Radio Havana Cuba-07 September 2000 22:00 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 07 September 2000 22:00 *CUBAN PRESIDENT FIDEL CASTRO MEETS WITH WORLD LEADERS AT UN *U.S. RELIGIOUS LEADERS DEMAND END OF WASHINGTON'S BLOCKADE OF CUBA *CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY DELEGATION VISITS THE ISLAND *CUBA AND GUINEA SIGN COOPERATION PROTOCOL *CUBAN MINISTER OF THE ECONOMY ARRIVES IN PANAMA *DELEGATION FROM NIGERIA VISITS CUBA *CUBANS TO ENJOY AMPLE TV COVERAGE OF SYDNEY OLYMPICS *LESS THAN HALF OF CUBAN SPORTS DELEGATION TO MAKE OLYMPIC DEBUT *ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT FIDEL CASTRO TO THE MILLENNIUM SUMMIT *Viewpoint: FIDEL CASTRO AT THE MILLENIUM SUMMIT--DIRECT AND TO THE POINT *CUBAN PRESIDENT FIDEL CASTRO MEETS WITH WORLD LEADERS AT UN New York, September 7 (RHC)-- Cuban President Fidel Castro has met with numerous world leaders at the United Nations, attending the Millennium Summit in New York City. Following Fidel Castro's speech at the UN-sponsored summit Wednesday evening, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez visited with his Cuban counterpart at the Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations. Accompanying Hugo Chavez was his wife, Marisabel de Chavez, and their daughter. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jose Vicente Rangel and other members of the Venezuelan delegation also attended the dinner/meeting. On Thursday, the leader of the Cuban Revolution met with the presidents of Vietnam and Senegal at the United Nations Headquarters. From there, Fidel attended a reception offered by Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori at the UN Plaza Hotel in downtown Manhattan. In related news, international media are still commenting on Fidel Castro's hard-hitting speech, delivered at the Millenium Summit. Calling the speech unprecedented, many news agencies around the world are praising the Cuban leader's words -- in defense of the Third World and calling for radical reforms in the United Nations itself. *U.S. RELIGIOUS LEADERS DEMAND END OF WASHINGTON'S BLOCKADE OF CUBA Havana, September 7 (RHC)-- A visiting delegation from the U.S. National Council of Churches has called on U.S. President Bill Clinton to end Washington's blockade against Cuba. The General Secretary of the U.S. religious organization, Reverend Robert Edgar, stressed that nothing can justify the imposition and maintenance of an economic blockade and urged the U.S. president not to leave the decision to any future administrations. The U.S. religious leaders arrived in Havana last Saturday, invited by the Cuban Council of Churches. The National Council of Churches groups some 50 million members. During the seven-month long kidnapping of six-year-old Elian Gonzalez in Miami, the U.S. religious institution gave the boy's father -- Juan Miguel Gonzalez -- moral as well as financial support in the struggle to bring his son back to Cuba. During their stay on the island, which wrapped up on Thursday, the U.S. religious leaders met with high-ranking Cuban government officials, as well as authorities of the Cuban Catholic Church. They also visited Elian Gonzalez and his family in the central province of Matanzas. The secretary general of the U.S. National Council of Churches affirmed that the boy is happy with his father and grandparents in Cuba and stated that his delegation is returning to the United States with the conviction that people-to-people contact between the two nations should be further strengthened. *CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY DELEGATION VISITS THE ISLAND Havana, September 7 (RHC)-- A large delegation from the Chinese Communist Party, headed by Political Bureau member Li Tieying, has arrived in Cuba for an official visit at the invitation of the Cuban Communist Party. Upon arriving at Havana's Jose Marti International Airport, Li Tieying stated that the aim of the visit is to consolidate friendship and strengthen bilateral cooperation with the Cuban Communist Party. While on the island, the visitors will meet with their Cuban counterparts. The Cuban delegation to the bilateral talks is headed by Political Bureau member Jose Ramon Balaguer. The agenda of the Chinese delegation in Cuba also includes a visit to the Cuban Parliament, as well as a tour of the Havana-based Latin American School of Medicine. *CUBA AND GUINEA SIGN COOPERATION PROTOCOL Havana, September 7 (RHC)-- The 12th Meeting of the Cuban-Guinean Mixed Commission for Economic and Scientific Cooperation concluded in Havana on Thursday with the signing of the cooperation protocol and trade agreement . On Thursday, the African visitors and their Cuban colleagues were received by Cuban Trade Minister Raul de la Nuez and Deputy Foreign Relations Minister, Jose A. Guerra Menchero. During their stay in Cuba, the African business mission visited LABIOFAM -- Havana's Biological and Pharmaceutical Laboratories -- as well as Cuba's Institute of Biotechnology and Generic Engineering and the Latin American School of Medicine. *CUBAN MINISTER OF THE ECONOMY ARRIVES IN PANAMA Panama City, September 7 (RHC)-- Visiting Cuban Minister of the Economy, Jose Luis Rodriguez