Entrevista virtual con Amado Alonso
Amado Alonso, de la Universidad de Harvard, es el principal interprete de la poesía de Pablo Neruda (Neftali Ricardo Reyes).
Neruda nació en Chile en 1904 en Temuco. Esta poesía expresionista y hermética necesita ser interpretada y por ello he elaborado, a continuación, una entrevista imaginaria con Alonso, para que nos explique el porqué de esta extraordinaria poesía:
¿Si usted definiera la poesía de Pablo Neruda o Neftali Ricardo Reyes, que nos diría ?
Buena pregunta para comenzar. Bueno yo diría que es una poesía que se escapa tumultuosamente de su corazón. Además, es una poesía romántica al exacerbar los sentimientos e incluso expresionista por el modo eruptivo de salir e incluso es una poesía apocalíptica. La poesía integral es eso: sentimientos, intuiciones, pensamientos, fraseo y el cuerpo sonoro de la palabra.
¿ Se ha dicho a veces que la poesía de Neruda es de difícil comprensión ?
En poesía ser y expresarse son una misma cosa y su calidad no se mide ni por lo fácil ni por lo difícil que sea de comprender. Esta poesía de Neruda tiene que expresarse del modo en que se expresa, para no perder los rasgos esenciales de su constitucion misma. Algunas veces es una poesía enigmática, pero es necesario entonces interpretarla, analizando los especiales procedimientos expresivos.
¿ Y estos procedimientos expresivos se encuentran en toda la poesía o sólo en algunos tipos de poesía?
Esos procedimientos son comunes a los poetas modernos que se llaman poetas super-realistas o expresionistas y muchas veces vanguardistas o futuristas.
¿ Cuáles son los principales procedimientos expresivos ?
Mire usted lo primero es que en esta poesía nerudiana lo comparativo omite lo comparado. Pero en la poesía tradicional se declara el objeto o realidad poetizada y luego se le otorga su sentido emocional por medio de metáforas o comparaciones. Neruda materializa lo inmaterial.
Por ejemplo: "los labios rojos, al desplegarse con la risa por el cielo de la cara, son carmesíes relampagos de risa, son auroras y gala del cielo". Por ejemplo, en la poesía de Becquer no se identifica una cosa con la otra sino mas bien se parecen:
"Despierta, ries, y al reir, tus labios
inquietos me parecen
relámpagos de grana que serpean
sobre un cielo de nieve".
En el mundo libre de la poesía no se señala "me parece", sino ES. Y entonces Neruda extrema el procedimiento y materializa lo inmaterializado; por ello, suprime cualquier asunto que le parece y al suprimirlo con toda racionalidad exclama:
"Tu estas de pie sobre la tierra, llena
de dientes y relampagos".
Es decir: llena de risas en las que muestras tus blancos dientes y se entreabren tus labios con relámpagos de purpura.
¿Entonces: la identificación entre lo poeticamente imaginado y lo real, con ello aludido, es la esencia de la poesía de Neruda ?
Indudablemente es así . Neruda expresa el sentido poético de una realidad, sin decir explícitamente a que realidad se refiere.
¿ Y cuál es el otro procedimiento ?
Lo inmaterial se concretiza. Ya lo hemos dicho, pero también lo genérico se particulariza. Por ejemplo, Neruda nos dice, y alli podemos observar la representacion de lo inmaterial por lo concreto:
"Ay, una a una, la ola que llora y la sal que se triza,
y el tiempo del amor celestial que pasa volando,
han tenido voz de huéspedes y espacio en la espera".
El poeta llama: ola que llora al impetuoso vivir que se resuelve en lágrimas como la ola se rompe en gotas. Y la sal de la vida la llama la sal que se triza o se disuelve. La expresión voz de huesped es la idea emocional de lo transitorio.
Y un buen ejemplo de trasmutar lo particular por lo genérico se encuentra en un canto donde en vez de decir la tristeza de las cosas y la destruccion de lo extraño dirá: "la madera del buque muerto". Son expresiones simbólicas muy particulares.
¿Es decir: que Pablo Neruda tiene su momento simbólico particular ?
A sí es. Para entender y gozar su poesía hay que interpretarla con dos condiciones: primera, hacia qué orden de realidad alude cada símbolo; segunda, que el símbolo no es una mera clave, no es una equivalencia alegórica, sino que ese símbolo tiene su propia autonomía irradiando sugerencias poéticas. Tenemos que saber reconstruir esos símbolos.
(entrevista basada en el libro: Poesía y Estilo de Pablo Neruda: interpretación de una poesía hermética, por Amado Alonso y publicado en el año de 1951 por Editorial Sudamericana, Buenos Aires. )
Amado Alonso, de la Universidad de Harvard, es el principal interprete de la poesía de Pablo Neruda (Neftali Ricardo Reyes).
Neruda nació en Chile en 1904 en Temuco. Esta poesía expresionista y hermética necesita ser interpretada y por ello he elaborado, a continuación, una entrevista imaginaria con Alonso, para que nos explique el porqué de esta extraordinaria poesía:
¿Si usted definiera la poesía de Pablo Neruda o Neftali Ricardo Reyes, que nos diría ?
Buena pregunta para comenzar. Bueno yo diría que es una poesía que se escapa tumultuosamente de su corazón. Además, es una poesía romántica al exacerbar los sentimientos e incluso expresionista por el modo eruptivo de salir e incluso es una poesía apocalíptica. La poesía integral es eso: sentimientos, intuiciones, pensamientos, fraseo y el cuerpo sonoro de la palabra.
¿ Se ha dicho a veces que la poesía de Neruda es de difícil comprensión ?
En poesía ser y expresarse son una misma cosa y su calidad no se mide ni por lo fácil ni por lo difícil que sea de comprender. Esta poesía de Neruda tiene que expresarse del modo en que se expresa, para no perder los rasgos esenciales de su constitucion misma. Algunas veces es una poesía enigmática, pero es necesario entonces interpretarla, analizando los especiales procedimientos expresivos.
¿ Y estos procedimientos expresivos se encuentran en toda la poesía o sólo en algunos tipos de poesía?
Esos procedimientos son comunes a los poetas modernos que se llaman poetas super-realistas o expresionistas y muchas veces vanguardistas o futuristas.
¿ Cuáles son los principales procedimientos expresivos ?
Mire usted lo primero es que en esta poesía nerudiana lo comparativo omite lo comparado. Pero en la poesía tradicional se declara el objeto o realidad poetizada y luego se le otorga su sentido emocional por medio de metáforas o comparaciones. Neruda materializa lo inmaterial.
Por ejemplo: "los labios rojos, al desplegarse con la risa por el cielo de la cara, son carmesíes relampagos de risa, son auroras y gala del cielo". Por ejemplo, en la poesía de Becquer no se identifica una cosa con la otra sino mas bien se parecen:
"Despierta, ries, y al reir, tus labios
inquietos me parecen
relámpagos de grana que serpean
sobre un cielo de nieve".
En el mundo libre de la poesía no se señala "me parece", sino ES. Y entonces Neruda extrema el procedimiento y materializa lo inmaterializado; por ello, suprime cualquier asunto que le parece y al suprimirlo con toda racionalidad exclama:
"Tu estas de pie sobre la tierra, llena
de dientes y relampagos".
Es decir: llena de risas en las que muestras tus blancos dientes y se entreabren tus labios con relámpagos de purpura.
¿Entonces: la identificación entre lo poeticamente imaginado y lo real, con ello aludido, es la esencia de la poesía de Neruda ?
Indudablemente es así . Neruda expresa el sentido poético de una realidad, sin decir explícitamente a que realidad se refiere.
¿ Y cuál es el otro procedimiento ?
Lo inmaterial se concretiza. Ya lo hemos dicho, pero también lo genérico se particulariza. Por ejemplo, Neruda nos dice, y alli podemos observar la representacion de lo inmaterial por lo concreto:
"Ay, una a una, la ola que llora y la sal que se triza,
y el tiempo del amor celestial que pasa volando,
han tenido voz de huéspedes y espacio en la espera".
El poeta llama: ola que llora al impetuoso vivir que se resuelve en lágrimas como la ola se rompe en gotas. Y la sal de la vida la llama la sal que se triza o se disuelve. La expresión voz de huesped es la idea emocional de lo transitorio.
Y un buen ejemplo de trasmutar lo particular por lo genérico se encuentra en un canto donde en vez de decir la tristeza de las cosas y la destruccion de lo extraño dirá: "la madera del buque muerto". Son expresiones simbólicas muy particulares.
¿Es decir: que Pablo Neruda tiene su momento simbólico particular ?
A sí es. Para entender y gozar su poesía hay que interpretarla con dos condiciones: primera, hacia qué orden de realidad alude cada símbolo; segunda, que el símbolo no es una mera clave, no es una equivalencia alegórica, sino que ese símbolo tiene su propia autonomía irradiando sugerencias poéticas. Tenemos que saber reconstruir esos símbolos.
