Poverty in Venezuela Decreased by 22.6% over Past Decade

[IndianaGreen]

Poverty in Venezuela Decreased by 22.6% over Past Decade

August 8th 2009, by James Suggett - Venezuelanalysis.com

Mérida, August 7th 2009 (Venezuelanalysis.com) -- The president of Venezuela's National Statistics Institute (INE), Elias Eljuri, announced on Friday that poverty in Venezuela has been reduced by 22.6% since President Hugo Chavez took office.

"Poverty has been dropping in an important manner over the last ten years, from 49% in 1998 to 26.4% in 2009," said Eljuri, citing the INE's national survey of 40,000 homes.

The INE also released inflation statistics for the month of July, showing 2.1% inflation, slightly higher than the previous month. Accumulated inflation so far this year is 13.1%, significantly lower than the 17.3% accumulated inflation during the first seven months of 2008.

Inflation in the prices of food, transportation, and education were slightly higher than the monthly average in July, while the prices of housing, health care, and communications were slightly lower.

The unemployment rate in June was 7.8%, according to the INE's most recent report. This is slightly higher than the unemployment rate in June of last year, which was 7.6%. The unemployment rate in Venezuela when Chavez took office ten years ago was 15%.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/4702

[dipsydoodle]

1. And THAT is the main point

which generally gets overlooked/conveniently ignored by some of the antis here.

Thanks for posting. :thumbsup:

[slackmaster]

2. According to some people on this board, there is no poverty in Cuba

Because everyone is at the same level.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4006241

[IndianaGreen]

3. Cuban girls are no longer being used a sex slaves by US sailors and tourists

In Cuba no one goes to bed hungry! Can you make the same claim about the USA? FRAK NO!

[slackmaster]

4. You should read what the UNHCR has to say about human trafficking in Cuba

Report published June 4, 2008:

http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/publisher,USDOS,,CUB,484f9a0f2d,0.html

Cuba is principally a source country for women and children trafficked within the country for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation. Some families push child victims to prostitute themselves as a means of increasing family income. Cuban children and adults also may be exploited for forced labor. The full scope of trafficking within Cuba is difficult to gauge due to the closed nature of the government and sparse non-governmental or independent reporting. However, by all accounts, the country is a destination for sex tourism, including child sex tourism, which is a problem in many areas of the country. Cuba's thriving sex trade caters to numerous European, Canadian, and Latin American tourists every year. State-run hotel workers, travel employees, cab drivers, and police steer tourists to prostituted women and children and facilitate their commercial sexual exploitation, sometimes extorting money or pay-offs from victims. Limited sex trafficking of Cuban women to Mexico, The Bahamas, and Western Europe has been reported. Some Cuban nationals willingly migrate to the United States, but are subsequently exploited for forced labor by their smugglers. Cuba also is a transit point for the smuggling of migrants from China, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Lebanon, and other nations to the United States and Canada. Some of these migrants may be trafficking victims, who are subject to forced labor, sexual exploitation, and abuse.

The Government of Cuba does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so. Exact information about trafficking in Cuba is difficult to obtain because the government does not publicly release information, and U.S. attempts to engage officials are viewed as politically motivated. Nonetheless, the Government of Cuba does not appear to have made tangible efforts to prosecute offenders, protect victims, or prevent human trafficking activity during the reporting period....

[angstlessk]

5. this article was published by THE UNITED STATES DEPT OF STATE

NOT THE UN COUNCIL! GEE AN ANTI CUBAN BIAS FROM THE US DEPT OF STATE? TELL ME IT AIN'T SO!!!

[slackmaster]

6. The UNHCR thought it was appropriate to publish on their Web site

That looks like an endorsement to me.

Do you have any information to contradict the document?

[angstlessk]

7. sure they do...withouth the US contributions of cash there would be no UN!

gee and the MSM prints all sort of lies their advertisers spew!!

[slackmaster]

8. I guess you don't have any verifiable information to contradict that human trafficking report

:hi:

Meanwhile, Cuba is still running short of cash and toilet paper.

[angstlessk]

16. embargo's tend to have that sort of effect on nations...and having a highly educated and clean

practice in prostitution does not make a nation promote prostitution...hell we have more people in prison than any nation on earth and WE cannot stop prostitution and they (our prostitutes)are young, dumb, and dirty for the most part.

[Wilms]

11. Just this...

Though there is bipartisan support for efforts to fight human trafficking, there have been partisan disagreements about the nature of U.N. involvement and the emphasis on prostitution over other types of forced labor such as sweatshops, farming and child soldiers. Various human rights group devoted to the issue did not participate in the Justice Department conference.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54840-2004Jul16.html

So there's a bias claim.

