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<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/castro09042008.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.counterpunch.org/castro09042008.html<br><br>
</a></font><font face="Verdana" size=2>September 4, 2008<br><br>
</font><h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4><b>When Gustav Hit
Cuba <br><br>
<br>
</i></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5 color="#990000">
Hurricane as Nuclear Strike
</b></font></h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>By FIDEL
CASTRO <br><br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=6 color="#990000">I</font>
<font face="Verdana" size=2>t is not an overstatement. This is the
general expression of many compatriots. It was the impression of the
Revolutionary Armed Forces Chief of Staff Major General Alvaro Lopez
Miera, an experienced soldier, when he saw the twisted steel towers, the
shattered houses and the devastation everywhere in the Isle of
Youth.<br><br>
"It has been a hard blow; I couldn’t even imagine it," Ana Isa
Delgado, the Party secretary and president of the Defense Council in that
important municipality, said in a voice that was hoarse but steady and
resolute. "I’ve never seen anything like it in the almost 50 years
I’ve lived here!" said an astounded resident. A young soldier
getting out of an amphibious vehicle shouted, "Let’s demonstrate
that we are ready to give our lives for the people!"<br><br>
In Herradura, looking at the devastation all around him, Army Corps
General Leopoldo Cintra Frías shared his admiration for and amazement at
the people’s courage and said, "This is like seeing a nuclear
explosion." He came close to seeing one in Southwest Angola, if the
South African racists had decided to drop one of the seven bombs supplied
them by the U.S. government on the Cuban-Angolan forces. That was a
calculated risk, however, and the most convenient tactics were
adopted.<br><br>
Polo was accompanied by Olga Lidia Tapia, Party first secretary and
president of the Provincial Defense Council, who never doubted for a
second the results of the efforts and determination of her
compatriots.<br><br>
In all honesty, I daresay that the photos and film footage shown on
national television on Sunday reminded me of the desolation I saw when I
visited Hiroshima, victim of the first nuclear strike in August
1945.<br><br>
With good reason, it is said that hurricanes release an enormous amount
of energy, equal, perhaps, to thousands of nuclear weapons like the ones
used on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It would be worthwhile for
a Cuban physicist or mathematician to do the relevant calculations and
make a comprehensible presentation.<br><br>
Now the battle lies in feeding the hurricane’s victims. The difficulty
does not lie in reestablishing electricity as soon as possible. The
problem in the Isle of Youth is that only two of 16 bakeries all
equipped with electric ovens and generators were able to operate
immediately; the buildings had been severely damaged. They needed to
receive bread or crackers. The amount of roofing and other materials
needed for housing at this time is enormous. And the Isle of Youth is
separated from the main island by the sea. It’s not enough to fill up
trucks with food and material to send there directly.<br><br>
Our Armed Forces have sent airfield and land and air transport
specialists. Day and night, with the help of generators, planes can land
on the Isle of Youth’s airports. Their mission is to wage a battle for
the people without wasting any resources. They will act with the same
spirit in devastated areas of Pinar del Río (province). All agencies and
institutions have their assigned tasks; they are all important. But goods
do not come out of the blue. Sharing involves sacrifice. Let’s not give
ourselves the luxury of forgetting this in a few days.<br><br>
Adverse events should serve to make us work more efficiently every day
and for rationally and fairly using every piece of material. We must
fight against our own shallowness and selfishness. One hundred million
dollars signifies just nine dollars per inhabitant, and we need much
more. We need 30 times, 40 times that figure just to meet our most basic
needs. That effort must come from the work of our people. Nobody can do
it for us.<br><br>
Obviously, our capacity to disseminate news has increased and our people,
who know how to read and write, are also highly educated.<br><br>
Kcho, the painter, went by plane to the Isle of Youth, his birthplace,
and sent us a letter about the high morale of his compatriots. These are
a few paragraphs:<br><br>
</font>
<dl>
<dd>"Dear Fidel:<br><br>
<dd>"It seemed important to me, after arriving on the island and
seeing with my own eyes and feeling with my body everything that was
happening, to get in touch with Richard so that you could know about the
terrible situation in this special municipality.<br><br>
<dd>"I have no words to express the reality of what I saw yesterday
in the Isle of Youth. In all my 38 years, I have never seen anything like
it and the people I talked to in my province have never seen anything
worse, but incredibly, their morale is still sky-high… Many have lost
their homes and almost everyone’s belongings, beds, mattresses, TV sets,
refrigerators, etc., are ruined. Most of the population is in this
situation; it is estimated that of the 25,000 homes on the island and
this is not the final figure some 20,000 have been affected to some
extent, and half of those 20,000 have no roofs or are totally
destroyed.<br><br>
<dd>"…The brigade of 52 electrical line workers from Camagüey worked
until 3 a.m. and started work again today at 6:30 a.m. with tremendous
determination. They are expecting another group of 60-plus workers from
Holguín…<br><br>
<dd>"… There are still many unresolved problems, such as houses that
were destroyed by Hurricane Michelle in 2001.<br><br>
<dd>"There are serious problems with food… The island is like a
prison right now, precisely because it is an island, even though flights
have resumed… Money has no value because there is nothing to buy and
nowhere to go to buy anything.<br><br>
<dd>"Human solidarity is the most important thing right now. Morale
is high but that will not last forever; it will be necessary to resolve
some things in the coming days. As electric power is reestablished, (it
would be good to) create information points where people can gather to
learn about what is going on in the country and the municipality, or just
to listen to music or spend some time together.<br><br>
<dd>"Right now the province is ‘a theater of military operations
during a truce,’ where people are happy because they’re still alive, and
not thinking much about having lost their belongings. They are trying to
save what’s left and adjusting to that new situation, but as the days go
by their morale may fall and they could become depressed.<br><br>
<dd>"…The conditions in the hospital are subhuman, and only the
determination and convictions of revolutionary men and women are making
it function.<br><br>
<dd>"Pineros (the people of the Isle of Youth) are revolutionary and
combative and everybody is working tirelessly (patients, relatives and
medical personnel). The 32 patients requiring hemodialysis each
accompanied by a relative and nurses arrived in the capital yesterday
at approximately 4:00 p.m. They had spent 48 hours without treatment but
they were doing fine.<br><br>
<dd>"The morale of the pineros is high, and they are happy with the
work being done by the corresponding institutions, and by the fact that
not one human life was lost in Pinar del Rio, the Isle of Youth or
Matanzas.<br><br>
<dd>"I think that for the Isle to return to what it was will take a
lot of time with work and a lot of resources, as if it were a province,
because now, everything is devastated."<br><br>
</dl>With his letter, he (Kcho) sent eloquent photos of the devastation.