(entrevista basada en el libro: Poesía y Estilo de Pablo Neruda: interpretación de una poesía hermética, por Amado Alonso y publicado en el año de 1951 por Editorial Sudamericana, Buenos Aires. )
Día a día
SIMÓN BOCCANEGRA
El partido del nunca jamás
La verdad es que es difícil entender como una persona que se respete a sí misma puede militar en un partido cuyo líder es capaz de expresarse de manera tan grosera, tan desconsiderada e irrespetuosa como lo hizo Yo El Supremo con Ramón Martínez.
Pero, en fin, eso es asunto de los aristóbulos y compañía, quienes dirán que una pasadita de manos del Supremo cura la dignidad lastimada de cualquier jalador. Allá ellos.
Lo que a nosotros,como venezolanos, si nos interesa es lo que atañe a una concepción del poder que ve en toda opinión diferente a la del Supremo una traición. Lo que emerge desnudamente es una fusión de autoritarismo, autocratismo y militarismo, absolutamente incompatible con una visión democrática no sólo de la política sino de la vida misma.
Los que van al PSUV ya saben que allí no hay posibilidad alguna de debatir con el toro que más muge y que cualquier opinión que no le guste acarrea la inmediata estigmatización como "traidor" del infeliz que se atreva a contradecirlo.Pero Chávez quiere más; quiere un país donde no sólo su partido le tenga miedo sino que todos los venezolanos le teman.
El día que el país entero se comporte como la comparsa que le ríe los chistes a Yo El Supremo y se atemoriza ante sus aspavientos, aguajes y gritos, ese día si se podrá decir que este país se jodió.
SIMÓN BOCCANEGRA
El partido del nunca jamás
La verdad es que es difícil entender como una persona que se respete a sí misma puede militar en un partido cuyo líder es capaz de expresarse de manera tan grosera, tan desconsiderada e irrespetuosa como lo hizo Yo El Supremo con Ramón Martínez.
Pero, en fin, eso es asunto de los aristóbulos y compañía, quienes dirán que una pasadita de manos del Supremo cura la dignidad lastimada de cualquier jalador. Allá ellos.
Lo que a nosotros,como venezolanos, si nos interesa es lo que atañe a una concepción del poder que ve en toda opinión diferente a la del Supremo una traición. Lo que emerge desnudamente es una fusión de autoritarismo, autocratismo y militarismo, absolutamente incompatible con una visión democrática no sólo de la política sino de la vida misma.
Los que van al PSUV ya saben que allí no hay posibilidad alguna de debatir con el toro que más muge y que cualquier opinión que no le guste acarrea la inmediata estigmatización como "traidor" del infeliz que se atreva a contradecirlo.Pero Chávez quiere más; quiere un país donde no sólo su partido le tenga miedo sino que todos los venezolanos le teman.
El día que el país entero se comporte como la comparsa que le ríe los chistes a Yo El Supremo y se atemoriza ante sus aspavientos, aguajes y gritos, ese día si se podrá decir que este país se jodió.
Alcaldes y gobernadores oficialistas de todo el país enfrentan una amenaza. Bajo los principios de la nueva geometría, en especial en lo referente al motor del Poder Comunal, la cuota de autonomía que tenían hasta los momentos pasará a ser historia.
Los alcaldes y gobernadores quedarán obviados en un sistema que pondrá a los consejos comunales a dialogar directamente con Miraflores. Por eso más de uno está en contra de esta fase de la revolución y lo disimula mal, cuando no lo adversa en voz alta en su círculo más cercano. Por eso también el Presidente aprieta las riendas a nivel regional, rompe con los disidentes, vigila de cerca a los que se supone que le son más leales y vocifera si sabe de una nueva traición.
Un nuevo marco legal les restaría capacidad de acción a alcaldes y gobernadores y los haría aún más dependientes del poder central. Chávez nunca ha sido amigo de la descentralización, lo que se supone sería la manera natural de llegar a ser presidente: ir escalando posiciones desde una alcaldía hasta la jefatura del Estado no tiene cabida en el pensamiento formado en los cuarteles, pues allí el ascenso se da por otros méritos, aún más en la revolución.
Veremos los resultados de esta centralización del poder político.
Los alcaldes y gobernadores quedarán obviados en un sistema que pondrá a los consejos comunales a dialogar directamente con Miraflores. Por eso más de uno está en contra de esta fase de la revolución y lo disimula mal, cuando no lo adversa en voz alta en su círculo más cercano. Por eso también el Presidente aprieta las riendas a nivel regional, rompe con los disidentes, vigila de cerca a los que se supone que le son más leales y vocifera si sabe de una nueva traición.
Un nuevo marco legal les restaría capacidad de acción a alcaldes y gobernadores y los haría aún más dependientes del poder central. Chávez nunca ha sido amigo de la descentralización, lo que se supone sería la manera natural de llegar a ser presidente: ir escalando posiciones desde una alcaldía hasta la jefatura del Estado no tiene cabida en el pensamiento formado en los cuarteles, pues allí el ascenso se da por otros méritos, aún más en la revolución.
Veremos los resultados de esta centralización del poder político.
Hola a todos mis lectores, seguramente se habran dado cuenta que no he colocado ninguna nueva noticia o información interesante. Lo que pasa es que estoy de vacaciones en la Ciudad de México hasta el dia 24 de abril. Estaré de nuevo en Caracas el 25 de ese mes y entonces volveré a estar con todos ustedes. Saludos
Animaciones de la distribución de los gases de efecto invernadero
Enviado por Fernando Flores el Jue, 2007-03-22 17:15
HACER CLICK AQUI
Por medio del sitio Genciencia he accedido a las primeras animaciones que se tienen de la distribución de los gases de efecto invernadero sobre la tierra (que pueden ver en las dos imágenes de arriba). La nota dice así:
Primeras animaciones de la distribución de los gases de efecto invernadero
Tras tres años de observaciones, la Agencia Espacial Europea (AEE) ha difundido las primeras imágenes animadas que muestran como se distribuyen en la atmósfera terrestre el dióxido de carbono (CO2) y el metano (CH4), dos de los principales gases implicados en el efecto invernadero. La investigación que ha precedido a las imágenes ha sido posible gracias al SCIAMACHY (espectrómetro de imagen de escaneo de absorción para cartografía atmosférica), un instrumento espacial de análisis químico atmosférico, que viaja a bordo del satélite ENVISAT de la AEE.
Michael Buchwitz, del Instituto de Física Ambiental (IUP) de la Universidad de Bremen (Alemania), uno de los responsables de la elaboración de estos mapas, ha explicado como los datos recogidos por SCIAMACHY resultan indispensables para ajustar de manera continuada el actual modelo de distribución de los gases invernadero y mejorar la precisión de sus algoritmos. Los nuevos datos permiten, además, distinguir entre masas gaseosas de origen antropogénico y de origen natural, y se espera llegar a conocer mejor las fuentes de estos gases, responsables del cambio climático, y sus depósitos.
Enviado por Fernando Flores el Jue, 2007-03-22 17:15
Por medio del sitio Genciencia he accedido a las primeras animaciones que se tienen de la distribución de los gases de efecto invernadero sobre la tierra (que pueden ver en las dos imágenes de arriba). La nota dice así:
Primeras animaciones de la distribución de los gases de efecto invernadero
Tras tres años de observaciones, la Agencia Espacial Europea (AEE) ha difundido las primeras imágenes animadas que muestran como se distribuyen en la atmósfera terrestre el dióxido de carbono (CO2) y el metano (CH4), dos de los principales gases implicados en el efecto invernadero. La investigación que ha precedido a las imágenes ha sido posible gracias al SCIAMACHY (espectrómetro de imagen de escaneo de absorción para cartografía atmosférica), un instrumento espacial de análisis químico atmosférico, que viaja a bordo del satélite ENVISAT de la AEE.
Michael Buchwitz, del Instituto de Física Ambiental (IUP) de la Universidad de Bremen (Alemania), uno de los responsables de la elaboración de estos mapas, ha explicado como los datos recogidos por SCIAMACHY resultan indispensables para ajustar de manera continuada el actual modelo de distribución de los gases invernadero y mejorar la precisión de sus algoritmos. Los nuevos datos permiten, además, distinguir entre masas gaseosas de origen antropogénico y de origen natural, y se espera llegar a conocer mejor las fuentes de estos gases, responsables del cambio climático, y sus depósitos.
What with we are here? What for?
Good reflections. We are here because we like to communicate and because we want to inform. Here we make several subjects: 1) we have curiosity by the economic events, social and political and then those news we shared with other peoples; 2) we have interest in informing to make contact with the peoples and to look for opinions, because today you find news far and near.
This Blog is what you see at first sight: mass media online. And what you can see behind if you want to accompany to us: a social network.
In this Blog the visitor has the option to become user, the option to activate later and, to interact with the blog autor.
In this Blog not only you can be informed into the subjects that really worry to the citizen, but that you can be you yourself who it presents them.
And not only that. The users of this Blog obtain when registering themselves their own “citizen reader”, from which they can manage all his activity: to participate in the comments and trackback, to add its personal opinion, to establish its subjects to treat favorites and what is more important: to establish direct bonding with other blogs links connecting, being able to create its own network of citizen reader collaborators.
