Reflections of Comrade Fidel

I AM OPTIMISTIC ON RATIONAL GROUNDS

The days pass. One after another, they go by quickly. Some people are getting anxious. I, on the other hand, am calm.

I share with our workers the results they are achieving in their work, in the midst of the blockade and the other accumulated necessities.

Our country is one of those which is most prepared to face up to obstacles, and not only has it shown evidence of great self-denial but also of solidarity with other peoples, as in the efforts made in Haiti before the earthquake, and the much greater efforts after it. A few days ago, I had the honour of receiving the members of the heroic Moto Méndez Solidarity Mission that worked hand-in-hand with the Cuban Medical Brigade in Bolivia, that has provided more than 40 million doctors’ visits and has, up to yesterday, performed 543,629 eye surgeries. They overcome the ravages of climatic change, where great heat alternates with the most intense cold.

We know all too well what Russia is going through with the heat and the hundreds of fires in the forests and turf, the suffocating clouds of smoke, the late rains and, to cap it all, snow in the summertime. We saw the photos of rivers overflowing in Pakistan, and the gigantic ice floe adrift from Greenland. Everything is the result of changes in natural conditions, caused by human beings themselves.

But I am optimistic on rational and solid grounds. The future worries me, but I believe evermore that the solution is within our grasp, if we are successful in having the truth reach a sufficient number of people among the billions inhabiting the planet.

Fidel Castro Ruz

August 20, 2010

1:17 p.m.