An excellent post about some very important information.
Great to see your "fact based" blog give the facts in a very cogent and illuminating way - even if it does burst the bubble of some of our escualido visitors.
It would be helpful to know what the definition of poverty is. I hope you will post some information on this.
poverty is definied as the percentage of homes whose per capita income is less than the amount needed to cover basic necessities (in Spanish from the INE report - "hogares cuyo ingreso per capita es menor que la Canasta Basica per capita"). The "canasta basica" covers food and other necessities such as housing and transport. People that don't meet that level are "poor" and that is what my posts stats refer to. Extreme poverty is defined by those people who can't even cover the lower "canasta alimentaria", or basic food expenses, which is of course a lower amount.
These are very common and basic numbers that are widely used. I'll see if I can look for what its exact amounts currently are. Just to give you an idea in 2003 I believe the per capita "canasta alimentaria" was about $30/month so if you were below that you were considered extremely poor.
Yeah, the psuedo-concern for the poor on the part of the Venezuelan upper classes is starkly evidient when they try to manipulate the numbers so as to elide their significant role in damaging working families during their attempt to unseat Chavez.
Changing the macro economics and politics is a slow process, but these Bolivarian reforms will have a lasting impact on the future course of the Venezuelan people.
For me, Chavez is simply engaging basic, modest reforms. For the elite, these reforms mean a diminishment/waning of their historical, illegitimate power.
Now they cry like babies and hope that Sammie will bust a move over the region.
Honestly, OW, for many of these hard right, racist thugs, the deaths of tens of thousands of their fellow countrymen and women is 'nothing' for them, such deaths are merely incidental, collateral damage as the nation is 'purged' of the virus.
Thankfully, the moves by the Bolivarians and Chavez have made this senerio more unlikely==not impossible, mind you, but simply more unlikely.
They whine about Castro-Communism, but don't criticize the US for the crass and blatant 'state terrorism' and imperialism of Iraq. Very telling indeed.
Mr. Burnett, I see that you have duly reported the decrease in poverty in Venezuela under Chavez. Will you now make your promise of buying me a ticket to Venezuela good, so that I can go and see for myself?
Dear OW, as usual I am amazed by your caradurismo...You diligently reported the new poverty figures but you totally FORGOT to mention to your readers that the way poverty is measured this year WAS CHANGED!!!!
It is not the same method used last year or the years before. Chavez was not very happy with the statistics he was getting with the old method.
I expect and hope that poverty decreases significantly. It is indeed a scandal that with a barrel around 60$ (when Chavez took power, it was around 8$) there would not be a significant decrease in poverty. But for your statistical comparisons and your praises to be valid, you have to compare apples with apples.
An improvement in figures when you have changed the measuring method is totally meaningless.Let us put it this way: if a graduate student of mine had come up with a conclusion like that, I would send him back to do his homework.
So if you are serious, I propose that you should use your goverment contacts, and propose to them to recalculate yearly poverty figures since 1998 based on the new measure.
Then they will have apples with apples.Then, and only then, if you get the good numbers you are looking for, your praises would be legitimate.
Yes, Boyd, poverty is down in Venezuela. Hope it didn't ruin your day.
You may wish to avoid this blog for the next few days as it is likely to present some other very uncomfortable facts (it is a fact based blog after all) such as that the oil production figures the government has been giving were correct all along and you and all your escualido cohorts were lying about it (or maybe like Bush and the non-existant WMD you weren't lying, your "intelligence" was wrong 
).
Buni:
No, no, no. It was NOT changed. This poverty measurement is the exact same one as has been used all along. It is based only on INCOME. That is pointed out in my post and in the full Panorama post which I posted at the bottom. And the point was re-emphasized in todays Ultimas Noticias article. So while there was discussion about coming up with a measurement that takes into account other in-kind benefits that hasn't yet been done. The bottom line is, opposition stikes, coups, and sabotage notwhithstanding, poverty is down in Venezulea.
Brunilde:
Here is the relevant part from the Ultimas Noticias article:
"Sólo ingresos. Con estas cifras, Eljuri enfatizó que dentro de las variables que se deben tomar en cuenta, sólo se midió el factor ingreso, para determinar la condición económica y social de la población venezolana.
Es decir, no se incluyeron los efectos que pueden tener los planes sociales que adelanta el gobierno nacional, a través de las misiones. “Este será otro estudio”, dijo. No obstante reconoció que “no es suficiente medir esta variable sólo por los ingresos, los programas sociales también inciden en la baja de la pobreza extrema”, indicó.
Este descenso significativo lo justifican sólo por los salarios o sueldos brutos sin deducciones (impuestos, seguridad social entre otros), más bonos, primas, viáticos, todo lo relacionado con el sustento proveniente del trabajo principal."
So what you're thinking of "será otro estudio" - which will be interesting to see when it comes out but has nothing to do with the current numbers which show poverty going down.
No Burnett it didn't ruin my day, actually I'm quite happy to learn that which is the reason why I want to ask you, yet again, whether or not, as an honourable man that you are, you will keep your promise and send me the tickets to Caracas so that I can see the wonderful achievements of the Chavez administration for myself. Or will I have to assume at face value that a man uncapable of keeping his word claims to write a 'fact based blog'?
A busboys tips for a month should be enough to pay for a ticket.
Alec, if you want to visit Venezuela so desparately, stop trying to hassel OW into giving you them as a gift.
You have the typical mind of a 'welfare dependent': gimme, gimme, gimme.
I'm sure that your ideological soulmates in the Venezuelan rightwing, or the hacks in the US State Department will give you the money to go to Venezuela.
But my guess is that you are too chicken shit to go to Venezuela--after you have engaged in a smear campaign to subvert consitutional order and the democractic fabric which undergirds the Bolivarian process of change.
As I have stated before, I admire your use of language, but despise the lack of intellectual and ethical rigor that provides flimsy support for your efforts at anti-democratic/reactionary propaganda.
You begging OW to subsidize your travel to Venezuela is beneath even someone such as yourself.
Please, have some dignity and stop begging. This is quite unbecoming for an aspiring oligarch.
if hes burnett, doesn't it seem only fair?
Nick and Alec--engage the 'arguements' not the 'real' identity of OW.
But that is just the point of having a hidden identity:--it forces the reader to confront the thinking conveyed, not who the person is, how old/young they are etc.
The 'if', Nick, is what you dwell upon when you don't have any cogent input visa vis the subject matter.
no, the subject matter i am not contesting. i am chavista. however, i have read some comments attributed to an OW, to which alec refers.
Hey Hunt, is it not true that Burnett wrote:
and Boyd (aka T1, aka P2) I should make a proposition. If you figure out who I am I'll buy you a plane ticket to Caracas. Shit from London thats expensive.
I am just calling on his oofer since I did figure out who he is. Is it too much to ask that Burnett makes his 'proposition' good?
You have the typical mind of a 'welfare dependent': gimme, gimme, gimme.
Now you're talking: 'welfare dependent' isn't that the definition of chavistas? Every now and then even people like you get it right.
i hope you werent referring to me as Hunt, Boyd. thats not a way to win further backing.
slave revolt.....
i like your website, if thats you, very cool, nice looking stuff!
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