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This Petro Caribe is not capitalist propaganda it is Madurocimo …. Propaganda ![The Exportation of Criminality, is what may actually drive this to collapse would be security issues. The violence on the streets of Venezuela’s cities today is at a level that this nation has never, ever seen. The penetration of transnational organized crime into Venezuela’s upper level of government as never seen anywhere before…]Venezuelan Turmoil Insinuates an Uncertain Future for ALBABecause Chavez’s “socialism of the 21st century” and lack of economic freedom [174th out of 179 ranked economies] is destroying the private sector, Venezuela increasingly depends on Chavez’s ability to keep PDVSA on a lucrative course. Yet his anti-American agenda, oil giveaway programmes, corruption, cronyism, and general mismanagement are badly hurting PDVSA’sperformance and drawing resources away to serve political ends.July 20, 2017 COHA ALBA, Mercosur, Sheldon Birkett, VenezuelaAgreements signed at Petrocaribe Summit in VenezuelaMarch 8, 2015[There is no indication as to which countries signed agreements, or the nature of the agreements, but it is understood that Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro urged member countries of Petrocaribe and ALBA to ignore US Vice President Joe Biden’s advice to reduce dependency on Venezuelan oil.]Among the matters discussed at the energy summit were the assessment of the Petrocaribe financing scheme in relation to penalty interest generated from the financing of the oil bill system, the extending of the Alba-Caribe Fund to leverage the social productive development in Caribbean countries and the designation of a high-level commission to establish a Petrocaribe Economic Zone within 60 days.PDVSA Curacao refineryPrime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris and energy minister Ian Liburd represented St. Kitts and Nevis at the summit, which was also used as an opportunity for a memorial service that commemorated the second anniversary of the death of former President Hugo Chavez.In a statement issued earlier, Prime Minister Dr. Harris stated, “It is a pleasure to share in two important events happening in Venezuela, one to memorialize the work and vision of former President Chavez, and secondly to participate in my first summit meeting of Petrocaribe.”PDVSA CuracaoHe further stated that meeting the energy consumption and demands in St. Kitts and Nevis is made possible through the Petrocaribe arrangement.The meeting brought together 17 delegations from member countries to boost the multilateral agenda and progress on integration, cooperation and socio-economic development in the region.Petrocaribe is an oil alliance of Caribbean states that purchase oil and petroleum products from Venezuela on conditions of preferential payment.The alliance was launched on 29th June 2005 in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela. In 2013, Petrocaribe agreed to link with the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA) to go beyond oil and promote economic cooperation.Petrocaribe has 19 signatory countries, namely, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, El Salvador, Granada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.Jamaica Prime Minister Andrew Holness has stated that Jamaica is no longer getting +oil from Venezuela but has avoided saying whether his administration supports the economic isolation of the South American country in the international community. Questioned whether Jamaica would support the US position by boycotting Venezuelan oil, Holness responded that Jamaica does not now import the fuel from Venezuela and suggested the US could be a new source.Jamaica and other Caribbean countries were receiving oil from Venezuela under the PetroCaribe arrangement, but supplies from that country have been declining because of the instability there.Last April, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kamina Johnson Smith, said the programme remained in place but that Jamaica has been receiving significantly fewer barrels of oil per day. She said Jamaica's quota of 23,000 barrels per day had significantly declined to about 1,300 barrels.In September, Petrojam In the meantime, Holness said Jamaica and the US both agree that dialogue between the government and opposition in Venezuela is essential to restoring order in the South American country.$ (3) bilions USD missing funds in Petro Caribe Haiti. {Venezuela et Haïti vont réactiver le programme Petro-Caribe pour financer de nouveaux projets.]The basics are here. To recap, under the scheme, Venezuela sells Caribbean countries oil on credit. At current prices, receiving countries pay fron 40% to 70% up front;Petrocaribe accord required members to pay cash for just 40 percent of every shipment, and let them finance the rest for 25 years at low interest rates, or make in-kind payments with products ranging from rice to blue jeans. the rest they can pay off over 25 years at 1%. (Some of the new adherents to the agreement pay 2%.) In addition, the recipients can pay in kind, if they desire: Guyana has paid in rice and the Dominican Republic in beans. (Page 6.The Caribbean buyers have to establish state-owned entities to handle their end; the price difference, in effect becomes a long-term cheap loan to the entity, which uses it to finance development projects. That is how Nicaragua uses Venezuelan money to pay for the prep work on the Gran Canal.Occasionally the Venezuelans give an even bigger subsidy than that. In 2011, for example, Caracas decided that countries participating in its subsidized oil schemes would not be liable for the royalty payments that PDVSA owed the Venezuelan government. That effectively transferred $13.1 billion to Venezuela’s putative allies. (It is not well-known that Venezuela has extended this arrangement to non-Caribbean countries: frex, here is Uruguay’s. Here is Paraguay’s.) And what does Venezuela get?Not much. Caricom just declared that they support Guyana in its border dispute with Venezuela. (It is a big border dispute; Caracas claims half the country.PDVSA will continue to supply 45,600 b/d of refined products in June to Cuba’s Cubametales, including 95 octane gasoline, aviation fuel, diesel, LPG, and residual fuel. Cuba has been one of the countries that has most benefited from the PetroCaribe agreement, receiving average deliveries from PDVSA of 95,000 b/d of crude and refined products.Under the PetroCaribe agreement, Venezuela sells petroleum to Central American and Caribbean nations on favorable terms. Venezuela inaugurated the plan in 2005 with Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas , Belize, Cuba, Dominica, Granada, Guyana – which subsequently pulled out, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, St. Kitts & Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, and Suriname.The original agreement contemplated a supply of up to 185,000 b/d of crude oil and products under preferential conditions. In 2017, Venezuelan shipments of petroleum via Petrocaribe dropped by 40%, or 54,400 b/d, from 136,000 b/d exported in 2015. The Oil Ministry report also said even though PDVSA does not have Mesa 30 crude available in June to supply Cuba, it is evaluating the possibility of buying light crude from third parties. In February, March, and April, PDVSA bought 4.2 million barrels of Urals crude for Cuba.PDVSA has been operating its refineries below capacity because of a shortage of crude feedstock and various unscheduled shutdowns. PDVSA this month plans to process 499,000 b/d through its refining system, or 31 percent of its 1.6 million b/d capacity.June’s expected throughput is down 144,000 b/d from the same month in 2017. PDVSA’s system is comprised of five refineries: Amuay, Cardon, El Palito, Puerto La Cruz, and Isla, which it operated in an agreement with the Curacao government.CITGO USAPDVSA on Friday, was operating Isla at just 29,000 b/d, or 8.7% of its capacity, as it was unable to obtain crude supply out of storage, according to a refinery official who spoke with Platts on the condition of anonymity.The suspension in some Petrocaribe shipments is the major second blow to Venezuela’s hobbled oil industry in the past week. A PDVSA official told Platts last week the company notified 11 international customers that it will not be able to meet its full crude supply commitments in June. The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said PDVSA is contractually obligated to supply 1.495 million b/d to those customers in June, but only has 694,000 b/d available for export.Venezuela’s oil production has continued to shrink, plunging for the 10th straight month to 1.36 million b/d in May, according to a Platts survey. That is down 580,000 b/d from May 2017 and 910,000 b/d from May 2016.The drop in PDVSA deliveries may present an opportunity for US Gulf Coast refiners, who are increasingly exporting refined products throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.US refined products exports to PetroCaribe nations, including Venezuela, averaged 398,000 b/d in March, up from 256,000 b/d in March 2017, data from the US Energy Information Administration showed. The bulk of that increase has been going to