Chavez puts Venezuela under 'electricity emergency'

[pampango]

Source: BBC

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has signed a decree declaring an "electricity emergency" to help his government tackle power shortages. Speaking on his new radio show President Chavez said Venezuela, which depends heavily on hydropower, was facing the worst drought in 100 years.

Heavy energy users will get a discount if they cut consumption but face price rises if their usage does not fall.

Rolling blackouts are already in force in parts of Venezuela. President Chavez announced on Monday that he had signed a decree authorising Energy Minister Ali Rodriguez to take the necessary measures to guarantee the electricity supply.

Energy rationing is already in place, except in the capital, Caracas, where the measures were suspended amid protests. Critics say poor management and the failure to invest in infrastructure over the years are to blame, a view rejected by Mr Rodriguez. "It's not due to lack of investment, even if it's true that we've had some problems (and) delays with some projects," he said.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8505906.stm

---

Almost sounds like a cap-and-trade system. Rather than just ordering the heavy electric users to reduce their consumption by x percent (and fining them if they don't), the government is offering an incentive (a 25% discount) to reduce electricity consumption by 10-20%. They will still be the largest energy consumers and will be getting cheaper electricity because they used so much of it in the past. That's a kind of "soft" cap that many carbon emitters would probably be happy with.

Of course there's no "trade" in this system. That would require that, rather than just offering discounts for reducing power consumption by the biggest users, they had the option of buying the ability to continue to consume the same amount of electricity with those funds used to build more generating capacity or traded to another company that would be compensated for going beyond a mere 10-20% reduction.

Interesting that the Venezuelan government doesn't just order companies to reduce electric consumption by a certain percentage, but gives them flexible reduction targets and a financial motivation for meeting them.

[AtheistCrusader]

1. Probably a first step.

Industry needs to keep on keeping on, or there won't be any work. This is better than just slamming them with a fixed cut, which would probably be passed on to sending a percenatge of the workforce home.

Hopefully it works, and they don't have to go on to mandatory cuts.

[naaman fletcher]

2. If only VZ. had an abundant source of energy and a leader wise enough..

to build an electricity infrastructure around it.

[slackmaster]

5. You mean like oil and gas? And co-generation plants?

ARE YOU INSANE?

[naaman fletcher]

8. yes, exactly.

That would be nice if they had that in a meaningful quantity and did not have to suffer these shortages.

[protocol rv]

36. We would if the government had listened to its own experts

This problem was predicted many years ago. Unfortunately our dear President chose to spend the money on military gear we won't use, or gave the money to Cuba. Plus they nationalized the private power generators, neglected maintenance, and now we are in trouble. We need a different group of people running things, the ones we have don't know how to get things done.

[Wilms]

37. Sounds like a campaign ad.

Can you back it up with a few reports, but not editorials?

[LanternWaste]

6. mandatory water rationing in North Central TX every six months

Yeah... mandatory water rationing in North Central TX every six months, rolling brownouts in CA. I wish the States had abundant energy sources and wise leaders too...

[naaman fletcher]

9. huh?

Yes, because obviously two isolated examples in a nation awash in cheap energy relates to a whole country being on the verge of shutting down. Good point.

[Wilms]

28. (Graphic Warning) Really cheap energy.

That's her parents blodd, if ya know that particular story.

[Judi Lynn]

43. Will never forget that image. It tears you apart. Her mother and father were shot to death

in the front seat of the family car as they approached the checkout.

Unbearable.

Thank you for posting her photograph. Many of us will never forget.

[WriteDown]

10. I'm in North Central Texas and have never had to go without a shower....

Are you in a different North Central Texas?

[LanternWaste]

25. i.e, no outside watering between particular hour...

i.e, no outside watering between particular hours.

(As far as I know there's merely one North Central Texas-- unless you were trying to be clever or something like that... :shrug: )

ed: sb-vrb agreement

[Wilms]

29. Despite your shower there are restrictions.

Care to google? It's a courtesy to not be misleading.

http://www.the33tv.com/news/kdaf-shana-water-restrictions-story,0,7933792.story

[WriteDown]

31. So people can't water their LAWNS during particular hours?

Gosh, I never realized the untold horror. We truly are third world.

