Economic War in Venezuela continues ... BUT… Social programs forge ahead

[Judi Lynn]

Economic War in Venezuela continues ... BUT… Social programs forge ahead
By Arturo Rosales
Friday, Aug 8, 2014

All the “stories” published in the English speaking corporate media about food shortages and other problems in Venezuela completely miss the point. Yet they are intended to do so with the objective of discrediting the Maduro government as being inept and incompetent as it is “socialist”… or to be more accurate, heading in that direction.

The corporate media controlled by the international capitalist class would never laud Venezuela for doing a good job to eradicate poverty under a socialist banner, for example, or take care of and educate its population. If it did, I, for one, would have to question what the government was doing and look at its policies under a microscope.

To give readers an idea of how Venezuela is reported in the corporate media we just have to look at a study carried out by the University of West England on the BBC coverage of Venezuela from 1998 – 2008. This paragraph from the study sums it all up:

The researchers looked at 304 BBC reports published between 1998 and 2008 and found that only 3 of those articles mentioned any of the positive policies introduced by the Chavez administration. The BBC has failed to report adequately on any of the democratic initiatives, human rights legislation, food programmes, healthcare initiatives, or poverty reduction programmes. Mission Robinson, the greatest literacy programme in human history received only a passing mention.

More:
http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_67239.shtml

[Marksman_91]

1. Just wondering, why don't you ever post from diverse Venezuela-based news sources?

And I don't mean propaganda crap like VenezuelaAnalysis or Correo del Orinoco, I mean a diverse range of sources which actually are based in the country and talk about the situation there as it is rather than this site, which apparently you seem to trust with regards to anything. Any article that believes in the "economic war" bullshit loses credibility from the moment it mentions it.

[Bacchus4.0]

2. I like the sources she uses as they provide a never ending source of amusement

Just check out this from the article:

Thus, it is no wonder that the toilet roll shortage a few months ago and the hoarding and contraband of basic subsidized food stuffs are blown out of all proportion as if there were a looming famine here. The fact is that 31% of the population is obese or at least overweight; there are lines outside both private and state supermarkets as people have money in their pockets to buy food and lots of it … not because there are no products, as the media would have you believe.


The population has risen from 22 million to just under 30 million this year in a few short years, so it is hardly surprising that more food is needed, both home produced and imported. In fact, Venezuela only imports 30% of the food it consumes these days (excluding wheat which is not sown here) which is a vast improvement over the 65% - 70% imported 20 years ago. However, the same false figures are still bandied about and one would think that all the fertile land is barren.

------------------

See that MM, the chavistas created 8 million Venezuelans in "a few short years" but apparently forgot to provide food for them. The author closes the story by misspelling Maduro's name "Madura".

[Marksman_91]

5. Yeah, and Judy seems to resort now to rehashing old articles and giving the silent treatment

She just won't even try to refute any of the things we point out and thinks that posting up articles that are over 2 years old, and some slightly more recent new ones from biased, conspiracy-nut websites, are enough to counter our arguments. Add this to the fact that she doesn't even speak Spanish or doesn't have any friends or family in the countries she posts about, and, well, you get the idea about just how informed she is...

[Bacchus4.0]

6. Its pretty lonely around here for chavistas ever since hugo bit the dust

I guess some of those "Democrats" just don't think there is a life post-hugo.

Yeah, she doesn't do discussions. Anything beyond cut and paste gets a bit too complex.

[Judi Lynn]

3. UNESCO: Mobile Clinics Program in Maracaibo

Mobile Clinics Program in Maracaibo
Venezuela

Background

The city of Maracaibo, the second largest in Venezuela, has a population of approximately one million four hundred thousand people. Its rapid growth has overwhelmed the health service facilities, negatively affecting especially those citizens with low incomes. This has resulted in the available resources being earmarked to curative activities, relegating almost completely existing medical assistance preventive programs.

The Mobile Clinics Program, conceived as a primary health service facilitator, utilizes Mobile Units to promote changes in medical attention by means of educational and preventive processes. The target populations which are to receive this new service are those living in outlying communities with few or no basic public services, much less medical facilities.


Narrative

The success of the Program is due to the transformation of the way health services are delivered to the communities. Attention is directed to the root cause of those processes that correlate directly to health problems. Its reach extends over a broad spectrum of common daily situations, going beyond the traditional medical emphasis. Health is conceptualized as a multifactorial process which has as a final outcome a specific pathology. In determining and preventing the conditions that lead to a particular disease, it is possible to break its cycle in the initial stages, where the economic cost is much smaller and with an overall higher social benefit. For this to be accomplished, it is necessary that the health team be intimately integrated with the target communities understand that there is a commitment to resolve their problems, which in turn motivates them to participate in more active manner. To this is added the integration of the actions carried out by various institutions and organizations that have a shared responsibility for solving the problem. All of which permits a better utilization of available institutional resources for the benefit of the sound development of the communities involved.

Examples of these actions can be observed in two neighborhoods located in the northern part of the city, neighborhoods which contain a high percentage of American Indian population (Wuayu). The first of these is San Antonio de los Ca�os which was established in 1.972. At the beginning of our work, this community did not have any public services (electricity, water, sewage, adequate roads), spatial ordering. and in spite of being located within the perimeter of the city, it presented characteristics one might expect to find in a rural area. This situation creates a large number of health problems, due to the absence of minimal subsistence conditions. As a consequence of this situation, and due to the characteristics of the area, the inhabitants were encouraged to establish contacts with the National Agrarian Institute (I.A.N.) to request a planimetric survey (road and lot map) of the community.

More:
http://www.unesco.org/most/southam9.htm

United Nations Educational, Social, and Cultural Organization

[Bacchus4.0]

4. Consider limiting posts to activities that have occurred this century

The most recent date mentioned in that article is 1995.