| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Annie Birdsong" |
| Date: |
08 Jul 2006 12:50:54 PM |
| Object: |
Cuba Leads the Way in Environmental Protection |
Below is a broadcast from Radio Havana Cuba-06 June 2002 on the web at
http://www.radiohc.org/Distributions/Radio_Havana_English/Radio_Havana_Cuba=
-06_June_2002
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 06 June 2002
=2E
*CUBA DELIVERS DONATION OF MENINGITIS B VACCINE TO URUGUAY
*SOCIALIST CUBA LEADS THE WAY IN ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
*SOUTH AFRICA: "OUR DREAMS AND IDEAS CANNOT BE DESTROYED"
*COMPAY SEGUNDO TO PERFORM AT CARIBBEAN SON FESTIVAL IN DOMINICAN
REPUBLIC
*MILLIONS IN SOUTHERN AFRICA ON THE BRINK OF STARVATION
*US PLAN TO PHOTOGRAPH, FINGERPRINT ARABS AND MUSLIMS ENTERING US
CALLED RACISM
*ARGENTINA: FRUSTRATION OVER IMF'S RELUCTANCE TO LEND HELPING HAND
*FMLN BLASTS SALVADORAN ASYLUM FOR VENEZUELAN COUP LEADER
*Viewpoint: TALKING ABOUT LIES...
=2E
*CUBA DELIVERS DONATION OF MENINGITIS B VACCINE TO URUGUAY
Montevideo, June 6 (RHC)-- Cuba has delivered 800,000 doses of
meningitis B vaccine to Uruguay -- despite the fact that Montevideo
recently broke diplomatic relations with Havana. Added to an earlier
delivery of the vaccine, the donation brings the total to one million
200,000 doses.
Cuban authorities assured the Uruguayan people that they would
provide the vaccine free-of-charge, in response to an outbreak of
meningitis in that South American country.
Solidarity activists welcomed the Cubana Airlines flight bringing the
donation, which arrived yesterday afternoon at Montevideo's Carrasco
International Airport. Waving Cuban flags, the crowd held signs and
banners expressing their appreciation for the island's solidarity
with the Uruguayan people. One sign read: "Thank you, Cuba, for
helping to save our children."
*SOCIALIST CUBA LEADS THE WAY IN ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
Havana, June 6 (RHC)-- A number of events were celebrated across the
island to mark World Environment Day -- commemorated yesterday, June 5.
At the main activity in San Antonio de los Ba=F1os, just outside of
Havana, the island's Minister of Science, Technology and the
Environment -- Rosa Elena Sime=F3n -- affirmed that socialism has
allowed Cuba to develop environmental protection programs that are
unparalleled in today's world.
Cuba's top environmental official pointed to recent achievements in
reducing water contamination and increasing "green belts" in urban
areas. Noting that public awareness is key, Rosa Elena Sime=F3n said
that the Cuban Revolution has educated its people about the
importance of living in harmony with nature.
Experts confirm that Cuba is carrying out a number of sustainable
development and environmental programs, such as a system for
coastline and watershed management -- which regulates production,
tourism and protected areas. Environmental licenses that control
coastal activities such as dredging, oil exploration, tourism and
tree cutting are among the aspects included in those plans.
Cuba insists on combining the island's economic development with
efforts to preserve the environment. Clean technologies have
permitted important reductions in environmental concentrations of
lead, organic components, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and sulfur
oxide, as well as other hazardous particles.
The sustainability of forest eco-systems, elimination of sources that
contaminate rivers, the production of organic fertilizers and the use
of clean technologies are some of the basic premises of the Cuban
Revolution's environmental programs.
*SOUTH AFRICA: "OUR DREAMS AND IDEAS CANNOT BE DESTROYED"
Havana, June 6 (RHC)-- "Our dreams and ideas cannot be destroyed,"
affirmed the president of the Youth League of the African National
Congress (ANC) of South Africa. Malusi Gigaba delivered a lecture
yesterday at the University of Havana to some 500 students.
The leader of the ANC delegation visiting the island condemned the
legacy of colonialism in Africa and the difficulties faced by
underdeveloped nations. He noted that today's essential task is to
radically change the international economic order -- making it
possible for a world where social justice and equality prevail.
During their visit to Havana, the South African youth delegation
toured a number of political and social places of interest, including
the Latin American School of Medicine, located on the outskirts of
the Cuban capital. They also spoke with medical students from several
African countries who are studying medicine free-of-charge with only
one condition: that they return to their countries as doctors and
help improve the health of their people.
