If you can read this… you must be a commie

Those pesky lefties... why can’t they follow the prescriptions of the IMF and World Bank and privatize education?

The “Yes I can” campaign, designed by Cuba and paid for by Venezuela, has helped more than 800,000 Bolivians.

Under Unesco standards, a country can be declared free of illiteracy if 96% of its population over the age of 15 can read and write.

In 2001, a census found nearly 14% of Bolivians were illiterate.

Cuba was declared illiteracy-free in 1961 and Venezuela, under Hugo Chavez, reached the standard in 2005.

Mexico, which has some unique challenges (50+  languages) was well on its way to eliminating illiteracy, but the process has somewhat stalled in the last few years (about the time “neo-liberalism” came back into fashion).    The rate isn’t bad — about eight percent — with most illiterates concentrated among older rural women who speak a language other than Spanish.   Despite a huge increase in the military spending,  and a need to change the budget in light of the U.S. economic meltdown, education and public service spending is higher than last year.  As usual, education accounts for about 10 times the military expenditures.