Cuba: 'A world without hunger is possible … A just world is possible'

José Ramón Machado Ventura

Vice-president of Cuba

speaking on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement, at the 63rd session of the United Nations General Assembly.

September 24, 2008 -- We are living a decisive moment in the history of humankind. The threats looming over the world put the very existence of the human species at risk.

The promotion of peace, solidarity, social justice and sustainable development is the only WAY to ensure the future. The prevailing world order, unjust and unsustainable, must be replaced by a new system that is truly democratic and equitable, based on respect for international law and on the principles of solidarity and justice, putting an end to the inequalities and exclusion to which the great majorities of the population of our planet have been condemned.

There are no alternatives. Those responsible for this state of affairs, the industrialised nations and, in particular, the sole superpower, have to accept their responsibilities. Fabulous fortunes cannot continue to be wasted while millions of human beings are starving and dying of curable diseases. It is not possible to keep on polluting the air and poisoning the oceans; this destroys the living conditions of our future generations. Neither the peoples nor the planet itself will permit this without great social upheaval and extremely serious natural disasters.

The wars of conquest, the aggression and illegal occupation of countries, military intervention and the bombing of innocent civilians, the unbridled arms race, the pillage and usurping of the Third World’s natural resources and the imperial offensive to crush the resistance of the peoples who are defending their rights, constitute the greatest and most serious threats to peace and international security.

Concepts such as limitation of sovereignty, pre-emptive war or regime change, are an expression of the desire to mutilate the independence of our countries.

The so-called war on terrorism or the false promotion of their freedoms, are an excuse for aggression and military occupation, for torture, arbitrary arrests and the denial of the right of self-determination of peoples, for unfair blockades and unilaterally imposed sanctions, for the imposition of political, economic and social models that facilitate imperial domination, in open disdain for history, cultures and the sovereign will of the peoples.

Rich and poor

The gap between the rich and the poor widens with every passing day. The very modest Millennium Development Goals constitute an unreachable dream for the vast majority.

While a trillion of dollars is spent on weapons in the world, more than 850 million human beings are starving, 1.1 billion people don’t have access to drinking water, 2.6 billion lack sewage services and more than 800 million are illiterate.

More than 640 million children lack adequate housing, 115 million do not attend primary school and 10 million die before the age of five, in most cases as the result of diseases that can be cured.

The populations of the South are suffering with increasing frequency from natural disasters, whose consequences have been aggravated by climate change. Haiti, Jamaica, Cuba and other Caribbean countries are examples of that. Let us make a plea for solidarity especially for our sister country of Haiti as it faces its dramatic situation.

The rise in oil prices is the result of irrational consumption, strong speculation and imperial war adventures. The desperate search for new sources of energy has pushed the criminal strategy driven by the United States government to transform grains and cereals into fuel.

For a large part of the non-aligned countries, the situation is becoming unsustainable. Our nations have paid, and they will continue to pay the cost and the consequences of the irrationality, wastefulness and speculation of a few countries in the industrialised North who are responsible for the world food crisis. They imposed trade liberalisation and the financial prescriptions of structural adjustment on the developing countries. They caused the ruin of many small producers; they denied, and in some cases destroyed, emerging agricultural development in the countries of the South, turning them into net food importing countries.

They are the ones who maintain obscene agricultural subsidies, while they force their rules on international trade. They set prices, monopolise technologies, impose unfair certifications and manipulate the distribution channels, the financing sources and trade. They control transportation, scientific research, genetic banks and the production of fertilisers and pesticides.

We have not come here to complain. We have come, on behalf of the Movement of Non-Aligned countries, to demand and defend the vindication of thousands of millions of human beings who claim justice and their rights.

Commitments

The formula is not difficult nor does it require great sacrifices. All we need is the necessary political will, less egotism and the objective understanding that if we do not act today, the consequences could be apocalyptic and would affect the rich and poor alike. For this reason, Cuba once again calls on the governments of the developed countries, on behalf of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries, to honour their commitments and, in particular, Cuba urges them to:

Put an end to the wars of occupation and to the plunder of the resources of the Third World countries and to free up at least a part of their millions in military spending to direct those resources towards international assistance for the benefit of sustainable development.

Cancel the foreign debt of developing countries since it has been already paid more than once, and with this, additional resources would be released that could be channeled to economic development and social programs.

Honour the commitment of directing at least 0.7% of the gross domestic product for Official Development Assistance, unconditionally, so that the South countries would be able to use those resources for their national priorities and promote access of poor countries to substantial sums of fresh financing.

