Chamber Music at the Bolivar Hall in aid of Veniños

Una nota para aquellos que frecuenta mi pagina (?),

Carola y yo estamos organizando este concierto en el Bolivar Hall para recaudar fondos en pro de Veniños. El concierto estara liderizado por Luis Pares y otros musicos amigos, sera una mezcla de musica de camara con unos arreglos de musica clasica venezolana.

El concierto es el 03.10.07 a partir de las 7:30, ( abran cubas libres por si se animan)

Contamos con vuestro apoyo

Anibal Miranda
veniños trustee and treasurer
anibal.miranda@veninos.org


english:

Chamber Music at the Bolivar Hall in aid of street and shantytown children in Venezuela

Date: 3 October 2007
Time: 7:30pm
Venue: THE BOLIVAR HALL of the Venezuelan Embassy.
54 Grafton Way, London. W1T 5DL

Tickets £13
Concessions £12

London 3.10.07. Prestigious graduates from the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music will unite their talents on 3rd October in an exciting concert of chamber music at the Bolivar Hall in aid of Veniños – Venezuelan children in need.

Veniños (a UK registered charity) and prominent Venezuelan pianist Luis Parés have contributed to organize this concert in order to raise funds to continue improving the lives of street and shanty town children in urban Venezuela.

Musicians: Luis Parés (piano); Mark Braithwaite (viola); Giovanni Guzzo (violin); Ana Manero (piano); Jonathan Parkin (clarinet); Agata Policinska (violin) and Claire Thirion (cello) will delight the audience with an eclectic mix of chamber music, from Gershwin’s own arrangement of his Cuban Overture for piano four-hands and exciting Venezuelan composer Paul Dessene’s Venezuelan Suite for violin and piano to two masterpieces of the classical repertoire: Bartok’s Contrasts and Brahms’ Piano Quartet no. 1 op. 25 in G minor.

Veniños – Venezuelan Children in Need has been dedicated since 2003 to improving the lives of street and shanty town children in urban Venezuela. The funds raised by Veniños in this concert will contribute to continue supporting projects run by well respected non-governmental organizations operating in Venezuela.

Tickets are available at the Boliar Hall ox office from 6pm on 3rd Oct 2007. However, we d recommend reserving your seat in advance.

You can book online:
http://www.justgiving.com/luisparesconcertforVeninos


For more information on the concert, please visit:
www.veninos.org
www.venezlon.co.uk

Venezuela se re-encuentra

Hace más de cuatro años escribí un artículo para analítica, en el cual expuse mi visión sobre los elementos que influyen en el orden social, político y económico en Venezuela.

Dichos elementos siguen vigentes, dicha dimension estructural de acquiescencia popular e idiosincrasia mezclada con clientelismo y altos precios del petroleo, ha necesitado desde siempre y ahora mas, de la bota militar para buscar algun orden social, politico y economico.

Nunca ha sido la bota militar la respuesta. Venezuela, ni la America Latina lo entiende.

Nunca ha sido la pobreza alzada capaz de mediar con dicho orden sino de crear la anarquia.

Nunca ha sido la educación sino una suerte de magia negra y realismo mágico lo que campea en las barriadas caraqueñas. Bavalao y Changó hacen de las suyas e incursionan en la politica, se aparecen y dan miedo. A ponerse los collares mis estudiantes! porque la pelea debe ser inteligente.


vaya una nota de esperanza al colectivo que marcha y deja de ser sumiso. una nota de aliento al individuo que lideriza su ideales, de su convicción como venezolano y de su visión de país. Un colectivo que cree en la Venezuela progresista. Es así como ahora y para siempre nos hemos reencontrado como sociedad unida, luchadora y firme en principios de igualdad y soberanía.

Anibal

One rule to the rich, one rule to the poor...

por Aníbal Miranda

¿Que tipo de país es el hogar de alguien como el presidente Chávez, quien con los bolsillos llenos de petrodólares se gana amigos y enemigos a la fuerza en el mundo entero?

Mientras el presidente se ha paseado por el mundo enunciado un discurso amenazador e insensato, el verdadero pueblo venezolano sigue inmerso hasta los tuétanos en la miseria revolucionaria. El paradigma violento y clientelar de Chávez esta hurgando entre lo rincones más íntimos de la sociedad venezolana una suerte de anarquia. La supuesta popularidad chavista prende de alfileres y de los precios del petroleo.

