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Hey, guy, why do you post entire articles?
Summarize or quote! FFS
I post entire articles.
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Hey, guy, why do you post entire articles?
Summarize or quote! FFS
News flash, she was already elected.
Here's the poison she's pushing:
In Venezuelan crisis, families can't even afford to properly bury the dead
By Hollie McKay | Fox News
CUCUTA, Colombia – As the crisis in Venezuela's socialist dictatorship deepens – gripped by mass hunger, starvation and a lack of medical supplies - there is no comfort even for the dead.
“What is happening is medieval. People are ‘renting’ caskets for a service, but giving them back. The same casket is being used over and over again because people cannot afford to buy one,” Venezuelan opposition leader Julio Borges, who has been living in exile in the Colombian capital of Bogota for the past nine months, told Fox News. “And then they have to wrap the body in plastic bags for the burial. Others don’t have money for a land plot, so they are burying loved ones in their back garden.”
Borges said the “really creepy” problem of how to properly bury the dead has become the norm rather than the exception. Other Venezuelans concurred, indicating the use of “common graves,” along with backyard burials, was becoming standard.
One Venezuelan, who asked his name not be published, described the sudden death of his father in the capital Caracas last week, which left the family without a vehicle to take the body to the morgue. It took more than a day for the body to be collected.
And even then, the family had to say their goodbyes – they had no money for a funeral, or burial – praying the body would be disposed of in some kind of mass cremation.
For every day a body remains in the morgue, the cost rises, leaving families without the means for collection. In such cases, loved ones are simply left stranded – their relatives in mourning, not knowing what to do, and without closure.
“Funeral services are too expensive. Coffins are expensive, as well as paying for a place in the cemetery and everything that comes with it: the chapel for the service, the plate,” Julett Pineda, a health journalist for Efecto Cocuyo in Caracas, told Fox News. “People cannot have a decent funeral.”
Pineda recounted stories of parents who have tried to collect and earn money for the funerals of their own children. But as the economy of the cash-strapped nation continues to deteriorate, all they can afford is the cremation, which costs roughly a third of burial costs.
Pineda’s latest estimate is that funerals in Venezuela cost more than 132 times the average minimum wage earned per month. That's around six dollars per person – making a final farewell far out of reach for most who would need years of savings to cover costs.
“In poorer areas, plywood coffins are sometimes being used,” explained Guillermo Aveledo, a 40-year-old political science professor at the University of Caracas. “Former middle classes can rent a proper coffin for the wake, but prefer cremation, which is cheaper.”
But even the process of cremation has become problematic. Locals described to Fox News the acute lack of natural gas needed to properly incinerate the bodies, despite the fact Venezuela has some of the largest energy reserves in the world. “In some very isolated places, people get used lots for burial, which creates sanitary problems,” Aveledo said.
The shortage of hearses is also an issue. There are fewer and fewer of them available, and the acute fuel shortage - wait times at some gas stations can be as long as 24 hours - makes it harder to keep them running.
In some extreme cases, impoverished Venezuelans are dragging their dead for days in the sweltering sun to reach the Colombian border, where locals are assisting them with some kind of burial.
Alexander Lopez, a disabled Venezuelan from Maracaibo who has resorted to selling keychains, incense, and trash bags for a few cents each in the Ecuadorian town of Cuenca, fled Venezuela six months ago. He left to find work to pay for his 19-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter, saying he could no longer sit by as his family was forced to scour through the trash for food.
Tragically, his son Alexander was killed in a motorcycle accident on the small Venezuelan island state of Nueva Esparta two months ago. For weeks, the body languished at the morgue as family members were unable to afford the bus fare and boat to collect the remains. Lopez’s former wife, Alexander’s mother, was eventually able to use some law enforcement connections to help cobble together the money needed.
But when she got to the morgue, the owners would not release the body - demanding a bribe on top of the standard costs. “Everyone in Venezuela is so desperate for money, even the morgue will manipulate the people,” Lopez wept, holding up his son’s photograph.
For days, Lopez said, his wife trolled the streets and he and others sent whatever funds they could to pay the $150 morgue fee - an amount that far surpasses an average month’s earnings.
After the entire family hustled for further $88 to pay a local gravedigger, Alexander was finally laid to rest in a cemetery. There were no funds for a service, no memorial plaque or tombstone.
“Even with all that,” Lopez said softly, “the dead in Venezuela are still worth more than the living. I am worth nothing to that government.”
Lopez’s story is woven with even more tragedy. Three years ago, as the crisis accelerate, he was injured in a motorcycle accident. His wounded leg became infected a year later, but the lack of affordable medicines and medical professionals led to the loss of his leg, which was amputated.
