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In Venezuela’s Thug State, Even the Morgues Don’t Work

Rogue Valley

Lead or get out of the way
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In Venezuela’s Thug State, Even the Morgues Don’t Work

Every actor who should have your back is either on the take or on the make, and all the basic features of society have been torn to shreds.

190405-Hernroth-Rothstein-morgue-tease_nutz9l

Attempting to stop a corpse from putrefying with water bottles.

4/8/19
CARACAS, Venezuela—“Manuel’s mother died last night.” This is what my friend texted me this morning, telling me about our colleague’s loss. I’m just about to text my condolences when the phone pings again, and I see something I’ll never be able to unsee. The body of a woman, covered by a thin white sheet, spread out on an old maroon couch. Next to her are plastic bottles that once contained some sort of off-brand soda, now filled with frozen water and used to keep the body of my friend’s mother from rotting in the heat. I have spent almost two months in Venezuela and seen more atrocities than I expected in a lifetime, but this, this complete loss of human dignity, may be the worst yet. Manuel can’t afford the cost of the cremation and funeral, a total of almost US$300, so his friends have pooled all their belongings to help him lay his last remaining relative to rest. In a country where 85 percent of the population lives beneath the poverty line of $6 a month, that amount of money is usually impossible to come by, and most end up burying their relatives where they can, as anonymously as most of them have lived. The woman beneath the sheet is tiny, more like a teenage girl than an old woman, the only giveaway being a strand of gray hair just at the edge of the cloth’s yellowing embroidery. She spent her last 20 years watching the country she loved decay and her life along with it, and now her son is cooling her dead body with ice-filled plastic bottles as he cries tears of anger, impotence and loss.

It has been said that a society is judged by how it cares for those who cannot care for themselves, and by this measure Venezuela is truly a failed state. During my weeks here I have seen how the oldest and the youngest die in the streets from starvation and treatable diseases and now I am witnessing the most vulnerable of all–the lifeless body of a mother–meeting her maker with neither mercy nor grace. It took two decades to get here: from the richest country in the region to a post-apocalyptic state. Two decades to get to a place where the living lack hope and the dead have no names. Before I get the chance to reach out to Manuel, the electricity goes out again, for the fifth time in as many days. This national blackout along with a chronic water shortage is bringing an already crippled country to its knees. For Manuel, it means he will sit with his mother through the night in darkness, until she is taken away to a burial that he cannot afford. The signal is out now, so I can’t reach my friend but even if I could I wouldn’t know how to console him. What are the words for what he is going through? What phrase can I utter to take away the pain of what is still to come? There is nothing to say and no way to say it, only silence and darkness as Manuel sits in wait by his mother’s side.

Poignant and disheartening, it conveys a sense of a proud state that no longer exists. In Venezuela, even the morgue has given up the ghost.
 
In Venezuela’s Thug State, Even the Morgues Don’t Work

Every actor who should have your back is either on the take or on the make, and all the basic features of society have been torn to shreds.

190405-Hernroth-Rothstein-morgue-tease_nutz9l

Attempting to stop a corpse from putrefying with water bottles.



Poignant and disheartening, it conveys a sense of a proud state that no longer exists. In Venezuela, even the morgue has given up the ghost.

How much are you getting paid to play your part in crimes against the state of Venezuela ? Serious question.
 
Thats the dead end that is socialism. In the end, nothing works
 
Thats the dead end that is socialism. In the end, nothing works

You have no idea what socialism even entails yet you blindly equate Venezuela to socialism because some of the leadership/most of the leadership over the past 20 years have been socialists.

Clue, Venezuela has never been and continues not to be a socialist state. It's crime is to have used some of the money generated from its resources to actually help raise many Venezuelans out of abject poverty. As a Tumpster I don't expect you to have any time for the poor of Venezuela or to have any idea about socialism itself and I will bet you won't disappoint me on either
 
How much are you getting paid to play your part in crimes against the state of Venezuela ? Serious question.

How much is Hamas paying you?
 
You have no idea what socialism even entails yet you blindly equate Venezuela to socialism because some of the leadership/most of the leadership over the past 20 years have been socialists.

Clue, Venezuela has never been and continues not to be a socialist state. It's crime is to have used some of the money generated from its resources to actually help raise many Venezuelans out of abject poverty. As a Tumpster I don't expect you to have any time for the poor of Venezuela or to have any idea about socialism itself and I will bet you won't disappoint me on either

Venezuela is a failed socialist state. Thats just a fact. You wont accept it because the left never accepts blame for the failure of their ideas.
 