[Wilms]

34. Wanna make like there ain't a serious drought condition in TX?

Why?

http://www.physorg.com/news167825881.html

http://blogs.chron.com/sciguy/archives/2009/03/are_we_headed_t.html

http://www.marketskeptics.com/2009/02/texas-drought-conditions-becoming.html

http://newmexicoindependent.com/32819/time-to-start-preparing-for-water-rationing


What is it with you?

[ChangoLoa]

38. Are you comparing the rain forest (even during a drought) with north Texas? nt

[Wilms]

40. Round and Round we go.

The dude up thread said there were drought/rationing issues in TX. And it's true unlike the oligarchic sympathizing claim.

eom

:hi:

[Peace Patriot]

3. The BBCon joins the rightwing parade...

"Blackouts, inflation and crime, oh no!"

"Blackouts, inflation and crime, oh no!"

"Blackouts, inflation and crime, oh no!"

"Blackouts, inflation and crime, oh no!"

"Blackouts, inflation and crime, oh no!"

"BLACKOUTS, INFLATION AND CRIME, OH NO!"

"BLACKOUTS, INFLATION AND CRIME, OH NO!"

"BLACKOUTS, INFLATION AND CRIME, OH NO!"

"BLACKOUTS, INFLATION AND CRIME, OH NO!"

"BLACKOUTS, INFLATION AND CRIME, OH NO!"

"BLACKOUTS, INFLATION AND CRIME, OH NO"

"BLACKOUTS, INFLATION AND CRIME, OH NO"

"BLACKOUTS, INFLATION AND CRIME, OH NO!"

"BLACKOUTS, INFLATION AND CRIME, OH NO!"

"DING-DONG, THE WITCH IS DEAD!
WHICH OLD WITCH? THE 'HU-U-GO' WITCH!
DING-DONG THE WICKED WITCH IS DEAD!"

-------------------------------------------

I'm sick of this. I really am. One headline after another from Langley's latest narrative, in a direct feed to the corpo-fascist press and to the rich rightwing minority in Venezuela--with the "talking points" all sounding alike. It is pre-written. Its goal is to exaggerate normal problems of government into a narrative of failure and/or "dictatorship," however contradictory that may be--in fact, the more contradictory, the better, cuz it fuzzes the brains of the recipients of the news. They NEVER report the considerable achievements of the Chavez government--in some cases, astonishing achievements--in education, health care, poverty reduction, citizen participation in government and politics, TRANSPARENT elections, economic growth, low debt, high cash reserves, and on and on. Never! NEVER! Just this drumbeat negative headlines. It is disgusting. The BBCon has become as bad as the rest--Rotters, the Associated Pukes, the Wall Street Urinal, the Miami Hairball, the New York Slimes. They are all doing it--and it is the worst, most relentless disinformation campaign I have ever seen, bar none.

[WriteDown]

11. Yes, they're all in on the conspiracy. Even the BBC. nt

[JackRiddler]

12. Sounds like a typical Republican response to those who notice the existence of economic class.

If you want to call the concentration of ownership, including of the media, and the collusion between state and corporate propaganda a "conspiracy," you're welcome to your mystification.

[WriteDown]

13. So you deny the problems in Venezuela?

Which part of the article is fabricated?

[JackRiddler]

15. Are you still performing cruel experiments on harmless animals?

[WriteDown]

16. Deflection, a time honored technique.

Thank you for proving my point.

[Wilms]

30. Actually, you were involved in a time honored posting practice.

That was a way of pointing it out. Most here recognize it. Among other things.

[Mika]

19. Chavez is responsible for the drought.

Everybody knows this. :eyes:

---

[WriteDown]

33. No, but he bears some responsibility for not addressing a glaring...

problem. Kind of like politicians who don't address the fact that someday New Orleans may flood.

[Wilms]

35. Reasonable hypothesis.

So back it up.

[WriteDown]

39. Recent events...

in both places don't speak for themselves?

