Children's foes

There is a new index about children's wellfare. Not surprisingly, Venezuela now offers children a worse standard of living than almost any other country in the Americas. Venezuelan children are now worse off than those in a lot of African countries.

That is very much unlike when I grew up in Venezuela's Caribbean.

This reports shows children are more likely to be murdered in Venezuela than in most American countries but for Honduras.

Venezuelan underaged girls are more likely to become pregnant than almost anywhere else, as I wrote already a couple of years ago.

Chavismo has to go away.

El génesis de la miseria

Distribución de edad de madres en Guatemala, Venezuela, Colombia, Rep. Dominicana, Brasil, Chile, Uruguay, Perú, México, Canadá, España y Alemania. Fuente: Naciones Unidas

El 29 de junio de 2014 apareció en el diario regional Notitarde una triste noticia sobre el incendio de una casa marginal al Sureste de Valencia. Murieron un bebé y su tía. Una de las cosas que me llamó la atención de la noticia es que la madre del bebé, que sobrevivió con heridas, tenía 16 años.

Hace un par de días al este de Valencia murieron seis personas en otra casa. La casa era una de las fabricadas por los brasileños para el gobierno de Chávez: de fácil producción, el material, policloruro de vinilo, se calienta de manera mucho más dramática que casas de ladrillos. Una de las personas que murió tenía 37 años. Murieron dos hijas, su nuero y dos nietos. Si uno hace la cuenta - algo que no parece que suelen hacer los periodistas de estas noticias - ve que la abuela, de 37 años, fue madre a los 18 y su hija tuvo el primer bebé a los 15 años de edad.

Ambas noticias tienen un montón de facetas que se pueden discutir. En ambos casos nos encontramos con hogares típicos de la miseria de la Venezuela del siglo XXI. Ahora traeré dos casos muy diferentes: el de los asesinos de Eliécer Otalza, jovenes de una banda llamada "Los Menores", y el de los asesinos de Mónica Spear, todos menores de 25 años, 2 incluso menores de 18. Aunque desconozco qué edad tenían sus madres al tenerlos, solo basta ver los datos estadísticos de las zonas donde vivían para determinar que vivían en zonas con una alta tasa de madres menores. Quiero enfocar aquí los temas muy relacionados del embarazo prematuro, de la educación sexual y del machismo en Venezuela. 

Lamentablemente, ni el gobierno en el poder desde 1999 ni los partidos opositores parecen tener interés en discutir esta problemática. El gobierno teme perder popularidad ante un electorado posiblemente machista. Personas como Capriles, educado en un medio religioso híper conservador que escandalizaría al papa Francisco, parece pensar que la única solución es decir "educación, educación", sin dar detalles sobre cómo se aplica la educación en estos casos concretos. Educación sexual de calidad? Disponibilidad de preservativos a chicas y chicos que llegan a una edad reproductiva? Nada de eso.

Un visitante europeo se sorprende al hallar en tiendas ventas de Cialis y Viagra sin prescripción cerca de las cajas registradoras como si se tratase de caramelos. Algo que no verá con facilidad es la dificultad que tiene una chica que quiera adquirir píldoras anticonceptivas o la presión que tiene para no usar preservativos o lo absolutamente imposible que es exigir a un padre pagar por hijos por los que no quiere responsabilizarse.

Si ven el gráfico que elaboré con datos de Naciones Unidas, solo Colombia supera a Venezuela en el porcentaje de madres menores de 19 años. Venezuela supera a Colombia en el porcentaje de madres menores de 14. Eso es una tragedia.

En la tabla inferior coloqué la tasa de homicidio por 100000 habitantes para los mismos países. En la penúltima y antepenúltima columna pueden ver el porcentaje de madres entre 12 y 14 años y el porcentaje entre 15 y 19 para el total de madres de cada país. En ningún país hay una proporción parecida de madres menores de 14 años como en Venezuela.  Un 1,2% de las madres venezolanas tiene pertenece a ese grupo demográfico. Los países que siguen son Colombia, con un 0,98% y Brasil, con 0,82%.

Produje un valor que llamé "combi" y, como su nombre indica, es una combinación del número de una y otra clase de edad. Le di un peso 4 veces mayor a la clase de las madres menores de 14 años. Creo que la correlación es clara, aunque  no sea lineal. Que lo uno sea causa de lo otro no es tan evidente pero creo que es necesario examinar las posibilidades.

Hay que tomar en cuenta que la tasa de homicidio de Venezuela es muy probablemente mayor al 53,7 x 100,000, pero en estos momentos vivimos una "guerra mediática", como dice el ministro de Justicia, el militar golpista socialista hermano de un terrateniente e hijo del alcalde del Alto Apure, Rodríguez Torres. 