Venezuela.The Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) and guided by the principles of solidarity and cooperation.Under the agreement, Venezuela accepts payment for hydrocarbons by various means, offering special prices for different goods and services.As former Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said: “We’re not talking about discounts… We’re talking about financial facilities, direct deliveries of products, infrastructure.”Under Petrocaribe, the short-term partial payment period for 60 percent of the Venezuelan oil bill increased from 30 to 90 days. The remaining 40 percent can be paid through a 17- to 25-year financing agreement with 1 percent interest if oil prices are above US$40 per barrel. Venezuela has successfully leveraged Petrocaribe to exert political influence throughout the region for the past nine years."Petrocaribe is slowly drying out," said Peter Schechter, director of the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center. "Anybody who has traveled to any of the receiving countries in the past year has heard the concerns about the future of Petrocaribe from government and business. Everybody is seeing a consistent decline in Venezuela's oil production. Every day, these nations receive stricter credit terms, and this has serious implications for the region," he said. "This is a policy opportunity for the United States to step up and be a helpful partner," said Schechter."The United States has become the dominant supplier of petroleum products to the Caribbean, amid an incredible domestic shale oil boom," said David Goldwyn. "Now is the time for the administration to help the region transition from high carbon fuels to natural gas, by creating a fiscal safety net if Venezuelan support dries up, organizing financing mechanisms for small-scale gas liquefaction and power plant conversion, and by considering accelerating this transition with declaring the export of liquefied natural gas and crude oil, to be in our national interest," he said."A national interest declaration would provide a cost competitive, reliable and proximate source of alternate energy supply. These steps will facilitate private-sector efforts to market US supply to these nations, offering them a credible, viable alternative supply source, as well as a means to insure themselves against the shock of a Petrocaribe cut-off," said Goldwyn.In exchange for oil, Venezuela accepts payment in goods and services at lower price: Cuba pays part of its bill through medical, education and sport services, while Nicaragua pays with meat and milk, and the Dominican Republic sends black beans.Venezuela to Forgive Antigua and Barbuda DebtPrime Minister Gaston Browne said the PetroCaribe debt had reached E.C. $375 million (approximately USD $139 million).Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne announced that the Venezuelan government will write off 50 percent of its debt through their PetroCaribe oil deal.“I just spoke to a Venezuelan official who confirmed that a letter will be sent very shortly in which the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela will confirm the forgiveness of up to 50 percent of the PetroCaribe debt,” Browne told reporters. He said the Venezuelan government had made the commitment to forgive the debt during the pledging conference for hurricane-hit Caribbean countries, which occured in New York last November, according to The Daily Observer.This is only the latest failure in Venezuela’s attempt to buy influence. In 2009, the Caribbean countries politely told the Bolivarian Alliance that they were not interested in military integration, they would stick to their own Regional Security System, thank you. In 2010, when Nicaraguan troops blundered into territory claimed by Costa Rica, the West Indian nations backed Costa Rica rather than their fellow Bolivarian in Managua.Hey! St. Lucia is backing Caracas against U.S. sanctionsADDENDUM (March 15): No, not Security Council membership. In the 2014 UNSC election, Venezuela won its seat on a vote of 181-1 with no serious opposition; Caribbean support was entirely irrelevant.Jun 13, 2018Mexico to Caribbean:”You Don’t Need Venezuela”MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico’s foreign minister will travel to Jamaica, Grenada and Saint Lucia in March, a Mexican official said, as part of efforts to erode Venezuela’s oil-based influence in the Caribbean. His message will be “Venezuela is not the only country that can help the Caribbean,” the official said.St. Kitts and Nevis was one of several Organization of American States member to help defeat a bill against Venezuela at an OAS conference in June.Meanwhile, Cuban diplomats will visit Mexico in March to discuss the regional impact of the crisis in Venezuela, the official said.The Cuban embassy in Mexico City said the trip was not yet confirmed but that the two countries have regular bilateral meetings. Mexico was looking at the possibility of replacing Venezuela’s Petrocaribe programme that provided cheap loans for oil to Caribbean nations – and has helped Maduro retain diplomatic support in the region.However, the Mexican official said it was still not clear how Mexico could furnish Caribbean nations with cheap energy, given the country’s struggling domestic fuel production, and that Mexico relies on oil income for about a fifth of the government budget.The energy ministry remains unconvinced by the oil diplomacy plan…Still, there are no signs that Cuba, a steadfast ally of Caracas, is ready to turn its back on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray’s planned trip follows a visit to Latin America and the Caribbean earlier this month by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who announced plans to study how possible oil sanctions against Venezuela could be mitigated in the Caribbean.The Mexican foreign minister’s trip represents the latest development in U.S.-led pressure on Maduro, who retains loyalty from some Caribbean nations that have long benefited from Caracas’ oil largess and have been unwilling to shun the country in regional diplomatic efforts.“The message is: Venezuela is not the only country that can help (Caribbean nations), that if there’s a crisis in Venezuela, they have more friends,” said the Mexican official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the as-yet undisclosed trip.In a statement, Mexico’s foreign ministry said Videgaray was planning trips to the Caribbean.“The foreign ministry is eager for those trips to be arranged, and so possible dates are being sought,” it said, adding that several Caribbean countries had invited the minister for work visits since last year.Videgaray has led Mexico’s efforts to try and improve cooperation with its top trade partner on security, immigration, and foreign policy, hoping to convince the United States to take a softer stance on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that underpins the majority of Mexican exports.Petrocaribe Program Comes to an End, Belize’s Agreement with Venezuela Remains IntactA report in the Antigua Observer is causing shivers in some parts of the Caribbean. The report states that the island has received word that the largesse of the Petrocaribe is coming to an end. This, according to the report, is due largely to the deep fall in the production of crude oil from Venezuela. Last year in September, G.O.B. indicated it would suspend Petrocaribe because Venezuela was not able to supply fuel on time and that the South American country was in fact turning to other sources to buy crude to meet its commitment. But after a visit from PDVSA, things went back to normal. According to the recent reports, PDVSA is indefinitely suspending a combined thirty eight thousand barrels a day of refined products deliveries to Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Saint Kitts and Nevis. In the case of Belize, John Mencias of APBEL confirmed to News Five today that due to the corresponding bank issues and sanctions imposed by the U.S. on Venezuela, Belize has been unable to meet payments in US dollars as stipulated by the agreement. The programme has therefore been suspended but the agreement remains in place until a fix can be found. That, however, is not anticipated in the foreseeable future.Under the PetroCaribe program, Belize and the 22 other members received fuel from Venezuela through a special price arrangement….25 years to pay back . The program was also able to generate monies for the Government of Belize. However, the US sanctions against Venezuela has impacted the program. Financial Secretary, Joseph Waight explains.Belize owes $200 Million USDJoseph Waight – Financial Secretary: the problem with Petrocaribe is that there is although there may be a willingness on the part of the Government of Venezuela to PDV, to continue supplying. The problem is the sanctions have really taken effect, The U.S. sanctions and we unfortunately we just have to be collateral damage in that regard, sanctions mean that we cannot pay them. They have shut down the international banking system as far as Venezuela is concerned so we are unable to pay for any fuel we buy.Waight said that Belize owes Petrocaribe two hundred million US dollars.The declared exit of Venezuela from the Organization of American States (OAS), the suspension of Venezuela from MERCOSUR in 2016 for its failure to “conform” to the bloc’s “democratic principles,” and the unification of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in defiance of a United States partisan resolution, raises the question whether the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) can be an alternative to the OAS as both a social and economic platform for Venezuelan dialogue. [i][ii]The OAS Permanent Council meeting on March 28, 2017, cited reasons to invoke the Inter-American Charter against Venezuela. The meeting revealed the demarcated political divide within the OAS; for instance, Saint Lucia voted yes to invoke the charter, whilst simultaneously benefiting from the Venezuelan Petrocaribe initiative under ALBA. [iii]The Canadian ambassador to the OAS, Jennifer May Loten, took one of the strongest stances to invoke the charter against Venezuela and called for a truth commission to be formed to “guide liberation of political prisoners [in Venezuela].”