Reflections by comrade Fidel
Our times are characterized by an unprecedented event: the threat to the survival of the human species imposed on the world by imperialism.
The painful reality should not come as a surprise to anyone. It could be seen rapidly advancing in the past few decades, at such a pace as it is hard to imagine.
Does it mean that Obama is the promoter of this threat or that he is responsible for it? No, it simply shows that he ignores reality and that he neither wants to go beyond it nor could he. He’d rather dream of unreal things in an unreal world. As a brilliant poet put it: “Ideas with no words; words with no meaning.”
Even though American author Gay Talese, who’s considered one of the main representatives of the new journalism, assured on May 5 –as reported by a European press agency—that Barack Obama embodies the best of the US history in the past century, an opinion that could be partly shared, that does not change the objective reality of human fate.
Such developments as the recent environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico show how little the governments can do against those in control of capital. These are the ones who, both in the United States and in Europe, through the economy of our globalized planet decide the fate of the peoples. Let’s take as an example the measures taken by the US Congress itself, and published by the mainstream media from that country and from Europe, as they have been disseminated via Internet, word for word.
“Radio and TV Marti lie in their broadcasts of baseless information, admits a US Senate Foreign Relations Committee report recommending that both stations are definitely transferred from Miami to Washington to be “fully” integrated to the Voice of America propaganda machinery.
“In addition to deceiving its audience” […] “both stations use ‘an offensive and inflammatory language’ that disqualifies them.
“After 18 years, Radio and TV Marti have failed ‘to make sensitive inroads in the Cuban society or to influence the Cuban government’…
“The report made public this Monday recommends merging the Office of Cuba Broadcasts (OCB) with the Voice of America, the official US government propaganda radio station.
“’Problems associated with disrespect for traditional journalistic rules, a minimum audience, radio interference by the Cuban government and allegations of nepotism and cronyism have plagued the program from the beginning,’ concedes the Committee chaired by Democratic Senator John Kerry.
“The Committee recommends to urgently taking the two stations out of Miami underlining the necessity to balance the hiring of personnel to turn out a non-politicized and professional ‘product,’ the senators say.
“The Kerry report makes reference to Alberto Mascaro, a nephew of the wife of Pedro Roig, Director General of Radio and TV Marti, who was hired thanks to his family connection and appointed director of the Latin American services of the Voice of America.
“The document offers a detailed account of how on February 2007, the former director of the TV Marti programming, ‘alongside a relative who is a member of Congress,’ have confessed to a federal court having received nearly $112,000 in illegal commissions from an OCB contractor. The former OCB employee was sentenced to 27 months in jail and a $5,000 fine for stashing ‘50% of all the money paid by TV Marti for the production of programs by the Perfect Image firm.’
This is as far the article goes that is signed by Jean Guy Allard and published by the Telesur web site.
Another article by US professors Paul Drain and Michele Barry from the Stanford University (California) and reproduced in the Rebelion web site goes as follows:
“The US blockade on Cuba proclaimed after Fidel Castro’s revolution ousted Batista’s regime is 50 years old this 2010. Its stated objective has been to help the Cuban people to attain democracy but a US Senate report from 2009 concluded that ‘the unilateral blockade on Cuba has failed.’
“…Despite the blockade, Cuba has achieved better healthcare results than most Latin American countries and comparable with those of most of the developed nations. Cuba’s average life expectancy is the highest (78.6 years) and it also has the highest density of medical doctors per capita –59 doctors to 10,000 people--, and the lowest mortality rate for children under one year of age (5.0 per 1,000 life births) and infant mortality (7.0 per 1,000 life births) among the 33 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.
“In 2006, the Cuban government allocated about $355 per capita for healthcare” […] “The annual healthcare cost assigned to an American citizen that same year was $6,714 […] Cuba also assigned less funds to healthcare than most of the European countries. But, the low costs of healthcare do not explain Cuba’s successes which could be attributed to a greater emphasis on prevention and primary care that the island has been cultivating during the American commercial blockade.
“Cuba has one of the most advanced primary care systems of the world. The education of its population in disease prevention and healthcare promotion has made the Cubans less dependent from medical products to keep the population healthy. The opposite happens in the United States which depends highly on medical provisions and technologies to keep its population healthy but at very high economic costs.
