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Good luck man.
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Jul 6, 2016 01:09
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Rise above, man!
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Jul 6, 2016 01:10
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fishmech posted:I think you're missing the point, it's an ironic comment on how Venezuela is going to such poo poo that it's starting to make North Korea look sane and stable. Ouch getting rightfully lectured by FISHMECH for missing the point. That's gotta sting a little bit  tetsul posted:Good luck from a lurker too, although it further unbalances the level of Actually People In Venezuela vs Sheltered Kids Spouting What Their College Professors Told Them on here. drat son that's pretty harsh, I feel like everyone here is generally positive, sympathetic, and trying to be helpful. Although I do bemoan the loss of another original source, obviously a man's life is significantly more important than that. fnox posted:Well, I'm leaving tomorrow morning. It's bound to be a long, uncomfortable trip alternating between sitting for hours at a terminal with jack poo poo to do, and sitting for hours in an airplane seat trying to fall asleep, repeated ad nauseum for over 24 hours. But hey that's a privilege that many of my close friends and family will never have, so I have a duty to them to do fine, to not fail like many other Venezuelan migrants, so I can one day help them jump the pond as well. Nobody should be forced to bear the disaster in Venezuela, nobody should have to live in fear, if Venezuela won't change, then we have to. I'm sorry that you have to leave under such circumstances, but it's really awesome that you're making it out! And the fact that THIS THREAD may have helped you to do so is really quite nice. I've thrown myself into the complete unknown before a couple times in my life, I know how scary and lonely it can be. Stay strong, man. And yes it will probably not be easy, but it's not gonna kill you either, and it definitely has the potential to change your life for the positive in so many ways. Good luck! Play fucked around with this message at 01:20 on Jul 6, 2016 |
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Jul 6, 2016 01:16
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ComradeCosmobot posted:Good luck fnox. Everyone but Borneo Jimmy is rooting for you. I hope it works out well and you can do something to help people who were less fortunate. 
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Jul 6, 2016 01:21
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Good luck from a lurker.
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Jul 6, 2016 05:41
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Good luck! I did basically the same thing as you (moved to Switzerland without knowing anyone or having any connections or money) about 8 years ago. No regrets. My home country isn't disintegrating, but it was anyway great for me personally
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Jul 6, 2016 09:04
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Stay safe, fnox.
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Jul 6, 2016 09:56
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I wish you the best Fnox! If you're ever around Madrid, hit me up!El Hefe posted:The problem with a lot of Venezuelans that go abroad and fail is that they think its gonna be easy and that they can just live there like they live here, you have to be mentally prepared that you're gonna have to work a lot of poo poo jobs and you're gonna have to work extremely hard if you wanna succeed. Yeah this happened a lot until like a year ago. Most Venezuelans that could actually move away were upper-middle class used to a lot of comforts their parents could offer them. In general, moving away from home is hard, even if it's the same country. As a Venezuelan it's ten times as hard since you have no one to fall back on. NO family can help you with money or goods, there's no one to "go back" to if things are bad. It's hard, yeah. But you can do it, Fnox! And being able to help your family after a while feels good. Hope to hear from you soon! edit: also, and not particularly aimed at Fnox, we Venezuelans are so used to corruption that we think we can outsmart any laws and regulations we walk into. I have a friend that managed to travel to Denmark and got married with the girl she was staying with, but things didn't work out between her and her wife and they split up, still being married in order for my friend to keep citizenship. Que 3 years later, she asks for nationality and suddenly an investigation pops up and now bot her and her wife are facing prison time, with my friend probably getting deported. Moral of the story: don't try to be so loving Venezuelan outside of Venezuela. No te pases de vivo if you will. Hugoon Chavez fucked around with this message at 11:24 on Jul 6, 2016 |
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Jul 6, 2016 11:17
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Good luck with freedom. I still hope the U.S. starts taking in more Venezuelans. Plenty of space and jobs here.
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Jul 6, 2016 11:31
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Ok I wasn't expecting two full pages of goons wishing me well  , thank you all.I also wasn't expecting the Bogota airport to be loving incredible, I thought I wouldn't have wi-fi until Madrid but even the Venezuelan airport had free wi-fi. So yeah, trips' going alright thus far, the Caracas-Bogota flight was nearly empty, and I checked into El Dorado Airport in like 5 minutes, I was honestly stunned at how developed our loving neighbors are. Also, Hugoon, I'm actually gonna be in Madrid in a connecting flight, I'm in Barajas from like 8am and then my Madrid-Brussels-Copenhagen flight takes off at 12pm, so I have a couple of hours to kill if you're available. I know it's a bit of a long shot since it's morning on a weekday, and it's at Barajas which is super crowded, but still.
