OW, I mean Dan, get ready for a visit to NYP Human Resources
Comenabo--what makes you so sure that OW is who you think she/he is?
Suffer you vendepatria--we all know that you people read, but are too scared to comment in a venue where not everyone will try to engage mutual ass-kissing.
For me, OW, I will be happy when Venezuela does away with these transnational oil companies.
It can be done, in time--and it will help Venezuela keep more of the profits from its oil resources.
Oil is a diminishing resource--the price can only go up because they are not finding huge new fields to bring on line.
Chavez and Venezuela are showing the world how it's done.
The sell-out mercenaries for heartless, corrupt capitalism will continue with their neoliberal formulas (privatize, privatize, privatize) because these whores know that that is what the elites want to hear. If they said anything different they would be thrown out to the curb on thier ear.
Chavez is showing that so much of what passes for sage economic analysis and 'common sense' is nothing more than warmed-over dogma spewed ad nauseum by lackies/flunkies to the world's elite classes.
As of late, even these dispicable minions aren't so sure that their delusion resembles anything close to 'truth'--or 'common sense'.
Daniel Burnett
Dan Burnett sonata:
I suoi torti
I soui torti
(I have gone,
I have gone)
sono stato esposto
sono stato esposto
(I have been exposed,
I have been exposed)
inspired by Daniel you know who
IL CACCIATORE GRANDE DELL'ELEFANTE BIANCO ERA AQUI
to Slave Revolt: you aren't the only one who thinks that way, someone on the August Global Exchange tour asked a PDVSA representative as to why it was entering into licensing agreements with transnationals at all?
why not just make all the money?
the response?
PDVSA is recovering from the strike/sabotage, having lost approximately 18,000 workers, needs access to new technologies and sees a benefit to having as many political friends as possible
Richard--I am refering more to the longer-term strategy. Why wouldn't the nation of Venezuela get rid of as much capitalist parasitism as possible?
Indeed, this does not happen overnight, but this is the 'sine qu non' of any lasting revolution--ridding the nation of parasitism on the part of on class of elites over others.
Contradictions and obstacles abound, however, I believe that most honest people can see the logic in Venezuela controlling the entire game of oil production and distribution, cutting the capitalists out where possible.
This 'resource-nationalism' is encouraging. Transnationals will suck the blood out of a country, and leave ecological havoc in their wake.
GWEH--dude! cool to see ya in these lugubrious environs.
Keep coming back, you're whacked. LOL
Call your buddies over to engage in debate--especially your mate Boyde.
We know you read regularly, but are afraid to comment here.
Don't be afraid, OW don't ban or censor unlike (aa-hummmm!)...er...some blogs we all know....jajajajajajajaja--jeee, jeee, jeeee..
With Carter and Chavez on our side, Ol'e Slave and his homies is all right.
SR and Richard:
I think it is a few things. First what Richard brought up was true and they needed temporary help from whereever they could get it. Beyond that, they use the foriegn firms where they need their techonology in extracting oil that is from older areas and hard to get out or the extra heavy crudes of the Orinoco belt which also required technology to get out but to process and turn into "synthetic" oil. Its not usable exactly as it comes out of the ground. So thats why the outside firms are used.
Lastly, the foriegn firms put up capital that Venezuela may not be able to afford to put up. So for all those reasons the foriegn companies will probably be around awhile. But they'll pay top dollar as they should and as they are even willing to pay.
Burnett, you owe me a plain ticket to Caracas. Would you fulfil your promise, considering that I acted upon it, or will you breach the contract?
I reckon you'll have some serious explaining to do to your employer, mind you do they pay you to write 'fact based blogs' about other countries?
Alek, why the obession with Burnett? He must have made you look silly last year when he forcefully rebutted your feeble arguments.
Please, mate, move on--there is more to life than harrassing and obesssing over the 'real' identity of OW.
Even I don't know OW's identity.
He said previously that if he told me that he would have to kill me (even though and I am fellow Bolivarian!).
Please, somethings are better left unsaid.
I have been a fan of yours Boyd for a long time, even though I disagree with much of what you write and your core ideology.
So bro, mate, I am imploring you, stop this identity obsession.
Above all Boyd, you are starting to sound like the proverbial 'moonbat', the caricature so tenaciously promoted by useless neocons.
Venezuela's Chavez: Government Must Change How Poverty Measured
Venezuela's Chavez: Government Must Change How Poverty Measured
CARACAS -(Dow Jones)- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said traditional poverty measures "don't work" and fail to reflect the poverty reduction efforts of his administration.
"We need to change the method used to measure (poverty) to reflect an extraordinary, revolutionary situation," said Chavez in televised remarks referring to his government's heavy spending on social programs for the poor.
People living below the poverty line rose to 63% of all Venezuelans during the first six months of the year, up from 52.7% in 1998, the year before Chavez took office, according to the Institute of Economic and Social Studies at the local Andres Bello Catholic University.
University researchers use the government's survey of household incomes to compute the yearly poverty level.
The government's National Statistics Institute, INE, last published poverty figures of 60.1% for the first half of 2004.
Chavez has long denounced the INE's household survey for not quantifying the benefits the poor receive in the form of subsidized food prices, free education programs and health benefits through neighborhood health clinics.
"I challenge the figures of the National Statistics Institute.... We have to change the method used," Chavez said.
The president insisted it is shameful his government has so far been unable to devise a new way to measure the impact these social programs have on the poverty level.
"Yes, Venezuela still has a lot of poverty, but here the poor have free education, health and guaranteed nutrition," said Chavez.
Economists note that factoring the effects of social spending initiatives is difficult and can also be deceptive since these programs are temporary.
"How long will people receive these benefits, and what will people do when they no longer get them?," said Matias Riutort, an economist at the Andres Bello University.
The government's social spending efforts have helped reduce poverty in the last two years, he said, but not a lot.
Total poverty levels in Venezuela reached 65.7% in 2003, one of its highest levels, amid continued political upheaval and a tough economic situation.
Since then, that margin has come down, helped by the government spending and an ongoing economic recovery, Riutort said.
Chavez has long pressed the central bank and the INE to rethink the way they measure major economic variables, among them inflation.
Earlier this year, after repeated demands from the president, central bank authorities increased the weight of subsidized food prices in their inflation survey, a move that helps keep inflation statistics low.
Chavez, who plans to run for reelection, has vowed to enhance social spending before his term expires
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