Help Me Solve This Mystery - The Man That Blew My Mind At Steemfest
Help me solve this mystery. I met someone from Venezuela at Steemfest while partying at the Snooker Club and I can't remember who it was.
It was a young man who took me aside and told me a story that almost made me cry. He said his father asked him to find me at Steemfest and thank me for creating Steemit Open Mic and to relay to me the profound effect this contest had on their lives.
I feel silly now that I can't remember his name.
He told me that his father entered the Open Mic contest a while back and although he didn't win his post had earned $78 in rewards. "That's fantastic!", I told him.
He went on to say that the minimum wage in his country is $4 per month. $4 per month! That's insane!
The income made from that one post is almost 20 months of earnings. A professor with a degree teaching at a major university in Venezuela earns about $5 per month.
I knew things were bad in Venezuela but I had no idea they were that bad. There are many countries in similar situations which would explain why Steemit is so popular in countries like Nigeria, India, Philippines, and Kenya.
He said that his whole family is now on Steemit and earn on average $10 per week each. This has literally changed their lives in a most direct way.
If you ever catch me complaining about low earnings on a post I want you to slap me. We should all be grateful for what we have and the amazing opportunity that Steemit represents.
Anyway, if you remember talking to me at the Snooker Club about this, please reach out to me and let me know. I would recognize you if I saw you again and I would really like to follow you. Leave a comment with a picture of yourself so I can see it is you.
Your story is forever ingrained in my mind and touched my heart. I'm so happy to know that I played a small part in making life better for you and your family and I'm proud of you for jumping into Steemit full time. I want to continue to support you in any way I can.
UPDATE: Thanks to the amazing Steemit community and some help from @steevc I was able to find and connect with the mystery man from Venezuela ( @oscarcc89 ) a mere 2-hours after publishing this post. He left a comment below which I encourage you to upvote to show support.
The Steemit community never ceases to amaze me. Let's change the world one person and one account at a time!
P.S. - This post just pushed my rep up to 73! Cool.
There are many places in the world where a few SBD can make a huge difference in their lives. In this video, by @starkerz he shows the positive social reactions in communities around the world who are embracing and promoting Steemit and improving their lives and their communities.
I remember talking to you at the exit of the Snooker Club. It could have been also @siersod with whom he spoke, I do not know, we only had two Venezuelans in the SteemFest.
I talked with you about venezuela and indeed that my whole family is in Steemit. I told him that my father liked music and his contest was great for him.
But the most important thing is not who he spoke with, but what he spoke about. Venezuela is getting worse every day. The minimum salary is at 136,000 Bs. And the dollar at 57,000 Bs. Is less than $ 4 USD per month.
Currently with my family we promote Steemit so that more people can get an extra income and can help themselves. In the same way I leave a photo of that day.
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I'm the one on the left, and on the right @siersod
Greetings dear @luzcypher, and thank you for making public this situation that we live.
Absolutely GREAT!! This post made me smile from ear to ear! @lucifer, also know a guy @branhmusic who posts to steemit open mic, he and his dad are also big fans )) it’s been great to support Venezuelans who doing are doing valuable work for steemit! What a platform, what an opportunity for us all, thank for mentioning my talk at the bottom of ur post, I hope we can get more eyes on these valuable steemit promoter, steembassadors and story tellers!!
That's you on the left. Awesome! You both have a new follower. Thanks for the comment.
I just want to say that our talk left a profound impression on me and I can't stop thinking about it. I was a little drunk at the time but I was listening and understanding how important Steemit is to the people of Venezuela. I wanted to find you so I can support your posts in any way I can.
Thank you for sharing your story with me in your genuine way and keep Steeming on my friend.
NOTE: anyone reading this comment please consider upvoting @oscarcc89 comment. A few cents really makes a difference in people's lives there.
Thank you very much dear friend, I really appreciate the help and for trying to locate me through a post, exposing what is lived in venezuela. Since we met we added you to my list of followers so I could see your post.
After the SteemFest many users were surprised what happens in this country, some had no idea.
Greetings, and again thank you very much.!!!!
I want to comment something that really, for me, is very important, friend @luzcypher.
