Luta Hamutuk      

Secretariat of UNEAC ( Union of Cuban Writers and Artists)
National Leadership, Hermanos Saz Association
16-03-2010

Statement from UNEAC and the AHS: To the intellectuals and artists of the world

WHILE the Book Fair was taking place from one end of our country to the other and hundreds of Cuban doctors were saving lives in Haiti , a new campaign against Cuba was being cooked up. A common criminal with a proven history of violence, who had become a political prisoner, announced that he was undertaking a hunger strike for the installation of a telephone, stove and television in his cell. Incited by unscrupulous individuals and despite everything that was done to prolong his life, Orlando Zapata Tamayo died and has now been converted into a regrettable symbol of the anti-Cuba machinery. On March 11, the European Parliament passed a resolution energetically condemning the avoidable and cruel death of the dissident political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo, and in an offensive act of intervention in our internal affairs, urged European institutions to unconditionally support and unreservedly encourage the start of a peaceful process of political transition toward a multi-party democracy in Cuba .

A petition titled Orlando Zapata Tamayo: I accuse the Cuban government, is currently circulating to collect signatures against Cuba . The petition claims that this inmate was unjustly imprisoned and brutally tortured, and that he died denouncing these crimes and his countrys lack of rights and democracy. At the same time, it shamelessly lies about our governments alleged practice of physically eliminating its critics and peaceful opponents. On March 15, a Spanish newspaper displayed the face of Zapata Tamayo, when this man had died and was in his coffin, and announced that certain intellectuals had adhered to the petition, adding their signatures to those of old and new professionals in the internal and external counterrevolution.

We Cuban writers and artists are fully aware of how the corporate media and hegemonic interests link up with international reactionary forces on any pretext whatsoever to damage our image. We are aware of the merciless and ghoulish distortion of our realities and the daily fabrication of lies about Cuba . We also know the price that is paid by those people who have tried to express themselves within culture with their own nuances.

Never in the history of the Revolution has a prisoner been tortured. Not one single person has disappeared. There has not been one single extrajudicial execution. We have founded our own form of democracy, imperfect, yes, but far more participatory and legitimate than the one they want to impose on us. Those who have orchestrated this campaign do not have the moral authority to teach us lessons in human rights.

It is essential to halt this latest aggression against a blockaded and pitilessly harassed country. To that end, we appeal to the conscience of all intellectuals and artists who do not harbor spurious interests with respect to the future of a Revolution that has been, is, and will be a model of humanism and solidarity.

Reflections by comrade Fidel

The Threatening Dangers

It is not an ideological issue related to the definitive hope that a better world is, and should be, possible.

It is a known fact that the homo sapiens has existed for about 200 thousand years, which is no more than a tiny span of the time passed since the emergence of the first basic forms of life on our planet approximately three billion years ago.

The answers to the unfathomable mysteries of life and nature have fundamentally been religious. It would be senseless to pretend otherwise and I am convinced that it will forever be this way. The deeper science delves into the explanation of universe, space, time, matter and energy; the infinite galaxies and the theories of the origin of the constellations and the stars; the atoms and the fractions of them that made possible life and its briefness; the more questions man will have in search of ever more complex and difficult rationalizations.

The more involved human beings are in the quest for answers to such deep and complex endeavors related to reason, the more significant the efforts will be to release them from their enormous ignorance on the true possibilities of what our intelligent species has created and can still create. Living and ignoring it is tantamount to a complete denial of our human condition.

However, something is absolutely certain: very few even imagine how close we might be to the extinction of our species. Nearly twenty years back, at a World Summit on the environment held in Rio de Janeiro , I brought up this danger before a selective audience of Heads of State and Government who listened with respect and interest albeit unconcerned for a risk they perceived to be centuries or perhaps millenniums away. They certainly felt that science and technology plus a basic sense of responsibility would suffice to tackle the problem. That important summit happily concluded with a great photo-op of distinguished characters, including the most powerful and influential. There was no danger whatsoever.

Hardly anyone talked about climate change then. George Bush senior and other dazzling leaders of the North Atlantic Alliance enjoyed victory over the European socialist camp. The Soviet Union was dismembered and in ruins. A huge amount of Russian money ended up in the Western banks, its economy broke up and their defensive shield vis--vis NATO military base was dismantled.

The former superpower that had contributed the lives of over 25 million of its people to World War II was left with only the nuclear power capability for a strategic response, something it had been forced to create after the United States secretly developed the nuclear bomb that it dropped on two Japanese cities when the adversary, already defeated by the irrepressible advance of the allied forces, was unable to fight.

Such was the beginning of the Cold War and the production of thousands of increasingly destructive and accurate thermonuclear weapons capable of annihilating the population of the planet several times over. Nevertheless, the nuclear confrontation continued while the weapons grew more accurate and destructive. Russia does not resign itself to the unipolar world that Washington intends to impose. Other nations such as China , India and Brazil are emerging with unexpected economic strength.

