Posted on 08/28/2012 7:35:05 AM PDT by IBD editorial writer
Energy: Oil is rising sharply from two disasters in the Caribbean region — one, a fierce storm, and the other a massive blast at the world's second-largest refinery in Hugo Chavez's Venezuela. Only one was perfectly preventable.
When the strongman cracked the whip on Venezuela's oil industry in 2003, firing 20,000 experienced oil managers from state-owned Petroleo de Venezuela (PDVSA) to break a strike he admitted he had provoked, he insisted that merit didn't matter anymore, only political loyalty. "There will be no more meritocracy," he told his cheering red-shirts.
That philosophy has been laid out in all its glory with Saturday's massive explosion, at the Amuay refinery, part of a 955,000-barrel-a-day complex, that has become the second deadliest in the history of the oil industry and the worst ever in the Western Hemisphere.
As of Monday, the complex is shut down. The death toll is as high as 48,
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
It is one of history's great ironies that the Industrial Revolution that Marx insisted would bring about world socialism has, in fact, pointed out its major flaws from the very beginning. The only new major industry it has engendered is blame factories that provide narratives to explain socialism's failures. If only people could be fed by that, we'd have something.
“The only new major industry it has engendered is blame factories that provide narratives to explain socialism’s failures. If only people could be fed by that, we’d have something.”
If only a dynamo could be harnessed to their lying jaws, we’d have something.
As well as the over 40 who died from the blast, 150 more people were injured. 500 homes damaged.
Also:
“Chavez’s government has been hit recently by other infrastructure-related problems including a prison riot that killed 25 last week, the collapse of a major highway bridge and power outages in parts of the country.”
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501715_162-57501937/fire-extinguished-at-venezuela-refinery/
Do these red-shirts even know what 'meritocracy' means?
Chavez’s “Reichstag Fire”?
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