Venezuela is using public investment, foreign direct investment, public education, and the law in order to craft a sustainable solution to the rapidly growing demand for electricity that has resulted from economic growth and poverty reduction.
By Mike Whitney - Centre for Research on Globalization, Jan 27th 2011
His enemies call him a tyrant and a dictator, but he is neither. Hugo Chavez is a tireless champion of the poor and a committed Christian socialist. The only difference between Chavez's type of Christianity and Barack Obama's, is that Chavez walks the walk.
By Bolivar and Zamora Revolutionary Current - CRBZ, Jan 5th 2011
Our stomach turns when we do a visual count of the damages caused by the merciless rains of recent days. It’s just that figures alone don’t allow for a full comprehension of the catastrophe’s characteristics – in figures there is a cold rational that isn’t understood until one sees concrete faces, the faces of little kids scared and searching for answers amongst such despair.
By Lisa MacDonald - Green Left Weekly, Dec 15th 2010
In October, Chavez called for the acceleration of the nationalisation of agricultural assets, to put more land and property owned by huge food corporations under public control. The land reforms undertaken as part of Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution have reduced hunger and poverty by allowing field hands to own the land they work.
After one week, the fate of negotiations at the U.N. Climate Change Conference remains uncertain. We speak to Venezuela’s lead climate change negotiator, Claudia Salerno.
By Laura Vidal - Global Voices Online, Dec 8th 2010
The comic in Venezuela is one of the genres that is generally underrated and ironically, treasured within the country's culture. The artists who associate themselves with the expression of the comic and its way of illustrating ideas quickly and amusingly work more on the net than among publishers.
During all of these recent days, it rained in Venezuela like never before...We are at a historical turning point: We must speed up the birth of the socialist city, the city of good living and good life, by giving life to a new sense of territorial planning, which follows closely the preservation of common good and collective welfare.
The Caracas Metro is no longer adequate enough as transport for the megalopolis. A range of solutions have been suggested. We think the difficulties of the Metro need to be analysed more profoundly. Let’s confront the problems that we face due to the capitalist crisis with audacious measures that get to the heart of the problems.
As we approach crucial climate change negotiations in Cancún, Mexico, the key question on many people's minds is this: What nation or nations will have the courage to stand up to the United States, which still represents the key obstacle to a binding agreement on global warming?
By Juan Reardon – Venezuelanalysis.com, Oct 19th 2010
With the nationalization of AgroIsleña, the Venezuelan state has taken an important step in the struggle to bring social and economic factors under greater control of the Venezuelan people and out of the hands of private, profit-driven firms. What is yet to be understood is what ecological factors will be considered as the AgroPatria project moves forward.
By James Suggett - Venezuelanalysis.com, Aug 30th 2010
Suggett visits the isolated rural village of El Quinó, where the government and community have worked together to install solar power, bringing electricity to the town for the first time, along with other social benefits.
Venezuela´s oil riches have enabled its government to begin building a new society, enabled it to help its neighbours and stand up for itself in the world, demonstrating to the world that many positive outcomes are possible even from a resource with such potential for destruction
By Juan Reardon – Venezuelanalysis.com , Jul 8th 2010
In Venezuela, the Environment Ministry has launched a year-long, nationwide weekend tree-planting campaign through the Misión Arbol, or “Tree Mission”, an integral reforestation and conservation effort that depends largely on grassroots participation.
An interview with Natalie Lazaro Barrios on the Indo-Bolivarian Ecosocialism forum, the Mother Earth Mission, and environmental work in Venezuela post the climate summit in Cochabamba.
