http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2008/mayo/lun26/Reflections-26may.html
Havana. May 26, 2008
Reflections of Fidel
The empire's hypocritical politics
IT would be dishonest of me to remain silent after hearing the speech
Obama delivered on the afternoon of May 23 at the Cuban American National
Foundation created by Ronald Reagan. I listened to his speech, as I did
McCain's and Bush's. I feel no resentment towards him, for he is not
responsible for the crimes perpetrated against Cuba and humanity. Were I to
defend him, I would do his adversaries an enormous favor. I have therefore no
reservations about criticizing him and about expressing my points of view on
his words frankly.
What were Obama's statements?
"Throughout my entire life, there has been injustice and repression in
Cuba. Never, in my lifetime, have the people of Cuba known freedom. Never, in
the lives of two generations of Cubans, have the people of Cuba known
democracy. (.) This is the terrible and tragic status quo that we have known
for half a century - of elections that are anything but free or fair (.) I
won't stand for this injustice, you won't stand for this injustice, and
together we will stand up for freedom in Cuba," he told annexationists, adding:
"It's time to let Cuban American money make their families less dependent upon
the Castro regime. (.) I will maintain the embargo."
The content of these declarations by this strong candidate to the U.S.
presidency spares me the work of having to explain the reason for this
reflection.
José Hernandez, one of the Cuban American National Foundation directors
whom Obama praises in his speech, was none other than the owner of the
Caliber-50 automatic rifle, equipped with telescopic and infrared sights, which
was confiscated, by chance, along with other deadly weapons while being
transported by sea to Venezuela, where the Foundation had planned to
assassinate the writer of these lines at an international meeting on Margarita,
in the Venezuelan state of Nueva Esparta.
Pepe Hernández' group wanted to return to the pact with Clinton, betrayed
by Mas Canosa's clan, who secured Bush's electoral victory in 2000 through
fraud, because the latter had promised to assassinate Castro, something they
all happily embraced. These are the kinds of political tricks inherent to the
United States' decadent and contradictory system.
Presidential candidate Obama's speech may be formulated as follows:
hunger for the nation, remittances as charitable hand-outs and visits to Cuba
as propaganda for consumerism and the unsustainable way of life behind it.
How does he plan to address the extremely serious problem of the food
crisis? The world's grains must be distributed among human beings, pets and
fish, the latter of which are getting smaller every year and more scarce in the
seas that have been over-exploited by large trawlers which no international
organization has been able to halt. Producing meat from gas and oil is no easy
feat. Even Obama overestimates technology's potential in the fight against
climate change, though he is more conscious of the risks and the limited margin
of time than Bush. He could seek the advice of Gore, who is also a democrat and
is no longer a candidate, as he is aware of the accelerated pace at which
global warming is advancing. His close political rival Bill Clinton, who is not
running for the presidency, an expert on extra-territorial laws like the
Helms-Burton and Torricelli Acts, can advise him on an issue like the blockade,
which he promised to lift and never did.
What did he say in his speech in Miami, this man who is doubtless, from
the social and human points of view, the most progressive candidate to the U.S.
presidency? "For two hundred years," he said, "the United States has made it
clear that we won't stand for foreign intervention in our hemisphere. But every
day, all across the Americas, there is a different kind of struggle --not
against foreign armies, but against the deadly threat of hunger and thirst,
disease and
despair. That is not a future that we have to accept --not for the child
in
Port au Prince or the family in the highlands of Peru. We can do better.
We
must do better. (.) We cannot ignore suffering to our south, nor stand
for the globalization of the empty stomach." A magnificent description of
imperialist globalization: the globalization of empty stomachs! We ought to
thank him for it. But, 200 years ago, Bolivar fought for Latin American unity
and, more than 100 years ago, Martí gave his life in the struggle against the
annexation of Cuba by the United States. What is the difference between what
Monroe proclaimed and what Obama proclaims and resuscitates in his speech two
centuries later?
"I will reinstate a Special Envoy for the Americas in my White House who
will work with my full support. But we'll also expand the Foreign Service, and
open more consulates in the neglected regions of the Americas. We'll expand the
Peace Corps, and ask more young Americans to go abroad to deepen the trust and
the ties among our people," he said near the end, adding: "Together, we can
choose the future over the past." A beautiful phrase, for it attests to the
idea, or at least the fear, that history makes figures what they are and not
all the way around.
Today, the United States has nothing of the spirit behind the
Philadelphia declaration of principles formulated by the 13 colonies that
rebelled against English colonialism. Today, they are a gigantic empire
undreamed of by the country's founders at the time. Nothing, however, was to
change for the natives and the slaves. The former were exterminated as the
nation expanded; the latter continued to be auctioned at the marketplace -men,
women and children-for nearly a century, despite the fact that "all men are
born free and equal", as the Declaration of Independence affirms. The world's
objective conditions favored the development of that system.
