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dannyphantomrpg · 7 years ago

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Visual Aid: 107 Danny Phantom Facts

So I did this again.

(It’s what keeps me occupied when my husband’s asleep and the tablet pen is charging~)

((This one was barely longer than the 10 Years Later, Part 2, but it took all day for some reason...))

Let’s get this thing started~

Hey everybody, Butch Hartman here. I am so excited today because I'm teaming up with Channel Frederator today to talk about my show, Danny Phantom. Can give you the inside scoop.

You guys remember the fandom? Are you kind of curious about the show? Well, relax, we've got something for everybody here as we talk about the 107 facts about Danny Phantom.

For example, did you know that the 2005 Michael Jackson trial was actually features on Vlad's TV on one episode? It's there.

107 Facts: Danny Phantom.

001 Danny Phantom was created by me, Butch Hartman, after I had previously worked on the Fairly Odd Parents with Nickelodeon.

002 When making the show, I drew a lot of inspiration from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Ghostbusters.

003 The title Danny Phantom was inspired by the titles of 1960's cartoons like Jonny Quest. More specifically, I wanted to create a title with a real first name, followed by a last name that was also kind of an action word. Some of these alternative action words were "Danny Thunder" "Danny Lightning" and "Danny Power". "Danny Phantom" was the name I went with cause I thought it sounded the coolest.

004 Some of the alternative first names I had for our hero included "Billy Phantom", "Kenny Phantom", "Jackie Phantom", and "Davey Phantom". I think you'll agree they don't quite have the same ring as "Danny Phantom" does.

005 I came up with the concept for the show Danny Phantom while driving a moving van from Las Vegas to Los Angeles with my mother. Unfortunately, she was more fascinated by the sight of a desert tortoise, than the birth of a new, awesome Nicktoon.

006 Before settling on a superhero show, one of my first concepts for Danny Phantom was a bit more in the main Ghostbusters. It was called Danny Phantom and the Specter Detectors, and it would have focused on a powerless Danny and his friends hunting down ghosts, using an array of ghostbusters-like gadgets.

007 Danny Phantom was pitched to Nickelodeon executives over dinner. Execs treated me after they ordered more episodes of Fairly Odd Parents, and they happened to ask me if I had any more ideas for TV shows. And, yes, being treated to nice dinners is definitely an appreciated perk.

008 There's some early concept art of Danny showing a surprising design. I originally drew him with the Superman-type body, which was basically a lot of unrealistic buff muscles. I reverted to the slimmer design when I decided it's be more interesting to portray Danny as a fourteen-year-old kid.

009 I decided Danny should be fourteen years old because that age is kind of a bridge between childhood and adulthood. It's more of a period of self-discovery which certainly fits the theme of Danny learning to live and control his ghostly abilities.

010 Danny's skinnier, final design, was the collaborative effort of character designers Steven Silver, Shannon Tyndall, and - surprise - me.

011 Unlike many other cartoon characters, Danny has five fingers. Take that Timmy Turner.

012 You may notice that when Danny goes ghost, only his hair turns white and his eyebrows stay black. They're actually meant to be white as well, but we all thought the white brows made Danny look like an old man so we, uh, kept 'em.

013 Sam and Danny were originally meant to share a psychic connection, so one would know where the other one was at all times. But I scrapped this to keep things simple. Only Danny was finally to have the superpowers.

014 Danny was originally gonna have a pet owl named Spooky that would be able to track ghosts. I scrapped the concept as Harry Potter rapidly gained popularity. I didn't want his series to be constantly compared to the boy wizard.

015 I wanted to give Danny a really cool ghost motorcycle to use as his primary means of transportation, but then I realized that giving a motorcycle was pointless because, you know, he can fly really fast.

016 The father-son duo of Jack and Danny Fenton are a reference to Jack and Danny Torrance from The Shining, which explains why Jack Fenton constantly accuses his children of being ghosts.

017 I gave Danny an older sibling because, unlike Timmy Turner, I felt that Jazz Fenton would make Danny feel less in control at home and give him somebody to contend with. I thought this lack of control would make Danny's experience with his superpowers all the more satisfying for him.

018 Jazz Fenton was named after a character in John Byrne's 1990's comic book Next Men. I always thought the name Jazz was cool.

019 Tucker Foley's name is a combination of actor and comedian Chris Tucker and Eddie Murphy's character from Beverly Hills Cop, Axel Foley.

020 Danny's teacher, Mr. Lancer, is named after a family restaurant in Burbank called, you guessed it, Lancer's.

021 Vlad Masters was originally going to be a vampire, but Nickelodeon execs thought making him a Vampire could lead to some pretty violent territory and I thought that too. So he was changed into a ghost.

022 A remnant of this scrapped concept can be found in his villain name "Vlad Plasmius". Plasma is found in blood which, you know, vampires kind of have a thirst for.

023 I refer to Vlad Masters as Danny Phantom's Lex Luthor. Like Luthor, Vlad uses his wealth to exert his power, or at least some of it. He also has a personal connection to Danny that gives him the upper hand in most scenarios.

