Venezuela: women told to "stop using hair-dryers to save electricity"

[Deleted]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...-a6976246.html

Venezuela energy crisis: President tells women to stop using hairdryers and go with 'natural' style to save electricity

The President of Venezuela has urged women to stop using hairdryers and offered alternative styling tips as the country’s energy crisis continues.

Nicolas Maduro has announced a decree giving state employees Fridays off for two months as part of measures to offset a crippling electricity shortage.

He urged his compatriots to increase other efforts to save power, including cutting appliance use and raising the temperature on air conditioning units.

Recommending that women reduce hairdryer use to “special occasions”, Mr Maduro added: “I always think a woman looks better when she just runs her fingers through her hair and lets it dry naturally. It's just an idea I have."

He also called on Venezuelans to make small changes to their routines, including embracing the tropical heat and hanging clothes out to dry instead of using tumble dryers.

Not everyone welcomed the advice, with one Caracas resident telling Al Jazeera: "If the President thinks that not blowdrying our hair is going to help, then the problem is far worse than we thought."

The government has declared Fridays a non-working day for the public sector for the next 60 days as the economic and energy crisis combine to cause food shortages and long supermarket queues.

Around 70 per cent of Venezuela’s electricity comes from a hydroelectric plant at the Guri Dam, which holds back the Caroni River in the south-eastern state of Bolivar.

Officials have been warning for weeks that the water level behind it has fallen to near its minimum operating level, meaning it may soon have to be shut down entirely.

Mr Maduro’s socialist administration blames the crisis on a drought caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon and acts of sabotage by its opponents, but experts say rationing could have been prevented by investment in maintenance and in the construction of thermoelectric plants.

The President’s emergency measures sparked ridicule from critics, who have predicted an acute recession.

"Just because Maduro doesn't work Monday to Friday, Saturday or Sunday, doesn't mean we Venezuelans are like that,“ said opposition politician Maria Corina Machado.

"What we want is to keep working, and for you, Maduro, to go."

His rambling and sometimes expletive-laden late-night speeches have irked many Venezuelans struggling to make ends meet and desperate for a solution to the crisis.

The South American nation has grappled with blackouts for years, including one that took Mr Maduro himself by surprise as he delivered a national address on live television.

Caracas occasionally shuts down because of citywide losses of power and some rural areas are living mostly in the dark.

Mr Maduro gave workers a full week off in March to save electricity, and cut the hours of more than 100 shopping centres across the country in the previous month.

Together with other measures, he hopes to reduce electricity consumption by at least 20 per cent.

His predecessor, Hugo Chavez, promised to solve the problem in 2010, but little has improved.

Other Latin American countries are also grappling with the drought, though still working normal weeks.

Juan Manuel Santo, the President of Colombia, has been urging citizens to cut back on power consumption to avoid rationing, while the Panama Canal is imposing restrictions on ships as it struggles with low water levels.

[Elegiac]

To be fair, you shouldn't be using a hair dryer too often anyway because it damages the hair.

[nextormento]

Well, Chavez recommended showering for 3 minutes and not waiting for hot water to come out. Because, and I quote, "what kind of communism would that be, we're not in jacuzzi times".

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The most interesting bit is that he acknowledges that his words about hair-drying can be manipulated. I don't think one needs to spin and distort it when the situation is so transparently precarious.

[Deleted]

To be fair, you shouldn't be using a hair dryer too often anyway because it damages the hair.

So true

But!!! After this statement, if I was Venezuelan that is, Id use it to dry my toenails as a "suck it, commie"

[Caolela]

This is news?

Recall that the U.S. had it's own energy crisis in 1973, which resulted in rationing gas on 'odd or even' days - whichever number your license plate ended with (say 1, 3, 5, 7, 9) were the days (odd-numbered calendar days) you could buy gas, not on the opposite days, resulting in long lines at gas stations, price spikes, fights breaking out, etc. I know, I was there (12 y.o. in '73).

Nixon got the lion's share of the blame, and rightly so. People called him a commie, a fascist, and worse, again not undeserved.

[Deleted]

Thought Venezuelans were too busy murdering eachother over petty matters to find time to use a hair dryer.

[Powerogue]

Sounds like it's high time to invest in different sources for their energy. Seriously, 70% in one dam? That's really putting all your eggs in one basket.

[Breccia]

So that's why they wax down there. It all makes sense!

[Celista]

Using a hair dryer everyday is pretty terrible for your hair; Venezuelan women would probably be better off if they took a hair dryer break.

So that's why they wax down there. It all makes sense!

I'm confused by your post. Are you trying to imply that women blow dry their pubic hair? Let me assure you that we do not lol.

[Vizardlorde]

Using a hair dryer everyday is pretty terrible for your hair; Venezuelan women would probably be better off if they took a hair dryer break.


I'm confused by your post. Are you trying to imply that women blow dry their pubic hair? Let me assure you that we do not lol.

You gotta admit it'd be kinda kinky

[ezgeze]

Venezuela is what happens when socialists take over and run a country.

[LilSaihah]

what's wrong with just like using a towel
just seems pointless having a specialized tool for drying hair
maybe i am biased because it's warm enough in straya all the time that if you want to dry your hair you just go sit outside for like 5 minutes

Venezuela is what happens when socialists take over and run a country.

Those dagnasty socialists, asking that I slightly change my beauty routine for the sake of saving energy! I'll drive my truck for an hour and go nowhere, that'll show 'em!

[oxymoronic]

Nixon got the lion's share of the blame, and rightly so. People called him a commie, a fascist, and worse, again not undeserved.

how exactly his fault?

[Hooked]

Is Venezuela socialist or communist, I cant remember?

[Caolela]

how exactly his fault?

Well, many blamed Nixon for taking the U.S. off the gold standard in '71, which in fact caused the Saudis problems re oil revenue. Along with that, 'Tricky Dick' as his nickname became (and his Vice Pres. Agnew had been caught in a kickback scam, had to resign and later plead 'no contest' to a tax evasion beef) was becoming reviled for the Watergate cover-up that forced his resignation in August '74.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_oil_crisis

No one trusted the gov't except a few die-hard nutty Nixon supporters. Of course, they all hated the dirty AY-rabs. Though I remember most people thinking it was a bullshit deal by the gov't in cahoots with the oil co's for screwing us at the gas pumps, heating oil, and such. Some of that was probably true.

[May90]

Is Venezuela socialist or communist, I cant remember?

Socialist. You could say it has some communist traits, especially recently, when severe economic crisis started there and the government had to employ Soviet-like system of food rationing.

[Deleted]

Next: stop eating to save food!

What a great country! South American socialism at it's finest

[zoroku]

Next: stop eating to save food!

What a great country! South American socialism at it's finest

Haha, that's funny.

[Faenskap]

But how will Venezuelan women get their plastic surgery done when they cut the power?

Ah, South America. What mess it must be to live there

[Hooked]

Next: stop eating to save food!

What a great country! South American socialism at it's finest

That's all of our countries soon, I'm not even laughing.