No need to soften the blow. If the first case of Coronavirus in Venezuela is not yet confirmed, it is just a matter of time until a verifiable one is reported. In fact, the Pan American Health Organization has announced that it is sending missions to vulnerable countries. That is, vulnerable in their health system, including in the list Venezuela, Haiti, Nicaragua. The implications are obvious.
Venezuela is highly vulnerable to such an epidemy. The public health system is in shambles, unable to deal with such an epidemic, justifying the worries of the PAHO. The private system has become terribly expensive, and it is certainly not designed to substitute the public health system. At all.
Never mind that elemental precautions such as washing your hands with soap are often daunting as soap is of poor quality, very expensive, and running water way too often not available. Using long stored buckets of water will not cut it.
More worrisome is the nature of the regime bound to hide what could be a major catastrophe. I am going to pass on the usual accusations of conspiracy that the US would have created the Coronavirus to destroy China (and the world? including the US?). Some chavista was bold enough to mention 1989 as the date when the inoculation started.....
The idiocy of chavismo, its absolute lack of understanding and interest for science and objective data is well documented. What is more dangerous is its denial. Already the government of Zulia, where that possible case has been reported, said that it was all a farce, a simulation. Imagine what will happen when it will not be possible to hide cases of COVID 19 in Caracas....
Let me remind the reader that the regime has made its strong suit to kill statistics and hide the extent on which old epidemics returned. We have again tuberculosis and rubeola. Paludism, Dengue and Yellow Fever are all back even though they do barely appear in official statistics. And this has been happening for a long time. Ten years ago I was hospitalized for hemorrhagic Dengue and already doctors told me that they stopped reporting cases as the health ministry simply refused to confirm the cases coming to them daily. Imagine today.....
Woe is us.
Showing posts with label official lies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label official lies. Show all posts
Monday, March 09, 2020
Saturday, April 11, 2015
The money is mine and I'll do what I want to do with it (and, by the way, there is none left)
When I wrote this morning post I did not realize that tonight I would be writing the same one but from a different angle. That is, materially not the same at all, but philosophically, so to speak, they are like two drops.
My point this morning was that the presence of CNE's head Tibisay at a political event Wednesday to "validate" 10 million signatures obtained though coercion meant that the opposition could dream on winning future legislative elections, the regime could not care less. There are alternative ways to legislate or annul newly elected representatives through, say, popular will expression through "certified" signatures of the "El Pueblo". After all, if Obama and the OAS have nothing to object of the signatures this week end, why should they object to future signatures?
Strong with that success, the regime forged ahead and announced today that travel money would be reduced to almost nothing, and that in addition it would be reserved only to those that are already in agreement with the regime. It may not look quite like it on the surface but that is the way it is heading. Again, as is the case this morning, the point is not whether there are elections. Today is not whether there is money in the coffers: whatever is there is for the regime. Period.
 |
| He is taking away your credit card |
My point this morning was that the presence of CNE's head Tibisay at a political event Wednesday to "validate" 10 million signatures obtained though coercion meant that the opposition could dream on winning future legislative elections, the regime could not care less. There are alternative ways to legislate or annul newly elected representatives through, say, popular will expression through "certified" signatures of the "El Pueblo". After all, if Obama and the OAS have nothing to object of the signatures this week end, why should they object to future signatures?
Strong with that success, the regime forged ahead and announced today that travel money would be reduced to almost nothing, and that in addition it would be reserved only to those that are already in agreement with the regime. It may not look quite like it on the surface but that is the way it is heading. Again, as is the case this morning, the point is not whether there are elections. Today is not whether there is money in the coffers: whatever is there is for the regime. Period.
Friday, August 29, 2014
Chavismo promoting CITGO sale tells us more than what we care to know
Of course, I could regale you with further tales of corruption and economic failure. But this blog is not that much about information these days, rather about the wonderment of being the deer in the headlights while been aware of it. My personal and my work situations are such that adequate information search is a luxurious time element I cannot afford anymore. Besides, where to look for reliable information, numbers? With El Universal gone, Tal Cual with resources too limited for investigative journalism and EL Nacional a near paperless semi shrill...
Then again Miguel has published two superb posts, one about the $$$$ magnitude of the racket of gasoline at the border which explains why so many are "against" a gasoline price increase; and another one about how the regime is unable to decide anything, not even starting to print paper money with numbers according to inflation.
Then again Miguel has published two superb posts, one about the $$$$ magnitude of the racket of gasoline at the border which explains why so many are "against" a gasoline price increase; and another one about how the regime is unable to decide anything, not even starting to print paper money with numbers according to inflation.
Sunday, March 23, 2014
What CNN en español did not show tonight or how part of the truth is hidden by media
I was watching Arduino in his Saturday night news on CNN in Spanish, since there is no solid info we can get from Venezuelan TV. And the only thing I saw was close takes of the chavista and opposition marches. And thus they looked pretty much the same, similar turnout and what not. Well they were not. I cannot fathom why media persists in treating popular support as if it were the same, as if the country were indeed split into two roughly equal halves. It is not.
