Damn You! If you still believe Venezuela is an exemplary country, a role model because of Hugo Chavez and his Revolution. Did you read Animal Farm and 1984 by George Orwell? or The Process by Kafka? Well take the worst that happens in those books and put them all together in a blender, add some latin flavor and what you get is “La Revolución Bolivariana” (The Bolivarian Revolution).
Last week a new law was imposed on Venezuela, the Law on the National Intelligence and Counterintelligence System.
With this law, you have to “collaborate” with police without any judicial orders or prior trial. Everybody has to become a whistle-blower in favor of the revolution and against “Imperialism”. If you don’t become a snitch, you will get 2-4 years in prison or up to 6 years if you work for the government.
The real danger here is that with this new law, you are not presumed innocent until proven otherwise; you are guilty at once… like in the USSR, like in Cuba, like in North Korea.
Worst yet, Hugo Chávez has continually called his political opponents in Venezuela “Imperialists", “Oligarchs", “CIA agents", which means the law has only one goal: silence opposition or jail opponents to Chávez and his revolution.
This law resembles very much what happens in Cuba with the Revolution Defense Committees. They decide who is a counter-revolutionary and turn the defenseless suspects to the G2 (Cuban intelligence service).
Also, Cilia Flores, who acts as President of Venezuela’s National Assembly, recently said that there are “lots” of CIA agents in Venezuela and that “the long arm of the law” would reach them.
As an example of what will happen, whenever there is a popular protest in Venezuela, like when taxi drivers protest and block main avenues protesting against insecurity and the increasing number of drivers robbed and murdered, immediately a government speaker affirms, more than suggests, that the protest was promoted, provoked, infiltrated by the Empire and the CIA…
With the new law, there is no need to speak anymore, just jail whoever another driver believes is a CIA agent, or doesn’t believe so but is coerced to say so or else would go to jail for not “collaborating” with political police.

 Politics, Opinion, Venezuela, News, Crime

Yesterday, the Interior Minister of Venezuela, Rodriguez Chacín, announced that the media in Venezuela lie and that there are “almost” no murders or violent killings in our capital city, Caracas; he said, very sure of what he was stating, that most deaths are now because of accidents or suicides…
He also said that unfortunately, that record was broken because of the murder of an indigent the day before. Note that he was sorry for the statistics being altered, he never showed any empathy because of the death of the “recogelatas”, usually indigents who live on collecting aluminum cans and selling them for a living.
But unfortunately, it is not the media that lies. The government is the one trying to cover up reality.
The media, for the first time in history, is not allowed to cover what happens in Caracas’s main morgue; they have been barred from that horrendous and extremely busy place.
The media has to rely on what the daily crime report given by the government says. And to prove that the report is simply a lie, you only have to check yesterday’s report. It says that there were two murders in Caracas, that’s it.
But if you check the press, you will find that there are more than that, one newspaper, El Universal, reports another one not mentioned by the police report. El Nacional reports two violent deaths. La Voz de Guarenas, another newspaper, reports one more. A “socialist” newspaper subsided and loyal to the government, reports another one. And I could go on with this, but the fact is that the media is not exaggerating the truth to damage the government’s image, is the government who is minimizing and hiding facts to cheat on Venezuelans.
Venezuela, with Hugo Chávez as president has become more dangerous than ever. Places that used to be nice and tranquil have increased its crime rate in up to 400% (Mérida).
Jails are overcrowded and so inhuman that when prisoners are released, even if they were jailed for petty theft, they come out as well trained murderers.
The Military Reserve, which Chávez commands directly in peace and war, is full of people with no background checks; all you have to be is loyal to the revolution, and if you are, then you are trained to kill and given a brand new weapon.
In Venezuela, yearly, there are more deaths than in Irak, a lot more. And this is only getting worse, even if the Chávez government wants to conceal truth, which, by the way, is impossible; a lot of us in this country are not blind.

