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Where Does That "Oil Profit" Go?Submitted by fyl on 4 August, 2008 - 16:59.
In an article ALBA: hope for the impoverished you can get some information to help answer this question. I confess that after reading it I feel like I need to read it 10 more times to actually understand the full picture but it certainly is more info there than anywhere else I have seen. Also, saying "oil profit" is not what it really is. It is all about taking advantage of the credit being extended on oil purchases. The pieces I do understand so far is that oil is 50% COD (or there abouts). The other half is interest-free for two years and then 2%/year after that. Half of that 50% is administered within Nicaragua to do "good things" and the other half "goes to the common fund of the ALBA member countries, Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. Those countries decide how those resources are invested and we [Caruna] have an agreement with them to administer those funds." Reading where the funds are supposed to be getting invested and then looking around, this information makes sense. In particular, road construction and repair is going crazy here and that is a priority for this investment. ( categories: )
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Hello
Just want to know more about CARENA.If I can get information from anyone that is involved or works with Carena will be great. Thanks... You can send the information if possible to milagrosjarquin@gmail.com
CARUNA
This piece from Envio Magazine of 8/2008:
"Venezuela's ALBA cooperation funds, the basic financial axis of the government strategy, are channeled through a savings and credit cooperative close to the FSLN called the National Rural Bank(CARUNA), founded in the nineties to provide rural financing and now transformed into ALBA-CARUNA, But so far its funds are too limited to allow the government to organize the majority of rural families around this axis."
Source: www.envio.org.ni/articulo/3854
Al
ALBA Road projects?
Please name one major road project that is funded by ALBA and under constructon.. To my knowledge Fydel there are none. Below are the major road projects under construction that I am aware of and their funding sources.
San Juan Del Sur to La Virgen/ World Bank
Diriamba to La Boquita/ World Bank
Empalme Las Flores to Nandaime/ OPEC
Jinotega to Matagalpa/ EU Community and World Bank
On the board and under bid
Izapa to Nejapa (Old Leon Highway)/Millenium Challenge
Leon to Poneloya/ Millenium Challenge
Corinto bridge reconstruction/ Millenium Chalenge
Pan American Highway reconstruction Chinandega to Honduran Border/ Millenium Challenge
The only road ALBA has even mentioned is the Matagalpa to Bilwi highway that is not even in design phase
Sources for these?
I haven't done my homework on the road projects that I see but there are a lot of them. Here are some:
There are certainly more to get fixed (Matagalpa to La Dalia is a good example) but at least around here they are happening and at such a level that getting materials and equipment is difficult right now.
What is the question?
Are you contending that they are ALBA projects? I doubt it, because MTI supervised projects must go through the Assembly and the Presidency will not allow the scrutiny. I think Jinotega/Sebaco is EU, but I will check with my source in the Assembly tomorrow. Within the city of Esteli(a FSLN electoral bastion) the funding could be ALBA as part of the Calles Por El Pueblo program. Gee, and it just happens to be an election year as well!
Election Years
Yes, they are good things here. I remember, for example, how the rejuvinated central park in Estelí opened about a month before the elections four years ago. Two years ago it was mostly road improvements. All in all, election years tend to be a good thing here.
Personally, I like this a lot better than what I see as the U.S. approach where Congresscritters pass legislation to help special interests who then make donations to re-election campaigns. I don't know what the the campaign cost is for, for example, the mayor of Estelí but I would guess a few thousand dollars.
Nobody Knows
Nobody knows how much a political campaign really costs in Nicaragua because all funds donated before and after the official period need not be declared. We are in August and the "official" campaign period has not even commenced. I am sure that it costs a lot more than a few thousand dollars to finance a campaign in Esteli.
Anyone who thinks Venezuelan
Anyone who thinks Venezuelan oil is somehow helping this country and the poor is clearly sleeping through reality.
There are some Nicas making their lives better with the oil from Uncle Hugo. They don't give a hoot about anyone else but themselves and are reselling the oil the moment they get their hands on it to others outside of Nicaragua.
This whole oil thing is such a scam and yet another example of corruption and graft gone wild in Nicaragua.
I can follow the rest but do
I can follow the rest but do not understand this paragraph.
Now. That family remittances are a great boon? No. Family remittances are not a blessing at all . For me quite the opposite. They are dreadful because they leave our gross domestic product in other countries. There they leave US$5000. Here they place barely US$300. And these are Nicaraguans who could be producing US$800 or US$1000 for Nicaragua. Our gross domestic product would be increasing and our per capita income too. It is something important that hardly anyone sees. Or at least , those who don't want to see.
Family remitances shift GDP of another country to Nicaragua as the remitance is earned abroad? Is he saying that since the person has left Nica they do not contribute to Nica?
That's my assumption
I think there are good examples of this. Fisher Cigar Man, for example, is building a business here. Thus, he is creating employment opportunities. With low labor costs, there are lots of ways Nicaraguans with both business sense and business experience can do a lot more for Nicaragua by being here, doing something than by "sending a check to the family".
There is also the "family impact" side of not being here. One "mom" for example, has built up a very profitable business in the U.S. She sends money home "to the kids". The oldest gets to live in mom's house and is supposed to take care of her brother and sister. Her sister is 17,unmarried and has two kids. Her brother is almost 15 and is well on his way to being a juvenile delinquent. More time and less money would help out a lot more.
Family remittances
is a good and bad thing. It can help a family get a leg up but it can also cause dependence.
There are a few families in my town that “live” off the remittance sent to them. They do not have jobs, do not want jobs and when the family in the USA is late with the funds they are the ones begging in the streets.
Another problem we have seen in our area is remittances has caused a false economy, or to say Nicas using remittance money to purchasing land, houses and other high end goods at bloated prices which in turns causes higher prices for everyone else. Everyone in town knows who has family in the USA and when they go to buy houses or land they are quoted the Gringo price.