There are small victories against MacDonalds but countries should tax very highly!
http://www.slashfood.com/2006/12/08/mcdonalds-driven-out-of-devon-town-by-foodies/?cid=recirc|aol_food
Wy McDonalds is a global problem:
http://www.mcspotlight.org/issues/index.html
If you eat beefburgers it pushed down your effective 'mpg' when walking - official BBC.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ethicalman/2009/03/ethical_dilemmas_is_walking_more_polluting_than_dr.html
S.

An opinion piece from a Caracas newspaper yesterday;

Michael Rowan // Absolute Power
Chávez is becoming absolutely powerful and totally satisfied with his revolution
Opinion
In his first speech in 1959, Fidel Castro said that fighting poverty and creating a huge middle class was the purpose of his revolution. But in the fifty years that followed, poverty worsened dramatically while the middle class disappeared. Nevertheless, Castro became absolutely powerful and totally satisfied with his revolution.

In his first speech in 1999, Hugo Chávez said that fighting poverty was the purpose of his revolution. But in the ten years that followed, poverty continues to plague Venezuela and the middle class was decimated as everyone suffered from the worst inflation in the hemisphere. Nevertheless, Chávez is becoming absolutely powerful and totally satisfied with his revolution.

This has happened in the past. In the 20th century, three nationalist and socialist utopians – Hitler, Stalin and Mao– declared revolutions for the people, but in all three cases, poverty and death reigned while the leaders took absolute control of their countries.

With the referendum on February 15th Mr. Chávez is assured election for life and everybody knows it. His control over the executive, the legislature, the judiciary, the military, the electoral machinery, the oil, the money, the media and what little remains of the private sector, suggests that he can do whatever he wants for as long as he wants in Venezuela.

What other "president" in the hemisphere could rule that his political opponents cannot run, or if they win, take away their powers and money in this state or that municipality as if they are children playing irresponsibly with their toys? Who could get away with invading a mayor’s office and occupying it by force, while claiming the mayor refuses to show up for work?

Venezuela is like Zimbabwe, which is like Cuba, which has gone from the richest to the poorest country in its continent because of a megalomaniacal ruler. Why not admit that Mr. Chávez has dashed the hopes he raised in 1998 about ending poverty and corruption and search his party and the opposition for ideas that could prevent the collapse of Venezuela? Why in the torrent of words coming from the president, do we not hear this humble admission? Why beyond the lion’s roar for more power, can nothing be heard but the silence of the poor and the prayers of the dying?

Another 5th. column hack from the US subsidised press in Venez. He falls by his own argument - if Venez was like Hitler's Russia he would have been stopped spreading his poison a long time ago.
Press freedom lasted only 12 months after Hitler rose to power.
Venez is a peace lovng state and making progress:
http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/venezuela-2009-02.pdf
The main need is to cut imports now: No new cars could be imported except for the Nano from India.
http://www.autoblog.com/2009/03/04/geneva-2009-bodacious-tatas-indian-automaker-debuts-nano-euro/
A consignment could be bartered for few tankers of oil.
Discipline on imports is essential for emerging nations.
S.

ABC Said

"Another 5th. column hack from the US subsidised press in Venez.."

The El Universal Newspaper in Caracas was founded in 1909, 100 years old, hardly a US Subsidised press agency, it was founded by a Venezuelan Poet Andrés Mata.

From the international Coalition of Newspapers

http://icon.crl.edu/detail.php?language=All&country=caracas&title=universal+&oclcno=&begindate=&institution=&sort=&sortOrder=ASC&item=84099&recIndex=1&recCount=3

The beginings of placing the nails into the coffin lid in Venezuela;

One must keep in mind that this Mayor was just elected in November, the same has just taken place to the Governors of Zulia and Carabobo who had control of the Airports and ports taken away.

http://english.eluniversal.com/2009/04/08/en_pol_esp_congress-takes-seat_08A2286889.shtml

An Editorial piece from todays newspaper;

Michael Rowan // Catastrophe
With minimal leadership, Venezuela could have defeated poverty and lifted a majority into the middle class. Instead, Venezuela’s economy is a joke where the endogenous food solution is confiscating productive farms and ranches while selling subsidized foods imported from the “evil empire” under a Bolivarian label
Opinion
The president has produced stunning catastrophes in oil, the economy and foreign affairs. If he had never appeared, Pdvsa would probably be producing almost six million barrels per day, not about two million. His first punch against Pdvsa was firing 18,000 of its best workers in 2002. His second punch was closing the oil opening that had attracted global capital and technology to Venezuela's heavy and deep water oil fields. And the third punch, which may knock Pdvsa to the canvas, is confiscating the oil service companies which pump the oil while Pdvsa is busy doing political work.

