In France, Venezuela is mostly known for its
emblematic President, Hugo Chavez, who died in March 2013. He left the country
in mourning and… without toilet paper!
Nicolas
Maduro is the current president of Venezuela, after being vice-president in
2012-2013 and temporary president when Chavez died. But during his electoral
campaign, he made a few surprising declarations. Amongst other things, he
announced that during his sleep, Chavez had appeared to him as a small bird to
give him blessings. Also, he declared that the United States had caused Chavez’s
cancer and death. Consequently, the fact that, for the second time in six
months, he has to face a toilet paper shortage that reaches the whole country
adds to the jokes being made around him.
How can it
happen?
That
situation can be explained in different ways. First of all, a drop in
production with distribution issues. That is the explanation given by the
opposition leader, Capriles Radonski, to explain that Maduro’s government is a
failure. On the other side, the government accuses both private companies and
the opposition of hiding stocks in order to create speculation and discredit
the actual government.
A few
months before, the government had announced the importation of around 50
million toilet paper rolls (the population in Venezuela is about 32 million
people). The Opposition, at that time, had already reacted, saying that with
the consumption of 130 million rolls a month, it would never be enough.
This
shortage is the exact representation of common governmental measures, that is
to say massive and punctual importations. This shortage is a fundamental
problem that needs to be taken into consideration. Hence a recent decision to
militarily occupy a toilet paper factory in Aragua state (East Caracas) in
order to forbid any disturbances and to guarantee effective production and distribution.
What is it
like to live in a country that does not have toilet paper?
As I used
to live in Caracas, let me tell you a little bit about my experience.
You might
be laughing at this story, but I promise that this is NO FUN at all! In
Caracas, each time a supermarket receives toilet paper, you can see people
waiting outside the store to try to buy some. A few people even call family or
friends to let them know about it. In the metro, you can see people exhibit the
toilet paper they miraculously found during the day. Toilet paper becomes an
obsession but is also a good excuse to make silly jokes, something Venezuelans
love doing.
The worst
thing is that this toilet paper shortage is just an example to illustrate what
the country is actually going through. We can observe chronic shortage of 17
basic products such as milk, flour, coffee, oil, sugar, or meat. Additionally, power
outages are experienced in the countryside to avoid reaching Caracas, the
capital.
But anyway,
Venezuela is a nice country to live in!
Belouguet
Marion.
I must admit that your article made me laugh! At the very beginning, at least. Then…then I started thinking. As you finally wrote, shortage of toilet paper is just an example among others which clearly shows the terrible situation in Venezuela. How can people normally live if they aren’t sure to find basic products?? It sounds more like a description of the postwar period than the current one. Finally, we can consider ourselves quite lucky: even if the economic situation in Europe is not “brilliant”, it could be worse.
ReplyDeleteCamilla F.
You are absolutely right, it seems that in Europe, we have no idea what others countries are going through! The current situation in Venezuela, and it is just an example of course, is far from European issues. To the question “how can people normally live”, I would say that they don’t... I still have many friends living there, and they told me that the situation is even worse now, since more and more products are missing, and prices are increasing dramatically from a day to another. I really hope the situation will improve, but it won’t without a big change in politics (it’s my opinion!).
DeleteMarion B
Given the fact that I really liked this article, I decided to make researches for deeper information.I found out that socialist states could never produce enough toilet paper, including those of poor quality. Shortages and poor toilet paper quality became the subject of jokes in the Soviet Union, but also around the world. The same things have happened in all socialist countries. Chronicle shortage of toilet paper took place in Poland. In the eighties 20,000 Bible turned into toilet paper in Romania and in the same time increased the supply. I think that this is not a coincidence. There must be a deeper reason behind this- something that simply pushes a socialist economy in the toilet paper shortage. We could say that, in socialist economies consumer products industries have generally been neglected. They are somehow considered unimportant, as it were a luxury. And as we see, the trend seems to be continued in Venezuela.
ReplyDeleteSanja V.
Thank you very much for this very interesting information, I have to admit that I hadn’t done any research on that! So that’s clearly not a coincidence! Your explanation looks quite logical: In socialist countries, the Industry neglects the production of basic products... It is clear that Venezuela is focused on its oil production, since its oil reserves are claimed to be the largest in the world and helps paying for importations. Consequently, they neglect others industries.
DeleteWell, I’ll do some more research, I’m also really interested in this topic!
Marion B
I'm sure I commented this article but i can't find my post ! I thought it was a joke, it's absolutely crazy! I couldn't live without TP! So Marion if you have contacts in Venezuela I think we should set up a toilet roll business what do you think ? :)
ReplyDeleteDaisy
That is a serious issue. I hate when it’s Venezuela at home! Do you get my drift?
ReplyDeleteI had a lot of fun reading your lines. To me you would have won the prize of the most humorous article if there had been one. Short but sincere.
Congrats,
Jordane G