November 17, 2005
I asked you a question, comrade students; don't worry, I haven't forgotten, and I'd like to believe that you will never forget it. It is the question that I ask in view of historical experiences we have known, and I ask you all, without exception, to reflect on it: Can the revolutionary process be irreversible, or not? Which are the ideas or the degree of conscience that would make the reversal of the revolution
ary process impossible? When those who were the forerunners, the veterans, start disappearing and making room for new generations of leaders, what will be done and how will it be accomplished? After all, we have been witnesses to many errors, and we didn't notice.
A leader has a tremendous power when he enjoys the confidence of the masses that put full trust in his abilities. The consequences of errors committed by those in authority are terrible, and this has happened more than once during the revolutionary processes. Such is the stuff for meditation. One studies history, one meditates on what happened here and there, on what happened today and on what will happen tomorrow, on where each country's processes will lead, what path our own process will take, how it will get there, and what role Cuba will play in this process.
The country has endured limitations in resources, many limitations; but this country has wasted resources, thoughtlessly. So, while you received the soaps that had no perfume and the toothpaste, regularly every month, and even though sometimes certain activities in the schools were neglected which, for example caused the excellent state of dental health among our youth to decay, some thought that socialism could be constructed with capitalist methods. That is one of the great historical errors. I do not wish to speak of this, I don't want to theorize. But I have an infinite number of examples of many things that couldn't be resolved by those who called themselves theoreticians, blanketing themselves from head to toe in the books of Marx, Engels, Lenin and many others.
That was why I commented that one of our greatest mistakes at the beginning of, and often during, the Revolution was believing that someone knew how to build socialism. In my opinion, today, we have relatively clear ideas about how one goes about building socialism, but we need many extremely clear ideas and many questions answered by you who will be the ones responsible for the preservation, or not, of socialism in the future.
What kind of a society would this be, how worthy of joy could we be when we assemble on a day like today, in a place like this, if we were not minimally aware of what we need to know, so that on our heroic island, this heroic people, this nation which has written pages in the history books like no other nation in the history of mankind can preserve the Revolution? Please, do not think that this who is speaking to you is a vain man or a charlatan, or someone inclined to bluff. Forty-six years have passed and the history of this country is known and the people of this nation know it well. They also know their neighbor very well, the empire, with its size and its power, its strength and its wealth, its technology and its control over the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, all the world of finances. That country has imposed on us the most incredibly iron- clad blockade, which was discussed at the United Nations where 182 nations supported Cuba, voting freely even though they ran a risk voting against the empire. The island has achieved this today, not during the days when the European socialist countries stood together with us, but after the socialist camp had disappeared and the USSR had fallen apart. We forged this Revolution alone, against all risk, for many long years and we had realized that if the day ever come when we would be under direct attack by the US, no one would ever fight for us, nor would we ask anyone to do so.
It would have been naïve of us to think, or to ask for, or to expect that one super-power would fight against the other, in this day and age of modern technological development, to intervene in this island 90 miles away. We came to the conclusion that such support would never happen. And another thing: once we asked them directly, a few years before the collapse: "Tell us frankly." : "No," they said. It was the answer we knew they would give and from that point on, more than ever, we accelerated the development of our concept and we perfected the tactical and strategic ideas which have seen to the triumph and victory of the Revolution. The Revolution's strength began with the struggle of seven armed men against an enemy with 80,000 troops including marines, soldiers and police, tanks, airplanes and all kinds of modern weaponry of the time. What an infinitely huge difference between our weapons and the weapons of that army, trained by the US, supported by the US and supplied by the US. After we received our reply, we held on to our concepts more firmly than ever, we deepened them and we gained in strength to the point where we can affirm today that our country is militarily invulnerable, and not because of arms of mass destruction. They may have tanks to spare, but we have just what we need, not one to spare! All their technology collapses like ice-cubes beneath the noon-day sun in a hot summer. And again, just like when we possessed only seven guns and a handful of bullets. Today, we possess much more than those seven guns. We have a people who have learned to handle weapons; we have an entire nation which, in spite of our errors, holds such a high degree of culture, education and conscience that it will never allow this country to become their colony again. This country can self-destruct; this Revolution can destroy itself, but they can never destroy us; we can destroy ourselves, and it would be our fault.
I have been fortunate to have lived many years. That is not a special merit but rather, it is an exceptional opportunity to share with you everything that I am telling you, young leaders, all the leaders of the masses, all the leaders of the workers' movement, the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, the women's groups, the farmers, the veterans of the Revolution, organized throughout the country, hundreds of thousands who have struggled through the years carrying out glorious internationalist missions, students like yourselves, intelligent, well prepared, healthy, organized. You are everywhere, in each one of those 900 or so campuses and the 1000 plus and the 2000 plus that we shall quickly have; and it will continue growing until more than 500,000 and 600,000, with new graduates every year. And those that graduate, like our physicians in Venezuela, will be studying with the aid of computers, videos and cassettes, all the audio-visual means necessary, to attain that scientific degree, that Master's or that Doctorate in medical sciences, everyone, one hundred percent of them.
Today we may speak about thousands of specialists in comprehensive general medicine and tomorrow we will be speaking about thousands of professionals in medical sciences, just to mention one branch. Let's not forget that once we had 3,000 doctors and no university professors. Many left this very university. Today, we can say that in a few short years, there will be 100,000 doctors. When those are not enough, there will be 150,000. And we will have university professors, just as we have thousands of programmers and program designers and researchers. Many changes are coming because we need to know much in a short time.
I was just telling you about a battle and I asked how much it cost. Don't think that these 28,000 social workers will be working for nothing. I've already told you how I knew that they came from the most modest of the segments of the population; I saw it in their faces. Involuntarily, I have developed the habit of guessing the province from which my compatriots come. I mentioned it in jest, and I say it to the doctors who are leaving on their missions, to the social workers, that each one belongs to a micro-tribe. I recognize those that come from Manzanillo, for example, those from Havana, from Guantanamo, from Santiago; it is impressive to see people from the most humble backgrounds in this country transform into 28,000 social workers and thousands of university students, university students!! What a force! And soon we shall also be seeing those who graduated a while ago in the Sports Coliseum.
The coliseum teaches us about Marxist-Leninism; it teaches us about social classes. A short while ago, about 15,000 doctors and medical students, some of them from ELAM (Latin American School of Medicine), and some from as far away as Eastern Timor, were gathered in the coliseum. It was an unforgettable event.
The image of those 15,000 white coats all together on graduation day can never be forgotten. That was the day that the "Henry Reeve" Contingent was created following in the tradition of many doctors who have been to places where exceptional events have taken place, in a time span much too brief to even imagine.
A short while later, the more than 3,000 young art instructors graduated; it was the second group, following that first graduation in Santa Clara. There are now 3,000 more of them already working. The next 3,000 that are in their last year of studies are also at work. And so they multiply. One day we shall assemble half at least of the social workers that are today developing one of the most transcendental tasks ever taken on by a group of young people. There is a group of Social Work Specialists who have joined forces with these young university students and they have become as one.
And what can we expect from the work of these youth? We shall put a stop to many of these vices: thievery, diversion of materials and money draining away towards the new rich.
Does anybody think that we are going to confiscate funds? No, money is sacred; everybody who has their money in the bank cannot be touched.
But look at something new, we are going to battle against an abundance of vices, theft, re-routing, one by one, we will get to them all, in some order. They don't suspect it. Do you have any ideas? Very good, then!
Certain vices can be very deep-seated. We started with Pinar del Rio to ascertain what was happening in the gas stations that sell gas in dollars. We soon discovered that there was as much gas being stolen as sold. Almost half the amount was being stolen and in other places more than half.
Well, what is happening in Havana? Will they mend their ways? Not really, everything is fun and games. Perhaps they thought that the social workers were idiots, little boys and girls. It is interesting to note that 72% of the social workers are women --I don't think something like that has happened before-- just as the doctors who are raising the prestige of our country and opening the way so that this country can use her human capital, something which is much more precious than oil. I repeat; it is much more precious than oil or gold, and any country that has oil is saying: "Wow, how lucky! I have this natural resource that is running out!" We do too, and we are going to increase oil production, of course. It's fortunate we didn't discover it earlier, because it would have been wasted.
Human capital is not a non-renewable product. It is renewable, and better, still it can be multiplied. Each year human capital increases and receives what was called, in my time, a compound interest. Add up what it is worth and receive an interest for what it is worth and for what it has earned; in five years you have much more capital, and in 100 years, it boggles the mind.
Allow me to tell you that today, human capital is practically superior to almost all of the others put together, and it is advancing very quickly to become the country's most valuable resource. I'm not exaggerating. I was asking about the cost; what was the economic cost of all our universities.
Just by using the new income collected by the gas stations in three months –and, of course, they are not going to be doing this forever, as you may guess-- but if they were to grow another 50% next year, they would collect the necessary funds in four months. All they have to do is force the new rich to pay for the fuel they consume, and in this way, within a year, they would pay no less than four times over what 600,000 university students and their professors cost. That's something, isn't it? And there would be a couple extra.
