What are the USA and Europe doing wrong ... or ... what is Venezuela doing right?

by Oscar Heck
What is going on behind the scenes? Behind closed doors? In exclusive "old boys" clubs? Behind criminal US State Department walls? I cannot divulge many of the details at the moment ... but the time will come ... maybe soon ... depending on how long it takes me to investigate certain leads.

In the meanwhile, some of the "western" media is suddenly, simultaneously (coincidentally!), spurting out articles which revolve around Venezuelan oil ... all such articles indirectly or directly pointing fingers at Venezuela for the woes of the "west's" rapidly rising fuel costs. The titles of these recent articles are a signal of apparent collusion to put Venezuela in bad light ... again ...

Oil-rich Venezuela paying billions for oil
Gas is cheaper than the water: Venezuela is rich with oil, and its ...
Cheap gas fuels fracas in Caracas
Nation's wealth eclipses corruption
Oil-rich Venezuela paying billions for oil

In Venezuela the price of gasoline at the pump is about 3-4 cents per liter, or 12 cents per gallon ... apparently the lowest in the world ... and that seems to aggravate some people ... especially when the so-called "civilized" world is paying as much as $3 (in USA) and $6 (in Europe) plus per gallon! To put this into another perspective, gasoline prices in the "great" USA are about 25 times that of Venezuela!

What are the USA and Europe doing wrong ... or ... what is Venezuela doing right?

It certainly appears (from all their screaming and yelling), that (principally) the USA is jealous as hell.

I have been trying to find what the price of gasoline was in Iraq before the criminal US invasion ... but I cannot find this information. I believe however, from something I had read in 2003, that the price of gasoline in Iraq was about the same as it is in Venezuela, one of the lowest in the world. When I worked in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in the early 1990's, the price of gasoline in the region was, if I remember correctly, less than 20 cents per gallon.

But, what is the price of gasoline in Iraq after the criminal US military invasion? I seem to remember that some time in 2003, shortly after the beginning of the invasion, the prices of gasoline in Iraq had climbed toward $2 per gallon (from a few cents per gallon) ... but now, I cannot find that information anywhere.

Maybe Vheadline.com readers can assist me in finding the information.

Some articles (e.g., Washington Post) state that in 2003, after the invasion began, the US government was buying gasoline for Iraq (since Iraq was not producing, I suppose) at up to $1.70 per gallon and selling it at 4 to 15 cents per gallon to Iraqis, while Halliburton, (Dick Cheney's ex-employer), collected (according to another article) more than 20 cents per gallon in transportation fees (something doesn't make sense here ... how can Halliburton make about twice as much money as the retail price of the same gasoline?).

The list below is quoted from CNN. Unfortunately I could not find a date ... but it provides readers with a reasonably accurate picture of reality at some recent point in time:
Netherlands Amsterdam $6.48
Norway Oslo $6.27
Italy Milan $5.96
Denmark Copenhagen $5.93
Belgium Brussels $5.91
Sweden Stockholm $5.80
United Kingdom London $5.79
Germany Frankfurt $5.57
France Paris $5.54
Portugal Lisbon $5.35
Hungary Budapest $4.94
Luxembourg $4.82
Croatia Zagreb $4.81
Ireland Dublin $4.78
Switzerland Geneva $4.74
Spain Madrid $4.55
Japan Tokyo $4.24
Czech Republic Prague $4.19
Romania Bucharest $4.09
Andorra $4.08
Estonia Tallinn $3.62
Bulgaria Sofia $3.52
Brazil Brasilia $3.12
Cuba Havana $3.03
Taiwan Taipei $2.84
Lebanon Beirut $2.63
South Africa Johannesburg $2.62
Nicaragua Managua $2.61
Panama Panama City $2.19
Russia Moscow $2.10
Puerto Rico San Juan $1.74
Saudi Arabia Riyadh $0.91
Kuwait Kuwait City $0.78
Egypt Cairo $0.65
Nigeria Lagos $0.38
Venezuela Caracas $0.12

(I suggest that you print out this list and pass it around so people can get a better idea of what is really going on out there. Note that in general, the more a country is considered "civilized," the more its citizenry pays for gasoline! Coincidental?)

According to the above list, people in the USA pay about the same price for gasoline as Cubans do ... and about half what many Europeans do ... and about 25 times more than Venezuelans. (Again, Iraq not on the list. Why? Why is it that I cannot find information about Iraqi gasoline prices over time? I am suspicious, very suspicious. Is someone somewhere trying to hide something?)