Direct one-fourth of the money that is squandered each year on commercial advertising to food production; this would free up almost 250 billion additional dollars to fight hunger and malnutrition.

Direct the money being used for the North’s agricultural subsidies to agricultural development in the South. By doing this, our countries would have about a billion dollars per day available to invest in food production.

Comply with the Kyoto Protocol commitments and set commitments to reduce [greenhouse gas] emissions more generously starting in 2012, without wanting to increase restrictions for countries that, even today, maintain per capita emission levels that are much lower than those of the North countries.

Promote the access of the Third World to technologies and support the training of their human resources. Today, in contrast, qualified personnel from the South are subjected to unfair competition and incentives presented by discriminatory and selective migratory policies applied by the United States and Europe.

And something that is today more urgent than ever, the establishment of a democratic and equitable international order, and a fair and transparent trading system where all States will participate, in sovereignty, in the decisions that affect them.

Moreover, it is our deepest belief that solidarity between peoples and governments is possible. In Latin America and the Caribbean, ALBA and PETROCARIBE have demonstrated this.

The Movement of Non-Aligned Countries has remained faithful to its founding principles.

We support the cause of the Palestinian people and their inalienable right to self-determination in an independent and sovereign State, with its capital in East Jerusalem.

We support the cause of all those other peoples whose sovereignty and territorial integrity is being threatened, like Venezuela and Bolivia, and we endorse the right of Puerto Rico to be independent.

We condemn the imposition of unilateral coercive measures in violation of international law, and attempts to implant a single model for a political, economic and social system. We object to the negative practices of certifying countries according to the patterns and interests of the powerful. We strongly oppose political manipulation and the application of double standards in the matter of human rights, and we reject the selective imposition of politically motivated resolutions against the member countries of the Non-Aligned Movement.

The establishment of the Human Rights Council gives us the opportunity to open up a new era in the promotion and protection of all human rights for all, on the basis of international cooperation and constructive dialogue. Those who caused the demise of the old Human Rights Commission are now trying to disqualify the council because they have not been able to bend it to serve their own self interests. They refuse to participate in its work to escape the scrutiny of the international community in the framework of the Universal Periodic Review Mechanism.

The legitimacy of the council does not depend on the perception that the Empire has about its work, but on its capacity to discharge its mandate with the strictest adherence to the principles of universality, objectivity, impartiality and non selectivity in the treatment of human rights issues.

The Movement of Non-Aligned Countries will continue to defend the interests of the Third World and promote the building of a world which is more just, more democratic and with more solidarity.

High price

Cuba has had to pay a very high price for the defence of its independence and sovereignty.

The heroic people of Cuba have endured the longest and cruelest blockade in history, imposed by the most powerful nation on Earth. Despite the fact that this General Assembly has repeatedly and resoundingly pronounced itself in favour of ending this genocidal policy, the United States government has not only ignored the will of the international community, but in marked disregard of the same, has gradually intensified its economic war against Cuba.

Never has the foreign policy against a country been armed with such a broad and sophisticated arsenal of aggressive measures in the political, economic, cultural, diplomatic, military, psychological and ideological domain.

Cuba has just been lashed by two intense hurricanes which have devastated its agriculture and seriously affected part of its infrastructure and damaged or destroyed more than 400,000 homes.

Allow me to take advantage of this opportunity, on behalf of the Cuban government and people, to thank all those countries, organisations and persons who in one way or another have honestly and sincerely contributed with resources or moral support to the reconstruction efforts undertaken by my country.

That stands in contrast with the position of the United States government which continues to ruthlessly apply their blockade.

Cuba has asked for no gifts from the United States government. It has simply asked and asked again that it be allowed to purchase in the United States the materials that are indispensable for the reconstruction of homes and power grid and that US companies be authorised to grant Cuba private commercial credits to buy food. The answer has been negative, and it has been accompanied with an attempt to manipulate information in such a manner that the government of the United States seems to be concerned for the wellbeing of the Cuban people while the government of Cuba is perceived to be turning down their offer.

If the United States were really so concerned for the Cuban people, the only moral and ethical behaviour would be to lift the blockade imposed on Cuba for the last five decades, in violation of the most elemental rules of International Law and the Charter of the United Nations .

This irrational policy has a clear aim: to destroy the process of profound revolutionary transformations undertaken by the Cuban people from 1959, in other words, trampling on its right to self-determination, wresting away its freedom and its political, economic and social conquests and plunging it backwards to its former neocolonial status.

