Reflections on Lula de SilvaLink to Part 03
"I explained to him that Cuba had friendly relations with all Latin American and Caribbean countries, whether right-wing or left-wing. We have been following that policy for long and we will never change it; we are ready to support any action in favor of promoting peace among peoples. This is a thorny and difficult issue, but we will continue to persevere in it."
_________________________________
by Fidel Castro
(February 09, Havana, Sri Lanka Guardian) When I talked to him about Venezuela, he told me: We intend to cooperate with President Chávez. We both have an agreement. Every year I will travel twice to Caracas and he will travel twice to Brazil so that no differences could set in between us; and in case there happens to be any, we could settle it right away. Venezuela doesn't need any money, he said, because it has many resources, but it needs time and infrastructure".
I told him I was very happy to know what his stand was regarding that country, because we were very thankful to that sister nation for the agreements signed that ensured to us a steady supply of fuel.
I cannot forget that, after the coup on April 2002, the slogan upheld by those who ousted the government was: "not a single drop of oil to Cuba any more". We became an additional reason for the imperialism to try to blow up the Venezuelan economy, although that was what they really intended to do since Chávez was sworn in as President over the moribund Constitution of the Fourth Republic, which he legally and democratically transformed into the Fifth Republic later on.
When the price of oil abruptly increased and it became real difficult to buy it, Chávez maintained and even increased our oil supplies. After the signing of the ALBA agreements in Havana on December 14, 2004, these agreements still provide honorable and beneficial conditions for both countries. Almost 40,000 selfless Cuban specialists, most of them doctors, are working in Venezuela. Their knowledge, and particularly their internationalist example, is contributing to training the Venezuelans who will replace them.
I explained to him that Cuba had friendly relations with all Latin American and Caribbean countries, whether right-wing or left-wing. We have been following that policy for long and we will never change it; we are ready to support any action in favor of promoting peace among peoples. This is a thorny and difficult issue, but we will continue to persevere in it.
Lula expressed again his respect and deep love for Cuba and its leaders. He immediately added that he felt proud for what was going on in Latin America and once again reaffirmed that it was here in Havana that we decided to create the Sao Paulo Forum and unite all the Latin American left-wing, which is taking power in almost every country.
This time I reminded him of what Martí taught us about all glories in this world, when he said that all of them fit into a kernel of corn. Lula added: "I tell everybody that in the conversations I had with you, you never gave any advice that would go against what was legal. You always advised me not to make too many enemies at the same time. And that is what's making things move forward."
Almost immediately he added that Brazil, a big country with resources, had to help Ecuador, Bolivia, Uruguay, and Paraguay.
"I have just visited Central America. Never had a Brazilian President been to a country from that region to discuss cooperation projects."
Then I asked him: "Do you remember, Lula, what I told you at that informal and familiar dinner you offered to our delegation the day after your inauguration, on January 2003? None of the children of the poor people who voted for you will ever be an executive of the big state enterprises of Brazil; university studies are here very expensive!"
In this regard, Lula explains the following: "We are building 214 technical and professional schools; we are also building 13 new federal universities and 48 campuses."
I then asked him: "Those will be free of charge, won't they?"
He was quick to respond: "We have created a program and we have already included 460,000 youths from the periphery, poor people who used to attend public schools, so that they could study at the university. The right-wing accused me of trying to lower the level of education; two years after, 14 courses went under scrutiny: the best students were those from the periphery. We are creating another program that includes 18 students as an average, with which the number of university students will be increased to 250,000."
He said to me that Brazil's commercial relations with Latin America were bigger compared to those it had with the United States. I continued to explain to him that we will certainly establish close relations between our two countries, not only as friends, but also as partners in important areas, that I needed to know the thinking of the Brazilian leaders, since we were going to be partners in strategic areas, and as a rule we always lived up to our economic commitments.
We talked about other important issues, the issues on which we agreed and those on which we don't, as tactfully as possible.