In the photo we both went out with a great person who became friends with all Venezuelans and many more countries in Latin America (@pgarcgon) supporting us every day in the great work he has as a curator with his Project @cervantes, together to his team, he has been a great motivator for users to continue publishing and not be discouraged by their rewards. We have spanish speaking support. Of course, as most know @cervantes is responsible for me, has been in the SteemFest, and forever I will be grateful.
You see why i put so much effort on steemit? lol... This is totally true, my earnings on steemit are several times higher than my income as a physic teacher in the most important Venezuelan university, its even ridiculous... Thats also the reason why i have been engaging so much to Venezuelan musicians and inviting them to come...
Steemit have given us hope, and have opened our eyes to the reality... Imagine so many people joining steemit and quitting their 4$/month job, soon or later this salary must be increased or no one will work, why would someone work for 4$ if you can earn 10 times that by blogging and without leaving your house?...
Anyway, hope you can find this mysterious man!, although his story could be the same for any of us!
This is amazing. I totally get why Venezuelans love Steemit so much and I will be supporting them for sure. $4/month is slave wages and insulting to humanity. I realize some things are cheaper there but $4, dude! Come on! We can do better than that.
Venezuela needs Steemit and we need Venezuelans on the platform. We need their story to be represented and we have the ability to really change their lives with this platform.
Yep, even things are pretty cheap here, it is still not enough... Most people must rely on the government giving away cheap food boxes, because they cant afford buying food on the market...
Steemit and blockchain are proving themselves as a way to solve real life problems at high scale...
I can imagine steemit can do the same for any country in such a deep crisis, or even worldwide whenever the global economy collapses...
For most of venezuelan here in steemit, like myself, this is not a hobby; it is a job.
I can understand why. I have approached Steemit like a job too from day one and now am living on it. But I think I'm going to get a job for a while this winter and buy more steem power and bitcoin.
Great! It's always good to have options. By the way is not true what he told you about the salary here ( no yet). It's around 8 today and going down every hour due to inflation and the value of the $
Thanks for the upvote man. I cant't express my self in english like I'd wish. I appreciate it.
Podemos hablar en Español pero mi escritura en Español es horrible.
Vaya que sorpresa jaja pues me parece que no tiene nada de horrible. Precisamente pensaba participar en el openmic esta vez en español, a ver como me iba. Feliz día amigo.
Touching that subject is delicate. There are many sensitivities. It is true that the situation in Venezuela is difficult but not everything is the government's fault as they want to see, there are also external factors that want to be made of Venezuelan oil. All this results in a fight from all sides and the people are the most affected. Steemit and Openmic is a very big help for us Venezuelans. Thank you so much for your sensitivity.
Man, i would hate to start this debate here, but i do blame the government for all our problems, and the truth it is that if we had a good government we would not in this situation... Venezuela is the only oil producer country in such a deep crisis, no other country in the world that have some oil resource is so fucked up... Blaming external factors is just wrong, is a way to avoid responsibility and an excuse to continue in this path of destruction...
Sure EEUU would love to get a stake of our oil (they already are getting it actually, they buy cheap oil from us, and then sell us not so cheap oil derivatives, perfect business for them), sad thing is that our oil industry now basically belong to China and Russia...
Anyway, this is total off-topic, keep the good music coming!
Hermano, en ningún momento nombré a ningún país. Solo emití mi opinión. Creo que nadie tiene la verdad absoluta, solo Dios es la única verdad. Namasté y que siga la música pana.
Learning of the situation in Venezuela makes me appreciate your music even more. You and your wife's music is beautiful but it seems even more beautiful to me knowing you can sing and play music even through the struggles you face. That is beautiful to me in a big way. Thank you for sharing that spirit of creating beauty no matter what.
That's my estimate. I really appreciate your sensitivity.
Hi luzcypher, and thanks for sharing this life story with us, I am sorry to hear about that salary :( , and I wish things become well in Venezuela and also for that family, I hope you can find him or he find this post , when I hear something like that I feel good about the place that I live in, every dollar in here is equal to 4000 Toman of Iran, well we are also a country under Economic pressure about 30 years or more, I dont know If I said it right,
there are many Sanctions against Iran but well this country has much resources and that's why we are still OK :))
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctions_against_Iran
and every month a teacher's salary is 1500,000 toman which is equal to 375$
and a worker salary is 1200,000 which is equal to 300$
that 4$ is sooooo low!!! people run out of Iran to Europe and USA to make more than those salaries I wrote up there and if it was 4$ nobody would work or they would run out faster or doing a revolution ... that's really bad man :(
Steemit is good right now, and I am looking for a more better future in steemit and I hope it happens sooner.