[Wilms]

41. Links man. Links.

[Wilms]

42. Here's a link for you:

Exports of Colombian gas to Venezuela decline (Colombia now rationing gas due to drought)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=405&topic_id=30459&mesg_id=30459

This drought thing gets around. Don't it. :shrug:

[WriteDown]

47. Sure does. No one denies there is a drought, do they? nt

[Wilms]

48. The rationing part.

Willful ignorance perchance?

[ChangoLoa]

51. What do you need?

Experts, opposition politicians and media talking about this crisis since 2005-2006? Chavista politicians, media saying the crisis was because of the opposition's sabotage before th drought?

I'm telling you, it's been at least 3 or 4 years people have been writing about the electricity problem and the under-investment in distribution/generation. If you're interested and answer this post, I'll find you links when I have a little more time. Try typing "electric crisis venezuela 2005, 2006, 2007..." in google.

[Wilms]

52. You'll support your assertions "have a little more time"?

You've got plenty of time to come here and linklessly assail a democratic revolution, but not to act in a courteous manner toward thread participants.

:eyes:

[Judi Lynn]

53. Lotsa time to stalk D.U.'ers!

http://www.yosemite-sam.net.nyud.net:8090/Sam/Sam-Side.jpg

[Peace Patriot]

23. It's as if they talked about M. L. King & the only thing they said about him is that he had a

mistress.

The distortion is mind-boggling.

The Chavez government has very significant accomplishments that are NEVER EVER mentioned in the corpo-fascist press.

They've been painting an impression of him as a "dictator" since 2002!!! --when the people of Venezuela peacefully turned back a rightwing coup. They play up something like the government not renewing a broadcast license, something other governments do routinely--every government has broadcasting rules--and in the case of RCTV they had tried to frigging overthrow the government. They were part of the coup. No government in the world would put up with that. But, oh, that make Chavez a "dictator." Chavez and his government have scrupulously followed the constitution and the rule of law, and have greatly expanded human and civil rights in Venezuela. Ask the poor majority. Ask gays and lesbians. Ask African-Venezuelans. Ask the indigenous. Ask women! But do you think 95% of the people in this country know that or anything positive about a government that has been elected three times (including the USAID-funded recall election) by big majorities in transparent elections! Something! Anything! Show me a single article from the corpo-fascist press that points to WHY the Chavez government is so successful and so popular.

"Which part of the article is fabricated?

It is not always a matter of outright fabrication--although there have been several outright lies that have been promulgated by the corpo-fascist press about Chavez, including for instance that he's anti-semitic--an accusation that the Jewish community in Venezuela was furious about and said was a lie. It is additionally a matter of choice of subjects, and choice of headlines, and hammering away, in EVERY story, in waves of identical themes, recently about typical problems of government--crime, inflation, blackouts--the chant of the rightwing crowds in Venezuela. Often there is no context. Often they rely on "his critics say..." to promote their own, the CIA's and the Venezuelan rightwing's most recent "talking points." They often paraphrase him rather than quote him, so we can't even get his views unfiltered. Trick after journalistic trick is used to paint Chavez in a negative light. It is so unbalanced as to be absurd.

In this case, it is both the choice of stories--yet another story on the blackouts--and the lede. Chavez rules by decree! Sounds very bad, right? Well, Alvaro Uribe, rightwing ruler of Colombia, just "ruled by decree" on the Colombian health care system. It is a common practice in Latin America. But they DON'T SAY THIS. Neither do they report when somebody else does it--whether Uribe, or Lula da Silva in Brazil. The drought that is causing some blackouts in Venezuela has hit the entire Amazon region. There are huge fires in Colombia because of it. Blackouts are worth a story, yes. But that is not what is going on here--just covering a news story. There have been headlines about it for weeks--and they print nothing else. NOTHING ELSE! Point to ONE positive story in Chavez's ten years as president with SIXTY PERCENT approval ratings! ONE!