For the first time, in a globalized world full of contradictions the human species has created the capacity for self destruction. This in addition to unprecedented cruel arms such as chemical and bacteriological weapons: like napalm and white phosphorous used with total impunity against the civilian populations, the electromagnetic weapons and other forms of extermination. No place on earth or in the sea, no matter how deep, is beyond reach of the current means of war.

It is known that tens of thousands of nuclear devices have been produced, even portable ones.

The greatest risk stems from the judgment of leaders with such decision-making power that mistakes or madness, so common in human nature, could lead to unspeakable catastrophes.

Almost 65 years have passed since the explosion of the first two nuclear artifacts due to the decision of a mediocre individual who was left in command of the rich and mighty American power after Roosevelt s death. Today, eight countries are in possession of such weapons most of them obtained with US supportwhile several others have the technology and the resources to manufacture them in a very short time. On the other hand, terrorist groups alienated by bigotry could also resort to them, the same way that terrorist and irresponsible governments would not hesitate to use them given their unrestrained and genocidal behavior.

The military industry is the most prosperous of all and the United States of America the largest exporter of weapons.

If our species can escape the abovementioned risks, there is still a greater one or at least less unavoidable: climate change.

The population of the world today is seven billion, and soon, within 40 years, it will be nine billion. This figure is nine times what it was barely 200 years ago. I dare assume that in the days of ancient Greece the figure was about 40 times lower all over the planet.

Whats amazing in our times is the contradiction between the imperialist bourgeois ideology and the survival of the species. The need for justice among human beings is no longer the issue; this is not only possible but unwavering. The issue now is the right and the possibility of survival of the human species.

The farthest the horizon of knowledge expands to previously unknown limits, the closer humanity is brought to the abyss. All sufferings known so far are hardly a pale reflection of what could lie ahead of humanity.

Three events occurred in only 71 days that humanity cannot overlook.

On December 18, 2009, the international community sustained the most important setback in history as it tried to find a solution to the most serious problem threatening the world at the moment: the necessity to urgently put an end to the emission of greenhouse gases which are causing the gravest problem that mankind has faced until today.

All hopes had converged on the Copenhagen Summit after years of preparation following the Kyoto Protocol that the government of the United States , the most contaminating country in the world, had lightly decided to ignore. The rest of the world community, 192 countries, --this time even the United States included-- had committed to promote a new agreement. The American attempt at imposing its hegemonic interest was so shameful that in violation of the most basic democratic principles it tried to force unacceptable conditions on the rest of the world anti-democratically resorting to bilateral arrangements with a group of the most influential United Nations member countries.

The States that make up the international organization were invited to sign a document that is no more than a travesty, a document that relates purely theoretical future contributions to curb climate change.

Barely three weeks had passed when at sunset on January 12, Haiti, the poorest nation in the hemisphere and the first to put an end to the horrible slavery system, was hit by the greatest natural catastrophe in the history of this part of the world: a 7.3 degrees in the Richter scale earthquake only 6.25 miles deep and very close to its coastline struck the capital of the country where most of the dead or missing people lived in fragile houses built with clay. A mountainous and soil-degraded country of 16, 875 square miles where wood is practically the only source of domestic fuel for nine million people.

If there is a place on Earth where a natural catastrophe has become an enormous tragedy that place is Haiti , a symbol of poverty and underdevelopment, where the descendants of Africans live who were brought by the colonialists to work as slaves for white masters.

The event came as a shock to the entire world; people in every corner of the planet were shaken by the filmed images that seemed almost incredible. The injured, bleeding and moribund, crawled among the dead asking for help while the lifeless bodies of their loved ones lay under the debris. According to official estimates, the number of lethal victims exceeded the figure of 200,000.

The country was already occupied by the MINUSTAH forces sent by the United Nations to restore the order subverted by Haitian mercenary forces that instigated by the Bush administration had undertaken actions against the government elected by the Haitian people. Several buildings that sheltered soldiers and commanders of the peacekeeping forces collapsed, too, adding to the painful toll in human lives.

The official reports estimate that, aside from the dead, about 400 thousand Haitian were wounded and several million, almost half the total population were affected. It was a real test for the world community that after the shameful Danish Summit had the duty to show that the rich and developed countries could be capable of tackling the threats of climate change to life on our planet. Haiti must be an example of what the wealthy nations should do for the Third World countries in light of climate change.

You can believe it or not, challenging the data in my view irrefutableof the most serious scientists of the world and the overwhelming majority of the most knowledgeable and honest people worldwide, who think that at the current pace the planet is warming up, the greenhouse gases will rise temperature not only by 1.5 degrees, but up to 5 degrees, and that the medium temperature is already the highest of the past 600 thousand years, long before the existence of human beings as a species on the planet.