The Bush administration intends to justify the intensification of its policy against Cuba by turning once more to fraud and deceit, with the cynicism and hypocrisy that characterises it. Its determination to dominate and re-colonise Cuba is being presented, no less, like an endeavour to liberate and democratise.

Who, other than its accomplices, recognises that the United States government has any authority in this world in the matter of democracy and human rights? What authority would such a government claim, one that hunts down and cruelly mistreats the illegal migrants at its southern border, that legalises the use of torture and keeps in concentration camps, such as the one installed in the territory illegally occupied by the US base at Guantánamo, people who have not been proved of or even charged with any crime?

What respect is due to a government that attacks the sovereignty of other states using the excuse of the fight against terrorism, while at the same time guaranteeing impunity to anti-Cuban terrorists?

What kind of justice can be promoted by an administration that illegally keeps imprisoned five Cuban patriots who were only seeking information to prevent the actions of the terrorist groups operating against Cuba from the United States?

Cuba appreciates the solidarity which it has received from this General Assembly in its fight against the blockade and the aggressions which it has had to confront for almost five decades.

Cuba reaffirms its unyielding decision to defend its sovereignty and independence.

Cuba reaffirms its will to carry on, together with members of the Movement for Non-Aligned Countries, in the battle for a better world, where the rights of all peoples for justice and development are respected.

To conclude I would like to recall the words of the Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolution, comrade Fidel Castro Ruz: “A world without hunger is possible… A just world is possible. A new world, which our species eminently deserves, is possible and will become reality”.

Cubans Line up for Chance to Use Idle State Land

Will Weissert
Associated Press
HAVANA September 17, 2008


Yenisel Rodriguez is a city-dwelling, 27-year-old anthropologist with zero experience working the land. But he thinks taking up urban farming could put more food on his table, and so he lined up Wednesday to ask Cuba's communist government for permission to try it himself.

"I saw the announcement on TV and that motivated me," Rodriguez said. "I don't have experience. I'm hoping they can tell me what to plant and where."

Cuba has begun accepting applications from private farmers and ordinary citizens like Rodriguez, hoping they'll put idle government land to better use than state planners have. It's part of a campaign by President Raul Castro to revive an agricultural sector crippled by decades of government mismanagement.

Landless Cubans can apply for about 33 acres (13 hectares), while productive farmers can increase their holdings to 100 acres (40 hectares) of state land. Officials pushed up the first day to apply after Hurricanes Gustav and Ike roared through Cuba, dealing a serious blow to food production.

Rodriguez, in his polo shirt and Mercedes-Benz baseball cap, stood out in a crowded government office in the Arroyo Naranjo district of southeastern Havana, where applicants in cowboy hats and mud-caked boots waited their turn.

He said he plans to farm in the evenings after his research shift at Cuba's Anthropology Institute, growing only enough to feed his family.

But Cuba will need thousands of farmers to produce much more than that in order to reduce food imports expected to cost the government US$2 billion this year.

While thousands of small farmers kept their plots after Fidel Castro took power in 1959 and still grow much of Cuba's food, the bureaucrats who took over large farms have made a mess of things: 55 percent of Cuba's arable land went underused last year, and on state farms, just 29 percent was actively used, the government said.

Cuba has not said how much land it will redistribute. Gilberto Zayas, Arroyo Naranjo's land control delegate, said most of those who want land will likely get it, but that inexperience is a major strike against applicants.

"It's obvious that we are going to take those with more experience," Zayas said. "What the country needs is willingness first, but also know-how."

Even if Rodriguez is allowed to try his hand at farming, most of what he produces will not go to his family. Zayas said farmers getting new land will be required to sell almost everything they produce to the state. In cases of simple subsistence farming, typically 80 percent of overall output goes to the government, he said.

Still, Rodriguez remains hopeful, saying he has brothers, uncles and neighbors who will help him out.

The state will provide seeds and fertilizer, a machete and watering tools to program participants. Private farmers can get concessions of up to 10 years, renewable for another 10. Cooperatives and companies can have renewable 25-year terms.

Zayas said the government will encourage those receiving new land to graze milk cows or plant fast-growing, leafy vegetables like lettuce, which thrive in Cuba's mild climate but are nonetheless hard to find here.

"What we need is production, no matter where it comes from," he said. "If the state had the necessary means, we wouldn't be going through this process."

Juan Corales, a 60-year-old retired police officer who said he spent all his life working a small family plot, asked permission Wednesday to raise pigs, goats and chickens on a tract of land near the corner of 100th Street and Flores Avenue in Havana.

