Gripe: n. a cold; the flu; Pronounced gree-pay

Yo tengo gripe. Not fun. Stuffy nose, sneezing, body aches, coughing. It is not all fun and games.

I went whitewater rafting last weekend in the foothills of the Andes on the Rio Acequias, in Estado Barinas. This area is very remote and wild. It is also beautiful. I will post photographs here and on Facebook. I have some friend requests pending for some of my regular readers on Facebook, friend requests that have not been accepted because certain people do not ever check their Facebook pages, apparently.

The gig in Maricaibo is comming up pretty soon. But first we have a gig at the Embassy on Sept. 18th for the "Pirate Party" we are going to dress up like pirates and talk like pirates. (Arrr...). Here is my favorite pirate joke: Q: What kind of movies do pirates like? A: Ones that are rated Arrrrrr....ok that is pretty lame, but kids seem to love it.

We are having a sale here in the CLO office right now. One of the vendors sells Venezuelan Chocolate. Good stuff. It is a little known fact that Venezuelan Chocolate is considered the best in the world. There are different strains of cacao, the base ingredient in chocolate, much in the same way as there are different strains of grapes from which wine is made. The cacao from the Chuao region of Venezuela is considered the best in the world and is exported to the specialty chocolate makers in Belgium, Italy and Switzerland. Your can really tast the difference if you do a side by side taste test. Rum, chocolate and beauty queens are the three things that Venezuela does best.

Everything else...well thing are going south fast here. Here is a recent article from El Universal, a newspaper in Caracas:

Employers: Venezuelan private sector is slaughtered
Foreign exchange in short supply, labor clashes and constant harassment among the reasons

Economy In the opinion of Antonio Peñalosa, the Secretary of the International Organization of Employers (IOE), the outlook is dire for Venezuelan businesspersons. Their day-to-day routine is very worrisome. "Businesspersons in Venezuelan lack oxygen. The private sector is massacred." Peñalosa substantiated his allegations by underscoring the stumbling blocks faced by the private sector, which have gotten worse in 2009, in the transition to socialism and in the middle of economic stagnation. "We know they have troubles to get funding, to get foreign currency, and they should face labor conflicts and lack of consultation to set guidelines. There is harassment of the sector," he said. According to Peñalosa, the Venezuelan economic and social outcome mirrors such reality. He is positive that very few businessmen wish to invest in Venezuela, "except for those cases where investments are with the State." "The numbers on capital input and investments are catastrophic. Venezuela gets a tenth of the capital received by Colombia and far behind other nations, such as Costa Rica and Panama," he noted. Forsaken requests Peñalosa took a few minutes to list the requests that have been made for over eight years by international organizations, such as the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the IOE from the Venezuelan government. "There is still in this country no social dialogue; no national joint taskforce has been created to include businesspeople, the society, workers and the government itself; no tripartite working table has been organized to include the private sector, employees and public servants; no discussions have been conducted to set the minimum wage among the parties involved. Furthermore, a regulation on labor stability which violates the ILO Convention 158, signed by Venezuela, is still effective," he said. Failure to meet the demands does not break the IOE spirit. Its secretary seized the opportunity to ask the Executive Office "to listen to the requests of both organizations; to talk with businessmen and not against them." He also said that his organization is able to denounce what is happening in Venezuela in the field of business. Peñalosa also noted that his organization views the Federation of Trade and Industry Chambers (Fedecámaras) as the only lawful business agent. "Such organizations should be free from meddling and independent. In Venezuela, Fedecámaras is the only one which meets it (this requirement)."