From: NY Transfer News <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Date: Fri, 11 May 2001 02:58:25 -0400 (EDT)
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Subject: [CubaNews] NY Transfer's RHC News Update-10 May 2001
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 10 May 2001
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*PRESIDENT CASTRO ARRIVES IN MALAYSIA AFTER 3 DAYS IN IRAN
*CUBA'S MATERNITY LEAVE BENEFITS "BEST IN THE HEMISPHERE"
*JOURNALISTS DISCUSS ISSUE OF CUBAN PRESS FREEDOMS
*SECOND CUBA-US YOUTH EXCHANGE SCHEDULED FOR JULY
*VIOLENT PROTEST IN PANAMA LEAVES 20 WOUNDED BY GUNFIRE
*US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES VOTES AGAINST PAYING UN DEBT
*FAMILY OF CINCINNATI VICTIM SUES CITY AND KILLER COP
*AIDS WILL CLAIM 16 MILLION AFRICAN FARMERS, SAYS FAO
*Viewpoint: CARIBBEAN INTEGRETION BEFORE FTAA
.
*PRESIDENT CASTRO ARRIVES IN MALAYSIA AFTER 3 DAYS IN IRAN
Kuala Lumpur, May 10 (RHC)--Cuban President Fidel Castro has arrived in
Malaysia for an official visit after spending three days in Iran. In a joint
communiqu� shortly before his departure from Tehran, Cuba and Iran stated
that they are determined to strengthen political, economic, cultural and
parliamentary ties and to promote bilateral cooperation in international
forums like the United Nations and the Non-Aligned Movement.
In an emotional good-bye after receiving the highest honors granted by Iran
to a head of state in recent years, the Cuban leader expressed his gratitude
to the population, Iranian students, journalists, security personnel and,
particularly, to his translator. President Castro said it would be
impossible for him to carry away a more pleasant memory of and higher esteem
for all of those with whom he came in contact during the visit.
*CUBA'S MATERNITY LEAVE BENEFITS "BEST IN THE HEMISPHERE"
Havana, May 10 (RHC)--According to an article by IPS news agency, Cuba's
recent extension of paid maternity leave from six months to one year is by
far and away the best in the hemisphere.
The article by Marcela Valente compares Cuba with other nations in Latin
America. Mexico and Peru provide 84 days of leave, Argentina and Uruguay
three months, Brazil four months and Chile and Venezuela four and a half
months. However, say women's rights activists like Monique Altschul who
leads the Argentine group Women in Equality, these leave periods are not
necessarily adhered to. Cuba also seems to be unique in that it respects
maternity leave to the letter, says Valente.
Many women elsewhere worry that their jobs may be at risk and are often back
at their workplaces within two weeks of giving birth. Employers skirt around
maternity leave by hiring women on short-term contracts only, thereby
avoiding the legal requirement to provide such leave. Argentine attorney
Carmen Gonzalez explained to IPS news that in the case of domestic workers,
the largest group of workers in Argentina, the law explicitly does not
provide maternity leave.
According to a report by the Economic Commission of Latin America and the
Caribbean, 74% of the region's workforce earn salaries that are insufficient
to take them out of poverty. Women are especially vulnerable, due to their
contract-worker status; and tend to work as much as possible before and
after pregnancy. They attempt to hang on to their jobs at all cost, in spite
of the fact that they are often replaced for cost-reduction reasons enabling
employers to avoid paying wage increases.
*JOURNALISTS DISCUSS ISSUE OF CUBAN PRESS FREEDOMS
Havana, May 10 (RHC)--Cuba is often condemned by the US as suppressing press
freedoms; last night Cuban journalists discussed the issue of freedom of the
press in a televised roundtable.
Julio Garcia Luis, the dean of the Department of Social Communication at the
University of Havana, recognized that at the outset of western capitalism,
the concept of freedom of the press was very laudable. However, he said, the
concept became tarnished when wide freedom were granted to corporations
which are have now become the owners of the media. When the press is owned
by the very same magnates who run the corporations, information is used to
strengthen the empires of these magnates. To do this, they have reduced news
content to reports on banal issues, programming to a mediocre level to keep
the majority of people as uninformed as possible about the real issues.
The director of the Cuban magazine Mujeres, Isabel Moya, agreed, saying that
just as the term "representative democracy" is now a myth in the US, so is
its so-called "freedom of the press" which homogenizes and spoon-feeds
everything to the public so they won't have to analyze or reflect on the
issues.
