Amen. If Venezuelans don't like it here then they can take their respective asses back to Venezuela. Unfortunately a lot of people take on attitudes of self entitlement when they come from a welfare state. And a lot of people stop taking personal responsibility for their lives because they see it as the governments job to ensure that they get whatever they are entitled to. You can see this in the United States in places like New Orleans, where 2 or 3 generations of people living under the same roof all subside on welfare. Then when disaster strikes and the welfare tap gets shut off they blame the government for not providing for their every need. What every happened to personal choice and individual responsibility? How about leaving the city when you see a Cat. 5 hurricane on the way; or at least stocking up on some water and food? When I watched the news during Katrina it was always the same story with these people. They were always shouting: “Where’s my water!”; “Where’s my money!”; or saying “Bush doesn’t care about black people!” They all saw it as the governments job to ensure their safety and when they chose not to take the most basic steps to prepare for the impending disaster they were fast to blame but themselves. One of the most ironic things about all these calls of racism is that the State and local government are tasked with disaster preparation and relief not the Federal government! And the mayor of New Orleans [the person tasked with disaster preparation and relief] is black! I guess the lesson to be learned from all of this is that when citizens embrace a welfare state expect some to adopt character traits such as learned helplessness and self entitlement that are so common in that environment.

This is a perfect example of the “Spanish mentality” which unfortunately was transmitted by the Mother Country to the citizens of her former colonies, then nurtured and passed on by the governments and pseudo-governments of those countries after they achieved –more or less- independence. The mentality can be summarized as follows: look down on those not in your “class;” doing anything “not proper” for those in your “class” is beneath your dignity; “Anglo-Saxon” capitalism/mercantilism is evil because it gives the “commoners” the opportunity, through hard work, of rising above their station in life, and – horrors! – this could upset the “natural order” of society. Meaning: the “natural order” which creates mechanisms by which a privileged and/or appointed few keep down the many. This is just another caste system, no matter which way you look at it. Creatures such as kaSStro and mini-me monkey-toad have institutionalized those mechanisms through totalitarian control via the vehicles of communism/socialism and closet-fascism. Or crypto-naziism, if you will. They have replaced the absolute monarchs, bishops, archbishops, and others of their ilk who kept the colonials in place and handed out largesse to their favorite pet-classes.

On the other hand, the Anglo Saxons (thank you, Adam Smith!) figured out earlier that the best way to create prosperity and make progress was to cut the people loose so they could employ their talents and skills, become self-sufficient and benefit all society in the long run. As soon as our friends and neighbors-such as they are-pick up this simple concept and put it into practice, things will go much better for them. What it will take to achieve that, given the propensity to fall for demagogic bullcaca which seems to affect most living South of the Border, is hard to say.

As has been said: “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man how to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” Perhaps it is time to go catch some yellowtails!

I agree with you both. Mike, in all fairness to some of the people of NO, some of them did not have recourses to leave - and the state government failed to get them out because there were "no buses". I do agree that the biggest failure in that disaster was at the state level, but heck, it's always easier to blame Bush or the federal government - displacing responsibility. Which takes us back to Alberto's comment...esta gente viene con malas manias and unwilling to change and take responsibility. Although depicted here with Venezuelans, unfortunately this attitude prevails among a majority of immigrants and their families.

Oops! Our secret is out! Yes, indeed!

"Although depicted here with Venezuelans, unfortunately this attitude prevails among a majority of immigrants and their families."

"What it will take to achieve that, given the propensity to fall for demagogic bullcaca which seems to affect most living South of the Border, is hard to say."

What an offensive thing to say. I live in an immigrant community, from South of the Border, they work their asses off and aren't looking for a hand out. Please.

