Hard Times At Venezuela

Hard Times At Venezuela

I don’t understand how someone like Sean Penn seriously endorses Venezuelan government, ok, I accept that ex-president Hugo Chavez was every anti-imperialist dream ruler, a man who stood face to face with the evil American empire, who spit on the face of the US, and who helped in a very ignorant way the poor people of Venezuela, I can’t say in an intelligent or Christian way, but the fact of plainly giving money to the poor is not exactly the correct way of taking them out of poverty, you have to teach the poor in order to do so.  

Let’s face it, economically, Chavez project  didn’t work, its popularity was built on two things, first the high prices of oil, that like in Mexico in the past, gave a sense of abundance, although not a very well administrated one, second the criminal use of populism in which money was given freely to the poorest sector of the population, I’m not against proper sharing of the richness of one country, but it has to be earned, not given just give away, if you give something for free, it loses its value, it makes people dependable and at the end is a governmental strategy to become popular, not really to get people out of misery, that dependency is another form of slavery, would you give your little children money, instead of teaching them to earn it? For me that’s the way of making disabled people, incapable of developing richness on its own, you want to take people out of poverty? Give them education, give them proper health care and give them working opportunities, that way, they can learn, be well instructed and healthy to form a strong labor force, with their mind concentrated on productivity, not in just surviving another day.  

After Hugo Chavez mysterious death, Nicolas Maduro was designed as his successor, this happened without a proper  democratic process, and the successive election process was even worst, with lots of allegations about the fraudulent nature of it, thus reducing Venezuela as one of the least democratic nations in the world, but hey, it’s not all about democracy, sometimes you need a strong hand to straighten up and get you shit together, I’m not against it, but that was not the case, Nicolas Maduro and his people lack completely any sense of economic orientation, they are completely lost on populism, totalitarism and obsolete socialism, taking authoritarian decisions that make more harm than helping the country, sinking it at a fast pace into one of the most damaged economies in Latin America, with consistent shortages of food, raw materials and medicines (hell! Even toilet paper!), even worst, electric energy cuts, which Maduro has denounced (to everyone laughs) of been provoked by capitalists, we have witnessed managers of electro domestic stores being put in jail for charging “abusive” prices on costumers, Maduro stupidly encouraged poor people to go and steal goods from those stores in retribution, if you sum that to the abrupt nationalization of several big industries you get the answer to why the exodus of external capitals are leaving the country at a fast rate, making the situation almost insufferable for Venezuelan people, if Chavez was damaging Venezuela`s economy, Maduro is killing it without a second thought, now tell me Sean Penn that Maduro is the right man to led Venezuela?

Today Venezuela inflation is the highest in the world, higher than 50% (and expecting this year to reach up to 75%, a complete disaster), with a government that gives money to people for free in a very unwise way, that keep products prices lower than its own cost, in a very bad business initiative, even their own oil production, what kept them above water for years, has severely decreased due to lack of external capital, yes Maduro, you scared the hell out of every outer investor, and now the oil industry is also sinking, so the big theater of “Chavism” is reaching its final act.

The “socialist” experiment in Venezuela confirms once again that using socialism as a way to end inequality is not the right way, distributing the goods of a country might be the way, for an already rich economy, but not for a struggling one, you can’t share misery, it gets even worst, as much as we fear globalization, the way for the nations is not isolation, the way is to get better educated and thus more competitive in order to gain a bigger place in world economy, those at the top of the pyramid have the moral duty to help those at the bottom, that’s the fair and Christian way, you can’t just strangle the rich, and give money to the poor, you have to teach the poor in order for them to earn that money, teach to fish, not give away fish.

Sadly, rebel winds of revolution start to blow in Venezuela, the disaster provoked by Chavez and Maduro seems headed to the worst part of the storm, and discontent between society starts slowly to build up, yesterday I was listening to the news about numerous protest, and the government controlled media trying to hide the facts, but you can’t hide the sun behind a finger forever, to the citizens of Venezuela it was a happy day, democracy seeds are starting to grow, and the light at the end of the tunnel may not be too far this time, we can only assume that the end of one of the most absurd and dangerous government in the world is about to crumble, I loved Sean Penn on This Must Be The Place, yes he is over the top, but without a doubt a winner, he is perhaps the world greatest actor, but what the hell can someone like Sean Penn know? he is a great actor, but I guess he didn’t go to economics school, if he was so convinced of Chavez good will, why didn’t he left the USA to live in Venezuela?