There is the video below taken by a drone (hence the noise) of the meeting point of the 4 marches today in Caracas. It speaks VOLUMES by itself. I dare any pro Chavez, pro Maduro, or CNN, or BBC or anything to show me a similar turnout recently for a Maduro support rally where NO buses to ferry people were used, where NO booze was given out, where NO breakfast or lunch or cookies were offered, where NO military were asked to attend. Then we can talk again about who has the most enthusiastic support in the country.
And note, I am not even asking media to show that chavismo can do simultaneous support across the country like the opposition did. I will settle for a view like the one below but in the conditions stated. Heck, I will settle for HALF the attendance provided the conditions stated are respected.
What media is doing trying to secure access to "official" sources by not "offending" them is distorting the real news. Maduro certainly has support but he has NO ACTIVE support like the opposition does and the images are there for whomever wants to see them.
There is the video below taken by a drone (hence the noise) of the meeting point of the 4 marches today in Caracas. It speaks VOLUMES by itself. I dare any pro Chavez, pro Maduro, or CNN, or BBC or anything to show me a similar turnout recently for a Maduro support rally where NO buses to ferry people were used, where NO booze was given out, where NO breakfast or lunch or cookies were offered, where NO military were asked to attend. Then we can talk again about who has the most enthusiastic support in the country.
And note, I am not even asking media to show that chavismo can do simultaneous support across the country like the opposition did. I will settle for a view like the one below but in the conditions stated. Heck, I will settle for HALF the attendance provided the conditions stated are respected.
What media is doing trying to secure access to "official" sources by not "offending" them is distorting the real news. Maduro certainly has support but he has NO ACTIVE support like the opposition does and the images are there for whomever wants to see them.
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Where are we at, right now? Headless Venezuela
It is hazardous to write a post with such a title: it passes its expiration date before I press "publish". But since Maduro canceled at the very last minute his trip to Chile Bachelet's swearing in, we might give it a shot.
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Is any one surprised?
There is no telling the funk I am this morning. Never in my life I thought that I would have to live in a declared dictatorship. But after last night, this is what it is, a bona fide fascist dictatorship.
Monday, December 02, 2013
The fraudulent chavista electoral message
I need to say it: the chavista message for the next election is more fraudulent than ever, if it were possible.... Note: I am not an electoral prude but chavismo electoral propaganda and actions are quite a mix of the tacky and the mean.
Friday, July 26, 2013
15 years of triumphant chavista Bolibanana Revolution and I only got that rancho
When I moved to San Felipe, Rafael Caldera had managed to do about half the the highway between San Felipe and Moron, with a bankrupt country. After 14 years of chavismo flush with cash, only a couple more exits have been added in what is perhaps the second most used road of Venezuela. Thus the last stretch between Moron and the highway is still about 12 Km of the two way original road, clogged with jalopy buses, trucks of all sorts carrying all the goods from Puerto Cabello to Barquisimeto and the Andes. And to enter the highway, you need to go through about half a mile of what is a dirt road, or rather of original country side lane turned into dirt by the big traffic.Sunday, February 17, 2013
Photoshopping photofails
Oh well [sigh]...
The cover of Tal Cual today tells you what a dismal failure the photoshopped/staged pictures of Chavez were in the general public opinion.
Friday, November 18, 2011
And yet another idiocy at EFE
I am going to have to really, really consider that EFE news agency is financed by Chavez because there is no other way to explain its idiocies. Today they just take at face value the words of Chavez in yet another cadena as to the opposition not recognizing its victories and planning a coup. As their usual willful refusal to learn about Venezuela they seem to ignore that the opposition did recognize the victory of Chavez in 2006 but that Chavez did not recognize the opposition victory in Caracas in 2008 and in parliament in 2010.
Friday, October 21, 2011
The anti Lopez campaign in state media (or think about that as Globovision is threatened with closing)
In a fit of duty I do visit on occasion the very uninformative pages of the Chavez media. That is, the state media that is paid a tax payer expense to promote only the point of view of the state, that is Chavez and his personality cult. But one needs to look at those pages on occasion because one needs to be reminded regularly on how the sick mind of these people work. My objective was to find a good example on how Chavez defended today Qaddafi (some people never learn). But I found better, a note from the National Radio of Venezuela (our BBC if you will) with this outrageous attack on Leopoldo Lopez, as far from any journalistic ethos as you may ever find in the genre. In fact it is so bad, such a hack job in an official site that I felt compelled to take a screen shot to save it in case someone realizes what a disgrace that is and erase it..
I have circled in red (of course) the choice items described below:
 |
| Click to enlarge and enjoy the full effect |
Thursday, September 29, 2011
The Chavez cancer circus show
I really do not understand how people let themselves be played around with Chavez cancer. I mean, is it not obvious that for a couple of months now he has started using his disease has an electoral card? He has little to show for 12 years of rule. The cancer seems almost a godsend for him as it allows him to play it for the masses as a victim, or a superhero that comes form the grave and what not, incubus included. That it is successful or not is not the issue, but that he manages to distract political discourse from his failures to his diseases is no mean feat.
Sunday, May 08, 2011
De "vivir viviendo" a "mentir mintiendo"
Si hay algo que no deja de asombrarnos del chavismo es su capacidad de inventar nuevas artimañas para engañar a la gente. Después de 12 años de engaños en cuanto a la política de viviendas, después de 12 años de invasiones por doquier que han dejado irreconocible el perfil urbano de las ciudades, urbanizaciones y barrios del país, ahora vienen con la Gran Misión Vivienda y eso de "vivir viviendo" como la receta final para empezar a solucionar los problemas del país. Ahora si, ahora lo vamos a lograr. La Misión Vivienda fracasó pero la Gran Misión Vivienda eso si va a ser otra cosa.
