lunes, 9 de febrero de 2009

WHO Praises Cuba´s Contribution to Zimbabwe’s Health Care System

HAVANA, Cuba, Feb 9 . World Health Organization (WHO) representative in Zimbabwe Custodia Mandlhate praised the work of a medical brigade from Cuba in that country and its contribution to the health care system of the African nation, in a meeting with the Cuban Ambassador Cosmne Torres in Harare.

WHO’s top official highlighted Cuba’s medical help to other Third World countries and stressed that it is an example of international cooperation, says a press release by the Cuban embassy to that country.

Mandlhate welcomed Cuban Ambassador’s proposal of having Cuban doctors more involved, with the WHO in the struggle against the cholera epidemic that has hit Zimbabwe.

Likewise, Harare’s mayor Muchadei Masunda expressed admiration for the laudable work of the Cuban medical personnel in Zimbabwe, said the diplomatic source.

In a telephone conversation with the Cuban ambassador, the mayor extolled the work of the Cuban doctors.

Masunda noted that it was praiseworthy the spirit of selflessness our internationalist workers show in their work in his country as well as in other African nations, where they do their best and show their high professional levels.

The Zimbabwean official showed his interest on knowing more on the social, economic and political developments that are taking place in Cuba. He recognized the island’s achievements in the sports field and stated his admiration for former boxer Teofilo Stevenson, whom he would like to meet personally.

(Organizacion Mundial de la Salud Destaca Contribucion de Cuba al Sistema
de Salud de Zimbabwe)

Rahm Emanuel, Reflections by comrade Fidel

What a strange name! It is easy to pronounce and it sounds as if it were Spanish but it is not. Among tens of thousands of names I have read of students and compatriots and people I have met in my life, I have never heard that name before.

Where does it come from? I thought. Once and again, the name of Inmanuel Kant, the most brilliant German thinker, came to my mind. Kant, with Aristotle and Plato made up the trio of philosophers with the greatest influence on the human thought. As I would learn later, this was not far from the philosophy of the man closest to Barack Obama, the current President of the United States.

Another recent possibility led me to reflect on the strange name. This time it was the book by German Sanchez, Cuban ambassador to the Bolivarian Venezuela, entitled “La transparencia de Enmanuel”, although in this case the name was written without the letter “I”, the first in
the name of the German philosopher.

Enmanuel is the name of the child conceived and born in the thick forest occupied by the guerrilla, where his very worthy mother Clara Rojas Gonzalez became a prisoner on February 23, 2002. She had been a candidate to vice-president of Colombia in the same ticket with Ingrid Betancourt who was running for the presidency of that sister nation in
the election to be held that same year.

I had read with great interest the abovementioned book by German Sanchez, our ambassador to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, who had the privilege of taking part in 2008 in the release of Clara Rojas an Consuelo Gonzalez, former deputy to the National Assembly for the FARC, the revolutionary army of Colombia, which made them prisoners.

Clara had stayed with the guerrilla in solidarity with Ingrid whom she accompanied in her six years of captivity.

German’s book is entitled “La transparencia de Enmanuel”, almost exactly the name of the German philosopher. I was not surprised the mother had given such a name to her child for she is a talented and learned attorney. It simply made me recall my years of imprisonment in solitary confinement due to the almost successful assault on the second military fortress in Cuba on July 26, 1953 to seize thousands of weapons with a selected group of 120 combatants willing to fight against the Batista’s tyranny imposed on Cuba by the United States.

Of course, that was not the only objective or the only idea in which we found inspiration, but the truth is that after the victory of the revolution in our homeland on January 1st, 1959, I still remembered some of the German philosopher’s aphorisms:

“The wise man can change his opinion; the fool never does.”

“Do not treat others as a mean to attain your objectives.”

“A man can only grow to be a man through education.”

This idea was one of the principles proclaimed since the first days of the revolutionary victory of January 1st, 1959. Obama and his advisor had not been born; they had not even been conceived. Rahm Emanuel was born in Chicago on November 29, 1959, to an immigrant of Russian descent. His mother Martha Smulevitz, an advocate of civil rights, was
sent to prison three times for her activities.

Rahm Emanuel joined the Israeli Army as a volunteer in 1991, during the first Golf War unleashed by Bush, sr., using uranium- loaded rockets that caused serious illnesses among the U.S. troops taking part in the offensive on the retreating Iraqi Republican Guard and among an
incalculable number of civilians.

Ever since that war, the peoples of the Near and Middle East have become consumers of enormous amounts of armament placed in the market by the U.S. industrial military complex.

If the extreme right racists were able to quench their thirst for ethnic superiority and assassinate Obama as they did Martin Luther King, a great human rights leader, which is theoretically possible, although it does not seem likely at the moment given the protection provided to the President every minute of the day and night after his election.

