A different way

You ever look at the economy and think... surely there's a better way?

I should begin by saying I'm not an economist, or have any knowledge or understanding beyond what I can observe and have learned by discussion with others. that observation has led me to some conclusions and some rough ideas for potential solutions that I though I might as-well share. If after reading this you feel there are things to debate or add, as long as it's done politely, I'd be very happy for the input.

I currently live in the UK (a place that in internationally should be considered fairly successful in social and economic terms), but I was born and grew up in Venezuela (a place that should be considered wildly unsuccessful, specially in economic terms but also very much in social terms). So while I'm quite aware that there are better and worse examples than those two, I think it's fair to say I've had at least a taste from both sides of the currently available spectrum. While it's utterly clear to anybody not under a mayor delusion that the system in the UK is preferable to the one in Venezuela (and I can really appreciate how true that is) it is not without it's faults, and in the end those faults, in my view, are down to some fundamental philosophies.

The UK is often called a "democratic socialism". I take that to mean that while we have fairly prevalent freedom of speech / press and a reasonably fair election system there is still room for good wide reaching social welfare and things like national health care. It costs everyone a bit more in taxes, but basically it's a system where you can potentially be well of and successful but where if you fall to the bottom you will still have your basic needs met. How it manages to have the resources to make that work (cuts aside, it still works a million and one times better than in Venezuela) is largely because on top of all that it still allows free trade and capitalist business to thrive. This means you have enough people making enough money to pump on to your taxes that you can afford the social projects that cost money. In turn at least some of those projects will help enable more successful or at least semi-successful tax payers to appear and contribute rather than cost. That capitalism is necessary to maintain any standing in the international market, which is the only way for the economy to grow and survive (as you cant meet all of your citizens needs internally since no one country produces enough of everything) you need to sell at least as much as you buy, preferably more, and thus there's more money for those social projects or for things to create more incentive for the capitalism that will hopefully again fund those projects and others that raise quality of life (health, education, arts ect).

Raising quality of life is the ultimate goal, more urgently for those at the bottom, but as much as possible without compromising the quality of life of the rest. The mistake in this system is that this is not always true. Too many cuts are seen as acceptable and huge tax breaks are approved to encourage business. what's the point of encouraging business if it doesn't translate into more government income leading to more spending? The balance has tilted too far towards capitalism. Now profit matters more than social responsibility. The banking system and big business know that the money that flows from them is too important to the worlds economy, and so they hold it hostage to create a situation where they can keep more and more of it. creating ever more social inequality.

The Venezuelan system in turn fails because it refuses to allow for the "necessary evils" of high tax and capitalism that generate the money needed for successful social projects. They think it can all be paid for by oil but in a large country with such a large under-privileged population those projects are much more expensive than they might have realised. Add to that oil prices dropping as more countries find oil deposits or focus on alternate sources of energy and the oil yields less and less funds. All the while you've scared of all the well educated tradesmen and business men and women that you need to maintain your infrastructure and cant afford to hire or properly educate adequate replacements because the economy is costing much more than it generates, and the oil isn't keeping up with the costs any-more. Now you cant afford the international market prices and simply cant keep up with your citizens basic needs, never mind your ideological vision of utopia. Not to mention corruption on every level skimming off money that you don't have to begin with.

Politicians are given too much power in hopes this will enable then to hold everything together but they are more concerned with they're own survival and income. this creates a completely non-functioning economy where none but the very rich, mainly in government, have the things they need. The balance is tilted too far towards socialism, where social posturing leads to not enough resources for either wide social projects or successful business.

So after all that, what's my point. well, while one is better than the other, neither system is really working. You cant completely alienate or cut out the interest of the rich business because they will take away the most reliable, constant sources of income. You also have to be able to make some hard choices, like a certain amount of tax ect, to make sure you can properly allocate some of that income that's flowing into your economy and you're not just blindly pandering to the whims of the upper classes since you'll be sacrificing too much of the quality of life of those in the middle and lower classes.

All of that, in my mind, comes down to distribution of wealth.

In an ideal system everyone, regardless of their contribution to society, would have a reasonable quality of life. Enough income to not only meet their basic needs but to be reasonably happy active members of society. I can attest that living on the breadline working or not is too stressful to qualify as life of any quality. In this ideal system people should also have the ability to succeed through business, innovation, hard work or talent, and opportunities should exist for them to do so and reach even better quality of life and luxury through those means. you need to dangle the carrot of luxury to drive enough people to innovate or work hard.

