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.