La alta tasa de homicidios que vive Venezuela hoy en día es producida por un conjunto muy complejo de fenómenos que apenas logramos comprender. Como ha mencionado nuestra amiga Dorothy, las políticas de control del narcotráfico y las reacciones de los narcotraficantes a nivel internacional han impactado Venezuela de una manera profunda y han influido de manera clara en el nivel de criminalidad. El desgobierno de Chávez, con cambios anuales de ministros, con un descuido de las cárceles del país, con un discurso demagógico, con el colapso total de la división de poderes y una mayor corrupción de la casta militar, han hecho otro tanto. Aun así, para mí es evidente que el problema demográfico y el deterioro social general también influyen en la generación de más pobreza y de más familias proclives a padecer todo tipo de males.

País	Tasa de Homicidios*	Combi**	% Madres < 14	% Madres >=14 <=19
VEN	53,7	5,30	1,20	21,6955
COL	30,8	5,27	0,98	22,4871
BRA	25,2	4,28	0,82	18,1414
GUA	39,9	4,024	0,6	17,7210
DOM	22,1	3,71	0,965	14,6683
MEX	21,5	3,63	0,311	16,8864
CHI	3,1	3,57	0,416	16,1821
URU	7,9	3,45	0,392	15,6679
PER	9,6	3,08	0,33	14,0649
CAN	1,6	0,852	0,035	4,1202
ALE	0,8	0,65	0,019	3,1767
ESP	0,8	0,54	0	2,7098

* homicidios por 100.000 habitantes
** % madres < 14 * 0,8 + % madres >= 14 * 0,2

Nothing new in the Southern front

Here you can see the distribution of murders in August 2013 in Carabobo State. You can see the Valencia (in yellow) registered the highest amount of murders. That doesn't mean that's the municipality with the highest murder rate. Tocuyito (blueish to the West of Valencia) and Los Guayos (pink to the East) have a higher murder rate.

On the chart above you can see the total amount of murders per municipality since 2006. It seems the amount of murders has stabilized...but it has stabilized at a very high level. 

For comparison: last year the Comunidad Autónoma Valenciana in Spain registered 50 murders for its 5 million inhabitants. Carabobo, where Venezuelan Valencia is located, registered over 1500 murders for its 2.3 million citizens just from January to October of last year.

The murder rate has more than tripled since 1999.

On another topic: the government announced the Vergatario, Chávez's idea of a mobile, is going to be sold now for the equivalent of 389 dollars. The government will say that's a socialist price. As dollars are tightly controlled by the government, other mobiles will be even more expensive. A "socialist mobile" in Venezuela is much more expensive than a good mobile in the USA or Britain...and Venezuelans earn a fraction of what US Americans or Western Europeans earn.

The economy is absolutely running amok in Venezuela.

You know Chavismo's claims on social justice are a farce when

You know Chavismo's claims on social justice, sustainable development and security are a farce when you see what is happening in Venezuela's prisons now.

The latest is this: there has been a riot at the Merida prison centre, in Venezuela's West, and some 20 prisoners have died since everything started a couple of weeks ago. A gangster still refuses to be transferred and has "kidnapped" several hundred fellow prisoners, whatever that means. You should know gangsters in Venezuelan prisons keep running their business when in jail and they always end up getting to a compromise with the guardia nacional.

Below you can see the amount of murders in Venezuelan prisons since 1999. On the Y axis you have the total amount of murdered people and on the X the years. The source is the ONG Observatorio Venezolano de Prisiones.

Mexikanischer Botschafter wurde in Venezuela entführt

Entführungen sind im "revolutionären, bolivarischen Venezuela" das alltägliches Brot. Da Venezuela kein Rechtsstaat ist, ist es ein Paradies für Entführer. Manchmal sind die Verbrecher aber so dumm, dass sie einen Botschafter entführen...nicht aus politischen Gründen, natürlich...pecunia non olet. Und das ist zu viel, selbst für die Chávez-Regierung.

Der Sieg der Gerechtigkeit: dieses Gemälde hat mit Venezuela nichts, aber auch nichts zu tun

Heute haben Entführer u.a. den Botschafter Mexikos und seine Frau entführt. Weil es sich aber um den Botschafter handelte, haben die Polizeiagenten der Chávezregierung agiert und den Diplomat samt Gattin befreit. Sie tun das am liebsten, wenn es sich um Diplomaten oder um berühmte Baseballspieler handelt, nicht um normale Bürger.

Ps. Und jetzt lesen wir, dass andere Entführer die Kinder und der Fahrer eines Unternehmers gerade jetzt entführt haben.