Good reflections. We are here because we like to communicate and because we want to inform. Here we make several subjects: 1) we have curiosity by the economic events, social and political and then those news we shared with other peoples; 2) we have interest in informing to make contact with the peoples and to look for opinions, because today you find news far and near.
This Blog is what you see at first sight: mass media online. And what you can see behind if you want to accompany to us: a social network.
In this Blog the visitor has the option to become user, the option to activate later and, to interact with the blog autor.
In this Blog not only you can be informed into the subjects that really worry to the citizen, but that you can be you yourself who it presents them.
And not only that. The users of this Blog obtain when registering themselves their own “citizen reader”, from which they can manage all his activity: to participate in the comments and trackback, to add its personal opinion, to establish its subjects to treat favorites and what is more important: to establish direct bonding with other blogs links connecting, being able to create its own network of citizen reader collaborators.
World Water Day: 22nd March 2007
Arriba hay un enlace importante.
The Water Cycle.
It is crucial to understand that rain, groundwater and surface water are all part of the same cycle: we cannot withdraw from one source and think the other will remain unaffected. The problem of water scarcity.
Every time humans disrupt the natural water cycle there is a consequence. When large quantities of water are diverted or taken out of the natural system, for example, when water is pumped out through wells, this affect the ecosystem, plants and animals and the local community.
Rain of falls on the land (precipitation).
Part of the rainwater runs across the land and into the rivers and streams (surface runoff)
Some of the water moves to the land and seep onto the growds (infiltration).
Zone of aeration and zone saturation/ground water and supply the water in the river to compensate for the loss in groundwater.
When we pump water, this process is reversed, as water seeps from the river to compensate for the loss in groundwater affecting users downstream. As a result the ether level of the river become lower affecting users downstream.
Arriba hay un enlace importante.
The Water Cycle.
It is crucial to understand that rain, groundwater and surface water are all part of the same cycle: we cannot withdraw from one source and think the other will remain unaffected. The problem of water scarcity.
Every time humans disrupt the natural water cycle there is a consequence. When large quantities of water are diverted or taken out of the natural system, for example, when water is pumped out through wells, this affect the ecosystem, plants and animals and the local community.
Rain of falls on the land (precipitation).
Part of the rainwater runs across the land and into the rivers and streams (surface runoff)
Some of the water moves to the land and seep onto the growds (infiltration).
Zone of aeration and zone saturation/ground water and supply the water in the river to compensate for the loss in groundwater.
When we pump water, this process is reversed, as water seeps from the river to compensate for the loss in groundwater affecting users downstream. As a result the ether level of the river become lower affecting users downstream.
Amamantar al niño es mejor que darle, cuando es muy chiquito, un tetero..El enlace de arriba se refiere al papel del padre para esta tarea.
Y también este PDF:
Hacer Click aquí
Y también este PDF:
Chinese restaurant food draws criticism
March 21, 2007
08:04:41 PM PST
The typical Chinese restaurant menu is a sea of nutritional no-nos, a consumer group has found. A plate of General Tso's chicken, for example, is loaded with about 40 percent more sodium and more than half the calories an average adult needs for an entire day.
The battered, fried chicken dish with vegetables has 1,300 calories, 3,200 milligrams of sodium and 11 grams of saturated fat.
That's before the rice (200 calories a cup). And after the egg rolls (200 calories and 400 milligrams of sodium).
"I don't want to put all the blame on Chinese food," said Bonnie Liebman, nutrition director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which did a report released Tuesday.
"Across the board, American restaurants need to cut back on calories and salt, and in the meantime, people should think of each meal as not one, but two, and bring home half for tomorrow," Liebman said.
The average adult needs around 2,000 calories a day and 2,300 milligrams of salt, which is about one teaspoon of salt, according to government guidelines.
In some ways, Liebman said, Italian and Mexican restaurants are worse for your health, because their food is higher in saturated fat, which can increase the risk of heart disease.
While Chinese restaurant food is bad for your waistline and blood pressure — sodium contributes to hypertension — it does offer vegetable-rich dishes and the kind of fat that's not bad for the heart.
However — and this is a big however — the veggies aren't off the hook. A plate of stir-fried greens has 900 calories and 2,200 milligrams of sodium. And eggplant in garlic sauce has 1,000 calories and 2,000 milligrams of sodium.
"We were shocked. We assumed the vegetables were all low in calories," Liebman said.
Also surprising were some appetizers: An order of six steamed pork dumplings has 500 calories, and there's not much difference, about 10 calories per dumpling, if they're pan-fried.
The group found that not much has changed since it examined Chinese food 15 years ago. That's not all bad, Liebman said.
"We were glad not to find anything different," she said. "Some restaurant food has gotten a lot worse. Companies seem to pile on. Instead of just cheesecake, you get coconut chocolate chip cheesecake with a layer of chocolate cake, and lasagna with meatballs."
The group says there is no safe harbor from sodium on the Chinese restaurant menu, but it offers several tips for making a meal healthier:
_Look for dishes that feature vegetables instead of meat or noodles. Ask for extra broccoli, snow peas or other veggies.
_Steer clear of deep-fried meat, seafood or tofu. Order it stir-fried or braised.
_Hold the sauce, and eat with a fork or chopsticks to leave more sauce behind.
_Avoid salt, which means steering clear of the duck sauce, hot mustard, hoisin sauce and soy sauce.
_Share your meal or take half home for later.
_Ask for brown rice instead of white rice.
___
On the Net:
Center for Science in the Public Interest:
Dictador electo
Por Enrique Serbeto
18-3-2007 08:39:28
Entre pitos y flautas, Hugo Chávez se ha gastado la bagatela de cinco mil millones de dólares en una semana de gira, realizada con el único objetivo de «contraprogramar» la del presidente norteamericano George W. Bush por otros países de Iberoamérica. Cinco mil millones sin presupuesto ni auditoria. ¿Se dan cuenta de lo que es un dirigente sin control democrático? Algo así no podría suceder en un país normal, o no podría sin que tuviera consecuencias escandalosas.
Pero en la República Bolivariana no. Simplemente anunció que no aparecería en televisión el domingo (al menos libró a los venezolanos de estas horas de tortura) y sin encomendarse ni a Dios ni al Diablo, se subió a su avión presidencial, el «camastrón», y se fue para darse el gusto de ser por unas horas como el espejo del presidente norteamericano.
Otra vez anunció que firmaba un contrato para comprar en España barcos y aviones militares, por valor de unos dos mil millones, también como el que pide un solomillo en un restaurante. Y, naturalmente, como lo hacía para ver si conseguía irritar a Estados Unidos, tampoco le pidió permiso a nadie ni para firmarlo ni para dejarlo de firmar, puesto que -por cierto- de aquella confabulación con Rodríguez Zapatero no quedaron mas que cenizas, la mayor parte correspondientes a la credibilidad del actual Gobierno español en toda América. Ya no es fiable ni para Chávez y sus amigos ni para aquellos gobiernos que aun se resisten a sus proyectos megalomaniacos ni mucho menos para Estados Unidos.
Desconozco lo qué piensan en Canadá. Chavez es un excelente ejemplo de un concepto que podría parecer contradictorio, pero que no lo es. Es un dictador. Electo, pero dictador al fin y al cabo. Con un mecanismo electoral dudoso y una oposición a la que desarmó y hundió moralmente, Chávez no es el responsable gobernante de Venezuela, cuya catastrófica situación económica no hay ni que entretenerse en describir, sino el despilfarrador descontrolado de los gigantescos recursos del petróleo. Corrupción y dictadura, nada más que eso es hoy Venzuela.
Por Enrique Serbeto
18-3-2007 08:39:28
Entre pitos y flautas, Hugo Chávez se ha gastado la bagatela de cinco mil millones de dólares en una semana de gira, realizada con el único objetivo de «contraprogramar» la del presidente norteamericano George W. Bush por otros países de Iberoamérica. Cinco mil millones sin presupuesto ni auditoria. ¿Se dan cuenta de lo que es un dirigente sin control democrático? Algo así no podría suceder en un país normal, o no podría sin que tuviera consecuencias escandalosas.
Pero en la República Bolivariana no. Simplemente anunció que no aparecería en televisión el domingo (al menos libró a los venezolanos de estas horas de tortura) y sin encomendarse ni a Dios ni al Diablo, se subió a su avión presidencial, el «camastrón», y se fue para darse el gusto de ser por unas horas como el espejo del presidente norteamericano.
Otra vez anunció que firmaba un contrato para comprar en España barcos y aviones militares, por valor de unos dos mil millones, también como el que pide un solomillo en un restaurante. Y, naturalmente, como lo hacía para ver si conseguía irritar a Estados Unidos, tampoco le pidió permiso a nadie ni para firmarlo ni para dejarlo de firmar, puesto que -por cierto- de aquella confabulación con Rodríguez Zapatero no quedaron mas que cenizas, la mayor parte correspondientes a la credibilidad del actual Gobierno español en toda América. Ya no es fiable ni para Chávez y sus amigos ni para aquellos gobiernos que aun se resisten a sus proyectos megalomaniacos ni mucho menos para Estados Unidos.
