|
Dear
comrade Alarcón:
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 accumulated 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, Raúl 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 Martí and making us true communists.
What the international press has emphasized most in
its reports 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 Martí’s 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 publishing 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 atmosphere’s
outer ring, at an altitude between 15 to 50 kilometers, in
the region known as the stratosphere, which acts as the
planet’s shield 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 circumstances 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.
Martí 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 conducts 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 report which Raúl
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 support.
Fidel
Castro Ruz
December 27, 2007
8:35
p.m. |
|