This is a "BLACKOUTS, INFLATION & CRIME--OH NO!" story--part of a MEDIA campaign in advance of the legislative elections in Venezuela, to create yet another negative hit on Chavez--and one phase of a long term MEDIA campaign to brainwash us as well. Where is their article on Venezuela having met all of its Millennium Project goals--having cut poverty in half, and having cut extreme poverty by 70%? Where is that story?

'Yeah, but, hey, M. L. King had a mistress, right? What's wrong with saying that? Isn't that true?'

Yes, it's true--but if that is the ONLY thing you say about M.L. King, if that's the only thing you think is important, and you ignore everything else--what kind of journalist are you? Hm?

[WriteDown]

32. So not a single fabrication...

You're problem is that the article was written?

[Peace Patriot]

44. Consider the propaganda campaign against Saddam Hussein, where they had an actual dictator

to work with.

The technique is to keep up a drumbeat of certain themes, no matter what the facts actually are, to create a plausible cover narrative for whatever it is they want to accomplish--in that case, justification for slaughtering a hundred thousand innocent people in the first weeks of bombing alone, to steal their oil. Thus, the fact that the UN weapons inspectors were proving, beyond any doubt, that Saddam had in truth gotten rid of the WMDs, gets submerged by a drumbeat of headlines, ledes and stories, asserting the opposite of the truth. The evidence--and its provenance, and its plausibility--is irrelevant. Their purpose is the repeated headline about WMDs.

Similarly, with Chavez, we are seeing a long-running campaign of negative headlines, picking up on every possible negative theme that 'editors' and 'reporters' can dig out, and on each theme--whether it's "Chavez the dictator," or "Chavez the incompetent," or "Chavez the buffoon"--ignoring the context--the history of the issue, mitigating facts--and "stacking" stories with negative assertions (often using the "His critics say..." ploy, so you can't even research the source). For instance, the stories about the Chavez government's non-renewal of RCTV's broadcasting license never included the facts about RCTV's active participation in the 2002 coup attempt against Chavez, nor RCTV's numerous violations of its broadcast license, nor the context that every country in the world regulates broadcasting and no country in the world would put up with a licensee of the public airwaves who tried to overthrow the government. They also left out that numerous countries de-license broadcasters for violating the rules and not operating in the public interest. Peru had just done so, shortly before RCTV was de-licensed. It wasn't mentioned. The narrative is "Chavez the dictator" and the intent of these stories was to paint Chavez as suppressing "free speech," though, in reality, Chavez and his government were doing the exact opposite.

In truth, there has never been such an expansion of free speech and of all civil and human rights as there has been in Venezuela with the extraordinarily popular Chavez government. Groups that never before had a voice in public affairs, groups that were previously ignored, without power, suppressed --the poor majority, workers in both the formal and informal sectors, small business people, the indigenous, gays and lesbians, African-Venezuelans, women--are now empowered, now have champions in government, and now have some access to the public airwaves. The corpo/fascist press--in Venezuela, here and everywhere--wants to the airwaves to THEMSELVES, excluding all other viewpoints but those of the rich and the corporate, and if government does not fight back on behalf of a plurality of opinions, these corpo-fascist 'news' monopolies WILL grossly abuse their power, as RCTV did.

Nor was there even a hint, in any of these corpo-fascist 'news' stories about RCTV--nor in ANY corpo-fascist 'news' stories AT ALL, about the Chavez government--of this great expansion of civil and human rights that the Chavez government has implemented, not just as ideals but as policy--including the quite notable progress they have made on literacy and educational opportunities--vital components of free speech.

The drumbeat: "Chavez the dictator," "Chavez the dictator," "Chavez the dictator." And any and all facts to the contrary are ignored.

They are focusing on the "blackouts" in the same way, and the theme now is "Chavez the incompetent." Again, the method is the "drumbeat" of negative headlines and lack of context. They have egregiously omitted that the drought is Amazon-wide, that many other countries are affected--Ecuador, for instance, had to do energy rationing; Colombia is having great wildfires. They simply want one more headline to contribute to their theme. And, really, it is exactly like describing Martin Luther King as someone who had a mistress, and ignoring and not stating everything else that he did. The distortion is mindboggling. And the method is not always outright lying or twisting the facts. Martin Luther King DID have a mistress. The method is to ignore everything but that.

