vladimiro has left 805 comments

vladimiro comments on why'd you come to colombia???

my employer sent me to work in colombia

vladimiro comments on Five Reasons Why Liberals May Dislike the Betancourt Rescue

Interesting that the hostages were in such good health. It almost seems like the FARC was feeding them up in preparation for their release :)

vladimiro comments on

This is like asking whether your favorite food is hamburger or pizza :) But my favorite food is Gormeh Sabzi, and my co-workers prefer Indian, Chinese, and Israeli food. I admire the progressive governments in the UK which have made the country so muilicultural that the national dish had already become an indian curry when I lived thier over 25 years ago.

vladimiro comments on

The mail is not reliable because Colombia is a developing country. You pay the electric bill at the grocery store, and other convenient locations. Private couriers like Servientrega are reliable and fast. Use Servientrega or similar service to send packages to Colombia.

vladimiro comments on Iran To Build $200 Million USD Hydroelectric Dam For Nicaragua; Bush Adm Alarmed

Maybe its an atomic dam with some secret purposes we don't know about ? Today's newspapers are also saying that the US congress approved $400 million for Iranian opposition groups last year[1] What kind of opposition organizations is the US funding? "Among groups inside Iran benefiting from U.S. support is the Jundallah, also known as the Iranian People's Resistance Movement, according to former CIA officer Robert Baer. Council on Foreign Relations analyst Vali Nasr described it to Hersh as a vicious organization suspected of links to al Qaeda." Apparently, groups that cut people's heads off on camera[2]. 1. http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN29358834 2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jundallah

vladimiro comments on Hugo Of Hezbollah

Imagine if the French Resistance, born of the German invasion, had defeated the Nazis sing-handedly and thrown them out of France. That's what Hezbollah, born of the Israeli invasion, has done. Its an historic accomplishment.

vladimiro comments on Hugo Of Hezbollah

Their resolute fighters and capabilities are impressive,too. They hacked Israeli communications so well, that Israelis turned to Hezbollah's cable news outlet to get thier news on the war "Hezbollah Cracked The Code" http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/ny-wocode184896831sep18,0,3091818.story?coll=ny-worldnews-print "Using technology most likely supplied by Iran, special Hezbollah teams monitored the constantly changing radio frequencies of Israeli troops on the ground. That gave guerrillas a picture of Israeli movements, casualty reports and supply routes. It also allowed Hezbollah anti-tank units to more effectively target advancing Israeli armor, according to the officials." Israel would announce to the world that it had taken some town only to learn that Hezbollah fighters were underneath the town in tunnels popping up here and their to slaughter the invaders until they finally retreated.

vladimiro comments on Hugo Of Hezbollah

Interestingly, this popular Lebanese Christian singer wrote a song about Hezbollah and donated the procedes from the song - 3 million dollars - to the families of Hezbollah fighters that sacrificed thier lives defending her country against the barbaric Israeli invasion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Boutros "A popular song composed in tribute to Nasrallah was by Lebanese Christian singer Julia Boutros, called "Ahebba'i" meaning "my loved ones", which was inspired by Nasrallah's words in a televised message he sent to Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon during the 2006 War. The profits of sale are to help the families of Hezbullah resistance fighters who died during the Israel-Lebanon conflict."

vladimiro comments on Hugo Of Hezbollah

That girl above is obviously no Islamists because she is not wearing the hijab. This is not some crazed religious fanatic as typically portrayed in the US-centric press. So why do you think she proudly walks around in a tight little Hezbollah t-shirt? Maybe its because....Hezbollah first emerged as a militia in response to the Israeli *invasion* of Lebanon in 1982, set on resisting the Israeli occupation of Lebanon. Shouldn't people fight back and defend themselves when they are invaded by Israel or the US?

vladimiro comments on Hugo Of Hezbollah

Hezbollah is a mass movement...