Do you know what a "couple extra" is? The people from Santiago know it. When you bought something at the store, they would give you something extra as a prize, a candy made of coconut or some such thing. That was the "couple extra". The social workers pay for this with a "couple extra." They arrived in Havana and suddenly they were collecting double. And didn't those who were there collect more? No, the social workers had to come. So I said to myself: "Is it possible that they have not learned their lesson and correct themselves?"
Eventually, those that don't want to understand will correct themselves, but in a different way: they are going to cover themselves in their own garbage. They just don't want to understand. So what was happening in the meanwhile in Matanzas and in Havana Province? The collection increased just a bit: 12 %, 15 %, 20 %. But they were just like Pinar del Rio and the capital before the controls were in place.
In Havana Province people learned to steal like crazy. Today, the social workers are in the refineries; they get on board the tanker trucks that carry 20,000 or 30,000 liters and they watch, more or less, where that truck goes, and how much of the oil is re- routed. They have discovered private gas stations, supplied with oil from these trucks.
We all know that many of the state owned trucks go all over the place, and sometimes they visit a relative, a friend, a family or a girl-friend. I remember the time, several years before the Special Period, I saw a brand new Volvo front-loader on Fifth Avenue…one of those at the time would have cost 50,000 or 60,000 dollars. I wanted to know where the truck was heading at that speed so I asked my escort: "Hold on, ask him where he's going; try to get an honest answer." The driver confessed that he was off to visit his girl- friend in that new Volvo, going down Fifth Avenue at top speed. Some things you'll see, Mio Cid –I think it was Cervantes who said this— that would make the stones talk.
So, this is some of what has been happening. In general, we all know, and many have said: "The Revolution can't do that; no, it's impossible; no, nobody can fix that." But yes, the people are going to fix it this time, the Revolution is going to fix it, any way we can. Is it merely an ethical matter? Yes, it is above all an ethical matter; but even more, it is a vital economic matter. Our nation is one of those that waste the most combustible energy in the world. We had proof of it right here, and you very honestly pointed it out; it is very important. No one knows the cost of electricity; no one knows the cost of gasoline; no one knows its market value. I was about to tell you that it is very sad when a ton of oil can cost 400 dollars and a ton of gasoline can cost 500, 600, 700 or on occasion 1000; this is a product which does not get cheaper. Whenever that happens it is circumstantial, and it does not last long. But the product itself will run out. It's very simple: oil will run out just as many of the world minerals. Take a look at our nickel mines, leaving great holes where once there used to be a lot of nickel. This is happening to oil; the great oil fields have all been found and every day there is less of them. This is a subject about which we have had to think long and hard.
For example, do you know how many kilometers per liter it takes to operate a Zil-130? 1.6 kilometers. It transports sugar cane or delivers snacks to the secondary school students. The Ministry of Sugar was told: Look, the Ministry of Food Industries needs your help to distribute the snack to the junior high schools. How many trucks can you spare? We have to reach 400,000 children, free of charge, to bring them their yoghurt and their bread. Of course, of those they could spare they offered the ones running on gasoline, the most cost inefficient.
If you were to exchange this Zil running on 1.6 kilometers per liter for a vehicle that has the appropriate size, let's say a two ton truck, and that one was a 5 ton truck, even a 1.2 ton truck would do. We started to see this in a discussion with the electrical industry company. They raised the problem of trucks needed to repair power grids and said: "We have to exchange 400 Soviet gas-guzzlers, because we're spending too much on gasoline." We studied them one after another, to see how much they used and what should replace them. The discussions were long; don't you think that the directors of our companies outstand for their discipline. And everyone can't be happy, I warn you; and I warn all of you as well, because this promises to be a tough fight. Till now, nobody has complained but, if I remember correctly, there were around 3,000 entities that were handling convertible currency and were managing their profits with generous expenditures in convertible currency, buying this and that, painting their houses, buying a new car and getting rid of the old clunker. We realized that, given the conditions this country is living in, such habits must be broken. We called a meeting with the main companies and they commenced to put some changes into place.
When you go to war with a lot of bullets, you're not too worried whether the guns are shooting that efficiently, however, if you have few bullets (something that always happened to us in the war) you must be familiar with each gun's bullets, even knowing the brand name, even though they may be of the same caliber, some bullets function better with a certain gun, others may jam up. Sometimes, in the name of economy, you have to prevent them from being fired and just shoot when the enemy is breeching the trenches. For example, there is nothing as terrible as an automatic weapon being fired, and that's how we operated.
Let's speak of banks. We have excellent banking institutions. The banks today manage all the resources for all the expenses of the nation; they pay out in accordance to the established programs. You will never see the director of any bank out to lunch with the representative of some powerful corporation. Directors are never invited to dine in a restaurant, or to travel to Europe and stay in the owner's house or some luxurious hotel. Some of our business men make million dollar deals, and the fine art of corruption as it is practiced in capitalist circles is as subtle as a serpent and worse than a rat. They will anesthetize you while you are being "bitten" and it can rip off a hunk of flesh in the middle of the night. This was the way the Revolution was being put to sleep so that a piece of flesh could then be ripped away. In a few cases, corruption was out in the open. Many knew about its existence, or they suspected it, when they observed the life-style changes the new car, the house being redecorated, adding little decorative touches here and there because of pure vanity. We have heard such stories time and time again, and measures must be taken even though it will not be resolved easily.
Now we come to larceny, or the re-routing of resources from the gas stations. There are ways to deliver gasoline because that gentleman, who is my very good friend, uses his vehicle in a very useful way and so I can see that he gets a certain amount of gasoline. This is just one way of thousands. There are dozens of ways to waste or to re-routing resources. If the controls in place are not enforced, or if we cannot find the best solution to stop this, theft will continue and increase. Today, in our country, we could be saving more energy, more than is possible in any other country. There are 2,400,000 vintage refrigerators in family dwellings which use four or five times more electricity per hour, on a 24 hour basis.
A single data, so that you don't forget it. In Pinar del Rio there are 143,000 refrigerators; of this number, 136,000 are INPUDs, Minsks and other ancient Soviet brands, Frigidaire and the other capitalist brands consume, according to my calculations, around 20% - -I am using another figure but here I will use the most conservative one-- of the electricity generated by power plants for Pinar del Rio during peak hours. Earlier on, I was speaking of a Zil truck; we have thousands of these. Worse than that, there are many institutions with old trucks, which are not operational, but they are not reported in that condition and the central administration has become accustomed to negotiating with government ministers. The central State Administration doesn't need to negotiate with any minister; it must issue orders to the ministers. "How many trucks do you have?" "This is how many." It is necessary to delve into the problems and then make decisions.
The sugar industry produced eight million tons and today this figure barely reaches one and a half tons. We had to radically cut back on tilling and seeding the land while oil was costing 40 dollars a barrel, it was ruinous for the country, particularly if you added to that equation the hurricanes that were passing through with increasing frequency, the prolonged droughts, and because the cane fields had a life span of four or five years when once they lasted 15 or more, and when the market price was 7 cents. I remember that one day I asked a company which sells our sugar about the price of sugar and about production at the end of March, and they didn't even know how much sugar was being produced for months, much less the cost of a ton of sugar in American dollars, the answer came up about a month and a half later. Quite simply, we had to shut down sugar mills or we were going to disappear down the Bartlett Trench. The country had many, many economists and it is not my intention to criticize them, but speaking with the same honesty I used to describe the errors of the Revolution, I would like to ask why we hadn't discovered that maintaining production levels of sugar would be impossible. The USSR had collapsed, oil was costing 40 dollars a barrel, sugar prices were at basement levels…so why did we not rationalize that industry instead of sowing 20,000 caballerias that year, equivalent of almost 270,000 hectares, obliging us to till the land with tractors and heavy ploughs, sowing cane that afterwards had to be cleaned using machinery, fertilize with expensive herbicides, etc. None of our economists seemed to have noticed any of this, and we practically had to instruct them, order them, to stop the procedure. It is like saying: "The country is being invaded"; you cannot reply: "Hold on, let me have a thirty meetings with a hundreds of people." It's as if we had said in Giron: "Let's hold a meeting for three days to discuss what we should do to repel the invasion." I assure you that the Revolution, throughout her history, has been a constant and real war, with the enemy stalking us and ready to strike at us if we should let down our guard. I called the minister and I told him: Tell me please, how many hectares are ploughed?" The answer: "Eighty thousand." My response was: "Not one hectare more." That wasn't really up to me, but I had no option; you just can't let the country go down the tubes, and in April I was looking at 20,000 caballerias of land being ploughed.
We have had to do many more things like this, things that would make the stones speak. It's not your fault, but, what was happening to us? Why did we not see all this? The USSR had already collapsed, we had been left without oil overnight, with no raw materials, no food, no cleaning products, nothing. Probably, it was good that this happened, after all. Maybe it was necessary that we suffered as we did, so that we are ready to give our lives a hundred times over before we surrender the country or the Revolution, the Revolution we so deeply believe in. Maybe it was all necessary, for we have committed many errors. It is these errors that we are trying to correct, if you will, that we are in the process of correcting.