024 Danny's love interest, Paulina Sanchez, is a parallel to Superman's love interest, Lois Lane. Both characters have no romantic interest in the protagonist because they have a crush on the protagonist's superhero alter ego. Lois loves Superman, but not Clark Kent, and Paulina loves Danny Phantom, but not Danny Fenton. Paulina: But you still have no shot with me Oh, the cruel irony.

025 Danny's ghost sense is identical to Spiderman's spider sense. Both senses alert their respective heroes whenever danger is nearby.

026 The parallels of Spiderman don't end there. Dash Baxter is a parallel to Peter Parker's football playing bully, Flash Thompson. Not only do Flash and Dash bully the protagonists of their universes, but they idolize the protagonist's superhero alter ego without realizing the hero is actually the person they bully. Their names both words that describe their quick movement and rhyme with each other.

027 The ghosts of Danny Phantom's world aren't the spirits of the deceased as ghosts tend to be in pop culture. Instead, they're monsters from another dimension. We call them ghosts because it's easier to say and it's more appealing than saying monsters from another dimension.

028 Danny's hometown, Amity Park, is a tribute to the settings of a few famous horror stories. Amityville, Long Island is the location of the famous haunted house known as the Amityville Horror. But Amity Park is also named after Amity Island, the location of the book and Steven Spielberg film Jaws.

029 Danny's high school, Casper High, is named after Casper the Friendly Ghost. Hey, if we hadn't added all these paranormal references, you may have forgotten the show is about ghosts.

030 Quite a few key members from the Fairly Odd Parents had a hand in making Danny Phantom, including writer Steve Marmel and art director Bob Boyle.

031 One of the major differences working on the Fairly Odd Parents and Danny Phantom was the latter series' more serial format containing everything from character arcs to recurring story lines. Danny Phantom embraces storytelling angle by making the episodes 22 minutes long as opposed to Fairly Odd Parents whose 22 minute run time consisted of 2 eleven minute episodes.

032 One of the most challenging aspects of creating a superhero show like Danny Phantom, was giving all the superhero tropes a unique and interesting twist. We wanted to keep the series fresh an unique.

033 I originally wanted to cast a fourteen year old boy for the role of Danny, but I couldn't find anybody that sounded heroic enough. That heroic voice I searched for was ultimately provided by David Kaufman. Before playing Danny, Kaufman broke into the realm of voice acting when he played Marty McFly in Back tot he Future: The Animated Series.

034 David Kaufman kept his audition for Danny as a CD in his car that he would listen to towards the beginning of the show whenever he drove to the studio to record. He did this to remember what Danny sounded like in order to immerse himself into the character efficiently.

035 I wasn't the only one Kaufman's performance left a deep impression on. His daughter, Grace, calls him Daddy Phantom.

036 Sam Manson is played by actress Grey Griffin. I basically made an effort to include her in every show I created back then. Thus far, she's played Vicky in the Fairly Odd Parents and Kitty Katswell from T.U.F.F. Puppy.

037 Tucker isn't the first loyal friend Ricky D'Shon Collins has played. Before hunting ghosts with Danny, he helped TJ Detweiler keep balance and order on the playground as Vince LaSalle in Disney's Recess.

038 Maddie Fenton's voice actress, Kath Soucie, has essentially crafted a career out of voicing cartoon mothers. She played Dexter's mom in Dexter's Laboratory, Betty DeVille in Rugrats and Miriam Pataki in Hey Arnold.

039 Danny's father, Jack, is played by legendary voice actor Rob Paulson, who's played iconic roles like Yakko Warner, Pinky, Carl Weiser, Experiment 625, Donatello in the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Raphael in the old one, and way too many more to mention here.

040 Although Mr. Lancer is far from hardcore, his voice actor, Ron Perlman, has played quite a few characters throughout his career that redefined the word, He played Hellboy in the Guillermo del Toro films of the same name and he voices Slade Wilson, also known as Deathstroke, on Teen Titans, as well as the Lich in Adventure Time.

041 Valerie Grey was originally played by Grey DeLisle for the episode My Brother's Keeper before renowned voice actress Cree Summer was chosen to take over the role. If her name doesn't sound familiar, you've probably heard her voice as Penny on Inspector Gadget or maybe even as Susie Carmicheal on Rugrats.

042 Valerie isn't the only one that's had a change in her voice. Dani, that's Dani with an I, was voiced with two different actresses through the series. She was played by AnnaSophia Robb in her debut episode Kindred Spirits. The role was then taken over by Krista Swan in the episode D-Stabilized, which was Dani's second and final speaking appearance.

043 Tara Strong plays two of the show's recurring villains: Ember McLain and Penelope Spectra. This is definitely not the first time I've worked with her. You probably know her best as Timmy Turner in the Fairly Odd Parents, which proves she can effectively play both the hero and the villain.

044 Every celebrity guest in the show was cast as a ghost, similar to how celebrity guests would play villains on the 1960's Batman series starring Adam West and Burt Ward. Some of these celebrities include Particia Heaton from Everybody Loves Raymond as the Lunch Lady, and Matthew St. Patrick from Six Feet Under as Skulker, and Will Arnett from Arrested Development as the Ghost Writer, and Martin Mull as Vlad Plasmius.