Headline after headline after headline after headline, all negative, and NEVER A SINGLE STORY OR MENTION ANYWHERE of the significant achievements of the Chavez government.

You have to study this psyops/disinformation campaign over time--as I have done--to understand it. You can't see it by looking at just one 'news' story. You have to know all the stories they haven't written about, and all the facts and circumstances they have omitted in their 100% negative lexicon on Chavez.

Yes, drought and blackouts are news. Yes, all news tends to focus on the negative; even good journalists do it (murders, mayhem, protest and criticism are thought to "sell"--as opposed to positive stories of good government and human cooperation). Granting both things, I have never seen such distorted journalism in my life--never!--as this relentless drumbeat against the Chavez government, and this story is just one more bomb in the carpet-bombing of "Chavez the incompetent." You have to be aware of what this story is NOT saying--the context, the other countries affected, the unusual drought affecting whole swaths of the Amazon--and the utter lack of ANY story, ANYWHERE in the corpo-fascist press, FOR TEN YEARS NOW, about anything positive that the Chavez government has accomplished, including better oil contracts that support Venezuela's social programs, great economic growth in the private sector sustained for five years, low debt, high cash reserves, excellent financial management in most respects, wiping out illiteracy, doubling high school and higher education enrollment, 8% unemployment--in a worldwide Depression!--cutting poverty in half, cutting extreme poverty by 70%, providing health care facilities to poor neighborhoods all over Venezuela that never had health care before, and on and on. There are MANY accomplishments that EXPLAIN WHY the Chavez government has enjoyed a 60% approval rating throughout its tenure, and has won every election except one, in a transparent, honest and aboveboard election system, certified by every major international election monitoring group--and that is yet another accomplishment of the Chavez government that is never mentioned! They INVITED those international groups to help set up a "best practices" election system, completely independent of the government, and to monitor every election with complete freedom throughout the country.

Chavez is NEVER credited for that--never!--or for anything else.

Outright lying, distortion of facts, omitting context are one propaganda method--identifiable in individual stories. They are journalistic crimes--and there have been many against Chavez. But another propaganda method is the editorial crime of greatly distorting public perception of a public figure, or an issue, by what kind of stories to focus on and what stories to publish--by deliberately choosing only the stories that fit your propaganda agenda. This story is more in the latter category. It is distorted in itself, by lack of context. But more than this, it is one story in a long editorial-decision campaign which is switching from "Chavez the dictator" to "Chavez the incompetent." They have found a weakness--rolling blackouts--and they are exaggerating it and repeating it for all it's worth.

[Judi Lynn]

45. Speaking of "incompetence", it has to apply to an entire profession which has been corrupted

to the point it only serves as a vehicle for perception molding, at the service of the US corporate, military industrial gangsters, for US American control of ALL weaker countries, and intensely the case regarding Latin America and the Caribbean.

[WriteDown]

46. Once again, your dispute is not with the facts in the article...

Its that they wrote the article? :shrug:

[protocol rv]

49. "Extraordinarily Popular"? LOL

I believe Chavez can be said to be losing in the poll ratings at this time. This electricity problem isn't helping him at all.

[Peace Patriot]

50. Chavez has poll ratings that U.S. politicians would drool over.

Even the least friendly polling firm puts his popularity in September 2009 at almost 53%...

The president's popularity has slid in monthly tracking polls from a high of 61 percent after winning a vote in February to 52.8 percent (Sept '09), pollster Luis Vicente Leon of the Caracas-based firm Datanalisis said Wednesday...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/22/chavez-popularity-slips-i_n_329760.html

He's won his elections by an average of 60% of the vote, with the most recent vote the highest, almost 63%...

