I have been blessed with The Blog Of The Year Award 2013 by the wonderful, Dear Kitty. Some blog Thank you, my sister, for this honour!
The blogs which I have nominated are :
The instructions for this award are simple:
55th Anniversary of the Triumph of the Cuban Revolution
Reblogged from La Santa Mambisa (Google translation)
By: Omar Perez Solomon
When it comes to Cuba,-as well as Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia, the great capitalist press deploys its machinery so that everything that is disclosed and perceived by the public is what suits the imperialist interests. As stated by the Doctor Political Science and Sociology, and Professor at the Complutense University of Madrid, LA Diez, “Journalists have hidden the positive indicators, and disseminated only, with magnification, the negative”. As sociologists often say if you torture the data enough they eventually confess what you want. ”
Despite the tightening of the U.S. blockade, the global economic crisis and the systematic distortion of the Cuban reality in capitalist media, Cuba advances in updating its economic and social model, and it’s prestige is increasing internationally..
Among the positive indicators that the imperial magnifying glass fails to see, I call the attention of 55 facts that show the strength of the Cuban Revolution on the eve of its anniversary.
1. The 2013 Human Development Report of the United Nations Program for Development (UNDP), which considers the index of life expectancy, access to education and standard of living, ranks Cuba 59th in 187 countries, with high human development.
2. Economic Plan 2014 ensures the necessary resources for the exports of goods and services, and preserves programs for investors designed to generate new and growing revenue.
3. Cuba is working based on projections for Social and Economic Development until 2030, with the purpose of creating the foundation for a prosperous and sustainable society.
An international benchmark of participatory democracy in the workplace
4. The National People’s Assembly approved the new Labour Code, which was Continue reading
Cubans will celebrate the 55th anniversary of their Revolution on January 1 as they advance the social project they chose that same day in 1959 and while involved in a progressive update of their country’s socio-economic model.Source: Venezuelanalysis.com
27th December 2013
Over 500,000 houses have been constructed since mid 2011 under the Venezuelan government’s mass housing construction program.
Constructing three million new homes by 2019
Launched by former President Hugo Chavez in order to tackle the South American country’s shortage of affordable housing, the program has the ambitious aim of constructing three million new homes by 2019.
The Great Housing Mission also seeks to provide housing for all those made homeless by the heavy rains of 2010. Further, low-income families receive heavy subsidies from the government to help them pay for their houses, and those living on less than the minimum wage receive their new homes for free.
Bolivians are celebrating the launch of the country’s first telecommunications satellite with indigenous rituals dedicated to Pachamama, or Mother Earth.
President Evo Morales was in China for the Friday blast-off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Sichuan province. “I’m very happy, satisfied and moved by the successful launch” of satellite Tupac Katari, said Bolivian President Evo Morales, who travelled to China for the mission.
PORT OF SPAIN, December 23
Whether it is a case of sabotage or simply poor management practices by the state-owned PETROTRIN, as the union claims, a mysterious oil spill in south Trinidad is wreaking havoc on homes and wildlife in the area.
PETROTRIN claims it has no idea as to the source of the spills, and Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine, who toured La Brea and other affected areas on Sunday, said “the mystery remains where this oil is coming from.”
The Environmental Management Authority also said it had been unable to ascertain the source and that its immediate concern was the protection of life and the environment.
Gary Aboud, president of Fishermen and Friends of the Sea, told IPS that the only solution was to shut down all oil production in the area.
“As we speak, more and more oil is being pumped into the sea. Why doesn’t the minister order the shutdown of all oil being transported in the Gulf of Paria? Shut it down, if you don’t know where it is coming from,” he said. “We find it totally unbelievable.”
Read more at: Mystery Oil Spill Turns Miles of Trinidad’s Beaches Black
Jamaican Richard Hart, a Marxist historian, trade unionist, lawyer and teacher, died in the UK on Saturday at the age of 96.
Richard Hart was involved in trade union activities in the British Caribbean region colonies for many years. A member of the Labour Committee formed in Jamaica in 1938 by Norman Manley to assist Alexander Bustamante in the formation of a trade union, he had the responsibility of drafting a model trade union constitution.
He was in 1939 the Secretary of the Trade Union Advisory Council, which subsequently became the Trade Union Council. He was the President of the Jamaica Government Railway Employees Union from 1942 until its merger with other unions in 1948, he was a Vice President of the Trade Union Congress of Jamaica from 1949 to 1953.
Pope Francis has called for countries to shrink the gap between rich and poor, some of whom he said were getting only “crumbs”, in a message to mark the Roman Catholic church’s “day of peace”.
The pope, who said in the first peace message of his pontificate that huge salaries and bonuses were symptoms of an economy based on greed and inequality, said: “The grave financial and economic crises of the present time … have pushed man to seek satisfaction, happiness and security in consumption and earnings out of all proportion to the principles of a sound economy.
“The succession of economic crises should lead to a timely rethinking of our models of economic development and to a change in lifestyles.”
Source: venezuelanalysis.com
19th December 2013
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has urged opposition parties to work with his administration, and called for greater political tolerance.
During a meeting with opposition mayors and governors in Miraflores Palace on Wednesday, the president and opposition figures welcomed dialogue and a better working relationship.
“[This] meeting will seal a desire for peace. Peace above all, peace as a basis for coexistence… of different positions,” Maduro stated during the five-hour meeting.
“I do not want any of you to become Chavistas. You all will have your political positions,” he stated.“Our differences will remain, but I urge you to work,” he said.
The two-day Commission of Inquiry will convene a group of internationally renowned commissioners drawn from legal, human rights, political and academic backgrounds and organisations. The Commissioners will hear first hand evidence from a number of key witnesses on:
Other witnesses will provide factual information on the actions undertaken by the Five, including evidence about the legality of this action under US and international law. A full range of legal opinions from respected international organisations will be sought.
The findings from the Commission will be presented to the US authorities and directly to President Barack Obama.
JSC: Jamaicans in Solidarity with Cuba 