Cupo

There’s a word we put in context when talking about warranty: tutelage. You see, the people, at least here in Venezuela and as figure of speech, give away their rights, so The State can manage them in order to balance (or try to) the society. Perhaps this is what Montesquieu implied; we use it that way, and I’m telling you such to make myself explained at saying when someone asks for a service, and the one who is to serve agrees, there comes an establishment of rights and an obligations (and the treat can be set just with a handshake. I heard it at law school) which gets, let’s say, sealed, by signing a paper. What’s my point? We live in a moment where a cell phone costs more than two hundred dollars, we do, but the average salary here is maybe over thirty dollars or even less than that, so; as you can see, a mobile could cost a year, a year few can have.

It wasn’t always like that. Ten years ago we flattered each other with the cupo: this sort of bonus in dollars Venezuelans used to have. And of course, everyone had a two hundred smartphone or higher. It was that way until 2012 perhaps. It doesn’t matter, the point is that it’s over, and, since people are not able to get a new phone, a whole world of repairers have emerged. It seems ok in words, but the problem is that these fixers are not certified, because there’s no such thing here. Many of them are just guys that disarm the device and replace the parts. They may not be real technicians, I mean and of course, there are no warranties…

My cell stopped working. I went to one of these tiny stores with a kind of technician to see if I can have cell phone again, otherwise I’ll have to wait several months; fewer than many because I do many things for it. I went there, they made me sign an agreement paper, they showed themselves very pro and a week went by…

I called them several times during the week and the only answer was a selection of delays; some understandable (because we are here) and some not so much. The week ended yesterday and I decided to show myself at the store. I must say it was a terrible week, you guys may feel me, because you do know the importance of the smartphone: the news, the councils, the translations, the wife, the mother and so on… once they checked my part of the paper and found my phone, a girl (and I’m keeping to myself the words I have for her, only because I consider myself a gentleman) looked at me and, wearing a gesture as she was bored because of me, she said to my face: it cannot be repaired…

This could be a joke to laugh about in any other time but, at this moment, it is a tragedy. I told her with the anger in my eyes why, why they took a week to tell me so if they could have said it days behind, she just did a pressing movement with her lips. I guess she was trying to say she didn´t know without using words…

Tutelage became a privilege. The State has removed us from any action to take. How about where you are? You will probably settle, which is accurate in this kind of cases. Here if you are violent enough you may probable hit the guys and spit on the girl’s face but I’m not that kind. I’m not even angry at them. I’m angry because there’s nothing to do but trying somewhere else to see if I get lucky this time… and this is pretty much what happens among people’s interactions…

Now anger is all around

I was feeling guilty because I went out twice in the same week for a lunch. What does that mean? During the days of strongest protests restaurants and discos were open, with customers, and you don´t need to know someone who may have been at, you don’t. You just need to check for a while your social network accounts: people praising the dissidence during the day and shaking drinks when the sun leaves it. 

I didn’t bring this up to expose those people for a judgment, I’m saying this because it is important to understand that such things happens because we simply are not used to be involved – consciously – in politics. Now we are. Some might say we’ve been since Chavez got elected, but I refuse to it because we were able to spend a partition of dollars per year and with that people went abroad and came even with more bolívares than before. So while this was happening, while the airport were full and shopping centers got crowded, the political conscience was more like the taste for music… but not everyone. Everything that implies disagreement with the government laid on the middle class mostly, and the middle class isn´t growing anymore.

We became the newly poor, like some chavistas are newly rich, especially those with access to preferential dollars. What’s that? The dollar controlled by the government which exchange rate is the lowest and privileged too, but it is practically forbidden for regular people, especially for newly poor. So new poverty is like a complain feast, everyone has a daily story of how extraordinary it is to do something normal. Like the magical realism of literature: finding bread in a bakery, medicines in a drugstore, getting money from an ATM in ten minutes, and so on. Little by little Venezuelans will be the only ones who understand such an exceptional normality.

But not every poor person is actually newly poor. This is important, many people were already poor before the twenty first century socialism and, yes, a very significant group of those gives all support to Maduro because he’s supposed to keep going on with the Chavez legacy. At least that’s what the propaganda wants you to believe. So you have to be poor to actually understand it, and it is a problem for the government: there are more poverty, yes, but also more hate…

You see, if you used to be middle class you don’t take nicely, nor peacefully, the fact that bread became unaffordable with current salaries, and the only chance to get it it´s by doing a two hours line to get the special poor edition of the bread, which is normally called: regulated.  It is a real issue for the newly poor, but let’s talk a little about the other poor: not all of them feel bad at this situation, many of them actually enjoy it even make it profitable.

Old school poor spent decades collecting resentment due to their status. Let’s take an example: a credit card used to be a middle class instrument; forbidden to the poor. Restaurants: owners kept the right whether or not let someone in. Private schools, which continue being very popular: personnel analyzed the parents’ jobs to see if the kid could be in; not because of the money entirely, but the position. Besides that; services: no cable, no phone, no electricity, different food, different brands for product, a whole social class separation… until the revolution arrived and empowered them… spiritually at least and it was almost enough. Everything started to change but not for the poor, but the middle class as I said at the beginning.

Now anger is all around

The goal

Poverty is not a consequence but a resource. A good one to second class politicians. There’s this sort of pushing on mantra we’re used to hear from anything and anywhere that encourages happiness among the poor. Chavez did it well from a TV constant broadcast and, in time, poor became proud. I’m not against it, I’m not. I think it is accurate for the poor not to feel miserable. We all understand misery implies unwilling; not cheering at all, at anything, of course. There has to be some purpose, some motivation to go and hang on, but it doesn’t mean poverty is a free ticket Disney Park stay because it is not. We’ve been told for years that our situation is how it is, due to the politics of some other countries, and somehow – despite there’s always a joy because we’re free – it affects us all because our economy depends on them.

It might not be entirely false; we do depend, but this is neither why we’re poor nor why we’re supposed to be proud of, and I want to talk about this pride: if you feel proud of being poor – because the government makes you believe so – you just stop trying to improve your situation. If you believe there’s no need to move from where you are, because it’s ok living in a rancho, you just won’t push yourselves hard anymore, and what’s the deal of it? It is everyone’s problem, right? It is, it’s true, but the moment you accept it, you open yourselves up to the speeches of the politicians, and that moment is going to seal your perception for good. From now on you won’t question, hesitate or complain. From now on you believe… like the inquisition did. This time not in the name of God, but in the name of the revolution.  

Pride did not come by chance, it didn’t. This pride is the result of many years of rejection, that’s why many people went for it, embraced it, because they were tired of seeing how chances were set up to others and not to them. To those, the political speeches brought hope, and hope is powerful, especially when you’re poor. We let it happen, we let hope became pride without warning, instead, we fooled at it, criticized it. We set the distance that politicians took as a road, and the road led them to victory, and poor became deaf to middle class… now middle class joined the poor without the pride, therefore this poverty is not resourceful to the chairmen, this poverty is a pretext.

At the end of the thinking, poverty is the goal and they’ve pretty much achieved it.