And this morning I filmed one.
It was in Macaracuay, in front of a small shopping center called CC Macaracuay which has the misfortune of its grocery store (former C.A.D.A.) become a public shop, Bicentenario after the expropriation of EXITO chain. I drove in front around 7:30 and the line was much bigger. Driving in front again around 10 AM I was so surprised at the remaining extent of the line that I filmed it.
You will note that at one point the video sort of stands still: the line brings general chaos as buses stop in double and even triple park to pick up or drop off people. But traffic chaos is not the only problem that came with the Bicentenario. All of the shopping of Macaracuay has decayed greatly in the last couple of years as scarcity in the poorer areas of Petare has forced people to travel further for their basic needs since the regime is unable to provide for Petare, and the private sector simply cannot deal anymore with logistics and crime to sell there. Crime followed to Macaracuay, by the way.
Macaracuay has the misfortune to be the closest middle class area to South Petare and thus its traditional commerce has migrated elsewhere, the area now dedicated to what we can call charitably "survival commerce" (small services, lottery stands and the like) the only one that can cater to the economic means of the bulk of visitors. People from Macaracuay, I am told, go mostly to El Cafetal or Chuao for their routine stuff even if it means driving half an hour in traffic. Middle class to semi affluent areas still live in Macaracuay but look at the fences and gated streets and you will notice that something is wrong. Macaracuay is now a frontier district.
Neither the poor, forced far from home to shop for survival, neither the "rich" who see their area become chaotic, are happy. With chavismo it is a lose/lose proposition.
PS1: there were many other lines this morning, in El Cafetal, Chuao, at all grocery stores.
PS2: coincidentally I was listening to "Fina Estampa" of Chabuca Granda who could not have been a better reverse symbol of social decay in Caracas. I hope you enjoyed the sound track.
Thursday, August 06, 2015
23 comments:
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that was an awesome queue....truly, had i not seen the video i could never have imagined what people are going through....a picture is indeed worth a thousand words. And how patient Venezuelans seem to be. One has to wonder how long that patience will last, and where the anger and frustration will focus if, as and when peoples's patience runs out.
ReplyDeleteThat line was NOTHING.
DeleteThere are documented lines way, way worse than this one. The point of my post is that food lines have become our everyday life scenery.
Just checked out ' The Devil's Excrement'; the people's patience has run out. Getting, hhmm, interesting. Good luck Daniel to you and yours.
ReplyDeleteThe video is not available in Germany due to copyright issues with the music :(
ReplyDeleteI loved the music.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the longer the food lines, the better. That's the main factor that is kicking out this retarded Dictatorship, people do not seem to comprehend anything else.
ReplyDeleteI bet more than HALF of the people in those lines still love Chavez, but now blame "el govielno de Maduro" or the "ultra-deracha imperialista" star wars, as the latest polls indicate, believe it or not. Perhaps they need a bit more time under the sun to sort their ideas.
btw, the food lines are a brilliant Castrista strategy. As you mention, it shoves the population around, equalizes it, while it continues to eliminate or expel the middle/upper classes.
ReplyDeleteJust what they want: from Petare to Macaracuay to el Cafetal, to Miami or Europe. Pa fuera, capitalistas imperialistas... They don't want the trouble-makers, the educated Professionals in the country, 1 Million already gone, only a few stubborn ones like Daniel are left. The colas, and crime, are a great way to complete the Massive Brain-Drain Exodus Program.
The worsening shortages is the government's strategy to stir up violence throughout the country. A state of emergency will be declared. The military will occupy the streets. The rabble (aka opposition) will be rounded up and incarcerated. And, the December election will be put on indefinite hold.
ReplyDeleteJust another lovely day in a socialist-Marxist hellhole paradise, comrades. Enjoy the crap you allowed to happen.
ReplyDeleteAnd what was this blogger supposed to do?
DeleteFor those of you in US get ready, the Democrats love Bernie Sanders.
ReplyDeleteBernie thinks that there are too many kinds of deodorants ... but he is on board with gay marriage so he is the darling of the left and much much much preferable than Ted Cruz.
And of course we had to get the irrelevant troll from, who else? , brave anonymous.
DeleteBesides the unnecessary gay marriage comment you do realize the only issue the republicans have in winning the election is that a decent leader cannot emerge within the Republican party when the majority of the card holders are complete nut cases. I am strongly supportive of capitalism policies but the republicans need to change how they pick their leaders such that you do not need to act like a nut case in order to get the nomination.
DeleteI hear about these lines from some friends...and then others seem to have no trouble finding available and affordable food....it's such a confusing mess.Some people are getting richer by the minute with their dollar accounts and income and others are reduced to eating nothing but pasta ......sickening situation.
ReplyDeletefirepigette
I wonder how many people standing in that line still support PSUV...
ReplyDeleteThe issue isn't who supports the PSUV, it is the lack of opposition. People see what a mess the PSUV is but do not like the opposition. All is irrelevant as Maduro has already declared the opposition will not respect the peoples vote, which is to say he has already won the elections.
DeleteObviously you support leftists but just don't want to say so. You just always say the opposition is bad for some vague reasons.
DeleteNice choice of music, Dano! Copyright issues? #OMG It took me a while to understand that to have a nice picture, one has to film with the phone in a horizontal position. Try that the next time. Before things get better, you'll have plenty of queues to document!
ReplyDeleteI thought you would like it. Serendipitous in way, was it not?
DeleteI suspect your post inspired another, Daniel! http://www.elchiguirebipolar.net/05-08-2015/hermosa-union-de-cola-de-bicentenario-de-puerto-la-cruz-con-el-de-maracaibo/
ReplyDeleteHow soon will Venezuelans start getting REALLY hungry? How soon are they going to get REALLY concerned?
ReplyDeleteThey'll have to invade Guyana soon... lol
ReplyDeleteDon't expect Maduro to be in any public victory parades from now until Dec 6. No one would show up because they are all standing in line trying to survive.
ReplyDelete