vladimiro comments on Hugo Of Hezbollah

They provide food,housing, and hospitals for most Lebanese and for throwing foriegn invaders out of Lebanon are the most popular party in the country. I really like Jews just not those that colonize other people's countries while ethnically cleansing the local population.

vladimiro comments on which book are you reading at the moment

1 -The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More 2 - Muqtada: Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia Revival, and the Struggle for Iraq 3- The Post-American World 4- Positioning: The battle for your mind.

vladimiro comments on Hugo Of Hezbollah

" It is Hezbollah’s skillful use of those weapons — in particular, wire-guided and laser-guided antitank missiles, with double, phased explosive warheads and a range of about two miles — that has caused most of the casualties to Israeli forces." " A Disciplined Hezbollah Surprises Israel With Its Training, Tactics and Weapons " http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/07/world/middleeast/07hezbollah.html You can't compare Hezbollah to the FARC. If it was not for Hezbollah today the Lebanese would be in camps watching Israel build homes on their land while inviting all the world's Jews to come and colonize the place.

vladimiro comments on Poll: Many In The World Look to Big Change Post Election USA

The world has changed so much since Bush has been in power that it is no longer as relevant who is elected president of the US. You can see how much the world has changed from watching Tennis. Most top Tennis players were Americans not long ago, but today athletes from many more countries are in the top tier, and the majority of top ranking tennis players are no longer from the US. Not that American athletes are worse today, but many more countries are participating in and competing against the US than before. On the world stage, too, many more countries are participating and competing effectively against the US....Brazil, Turkey, Russia, and especially many Asian countries like China, India, etc. We are now living in a non-Western world where the President of the US is no longer relevant.

vladimiro comments on Washington and Colombia Planning To Check mate chavez (crazy?)

I think its part of a strategy to unite the left, many of whom would otherwise oppose Chavez, around a common enemy.

vladimiro comments on Water in Medellin

The water in Medellin tastes better than bottled water in the US.

vladimiro comments on Pawns In Colombia's Jungle; 3 Americans Abandoned By Own Government Saying, Hasta La Vista Boys

This is exactly the type of thing that's keeping the US military out of Colombia. Its an unfortunate necessity similar to the US soldiers in Iraq that are killed every day. Its sad for them and their families, but if it was not for the difficult time that US is having in Iraq they would have invaded Syria and/or Iran by now destroying those countries and killing and displacing god knows how many more people. Capturing and killing the American mercenaries helps to restrain the US from becoming more deeply involved in Colombia.

vladimiro comments on Coal train attacked with explosives (Cerrejon / la Guajira)

I think many companies in Colombia are required to pay a tax or vacuna to FARC or other regional warlords to transport goods/do business in their fiefdoms. Some of these types of attacks may be related to this. I know a truck driver, for instance, that drives practically everywhere in Colombia(and Venezuela) without any problems because his company gives vacuna to the warlords.

vladimiro comments on Chavez recalls Colombian rebel leader

TiroFijo will go down in history as the greatest of Colombia's long list of great bandits. Its quite an accomplishment if you consider how many bandits Colombia produces :)

vladimiro comments on Another "Winnable" Counterinsurgency in colombia

I think a better comparison might be with the Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq fighting against Turkey. Turkey bombed 16 targets in Iraq today going after communist rebels. Since Turkey's economy is growing relatively fast(around 7% I think), and they have changed some racists laws(such as those against speaking kurdish) the Kurds in Turkey do not want to create a serpate Kordistan headed by the PKK guerillas anymore than Colombians want the FARC to take over. The US tolerates the Kurdish terrorists because the Kurds in Iraq are the only ones in the country that even remotely like the Americans:) The us invasion caused a power shift in Iraq, and throughout the entire region in favor of the shia a population that had been highly discriminated against in Arab countries ( most of the regions oil is on shia occuppied land including saudi arabia which has been forced to make some of its laws less descriminatory against their shia population in the aftermath of the US invasion).

vladimiro comments on The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Russia cannot extradite Yair Klein to Colombia