[v]It is unclear if the principles of solidarity, complementarity, justice, and cooperation of Bolivarian Alliance will persist amongst political dissidence. Foreign intervention in the relationship between Venezuela’s popular power and the state is signaling the beginning of the end for Bolivarian “participatory and protagonistic democracy”.[vi]ALBA is an intergovernmental organization focused on establishing social, economic, and political cooperation among its member states. ALBA is inspired by Simón Bolívar’s revolutionary ideal of greater solidarity and integration in Latin America. Bolivar believed in a unified South American nation ruled by one caudillo adherent to the opposition of foreign imperialist states.[vii]ALBA was initially established in 2004 between Venezuela and Cuba, under the leadership of both Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro, to facilitate the exchange of Cuban medical services for Venezuelan petroleum. Today, ALBA consists of eleven member states — St. Vincent & Grenadines, Ecuador, Antigua & Barbuda, Dominica, Saint Lucia, Grenada, Saint Kitts & Nevis, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Venezuela and Cuba — and three observer states, Haiti, Iran, and Syria, with Suriname admitted as a guest member in 2012 [viii]The bloc’s monetary union showcases the autonomy of 21st century south-south cooperation from Washington’s political influence.[ix]The principal strength of ABLA is the SUCRE. The SUCRE is a regional unit of account, that allows the facilitation of regional trade without being dependent on the United States dollar. The central purpose of the SUCRE, as an international unit of account, is to stabilize current account transactions among member-states. Balanced national current account, and ergo capital account, transactions between countries are central to elevating unfair shifts in purchasing power due to unbalanced trade.PVDSA CURACAOIn effect, balanced current account transactions between ALBA member countries would increase domestic demand and direct investment, without having to be at the mercy of US currency speculation for importing and exporting goods and services. In addition to opening up room for domestic investment, through a balanced current account, member countries’ foreign debts are self-contained within ALBA. Central to the self-containment of the SUCRE, is the fact that member countries would not owe debts to foreign countries, instead they would owe credit or debit to ALBA’s monetary bloc. The endogenous structure of ALBA’s foreign currency exchange, through a regional currency, denominates the bloc as financially self-contained from U.S. currency manipulation.ALBA is also approaching monetary unity in partnership with socio-economic development initiatives.ALBA’s initiatives include, Cuba’s Sí, Se Puede, Nicaragua’s Programa Hambre Cero, and Venezuela’s PetroCaribe focusing on literacy, nutrition, communications, and fair economic cooperation.Perhaps the most significant of these initiatives has been PetroCaribe, a program that provides Caribbean states their energy needs at a fair and reasonable rate. Under Petrocaribe the state oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), provides 100 percent of member countries’ energy needs at market price, with nearly 50 percent of consumption loans payable over 25 years at an interest rate of two percent.Venezuela’s PetroCaribe initiative is fiscally more competitive, and attractive, than other alternatives for the Caribbean community.Unlike the MERCOSUR trade bloc, ALBA promotes democratic trade agreements in which the autonomy of member states is of central importance (See Figure 1). ALBA was created in 2004 as an alternative to the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), but has since developed into an ideological alliance.At the 14th ALBA summit on March 6, 2017, Venezuela President Maduro remarked “[the] great challenge of this generation and the coming generation will be to have the same capacity of achievement, construction, and success in building a productive model that will give us independence.”CITGO ARUBAMaduro outlined the need for greater south-south cooperation amongst Latin American countries, speaking against the harsh neoliberal policies instituted during the 1980’s, famously known as Latin America’s “lost decade.” ALBA’s autonomy is essential for member states to sustain progressive integration, and to maintain economic autonomy from countries that have a superior productivity advantage. However ALBA has to set-up its game, as Venezuela’s top three largest trading partners are the United States, China, and India, none of which are ALBA member states.Misguided US Sanctions on Venezuela: What Future for ALBA?The current challenges facing Venezuela come at a time when Latin America’s political climate is turning sour. The days of military interventions instituting “puppet” regimes with support of the United States have drawn to a close since the failed coup attempt against former President Hugo Chavez in 2003. Though, the United States still uses political and economic leverage against Venezuela to further degrade the country’s preferential access to its ubiquitous oil reserve. In May 2017, Goldman Sachs investment bank bought $2.8 billion worth of bonds from Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) for 31 cents on the dollar, Goldman Sachs only paid $865 million for the bonds.The oil bonds purchased by Goldman mature in 2022, therefore Goldman took advantage of Venezuela’s dire economic situation, and the value gained on the bonds could be used for political leverage over Venezuela if the country decides to buy back the PDVSA issued bonds. Furthermore, in January 2017, Obama renewed an executive order declaring Venezuela as a threat to U.S. national security.More recently, the Trump administration is considering imposing sanctions against the state owned Venezuelan oil company PDVSA.The United States can either place a blanket ban on all Venezuelan oil imports, or bar PDVSA from bidding on United States government contractsGiven the United States economic and political hegemony over the hemisphere, it is entirely possible that the United States could use its economic leverage over Venezuela to its own advantage. Unless other ALBA countries utilize the SUCRE as a means of balancing Venezuela’s trade deficit, the deflationary effect on the value (not price level) of the Bolivar fuerte will continue.Building on Hugo Chávez socialist Bolivarian ideals based on “solidarity, in fraternity, in love, in justice, in liberty, and [in] equality,”ALBA’s philosophy encapsulates progressive socialism for Latin America in the 21st century. ALBA’s trade initiatives, such as PetroCaribe, present preferential trade for energy with low interest financing….something they cannot find a way to supply 1 million barrel per day.Although ALBA’s trade initiatives can aid the Venezuelan economy, Venezuela’s fiscal and monetary policies fail to address export dependency as the root cause of Venezuela’s economic instability. On Venezuela’s fiscal policy, expenditures mainly consist of increases in public sector spending financed directly through PDVSA. Additionally, the National Development Fund and the joint China-Venezuela Fund provide additional financing for the country’s social programs.Taxation in Venezuela has increased on corporate and income tax from 2 percent of GDP in 1999 to 3.2 percent of GDP in 2006: Venezuela’s sales tax increased from 9 percent to 12 in 2009.State-run PDVSA financing and taxation reveals that Venezuela’s fiscal policy is cyclical in nature. After 2003, Venezuelan monetary policy has focused on increasing aggregate demand. Strategies have included reducing interest rates and instituting price controls on basic consumption items, which account for 30 percent of the 2009 Consumer Price Index (CPI) basket ensuring that low income households’ consumption needs will be provided. Stringent price controls have increased government subsidies, to mark-up the loss of producer surplus on price-controlled goods, which has further increased the inflation rate.Despite Venezuela’s heterodox fiscal and monetary policies, hyperinflation also arose because of a steep decline in the price of oil, illustrative of the fact that Venezuelan oil accounts for 95 percent of the country’s export earnings. In 2014 oil was over $100 USD per barrel, while in early 2016 it was as low as $33 USD per barrel.