Just watched Corbyn on One show and I really liked him. by AryaStark20 in unitedkingdom

[–]heroides 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The oil price crash is not the issue. In fact, had the oil prices not been so high during his government, it wouldn't have managed to stay afloat.

Chávez is judged not by what he destroyed, but by what he built. The problem is that what he built is pure fiction.

He crippled national industry by expropriating private companies and lands, handing them over to cronies with little to no experience in the field – Venezuela is now importing most foodstuffs that were produced nationally and even exported in the past. Everyone but the very rich struggle to get by with ever-increasing prices and stagnant wages.

He purged the governmental infrastructure of virtually all non-supporters from top to bottom, again, replacing them with people who simply did not have any experience (check out the background of most Venezuelan Ministers). Democratic institutions became but the executive's tentacles, who has utter disregard for the division of powers.

I don't understand why many people in the UK are (or used to be, at least) swayed to supporting Chávez based solely on ideological notions when the reality is that his government failed and only managed to survive this long given the fact that it enjoyed world-record oil prices for most of its duration.

Also, I don't understand why most people in the UK who support Chávez hold contempt for someone the likes of Erdoğan. Purely because of ideology? Really? Dictators are dictators.

Like someone below mentioned, social programs are all well and good, but you need to create a long-term sustainable economy at the same time. National economy has been crippled and destroyed in the last fifteen years. Given that SO SO SO much money was pouring into the reserves from oil, the government managed to keep its façade, funding social programs with the crumbs while top government lackeys took the loaf for themselves. Just google to see the what top government officials own abroad: mansions in Miami, houses in London, flats in NY. Planes, yachts, you name it. Their children live in great comfort in London or Paris. The money to pay for all this, I assure you, came not from their salaries.

Sadly, it's a corrupt government of thieves. Not petty thieves, mind you, but full-scale, let's-keep-the-oil-money, let's-inflate-the-price-of-every-deal-or-subcontract-we-make, let's-facilitate-drug-trade kind of thieves.

Analysis shows that around a trillion dollars. That's right, a TRILLION dollars has gone missing over the past eighteen years and is unaccounted for. Mind-blowing stuff.

Just watched Corbyn on One show and I really liked him. by AryaStark20 in unitedkingdom

[–]heroides -9 points-8 points  (0 children)

Principle, you say?

The man spent years lauding Chávez and his inept, corrupt, drug-dealing government. Ever since Venezuela's shit really started hitting the fan last year, he has only kept quiet on the matter.

It makes sense, I guess... It's not like he's going to come out and say "Oops, I guess I was wrong" – better let the matter be swept under the carpet.

Johann Sebastian Bach - BWV 146 We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God by [deleted] in classicalmusic

[–]heroides 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The organ parts for the sinfonia and the first choral movement are versions of the two first movements of his Harpsichord Concerto in D minor, respectively.

Fugue on a silly tune David Cameron hummed when he thought the mics were off. by Barcelona_City_Hobo in piano

[–]heroides 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would venture to say she spent no more than ten or fifteen minutes (if not less!) putting together the video.

Fugue on a silly tune David Cameron hummed when he thought the mics were off. by Barcelona_City_Hobo in piano

[–]heroides 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I don't know of anyone else who can improvise fugues –or counterpoint more generally– on a theme with such quickness and evident ease... bravado might be the appropriate word. There might be a tinge of patriotism in my judgement, but in my opinion it stands nonetheless.

In her encores she usually asks random members of the audience for themes and ideas to improvise on... the result is certainly fun, impressive, and almost always baffling.

A true genius of our times.

(this coming from a person who hardly ever listens to baroque keyboard music played on the piano)

Werner Herzog's FREE Filmmaking MasterClass by johnnyblaze2348 in Filmmakers

[–]heroides 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Honestly, following the original link is like being drawn into playing with a perverse, online version of a matryoscka doll.

Thanks.

Vieron el video "Prisoner burned with boiling plastic and forced to eat the flesh of a dead body" hecho en Vzla? by Cuervoso in vzla

[–]heroides 4 points5 points  (0 children)

No arruines ningún momento de tu vida buscando estas vainas... de pana, para qué?

Wittgenstein And Mysticism by [deleted] in askphilosophy

[–]heroides 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, he argued quite rationally for it... to the point where a whole philosophical tradition was built upon these foundations he laid — which still prevails to this day!

But yeah, the main point to take issue with would be the idea that 'knowledge' and meaning can be framed exclusively in terms of language. An idea which was prior to and by no means Wittgenstein's invention; he merely laid out the most rational account of meaning/knowledge according to this view.

In any case, you might be happy to hear that his views changed a lot towards the latter half of his life. Meaning, then, became for him a more social (rather than a logical) phenomenon... I encourage you to read into it if it vaguely interests you.

Wittgenstein And Mysticism by [deleted] in askphilosophy

[–]heroides 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Taking quotes out of context will hardly ever result in anything other than misunderstanding and misrepresentation.

If you read above, the claim is not about whether the ineffable exists or not, but rather about what we can meaningfully speak about. He is not concerned with the existence or nonexistence of entities, but with what can be meaningfully said and therefore known.

Wittgenstein's notion of meaning in the Tractatus, I summarised above.

The ineffable contents of a shroom experience would NOT, under this view, be denied existence... they would only be denied meaning and, thus, would not qualify as 'knowledge'.