So how do you get this? where's the resources coming from to not only pay for a good enough quality of life for everyone but also allow for luxury to those who can be driven to attain it? how are you convincing lots of people to work hard who don't have to as they will have decent quality of life regardless.

Well, lets see.

It's pretty common knowledge now that 1% of the worlds population owns half of the worlds wealth
and of them the top 0.1% holds almost a quarter  . So you don't really need to go further than those numbers to know that wealth is ridiculously miss distributed. Rather than simply blame those top people for everything though lets think about how that can be logically corrected. Those people reached that level of wealth essentially because they were either clever enough, lucky enough, ingenious or hard working enough to get it and few of us could pretend that if we saw a clear path to that level of wealth that we wouldn't take it. The problem isn't so much that they have that money but where is it going. The answer, for so much of it, seems to be nowhere. Imagine you have so much money that you can give away 28 billion and still have 56 left over. So much of that top wealth sits in private accounts and gets redistributed amongst the top without ever leaving (not to come down on Gates giving so much money to charity, which is of course great and very good of him, but helps demonstrate the gross level of his income in the first place).

So when I talked before about allowing for luxury to motivate business and innovation ect you can think of that as rewarding someone for a fair contribution to society. and rewarding them well. the government shouldn't be in charge of determining what is considered "a good fair contribution". If the public want to pour money into something and afford the purveyor of that something wealth that's basically fine. But should that person then demand special legal treatment? or massive tax breaks to safeguard a grossly oversized share of wealth? No. make your money, have your luxury but let the surplus circulate back into the system that the least well of may be given reasonable quality of life and that all may compete fairly for the rest.

How?

Well, this seems pretty obvious to me, although I'm sure many will cry in horror. There should be a cap to personal earnings. Don't get me wrong, a very very high cap, possibly allowing for millions. but not, I'm sorry, billions, or even several tens of millions.

Don't just give it all in tax either. I don't specially want some obscene amount of money getting added to the military budget. some should go on tax, to give governments more breathing room to make less (or no) cuts. But in my view most of the money should be forced into broad private investment.

Basic outline of what I'm talking about:

Say you're very rich. you have a company that turns around 5 billion a year in profit above expenses. You've paid yourself and all your investors a good (fair) chunk. lets say after that year, everyone's a million richer. woohoo, grand job, pats on the back all round, who would turn their nose up at a million. So you still have, depending on how many investors, shareholders ect you still have like 3 billion sitting there. a new law on earnings cap says you cant just keep it in your rainy day fund or spread it amongst yourself and the investors. The law would tell you to either:

A) Invest the money directly on the growth of your company. creating more jobs or improving the conditions / salary of those currently working for you.

B) Invest on outside projects or the business interest of others, thus helping those grow, either creating work or improving conditions in those. This is not a loan, but an investment. since you have already reached your total income cap you wont be taking income from this company, however a record should be kept allowing you to earn from them as an investor should your own income drop below the cap in the future.

C) Should you not have any need to invest in your company or a preferred organisation or charity in which to invest firms would be set up that would take the money to give to start up businesses in the form of grants. the firm would Identify prospective people or businesses to invest in and would provide oversight to ensure business plans are being followed and that there's a serious attempt to make good use of the money, but beyond that the firm wouldn't be concerned with profit or with having it's money returned. providing a less stressful, more encouraging environment for new enterprise leading to more people self employed and more people creating work for others. there could also be foundations doing the same but distributing the money for use in scientific or artistic ends. The key point being that immediate profitability isn't such a big concern, allowing people to take more chances and more risks. Yes there will be many failures, but they are being backed by surplus money that no one should miss, and those who succeed will enrich society in one way or another.

The same basic rules applying to any earnings made by anyone that are above the cap. Firms could take a percentage for running costs of their own operations and everyone keeps paying tax as usual, businesses included, to maintain the rest of the costs of government. the government can also take a percentage off all surplus income before investment to ensure better social welfare, health, education, removing university fees ect.

I'm sure may details need sorted out. but the basic appeal of this in my mind is that while people can still aspire to luxury the current "hoarding" of resources is stopped and used to create more opportunities for growth that don't depend on creating debt. It means that most of that half owned by the 1% gets back into circulation with the other 99% improving quality of life all round. At least that's the dream.