On the envelope, he drew an outline of the Isle of Youth with a Cuban
flag flying.<br><br>
The excellent painters who have always accompanied our battles of ideas
might leave a record of this episode and encourage our people in their
epic struggle.<br><br>
Orfilio Pelaez in the Granma (newspaper) told us about a hurricane that
hit in 1846 with a record minimum pressure of 916 hPa registered by a
machine. That happened 162 years ago, when there was no radio,
television, movies, Internet or many other means of communication that
sometimes clash, creating chaos in our minds.<br><br>
The Cuban population at that time was at least 12 times smaller. Using
slave and semi-slave labor, the country exported the largest amount of
sugar and coffee for a considerable part of that century. Retirement did
not exist, life expectancy was much lower, and the illnesses of old age
were almost unknown, as was mass education, which is so much needed for
the development of so many brains and brawn. Natural resources were
abundant. Hurricanes had a big impact but did not signify a national
disaster. Climate change, quite far-off, was not even a subject of
discussion.<br><br>
In the Granma (newspaper) of today, Tuesday, the same journalist tells us
about the heroic feats of our people in their battle for recuperation,
and the fruits of efforts made in recent years. For his part, Rubiera,
the scientist, made a detailed observation of the ruins of the
Meteorology Institute facilities in Paso Real de San Diego during his
tour of Pinar del Rio; he saw how the wind-measuring equipment registered
340 kilometers (per hour) when it was destroyed by strong gusts of wind.
It was been announced that he will speak as part of the
"Roundtable" (TV/radio program) today. He has theories about
what happened.<br><br>
Juan Varela, for his part, has reported on damage to the largest
agricultural farm in Güira de Melena, Habana province. This farm should
have produced about 140,000 tons of root vegetables, grains and green
vegetables this year. As I see it, losses in work time, food products,
farming and irrigation equipment, fuel and other costs, at international
prices, total millions just at that enterprise.<br><br>
However, the most impressive event, because of the human drama portrayed,
was reported by journalist Alfonso Nacianceno and photographer Juvenal
Balan: the odyssey of the five crew members of the Langostero 100
(lobster boat) from Batabanó in Habana province. These workers had been
ordered back to port like all the other fishing boats, in due time. By
pure chance, they were delayed. On Saturday, as the hurricane was quickly
advancing, communication with them was lost. I had said in two previous
reflections: "We’re lucky to have a Revolution! No citizen will be
abandoned to his fate."<br><br>
I found out the lobster boat was incommunicado on Saturday, almost at
midnight. Raúl had given me news of the situation; he was confident in
the fishermen’s experience in dealing with storms and hurricanes. He told
me that at dawn, he would send the necessary resources to find them. As
soon as the weather improved, the search started; it eventually involved
36 boats, three helicopters and two planes for almost two days. There was
no trace of the (lobster) boat, but they found the shipwrecked men. What
they describe is incredible; whoever is familiar with the sea knows what
it means to spend endless hours hanging on to an oar and then a
buoy.<br><br>
The revolutionary miracle happened and the fishermen were
rescued.<br><br>
But let’s not get carried away by illusions. This hurricane has left
behind 100,000 homes hit to a lesser or greater extent and the almost
total loss of things needed after a tragedy, as Kcho explains in his
letter.<br><br>
How many safe, hurricane-proof homes does Cuba need? No less that 1.5
million houses for a total of 3.5 million families. Let’s estimate what
it would cost internationally for such an investment according to figures
used worldwide.<br><br>
A family in Europe has to pay at least $100,000, plus interest, for which
they contribute $700 per month of their income for 15 years. Ten billion
dollars is the approximate cost of 100,000 homes for average-size
families in the developed countries, which are the ones that determine
the prices of industrial and food products in the world. To this, we must
add the cost of social facilities that were affected and must be rebuilt,
economic facilities and those required for development.<br><br>
It is only from our work, I repeat, that the resources will come. While
the new generations are carrying out this task, the men and women of this
country need the solidarity, courage and combativeness shown by the
people of Pinar del Río and the Isle of Youth.<br><br>
The empire is going through a difficult test at this time, in the second
half of the year, involving its ability to deal with the difficulties
brought about by its lifestyle at the expense of other peoples. Now they
need a change at the wheel.<br><br>
Bush and Cheney have almost been left out of the Republican campaign for
being warmongers and undesirables. There is no debate about changing the
system; it is about how to preserve it at a lesser cost.<br><br>
Developed imperialism will end up killing everyone trying to enter its
territory to become wage slaves and have something to eat. It is already
doing so. The chauvinism and egotism generated by that system is
huge.<br><br>
We know that and we will continue developing solidarity, our greatest
resource within and outside of our country.<br><br>
<br><br>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
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