Important meetings take place at such a frantic pace and
Bush flies around and speaks at such speed that it is almost
impossible to keep track. En route to Sydney, he stopped
over for a few hours in Iraq, no less. I can’t say whether
this happened two or three days ago, because when it's
Thursday in Sydney and the sun is almost at high noon over
the land, it’s still Wednesday in Havana with its fresh
night air. The globalized planet Earth changes and
transforms our concepts. Only one reality remains
unchanged: the Empire’s network of air, sea, land and space
military bases, increasingly more powerful and at the same
time more vulnerable.
We
don’t need to go into any special efforts of persuasion.
Let us allow the U.S. news agency to speak for itlself.
“SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - President Bush urged Pacific Rim
nations Wednesday to band together on tackling global
warming, saying (China and) all major polluters must be part
of any solution…
“Bush
backed an Australian proposal that Asia-Pacific countries [APEC]
endorse a new […] approach to the […] challenge of climate
change – one that unlike the current Kyoto Protocol (which
both the US and Australia refused to sign) would require
firmer action by China and other developing countries."
“For
there to be an effective climate change policy, China needs
to be at the table,” Bush said at a news conference with
Australian Prime Minister John Howard. Bush and Howard
issued a joint statement that supported nuclear energy, new
technologies and lots of dialogue to find a way forward on
global warming.”
“About
300 protesters, many of them high school students on a
walkout to protest against Bush, the Iraq war and Howard’s
support for both, staged a […] demonstration…”
“According to reports, the draft of the final declaration to
be released by the Summit next weekend makes brief mention
of the climate change problem. AP obtained a copy of the
draft on Wednesday.”
The
paragraphs in quotation marks have been taken literally from
the press dispatch. Other traditional international
agencies affirm this in more or less detail.
However, this is not the only news coming from the
unstoppable deluge of Bush’s words.
For
example, the DPA Agency informs that Bush sketched out some
guidelines in Sydney about what must be done in Myanmar, the
former British colony of Burma, having 678,500 square
kilometers and a population of 42,909,464.
“Sydney, 5 Sept/07 (DPA) – President Bush of the United
States today harshly criticized the military junta of
Myanmar (former Burma) and called on the leaders
participating this weekend at the APEC Summit in the
Australian city of Sydney to do the same.
“It's
inexcusable that we have this kind of tyrannical behavior in
Asia. It's inexcusable that people who have marched for
freedom are then mistreated by a repressive state,”
he stated today in his first public declarations
following his arrival in Sydney before taking part in the
APEC Summit.
“The US
President was referring to the violent repression of
protests which took place in Myanmar at the end of August.
‘And those of us who live in the
comfort of a free society need to speak out about these
kinds of human rights abuses,' Bush emphasized.”
It is
well-known that in Iraq around a million people have died
and two million have been forced to emigrate since the
country was invaded by the troops of the United States and
its allies, the Australians among them. Neither of these
two countries signed the Kyoto Protocol, with the permanent
representatives of their governments becoming rarae avis
at the United Nations, where the rejection is
practically unanimous. Likewise, we know that Blair’s
replacement has planned the withdrawal of British troops
from Iraq. In those three countries, naturally including
the United States and Australia, there is a growing
resistance to the Iraq adventure, to which today we can add
the Afghanistan adventure. In this country, the fields have
been planted with poppies which will enable them to produce
ninety percent of all of the world’s opium.
In
Afghanistan, a country with a tradition of independence and
rebellion, such a phenomenon had never occurred. It is
coming up now under foreign occupation. Most of its
inhabitants, 84 percent, are Sunni Muslim. The soldiers and
weapons of the United States and its NATO allies kill women
and children there every day. As if that were not enough,
Bush has threatened to return Pakistan to the Stone Age. He
has labeled the Guardians of the Revolution terrorists; this
is a contingent of millions of men closely associated with
the Iranian army. At the same time, he is strongly
pressuring the Prime Minister of Iraq, who has been kept in
power up until the present by the invading forces, using the
same excuse of fighting against terrorism.
Let us
allow everyone to meditate on the atrocious actions of the
repressive governments which the United States trained for
Latin America during decades in the US academies of
torturers, and the role of drugs supported by the markets of
the empire’s consumer society. That is the kind of democracy
W preaches to APEC. All bearing the US brand name and
patent.
They would like to punish Myanmar the same way they have
been punishing Cuba. Why don’t they create for them an
Adjustment Act so that their emigrants who are qualified
nurses, doctors, engineers and persons capable of producing
capital gains for the multinationals will have the right to
reside in the United States?
This
reflection is getting very long and I have to conclude.
Since
in our country every institution or important event is
celebrating yet another year of life, five, ten and even
fifty or more, I take advantage of this opportunity to share
the glory of the people of Cienfuegos, who two days ago
celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the marines’ revolt
at the Cayo Loco Naval District Headquarters, lead by the
July 26 Movement, and that of the creation of the Computer
Youth Clubs, whose 20th anniversary will be
celebrated tomorrow, on Saturday. I send to all my warmest
congratulations.
Fidel
Castro Ruz
September 7,
2007
6:14 p.m.
