Venezuela government creates ‘happiness agency’

[Zorro]

Americans may have the constitutional right to pursue happiness, but Venezuela now has a formal government agency in charge of enforcing it.

President Nicolas Maduro says the new Vice Ministry of Supreme Social Happiness will coordinate all the “mission” programs created by the late President Hugo Chavez to alleviate poverty.

Wags had a field day Friday, waxing sarcastic on Twitter about how happy they felt less than 24 hours after the announcement.

Oil-rich Venezuela is chronically short of basic goods and medical supplies. Annual inflation is running officially at near 50 percent and the U.S. dollar now fetches more than seven times the official rate on the black market.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/10/26/world/venezuela-government-creates-happiness-agency

[Wilms]

1. Too late. They're already pretty happy.

Columbia University's “Earth Institute” has released the results of its first happiness report, which highlight Venezuela as the happiest country in South America and the second happiest country in the region after Costa Rica.

http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/7044

And why wouldn't they be? The Venezuelan Tea-Party and their Fox News counter-part are not faring well. Sure, the rich are leaving the country with it's wealth they grabbed, but at lest they're leaving. The only support they get is from western media that is alarmed by the growing improvements for the country's poor.

[Marksman_91]

2. You're still clinging to that useless "happiness" report?

I invite you to actually look beyond a site as totally biased as VenezuelaAnalysis and actually look at the facts: out-of-control inflation (the Finance minister himself said in public television that inflation will be 26% to 28% for 2014, and that the government's biggest challenge is to significantly increase the level of production of food supplies that the typical Venezuelan consumes. Gee, wait, I thought the government controlled most of the farmlands in the country. So maybe that's implying they're not really operating efficiently? You'd think that after almost 15 years running the show, this government would've come up with a better system by now), rampant crime, blackouts occurring regularly throughout the country, ever-increasing prices for all kinds of products, poor infrastructure, poorly maintained hospitals, prisons that are actually run by the prisoners themselves (who are armed to the teeth), an almost non-existent level of production from all the state-owned farmlands (the government recently stated that they will be bringing a mass import from other countries to combat the lack of food, which they acknowledge exists, ) etc. I spend every day looking at multiple news sites, sites which focus only on Venezuela, and I tell ya, the situation back home (I'm Venezuelan, btw) is only getting worse. Also, it's not just the rich people that are fleeing, people from the middle-class are also included in that group that is leaving everything behind to start a new life somewhere else simply because in Venezuela, you're not really living, rather you're surviving. I suggest you try to look beyond that overused "happiness" report that only tells things on an extremely superficial level. I suggest you try to look at sites like Noticias24.com (granted, it's all in Spanish, but I'm sure you'll figure something out on how to translate it) and LaPatilla.com. Or maybe CaracasChronicles, which is actually in English.

Also, if the people are already "happy", as you say, then why does Maduro feel the need to create this agency? I thought things were all fun and dandy.

[Judi Lynn]

3. You miss the fact the article quotes Colombia University's report,

not a report generated by Venezuelanalysis, which had nothing to do with it.

[Socialistlemur]

5. That's old data, today Venezuelans rank as one of the most miserable

Unfortunately for Mr Maduro and the clique which surrounds him, the conditions reported in that survey were quite short lived. Today Venezuelans are paying a heavy price for the happiness bought to make them vote for Chavez and Maduro. Things started falling apart even before Chavez was re-elected. Then Chavez acknowledged he was very ill with cancer, went to Cuba and they hid his terrible condition for several months. During this period Maduro was suposedly following Chavez' orders. Whoever was at the wheel made terrible decisions. Maduro, being somewhat retarded in economic matters, made a lot of mistakes, then got elected and continued making mistakes.

So the mistakes have piled up so high by now Venezuela has over 40 % inflation, they are having huge food shortages, there is no toilet paper, they lack spare parts, there are medicine shortages, the crime wave continues and Maduro wastes his time talking about a Viceminister of Supreme Pular Happiness. The guy just has to be one of the dumbest and poorest choices for president Chavez could have made.

So as revealed by the Felipe Pérez Martí letter published in aporrea.org, in response to the note signed by the "Marea Socialista" Group, today the venezuelan people are extremely unhappy, they blame Maduro for their problems, and it's likely the government will be punished at the polls in December. This is why Marea Socialista (which ought to change their name to Marea Criminal) wants the Enabling Law to be changed so Maduro can become a tyrant. Felipe Pérez, a former Chávez planning minister, sounds really teed off in his note in aporrea, and calls for ministers and even Maduro to be jailed for their utter lack of respect for the law and the Venezuelan people.

Thus Venezuelanalysis, being a propaganda rag, shows itself for what it is, a traitorous and sold out organization which pledges allegiance to their paymaster, and not to the people. Most of what they have is crafted to kiss the behinds of powerful politicians, for a true view of what goes on and the controversies in Venezuela, I would read aporrea.org and its counterpart, runrunes.es by Nelson Bocaranda. Nelson is the only news person able to write what he wants beause Fidel Castro protects him. And aporrea is a communist organization, so the government isn't about to try to muzzle them (for now).

[Wilms]

4. As noted above...

...you need to look beyond your distaste for VenezuelaAnalysis and recognize the study's source.

No one argues Venezuela is without problems. But then so would any country that had a well entrenched Koch-like tea party and a Fox News, etc. You know that argument and it's not to your liking. The majority in Venezuela happen to disagree with you. And I applaud their efforts and gains for the common person.

[Socialistlemur]

6. USA references don't go over well

When we discuss Latinamerica, inside USA references don't go over very well. This is a Latinamerican forum and its fairly banal to bring up the Koch brothers when discussing this topic. Today the Venezuelan opposition to chavista rule is mostly left of center. The overwhelming majority of the people don't support Maduro or the ruling clique.

To say there are problems in Venezuela is a huge understatement. Venezuelan Central Bank data shows there's no cooking oil, milk, toilet paper or corn flour in most Caracas markets. This is caused by government policies, and the government appears to be convinced they are on the right path. It doesn't help to have two engineers uneducated in Economics in charge of economic policy (Giordani and Ramirez).

If you can read Spanish, I would try to get a better background and understand the players and what's going on so you don't make the mistake of calling the Venezuelan opposition the Tea Party. If you want to use a right wing reference you could use somebody like Pinochet or Uribe.