Archive for October 21st, 2007

Some straight forward questions on the legality of the proposed Constitutional reform

October 21, 2007

Questions on the Constitutional reform that no rational person can answer the way Chavismo pretends to do it:
 
—Don’t
the redefinitions of the Republic as a Socialist State, which now will
be a centralized one and the indefinite reelection, imply fundamental
changes to the Constitution, which require a Constituent Assembly (see Art. 342)?
 
—Since
25 new articles were not part of the first and second discussions of
the proposed reform, as they were introduced after the second
discussion, doesn’t this mean that they have to go back and begin the
process with a first discussion (see Art. 343)?
 
—The
original argument to why the reform should be voted as a block, was
that Chavez’ proposal was a single unit and could thus not be voted in
parts. Doesn’t this mean that now that the Assembly has introduced 25
new and separate articles that argument is no longer valid?
 
—Since the Constitution guarantees the “progressivity” of human rights (Art. 19), i.e. no right can be reduced, can the reform of Art. 337 be legal?
 
Given
these four items, isn’t the proposed Constitutional reform totally and
absolutely illegal and thus constitutes a coup de etat against the
current Constitution, using the favorite language of Chavismo?

Random things, all read today…

October 21, 2007

Random quotes read today, a very rainy day in Caracas:
 
—“Decree:
 
Unique Article
 
Let
it be declared starting today a state of exception in all of the
territory of the Republic, assuming this Junta the quality of Commander
in Chief which will operate the emergency.”
 
Signed Augusto Pinochet, September 18th. 1973. The rest the deaths, the tortures and the disappearances is, as they say, history.
 
—“In
the terrible history of famines in the world, no substantial famine has
ever occurred in any independent an democratic country with a
relatively free press. We cannot find exceptions to this rule, no
matter where we look”
 
Amartya San, Nobel Prize in Economics.
 
—“The
data points to three important characteristics influencing growth: (1)
the extent of competition domestically, and, especially for developing
nations, the extent of country’s openness to trade and its integration
with the rest of the world; (2) the quality of a country’s institutions
that make an economy work, and (3) the success of its policy makers in
implementing measures necessary for macroeconomic stability.”
 
Alan Greenspan in “The Age of Turbulence”
 
—“I
was particularly distressed by evidence that despite the indisputably
bad economic outcomes of populist policies undertaken by almost all
Latin American governments at one time or another since the end of
World War II, these results had not seemed to dampen the impulse to
resort to economic populism.”
 
Alan Greenspan in “The Age of Turbulence”
 
—“We are drowning in the Devil’s Excrement”
 
Juan Pablo Perez Alfonso, 1975

More flowers from Eduardo

October 21, 2007

Eduardo sent these a while ago, but have not had time to post and I lost the names, but here are my guesses:

Sprays of Cycnoches and others in this overview of Eduardo’s orchid house. On the right Vanda Sanderiana.

On the right a Cycnoches Winde Delight

Cattleya Percivaliana on the left.

Two nice Catsetums