La concentración de los capitales venidos de los petrodólares y la nueva élite de súper-millonarios chavistas son el resultado del régimen. Capitales que, al igual que en el pasado, no han sido distribuidos equitativamente hacia el pueblo, sino manipulados frenéticamente en pro del presidente. Parafraseando al periodista irlandés Hugh O'Shaughnessy, el régimen de Chávez deja como saldo que una cuarta parte de quienes tienen menos de 15 años en Venezuela no tienen que comer y que 60 por ciento de los sexagenarios venezolanos carecen de todo ingreso. La seguridad social existe solo para algunos allegados del gobierno. Por supuesto y después de 20 años de régimen algún chavista trasnochado diría que ésta situación estructural fue heredada de los antiguos gobiernos.

El caso de la nacionalizacion de empresas, especialmente, las de la industria del petróleo le ha costado al gobierno venezolano más de $300 millones sin contar la perdida de personal altamente capacitado para operar las plantas petroleras. Es este el caso especifico de empresas como Shell, Total y otras que estan esperando por el jugoso cheque del gobierno venezolano quien comprara los derechos y algunos activos de estas plantas. Esta movida dejará al pais sin recursos humanos calificados para dirigir y operar dichas plantas que por su complejidad y gran potencial para generar gnanacias han sido manejadas principalmente por personal muy calificado. Estas resoluciones mas los viajes del presidente son una constante perdida de dinero.

¿Cuantas inversiones y valor agregado han generado los viajes del presidente? Ahora cuando los precios del petróleo descienden aceleradamente, seria interesante conocer los planes del gabinete económico para detener el default presupuestario y los crowding out que se avecinan en los próximos años. Venezuela ha sufrido a lo largo de los ultimos años un fenomeno llamado "enfermedad holandesa" que no es otra cosa que un bajo nivel de inversion privada debido al alto nivel de inversion publica que no deja espacio para la primera, generado por la alta dependencia a la renta petrolera. Bajo el gobierno de Chávez esta enfermedad esta llegando a niveles mortales, dado que no se concibe dentro de la ideología del gobierno invertir en proyectos junto con el sector privado. Venezuela parece sumergirse en un atraso de infraestructura irrevocable debido a la metastasis de esta enfermedad que corre por los flujos del sistema económico venezolano desde hace ya bastante tiempo. ¿Ojala que no nos hundamos dice un chavista confiado por ahi?

¿En que gastaron (gastarán) los fondos del pueblo esta vez? El lector sabio sabe la respuesta.

Mientras al Simón Guacamayo se le van apagando las velas y la pobreza alzada deja de ser una solución, la sociedad venezolana continua dividida y políticamente confusa. ¿Como entederemos la nueva revolución?

¿Cuál revolución?

Por Anibal Miranda D.

Lo dijo Fidel Castro, lo repitió Miquilena y lo ratificó Andrés Openheimer en su reciente columna del Miami Herald. No existe una revolución en Venezuela sino una transferencia de poderes hacia una cúpula de oportunistas. Tres visiones distintas que concuerdan en una sola realidad.

Porque no solo las revoluciones políticas son las mas importantes por ser populares, sino las del orden científico, tecnológico, económico y hasta ambientales por el gran impulso que estas generarían sobre países en vias de desarrollo. Si es que todavia queda alguno en la América Latina. Tal vez, a esto se puedan referir los mencionados autores con respecto a la venezolana que dista de contemplar cualquier elemento relacionado con las mencionadas. Y aunque las revoluciones, ciertamente, representan un cambio en la sociedad, generalmente las políticas surgen como consecuencia de un fenómeno del pasado y no como un nuevo descubrimiento, virtud o advenimiento del futuro. Las revoluciones son como el colesterol, hay buenas y malas. Una revolución política sana debería representar un punto de inflexión entre un comportamiento del pasado y una nueva tendencia de sucesos que cambien la cronología política de un país en vias de una mejora social.

