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www.vheadline.com Posted: Thursday, January 30, 2003 - 10:45:47 AM By: Helena Russell
Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 09:11:00 -0500 From: Helena Russell hrussell@alimentausa.com To: editor@vheadline.com Subject: Venezuela: Just Imagine. (Excelent!)
Dear Editor: This is a view that your commentarists have not wanted to present ... just imagine that Richard Nixon had used the majority he obtained in 1972 (he carried all the states except D.C. and Massachusetts) to change the U.S. Constitution.
Let us say that rather than having it amended through the established constitutional procedures, he had called for a constitutional convention and that with 65% of the popular vote he had managed to get 95% of the delegates to the convention.
Assume, further, that the convention had abolished Congress, extended the President's term to six years (with the possibility of re-election) and established a transitory regime under which all the Supreme Court Justices, the Attorney General (as head of a new branch of government) and the national electoral authorities (as heads of another branch), were elected either by the convention or with complete disregard for the procedures and requirements established in the new Constitution, by a newly-elected Congress, packed with Nixon supporters riding on Nixon's post-electoral honeymoon.
Not to strain too much your imagination, just assume that the convention decided to "clean up" the court system and substitute the existing judges by persons appointed by the Nixon-controlled majority, now following the dictates of Nixon's new party, the "New Republicans," again disregarding even the new Constitution.
In comes Watergate. The "plumbers" are discovered and the Washington Post exposes the tapes and most of Nixon's dirty tricks and cover ups. But the investigation is conducted by Mitchell, the Attorney General, and it fizzles out into nothing. The Supreme Court, packed with Nixon appointees, rules that there is no place for a special prosecutor: out goes Archibald Cox. And, under the new Constitution, the impeachment of the President must be cleared by the Supreme Court, after a formal accusation is lodged by the Attorney General.
Ignoring the Washington Post and the national outrage, Mitchell does nothing while the Supreme Court uses every trick in the book to avoid having an independent investigation launched. At the same time, Woodward, Bernstein and the journalists who have denounced Nixon's wrongdoings are verbally abused by the President, who accuses them of being criminals only interested in unseating him, while government-sponsored mobs are sent to intimidate the media and destroy their property.
The American people react. Huge demonstrations are staged against the President. The media take issue and support the demonstrations. Nixon sends his mobs to sabotage and physically attack peaceful demonstrators. The authorities do nothing and are accused of having armed these mobs, who are openly self-described as cadres of New Republicans financed by the government and called Washingtonian Circles. But the protesters are not deterred, so Nixon, who by now has purged the armed forces from law-abiding officers, sends in the National Guard to protect his mobs and repress the peaceful demonstrations.
The situation becomes unbearable. Polls show that more than 70% of the population want Nixon to resign. Business and labor leaders, the Democrats, the old Republicans, the now-battered media, human rights organizations, environmentalists, and most NGOs, call for the President's resignation and/or new elections. The President refuses and, instead, steps up the repression. Peaceful demonstrators are killed by New Republican mobs, Washingtonian Circles and/or by members of the armed forces and the secret police.
A national strike erupts. Strikers manage to paralyse the economy and ask for Nixon's resignation or the holding of anticipated elections. They base their action on a new constitutional provision that allows civil disobedience and the non-recognition of any government or authority that violates the Constitution and abuses human rights. Nixon refuses the strikers' demands. Taking advantage of the fact that his subservient Supreme Court has extended his mandate for one additional year beyond his original term, he says he would only accept to step down through a mid-term referendum that can only be feasibly held one year later, at the soonest.
All other options are subversive and unconstitutional, including the holding of an earlier referendum asking the people whether they want him to resign, which has already been called following constitutional procedures. In response to the calling of the referendum, he states that he will not abide by its results and refuses to disburse the funds owed to the electoral authorities to function. Not happy with this, he steps up repression and starts persecuting the strike leaders.
The imagination can only be stretched so far. But let us say that Nixon's initial wrongdoings are not just limited to the Watergate affair. Let us assume that his New Republican majority has rewritten all the laws on public spending. And ... unbelievable as it may seem ... thousands of billions of dollars have been spent in violation of these very rules, and are unaccounted for. Nixon acknowledges the violations, which include raiding the Central Bank and grabbing funds elsewhere that have not been appropriated by Congress, and claims such funds have been used to pay for the government payroll and for public works, ignoring the fact that funding had already been given by Congress for these purposes.
In the meantime, Nixon refuses to release funds that constitutionally and legally must be transferred to state and local governments that are not controlled by the New Republicans.
Please bear with me and imagine that all this happens at a time when there is an unprecedented bonanza in the price of a commodity whose production makes up for 50% of government income and for 80% of the country's foreign exchange, allowing for one of the greatest increases in public spending in US history.
