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Reply from Granma
Neither ghosts nor apocalypses
Alberto Núñez
Betancourt
ONE
often reads international news agency reports that
do not objectively reflect Cuba’s reality. That is
the case with a recent Reuters dispatch that, in a
prejudiced way and misinterpreting articles
published in the Granma and statements by
government officials, presents as a given — like a
ghost onstage — the return of power outages.
The
reporter has not understood the message. When the
words “power outage” have appeared in the
aforementioned texts, it has been to alert people to
the need to avoid overconsumption, because if not,
there will be power outages.
We
cannot ignore the fact that Cuba is facing a
difficult economic situation caused by the global
crisis of capitalism, which has a logical impact on
our country, and which is aggravated by having had
to confront an economic war (more than a blockade)
for five decades and the loss of $10 billion as a
result of the passing of three hurricanes over our
national territory.
The
colleague from the British agency minimizes the fact
that our society’s greatest treasure is its human
capital. That is why, appealing over and over to the
recourse of participation by all, Cuba emerges
gracefully from complex situations.
Media professionals know, because they live here,
that in Cuba government management and management by
the people go hand-in-hand.
What
is being presented is an apocalyptic view of Cuba
for calling on its people to responsibly assume the
task of confronting the negative effects of an
economic and financial crisis that is crushing the
entire planet.
And
in contrast to many other countries, we are doing so
with the help of the people so as not to lay off
tens of thousands of workers, close schools or
hospitals, or eliminate the principal social
security benefits.
These vital questions will not give them raw
materials for their newswire reports.
The
first results confirmed by our news staff as these
appeals are being published by Granma is the
conscientious response by many administrations and
workers regarding the importance of redoubling
conservation efforts through practical methods for a
more rational use of resources.
After an extraordinary effort by the state in recent
years, Cuba now has sufficient electric power
generating capacity. Irregularities that occur are
principally due to outages caused by necessary work
on the grid with the intention of restoring and
modernizing it.
However, the security of electricity service that we
enjoy in a large percentage (100% is not possible
for reasons of maintenance and imponderable factors
like breakdowns) cannot be translated into
overconsumption and waste. While conservation is
valid and intelligent at any time, it becomes more
than essential during this period of crisis and
unstable, ever-rising prices for hydrocarbons.
Hence the comparison that, in economic terms, not
turning to conservation is the equivalent of death.
But the comment by Francisco Soberón,
minister-president of the Cuban Central Bank, at the
Cuban economists’ congress in November 2005 does not
have a shred of pessimism, because it, like our
political slogan of “Patria o Muerte!” (Homeland or
death!) also will conclude with the indispensable
decision of “Venceremos!” (We shall overcome!)
We
shall overcome because the goal is not to affect the
population’s basic services but to try to find — as
the leader of the Revolution has reiterated so many
times — our closest and surest source of income in
conservation; that is where we have the greatest
potential.
Another recurring theme of foreign news agencies is
that Cuba imports some 92,000 barrels daily of oil
from Venezuela with preferential financing, as if it
were a subsidized operation, without noting that
that amount is part of a duly established agreement
and is absolutely repaid.
The
upcoming implementation of a rigorous plan for daily
monitoring of the consumption of fuel and other
supplies is aimed at propitiating optimal use of all
resources, including human; of holding
administrations responsible for efficiency; of
having them commit to their best work in terms of
accounting, costs and other principal parameters of
the economy, and most importantly, producing without
a spendthrift mentality.
The
intention is not to criticize the work of colleagues
from international agencies, but to suggest to them
the necessary objectivity in news reporting. Ghosts
and apocalypses will vanish in the face of the
optimism of our people, the winner of countless
battles. And in this one, that will be no less true.
Those who think otherwise are in for a
disappointment.
Translated by Granma International
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