Radio Havana Cuba-11 July 2000 23:30 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 11 July 2000 23:30 *WORKING COMMISSIONS PRIOR THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY CONTINUES *CUBA IS COMMEMORATING WORLD POPULATION DAY *THE PRESIDENT OF CUBA'S SPORTS INSTITUTE MEETS WITH NIGERIA'S MINISTER OF STATE OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS *THE IBERO AMERICAN WOMEN ARCHITECT AND ENGINEERS TO MEET IN CUBA NEXT OCTOBER *Viewpoint: AIDS STILL A MAJOR HEALTH THREAT IN SOUTHERN AFRICA *WORKING COMMISSIONS PRIOR THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY CONTINUES Havana, July 11 (RHC) - Cuba's Ministry of Light Industry´s performance over the last five years, in analyzing its future potential, was the thematic focus of Cuba's National Assembly gathered at Havana's Convention Center. Luis Alberto Chirino is covering the event and filed this report: "Jesus Perez Othon, Light Industry Minister presented the deputies with detailed report of the sector's 125 enterprises, during the economic crisis and the following five years. The document explained the steady recovery of this economic sector which directly influences the life of Cubans, since its major source of basic necessity items. According to the report, the Cuban Light Industry's strategy for the next five years, includes an increase, by 30 per cent, of its overall production to earn 25 million dollars from exports, doubling the figures scheduled for the year 2000; to increase sales to the internal dollar market in order to reach 245 million dollars in revenues; to achieve a 1.5 percent growth rate in sales to the tourist sector; and to add 16 million dollars more to the financing of products destined to the population in Cuban pesos. That strategy said, Minister Perez Othon will guarantee efficiency and quality of its island's textile industry, a higher technological development of other sectors, like the shoe industry and the compensation of scheduled developments, among other factors. The Cuban Light Industry saw a dramatic fall in production during the recent years of the economic crisis faced by the island. But 1994 marked the sector's recovery process which was characterized by a modernization of its technology, and labor strategy in factories and workshops, a wage strategy based on payments according to production results and the creation of better working conditions and the improvement of labor disciplines. The Cuban Parliament will open its 5th session on Wednesday at Havana's Convention Center. In Havana I am Luis Alberto Chirino." *CUBA IS COMMEMORATING WORLD POPULATION DAY Havana, July 11 (RHC)-Cuba is commemorating World Population Day with a number of scientific activities sponsored by the Cuban Population Society, the National Economist Association and the UN Population Fund office in Havana. Among other activities, there will be an informative panel on education and reproductive health and sexuality. In addition, an exhibition and debate on population and development, including a contest on the theme, will be announced. It is important to point out that Cuba has achieved measures of control over demographic growth common in many industrialized countries. Cuba's extensive, accessible, and free health care system, in conjunction with socio-economic structures providing a decent standard for its population, has served to increase life expectancy to 75 years of age on the island. *THE PRESIDENT OF CUBA'S SPORTS INSTITUTE MEETS WITH NIGERIA'S MINISTER OF STATE OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS Havana, July 11 (RHC)-The President of Cuba's Sports Institute, Humberto Rodriquez, met on Monday with Nigeria's Minister of Foreign Affairs who expressed his desire to broaden sports relations with the island. The Cuban leader elaborated on the island's sports development, integral programs in education, health and the elderly. He also praised the quality of Nigeria's soccer team which which was a strong competitor in the world championships. The Nigerian official thanked Cuba for its sports cooperation. Cuba currently has specialists in boxing and track and field in the African nation. The Nigerian official arrived in Havana last Sunday heading a delegation on the occasion of the second session of the intergovernmental joint commission for economic and scientific technical cooperation scheduled to kick off on Wednesday in the Cuban capital. *THE IBERO AMERICAN WOMEN ARCHITECT AND ENGINEERS TO MEET IN CUBA NEXT OCTOBER Havana, July 11 (RHC)- The conference on Ibero American Women Architects and Engineers will be held in Cuba, next October, with the participation of delegates from at least 10 countries. Delegates from Argentina, Costa Rica, Colombia, Spain, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela have confirmed their participation in the event. The organizers of the event did not rule out the possibility of having more foreign specialists attend the meeting, in particular, to exchange experiences and ideas with their Cuban colleagues concerning social integration. *Viewpoint: AIDS STILL A MAJOR HEALTH THREAT IN SOUTHERN AFRICA The African continent is plagued by a disease for which there currently is no cure. The medical condition is known as AIDS and roughly 70 percent of the African populace suffers from it in one form or another. Some medical practitioners have termed the disease the "Black Plague" of the 21st century. The root causes of AIDS are related to high levels of poverty and underdevelopment. The lack of resources with which to treat this condition has produced unparalleled catastrophe in Africa, among other areas of the world. So far, there are some 34 million cases of AIDS registered in the world, out of which 18 million have been fatal. Such an alarming mortality rate has been controlled only in countries with adequate scientific resources and access to expensive medicines that serve to prolong the lives of the infected while they wait for a vaccine. In Africa alone there are some 24 million AIDS victims, and medical experts fear that the situation will get worse before it gets better due to a shortage of information and adequate prevention programs. In order to attain an accurate picture of resource shortages in Africa, for instance, there are less telephones per capita than in the New York borough of Manhattan, according to recent statistics. The same scenario is replicated in the area of mass communications. Without access to necessary information concerning the nature and content of AIDS, Africans will continue to become infected. Shortages in condoms alone eliminate an effective preventative measure against the disease. Experts state that Africa needs a minimum of 3 billion dollars to implement effective programs against AIDS. The World Bank has offered 500 million, and it is possible that some more money may be collected from international financial institutions and donor countries. It would be more effective, however, for African nations to be exonerated from the crushing foreign debts that absorb such a large part of their national budgets, simply to pay interests. Africa's foreign debt amounts to over 350 billion dollars, while 33 of the world's 48 poorest nations are located in that continent. Temporary solutions like donations, loans, and debt wavers would certainly help the situation but, in the long term, international economic structures must be radically altered to provide an even playing field for developing nations. Conditions governing unequal exchange must be restructured in order for the world's poor to better their standard of living. Abject poverty only worsens and precipitates calamities such as AIDS. 13 of the 18 million AIDS mortalities have been Africans. The socio-economic problems currently besieging the Third World need to be addressed if medical catastrophes are to be controlled. Loans and donations, while certainly positive in the short term, are a poor substitute for unjust and inequitable political and economic structures. The world's marginalized masses, as the majority, must be incorporated into the international economy as an equal player. Their numbers must translate into political power if any positive change is to take place. Hunger and poverty need to be eliminated, first and foremost, in order to be able to focus and tend to preventable and curable diseases. (c) 2000 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. 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