And, finally, just imagine that in four years Nixon has managed to turn all this into an economic nightmare: a doubling of the unemployment rate to upward of 20%, a 10% decrease in GDP for 2002, the highest inflation rate in the Americas (32%), an 80% depreciation of the US dollar during that year and ... unbelievably ... one of the highest budget deficits in recorded history.
I will not further abuse your imagination to go into the issue of the unheard-of levels of corruption behind the Nixon Administration and the fact that not a single case of graft has been prosecuted by Mitchell (who has the monopoly of public prosecution under the new Constitution), despite the countless documented cases revealed by the media and formally brought before him and the Supreme Courts by private citizens, political parties and NGOs.
Now, stop imagining; start thinking. President Chavez in Venezuela is for real. The Nixon analogy, as outlined above, represents just a tame portrayal of what Chavez is doing to Venezuela. The real Nixon was responsible for Watergate but he was also responsible for the opening to China and the U.S.S.R. He had the decency to resign when he realized that dragging his country through an impeachment process would prove disastrous to the U.S.
Chavez is banking on his country's destruction to remain in power and rule unopposed as a despot. Venezuela is not a banana republic!
Venezuelans constitute a peace-loving people, that have never gone to war, that have managed to maintain a democratic system for more that 50 years, and that refuse to see their democracy perish. The way that Venezuelans are responding to the abuses of the Chavez regime are nothing short of heroic, and should be understood as such by anyone taking the trouble to look closely at what is going on in the country.
Start thinking; and think right.
Helena Russell hrussell@alimentausa.com
www.vheadline.com Posted: Friday, January 31, 2003 - 4:30:24 AM By: Einnoc Lebrac
Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 20:55:16 -0800 (PST) From: Einnoc Lebrac venezuelanoestuya@yahoo.com To: editor@vheadline.com Subject: in Venezuelan terms...
Dear Editor: Finally, somebody found the perfect way to explain things in understandable terms: The letter “This is a view that your commentarists have not wanted to present” (www.vheadline.com) made me realize that for the “haves” to understand Venezuela we need to talk to them in their own Venezuelan language: “American English” and in “American terms.”
Let's imagine this other analogy:
Time has passed, Vietnam is history, Watergate is history, Cold war is history, Capitalism is history, communism is history and so on ... the fashion now is “money & terrorism.”
President Hugo Bush is now in power in his beautiful “banana republic.” He has been telling the world that there is a big percentage of people suffering and starving, people whose rights have always been talked about but never really recognized, that salaries need to be adjusted to the reality of the country. These same people listen carefully to what Hugo Bush is saying and suddenly they realize that what made them so unhappy for many generations, which they had learned to accept as their destiny, what the “padre” at their local church has told them every Sunday… was not necessarily… necessary!
They suddenly realize that Hugo Bush is right, that being poor is not a crime, that there is hope … that they too should have dignity … that they too should be respected at their work place … that if they work hard, their efforts should be decently compensated, that the so called “minimum wage” is a shameful tactic to keep them poor and uneducated.
That the 14-year-old daughter of the maid does not need to silently accept to go to bed with the “senor” of the house because he threatened her with firing her mother… (although the mother would not believe her, because the “senor” is a gentleman who has been so good to them; he lets them take the leftovers home when they get a weekend off; and sometimes, he even sends his chauffeur to drop them off at “la redoma de petare” when they go home).
Antonio (fictive name) has been working as a chauffeur for Don Leandro, the Ambassador (fictive name) for over 13 years now, and Don Leandro's children now have a new dog, and it is Antonio who has to take care of the dog, which always does its “thing” by Antonio's bedroom door. Antonio does not like dogs, but he has to clean that dog's thing away every single morning … and he better not complain because, who cares how faithful he has been to Don Leandro all these years? He already lost his dignity, he can not afford to lose his job … Don Leandro, of course, is totally unaware of this, and he would probably think “if he does not like it, he can leave, I'm not forcing him to stay…” but Antonio does know that the only thing he knows how to do is drive, and with his wife at the hospital, and his two small children needing schooling … no, he can not afford to look for another job right now…
Maria Josefina, is an accountant ... in 1990 she turned 40, and that year after 12 years working for the same company, she lost her job. With a pair of twin daughters, Sussie and Luisa (10), she looked for a job in her field, but after two months, she could not find one. She opted for a secretarial position (she could not keep on living from her relatives charity, they could hardly cover their own needs) … all jobs posted on the paper indicated “entre 20 y 25” (between 20 and 25 years of age). Then her mother told her to try and calling Dr's So and So’s wife ... she is “copeyana” and knows many “important” people (the mother used to clean their house).
