From: NY Transfer News <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2001 21:00:45 -0400 (EDT)
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Subject: [CubaNews] NY Transfer's RHC News Update-25 June 2001
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 25 June 2001
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*FIVE CUBAN PRISONERS OF US GOVERNMENT ARE HEROES - ALARCON
*PRESIDENT OF CANARY ISLANDS PLANS VISIT TO CUBA
*CUBA SETS WORLD RECORD WITH 76-HOUR MARATHON BOLERO PERFORMANCE
*"TRACES OF SPAIN" FESTIVAL GETS UNDERWAY
*SANTIAGO DE CUBA REPORTS MORE THAN 9,000 NEW JOBS CREATED
*VLADIMIRO MONTESINOS EXTRADITED TO PERU AFTER CAPTURE IN VENEZUELA
*UN OFFICIAL CALLS AIDS THE "COLLECTIVE SHAME" OF INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
*Viewpoint: ON BOARD THE TITANIC
.
*FIVE CUBAN PRISONERS OF US GOVERNMENT ARE HEROES - ALARCON
Havana, June 25 (RHC)--Cuban Parliament President Ricardo Alarcon has
asserted that the FIVE Cubans convicted in Miami of conspiring to spy
against the U.S. government are heroes. In statements Sunday to the local
news daily Juventud Rebelde, Alarcon said the five Cubans together possess
more dignity, integrity and honor than any group that could come together in
Miami.
He said the Cuban patriots were falsely accused by district attorneys with
no morals and placed on trial in a city that has become a haven for
criminals, corrupt politicians and terrorists amid, incessant false
propaganda, hysteria, bribery and threats.
Alarcon said that to carry Cuba's struggle to that city, discover terrorist
plans against Cuba and at the same time maintain personal dignity and
revolutionary values is a heroism that cannot be described with words. He
noted that Miami is where those who buy weapons and explosives publicly
boast of their terrorist activities against Cuba and then continue to roam
the streets freely.
Among the lies of that city, said Alarcon, is the presentation of the
Cuban-American National Foundation as a lobbying organization seeking
peaceful change in Cuba.
On Saturday, at the head of a demonstration in Cuba gathering 60,000 people,
President Fidel Castro said the five Cubans convicted in Miami are political
prisoners.
The leader of the Cuban Revolution noted that due to the work of patriotic
Cubans like those convicted, Cuba has been able to reveal to the U.S. FBI
the names and plans of many terrorists in U.S. territory; he also deplored
the fact that authorities in that country have not acted on the information.
*PRESIDENT OF CANARY ISLANDS PLANS VISIT TO CUBA
Havana, June 25 (RHC)--The President of the Spanish Autonomous Region of
the Canary Islands, Roman Rodríguez Rodríguez, will arrive in Cuba next
Friday, June 29th, for an official visit at the invitation of Cuban
President Fidel Castro.
While on the island, the distinguished guest and his delegation will take
part in an intense program of activities that includes meetings with
high-ranking Cuban government officials, visits to places of interest and
contacts with Canarians living here in Cuba and their descendants.
The visit of the president of the Canary Islands will coincide with the 13th
Traces of Spain Festival, which is dedicated this year to that Spanish
autonomous region.
*CUBA SETS WORLD RECORD WITH 76-HOUR MARATHON BOLERO PERFORMANCE
Havana, June 25 (RHC)--The 15th International Bolero Festival wound up with
a 76-hour record established for the longest bolero contest, a marathon
performance that began on Thursday evening and concluded in the early hours
of Monday morning.
For 76 consecutive hours, 74 musicians from countries including Colombia,
Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Mexico and Cuba sang 2,175 boleros, ranging from
"Tristezas," considered the first bolero written by renowned Cuban musician
Jose Sanchez, to classics such as "Novia Mia," "Dos Gardenias" and la
"Gloria Eres Tu."
An international jury of 15 critics, journalists and representatives from
the Guinness Book of World Records -- presided over by Cuban expert Rene
Perez Valdes -- will make the final decision on the validity of the record.
The contest was part of the 15th International Boleros de Oro Festival.
Dedicated to Puerto Rico and one of its top musicians, Daniel Santos, this
year's event had among its great moments the concert by Puerto Rican Andy
Montañez and his guests at the National Theatre in Havana.
Jose Loyola, President of the organizing committee, announced that next
year's 16th International Festival Boleros de Oro would be dedicated to the
Dominican Republic and musician Alberto Beltrand, who spent several years
here in Cuba.
*"TRACES OF SPAIN" FESTIVAL GETS UNDERWAY
Havana, June 25 (RHC)--The 13th Traces of Spain Festival got underway
Sunday afternoon in the Cuban capital with a gala at Castillo de la Real
Fuerza, whose construction dates back to 16th century Spanish colonial rule
over Cuba.
During the inaugural gala, Julian Gonzalez, President of the National
Council of Dramatic Arts, recalled that the first Traces of Spain festival
was held in 1999 on the initiative of Cuba's Prima Ballerina Assoluta,
Alicia Alonso. Its aim is to strengthen the historical links and the strong
fraternal ties that exist between the peoples of Spain and Cuba.
The president of Cuba's Leonor Perez Canarian Association, Carmelo Gonzalez,
pointed to the enduring ties that unite natives of the Canary Islands and
Cuba, evidence of which are the 2000 Canarians who have settled here in Cuba
and more than 600,000 descendants of Canary Islanders.
