Friday, September 19, 2008

After wasting billions of the Venezuelan people for the last ten years, Hugo Chavez asks people not be wasteful and save Hugo Chavez yesterday: "{We have to take all measures so that the (financial crisis) does not affect us and one of them is to save both at the individual level, as well as state Governments, Ministries, the National Government "(He also used the word wasteful, but I cant find that link) Wow! Where should I start on this one? Or even can I even attempt to say anything about this statement? Let's start at a very basic level: This from a man who maintains two homes, Miraflores and La Casona, but has not been to La Casona in years. Or, this from a man that subsidizes gasoline to the tune of US$ 14 billion per year. Someone that gives away, each and every single day of the year US$ 129,000 barrels of oil, with two years grace period and twenty years to pay at 2% interest. Someone who keeps a Caracas Teheran weekly flight that goes empty for ideological reasons. Someone who gives away power plants to Nicaragua, whyile Venezuela has blackouts. Someone who has been buying jet fighters, submarines, tanks, rifles, to the tune of US$ 10 billion in the last three years, while people go hungry in Venezuela. Someone who sends jet planes filled with suitcases with cash to help his buddies. Someone who buys Argentina's debt and sells it at a loss just to support his ideological buddies. Someone who sends helicopters to help his buddy Evo. Someone who travels one third of the year visiting Heads of State, signing agreements that never come to very much. (He is leaving tomorrow again) Someone who spends money that could be used elsewhere to buy perfectly functioning private companies, rather than spend the money on new companies that would complement what the private ones are doing. Someone who allows corruption to reach billion dollar levels in order to control those around him. Someone who on his first day on the job reduced the number of ministries from 18 to 14, only to expand it to 28 ten years later. Someone who stole the countrys international reserves to create a development fund that spend 40% of its budget on financial operations. Someone who allows his Ministers, Justices and other high Government officials to earn more than 25-30 times the minimum salary, up from ten times when he got to power. Someone that subsidizes travel, cars, luxury items for well to do Venezuelans just to stay in power. Someone who bought a US$ 85 million plane so he could travel in comfort. Someone who lends the country's jets so that his political buddies can travel around. Someone who buys the country's debt and PDVSA's debt at outrageously high prices so that he can remove disclosure rules in front of international authorities. Someone who spends as much on advertising and media than on actual projects. Someone who prefers to give projects and money to foreign private and state companies than to Venezuelans ones. Add to the list, I will move it into the post!!! 12:00:07 AM    comment []