Venezuela - Mass Protests - Page 8
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arbiter_md
Moldova1219 Posts
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Sub40APM
6336 Posts
On February 28 2014 22:41 arbiter_md wrote: Wow, silverman - you should writing books! The chapter about the secret list was so much like a Hollywood movie, you would never think this can happen in reality! Thanks for good insights. how do you know it happened, its just a single poster on a game forum claiming inside info... http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/02/27/how-a-sensible-economic-policy-might-have-sparked-venezuelas-protests/ As much as Venezuela's middle class might disagree with Maduro's government, CADIVI had allowed many of them to make personal gains at the expense of politics. "The result is that, in socialist Venezuela, those with access to foreign currency can propel themselves into the one percent, flying around the world and living in five-star hotels," Time Magazine's Girish Gupta wrote last month of CADIVI, "while locals earning in Bolívares battle one of the most expensive economies on the planet, struggling to find and afford basics such as cooking oil, chicken and toilet paper." It's perhaps ironic that Maduro's seemingly sensible attempt to control the Venezuelan economy – clearly one of the country's biggest problems and a threat to the poorer people who make up his base – might have sparked the biggest protests of his short time in office. Without CADIVI, an unspoken agreement between Venezuela's middle-class the Socialist government could be over. | ||
AnachronisticAnarchy
United States2957 Posts
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funkie
Venezuela9373 Posts
The tascon list, as he wrote, is exactly what he described. My sister's boyfriend, is a Petroleum Engineer with a TSU on Geology. He wanted to work at PDVSA, it being the biggest and most important petroleum company in the country. When he got to the interview process, he was asked if he had sign against the president in the referedum made against him. As he refused to reply, they searched him, right on his face on the spot, and the list showed he had signed against the president. The interview was over right there. It saddens me that the saying "Los ignorantes eligen presidentes" is more true now than ever. Since the poor people now have a "voice", the government gives them free houses, allowances, pays them monthly and whatnot, they don't have to work. Nor, they have to worry about anything, since well, everything is handed out to them at ease. Those posts by silverman, do reflect the reality of the situation here regarding the exchange control. There was also corruption in CADIVI's system. Let's say I'm a business and I want $100,000. Those $100,000 until not long ago costed 6.3BsF/$, right?. Let's say I'm a CADIVI-person and I "help" you get those $100,000 you need, but let's say I need to get something out of it, so I can move my influences and make that happen for you. Let's now put the price of those $100,000 at 16BsF/$. So I get something out of it and we all win. We all win? Of course we do, it's better (a hell of a lot better) to buy at an exchange rate of 16BsF/$ than 30-40BsF/$ on the black market. Around 2005-2006, individuals couldn't sell dollars to other individuals. For example, let's say I traveled to USA, and bought 3000$ but got back to the country with 1000$ extra that I did not spend. With that law, it was against the law to sell those dollars, because the government was the only one allowed to send/buy the currency. Around 2 weeks ago, a law passed that ALLOWED (Again) individuals to sell dollars to one another. The first law prohibiting the selling/buying of dollars was passed under Chavez's mandate. The new one, is under Maduro's mandate. I guess they're trying to "mend" things up, but at this rate, the economy is cluster fuck, the price of the "official" dollar is now 11.8BsF/$ and the blackmark is rounding the 88-90BsF/$. Why do we always reference the black market? Because unless you're going on a trip (and sometimes they don't even approve those), have a business (a big one) and need dollars for production, you're not gonna get any. So the "easy" way for everyone to get some more dollars (outside the annual cap set by the government of 2200$ for POS Purchases, 500$ in cash, and 300$ for internet usage) is to go to the blackpart and pay 8-9x the price of the official dollar. I wholeheartedly thank silverman, since my english isn't as good as him for writing all of those long posts here and explaining the situation with a little more depth and clearness that I can do with this shitty english of mine. I fear for my safety most of the days, but I fear for the safety of the childrens I hope to have one day on this beautiful country I call home. | ||
Kergy
Peru2011 Posts
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icystorage
Jollibee19343 Posts
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lord_nibbler
Germany591 Posts
