http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2008/enero/mar1/message.html
Havana. January 1, 2008
Fidel's message to the National Assembly
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
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