>from: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2000 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: Radio Havana Cuba-17 August 2000 23:30 > >Radio Havana Cuba-17 August 2000 23:30 > Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit > Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 17 August 2000 23:30 > > >*CUBA WILL NOT GRANT OLYMPIC CONCESSIONS TO 3 ATHLETES >*CHILDREN IN HOLGUIN UNDERGO surgery WITH NEW VIDEO-ASSISTED > TECHNIQUES >*OVERTIME IN SANCTI SPIRITUS PRODUCING NOTEBOOKS FOR THE NEXT SCHOOL > YEAR >*"DOWN WITH THE BLOCKADE" TABLOID AVAILABLE ON NEWSTANDS ACROSS THE > ISLAND >*WHILE THE RICH SPEND BILLIONS ON WEAPONS, 20 MILLION AFRICANS STARVE > TO DEATH > > >*CUBA WILL NOT GRANT OLYMPIC CONCESSIONS TO 3 ATHLETES > >Madrid, August 17 (RHC)-- The vice president of Cuba's Sports >Institute, Alberto Juantorena, announced Wednesday that Cuban >athletes Niurka Montalvo, Ivan Perez and Liliana Allen, will not be >allowed to participate in the Sydney Olympic Games. > >The former Olympic champion runner told reporters in Madrid that >Havana will grant no special concessions to the three, who became >citizens of other countries by marriage. Juantorena explained that >under Rule 46 of the Olympic Charter, the country of origin has the >power to veto athletes' participation in the Games if they have been >naturalized for less than three years. The rule is meant to >discourage the buying of athletes from poor nations for competition >on behalf of their newly-acquired developed countries. > >Cuba has often complained that after training athletes, often from >the time they are children, the rich nations want to buy them to >compete on their national sports teams. World champion long-jumper >Niurka Montalvo defected to Spain in 1997, three months before the >World Track and Field Championship in Athens, where she won a medal >for Spain. She later married a Spaniard and became a citizen of >Spain. > >Ivan Perez, waterpolo world champion, also became a Spanish citizen >through marriage. Runner Liliana Allen married a Mexican and became >a citizen of that country. > >Alberto Juantorena stressed that the problem is not that the athletes >are married to foreigners and he pointed out that other Cuban >athletes have married foreigners, including internationally-known >sprinter Ana Fidelia Quirot, who is married to an Italian. > >The vice president of the Cuban Sports Institute said that Cuba >doesn't get involved in the private lives of its athletes, nor is >Cuba opposed to free travel. However, Niurka Montalvo was under a >ten year contract when she left Cuba. Juantorena stated that >Montalvo left the island, well aware of the possible consequences, >asking the question: So why is she presenting herself as a victim? >Alberto Juantorena explained during a news conference in Madrid that >Cuban athletes -- after receiving free training -- are the subject of >constant offers of large amounts of money and promises of fame, if >they abandon Cuban sports and compete in developed nations. > > *CHILDREN IN HOLGUIN UNDERGO surgery WITH NEW VIDEO-ASSISTED >TECHNIQUES > >Holguin, August 17 (RHC)-- In the eastern province of Holguin, some >60 children have been operated on through the use of newly- >implemented video endoscope surgery. The video-assisted surgery was >performed in the provincial Octavio de la Concepcion Pediatric >Hospital where the technique was introduced last February. > >According to Dr. Rafael Trinchet, who heads the team that performs >the new procedure, the hospital is making use of 13 new video >techniques, including treatment for gastro- esophaghical reflux >syndrome. The results, which have been achieved in a short time, >noted Dr. Trinchet, have placed Holguin in the vanguard of this new >specialty of pediatric video-assisted surgery. > >The minimum-access technique provides many advantages for the >treatment of infants, including less trauma than conventional >operations, a faster recuperation period, shorter hospital stays and >reduced costs. > > *OVERTIME IN SANCTI SPIRITUS PRODUCING NOTEBOOKS FOR THE NEXT SCHOOL >YEAR > >Sancti Spiritus, August 17 (RHC)-- Workers in the Panchito Gomez Toro >paper factory in central Sancti Spiritus are working overtime to >insure that next year's school children will have their notebooks. So >far, in July and August, the plant has produced more than one million >notebooks. > >The paper factory, located in Jatiboinco, is the island's largest >and expects to complete two and a half million books by the time >school starts in early September. For that reason, employees are >working two 12-hour shifts, turning out some 60,000 notebooks daily. > > *"DOWN WITH THE BLOCKADE" TABLOID AVAILABLE ON NEWSTANDS ACROSS THE >ISLAND > >Havana, August 17 (RHC)-- A compilation of the seven televised >roundtables, held in Cuba between the 5th and 13th of July - dealing >with the U.S. blockade and Washington's economic war against Cuba -- >is now available on newsstands across the