Hello dear uloggers!! I feel really happy to be preparing this new ULOG because I'm really inspired this day —even with the fact that I'm working since 9:00 am and I'm really sleepy lol— and want to talk to you about an awesome thing that's happening on my country because of Steemit and all the opportunities that this beautiful platform give us every day to survive an imminent crisis that we're living right now.

Yes, I'm talking about Venezuela.

The economic and social crisis in the country

Here in Venezuela, we're passing through an economic change, Nicolas Maduro (Venezuela's president) bring new kind of money to the country, before called Bolívares Fuertes, today called Bolívares Soberanos. The equivalent from Bolívares Fuertes to Bolívares Soberanos are the same value but divide by 100.000, so 1 million of Bolívares Fuertes are 10 Bolívares Soberanos.

Actually, we have the worst minimum salary in the whole world and one of the highest crime and assassination statistics per year in the whole world, so it's almost easier to get killed or robbed every day than eat or travel like a normal human being.

So many people were killed or kidnapped for being against the awful regimen that's destroying a beautiful country like Venezuela, just for the money or for the power, and today Nicolas Maduro is one of the most hated presidents in the world, receiving numerous economic sanctions from the ONU, USA, and other countries and more. I've been fighting against this terrible government since 2014 when the first hard protest rises up.

Today I'm not fighting anymore in the same way cuz' this government shows us that in a war they'll win, we don't have the weapons, they don't have the merciful mind to not shot innocent people to protect their status so we can't lose more brothers and sisters fighting. For now, my job on Venezuela is to change the people's mentalities and bring so many talented Venezuelans to Steemit to bring more value to the platform and the coin with a lot of quality content.

Sadly, in every corner of the world, the Venezuelans have a really bad reputation for —a minority of— people that are making too many mistakes, one of my missions is to show that in Venezuela there's a lot of talents, entrepreneur, visionary and genius people that just need more engaging.

The Steemit impact on a Venezuelan life

I've heard so many testimonies about how Steemit change the Venezuelans life and guess what? I'm one of them, so here's my story:

_{I knew Steemit thanks to a musician that was my bass player on a band that I create called ILBAND, he says to me that any artist can make money with the talent that anyone had, I didn't believe him so much but then I started to investigate about Steemit and found so many people that I actually know were on the platform so I decided to join.}

_{If you want to see my first post click here ---> Steemit Open Mic Week 70 - Mi Juego Acoustic Version}

_{My Personal Logo}

_{Here on Steemit I found a way to make a network with so many talented people. I first knew the Steemit Open Mic (@openmic) contest made by @luzcypher and sponsored by @pfunk, one of the many contests that Steemit has but the most prestigious of it. The Steemit Open Mic isn't only a contest, is a community fulfilled with AMAZING talents from all over the world, even now @passion-ground (one of the OpenMic judges) is making a HUGE collaborative project with so many musicians that have played from the beginning (100 weeks ago) til' now.}

_{The first time that I won the Steemit Open Mic was on week 82, one week earlier I was robbed, four guys took my phone and I lost all the work that I was doing for two weeks, I lost the camera that I was using to record my Open Mic entries and more... I was just devastated because to have another phone was impossible for me.}

_{I arrive home and talk to my mom about it because my father was with me when I was robbed (he couldn't do anything to stop it), then I cried a lot for the sadness and the anger until I receive the best new: @passion-ground put my entry as the 1rst place of the OpenMic week 82!!!!}

_{I just couldn't believe it, I was participating since week 70 and never appear on a judge top, but that brother put me on 1rst place! I was dreaming or something —I said to myself— and then all the judges put me in the same place and the winner post was up: @luzcypher put me as the WINNER of the Steemit Open Mic week 82 on 1rst place!!!}

_{"I DID IT DUDE!" I was screaming for all over my house because the prize that day was 120 STEEM!!! and the STEEM value for that time was 4$!!! In Venezuela, you can survive a month with only 20$ and I won almost 500$ that day!!! I was so happy and called my grandmother (my truly big #1 fan) and told her the story, she cried a lot and say that she knew that I was the winner. The first thing that I did that day was sent a lot of $ to all my family within the country because in the capital (Caracas) is easier to live than in the interior, my family doesn't have big jobs or earning monthly so I help them to buy food and medicines for my grandmother, then I buy a phone (my actual one) to keep working on the Steemit Open Mic and so on. Until now I've won 5 times the Steemit Open Mic and I feel really happy about it for all the support that the OpenMic family gave me since that day @passion-ground, @meno, @krystle, @soundlegion, @verbal-d, @luzcypher, @pfunk I love you guys! I truly do.}