Invited by Cuba's Union of Young Communists (UJC), the African
National Congress youth delegation wrapped up their official visit to
the island on Thursday.
*COMPAY SEGUNDO TO PERFORM AT CARIBBEAN SON FESTIVAL IN DOMINICAN
REPUBLIC
Santo Domingo, June 6 (RHC)-- Internationally renowned Cuban
singer-songwriter Compay Segundo will perform at the 5th Caribbean
Son Festival in the Dominican Republic, scheduled for late June.
According to organizers of the Festival, Compay Segundo will begin a
series of concerts at a hotel in downtown Santo Domingo on June 21st.
On the 24th, Francisco Repilado -- the real name of the 94-year-old
Cuban artist -- will perform at Cibao's Grand Theater in Santiago de
los Caballeros, located northeast of the Dominican capital.
*MILLIONS IN SOUTHERN AFRICA ON THE BRINK OF STARVATION
Johannesburg, June 6 (RHC)--A United Nations aid agency has again
warned that millions of people in southern Africa are on the brink of
starvation. The World Food Program made the warning in Johannesburg,
where international aid agencies, donor governments and humanitarian
organizations are meeting to discuss ways of alleviating the
situation.
With crop failures across the region due to drought, floods and
political turmoil, the impact of food shortages over the next 12
months - particularly on people with AIDS - will also be discussed.
Officials are faced with the dilemma of how to overcome the serious
logistical challenges of delivering huge amounts of food quickly to
millions of hungry people in places with little or no infrastructure
like adequate roads and storage facilities. Hundreds have already
died in Malawi but Zambia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Mozambique, Swaziland
and Lesotho are also badly hit.
The World Food Program stated that the crisis of enormous dimensions
worsens with each day. The region reportedly needs 1.2 million tons
of emergency aid and about 4 million tons to make it through the
year. While thousands of hungry people are facing malnourishment,
experts say that thousands will begin to die of starvation within the
next few months when reserves are expected to run out.
*US PLAN TO PHOTOGRAPH, FINGERPRINT ARABS AND MUSLIMS ENTERING US
CALLED RACISM
Washington, June 6 (RHC) -- Washington has been accused of taking a
major step down the road to racial profiling following the Justice
Department's announcement that some 100,000 Arabs and Muslims
entering the United States will be photographed and fingerprinted.
Congressman John Conyers, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary
Committee, stated that rather than helping to protect US citizens,
the registration rules will only serve to further alienate the
American Muslim community and the US's Muslim allies abroad - which
he called "two crucial allies" in the fight against terrorism.
Criticism also came from the Arab American Institute, the Council of
Islamic-American Relations, the American Civil Liberties Union and
the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson.
Asked about the US move, Robinson told the BBC that some countries
were going too far in curtailing civil liberties in the war against
terrorism - also expressing concern about what she called the
"clamping down on legitimate political dissent."
ACLU legislative counsel Timothy Edgar said the Bush administration
is "step by step isolating Muslim and Arab communities," asserting
that "this latest move needs to be seen in the larger context of all
the actions targeted at people of Middle Eastern descent since
September 11. Earlier this week, the American Civil Liberties Union
launched lawsuits against American, Continental, United and Northwest
airlines after five men were ejected from flights because of what the
civil-rights group maintains were "the prejudices of airline
employees and passengers and for reasons wholly unrelated to
security."
*ARGENTINA: FRUSTRATION OVER IMF'S RELUCTANCE TO LEND HELPING HAND
Buenos Aires, June 6 (RHC) -- After bending over backwards to please
the International Monetary Fund, the government of Argentina is
expressing frustration over the credit institution's on-going
reluctance to bail out the country's economy. Cabinet chief Alfredo
Atanasof called for "prudence" on the part of IMF director-general
Horst Koehler, who publicly stated that he was "irritated" by
Argentina's slow pace in getting the country's 24 provinces to sign a
drastic spending cutback program. Atanasof stated that there are many
things that cause irritation in this global world, and much of them
are more irritating than Argentina.
Thus far, only 14 of the provinces have signed the economic shock
package, but the cabinet chief said that if the IMF wants authorities
to move faster, then the credit institution should move faster in
helping Argentina. He also said that, contrary to local media
reports, the IMF is not going to make further demands on Argentina -
though the credit institution itself implied otherwise. IMF spokesman
Thomas Dawson stated Thursday that talks to renew lines of credit to
Argentina will begin soon, but that there are several more monetary
and fiscal demands that still must be negotiated.