Big Brother or Fat Brother, same thing

Our military caudillo, Hugo Chávez, sent a message of Merry Christmas to all Venezuelans with a mobile phone, whether they wanted or not, whether they had a service with the state phone company or not.

On the right you can see the message:

"Each December, during this time, we victoriously celebrate our unstoppable march to the Good And Beautiful Fatherland...

full of happiness and justice and social equality.

Merry Christmas, comrades. Hugo Chávez".

Just creepy. There is no rule of law, there is no separation of powers. There is Hugo. As for happiness, take a look here. As for justice, go here,  here and here. As for social equality, take a look at the same links as for justice and this and this.

Hat off to Ernex for the snapshot.

Wayuu, an Arawak nation

The Wayuu (a.k.a. Guajiros) are a native American nation living mostly between Colombia and Venezuela in a very harsh area, the Guajira Peninsula. Many of them live on subsistence economy and smuggling. Their language belongs to the Arawak family, like the language of the Warekena and the Baniwa, like the extinct Tainos, but completely different to the Pemón, the Warao or Yanomamö languages. They are the most numerous native American group in Northern South America, accounting for about half a million people distributed in both countries. Their lot has been largely forgotten by the governments of the nations they are in. They have been deeply affected by the FARC/ENL and paramilitary terrorists and all the drug trade in the area.

A future Venezuela, working together with Colombia at least as closely as Germany and France do now, would have to give more attention to the sustainable development of this group while preserving their distinct identity.

I wrote more on the Wayuu here.

Most Wayuu live in complete destitution:




Here (Wayuu language with Spanish sub-titles) a Wayuu woman talking about their textile tradition (second half is just a corny speech by a criollo).

Ideas for Venezuela: transparency and deputies

Last year Venezuelans found out what deputies were earning. Many of those deputies, like "comrade" Oscar Figuera (Partido Comunista de Venezuela) were getting a little bit over 10000 BsF per month. Back then that was around 3000 euros. Holiday months were not included, just "general expenses". The actual total was higher: they get about 10 months extra salary for "vacation time" and "end of the year" money. That is a quite some money in a poor country, specially considering income tax is way lower than in the US (I don't even mention Canada or Europe). More importantly: that is a lot compared to what primary school teachers in Venezuela earn. The ratio between salaries of deputies and primary school teachers is much higher than in very "capitalist countries" like Germany or Switzerland.

Anyway, we can discuss for a long time aboutn the exact amount Venezuelan deputies need, but the issue I want to bring forward here is the reaction of the president of the National Assembly, Cilia Flores, and what we can do. Ms Flores, one of the president's greatest cheerleaders, threatened regime-critical TV station Globovision with legal punishment for illegally acquiring the information about deputies' salaries. But it seems there was no other way to find out. Flores in her attack went into a lenghty description of the "hardships" deputies have to go through. In a video I show below you can listen to Flores saying, among other things, that "deputies earn relatively little and sometimes have to come to the capital by road" and not by plane, even if [travel by road] is dangerous". Wao! Do we have a civil war? Actually, most Venezuelans feel we do. Never mind many of the deputies actually live in areas that are closer by car than by plane (OK, private helicopters beat them all, but we are not talking about those here).

You can watch that video and read an accompanying article here. It is a governmental site. They showed a journalist of Globovision, but only because the Pcv deputy was explaining his position. Notice in that video that the communist deputy says his whole salary goes to the party, he gets a salary from the party. So? In any case: the party is not Venezuela. And he is one of the most kosher. I am sure the deputies of the PSUV use their salaries for other things.

If you visit the German Parliament, the Bundestag, in Berlin, you can actually get hold of a brochure with information indicating the salaries of the Bundesabgeordnete, the German MPs.

While in Venezuela it is so hard to get information about what deputies are earning at the Asamblea, in Germany there is now a whole discussion about what they are earning outside. This is necessary in Germany, but also in Venezuela.

I think the new deputies of the opposition should push for more transparency. I doubt they will want to do that thinking it would mean to shoot themselves in the foot.

In Der Spiegel you have a flash page where you can find out what deputy of what party has one or more "extra jobs". Even if you don't speak German, take a look at it, click here and there and see how the deputy seats are shown. You can actually learn much more: in what commission what deputies are working in, how old they are, etc.


We need that.














Ps. Please, don't forget to take part in the poll of this month about when el comandante willl cease being head of state in Venezuela!

Question

I need to put this here again as the fact still astonishes me. I just do the conversion into euros for European readers.

Why does a Venezuelan "Socialist" deputy earn

5,085.06 EUR every month PLUS TEN MONTHS of bonus plus expenses for trips and other work related issues?

As you can see here Venezuela is just at place 88 in GDP according to GDP per capita.