[struggle4progress]

24. You remember the back story on that? Back in midsummer 2003, Neil Bush's Asian sex tourism

started to get media coverage. The story wouldn't die, and in the early fall 2003 the White House decided they needed to be in front of the sex tourism issue. W was scheduled to give a UN speech, so he slapped a bunch of "cracking down on sex tourism" stuff into the middle of it, surprising international observers who had seen no prior evidence of Administration interest in the issue. Down in Foggy Bottom, they had to make the President's new anti-sex-tourism initiation look meaty, so they started slapping trafficking accusations into various reports -- almost invariably reports on countries the rightwingers hated. IF UNHCR has the State Department document on its website, it's almost certainly because the US officially submitted the document to the UN

Hey! It bumped Neil out of the news cycle:

Bush Says Castro Welcomes Sex Tourism in Cuba
Posted on: Saturday, 17 July 2004, 06:00 CDT
By SCOTT LINDLAW
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- President Bush on Friday accused Fidel Castro of exploiting Cuba's children by encouraging a sex-tourism industry designed to draw cash to the impoverished nation, comments certain to resonate with Cuban-American voters in the swing state of Florida. "The regime in Havana, already one of the worst violators of human rights in the world, is adding to its crimes. The dictator welcomes sex tourism," Bush said at a conference on "human trafficking" - forced labor, sex and military service ... http://www.redorbit.com/news/oddities/72413/bush_says_castro_welcomes_sex_tourism_in_cuba/

Here's this February's UN Report on human trafficking around the world:

UNODC report on human trafficking exposes modern form of slavery
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/frontpage/unodc-report-on-human-trafficking-exposes-modern-form-of-slavery-.html

[sabrina 1]

25. Did they include the US

in that report? I don't know yet as I have not read it, but it looks like the US ought to be minding our own business instead of setting ourselves up as the moral arbiters of every other country in the world. Seems the US has a pretty dismal (and growing) record of human trafficing itself:

http://media.www.arbiteronline.com/media/storage/paper890/news/2008/05/12/Opinion/Human.Trafficking.Is.Escalating.In.The.U.s-3369825.shtml

Human trafficking is escalating in the U.S.

One in three teens on the street will be lured toward prostitution within 48 hours of leaving home, according to National Incident Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway and Throwaway Children. Other information from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children says 100,000 to 293,000 children have become sexual commodities.

This is the single most shocking thing I've learned in the last year. These numbers are big. Too big, I think, for an industrialized nation like the United States. These children are also considered trafficking victims under the United States yearly issued Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report. Human trafficking is the 21st century term for slavery. The title may be fancy but it's the same age-old issue.

The hypocrisy of the US pointing fingers anywhere else hasn't escaped other nations either. One of them being Venezuela, never shy about pointing out why the US now lacks the moral authority to accuse anyone else of crimes against humanity.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/4531

Venezuela Says U.S. Report on Human Trafficking Reflects “Double Standards”

The Ministry also called it hypocritical for the U.S. to criticize the human rights records of other countries when its own record has been so dismal. "It is scandalous that a country where immigrants are repressed and exploited, especially Latin Americans, their families are separated and border walls are built, and where torture has been practiced and terrorists are protected, pretends to prop itself up as a judge of human rights in the world," stated the Ministry.

I would expect to be slapped down almost anywhere in the world, as an American, for having the nerve to criticize any other country on human rights issues until we do something about holding our own war criminals accountable, eg, and stop the human trafficing of people in this country first.

All those old sayings had meaning, such as 'charity begins at home' and in this case 'clean up your own backyard before pointing fingers at the neighbors'.

My question regarding whether the US included itself has been answered. Under the Bush regime, apparently this list was used as a tool against countries like Venezuela and Cuba. Hillary Clinton, to her great credit, (see above link) has acknowledged the problem in the US:

This year, the United States is not among the countries ranked in the report. However, the U.S. Justice Department released a corresponding report on trafficking in the U.S. In contrast to the previous administration, Secretary of State Clinton acknowledged the U.S.'s role in the problem, saying, "Trafficking is a crime that involves every nation on earth, and that includes our own."

[proteus_lives]

23. Really comrade?

"In Cuba no one goes to bed hungry!" You better be prepared to back that Pravda-like statement up.

Do all the trains run on time too? :rofl:

[dipsydoodle]

12. The subject here is Venezuela ,

not Cuba , apart from which Venezuela has not been subjected to sanctions as was Cuba.

But since you raised the issue - don't worry about Cuba : the EU will help them out.

[Judi Lynn]

17. Truly odd seeing right-wingers hijack threads to Cuba. Clearly, the topic is VENEZUELA. n/t

[slackmaster]

22. The point is that the definition of "poverty" is subjective

If you define poverty down low enough, nobody is poor.

[justinaforjustice]

9. Venezuela Is Thriving.

I am an American who has been living in Merída, Venezuela for the last two years in the same apartment complex, a lower-middle class condominium project of perhaps 400 families. When I first moved in, the big parking lot was full of old cars. Over the past two years, the old cars have been almost completely replaced by new models. It is clear, from the quality of the clothing and the cars, that the standard of living has increased dramatically. The city is full of new construction and renovation sites, and the shops are full of customers.

