The Devil's Excrement

The Queen of Venezuelan orchids Cattleya Lueddemanniana has begun flowering, check out these wonderful pictures of the first two plants that have flowered in my house.

The Queen of Venezuelan orchids Cattleya Lueddemanniana has begun flowering, check out these wonderful pictures of the first two plants that have flowered in my house.

Have done lots of reading in the last couple of days. Some interesting articles;

Article in the New York Times about a program in Brazil, Mexico and other countries whereby parents are paid by the Government to have their kids go to school. The program seems to be a success. Venezuela had a program called “la beca escolar” but it was tied to the kid being registered to school not actually for attending, like in these programs. This program was created in 1990 and eliminated by Hugo Chavez for reasons that nobody really understands.

Two great speeches by Michael Crichton which I learn about via Instapundit. The first one is extremely good and is called “Aliens cause Global Warming” and it is about how bad science or science that is not proven get a lot of play if properly “sold” for political reasons and many become standard fare in the media. The second one is about the amount of unsubstantiated speculation in the media which is useless and unjustified. Reading the first article made me realize that if bad science can get so much play because of political interests, then there is very little hope that good economics will get the required attention from politicians that are just trying to get their hands on power. I find politicians here (Pro and against Chavez) have or have had very little interest in economics. To most of them economics is not even in the top five of their priorities and most of them truly believe that they can improvise economic policy and that economics is closer to art than science. In any case, Mr. Crichton proves that he is not only a great fiction writer, but also a thinker. Enjoy!

Have done lots of reading in the last couple of days. Some interesting articles;

Article in the New York Times about a program in Brazil, Mexico and other countries whereby parents are paid by the Government to have their kids go to school. The program seems to be a success. Venezuela had a program called “la beca escolar” but it was tied to the kid being registered to school not actually for attending, like in these programs. This program was created in 1990 and eliminated by Hugo Chavez for reasons that nobody really understands.

Two great speeches by Michael Crichton which I learn about via Instapundit. The first one is extremely good and is called “Aliens cause Global Warming” and it is about how bad science or science that is not proven get a lot of play if properly “sold” for political reasons and many become standard fare in the media. The second one is about the amount of unsubstantiated speculation in the media which is useless and unjustified. Reading the first article made me realize that if bad science can get so much play because of political interests, then there is very little hope that good economics will get the required attention from politicians that are just trying to get their hands on power. I find politicians here (Pro and against Chavez) have or have had very little interest in economics. To most of them economics is not even in the top five of their priorities and most of them truly believe that they can improvise economic policy and that economics is closer to art than science. In any case, Mr. Crichton proves that he is not only a great fiction writer, but also a thinker. Enjoy!

This is a literal translation of the beginning of Hugo Chavez’ Sunday program “Alo Presidente” last Sunday:

“I am leaving. I have decided to advance 2021. This Alo Presidente! Is to say goodbye to all of you ladies and gentlemen. I have my hammock here. I have come to Barinas because today I will resign from the Presidency. Jose Vicente Rangel, you take charge of the Presidency and I will stay here under the shadow of a tree. Chao, pescao (something like see you later, alligator!)…….This is my joke of the day of the innocent saint’s day (our equivalent of April fool’s)

Can he get more tasteless than this?

Last week I reported on the lack of transparency of the attempt to sell the 50% that PDVSA owns in the Ruhr refinery in Germany. Essentially, a letter of intent was signed with Russian group Alfa Group. This group will due the due diligence and afterwards a price will be agreed upon. Well, I find out yesterday that PDVSA’s second in command Aires Barreto, who retired three years ago from PDVSA and was brought back in 2002 to the company, actually went to work for this group when he retired from PDVSA. Is this a coincidence or what? Another interesting fact is that prior to this anyone retiring from PDVSA was never allowed to come back to the company. The reason was simple, in this manner those that were passed over for promotion and retired would not spend their time lobbying to get back when changes were later made at the company. Another achievement of the “people’s PDVSA”

And since we are on the subject of oil, Luis Marin, the president of CITGO was asked at a press conference two days ago if the company was for sale. Marin said that it was not, that CITGO was profitable and giving good dividends to the company. Well, the current President f PDVSA Ali Rodriguez and Chavez did nothing but criticize when they were in the opposition, why Venezuela even needed to own CITGO. Both questioned why the company had made these investments that lost money abroad, instead of investing it in Venezuela where our citizens would benefit. Moreover, I know for a fact (or here) that in March of 2003, PDVSA was shopping CITGO around but was unable to find a buyer. The reason for this is simple; CITGO’s operations are an extremely good match to the country’s oil production profile. The only other country that could be interested in it would be Nigeria.