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REFLECTIONS BY THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF W AND APEC Important meetings take place at such a frantic pace and Bush flies around and speaks at such speed that it is almost impossible to keep track. En route to Sydney, he stopped over for a few hours in Iraq, no less. I can’t say whether this happened two or three days ago, because when it's Thursday in Sydney and the sun is almost at high noon over the land, it’s still Wednesday in Havana with its fresh night air. The globalized planet Earth changes and transforms our concepts. Only one reality remains unchanged: the Empire’s network of air, sea, land and space military bases, increasingly more powerful and at the same time more vulnerable. We don’t need to go into any special efforts of persuasion. Let us allow the U.S. news agency to speak for itlself. "SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - President Bush urged Pacific Rim nations Wednesday to band together on tackling global warming, saying (China and) all major polluters must be part of any solution… "Bush backed an Australian proposal that Asia-Pacific countries [APEC] endorse a new […] approach to the […] challenge of climate change – one that unlike the current Kyoto Protocol (which both the US and Australia refused to sign) would require firmer action by China and other developing countries." "For there to be an effective climate change policy, China needs to be at the table," Bush said at a news conference with Australian Prime Minister John Howard. Bush and Howard issued a joint statement that supported nuclear energy, new technologies and lots of dialogue to find a way forward on global warming." "About 300 protesters, many of them high school students on a walkout to protest against Bush, the Iraq war and Howard’s support for both, staged a […] demonstration…" "According to reports, the draft of the final declaration to be released by the Summit next weekend makes brief mention of the climate change problem. AP obtained a copy of the draft on Wednesday." The paragraphs in quotation marks have been taken literally from the press dispatch. Other traditional international agencies affirm this in more or less detail. However, this is not the only news coming from the unstoppable deluge of Bush’s words. For example, the DPA Agency informs that Bush sketched out some guidelines in Sydney about what must be done in Myanmar, the former British colony of Burma, having 678,500 square kilometers and a population of 42,909,464. "Sydney, 5 Sept/07 (DPA) – President Bush of the United States today harshly criticized the military junta of Myanmar (former Burma) and called on the leaders participating this weekend at the APEC Summit in the Australian city of Sydney to do the same. "It's inexcusable that we have this kind of tyrannical behavior in Asia. It's inexcusable that people who have marched for freedom are then mistreated by a repressive state," he stated today in his first public declarations following his arrival in Sydney before taking part in the APEC Summit. "The US President was referring to the violent repression of protests which took place in Myanmar at the end of August. ‘And those of us who live in the comfort of a free society need to speak out about these kinds of human rights abuses,' Bush emphasized." It is well-known that in Iraq around a million people have died and two million have been forced to emigrate since the country was invaded by the troops of the United States and its allies, the Australians among them. Neither of these two countries signed the Kyoto Protocol, with the permanent representatives of their governments becoming rarae avis at the United Nations, where the rejection is practically unanimous. Likewise, we know that Blair’s replacement has planned the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq. In those three countries, naturally including the United States and Australia, there is a growing resistance to the Iraq adventure, to which today we can add the Afghanistan adventure. In this country, the fields have been planted with poppies which will enable them to produce ninety percent of all of the world’s opium. In Afghanistan, a country with a tradition of independence and rebellion, such a phenomenon had never occurred. It is coming up now under foreign occupation. Most of its inhabitants, 84 percent, are Sunni Muslim. The soldiers and weapons of the United States and its NATO allies kill women and children there every day. As if that were not enough, Bush has threatened to return Pakistan to the Stone Age. He has labeled the Guardians of the Revolution terrorists; this is a contingent of millions of men closely associated with the Iranian army. At the same time, he is strongly pressuring the Prime Minister of Iraq, who has been kept in power up until the present by the invading forces, using the same excuse of fighting against terrorism. Let us allow everyone to meditate on the atrocious actions of the repressive governments which the United States trained for Latin America during decades in the US academies of torturers, and the role of drugs supported by the markets of the empire’s consumer society. That is the kind of democracy W preaches to APEC. All bearing the US brand name and patent. They would like to punish Myanmar the same way they have been punishing Cuba. Why don’t they create for them an Adjustment Act so that their emigrants who are qualified nurses, doctors, engineers and persons capable of producing capital gains for the multinationals will have the right to reside in the United States? This reflection is getting very long and I have to conclude. Since in our country every institution or important event is celebrating yet another year of life, five, ten and even fifty or more, I take advantage of this opportunity to share the glory of the people of Cienfuegos, who two days ago celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the marines’ revolt at the Cayo Loco Naval District Headquarters, lead by the July 26 Movement, and that of the creation of the Computer Youth Clubs, whose 20th anniversary will be celebrated tomorrow, on Saturday. I send to all my warmest congratulations. Fidel Castro Ruz September 7, 2007 6:14 p.m. |