According to wikipedia: "If extradited, Klein faces a 10 year and 8 months sentence in a Colombian prison, with a bail of 22 Colombian minimum salaries." Minimum salary in Colombia is not more than $200/mo USD, so his bail is set at around $4K USD(or 40K if they mean yearly salary), not exactly a sum that would be hard for an international arms dealer to come by if he wanted to post bail and flee :) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yair_Klein

vladimiro comments on Another "Winnable" Counterinsurgency in colombia

I wouldn't compare FARC to the insurgency in Iraq:) Iraq's Shia insurgents won national elections and the head of an Islamic Fundamentalist terrorist organization (Dawa) who helped found Hezbullah, and blow up the US Embassy in Kuwait back in the 80s is the current President of Iraq. Now set to win the next elections are Muqtada al-Sadr's group, another Islamic Fundamentalist who became popular by killing Americans and is currently studying in Iran under Ayatollah Sharoudi - the head of Iran's Judiciary. A government may be winning the insurgency in Iraq, but its certainly not the US government. http://www.newsweek.com/id/96370

vladimiro comments on The Economist: Just how much help has Hugo Chávez given to Colombia's guerrillas?

Interesting article, but it does not say how much support if any at all was actually provided. "The guerrillas are desperate to establish a “strategic alliance�? with Mr Chávez. But that was still just an aspiration in early 2007, the documents suggest. “We don't know if we enjoy their trust,�? writes Jorge Briceño (alias “Mono Jojoy�?), the FARC's military leader, to other members of the secretariat." Its not as if the FARC are running their own cable news show out of Caracas :) From another article it also appears that Democratic Party representatives also had ties with the FARC, and are being investigated by the Colombian government, but nobody is making exaggerated claims about the US government's involvement with the FARC that I can see.

vladimiro comments on World Oil Closed in on a Record $133.90 Today; How is this affecting Colombian Consumers?

The price is arguably too low. Industrialized nations have been spoiled with cheap oil for too long. Their economies can handle higher prices. Oil must still find its real value.

vladimiro comments on Venezuela weapons worry US, Colombia

A $500 billion defense budget. More than the entire world combined And they "worry" about "security" :) I'd be more worried about the level of math and science knowledge in the US than Venezuela (who's defense budget is probably less than what the US spends a month in Iraq), because the competition is heating up from rapidly industrializing nations.

vladimiro comments on Venezuela weapons worry US, Colombia

See the below link, the US government warned Americans to stock up on duct tape to save themselves from the rath of the terrorists :) "Having raised its nationwide terrorist alert level, the main advice given by the Bush administration to Americans has been to stock up on bottled water, batteries and duct tape to deal with an attack." http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2003/030212-terror01.htm

vladimiro comments on Venezuela weapons worry US, Colombia

Wow they really worry a lot in the US. Believe it or not at one point hardware stores ran out of duck-tape in the US because so many people were using it to seal doors and windows in the event of a WMD attack from Iraq :)

vladimiro comments on INTERPOL releases forensic report requested by Colombia on seized FARC computers and hardware

It would hardly affect the FARC if both Chavez and Correa were to drop dead tomorrow. I think some people are looking for scape goats.

vladimiro comments on

Its not fun to live in a developing country without a good source of income. Personally, I would save a bit more before moving to a developing country.

vladimiro comments on Interpol has confirmed the authenticity of Raul Reyes's computer files

Doesn't the FARC's Putumayo drug fiefdom have anything to do with thier strong presence in Ecuador? They've had military camps in border areas since long before Chavez, or Correa came to power, so are there more FARC bases now then there was before Correa came to power? In fact, isn't it US drug policies ( like the coca eradication in neighboring countries which caused coca production to move from those countries to Colombia in the first place ) that is the real cause of the FARC's military strength? It is suspicious not necessarily because the laptop story may not be true( I have no way of knowing) but because questions of proportionality and significance have not arisen. Even if true, what difference does it make?

vladimiro comments on Interpol has confirmed the authenticity of Raul Reyes's computer files

