Venezuela Falling Behind

Christopher Frank writes "Seems Venezuela's lack of power has finally caught up with them! MSNBC has the story: 'If you thought Venezuela's political crisis seemed to be dragging for an impossibly long time -- you were right. In a bizarre mass-malfunction, Venezuela's clocks are ticking too slowly due to a power shortage weakening the electric current nationwide. By the end of each day, the sluggish time pieces still have another 150 seconds to tick before they catch up to midnight.'"

Comments

corrections!

[lingqi]

It's not the lower power / current / whatever. It's the lower frequencies on the AC lines.

And besides any quartz clock won't be affected anyway. The ones that will suffer is those bedside alarm clocks you plug in - those red / green ones that are oh-so-common in the US.

Any idea why there are 0 of them in Japan? Japan runs on 50Hz east side and 60Hz west side, which would make clocks like that completely fall over itself. (something about buying geneator equipment from siemens (europe) for the east side and from US for the west-side - and stuck)

Interesting, but I don't think it's really that much of a "news." should at least up the "it's funny" icon

Re:corrections!

[Bruce Perens]

The clocks that will slow down are:

• Digital ones that use the 60 Hz power frequency for their timing signal, rather than another oscillator like a quartz crystal.
• Mechanical ones powered by the AC line, not a wind-up spring or battery. Pretty much all of those use a synchronous motor that locks itself to the 60Hz AC wave.

The wind-up kind, and any clocks that run exclusively by battery power, won't be effected.

By the way, quartz isn't the only material that can act as an electronic tuning fork. Early electronic clocks actually used mechanical tuning forks. Ceramic resonators are used, rather than quartz, in less precise applications. And piezoelectric crystals (which is what the quartz ones are) can be made of other materials, you can even make them from cream of tartar! Look up Rochelle Salts.

Bruce

Re:I know far less than I should.

[gmajor]

Cesar Chavez was a Mexican union activist in the 1960's. Hugo Chavez is the man you want, a man who attempted his own coup in 1992. When that didn't work, he ran for el Presidente. And won.

About 70% of the population is in poverty, the base from which Chavez draws his support. The middle class (and upper class) seemingly hate him, which is why his communist ideas resonate with most poverty-stricken Venezuelans.

Oil Curreny War To Blame For Problems

[muscleman706]

The link below discusses not just the Iraq war, but the how oil is tied to the world economies at a very low level and how Venezuela is in some sense at the heart of the matter with their use of oil as a fiat currency in lieu of the US dollar among their latin american trading partners. http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/RRiraqWar.html Although completely suppressed by the U.S. media and government, the answer to the Iraq enigma is simple yet shocking -- it is an oil currency war. The real reason for this upcoming war is this administration's goal of preventing further Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) momentum towards the euro as an oil transaction currency standard. However, in order to pre-empt OPEC, they need to gain geo-strategic control of Iraq along with its 2nd largest proven oil reserves. This essay will discuss the macroeconomics of the `petro-dollar' and the unpublicized but real threat to U.S. economic hegemony from the euro as an alternative oil transaction currency. The author advocates reform of the global monetary system including a dollar/euro currency 'trading band' with reserve status parity, and a dual OPEC oil transaction standard. These reforms could potentially reduce future oil currency warfare.

Re:I know far less than I should.

[Lemmy Caution]

Before oil was discovered, Venezuela had a thriving middle class, the second highest standard of living in South America, and a fairly even distribution of wealth. After oil was discovered, and the economy taken over by foreign oil interests, 80 percent of its population fell into poverty, which is why Chavez keeps getting elected: he is the first leader since the oil boom who has improved the standard of living for the majority of people living there, expanding the public health infrastructure, starting housing projects, and engaging in land reform. He's been "undemocratic" as far as the sector of the population that has been benefitting from the oil boom is concerned, but even many of them realize that they are reaping what they have sown.

Consider an economic model of massively concentrated wealth based on control of a single natural resource, and the distorting effects on markets of land, labor, and goods created by a small cash-rich sector, and you'll understand what happened. More or less a classic race-to-the-bottom scenario.

Re:I know far less than I should.

[blurfus]

I am sorry but I am going to have to call this statement:

he is the first leader since the oil boom who has improved the standard of living for the majority of people living there, expanding the public health infrastructure, starting housing projects, and engaging in land reform.

complete bullshit!!!

I do not where you get your information but I get it straight from the horse's mouth as my family lives there.

I lived there for 20 years and, as I said, my family still lives there. We have never been well-to-do. If anything, we have always been very-low-middle class (because I could not consider myself poor when I had food on my table -sometimes just two meals a day- and a roof on my head).

My family's situation has not improved! Nobody's standard of living has improved. THEY ARE ONLY GETTING WORSE

When you lose any ability to educate yourself, freedom of expression, your job, social security, inflation and unemployment doubles and the right to use your own money (albeit in foreign currency, but still yours);
how can your claims be believed or even substantiated?

Please educate yourself in the matter before you make such *outrageous claims*

P.S. Let me know if you need actual examples of how things are getting worse over there (In fact the article that started the threat is one of many)