As I said at the top I'm no economist, and I imagine there's a whole bunch of issues with this. as long as the issue isn't just "the rich wont go for it" then I'm willing to hear it and try and expand the idea.

I know of course that is the main reason this is a hard sell. If you actually managed to set something like this up in one country then many of the rich would run away to where they can keep more of their money, depriving that country of their sadly much needed assets. how do you stop that without resorting to the dark side of exchange control or currency control? maybe you can't, but as has been shown in Venezuela those things aren't acceptable options. If there's an answer to that maybe it's for a smarter person than me to figure out.

It can't be impossible though.

Surely there's a better way.

Just a thought.
    

Venezuela: The twisted tale of David and Goliath

When I read the news about Venezuela from the outside world, the opposition is often referred to as "the middle class opposition". When the history of my country is debated, the "Bolivarian Revolution" is referred to as a "populist revolution" a revolution of the lower classes. In a country where there is only two true sides, where pray, is the upper class?

We all like to root for the little guy. We cheer when Jerry tricks Tom. We feel hope when David defeats Goliath. It means that no matter who we are we can overcome the tyrant. It makes us feel like our situation is never truly hopeless. No matter who we are, how well off we are; when we tell that story, we are all David.

When we say that the "revolution" is of the lower classes, it is saying that they are the little guy. They are David, which they are. "Lower" is below "middle" so that must mean the opposition is "Goliath"... right?

The Venezuelan economy has shifted enormously since Chavez came to power, but one thing has never really changed: the vast, overwhelming majority of the country's wealth is in oil. what has changed is who controls the oil.

The government controls the oil. All of its wealth is now for them to distribute. since Chavez took power there has been some decline in total poverty, there has been social investment in housing and other social projects to benefit the poor.

So, that's great right? well, yeah, that is great. Only there's a lot of money in oil.

So, back to the start. Where is the upper class?

Let me draw you a picture..

Its called corruption... look it up.

Venezuela has a new royalty, a new Goliath. one who has convinced much of the world that its only looking out for Davids best interests.

The protests are not against "David", they're not against the impoverished lower classes who looked to their new Goliath to help them out of the squalor of their lives.

Yes it is the middle classes (mostly, not only) who protest for change in Venezuela. but the change they seek is not solely for their benefit. Scarcity, devaluation and crime affect all of Venezuela, in fact as with almost anything it affects the poor more. We're all too busy thinking about David and Goliath to see that this isn't about the little guy finally having a say and overcoming his rich oppressors. Right now all the people of Venezuela are the little guy; the split is between those who can see it, and those who have been so indoctrinated by 15 years of ever increasing propaganda into believing that there is a light at the end of the tunnel if they can just keep the revolution going. Now that that indoctrination has really taken hold it doesn't seem to matter that Goliath has removed his mask and shown himself for the oppressive, violent giant that he is; David still cant see it.

The rest of the world should be able to see it though. And remember, once we get David back on side all it will take is a single stone and a slingshot.

Just a thought.



 

Words by Leopoldo López before his arrest.

On the 18th of February a prominent opposition figure in Venezuela, Leopoldo López, was arrested for the crime of calling openly endorsing a peaceful student protest against the Venezuelans government. something the government has referred to as "inciting violence" and "disturbing the public peace". Apparently offenses punishable by law.

 He recorded a statement sometime shortly before to be made public in the case of his arrest.

I have decided to translate his words so they can be seen around the world. you can see the subtitled video here:

You may also read or copy my translated text here:

  “If you are watching this video... it is because the Venezuelan state has put out an order for my capture. Perhaps I have already been detained by the states security teams.

Detained unjustly, for dreaming of a better Venezuela.

If your watching this video, it is because yet another abuse has been committed by this government.

Full of lies, of falsehoods, of twisting the facts, and of seeking to manipulate the reality the we Venezuelans are living.

I want to say to all Venezuelans, that I have no regrets in what we have done so far. In what was the call to protest, something we have done for a long time; but that materialized on the 12^th of February, “Day of Youth”; with hundreds of thousands of people on the streets of Venezuela.

Not just in Caracas, where it has commonly happened in the past; but in all Venezuela.