One of the corrections made by the Party and the Government was to put an end to the prerogative of 3,000 citizens to manage the country's currency, in the situation of debt –they could have a debt of such and such a size-- nobody was guaranteeing the payment of that debt; when the debt expired the State was obliged to pay it. It might have been an unnecessary or subjective debt, and if the State did not pay it, its credit could be considerably affected. Today that has changed; I would like to tell you that the country is paying off every last cent, with not even a second's delay, and credit grows constantly. Money is not being thrown out of the windows; it is spent in great quantities, yes, but not in those colossal amounts that we saw in the sugar industry.
You will be even more amazed when I tell you that, according to its inventory, the Ministry of Sugar has 2000 to 3000 more trucks than it had when it was producing 8 million tons of sugar. It's tough, but I'm going to tell it like it is; I'm going to talk about it, and no matter how many times I tell it, and no matter how I criticize this in public, I am not afraid to shoulder the responsibility for what needs to be done, we cannot afford to be soft. Let them attack and criticize me, I know the reality of the situation, I know it very well. There must be quite a few who are hurting: kings, czars, emperors. Is everyone like that? No! Are all our ministers like that? No. Some ministers have been very inefficient. Sometimes we are soft on officials who hold important positions, but I have this old habit: I like to work with the comrades who have made mistakes. I've done that many times over. As long as I see positive qualities and what is missing is the correct guidance. Sometimes it is just a question of short-sightedness, in spite of all the mechanisms and institutions in the country to defend itself, to struggle and to fight with honor, without abuse of power, for nothing would ever justify the abuse of power. We must be audacious enough to tell the truth, but not all of it, because we don't need to say everything at once. Political battles follow certain tactics, with adequate information, following their own path. I am not telling you everything; I am telling you the indispensable. Don't worry about what the bandits are saying or what the news services will report tomorrow or the day after: he who laughs last, laughs best.
There are some news reports saying that Castro is launching an offensive, Castro is launching his social workers that we are renouncing all the progressive advances made so far. The progressive advance means that you are selling a pound of rice for four pesos, it's robbery! What retiree would be able to buy that? A pensioner with his 80 pesos and five pounds of rice in his ration book cannot buy that. Havana had privileges and used to receive six. Havana used to receive one additional pound, and so did Santiago, but the rest of the provinces received five. We must measure it, ounce after ounce, 100 grams, how it grows. What's happening with the ration book? You have rice and you exchange it for sugar, and so on.
Today, everybody receives two more pounds of rice. I'd like to see the day when that will be enough. It's not far, but now they throw it at the chickens. Well, that's a whole other story. We are getting close to the time when everyone will have enough rice. We are also preparing conditions so that the ration book will be a thing of the past. We want to change something that was once useful and now is in the way. And if you would like to buy more rice, buy more rice and less sugar, or something else, not just red beans or black beans. You can buy whatever color of beans you like and cook them as you like. I warn you, you will have to pay a lot of attention to cooking, and quite soon.
Some were also commenting on the chocolate: "I'll believe it when I see it." That's what happened with the pressure cookers, and today there are millions of believers. Others said: "How is this chocolate?" "What does it cost?" "Eight pesos." "It's pretty expensive to be subsidized." Moral of the story: Everything subsidized should be as economical as electricity. "So, how much does it cost?" "Ah! Eight pesos." "How many cents of a devalued dollar?" Thirty two cents. What's it like? It has 200 grams; in each 11 grams seven are whole milk powder. Let everyone check for himself. Take it to a lab and get it examined. Four grams of cocoa, the strongest…as strong as it is healthy. Cuba today is probably the country that consumes most cocoa per capita in the world; children eat it, but so does Dad, just as Dad drinks the child's coffee. Children are born and registered, and they receive their little packet of coffee, real coffee, for five pesos. "It's too expensive to be subsidized!" You should really say: it is a little short of a gift.
The road to reach what I am saying is: the worker must receive more. Everyone who works should receive more. All pensioners should receive more. We are really talking about more income and more products.
There are two over there, they're not bad, and some of you are discovering the chocolate. I know that our doctors over there in Kashmir drink our chocolate every night; this packet which is so expensive, and you can add milk. For the children, if you like, add more; add water and add milk, and then there is protein.
I assure you that we are measuring all the protein in every bean and in every egg. Most of the country is getting five. Havana is getting eight. Today there are more than 100 municipalities that are receiving 10, and every new one receives an increase. Add it up: 5 times 9 make 45. That's 4.50 plus 5 times 15cents, 75, that means that with 5.25 cents you can buy 10 eggs. Those on social assistance can get 5 new eggs for 4.50. Correct. Yes, but then came the chocolate and you need to get 8 pesos, and the coffee and you need 5, and 8 more, 13; add it to the 5.25, 18.25. Well, you have two more pounds of rice, and this cost 90 cents of a peso each one, let's call it a little less than 4 cents of a dollar. That's new: the country must spend 40 million dollars on those two additional pounds of rice, and we don't hesitate in doing so. And the one who got a raise of 50 pesos, now he is left with a little less. But we are thinking how much of an increase the pensioner will get so that he can buy more…and the money must be guaranteed before it is distributed. It's not just a matter of printing bills and distributing them without having them backed up with merchandise or services, because then those magnificent intermediaries will charge five pesos for the rice instead of three. Don't forget that those who can will charge what they like. "Pay me eight pesos for a pound of beans," they'll say.
All 5 million in the country, who received 10 ounces, will be receiving 20, and those who were receiving 20 will be getting 30, and those who were receiving 10 and then 20 will be getting 30, tripling the amount of beans, or grain as they call it, not including rice or corn. Five million, three times more, and the rest at 50% more. This too cost us several million dollars. I am not going to ask you where we got it, because that is a subject for the great theoreticians: "That's too little for a salary raise," they ay say. Sure, the ideal would be triple. And where do we get it from? My dear sir, are you going to tell me where we are going to get this, who do we have to rob, or are we going to have to pull your leg to give you much more than this so that you are deceived? There are a few questions that we need to ask the fools, not that everything they think is foolish, but there are many foolish remarks that are due to ignorance: the price is high, the price is high, and price is always high. We ended up giving away the houses, some people bought theirs, they were the owners, they had paid 50 pesos a month, 80 pesos, or, if the money was sent to them from Miami, it amounted to about 3 dollars; some sold theirs in 15 000 or 20 000 dollars, when they had originally paid less than 500.
Can the country resolve its housing problem by giving away houses? And who will get them, the proletariat or the humble people? Many humble people were given houses for free and then they sold them to the new rich. How much can the new rich spend on a house? Is this socialism? Maybe it's down to necessity at a certain moment in time, maybe it's a mistake, because the country suffered a shattering blow when overnight the great power fell and we were left alone, all on our own, and we lost all the markets on which to sell our sugar and we stopped getting supplies, fuel, even the wood with which to give a Christian burial to our dead. And everyone thought: `This will fall apart', and the idiots still believe that it is all going to fall apart here and that if it doesn't fall apart now it will fall apart later. And the more illusions they entertain and the more they think, the more we should think, the more we should draw our own conclusions, so that this glorious people who has so trusted all of us is never defeated. (Applause) Let there never be a USSR situation here, or broken, disperse socialist blocks! The empire shall not come here to set up secret jails in which to torture progressive men and women from other parts of this continent that are today rising to fight for the second and final independence!
Before we go back to living such a repugnant and miserable life there better not be any memory, even the slightest trace, of us or our descendents. I said that we are more and more revolutionary and I said this for a reason. Now, we understand the empire better and better, we are increasingly aware of what they are capable of while before we were skeptical with regard to some things, they seemed to us impossible.
They had fooled the world. When the mass media grew in full force it took control of peoples' minds and exercised its power through not only lies, but also conditioned response. A lie isn't the same as a conditioned response: a lie affects one's knowledge whereas the conditioned response affects one's ability to think. And being misinformed isn't the same as having lost the ability to think, because responses have been created for you: `This is bad, that is bad; socialism is bad, socialism is bad', they say, and all the ignorant people and all the humble people and all the exploited people are saying: `Socialism is bad'. `Communism is bad'. And all the poor people, all the exploited people and all the illiterate people are repeating it: `Communism is bad'. `Cuba is bad, Cuba is bad', the empire has said it, it has been said in Geneva, it has been said all over the place, and all the exploited people around the world, all the illiterate people and all those who don't receive medical care, or education or have any guarantee of a job, or of anything are saying: `The Cuban Revolution is bad, the Cuban Revolution is bad'. `Listen, the Cuban Revolution did this and that'. But listen to this too: `No-one is illiterate in Cuba'. Listen, `infant mortality rate is such and such'. Listen, `everyone can read and write'. Listen, `freedom can't exist without culture'. Listen, `there can't be choice'.