"This is the best thing the state could have done," said Corales, a self-described hick.

"There is a lot of land, and lots of people who want to work," he said. "But before, there was always fighting and bureaucracy that made everything difficult."

Vices and Virtues

Refections by Fidel Castro

Yesterday we referred to the financial Ike that is driving the empire mad. It can't find a way of reconciling consumerism with unjust wars, military spending and the massive investments in the industry of weapons, which kill peoples, rather than feed them or otherwise satisfy their most basic needs.

Nothing could better describe the alienating contradiction than the words of Senator Richard Shelby, the senior Republican in the US Senate's Banking Committee, when he told BBC television: “We don't know how much this is going to cost. It's probably $500 (billion) to a trillion dollars and that's going to visit the taxpayers sooner or later; it's either going to be a debt charged to all of us or to all our children", as reported by the British news agency Reuters.

No-one can have doubts about the destiny of the industrialized capitalist world or the fate it promises to billions of people on the planet.

The only way in which peoples today could live their lives in a community with social justice and decorum, which are the antithesis of capitalism and the principles that govern that hateful and unjust system, is through struggle.

In the tough battle to achieve those goals, the worst enemy would be the human being's instinctive egoism. If capitalism means perpetual free rein to that instinct, socialism would then be the ceaseless battle against that natural impulse. While at other times in history the alternative was to return to the past, that choice no longer exists. The battle is one to be waged basically by our glorious Party.

Every manifestation of privilege, corruption or robbery must be eradicated; for a true communist, there can be no possible excuse for such conduct. Any weakness of that sort is totally unacceptable. This was never the feature that characterized the thousands of men and women who volunteered to accomplish the internationalist missions which filled the Cuban Revolution with glory and prestige. Such principles of ethics and purity were the ones that inspired the thinking of José Martí and all those who preceded him.

It is now, in the aftermath of the recent and demolishing blow dealt by the hurricanes, when we must show what we are capable of.

Stealing from factories, warehouses, automotive service stations, hotels, restaurants and other establishments where money or goods are kept must be relentlessly combated by Party militants. And if any of the latter is found to have committed such shameful acts, he or she must receive the sanctions imposed by the Party, in addition to the relevant legal sanctions, which should be done without adopting extreme positions and in a responsible and effective way. Capitalism is a victim of common crime, from which it defends itself by means of sophisticated technology, unemployment, marginalization, murder and even extreme violence, which are already useless against the traffic in drugs that takes a toll of hundreds and even thousands of lives every year in some Latin American countries.

Cadres have no easy task in a world where incitement to consumerism is ever more present through radio, television, electronic media and the press, while the techniques for seducing human beings emanate from laboratories and research centers. Consider what happens with the so called advertising, which costs consumers more than a trillion annually. Commercials repeat over and over to the point of exasperating almost everyone with their banality.

But stealing is far from being the only evil that harms the Revolution. There are also the known and tolerated privileges and the bureaucratic maneuverings. The resources allocated to meet a temporary situation become permanent expenses and consumption.

Everything conspires against the country's material and hard currency reserves, a situation that can result in shortages of goods and an excess of circulating capital. The same thing happens when the well-heeled rush to buy up excessive quantities of the goods sold in the hard-currency retail outlets.

There are state agencies with a tendency to lavish privileges or give away much more in the competition they unleash for the available technical personnel and workforce. Sometimes they become cheapjacks, using genuinely capitalist methods in their quest for revenues, to manage resources so as to gain a reputation for efficiency and secure the willing support of their peers. These are bourgeois habits - not proletarian - and we all have a sacred duty to combat them in ourselves and in others.

There are certain countries which do not hesitate in resorting to the death penalty to punish these crimes. Honestly, I don’t think that would be necessary in our case, just as we do not think it is necessary either to idiotically reward the inveterate in our prisons. Let them learn a trade, but we should not dream about turning them into scientists.

Throughout my life as a revolutionary, I have seen how these vices develop alongside virtues. Weaknesses also appear among some citizens who become accustomed to receiving, and dedicate little time to meditating, reading the newspapers and being informed about today’s realities. In its quest for spies and traitors, the enemy understands human frailties only too well, but ignores what is on the other side of the coin: the enormous human capacity for self-sacrifice and heroism.

Parents would like to pass material goods on to their children, but they would rather leave them the legacy of a decent life of good repute that could always accompany them.

