Korean Job Discussion Forums :: View topic

Speak Korean Now!

Teach English Abroad and Get Paid to see the World!

Korean Job Discussion Forums
"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Teachers from Around the World!"

FAQ

Memberlist

Usergroups

Profile

Hugo Chavez is cool
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Next

Korean Job Discussion Forums Forum Index -> Off-Topic Forum

View previous topic :: View next topic

Author

Message

Big_Bird

Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...

Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2006 6:45 pm Post subject:

ChuckECheese wrote:

Chavez is a nut! All he's trying to do is get some attention from the world and try to act like someone important from an insignificant country.

Venezuela has more oil than Saudi Arabia, and supplies the US with about a 1/5 of its imported oil. Of course, as you point out, that's very insignificant.

Quote:

The only reason he is not being ignored by some countries is because they want to tap into his oil. Without oil, what would he be? He'll be just another peasant S. American leader(more like dictator) looking for handouts from the U.S.

Looks like it's Chavez who's giving the handouts! Laughing

Quote:

Not only has Chavez delivered cheap oil to the Bronx and other poor communities in the United States. And not only did he offer to bring aid to the victims of Katrina. In my interview with the president of Venezuela on March 28, he made Bush the following astonishing offer: Chavez would drop the price of oil to $50 a barrel, "not too high, a fair price," he said -- a third less than the $75 a barrel for oil recently posted on the spot market. That would bring down the price at the pump by about a buck, from $3 to $2 a gallon.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=45&ItemID=11035

Novernae

Joined: 02 Mar 2005

Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2006 8:01 pm Post subject:

Big_Bird wrote:

ChuckECheese wrote:

Chavez is a nut! All he's trying to do is get some attention from the world and try to act like someone important from an insignificant country.

Venezuela has more oil than Saudi Arabia, and supplies the US with about a 1/5 of its imported oil. Of course, as you point out, that's very insignificant.

Where are you getting your information? Canada is number 2...Venezuela is pretty far down the list.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0872964.html
Greatest Oil Reserves by Country, 2006
Rank Country Proved reserves
(billion barrels)
1. Saudi Arabia 264.3
2. Canada 178.8
3. Iran 132.5
4. Iraq 115.0
5. Kuwait 101.5
6. United Arab Emirates 97.8
7. Venezuela 79.7
8. Russia 60.0
9. Libya 39.1
10. Nigeria 35.9
11. United States 21.4
12. China 18.3
13. Qatar 15.2
14. Mexico 12.9
15. Algeria 11.4
16. Brazil 11.2
17. Kazakhstan 9.0
18. Norway 7.7
19. Azerbaijan 7.0
20. India 5.8

http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/company_level_imports/current/import.html
Canada remained the largest exporter of total petroleum products in July, exporting 2.113 million barrels per day to the United States. The second largest exporter of total petroleum products was Mexico once again (1.709 million barrels per day) which was a decrease from last month of 0.146 million barrels per day.

Big_Bird

Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...

Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2006 8:20 pm Post subject:

Novernae wrote:

[
Where are you getting your information? .

One might ask you the same question!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_reserves

Quote:

Oil reserves by country

Countries with largest oil reserves
An offshore oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico. Mexico is estimated to have about 14 gigabarrels of oil reserves
Oil rigs near Huntington Beach, California, USA
An oil power plant in Iraq, which has some of the world's largest oil reservesAs the amount of oil left is an estimate, not a known amount, there are many differing estimates for the amount of oil remaining in different regions of the world. The following table lists the highest and lowest estimates for regions, and countries, with significant oil reserves in gigabarrels (109 barrels), as listed here [13]. The large range of some country's estimates, Canada in particular, stems from factors such as the potential future development of non-conventional oil from tar sands, oil shale, etc.

