Pray the future which gifted minds will prioritize is that of Venezuela, and not just that of the gifted minds, like Cisneros’.

Sir, Gustavo Cisneros holds that “Vatican diplomacy could be Venezuela’s salvation”, March 21. I wonder how much diplomacy he believes is needed to overcome Venezuela’s original economic sin, namely that all oil revenues flow directly to the government coffers. As is, that income currently signifies around 98 % of all the nation’s exports.

Had oil revenues been shared out directly to the Venezuelan citizens and so that the government worked for them and not the other way round, then Cisneros would also perhaps have seen no reason to enter into a cozy relation with the government which has so discredited him with one half of Venezuela. And then Cisneros might not have been in need to prepare these just in case the wind abruptly changes mass marketed editorials.

“Gifted minds that prioritize the future will build consensus”. Indeed but let the Vatican and all of us pray that the prioritized future refers to Venezuela’s, and not just to that of the gifted minds.

http://theoilcurse.blogspot.com/

http://petropolitan.blogspot.com/

Britain, if you had oil revenue power concentrated like in Venezuela, yours could be even more of a ‘malandro’, a hoodlum, nation.

Sir, I refer to 99.99% of what is currently written about Venezuela, like yours “Venezuela: the ‘malandro’ nation” March 5.

If you’d only taken time to really set yourself into the challenges of a country where over 98 percent of all its exports go into government coffers, you would not be writing about a “Hugo Chávez legacy” or the charmlessness of his successor, Nicolas Maduro.

You would probably be writing about the fact that no one, no matter how good intentions he has, no matter how charming he is, no matter how brilliant he might be, should, in the company of some few petrocrats and oilygarchs, have the right to wield such extraordinary powers.

And Andres Schipani titles his report “Venezuela´s poor wait for the revolution to deliver”, which only helps to promote the illusion of something waiting for them at the end of the rainbow. A much better title would be “Venezuela´s ever growing poor keep standing in the wrong line”

No Sir, let me assure you that if your Britain was set up as my Venezuela is, yours might be a much more ´malandro’ nation than mine… suffice to see what happened when some of your kings wielded too much power… and heads rolled!

To find a solution to Venezuela, you have to be clear about its problem.

Sir, John Paul Rathbone, Andres Schipani and Mark Frank write “Venezuela: In search of a solution” March 3.

I am sorry, that neither Venezuela nor your reporters can identify the real problem, just shows how hard it is to develop a solution to its problems.

Let me just ask… what would you believe the real problem of the Britain would be, if your government was receiving, as income, to dispose of in any way it liked, over 98 percent of Britain’s exports?

G8, by championing the Extractive Industries Transparency Directive, might be selling snake-oil-illusions

Sir, I refer to Vanessa Houlder’s note “Extractive Industries” June 11, where she writes about Cameron urging his G8 partners to champion the Extractive Industries Transparency Directive, June 11.

I certainly appreciate the efforts of the initiative but, as an oil-cursed citizen of a country like Venezuela, where over 97 percent of all the nations exports go directly into government coffers, I cannot but feel that selling the idea that that kind of transparency could solve our oil curse problems, is like selling snake-oil-illusions, something which can only help the ruler and his petrocrats.

Let me ask you, if the UK was in a similar position, would you settle for more transparency, or would you directly go for wrestling that excessive natural resource power out of your ruler’s hand?

By the way, in 2003 you published a letter in which I held that all European taxmen were, by means of gasoline/petrol taxes getting more revenues per barrel of oil than any country who gives up that non-renewable resource forever. And, since that is still true, even at current oil prices, I ask again why does not EITI’s call for transparency cover that?

Can accounting really be allowed to base itself on known fictions?

Sir it is with amazement I read Barney Jopson, Benedict Mander and Miles Johnson reporting on how “Venezuela devaluation dents big companies”, February 12.

I understand the locals are prohibited from even thinking in terms of a different foreign exchange rate than what the current oilygarchs in power allows them to, though even so, most of them do, at least in the shadows.

But that grown-up foreign companies hang on to a rate that drives only a part of the economy, and have not created reserves to cover for this and other adjustments of the fx fiction to come, is astonishing. It sort of falls in the same category of naiveté as bank regulators believing that an AAA to AA rating has so little implicit risk so that they can allow banks to leverage over 60 times to 1 on such exposures.

Honestly, something is terribly wrong if auditors can ok balance sheets based on a known Bs. fiction.