2006 and 2007, in Op-eds on Venezuela, I already had to reference Rwanda. That’s how late it is.

Sir, Luis Almagro writes, “As an international community, we have failed to live up to our responsibilities in Venezuela… We must address the corruption that is starving an entire country’s population, and provide humanitarian assistance to those who are desperately in need. We must act — it is already too late” “The world has a responsibility to protect the people of Venezuela”, September 28.

How can we Venezuelan’s not be extremely thankful for Luis Almagro’s support in the OAS? For a full decade, 2005-2015, we had to suffer Almagro’s predecessor José Miguel Insulza’s shameless silence on what was going on in Venezuela, even his support of its regimes and its buddies.

When Almagro now refers to former US president Bill Clinton once telling the people of Rwanda: “all over the world there were people like me sitting in offices, day after day after day, who did not fully appreciate the depth and speed with which you were being engulfed by this unimaginable terror”; I must point out that already 2006 and 2007 in two Op-Eds published in Venezuela’s leading newspaper, El Universal, before I was censored by the government friendly new owners’ of that paper, I had to refer to Rwanda. That’s how late this all is.

In 2009, in a similar Op-Ed, addressed to OAS and its Inter American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR) I put forward the case that when gasoline, in a country with so many needs, was basically given away for free, an odious violation of economic human rights was being committed. 

In July 2015, I formally denounced that to IACHR, ending my accusation with: “Let me assure you right now, at this moment, the official price of a liter of milk is around 300 times higher than the price of a liter of gasoline ... and if that is not an economic crime against humanity, what is?”Sir, I am still waiting for a response.

@PerKurowski

The greatest educational challenge is how to fight the extremism and groupthink now put on steroids by social media

Sir, Martin Wolf writes: “The belief that a degree is the only qualification that matters has had dysfunctional effects” “Simple-minded economics distorts the education debate”

Absolutely! “Ample evidence exists of graduates doing jobs that used not to need degrees” and all this when robots and artificial intelligence are only warming up.

But, in Venezuela, the educators supposed to educate our youngsters, don’t say a word about that, in a country in which the lack of food and medicines is killing people, petrol (gas) is sold for US$0.01 a litre (4 US$ cents per gallon).

But, in the developed world, reputable finance and economy professors, supposed to educate our professionals, don’t say a word about that the risk weighted capital requirements for banks dangerously and uselessly distort the allocation of bank credit; and as a consequence a Martin Wolf can get away with not writing about these regulations having dysfunctional effects.

What made educators in Venezuela and professors in the developed world behave this way? And what are we to do when all educators are also being further groupthinked and radicalized by political agendas and social media? I really don’t know. But I do know that leaving it in the hands of governments as Wolf seems to suggest, would be a very childish and statist illusion.

(For the time being) I have two beautiful, bright and spiritual (Canadian) granddaughters. They make me spend much time trying to identify a Hogwarts School for them that could help me to keep them magic.

PS. Thinking back I must be so grateful for my parents, and grandparents, to have allowed me to go to a boarding school that, at least during that time, had something of Hogwarts, though luckily without the witchcraft. I refer to Sigtuna Humanistiska Läroverk in Sweden.

@PerKurowski

When does a subsidy become an outright gift? Hugo Chavez committed an odious economic-policy crime against humanity.

Sir I refer to Andres Schipani’s and John Paul Rathbone’s “Oil’s slide forces Venezuela to rethink subsidies agreed in Chávez glory days” January 15.

The article refers to “About 600,000 bpd of subsidized oil are consumed locally” but, since the local price of gas (petrol) is much less than 1-euro cent per liter, I would consider that to be much more of an outright gift than a subsidy.

The fact that Hugo Chavez gave away more value in gas (petrol) to those who drove cars, than what he spent on all his social programs put together, might be embarrassing for all those on the left for whom Chavez was a hero… but the truth is that, doing so, he committed an odious economic-policy crime against humanity.