 Politics, Opinion, Venezuela, News

I don’t care who you vote for. It is your country, your future, your president. But, be careful, very careful, who you choose, because, it might be your country, but whatever happens there, splashes the rest of the world.
Venezuela is not a US foe, it is Hugo Chávez and his revolutionary scoundrels who have given the world and us too, the idea that Venezuela is against the US and is pro Russia, Cuba, Chinese and pro-Iran.
Well, that is wrong. Cuba is, and has always been to us, a communist island where people are all brainwashed, poor and ruled by a communist party who brainwashes its people and is very rich.
Russia is synonymous to us to KGB, Iron Wall, torture and a bunch of bad guys in government. That is our perception of Russia even though history has changed very much since the breaking apart of the USSR and the fall of the Iron Wall.
China, to us, is a big, big country, full of Chinese whom are incapable of showing emotions but that have a delicious food. But we, the people of Venezuela don’t care much about them, we’re quite neutral towards them. But not allies.
Iran, barely existed to Venezuela until it became part of Bush’s evil axis, and since Chávez made them our “brothers” and started making “strategic” alliances like cars and tractors factories that produce like one vehicle per year.
What has become too visible is that all those countries are providing ways for Venezuela to defend itself, as Chávez wants everybody to believe, but more probably to attack another country or even worse, Venezuelans who oppose Chávez.
Cuba has lots of G2 agents in Venezuela and they are training the military and police forces. Russia is selling arms, fighter jets,submarines. China is buying our oil so that, in case the US stops buying it, China and other countries will become our preferential customers and thus the money will still come in and so will all the weapons Chávez is buying.
Now, the fact that the US hasn’t traditionally been our foe can very easyly change depending on who the next president of the US is.
If the next president becomes a Carter like president, not only will the US suffer, but it will cease to be the first power in the world.
Whoever becomes president, if he tries to befriend Chávez, he will only be empowering the monster Chávez already is. Chávez will still be the despot he is, he will punish Venezuela’s economy, democracy, liberties… but now he will be one of the “good guys” because he will have a picture of him published, shaking hands with, probably, Obama.
If that happens, then we, Venezuelans, will be the new USA’s enemies. We, the people of Venezuela will feel betrayed by the US. And it won’t be easy to forgive.
So, yes, this is a warning. The next president of the United States of America, must be strong, must be tough, must not become protectionist, must not make the US an introvert.
Unfortunately, Bush did get the US in a very big problem, mostly with the Irak war. But that can’t be undone, the next president must go forward as strong as ever, or the world will see the fall of the US as a world power.

