The devil's bodily waste as the Spaniards called it as they searched for el Dorado turned out to be black gold and a blessing for the struggling economy of Venezuela in 1922.  Indeed, it all happened one day in December of that year when a Multinational oil exploration company struck the vein of a colossal deposit of organic fuel while drilling on a well named Los Barrosos II in the Lake of Maracaibo.  Cheers and tears were hailed and shed in unison as the gush of the liquid woke the echoes with a constant flow of the sticky stuff.  Within minutes Barrosos II course began to assume even greater proportion as it was wagging its tail in all directions like a very excited dog. Off the bat hundreds of high quality crude emanated from it through an overflowing rig. It was certainly an awakening of a powerful urge which appeared to have been sent by the power of the Almighty so that the economy of this young nation could pursue Bolivar's exciting ambition to become a huge voice for the nations of the American continent as a whole. For all that, the discovery of oil in Venezuela meant that this country had been blessed with almost everything the heart of a mortal can wish for and it was down to the represented of the electorate to use the proceeds of the selling of the oil in the best interest of the nation.
 
However, a devil-may-care attitude and an everyone for himself slogan broke the ambition of Bolivar once more as those two items became the order of the date as castles of trust crumbled down under the weight of containers of deliberate jealousy and greediness. For all that, it meant that  the utopian nation that was supposedly been established on the back of the wealth produced by the oil died in the womb. It was all very sad, very sad indeed as few took advantage of the boom, the power of the mighty dollar and leaped onto the flatland of wealth and conformity while the majority suffered heavy misfortunes as they were offered wholly unreasonable very little when they were entitled to far more.  Certainly, it made the gap between rich and poor pitiably larger as the rich became richer and the poor poorest.
 
The advent of wealth in the country forced many people to abandon the countryside as they set in pursue of a dream, the mighty dollar and a better standard of living in the big cities. Agriculture was the worse affected as it had been wholly connected with the country's economy before oil explorations began in Venezuela but it failed miserably once the exodus began.  Nevertheless, it is a truism that not all dreams come true less so when politicians make promises that they fully well know they cannot fulfil. The move to the big cities proved to be an ill-thought one since there were not enough ready available accommodation to care for such a number of migrants. Housing became the cancel of the poor as many shanty town settlements were built in the perimeters of the big cities.
 
I have elected to shout since the well-being of the have not has been a concern of mine for many years as my dream is to bring comfort to those who are less fortunate than I. Many politicians have missed the opportunity to do something worthwhile in Venezuela but I don't believe for a second they have entertained such an enterprise since they have always been more interested in feathering their own nest than considering the need and expectations of those who helped them to be in a position of power. I like President Chavez's ideas and ambitions but I feel it would be a call to the wild if progress was not made sooner rather than later since things are far from better in the Motherland and I think the solution to the immediate situation of the economy and its crisis is to put aside our differences as people and find a compromise that would lift us up to a different philosophy of democracy.
 

P. Figueras
Head Coach
Figueras Baseball Academy

12 Mowbray Road
Upper Norwood
London
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