In the capitals, in the towns and villages. Where there may have been ten, fifty, a thousand, ten thousand or even seventy thousand.

The people came out.

The people awoke.

Venezuela now more than ever needs that you, who is watching; that every one of us take on the commitment to want to change.

But that commitment cannot be passive. That commitment must be active.

I invite you sister, I invite you brother; that the most important thing right now in this moment of dificulty for our country

when Venezuelans are submitted to long queues, when Venezuelans are submitted to the expropriation of their salary by the government.

When impunity has become the order of the day and insecurity fills our youth with fear...when there is no future for our youth.

When hospitals are closing, when there is no answer to any problems.

I invite you, every one of you...to understand that the change is in you.

Firstly it is our conscience, to not let ourselves be forced.

To not allow ourselves to be filled with the lies that government transmits via the media that it controls or manipulates, via its mandatory broadcasts. To fill with lies the reality in which we are living.

I invite you to become the media.

I invite you become a meeting point, to become a point of reference to your community or your family.

So we may become organized in what we are to do from this point on.

We must create a movement which is deeply social, that reaches every corner of the country.

Every slum, every village, every city and every town.

Everywhere that there exists men and women committed to a better Venezuela.

We must have the capacity to get organized. We must have the capacity to spread our message.

And to act when the time comes to act.

I appeal now, like I did before the protest on the 12^th of February, to non-violence.

I do that for many reasons: firstly, because violence is the tool of those who are wrong.

On the 12^th of February we saw, how public forces were manipulated to kill innocent Venezuelans and create an atmosphere persecution, which has resulted in this. In my imprisonment or warrant for my capture.

We know what happened.

The videos are there, the photos are there, the statements are there.

We know this government. We know of its long trajectory of violence. But we also know our people.

We also know the vocation for change that our people have. We also know the long battle we have fought, and which has brought us to this place.

We will probably not have means to spread this message through the media. So I ask you to spread it however you can. Let the message reach them, that they can have a better Venezuela.

We must not allow them to defeat us where we must have the most strength: in our hearts. In our convictions.

We must not permit them to crush our hopes.

We must not permit them to crush our determination to change our country.

I want to send a special message to our young men and women.

Young Venezuelan. In you lies your future, which today is stained in black. Which today is stained in hopelessness.

But which can be a much better future, for you and those around you and for your children.

But that depends on you. Depends on your battle. Depends on your vocation and irreverence.

It depends on your determination to see that justice is done. To see that this hopelessness is turned into a collective hope.

We are on the right side of history. Were on the side of justice. Were on the side of truth.

Were on the side of those who want a better Venezuela.

I give my thanks to all those who have lent us their support, I ask you now that that support that you have given us, that you have given me now be translated into a support for our cause.

And our cause has been, still is and now more than ever must be: an exit to this government.

From those who have sequestered the public powers. From those who have stolen from every Venezuelan their international reserves, the peoples money.

From those who have stolen the safety and rights of every citizen.

From those who lie to stay in power. From those who would pretend to make themselves owners of the country by stomping and humiliating the Venezuelan people.

Today more than ever, the exit from this disaster to which we are submitted. The exit from this group of people who have sequestered the future of all Venezuelans, is in your hands.

We will fight.

I will be doing it, from my heart I send greetings. With strength, with faith. Here next to my wife.

Knowing that my daughter Manuela and my son Leopoldo who bears the name of my grandfather and my father, who were also persecuted; looking into my children’s eyes I have found the great strength I need to fight this battle.

In my children’s innocence, who today don’t truly yet understand what is happening in our country; I have found the strength to know that I must fight for a Venezuela that will be when they grow up much better than that which now exists for all children.

As the poet Andres Eloy used to say “the father of one child, is father to all of them”

He who wants a better future for their child, wants a better future for all his children. For all children.

I invite us to fight. To not rest. To maintain our strength. To maintain our irreverence. To maintain our action. To maintain our organization. Our discipline and our conviction.

Sisters, brothers... we are millions, we are on the right side and we will win.

We will achieve change. It depends on all of us. It depends on you, it depends on your brothers and sisters. It depends on Venezuela.

A big hug. Good night.”

 

Words with feeling.... but no meaning. How a twisted word can help break a country.

"I don't know what you mean by 'glory,' " Alice said.
    Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. "Of course you don't—till I tell you. I meant 'there's a nice knock-down argument for you!' "
    "But 'glory' doesn't mean 'a nice knock-down argument'," Alice objected.
    "When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less."