045 These celebrity voice actors typically played their ghosts for a limited time before different voice actors took their roles. Sometimes as soon as the ghost's second appearance. Series Kath Soucie took over the role of the Lunch Lady and Kevin Michael Richardson became Skulker.

046 Tucker's dad, Maurice Foley, is voiced by Phil Lamarr who voices Hermes Conrad on Futurama and Samruai Jack on Samurai Jack.

047 Mark Hamill plays Undergrowth. He's, of course, best known for playing Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, but also as countless voice acting credits, including the Joker and Fire Lord Ozai.

048 The ghost child Youngblood was played by actor Taylor Lautner when he was just nine years old. Lautner would later be featured in everybody's favorite love story Twilight. Wait, who wrote that? Do I have to say that?

049 Danny's ultimate enemy, Dark Danny, is played by Oscar-nominated acting legend Eric Roberts. His impressive resume includes everything from the Dark Knight to the Cable Guy.

050 The first recording session for Danny Phantom took place on November 21, 2002, about a year and a half before the show premiered. The first episode to be recorded was also the first episode to air: Mystery Meat.

051 In fact, Danny Phantom premiered on April 3, 2004, right after Nickelodeon's annual Kid's Choice Awards.

052 Unlike many other animated shows, the cast of Danny Phantom recorded their dialogue in the same room together. David Kaufman described the experience as something akin to a stage play.

053 It takes the actors around 3 hours to record dialogue for a single episode. David Kaufman knows that shouting "I'm goin' ghost!" so many times made his voice hoarse by the end of the day.

054 In the episode What You Want, I voiced a football announcer that also looks a lot like me except he's, you know, a cartoon. I mean, he looks a lot more like me than Dr. Bender does. I hope.

055 The theme song we hear today wasn't the only one recorded for the show. An alternate version got so far into production that an alternate opening sequence was storyboarded all the way around it. The alternate song sounds very similar to the final product with different lyrics that focus more on explaining Danny's abilities.

056 The theme song was changed because Nickelodeon wanted it to tell Danny's origin story. This way, new views wouldn't feel alienated when watching the show for the first time no matter what episode they started out with.

057 Luckily, changing the lyrics wasn't an overly complicated, make-10-calls, logistical nightmare since I wrote the lyrics of the theme song. Both of them actually.

058 I based the show's theme song after the song The Invisible Man by Queen, one of my favorite bands.

059 One thing I learned from working on the Danny Phantom theme song is that your first idea isn't always your best idea, and to never stop pushing yourself until you've made something truly awesome. You're welcome for that halfway through burst of inspiration.

060 I also co wrote another fan favorite song Remember, performed by Ember in the episode Fanning the Flames, which also happens to be my third favorite episode. Yes, my third favorite. I am very, very specific.

061 Danny Phantom was the first show to be produced by my very own company, Billionfold Inc. which was co-founded with my wife. Billionfold comes from a biblical term, hundredfold.

062 A single episode of Danny Phantom took approximately 10 months to produce, stretching all the way from pre-production to post.

063 While the pre-production phase took place in Burbank, California, Danny Phantom's animation was done by a Korean animation studio called Rough Draft. Rough Draft's resume includes work done on other animated classics like Futurama, The Simpsons, and SpongeBob SquarePants.

064 The individual villains found within Danny Phantom's rogues gallery was based on ideas that I had. Ember McLane stemmed from a pitch regarding an episode about music fads, and the effects they have on teenagers. The Lunch Lady was generated from my very astute knowledge that students tend to hate school prepared lunched.

065 Vlad is a Green Bay Packers fanatic because Danny Phantom's story write, Steve Marmel is a cheesehead himself. We nearly got sued for this, but luckily Marmel was smart enough to make the team colors of the Danny Phantom Packers gold and green instead of green and gold.

066 One scrapped running gag Marmel wanted to incorporate was that Vlad's home would be blown up after every encounter he had with Danny, but this recurring joke was mainly lost in editing.

067 Had the series gone on, Danielle would have been taken in by the Fentons, effectively becoming the younger sister of Danny and Jazz.

068 Technus was intended to have another upgrade, Technus 3.0, in the episode Identity Crisis. The design was scrapped after we decided the upgrade didn't really fit anywhere in the episode's story.

069 The addition of Danny Phantom's logo later in the series was the suggestion of Nickelodeon executives, who thought he needed a symbol akin to heroes like Batman, Superman, and Spiderman. But perhaps more honest reason was because the execs wanted to make the hero more marketable.

070 Danny officially became 99.99% marketable in the season 2 episode, Memory Blank, in which Sam gives him his D logo.

071 The series score was composed by Guy Moon, who is also responsible for the music heard in the Fairly Odd Parents.

072 When Guy Moon and I met to discuss a soundtrack of an episode, I would usually sing over the episode in progress to give Moon an idea of how I wanted the music to sound. Moon would bring a camera to these sessions and record my, admittedly, unskilled singing to remember my instructions.

073 Not everyone can become a half ghost, half human. If Sam or Tucker had gotten caught int the middle of the Fenton's malfunctioning Ghost Portal, it would have likely killed them.