On February 28 2014 17:13 silverman-LG wrote: Poor people will likely never be president of a country, or governor, or major, or secretary of a major institution. I'm not talking about financially poor people. I'm talking about mentally poor people. The poor people who WANT to stay poor. The poor people who don't work, don't want to work, or barely work and want the government to give them everything and take care of them for the rest of their lives. Poor people who do not want to evolve, who don't have aspirations, dreams, goals, who wish for a better life. That's the kind of poor people I'm talking about. I like your insights, but this paragraph nearly discredited all you had written before IMO. Your thinking is so repugnantly bigoted, you should really take time to reflect on yourself. The notion that, the poor in essence don't want a better life and the rich deserve it all because they 'worked harder' is pure propaganda. On February 28 2014 16:23 silverman-LG wrote: 4. Why Cuba specifically? Why not more advanced countries in medicine? Like whom? From wikipedia: According to the World Health Organization, Cuba provides a doctor for every 170 residents, and has the second highest doctor-to-patient ratio in the world after Italy. Cuba attracts about 20,000 paying health tourists, generating revenues of around $40 million a year for the Cuban economy. Cuba has been serving health tourists from around the world for more than 20 years. The country operates a special division of hospitals specifically for the treatment of foreigners and diplomats. Cuba also successfully exports many medical products, such as vaccines. Kofi Annan stated that "Cuba should be the envy of many other nations" adding that achievements in social development are impressive given the size of its gross domestic product per capita. "Cuba demonstrates how much nations can do with the resources they have if they focus on the right priorities - health, education, and literacy." | ||
WombaT
Northern Ireland20731 Posts
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Danglars
United States12133 Posts
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funkie
Venezuela9373 Posts
On March 01 2014 16:17 lord_nibbler wrote: I like your insights, but this paragraph nearly discredited all you had written before IMO. Your thinking is so repugnantly bigoted, you should really take time to reflect on yourself. The notion that, the poor in essence don't want a better life and the rich deserve it all because they 'worked harder' is pure propaganda. Seems like you did not read my post. These people do want to stay poor, they don't want to work, or have responsibilities. Their only concern is getting through the day, and with the allowances that the government gives them, they are fine by all means. What is the problem with reflecting reality? I'd love for you to come to Venezuela, and interview people from the poorer zones of the country, Petare, Catia and so on. They love being there, even though they are "controlled" by prans and colectivos. They are the rulers of those parts of the city, and the government is too scared to bring the GNB and Police there because somehow, those groups or colectivos, have more gun power than they do. | ||
nunez
Norway4003 Posts
On February 28 2014 17:13 silverman-LG wrote: I'm talking about mentally poor people. The poor people who WANT to stay poor. The poor people who don't work, don't want to work, or barely work and want the government to give them everything and take care of them for the rest of their lives. Poor people who do not want to evolve, who don't have aspirations, dreams, goals, who wish for a better life. That's the kind of poor people I'm talking about. On March 02 2014 00:22 funkie wrote: These people do want to stay poor, they don't want to work, or have responsibilities poor people are the worst. if they weren't terrible people they'd be born into the middle-class in no time. | ||
funkie
Venezuela9373 Posts
On March 02 2014 00:48 nunez wrote: poor people are the worst. if they weren't terrible people they'd be born into the middle-class in no time. A lot of the chances given by the government to study and to get degree's are used by them, and then again you find that they don't really use those studies after all. They just have to get a degree and not use it for real life work. I'm talking about something I see everyday in my country. I have friends, family and wahtnot that are with the government, they support their shitty politics and what not. But they do work and they do like to live well. The difference? commodity. They don't want to get out of their comfort zone, same shit happens with rich people. They are born rich and they'll most likely stay rich. By selling huge amounts of USD$ to people looking to solve production problems and whatnot. Happens in every country, just that the government gave a voice to these people and well, they don't want the current regime to fall, since, their "allowances" will be taken away unless they decide to work and support themselves. But the economy doesn't allow that, does it? No productions means no jobs to hire. Edit: For the record, I used to think I was "Middle-Class" now I barely even make money to survive on a monthly basis, and we have 3 working people in my house. My mum and sister work and they also put money on the table to support the whole house. I consider myself a "barelyMakingIt-class". :p. Quality of life isn't what it used to be, the shortage of simple things has made the average Venezuelan paranoid about what will happen next. | ||
silverman-LG
United States6 Posts