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Jul 6, 2016 17:25
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fnox posted:Ok I wasn't expecting two full pages of goons wishing me well You're moving to Kristianstad right? First, prepare for the whacky pronunciation of that place and second, if you find yourself near Karlskrona any time soon give me a shout. I'm about half an hour away from there for a few months. There's not a lot to do in Karlskrona but it's quite pretty to spend an afternoon in or we can take you to the islands for a day or two.
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Jul 6, 2016 18:13
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Good luck, fnox! Like everyone has said, it's important that you understand that the road ahead will not be easy, and that it's only through a lot of hard work and sacrifice that you're likely to see results maybe years down the line. As long as you keep that in mind and you're always willing to work hard, the opportunities that your new country will give you should bear fruit. Yesterday, a group of about 500 women in the Ureńa municipality of Tachira state walked across the border into Cucuta, Colombia, despite the closure of the border. The fact that many of the women are wearing white t-shirts in the pictures that I've seen makes me think that they did this in a fairly organized manner, possibly as a sign of protest, but the point is that the National Guard soldiers guarding the crossing simply let them through. I did read that the soldiers delayed their re-entry into Venezuela for about an hour, but they all appear to have made it back eventually. The reason for the trip to Cucuta: to shop for food and other basic necessities. The women came back carrying bags and bags of groceries. A Cucutan news crew talked to a woman as she was lined up on the Colombian side waiting to get back into Venezuela. Here's the video and my translation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SUZR6sRBQg quote:Woman: We, the women from Ureńa, decided to come here to this bridge in order to cross the border because we don't have food in our homes. Our children are going hungry. We are in great need [of food]. Another story out of Colombia today involves the arrest of a man called Yazenky Lamas Rondon. Allegedly, Lamas is (or was) an air force captain who played a big role in the Cartel de los Soles, which is the name of the Venezuelan drug cartel that is supposedly headed by high-ranking army and PSUV officials. Lamas allegedly organized drug flights in and out of Venezuela for the cartel, and he was arrested in Colombia last month by authorities there at the request of the DEA. The US is looking to extradite him, but Maduro has apparently called in a favour to Bogota and asked that Colombia not do that. Maduro is supposedly afraid that if he's extradited, Lamas might give up details on the cartel and who knows what else.
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Jul 6, 2016 19:02
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These women are the heroes. Not Chavez.
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Jul 6, 2016 21:01
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Also Cilia's nephews defense is that they weren't told their Miranda rights and that the big bad officers were mean to them and didn't offer them a full course dinner after arresting them.
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Jul 6, 2016 21:05
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fnox posted:Ok I wasn't expecting two full pages of goons wishing me well Bogota airport is one of the nicest I've ever been to, and I've been to a lot of airports in rich major cosmopolitan cities. Bogota is awesome, and so developed and safe now it's amazing what 15 years of good governance can do to a war torn country. Hopefully Caracas will be the same some day.
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Jul 6, 2016 22:39
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fnox posted:I'm in Barajas from like 8am and then my Madrid-Brussels-Copenhagen flight takes off at 12pm, so I have a couple of hours to kill if you're available. I know it's a bit of a long shot since it's morning on a weekday, and it's at Barajas which is super crowded, but still. Sorry, I'm working yeah  I'm close-ish to the airport but there's not enough time for you to get here for a coffee and back to the airport, and I can't leave so long either!El Hefe posted:Also Cilia's nephews defense is that they weren't told their Miranda rights and that the big bad officers were mean to them and didn't offer them a full course dinner after arresting them. Ah, the "I saw it in a movie, once" defense. Those women in Chuck's post must've been pretty desperate and very brave. I don't think they were 100% sure they would be able to come back or that the guards would arrest them and rob them of the dollars they must've taken. Obviously they'll crack down if more people try to cross over but the guards stationed there must be at least a bit sympathetic to the situation to let them pass unmolested. I remember not 10 years ago crossing over from Maracaibo to Maicao to buy Colombian sweets and sodas and bribing the guards to let us pass with a bag full of candy. We even paid some stuff with Bolivares (most with Pesos one of our friends had stashed for the sweet run). Now if we were to try that we probably would've been arrested at the border.
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Jul 7, 2016 08:33
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Good luck fnox! Every success from here is a poo poo in Borneo Jimmy's mouth.
