another taste…

A little taste from a beer: a black one; a black one that puts some of my thoughts chatting with my memories, so I remember Berlin. It was my first trip as tourist to Europe; I had been in Frankfurt before but it was as a musician: something I’m not being for a while.

By that time - Berlin, not Frankfurt - we had this mechanism so called cupo and, while others used it to bring dollars for making themselves more stable, I used it to know some of the world, and thanks God I did it, now a Venezuelan hardly makes ten dollars a month…

I actually feel this remorse when I reach thirty dollars because it is not common, so I write while having a beer, a beer that costs more than a working day for most fellows. I get a little taste, another one, and see this picture: no one can even buy something just for pleasure nowadays. Everything is only for the necessary, so you can understand how guilty we may feel for having a beer. I get another taste. In a time when every working hour is just to calm down hunger a little, the president says he’s running again because, surprise, we’re having elections within three months. He practically doesn't have opposition, well, he does; the majority hates the guy, his people know it, the thing is he controls the bureau, the army, the courts; everything from the public administration, he probably controls the opposition leaders, although that's just a rumor. A few days ago the Supreme Court released a sentence that forbids CNE, the electoral power of the nation, include the coalition of the opposition members, who had been unified as a single party. Divide and conquer, and we’re everyone for itself. There’re also anti-government people who despise their representatives (their own, not Maduro’s ones) as much as the president, so you can imagine who may win. I get another taste. I picture myself three months from now and wonder again how could this guy and his people actually have supporters: I know why, but still, l can't get it, what I can get is another taste…

Hunger is the best tool for these politicians, the promise of being fed without working looks like a paradise on Earth, in this case Venezuela, and it’s just a promise, they don't even have to, let's say, fulfill it. Last December they said on national TV they were importing (because we don't produce a shit anymore) pork meat for all and it didn't happen. There were even riots for it. They said, again, on national TV, they were not to blame but Portugal (at first) then Trump (it used to be Obama before) and then Santos (the president of Colombia is always guilty of something) It has to be someone from abroad unless the responsible lies on the opposition, in that case that person will be guilty of charge for sure... and yes, their people believe those things and I won’t take another taste because I took my last one while realizing we haven´t realized properly yet; this could get even worse, worse enough to stop writing and posting because there won’t be time nor resources for it. I still have a twitter account, I mean, we’re bad but there’s more to worsen…

See you!

safe passages

There is this phrase which more or less in english goes like: we’re making the effort for having a better country. Now everything is for having a better country. Last Saturday I went to the venezuelan version of a Food Truck Fair and, like everything lately, it wasn´t enjoyable at all. Many people complained and they had a point to do so, the thing is that the producers of the event weren´t, in my opinion, respectful enough with the upset ones. This mainstream way of management through cell phones and by posting flattering moments of itself is not being well used as I can see. We are supposed to be cheering and grateful because they’re making the effort for having a better country; just like the government. Chavez used to speak about the new man as a person with new values. A lot of money in propaganda got spent to convey such an affirmation. I think it worked, there’s indeed a new man, only that perhaps it is not what’s expected, not to me at least.

The new politicians for instance. They’ve become so popular and then, at last, it turned too little (almost nothing) all these growing alliance against our oppressors. Yesterday, for example, these representatives, both sides, gathered at Dominican Republic to renegotiate terms. I’m kind of lost with those terms. I need my income to reach the next payment. We need a whole new economy system and we need it right away. This terms thing just delay while prices keep increasing. On the other hand, like the people of the Food Truck, these ones also are making the effort for having a better country…

It seems like everything is being done through safe passages. It seems that’s the excuse we better believe so, yes, we’re supposed to self-deceive one another, post it as a good thing to then, by lying each other, make the phrase a slogan. Therefore, let’s say I’m making the effort for having a better country I guess…

Papus

I’ve heard quite some about how important it is to handle English nowadays, mostly from people who don’t use it so much. I’ve learned it long ago, long enough to say long actually. I also worked as an English instructor for some time but, sincerely, I don’t know, no sé si vale la pena el esfuerzo;  trato de transmitir un mensaje cuyo destino se presenta algo borroso, así que, ante la incertidumbre de si vale la pena o no writing this, I’ll do it like this, usando ambos idiomas. El corrector de word ya lo evidencia como locura…

I was reading this book of Papus and I really enjoyed lots of things. Actually it made me come up with the idea that everything symbolizes something; to someone, somewhere, for some reason, at any time, y eso se debe a que uno es un universo en sí, y el mismo dilema que suscitan el cerebro y el corazón; del cual a lot has been written about, es el mismo que se presenta entre el materialismo y la fe. I’ve found it revealing because I spend many days surrounded by gente que se proclaman ateos y agnósticos, and this is mostly because internet gave such a chance. No es un tema de convicción, como nos lo queren vender, it is more like doubting (but without researching) is kind of cooler, y eso, en una crisis como la que vivimos los Venezolanos, and besides, in a time where we’ve become in a nation where heroes are now satellites, news; propaganda, celebrities; politicians (imagínense eso) and achievements; things merely working. Obviamente eso es un cocktail para la percepción.

No quiero pasar por alto lo del materialismo, so I’m going to quote a bit from the book:

El materialismo nos enseña a trabajar por la colectividad sin esperanza alguna de recompensa, ya que sólo el recuerdo de vuestra personalidad es lo que puede subsistir detrás de vosotros; esta doctrina, que deseca el corazón y enseña a no considerar más que a los fuertes en la lucha por la vida, tiene, no obstante, una poderosa influencia sobre la razón, y ésta retiene un poco sus violencias y sus peligros… 

This should be important, at least I think it is porque detrás del presunto antagonismo, hay otros, más concretos, como el del poder y la sumisión: un grupo significante de gente cree que en la sumisión está el deber, y que en el deber está la necesidad, entonces, cómo levantas a una población en nombre de la libertad, cuando el deber está en la necesidad y ésta última en la sumisión… You have to do it from a position of power, which is what happens with the politcians, and that’s why people still wait on lines for cash and bread, for example…