from: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
subject: Radio Havana Cuba-Feb 1. Broken pledges from North
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 01 February 2001
.
*GEOGRAPHY CLASSES BEGIN ON CUBAN TV, FOLLOWING SUCCESSFUL ENGLISH
COURSE
*BUSH WHITEHOUSE SCREENS ITS FIRST MOVIE, ON CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS
*ANDEAN COMMUNITY CONGRATULATES CUBA ON ITS SUPPORT OF REGIONAL
INTEGRATION
*BRAZIL AND CUBA SIGN INTER-PARLIAMENTARY AGREEMENT
*ECUADOR RELEASES INDIGENOUS LEADER, NEGOTIATING WITH PROTESTORS
*FORMER CHILEAN DICTATOR ARRESTED; ATTORNEYS FILE APPEAL
*US SENATE VOTES TO APPROVE JOHN ASHCROFT AS ATTORNEY GENERAL
Viewpoint:
*THE INDUSTRIALIZED NORTH RENEGES ON ITS PLEDGE TO ASSIST IN
DEVELOPMENT
.
*GEOGRAPHY CLASSES BEGIN ON CUBAN TV, FOLLOWING SUCCESSFUL ENGLISH
COURSE
Havana, February 1 (RHC)-After four months of success in broadcasting
classes in the English language across the nation in a program called
University for All, Cuban TV has added another course named Geography
of Cuba.
The 32 hour course is designed to bring to every household an
understanding of the island's principal socio-economic regions as
well as give Cubans a geo-history of their island. It also
compliments - but does not replace - the geography course taught to
9th graders across the nation, enabling them to strengthen their
knowledge learnt at school.
English classes are transmitted Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The
same class is repeated three times a day at 07:00, 14:00 and 23:00.
The new Geography class will be aired at the same times on Tuesdays
and Thursdays. Thus, every element of the population has access to
the coursework. Printed materials to complement the classes are made
available at newsstands across the nation for a 2-peso charge, which
is equivalent to 10 US cents.
If the phenomenal success of the English classes is anything to go
by, the geography class will soon be watched by a huge majority of
this nation of TV viewers - second only in popularity to the nightly
soap-opera.
.
*BUSH WHITEHOUSE SCREENS ITS FIRST MOVIE, ON CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS
Havana, February 1 (RHC)-The very first movie to be screened for
George W. Bush in his new residence in the U.S. White House will be
Kevin Costner's "Thirteen Days" which purports to describe the Cuban
Missile Crisis, which brought the world to the brink of nuclear war
in October of 1962.
Bush Thursday invited members of the Kennedy family to the showing
in deference to the memory of John F. Kennedy who was U.S. president
at the time of the crisis and whose brother Robert negotiated with
Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to end the war footing that both
nations had embarked upon. Kennedy agreed not to invade Cuba - as his
administration had attempted the year before in the Bay of Pigs
fiasco - and Khrushchev withdrew the missiles.
With White House spokespeople saying that the new president will
be "studying" the missile crisis, historians are concerned that this
apparent learning experience will be narrowed down to this Hollywood
version of the events that rocked the world and had serious political
consequences, not only for the U.S. and the Soviet Union, but also
for the island of Cuba.
.
*ANDEAN COMMUNITY CONGRATULATES CUBA ON ITS SUPPORT OF REGIONAL
INTEGRATION
Havana, February 1 (RHC)-The presence of Cuba in the Latin
American Integration Association - known by its acronym ALADI - has
opened new avenues for the island's integration with the rest of the
region, said Jorge Vega Castro, the director of the Andean Community.
In comments made during a debate in the International Conference
on Globalization and Development currently under way in Havana, Vega
Castro congratulated Cuba's decision to join ALADI, which, he said,
made absolute sense in the face of the imminent course of
globalization. He reminded everyone present that Latin America also
has other regional integration groups such as the Caribbean area
CARICOM, the South American MERCOSUR and the Central American Common
Market.
Cuba has long been a strong proponent of regional integration for
both political and trade motives and the third annual hosting of this
conference is an indication of how seriously it takes the issue. As
with previous years, Cuban president Fidel Castro has attended an
important part of the sessions ready to add his voice to the concerns
being raised.
The director of the Andean Community said that other possibilities
should be explored in seeking further regional integration - such as
financial cooperation to combat the vulnerability of Latin American
economies in the face of international financial predicaments. This
was something, which the Latin American Development Fund and the
Caribbean Development Bank are currently addressing following the
disasters to the Ecuadoran, Brazilian and other regional economies in
the 1998 Asian financial crisis.
.
*BRAZIL AND CUBA SIGN INTER-PARLIAMENTARY AGREEMENT
Havana, February 1 (RHC)-Brazil and Cuba Thursday signed an inter-
parliamentary agreement in which both legislative bodies pledged
to meet alternately in each other's nation to debate bilateral
agreements in economic and commercial areas.
