Let's, all whakapohane!

I remember having read a few years back about one particular method used by the Maori of New Zealand to protest about something that bothered them. This method consists of lining up a group of Maori tribesmen, turning their backs towards the person or persons that are the target of the protest, dropping their trousers and showing them their naked backsides. This rite is named Whakapohane. 

Without delving further into this tradition, and in spite of the fact that it seems primitive and is most certainly an ugly spectacle, I think it could be also classified as a civilized and most efficient way to protest. Civilized because it does no damage to anyone or anything (except to those people with a well-developed sense of esthetics) and efficient because it manages to consolidate into one single act and gesture all the sense we could possibly assign to a real social sanction.

There is no doubt that we are often frustrated at not being able to find a way to vehemently protest about the stupid, naive and criminal behavior that negatively affects our country on a daily basis.

The idea of putting together a group of citizens, family men, professionals and white-collar workers with briefcases and ties and heading out to the street to shamelessly whakapohane any deserving person is appealing. Consider the following:

What has been demonstrated without doubt over the past decades in Venezuela is an utter incapacity by government to manage its resources. The International Monetary Fund, for example, predicates that the solution to Venezuela's problems can be found by giving government even more resources to squander by way of increased taxes (as if our oil income wasn't enough taxation).

Clearly, the IMF deserves an act of Whakapohane from our citizens. 

Banking charters are usually awarded in order for them to participate actively in the development of the country's economy.

It is not enough for them to simply return the funds they have received on deposit, since if this were so, it would be better to simply buy a good mattress and put it into a large safe.

There are still many who think it is best to be puritan and to simply continue to tighten the screws on financial solvency of banks without paying attention to the real purpose of banking institutions These people deserve a solid Whakapohane.

There are many national authorities that evidently are aware of the damage to economies that short-term capital flows can cause, and also know that other countries have put workable legislation into place to limit these damages.

They cannot be bothered to take the 48 hours required to simply copy this legislation and enact it in Venezuela. There is no doubt that these authorities deserve to be Whakapohaned.

Those people related to the oil sector that have not been able to either see or warn the country about the possibility of a fall in world oil prices, who, in spite of arguing in favor of conquering new markets, run for cover behind OPEC's skirts when confronted with adverse situations, and who continue to invest scarce resources in projects of low significance such as the expansion of our gasoline stations' capacity to sell snacks, should certainly be offered a great Whakapohane.

Many illustrious representatives of the private sector applauded the privatization of CANTV, without realizing that it was all an elaborate trick perpetrated by the government to collect taxes in advance which we now have to cover through exaggerated service charges. These guys are due a good Whakapohane.

Those die-hard defenders of free trade who simply do not understand that in a globalized world economy each country must, when the chips are down, defend itself and guarantee a minimum internal level of employment should be urgently Whakapohaned.

The entire political and economic system is based on centralized income and decentralized personal apparatchiks.

Members of this system have not been able to come up with a real solution to our problems and should be considered traitors.

They should all be paraded to La Carlota Airport and given the Mother of all Whakapohanes .

We have heard that one of the people most clearly and widely questioned in our recent history is due to return to Venezuela after statutes of limitations have expired.

Just imagine what a marvelous message a small delegation of our "notables" dispatched down to Maiquetía to receive that person with a mini-Whakapohane would send. 

We should definitely not lightly discard the possibility of introducing an ancestral aboriginal custom from New Zealand in to the Venezuelan political scheme . 

Whakapohaners of the world, unite! The alternative are much worse.

Spanish translation

The first version was a blue one

Then, I don't know when... some applied the original concept

The taxes we have to pay

It is time for payment of income taxes and I have just complied with my duty as a citizen. I must admit that compared to what I would have paid elsewhere, I personally did not have to pay an exaggerated amount of tax. Why is it then, that I am not satisfied? Could it be that it is because I am being eaten away inside by a suspicion, already bordering on certainty, that my country would be better off had I not paid taxes at all?

On the same day I finished struggling through my tax forms, I read in the press about PDVSA´s fiscal contribution for 1997. This contribution amounted to all the Bolivares in the world. Upon cranking the numbers on my calculator which went into an exponential mode, I found that this boils down to a contribution per capita of Bs. 200,000 for every Venezuelan citizen, rich and poor, young and old.

I imagine that in the international world of taxation, these Bs. 200,000, which translate to US$ 400 per year, don’t qualify for a position at the top of the list. If, however, they are expressed in terms of some of the public services offered, these figures are numbing.

Every retired Venezuelan, those we hold dear to our hearts and affectionately refer to as “los viejitos”, is due to receive Bs. 50,000 per month in retirement pay. Using the technology provided for by modern accounting, i.e. re-expression, we can affirm that every Venezuelan, rich and poor, young and old have contributed, via the cession of his or her portion of oil income, an equivalent of 4 months of retirement pay to the nation’s coffers. These figures would undoubtedly qualify us, as taxpayers, for mention in the Guinness World Book of Records.

All of this is before we even get into what we all pay in sales tax, (VAT) which by law must not be specified in the final sales price of any product. This only hides even further the magnitude of the buyer’s contribution to the above mentioned coffers. Is this restriction due simply to bad conscience or to outright hooliganism? I will let others decide.

And all of this before we include the other hidden taxes such as the sky high telephone rates we must pay because the nation has sold concessions at elevated prices in order to raise fresh resources. Authorities (in this case Conatel) have already gone on record as stating that during the next bid for a concession of a cellular phone system, we “must not commit the same mistake of selling it cheaply, in obvious detriment of the interests of the State. We must try to get more than US$ 100 million for it”. Obviously, those US$ 100 million must be repaid by the end user, by way of higher tariffs. Obviously, nobody has considered the right of the common citizen to be able to communicate economically. One of these days it will occur to someone to announce the letting of a concession for pure air.

And all of this before we include the hidden taxes represented by the abominable public services we receive.

And all of this before we include the immense contribution of a healthy portion of the physicians, professors, teachers and other professionals that work and comply with their obligations, earning pay that is well below what it should be.

And all of this before the contribution of companies in the form of taxes on assets, which must be paid whether the company is in the black or in the red and which ultimately find their way to the final consumer.

And all this before we consider the astronomic taxes incurred due to a string of devaluations, the impact of which is proven when we see that never, before or after Columbus, has the public sector been so large in comparison to the private sector. The essence of any neo-liberal model is the reduction of the influence of the public sector on the economy. The tropicalized interpretation of this model by our government officials has allowed them to get rid of all that has become obsolete, that is causing them problems or even worse, that requires investment. It seems that their dream is to keep all fiscal income but without any of the corresponding obligations.

This series of inexhaustible fiscal contributions, voluntary and involuntary, evident and occult, is justified by the threat that, should we not pay up, we will have a monster deficit, inflation will eat us alive, and along with these two specters the big bad wolf will get us as well. Ladies and Gentlemen, inflation has been around for many years and the wolf has been here for some time. It seems to me he is dressed up as the taxman.

Venezuela’s problem cannot be found on the fiscal contribution side of the coin. Venezuela’s problem is found, with crystal clarity, on the fiscal spending side. This is why, by paying my income tax, I could be causing damage to my country. Something like giving drugs to an addict. Something like giving an alcoholic a bottle of rum. Something like treason.

The next time you see a dirty, tattered and hungry child abandoned in the streets without hope, remember that he has also contributed Bs. 200,000 to the Venezuelan State in 1997

PS. Fast forward: My tax paradise (nothing as powerful against tax havens than tax heavens)