On a sidenote, I would like to clearify, although I know this is a gamer's forum, I am not a gamer... at least not anymore. I was a gamer though and I was among the first year members and contributors of this wonderful site. I like the community here and have always felt attached to it, I guess in some sort of nostagic way. I posted before, I'm an american, over 30 years old, working as an expat for a multinational corporation. At the current time, I'm assigned here in Venezuela. I have a mid-high management position in the company and have completed undergraduate and graduate studies. Judging by the way I write and on the facts I post, you can definitely affirm I'm not in my 20s, much less in my teens, and I'm as serious as I can be, I am very well informed about the situation and every word that comes out of me is accurately documented and well referenced. I saw the thread a couple of nights ago, browsing like I said with not much to do at home, since corporate orders us not to leave the neighborhood (even if they didn't, I wouldn't), and given that I saw most of the posts lacked the depth and real context I embrace, I decided to jump in the discussion. I have to say, I registered a new account because it's been so long I had posted here, I forgot my old account details, and honestly I'd rather open a new one over going to the trouble of trying to recover the old one. That being said, let's move on with the update I wanted to share. The country is in such a depressed state, that 30% of my neighors decided to hold a community barbecue at the pool area. Keep in mind almost all my building is occupied by expats, meaning people who should normally not be fond of socializing. Since there is nothing to do and nowhere to go, at least people start to bond. As I spend time with my community, I wanted to add another case I wanted to share, and is a prime example of how things are in Venezuela. The company I work for has (like any other major corporation) a segmentation of clients ala 80-20, meaning you have your regular clients, your important clients and your VIP clients. I remember when I arrived to this country, one of the first things I got to do was to analyze our portfolio of VIP clients, in order to generate business opportunities, partnerships, etc. I remember there was one client, whose contribution to our company was an astounding $0. This rang weird to me, so I did a little reseach within the employees and that is when I could understand what was going on. The client's name was "Confinanzas" and that name said, most Venezuelan's will probably know what I'm about to say. Confinanzas was a financial group that emerged as one of the most developed and outcoming institutions in Venezuela in the late 80s and early 90s. Its CEO was a brilliant guy called David Brillembourg, and the following segment I do not have actual literal references and will be posted mostly from what I heard from word-of-mouth. Supposedly David Brillembourg was an incredibly talented and brilliant business man, the kind of whose biggest strength was also his biggest weakness: he trusted no one. He kept a strong executive management team, which was made up mostly by his relatives, as he needed to be the decision maker in the corporation. It is said that every single major decision regarding the business had to go by David, which was considered good since he was so brilliant. It took David less than 10 years to put Confinanzas among the top financial institutions on the company and the way it was growing, it seemed that it would be matter of time for Confinanzas to be the number one financial institution of the country. At this point I end the word-of-mouth part of the story and resume with factual events. While still escalating towards the top, Confinanzas had a so-so headquarters building, located in the old downtown area of Caracas, so David had a terrific idea: since Confinanzas was set to become the premier corporation of the country, Confinanzas deserved a premier headquarters building. Around the end of the 80s, David set up quick meetings with the top construction companies in the country. Architects, engineers, la creme de la creme was in the project, and they set up to build the building called Confinanzas Tower in an up and coming neighborhood called "San Bernandino". David's idea was (in his own words) to transform San Bernandino into the "Wall Street of Latin America". He envisioned that after Confinanzas Tower would be finished, other banks and financial institutions would follow suit and start developing the area, pretty much ala Wall Street. Swift negotiations followed and construction for Confinanzas Tower began and went on as quick as you could see it. Like I said, only top corporations were involved in it: world class construction, glass, floors, lightning, elevators, water system, air conditioning system, urbanism, health, you name it. The building rose as quick as you can say Confinanzas. Unfortunately, as quick as it rose, a quick downfall would come. David was diagnosed with cancer and he died in less than two years. The project was left with no leader, and to make matters worse, the company was left with no leader. Like I said before, David's strength was also his weakness: he left no successor and most of the top executive managers were not able to run the business, not by a long shot as well as David could. By the time the board of directors realized they need to hire a new team of executives, too many issues and problems had piled up in the company. Some executives quit, while others were unable to perform at the extend that was needed. With David out of the picture, the boat without a captain began to sink. So sadly... Confinanzas Group collapsed. By 1995 construction was about at 80% of completition, however with no funding from the corporation, one by one providers were forced to abandon the project and in a matter of weeks there wasn't a single soul working in the building, leaving the dream completely paralyzed. In a matter of weeks, Confinanzas went bankrupt and the dream was now over. FOGADE (Venezuela's equivalent of the FDIC), took over the assets of Confinanzas, including the 80% complete Confinanzas Tower. For the year 1995, the building -even without being fully finished- was