(Reuters) - Citgo Petroleum Corp [PDVSAC.UL], the U.S. subsidiary of Venezuelan state-run oil company PDVSA [PDVSA.UL], said on Wednesday that theUnited States had revoked the visa of its president and chief executive Asdrubal Chavez, cousin of Venezuela’s late president Hugo Chavez,ASDRUBAL CHAVEZ COUSIN OF HUGO CHAVEZ PRESIDENT CITGO USAAsdrúbal Chávez President and CEOMr. Chávez comes to CITGO with more than 30 years of industry experience. He began his career at the El Palito Refinery in the state of Carabobo, Venezuela, working in the areas of industrial services, distillation and specialties, conversion and treatment, crude and products movement, programming and economics and process engineering. After a one-year assignment with Union Pacific Oil in the United States, Chávez returned to the El Palito Refinery where he managed several expansion and organization projects throughout the 1990s.The rapid fall in the price of oil reduced the amount of foreign reserves available for Venezuela. This limited availability of foreign currency exchange for non-essential imports, resulted in a higher exchange rate for select imports.Additionally, the reduction in the availability of foreign currency reserves led to a budget shortfall, and the Venezuelan state had to fill in the budget gap by printing money. Inturn, this resulted in hyperinflation. Furthermore, the Venezuelan government nationalized monopolistic private enterprises to enforce price controls that are favorable towards increased aggregate demand, while simultaneously turning a blind eye towards the economic realities of hyperinflation eating away at domestic investment. In 2007 Venezuela nationalized four major oil projects in Orinoco crude belt, and in 2010 Venezuela nationalized nitrogen fertilizer producer Fertinitro. Currently Venezuela is seeking to nationalize and institute price controls on Empresas Polar, which is the largest private food producer in Venezuela.Though, simply nationalizing domestic industry will not tame the flight of capital because of preferential exchange rates abroad.In addition to the price control, the Venezuelan government fixed the exchange rate in February 2016 to 10 bolívar fuerte per U.S. dollar to control for inflation. The fixed exchange rate has only further exacerbated inflation, as many of Venezuela’s essential food imports have been sold to Colombia through the black market or private exchange markets. The export of essential food imports from Venezuela is occurring because the black-market exchange rate is close to 4,000 bolívars per U.S. dollar.Therefore, it is more lucrative to export goods outside the Venezuelan state.inflation led to an Increased Pressure on Public PoliciesThe increased pressure on debt-service payments, fixed exchange rate, price controls, and declining foreign currency reserves has led Venezuela to consider paying its creditors at the expense of funding public services. The Venezuelan state is also considering buying back government issued bonds and selling them at a discount price to service its debt, such as how Goldman Sachs bought Venezuelan bonds at a discount of 31 cents on the dollar. It is projected that the Venezuelan state can raise between $5 USD billion and $6 USD billion by reselling government bonds at a discount.It is likely that the Venezuelan government will buy back these bonds as “Venezuela has gone to extraordinary lengths to keep servicing its debt.”Mismanagement of the Venezuelan economy is now diminishing the availability of domestic credit. In the early 2000’s the National Assembly favored lower interest rates to increase the availability of domestic credit for those on the lower end of the income scale.Now it seems Venezuela’s policy of low interest rates to “kick start” the economy has been sabotaged by hyperinflation, eroding the purchasing power of each bolívar.Although ALBA was conceived as a progressive left-wing intergovernmental initiative to help balance trade inequalities in the bolivarian economies, it has failed the Venezuelan economy. Venezuela is far too dependent on oil exports. In response to this dependency the Venezuelan government adopted a two-tiered exchange rate system as an effort to protect critical imports while stabilizing foreign exchange.Despite Venezuelan policymakers best efforts, the country has experienced severe stagflation, with an excess contraction of more than 10 percent in output.The contraction in the Venezuelan economy has resulted in a current account deficit of $5.1 USD billion as of 2015 from a current account surplus of $5.7 USD billion a year earlier.In addition to its current account deficit, high inflation, rising unemployment, and volatile exchange rate; the value of Venezuela’s primary export, oil, is less than half that is required to finance their fiscal account spendingDue to price controls, restrictions on imports, and the falling price of oil, the country is experiencing a hyperinflation rate of over 481 percent coupled with a 17 percent unemployment rate.In addition the government roughly owes $7 billion USD on a debt of $30 billion USD to China.Though exact statistics are disputed, it is evident that the Venezuelan economy is facing a dire situation. Given Venezuela’s stark economic reality, Maduro’s options are increasingly limited. Either Maduro can default on the government debt, or reduce price controls and import limitations in an effort to regain investor confidence in the bolívar.But the predicament may not be as bad as it appears. Despite the critical economic situation, it is important to remember that Venezuela owes no external debt to the International Monetary Fund and sits on the world’s largest oil reservesTherefore, by collaborating with ALBA member countries, restructuring its import regime, and reselling its foreign debt through open market operations (e.g. Ecuador’s 2009 repurchase of defaulted foreign bonds),it is possible that Venezuela would be able to escape its current economic predicament.Political Uncertainty ContinuesIn addition to the choices made by Venezuelan policymakers, the country’s economic fate is contingent on the political situation it is now facing. On July 16, 2017 roughly 7.186 million Venezuelans protested President Maduro’s constituent assembly election on July 30th, many protestors are in favor of the current constituent assembly.This followed from Maduro’s call in April for a “constituent assembly” to write a new constitution, after opposition protests resulted in 35 deaths.Maduro’s call to reevaluate the constitution comes at a critical time when progressive dialogue is needed within the nation’s political system. With approval ratings below 30 percent, the political future of Maduro and his party, the PSUV, is far from certain.But all is not lost for Venezuela. One bastion of hope is ALBA, whose past policy initiatives demonstrate that it is possible for countries in Latin America to cooperate on progressive economic policy. Given the evolving political and economic situation in Venezuela, it is imperative for the Maduro administration to reevaluate regional economic cooperation among the Bolivarian nations. Though, implementing effective economic policy may be easier said than done, as former president Hugo Chávez expressed “only by way of socialism [can we improve the situation] little by little. The terrible inequality created during 100 years of capitalism will not be removed in one year or in ten. [It will not take] as much as 100 years, but at least several decades [will be necessary ]Chávez’s Daughter Is Filthy Rich, and That Shouldn’t Be a SurpriseEspañol The alleged fortune of María Gabriela Chávez, daughter of the late Hugo Chávez, has recently stirred up controversy in Venezuela. Media reports suggest that Chávez’s daughter has US$4.2 billion stored in bank accounts in the United States and Andorra, which might make her the wealthiest person in Venezuela.María Gabriela Chávez’s alleged wealth, and other inequalities present in Venezuela, are not anomalies, or symptoms of a “poorly implemented” socialist system. They are, in fact, the inevitable consequences of socialism.That is a lesson Latin America has yet to learn. while the entire country is hungry……she is now Ambassador…!US arrests Venezuelan president's godson, nephew on drug chargesVenezuela remains a major transit country for cocaine shipments via aerial, terrestrial, and maritime routes. Most flights suspected of trafficking narcotics depart from Venezuelan states bordering Colombia. Trafficking by maritime conveyance includes the use of large cargo containers, fishing vessels, and “go-fast” boats.The Maduro government has now Drug associated 126 identified military officers some seniors involved in extra large drug shipments including out of the Simon Bolivar Caracas airport; and all Venezuelaharbor,Air France 1,4 Tons of cocaine loaded with passengers : Venezuelan Miguel Rodriguez, the country’s justice and interior minister, said that intelligence agents had detained a “first lieutenant from the anti-drug unit of the Bolivarian National Guard” along with two sergeants.The Venezuelan authorities have now arrested 22 people in connection to a massive cocaine haul found on an Air France flight from Caracas .The sentence comes after nearly three years when a ton and a half of cocaine was seized in France after departing from Venezuela's Simón Bolívar International Airport.to Paris.The Bolivarian National Guard members were respectively in charge of a drug-sniffing canine, of operating an x-ray machine and of counting inventory. The other seven sentenced were airport personnel with duties including security and supervision. Eight members of the National Guard and nine Air France and airport staff have been detained on drug charges.The guards were in charge of security at Caracas airport, where 31 suitcases were smuggled on to the Air France plane.About 1.3 tonnes of cocaine were seized at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport earlier this month.The members of the National Guard and nine of the civilians were charged by a court of conspiracy and "aggravated illicit trafficking of narcotic substances."French police seize 1.3 tonnes of cocaine off Air France flight from Venezuela, Caracas La Maquetia Simon Bolivar airport.