The event, which runs through July 1st, includes roundtable discussions of
the tremendous Spanish influence on Cuban culture, as well as sculpture and
photographic exhibitions at the Spanish Cultural Institute and Cuba's
Canarian Association, both located in Old Havana, Canarian films will also
be screened Havana's principal movie theaters.
*SANTIAGO DE CUBA REPORTS MORE THAN 9,000 NEW JOBS CREATED
Santiago de Cuba, June 25 (RHC)--More than 9,000 new jobs have been created
so far this year in the province of Santiago de Cuba. The sugar industry,
which is the biggest source of employment in the eastern province, reported
3,400 new jobs, with 4,000 new jobs in other agricultural areas.
In the early 1990s, urban agriculture was developed in Cuba to cope with the
food scarcity associated with the economic crisis, and this alternative
agriculture is a growing source of employment for Cubans.
Cuba's employment policy makes job opportunities for women, youth, single
mothers and the disabled a priority. Special attention is also given to
training courses for young people so that they will play a bigger part in
the country's economic development.
*VLADIMIRO MONTESINOS EXTRADITED TO PERU AFTER CAPTURE IN VENEZUELA
Lima, June 25 (RHC)--Former Peruvian national intelligence chief Vladimiro
Montesinos has been extradited to Lima following his arrest Saturday evening
in Caracas, Venezuela. The most sought-after fugitive in Latin America faces
some 40 charges in Peru, including money laundering, drug and weapons
trafficking and human rights violations.
After igniting the largest corruption scandal in Peruvian history eight
months ago and sparking the downfall of former President Alberto Fujimori, a
congressional commission determined that Montesinos' criminal network
involved some 180 people. According to analysts, the former fugitive may
have amassed a fortune to the tune of one billion dollars.
Switzerland has frozen several bank accounts related to the Montesinos
network containing $105 million after opening an investigation last January
into five banks suspected of neglect in their financial operations. Peruvian
authorities have expressed the hope that judicial proceedings against
Montesinos will assist their efforts to extradite Fujimori, who fled to
Japan. Tokyo, however, quickly announced that Japan has no plans to
extradite the former Peruvian president. Fujimori, meanwhile, has declined
to comment on Montesinos's arrest and extradition.
*UN OFFICIAL CALLS AIDS THE "COLLECTIVE SHAME" OF INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
New York, June 25 (RHC)--United Nations AIDS program director Peter Piot
today urged the international community to put a stop to what he called the
collective shame that the AIDS epidemic represents. Piot spoke at the
opening session of the UN General Assembly's 3-day gathering on AIDS,
attended by 3,000 political leaders, scientists, business representatives
and HIV-infected persons.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called for an unprecedented action in the
face of an unprecedented crisis. Annan said that due to the international
community's wavering attitude, the AIDS virus has spread to every corner of
the world, killing 22 million people and leaving 13 million orphaned
children.
The world body believes that a successful battle against AIDS can be waged
with 9 billion dollars a year, though this quantity is 5 times greater than
the amount of money available thus far.
In some African countries AIDS has done away with more than 10 years of
economic development, and is now rapidly spreading in Eastern Europe, Asia
and the Caribbean. According to the United Nations, 10 people every minute
are infected with HIV.
*Viewpoint: ON BOARD THE TITANIC
Never before in history have human beings advanced so far in improving
their existence as in the 20th Century. Paradoxically, never before has
there existed so much injustice.
The truth is that the globalization of the economy is an objective,
inevitable and beneficial process, but it is implacable in that it is
governed by the logic of money. In the opinion of Portuguese writer Jose
Saramago, today's world is the victim of the tyranny of totalitarian
capitalism, cloaked in the antiseptic concept of globalization.
The huge concentration of wealth in the hands of the super-elite, the nearly
exclusive monopoly on technological advances, the unlimited expansion of one
way of thinking and the omnipotent power of the transnationals characterize
the so-called Global Village.
This irrational logic explains why the planet's richest 20% consume 86% of
what the world produces, while the rest of the population, the great
majority that is, has to make do with just 14%.
According to United Nation statistics, more than 1.3 people have no access
whatsoever to health services. In contrast, the fortunes of the world's
three richest individuals equals more than the combined gross domestic
product of the world's poorest 49 countries where some 600 million people
live -- people whose life expectancy is 51 years, 43% of whom have no access
to clean drinking water, 50% of whom are illiterate and only 26% of whose
births were attended by a health worker.
"The deterioration of wages is the principal feature the current
socio-economic model," charged Cuban president Fidel Castro at the
South-South Summit held in Havana in April of 2000.
To illustrate the situation, the Cuban leader compared the Global Village to
a ship in which the passengers travel in very unequal conditions. While a
tiny minority enjoys a comfortable journey, "an overwhelming, afflicted
majority travels in conditions that approximate the horrible travesties
committed during the days of slave-trafficking between Africa and America in
the past."
It is obvious that this is the luck of the Titanic: the ship is sailing
straight toward self-destruction, because "its cargo is too unjust to keep
afloat and it is following such an irrational and absurd course that it is
impossible for it to arrive in a safe port."
If we are to escape that fate, we -- the afflicted majority -- must take the
helm and completely change course.
(c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved.
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