“All they could do was cut it,” he said, motioning to where his right leg used to be.
![]()
Families in Venezuela have been forced to resort to backyard burials (Fox News (provided))
That lack of medical attention and resources has fueled a spiking death rate in Venezuela. People are dying today from the most common and treatable infections and diseases - like the common flu.
Violent crime is also on the rise. Last week, two ex-major league baseball players - free agent Luis Valbuena and former player Jose Castillo - were killed in a crash after their car collided with a rock. Authorities believe the rock may have been deliberately placed in the road, as part of a robbery scheme.
“People throw rocks in the hope of stopping the car so they can steal it,” one Venezuelan humanitarian worker explained. “In this case, it ended horribly... Even if these men had survived, there are not adequate means in the hospital to save them.”
According to Aveledo, even the dead aren't immune to the rise in crime.
“Most cemeteries are public municipal lots. But the dearth of public safety exposes the tombs to looting, mourners, and visitors exposed to muggings, and wakes are restricted for a couple of hours during the day,” he said. “The wakes held for criminals are also very disruptive, public displays of their power and control of territories.”
As the country crumbles, so to have the resources to monitor how many have died. One local journalist said a handful of people try to keep tabs. A group of journalists visit the morgues at the end of each week to count the dead, trying to determine how many died from organized crime, and how many perished from “other” causes, like disease or malnutrition.
And that is just in Caracas. For the rest of the country that once had a population of 32 million, it’s anybody’s guess.
There's no indication the situation will improve any time soon. Despite once-brimming oil wealth that had Venezuela as the richest country in Latin America, the Nicolás Maduro-led government - which has continued the socialist policies of his predecessor, Hugo Chavez - has pushed the nation’s economy into dire freefall, upended by massive hyperinflation, food and medicine shortages. More than three million have fled in desperation since for crisis began spiraling out of control three years ago.
The government has denied that Venezuela is in crisis, and instead blames its economic woes on disgruntled opposition members, and the United States.
As for the death industry, like most things in Venezuela, a black market in coffins has emerged. This despite the scarcity of wood and other materials needed to make a casket.
“The price range of a coffin on the black market is about 50 to 100 dollars,” Aveledo said. “Sold on the web, or via messaging.”
Hollie McKay has a been a Fox News Digital staff reporter since 2007. She has extensively reported from war zones including Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Burma and investigates global conflicts, war crimes and terrorism around the world.
https://www.foxnews.com/world/venezuela-crisis-families-cannot-afford-proper-funerals
Is there a title to your novel?News flash, she was already elected.
Here's the poison she's pushing:
In Venezuelan crisis, families can't even afford to properly bury the dead
By Hollie McKay | Fox News
CUCUTA, Colombia – As the crisis in Venezuela's socialist dictatorship deepens – gripped by mass hunger, starvation and a lack of medical supplies - there is no comfort even for the dead.
“What is happening is medieval. People are ‘renting’ caskets for a service, but giving them back. The same casket is being used over and over again because people cannot afford to buy one,” Venezuelan opposition leader Julio Borges, who has been living in exile in the Colombian capital of Bogota for the past nine months, told Fox News. “And then they have to wrap the body in plastic bags for the burial. Others don’t have money for a land plot, so they are burying loved ones in their back garden.”
Borges said the “really creepy” problem of how to properly bury the dead has become the norm rather than the exception. Other Venezuelans concurred, indicating the use of “common graves,” along with backyard burials, was becoming standard.
One Venezuelan, who asked his name not be published, described the sudden death of his father in the capital Caracas last week, which left the family without a vehicle to take the body to the morgue. It took more than a day for the body to be collected.
And even then, the family had to say their goodbyes – they had no money for a funeral, or burial – praying the body would be disposed of in some kind of mass cremation.
For every day a body remains in the morgue, the cost rises, leaving families without the means for collection. In such cases, loved ones are simply left stranded – their relatives in mourning, not knowing what to do, and without closure.
“Funeral services are too expensive. Coffins are expensive, as well as paying for a place in the cemetery and everything that comes with it: the chapel for the service, the plate,” Julett Pineda, a health journalist for Efecto Cocuyo in Caracas, told Fox News. “People cannot have a decent funeral.”
Pineda recounted stories of parents who have tried to collect and earn money for the funerals of their own children. But as the economy of the cash-strapped nation continues to deteriorate, all they can afford is the cremation, which costs roughly a third of burial costs.
Pineda’s latest estimate is that funerals in Venezuela cost more than 132 times the average minimum wage earned per month. That's around six dollars per person – making a final farewell far out of reach for most who would need years of savings to cover costs.