(31) suitcases loaded on to the plane in the Venezuelan capital, La Maquetia Caracas, an airport tightly controlled by the country’s military. The discovery is a major embarrassment not only for the French airline but for the Venezuelan government.The suitcases came from Caracas aboard an Air France flight to Paris, but did not match any of the passengers on board,Venezuela has indicated that the traffickers must have had assistance from people working within Air France's operation at Caracas airport. According to Rodriguez, it is "nearly evident" that there were accomplices working with the airline and the government Bolivarian army."How can 1,4 ton of cocaine shipment reach France and it gets taken out without drug control going through the normal controls?" he asked.Agents are scrutinizing footage taken from security cameras at the Simon Bolivar International Airport and interrogate personnel that work in the airport luggage area, he said.French police have seized a record haul of 1.3 tonnes of pure cocaine found on board an Air France passenger plane.“How can the cocaine shipment reach France and it gets taken out without going through the normal controls?” he asked.But opponents of Venezuela’s leftist government raised the same question of the military personnel directing security at Caracas Maiquetia airport, and suggested the three officers detained were mere scapegoats. “Proof positive that the National Guard runs drugs out of Maiquetia”, blared the headline of , Caracas Chronicles.The drugs, seized on September 11, had been packed into 31 suitcases, interior minister Manuel Valls told a news conference in Nanterre, outside Paris. Some 900kg of the drugs were seized in the Paris airport while the remainder was taken from a lorry en route to Luxembourg, according to Le Monde.It was the biggest-ever haul in metropolitan France, he added.A source close to the investigation said the flight had originated in the Venezuelan capital Caracas, Simon Bolivar La Maquetia airport, adding that the cocaine had a street value of some 200 million euros($287 million).The vast majority of illicit narcotics that transited Venezuela in 2015 were destined for the Caribbean, Central America, the United States, West Africa, and Europe. Colombian drug-trafficking organizations – including multiple criminal bands, or “BACRIM” groups, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and the National Liberation Army (ELN) – facilitate the transshipment of narcotics through Venezuela. According to media reports, Mexican drug-trafficking organizations also operate in Venezuela, including the Sinaloa Cartel and Los Zetas.Drugs seized on Maduro family members luxury boat in Dominican Republic.Maduro godson and nephew family members arrested on 800 Kilos of cocaine heading for NY. (18 years in jail.)U.S. law enforcement officials arrested the godson and a nephew of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, traveling on diplomatic passports charging them with conspiring to transport 800 kilos of cocaine to U.S. territory, Campo Flores, 29, who identified himself to the DEA agents as Maduro's godson, was raised by the wife of the Venezuelan leader, Cilia Flores, who is the aunt of Flores de Freitas. Two nephews of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro were found guilty of conspiring to traffic 800 kilograms of cocaine into the U.S., in a politically fraught case that links the country’s ruling family to the corruption plaguing its economy.Venezuelan President’s Nephews Found Guilty in Cocaine CaseThe arrests come amid several investigations being undertaken by the United States into alleged drug trafficking and money laundering activities being carried out by the top Venezuelan military leadership, the police , military and government officials.The Journal says that Maduro's two relatives got in contact with an undercover DEA informant in Honduras in October and asked for help in smuggling 800 kg of coke to the United States via the Honduran island of Roatan.In subsequent meetings in Venezuela, which were recorded by DEA agents, the two Venezuelans brought a kilo of cocaine to the contact to show him the quality of the promised drug, which was going to be sold in New York.NEW YORK: Two nephews of Venezuela's first lady should serve at least 18 years in prison for their convictions in the United States on drug trafficking charges, U.S. prosecutors said on Monday.They said in a filing in federal court in Manhattan that the two men, Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas and Efrain Antonio Campo Flores, tried to make US$20 million through drug trafficking so as to keep their family in power and to "enrich themselves while their countrymen starved in the streets."US seeks at least 30 years for nephews of Venezuela's first ladyReferences:EFE Washington 12 Nov 2015By Sheldon Birkett, Research Associate at the Council on Hemispheric AffairsFeatured Image: Venezuela Protests Flag Taken From: WikimediaPatricio Zamorano, “The OAS and the Crisis in Venezuela: Luis Almagro and his Labyrinth”, Council on Hemispheric Affairs, April 28, 2017, http://www.coha.org/the-oas-and-the-crisis-in-venezuela-luis-almagro-and-his-labyrinth/.“Caracas To ‘Vexit’ From OAS – But Where Do CARICOM and OECS Stand?” The Voice, April 29, 2017, http://thevoiceslu.com/2017/04/caracas-vexit-oas-caricom-oecs-stand/.Mercedes Hoffay, & Karen Mustiga, “OAS and Venezuela: Another Contested Vot nut with Recommendations,” Latin America Goes GLOBAL, March 29, 2017, http://latinamericagoesglobal.org/2017/03/oas-venezuela-another-contested-vote-recommendations/Jeanette Charles, “OAS Fails to Reach Consensus on Venezuela Suspension in Latest Extraordinary Session,” Venezuela News, Views, and Analysis, March 28, 2017, https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/13009.Joel Hirst, “A Guide to ALBA”, Americas Quarterly, http://www.americasquarterly.org/HIRST/ARTICLE.ALBA Monetary Bloc: ALBA has an independent bank in Caracas and its own currency, the SUCRE, pegged to $1.25 USDMartin Riese, “Reforming the Global Financial Architecture A Comparison of Different Proposals -6.2 John M. Keynes: Proposal for an International Currency Union,” Johannes Kepler Universitat Linz, October 2008,http://www.econ.jku.at/members%5CLandesmann%5Cfiles%5CWS08%5C239339%5CDiplomarbeit_Klaffenboeck_zentrale_kapitel.pdf.Shawn Hattingh, “ALBA: Creating a Regional Alternative to Neo-liberalism?,” Monthly Review, February 8, 2008, https://mronline.org/2008/02/07/alba-creating-a-regional-alternative-to-neo-liberalism/.Joel Hirst, “A Guide to ALBA”, Americas Quarterly, http://www.americasquarterly.org/HIRST/ARTICLEAlejandro Bendaña, “Alternative financing for development: Venezuela and ALBA,” CADTM, May 22, 2008, http://www.cadtm.org/spip.php?page=imprimer&id_article=3390Joel Hirst, “A Guide to ALBA”, Americas Quarterly, http://www.americasquarterly.org/HIRST/ARTICLE.“ALBA: An example of successful South-South Cooperation,” New Delhi Times, May 15, 2017, https://www.newdelhitimes.com/alba-an-example-of-successful-south-south-cooperation123/.“Goldman Sachs makes an irresponsible deal with the corrupt Venezuela regime,” The Washington Post, June 4, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/goldman-sachs-makes-an-irresponsible-deal-with-the-corrupt-venezuela-regime/2017/06/04/f3e3994c-47a8-11e7-bcde-624ad94170ab_story.html?utm_term=.7b9e88138e42.Tom Buerkle, “In Venezuela, Goldman Sachs Found a Hot Deal and a Moral Mess,” The New York Times, May 30, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/30/business/dealbook/venezuela-bonds-goldman-sachs.html.