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The Bronx WATCH A VIDEO
TRAVELLING THROUGH THE BRONX PREVIEW THIS WEEK'S STORY
This week Dateline takes you to the US's poorest congressional
district, the infamous south Bronx in New York, a place well known for
its rampant drug use and juvenile delinquency.
While many have talked about pumping money into the area to re-energize
it; a long time critic of President George Bush is actually doing
something about it.
Video: Travelling through the Bronx.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez - who's renowned for having a love
affair with the Bronx after visiting the region two years ago - is
injecting millions into community groups and welfare programs.
Have Your Say: What can we learn from Venezuela's charity campaign?
There's everything from refurbishment programs, community youth groups
and action against climate change.
In a nation strapped for cash because of its international military
campaigns, community groups in the US are now looking abroad for
money.
President Chavez says it's his affinity with poverty that drives his
government's charity campaign; however critics say it's an obvious
attempt to embarrass the US government.
TRANSCRIPT
Vigeland Park, it has got something of the mild-mannered social
democrat Scandinavia about it. But there is nothing mild-mannered nor
Scandinavian about Venezuela's President, Hugo Chavez, so why is he
spreading his brand of largesse, oil-funded, in one of a New York's
toughest districts, the Bronx? Here's Nick Lazaredes, hopefully with an
answer.
REPORTER: Nick Lazaredes
ADAM GREEN, SOCIAL WORKER: The South Bronx, where we are now, is this
country's poorest congressional district. The river in many ways is a
sort of a womb of habitat of life and real hope for the larger
environmental and social state of the South Bronx.
These people are part of a unique program to transform one of New
York's toughest neighbourhoods into a viable, healthy community. The
group builds its own boats and uses them to restore the Bronx River - a
project designed to develop self-esteem and teamwork and to nurture an
interest in the environment. But what's really unusual is where most of
the money comes from to keep the project alive. Although it's based in
the heart of one of America's most impoverished areas, the funding
comes not from the US Government but from the state oil organisation of
Venezuela, a company called CITGO.
ADAM GREEN: It's been great, it's a 3-year $210,000 grant, so that's
$70,000 a year. One of the really wonderful benefits is that not only
is it 70 grand a year, but it's for three years.
MAN: I like this program, though, it's fun. And if I could I'd tell the
whole world about it, seriously.
The funding of the Bronx River Program is just a small part of a larger
campaign by the Venezuelan oil company to help some of America's
poorest citizens. And they've poured millions of dollars into the South
Bronx, supporting social and environmental activists. In a nation that
is now strapped for cash because of its military campaigns overseas,
community groups in places like the South Bronx are now looking abroad
for money.
ADAM GREEN: The US policy is not one that gives a lot of money to
social concerns. I think there's a sense that we are a 'pick yourself
up by your bootstraps' kind of a society, and somehow everyone's
supposed to do it, and if I can do it you can too, and you know,
everyone knows where the US has been spending its money recently, and
it's not here at home.
The Venezuelan funding is the brainchild of Venezuela's outspoken
President, Hugo Chavez - a nemesis of US President George Bush, whom
Chavez described in the UN as the devil himself. Chavez's love affair
with the Bronx started just over two years ago, when he visited the
area as a guest of the local Democrat congressman. Chavez claims that
it is his affinity with America's poor that drives his foreign charity
campaign, but his critics say that it's an obvious and failed attempt
to embarrass the US Government.
JIM ROBERTS, HERITAGE FOUNDATION: I don't think he's succeeded. I think
people see through it, people see it for what it is - a fairly crude
propaganda operation.
Jim Roberts is a Latin-American specialist with a conservative,
Washington-based think tank called the Heritage Foundation.
JIM ROBERTS: He may have won the propaganda war in the South Bronx, but
the South Bronx doesn't speak for the United States, so many people
here see through him and see him for what he is - a populist demagogue
strongman using other people's money to acquire personal political
power and influence and wealth, actually, for himself and his family
and his regime.
TONY ARCHINO, ACTIVUST: Anything that brings resources into a community
like this without taking away anything is a good thing.
For activists like Tony Archino, the controversial nature of the
funding is a secondary issue.
TONY ARCHINO: I understand some of the issues surrounding having
Venezuelan money, but the idea here is the money is being promoted to
the community in a lot of different ways - us being one of them - and
it's very successful.
BERNARDO HERRERA, VENEZUELAN AMBASSADOR TO US: People always said, "Is
there a political motivation?" And I say yes. You know what is the
political motivation - to tell people that there is another way of
doing things.
According to Venezuela's ambassador to the US, the charity campaign in
the South Bronx is meant to demonstrate Venezuela's global commitment
to helping the poor.
BERNARDO HERRERA: Even people told us, "Why are you helping the US? Why
are you helping the low-income people or the poor people in the US?"
And I always told them, "What is the difference between a US poor from
a equatorial poor or a Venezuelan poor?" It's exactly the same.
In fact, Venezuela's state oil giant, CITGO, has been extending its
charity well beyond the Bronx River.
TV ANNOUNCER: This year they are targeting more than 100 million
barrels to 16 states.
Causing further embarrassment to the Bush Administration, Chavez has
started a program through which CITGO provides heavily discounted
heating oil to poor residents of the South Bronx. Ambassador Herrera
says it's Venezuela's responsibility as a global energy supplier, to
give something back to those who can least afford it.