My point, even if it were true, how important is it? For instance, it is true that Zarqawi got medical treatment in Iraq before the war. But the US then used this to "prove" that Saddam supported al-Qeada, which is ridiculous.

vladimiro comments on Interpol has confirmed the authenticity of Raul Reyes's computer files

What is suspicious is the lack of key questions of proportionality, significance, and casualty with regard to the support the FARC are supposed to be recieving from Venezuela and Ecuador. For example, what percentage of FARC's resources come from Venezuela and Ecuador? Are they training frighters? If so, how many? What difference does the support make military? Where does the FARC get the vast majority of its resources from? Without questioning the porportionality, significance, and casualty of the support you fall into the American Propaganda trap - the same technique that made Saddam responsible for 9/11 in the eyes of many.

vladimiro comments on Official: Laptop reveals ties to Ecuador

"New documents a Colombian government official says were retrieved from the computer of slain guerrilla leader Raúl Reyes show.." What about the ties to the Colombian Government? I'm sure they have extensive under the table dealings with the Colombian Government and not only with leftist members. But I have a feeling they aren't going to tell us about that evidence, or if they do, only partially, nothing that would reveal their own complicity :)

vladimiro comments on

As an example, the US military just bombed a hospital full of children (see link below). They continue to strengthen the insurgency with actions like this to the extent that the target of these bombings (the Mahdi Army) are set to win upcoming elections by a landslide. If the Colombian military behaves like the American the FARC will grow from 20K to 200K strong overnight. The Americans are providing valuable lessons to Colombian Generals on how to lose a war badly. Lets hope they are learning from the American arrogance and stupidity. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/world/middleeast/04iraq.html?ref=middleeast

vladimiro comments on

"He wants Colombia to deal with the guerilla soley on law enforcement terms? They can't simply be bombed, they must be arrested, tried and convicted in a civil court?" Exactly. They can't simply be bombed. Otherwise, the Colombian military will end up like the American in Iraq and Afghanistan. If interested, see the counter insurgency manual below. http://www.military.com/Opinions/0,,Lind_070705,00.html

vladimiro comments on FARC Kidnaps A Top American Terrorist

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_American_National_Foundation It has been alleged that CANF is connected to terrorist acts against Cuban businesses, government and ordinary citizens. Luis Posada Carriles admitted in a 1998 New York Times interview that he received financial backing from CANF for a 1997 bombing campaign in Cuba.[1] CANF has strongly denied Posada's statement. Posada, however, describes long term relationships with CANF figures in his autobiography. Declassified CIA and FBI documents allege that Posada was one of the "engineer[s]" of the 1976 terrorist bombing of Cubana Airlines flight 455 that killed 73 passengers.[3] The administration of President George W. Bush refused to extradite Posada to Venezuela, where he is wanted for this crime. The Cuban Ministry of the Interior claimed [4] that the three September 4, 1997 bomb attacks against three hotels in Havana, which killed one person [5], were planned and controlled by CANF. CANF has denied the allegations. [6] However, a former board member of the group has stated that several of its leaders planned attacks in Cuba during the 1990s. [7]. In 1997, the CANF published a statement supporting un-conditionally all terrorist attacks against Cuba; the CANF chairman at the time stated that "We do not think of these as terrorist actions".[8] http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=10779 In fact, a month earlier, on June 22, 2006, Jose Antonio Llama, a former CANF director, revealed publicly what everyone knew for a long time: the CANF is a terrorist organization. Llama acknowledged that he, along with members of the organization´s hierarchy, had set up a paramilitary group to carry out attacks on Cuba

vladimiro comments on Venezuela’s Chavez plans to bury old empire of USA

I think Chavez provides an excuse for Americans to live in a cold war past again instead of dealing with today's reality. The reality is they are wasting their nations resources on a useless war, and are obsessed with stupid things like immigration and "terrorism" at a time when the competition is heating up from countries in the developing world that are industrializing, investing heavily in infrastructure, and studying math and science like mad. The US is like a wolf caught in a trap. It must chew off its own foot or bleed to death.