074 Wulf is fluent in Esperanto, a language created in 1887 by Dr. Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof, perhaps better known by his pseudonym of Doktoro Esperanto. Esperanto was created in the hope of replacing every language in the world as the one universal language. Judging by the fact that this video is in English, you can probably guess how that plan worked out.

075 The episode titled Shades of Grey is obviously a play on Valerie's last name, but the title could have a much deeper meaning. The term "shades of grey" refers to an unclear position on the scale of good to evil, usually somewhere in between. This certainly applies to Valerie, as she doesn't necessarily fight ghosts for good or evil. but for her own personal reasons.

076 During Shades of Grey, Danny names the ghost dog Cujo. Cujo's also the name of a horror novel by Stephen King about a dog bitten by a rabid bat, which turns the dog into a cold-blooded killer.

077 The green glowing, double bladed melee weapon Maddie uses to slay the legion of Vlad's monsters in Maternal Instincts is practically identical to Darth Maul's double bladed lightsaber in Star Wars Episode One, save for the red color.

078 Because I know everyone loves multiple Episode One references, the the title of the second season's 9th episode The Fenton Menace is obviously a play on the title of everybody's favorite Star Wars film, the Phantom Menace. Yes. Everybody's favorite Star Wars film.

079 To continue the Star Wars nods, the Danny Phantom universe has its own line of popular toys called Space Wars featuring characters that resemble Chewbacca and R2D2.

080 Some of the computers in the Danny Phantom world have pears in the back of them which you probably guess was a nod to Apple computers. Timmy's dad in Fairly Odd Parents has the same symbol on his laptop.

081 Save for the creepy pictures of Maddie, the programs and icons on both Danny and Vlad's computers are exactly the same, in the exact same order.

082 Skulker's hunt for Valerie and Danny in Life Lessons closely resembles the plot of Richard Connell's famous short story "The Most Dangerous Game". Much like the story, Skulker kidnaps two very skilled humans on his property for the sole purpose of hunting what he considers to be the most challenging prey out there, or, the most dangerous game.

083 Mr. Lancer spouts the titles of books in place of shouting swear words. Some of these exclamations include The Great Gatsby, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and Moby Dick, which is about as close as we'll be getting to colorful language on a Nicktoon, except for maybe Ren and Stimpy, or Rocko, or SpongeBob. We're slick here at Nickelodeon.

084 In the episode What You Want, Paulina transforms into a popular anime cat names Sayonara Pussycat, who resembles the character Hello Kitty. But Sayonara is actually a rather dramatic and final sounding word for "goodbye" in Japanese.

085 In Teacher of the Year, all 13 levels that Tucker shows Technus are based on the eight worlds from the 1990 NES classic Super Marion Bros. 3. The level 0 glitch is a reference to the infamous Minus world from the original Super Mario Bros.

086 Before sending Danny into the Ghost Zone in the episode Prisoners of Love, Tucker can be seen playing Space Invaders on his PDA.

087 Valerie Grey lives on 461 Elm Street, an obvious reference to the classic horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street. She'd probably stand more of a chance against Freddy Krueger than the other kids in the Street as well.

088 Johnny 13 and Kitty's voice actors, William Baldwin and China Phillips, are a married couple in real life. The knot has been securely tied since 1995. Way before they were cast.

089 In Fanning the Flames, Danny quips "Do you take requests? How about Beat It." in addition to telling Ember to hit the road, Danny's referencing Michael Jackson's classic song Beat It. Good one, Danny. And good one, me.

090 Michael Jackson makes a more obvious cameo in the episode Infinite Realms where he's seen in at his 2005 trial while Vlad is flipping through channels.

091 When we see Tucker's report card in What You Want, we learn that Tucker is not only highly proficient in computers, but sewing as well. If Danny ever needs a suit redesign, he who he can call. Not the Ghostbusters, they'll likely kill him. He should call Tucker.

092 The Groovy Gang and Scaredy Cat from The Million Dollar Ghost are an unsubtle jab at Mystery Inc and Scooby-Doo. An additional fact fact for you guys, I actually worked for Hanna-Barbera, the animation studio that created Scooby-Doo.

093 The secret government organization dedicated to eliminating paranormal entities known as the Guys in White are obviously a parallel to the Men in Black who essentially do the same thing but with evil extraterrestrials.

094 I've gone on record saying the reason Danny is not shirtless when he's at the water park is because he gets sunburned very easily.

095 We can all infer that Sam has good taste in films. For instance, a poster for Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange can be seen in her room.

096 In Memory Blank, Sam wants to see Trinity of Doom, a movie starring Femalien, the female version of Alien that’s a Predator, not a Xenomorph, you uncultured swine!, Terminatra, the female Terminator, and Nightmerica, the female version of Freddy Krueger. I'd still go see that.

097 Danny has a birthmark that's shaped like the state of Florida.

098 Timmy Turner's favorite comic book hero, The Crimson Chin, appears at the Ember concert as one of her many adoring fans in the episode Fanning the Flames. I officially sanction your conspiratorial speculations.