gorgeous. The exteriors were jaw dropping spectacular, and the interiors were equally astounding. We are talking about a 46 floor complex of buildings, divided in seven smaller buildings that included the main headquarter offices of Confinanzas, other offices to rent, a mall, a 5-star hotel, a heliport, an entire building just for parking lot, and an entertainment and convention center. All of this unheard of in Latin America at the time. The building could literally compete and hold its own against any major corporate building from Wall Street, and even overpower it. Anyway, FOGADE (pretty much like the FDIC) is not an asset manager, so they set up to sell the building to any potential investor interested in finishing it and of course become its owner. I honestly don't have the exact figure of the pricing, but from what I understand it is quite straight forward to picture that a structure of such magnitude had a very high price, (not necesarily expensive, meaning over valued or priced higher than it's actual value), but for what it was actually worth, even with FOGADE selling it at a "break-even" price. Supposedly the price was so high several negotiations asked for a 40% discount and still were not able to meet the payments. Time passed by and by the late 90s Confinanzas Tower could not be sold, so FOGADE took the idea of place it in auction. However once again, no investors could afford it, so it was impossible to sell it. FOGADE made an attempt to sell it to the government for a real bargain price, but once again no actual deals could be made. Then came Chavez. Chavez takes possession as president of Venezuela in 1999, and among many of the so called socialist policies he encouraged, was the one called "expropiation" and/or "invasion of unused property". Whether it was by coincidence or not, somewhere around the year 2007, the unfinished Confinanzas Tower, was now home of ten families who didn't have where to live, and chose to pack up their bags and set a humble home in the abandoned Confinanzas Tower. Then, this number began to grow: twenty families, thirty families, fifty families, one hundred families... and so on. The once set to become Venezuela's third tallest building, Latinamerica's eight tallest building, Confinanzas symbol of triumph and power, the pristine prestige premier center building of Caracas financial neighborhood, was now the tallest slum in the world. The once almighty Centro Financiero Confinanzas was now known to Venezuela as La Torre de David (David's Tower). As of today 2014, it is believed that over SEVEN HUNDRED families live in David's Tower. San Bernandino never became the "Wall Street of Caracas". Instead it declined to become one of the worst and most dangerous neighbourhoods in the city. I for one (as many as the stories I have posted before) simply couldn't believe it. I had to go and see it with my own eyes. About two months ago, I took my car and drove by it. I parked my car in a nearby spot about a quarter of a mile from it and got out and looked up to the immense of this huge complex structure, and closed my eyes for one second and imagined what would have become of it, along with its surroundings, had it been finished. I then opened my eyes and saw nothing but the full victory and conquest of Chavez's incompetence as the leader of a government that supposedly wants to provide with this country with a revolutionary better way of living. For those wondering, you can't really park your car right infront or next to the building. The habitants built a closed wall and it actually looks like the Vatican would look like in Rome. I did a little reseach on the building and came up with a couple of documentaries, which you can watch here, or read the summary I write below. Over 2.500 people live in the building. They organize themselves in informal communities. Each community has a leader and each leader reports to this one guy who is called "The Chief of the Tower". Not much is known about him, other than he is a well connected drug-dealer, who pays his dues to the government in order to operate the tower. As you can imagine, the living conditions are barely human as most basic services are stolen from nearby plants, and set up in whichever means possible by the people who live there. There are no elevators at all in the tower, which means people must climb steps until they reach the floor where they live. Some people who live in the top floors, don't even leave the building, for obvious reasons of how troublesome it is. There is a motorcycle taxi service that charges Bs 50 (about $10) a ride to people. Given the enormous amount of people living in the tower -each with a variety of wants and needs- several businesses have emerged within the building. It is known the building counts with: -2 quick-e-markets -1 barber shop -1 pharmacy (well... pharmacy...) -1 dentist (or should I say, 1 person who removes teeth for money, without anesthesia) No property is sold in the building, which means every habitant, business owner or home, has to pay RENT. Rent is about $50, and HOA fees (yes, the community leaders ask for HOA fees) are around $15. Since power, phone, cable and all of those services are stolen, they are free. I post this because I read a user questioning my conception and definition of "poor people". I once again state that I am not being either classist or rascist. When I say "poor people" I actually mean people who are poor financially, culturally, socially and more important of all... MENTALLY. I made a point saying there are hundreds of examples of current millionaires who were born poor, meaning with no money or