vladimiro comments on Uribe disregards recognizing the political status of FARC

The State Department's terrorist list and the European's terror list are not international law(some groups are on one list and not the other for instance). International law covers human rights and war crimes for all groups regardless of their political status.

vladimiro comments on Uribe disregards recognizing the political status of FARC

If Venezuela and Ecuador recognized the FARC they could gain more influence over the organization. I think it is about negotiations, because neither Venezuela nor Ecuador need US or European permission to support the FARC if that were what they wanted. Not only are more violence, instability, and drug trafficking against their countries' interests, but I believe they would prefer a leftist government to be democratically elected in Colombia eventually. Reckless FARC terrorism can easily derail that goal.

vladimiro comments on Cost of petroleum

I agree that high prices might spur research into alternative sources, but don't think it will make much difference because of increasing demand. I guess it depends on how far in the future you are talking about(50 yrs, 500 yrs, etc) but like I said Oil did not replace Coal, and fungi or corn or whatever is not going to replace oil in our lifetime. There are huge quantities of untapped natural gas deposits lying under the ground waiting to be developed and transported to Europe and Asia. That's where most of the alternative energy investments are going as far as I know. For the factories in China that have to close periodically due to a lack of energy I don't think it matters whether the energy comes from coal, oil, natural gas, etc as long as they can get their businesses running again. If chinese businesses have the choice between betting on an alternative source like fungi and the huge untapped natural gas reserves located in nearby central asia where are they more likely to invest?

vladimiro comments on Cost of petroleum

Keep in mind that Coal still provides much of the world's energy. Alternative sources won't reduce demand for oil but rather address some (only a fraction probably) of the increasing demand as the world population grows and developing countries become industrialized. The largests investments in alternative resources are going into the development and transportation of natural gas to Europe and Asia. The world's largest natural gas supplies are located in Qatar,Iran and Russia. New pipelines are being built from these countries to supply Europe through Central Asia, and Turkey, and to supply China/India through Pakistan.

vladimiro comments on Cost of petroleum

Oil prices are still much lower than they should be in my opinion. The world powers have gotten away with paying nothing for oil for far too long. Their economies can handle higher prices.

vladimiro comments on

Actually, Peter is mentioned in www.techcrunch.com one of the heaviest trafficked blogs about web 2.0 startups. A mention in techcrunch.com usually causes millions of users to visit your site. He started a web business called MeFedia which aggregated video blog feeds I believe, and he sold the business. You can find more info on it at techcrunch company index page.

vladimiro comments on Colombia: who are the enemies of peace and democracy?

I think that its preferable to refer to degrees of plurality and representation in a society than use the term "democracy" which has become a euphemism in the US for waging aggressive war.

vladimiro comments on Colombia prefers to rebuild ties with Venezuela than negotiate with FARC

I would guess that the colombian companies that make huge profits in Venezuela have been talking to the president.

vladimiro comments on Where is the best MEXICAN restaurant in Medellin?

"I thought it would be a great idea to open up a small Mexican restaurant somewhere in Antioquia." Maybe, but I don't think so, they generally don't like spicy food in Medellin and the average person eats nothing but variations of Bandeja Paisa. A good antioqueno restaurant will do well.

vladimiro comments on Where is the best MEXICAN restaurant in Medellin?

never found good mexican food in medellin in the years I spent there

vladimiro comments on

"They define "freedom" in a really weird way AFAIC!" I always thought that true freedom means growing a goatie and playing a guitar dude :)

vladimiro comments on The aggressor

The US funds the Venezuelan opposition groups through organizations like the National Endowment for Democracy.

vladimiro comments on moving to United Kingdom

The British Embassy in Bogota gives visas the *same* day you ask for it. All you need is to do is meet minimum financial requirements. You can get British fiance, or marriage visa very fast and hassle free. You're lucky you're not applying for a US visa.