099 In the episode What You Want, Danny and Tucker can be seen playing an arcade machine titles Crash Nebula. Crash Nebula is one of Timmy Turner's favorite heroes of the Fairly Odd Parents. The plot thickens!

100 The cross referencing continued over into the Fairly Odd Parents, too. In Poulter Geeks, a wanted poster for Danny Phantom can be seen in the ghost hunting basement of Timmy's parents.

101 Or you guys could be thinking about this all wrong, and Danny could just be a fictional hero. In the Fairly Odd Parents Crash Nebula special, Danny can be seen on the back cover of a comic book. The truth is out there.

102 If Vlad were real, Steve Marmel would have made him the happiest half man/half ghost on the planet. The writer purchased a brick at Lambeau Field, the home of the Packers, and engraved it with "Someday I will rule - Vlad Plasmius".

103 David Kaufman's favorite episodes tend to be the ones in which Danny spends time with one particular member of his family and the plot strengthens their bond and understanding of each other. He cites the episodes Maternal Instinct and My Brother's Keeper as prime examples.

104 Like every great superhero, Danny Phantom has transcended into the realm of video games. His first outing was a Game Boy Advance adaptation of The Ultimate Enemy, a 2D side-scrolling beat-em-up ordeal.

105 The second was called Danny Phantom: Urban Jungle, which was released for both Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS and it was a side-scrolling shooter.

106 There was once a Danny Phantom themed ride at the indoor Nickelodeon Universe theme park at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. Danny Phantom: Ghost Zone's design was that of an Ali Baba. In other words, it consisted of a stationary horizontal gondola with a 360 degree swinging pendulum. Unfortunately, the rise was taken down in 2015.

107 Danny Phantom ran for three season, from 2004 to 2007. A total of 53 episodes were created for the series. The news of Danny Phantom's cancellation was not well received by the fans at all. The Danny fandom took to the streets of New York City and protested outside of Nickelodeon's building to bring the ghost boy back into production. Unfortunately, to no avail. But thank you. Seriously, thank you.

Ok, guys, thanks so much for watching. Hope you guys enjoyed it, 107 facts about Danny Phantom. Don't forget to like and subscribe to the Frederator Channel.

#yt closed captions kept putting dash's name as - and i thought it was hilarious #and fact 27 is where it all goes downhill #fact 27: it's not a show about ghosts #fact 29: it's a show about ghosts!#if I misspelled any of the names i'm so sorry #there are just so many of them #huh only 106 facts #i wonder what happened to fact 94 #it is a mystery #i was gonna do images too #but they weren't anything special #enjoy your wall of reading voice actor's wiki pages #butch hartman #channel frederator #107 facts #danny phantom #reference

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newssplashy · 6 years ago

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Politics: 'Truly just devastating stories': The bleak outlook from inside Venezuela's deepening crises

Venezuela's embattled President Nicolas Maduro still appears to have a tight grip on power — here's the outlook from inside the country amid its deepening humanitarian and political crises.

Venezuela has been riven by protracted political and economic crises that have prompted mass protests and sparked a wave of migration. Venezuelans have fled throughout the region, with some going as far afield as Spain.

The many who remain live in a deeply divided country, where President Nicolas Maduro maintains power — solidified in a May 20 presidential election granting him another term amid widespread doubts about its legitimacy — in spite of rampant shortages, high rates of crime and violence, and a deteriorating economy.

Geoff Ramsey, the associate for Venezuela at the Washington Office on Latin America, a Washington, DC-based research and advocacy group, spent April in Venezuela, meeting with members of the public, the government, the opposition, civil-society groups, and others.

Ramsey spoke with Business Insider in late May, describing the conditions Venezuelans face at home as well as the political outlook fora situation that has frustrated the region and the world.

The interview below has been edited for length and clarity.

'It's one thing to hear about them and another to see them firsthand.'

Christopher Woody: Being on the ground [in Venezuela] ... was there anything that was unexpected, that surprised you, that wasn't in line with what you'd heard before you got to the country?

Geoff Ramsey: It was not my first time in Venezuela, or actually in any of the three countries, and I've certainly been following the reports of the humanitarian situation on the ground and talking to people about it, but it's one thing to hear about them and another to see them firsthand.

It was really just heartbreaking to meet with people over and over that are reeling from this economic crisis. I met people that lost their savings due to hyperinflation. Elderly people that ... waited in line for their regular pension, and it amounts to essentially pocket change. It's truly devastating. And I think the best sense of the scope of the crisis that I've gotten so far was in speaking to people who have been fleeing, because I got a much better sense of how bad it is outside of Caracas, in the interior of the country.

In Brazil in particular, I was struck by the fact that I saw one guy standing on the side of the road selling oranges to passing motorists, and he was in a bright red PDVSA jumpsuit, a uniform. I went up to him and I spoke with him and he told that his state salary, working as a technician for PDVSA, just simply didn't allow him to make ends meet or support his family, so he now makes more money essentially living in the streets in Boa Vista [in Brazil] and selling odd fruits, cigarettes, candy in the streets, and he's able to support his family with a greater income doing that than he did working in the oil sector.