Garcia, met on Thursday with authorities in Panama's Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture. The aim of the visit is to strengthen bilateral relations. The president of the Panamanian Chamber of Commerce, Manuel Jose Paredes, expressed his satisfaction with the meeting and highlighted Cuba's presence since 1996 in the Expocomer Trade Fair, an event held every year in Panama under the auspices of the country's Chamber of Commerce. The Cuban Minister of the Economy took the opportunity to thank his Panamanian counterparts for the invitation. The high-ranking Cuban official described as very positive the current state of economic relations between the two countries and pointed to a growing bilateral commercial exchange with Latin American nations over the last years. Thirty-five percent of Cuba's commercial exchange is with Latin America, compared to only six percent a decade ago. *DELEGATION FROM NIGERIA VISITS CUBA Havana, September 7 (RHC)-- A delegation from the Nigerian Institute of Higher Strategic Studies is currently on a visit to Cuba. On Thursday, the Nigerian delegation visited Cuba's National Defense Center. A Cuban expert at the Center for National Defense, Colonel Angel Dominguez, offered the Nigerian guests a presentation on defense policies. Since their arrival in the Cuban capital last Sunday, the visitors have met with Cuban authorities in the Foreign Relations Institute and the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment. *CUBANS TO ENJOY AMPLE TV COVERAGE OF SYDNEY OLYMPICS Havana, September 7 (RHC)-- Cuban TV viewers and sports fans will be focused on every detail of the Sydney Olympic Games says Vice President of the Cuban Radio and Television Institute (ICRT) Ovidio Cabrera. Cabrera described the broadcast of the games as the biggest challenge, but stressed the institute is well prepared to offer coverage too enable people to enjoy the performance of Cuban athletes despite the 15 hour time difference. Cabrera pointed out that Cuban Television will be broadcasting in the morning, in the afternoon and at night mainly through Tele Rebelde channel and that whenever necessary, Cubavision channel will also be broadcasting the games. National, provincial and local radio stations will also be covering the Games. The Cuban Radio and TV Institute Vice President explained that so as to make the broadcasts possible Cuba has to convert the digital signal picked up in Sydney since developed countries are using far more sophisticated technology than that used on the island. The institute has sent a crew to the Australian city, added Cabrera, and there is a specialized team operating at the Institute's headquarters to make the transmissions possible. Cuban sports fans will be watching pre-recorded and live competitions. During the games, set to begin September 15th, Cuban athletes will be competing in 21 of the 28 sports programmed. The best medal chances for the island are expected in track and field, baseball, boxing, volleyball, judo, weightlifting and wrestling. Cuba hopes to remain among the top ten countries in the general medal standings. Four years ago, Cuba landed in 8th place with 9-8-8. *LESS THAN HALF OF CUBAN SPORTS DELEGATION TO MAKE OLYMPIC DEBUT Havana, September 7 (RHC)-- Less than half of the Cuban delegation to Sydney will be making its Olympic debut. However, this should not be a hindrance in the achievement of the island's Olympic goals. 92 athletes have taken part in at least one meeting of the Games and are divided into 54 men and 38 women. It is also reported that 148 athletes are newcomers,49 of them women. Track and field is the sport with the largest number of Cuban athletes who have Olympic experience with 20, followed by women's volleyball with 11 and women's basketball with 10. Some 97% of the athletes come from the national school competitions and their average age is 27 years. The Sydney Games mark the 100th anniversary of women's participation in the games and women comprise nearly half of the Cuban delegation. From Paris 1900 to Atlanta 1996, Cuba has accumulated 46 gold medals plus 36 silver and 34 bronze. FULL TEXT, ADDRESS BY DR.FIDEL CASTRO RUZ, PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA, TO THE MILLENNIUM SUMMIT OF THE UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 6, 2000 Excellencies: There is chaos in our world, both within the countries' borders and beyond. Blind laws are offered like divine norms that would bring peace, order, well being and the security our planet so badly needs. That is what they would have us believe. Three dozen developed and wealthy nations that monopolize the economic, political and technological power have joined us in this gathering to offer more of the same recipes that have only served to make us poorer, more exploited and more dependent. There is not even discussion about a radical reform of this old institution --born over a half century ago when there were few independent nations-- to turn it into a true representative body of the interests of all the peoples on Earth; an institution where no one would have the irritating and anti-democratic right of veto and where a transparent process could be undertaken