Radio Havana Cuba-09 November 2000 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 09 November 2000 . *CUBA READY FOR NORMAL RELATIONS OR 100 YEARS OF RESISTANCE - PEREZ ROQUE *FINAL PREPARATIONS UNDERWAY FOR SOLIDARITY CONFERENCE *CHINA'S COMMUNIST PARTY CONDEMNS US BLOCKADE AGAINST CUBA *SPANISH CATALAN DELEGATION HONORS ERNESTO CHE GUEVARA *CUBA AND ETHIOPIA EXPAND BILATERAL COOPERATION *EASING OF EMBARGO A MYTH, SAYS CUBAN ATTACHE IN NICARAGUA Editorials: *A BANANA REPUBLIC - Granma Daily *US ELECTORAL SYSTEM MORE QUESTIONABLE NOW THAN EVER BEFORE . *CUBA READY FOR NORMAL RELATIONS OR 100 YEARS OF RESISTANCE - PEREZ ROQUE New York, November 9 (RHC)-- At the United Nations General Assembly, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque Thursday asserted that Cuba is prepared both for normal relations with the United States and to resist another one hundred years of a U.S. blockade and aggressions. Presenting the 9th consecutive resolution against Washington's blockade of Cuba, Perez Roque said that President Bill Clinton probably wanted to change the situation he inherited regarding Cuba, but that Clinton will go down in history as the president who -- with the ability to do so -- was forced to act in the exact opposite manner. The Cuban foreign minister said that after the normalization of U.S. relations with China and Vietnam, and even with a group of countries once called "terrorists," and when Clinton flies to North Korea -- with which the United States has yet to formally sign a peace treaty -- the U.S. president may reflect on his acts towards Cuba. Speaking directly to Washington's UN ambassador, Perez Roque said: "It must be very difficult trying to defend, without arguments, the right of your country to kill Cuban children with hunger and sickness." He said the next U.S. president would have to decide whether he will promote before Congress a change in this obsolete policy, or continue as a hostage to the sordid interests and vengeful hysteria of an unscrupulous extremist minority. Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque wrapped up his speech by also telling Washington's UN ambassador to remember that one can inspire terror through force, but never affection; one can be the strongest, but not loved and respected; one can impose an empire, but not have moral authority before others; one can be the richest, but not the most virtuous; one can lie, but will never be able to tell the same lie forever. Previous to the actual vote on Cuba's resolution, a number of diplomats from around the world took the podium following Perez Roque's speech to condemn Washington's blockade. Then 167 countries voted in favor of that resolution, in what has been called another overwhelming Cuban victory. Three countries voted against: the United States, Israel and the Marshall Islands. There was also a record low four abstentions. *FINAL PREPARATIONS UNDERWAY FOR SOLIDARITY CONFERENCE Havana, November 9 (RHC)-- Havana is ready to host the 2nd World Solidarity with Cuba Conference with the participation of nearly 4000 delegates from 127 countries. The conference will open on Friday morning at the capital's Karl Marx Theater and International Convention Center. On Saturday, delegates will be divided into three commissions in which they will discuss issues like the blockade, information and misinformation about Cuba. Delegates will also exchange of experiences. On Monday, plenary sessions will be convened and on Tuesday delegates will approve the final documents as the conference comes to a close. Participants will also meet with Cuban grassroots organizations and visit places of social, economic and cultural interest. The U.S. delegation is the largest delegation with some 600 representatives. According to statistics released by Cuba's Friendship Institute (ICAP), there are currently 1685 Cuba friendship associations compared to 500 in 1989. *CHINA'S COMMUNIST PARTY CONDEMNS US BLOCKADE AGAINST CUBA Santiago de Cuba, November 9 (RHC)-- Chinese Communist Party official, Yang Zhengne, reiterated his country's condemnation of Washington's blockade against Cuba. During a visit to the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba, the Chinese leader underscored the Cuban people's ability to resist continued economic aggressions. The Chinese delegation, which will participate in the 2nd World Solidarity with Cuba Meeting, arrived in Havana last Tuesday. *SPANISH CATALAN DELEGATION HONORS ERNESTO CHE GUEVARA Santa Clara, November 9 (RHC)-- A Spanish Catalan delegation, in Cuba to participate in the 2nd World Solidarity with Cuba Conference, paid tribute on Thursday to legendary guerrilla Ernesto Che Guevara and his comrades at the Memorial located in the central city of Santa Clara. The Catalan-Cuba Friendship Association collected donations to purchase school materials and medicines for the Cuban people. The Catalan visitors will also help finance education and health projects for children in Santa Clara daycare centers. *CUBA AND ETHIOPIA EXPAND BILATERAL COOPERATION Havana, November 9 (RHC)-- Ethiopia and Cuba signed two bilateral cooperation agreements in trade and education, according to Ethiopian Industry and Commerce Minister, Kassaun Ayele. In a conversation held in Addis Ababa with the local Walta Information Center, Kassaun Ayele said that the accords were the result of the recent Ethiopia-Cuba joint commission that took place November 2-4 in Havana. The Ethiopian government official explained that the agreements provide for his country to export agricultural goods to Havana and, in exchange, Addis Abeba will import medical and industrial products from Cuba such as sugar refining equipment. Cuba and Ethiopia reestablished full diplomatic relations in 1976 and Havana's cooperation with Addis Abeba over the past 20 years has included public health, education and defense. More than 4000 Ethiopian young people have studied in Cuban schools. *VIETNAMESE OFFICIAL DISCUSSES UPCOMING ECONOMIC SEMINAR SET FOR CUBA Havana, November 9 (RHC)-- Vietnam's Investment and Economic Planning Minister, Tran Xuang Gia, has stressed the importance of an International Economics Seminar to be held next week on the island. Speaking with Prensa Latina News Agency in Hanoi, the Vietnamese government official, who will soon travel to Havana, said that the forum, which will focus on basic functions of Economic planning, will have large representations from Asia, Europe and Latin America. Also participating in the event will be