2.25pm, Friday June 19, bus ....corruption

I am sitting on an idling bus with purple curtains, listening to a salesman sell magnets and magnetic neclackes. He does go on. MS and I are on our way to Puerto Ordaz. We've just been to Boulevard De Los Empanadas. I was avoiding these deep fried things but, hey, when in Venezuela... My first empanada was stuffed with cheese, bean and platanos (fried plantains), my second was stuffed just with platanos. Both were freshly made. This is a benefit of being vegetarian: there are no already-made non-meat empanadas, cooling down and drying out, to be given to me. Most of the many, many empanada stalls in this long strip of empanada stalls have a range of free dips available. At the stall we chose there were Turkish-like dips - beetroot and cucumber dips, but chunkier than a traditional Turkish dip; a great garlic dip, spicy dip, a pesto-like dip, potato dip, crab dip and several more. We stood by the stall, scooping different dips onto our empanadas with each bite. I'm now very full.

While waiting for the ferry, MS and I talked about Chavez again. I asked MS where he got his information about the government not spending enough money from. He said it was from his own experience in hospitals and from his nephews going to public schools. He talked of a skills shortage. There are not enough doctors or teachers, especially when 50% of the population are young people. The government sets up a 'parallel' system, such as specialty clinics, which are good, but they often don't last long. MS is unsure who is to blame, really - the government or the people. He talked again of corruption and how people would rather pay for things than go through official or bureaucratic channels. But then these often don't work, with incompetent staff and long waits.

He gave me an example, licensing restaurants. Someone gets credit and spends a lot of money setting up a business. The license can take 3 to 6 months but the restaurant owner has to begin working right away to recoup her financial output. So she pays someone off. MS said the mafia here is also very powerful and can keep people from complaining about corruption. From MS's s talk, I gather this is all tied up with people's willingness, or not, to work. He says money isn't that hard to come by in Venezuela. So how come no one can afford to move out of home?, I asked. He said rent was out of all financial proportion and that regular salaries are harder to come by then chunks of money for selling something. But people on salaries don't get paid well compared to people who sell stuff, so there's no incentive to work full-time - there is incentive towards the easy money of corruption.