Reply #18: Why not break down and acquaint yourself with the facts? Is it because it wouldn't leave you a leg [View All]

[Judi Lynn]

to stand on if you had to deal from a base in reality?

Any time you need to know what is happening with the poor in Venezuela and their access to food, humble yourself and do a bit of researching first, then comment later.

Venezuela: Revolution brings massive social gains


Stuart Munckton
29 September 2007


“The Venezuelan economy in the Chavez years”, a study released in July by the Centre for Economic and Policy Research, reveals massive social gains for the poor and working people in Venezuela as a result of the pro-people polices promoted by the government of socialist President Hugo Chavez. The study, by Mark Weisbrot and Luis Sandoval, also provides a detailed look at the state of the Venezuelan economy, which has experienced significant economic growth. The authors argue that, contrary to suggestions widely made in the corporate media (which the authors refer to as “conventional wisdom”), this growth is unlikely to end any time soon.


A key component of the Bolivarian revolution — as the process of change led by the Chavez government is known — is the redistribution of wealth to tackle the problems of the poor via the implementation of “social missions”, government-funded social programs in a growing range of areas, including health care, education, food provision, employment, land reform, culture and the environment.

The Chavez government inherited a country devastated by neoliberalism, with a significant increase in poverty during the two decades prior to Chavez’s election. The report shows that social spending by the government from 1998 (when Chavez was first elected) to 2006 has increased by 170% per person in real (inflation adjusted) terms. However, this figure excludes social spending directly carried out by the state-owned oil company, PDVSA, some US$13.3 billion in 2006. When this spending is factored in, the increase is 314% per person since 1998. In 1998, social spending was 34.7% of total public expenditure; by 2006 it was 44%.

The report points out that “the most pronounced difference has been in the area of health care”, with an increase of primary care physicians from 1628 in 1998 to 19,571 today. Since 2004, as part of Mission Miracle — a joint program with Cuba that provides free eye operations — just under 400,000 people have had their vision restored. In 1999, there were 335 HIV patients with antiretroviral treatment provided by the government, compared to 18,538 in 2006.

The authors report that the government “has also provided widespread access to subsidized food”. By 2006, there were 15,726 stores offering mainly food items at up to 40% below market prices. Combined with a large number of kitchens providing free food to the very poor, in 2005 67% of the population benefited. This doesn’t include those that benefited from a free school meals program (1.8 million in 2006, up from 252,000 in 1998).

http://www.greenleft.org.au/2007/726/37678

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VENEZUELA: Nutritious food a 'basic human right'


24 August 2005
Owen Richards

We’re crammed into a small kitchen, maybe three by four metres, with blue concrete walls. Lining the walls are shelves stocked with kitchen basics — string bags of potatoes, garlic cloves, carrots, pumpkins and melons. There’s a bucket of chopped onions. A giant stainless steel pot waits empty on the gas stove. Four women and a man, in matching red aprons, hand-roll fish cakes and banana balls. A tiny wall fan hums in the background.

It could be a kitchen anywhere, but it’s quite different. The members of the Caracas section of the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Brigade are here in Guaicaipuro Casa de Alimentaciones on July 29, witnessing firsthand one of the social achievements of the Bolivarian revolution. It is here in this modest house that 150 people come daily to receive two free meals.

There are some 4000 of these kitchens now across Venezuela. They are only possible because of the revolutionary will of the Venezuelan people and the assistance provided by the government of President Hugo Chavez.

Established to guarantee access to nutritious food — particularly for pregnant women, children, the over-60s and the extreme poor — the casas are nonetheless open to all.

They will not accept any money for the food, not even a donation. In fact, they have been instructed by the government to feed everyone who visits, even if they be from rich First World countries. And that is how we came to be eating delicious fishcakes, banana balls and rice complimented by endless arepas and fruit juices. The point of feeding tourists and fact-finders, they tell us, is to show the world that their food is both tasty and nutritious.

http://www.greenleft.org.au/2005/639/33934

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Don't like my excerpts? Just dive right into the internetS and start looking for articles which will fit your information needs. Gotta start somewhere.