[News] Fidel - The world half a century later

[Anti-Imperialist News]

<http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2010/enero/lun4/reflexiones-fidel-the-world-half-ing%20.html>http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2010/enero/lun4/reflexiones-fidel-the-world-half-ing%20.html


Reflections of Fidel
The world half a century later
(Taken from CubaDebate)

AS the Revolution celebrated its 51st anniversary 
two days ago, memories of that January 1st of 
1959 came to mind. The outlandish idea that, 
after half a century ­ which flew by ­ we would 
remember it as if it were yesterday, never occurred to any of us.

During the meeting at the Oriente sugar mill on 
December 28, 1958, with the commander in chief of 
the enemy’s forces, whose elite units were 
surrounded without any way out whatsoever, he 
admitted defeat and appealed to our generosity to 
find a dignified way out for the rest of his 
forces. He knew of our humane treatment of 
prisoners and the injured without any exception. 
He accepted the agreement that I proposed, 
although I warned him that operations under way 
would continue. But he traveled to the capital, 
and, incited by the United States embassy, instigated a coup d’état.

We were preparing for combat on that January 1st 
when, in the early hours of the morning, the news 
came in of the dictator’s flight. The Rebel Army 
was ordered not to permit a ceasefire and to 
continue battling on all fronts. Radio Rebelde 
convened workers to a revolutionary general 
strike, immediately followed by the entire 
nation. The coup attempt was defeated, and that 
same afternoon, our victorious troops entered Santiago de Cuba.

Che and Camilo received instructions to advance 
rapidly by road in motor vehicles with their 
battle-hardened forces toward La Cabaña and the 
Columbia military camp. The enemy army, hit hard 
on all fronts, was unable to resist. The people 
in arms themselves took over the centers of 
repression and police stations. In the afternoon 
of January 2 at a stadium in Bayamo, and 
accompanied by a small escort, I met with more 
than 2,000 soldiers from the tank, artillery and 
motorized infantry units, against whom we had 
been fighting until the day before. They were 
still carrying their weapons. We had won the 
enemy’s respect with our audacious but 
humanitarian methods of irregular warfare. This 
was how, in just four days ­ after 25 months of 
war that we reinitiated with a few guns ­ some 
100,000 air, sea and ground weapons and the 
entire power of the state remained in the hands 
of the Revolution. In just a few lines, I am 
recounting everything that happened during those days 51 years ago.

Then the main battle began: to preserve Cuba’s 
independence against the most powerful empire 
that has ever existed, a battle which our people 
waged with great dignity. I am happy today to 
observe those who, in the face of incredible 
obstacles, sacrifices, and risks, were able to 
defend our homeland, and who today, together with 
their children, parents and loved ones, are 
enjoying the happiness and glories of each new year.

Today, however, is nothing like yesterday. We 
experienced a new era unlike any other in 
history. Before, the people fought and are 
fighting still, with honor, for a better and more 
just world, but now they are also having to 
fight, without any alternative whatsoever, for 
the very survival of our species. If we ignore 
this, we know absolutely nothing. Cuba is, 
without question, one of the most politically 
instructed countries on the planet; it started 
out from the most shameful illiteracy, and what 
is worse, our yanki masters and the bourgeoisie 
associated with the foreign owners of land, sugar 
mills, production plants for consumer goods, 
warehouses, businesses, electricity, telephones, 
banks, mines, insurance, docks, bars, hotels, 
offices, houses, theaters, print shops, 
magazines, newspapers, radio, the emerging 
television, and everything of important value.

After the ardent flames of our battles for 
freedom had been quenched, the yankis had taken 
upon themselves the task of thinking for a people 
that struggled so hard to be the masters of their 
independence, resources and destiny. Absolutely 
nothing, not even the task of thinking 
politically, belonged to us. How many of us knew 
how to read and write? How many of us even made 
it to sixth grade? I recall that especially on a 
day like today, because that was the country that 
was supposed to belong to the Cuban people. I 
will not list anything more, because I would have 
to include much more, including the best schools, 
the best hospitals, the best houses, the best 
doctors, the best lawyers. How many of us had a 
right to that? Which of us possessed, with some 
exceptions, the natural and divine right to be administrators and leaders?

Every millionaire and rich individual, without 
exception, was a party leader, senator, 
representative or important official. That was 
the representative and pure democracy that 
prevailed in our country, except that the yankis 
imposed, at their whim, merciless and cruel petty 
dictators whenever it was more convenient for 
them to better defend their properties against 
landless campesinos and workers with or without 
jobs. Given that nobody even talks about that 
anymore, I am venturing to remember it. Our 
country is one of more than 150 that constitute 
the Third World, which would be the first but not 
the only nations destined to suffer incredible 
consequences if humanity does not become aware, 
clearly, certainly and a lot more quickly than we 
thought, of the reality and consequences of the 
climate change caused by human beings if it is not prevented in time.