El régimen sencillamente se apoya sobre la necesidad, la ignorancia y el habito de jugar lotería del pueblo.
La necesidad porque después de 12 años de decaimiento institucional , de faltas de respuesta verdadera y durable a los problemas sociales el pueblo desesperado fue ayer a hacer su cola aunque hasta algunas se desmayaron del calor.
La ignorancia porque el régimen sabe muy bien que el pueblo no saca cuentas, que el pueblo no tiene seguimiento en conceptos abstractos como eso de nacionalizar las fabricas de cemento y cabillas. El pueblo no entiende, no comprende, aunque algo intuye, que después de fabricar un promedio de menos de 50,000 casas al año en los doce últimos años, el gobierno será incapaz de mantener lo que hacia , y aun menos de aumentar ese número si ya los insumos no se producen en el país, y poca plata hay para importarlos, ademas de la comida, la ropa, las medicinas, etc. Como el pueblo sabe que van a ser pocas las casas, y aun mas los necesitados, todos se lanzaron a la cola temprano el sábado, para asegurarse su puesto allí, de primerito, por si acaso.
El régimen sabe eso del vicio de la lotería en le pueblo. Y por eso vende el Kino de la vivienda ya que la gente por mas trabajo que pase entiende que ese papelito, con un código de barras impreso, es un ticket de lotería que solo podrá validar y cobrar, algún día, tal vez, si Dios quiere, si estamos vivos, pero eso si, si Chavez sigue siendo presidente. Porque el mensaje de esa novedosas lista de Vivienda Tascon es nada mas ni nada menos que otro forma de chantaje electoral, para asegurase de una buena vez de la base lumpen y lumpenizada por Yo El Supremo
Lo único que nos asombra mas que la capacidad del régimen en crear nuevas mentiras y engaños es la capacidad de la gente de seguir autoengañándose, de hacer cola para registrase en la trampa.
El régimen sencillamente se apoya sobre la necesidad, la ignorancia y el habito de jugar lotería del pueblo.
La necesidad porque después de 12 años de decaimiento institucional , de faltas de respuesta verdadera y durable a los problemas sociales el pueblo desesperado fue ayer a hacer su cola aunque hasta algunas se desmayaron del calor.La ignorancia porque el régimen sabe muy bien que el pueblo no saca cuentas, que el pueblo no tiene seguimiento en conceptos abstractos como eso de nacionalizar las fabricas de cemento y cabillas. El pueblo no entiende, no comprende, aunque algo intuye, que después de fabricar un promedio de menos de 50,000 casas al año en los doce últimos años, el gobierno será incapaz de mantener lo que hacia , y aun menos de aumentar ese número si ya los insumos no se producen en el país, y poca plata hay para importarlos, ademas de la comida, la ropa, las medicinas, etc. Como el pueblo sabe que van a ser pocas las casas, y aun mas los necesitados, todos se lanzaron a la cola temprano el sábado, para asegurarse su puesto allí, de primerito, por si acaso.
El régimen sabe eso del vicio de la lotería en le pueblo. Y por eso vende el Kino de la vivienda ya que la gente por mas trabajo que pase entiende que ese papelito, con un código de barras impreso, es un ticket de lotería que solo podrá validar y cobrar, algún día, tal vez, si Dios quiere, si estamos vivos, pero eso si, si Chavez sigue siendo presidente. Porque el mensaje de esa novedosas lista de Vivienda Tascon es nada mas ni nada menos que otro forma de chantaje electoral, para asegurase de una buena vez de la base lumpen y lumpenizada por Yo El Supremo
Lo único que nos asombra mas que la capacidad del régimen en crear nuevas mentiras y engaños es la capacidad de la gente de seguir autoengañándose, de hacer cola para registrase en la trampa.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Hunger, oil lies and cynicism
Living this week in Caracas makes one head dizzy. For one thing there is yet another hunger strike going on demanding that the OAS to fulfill its original promises made when they lifted the previous hunger strike. The OAS as usual is wavering, looking for any excuse it can grab on, hoping that somehow miraculously the hunger strike will be lifted, in a country where the example of Brito is now the powerful precedent for such activities.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Chavez dysfunctional reality
Nothing but a Weil cartoon of Chavez regal bed to illustrate the dysfunction that has settled in Chavez brain. He signed over a week ago a multi billion dollar contract for semi outdated Russian weapons. On the other hand Planta Centro, one of the basic staples of electricity generation in the country has stood idle last week. Why? Because in 11 years of tenure the Chavez administration has been unable to perform the basic maintenance and probably now, pressed by the electricity crisis, forced the debilitated plant to produce more than what it was able to do. Break down? Or some other feel good tall tale that chavismo will try to feed us? You know, like sabotage.
We have been told that the situation is under control, that the government is fulfilling its objectives and yet, YET!, last week we were told at work that electricity power outs would go from 2 hours a week to 6 hours, in two shift, effectively shutting us down for two half days a week.
Yeah, right, everything under control, worry not, be happy, GDP up in 2010!