It is absolutely unthinkable that nine billion human beings who will inhabit the world by 2050 could survive such a catastrophe. There is still the hope that science may find a solution to the energy problem that today forces to consume in 100 more years the remaining gas, liquid and solid fuel that it took nature 400 million years to create. Perhaps science can find a solution to the energy required. The crux of the matter would be to know how long it would be, and how costly, before human beings can cope with the problem, which is not the only one since many other non-renewable minerals and grave problems demand a solution, too. There is one thing we can be sure of based on everything known until today: the closest star is four light-years away from our Sun, at a speed of 187,500 miles per second; maybe, a spaceship could cover that distance in thousands of years. The human beings have no other choice but to live on this planet.

It might seem unnecessary to deal with the subject if only 54 days after the disaster in Haiti , another incredible earthquake, 8.8 degrees in the Richter scale, with its epicenter 93.7 miles northwest of the city of Concepcion and 29.6 miles deep, had not caused another human catastrophe: this time in Chile . It was not the most severe in the history of that sister nation, for it is said that another one in the past reached 9 degrees, but this time is was not only a seismic event.

But, while in Haiti they waited for hours the occurrence of a tidal wave that never happened, the earthquake in Chile was followed by a huge tsunami, which showed up in its coasts almost thirty minutes or an hour later, depending on the distance and the data that are still not accurately known, one whose waves made it as far as Japan. If it had not been for the Chilean experience in facing earthquakes, its sounder constructions and larger resources, the natural phenomenon would have taken the lives of tens of thousands or perhaps hundreds of thousands of people. Yet, it did cause about one thousand fatal victims, according to official reports, thousand of wounded and maybe more than two million people sustained material damages. Almost the entire population of 17, 094,275 people suffered terribly and still endure the consequences of the earthquake that lasted more than two minutes, its repeated aftershocks and the moving scenes and suffering left behind by the tsunami along its thousands of miles of coastline.

Our Homeland fully sympathizes with and morally supports the material effort that it is the international communitys duty to make in favor of Chile . The Cuban people would not hesitate to do for the fraternal Chilean people anything within the extent of its capabilities from the humane point of view.

I think it is the duty of the international community to objectively report the tragedy sustained by both peoples. It would be cruel, unfair and irresponsible to fail to educate the peoples of the world about the threatening dangers.

Let truth prevail above selfishness and the lies used by imperialism to deceive and confound the peoples!

Fidel Castro Ruz

March 7, 2010

9:27 PM

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Reflection by Fidel Castro

MY RECENT MEETING WITH LULA

We met in Managua , on July 1980, 30 years ago, --during the commemoration of the first anniversary of the Sandinista Revolutionthanks to my contacts with the followers of the Liberation Theology, which had started in Chile when I visited President Allende there in 1971.

I hard heard about Lula from Friar Betto. He was a leader of workers, someone in whom the leftist Christians had early placed their hopes.

He was a humble worker from the metal industry, a man of remarkable talent and of prestige among the trade unions in that great nation that was leaving behind the dark days of the military dictatorship imposed by the Yankee imperialism in the 1960s.

Brazils relations with Cuba had been excellent until the dominating power in the hemisphere brought them to an end. Several decades would pass before those relations could slowly recover to what they are today.

Each of our countries lived its own history. Our homeland endured exceptional pressures during the incredible stages since 1959, confronting the aggressions of the mightiest power known to history.

Hence the enormous significance we attach to the recent meeting in Cancun and to its decision to establish a Community Latin American and Caribbean States . No other institutional event of the past century in our hemisphere is so transcendental.

The agreement has been reached at a time when the most serious economic crisis of the globalized world develops concurring with the greatest danger of an ecological catastrophe for our species and the earthquake that destroyed Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, this being the most painful human disaster in the history of our hemisphere, in the poorest country of the continent and the first one to eradicate slavery.

As I was writing this Reflection, only six weeks after the death of over 200,000 people, --according to official figures released in that country-- we received dramatic news of the damages caused by another earthquake, this time in Chile, causing the death of close to one thousand people and huge material damages, according to official figures released by the authorities there.

It was particularly moving to watch the suffering of millions of Chileans materially and emotionally affected by such a harsh blow of nature. Fortunately, Chile has more experience in coping with this kind of phenomenon and it is a country with more resources and a higher economic development. If it were not for the sounder buildings and infrastructure, a countless number of people, perhaps tens or hundreds of thousands of Chileans would have perished. There are reports of two million victims and the potential loss of between 15 and 30 billion dollars. Faced with this tragedy, Chile counts on the solidarity and the sympathy of the peoples, ours included, although given the type of cooperation required there is not much that Cuba can do. Nevertheless, the Cuban government was one of the first to communicate to Chile our feelings of solidarity at a time when the communication system was not yet operational.

The country which is today putting to the test the world capacity to tackle climate change and ensure the survival of the human species is Haiti , as it is a symbol of the poverty suffered today by billions of people worldwide, including a significant portion of the peoples of our continent.

The recent earthquake in Chile, with the amazing intensity of 8.8 in the Richter scale, although fortunately at greater depth than the one which devastated Port-au-Prince, leads me to emphasize the importance and the duty to encourage the steps toward unity taken in Cancun, even though I do not entertain illusions knowing how difficult and complex our struggle of ideas will be vis--vis the efforts of the empire and its allies inside and outside our countries to thwart our peoples efforts toward unity and independence.

