Do You Know The Meaning of the Verb “Rosinesing”..?

A new verb has been born in my home country of Venezuela thanks to Twitter.  “Rosinesing” means posing with a collection of items in front of your face.  It was inspired by a photo posted on Instagram by the youngest daughter of the current president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez.  Her photo has gone viral in many blogging sites including Tumblr, Facebook and Flickr.

The photo shows Chavez’s daughter holding a large amount of dollar bills.  That pictured has angered me and many other Venezuelans.  The reason for all that scandal about a photo of a 14-year old girl is the fact that since 2003, Chávez imposed currency exchange controls that limit Venezuelans to buy a maximum of US dollars 3,000 a year in foreign currency.  The amount may be less, depending on the duration of the trip and the destiny.  Any amount of foreign currency sold to companies or individuals is subject to the approval of the government, and the government even limits in what can be spent.  Ordinary people, who don't receive approval to buy dollars at the official fixed rate, usually end up buying dollars on the black market at nearly three times the official rate and with the risk of being fined and/or incarcerated by the government or losing their money to corrupt or unscrupulous intermediaries.

People in Venezuela have being posting their own satiric versions of the Rosines’ picture by substituting the dollars for cooking oil, coffee, sugar, milk and other staples that have been scarce in Venezuela for years.  That’s were the new verb was coined.  This graphic sarcasm also demonstrates why Venezuela is ranked as the world’s most indulgent country, according to Geert Hoefstede's book.  Indulgence describes a society that allows relatively free gratification of basic and natural human drives related to enjoying life and having fun, even during harsh times.

The groundswell created by Rosines’ photo evidences that Twitter and other social media can amplify a message to reach a massive audience and once the message has been public there is no way to take it back.  If you don’t believe me, ask Barbara Streisand.  I read somewhere that life is like Twitter: No one can control what people say and do.  One can only hope people follow or unfollow. 

Even with all their power and money, the Chavez have not been able to silence the thousands of people publishing anything they like online all of the time.  Chavez has tried to control this social media mini-revolution, calling Twitter, the Internet, and text-messaging as forms of terrorism.  A Facebook group called "Chavez esta pochao!" ("Chavez, you struck out!") has nearly 50,000 members. 

Marisabel Rodríguez, Rosinés' mother and Chávez's second wife, said in her own Twitter that Rosines’ mistake wasn’t to take the picture, but rather posting it.  Just yesterday Rosiness blogged and twitted a response to all the critics she and her family has received.  Her Instagram feed has been made private.