If he had never appeared, the economy would be in good shape now. About USD 1 trillion of exchanges occurred since 1999. Of that, a huge amount was wasted on weapons, a big and inefficient bureaucracy, and corruption, while USD 100 billion was spent outside Venezuela for various political purposes. In those ten years, productivity decreased every year and inflation increased every year while investment, research, technology and education plummeted. With minimal leadership, Venezuela could have defeated poverty and lifted a majority into the middle class. Instead, Venezuela's economy is a joke where the endogenous food solution is confiscating productive farms and ranches while selling subsidized foods imported from the "evil empire" under a Bolivarian label.

If he had never appeared, Venezuela would very probably not be associated with Saddam Hussein of Iraq, the Hezbollah terrorists backed by Iran, anti-Semitism, the nuclear weapons and dirty arms dealers of Russia, uranium mining and nuclear power, the FARC guerillas of Colombia, the human rights abuses of Cuba, aiding populism and failure in Bolivia and Ecuador and Nicaragua and Argentina, an increase of cocaine through the country from 50 to 250 tons since only 2005, the worst homicide rate in the hemisphere which came along in the wake of the drugs, and Muammar Qadaffi, Robert Mugabe, and Alexsandr Lukashenko, the last dictator of Europe. All these disasters, from oil to economy to foreign affairs, add up to the catastrophic legacy of one man who is in absolute control of everything.

Simple math has caught up with the PDVSA sponsored MERCALs.


Ajustes en Mercal demuestran insostenibilidad del subsidio
Expertos señalan que el rezago de precios tiene mayor impacto en el bolsillo

Los precios del azúcar y las caraotas se ajustaron en 56,75 y 2,42%, respectivamente, desde el lunes en los establecimientos de la red (Venancio Alcázares)

Contenido relacionado
Azúcar y caraotas subieron en ausencia

La corrección en los precios de los alimentos que expende Mercal desploma la teoría del presidente Hugo Chávez y su tren de Gobierno al asegurar que en esa red la inflación es de cero y que los programas sociales no se verían afectados con el recorte presupuestario y las medidas anticrisis.

Los ajustes realizados a los precios de 14 productos básicos que vende Mercal demuestran que para el Estado era imposible seguir manteniendo en estos momentos los mismos valores congelados desde 2003.

De hecho, este año el monto destinado para el subsidio de los productos Mercal evidencia una reducción de 26% respecto a la asignación del año pasado, al caer de 3,4 millardos de bolívares fuertes en 2008 a 2,5 millardos de bolívares fuertes disponibles para 2009.

Este mes, la Comisión de Finanzas de la Asamblea Nacional aprobó un crédito adicional al presupuesto de gastos del Ministerio de Alimentación por el orden de 343 millones de bolívares fuertes, que serán transferidos a la Corporación de Alimentos y Servicios Agrícolas (CASA) para "cancelar el subsidio que genera la compra de alimentos durante el primer semestre de este año".

El informe consignado a la AN señala que la aprobación de estos recursos es necesaria para cumplir con el plan de compras y "mantener el nivel de precios 40% por debajo de los precios regulados".

El reporte también indica que entre septiembre y diciembre de 2008 hubo una disminución en las toneladas fijadas en el plan de compras de Mercal, de 130.000 a 117.000 toneladas de alimentos, lo que representó un ahorro en el subsidio de 158 millones de bolívares fuertes, que estarían siendo utilizados en el ejercicio fiscal correspondiente a 2009.

Llegó la inflación Mantener cero inflación en Mercal tampoco era sostenible en el tiempo. El economista José Guerra señala que los precios al consumidor rezagados durante seis años al final se vuelven inflacionarios, porque el impacto en el bolsillo de los venezolanos que acuden a la red es más alto.