country. > >According to a front-page announcement in today's Granma newspaper, >the special 32-page tabloid includes an analysis provided by Cuban >journalists, specialists and government leaders on Washington's >policy of blockading Cuba since the l959 triumph of the Revolution. >The special tabloid covers events from the imposition of Washington's >blockade against the island in l962 to the passage by the U.S. >Congress of the extraterritorial Toricelli and Helms-Burton Laws. > >"Down with the Blockade" also carries a complete examination of the >costs of Washington's aggressive, anti-Cuba policy and international >condemnation of the United States. > > *Viewpoint: > >WHILE THE RICH SPEND BILLIONS ON WEAPONS, 20 MILLION AFRICANS STARVE >TO DEATH > >West Africa is living an indefinitely prolonged drama: some twenty >million human beings die of starvation and curable diseases there >every day. Although we are on the threshold of a new millenium, what >many would call "civilization" -- which in realty constitutes >modernization -- has yet to reach Africa. Scientific and >technological advancements continue to widen the gap between >developed and underdeveloped countries, ensuring supreme economic and >military power to First World nations. > >Meanwhile, a small nation like Cuba, which has had to confront an >economic blockade imposed by the United States for more than 40 >years, continues to make every possible effort to help its sister >Third World nations. > >If an impulse of generosity and humanity somehow miraculously >overcame the hearts and minds of the few that control the world's >vast resources and wealth and, hence, the political distribution of >those resources, two-thirds of humanity affected by starvation and >curable illnesses would suddenly see the light at the end of the >tunnel. > >The fact that there are fewer telephones in all of Africa than in New >York's Manhattan neighborhood, delineates the massive discrepancies >exaggerated by exploitative relations of dependency between the rich >and poor nations of the world. The technological advancements >positively affecting First World nations only serve to further >marginalize underdeveloped countries. The problem of maintaining >vast deposits of raw materials, without the capital to extract and >refine them, leaves the poor nations of the world in what continues >to be a deadly dependency related economic cycle. Thus, the rich get >richer at the expense of the poor, affected by ever worsening >structural conditions, attributing their misfortunes to the wrath of >God and a vast array of superstitions. The lack of educational >institutions only serves to reinforce this mentality, rather than >enlighten poor people to the real causes of their suffering. > >During his visit to Cuba in January 1998, Pope John Paul II expressed >the idea of global solidarity with the world's popular sectors. Both >the Cuban people and President Fidel Castro embraced the idea with >enthusiasm. Cuba has been a bastion of internationalism for decades, >despite being affected by difficult socio-economic conditions. >Cuba's present emphasis on internationalism lies in health care, in >which the island has sent thousands of medical and health care >experts to Latin America, Africa, and the Caribbean. Cuban doctors >and nurses have saved thousands of lives by donating free and quality >medical care to some of the most remote sectors of these developing >countries. > >A small Caribbean nation like Cuba has been able to help others in >time of need, even in light of a severe economic crisis and an >economic war imposed on it by the United States. Imagine if Cuba's >example could be multiplied among the rich nations of the world. If >the First World earmarked just a fraction of what it spends on arms >and Hollywood-style electoral processes that only serve the interests >of the rich, many of the sources of international conflict would >diminish and peace might just have a chance. > >The most powerful countries of the world talk about democracy and >human rights, while their so-called democracies continue to line the >pockets of the both the rich and their military industrial complexes. >Their prisons are full of political prisoners who espouse ideas >contrary to the very systems that continue to impoverish and repress >the world's poor. The underdeveloped peoples of Asia, Africa, and >Latin America continue to wait for answers that respond to the real >sources of their problems. > >(c) 2000 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved. > >================================================================= > NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems > Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us > 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 > http://www.blythe.org e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >============== >nytcari-08.18.00-16:43:12-8707 " 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] ___________________________________
