Venezuela's Oil

[erpowers]

So what do people think will happen if and when it is reported that Venezuela has more oil than Saudi Arabia. Yesterday ABC "World News Tonight" did a report on Venezuela's oil. Toward the end of the report WNT claimed that if it is proven that there in oil in one under one of Vanilla's rivers and the oil can be extracted that would mean Venezuela has the most oil.

[TexasProgresive]

1. would you rewrite this sentence to make sense, please.

Toward the end of the report WNT claimed that if it is proven that there in oil in one under one of Vanilla's rivers and the oil can be extracted that would mean Venezuela has the most oil.

[erpowers]

3. Meant To Say

I meant to say that World News Tonight claimed that if might soon be proven that Venezuela has more oil than any other country. I did a spell check and some things came out wrong after the spell check. I did not realize that at first.

[Peace Patriot]

2. There are a lot of other interesting things about Venezuela. For instance

how about a comparison of the two governments, Venezuela vs. Saudi Arabia? One a real democracy with transparent elections and majority rule; one a sheikdom and an oppressive religious state. And why would George Bush be good buds with Prince Bandar and the sheikdom, and shun and hate the democratically elected president of Venezuela?

Did ABC get into any of this--the free medical care for the poor in Venezuela, the use of oil not to lard the rich with palaces and servants and private jets but to create medical clinics, schools for young and old, small business loans and community infrastructure for chronically underserved populations?

I'm not saying they didn't get into it. I didn't see the show. But was it just oil, oil, oil? Important, yes--it's the source of both countries' wealth, and the object of Bush/Corporate greed. But what's more interesting to me is the principle of the people of a country benefiting from their resources, rather than the rich grabbing all. I also think that a comparison of US and Venezuelan elections would be useful and informative. In Venezuela, they have elections that are monitored by hundreds of election monitors from the OAS, the EU, the Carter Center--all of whom have declared Venezuela's elections to be open and aboveboard; while here, our elections are now run by Bushite electronic corporations using "TRADE SECRET," PROPRIETARY programming code with virtually no audit/recount controls. Venezuela has open source code--code that anyone may review--and Voter Verified Paper Ballots. Venezuelan elections are recountable. Ours are not. Could that be why we have a president who prefers kings and sheiks and the very rich, while Venezuela has a "man of the people" as president? And could that be why the two are like...ahem...oil and water? One was elected by corporations with very close ties to the Republican Party, using secret vote tabulation formulae; the other was elected by the people. One holds power legitimately; the other does not. One is consequently a lying, deceitful man; the other obviously open and friendly, secure in who he is and what he is doing.

I kind of doubt that ABC got into any of this--but wouldn't it be great if our news organizations examined things from these many perspectives, and told the whole truth? Our country is quite sick from their not doing so. Sick, like Saudi Arabia is sick. Limited, oppressed, suffering tyranny. If they were doing their jobs, they could do much to heal our democracy. Unfortunately, they, too, are corporate-run, which seems to be the heart of the problem. When a society is run by unaccountable powers, for the profit of a few, all the things that create a good society start to die out--information, creativity, inventiveness, courage, hope, openness, variety, the ferment of ideas, intellectual vigor, adventurousness, tolerance, individual dignity, upward mobility. The human mind is born wide open, and then society closes it. Hope is shut down. But it is not a natural condition for human beings--being ruled over by unaccountable powers, for the profit of a few. The human soul will always rebel against it, and endlessly seeks ways around it--in our inherent desire to breathe free, as the motto goes. Well, Latin America is proving that out. And I guess it's no wonder that Bush and his corporate media lapdogs--the tools of the unaccountable powers, and the propaganda arm of the profit of a few--are suspicious and hateful toward countries that have rediscovered true democracy, not this paltry tatter of it that we have now in the U.S. And it will surprise the hell out of me if ABC said anything about Venezuela except that it might have more oil than Saudi Arabia.

[erpowers]

4. Yes, but

ABC actually mentioned that Chavez is using the money business loans, free medical care, medical clinics and schools. However, they reported as Chavez was doing so only to increase his popularity. They kind of made it seem like bribery. They did not do a comparison between the Saudi or Venezuelan forms of government.

[1932]

6. Isn't that crazy? But it's so ingrained in the RW philosophy:

helping is really hurting and suffering is good for you.

That's basically the mantra right-wingers repeat every chance they get to justify a polarized society which makes a few wealthy people very comfortable and everyone else miserable.

[Scoody Boo]

7. Petroleos de Venezuela...

began boosting its investments in social programs in 2003 and 2004 as Chavez faced a recall vote. So there MAY be some credence to that.

Government spending in Venezuela will hit a record this year, the same year Chavez is up for reelection.

[1932]

10. PDVSa was in the red from 90s to 2004.

The Venezuelan president in the early 90s fully embraced neoliberalism/Chicago School economics (even after running for president on a platform of being AGAINST it!) and saddled the country with huge debt (see Life and Debt, the documentary and read Perkins's Confessions of an economic Hit Man to learn how that works).

There was no money to invest in anything until late 2004.

Read Aleida Guevara's book about Chavez to learn about the consequences. One of the missions Chavez was intitituting -- Mission Robinson, the literacy program -- was almost completely terminated because the country didn't have the money to print the readers during the management-lead strike/worker lock-out. Castro volunteered to print $1M worth of the readers on very easy credit terms, and the program was on. That's how little money the country had until late 2004 -- they didn't even have $1M for their literacy program (and if you want to learn about how important literacy is to economic development, read Amartya Sen's books on development economics -- it was a program that Chavez considered key to Venezuela's future).

[Scoody Boo]

5. Venezuela's Oil...

is extremely high in sulfer content and while the funding of medical clinics and social programs is noble, his failure to reinvest enough money back into the National Petroleum companies is costing about 750,000 barrels a day in lost production that is getting even worse.

Producing oil with a high sulfer content means high equipment maintenence costs and sediments also block pipelines reducing flow. In the long run, bring Venezuela's oil back up to peak production is going to cause Chavez to underfund some programs.

Also, for his rhetoric directed at the US, no one else will buy his oil in any great amount because only the US has the capability of refining it.

[The Magistrate]

8. Those Technical Matters You Mention, Sir

Can certainly be remedied.

There is also some question about the actual cause of those productiuon shortfalls. The N.P. is very much a creature of the ancien regime in Venezuela, and has been for some while been resisting Col. Chavez'government.

[Scoody Boo]

9. There is no way to not have...

a high maintenence cost when producing a high sulpher oil. Venezuelan oil runs $18-$20 under the price of oil that is reported on the market daily. This is because refining this oil costs more and means more maintenence for the refinery also.

[The Magistrate]

11. My Reference, Sir

Was merely to the backlogs of sediment and repair, and shortage of proper refinery facilities that you mentioned. The increased cost of pumping and processing that type of oil are widely known, and of course will remain a factor: much of this capacity would not be economically viable at prices much lower than those available today.

[Scoody Boo]

13. Much like the production of oil shale...

it is now viable to produce due the higher prices.

[1932]

12. The refineries that process Venezuela's oil in the US are owned by PDVSA

Regardless of the rhetoric, they're going to send the oil to their own refineries.