Our mass media has dedicated spaces to describing 
the effects of climate change. Increasingly 
violent hurricanes, droughts and other natural 
disasters have likewise contributed to the 
education of our people on this subject. One 
singular event, the battle over the climate issue 
that took place at the Copenhagen Summit, has 
contributed to knowledge of the imminent danger. 
It is not a matter of a distant threat for the 
22nd century, but for the 21st; nor is it just 
for the latter half of this century, but for the 
coming decades, in which we will begin to suffer its terrible consequences.

It is also not just a question of simple action 
against the empire and its henchmen, which in 
this issue, like in everything else, are trying 
to impose their own stupid and egotistic 
interests, but a battle of world opinion that 
that cannot be left to spontaneity or the whims 
of the majority of their mass media. It is a 
situation with which, fortunately, millions of 
honorable and brave people in the world are 
familiar, a battle to wage with the masses and 
within social organizations and scientific, 
cultural, humanitarian and other international 
institutions, most especially in the heart of the 
United Nations, where the United States 
government, its NATO allies and the richest 
countries tried to effect a fraudulent and 
antidemocratic coup in Denmark against the rest 
of the emerging and poor countries of the Third World.

In Copenhagen, the Cuban delegation, which 
attended together with others from the ALBA and 
the Third World, was forced into a fight to the 
finish in the face of the incredible events that 
began with the speech of the yanki president, 
Barack Obama, and of the group of the richest 
states on the planet, resolved to dismantle the 
binding commitments of Kyoto ­ where the thorny 
problem was discussed more than 12 years ago ­ 
and to load the burden of sacrifice onto the 
emerging and underdeveloped countries, which are 
the poorest and at the same time the principal 
suppliers of the planet’s raw materials and 
non-renewable resources to the most developed and opulent countries.

In Copenhagen, Obama appeared on the last day of 
the conference, which began on December 7. The 
worst aspect of his conduct was that, after he 
had decided to dispatch 30,000 soldiers to the 
slaughter of Afghanistan ­ a country with a 
strong tradition of independence, which not even 
the English in their better and cruellest times 
could dominate ­ he went to Oslo to receive no 
less than a Nobel Peace Prize. He arrived in the 
Norwegian capital on December 10 and gave an 
empty, demagogic and justifying speech. On the 
18th, the date of the Summit’s last session, he 
appeared in Copenhagen, where he planned to 
remain for just 8 hours. His secretary of state 
and a select group of his best strategists had arrived the previous day.

The first thing that Obama did was to select a 
group of guests who were given the honor of 
accompanying him as he gave a speech at the 
Summit. The complacent and fawning Danish prime 
minister, who was presiding over the Summit, gave 
the podium over to a group that numbered just 15. 
The imperial chief deserved special honors. His 
speech was a was a combination of sweetened words 
seasoned with theatrical gestures, already boring 
for those of us, like me, assigned themselves the 
task of listening to him in order to try and be 
objective in an appreciation of his 
characteristics and political intentions. Obama 
imposed on his docile Danish host, so that only 
his guests could speak, although as soon as he 
had made his own comments, he "made himself 
scarce" through the back door, like an imp 
escaping from an audience which had done him the 
honor of listening with interest.

Once the authorized list of speakers was 
finished, an indigenous man, Aymara through and 
through, Evo Morales, president of Bolivia, who 
had just been reelected with 65% of the vote, 
demanded the right to speak, which was granted, 
to the resounding applause of those present. In 
just nine minutes, he expressed profound and 
dignified concepts in response to the words of 
the absent U.S. president. Immediately afterward, 
Hugo Chávez got up to ask to speak on behalf of 
the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela; the person 
presiding over the session had no choice but to 
also give him the right to speak, and he used 
that to improvise one of the most brilliant 
speeches that I’ve ever heard. When he finished, 
a strike of the gavel ended the unusual session.

The extremely busy Obama and his entourage 
however, did not have a minute to lose. His group 
had put together a draft statement, full of 
vagueness, which was the negation of the Kyoto 
Protocol. After he dashed out of the plenary 
session, Obama met with other groups of guests 
numbering no more than 30, negotiated in private 
and in groups; insisted; mentioned figures to the 
tune of millions of green bills without gold 
backing and which are constantly being 
devaluated, and even threatened to leave the 
meeting if his demands were not met. Worst of 
all, it was a meeting of super-rich countries, to 
which several of the most important emerging 
nations were invited and two or three poor ones, 
to which he submitted the document as if proposing, "take it or leave it!"

