Venezuela: Land of No Milk and No Honey

[Bacchus4.0]

http://blog.panampost.com/pedro-garcia/2015/10/14/venezuela-land-of-no-milk-and-no-honey/

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You must have heard about the shortages, the lines, and the inflation, but abstract articles can hardly describe what it’s like for us Venezuelans.+

We are a family of four living in a middle-class home, enjoying an above-average lifestyle in a country where most households earn two minimum-wage salaries: US$20 per month at the current black-market rate.+

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Not in Venezuela. We could still do that some years ago, but now it is impossible. There simply is no milk. The government frequently announces it is importing milk formula, but it never materializes on store shelves.+

By expropriating farms, the government has destroyed the farming business. Milk formula is only sold at outdoor markets, where you have to wait in huge lines under the merciless tropical sun.+

Vice President Jorge Arreaza recently praised the fact that one of these markets now sells two kilos of milk formula per person. He called it an “innovation of President [Nicolás] Maduro,” as if it were some kind of achievement.+

On top of that, ruling-party congressional candidate Jacqueline Faría recently described grocery-store lines as “delicious,” and the governor of Bolívar state, Francisco Rangel Gómez, says Venezuelans would “eat fried rocks” to defend the revolution if they must. It seems Chavistas nowadays are competing to prove who’s the dumbest.+

[Renew Deal]

1. Don't these guys keep winning elections?

[whatthehey]

2. That's because the government controls currency leaving the country, and won't pay vendors

Neither will they allow imports without the CADIVI that releases the funds.

So they will neither pay for imported food nor allow food imports without payment.

And they wonder why no food is being imported?

[DetlefK]

3. Communist Romania.

Romania is rich in ressources: timber, oil, ores, fish... But the communist regime during the Cold War ruined the economy. The situation was actually very close to what the blog describes. Neverending food-shortages and uncertainty, coupled with permanent propaganda and oppression.

The revolution that toppled the regime began with a tiny event in December of 1989: A pastor had criticized the regime and was to be transfered to a different parish as punishment. He refused, so he was to be expelled from his appartment on official orders. He asked his congregation to come and witness his removal.

The attempted ouster of the pastor was scheduled for a weekend and turned into a demonstration, which was put down. This led to other spontaneous demonstrations, which were put down with extreme brutality by the security-services, but word-of-mouth spread.

On Monday, everybody went to his workplace, but nobody worked because they were too busy talking about what had happened. The citizens poured into the streets of the capital in a giant demonstration, marched to the president's palace and demanded political changes. The dictator held a speech, but it became evident pretty fast that he and the demonstrators were talking past each other. They started booing him. (You can see on the tape of the speech that he's honestly confused: He has no idea what is going on, what the people are protesting and why they don't like him.) And eventually the demonstration erupted into civil-war in the streets.

About one week into the fighting, the dictator was arrested because his underlings let him down one by one when they left his service.
Two days later he was sentenced to death in a show-trial, for fear the security-service might be able to free him again.

The fighting lasted one more week and finally democratic elections were held.




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The revolution in Romania started with the ouster of a pastor. The Arab Spring started with the self-immolation of a salesman on a tunesian market. The Berlin Wall came down because of a misunderstanding during a press-conference.

If a similar small thing happens in Venezuela...