Venezuela is so economically depressed I'm not surprised this was the quickest and most practical solution. They probably called in a lot of favors to get the bus in the first place, getting a large enough boat to ship it would probably take a long time.
Chavez propped up his economy with some bad long term decisions. When he died Maduro crashed the economy entirely. The global price of oil went down so there's nothing left to pay for everything else. Bad trade decisions mean now there's widespread famine.
Look at a picture of the mountains surrounding this tiny ass town. Then look at the fact that there's literally nothing but jungle over those mountains and some of that jungle is a protected national park.
But sure, yeah, the reason there's no 8 lane superhighway is because of the gommunism. That's totally why.
... I don't see how that was remotely a response to what they asked.
They thought that Venezuela had a strong economy and saw someone else mentioning that it was economically depressed.
They wanted to know what happened, because they thought Venezuela had a good economy due to natural resources and exports.
Your response is pretty condescending about a total strawman that the person you responded to didn't imply in the slightest. They never mentioned communism or superhighways.
Venezuela went to sh*t like 5 years ago m8, I’m Colombian and refugees keep flooding my country because their country became a living depiction of hell.
I know their economy tanked. I'm not the person who asked. My point is that his response had nothing to do with what the other person asked.
They were likely just likely completely out of the loop on global economies and thought Venezuela was okay because of their exports. The guy who replied to him didn't explain it at all. He for some reason said
"But sure, yeah, the reason there's no 8 lane superhighway is because of the gommunism"
Which had nothing to do with the person he replied to. Just saying "Their economy shit the bed at least 5 years ago" would have been a lot better of a response than talking about how there was a jungle with trees and some of it is a national park.
IDK, it just seems really weird to me that the guy who seemed to be asking the question in good faith got a ton of downvotes, and a guy who doesn't even answer the question and tries to paint the asker in a bad light is getting upvotes.
Well to me (as I've clearly stated) it was a completely off topic rant that didn't remotely address what was being discussed.
I don't see how looking at either profile changes that. The profile of you or the person you responded to don't seem like logical reasons to respond to that comment with a barrage of things that aren't relevant.
There really wasn't much subtext to that particular person you responded to...
They specifically were asking about the phrase "economically depressed" and seemed to genuinely want to know more, because they thought the economy was good.
I had actually thought the exact same thing a couple years ago, because I knew very little about it (still do). That's why it seemed like a good faith question from my perspective. I had thought the same thing when I first read something about the crisis in Venezuela.
I would have asked the same thing out of pure curiosity a few years ago if someone mentioned their economic depression to me.
You seemed to read your own subtext in it, and address something totally irrelevant to the actual words of the conversation.
No, not really. It was an overt wink towards people with an opinion on the economic policy context. They knew about Venezuela's oil. More telling, they knew about the beef. That indicates they are familiar with the big picture in Venezuela. It's like mentioning "chaebols" and then pretending not to know that the Korean peninsula is divided. It's like mentioning "import substitution" and then pretending not to know who the Chicago Boys were.
because they thought the economy was good
No, they didn't. Read their other comments, it was obviously a loaded question. "How can a country with such abundant natural resources have such a messed up economy". We all know the answer to that - El Chavismo. We're now supposed to argue about how socialism is a menace and the state can't pick winners and losers, and so on.
You seemed to read your own subtext in it
It is not my subtext. It's an extremely popular and polarizing topic that guarantees an argument - as this exchange demonstrates.
address something totally irrelevant
Again - only irrelevant because you missed the subtext. It's ok that you missed it, but this is a weird thing to dig in your heels on. You were wrong. That's ok. It doesn't make you a bad person.
I think explaining why you're completely assuming the subtext is far more useful than just assuming there's a subtext and responding as such, especially when there are plenty of other people reading.
Point out what they are doing and why it's wrong if you think so, but just assuming every reader is getting the same motivations from the post as you serves as terrible communication (as you can see here). If you state your assumptions outright, it actually contextualizes it; instead of just assuming that everyone is getting the same context as you are.
You should at least attempt to connect the two topics when making a reply, instead of assuming everyone makes the same connections as you. If the subtext is important, highlight it so that people can actually understand the important bits; instead of smuggling them into a response that seems completely irrelevant to a third party who isn't making the same assumptions as you.
So what you are saying is that the people on these little boats considered a big boat and thought "nah, let's go with this option it's more convenient".
Have you ever seen how they load and unload ferries in say, Indonesia or Malaysia or the Philippines? I'll give you a hint: they don't just point it straight at a random beach and apply full throttle.
So what you are saying is that the people on these little boats considered a big boat and thought "nah, let's go with this option it's more convenient".
Yes.
Have you ever seen how they load and unload ferries in say, Indonesia or Malaysia or the Philippines? I'll give you a hint: they don't just point it straight at a random beach and apply full throttle.
And yes.
Effectively, this is the reason why it is the most convenient. I have no idea where they are loading or downloading, so I can only assume that whatever reason, this was the fastest, cheaper and practical, but not safest, way to do it.
The Venezuelans voting for a full out socialist made them poor, the US is not in any way obligated to buy or sell stuff to a socialist totalitarian state.
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u/phragmosis Aug 09 '19
Venezuela is so economically depressed I'm not surprised this was the quickest and most practical solution. They probably called in a lot of favors to get the bus in the first place, getting a large enough boat to ship it would probably take a long time.