The Devil's Excrement

Blogging is at best and obsession, at worst a labor of love. In this almost six years, I have freely devoted my time (or obsession) to write it. Only twice have I received compensation in any form for it. In 2007, when I won the blogging award, a reader who came to visit from the US brought me a bottle of wine as a symbolic gift for the award.

This week, two readers, one a relative, sent me three packages of real, actual, unique, pure, unadulterated white corn flower for my arepas in response to my recent post.

I must be now in the upper income bracket for Venezuelan bloggers.

For which I will remain eternally grateful…

WARNING: This is NOT one of those very educated posts about swapping (rates), unstructured notes, solidity and celestial bonds for which you need a Ph.D. in Economics and Subatomic Physics. This is a much simpler and yet
effective method that this DDGB (Devoted and Distinguished Ghost Blogger) is proposing to drastically reduce the inflation in Venezuela. The conclusions at the end are irrefutable and MUCH simpler than any of Miguel’s convoluted analysis.

The background:

Ultimas Noticias is a popular high circulation tabloid that has maintained a rather uncritical role with
respect to the Goverment. As a result, it has earned the trust of the Revolution and a
lucrative supply of goverment advertising.

Once in a while, however, even Ultimas Noticias exposes some of the
negative realities that are touching its readers, such as inflation.

The story:

On Saturday, May 3, UN headlines was “in Mercal prices have inflated.” The headline specifically
mentioned that milk prices were raised from “4.70 BsF to 8.00 BsF (70% more)”.

On Sunday, May 4, in Alo Presidente, Chavez had some harsh words about
Ulltimas Noticias.

He said that the information was false, that milk was still costing 4.70 BsF
and that UN should retract if they still wanted to have their respect. He also mentioned that
the Capriles family, that owns Ultimas Noticias, were oligarchs.

The new developments:

The next day (May 5), when the Ultimas Noticias journalist visited a Mercal, the inflation had
vanished: the President WAS right, the cost of the milk was still 4.70 BsF.

Unfortunately for Chavez, Ultimas Noticias did not retract….
when the journalist went to the Mercal, she also saw some customers waiting
in line asking for a reimbursement for the difference in the price of milk.

As a matter of fact, they had paid 8BsF for the milk a few days before.

The journalist took a picture of the receipt and the picture was put it in the May 6 Ultimas Noticias’
frontpage with the headline: the milk price had indeed been 8BsF.

The observation:

In a matter of a few days, the price of milk went down from 8 to 4 BsF.

The Conclusion:

Why bother about inflation?

Just publish prices in the front page of Ultimas Noticias!

Jorge Arena
Most Distinguished Ghost.

P.D.
Last minute news:

The Minister of food just said that the price of Milk is still 4.70 BsF and that it was due to
a technical failure that the milk was sold at 8 BsF. He said that thanks to Ultimas
Noticias headline he inmediately realized the technical problem and fixed it.

The corollary of the post

Publishing prices in UN not only contains inflation but it also helps the goverment improve
its IT system.

A picture is worth 1000 economic explanations. Unfortunately I cannot copy the amazing picture
here, but I refer to Quico’s blog.

Only in Venezuela.

(posted by Bruni)

Maybe the blog is recuperating, I wonder how I did that… I must be a genius or something…

This Blog is having technical problems. It is also blocked in china.

When you think you have heard it all, here comes our beloved new Minister of the Interior and Justice who says:

The kidnappings in the border region of Venezuela may be:

—Common Criminals

—Members of the Venezuelan’s police forces

But the FARC? No, no way, says Rodriguez Chacin. It’s just not their style.

So now you know, when it comes to kidnappings, it’s anyone but the FARC.