“Obama Declares Cuba and Venezuela National Security Threats,” Telesur, January 13, 2017, Obama Declares Cuba and Venezuela National Security Threats.Girish Gupta, & Matt Spetalnick, “Exclusive: U.S. Considers possible sanctions against Venezuela oil sector – officials,” Reuters, June 4, 2017, Exclusive: U.S. considers possible sanctions against Venezuela oil...Girish Gupta, & Matt Spetalnick, “Exclusive: U.S. Considers possible sanctions against Venezuela oil sector – officials,” Reuters, June 4, 2017, Exclusive: U.S. considers possible sanctions against Venezuela oil...Ozgur Orhangazi, “Contours of Alternative Policy Making in Venezuela,” Review of Radical Political Economics 46, no. 2 (2014): 230.Ludwig Von Mises, “Inflation and Price Control,” Mises Institute, May 27, 2005, https://mises.org/library/inflation-and-price-controlTheodore Cangero, “Venezuela: Socialism, Hyperinflation, and Economic Collapse,” American Institute For Economic Research, March 1, 2017, https://www.aier.org/research/venezuela-socialism-hyperinflation-and-economic-collapse. [xxviii] Ibid, 226“Factbox: Venezuela’s nationalizations under Chavez,” Reuters, October 7, 2012, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-election-nationalizations-idUSBRE89701X20121008 .Theodore Cangero, “Venezuela: Socialism, Hyperinflation, and Economic Collapse,” American Institute For Economic Research, March 1, 2017, https://www.aier.org/research/venezuela-socialism-hyperinflation-and-economic-collapse.Julie Wernau, & Kejal Vyas, “Venezuela Poses Investor Dilemma,” The Wall Street Journal, June 5, 2017Ozgur Orhangazi, “Contours of Alternative Policy Making in Venezuela,” Review of Radical Political Economics 46, no. 2 (2014):226.Current Account: exports minus imports plus net factor income and net transfers“Venezuela Current Account,” Trading Economics, Venezuela Current Account | 1990-2018 | Data | Chart | Calendar | Forecast.“Venezuela,” The World Bank Group, May 2, 2017, Overview“Venezuela’s worst economic crisis: What went wrong?,” Aljazeera, May 3, 2017, http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/05/venezuela-worst-economic-crisis-wrong-170501063130120.html.Robert Khan, “Global Economics Monthly: May 2016,” Council on Foreign Relations, May 4, 2016, https://www.cfr.org/report/global-economics-monthly-may-2016.Ozgur Orhangazi, “Contours of Alternative Policy Making in Venezuela,” Review of Radical Political Economics 46, no. 2 (2014): 226.“Ecuador’s winning strategy,” The Economist, June 17, 2009, Ecuador's winning strategy“Over 7 million Venezuelans tell Maduro ‘no’,” Latin News, July 17, 2017.Nathan Crooks & Fabiola Zerpa, “Why Venezuela May Change Its Constitution for the 27Time,” Bloomberg, May 9, 2017, https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-05-09/why-venezuela-may-get-its-27th-constitution-quicktake-q-a.“Political Crisis in Venezuela,” Council on Foreign Relations, March 30, 2015, https://www.cfr.org/report/political-crisis-venezuela.Ozgur Orhangazi, “Contours of Alternative Policy Making in Venezuela,” Review of Radical Political Economics 46, no. 2 (2014): 237.Chávez's Daughter Is Filthy Rich, and That Shouldn't Be a SurprisePetrocaribe Program Comes to an End, Belize’s Agreement with Venezuela Remains IntactUS weighs effects of Venezuela oil sanctionsFears over Venezuela’s Petrocaribe grow in Caribbean and Central AmericaAgreements signed at Petrocaribe Summit in VenezuelaPetrocaribe: What is it good for?JAMAICA | Tillerson-Holness May discuss PetroCaribe ArrangementsUncertain Energy: The Caribbean's Gamble with VenezuelaHaiti - FLASH : No more oil from Venezuela for Haiti because of Trump -HaitiLibre.com : Haiti news 7/7French police seize 1.3 tonnes of cocaine off Venezuela flightVenezuela sentences 10 people to 22 years for cocaine on Air France flightTwo Britons charged over Air France cocaine busthttp://notesreport.net/attention-mr-nnd-your-family/Filha de Chávez tem US$ 4 bi e é a mulher mais rica da Venezuela #boato[https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/news/122120.pdf ][This excellent analysis from Princeton University explains how Venezuela prepared the downfall…from Hugo Chavez in 1998 up to Nicola Maduro in 2018.] Noam Lupu Princeton UniversityCONCLUSIONS The conventional wisdom about leaders like Chávez is that their electoral successes depend on class voting, particularly the support of poor voters disenchanted with the old political establishment, corruption within traditional parties, and the neoliberal policies of the Washington Consensus. There are, however, intuitive reasons to doubt this interpretation, including Chávez’s conflicts with organized labor, potential middle class benefi ts from some of his economic policies and redistributive programs, and the scholarly contention that Latin American populist leaders generally rely on multiclass bases of support. My results show that this intuitive skepticism is indeed warranted; Chávez’s electoral base is not, in fact, disproportionately poor. That is, I find no evidence of a monotonic class vote outside the election of 1998.]Maria Gabriela Chavez manda a decir q sigan votando x la robolucion pq el imperio es muy bueno y yo no quiere volver pic.twitter.com/4PizJQzE1H— Inger Gonzalez (@inger39) December 4, 2015

Mental happiness in ninety days with 30 habits everyone should do.This is what you are fighting to create change in your life--the Newtonian three laws of motion. The whole universe wants to keep you traveling in the way you have been.First law: Inertia.Something will continue to stay the same unless it’s pushed and when it is, will keep going that way unless something else changes it again. There for an object at rest will remain sitting there until influenced by a destabilizing force. Then it will keep going in that new direction, traveling at the same speed in that particular direction unless it is acted upon by a new an unbalancing force. So if you are set in your ways, you’ll keep doing the same thing unless something influences you enough you can’t keep the same mind set.Second Law: ImpactWhen something is pushed, it depends on how powerful that push is and then it will go in the direction it was pushed. Where it goes is related to which direction and how hard it was hit. So when someone tells you something powerful, the tendency is to go in that direction.Third law: ReactionFor every action that’s made, there is an equal action that pushes in the opposite direction and with the same amount of force. So when someone pushes you, you want to push back. When someone pulls you, you want to pull back. We naturally fight destabilizing forces, even if they are good for us.It takes time to turn your life in a new direction. I used to have a toy gyroscope in my office. I'd spin it, hand it to a patient then have them try to change the direction. They could feel the resistance. The whole universe is fighting that change. That momentum is going in one direction. But if you stay with it, it resets in the new position and then will resist any further the new changes. You have to impact it with enough energy that the momentum overcomes the resistance. It’s the same with you. If you do a new behavior, you’ll pick up some inertia and it will eventually normalize into a habit which then takes minimal energy.30 days of consistent behavior is known to have an impact. Now the truth is, I’m more in favor of ninety days rather than thirty. It generally takes six weeks to effectively learn a new habit. I’ve had much more long term success with the extra two weeks. All of these changes imply some sort of risk, especially if you aren’t already doing them. They will threaten your status quo inside and out. The laws of motion will be experienced as you experiment. Here’s a list of ones I have, and/or I’ve had patients do over the years, in no particular order:1. I ChooseTo bring home how every motion you do is your choice, start saying it. “I choose to get up”, “I choose to go to the door”, “I choose to open it”, “I choose to walk out”, “I choose to close it”. Etc. As stupid as that sounds, it brings it home how much we truly are deciding everything we do.Benefit: No one makes you do anything. They especially cannot make you miserable nor happy but they sure can influence you. You choose what you do, what you emote and what you believe. You can choose to be happy where you’re at instead of waiting for it to someday, maybe show up.2. Stop being negative/start being positiveYou are what you think. This is a projective test. Is the glass half full or empty? Your choice. Look for the positive payoff in every situation. Somebody is getting a positive payoff in every event. You can choose to get one too if you would but realize it. Task yourself with it. Many people use the simple rubber band on wrist to snap as a reminder– “I can change my mind!” Then you start seeing gratitude rather than defeat.Benefit: It’s a huge thing to realize you control your own attitude and it isn’t really linked to other people’s beliefs. Positive thinking gives you more energy and clear-headedness to do things.3. Project happyPeople read you. Your face tells them your energy level and your relationship with life. Just smiling helps your attitude show through. Say hello to everyone. Ask how other people lives are going. Meet people, especially strangers. Show them you are curious about their journey so far and how it impacts on them. What has made a difference in their life? What have they discovered through their suffering and decisions? People like to be around others who are interested in them. It makes people feel you like them and they belong.Benefit: Other people react positively to you and give you back positive too. They are