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subject: Radio Havana Feb 10/11. Fidel -Market Reforms not quality
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
Radio Havana Cuba - Weekend News Update - 10/11 February 2001
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*FIDEL SAYS FREE MARKET "REFORMS" PREVENT QUALITY EDUCATION FOR ALL
*PEREZ ROQUE SAYS THREATENED MEXICAN AMBASSADOR WILL RECEIVE
PROTECTION
*PARLIAMENTARIANS FROM PANAMA CONCLUDE WORKING VISIT TO CUBA
*HAVANA'S 10th INTERNATIONAL BOOK FAIR COMES TO A CLOSE
*CUBA INCREASES SUGAR DERIVATIVE EXPORTS
*CROATIA'S ECONOMY MINISTER TO VISIT CUBA NEXT WEEK
*Viewpoint: IN CUBA, THE INTERNET SERVES THE PEOPLE
.
*FIDEL SAYS FREE MARKET "REFORMS" PREVENT QUALITY EDUCATION FOR ALL
Havana, February 10 (RHC)-- During the closing session Friday evening
of Havana's Pedagogy 2001 Congress, Cuban President Fidel Castro
insisted that free market reform, International Monetary Fund
demands, and an unpayable foreign debt constitute obstacles to
quality education for all.
The Cuban leader praised the educators from 42 countries who
participated in the event, saying that they print a currency much
more valuable than the U.S. dollar. He said their currency is human
capital.
President Castro said he's always been impressed by the radical
positions of teachers here in our region -- in reference to the
almost daily teachers' strikes and demands for more funds and
attention to the education sector.
He said this attitude is probably due to the fact that educators are
in daily contact with poor children who eventually are unable to
continue their studies. The Cuban leader said he hoped they are not
accused of being communists and Marxist-Leninists as a result of
their attitude.
Fidel Castro said that only an education in truth is capable of
giving a person or a people a true sense of solidarity. He said this
is why half a million Cubans have provided services abroad in regions
totally ignored by free market polices.
The Cuban president termed as shameful the fact that an
economically blockaded country has been capable of doing more for the
Third World than the superpower that has been doing the blockading
for more than 40 years.
*PEREZ ROQUE SAYS THREATENED MEXICAN AMBASSADOR WILL RECEIVE
PROTECTION
Havana, February 10 (RHC)-- Cuba will provide full protection to
Mexico's Ambassador in Havana, Ricardo Pascoe, who received threats
due to his country's ties with Cuba. During a news conference Friday
afternoon in the Cuban capital, Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque
acknowledged that Havana takes seriously threats on the life of
Pascoe -- received from an anonymous, terrorist group earlier this
month that seems to be based in Miami.
The Cuban foreign minister noted that Miami-based groups have shown
that they are unscrupulous -- planting bombs in hotels and carrying
out other terrorist actions -- but emphasized that the island's
security is tight. Perez Roque stated that Havana will offer any and
all protection necessary to Mexican diplomatic personnel.
During another part of yesterday's news conference, the Cuban
foreign minister referred to the ongoing dispute between Havana and
Buenos Aires. In answer to questions put to him by reporters, Perez
Roque said that Cuba is not preparing for an end to diplomatic
relations with Argentina. He added that Havana's ambassador to Buenos
Aires will remain in the Argentinean capital, a reference to the fact
that Argentina has recalled its ambassador from Havana.
Cuba's top diplomat stated that the people of Argentina have always
received the support and solidarity of the Cuban people. He
emphasized Cuba's solidarity during the bloody dictatorships that
ruled Argentina during the 1970s and '80s -- adding that Havana also
supported Buenos Aires during the war against Britain over the
Malvinas Islands. And Felipe Perez Roque recalled that for the past
20 years, Cuba has co-sponsored a United Nations resolution to
recognize Argentina's sovereignty over the islands.
During Friday's news conference in Havana, Cuba's foreign minister
again took aim at the administration of Argentinean President
Fernando de la Rua, which he said is joining Washington in its dirty
campaign against Cuba at the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Commission.
*PARLIAMENTARIANS FROM PANAMA CONCLUDE WORKING VISIT TO CUBA
Habana, February 10 (RHC)-- A delegation from Panama's Parliament
returned home Saturday after a jam-packed official agenda in Havana.
The Panamanian parliamentarians, headed by the Vice President of
Panama's Legislative Assembly, Mateo Castillero, met late Friday with
Cuba's Deputy Foreign Minister Pedro Nunez Mosquera on issues of
bilateral interest related to a joint declaration issued last
February 8 by the 6th Cuba-Panama Parliamentary Meeting which
gathered last week in Havana.
The island's delegation to the Cuba-Panama Parliamentary Meeting was
headed by the President of Cuba's National Assembly of People's Power
(Parliament) Ricardo Alarcon.
The Panamanian parliamentary delegation also held talks with Jose
Ramon Balaguer, member of the Politburo of Cuba's Communist Party,
and visited places of cultural and social interest such as the
historic section of Old Havana and the Latin American School of
Medicine.
*HAVANA'S 10th INTERNATIONAL BOOK FAIR COMES TO A CLOSE
Havana, February 10 (RHC)-- Following nine days of exhibitions,
Havana's 10th International Book Fair concluded on Saturday -- an
event that has been called a demonstration of the recovery of Cuba's
publishing industry.
Saturday was dedicated to Spain and in particular to Cuban writer and
poet Roberto Fernandez Retamar. The event provided a meeting place
for several internationally renowned figures in the field of
literature, including Chilean Marcela Serrano, Mexican Laura Esquivel
and Spanish Almudena Grandes.
