US for being behind Israel. Well, I am no expert on Middle East affairs, but I can assure you that Israel does not need the US telling it what it should do. As of the conflict itself, I think that any civilized country rather than taking sides would actually do the opposite, not take sides, and use its influence, if any, to try to help achieve some peace, a cease fire, a break that would allow the two sides to back down. That is what being civilized is about and Venezuela has a long history of neutrality in these conflicts that should be respected.. And I do feel bad for the Venezuelans who are of Jewish origin, who live here and love this country but they now find their own Government taking sides in a battle that is not their own and where no side should be taken. Moreover, it is a Government they have always been very suspicious about in terns of their relations with their own community. Venezuela has large group of citizens of Syrian, Lebanese, Palestinian and Jewish origin. But somehow the Chavez administration takes sides largely with the Iranians, probably the only group with no significant population in this country. But even if they did, Chavez should show some respect for those who live here, take no sides and ask for peace. But he is a man of war. He would be right at home in the Middle East 8:25:57 PM    comment []