Radio Havana Cuba-16 October 2001 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 16 October 2001 . *LARGEST US FARM ORGANIZATION SEEKS TO WATER DOWN FOOD EMBARGO LEGISLATION *ECUADOREAN INDIGENOUS ORGANIZATION CONDEMNS US BLOCKADE OF CUBA *CUBA PLANS SPECIAL CONFERENCE ON GLOBAL STABILITY FOR EARLY 2003 *JOURNALIST BOB WOODWARD SAYS MEDIA SHOULD "NOT BE STUPID" WHEN ANALYZING SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS *US WARPLANES BOMB INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS BUILDING IN KABUL *PERU: FORMER PRESIDENT VALENTIN PANIAGUA SAYS LATIN DEMOCRACIES THREATENED *ARGENTINA SAYS NO CHANGE IN ECONOMIC POLICIES DESPITE MAJOR ELECTION DEFEAT *UNICEF WARNS 100,000 AFGHAN CHILDREN AT RISK OF STARVATION *NATIONS HAVE FAILED THEIR COMMITMENT TO REDUCE HUNGER - FAO SECRETARY GENERAL *Viewpoint: WORLD FOOD DAY - NO REASON TO CELEBRATE . *LARGEST US FARM ORGANIZATION SEEKS TO WATER DOWN FOOD EMBARGO LEGISLATION Havana, 16th October (RHC)-The largest farm group in the United States, the American Farm Bureau, is seeking to alter a food embargo attachment to legislation on terrorism passed by both houses of the US Congress and due to be signed by President George W Bush. The legislation is primarily concerned with granting more power to US authorities to investigate suspected terrorists, and consequently easily passed muster in both the House and the Senate in the wake of the September 11th attacks. It includes a food embargo on any nation that Washington considers to be a so-called "terrorist state". Cuba has long suffered the effects of a US food embargo as part of Washington's political-economic blockade of the island. Efforts by solidarity organizations as well as the Farm Bureau earlier in the year managed to have restrictions placed on the US president's ability to impose such sanctions on a nation unilaterally. The American Farm Bureau said that while it supports the use of a food embargo against those countries with proven links to terrorists, it wants to limit such embargos to two years rather than maintain them indefinitely as the legislation proposes. The Bureau also opposes any provision that would impose unilateral sanctions on US agricultural exports without congressional approval. The farm group says that it does not believe that foreign policy objectives are attainable using such legislation and that embargoed countries simply seek their supplies from other sources, cutting out US farmers in the process. *ECUADORAN INDIGENOUS ORGANIZATION CONDEMNS US BLOCKADE OF CUBA Quito, 16th October (RHC)-The first Congress of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador - the most powerful indigenous organization in Latin America - Tuesday approved a motion condemning the US blockade of Cuba. After a five-day conference the more than 700 delegates attending also voted to condemn the September 11th attack against the United States but also said that the war logic of Washington has lost all sense of justice. The Congress took pains to criticize and reject the anti-drug Columbia Plan of the United States and Colombia, which many feel is an excuse to funnel money to Bogotá for a counter-insurgency war as well as sparking a regional arms race. Washington's much heralded proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas was also condemned as prejudicial to the development of Ecuador. Most analysts see it as an extension of US economic domination over all of Latin America. Also opposed was the government of Gustavo Noboa itself, which was criticized for its lack of interest in indigenous people's affairs as well as its failure to address the nation's most urgent social problems. Noboa came to power after indigenous people marched on Quito and brought about the downfall of the previous Jamil Mahuad administration. *CUBA PLANS SPECIAL CONFERENCE ON GLOBAL STABILITY FOR EARLY 2003 Habana, 16th October (RHC)-In the light of today's world upheaval, part of the activities being planned in Cuba to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Cuban national hero José Martí, will be an International Conference for World Stability. José Martí was born on 28th January 1853. The plan, announced in a press conference by Armando Bart who heads the organizing committee, is to provide a forum to discuss, review and analyze the current situation of the planet. "In these times in which we live", said Bart, "in which the instability of nations is taking humanity to the brink of a catastrophe of incalculable proportions, Cuba is convening an event that some will find strange and others motivating". The event, said Hart, is not uniquely a celebration of José Martí's remarkable life but also a promotion of philosophical, social and political thought with a view to improving one's life and that of the world around us. The Conference, which is sponsored by UNESCO, will take place between the 27th and 29th January 2003. José Martí was a prolific and far-sighted writer who warned the Americas of the power and lust for domination of the United States decades before his words were proved accurate. He also wrote much poetry from which most Cubans can quote. He fell in combat on the 19th May 1895 only a short time after taking up arms to fight Spanish colonial