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Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 14 May 2001
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*FIDEL CASTRO HOLDS OFFICIAL TALKS WITH QATAR'S EMIR
*UNEMPLOYMENT CAUSED BY NEED FOR DOLLARS, NOT LACK OF WORK
*A BUMPER CROP FOR CUBA'S CITRUS INDUSTRY
*YOUNG CUBANS WILL CONTINUE THE REVOLUTION, SAYS RAUL CASTRO
*COCA PRODUCTION IN COLUMBIA INCREASES DESPITE THE DRUG WAR
*GUATEMALAN GOVERNMENT UNWILLING TO DEAL WITH ABUSES: UN ENVOY
*Viewpoint: VOTER FRAUD IS ALIVE AND WELL IN THE UNITED STATES
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*FIDEL CASTRO HOLDS OFFICIAL TALKS WITH QATAR'S EMIR
Doha, May 14 (RHC)--In the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar, visiting Cuban
President Fidel Castro Monday held official talks with that country's
leader, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. Both leaders reportedly
concentrated on the search for further sectors in which the two nations
can enhance bilateral cooperation and trade.
While Qatar has the world's largest natural gas reserves, Cuba is offering
more cooperation in medical assistance and pharmaceuticals. The two
countries established diplomatic relations in 1989, although Cuban doctors
arrived in Qatar as early as 1977.
In 1999, Qatar and Cuba began to cooperate in the field of sports, with
Cuban boxing and volleyball trainers traveling to the Arab nation. That same
year, Qatar inaugurated a Cuban House of Habano cigar shop, Cuba's first
commercial presence in the Persian Gulf region.
Following talks with the Emir, President Castro toured the natural
gas installations of Ras Laffan in northern Qatar. His first visit to
Qatar is in response to an invitation from Sheik Hamad, who
visited Cuba last September to sign several cooperation and trade accords.
*UNEMPLOYMENT CAUSED BY NEED FOR DOLLARS, NOT LACK OF WORK
Havana, May 14 (RHC)--The newspaper Tribuna de la Habana Sunday
affirmed that the problem of unemployment in Cuba is not so much one
of lack of jobs as the need to conciliate "interest with necessity."
Although some 45,000 people are currently seeking work in Havana, the
Tribuna reports that there are nevertheless many opportunities in the
capital including, among others, 900 openings in computer technology;
2,000 in accounting; 2,000 in guard or night watch work; 1,500 in masonry;
800 in carpentry and 800 in plumbing. The issue is not only one of finding
the right skill to match the job, but also changing the mentality of the
average worker who is seeking the best-paid job in an economy where the
average wage is very low. Rather than seek work in their field, many workers
are going for jobs in tourism because they can substantially supplement
their incomes with tips. They would rather wait until such a job opportunity
comes up.
Thus last year, says the Tribuna, 79,020 offers of work were recorded in
Havana for only 66,472 people seeking placements.
This situation is not the same in the rest of the country, however, with the
eastern provinces especially suffering the most from unemployment, of which
the national average is 5.5 percent. The government is focusing on the
growing service industry to cater to people seeking work outside Havana, but
the process is slow. While the economy is slowly recovering, the island is
still in an enormous financial crunch. Cuban Economics Minister Jose Luis
Rodriguez says an across-the-board salary increase is under consideration.
However, with the island's industrial production unable to support such an
increase, there are concerns that such action will cause inflation.
*A BUMPER CROP FOR CUBA'S CITRUS INDUSTRY
Cienfuegos, May 14 (RHC)-- All indications are that this year will produce
a record crop for the island's citrus industry.
With Cuba's main citrus industry producing oranges and grapefruit, records
have been reached at the Victoria de Giron plant in Jaguey Grande. According
to the firm's director, Omar Gonzalez, the harvest season will end within
this week with a total yield of 31,500 tons, which translates to 23 tons per
hectare. This is the highest yield ever reached by the Cuban citrus
industry.
With Cuba's grapefruits famous for their sweetness, some 6,600 tons are
destined for export, primarily to the European Union, with another 18,000
tons to be converted into fruit juice concentrate. The remainder will be
consumed by the island's population.
The increased production is being attributed to the introduction of modern
technology over some 55 percent of the island's cultivated area for citrus.
These techniques have also resulted in an overall six percent savings of
fuel, as energy efficiency has increased.
*YOUNG CUBANS WILL CONTINUE THE REVOLUTION, SAYS RAUL CASTRO
Havana, May 14 (RHC)--Cuban Defense Minister Raul Castro has responded
once more to questions raised as to the course Cuba will take when his
brother President Fidel Castro dies.