The Argentina-IMF tug of war coincided with another devastating
revelation about the poverty hitting the South American nation. A
private consulting and survey firm has found that in the past five
months some 5 million mostly middle class Argentines have fallen
below the poverty line, bringing to 19 million the ranks of the poor
-- without counting the 7 million extremely poor who are suffering
hunger. That translates into almost 75 percent of Argentina's 36
million people facing some form of poverty.
*FMLN BLASTS SALVADORAN ASYLUM FOR VENEZUELAN COUP LEADER
San Salvador, June 6 (RHC) -- The opposition in El Salvador has
blasted the government's decision to grant asylum to one of the
Venezuelan military officers who staged an attempted coup against
President Hugo Chavez. The Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front
termed as a sham Venezuelan Rear Admiral Carlos Molina Tamayo's
allegation that he is politically persecuted, noting that the navy
officer -- like all of those involved in the plot -- have had an
opportunity to hire legal counsel and to defend themselves before the
Venezuelan Congress in public hearings broadcast to the entire
nation.
The FMLN also expressed concern that El Salvador will once again be
used as a platform to destabilize other countries, as occurred with
terrorist of Cuban origin Luis Posada Carriles. FMLN general
coordinator Salvador Sanchez recalled that Posada Carriles plotted
against Cuban President Fidel Castro until he was arrested in Panama
with a false Salvadoran passport in connection with an assassination
plot against the Cuban leader.
Colombia recently granted asylum to Venezuelan business leader Pedro
Carmona, who became the country's dictator-for-a-day following
President Chavez's brief arrest. News agencies have noted that
Colombia and El Salvador were the only countries that immediately
recognized Venezuela's short-lived de facto government.
*Viewpoint: TALKING ABOUT LIES...
Sooner or later, all lies are exposed, one way or another. That is
what has happened in the case of US State Department officials who
recently made outlandish claims about Cuba in a vain attempt to try
and negatively influence the visit to the island of former US
president, Jimmy Carter.
As is now well known, US Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and
International Security, John Bolton, came up shortly before Carter's
visit to Cuba with the absurd unsubstantiated claim that Cuba was
developing a program for the production of biological weapons and
exporting that technology to other nations which Washington considers
as enemies.
Now, after a special session in a congressional commission, it has
been revealed that, in fact, the United States has absolutely no
proof to back such accusations. What it does have is some indirect
information about what it calls Cuba's capability to eventually begin
such research.
It wasn't even Bolton who attempted to defend the administration's
position to members of Congress; rather, he sent one of his
underlings by the name of Carl Ford, who had to admit that his
department, once again, had put its foot in its mouth -- but few
believe it was just a simple mistake.
Behind this colossal lie is the clear political intention to damage
Cuba's image in an area in which it has international prestige:
medical and biotechnological knowledge and research. Since he had no
evidence, Mr. Ford tried some State Department double talk mumbling
something about how the United States is concerned about Cuba's
advanced scientific and medical resources which, according to him and
to those who sent him, is reason enough to accuse a country of
carrying out research on weapons of mass destruction.
It is immediately obvious that Ford totally lacks the slightest
knowledge about two cardinal questions related to Cuba's behavior: in
the first place, the ethical and humanist nature of Cuban scientists,
which makes it impossible for them to use such knowledge to the
detriment of humanity -- which does occur in the United States where
science has been and continues being used to develop more efficient
ways to kill.
In the second place, the accusation ignores the facts on how the
results of Cuban scientific knowledge are used. That is something
well known by the tens thousands of indigenous peoples, peasants and
other poor people of the region who have benefited from Cuban medical
assistance. The hundreds of thousands of Uruguayan children who
receive a Cuban anti-meningitis vaccine free of charge also know it.
For all those reasons, we are, at least this time, in agreement with
US Senator Christopher Dodd, who presides over the commission formed
to investigate the State Department charges against Cuba, that
Washington must stop its political opportunism on the issue. We also
agree with Senator Dodd that the government must have better things
to do than spread the lies invented by its officials.
There has been a notable lack of enthusiasm on the part of some media
outlets to spread such tales. Could it be that they are reluctant to
admit that once again the Cuban government is telling the truth? If
so, we would recommend that they look up the word "objective" in a
dictionary, as well as "ethics" and "professionalism" and see if it
would be possible to incorporate such principles in their work.
(c) 2002 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved.
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