Do not reduce what is an economic crime against humanity to merely being a “petrol subsidy”

Sir, Daniel Lansberg Rodriguez, I presume my former colleague as columnist in El Universal, as I assume he has been censored too, writes about “slashing petrol subsidies” in Venezuela, “Latin America swaps its populists for apparatchiks” August 20.

Hold it there, “petrol subsidies” is not the correct way to describe selling gas at less than 1 US$ cent per gallon, at less than 1 € cent per 5 liters, less than 1 £ penny per 6 liters of petrol or gas.

To put it in its real current perspective it means that, more than US$ 2.500 are handed over to each one of the more than 5 million cars on the roads of Venezuela, representing a value that by far exceeds what the government pays out in all other social programs put together… if we now can count the gas/petrol give away as a social program.

The International Court of Justice should be able to also handle these economic crimes against humanity.

Greed comes in many shapes and forms

Sir in “more comment online”, “Roubini cameo” we read about a documentary Oliver Stone is preparing on bankers and greed. September 11. Well greed comes in many shapes and forms, not just pecuniary but also ideological. Oliver Stone has for instance recently shown much ideological greed (who knows, perhaps pecuniary greed too) filming a documentary on Hugo Chavez, “South of the Border” where he does not even mention such facts that Chavez cheats the poor of Venezuela, to the tune of about 10% of GDP, by selling petrol at about two US dollar cents per litre (gas at 10 cents per gallon)

Oil revenue sharing stands the best chance of stopping wasteful energy use in the Gulf.

Sir Jim Krane in “America can stop the Gulf’s wasteful energy use” August 14, lambasts the United Arab Emirates “with their monster 4x4”, and wants the US, with its own so very heavy carbon foot print, to lean hard by means of nuclear energy agreement on the UAE´s ruling oil sheiks, to move it away from the fossil fuels.

One of Krane’s doubtful arguments is that although “raising energy prices would help” that is impossible because since the ruling sheiks “do not give their subjects a vote they must keep them happy in other ways”. For his information, in Venezuela, the citizens have the right to vote, but yet the price of gas-petrol, around $11 cents per gallon, is about 15 times lower than in UAE.

No, the best way to stop the gas-petrol waste is to allow the citizens to participate directly in the oil revenues… so that its waste hurts the citizen´s own pockets... but that would mean putting an end to oil-autocrats in UAE and Venezuela. Yes, and so what? An extra bonus... good riddance!

But the Venezuelans will not get their gasoline.

Sir, in your editorial “Chávez gets his oil” June 28 you mention that with current oil prices “it scarcely matter that the amount of oil produced has declined in Venezuela” and I would suggest you read Najmeh Bozorgmehr’s report in FT the same day on how “Fuel crisis increases pressure on Tehran” where Iran’s fuel rationing crisis is described.

For your information, according to projections based on the current sales of vehicles, Venezuela a country with only 26 million inhabitants and a GNI per capita of less than US$ 5.0000, will in the years of 2006 and 2007 have placed a total of 750.000 new gas guzzlers on its roads, partly thanks to the craziness of a domestic gasoline price of under 3 US cents per liter. Can you imagine what will happen when you have to start to adjust gasoline prices? One of the first symptoms of the existence of a purely populist government is that all planning gets thrown out the window and you live day by day.

European blindness

Sir, you must excuse me using Philip Stephens’ (November 3) “A bitter crop from our failure to tend to global warming” for a somewhat different discussion but when he says that “Europeans . . . are beyond rational calculation: bad for George W. Bush by definition must be good for everyone else” that must be exactly the reason for which many Europeans have not distanced themselves completely from a Hugo Chavez, who has positioned himself as a big time Bush foe, and have been turning a blind eye on issues such like that in a notoriously divided country the Congress of Venezuela has 167 members in favor of Chavez, and none, zero, zilch, of those who differ with him. I said a “somewhat different discussion” because in fact, with respect to global warming, they have also wanted to ignore that petrol is sold domestically in Venezuela for about three euro cents per liter and thereby producing runaway consumption and the transfer of about 10% of it GDP from the poor to those who have cars. Indeed, how hatred can make you blind!

Philip Stephens George Bush Hugo Chavez