And I heard stories like that over and over. I met with one woman in Cucuta [in Colombia], I believe, who has a thyroid condition, and her husband also is a public employee, and she was saying that his monthly salary barely covers a week — essentially five or six pills — of the medication that she needs to take for her thyroid condition. So it's truly just devastating stories.

'Cash is worthless, but at the same time, nobody has any cash.'

Woody: You mentioned hyperinflation, and that has obviously destroyed people's ability to save and to buy things. At the same time, shortages are rampant, and that makes it impossible to get essential items like food and medicine. From what you saw, what are the processes people have to go through to buy basic things they need to meet basic needs or to get cash to make those purchases?

Ramsey: The interesting sort of irony of the situation in Venezuela is that there is hyperinflation, so cash is worthless, but at the same time, nobody has any cash. So ... most economic transactions are done with credit and debit cards, and in a country where the electronic infrastructure is crumbling, you can imagine that that presents serious logistical problems.

People routinely have to deal with their bank's electronic systems not working or the cash points, their readers of cards, not working correctly, so even something as simple as buying a cup of coffee can take an hour trying to go back and forth and slide your card multiple times, call up your bank, that sort of thing.

"'Eh, what's the difference.'"

Woody: I know in the run-up to the May 20 elections, there were still government supporters [backing Maduro], and Maduro maintains around 20% support, which is not nothing. What did you hear from them? How did they view the situation? How do they reconcile what's going on in the country with their support for the government?

Ramsey: I met with several government supporters, and I heard some sort of people straying from the official discourse, but not much. In general, I think there is acceptance of the idea that Venezuela is under what they call a "bloqueo financiero" or a financial blockade, and that the country's economic problems are the result of the collusion of the opposition with the international community in its sort of imperialist desire to get rid of Maduro.

Obviously we know that's not the case, but I think the government has, through state media, been particularly effective in pumping that message to its base.

However, I did talk to people that supported the government, but were, like most Venezuelans, not at all enthused about voting for Maduro, and so you had this interesting dynamic where I spoke to people that would go on about Chavez's legacy and how Venezuela is suffering from some international conspiracy and then ... I would ask them, 'So are you going to vote in these elections on May 20?' And what I heard in many cases was, 'Eh, what's the difference. what can I really expect to come out of that?'

'I think he continues to try to cast himself as a son of Chavez.'

Woody: For Maduro himself, it seems like a trend over the past couple of years is something of a shift from Chavismo [referring to the governance of Maduro's predecessor, Hugo Chavez] to what could be called Madurismo, and now he has this party, Somos Venezuela, so ... are we seeing kind of a shift from the party of Chavez to a government that is built in Maduro's image? Is he assuming that kind of stature?

Ramsey: I think that that's certainly a play that Maduro wants to make. He, I think, would love to be able to capture the same crowds that Chavez did and command that same loyalty, but I think ultimately he hasn't been terribly successful at that.

There was a lot of speculation that the creation of this new party, Somos Venezuela, would amount to the herald of a new era of Madurismo, and the government did create this new party, and it certainly avoids using the traditional symbols of the ruling party, and it does espouse rhetoric that's more openly Madurista, but it actually didn't get that much support in the election.

If we're to believe the election results ... candidates for municipal councils of Somos Venezuela received less votes than [opposition candidates Javier Bertucci and Henri Falcon's] parties. So I think that that's definitely what Maduro would like, but I think it's easier said than done.

And I was watching his, whatever you want to call it, his swearing-in ceremony, [on Friday], I listened to his speech, and as much as I'm sure he would rather not have to rely on it, he invoked Chavez's name multiple times, and I think continues to try to cast himself as a son of Chavez.

'Blind to the problems within their coalition.'

Woody: The vast majority of Venezuelans are unhappy with the situation, so in terms of the opposition, people who are opposed to the government, what attitudes did you pick up from them. Is there resignation? Do they see any signs of change? What's their mood generally?

Ramsey: I spoke to people at different levels in the opposition. I think if you speak to opposition leaders, they're convinced that this is a government that's in its final days and that change will come any minute now, and I think they're probably, I mean, essentially blind to the problems within their coalition and their internal divisions and the fact that they've struggled to put together some kind of agenda or some kind of alternative to Venezuelans coming out of these electiosn.

I think the result of infighting within the opposition can be seen in speaking to Venezuelans who oppose the government. Everyday Venezuelans that I spoke with told me that, 'Yeah, I identify with the opposition. I certainly am no fan of Chavismo, but I feel that the opposition isn't representing me or my best interests.' I actually went to a rally that was convened by mothers who lost their children in the round protests that we saw last year and the repression [of them], and I was struck by the fact that I spoke with three separate mothers ... of students who were killed in the protests last year, who told me, each one individually, that they felt like the opposition had sold them out and that they didn't feel they could trust the opposition leadership.

'Extremely disorganized and sapped of morale.'

Woody: Regarding the May 20 election specifically, the impression I got in the run-up to that is that many assumed Maduro's victory was a foregone conclusion. On the ground there, did you see that attitude present, and in the aftermath of that election ... has that mood changed?