more likely willing to help you. When you listen intently to their story, people feel safe. They’ll risk taking you down to the protected emotions of level three deep inside themselves. That creates intimacy and a bond of trust. It’s empowering.4. Eat right/ Bless the food.All Diets work, for somebody. Just pick one and follow it. Quit eating “junk” food. It’s formulated to trigger cravings. They aren’t in it to provide health, it’s a business designed to use people for profit. Don’t eat until full, you don’t need it. You only need enough energy to get to the next service station, which is typically four to six hours away. Carrying security-fuel around in case you might run out is a distortion –a false belief. It’s hard on every system in your body but especially suspension and plumbing.In addition, if you become aware that a plant or animal gave its life so you could experience yours tomorrow, be grateful. Say a prayer/meditation/slogan of gratefulness every meal. Everything you eat becomes you.Benefit: Without health, there is nothing. Eating properly allows your body to tune itself naturally. All those years of evolution work with the tools you give them. It boosts energy, allows a better attitude, gives more motivation, combats disease, and basically you get to live longer. By blessing your ingestion of other life forms, you will feel much more aware of your own body and appreciate the circle of life.5. ExerciseThis is your physical health. These bodies are on loan, they all get factory recalls. Everything in life either grows or deteriorates. You take care of it and it can last a hundred years. That means you need to move the energy through it regularly to keep it tuned up. Stagnating energy becomes putrid. Do some load-bearing exercise. Learning to move energy through your system aerobically supercharges and fine tunes all the bodies systems. My friend, a federal Judge who was sharp as a tack, worked on the bench when he was over a hundred and still took the stairs.Benefit: Long and active life with the health to do things. You will feel better and think more clearly. For many people it’s a moving meditation so they can integrate mentally while their body is in a routine dynamic. You get to feel alive by touching it.6. SleepI have so many patients with sleep issues. Not sleeping enough exacerbates their life issues. They can’t seem to turn off the critical harangue or the anxious problem solver in their mind. So many are consuming large quantities of drugs or alcohol in order to poison themselves enough they don’t hear it and can pass out. That doesn’t produce REM sleep.Benefit: Learning how to shift your mind out of work mode and choosing to get off the clock is crucial for good health. Emotions then are not hypersensitive to any slight during your daytime shift where they are corrupting your life. You get to be relaxed and feel clear headed and in control of yourself. Also your body repairs itself mentally and physically when REM sleep is functioning.7. HygieneClean, your teeth, your body, and wear deodorant, flush the toilet and wash your hands. It is amazing how many people didn’t learn proper hygienic habits. Even more how many don’t wash after using the toilet. But there are people who have run others out of places with their BO or bad breath.Benefit; Your hygiene doesn’t become a matter of conversation, especially behind your back. But your body will thank you. You don’t create an environment where bacteria are setting up housekeeping on you. Infections can likely thrive.8. Electronic black outGet bored. Choose a set number of hours for electronics. TV/ video/ games/ cell phones all consume our lives. We all have a limited amount of time on earth, are you getting your life’s worth? Those things are made by other people not you. Entertainment junkies are just hedonistic consumers. There is no pride created from them.Benefit: Being bored is seemingly crucial for coming up with new ideas. Most people then figure out some other typically creative way to spend their time. They also have something to show for it and convert it into pride. That then links to one’s life having value.9. Write/JournalReflecting on what I have experienced allows me to better understand camera two (the other’s perspective) and camera three (the objective perspective). The words on paper hold still and say the same thing over and over unless changed. Seeing them in print often helps sort what happened and can help the person get a wisdom credit.Writing for just five minutes will make a difference. The 5 Minute Journal.Benefit: Gives better feedback to make improvements in future decisions. It leaves a legacy of ones life and allows seeing the changes which have taken place. I often have women patients write a journal as they go through the self-help book ‘Women as Winners” That way when they finish and we go over it together, they themselves can see their own growth. They can wise up faster by doubling the perspectives for the same event.10. Read and educate yourselfBooks condense time, give us information and plant the seeds of wisdom. We learn things we never would have known. We can have vicarious experiences which allow us to have more experiences than we would have in our own restricted life.Benefit: Books can change you.. I was working at Boeing in CNC maintenance when I started reading Will Durant’s Story of Philosophy. It influenced my life to think of what life really was about and set me on a whole other trajectory.11. Enjoy your jobLiking your job and having a good attitude will generally mean it will go well. Say out loud I am a [job descriptor] and I [feeling] it! I’ve had patients go out in the country and pretend they are a lion on the Serengeti then roar until they ran out of breath.Benefit: You get stronger. Time goes by quicker. By being happier, you’ll be both more productive and successful. Believing who you are will help you identify if the job is fulfilling or not. It will give you confidence and self-esteem.12. Have a compelling futureIf you don’t know where you’re going, how will you know if you get there?“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.“I don’t much care where–” said Alice.“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat. (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 6)Benefit: Imagining a future that is bright (visualized) drives a passion to create. It gives focus and direction to ones life. It provides a sense of purpose and meaning for staying alive.13. Delay gratificationResist the temptation for immediate rewards and wait for a later better one. It’s one of the most effective personal traits of successful people. Understanding how delaying quick payoffs allows for awareness and maturation.Benefit: They tend to have better health, finances, education and success in general. Being better educated tends to earn higher incomes. Delayers are less likely to have a drug or alcohol addiction or to be incarcerated.14. House keeping:Clean your house. Take out the trash and empty it. Organize your storage and make your bed. Your surroundings typically reflect your inner self. Sloppy house equals sloppy life. The number of patients who when they didn’t make their beds, their day went poorly has been an eye opener. Something about sloughing off that decision did something to them. I’ve lived in group homes where not taking out the trash was reflected in their approach to life.Benefit: A smooth and hassle free environment. Discipline starts at the crack of dawn with the first choice of the day and sets the style and attitude for the rest of it. Clean and organized lifestyle translates into a clean and organized mind.15. Record keepingFiles of your life. Pay stubs, receipts, warranties, birth certificates, medical records, insurance forms, marriage license, and a blizzard of papers. Have a place for them so you touch them once when they come home and once to get them to their holding area. Then only once more when you deal with it and then file it in a known marked storage area.Benefit: No wasted time and certainly no frustration when trying to locate it later, its right where you put it. You get to be aware of what your life is really doing by keeping track of it. Paper trails allow for course corrections before calamities.16. DisciplineDiscipline is a personal orientation toward a way of life where one tries to be on time and live in a systematic way. It’s one of the factors people judge you by. The beginning of discipline is always scheduling. Listing out what is expected will be done each day as a guide. I’ve had people start in the morning by making their bed.Benefit: Earn the virtues of being focused, staying healthy and basically avoiding problems. These people have self-control, get things done and are likely to be happy.17. Paying BillsEverybody owes. Everybody pays bills. Set yours up so you pay your bills off and on time. All those debts keep you from being honest about what it takes. The Banks are in it for THEIR profit, not yours. And pay your Taxes without griping. It’s the privilege of living where you do. They are not a surprise unless you were not on top of your spending habits. Whining keeps you stuck in fairy land. I have known so many people when they got a break or windfall, instead of paying off