PS: I drive in front of Planta Centro at least once a month. In the last ten years NEVER have I seen two smokestacks working at once, even less the three of them. Who do they think they are fooling besides the idiotic part of the chavista base?
We have been told that the situation is under control, that the government is fulfilling its objectives and yet, YET!, last week we were told at work that electricity power outs would go from 2 hours a week to 6 hours, in two shift, effectively shutting us down for two half days a week.
Yeah, right, everything under control, worry not, be happy, GDP up in 2010!
PS: I drive in front of Planta Centro at least once a month. In the last ten years NEVER have I seen two smokestacks working at once, even less the three of them. Who do they think they are fooling besides the idiotic part of the chavista base?
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
Is it possible to write it straight on Venezuela? Is it worth it?
UPDATE!!! Apparently the WaPo editorial linked below was a mistake, an editorial that was not supposed to be published. It did not make it tot he print edition and by mistake on line. But we have a cache and contacts so I put the editorial, or at least a version of it, at the end of this post.
---------------------------------------
Although I find the Washington Post editorials to be on the mark on Venezuela, the latest one is somewhat off, as if the WaPo were to be taking itself into the anti Chavez self imposed trap, a skill that chavismo has long practiced with certain success.
On logic and factual merits the editorial is perfectly on target, chastising the weak Obama administration response to Human Rights violations in Venezuela coupled with obscene weapons purchased, the latest installment coming last Friday after Putin's brief visit to Caracas (1).
---------------------------------------
Although I find the Washington Post editorials to be on the mark on Venezuela, the latest one is somewhat off, as if the WaPo were to be taking itself into the anti Chavez self imposed trap, a skill that chavismo has long practiced with certain success.
On logic and factual merits the editorial is perfectly on target, chastising the weak Obama administration response to Human Rights violations in Venezuela coupled with obscene weapons purchased, the latest installment coming last Friday after Putin's brief visit to Caracas (1).
Monday, March 22, 2010
We are a miserable country and we deserve what we get
UPDATE: This morning the government claimed it was all under control courtesy of the wonderful equipment, organization, people, etc, etc... tonight the mountain is still burning. They do not even have the decency to shut up for a few hours....
------------------------------
I cannot describe my mood tonight as I learn that my beloved mountain, Caracas Avila National Park is going up in flames. Not only that, but the part actually burning in part, so far, is one that had not burnt in a century or more, carrying vestiges of the rain forest before the Spaniards moved in, not that Native Americans did not burn woodland on their own.
That the Avila should burn should not surprise anyone as the government of Chavez has been remiss with the care of all of Venezuela's National Parks and natural areas, be them the Upper Caroni basin where the military does business tolerating illegal garimpeiro strip mining which is increasing the mercury levels of the Guri dam to letting the National Parks near Caracas and Valencia be invaded by squatters.
Oh, but Chavez is great at changing the names of National Parks! The Avila now supposedly wears the Native name of Guaraira Repano which no one for sure knows exactly what it means or what Natives used it and for what. But someone within chavismo decided that the words described the park or the mountain or something and that was all what it took. Just as the hour was arbitrarily advanced by thirty minutes while the government stubbornly refuses to consider retrograding 30 minutes which could save quite a lot of the electricity that the Guri is producing.
------------------------------
I cannot describe my mood tonight as I learn that my beloved mountain, Caracas Avila National Park is going up in flames. Not only that, but the part actually burning in part, so far, is one that had not burnt in a century or more, carrying vestiges of the rain forest before the Spaniards moved in, not that Native Americans did not burn woodland on their own.
Oh, but Chavez is great at changing the names of National Parks! The Avila now supposedly wears the Native name of Guaraira Repano which no one for sure knows exactly what it means or what Natives used it and for what. But someone within chavismo decided that the words described the park or the mountain or something and that was all what it took. Just as the hour was arbitrarily advanced by thirty minutes while the government stubbornly refuses to consider retrograding 30 minutes which could save quite a lot of the electricity that the Guri is producing.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Tales of the bizarre: the Chavez will/will not debate Vargas Llosa ends in "¡Chavez arrugó!"
These past few weeks rich in bizarre events have managed to be outdone by today's offering.
This week CEDICE (1) in Venezuela held a symposium on occasion of its 25th anniversary. So it invited intellectuals, economists and politicians of the Liberal wing of Latin America to participate. NOTE: the is NOT Liberal in the US sense but Liberal as in the rest of the world sense, that is free markets, capitalism, democracy, etc, something that does not apply even to the US GOP fully as the US is in its politics as well as its sports, unique... Let's use the term neo-liberal to simplify things, very different from neo-con, though neo-liberal does not describe the CEDICE attendance in full.
So far so good, except that chavismo quickly showed how upset it was at CEDICE being able to gather so many prominent figures of neo-liberalism, or not (Vargas Llosa, Krause and Castañeda among other luminaries). Quickly we saw an amazingly discombobulated Vanessa Davies alerting the Venezuelan people about all the lies that would be said at the CEDICE symposium. Apparently only the Latin American left is allowed to proselytize everywhere....
I will pass on the details, like the harassment at the airport of such figures as Mario Vargas Llosa, ex runner up Peruvian presidential candidate, on the short list for the next Nobel Literature Prize for Latin America, author of the "Fiesta del Chivo" about the demise of the Trujillo dictatorship and thus a "bête noire" of the Chavez regime.