Here the references to a well-known Venezuelan priest who found out how much our Venezuelan "heroes" pay themselves.

Tax rates in Venezuela are much lower than in Germany, costs of most things are lower as well, so Venezuelan deputies are living very well. The same is the case for most of the top politicians we have now.

Isn't it a shame in a country where there are so many poor people?

Socialism, Venezuela-style

It is not easy to compare the standards of living between different countries with very different taxation systems and prices. Still, I wanted to compare the ratio of deputy/teacher salaries in Venezuela and in a European country like Germany. Salaries in most other countries are more or less lower, but the ratio between salaries for teachers and deputies is more or less the same as in Germany.

A Venezuelan teacher (single, no child) earns monthly around 1300 Bs plus Bs 206 in meal tickets (which are not counted for their pension later on). They also get 3 month bonus at the end of the year.

A Venezuelan deputy earns like a satrap: 16000 Bs. a month plus 10 months of salary as bonus PLUS expenses for trips and other work-related issues. That is much more than what a German deputy earns in absolute terms and Venezuela's prices and taxes are in general much lower than Germany's.
















It was not only in Medo-Persian times, but also
in these times of the XXI century socialism



The salaries of Venezuelan deputies are nothing special for Chavez's top level administration. We thank this information to a well-known Venezuelan priest-journalist, padre José Palmar

A Venezuelan teacher does not pay income taxes because she does not earn enough to pay them. I am still not sure about the amount of taxes Venezuelan deputies pay. I will try to find out about that, but it is going to be difficult: transparency is not Venezuela's official motto.

Calculating what deputies really earn is more complicated. As this site shows (one can get similar data from the German government fairly easily or by visiting the Bundestag), a single no-child Bundestag member would earn something like this:

Gross salary: 7.009,00 euro

From this he would expect to pay the following:

Income tax: 2.198,25
Solidarity payment with Eastern Germany: 120,90
Church tax (most still pay it): 197,84
Social security:274,95
Another compulsory health insurance (Pflegeversicherung): 29,96

The net income would be around 4.187,10 €

He would also get 3.647 euros for compensation work for which he will have to pay his trips to and from Berlin as well as a second flat and office if he does not live there permanently. Most deputies fall under this category as Germany is a federal state where members of the Bundestag are expected to spend quite some time in their constituencies and Berlin is far from most other big population centres in Germany. You cannot be just commuting from Munich, Cologne or Hamburg every day.

If the German Bundestag member does not spend a lot, he would give around 500 euros for a second flat in Berlin. He would also give something like 500 euros for an office there and 500 for an office in his constituency and around 1000 (this is not compulsory!) for his party if he really expects to have the chance to be elected again. The German government will pay the salary for possible assistants directly to them.

The salary of a German teacher varies a lot depending whether he is a "Beamter", a public servant for life, or a normal employee. If he is the former and he is a single person without children, he will get 2300 euros net and will have no right to strike. If he is just a state employee (as it is the case in Eastern Germany and for some teachers in Western Germany), he would get 1600 euros (again, if single and no kids). This is a big difference, but still the dimensions are way from what we see in Venezuela.

The following chars try to put in perspective what deputies in Venezuela and Germany earn gross. The blue part of the first chart shows what percentage of the "deputy pie" a Venezuelan secondary school teacher gets and the second one what a German teacher gets of the German pie a Bundestag member gets.

Basically, a Venezuelan teacher earns 5.5% of what a Venezuelan deputy earns.
A German teacher earns 42,8% of what a member of the Bundestag earns (gross salary).


























Salary is not everything. Teachers also need to have had a very good education, they need to have gone through a strict selection process, they need to get all the time intellectual and other professional stimuli (formation courses being just one example), they need to have good teaching materials at hand and not too many pupils for each classroom. Last but not least, they need to have some status based on what they earn compared to others. As we have seen, deputies in Venezuela earn like little satraps in comparison to what the general population earns.

One cannot be surprised that Venezuela was LAST in Unesco's 1998 test for mathematics in Latin American secondary schools: it was behind Cuba, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Peru, Ecuador, even Bolivia and the Dominican Republic. The salary is not everything, but one sees what a "wonderful example" the socialist deputies (and all other high officials of this regime) are giving to the people.

Chávez declared some time ago he expected high politicians to reduce their salaries and donate something. He himself donated some dollars he got from Khadaffi for a prize for Human Rights (yeah) and one of his politicians declared he was donating part of his library to the country. I haven't heard much of the others. Meanwhile, everyone in Barinas, Chavez's region, speculates about the land the Chávez clan possesses now and what all his relatives working in high posts might be earning.

And yesterday Chávez declared he will push again for a reform to allow himself to be reelected without any limit.