Maria Josefina called, as her mother suggested ... soon MJ gets a job at a government office … the lady tells her “but you know, since you have no experience there, they might not offer you a great salary, but is better than nothing…”
MJ gets an offer, her salary ½ the minimum wage, she would be the secretary of some “Commercial Attache.” Amongst her duties to take his suits to dry cleaning (politely asked, of course); shine his shoes; bring him coffee in the morning and in the afternoon; and never contradict him when he is in a bad mood, and when his wife calls to ask for something, MJ must attend to her needs before anything else. If she needs to go shopping, MJ must go with her and stay with the children until the wife is done with the shopping, then she drops her off at work at the end of the day (after regular working hours), the Boss’ wife can not drive MJ home because it is night time and MJ lives in a “barrio.” Too dangerous for “the wife.” Maria Josefina waits for the bus and cries, she desperately needed a job, her two little girls needed to eat …she has been raped of her dignity … she had no choice but to keep on doing this … for now … but the scar will forever stay. She now more than ever wants her little girls to get an education … but what are their chances?
Why would people like Maria Josefina want this situation to change?
Why would she want to vote again for someone like Hugo Bush ... I have no idea!
No, not all “the people” agree with what Hugo Jr. thinks ... the “haves” immediately begin to calculate the extent of this modification to the “status quo” of the “haves not.”
No way, Bush, if we start raising the salaries of the “uneducated and unqualified” workers, they might start getting ideas about saving money, getting an education, getting organized and start trying to negotiate fringe benefits ... then, who is going to do the dirty work?
We can not allow that, because that would prevent us from enjoying our yearly vacation in Florida or Switzerland, or sending our children to study in private schools or to the USA, and they would have to study here in “banana republic” ... and if that happens, then they will need to go to the same universities as “the poor,” and since we want our children to receive proper education, we're going to have to start giving something back to the communities where we live to improve schools, etc.
Hugo Jr. knew they were not going to like this idea ... and he was right, they are now panicking, they need to find the way to stop this and stop it fast.
The first thing that comes to mind ... since we are “civilized and educated” ... let's finish with the poor, let's starve them to death, let's kill them all to get rid of poverty, since “poverty” is something we do not understand ... but let's blame it on Hugo Bush.
Then an “intelligent, educated, civilized and rich” leader, says “wait a minute” let's get George W. Chavez to help us ... he is powerful and, the rich of all "banana republics" believe he is perfect, his administration holds the ultimate truth and therefore he should own all oil producing lands (no better product has been discovered or artificially created thus far, to replace oil) on top of that. George W. Chavez. is out for a vendetta against some "Arab" leader for having caused "some trouble" to George Chavez Sr. in the past ... and since he wants his dad to be proud of him, he is out to get it all… the head of the “Arab” leader and the OIL!
Now, he's the strongest of all and he's out to conquer every single drop of oil left in the world, and those who would oppose ... eell, he'll massacre them … he'll do it to avenge his father, and then he will help us ... our “banana republic” has much oil too. Let's accuse Bush of terrorism ... George W. Chavez would understand that, lets make Bush appear like a real threat to the USA ... let’s invent all kind of horrible terrorist stories (and let’s believe them too) ... let's attack our own oil industry to get the US’ attention, let's stay away from all the trouble, though, and let our followers kill themselves in the process to show some blood to the world and let's blame it on Hugo Bush.
In the end we will win, and if not, we will let George W. Chavez do what he does to those who do not think like him…the same as what we the “civilized, educated, rich" of Venezuela want to do to our own fellow Venezuelans...”
We have always been good to our employees, we can not pay them better salaries if they have no diplomas … they don't need to have savings, the government has public hospitals ... not enough to take care of the whole population of poor? ... oh well, too bad, some have to die, but that’s the government’s fault.
Helena Russell ends her letter: “Venezuelans constitute a peace-loving people, that have never gone to war, that have managed to maintain a democratic system for more that 50 years, and that refuse to see their democracy perish. The way that Venezuelans are responding to the abuses of the Chavez regime are nothing short of heroic”
Of course Venezuelans have never gone to war: Why would have they?
For over 50 years the oppressed have been oppressed without even calling it that way, and the oppressors have been enjoying it. Why would they have gone to war? Millions of Antonios and Maria Josefinas are real ... and their situation is not this government’s fault … it's the fault of over 50 years of your heroes being blind, selfish and totally ignorant of a reality that can no longer be hidden away.
If it is not Hugo Chavez Frias, it will be somebody else ... but “the people” have now woken up!
If the Chavez regime is abusive ... and it has been in existence for only 4 years … yes, those Venezuelans you are talking about, must be heroes … imagine if they would have been the ones being abused during the previous 50 years … what would you call them, saints? Or perhaps, terrorists?
Sorry people, all that “horrible” regime you have been enduring for four long years, is only seen that way by you and your equals ... the rest of the population have seen it worse for over 50 years, when everything seemed so perfect for you ... it was being hell for the rest of the country.