What are they talking about? What can the illiterate people do? How can they know if the International Monetary Fund is good or bad, or that interest is higher, or that the world is being ceaselessly subjugated and pillaged by a thousand different methods put into practice by this system? They don't know.
They don't teach the masses to read and write, yet they spend a million dollars on publicity every year; but it isn't the fact that they spend it, it's the fact that they spend it on creating conditioned responses, because someone bought Palmolive, someone else bought Colgate, and someone else bought Candado soap, just because they were told to a hundred times over, because they associated the products with a pretty image and this sowed its seed and carved its place in the brain. They who talk so much of brainwashing, it is they who carve their place, who mould the brain, who take away from the human being his capacity to think; it would be less serious if they were taking away the ability to think from someone who had been to university, who could read a book.
What can the illiterate read? What means have they of realizing that they are being conned? What means have they of knowing that the biggest lie in the world is the one that claims that the rotten system that reigns over there and what they have in many places, if not almost all of the countries that copied that system is a democracy? The damage that they are doing is terrible. And people are becoming aware of this, and day after day more people are becoming aware, day after day, after day, they feel more disdain, more disgust, more hatred, more condemnation, and more desire to fight. This is what, in the end, makes everyone much more revolutionary than they were when they were unaware of many of these things, when they only knew about elements of injustice and inequality.
At the moment, while I'm talking to you about this, I'm not theorizing, although it is necessary to theorize; we are working, we are moving towards full changes in our society. We have to change again, because we have gone through some very difficult times, and these inequalities and injustices have arisen, and we are going to change this situation without abusing anyone's rights in the least, and without taking money away from anyone. No, we're not going to take anybody's money; in our eyes, the faith that our people have in the bank is the most important thing of all. And because the Revolution is creating wealth, and because the Revolution is going to create a significant input that isn't derived from the sugar industry or any of that, it will mainly come from that capital, and also from experience, because knowing what must be done is very important.
If I tell you about the gas stations in the capital you're going to be amazed; there's more than double the amount that there should be, its total chaos. Every ministry wanted one and got one, and they're scattered around everywhere. The People's Power institution is a disaster, total chaos, in the sense that all the oldest trucks, the ones that consume the most fuel, and all that, were given to the People's Power. When it seemed that the use of these trucks was being rationalized, really the country was being permanently mortgaged.
Can we do the same when fuel costs 2 dollars as when it costs 10 or 20, or 40, or 60? One of the worst things that happened to us was precisely that we believed in the strategies of the power system. Many questions were asked, and, really, we discovered that the main problem was that we were operating on a concept that corresponded to the days when fuel cost 2 dollars; the sugar policy corresponded to the days when that cost two dollars, too. The price of oil nowadays is not in keeping with any supply and demand rule; it conforms to other factors like the shortages, the extensive squandering by the rich countries, and it's not a price that is anyway in keeping with economic rules either. The reason behind it is the shortage of this product together with the increasing and extraordinary demand for it.
In fact, this very morning I was informed of some news: by next year there will be a demand for 2
million more barrels a day; the year after that the demand will have risen to more than 84 million barrels a day, and the United States, which is the empire's main territory, goes through 8.6 million barrels of fuel a day. This is one of the key points. We invite everyone to take part in a great battle, it's not just a fuel and electricity battle, it's a battle against larceny, against all types of theft, anywhere in the world. I repeat: against all types of theft, anywhere in the world. What is the cost of the total amount of energy that the country uses at the current oil prices? It's around 3 billion dollars.
Of course, saving measures aren't the only way to increase income, there are several ways. Let me tell you that there are quite a few and they are significant. I am almost certain –the final result could be a bit more or a bit less, I don't want to say for certain, I'm always conservative when it comes to calculations– that this country, in light of all the information that we now have, can save, in a short amount of time, two thirds of the energy that it now consumes, adding up all the factors: electricity, oil, diesel, fuel oil, etc; with a price like that currently charged it could decrease slightly and then increase considerably. This would mean more than 1, 5 billion dollars. And you may ask: What does the country currently do with those 1, 5 billion dollars? My answer to that would be: one part is stolen, another part is squandered and the rest is thrown away. As we are in the middle of this offensive, in the middle of the activity, I can't give you all of the information; but I think that within 10 years the work of these young social workers may save the country up to 20 billion dollars with regard to energy. Did you hear that? You know how much a million is, don't you? And 100 millions? And 1 billion in convertible pesos?
Carlitos, you gave me a document:
`The total cost of education: 4,117 million pesos; the cost of higher education: 886 million.' `Information from the Ministry of Economy and Planning, confronted with the Ministry of Finance and Prices, on November 17, 2005'.
So, it is 886 million pesos. We have that 700 million pesos is 35.4 million dollars. And let me say once again: it's a small part of what is stolen or extracted from the fuel reserves, less than 20%. That is what the universities cost, according to this information.
When I say 1 billion dollars saved, I am talking about 25 billion pesos. All the wages paid in this country, at international exchange rates, which are exceedingly arbitrary towards Cuba, amount to around 14 billion pesos, a currency which has true value in our country, and has a very high real purchasing power. It has also been revalued and it may be revalued again.
Every word uttered has to be carefully weighed. I'm not improvising, I have reflected extensively on this information and I have it in my mind, and I weigh my words: I'll say this, I won't say that, because we have enemies who are trying to thwart everything and mix everything up, like those who say that we are abusing the sacred freedom of trade. And they say other things besides, one example is: `What can they get with a dollar that was sent over by someone who is most probably a university graduate? As you all know, they didn't have to pay a cent. Following the triumph of the Revolution no-one who left here for the United States was illiterate.
And every year was the same, those who had sixth grade, a seventh grade of education, those who new a thing or two, those sectors that went to university were the first to go there, the richest sectors of society, and for more than 40 years the empire stole tens of thousands of university graduates and hundreds of thousands of skilled workers, whom they now try, at all cost, to prevent from sending remittances to Cuba. What bitterness there was that day when the dollar shops opened, as a means to collect a little bit of the remittance money, and those with this money went to spend it in those shops, that were expensive, and aimed at collecting a bit of this money and redistributing it to those who didn't get any, at a time when the country was in a very difficult situation.
Now then, what do they do now with a dollar? They send it over here. I don't know whether they send you a dollar or two. (Talking to someone) I have relatives who receive money. I don't mess about that. One day we asked and were told that in some provinces 30% or 40% of the people receive something, a little; but sending over a dollar is a good deal, a really good deal! So good that it could easily ruin us because of the enormous purchasing power they have in a blockaded country, with highly subsidized rationed products and free or amazingly cheap services.
I have an example of this, going back to electricity. Do you know how much it costs the country in convertible pesos to produce one kilowatt with this system that has had so many problems, with the `Guiteras', the Felton and other power plants, that have caused so many power outages and many other problems? Do you know how much it costs the country in convertible pesos? Around 15 cents per kilowatt, but if you –this comrade, undoubtedly an intelligent man, who spoke so well– were to receive, say, one dollar, what could you do with it? You've acknowledged that electricity is very cheap, it's practically given away; we give it away to the pensioners and to the workers, we give it away; but we are also giving it away to the hustlers, to those who made 1000 pesos from here to Guantánamo, or who make twice what a doctor earns in a month by taking him from Havana to Las Tunas, with stolen fuel, bribing the gas station attendants. I'm not against anyone, but neither am I against the truth. I don't believe any lies, I'm sorry, but I'm telling them all now that they are going to loose the battle, and it won't be an act of injustice or abuse of power. We are giving away electricity to those who sell a pound of beans for 8 pesos. And, please, don't stop selling them, don't go doing that and blaming it on me. Sell them, we're not going to prohibit it, what I want is to know what they're going to do when beans are more plentiful. I don't know if they'll drop the price or not, but half of the population has seen their quota triple, and the other half has seen it increase by 50%. I think that they'll have to lower it somewhat. Most probably, sometime in the future, with a bit of money, from the energy that we will be saving, we will assign another 10 ounces and the moment will come in which all sellers will be honest and not one single bean will go astray and produce that isn't bought is returned, because there will no longer be any means by which to pinch it, nor reason, nor circumstances, the speculator will end up with nothing to sell and will have to eat it all himself.
