Why have we turned so negative? Why are we suddenly giving so much credence to the jaded members of this board.

Yes, we have been disappointed over the years from the many pronouncements that never materialized. Clearly our manangement has been too pollyannish. In the end, whether through naivete or design, it failed to fully comprehend the evolution of the Venezuelan government from a democracy to a thugacracy.

Yet throughout the travail, Fung has been able to keep our MOC intact. Just as it appeared we were going down in flames, he pulled a rabbit out of his hat and conjured up a way to monetize it.

In order for a thugacracy to survive it needs money to satisfy its supporters and keep its rivals in check. Chavez can no longer depend on oil money. He needs Chinese largess. He is in their hip pocket. He cannot afford to turn them down. Those who think he is still independent and still capable of torpedoing our JV do not understand the nature of a thugacracy. Thugs know what they have to do to survive. They are not about to commit 'fungicide'.

On a personal note, my father was a young man during the Great Depression. The seemingly never ending ten years of suffering were indelibly etched in his brain. He lived fifty years from its end, every day waiting for the next economic calamity.

Investing only in CDs throughout the remainder of his life, he left my mother $300,000. If he were more agile and able to see that things had really changed, he clearly would have been a multimillionaire.

Don't listen to the siren call of our jaded members who are, though well meaning, so beaten down that they are incapable of comprehending a new reality. You do so at your financial peril.