Can a man not want to sell his car without the whole world asking whether or not he is skipping the country or broke? To answer peoples questions I am not emigrating overseas, I have been wanting to sell my Betty for a while now and now its time to stop paying it lip service. With the exchange rate swinging as it has in the last few days and I don’t see it getting any better, I thought I may liquidate some possessions which are redundant (cos I got me a more high class set of decks…which are hardly used, but a story for another time) as well as get some tenants in my CT house to hedge myself a bit. I hope that answers your questions.

A welcome to another member of the mailing list, Fred, welcome to our little community. If you have any topics of interest or comments kindly drop me a line or visit www.mondaymail.blogspot.com. Alternatively should you wish to remove yourself from the list please let me know.

Yes I have been gone a while, I have been very flat and very uninspired to be honest. No worries life is still peachy, just haven’t been amped to write I guess. This email is thanks to Tracey at work. Anyway…how are things with y’all. Hope that everyone has been feeling on top of the world you know the kind of feeling you get when you see an ex boyfriend or girlfriend and they are looking sooo wack!

As a result of what happened earlier today, the South African reserve bank raising the repo rate by 0.50% thanks largely to the continuously rising oil prices which will inevitably result in an increase in inflation which is currently projected to be beyond the reserve banks target range. So whats driving this rise in oil prices? Well last time I wrote that Iran had something to do with it. Well Iran isn’t the only thing, there is also this guy called Hugo Chavez (Venezuela’s president) labelled by Americans as the trouble maker. He in return has called President Bush as a pendejo “dum bass” and Miz Ricen a “complete illiterate”.

He came to power in 1999 and since then his agenda has been the social upliftment of his nations poor. 2 of his main projects since taking up poverty was anti-corruption and anti-poverty. Since taking office his government has made education available to a fair amount of his country’s poor. His anti-poverty campaign involves the eradication of illiteracy. This has been set in motion by the establishment of a large number of missions all over Venezuela. This has resulted in more than 1 million more adults becoming literate. His government has built medical schools and clinics which are free to the poor. As part of his anti-poverty campaign he has also had land reform and land redistribution policies invoked. Increased taxes on large foreign companies, provided food and housing subsidies. In his early reign his focus was on attracting foreign direct investment to spur the economy and create jobs. His current stance of increased taxes and nationalisation of foreign company assets may be undoing this somewhat, but we’ll get back to that one.

He has been in the news quite a bit lately. He has publicly stood up against the US government. He blames America for fuelling a coup that ousted him briefly between the 11/04/2002 and the 13/04/2002. He publically came out and stated that US backed Free Trade Area of the Americas was dead. He has also ordered all active duty US military personnel to leave his country. He has increased the corporate tax rate significantly. He has also unanimously decided to nationalise the assets of some large foreign companies, particularly those that are in the oil business. His thinking is well the oil is our natural resource and I think its only right that we get a larger piece of the pie (lets forget that you guys brought the infrastructure and the know-how here which is enabling us to extract this oil)

Another thing he has done is forged close alliances with a fair amount of his equally poor neighbours on the Latin American continent. He has increased his arms purchases from Brazil, taking business away from the US, he offers Cuba oil for expertise, he is said to have funded a $300 mil gas pipeline set to provide discounted natural gas to Columbia. He has also offered Argentina oil for meat.

Apparently after Hurricane Katrina, his government was the first to offer assistance to the US in the form of food, water, mobile hospitals, medical specialists, power generators 1mil barrels of petroleum as well as hugely discounted heating fuel to the affected poor. Guess what Americas response was…Thanks but no thanks!

From the tone this email is taking it almost sounds as if president Chavez is an angel, uh huh, far from it. If you step in his way he squashes u. He has instituted a law ala Bob Mugabe that prohibits public criticism of government figures, which could result in 40 months imprisonment or even more depending on the severity of the offence. He had a failed attempted coup in 1992 which landed him in jail for 2 years or so. He once dismissed 19000 workers who opposed his views on limiting oil production which would result in increased oil prices hence excess reserves for the government with which to complete his social development plans. In 1999 following weeks of unprecedented rainfall he ignored the signs and approx 30000 of his nations poor lost their lives either by being swept out to sea or buried in mudslides. His country has been catalogued by Amnesty International for human rights violations but none have been confirmed.

Anyway, enough about the man. I am pretty torn on this one. Once again a case of a plausible cause being achieved through questionable means. But I guess its something that we don’t do too much of on this continent and that’s saying guys I am tired of being sc rewed over, lets have a situation where we both win please. Many an African nation, rich in minerals and know how is in such a shocking state because what happened is they came, they raped, they left, we live still live in squalor. But then again you want foreign direct investment and this is best achieved in providing an economic or political climate that promotes stability and trust in your nation. This can never be achieved by telling your foreign held companies that as of now we are 50% shareholders in your business! The oil companies have decided to stay on because they are still making plenty tom inspite of it all. Enough of my views on this because I have plenty to say on this hope to get some of your views on www.mondaymail.blogspot.com or mail me back.

Otherwise let the games begin, go The Black Stars (Ghanaian national soccer team). Whew as much as I would like the boys to succeed, I am a realist, its one tight group, no 2, 5 and 13 in the world are our group mates, in the words of Eddie and the other J-Flat boys…”…its tight G”! Please prove me wrong.

On that note that’s me for the week. A couple of birthdays I missed whilst I was away…
22nd May – Lance
23rd May – Auntie Millie
24th May– Amrain
27th May – Monica
29th May – Nyame K, Lauren and Delia
31st May – AC and Nana Yaa
2nd June – Mame Ekua
6th June – Helen
9th June – Ivan and Rudi

If I missed yours my humblest apologies.

Maximum respect

Y

PS I have 2 more vehicles on sale
2002 Ford Fiesta Flite
Kitted out Honda Civic
2000 E-class Mercedes benz with low mileage

If you are interested in any of these holler…I think I could make a living from this advertising stuff hey