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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rascal who wrote (64352)	1/4/2003 3:00:08 PM
From: James F. Hopkins	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Come to think of it, 13% is down from what they use to supply, ( was 19% 10 yr ago ) if my memory is right. -- Any way Venezuela Oil is not high quality, It's considered dirty oil by today's standards, Also there has been an on going dispute about them not having to meet the new standards. Something about 2 to 3 times the pollution comes from it than oil from competitors. -- The big picture is too big to paint, Shell built the first refinery down there ( and foreigners ran every thing from 1912 to 1930 ) I mean the whole country. Well that didn't sit well with the locals, and regulation was put in to limit the control. Big oil didn't want to give up it's monopoly and fought back, which only increased the resolve of the people to have some control, the fight has never ended. I think they nationalized the oil industry as it was the only option they were left with. ---- That really upset Big oil..and they have to be made to pay for such a dirty trick. --- Things are not always what they look like. -- As a mariner I had occasion to slip on a few Russian ships back when They were the Evil Empire. I found about what I expected, the "crew" loved to play chess, but had to hide me from the officers. They were not die hard communist but had little choice , while they loved their country and felt as patriotic about Russia, as We did about the U.S., & they like many of us didn't trust their government. As we sat around and played chess and drank Vodka I remember a joke they told me more than once. "they pretend to pay us so we pretend to work" I guess being a mariner I could see what we had in common, at least with the "Crew" of course the officers were a lot more like policemen, than U.S. officers. But the average Russian was very likeable, and not hell bent on doing us some great evil. I traded playboy and jeans, for fur hats and Vodka. :-) Being a mariner was my poormans way to get a ticket to the world. Jim