I want to place on record the significance and symbolism I attach to Lulas recent visit and my meeting with him, both personally and as a revolutionary. He had said that as he was nearing the end of his term as president, he wanted to visit his friend Fidel; he honored me with that description. I think I know him well. We often had fraternal conversations both in Cuba and abroad.

I once had the honor of visiting him in his house located in a modest neighborhood in Sao Paulo where he lived with his family. It was very moving for me to meet with him, his wife and children. I will never forget the fraternal and healthy family atmosphere in that home and the sincere affection showed by the neighbors who approached Lula when he was already a prestigious worker and political leader. No one knew then whether or not he would become the President of Brazil since major interests and forces opposed him: but I enjoyed talking with him. On the other hand, Lula did not care much about that position; he took pleasure in fighting and he did so with irreproachable modesty. This he showed extensively when after being defeated twice by his adversaries he only accepted to run for the Workers Party on a third occasion due to the strong pressure of his most sincere friends.

I will not try to relate the times we spoke before he was elected president; on one of these occasions, actually one of the firsts was in the midst of the 1980s as we were struggling in Havana against Latin America s foreign debt, which then amounted to 300 billion dollars and had been paid more than once. He is a natural born fighter.

As I said, on two occasions his adversaries beat him in the elections with the support of their huge economic and media resources. However, his closest assistants and friends knew that the time had come for that humble worker to be the candidate of the Workers Party and the leftist forces.

Certainly, his opponents underestimated him; they thought he would not achieve a majority in the legislative body. The USSR did not exist anymore. What could Lula do at the head of Brazil , a nation of great wealth but little development in the hands of a rich and influential bourgeoisie?

But, neoliberalism was in a crisis; the Bolivarian Revolution had triumphed in Venezuela ; Menen was in a free-fall; Pinochet was off the political stage; and Cuba was putting up a resistance. But Lula was elected when in the United States Bush won the elections through fraud robbing his rival Al Gore of his victory.

It was the beginning of a challenging stage. Fostering the arms race and the role of the Military Industrial Complex, and cutting down taxes to the wealthy sectors were the first steps taken the new US President.

The fight on terrorism was his pretext to resume the wars of conquest and to institutionalize assassination and torture as an instrument of imperialist domination. Its impossible to publish the events related to the secret prisons which exposed the complicity of the US allies with that policy. Thus, the acceleration took place of the worst economic crisis of those that cyclically and increasingly have accompanied developed capitalism, just that this time the privileges of Bretton Woods were there but none of its commitments.

On the other hand, in the past eight years, with Lula at the head of the nation Brazil kept overcoming obstacles, increasing its technological development and expanding the weight of the Brazilian economy. The most difficult part was his first term, but he succeeded and gained experience. With his restless struggle, his calmness and composure as well as his growing devotion to his work, under such challenging international conditions, Brazil attained a GDP close to two trillion dollars. The data vary depending on the sources but they all agree to place it among the 10 largest economies in the world. In spite of this, with an area of 5,327,500 square miles, compared to the United States with barely a larger territory, Brazil only has about 12% of the GDP of that imperialist country that plunders the world and deploys its armed forces in over one thousand military bases worldwide.

I had the privilege of attending his inauguration as president at the end of 2002. Hugo Chavez was there too. He had just faced the treacherous coup detat of April 11, that same year; later there would be an oil coup organized by Washington . By then, Bush was president. The relations between Brazil , the Bolivarian Republic and Cuba had always been good and mutually respectful.

I had a serious accident on October 2004, which markedly limited my activities for months; then I fell gravely ill at the end of July 2006, the reason for which I did not hesitate to delegate my responsibilities at the head of the Party and the State through the proclamation of July 31 that year, first provisionally, and soon with a final resolution as I understood that I would not be able to resume them again.

As soon as my health situation allowed me to study and meditate I devoted myself to that and to review materials about our Revolution, and once in a while to publish some Reflections.

After I fell ill, I have had the privilege of receiving the visit of Lula every time he has traveled to our homeland; and we have talked at length. I will not say that I always coincided with all of his policies. I oppose by principle the production of biofuels using crops that can serve as food since I am aware that hunger already is, and can increasingly become, a major tragedy for humanity.

However, I must honestly say that this is not a problem created by Brazil , least of all by Lula. It is an essential part of the world economy imposed by imperialism and its rich allies that subsidize their farm productions to protect their domestic markets and compete in the world market with the food exports of the Third World nations, which are forced to import the industrial items produced with the raw materials and energy resources of these same countries that inherited poverty from centuries of colonialism. I perfectly understand that given the unfair competition and subsidies of Europe and the United States , Brazil had no choice but to produce ethanol.

The infant mortality rate in Brazil is still 23.3 per one thousand live births and maternal mortality is 110 per 100,000 deliveries while in the rich industrial nations is lower than 5 and 15 respectively. We could offer many more such data.

