This question is sad to answer but it is necessary to speak with the truth and establish the faults and deficiencies of a country; to be able to define them in the first place and start working on them; to thus evolve.
It is necessary first to establish that Venezuela was a pioneer in the discovery and exploitation of oil; This was discovered at the end of the 19th century in 1875, in the Táchira state , where oil sprouts were discovered incidentally and La Petrolia was soon to be born . From then on and happening a long, long, complex and sad truth history of national, political and industrial events, the whole nation and its society would be marked by the long-awaited "Black Gold"; also called by the father of the OPEC "Excremento del diablo".
Well in the state táchira. The oil shoots out into the air; through the middle of the wood drilling tower , this is due to the large amount of gases accumulated inside some deposits that drive oil to the outside.
This resource brought during great part of century XX, enormous wealth to the country; the income from the sale of crude oil and from royalties for the exploitation of the deposits (although many times the foreign companies paid practically nothing) allowed to generate a certain prosperity in the country; but all this wealth would bring with it 2 great disadvantages .
- The first of these problems is the extreme dependence on this resource ; oil becomes the largest and only source of income in the country; the government, the state, the industry, the society and the population in general are molded to a life style and existence based on oil and as a consequence they are underdeveloped and abandon almost all the economic areas ; it stops sowing, producing manufacturing, technology, the relationship between university professionals and projects is neglected; the industry is monopolized and in general other sources of work are not developed. The nation becomes a monoproduct state without diversificationand with extreme import trends, which makes the country weaker because it happens to depend on other nations even for the most basic things .
- The second problem is the extreme corruption that the lack of governments and leaders with a sense of country and vision of the future cause that all those riches are wasted quickly and local investment is not taken advantage of.
All these problems cause chaos at the population level, because without economic diversification; there are no jobs, no jobs or industries, no economy or market, lack of employment generates poverty and leisure, poverty and leisure comes crime and with this people are corrupted and there comes a time when society basically collapses and recedes to a primitive state.
In the image, a neighborhood of Caracas, where thousands of people live in total poverty and in almost inhuman conditions .
That primitive state is the current Venezuela; completely disconnected from the advances in other countries, where inefficiency marks all aspects of daily life.
A contrast is generated , on the one hand, the almost infinite material and mineral wealth of the country , accompanied by times of apparent prosperity, and on the other, the corruption that has shaded history for years and that has provoked the hills and mountains of the main cities, especially the capital-caracas are filled with endless improvised constructions and without services, the neighborhoods of block houses and zinc roofs . Both points are seen in the images, where a Caracas of yesteryear is seen (black and white photo) and a modern Caracas (neighborhood in the mountain - hill).
For all this and because of the innumerable problems that beset the country; Venezuela currently historically has a time lag of several centuries. Germany, Japan, Sweden, China, South Korea, France, England, Norway, the United States, New Zealand, Singapore, Russia , among other powers are in the 21st century, in 2018, but Venezuela is in the 14th century, that is, the 14th century ; In the 1300s, the nation has 700 years of technological and social backwardness. The country is in the shadows of Europemedieval, where people threw their organic waste in the middle of the street, where there was a corrupt government of monarchs and the clergy; both cloistered in opulence and self-satisfaction.
A time when the bubonic plague and rudimentary medicines killed millions and where society was barely able to sustain itself; in a time when science was forgotten and industry was non-existent.
In that dark panorama of the 1300s , is where Venezuela is today, with 700 years of difference with respect to the current world and how things are going that gap beyond closing will continue to grow until perhaps 1000 years of delay, and the country is one millennium with respect to the others.
These numbers may seem exaggerated but they are the true social, industrial and scientific backwardness of the nation. In Venezuela , for example, the mechurrios (execedente towers designed to burn natural gas in petrochemical processes) have burning gas more than a century and still endless and ridiculous because government measures of all types; buying and obtaining gas for cooking is one of the most difficult things that exist in this country; that same gas could also be used if necessary for the production of electrical energybut equally it is not done. Both things translate in not being able to cook for lack of gas and in constant blackouts due to electrical deficiency.
Venezuela is so backward ; that even with resources in abundance; they do not know or do not want to take advantage of it.
A sad reality but the most successful as far as I'm concerned.