-Lewis Carroll.

What does the word "Fascist" mean? what does the word "Dictator" mean? what does the words "Democracy" and "Socialism" mean?

In Venezuela these words are ever so emotionally charged. they are used regularly to inspire the masses and justify action. but how can a president say the he will suppress freedom of speech to uphold democracy? the statement is a contradiction, and yet there it is, in the ears of the public; and so many of them nod in agreement.

I'll be honest, it wasn't so long ago I bothered to learn how the word "Fascist" is defined. here's some of what Wikipedia has to say on the subject:

"Fascists sought to unify their nation through a totalitarian state that promoted the mass mobilization of the national community^[5][6] and were characterized by having a vanguard party that initiated a revolutionary political movement aiming to reorganize the nation along principles according to fascist ideology.^[7] Fascist movements shared certain common features, including the veneration of the state, a devotion to a strong leader, and an emphasis on ultranationalism and militarism."

But in Venezuela this is not what "Fascist" means. over there it really just means "bad guy" with the optional meaning of "rich bag guy only interested in his own wealth and in screwing over the little guy". I can think of a few words I think might describe that better. If I wanted to insult a rich business man I might call him a "Fat Cat", or a "leech". so why bother calling him a fascist when that simply isn't what he is? because I don't want the right word, I want the most emotionally charged word.

The word fascist brings with it connotations of Nazis, it instills fear. and I want people to fear my enemy. if they fear him, then they will come to me for protection, and they wont realize the price until its too late.

When people are afraid, they might believe anything. they might believe me that freedom of speech is a fair price to pay for their protection. If they fear the enemy enough, if they hate him enough, they wont mind me violating his human rights so that i can better protect them. and if they're uneducated enough, then I wont have to convince them that fascist means what I say it does, because most of them wont know any better to begin with.

the people of Venezuela are afraid. not just the opposition, everyone. the only difference is what they're afraid of.

The "chavistas" (the supporters of the goverment), they are not the enemy. they are afraid of a system that ignores them, belittles them and exploits them. they suffered it for a long time and they have good reason to be afraid. they must be shown they have nothing to fear.

They need to know that the opposition understands what the words democracy and socialism mean and that they don't fear them, either of them. that all Venezuelans can use those words together with and share a common meaning.

And we must teach them what the word fascist means, so they can work out for themselves who it truly applies to.

don't let words get in the way.

just a thought.

http://cpj.org/2014/02/venezuelan-authorities-take-foreign-cable-station.php

Letter to the BBC to report on Venezuela

I wrote this to the BBC today, in the hopes they will follow up and report further on the happenings in Venezuela. I encourage anyone within Venezuela to do the same.

Any English speakers may take this as a partial explanation of whats been happening (at least as I have perceived it, from a distance)

"

Good afternoon.

My name is Michael O'Callaghan Cañizares, I am a Venezuelan (half-Irish) currently living in N.Ireland but who grew up in Caracas, Venezuela; where I lived until a few years ago and have visited several times since.


I write to you today in regards to your call for accounts of the incidents occurring in Venezuela. I am not personally present, but have many friends and family there with whom I have been in constant contact recently. I have appealed to them to contact the BBC directly themselves but in case they do not I wish to pass on some of what I have come to know myself. I know the BBC to be honest and impartial, so I will not bother you with political ideals or rumors, but only facts from trustworthy sources that I would encourage you to check up yourselves, which I believe you will find interesting and hopefully worth reporting on your platform. many of my quoted sources are in Spanish but I imagine translating them should be no problem for you. should you require any help in translating or would like to ask me any questions feel free to contact me at this e-mail address.

1- Freedom of Speech violations:

  
Context: It is common knowledge that media in Venezuela is heavily biased. throughout the years many tv / radio stations in Venezuela have been either shut down or bought by government. Globovision, the last TV channel in Venezuela that would have been associated with goverment opposition, was forced to change its leadership roughly ten months ago and has since shown a much more government friendly voice. in the last week or so there have been a number of resignations from members of staff at Globovision, it is believed this is a moral stance against a lack of fair coverage of the protests (source: http://www.el-nacional.com/escenas/Continua-ola-renuncias-Globovision_0_355764576.html).

