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Just popping into the thread to say I'm in Puerto Ayacucho on fieldwork at the moment (I posted a little in the previous thread) and poo poo here is hosed.
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Aug 26, 2015 19:48
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When I return to London I will try to make an effortpost about my experiences in the sticks of Venezuela - news and discussion tends to get rather Caracas-centric (Táchira notwithstanding)
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Aug 26, 2015 19:50
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I was in Venezuela for six weeks this summer and HOO BOY do I have anecdotes But seriously, poo poo is terrible.
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Oct 13, 2015 21:41
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Chuck Boone posted:You were doing (archaeology or geography...?) work there, right? I'd be really interest to hear what you experienced there. Yeah, archaeology. I haven't forgotten the promised effortpost (from like page 2 or something) but the start of the semester is always hectic.
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Oct 13, 2015 22:01
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El Hefe posted:Somewhere dirty Late, but I've spent two months and a half out of the last seven in Venezuela and have only had the shits once, and it wasn't from the water - I guess I have an allergy to acaí and related plants (e.g. seje). I work in the Puerto Ayacucho area, and we get our water from big, 25 liter bottles from a local distillery. In Caracas I'm in the IVIC (AND I NEVER LEAVE THE IVIC unless to go to Maiquetía) and the water has seemed fine to me. poo poo is hosed though, I'm not looking forward to our last round of fieldwork in January 2017. They closed the Mercal in Pto. Ayacucho this week, and although totally dysfunctional, that place was like a lifeline for many people. I envision starvation.
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Apr 13, 2016 23:12
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Labradoodle posted:On a different subject from my regular venting, I thought I'd try my luck here to see if anyone has any helpful leads. One of my best friends is a brilliant electrical engineer who's currently about to lose his job since Schlumberger is bailing out of the country (alongside Halliburton) and while I'm a pro at freelancing, I've got no clue where a proper professional could turn to in order to find a new job. Do any of you know which are the best places where he could upload his resume or otherwise look for a new job overseas? Come to Norway, we're always looking for engineers (although the oil crash has dampened that somewhat). Tell your buddy to check out https://www.nav.no So, uh, I never did that effortpost on my archaeological fieldwork in Pto. Ayacucho in August (and we returned in February-March for a second round). Our university, however, has a short write-up and video here Edit: I'd be happy to answer any questions about our research Vlex fucked around with this message at 23:37 on Apr 24, 2016 |
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Apr 24, 2016 22:32
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To follow up on the NA deputies speaking in Canada, on the other side of the pond the recent protests and scarcity have been getting some coverage , which is uncommon in the British press.
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May 12, 2016 11:20
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More from The Atlantic, by two Venezuelans.
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May 12, 2016 15:54
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wdarkk posted:Wow. Hope no new weird plagues got started. The crisis was just breaking and making international headlines when I was in Amazonas January-March this year, and based on my extremely limited interaction with the good people of Puerto Ayacucho in that time, I heard of one case. I imagine it's much worse now, but (and I'm completely going out on a limb here) the extreme dryness of the climate this year might have ameliorated the spread so far by denying A. aegypti breeding grounds. For instance, the quickest route between Caracas and Pto. Ayacucho involves going on a barge over the Orinoco via a little shitstain of a town called Puerto Paez. The waiting area for the ferry in August (end of wet season) was thick with huge mosquitos, which left me with bites whose marks you can still see. By contrast, crossing the same point in January I wasn't touched by them. So that might be having something of an effect.
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May 12, 2016 17:37
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The Guardian are asking Venezuelans to share their stories about life in the country. It's small comfort but this might (sadly) be the best way for some of you Venegoons to get your voices heard.
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May 17, 2016 06:52
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Hugoon Chavez posted:Time to campaign and translate everything my friends have to share. If I can get my doctor friend to publicly open up about the "Colosseum Tuesdays" on his emergency unit that would be pretty sweet. Act fast, these calls tend to close quite quickly.
