The Devil's Excrement

CNE: National Fraud Commission                   Chavez look at yourself in thismirror if there is no recall.

JR: Listen to your father’s voice and the people’s Recall now!   CNE: Thiefs you stole my right

Two good pictures from yesterday’s march sent in by Maruja. On the top left, the statue of goddess Maria Lionza, with a sign that says ‘Take him away”. On the right a lady with a sign that says “Chavez your days are signed”

Efrain Vasquez Velazco, a key General in the events of April 11, 2002 is interviewed in today’s Tal Cual. Given that he played such a key role in what are still obscure aspects of that day, it is interesting to hear what he has to say:

On Lucas Rincon announcing that Chavez had resigned:

“..he is a serious and introverted officer. In the time I knew him, he did not characterize himself for being a person that kidded around. On the contrary…He said the truth. When Lucas announced that the Chiefs of Staff had asked Chavez for his resignation and that he had accepted it, he revealed a great truth. What I don’t understand is how he remains in Government”

-How do you explain that?

Chavez is a manipulator and knows each person’s price. He knows that he has to have very close to him the person that asked for his resignation so that he does not reconsider and confesses the truth. Similarly, General Rincon, despite the fact that deep in me I ma convinced that he is a person of good faith and principles, he as allowed himself to be manipulated by the President.

-What was your great error during the events of Aril 2002?

When I analyze the events of April 11^th. I conclude that the Army did not make any mistakes. …I acted like a military officer and not like a politician. Many people wanted a coup to materialize, nevertheless, if we did something right was not to have a coup and stick to the Constitution. April 11^th. was a historical deed for the Army, a President orders the Army to attack the people and we said no preserving democracy and human rights.

Carmona tried to step over the Constitution that the military had tried to preserve and we stopped him. People ask why there was no state of siege; the answer is that it was not a coup. We can not use our weapons against the people.

-Would history be different if Carmona had named you Minister of Defense?

No, because history is different because of the decree.  That nomination did not have an influence in me, because the General Commander of the Army is the most important position there is. The Minister of Defense is just an administrative position.

My comments: I am surprised he speaks well of Lucas Rincon despite his behavior since.  I am not sure what he means by “we stopped him” when he refers to Carmona. He is quite emphatic about Chavez ordering the Army to attack the people…

Brazil has a tragic accident in its shoe string space program while ignorant Venezuelan science and technology officials “launch” a National Space Agency which will supposedly study what has been studied in Venezuela at the Fundacion Instituto de Ingenieria since the 1980’s when I was working there and promises even more in an effort to save money. According to the Minister, in its initial stage satellite images will be used to study fertile lands in Venezuela and launching satellites will be done in later stages. Sounds like the wheel is being rediscovered. But the really surprising announcement is “If there was the possibility that Venezuela had its own satellite technology, we would save enormous amounts of money”. Now, this is a really stupid statement, Venezuela does not even spend that big amount on money in buying images available, from French, US and Russian sources and even if we did, the cost of training personnel alone and attracting it afterwards to work in Venezuela would probably be more than what is spent today. Moreover, to hear this from the Government that destroyed the premier research group in the world on heavy oil crudes sounds so cynical and stupid. Venezuela had the people in the late seventies and eighties to start (only start!) ambitious projects like these, most of them are gone, emigrated either abroad or (like me) simply switched fields and stayed in the country. Today, there has been little advanced training in engineering and related fields in areas other than computer science. Furthermore, most of those that did receive the training have left the country either because of the low salaries or the lack of funding for their activities. I simply can not imagine a Government that criticized paying highly skilled oil workers $50-60,000 a year, willing to spend even higher amounts to attract good Venezuelan scientific talent. I wonder if the first satellite will be called Stupidnic. 

I usually don’t like to gloat about my blog; somehow its success seems to be proportional to the temporary magnitude of the Venezuelan political crisis and nothing else. But I can not help but feel proud about the fact that the Orchids section of my blog has now been recognized three times by major publications. A few months ago, Susan Jones wrote an article for the monthly magazine of the American Orchid Society, which appeared in November in which my blog and an orchid blog from Canada were noted. Well, this week, as my PC died, the blog section of the U.K. newspaper The Guardian mentioned my blog as “Top blog” on Jan. 22^nd. Here is a copy (strangely enough, once a new top blog is picked the reference to the old one disappears, but Goggle saves the day!):

Then yesterday the Providence Journal, which I actually read for baseball news, adds me to their garden blogs page!!, calling my pictures stunning.

Very Cool! So relax a little and look at those pictures…

I usually don’t like to gloat about my blog; somehow its success seems to be proportional to the temporary magnitude of the Venezuelan political crisis and nothing else. But I can not help but feel proud about the fact that the Orchids section of my blog has now been recognized three times by major publications. A few months ago, Susan Jones wrote an article for the monthly magazine of the American Orchid Society, which appeared in November in which my blog and an orchid blog from Canada were noted. Well, this week, as my PC died, the blog section of the U.K. newspaper The Guardian mentioned my blog as “Top blog” on Jan. 22^nd. Here is a copy (strangely enough, once a new top blog is picked the reference to the old one disappears, but Goggle saves the day!):

Then yesterday the Providence Journal, which I actually read for baseball news, adds me to their garden blogs page!!, calling my pictures stunning.

