Radio Havana Cuba-09 January 2002 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 09 January 2002 . *EVERY CHILD IN CUBA VACCINATED AGAINST HEPATITIS B *WASHINGTON DENIES PERMISSION FOR AGRIBUSINESS GROUP TO VISIT CUBA *FIRST COMMERCIAL SHIPMENT OF US WHEAT IN 40 YEARS ON ITS WAY TO CUBA *INTERNATIONAL ENCOUNTER OF ECONOMISTS SLATED FOR FEBRUARY IN HAVANA *US: BUSH ADMINISTRATION BEING PULLED INTO THE ENRON SCANDAL *BUSH TAKES TIME OFF FROM WAR TO ASSAULT ENVIRONMENT *JITTERY ARGENTINE GOVERNMENT POSTPONES CURRENCY EXCHANGE OPERATIONS *SPAIN'S POLITICAL OPPOSITION CALLS FOR SOLIDARITY WITH ARGENTINA *GREENPEACE ACTIVISTS AGREE TO PLEA BARGAN IN STAR WARS PROTEST CASE *Viewpoint: McCARTHYISM IS ALIVE AND KICKING IN WASHINGTON . *EVERY CHILD IN CUBA VACCINATED AGAINST HEPATITIS B Havana, January 9 (RHC)-- One hundred percent of all Cuban children are vaccinated against hepatitis B. According to a front-page article in Wednesday's edition of the daily Granma, the vaccination program began in 1992 and reached its peak last year. By 1998, the island's health authorities reported that the vaccination campaign had been extended to all newborn children. The program's success over the past several years has now lead to the announcement that all Cubans under the age of 21 are immunized against hepatitis. Havana's Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Center produces the highly effective vaccine, allowing massive and systematic doses to be distributed to hospitals and clinics across the island. Babies are given their first dose at birth, followed by two more: at 30 days and six months. Cuban health officials noted that the incidence rate of hepatitis B has been reduced by 98 percent in children under the age of 15. According to the World Health Organization, between five and eight percent of the world's population is affected by the virus -- which hits nearly 500,000 people in Latin America each year. *WASHINGTON DENIES PERMISSION FOR AGRIBUSINESS GROUP TO VISIT CUBA Washington, January 9 (RHC)-- The U.S. Treasury Department has denied travel licenses for an Illinois-based agribusiness group that asked permission to take a delegation to Cuba. According to reports from the U.S. capital, the delegation would have included former Agriculture Secretaries Mike Espy and Dan Glickman, both of whom served in the Clinton administration. It would have also been made up of several executives from major farming corporations and agribusiness representatives from more than a dozen states. The group had planned to visit small farms and meet with Cuban agricultural officials to discuss ways to improve Cuba's farming operations. Other members of the delegation were planning to distribute medicines to hospitals and clinics across the island. The delegation announced in Washington that they are reapplying to the Treasury Department for licenses to visit Cuba. Under U.S. law, citizens wishing to travel to the island are required to obtain advance permission from their government. *FIRST COMMERCIAL SHIPMENT OF US WHEAT IN 40 YEARS ON ITS WAY TO CUBA Galveston, January 9 (RHC)-- The first commercial shipment of U.S. wheat to Cuba since Washington's blockade was imposed on the island 40 years ago is on its way to Havana. According to reports from Galveston, some 30,000 metric tons of grain left the Texas port on Wednesday. The 600-foot-long Turkish ship, the MVH Ismael Kaptanoglu, is slated to arrive in the Cuban capital on Saturday. In a one time cash-only deal, Cuba purchased food and other products from U.S. companies to replenish its reserves, depleted by Hurricane Michelle in November. The shipment of wheat -- from Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma -- is a venture between Archer Daniels Midland Company, based in Decatur, Illinois and Farmland Industries, based in Kansas City, Missouri. U.S. business companies have openly expressed their hopes that such commercial transactions will lead to others in the future -- opening Cuba as a new market. One business executive from Archer Daniels Midland noted that Cuba represents a market of 700 million dollars for U.S. companies. Officials with Farmland Industries would not disclose the sale price for the wheat, but said it was worth over three million dollars on the open market. *INTERNATIONAL ENCOUNTER OF ECONOMISTS SLATED FOR FEBRUARY IN HAVANA Havana, January 9 (RHC)-- The 4th International Encounter of Economists on Globalization and Development Problems will be held in Havana from February 11th through the 15th. The meeting, which will be attended by more than 600 experts from 30 countries, will be aimed at finding viable economic alternatives as well as developing an action plan that promotes equitable development. Some