Radio Havana Cuba-30 May 2002 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 30 May 2002 . *CUBA CONTRADICTS CLAIMS THAT VENEZUELA HAS CANCELLED OIL AGREEMENT *ANTI-MEASLES VACCINATION CAMPAIGN SUSPENDED IN CUBA *LATIN AMERICAN, CARIBBEAN POLITICAL PARTIES DEMAND US END CUBA BLOCKADE *CUBAN WRITERS AND ARTISTS REVIEW CULTURAL PROJECTS *PAKISTAN REFUSES TO RULE OUT USE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS AGAINST INDIA *ZAMBIA DECLARES NATIONAL DISASTER AS FOUR MILLION FACE STARVATION *ENVIRONMENTALISTS ACCUSE US, CANADA, AUSTRALIA OF SABOTAGING WORLD SUMMIT ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT *CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER DISMISSES CALLS FOR HIS RESIGNATION *IMPOVERISHED NATIVE AMERICAN NATION ANGERS UTAH WITH RADIOACTIVE WASTE DEAL *AFRICAN NGOs SLAM WEST'S EFFORTS TO CONTROL CONTINENT'S RESOURCES *Viewpoint: CARICOM'S CRUCIAL CHALLENGE . *CUBA CONTRADICTS CLAIMS THAT VENEZUELA HAS CANCELLED OIL AGREEMENT Havana, May 30 (RHC)-- Cuba has rejected allegations that an oil contract with Venezuela has been cancelled for lack of payment. In an official statement issued by the Cuban Government Thursday morning, Havana notes that there has been speculation by foreign media sources that the agreement signed two years ago between Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) and la Unión Cuba-Petróleo (CUPET) has been terminated. The government statement, published on the front page of this morning's edition of Granma, points out that Havana is up-to-date in its payments for Venezuelan crude oil, despite recent difficulties that have affected the island's tourism and other financial sources. According to the official note, the agreement between Havana and Caracas establishes the daily delivery of 53,000 barrels of oil over a five-year period -- equivalent to 33 percent of the island's consumption. Since December 2000 and until April of this year, Cuba has received 25 million 589,000 barrels, valued at 675 million dollars. Havana has paid, on time and in agreement with the contract, nearly 440 million dollars in cash to Caracas. The Cuban government note explains that given complications related to the unsuccessful right wing coup against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, debt re-negotiations have been stalled since April 11th. As a result, only one of four scheduled shipments has left Caracas for Havana; the other three were sold to third countries by the Venezuelan petroleum company. Facing this situation, Cuba was forced to immediately acquire oil on the international market and at much higher prices -- therefore spending tens of millions of dollars more than was budgeted. The official government statement concludes on a positive note -- pointing out that contacts between the Venezuelan and Cuban oil companies have improved over the past several weeks and an agreement on renewing shipments to Cuba appears to be near. *ANTI-MEASLES VACCINATION CAMPAIGN SUSPENDED IN CUBA Havana, May 30 (RHC)-- Cuba has suspended its anti-measles vaccination campaign, while investigating the deaths of three children and another 42 who became sick after being vaccinated. According to an official note published in this morning's edition of Granma, on May 22nd, the surveillance systems of the Cuban Health Ministry detected a very rare incident involving children who had apparently been given contaminated dozes of a measles vaccine produced in India. The vaccine had the approval of the World Health Organization and was obtained by Cuba through the Pan-American Health Organization. According to the Granma note, Cuban health authorities adopted immediate measures to treat those children who had been affected, as well as to detect any new cases. The official note recalls that before 1959, Cuba reported tens of thousands of children infected with the measles virus, with a death toll of approximately 200 children every year. As a result of the health care policy of the Revolution, including the national vaccination campaign implemented since 1971, more than four million Cuban children are protected against this and other dangerous diseases. The Granma note explains that upon reaching their first year of age, every Cuban child is given a compound vaccine against measles, mumps and German measles. Cuba's vaccination campaign, says Granma, eradicated measles on the island in 1993. Following recommendations from prestigious international health organizations, Cuba carries out vaccination campaigns against measles every eight or nine years to prevent any additional outbreak of the disease. During this year's campaign, more than 750,000 children between four and nine years-of-age were given the vaccine and not a single case of adverse reaction -- other than those previously mentioned -- was reported. *LATIN AMERICAN, CARIBBEAN POLITICAL PARTIES DEMAND US END CUBA BLOCKADE Mexico City, May 30 (RHC)-- The Executive Secretariat of the Permanent Conference of Latin American and Caribbean Political Parties (COPPAL) has issued a statement demanding an end to Washington's blockade against Cuba. The statement, released at the closing of a recent COPPAL meeting in Mexico City, was signed by 23 political leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean. The document also expresses solidarity with the Cuban government and people -- rejecting "actions that isolate that sister nation." *CUBAN WRITERS AND ARTISTS REVIEW CULTURAL PROJECTS Havana, May 30 (RHC)-- Cuban writers and artists are meeting in Havana to evaluate their work and debate issues such as the impact of globalization on the island's cultural heritage and the rejection of mass pseudo-culture. Members of the National Council of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC) are planning for the organization's 7th Congress, scheduled for next year. Over 300 delegates from around the country are attending the two-day meeting at Havana's International Convention Center. UNEAC President Carlos Marti told reporters that on Wednesday, five commissions began debates: culture and tourism, art instruction, community work, cultural economy and the mass media. He said the forum will also review the strategy established at the 6th UNEAC Congress, which resulted in 37 projects aimed at reaffirming the island's cultural identity. Cuban artists and writers are also discussing ways to get rid of cultural stereotypes and, at the