 "Haiti needs doctors. If you are a doctor or a nurse, or have a friend who is a doctor or a nurse who would like to go to volunteer some of their time and skills, please contact me, and I will do all the contact-leg-work for you and spare you the hassle. Please specify what kind of doctor you are, and when you are available." ( message from close friends at Haiti Hospital )
The Venezuelan currency devaluation issue is a measure that should have been taken years ago. I am glad the currency was devalued closer to its market value. The overall effect will reduce the uncertainty on the value of the Bolívar fuerte. Chaos was the previous official exchange rate at 2,15 BsF per USD, while the parallel rate was over twice higher. Many would have preferred the exchange control regime being dismantled, but this devaluation in January 2010 was a step to the right direction. Today, the official rate at 4,30 BsF per USD is much closer to the parallel rate. A previous forex differential blog article reflects on the exchange rate system as I saw it in mid 2009. Then I thought it was chaos. Now I am actually hopeful that this sinceration of prices, even though it will lead to initial inflation, will make exports more profitable for Venezuelan producers and will diminish the occurrence of non essential imports.
Massachusetts voters elected a Republican senator who happened to conduct a campaign more people-oriented than a Democrat candidate who recently went on vacation instead of grassroots campaigning. Massachusetts voters have consistently elected democratic candidates during many decades. This time they felt a change was needed according to their own state politics, as this was a state election. Democrats still have 59 senators and a President. They still have the potential, next fall, of securing more votes in traditionally red states in Middle America. This statistical setback should not derail the historic health care legisation that is being discussed in the U.S. congress. Massachusetts should not be blamed for voting down universal health care to the rest of the U.S., as this traditionally blue state is not responsible of the U.S. congress breakdown by party, as a result of previous elections in all other 49 states.
A study has found that children spend more hours a day using social media than in previous years. However, we as adults spend as much time as kids on our social media. Adults are not setting an example for our kids and cannot blame them for doing otherwise. I was a geeky kid who used to look up all kinds of things in encyclopedias. I am sure that if I were a kid now I would be looking up all sorts of content as well on these new media rather than on books as I used to. However I think it is wise to have limits on time consumption of those things. My wrist tells me when I've been using a mouse too much and when it's time to stop. It would be nice to find a way to guide kids into interesting info they could get on the media instead of watching them relentlessly consume top publicized, low quality content.
Rubén Rivero Capriles
Caracas, January 27, 2010
Eros naturae pastel artwork
Started in 2005 by Harold M. Cooper,
Completed by RRivero 2010
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