Reflections by comrade Fidel
THE MOMENT OF TRUTH
The news from the Danish capital gives a
picture of chaos. After planning a conference with about 40 thousand people in
attendance, the hosts find it impossible to honor their promise. Evo, the first of the two presidents of ALBA-member
countries to arrive, stated some truths derived from the millennium-old culture
of his people.
According to press agencies he said that
he had received a mandate from the Bolivian people to oppose any agreement that
does not meet the expectations. He explained that climate change is not the
cause but the effect, and that we all have an obligation to defend the rights
of Mother Earth vis-à-vis a capitalist development model; to defend the culture
of life vis-à-vis the culture of death. He also addressed the climate debt that
the rich countries should pay to the poor countries and the return of the
atmospheric space taken from the latter.
He considered ridiculous the annual figure
of 10 billion USD offered until the year 2012 while the yearly needs amount to
hundreds of billions. At the same time, he accused the
The President of the
He challenged a document proposed to the
“…this text has come out of the blue; we
shall not accept any text that has not been produced by the working groups, I
mean, the legitimate texts that have been the subject of negotiations for the
past two years.”
“There is a group of nations that feel above
us in the South, in the
“…it’s not a surprise, there is no
democracy, we are facing a dictatorship.”
“…I was reading some slogans painted in
the streets by the youths… one read: ‘don’t change the climate, change the
system,’ and another: “if the climate had been a bank it would have been bailed
out.’”
“Obama […]
received the Nobel Peace Prize the same day he sent 30 thousand troops to kill
innocent people in
“I support the view of the representatives
of
“The rich are destroying the planet, could
it be they are planning to move to another when this one is destroyed?”
“…there is no doubt that climate change is
the most devastating environmental issue of this century.”
“…the
“…the reduction of unfriendly gas
emissions and the acceptance of a long-term agreement on cooperation […] seem
to have failed, for now. Why? […] the
irresponsible attitude and the lack of political will of the most powerful
nations on Earth.”
“…the gap between the rich and the poor
countries has continued to widen despite all of the summits and the unfulfilled
promises, and the world continues its destructive march.”
“…the total income of the wealthiest 500
persons in the world is higher than the income of the 416 million poorest
persons.”
“Infant mortality amounts to 47 per 1000
live births, but in the rich countries it is only 5/1000.”
“…how much longer can we let millions of
children die from curable diseases?”
“Actually, 2.6 billion have no access to
health services.”
“The Brazilian author Leornardo
Boff has written: ‘The strongest survive on the ashes
of the weakest.’”
“Jean Jacob Rousseau said that ‘Between
the strong and the weak freedom oppresses.’ That’s why the empire talks of
freedom; freedom to oppress, to invade, to kill, to annihilate and to exploit:
that’s their freedom. And then Rousseau added the saving phrase: ‘Only the Law
can make us free.’”
“How much longer are we going to tolerate
armed conflicts that massacre millions of innocent people so that the powerful
can grab the resources of others?
“Nearly two centuries back a universal
liberator, Simon Bolivar, said: ‘If nature opposes, we shall fight it and force
it to obey.’”
“This planet lived for billions of years
without us, without human beings; it doesn’t need us to exist, but we can’t
live without Earth…”
Evo addressed the conference in the morning
of today, Thursday. His speech will also be treasured.
He very candidly opened his remarks by
saying: “I wish to say how upset we are over the lack of organization and the
delays in this international gathering…”
His basic ideas were the following:
“When we ask what is it with the hosts,
[…] we are told it’s the United Nations; when we ask what is it with the United
Nations, they say it’s Denmark, so we don’t know who is the disorganizer of
this international meeting…”
“…I’m amazed because only the effects and
not the causes of climate change are being discussed.”
“If we fail to identify where the
destruction of the environment comes from […] we will never be able to solve
this problem…”
“…two cultures are antagonizing: the
culture of life and the culture of death; the culture of death is capitalism, which
the indigenous peoples identify with those who want to live better at the
expense of others.”