Very Cool! So relax a little and look at those pictures…

I have posted in the orchid section pictures of one of the most spectacular orchid plants there is, you should go take a look, it is simply unbelievable.

Given the piece and quiet I will take advantage of it and talk about Venezuelan things that people may know little about. I will start with GEGO a famous Venezuelan artist. A good friend gave me as a Christmas present a new book about the life and works of Venezuelan artist GEGO. The book is absolutely spectacular and beautiful (my friend is one of the authors) more so given the fact that I love GEGO’s work.

Most Venezuelans hardly even know who GEGO is. Her real name was Gertrud Goldschmidt. Born in Hamburg, GEGO had to escape the Nazi persecution of the Jews. In 1938, she graduated as an architect-engineer in Stuttgart and left for London where she got a job offer for Venezuela. She got married soon after arriving here and had a shop in the 40’s where she made furniture and lamps, much needed, given the lack of imports due to the war. She divorces her first husband and her artistic career begins when she meets another immigrant from Lithuania named Gerd Leufert in 1952. She moves to a tiny town in the Coast near Caracas and begins her career in earnest. She is best known for her three dimensional sculptures. Geometric and non geometric structures which I have always found extremely appealing. I am no expert on GEGO, but her geometric sculptures can be divided into two stages. The first one corresponds to highly symmetrical sculptures. The second to more irregular geometrical figures. In 1969, she designs Reticularea a full room sculpture made from wires and through which one can wander through. While most Venezuelans don’t even know her, her work can be seen in many buildings around Caracas, like in the  Cediaz shopping center, Paseo Las Mercedes, Parque Central, IVIC, Banco Industrial de Venezuela and INCE. Slowly, GEGO is becoming more and more famous worldwide, with some of her sculptures now topping US$ 100,000. Her work is now present in most major Modern Art Museums. Her family still owns most of her works which I think adds to the current mystique surrounding her work. Below are some examples of her work I found in the net, including the famous Reticularea. You can see some more of her work in the Web, like Dibujos sin Papel , read more about her here or here or here. While not born in Venezuela, GEGO developed her artistic career here and benefited from the boom in art and architecture in Venezuela during the fifties and sixties.

Two Views of the room size Reticularea

Sphere #4                                                 Square Reticularea #6

Chorros                                       Drawing without Paper

Given the piece and quiet I will take advantage of it and talk about Venezuelan things that people may know little about. I will start with GEGO a famous Venezuelan artist. A good friend gave me as a Christmas present a new book about the life and works of Venezuelan artist GEGO. The book is absolutely spectacular and beautiful (my friend is one of the authors) more so given the fact that I love GEGO’s work.

Most Venezuelans hardly even know who GEGO is. Her real name was Gertrud Goldschmidt. Born in Hamburg, GEGO had to escape the Nazi persecution of the Jews. In 1938, she graduated as an architect-engineer in Stuttgart and left for London where she got a job offer for Venezuela. She got married soon after arriving here and had a shop in the 40’s where she made furniture and lamps, much needed, given the lack of imports due to the war. She divorces her first husband and her artistic career begins when she meets another immigrant from Lithuania named Gerd Leufert in 1952. She moves to a tiny town in the Coast near Caracas and begins her career in earnest. She is best known for her three dimensional sculptures. Geometric and non geometric structures which I have always found extremely appealing. I am no expert on GEGO, but her geometric sculptures can be divided into two stages. The first one corresponds to highly symmetrical sculptures. The second to more irregular geometrical figures. In 1969, she designs Reticularea a full room sculpture made from wires and through which one can wander through. While most Venezuelans don’t even know her, her work can be seen in many buildings around Caracas, like in the  Cediaz shopping center, Paseo Las Mercedes, Parque Central, IVIC, Banco Industrial de Venezuela and INCE. Slowly, GEGO is becoming more and more famous worldwide, with some of her sculptures now topping US$ 100,000. Her work is now present in most major Modern Art Museums. Her family still owns most of her works which I think adds to the current mystique surrounding her work. Below are some examples of her work I found in the net, including the famous Reticularea. You can see some more of her work in the Web, like Dibujos sin Papel , read more about her here or here or here. While not born in Venezuela, GEGO developed her artistic career here and benefited from the boom in art and architecture in Venezuela during the fifties and sixties.

Two Views of the room size Reticularea

Sphere #4                                                 Square Reticularea #6

Chorros                                       Drawing without Paper

Pro-Chavez forces are once again trying to throw a stumbling block in the path of the referendum, this time by asking that the CNE digitize and check all of the fingerprints gathered with the petition in late December. Of course, if this was required, the process would not be completed before August as the CNE does not have either the equipment nor the know how required to do this. This has never been required in any Venzuelan election or in the two referenda held in 2000 to change and approve the new Constitution. To those that keep questioning whether the opposition has or not the required votes, I ask: If that were so, why not just have the referendum, beat the opposition and get it over with? The answer, to me, is quite obvious.