 Politics, Opinion, Venezuela

A few days ago Hugo Chávez, our despotic extra-bigmouthed military ruler, the self-proclaimed owner of Venezuela’s oil revenue checkbook, with which he even gives away cheap oil to poor Londoner’s, whom, by the way, have a minimal wage ten times bigger than a middle class worker in Venezuela, and who also funds (illegally) the FARC’s terrorists… but let’s not get off the topic.
A few days ago Hugo Chávez said in one of his Sunday 6 to 8 hours televised and radioed show “Alo Presidente", that in Venezuela economy is “normal". He gave an example, he said that last year a big cup of coffee (about 5 oz.) used to cost Bs. 300 ($ 1 = Bs. 2150, officially), he said that today it costs Bs. F. 3 (Bs. F. stands for Bolívares Fuertes which is our new revolutionary currency. The “New” is a simply trick to fool, the government subtracted zeros to the old money, so now, what last year would be priced at Bs. 3000, like a cup of coffee, now costs Bs. F. 3).
Well, as far as I know, 3000 is larger than 300, a simple guess makes me believe that is, maybe ten times more, and I emphasize “maybe", because Chávez might have changed math’s rules in a speach today and I’m not aware of it yet.
Chávez tought us during his show, that from one year to another, for an item to be ten times more expensive, is not inflation, it is normal.
So in Venezuela we have a very normal economy. Last year I used to eat a milk candy that used to cost Bs. 50 each. Now it costs Bs. 200. That isn’t inflation, it is normal. A Coca-Cola used to cost Bs. 1200, now it costs Bs. 1700 (can) to 2000 (small plastic bottle)… not inflation. I can mention hundreds of products that tripled or more its price in less than a year, but revolutionaries will attack me for that (or for anything else). There is no inflation in Venezuela.
There is another normal aspect of our economy. It is called sub-zero inflation. It applies to those products that despite “normal” inflation, tend to keep the same price for a year or more.
The sub-zero inflation applies to about 25% percent of medicines in Venezuela that, thanks to our normal economy and the currency control, disappeared from drugstore’s shelves.
Recently I learned I suffer from Hyperthyroidism, and I have to take several pills of Tapazol daily. I managed to buy 2 boxes after spending half a day searching in 12 pharmacies. Nobody knows when or if, the medicine will be back. Normal.
To not defame the governmental economical team in Venezuela, I will admit that they in turn admit there is inflation. Its supposed to be around 9% so far in the first 4 months of this year. Yet they swear it will not reach 30% at the end of this year. They have a formula for that; they will monitor and change CPI as needed.
For example, tissue paper, which has been scarce if not absent for almost a year, went from Bs. 1700 to Bs. 6000-8500… Solution: Tissue paper; out of CPI!
Well the last is not exactly like that, of course they can’t take tissue paper from Consumer’s Price Index, they will keep it there at a price that is not real; a regulated price of Bs. 1700. So that, won’t affect inflation, but the truth is that there is no place where you can get tissue paper at Bs. 1700, the cheapest you will find is one roll at Bs. 1500.
Finally, revolutionaries in Venezuela are so happy because minimum wages has been raised 30%. The government raised the minimum wage to $ 372 calculated with the officially imposed dollar exchange ($ 1 = Bs. 2150), but the truth is that the government restricts dollars for importers and the latter have to buy them in the black market or secondary market or parallel market to import goods… at 3500 to 6000 Bolívares per dollar (more, not less). So goods are imported at a, let’s say 5000 Bs. per dollar rate, making the minimum wage descend to $ 160. Which is exactly how it was before Chávez became president.
Supposedly Einstein said, “Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the universe.” When one sees that Chávez is still supported in his country and around the world, well, there is no doubt Einstein was absolutely and not relatively right.

 Uncategorized, Politics, Personal, Opinion, Venezuela, News

Forget about mangoes, tangerines, oranges, lemons, avocados, guava, passion fruit… the “Great” Caracas area now has a new kind of fruit that falls from trees and they are alive, and are heavy, and grab women’s purses, chains, watches and scare the hell out of their unaware victims.
This is happening in Guarenas, about 30 minutes from Caracas (when there is no traffic, and 2 or more hours in rush time).
Thieves have found a new way of robbing people, mostly women; they hide up in trees and when the victims are within reach, they jump, grab, and run… victims just don’t react after such kind of robbery, would you?
Residents of Guarenas have become stoic and see robberies, assaults, murders as part of their everyday life. That has diminished denounces of crimes to police. People simply don’t believe police will solve any crime, so why ask for help? Unfortunately, as I was once told, unless there is blood, or the stolen objects are very important, police won’t even investigate.
And, what have the citizens of Guarenas done? Prune trees.
Meanwhile, Chávez and his followers insist that our real problem is Imperialism, Oligarchy, and that communism is the panacea… sure, that’s why Cubans, North Koreans… live much better than all the people in the free world!
So, if you must walk in Guarenas, look down, for holes in the pavement, look both sides, to avoid getting run over by motorcycles, and now look up, not for meteorites, but for thieves from the trees.

Link to original News Source (in Spanish)

 Uncategorized, Venezuela, News

Although written with Africa’s situation in mind, this song applies to all so called “Revolutions” in the world. “Preaching water but drinking wine”… how truely does this phrase apply to Hugo Chávez of Venezuela.