On this island, the enemy has come up against a people ready to resist its blockade and aggressions for decades. That is why it is stepping up its measures against Cuba. It tries to deprive the country from its skilled professionals and workforce; it selects those who are granted the thousands of visas agreed upon annually, while encouraging illegal departures; it maintains and tightens up the Cuban Adjustment Act, which grants special privileges to illegal immigration from just one country in the world: Cuba. If the same facility were extended to the rest of Latin America, in no time Latin Americans would account for half the US population.

Even more cynical is the fact that it recruits mercenaries, who claim impunity and to whom it provides training and resources as well as international promotion. It takes pleasure in trying the patience and equanimity of the Cuban government.

Our people will never be in ignorance of the truth.

Not only will we struggle ceaselessly against our mistakes, weaknesses and vices, but we will also win the battle of ideas we have committed ourselves to.

If there is one thing the empire's leaders can always be sure of, it is that neither natural hurricanes nor hurricanes of cynicism could ever bend the Revolution.

Before that happens, as Martí said, the North sea will join the South sea and a snake will hatch from an eagle's egg.

Fidel Castro Ruz

September 19, 2008

8.45 p.m.

In Support of Cuba

Worldwide Call to Artists and Intellectuals

Our country is facing a dramatic situation. We have suffered the wrath of two powerful hurricanes, Gustav and Ike, in just eight days. These natural disasters have seriously affected food production and essential sectors of the economy throughout the country. Although very few human lives were lost, a massive amount of houses, schools and cultural institutions were damaged or completely destroyed.

In view of this tragedy, a debate about the restrictions imposed by the US on Cuban residents to visit and send supplies and money to their families in Cuba has begun. Cuba has requested authorization to buy materials from the US to repair homes and power lines. In addition, Cuba has requested that US companies receive authorization to extend commercial credits to the island to buy food. The Bush Administration's reply has been a ridiculous offer of aid while ratifying their policy of political and economic blockade, even more cruel and immoral under the present circumstances.

We are sending an appeal to artists and intellectuals around the world to demand an immediate end to the criminal US blockade and to promote solidarity and support of our country.

First Signatures

Alicia Alonso, Roberto Fernandez Retamar, Silvio Rodriguez, Cintio Vitier, Pablo Milanes, Miguel Barnet, Chucho Valdes, Omara Portuondo, Eusebio Leal, Leo Brouwer, Alfredo Guevara, Fernando Alonso, Nancy Morejon, Cesar Portillo de la Luz, Rosita Fornes, Harold Gramatges, Graziella Pogolotti, Pablo Armando Fernandez, Angel Augier, Julio Garcia Espinosa, Anton Arrufat, Alexis Leyva (Kcho), Digna Guerra, Cesar Lopez, Fernando Perez, Manuel Mendive, Juan Padron, Roberto Valera, Guido Lopez Gavilan, Maria de los Angeles Santana, Frank Fernandez, Fina Garcia Marruz, Roberto Fabelo, Fernando Martinez Heredia, Pedro Pablo Oliva, Vicente Revuelta, Antonio Vidal, Carilda Oliver, Loipa Araujo, Aurora Bosch, Ramona de Saa, Abelardo Estorino, Ambrosio Fornet, Luis Carbonell, Electo Silva, Santiago Alfonso, Rogelio Martinez Fure, Eduardo Torres Cuevas, Leonardo Acosta, Ramiro Guerra, Rene de la Nuez, Daysi Granados, Eduardo Rivero, Alberto Mendez, Eslinda Nunez, Hector Quintero, Alfredo Sosabravo, Veronica Lynn, Jose Antonio Rodriguez, Flora Fong , Salvador Wood, Maria Elena Molinet, Zayda del Rio, Jose Milian, Maria del Carmen Barcia, Jaime Sarusky, Martha Rojas, Francisco de Oraa, Eugenio Hernandez Espinosa, Enrique Pineda Barnet, Juan Carlos Tabio, Alfredo Diez Nieto, Mario Balmaseda, Sergio Vitier, Nelson Dominguez, Pepe Rafart, Jose Antonio Choy, Jorge Ibarra, Maria Teresa Linares, Eduardo Roca (Choco), Pachi Naranjo, Rolando Rodriguez, Jose Villa Soberon, Senel Paz, Aida Bahr, Omar Valino, Omar F. Mauri, Hilda Oates, Alberto Lescay, Enrique Molina, Pancho Amat, Raul Pomares, Maria Felicia Perez, Patricio Wood, Carlos Diaz, Nelson Dorr, Miguel Iglesias, Roberto Chorens, Adolfo Alfonso, Isabel Monal, Domingo Aragu, Zenaida Armenteros, Ever Fonseca, Berta Martinez, Cristy Dominguez, Adigio Benitez, Humberto Arenal, Adelaida de Juan, Carlos Alberto Cremata, Ivan Tenorio, Gina Rey, Rebeca Chavez, Jose Rodriguez Fuster, Lorna Burdsal, Juan Carlos Cremata, Osneldo Garcia, Zoila Lapique, Eduardo Arrocha, Yolanda Wood, Rene Fernandez Santana, Lesbia Vent Dumois, Fatima Patterson, Rosalia Arnaez, Carlos Padron, Sara Gonzalez, Eduardo Heras Leon, Alex Pausides, Agustin Bejarano, Angel Alderete, Raul Santos Serpa, Marilyn Bobes, Carlos Marti, Sigfredo Ariel, Alberto Guerra, Corina Mestre, Xiomara Blanco, Rey Montesinos, Gerardo Alfonso, Alden Knight, Rafael Lay, Jesus Ortega, Edesio Alejandro, Teresita Junco, Teresa Melo, Arturo Arango, Magda Gonzalez Grau, Cary Diez, Alberto Luberta, Caridad Martinez, Lourdes Gonzalez, Iraida Malberti, Gerardo Fulleda, Felix Contreras, Esteban Llorach, Ana Maria Munoz Bachs, Radames Giro, Juan Valdes, Jorge Nunez, Rodulfo Vaillant, Juan Gonzalez Fiffe, Sergio Morales, Jorge Hidalgo, Carlos Tamayo, Ada Mirtha Cepeda Venegas, Sixto Bonachea, Antonio Perez, Orlando Garcia Martinez, Jose Alberto Garcia Alfonso, Enrique Gonzalez, Jose (Pepe) Vera, Alberto Faya.