Next?  I guess Chavez asks the Vatican for Marulanda’s or Tirofijo’s sainthood…

Moises Naim, who was Minister of Development from 1989 to 1992, is
Editor of Foreign Policy and wrote the book “Illicit: How drug smugglers,
traffickers and copycats are hijacking the Global Economy”
wrote the article below in Madrid’s El Pais about how Venezuela is becoming a
center for globalized criminal activity thanks to corruption and the lack of
enforcement. This is another achievement of the robolution that is actually
hard to understand: How Chavez has simply ignored crime and corruption and
allowed it to grow uncontrolled during his nine years in office. Given his
military background and the goodwill with which he arrived in office I actually
thought these would be two areas where there may be progress. I was very wrong,
as corruption has proliferated and crime has tripled since Chavez took office. This
permissiveness has also propelled the country into the ranks of most favored
nation for international criminal syndicates as Dr. Naim so clearly explains
below:

The hidden history of Venezuela by Moises Naim

As the world debates between horror and admiration, the changes that Hugo Chavez is imposing in Venezuela, other
transformations less visible but equally profound are taking place in that
country. Venezuela
has become a major center of operations for the criminal networks that operate
internationally. What most attracts these foreign traffickers of Venezuela is
not the local markets; what they love are the excellent conditions offered as a
basis for managing their criminals businesses. Crossroads between South
America, the Caribbean, North America and Europe, the Venezuela’s location
is ideal. Borders? Long, depopulated and porous. It’s financial system? Large
and easy to evade government controls for those who need it.
Telecommunications, ports and airports? The best that oil can buy. Levels of
corruption of politicians, soldiers, judges and policemen? Venezuela occupies a
shameful position at number 162 on the list of Transparency International,
which ranks 179 countries according to their level of corruption. Has President
Chavez shown any interest in the face of these international networks in his
eight years in power? Not much.

While this situation has so far been invisible to world public opinion, it has
not been for those fighting transnational crime. They are not interested neither
in Venezuela nor in Chavez’ policies, but in the fact that from that country the
tentacles of these criminals global networks are irradiated to the rest of the
world. And the numbers speak for themselves: in 2003 75 tons of cocaine left
Venezuela; this year it is estimated that 276 tons will leave the country. Before,
the main target were the United States and the Caribbean; Now Europe is
increasingly the target with technical stops in African countries like Guinea-Bissau,
where there has recently emerged a community of Venezuelans and Colombians.

A senior Dutch police officer told me that he and his European colleagues spend
more time in Caracas than in Bogota, and that many of the major heads of
criminal cartels now operate with impunity – and effectiveness – from
Venezuela. And traffickers are not only Colombians: there are also Asians and
Europeans and even from Belarus, a country that President Chavez has paid
particular attention to and visited several times.

Venezuela also appears on all of the lists of havens for money laundering. And
money moves from Venezuela not only through electronic interbank transfers: the
combination of private jets, suitcases full of money and diplomatic immunity
has opened up new possibilities. Recently, a member of the so-called Bolivarian
bourgeoisie or boliburguesía-the new group of mega rich that has emerged in
recent years, was discovered at the customs office in Buenos Aires with at
least one of these bags. Discovered, but not arrested, because he was traveling
with a group of senior members of President Nestor Kirchner´s Government. Just
a few weeks ago, in Uruguay the illegal trafficking of arms and ammunition by
Venezuelans which were thus trying to avoid the embargo imposed on Iran by the
Security Council of the UN was denounced. The Colombian guerrillas do not seem
to have major problems in obtaining the weapons they need, many of them through
Venezuela. Someone is selling them to them.

Diamond exploiters are doing equally well. “Venezuela is allowing massive
smuggling of diamonds and the country should be expelled from the Kimberley
Process”, recommended in a recent report by Global Witness and Partnership
Africa. The Kimberley Process is the mechanism sponsored by the UN to combat
the smuggling of so-called blood diamonds. Venezuela is in the first division
of the illegal trade in people and is one of the countries which gives less
protection to human beings trafficked involuntarily, especially women. It is
also a major hub for transshipments of Chinese citizens and from the Middle
East en route to other destinations and who obtain Venezuelans passports in a
matter of hours. But never free.

The great paradox of this terrible story is that, despite the constant
denunciations of President Chavez against globalization, the revolution has not
been able to avoid that Venezuela suffer its worst consequences. These criminal
gangs are globalizing Venezuela. But this is a globalization that depends on
corruption, crime and death. The hidden history of Venezuela may end up being
much more important in determining the future of my suffering country that Hugo
Chavez´experiment.

