-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
Text, Fidel's Message to Cuban National Assembly - Jan 28, 2007
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
sent by Joan Malerich
Full text of Fidel's message to the National Assembly
http://www.cuba.cu/gobierno/discursos/2007/ing/f271207i.html
Dear comrade [Ricardo] Alarcn:
Please read the following message, addressed to the
National Assembly, when you open the morning session.
A heartfelt embrace,
Fidel Castro Ruz
December 27, 2007, 8:40 p.m.
***
Comrades of the National Assembly:
You have no easy task on your hands. On January 1st, 1959, surrounded
by the ac***ulated and deepening grievances that our society inherited
from its neo-colonial past under U.S. domination, many of us dreamed of
creating a fully independent nation where justice prevailed. In the
arduous and uneven struggle, there came the moment when we were left
completely alone.
Nearly 50 years since the triumph of the Revolution, we can justifiably
feel proud of ourselves, as we have held our ground, for almost half a
century, in the struggle against the most powerful empire ever to exist
in history. In the Proclamation I signed on July 31, 2006, none of you
saw any signs of nepotism or an attempt to usurp parliamentary powers.
That year, at once difficult and promising for the Revolution, the
unity of the people, the Party and State were essential to continue
moving forward and to face the declared threat of a military action by
the United States.
This past December 24, during his visit to the various districts of the
municipality which honored me with the nomination of candidate to
parliament, Ral noted that all of the numerous candidates proposed by
the people of a district famous for its combativeness, but with a low
educational level, had completed their higher education. This, as he
said on Cuban television, made a profound impression in him.
Party, State and Government cadres and grassroots organizations face
new problems in their work with an intelligent, watchful and educated
people who detest bureaucratic hurdles and inconsiderate
justifications. Deep down, every citizen wages an individual battle
against humanity's innate tendency to stick to its survival instincts,
a natural law which governs all life.
We are all born marked by that instinct, which science defines as
primary. Coming face to face with this instinct is rewarding because it
leads us to a dialectical process and to a constant and altruistic
struggle, bringing us closer to Mart and making us true communists.
What the international press has emphasized most in its re****ts on Cuba
in recent days is the statement I made on the 17th of this month, in a
letter to the director of Cuban television's Round Table program, where
I said that I am not clinging to power. I could add that for some time
I did, due to my youth and lack of awareness, when, without any
guidance, I started to leave my political ignorance behind and became a
utopian socialist. It was a stage in my life when I believed I knew
what had to be done and wanted to be in a position to do it! What made
me change? Life did, delving more deeply into Marts ideas and those
of the classics of socialism. The more deeply I became involved in the
struggle, the stronger was my identification with those aims and, well
before the revolutionary victory I was already convinced that it was my
duty to fight for these aims or to die in combat.
We also face great risks that threaten the human species as a whole.
This has become more and more evident to me since I predicted, for the
first time in Rio de Janeiro, --over 15 years ago, in June 1992-- that
a species was threatened with extinction as a result of the destruction
of its natural habitat. Today, the number of people who understand the
real danger of this grows every day.
A recent book by Joseph Stiglitz, former Vice-President of the World
Bank and President Clinton's chief economic advisor until 2002, Nobel
Prize laureate and bestselling author in the United States, offers
up-to-date and irrefutable facts on the subject. He criticizes the
United States, a country which did not sign the Kyoto Protocol, for
being the largest producer of carbon dioxide in the world, with annual
emissions of 6 billion tons of this gas which disturbs the atmosphere
without which life is impossible. In addition to this, the United
States is the largest producer of other greenhouse gases.
Few people are aware of these facts. The same economic system which
forced this unsustainable wastefulness on us impedes the distribution
of Stiglitz' book. Only a few thousand copies of an excellent edition
have been published, enough to guarantee a margin of profit. This
responds to a market demand, which the publi****ng house cannot ignore
if it is to survive.
Today, we know that life on Earth has been protected by the ozone
layer, located in the atmospheres outer ring, at an altitude between
15 to 50 kilometers, in the region known as the stratosphere, which
acts as the planets ****eld against the type of solar radiation which
can prove harmful. There are greenhouse gases whose warming potential
is higher than that of carbon dioxide and which widen the hole in the
ozone layer above Antarctica, which loses as much as 70 percent of its
volume every spring. The effects of this phenomenon, which is gradually
taking place, are humanity's responsibility.
To have a clear sense of this phenomenon, suffice it to say that the
world produces an average of 4.37 metric tons of carbon dioxide per
capita. In the case of the United States, the average is 20.14, nearly
5 times as much. In Africa, it is 1.17, while in Asia and Oceania it is
2.87.
The ozone layer, in brief, protects us from ultraviolet and heat
radiation which affects the immune system, sight, skin and life of
human beings. Under extreme conditions, the destruction of that layer
by human beings would affect all forms of life on the planet.
Other problems, foreign to our nation and many others under similar
conditions, also threaten us. A victorious counterrevolution would
spell a disaster for us, worse than Indonesia's tragedy. Sukarno,
overthrown in 1967, was a nationalist leader who, loyal to Indonesia,
headed the guerrillas who fought the Japanese.
General Suharto, who overthrew him, had been trained by Japanese
occupation forces. At the conclusion of World War II, Holland, a U.S.
ally, re-established control over that distant, extensive and populated
territory. Suharto maneuvered. He hoisted the banners of U.S.
imperialism. He committed an atrocious act of genocide. Today we know
that, under instructions from the CIA, he not only killed hundreds of
thousands but also imprisoned a million communists and deprived them
and their relatives of all properties or rights; his family amassed a
fortune of 40 billion dollars "which, at today's exchange rate, would
be equivalent to hundreds of billions" by handing over the country's
natural resources, the sweat of Indonesians, to foreign investors. The
West paid up. Texan-born Lyndon B. Johnson, Kennedy's successor, was
then the President of the United States.
The news on the events in Pakistan we received today also attest to the
dangers that threaten our species: internal conflict in a country that
possesses nuclear weapons. This is a consequence of the adventurous
policies of and the wars aimed at securing the world's natural
resources unleashed by the United States.
Pakistan, involved in a conflict it did not unleash, faced the threat
of being taken back to the Stone Age.
The extraordinary cir***stances faced by Pakistan had an immediate
effect on oil prices and stock exchange shares. No country or region in
the world can disassociate itself from the consequences. We must be
prepared for anything.
There hasn't been a day in my life in which I haven't learned something.
Mart taught us that "all of the world's glory fits in a kernel of
corn". Many times have I said and repeated this phrase, which carries
in eleven words a veritable school of ethics.
Cuba's Five Heroes, imprisoned by the empire, are to be held up as
examples for the new generations.
Fortunately, exemplary conduct will continue to flourish with the
consciousness of our peoples as long as our species exists.
I am certain that many young Cubans, in their struggle against the
Giant in the Seven-League Boots, would do as they did. Money can buy
everything save the soul of a people who has never gone down on its
knees.
I read the brief and concise re****t which Ral wrote and sent me. We
must not waste a minute as we continue to move forward. I will raise my
hand, next to you, to show my sup****t.
(Signed)
Fidel Castro Ruz
December 27, 2007, 8:35 p.m.
*
=================================================================
NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems
Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us
Our main website: http://www.blythe.org
List Archives: http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/
Subscribe: http://blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr
=================================================================
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (FreeBSD)
iD8DBQFHdx17iz2i76ou9wQRAsbaAKC/+rSrubUWkNKMghAaGG3jSauPHgCgvjqG
H0QUWf/0tMtRqaGg2Ye1YSM=
=KSQ6
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
|
