RE: Forwarded from Nestor (corrupt unions in Vzla)

["Vanessa DD" <jajije@xxxxxxxxx>]

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> BOY, IF YOU HEARD CHAVEZ TALK ABOUT THE UNIONS, YOU'D THINK I WAS PRAISING
> THEM.

I was under the impression that Chavez was attacking the entrenched
bureaucrats, not
the unions or the idea of organised labour.

Macdonald

VANESSA: you are right, he is. The thing is that here ALL unions are led by
entrenched bureaucrats!!! There is not ONE single union that is really
helping the workers. ALL unions in Venezuela, though they may have
originally been different, are today entrenched bureaucratic organizations.
That is why Chavez wants to change them all, and gets criticized, and these
critics are beleived by people in other countries, because, like you, they
do not understand that here things are very different here from other
places. I will ask the MVR guys tomorrow if they know of any union that has
not been found to be corrupt, but it would have to be something very small,
because I haven't heard of them.

The thing with Venezuela, is that 1) it owns PDVSA, one of the 10 largest
companies in the world, which owns part of Chevron, texaco, Cisco, and quite
a few others. 2) we lived too easily for too long. I still remember monthly
trips to Miami in the late 70s. 3) the easy life made many people forget
what it means to work, I am not speaking of criticizing workers, but
seriously, in this city laziness is the norm. This COULD be due to the fact
that the weather rarely drops below 80F, but that would be going into
scientific theories that are out of the range of theis list (4) Most poor
people in Venezuela today are either from Colombia, or children of
Colombians; Venezuelans are better off. (5)When I say people here are lazy,
I am not speaking just of unskilled workers. I only have an AA degree, but
when I taught english, I had to explain mathematics to engineers, food
science to Cargill executives, and I have a program right now where I will
be helping doctors understand the latest in medicine! I have yet to find a
neurologist who knows more about epilepsy than I do.

However, things ARE changing. Chavez has given us all hope, and this has
made many of us want to work. 3 years ago, I would not have raised a finger
to try to make money. Now, I am even involved in politics, which 6 months
ago, I thought was dirtier than flying a few kilos to Miami. And that is the
idea: to give the poor, the needy, HOPE. The rich a**h***s are all running
to Miami; my own parents keep trying to talk me into moving there.

INteresting fact: Venezuelan citizens have more money depósited outside
their own country than any other nationality. Venezuelan illegals in the USA
aren't poor; they have houses in Miami Beach. Most of the money this country
made from the oil is now in Swiss and US and British banks.

The union leaders we have now are people who are also tying to get a piece
of the pie, and they dream of moving to Miami, too!! We need to change that
NOW. And the main reason we need to educate the workers no matter what they
will be working at, is so that nobody can keep fooling them.

Vanessa