Chavez in his 4 days marathon Alo Presidente challenged the intellectuals attending the CEDICE event to come to his Alo Presidente and debate ideas. CEDICE thought for a while and accepted the debate but on one condition: it will be held between Mario Vargas Llosa and Chavez himself, in equal conditions of time and responses. After all as Castañeda pointed out a day earlier, to debate underlings of Chavez he does not need to come to Venezuela, he can find them anywhere. And he is right, as the occasional appearance of a PSF brings to this blog: experience showed that debating extensively PSF is a waste of time, so for people way more involved than Castañeda I can understand that debating, say, Monedero or Ramonet is simply not worth his time while in Venezuela. Surely he will bump into them someday at home or elsewhere with more leisure.
The reply of Chavez was rather quick and I saw it almost within minutes from CEDICE announcement, live on TV. He replied from his running Alo Presidente, mocking CEDICE and eventually reaching extreme lameness by saying that he was not in the same league as Mario Vargas Llosa. I agree with Chavez, all that Mario Vargas Llosa is he owes it to his work, his mind, his intellect and his genuine life experience with the necessary evolutions included in the life of someone who has functioning neurons. Chavez is stuck in a time warp and anything that he thinks he can boast of he got it solely on one merit: getting the Venezuelan people to entrust him with the key of the vault so Chavez could spend the last ten years buying sycophantic good will.
Let's not be afraid of words: Chavez run scared and refused the debate with Vargas Llosa, not even as a private meeting at Miraflores that Vargas Llosa would have probably accepted, even posing for a picture that would have benefited more Chavez than Vargas Llosa as smartly observed by "el ciudadano".
But see, after so many years of being surrounded by sycophants that laugh at any of his stupid jokes or inane vulgarity, Chavez is simply afraid to be in a real debate, with equal opportunities for both sides. Just as the PSF here refuse to debate in a format where all participants are limited to three entries to make a single point. They prefer to write elsewhere that this blog is not worth reading, their right of course though I will observe that I do publish my ratings while they do not publish theirs in case they want to compare "leagues" as their beloved leader.
When free insults, when intimidation are not tools that can be used by chavistas, they simply back down and run as Chavez did tonight. Just as it happened a few days ago when the Presidents of the UCV and Simon Bolivar University were greeted with a heckling mob at the ministry of universities where a dialogue was supposed to be held; just as the dissident students where entrapped at the Nazional Assembly summer 2007. In each case, as well as others, the only reply was to walk out or refuse to go. Chavistas can only "discuss" when they control all and thus can drown any uncomfortable truth with crowd screams. The coward method.
PS: closing this post we find the interview that CNN did to Vargas Llosa after the Chavez put down attempt. With video included, but in Spanish, sorry. The dignity of Vargas Llosa compared to the truculence of Chavez is just amazing. Not to mention that Vargas Llosa showed that Chavez lied once again about his passport. By the way Vargas Llosa reminds us that Chavez NEVER debated anyone, that he is ALWAYS as a monologue, even an autistic one (dixit Vargas Llosa).
PS2: "arrugó" is a colloquial term in Venezuela used to describe those who launch a dare and then excuse themselves.
1) CEDICE = Center to Divulge Economical Knowledge (Centro de Divulgación del Conocimiento Económico)
-The end-
This week CEDICE (1) in Venezuela held a symposium on occasion of its 25th anniversary. So it invited intellectuals, economists and politicians of the Liberal wing of Latin America to participate. NOTE: the is NOT Liberal in the US sense but Liberal as in the rest of the world sense, that is free markets, capitalism, democracy, etc, something that does not apply even to the US GOP fully as the US is in its politics as well as its sports, unique... Let's use the term neo-liberal to simplify things, very different from neo-con, though neo-liberal does not describe the CEDICE attendance in full.
So far so good, except that chavismo quickly showed how upset it was at CEDICE being able to gather so many prominent figures of neo-liberalism, or not (Vargas Llosa, Krause and Castañeda among other luminaries). Quickly we saw an amazingly discombobulated Vanessa Davies alerting the Venezuelan people about all the lies that would be said at the CEDICE symposium. Apparently only the Latin American left is allowed to proselytize everywhere....
I will pass on the details, like the harassment at the airport of such figures as Mario Vargas Llosa, ex runner up Peruvian presidential candidate, on the short list for the next Nobel Literature Prize for Latin America, author of the "Fiesta del Chivo" about the demise of the Trujillo dictatorship and thus a "bête noire" of the Chavez regime.
Chavez in his 4 days marathon Alo Presidente challenged the intellectuals attending the CEDICE event to come to his Alo Presidente and debate ideas. CEDICE thought for a while and accepted the debate but on one condition: it will be held between Mario Vargas Llosa and Chavez himself, in equal conditions of time and responses. After all as Castañeda pointed out a day earlier, to debate underlings of Chavez he does not need to come to Venezuela, he can find them anywhere. And he is right, as the occasional appearance of a PSF brings to this blog: experience showed that debating extensively PSF is a waste of time, so for people way more involved than Castañeda I can understand that debating, say, Monedero or Ramonet is simply not worth his time while in Venezuela. Surely he will bump into them someday at home or elsewhere with more leisure.