Ramsey: Very much so. Nobody was expecting any kind of meaningful change to come out of these elections — or I should say the people that were expecting something to come out of them were a very, very slim minority. People that I spoke with, even the ones that said that they were planning on voting, didn't really have much faith that it would produce any kind of change.

I do think it's interesting though, because these elections have been the main stumbling block for the opposition over the last five months, and ... they've divided the opposition between people who believe in some kind of electoral solution to the crisis and those who don't, and I think now those divisions are somewhat irrelevant.

I think even Falcon and Bertucci came out and criticized the government and its handling of the electoral process. Falcon said he wouldn't recognize the results, which puts him on the same side as the traditional opposition, and I think we can hope to see more unity among the opposition moving forward, but again I'm crossing my fingers on that. Everything we've seen so far suggests that they're extremely disorganized and sapped of morale.

'This government has been so effective at isolating and silencing dissent.'

Woody: It seems like a trend within Maduro's government is ... trying to rein in what appears to be some signs of dissent within the security apparatus, especially in the military. In your conversations and in your travels, did you get the feeling that divides were opening up in the security services in regard to their support for the government?

Ramsey: Well, I think it's no secret that ... there's plenty of discontent with the current state of affairs and with Maduro among the military, but I think ultimately the government's just been extremely effective at purging dissidents from the ranks.

Before I got there in early April, or rather I should say this occurred in March, there was a coup attempt, led by [former Interior Minister Miguel] Rodriguez Torres and other officials in the security forces. There were plans. There was a date already set for an attempted overthrow of Maduro, led by the security forces, and that fell through. The people who were involved in that were rounded up and put in jail, and I think we've seen the same thing this week. There were reports ... [military] officers had been arrested. ...

I would say people I spoke with in government were open about the fact that there is discontent with the current situation in government and among the security forces, but I didn't get the sense that they truly fear an imminent military-led coup against the government, and I think ultimately that's just because this government has been so effective at isolating and silencing dissent.

source http://www.newssplashy.com/2018/05/politics-truly-just-devastating-stories_28.html

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zcnadm · 8 years ago

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FEATURE-In drought-hit Zimbabwe, women's "second shift" burden grows

By Andrew Mambondiyani

MARWENDO, Zimbabwe, Jan 6 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Rhoda Mhlanga looked tired.

Even so, Mhlanga, who lives in a remote village in eastern Zimbabwe, managed to smile as she served food to her customers – mostly long-distance truckers traversing the Mutare-Chiredzi highway.

She serves food 12 hours a day at her small eatery in the Tanganda business centre – but it wasn’t the day job that was overwhelming her.

It was the double shift so many women around the world face – their paid work as shift one, and the second shift of hours of unpaid, domestic work they are often expected to do in addition.

For Mhlanga and many other women, that unpaid work has been steadily increasing over the past few years for what may seem like a surprising reason: climate change.

Over the past decade, Zimbabwe has received erratic rainfall, which experts have linked to climate change. That makes agriculture more unsustainable and unpredictable.

The droughts have taken a toll on the country’s agriculture-based economy. Crops and livestock, starved of water, have died, leaving many families food insecure.

During last year’s drought, one of the most devastating in decades, over 4.5 million Zimbabweans were left without enough food.

Life has become especially difficult for many people in rural areas, particularly women who are traditionally responsible for providing food, water and firewood for their families.

For Mhlanga, the droughts, the lack of stability, and the constant threat of falling deeper into poverty mean she must wake up very early in the morning and not sleep until late at night, balancing her business with providing her family the most basic necessities.

She spends up to three hours a day looking for firewood, she said.

“There are no more trees left around here, and we need to look at new spots. We have no choice; we need to cook for our children,” she said.

With only a few drought-resistant baobab, mopani, and acacia trees still standing in her sun-baked area, many women sneak into off-limits areas such as game parks to find wood, risking arrest and hefty fines.

Their efforts are consuming huge chunks of their working hours, making life harder for them and their families.

And as droughts lengthen, the amount of time they can spend on paid work – the kind that shows up in a country’s GDP – is shrinking. Meanwhile, unpaid work is growing – a little understood side effect of climate change.

LIVES AT A ‘VIRTUAL STANDSTILL’

Until a decade ago, Chisumbanje, which lies about 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of Tanganda, was a thriving cotton and maize farming region. Now it’s essentially a desert, and a place where women spend hours, and travel sometimes six miles a day, looking for water, food and firewood.

Because only 40 percent of Zimbabweans have access to electricity, according to the World Bank, many of these families need firewood to cook.

Sekai Siyapeya, who lives in the region, often starts her day at 4 a.m. and goes to bed around 9 p.m. after cooking supper for her family. In the morning she prepares food for her children before they dash off to school, after which she rushes to do odd jobs at Chisumbanje Ethanol Plant.

A mother of nine, Siyapeya ekes out a living doing menial jobs at the plant, but the pay is barely enough to sustain her big family.

A few years ago, before worsening droughts began, Siyapeya and her family could grow their own food and had enough to eat, she said. They also used to grow cotton, which they sold, giving them enough money to take them until the next harvest.