This is taking place despite the substantial decrease in oil prices. The Chavez government has used the oil profits to invest in new industries and increase agricultural production. Thousands of free neighborhood medical, dental and optical clinics abound, as do educational and technical training programs for the population.

Venezuela is not perfect, and crime is still a major problem, but economically and educationally this country is thriving. Venezuela is demonstrating what can be accomplished when human needs are put before private profits.

Unfortunately, the United States is all set to use our tax payer's money to set up 7 U.S.military bases in neighboring Colombia as well as re-establishing the Fourth Fleet in the Caribbean and ramping up its bases on several Caribbean islands surrounding Venezuela. As a result, Venezuela is now being forced to put some of its resources into military defense systems rather than health care and education, just as American tax dollars are going to our military budget rather than education and health care. Citizens of both countries are being deprived of money which should be going to fulfill human needs.

Why is the U.S. setting up 7 military bases in Colombia? Because it borders Venezuelan oil fields, which U.S. corporations hope to win back from the Bolivarian revolution. The U.S. is funding secessionist efforts in the Venezuelan oil states, as it previously funded an attempted coup against Chavez in 2002 and an oil industry strike the same year. As with Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran, the U.S. is bent upon dominating the world's oil resources. Now that Cuba has found oil deposits, it too is on the list of countries vulnerable to U.S. oil greed.

The U.S. State Department has been demonizing President Chavez for years, hoping to undermine his international reputation and his efforts to make Venezuela a model for social development in the world. Venezuela is a model that, if followed, could radically improve health, education and welfare in the lives of millions of American citizens. But our country is owned, economically and politically, by private corporations who will always put profits before human welfare.

[IndianaGreen]

13. Why do we need 7 military bases in Colombia if not for aggression?

Eliminating an antire carrier battle group would finance Single Payer for all Americans.

[Judi Lynn]

14. Thanks for pointing out efforts to quicken the bases on Caribbean islands surrounding Venezuela.

That's a clearly aggessive move which mirrors the other warlike motions going on in the 4th fleet, 7 more bases in Colombia, when efforts in Colombia should clearly be diminishing. Plan Colombia has been feared and hated from the beginning.

More countries than Venezuela alone find this building threat to be unacceptable, and have been making their objections public for over a year.

Thanks for your personal observations about conditions in your vicinity. It would be impossible not to see progress there!

[orwell]

15. What do you know...

...you just live there.

Thanks for the post.

[sabrina 1]

26. Excellent post, thank you

I have a friend who is Venezuelan and who did not initially support Chavez but voted for him in the last several elections. He is thrilled with what is happening in his country, especially the reduction of poverty and illiteracy. He was not poor himself which may be why he was not supportive of the changes Chavez promised at first, but he changed his mind fairly quickly when he saw the improvements for so many of his fellow citizens.

So, what you are saying corresponds to what I have heard from him. Including the continued attempts by the US supported obsturctionists to undermine all the efforts of the Venezuelan people (because that is why they are undermining) to improve their country and stay independent of the multi-national criminals whose only interest in these countries, is to get their hands on their resources.

I will be very disappointed if Obama continues these policies, not to mention that it would be a huge mistake in every way, morally and politically.

[bemildred]

10. So how is poverty doing in Colombia?

Our "good friend" that we are pumping boatloads of money into?

http://www.voanews.com/uspolicy/2009-08-03-voa6.cfm

[BolivarianHero]

29. I don't know...

But I do know that Colombia's Partido Liberal representatives should be marched out of Socialist International meeting at gunpoint by a dozen burly security guards.

[barbtries]

18. that is impressive

[bemildred]

19. Change you can believe in. nt

[MasonJar]

20. It is time for the USA to stop supporting Columbia and back the legitimate

governments in South America like Venezuela which are helping the people. Acutally I am so discouraged by the so-called change (not) of Barack Obama that I am not sure it is not time for a new revolution here. The dems are no different than the GOpers; they are all corporate pawns. I had such hopes when we Dems got the presidency and both houses of Congress, and yet nothing. Wasn't it Thomas Jefferson who said that we would need a revolution ever so often? Our politicians are owned. We, the people, have no

[bvar22]

21. The US is faced with a decision:

Either:
1)Change the adversarial foreign policy towards Venezuela and the other emerging populist democracies, AND stop propping up the failing Right Wing Oligarchs (Colombia),

OR

2)Lose an entire continent.

Our current hostile policy towards the new populist democracies is closing doors to emerging markets, and driving them into the hands of Russia and China.
We should be welcoming these new governments with Open Arms and all the assistance and cooperation they can stand.

[Judi Lynn]

27. Kick!

:kick: :kick: :kick: :kick:

[marmar]

28. But, but Hugo Chavez is a Spanish-speaking Pol Pot, according to many people here.

THIS CAN'T BE RIGHT!!!!