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Jul 7, 2016 09:48
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Negrostrike posted:These women are the heroes. Not Chavez. Hugoon Chavez posted:Those women in Chuck's post must've been pretty desperate and very brave. I don't think they were 100% sure they would be able to come back or that the guards would arrest them and rob them of the dollars they must've taken. Obviously they'll crack down if more people try to cross over but the guards stationed there must be at least a bit sympathetic to the situation to let them pass unmolested. No kidding! Who would have thought buying groceries could become an act of resistance? I've never crossed the border into Colombia, but from what I understand it used to operate pretty much as a lot of municipalities that develop on opposite sides of a border do: with plenty of relatively free travel between the two sides. In the image below, you can see the town of Ureńa on the right and Cucuta on the left. The only thing separating them is the Tachira river:  Leopoldo Lopez is having his appeal hearing today. I believe this is the first time he will go before a judge as part of his appeal. I'd say that there's a 90% chance that the hearing will be postponed and moved to a later date. Also, his mother and lawyer announced last night that guards entered his cell in the Ramo Verde military prison yesterday, roughed him up, and stole a bunch of documents pertaining to his appeal today.
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Jul 7, 2016 14:22
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Just learned that there's a Venezuelan restaurant within walking distance of me. Going to have to see what all this "arepa" business is about. Also, has the non-aligned movement meeting in Venezuela already happened?
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Jul 8, 2016 18:54
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Fnox, did you make it safe?
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Jul 9, 2016 01:02
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Yeah, I'm at my room now. The neighbors turned out to be quite friendly and hooked me up with a bed, so now I have to just buy like a couple of things and I'm set. Also, I see what NJLP meant by wacky pronunciation, Kristianstad is somehow pronounced like "Krijuansta", so I'm pretty much safe now, if all I'm just getting properly settled. I heard that Kimberly Clark Corp. left Venezuela, firing all 2000 employees and offering them a severance package, is that true? If so, then Venezuela is truly sitting at the eye of the storm, that's a pretty huge multinational that is just leaving the country.
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Jul 9, 2016 10:23
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There was a protest two days ago in El Tigre, a city in Anzoategui state. The protest started early in the morning in the same way that these things usually do: people who had been lined up since early in the overnight hours were told as soon as the supermarkets opened that there was no food left to sell. Here are a couple of pictures from the protest:    A reporter there asked some people who were protesting why they were out on the street. Here are two videos along with my translation: https://twitter.com/carl2015/status/751136299994808321 quote:Camerawoman: One question – why are you protesting? https://twitter.com/Zuliano73/status/751085874201370624 quote:Crowd chants, “Queremos comida! Queremos comida!” [We want food! We want food!] I also saw an interesting video from the protest there showing something I'd never seen before. In the video below, you can see what appear to be two National Guard soldiers dispersing the crowd. One soldier appears to be carrying a rubber pellet shotgun, and the other seems to have what looks like a gas canister on the end of a stick. The soldier runs around with the gas-on-the-stick and shoves it close to protesters to scare them into running away. The video is interesting not only because of that contraption, but also because I've never seen tear gas that looks like that. The gas in the video is reddish, and it appears to disperse fairly quickly. The hundreds of pictures/videos of tear gas in Venezuela that I've seen have never featured a gas like this one. The tear gas I've always seen in pictures and videos is not that colour, and it disperses quite thickly and hangs in the air for quite a while. I suppose it's possible that the gas in this picture is not tear gas (maybe some kind of pepper-spray gas? I don't know!), or maybe it's just something like a smoke grenade that the Guard is hoping to scare people away with. Anyway, here's the video: https://twitter.com/RCTVenlinea/status/751127156630122496 wdarkk posted:Just learned that there's a Venezuelan restaurant within walking distance of me. Going to have to see what all this "arepa" business is about. How were the arepas?! Also, I didn't hear anything about this meeting happening. fnox posted:Yeah, I'm at my room now. The neighbors turned out to be quite friendly and hooked me up with a bed, so now I have to just buy like a couple of things and I'm set. Also, I see what NJLP meant by wacky pronunciation, Kristianstad is somehow pronounced like "Krijuansta", so I'm pretty much safe now, if all I'm just getting properly settled. Congrats! You've made it! Aside from all the awesome stuff Sweden has to offer, I think you'll enjoy the little things the most, like "being able to go out after 10:00 PM without fearing death", and "being able to use your cellphone on the street without fearing death". The Kimberly Clark thing appears to be real. However, I've only been able to find one article about it. It looks like they've issued a press release saying that they're suspending their operations in the country indefinitely.
