Talk:Venezuela

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To-do list for Venezuela:

edit · history · watch · refresh

Feel free to add, remove, strike or object any of the to-do's below, but remember to discuss controversial topics here. Expand lead (It should summarize the entire article) The history misses what happened before "the first permanent Spanish settlement in South America." Check if all sub-headers are needed (e.g. "New flag and new coat of arms") In Administrative Divisions, fewer lists and, more paragraphs. In Geography expand climate, wildlife and flora. In Economy, "Venezuela also depends highly on the agricultural sector," I'm not sure about that. Demographics is mainly ethnics, nothing about population, it should be expanded too. Expand the military section. Reduce the number of names in the culture section, it confues readers a lot. Check that "see also" sub-section at the end of Culture. Maybe move holidays to a daughter article. Make the national symbols a paragraph instead of a list. Add in-line references. Reduce the amount of external links. Copy-edit and cleanup Make the prose "compelling, even brilliant" (2a) Investigate about the bolivar's decree that adds the 8th star in the flag <- this was the main motivation for the recent change

Archives
Archive 1

Contents 1 vandalism 2 Minor changes 3 Baseball 4 Vandalism 5 Reverted to latest version by Rompe due to strange edits from three users since. See talk page. 6 Made the section on the new flag neutral 7 What would be needed for the article to reach Feature status? 8 Current Demographic problems 9 Death penalty 10 Commentary not appropriate here 11 Hepatitis A figures 12 New flag and new coat of arms 13 Area figure 14 Highest point

[edit] vandalism

once again >.> could someone remove that vandalism in the intro paragraph that calls the country the Basdfsdfa... republic of venezuela?

[edit] Minor changes

--lucasleobas 06:20, 21 June 2006 (UTC) I've just added the following phrase, as the Venezuela's status in the Mercosur has just changed: "Venezuela partially became a member of Mercosur in December 2005, although it had yet to finalize policy changes in order to gain voting rights. Venezuela's full membership was finally effectivated in July 2006."

[edit] Baseball

--Glumbert 23:45, 19 June 2006 (UTC) Although I understand the references to baseball, I think it is inappropriate to make them in the context of the United States. It would be appropriate in an article about Latin American baseball players, but not in information about a country's history. Instead, the baseball info should exist purely within the realm of it existing nationally as a sport and only a minor reference and link to their success in American baseball.

[edit] Vandalism

User:Carlos Villamizar vandalized the page adding "Fuera el Dictador Hugo Chavez!! ²" as the motto. It was reverted by Enano. --A Sunshade Lust 03:05, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Reverted to latest version by Rompe due to strange edits from three users since. See talk page.

I just reverted 4 edits in a row from 3 users.

• user:SndrAndrss for some reason replaced the flag with one without the coat of arms.
• user:Juanvillalobos replaced again the flag, but this time with the old one (7 stars, old coat)
• user:Carlos Villamizar replaced "Bolívar" with "Bolivar"

Edit: Forgot to mention that user:Juanvillalobos wrote "Fuera el Dictador Hugo Chavez!!" as the motto, which is vandalism, so I left him a message in his talk page. --Enano275 03:10, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Made the section on the new flag neutral

But acknowledgement goes to Guayana or Guyana? I changed it to Guyana, as it would make more sense to me, but I have no idea. If someone knows, please edit with the proper word. Best wishes. --A Sunshade Lust 03:33, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Guayana is the one that gets credit it is mostly a region summing up a few states, Guyana is a neighboring country to the east.Flanker 23:07, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] What would be needed for the article to reach Feature status?

I would imagine current politcs is left to a daughter article, what else might be needed? compared to other country FA status?Flanker 23:09, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

If you want to contribute you could start by expanding the military section. After that, in-line referencing, a huge copy-edit (just look at the first paragraph of culture, it mention the word heritage six times... hehe) and a peer review would lead us to FA status. Otherwise, I think that this article is not bad. --Enano275 04:49, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

I could probably do something about the military version, I will also try to avoid it being like an almanac.Flanker 19:15, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

That would definitely help. I'm also noticing that there are too many lists, some are necessary, but the regions and national symbols for example, can be converted into paragraphs. We could probably build a to-do list here that would ease improving the article. --Enano275 05:35, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

