Si Adler

Venezuela: A Land of Contradictions

Venezuela: A Land of Contradictions

Venezuela: A Land of Contradictions  

Over the next three days I'll be sharing with you the story of Rino & Javier.  Two Venezuelans who on the surface seem very similar but who's lives are playing out very differently.  Read the lead in and take a listen:

Venezuela is a land of contradictions and duality as Sociologist Ernesto Hernandez explains: 

“You can find here in any slum of Caracas, people who haven’t eaten that day but have a Blackberry in their hand.”  He says.  “People who haven’t eaten that day, but have designer clothing.  You’ll see many contradictions in the lives of the people here.”   

The rules that govern western reality, the assumptions we live by daily, often times aren’t so in Venezuela.  For example:  buying a car.  As the truism goes, “When does a car start to lose value?  The moment it’s driven off the lot.”  This is not the case in Venezuela.  A car bought five years ago is now worth some seven times what it was then. 

This otherworldly phenomenon is just one of many examples of Venezuela’s alternate reality.  Filling up your tank with gas costs less than buying a bottle of water.  An item that cost two dollars yesterday, very well may cost four tomorrow.  And so on and so on…   

At the heart of these contradictions, is the Venezuelan state and its policies.  As a revolutionary government it has strived to help the less fortunate and extinguish poverty.  By many marks it’s succeeding.  Both its levels of moderate and extreme poverty have fallen significantly since the revolution began.  At the same time however, its economy is flailing and the middle class is shriveling. 

It has strived to create opportunities for it’s citizens and arguably has, offering free education.  Concurrently however, it has destroyed the private sector and consequently many of the opportunities it was trying to generate.

It has strived to feed its people and has done so.  It distributes food at reduced prices.  The pattern holds however and as one might expect, many of Venezuela’s grocery stores lack simple ingredients like wheat or cooking oil.  

Deutsche Welle's Inside Europe, a program broadcast on three continents, had me do this piece for them on an Irish doctors strike and the issues surround it.

PRI's The World picked up a piece I did on Venezuela's economic crisis and its relationship to the US dollar.

In the name of renter’s rights, the Venezuelan government recently passed legislation making it virtually impossible for a landlord to evict a renter.  If you’re a renter it’s great.  If you’re a landlord it’s terrible.  Some are going as far as to call it the first step in a planned redistribution of property.    

As I lawyer I can say that we as professionals feel powerless when defending the owner of a rental property against the administration or the judicial system.  Because the owner is at the mercy of their renter in many ways.   Even though it's going to cost a lot, the owners really have to try, if in anyway possible, to sidestep the official means [of reclaiming their property] and instead bribe the renters.  Because in the end, it’s probably going to cost less.       

-Señor Soto

Unfortunately, people end up at the morgue.  They arrive there.  For example, they report 300, they report that 50 bodies were delivered this week.  50 bodies enter the morgue.  This gives a sensation that we’re in a civil war.  But in reality, only ten percent of those deaths are related to crimes committed.  There’s a magnification of the crimes here by the media.  Most of the media is on the side of the opposition.

-Marco Hernandez

Caracas has the highest murder rate on the planet.  On average, 53 people are killed here a day. 

I think, if things get better, I could walk on the street without the fear of somebody’s going to kill me.  Well maybe, I will have, I think, you will never lose it.  But, it will be, it won’t be so, so big.

You can encounter people in any slum of Caracas that don’t, that don’t have functional shoes.  But do have, actually lets use a different comparison, not shoes.  You’ll find people who haven’t eaten well that day, but have a Blackberry in their hand.  There’s been a change in the values, in the priorities, in the lives of our people.  Consumerism, more than anything, is driving the behaviors of people.  People won’t eat well but will buy luxury clothing.  They’ll live in a ‘rancho,’ which is an improvised house, but they’ll still buy luxury clothing.  You’ll see many contradictions in the lives of the people here. 

-Ernesto Herrera

My goal since arriving in Venezuela has been to post something daily, with that something being a narrated Audio Postcard every third day.  Up until this point, I've accomplished that goal for the most part.  With just over a week left in my trip however, I've decided to sink my teeth into a couple of big projects and thus am not going to be as frequent in my Postcard posting.  This reduction has nothing to do with a loss of motivation or drive, but rather a redirecting of said motivation and drive.  Exciting things are happening...

No, I do not believe that the economic situation is going to change.  The problem with economic policy is that it is integrally linked to the political agenda of the government.  And the political cost of changing, of structurally modifying the economic policy, this government couldn’t handle it.  It would have political costs that are too high.    

Today a forum was held in Caracas on the state of Venezuela's economy.  It wasn't particularly uplifting...  

In this situation, it appears we’re yet to hit the ceiling of our inflation or the floor of our currency’s value.  I don’t mean to blow this out of proportion, but it’s hard to believe that a country with petroleum, and a market price of more than 130 dollars a barrel, and a confirmed exportation of almost 100 billion dollars, can’t fix these problems of the black market and inflation.