Radio Havana Cuba-30 August 2000 22:30 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 30 August 2000 22:30 *CUBAN CHILDREN READY TO BEGIN NEW SCHOOL YEAR *CUBA'S DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER ON EUROPEAN TOUR *EL SALVADOR REQUESTS CUBAN HELP WITH DENGUE FEVER OUTBREAK *THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF MALI TO VISIT CUBA *PARLIAMENTARY DELEGATION FROM KUWAIT ON ITS WAY TO THE ISLAND *OLYMPIC COMMITTE STATEMENT ON WHY HAVANA SHOULD NOT BID ON 2008 GAMES *SOTOMAYOR AND VORONIN GO FACE TO FACE ON THRESHOLD OF OLYMPIC GAMES *INFORMATICS IN CUBAN HIGHER EDUCATION *CUBAN CHILDREN READY TO BEGIN NEW SCHOOL YEAR Havana, August 30 (RHC)-Everything is set for Cuba to begin its 2000-2001 school year, on Friday, with an enrolment of 2 million 262 thousand students. To guarantee a successful first day, Cuba's Education Ministry, teachers, parents, and children are working hard in the maintenance and refurbishing of over 500 schools, dormitories and laboratories aimed at improving the living and educational conditions of the school children. The Ministry of Education has informed that school uniforms textbooks and other school supplies are guaranteed for the upcoming school year. Education continues to be a priority for the Cuban government, despite the island's economic difficulties. *CUBA'S DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER ON EUROPEAN TOUR Stockholm, August 30 (RHC)-Cuba's Deputy Foreign Minister, Angel Dalmau, has wound up a two-day official visit to Sweden as part of a European tour aimed at strengthening bilateral ties. The Cuban official met with European Foreign Ministers, Foreign Trade officials, the Vice President of the Foreign Relations Commission of the Swedish Parliament and the Director of the Americas Department of the Swedish International Cooperation Agency. Cuba's Deputy Foreign Minister also met with representatives of Swedish political parties, parliamentarians and business executives. The Cuban diplomat's tight agenda also includes a meeting with the Cuba-Swedish Friendship Association. His next stop will be Norway. *EL SALVADOR REQUESTS CUBAN HELP WITH DENGUE FEVER OUTBREAK Havana, August 30 (RHC)-Cuba is aiding El Salvador in combating an outbreak of dengue, which has left 15 people dead so far, according to the Director of the International Relations Department of the Cuban Health Ministry, Enrique Comendeiro. The Cuban official confirmed that the Research Director of Cuba's Health Ministry, Erick Martinez, is already in El Salvador to help stop the spread of dengue, which has already affected almost two thousand people. Dr. Martinez told the Salvadoran press that Cuba will do all it can to help the people of El Salvador stop the epidemic. Last May, just before the outbreak of dengue in Central America, particularly in El Salvador, the mayor of San Salvador, Hector Silva, announced that they were already in the process of requesting Cuban aid to create a disease and disaster prevention program. *THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF MALI TO VISIT CUBA Havana, August 30 (RHC)-The President of the Republic of Mali's National Assembly, Ali Nohum Diallo, is scheduled to visit Cuba on Friday. He will meet with Cuban counterpart, Ricardo Alarcon, and visit Havana's Biotechnology Center and the Latin American School of Medicine among other scheduled activities. *PARLIAMENTARY DELEGATION FROM KUWAIT ON ITS WAY TO THE ISLAND Havana, August 30 (RHC)-A Parliamentary delegation from Kuwait will arrive in Havana on Saturday at the invitation of Cuba's National Assembly. The delegation will include members of the Kuwait-Cuba Friendship Parliamentary Group, headed by Dr. Nasar Al Sane. The Kuwaiti delegation is scheduled to meet with Cuban Parliament President Ricardo Alarcon and other Cuban parliamentarians. Meetings with Government Minister Ricardo Cabrisas, as well as the Minister of Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation, Marta Lomas, are also on the list of activities. *OLYMPIC COMMITTE STATEMENT ON WHY HAVANA SHOULD NOT BID ON 2008 GAMES Havana, August 30 (RHC)--The decision to leave Havana out of the biding for the Olympic Games, for the year 2008, did not take the Cuban Olympic Committee by surprise, noted today in an editorial in the Cuban daily Granma. On Monday, the International Olympic Committee's Executive Board listed five cities still in the race for the games. They are Beijing, Osaka, Paris, Istanbul and Toronto. Those eliminated included Havana, Bangkok, Cairo, Kuala Lumpur and Seville. The Cuban Olympic Committee says that, once again, the rights of poor nations to organize Olympic Games have been ignored. The note adds that the decision follows the lucrative profit margin integral to the sports world to which Cuba has always been opposed. We call for respect for third world countries' rights