BERNARDO HERRERA: You know, our way of thinking is that you help with
what you have. We happen to have oil, heating oil in this case, and a
different idea of cooperation, a human sense of how we should cooperate
among people. This is what we have.
GLORIA COLON: So this is our building, 11/16 Whole Ave. So this is
where the oil, they put the oil in here. You can see it's a big tank,
it holds a lot of oil - 4,000 gallons. So we need a lot of oil to fill
up that tank.
Gloria Colon heads her building's residents committee in one of the
Bronx apartment buildings that is receiving Venezuelan heating oil.
Faced with the rising cost of heating fuel, she and the other residents
couldn't care less about the politics of the Venezuelan largesse.
GLORIA COLON: We say, "Hey, somebody is giving us a hand and we're
taking it," and that's it, that's the way we see it. We don't get
involved in the politics of it. We just - we're happy that we got the
help because we really needed it. The South Bronx has a fierce
reputation and a troubled history. Along with its large
African-American population the Bronx attracts poor immigrant families
drawn by cheap housing. Poverty, crime and substance abuse are rife.
The New York authorities have been unable to deal with all its problems
and the Federal Government pays it scant attention. But with the
backing of Venezuela, social activists here are determined to transform
the area.
STEVE OLIVEIRA: I don't know if you've heard of the term, "the Bronx is
burning," that's because in the '70s and '80s what happened was a lot
of these houses would be burnt because of the recession, and people
would take the money from the insurance.
With the US economy under strain and huge numbers of housing
foreclosures, Steve Oliveira is worried that the Bronx might once again
live up to its reputation as a burning ghetto.
STEVE OLIVEIRA: I hope to God that doesn't happen here again, you know.
That coupled with just an influx of more immigrants is just going to be
the worst thing that happens to this area, where immigrants that are
trying to get a leg up are finding things even tougher than from where
they're from.
In the South Bronx, solid signs of the Venezuelan cash injection are
already appearing.
STEVE OLIVEIRA: This place was pretty much a dump. What you see is
concrete plant park.
The organisation that Steve works for has used Venezuelan money to
transform industrial areas from urban eyesores into public parks and
green zones. But an even more pressing concern is the declining health
of the people who live here. The South Bronx is surrounded by three
major highways, polluting the area with toxic fumes. Now, with the
support of the Venezuelans, a major campaign is being planned to have
the highways removed and re-routed well away from the neighbourhood.
STEVE OLIVEIRA: The fact that the community of South Bronx is littered
and imprisoned by freeways. You can see by this traffic jam here that a
lot of these vehicles are diesel vehicles, which contributes to the
asthma rate here, which is twice that the national average in the US.
Add that with the lack of services here, add that with this area being
the poorest congressional district in the nation, and you have pretty
much a recipe for just economic depression and an area that people
forget. What I wanted to bring you down here for - this mural here
discusses the life of Jesus, but in the context of the South Bronx.
Right here you can see a lot of the masses which a lot of the community
can identify with.
Steve sincerely believes that it was Chavez's personal empathy with the
mostly poor and struggling residents of the South Bronx that led to the
Venezuelan funding projects.
STEVE OLIVEIRA: I think he identified with the people of colour here.
We have a heavy Latino population, we have a heavy African-American
population. I think that's what he identifies with the people here that
are suffering remind him of the people in Venezuela to a point.
But critics say that the image of Chavez as a liberator for the poor is
a false one. Although its oil exports earn the country billions of
dollars, many Venezuelans still live in desperate poverty - a fact Jim
Roberts says some American activists prefer to ignore.
JIM ROBERTS: You'd think that they would say, "Thanks very much, but
actually 97% of the poor households in the United States have a colour
television, for example, whereas people barely have running water and
dirt floors in Venezuela. Why don't you use that money to help your own
people?" But that's not what they say. They join in the chorus and they
blame the conservatives in the United States for being stingy with
taxpayers' dollars and they want the US taxpayer to pay everybody's
heating bill, I guess, amongst other things.
But Steve Oliveira says American critics of the Venezuelan-funded
activities in the South Bronx need to pay closer attention to their own
backyard.
STEVE OLIVEIRA: I would say to them, maybe you should be more American
and start saying, "What can I do for America, for this side of
America," rather than paying a blind eye while you go from point A to
point B.
Venezuela's ambassador agrees that attitudes in America towards helping
the poor need to change and he's hopeful that one day the US Government
will follow the Venezuelan example.
BERNARDO HERRERA: Latin America has already changed. What we need now
is a US adjusting its vision and its policies towards the region - a
region that has already changed.
While many Americans might prefer to forget or ignore the problems
faced by the residents of the South Bronx, few can deny the effect that
Venezuelan money has had on this poor community.
TONY ARCHINO: We're learning real skills, we're doing real work, and in
the case of the environmental science aspect, you're actually improving
your community - not only for the plants and animals but the people as
well to have a better quality of life, and I think that's really
important.
Reporter/ Camera
NICK LAZAREDES
Editor
DAVID POTTS
Producer
ASHLEY SMITH
US Researcher
TARA LIBERT
Additional Camera
CHRIS SHERIDAN
Additional Footage
NEW YORK ONE TV NETWORK
Original Music composed by
VICKI HANSEN
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