¡Feliz Navidad!

I want to wish you all a very happy Christmas, a moment of peace and reunion.

Madonna della Seggiola

OK, I obviously got it wrong with you!

8 out of 18 persons answering to my last poll said the nationality they had when they were born was from one of the European countries I did not mention. One of the major European countries with strong links to Venezuela is Italy. Another one is the UK. Are you from there? From some other European country not mentioned in the list? I'd like to hear aobut you and where your interest for Venezuela comes from!

Let's guess: Hugo Carvajal

OK, fellow bloggers have informed already about the situation with the notorious Venezuelan general Hugo Carvajal. You can read them here or here or here.

Before I produced something new about that topic I want to ask all of you: what do you think will happen with him? Will the US get him or not?

My readers have already taken part in other polls and the average of the responses has more often than not turned to be the answer.

Thanks for your feedback!

Your feedback

From time to time I carry out a small survey to find out what my readers want to read. Mind: I am a member of the opposition in Venezuela and that will be my departing point - that and information on Venezuela's political situation. I will also tend to give a little bit more information about things linking Venezuela and Europe as that is the name of the blog. Still, I try to cover different topics related to Venezuela and I am thankful for your feedback.

Please, answer to the poll on the right side and, if you feel you have some ideas or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment here or send me an email.

Thanks!

Happy New Year! Frohes Neues Jahr! ¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

Tengo la sospecha de que tendremos un mejor tiempo en 2013.

Ich habe den Verdacht, dass wir eine bessere Zeit 2013 erleben werden.

I have the suspicion we will have a better time in 2013.

¡A disfrutar!
Viel Spaß!
Enjoy!

Feliz Navidad, Merry Christmas, Natale Hilare et Fröhliche Weihnachten!

This is the Green Jay. In Venezuela we call it with the very onomatopoeic querrequerre.

¿Eres venezolano y vives en el exterior?

Entonces consulta aquí el sitio donde puedes votar en las elecciones primarias para elegir el candidato para una Venezuela democrática.

¿Eres venezolano y vives en el extranjero?

Entonces revisa de vez en cuando la siguiente página si quieres enterarte de dónde serán las elecciones primarias más cerca de ti.

I need thee! plus The 24 hour ant

OK, the year is ending and I would be very thankful to get some feedback from you.

What would you like to read more about in this blog? Please, take a minute to click on the topics that interest you the most or, if you don't see what you were looking for, send me a message at desarrollo.sostenible.venezuela at g mail dot com.

Thanks!

And here you have the Paraponera clavata or Hormiga 24 (24 hour ant, after the time you'll have to endure pair if it bites you)

You are from here

110 readers took part in my poll to find out where you come from. As expected, the largest group were born in Venezuelan: about 25.5%. The second most numerous group are Germans. Then we have US born citizens with 17.3%. Britons account for 7%. About 8.2% are Europeans not coming from Britain, Benelux, Russia, Norway, Sweden or Spain. There were French, Russians, Chinese, from Northern Africa and from more areas. I find this cool: there were 4 visitors from sub-Saharan Africa. That's interesting as Venezuela has few current links with that part of the world (our greatest link were our slaves, among which I have a couple of ancestors).

All in all, you are a pretty varied group. Thanks all of you for coming!

What do you want to read?

Here you see the feedback I have got so far about what readers want to see in this blog. Please, send me an email or a message if you have more concrete suggestions. Thanks!

posts in German about Venezuela	18 (30%)
ideas for Venezuela	17 (28%)
what Chavismo is doing	17 (28%)
what the alternative forces is doing	18 (30%)
attacks against democracy	12 (20%)
Venezuelan history	10 (16%)
Venezuelan economics	26 (44%)
Venezuela's nature	12 (20%)
Venezuela's culture	15 (25%)
Venezuela-Europe relations	14 (23%)
Estimates about what's going to come in Venezuela	20 (33%)
background (mindmaps) about Chavismo	12 (20%)
background (mindmaps) about alternative forces	9 (15%)
data on politics outside Caracas	10 (16%)
science & technology in Venezuela (I know there is almost nothing, but I could try)	7 (11%)

Votes so far: 59

Venezuelan, whence art thou?

Almost a third of my readers here are Venezuelan citizens. I would like to ask those of you who are Venezuelan where  you were born.  Please, answer to the poll on the right.

Thanks in advance.

Margarita Island

Venezuela's brain drain versus "may they all go, we don't need them!"

Blogger Miguel announced he is leaving Venezuela. Miguel is a top physicist and a financial master. He is one of the few with a comprehensive understanding of what is wrong with Venezuela's economic, technological and social development. Most importantly, he is one of the very few who can honestly say what needs to be done.

He goes

• because the military around Chávez and the pseudo-socialists and boliburgueses are destroying science, technology and Venezuela's economy and Miguel, who has been opposing this, wants after so many years to breathe freely,

• because Venezuela has now, unlike in 1998, the by far highest murder rate of South America.

