So, technically speaking, they're going to turn it off and on again.
Venezuela to Shut Down for a Week to Cope With Electricity Crisis
31–40 of 168 posts
Re: Venezuela to Shut Down for a Week to Cope With Electricity Crisis
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
I read Atlas Shrugged cover to cover (and suffered). How did they deal with that speech in the movie that came out for it? I sure hope they cut it short ...
The movie was only the first half of the book. They didn't do the speech at all.
That's slated for the third 2 hour movie.
Re: Venezuela to Shut Down for a Week to Cope With Electricity Crisis
#33Ironically, Venezuela has so much oil that gas is almost free. Most people dont even know the cost, they fill a car's tank with about 0.10 us$. Probably, people will start using the portable power generators that everybody already have, because this is not the first time the power goes out, and it will become a gas-powered country for a week.
The "almost free" gas was from fixing the price of oil, which caused massive shortages within the country.[1][2] The new government overturned Venezuela's policy on this and raised oil prices by 6000%.[3] [1] http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=334115&CategoryId=... [2] http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB100014241278873240007045783867... [3] http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/18/venezuela-presi...
Just to clarify: there is no new government. The president is Nicolas Maduro,the successor named by Chavez when he realized he was too sick to continue.
There was an election to the National Assembly that the opposition won, but they did not have anything to do with the rise in gas prices.
Re: Venezuela to Shut Down for a Week to Cope With Electricity Crisis
#34I remember back when parts of California would shut down for an afternoon to deal with an electricity crisis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_electricity_crisis Strange times.
Caused by Fraudulent Enron employees. Not because of lack of supply.
Because of the world's dumbest attempt at privatization. Forcing utilities to buy power regardless of cost was destined to fail from day one.
Re: Venezuela to Shut Down for a Week to Cope With Electricity Crisis
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
At least with Argentina there's reason to be optimistic. From what I've read, the newly-elected Macri administration seems to be taking concrete steps toward reversing Fernandez's economic mismanagement.
Be aware the country is highly divided along political lines, and some of us in Argentina are thinking Macri is sinking the country into a profound unpayable debt and a crisis the likes of which-- well, I was about say "we've never faced before", but sadly my country is cyclical. We have faced it before, and we will again. I have reason to be pessimistic about Macri's policies.
Really? After 90 days of govt.? "in a profound unpayable debt"?
Compared to Kirchner's administration, Macri's waaaay better.
This is a sample of Kirchner's gov:
http://www.eltrecetv.com.ar/telenoche/impactante-video-el-hi...
You can see in the video, the son and the accountant of a major contractor from Kirchner's Administration. They're counting corruption money, and drinking a scotch to celebrate afterwards. Looks like a hollywood script. Reality surpasses fiction.
Re: Venezuela to Shut Down for a Week to Cope With Electricity Crisis
#36Related anecdote: a friend of mine is an engineer that builds and operates glass factories all around the world, mostly producing bottles for beer, wine, and liquor. One of his company's factories was in Venezuela, and while he was there working, Chavez et co decided to nationalize that industry because they were "forcing unfair labor conditions." The company rushed to get every American out of the country before the…
That factory was Owens-Illinois?
But what is happening here is because of massive corruption at every level of the government. They only nationalized one of the power companies (Electricidad de Caracas, only deals with power in the capital).
The rest simply succumbed to corruption. Companies with ties to the military and government officials that sold a bunch of overpriced, refurbished power plants that don't work. The price per MW of the power plants built here is the highest in the world.
I know because I used to work for a small Power Protection Systems contractor and we saw this from the inside. That and the reduction of the morale of even the lowest employee that saw the destruction and corruption from the inside.
Re: Venezuela to Shut Down for a Week to Cope With Electricity Crisis
#37It is worth to note that Venezuela is an oil producer country that used to sell electricity to Brazil, Guyana and Colombia.
Re: Venezuela to Shut Down for a Week to Cope With Electricity Crisis
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
At least with Argentina there's reason to be optimistic. From what I've read, the newly-elected Macri administration seems to be taking concrete steps toward reversing Fernandez's economic mismanagement.
