A nation with every, and OS means every possible reason to succeed, is melting down on the far side of the Gulf of Mexico.
Venezuela has a great location in the world, great tropical coastlines and islands, incredibly rich natural resources, including oil reserves, universities, businesses, a large slice of the population that is educated and productive, etc. etc.
And, it has blown sky-high, as in 'Looosy--Wha' Happened' sky-high. A wealthy country suffering shortages of food and medicine. A government that thinks it will solve all problems by jailing the opposition and neutering the legislative branch.
A banana republic.
The wonderful blogger who (for obvious reasons) writes under a pseudonym at The Devil's Excrement has for years done a marvelous job recording this slow death spiral for the world to read and understand.
So, Loooosy. Wha' actually happened?
In brief, Hugo Chavez happened. He rode the spike in oil prices like a rented mule, spent the nation's wealth like a drunken sailor. Chaos ensued, and he loved it. Some leaders actually thrive on chaos.
Then he died, having believed he would live forever, which he didn't. Nor did he create anything resembling a plan for what should happen after he died, since of course he assumed he was immortal.
Then the price of oil died. And all the unspent money, grafted off, never spent on maintaining the oil fields, came back to haunt. Production dropped, so Venezuela was well and truly....screwed. No one will sell them anything except for hard currency, and no one will lend them money. And their government has managed to piss off the entire world. It's a recipe for failure, plain and simple.
The Biblical tale of Joseph comes to mind. The Pharaoh had disturbing dreams, and heard that one of the Deplorables in his dungeon had the gift of interpretation. Joseph was hauled up before him and stated the obvious: 'Timez is goood your Pharoahness. Let's store grain and wealth now while we can, because famines happen, and you want to keep your head unseparated from your royal shoulders. Hungry populations get pissed off and take to the streets, and not even you can survive that.' So the Pharaoh put Joseph in charge of the project. Sure as shootin' seven years of plenty were followed by seven years of drought (must have been global warming, right?). Egypt was sitting pretty, with grain to sell to the world, and prospered through the hard times. Joseph ended up as Prime Minister, because he exercised simple common sense, and he was by all accounts basically self-effacing.
So what happened to Venezuela? It was the abandonment of common sense, and the embrace of a charismatic leader who told people what they wished to hear. Now they are headed over the cliff.
It's what is known as a Cautionary Tale.
The book of Genesis ends with the Joseph story. The next book, Exodus, opens with the words to this effect: 'There arose in Egypt a generation that knew not Joseph'. The tale that follows recounts the wheels coming off one of the ancient world's most powerful civilizations.
It, too, is a Cautionary Tale.
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