I'm not going to mess about making a nice table; after every country there are 2 figures: the first figure represents the lowest estimate, and the seond represents the highest.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_reserves

Quote:

Country/Region Lowest estimate Highest estimate
North America 40.9 214.8
Canada 16.5 178.8
United States 21.3 29.3
Mexico 12.9 14.8
Central & South America 76 101.1
Venezuela 52.4 350
Brazil 10.6 11.2
Western Europe 16.2 17.3
Eastern Europe & Former USSR 79.2 121.9
Russia 60 72.4
Kazakhstan 9 39.6
Middle East 708.3 733.9
Iran 125.8 132.7
Iraq 115 115
Kuwait 99 101.5
Qatar 15.2 15.2
Saudi Arabia- this reserve number cannot be verified 261.9 264.3
UAE 69.9 97.8
Africa 100.8 113.8
Algeria 11.4 11.8
Libya 33.6 39.1
Nigeria 35.3 35.9
Asia and Oceania 36.2 39.8
China 15.4 16.0
Australia 1.5 4
India 4.9 5.6
Indonesia 4.3 4.3
World total 1082 1194.1

http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/company_level_imports/current/import.html

Quote:

Crude Oil and Total Petroleum Imports Top 15 Countries
July 2006 Import Highlights: Released on September 13, 2006

Preliminary monthly data on the origins of crude oil imports in July 2006 has been released and it shows that three countries have each exported more than 1.25 million barrels per day to the United States. Including those countries, a total of five countries exported over 1.00 million barrels per day of crude oil to the United States (see table below). The top five exporting countries accounted for 66 percent of United States crude oil imports in July while the top ten sources accounted for approximately 86 percent of all U.S. crude oil imports. The top sources of US crude oil imports for July were Canada (1.624 million barrels per day), Mexico (1.561 million barrels per day), Saudi Arabia (1.264 million barrels per day), Venezuela (1.191 million barrels per day), and Nigeria (1.014 million barrels per day). The rest of the top ten sources, in order, were Angola (0.666 million barrels per day), Iraq (0.592 million barrels per day), Algeria (0.413 million barrels per day), United Kingdom (0.229 million barrels per day), and Brazil (0.187 million barrels per day). Total crude oil imports averaged 10.153 million barrels per day in July, which is a decrease of 0.528 million barrels per day from June 2006.

Novernae

Joined: 02 Mar 2005

Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 4:01 am Post subject:

Big_Bird wrote:

Novernae wrote:

[
Where are you getting your information? .

One might ask you the same question!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_reserves

Sorry...been at work. You're right--I was thinking of a different statistic (global production, not US export production).

FWIW, I'm glad I don't have to disagree with you...I agreed with the rest of your post.

n3ptne

Joined: 14 Sep 2005
Location: Poh*A*ng City

Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 4:52 am Post subject:

Ahh... I really like and admire Chavez, and wonder why it is that out of a country of 350-odd-million, or roughly ten times the size of Venezula, with an even longer and more illustrious history of social dissidence and revolution, that the best person the USA can find is GW Bush Jr., and et al of the decayed hierachy of American royalty. Seriously. The problem isn't Bush, the problem is the utter lack of alternatives. Chavez has balls. He talks about ideas. Is he right all the time? Hell no, but no one is. Now why can't we get someone like that to run our country and put a stop to all this global bullshit?

bucheon bum

Joined: 16 Jan 2003

Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 11:40 am Post subject:

n3ptne wrote:

Ahh...

I really like and admire Chavez, and wonder why it is that out of a country of 350-odd-million, or roughly ten times the size of Venezula, with an even longer and more illustrious history of social dissidence and revolution, that the best person the USA can find is GW Bush Jr., and et al of the decayed hierachy of American royalty.

Seriously. The problem isn't Bush, the problem is the utter lack of alternatives.

Chavez has balls. He talks about ideas.

Is he right all the time? Hell no, but no one is. Now why can't we get someone like that to run our country and put a stop to all this global *beep*?

chavez is an ego-maniac who could have done a lot more for his people than he has done. he has done a lot of damage to the oil industry in venezula. just wait a decade or two and see... it ain't going to be pretty when oil prices fall back down a bit (which is inevitable).

Big_Bird

Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...

Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 5:09 pm Post subject:

bucheon bum wrote:

n3ptne wrote:

Chavez may not be Jesus, but he's probably a damn sight better than the military dictator you Americans would normally have backed to run/loot his country. And the majority of his own people seem to think so. It's their business, and none of yours. Secondly, Chavez is aware that his economy is precariously dependent on oil, and is taking steps to begin diversifing the economy. Educating the whole population is one excellent step towards this goal.