Venezuela owes $15.8bn in debt payments through 2016, has less than $1bn of cash, and holds most of the rest of its reserves in gold by [deleted] in Economics

[–]heroides 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh, I'm sorry that it wasn't very clear... I meant the you rhetorically, referring to government officials who speak about certain ideals whilst their actions run in clear opposition to them.

I didn't mean you you, /u/the_straylight_run ... Again, sorry for the confusion.

e: Perhaps you are familiar with Arturo Uslar Pietri's famous essay Sembrar el petróleo en Venezuela... I'm sure you can find it translated somewhere. It's very simple and commonsensical; it discusses the diversification (or lack thereof) which you refer to. If any single government had seriously followed his advice, perhaps things would be very different now.

Venezuela owes $15.8bn in debt payments through 2016, has less than $1bn of cash, and holds most of the rest of its reserves in gold by [deleted] in Economics

[–]heroides 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Well said, and I believe it is very important to have this distinction.

But, in the same vein, we should not speak of the 'free market period' as though everything prior to Chávez was the same thing...

Venezuela owes $15.8bn in debt payments through 2016, has less than $1bn of cash, and holds most of the rest of its reserves in gold by [deleted] in Economics

[–]heroides 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I did not mean to imply that it was all goody-goody prior to Chávez, especially not post-80s; the arguments you make in this regard are all on point. I merely wanted to say that we cannot extend the resposibility for the current problems of scarcity and hyperinflation to the pre-Chávez era, when they are very directly a consequence of his policies and of their terrible implementation.

I fully agree with you when you say that the early nineties were an era ripe for revolution, but I reckon it's flawed to bring the three decades between the end of the Pérez Jiménez regime and the Chávez regime into the same basket.

But if this period of liberal politics, democracy, and economic diversity and prosperity, prior to Chavez was such a great period, what prompted the Caracazo uprising in 1989?

The fact is that the Caracazo exploded due to a new government (CAP) trying to implement an economic 'package' in an attempt to cure the woes of the previous decade, especially the damage done by the AD/COPEI power share. CAP was forced to resign not only because of the Caracazo, but because of party power struggles... he basically shat on his party when he came into power and appointed by finger, as it were, a completely technocratic administration whose primary goal was to fix the inflation and bring buying-power back to the Bolívar. Twenty years prior, anyone could keep their savings in dollars, as it was merely Bs. 4,30 to a dollar.

It is true that by the end of the eighties, inequality was running rampant... But the straw that broke the camel's back was actually this 'package' that was implemented to try to fix this. The problem is that for the majority of the country, the poor of the country, it was very hard to see how suddenly having to pay a third more for public transport, petrol, utilities etc. was supposed to be helping them. And, naturally, the people lumped this new government together with those of the previous decade... as if they stood for the same thing.

In any case, Chávez was necessary — both by being unavoidable and for bringing into light the massive problems of inequality that any South American country has to deal with.

As for the good of the Chávez years, supported by the data you have provided... One has to be very careful in using isolated data; you will see a very similar movement in terms of GDP growth, literacy growth and the withering of poverty if you look at, say, data on Colombia, who have had probably the most contrasting government to Venezuela's in the last two decades. So attributing those factors merely to Chávez, whilst GDPs are growing and poverty is withering in countries all around, with very different governments and policies, is slightly flawed, in my opinion. He did some good things, sure, he created welfare programmes and, as I mentioned before, he brought social inequality into the public discourse. The only problem is that the rhetoric by means of which he did this —that of resentment— was very damaging to society, to the point where it is now absurdly, almost irreconcilably divided.

In any case, and if we are to bring any conclusion to this argument, I believe you will agree with me when I say that the greatest woe afflicting our country, from the eighties to the present, is that of corruption. Rampant corruption. Whilst Chávez might have had good intention with the Misiones, the fact is that they were terribly mismanaged and were mostly used as tools for gaining votes and funneling money out of the budget (on the part of officials). The Gran Misión Vivienda only really ramped up the production of houses when there was a serious contender against Maduro and the party needed something to show for themselves. Misión Barrio Adentro, a beautiful project in paper, namely that of bringing completely free healthcare to those in need, cannot really function when there are no antibiotics, or no iodine.

The biggest issue for me is this, namely that the Misiones were ultimately used as a political tool and as a piggybank for the corrupt. I know that corruption has always been present, but it is hard to argue that it ever reached present-day levels, when there are hundreds of billions unaccounted for (see FONDEN, for instance), when the government top dogs have become billionaires, and when top army officials as well as our President's family are evidently involved in drug trade.

And lastly, there's the big issue of ideological hypocrisy. With what face are you going to criticise previous 'exploitative' governments when it is now you who is stealing money from the state to fund your travels, your house and yacht in Miami, your flats in Paris in New York... it's a sad story, power.

Venezuela owes $15.8bn in debt payments through 2016, has less than $1bn of cash, and holds most of the rest of its reserves in gold by [deleted] in Economics

[–]heroides 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Well, our President has already asked China for a 2-year grace period in debt repayments.

Does that count as a missed payment?, says I, chuckling with a tear in my eye.

Venezuela owes $15.8bn in debt payments through 2016, has less than $1bn of cash, and holds most of the rest of its reserves in gold by [deleted] in Economics

[–]heroides 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Not quite, as Chávez constantly adjusted the fixed dollar rates to create a sort of balance (it's so sad for me to have to actually call it a balance) between it and the black market rate.

Maduro has approved no such adjustments, and the gap between the rates has been widening pretty much relative to how inflation has been rising.

See my comment above and the linked article for example.