Really bad in Venezuela

[vmax]

Bad scene in Venezuela. I don't know if anybody is following this, but it shows how quickly civilization turns to savagery when the food and money runs out.

 

 

 

The fight for food has begun in Venezuela. On any day, in cities across this increasingly desperate nation, crowds form to sack supermarkets. Protesters take to the streets to decry the skyrocketing prices and dwindling supplies of basic goods. The wealthy improvise, some shopping online for food that arrives from Miami. Middle-class families make do with less: coffee without milk, sardines instead of beef, two daily meals instead of three. The poor are stripping mangoes off the trees and struggling to survive.

“This is savagery,” said Pedro Zaraza, a car oil salesman, who watched a mob mass on Friday outside a supermarket, where it was eventually dispersed by the army. “The authorities are losing their grip.”

What has been a slow-motion crisis in Venezuela seems to be careening into a new, more dangerous phase. The long economic decline of the country with the world’s largest oil reserves now shows signs of morphing into a humanitarian emergency, with government mismanagement and low petroleum prices leading to widespread shortages and inflation that could surpass 700 percent this year.

The political stakes are mounting. Exhausted by government-imposed power blackouts, spiraling crime, endless food lines, shortages of medicine and waves of looting and protest, citizens are mobilizing against their leaders. “We’re waiting without even knowing what they will bring today, or if they’ll bring anything,” Yorilei Ramos, 51, said as she stood alongside her 9-year-old daughter. “Your kids are crying, ‘I’m hungry,’ and you have to tell them, ‘I have nothing.’ ”..http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/venezuelans-are-storming-supermarkets-and-attacking-trucks-as-food-supplies-dwindle/ar-AAhJpLn?li=BBnb7Kz

 

 

[cravnravn]

hey but gas is .10 a gallon there

[papasmurfbell]

Say China and us get in a cyberwar. I can see the electric grid being attacked first. We would be down for months at the minimum. I give it 2 weeks before civilization breaks down and it turns into lord of the flies.

[Spen]

Yep. Its one thing to be secure sitting here thinking about stuff now. But if something happens and we cannot get news updates panic will set in. If food becomes scarce all bets are off.

 

Also, I used to be in favor of some forms of socialism until Vin Scully told me it always fails.

 

https://youtu.be/C2lgZoaCJ_4

 

Edit - I do not see how to post Youtube videos/.

Edited June 30, 2016 by Spen

[papasmurfbell]

About 2 weeks. That is how long the food will last. Maybe even less. At first cops will hold stuff down but eventually they will start watching out for their families only.

[Spen]

That seems about right, hopefully we never find out.

[papasmurfbell]

Hell natural disaster at some point should make it happen. A giant earth quake in Cali. The canary islands on the east coast.

[vmax]

That would mean no football.

[papasmurfbell]

Football would be the last thing on ppls mind.

[Spen]

I'm glad I made alliances with some, but not all, of my neighbors.

[vmax]

We have a lot to be grateful for living in the USA....

 

 

About 768 million people worldwide lack access to clean water; 2.5 billion do not have adequate sanitation; 2.8 billion people still cook their food with solid fuels (such as wood); and one billion people live more than two kilometers from an all-weather road. Twenty percent of the world population still has no electricity, per the World Bank. Ad there still remains a sorry lot, who are Steeler fans.

[dc.]

I used Venezuela as an example of lots of economic phenomena in my classes this year.

 

If you don't listen, Marketplace on NPR has a ton of great pieces on what is happening and why.

[oldcrow]

thats truly funny vmax

 

baltimore is just like Caracas

yes?

[vmax]

thats truly funny vmax

 

baltimore is just like Caracas

yes?

 

Parts of it are like a Hell region.