As hunger mounts, Venezuelans turn to trash for food

kids,

whilst i have been poor, poor to the level of not knowing where the next meal is going to come from and doing garbage diving for food is horrendous. My first experience of this was when i was about 4 maybe 5 years of age and we had gone to calcutta for a wedding. At that time, 1971, the bangladesh war was in its full height and calcutta was full of refugees who were desperately poor. the food at the wedding used to be served on plates made out of leaves and once you finish your food, you just fold it up and chuck it into the bin. And suddenly i heard snarling. So I peeked outside the marriage tent and saw these leftover food parcels being fought over by dogs and humans. its an image seared into my mind, kids. this level of poverty is truly atrocious and horrendous. But you can say that this situation in calcutta happened because of war (not that this wasn't avoidable, it was but slightly different scenario) but look at it here in Venezuela, where bad economics has directly lead to a total disaster where citizens have to walk through trash to find food. Its not just socialism, its also bad capitalism which lead to this disaster.

read and reflect on how humans can drive people into such levels of poverty.

tragic.

Love

Baba




https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/as-hunger-mounts-venezuelans-turn-to-trash-for-food/2016/06/09/52c25da6-2e6c-11e6-9b37-42985f6a265c_story.html

CARACAS, Venezuela — Until recently, Julio Noguera worked at a bakery. Now he spends his evenings searching through the garbage for food.

"I come here looking for food because if I didn't, I'd starve to death," Noguera said as he sorted through a pile of moldy potatoes. "With things like they are, no one helps anyone and no one gives away meals."

Across town, unemployed people converge every dusk at a trash heap on a downtown Caracas sidewalk to pick through rotten fruit and vegetables tossed out by nearby shops. They are frequently joined by small-business owners, college students and pensioners — people who consider themselves middle class even though their living standards have long ago been pulverized by triple-digit inflation, food shortages and a collapsing currency.

Venezuela's poverty had eased during the administration of the late President Hugo Chávez. But a study by three leading Caracas universities found that 76 percent of Venezuelans are now under the poverty line, compared with 52 percent in 2014.

Staples such as corn flour and cooking oil are subsidized, costing pennies at the strongest of two official exchange rates. But fruit and vegetables have become an unaffordable luxury for many Venezuelan families.