representatives from China and Vietnam, two countries that have begun a process of change in their economic structures, said the Vietnamese official. *EASING OF EMBARGO A MYTH, SAYS CUBAN ATTACHE IN NICARAGUA Managua, November 9 (RHC)-- Cuban embassy official in Nicaragua, Damian Arteaga, reiterated on Thursday in Managua the fallacy of Washington's alleged easing of its blockade against the island. Arteaga, who is the Cuban business attaché in Nicaragua, pointed out that under the pressure of increasing international condemnation, last October 11 the U.S. House of Representatives passed an agriculture bill which included a provision for the supposed selling of food and medicine to Cuba. However, he said, the conditions the legislation imposes make it impossible to actually make purchases and in fact, tighten Washington's blockade against the Caribbean island. The Cuban official pointed out that the United States government is trying to fool the international community into thinking that they are easing their blockade against the island. Editorials: *A BANANA REPUBLIC - Granma Daily Editorial pubished Nov 9, 2000 edition of Granma daily Something strange took place in the U.S. presidential elections on Tuesday, something which perhaps hundreds of millions of people throughout the world never thought would have happened. It was a huge scandal that swept around the world, as messages of congratulations were sent to George Bush just as soon as the television networks, fooled by those who designed the fraud, announced at 3 o'clock in the morning on Wednesday that Bush had won. The United States was really without a president-elect. The epicenter of this political earthquake, which damages the prestige of the entire country, was, once again, the State of Florida and especially Miami -- where the terrorist Cuban-American mafia makes its home. The same ones who, allied with the extreme right, kidnapped six-year-old Elian Gonzalez. On that occasion, they violated laws and institutions and, even worse, psychologically tortured and physically abused an innocent child for months. Armed men developed plans and organized violent disruptions in the city, finally stomping on and burning the U.S. flag when the boy was returned to his family in Cuba. The intense struggle of the entire Cuban people for Elian's return to his father was given a great deal of support by the vast majority of public opinion in the United States. Now, only six months have passed since those events, and the State of Florida has become the determining factor in the presidential elections. This time, the mafia laid out everything. Hungry for revenge and anxious to recuperate lost ground -- with the help of its allies in the U.S. Congress-- they maneuvered to tighten the blockade against our country, frustrating the initiatives in support of the sale of food and medicine, codifying the prohibition of U.S. citizens to travel to Cuba and stealing funds frozen in the United States. When election day came, they even thought they would be able to decide who would be the next president of the United States. As we all have been able to see since early yesterday morning, they not only invested huge sums of money, but they also stooped to electoral fraud, just like those in Cuba before the Revolution. Experts in having even the dead cast their ballots -- something that they've already tried doing in Miami -- they ripped off ballot boxes, fixed votes, surrounded polling stations in order to intimidate and put pressure on the voters, and changed the order of the candidates on the ballot to cause mistakes. Many voters -- especially retired senior citizens -- wanted to vote for one candidate and instead voted for another. An obscure cloud covers the political panorama of the United States today. Once again, this nation is paying the price of a criminal and genocidal policy against our country -- of a blockade and economic war, of the killer Cuban Adjustment Act, which has promoted death and protected criminals that enter that country without a single legal document. How should the world react? How can this scandal be stopped? This cannot be fixed with a simple recounting of the votes. They can recount the votes of Florida a thousand times and the fraud will remain intact. Leaving aside the colossal figure of 3 billion dollars in election campaign expenses -- which tarnishes any pretension of a democratic model and a government of the people, by the people and for the people -- only one thing is possible. There is no other alternative for the leaders of the United States but to repeat the elections in the State of Florida -- to really find out who is the winner and maintain the fiction that in the United States, there is something that at least looks like a democracy... and not what is so disrespectfully called "a banana republic." *US ELECTORAL SYSTEM MORE QUESTIONABLE NOW THAN EVER BEFORE The combination of the electoral and the popular vote results, as well as the antics of the U.S. mainstream media to announce the new president-elect without the official results, turns the ridiculous U.S. electoral system into a balancing act. Tuesday's elections and the confusing results bring about a logical end to an electoral show. The whole farce was seen on television and the INTERNET while the important issues and ideas were totally lost. The campaign to point out the defects, real or imagined, of their rival was George W. Bush and Albert Gore's only way to be different from the other candidate. They have similar positions on many issues and most of their positions lack any social content. Election Day results showed the existing contradiction between the electoral votes and the only ones that should really count: the popular vote. Tuesday's elections also point to the disproportionate role of the Electoral College -- 538 votes that have enough power to ignore the opinion of the majority. The vote re-count in Florida has ended up creating an atmosphere of anxiety and uncertainty among not only the U.S. people but also abroad. The frivolity with which the American mainstream media approached the electoral campaign reached its peak on Tuesday when well-known TV anchors had to apologize for announcing the new president-elect before the official results were in. In the final analysis, Tuesday's presidential elections showed how vulnerable the U.S. system is, despite Washington's self-proclaimed "model of democracy." (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-709 2000-Nov-09 21:42:16