same time, encouraging new talent to join the organization. *PAKISTAN REFUSES TO RULE OUT USE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS AGAINST INDIA New York, May 30 (RHC) -- Pakistan has refused to rule out the use of nuclear weapons against a conventional attack by India. Pakistan's new United Nations ambassador, Munir Akram, stated Wednesday that his country has never subscribed to a doctrine of "no first use" of nuclear arms against its South Asian neighbor. The statements came as the international community, particularly the United States, is expressing growing alarm over the real possibility of a nuclear war between India and Pakistan that would immediately claim millions of lives and leave millions more exposed to fall-out and unimaginable destruction. As Pakistan announced the transfer of troops from its border with Afghanistan - placing in danger Washington's so-called war on terrorism - the US government announced that it was dispatching to the region Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The troops that Pakistani military leader Pervez Musharraf removed from his western border with Afghanistan were ostensibly helping the US-led coalition in hunting down Al Qaida and Taliban fighters. *ZAMBIA DECLARES NATIONAL DISASTER AS FOUR MILLION FACE STARVATION Lusaka, May 30 (RHC) -- Zambia has declared the country's food shortage a national disaster, saying four million people face starvation in southern Africa's worst-ever food crisis. Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa made a passionate appeal to the international community to assist his country in this time of need, stressing that Zambia would run out of food by July or August. The appeal comes a day after the United Nations warned not only that at least 10 million people face starvation in four southern African countries, but also that the number of hungry people in developing nations is rising. Noting that many are asserting that the international community is falling short of targets to reduce hunger and chronic malnutrition, food experts have affirmed that the situation is far worse. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the number of undernourished people worldwide is falling at an average six million per year. But though the six million figure is far below the annual rate of 22 million needed to reach the target set by the international community in 1996, it is also deceptive, according to Per Pinstrup-Anderson, director-general of the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute. According to this expert, 66 percent of the total reduction has taken place in China, noting that "if you look at all developing countries and take China out, there has in fact been an increase of 40 million food insecure or chronically malnourished people during the 1990s." In Africa, he added, most of the countries are worse today than they were ten years ago. Pinstrup-Andersen, FAO director-general Jacques Diouf and other food experts said the international community simply hasn't mobilized the necessary resources to fight hunger. *ENVIRONMENTALISTS ACCUSE US, CANADA, AUSTRALIA OF SABOTAGING WORLD SUMMIT ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Bali, Indonesia, May 30 (RHC) -- The United States, Canada and Australia have been accused of blocking progress on a global plan of action to protect the environment that is being prepared for the upcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development. As the fourth and final preparatory meeting on the Summit completed its third day on Indonesia's resort island of Bali, environmentalists were pessimistic that the gathering would lead to concrete action if the three nations have their way and continue focusing on voluntary measures as opposed to mandatory action by corporations. The three countries have also been accused of consistently blocking proposals for specific timelines, targets and goals. In 1999, the United Nations General Assembly gave the Summit the responsibility to take decisions that would lead to specific action on a broad range of development and environmental issues, but according to Kim Carstensen, of the World Wide Fund for Nature in Denmark, the texts produced for the Summit so far utterly fail to fulfill that responsibility. The Summit, to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, August 26 to September 4, comes a decade after the landmark Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, where nations agreed to balance the world's economic and social needs with environmental protection. But UN officials and environmentalists agree that most of the objectives adopted at the Rio gathering have not been met, and have expressed hope that the Johannesburg Summit will reinvigorate the process. Ricardo Navarro, chair of Friends of the Earth International, accused the US and Australia of deleting key paragraphs on corporate accountability which had been negotiated during a two-day dialogue between environmental organizations, farmers' groups, indigenous people, business and local authorities. Activists are warning that the Johannesburg Summit probably will not produce measures to halt environmental degradation. According to Greenpeace International activist Remi Parmentier, this is the last chance to prove that governments "are prepared to take a lead and not simply hand over control of the planet's populations and resources to corporations." *CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER DISMISSES CALLS FOR HIS RESIGNATION Ottawa, May 30 (RHC) -- Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien has dismissed calls for his resignation amid an ethics scandal that has already tarnished two of his cabinet ministers. But according to Canada's largest trade union, it's not just on Parliament Hill that Canadians should be concerned about the cost of corporate influence peddling and backroom deals. Coinciding with Chretien's demand for the resignation of Defense Minister Art Eggleton, following charges that Eggleton awarded a government contract to a former girlfriend, and removal of Public Works Minister Don Boudria amid charges that he stayed at a luxury hotel that was owned by the president of a public relations firm that received millions of dollars of contracts for federal advertising campaigns, the Canadian Union of Public Employees has exposed increasing corporate control of vital community services that suffer when