Keeping the purpouse:
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Abner; I am one of those who hate the idea of people from South America coming in droves to the US. I am all for building a wall of soldiers to keep them out. I often wonder, if they can get some 5,000 people together in one caravan and line up buses and trains etc for them to travel here, why can’t they organize the people in their own country to fight the situation. Americans have fought in major wars and some just skirmishes to save our country. We have been more successful fighting large declared wars than trying to fight skirmishes and “impose” our ways on the people of small areas.
Having said all of that, your posting really did touch me. I am not for opening our borders and unless a fairly large skirmish is started by the people in the country, I doubt if we will get involved as a country. We have learned some bad lessons as of late.
So, I ask, “what can we do as individuals to help people like you, who are staying?” We hear all the bad stories about charitable organization taking our donations, but the relief doesn’t get to the people, for many reasons. I know this is about Woodgas, not politics, but you are a member of our group and I for one would like to help. TomC
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Tom thank you from my heart.
I´ll try, again, to make it short. These delincuents of our regime ar not politicians, they are drug-delincuents and have violated every article of the past and actual constitution. They intended a cup in 1992 (Feb. 4th) and NOV27 same year. Democratic armed forces contained the coup and they all went to jail. 2 years later a stupid demagogic president we had at the time (Rafael Caldera) liberated them free of charges “to avoid violence” and these offenders went to elections, …and won! They changed the constitution (violating the other one) and installed a comunist regime (tipical) and didn`t pay anything for the more than 280 deaths in the failed cups. In 2002 millions of people went to the streets and the monster´s regime master fled and the army put him back in “the throne” .This monster called Hugo Chavez became the master of this disaster and left has his “inheritor” (before dieing in Cuba of cancer) an ignorant bus driver and born in Colombia (the actual monster called Nicolas Maduro). In 2014 students organized the protests and this cost us over 300 students (the mayority) and not students masacrated. We have kept fighting but have been put in prision or killed. Our best fighters (students) have left the country (about 5 million citizens in total) seeking better oportunities. We have done our best but have made mistakes. Something is going to happen, we feel it, but we don´t know what, but this situation cannot continue any more. At my age (70) what I can do is organized backups and medical treatments (as a physician). I have my office in Valencia about 400 miles from my farm in Merida and I come and go. I think and hope that we are more organized now and we have made a better labor in the international comunity. These monsters now have case files in the International Penal Court and their fellonies don´t expire. I think we have a better chance. Help? Yes we need it, we need people to know what´s happening here; there are thousands of Venezuelans doing a excellent job all over the world. My sons and daughters are in US, England, Spain, Italy, Colombia and Australia (two more are leaving next year). I have a son and a sister who are Amerian Citizens, but absurdaly my american visa was denaided because I wasn´t “eligible” to visit USA. I didn´t understand this because my first visa was given to me has a young 19 years old in 1967 and the last one was given in 1991 and was supposed to be “indefinite”.
We are trying hard, but we have less fighters now, many elders in the country and we realy need international help.
That´s about all I can say about that (like Forest Gump). Forget my english errors. I studied in the American School in an oil company (CREOLE PETROLIUM, in Judibana) where my father as a Fireman Officer and engineer worked, and thats where I learned my english, but I speak it better than I write it. (no latin accent dow).
My best regards and thanks to all of you for your patient and feelings.
SInceraly,
…Abner
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As the decision maker there’s a lot you can do. But you have to know what you are doing. There is a movement out there toward cover crops and minimum tillage. I would recommend the book GROWING A REVOLUTION Bringing Our Soil Back to Life by David R. Montgomery. GROWING A REVOLUTION | Kirkus Reviews
Rindert
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Pasturing seems to have an excellent effect on soil, and biodiversity. Hay cropping would be my next choice. Better yet might be coppice willow or other timber, but it’s longer return, at least 3- 4 years with willow, and market returns would be the big question.
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Rindert and Garry; I agree that grasses are the best for my land and as I said, I have tried to push my renter to plant more grass and less corn ( preferring 0 corn ) But even with the higher price per acre for the rent on the corn, he has half my farm in corn. With dairy farmers it is all about the fat content of the milk they get, plus the quantity of milk. You can’t pasture milk cows when you are milking them 3 or 4 times a day. TomC
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Intensive grazing is supposedly working for beef cows. The succesful ones I think are using intercropping, ie mixtures of plants like corn, alfalfa, vetch, etc.which boosts the yield. I thought I read about a dairy doing something similar, but it was haylage like out in oregon.
I am still trying to poke around for the article but I did run across this:
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Or do both… 
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An interesting charcoal processor
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Abner, I’m concerned about your well being.
Hopefully you can check in soon.
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What Bill said 
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The March issue of National Geographic has an artical titled “no way out” that shows the desperate plight of the people in El Salvador and Venezuela.
The end result of “socialism”. Total collapse of civilization,
Venezuela has the highest murder rate in the world in 2017 at 89 per 100000. Compared to the US at 5.3 per 100000.
And now no electricity. Abner i wish you well.
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Thats crazy. I had to check for my country, its at 1,2 per 100 000. I think lm not moving anywhere soon
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I fail to see how “socialism” has had any bearing on the disaster in El Salvador. They have never had anything slightly like socialism. It’s always been the most hard core capitalist, free market economy, no minimum wage or labour standards.
They abandoned their own currency and monetary policy, and like a good vassal state use the US dollar straight up.
I would tend to look to the billion dollar war the US unleashed in that sorry postage stamp of a nation in the 80s, including widespread death squad activity, never brought to justice. There were over 50,000 tortured, raped, shot, and left in public body dumps beside the capital. Teachers, union leaders, journalists etc. Never solved. The funding came from the Pentagon. The same 10 oligarch families who owned 90% of the economy then still own everything. The country is deeply scarred, impunity and violence are the means of state control, and have now pervaded the extremely poor society.