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May 17, 2016 09:32
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fnox posted:So I bought my plane ticket today, I'm leaving at the 6th of July. $910 bucks, Caracas-Bogota-Madrid, wasn't cheap at all, plus the flight from Madrid to Copenhagen, then a train from Copenhagen to Kristianstad is $200 more on top of that. And then $1200 in advance for 4 months of rent. It takes nearly all my savings just to get there. If you are ever in Stavanger, I'll buy you a beer. Hell, several beers. edit: Your education begins now. Beer is expensive as gently caress here, so this is a big deal. edit2: durrrr you're going to Sweden not Norway Vlex fucked around with this message at 19:32 on May 19, 2016 |
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May 19, 2016 19:27
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I have a vague recollection that some tens of pages back there were some Colombians, Argentines and Peruvians in here posting about how many Venezuelans are in their respective countries all of a sudden.
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May 19, 2016 21:16
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For sending/receiving internationally in Venezuela, I use DHL.
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May 20, 2016 13:15
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My Imaginary GF posted:So set up some extra-territorial medical aid camps in Colombia, organize a militia, take and hold territory, and make Venezula functional again. It is up to the Venezuelan expatriate community to arm and organize themselves, so loving do it if you want to see suffering end in your country. Jesus Christ your gimmick is stale.
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May 20, 2016 18:06
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Colombia has a far more modern military that, importantly (sadly), also knows how to fight a war. From what I've seen first hand of the Venezuelan military, including the GNB, it's mostly kids whose balls have only just dropped being ordered around by big shot rear end in a top hat officers. I've never seen anything more complicated than an AK-74 being handled by these shmoes.
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May 23, 2016 21:50
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loving CS playing nerds seizing on the AK-47 comment rather than the substantial and real point that the Venezuelan armed forces are poorly trained, ill-disciplined, corrupt, as well as composed of and run by idiots. The last thing the country needs is any 'intervention' from them.
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May 23, 2016 22:28
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Chuck Boone posted:
Out of interest, what kind of research and where in the country? I may have some pertinent advice.
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May 27, 2016 21:11
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fnox posted:Luis Almagro has now confirmed there will be an emergency session of the OAS to decide whether or not to apply the Democratic Charter to Maduro's government. It appears they do have the 18 votes to suspend Venezuela after all. So much for Maduro's 'charm offensive' in the Caribbean
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May 31, 2016 18:44
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fnox posted:Today the following things happened, in order (this all happens one day after the city nearly collapsed due to food riots): People who call García Marquez magical realism haven't spent enough time in Latin America
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Jun 3, 2016 23:36
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M. Discordia posted:I'll put 20% odds on this one: The U.S. is going to pull a Noriega and kidnap Venezuela's entire cabinet to stand trial for drug trafficking because our government truly does not care one way or the other what goes on in Venezuela. There is no CIA coup, conversely the level of interest among American officials in what any international body thinks about Venezuela's sovereignty is absolutely zero. Obama does not give one poo poo what anyone in Venezuela thinks of him, nor does Clinton (nor does Trump but if he knows where Venezuela is on a map I'd be surprised). That would be the only appropriate ending to this farce -- intervention for reasons that have nothing to do with anyone's ideological struggle. I thought we moved past the Clancy-level masturbatory fantasies a few pages ago?