Reading
yesterday’s paper was quite depressing due to the large number of articles in
which it was clear that this country is being led by the blind, not only away
from democratic principles, but away from the drive of individual into a no
man’s land of brainwashing and a wishy washy socialism that has yet to be
defined.

Unfortunately,
I picked up El Nacional first. I started with an interview with one of the
“theorists” of the robolution, a Spaniard by the name of Monedero, who has
found in Chavez a fantastic utter to suck on to finance his life and his
research. I may be actually exaggerating by calling it research, as Mr.
Monedero over and over shows that he knows very little about Venezuela. He
seems to be a theorist of left wing ideas and models, which he wants to apply
in countries different than his, just in case it all fails, let someone else
suffer the consequences. Daniel has discussed him extensively, thus I will not
bother you with it, but I would like to emphasize that Monedero does not seem
to have read or learned much about Venezuela’s recent history and the dismal
failure of Governments, which is being repeated by Chavez’ but this time on
steroids, in managing utilities and social programs. Thus, one has to wonder
how a Government that cannot manage one program can somehow take under its wing
all sorts of programs, using on top of that, only the loyalists that surround
the autocrat.

But the
scariest part of the article is that after eight years of this fake revolution,
one of its main theorists says that they have yet to “invent” exactly what the
model is for this virtual or imaginary destructive XXIst. Century Socialism
that Chávez is imposing. While the models are being invented, Chávez takes over
more and more without a clue as to what to do with it, which guarantees that
nothing will run in the end.
\u003c/span\>\u003c/div\>\u003cdiv\>\u003cspan\>\u003cfont face\u003d\”Verdana\”\> \u003c/font\>\u003c/span\>\u003c/div\>\u003cdiv\>\u003cspan\>\u003cfont face\u003d\”Verdana\”\>Thus, Mr. Monedero was apparently hired because he is a proven leftists and admirer of the robolution, but not because he had any specific knowledge and/or proposal in mind. Just a good cheerleader who is a foreigner, and thus better than any Venezuelan to the robolutionaries. Hopefully, given his curriculum he may come up with some good ideas if he takes the time to learn how Venezuela works and if they fail, he can try some different ones or we may look for a new theorist from Argentina, Zimbabwe or North Korea, countries that love to experiment but have had no success, after all, we do want our socialism to be different than those that have succeeded elsewhere…like…like…like…well, I guess I don’t have the knowledge to tell you which one. \u003c/font\>\u003c/span\>\u003c/div\>\u003cdiv\>\u003cspan\>\u003cfont face\u003d\”Verdana\”\> \u003c/font\>\u003c/span\>\u003c/div\>\u003cdiv\>\u003cspan\>\u003cfont face\u003d\”Verdana\”\>I then proceeded to the interview with the Minister of Higher Education Luis Acuña, someone I am acquainted with, but will not tell you what I think of him from that fairly extensive contact. Instead, all I could think reading him was that I did not know he had such a fascist and cynical streak in him.\u003c/font\>\u003cspan\>\u003cfont face\u003d\”Verdana\”\>  \u003c/font\>\u003c/span\>\u003cfont face\u003d\”Verdana\”\>Or maybe I did, since I initiated a more recent interaction with him about a year ago, when he was just a Deputy, which was discontinued by him when I asked how he could support a Government in a good conscience, which had such little disregard for human rights. \u003c/font\>\u003c/span\>\u003c/div\>\u003cdiv\>\u003cspan\>\u003cfont face\u003d\”Verdana\”\> \u003c/font\>\u003c/span\>\u003c/div\>\u003cdiv\>\u003cspan\>\u003cfont face\u003d\”Verdana\”\>Besides his statement about the universities here having kidnapped autonomy, Acuña proceeds to say essentially that things have to change at the universities so that discussion can be eliminated and only one school of thought taught in order to create the new Venezuelan man or woman. I was planning to write more about this today, but then someone sent me a letter by Amalio Belmonte, a Sociology Professor from Universidad Central de Venezuela whom I never met. Since he covers much of what I was planning to say and does it well, I simply translate some excerpts:”,1]
);

//–>

Thus, Mr.
Monedero was apparently hired because he is a proven leftists and admirer of
the robolution, but not because he had any specific knowledge and/or proposal
in mind. Just a good cheerleader who is a foreigner, and thus better than any
Venezuelan to the robolutionaries. Hopefully, given his curriculum he may come
up with some good ideas if he takes the time to learn how Venezuela works and
if they fail, he can try some different ones or we may look for a new theorist
from Argentina, Zimbabwe or North Korea, countries that love to experiment but
have had no success, after all, we do want our socialism to be different than
those that have succeeded elsewhere…like…like…like…well, I guess I don’t have
the knowledge to tell you which one.