to organize the location of Olympics, if they have the merits, the infrastructure, experience, organizational capacity and the desire to hold the games. The statement goes on to say that poor nations have the right to organize modest yet efficient games, accessible to all in which the top priority would be the games themselves rather than economics. We know, stated the Cuban Olympic Committee, that Third World nations will not be able to organize such games the way they have been carried out lately, in which immense sums of money are being allocated simply for the opening and closing ceremonies alone. The note comments that such an arrogant attitude promotes the commercial reality of sports world, involving corruption and market-oriented policy making within the IOC. The world press has been reporting on skyrocketing prices and speculation concerning the games, including hotel room prices and other issues. The Cuban sports body questioned the future of sports as nothing more than a commodity, stressing that the island will continue defending the rights of the poor. *SOTOMAYOR AND VORONIN GO FACE TO FACE ON THRESHOLD OF OLYMPIC GAMES Nearly a year and a half after the duel between Cuban high jumper Javier Sotomayor and Russian Viacheslav Voronin, these two athletes will once again face each other on September 9th. The competition will take place in Yokohama, Japan, and organizers consider the event to be a trial run, or, better stated, a trial jump prior to Sydney, since Charles Austin, olympic champ from the US, will also be on hand. Sotomayor, world record holder, and Voronin, current world champ, met on March 5th, 1999 during the Maebashi, Japan indoors tournament, where the Cuban got the gold with 2.36 meters in fewer attempts than the Russian. The panorama today, however, is quite different. Sotomayor has returned to competitions and is gaining confidence in himself, after an unfair sanction by the IAAF following an alleged doping case during the Winnipeg Pan Am games last year. On the other hand, Voronin has become the first athlete to jump over the 2.40 meter mark during the past five years. The Russian athlete, six years younger than Sotomayor, appears as a very strong opponent for the Cuban. He has been immersed in a very consistent season with several jumps over the 2.33 meters. However, experts are putting their money on the Cuban jumper, who has been the only human being to ever to jump 2.45 meters, valid for the world record. Sotomayor also has in his hands the indoor record for 2.43 meters and has jumped over the 2.40 meter mark 21 times. Despite the time he had to spent without competing due to his controversial doping case, Sotomayor has to be counted among those with good possibilities at the upcoming games. At the Yokohama track and field meet, Cuba will be sending other star figures like long jumper Ivan Pedroso-- seven times world champ-- along with hurdle runners Yoel Hernandez and Anier Garcia who will have Allen Johnson, from the United States, as their most fierce opponent. Johnson holds the olympic title and owns the best time of the year with 12.97 seconds. After the Yokohama event, athletes will travel to Australia for the olympic track and field competitions set for September 22nd to October 1st. *Viewpoint: *INFORMATICS IN CUBAN HIGHER EDUCATION Despite being a poor nation, submitted to the longest and most cruel blockade in modern history, Cuba earmarks a great deal of its scarce economic resources to the acquisition of computers, bound for the island's 48 universities. With the official inauguration of the 2000-2001 school year this coming Friday, another 700 computers will have been installed in those centers, half of which are already connected to the Internet. Unlike First World countries, where advanced technology is generally accessible exclusively to society's upper echelons, computers in Cuba are available not only to advanced students, but also for the 130,000 university students registered for the new school year. In line with the policy of the Cuban government to improve education and professional training on the island, Cuban universities are also ready to undergo an increase in registration capacity in various academic majors. The aim is to meet the island's professional needs, particularly in the economic sector, which, despite difficulties, has experienced a 4 percent annual growth rate over the past five years. More than 630,000 professionals have already graduated from Cuban universities over the 40 years of the Cuban Revolutionary experience. Professionals, in addition to academic studies, are exposed to the highest ethical, moral and patriotic values. Many graduates have offered their services in remote regions of the world as part of Cuba's continued efforts to help people in need. (c) 2000 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= rhc-eng-26549 2000-Aug-30 23:02:55