In a bold push to be the leader in the creative use of NewSpeak, the BBC is covering the new Venezuelan currency regulations without once mentioning the economic system whose name cannot be spoken. Here’s their above-the-fold opener:
Venezuela pulls highest-value banknote ‘to strike against mafia’
8 hours ago
From the section Latin America & Caribbean
The Venezuelan government has announced it will remove the country’s highest-denomination banknote from circulation within 72 hours to combat contraband.
Central bank data suggests there are more than six billion 100-bolivar notes in circulation, making up almost half of all currency.
President Nicolas Maduro said the move would stop gangs hoarding the notes.
Venezuelans will have 10 days from Wednesday to exchange the notes for coins and new, higher-value bills.
Now here’s the beauty part. Because of the oft-recurring and totally predictable collapse of yet another socialist country, in this case a democratic socialist country, you know the hundred bolivar bill that they show above? The bill that the Venezuelan government doesn’t want circulating as a bold strike against the Mafia? The “country’s highest denomination banknote”? Care to guess what it’s worth?
Two cents US …
Seriously. The highest denomination Venezuelan banknote in circulation is worth two cents.
So instead of saying “It’s just my two cents worth” when commenting on something, I can now puff myself up and say “That’s a hundred Bolivar opinion right there, yes, sir!”
Here’s how the Beeb explains the problem …
Venezuela’s currency has fallen dramatically amid skyrocketing inflation.
On the black market, its value dropped by 55% against the US dollar just in the past month, and the International Monetary Fund estimates that next year’s prices will rise by more than 2,000%.
Gangs can therefore buy up Venezuelan banknotes cheaply on the black market in exchange for dollars or Colombian pesos.
They then use the Venezuelan currency to buy subsidised goods in Venezuela, which they in turn sell at a profit in neighbouring Colombia.
Many Venezuelans living near the border buy Colombian pesos to purchase goods in Colombia which they cannot get in Venezuela due to chronic shortages.
Cash crunch?
President Maduro blames both the shortages and Venezuela’s record inflation on “imperialist forces” he says are trying to bring down his government.
He said the aim of these “forces” was “to destabilise out economy and our society, to leave the country without 100-bolivar notes”.
Really? This is the queen of British news outlets? They give air-time to that lame claim of President Maduro’s that it is all the result of the famous Yankee Imperialism, and they never once mention democratic socialism? Inflation is so bad that if you want to rob a corner store you better bring a wheelbarrow, and they don’t mention democratic socialism?
The collapse of this democratic socialist economy is so bad that people are eating their pets. It’s so bad that people broke into the Caracas zoo and butchered a horse. If there ever were a poster child for democratic socialism, it’s Venezuela.
And the BBC discusses this huge tragic economic collapse that has cost people their life savings, their jobs, their purchasing power, and even their pets … and says not one word about democratic socialism …
w.
Skating Under The Ice 
The good news is that if there are still 1 and 5 Bolivar notes in circulation in Venezuela, there’s no shortage of toilet paper.
I read something in regards to the exchange for higher notes and the point was raised that there was not enough time to exchange all of the 100 Bolivar notes. Did the BBC mention that?
Does the BBC have any comment on how the Venezuelan Government is going to make a large portion the currently virtually worthless currency actually worthless by not allowing enough time for the exchange?
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The good news is that if there are still 1 and 5 Bolivar notes in circulation in Venezuela, there’s no shortage of toilet paper.
Perhaps they could eat them like we can in Britain! (Apparently) (http://lmgtfy.com/?q=site%3Abbc.co.uk+animal+fat+notes)
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After decades of talking about the history of the BBC and how wonderful it was, four years ago I was back in Britain, and was astounded by the worthlessness of its news reporting. In one 9 o’ clock news (once the flagship of good reporting), it was announced that there would be an item on Iran. I waited through trivial stuff. Finally, there was an interview with … Ben Affleck, who, because he had acted in a film related to Iran, and is pro-muslim, was the obvious person to comment on the realities of Iran. Not an academic or politician or diplomat with experience, not some other kind of knowledgeable expert, but a dhimmi actor! On a supposedly news programme! Abysmal.
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bbc, nothing polite to say about that lefty lgbt diversified company – oh yes a company, not state owned
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Willis, congratulations on the new blog, and also on the hundreds of excellent posts on WUWT.
The BBC really is a rich ground for material for someone like you. As I commented elsewhere, their New York correspondent characterised Trump voters as either white supremacists, Confederate flag wavers, KKK members or alt-right because they visit Breitbart for news or comment. Does that mean that all 53% of white women who voted Trump are white supremacists? What about the 27% of Hispanic women Trump voters? Are they white supremacists or perhaps hispanic supremacists?
