A review by crybabybea
Things Are Never So Bad That They Can't Get Worse: Inside the Collapse of Venezuela by William Neuman

Did not finish book. Stopped at 16%.
I don't like the way the author is portraying the Venezuelan people, it's giving me the ick. Multiple times the author implies that Venezuela struggles as a country because its people are lazy or stupid. It's also weird to me to go through poor areas of the country and almost sensationalize the people's lives and struggles. The author makes some weird comments about people "expecting handouts" and seems to imply that this "learned helplessness" is why people in Venezuela "refuse to seek a better life".

A couple of quotes to show what I mean:

"The lesson was that the lechosa grew on its own. They did nothing but plant it and water it once. They never watered it again or fertilized it or pruned it. And it grew, with almost no effort on their part.

'That's Venezuela,' D. said. 'Why should I work hard if nature gives me everything I need?'

It was the story of oil all over again. All you have to do is poke a hole in the ground and up it comes. Oil. Lechosa. Coconuts.

D. laughed when he told these stories, but afterward he said that this was Venezuela's punishment, to have all this wealth, all this abundance, and not know how to manage it.

"'It's a Catholic tale of sin, guilt, and punishment. It all comes back to the Land of Grace. Venezuelans were born into the Garden and they didn't know how to take care of it. But instead of being expelled, they stayed in the garden and became the custodians of its decline."

"In the eyes of its citizens, the Venezuelan state is little more than an ATM -- the magic box that stands between the oil in the ground and the outstretched palm, the device that performs the alchemy of turning oil into money in my pocket."