We must fight, says Fidel Castro to world intellectuals

The leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, reiterated the need to keep fighting and keep the population informed, in a meeting with intellectuals of the Network in Defense of Humanity.

"We must fight" asserted Fidel Castro in a talk of more than nine hours with several personalities from 22 countries invited to the 21st International Book Fair. He commented on world events in the last three days.

For Fidel, "the least we can do is keep the public informed," he said, while confirming by reading the news of the last three days the gravity of the alarming situation for which they were gathered there.

Fidel Castro also proposed to publish a book with all the ideas and proposals raised in this dialogue, which held that "we cannot give in to pessimism. It is our duty."

The newspaper Granma and the digital portal Cubadebate enumerated some of the reflections of the participants in the meeting, such as Zuleica Romay, House of the Americas Award and president of the Cuban Book Institute (ICL).

Romay recalled the warning that the leader of the Cuban Revolution launched 20 years ago at the Earth Summit in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on the risk of extinction that threatens the human species, at present much more severe, he said.

The Spanish writer and journalist, Ignacio Ramonet, denounced the practices of the media system globally, in which information serves as a rarely free commodity and people are sold to advertisers.

Equally, the intellectuals demanded action to avoid a planetary catastrophe and to oppose manipulation or silence.

The Argentine writer and journalist, Stella Calloni, asked to activate the Network in Defense of Humanity, as she lamented the appalling, terrifying silence with which the world is watching successive wars, now with attention turned toward Syria and Iran

The Brazilian intellectual, Frei Betto, asked for an assessment of "our social inclusion" and to generate projects, not only outrage, because this is not enough to solve global injustice, he insisted.

Among the participants were Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Nobel Peace Prize; Sergio Pitol, 2005 Cervantes Prize, in addition to intellectual Frabetti Carlo, Francois Houtart, Atilio Borón, Farruco Sesto and Miguel Bonasso.

Present, also at the meeting with Castro, were Carmen Bohórquez, Peter Phillps, Santiago Alba Mayda Acosta, Norman Girvan, Chiqui Vicioso, Kendel Hippolyte, Alejandro Carpio, Daniel Ferreira, Lenito Robinson, Barbara Chase, Carlos Roberto Gómez and Cynthia Abrahams, Lasana Sekou, Pedro Antonio Valdés, Johan Roozer, Kari Polanyi Levitt, among several National Awards for Literature, History and Social Sciences of Cuba, and scientists from various specialties.

Prensa Latina　

Translated from the Portuguese version by:

Lisa Karpova

Pravda.Ru