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Jun 8, 2016 09:41
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GlyphGryph posted:These exist? Wow. Yeah. I have one, given to me as a gift by our ex-Chavista guide in Amazonas. Probably doesn't want to be seen wearing it if I were to guess. I wear it to the gym sometimes but haven't recently. It also says "CHAVISTA POR SIEMPRE" across the shoulders. I don't want to be "that guy" on the Tube getting confronted by a Venezuelan expat who had to deal with that so it mostly lives in the back of my t-shirt drawer. I also have a "SOMOS LA FUERZA DE AMAZONAS" shirt which dates to the National Assembly elections last year. It looks and feels like those sweat-wicking super-porous running t-shirts but boy howdy it doesn't breathe one bit and clings to you like a motherfucker when you sweat. Aside from a literal reindeer skin suit, I can't think of anything worse to wear in Amazonas state. I nearly died wearing it for a whole day while surveying rock art sites along the Orinoco. Edit, with photographic evidence 
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Jul 13, 2016 00:22
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El Hefe posted:The funny thing about that shirt is that Amazonas are currently the only state without representation in the National Assembly because the PSUV are loving scum who don't give a poo poo about the constitution. Well duh, the back of the shirt says "Chavista por siempre" too. No Chavistas were elected in Amazonas, ergo no representation. Checkmate imperialist lapdogs, shirts don't lie. 
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Jul 13, 2016 01:16
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Clown version of most subjects imo. One of the locals working with our team in Pto. Ayacucho asked our Colombian PhD student with a straight face (but seemingly no malice) "por que los Colombianos no quieren ser nuestros hermanos?" Turns out there is a version of "the Jews killed Jesus" being taught in Venezuelan schooling, subbing out Jews with Colombians and Jesus with Simón Bolivar.
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Jul 13, 2016 10:33
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It's bizarre actually how none of the Venezuelans I have on Facebook (all "working class" people, and youngish) are complaining at all about the situation in the country. I suppose they're all in Puerto Ayacucho, which at least has the advantage of a very active black market with Puerto Carreño/Casuarito on the other side of the river, which might explain why they don't appear to be suffering...they post about the same poo poo my friends at home post about : girls, TV, and memes. It's weird.
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Aug 3, 2016 21:51
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Chuck Boone posted:I seem to remember that NTN24, which is a Colombian news network, was/is blocked in Venezuela. It'd be interesting if Venegoons could run down a list of websites and tell us if they're blocked or not. The other one I would expect to be blocked is dolartoday.com, which publishes the black market US dollar exchange rate. No, I could access dolartoday just fine in both Caracas and Pto. Ayacucho last time I was there. YouTube was blocked in the IVIC for some reason though last time, 12 months ago it was still accessible.
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Aug 5, 2016 21:56
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Reading between the lines of the opposition rhetoric over a long period of time is a little sad at this point..."Now democracy has died in Venezuela, oh wait no NOW it has...just hang on a minute...oh wait no nnnnnnow! OK now. This time." In personal news, my boss wants us to return to Amazonas for our final season of fieldwork in Puerto Ayacucho - this time involving camping for weeks at a time on the highly active (in terms of smuggling and [para]military) Orinoco frontier with Colombia. Fun fun fun.
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Aug 24, 2016 17:15
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El Hefe posted:Lol Vlex I hope you're getting paid a poo poo load of money I work in academia, to give you an idea of how not worth it this is to me. My plan from now until the point at which we have to start making decisions about fieldwork timetables (mid-November) is to feed my boss occasional updates about how absolutely jodido it is at the moment in your country. You guys have been a great help in that regard. The irony is not lost on me that most Venezuelans in this thread are trying to leave, while for some retarded reason I'm trying to get in, stay in a hammock in the wilds of the Orinoco for five weeks, and somehow not starve, get kidnapped, or straight-up murdered by the various vested interests in the Amazonas region (smugglers, illegal miners, bored kids, narcotraficantes, the police, like four branches of the military, the GNB, you get the idea). edit: one of the minerals that Amazonas happens to have in relative abundance is called coltan (cobalt-tantalum or something?), its components are used a lot in electronics. It's an extremely valuable and violently contested resource. You get at it by making big deep pits in sandy or sandy-silty soils which are common along the Orinoco. Guess what an archaeological excavation looks like to an untrained eye? Vlex fucked around with this message at 11:33 on Aug 26, 2016 |
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Aug 26, 2016 11:28
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El Hefe posted:I'm not leaving just yet, but thankfully at least now I can do it if I want to / need to. This is another major concern we face - all salaries for our workers in the field are of course in cash and we can't pay them in USD because they don't have the means or contacts to change them into BsF. "Backpacks of cash" is not an exaggeration, in fact, we had suitcases. No nice crisp bills either, these were universally tattered, wrecked little pieces of flimsy paper that somehow were still in circulation. A 500 and 1000 BsF note, while doing nothing to actually alleviate the underlying problem, would at least make everything logistically far less problematic. We cleaned our black market dealer out of 100 BsF notes...by changing 400 USD.