To sign up: <www.concubahoy.cult.cu>.

First-hand report from Cuba :- during and after Hurricane Gustav

( The following is an email sent to Karen Lee Wald, an activist in the US, from Cuba)

Karen,

Isla de la Juventud: practically 100 % destroyed. Boats lifted from the sea and parked in the middle of Nueva Gerona, buses twisted and lifted in the air, doors and windows ripped off, banana plants of course ripped out, communications down 100 percent, and I have not yet seen any videos because I got my electricity back just one hour ago, a flamboyan fell on the lines feeding just our house soI have been without any electricity for 48 hours,but enough water, small radio, gas to cook on and the most wonderful neighbors and solidarity that only peoplewho have lived in Cuba can understand.

But I have been able to listen to the daily Mesa Redonda, where Arleen has spoken over the phone with the heads of Defensa Civil and other organizations and everything is "bajo[under] control". Never before has there been such palpable organization: here in the city, loudspeakers all over town calling on people to go home and not put their life in danger with electric cables, and on Sunday calling everyone to come out and cooperate with cleaning up the city. Trucks started cleaning up the city on Saturday evening already, and yesterday everyone was out with brooms, saws, etc.. We had to put up signs and yellow ribbons so people would not go near the fallen cable, they could have been electrocuted.

Pinar del Rio: also very very bad situation, south coast had up to 7 km sea inland, not a single life lost, not a single person wounded badly so you might fear for his life, but very serious destruction in schools, tobacco drying houses, communications and electric systems (already "linieros" from all over the rest of the country have arrived with their trucks to help.

Las Terrazas: very very bad situation with most of the facilities (as you know, they are ranchones, the roof just flies away and there is practically nothing you can do about it); only rio San Juan and Las Ruinas de Buenavista held out; private homes have also been very badly damaged, I am not going to call to distract anyone from their intensive duties and only regret that because of age I cannot join in the reconstruction brigade. The problem is going to be now that such a huge part of the country must be reconstructed that building materials are going to be hard to get.

But everyone is very grateful because for the very first time ABSOLUTELY EVERYONE FROM THE HIGH SPHERES WAS GOING AROUND THE AFFECTED PROVINCES: Machado Ventura and Lazo in provincia La Habana, Lage in Pinar del Rio after having been in Isla de la Juventud, police cars all over the place helping neighbors out, and of course all this makes people think how different things would have been if we compare ourselves with poor Haiti or even Jamaica. Let us all hope for the best for New Orleans.

I have plenty of mails to write to put people at ease, a lot of international solidarity, I got a lot of calls from the US and Europe, it does a lot of good to know people are really worried for you!

Love,

Maria Carla