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previous governments (rightwing) totally and very irresponsibly neglected. I read one report that said that Venezuela, pre-Chavez, was importing all machine parts for its oil industry! That is nuts! Previous governments had allowed the rich to rip off a share of the oil profits, and gave the rest away to multinationals (90%), and had created a glitzy, urban culture for the few, based on the oil, with the beneficiaries growing addicted to imports, including food, while the country lost all food self-sufficiency, and failed to create a manufacturing base to support a healthy middle class and upward mobility for the poor. When Chavez was first elected, the poor lacked schools in many areas, also medical care, low cost housing and land for small farms (to feed families and local communities).
The Venezuelan oiligarchy sounds exactly like our own--people without conscience, with no sense of social responsibility, and lacking even in common sense. Chavez has re-negotiated all the oil contracts, and Venezuela now gets a 60/40 cut of its own oil profits, and pours the revenue into schools, medical care, low cost housing, encouraging local manufacturing and small businesses and co-ops, and intelligently designed land reform (land reform which requires food production, within a specified time period, in exchange for land use, and provides technical assistance, training and other supports for new farmers; it also has sought out all fallow governments lands and lands with unclear title that are not being used, for farm land reclamation; the government pays for other lands that it wants to convert to farming; private property is protected by the Venezuelan Constitution). The government also uses oil profits to help bail neighbor countries out of ruinous World Bank/IMF debt (they turned Argentina around, from a World Bank/IMF-crashed economy, into a healthy trading partner for Venezuela, Brazil and other countries, in this way), and for cooperative infrastructure developments (items like the new Orinoco Bridge between Venezuela and Brazil).
It's quite inspiring to be reading about INTELLIGENT government. It can also be a bit depressing, given the global corporate predator planned destruction of the U.S. middle class, and the retard they put in the White House to oversee it. (Throw Diebold, ES&S and all election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' now! Really, that IS the problem.*)
I trust that the Venezuelan National Assembly will do the right thing (or things) in response to rising auto purchase costs. It's full of Chavistas, so I have hope that they will. They should look at the entire transportation picture (and the air pollution in Caracas), and devise a long term plan (if they haven't already) that not only encourages local manufacture of cars and car parts, but also develops alternative transportation, and makes all transportation safer and cleaner. They should encourage train, bus and trolley manufacture, and bicycle manufacture. I'm sure it's tempting to go with the automobile, since gas is so cheap for them, currently. But they do have the potential to be visionary and to plan for the common good. And in other areas of development, they have shown themselves capable of understanding the need for diversification of their economy, for local manufacturing and for long term planning, as well as addressing various environmental concerns.
It isn't directly relevant--but seems to speak to the spirit of the Bolivarian Revolution--that, due to government funding support, the Venezuelan Children's Orchestra has been able to expand its program to (if I recall correctly) 100,000 children (often the poorest of the poor) in full time classical music training. The Venezuelan Children's Orchestra has been hailed throughout the world as playing some of the best classical music of our era, and of being "the future of classical music" as well. It is the most inspiring cultural program that I know of. Some of its graduates go on to professional careers (one of them is now lead conductor for the L.A. Philharmonic). Some are becoming music teachers. Most won't become professionals, but they and their teachers say that the training is transformative, especially as to the group dynamics and selflessness of orchestral playing. Their goal is to have classical music orchestras in every community in Venezuela. Reminds me of Chavez's goal of a well-equipped baseball park in every community. Both goals are well on their way to realization.
Intelligent government. Imagine.
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*Venezuela has electronic voting, but it is run on OPEN SOURCE code--anyone may review the code by which the votes are tabulated--and they handcount a whopping 55% of the votes, as a check on machine fraud. In the U.S. we now have electronic voting run on 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code--code so secret that not even our secretaries of state are permitted to review it--owned and controlled by Bushite corporations, with virtually no audit/recount controls--systems that were spread like the plague to almost every state, during the 2002 to 2004 period, with a $3.9 billion electronic voting boondoggle from the Anthrax Congress. Many states do a ZERO handcount (some don't even have the capability of handcount, or audit or recount--they are paperless); even the best states do only a 1% handcount (experts say 10% is the bare minimum needed to detect fraud). You wonder why Venezuela has good government, and we have shit for brains in the White House (and not much better in Congress)? In my opinion, this is the major reason why. Privately controlled 'TRADE SECRET' vote counting was the fascist coup d'etat.
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