From Duncan: 3 weeks in Latin America

Hello all,

Countries I have spent time in so far: Venezuela - 2 weeks and Cuba - 1 week.

In Venezuela I was part of an organised brigade, which was to look at that Countries 'Bolivarian revolution". We looked at a number of things and writing about them could be another email entirely - it was quite an interesting and inspiring experience, about a downtrodden and third world country making themselves have some social missions (programs) that are better than first world systems. We got to see Barrio Addrentro - a health care mission, which gives free health care, including dental to the population. Some of the people I was with needed a GP so went to Barrio Adrento 1, and got treated with in 3 minutes of walking in the door, which it sounds like is a standard.

Before the current government of Chavez came to power it was very expensive, and people had to pay for their own materials.

We also got to see some Workers Co-operatives - a shoe and textile one, where the decisions of how the factory was run was decided every month, in a democratic meeting of all the workers, and meetings could happen more often than this.

My shoes were falling apart and the shoe co-operative fixed my shoes for free. In between making shoes that were to be freely distributed to school children - bought and paid for by the government.

We also got to hear about a new school for people with problems with vision, (vision impaired people including blind people). This is government initiated and paid for by Chavez government. It is the first of its kind in Latin America and a refreshing change in defunding like in many other countries.

in Australia we do not even have a government sponsored school like this.

We also went to stay in the neighbourhood with a family and saw a new experience of community councils. This was the largest one that is working in Venezuela, and is a collection of a number of small community councils in a city called Valencia. The whole commune was called something along the lines of commune of 1 thousand houses - meaning there were more than a thousand houses and more than a thousand families in this commune. The first night we met with all of the spokespeople - elected by there communities - about 150 of them.

We saw a club for grandparents being built, as well as some food hoses - to feed people that can not afford food, but with the aim of giving them the skills and means to make and buy there own food - this was probably one of the most nutritious meals we had in Venezuela here.

Daniel (one of the local organisers) guided us around, providing buses to show us around each time.

It was also good as we saw the social missions first hand and we got to see the people's reaction to it.

From the local dental clinic - which was near the house I stayed in, to the vaccinations.

We also saw the elections for local governors and councils. They had many systems there to stop fraud like Florida 2001. Including a hard copy back up of votes, as well as the electronic ones for re-counts and a complex checking system (anonymous) to make sure people did not vote twice. People were that keen to vote that wheel chair users were being helped up stairs (there is still a fair bit of a way to go on this in terms of access in Venezuela (as there is also in Australia) in terms of universal access to facilities. These elections were important, as even for simple things some candidates from both side of the political fence - pro (at least in name) and anti chavista parties had not been doing what they said they would, even for simple things like rubbish collection.

We ended up the brigade going to a Caribbean town where we swam, drank white rum and fresh coconuts on the beach and had fresh fish for break feast. To get there we had to go throught a windy cliff road, with a fast bus driver playing very (I mean very loud) music). This was an amazing experience with dense jungle on either side and the bus going very close to the edge. The rum in Venezuela was only $10 for 1 litre, and ws pretty good, but the white rum was a bt more, being nicer as well.

We also had meeting with a number of activists and community figures through out the brigade.

Venezuela are very happy about this and starting to take ownership of the social programs. And to see health care and education programs better than Australia in a country that is part of the global south is quite amazing. We also saw the university, which is free, the education to make everyone literate - with Venezuela now classified as a literacy free zone by the UN.

We also got to see Hugo Chavez speak to a rally, which was exciting, but would have been more so if I understood more of it - as we did not have translators for this part.

In Cuba it was a bit more of a relaxed schedule. Going to see some things like Revolution Square which had a museum about José Marti - a figure in volved in fighting for liberation from the Spanish and then the US in the 19th century.

Saw Museum dela Revolution - which went through Cuba's history from the indigenous peoples that lived there, to Spanish conquest to the slave trade to the 10 years war against the Spanish and the take over by the USA of Cuba. I got into all the tourist things for free, like the museum of Jose Marti and the Museum De la revolution due to my white stick, the bus is also free for school students and for blind / vision impaired people.

It was interesting to see Cuba now, and think about what it was like before 1959, before the J26 movement came to power and then the elections in 75 I think, there was a massive rate of illiteracy - at 90%, to a country that now exports more doctors and medical staff than the entire world health organisation, including to the latest earth quakes in Pakistan.

We also had lunch listening to live music - similar style to some of the Buena vista social club music.

Saw local permaculture gardens, met with some of the people in the ministry of science involved in developing Cuba's food and forests . The way Cuban coffee is grown is quite interesting - having to be grown between the trees. Cuba is also rated as the only Sustainable country by the WWF.

I found walking and travelling in both countries interesting. Both had rough - broken concrete roads - Venezuela was worse than Cuba. Venezuela they did not like to pay attention to traffic lights. It was interesting as people noticed that my cane stopped traffic more effectively than the traffic lights. I also had people escort me across the road in both countries. In Venezuela I even got an armed escort with the National guard (part of the Army) , who were guarding the Palace. In Cuba there were lots of old Cars pre - 1959, some of which were in immaculate condition. Although some of the roads and footpaths were not in great condition (they were in better condition that I would have thought considering the illegal blockade of Cuba by the US) people were very quick to help, particularly to stop me from going into a hole (my cane was about to find it and a man called out in Spanish that there was a hole).

In Cuba We Drank mahitos, Cuban rum and Cuban coffee. Again I may write more on Cuba, as I am sure if you are still reading your attention is waning.

I am now in Germany - in a beautiful little village called Volmarstein, where it is currently -2 degrees C (a change from the tropics of Venezuela and Cuba), and the grass is frozen.

I am staying on a farm with a very welcoming family.

Any way I'll try to write more later.

Keep in touch

Duncan