The beet sugar subsidized by Europe deprived our country of its sugar market derived from sugarcane, a precarious and seasonal farm and industrial labor that kept the sugarcane workers unemployed a good part of the year. Meanwhile, the United States seized our best lands and its companies became the owners of the industry. Suddenly, one day they deprived us of our sugar quota and blockaded our country in order to crush the Revolution and the independence of Cuba .

Presently, Brazil has developed the cultivation of sugarcane, soybean and corn with high-yield machinery that can be used for these crops with a very high productivity. One day, as I watched a documentary about 40 thousand hectares of land in Ciego de Avila used to grow soybean alternating it with corn where they will try to work the entire year, I said that this is the ideal of a socialist farm enterprise, highly mechanized and with a high productivity per man and per hectare.

The problem with farming and its facilities in the Caribbean are the hurricanes that are increasingly sweeping the territory.

Our country has also elaborated and signed with Brazil a project for the financing and construction of a very modern port in Mariel that will be of great importance to our economy.

Venezuela is using Brazilian farming and industrial technology to produce sugar and to use bagasse as a source of thermo-electrical energy. This is sophisticated equipment working in a socialist enterprise, too. At the Bolivarian Republic they are using ethanol to reduce the harmful effect of gasoline on the environment.

It was capitalism that developed the consumer societies and also the waste of fuel that has begotten the risk of a dramatic climate change. It took nature 400 million years to create what our species is consuming in barely two centuries. Science has yet to solve the problem of the type of energy that will replace the one generated with oil today. No one knows how much time that will require and how much it will cost to resolve it in time. Shall we ever have it? That was the issue under discussion in Copenhagen and the Summit was a complete failure.

Lula told me that when the cost of ethanol is 70% that of gasoline, it is not good business to produce it. He said that Brazil , which has the largest forest on earth, will progressively reduce the current pace of cutting by 80%.

Today, Brazil has the best technology in the world to drill in the sea; it can extract fuel from as deep as seven thousand meters of sea water and bottom. Thirty years back this would have seem a science fiction story.

He explained the high-level education programs that Brazil intends to carry forward and expressed great appreciation for the role of China in the world scenario. He proudly said that trade with that country amounts to 40 billion dollars.

One thing is clear: the metal worker has become an outstanding and prestigious statesman whose voice is respectfully heard in every international meeting.

He is proud to have been honored with the choice of Brazil to hold the Olympic Games of 2016 thanks to the excellent program presented in Denmark . His country will also host the World Football Cup in 2014. All of this has been the result of the projects submitted by Brazil , which left those of their competitors behind.

A great proof of his selflessness was his refusal to go to the reelection and his confidence that the Workers Party will continue in government in Brazil .

Some of those who envy his prestige and his glory, and worse still, those at the service of the empire, criticized him for coming to Cuba . To that end, they have resorted to the vile slanders used against Cuba for half a century.

Lula has known for many years that in our country no one has ever been tortured; that we have never ordered the assassination of an adversary, and that we have never lied to the people. He does know that truth is the inseparable companion of his Cuban friends.

From Cuba he left for our neighbor Haiti . We shared with him our ideas on what we are proposing with regard to a sustainable and efficient program, one especially important and very economic for Haiti . He knows that more than one hundred thousand Haitians have been treated by our doctors and by graduates from the Latin American School of Medicine after the earthquake. We discussed serious issues; I am aware of his fervent wishes to help that noble and long-suffering people.

I shall keep an unforgettable memory of my last meeting with the President of Brazil and I do not hesitate to declare it.

Fidel Castro Ruz

March 1^st, 2010

12:15 PM

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Estudiantes Medicina Timorenses, Comemorar dia Restouracaode Independencia 20 de Maio, en Cuba.

Autor, Aquino Marques

Somos estudiantes de la carrera de medicina en Cuba,para celebrar el
sptimo aniversario de la independencia de Timor(20 de mayo), aqu en Cuba hicimos muchas actividades como el torneo de ftbol, el matutino,cena especial con la comida tpica de Timor,la gala donde fueron participado por varios pases como: Kiribati, Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Guyana, Mxico, Guatemala, Nauru, Venezuela y los cubanos.

Hicimos el torneo de futbol durante una semana completa en el cual las chicas tambin fueron participado. En el da 20 por la manana, hicimos el matutino con la marcha de los estudiantes de Timor y la Bandera, despus con la atraccin del proceso de eleccin que ocurri en 1999 en Timor y su crise.

Por la noche empezamos la cena especial con todas las comidas tpicas de Timor, despus sigue con la gala.

En la gala hicimos muchas atracciones y los bailes tpicos sobre todo para mostrar la identidad de Timor, dentro de estas actividades como:los bailes se llaman: dahur, tebe tebe, suru boek, foklor, entre otras adems por otros estudiantes pacfico y caribe con sus distintos bailes.

Por ltimo culmina con la actividad de bajar la bandera a las 12 de la noche. Fue una noche maravillosa, emocionado, alegra e inolvidable, aunque estamos lejos de nuestra tierra y la famlia sin embargo podemos reunirnos para comemorar esta fecha tan importante para todos y los timorenses en especial.