From the information provided above, including the recent oil-oriented, "anti-Venezuela" articles listed in the beginning of this article, I come to the conclusion that the USA (where the anti-Venezuela articles majoritarily come from) is jealous, very jealous.

"How can the people of a banana republic run by a black-skinned, ignorant, anti-USA communist dictator pay less for gas, and far less, than we, the intelligent, educated white-skinned people from the greatest civilized, free and democratic nation in the world? That doesn't make sense. Chavez must be subsidizing the gasoline prices, just like Saddam did, so that the people of the country stay happy and keep their mouths shut ... so that he can control them and manipulate them. Chavez is a dictator, he doesn't care about Venezuelans at all, just like Saddam and Fidel Castro ... all dictators and tyrants! The people have no freedom! All their leaders want is power and control over the people. Not like us here, we are not controlled by any dictator or by any communists ... that is why we pay more for oil ... because here we are free to speak out against government wannabe despots, and government corruption and abuses. We do not allow ourselves to be bribed by low gasoline prices in exchange for our freedoms and liberty!"

The above quote may sound realistic to some.

The argument appears to be somewhat rational, albeit in a weird sort of way. However, if the above argument made any sense at all, then Cubans would also be paying about 12 cents per gallon ... but, according to the information provided above, they pay about $3 per gallon. North Korea is not on the list, but supposing the argument was logical, then gasoline in North Korea (a communist dictatorship) would also be as low as 12 cents per gallon ... but I cannot find information on this. The same would apply to Iran, a US-labeled radical Islamic terrorist dictatorship which is also a nuclear threat to the USA (anyone who believes this is seriously misinformed or completely brainwashed).

* Guess what, I cannot find information of gasoline prices in Iran either ... humph ... why? There must be some available information about North Korean, Iraqi and Iranian gasoline consumer prices ... but it appears to be well hidden ... why?

Personally, I believe that US corporations, politicians and governments are outraged with Venezuela because they can no longer control Venezuelan oil ... and they have to find ways to denigrate Chavez and Venezuelans so as to try to brainwash the US population into believing it all ... of course ... in collusion with the US mainstream and conservative media.

(It is important to note here that foreign oil companies operating in Venezuela enjoyed ridiculously low royalty and taxation rates for years because of mass corruption at the hands of former Venezuelan governments. Royalties were a measly 1% -- which is completely outrageous --- and taxation (on profits), which was often evaded, was very low. If these oil companies were paying almost nothing to the Venezuelan government for oil production on Venezuelan territory, they had to be making massive profits. Where were these massive profits going to? Certainly not the consumers of their respective countries! These massive profits certainly did nothing to lower gasoline prices at the pumps in the USA or Canada or Europe! On the contrary ... gasoline prices have been almost consistently on the rise! I am no "expert" in the oil business, but it seems to me that something ain't right.)

Furthermore, if people in the USA paid 12 cents per gallon for gasoline, they definitely wouldn't complain and they certainly wouldn't try to force the US government to raise gasoline prices in order to keep their freedoms and liberty! (... i.e, in order to not be "controlled" by the state!)

Venezuela and Venezuelans have been the most successful in the world at keeping the price of gasoline low for the Venezuelan people, for Venezuelan corporations, for transport companies and airlines, ... overall, for Venezuelan society as a whole ... as well as for outside investors operating within Venezuela! The USA, Canada and Europe, the supposed more civilized and democratic nations (which often appears to imply, more "intelligent," more "efficient" and more "capable"), have obviously been unable to achieve this, an far from it!

Why?

I don't think most consumers really care about why their own countries have been so mismanaged, they just want to see gasoline prices go down to more acceptable and accessible levels, especially in these days when "western" economies appear to be on the brink of massive collapse.

