Geographically, Caracas is about 1000km away from its three land borders (Colombia, Brazil and Guyana). The fact that Caracas is so dangerous have little to do with being in the same neighborhood with Colombia, and much more with the fact that there is a generalized social crisis that started _before_ Chavez, but got worse in the last years.
You _could_ find SAMs near the borders, but if they were easily available in the main cities, they would have been used already in the higly profitable business of armored car hijacking, but they haven't.
You may find some assault rifles, a grenade or two, plenty of shotguns and handguns, but nothing more powerful... yet.
Ehmm... This is to be used in Caracas, where the most "politically inestable" factors are the mid-class citizens angry with the government, and the poverty-belts citizens surrounding the others. All of them may be armed, but none of them have SAMs or Stingers AFAIK.
I'm Venezuelan, and didn't know anything until I read it here...
Anyway, like almost everything that this government does, it's pretty sure that this will be used more for political/social control than crime prevention. And I can see the "control room" dismantled in a few months, all of the equipment broken/stolen and the ships rusting...
Ok. I ask if you are a Venezuelan because I AM Venezuelan. Here, there are three kind of people: extremist "chavists", extremist "escualidos" (opposition) and "ni-ni" (neutrals). It doesn't matters how poor or rich you are, all around the spectrum you find those three kinds. In the poorest (largest) part of the poblation, Chavez historically has a very strong presence. But it's also true that the "being rich is bad" speech while wearing a Rolex and the ministers driving BMW's is making many people angry. A lot of poor people here doesn't buy anymore the president tales, and is turning angry to demand the solutions to the very same problems they had when Chavez got the power. On the Mid class, things are more complicated, as there are many prepared, well educated people (like one of my parents) that firmly believes in the Chavez project, they think that the 02' coup was a set up, a trap prepared by the Imperialism to end the Chavez government. He really thinks that the "Puente Llaguno" shooting was in self defense... even as I was there, on the other side of the bullets, and I wasn't carrying any weapon, nor any of the people that were right next to me on that street, that day. I saw people falling next to me, and no one on my side were shooting. On the upper class (the so-called "oligarchy"), almost everyone want Chavez out, because is bad for business... at least for the business of those that are against him. Saying that the Chavez government is falling apart is a lie, like saying that he have 50% or more in the polls.
I ask if you are a Venezuelan because only a Venezuelan "Chavist" or "Escualido" (or a misinformed foreigner) can be that extremist, completely ignoring the fact that the truth is ALWAYS in the middle, that there are no black or whites, only shades of gray.
I'm going to vote against Chavez this December, not because his contrincant is better, but because he is not as bad as Chavez. Sad, isn't it?
The fact the he is opposed to the "oligarchs" (are you from Venezuela by any chance? that definition is not often heard outside Venezuela) doesn't mean he isn't corrupt himself. Who would corrupt him you ask? money? power? maybe both???? And I think the main corruption in the government is not Chavez himself but his collaborators...
If he said that, I'm pretty sure "Globovision" and the others would have repeated it... many and many and many times. And yes, I've heard many of his idiotic things, but just not that one...
Well, I'm Venezuelan, I'm not "Chavist" and I've never heard Chavez saying that... He did said something about Bush being an irresponsible-murderer-drunk, but thats another story...
How long until the DoD starts to ban some zones based on "security concerns"? I can see mid-east zones out of reach because they were "supporting terrorism"...
Now it may be good for you, because you were attacked by some people related to, but for the rest of the world, that is just innaceptable, because you would be doing the exact same thing you are criticizing: banning something based on their ideas (like some europeans countrys do with nazis). Don't tell me "that's not going to happen!!", you live in a country where that's exactly the kind of things that happens (McCarthy anyone?)...
And is not like I don't want to convince you, is that I don't need to convince you of anything...
I encourage you to try to convince us, the rest of the world, that your control over our -read again, ***OUR*** "speech rights" is better than the proposed UN-based body.
The point is not about whether north-americans like it or not, it doesn't matter at this point. It WILL be that way. Period.
How about Brazil? One of our religious leaders has called for the assassination of that nation's elected President.
The country is Venezuela, not Brazil...;)
I'm a big fan of Alpha Centauri, at the point i'm still playing it. I think it's a great game with one of the most complex tech trees i've ever used, a "gameplay haven" that is incredible funny without any fancy graphics. The tech tree in Civ is also complex too, but I like more the gameplay of SMAC. Are you planning in a new release of SMAC with new graphics, more tech (you just never have enough tech!) and enhanced AI?
Thank you...
Slashdot Mirror
I take it you don't live in Venezuela, do you?
Geographically, Caracas is about 1000km away from its three land borders (Colombia, Brazil and Guyana). The fact that Caracas is so dangerous have little to do with being in the same neighborhood with Colombia, and much more with the fact that there is a generalized social crisis that started _before_ Chavez, but got worse in the last years.
You _could_ find SAMs near the borders, but if they were easily available in the main cities, they would have been used already in the higly profitable business of armored car hijacking, but they haven't.
