>from: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >subject: Cuba: NATO-Gunboat Diplomacy . World Bank. Children > (Facts from Cuba) > Tricontinental Magazine�No.142, Year 1999 > NATO: Gunboat Diplomacy Again. > >On June 10, 1999, after 79 days of bombing raids over Yugoslavia, the >UN Security Council finally met to adopt a proposal for so-called >peace in Kosovo that had been approved beforehand by the governments >of the richest countries in the world. > >That afternoon, Cuba's voice was heard clearly during the tensest >moment of the session. The Cuban representative, UN ambassador Bruno >Rodriguez Parrilla, chastised the Council for its prolonged silence >and for arriving at a political solution so late in the game. > >Below, Tricontinental reproduces some brief excerpts of the >Cuban position. The entire text is available on our website. It is >a magnificent analysis of the dramatic unfolding of the Yugoslav >crisis and the only true word on the subject spoken that historic >day. > > ... It will be Europe that pays the price for this conflict, that >will have to deal with the human problems that have been created by >the bombing, that will probably have to provide the resources for >reconstruction, and that will suffer first from the increased >instability that will be created in the Balkans. > > The banner of an integrated Europe, politically independent, >economically strong and sophisticated, has suffered an enormous blow. >The Euro is now paying for these mistakes in the financial >marketplace. > > Europe will have to redraw its objectives now that it has affirmed >its subordination. It shows how much this hurts them when the Bremen >conference and now the European Union Summit have agreed to the >creation of a "European identity and defense capability." > > On the other hand, NATO's "New Strategic Concept" and >"Defense Capabilities Initiative" consecrate its right to military >intervention on a world scale. In Kosovo the doctrine was >implemented even before it was created. > > The result is that NATO, whose only value was its defensive >character and whose only virtue had been its inactivity, now has >declared itself and begun to act as the world's policeman. Without >the Cold War or a real enemy, it has become an offensive alliance, >announcing that it will act outside the borders of its member >nations, that it will attack without being attacked when it considers >its interests at risk, and that it will function outside the United >Nations when the latter can't be kept in line. > > NATO promises that it will confront "global threats" such as >terrorism, drug trafficking, the existence of arms of mass >destruction, and violations of human rights (curiously, there is no >mention of hunger or AIDS) - at gunpoint. And it reserves the right >to decide what constitutes a threat and when something deserves to be >targeted by its missiles. We are witnessing a proliferation of the >concept of "gunboat diplomacy". > > The new "humanism of NATO" is simply the right to >"humanitarian intervention", which has never been defined and which >even the United Nations hasn't recognized. The developing countries >need to look at Kosovo as the place where collectively we have been >weakened the most in the face of the hegemony and military threat of >the powerful. The frivolous rhetoric about "opportunities" for >globalization, the myth of a "new financial architecture", and the >illusion of UN reform have been stripped of their coverings in the >Balkans. Today the risks and the challenges are clearer. > > Nobody is going to give us anything. It's no consolation that >our creditors will capsize and drown with us. The developing >countries together must forge our own common future in a globalized >world. > > ... The alliance owns the planes and the newspapers. The spectacle >of war is yet another consumer product. The markets in war and >information have found common interests and huge profits in Kosovo. >The NATO war filled the coffers of the smartest arms producers and >the stupidest television programs. > > The epidemic of violence in the societies that bombed the >Federated Republic of Yugoslavia can't be separated from this war. >Children shoot guns in US schools, in essence following the same >logic that their parents have followed in Serbia. > > ... The collective security mechanism has been replaced, to the >benefit of the powerful, by the law of the jungle. The International >Court of Justice didn't declare the bombings illegal and has >abandoned international law. It's nothing new or exceptional that the >Human Rights Commission is being manipulated, but ft is a serious >problem that it hasn't stated that the air campaign is a massive, >flagrant, delirious, and systematic violation of human rights. > > The developing world suffers most from unipolarism and faces the >greatest risk from the weakening of the United Nations. The only one >that benefits is the United States. The only alternative is to fight >against these imperial practices, to defend the United Nations, to >reestablish respect for and implementation of the UN Charter, to >preserve the principles of nonintervention, non-aggression, against >the threat and use of force, and respect for sovereignty. > > *********** > > World Bank -Cultural Theft > > Tricontinental Magazine�No.142, Year 1999 > "Cultural Theft" > >The World Bank - among its various activities in the third World - >came up with birth control program as a form of blackmail for its >loans to underdeveloped countries. In 1975, the Catholic Church >reported that during one year in Bolivia, 602 indigenous women were >victims of sterilization, illegal abortions, and harmful use of >contraceptives in a clearly genocidal practice. > > In the Amazon and in other territories that are considered >natural reserves, numerous communities have disappeared in recent >years as a result of the zealous search for natural resources and >minerals to the detriment of human beings. Fourteen communities in >the Chaco in Argentina have had their territory threatened by the >government sale of hundreds hectares to a Spanish firm. The >destruction of land in Brazil has led to the disappearance of entire >communities. Since 1900, according to the statistics, 90 indigenous >populations have been exterminated. > > In 1997 the Workshop on Traditional knowledge and Biological >diversity was held in Madrid based on the Convention on Biodiversity >adopted at the Rio Summit. The workshop denounced the indiscriminate >theft by the pharmaceutical companies that had patented "ayahuasca", >an ancient indigenous potion from the equatorial Amazon basin used as >a medicine and in religious ceremonies. Since it was patented by >International Plant Medicine Corporation