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English Translation by Tim Anderson

Timorse medical students commemorate the day of restoration of independence, 20 May, in Cuba

by Aquino Marques

Medical students in Cuba celebrated the seventh aniversary of the independence of Timor Leste (20th May). Here in Cuba we engaged in many activities, such as a football match in the morning, a special supper with typical Timorese food, and a cultural show (gala) with participation from various other countries: Kiribati, Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Guyana, Mxico, Guatemala, Nauru, Venezuela and Cuba.

We had a football tournament throughout the whole week and the girls also took part. On the morning of the 20th we had a march of Timorese students with the flag, and afterwards a re-enactment of the referendum of 1999 and its aftermath in crisis.

In the evening wehad a special supper with all the typical Timorese foods, and then the cultural gala began.

There were many highlightsof the Galabut the traditional dances, in particular, illustrated Timorese culture. Amongst these were dancessuch as'dahur', 'tebe tebe', 'suru boek', and 'foklor'. The students from the Pacfic and the Caribean alsoperformed their distinct dances.

The activities concluded with the lowering ofthe flag at midnight. It was a wonderful night, exciting,joyous and unforgetable. Although we were far from our countries and families, we were able to join together to commemorate this very special day for all of us, but especially for the Timorese.

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Reflections by Comrade Fidel

A JUST CAUSE TO DEFEND AND THE HOPE TO CONTINUE MOVING FORWARD

A reflection by Comrade Fidel

NOTHING CAN BE IMPROVISED IN HAITI

Five days ago I read a press report stating that Ban Ki-moon would appoint Bill Clinton as his special envoy for Haiti.

According to the report, Clinton accompanied the Secretary General on a two-day official visit to Haiti on March last in order to support the development program that had been designed by the government of Port of Prince, aimed at awakening the lethargic Haitian economy.

The report stated that the ex president had maintained a remarkable philanthropic commitment with the Caribbean nation through the Clinton Global Initiative.

it likewise stated that the ex president had said he was honored to accept the Secretary Generals invitation to become the special envoy for Haiti.

Clinton reportedly stated that the people and the government of Haiti had the capacity to recover from the serious damages caused by the four tropical storms that devastated that country last year.

The day after, the same news agency reported that Mrs. Clinton, the Secretary of State, had said with joy that Bill was an outstanding envoy. The UN Secretary General was said to confirm Clintons appointment as his new special envoy for Haiti. He said they both had been together in that country and that Clintons presence had helped to raise awareness within the international community on the problems facing that Caribbean nation.

He added that the UN was afraid that, after a period of several years of a relative calm, propped up by the MINUSTAH, political instability could set in the country again.

The new press report repeats again the story of the four hurricanes and storms that caused 900 deadly casualties, left 800 000 victims, and destroyed the scarce civil infrastructure that existed in that country.

The history of Haiti and its tragedy is far more complex.

Haiti was the second country of this hemisphere after the United States which proclaimed its sovereignty in 1776- that conquered its independence in 1804. In the case of the US, the white descendants from the settlers who founded the Thirteen British Colonies, who were fervent, austere and cultured religious believers and owned land and slaves, shook off the British colonial yoke and enjoyed their national independence. But this was not the case for the autochthonous population, the African slaves or their descendants, who were denied every right, regardless of the principles enshrined in the Declaration of Philadelphia.

In Haiti, where more than 400 000 slaves worked for 30 000 white owners, the men and women submitted to that heinous system, for the first time in the history of humankind, were able to abolish slavery, maintain an independent State and defend it by struggling against soldiers who had brought the European monarchies to their knees.

That period coincided with the boom of capitalism and the emergence of powerful colonial empires that managed to dominate the lands and the seas of the planet for centuries.

Haitians are not to blame for their current status of poverty; they were rather the victims of a system that was imposed on the whole world. They did not invent colonialism, capitalism, imperialism, unequal exchange, neo-liberalism or any of the forms of exploitation and plundering that have prevailed in this planet during the last 200 years.

Haiti has an area of 27 750 square kilometers and, according to some reliable estimates, in the year 2009 the population reached the figure of 9 million inhabitants. The number of inhabitants per square kilometer of arable land has increased to 885, one of the highest in the world, without the existence of any industrial development or resources that would allow it to acquire a minimum amount of material goods indispensable for life.

Fifty three per cent of the population lives in the countryside; firewood and charcoal are the only household fuels available to most Haitian families, which hinders reforestation. The absence of forests, where the soil gets spongy with the leaves, twigs and roots and helps to retain water, facilitates the human and economic damages that heavy rains cause to neighborhoods, roads and crops. Hurricanes, as is known, cause significant additional damage which will be ever greater if the climate keeps on changing so quickly. This is a secret to no one.

Our cooperation with the Haitian people began ten years ago, precisely when hurricanes George and Mitch battered the Caribbean and some Central American countries.