“Cuba has the highest rates of vaccination in the world as well as the highest number of baby deliveries assisted by expert healthcare workers. The clinical care provided in doctors’ offices, policlinics and the largest regional and national hospitals are free of charge for patients…
“On March 2010, the US Congress introduced a bill to strengthen the healthcare systems and increase the number of healthcare experts sent to developing countries” […] “Cuba continues sending doctors to work in some of the poorest nations on the planet, something it started doing in 1961.
“Given the recent support to a healthcare reform in the United States, the possibility exists lo learn from Cuba some good lessons on how to develop a really universal healthcare system with an emphasis on primary care. The adoption of some of Cuba’s most successful healthcare policies could be a first step toward the normalization of relations. The US Congress could instruct the Medicine Institute to study the successes of Cuba’s healthcare system and how to start a new era of cooperation between American and Cuban scientists.”
On the order hand, the Tribuna Latina web site recently ran an article on the new Immigration Law in Arizona:
“According to a survey made public by the CBS network and The New York Times, 51% of the people feel that the Law is the right way to approach immigration while 9% feels it should go further on the matter. On the other hand, 36% feel that they have gone ‘too far’ in Arizona.
“…two out of three republicans support the measure” […] “while only 38% of democrats are in favor of said Law…
“On the other hand, one out of two recognizes that it is ‘very likely’ that as a result of this rule ‘certain racial or ethnic groups are arrested more frequently than others’ and 78% admits that it will bring and additional burden on the law enforcement agents.
“Likewise, 70% feel that it is likely that as a result of the measure the number of illegal residents and the arrival of new immigrants in the country may be reduced…”
On Thursday May 6, 2010, an article was published in Argenpress signed by journalist Vicky Pelaez under the heading “Arizona: A Nobody with Airs,” that starts with a phrase from Frabklin D. Roosevelt who said: “Remember, always remember, that we are all descendants of immigrants and revolutionaries.”
It is such a well drafted document that I don’t want to conclude this Reflection without its inclusion.
“The massive marches of this May Day repudiating the infamous anti-immigrant legislation passed in Arizona have shaken the entire United States. Simultaneously, thousands of Americans, politicians, lawyers, artists, and civic organizations demanded from the federal government to declare unconstitutional the SB1070 Act which bears similarities with laws passed by Nazi Germany and by South Africa under the apartheid regime.
“However, despite the strong pressure against the infamous legislation, neither the State government nor 70% of the people there want to accept the seriousness of the situation they have created to use the undocumented migrants as culprits of the severe economic crisis they are enduring. They are radicalizing their racist policy while asking money from Barack Obama to pay for 15,000 law enforcement agents. Governor Jan Brewer has stated that ‘illegal immigration leads to higher criminality and the emergence of terrorism in the State.’
“Equaling undocumented migrants to terrorists entitles the police to shoot at people not only for the color of their skin, the clothing they wear, what they carry in their hands o even for the way they walk. This will no doubt also affect the 280,000 Native Americans living marginalized and in dire poverty as well as other minorities in addition to the Hispanics who found refuge and a job in that arid zone of the United States.
“Following in the steps of Republican Pat Buchanan who says that ‘the United States should launch a stronger crusade for the liberation of America from the savage hordes of foreign needy carrying exotic diseases,’ Governor Brewer, after charging on the undocumented day laborers, construction workers, house maids, gardeners, and janitors has channeled her campaign against teachers of Hispanic descent.
“According to her new decree, the teachers with a marked accent will not be allowed to teach in schools. But her crusade does not end there since all throughout history ‘ethnic cleansing’ has always been accompanied by ideology. As from now, ‘ethnic studies and projects’ are no longer permitted in schools. They are also forbidding the teaching of such issues as may promote resentment toward any race or social class. This implies politicizing knowledge and turning into a reality the myths created by the American system. It also means banishing highly respected American thinkers like Alexis de Tocqueville who said in 1835 that ‘the place where an Anglo-American sets his boot is forever his. The province of Texas still belongs to Mexicans but soon there will not be a Mexican there. And the same will happen anywhere else.’
“The only conscience known to the racists is hatred and the only weapon to beat it is solidarity among human beings. This State was already defeated when it refused to consider Martin Luther King’s day a holiday and the boycott was strong and resounding…”
Fidel Castro Ruz
May 7, 2010
6:15 PM
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