The Danish prime minister tried to present that 
confusing, ambiguous and contradictory statement 
– in the discussion of which the UN did not 
participate in any way – as the Summit agreement. 
The Summit sessions had already concluded, almost 
all of the heads of state and government and 
foreign ministers had left for their respective 
countries and, at three in the morning, the 
distinguished Danish prime minister presented it 
to the plenary session, where hundreds of 
longsuffering officials who hadn’t slept for 
three days, received the thorny document, and 
were given only one hour to discuss and approve it.

That is when the meeting became fiery; the 
delegates hadn’t even had time to read it. A 
number of them asked to speak. The first was the 
delegate from Tuvalu, whose islands would be 
inundated if what was proposed there was 
approved; those of Bolivia, Venezuela, Cuba and 
Nicaragua followed him. The dialectical 
confrontation at 3 a.m. on that December 19 is 
worthy of going down in history, if history 
should continue after climate change.

As a large part of what happened is known in 
Cuba, or is on internet web pages, I will confine 
myself to partially expounding on the two 
responses of Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno 
Rodríguez, worthy of being recorded in order to 
know the last episodes of the Copenhagen soap 
opera, and aspects of the final chapter, which 
are still to be published in our country.
"Mr. President (Prime Minister of Denmark)
 The 
document that you affirmed on various occasions 
did not exist, has now appeared. We have all seen 
versions circulating surreptitiously and being 
discussed in small and secret meetings outside 
the conference halls in which the international 
community, via its representatives, is negotiating in a transparent manner."

"I add my voice to those of the representatives 
of Tuvalu, Venezuela and Bolivia. Cuba considers 
the text of this apocryphal draft as extremely insufficient and inadmissible
"

"The document which you are presenting, 
lamentably, does not contain any commitment 
whatsoever to reducing greenhouse gas emissions."

"I am aware of prior versions which, in 
questionable and clandestine procedures, were 
also being negotiated behind closed doors and 
which talked of a reduction of at least 50% by the year 2050
"

"The document that you have presented now, 
precisely omits the already meager and 
insufficient key phrases that that version 
contained. This document does not guarantee, in 
any way, the adoption of minimal measures that 
would make it possible to avert an extremely 
grave disaster for the planet and the human species."

"This shameful document that you have brought is 
likewise omissive and ambiguous in relation to 
the specific commitment to emission reductions on 
the part of the developed countries, those 
responsible for global warming given the historic 
and current level of their emissions, and on whom 
it falls to implement substantial reductions 
immediately. This paper does not contain one 
single word of commitment on the part of the developed countries."

"
Your role, Mr. President, is the death 
certificate of the Kyoto Protocol, which my delegation does not accept."

"The Cuban delegation wishes to emphasize the 
preeminence of the principle of "common but 
differentiated responsibilities’ as the central 
concept of the future negotiation process. Your 
paper does not say one word about that."

"The Cuban delegation reiterates its protest at 
the grave violations of procedure that have been 
produced in the anti-democratic management of the 
process of this conference, via the utilization 
of arbitrary, exclusive and discriminatory forms of debate and negotiation
"

"Mr. President, I am formally asking for this 
statement to be placed in the final report on the 
workings of this lamentable and shameful 15th Conference of the Parties."

What nobody could have imagined is that, after 
another lengthy recess and when everybody thought 
that only the formalities remained before the 
conclusion of the Summit, the prime minister of 
the host country, at the instigation of the 
yankis, would make another attempt to pass off 
the document as a consensus of the Summit, when 
not even foreign ministers were left in the 
plenary. The delegates from Venezuela, Bolivia, 
Nicaragua and Cuba, who remained vigilant and 
unsleeping until the last minute, frustrated the latter maneuver in Copenhagen.

However, the problem was not concluded. The 
powerful are not accustomed to brooking 
resistance. On December 30, the Danish Permanent 
Mission to the United Nations, in New York, 
courteously informed our mission in that city 
that it had taken note of the Copenhagen 
Agreement of December 18, 2009, and attached an 
advance copy of that decision. It affirmed 
textually: "
the government of Denmark, in its 
capacity of president of COP15, invites the 
Parties to the Convention to inform the 
secretariat of the UNFCCC in writing, and as soon 
as possible, of your willingness to commit to the Copenhagen Agreement."

"This surprise communication motivated a response 
from the Cuban Permanent Mission to the United 
Nations, in which it "
 flatly rejects the 
intention to gain indirect approval of a text 
that was the object of repudiation by various 
delegations, not only on account of its 
insufficiency in the face of the grave effects of 
climate change, but also for exclusively 
responding to the interests of a reduced group of states."