• because the number of kidnappings keeps increasing and people like Miguel -unlike the Boliburgueses- do not have bodyguards, nor do they want to have bodyguards anyway.

• because corruption has grown much worse than what it was 12 yeas ago

• because now one cannot develop as a professional in Venezuela but only as a mediocre military boot-licker

• because the ones to prosper are the military, the criminals and the importers of luxury goods, not the producers, and these last only as long as they go along with the military regime.

I have met many of the very best scientists, engineers, physicians of Venezuela. A lot of them have left the country. A lot of them are thinking to do the same. The military regime still keeps Fundayacucho, the programme for scholarships, but that programme as well as all the rest are so politicized that they have become a complete farce. At least in the Soviet Union there was an increase in the quality of education. Here we see its further degradation.

I have told this to some who are or were still Chávez-worshippers. They laugh and say: "well, they should all go away, they should go, we don't need them!" The guys don't understand they are also cutting the tree branch they are sitting on.

I wish Miguel a lot of happiness in his new homeland. I hope he keeps on blogging in the same incisive way he does now.

Between the Devil and the Deep blue sea, our Venezuelan blogging devil decided to take care of himself. I hope he and so many others who have been so useful to Venezuela will not very far away in the future have good reasons to cross back that sea, back to what once was and could still be the Land of Grace.

Your opinion, tu opinión, Deine Meinung, твоё мнение

One can get quite interesting feedbacks from readers. On the right side you can see a set of little polls about Venezuelan topics.

So far, 90% of visitors have declared to see the Venezuelan government very negatively, 3% negatively, 1% positively and 3% very positively. So far there have been 88 votes. This is not very surprising, but it still is interesting. The amount of people in Venezuela who clearly want another form of government is about 52% and rising, if we consider the elections that took place in September 2010 and the general trend after that. People abroad have a different perspective and the Venezuelan government is likely to be seen more negatively. Some could argue Venezuelans in Venezuela know better, but you see already a trend in Venezuela itself...and we know from history how different governments managed to have a lot of popularity until very late.

Most visitors think there will be a new president for Venezuela in 2013-2014. I still have to own up I started that monthly poll rather later this month and there are just 14 votes.

I also see the top topics you want to read about here are 1) the economy, 2) estimates about what is going to come in Venezuela, 3) ideas for Venezuela, 4) what the alternative forces are doing, 5) Venezuelan culture and 6) mindmap about Chavismo.

There is another poll where I ask readers if they think Venezuela is rich or poor. I have the same poll in my Spanish blog. As I could verify some months ago, 2/3 of my readers in Venezuela-Europa are non-Venezuelans. The vast majority of those in Desarrollo Sostenible para Venezuela are my compatriots. The readers of Venezuela Europe think mostly that Venezuela is NOT a rich country. Only 23% think it is rich or very rich. In contrast, 61% of the readers in my Spanish blog think Venezuela is very rich or rich. How do we have such differences? This reminds me very strongly of something I wrote about Humboldt some months ago.

Thanks very much!

Feliz Navidad

I want to wish my readers a very nice Christmas time. Venezuela has gone through a tough time for quite some time now and things will be tough again next year. Still, let's hope for and try to contribute to a peaceful return to democracy and let's hope Venezuela finally gets on the path of sustainable development soon.

If you haven't tried hallacas, you have to do that before you die. You may even want to postpone dying just to eat more hallacas.

Venezuelans in Europe and how they voted

Venezuelans voting in Belgium

How did Venezuelans vote abroad? This time abstention was very high. There are several reasons for such low participation. The main issue was that this time we could only vote for the Latin American Parliament, an organisation most Venezuelans did not know existed. There were other reasons: simple lack of interest, the distance to the closest embassy or consulate and the difficulties Venezuelans have in registering to vote abroad.

In Europe, most Venezuelans still supporting the Chávez regime work at embassies or consulates. Above you see the latest results for Belgium. 60 Venezuelan nationals -of 190- voted. There are not many Venezuelans living in Belgium, so the embassy employees make up a bigger chunk of the pie. The general pattern would be less pro-Chávez for countries such as Spain and Britain, where there are several thousands. There are over 53000 Venezuelan expats registered to vote abroad. There are several times the amount of Venezuelans who could vote if they registered.

The Chávez government will probably do anything it can to prevent the CNE from publishing results of voters abroad. It very likely does not want more Venezuelan expats to take part in the 2012 elections. We, on our part, need to promote Venezuelan expats to go massively to vote in 2012.

If you have data from votes in other European countries, send me an email (desarrollo.sostenible.venezuela at gmail)

Finally, I want to show you our Chavez-o-Metre, which indicates when my readers think Chávez will cease to be president of Venezuela. I discontinued the poll for some months out of forgetfulness. It would be nice if some serious organisation in Venezuela kept this kind of polls in the same way as you see them in the German media. Anyway, what we see in the poll is that people start to have extreme ideas: more think Chávez will be out in 2013 and more think he will still be in power after 2021. Of course, this poll is not representative of the mood in Venezuela, but of my readers. Anyway: thanks for taking part.