family or decent friends, but somehow made their way by study and hard work and became what they are today. The people who live in Confinanzas Tower, well, let me not generalize and rephrase that again. The majority of the people who live in COnfinanzas Tower, are not people with no money or family or decent friends, but want to make a decent living and get something better. The people who live in Confinanzas Tower, apart from being financially poor, culturally poor, socially poor... are MENTALLY POOR. They want to live that way. Moreover, they ENJOY to live that way. My point is: hey, I know sometimes things don't work out for people. I know there are some people who are born into this world without any stars and are forced to say prostitution, drugs, traffic, battery, criminalism, whatever. But hey: there is always the will to change that. There is the red cross, the AVAA, the ACISC, the catholic church, the muslim church, the protestant church, several ONGs and non-profit organizations that can help you and well, maybe not set you on a nice 2/2 condo with DirecTV and high-speed internet, but at least a decent roof where you can set a decent life for yourself and your family. The majority of the people living in David's Tower, don't seek help, but what is even worse: DON'T WANT HELP. Think about it for a second. Why would anyone in their sane mind would want to live in a building filled with criminals and low lives, having to go though all that living hell? Did these people try to earn a decent living? Let's say someone lives in David's Tower. Where does this person work? As a clerk in a bank? Does this person go to school? What does this person lists as his billing address? Can someone go and visit a friend at David's Tower? Is access granted as easily as in a gated community or a public neighborhood? I don't think so. Reality is: like it or not, the majority of the people who live in David's Tower are informal workers, and a high percentage of that majority includes criminals. Supposedly several people have been kidnapped and held captive in David's Tower, while the ransom is negotiated with their captors. My issue here is simple: why did the government let it come to this? 1. If the government couldn't find a buyer for the building, why not find a foreign investor? 2. If the government could buy the building (and please don't tell me Venezuela's government selling 3 million daily oil barrels at $100 a barrel, is not able to buy the building even on a financed set of payments), why not buy it and make something out of it? 3. If the government sees the people taking control of the building and seeing the conditions how these people live, why not relocate them out, or if you're going to let them live there, at least FINISH the building and make it habitable? Just because you can put four walls and a roof together, doesn't mean that place you call home is habitable. 4. Nobody knows how many people live injured, are hurt, are born, need medical attention or even die in David's Tower. Even if so, how is ANYONE supposed to access the building to get them out? 5. What are the Taxes paid by the people who live there? Or the businesses that operate there? Overall, what is the contribution that these people give to the government? I'll tell you very quickly, the same contribution that Confinanzas Tower brings to my company as a VIP client: $0. 6. Venezuela is a 900.000 square kilometer country. Of all the many places you can find and build a home from scratch. Why has the venezuelan people been doctrined that, the easier way is to simply walk-in an abandoned unused, unfinished, unsafe place and make that home? A building that was on 80% of completition, actually has now been set back to around 50% of completition, with its current habitants destroying it. David Tower by the way is just one of many abandoned buildings that today serve as home for several families in the same condition. San Bernandino was set to become the financial downtown center of the city, but instead it's now a waste dump of society. The actual financial downtown, a county called "Chacao" also has an abandoned building in conditions similar to David Tower. It's a small one, only about 8 floors high and I guess maybe 10.000 sq feet of area, but still it's there and people don't even come close to it. There are about a couple of dozen more in the city and who knows how much more in the country. Of course, the most iconic of all is Centro Financiero Confinanzas aka La Torre de David. | ||
Danglars
United States12133 Posts
My issue here is simple: why did the government let it come to this? And why did the people let their government choose inaction etc. I take it the answer is just another one of those power plays with the military, dictators like Chavez doing what dictators do (and my my my that LIST, oh my god). From the political philosophy standpoint, no social contract, just live for the sake of living, and like some in the linked documentary, housing is a right--and that whole package of ideas. It's so saddening. | ||
Sub40APM
6336 Posts
On March 02 2014 00:48 nunez wrote: Surprising to see Catholics embrace Calvinist doctrine of predestination so eagerly. poor people are the worst. if they weren't terrible people they'd be born into the middle-class in no time. | ||
Sub40APM
6336 Posts