:'( im from Venezuela
Steem on my friend.
yes brother, I do :) \m/
Hi, @luzcypher, That's the reality of the Venezuelan people. For many of us, Steemit is a
Source revenue greater than our formal jobs. Including me...
That is so incredible to me and I'm so happy many of you guys have found Steemit.
I'm in SE Asia and it's true here too. Every time I read someone say the small payouts don't matter, I realize they have no clue.
I live better than most people here and my rent is $300 per month. I could pay $100 and be pretty comfortable.
Steemit money makes a huge difference over here and I read about it daily in my more local connections. There is a lot of trading of sbd for goods and services but it is not seen on steemit because the posts are small and not always in English.
In some places over here you can eat lunch for transfering sbd and lunch is less than fifty cents.
I was talking with someone else at Steemfest from the Philippines who said he made $3.29 from a post and was able to take 10 of his friends out to lunch from those earnings.
Yes, I believe that. This is a powerful place for the 3rd world. Getting a payout in 7 days makes it unheard of and very helpful. The small amounts make a huge difference.
Venezuela is a perfect example of how efimeral are the quantity and quality of the material resources if you dont have people educated for understand how the world works and with a criteria for making progress on their own, it's one of the richest countrys in material resources but every day I go out to the streets I see children and entire familys feeding themselves on the trash.
And there are so many factors implicated for making that crisis a reality, like @digitalopus says, it's no only a govermenment issue, but if you see the things like they are, many of the interest implicated on the crisis are of the goverment, because the more poor you are the richest they are.
Here in Venezuela we are so close to the stage in what all the things become a propiety of the goverment, it's really sad.
Seeing things in another perspective, it's incredible how Venezuelan people has survived to this and being not so unconfortable with, or at least not demonstrate it, I really admire all that people that every day goes to work in so many bad conditions and facing the cruel reality that we live, it's a very encouraging thing.
I hope this situation comes to an end.
I write a post some days ago about Venezuela, it's a personal opinion.
https://steemit.com/spanish/@joedukeg/reflexiones-sobre-un-pais-difunto-y-un-hijo-no-nacido
Thanks @luzcypher for posting this, man, I really appreciate that.
I'm moved that people can get up and get on with life in such a situation. I'm amazed they have not started a revolution by now.
Well, the revolution it's a process, a hard process, we past tru two big situations revolution-related, that we call the "güarimbas", in 2014 and this year the final months of 2016 plus the first months of 2017, there were many disturbes, civilians deaths and missing, specially fron the side of the people that were protesting.
The crazy thing is, Revolution is actually going on, and its the Revolution it self that have fucked up our country this much (Our government call themselves revolutionary)... So you cant really start a revolution against the revolution, if you do, you are accused of being anti-patriotic...
I guess our situation is crazy and complex enough, so people outside have a hard time understanding it...
"revolution" hehe
hey buddythe truth is that steemit has become our principal, I know several friends, that the posts give them more income than their own minimum wage, really, this is an opportunity for us Venezuelans, who are living in a very precarious situation. For me Steemit has become the sustenance of my family.
That is amazing to hear my friend. I feel blessed to be able to be on Steemit and it has changed my life as well.
@luzcypher It's not just that the salary is too little, the medicines are not available, only in a black market at unpayable prices and some basic foods either, at the moment I have about a month without sugar to give you an example, as most people are thinking about leaving the country because it seems that this is the quickest way out of our crisis, and all for a communist, corrupt and dictatorial government that does not want to leave power without caring that people die every day due to lack of medicines, insecurity, hunger and Venezuelans are doing more difficult times for us, I have worked in many pages on the internet and almost giving up I found Steemit, I will see how it goes, whenever I see Venezuelans I follow them and vote, thanks for dedicating a post to the situation in Venezuela, greetings. upvoting @oscarcc89
That's really tragic and inhumane. I'm so happy to hear that Steemit is offering some relief to people there.