This and that

Correspondence

Well, I did not expect to have such a reaction as I got from that wee hours of Monday morning post. Thanks to the dozens of you who have written, it has been an amazing response. I will try to reply to as many as I can. I apologize for those who I erased in the comments section, but I did not want to use that as a debate plank: emotions must be respected and this was a special post. Amazingly only one chavista wrote to say that he was glad I was sad. Nice.


Clarification and Alex Beech

Some of you did get the wrong impression that I was closing the blog. Not at all. The frequency, scope and subjects will change progressively but I will not stop writing. Now there is no important election for the next 4 years so there is no need to campaign. It is thus a good time to start writing on proposals for Venezuela, on the politics of Zimbabwe, on Chavez very grossest abuses, on the latest Gay Pride in Warsaw, on archaeological digs in Peru where yet new cities and civilizations are discovered.

I will also start writing more about personal experiences, about Venezuelan themes such as tourism or food. Just to show that there is something else in Venezuela but Chavez. The interview I did with Milagros turned out to be quite good, not to mention the ones on Alek and Quico. Perhaps I should try to interview more people in Venezuela.

There will probably not be posts everyday anymore but I will also encourage more reader participation by welcoming guests post. It is still a goal one day to have a co-blogger such as it happens in many other blogs but my style is rather "different", so to find someone that could "fit" is rather difficult, and the temporal ones I got have their own blogs or other ways to express (or do so just when I am away, if they can, isn't that right Jorge?). Thus I take this opportunity to thank Alex Beech for helping me for these last weeks. She graced these pages with great posts that brought a lot to our knowledge and ideas. She is always welcome to post here whenever she wants but I suspect that someday she might decide to reactivate her own blog.

The 3D elections

I have always analyzed the results of elections in the past and I am not going to dodge the bullet this time. I will do so but it might take a few days until I can look at the results in a more paused way. And compare to my predictions. They are mostly screwed but at least I can see if my predictions were at least as coherent as the results. Which would not be bad at all. I read today that there was some questioning of some results and since this time the opposition has a copy of the voting acts in hand, we will see if really the CNE means to clean up its act. So far I give the CNE a failing grade anyway, for waiting too long for the results, for not controlling the army abuses, for not controlling the Chavez media abuse and even less controlling the state money plunder for the campaign. Even if all the ballots, for once, are counted, the CNE is failing the grade and Tibisay Lucena is the big disappointment that I predicted when she was sent there. Well, actually she was not a disapointment, she was at least as bad as I expected her to be.

Chavistas partying

Amazingly this afternoon chavista were out in grater numebr than ever, and certainly much greater numbers than when Chavez came to visit barely a week ago!!! Loud, vocifeorus, bad taste music ("por el buche" themes and variations that I will leave to your sexual imagination). Now, where were they hiding all durign the campaign? Me thinks that they crawled from under a rock before some chavista points them out as not been as fervent as required. So tonight they are all on the Quinta Avenida competing in screams, and watching fireworks... I am still wondering if the folks of the Banco Industrial did get their allowance (see last Saturday pictures).

New comment section policy

Since I am in a new mood and since Venezuela has left me, I will not be bothered anymore with chavistas posting inanities in this blog: they have the whole chavista media for them, this blog is a tiny segment that can escape the red tide. This will be now a refuge for those who want gentility and civility to prevail, who seek to exchange information and are not interested in protracted battles that lead nowhere. Today everyone is clear, nobody will change his or her opinion. If you support Chavez and the Tascon list, then there is nothing for you here, do not waste our time and yours. I will not erase systematically prochavista posts, but anyone who tries to sneak one to perturb our tranquility will be erased without contemplation and even less explanaition. PSF/chavista who want to post, then you better learn how to write information and not desinformation. I promise to become more tolerant when Chavez shows me by example. I said.

Also since the frequency of posting will decrease I will not be monitoring as much the incoming posts. Thus they might be long delays before your posts appear on screen. I am aware that this will limit debate but it is the price to pay to have peace an quiet. What I hope for, in exchange, is to have even less comments but often longer and more informative.

That is all for today. I am in recovery but it is going well. I am leaving you with a podcast for Pajama media where I explained the Venezuelan election system. It might be a tad late but it might still interest some of you. Tomorrow morning I will be in a Jamaican radio talk show. Too bad they did not invite me to speak live, I could have used the vacation. I also might have another media surprise but it is not confirmed yet :)

Tags: elecciones3D, alex beech, psf, chavismo