Ren Preval was then the President of Haiti and Jean-Bertrand Aristide was the Head of Government. The first contingent of 100 Cuban doctors was sent on December 4, 1998. The figure of Cuban health collaborators in Haiti was later on increased to more than 600.

It was on that occasion when the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM), where more than 12 000 youths are currently studying, was created. Ever since then, the Haitian youths have been granted hundreds of scholarships by the School of Medicine of Santiago de Cuba, one of the most experienced in the country.

The number of primary schools in Haiti had increased and progress was being made. Even the most humble families were eager to send their children to school, for that was the only hope that they could overcome poverty and work inside or outside their country. The Cuban medicine training program was very much welcomed. The youths who were selected to study in Cuba had a good basic training, an inheritance perhaps of the achievements attained by France in that field. They should spend one year taking a pre-medical course, which also included the Spanish language. That has become a good reserve of quality physicians.

Five hundred and thirty three Haitian youths have graduated from our medical schools as specialists in General Comprehensive Medicine; 52 of them are currently in Cuba, studying a second specialty that is required right now. Another group of 527 are filling the vacancies that were granted to the Republic of Haiti.

Four hundred and thirteen Cuban health professionals are currently offering their services, free of charge, to the people of that sister nation. The Cuban doctors are present in all 10 departments of that country and in 127 of the 137 communities. More than 400 Haitian doctors who have been trained in Cuba, as well as the students from the last year of the career who are doing their practice in Haiti are also offering their services side by side with our doctors- which make up a big total of 800 Haitian youths devoted to offer medical assistance in their homeland. That force will grow ever bigger with the new Haitian graduates.

It was a tough challenge; the Cuban doctors had to cope with difficult problems. Te infant mortality was above 80 per every one thousand live births; life expectancy was below 60 years of age; the prevalence of AIDS among adults in the year 2007 reached the figure of 120 000 citizens. Tens of thousands of children and adults of different ages still die every year from communicable diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria, diarrhea, dengue and malnutrition, just to mention some indicators. Even the HIV is already a disease doctors can combat, thus guaranteeing the life of patients. But this can not be achieved in a single year; it is indispensable to have a health culture, which the Haitian people are acquiring with greater interest. The progress observed shows that it is possible to improve health indicators in a significant way.

Thirty seven thousand one hundred and nine patients have undergone eye surgery in three ophthalmologic centers that were created in Haiti. Those complex cases that can not be operated on there are sent to Cuba, where they are assisted at absolutely no cost.

Thanks to the Venezuelan economic cooperation, 10 Comprehensive Diagnosis Centers are being built, which are equipped with state-of-the-art technology that has already been acquired.

Far more important than the resources that could be mobilized by the international community, are the human beings that make use of those resources.

Our modest support to the people of Haiti has been possible despite of the fact that the hurricanes mentioned by Clinton battered us as well. Solidarity is a good evidence of what the world has lacked.

We could likewise speak of Cubas contribution to the literacy programs and other projects, despite our limited economic resources. But I do not want to expand on this; nor is there any desire to do it just to speak about our contribution. I focused on health because it is an unavoidable topic. We are not afraid that others do what we are doing. The Haitian youths who are being trained in Cuba are becoming the priests of health required more and more by that sister nation.

What matters the most is the creation of new forms of cooperation, so much in need by this selfish world. The UN agencies can attest to the fact that Cuba is contributing what they describe as Health Comprehensive Programs.

Nothing can be improvised in Haiti, and nothing will result from the philanthropic spirit of any institution.

The project of the Latin American School of Medicine was later joined by the new training program in Cuba for doctors coming from Venezuela, Bolivia, the Caribbean and other countries of the Third World, as long as their respective health programs required it urgently. Today, there are more than 24 000 youths from the Third World studying Medicine in our homeland. By helping others we have also developed ourselves in that field and we have become an important force. That, and not the brain drain, is what we practice! Could the rich and super-developed G-7 countries say the same? Others will follow our example! No one should ever doubt that!

Fidel Castro Ruz

May 24, 2009

4:17 p.m.

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A reflection by comrade Fidel

THE TROJAN HORSE

President Rafael Correa of Ecuador, in a visit to Honduras on the eve of the OAS meeting stated: I think that the OAS has lost its reason to exist; perhaps it never had a reason to exist. The news carried by ANSA adds that Correa predicted the death of that organization because of the many errors it had committed.

He stated that because of geographic conditions the countries on the American continent cannot all be lumped together, and for that reason several months ago Ecuador proposed the creation of the Organization of Latin American States.

It is not possible that the regions problems are discussed in Washington; let us make something that is our own, without countries alien to our culture, to our values, obviously including counties that were inexplicably separated from the inter-American system, and I refer to the specific case of Cubait was a real embarrassment and shows the double standards existing in international relations. Upon his arrival in Honduras, both President Zelaya and Correa declared that the OAS ought to be reformed and reincorporate Cuba or it would have to disappear.