In his speech, Obama portrays the Cuban Revolution as anti-democratic and
lacking in respect for freedom and human rights. It is the exact same argument
which, almost without exception, U.S. administrations have used again and again
to justify their crimes against our country. The blockade, in and of itself, is
an act of genocide. I don't want to see U.S. children inculcated with those
shameful values.
An armed revolution in our country might not have been needed without the
military interventions, Platt Amendment and economic colonialism visited upon
Cuba.
The Revolution was the result of imperial domination. We cannot be
accused of having imposed it upon the country. The true changes could have and
ought to have been brought about in the United States. Its own workers, more
than a century ago, voiced the demand for an eight-hour work shift, which
stemmed from the development of productive forces.
The first thing the leaders of the Cuban Revolution learned from Martí
was to believe in and act on behalf of an organization founded for the purposes
of bringing about a revolution. We were always bound by previous forms of power
and, following the institutionalization of this organization, we were elected
by more than 90% of voters, as has become customary in Cuba, a process which
does not in the least resemble the ridiculous levels of electoral participation
which, many a time, as in the case of the United States, stay short of 50% of
voters. No small and blockaded country like ours would have been able to hold
its ground for so long on the basis of ambition, vanity, deceit or the abuse of
power, the kind of power its neighbor has. To state otherwise is an insult to
the intelligence of our heroic people.
I am not questioning Obama's great intelligence, his debating skills or
his work ethic. He is a talented orator and is ahead of his rivals in the
electoral race. I feel sympathy for his wife and little girls, who accompany
him and give him encouragement every Tuesday. It is indeed a touching human
spectacle. Nevertheless, I am obliged to raise a number of delicate questions.
I do not expect answers; I wish only to raise them for the record.
Is it right for the president of the United States to order the
assassination of any one person in the world, whatever the pretext may be?
Is it ethical for the president of the United States to order the torture
of other human beings?
Should state terrorism be used by a country as powerful as the United
States as an instrument to bring about peace on the planet?
Is an Adjustment Act, applied as punishment to only one country, Cuba, in
order to destabilize it, good and honorable, even when it costs innocent
children and mothers their lives? If it is good, why is this right not
automatically granted to Haitians, Dominicans, and other peoples of the
Caribbean, and why isn't the same Act applied to Mexicans and people from
Central and South America, who die like flies against the Mexican border wall
or in the waters of the Atlantic and the Pacific?
Can the United States do without immigrants, who grow vegetables, fruits,
almonds and other delicacies for U.S. citizens? Who would sweep their streets,
work as servants in their homes or do the worst and lowest-paid jobs?
Are crackdowns on illegal residents fair, even as they affect children
born in the United States?
Are the brain-drain and the continuous theft of the best scientific and
intellectual minds in poor countries moral and justifiable?
You state, as I pointed out at the beginning of this reflection, that
your country had long ago warned European powers that it would not tolerate any
intervention in the hemisphere, reiterating that this right be respected while
demanding the right to intervene anywhere in the world with the aid of hundreds
of military bases and naval, aerial and spatial forces distributed across the
planet. I ask: is that the way in which the United States expresses its respect
for freedom, democracy and human rights?
Is it fair to stage pre-emptive attacks on sixty or more dark corners of
the world, as Bush calls them, whatever the pretext may be?
Is it honorable and sane to invest millions and millions of dollars in
the military industrial complex, to produce weapons that can destroy life on
earth several times over?
Before judging our country, you should know that Cuba, with its
education, health, sports, culture and sciences programs, implemented not only
in its own territory but also in other poor countries around the world, and the
blood that has been shed in acts of solidarity towards other peoples, in spite
of the economic and financial blockade and the aggression of your powerful
country, is proof that much can be done with very little. Not even our closest
ally, the Soviet Union, was able to achieve what we have.
The only form of cooperation the United States can offer other nations
consist in the sending of military professionals to those countries. It cannot
offer anything else, for it lacks a sufficient number of people willing to
sacrifice themselves for others and offer substantial aid to a country in need
(though Cuba has known and relied on the cooperation of excellent U.S.
doctors). They are not to blame for this, for society does not inculcate such
values in them on a massive scale.
We have never subordinated cooperation with other countries to
ideological requirements. We offered the United States our help when Hurricane
Katrina lashed the city of New Orleans. Our internationalist medical brigade
bears the glorious name of Henry Reeve, a young man, born in the United States,
who fought and died for Cuba's sovereignty in our first war of independence.
Our Revolution can mobilize tens of thousands of doctors and health
technicians. It can mobilize an equally vast number of teachers and citizens,
who are willing to travel to any corner of the world to fulfill any noble
purpose, not to usurp people's rights or take possession of raw materials.
The good will and determination of people constitute limitless resources
that cannot be kept and would not fit in the vault of a bank. They cannot
spring from the hypocritical politics of an empire.
Fidel Castro Ruz
May 25, 2008
10:35 p.m.
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