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Bulletins and News Discussion from July 24th to July 30th, 2023 - Venezuela's 4,600,000th House

The Great Housing Mission of Venezuela, launched in 2011 by Hugo Chavez, is the most ambitious housing project in the country's history. This week, the 4,600,000th house was built, with a goal for 5 million homes by 2024 and beyond. The program has built 1,255 residential complexes on a total of 9,837 hectares, an area equivalent to six times the Swiss city of Geneva.

The program additionally provides social infrastructure like schools, subsidized food markets, and recreational and green spaces. Over 70% of constructions are self-managed by communities, with financial and logistics support from the government. Communities also provide each other with materials - from each according to their supplies, to each according to their needs. Russian, Chinese, and Belarusian companies have helped supply the program over the years.

In Antímano Parish in southwestern Caracas, a group of predominantly women came together in 2015 and trained in construction, cleared land, and then built apartments while under the pressure of food and materials shortages and electricity blackouts due to the United States' sanctions campaign.

Claudia Tisoy, a mother and self-trained plumber, said “This goes beyond building homes for our families, we are also building the future of our country, with women leading the way. This is what the socialist horizon is all about.”VA

Here is the map of the Ukraine conflict, courtesy of Wikipedia.

This week's first update is here in the comments.

This week's second update is here in the comments.

This week's third update is here in the comments.

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  • Malaysia’s LGBTQ+ Community Blasts The 1975’s Matty Healy’s Same-Sex Kiss

    When British singer Matty Healy grabbed bandmate Ross MacDonald for an onstage kiss during their Malaysia concert on Friday, following a profanity-laden speech slamming the country’s anti-LGBTQ laws, he likely thought it an act of protest and solidarity.

    But for many in Malaysia’s LGBTQ community, it was quite the opposite.

    The 1975’s concert, which was the headline performance in Kuala Lumpur’s Good Vibes Festival, has sparked a wave of criticism and dismay from the community, who say Healy’s stunt may have done more harm than good to a vulnerable group already under threat in Malaysia’s repressive, conservative society.

    Homosexual acts are illegal in Muslim-majority Malaysia and punishable by fines and up to 20 years in prison. After The 1975’s show, the government canceled the rest of the three-day music festival, citing Healy’s “controversial conduct and remarks.”

    LGBTQ activists fear that could be just the start of a larger clampdown – and their anger has been exacerbated by the singer’s flippancy. On Saturday, a day after the concert, Healy joked on Instagram that it’s “not as easy as it looks” to refrain from kissing MacDonald, and posted an image of his name trending on Twitter, the platform recently rebranded as X.

    “What Matty Healy did, he thought he was doing something for us, but it’s giving white savior complex,” said Carmen Rose, a Malaysian drag performer. “He thinks we need saving, he thinks we need fixing, when in reality we have queer organizations here already doing the work.”

    “If he wanted to advocate for queer rights here, he wouldn’t just fly off and leave the mess behind,” she added. “I don’t think he’s doing it for the community, he’s just doing it for himself … it was a publicity stunt.”

    Numerous other queer Malaysians posted similar criticisms online after Healy’s show, calling his actions hollow at best.

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