THE REVOLUTION WILL EAT ITS CHILDREN Anthem for Uncle Bob
Revolutions around the world have always resulted in some form of social engineering accompanied by the inability to factor in that inevitable dark aspect of human nature – the lust for power.

He’s a leader, talks of freedom
He knows the power of the Big Idea
He’s a dealer, he’s a seeker
Of the power that comes from fear
He gave his life to the party machine
Holding on a secret dream
He knows better than anyone
´Power comes from the barrel of a gun…
And he’s rising up against them now
And he’s rising up in country and town
Rising up against them now, rising up

Chorus
The revolution has eaten its children
I see the river of dreams run dry
I’m so thankful I got to love you
You are the reason I survive

The promise of a better life for all
The promise of freedom from hunger and war
So many rose up to answer the call
And so many are no longer here at all
The hopes of yesterday drowning in shifting sands
‘cause something strange is going on accross the land
Preaching water but drinking wine
Power gets us every time
The more things change
The more they stay the same
And they’re rising up against him now
And they’re rising up from country to town
And they’re rising up, rising up

Chorus

Free them from this hunger,
Free!

 Politics, Video, Music, Opinion, Venezuela

During last Sunday’s mass, the “Inmaculada” Church, also known as “The Italians", was robbed by four gunmen who didn’t even bother to hide their faces. One of the robbers, held the Priest by the neck and pointed his gun to the head while another talked through the microphone and demanded all mass attendants to give them all their valuables or else the Priest would be killed. Everyone gave them whatever they had with them; money, watches, jewelery, etc.
After robbing everyone, including acolytes, the delinquents fled in a car that was waiting outside the church.
Everyone, still afraid, waited for some minutes before calling police. Police arrived minutes later but nobody was caught nor any of the stolen objects recovered.
This church is located in Valencia, Carabobo’s state capital. Carabobo is becoming one of the most dangerous, if not the most dangerous, state in Venezuela.
As far as I recall, this kind of robbery is unprecedented in Venezuela. Thieves were known to rob people once outside churches, but never while in church.
It is important to mention that Hugo Chávez, Venezuela’s dictator, is a foe of Catholic Church, although he calls himself a Christian, and continually attacks church and its leadership during his long lasting discourses (the longest during over eight continuous hours). Last verbal attack happened during his last speech, the same day the robbery took place. Coincidence? I doubt it.

