Being a geek in Venezuela
Yesterday I bought a MacBook on the Apple Store using some of the income generated by this blog. Do you know why I could do this? Because I am a geek, and because I live in Italy.
If I lived in Venezuela, things could have been quite different. This is the story of John Freddy Vega, a blogger and geek from Venezuela.
He runs Cristalab, a blog full of AS3 and PHP tips, just like mine. But it’s not as easy as it seems.
« Any self-respecting geek has certain basic needs, and Venezuelans are no exception: smartphones, laptops, permanent internet connection, access to information and, above all, the ability to purchase a lot of stuff we love although we don’t need it at all.
That’s why Venezuela’s technology case is so curious. We are one of the Countries with highest Blackberry penetration, so much so that RIM (Research In Motion: the Canadian company that developes the BlackBerry smartphone) people were forced to know we’re not an African country, we have crappy but still profitable Internet connections and we can even (in many cases) afford a cable TV.
On the other side, we are a Country under heavy control by the Government about the purchase of dollars, either to travel (in which case the Government itself tells you how many dollars you can purchase, at a given fee) and for internet shopping (which limit – the so called “quota limit” – is $400).
The control over dollars makes it impossible to buy on the Internet
Do you charge in dollars? Then you must sell them to the Government, that pays you in the official currency, with a currency exchange set by the Government itself (at the time of writing this article, 4.30 Bolivars for every dollar) and you can’t have dollar deposits in Venezuelan banks unless you have so much money that they’ll open for you a deposit abroad and let you manage it from your bank.
These restrictions are particularly annoying to the geek, when he wants to do things than almost any other Latin American geek can do, like buying a new Tablet on eBay or on Amazon, or buying a Geek Pillow. Needless to say we can’t buy things like the iPad or – much more to my taste – the Nexus One from Apple or Google pages.
Venezuela used to be a technological Country
In the rest of Latin America, Venezuela is seen (or has been seen for many years) as a rich country, thanks to large amounts of money due to oil incomes. The unseen truth unveils high poverty levels, which increase as we get devaluations (recently we had the last one, 100%) and that our ability to acquire foreign currency and/or items brought from abroad is becoming more and more complicated. Consumption limits and exchange controls are now part of our biggest problems (not to mention other problems like the energy crisis or the bad water service we are suffering in this moment).
Just to say one example, not so long ago the technology gap between U.S. and Venezuela was about a week, and this made Venezuela an highly technological Country. Now the gap can be of months.
You can leave the Country only if approved by the Government
I still bitterly recall that because of these limitations I couldn’t go to Adobe Live 2009 in Lima, and before that I couldn’t go to Bogota to an Aikido seminar with two of the most important masters of the continent in this Martial Art. Things that for other people are just a matter of having or not having enough money to afford them, for us it’s a matter of having the luck our currency is authorized and not exceeding the limit imposed.
We must clarify something: currency regulation is nothing new, and it’s a valid idea under certain circumstances, moreover it’s not the first time we have it. What’s illegal is: 1. It is not common to have limited access to foreign exchange 2. A control on the price of the dollar should be a temporary measure, usually a couple of months at most. We’re having it for about 3 years.
How to deal with these restrictions
If you need the new MacBook, or the Nexus One or whatever, your solution is getting the money through Paypal (which has no agreements with any bank in the Venezuela), having someone bringing them from abroad and pay them in Bolivars, then buy it on the local market with prices that can even be three times the original price in foreign markets or get dollars in the parallel market (black market).
I do not want to enter the political issue, which is always tricky, but make it clear that being geek in my Country, Venezuela is becoming a more and more complicated issue, usually with more disappointments than successes.
I am sure we will seek ways to keep up on what we love and – in many cases – what feeds us.
Be careful when you are choosing who you want to be at the Government. »
Do you live in a Country with restrictions? Share with us your experience, contact me to have it published.
(4 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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This post has 16 comments
Quintus
Nice and interresting post ;)
-Quintus
Travel Directory
Emanuele Feronato,Check your files in the web server.
You page is blocked on google for hosting malware & i was not able to reach your site for google reader.Seems you have been ATTACKED AGAIN..
Emanuele Feronato
cleaned – waiting 4 google to remove the flag
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Vlad
Finally, You have decided to join us in the macworld. BTW goto stormation.info :D
bhatushai
i totally feel your pain, my country don’t have limitation like yours do but everything from other country will cost like triple from the original price, due to high shipping tax & etc. to get new technology gadgets would cost month of saving :D Even flash & flex software cost almost up to 2000+ so there not a lot of flash programmers/developer here.
fmontes
Hi Enmauele,
Thanks for re-posting this, im from Venezuela too and is exactly as Jhon said and the recstrictions are getting harder!
Prince_Porter
That was a very interesting, as well as frustrating read. It sucks to hear that someone as hard working and intelligent as yourself has to put up with so much crap by your government (IMO). Have you ever considered leaving the country permanently? Is this even allowed? I’m curious now, seems like someone such as yourself would be able to get out of a mess like that.
Freddie
Hello,
The post has been published in the community I manage, but it wasn’t written for me, but for one of our top contributors, “The Fricky”. You can verify it on the original URL.
Yura3g
I m from russia and we have limitations with paypal, we cant withdraw money from paypal, we cant even receive money from other people on any russian paypal account. So we can just spend em. And one more thing: amazon doesnt send goods to russia:)
Erick Carpio
Hi John,
I was searching on internet about Paypal and Venezuela. As long as I understood, due to government restrictions there is not option to make a payment through Paypal from Venezuela to a company or bank account abroad, am I right?
Thank you for your answer and good luck!
Erick
juan pizzini
I’m from Argentina, is a sad sittuation at Venezuela.
You could try http://www.xoom.com
It has a fee, but u are able to get the money from paypal to a any bank account or at the BBVA bank, with the tax figure of “family help”. Here is the only option to get cash from paypal.
Julian Baquero
Hi I am from Colombia, Venezuela’s brother country. I am not going into political discussions here, I consider all Latin American citizens my brothers despite our idiotic governments and politicians. It’s a pity you have all this restrictions, being Venezuela such a rich country, the question that arises is: where is all the money going? As a Colombian geek I am used to buying goods in Amazon, ebay, Adorama, etc… I have PayPal and three international credit cards I can use freely. Buying online it’s not only a matter of spending less money, some things aren’t available at all in our countries simply because the market is not large enough for some goods, that doesn’t mean there is no demand for them, specially I you as myself are a geek. I hope the relations between our countries weren’t as bad as they actually are, and just hope things get better for both sides in the near future, as for now a popular colombian phrase “no hay mal que dure mil años ni quien lo pueda soportar” in English “there is no bad that can last one thousand years nor anyone who can withstand it.
Mathias San Miguel
Totally with you, im a venezuelan and i can say VENEZUELA SUCKS!
They prohibid the “Violent” videogames (Not only belics)
They are about to try to control internet next year
Only 400 dollar anual cant worth you nothing
Here the 85% of people is a totally ignorant, 10% are “richs that get rid of the gobernment” and the rest are us, Geeks, screwed to the limits!
chat
Thank you for your answer and good luck!
Daniel
Hi, I Live in the USA, but am from venezuela, had some family visit the states, and found out how much they were really allowed to use.. which is not much at all!!!… anyways, quick question, so venezuelans can use paypal to send money to USA?!?! through credit card? but are only allowed to use 400 dollars?!?!