ripples from a caribbean coast far away

Maybe I should start reading the Venezuelan news. A couple of our TV channels stream on the internet but I find more or less unbearable to watch them -the official channel is boring and shouty, the opposition channels are garish, cheap and shouty. The press is a strange thing, again very divided and the reporting on pretty much anything always has two radically different, irreconcilabe versions. However, I do have a lot of family and friends there (alas, none that come here to Livejournal in spite of my efforts of years, or in G+ -they're all on FB...) and I'm a little bit concerned. The current collapse of the prices of oil doesn't just affect Russia, ir certainly doesn't affect the Gulf countries that much, by the looks of it, but it is going to hit Venezuela hard, at a point where the deep division and the continuing crises can make the situation unstable and dangerous.

In the meantime, today I'll be trekking to Crystal Palace to fetch, from the Venezuelan café/deli there, my order of traditional Venezuelan Christmas fare, a few Hallacas and Pan de Jamón... and probably be told in minute detail how it's all going to pot back home.