Venezuela has the high­est proven oil re­serves in the world—some 300 bil­lion bar­rels, greater even than Sau­di Ara­bia. Notwith­stand­ing its wealth, Venezuela has os­cil­lat­ed be­tween pe­ri­ods of boom and ad­just­ment and coups which track pe­ri­ods of aus­ter­i­ty. To­day, how­ev­er, Venezue­lans are suf­fer­ing the im­pact of a man-made eco­nom­ic and hu­man­i­tar­i­an cri­sis. The econ­o­my shrunk by half be­tween 2014 and 2018. The IMF pre­dicts that in­fla­tion will hit 1.37 mil­lion per cent in 2019 and that re­al GDP will de­crease by 18 per cent. Oil pro­duc­tion, the lifeblood of the econ­o­my, has de­clined from 3.3 mil­lion bar­rels per day two decades ago to an es­ti­mat­ed 800,000 to­day.

The term "mon­ey laun­der­ing" was pro­nounced on the glob­al psy­che im­me­di­ate­ly fol­low­ing New York’s 9/11 at­tacks. Since Amer­i­ca claimed this ne­far­i­ous­ly well-ex­e­cut­ed at­tack was per­pe­trat­ed by 19 Arab ter­ror­ists fi­nanced through $400,000 of sim­ple mon­ey trans­fers, it in­tro­duced and ex­e­cut­ed heavy-hand­ed dic­ta­to­r­i­al poli­cies com­pelling the en­tire world to com­ply with its new dic­tates, un­mind­ful if not un­car­ing of the desta­bil­is­ing im­pli­ca­tions slow­ing the eco­nom­ic progress of small and de­vel­op­ing Caribbean coun­tries all of whom nev­er har­boured a mod­icum of ill-will on this uni­lat­er­al­ly nar­cis­sis­tic be­he­moth, nor have any of them ex­pe­ri­enced home­grown ter­ror­ism.

As ir­re­sistible as the temp­ta­tion to sub­ject the Prime Min­is­ter's full-page ad on Sun­day to Com­mon En­trance stan­dards (as it has), there is some­thing in the mes­sage to which much more at­ten­tion needs to be paid.

Venezuela has the high­est proven oil re­serves in the world—some 300 bil­lion bar­rels, greater even than Sau­di Ara­bia. Notwith­stand­ing its wealth, Venezuela has os­cil­lat­ed be­tween pe­ri­ods of boom and ad­just­ment and coups which track pe­ri­ods of aus­ter­i­ty. To­day, how­ev­er, Venezue­lans are suf­fer­ing the im­pact of a man-made eco­nom­ic and hu­man­i­tar­i­an cri­sis. The econ­o­my shrunk by half be­tween 2014 and 2018. The IMF pre­dicts that in­fla­tion will hit 1.37 mil­lion per cent in 2019 and that re­al GDP will de­crease by 18 per cent. Oil pro­duc­tion, the lifeblood of the econ­o­my, has de­clined from 3.3 mil­lion bar­rels per day two decades ago to an es­ti­mat­ed 800,000 to­day.

The term "mon­ey laun­der­ing" was pro­nounced on the glob­al psy­che im­me­di­ate­ly fol­low­ing New York’s 9/11 at­tacks. Since Amer­i­ca claimed this ne­far­i­ous­ly well-ex­e­cut­ed at­tack was per­pe­trat­ed by 19 Arab ter­ror­ists fi­nanced through $400,000 of sim­ple mon­ey trans­fers, it in­tro­duced and ex­e­cut­ed heavy-hand­ed dic­ta­to­r­i­al poli­cies com­pelling the en­tire world to com­ply with its new dic­tates, un­mind­ful if not un­car­ing of the desta­bil­is­ing im­pli­ca­tions slow­ing the eco­nom­ic progress of small and de­vel­op­ing Caribbean coun­tries all of whom nev­er har­boured a mod­icum of ill-will on this uni­lat­er­al­ly nar­cis­sis­tic be­he­moth, nor have any of them ex­pe­ri­enced home­grown ter­ror­ism.

As ir­re­sistible as the temp­ta­tion to sub­ject the Prime Min­is­ter's full-page ad on Sun­day to Com­mon En­trance stan­dards (as it has), there is some­thing in the mes­sage to which much more at­ten­tion needs to be paid.