Artcile from Caracas denying that the Houston Consular officials have been expelled;

http://english.eluniversal.com/2008/11/10/en_pol_esp_venezuela-denies-exp_10A2120643.shtml

Article from MSN explaining that they have been expelled;

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27653936/

And the screws are turned even tighter.

Chavez announced today that effective tommorow, anyone wishing to travel outside of Venezuela can only get $2500 USD instead of the $5000 it was;

http://english.eluniversal.com/2008/12/31/en_eco_esp_venezuela-halves-yea_31A2179921.shtml

Safety is number one priority of Chavez; -not

http://caracas.eluniversal.com/2008/12/31/sucgc_art_en-caracas-cada-hora_1208788.shtml

It is true, education and jobs must be No. 1. in Venez to prevent delinquency.. The Vientam government has just started a major initiative. The internet can help:
The Internet networking of Ministry of Education and Training is launching by Viettel Company from Ministry to schools .The support is given free about 300 billions VND / year . Vietnam is launching the Strategies for Education from 2010 to 2020. The Proposal prepared by Institutes of Education Science ( 101 Tran Hung Dao –Hanoi –Vietnam ) .The proposal will be send thought Email to 63 provinces and cities .The online discussion will be organized 2 January 2009 .This is effective and cheap way in financial crisis .

The MOET Internet net working takes first place in E- Government system this year 2008 (selected by Vietnam Information Association)

Che Thuy Nhu – member of http://edu.net.vn

Really also the Chevez government should clamp down on those with extravagent lifestyles so there is not so much jelousy, provide all young people with training following the pattern of Cuba and accelerate its program of model towns.
It should also reduce the price of beer to those in neigboring countries as I hear it too expensive.
S.

Venez also needs to develop sustainablity and stakeholding in society:

Land use is at the heart of our hopes of achieving truly sustainable development. Yet in urban and rural areas alike, the pressures are immense.

According to the latest projections of UN-Habitat, the world’s urban slums will double in population over the next 30 years, meaning that in just one generation, we could see 2 billion people living in conditions that deny their inhabitants the basic dignities of housing, health care, sanitation, education, transport, and employment. Already, nearly half the developing world’s urban population lives in unplanned squatter settlements.

The challenges in rural areas are just as formidable. Deforestation and desertification are threatening ecosystems, biodiversity, and food security. Nearly 2 billion hectares of land are affected by human-induced degradation of soils, putting the livelihoods of nearly 1 billion people at risk. Safeguards must be put in place to ensure that intensification of agricultural production and increased use of agrochemicals, needed to satisfy the growing population in many developing countries, do not lead to further decline in environmental quality. Moreover, there is a need to regularize the tenure of the rural poor so they have the long-term security that comes with living on titled land.

Kofi Annan. Nairobi 2004

I am told that workers on this World Vision project near the Haitian border recieve no wages, only rice and beans. An extrodinary number of trees is planted for few dollars from US grants through World Vision. Can someone confirm that the US is not the new slavers giving people only enough to eat?
This make Chevez look like a miracle worker in raising minimum wage.
http://www.usaid.gov/environment/hurricane/docs/usda/final-1.6.pdf
S.

ABC,

Obviously you do not read the posts or articles that I put up concerning Venezuela or it must be that you feel what takes place in Vietnam or other countries is a cure all to every other country. Chavez has been in power for 11 years now and the the poor are poorer in Venezuela. He has taken over the electric companies, more blackouts now than ever including 3 NATIONWIDE in 2008. He has taken over the cement industry, and cement now costs triple what is cost 2 years ago. He has given wage hikes every year since coming into office and minimum wage no longer covers basic foods. Importation of food has been placed into the hands of PDVSA through the MERCAL food stores, so its not like chain stores are driving up prices, IT IS CONTROLLED by the government. He has driven out the largest beef producer in the country and divided up the lands they farmed to "people without property" Now they live on once farmed land and produce nothing. They now import 90% of all beef products when they used to produce it themselves. There is such a things a planning, however it is severely lacking in the Chavez government as well as most LA countries. He spent 600 million USD building a milk processing plant in his home state of Barinas and lo and behold, there are no dairy farms to supply milk to it within 300 kms and they now have a facility that produces nothing. He has taken over the dairy industry, which was a net exporter of milk to Colombia and Guyana and now they do not produce enough for themselves. The country now ranks as one of the most corrupt in the world whereas before Chavez is was compareable with most Latin governments in the region. It now ranks as one of the countries with LESS freedom of the press worldwide, highest Murder rate in the world. He just expropriated a mall of all things that was being built by private investors because of "irregularaties" but the owner was just on the news and showed all his documents for land ownership, construction permits, archatectual plans are all in order, approved by the local, district governments and you know what the same mayor and planning commission members that granted approval and now saying NOTHING, because if they say anything corruption charges will be filed against them from Chavez and they will be out of a job. There is a story from El Universal yesterday stating that petroleum income (which is the only source of income now for the government) does not cover the cost of basic services for the population. You should really get a grip on what takes place in the world. Read the newspapers that are located in the country not the state sponsored websites, read them on a daily basis like I do and tell me after a week that the murders that take place there are for the good of the people, that the rampant inflation is the responsibility of capitolist companies as he has chased all of them out. The same government and systems that you say they should employ have been implemented there and they have devestated that economy and the country in general.

By all indications the Venezuelan economy should be booming;

http://english.eluniversal.com/2008/12/31/en_ing_esp_venezuelan-economy-s_31A2179335.shtml

Forcast for 2009, from former Venezuelan head of OPEC;

http://english.eluniversal.com/2008/12/31/en_eco_art_oil-analyst-believes_31A2179979.shtml

http://economia.eluniversal.com/2008/12/31/petro_ava_estiman-que-ingresos_31A2179851.shtml

State of insecurity in Caracas;

http://caracas.eluniversal.com/sucgc_index.shtml

4.8 growth sounds good to me!
Venez leads again!
Stupid people make much of crime - it is part of the re-distribution process, for example during the French Revolution peasant invaded fields and librated crops. and more modern from the great leader Ho
The Annamese in general are crushed by the blessings of French protection. The Annamese peasants especially are still more odiously crushed by his protection; as Annamese they are oppressed, as peasants they are robbed, plundered, expropriated, and ruined. It is they who do all the hard labour, all the corvees. It is they who produce for the whole horde of parasites, loungers, civilisers, and others. And it is they who live in poverty while their executioners live in plenty, and die of starvation when their crops fail. This is due to the fact that they are robbed on all sides and in all ways by the Administration, by modern feudalism, and by the Church. In former times, under the Annamese regime, lands were classified into several categories according to their capacity for production. Taxes were based on this classification. Under the present colonial regime, all this has changed. When money is wanted, the French Administration simply has the categories modified. With a stroke of their magic pen, they have transformed poor land into fertile land, and the Annamese peasant is obliged to pay more in taxes on his fields than they can yield him.

One can see that behind a mask of democracy French imperialism has transplanted in Annam the whole cursed medieval regime, including the salt tax; and that the Annamese peasant is crucified on the bayonet of capitalist civilisation and on the cross of prostituted Christianity.

Subsitute USA for France and the Venez citizens for Ammamese.
S.

Democratic, Socialist or communist a one commodity economy is not good, Petrocaribe could be next.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28527787/