to expand membership and representation in the Security Council, an executive body subordinated to the General Assembly, which should be the one making the decisions on such crucial issues as intervention and the use of force. It should be clearly stated that the principle of sovereignty cannot be sacrificed to an abusive and unfair order that a hegemonic superpower uses, together with its own might and strength, to try to decide everything by itself. That, Cuba will never accept. The poverty and underdevelopment prevailing in most nations as well as the inequality in the distribution of wealth and knowledge in the world are basically at the source of the present conflicts. It cannot be overlooked that current underdevelopment and poverty have resulted from conquest, colonization, slavery and plundering in most countries of the planet by the colonial powers and from the emergence of imperialism and the bloody wars motivated by new distributions of the world. Today, it is their moral obligation to compensate our nations for the damages caused throughout centuries. Humanity should be aware of what we have been so far and what we cannot continue to be. Presently, our species has enough accumulated knowledge, ethical values and scientific resources to move towards a new historical era of true justice and humanism. There is nothing in the existing economic and political order that can serve the interests of Humankind. Thus, it is unsustainable and it must be changed. Suffice it to say that the world population is already 6 billion, 80% of which live in poverty. Ages-old diseases from Third World nations such as malaria, tuberculosis and others equally lethal have not been eradicated while new epidemics like AIDS threaten to exterminate the population of entire nations. On the other hand, wealthy countries keep investing enormous amounts of money in the military and in luxurious items and a voracious plague of speculators exchange currencies, stocks and other real or fictitious values for trillions of dollars every day. Nature is being devastated. The climate is changing under our own eyes and drinking water is increasingly contaminated or scarce. The sources of man's seafood are being depleted and crucial non-renewable resources are wasted in luxury and triviality. Anyone understands that the United Nations basic role in the pressing new century is to save the world not only from war but also from underdevelopment, hunger, diseases, poverty and the destruction of the natural resources indispensable to human life. And it should do so promptly before it is too late! The dream of having truly fair and sensible rules to guide human destiny seems impossible to many. However, we are convinced that the struggle for the impossible should be the motto of this institution that brings us together today! Thank you. Viewpoint *FIDEL CASTRO AT THE MILLENIUM SUMMIT: DIRECT AND TO THE POINT The hard-hitting and to-the-point speech given by Cuban President Fidel Castro at the Millenium Summit at the United Nations on Wednesday targeted the main problems that seriously affect humanity... while other speeches barely touched the main issues of today's world. This situation is repeated time and time again in all international forums, with many nations avoiding discussion of the principal causes of humanity's problems in order to avoid any friction with the powerful North. The Cuban leader reiterated his country's concerns over the economic and social problems that are devastating the Third World -- clearly stating Cuba's position that a real economic and political process must begin with the transformation of the current world reality. Cuba, an underdeveloped country, has been able to resist over 40 years of Washington's economic and political aggressions, designed to destroy the Cuban Revolution. Cuba therefore has the moral strength to defend its cause and that of the rest of the underdeveloped world. If we look at the situation from the Cuban point of view -- given what has happened at the United Nations in the past -- one would think that representatives of Third World nations, who are victims of centuries of exploitation, would unanimously denounce the inequalities, beginning to raise their voices. The majority of humanity will end this century buried in poverty and social abandonment. That is why we are forced to struggle, as Fidel Castro said, to change what must be changed. That is why the leader of the Cuban Revolution said, in his very sincere way, that humanity must confront the difficulties and resist pressures in such a way that the powerful will not be able to continue imposing their mandates on others. To achieve this objective, the Cuban leader has always drawn upon the example of the power of just ideas and the will to fight for the unity of all those that have been victims of colonialism, slavery and imperialism. The majority of humanity must put an end to resignation and pull together to fight for a better life -- a dream that is seemingly impossible for many. But for Fidel Castro, a great fighter of the impossible, it is a Good Fight... and well worth the effort. (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-9248 2000-Sep-07 22:51:21