Instituto Henry George ... Managua, Nicaragua

NOTICIAS, Octubre 2004

24th and 25th CE Economics Courses Graduate
IHG Volunteers: Having Fun While Saving the World
IHG Moves Ahead with Video Documentary
IHG Loses Main Funding, Demand for its Work Continues
Nicaragua: Deeper in Poverty as Property Values Rise

24th and 25th CE Economics Courses Graduate
Managua, Octubre 10, 2004

The Instituto Henry George's 24th and 25th intensive "Comprender la Economía" political economy courses graduated 43 students on July 28 and 28 students on September 22, respectively. Applications keep coming in large numbers, and course enrollments vary but maintain an average of about 60 students. Click here for complete "Comprender La Economía" Course Statistics, 2000-2004.

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IHG Volunteers: Having Fun While Saving the World
Managua, Octubre 2004

CE course participants who qualify at the superior level are eligible to work with the IHG as volunteers. Since 2000, more than 250 volunteers have participated in IHG work. They have made the CE course and all other IHG activities possible and have always done their work with style, humour, friendship, and good fun. Together they form a very congenial group which is constantly changing in personalities but constant in spirit and dedication to the Georgist cause.

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IHG Moves Ahead with Video Documentary
Managua, Octubre 2004

The IHG is currently in the process of producing its first documentary style video which is being written produced, directed, filmed and edited by IHG volunteers. The documentary will be about the work of the IHG within Nicaragua. It will highlight the ongoing economic crisis caused by the institution of private property of land rents, and explain the simple solution of the Georgist remedy which can and someday will change Nicaragua into a free and prosperous country. US based volunteer Alex Mignolo, who has experience working on professional documentaries, is with the IHG until the end of the year to work on the project. Said Mignolo, "I came to Nicaragua because I liked what I saw the IHG doing. This video will be a great opportunity for people to not only see how people live in the third world, but also to see that there is a solution to the poverty they suffer, and how organizations like the IHG are actually helping people to become aware of their power to make that solution a reality."

Volunteer Alex Mignolo explains the video project outline to other IHG Volunteers.

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IHG Loses Main Funding, Demand for its Work Continues
Managua, Octubre 2004

The IHG was recently informed by its founding and long-time supporter, the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation, that there will be no funding for the IHG available from the RSF in the forseeable future. In an e-mail received by the IHG on September 20th, Clifford Cobb, President of the RSF, explained that "the reason has little (or perhap even nothing) to do with the quality of your program. No one has criticized it. The board simply does not want to maintain continuous funding of any programs." Despite the unexpected setback, the IHG will be able to continue on with its mission thanks to generous although limited funding from the Henry George School of New York, personal donations from individual Georgists, and the continued contribution of the IHG's aging but tireless Director, Paul Martin. "Sometimes I get to thinking that all the time and effort I take off from my business to run this project is just too much," reflects Mr. Martin, "but then I find myself in front of 40, 60 or 80 people teaching Henry George's remedy, or I observe scores of people pass through our office in the hot sun soliciting information on the CE course, or I hear the phone ringing with dozens of calls that come to our office inquiring the same, and I remember that the reason I got into this is the same reason that the IHG must and will continue: there is a worldwide, human demand for Henry George's explanation and the remedy he offers, and we cannot, in good conscience, turn our backs on the people who need the freedom and healing of this knowledge, as much as I needed it when first I found Lindy Davies' 'Understanding Economics' online course. I think that when there is more funding available, and the good people at the RSF again reviewe the impact of even just the course we teach here, they may decide to restore some meaningful support to our project. Until that time, the IHG will continue with its work of revealing the Georgist paradigm to the Nicaraguan people using whatever support and resources are available from the Georgist community."

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Nicaragua: Deeper in Poverty as Property Values Rise
Managua, Octubre 2004

The perception of the average Nicaraguan is that his country is stagnant, and that "progress" is for the small minority of rich who drive late model cars and live in air conditioned mansions... and the are right. In Nicaragua, the largest companies pay hardly any taxes at all; Land and natural monopolies are private fiefdoms exempt from public taxation. Private commerce and consumption are the leading payers of taxes. Due to speculation in land, the majority of the population has no access to their country's best natural advantages for production and commerce. Well located lands where labor would be at least marginally profitable are held at ridiculously inaccessable prices which only a bare minority can contemplate paying. As a result, prices for all products and service are continuously rising, especially for imported goods which more and more Nicaraguans depend due to the fact that their own Government's unwitting or uncaring economic policy results in maintaining production unprofitable and dependence on foreign aid inevitable. The simple boat rocking solution is within the tax reform proposal of the IHG which has twice been sent to and ignored by the Nicaraguan National Assembly: transfer of public taxation off commerce and industry and onto land and natural monopoly values. The IHG will continue to educate and advocate for the consideration of George's simple remedy in Nicaragua.

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"Work with passion, have fun, save the world!"
"Trabajar con pasión, divertirse, salvar el mundo!"

since Octubre 2004