Desconozco lo qué piensan en Canadá. Chavez es un excelente ejemplo de un concepto que podría parecer contradictorio, pero que no lo es. Es un dictador. Electo, pero dictador al fin y al cabo. Con un mecanismo electoral dudoso y una oposición a la que desarmó y hundió moralmente, Chávez no es el responsable gobernante de Venezuela, cuya catastrófica situación económica no hay ni que entretenerse en describir, sino el despilfarrador descontrolado de los gigantescos recursos del petróleo. Corrupción y dictadura, nada más que eso es hoy Venzuela.
For India & China, good times will last for another 3-5 years
GEORGE SMITH ALEXANDER
Carlyle is one of the most aggressive faces in the private equity world. Its big-ticket deals, presence in 100 markets and complex transactions have often brought the fund under media glare.
One of the largest private equity (PE) players in the world, with $51.8 billion under management, the Carlyle Group plans to increase the fund size to over $70 billion by the end of 2007.
Since its inception in 1987, the firm has invested $24 billion equity in 576 transactions. In India, Carlyle has invested $100 million in over six companies.
Alan Greenspan once said the worst of deals are made at the best of times. We are seeing a lot of liquidity and numerous deals in recent years. Will the good times last?
I think liquidity is probably here to stay for another three to five years. I don’t see anything on the horizon that would alter the prospects of growth for China and India or the availability of debt or cost of debt, globally.
There are going to be opportunities for investors to make great many mistakes. Good times are now, if you are taking your company public or if you’re to sell. It’s predominantly a sellers’ market at this point.
But, if you maintain discipline and look at buying companies that you can actually improve, you will still have opportunities to make reasonable returns for your investors.
But then again it will be more dependent on changing performance on the factory floor rather than playing market cycles. Adding value in a robust market can be very tricky. You can’t afford to make too many mistakes. In this market, the goal is to move profitability up rather than counting on an exit at a higher multiple than you entered.
There is a growing fear that in the current environment, acquirers are overpaying for a lot of deals. The answer is probably ‘yes’. But again what they do for the company is even more important than what they paid.
My intuition would suggest this is a time when many people will have overpaid in retrospect. I don’t think the dot.com bust will happen again. Rather, I believe there will be a soft-landing in the next three to five years. I truly believe that our current investment opportunities, globally, have strong underpinnings of growth and sustainability.
PEs are largely financial investors; what do they bring to the table when they step into a company’s board?
One of the main transitions that private equity generally has gone through over the past 10 years is to realize that financial engineering has truly become a commodity.
Therefore, bringing in operational advisors to mentor our deal teams and CEOs is very essential. They are able to work with our teams from the point of due diligence.
Then, from their positions on the board, they help: attract the best management talent; provide a higher level of corporate compliance; through their and our networks bring companies together to increase the chances for value-added cross-selling; and improve the company’s business development opportunities, including providing merger and acquisition advice.
Private equity firms can also shepherd their invested companies through balance sheet restructuring and exits, including trade sales and IPO processes.
There are regulatory concerns that the dividing line between PEs and hedge funds are getting blurred. Further, questions have been raised on sources of funds for PEs.
Is there something to worry about?
I do believe that there has been a bit of blurring between hedge funds and private equity. The investors, who chose hedge funds rather than private equity, are making a decision that it is fundamentally different. They are looking for more diversification, more liquidity in addition to returns.
This hasn’t prevented some hedge-fund operators from taking positions in what otherwise should be a private equity opportunity, that is, relatively more illiquid, longer-term and a more capital gain-oriented approach to investing. In some cases, when investing in debt positions, they provide a complexity to the syndication by virtue of their impatience with respect to changes in the financial structure or performance of a company.
I believe that the increased scrutiny of private equity and hedge funds has been a function of their success. Governments are good at doing one thing — following the first rule of investing, that is, “follow the money”. If somebody’s making a lot of money, you can be sure that the government is interested in getting their share.
In a certain sense, regulators may be reacting to the fact that the current business trend, of globalization may, in some regards, be reducing their effectiveness in influencing their own economies and international trade effectiveness. It’s clear that the democratization of finance, information and technology works to the disadvantage of economic protectionism.
Which are the markets and sectors that smart PE investors will chase?
You have to start with technology, telecom, and media and anything that has to do with one person communicating with another person. Technology is expanding exponentially in just about every sector that we look at — healthcare, telecom, media, aerospace, defense, industrial, and consumer. One sector, which is deepening and becoming very robust, is the whole technology of healthcare, and we are looking to do a lot more there.
I think one of the most important trends other than globalization is demographic change. It will change the face of markets globally within the next 50 years. You have both an ageing population and a demographic dynamic coming together; for example, negative birth rates all across Europe. I predict the next year’s number one topic in Davos will be demographics — not global warming. Asia-Pacific will become much more important in the world in the next 15 years.
Since the time Carlyle hired former Amaranth employees, there has been speculation that you will set up a hedge fund. What are the plans? Where do you see Carlyle three years from now?
If you had asked me this question five years ago, I would have failed to answer. We will fill out all of our geographies with respect to our current products, for example, real estate in India and Latin America. We have some curiosity regarding continental Africa.
The idea of having a full range of investment alternatives is to give our investor base the full range of risk-return opportunities. We may consider public platforms for specific asset types. The concept of permanent capital is similar to KKR and Apollo. We may consider this as an alternative to close-ended funds. But, in terms of doing things dramatically different, I don’t think so.
How can gasoline usage be reduced?
Alt-fuels part of USA's plan for a 'gas diet'
Americans consume 140 billion gallons of gasoline a year. That will grow to 161 billion gallons by 2017 without changes in policy, according to the U.S. Energy Department.
- The White House wants the country to use 35 billion gallons of ethanol and other alternative fuels by 2017, seven times last year's domestic production of ethanol.
- Increasing fuel efficiency by 4 percent a year could save 8.5 billion gallons of gasoline a year by 2017, according to a White House proposal. That, plus alternative fuels, could reduce gasoline usage by 20 percent.
- Modifying tire treads could increase fuel economy by up to 2 percent and save 1 billion to 2 billion gallons of gasoline a year, according to the National Academy of Sciences.
- Hydrogen-fueled cars are seen as a future means of reducing gas consumption. Hybrids help, but they still need liquid fuels. Electric cars have limited range because engineers have yet to perfect the necessary batteries, says David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Increasing production of ethanol and other renewable fuels will hold down the price of oil, Cole said. "Just look at the value over one year of $1 less per cost of barrel of petroleum. It's huge," he said.
According to an article in the April 2007 issue of Popular Science, the major importer of electric vehicles in the United States, ZAP (Zero Air Pollution), out of Santa Rosa, CA, has partnered with Lotus Engineering and will produce an all electric SUV vehicle, called the ZAP-X, capable of a 350 mile range - $3.50 worth of electricity to charge it (fast-charging computer-controlled lithium batteries charge in just 10 minutes) making it inexpensive to operate - a penny a mile, compared with approximately 20 cents/mile to operate a gas-fueled SUV. This particular vehicle will come with a hefty price tag ($60,000) but it's due to a number of unnecessary perks, like going 155 mph and boasting a staggering 644 horsepower!! ZAP and Lotus are planning an entire line of these "green-power" vehicles, so there should be a model that will be affordable to purchase and affordable to operate.
Use E-85 fuel. For those that don't know E-85 uses only 15% gasoline and 85% ethanol. Yes E-85 is not quite an efficient as gas, but taking that into consideration, every vehicle that switched to E-85 would use about 80% less gas.
It is a renewable fuel and can be produced in mass quantity in the good oil' USA.
Also since America buys a lot of gas from Middle East countries that support terrorism, using E-85 would help reduce the money that goes to terrorists.
An inventor Rudolph Gunnerman created a gasoline fuel alternative that would reduce gasoline consumption in half, by 70 billion gallons a year with today's consumption rates.
Gunnerman's A-21 aqueous naphtha fuel was featured in major newspapers in 1996, yet if you asked any government official, they would probably say they never heard of it.
A-21 would also save consumers billions of dollars a year as A-21 would cost less than half of what today's gasoline formulations cost to produce.
Latin America battles for investment
By Chris Aspin
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Latin America faces an uphill battle to win investment from the world's economic powerhouses ahead of emerging giants China and India unless the region undergoes deep political and social change.
For years, investors in the United States and Europe have chosen to build more factories and sink more money into Asian nations rather than into Latin America, which has meant lost opportunities and less growth for the resource-rich region.
Latin America desperately needs billions of dollars of investments to pull out of poverty, build the roads, bridges and dams it lacks and improve inadequate education systems.
Bertrand Delgado, economist with IDEAglobal research group, said Asia's labor force is more productive than Latin America's and that investors are still wary of the region's past debt defaults and economic instability.
"There is also a lack of investment (by people and governments of the region), a lack of infrastructure and a lack of coherent policies that promote export-orientated businesses, except commodities," Delgado said.
Latin America has huge natural resources from oil and gas to bananas, coffee and sugar to iron ore, copper and silver mines. But apart from a few major cities, especially in Brazil and Mexico, its manufacturing base is small.
