I cant imagine living with that kind of thing. Imagine your money is worthless right now. Now think about how you are going to get food tomorrow.
IIRC, earlier this year it was found that many game currencies, such as Runescape's Gold and Black Desert's Silver, were more valuable then Venezuela's Bolivar.
At this point in time, Venezuela's roads are mostly controlled by motorcycle/moped gangs that attack 18-wheelers for supplies. Piracy is rampant on Venezuelan waters, and any waterways that are nearby/connect to Venezuela's maritime border. The last one is notable because fishermen from nearby countries are being captured and then executed for their fish catch. It's worth noting that none of these fishermen are the commercial types either. We are talking about guys who just go out and cast some handlines too get dinner for their families.
All we can do right now is wait for Venezuela to collapse, and hopefully convince the Organization of American States or United Nations Security Council to do a military and Red Cross intervention.
But Maudro told me that everything that's happening is because of the US's imperialist meddling
You'd think after all these years and seeing germany when their inflation was to skyhigh levels, no one would think "we can just print more money!" is a good idea:
https://i.amz.mshcdn.com/lxEf2wsHHE3quSjlZbFBwlnKYjg=/fit-in/1440x1440/uploads%2F2016%2F7%2F26%2Fgermaninflation_16.jpg
Apparently Maudro didn't take world history, or any history for that matter.
What else is left to say? The country is deep into debt, neighbouring countries can send help or menace with strong diplomatic words. Then we have the option of a military invasion, but I don't know the ramifications in a South American and Global Scale. When was the last time a western nation went to war against another western nation? If the United States is involved we could see the rise of an even stronger anti-unitedstates sentiment in the region. Or risk validating Maduro's speech about foreign interference, boosting his supporters to continue the fight, this time with weapons and serious risk for civilian casualties.
The only good thing is that venezuelans emigrate to better countries for a chance of something greater.. I've seen a ton of venezuelan working here, trying their best to accomodate to chilean society better than most migrants. Those that migrate can help their families or friends to exit their mother country for a better chance at a normal life or send some cash or material aid. A band-aid solution to a bigger problem? Absolutely. Worthless? Of course not.
If you're not a democracy you're not a Western nation.
Probably because it largely is, no matter how covert they've been? Maduro is an absolute moron, and definitely sped the collapse up(likely without any actual intervention from the States during his tenure), but the US has quite famously meddled in Central and South American politics for decades now. For example, they literally supported a horrific regime change in El Salvador to prevent another Socialist government from springing up within "their" sphere. The government they supported used Child Soldiers, had death squads, and basically just ""disappeared" anyone they wanted.
In another example, this time in South East Asia, they supported the Khmer Rouge despite the atrocities being committed by them, just to stick it to the Vietnamese Socialists basically, with whom they had bitterly ended(lost) a war with just years prior.
Was it Zimbabwe that had the same issue? inflation got so high that a barrel full of their highest value bill was what it took to buy bread.
You'd think they'd look at history and realize how bad this is.
Venezuela is quite the indictment of the trouble the international community has with right wing politics, (yes I'm aware he's a leftist but his rule has been anything but) strongmen come into power because people aren't happy with the current climate and then proceed to micromanage everything into the ground to 'make such and such great again' and the international community doesn't have a whole lot of options to prevent massive tragedies that occur from it. Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Turkey, the Philippines, soon to be Brazil, they all are festering humanitarian crisises caused by the governments of those countries and they are displacing a massive amount of people that are destabilizing all their neighbors.
Dictatorships are not liberal democracies and therefore are not Western nations.
So when America props up a fascist dictatorship in Chile does that mean we're spreading Eastern values?
these are shitty semantics
I agree with the sentimient (to some extent) but we should not understimate the influence of Maduro over his population and military. Let's not repeat the same mistakes that happened on the 70's and plan this with care, for example: don't allow a power vacuum or leave the country without aid or under survelliance from other western and neutral parties.
One of the biggest issue I see is the erradication of Maduro's image, legacy and ideals. Let's say he is kicked out of power, but there are still supporters to his cause, people that believe he was right, and this military action was predicted by him. What would stop them from spreading lies, misinformation or trying to destabilize the democratic goverment by any means necessary? Or even some democratic members of the new goverment use this moment to purge old enemies now that they have the power and there's a strong "anti-Maduro" sentiment running rampant?
That's an interesting point, actually. Sometimes people forget that the United States aided a coup d'etat against a democratically elected socialist goverment, then placed a dictatorship that went against democratic values under the excuse to stop socialism or communism from the region. Not only that, they provided aid, training and money to undetake this action. Even allowed Pinochet (Chile dictator) to assasinate someone in United States soil.
That's great but what does any of that have to do with Venezuela.
Should the US meddle like they do? Fuck no, but Venezuela's political class dug their own grave no matter what the US was up to. It's the only oil based economy ever to reliably shrink over time, it's a special kind of catastrophic policy and degree of corruption that could make that happen.
As if being "Western" has anything to do with it. In reality, it doesn't.
"western" just means any nation predicated on liberal individualistic capitalist democratic ideas.
I know the reason why people use the term "Western Civilization" in this situation. But even then its idiotic. Due to how much Europe's history, along with the Americas has been extremely complex when it came to governments. Instead of just a copy/paste democracies splattered all over the place.
It describes a certain family of ideas and anyone who follows that tradition. That model fits a republic, parlimentary system and constitutional and or parlimental monarchy and who knows what else. It's a perfectly functional term
Yet guess what also came from a "Western Country"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism
fascism is not described by "western" values, so fascist Germany was not a "western" nation. It isn't a literal term, it isn't a physical trait to do with it's location or a badge a certain place can wear in perpetuity, just a name for a collection of ideas.
What's so complicated about this for you
My point being is that the term "Western" shouldn't be used for describing government types. Its understandable to use "Western" for similar cultural groups and countries. But government types, no.
actually 'western values' conveniently refers to whatever the person making the point wants it to. both fascism and marxism are philosophies based in the western tradition.
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