“In poorer areas, plywood coffins are sometimes being used,” explained Guillermo Aveledo, a 40-year-old political science professor at the University of Caracas. “Former middle classes can rent a proper coffin for the wake, but prefer cremation, which is cheaper.”
But even the process of cremation has become problematic. Locals described to Fox News the acute lack of natural gas needed to properly incinerate the bodies, despite the fact Venezuela has some of the largest energy reserves in the world. “In some very isolated places, people get used lots for burial, which creates sanitary problems,” Aveledo said.
The shortage of hearses is also an issue. There are fewer and fewer of them available, and the acute fuel shortage - wait times at some gas stations can be as long as 24 hours - makes it harder to keep them running.
In some extreme cases, impoverished Venezuelans are dragging their dead for days in the sweltering sun to reach the Colombian border, where locals are assisting them with some kind of burial.
Alexander Lopez, a disabled Venezuelan from Maracaibo who has resorted to selling keychains, incense, and trash bags for a few cents each in the Ecuadorian town of Cuenca, fled Venezuela six months ago. He left to find work to pay for his 19-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter, saying he could no longer sit by as his family was forced to scour through the trash for food.
Tragically, his son Alexander was killed in a motorcycle accident on the small Venezuelan island state of Nueva Esparta two months ago. For weeks, the body languished at the morgue as family members were unable to afford the bus fare and boat to collect the remains. Lopez’s former wife, Alexander’s mother, was eventually able to use some law enforcement connections to help cobble together the money needed.
But when she got to the morgue, the owners would not release the body - demanding a bribe on top of the standard costs. “Everyone in Venezuela is so desperate for money, even the morgue will manipulate the people,” Lopez wept, holding up his son’s photograph.
For days, Lopez said, his wife trolled the streets and he and others sent whatever funds they could to pay the $150 morgue fee - an amount that far surpasses an average month’s earnings.
After the entire family hustled for further $88 to pay a local gravedigger, Alexander was finally laid to rest in a cemetery. There were no funds for a service, no memorial plaque or tombstone.
“Even with all that,” Lopez said softly, “the dead in Venezuela are still worth more than the living. I am worth nothing to that government.”
Lopez’s story is woven with even more tragedy. Three years ago, as the crisis accelerate, he was injured in a motorcycle accident. His wounded leg became infected a year later, but the lack of affordable medicines and medical professionals led to the loss of his leg, which was amputated.
“All they could do was cut it,” he said, motioning to where his right leg used to be.
![]()
Families in Venezuela have been forced to resort to backyard burials (Fox News (provided))
That lack of medical attention and resources has fueled a spiking death rate in Venezuela. People are dying today from the most common and treatable infections and diseases - like the common flu.
Violent crime is also on the rise. Last week, two ex-major league baseball players - free agent Luis Valbuena and former player Jose Castillo - were killed in a crash after their car collided with a rock. Authorities believe the rock may have been deliberately placed in the road, as part of a robbery scheme.
“People throw rocks in the hope of stopping the car so they can steal it,” one Venezuelan humanitarian worker explained. “In this case, it ended horribly... Even if these men had survived, there are not adequate means in the hospital to save them.”
According to Aveledo, even the dead aren't immune to the rise in crime.
“Most cemeteries are public municipal lots. But the dearth of public safety exposes the tombs to looting, mourners, and visitors exposed to muggings, and wakes are restricted for a couple of hours during the day,” he said. “The wakes held for criminals are also very disruptive, public displays of their power and control of territories.”
As the country crumbles, so to have the resources to monitor how many have died. One local journalist said a handful of people try to keep tabs. A group of journalists visit the morgues at the end of each week to count the dead, trying to determine how many died from organized crime, and how many perished from “other” causes, like disease or malnutrition.
And that is just in Caracas. For the rest of the country that once had a population of 32 million, it’s anybody’s guess.
There's no indication the situation will improve any time soon. Despite once-brimming oil wealth that had Venezuela as the richest country in Latin America, the Nicolás Maduro-led government - which has continued the socialist policies of his predecessor, Hugo Chavez - has pushed the nation’s economy into dire freefall, upended by massive hyperinflation, food and medicine shortages. More than three million have fled in desperation since for crisis began spiraling out of control three years ago.
The government has denied that Venezuela is in crisis, and instead blames its economic woes on disgruntled opposition members, and the United States.
As for the death industry, like most things in Venezuela, a black market in coffins has emerged. This despite the scarcity of wood and other materials needed to make a casket.
“The price range of a coffin on the black market is about 50 to 100 dollars,” Aveledo said. “Sold on the web, or via messaging.”