En el caso de Venezuela, a lo largo de estos agnos "revolucionarios" no se muestra ningun tipo de evolución del tipo social. Y mientras la pobreza siga siendo subsidiada por la benevolencia petrolera y la demagogia presidencial, el carácter innato del humano de superacion personal nunca estará presente entre la mayoria de mis paisanos revolucionarios. Las revoluciones com tal no son importantes para los paises porque normalmente generan mecanismos burocráticos, clientelares y populistas que erosionan el carácter económico de un país, dejándolo en un grado de atraso mucho mayor y un costo social muy alto.

De cualquier manera, ya los venezolanos hemos votado para que el presidente Chavez nos siga liderando en este camino lleno de altibajos, llamado revolución, y que sin certeza alguna sobre el futuro nos queda pensar solo en el infortunio.

Los amigos en Londres

sound:
"una disco llena de culos"

Musitar los coros de "en cuatro" o
"el disco anal" mientras caminabamos
por los alrededores de Leicester Square significaba algo fuera de lo común.
Fué el comienzo de lo que seria una cálida
noche en el club londinense"sound" con el sixteto venezolano "Los Amigos Invisibles".

Los amigos saltaron al pequeño escenario de "sound" pasadas las 10:30 pm y rápidamente con los peculiares movimientos rítmicos de
Julio Brito (cantante) la rumba y la estridencia venezolana se hizo notar.

Con un repertorio de viejos y nuevos temas que el público bailó sin parar, los amigos se pasearon por los complicados ritmos afro-caribeños, bossa nova y heavy metal para comprobar que su dilatada carrera dentro de la escena musical los ha convertido en musicos muchos más completos.

En escena y luego de una entrada instrumental algo larga para nuestro gusto las notas de "que rico" comenzaron a hilbanarse para seguir con "yo no sé", "Amor", "Diablo", "All day Today" y "ponerte en cuatro" (el climax de la noche).

Luego con "ease your mind" los recuerdos y la nostalgia de aquella Venezuela nocturna que dejamos atras florecieron, para continuar con "esto es lo que hay", "cuchi cuchi", "playa azul", "yo soy asi", "ultrafunk", "mujer policia", "superfucker", "la vecina", "Disco Anal" y "el baile del sobón".

Una noche completa junto con la musica del DJ venezolano Hernan Atencio.

