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.  

Wheat got over for the day

I believe when Axl starts singing Estranged, he says something like: when you’re talking to yourself and nobody is home. Good. I’m talking to myself just now. I’m not at home but I think I’m pretty much alone, and I put it this way because There’s something I’d like to say and no one can hear it. Let’s see…

Two men were standing on a line to buy some bread – and this is accurate to imply. Not because its importance but because its relation. So here it is: a teacher told me once that we, the Venezuelans, have a port style economy. He meant we tend to consume what it’s brought from the sea. Well, literally, all our north long is a coast; we have a large extension of the Caribbean Sea in front of us... I wrote what I just wrote because wheat does not precisely grow here. We’ve been importing it since who knows when, and the waiting lines for buying bread are usually so long that bakeries run out of it far before reaching the last costumers. I also need to imply that most of the people who wait for bread are poor. Bakeries offer some other type of breads which costs are unaffordable to them. The people who wait, do it for a specific type of bread which quality is obviously lower than the unaffordable ones… This situation started just about four years ago and it had gone worse since then – they didn’t know each other but it is a common habit nowadays to chat while waiting, especially because people may spend, with some luck, about an hour. Not a lucky day that day. They were talking about the opposition followers. They began mocking them because their leaders announced a six hours Trancazo from noon until six in the afternoon. A Trancazo is a way for protesting against the government which have become popular recently. It consists in blocking (with garbage bags, tree branches, trash or wasted things) the main streets of several neighborhoods and avenues. It paralyzes the city, mostly for those who move by car or bus. The two man at the bakery were laughing because the stupidity oppositionists show by doing that. They lock themselves, they claimed in smiles. Some personnel of the bakery came out and said they ran out of bread, so the people remaining on the line – the two men included – started yelling and complaining. Another man from the bakery came out a while later and said if they behave; if they wait patiently, there would more bread within an hour. And there were, but just until the lady before the two man. Wheat got over for the day…