>from: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: G77:CLOSING SPEECH by Fidel Castro >Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 > >Speech given by Dr. Fidel Castro Ruz, President of the Council of >State and Council of Ministers of the Republic of Cuba, during the >closing session of the South Summit, at the International Conference >Center, Havana, Cuba, April 14, 2000 > >Excellencies; Distinguished delegates and guests; > >Perhaps after the generous resolution you have just adopted regarding >the United States� economic war against Cuba, without our having >requested it, it would be better to say: dear brothers and sisters. > > I have been truly impressed by the speeches we have heard here >today. Over the course of many hours, I took note of the main ideas >expressed by every Head of State or Government, vice presidents and >other high officials who took the floor. > > I have attended many summit meetings, but never before had I seen >such a coincidence of opinion among the Third World leaders. This >shows two things: > > Firstly: talent, clear thinking, the ability to elaborate and >communicate ideas, and the experience accumulated by the leaders of >our countries throughout 40 years, since the inception of the Non- >Aligned Movement and later the Group of 77, as many of the peoples >represented here achieved independence and we supported each other as >free states or as liberation movements. > > Secondly: the severity of the crises facing our countries in their >efforts to achieve development, and the growing inequality and >discrimination they suffer. > > The participants here have denounced, one by one, the injustices >and calamities that plague our nations and are a constant source of >concern to us all. > > Every single speaker alluded to the debt tragedy that limits our >resources for economic and social development in a thousand different >ways. > > There was practically unanimous agreement on the view that the >benefits of globalization extend to only 20% of the world�s >population, at the expense of the other 80%, while the gap between >the wealthy countries and the marginalized world grows increasingly >wider. > > There was also a unanimous approach to the need for a transformation >of both the United Nations and the international financial system. > > One way or another, every delegation expressed the view that unequal >and unfair trade is decimating the Third World�s export revenues >through tariff and non-tariff barriers that deprive it of the minimum >amount required to pay off debts and achieve sustainable economic and >social development. > > Equally unanimous was the complaint that scientific and >technical development, currently monopolized by the privileged club >of wealthy countries, remains beyond our reach, for it is the wealthy >countries that control the research centers, hold almost 100% of >patents, and increasingly hinder our access to know-how and >technology. Quite a few leaders of the South took it upon themselves >to remind us of something that is barely mentioned in the manuals on >neoliberal policies and economics: the shameless theft of the most >highly qualified minds of the Third World. The North countries are >appropriating them because the South cannot offer enough research >centers, and much less the high salaries that draw these minds to the >consumer societies, which did not spend a penny on training them. >In addition, many of the outstanding youths from the Third World >studying at universities in the former colonial powers or other >wealthy countries do not return home after graduation. > > Many of our world leaders used really overwhelming figures and >statistics to reflect the sum total of accumulated financial >obligations and the brutal mockery at dozens of the poorest countries >of which only four have been targeted for a slight relief. There is a >clearly resounding clamor for the Third World�s debt to be >considerably reduced if it cannot be completely cancelled, which is >what would be most fair and equitable for the peoples who have paid >it off many times over in the course of centuries past and present. > > Many of our colleagues have addressed the need to establish >fiscal obligations on various activities in order to finance >development. > > Cuba has sustained, and steadfastly insists, that a 1% tax on >all speculative operations would suffice to finance the development >of the Third World. Pay no attention to those who claim that it would >be impossible. The technical resources and know-how currently >available would make it perfectly possible. > > When one hears the participants at this Summit describe the billions >of people who receive less than two dollars, less than one dollar or >only a few cents with which to survive, one might come to believe >that our planet is devoid of even the slightest sense of humanity. >Nobody could have imagined that after the century of the revolution >for liberty, equality and fraternity over 200 years ago, the century >of accelerated industrialization that followed or that of great >breakthroughs in communications, science and the productivity of >human labor, which has just come to an end, we would be discussing >the hundreds of millions of people who are going >hungry, malnourished, illiterate, unemployed and suffering from >disease, in addition to the colossal numbers of children who are >undersized or underweight for their age, who have no access to >schools or medical care, or who are forced to work at grueling and >low-paying