El Salvador is also a story of ecological disaster. Land too steep to farm cleared in desperate necessity, soon destroyed by hurricane rains, soils depleted by lack of money for fertilizer, climate change leading to drought and basic problems in subsistence farming. And now simply far too many people at the bottom of the pyramid, and nowhere near adequate resources to go around.
Same story in Honduras, which is why families are so desperate as to send kids as young as 7 or 8 alone, with a piece of paper with the name and address of an uncle maybe in Chicago. Utter desperation.
Illegal seizure of Venezuelan government revenue, monetary and oil embargo, and now foreign cyber or terrorist attacks on hydro facilities sure don’t help matters in the country. I can’t imagine many countries tolerating that sort of attack, or doing well under it long term.
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Yes the collapse if the Venezuelan government is a direct result of the collapse of the oil prices from a peak over $145 per barrel in 2008 to $45 in 2019. When a country has a single commodity which is the bulk of it’s economy and it drops to less then 1/3 of its value over a decade that will definitely harm the economy regardless of the political philosophy on the government. Now add on top of that the heavy sections on their economy and the outcome is not only predictable but is also planned by outside forces. Sections on countries are designed to destabilize the economy forcing hardship onto the population so they will be forced to implement political reforms the outside word wants. Sections have no other purpose then to destabilize a country and force its citizens to change the course of the government to make it come in line with the views of the nation implementing them. If the USA is concerned about the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela simply lift the secations and give them back access to their government funds held outside the country allowing then to use those funds to buy and sell the goods their economy needs. But that would mean that we would have to respect their right to run the country as they see fit not as we want them to. John Bolton went on national TV and said he believed we need to get the government of Venezuela to accept our oil companies that it would be good for both countries. This is clearly route cause of the problems in Venezuela the humanitarian crisis is the desired result of foriegn policy twords that goverment. Not defending their government or attacking the actions of ours but simply pointing out that the political system in Venezuela didn’t cause them to be a failed oil state that happened independently from the type of government.
Sorry for the rant I am positive it is off topic.
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Just one more reason for us to keep on developing gasification tech.
Rindert
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Yup the more energy independence we can be the better. I need to build a gasifer but everytime I split wood for my heating I am glad I have the ability to support myself.
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Hi everybody!!! Finally after 5 days of blackout I can write again. I wrote this for Facebook, but I guess more people will read it here. We survived 5 days with no power, no telefones, no hospitals, no trains, no gas, no gasoline, etc… Our preparation of years made it a little softer for us in the rural zones.
On March5th I wrote this (before the blackout):
Do you know what’s deeply exhausting?..
that we venezuelans not only have had to put up with 20 years of destruction in our country, persecution, human rights violation, economic disaster en more from the Chavez and Maduro regimens. But now we also have to put up with explaning every single day how we DO know what´s going on in here (because we actualy LIVE it), how it´s not or has it ever been the product of "US blockades (until this past month, the only sanctions that have ever happened here are personal ones aganist certain individuals who have benn investigaded internationally for drug trafficking, corruption, crimes against humanity and more), how this is not about left aganist right (because no matter what your politics are, killing and torturingn people should be condemend), how we are not beeing nieve about wanting the US and othrt countries to intervene (because yes, we DO now our history and YES, we prefer the US and other powers getting involved instead of continuing to have Russia, China, Cuba, Iran and other “lovely” countries such has does, leeching off our resourses, controlling our miltary, and manipulating our situation like they have been doing for years now; plus, Maduro continuing to decimate our population in a humanitarian crisis of a level this continent has never seen).
I´m beyond exhausted after watching Venezuelans beein butchered in the streets, of having to explain that we are not right-winging, Trump-loveing, fascist-wanting, delusional war mongers. We are the people of Venezuela, who have suffered under brutality of a regime that does not stutter when lying, toruring,killing, maiming, burning aid, starving or stealing. We deserve better from people all over the world but specially from the US, where I understand things are not peachy, but where you still have your basic freedoms and so much more that allow you to get acces to sources like Amnesty International and other agencies that have reported for years on the true nature of the brutality of the narcodictariorship in Venezuela. Give us a break here! Imagine telling the Tutsis they were beeing duped about the Hutus real intentions. Or telling the Jews in nazi Germany not to accept help from US because “they didn´t really mean well”. Or telling the Bosnian muslims that they really should consider resolving matters inwardly with “elections”. Please, please, please educate people around you. Please support us by getting people of their idealogical high horse by exposing them to the hard truths of what´s going on in Venezuela in the worse time ever in our history and spread messages such as this.
Please in the name of the people of Venezuela, spread this message.
All media is blocked, this is the only way we can tell the world what is happening, this is a well planed genocide executed by a NARCODELINQUENT REGIME.
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Thanks for checking in Abner.
I am sorry you and your people have to go through this. I pray for you and your people.
I tried to share this on Facebook and it won’t let me. It must contain stuff that goes against their algorithms?
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Sorry too hear your in such a state in your country, It truely is a shame that a country with vast wealth of oil reserve as yours, the leaders have too sqaunder all too funds too a few devel like dictaters running the country. Glad you made it through the black out, and i will pray for your situations in your whole country will inprove sooner than later. We all need that problem of what you menchened fixed, though its not going too be an easy fix with all the variables involved. Hope you can maintain supply with the termoil at hand.The city people will allways suffer worse when shtf ends, with that type of nozi leaders.Comunizium at its best examples. Too dam many wars now days.
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