I then
proceeded to the interview with the Minister of Higher Education Luis Acuña,
someone I am acquainted with, but will not tell you what I think of him from
that fairly extensive contact. Instead, all I could think reading him was that
I did not know he had such a fascist and cynical streak in him.  Or maybe
I did, since I initiated a more recent interaction with him about a year ago,
when he was just a Deputy, which was discontinued by him when I asked how he
could support a Government in a good conscience, which had such little
disregard for human rights.

Besides
his statement about the universities here having kidnapped autonomy, Acuña
proceeds to say essentially that things have to change at the universities so
that discussion can be eliminated and only one school of thought taught in
order to create the new Venezuelan man or woman. I was planning to write more
about this today, but then someone sent me a letter by Amalio Belmonte, a
Sociology Professor from Universidad Central de Venezuela whom I never met.
Since he covers much of what I was planning to say and does it well, I simply
translate some excerpts:
\u003c/span\>\u003c/div\>\u003cdiv\>\u003cspan\>\u003cfont face\u003d\”Verdana\”\> \u003c/font\>\u003c/span\>\u003c/div\>\u003cdiv\>\u003cspan\>\u003cfont face\u003d\”Verdana\”\>“Minister Acuña insists in the official purpose of creating “revolutionary consciences” to form the men and women needed by the revolution. This makes it indispensable to reeducate the country to have a general will imposed by the canons of XXIst. Century Socialism, so that it generates a subservient conscience, proper of those regimes that are dominated by authoritarian and totalitarian regimes”\u003c/font\>\u003c/span\>\u003c/div\>\u003cdiv\>\u003cspan\>\u003cfont face\u003d\”Verdana\”\> \u003c/font\>\u003c/span\>\u003c/div\>\u003cdiv\>\u003cspan\>\u003cfont face\u003d\”Verdana\”\>“The Minister proposes to constitute the State-Ideology from the universities, because they can not be absent from the changes and he says: “Nothing has happened at the universities”. He regrets that we have not obsequiotiusly gone to surrender to the discourse of the new creator of the country and he demands that we join submissively in front of the revolutionary leaders. Only in this manner will the high functionary of Higher Education recognize that we are not a conservative institution.”\u003c/font\>\u003c/span\>\u003c/div\>\u003cdiv\>\u003cspan\>\u003cfont face\u003d\”Verdana\”\> \u003c/font\>\u003c/span\>\u003c/div\>\u003cdiv\>\u003cspan\>\u003cfont face\u003d\”Verdana\”\>“Professor Acuña avoids a retrospective reflection so as not to see himself as Dean of the University of Oriente, elected by the same peers that he now accuses of being elitist and closed. When you hold power, visits by your conscience provoke internal conflicts. Because power, with its terrible logic, upsets positions and principles. He wants us to accompany him in the destruction of the most expensive principles that the university has, which makes academic environments spaces appropriate for thinking and questioning the established premises and submit them to the corresponding critical analysis, opened to the multiple forms of seeing reality that prepares human beings for freedom, because the production of knowledge and culture is an activity that demands, without excuses and limitations, a spirit inclined to democratic controversy, far from absolute conclusions. Without any doubt, these premises are contrary to those of States which have one dimensional ideologies.” “,1]
);

//–>

“Minister
Acuña insists in the official purpose of creating “revolutionary consciences”
to form the men and women needed by the revolution. This makes it indispensable
to reeducate the country to have a general will imposed by the canons of XXIst.
Century Socialism, so that it generates a subservient conscience, proper of
those regimes that are dominated by authoritarian and totalitarian regimes”

“The
Minister proposes to constitute the State-Ideology from the universities,
because they can not be absent from the changes and he says: “Nothing has
happened at the universities”. He regrets that we have not obsequiotiusly gone
to surrender to the discourse of the new creator of the country and he demands
that we join submissively in front of the revolutionary leaders. Only in this
manner will the high functionary of Higher Education recognize that we are not
a conservative institution.”