The farmers eat their produce and sell the rest. The speculator steals and doesn't produce anything. A cable from Reuters portrayed the government as beating down the `progressive advances' of the special period. Progressive is what I have been talking about. They don't mention that the crook, or whoever, he's probably not a crook, the lucky fellow over there sends you a dollar and you spend very little on electricity, you consume less that 100, you have spent 9 Cuban pesos for 100 kilowatts of electricity. Okay? Divide 24 by 9 (he works out the sum) You spend 2400 cents, and for your 100 kilowatts you paid 900 cents, that's not even half a dollar, you've still got 1500 cents left, you've only used 100; you are a very thrifty young lad, you turn off the lights, you turn everything else off as well, you don't have any incandescent light bulbs, all yours are fluorescent light bulbs, your refrigerator uses less than 40 watts an hour, you don't have one of those old Frigidaire models that once belonged to your grandmother, you are very good. (Laughter)
Now, maybe you spend 150 kilowatts, but it's going to be a bit more expensive for you because the extra 50 cost 20 instead of 9, which is 10 pesos; so you, who paid a bit more because of those 50, have spent 19 pesos. But, listen, you still haven't spent a dollar, you don't live in Florida, you live in Cuba. In Florida it's stingy and shameless, the electricity costs him 15 cents of a dollar, but he sends you a dollar so that with less than a dollar you can pay for 150 kilowatts; but, in spite of this, you use in moderation, you have many gadgets, new and old, possibly an air conditioner and a few other things, and you use 300 kilowatts. You work it out, the first 100 are worth 9 pesos; the second 200, 40 pesos, together that equals 49 pesos. In total you spend 1.9 dollars for 300 kilowatts of electricity; that is to say, 0.63 cents of a dollar for one Cuban kilowatt of electricity. How amazingly brilliant! How much do the Cuban people spend because of that dollar that is sent to you from over there? Because that wasn't a dollar that you earned, or a peso, by working for it, or that that middleman made by selling a pound of beans for eight pesos; it was sent to you by a healthy person, who studied free of charge right from primary school, who isn't ill, they are the healthiest citizens that go to the United States, where there is an Adjustment Act, and where the sending of remittances is also prohibited.
Okay, so for less than two dollars the country had to spend 44 dollars to subsidize that dollar that was sent from the United States. This country is a noble one, it subsidized those dollars from over there, that instead of helping you are going to say: `Look, I'm going to send you 2 dollars for the electricity, but don't use so much, please, be careful, turn off the lights. Look, I'm also going to send you a refrigerator, or I'm going to give you the money to buy yourself one in the `shopping'. The generous sender of dollars then continues: `Don't worry, I'll send you everything you need, I am good, I am noble, I'm going to heaven, I guarantee you those 300 kilowatts that you are costing that stupid socialist State that says that it is revolutionary and that it is going to fight until death to defend the Revolution'. It may be a person who knows that we are good, but he may also think that we are fools; and, even, be partly right about that. Watch out!
Now, to collect 45 dollars I have to collect 4500 cents. I have to collect them from all of you. How many people are there here? (He is told 405) So, it's four hundred and five? Well then, before you all go can you please hand over 11 cents, that is what you pay, that money with which the State pays is your money, that is to say, the Cuban people's money. All of you hand over 11 cents to subsidize the electricity bill of that person for one month. Don't forget! We are going to put someone in charge of watching you all and registering the information as well. (Laughter) Isn't that right? So if this person is given his quota of rice, how much do those five pounds of rice cost him? Let's see, with a dollar. How much does it cost him? How much can he buy with a dollar, even with the deduction, even with the revaluated price of the peso? He buys a hundred pounds of rice, not in one day as some fools believe, but saves it for this month, and the next month, and the following months.
Obviously, you didn't spend any of what they sent you on medicine, for medicine here are subsidized, if you bought it in the drugstore, that is, what wasn't stolen and resold, and then you spent 10% of what it costs in hard currency. If you went to the hospital and had an ankle or even heart operation, your operation could cost 1000, 2000, 10,000 in the United States; if you suffer a stroke and are given a valve, this could cost one of our employees over in the Interests Section 80,000 dollars, but here you're treated. There could an incident of mistreatment in a hospital, but have you ever been to a hospital where you have not been treated?
Of course, our system didn't have the organization that it is now starting to have and will have, fully, in the future, or the equipment that is now starting to be used in the majority of hospitals, high quality standardized equipment, that therefore can receive maintenance, or the computerized multi-section tomography machines, with 64 sections, the best in the world, that are now starting to arrive, that have been bought and paid for. You see. And how have they been paid? They have been paid with the savings and with the country's newly increasing income. It doesn't cost you anything.
From the moment that you enroll in nursery school until the day that you graduate with the honorable PhD in agricultural science, physical science, medical science, it never costs you penny. If you're lucky you get an apartment, although it is likely that you will never be that lucky –okay, let's say your father was given it because he was a construction worker--, but you don't pay rent, you don't pay taxes. Perhaps you are quite sharp and you say: `I am going to rent it out to some visitors, in convertible pesos. So, I am charged 30 cents in tax for every dollar that I receive; okay, I was practically given this house, it cost me 500 dollars, I make 800 a month and I give 240 to the State, a few dollars here and there, and I earn 500 dollars; 5 times two 10, 12 500 pesos. You can go, by virtue of those sacred freedom of trade laws, and buy a pound of rice for 3 pesos on the open market, you can go up to a gas station attendant and say: `Look, I have a 1950's car because I bought it from such and such a person, I paid for it in hard currency or in convertible pesos, and I have someone who gets me the fuel, and I'm going on a 300 km trip, and I have three girlfriends', and this hunk of tin is an attractive offer with all the problems with transport. Who's not going to want me with this car?' (Laughter)
If you want, dear students, I could add that those who use 300 kilowatts consume 40% of the residential electricity produced in the country; 40% of this electricity could represent –a cautious and conservative figure– 400 million dollars generously and benevolently given by the State to the biggest users. And who are the biggest users? Go and visit one of the new rich and take a look at how many electrical appliances they have.
I remember that when we were analyzing the issue of power consumption we discovered that a `paladar' [private] restaurant consumed 11,000 kilowatts and that this stupid State was subsidizing the owner, the owner of the place where the bourgeoisie likes to take their guests so that they can taste the lobster and the shrimps, all of it stolen from Batabanó, a miracle of the private business, that little place with four or five tables. But, of course, this totalitarian, abusive State is against progress because it is against plundering. So, the State is subsidizing the `paladar' with more than 1,000 dollars a month, and I found this out because I asked how much they spent, how much it was worth, and this fellow was paying the electricity at that price, 11,000 kilowatts; I think that once the total exceeded 300 he was paying 30 cents of a peso per kilowatt. Didn't you know? No, none of you know anything. (Something is said to him) No, don't make things up, I have made a lot of enquiries and I have been misinformed on many occasions. It is 30 cents, 11,000 kilowatts, he was paying 3,000 pesos. Look what he was paying, the State was getting rich because he paid 3,000 Cuban pesos, some 120 dollars; but it costs the State…, on that occasion I calculated that a kilowatt was 10 cents of a dollar, now 11,000, at a cost of 15 cents for the State, we'll have to pass the collection plate here, I don't know how you are all doing for cash but we have to subsidize that `paladar', and as it costs 1,250 dollars a month and there are 400 of you, don't just hand over the 20 cents when you leave, also donate around 3 dollars please, for the monthly payment, pay the bill because someone has to subsidize that `paladar'. That's free trade, that's progress, that's development, that's a step forward.
We are going to show them what progress is, what development is, what justice is, what it is to end the theft. And I warn them: it will be with the wholehearted support of the people. We know what we are doing, it is pure math and it's in the numbers. We know how much everything that we are going to save is worth. I don't want to talk about what we are buying now, nor do I want to elaborate much more about the billions, regardless of whether or not the power cuts will come to an end, and believe me, they will end, of that you can be sure.
Now we have around two and a half million electrical pressure cookers, we've not just got the rice cookers, we're also going to have some gadget that saves more than 80% of the energy that you use to boil one liter of water. I'm sure that I can ask you a question and that you will answer it. Raise your hands all of you who don't use warm water to wash with in August. Honestly now. Be careful, don't get mixed up. (A girl raises her hand)
Okay, so you've never used warm water? (She tells him that she hasn't) And what about winter? (Again she replies negatively) Congratulations. You make up approximately 10% of the population. You do, in winter? (A boy answers that he does) What a responsible man you are (laughter) And you know I have asked other people, not like I have here, I asked students and work colleagues, and I asked them to raise their hands if they didn't use it. Do you know when that was? It was on my birthday, on August 13. I asked 10 of them to tell me if they didn't heat the water to take a shower and none of the 10 raised their hands. I'm talking about water to take a shower, people also heat water to purify it, and for the children, in summer. When it's cold I want to see which of you takes a shower without heating the water first. (Laughter)
And do you know what university students in the halls of residence do with cans to heat water? Do you know? Ah! And why don't you find out how much electricity they use? I can tell you, I can tell you that there are some methods of heating water that use more than forty times more energy. Forty times!
Tell me honestly, have any of you ever used electricity to heat a homemade burner when the gas has run out? I'm not referring to those of you who have mains gas, that is the most economic, and should not be touched on. Those of you who cook with liquid gas or kerosene, have you ever used a homemade burner to cook anything? Raise your hands if you have never used one.