There "will be no problem" with the continuity of the Revolution, he said in
an interview with the news daily, Juventud Rebelde, "We all hope that Fidel
will live many more years but immortality is not possible."
However, said the Cuban Defense Minister, although all the nation's
revolutionaries will eventually die, their death is not necessarily implicit
in their physical denouement. If the Revolution came to an end, so would our
lives, he added. We live for the Revolution. Thus we will all live eternally
within the Revolution.
Raul Castro commented on the difficulties of the past decade and the fact
that Cuba is still -- and probably always will be -- confronted by problems.
Nonetheless, he said, the continuity of the Revolution is what interests the
nation's leaders. In spite of the fact that the island's enemies are talking
all sorts of nonsense about a post-Castro Cuba, the fact is the island's
youth is willing and able to carry on the work of the Revolution in his
stead.
*COCA PRODUCTION IN COLUMBIA INCREASES DESPITE THE DRUG WAR
Bogota, May 14 (RHC)-- Illicit drug crops in Colombia have increased by 60
percent, according to the local magazine Cambio. Cambio today published a
joint report by the United Nations office in Bogota and Colombia's National
Narcotics Agency, which asserted that the more than 250 thousand acres of
coca leaf in Colombia at the end of 1999 have grown to more than 400
thousand acres today.
The magazine said the statistics were gathered by France's satellite
photography service, considered one of the most sophisticated in the world.
According to the article, the report has sparked concern and disappointment
among Colombian authorities, who now fear that criticism of the
U.S.-financed military anti-drug program called Plan Colombia will increase.
Cambio quoted a government spokesperson who requested anonymity, saying that
the news is a real disaster and proof that authorities have adopted a
mistaken anti-drug program. The official said the increase in drug crops is
equivalent to amount of those crops fumigated last year.
The magazine also quoted the chief of Colombia's anti-drug police, General
Gustavo Socha, who said the problem is due in part to the fact that
campesinos who stop planting drug crops are given few alternatives, and
eventually return to the illicit business, while other campesinos simply
return to the same places to plant the crops within 2 months after they're
fumigated.
*GUATEMALAN GOVERNMENT UNWILLING TO DEAL WITH ABUSES: UN ENVOY
Guatemala City, May 14 (RHC)--United Nations special envoy Param
Curamaswamy has wrapped up a three-day visit to Guatemala deploring the
Guatemalan government's lack of initiative regarding the country's battered
system of justice. The special UN representative on judicial independence
said that there is generalized sentiment in Guatemala that authorities are
not interested in doing away with impunity.
Curamaswamy said the Guatemalan government has not complied with the
majority of his recommendations during his first visit to the Central
American nation in August 1999, while threats and intimidation against
judges, lawyers and district attorneys have been on the rise during the past
15 months.
During his visit, the UN official stated that he received 47 denunciations
of death threats and intimidation that have occurred this year alone,
including the murders of seven lawyers and a hand grenade thrown into the
home of a judge participating in the trial of those accused of assassinating
Catholic Bishop and human rights activist Juan Gerardi.
Curamaswamy's visit to Guatemala came at the petition of the Guatemalan
humanitarian organization Myrna Mack Foundation, which was backed by
hundreds of non-governmental and human rights groups in the country.
*Viewpoint: VOTER FRAUD IS ALIVE AND WELL IN THE UNITED STATES
Democracy in the United States is in trouble. For many, that's old news.
Others, especially those hypnotized by the mythology of "America" -- by
whichthey mean the United States -- will be perplexed by the evidence and
many will protest that it just can't be true.
But the facts leave no room for doubt: a group of U.S. experts testified
before a Senate panel that the country's democratic system suffers from a
critical illness of which electoral fraud is the most serious symptom.
Political expert Larry Sabato notes that it is possible to observe
electoral fraud practically everywhere at various levels. Some suggest that
it is a "victimless crime," but the victim is democracy.
Christopher Bond, Republican senator from Missouri, has demanded that
tougher sentences be applied in cases of electoral fraud. At the same
time, he revealed that in the city of St. Louis during last November's
presidential and legislative elections, 3800 ballots were cast by "dead
people and dogs."
Senator Joseph Lieberman, Democrat from Connecticut and candidate for the
vice presidency in the last elections, told a Senate committee that it is
not just last year's elections, or just voting in Florida, but a much larger
problem.
It is obvious that the democratic ideal, that paradigm of global policy, is
in fact a great fallacy. The outrageous fraud detected in the U.S. State of
Florida last year has ripped off the mask to reveal a sick, archaic and
anti-democratic system -- to the point that the loser of the popular vote is
today the president of the United States.
(c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved.
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