domination of his country. *JOURNALIST BOB WOODWARD SAYS MEDIA SHOULD "NOT BE STUPID" WHEN ANALYZING SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS Washington, October 16 (RHC) -- Renowned US journalist Bob Woodward has called on media professionals to - in his words - "not be stupid" when searching for the reasons behind Washington's war against terrorism. Speaking late Monday at the opening session in Washington of the Interamerican Press Society's 57th annual assembly, Woodward - famous for the Watergate scandal revelations that toppled President Richard Nixon - affirmed that the greatest challenge currently facing journalists is to seek and reveal all the information concerning this war. He admitted, however, that complying with this challenge could bring them problems with the government for reporting information that authorities do not want to reveal. Woodward said media professionals, in order to avoid mistakes, should understand who are those who organized the September 11th terrorist attacks and why they hate America. He said Americans must understand the reasons that prompted the terrorists to commit their crime. Also speaking at the opening session, Interamerican Press Society president, Uruguayan Danilo Arbilla, warned that it was said and proven years ago that the first victim of war is the truth. *US WARPLANES BOMB INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS BUILDING IN KABUL Islamabad, October 16 (RHC) -- The compound in Kabul, Afghanistan, of the International Committee of the Red Cross was struck Tuesday by a US bomb that injured a guard and destroyed wheat and other humanitarian supplies. In Islamabad, Pakistan, ICRC spokesman Mario Musa confirmed that the roof of the building was marked with a large Red Cross symbol. Afghan staff of the ICRC tried to salvage some of the goods stored in one of the two warehouses hit by the bomb, reportedly covering their faces with cloth and rushing into the cloud of black smoke to later emerge with blankets and tents. The humanitarian organization's Geneva headquarters has sent an official protest to the US embassy in Pakistan. The Red Cross compound is the second humanitarian center bombarded by US aircraft. The offices of a non-governmental organization cooperating with the United Nations in the eradication of land mines was also destroyed last week, killing 4 Afghan workers inside the building during the attack. *PERU: FORMER PRESIDENT VALENTIN PANIAGUA SAYS LATIN DEMOCRACIES THREATENED Panama City, October 16 (RHC) -- Former Peruvian President Valentin Paniagua has affirmed that Latin American democracies are threatened by the autocracy that promotes terrorism and a silent violence in an effort to maintain the status quo of a small minority. Inaugurating in Panama the 10th Interamerican Course on Elections and Democracy, with the participation of some 500 electoral officials from 25 nations in the region, Paniagua pointed to a recent United Nations survey indicating that two-thirds of Latin America's population has no faith in political leaders, while at least half of the region's inhabitants are fed up with electoral processes that - in his words - produce democracies with no souls. He asserted that the poverty affecting Latin America could be done away with if the region's 100 largest business firms would earmark 5 percent of their incomes to social programs. The 4-day gathering is sponsored by Panama's Electoral Tribunal and the Organization of American States Interamerican Human Rights Institute. *ARGENTINA SAYS NO CHANGE IN ECONOMIC POLICIES DESPITE MAJOR ELECTION DEFEAT Buenos Aires, October 16 (RHC) -- The government of Argentina has announced that its economic policies will not change, despite its resounding defeat in Sunday's legislative elections. Though the opposition Justicialista Party won the elections, even members of the governing Alliance are calling on President Fernando de la Rua to take heed of Sunday's massive protest vote. Ruling Alliance Senator Rodolfo Terragno affirmed that de la Rua has been overtaken by events and that if he continues his course he will damage himself, his political party and the nation. Local media outlets reported today that a full 41 percent of Argentine voters decided to not cast their ballots for any of the candidates in Sunday's elections. Ten million 200 thousand voters either abstained, turned in blank ballots or mutilated their ballots in what is being called an unprecedented manifestation of discontent with the country's political leaders. *UNICEF WARNS 100,000 AFGHAN CHILDREN AT RISK OF STARVATION Islamabad, October 16 (RHC) -- The United Nations Children's Fund has warned that as many as 100,000 Afghan children could die this winter unless food reaches them in sufficient quantities over the next six weeks. UNICEF spokesman Eric Laroche Monday said the organization needed 36 million dollars to carry out what he called its "bare emergency work" inside the country, but that so far it has only received half that amount. Laroche said the combination of drought, years of civil unrest and the US bombardments have made the crisis facing children in Afghanistan one of the worst scenarios possible. Speaking of the recent TV images of injured and undernourished Afghan