Yes the kleptocracy doesn't even help the locals secondarily. If I were running the American show in the hemisphere, I'd spend a lot of time talking to the colonels; those high up enough to command troops on the streets but not so elevated they had been bought off by Maduro. These folks are always useful in revolutionary times, in terms of both transitions and less bloody more effective ones.
Sad but unsurprising day for Venezuelas in and out of the country. In my corporate days at Akzo Nobel ( Chavez) time frame I ( we) actually did a licensing deal with the leading paint company ( Corimon). Brave stuff at the time and impossible now. The struggle to pay us was unbelievable but they were a good company and actually did.
The big “ so what” of all that was that through that I got to meet amazing, talented people that could rival anyone in the world and i mean that Who through no fault of their own were simply born in the wrong country at the wrong time.
I visited at least a dozen times and each time it grew worse. Kidnapping , violence and decay in a country that was once beautiful prosperous and vibrant.
The lucky ones made it to the US or Colombia .. i am still in contact with many. They still have hope for change but it is so painful to watch their businesses destroyed and families still there that suffer. Often we don’t think of the REAL people affected in matters outside of the US.
These folks are just like you and I. College educated, entrepreneurial and warm.
But it doesn’t matter. You can’t beat city hall when it’s run by a dictator whose sole motivation is to simply survive at all cost. You got that right John. That is all that is happening. He’s not going anywhere.
So they are left with hope that something unfortunate happens to him.
The friends of Maduro (previously Chavez), all get government money, which they invest abroad.
Why abroad?
Well, at home, they would be equally squeezed and have no certainty.
So the food subsidies are invested in plantations elsewhere in South America, for import to Venezuela, not for setting up local businesses in Venezuela for the local market and for export to support Venezuela.
They buy their technology from IFP (Institut Français du Pétrole) as UOP (Universal Oil Products, part of Honeywell) cannot sell to them. I did my post Doc at IFP in 1993. Originally set up by Charles de Gaulle while at war (1944).
The Brazilian oil company Petrobras is no different: piggy bank for Lula and Rousseff.
It has destroyed Angola, Nigeria, Algeria, Iran (but Iran for other reasons than bare corruption)...
The ones that got it right are: Norway, Abu Dhabi, and belatedly (today), Saudi Arabia. The press on SA may be bad, but the reality on the ground is good. Bin Salman has made a success of it. Despite the Turkish embassy.
And it is curious to speculate why: morality, religion, social cohesion?
Yes the kleptocracy doesn't even help the locals secondarily. If I were running the American show in the hemisphere, I'd spend a lot of time talking to the colonels; those high up enough to command troops on the streets but not so elevated they had been bought off by Maduro. These folks are always useful in revolutionary times, in terms of both transitions and less bloody more effective ones.
There is no amount of natural wealth that cannot be undone by the economic illiteracy of leftism; there are endless examples.
Yes they are all much of a muchness
I agree that MBS has done some quietly important things and that Saudi may well make that 'got it right list,' which is a huge development.
Sad but unsurprising day for Venezuelas in and out of the country. In my corporate days at Akzo Nobel ( Chavez) time frame I ( we) actually did a licensing deal with the leading paint company ( Corimon). Brave stuff at the time and impossible now. The struggle to pay us was unbelievable but they were a good company and actually did.
The big “ so what” of all that was that through that I got to meet amazing, talented people that could rival anyone in the world and i mean that Who through no fault of their own were simply born in the wrong country at the wrong time.
I visited at least a dozen times and each time it grew worse. Kidnapping , violence and decay in a country that was once beautiful prosperous and vibrant.
The lucky ones made it to the US or Colombia .. i am still in contact with many. They still have hope for change but it is so painful to watch their businesses destroyed and families still there that suffer. Often we don’t think of the REAL people affected in matters outside of the US.
These folks are just like you and I. College educated, entrepreneurial and warm.
But it doesn’t matter. You can’t beat city hall when it’s run by a dictator whose sole motivation is to simply survive at all cost. You got that right John. That is all that is happening. He’s not going anywhere.
So they are left with hope that something unfortunate happens to him.
The friends of Maduro (previously Chavez), all get government money, which they invest abroad.
Why abroad?
Well, at home, they would be equally squeezed and have no certainty.
So the food subsidies are invested in plantations elsewhere in South America, for import to Venezuela, not for setting up local businesses in Venezuela for the local market and for export to support Venezuela.
PDVSA.
They buy their technology from IFP (Institut Français du Pétrole) as UOP (Universal Oil Products, part of Honeywell) cannot sell to them. I did my post Doc at IFP in 1993. Originally set up by Charles de Gaulle while at war (1944).
The Brazilian oil company Petrobras is no different: piggy bank for Lula and Rousseff.
As Franz Josef Strauss used to say: if the communists ran Saudi Arabia, they would run out of sand.
The mixed blessing of oil & gas wealth.
It has destroyed Angola, Nigeria, Algeria, Iran (but Iran for other reasons than bare corruption)...
The ones that got it right are: Norway, Abu Dhabi, and belatedly (today), Saudi Arabia. The press on SA may be bad, but the reality on the ground is good. Bin Salman has made a success of it. Despite the Turkish embassy.
And it is curious to speculate why: morality, religion, social cohesion?