Ziva - unfortunately, I suspect Alberto is right, it is a Spanish mentality of some people. A huge number of Venezuelans don't have it because they are recent immigrants themselves and often not even from Spain, and there are plenty of industrious Spaniards who don't act like that at all - e.g.; one of the world's highest concentrations of billionaires is among Basque Spaniards, so it's complicated. But I have met Spaniards with the wretched mentality described by Alberto, so it's a cultural current on some level. Meanwhile, those poor industrious Mexicans you might be thinking of are largely indigenous Indians and Mestizos. Most Mexican Indians aren't like that, don't act in such a self-defeating manner, and instead work hard and do well in America.

Those Mestizos, fortunately, are grossly offended by lazy shiftless Hugo Chavez and his fully Spanish-imperialist-caudillo mentality, same as his Master in Havana.

castro is the supreme loser in terms of bad attitude. No surprise he was the son of a lazy shiftless gimme gimme Spanish plantation owner. It shows.

Ziva: There are many from SOTB who in fact are quite hard working and do not expect a hand out, just a hand to get up. But there are also some-and I have experienced the mentality through my contacts with them in my job-who do think Uncle Sam is to blame for "their" predicament and "owes" them something.
And to the extent they don't shake off the bad habit of listening to and believing the demagogues back home, who are good only at demonizing this great country, to that extent their relocation here is to the detriment of this nation. In fairness, I've seen this phenomenon not just from people hailing from south of the Rio Grande, but from other places as well - the Balkans, some European countries (you can probably guess which), sadly, from some of my compatriots too, and so on. I guess I failed to be "perfectly clear" on the subject.

In other words: South of the Border is not just about Mexico - all the way south to Patagonia and places beyond, is what I meant.

Mora and Albert, sorry and thanks for the clarification. You know I'm a little touchy about my Mexican friends. I've heard a LOT of derogatory generalizing shit over the years, totally unjustified and wrong. I woke up in a mood today, what can I say.

Ziva, I come from an immigrant family and heck my husband is an immigrant who is working his ass off, as Val says from the bottom up. Notice I said, "majority" NOT "all", I never generalize. And when I say "immigrants" I mean all Latin American immigrants, not just Mexicans. I've come in contact with many immigrants and would be immigrants, and as I say unfortunately this attitude prevails. That is not to say that there are a good number of immigrants that come with a great passion of "superacion" and are willing to work hard. But those, while many, are not the majority.

My parents came to this country with nothing, and they really won't pass on much to their three sons. But outside the bounds of familial love, they gave us the greatest gift: freedom.
Nothing chaps my hide than to hear ingrates like these venezolanos. Get out if you don't like it here! And you wonder why the topic of immigration (legal and illegal) gets me going on this blogsite!

Well all, your experience is your experience, but mine is just the opposite. I would say the slackers are a small minority. From Mexico and points south. I just don't see that attitude in the workplace or otherwise.

A bunch of losers controlled Venezuela for a long time and recently a bunch of ignorant losers elected a monkey ass loser as their president and I am sure some of this losers will end up in the USA now and in the future.

Putting aside the insults, the way these people feel is quite common among us, venezuelans. For a venezuelan who has a degree is shocking and humilliating doing a blue-collar job, because our mentality tells that you must not be doing that but what you study. On the other hand, not everybody think like that, mostly when you start doing that kind of job and you see the reward as happen to me and my wife when we lived in Britain and work in restaurant cleaning and serving people.

But, as some of you has point out, many prefer work as slaves when you see a proper reward in your hands (and I mean good money).

K-2 makes a good point. Maybe I was too hard, but I am only speaking from similar experience and know that these immigrants negative attitude in the face of great opportunity isn't going to get them anywhere.

It must be so hard to be those people. Imagine being a top doctor in charge of lots of other doctors and now being away from that profession. You don't get to talk to other doctors like you used to, and you don't get to practice your chosen field. Instead, you are working 24/7 at scutwork and fear, in your heart of hearts, that everyone is looking down on you, especially your peers back in Caracas. But on you slog, not really feeling the joy of reward that this society brings.