profits are introduced. The CUPE's Annual Report on Privatization has found that in corporate hands, public services costs rise, some services are cut, and quality and access suffer. The report affirms that across Canada cash-starved municipalities are being heavily lobbied to privatize services by corporate hucksters and conflict-ridden consultants even though costs will rise and local control is lost. Entitled "Cross-Country Sell-Off", the report documents the efforts of multinational corporations and their allies making behind-closed-doors deals avoiding public scrutiny to take control of water, hospitals, schools and other public services vital to health and the quality of life. *IMPOVERISHED NATIVE AMERICAN NATION ANGERS UTAH WITH RADIOACTIVE WASTE DEAL Salt Lake City, May 30 (RHC) -- A forgotten American Indian tribe in Utah forced to live on a barren reservation since the 19th century has angered local authorities by accepting a nuclear waste dump on their land. While the plight of the Goshute tribe and its struggle for survival have been met with indifference over the years, their acceptance of the dump site in exchange for 48 million dollars placed them in the news. Tribal chairman Leon Bear stated that the Indians were given land where nothing grows, in Utah's Death Valley, but that now they've found a use for that land. He said the tribe needed money for health care, housing and other social programs. The tribal chairman also pointed out that Utah isn't exactly an ecological paradise. Near the reservation, the US army has a base for training soldiers how to survive attacks with anthrax, sarin and other chemical and biological agents, while the military also uses land near the reservation for incinerating chemical weapon stockpiles and as a bombing range. He said a private company, with a well-paid OK from Utah authorities, is burying low-intensity radioactive waste in the state. Tribal chairman Leon Bear stated that up until now everyone else has gotten away with Utah's devastation. *AFRICAN NGOs SLAM WEST'S EFFORTS TO CONTROL CONTINENT'S RESOURCES Washington, May 30 (RHC) -- African development activists have accused Western powers of intentionally blocking home-grown development plans and attempting to control the continent's resources. Speaking Wednesday during a US congressional briefing that attracted only a handful of legislators, several leaders of African nongovernmental organizations reportedly poured out their frustration at a global economic system that puts Africa at the receiving end of plans and initiatives cooked up in rich countries. A member of the Ghana-based Pan African Organization for Sustainable Development complained that Africans can't control their resources because the World Bank and International Monetary Fund are sitting in their finance ministries. The briefing was part of an effort by African NGOs to foster awareness of the continent's problems leading up to the next G8 summit of industrialized nations, which has placed Africa top on its agenda in the so-called New Partnership for African Development, NEPAD. NEPAD is a Pan-African program created by the presidents of South Africa, Algeria, Nigeria, Senegal and Egypt based on the notion that the West will reward good governance in Africa with aid, accessible trade and possibly more debt relief. But the African NGO activists disowned the initiative as just another proposal in a long chain of familiar "undemocratic" Western ideas, noting that African political leaders remain vulnerable in the face of the political, diplomatic and financial might of rich countries and international finance institutions. The activists said they wanted to stop the top-down approach, involve people in the decisions that affect their future and give them an opportunity to make an imprint on domestic policies. They also pointed to the decades of failure of Western proposals to improve the continent's economies and alleviate poverty. *Viewpoint: CARICOM'S CRUCIAL CHALLENGE In the market jungle, there is no justice -- just the survival of the fittest. Solidarity and respect for the weakest in society does not exist. Victims of a brutally unequal exchange, the small nations are condemned to underdevelopment and marginality, the two recipes offered by world globalization controlled by the big transnationals, the true owners of the economy and those who make political decisions. Faced with the dangers engendered by neoliberal globalization and the formation of powerful regional blocks, the most vulnerable economies must strive for integration for a chance a security. For Caribbean nations, mostly islands, that unity is today imperative for survival. Acutely aware of that fact, Economy and Trade Ministers of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) this Monday and Tuesday in Georgetown, Guyana, called for quicker movement on forming a unified economic and commercial block set to begin functioning in 2005. In the opinion of Jamaican Foreign Trade Minister Kenneth Knight, the step will strengthen the negotiating capacity of the 15 CARICOM members, which encompass less than 15 million total inhabitants, in dealing with the European Union and the World Trade Organization. And above all, it will allow those nations to deal as one common voice, with negotiations to enter the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), designed by the United States, under which the small Caribbean economies would be sardines fit to be fed to the great Shark. Association of Caribbean States Secretary, Norman Girvan, recalled that 21 countries of the Caribbean are 50 times smaller and have 50 times fewer resources than the United States. The Georgetown meeting also analyzed the negative impact that a new US law is sure to have on the Caribbean. The US Congress recently adopted legislation on agricultural subsidies providing the payment of 173 billion 500 million dollars to producers of grains, milk products and cotton in order to improve the quality of those crops for the 2002 to 2007 period. According to experts, that financial influx will allow U.S. farmers to drop prices of those products and increase sales to the detriment of Caribbean exporters. So, now more than ever, it is clear that the future of the small Caribbean nations is in unity and not isolation. (c) 2002 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. 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