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The post below is from a relative, just back from Venezuela. It shows a side of this country not often seen.
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Venezuela is so relaxed. When was the last time you EVER thought you could relax around cops?! The Venezuelan military [all over the place] are young men and women from the barrios who operate like the Peoples Liberation Army did in China in the 1950's, 60's, 70's. They talk to people, help people carry their groceries; place telephone calls for you if you look the slightest bit confused. They are the ones who went and got President Chavez when the right wing kidnapped him from the presidential palace. The army parachuted onto the island off the north coast of Venezuela where he was being held. Now this is impressive. They had to go get the plane, etc, etc.
We traveled around in the interior of Venezuela for two weeks, on a bus, stopping at places our guides chose, lived in. The communes we visited were cooperative villages that are now self sufficient, completely, and they make things for Cuba, other nations and give quantities away. Cuba sent 20,000 doctors and Venezuela is just seeing their first graduating class of doctors coming home from Cuba.
We heard 7 women speak about their group of 14 who one day went and took over a middle class medical clinic, with machetes! They went in and told the rich doctors to leave. Loud but productive conversation. And THEN they phoned the military for back up..
We went to a chocolate collective. Same family that has farmed this land [42 hectares] for 350 years. It was a slave colony originally. What beautiful Black people, just awesome. They speak English, French, Spanish and Portuguese, and Creole. We saw cattle that were a cross between local mountain stock and French Brahama cattle; very hardy; very good looking; docile and well adapted to hot climes.
All the dogs look the same; wild type. Hogs, chickens, etc, have all been improved for high yield. The farms have small lakes that supply water everywhere. Can't make big lakes [but there is a huge one in central Venezuela] because the hard rains wash everything. It has the highest rainfall in the western hemisphere
Oil: Venezuela is building a pipeline from their oil fields/refineries, to Buenas Aries. The oil will be exchanged for other products; no even exchange expected.
When Haiti recently inaugurated Rene Preval as President, a tanker of Venezuelan oil, which had pulled into their harbor the day before, was unloaded. The Haitians don't have to make any payments for 2 yrs., then they have 25 years to pay for it, at 1% interest. that's a gift.
We visited a factory, really a commune, where shoes and farming clothes were being manufactured. We saw 10,000 boxes of work shoes ready to be sent to Cuba. Venezuelan people have health care in their neighborhoods. Every few blocks there is a brick round house, with a visiting room on the first floor and above is where the Cuban doctor lives. He is on call at all times; does workshops every day about preventative medicine.
I saw maybe 10 old people during the whole trip, other than the bunch of oldsters who were part of the tour. Dengue fever, yellow fever, cholera, malaria and those are just the ones I know about. Not a place I could live, I don't think. But the Venezuelan people we saw, in many towns, were healthy, not over weight and hard workers. The teenagers were awesome: attentive, helpful, hard workers, proud of their lives.
Venezuela makes their own trucks, buses, motorcycles, bicycles, all motor driven things.
Oil: Venezuela is cleaning up that huge lake in the interior, that the oil companies from outside, for years, had just dumped in. The govt. is lifting huge barges that just sank when they couldn't travel anymore; finding barrel graveyards and bringing these things to the surface; filtering escaping oil eddies, blown by the wind.
We were there when the World Social Forum was happening. Went to a workshop, featuring about 15 speakers over a few hours, giving views on how to build examples for extracting and refining oil in an environmentally considerate way. It's not new science; the govts. just have to make the effort.
We traveled around in the interior of Venezuela for two weeks, on a bus, stopping at places our guides chose, lived in. The communes we visited were cooperative villages that are now self sufficient, completely, and they make things for Cuba, other nations and give quantities away. Cuba sent 20,000 doctors and Venezuela is just seeing their first graduating class of doctors coming home from Cuba.
We heard 7 women speak about their group of 14 who one day went and took over a middle class medical clinic, with machetes! They went in and told the rich doctors to leave. Loud but productive conversation. And THEN they phoned the military for back up..
We went to a chocolate collective. Same family that has farmed this land [42 hectares] for 350 years. It was a slave colony originally. What beautiful Black people, just awesome. They speak English, French, Spanish and Portuguese, and Creole. We saw cattle that were a cross between local mountain stock and French Brahama cattle; very hardy; very good looking; docile and well adapted to hot climes.
All the dogs look the same; wild type. Hogs, chickens, etc, have all been improved for high yield. The farms have small lakes that supply water everywhere. Can't make big lakes [but there is a huge one in central Venezuela] because the hard rains wash everything. It has the highest rainfall in the western hemisphere
Oil: Venezuela is building a pipeline from their oil fields/refineries, to Buenas Aries. The oil will be exchanged for other products; no even exchange expected.
When Haiti recently inaugurated Rene Preval as President, a tanker of Venezuelan oil, which had pulled into their harbor the day before, was unloaded. The Haitians don't have to make any payments for 2 yrs., then they have 25 years to pay for it, at 1% interest. that's a gift.
We visited a factory, really a commune, where shoes and farming clothes were being manufactured. We saw 10,000 boxes of work shoes ready to be sent to Cuba. Venezuelan people have health care in their neighborhoods. Every few blocks there is a brick round house, with a visiting room on the first floor and above is where the Cuban doctor lives. He is on call at all times; does workshops every day about preventative medicine.
I saw maybe 10 old people during the whole trip, other than the bunch of oldsters who were part of the tour. Dengue fever, yellow fever, cholera, malaria and those are just the ones I know about. Not a place I could live, I don't think. But the Venezuelan people we saw, in many towns, were healthy, not over weight and hard workers. The teenagers were awesome: attentive, helpful, hard workers, proud of their lives.
Venezuela makes their own trucks, buses, motorcycles, bicycles, all motor driven things.
Oil: Venezuela is cleaning up that huge lake in the interior, that the oil companies from outside, for years, had just dumped in. The govt. is lifting huge barges that just sank when they couldn't travel anymore; finding barrel graveyards and bringing these things to the surface; filtering escaping oil eddies, blown by the wind.
We were there when the World Social Forum was happening. Went to a workshop, featuring about 15 speakers over a few hours, giving views on how to build examples for extracting and refining oil in an environmentally considerate way. It's not new science; the govts. just have to make the effort.
3 comments:
Sounds terrible; no wonder Mr Bush is so unhappy with the nasty Mr Chavez.
way cool im glad someplace is trying to be fair to others and all
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