"What is occurring in Haiti is a disgrace..."-Fidel Castro (fwd)

[Micah Timothy Holmquist]

I have tried and have been unable to find the text of the speech which
Chris Bruford refered to re Castro saying that speculation would cause the
collapse of capitalism.  I was however able to find this which I thought
was interesting.

Micah 
 


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Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1999 10:59:19 -0500 (EST)
From: micahth at umich.edu
To: micahth at umich.edu
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
Subject: "What is occurring in Haiti is a disgrace..."-Fidel Castro (fwd)

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Subject: "What is occurring in Haiti is a disgrace..."-Fidel Castro
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Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit

31 Dec 98 13:32:03 -0500
DIRECT FROM CUBA

TAKEN FROM GRANMA INTERNATIONAL 1998. 
ELECTRONIC EDITION. Havana, Cuba

IT IS TIME TO SOLVE THE PROBLEMS IN HAITI AND CENTRAL AMERICA

Cuban President Fidel Castro elaborates on the integral public
health program proposed by  Cuba to mitigate the disaster in Central
America and reduce the region's high infant mortality rate - Cuban
doctors in 13 brigades currently working in Nicaragua, Honduras and
Guatemala - Cuba confirms its readiness to send 2000 doctors to
those countries and provide medical training  on the island for
Central American students

BY MARELYS VALENCIA ALMEIDA (Granma International staff writer)

SPEAKING during the closing session of the 12th National Science and
Technology Forum, President Fidel Castro stated that if a one-percent
tax was charged on monetary speculation, the money collected could
save the entire Third World. The Cuban leader devoted his speech to
the need for a program of reconstruction and socioeconomic
development in Central America.

Based on the premise that as many lives could be saved annually in
the region as those taken by Hurricane Mitch - to date 30,000 persons
are estimated missing - Fidel calculated the cost of such a program
at a minimum of 200 million dollars. With one dollar for every 1 250
of the 250 billion dollars in the U.S. defense budget, what is needed
for the program would be in hand, he affirmed.

Prior to detailing Cuban aid to Central America, the president made a
brief reference to the efforts of the medical brigade which spent
approximately 40 days in the Dominican Republic, in the wake of
Hurricane Georges, and defined the aid that could be given to Haiti,
where 135 children die each year for every 1000 live births.

And he recalled something he had expressed some time ago: the idea
that what is needed by that nation is an invasion of doctors and
teachers and millions of dollars for its development.

"What is occurring in Haiti is a disgrace for the entire hemisphere
and also for Europe. Everyone knows the cause of poverty."
Later, Fidel affirmed: "It's time that these problems - in Haiti and
Central America - are solved."

The Cuban leader spoke with his pride of the fact that Cuba, together
with France, were the first countries to cancel Nicaragua's debt,
adding that France's action was far more significant because of the
example it set for Europe. In the case of Cuba's position, he
referred to the moral value of such a decision coming from a poor and
blockaded nation.

"The Central American countries," he added, "direct 30-40% of their
budgets to paying their debts. If these were annulled it would be a
great relief for them, as that money could be used for their social
development," he continued, expressing his hope that 100% of the
debts would be condoned. "If we can do it, that other world - the
industrialized one - must be able to," he exclaimed.

The Cuban president reflected on another idea: the fact that the
world has seen images of the disaster, the bodies floating or
submerged in the mud; and yet the television channels never refer to
the hundreds of thousands who die in silence every year.

"There's a hurricane that kills more people every year than Mitch,"
he commented.

Reverting that situation is a relatively easy task. Fidel explained
that Cuba can cooperate with its experience, emphasizing that the
proposal is for the medical brigades to be located in rural areas,
based in huts and field tents rather than in hotels in the cities.

Fidel announced that Cuba is prepared to send 2 000 doctors to the
nations devastated by Mitch, and that the government has already
proposed a plan to receive 5 000 students from those countries over a
10-year period, to study medicine on the island. He subsequently
stated that there could be an intake of 1 000 in the first year,
given the chaotic situation in those nations. "We will take great
pains in their training," he confirmed.

Fidel went on to clarify that if the aid offered by the Cubans has
been publicized - although it hasn't been covered by the U.S. media -
we don't want to brag, but to create an awareness on the
international level, in the wealthy nations; and because of the need
for support and comprehension on the part of the people, given that
an effort of this kind has to be explained.

He recalled the many solidarity missions undertaken by Cubans in
different parts of the world, out of the limelight, and in countries
with a political ideology distinct from our own.

"Cuban aid," he stressed, "responds to a tradition, in harmony with
our way of thinking.

