From: NY Transfer News <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2001 22:40:13 -0400 (EDT)
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Subject: [CubaNews] NY Transfer's RHC News Update-20 August 2001
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 20 August 2001
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*WASHINGTON'S STEPPED-UP TRAVEL BAN SPARKS WIDE OPPOSITION
*NORTH AMERICANS DEFY U.S. BLOCKADE AT CANADIAN BORDER
*CUBA'S AIDS PROGRAM FOR AFRICA GAINS GROWING SUPPORT
*MORE US STUDENTS ARRIVE IN CUBA FOR FREE MEDICAL TRAINING
*RAIN COULDN'T DAMPEN SPIRITS AT HAVANA'S HIP-HOP FESTIVAL
*AFTER A DECADE OF BUILDING, CUBA OFFERS WORLD-CLASS AIRPORTS
*U.S. WON'T DICTATE THE AGENDA IN DURBAN, SAYS SOUTH AFRICAN
*AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL SHARPENS FOCUS ON SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC RIGHTS
*MEXICAN OPPOSITION LEADER CRITICIZES WASHINGTON'S DEVELOPMENT MODEL
*LULA SAYS HE CAN'T AFFORD TO LOSE ANOTHER ELECTION
*U.S. ERECTS ROADBLOCKS TO BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS TREATY
*Viewpoint: U.S. ERECTS ROADBLOCKS TO BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS TREATY
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*WASHINGTON'S STEPPED-UP TRAVEL BAN SPARKS WIDE OPPOSITION
Washington, August 20 (RHC)--US President George Bush's reinforcement of
Washington's Cuba travel restrictions has sparked widespread opposition
inside the USA. Over the weekend, US Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan blasted
the decision, stating that "If a country can't learn from a failed policy in
40 years, there's something wrong with all of us."
Dorgan chairs the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that funds the Treasury
Department, which enforces the Cuba travel restrictions. The North Dakota
Senator said that this is a curious and unfortunate time for the
administration to decide to take swipes at American citizens hoping that
somehow they will have an impact on Fidel Castro.
On July 26th, the US House of Representatives voted 240 to 186 to deny funds
for enforcement of the travel ban. The measure will be voted in the Senate
this Fall. Meanwhile, the New Mexico Committee to Normalize Relations with
Cuba, in cooperation with local area political activists, are conducting a
televised round table discussion in support of Congressional legislation to
lift the Cuban travel ban and to mobilize public opinion against the Bush
administration's stepped up reinforcement of the ban.
The first such program will be aired Tuesday, August 21st on Community TV
Channel 27 at 6 pm local time. The New Mexico Committee is urging other Cuba
solidarity activists to conduct similar campaigns in their respective
cities. Three organizations -- the National Lawyers Guild, the Center for
Constitutional Rights and Global Exchange -- have announced the formation of
a "Wall of Lawyers" to defend American citizens targeted by the Treasury
Department for having travelled to Cuba.
*NORTH AMERICANS DEFY U.S. BLOCKADE AT CANADIAN BORDER
Quebec, August 20 (RHC)--Cuba solidarity activists in the US state of
Maine Sunday sent humanitarian aid for Cuba to Canada in defiance of
Washington's blockade of the island. With the help of solidarity activists
in Montreal, the organization Let Cuba Live overran a small Quebec-Maine
border crossing, where they far outnumbered 12 US customs agents.
The activists were carrying over 100 boxes of medical supplies for Cuba,
including antibiotics and defibrillators, refusing to obtain a Commerce
Department license. Let Cuba Live activist Judy Robbins explain that to
apply for such a license means accepting the blockade.
A caravan of over 20 cars and pickup trucks pulled into the US Customs
Service station 75 miles north of Farmington at 12:30 pm. The drivers were
directed to park at a holding area where customs officials began the tedious
process of inspecting the cargo when suddenly Let Cuba Live activist Steve
Burke shouted "walk."
The protesters made a dash to cars, peeled tarps from truck beds, and began
pulling out boxes of medical supplies -- hauling boxes of computers and sets
of crutches as they ran to the border, quickly handing the goods to waiting
Canadian solidarity activists. There were a few scuffles as officers tried
to grab boxes away from running protesters, but there were no injuries and
no arrests.
According to a U.S. Customs Service spokesman, 25 boxes were seized. Last
July 2nd some 100 boxes of Let Cuba Live medical supplies were seized as
the organization attempted to coordinate with the US-Mexico border crossing
of Pastors for Peace.
*CUBA'S AIDS PROGRAM FOR AFRICA GAINS GROWING SUPPORT
Havana, August 20 (RHC)--In the weeks since Cuban Vice-President Carlos
Lage's statement that Cuba would be willing to provide 4,000 doctors and
other health specialists to Africa to combat the AIDS virus, other countries
have shown interest in working with the project.
