First of all, I want to wish a Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate it. Hope you had a good time and are in good health. I want to especially send a big hug to every member of the #Hive community with whom I or other members of my family have had the joy of interacting. Hive has been about the only good thing that has happened to us this year.
If you were still able to have some kind of celebration, count your blessings and consider yourself lucky; many were not that blessed. I feel we may join pretty soon that part of the world population that do not celebrate Christmas, not because we are going to convert to another religion (in my particular case, I do not partake of any, I just follow some family traditions now devoid of religious significance), but because, at this pace, it will be impossible in a few years for any of our families to continue fulfilling the tradition.
In the last 6 or 7 years, we've started to lose count, Venezuelans have experienced a steady decline of our living conditions, our traditions, and our hope that things can get any better.
Covid-19 has been the straw the broke the camel’s back. By forcing other economies into recession, cutting jobs, and limiting people’s ability to move around. This pandemic, with all the uncertainty and manipulation surrounding it, has been a curse for the countries whose people have been forced to flee due to wars, violence, natural, or socialism/communism-induced disasters.
This Christmas has just proven our greatest fears: every year things can get even worse. We have lost our capacity to provide our families with the most fundamental living conditions, let alone provide the "perks" of a festivity that has meant so much in our culture and was always a marker of economic, social, and emotional stability.
We could not even take pictures of our dinner table this year. We were about not to have one. At the last minute, I decided to sacrifice some money which was going to be used for medical expenses to buy what would be our Christmas dinner. We were unable to make any repairs in the house (for the 7th year in a raw), paint a single wall, buy new clothes, drinks, presents, or Christmas-related adornments/decorations. Forget about inviting or visiting any friends or relatives, not so much because of fear of the virus (people here don’t really care much about it), but because of the economic limitations and all the restrictions caused by the collapse of every single thing that makes a country be a country.
This has been one more Christmas without my children, without freedom, without the possibility of planning a future for the younger ones or just providing them with the opportunities for them to decide what to do with their lives. We have gotten used to the brevity and almost impersonal interactions allowed by smart phones. We are forgetting what it is to have an honest, long, face-to-face conversation with our loved ones; what it means to hug them and feel their pains and joys.
My son, José from Perú
This situation seems to have come to stay. Our political crisis gets messier every day and for the first time since I turned 18 and was able to exercise my right to vote I see an overwhelming rejection to anything political (more 80% of the population). We can’t trust the government and we can’t trust the opposition, who every day confirm all the theories about their complicity in this tragic charade. This means that the possibility of a peaceful political resolution is every day less likely.
We know now that Venezuela may join the red list of nations that have been left to their own devices by the international community. If we think about Syria, Rwanda, or even Cuba way before them, we know that time is measured differently by politicians (in their comfort zones) than by the victims of tyrannical regimes. As that famous tango song says, “20 years is nothing”. It may not be for biological evolution, but it is a lot for human suffering.
Of course, not everything is about suffering. We have been wired to avoid pain and pursue more joyful interests, so obviously people found ways to have a good time despite adversity. There was still Christmas dinner, trees and nativities in some homes. Some people fulfilled their sacred traditions with the fidelity of religious duties (painting the house, buying presents for their young children, dressing up for the video call and social media sharing). I see all these adaptations, disguised as resiliency and idiosyncrasy, as a dangerous capitulation on a fight that was supposed to be radicalized some years ago. Teachers, for instance, continue complaining about their meager salaries, while they continue fulfilling their duties now in the form of online education (even if they are not longer educating). Most public employees keep complaining about their inability to survive only with the government “tips”, but they keep working, thus allowing that same government that oppresses them to function and continue oppressing them.
I hope it does not take too much of 2021 for people around the world to see that the problem was not the virus itself, but the political and economic interests behind the "contingency", and in the particular case of Venezuela, in case Biden finally gets to sit in the oval office, I hope those who still blame the sanctions for our crisis can see the true color of the parties involved.
Celebrating Christmas under the current circumstances has become an exhausting psychological effort. I hope my people do not have to play pretend next year and we can truly celebrate something.