But with the drought, income from cotton farming has dried up, and they cannot grow their own food anymore. Nor does Siyapeya have the time, given her large family and the hours she must spend to find the essentials to feed them, to build skills to find other work.

On the days that she goes to fetch firewood instead of working at the plant, she loses much-needed money as the family breadwinner; her husband is unemployed. But he is also one of the highly traditional men – common enough in rural Zimbabwe – who maintains that household chores are reserved for women.

Society still frowns at men who fetch water or firewood or cook. So while Siyapeya’s husband spends most of his time at home, he does not help with domestic work.

Ultimately, men must be part of any solution to cut the time women spend on unpaid work, said local traditional leader Kudzai Mungazi. His wife, Christine Mungazi, wakes at 3 a.m. to look for water before she takes her products, including tomatoes and green vegetables, to sell at her roadside market stall.

“My life is now revolving around looking for water,” she said. “At times I don’t get the water until 12 p.m., which means I have to bring my wares to the market late in the afternoon. This is affecting my business.”

“Without water, our lives have come to a virtual standstill. We can’t do any other activity except looking for it,” she said.

In the past, the local government helped communities drill boreholes to increase access to water. But Kudzai Mungazi said his family had not received help despite pleas to local authorities.

Effectively dealing with worsening drought, however, may require not just well drilling but efforts to change the traditions that leave women solely responsible for much household work.

“Yes, culturally these duties were part of the daily lives of women. But with these recurrent droughts we should find a way of helping women,” said Kudzai Mungazi, who said he helps his wife collect firewood. “The problem of water should not be a women’s issue – it affects all of us.”

MEN STEP UP?

In an effort to encourage men to help with household work, volunteers trained by international humanitarian organisation World Vision are talking to rural communities, and in particular men, about the importance of sharing housework.

Prosper Hobwana from Farai village in Chipinge district is one such volunteer. During household visits he speaks to villagers on the importance of sharing responsibilities among men and women, pointing to the changing climate and the burdens it is putting on women.

The initiative, launched in 2015, is slowly gaining traction. But Hobwana said there were still resistance.

“Some men still find it hard to help women cooking or looking for firewood because of our cultural beliefs. Men believe these jobs are for women,” he said.

Creating effective policies and other interventions to address the problem and improve women’s lives and incomes will likely require better data on and understanding of the hours that women spend every day on unpaid work, including what that is “worth” to the economy, experts say.

“An income-generating (government) project targeting women cannot succeed if the women are spending most of their time looking for water or firewood”, warned Kudzai Mungazi.

A senior official in Zimbabwe’s Statistics Agency (ZimStats), who asked that his name not be used because he was not authorised to speak to the press, said most of the surveys conducted by his agency to measure hours of work were funded by donor agencies.

“At the moment we have not been commissioned to do a survey specifically on unpaid work. I hope soon we might get funding for research on unpaid work,” the official said.

He added such data would help the government come up with policy and economic interventions to benefit women.

Eddie Cross, a Zimbabwe legislator and economist, said that quantifying unpaid labour – not just measuring it in hours, but attempting to assign it a market value – would be a daunting task.

“Unless you do a detailed field survey on a comprehensive basis, you can have no idea what women are doing with their time each day,” he said. “If you then value that at the minimum wage ($250 a month) the results would be huge – (unpaid work would) probably be bigger than all other economic activities,” Cross said.

CLEAN COOKSTOVES

In Africa, collecting fuel for cooking accounts for up to an hour each day for many women, said Corinne Hart, director of gender and humanitarian programmes for the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves.

“Women can spend up to five hours per trip and sometimes have to sleep overnight in the forest because they have travelled so far,” she said.

More widespread use of energy efficient or renewable energy-powered cooking could help cut the time needed to gather fuel and cook food, she said, pointing to successes in Africa and South Asia.

Many of today’s more efficient cookstoves reduce fuel use by 30-60 percent, resulting in fewer greenhouse gas emissions and reducing impacts on forests, habitats, and biodiversity.

Zimbabwe’s Finance and Economic Development Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, acknowledged the impact of the current drought on women in the country, and admitted there was no clear government policy to tackle the issues surrounding unpaid work.

He said the government was working towards ensuring the availability of clean water to drought-stricken areas by fixing broken boreholes and sinking new ones, and said the national government, rural district councils and development partners were working to ensure the availability of water in stressed rural communities.

But for Rhoda Mhlanga of Marwendo, working lengthening double shifts remain a reality as Zimbabwe’s droughts strengthen.

“Our local river has dried up, and we now have to queue at the local borehole for water for drinking and other domestic uses,” she said – one more hour each day in her already long workday.

(Reporting by Andrew Mambondiyani; editing by Laurie Goering :; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, climate change, women’s rights, trafficking and property rights. Visit news.trust.org/climate)

http://zimbabwe-consolidated-news.com/2017/01/06/feature-in-drought-hit-zimbabwe-women039s-second-shift-burden-grows/

#mugabe #news #zimbabwe

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zcnadm · 8 years ago

Photo

In drought-hit Zimbabwe, women's 'second shift' burden grows

By Andrew Mambondiyani

MARWENDO, Zimbabwe (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Rhoda Mhlanga looked tired.