of the international organizations that will take part in the upcoming event on globalization and development problems include regional bodies such as the Economic Commission for Latin America (CEPAL), the Latin American Industrial Development Association (ALADI), the Latin American Economic System (SELA) and the Andean Community. Also present will be representatives from the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, representatives of renowned universities and, for the first time, representatives of the International Monetary Fund. Among the outstanding personalities that have confirmed their participation are Nobel Prize laureates James J. Heckman and Joseph Stiglitz, and Javed Burki, Vice President of the World Bank. *US: BUSH ADMINISTRATION BEING PULLED INTO THE ENRON SCANDAL Washington, January 9 (RHC) -- A US Congressional inquiry into the dramatic collapse of the Enron energy giant is slowly but surely pulling the George W. Bush administration further into the loop. The House Government Reform Committee affirmed Tuesday that on January 3rd, the White House sent the committee a written memo admitting that Enron representatives met six times with Vice President Richard Cheney or his staff involved in designing energy policy. Ranking committee member, California Democrat, Representative Henry Waxman, said the admittance raises additional questions about the extent to which Enron may have influenced the administration's energy policies or provided information about its own operations. Waxman said the Enron contacts with the White House were extensive, and that the last came in October, just days before the controversial firm's spectacular collapse. The California representative had written the White House last month asking about the nature and extent of contacts Cheney and his energy task force had with Enron in developing an energy plan for more oil and gas drilling and a revived nuclear power program. The White House had previously rebuffed requests for information about the task force meetings. In his reply to the administration, Waxman noted that the day after the meeting between Cheney and top Enron executive Kenneth Lay, the vice president told a reporter he opposed the imposition of price controls on wholesale energy sales in California - something that, Waxman observed, Enron also strongly opposed. The lack of controls allowed Enron to make a killing, while costing the state of California billions of dollars. The largest bankruptcy filing in US history left thousands of Enron employees jobless and cheated out of their retirement savings by the firm's top executives. Waxman also told the White House that the information sent to his committee on January 3rd was not enough. He asked for a full accounting with details such as names of persons attending the meetings and any Enron requests for changes in policies, as well as any telephone, e-mail or other contacts with Enron and White House officials. The White House gave no indication it planned to provide further information. Environmentalists have noted that Bush's energy plan was drafted by a vice president who is himself a former oil man, who previously headed the Halliburton Corporation - the world's number one oilfield services company. The Natural Resources Defense Council filed a lawsuit last month against the Energy Department for not turning over records on who participated in discussion on the White House energy plan. Comptroller General David Walker, head of the General Accounting Office - which oversees government business - is considering a similar lawsuit. Some observers are noting that though it's still not a Watergate, the Enron scandal is suddenly shaping up as big trouble for George Bush, whose family has had close personal and financial ties to the bankrupt giant. *BUSH TAKES TIME OFF FROM WAR TO ASSAULT ENVIRONMENT Washington, January 9 (RHC) -- US President George W. Bush has not allowed the so-called war on terrorism to hinder his assault on the environment, but he's coming up against stiff resistance. Attorneys general from several northeastern states Tuesday told the Bush administration that it can expect a fight in court if it attempts to relax clean-air standards for power plants. The attorneys general are complaining that they've been left out of decision-making on the issue, while energy lobbyists - some with close financial ties to the administration - have been allowed in. