The Tragic Implosion of Venezuela

Source: DataIsBeautiful.com  Click to enlarge.

In 1950 Venezuela was the 4th wealthiest nation per capita in the world and the richest nation in South America. Can you believe it? Today millions have fled the country into South American neighbors with massive increases in crime and cultural challenges.

The country's difficulties didn't happen overnight, but when nations fail they fall hard. This year the inflation rate increased 10,000,000%, which is a number that doesn't even make sense.

What's going on? Venezuela sits on the richest oil reserves in the world. Well, it's another case of the richest getting richer while the food lines grow longer. Children faint in school from hunger. The murder rate has skyrocketed.

Photo by Richard Jaimes
on Unsplash

According to a 2018 article in Foreign Affairs titled Venezuela's Suicide, "Its schools lie half deserted. The health system has been devastated by decades of underinvestment, corruption, and neglect; long-vanquished diseases, such as malaria and measles, have returned. Only a tiny elite can afford enough to eat. An epidemic of violence has made it one of the most murderous countries in the world. It is the source of Latin America’s largest refugee migration in a generation, with millions of citizens fleeing in the last few years alone."

A year later and it seems everyone with means to do so has fled, though many from the educated and professional classes have remained and continue to protest their government. As of last week more than 16,400 protests have taken place this year alone.

According to a May New York Times article Venezuela's collapse is the worst ever that has not been caused by war.

Pray for the good people of Venezuela.

Related Links
Venezuela on the Brink
Venezuela's Suicide: Lessons from a Failed State
U.N. News: Misery for Venezuelans continues

How Inconvenienced Are You Willing To Be?

If you've been following the news coming in from Afghanistan/Pakistan, the U.S. and Pakistani armies have become pro-active in striving to root out the Taliban from this corner of the world. Like all military actions, there are consequences that are disruptive to the peoples in that region. In this instance, Pakstani security forces have taken action, and 2-3 million refugees have been displaced.

Numbers like these are hard to put your head around, but think about how you would provide water, food and shelter to everyone who lived in your own town if they were suddenly displaced. Duluth has about 80,000 seated at the edge of the world's largest freshwater lake, and I still can't imagine what we would do. Now multiply that number by 300 and place them on the sides of a mountain. Where do you get port-a-potties for 2.5 million people?

One articles relates that Russia has now offered a million dollars in aid. The U.S. has promised 200 million, another story states. To put these numbers in perspective, the new Yankee Stadium was one billion dollars.

Throw in a few suicide bombers doing their "random-acts-of-violence" schtick, and you have a pretty distressing or tiresome situation.

It is in the midst of crises like these that one sees what people are made of. What's interesting is that most of these people are not in government run refugee camps. According to a Christian Science Monitor story this week, "Instead, they're being cared for by private groups and individuals. According to estimates by aid groups and other non-governmental organizations, of the 2.5 million people uprooted, only some 200,000 are living in the dozen or so camps set up by the government with the help of the United Nations. The bulk of IDPs are living in government schools and hujras (community guest houses) or with friends and relatives.

"In Swabi and Mardan districts, many residents have opened their own homes to the refugees. One wealthy family in Swabi is sheltering and feeding some 17,000 IDPs from Swat and Buner in seven private camps."

Personally, I don't mind having company, but it does inconvenience one a little during the stay. In fact, it pretty much interferes with all your routines. So you just have to wonder what it would be like to have 17,000 guests? Maybe we can do a re-write of Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?

I can picture the conversation. "Hi hon, got a minute? .... Well, I was going to bring a few homeless people over tonight.... Yes, I know it's book club night. No prob, you still can go. I'll take care of the details.... No, I'm not that concerned about clean sheets at the moment... How many? Well, it's just temporary.... uhm, 17,000.... No, we don't have a faulty connection. That's, yes, uhmm 17,000, give or take a hundred or so."

There's a darker side to the events unfolding in Pakistan at this moment some of which you can read here, but for now I'm going to try to keep on the sunny side.