Reflections by Comrade Fidel

THE TARIFFED LIE

What moved me to write was the fact that very serious events will be happening very soon. In our times, our species hardly spend ten or fifteen years without facing a true risk of disappearing. Neither Obama nor anybody else could ensure otherwise. I say this from a realistic perspective, since only the truth could offer to us a little more wellbeing and a breath of hope. We have come of age when it comes to knowledge. We have no right to deceive others or ourselves.

The overwhelming majority of the public opinion knows enough about the new risk ahead.

It is not simply that the cruise missiles are pointing to some military targets in Syria, but the fact that this courageous country, located at the centre of over one billion Muslims, whose fighting spirit is proverbial, has stated it would resist any attack against its country to the end.

Everybody knows that Bashar Al-Assad was not a politician. He studied medicine, graduated in 1988 and specialized in ophthalmology. He took up a political role after his father, Hafez Al-Assad, died in 2000 and after the accidental death of one brother, before he took that post.

All NATO members, which are unconditional allies of the United States, as well as a few oil countries allied to the empire in that Middle East region, guarantee the world’s supply of fossil fuel, which accumulated through more than one billion years. However, the energy produced by the nuclear fusion of Hydrogen particles will not become available before at least 60 years time. Thus, the accumulation of greenhouse-effect gases will continue to grow at a quick rate and after colossal investments in technology and equipment.

Furthermore, it has been asserted that by the year 2040, that is, within hardly 27 years, many of the tasks that are nowadays performed by the police, such as fining, among others, will be done by robots. Could the readers figure out how difficult will it be to argue with a robot that is able to make millions of calculations per minute. This was in fact something unimaginable some years ago.

Just a few hours ago, on Monday, August 26, some reports published by certain classical news agencies, well known for the sophisticated services they have paid to the United States, began to disseminate the information that Edward Snowden had had to stay in Russia because Cuba had yielded to US pressures.

I do not know if somebody somewhere had told Snowden anything or not, because that is not my job. I read what I can about news, opinions and the books that are published in the world. I admire the courageous and fair statements made by Snowden, with which, in my opinion, he paid a service to the world, since he revealed the abhorrently dishonest policy implemented by the powerful empire, which tells lies to and deceives the entire world. However, what I would not agree with is for someone, no matter his or her merits, to be speaking on behalf on Cuba.

The tariffed lie. Who asserts it? The Russian newspaper “Kommersant”. What is this libel? According to Reuters, the newspaper quotes some sources close to the US State Department: “the reason was that, at the last minute, the Cuban authorities had told officials to stop Snowden from boarding the Aeroflot flight.”

According to the newspaper, “[…] Snowden spent a couple of days at the Russian Consulate in Hong Kong where he declared his intention of flying to Latin America via Moscow.”

If I wanted I could speak about these issues which I know very well.

Today I watched with special interest the images of the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, during his visit to the flagship of the Russian naval detachment that is visiting Venezuela after previous stopovers in the ports of Havana and Nicaragua.

I was impressed by some of the visual images of the Venezuelan President during the visit he paid to the ship. One of them showed the range of movement of its numerous radars, capable of monitoring the operational activities of the ship under any circumstances.

Besides, I made an inquiry about the activities of the mercenary newspaper “Kommersant”. In its times it was one of the most perverse media to the service of the counterrevolutionary extreme right, which delights in seeing how the conservative and servile government of London is sending its bombers to an airbase in Cyprus, where they are ready to launch their bombs over the patriotic forces of the heroic Syria, while in Egypt, considered to be the heart of the Arab world, thousands of persons are being murdered by the authors of a gross coup d’etat.

It is against this backdrop that the naval and air means of the empire are getting ready to unleash genocide against the Arab peoples.

It is absolutely obvious that the United States will always try to put pressure on Cuba, as they do on the UN or any other public or private institution of the world. That is one of the features that characterizes the governments of that country; it would be impossible to expect otherwise from them. No wonder we have resisted for 54 years –and we’ll continue to resist for any additional amount of time, if need be- relentlessly defending our country and confronting the criminal economic blockade imposed by the powerful empire.

Our biggest mistake has been not having been able to learn much more in much less time.

Fidel Castro Ruz

August 27, 2013

8:34 p.m.