Portugal, France and the Canary Islands have all expressed a desire to set
up programs in Africa with Cuban help. Lage had offered Cuban personnel
completely free of charge, but said that the island could not afford to
provide the medicines, equipment and other resources to sustain such a
program. The president of the regional government of the Canary Islands,
Rom�n Rodriguez, said on a recent visit to Cuba that he was sure that not
only his government but that of Spain and those of the European Union would
be willing to lend material support for such a project.
Cuba followed up the Vice-President's proposal before the UN Special Session
on HIV/AIDS in June by presenting the same proposal before the UN Economic
and Social Council. Lage then met with a number of African health officials
as well as officials from Portugal, Brazil and the Netherlands.
Cuba has taken the AIDS crisis very seriously at home, and has achieved the
lowest infection rate in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the fifth
lowest in the world, according to UN statistics. It has formed a coalition
with South Africa and Brazil to produce generic HIV/AIDS medicines in
violation of the patents of transnational pharmaceutical corporations, in
support of Third World nations unable to afford the high prices of the
medicines.
*MORE US STUDENTS ARRIVE IN CUBA FOR FREE MEDICAL TRAINING
Havana, August 20 (RHC)--Another 28 students from the United States
arrived in Cuba Monday to begin a six-year course in the island's Latin
American School of Medicine.
The course is offered to young people from all over the Americas and the
Caribbean who do not have the means to study medicine otherwise. The Cuban
government provides free tuition, lodging, food and all study materials to
the students for the duration of the course. The cost of a medical degree in
the US averages $200,000.
There are a total of 5,000 students from 23 countries at the
school.Graduates are asked only one thing in return. To serve the poorer and
marginalized communities of their countries for the first few years of their
careers.
The new students will join eleven others from the U.S. who have already
begun
their medical studies. They are the first of 500 from the US that Cuba has
offered to train. The ecumenical organization Pastors for Peace selects the
candidates from the poorer communities of the United States.
Toussaint Reynolds, a 23-year-old emergency medical technician, said that he
felt privileged to have been selected to be part of the program. He said
that doctors in the US lack compassion for their patients and that he wanted
to be different.
*RAIN COULDN'T DAMPEN SPIRITS AT HAVANA'S HIP-HOP FESTIVAL
Havana, August 20 (RHC)--Although Cuba's 7th Rap Festival, entitled
Hip-Hop Havana, ended in heavy rain late Sunday night, forcing organizers to
cancel the last concert, everyone involved said the festival itself was a
great success.
Under the sponsorship of the Hermanos Saiz Association which represents
young artists and musicians in Cuba, the festival was well run and
well attended, commented Ariel Fernandez Diaz, the festival coordinator. He
added that the cancelled concert has been rescheduled for Thursday night in
the suburb of Alamar where Cuban rap was born.
The festival included film showings, colloquia and exhibitions as well as
numerous concerts involving some 50 Cuban groups and a number of foreign
rappers, of whom the Venezuelans were the most popular. African American
activist Nehanda Abdioun, who has helped young Cuban rap artists from the
outset, told Radio Havana Cuba that the reasons the Venezuelan's were so
popular was because they performed some of the best rap in the festival and
that their country was especially close to Cuba nowadays, with its
president, Hugo Chavez, a personal friend of Cuban president Fidel Castro.
*AFTER A DECADE OF BUILDING, CUBA OFFERS WORLD-CLASS AIRPORTS
Havana, August 20 (RHC)--The Cuban transportation authorities are
reporting that after 10 years of concentrated upgrading and building, the
island's 10 international airports are now capable of handling 8 million
passengers a year.
In a front-page article by Granma newspaper, it was reported Monday that the
objectives of the government in preparing for future tourism expansion had
been carried out in full. The island was in a position to receive far more
tourists than it currently handles at its airports.
The new Terminal 3 at Havana's Jos� Mart� airport is alone capable of
receiving 3 million passengers a year, while Varadero airport can handle
1.25 million. The total visitors to the island this year are expected to be
2 million. Some 70 foreign airline companies operate in and out of Cuba.
*U.S. WON'T DICTATE THE AGENDA IN DURBAN, SAYS SOUTH AFRICAN
Johannesburg, August 20 (RHC)--South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana
Dlamini-Zuma has deplored efforts by the United States and other western
nations to dictate the agenda of the upcoming International Conference
Against Racism.
In a local TV interview transmitted Sunday, Dlamini-Zuma termed as
unrealistic efforts to ignore the situation in Israeli-occupied Palestinian
territories during the conference, saying it's simply not possible to remain
silent on events in the Middle East.
In reference to the issue of reparations for slavery and the colonial epoch,
the South African Foreign Minister said the international community cannot
discuss contemporary forms of racism without referring to the most barbaric
forms during colonial exploitation.
She said resentment over this past will persist if delegates at the
conference don't address the concerns of the victims. The South African
Foreign Minister said that perhaps instead of debating whether or not to
include these themes in the agenda, we should be talking about how to
collectively close this distasteful chapter in human history.
*AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL SHARPENS FOCUS ON SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC RIGHTS
Dakar, Senegal, August 20 (RHC)--Amnesty International is in the process
of consolidating its new focus with greater emphasis on social and economic
rights, and not only on individual and political rights. The organization
began this past weekend in Senegal the 25th gathering of its International
Council, to last until next Saturday.
Senegalese Pierre Sane has handed over the reins of the organization to
Pakistani Irene Khan, the first woman and the first Muslim to be at the head
of AI. Over the past 4 years, Amnesty International has drawn up a number of
resolutions incorporating the defense of economic and social rights into its
agenda.
In the last AI report, Sane said that in the minds of those who drew up the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the liberation of human beings from
fear and misery was an inseparable idea. And the largest human rights
organization in the world is not alone in this new trend that is highly
critical of free market globalization.
Since 1993, the New York-based Center for Economic and Social Rights has
clamoured for the consideration of economic inequality as a violation of
human rights, as has OXFAM and United Nations agencies like the World Health
Organization. The organization gathers its International Council every two
years. Khan is the 7th person to head Amnesty International since its
founding some 40 years ago.
*MEXICAN OPPOSITION LEADER CRITICIZES WASHINGTON'S DEVELOPMENT MODEL
Panama City, August 20 (RHC) -- Mexican political leader Cuauhtemoc Cardenas
has asserted that the difficult economic situation in Argentina and other
Latin American countries is testimony to the failure of the economic
development model heralded by Washington.
In statements Sunday in Panama, where he's attending an extraordinary
congress of the opposition Panamanian Democratic Revolution Party, the
historic leader of Mexico's Party of the Democratic Revolution said the
current model of economic development and social policies in the region is
only held up by emergency bail-out programs that have highly adverse effects
on the region's peoples.
Cuauhtemoc called for a new model that focuses on the necessities of human
beings by strengthening internal markets, attending to social problems and
developing regional cooperation ventures in the field of research instead of
only taking into consideration trade accords of a strictly commercial
character.
He said that with this type of new development model the economic downturn
in the United States wouldn't have such a strong repercussion in Latin
American economies.
*LULA SAYS HE CAN'T AFFORD TO LOSE ANOTHER ELECTION
Rio de Janeiro, August 20 (RHC)--Leftist Brazilian Workers Party leader
Luiz Inacio "Lula" Da Silva has admitted that he cannot afford to lose
another presidential election.
In an interview published Sunday in the "Correio Braziliense", Lula said
that any mainstream candidate in Brazil can win an election without doing
much, but that in his case he cannot count on the good graces of the media
the international financial system.
The former leader of Brazilian steel workers lost the 1989 presidential
elections to Fernando Collor De Mello, and then lost in 1994 and 1998 to
Fernando Henrique Cardoso. The Workers Party has not officially chosen its
candidate for 2002 elections, though Brazilian society has already chosen
Lula.
The Workers Party did extremely well during municipal elections last
October, winning the mayors races in close to 200 cities, among them Sao
Paulo, Recife and Belem. The organization obtained 28 percent of the vote,
representing more than 30 million votes. According to the latest surveys, if
Lula were to run for president now he would win, with a little more than 34
percent.
*Viewpoint: U.S. ERECTS ROADBLOCKS TO BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS TREATY
In another demonstration of intransigence when it comes to international
agreements, the U.S. has managed to stalemate the debate in Geneva on the
enforcement of the Convention on Biological and Bacteriological Weapons.
A dedicated working group has been trying since the 25th of July to reach a
consensus and to hold a special conference, with a view to drawing up an
agreed document, which could contribute, to the application of the
Convention.
The discussions reached stalemate because of the negative attitude of the
United States towards any suggested texts for examination including a
refusal to consider any other wording other than their own.
As a result, six years work already done by the United Nations commission
has been left hanging. The commission has been given the responsibility to
draw up a protocol directed at gaining support for the Convention on
Biological Arms, first written in 1972.
The United States maintained its unilateral position in spite of the
criticism of the European Union, Russia, Brazil and South Africa, the latter
also in the name of the Non-Aligned countries, whose representative
underlines the necessity to fully implement the Convention.
This agreement, adopted by 143 countries - including the United States -
prohibits the manufacture, use and destruction of biological and
bacteriological weapons, which are considered to be weapons of massive
destruction on a level with those of chemical and nuclear origin.
Washington's conduct in this instance is nothing new. During his seven first
months of administration, George W. Bush abandoned the Kyoto Protocol on
global warming, he demanded amendments to the accord on the sale of illegal
small arms, and put under threat though lack of cooperation a summit meeting
on racism.
There are still some western governments showing remote hopes of finding a
consensus in the forthcoming revision of the Conference in November.
The White House should be reflecting on the dangers which it is unleashing
on the world in its refusal to ensure the implementation of the instrument
to guarantee the observance of the Convention on Biological Arms.
(c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved.
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