"We are a people with many ideas that can offer a lot to the world, a
world that needs solutions. Our nation has been writing this page of
honor and humanity for people like you."

WE NEED TO GO BEYOND WEEPING FOR THOSE WHO HAVE DIED

As tragic as these images may appear, the hurricane of poverty
annually kills more people than Mitch.

In his closing speech at the Science and Technology Forum, Fidel
recalled that three days earlier Cuba had immediately supported the
seven measures requested by the Central American governments of the
international community, to aid their countries' reconstruction, and
had proposed an integral public health program.

The text of the Cuban statement was made public by Foreign Minister
Roberto Robaina during a visit to the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa,
where he arrived on November 17.

The essence of the program is revealed in one sentence: "We need to
go beyond weeping for those who have died, and engage ourselves in
saving those who die in silence every year."
Cuba's initial response to the hurricane's effects was to announce
the cancellation of the debt owed Cuba by Nicaragua, the only Central
American country with financial obligations to the island, amounting
to 50.1 million dollars.

Acting on the premise that there can be no reconstruction and
economic development without a public health program in the region
(with the exception of Costa Rica), where over 50,000 persons - the
overwhelming majority infants under five years - die every year, the
Cuban government reiterated its readiness to send all the medical
personnel needed, for as long as necessary to Honduras, Nicaragua, El
Salvador and Guatemala, the countries devastated by the hurricane.

Cuba's attitude of solidarity was acknowledged by the Nicaraguan
authorities. President Arnoldo Alemssn and Vice President Enrique
Bola+/-as individually expressed their gratitude. The Nicaraguan
president noted that parts of Nicaragua still lack doctors or nurses
and, for that reason, the specialists offered by Havana were needed.

The Honduran government likewise welcomed the initiative and stated
that almost all the places for medical studies on the island would be
reserved for its poorest citizens.

Five Cuban medical brigades are now in Honduras and two further
groups are expected, while two are already working in Guatemala. The
first team left for Nicaragua on November 21, where the personnel
split into six groups to cover various areas. Currently, over 100
Cuban physicians of distinct specializations and auxiliary personnel
are lending their services in these countries.

Robaina, considered the first international public figure to arrive
at the disaster areas, visited the majority of the island's medical
and technical personnel in the Mosquitia region of Honduras, where
they are treating an entirely indigenous population, and went on to
tour the Atlantic coast.

The Cuban foreign minister informed the press that the objective was
to see for himself the real situation in that country and the living
and working conditions of the Cuban personnel. He also stated that he
was the bearer of a solidarity message to the Central American
peoples from Cuba and President Fidel Castro.

One of the main Honduran newspapers, El Heraldo, noted that the Cuban
doctors are seeing 400 patients per day. Another, El Nuevo Doa,
stated that entire families from various localities came to the
island's field hospitals, and stand in long lines to be treated for
anything from a simple flu to pneumonia and viral diarrhea.

Honduras has 12,000 missing persons, close to 11,000 casualties and
over 7000 dead; 80% of its bridges have been destroyed and material
damage is estimated at over three billion dollars.

Unemployment is making itself felt; a trade union representative
informed IPS that at least 25,000 workers are to be temporarily laid
off due to hurricane damage to the factories where they worked.
Official figures indicate that 70% of the productive apparatus has
been affected.

On November 20, Robaina traveled to Guatemala, to continue the
special Cuban government mission for developing a similar program to
the one under way in Honduras.

Official figures record 258 deaths, 278 injuries, over 102 homeless
and 120 missing. Material losses are calculated at 341,500,000
dollars.

"We have seen so many terrible things on top of each other that it
feels like years have gone by since our arrival, or that we've gone
through a new specialization in medicine," orthopedist Santiago
Alfonso, a member of one of the Cuban brigades, told Robaina.

He is working in a little hospital set up by the Cubans, with a
laboratory, wards and a consultation area. Its 14 professionals and
health technicians have expressed their desire to remain in San JosTheta
municipality as long as they are needed.

Dr. Jorge Delgado, epidemiologist and brigade leader, stated that
they had admitted 234 patients, over half of them with cholera and
the majority of them infants. The members of the Cuban team are being
confronted with various diseases which they only know of from medical
journals, but they have handled those cases quite well.

Guatemala's infant mortality rate stands at 58 per 1000 live births,
in other words, 23,000 children under the age of five die every year.

The response by that country's authorities to Cuba's proposal for an
integral program aided by the Pan American Health Organization and
the World Health Organization, as well as other countries, came
through clearly in the words of its president, Alvaro Arz.: "It's
very important for us; we have massive problems and are extremely
interested in taking advantage of that offer."

END

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