In recent weeks during the protests there has been no official coverage from local news. only from certain international channels and through the internet via social media and independent news sources. most notably Colombian news channel "NTN24" which had its signal stopped within Venezuela during the protests  (source: http://www.notimerica.com/venezuela/noticia-venezuela-canal-internacional-noticias-ntn24-denuncia-suspension-senal-venezuela-20140213050435.html)

There are also reports of journalists being assaulted, arrested and having their equipment seized while attempting to film protests: (http://www.lapatilla.com/site/2014/02/16/veinte-periodistas-fueron-agredidos-y-once-detenidos-mientras-cubrian-las-protestas/)

The one medium of information they have not been able to fully control is the internet (primarily social media) but they have tried, as reported in this article in which goverment agency "Conatel" openly threats to shut down "electronic communications":
source: https://sj3gmf56l4psi2m7genq.r.worldssl.net/si-se-atreven-publicar-la-marcha-conatel-amenaza-con-cerrar-los-medios-electronicos/

Twitter has been a primary source of information for Venezuelans both there and abroad. in light of some of the disturbing images that had been circulating the goverment disrupted the use of twitter within the country, as confirmed by a twitter spokesman:

source: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-02-14/twitter-says-venezuela-blocks-its-images-amid-protest-crackdown

2- Human rights violations:

As your platform has already reported, there have been so far 3 confirmed deaths, as well as a high number of injuries during the protests. there have also been over 100 arrests. according to my contacts in Venezuela as well as many respected news sources in the region there are a large number of reports of those arrested being assaulted and abused while in custody, including violent physical abuse and even sexual abuse allegedly carried out by law enforcement / national guard. sources quote the volunteer lawyers representing the arrested students on those allegations (sources: http://www.el-nacional.com/sucesos/Estudiantes-detenidos-Carabobo-golpeados-desnudados_0_356964427.html , http://www.ntn24.com/videos/entrevista-abogado-ddhh-venezuela-121933).

On the subject of the three killed during the protests there have been a number of photographs taken by protestors or from security cameras that would seem to point towards members of the national guard. although there is also speculation that these may have actually been members of "Sebin" a government intelligence agency. there is little in the way of hard evidence or completely confirmed sources on that, but this blog post makes a compelling, well backed up argument, the blog refers to a pro-government publication for its source: http://devilsexcrement.com/2014/02/16/while-government-tries-to-blame-lopez-for-deaths-paper-shows-otherwise/

The Venezuelan government has made statements to address some of these things or attempt to show their side. some of this can be confirmed as false, as with this statement by the high ranking official Elías Jaua where he reads a statement from "Unión de las Naciones Suramericanas (Unasur)" or "the union of South American Nations" regarding recent disturbances. as was confirmed by NTN24 he changed the wording and even added statements that were not present in the original statement when reading it. According to NTN24 this was confirmed by Unasur official Ruth Sylva. the original statement is available on the official website for you compare with that read by Elías Jaua.

source: (http://www.lapatilla.com/site/2014/02/17/jaua-se-contradice-en-comunicado-de-la-unasur-sobre-hechos-de-violencia-en-venezuela/) I highlight this as an example of the massage being clearly twisted by a goverment official, on television, to the extent of miss quoting an important international body.

Other points of interest.

It may also interest you to know that the hacker group "anonymous" has been ciber-atacking Venezuelan government networks. you can see their statements under the hashtag "#OpVenezuela". although completely unconfirmed, they claim to have hacked government e-mails and some of what they have found (should it end up being true) is fairly disturbing. I'll leave you to explore that if you choose. 

Amnesty international has also made public statements demanding the proper investigation of the deaths occurred during protests. they have so far not shared any meaningful information on the matter.

you may also explore the wealth of commentary, photos, videos and allegations being made and discussed (both proven and not) on Facebook or Twitter under the hashtags #SOSVenezuela  and  #PrayForVenezuela

I understand I am not a direct source, but I hope you will take this as a starting point to investigate the points I've made and report that which you find to be true. the people of Venezuela and the world need a credible news source like the BBC to help them sort the facts from the noise so they can understand what is happening in Venezuela.

I am always available to discuss any of this with you. I may also be able to put you in contact with more direct sources that I know within Venezuela should you express an interest in talking to them.

Thank you for your time.

Michael O'Callaghan Cañizares.
"