TV journalist Reynaldo Taladrid added that this kind of government control
over the free press has led to a situation where omissions and silence on
matters of importance has reached a level of effective censorship in the US.
Journalist Lazaro Barredo noyed that since 1988, 626 journalists have been
killed or disappeared in Latin America; 70 percent of these cases have not
even been investigated. He asked how Cuba could be condemned on this issue,
when not a single one of these cases occurred in Cuba. Two nations that are
especially critical of Cuba in the region are Argentina and Costa Rica. In
Argentina, 900 journalists reported being physically attacked during the
course of the last administration of Carlos Menem. In Costa Rica, some 200
journalists denounced the lack of press freedoms only three days ago.
Luis Sexto from the Cuban daily Juventud Rebelde explained that the concept
of freedom of the press is tied in with private property. He stated that
Cuba has committed the unpardonable sin of wanting its government to run the
country for the benefit of the people, instead of allowing private
corporations the control of public enterprises. Thus, Cuba's press operates
for the well-being of its people, as does its transportation system, power
grid, major industries etc., and not for profit. Sexto reminded those
present that the first act of the Revolution was to eliminate illiteracy
from the island -- hardly an action designed to limit the Cuban people's
access to information.
*SECOND CUBA-US YOUTH EXCHANGE SCHEDULED FOR JULY
Havana, May 10 (RHC)--Havana will be the site of the second Cuba-US Youth
Exchange, scheduled from July 22nd through the 30th.
According to the organizing committee, the conference will give young people
from Cuba and the United States time to join together in discussions. It
will also serve to strengthen solidarity between the peoples of both
countries by challenging everything that keeps the youth of the two nations
apart.
The Youth Exchange will include workshop discussions, visits to the
universities and meetings with Cuban students, meetings in local
communities, visits to the Latin American School of Medicine, sports and
cultural events and participation in July 26th activities to commemorate the
47th anniversary of the revolutionary attack on the Moncada barracks.
The event is sponsored by Cuban organizations and NGOs, among them the Jose
Marti Pioneer Organization, the Federation of High School Students, the
Federation of University Students, the Young Communist League, the Hermanos
Saiz Cultural Association, the Technical Youth Brigades and the Youth Study
Center.
The cost for U.S. participants is 250 dollars, which will cover
registration, meals, lodging and transportation within Cuba during the
event. Cubana Airlines will also offer a special fare for exchange
participants.
For further information, those interested should contact the Cuba-US
Exchange Organizing Committee in Havana via e-mail at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or
[EMAIL PROTECTED] or by telephone at (537) 60 0225 or (537) 67 0225. Information
is also available from the Young Socialists in the US via mail to P.O. Box
33, Times Square Station, New York, NY 10010; telephone (212) 695-1809;
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
*VIOLENT PROTEST IN PANAMA LEAVES 20 WOUNDED BY GUNFIRE
Panama City, May 10 (RHC)--A massive and violent protest in Panama
Wednesday evening left 20 people wounded by gunfire, some 100 mostly
children hospitalized due to the effects of tear gas and close to 50 people
arrested. Between 10,000 and 20,000 Panamanians, mostly students and
workers, took to the streets of Panama City to protest public transportation
price hikes.
When demonstrators arrived at the presidential palace police attempted to
disperse them, and 4 hours of pitched battles ensued. As demonstrators
clashed with riot police, residents of poor neighborhoods began looting
business establishments. Some of the looters engaged in gun battles with
police, wounding one officer.
Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso, facing the largest protest movement
against her administration, which began last week, vowed to maintain the
price hikes. The protesters have vowed to continue taking to the streets.
*US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES VOTES AGAINST PAYING UN DEBT
Washington, May 10 (RHC)--The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a
measure to rescind payment of part of the US debt to the United Nations in
reprisal for having been excluded from the UN Human Rights Commission. In a
282 to 165 vote, legislators attached the measure to a foreign
appropriations bill that will come to a final vote in the Senate next week.
Washington reacted bitterly to its exclusion from the Human Rights
Commission and the UN's International Narcotics Control Board, although the
White House has said that it does not support suspension of debt payments to
the world body.