their debt used it to buy things they had their eye on, which many times made even more debt.Benefit: Not compounding debt. It’s freeing up money to have it work for you instead of you working for others. Feelings of control instead of anxiety. Actually owning rather than just paying someone else.18. Save MoneyLearn finances. Educate yourself on how money makes money. You can’t have it work for you if you keep giving it away. Learn what Amortization scales are, how stocks work, why you are charged percentages. How debt accumulates. Watch Oprah on how to get rich on a poor mans salary. How to become Rich!!! on OprahBenefit: Debt free and savings for a worry free future. Produces the freedom to choose what you want in your life.19. Have a hobbyBe creative, Make things which didn’t exist. Figure out the puzzles to bring them to life. Music, art, cooking, writing, gardening, dancing, sewing, woodworking, electronics, and on and on with wonderful things.Benefit: It creates pride (I did it myself). Hobbies allow you to get off the clock and clear your mind. It can provide a sense of purpose and focus. It allows you to connect with like minded people.20. Help a charityGive back to society. None of us got here by ourselves. It’s appreciating those who are less fortunate by alleviating or reducing someone else’s misery.Benefit: Giving evokes gratitude. It creates compassion, humility, and joy. Research found that providing money to someone else lifted the givers happiness more that spending it on themselves and the giving itself has been shown to increase health benefits in people with chronic illness. In addition, your generosity is likely to be rewarded by others down the line. And it can spur a ripple effect of generosity throughout a community by being contagious.21. Immerse yourself in societyMeet people. Belong to the society you find yourself. Affiliation as a primary emotion is critical for both our mental and physical health. The pain of social rejection follows us like a cloud for years if not lifetimes. Most all of the public mass shootings seem to be from people who did not feel accepted by society.Benefit: promotes cooperation and social connection. A cohesive society in which people help each other is healthier than ones that are fragmented. Researchers provided evidence that social ties and increased contact with family and friends are associated with a lower risk of disease and even death.22. Cultivate friendsFind friends. Go out to lunch with them. Call up people you haven’t talked with for years and visit. Investigate a club or join a church. Friends are essential for your health. According to scientific research, loneliness and isolation can reduce your life span more than obesity. Many of us need friends to validate our attributes. We need to know we are desirable.Benefit: spending time with friends adds years to your life. Research has shown it boosts your immune system while lowering blood pressure which in turn decreases the probability of stroke. Having interactions with people we care about can even reduce pain, especially if they kiss our boo-boos.23. Create IntimacyThis is our desire to be loved unconditionally. To risk sharing your deepest darkest secrets and dreams with another person can feel therapeutic especially when you finally find someone you trust enough to do it with. We all need to feel desirable, that somebody else wants us.Benefit: People with partners feel accepted and appreciated with a sense of belonging and being cared about. They get more done while experiencing less stress and strain than those who must go it alone. This promotes a kind of honesty for self and others. People get a spring in their step, have a zest for life, and are happy.24. CommitmentWe talk of committing to another person. That’s important but not the real commitment. The real commitment is to our own integrity. Commit to honesty and quit deceiving. Say the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. So many of us were taught to fudge what really happened. It creates isolation. People live in their heads.Benefit: Your integrity strengthens every dynamic you face as a human. Purpose, relationships, success, accomplishments, spirituality, integration, and character grows dramatically.25. Be thoughtfulDo one small thing for someone. Help the existence of someone else. As Thoreau said “Most people live lives of quite desperation.” Be especially kind to those less fortunate. We all need to be seen by others to experiencebelonging. That’s part of the grief of homelessness, they turn into invisible people. They don’t belong anymore and so the loss can take them quickly to despair.Benefit: You get to experience Joy, the spiritual side of happy. Giving positive energy away so they have happy, feeds yours. Thoughtfulness changes our mindset and creates new nero-pathways. We belong by helping them belong.26. Count your blessings.Just write down three things from the past 24 hours that you’re grateful for — friends, family, events, the fact that you’re alive, anything. Gratitude generally comes from turning a loss into a benefit. It’s looking at it and realizing to grow, we have to let go of something. Getting stuck in our losses feeds misery and prevents maturation and growth.Benefit: We see gratitude as a virtue. Real spirituality tends to give rise to grateful behavior. Gratitude is strongly correlated with optimism which makes us nicer, more trusting, more social, and more appreciative.27. Attend some kind of challenging growth groupAA, EA, OA, Grief group, consciousness raising, or some kind of support group which has a time where you get to tell your story and you listen to theirs. People can unburden themselves in a supportive and generally loving atmosphere. Isolation is one of the big problems in society especially with social media now. People hide behind a blizzard of words.Benefit: Debriefing has a stunningly positive affect on people. All that isolation in ones head suddenly disappears when people truly are able to be honest and allow others see them. They discover they are less alone and they can inspire other members. The others can offer a different perspective on our problems. It releases some of the pent-up stress by clarifying and getting under what the true issues are. Sponsors can help you to not keep fooling yourself.28. Spiritual GuideFind a Shaman, Priest, Mullah, Cleric, Rabbi, Sage or spiritual mentor. Someone who gives guidance in life’s puzzles of being. A person who uses compassion, not rules; joy, not anger; kindness, not criticism; and faith, not certainty. They consider personal growth and fulfillment as a central goal. They help you discover your place in the universe. Spirituality can be considered to be a path toward self-actualization.Benefit: They teach you how to center and savor life experiences. They encourage people to be optimistic and positive. They tend to demonstrate graciousness and compassion. They allow positive relationships creating high self-esteem.29. Safe houseIt’s the sanctuary of the heart. Imagine a place that is peaceful, and secure with natures beauty and your dream house on it. Put yourself there and explore it. Then go fetch your ghost child, take them there and make sure they’re safe. Have a room set up where the child can explore and play and be a kid with no criticism. Go visit and make sure they’re never alone or scared again. You can tell what age people are emotionally stuck by the level of ridiculousness whether its anger or sneaking around.Benefit: produces a sanctum for the inner-child where it is safe and secure. Then it doesn’t act out in your adult life.30. Meditate/MindfulnessPay attention, Buddha consciousness is about waking up, paying attention to what’s real. Evaluate each day. Make it interactive. Instead of blanking out or praying to a deity, interact with one. Visualize it happening. Do this for five minutes when you first get up and five minutes just before you drop off to sleep.Benefit: You will start changing your own mental dynamics feeling more integrated and empowered. Blood pressure goes down. Some people alter their physical dynamics by using imagination. What ever we imagine is true, our bodies act as if its true.So all these are aspects of people who got their lives together. You don’t do them all at once. In the over forty years of being a professional therapist, especially in addictions, I’ve never had a success with making a change and quitting nicotine at the same time. It’s too hard. I’ve gotten people off heroin, cocaine, meth, marijuana, alcohol and overeating but not quit smoking at the same time. Pick your battles.Pick one to commit to and start. Get your routine established to practice everyday. Post them so you can see your progress. You don’t have to complete each one before starting on another but don’t overload yourself.Each of these have nuances which get discovered along the way. Every person has to customize the particular events to their specific learning style and willingness to work the program. Some will be more powerful than others but all have caused relief for certain aspects of dysfunctional life styles. One thing is for sure, you start doing them and you’ll be a happier person basically. And from there your life will have depth and meaning.