 Politics, Venezuela, News

The world is full of problems and I want to write about a song; not even a new one. But this song has stirred my schizoid mind and has even constructed a nightmarish dream I had last night. A dream full of Nazis and persecution, full of fire and war and torture. A senseless dream, like most dreams seem to be, only that this one seemed even more complicated to even try to put together and make a little sense out of it.
You would say that the song that has done this must have come from musicians such as Syd Garrett, Peter Gabriel or some disturbed genius musician, but that’s not so. You may even think that the song is so complicated and profound, full of philosophy and meaning. But it is not. The song is called Take a picture and was written and performed by a band called Filter.
I heard it once many years ago; probably when it came out, but had not heard it since then, until yesterday when I was watching a short video about a fighter jet (!!!). The song struck me as I heard it in the video, but it was last night that I tried to find out more about it and whose song was it, because the video didn’t say. All I remembered was a part of the chorus, so I Googled it: “…could you wanna take my picture, ‘cause I won’t remember…“
After finding out about the song I downloaded it (Yes RIAA, I bought it!), and started listening to it in detail. Good, mellow song. A semi-ballad. Nicely played. Good vocals, good guitar, good rhythm. The lyrics, I thought, were probably about a person, probably the singer, whom had succeeded in life and had a father who didn’t believe in him.
I then searched for the band to find out about the person who had succeeded and had had a bad relationship with his father… that took me to the Wikipedia, and I was confronted with a description of the most probable reason to the lyrics of this song that I didn’t expect.
It seems Richard Patrick, the singer of Filter, got on a plane, got drunk, started to undress, was appeased by the air personnel and started to ask people to take pictures because he wouldn’t remember the moment. It also seems, but this I learned somewhere else, that the mention to his father was because another member of the band, sent one of those pictures to the singer’s family with a caption saying something like “what do you think about your son now!”.
I was puzzled. How could the lyrics accompanied with such mellow, nostalgic, heartfelt music be about a FUBAR episode in the life of a person? It seemed to me that it made no sense at all. I thought it was like if Candle in the wind would be sung in Salsa. It was like if the music said something and the lyrics something totally different and disconnected.
I then started to search for other people’s thoughts about this song and found lots of them in www.youtube.com
Most of the comments are from, seems to me, teenagers, since there are meesages such as: OMG!!!! WTF I loooooove this song… or dedications from boys to girls, boys to boys and someone’s reply: “WTF… Is he your lover or something?"… other “smart” people had to hate the song or write their unasked opinion about other bands being better.
Only one serious opinion that read: “I think this song is about a life changing experience where he realizes that he doesn’t have to follow the rules of society or what he was taught growing up. And that feeling you get when you realize you don’t have to follow those rules. You can make your own and still be a a good person. You feel reborn. And Take my picture was like saying at this moment I feel this way but he knows in the future he’ll forget and let guilt and outside influences take over. (Couloumbe102)”
At the end, I ended with some theories about this song. I still can’t believe this song is about a simple drinking too much in an airplane episode, unless, and some people seem to think this too, he’s remembering such an episode as a part of his life, long past, when he had serious problems, maybe substance or alcohol abuse. This hypothesis would make it possible for the music and the lyrics getting along.
Another theory is that the singer is lying and that all about the drunk part is just a joke, and that the song is simply fictional and more profound. That would make a lot of sense. The part about an airplane may be related to his writing the song in an airplane.
The third theory is that the song IS about the drinking episode but that the music is a failed act; that is, the music doesn’t have anything to do with the lyrics but they were, mistakenly but unknowingly, put together.
Finally, what does this song have to be with fire, war, Nazis, persecution… I don’t know. I’ll leave that to my psychiatrist.

The song:

The lyrics as per www.LyricsFreak.com Note: Even though the following lyrics show the chorus as saying “Could you take my picture?” , I make from the song that it says “Could you wanna take my picture?".

Take a Picture
by Filter

Awake on my airplane
Awake on my airplane
My skin is bare
My skin is theirs
Awake on my airplane
Awake on my airplane
My skin is bare
My skin is theirs
I feel like a newborn
And I feel like a newborn
Awake on my airplane
Awake on my airplane
I feel so real

Chorus:
Could you take my picture?
Cuz I wont remember
Could you take my picture?
Cuz I wont remember
Could you take my picture?
Cuz I wont remember
Could you take my picture?
Cuz I wont remember
Yeah

I dont believe in
I dont believe in
In your sanctity
You privacy
I dont believe in
I dont believe in
Sanctity
A hypocrisy
Could everyone agree that
No one should be left alone
Could everyoone agree that
They should not be left alone yeah
And I feel like a newborn
And I feel like a newborn
Kicking and screaming

Chorus

Hey dad what do you think about your son now
Ah hey dad what do you think about your son now

Chorus (x4)

The Video on YouTube (It does nothing to help understand the song, on the contrary its more confusing):

