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Kumar introduces Venezuelan county sisterhood
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by Cara Harshman
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
At last week’s Dane County Board of Supervisors meeting, Supervisor Ashok Kumar of the 5th District introduced a resolution to create an official sister county relationship with a municipality in Venezuela.
Officials from Andres Eloy Blanco, a county of about 54,000 people, visited Madison earlier this year to meet with city and county officials to extend an invitation to establish a relationship between the two counties that Kumar said would be based on sharing goods, services, ideas and values.
If Kumar’s resolution — co-sponsored by seven other supervisors — passes, it would create a task force to help develop some sort of relationship.
“Once it passes, as I imagine it would, we would establish through the department of administration a revenue expense account for donations and a task force with various members from each community to discuss how we can move forward with some formal agreement,” Kumar said. “Everyone in Venezuela is really excited about it.”
Omar Sierra, deputy consul of Venezuela, is currently stationed in Chicago to facilitate “people-to-people” relationships between Andres Eloy Blanco and counties throughout the Midwest.
“[Dane County and Andres Eloy Blanco] share a lot of values and have things in common that we can complement,” Sierra said, adding the Venezuelan county — seated at the start of the Andes mountain range — wants to emulate the recycling program and sustainable agriculture that is so successful in Dane County.
Sierra said Andres Eloy Blanco and Dane County are linked because they are both pioneers in progressive policy, both socially and environmentally. Sanare, the capital of Andres Eloy Blanco, is called the birthplace of Venzuela’s cooperative movement.
“Dane County has a very well-organized cooperative movement,” Sierra said. “In Venezuela we have more than 150 co-ops. The big explosion of cooperatives was in the last eight years. We still have a lot of things to learn.”
Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, recently signed a relationship with London in which Venezuela will provide fuel for city buses at 20 percent reduced cost, and London will give free bus passes to 250,000 low-income residents.
“In return, London will send resources to Venezuela to open up offices to better their tourism and waste management program,” Kumar said. “It’s really, really amazing — the stuff they have been able to do.”
The specific details of a relationship are not determined yet, Sierra said, but he said they will focus on commerce exchange and intellectual exchange to “help build bridges of communication between our counties.”
Sierra said it is at the local level where Venezuela can start constructing relationships, adding, “We always try to promote this kind of people to people relationship. We have so many things in common, municipality to municipality.”
Currently, Dane County has a sister relationship with Apartado, Columbia and the city of Kassel, Germany.
Kumar said the Dane County Board will probably vote on the resolution next month.
Anonymous (February 13, 2008 @ 6:05am):
Venezuela is a repressive nation run by a wannabe dictator. Score one for freedom and strengthen ties to Columbia instead of dealing with Venezuela.
Anonymous (February 13, 2008 @ 9:55am):
Venezuela is a highly democratic state. Building ties with them is an amazing idea.
Anonymous (February 13, 2008 @ 10:27am):
This is brilliant, maybe someday the US can be as participatory as Venezuela.
Anonymous (February 13, 2008 @ 10:29am):
Viva Chavez! Viva Kumar!
Anonymous (February 13, 2008 @ 10:46am):
Kumar will not be missed.
Anonymous (February 13, 2008 @ 12:00pm):
"strengthen ties to Columbia instead"
ColOmbia is just FARC on steroids and backed by Bush. Democratic or not, why can't Madison vote support a sister city? Supporting a sister city isn't exactly financially backing communism.
I will say that I'm amazed that this article made it to print, I think it's the first time since Kumar was elected that there was any non-editorial coverage of County Board, much less anything he's working on. Kudos, I think?
Anonymous (February 13, 2008 @ 12:22pm):
Venezuela, where the economy is shit and press is controlled by Chavez so you can't complain about it! And yet clueless Madison ethnophiles fawn like conspiracy theorists at a Ron Paul speech.
Anonymous (February 13, 2008 @ 12:53pm):
Probably the least important thing Kumar has ever done, and one of the first real mentions he gets in the campus press.
Anonymous (February 13, 2008 @ 1:33pm):
WHY ARE WE WASTING OUR TIME ON THIS CRAP??? With all the local problems we have, we're spending time to talk to Venezuela?? SOLVE YOUR CONSTITUENTS' PROBLEMS BEFORE TRYING TO SOLVE VENEZUELA'S!
Anonymous (February 13, 2008 @ 2:19pm):
Hugo Chavez is the man!
Anonymous (February 13, 2008 @ 2:48pm):
"Wasting our time" what are you talking about? You know every other city/state/reservation that has created a relationship with Venezuela has gained greatly from it. 250,000 of the lowest-income people now have free bus passes because of a subsidized oil-exchange. "Waste our time", um, ok.
Anonymous (February 13, 2008 @ 3:16pm):
Voted for Kumar. Wouldn't now.
