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Reflections of Fidel
One has to give everything
(Taken from CubaDebate)
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YESTERDAY I had a lengthy conversation with Miguel
d’Escoto, current president of the United Nations
General Assembly. Prior to that, I heard him
speaking in the ALBA Summit in Cumaná, on April 17.
I admired his significant speech. I have known him
since the triumph of the Revolution in Nicaragua,
when Daniel Ortega appointed him foreign minister, a
post that he held up until Reagan’s dirty war, the
thousands of young Sandinistas who died in it and
the economic damage occasioned resulted in the
victory of the counterrevolution in Nicaragua.
The reverse that this occasioned throughout 17 years
and the economic and social disaster that the
“democracy” of the United States imposed on the
noble Nicaraguan people brought the Sandinistas back
to the government of the country; this time with
constitutional limitations and heavy dependency on
the United States. Daniel attacked that on April
17th at the Summit of the Americas in Port of Spain,
where he condemned the blockade of Cuba with so much
dignity. For his part, Miguel d’Escoto, given the
prestige that he attained as Nicaraguan minister of
foreign affairs, his talent and his ideas, was
elected president of the UN General Assembly for a
two-year term in 2007.
In that capacity, he participated in the Non-Aligned
Movement Meeting of Foreign Ministers that took
place in Havana from April 28-30, the month that has
just ended. Today he was on the Plaza de la
Revolución platform with Raúl, watching the
impressive parade for International Workers day,
transmitted by our television while other
enthusiastic ones took place in Santiago de Cuba,
the cradle of the Revolution, and in the other
provinces of the country, the irrefutable
expressions of the strength of our Revolution.
The words of the commentators vibrated from the
platform set up for D’Escoto, many foreign ministers
and representatives of the Non-Aligned Movement, and
some 2,000 visitors from countries on every
continent, who shared the joy of that fiesta of the
workers.
The poem of Fayad Jamís, dedicated to Manuel Navarro
Luna, a revolutionary poet and communist who, from
the age of six months, lived in Granma province,
where our last liberation war began, were heard more
than once.
Manuel had to leave school in the city of Manzanillo
at a very young age and take a number of jobs. He
was a dish-washer, shoe-shine boy, a diver, a night
watchman and a public prosecutor. He studied on his
own account to educate himself.
His first poems were published in 1915. His first
book, in 1919. In 1930 he joined the Communist
Party.
He worked in the first communist mayoralty of Cuba
after the downfall of the Machado dictatorship in
1933. After the revolutionary triumph of 1959, he
joined the National Militia and took part in the
cleansing of the Escambray and, defying time, in the
Bay of Pigs victory.
…For
this freedom of songs beneath the rain
One will have to give everything.
For this freedom of being closely bound
To the firm and sweet heart of the people
One will have to give everything.
For this freedom of the opened sunflower in the dawn
Of lit factories and illuminated schools
And of the soil that creaks and the child who
awakens
One will have to give everything
…For
this freedom that is the terror
Of those who always violated it
In the name of lavish miseries.
Because this freedom is the night of the oppressors
And the definitive dawn of all the invincible
people.
For this freedom that lights up the sunken pupils
The bare feet
The roofs riddled with holes
And the eyes of the children wandering
In the dust.
For this freedom that is the right of youth
For this freedom
As beautiful as life
One will have to give everything…
The red, blue and white of our
flag, waved by the hardworking hands of thousands of
young students at the University of Computer
Science, who closed the parade; of the Art
Instructors Schools, the Ballet School, students’
federations in the capital, the disciplined and
active young students training as social workers,
the children of La Colmenita, and other expressions
of the work of our Revolution, all know that they
are the bearers of a flame that can never be
extinguished.
It was of great satisfaction to me to know that that
there, witnessing it all, was Miguel d’Escoto. Three
days previously, in his speech to the foreign
ministers and representatives of the Non-Aligned
Movement, he stated:
“…The world order exists on the basis of a
capitalist culture that puts being more on a level
with having more, that promotes egotism, envy,
usury, and social irresponsibility. These
anti-values of the capitalist culture have immersed
the world in a swarm of converging crises which, if
they are not attended to immediately, will endanger
the continuation of the human species itself and the
capacity to sustain life on Earth.
“At the bottom of all the distinct crises that we
are confronting lies an immense moral crisis, a
great crisis of values and ethical principles. We
have all betrayed the values emanating from our
respective religious traditions or philosophical
ethics. We have betrayed ourselves by falling into
the capitalist temptation, and by assuming its
anti-life values of hatred and egotism, we have
turned into the worst predators, enemies of our
Mother Earth, we have become dehumanized…
“…Cuba has always been a place of spiritual
refreshment. Here, we can all confirm that love is
stronger than and can do more than egotism. Here,
more than anywhere else, we can learn what is
solidarity, the most important antidote for humanity
to survive the demented egotism into which it would
seem destined to disappear.
“…In this 21st century, the century of
reconciliation and peace through the rule of law,
social justice and democratic inclusion, we respect
all minorities and wish to listen to all of them. It
is in the G-12, the General Assembly, where the
direction that we shall have to take to escape from
the trap of demented and suicidal egotism to which
capitalism has taken the world, will have to be
decided. Not with revanchism of any kind whatsoever,
but in the spirit of building a better world for all
men and women without exceptions or exclusions…”
He did not aspire to the post of president of the
General Assembly that he holds. He knew of his
nomination via the Nicaraguan ambassador to the
United Nations. It belonged to the Americas region
and Daniel Ortega, aware of his qualities, had
unhesitatingly proposed him. He did not even have
time to explain his health problems in relation to
assuming such a committing responsibility. The
countries of Latin America, Africa and other Third
World nations immediately supported his nomination.
Miguel did not balk at the difficulties and assumed
his office.
He gave me a document that he had signed as
president of the United Nations General Assembly
designating Cuba as a paradigm of international
solidarity, and showed me the gold medal that he had
designed and which accompanied his decree.
He affirmed other things of great interest in his
speech, which I will not list in order to avoid
over-extending myself.
What he did and said concerning our Revolution was a
very high honor.
The poet Fayad Jamís finally affirmed.
…One
will have to give everything
If it is necessary
Even one’s shadow
And it will never be enough.
Fidel Castro Ruz
May 1, 2009
7:23 p.m.
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Reflections
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Fidel
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