Staying here is not going forward

In an article written by Andrea Small Carmona and published by venezuelan`s top leading newspaper El Nacional, one can see that there are more people wanting to leave the country and establish themselves elsewhere than there are people wanting to come. Sad for a country that used to be a reference for emigrants who needed a haven in which to drown their miseries. Sad for a country that was built mainly by immigrants.

But the path is not easy. If you are a young professional and think you will be able to work with what you have learnt, there are lots of document to be legalized in order to be valid in other country. University titles must be registered but then, there are other things to be considered: those coming from public institutions must go through the Ministry of Education and then through that of Foreing Relations. Then, of course, you have to have quite a bundle of cash with you. If you want to register your title it will cost you 280 bolivar, then you have to buy fiscal stamps which are calculated according to the year of graduation. Some emigrants simply leave and take care of their legal status at their destination. If that were not enough, the emotional cost of leaving your roots, family and friends behind is really high. Some would really like to stay and stand against the rough winds but this sometimes is not possible because many have faced being kidnapped or having a gun pointed to their heads because they had a Blackberry at hand so they decided staying is not an option.

The number of people that log into "mequieroir.com" meaning "iwantoleave.com" looking for information on how and where to leave Venezuela is greater and alarming. In 2009 the site would receive sixty thousand daily visits. As of January this year, that number went up to eighty thousand per day. The thing is, people are leaving like the rats of Hammelin That means, those of us who do not have this possibility, will face less and less people who are young and intelligent, willing to do whatever it takes to revamp the country once that is possible.

The country is crumbling down

I am now going to quote what one of our most insightful journalists Marianella Salazar wrote in her column of today´s El Nacional. And I do this because I feel identified with her opinion. As a venezuelan, I feel exactly the ways she describes our live in our beloved country. I could not explain things better than she did in her piece. This is our life. Day by day. Minute by minute.

"As the nation crumbles down and the economic crisis marked by the cruel devaluation, without any possibility of saving your money, with a financial system on the verge of being nationalized by the regime, dread has become a daily torture for venezuelans.

People nurse appalling fear that condition their courage. First and foremost, is fear of losing their lives due to the extremely high levels of insecurity, second is the anguish of losing their jobs, which in turn brings them to accept undignified salaries that are not sufficient to buy in full the basic food products, pay fixed expenses and honor commitments, specially mortgages and insurance policies. In spite of the presidential decrees that rule out the possibility of being fired, there is no labour stability not even for those who work for the government; empresarios cannot augment their payrolls, small and medium sized merchants feel ripped off by the State, represented by the voracious tax office Seniat, that imposes unfair fines and obligates its owners to close doors of their companies and businesses against their will.

Suppliers that in their inventories have merchandise are also desperate, because they have their indebtedness in dollars and cannot obtain them, their clients go down, fly from the country or do not pay them. In a country with constrained economic activity where a communist dictatorship takes over properties and freedom, there is no possible hope and entrepreneurs pack their bags to look for other places where work is feasible. A tragedy. Those who stay against the rough wind cover their lack of income trying to obtain other jobs sacrificing their quality of life. The catastrophic predictions are all coming true and the worse thing is that we cannot shake them because we are in the gear and nobody can save himself alone. It is the consequence of this "revolution", of this war to the death of whatever means productivity. Those of us who do not participate of the bolivarian feast are hitting ourselves against the floor and have to save ourselves together before drowning and the country- with its media and work generating companies- sinks and isn´t alive for the 26th of september elections".

Cards are on the table and the Croupier at the top is not an honest one.