This has been a busy year so far for me and for my country because all the mess that begun after Hugo Chavez's death. Right now our economy is struggling with a very high inflation rate while many of the social programs that the government has been working in like housing are now paralyzed or are going slow. Some groups opposed to the government has taken advantage of this chaos trying to generate confusion and discomfort. There has been some arrests and deaths.
I consider that this situation is normalizing in the way that every day are less struggles on the street, but by the other hand the economy is doing really bad this year. Nicolas Maduro's economy cabinet has decreased the national currency value, created more bureaucracy procedures to access foreign currencies and has formed four different types of exchange rate while blaming the opposite side and foreign factors of launching an "economic war" against Venezuela.
Less products everyday.
All this is very complex to explain and understand even for an economist, but the reality on the street is that it's getting more difficult to find some products while some has completely disappeared. For example, I used to buy Gillette or Nivea for men deodorant and now I can only find Speed stick. And this is happening also with more important products like food. A lot of companies and business has reduced working hours and some just closed. Sometimes there are really large lines formed by people who intend to get some basic products like milk or sugar.
Huge line of people trying to get some food.
The National Guard in a grocery store.
I am not precisely in favor of any political party in my country but I am really getting tired of this stuation and many people as well; lots of them has moved to other countries looking for better opportunities and a more stabilized life style. I have loss time in finishing my studies due to university stoppage. I just want to finish and maybe I will be moving next year to somewhere else.
In some way, I had the intention to promote tourism to my country when I started this blog. Honestly, Venezuela is full of beautiful places, natural wonders, great and fun people, tasty food and really gorgeous women. Sadly, right now it is difficult for me to recommend anybody to visit my country. The only good thing might be that you will get a lot of local bills for a few dollars or euros, but we are next to Brazil where the soccer world cup is just going to start so most of the tourist visitors are focused in our portugese-speaking neighbors.
This is really a country of contrasts, by one side there are a lot of people struggling to get some food but by the other hand you can still see people getting lots of alcohol (there are always plenty in stock) and going to party at nights. Venezuelans are still more concerned about having fun than about our country's future, which makes Venezuela a rare country, socially speaking of course.
This is all my opinion, from my transparent point of view. I always try to be as objective as possible.
Right now my short-term plans are finishing my last university trimester (there are only 3 weeks left) and then possibly I am going to take a trip to Europe for summer, taking advantage of the fact that a lot of my friends have moved to the old continent. After that I have to come back to Venezuela and do internship until december. So that is possibly what the rest of the 2014 year is going to be like for me.