The immigrants are doing the right thing, taking care of their kids' education first, helping that daughter get her medical certification first and putting that other kid through community college. They just need to weigh the costs and benefits of getting the certifications themselves if that is what they really want, if that is their passion. It's too bad their store doesn't have much of a medical angle, if it did, it might be something they'd feel more passion about. They might consider moving their store in that direction, just so they can be around medical things. Start selling medical stuff and doing it better than their competitors. That would be good for their spirit. Meanwhile, they should weigh the costs and benefits of getting recertified. The doc is 59, so he probably feels too old. But if it takes him say, 4 years, and if he is going to make a $200,000 doctor salary as most doctors do afterward, it might be worth it if he plans to work till age 70 or so. He would be wise to set up his own practice so he can go on being a doctor as long as he wants, some doctors like to be doctors into their 80s, so it is not unusual. In that regard, getting recertified is probably in his best interest.

Maybe he just needs more time to find his passion. I hope he does, he's in paradise on earth for doing it, I just hopes he sees it.

not only were you way off-base, Mora, in your pricked post. But you had no courage to leave my justifiable comments on this board. Comments which pointed out your exaggerations, and your inability to step into the shoes of others. I suggest you try someday - without the pseudonymous 'Mora' cover - to move to another country with very different systems and language, and see if your sentiments don't come close to those of Barba and Martorelli. And honestly, for someone in the off-off-MSM to think their year at grad school comes anywhere close to sub-sub specialized surgical training + 20 years of experience is the height of arrogance.

addendum. interesting to note that the lack of courage displayed by "Mora" in removing my earlier comments, resulted in subsequent backtracking. A little too late, Mora, for the consistency factor.

another thought: why is it that some folks - without in-depth knowledge on a particular subject - feel compelled to regale us with their misinformed written opinion, to the point of suggesting directions to those outside their age group, and way outside their expertise?

Sydney,

My apologies to you. It was I who removed your comments inadvertently during a spam removal today. Unfortunately, I do not have email confirmations of your comments or I wold have reposted them.

And the answer to your subsequent questions is: because we're good at it.

If Venezuelans want to ruin their country, without learning a damn thing from the history of Cuba, then so be it. We'll just stand here and watch you all as you fall.

But dont bring that shit to my house. Dont like it here in the states? Borders work in both directions.

And everybody does their time in the trenches.

I've seen similar issues with Russian immigrants since the USSR broke up. The software engineers & programmers I've worked with had little trouble finding work in their fields (as long as they spoke English), but doctors and other professionals who require licenses often could not get them due to different educational requirements, non-transferable professional certifications, etc. Some, like the Barbas, would need to sit for an exam to qualify to work here. In general, though, the better their English fluency, the better their prospects. The Barbas apparently don't speak the language and cannot take the exam. What would you expect? I certainly couldn't expect everyone in Caracas to speak English if I moved there.

The bottom line is this: if they feel "humiliated" at their current lot in life, they can go back to where they came from. No one is holding a gun to their head to stay. Hell, I'll wave to them as they board the planes back to Caracas or whatever city in Venezuela they're from. Everytime I read comments from ingrates I reflect on how much my parents sacrificed (and continue to sacrifice) so that we can live in freedom.

Food for though, my grandfather left Cuba in 1961 and after a brief stint in NJ ended up in Puerto Rico. My grandfather was a "magistrado" or District Attorney in la provincia de Pinar del Rio. He was a middle/poor man from Santiago who with very hard work, and sometimes not eating, payed his way through law school to be a DA. When he got to PR in 1962/63, at the age of 50/51 took it upon himself to REGISTER at the UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO and STUDY in its ENTIRETY the entire LAW DEGREE which is THREE YEARS. After that he took the Bar exam twice, because he failed the first time, and became a practicing lawyer until his death in 1978. Don't come and talk to me about these poor Doctors. A lot of professionals left Cuba and had to work as janitors, busboys etc, to work their way back up to where they were when they left. If you want it you can get it. In the meantime, don't complain. I know it's hard, my husband a Project Manager in his country now works as a stockboy at a local supermarket, but that is not stopping him from applying for admission to the University for next Fall and keep going.