The reply of Chavez was rather quick and I saw it almost within minutes from CEDICE announcement, live on TV. He replied from his running Alo Presidente, mocking CEDICE and eventually reaching extreme lameness by saying that he was not in the same league as Mario Vargas Llosa. I agree with Chavez, all that Mario Vargas Llosa is he owes it to his work, his mind, his intellect and his genuine life experience with the necessary evolutions included in the life of someone who has functioning neurons. Chavez is stuck in a time warp and anything that he thinks he can boast of he got it solely on one merit: getting the Venezuelan people to entrust him with the key of the vault so Chavez could spend the last ten years buying sycophantic good will.
Let's not be afraid of words: Chavez run scared and refused the debate with Vargas Llosa, not even as a private meeting at Miraflores that Vargas Llosa would have probably accepted, even posing for a picture that would have benefited more Chavez than Vargas Llosa as smartly observed by "el ciudadano".
But see, after so many years of being surrounded by sycophants that laugh at any of his stupid jokes or inane vulgarity, Chavez is simply afraid to be in a real debate, with equal opportunities for both sides. Just as the PSF here refuse to debate in a format where all participants are limited to three entries to make a single point. They prefer to write elsewhere that this blog is not worth reading, their right of course though I will observe that I do publish my ratings while they do not publish theirs in case they want to compare "leagues" as their beloved leader.
When free insults, when intimidation are not tools that can be used by chavistas, they simply back down and run as Chavez did tonight. Just as it happened a few days ago when the Presidents of the UCV and Simon Bolivar University were greeted with a heckling mob at the ministry of universities where a dialogue was supposed to be held; just as the dissident students where entrapped at the Nazional Assembly summer 2007. In each case, as well as others, the only reply was to walk out or refuse to go. Chavistas can only "discuss" when they control all and thus can drown any uncomfortable truth with crowd screams. The coward method.
PS: closing this post we find the interview that CNN did to Vargas Llosa after the Chavez put down attempt. With video included, but in Spanish, sorry. The dignity of Vargas Llosa compared to the truculence of Chavez is just amazing. Not to mention that Vargas Llosa showed that Chavez lied once again about his passport. By the way Vargas Llosa reminds us that Chavez NEVER debated anyone, that he is ALWAYS as a monologue, even an autistic one (dixit Vargas Llosa).
PS2: "arrugó" is a colloquial term in Venezuela used to describe those who launch a dare and then excuse themselves.
1) CEDICE = Center to Divulge Economical Knowledge (Centro de Divulgación del Conocimiento Económico)
-The end-
Friday, September 05, 2008
Unenlightened Venezuelans
I was going to write last night a fascinating post about the battles between UNT and PJ overt the control of local politics, but paraphrasing Laureano Marquez in Tal Cual today, the lights went out last night in San Felipe, for almost an hour. By the time light came back it was for me to stand up and turn off what I had missed, and back to bed. Fortunately Luareano's cartoon in today's Tal Cual gave me a fast post for your entertainment.
As a supplement of this, for those who read Spanish I will recommend an editorial of Gustavo Coronel in Petroleum World which will explain to you briefly why the electric distribution in Venezuela is so catastrophic now.
And I will refer you to yet another article of Tal Cual, the back page, where you can read Chavez explanation on why we are left in the dark, more and more often. (Note: lat night I was thankful because voltage went down for a bout 5 minutes before the lights went out, and thus I had plenty of time to get my torch candles and matches ready.) But since my readers are busy people and most do not have a Tal Cual access I will summarize: it is all the fault of the 4th republic as no new thermal plants has been built since 1984. What has Chavez been doing for his ten years tenure is a mystery for all, but it is certainly not because of his diffidence that we are left in the dark. Well, a few more outages by November 23 and we will see who is left in the dark this time.
Or as the cartoon above says, we ALL suffer from power outage, chavistas and anti chavistas alike, with special notice to those who must replace their appliances after one power outage too many. For all of us, hearing chavez saying that we should turn off our lights and avoid waste is just a plain mockery when our refrigerator is on the fritz.....
-The end-
As a supplement of this, for those who read Spanish I will recommend an editorial of Gustavo Coronel in Petroleum World which will explain to you briefly why the electric distribution in Venezuela is so catastrophic now.
And I will refer you to yet another article of Tal Cual, the back page, where you can read Chavez explanation on why we are left in the dark, more and more often. (Note: lat night I was thankful because voltage went down for a bout 5 minutes before the lights went out, and thus I had plenty of time to get my torch candles and matches ready.) But since my readers are busy people and most do not have a Tal Cual access I will summarize: it is all the fault of the 4th republic as no new thermal plants has been built since 1984. What has Chavez been doing for his ten years tenure is a mystery for all, but it is certainly not because of his diffidence that we are left in the dark. Well, a few more outages by November 23 and we will see who is left in the dark this time.
Or as the cartoon above says, we ALL suffer from power outage, chavistas and anti chavistas alike, with special notice to those who must replace their appliances after one power outage too many. For all of us, hearing chavez saying that we should turn off our lights and avoid waste is just a plain mockery when our refrigerator is on the fritz.....
