The economy is in a shambles, the country is torn by social strife. The government is paralyzed by factional conflicts, and the virulent media denounce a new public scandal nearly every day.
But in the sprawling hillside slums of Caracas, there is optimism. A startling buzz of activity from the very bottom of society's ladder is beginning to affect an embattled Venezuela. Since weathering a coup in April last year and a debilitating strike early this year, President Hugo Chavez has pushed through measures aimed at promoting civic participation among the poor.
And the result may well prove to be the turning point of Venezuela's fortunes.
In the teeming barrios of the capital, a quiet revolution is under way. Meeting in dilapidated school houses and potholed alleyways, Venezuelans have formed neighborhood groups to fix deficient water supply systems, to organize volunteer efforts at local schools and to launch recycling campaigns.
Committees are conducting censuses and writing neighborhood histories as part of a government plan to grant land titles to hundreds of thousands of slum-dwelling families who squatted decades ago but were long ignored by the authorities.
Others are attending self-convoked "citizen assemblies" to talk about everything from neighborhood problems to national politics, and to create local planning councils where municipal authorities will be required to share decision-making with community representatives.
Community radio and television stations, banned by previous governments, are thriving. "What is new is not so much what the government is doing, but what is happening outside it," said Arlene Espinal, 49, a social worker and resident of the 23 de Enero barrio, which looms above downtown Caracas. "There's been a powerful awakening in the barrios."
The grassroots initiatives provide the first examples of Chavez's pledge to promote sweeping social change through the active participation of the citizenry.
The new community activism, however, has gone largely unnoticed in middle and upper-class neighborhoods of Caracas, where Chavez is hugely unpopular.
Many barrio residents are taking action with little heed for official directives or government sanctions.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not