Let's see. Who's here? What about that person there who raised their hand. Have a look, find out about that gentleman, maybe my eyesight's failing me, and let's see. Really, raise your hand if you have never used one. One. Stand up young lady. Please, come here. Yes, you who raised your hand, yes you, stand up. Come here please. Now then, answer my question. You're telling the absolute truth? (She tells him that she is) You have never used one. Where do you live? (She tells him that she lives in the country, in Santa María) Is there electricity there? (She answers affirmatively)
I wanted to find the ideal citizen, someone who has never used a homemade burner. Tell me something, is it ever hot there? And another thing: do you have an electric fan? Because I'm sure there are mosquitoes out there, aren't there? What type of fan do you have? What type of motor does this fan have, Aurika? (Laughter) (She tells him that it is a Sanyo with an efficient electric motor) Your parents are farmers, is that true? (She says that it is) But you don't sell anything on that market do you? (Laughter) She is honest, she has slightly more resources. Do you have any incandescent bulbs? (She tells him that she does) How many? What size are they? How powerful are they? (She tells him that they are 60 watt bulbs) And can you see okay with those? (She answers affirmatively) How many hours a day do you have them on for? (She tells him that they are on for quite a few hours) What, five, six? (She tells him that there is one that stays on all night) One is on all night? How many hours is that? Of course, it's so that the place isn't shrouded in darkness. So that's 10, 12? (She tells him 12 hours) Twelve hours. Oh my! And the other light, how long is that on for? (She tells him that it is on from six in the evening until after ten) After ten, that is, so let's say six hours. Twelve plus four, 16 hours; times 60 equals 960 watts. Instead of using 960 watts you are going to be given 2 fluorescent light bulbs that use 7 watts each if they're on for 12 and 4 hours; 16 times 7 equals 112 watts and more light.
Do you want to do something for your country? Do you want to? I'm sure that you do. Do you live there? I didn't want to ask, but anyway, the problem has now been solved. I am going to tell you how much you are going to give your country very soon, starting from tomorrow if you wish.
Enrique, send them two 7 watt bulbs, or 15 or 20 if you want, you'll be able to see better that you do with the incandescent bulbs and you'll have less thieves sneaking about nearby, The cost of these little 7 watt bulbs, I've already worked it out, is 112 watts, which I'll subtract from the 960 that the incandescent bulbs use: 960 minus 112 equals 858 watts, multiplied by 365, the number of days in a year, if it's not a leap year, equals 313.170 watts, divided by 1000 it would be 313,17 kilowatts, multiplied by 15 cents, with the cost of production in hard currency, brings the total to 46 dollars and 97 cents.
I would like to thank you in advance, you, who are going to give the country –wait a minute, don't go, yet– from the payment that you have to make now, you are going to give Cuba 12.7 cents a day, in 100 days you would have given the country 12.7 dollars, and by next year you will have given all of us 46.45 dollars, with which to buy a few more beans or whatever. So, let me tell you, and this isn't some kind of tax, and you will see better, by just changing two light bulbs you are going to give us 46.45 dollars; we're not going to charge you or anyone for the two light bulbs. They last five times longer that the incandescent light bulbs and they generate less heat, you won't have to use that Sanyo fan of yours so much.
So that's the situation, explained with that example. Imagine if there were 15 million light bulbs instead of 2, and not just those in people's houses, who have more than calculations show, but also in the schools, general stores, and in all types of shops and stalls; 15 million. Of course, she only has two and she uses them quite a lot, there are others who use them much less and some people use them very often, so we can't extrapolate like that. But we must save, maybe for quite a few hours, between two and three 100,000 kilowatt power generators, plus the cost of fuel and other things needed to produce the electricity that is squandered, a power the country needs in order to ensure that these bulbs are on for an hour, which make this expenditure necessary.
What are you all talking about? What are you laughing at? (They point up to the ceiling of the theatre hall where there is a large amount of small incandescent bulbs) Ah! No, I'm prepared to pay for those to stay there, they are very pretty. It isn't a waste, it's a traditional and historical setting and, besides, there aren't events here all day every day, and in any case, the guilty party here is me, because this building has been lit up the whole time that I have been up here on this rostrum.
Well, thank you very much. (He turns to another young woman from Ciego de Avila, who stood next to the other young woman from Havana) Is there a refrigerator in your house? (She tells him that it is not working) It's not working? Wasn't it fitted with the seal or the thermostat? (She tells him that it was) So why did it break again? (She tells him that the motor burned out) The motor burned out? When? (She tells him that it was a while ago) What type is it? (She tells him that it is Russian) Russian, Minsk, or made with a Russian motor, INPUD, in Santa Clara and now it's not working, you were using much more energy that those light bulbs.
Let us assume that it is working, we'll have to say what we must do in your case, because we'll have to change the refrigerator as it uses too much energy. The day before yesterday I was seeing off some of the social workers who were going to go and talk to the truck and tractor drivers, they were going to find out where they were, where they lived, what they were called, what their identity numbers were, how much fuel they used, if they used diesel how many kilometers did they travel on one liter; but it's not necessary to know a lot to realize that your non operational Minsk used a lot of energy.
Don't you remember? It must have been using around 300 watts an hour; you certainly were ruining the republic, because this one faulty refrigerator must consume seven kilowatts a day. If instead of this you had a new one, that consumed less than 40 watts an hour, you could be –I'm going to tell you how much you would be saving, I am going to try, I am going to calculate just 200 watts per hour– using 4.8 kilowatts a day. Learn to multiply, because you are all going to have to do this. (He makes the calculation) At 15 cents per kilowatt, she is going to be giving us 15 and 15, 30 and 30, 72 cents a day. She shall have her refrigerator. Let's note that down, Enrique.
You don't have one at the moment? (He is told that the situation is being sorted out) Where are you going to get the machine from, tell me that? (He is told that the motor is going to be repaired by self-employed workers)
Wait, we're going to be increasing rates by about 30% then because those repaired motors are a disaster. Enrique, how much do the repaired motors consume? Many people have done that because their motors have broken and they didn't have any other choice, we can't blame them. But the State can be blamed. I can assure you this: within six months you will have a refrigerator that won't consume more than 40 watts an hour. I'm talking about what is wasted, what is thrown away, in your case we'll be set to save 200 per hour. That's what you'll save yourself, it's a pity that the 150 that we had in stock have just been distributed. Maybe, Enriquito, we've got seven left, we could have a trial over there. At the moment we have 150 trials underway in the city, we are going to hold a short meeting with the representatives of Arroyo Naranjo, where 30,000 use liquid gas. We are going to visit them.
Enrique, how many went to visit the residents of Arroyo Naranjo, the 50,000 homes? (Enrique tells him that that day 1,098 social workers had gone to visit around 55,000 homes. He points out that each worker visits an average of 20 houses a day, so according to calculations, they would have visited 20,000)
So, in two days they will have visited them all. They will have recorded what domestic appliances are used in this municipality. We are carrying out important social experiments. We are going to change the gas, they may be listening to me now, they are the lowest income people in this city and they have been given liquid gas. The price of liquid gas is more than 700 dollars per ton.
(Calculating) That's 300,000 kilograms, 300 tons of liquid gas, as a minimum, the monthly cost for Arroyo Naranjo. The approximate yearly cost for Arroyo Naranjo's liquid gas is 3 million dollars, if it is really only 30,000 consumers; we should send a team to check on whether it is running out or not.
We'll do an important experiment, we'll collect all the data and then we'll meet with the direct representatives from the communities, the popular councils, the trade unions, the mass organizations, 1,500 of the people closest to the neighbors to discuss this experiment that we propose to carry out and I'm sure that it will be a success, and you will immediately be saving the energy expenses.
We'll see the winter consumption rate; we'll see what the new light bulbs we are distributing from now until the end of December will save us; we'll see those new fans that will substitute the homemade ones, which amount to one million, and then we'll add to that an equal amount of the simple but highly efficient manual electrical water heaters that are going to considerably reduce the cost from what it takes to boil water.
In December we will be distributing 14,000 pieces of equipment: rice cookers, electrical pressure cookers, water heaters. The energy efficient light bulbs replacing the incandescent are not included in these figures. We shall see what happens to certain vehicles after the conversations with the social workers, and how many of them will receive a good Christian burial. When each Ministry receives the appropriate number of trucks and they are asked to keep 90% of them on the road and that all of them should be registered, it will be surprising to see how much energy is saved.
Actually, we have ideas that we won't be explaining now: the exact time it will take to remove every single one of the gasoline powered trucks and other gas guzzlers off the road. We've been speaking about saving two-thirds of the same. By the end of 2006, we believe we shall have saved no less than a million kilowatt/hours in electricity. Today this amount is generated and inefficiently used. With the new equipment, we shall have the capacity to generate at least 1.4 million kilowatt/hours, not counting the plants that are being built. That is more certain than everything which has been announced and accomplished, and everything that has not been mentioned and accomplished.
I don't like to talk much about it, but there are ideas which we have already begun to apply extensively. We will take advantage of the fact that in winter there is a 15% decrease in energy consumption, since each new piece of equipment must have its energy assured. We need to be sure that the family has cooking facilities if this should fail; now there are many problems, but they are all being studied in detail, and all of them are being solved conscientiously, as Marx would have said. I won't go on any more, but soon I shall return and we will continue talking.
