Radio Havana Cuba-09 May 2001
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 09 May 2001
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*FIDEL CASTRO, AWARDED HONORARY DOCTORATE, SPEAKS AT TEHRAN UNIVERSITY
*WHITE HOUSE BITTERLY DISAPPOINTED AFTER SECOND UN COMMITTEE OUSTER
*US AFL-CIO FEDERATION DECLARES WAR ON FTAA
*CUBA, ETHIOPIA SIGN MEDICAL COOPERATION ACCORD
*BRAZIL HOLDS FIRM IN PATENT DISPUTE WITH USA, DRUG COMPANIES
*CUBA TO TRAP WILD DOGS OVERRUNNING GUANTANAMO NATURE PRESERVE
Viewpoint:
*REJECTION OF WASHINGTON'S FOREIGN POLICY BEHIND US DIPLOMATIC DEFEATS
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*FIDEL CASTRO, AWARDED HONORARY DOCTORATE, SPEAKS AT TEHRAN UNIVERSITY
Tehran, May 9 (RHC) -- University students in Tehran have awarded visiting
Cuban President Fidel Castro an honorary degree in law and social sciences
for his lifetime commitment to struggle against injustice. The award
followed a master lecture delivered by the Cuban leader before hundreds of
enthusiastic students at the University of Tehran.
As is his custom, President Castro spoke in detail of the immense
inequalities between rich and poor nations, and of Cuba's more than 40 years
of resistance against U.S. efforts to strangle the Cuban Revolution. He said
the Cuban nation's level of education and political consciousness acquired
over past decades have been the weapons that allowed for the miracle of the
Cuban Revolution's survival.
Since his arrival in Iran on Monday, the Cuban leader has received exclusive
official treatment reserved only for the most illustrious visitors. Iranian
President Mohamed Khatami has praised Cuba's contribution to south-south
cooperation, insisting that the resistance of the Cuban nation is a example
for developing countries that prize their independence and progress.
Late Tuesday, the Cuban leader gathered with Iranian and Cuban specialists
building a biotechnology center on the outskirts of Tehran, which will be
the largest and most modern of its kind in the region. It will not only
allow Iran to be self-sufficient in pharmaceuticals, but also will permit
the country to export pharmaceutical products.
On Wednesday, Iran's Health Ministry blamed the U.S. embargo against both
Iran and Cuba for the delays in the project. Construction began in 1996 and
was to conclude in 2002, but due to embargo restrictions on machinery and
technology, only 60 percent of the facility has been completed.
*WHITE HOUSE BITTERLY DISAPPOINTED AFTER SECOND UN COMMITTEE OUSTER
Washington, May 9 (RHC) -- In the USA, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer
has bitterly acknowledged that the George W. Bush administration is
disappointed over its second exclusion from a United Nations Agency. Late
last week, the United States was excluded from the UN's International
Narcotics Control Board, after having been voted off the Human Rights
Commission.
Fleischer said Washington had received written guarantees of support, but
that 14 countries made an about-face. He admitted that there is no way to
determine which countries deceived Washington, since the vote was secret.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, according to the Washington
office of EFE news agency, was somewhat more realistic, admitting that at
least part of the blame resides in the U.S. government. In a complicated
manner, Boucher said he believed it is fair to speculate that the exclusion
could be related to matters involving Washington's behavior.
The White House has reportedly decided not to support the idea of some
conservative members of Congress who, in reprisal, want to renege on
promises to pay the multi-million dollar US debt to the world body.
*US AFL-CIO FEDERATION DECLARES WAR ON FTAA
Washington, May 9 (RHC) -- The president of the U.S.'s AFL-CIO labor
federation, John Sweeney, has declared war on the proposed Free Trade
Association of the Americas. Speaking Tuesday in Washington at a gathering
of U.S. business executives investing in Latin America, Sweeney announced an
aggressive campaign to deny President George W. Bush the "fast track" he
seeks to negotiate the deal.
Sweeney said that the NAFTA "free trade" agreement with Mexico has only
allowed for the exploitation of cheap labor and the contamination of
Mexico's environment, asserting that the only people interested in a
regional free trade zone are those in Washington and those who eat in
expensive restaurants. Sweeney said the AFL-CIO is broadening its alliance
with workers around the world who are convinced that free trade does not
respect labor rights or the environment.
The U.S. labor leader said the Bush administration currently does not have
sufficient support in Congress for a "fast track" mandate. His remarks
coincided with the publication of a letter sent to Bush and signed by 61
Senators who declared their opposition to any free trade deal that weakens
the US's controversial trade laws, among them the anti-dumping law.
Brazil, Latin America's largest economy, insists that the United States uses
the anti-dumping law as a protectionist measure applied arbitrarily to
protect US economic sectors that are not competitive. The law has been used
against Brazilian steel, orange juice and footwear. Last Monday a similar
sanction was slapped on Argentine honey, while Washington is expected to
adopt a similar measure against Chilean grapes.
*CUBA, ETHIOPIA SIGN MEDICAL COOPERATION ACCORD
Addis Ababa, May 9 (RHC)--Ethiopia and Cuba yesterday signed a medical
cooperation accord in Addis Ababa which will lead to the use of experimental
medical equipment in Ethiopia as well as the placement of 12 Cuban
specialists.