The neocons are pissed because big business is no longer allowed to run amok in Venezuala as it once did. They now have to abide by fairer rules. This is progress in my view.

Big_Bird

Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...

Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 5:11 pm Post subject:

Novernae wrote:

Big_Bird wrote:

Novernae wrote:

[
Where are you getting your information? .

One might ask you the same question!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_reserves

Oh, a good natured poster on Dave's?! Shocked

Well, that's rather untypical. Very Happy

bucheon bum

Joined: 16 Jan 2003

Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 7:51 pm Post subject:

Big_Bird wrote:

bucheon bum wrote:

n3ptne wrote:

you americans. give me a break. Can you be any more obnoxious? are you going to tell me that BP and "you Brits" didn't have any interests in Venezula? Yes, I'm sure the US has much bigger interests in Venezula than the UK, but do remember a) Venezula's oil industry was nationalized LONG before Chavez b) Citgo (mentioned by a previous poster) is a major player in the US enegy market. Chavez is shooting himself in the foot.

The person who came up with the idea of OPEC? A Venezulean. Point being the US has not "run amok" in Venezula for quite some time.

People like populists in the short-term. Long-term is another story.

Big_Bird

Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...

Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 8:14 pm Post subject:

bucheon bum wrote:

you americans. give me a break. Can you be any more obnoxious? are you going to tell me that BP and "you Brits" didn't have any interests in Venezula?

Sadly, my government can always be relied upon to back your government in almost any given circumstance (witness our cowardly stance during the recent US-Israeli/Lebanon war), but Latin America has primarily been your playground with you lot calling most the shots. The failed coup against Chavez was not financed by Britain's Labour party - as far as I'm aware!

Certainly we are not whining about Chavez in the UK to any such extent as your obsessed US media.

Last edited by Big_Bird on Mon Sep 25, 2006 8:21 pm; edited 1 time in total

Big_Bird

Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...

Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 8:17 pm Post subject:

bucheon bum wrote:

The person who came up with the idea of OPEC? A Venezulean.

Almost certainly (I'm willing to wager) a rich white Venezualean from the old European elite.

Quote:

Point being the US has not "run amok" in Venezula for quite some time. .[/

Well, that's debatable. But certainly Chavez is doing his best to even out the relationship.

bucheon bum

Joined: 16 Jan 2003

Posted: Tue Sep 26, 2006 10:32 am Post subject:

how about his interfering in other elections?

BBC: Peru accuses Chavez of meddling

Quote:

Mr Toledo urged the Organization of American States (OAS) to act over what he termed Mr Chavez's meddling.

Mr Chavez has called front-runner Alan Garcia a "thief", saying Venezuela will not have ties with Peru if he wins.

I should note that Alan Garcia is left-wing himself (and granted, pretty awful when he was president the first time).

And peru is not the only country he's gotten involved with:

Quote:

Chavez has been accused of meddling in elections this year in Peru, Mexico and Nicaragua to boost leftist candidates.

Ecuador Candidate Defends Chavez Ties

And he's so popular in Mexico that he likely helped the right-wing presidential candidate win.

Quote:

Analysts in Mexico credit a negative ad campaign comparing L�pez Obrador to Ch�vez with a sharp drop in L�pez Obrador's poll numbers last month. Until then, he had been holding a comfortable lead.

CS Monitor article

ChuckECheese

Joined: 20 Jul 2006

Posted: Tue Sep 26, 2006 3:47 pm Post subject:

Big_Bird wrote:

ChuckECheese wrote:

Chavez is a nut! All he's trying to do is get some attention from the world and try to act like someone important from an insignificant country.

Venezuela has more oil than Saudi Arabia, and supplies the US with about a 1/5 of its imported oil. Of course, as you point out, that's very insignificant.

Quote:

Looks like it's Chavez who's giving the handouts! Laughing

Quote:

Handouts to the US? All Chavez is doing is starving his own people where more than half of his population is under poverty line. Let him go around and offer free and discounted oil to the US and other countries while his people are starving.

