Cost is high for largesse
Maybe Congressman William Delahunt could arrange for Somalia to send discounted beef, the desperately poor African country's leading export. Its poor neighbor, Ethiopia, could help out by sending cheap coffee. And Afghanistan could send heroin. (But, then, it already is.)
I don't mean to seem less than thankful on this day after Thanksgiving, but a question: Why is Massachusetts, one of richest states in the richest country in the world, getting a cut-rate deal on oil from Venezuela, a place where 80 percent of the population lives in poverty?
The discounted heating oil will be a godsend to the 40,000 low-income Massachusetts families who qualify this winter, and that is a good thing. But the much-hyped deal that Delahunt engineered with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is exactly the opposite of all those little ''fair trade" stickers you see on the bananas in Whole Foods, which mean you are paying more than you would be paying anywhere else for doing good. This time, though, Venezuela is taking a haircut so those in Massachusetts can catch a break.
Think about it as kind of $10 million transfer payment from Venezuela to Massachusetts, the bluest of blue states, so Chavez can once again poke a stick in George Bush's eye.
Delahunt, a Quincy Democrat, is a fine congressman, and has carved out an important spot for himself as one of Capitol Hill's leading voices on Latin America. He has built a long-term relationship with Chavez, a controversial leftist, and the cheap-oil deal unveiled this week offered solid evidence to the voters back home why all that hard work far from the district should matter to them. ''I am thrilled he is helping Massachusetts when our own government has failed these low-income people," Delahunt told me.
We appreciate the help, of course. But Chavez has plenty to do at home rather grandstanding in the United States.
For instance: Venezuela's per capita income is $4,768. Massachusetts, the object of Chavez's largesse, has the nation's second-highest per capita income, $41,801.
According to the World Bank, 49 percent of all Venezuelans lived in poverty in 2000 -- meaning they got by on household income of less than $2 a day. That's $2 a day, the price of a gallon of gasoline here. About 24 percent lived in extreme poverty -- or on less than $1 a day. The poverty numbers are up substantially from a decade ago.
Juan Pablo Fuentes, a senior economist for Global Insight's Latin America group, says those awful statistics would not have improved much, if at all, in the last five years. While Venezuela's economy has done well the last two years as oil prices have risen, Fuentes says, it still has not fully recovered from the severe recession of three years ago. ''There is never going to be enough to have an impact on poverty and the quality of life in Venezuela," says Fuentes, who is Venezuelan. And this is before the oil money starts to run out.
What Chavez is really interested in is establishing himself as a player in Latin America, the go-to guy in the region when it comes to standing up to Bush. I am no Bush fan, just the opposite, in fact. But while Chavez, a self-styled champion of the poor, has spent the country's oil money on massive social programs such as missions to bring healthcare and education to the worst of his country's slums, there is a bottomless pit of needs to be met. He is a democratically elected president with -- at best -- a checkered history when it comes to democracy. Venezuela's infrastructure is a wreck.
Delahunt makes no apologies for his support of Chavez. ''He is sincere about ending poverty and inequality," Delahunt says. ''Do I have disagreements with him? Of course I do." As for his own constituents, he says: ''I represent people who can't get through the winter."
The discounted heating oil will be available to any of the more than 40,000 Massachusetts households receiving federal fuel assistance who have used up their $550 annual federal subsidy. That will certainly help them through a cold winter. On the other hand, millions in Venezuela won't see $550 total this year. Life is cold -- year-round -- when you are that poor.
Steve Bailey is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at bailey@globe.com or at 617-929-2902. 