Drawing investment to the region will be one of the top topics at the Reuters Latin American Investment Summit, which will take place in Reuters' offices this week.
Around 60 government ministers and top executives of telecoms, mining, banking and retail companies will participate in the summit.
One topic of interest may be the political risks of investing in the region. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is buying out private investors in power companies and telecoms companies and aims to take control by May 1 of four oil projects in the Orinoco basin worth $30 billion.
Bolivian President Evo Morales, the landlocked nation's first indigenous president, has vowed to boost state control of natural resources. He nationalized the energy industry last year and has said he will reform mining.
SLIM BETS ON REGION
Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim, the world's third-richest person with an estimated fortune of $49 billion who took part in last year's Reuters Latin America summit, is betting on the future of the region.
His flagship companies -- mobile phone giant America Movil (AMXL.MX: Quote, Profile, Research) (AMX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and fixed-line phone company Telmex (TMX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) (TELMEXL.MX: Quote, Profile, Research) -- have both expanded rapidly across Latin America since 2000.
America Movil has around 125 million clients from the deserts of the U.S.-Mexico border to the glaciers of Argentina and Chile, beating Spain's Telefonica for the No. 1 spot in mobile phones in the region.
"We are going to continue investing, looking for more penetration," Slim, 67, said at a news conference this week.
Slim has long said he wants to help fight poverty, illiteracy and shabby health care in Latin America and lead a multibillion-dollar effort to improve infrastructure.
His construction companies plan in the next few years to build roads, hydroelectric dams, oil refineries, schools and hospitals.
Alongside his profit-making infrastructure development plans, Slim also aims to use his foundations to hand out $4 billion in donations and scholarships to boost health and education.
Según esta hoja web en las elecciones presidenciales pasadas quien ganó fue Rosales.
What opinion has my friends of India in relation to this news article or report ?
I believe personally that is very difficult to obtain a good combat to the poverty in a country with more than 1081 million inhabitants. Now the report...
Bad Governance Promotes Bad Business
[Opinion] Nandigram violence bespeaks inefficient policies of Indian government
Ranjit Goswami (ranjit)
Published 2007-03-18
India is a fascinating, incredible nation -- the more one sees of it, the more one is mesmerized by its sheer diversity. Many of us Indians, seeing the country from within, wonder how it is perceived by the rest of the world.
In the mid-seventies, there was the "Garibi Hatao" ("Abolish Poverty") campaign; in 2004, we had the "Aam Admi" ("Common Man") campaign. Aam Admi was sponsored by the Indian National Congress, the party behind the present ruling coalition government and one that has ruled India for more than 80 percent of the time since independence.
The result of the Garibi Hatao campaign, if it can be concluded after only three decades, can be seen by all: 70 percent of Indians live on less that $2 a day and more than 30 percent of these on less than $1 a day. Recent reports showed that 95 percent of rural India, where 65 percent of 1.1 billion Indians live, lives on less than $1 a day, and 5 percent on less than 2 cents a day. In other words, not much has changed.
Incredible India also showed "results" under Aam Admi, as Indians continued to feature in the global billionaires list published by Forbes.
Japan, with a nominal economy more than five times the size of India's GDP, and a population of less than 1/8th of India's, has 24 billionaires (combined net wealth of $64 billion) whereas India has 36 billionaires (combined net wealth of $191 billion).
When the billionaires' wealth is computed as a percentage of GDP, India probably ranks highest in the world, at around 25 percent (even excluding the wealth of Indian residents abroad), whereas the comparable figure for the world is 6-7 percent. For the U.S., it is 12-13 percent, and for Japan, less than 2 percent. India's share of global GDP is 2 percent. For 17 percent of the population, per capita income is around $700, 1/10th of the global average, and nearly 1/60th of the U.S. average. India's per capita GNI is lower than Sub-Saharan Africa.
So there goes another feather in the cap of the government's "unity in diversity" and "Incredible India" bottom line.
The Indian government, led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and their colleagues, pursues policies in a mad race to the bottom for growth, the benchmark being China.
To record a higher growth rate, the present administration is ready to acquire 20,000 acres of land if not more from poor Indian farmers at dictated prices -- acres that will be given to anyone willing to pay $500 million, irrespective of the credibility of the owner. The government will even offer concessions if need be -- in the form of free land, free taxes, subsidized mining and more. You name it, toss down a few million dollars, and it's yours to do with as you please.
In the race to the bottom, a well-researched area in global emerging economics, states export economies deliberately in an attempt to keep their currencies low. When developed and developing giants indulge in this practice, imagine the power that poor Bangladesh or Kenya gain in export competitiveness. So for every winner in this race to the bottom, there will be many more losers. (The real winner is the country that is importing against credit money because in the end it pays less for imports, and thereby contains inflation.)
In the Indian scenario, states are encouraged to indulge in a similar race to the bottom. Like Kenya or Bangladesh, the states of Assam or Bihar have no chance of competing with a Gujarat or a Maharashtra. Thus, along with the bright side of India's economic growth in a few large states, there remains a darker side in many more states.
When the real estate boom hit India a little late, somehow the billionaires' portfolio wasn't filled with 25 percent of India's land. "How unfair," decried Indian policy makers? Billionaires contribute 25 percent of India's GDP in wealth; don't they deserve to own 25 percent of India's land? Present policy makers are slowly reserving up to 25 percent of Indian land for the billionaires' club -- not through the constitution, but through another driver called "inclusive growth." This involves special economic zones (SEZs) that combine the 21st century industrialization drive with the 19th century colonial act of land acquisition.
Just like that, the constitutional reservation fails to make any difference to the millions of the needy poor, some of whom now operate under Maoist-terrorism; on one-fourth of Indian land, there is disenchantment through neglect from administration after administration.
Democracy, economic growth, getting rich, and industrialization, SEZs -- these aren't in and of themselves good or bad for society. It's what one does with them that determine whether they are good or bad.
So we have the latest controversy of forceful land acquisition at a pittance of $25,000 an acre of investment in one proposed capital intensive chemical hub SEZ in Nandigram, in left-controlled West Bengal state: poor villagers (including women and children) of Nandigram were killed or terrorized (including raped) on March 14 by minions of the state administration for their land. The numbers vary from 14 to many more, if local media is to be believed.
Through some simple arithmetic, we can see that at $25,000 per acre of land, the whole of India, including parliament would fall short of attracting 1/15th of the FDI that has gone into China in last 30 years.
If this is not land grabbing in the name of industrialization taking place within Indian states, I don't know what is.
If government looked into governance and improved it by reducing corruption and making business rules friendly to good businesses rather than bad ones, as it stands now, India would not be able to run its race against China but it still might come up a winner in economic growth for society.
©2007 OhmyNews
I believe personally that is very difficult to obtain a good combat to the poverty in a country with more than 1081 million inhabitants. Now the report...
Bad Governance Promotes Bad Business
[Opinion] Nandigram violence bespeaks inefficient policies of Indian government
Ranjit Goswami (ranjit)
Published 2007-03-18
India is a fascinating, incredible nation -- the more one sees of it, the more one is mesmerized by its sheer diversity. Many of us Indians, seeing the country from within, wonder how it is perceived by the rest of the world.
In the mid-seventies, there was the "Garibi Hatao" ("Abolish Poverty") campaign; in 2004, we had the "Aam Admi" ("Common Man") campaign. Aam Admi was sponsored by the Indian National Congress, the party behind the present ruling coalition government and one that has ruled India for more than 80 percent of the time since independence.
The result of the Garibi Hatao campaign, if it can be concluded after only three decades, can be seen by all: 70 percent of Indians live on less that $2 a day and more than 30 percent of these on less than $1 a day. Recent reports showed that 95 percent of rural India, where 65 percent of 1.1 billion Indians live, lives on less than $1 a day, and 5 percent on less than 2 cents a day. In other words, not much has changed.
Incredible India also showed "results" under Aam Admi, as Indians continued to feature in the global billionaires list published by Forbes.
Japan, with a nominal economy more than five times the size of India's GDP, and a population of less than 1/8th of India's, has 24 billionaires (combined net wealth of $64 billion) whereas India has 36 billionaires (combined net wealth of $191 billion).
When the billionaires' wealth is computed as a percentage of GDP, India probably ranks highest in the world, at around 25 percent (even excluding the wealth of Indian residents abroad), whereas the comparable figure for the world is 6-7 percent. For the U.S., it is 12-13 percent, and for Japan, less than 2 percent. India's share of global GDP is 2 percent. For 17 percent of the population, per capita income is around $700, 1/10th of the global average, and nearly 1/60th of the U.S. average. India's per capita GNI is lower than Sub-Saharan Africa.
So there goes another feather in the cap of the government's "unity in diversity" and "Incredible India" bottom line.
The Indian government, led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and their colleagues, pursues policies in a mad race to the bottom for growth, the benchmark being China.
To record a higher growth rate, the present administration is ready to acquire 20,000 acres of land if not more from poor Indian farmers at dictated prices -- acres that will be given to anyone willing to pay $500 million, irrespective of the credibility of the owner. The government will even offer concessions if need be -- in the form of free land, free taxes, subsidized mining and more. You name it, toss down a few million dollars, and it's yours to do with as you please.
