Why did Fidel Castro have to leave?

The walk-out of the Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who unexpectedly left (on March 21) the UN international conference for funding the development in Monterrey (Mexico), caused a lot of commotion. The reasons why Castro did so, have not been exposed. The Western media outlets reported that the Cuban leader only said that he could not stay at the conference “due to a special situation,” which had been formed in connection with his presence at the summit.

PRAVDA.Ru has already informed that Castro criticized the rich countries in his speech for their policy towards the developing countries. But his harsh speech could not be the reason for his sudden departure back to Cuba: Castro’s point of view was shared by many of the people present at the discussion (the forum was participated by the delegations from 160 countries).

After Castor left for Cuba, the new leader of the Cuban delegation, the chairman of the national assembly of the people’s power, Ricardo Alarcon told journalists that Castro’s departure was connected with the situation, which was not acceptable for the country.

So what about that situation? Rednews.Ru informed that the Mexican President Vicente Fox thanked the Cuban leader for his participation in the forum, and asked him to leave, because George Bush’s arrival was expected. So, it seems that the organizers were afraid of the consequences and simply decided to separate the leaders of two feuding parties: the major follower of the new world order, and the true follower of the interests of third countries.

Below are some excerpts from Fidel Castro’s speech at the forum, which probably frightened the organizers of the UN International conference in Monterrey.

Fidel Castro:

“The existing world economic order constitutes a system of plundering and exploitation like no other in history. Thus, the peoples believe less and less in statements and promises.”

“ The world economy is today a huge casino. Recent analyses indicate that for every dollar that goes into trade, over one hundred end up in speculative operations completely disconnected from the real economy.

As a result of this economic order, over 75 percent of the world population lives in underdevelopment, and extreme poverty has already reached 1.2 billion people in the Third World. So, far from narrowing the gap is widening.

The revenue of the richest nations that in 1960 was 37 times larger than that of the poorest is now 74 times larger. The situation has reached such extremes that the assets of the three wealthiest persons in the world amount to the GDP of the 48 poorest countries combined.

The number of people actually starving was 826 million in the year 2001. There are at the moment 854 million illiterate adults while 325 million children do not attend school. There are 2 billion people who have no access to low cost medications and 2.4 billion lack the basic sanitation conditions. No less than 1 1 million children under the age of 5 perish every year from preventable causes while half a million go blind for lack of vitamin A.

The life span of the population in the developed world is 30 years higher than that of people living in Sub-Saharan Africa. A true genocide!

The poor countries should not be blamed for this tragedy. They neither conquered nor plundered entire continents for centuries; they did not establish colonialism, or re-established slavery, and, modern imperialism is not of their making. Actually, they have been its victims. Therefore, the main responsibility for financing their development lies with those states that, for obvious historical reasons, enjoy today the benefits of those atrocities.

The rich world should condone their foreign debt and grant them fresh soft credits to finance their development. The traditional offers of assistance, always scant and often ridiculous, are either inadequate or unfulfilled.

For a true and sustainable economic and social development to take place much more is required than is usually admitted. Measures as those suggested by the late James Tobin to curtail the irrepressible flow of currency speculation --albeit it was not his idea to foster development-- would perhaps be the only ones capable of generating enough funds, which in the hands of the UN agencies and not of awful institutions like the IMF, could supply direct development assistance with a democratic participation of all countries and without the need to sacrifice the independence and sovereignty of the peoples.

It is high time for statesmen and politicians to calmly reflect on this. The belief that a social and economic order that has proven to be unsustainable can be forcibly imposed is really senseless. As I have said before, the ever more sophisticated weapons piling up in the arsenals of the wealthiest and the mightiest can kill the illiterate, the ill, the poor and the hungry but they cannot kill ignorance, illnesses, poverty or hunger.

It should definitely be said: "Farewell to arms." Something must be done to save Humanity! A better world is possible!”

Sergey Yugov PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov