COMMENTARY & UPDATES : COMMENTARY
From Granma
December 26, 2005
2006: Year of the Energy Revolution in Cuba
After two days of discussion at the International Conference Center, deputies agreed to designate 2006 as the Year of the Energy Revolution in Cuba, at Fidel's suggestion.
"We are assured of having four times the electricity generation capacity that the country is going to need," Fidel affirmed, expressing his conviction that the measures adopted in this area will have a worldwide impact.
"It is very unlikely that we will not already have 80 percent of the new installed generating capacity by June or July of next year, added to 80% capacity in emergency plants," he commented. "That will make it possible to put an end to power outages and assure all activities. This energy development is the basis for new development," he added.
At the end of discussion, deputies approved the proposed State Budget Law and the guidelines for the 2006 Economic and Social Plan.
Cuban parliamentarians also expressed support for a request by the Ministry of Finance and Prices to approve the closing statement for 2005, which has a higher budget deficit than that anticipated by Parliament itself, taking into account additional spending in relation to the prolonged drought and damage wrought by hurricanes.
Right before they did so, Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque gave a brilliant speech stating that during 2005 there was a consolidation of the international isolation of the U.S. government in relation to its blockade of Cuba, while the Revolution had extended its diplomatic relations, received greater backing from the international community, and increased its ties of cooperation and solidarity with other peoples.
He noted that disapproval of the blockade had become almost universal, and another battle was successfully launched against campaigns mounted by the empire and its European allies in the UN Human Rights Commission (HRC) to discredit the island and spread disinformation. For the first time, 5,000 intellectuals—including eight Nobel laureates—had joined together to demand an end to the lies and manipulation at the HRC, the minister emphasized.
While all of this was going on, the U.S. government decided to intensify the blockade, putting into practice the so-called Plan for Assistance to a Free Cuba, and adopting new measures against our people, which—as announced—will be presented to the head of the White House this coming May.
"While the empire is intensifying its war, we have the profound conviction that it cannot and will not be able to carry out its threats, including military ones, because it is suffering from a lack of legitimacy, of international support, of a minimum foundation on which to fabricate a pretext for aggression toward our country," Pérez-Roque affirmed.
"While no imperialist attempt to destroy us will succeed," he added, "the importance of dealing with errors and internal weaknesses must be taken into account, in order to ensure the invulnerability of the Revolution in the present and above all in the future, when the historic generations that led the triumph of 1959 are no longer with us."
He stated that three basic premises are necessary for that end: the moral authority of those who lead the island, based on their personal example; the legitimacy of the process of social conduct based on honesty; a spirit of sacrifice and dedication to the people; and, lastly, the maintenance of popular support, and not support based on what the Revolution can give to its citizens materially, but because "we share common ideas and convictions to continue developing our socialist project."
CUBA'S MORAL AUTHORITY IS GROWING
"Today we are not talking about survival but about how to multiply our efforts in every area and secure our economic invulnerability, and with that, our national security," affirmed Deputy Lázaro Barredo as the morning session began.
"Almost 50 years after the Granma landing, we are facing a new challenge: to be more cultured and more efficient," he added.
He explained that in order to meet expectations for 2006, an offensive is necessary against the corruption and negative conduct entrenched in our own rank-and-file, and against those who are living off other people's labor and trying to profit from the population's needs. "This battle is also aimed at eliminating wasteful squandering; at subsidizing persons rather than products, and insisting that administrations give their best performance," he added.
Deputy Rogelio Polanco affirmed that the achievements of this year are showing the world that it is possible to build a different society, with our own will and dignity.
Armando Hart Dávalos, director of the National José Martí Program, remarked on the powerful presence of the Martí's legacy. When discussing socialist ideas, he noted, Cuba's national hero warned of perils such as obscure and arrogant foreign interpretations; ignorance and lack of culture; opportunism; and human ill-will. All great Cuban thinkers, from Félix Varela to Fidel, have advocated the development of a general integral culture, he added.
Hart's comments led to a lively exchange with Fidel, who referred to the decadence of the U.S. empire, whose ambition for hegemony continues to grow and is being sought on the basis of naked force. If another empire is going to exist, he said, it can only be one based on ideas, never on force.
He expounded on the unquestionable evidence that it is becoming increasingly impossible for the U.S. government to maintain peace and that its world hegemony is only possible now through violence, illegal torture centers, and theories of preventative war and genocide. He cited the examples of Vietnam, Angola and, more recently, Afghanistan and Iraq, as examples of the system's decadence.
A TRANSITION ONLY TO SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM
Regarding a reported meeting presided over by Condoleezza Rice during which she said that the time for change has come in Cuba, the Cuban president commented: "Could there be a more stale idea than having this nut talk about transition at this point? They are absolutely crazy, it's pathetic."
"We believe in the survival of ideas," Fidel affirmed. "Those individuals who are organizing a commission for transition to democracy in Cuba are nothing but a gang of fools, who deserve absolutely no respect," he emphasized.
It would be advisable to propose a Cuban commission for a transition period in the United States, because Cuba is a country in transition to socialism and communism.
INTERNATIONAL HEALTH PROGRAM TO BE PROPOSED
After noting that Cuba could increase its contribution toward improving people's health in Latin America and the Caribbean, Fidel proposed presenting to international agencies the creation of a program that would facilitate benefiting millions of people with ophtalmalogical surgery.
He explained that instead of bringing patients to the island to be operated, doctors would be sent to those nations, which would represent savings of no less than $1 billion. In addition, Cuba would help to train thousands of specialists.
He announced that several governments have been contacted and that it is possible that by next semester, Cuba may establish 15 ophtalmalogical centers like the one recently created in Bolivia. "We have the personnel ready and the others are studying for that specialty," he added.
Currently, thousands of Cuba internationalists are in dozens of countries, and caring for some 59 million people as part of the Comprehensive Health Program.
Fidel's remarks were preceded by comments from Deputy José Ramón Balaguer, minister of public health, who noted that the greatest aspect of this Revolution is having trained men and women who are generous, sensitive, and capable of exercising their profession wherever necessary.
WOMEN: MORE THAN 70% OF DOCTORS AND NURSES
Based on data supplied by Deputy Yolanda Ferrer, general secretary of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), on the cultural and professional development of Cuban women, Fidel noted women's contribution to the health sector, where they currently represent more than 70% of doctors and nurses who have graduated.
It was also reported that of all Cuban health professionals now working in Venezuela—doctors, dentists and nurses—52.9% are women; and among those who work within the Comprehensive Health Program, plus Venezuela, they make up 52.3%, without including those who are presently in Pakistan.
Yolanda Ferrer noted that according to the 1953 Census, females made up 12% of the labor force, including both those who were paid and unpaid. The largest share of that force was made up of domestics, and approximately 100,000 women were "utilized" in brothels.
