It is simply amazing how Venezuelans as a whole and the government in particular manage to get so many things wrong.
In the chart above you can see the chart of deaths on the road per 100,000 inhabitants for South American countries according to the latest WHO report. You won't see this kind of chart in Venezuelan newspapers because somehow journalists in my country think Venezuelans are idiots and can't read such a simple chart.
Now some useful idiots abroad will say: "the high death rate is because Venezuela is becoming so prosperous" or, alternatively, "it's because Venezuela hasn't arrived to the socialist stage just yet".
As an extra reference, here the rates for other countries outside South America:
Germany 4.7
Spain 5.4
Italy 7.2
USA 11.4
Portugal 11.8
Mexico 14.7
and at the very top, along Venezuela:
Nigeria 33.7
Iran 34.1
Thailand 38.1
Dominican Republic 41.7
Only Thailand and the much smaller Dominican Republic have worse rates (and Niue, but that is statistically meaningless)
Th state of the country´s roads is a disgrace. So much oil income, so many talented engineers, decent construction firms, but of no avail. A case in point is the the road (calling it a highway it way too generous) connecting Caracas with Valencia. It is the same infrastructure from the Perez Jimenez days. Totally incapable of dealing with the present volume of traffic. Just going from Maracay to Ccs implies losing a whole day. The traffic jams are a nightmare, today I went to Valencia from Maracay and it took us over two hours, and it would have been worse if the driver had not taken the "liberty" of using the shoulder. There is not even a project for an alternative or expanding the present one. Decaying roads everywhere. Barinas to Merida? Good luck. Illumination? Please. Pirates and crime ... don´t even think about driving at night. Chalk up another one for the revolution.
ReplyDeleteNebelwald,
ReplyDeleteIt's everything: from the state of the cars to crime to poor road conditions to everything.
And then most Venezuelans think the price of petrol is a birth right and some sort of "compensation" for the rest...if they knew!