El presidente Chávez señaló en febrero de este año que la medición del Banco Central de Venezuela sólo refleja la variación de los precios en el sector privado de la economía y excluye a Mercal y Pdval, las redes de distribución del Gobierno.

Pero ahora, según el ministro de Alimentación, Félix Osorio, los ajustes de 89,19% promedio en los 14 productos subsidiados de Mercal tendrá un impacto de "apenas 1,4%" al cierre de 2009 en el Índice Nacional de Precios al Consumidor (INPC), cálculos que se desprenden de un estudio realizado entre el Minal y el BCV.

No obstante, fuentes finan- cieras señalan que la ponde- ración de Mercal dentro de la canasta de rubros que conforman el INPC es de 12%, lo cual es sumamente alto porque ningún establecimiento priva- do tiene una incidencia como ésa en la inflación.

Cabe resaltar que alimentos y bebidas es uno de los rubros que registra mayor incidencia en el INPC, con 32,2%.

Sufre el bolsillo Luis Vicente León, director ejecutivo de Datanálisis, señala que mantener los precios artificiales en la red Mercal era insostenible y los aumentos necesarios.

Sin embargo, plantea que además del impacto que pueda tener en la inflación, el golpe va directo al bolsillo de las personas que acuden a comprar en Mercal, 51% de la población, porque al tener los precios rezagados el ajuste es más alto.

De allí que se produzcan alzas estelares como la del pollo, de 164,7% en su precio, en la pasta de 77,2%, en la carne de 61,77% o la leche en polvo de 67,7% al cierre de 2009.

Señala que los nuevos precios de la red seguirán estando rezagados y requieren el subsidio porque no cubren los costos de producción de esos alimentos.

Además, los ajustes se producen en momentos cuando los precios de las materias primas en el exterior caen, por lo que en lugar de subir deberían bajar los rubros de Mercal.

Hi Tex:

This is what gets me.... "But in the fifty years that followed, poverty worsened dramatically"... really?

So explain this to me, how is it possible that poverty has worsened but Cuban's life expectancy has risen steadily since the Revoultion ? Infact, it has risen to the poiint that it is comparable to the ol 'mighty USA !!!!

These are the things that make anythign you say after this introduction questionable. Chavez is no Castro, for sure (in terms of intellect) but perhaps his legacy will be a good one.

Are you bold enough to state that he does not have the support of teh working class?

Is this the class that will benefit if you were able to choose the path Venezuela could go?

The working class want:
"
As we live a life of ease
Everyone of us has all we need
Sky of blue and sea of green
"

The middle class can " Mozte mi vylizat!" Who wants these parasites! Only stupid hacks that PPM quotes!

S.

Glim,

I will be going there soon (month or so) I will bring back photos and video if you wish. Even my father-in-law who, until recently, was the biggest supporter of Chavez now is quite concerned that he and others have made a grave mistake. Venezuela is broke economically. The economy is based soley on the petroleum industry and when the price of crude took a nose dive so did the treasury reciepts but the spending outside of the country did not. The purchasing arm of PDVSA located here in Houston is responsible for food procurement for the MERCAL system established by the government and run by PDVSA.


The state of Anzoategui has recorded 41 murders in the first 15 days of May, quite an extreme number for a state of only 1.47 million people. That translates to .3585 people murderd per 1000 residents for a one-half month period. The state of Texas has as many residents as the enitre country of Venezuela and the rate is .1619 per 1000 residents for an entire year!

http://www.eltiempo.com.ve/noticias/default.asp?id=189791

Venezuela crime stats

http://www.nationmaster.com/country/ve-venezuela/cri-crime

If things are so peachy there as Chavez and the state run media paint it to be, how can those numbers be that way. No work perhaps, super-high not reported unemployment, wages that do not cover basic needs. Hell he is even talking about raising the price of gasoline, which is considered a god given right in Venezuela. The last time gas prices were raised in Feburary of 1989 which resulted in days of rioting and hundereds of deaths and looting. Venezuela was IN GOOD SHAPE THEN, imagine what it would be like now

A video of the riots and looting, please read the newest comments under the video to read the comments from the Venezuelans.




Take a trip there and see for yourself, easiest way in the world to see what is really happening.