Obama, Emanuel and all of the talented politicians and economists they have brought together would not suffice to solve the growing problems of the American capitalist society.

Even if Kant, Plato and Aristotle were resurrected together with the late brilliant economist John Kenneth Galbraight, they would neither be capable of solving the more frequent and deeper antagonistic contradictions of the system. They would have been happy in the days of
Abraham Lincoln, so much admired, and rightly so, by the new President; but those days are now far behind.

All the rest of the peoples will have to pay for the huge waste and ensure, first of all on an increasingly contaminated planet, the American jobs and the profits of that country’s big transnational.


Fidel Castro Ruz

February 8, 2009

5:16 p.m.

Cuban Biotechnology Products in 58 Countries of the World

HOLGUIN, Cuba, Feb 8 . Cuban biotechnology has taken its scientific results to some 58 countries of the world, said the director of the Molecular Immunology Center, Doctor Agustin Lage in a key lecture in this eastern province.

The expansion of the sector reveals the potential of the Cuban scientific community, in its effort to increase its contribution to the search for more effective formulas in the field of medicine, both in the country and at international level, said the expert.

Lage Davila explained that the biotechnology industry contributes the Cuban Health Ministry over 160 products, which reveals the significance of the centers working in the scientific area.

The biotechnological products, aimed at achieving more accurate diagnosis of specific diseases, include clinical essays on cancer vaccines and the production of recombinant proteins and monoclonal antibodies.

Also included is the production of a natural restorative and anti-anemia product, known as TROFIN, mainly dedicated to the local Mother-child attention program. The product is being developed at the National Immunology Center in this eastern city.

Doctor Lage Davila, an outstanding Cuban scientist and author of numerous works in the field of medicine, attended the last session of the Third Provincial Forum on Biotechnology, held here on Saturday.


(Se extiende a 58 paises la biotecnología cubana)

President Raul Castro Stresses Cuba-Algeria Positive Relations

HAVANA, Cuba, Feb 8 . Cuban President Raul Castro today underscored the positive character of official relations between Cuba and Algeria, after he met with Abdelaziz Bouteflika, head of state of that African nation.

The Cuban leader held official talks with the Algerian President on Sunday at the Presidential Palace in the capital Algiers, according to a Cuban TV report.

Referring to his meeting with President Bouteflika, Raul Castro said that they addressed bilateral relations and cooperation issues, and that Cuba and Algeria fully share views on main international issues.

After explaining that bilateral relations between both countries have strengthened with the passage of time, the Cuban President stressed the need to further expand relations in the economic area and progressively work towards the complementation of both economies.

The Cuban head of state announced upcoming meetings between Cuban and Algerian officials to expand bilateral cooperation relations, which date back to 1963 when Cuba sent 52 medical doctors to help the Algerian people, PL news reported.

Raul Castro also referred to an eye-treatment hospital currently working in Algeria with the assistance of Cuban personnel and the setting up of companies to produce vaccines, plus the technological transfer in the field of hemo-derivatives.

The Cuban President said he was impressed with his visit this morning to the Sanctuary of the Martyrs, where he laid a wreath to those killed in combat during the independence war against French colonialism. The place raised in 1982 on a hill in the capital Algiers, pays homage to the victims of the national liberation war.

Raul Castro also corroborated the gratitude of the Algerian people to Cuban solidarity, highlighted by the huge media coverage of the visit by the Cuban President and his delegation to that country.

(Destaca Presidente cubano relaciones con Argelia)

Cuban Cycling Tour Begins on Tuesday

HAVANA , Cuba, Feb 9 (acn) The 34th 'Vuelta a Cuba' cycling tour begins on Tuesday with the participation of over 100 cyclists divided into four foreign teams and 14 local squads.

The competition will begin in the easternmost city of Baracoa and participants will have to cover 1,780 kilometers in 13 stages.

The first leg of the event will consist of 153 kilometers between Baracoa and the city of Guantanamo, with two mountain primes in Vivero and in Alto de Cotilla. There will also be sprints in Imias, San Antonio del Sur and Yateritas.

Cuba 's main squad is led by Raul Granjel and Arnold Alcolea, runners-up in the individual and the mountain categories, respectively, in the 'Vuelta a Cuba 2008'.

Cuban Pedro Pablo Perez, who has won the cycling tour on several occasions, will be absent this year as he is still recovering from injuries he suffered in a car accident in July.

Foreign teams from Venezuela, Mexico, Germany and Canada will take part in the competition while Cuba will be represented by its national squad, ten provincial teams, a squad from the Manuel Fajardo Institute of Physical Culture, and two teams from technical centers in Cienfuegos and Guantanamo.

Venezuelan Manuel Medina, who topped the ranking of the America Tour 2008, and Colombian Gregorio Ladino, who won the mountain category last year, are some of the top foreign participants.

(Arranca mañana la XXXIV Vuelta Ciclística a Cuba)