Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- . . [Via Communist Internet... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] ----- Original Message ----- From: NY Transfer News <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, September 01, 2001 9:32 AM Subject: [CubaNews] Fidel at World Conference Against Racism-Granma Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Granma International Digital, August 31, 2001 <www.granma.cu> August 31, 2001 Fidel in Durban: "WE CANOT ANALYZE RACISM WITHOUT LINKING IT TO CONQUEST, EXPLOITATION" by Jorge V. Jaime Prensa Latina special correspondent DURBAN, Aug 31--President Fidel Castro criticized all forms of racism and noted that that phenomenon cannot be approached without linking it to the effects of Third World exploitation. Today August 31, the Cuban leader took part in a roundtable with 14 other heads of state, mostly African, attending the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related forms of Intolerance, which opened today at the Durban International Conference Center. Fidel Castro spoke of his perception of former and contemporary racist ideologies, gave a brief run-down of African and Asian history and refuted racism and other forms of exploitation of the people. "We have a rich world and a poor world, and a situation such as that is intolerable," he emphasized. "Can these problems of racial discrimination be studied without thoroughly evaluating the historical exploitation to which they are connected?" the Cuban president asked. "In terms of the issue occupying us," he added, "I exhort this world conference to make a sincere analysis of it. It is the tine to create an awareness and gain ground in terms of our objective," he affirmed. Later in the session, he commented that following an argument expressed by Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, the Ugandan leader, he ratified the fact that all human beings originate from Africa, "we all share a common cradle." "Thus I have recourse to my right as an African," stated the Cuban head of state, one of the invited presidents to have traveled the furthest distance to attend the anti-racist summit, boycotted by the United States before it began. Almost all the countries of the African continent were colonized. On that side of the Atlantic was a hemisphere where there were millions of potential slaves," Fidel noted. Even the Eskimos were "civilized," which, in the parlance of those times, above all meant destroying native customs," he observed. "The major part of the world has been the object of conquest or exploitation, and we cannot analyze racism independently of this exploitation and these conquests," he reiterated. "Those of us who have been enemies of racism all our lives have a solid humanist disposition," he maintained. "Science has come to demonstrate totally the opposite of what racist ideologies advance. This scourge has received a hefty philosophical and scientific blow with research into the human genome," the president recalled. "As intelligent beings, we all come from the same tree, from the same region. There are different levels of intelligence in the world, but that does not give anybody the right to enslave others," he emphasized. "If Einstein had been born in Soweto he would not have been a genius," he pointed out. "How many sages have been lost in Africa, where 41% of the population is illiterate, through the fault of colonization?" Fidel asked. The World Conference Against Racism, in which approximately 8,000 civil and governmental delegates are participating, continues its sessions until September 7. * FIDEL DENOUNCES US BOYCOTT OF THE SUMMIT AGAINST RACISM DURBAN, AUG 31 (Granma-- President Fidel Castro is one of the most outstanding figures to have arrived in this South African city to participate in the World Conference against Racism, initiating its sessions this Friday. On arriving in Durban, Fidel was received by South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Zuma. The official Cuban delegation to the conference includes Felipe Pérez Roque, minister of foreign affairs; José M. Miyar Barruecos and Carlos Valenciaga, secretary and member of the Council of State, respectively; and Osvaldo Martínez, director of the World Economy Research Center. >From the moment that Fidel's imminent arrival was known, hundreds of reporters converged on the coastal city's airport to get some statement from the Cuban leader. Fidel Castro greeted the journalists but informed them there would be no comments. However, before leaving Río de Janeiro, Brazil, where he made a technical stopover on his way to South Africa, he criticized the position taken by U.S. President George W. Bush on the conference. The Cuban president pointed out that the United States has been boycotting the conference for some time, emphasizing that Washington has been changing its position on a daily basis. The leader of the Cuban Revolution said he had read that the United States would not be sending a high-level delegation and there was no certainty as to who would represent the government at the meeting. "I imagine Washington will not be totally absent," he commented in reference to the Bush administration's attitude, adding: "whether it is correct or not is something that distinct U.S. forces will be debating. "This (racism) is a very serious problem in the United States," he stated, recalling that slavery lasted for more than one century in that country after the 13 former British colonies proclaimed their independence. RACIAL DESCRIMINATION STILL A SIGNIFICANT PROBLEM IN THE UNITED STATES Fidel Castro highlighted that the struggles against racial discrimination reached a peak in the 1960s under the leadership of Martin Luther King Jr. and other African-American leaders, but despite the progress made, it continues to be a major problem in that country, with a lot to be resolved in that area. Commenting on the importance of the world conference against racism, the Cuban president emphasized that it has great social significance. "We have to close ranks," he noted, moving on to recall that some years back (1992) he attended another world conference in Brazil on a problem as serious as the environment. He added: "Brazil played its role and awareness increased. Since then, every year concern is mounting over the environment, climatic changes and other disasters." In a broader historical reflection on the issue of racial discrimination, Fidel commented that it is a problem created as a result of colonization and slavery, one of the worst scourges suffered by humanity. He added that its consequences are linked to the poverty and underdevelopment that accompanied the slave system. * KOFI ANNAN OPENS DURBAN CONFERENCE WITH CONCILIATORY SPEECH DURBAN, Aug 31 (EFE)--In this city, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has opened the first world conference against racism staged by the international community in close to 20 years. The hour has finally come, affirmed Annan on opening the meeting, attended by thousands of governmental delegates and civil groups, in a hope of renewing a dynamic of similar events after an 18-year absence. Alluding to the controversy surrounding the summit, seemingly a repetition of those that led to the breakdown of the 1978 and 1983 conferences in Geneva, the UN secretary general acknowledged that the encounter was particularly difficult to organize. As was the case in the two earlier conferences, the Arab nations and the overwhelming majority of Muslim African states attempted to ensure in the pre-meetings that the final declaration should include an equation of Zionism with racism. While on previous occasions that point was the pretext given for the United States absenting itself from the meetings, in this case it has been utilized by the U.S. administration to send only a low-level delegation to Durban. In a speech conciliatory in tone, Annan stated that the Jewish people were criminalized at one point in their history and that should never be forgotten, in order to stress the need to avoid past errors and to solve the Palestinian problem. The UN secretary general also attempted to adopt an equidistant position on another issue that threatened to upset the summit's convening: the petition of certain countries and African non-governmental organizations to agree financial reparations for slavery. Annan paid tribute to the peoples who were exterminated by their colonizers and suffered slavery, but came out in favor of the guilty ones asking for pardon before the victims or their descendents receive any financial compensation. Delegations from the developed countries are headed by ministers, secretaries of state or director generals, in contrast with the presence of some 15 presidents from some of the poorest nations of the world. The majority of leaders present at the conference are African but their number includes Cuban President Fidel Castro and Palestinian leader Yaser Arafat, received with cheers by participants at the opening session of a meeting not expected to yield great results, but one that will serve as a starting point for an awareness campaign on racial discrimination. At least 250 million people in the world are still suffering from some form of segregation based on the color of their skin, in what Annan described as painful vestiges of former mentalities. The UN secretary general recalled that nobody is born a racist but is made one by his or her surroundings, and emphasized that the future battle to eradicate racial prejudice should be waged in the field of education. (EFE) (c) 2001, Granma International Digital. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ================================================================= ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> The Nissan Sentra Everything but compact http://NissanDriven.com http://us.click.yahoo.com/3vsIKC/txlCAA/ySSFAA/xYTolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To unsubscribe from this CubaNews group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! 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