At the Bolivarian Watershed: A new political-social challenge for Venezuela

The world is concerned about what is going on with that tiny but beautiful country called Venezuela. Why a country with plenty of petrol, natural marvels and idyllic beaches has roughly 35% of its population living in extreme poverty. A country with a reputation for successful and efficient mines, leading exports in cocoa and coffee, with great rivers capable of providing electricity for almost half of Latin American continent ... but yet its sui generis social and political system are now in chaos. A country once colonized and exploited by the Spanish, is now demoralized by its own politics, former and current presidents. Venezuela's so called democracy ... which for more than 40 years had been deluding moral values ... is now more like communism! From the moment Hugo Chávez Frías came to power until now, the social balance in Venezuela has become worse. Inexistent State institutions, fiscal opacity, austere budget and general civil disobedience of laws have become more noticeable in this presidential period than others in the past. Furthermore, this situation has been precipitating into a class battle, and a sort of secular anarchy to Venezuelan society motivated by the political turmoil that President Chávez and his evil “Bolivarian Revolution” has created towards establishing a dictatorial regime in the near future. This cleverly set up dictatorial emphasis and socialist systems are claiming concern worldwide and internally due the high level of corruption and wasted resources accrued by Mr. Chavez operations in his long-standing career as a CEO of Venezuela (Corrales, 2006) In general, the economic crisis in Argentina, problems with Colombian guerrillas, corruption in Peru, the lack of leadership in Bolivia and the current situation in Venezuela are consequences of a dilated tradition of populist demagogue by leaders in these countries, including almost all Central America countries as well. I regret to say that in countries from the so-called third world rules work as a Kingdom of Babel. In fact, it does concern us, because the common way to solve those situations and organize society when social problems arise, has been the way of authoritarian governments ... indeed, the military intervention. At the moment, this situation involves a new political-social challenge for Venezuelan leaders and in other Latin-American countries, because this resurrection of new forms of authoritarian governments will break all of the relationship between these countries and their main commercial partners sharply. By copying the legacy of Fidel Castro's activities, the Chavez regime has been provoking a sort of “hate the north” attitude throughout resurgent Latin America’s leaders. It transpires that in coming years Venezuela might turn out, necessarily, to be one of the few providers of domestic goods and services to the Latin American population, so that distribution of national income will be more sectarian and inequitable for Venezuela! Losing the most valuable investment: human capital. Social costs for citizens, especially, middle classes which have been main entrepreneurs, workers and producers of wealth in Venezuela are increasing. Those whom have deserved a country with developmental perspectives are now the ones to lose out. As a consequence of which, confidence in our country and over the people who live, work and protest there have been disappearing due to the increase of Chavez power. As a result there is an increasing community in Venezuela of young talents flying to USA and Europe looking for new opportunities. From my perspective, during Chavez' eight years' regime, Venezuela has divested more than US$92.2 billion of intellectual assets [1]. By losing human capital, the future of Venezuelan democracy and its well-being will be extremely damaged under the current regime. It is not difficult to guess what is in Chavez dreams ... to cut out the exodus of Venezuelans by prohibiting Venezuelans to fly out of the country Human capital forms the roots of competitive advantage for private and public organizations. State institutions have a crucial role to play in this regard. Human life is largely conducted within the context of State Institutions: They prescribe and proscribe behaviours. This is the gap between development countries and those countries trying to achieve some levels of development. State institutions bring together the rules to develop contracts to incentive and monitor those competitive environments but not to punish them. Generally, we find that the above statement is present in developed nations such as the United States and the UK (Britain). Although, it is almost impossible to find in current events the reason behind the fact that USA and the UK are rich and developed while Venezuela is a rich and underdeveloped and in crisis ... but the main problems are corrupt institutions, poor social organization, urban insecurity and general problems with education that make leaders such as Chavez to be proud of. While Latin-American countries still depends on the Military forces to sort out whatever politic and social mayhem is on the road, it empowers the military to change the rules and produce unhealthy State institutions. Young talents do not find opportunities to work and live in the country and so the exodus happens. The effects of this cause and effect relationship are negative so affect the wealth of underdeveloped countries and with it their democracy. Anibal Miranda D. anibalmirandadj@hotmail.com Anibal Miranda D. (Bsc Economics, MBA London) is a Venezuelan based in London, England Sources: Camel, E (2003) “Desempleo promueve éxodo de venezolanos” available at [http://buscador.eluniversal.com/2003/04/24/eco_art_24164DD.shtml] visited 18.02.06 Corrales, J (2006) “Hugo Boss” Foreign Policy. Jan-Feb 2006 available at [http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3332] visited 18.02.06 Méndez, Iván (2002) “Ultravioleta” Analitica.com. Available at [http://www.analitica.com/va/politica/opinion/2117688.asp] visited 18.02.06 Shoer, D (2005) “Canada acoge reciente éxodo de venezolanos” available at [http://www.analitica.com/va/vpi/7826949.asp] visited 18.02.06 [1] A very subjective, conservative and simple calculation, as follows: Assuming that 3% (750,000) of the Venezuela population has left the country per year since 1998 and that they could earn at least a salary of $15,000 per year worldwide, it provides an estimate of $92.2 billion of human capital assets lost by the Chavez regime.

is Organizational Excellence about getting things right first time?