 Personal, Video, Music, Opinion

Fitna, the short and shocking movie by Geert Wilders, shows the worst of Islam, and yes, what the movie shows are no lies; radical Muslims are the way they are portrayed in the movie.
But are Muslims all the same? Are they all murderers and fanatics?
Before answering that, we too should ask ourselves similar questions; Are all Catholic priests pederasts and sex offenders? or, Do all nuns gamble? And the answer to all those questions is no.
Not all Muslims are radical killers, nor all priests are pederasts nor sex offenders, and nearly no nuns gamble. But when Muslims kill, priests are arrested as sex offenders or nuns gamble, all of them make the news, while most of Muslims, Priests and Nuns who make a decent and tranquil life don’t. It is no secret that most news need shock and scandal to be news; not many readers are interested in the normal aspects of life.
Fitna is made of several Suras from the Qur’an and news clips or shocking videos in between. Several speakers are shown attacking the Western Civilization, the jewish and all non Muslims. Sheiks, Ayatollahs, Imans, a little palestinian girl appear giving offensive messages directed to their enemies, mostly praising the death of non-Muslims and Jews. Even Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran is shown saying: “The message of the Revolution is global, and is not restricted to a specific place or time. Have no doubt… Allah willing, Islam will conquer what? It will conquer all the mountain tops of the world".
Videos of the WTC 9/11 attacks, the Madrid bombings, the beheading of Eugene Armstrong and other atrocities committed by Terrorists, are part of the 15 minute movie.
The end is related to Islam in the Netherlands, where Geert Wilders thinks the Dutch are menaced by Islam and exemplifies it with interviews of Dutch Muslims.
Not being a Muslim, and having some basic knowledge of Islam, I don’t find the movie that shocking to Islam. But radical Muslims and Muslims afraid their beliefs will be misunderstood by this film are not happy about the movie.
Even the website hosting the movie, www.liveleak.com had to drop it from their server because of death threats to its staff.
But again, what is shown in the movie are no lies, there are no fabrications, but neither is that if Catholics would really take some time to read the Bible, they would find that God kills millions and asks for sacrifices that, as of today’s standards are barbaric.
If we go back in history, we will find that all religions have killed millions in the name of their God. Even Catholics killed and tortured during the Inquisition.
So, the Suras that can be read through the film are true and they have their counterpart in all religious books, even the Catholic Bible.
That doesn’t make Islam a murderer’s religion. Yet fanatics such as the Jihadists and Mujahedins do give a very bad name to their religion in the name of God as do some white supremacists in the name of God, or even some American Catholics who celebrate deaths of soldiers and Gay people, also in the name of God.
The film is not a good idea. Its not that radical Muslims should have their way and kill all non_Muslims and dominate the world. No, that has to be stopped. But the film only helps to radicalize opponents in this “Holly” war. And when I say “Holly” I’m not referring to Muslims only.

 Politics, Opinion, News

I’m sorry to hear about Stephanie Kuleba’s death; by her friends accounts , she was a very nice, popular, honest person. She was cataloged as “perfect". Well, obviously she didn’t feel perfect, otherwise she wouldn’t have died after a breast-surgery.
But what strikes me about her death is not only that she died, it is the way the press has handled the news. No newspaper has reported her death as being caused by anesthesia; which seems to be the cause, all have reported the death of a Boca High School Cheerleader that had a breast surgery.
If we were only to read the headlines, it would look as though the culprit was the breast-surgery, not the reaction to anesthesia. I’m sure there are thousand of cases of people dying during or after surgery because of reactions to anesthesia, but I guess newspapers would consider quite dull a headline such as “Normal human being died after appendicitis". To make it a good headline, it has to be exaggerated and sort of misleading: “Breast-surgery kills West Boca High cheerleader”
The truth is I oppose breast surgeries unless they are for health reasons. All breast are the way they have to be and, in my opinion, a girl with breast implants may look good, but there is nothing like a natural well formed breast, and most of them are.
Yet all women have the right to do with their body what their minds think is the best for them. And plastic surgeons have all the right to perform those surgeries and they do, daily, without incidents.
It takes one case to make a lot of noise, “Breast-surgery kills West Boca High cheerleader”, and to jeopardize the jobs of thousands of doctors and millions of women. And worst jet, its not the breast surgery, but a part of it that is common to all surgeries, anesthesia, which, it seems, is to blame for Stephanie Kuleba’s death.
A final word. If Stephanie is watching from heaven how she’s being treated by friends and media, she must be having conflicting feelings; thankful for the kind words and praises, but ashamed and naked because of the way her death has been portrayed. I’m sure she didn’t want everybody to know she was to have a breast-surgery. That is a personal and private matter, which in her case, is not any longer.

 Opinion, News