September 14, 2005
Guatire
Dear friends of Proutist Universal:
Dada Maheshvarananda, Steve Phillips, Aaron Friedman and Clark Forden
Warm, heartfelt greetings.
The project of the Zoological-Botanical Park “El Ingenio” in Guatire, state of Miranda, Venezuela, promoted by the community and the municipality of Zamora, is a nucleus of endogenous development (local grassroots planning “from within”). On behalf of the Park Foundation, I would like to express our deep gratitude for your participation in a series of activities in Venezuela promoting Prout, cooperatives, endogenous development, respect for nature and spirituality.
Our country is trying to advance under the leadership of President Hugo Chavez towards a socialism of the XXI Century. We understand this to be social justice for all, solidarity and love, with mutual respect between people during this historical transition of the last years of capitalism.
Our foundation is committed to this project in the hope that this nucleus of endogenous development will become a model for this effort. It is a difficult task that requires much responsibility, although it is necessary. Your visit as consultants to Venezuela, responding kindly to our invitation, with the financial support of our newly restructured national petroleum company of Venezuela (PDVSA), has greatly contributed to this effort.
Your presence (of Dada Maheshvarananda from August 23 to September 16, of Steve Phillips from August 28 to September 5, of Aaron Friedman from August 28 to September 12, and of Clark Forden from September 1 to 12) has afforded us many hours of shared planning, deciding how best the nucleus of endogenous development should function, especially the research center.
We wish to thank Steve Phillips, Aaron Friedman and Dada Maheshvarananda for the meeting with cooperative workers in Guatire on August 31 and with the Friends of the Park on the same day, and the Public Forum on September 1, and on the Venezuelan National Television program “Conversations with Neighbors.”
We thank Dada Maheshvarananda, Steve Phillips, Aaron Friedman and Clark Forden for the excellent 5-hour cooperatives training course they gave in Guatire on September 4. At the same time we extend our gratitude to Dada Maheshvarananda, Aaron Friedman and Clark Forden for their lecture to the Vice Minister of Planning and Development and his staff on September 6, and for their later meeting with the people who live in the Park on the same day.
We are proud to have accompanied Dada Maheshvarananda, Aaron Friedman and Clark Forden to the public lectures they gave to hundreds of people in PDVSA in the cities of Caracas, Puerto la Cruz and Maracaibo on September 7 to 9.
We also consider very important the meetings of Dada Maheshvarananda with the President of the National Confederation of Cooperatives and his staff on September 12 and 14.
These and many other activities made it possible to bring the message of Prout and the need for Progressive Socialism in the XXI Century directly to more than a thousand people in Venezuela. On behalf of the nucleus of endogenous development and the people of Venezuela, we thank Proutist Universal for the valuable support they have given.
Leopoldo Cook
President
Foundation of the Zoological-botanical Park “El Ingenio”