based in California, more >than 400 indigenous communities have been denied the right to use the >potion without consent of the laboratory. Similar cases of >"biopiracy" have occurred in Panama, Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil. > > *************** > > Tricontinental Magazine�No.142, Year 1999 > "When Children Died of Cancer" > By Arleen Rodriguez Derivet. > >Niurka Barroso was the recipient of the Casa de las Americas >Photography Prize in 1998, for The Genesis collection, inspired by >Cuban children stricken with cancer. Her work transmits an >extraordinary message of solidarity as well as an overwhelming >denunciation of the US blockade against Cuba. Niurka Barroso wants >everyone who sees her pictures to share, or at least understand, the >pain of those in them. She wants US pharmaceutical corporations to >react, and this to become one more denunciation of the blockade. She >wants the photography prize her exhibit won from Casa de las Americas >to be, in the near future, but a visual and human testimonial of >"back then, when people died of cancer." > > Niurka Barroso (38years old) has been a professional photographer >since 1993. On her graduation from the University of Havana, she >began working for the Cuban Fondo de Bienes Culturales, where she >started her research on Cuban photography. Thus her first (still >unpublished) work was born: A Brief History of the Cuban Photography >Club. She has been a contributor to the French Press Agency (AFP) in >Cuba since 1994, and dedicates all her free time to documentary >photography as a form of personal expression. > > Niurka Barroso often went to La Habana's Oncology Hospital with >her ailing father And every time she went by the children's room, her >"heartache from the pain." It wasn't just the tiny heads now bald >from chemotherapy. The physical signs of the illness are quite >shocking when the solid or non-solid tumors are malignant. And those >are the cases in Oncology. > > It was 1997. Everyone in the country was talking about the effects >of the blockade on cancer treatment. I knew what it meant to have a >loved one who was ill, and I thought about what I could do to show my >solidarity and support a campaign of this type. > > I am a photojournalist and live off of news photography. But what >I really enjoy is pure photography, and always with people as my >subjects. With the permission of the hospital, I spent three months >living among the young cancer patients. From eight in the morning >until five in the afternoon. The first month I didn't take any >pictures, I only took snapshots, which I gave to the patients and >their families. When they started to see me as a member of the family >or staff, I was ready to begin my work. > > I got so involved that many times I was crying when I took the >pictures, or I was helping attend to a patient. Every night I went >to bed wondering which one wouldn't live to see the dawn. My code of >values changed definitively during this time. > > There are some pictures that I couldn't look at again, though I >always tried to avoid the most aggressive images, because the aim is >not to attack human sensitivity, and much less that of the one whom >is suffering. > > I couldn't rationalize the pictures. I felt them. The series is >full of images of pain, but it does not seek to sensationalize. I >cannot stand those who negotiate with those things. With the prize >money, I got more supplies so I can continue the project. > > I really do not believe much in prizes; I didn't take the >pictures thinking about the contest. It was my companero's >suggestion - he's also my photography professor. On the day of the >award presentation I remember when they announced the title of the >winner and I said, 'hey, what a coincidence, it has the same name as >mine.' There were better photos. Afterwards the president of >the judging panel told me that he had displayed all the photos in a >room in the Casa de las Americas, and that perhaps the cleaning >lady's interest influenced the decision. She stopped in front of my >pictures for a long time; she was very moved. I also know that during >an exposition in the Casa de la Cultura in the Plaza municipality, >here in Havana, a girl fainted... > > For someone to faint from, or stop for a long time in front of, >another's pain, in this turn of the century when we are constantly >bombarded with images, well, it filled me with hope. I felt the >pictures could bring more solidarity. > > The prize is not for me. It's for these children, for their >families and for all those who work in hospitals like this one. Now >I'm looking for funding for a book. I'm told it could cost $14,000, >but we would hope to use the book to bring in - which knows perhaps >millions of dollars? to be donated in full to help finance research >for a cure for cancer. > > A short time ago I read that budgets for cancer research have gone >way down in the US, that the pharmaceutical industry is not very >interested in it. I hope my pictures help to change this idea. >Fortunately, in Cuba the government is very concerned about this >issue. But it lacks money and supplies. And the US blockade >persists, preventing existing technology for less painful treatments >from entering the country, despite Washington's disclaimers to the >contrary. > > I offer my work to anyone who wants to show it. I don't care who >it is or where they come from. All the space in the world to talk >about this problem would always seem too little to me. We have to >raise a fuss with this Unfortunately, in this world we find more >people who are confused by the supposed flexibilization >measures announced by Clinton, than people who know the blockade >remains strong, even in the field of medicine. > > Genesis is a call to US pharmaceutical corporations and to the >entire world, doesn�t stop research for a cure for cancer; it is also >a call to governments. Invest in sciences. And stop blockades that >make illnesses even more painful. > > Some of the children in these pictures have already died. And >yet, in my pictures they are still alive. Every look is still as >accusatory as when I took them. > > I want all the pictures to touch the feelings of those who look at >them, and to help change attitudes. I want them to feel the pain, >but also the hope. That is why the last picture of the collection is >of a boy with an amputated leg jumping in the air with his arms wide >open. This image, in a way, summarizes my wish that a future is at >hand when Genesis will be nothing more than a visual and human >testimonial of a terrible time when people still died of cancer." JC > > > > > > __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. 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