Some 116 publishing houses from 28 countries attended the Havana
event held at La Cabana Fortress, an 18th century Spanish military
castle located on the eastern side of Havana Bay.
The fair encouraged debate on issues such as literature that women
prefer to write and read, the contemporary novel in Latin America and
the current state of philosophical thought in Spain.
The event saw nearly 20 book launchings daily as well as the sale of
many books in four different book shops which were permanently
visited by readers.
Among the titles on display by Cuba's Jose Marti and Arts and
Literature publishing houses were "The year of Ricardo Reis' Death",
by 1998 Nobel Literature prize winner Portuguese Jose Saramago and
"Malena is the Name of the Tango Tune", by Almudena Grandes, among
others which garnered first places at the fair.
Some Cuban classical literary works were re-edited by the island's
Letras Cubanas publishing house, which included novels by Alejo
Carpentier, Miguel Barnet and Dulce Maria Loynaz widely acclaimed by
countless visitors to the fair.
Preliminary figures say that some 300,000 volumes were sold at
affordable prices during the event.
*CUBA INCREASES SUGAR DERIVATIVE EXPORTS
Habana, February 10 (RHC)-- The sugar derivative exports of
Cuba's Tecnoazucar enterprise in the year 2000 added five million
dollars to the island's income.
In conversation with Havana's Prensa Latina News Agency,
Tecnoazucar director, Hector Campanioni, said that the figure
surpasses 1999 exports by nearly three million dollars.
The Caribbean region, Central and South America, Europe and Asia
were targets of our sugar derivative exports, which included
liqueurs, bagasse boards and alcohol, among others, as well as parts
and equipment for the agriculture sector, said the director.
He said sales in the internal dollar market also saw a significant
increase of nearly 15 million dollars, while the firm made
investments valued at over one million dollars aimed at enhancing
quality and diversifying its products.
Some of the investments, explained Campanioni, went into water-
treatment, candy-producing and bottling plants. He said Tecnoazucar
contributed some 12 million dollars to the island's Sugar Ministry in
the year 2000, more than twice the 1999 contribution.
The firm's director concluded by saying that for the year 2001,
Tecnoazucar expects to earn 22 million dollars, which is considered a
considerable challenge but something possible to achieve. Created in
1982, Tecnoazucar is a self-financed state enterprise that
independently market its own products and services.
*CROATIA'S ECONOMY MINISTER TO VISIT CUBA NEXT WEEK
Havana, February 10 (RHC)-- The Economy Minister of the Republic of
Croatia, Goranko Sizulic, will visit Havana next week for a four-day
working visit.
Sizulic is scheduled to arrive here next February 14 heading an
official and business delegation whose agenda includes negotiations
of several bilateral agreements.
A group of Croat experts will arrive Sunday in Havana to
previously coordinate with their Cuban counterparts the signing of
three accords in the trade and investment sectors and one cooperation
agreement between the two countries' chambers of commerce.
During his stay in Havana, the Croatian economy minister will meet
with the island's Ministers of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation
as well as with other Cuban government officials. This will be the
first Croatian delegation to visit the island since that European
republic split from Yugoslavia.
*Viewpoint: IN CUBA, THE INTERNET SERVES THE PEOPLE
Several days ago, the U.S. daily The Washington Post published an
article that implied that the Revolutionary Government of Cuba was
blocking access to the Internet, without explaining the key issue:
economics. The Post article made it appear that Cuba has not allowed
any access at all to "the information highway" -- when the truth is
that the island has been acquiring computers and concentrating on the
use and distribution of information for a number of years now.
Here in Cuba, the priority for this new technology is to place it at
the service of social needs. Obviously, a country which has been
blockaded by the world's biggest military and economic power over the
past 40 years cannot be in an easy position to offer technological
advances to all of its citizens. The priority for the Cuban
Revolution must first be in the areas of health care, education and
other vital services for the people. But to imply that Cuba is
blocking access to the Internet is completely false.
An article in the Cuban daily Granma on Wednesday (7 February)
examined the issue and pointed out that there are several Web servers
on the island, providing services to universities, hospitals and
other public institutions. Sergio Perez, the director of Teledatos
here in Havana, stated that one has to be realistic when introducing
high-tech equipment in a Third World country -- particularly a
country that is trying to have a more equitable distribution of
wealth and resources.
The article in The Washington Post attempted to paint the picture of
a government that is prohibiting access to the Internet -- assuming
that Cuba fears that people will download information which could
harm the Revolution. But the authors of the Post article have no idea
what daily life is like here on the island.
Here in Cuba, the electronic and print media inform our people about
events both nationally and internationally. Not only are many reports
taken from other information agencies, but Cuba's coverage is
extensive and, many times, even more complete than reporting in the
United States. The Cuban media not only informs, but adds an analysis
of world events, placing that information in context -- unlike the
"info-tainment" and "fluff" news of the Empire.
We are now engaged in a Battle of Ideas -- which began in full force
a little over a year ago with the massive mobilizations to win the
release of a little, six-year-old boy from his kidnappers in Miami.
With the return of Elian Gonzalez to his family in Cardenas, the
Cuban people are demanding an end to the Cuban Adjustment Act and the
genocidal U.S. economic blockade against our island.
Cuba fully understands the importance of using all available means
to communicate our ideas to the rest of the world. The Internet
serves as an important resource -- not only to receive information
from other areas, but to also disseminate the truth about the Cuban
Revolution.
(c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved.
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rhc-eng-1484 2001-Feb-11 07:49:51 " JC
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