"Why should Venezuela be privileged to a growing and strong economy while we, the truly civilized people of this world -- of course, we are white and wonderful -- suffer ever precarious economic difficulties? That doesn't make sense! We made sure to exploit the dark-skinned cheap labor abroad in order to be able to buy more things for a cheaper price ... and so that we could sit back and get fat while they did the dirty, sweaty work for us. We are the civilized ones, not them! What happened? That ain't fair! Now we have to pay more for gas while the monkeys who follow Chavez -- the ones that we were supposed to exploit --- pay 25 times less than us for gasoline? We won't accept that. If they are allowed to do as they want, we won't be able to exploit their cheap labor as we do in Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Panama, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, China, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Malaysia ... and, I forget the rest, lots more. Yeah, we have to stop this Chavez character ... just like we stopped Saddam Hussein. We blew the crap out of his country and we now control the oil. Now they will be forced to work for peanuts, our peanuts ... because there aren't any real jobs there anymore, we made sure to blow up all their factories. The only jobs they will find are jobs that we offer through reconstruction and oil projects and consultancy and security services to the new government which we put there. We can offer as little as we want for salaries because we know they will not find anything better. We'll offer them provisional pension plans and free drinking water and cheap Coca-Cola from company dispensers -- provided free by the Coca-Cola company, of course -- and promise them that their salaries will eventually increase when things get better. Hell, we can even supply them with free uniforms ... made in China, of course ... and build a McDonald's next door where they will spend all their salaries ... so we can justify buying those uniforms and still make a killing! You know, they are a bunch of idiots, they'll believe anything, those darkies. They love us! They think we're gods! Boy are we smart ... and they're so dumb. I love it! Viva freedom ... the freedom for us to exploit as many people as we can ... and have fun doing it! Hell, Venezuela can't get away with this!"

Have I diverted from the subject? No, not really.

The US economy is based on capitalism. Capitalism in based on the maximization of profits. In order to maximize profits, the capitalists resort to mass slave-like exploitation of labor (people!) wherever they can. Mass exploitation of people leads to less people having more ... and more people having less. This leads to increased poverty worldwide and increased consumption in the "west," where we exploit the rest of the world's peoples and resources. Increased consumption in the "west" leads to gluttony and greed, which in turn leads to increasing demand for natural resources such as oil. Increasing demand for oil leads to increased dependency on oil. (The giant "western" capitalist machine, with all its cogs, wheels and gears needs a lot of lubrication!) Increased dependency on oil leads to an increased desire to acquire and control this resource in order to guarantee ourselves of being able to satisfying our increasing addiction to it in the future. If we lose control, we are at risk of "regressing." We cannot allow this. Capitalism cannot allow for this. In consequence, after analysis, it is cheaper (and much more profitable) to produce oil with cheap labor in countries such as Iraq and Venezuela than it is to produce oil in the North American tar sands ... where cheap labor is basically non-existent.

Hey, if Venezuela can sell Venezuelans gasoline at 12 cents per gallon, imagine the profits we would make if we took over the country and then sold the same gasoline for $3 a gallon!

I believe that the people of the USA (and Europe) should wonder to themselves exactly why it is that they pay so much for gasoline when Venezuelans pay so little. Someone out there is making a mint on the back of innocent, honest, hard-working USA-ers. Hey, if they can so easily exploit cheap laborers in the name of capitalism, "free trade" and profits, they can certainly find ways to exploit their own people.

The Chavez government just raised the Venezuelan minimum wage (again, after several other raises in the last three years or so), effective September 1, 2006, to about 500,00 Bolivares monthly, about, $238 per month. In the USA the minimum wage is somewhere around $5.50 per hour, I believe. If a person works 40 hours per week, this amounts to about $880 per month, pre-tax. If we take the ratio of $880 (minimum wage) / $3 (cost of a gallon of gasoline), we get 880/3 = 293.33.

If we do the same for Venezuela, we get, 238/.12 = 1983.33 ... or a little over 6 times the US ratio (293.33). In other words, if you earn the minimum wage in Venezuela and if all you bought with you monthly salary was gasoline, you would be able to buy over 6 times more gasoline than if you earned the minimum wage in the USA.

This realization should be of great concern to the people of the USA. They should seriously wonder who is exploiting who and where.

Before believing the ever-increasing negative insinuations, speculations and distortions about Venezuela and its oil, think about this article. For readers who are not aware why it is that there is an increasing wave of anti-Venezuela articles in the US mainstream and conservative media, it is because Venezuelan presidential elections are scheduled for December 2006 ... and the US government does not want Chavez to win again.

He will win, and we know this ... unless he is stopped.

I believe the US government and their criminal Venezuelan co-collaborators are presently working on different scenarios to get rid of Chavez ... and one of the tactics is to use the mainstream US media to brainwash average USA-ers into believing that Venezuela is a dangerous communist dictatorship which may at some point require the "assistance" of the US military to "liberate" Venezuelans from Chavez.

Venezuela does not need to be "liberated" ... and this is evidently confirmed by the fact that Chavez is democratically supported by the majority of Venezuelans (at least 59% through the voting system, but as much as 80% has recently been reported to me from Venezuelan sources) ... and by the fact that Venezuela is a free and sovereign democratic country which has no reason whatsoever to be "accountable" to the USA or to bend forward to US arrogance, coercion or aggression.

Please be careful with what to believe. Please listen to facts, not to speculation.