Venezuela Celebrates Five Years Free of Illiteracy

[Peace Patriot]

I just thought I would remind people of one of the many accomplishments of the Chavez government on behalf of the poor majority, since some DU posters--as well as the corpo-fascist press, the CIA, the USAID, the fascists in Venezuela, and in Miami and in the U.S. congress--are so determined to ignore those accomplishments and to falsely portray the Chavez government as a dictatorship.

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Venezuela Celebrates Five Years Free of Illiteracy

By EDWARD ELLIS – CORREO DEL ORINOCO INTERNATIONAL

In 2005, UNESCO affirmed that more than 95 percent of the Venezuelan population is literate, qualifying the country for the title of “Territory Free of Illiteracy”.

The free government program, Mission Robinson, is largely responsible for the success, teaching more than 1.5 million people to read and write in the first two years of its existence.

(SNIP)

“For Venezuela it’s something very important and not only because it’s recognized by the world but rather for our development as a country and the development of our people. The consciousness that the people have today, what is happening all over the country, the level of participation in the construction of popular power, is a product of education. The people have taken control over their lives through knowledge,” (said Marisol Calzadilla, President of the government foundation responsible for implementing Mission Robinson).

(SNIP)

Rosa Gonzalez, a 53-year old graduate of the program, expressed her satisfaction with the government’s policy during an act celebrating the 7th anniversary of the mission last week.

“For so long, I had been unable to know a marvellous world, the world of literature”, she exclaimed.

Nearly 2.3 million Venezuelans have now benefited from Mission Robinson which boasts over 38 thousand teachers, known as facilitators, and is divided into two phases – literacy training and primary education.

A third phase is currently being developed for the creation of reading circles, mainly for elderly graduates of the program.

(MORE)

http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/5770
(my emphasis)

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I recommend the photo that accompanies this article--showing a tiny, wrinkled up, dark-skinned, very elderly woman, pencil in hand, pouring over her literacy lesson book! Very moving photo.

How come this VERY IMPORTANT news never reaches the United States, except by means of the free and open internet? I have to laugh at those who claim that the Chavez government somehow harms "free speech," when they exercise their lawful right to de-license a corporate broadcaster that actively participated in the rightwing coup d'tat attempt in 2002, but completely ignore the empowerment of the poor majority with this awesome government literacy program. Frankly, I think that corporate TV moguls would prefer an illiterate audience, all the better to cram peoples minds with corporate junk news and other propaganda. Well, DEFY THEM--by thinking about what this literacy program means not only for human rights but for democracy itself. Think hard about it. Think WHY the Chavez government is so committed to literacy and education. Seek out and think about the things that the corpo-fascist press never tells you.

[Judi Lynn]

1. Wonderful to imagine entire groups finally getting a chance at reading,

which had simply been placed beyond their reach all this long, long time. The oligarchy was damned well pleased to let it continue just as it had always, with the poor remaining poor and isolated, ignored and helpless in a world which had shut them out.

It must be amazin to see so many people gaining the chance which had been denied them earlier.

That's the first thing the US/Cuban exile plan for takeover in Cuba wants to dismantle: Cuba's educational and medical systems. They intend to return things to the way they were before the country threw their asses out, when the country was controlled by a small, priviledged oligarchy, and the rest of the people lived in deep, deep poverty with only seasonal work to sustain them financially, living in huts, shacks without water, sanitation, without education, or access to medical treatment.

That's where they'd be headed with Venezuela, if they ever got their chance to turn the government right back to the very people who were voted OUT OF OFFICE, and a president elected who had promised to implement change which benefited the massive poor population.

Thanks for the great photo you highlighted. You can be so sure this opportunity means everything to people who have had to live without the ability to read, as they had no one to teach them. Blessings to Mission Robinson.

Thanks for making the much needed point about "freedom of speech." Everything EXCEPT material which advances the national political ideology gets published here, but NOTHING else. What a wretched betrayal of life itself, being so fantastically deceitful to actually LIE to the public as a matter of practise day after week after month after year, after decade. If they had self-respect they couldn't do it. The reason they don't have self-respect is because they are criminals at heart.

"Freedom of speech" means telling the TRUTH, not concealing the truth, that's what I always thought. Oh, well! Thank you, Peace Patriot. Good, good article.