Instituto
Henry George ...
Managua, Nicaragua
|
Instituto
Henry George ... |
37th
CE Economics Course Survivors Graduate
Construction of IHG Building
Progresses
IHG Expects Increased Activity in
2008
Nicaraguan Economy Sinks as Inflation Grows
37th CE Economics Course Survivors Graduate
The Instituto Henry George's 37th intensive "Comprender la Economía" political economy courses, which originally started with an attendance of 87 students in June, graduated only 14 students on November 30th. The course lost most of its students due to the extended suspension caused by electricity rationing which blacked out the course location from July to mid-November. Once again, more than 90% of the graduating students signed the IHG demonstrative petition expressing their support for a national study of the LVT solution in Nicaragua. Five graduating students participated in the post graduation meeting and expressed interest in doing volunteer work for the IHG. The IHG plans two CE courses for February and March in 2008, after which time the new IHG building will hopefully be able to accomodate a more expansive schedule. Click here for complete "Comprender La Economía" Course Statistics, 2000-2007.
CE XXXVII Course
Graduates, November 30, 2007.
>> Related
photos
Construction of IHG Building Progresses
Construction of the permanent IHG building, which started in August of this year, progressed to 40% at the end of November with the completion of the second floor slab. The basic structure is projected to be completed by the beginning of March 2008, with the month of March dedicated to outfitting the building for basic use. Depending on available funding and donations, the IHG also hopes to have the IHG office, library, and classroom areas functioning in the new building by the end of March. Necessary equipment will include chairs, desks, bookshelves, a projection screen, a more powerful sound system, and a photocopier. The desks will be custom built in Nicaragua to accomodate the maximum number of students in the classroom space, which is projected to be between 90 and 100 students. With the new facility operating, the IHG hopes to be able to facilitate CE courses of different schedules, including daytime and weekends, as well as offering workshops to groups at convenient times during the week. The IHG building will also house non-profit and income generating activities which will promote consciousness of Georgist principles of economic and social justice while providing valuable educational services to the Nicaraguan and international communities in a culturally integrated setting.
|
|
IHG Expects Increased Activity in 2008
The IHG is currently working on a new updated modernized abbreviated version of Progreso y Miseria in Spanish to be used in the IHG's "Comprender La Economía" course and possibly to be distributed nation-wide. The new version is an adaptation of the original text of Henry George which maintains the original organization of the work so that readers can easily refer to the original, in Spanish or English, for more detailed explanations. The IHG version will contain specific current examples from Nicaragua and America Latina, along with with graphs, drawings and photos to illustrate the main points revealed and argued in the text. Currently, the new text is in its second revision with 35% completed; the second revision is expected to be complete for use in the CE course in February 2008. After the second revision is completed, the text will be subject to a third revision by an intensive focus group read-through which will insure its Latin American readability and Georgist conceptual integrity. Once the new Progreso y Miseria text is ready, the CE Study Guide, course syllabus, teacher guide, and course visuals will be revised and updated to better concur with the improvements made in the structure and language of the text. With the completion of the construction of the IHG building located near the center of Managua, many new activities will be possible for the IHG. The building itself is provisionally being called the "Centro Internacional Educativo Henry George." This is because the building will be host to a series of activities and organizations, with participants from all over the globe, whose unifying purpose will be the study and application of economic and social justice principles as revealed by the teachings of Henry George.
Nicaraguan Economy Sinks as Inflation Grows
Nicaragua will close out the year with a 3% growth of GDP over 2006 (which was $5.37 billion), the second lowest growth rate in all of Latin America, and the third consecutive fall in GDP growth for Nicaragua in the last three years. The median average growth rate for Central America was 6.5%, with Honduras 6%, Costa Rica 7%, Guatemala 5.5%, El Salvador 4.5%, and Panamá 9.5%. The major indicators of the general growing recession is the regression of the construction sector which lost 4,000 jobs, and the tourism sector whose growth rate dropped from 10% in 2006 to 3% in 2007. On the other end, the financial sector grew 15% while continuing to soak up exorbitant rates of interest and reposessing properties from victims of the end-of-speculation economic cycle, and exportations also surpassed those of the previous year, with 1.158,4 milliones of dollars compared to 1.104 milliones of dollars in 2006. While the average Nicaraguan wage maintained itself at an unsustainable level in 2007 for the majority of workers, prices skyrocketed across the board, as indicated formally by the projected 16.5% annual rate of inflation which will close out 2007, as compared to 9.4% the previous year. It is also telling that the cost of construction has risen 100% in Nicaragua since the beginning of 2004. Officially, unemployment in Nicaragua is listed as 5%, which sounds good, except that more than 60% of the population are also listed as employed in the "informal sector," which includes hawking oranges at city street intersections and sifting through garbage at city dumps. Nicaragua also depends heavily on remittances from Nicaraguans living abroad, which is expected to have grown little from the total of $655.5 million in 2006. This dependence on foreign immigration for economic survival of the majority may explain in part why the annual population growth rate dropped from 1.6% in 2000 to 1.3% in 2006, but while the GDP per capita and poverty per capita grew, the rate of new births also dropped significantly in the same timeframe.
Return to 
Main Menu page / News-Noticias page / Top of this page
"Work with passion,
have fun, save the world!"
"Trabajar con pasión, divertirse,
salvar el mundo!"
since
December 2007
