Circulated by Walter Lippmann of CubaNews - Comments in parentheses are Walter's)
(There are so many complex and subtle points in this Reflection
that you will simply have to read it through and do what Fidel
does: reflect on the many topics he takes up, even referencing
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Abraham Lincoln.
He talks about the need to combine physical with mental labor.
Well, OK, here's ONE paragraph which will be widely discussed:
"To the youngest of our revolutionaries, in particular, I recommend to
be extremely demanding with themselves and to observe an iron-clad
discipline. They should avoid being ambitious for power, presumptuous
or boasters. They should be watchful about bureaucratic methods and
mechanisms and avoid succumbing to simple slogans. They should
recognize bureaucratic procedure for the worst obstacle they are and
use science and computation without falling prey to the excessively
technical and unintelligible jargon of the elitist specialists. They
should always be hunger for knowledge; and perseverance, and both
physical and mental exercises should be part of their lives.")
====================================================================
(And here are three photos from his meeting with Lula yesterday:
http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/2008/01/15/nacional/artic31.html )
====================================================================
Reflections by the Commander in Chief
AN EPIPHANY GIFT
http://www.cuba.cu/gobierno/discursos/2008/ing/f140108i.htmlThe wires made the announcement ahead of time. On January 6th we
learned of Bush’s trip to the Middle East, just as soon as his very
Christian Christmas holiday break was over. He would be going to
Muslim territory, lands having a different religion and culture from
that of the Europeans, who converted to Christianity, declared war on
the infidels, in the 11th century A.D.
The Christians themselves killed each other, both for religious
reasons and national interests. It seemed that everything had been
overcome by history. Religious beliefs remained that should be
respected, the same as their legends and traditions, whether
Christian or otherwise. On this side of the Atlantic, as in many
parts of the world, children anxiously awaited every 6th of January,
gathering enough hay for the camels bringing the Three Wise Men.
I also shared in these hopes during the early years of my life, asking
those three fortunate Wise Men for the impossible, with the same
wishful thinking that some compatriots expect miracles from our
determined and dignified Revolution.
I am not physically apt to speak directly to the citizens of the
municipality where I was nominated for our elections next Sunday.
I do what I can: I write. For me, this is a new experience: writing is
not the same as speaking. Today, that I have more time to inform
myself and to meditate about what I see, I have barely enough time to
write.
One always expects good tidings; bad tidings tend to surprise and
demoralize us. Being prepared for the worst is the only way to be
prepared for the best.
It seems unreal to see Bush, the conqueror of other peoples’ raw
materials and energy resources, setting out guidelines for the world
careless about how many hundreds of thousands or millions of people
die or how many clandestine prisons and torture centers must be
created to attain his objectives. “Sixty or more corners of the
world” must expect pre-emptive attacks. Let us not shut our eyes;
Cuba is one of those dark corners. The head of the empire said that
in just so many words and I have warned the international community
of this on more than one occasion.
In Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, a few miles from
Iran, AP says that “The President of the United States, George W.
Bush said Sunday that Iran is threatening the security of the world,
and that the United States and Arab allies must join together to
confront the danger before it’s too late.
“Bush has accused the Teheran government of funding terrorists,
undermining stability in Lebanon, and sending weapons to the Taliban,
the Afghan religious militia. He added that Iran is trying to
intimidate its neighbors with alarming rhetoric, defying the United
Nations and destabilizing the region as a whole by refusing to be
open about its nuclear program."
“'Iranian actions threaten the security of nations everywhere’ Bush
said. Therefore, the United States is strengthening our long-range
commitments to security with our friends in the Persian Gulf and
calling on our friends to confront this danger.”
“Bush spoke at the Emirates Palace Hotel, built at a cost of 3
billion dollars, and where a suite costs 2,450 dollars a night. It is
one kilometer from end to end and has a 1.3 kilometer white sand
beach. According to Steven Pike, spokesman of the of the US Embassy
in the United Arab Emirates, every grain of sand on this beach was
imported from Algeria.”
The entire world knows that he wants war against Iran, it is his war.
Furthermore, he promises that U.S. troops will remain in Iraq for at
least 10 more years.
What is worse is that the main candidates of the two parties in line
to succeed him are incapable of remedying this. Not one of them dares
to even slightly contest this imperial practice, which is based on
the excuse of fighting terrorism, an evil engendered by the system
itself and its colossal and unsustainable consumerism, while striving
for the impossible: sustained growth, full employment and no
inflation.
These were not the dreams of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and
Abraham Lincoln; nor were they the dreams of those great dreamers
throughout humanity’s turbulent history.
Whoever has the time to read and analyze the news coming in on the
Internet, cable and in books, can ascertain the contradictions to
which the world has been driven.