You may find some assault rifles, a grenade or two, plenty of shotguns and handguns, but nothing more powerful... yet.
Ehmm... This is to be used in Caracas, where the most "politically inestable" factors are the mid-class citizens angry with the government, and the poverty-belts citizens surrounding the others. All of them may be armed, but none of them have SAMs or Stingers AFAIK.
Chavez isn't "President for life of Venezuela"... yet. Give him some more months for that ;)
I'm Venezuelan, and didn't know anything until I read it here... Anyway, like almost everything that this government does, it's pretty sure that this will be used more for political/social control than crime prevention. And I can see the "control room" dismantled in a few months, all of the equipment broken/stolen and the ships rusting...
Ok. I ask if you are a Venezuelan because I AM Venezuelan. Here, there are three kind of people: extremist "chavists", extremist "escualidos" (opposition) and "ni-ni" (neutrals). It doesn't matters how poor or rich you are, all around the spectrum you find those three kinds. In the poorest (largest) part of the poblation, Chavez historically has a very strong presence. But it's also true that the "being rich is bad" speech while wearing a Rolex and the ministers driving BMW's is making many people angry. A lot of poor people here doesn't buy anymore the president tales, and is turning angry to demand the solutions to the very same problems they had when Chavez got the power. On the Mid class, things are more complicated, as there are many prepared, well educated people (like one of my parents) that firmly believes in the Chavez project, they think that the 02' coup was a set up, a trap prepared by the Imperialism to end the Chavez government. He really thinks that the "Puente Llaguno" shooting was in self defense... even as I was there, on the other side of the bullets, and I wasn't carrying any weapon, nor any of the people that were right next to me on that street, that day. I saw people falling next to me, and no one on my side were shooting. On the upper class (the so-called "oligarchy"), almost everyone want Chavez out, because is bad for business... at least for the business of those that are against him. Saying that the Chavez government is falling apart is a lie, like saying that he have 50% or more in the polls.
I ask if you are a Venezuelan because only a Venezuelan "Chavist" or "Escualido" (or a misinformed foreigner) can be that extremist, completely ignoring the fact that the truth is ALWAYS in the middle, that there are no black or whites, only shades of gray.
I'm going to vote against Chavez this December, not because his contrincant is better, but because he is not as bad as Chavez. Sad, isn't it?
Ehmm... do you live in Venezuela? are you Venezuelan? or you just believe anything you read?
The fact the he is opposed to the "oligarchs" (are you from Venezuela by any chance? that definition is not often heard outside Venezuela) doesn't mean he isn't corrupt himself. Who would corrupt him you ask? money? power? maybe both???? And I think the main corruption in the government is not Chavez himself but his collaborators...
If he said that, I'm pretty sure "Globovision" and the others would have repeated it... many and many and many times. And yes, I've heard many of his idiotic things, but just not that one...
Well, I'm Venezuelan, I'm not "Chavist" and I've never heard Chavez saying that... He did said something about Bush being an irresponsible-murderer-drunk, but thats another story...
I live in Venezuela, so yes, my country may be next... The Chavez-Bush relationship isn't exactly a "made in heaven" one ;)
How long until the DoD starts to ban some zones based on "security concerns"? I can see mid-east zones out of reach because they were "supporting terrorism"...
Now it may be good for you, because you were attacked by some people related to, but for the rest of the world, that is just innaceptable, because you would be doing the exact same thing you are criticizing: banning something based on their ideas (like some europeans countrys do with nazis). Don't tell me "that's not going to happen!!", you live in a country where that's exactly the kind of things that happens (McCarthy anyone?)...
And is not like I don't want to convince you, is that I don't need to convince you of anything...
Our prices are quite a bit higher than before we started the war.
Well, it didn't worked this time, but hey, you can just keep trying!
There must be other oil-rich countries out there that are making WMDs!
I encourage you to try to convince us, the rest of the world, that your control over our -read again, ***OUR*** "speech rights" is better than the proposed UN-based body. The point is not about whether north-americans like it or not, it doesn't matter at this point. It WILL be that way. Period.
Sure, and the fact that Iraq is one of the most oil-rich countries in the world has NOTHING to do with that "enforcing".
How about Brazil? One of our religious leaders has called for the assassination of that nation's elected President. The country is Venezuela, not Brazil... ;)
I'm a big fan of Alpha Centauri, at the point i'm still playing it. I think it's a great game with one of the most complex tech trees i've ever used, a "gameplay haven" that is incredible funny without any fancy graphics. The tech tree in Civ is also complex too, but I like more the gameplay of SMAC. Are you planning in a new release of SMAC with new graphics, more tech (you just never have enough tech!) and enhanced AI? Thank you...
Well, i'm going to get 4 of them to make a 0+1 array... 1TB for anime, tv series, movies, music and ... ejem... videos, ehmm... family videos...
In fact, someone else already answered that. http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=139986&cid= 11723871