Peter1469 (03-30-2018)
Silicon Valley worker runs one-man operation to help Venezuelans escape...
Silicon Valley worker runs one-man operation to help Venezuelans escape
Fri, Mar 30, 2018 - At his stand-up desk in a Silicon Valley office complex, Guido Nunez-Mujica’s telephone buzzes nonstop as he tries in vain to concentrate on his work.
The text messages are from 9,600km away in Santiago, Chile, where he is helping to resettle a group of young Venezuelans trying to retrace his own immigrant’s journey to a better future. Between deciphering data and writing code, he fields questions that come flying fast: What is the fastest bus line downtown? How do you apply for an immigrant identity card? Any leads on a job? “Sometimes I’m rude and tell them to look on Google, or I have to just turn off my phone because I get five messages all at once,” Nunez-Mujica, 34, said. The demands on his time and energy are part of his solitary battle to give those trapped by his homeland’s economic crisis a fresh start abroad. Since the end of last year, he has shelled out about US$40,000 of his own money helping about 40 Venezuelans — most of them complete strangers — migrate to other South America nations. The acts of generosity range from a few months of free rent at an apartment he manages in Santiago to bus fare for a surgeon, so he could move to Peru with his wife and daughter.
Guido Nunez-Mujica, back to camera, who has helped about 40 Venezuelans escape their country, hugs Jose Manuel Hernandez as Jose David Fernandez stands by, during their first in-person meeting in Santiago, Chile
Nunez-Mujica has now launched the crowdfunded Salto (“Leap”) Project to scale up the assistance effort, convinced that the only immediate solution to Venezuela’s mess is helping those who can escape. So far he has raised US$5,250, but the goal is more than US$40,000. “There’s no way someone like me can do anything about the situation in Venezuela, but if I can do a little bit to help people leave that helps me to sleep at night,” he said in an interview from the offices of Slice Technologies, where he earns a modest tech worker’s salary coming up with solutions to improve e-shopping experiences. “I know it’s a drop in the ocean, but it’s something within my reach to do.” It is a homespun solution to an ever more desperate situation. Mounting hunger, hyperinflation and an authoritarian government are increasingly driving Venezuelans abroad in one of the largest exoduses in Latin America’s history. Independent groups have estimated that 3 million to 4 million Venezuelans have abandoned their home country over the past few years, with several hundred thousand fleeing last year alone.
Daniel Klie, 25, is one of the recipients of Nunez-Mujica’s “micro-sponsorships,” in his case US$200 for a plane ticket to Santiago. With almost no savings to his name, Klie’s first two months in Chile were torment. A college graduate with two degrees, in journalism and library sciences, he worked under the table at a butcher shop, toiling long hours seven days a week for less than the minimum wage. Then, buoyed by Nunez-Mujica’s coaching and moral support, Klie won an internship at an advertising agency. He now has a full-time job earning about US$550 a month — five times as much as he made in an entire year holding down three jobs back home. “In Venezuela, trying to save money is a titanic undertaking,” Klie said. “It’s all about trying to eat and survive each day. Planning ahead is impossible.” Nunez-Mujica, who abandoned Venezuela in 2011, first for Chile and then three years ago for the US, said that the idea of helping others was born from the frustration he felt hearing stories and seeing pictures of friends who had lost weight struggling to feed themselves.
MORE
Hey @Grokmaster could you please link to something (actually anything) that has Bernie saying how he is a fan of Chavez, cause I got nothin...
He might not, but I will: https://www.theblaze.com/video/flash...m-more-than-us
Economists say reckless government spending and state control are a big part of the problem, and the Venezuelan government is deeply in debt and dealing with the falling price of oil.
Progressive Hollywood celebrities and self-titled socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders have pointed to Venezuela as an example of socialism working. In 2011,Sanders said that “the American dream is more apt to be realized in South America, in places such as Ecuador, Venezuela and Argentina.”
jigglepete (03-31-2018)
Flashback: Bernie Sanders Praised Socialist Venezuela as Model for Ending Income Inequality
http://www.libertynewsdaily.com/blog...ome-inequality
Bernie Won't Answer Questions About Venezuela. Here Are 7 Reasons Why.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/6124/...-aaron-bandler
And the Venezuelan socialists, including Chavez's successor, like Sanders back:
Now, play Asinine Leftist Word Dance, and claim that being a fan of EVERYTHING CHAVEZ DID IN VENEZUELA, is "not praising Chavez".
Last edited by Grokmaster; 03-30-2018 at 04:11 PM.
De Oppresso Liber
jigglepete (03-31-2018)
There are always the "blame America first" people out there. They can be either far left or right wing.