Hugo Chávez—a left-leaning leader—has been in office since February 1999. In July 2000, he was elected to a six-year term with 59.5 per cent of all cast ballots. In August 2004, Chávez won a referendum on his tenure with 59 per cent of the vote. The special election was called after opposition organizations in Venezuela gathered 2.5 million signatures to force a recall ballot. In December 2006, Chávez earned a new six-year term with 62.89 per cent of the vote.

http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/view/35026/venezuelans_say_country_is_on_wrong_track

A friendlier poll says he's lost 2 1/2 points recently, putting him in the miserable position of only, um, 60% approval...

Merida, January 3rd, 2010 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – According to a study carried out by the Venezuelan Institute of Data Analysis (IVAD), Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez’s approval has dropped slightly, to 60.3%, from 62.4% last October.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/5049

-------------------

If you average these out, his popularity is running about 55%--a tad down from previous years--and I have to say, expectable. No president can maintain a 60+% approval rating forever. And how many U.S. politicians have a 55% approval rating?

Chavez is still the most popular leader in Venezuela. No one in the opposition even comes close to him. His government has made the right decisions on the economy--devaluing the bolivar voluntarily, and leveraging their low debt and high cash reserves to ride out of the Bushwhack worldwide Depression. The rightwing--a political opposition with such a paucity of ideas that all they can do is whine about crime, inflation and blackouts--a very negative chant--will probably win some seats in the legislature because they're not stupidly boycotting the elections this time--but I think the chavistas will get a majority and Chavez will be re-elected in 2012---and I think that I understand the forces against him pretty well--the relentless, mindboggling "Big Lie" campaign run out of Washington DC, the USAID funding of the opposition and the clouds of war gathering with the big U.S. military buildup in Colombia. He is hated and reviled by our corpo-fascist rulers and they will do anything in their power to topple him and the Bolivarian Revolution which has been so beneficial to so many people--as to education, health care, citizen participation and empowerment, equal rights for excluded groups, jobs (8% unemployment during a world Depression--that is very impressive), transparent elections, liberalizing of the air waves (for a wider spectrum of political opinions--rather than 24/7 rightwing vitriol on every TV/radio station), and formation of important new institutions such as the Bank of the South and ALBA, which have helped other poorer countries and the region. Our corpo-fascist rulers are bent on removing Chavez--and the challenge that the Bolivarian Revolution presents to U.S. corpo-fascist rule--but I don't think they will succeed.

[protocol rv]

54. Put yourself outside your self-enclosed US-based mindset

Who cares if US politicians are unpopular? You Americans tend to think of the world, always, in comparison to what happens to the US. We are discussing what is happening in Venezuela. And in Venezuela, the poll numbers show the government is losing popularity very fast. This is caused by the "economic crisis of 21st century socialism".

[slackmaster]

4. VISIONARY LEADERSHIP!

:nuke:

[Flaneur]

7. CONTENT-FREE SNARK!

[Mika]

14. Wow. It shows the impact of global climate change. Green energy, like hydro, is subject to it also.

Venezuela, which depends heavily on hydropower, was facing the worst drought in 100 years.

I guess the Venezuelan (elected) "dictator" should decree the use of more fossil fuel. :dunce:

---

[WriteDown]

17. What caused the last drought 100 years ago?

Global cooling?

[fascisthunter]

18. lol

great reply :thumbsup:

[bemildred]

20. El Niño intensifies Latin American drought

From a devastating food crisis in Guatemala to water cuts in Venezuela, El Niño has compounded drought damage across Latin America this year.

The occasional seasonal warming of central and eastern Pacific waters upsets normal weather patterns across the globe and occurs on average every two to five years.

Typically lasting around 12 months, El Niño reappeared once again in June.

Guatemalan authorities blamed it for the nation's worst drought in 30 years, which has left almost 500 people dead from hunger since the start of the year.

Around 36,000 hectares (90,000 acres) of corn and bean crops were lost, officials said.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatnews/6613929/El-Nino-intensifies-Latin-American-drought.html

[bemildred]

21. Will Commodities Be Affected by the South American Drought?

Harvest season will start in a month or so for the major South American agricultural areas in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. Unfortunately, for many of the farmers there will not be much to harvest. There has been no rain in much of the region for all of the spring and summer. This linked AP article gives some graphic examples of how Argentinian farmers are being affected.

