Reflections
by Comrade Fidel
THE
HURRICANE
In my last reflection of Tuesday afternoon, August 29,
when hurricane Gustav unexpectedly formed and started to threaten our country
on the same day when our Olympic delegation returned, I wrote: “We are lucky to have a Revolution! It is a fact that
nobody will be neglected…Our strong, forceful and farsighted Civil Defense
protects our people…The growing frequency and intensity of these natural
phenomena show that the climate is changing due to the action of man. The
current times demand ever increasing dedication, steadiness and conscience. We
don’t mind if the opportunists and traitors also benefit even if they do not
make any contribution to the safety and wellbeing of our people.”
I know of the colossal efforts
that the Revolution has to make after the national territory is hit by a
hurricane. I could add that
Hundreds of millions of
working hours are lost in a brief period of time when the wind gusts beat
directly against economic and social centers in broad areas of the national
territory. Endless rains accompany these
natural phenomena. Rivers overflow and
sweep away with anything they find in their path and flood extensive
areas. Thousands of facilities that
produce vegetables, milk, eggs, poultry meat and pork, as well as sophisticated
irrigation systems, are seriously damaged; tens of thousands of hectares of
sugarcane, food grains, cereals and fruit trees ready for harvest are lost;
schools, polyclinics, entertainment and cultural centers, private housing,
roofs, factories, warehouses, highways and bridges are all damaged by the winds
and the rain. This time those winds and rains
affected all provinces in a greater or lesser degree, since the hurricane made
its way through the seas nearby the southern part of the country and moved
across the westernmost province. Its eye’s radius was
Nothing is as devastating as
the damage and destruction left behind by a hurricane. Hundreds of thousands of compatriots mobilize
and work very hard during the passing of the hurricane and afterwards during
the recovery stage. Reserves are reduced
or depleted. Today, more than ever, the
damages caused on food supplies are costly and significant. But this is our country; this is our rightful
place in this planet, and we have to develop and defend it.
The task we have ahead
requires time and expertise. The true
Cuba and its noble people, which have been ready to share with others its
knowledge and even part of its resources including its own blood, were not
built overnight. That is why it has been
an invincible adversary in confronting the powerful empire that has tried all
of its weapons against our country.
But there is hardly any
information to the world about
Two days ago, on Friday 29,
none of the eleven cables published by the international press on Cuba referred
to the hurricane that was approaching our island or the intensive efforts made
by our Civil Defense, with the generous support of millions of Cuban families
led by a courageous political vanguard.
One of the cables published
by the German news agency DPA read:
“Popular Cuban Actor Arrives
in
Then it adds that a
well-known Cuban television actor, Yamil Jaled, had
left
It also adds that Jaled
featured in very popular TV series, theatre plays and movies, including some
blockbusters produced in
Afterwards the cable goes on
to explain that he is 31 years old and profusely
describes his artistic qualities and his triumphant journey through television,
thus echoing a Yankee newspaper destined to launch a media warfare and
campaigns against Cuba. We, Cubans,
could add: What patriot! What democratic! What brilliant example is this
prototype that they presenting to us! This is the way in which they disseminate
throughout the world information about a guy far less known and important than
hurricane Gustav.
They want to turn him into a
sacred cow. The deepest convictions, which
have successfully resisted the trials of time and the upheavals of life, can not
be acquired on a single day. Before
that, it is necessary to surmount many trends that we all bear in our inner
self.
I do not hate other human
beings, but I hate vanity, egocentricity, selfishness, arrogance, smugness, the
absence of ethics and other tendencies human beings are born with. Only education and the example set by those
who excel in their battle to be better, will succeed and influence all of us.
It is necessary to make a minimal philosophical approach on the need to be
modest.
There are sacred cows who
intend to put our Five Heroes, who were brutally separated from their homeland
and their closest relatives, on a level with the mercenaries who have been
justly punished for committing treachery and were never submitted to personal
and inhuman outrage.
What I explain in this
reflection reaffirms one conviction that I would like to convey to my
compatriots, that only the just ideas defended with courage, dignity and
firmness will prevail.
Fidel Castro Ruz
August 31, 2008
7:32 p.m.