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Aug 28, 2016 14:29
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Are there any indications that this is going to be anything beyond the wet farts the MUD have managed to organise before?
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Aug 29, 2016 23:07
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fnox posted:Because this is quickly turning into something beyond what the MUD had planned for, and it will be far too much for them to contain if they don't adapt to the will of the people. I'm hearing reports everywhere of bosses giving people a day off on the 1st of September which they hadn't done since the riots in 2014, even at relatively innocuous places that are far from the planned route like the software company I worked at in Los Palos Grandes. Yes, that's what people keep saying, but where is the evidence of this?
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Aug 30, 2016 21:07
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Also looks like it has a few mm of tread left, hoo boy let me tell you about the time we drove down a back road in Amazonas state in torrential rain on tires which were essentially air-filled tubes!
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Aug 31, 2016 09:17
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Saladman posted:Why would anyone steal old tires anyway? Is that a thing you can even easily sell for more than like two dollars a dozen? I live in one of the world's most expensive countries, and a full set of 4 brand new normal tires here is around $200. I threw away 4 tires last year that were bald as poo poo and they still looked better than the photo posted above. Because there are no god drat tires in the country. If you don't have a means of personal transportation, you're screwed, to a much greater extent than in north America.
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Aug 31, 2016 13:08
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Oh jeez, my boss is arriving in Caracas this afternoon (local time) and needs to make his way to Los Teques. Stay safe venegoons!
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Sep 1, 2016 09:12
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Bit late for that I'm afraid, he's currently somewhere over the Atlantic and is one of those marvelously professorial types who doesn't own a mobile phone. We made backup plans however, so he'll be fine.
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Sep 1, 2016 15:15
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So is Caracas still overflowing with people or was the sabotage successful in keeping potential participants out of the city?
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Sep 2, 2016 11:58
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Friendly Humour posted:How you posting? Ghost internet. Look at this scrub who doesn't phonepost. Re: (in)efficiency and brain drain in the Venezuelan petroleum industry, I can confirm first-hand that Norway has quite a few Venezuelan oil engineers that were either poached or moved their under their own power. Very few people able to work the system are left, and basically all of them are apparently in the tank for PSUV. Not that I would know, but so I hear.
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Sep 6, 2016 13:25
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Oh yeah, I can confirm that research permits in Latin America are works of art in this regard due to their relentless repetition.
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Sep 18, 2016 20:41
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Saladman posted:In Switzerland near where I used to live, a Venezuelan family just moved here and set up a Venezuelan restaurant. I didn't ask if they moved from Venezuela directly, or from somewhere else though, but that's the first Venezuelan restaurant I've ever seen in Europe outside of Spain. (Not that I've looked very hard.) There are a number of Venezuelan food trucks and restaurants popping up here in London. One, Guasacaca, is owned by a Caraceño who, last time I spoke to him, was going home to vote in the National Assembly elections. Didn't ask him who he was voting for. In personal news, I will be spending a month and a half in Amazonas on fieldwork in early 2017! Hope I get lucky and find some coltan, then I might have something to bargain with when the mining gangs/GNB/navy come for me! 
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Oct 12, 2016 17:07
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What do the new bills look like? I'm imagining the old 100 BsF bills with "20K" scrawled on them in red crayon.
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Dec 4, 2016 22:14
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