Anonymous (February 13, 2008 @ 3:51pm):
"Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, in an effort to deal with food shortages nationwide, threatened today to expropriate farms and raised the price rice producers are permitted to charge. . . . It was at least the fourth time this year that Chavez's government has threatened to use expropriation to deal with shortages of milk, rice, cooking oil and other price-controlled basic foods. The decision on rice prices was another in a series of increases this year, following boosts in the prices of beans, cheese and ultra-pasteurized milk."
Chavez's thugs have the most guns, so he makes the rules and steals from whomever he likes.
Anonymous (February 13, 2008 @ 3:56pm):
Kumar always launching himself into controversy: http://badgerherald.com/news/2004/11/19/police_arrest_4_siti.php
Anonymous (February 13, 2008 @ 5:58pm):
I'm proud when he got arrested, organized the statewide hunger strike, increased wages on campus, got elected, authored a sister-county relationship with Venezuela and passed more legislation then any Madison legislator. He's an truly amazing person
Anonymous (February 13, 2008 @ 9:37pm):
Ashok, stop writing on your own stories. You would lose a re-election by 300 votes, easily.
Anonymous (February 13, 2008 @ 9:43pm):
I think this is a great initiative. Since the US government is acting undiplomatically toward Venezuela, we have to build bridges ourselves. Go Madison!
Anonymous (February 13, 2008 @ 10:40pm):
What does Chavez expropriating corporate farms have to do with Kumar or Dane County? Nothing. One can feel sympathy for the Venezuelan people without supporting Chavez.
Anonymous (February 13, 2008 @ 10:58pm):
Ashok lose an election! ha! I don't think its ever happened, keep wishing right-wingers.
Anonymous (June 13, 2008 @ 11:36pm):
Whoo Hoo! It just passed!! Congrats Kumar and everyone else who worked on this! :)
Dane County Board votes to establish ties with Venezuela
Dane County Board votes overwhelmingly to establish sister-county relationship with Andres Eloy Blanco Municipality
Contact:
Charity Schmidt, Board Member, Community Action on Latin America Ph. (608) 334-6370
Ashok Kumar, Former Dane County Supervisor, District 5 Ph. (608)843-0615
Martin Sanchez, Venezuelan Consulate General â Chicago Ph. (312) 236-9655
Juscha Robinson, Fellow, Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution Ph. (608) 239-4269
Madison â This week County Executive Kathleen Falk signed the resolution that established a sister county relationship with Andres Eloy Blanco, Venezuela. This comes at the heels of last week's overwhelming vote of support by the Dane County Board of Supervisors for the resolution. The "Resolution to Accept the Invitation to Establish a Sister Relationship with the People of Andres Eloy Blanco Municipality, Venezuela" was a response to a visit by Venezuela's ambassador Bernardo Alvarez to Dane County. Alvarez met with Supervisors in an effort to establish a sister relationship between Dane County and a municipality in Venezuela.
Martin Sanchez, the Venezuelan Consulate General from Chicago, emphasized the groundbreaking nature of the agreement, "This agreement is the first between a US city, county, or state in the last decade since Hugo Chavez was elected. It will surely contribute to improved relations between the American and the Venezuela people. Venezuela will now get to see aspects of American culture, traditions and everyday life that they haven't seen outside the trivial portrayal of the US by Hollywood. Also, Dane county residents will get to see positive aspects of Venezuelan society that are not covered by corporate media."
County Supervisors, community organizers, and officials in Andres Eloy Blanco worked together to formulate the resolution and relationship. Matt Earley, co-owner of Madison-based cooperative Just Coffee, who recently returned from visiting Sanare, the capital of Andres Eloy Blanco, said; "This agreement will help us develop people-to-people relationships as well as the trading of goods and services. We are very excited at the prospect of supplying coffee from Sanare to residents in the US which will be made infinitely easier with the passage of the sister-county relationship."
Sanare is an urban area surrounded by small rural towns located in the Midwest of Venezuela. The main engine of the municipality's economy is agriculture and coffee production. According to Mayor Alfredo Orozco, during many decades this area has been the epicenter of many struggles for social justice and is also considered to be the birthplace of the Venezuelan peasant cooperative movement, as well as home of poets, musicians and revolutionary leaders. All these characteristics make Andres Eloy Blanco a place with a unique social and progressive environment, as well as a place whose inhabitants have great adherence to participatory democracy and to community life. "After receiving the visit of several Wisconsin residents in our state we are very excited at officially establishing a Sister County relationship with Dane County," said the Mayor.
Beyond official recognition of the sister-county relationship, the resolution would also establish a revenue and expense account for donations, and form a taskforce to foster trade, enhance intercultural understanding, and encourage communication, friendship, and goodwill between communities in Venezuela and the United States.
Former Downtown Madison County Supervisor and lead sponsor of the resolution, Ashok Kumar, thanked the County Board and the County Executive for their support, stating, "The sister-county resolution passed unanimously in both the Personal and Finance Committee and the Executive Committee and on the floor last Thursday. This is a testament to the open-minded nature of Dane County residents and elected officials and it will undoubtedly assist social movements of both Dane County and Andres Eloy Blanco."
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