As a sound minded leader of country as you believe he is, wouldn't a good leader look after his people first by selling his oil at the market price use that profit to help his citizens instead of trying to make political statement? This is exactly my point, Chavez is an idiot running around all over the world trying to be someone important which he's not and trying to buy his way into some important seat in the United Nation which has become worthless organization.

bucheon bum

Joined: 16 Jan 2003

Posted: Tue Sep 26, 2006 4:16 pm Post subject:

How Chavez has damaged Venezula's oil production:

Quote:

But when President Hugo Ch�vez came to power in 1999, he started squeezing even more money out of the firm. By 2000 investment had fallen to $2.5 billion. Mr Ch�vez accused PDVSA of hiding its profits from the government through deceptive accounting. He also questioned the firm's expansion plans and overseas acquisitions. Above all, he decried its relative autonomy and appointed a number of hostile bosses to impose his authority.

PDVSA's management, naturally, resented this. They joined a general strike in December 2002, along with half of the firm's 40,000 employees. Most of the skilled staff, including engineers and technicians, stopped work for two months. Since�like patients in intensive care�many of PDVSA's wells require constant monitoring and treatment, says Mr al-Shereidah, the strike killed lots of them. Analysts estimated that Venezuela lost as much as 400,000 b/d of production capacity for ever, not to mention billions of dollars in revenue.

Sacking the lot

But the worst was still to come. Mr Ch�vez denounced the strikers as saboteurs and sacked them all. The toll was highest among skilled workers: two-thirds of managers and technical staff went. At a stroke, PDVSA lost almost all of its most experienced and best-qualified employees, with an irreplaceable understanding of the idiosyncrasies of its wells and fields.

Critics say that the government restaffed the firm with incompetent cronies and placemen. Contractors whisper that it is having trouble spending even its reduced investment budget. Bids take months longer than necessary to complete, one contractor complains, because the procurement staff cannot get their technical specifications straight. Others point to an increase in fatal accidents and fires at PDVSA's refineries as proof that its workers are no longer up to snuff.

Staffing has certainly become more political. Mr Ch�vez's cousin, Asdrubal, runs the firm's shipping arm. The president's brother, Adan, helps to co-ordinate the company's subsidised oil sales around the Caribbean as ambassador to Cuba. Those who signed a petition advocating a recall election for Mr Ch�vez complain that they cannot get jobs at PDVSA or its contractors.

Chavez is for certain people- his relatives. What a great guy!

Quote:

In Venezuela, the Ministry of Energy and Oil has only just released the 2003 edition of its annual statistical compendium on the company's performance. Its finances are certainly getting murkier: it now transfers much of its earnings directly to a development fund controlled by Mr Ch�vez, rather than sending them all to the central bank as it used to.

Hmmm, I wonder where the money is going. Now, if Chavez was really helping the poor, do you think he and his associates would be covering it up? Hardly. They'd be posting PDVSA's financial records to the whole freaking world. He'd model it after Norway's statoil.

National Oil Companies: Oil's Dark Secret

If you want the whole article, PM me and I can copy and paste it for you.

Oh, and those of you who bash those evil, EVIL oil companies, remember:

Quote:

EXXON MOBIL is the world's most valuable listed company, with a market capitalisation of $412 billion. But if you compare oil companies by how much they have left in the ground, the American giant ranks a lowly fourteenth. All 13 of the oil firms that outshadow it are national oil companies (NOCs): partially or wholly state-owned firms through which governments retain the profits from oil production. Because these national champions control as much as 90% of the world's oil and gas, they can do far more than the likes of Exxon to assuage the current worries about supply and to influence the accompanying record prices.

Big_Bird

Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...

Posted: Tue Sep 26, 2006 5:03 pm Post subject:

bucheon bum wrote:

how about his interfering in other elections?

OOoooooh! Fancy that! American governments would never do any such thing would they!?! Think Iran in the 50s, think Nicaragua in the 80s, think Venezuala much more recently, think on and on, there's quite a list. But how wicked that anyone else might attempt what you Americans do on such a regular basis!

FWIW Chavez denies having done so. I've yet to see evidence one way or another.

Display posts from previous:

	Korean Job Discussion Forums Forum Index -> Off-Topic Forum	All times are GMT - 8 Hours Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Next
Page 4 of 5

You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum

TEFL International Supports Dave's ESL Cafe