children, the UNICEF spokesman said that this is only the most public face of their suffering. He said that if you are a child born in Afghanistan today, you are 25 times more likely to die before the age of five than an American or a French or a Saudi Arabian child. Laroche pointed out that more than half the children in Afghanistan were already malnourished and 300,000 of the country's children die each year from preventable causes. United Nations spokeswoman Stephanie Bunker described the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan as - in her words - the most serious, complex emergency in the world ever." Bunker said the missile strikes make their jobs harder to do, but the Pentagon has ruled out any pause in the bombardment. *NATIONS HAVE FAILED THEIR COMMITMENT TO REDUCE HUNGER - FAO SECRETARY GENERAL Rome, October 16 (RHC) -- The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has affirmed that the 1996 World Food Conference failed in its declared objective to reduce hunger. On the occasion today of World Food Day, FAO secretary general Jacques Diouf pointed to the commitment 5 years ago to reduce the number of people going hungry by 20 million each year, noting that the international community has fallen far short of that objective. Calling the fight against hunger a moral obligation, the UN official said a hungry nation can neither grow nor prosper. Leading up to World Food Day, special UN human rights representative Jean Ziegler had stronger words regarding hunger, calling it a silent genocide that constitutes a crime against humanity in a world more than capable of adequately feeding the entire planet. Recalling that every 7 seconds a child under 10 years of age dies from the direct or indirect effects of hunger, Ziegler called each of these deaths an assassination. *Viewpoint: WORLD FOOD DAY - NO REASON TO CELEBRATE Today, October 16th, is World Food Day. But it is not a day to celebrate. Nearly 100,000 people will die of starvation over the next 24 hours -- just as they do every day. According to recent statistics released by the United Nations, more than 815 million people are malnourished in the world. Every seven seconds, a child under the age of ten dies from the direct or indirect effects of hunger. World Food Day was established by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 1979. For more than 20 years now, this date has seen little or no progress on the issue of hunger and malnutrition. In fact, the situation has only gotten worse in recent years. This year, World Food Day takes on a new and different meaning. Not only are we on the threshold of another Summit of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, but the United States is well into its second week of military attacks against Afghanistan -- an apparent attempt to wipe out widespread hunger in that Central Asian country with sophisticated missiles and bombs. According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), at least 100,000 Afghan children will die of hunger if food aid does not reach them within the next six weeks when winter begins. The UNICEF report notes that more than half of all Afghan children are malnourished and that as many as six million people in Afghanistan need urgent assistance. The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan is described by the United Nations as the most complex and serious emergency in the country's history. In an unprecedented public relations move, Washington is dropping food packages from its planes -- at the same time as they drop bombs on the heads of starving Afghan people. There was reportedly an initial discussion by U.S. officials as to whether or not to drop the food first, but it was eventually decided to begin the campaign with bombs. Apparently, some intelligent folks at the White House determined that dead people don't eat much. But let's get back to the subject of World Food Day -- a day that we here in Cuba believe should be dedicated to the basic right to eat. Every human being should have access to an adequate diet, no child should go to bed hungry and no family should have to worry about food for the next day. Some alleged experts in capitalist countries insist that hunger is a result of increasing numbers of people -- the so-called "population explosion" -- yet it is known that the planet has sufficient resources to feed 12 billion people -- twice the current population of the world. The problem lies not in the lack of resources, but in the unequal distribution of food. Industrialized countries -- not surprisingly, the same ones carrying out attacks against Afghanistan and other Third World countries -- consume enough food to feed a quarter of the world's population, another quarter is consumed by their animals and a third quarter is lost to natural disasters. For the Third World, where the rural population alone represents 75 percent of the planet's inhabitants, only one-fourth of the world's food supplies remains for consumption. Until we see a more just distribution of food, the vast majority will be forced to suffer the silent genocide of hunger -- while an over-fed, wealthy few stuff themselves into obesity. (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-23131 2001-Oct-17 01:41:22