“Professor
Acuña avoids a retrospective reflection so as not to see himself as Dean of the
University of Oriente, elected by the same peers that he now accuses of being
elitist and closed. When you hold power, visits by your conscience provoke
internal conflicts. Because power, with its terrible logic, upsets positions
and principles. He wants us to accompany him in the destruction of the most
expensive principles that the university has, which makes academic environments
spaces appropriate for thinking and questioning the established premises and
submit them to the corresponding critical analysis, opened to the multiple
forms of seeing reality that prepares human beings for freedom, because the
production of knowledge and culture is an activity that demands, without
excuses and limitations, a spirit inclined to democratic controversy, far from
absolute conclusions. Without any doubt, these premises are contrary to those
of States which have one dimensional ideologies.”
\u003c/span\>\u003c/div\>\u003cdiv\>\u003cspan\>\u003cfont face\u003d\”Verdana\”\> \u003c/font\>\u003c/span\>\u003c/div\>\u003cdiv\>\u003cspan\>\u003cfont face\u003d\”Verdana\”\>“Acuña adds that the conditions to become e University President have to be “revised” to adapt them to their attributions and pertinence to the context of the higher education the country demands and that allow for the materialization of an efficient state signed by socialist ethic. The authorities he says: “Can not place their academic merits above these new conceptions of autonomy with protagonist participation “He also thinks equally that “he would not put in a position someone with a capitalist vision”. He requires that the Rectors “share the power”, because he considers it suspicious any authority which is not controlled by the Government. His Ministry will be in charge of granting ideological indulgences and reward those that repent from being free and autonomous.\u003c/font\>\u003c/span\>\u003c/div\>\u003cdiv\>\u003cspan\>\u003cfont face\u003d\”Verdana\”\> \u003c/font\>\u003c/span\>\u003c/div\>\u003cdiv\>\u003cspan\>\u003cfont face\u003d\”Verdana\”\>“This form of conceiving academia and of governing has precedents that do not make the Minister look good, if he cared. The Nazi regime also required Aryan science, culture and art opposed to the Jewish physique and the decadent bourgeois art. President Truman equally, in the early days of the cold war, ordered that education promote values, which would create loyalties to confront communism. Similar efforts were made by Stalin and the leaders of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. In all of these cases they imposed from the position of power the idea of good and evil. With which people and institutions were evaluated in order to defined those that were convinced and the enemies of the State.\u003c/font\>\u003c/span\>\u003c/div\>\u003cdiv\>\u003cfont face\u003d\”Verdana\”\>\u003cbr\>\u003c/font\>\u003c/div\>\u003cdiv\>\u003cfont face\u003d\”Verdana\”\>How the Minister reached this point is hard for me to fathom. How power can corrupt someone so fast and easy is even more incredible. A well educated man ( He has a Ph.D. in Physics) forgets the basic principles of being open to new ideas and discussion. Even worse, he seems to have forgotten, besides those that elected him Dean, the same system that gave him his education, without asking him why or what, as well as the research funding into his not so very "pertinent" research, which he now seems to be so critical about. Who is the real Luis “,1]
);

//–>

“Acuña
adds that the conditions to become e University President have to be “revised”
to adapt them to their attributions and pertinence to the context of the higher
education the country demands and that allow for the materialization of an
efficient state signed by socialist ethic. The authorities he says: “Can not
place their academic merits above these new conceptions of autonomy with
protagonist participation “He also thinks equally that “he would not put in a
position someone with a capitalist vision”. He requires that the Rectors “share
the power”, because he considers it suspicious any authority which is not
controlled by the Government. His Ministry will be in charge of granting
ideological indulgences and reward those that repent from being free and
autonomous.