The measure voted on today would cancel approval to pay $244 million of the
more than $800 million Washington owes to the world body, not only in
reprisal for its exclusion from the Commission, but also as a pressure
tactic to try to force the UN to eliminate secret votes. Some US allies
reportedly pledged to vote in Washington's favor, but didn't keep their
promise -- and the secret vote prevents the U.S. government from knowing
which countries made an about-face.
*FAMILY OF CINCINNATI VICTIM SUES CITY AND KILLER COP
Cincinnati, May 10 (RHC)--In the US city of Cincinnati, the family of an
unarmed African-American youth slain last month by a police officer has
decided to take the city and the perpetrator to court. The announcement
follows a Grand Jury decision to indict officer Stephen Roach only of
negligent homicide and obstruction of justice in the shooting death of
19-year-old Timothy Thomas. If found guilty, Roach would have to spend less
than one year in prison.
As a result of the less serious charges, the Cincinnati Police Department
has its agents on 12-hour shifts and has cancelled a popular music festival
that was to be held this weekend, in fear of further protests from the
city's black community. The shooting led to an uprising that lasted several
days and resulted in dozens wounded and some 800 people arrested.
Also this week, the US Justice Department's Civil Rights Division announced
the beginning of an investigation to determine whether there is a pattern of
police brutality in the city. Authorities do not know how long the
investigation will take. There are currently similar investigations of the
police departments in the cities of Detroit, Los Angeles, Cleveland, New
Orleans, New York, Washington and Tulsa.
*AIDS WILL CLAIM 16 MILLION AFRICAN FARMERS, SAYS FAO
Rome, May 10 (RHC)--The AIDS epidemic will claim the lives of some 16
million African Farmers over the next 20 years, according to the United
Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the FAO. This bleak forecast
comes as international agencies prepare the 27th session of the Committee on
World Food Security, to be held in Rome from May 28 to June 1.
The FAO said that countries like Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and
South Africa will lose between 20 and 30 percent of their rural labor force.
Experts organizing the gathering have announced that throughout human
history, few crises have constituted such an enormous threat to humanity and
to economic and social progress as does the HIV epidemic.
The FAO will propose in Rome more and better assistance for the widows and
orphans of AIDS victims, more prevention campaigns and the transfer of more
knowledge and resources from donor countries to African nations.
*Viewpoint: CARIBBEAN INTEGRETION BEFORE FTAA
During the so-called Third Summit of the Americas, the United States failed
to obtain the desired support to push through more rapidly its Free Trade
Area of the Americas, known as the FTAA.
In addition to the explicit reticence of Venezuela and Brazil, the Caribbean
countries expressed concern that their economies won't be ready to face the
challenge of a free trade area by the target date of 2005.
There is fear that the United States will inundate the western hemisphere
with its products and investments which could ruin the Caribbean's incipient
economies, since the area is made up by tiny islands.
That is why a recent high-level CARICOM meeting in Paramaribo, the capital
of Surinam, recommended that its members first establish a regional free
trade area, before making the leap into the FTAA.
CARICOM speaks cautiously about first concentrating on regional integration,
taking into account the limited reach of the economies of member nations,
unable to defend themselves against today's large regional blocks.
Luckily for the Caribbean, CARICOM has been working for the past several
years on integration and the formation of a single market. There has been
talk of asking Cuba join in, since the island has signed a special accord
with the regional group.
Cuba, for its part, has offered its support. That is the purpose of the
island's EXPOCARIBE commercial fairs that have been held for the past ten
years in eastern Santiago de Cuba. That is also the significance of the
establishment of the Association of Cuba-CARICOM Entrepreneurs, in the
context of an accord between Havana and the regional entity, which is seen
as a new idea favoring the integration of Cuba with its neighbors.
Concerns over the necessity of achieving regional integration before
entering the FTAA, and problems of globalization, will be the central topics
in the Third Summit of the Organization of Caribbean States. Set for next
December on the Venezuelan island of Margarita, the high-level meeting will
examine areas such as sustainable tourism, transportation, trade and the
prevention of natural disasters, among other topics.
Organization of Caribbean States General Secretary, Jamaican Norman Girvan,
has said that summit participants must set ambitious goals, such as uniting
the entire Caribbean by land and sea.
Mr. Girvan is right. The goal must be a Caribbean that first takes care of
itself before making the fatal move towards the Free Trade Area of the
Americas.
(c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved.
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