Reflections by comrade Fidel
The Insanities of Our Times
We have no choice but to call a spade a
spade. Those who still have a pinch of common sense find it easy to see how
little realism is being left in today’s world.
When American President Barack Obama was nominated for
the Nobel Peace Prize, Michael Moore said, “Now, earn it.” Many people liked
the ingenious comment; it was a smart phrase, even though many found the
decision of the Norwegian Committee an example of demagoguery and the
exaltation of the apparently harmless petty-politics of the new
The
World Conference in Copenhagen was about to be held and Obama
sparked off hopes that the United States would join the world consensus in
favor of a binding agreement to prevent the ecologic catastrophe threatening
the human species. What happened there was disappointing; the international
public had become the victim of a painful deception.
At
the recent World Conference of the Peoples on Climate Change and the Rights of
the Mother Land held in Bolivia responses were offered filled with the wisdom
of the ancient indigenous nationalities, invaded and virtually devastated by
the European conquerors who, in search of gold and easy wealth, imposed for
centuries their selfish cultures incompatible with the most sacred interests of
mankind.
Two
news reports received yesterday are an expression of the empire’s philosophy intending
to make us believe in its “democratic, peaceful, selfless and honest” nature.
Suffice it to read the text of said press dispatches dated in the
Albeit the new super-bomb, delivered by Minuteman
missiles, will not carry nuclear warheads their destructive capability will be
similar, as confirmed by the fact that their deployment is foreseen in the
recently signed START 2 agreements with
The
According to reports in the New York Times and the CBS TV
network, the new bomb known as Prompt Global Strike (PGS) should be able to
kill Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in a cave in Afghanistan, destroy a North
Korean missile in full preparation or attack an Iranian nuclear site, ‘all of
this without crossing the nuclear threshold.’
The advantage of having the military option of a
non-nuclear weapon with the same effect of the targeted impact of a nuclear
bomb is judged interesting by the Obama
Administration.
The project had been initially undertaken by Obama’s predecessor, Republican President George W. Bush, but
it was blocked by
However, the Obama
Administration feels that it can give
The super-bomb could be delivered by a Minuteman missile
capable of flying through the atmosphere at sound speed while carrying one
thousand pounds of explosives. Then, extremely sophisticated equipment will
enable the missile to release the bomb letting it fall with great accuracy on
the selected targets.
Responsibility for the PGS project –at an estimated cost
of $250 million only in its first experimental year—fell on General Kevin
Chilton, commander of the
‘At the moment,’ he said, ‘we can target any place in the
world with non-nuclear weapons in a frame of time of no less than four hours.’
‘For a faster action,’ he conceded, ‘we only have the nuclear option.’
With the new bomb,
in the future the
It is planned to start testing in 2014 and to have it
available in the
The automated spaceship or X-37B was launched from
‘The launching is imminent,’ said to the
The plane looking like a miniature spaceship is 8.9
meters long by 4.5 meters wingspan.
It has taken years to manufacture the reusable spaceship
and the army has offered only vague explanations on its objective or its role
in the military arsenal.
The vehicle has been designed ‘to create the ambiance of
an “orbital laboratory” to put to the test new technologies and components
before these technologies are assigned to ongoing satellite programs,’ stated
the Air Force in a recent communiqué.
Officials have said that the X-37B will be landing at the
Vandenberg Air Force base in
‘To be honest, we don’t know when it will return,’ said to
the press this week Gary Payton, second assistant secretary of the Air Force
space programs.
Payton indicated
that the ship could stay in space up to nine months.
The aircraft, manufactured by Boeing, started in 1999 as
a
Do
they need anything else?
Today
they face an enormous obstacle: the already unstoppable climate change. There
is talk of the unavoidable rise of heat by more than two degrees centigrade,
with catastrophic consequences. Within only 40 years, the world population will
increase in 2 billion to reach the figure of 9 billion people in that short
time. Harbors, hotels, tourist resorts, roads, industries and facilities close
to the ports will be underwater in less time than a generation from a wealthy
and developed nation needs to enjoy half their lives, the same nations that
today selfishly refuse to make the least of sacrifices to preserve the survival
of the human species. The farming land and the drinking water will be
considerably reduced. The oceans will be contaminated and many marine species
will no longer be edible while others will be extinct. This is not simply a
logical assertion but the result of scientific research.
Through
natural genetics and the transfer of various species from one continent to another,
human beings had been able to increase food and other useful crop productions
per hectare. Thus, for some time, man suffered less from the shortage of such
food as maize, potato, wheat, fiber and other necessary products. Later,
genetic manipulation and the use of chemical fertilizers also contributed to
the solution of crucial needs but they too are coming to the end of their
possibilities to produce healthy food for human consumption.
On
the other hand, we are witnessing the depletion in barely two centuries of the
hydrocarbons that it took nature 400 million years to create. Likewise, crucial
no-renewable mineral resources required by the world economy are being
depleted. At the same time, science has created the capacity to destroy the
planet several times over in a matter of hours. The major contradiction of our
times is precisely the capacity of the human species for self-destruction and
its inability to govern itself.
The
human being managed to raise its life possibilities to such limits as exceed
its own capacity to survive, and in this battle they are consuming at an
accelerated pace the raw materials available to them. Science made it possible
to turn matter into energy, as in the case of the nuclear reaction, --through
large investments-- but there is no sign that turning energy into matter is
even viable. The infinite cost of investments in the relevant research is
showing the impossibility to achieve in a few decades what it took the universe
tens of thousands of millions of years to create. Will it be necessary for Barack Obama, the wunderkind, to
explain it to us? Science has experienced a remarkable growth but ignorance and
poverty grow too. Can anyone prove the opposite?
Fidel Castro Ruz