At the same time it prompted a letter from Dr. 
Fernando González Bermúdez, first deputy minister 
of the Ministry of Science, Technology and the 
Environment of the Republic of Cuba to Mr. Yvo de 
Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework 
Convention on Climate Change, some of whose paragraphs are transcribed below:
"We have received with surprise and concern the 
note that the government of Denmark is 
circulating to the Permanent Missions of the 
member states of the United Nations in New York. 
Of which you are surely aware, via which the 
party states of the United Nations Framework 
Convention on Climate Change to inform the 
executive secretary, in writing, of you wish to 
be associated with the so-called Copenhagen Agreement."

"We have observed, with additional concern, that 
the government of Denmark communicates that the 
executive secretary of the Convention is to 
include in the report of the Conference of the 
Parties in Copenhagen, a list of the party states 
which have stated their will to commit to the quoted agreement."

"In the judgment of the Republic of Cuba, this 
form of acting constitutes a crude and 
reprehensible violation of what was decided in 
Copenhagen, where the party states, faced with an 
evident lack of consensus, confined themselves to 
taking note of the existence of the said document."

"Nothing that was agreed in COP15 authorizes the 
government of Denmark to adopt this action and, 
far less, the executive secretary to include a 
list of party states in the final report, for which he has no mandate."

"I must inform you that the government of the 
Republic of Cuba most firmly rejects this new 
attempt to indirectly legitimate a spurious 
document and to reiterate to you that this way of 
acting compromises the result of future 
negotiations, sets a dangerous precedent for the 
Convention’s work and, in particular, is 
injurious to the spirit of goodwill in which 
delegations must continue the negotiation process 
next year," concluded Cuba’s first deputy 
minister of science, technology and the environment."

Many know, especially the social movements and 
better informed people in humanitarian, cultural 
and scientific movements, that the document 
promoted by the United States constitutes a 
regression of the positions achieved by those who 
are making efforts to avert a colossal disaster 
for our species. There is no point in repeating 
here facts and figures that are mathematically 
demonstrated. The data is confirmed on Internet 
web pages and are within the reach of a growing 
number of people who are interested in the issue.

The theory defending adherence to the document is 
feeble and implies a setback. The deceptive idea 
that the rich countries will contribute the 
miserable sum of $30 billion over three years to 
the poor countries in order to offset the costs 
implied by confronting climate change, a figure 
which could rise to 100 billion by 2020, which in 
the context of this exceedingly grave problem, is 
like waiting for the Greek calendars. Specialists 
know that those figures are ridiculous and 
unacceptable given the volume of investments 
required. The origin of such sums is vague and 
confused, in a way that they do not commit anybody.

What is the value of one dollar? What is the 
significance of $30 billion? We all know that, 
from Bretton Woods in 1944 to Nixon’s 
presidential order in 1971 – imparted in order to 
offload the cost of the genocidal war on Vietnam 
onto the world economy – that the value of one 
dollar, measured in gold, has gradually been 
reduced to the point of today, when it is 
approximately 32 times less than then; $30 
billion thus signifies less than one billion, and 
one billion divided by 32 is equivalent to $3.125 
million, which would not even stretch to building 
one middle-capacity oil refinery at the present time.

If, at some point, the industrialized countries 
were to meet their promise to contribute 0.7% of 
their GDP to the developing countries – something 
that, barring a few exceptions, they never have – 
the figure would be in excess of $250 billion every year.

The U.S. government spent $800 billion on saving 
the banks. How much would it be prepared to pay 
to save the nine billion people who will inhabit 
the planet in 2050, if large-scale drought and 
sea flooding provoked by the melting of glaciers 
and great masses of frozen water from Greenland and Antarctica?

Let us not deceive ourselves. What the United 
States has attempted with its maneuvers in 
Copenhagen is to divide the Third World, to 
separate more than 150 underdeveloped countries 
from China, India, Brazil, South Africa and 
others with which we must fight united to defend 
– in Bonn, Mexico or any other international 
conference, along with the social, scientific and 
humanitarian organizations – genuine agreements 
that will benefit all countries and preserve 
humanity from a disaster that could lead to the extinction of our species.

The world is in possession of constantly more 
information, but politicians have constantly less time for thinking.

The rich nations and their leaders, including the 
U.S. Congress, would seem to be arguing which will be the last to disappear.

When Obama has completed the 28 parties with 
which he proposed to celebrate this Christmas, if 
Epiphany is included among them, perhaps Caspar, 
Melchior and Balthasar will advise him on what he should do.

Please excuse this extended Reflection. I did not 
wish to divide it into two parts. I apologize to my patient readers.

Fidel Castro Ruz
January 3, 2010
3:16 p.m.

Translated by Granma International




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