from: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
subject: Radio Havana Feb 21. Cuba gears up Cultural Campaign
Radio Havana Cuba-21 February 2001
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 21 February 2001
.
*POLICE ARREST MAN WHO THREATENED MEXICAN AMBASSADOR TO CUBA
*RICARDO ALARCON TO VISIT FIVE MIDDLE EASTERN COUNTRIES
*VENEZUELAN GOVERNORS ON VISIT TO CUBA
*RECORD NUMBER OF TOURISTS VISIT VARADERO BEACH RESORT
*NATIONAL FOLKLORIC COMPANY WANTS TO PRESERVE HERITAGE OF CUBAN FOLK
DANCE
*REPORT FROM THIRD HABANO CIGAR FESTIVAL
*OUTGOING ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BARAK WITHDRAWS FROM SHARON'S
CABINET
*ANGOLA DEMANDS STRICTER SANCTIONS AGAINST UNITA TERRORISTS
*LATIN AMERICA: 20 MILLION MORE POOR THAN IN 1997
*DESMOND TUTU CALLS FOR WORLDWIDE STRUGGLE AGAINST POVERTY
*Viewpoint: CUBA GEARS UP CULTURAL CAMPAIGN WITH ART INSTRUCTION
TRAINING
.
*POLICE ARREST MAN WHO THREATENED MEXICAN AMBASSADOR TO CUBA
Havana, February 21 (RHC)-Cuban police arrested Elizardo San Pedro
Marin last Saturday in Havana accusing him of having sent threatening
letters to Mexico's ambassador to Cuba, Ricardo Pascoe.
According to the island's Interior Ministry, Marin acknowledged
having written the threatening letters to the Mexican ambassador and
admitted his ties to the Miami based anti Cuban terrorist group Alpha
66.
The Court of Justice, said the Interior Ministry, will try Elizardo
San Pedro Marin for implicit death threats and causing fear and
apprehension in the Mexican embassy.
*RICARDO ALARCON TO VISIT FIVE MIDDLE EASTERN COUNTRIES
Havana, February 21 (RHC)-The President of the Cuban Parliament,
Ricardo Alarcon is scheduled to tour five Middle Eastern countries at
the end of the month.
The head of the Cuban Parliament's Information Office, Lazaro Barredo
told Prensa Latina news agency that Alarcon will visit Iran, Iraq,
Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.
The Cuban official will meet with parliamentary and government
officials as well as visit places of interests.
The objective of the visit is to strengthen relations between Cuba
and the Middle Eastern countries.
*VENEZUELAN GOVERNORS ON VISIT TO CUBA
Havana, February 21 (RHC)-The governors of the Venezuelan states of
Lara and Portuguesa, Luis Ramos and Antonia Munoz, toured on
Wednesday the Research Institute on Sugar Cane derivatives and the
International Sports School, both located in Havana province.
The Venezuelan governors met on Tuesday in Havana with the President
of the Cuban Parliament Ricardo Alarcon who expressed his interest in
strengthening bilateral ties in the context of the integral
cooperation accord signed last year between Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez and Cuban President Fidel Castro.
The Venezuelan officials also visited Havana's Latin American School
of Medicine and met with those Venezuelan students who are studying
on the island.
*RECORD NUMBER OF TOURISTS VISIT VARADERO BEACH RESORT
Havana, February 21 (RHC)-Varadero Beach Resort located east of
Havana, has so far this year welcomed a record number of vacationers
amounting to 20,157 tourists.
An expert of the Tourism Ministry in Varadero, Vivian Valle said that
the 42 hotels located in Varadero currently have an average occupancy
rate of 98 per cent.
She added that the number of vacationers in January was much higher
than the same month last year, in addition to the economic earnings.
The tourism expert also pointed out that another one thousand new
hotel rooms will be finished by the end of this year.
*NATIONAL FOLKLORIC COMPANY WANTS TO PRESERVE HERITAGE OF CUBAN FOLK
DANCE
Havana, February 1st (RHC)-The Conjunto Folklorico Nacional de Cuba,
or the Cuban National Folkloric Company, will be traveling to Mexico
this year after completing a successful tour of Martinique, announced
its director, Juan Francisco Fernandez today.
