It's Sunday morning, low-traffic day, as usual, which also means that there are empty spots to park downtown. However, a typical Venezuelan driver decides that in order for him to buy some engine oil he needs to block the road. He stops his car right in the middle of the street (could not catch that moment in the picture, but this was the exact spot).
In Venezuela, as a result of the economic crisis, many people have found ways to procure themselves an income selling just about anything in the streets. One possible advantage of living in this chaotic country is that laws and regulations have been relaxed, partly to allow people to do what the government, despite the constitutional mandates, is unable or unwilling to do. The downside of this is that just about anyone abuses any commonsensical or enacted rule.
So, here I am, leavign home to make some Sunday grocery shopping and the first thing I find is a road-rage scene starring an old man who is calling a young man's attention for having blocked him.
"If there weren't any sport on the roadside, I would understand," the old man yelled. "You could have driven just a couple of meters ahead, park, get your oil, and let the traffic flow," he added.
The man in the car blocking the street kept ignoring the old man. He finished his transaction and the family who sells oil in this part of the street started to make fun of the old man. The woman laughed, her son laughed and her husband laughed too.
There we had a typical Venezuelan family teaching the next generation how breaking any rule is ok and how demanding your rights is a joke.
The worst part of this story is that the man behind this improvised engine oil stablishment is or was (I have not seen him recently wearing the uniform) a national guard.
One has to have the patience of a sloth to live in this country. That kind of idiosyncrasy most Venezuelans feel proud of, that easygoingness, is precisely what makes any significant improvement of our condition nearly impossible. We refuse, as a society, to do what it takes to overcome this barbaric state. One of the most efficient tricks the regime has implemented is to allow (to the extend that they do not represent a threat to their rule) anyone to break the law, corrupt or be corrupted. It's like a venting mechanism that people use to compensate for all they lack.
Millions of children are growing up seeing their parents disrespect their elders, their neighbors, and the law. To fix this is going to take time and uncompromising efforts.
