We returned last month from Aruba. There is and increasing number of refugees arriving there by boat. I don’t see how they feel that they will not be returned. It is a small, desert island. We met a young Canadian at the airport who was supposed to spend 3 months in Venezuela. He was there about 1 month and could not stay any longer. There is very little food, no health care or medicine to speak of, electricity is spotty, he wasn’t sure if he was more frightened by the roving gangs or roving military. People who live on the Columbian border cross to get food.
Christmas in the Bolivarian Paradise:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-38274267
maelstrommonkey–
here is what is written on the card that came with the “gift” … we destroyed the economy and social fabric of the country…so we stole toys from one of the last companies that would even think about importing to our country…so here is a “gift” happy holidays from your loving overseers (that company just joined the group who will no longer import and probably the owners are already on a plane to move to miami)
When, due to extreme inequality, corruption, and cronyism, voters lost hope within the existing system, it may not be surprising that they voted for a con man selling false promises, resulting in just trading one ruling class of cronies for another.
Venezuela serves as a warning to us all.
Interesting, post 63 and 64. I guess we didn’t pay attention to that warning.
So here we are now. 
We have a woman who lives in Venezuela who does some data entry work on a temp basis for us. She is about our age with two young adult children. She is so happy to have this small job because it has allowed her to do such simple things that we all take completely for granted.
I decided to send her a package full of basic necessities recently . We are still watching the tracking progress. The package left our local post office, stayed in NYC for a couple of days , went to Spain ( seemed very strange to go to Europe before South America ) and now is in Caracas. She lives in a smaller city. We sent it with the full understanding that it could be stolen , but we are hoping it makes it to her. We included some candy that is less likely to melt for her brother’s children. Her brother was robbed and tried to fight back , but was killed
That is awesome that you are able to employee that woman, lje62. I’m hoping that means she always gets paid, and they can’t confiscate that money. I hope the package gets to her!
A timely article on Venezuela
Re: #68
Pre-Chavez Venezuela was not exactly a “successful social democracy”. Corruption charges leading to the impeachment of the president, and two coup attempts, in the 1990s damaged the legitimacy of the main parties of the time. On the economic front, poverty (which rose from 31.5% in 1989 to 54.5% in 1997) and inequality typical of Latin America (Gini = 48.8 in 1996) added to the popular resentment.
Such were conditions that made it easy for a con man selling false promises to get elected.
Useful idiots. . .love the phrase. Another favorite from the genre: can’t make an omelette without cracking a few eggs.
“Useful idiots” could apply to a variety of political alignments, not all of which are overtly in favor of the political actor who sees them as such. Extremists on the opposite side often serve this function, by making the opposite side look worse than it is.
@busdriver11 , she gets paid via paypal and so far she has received her pay with no issues. She also received the package and sent us pictures of her neighborhood kids with the candy that was in the box ( lollipops and bubble gun type pieces that we thought might not melt in transit )