I didn't want my Times are hard thread to turn into the ironic mess that this whole board is, but alas, it happened, I'm making this thread and this one I won't corrupt, it falls onto the one or two onlookers that post from time to time not to corrupt it either, I'd really appreciate it if you could read this in full and let it sink.

I tend to need a place to vent, and I'm doing this so it's out there, mostly. Most of you know by now, but for those kept in the dark, I live in Venezuela, the country between Brazil and Colombia, my country's under a harsh dictatorship with heavy censorship and a corrupt narc gov; being all my life under a kleptocratic totalitarian regime has made me grow wary of crises and, akin to people under war conditions, I tend to keep measures in place in case of emergency, that emergency has come and has toppled the scales.

The coronavirus situation, which came over here in a very brisk and relatively early timeline, mid-march, has been handled with strict quarantining in which we can only go out for maybe 4 hours a day tops, else you'll be fined, or imprisoned, and if you were on car, it'll be taken by police, why? because there's also a crushing oil crisis going on and not even the police have gas to run their cars so they'll take yours for a min of 15 days. Add to this the fact that the price of oil has risen and is rising exponentially, from literally less than a cent to over $8 per liter, that has broken the economy even further and the price of foods and goods has also been affected, as people don't tend to notice that everything is connected, expensive transport equals a more expensive product, and that's understandable, but no less frustrating.

I'm under a lot of fucking stress because with everything at a stop due to the strict quarantining of coronavirus, my family can't work their field which is event management (as in artists, venues), as this is a heavily affected area in the coronavirus spectrum. I've been the one covering the costs for our livelihood and survival, and I'm the youngest, I only recently turned 21 in march and I'm paying for my family of four's supplies and food as a commission artist, with commission money that I thankfully had saved up for getting out of here, although I've basically spent almost all of my savings now and I'm down to fucking near nothing, at least I'm really glad I could help a bit; but I really hope that this thing gets lifted soon, because, dude. Fuckkkkk. I advertise it in a fucking TF2 forum and my Steam and I would really appreciate any help regarding how I could reach a wider audience because dude this https://forums.backpack.tf/topic/726...s%F0%9F%8E%A8/ won't cut it for long.

Now add the famous economic disaster that has been ravaging this country for my whole lifespan, the exponential super inflation is worse than in Zimbabwe, the yearly estimate for 2020 is around 60000.00%, for some perspective, ignoring all the confusing hurdles the gov has put in place to make it seem not so bad: 1 single USD is 12000000000000 bolívares, (but officially it's 120000 because they've removed zeroes through the years to make people less confused) in my life I've witnessed 3 "different" currencies, which just constitutes the removal of a certain number of zeroes, so from Bolívares to Bolívares Fuertes, from Bolívares Fuertes to Bolívares Soberanos, and who knows, since the government will raise the minimum wave from $3-$6ish dollars per month to $20, everything will raise in price (because, socialists, when everyone has more money, everyone has less money) so maybe I'll witness yet another currency change soon.

Is the picture bad enough already? well, now add the fact that there are recurring forest fires, just about a week ago, the capital state of Caracas was surrounded in fire, literally, there have been massive fires all throughout the capital's borders, it's a valley, so the surrounding mountainous forest have been on fire and there have been thousands fleeing their homes because they're suffocating from the fire's smoke and ash, and this is Petare I'm talking about, Caracas is home to the world's most dangerous cluster of slums, and it gets incredibly crowded, too, imagine that suffering.

I don't want to be scared for myself, and although by now I am, a lot of people are and will get really hungry and they'll start looting, and with the tight grip the dictatorship has on the military, it would not be the first time they just shoot to kill with impunity, just now it would be easier because of how hungry everyone is. Honestly this is a modern day Holodomor.