Similarly, for 10 consecutive days after his death, the BBC eulogised Fidel Castro. They proudly said he had outlasted 11 US presidents as if that were a good thing rather than the very indictment of a lack of democracy. Clearly, none of their correspondents had spoken to a Cubano outside Cuba (where he or she is free to have their own opinion). None of their readers would have known that he murders people, incarcerates them, controls them via neighbourhood spy rings. No reader was asked to wonder why a country of only 11 million inhabitants needs over 200 prisons. All this from an establishment, the BBC, that has a charter to ensure its impartiality.
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Socialism by its very nature, at its heart and core, is a system of lies. That society will have more equality is a lie, That the economy will grow faster and be give the average worker more prosperity is a lie. That government will be competent, efficient, evenhanded and careful to obey all of its laws and regulations is a lie. In order for the socialist society to function, it must create and support a myriad of overlapping lies. But it is a truth about human nature that government imposes a type of morality on its citizens. So, when government is built on lies, telling lies and believing lies permeates society. Thus, one of the hidden costs of socialism is how corrosive it is to personal character and morality.
This is not my own theory, but comes from someone who lived it.
Václav Havel was a playwright, author, the first president of the Czech Republic (1993–2003) after the Czech–Slovak split.
He wrote a famous essay, The Power of the Powerless on the social and spiritual consequences of socialism.
“The principle involved here is that the center of power is identical with the center of truth.” Havel warns that socialist regimes create and enforce their own truth to maintain power. As time goes on, this truth diverges from factual truth and it increasingly forces those who support and depend upon the power of the regime to corrupt themselves to sustain the artificial truth.
In the end, people not only lie to each other, but they start to lie to themselves.
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Climate change science in a nutshell.
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My son and daughter-in-law brought me a Zimbabwe $50,000,000 note back from their honeymoon (valid from April to June 2008). Signed by Dr Gideon Gono who famously noted; ‘I found myself doing extraordinary things that aren’t in the textbooks. Then the IMF asked the U.S. to please print money. The whole world is now practicing what they have been saying I should not. I decided that God had been on my side and had come to vindicate me.’
I recommend this website
https://biasedbbc.org/
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well its worked SO well for Modi in India too…
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India recently did something similar. http://news.sky.com/story/stampedes-and-scuffles-in-indian-as-rupee-banknotes-withdrawn-10654282 Ostensively they were concerned about gangs, tax evasion, and — perhaps more rationally — with purportedly widespread counterfitting of the old 500 rupee note.
I do not, thankfully, live anywhere near the subcontinent. But it seemed to me that this … ahem … bold … move was going to work untold hardships on the ordinary citizens of a country where ordinary citizens already had way more than their fair share of hardships.
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Hello Willis,
The BBC is so stuffed with Marxist-Leninist hardliners, it’s not a good use of your time to read the swill produced.
Here is a link to athought provoking article published 11th March 2014. I thought then that it so informative that I should save it for further circulation. That time is now.
“IF you want to see how to destroy an economy and a society, look no further than Venezuela. One year after the death of Hugo Chavez, its disastrous communist president, the country is on the verge of total collapse under his equally appalling successor Nicolas Maduro.”
http://www.cityam.com/article/1394504131/venezuela-s-mad-socialist-experiment-destroying-nation
Regards,
Perry
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Similar story….
I don’t think Venezuela has barged into households and grabbed up the gold yet as was done in India last week.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-07/india-confiscates-gold-even-jewelry-raids-hidden-money
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Willis, Your overture is a welcome addition to the blogging world.
Frankly this story line from the BBC is no surprise, this organisation has abandoned honest commentary.
My sympathy lies with the ordinary people of Venezuela who believed the promises of its leaders and found themselves reduced to penury. Where they go the BBC would like us to follow.
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The BBC narrative runs like this:
Communism Good!
Fascism Bad!
Identity of Fascism and Communism, eg Goldberg’s ‘Liberal Fascism’? Capitalist lies
100 million dead under Communism? (‘Black Book of Communism’): Capitalist lies
Complete failure of all Communist economies, even the one which possessed the lion’s share of commodities such as oil and gas? Capitalist lies
Infantile behaviour and tastes? Subversive and (hence!) admirable.
60s culture? Subversive, admirable.
Minority taste, eg Mozart? Elitist = fascist (sic!) (But – 1920s Cine Citta working class ‘realist’ films? Err, bad, and err…fascist and err.. good err..no…)
Pornographic ‘art’, eg Jeff Koons: Subversive, admirable.
Ordinary people? Too stupid to benefit from rational education, eg in grammar schools (‘six years of scholastic slime’ – Der fuhrer)
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Related: “Venezuela Enters the Record Book, Officially Hyperinflates”
https://www.cato.org/blog/venezuela-enters-record-book-officially-hyperinflates
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Does it not seem that the people in power, or wishing to be in power, always decry any news but perhaps their own as unfair and biased? This seems to be the standard operating procedure of every, “ist or ism”, seeking power or wielding it. On the ground it can be hard to tell which, “ist or ism”, has it’s hand in your pocket or it’s boot on your neck. We as a species, hoping for respite from one, tend to hopefully embrace the other. It’s a cultural, perpetual motion machine.
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