In an article run by El País, a widely read Spanish newspaper, the
subject of the prices of food and fuel are dealt with. Signed by Paul
Kennedy, professor of history and director of International Security
Studies at Yale University and one of the country’s most influential
intellectuals, the article states that “oil is the greatest element
of dependency for the United States in terms of external forces."
“By the mid-18th century, Great Britain had the largest shipbuilding
industry in the world. Yet, as its yards were launching hundreds if
not thousands of sailing ships each year, certain English inventors
were creating the magic of the steam engine, which used vast amounts
of energy secured in the especially bituminous depots of South Wales.
The steam and coal engine carried the British Empire onward for
another 150 years.”
Later on he indicates the point of view that is most interesting for
us: the ever-greater interconnection between oil and foods. The
reasons are well-known: the enormous energy demands of the large
Asian economies and the inability of the wealthiest countries –the
United States, Japan and Europe– to reduce their consumption.
“But global soy bean demand is also spiraling upward, again, chiefly
due to the rising consumption in Asia; China’s tens of millions of
pigs devour an awful amount of soy bean meal in a year. The soy bean
futures prices are 80 percent higher this year (December 2007) than
last (2006).”
“No one can be certain of that, but the continued increases in
overall world population, and the surge in real incomes for more than
two billion people over the recent past, will surely translate into
ever-greater demand for the world’s protein: for more beef, more
pork, more chicken, more fish, and thus for more grains to feed
them.”
The Yale professor might as well have added: more eggs and more milk,
since their production requires considerable amounts of fodder. But a
little later, he alludes to an article published in The Economist,
the main newspaper of European finance, describing it as “highly
detailed, impressive and very scary”; it is entitled “The End of
Cheap Food”. “That magazine began its food-price index way back in
1845. The price index is higher today than in anytime in its entire
162 years.”
Brazil, which is now self-reliant in fuel and has abundant reserves,
will doubtlessly escape this dilemma. Stretching on a plateau at 300
to 900 meters altitude, it is 77 times bigger than Cuba. This sister
republic enjoys 3 different climates. Almost every food can be grown
there. It is no hit by tropical hurricanes. Together with Argentina,
they could save the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean,
including Mexico, although they could never guarantee security for
them because they are at the mercy of an empire which will not allow
that union.
Writing, as many people know, is an instrument of expression that
lacks speed, tone and the intonation of spoken language, and it
doesn’t use gestures. It also takes several times our scarce
available time. Writing has the advantage that it can been done at
any time, day or night, but one doesn’t know who will read it; very
few can resist the temptation to improve it, to include what was not
said or to cross out what was said; sometimes one has the urge to
throw it all in the waste basket since you don’t have the
interlocutor there in front of you. All my life I have transmitted
ideas about events as I was seeing them, from the darkest ignorance
until today when I have more time available and I have the
possibility of observing the crimes being committed against our
planet and our species.
To the youngest of our revolutionaries, in particular, I recommend to
be extremely demanding with themselves and to observe an iron-clad
discipline. They should avoid being ambitious for power, presumptuous
or boasters. They should be watchful about bureaucratic methods and
mechanisms and avoid succumbing to simple slogans. They should
recognize bureaucratic procedure for the worst obstacle they are and
use science and computation without falling prey to the excessively
technical and unintelligible jargon of the elitist specialists. They
should always be hunger for knowledge; and perseverance, and both
physical and mental exercises should be part of their lives.
In this new era in which we live, capitalism is not even a useful
instrument. It is like a tree with rotten roots, from whence only the
worst forms of individualism, corruption and inequality sprout. Nor
should we give away anything to those who could be producing and who
don’t produce, or who produce very little. Reward the merits of those
who work with their hands or their minds.
Just as we have universalized higher education, we must also
universalize simple physical labor; it helps us to at least carry out
a part of the infinite investments demanded by everyone, as if there
was an enormous reserve of money and labor force. Be especially wary
of those inventing State enterprises with just any excuse and then
managing the easy profits as if they had been capitalists all their
lives, sowing egoism and privileges.
Until we become aware of such realities, no effort can be made, as
Martí would have said, to “timely prevent” that the empire which he
saw surging up, living as he did in its entrails, may destroy the
future of humanity.
We must be dialectic and creative. There is no other possible
alternative.
We are grateful for Bush playing his part as one of the Wise Men,
visiting the place where the son on the carpenter Joseph was born,
if truly someone knows where the exact spot of that humble crib is,
where the Nazarene was born. The leader of the empire bears the gift,
this time, of tens of billions of dollars to the Arab countries to
buy weapons that come from the industrial-military complex; and at
the same time, two dollars for every one supplied to them to arm the
state of Israel, where the United Nations agency which tackles the
subject assures us that 3.5 million Palestinians have been deprived
of their rights or expelled from their territory.
His obsessive instrument is to threaten the world with nuclear war.
Only he is capable of bearing this Epiphany Gift.
Fidel Castro Ruz
January 14, 2008.
7:12 pm.
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