Another Venezuelan election is over. Another win for the Chavistas. But no Chavez this time and it was a close run thing, much closer than expected. It is a shame how the Chavistas have spoiled the reputation of the simple baseball cap. After all, baseball is such a fun game. Che Guevara iconised the beret in his time but despite his sensitivity to the poor and disenfranchised we shouldn't forget he was a heartless brute at times. The Venezuelan opposition is contesting the result and the election council has agreed to a vote audit, which could take a month. So a final twist to the saga may yet emerge but don't bet on it. The economy is in trouble. Although it is very different from Australia's they have one thing in common - the dreaded Dutch disease. Commodity prices drive up their exchange rates too far. Despite the booming economy, there are pockets of high unemployment in Oz, with the real Aussie dollar having risen 20% in recent years in line with strong prices and big volume increases in commodities. When apartments in remote Port Hedland go for the same as in Manhattan and truck drivers are getting paid over $200000 pa you know something is wrong. The same problem affects Venezuela which generates most of its export revenues from oil. But oil production and exports are falling and with Brent trading below $100pb the economic arithmetic is turning ugly. Occasionally there is a big devaluation but that doesn't fix the problem. The QSL is from Radio Latina, a 10 kW Venezuelan AM station heard on 1470 kHz in Johannesburg in 1987. Nice personal letter about the station and the town of Valencia, the motortown of the country where Ford, GM and Goodyear had factories.
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