In the race to the bottom, a well-researched area in global emerging economics, states export economies deliberately in an attempt to keep their currencies low. When developed and developing giants indulge in this practice, imagine the power that poor Bangladesh or Kenya gain in export competitiveness. So for every winner in this race to the bottom, there will be many more losers. (The real winner is the country that is importing against credit money because in the end it pays less for imports, and thereby contains inflation.)
In the Indian scenario, states are encouraged to indulge in a similar race to the bottom. Like Kenya or Bangladesh, the states of Assam or Bihar have no chance of competing with a Gujarat or a Maharashtra. Thus, along with the bright side of India's economic growth in a few large states, there remains a darker side in many more states.
When the real estate boom hit India a little late, somehow the billionaires' portfolio wasn't filled with 25 percent of India's land. "How unfair," decried Indian policy makers? Billionaires contribute 25 percent of India's GDP in wealth; don't they deserve to own 25 percent of India's land? Present policy makers are slowly reserving up to 25 percent of Indian land for the billionaires' club -- not through the constitution, but through another driver called "inclusive growth." This involves special economic zones (SEZs) that combine the 21st century industrialization drive with the 19th century colonial act of land acquisition.
Just like that, the constitutional reservation fails to make any difference to the millions of the needy poor, some of whom now operate under Maoist-terrorism; on one-fourth of Indian land, there is disenchantment through neglect from administration after administration.
Democracy, economic growth, getting rich, and industrialization, SEZs -- these aren't in and of themselves good or bad for society. It's what one does with them that determine whether they are good or bad.
So we have the latest controversy of forceful land acquisition at a pittance of $25,000 an acre of investment in one proposed capital intensive chemical hub SEZ in Nandigram, in left-controlled West Bengal state: poor villagers (including women and children) of Nandigram were killed or terrorized (including raped) on March 14 by minions of the state administration for their land. The numbers vary from 14 to many more, if local media is to be believed.
Through some simple arithmetic, we can see that at $25,000 per acre of land, the whole of India, including parliament would fall short of attracting 1/15th of the FDI that has gone into China in last 30 years.
If this is not land grabbing in the name of industrialization taking place within Indian states, I don't know what is.
If government looked into governance and improved it by reducing corruption and making business rules friendly to good businesses rather than bad ones, as it stands now, India would not be able to run its race against China but it still might come up a winner in economic growth for society.
©2007 OhmyNews
abcNews entrevista al Presidente de Venezuela Hugo Chávez. La periodista entrevistadora es Barbara Walters.
March 15, 2007 — ABC News' Barbara Walters sits down with President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela for an interview in which Chavez shares his views on the United States, President Bush and America's 2008 presidential elections.
Hugo Chavez made headlines across America when he famously called Bush "the devil" in a speech at the United Nations headquarters in New York last year.
Watch Barbara Walters' full interview with President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela Friday on "20/20" at 10 p.m. EDT on ABC
When Walters asks Chavez about the name-calling, he explains it by saying that he wanted his strong words to bring attention to the facts. "Yes, I call him a devil in the United Nations," says Chavez. "That's true. Another time, I said that he was a donkey just because I think that he is very ignorant … about the things that are actually happening in Latin America and the world. If that is an excess on my side, I accept. And I might apologize. But who is causing more harm? He burns people, villages and he … invades nations."
Chavez also accuses Bush of planning a coup against him. The Venezuelan president briefly lost power in a coup in 2002 but with help from a popular uprising against the coup leaders, reclaimed his position within days.
Bush is not the only U.S. official to become the butt of Chavez's words. Chavez has referred to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as an illiterate who suffers from sexual frustration. Chavez shrugs off these insults as jokes, saying that his words are nothing when compared to the the loss of lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.
About both Bush and Rice, Chavez says, "As a lady I respect her, for the president of the United States, as a human being, I respect him, but they are killing people."
CIA Assassination Plot
Chavez insists that the CIA is collaborating with dissident elements within Venezuela to assassinate him. He says the CIA killed Chile's President Salvador Allende in 1973, and has attempted to kill Fidel Castro of Cuba.
The New York Times reported in 2004 on an intelligence brief showing that the CIA was aware of plans of a coup against Chavez. The documents do not, however, indicate that the CIA or the Bush administration supported the coup in any way.
Possibly sending a message to his supporters, Chavez tells Walters, "If something happens to me, if I get killed, the president of the United States should be held responsible."
Oil and Democracy
Despite the animosity between the two nations, Venezuela continues to be the U.S.'s fourth-largest supplier of oil. He says that "Venezuela is supporting tens of thousands of poor families in the United States with heating oil," and that his country sends "1.5 million barrels of oil" to the United States every day. Chavez also says, "There is no intention to reduce or eliminate that supply, but we have said, in case of any other aggression by the U.S. administration, we would cut this oil supply, but we expect this not [going] to happen."
Chavez refuses to endorse an American presidential candidate for 2008, saying that his support would be a burden for the candidate. He does, however, express great confidence that if he could run for president in the United States, he would have no trouble winning and that he could win over any right wing candidate within six months.
Asked about his governing methods, Chavez dismisses the idea that he rules by decree, saying instead that he leads a society that is both socialist and democratic. He calls himself "an enemy of an empire who wants to dominate the world" but a "friend of equality and freedom."
Iran and Fidel
Though Chavez affirms his support for the state of Israel, he also says that he would support Iran against any attack from the United States. Chavez expresses doubt that there would ever be such an attack, cautioning that it would be "a boomerang" and seen as an attack against the entire world.
Chavez also updates Walters on the health of his friend Fidel Castro of Cuba. He says that Castro is making a remarkable recovery from a very serious illness and insists that the Cuban leader has not stopped governing. Says Chavez: "He's got a rein in his hand and the other rein is in Raul's [Fidel's brother's] hand."
Walters asks Chavez about Bush's just concluded five-nation trip through Latin America, asking how he'd rate it on a scale of one to 10. "One," says Chavez. "One, because I am generous. Because it could be minus five."
(notas para los que no viven en este país:
1) No hubo un Golpe de Estado contra Chávez...lo que hubo fue una rebelión de militares que se opusieron a que Chávez sacara a la calle los Tanques del Ejército para masacrar a sus opositores. Tampoco vuelve al poder por la cción divina del pueblo, sino porque uno de los militares que se llama Vasquez Velasco al no verse elegido como Ministro de la Defensa en el nuevo gobierno de Pedro Carmona Estanga, entonces hecha para atrás todo lo que se había logrado.
2)No puede haber un magnicidio por parte de USA; esa es una frase que la repite varias veces por aquello que lo que se repite queda como una frase publicitaria (le gustaría ser un martir)
3) Los insultos gratuítos no corresponden a un Jefe de Estado sino a una persona que busca el efecto publicitario y la noticia porque sabe que los medios les agrada hacer de vez en cuando lo que se llama "noticias amarillistas")
4)Tiene que verderle petróleo a USA porque es su principal cliente y como no se puede suministrar a China,por ejemplo, porque el coste del transporte no hace factible ese envío, entonces tiene que seguir con el suministro que le produce muchos dólares para su propia promoción comprando la voluntad de países y la conciencia de personas)
5) Si gobierna por decretos y con una ley que lo habilita como supremo decisor. Nadie puede ir en contra de lo que él ordena)
6)
March 15, 2007 — ABC News' Barbara Walters sits down with President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela for an interview in which Chavez shares his views on the United States, President Bush and America's 2008 presidential elections.
Hugo Chavez made headlines across America when he famously called Bush "the devil" in a speech at the United Nations headquarters in New York last year.
Watch Barbara Walters' full interview with President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela Friday on "20/20" at 10 p.m. EDT on ABC
When Walters asks Chavez about the name-calling, he explains it by saying that he wanted his strong words to bring attention to the facts. "Yes, I call him a devil in the United Nations," says Chavez. "That's true. Another time, I said that he was a donkey just because I think that he is very ignorant … about the things that are actually happening in Latin America and the world. If that is an excess on my side, I accept. And I might apologize. But who is causing more harm? He burns people, villages and he … invades nations."
Chavez also accuses Bush of planning a coup against him. The Venezuelan president briefly lost power in a coup in 2002 but with help from a popular uprising against the coup leaders, reclaimed his position within days.
Bush is not the only U.S. official to become the butt of Chavez's words. Chavez has referred to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as an illiterate who suffers from sexual frustration. Chavez shrugs off these insults as jokes, saying that his words are nothing when compared to the the loss of lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.
About both Bush and Rice, Chavez says, "As a lady I respect her, for the president of the United States, as a human being, I respect him, but they are killing people."
CIA Assassination Plot
Chavez insists that the CIA is collaborating with dissident elements within Venezuela to assassinate him. He says the CIA killed Chile's President Salvador Allende in 1973, and has attempted to kill Fidel Castro of Cuba.
The New York Times reported in 2004 on an intelligence brief showing that the CIA was aware of plans of a coup against Chavez. The documents do not, however, indicate that the CIA or the Bush administration supported the coup in any way.