-The end-
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Chavez Olympic failure
The Olympics are over and awarded one cardboard medal to Chavez. He has started trying to pass the buck around, but from an editorial today in Tal Cual to the justified claims of some returning athletes who dared to speak against the ways sports are dealt with in Venezuela we know he has once again messed up big time. Should we be surprised? Did we not know that the chavista administration is improvisation everywhere, as we saw it clearly in the organization of the soccer event of last year with stadiums that are yet to be completed as I type.
In all fairness the Venezuela medal industry has always been deficient. See, organizing sporting venues and offering a decade long commitment to promising athletes is just beyond the grasp of the multiple populist governments that have ruled us since the 70ies. Sports where considered as something that you throw a lot of money at one year to expect results the next. Unfortunately it does not work like that: behind successful athletes all around the world there is much more than the athletes, there is the family, the facilities, the coaches, the public support, the government help as far as possible. There is a country behind any successful athlete, as Milagros Socorro reminded us in El Nacional ten days ago. In Venezuela athletes have been most of the times left on their own, the most successful ones usually finding ways to train overseas. Morochito Rodriguez winning our lone gold medal ever, in Mexico games, is also the rare example of an athlete home grown, in boxing, where there is some money.
Organizing any type of sustained activity in Venezuela is quite difficult and I experienced it myself. When I moved back form the States I tried to join the local Masters swim team. I was coming from 3 to 4 times a week training where all in all I was doing up to 10 Km a week. Well, for three years I battled all, dirty pools, lack of coaching, unfair schedules, general apathy, endless meetings that lead nowhere. But the most vexing part was that the pool had always priority for all sort of "events" of dubious value except for its social and or political component. Still, I could have dealt with it had I been properly warned. But no: how often did I make it to the pool, all ready to jump, to be told that no, no more training for so many days. And this happens, I'll bet anything, to much larger scale, for Olympic athletes, with worse consequences. Does anyone remember when Acosta Carles was sworn in governor of Carabobo 4 years ago and took away the about to the inaugurated special center for sports training and health to turn it over to the "people needs"? Just like that, as if youth and athletes were not also people with needs?
We would have expected that Chavez, after ten years in office, with the help of so many Cuban trainers that are sent to us as a meager payment of all the oil we give them nearly for free, would have managed, even if just for propaganda purposes, to create some sport program that would deliver half a dozen medals. No? No!
And yet Chavez had high hopes. We had been submitted to incessant propaganda abotu "oro a la revolucion deportiva" (gold to the sports revolution). Sports authorities boldly predicted our largest harvest ever in Beijing. And we had to settle for a Tae Kwon Do girl, getting almost by luck the bronze medal. I say by luck, not to diminish her abilities at all, but to underline that she was not one of the favorites. As far as I know, this Olympics delegation, at least as far as officials were concerned, was tourism at tax payer expenses. We even saw the governor of Guarico accompanying the Guarico delegation, I kid you not, as if Guarico was a delegation distinct from the Venezuelan one. Was the governor of, say, Nebraska at Beijing, at tax payer expenses?
Under Chavez, even if the need of propaganda is taken into account, we have had yet another huge failure, where Olympics is just an excuse for the multi layered bureaucracy to get a junket trip around the globe. Revolution? Where? Corruption and lies? Everywhere!
--- --- --- --- --- --- ---
I was curious to see if I could calculate in any way the failure of chavismo. I came up with the following table. In this table I took into account the winnings of the countries in this area of the world, that is South of the Rio Grande, including the Caribbean.
The first column is the number of medals won (gold, silver and bronze together), the second the population of the country (all data next is form the CIA world book, friends and foes alike), the third column the GDP per capita, and jumping two columns, the number of athletes included int eh delegation (that is, those who had enough merits to qualify to an Olympics game). With these numbers I tried to create some "parameters" in order to evaluate how efficient a country is in training athletes and getting medals, according to its relative size in the world.
The fifth column is the easy one, medals per million people. Of course the winner is Jamaica and Mexico the last one, but Venezuela next to last (the order of the countries, from most efficient to least efficient comes from the last column).
The sixth column calculates the number of medals per billion GDP. That is, an attempt to see whether the GDP of a third world country (all are third world) affect the repartition of medals. surprisingly the order is not really altered though the spread is much more restrained. Clearly, the wealth of a third world country is not a definite indicator as to the potential of that country to win medals. Yet, Venezuela is dead last!
Then I calculated the number of medals per athlete that was sent to see if the size of the group had any bearing on the final medal count. Clearly the spread that we observe in the column before last indicates that that the number of medals won has nothing to do with the size of the delegation. Venezuela, by the way, is dead last again, clearly establishing that the 101 athletes did not deserve all their tickets (I look at the general score and they are far from impressive in general).
And then I came up with a general efficacy index. For this I added up columns 6 and 8 (medals per billion and medals per athlete) and multiplied this by the number in column 5 (medals per million people). For example for Jamaica it would be 3.92*(0,51 + 0,44) = 3,725 (note: my Venezuelan excel gives coma for point, sorry). Now, of course, I have no idea of the validity of such a measure, but as a first approximation of efficacy we do get a coefficient that will ponder the value of medals per athlete.
