STREETWISE
Modern-day David and
Goliath
It is incumbent on all
honest and fair men and women who can appreciate the heroic efforts of the
Cuban people and its leaders to stand up to
U.S.
punishment, bullying and outright aggression to stand in solidarity with
them.
By
Carolina
Pagaduan-Araullo
BusinessWorld
Posted by Bulatlat
The facts and figures were by themselves
quite impressive and made it easier for participants to the 3rd Asia
Pacific Regional Conference on Solidarity with Cuba to transcend political
and ideological differences and unite behind the call to end the 46-year
United States embargo against the small, socialist island state.
I was fortunate enough to be one of 194
delegates from over a hundred organizations from 17 countries meeting in
Chennai, India over the weekend to hear about Cuba's astounding
achievements.
According to Mr. Sergio Corrieri-Hernandez
, president of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples,
economic growth was 11.8% in 2005 compared with an average for Latin
America of barely 4%.
Over half of industrial sectors
experienced significant growth: nickel exports benefited from buoyant
international prices while tourism was up by 12%. In the pharmaceuticals
sector, production of medicines rose by over 26%.
We were appraised by the Sri Lankan
Minister for Science and technology that Cuba had successfully developed a
vaccine against dengue hemorrhagic fever and had been free of outbreaks
for the last two years. Cuba's remarkable advances in biotechnology had
also resulted in vaccines for head and neck cancer for which foreign,
including U.S. multinational drug companies, were negotiating production
agreements.
Wage rates and retirement pensions were
increased substantially, a fact that would be the envy of workers and
ordinary employees in the Philippines.
Hundreds of schools and health centers
have been renovated with over 140 social programs in public health
education, culture and welfare successfully implemented. For example, 21
district intensive-therapy units, equipped to modern standards, were
completed; restructuring and extension works were carried out at 52
national hospitals, equipped with the world's best technology.
If Cuban doctors and other health
professionals are going abroad in the thousands, it is not to seek greener
pastures and more professionally rewarding working conditions like their
Filipino counterparts. To date 27,000 are selflessly serving in 60
countries across the world, particularly in Latin America and Africa.
2,345 of them are in Pakistan, working in difficult and hazardous
situations in far-flung areas, to respond to the humanitarian crisis
recently wrought by a devastating earthquake.
At the same time, dozens of thousands of
international students are being trained in Cuba, of whom 12,000 are
studying medicine.
The process of making higher education
universally accessible has benefited 500,000 students. Thus Cuba is
becoming what some observers call a "university nation" where higher
education for all is no longer mere rhetoric but a concrete reality.
These solid achievements are all the more
astounding considering what Cuba has been up against since the collapse of
the Soviet Union in the early 90s. It involved the loss of 85% of Cuba's
markets for its main exports like sugar, 80% of imports and a 35
percentage-point nosedive in its GNP.
Mr. Hernandez matter-of-factly pointed out
that not many governments could not have withstood such a blow.
Argentina, for example, lost only 12% GNP in its own crisis and
subsequently had three presidents in just two years.
But since the victory of the Cuban
Revolution against the Batista dictatorship in January 1959, the U.S. and
its allies have not stopped attempts to destroy and overthrow the first
socialist state in the western part of the hemisphere.
An economic, commercial and financial
embargo has been imposed on Cuba by the U.S., which is still in place
after 46 years, making it one of the most enduring embargoes in modern
history. It is estimated that the embargo has so far caused Cuba the
direct economic impact of U.S. $82 billion with ongoing annual loss of
around $2 billion.
The economic blockade that has been
legally reinforced in the last decade with other laws that ban Cuba from
importing goods of U.S. origin from third countries, impose penalties on
foreign companies doing business in Cuba, permit U.S. citizens to sue
foreign investors who make use of American-owned property seized by the
Cuban government, and deny entry into the
U.S. to such foreign investors.
Now the question begs to be answered.
What can justify such a cruel and shameful embargo that is undermining the
fundamental right of a sovereign nation to chart its own destiny? What
gives the U.S. the legal and moral right to deny the Cuban people their
choice of the kind of social system – socialism – that will sustain and
develop their collective goals and the kind of government – led by the
revolutionary leader Fidel Castro – that will steer the people in their
chosen direction?
Furthermore, how can such an embargo stay
when, in the past 13 years, more and more countries have been voting in
the United Nations General Assembly for the U.S. to lift its irrational
and unjustifiable sanctions? In the 2004 vote, there were 179 in favor of
the resolution, only 4 against and 1 abstaining.
Clearly, the U.S. embargo against Cuba is
violating fundamental principles of international relations and directly
subverts the sovereignty and independence of Cuba. The destructive
hostility of ten U.S. administrations during the last 46 years has proven
itself in every means that the U.S. has utilized to destroy the Cuban
revolution, from armed invasion and state-sponsored terrorism, to
assassination attempts against Mr. Castro and up to the introduction of
plant and animal plagues that will affect civilian populations.
But according to the Cubans, no
administration has been as hostile as that of George W. Bush. On May
2004, Mr. Bush approved a 450 page report issued by the "Commission for
Assistance to a Free Cuba" which included measures to tighten the
blockade, destroy Cuba's tourism industry, prohibit foreign investment,
restrict Cubans in the U.S. from sending money to their families, etc.
The Cubans have no illusions. They see
such a report as a "document of colonization" underscoring heightened U.S.
interference meant to force Cuba to undertake "regime change". They know
that Cuba is in the crosshairs of the U.S. so-called "war on terror" along
with Syria, Korea and Iran because they have been demonized as "rogue
states". In fact Cuba appears on all the blacklists that the Bush
administration has seen fit to draw up: human rights, terrorism, drugs
etc.
It is incumbent on all honest and fair men
and women who can appreciate the heroic efforts of the Cuban people and
its leaders to stand up to U.S. punishment, bullying and outright
aggression to stand in solidarity with them.
Only in this way can
the Davids of today prevail over the monster Goliath that also goes by the
name U.S. imperialism. BusinessWorld/Posted by Bulatlat
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