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Jul 9, 2016 15:40
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fnox posted:Yeah, I'm at my room now. The neighbors turned out to be quite friendly and hooked me up with a bed, so now I have to just buy like a couple of things and I'm set. Also, I see what NJLP meant by wacky pronunciation, Kristianstad is somehow pronounced like "Krijuansta", so I'm pretty much safe now, if all I'm just getting properly settled. Congrats man! Keep us updated on your swedish adventures. As I said you have an open invitation to visit us on the islands. It should be a simple trip if you get a Blekingetrafiken card, we can pick you up from Karlskrona, it's a couple of stops on the train. I especially recommend you go to any Crayfish party you can, they usually start around August. If you feel a bit down, some crayfish and aquavit will fix you right up. Anyway, it won't all be easy, things can get surprisingly complicated but you will find lots of help if you need it.
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Jul 9, 2016 17:17
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Comptroller General Manuel Galindo Ballestero recently gave an interview to Venevisión. Among other things, he was asked why his office employs no less than thirteen of his relatives. He had this to say:quote:You are asking me if there is nepotism, yes, is that the question? Well, in order to talk about nepotism, we need to differentiate negative nepotism from positive nepotism. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrCAbnOPh-c
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Jul 9, 2016 20:37
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Following this week's mass crossing into Colombia in Tachira, the governor of the state ordered the border opened today from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM. A BBC correspondent in Tachira said earlier today that a government source told him that between 6:00 AM and 9:00 AM, approximately 6,000-7,000 people had crossed into Colombia. The border is supposed to stay open until 6:00 PM today, but I'm seeing reports of people claiming that the National Guard a the Simon Bolivar International Bridge (the main crossing in Tachira; connects San Cristobal to Cucuta) are telling people to be back by 2:00 PM. beer_war posted:Comptroller General Manuel Galindo Ballestero recently gave an interview to Venevisión. Among other things, he was asked why his office employs no less than thirteen of his relatives. He had this to say: This is priceless! The arrogance of these people. You see the same thing with Diosdado Cabello's family:
That list is not exhaustive. Venezuelans are really lucky to live in a country where these really talented, upright and hard-working families are able and willing to dedicate their lives to public service!
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Jul 10, 2016 15:42
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Chuck Boone posted:How were the arepas?! Also, I didn't hear anything about this meeting happening. Haven't been yet, it's a little far to walk right now due to summer heat/thunderstorms. Also, here's a crosspost from the Airpower/Cold War thread: Venezuelan Airforce shooting down "drug smugglers". I have to wonder what's really going on with that. I mean, the Venezuelan military itself has/is its own cartel, so this might be targeted killing of rivals.
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Jul 10, 2016 18:56
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Sites like ntn24.com and infobae.com are still blocked here... Had to use Tor to read an article just now
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Jul 11, 2016 23:36
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El Hefe posted:Sites like ntn24.com and infobae.com are still blocked here... Loading anything over Tor is a chore even now that my internet isn't so lovely, you're probably better off just configuring your network to use Google's public DNS. Afterwards, you'll be able to access both sites normally. Update: Tonight, Maduro announced that all ministries have to answer to Padrino Lopez as well as him now. Lopez is the Minister of Defense and the commander of the armed forces and Maduro literally just empowered him to give out orders to the rest of the government. What the gently caress? Labradoodle fucked around with this message at 05:15 on Jul 12, 2016 |
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Jul 12, 2016 01:32
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Chuck Boone posted:The Kimberly Clark thing appears to be real. However, I've only been able to find one article about it. It looks like they've issued a press release saying that they're suspending their operations in the country indefinitely. Kimberly Clark is back! Well at least its reanimated corpse now operated by the people. Apparently the closure was "illegal" and got the factory nationalized, so I'm sure the supply issues such as not being able to get any raw material won't affect a true communist enterprise now. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-36771022
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Jul 12, 2016 08:05
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mobby_6kl posted:Kimberly Clark is back! I love it that Kimberly Clark's response to the Govt is "welp, go ahead and take it but don't come to us for help, it's your mess now. Have fun running your Potemkin Kleenex factory."