Possibly sending a message to his supporters, Chavez tells Walters, "If something happens to me, if I get killed, the president of the United States should be held responsible."
Oil and Democracy
Despite the animosity between the two nations, Venezuela continues to be the U.S.'s fourth-largest supplier of oil. He says that "Venezuela is supporting tens of thousands of poor families in the United States with heating oil," and that his country sends "1.5 million barrels of oil" to the United States every day. Chavez also says, "There is no intention to reduce or eliminate that supply, but we have said, in case of any other aggression by the U.S. administration, we would cut this oil supply, but we expect this not [going] to happen."
Chavez refuses to endorse an American presidential candidate for 2008, saying that his support would be a burden for the candidate. He does, however, express great confidence that if he could run for president in the United States, he would have no trouble winning and that he could win over any right wing candidate within six months.
Asked about his governing methods, Chavez dismisses the idea that he rules by decree, saying instead that he leads a society that is both socialist and democratic. He calls himself "an enemy of an empire who wants to dominate the world" but a "friend of equality and freedom."
Iran and Fidel
Though Chavez affirms his support for the state of Israel, he also says that he would support Iran against any attack from the United States. Chavez expresses doubt that there would ever be such an attack, cautioning that it would be "a boomerang" and seen as an attack against the entire world.
Chavez also updates Walters on the health of his friend Fidel Castro of Cuba. He says that Castro is making a remarkable recovery from a very serious illness and insists that the Cuban leader has not stopped governing. Says Chavez: "He's got a rein in his hand and the other rein is in Raul's [Fidel's brother's] hand."
Walters asks Chavez about Bush's just concluded five-nation trip through Latin America, asking how he'd rate it on a scale of one to 10. "One," says Chavez. "One, because I am generous. Because it could be minus five."
(notas para los que no viven en este país:
1) No hubo un Golpe de Estado contra Chávez...lo que hubo fue una rebelión de militares que se opusieron a que Chávez sacara a la calle los Tanques del Ejército para masacrar a sus opositores. Tampoco vuelve al poder por la cción divina del pueblo, sino porque uno de los militares que se llama Vasquez Velasco al no verse elegido como Ministro de la Defensa en el nuevo gobierno de Pedro Carmona Estanga, entonces hecha para atrás todo lo que se había logrado.
2)No puede haber un magnicidio por parte de USA; esa es una frase que la repite varias veces por aquello que lo que se repite queda como una frase publicitaria (le gustaría ser un martir)
3) Los insultos gratuítos no corresponden a un Jefe de Estado sino a una persona que busca el efecto publicitario y la noticia porque sabe que los medios les agrada hacer de vez en cuando lo que se llama "noticias amarillistas")
4)Tiene que verderle petróleo a USA porque es su principal cliente y como no se puede suministrar a China,por ejemplo, porque el coste del transporte no hace factible ese envío, entonces tiene que seguir con el suministro que le produce muchos dólares para su propia promoción comprando la voluntad de países y la conciencia de personas)
5) Si gobierna por decretos y con una ley que lo habilita como supremo decisor. Nadie puede ir en contra de lo que él ordena)
6)
Son doce capítulos y un epílogo, Un libro denso y por eso mismo es necesario leerlo con calma. Es el trabajo de Denes Martos que se llama EL DESAFIO DEL SIGLO XXI.
Es un estudio sobre las tendencias, políticas y posibilidades de nuestro siglo. Publicado en Buenos Aires en el año 2.001 y hoy en un libro digital completo.
Al comezar a leelo hoy sentí que la introducción es muy pesimista...veremos que nos espera los próximos capítulos. Es un libro para reflexionar...pero también para debatir.
Es un estudio sobre las tendencias, políticas y posibilidades de nuestro siglo. Publicado en Buenos Aires en el año 2.001 y hoy en un libro digital completo.
Al comezar a leelo hoy sentí que la introducción es muy pesimista...veremos que nos espera los próximos capítulos. Es un libro para reflexionar...pero también para debatir.
Special Report from Colombia
Sam Hopkins2007-03-14
By Sam Hopkins
Un Nuevo Mundo. Even if your Spanish is limited to Mexican menu literacy or Ricky Martin lyrics, you probably understand this phrase. It translates as "A New World," and it bears great historical importance for the past, present and future of the Americas.
In the days of the first Iberian explorers and conquistadores, the New World was thought of as a dark place. Terra incognita--unknown land. That was around 1492, when hope was centered on the pursuit of spices and gold, with no regard for life.
Here in Cartagena de las Indias, Colombia's Caribbean cultural capital and the site of the third Biofuels Americas conference, the pervasive mood is one that welcomes a new, hopeful world of clean energy.
And though their goals are green, the leaders of this drive are not green to the world of business. Gray-haired men, some balding, many of whom have worked in the fossil fuel industry, are among the most vociferous proponents of the trans-American transition to biofuels.
This Tuesday morning, fresh from a pleasant sleep with the sounds of Caribbean waves lapping against the shore outside my bedroom window, I listened carefully to the Spanish-language talk of the Colombian Minister of Mines and Energy, Hernan Martinez.
Just last week I was ankle-deep in condensation inside a Mexican gold mine, but today I was much more interested in the energy side of Señor Martinez's title. On Sunday, as President Bush breezed through Bogotá, the Colombian capital, Martinez and President Álvaro Uribe (who will deliver the conference's keynote address) discussed Bush's new plans for revitalizing regional and world trade agreements.
Fertilizing the World Economy
As the Doha round of world trade agreements withers on the vine, Bush knows it needs fertilizer. Agricultural subsidies are the crux of the matter, and biologically-derived fuels provide a way forward.
During Bush's first stop on his current five-nation South American trip, he inked an agreement with Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva promising to blaze a trail for biofuels.
Brazil and the United States currently produce 90% of the world's ethanol, an alcohol made by fermenting plants with high cellulose content. However, though the U.S. would like to be paired with Brazil in the forefront, the primary U.S. domestic feedstock--corn--requires twice the amount of land to produce the same amount of fuel as Brazil's sugar-based ethanol.
But this is a new world of business, and competition is healthy and essential.
It may be that Brazil's comparative advantage in ethanol will persist. The United States must then stick to its free-trade guns and innovate rather than continue the unfortunate tendency to lobby for protectionist tariffs and legislation.
The Colombian case displays the manifold nature of biofuel development. As a country plagued by the narcotics trade, Colombia's agricultural industry is essentially held hostage by narcoterrorism.
The Relative Threat
As Bush arrived in Colombia, televisions aboard Air Force One signaled unease.
According to reports, the monitors read, "Colombia presents THE MOST SIGNIFICANT THREAT ENVIRONMENT of this five-country trip!"
Nevertheless, I came. And as Minister Martinez spoke, he emphasized the importance of biofuel development in the face of the drug thugs who control much of the country's cultivable land.
Martinez did not qualify the enemy of Colombia's progress with a prefix. He called narcoterrorism simply "terrorismo."
For this country, al-Qaeda is not the most immediate threat. Though global trouble figures heavily in oil prices and the desire for energy independence, the interplay between agriculture, jobs, fuel, and international standing is intricate in Colombia.
It is "especially important for our country," Martinez told us, to use biofuel development as a counterbalance to the "cultivation of illicit crops."
Martinez, a businessman who used to work with Exxon, was echoed in his comments by Jorge Cardenas, head of the industry group Fedebiocombustibles (biocombustibles means "biofuels" in Spanish).
Cardenas said that 300,000 people would eventually be employed directly and indirectly by the Colombian biofuel industry, many of them agricultural types whose livelihoods are currently too easily swayed towards the unsavory reliance on illicit substances cultivation.
My friends, you will tell your children about the week when George W. Bush became the most ardent champion of clean fuel in the Western Hemisphere. This represents a shift in social, foreign and economic policy that cannot be ignored.
Let's welcome President Bush to the New World.
Sam Hopkins2007-03-14
By Sam Hopkins
Un Nuevo Mundo. Even if your Spanish is limited to Mexican menu literacy or Ricky Martin lyrics, you probably understand this phrase. It translates as "A New World," and it bears great historical importance for the past, present and future of the Americas.
In the days of the first Iberian explorers and conquistadores, the New World was thought of as a dark place. Terra incognita--unknown land. That was around 1492, when hope was centered on the pursuit of spices and gold, with no regard for life.
Here in Cartagena de las Indias, Colombia's Caribbean cultural capital and the site of the third Biofuels Americas conference, the pervasive mood is one that welcomes a new, hopeful world of clean energy.
And though their goals are green, the leaders of this drive are not green to the world of business. Gray-haired men, some balding, many of whom have worked in the fossil fuel industry, are among the most vociferous proponents of the trans-American transition to biofuels.
This Tuesday morning, fresh from a pleasant sleep with the sounds of Caribbean waves lapping against the shore outside my bedroom window, I listened carefully to the Spanish-language talk of the Colombian Minister of Mines and Energy, Hernan Martinez.