On March 02 2014 14:38 Danglars wrote: What a story! How sad... And why did the people let their government choose inaction etc. I take it the answer is just another one of those power plays with the military, dictators like Chavez doing what dictators do (and my my my that LIST, oh my god). From the political philosophy standpoint, no social contract, just live for the sake of living, and like some in the linked documentary, housing is a right--and that whole package of ideas. It's so saddening. Ya except the government according to his story took the assets of a failed financial institution -- including that tower -- over in 94. 5 years before Chavez, so it seems like inability to properly use state asset doesnt seem its only a Chavez thing. | ||
lord_nibbler
Germany591 Posts
Again, interesting post (though I already knew about David's Tower), but sadly your prejudices still came through. You realize this has little to do with political systems, right? I could write similar bleak stories about Detroit suburbs. God forsaken rundown places full of criminals, abandoned by police, forgotten by the government, sound familiar? | ||
Danglars
United States12133 Posts
On March 02 2014 15:23 Sub40APM wrote: It took a great tragedy to turn it into an even greater tragedy. Invasion of unused property, as he says, without the corresponding, "shit guys, sell it to foreigns to finish/condemn & board it up/finish it yourself to repurpose for housing."Ya except the government according to his story took the assets of a failed financial institution -- including that tower -- over in 94. 5 years before Chavez, so it seems like inability to properly use state asset doesnt seem its only a Chavez thing. You realize this has little to do with political systems, right? It's not like you can't draw parallels from the local politics of Detroit to the national politics of Venezuela. Really nothing he says is about political systems per say. The focus is on malfeasances of politicians, public policies, incapable leadership, and some corruption of attitudes. With regards to the last point, the shock felt when he sees the human condition/human spirit reformed.I could write similar bleak stories about Detroit suburbs. God forsaken rundown places full of criminals, abandoned by police, forgotten by the government, sound familiar? | ||
JieXian
Malaysia4677 Posts
However, just maybe, people who know that the poor people who got their 2 year degrees don't want to hire them and it's not their fault. What's worse is that I have a Venezuelan friend telling me this when I said that 60Bsf for a simple lunch is ridiculous, that over here a simple lunch costs RM6 : A normal working person earns 3000Bsf and a student with a minimal scholarship gets 400Bsf. Hence, honestly 60Bsf for a lunch meal isn't a problem. You must know that your currency is weaker than ours, that's why you think it's expensive. But really, the amount we pay for food is really very cheap in comparison to our currency. Original transcript from skype: + Show Spoiler + una persona común que trabaja gana 3000bsf un estudiante becado minimo gana 400 entonces sinceramente 60 no es nada xD debes saber que tu moneda es mas baja que la nuestra por eso se tan barato... pero realmente la comida que pagamos tambien es realmente muy barata comparandola con la moneda de aqui nada mas And later when I said that a black market exists for USD because of government policies making obtaining it difficult this was the response I got: It's not actually difficult but rather that they limit the amount you can get, and people WANT MORE than what is given to them. For example a friend wanted to travel but there were 7 of them and only 2 had the CADIVI quotas and they didn't have enough and wanted more. It's not hard but limited, you get it? Original in spanish: + Show Spoiler + no tanto que sea dificil conseguirlo es limitante... dificil no, es que te limiten sí y la gente QUIERE MAS de lo que le dan... ejemplo una amiga queria viajar pero ellos eran 7 y solo dos tenian cupo cadivi entonces obviamente lo que tenian no era suficiente así que querian mas... es limitante... no dificil conseguirlo me entiendes? You can correct me if I understood anything wrongly. Later she says, "it's not difficult, you only have to wait for 4-6 months" . Like it's the most normal thing in the world. | ||
funkie
Venezuela9373 Posts
On March 02 2014 20:42 JieXian wrote: I have a few Venezuelan friends and this is just fucking sad. Thank you silverman-LG for your posts. However, just maybe, people who know that the poor people who got their 2 year degrees don't want to hire them and it's not their fault. What's worse is that I have a Venezuelan friend telling me this when I said that 60Bsf for a simple lunch is ridiculous, that over here a simple lunch costs RM6 : And later when I said that a black market exists for USD because of government policies making obtaining it difficult this was the response I got: You can correct me if I understood anything wrongly. Later she says, "it's not difficult, you only have to wait for 4-6 months" . Like it's the most normal thing in the world. Of course it's difficult. I don't know what country your friends lives on. The problem here is that we need to ask the government first for permission to access some foreign currency so we can travel. It's like asking the government if you can travel, and if they are "willing" to give you some money so you can travel well. Does that sound logical? fuck no. Keeping a exchange control to "preserve the patrimony of the country" has done more harm than good to the country, due to government officials creating "fake businesess" and stealing a shitton of money by asking CADIVI for money. You think that 500$ in cash, 2200$ in credit card and 300$ on internet expenses is logical in a country that sells a shitton of oil barrels a day for 100$ a pop? absurd. | ||
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