jobs, not to mention infant mortality rates that are >sometimes over 20 times higher than in the wealthy nations. These are >the permanent human rights reserved to us. > > Fixed in our memories, as a symbol of our era, is the figure of 36 >million people in the world infected with AIDS, of which 26 million >live in the African continent, as indicated by the Secretary General >of the United Nations; medical treatment for them would require >10,000 US dollars per person per year. And, in the next twelve >months, another six million newly infected people will engross this >figure. > > Why do all of these happen? How much longer will it last? > > One way or another, practically everyone here expressed their >expectations about this Summit. > Never before had I seen such awareness. Let us hope that we are as >aware of our combined strength as we are of the pettiness and the >injustices we suffer. > >Perhaps in the future people will speak in terms of before and after >the first South Summit. It is up to us to make it happen. > > People used to talk about apartheid in Africa. Today, we can talk >about apartheid throughout the world where more than four billion >people are deprived of the most basic rights of human beings: the >right to life, to health, to education, to clean water, to food, to >housing, to employment, to hope for their future and that of their >children. > > At the rate we are going, we will soon be deprived even of the air >we breathe, increasingly poisoned by the wasteful consumer societies >that pollute the elements essential for life and destroy human >habitat. Natural disasters like those that have affected Central >America, Venezuela, Mozambique and many other countries --almost all >of them in the Third World and all in the course of barely 18 months- >- were completely unprecedented in the 20th century. They took the >lives of thousands of people. These are the consequences of climatic >changes and the destruction of nature and the blame cannot be laid >upon those of us gathered here to fight not only for universal >standards of justice but also for the preservation of life on >the planet. > > The wealthy world pretends to ignore that slavery, colonialism and >the brutal exploitation and plunder to which our countries were >subjected for centuries are the causes of underdevelopment and >poverty. They look upon us as inferior nations. They attribute the >poverty we suffer to the inability of African, Asian, Caribbean and >Latin American peoples, that is, of dark and yellow skinned, >indigenous and mixed-race peoples to achieve any degree of >development or even to govern ourselves. They speak of our flaws as >if it were not they themselves who impregnated our pure and noble >ancestral peoples with the vices of the colonizers or the exploiters. > > They also pretend to ignore that when Europe was populated by those >whom the Roman Empire called barbarians, there were civilizations in >China, India, the Far East, the Middle East, and north and central >Africa that had created what are still known today as World Wonders >and that had developed written languages before the Greeks learned to >read and Homer wrote The Iliad. In our own hemisphere, the Mayans and >pre-Incan civilizations had attained knowledge that still today >continues to astound the world. > > I am firmly convinced that the current economic order imposed by the >wealthy countries is not only cruel, unjust, inhuman and contrary to >the inevitable course of history but also inherently racist. It >reflects racist conceptions like those that once inspired the Nazi >holocaust and concentration camps of Europe, mirrored today in the >so-called refugee camps of the Third World, which actually serve to >concentrate the effects of poverty, hunger and violence. These are >the same racist conceptions that inspired the monstrous system of >apartheid in Africa. > > At this Summit, our reflections were aimed at building unity, >accumulating forces, strategies, tactics and the means to coordinate >and guide our efforts to ensure that our vital economic rights are >recognized. But, this Summit also reflects our obligation to fight >for our dignity, our culture and our right to be treated as equals. > > In the same way that, in a not-so-distant past, we defeated >colonialism and attained the status of independent countries, and >much more recently crushed the heinous and fascist apartheid system >through the common efforts of the Third World in support of the >heroic South African fighters, we can show that we are not inferior >to anyone when it comes to fighting capacity, bravery, talent and >virtues. > > We are fighting for the most sacred rights of the poor countries; >but we are also fighting for the salvation of a First World incapable >of preserving the existence of the human species, of governing itself >in the midst of contradictions and self-serving interests and much >less of governing the world whose leadership must be democratically >shared. It could almost be mathematically demonstrated that we are >fighting to preserve life on Earth. > This is only way that we can prevent the ship of which I spoke in >my welcoming address from colliding with the iceberg that could sink >us all. > > This is only way that we can look forward to life and not death. > Thank you, very much. " JC > > __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi ___________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe/unsubscribe messages mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________
