Radio Havana Cuba-05 January 2001 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 05 January 2001 . *FIDEL CONGRATULATES ICAP ON INSTITUTE'S 40th ANNIVERSARY *UNIVERSITY OF HAVANA CELEBRATES ITS 273 YEARS *NATIONAL FORUM ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY GETS UNDERWAY IN HAVANA *CUBA'S POPULATION GROWTH ALMOST AT ZERO *WORKSHOP ON SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY BEGINS SATURDAY *CUBAN CHILDREN SPARED THE MISERY OF YOUNGSTERS AROUND THE WORLD . *FIDEL CONGRATULATES ICAP ON INSTITUTE'S 40th ANNIVERSARY Havana, January 5 (RHC)-- Cuban President Fidel Castro has sent a message of congratulations to the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) on the institution's 40th anniversary. Fidel Castro praised the organization for what he called "its noble and universal objectives of friendship and solidarity." The message from the Cuban leader was read during a special activity held Thursday evening in the Cuban capital to commemorate the 40th anniversary of ICAP. The President of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, Sergio Corrieri, addressed the event, which was attended by high-ranking members of the Cuban government. Sergio Corrieri reviewed the past 40 years of the island's friendship institute -- noting that ICAP is no longer simply an organization that welcomed solidarity groups and delegations that came to Cuba during the early 1960's and into the 70's and 80's. He emphasized that today ICAP is an active promoter of the Cuban Revolution throughout the world - with strong relationships developed with hundreds of solidarity committees and activists around the world. The President of ICAP also presented awards to the organization's most outstanding departments and workers. Special recognition was given to those who worked on the Second World Conference of Friendship and Solidarity with Cuba, which was held in Havana last November. The Secretary General of the Cuban Workers Confederation, Pedro Ross Leal, also addressed the special activity commemorating the 40th anniversary of ICAP. He praised the organization for holding high the banner of the Cuban Revolution worldwide - disseminating the truth while confronting Washington's constant campaign of lies. *UNIVERSITY OF HAVANA CELEBRATES ITS 273 YEARS Havana, January 5 (RHC)-- Today marks the 273rd anniversary of the founding of the University of Havana. The ceremony took place where the university was originally inaugurated in Old Havana. According to university officials, the University of Havana was never isolated from the country's social process, and was especially linked to the student struggle against dictator Fulgencio Batista in the 1950's. Celebrations for the 273rd anniversary of the University of Havana were held at the university's original location with the participation of students, professors, government leaders and the public. *NATIONAL FORUM ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY GETS UNDERWAY IN HAVANA Havana, January 5 (RHC)-- The 13th National Forum on Science and Technology got underway on Friday in Havana with the participation of over 1000 delegates. The event will analyze technological solutions that will benefit the Cuban economy and environment. The 529 selected papers deal with food, biotechnology, pharmaceutical industry, health, tourism, recreation and energy. During the 13th Forum on Science and Technology, a special commission will be meeting at Havana's Latin American School of Medicine to analyze the experiences of Cuban health professionals, offering their services free-of-charge abroad. As part of the forum, a scientific-technical exhibition was inaugurated at Havana's Expo-Cuba exhibition hall on Cuban inventions. *CUBA'S POPULATION GROWTH ALMOST AT ZERO Havana, January 5 (RHC)-- Cuba has entered the 21st century with a population of 11,200,000, a life expectancy of 75 years and a growth rate that has practically come to a halt. Rolando Garcia, Director of the Center for Demographic Studies of the University of Havana, said that there are currently one million people over 75 years of age. Garcia added that according to Cuban experts, the island will never reach a population of 12 million, although in about 20 years the population on the island will reach 11 million 700 thousand. The Cuban official concluded by saying that the new century began with more women than men. *WORKSHOP ON SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY BEGINS SATURDAY Havana, January 5 (RHC)-- Experts from Venezuela, Haiti, the United States and Cuba will meet on Saturday in Havana to discuss religion and its practices on the continent in the 5th Workshop on Social and Cultural Anthropology. The event begins with a cultural activity in historic plazas throughout Old Havana with demonstrations of traditional religious activities in the region. The Workshop is part of activities celebrating the 15th anniversary of Havana's Casa de Africa museum and cultural center. Participants will also be treated to videos on ethnology, including one on Orishas and another on Afro-Cuban art. . Viewpoint: *CUBAN CHILDREN SPARED THE MISERY OF YOUNGSTERS AROUND THE WORLD Each day more statistics are made known about the horrifying conditions of poverty and degradation under which millions of the world's children are forced to live. Though this tragedy has been public knowledge for years, the world's nations, including the most developed, are failing to adequately respond to the crisis. The United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, has made extensive international studies which reveal the plight of millions of children, mostly in the Third World, abandoned and victims of the most horrible crimes. The reports show small children forced to work in inhuman conditions; others sexually abused by adults; children kidnapped to have their organs extracted and sold for transplants and street children murdered to "clean up" the cities. It is painful to see in big cities, including in Latin America, thousands of boys and girls dirty and abandoned, forced to make a living for themselves by polishing shoes, cleaning windshields, selling trinkets or simply begging in the streets. Massacres of street children have become tragically commonplace in Brazil's big cities, where groups of vigilantes have machine-gunned homeless children. Children are also working in mines and on construction sites, doing the most heavy and dangerous jobs. Studies show that children are being kidnapped and taken to Europe and the United States to be sexually exploited or where their organs are sold to the highest bidder. Then there is the total lack of education and medical assistance which turns indigent young children into criminals and vagrants, making them a burden on society, living out their lives in pain and anger. But, as Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage once told the United Nations: "Not one of those children is Cuban." In Cuba, a poor, Third World country, not a single child is without a school or a teacher, not a single child is without medical attention, or social security and not a single Cuban child lives without the love and support of his fellow Cubans. (c) 2001 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-31568 2001-Jan-06 16:52:54