Be aware the country is highly divided along political lines, and some of us in Argentina are thinking Macri is sinking the country into a profound unpayable debt and a crisis the likes of which-- well, I was about say "we've never faced before", but sadly my country is cyclical. We have faced it before, and we will again. I have reason to be pessimistic about Macri's policies.
Fair enough. I've never been to Argentina, and can only go on what I've read in the news. I'm curious what policies you specifically think are going to sink the country into crisis. Is it just about his deal to make good on the defaulted bonds, or is he a profligate borrower and spender in other areas as well?
If it's primarily the bond deal, I would be sympathetic to the argument that Macri is just being honest and having the country take responsibility for the debts racked up by his predecessors. Another good sign is how he's cleaned up the government statistics office that Fernandez was using to publish ginned up economic indicators to make herself look better (which wasn't fooling anybody outside the country; I don't know how widely they were believed domestically). These sorts of moves pay off in the long term by restoring the goodwill of the international community and giving the government more room to maneuver. The fact that he's making them now, when they make his job more difficult in the short term, suggests a profound professional integrity that inclines me to think of him as a statesman.
Am I misreading your objection here? If so, I'd like to know more about your take on things. (Or maybe you could point me to some sources I could read?)
Re: Venezuela to Shut Down for a Week to Cope With Electricity Crisis
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Be aware the country is highly divided along political lines, and some of us in Argentina are thinking Macri is sinking the country into a profound unpayable debt and a crisis the likes of which-- well, I was about say "we've never faced before", but sadly my country is cyclical. We have faced it before, and we will again. I have reason to be pessimistic about Macri's policies.
Really? After 90 days of govt.? "in a profound unpayable debt"? Compared to Kirchner's administration, Macri's waaaay better. This is a sample of Kirchner's gov: http://www.eltrecetv.com.ar/telenoche/impactante-video-el-hi... You can see in the video, the son and the accountant of a major contractor from Kirchner's Administration. They're counting corruption money, and drinking a scotch to celebrate afterwards. Looks…
Yes, it is
Complainers are usually Kirchner "fans" that can't stand that people were fed up with her and kicked her out
It's their strategy
Re: Venezuela to Shut Down for a Week to Cope With Electricity Crisis
#40Here in Tasmania we're not at the shut down stage yet, but it's something no one wants to talk about. They're not asking residents to shutdown yet, but if things continue the way they are, who knows. The major companies/power users are currently being rationed (Aluminium smelters, paper mills etc)
The state relies on hydro-electric power, and last year sold off a lot of its "excess" power to Victoria via the Basslink cable at a huge profit.
However we're suffering a fairly bad drought, and the dams are at historically low levels. Worse still, the Basslink cable (which allows the state to both export and import electricity) failed on December 20th 2015, and the repair ship has been unable as yet to actually locate the fault in the cable (it's a 270km long under-sea cable)
Apparently the repair ship costs are running @ $100,000 per day, and it could take months.
On Friday they severed the cable in order to begin testing to locate the fault, and half of Tasmania's internet went down. I was unlucky enough to be with one of the ISPs who didn't provision enough backhaul connectivity on the other network cables, so my 100mbit fibre internet now looks something like a 1998 dialup connection
malby@peep:~$ wget ftp://ftp.iinet.net.au/test10MB.dat
--2016-03-14 16:07:41-- ftp://ftp.iinet.net.au/test10MB.dat => `test10MB.dat'
Resolving ftp.iinet.net.au (ftp.iinet.net.au)... 203.0.178.32
Connecting to ftp.iinet.net.au (ftp.iinet.net.au)|203.0.178.32|:21... connected. Logging in as anonymous ... Logged in!
==> SYST ... done. ==> PWD ... done.
==> TYPE I ... done. ==> CWD not needed.
==> SIZE test10MB.dat ... 10000000
==> PASV ... done. ==> RETR test10MB.dat ... done.
Length: 10000000 (9.5M) (unauthoritative)
100%[===============================================================================>] 10,000,000 6.82K/s in 43m 41s
2016-03-14 16:51:24 (3.73 KB/s) - `test10MB.dat' saved [10000000]
I mean, I feel bad complaining about my internet speeds, because in 6 months times if there hasn't been any rain.. well, it's going to get a lot more serious.