Reflections by Comrade Fidel
GOOD CONDUCT
CERTIFICATE
In these bitter days we have seen pictures of an
earthquake that reached 9 on the Richter Scale with hundreds of strong
after-shocks, and a tsunami
Sophisticated mass media has been saturating our minds
with the news of civil wars, arms trade associated with drugs that in just five
years have killed more than 35,000 people in Mexico, climatic changes in
various countries, asphyxiating heat waves, mountains of ice melting at the
poles, torrential rains, shortages and growing prices for foods. We really need some consolation and this has
just reached us via that life-saving angel of our species, the United Nations
Security Council and its colossal invention: good conduct certificates.
Of course we already know, through the Europa Press
Agency, that the number of persons who
died as a result of the earthquake and the tsunami were 6,539, and 10,259 were
missing, “according to the latest toll”.
Although we still do not know “the exact whereabouts
of thousands of people”, the governor of a prefecture has suggested that the
survivors ought to move to another part of
“Damaged airports, ports and highways are being
gradually repaired”, a Japanese news agency states.
The British agency Reuters was less optimistic when it
stated that “a ‘Chernobyl solution’ could be the last resort” but authorities
say that “it is still too soon to talk about long-range measures and that first
we have to try to cool the plant’s six reactors and the fuel-storage pools.”
Professor Murray Jennex at
“Putting concrete on that wouldn’t help keep your
coffee maker safe. But eventually, yes,
you could build a concrete shield and be done with it.”
Another dispatch from the European agency
stated:
“We launched a ‘race against the clock’ to cool down
the reactors, declared General Director of the International Atomic Energy
Agency Yukiya Amano.”
“‘We are dealing with a very serious accident’, said
Amano after meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, in reference to the
Fukushima nuclear plant.”
Without a doubt, the world had been jolted by the
unexpected accident in Japan, that moved even the foundations of the planet’s
energy development; 442 nuclear plants were functioning, great need for
repairs; the Chernobyl accident in 1986 had paralyzed construction programmes
of new facilities which were about to resume and be extended.
Wouldn’t our concerns over NATO’s war actions in
northern
Serious threats of a new economic crisis were
upsetting economists.
Bad news on the political front keeps on coming.
AFP states that thousands of Shiite demonstrators were
shouting anti-government slogans near
“Repression
[…] this week caused at least eight deaths: four demonstrators and four
police.”
“‘We are ready to sacrifice our blood and our souls
for
“Bahraini authorities decreed the exclusion state this
week […] within this small kingdom where the
AFP, March18,
2011
“More than 30 died and around a hundred were injured
on Friday after demonstrators were shot at as they demanded the resignation of
Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh in Sanah, according to a new toll reported
by medical sources.”
“‘Most
of those injured were hit by bullets to the head, neck and chest area’, a
doctor told AFP.”
This
is a close
AP,
“King Abdullah (of
“Islamabad, March 18, (AFP) – thousands
demonstrated on Friday in the streets of several Pakistani cities to protest
against the American unmanned plane attack that killed 35 people this week and
the liberation of a CIA employee who was being held for murder.” He had been set free after two million
dollars had been paid to the relatives of the two men he killed in a
Why do we have the Security Council, the veto, the anti-veto, the
majority, the minority, abstention, speeches, demagoguery and the solemn
declarations of Ban Ki-moon?
Above all, why do we have NATO, its 5.5 million
soldiers (according to highly qualified specialists) and its 19,845 tanks, 57,938
armoured vehicles, 6,492 fighter jets, 2,482 helicopters, 19 aircraft carriers,
156 submarines, 303 surface vessels, 5,728 nuclear missiles, tens of thousands
of atomic bombs with the destructive power equivalent to hundreds of thousand
times the capacity of those dropped over
Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
There is more than enough of such stupid power, it
wouldn’t be used, nor can it be used; we would need dozens of planet such as
Earth. Its only purpose is to
demonstrate the waste and the chaos generated by capitalism.
We can dedicate our time to other things, less
sinister and more ludicrous.
For example, the DPA agency informs us:
“Port-au-Prince,
March 18, 2011. The arrival of Jean-Bertrand Aristide in
“January 19: From
“January 20: The American State Department is opposed
to the return of Aristide before at least the end of the electoral process...”.
The State Department has gotten mixed up even in this:
it was the
A Notimex dispatch, dated in
“The
covenant was signed on
“‘Until
now, the Panamanian government has always refused to do this requirement arguing that operations with the United
States Army were a sensitive matter for Panamanians’…”
Another
interesting tale about the trickery of
“
“The
fear arises after a devastating earthquake and subsequent tidal wave severely
affected the nuclear reactors in a plant on the north-eastern coast of
“The
treaty was signed on Friday morning by US Ambassador Alejandro Wolff and
Chilean Minister of Foreign Affairs Alfredo Moreno.”
“…White
House officials were not able to confirm the highly awaited signing which one
supposes would be a notable event during the visit to
But
no matter, appearances can always be life-saving and public opinion can be
manipulated by appearances; White House officials emphasized “that the treaty
focuses on training nuclear engineers and not on the construction of reactors.”
Since
Japanese nuclear technology is basically Yankee, their technicians surely would
acquire more experience studying what happened in that beleaguered country
whose population was victim of a cruel and unscrupulous predecessor of the
current president of the
Who
are Obama, NATO and Ban Ki-moon going to fool with good conduct certificates?
Fidel Castro Ruz
March 18, 2011
8:54 p.m.