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Jul 12, 2016 09:44
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I couldn't follow the threat until just recently. Are the armies of Marxist/Communist Goons still here? The ones who defended the Venezuelan policies so drat adamantly in 2013-2014 (while living, of course, comfortably abroad)? I remember reading posts like: "Most things in Venezuela are actually much better than in capitalist countries, if it weren't for the active influence of the USA capitalists, Venezuela would literally be the most developed country on earth, which will happen as soon as Chavez etc all can implement more communism"? Any reaction to the poo poo going on there now? Is the argument still "well a market economy would be EVEN WORSE" combined with "What we need is MORE deprivatization and state control!!!"
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Jul 12, 2016 11:53
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drat this AP story is super bleak: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_VENEZUELA_UNDONE_THE_LINE
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Jul 12, 2016 12:31
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^^^^ Your link doesn't seem to work, it just redirects to http://hosted.ap.org/specials/bluepage.html . Is it this article? http://newsok.com/venezuela-undone-the-line/article/feed/1039235Boner Slaem posted:I couldn't follow the threat until just recently. The army of supporters is down to just one idiot who doesn't reply to arguments but posts ten thousand word essays he copied from the Internet. There are a couple people who admitted that Venezuela hosed up, and a few more who still think that Bolivarian Socialism is great in concept but was just implemented as a kleptocracy. Saladman fucked around with this message at 12:55 on Jul 12, 2016 |
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Jul 12, 2016 12:52
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Working for me, but I'll just post the text, article from this morning:quote:CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- The people waiting for hours in front of the drugstore were dazed with heat and boredom when the gunmen arrived.
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Jul 12, 2016 13:45
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Has the situation changed at all in the last month or things just steadily getting worse as the government tries to delay the recall count?
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Jul 12, 2016 15:36
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Xandu posted:Has the situation changed at all in the last month or things just steadily getting worse as the government tries to delay the recall count? It's just worse every day. There isn't any way to avoid a violent collapse of the country without Maduro quitting. Every single bit of news I get from Venezuela is universally terrible. Today I saw some guy in Lund, Sweden, wearing a Hugo Chavez t-shirt. Some loving blonde local who hasn't had to endure even a minute of the drama in Venezuela. The image is so impregnated in my mind I instantly got angry, I would have yelled at him if it wasn't that he was walking with a kid. I suppose that's the kind of people who were in this thread just a few years ago. So yeah, those are the problems that I have now.
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Jul 12, 2016 15:50
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Every minister is gonna have to report directly to Padrino Lopez who is the defense minister and head of the armed forces... They are also doubling down on the military being in charge of food and goods distribution even though their so called CLAP groups have proven to be a colossal failure.
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Jul 12, 2016 16:18
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Lund is a university town (well, so is Kristianstad I guess but Lund is a bigger deal) so yeah, expect idiot ill-informed lefties. Mind you, it wouldn't surprise me if that wasn't also a reaction to the slide to the right Sweden has been experiencing.
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Jul 12, 2016 16:18
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El Hefe posted:Every minister is gonna have to report directly to Padrino Lopez who is the defense minister and head of the armed forces... This is huge news. The entire cabinet and, in Maduro's words, "every institution of the state", is now under the command of the armed forces under Padrino Lopez. It's part of a new initiative the government is calling the Gran Mision de Abastesimiento Soberano [Great Sovereign Supply (or Stock) Mission", which is an initiative that's supposed to put the entire state working towards getting food and medicine back in stock. Here's a clip from Maduro's speech last night when he announced this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58c_1biB_1Y quote:Maduro: ... and organizational. The only way to do this is under a single command. A single command, gentlemen. Every ministry, every minister, every institution of the state are now under the absolute command and subordinate to the National Command of the Gran Mision Abastecimiento, which is under the command of the President of the Republic and under the command of the Commander-in-Chief, Vladimir Padrino Lopez, starting right now. Every minister. This is a great operation. This move is all the more important because it follows the creation of CAMPIMPEG earlier this year. CAMIMPEG is a body that Maduro created earlier this year that puts 100% of all of the income coming from resource exploitation in the country under the command of the Minister of Defense via a board of directors that he hand-picks. The board of directors has 11 seats, and each one is filled by an active-duty member of the armed forces. In short: virtually every cent that comes into Venezuela passes through the Ministry of Defense, and as of yesterday every institution of the state and the entire cabinet are under the command of the Ministry of Defense. Vladimir Padrino Lopez is now officially more powerful than Maduro.
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Jul 12, 2016 17:22
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Yeah, this completely sounds like Padrino Lopez just pulled off a bloodless military coup, probably by threatening to conduct a very bloody one. I would expect that within the next few months you'll see Maduro going into exile or getting shot, and the military taking full control and promising to bring food to the people.
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Jul 12, 2016 17:40
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