Just last week I was ankle-deep in condensation inside a Mexican gold mine, but today I was much more interested in the energy side of Señor Martinez's title. On Sunday, as President Bush breezed through Bogotá, the Colombian capital, Martinez and President Álvaro Uribe (who will deliver the conference's keynote address) discussed Bush's new plans for revitalizing regional and world trade agreements.
Fertilizing the World Economy
As the Doha round of world trade agreements withers on the vine, Bush knows it needs fertilizer. Agricultural subsidies are the crux of the matter, and biologically-derived fuels provide a way forward.
During Bush's first stop on his current five-nation South American trip, he inked an agreement with Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva promising to blaze a trail for biofuels.
Brazil and the United States currently produce 90% of the world's ethanol, an alcohol made by fermenting plants with high cellulose content. However, though the U.S. would like to be paired with Brazil in the forefront, the primary U.S. domestic feedstock--corn--requires twice the amount of land to produce the same amount of fuel as Brazil's sugar-based ethanol.
But this is a new world of business, and competition is healthy and essential.
It may be that Brazil's comparative advantage in ethanol will persist. The United States must then stick to its free-trade guns and innovate rather than continue the unfortunate tendency to lobby for protectionist tariffs and legislation.
The Colombian case displays the manifold nature of biofuel development. As a country plagued by the narcotics trade, Colombia's agricultural industry is essentially held hostage by narcoterrorism.
The Relative Threat
As Bush arrived in Colombia, televisions aboard Air Force One signaled unease.
According to reports, the monitors read, "Colombia presents THE MOST SIGNIFICANT THREAT ENVIRONMENT of this five-country trip!"
Nevertheless, I came. And as Minister Martinez spoke, he emphasized the importance of biofuel development in the face of the drug thugs who control much of the country's cultivable land.
Martinez did not qualify the enemy of Colombia's progress with a prefix. He called narcoterrorism simply "terrorismo."
For this country, al-Qaeda is not the most immediate threat. Though global trouble figures heavily in oil prices and the desire for energy independence, the interplay between agriculture, jobs, fuel, and international standing is intricate in Colombia.
It is "especially important for our country," Martinez told us, to use biofuel development as a counterbalance to the "cultivation of illicit crops."
Martinez, a businessman who used to work with Exxon, was echoed in his comments by Jorge Cardenas, head of the industry group Fedebiocombustibles (biocombustibles means "biofuels" in Spanish).
Cardenas said that 300,000 people would eventually be employed directly and indirectly by the Colombian biofuel industry, many of them agricultural types whose livelihoods are currently too easily swayed towards the unsavory reliance on illicit substances cultivation.
My friends, you will tell your children about the week when George W. Bush became the most ardent champion of clean fuel in the Western Hemisphere. This represents a shift in social, foreign and economic policy that cannot be ignored.
Let's welcome President Bush to the New World.
China isn't looking to replace U.S., prime minister says
By Joseph Kahn
Published: March 16, 2007
Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China said Friday that his country was still struggling to overcome major obstacles to its internal development and would not seek to disrupt the world order dominated by the United States.
In a news conference broadcast live on national television, Wen deflected a series of questions about China's rising financial and military power and its fast-growing emissions of the gases that are thought to contribute to climate change. He argued that China remained a developing country that must study the experiences of richer nations, and that the country would always act responsibly on the world stage.
Chinese leaders have long followed a public relations strategy emphasizing modesty and avoiding intimations of political, economic or diplomatic ambition. But Wen's defensive tone was notable because China's trade surplus, foreign exchange reserves, military spending and pollution have all surged under his leadership in the past four years, raising concerns about the country's growing impact on the world at large.
Wen stressed that his focus remained squarely on overcoming what he termed "hidden crises" that threaten to undermine China's economy, which, he said, remained "unbalanced, uncoordinated, unstable and unsustainable," even as it grew rapidly. He said the country must also address the "overconcentration of power" that has fueled rampant corruption, and that it must do more to help the poor.
"The two great tasks are: first, develop the productive forces of society; and second, advance social justice and fairness," he said. "The speed of the fleet is not determined by the fastest vessel; rather it is determined by the slowest one."
Wen said that even as China explored new ways to invest more than $1 trillion in foreign currency reserves in overseas assets, Beijing still amounted to a small player in world financial markets and would "not have any impact on U.S.-dollar-denominated assets" globally.
The Central Bank of China is in Hong Kong. Three women supervise the Chinese reserve of a trillion of dollars. The three Chinese women (the THREE KIAOS: Wu KIaoling, Hu KIalian y Zhang Xiaohul) are controlling what happens with the reserves.
The Chinese want that the Central Bank make more money, not only with the reserves in USA but spending part in China.
The Chinese reserves gain 4% the year but they could gain 8% and to triple the budget of education in China.
The public money in China is spent in actions in the market of capitals, bonds in purchase of petroleum and strategic metals.
The subject is that to buy the Yuan to spend it in education it is not an easy task because the value of the Yuan rises and that would do that the Chinese exports are more expensive, subject that does not love the Chinese of the Central bank. The experts consider that the bank has 600 thousands of million of dollars in the USA and 200 in Euros.
The problem of the wage of the official’s government is enormous. The three Xiaos gain 500 dollars to the month. They do delicate a work but very badly paid.
Wen also said that China's military spending, "whether in absolute terms or in relative terms," amounted to less than that of many wealthy countries and some developing countries.
China's official defense budget for 2007 rose 18 percent to $45.3 billion, continuing a decade-long streak of double-digit increases. Even at that level, which the Pentagon maintains understates China's actual defense outlays by a factor of two or three, China's defense budget in 2007 exceeds that of Japan and is fast approaching budgeted levels of defense spending in Britain and France, the largest military spenders after the United States.
Asked to explain China's recent firing of an anti-satellite missile that successfully destroyed one of China's own defunct satellites in space, Wen answered obliquely. He stressed that the test — which he referred to as "an experiment in outer space" rather than the firing of a ground-based ballistic missile into space — was aimed at no other country. He said China favored a treaty banning the use of arms in space.
"China's position on the peaceful utilization of outer space remains unchanged," he said.
China has become the largest consumer of energy after the United States, and also, by some estimates, the largest emitter after the United States of gases that are thought to be responsible for global warming.
Wen said that China intended to "act in a responsible manner" and work toward reducing emissions, even though it did not have to meet mandatory targets for reduction under the Kyoto Protocol to fight global warming.
The prime minister also said that China needed to pursue "political reform" to combat corruption, which he acknowledged had infiltrated the "top ranks" of the ruling Communist Party. Late last year, Chen Liangyu, a member of the Politburo and the party boss of Shanghai, was stripped of his position on accusations of graft.
But in response to a question about how long it might take China to become a democracy, Wen provided a lengthy answer that conflated what Communist Party officials call democracy with the concept as it is known and practiced in the West.
He said that China was already a "socialist democracy," but added that it still needed a long time before it perfected its democracy.
Quoting a traditional party line on the nature of "socialist democracy," Wen said: "Socialist democracy in its most fundamental form is to let the people be the masters of their own home. This must include the right to democratic elections, democratic decision-making, democratic administration and democratic supervision."
That notion of democracy has prevailed in China since Mao ruled the country through a cult of personality. The Communist Party views it as consistent with maintaining its monopoly on political power.
Even so, Wen said that Western nations should not preach to China about overhauling its political system.
Wen appeared to be caught off guard when asked about the political views of Zhao Ziyang, a late leader of the Communist Party who was purged after he opposed the use of force to quell dissent during the 1989 democracy protests in Beijing.
Zhao's thoughts on democracy and political reform were the subject of a book published in January in Hong Kong by a longtime confidant of the former leader, who died in 2005.
Though Wen once worked for Zhao, he answered the question tersely. "I have not read this book," he said.
The book is banned in Mainland China.
And although Wen's news conference was carried live on Chinese television, all references to Zhao were subsequently struck from the official transcript of the news conference and edited out of a Webcast of the session.
The Central Bank of China is in Hong Kong. Three women supervise the Chinese reserve of a trillion of dollars. The three Chinese women (the THREE KIAOS: Wu KIaoling, Hu KIalian y Zhang Xiaohul) ) are controlling what happens with the reserves.
The Chinese want that the Central Bank make more money, not only with the reserves in USA but spending part in China.
The Chinese reserves gain 4% the year but they could gain 8% and to triple the budget of education in China.
The public money in China is spent in actions in the market of capitals, bonds in purchase of petroleum and strategic metals.
The subject is that to buy the Yuan to spend it in education it is not an easy task because the value of the Yuan rises and that would do that the Chinese exports are more expensive, subject that does not love the Chinese of the Central bank. The experts consider that the bank has 600 thousands of million of dollars in the USA and 200 in Euros.
The problem of the wage of the official’s government is enormous. The three Xiaos gain 500 dollars to the month. They do delicate a work but very badly paid.
En versión Beta todavía el periódico Herald Tribune le puede dar la oportunidad de oir sus noticias o bajarlas en MP3. Para aquellas personas que desean mejorar su inglés oyendo las noticias bien pronunciadas por locutores profesionales esta es una buena oportunidad. Sólo tiene que incribirse para tener este servicio.
Un escritor interesado en leer y en escribir.
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