A few hours after the Venezuelan congress voted a 79 million dollars credit for the import of 39 million rolls of toilet paper and other personal hygiene items, the government of President Nicolas Maduro said this was because “Venezuelans are eating more”.
Today’s “Hero of the New Socialist World Order” award goes to Venezuela, where the legacy of the late Hugo Chavez hasn’t exactly lived up to its advanced billing. Things have gotten so bad that Chavez’ Socialist Paradise has experienced a short of just about the worst thing imaginable- toilet paper. Shortages of meat, coffee, cornmeal, butter, and sugar were common features of Chavez’ reign of error. In the aftermath of his death the new President, Nicholas Maduro, has been left to deal with an economy that long ago went off the reservation. Chavez had the personality and the charisma to deflect blame onto the usual suspects- capitalist speculators, the media elite, and various and sundry provocateurs- while Maduro lacks his predecssor’s chutzpah and brass balls.
Chavez would have attempted to blow through the toilet paper crisis with bombast and projection of blame onto all manner of enemies of the State. The best Maduro’s been able to come up with is blaming the shortage on his theory that Venezuelans are eating more. A pathetic effort at best, Maduro’s punted the blame-shifting to ministers in his government, some of whom have played ball by blaming a coordinated media campaign. Venezuelans aren’t buying what they’re selling.
The short term solution has been to import 50 million rolls of toilet paper. This may seem a workable short-term stopgap, but a reasonable person has to ask the obvious question: can a country that can’t even provide toilet paper for its people really be held to be a Paradise of any sort…much less a Socialist Paradise?
When you have to rectify a shortage of toilet paper before you can begin to address the many and varied issues your country faces…well, how much do you miss Hugo Chavez now??