In a press conference to discuss the company's overall future
direction, Fernandez said that efforts are being made by the
University of West Virginia and the University of California, Los
Angeles, for the group to also visit the United States as it has done
on previous occasions in 1980, 1996 and 1998.
Juan Francisco Fernandez spoke of the need to extend Cuban folk
dancing into the provinces before people forget the rhythms and
dances of their past. He said that many people no longer learn the
music and that there were, for example, areas such as Alamar on the
outskirts of Havana, where rumba is very popular but there are no
regular rumba events as there are in the capital. He added that it
was good to see young people dance other forms such as casino but
that if efforts weren't made to preserve even that style, then 50
years from now it will be completely forgotten along with
those dances it succeeded.
The Conjunto Folklorico, which celebrates it's 39th year in May, also
gives dancing lessons to Cubans and foreigners, and has an exchange
program with dance schools in Italy. The director said that other
possible tours abroad may include Japan and Spain.
*REPORT FROM THIRD HABANO CIGAR FESTIVAL
Havana, February 21 (RHC)-Participants to the 3rd Habano Cigar
Festival visited on Wednesday the provinces of Villa Clara and Pinar
del Rio and toured tobacco plantations and factories where the
world's best cigars are produced.
Dedicated to the 35th anniversary of the Cohiba brand, the festival
was inaugurated on Monday at Havana's Cathedral Plaza. On Tuesday,
the participants attended a trade fair which included 38 stands from
at least a dozen countries among them Spain, France, and Italy which
are the main importers of Cuban cigars.
The 3rd Habano Cigar Festival is scheduled to end on Friday with a
gala dinner at the world famous Tropicana Night Club and where
luxurious cigar cases will be auctioned with the earnings destined to
the island's health care system.
The Vice President of the Habano S.A. Corporation, Manuel Garcia said
that Cuba is expected to export 150 million cigars by the end of this
year.
*OUTGOING ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BARAK WITHDRAWS FROM SHARON'S
CABINET
Tel Aviv, February 21 (RHC)-- Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Barak has backed down from his initial acceptance to be defense
minister in a new coalition government that he himself helped to put
together just last week. Barak, who was defeated by ultra-right wing
Likud leader Ariel Sharon in elections held February 6th, has also
stepped down as head of the Labor Party and resigned his post in the
Israeli legislature.
Political observers are commenting that the move is being seen as
favorable to the incoming administration of Ariel Sharon, making it
easier to form a coalition government between the Likud and Labor
parties.
When the outgoing Israeli prime minister accepted the post last week,
he was strongly criticized by members of his own Labor Party.
Political leaders from the right wing Likud Party also had harsh
words for the new prime minister-elect, while the Jerusalem Post said
he was putting Barak in the position of being his gunman. One news
commentator in Tel Aviv said that Barak's initial acceptance of the
position as defense minister was not simply one of Barak's well-known
zig-zags -- calling it a fatal, backwards, double-flip.
*ANGOLA DEMANDS STRICTER SANCTIONS AGAINST UNITA TERRORISTS
Luanda, February 21 (RHC)-- Angola has called on the United Nations
Security Council to strictly enforce its sanctions against terrorist
UNITA forces. During a meeting with the 15-member body on Tuesday,
Angolan Foreign Minister Joao Miranda analyzed the current situation
of UN-imposed sanctions against UNITA, led by Jonas Savimbi.
The Angolan foreign minister reminded members of the Security Council
that sanctions were first imposed against the terrorist organization
in 1993. Measures include a ban on the sale of weapons and other
materiel, as well as restrictions on the movement of UNITA leaders.
More recently passed UN resolutions intended to isolate the terrorist
forces also include the closing of UNITA offices in foreign
countries, the freezing of funds deposited in foreign banks and a
total ban on the trade and sale of diamonds stolen by UNITA forces.
Angolan Foreign Minister Joao Miranda stated that the terrorist
organization constitutes the main obstacle to peace in the African
country -- devastated by a long war of attrition. He said that
despite the fact that these rebel forces are criminals and murderers,
the Angolan government has promoted a reconciliation process which
includes broad guarantees of amnesty for those who put down their
weapons.
Following his session with the Security Council in New York City,
the Angolan foreign minister flies to Tripoli, the Libyan capital --
where he will take part in a meeting of the Organization of African
Unity, the OAU.
