REFLECTIONS
BY THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF
W AND APEC
Important meetings take place at such a
frantic pace and Bush flies around and speaks at such speed that it is almost
impossible to keep track. En route to Sydney, he stopped over for a few hours in Iraq,
no less. I can’t say whether this
happened two or three days ago, because when it's Thursday in Sydney
and the sun is almost at high noon over the land, it’s still Wednesday in Havana with its fresh
night air. The globalized planet Earth
changes and transforms our concepts.
Only one reality remains unchanged: the Empire’s network of air, sea,
land and space military bases, increasingly more powerful and at the same time
more vulnerable.
We don’t need to go into any special
efforts of persuasion. Let us allow the U.S.
news agency to speak for itlself.
“SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - President Bush urged Pacific
Rim nations Wednesday to band together on tackling global warming, saying (China
and) all major polluters must be part of any solution…
“Bush backed an Australian proposal that
Asia-Pacific countries [APEC] endorse a new […] approach to the […] challenge
of climate change – one that unlike the current Kyoto Protocol (which both the US and Australia
refused to sign) would require firmer action by China and other developing
countries."
“For there to be an effective climate
change policy, China
needs to be at the table,” Bush said at a news conference with Australian Prime
Minister John Howard. Bush and Howard
issued a joint statement that supported nuclear energy, new technologies and
lots of dialogue to find a way forward on global warming.”
“About 300 protesters, many of them high
school students on a walkout to protest against Bush, the Iraq war and Howard’s support for
both, staged a […] demonstration…”
“According to reports, the draft of the
final declaration to be released by the Summit
next weekend makes brief mention of the climate change problem. AP obtained a copy of the draft on
Wednesday.”
The paragraphs in quotation marks have
been taken literally from the press dispatch.
Other traditional international agencies affirm this in more or less
detail.
However, this is not the only news coming
from the unstoppable deluge of Bush’s words.
For example, the DPA Agency informs that
Bush sketched out some guidelines in Sydney
about what must be done in Myanmar,
the former British colony of Burma,
having 678,500 square kilometers and a population of 42,909,464.
“Sydney, 5 Sept/07 (DPA) – President Bush
of the United States today harshly criticized the military junta of Myanmar
(former Burma) and called on the leaders participating this weekend at the APEC
Summit in the Australian city of Sydney to do the same.
“It's inexcusable that we have this kind of
tyrannical behavior in Asia. It's inexcusable
that people who have marched for freedom are then mistreated by a repressive
state,” he stated today in his first public declarations
following his arrival in Sydney
before taking part in the APEC Summit.
“The US
President was referring to the violent repression of protests which took place
in Myanmar
at the end of August. ‘And those of us who live in the comfort of a free society
need to speak out about these kinds of human rights abuses,' Bush
emphasized.”
It is well-known that in Iraq around a million people have died and two
million have been forced to emigrate since the country was invaded by the
troops of the United States
and its allies, the Australians among them.
Neither of these two countries signed the Kyoto Protocol, with the
permanent representatives of their governments becoming rarae avis at the United Nations, where the rejection is
practically unanimous. Likewise, we know that Blair’s replacement has planned
the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq. In those three countries, naturally including
the United States and Australia, there is a growing resistance to the Iraq adventure, to which today we can add the Afghanistan
adventure. In this country, the fields have been planted with poppies which
will enable them to produce ninety percent of all of the world’s opium.
In Afghanistan, a country with a
tradition of independence and rebellion, such a phenomenon had never occurred.
It is coming up now under foreign occupation. Most of its inhabitants, 84
percent, are Sunni Muslim. The soldiers
and weapons of the United
States and its NATO allies kill women and
children there every day. As if that
were not enough, Bush has threatened to return Pakistan to the Stone Age. He has
labeled the Guardians of the Revolution terrorists; this is a contingent of
millions of men closely associated with the Iranian army. At the same time, he
is strongly pressuring the Prime Minister of Iraq, who has been kept in power
up until the present by the invading forces, using the same excuse of fighting
against terrorism.
Let us allow everyone to meditate on the
atrocious actions of the repressive governments which the United States trained for Latin America during
decades in the US
academies of torturers, and the role of drugs supported by the markets of the
empire’s consumer society. That is the kind of democracy W preaches to
APEC. All bearing the US brand name and patent.
They would like to punish Myanmar the same way they have been punishing Cuba. Why don’t they create for them an Adjustment
Act so that their emigrants who are qualified nurses, doctors, engineers and
persons capable of producing capital gains for the multinationals will have the
right to reside in the United
States?
This reflection is getting very long and I
have to conclude.
Since in our country every institution or
important event is celebrating yet another year of life, five, ten and even fifty
or more, I take advantage of this opportunity to share the glory of the people
of Cienfuegos, who two days ago celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the
marines’ revolt at the Cayo Loco Naval District Headquarters, lead by the July
26 Movement, and that of the creation of the Computer Youth Clubs, whose 20th
anniversary will be celebrated tomorrow, on Saturday. I send to all my warmest congratulations.
Fidel
Castro Ruz
September 7, 2007
6:14 p.m.