User talk:190.72.32.200

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My name is Carlos Ramirez-Faria, Ph.D,University of London. I have edited the history of Venezuela up to the second administration of president Rafael Caldera. My editing is on-going, which is the reason why I have not included footnotes. Also, I am not yet familiar with all the editing protocols. Therefore, for the moment I would highly appreciate if my text were not modified, especially when the modifications, well-intended as they might be, result in ungrammatical or incoherent sentences. Also, the bracketed "citation needed" notations disturb the narrative of events. I am perfectly aware that citations are needed, but I will be providing them in due time, but you must understand that I have various other works in hand and I cannot devote all my time to editing the text I uploaded. For instance: when I say that "it was said" or some such other expression, this means I have to do a search in the files of the newspaper El Universal, which has the best data-base on contemporary Venezuelan history, and this takes time. Also, if some one is not in agreement with my statements, I would like to be notified and told the grounds of the disagreement. If it is a historian's right to make what he or she considers valid, then it is doubly the obligation of a critic to say why she or he considers it invalid. If I write that Blanca Ibanez was influential in the government of her husband Jaime Lusinchi, then a critic has to prove that this assertion is false, especially where the evidence for the assertion is consensual in a social context. The argument that my article is "biased" is unfair. My criticisms are adresssed equally to all Venezuelan parties. That my article is not "encyclopedic" hardly squares with the fact that I am the author of two "encyclopedic works": "The Historical Encyclopedia of World Political Geography" and the "Concise Encyclopedia of World History", both available in Amazon. When it is said that that the material is "irrelevant", which might refer, in a note posted, to my description of the Venezuelan "milk plan", then I would ask the person who posted it to explain the irrelevance of a government program that sucked billions upon billions of dollars and yet Venezuela is still importing powdered milk. The first time I edited the "History of Venezuela" entry, I did use the personal pronoun "I", but that has been eliminated. If "wikipedians" start changing mmy text here and there without any consultation, then I am afraid I will simply leave it as it is and wash my hands, like good old Pontius Pilatus. But please be aware that I have various other contributions to make concerning Venezuela.

Carlos ramirez-faria 06:53, 28 August 2007 (UTC)Carlos Ramirez-Faria