Wednesday, April 04, 2007

And while we were off the air...in the land of the robolution Many things happened while I was off the air, some, like the PDVSA bonds, I will write about later, but I can't help but put my two cents into the following stories: ---Former Governor Lapi escapes from jail: Daniel has covered this in detail here, here or here, but the case it's truly a reflection of the lowlifes of this robolution. He is first called a coward for escaping from a jail in a jail system that is famous for deaths among inmates and riots; with close to a death per day in the country's jail system. A couple of days before Lapi's escape, eight people were killed in a jail riot where he was being held and a grenade exploded within the jail. Of course, he has been in jail for misuse of funds for a year, but the Prosecutor has yet to bring him to trial, in violation of the laws. Moreover, all of his injunctions at the Supreme Court have not been heard by that Court, which is also illegal since there is a limit to how long they have to decide on them. Despite this travesty of Justice, the Head of the Supreme Court publicly speaks on a case she might have to rule later, saying that here is another crime committed by the former Governor. Even more unethical is the fact that she happens to be from the same state of Yaracuy where they have been political enemies for years. How is that for political hate! But the laugher has to be that the Government jails 49 people who work at the jail for helping the former Governor escape. This seems to suggest that they have no clue who helped Lapi. In a country where three people can't keep a secret, a conspiracy of 49 is unheard of. Gimme a break! ---Improvised prohibition or dry laws: Here is the Government which for eight years has shown its total disregard for human life, allowing homicides to triple in that period and all of a sudden they become fundamentalists and prohibit public drinking everyday after 5 PM for the whole of the Easter vacation. (Kathy has covered this in detail) This was so improvised, that it was announced the day before the vacation was to begin, catching bars, restaurants and discos off guard, they already had stocked up for the holidays, particularly in resort areas where Venezuelans congregate for the holidays. (Imagine a disco with fruit punch!) Even funnier, it is all blamed on capitalism which puts "profit ahead of human life", as if the badly maintained roads and highways of Venezuela, which are responsible for a good fraction of all accidents, were maintained by extraterrestrials and not by the Chavez Government itself. And then there is of course the problem of wishing it won't make it so: enforcement. Last night I looked out my window to the barrio next to my building and the corner store was selling beer en force and the people drinking it, under the watchful eyes of the police, who would not dare interfere with the fun of their own neighbors. ---Giving away assets of FOGADE: And then there was the biggest improviser of them all, Hugo Chavez, asking that FOGADE, the institution that guarantees the deposits of the banking system, give away all of its properties to the "people". Way to go Hugo! Take the "people's" guarantees to give to some other "people". As long as you sound like you are a good guy, who cares if the "people" are the same or not? This is part of the Government by witticism that Fabre talked about. The properties of FOGADE were acquired in the 1994-95 financial crises in exchange for the depositor’s money and have been sold slowly to strengthen the weak equity of FOGADE. Why not just give the all the money away too? Who needs a guarantee for deposits? Nothing can go wrong in the revolution, Hugo won't allow it. Yeah, sure! ---RCTV: And how about funny guy Jesse Chacon the Minister of Communications appearing on TV and saying how RCTV had submitted its renewal under the new Broadcasting Bill in 2002 on time and providing legal ammunition for that station to argue its case? Of course, in his world with no logic, the conclusion of his speech was that the license had to be revoked because they felt like it. More on PDVSA and RCTV later as I catch up. 8:19:57 PM    comment []

La Pobreza de Cabeza by Luís Pedro España I have a few posts backed up, I will release them over the next two days. Here is the first on poverty by the person that I believe understands the subject best in this country. The Poverty of his head (Really a pun on the fact that the Minister of Finance’s name is Head in Spanish) by Luís Pedro España Let’s clarify at once that the title has nothing to do with what some believe to be a type of poverty. We want to refer to what was the intervention of Rodrigo Cabezas, Minister of Finance, at the annual meeting of the IDB in Guatemala on March 20th... There, the Minister of Finance pointed out that poverty was reduced in three years from 80.1% to 39.4% and established a goal of “zero” poverty for 2021. These numbers correspond to those calculated by the National Institute for Statistics (INE). According to the last published numbers (1st. semester 2006) poverty was at 44.5%. Those presented by Cabezas at IDB, are supposed to refer to preliminary numbers for the second semester of last year. Thus, for Cabezas’ count, during 2006 the rhythm of reduction of poverty in Venezuela was almost 5 percentage points (a reduction in one semester of 250,000 poor homes!) thus the Minister was being overly cautious with his estimates of “zero” poverty in 14 years. At this “rhytm of winners” Dr. Cabezas, your goal should be reached in 2011. If the estimates of poverty of the Minister of Finance were true, and not simply an instrument for propaganda, then, simply, the problems of Venezuela would be over in very little time, which would leave the Government, sociologists and philanthropists without any other occupation than that of exporting the Bolivarian revolution to planetary dimensions. The statistics of INE, those used by the Minister are not false, it is only that the Government uses them in a false way. The point is not whether less than 40% of the Venezuelan homes have 1.2 US$ per person per day to eat, or if they have US$ 2.5 per day for the rest of their needs. Obviously not, because on top of that it is not enough, one thing is the norm to interpret reality, the other to make reality the norm. Understand, with Bs 4,000 per day, you don’t eat and another Bs. 4,000 are not enough to live on. The reality of poverty is much more complex that the poverty line and reducing it to this statistical indicator, no matter how true, is a lie, is a fallacy. The truth is that today more than half of Venezuelans, more or less the same as ten years ago, 57% to be exact, are dragging a deficit of capacity to forge themselves a dignified lifestyle. With an average income of Bs. 800.000 per month a month, there is no way for the families to compensate their immense deficit in education, health, housing and transportation. No matter how much family income has increased, that is not sufficient to live without stopping being poor. If the Government tackled the problem of poverty in that maner, it is probable that it will disappear, but only in its head. 8:33:27 AM    comment []