*LATIN AMERICA: 20 MILLION MORE POOR THAN IN 1997
Rome, February 21 (RHC)-- Poverty in Latin America has increased by
more than 20 million over the past three years -- rising to a record
100 million people. The United Nations International Fund for
Agricultural Development revealed that part of the reason for this
growth can be attributed to natural disasters such as Hurricane
Mitch, which devastated Central America in October 1998, and the
worsening situation for the region's 80 million indigenous peoples.
Presenting the UN Report on Rural Poverty 2001, Raquel Peña, director
of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, stated that
the goals set for reducing rural poverty by the year 2015 cannot be
reached -- the result of a lack of resources and political
willingness on the part of regional governments. Peña noted that the
goal of reducing poverty by one-half was made in 1996.
The director of the UN agency told reporters in Rome that rural
investment by international lending banks has been reduced by 40
percent in recent years. She said that poverty is greatest in El
Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Haiti -- but emphasized that the
phenomenon affects all of Latin America.
According to the Report on Rural Poverty 2001, there are one billion
200 million poor throughout the world -- defined as those who survive
on less than one dollar a day. Of that total, 68 percent are in Asia,
24 percent are in Africa and five and a half percent of the world's
poor are in Latin America and the Caribbean. The report also shows
that a full three-quarters of the poor live and work in rural areas
-- many of them subsistence farmers without land of their own.
*DESMOND TUTU CALLS FOR WORLDWIDE STRUGGLE AGAINST POVERTY
Rome, February 21 (RHC)-- South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu has
issued an urgent appeal for the elimination of poverty throughout the
world -- warning that falling short of this goal will mean that there
will never be complete justice and freedom.
Speaking at a consultative meeting of the International Fund
for Agricultural Development in Rome, the Italian capital, Archbishop
Tutu noted that more than 50 years ago, the world's forces united to
defeat Nazism and, more recently, the racist apartheid system in
South Africa. The 1995 Nobel Peace Prize winner said that now was the
time to unite against a new enemy: the devastating poverty that
affects millions. He said that many who suffer from poverty do not
even have access to clean water or electricity.
The South African religious and human rights activist emphasized that
women must play an important role in wiping out poverty -- stressing
that the majority of women who live in rural areas of the Third World
are poor. And Archbishop Desmond Tutu added that the fight against
ignorance and curable diseases must take on the same force as the
struggle against poverty.
*Viewpoint: CUBA GEARS UP CULTURAL CAMPAIGN WITH ART INSTRUCTION
TRAINING
Cuba has reinitiated a task that was planned to begin just after the
triumph of the Revolution. A massive grassroots campaign has been
mounted to take culture of all kinds to the mass population, through
a variety of innovative initiatives.
In addition to the conventional education system, the means of
mass communication have been employed to impart televised courses to
teach English, Spanish, Writing Techniques, Literature and Art
Appreciation and Geography, and a network of schools in every
province has been created to train art instructors in all the
disciplines.
A few days ago, Cuban president Fidel Castro symbolically inaugurated
the 15 art instructors' schools in a ceremony held in one such
institution in the central province of Villa Clara. The country's
future art instructors are being trained in every aspect of the arts:
music, dance, theater, literature and the fine arts, so that they
will be equipped to go out into the community and teach what they
have learned to the population at large.
The plan is to educate and stimulate the Cuban people in the arts;
to encourage them to acquire broad cultural knowledge and to enjoy
and participate in the arts for personal growth and gratification.
These new art instructors will work in all of the island's rural and
urban communities, in residential areas and in work places
nationwide.
Their task will be to transform the common mentality, which is so
occupied with the trials of daily life that often there is no time to
cultivate the inner values that live inside all of us. Along with a
recently created army of young social workers, the new art instructor
schools are another step forward in the work of raising the quality
of life, not only of Cubans but also of people in other Third World
nations.
Someday in the not too-distant-future, Cuban art instructors will be
like the island's teachers and doctors, who volunteer their services
to the rest of the developing world. Cubans are proud that their
government has once again invested in the most valuable of all
resources: human capital, not for material gain, but simply to
increase the happiness of others.
(c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved.
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rhc-eng-20454 2001-Feb-22 01:06:36 " JC
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