Venezuela crisis: Hunger makes people turn to rubbish for scraps

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A pregnant woman who did not want to be named holds a pineapple in one hand as she continues to pick through garbage bags outside a supermarket in downtown Caracas. Photo: AP

 

Caracas: Until recently, Julio Noguera worked at a bakery. Now he spends his evenings searching through the garbage for food.

“I come here looking for food because if I didn’t, I’d starve to death,” Noguera said as he sorted through a pile of mouldy potatoes. “With things like they are, no one helps anyone and no one gives away meals.”

Across town, unemployed people converge every dusk at a trash heap on a downtown Caracas sidewalk to pick through rotten fruit and vegetables tossed out by nearby shops. They are frequently joined by small business owners, college students and pensioners – people who consider themselves middle class even though their living standards have long been pulverised by triple-digit inflation, food shortages and a collapsing currency. Continue reading

Record 46.7 Million Americans Live In Poverty; Household Income Back To 1989 Levels

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According to the just released Census Bureau annual report on Income and Poverty, in 2014 the official poverty rate was 14.8% as a result of a record 46.7 million Americans living in poverty. This is the fifth consecutive year since the end of the recession that the number of impoverished Americans has barely not budged. What recovery?…

The people living in extreme poverty, i.e. below 50% of the poverty minimum, also rose to an all time high of 20.8 million. Continue reading