“Start thinking; and think right.” If the USA is right, everything else must be left, and I guess there is no way in between.
I now, get out of my analogy … as easy as the lady whose email address reads: “alimentausa” (“feed the USA”) … talking about analogies…
God help us all!
Einnoc Lebrac venezuelanoestuya@yahoo.com
www.canada.com GILLIAN LIVINGSTON CP Friday, January 31, 2003
Iraqi, Venezuelan crises boost prices. Big 4 nearly triple fourth-quarter profits, but a repeat this year seems unlikely Four of Canada's biggest integrated oil companies nearly tripled their fourth-quarter profits to $1.3 billion thanks to higher oil and gas prices, but analysts say there probably won't be a repeat performance in 2003.
For Imperial Oil, Petro-Canada, Shell Canada and Suncor Energy, the fourth quarter in particular and 2002 overall was a bonanza as the threat of a U.S. war with Iraq and a major strike in Venezuela pushed oil prices above $30 U.S. a barrel by year end.
Higher prices for oil and natural gas helped make 2002 a stellar year for the industry leaders, which also benefited from increased production from new projects or acquisitions and improved profits in gasoline refining and marketing to make it a stellar year for the industry.
But Gord Currie, an analyst with Canaccord Capital, said it's "unlikely" that '03 will be as strong as 2002 for Canada's big oil companies because prices are likely to dip as the Iraq situation is resolved.
"Whenever oil and gas prices are as high as they are today the balance of probabilities is that they're going to be lower," he said. "I think it's just a question of time - is it the second quarter or a year from now, we don't know. But it would be very difficult for 2003 to measure up."
The results disclosed so far by four of Canada's biggest oil producers, refiners and gasoline marketers show they are reaping the benefits of higher prices while they have that option.
EnCana Corp., created last year by the merger of PanCanadian Energy and Alberta Energy Corp. to create the largest Canadian independent oil and gas producer, isn't due to release its fourth-quarter results until Feb. 20. But Petro-Canada issued vastly improved results yesterday when it reported a 440-per-cent increase in its fourth-quarter earnings - to $356 million from $66 million a year ago.
Higher energy prices were the main cause, although Petro-Canada also gained from its acquisition last year of the international assets of Veba Oil & Gas, whose production and exploration is focused in the North Sea, North Africa and northern Latin America.
Petro-Canada chief executive Ron Brenneman called 2002 "an outstanding year" which annual profits rose by 15 per cent over 2001 to $974 million.
Shell Canada's earnings report yesterday echoed these events as its profits rose to $247 million in the fourth quarter from $170 million a year ago. Full-year profits, fell, however, to $561 million from just over $1 billion a year ago, a period of extraordinarily high natural-gas prices.
Last week, Calgary-based Suncor Energy reported fourth-quarter profits soared more than tenfold to $258 million from $26 million. For the year, profits of $761 million were nearly double the year earlier.
Energy giant Imperial Oil more than doubled its profits to $454 million in the fourth quarter as high oil prices helped the company post its third-biggest annual profit ever.
For the full year, the Toronto-based company, a subsidiary of U.S.-based ExxonMobil, earned a profit of $1.2 billion compared with $1.24 billion in 2001.
Gushing Cash
Imperial Oil Ltd.
Quarterly profits: $454 million, up from $194 million in the year-earlier period.
Company: Imperial operates national chain of 2,500 Esso gasoline stations, a number of oil refineries and is produces heavy oil and natural gas.
Shell Canada Ltd.
Quarterly profits: $247 million, up from $170 million.
Company: Major gas producer. Owns national chain of Shell stations.
Petro-Canada Inc.
Quarterly profits: $356 million, up from $60 million last year.
Company: A major oil and gas producer, it also operates national gas-station chain.
Suncor Energy Inc.
Quarterly profits: $258 million, up from $26 million last year.
Company: A major oilsands producer in northern Alberta. It also has a chain of Sunoco gasoline stations in Ontario.
www.forbes.com Reuters, 01.31.03, 8:11 AM ET
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Striking Venezuelan oil workers said Friday oil output stood at just over 1 million barrels per day (bpd), while the government has estimated that it has managed to lift production to about 1.4 million bpd.
Two months into the opposition strike to oust leftist President Hugo Chavez, both sides have provided conflicting accounts of the impact of the stoppage on the world's fifth largest oil exporter.
Production is stalled at 1.064 million bpd, striking workers at state oil firm Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) said in a daily report. Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said Wednesday the government had managed to bring output up to 1.427 million bpd. Pre-strike levels were 3.1 million bpd.
Fighting back against the strike, Chavez has sacked several thousand workers from PDVSA and deployed troops to seize control of installations and refineries. The strikers have vowed to stay out until Chavez resigns, calls elections and reinstates fired oil executives and managers.