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said the Bush administration is telling the northeast to drop dead. The White House has been re-evaluating requirements mandating that when power companies upgrade their existing plants they must put in place more stringent pollution controls. The Energy Department recently released a report arguing that Clean Air Act requirements for carbon dioxide emissions from power plant would cost companies billions of dollars. Northeastern states and environmentalists say pollution from power plants in the Midwest drifts eastward, fouling the air and water and exacerbating health problems like asthma. They are already suing 11 companies and 51 power plants for not complying with Clean Air Act requirements. According to environmentalists, Northeast wilderness areas are declining fast from smog and acid rain damage that any relaxation of the standards would make worse. *JITTERY ARGENTINE GOVERNMENT POSTPONES CURRENCY EXCHANGE OPERATIONS Buenos Aires, January 9 (RHC) -- Argentina's central bank has suspended foreign currency exchange operations that were to begin Wednesday, saying that it needs more time to work out the country's new and complex trading rules. The reopening of foreign exchange markets is expected to put the new currency system to the test. With some retail prices already increasing, many believe that the new currency devaluation and exchange rate will set in place a vicious circle of inflation that will force the currency further and further down. Meanwhile, Argentineans are camping through the night in blocks-long lines outside the Spanish and Italian embassies hoping to get passports to escape feared economic chaos. And the country's Catholic Church has issued a scathing criticism of Argentina's political leaders. The country's Catholic Bishops Tuesday called on Argentina's successive ruling circles to publicly recognize their serious errors and to change their mentality and amend their behavior. The prelates said political leaders not capable of doing this should step aside, affirming that Argentina has been suffering a moral disease spread by corrupt and insensitive leaders. *SPAIN'S POLITICAL OPPOSITION CALLS FOR SOLIDARITY WITH ARGENTINA Madrid, January 9 (RHC) -- The political opposition in Spain has accused the government of hypocrisy and a lack of solidarity in its reaction to the situation in Argentina. The leader of Spain's United Left coalition, Gaspar Llamazares charged that President Jose Maria Aznar's conservative Popular Party is only obsessed with the speculative benefits that it receives from Argentina's privatized firms. Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, secretary general of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, affirmed that the benefits obtained by Spanish investors who bought the privatized Argentinean firms were obtained while taking advantage of the South American nation's crisis and using some of the most corrupt Argentinean leaders. He said Spain should demonstrate more solidarity instead of worrying solely about reducing its financial losses. President Aznar has been calling on Argentina to find a solution to its problems that satisfy both Argentina and its creditors. Madrid has also questioned Argentina's new economic program and currency devaluation, calling it unconvincing. During the 1990s Spanish firms massively invested in Argentina amid the Carlos Menem administration's privatization frenzy. Spanish investment in the South American country is to the tune of approximately 40 billion 500 million dollars. Many Spanish investors obtain half of their profits from that investment. The package of measures announced Monday by Argentine President Eduardo Duhalde sparked panic in Madrid's stock exchange, where large Spanish firms lost 8 billion 500 million dollars Monday alone. *GREENPEACE ACTIVISTS AGREE TO PLEA BARGAN IN STAR WARS PROTEST CASE Los Angeles, January 9 (RHC) -- In a case that raised eyebrows around the world, judicial authorities in the United States decided to offer a plea bargain to 17 Greenpeace activists arrested last summer during an anti-Star Wars protest. The 17 accepted a bargain that will keep them out of jail. They pleaded guilty to a minor trespassing charge after having initially faced serious felony charges with the prospect of several years behind bars. They were arrested last July after penetrating the Vandenberg Air Force base in California, delaying the launch of a test missile to draw attention to their opposition to Star Wars, which Greenpeace says will destabilize the world rather than improve security. The case attracted attention because of the perceived harshness of the defendants' treatment, prompting accusations that the United States was not abiding by its commitment to the right to peaceful dissent. The activists are expected to receive three years' probation but no other sanction. The case, however, has involved Greenpeace in heavy legal costs. The organization's US chapter reportedly signed a separate agreement with