Good life

Every Wednesday (I always wondered why you pronounce it "wensday") I watch this catalan TV show, "Afers exteriors" (International affairs) There's this guy with a great personality (his name is Mikimoto, but he's not japanese :)) who every week travels to a different country, and tries to show it to us through the eyes of catalan citizens who emigrated there for one reason or another. Two weeks ago he did California and I was overwhelmed by my memories of it as Mikimoto spoke some wise words overlooking the Golden Gate bridge. My mom said I looked so melancholic, I said no but obviously I did. Anyway, today's turn was Venezuela. Mikimoto focused on Caracas and some island named Las Rocas. In Caracas, he spoke to a successful catalan entrepeneur who runs a successful advertisement agency. The guy tried to look rather modern-leftist, as most of the guys who work on the advertisement industry do. I wonder why, since they are (after consumers) the most loyal servants of the market, whatever form it takes. Mikimoto also spoke to this woman who earned a living making and selling cakes. She emigrated from Catalunya 40 years ago (escaping from Franco's dictatorship, of course), and now her worse nightmare was how to get sugar in Venezuela. The woman explained to Mikimoto how she would have to buy sugar in the black market, that is, in a street market. Apparently, supermarkets cannot sell cheap sugar. If they do, the police takes it away from them. Then, the police sells it really cheap to sugar dealers, which in turn sell it to street sellers who make it available to the people at a high price. And illegally. Society, you know.
But in Venezuela you can also find an island named Las Rocas. There, Mikimoto finds Joan, a catalan guy who stopped working and escaped from Catalonia some 10 years ago, and moved to the island. Joan does absolutely nothing there, except from fishing for lobsters and eating them grilled everyday, and eventually taking some tourists sailing around the island: "Not really very often", he says with a permanent smile on his mouth. "I really wouldn't know when it's Sunday, except for the fact that there's more people around". "But there's a church". "Yeah, but there's no priest".
"What is Las Rocas for you, Joan?". "Good life", he replies.
And Mikimoto closes the show with a deep reflection, as he always does: "As I prepared to leave Venezuela, I wondered what it really was. Was it Caracas and people demonstrating and striving to survive on the streets? Or was it grilled lobsters and transparent waters at Las Rocas? What defines a country? Its people, or its landscape?"