I have to admit- I am feeling a bit sheepish. Weeks ago, I wrote a rather bombastic, f-bomb-laced post about my abject disdain of President Asshat's policies, executive decisions and general behavior. Well, my feelings on this matter have not changed. However, I now find that my abject disdain has ballooned out to encompass not only Senor Asshat, but basically everyone.
In the beginning, I had a great deal of sympathy for the opposition. Despite being a "democracy", the current governing party in Venezuela, led by President Asshat, certainly behaves more like a socialist dictatorship than a functional democracy. Their decisions are often foolhardy, create obvious damage to the economy and only serve to further alienate the opposition. For example, while creating price controls on many businesses and products helped the poor, this policy completely ignored the obvious inflation the country is currently experiencing, and ran many businesses straight out of business. When the government requires you to sell your products for less than it costs to produce them, your obvious reaction is to close shop. Many of the shops sold out of products in December and never restocked or never reopened; many malls are barren. And thus, the rampant shortages and continued scarcity are not only an independent problem, but they lead to violence. So the cycle continues.
No doubt the opposition has had reason to complain. It's not a good situation. And I can see that they are frustrated. Attempts made by both parties to work together are failed miserably. It's like there is no word for compromise in Spanish. They are at their wits end. People don't behave well on the edge- I know, I've been to counseling school, I get it. However, I guess I expected more from them. More than using trash to set up road blocks, banging pots at 3 in the morning and creating dramatic twitter hashtags. They have real, legitimate concerns that demand addressing, yet they choose to keep kids from going to school and people from going their jobs in order to get their point across. I feel like I am living in an Onion article.
"I couldn't go to work today. There was a tree, old mattress and some burning tires in the middle of the road because there is no toilet paper". Yep, that makes sense to me.
"I'm repressed by a "dictatorial regime" and will voice my outcry by lighting trash on fire in the middle of the roadway....by a gas station." Brilliant.
The dramatic #sosvenezuela #prayforvenezuela twitter trends have proved a double edge sword. While they certainly raised the international awareness of the situation, they have also proved to hurt the cause. Posted pictures of Syria or the Ukraine passed off as taking place in Venezuela or bombastic tweets about violence or repression that turned out to be outright lies have eroded any legitimacy the twitter movement had. Now the "guarimbas", or the people out in the streets blocking roads and raising a racket, are not revolutionaries fighting for their freedom. They are literally just people standing in the middle of the road banging pots.
The activities these members of the opposition have been engaging in over the last six weeks have only hurt their cause. Now, Venezuela still has violence and shortages. But now also the two sides are farther from discourse, farther from compromise and farther from solutions to the very legitimate problems this country is facing. And as for me? I now have a long list of Asshats. El Presidente is still at the top of the list, be he is certainly not alone.
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