WHETHER YOU’RE A NEW ENGLANDER who is forced to wear two pairs of longjohns in the winter to keep warm or a Londoner who has trouble ponying up bus fare for the daily commute, worry no more: You can look to the leader of the Bolivarian revolution for succor.

For instance, Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez has been offering discounted heating oil through former congressman Joseph Patrick Kennedy’s nonprofit Citizens Energy Commission. And in February Chavez orchestrated a deal with London mayor Ken Livingstone in which the prosperous British capital will provide teeming Caracas with planning consultation on matters ranging from traffic flow to recycling in return for discounted fuel. That fuel will enable half-price bus fares for 250,000 down-on-their luck workers. But why is a nation where 37 percent of the population lives below the poverty line helping the United States and the United Kingdom, where 12 and 17 percent of the people, respectively, live in poverty–and where the standards of living are much higher?