“…exploiting others, plundering their
natural resources, assaulting Mother Earth, privatizing basic services…”
“…living well is living in solidarity, in
equality, in complementation, in reciprocity…”
“When it comes to climate change, these
two ways of life, these two cultures of life are antagonizing, and if we don’t
decide which is the best way of life, we will not be able to solve it, because
we have problems with life: luxury and consumerism hurt society, and sometimes
in this kind of international meeting we avoid telling the truth.”
“…in our way of life being truthful is
sacred, and that is not being observed here.”
“…in our Constitution it reads ama sua, ama
llulla, ama quella, which means don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t be weak.”
“…Mother Earth or Nature exist and will
exist without the human being, but human beings can’t live without planet
Earth, therefore, we have the obligation to defend the right of Mother Earth.”
“…I applaud the United Nations because
finally this year it has established the International Day of Mother Earth.”
“…our mother is sacred, our mother is our
life; a mother cannot be rented, cannot be sold or assaulted, a mother must be
respected.”
“We have profound differences with the
Western model, and that is under discussion at this moment.”
“We are in
“Such are the asymmetries we have from one
continent to another, and it is our obligation to discuss the ways to achieve a
certain balance, […] cutting down the deep asymmetries between families,
between countries and, especially, between continents.”
“When […] our brothers and sisters come
here to survive or improve their living conditions they are expelled, with
those papers known as expatriation documents […] but when a long time ago the
European grandfathers arrived in
“…if the rights of Mother Earth are not
recognized, it will be useless to speak of 10 billions or 100 billions, which
is an offense to humanity.”
“…the wealthy nations should welcome all
the immigrants affected by climate change instead of forcing them to return to
their countries as they are doing now…”
“…our obligation is to save all of
humanity and not half of humanity.”
“…the FTAA, Free Trade Area of the
Evo suggested the following questions, among
others, for a worldwide referendum on climate change:
“..Do you agree to restore a harmonious
relationship with Nature recognizing the rights of Mother Earth...?”
“…Do you agree to change this excessively
consumerist and wasting model, that is, the capitalist system...?”
“…Do you agree that the developed countries
should reduce and reabsorb their greenhouse effect gas emissions…?”
“…Do you agree on transferring everything
that is currently being spent in wars to create a budget higher than the
defense budget to tackle the problem of climate change..?.”
As it is widely known, the UN Agreement on
Climate Change was signed in
The other UN members continued their
efforts. The research centers proceeded with their work. It is evident by now
that a major catastrophe is threatening our species. Perhaps the worst could be
that the blind selfishness of a privileged wealthy minority tries to bring the
burden of the necessary sacrifices to weigh heavily on the overwhelming
majority of the inhabitants of the planet.
That contradiction can be perceived in
The Danish police are resorting to brutal
methods to crush resistance; many protesters are being preventively arrested. I
spoke over the phone with our Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, who was at a
solidarity rally in
Our comrades have reported from the Danish
capital that a worse situation is expected tomorrow, Thursday. At 10 in the
morning, the UN Summit will be adjourned for two hours as the Danish Head of
Government meets with 20 Heads of Government he has invited to talk “global
problems” with Obama. That’s what they have called
the meeting whose objective it is to impose an agreement on climate change.
Even though all of the official
delegations will take part, only “the invitees” will be allowed to offer their
views. Of course, neither Chavez nor Evo are counted
among those entitled to express their opinions. The idea is to give an
opportunity to the Nobel Laureate to read a previously elaborated speech, after
the decision has been made in that meeting to postpone the agreement until the
end of next year in Mexico City. The social movements will not be allowed to
attend. After that show, the “
Since television has carried the images,
the world has seen the fascist methods used against the people in
Despite the maneuvers and deception of the
leaders of the empire, their moment of truth is drawing closer. Their own
allies are losing confidence in them. In
Fidel Castro Ruz