There are so many whales that make a lot of self-upvote, so many people that complain because their posts don't earn more than 30$, so many people that think that delegate 100, 200 or more SP is stupid but dude, in Venezuela a minimal upvotes number that gives 3-5$ on a post is almost food for two days for a Venezuelan. Actually, 1 STEEM in Venezuela is equal to 800 Bolívares Soberanos (that's a lot of money, 80.000.000 Bolívares Fuertes), that's the main reason why the Venezuelans try harder to be on the first places on contest, try harder to be curated by @curie or @promo-steem or any whale that we can found in this deep ocean, because Steemit is survival for us.

The talents that Venezuela gift to Steemit

In Venezuela, we have so many talented people in so many disciplines, from sport til' art and more. In Steemit we also have so many talented people that deserve a lot of support for their work and trajectory on the platform. I'll make a list with some of them:

@gabriellecd

One of the best writers I've ever know in my life, her awesome stories and literature projects have taken her to be part of the @sndbox cohort from this year; she's rising as a quality content creator and is a truly beautiful and funny person that anyone should read and love.

@wilins

This is an awesome and beautiful human being, he's a composer that I knew on the Steemit Open Mic, even I reviewed him in one of my Friday's review that I make to support Spanish-speaking people in the Open Mic (just for views because my vote isn't heavy). His music makes you feel really happy, he's so engaged with the platform, even is the @helpie Hispanic ambassador, is the connection between the Spanish-speaking talents and that project made by @meno.

@joseacabrerav

This is one of the best musicians that I've ever heard in my life, is just an alien! I knew him because he won the Steemit Open Mic and was the first Venezuelan that I knew that won the contest (I believe that the contest was impossible to win). I even traveled with him to a meet-up and sang with him a couple of songs, is what anyone can describe as a magic person, is really crazy and I really admire him a lot.

@elfranz

This is one of my favorite person in this list, because I knew him a few weeks ago after joining a project called @la-colmena, a @curie derivated project that was created to support Spanish-speaking quality content around the Steemit platform, was a Curie's Curator (actually Prospective again to return to Curie) and is actually one of the best curators that I know, his vision and talent to discover exceptional content on Steemit is just awesome and I love him a lot, he's an awesome partner and the best friend than anyone can ask (no homo).

@joedukeg

This is one of the best entrepreneurs that I've ever met in my life. He's the founder of the @celfmagazine project and is part of the @sndbox team actually, even is one of the two @fundition ambassadors on Venezuela (I'm the other lol), he has the same vision that I to help people, is a genius and I know that he'll change our country with his projects.

@zaxan

This is another of the best entrepreneurs that I've ever met in my life. He's the founder of the @elarca project, a project designed to support steemians not only in curation matter but also in the meaning of support in an economic way the projects that some people that actually make life in the project has outside the Steemit platform. He's also one of the best designers I've ever met in my life, his discipline and point of view about life is just awesome.

@mayneth

This is a truly awesome musician! Mayneth is a producer that outside from Steemit has worked with so many awesome and famous Venezuelan talents. Within the platform he hasn't just win the Open Mic but also he's the music master of too much great musicians that add great value to the platform like @moccamonica and @belenlopr by winning the Open Mic or @rodrigo98, @racso, @luisfuenmayor and more that always have some @curie votes on their post. He's just a quality and talented people factory that came to this platform to show that Venezuela is fullfil of talented people.

@guacamedia

Also I started a project with some friends here on Steemit called @guacamedia to support musicians from Venezuela and bring them to the platform by paying the account creation and producing their entries for the many contest that we have on Steemit like Open Mic, Pitch Perfect, Sing It, and so on.

I believe in the talent that we have here on Steemit and my mission always will be to become a huge whale to make the work that the big actual whales doesn't for any reason that they have. I'm really compromised with my people and with the Spanish-speaking community and I won't rest until see all this project and people grow a lot and show that Venezuelanz aren't so bad as people think.

This was my Ulog for today, thank you so much @surpassinggoogle for being a window to show our real human side on this network and beautiful platform! let's keep the wheel moving!