Brazil and Argentina are the number 2 and 3 producers of soybeans. Brazil is the world’s number 1 exporter of beef and Argentina is in the top 5. The drought is especially hard on the corn crop which is used mainly to feed the beef, although a lot of the beef raised in the region is grass fed. The grass has not been watered either.

During the spring planting season the financial meltdown was at its peak and many South American farmers were not able to get loans to purchase fertilizer for their crops, putting a dent in the possible harvest for the year. Now the drought is further reducing the amount of grain that will be harvested and killing off a significant portion of the region’s cattle herd.

What does this mean for investors? First, I think you will start to see significant price increases in agricultural commodities: corn, soybeans and beef especially. Normally increasing prices for commodities would be good for the fertilizer prices, but this drought may have a strong negative impact on fertilizer sales in South America. Farmers there will not have the money or motivation to buy fertilizer for the next season's crop until they know the drought has broken.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/116657-will-commodities-be-affected-by-the-south-american-drought

[Billy Burnett]

22. If starvation makes a buck, then let there be a drought!

:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

[bemildred]

24. Shortages mean high prices.

Nobody likes to sell into a glut.

But I was just pointing out that the drought is not just local to Venezuela, nor are electricity shortages, or various other problems. There is a good deal of bloviating going about famine in Latin America etc. etc. so it seems wrong to think that Chavez is the cause of it all.

I really think they ought to look into deforestation as a causative factor in the drought too.

[Billy Burnett]

26. Only if food is commoditized.

[bemildred]

27. What are you? A Communist!!11!!!

It is true that the "free market" is a shitty way to manage our food supply, and it always has been, unless one thinks that a bit of starvation here and there is nothing to get upset about.

On the other hand, to be fair, "civilized" human societies have never been very smart about that sort of thing.

[protocol rv]

55. Chavez isn't the cause of electricity problems in Ecuador

Chavez can and should be blamed for the electricity problems in Venezuela. They are caused by government innaction, failure to execute plans laid out long ago, listening to Cuban "experts", and failure to maintain the power stations, all ills which given the amount of money Venezuela earns from the high oil prices, are easily cured if the government is run by competent people.

[bemildred]

56. I'm just saying that Chavez has a lot of company in failing to anticipate this crisis.

I'm OK with holding him accountable for how he deals with it, but I'm not OK with singling him out as the only guy that was not ready when the drought came along.

[protocol rv]

57. Ah, but he has resources others don't

You see, Venezuela's electricity infrastructure has been excellent for many years. And there have been Venezuelan experts (we didn't need to import Cubans to tell us how to run things until the government started losing quality under Chavez), who prepared plans to beef up our infrastructure because it was clear the population was growing, and there would be more need for power, transmission lines, etc. These plans were either ignored, or underfunded, or botched by Chavez and his Cuban advisors. Therefore the government, and of course the President, do have to bear the blame.

You see, the electric power crisis is just another one among many problems we're seeing here since Chavez took over. The rising crime wave is definitely something he can be blamed for. Inflation too. The lousy state of the public health system, I think that can be pinned on him too, since he has been wasting resources buying weapons and giving away while the Venezuelan poor suffer with a really really broken down health system.

It's just that you're not aware of the real problems people face. I know the information you receive in the USA is distorted, you should not trust your media at all. For example, they convinced you invading Iraq was a good idea, when the rest of the world thought you were a bunch of mad war mongers. And yet you wonder why people hate you. However, let's change the subject...there are ways for you to find out the truth. Reading the pro-Chavez propaganda here isn't very useful. Read figures. And do try to understand what the figures mean. I'm sure you can use a web search engine to look up crime rates, or inflation rates, or GDP growth rates. And make sure you have recent data, because things here have been really getting bad in the last 18 months or so, ever since Chavez and the PSUV lost the Constitutional referendum and the opposition took the majority of the seats in the Caracas region mayor offices, they have become really radical, mostly copying the methods and techniques they're taught by Cuban "masters" sent by Castro. This is getting bad.