Ethiopia's Deputy Health Minister, Lamisso Hayisso, and the Cuban Deputy
Minister of Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation, Noemi de Mendoza
signed the accord.
The Cuban experts will work in Ethiopia for two years providing medical
training at hospitals and health institutions across the country. Cuba will
also provide grants for Ethiopian students to study medicine in Cuba. To
date, more than 4,000 Ethiopian students have studied in Cuba. Both
countries also agreed to exchange any information their research teams
uncover in the area of public health.
Similar accords on education and trade were signed last November between
Havana and Addis Ababa.
*BRAZIL HOLDS FIRM IN PATENT DISPUTE WITH USA, DRUG COMPANIES
Brasilia, May 9 (RHC)--The president of Brazil, Fernando Henrique
Cardoso, Tuesday threw his weight fully behind his nation's confrontation
with Washington and international pharmaceutical companies.
Brazil has become a symbol for the Third World in its production of generic
drugs to fight HIV/AIDS. The South American giant has fallen afoul of
transnational pharmaceutical corporations and their patents on the drugs,
but the nature of Brazil's public health crisis prompted Brasilia to act
against the corporations and the government of the US.
In a front-page article on the subject, the Cuban daily Granma reports that
Cardoso declared that he would not yield a millimeter when defending the
interests of his country. Brazil is being accused by the US of using the
AIDS issue to protect its own pharmaceutical industry.
Cuba stands solidly behind Brazil in its battle against the world's huge and
powerful pharmaceutical conglomerates. The island has already begun
producing its own HIV/AIDS medicines. South Africa is doing the same, and
recently came away victorious in a court standoff with companies such as
Bristol-Myers-Squibb, which sought to penalize Pretoria for patent
violations. Cuba has accords with both South Africa and Brazil to produce
the medicines for themselves and for other Third World nations.
With the gauntlet thrown down by these three nationsm Washington is stepping
up its pressure against them, reports Granma, which says that the US
government would be willing to see a full half of the world's population
succumb to the virus to please its corporate benefactors.
The head of Brazil's HIV/AIDS program, Ricardo Teixeira, has already
attacked the US position as "arrogant, autocratic and useless, because we
are not taking a single step backwards". The Brazilian Health Minister said
that Washington was not defending free trade or competition but the
interests of an industry that has a disproportionate influence on the Bush
administration".
*CUBA TO TRAP WILD DOGS OVERRUNNING GUANTANAMO NATURE PRESERVE
Guantanamo, May 9 (RHC)--Specialists are intensifying action against wild
dogs to protect the fauna and flora of the Alejandro de Humboldt National
Park -- the largest in Cuba.
A study of the population of wild dogs in the park concludes that there is a
worrying increase in their numbers. Wild dog packs are responsible for the
deaths of more than a thousand domestic and corralled animals every year in
just two of the park's zones; most of the losses are chickens and pigs.
However, they have also threatened other wild species with extinction and
park officials have finally found it necessary to take concerted action
action against them.
Rather than employ poisoning methods used by local campesinos that affect
other species in the park, environmental experts are seeking to capture the
dogs with traps that are easy to set and do not ensnare other animals.
.
Viewpoint:
*REJECTION OF WASHINGTON'S FOREIGN POLICY BEHIND US DIPLOMATIC DEFEATS
The United States is fighting mad. Government officials and legislators are
threatening to pull out of international accords and stop payments to the
United Nations after the most powerful country in the world was kicked off
two United Nations Commissions within a week. First, members of the UN Human
Rights Commission in Geneva in a secret vote, forced the United States off
the commission for the first time since its founding in l947.
Less than a week later, in another secret ballot, the United States lost its
seat on the United Nations International Narcotics Control Board, this time
with the help of its own European allies. Adding insult to injury, the vote
represents a loss to the US of the Board's vice presidency: Herbert Okun,
representative on the panel, had served in that capacity. This vote is seen
as an especially hard blow because the international flow of illegal drugs
is of utmost importance to the world's largest drug consumer: the United
States.
According to some specialists, the latest international reverses are related
to US government ignorance about some of the pacts considered to be vehicles
of international cooperation. Among the actions that have alienated the
international community are Washington's refusal since 1989 to ratify the
International Convention on Children's Rights, refusal to submit to the
International Court of Justice, and its violations of the International
Treaty against Nuclear Testing.
More recently, President Bush announced his unilateral renunciation of the
Kyoto Protocol on the elimination of dangerous gas emissions. Last March 28,
the US vetoed a Security Council resolution condemning repression against
Palestinians in the occupied territories, while on April 18 it opposed
condemnation of Israel in the Human Rights Commission for the violation of
the human rights of the Arab people.
Washington's European allies, as well as China and Russia, oppose Bush's
plans to build a National Anti-Missile Defense System, calling it a
provocation to start a new arms race.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell has admitted that the two international
defeats may have been the result of Washington's unpopular voting record,
especially regarding the Palestinians, as well as its campaigns against Cuba
and China.
In the final months of the Clinton administration, the United States and the
United Nations came to an agreement on the US paying its more than billion
dollar debt. That accord is now in danger of being rejected by Washington.
Influential Republican and Democratic lawmakers have threatened to hold back
payment on the huge UN debt if its seat on the Human Rights Commission is
not restored.
It remains to be seen how the Bush administration will deal with this new
turn of events, since its foreign policies thus far have seriously
compromised its relations with the rest of the world.
(c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved.
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