I have broached many different subjects. We have to be resolute: either we defeat these deviations and strengthen the Revolution by destroying any of the illusions that the empire may have, or we can rather say: either we radically defeat these problems or we die. We must repeat the motto: Patria o Muerte! (Homeland or Death!) This is all very serious and we must use all necessary forces, if need be, the 28,000 social workers. I would guess that all those who are out there re-routing gasoline should be well advised so that we don't have to discover, point by point, who it is that is stealing fuel. The 10,000 social workers are ready and the city of Havana has been transformed into a spectacular school where we are learning what it is that we have to do. They learn more every day. The 28,000 will be joined by the 7,000 who are still studying.
If 28,000 are not enough, and some of these are already on the job creating anti-corruption groups, so that each problem needing observation is in the hands of a group; you can find members of the communist youth, of the mass organizations, of the veterans of the Revolution, as we said at the coliseum. The problems I have mentioned are all being seriously addressed; you cannot imagine the enthusiasm, the seriousness, dignity, and pride they feel when they realize the great good that they are bringing to the country.
Fuel and energy are the most important issues, but not the only ones. How much has been stolen from factories such as those that produce medicines. There is one such in La Lisa where it was necessary to remove the manager and almost 100 others; they were involved in the theft of medicines. A hundred were let go; now we need find people to replace them. This is not enough, nor is it the only solution.
And what's next? We must also use all the technical means available. We have already acquired a large number of the new pumps needed for one third, approximately, of the gas stations that will remain in operation in the country, and also a number of new tanker trucks that won't be an obstruction in traffic or cause traffic jams or accidents. For the most part, they will be operating at night when there is less traffic. We haven't drawn up the figures yet of fatalities that occur because of accidents.
One day, the Revolution will be able to trace the location of every truck anywhere, using the most sophisticated technical instruments. Nobody will be able to take that truck to pay a visit to auntie or to the sweetheart. Not that there is anything wrong with looking after your private business, but it cannot be done in a vehicle used for work, much less at a time when there is a worldwide fuel crisis; then it becomes a crime. We will not forget any detail that is within our means to improve, whether it is that little soap with no smell, or the toothpaste or any other essential. We have already bought 1000 busses, but not to charge the historical prices. Some of these are already resolving some of those problems mentioned, and the others will be here in a few months time. Transportation will receive some subsidy, but not 90%; that would ruin us, so it must be minimal. We have to apply maximum rationality to salaries, prices, pensions. There should be zero over-spending and wastage. We are not a capitalist country where everything is left to chance.
Subsidies and free services will be considered only in essentials. Medical services will be free, so will education and the like. Housing will not be free. Maybe there will be some subsidy, but the rents that are paid in installments need to come close to the actual cost. You may well ask: "What are we going to pay all this with?" It will be in a large part from what is being wasted and stolen today, and from the non-negligible income the country is receiving. Everything that is within our reach, everything belongs to the people, the only thing not to be allowed is egotistical and irresponsible wastage of our wealth.
I really had no intention of getting involved in a dissertation on such sensitive matters, but it would have been a crime not to take advantage of the moment and tell you some of the things related to the economy, to the material life of the country, to the future of the Revolution, to revolutionary ideas, to the reasons why we began this struggle, to the colossal strength we possess today, the country we are today and we may continue to be, which is much more than we are now. I could never show my face again if I were lying or exaggerating. I prefer to do things rather than to make promises. In any case, I do not do anything, because a man alone cannot do a thing. I avail myself of the experience or the authority which I have in order to wage this battle. There are millions of Cubans ready to wage this war which is a war of all the people. I mentioned that we have reached military invulnerability, that this empire cannot afford the price of the lives that would be lost, numbering as many or more than in Vietnam, if they try to occupy our land. The American people are not willing to allow their leaders to waste thousands of lives on their imperial quests. Let's see if the tally reaches 3,000 in Iraq; it is at 2,000 already, and on a daily basis the news is grimmer for those who started that war.
And let's see what will happen with this dirty blockade. There are many Americans upset because they couldn't accept the help of our Cuban doctors; the majority was in favor and the local authorities more so. Let's see, because we can show them that it would be better to get rid of that trash, because it will never destroy our Revolution. We can tell Europe: Keep your humanitarian aid, you hypocrites, keep it all, because we don't need it. What a wonderful thing it is to be able to say that we do not need the help of Europe or of the empire! Finish it whenever you want even though we don't care if you do or not, because we have learned how to save, to think, to grow; we have learned to multiply our efforts so that we can rise to the challenge of our colossal adversary. I have been speaking to you with all the trust that I can. I have told you about every one of the main tasks facing the social workers' brigades and about their important activities. Sometimes they had to go out without warning, quickly and with discipline and efficiency. We had thousands in the city of Havana and we mobilized thousands more as a reserve.
They are already accomplishing many tasks. If we don't have enough of them, how many students are there in this university? Right now I will say to you what I said to them: if 28,000 are not enough, we will meet with you, students of the glorious Federation of University Students and you will find 28,000 other students for us (Applause), and in pairs, together with the social workers who have been acquiring some experience, you will be mobilized; and if 56,000 are not enough we will meet with you again and you will find 56,000 reinforcements for us. You know who will shelter them? The people will, for they have great respect for these kids, and they no longer say: "These can't fix anything.", "This will never finish." And together with you, together with the people, we will be proving that it can be done. And I think that we shall have many more resources, not just to meet the necessities, but so that we may further develop; because we are managing things much better. Much of what we accomplish, we do with the resources that we have saved. We are saving hundreds of millions of dollars and now it will depend on the rhythm and efficiency with which we proceed on every task. New ideas come up everyday. What we can save in energy we can immediately convert into resources. The worst and most inefficient thermo-electric plants will still be around, but we won't need them; they will be around as back up, ready to fill in if anything unexpected happens on each step of the way.
The country spends 3,800,000 tons of fuel yearly just for the production of electricity. Today, our energy system works at only 60% capacity. We shall never again build a thermo-electric plant. The plants that shall be built will be using gas, the one that comes with extraction of oil; they will be plants running on combined cycles that can be paid off within four or five years and can produce a kilowatt for 2 cents of a dollar. We shall never again build a "Guiteras". Those were crazy schemes, born out of dogma and shortsighted plans. In a system that needs to produce around 2 million kilowatts, buying a plant for 330,000 means that you are concentrating more than 15% of all effective generated electricity in one single plant; when it goes out, or is hit with lightning as it happened a few weeks ago in "Guiteras", the black- out strikes with a fury, affecting both the population and the economy. How long was the revolution going to put up with such an erroneous concept in the development of the power system? Such concepts, I assure you, are not limited to Cuba, and today we are the first country in the world to discover this. They will be coming to Cuba to see what we are doing. I won't say more on this, because I could be adding details that have much more importance.
We will make the transition from being an idiot country to one that will leave everyone else far behind. I'd like to warn others that they are limping badly and repeating the same mistakes. No, I won't be going into detail. I promise that one day I will tell you, student leaders, the whole story, maybe when we are all together again. But it won't be today. Today, I must keep quiet because talking too much could tip off the enemy or give them information. Still, there are things that they cannot stop, like the two and a half million electric pressure cookers that are already here and on their way, that, they cannot stop. Domestic appliances are also on their way from China. China is one of the largest countries in the world, having become today the principal motor force of the world economy. China produces many things and we are negotiating other purchases and exchanges at an accelerating pace. I told you that our credit has grown. Our country has the ability to mobilize millions and millions of dollars. Tell that to "little Bush" so that he and all his schemers can become bitter if they want. Let them say what they want tomorrow, about the "poor guys", these "noble individuals" who were stealing "ever so little", about those persons who charge anything they want for just about anything. I tell them as I am telling you: "Pay for the fuel that you are using." Actually, why are we handing over everything to that bandit, that miser or that egoist who would like us to pay 15 cents for every kilowatt that he uses? What world economic law obliges us to do that? Let them get ready for the bill that we are preparing for them. We have already devaluated the dollar, but that dollar is still enjoying too many privileges.
Of course, neither the dollar nor those that go around stealing; they don't have our Meteorological Institute and our Dr. Rubiera, and now a hurricane is coming. Nobody knows where this hurricane is going or how strong the winds are going to be. The only sure thing is that it is a Category Five Hurricane. (Laughter) A Category Five Hurricane is one that leaves nothing standing and it won't abuse anyone, it won't starve anyone, it just uses the simplest of principles: the ration book must disappear; those who work and produce will receive more, and they will be able to buy more; those who worked for decades will receive more and will have more. The country will have much more but it will never be a consumer society. It will be a society of knowledge, of culture, of the most extraordinary human development imaginable, development in art, culture, science but not for chemical weapons, with a breadth of liberty that no one will be able to dismantle. We know this already, we don't need to proclaim it, but it is worth remembering.