How much are you getting paid to play your part in crimes against the state of Venezuela ? Serious question.

Rogue Valley's committing crimes in Venezuela?
Damn, RV. I had no idea you were so powerful!
 
How much are you getting paid to play your part in crimes against the state of Venezuela ? Serious question.

czar of Venezuela Maduro is synonym for you of state of Venezuela?
 
Venezuela is a failed socialist state. Thats just a fact. You wont accept it because the left never accepts blame for the failure of their ideas.

As I said, your lack of understanding of socialism and what has gone on in Venezuela for the past 20 years is clueless and you wouldn't disappoint if you offered anything else up for analysis and you haven't.

Clue and word to the wise , not owning up to the failures of your decision making isn't the sole domain of the left :roll:
 
Rogue Valley's committing crimes in Venezuela?
Damn, RV. I had no idea you were so powerful!

He is cheer leading for them not committing them, I thuoght that much at least would be obvious. But then again I never factored in the lack of some peoples ability to think for themselves ;)
 
czar of Venezuela Maduro is synonym for you of state of Venezuela?

It's the 21st century and you still wish to live in the 19th early 20th centuries
 
He is cheer leading for them not committing them, I thuoght that much at least would be obvious. But then again I never factored in the lack of some peoples ability to think for themselves ;)

Why lie?

How much are you getting paid to play your part in crimes against the state of Venezuela ? Serious question.
 
What crimes?

Exposing Maduro's **** hole?

Prosecuting economic warfare that hurts the general population through the imposition of sanctions , read collective punishment

Interfering in the internal affairs of another sovereign nation ( true even if you prefer the denial )

Trying to breach the sovereign territory of another state by forcing an " aid " convoy through it despite the governments denial of access

Openly talking about " all options being open " read military option in order to oust the Maduro government

Of course you will dismiss all of these because your support for the sovereignty of states is somewhat schizophrenic due to its dependency on the state/territory under discussion and what the US foreign policy is on it.

You should opt for being true to principles and not state actors then you wouldn't be subjected to the constant and embarrassing moral gymnastics you display
 
Why lie?

How much are you getting paid to play your part in crimes against the state of Venezuela ? Serious question.

Aiding and abetting criminal actions is not a crime in your country then ? weird
 
Prosecuting economic warfare that hurts the general population through the imposition of sanctions , read collective punishment

Interfering in the internal affairs of another sovereign nation ( true even if you prefer the denial )

Trying to breach the sovereign territory of another state by forcing an " aid " convoy through it despite the governments denial of access

Openly talking about " all options being open " read military option in order to oust the Maduro government

Of course you will dismiss all of these because your support for the sovereignty of states is somewhat schizophrenic due to its dependency on the state/territory under discussion and what the US foreign policy is on it.

You should opt for being true to principles and not state actors then you wouldn't be subjected to the constant and embarrassing moral gymnastics you display

Which of the above did RV do?
 
Prosecuting economic warfare that hurts the general population through the imposition of sanctions , read collective punishment

Interfering in the internal affairs of another sovereign nation ( true even if you prefer the denial )

Trying to breach the sovereign territory of another state by forcing an " aid " convoy through it despite the governments denial of access

Openly talking about " all options being open " read military option in order to oust the Maduro government

Of course you will dismiss all of these because your support for the sovereignty of states is somewhat schizophrenic due to its dependency on the state/territory under discussion and what the US foreign policy is on it.

You should opt for being true to principles and not state actors then you wouldn't be subjected to the constant and embarrassing moral gymnastics you display

You really hate freedom of speech.
 
Then you are accusing him of criminal acts.

But wait...

He is cheer leading for them not committing them


Which is it now?

How about , he is cheer leading in a bid to aid and abet those in the US leadership who are committing crimes against Venezuela ;)

I see you now wish to focus on some trivia in the forum instead of addressing the response I gave to your question about what crimes the US administration is committing against Venezuela and Venezuelans.... because it's the easier option for you and you feel more comfortable discussing that ? :mrgreen:
 
You really hate freedom of speech.

:lamo

That's possibly the most ludicrous leap I have ever seen in my 4 + years here . The ignorance of what I was stating in that post is breathtaking
 
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