“This form
of conceiving academia and of governing has precedents that do not make the
Minister look good, if he cared. The Nazi regime also required Aryan science,
culture and art opposed to the Jewish physique and the decadent bourgeois art.
President Truman equally, in the early days of the cold war, ordered that
education promote values, which would create loyalties to confront communism.
Similar efforts were made by Stalin and the leaders of the Chinese Cultural
Revolution. In all of these cases they imposed from the position of power the
idea of good and evil. With which people and institutions were evaluated in
order to defined those that were convinced and the enemies of the State.

How the
Minister reached this point is hard for me to fathom. How power can corrupt
someone so fast and easy is even more incredible. A well educated man ( He has
a Ph.D. in Physics) forgets the basic principles of being open to new ideas and
discussion. Even worse, he seems to have forgotten, besides those that elected
him Dean, the same system that gave him his education, without asking him why
or what, as well as the research funding into his not so very
“pertinent” research, which he now seems to be so critical about. Who
is the real Luis 
Acuña? This one or that one? We may never know.\u003c/span\>\u003c/font\>\u003c/div\>\u003cdiv\>\u003cfont face\u003d\”Verdana\”\>\u003cbr\>\u003c/font\>\u003c/div\>\u003cdiv\>\u003cfont face\u003d\”Verdana\”\>What we do know is that these pseudo-academics are now backing the autocrat and what he stands for, simply to get power and/or money. However, with their backing and tacit acceptance, they are helping in destroying Venezuela in the name of an undefined project, which all that it seems to be asking is that we be submissive to the wishes and desires of the autocrat. While we do that, they may be able to luckily "find" the model they are searching for, or cause more pain and destruction to the "people" they claim to love.\u003c/font\>\u003c/div\>\u003cdiv\>\u003cfont face\u003d\”Verdana\”\>\u003cbr\>\u003c/font\>\u003c/div\>\u003cdiv\>\u003cfont face\u003d\”Verdana\”\>Wouldn't it have been better to at least "search" for someone with a model or proposal? We could have at least saved some time that way, rather that wasting eight years in this existential search and who knows how many wasted more years and billions of dollars are in front of us. \u003c/font\>\u003c/div\>\u003c/div\>”,0]
);
D([“ce”]);

//–>
Acuña? This one or that one? We may never know.

What we do
know is that these pseudo-academics are now backing the autocrat and what he
stands for, simply to get power and/or money. However, with their backing and
tacit acceptance, they are helping in destroying Venezuela in the name of an
undefined project, which all that it seems to be asking is that we be
submissive to the wishes and desires of the autocrat. While we do that, they
may be able to luckily “find” the model they are searching for, or
cause more pain and destruction to the “people” they claim to love.

Wouldn’t
it have been better to at least “search” for someone with a model or
proposal? We could have at least saved some time that way, rather that wasting
eight years in this existential search and who knows how many wasted more years
and billions of dollars are in front of us.

Fear by Teodoro Petkoff in Tal Cual

A while back, while I was getting my breakfast at a buffet in a hotel in Caracas, a voice behind me murmured something like this: “Don’t turn around. Don’t think I abandoned you, but I am closely watched”. When I returned to my table I recognized an old friend, a PDVSA executive, pro-Chavez, who up to 2003 used to talk with me once in a while. After the strike I never saw him again. He was explaining the reason for his disappearance. Fear. At Motel Los Guasimitos, at the entrance of Barinas, an acquaintance of mine stayed in one of the rooms, he asked why he could not get Globovision (on cable of course). The person in charge answered him that it was prohibited to watch that TV station at that establishment. Lowering the tone, he added that it was not that the owner was Chavista, but…you understand. Fear. In one of the bookstores at the National terminal of Maiqueia airport I asked for a copy of Tal Cual. A young lady who took care of the store informed me that they did not sell that newspaper.

I asked why. She told me that what she denominated as “A Bolivarian Circle” of the airport had “forbidden” the selling of Tal Cual. Fear. But, not everyone is scared. The other day one of the workers in immigration, this time at the international airport of Maiquetia told me sarcastically, in a loud voice and close to many of his co workers: “Well, and when do we get ri of this nut?”. He had no fear. As long as we have people like this, we have a chance.