Ты венесуэлец в Европе? Bist Du ein Venezolaner in Europa? ¿Eres un venezolano en Europa?

Cachapas, cachapas über alles

Качапы превыше всего

Les cachapas au dessus de tout

Cachapas above all.

Si eres un venezolano en Europa, te agradecería que me envíes fotos de las votaciones en la embajada o consulado el próximo 26 de septiembre. Como sabes, los venezolanos en el extranjero pueden votar por el Parlatino. Votar, aunque sea solo el Parlatino, será una señal muy importante. Es vital que defendamos el voto y que obliguemos al CNE a que FINALMENTE publique los resultados en el exterior, cosa que no hace desde 2007, pese a que tenemos todas las actas desde entonces.

También puedes escribirme por cualquier otra noticia interesante sobre los rollos que ocurren entre Venezuela y Europa. desarrollo . sostenible . venezuela arroba gmail.com.

Si quieres enterarte de lo que hace el Parlatino, lo mejor es leer esto.

How Chávez controls Venezuela and Chávez leaving office

Total number of murders in Carabobo State per municipality

The murder rate in Venezuela in the year military Chávez came to power was 19 murders per 100 000 inhabitants. Now it is over 60 murders per 100 000. Venezuela's murder rate is by far the highest in South America, much worse than Colombia's. It is much higher than Mexico's, in spite of horrible Ciudad Juarez. The Venezuelan regime stopped sending the stats on murder rate to UNODC in 2002, but still we can get the murder stats per region if we nag and nag the local police and visit the overstretched mortuaries.

The government refuses to hold an open real debate about the figures. It has redefined what a murder is. The government tells people "there are murders in Northern Mexico, there are murders in Norway, in Italy", "criminality is caused because of the previous republic, because of the past, because of capitalism".

And those who can, the best professionals and the most likely to oppose in an organized and no-violent fashion the militarization of the country, the emerging dictatorship, they go away. And those who stay become afraid. Most of the murders occur in the poorest areas, where Chávez still has more voters and where people are starting to change sides.

The regime thinks that by instilling fear in the general population, people will be afraid of spreading news, of debating, or marching in the areas the regime still - just still- has some support. The regime is wrong.

Murders in Carabobo state in May 2010 (approximate location per municipality)

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Chávez leaving office

And my very unscientific poll goes on. Here you have the latest results about when our readers think Chávez ceases to be head of state of Venezuela. Less people think he will be out before 2012 but more think he will be indeed out before 2014.

Venezuelans in Europe

Readers of this blog come from many countries, but most are Europeans and North Americans. Still, the most represented nationality is Venezuelan. A little bit less than 1/3 of all readers are from Venezuela.

Last month I carried out a poll to find out in what countries Venezuelan readers of this blog living in Europe are located. Results can be seen above. The vast majority are in Germany. There is one in a Western European country and two in Eastern European countries I did not list (shame on me). I assume there are a couple Venezuelan lurkers in Europe as well, but the proportion must be like that.

The distribution is different from the usual distribution of Venezuelans in Europe or Venezuelan "voters" in Europe -I write "voters" because the Venezuelan regime simply does not publish results of votes abroad-. This different distribution is normal as I write here mostly in Venezuelan English or Venezuelan German.

Venezuelans registered to vote in Venezuelan embassies in Europe (2008) o gente a la que el gobierno venezolano no le para bola en las elecciones

Tomorrow I would like to start a poll to find out a bit more about Europeans readers who are living right now in Venezuela. Please, if you are one, take part in the new poll. By European I mean someone who was born in Europe and did not eat arepas until his/her 4th birthday or later. If you were born in Venezuela, I count you as a Venezuelan and not as an European even if your parents are European and you are European and you don't eat arepas. You know what I mean: jus soli.

42 readers answered they can read posts in Spanish. They make up 67% of the readership. 30 (48%) said they can read posts in German. 9% do not reader in Spanish or German. Thus: I will continue writing mostly in English, but I will also write in German as so few people in German about Venezuela. Some of my links will be to Spanish sites. I write less frequently posts in Spanish in a blog that has a more "Venezuelan for Venezuelan" view.

Thanks for your visits!

Norwegian looking at Venezuela

Some days ago I asked readers to start sending pictures with something "interesting" they found on the other side of the ocean.

Here I present the first picture. Norwegian reader Stig sends it. He took the picture on the access from a parking lot to a shopping centre in Venezuela. I am sure this view is particularly strange for a Scandinavian. I have to say this kind of thing was no normal at all 15 years ago. When I was a child in Venezuela I would have imagined a poster like that in the Wild West, not in my country. Now it is something absolutely normal.




If you are a Venezuelan with an interesting picture from Europe (anything other than the usual Eiffel Tower picture) or a European with an interesting picture of Venezuela (anything other than the usual Caribbean beach), send it here with some comment!