"The ancient Greek definition of happiness was the full use of your powers along lines of excellence". John F. Kennedy US Democratic politician (1917 - 1963) The pursuit of excellence in organizations is not new. Since the setting up of the capitalist system, organizations all over the world have been pursuing excellence in many different ways. Firstly, to compete and excel amongst their competitors by using unique set of organizational models or code of best practice, and secondly, by innovating through managerial fads. The effects in organizations of these two approaches are shared but predominantely negative. Many organizations have been trapped by the "ilusion of excellence". Mainly, those companies pursuing excellence without knowing their own capabilitites and visions have ended up following, step by step, what external consultants recommend. The leaders of this industries have defended their positions by justifying their approaches to comply with code of best practices but they have ended up in copying other organizations ways of doing things. As one expert said, these leaders are just wasting their own organizational potential and strategic resources. Organizations need to overcome these issues by acquiring certain knowledge of their own needs and customize their own approaches to resolve their internal conflicts. Surely, this is the path to gain competitive advantage and avoid to be trapped by the 'ilusion of excellence'. What does Excellence mean? The definition of 'excellence' as such is rather complex and mainly used in management jargon and fads. Aristotle defined ’excellence’ as the art of pursuing certain attributes or ‘virtues’. Virtues are either habits or trained faculties. Excellence in some respect is about doing things right at the right time through having the attributes required to be unique. According to Aristotle: ’Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” (in Ross, 1921). The Aristotelian view of excellence brings to light the influence the ancient Greek culture has had over on society, principally through its drive to expand and understand the world around. The Ancient Greeks had a culture of excellence, particularly in the arts of sports, culture and the development of a social order which valued freedom and a public hunger to excel (Makedom, 1996). According to Marrou (cited in Makedom, op.cit.), the model of excellence in Ancient Greece was built mainly by the insertion of heroic ideas and education throughout their society. The internalization of heroic ideas or visions in their people, and particularly the youngsters, was introduced by using a system of educated adults and tutors extended throughout the cities. They built their whole cities with 'education in mind', and the work of these mentors was to serve as role play models for young people and ask them to follow their virtues. The main responsibility of these tutors was to identify young people with special skills or powers and train them to be excellent or virtuous. It is this ethical character of leadership in Aristotle’s sense of virtue which is known in management as "effective leadership" and is one of the main ‘virtues’ that drives success in organizations. The model of excellence from the Ancient Greek culture provides the foundation of excellence in societies and organizations. Organizations are successful or excellent when their leaders identify and understand the success and survival factors within their industries, and how these will evolve in future. As in the Greek model, these leaders create visions that are communicated to the workforce. The vision can be translated to the lower levels of the organization in an effective manner using scorecards, which represent tangible and intangible sets of performance measures (Kaplan and Norton, 1996; Salz, 2005). However, not all the organizations follow this practice, which might be one of the intrinsic characteristics that separate leaders from laggards. Another group of characteristics we have identified in our literature review is that high performance organizations have leaders and managers who are role models for the employees. They invite the workforce to follow their virtues and construct organizational cultures in which values are shared and followed by everyone. These leaders use politics to empower and educate identified groups of people, who may possess diverse self-interests, to work together, progress within the organization and make sure the fundamental aims and values are maintained. While these leaders do this, they reward innovation and entrepreneurship and stimulate employee creativity through their involvement in the decision-making process. Thus they create the kind of place people want to work (Peters et.al., 1982; Coulson-Thomas, 1997). Organizations to excel amongst it peers needs to identify their own strategic resoruces that have to be distinctive- difficult to copy by others- and develop their strategic focuses on them. Same view can be apply for individuals. Excellence, though, is not just pure fashion or meaningless management jargon, it is about doing the right things, at the right time and with the right level of job satisfaction....Therefore, do not leave for tomorrow or pub chatting...make it happen! Sources: Aristotle (350 B.C.E). Politics. Nicomachean Ethics (Ethica Nicomacea). In “The Works of Aristotle”. Tr. W. D. Ross. London, England: Oxford University Press, 1921. Available from [http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/nicomachaen.2.ii.html] visited 21.12.05 Collins, J (2002) “Built To last: Succesful Habits of Visionary Companies”. Harper Collins Coulson-Thomas (1997). The Future of the Organisation: Achieving Excellence through Business Transformation. Kogan Page Ltd. Kaplan, R and Makedom, A (1996) “In search of Excellence: Historical roots of Greek Culture” Abacus Publishing. Matteson, Illinois. Norton, D. (1996) “Using the Balanced Scorecard as a Strategic Management System” Harvard Business Review. Jan-Feb. Salz, P (2005) A vital Building Block in Attaining That Corporate Edge Calls for the Creation of a Unique Corporate Anatomy: The crucial culture change. The Wall Street Journal. 02.05.2005. p. A8. Available at [http://www.accenture.com/NR/rdonlyres/281A0D32-6AFB-42E2-B64D-BD119D0BE0A4/0/hpb_corp_anatomy.pdf ] visited on 10.12.05 Aníbal Miranda Bsc. MBA