EDIT: I added a quick to-do list (see top), it's probably incomplete but it's a start.--Enano275 06:00, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Current Demographic problems

Is there any source about the said problems? I've been looking for it but no luck. Venezuelans know that at least there's a 60% poverty in the country (and yes, the goverment earns $$$ yearly, but nothing to be seen) but I have yet to find a good source to post it there.ErKURITA 01:42, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Poverty is not a demographic problem it is a socio-economic one, statistics vary depending the statistical meassure used, The government defines poverty as income below a canasta alimenticia X 2 that stands at 37%, one should avoid apples to oranges statistical comparisons.Flanker 02:21, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Chavez changed the measure of poverty, which helps obscure the extent of the problem. Any statistics in current use mix apples and oranges. See Boston Globe, The Economist, and Reuters. A more thorough analysis, not available for free on-line, is found in Foreign Affairs Magazine. [1] (I think you can download the article for about $5, or get it from your library.) Sandy 15:32, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Currently poverty is a demographic problem. Look at this Slums,More Slums and More Slums. This is a demographic problem because Venezuela is propense to have heavy storms, and any landslide at the top of one of those mountains could wash it away and leave it like new. People has been living like this for years, and it is not only a time bomb, but the source of most of the crime in the capital.ErKURITA 20:36, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Demography is population and its makeup, poverty is socio-economical, it does not mean it is irrelevant jsut that it is not the same or at least a subset, Sandy we have debated poverty for ages, you show no evidence (just accusations) that said the world bank report dispells the notion of fixed statistics.Flanker 15:41, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Death penalty

Venezuela was not the 1st nation to abolish death penalty. Some other states did it before but either they don't exist today as independent states(Tuscany) or re-established the practice at a later date(Portugal) [2] JRSP 02:09, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

I'll read it and work on the grammar. Sandy 02:23, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Thanks JRSP 02:26, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

I kept it simple and minimal, since the wording is very tricky. Anyone who really wants more detail will probably look at the refs. Sandy 02:38, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Commentary not appropriate here

I've removed from this lead of Venezuela: it belongs in Mission Barrio Adentro once it is appropriately referenced. Please see WP:FN

Venezuela's leader in 2006 has been criticised[3] for expending considerable effort in making international trips to alter policies in other countries, ironically at a time where the country itself needs considerable attention in the areas of public health and environmental protection^[1].

Sandy 21:23, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Hepatitis A figures

From article. Source says the sample is only from the city of Maracaibo:

Hepatitis A incidence exceeds 46 percent among Venezuela's youth, with greatest incidence associated with poorer people[4]

JRSP 23:50, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

I haven't been able to decipher some of the health edits made by PhaseChange. Somewhere, I asked him/her to stick more closely to the sources, but I stopped checking them. (New account -->). SandyG 13:19, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] New flag and new coat of arms

This section looks like a personal essay. Self-contradicting from the first sentence: The eighth star is because of recent political change or because of Guayana's contribution to the independence? Is there any source for the cristall ball statement of "leaving thousands without the means to travel out of the country"? JRSP 23:24, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Area figure

In the late 70s-early 80s there were a study of the Venezuela-Brazil border line, both countries agreed that some 4000 km2 did not belong to Brazil but to Venezuela. That's the reason why some sources report 912k Km2 and others 916k Km2. The right figure should be the latter JRSP 01:23, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Highest point

Unfortunately the Venezuelan government link giving the true height of Pico Bolivar, 4981m, is no longer live. The well known author of this page has told me that he obtained a 4,981 m GPS reading in January 2006. But he has not published it so there may now be a verifiability problem. But there are many verifiable errors in the CIA highest point source; imo, this should not be used. I amended to an NPOV c.5000. Viewfinder 02:22, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

This site [5] claims it is 4979m high, but I do not know if it is reliable JRSP 02:43, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Correction to my above comment, the GPS reading was in fact 4979m. But I went with the government site. Perhaps, now that this has been removed, we should amend to 4979m, but I do not think that GPS is accurate to 2m so I am not really bothered either way. But I firmly oppose support for anything over 5000m. Viewfinder 13:41, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

c.5000m is fine IMO until a reliable report appears. Another possibility would be including the different reported heights but this would be better for the Pico Bolivar article, too much detail for the Venezuela article JRSP 14:04, 26 November 2006 (UTC)