Hollie McKay has a been a Fox News Digital staff reporter since 2007. She has extensively reported from war zones including Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Burma and investigates global conflicts, war crimes and terrorism around the world.
https://www.foxnews.com/world/venezuela-crisis-families-cannot-afford-proper-funerals
The future
What fun, another conversation derailed by 3 pages on what the definition of an insult is.
Trump has actual power and has acted in ways that have genuinely damaged this country.
I don't see that anywhere in our foreseeable future. Doesn't mean it's not there, it means I don't see it.My thoughts are that the USA is not ready for a Democratic Socialist Government and if they try really hard to push down the American peoples throat at this point in time, (maybe in 6 years?) Trump will win in 2020 hands down. If they go a more moderate/centrist route and there is a really good chance Trump will be beat. Just my old guy opinion.
Oh, And I don't thinks immoral to have billionaires in our country unless they are crooked.
But not for the sake of just having money.
I can agree with almost all of your post, but for the one line quoted. Good post but for the stinker.![]()
But it’s still the truth
But keep promoting her, I'm sure she appreciates it, it's giving her far more name recognition than she'd have had otherwise.
barfo
I guess you'd have to include Trump and Nixon in that list.Aha!
You concede the HUGE audience who are enthralled by my insightful posts.
Other names with a high degree of recognition include Stalin, Mao, Lenin, Hitler, Castro...
Graham ain't the most intellectual Senator in the country.Graham zings Ocasio-Cortez, says she's 'hell-bent' on making Americans live as ‘Venezuelan socialists'
By Adam Shaw | Fox News
Sen. Graham slams Nancy Pelosi for being 'absurd, petty, and shameful'
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., zinged Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., on Thursday for claiming climate change will end the world in 12 years -- and accused her of wanting to make Americans live as “Venezuelan socialists.”
“Let’s bury the hatchet and enjoy the next 12 years because they are going to be our last, right?” he tweeted.
OCASIO-CORTEZ CALLS CLIMATE CHANGE 'OUR WORLD WAR II,' WARNS THE WORLD WILL END IN 12 YEARS
Graham was responding to a tweet Ocasio-Cortez sent that hit Graham for ignoring President Trump’s various controversies and statements, while criticizing Democrats for refusing to allow Trump to make his State of the Union address in the House until the partial government shutdown ends.
But Graham instead took issue with comments she made about climate change on Monday.
“Millennials and people, you know, Gen Z and all these folks that will come after us are looking up and we’re like: ‘The world is gonna end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change and your biggest issue is how are we gonna pay for it?'" Ocasio-Cortez said at an event commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Graham picked up support from parts of the Trump-supporting right for his passionate defense of now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing against accusations of sexual assault, pushing back against those opposing Kavanaugh’s nomination in the hallways of Congress.
“You’ve humiliated this guy enough and there seems to be no bottom for some of you,” he said to one anti-Kavanaugh protester. “Why don’t we dunk him in water and see if he floats.”
On Thursday, Graham wasn’t done, and accused Ocasio-Cortez -- who has embraced the label of “democratic socialist” -- of wanting to make Americans spend their remaining years living as Venezuelan socialists. The Trump administration on Wednesday officially recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as the Venezuela's interim president to replace socialist President Nicolas Maduro.
“Even worse news, @AOC and her new socialist colleagues seem hell-bent on making sure that our last 12 years will be spent as Venezuelan socialists, not Americans,” he said.
Graham also suggested that it was the agenda of Ocasio-Cortez that would be on the ballot in the 2020 elections, and asked whether it would be rejected by Americans.
“Question: Is it possible Rep. Ocasio-Cortez could be wrong about the demise of the planet in 12 years and the American people reject her socialist agenda in 2020?” he asked
“Stay tuned!” he added.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gr...aking-americans-live-as-venezuelan-socialists
It’s absolutely incredible how insane AOC has made the Republicans. I love it. If this is the response from them, then I’m all in on her platform.
I love this woman
I used to sell standby generators sets to the State of Oregon Dept. of Emergency Services and one year I was taken back when the PA took me for a tour of a few warehouses and I noticed that there were probablyI think her plan is quite fun.
I look forward to some answers.
Here is a quick list that has come to me in a short time.
Assuming we use no fossil fuel, specifically, Gasoline, diesel, and the JPs.
How will we run Tractors? Very hard to grow crops in large field without their help.
How will we get an airplane to fly?
What will we power ships? Return to the days of Sail?
Lately it has been cold enough, that I must use wood to heat the house. The Heat pump won't keep up. Will this be permissible?
I heard nothing about Nuclear Power. Is that not part of the replacement plan?
When does the culling begin? We can't possible feed the whole gang without some portable power!