Another dispatch from the DPA Agency states:

Reintegrating Cuba into the Organization of American Status (OAS) has moved from being a subject per se of the General Assembly of the body in the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula to become, yet again, the excuse for a struggle of interests that go far beyond the limits of the Caribbean island and could question (again) the state of hemispheric relations

The president of Venezuela, Hugo Chvez, put it perfectly clear when he described the hemispheric meeting starting this Tuesday in Honduras in quasi military terms.

It will be, he said, an interesting battle where if it is shown that the OAS continues to be a ministry of the colonies which isnt changing to subordinate itself to the will of the governments making it up, it will be necessary to consider exiting from the body and creating another alternative.

Latin America is making Cuba the litmus test for the sincerity of the Obama administrations true rapprochement in the region, Julia Sweig, the Cuba expert of the Council of Foreign Relations in Washington, declared to The Washington Post on the eve of the encounter in Honduras.

By resisting the aggressions of the most powerful empire ever to exist, our people struggled for the other sister nations of this continent. The OAS was an accomplice to all the crimes committed against Cuba.

At one time or another, every one of the Latin American countries was victim of interventions and politic and economic aggressions. There is not one that could deny it. It is nave to think that the good intentions of a president of the United States could justify the existence of that institution that opened the doors to the Trojan horse that supported the Summits of the Americas, neoliberalism, drug- trafficking, military bases and economic crises. Ignorance, underdevelopment, economic dependency, poverty, the forced return of those who emigrate in search of jobs, the brain drain, and even the sophisticated weapons of organized crime were the consequences of the interventions and pillage coming from the North. Cuba, a tiny country, has demonstrated that it is possible to resist the blockade and move forward in many areas, even to cooperate with other countries.

The speech given today by President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras at the OAS General Assembly contains principles that may go down in history. He said admirable things about his own country. I shall limit myself to what he said about Cuba.

At the Assembly of the Organization of American States starting today in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, we must initiate the process of making wise repairs to old errors committed.

We, Latin Americans here present, a short while ago, a few weeks or months ago, had a great summit meeting of the Rio Group in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil. There we entered into a commitment. That commitment, taken down in writing and by the unanimity of all of Latin America, is that in this San Pedro Sula assembly, by majority of votes or by consensus, that old and time-worn error committed in 1962 to expel the people of Cuba from this organization should be redressed.

My fellow dignitaries, we should not leave this assembly without abolishing the decree of that eighth meeting which sanctioned an entire people for having proclaimed its socialist ideas and principles, the very same principles that today are being practiced everywhere in the world, including in the United States and in Europe (Applause). Today, the principles of seeking different development alternatives are evident in the change that has occurred in the United States with the election of President Barack Obama

We cannot leave this assembly without redressing that error and that infamy because based on this OAS resolution which is now more than four decades old, this sister nation of Cuba has been kept under an unfair and useless blockade, precisely because it hasnt served any purpose, but it has indeed shown that over there, a few miles away from our country, on a small island, there are a people ready to resist and sacrifice for their independence and sovereignty.

to not do so would make us accomplices of a resolution in 1962 to expel a state of the Organization of American States simply because it espouses other ideas, other thoughts, and because it proclaims the principles of a different democracy. And we are not going to be accomplices to that.

We cannot leave this assembly without abolishing what was done in that era.

Jos Cecilio del Valle, an exceptional Honduran and one of our national heroes, who was called Wise Man Valle in our country, said on April 17, 1826, in his famous article Sovereignty and Non-intervention we had just declared our independence from Spain: The nations of the world are independent and sovereign. Whatever their territorial size or the number of inhabitants, a nation must treat others in the same way it wishes to be treated by them. A nation does not have the right to intervene in the internal affairs of another nation.

With these words spoken by Cecilio del Valle and mentioning Mahatma Gandhi, Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, Morazn, Mart, Sandino and Bolvar, he concluded his address.

Minutes later, at the press conference following the opening of the assembly, he answered questions and reiterated principles. He then gave the floor to Daniel Ortega who was the author of one of the most profound and articulated presentations at the OAS assembly. By invitation of Zelaya, the following also spoke: President Fernando Lugo of Paraguay and Rigoberta Mench, both expressing themselves in the same vein as Zelaya and Daniel.

The assembly has been in session for hours. At the moment I am finishing this Reflection, practically night-time, there is still no news of the decision. We know that Zelayas speech had an influence. Chvez chats with Maduro and urges him to be firm on the fact that no resolution can be passed that places conditions on the repeal of the unfair sanction against Cuba. Never had so much rebellion been seen. It is certainly a tough battle. Many countries depend on the index finger of the hand of the U.S. government, the one pointing to the Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank or any other outfit to punish rebellion. Having waged this battle is in itself a heroic deed of those who are the most rebellious. The date of June 2, 2009 will be remembered by future generations.

Cuba is no enemy to peace, nor is it reluctant to exchanges or cooperation between countries with different political systems, but it has been and will be uncompromising in its defense of its principles.

Fidel Castro Ruz

June 2, 2009

6:56 p.m.