The agreement, signed in Brasilia by Cuban parliament president
Ricardo Alarcón and Brazilian head of the House of Representatives,
Michel Temer, also covers issues such as Latin American integration,
drug-trafficking, cultural exchange, health, education, the
environment and tourism.
Both Alarcón and Temer praised the accord as one that will increase
and strengthen relations between the two countries and their peoples.
The president of the Brazilian Senate, Antonio Carlos Magalhaes, also
received Alarcón, who is in Brazil for the World Social Forum.
.
*ECUADOR RELEASES INDIGENOUS LEADER, NEGOTIATING WITH PROTESTORS
Quito, February 1 (RHC)-- Ecuadoran authorities have released
indigenous leader Antonio Vargas along with the leader of the Popular
Front coalition, Luis Villacis. Their release Thursday afternoon, as
well as the release from jail of Mario Morales, the president of the
Confederation of Workers of Pinchincha, came as a result of popular
pressure on the administration of President Gustavo Noboa to repeal
price hikes in transportation, fuel and domestic gas.
Talks between the government and trade union and indigenous groups
continue in the Ecuadoran capital, but observers say there appears to
be little progress. Meanwhile, it is being reported that other
opposition leaders have been arrested and there is a tense calm in
Quito, the capital, and other major cities of Ecuador.
.
*FORMER CHILEAN DICTATOR ARRESTED; ATTORNEYS FILE APPEAL
Santiago de Chile, February 1 (RHC)-- Former Chilean dictator
Augusto Pinochet has been placed under house arrest on his farm,
located some 120 kilometers west of the capital, Santiago. A judicial
order was delivered to the country home of the aging Pinochet by an
associate of Judge Juan Guzman, who issued the decision earlier this
week.
The former dictator refused to sign the papers ordering his arrest
and his attorneys refused comment. Early Thursday morning, members of
Pinochet's defense team presented an appeal before the Court of
Appeals in Santiago de Chile.
The former army general who led the 1973 military coup that
overthrew constitutionally-elected President Salvador Allende is
being formally charged with ordering the "Caravan of Death" -- when
at least 75 political prisoners were summarily executed on his
orders.
.
*US SENATE VOTES TO APPROVE JOHN ASHCROFT AS ATTORNEY GENERAL
Washington, February 1 (RHC)-- The U.S. Senate today voted by a
narrow margin to approve the controversial nomination of John
Ashcroft for attorney general. The vote was 58 to 42. Eight of the 50
Democratic senators voted in favor of the attorney general designate,
joining all 50 Republicans.
The designation of Ashcroft by President George W. Bush for the top
job in the Justice Department met with strong opposition. He was
subjected to hundreds of questions about his religious and political
views during Senate confirmation hearings over the past several
weeks.
John Ashcroft, a former governor and senator from the State of
Missouri, is a self-proclaimed "born-again Christian" and is said to
hold extremist, right wing views. The new attorney general of the
United States has been accused by civil rights activists of being a
racist and sympathizer of white supremacy.
.
Viewpoint:
*THE INDUSTRIALIZED NORTH RENEGES ON ITS PLEDGE TO ASSIST IN
DEVELOPMENT
When a nation signs an agreement, it should be prepared to fulfill
its obligations under that agreement, but the majority of the rich
countries are failing to comply with their promises to help poor
countries by donating at least 0.7% of their gross domestic products
to promote development.
The Third International Economists Meeting on Globalization and
Problems of Development, which is gathering in Havana this week, is
taking a hard look at the issue based on the most recent statistics.
According to United Nations figures, in l992 the industrialized North
contributed a total of 60 billion dollars to development, but , that
figure has now fallen to just over 16 billion putting an end to the
proposal passed at the U.N. Earth Summit held in Brazil in l992. This
despite the fact that international institutions termed the mechanism
as key to promoting sustainable development worldwide.
We should recall that during the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro where
the so-called "Agenda 21" was debated, discussions were marred by the
reluctance of the United States and other highly industrialized
countries to take on the economic obligations necessary to aid in
development and to preserve the environment.
Studies undertaken by the United Nations revealed the necessity for
the rich nations to increase their contributions for development to
0.7% of their gross domestic products, a figure that was at first
resisted by the industrialized nations and then later accepted.
As was stated in Rio de Janeiro and in later international forums,
the percentage that was proposed and finally grudgingly agreed to ,
is far too little to achieve the objective of implementing a serious
plan to deal with the problems plaguing the Third World.
Those problems include the Third World's skyrocketing foreign debt,
tariff barriers, the fall in prices of basic goods and the
indiscriminate sacking the nation's principal wealth by voracious
transnationals.
As we begin the new millennium the United Nations is facing the
reiterated refusal of the North to meet its obligations to assist in
development. The only exceptions are Holland, Sweden, Denmark,
Luxemburg and Norway. The United Nations deserves the support of all
its members in finding a way to make these pledges so important to
our planet, enforceable.
(c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved.
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rhc-eng-31011 2001-Feb-02 01:16:16 " JC
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