authorities to pay 150,000 dollars in investigation costs and fines, not to mention defense fees. And though Greenpeace vowed to continue its anti-Star Wars campaign, it was also forced to agree to an injunction stopping activists from trespassing on military bases either in the United States or on the Marshall Islands in the Pacific. The fine for violating the injunction would be 500,000 thousand dollars. The 17 activists include two journalists from Britain and Spain, while co-defendants were two other Britons, and protesters from Germany, Austria, Sweden, India, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States. *Viewpoint: McCARTHYISM IS ALIVE AND KICKING IN WASHINGTON Under the now familiar banner of the war on terrorism, U.S. President George W. Bush has, as the New Year gets under way, more power than in the wildest dreams of any of his predecessors. And, as always, with such power comes abuse. Donna Huanca's art museum in Houston, which exhibited a painting of Bush, which was deemed as insulting to the president, is a case in point. She received a visit from the FBI. Thousands of others have been arrested for the mildest of suspicions. Most of them are of Middle Eastern or Muslim origin. One man had the misfortune to have applied for his driver's license in the same center 20 minutes before one of the September 11th terrorists did the same. Although he had nothing to do with the attacks, he is Pakistani and is thus a suspect. He has been held for 3 months on the flimsy excuse that his residency is in question. George W Bush has even gone so far as to pass legislation that is anti-Constitutional in his efforts to consolidate his power. On 19th November a law was rushed into being restricting employment at the nation's airports to U.S. citizens only. Thousands of resident foreigners - almost all of them non-Arabs - were affected as most US airport security is in the hands of foreign employees. Yet the September 11th terrorists were nearly exclusively of Arab origin. Where is the logic in forcing workers from their jobs just to satisfy a national desire for revenge? Foreigners can't vote and they're always being blamed for the nation's ills, so they're a safe target when things are looking bad. Next we have military tribunals empowered to lock suspected terrorists up without any concerns about civilian laws of due process and habeas corpus. Suspects can be hauled before one of these secret tribunals, before an unnamed judge on the strength of an anonymous informer and held incommunicado for as long as it sees fit. The Middle Ages "Upon his majesty's pleasure" comes to mind, when the king was able to imprison someone he disliked for as long as felt like doing so. What with paintings now being considered threats to national security, and a man who had criticized Bush in a gym in San Francisco being investigated, First Amendment US scholar David Cole from Georgetown University in Washington says that the government has stepped over the line. Bush has strengthened his father's old agency, the CIA, as well as the FBI. A college student in North Carolina was questioned for almost an hour for having a poster in her room criticizing the president's support for the death penalty. The White House has clearly taken advantage of post September 11th fear and loathing to pass legislation that sets back civil rights by decades. Bush and his Defense Department head, John Ashcroft were quick to put their new found power in action in Afghanistan, installing a puppet government that is likely to prove just as bad as the previous one - if not worse. It should not be forgotten that Washington has a habit of supporting nasty regimes - from Sukarno, to Marcos, Batista, Somoza, Mobutu, Pinochet, Duarte, Stroessner, the Shah, Rios Mott, Papa Doc Duvalier and the Argentine generals. These were just some of the leaders that perpetrated death, torture and disappearances on their peoples - others such as D'Aubuisson, Constantin, Montesinos, Posada Cariles and Bosch were trained by Washington to carry out the most despicable acts in the name of "Democracy" and "Liberty". The same words and reasoning are being used again. Joseph McCarthy appears to have raised his ugly head. Many fear that, indeed, the country is going into another period of red-baiting - meaning, in Bush's words, "if you're not with us, you're against us", and outright repression of those who do speak out. As Mme Roland mounted the steps of the guillotine during the height of the French Revolution she looked at the familiar statue of Liberty placed near the scaffold and cried out, "Oh, Liberty! What crimes are committed in your name!" (c) 2002 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-2313 2002-Jan-10 05:42:51