We have earned the right to do what we are going to do today, to have at our disposition almost a million professionals, intellectuals and artists, to have at our disposition 500,000 university students, in all areas of science, capable of all activities.
I am proclaiming that our society will truly be an entirely new society. In this long distance race, we are already several laps ahead of our closest competitors. The merit lies with the empire for it presented us with an enormous threat and it was this challenge that spurred us on. Theirs is the merit and the only thing our noble, generous, brave and intelligent people have done is to take up that challenge; today it does so, with the force of a multitude of developed intellects.
Today, as we speak of 500,000, we know that this number was produced in a very short time, just three short years ago, and look at how many are here today, and how many there will be tomorrow.
And there will be more for we have thousands of Latin American students studying medicine. In our country alone, we will be educating 100,000 doctors in the next 10 years. We are involved in creating the best medical capital in the world, not just for us, but for the peoples of Latin America and other parts of the world. We are being asked to educate more doctors, and we have the ability and the facilities, and no one can educate them better than we can. We have developed educational methodologies that we have not even dreamed of. We shall see all this, and very soon.
The ELAM ([Latin American School of Medicine] will have not just 12,000 medical students, there are also 2,000 Bolivian undergraduates here; some are at the ELAM, others are in Cienfuegos living with serious, professional and culturally prepared families whose psychological profile was investigated together with that of the student and his or her family; a new and unique experience.
I was talking about this yesterday, calling it solidarity transformed into a colossal wealth. How could we house 100,000 higher education students? We know what it costs to house and feed each one of them.
In the first phase of the Revolution, we constructed hundreds of high schools and today we have less than half of the enrolment of the seventies. We know what it costs to repair these schools and how long it takes to do so. There will be many medical schools for 400 to 450 students with excellent conditions, with all the necessary materials for study, audiovisual equipment and interactive programs. As we all know, and as comrade Machadito said, if he had had such resources during the five years of his education, he would have been able to acquire in one year all the information it took him five years to achieve at that time. This doesn't mean that we shall produce doctors in one year, but that in the course of six years of study, a doctor will acquire the knowledge that traditional methods would have given him in 20 years! We are thinking of excellence, and this is what we are constantly increasing.
We are aware of what our compatriots are doing in other areas. We are in constant communication. They are the `Henry Reeve' Contingent and many others like them. A beautiful story is being written these days, the like of which has not been seen in history or during the life of our Revolution.
I am very happy that on a day like today, the Day of the Student, and the date you have chosen to celebrate the 60th anniversary of my entry into this university, I feel very well both physically and spiritually, meeting with you here. There were many ideas running through my mind, and I had to organize my memories of yesterday with the new ideas of today, and be careful so that I wouldn't say anything I shouldn't and so that I would say everything that I wanted to.
This month I think that we will have to take some measures; I was discussing this with the comrades. We cannot lose a second because things are going on constantly, and so it must begin this month.
We urgently need to discourage the wasting of electricity. I call it "discouragement"; it is not the definitive formula. That will be something else. But as of now we need to be distributing a massive amount of equipment. The more we save, the more equipment we can distribute, and the more equipment we distribute, the more energy we'll save and the more money we'll begin to collect starting at the end of this month and going to the beginning of next year. That is why it is urgent to begin in December, establishing certain limitations on the wasting of electricity. Not a cent more of increases for those who are consuming 100; a little more for those consuming 150, 200 and 300 kilowatts. There will be people who consume 300 who will have to pay a bit more, but not too much. Instead of two dollars they will have to pay, perhaps four for 300. But don't consume more than 300; turn off your lights and the fan; don't leave the TV turned on. I haven't even mentioned that there are a million television sets, 40,000 already here and more coming, 50 watts, so that there will be no more black and white sets. And we we'll continue saving. The laboratories will determine what each piece of equipment consumes, everything will be measured and all calculations will be less than the figures show; no detail will escape notice, or at least very few. Every day there will be more experiments, and more experiments. There will be a test run in a municipality, the poorest one, and that's why all the social workers are here today. Another group is covering Cienfuegos delivering the new light bulbs. Enrique, when will the gas stations in that province be occupied? It doesn't matter, they know it's going to happen, they can imagine.
(Enrique explains that it will begin on Saturday; that 158,000 light bulbs have been replaced in Cienfuegos and the rest will be finished tomorrow.) (Two energy efficient light bulbs are handed to the Comandante so that he can give them to the student from the province of Havana.)
Hey, Enrique, come over here. The one she is holding is not the right one. You are consuming electricity for no reason. Quickly, we are finishing up here.
Ah, the girl is over there. No, this one is 7. (Enrique explains that one is 7 and the other is 15) No, she has two 60s. Don't turn off the lights at home. She told me that she had two 60s. I asked for her to be given two 15s. Here, not you, her. Take it to her; tell her she already has one. (They give her two 15 watts bulbs.) We already know what we will save each year. It's quite a bit. (Applause)
We'll discount it from what she has to pay for the subsidy for the one over there. They are changing. How many bulbs are they going to exchange in Cienfuegos? (Enrique tells him that 207,000 had to be exchanged) How many more did they find? (He is told that there was more demand and they will send 100,000 more) We had said a hundred and fifty thousand for Havana province. (It is explained that they are on the way; 158,000 have been exchanged by the 400 social workers, with 360 reinforcements. He repeats that on Saturday they begin with the gas stations)
Correct. The day after tomorrow we are in the gas stations. Let them get everything ready. In any case we will be finding out what the people are buying, and then they will install the perfect distributing machines and the nation will know where each one is located. How much gas do the vehicles use, not the trucks, the front loaders used in construction, like the last time? What do all the MINAZ [Ministry of Sugar Industry] tractors consume? What do all the tractors in the fields use? There are thousands of them being used instead of jeeps. When they don't have enough kerosene, how much do they use? What do most of them use, do they use diesel to cook? There are hundreds of thousands, hundreds of thousands.
Besides that, I'm telling you, entirely new machinery to drill, new seismic, that's very modern, drilling everywhere and using accompanying gas to build plants on the combined cycle. This will replace the "Guiteras" [power plant] and those enormous plants in Santiago de Cuba which would consume half a million barrels of diesel turned out by that city's refinery, using up between 300 and 500 grams of fuel oil for every kilowatt of electricity. Or those machines gobbling up diesel in San Jose de las Lajas, using 400 grams of diesel for every kilowatt to produce 60,000 kilowatts in the peak hours. Don't be surprised the day you hear that they have been definitely retired. They will be around until we are sure there will be no deficit, we need to be very sure. Wherever we substitute one fuel for another, we will always hold on to the old one just in case, so that everything has been guaranteed. They are going to be great changes.
I've already told you that there are 1000 buses for long distance rides, and they will have their cost. Not just yet, because we prefer to wait. Sometimes it's better to wait in order to understand something better. To better understand, for example, some measure. The Revolution always needs the understanding and the support of the people for every step that it takes. I assure you and I repeat it, that everybody who works will receive more, everyone who works for the country and the Revolution will receive more. The abuses will end; many of the inequalities will disappear, as will the conditions that allowed them to exist. When there is no one left that needs to be subsidized we will have advanced considerably in our march towards a society of justice and dignity. That is what true and irreversible socialism demands. The empire was hoping that Cuba would have many more `paladares' but it appears that there will be no more of them. What do they think that we have become neo-liberals? No one here has become a neo- liberal. We will prove to them the irrefutable crisis of their theories, just as we have shown them the disaster of their blockade, their aggression and their destabilizing actions.
Next year there may be fewer abstentions when the United Nations votes against the blockade, even though really there is no one left besides the fascist and genocidal ally that always votes unscrupulously with the empire. The world has to wage this battle.
Firstly, nobody should have the right to manufacture nuclear weapons. There should be no privileges for imperialism to impose its hegemonic rule and to take the natural resources and raw materials away from the nations of the Third World. We have denounced that a thousand times, but that is not the solution. The first solution for any Third World country is to not fear the empire; we have always acted that way and they are beginning to feel demoralized.
Secondly, we will strictly defend, in all the public squares of the world, the right to produce nuclear fuel. And we are not afraid to do so, let us make that perfectly clear. (Applause)
There must be an end to stupidity in the world, and to abuse, and to the empire based on might and terror. It will disappear when all fear disappears. Every day there are more fearless countries. Every day there will be more countries that will rebel and the empire will not be able to keep that infamous system alive any longer.
Salvador Allende once spoke of things that would happen rather sooner than a later. I believe that sooner rather than later the empire will disintegrate and the American people will enjoy more freedom than ever, they will be able to aspire to more justice than ever before; they will be able to use science and technology for their own improvement and for the betterment of humanity; they will be able to join all of us who fight for the survival of the species; they will be able to join all of us who fight for opportunities for the human species.
It's only fair to struggle for that and that is why we must use all our energy, all our effort and all our time to be able to say with the voice of millions, or hundreds of thousands of millions of people: It is worthwhile to have been born! It is worthwhile to have lived! (Ovation)