The result is quite clear, Venezuela is dead last, with the Caribbean Basin countries, Anglo or Hispanic, the only countries worth mentioning. At least, for Chavez discharge, our neighbors south of us did barely better as we see that the 15 medals of Brazil really are not that impressive, at least according to thsi index. Does any one care to calculate the Chinese and the US sports efficacy index?
-The end-
In all fairness the Venezuela medal industry has always been deficient. See, organizing sporting venues and offering a decade long commitment to promising athletes is just beyond the grasp of the multiple populist governments that have ruled us since the 70ies. Sports where considered as something that you throw a lot of money at one year to expect results the next. Unfortunately it does not work like that: behind successful athletes all around the world there is much more than the athletes, there is the family, the facilities, the coaches, the public support, the government help as far as possible. There is a country behind any successful athlete, as Milagros Socorro reminded us in El Nacional ten days ago. In Venezuela athletes have been most of the times left on their own, the most successful ones usually finding ways to train overseas. Morochito Rodriguez winning our lone gold medal ever, in Mexico games, is also the rare example of an athlete home grown, in boxing, where there is some money.
Organizing any type of sustained activity in Venezuela is quite difficult and I experienced it myself. When I moved back form the States I tried to join the local Masters swim team. I was coming from 3 to 4 times a week training where all in all I was doing up to 10 Km a week. Well, for three years I battled all, dirty pools, lack of coaching, unfair schedules, general apathy, endless meetings that lead nowhere. But the most vexing part was that the pool had always priority for all sort of "events" of dubious value except for its social and or political component. Still, I could have dealt with it had I been properly warned. But no: how often did I make it to the pool, all ready to jump, to be told that no, no more training for so many days. And this happens, I'll bet anything, to much larger scale, for Olympic athletes, with worse consequences. Does anyone remember when Acosta Carles was sworn in governor of Carabobo 4 years ago and took away the about to the inaugurated special center for sports training and health to turn it over to the "people needs"? Just like that, as if youth and athletes were not also people with needs?
We would have expected that Chavez, after ten years in office, with the help of so many Cuban trainers that are sent to us as a meager payment of all the oil we give them nearly for free, would have managed, even if just for propaganda purposes, to create some sport program that would deliver half a dozen medals. No? No!
And yet Chavez had high hopes. We had been submitted to incessant propaganda abotu "oro a la revolucion deportiva" (gold to the sports revolution). Sports authorities boldly predicted our largest harvest ever in Beijing. And we had to settle for a Tae Kwon Do girl, getting almost by luck the bronze medal. I say by luck, not to diminish her abilities at all, but to underline that she was not one of the favorites. As far as I know, this Olympics delegation, at least as far as officials were concerned, was tourism at tax payer expenses. We even saw the governor of Guarico accompanying the Guarico delegation, I kid you not, as if Guarico was a delegation distinct from the Venezuelan one. Was the governor of, say, Nebraska at Beijing, at tax payer expenses?
Under Chavez, even if the need of propaganda is taken into account, we have had yet another huge failure, where Olympics is just an excuse for the multi layered bureaucracy to get a junket trip around the globe. Revolution? Where? Corruption and lies? Everywhere!
--- --- --- --- --- --- ---
I was curious to see if I could calculate in any way the failure of chavismo. I came up with the following table. In this table I took into account the winnings of the countries in this area of the world, that is South of the Rio Grande, including the Caribbean.
The first column is the number of medals won (gold, silver and bronze together), the second the population of the country (all data next is form the CIA world book, friends and foes alike), the third column the GDP per capita, and jumping two columns, the number of athletes included int eh delegation (that is, those who had enough merits to qualify to an Olympics game). With these numbers I tried to create some "parameters" in order to evaluate how efficient a country is in training athletes and getting medals, according to its relative size in the world.
The fifth column is the easy one, medals per million people. Of course the winner is Jamaica and Mexico the last one, but Venezuela next to last (the order of the countries, from most efficient to least efficient comes from the last column).
The sixth column calculates the number of medals per billion GDP. That is, an attempt to see whether the GDP of a third world country (all are third world) affect the repartition of medals. surprisingly the order is not really altered though the spread is much more restrained. Clearly, the wealth of a third world country is not a definite indicator as to the potential of that country to win medals. Yet, Venezuela is dead last!
Then I calculated the number of medals per athlete that was sent to see if the size of the group had any bearing on the final medal count. Clearly the spread that we observe in the column before last indicates that that the number of medals won has nothing to do with the size of the delegation. Venezuela, by the way, is dead last again, clearly establishing that the 101 athletes did not deserve all their tickets (I look at the general score and they are far from impressive in general).
And then I came up with a general efficacy index. For this I added up columns 6 and 8 (medals per billion and medals per athlete) and multiplied this by the number in column 5 (medals per million people). For example for Jamaica it would be 3.92*(0,51 + 0,44) = 3,725 (note: my Venezuelan excel gives coma for point, sorry). Now, of course, I have no idea of the validity of such a measure, but as a first approximation of efficacy we do get a coefficient that will ponder the value of medals per athlete.
The result is quite clear, Venezuela is dead last, with the Caribbean Basin countries, Anglo or Hispanic, the only countries worth mentioning. At least, for Chavez discharge, our neighbors south of us did barely better as we see that the 15 medals of Brazil really are not that impressive, at least according to thsi index. Does any one care to calculate the Chinese and the US sports efficacy index?
-The end-
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)