Gallup: Venezuela 5th of 124 countries on its citizens' judgement of their well-being.

[Peace Patriot]

Venezuela is first in Latin America, and 5th in the world--with only Denmark, Canada, Sweden and Australia ahead of them and a tie with Finland--on its citizens' judgement of their own well-being. 64% of Venezuelans consider themselves to be "thriving," up from 50% in previous years and now ahead of the U.S. (59%) and the U.K. (54%).

Gallup's report (with lists of countries): 4/19/2011
http://www.gallup.com/poll/147167/High-Wellbeing-Eludes-Masses-Countries-Worldwide.aspx

Venezuela Comes Sixth in Gallup “Wellbeing” Survey 4/25/2011
(Note: 6th is wrong, Venezuela is 5th--tied with Finland)
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/6149

Recently, Venezuela was designated "THE most equal country in Latin America" on income distribution by the UN Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Gallup poll cites low well-being percentages in Italy (37%), India (17%) and China (12%) as evidence that GDP should not be the only criterion for prosperity. They thus explore self-evaluated social indicators to get at the deeper issues of how people are faring in a society.

Venezuela is succeeding--rather spectacularly--on both criteria: income and well-being.

This is an extraordinary achievement for a developing country--and yet another positive indicator on Venezuela that you will hear virtually nothing about in the corpo-fascist press and if you do hear about it, it will read like this diatribe from Rotters (aka Reuters), which I swear is not a parody and which you will not likely find picked up by corpo-fascist newspapers and TV/radio, BECAUSE, despite Rotters' heroic efforts to spin it into a negative, even not very alert readers can see that it's quite positive news about Venezuela and the "New Deal" that Venezuelans got for themselves by electing and re-electing the Chavez government. Rotters' bit got reprinted by trust.org, here...

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/interview-shared-wealth-behind-venezuela-wellbeing-rating

The thing is that Chavez is bad, bad, bad and nobody can understand why Venezuelans keep saying otherwise, according to Rotters. It would be funny if it weren't so...well...rotten.

Here's a sample:

"'The Chavez government has put the human being first,' British-trained Eljuri said in an office suite adorned with exhortations from revolutionary Che Guevara to fight bureaucracy." --Rotters

:rofl:

[Wilms]

1. Stunning. Especially when you look at the numbers for India and China. n/t

[rabs]

2. Saw this poll a few days ago and chuckled

That Venezuela (and even Panama) are rated ahead of the United States.
:-)

[Judi Lynn]

3. Oh, b-b-b-but what about the c-c-crime, and the inf-f-f-flaation?

One driving factor for the answers may be that there are many who have very clear memories of what life was like 12 years ago, and before that.

This report from Gallup is a keeper. It reminds us of another survey we read several years ago giving deeply positive responses regarding satisfaction with their kind of government.

Thank you for posting this new information. It doesn't surprise people who've been paying attention, does it? Recommending.

[Peace Patriot]

4. Yeah, I'd be interested if you find that democracy survey. Venezuela rated highest in LatAm

as I recall. I think it was circa 2006-2007. I'm digging into the back files of my mind right now, trying think of more details. It could have been "western hemisphere" or even world survey, with Venezuela as highest in Latin America (or very high). It is a regular survey by some institute and I don't think it limits to LatAm or operates out of LatAm, but I'm not sure. I will try a search of my files--but I may have saved it. And I'll try Google, too. But I can't think of a good handle for Google--a name or initials. Well, I'll give it a try and come back here.

[Peace Patriot]

5. Found it! It was Dec 2006. I got that right.

Poll: Venezuelans Have Highest Regard for Their Democracy
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/2146

Venezuelans view their democracy more favorably than the citizens of all other Latin American countries view their own democracies,except Uruguay,according to a new survey released by the Chilean NGO Latinbarometro last Saturday. Also, Venezuela is in first place in several measures of political participation, compared to all other Latin American countries.

According to the Latinobarometro survey, Venezuelans rank their democracy as being more fully realized than the citizens of all other surveyed countries do except Uruguay. On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 means a country that is not democratic and 10 isa country that is completely democratic, Venezuelans, on average, gave their own democracy a score of 7.0. The Latin American average was 5.8, with Uruguay having the highest score, of 7.2, and Paraguay the lowest, at 3.9.

(MORE)
(my emphasis)

[Judi Lynn]

6. Here's a chart I found after seeing your post, which might be helpful, too:

http://www.latinobarometro.org.nyud.net:8090/fotos/demo-works%20best.JPG
DEMOCRACY IN LATIN AMERICA
http://www.latinobarometro.org/latino/latinobarometro.jsp

[Judi Lynn]

7. Was so glad to see you cross-posted this in General Discussion. Such good information!

Here's the link for anyone who missed it up until now:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x987461#991286

[Judi Lynn]

8. My rec. was stolen. I'm on to ya.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com.nyud.net:8090/_Du1ptt54v08/SzG7ulcgxzI/AAAAAAAAAVs/mt9hRdnUSEQ/s320/im-watching-you-focker.jpg http://screencrave.frsucrave.netdna-cdn.com.nyud.net:8090/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Little-Fockers-Robert-De-Niro-Close-Up-25-10-10-kc.jpg