Life of Pi and Venezuela. I have been reading the delightful and imaginative book "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel. It is about an Indian called Piscine (Pi) whose parents run a zoo in India. As they get ready to emigrate to Canada, there is this paragraph which reminds me of the thoughts of many Venezuelans these days, even if the zoo example is not the one they use. I guess it resonated with my more somber mood this week:
To prosper, a zoo needs parliamentary government, democratic elections, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of association, rule of law and everything else enshhrined in India's Constitution. Impossible to enjoy animals otherwise. Long-term, bad politics is bad for business.
People move because of the wear and tear of anxiety. Because of the gnawing feeling that no matter how hard they work their efforts will yield nothing, that what they build up in one year will be torn down in one day by others. Because of the impression that the future is blocked up, that they might do all right but not their children. Because of the feeling that nothing will change, that happiness and prosperity are possible only somewhere else.
[The Devil's Excrement]
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