World History II: Unit 2 Project Proposal

Group Member(s): Preaw C, Minnie, Win, and Jump

Country assigned: Venezuela
Development goal selected: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Type of Product: Game

Product Description:
(Make sure it is clear what the product will look like, what it will include, and how it will be
organized.)
- The product will be based on the concept of interactive game. It might be in the form of
card game.

- The game will end fast because the judges will have to quickly judge many projects in
the short time. Even it ends fast; it will be able to explain all the main ideas of the given
countries clearly.

- The rules about how to play will be easy to understand.

- The game will require the players to have analysis skills and some brief knowledge
about the given country.

- The game will be competitive. Two players or teams will compete against each other.

- The final product might also have background information about the country for the
players to read before they begin the game. This will help them understand the
contents in the game easier.
Summaries: (one paragraph minimum for each section with main ideas only)
Brief background of your country in written in your own words: (post 1900 creation of
country + some major events that made the country what it is today)

Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela or as we all called Venezuela, is a country that is made of

one mainland and numerous islands. It is located on the northern coast of South America.
Venezuela is well-known for its petroleum industry, environmental diversity, and its
extraordinary natural features.

Approximately, Venezuela is estimated to have human habitat at least 15,000 years ago. The
country was created even before the 20th century. Venezuela was first colonized by the
Europeans in 1522.

Since the foundation of oil in the early 20th century, Venezuela has been one of the worlds
leading oil exports and even known as one of the founder of OPEC. Petroleum industries
alone made up 30% of the countrys GDP, 80% of the exports, and more than half of the
governments income. Petroleums price in the country now is lower than the price of water
because of the support from the government.

In 1980, the extreme surplus of oil led to external debts and long-lasting economics issues.
The poverty rate rose to 66% in 1995, inflation rate reached 100% in 1996, and GDP per
capita fell over three times in 1998 from its peak. Even now, Venezuela had the highest
inflation rate in the world.

In 2000s, Venezuela made progress in social development, specifically in areas such as

health, education, and poverty. The Millennium Development Goals started many of the social
policies. There is the total of eight goals that Venezuela and 188 other nations agreed to in
September 2000. Venezuela is expected to meet all these goals by the 2015.
Brief summary of the history of the social issue (based on MDG selected) in your
country: (causes of the social issue in your country)
- Wars for the ownership of dictatorship in 19th and 20th centuries caused widespread
hunger and political instabilities.

- In 1992, there was the coup dtat against the current president Carlos Andrs Prez.
Causing him to get deposed right when he was about to reform politics and economy.
So, his improvement plans were never used.

- President Hugo Chvez, whose socialist policies were praised by the poor, was in fact
secretly taking over democratic institutions. After his unanticipated death by cancer in
2012, Venezuela was left with severe bankruptcy.

- In 2016, poverty has spread its effects on unemployed citizens with degrees and more
urban people, in addition to the poor.

- In 2016, President Nicolas Maduro increased the minimum wage by 40%, causing
inflation which has not stopped increasing ever since. In December, the inflation rate
reached 800%.

- Venezuela has the world's biggest oil sources. Around 95% of Venezuela's income
comes from its exportation of oil. However, things got truly terrible when oil costs
began to dive in 2014. Venezuela's state-run oil organization, PDVSA, hasn't paid the
organizations that assistance extracts its oil, for example, Schlumberger (SLB).
Therefore, those organizations started to diminish operation with PDVSA.

- After Chavez's presidency, oil prices have dropped from $100 to $48 per barrel.
Brief summary of how the social issue (based on the MDG selected) has affected your
country (post 1945): (effects of the social issue in your country current situation)
- Poverty causes education problems, because people cant afford education for their
children and lead to child development issue. According to Department for Education
statistics, children that are from low-income families are less likely to perform well in
school. Poverty makes children living in poverty more likely to gain bad health attitude
and mental illness as they grow older. Youngsters who are poor are usually unable to
perform in social, which will badly impact the child self-esteem and friendships. This
can also lead the child to become more violence. Children living in a family where the
head of the family are unemployed were most likely to commit crimes.

- From the increase of wage by 40% in 2016 by President Nicolas, it causes the inflation
rate to become higher. Since, the wage had been increases, there are more money in
the system and the value of the money become less. Protests also started to thrive as
citizens considered this the increase in minimum wage mentioned above as a violation
of human rights.

- Over 70% of the Venezuelans lost an average of 8.7 kilos of weight and around 9.6
million of population eat only two or fewer meals a day, because of the increase of
inflation rate.

Brief summary of what your countrys government has done to deal with the social issue
(based on the MDG selected): (policies in place and progress in dealing with the problem)
- In 2003, 29.8 % of the populations were living in extreme poverty. After the MDG is
conducted, the number was reduced to just 9.4% in 2007 and to 6.8% in 2011.

- Misiones, large social programs, were applied to deliver basic goods and services to
the parts of the population that are facing poverty. MDG programs, economic growth,
and these Misiones policies led to a significant decline in poverty. Overall poverty
decreased from 49% to 24.2% in 11 years starting from 1998.

- Mercal network, the organization that is supported by the government, constructed

over 6,000 facilities serving foods for people at low price in 2008. In the present, the
number jumped up to over 16,000 which benefits most of the population.

- Because the policies that eliminated big estates, converted those 3 million hectares of
their lands for agriculture purposes, and supported food producers, in 2010 food
production increased by 44% compared in 1998.
 - Because the inflation rate is very high, there were a lot of hoarders who collected all
the goods for their own benefits. The government tried to fix this by introducing a
policy called Fixing prices of product.
- This policy fixed the price of many basic goods to stay the same. Even so,
Venezuelans can only buy the goods at these fixed prices once a week, and this
varies on the final digit of their national identity card number. The supplies are still
inadequate and there were risks of running out of goods. This made people arrive
supermarket very early in the morning. The extreme downside of this policy is if a
person didnt manage to buy the good in time, they will have to wait until next week
before they can buy it again. Because the price stays the same but the inflation is still
going on. There are a lot of people who buy these goods and sell it in the black market
that cost 100 more times. The policy wasnt so successful back then.

Reference list for the starter sources used: (APA format)

- Basic Facts on Venezuela. (2017, September 09). Retrieved November 10, 2017, from
https://venezuelanalysis.com/basicfacts

- Poverty Rate of Venezuela Increases as Human Rights Decrease. (2017, November

01). Retrieved November 10, 2017, from https://borgenproject.org/poverty-rate-of-
venezuela/

- Graham, L. (2017, February 20). Venezuelas crisis causes its people to cut meals and
lose weight. Retrieved November 10, 2017, from
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/20/venezuelas-crisis-cause-its-people-to-cut-meals-and-
lose-weight.html

- 5 Effects of Poverty. (2017, April 23). Retrieved November 10, 2017, from
https://borgenproject.org/5-effects-poverty/

- Venezuela crisis: What is behind the turmoil? (2017, May 04). Retrieved November 10,
2017, from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-36319877

- 4 reasons why Venezuela became the world's worst economy. (2016, November 25).
Retrieved November 10, 2017, from
http://money.cnn.com/2016/10/25/news/economy/venezuela-breaking-point/index.html