I talked to him about several other regions, the Caribbean among them and about the forms of cooperation that we had developed with them.
Lula told me that Brazil should be more proactive towards cooperating with the poorest peoples. He has acquired new responsibilities; Brazil is the richest country in the whole region.
I talked to him, of course, about the climate change, and the little attention paid by a great number of leaders of the industrialized world to this issue.
When I spoke with him on January 15 in the afternoon, I could not make reference to the article that would be published only three days later, written by Stephen Leahy from Toronto. This article announces a new book by Lester Brown called Mobilizing to Save Civilization.
"The crisis is extremely serious and urgent and requires from all nations an effort to mobilize just as was done during World War II (1939-1945)" wrote Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, a Washington D.C. based research organization.
"Climate change is happening much faster than scientists expected, and the planet will inevitably suffer a temperature increase of at least two degrees", Brown said to IPS, "which would definitely place us in the danger zone."
"None of the presidential candidates in the US elections" to be held on the first Tuesday of November-- "has referred to the urgent problem of climate change.
"The greenhouse gas emissions, which are in part responsible for global warming, should be reduced by 80 per cent by the year 2020."
This is a far more ambitious goal as the one suggested by the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which in 2007 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize together with former U.S. vice-president Al Gore, who recommended a 25 to 40 per cent reduction of the emission levels of 1990, according to the cable news.
Brown considers that the data used by the IPCC are outdated, since they were published two years ago. More recent studies indicate that climate change is speeding up, he said.
While he is confident that the IPCC will modify that recommendation in its next report, he pointed out that it would not be released before five or six years. "Too late, we have to act now", Brown reaffirmed.
Brown' Plan B 3.0 recommends some measures to reach an 80 per cent reduction in the emissions, which are strongly based on the efficient use of energy, the use of renewable sources of energy, and the expansion of the planet trees "shield".
"Eolic energy can cover 40 per cent of the world's demand with the installation of 1.5 million new 2 megawatt wind turbines. Although the figure may seem too high, the world manufactures 65 million motorcars every year.
A more efficient lighting system could reduce the world's electricity consumption by 12 per cent.
"In the United States, business and residential buildings account for 40 per cent of carbon emissions. The next step should be to resort to non-polluting electricity generation for heating, cooling, and lighting private homes.
The use of bio-fuels from grains such as corn and soy, are pushing for an increase in the prices of these foodstuffs that may lead to a food scarcity that could be disastrous for the poor peoples of the world.
"The annual addition of 70 million persons to the world's population is concentrated in countries whose water reserves are depleting, wells are going dry, forest areas are reducing, soils are degrading, and grazing lands are turning into deserts.
"Year after year, the number of 'failing states' increases, which constitutes an 'early warning of the fall of a civilization', Brown stated.
"The increase in the price of oil should add to the list of problems. Rich countries will have all they need, while poor countries should reduce consumption.
"Population growth and poverty demand special attention from the developed world.
"Time is our most scarce resource", the famous scientist concluded.
There can be no clearer way to describe the danger that ligers upon humankind.
But that was not the only news published after my meeting with Lula. Hardly two days ago, an editorial published by The New York Times, anathematizing and pulling to pieces the speech delivered by Bush before Congress, expressed this idea on a single line: "Horrifying dangers awaits the civilized world".
To Be Continued….
by Fidel Castro
(February 09, Havana, Sri Lanka Guardian) When I talked to him about Venezuela, he told me: We intend to cooperate with President Chávez. We both have an agreement. Every year I will travel twice to Caracas and he will travel twice to Brazil so that no differences could set in between us; and in case there happens to be any, we could settle it right away. Venezuela doesn't need any money, he said, because it has many resources, but it needs time and infrastructure".
I told him I was very happy to know what his stand was regarding that country, because we were very thankful to that sister nation for the agreements signed that ensured to us a steady supply of fuel.
I cannot forget that, after the coup on April 2002, the slogan upheld by those who ousted the government was: "not a single drop of oil to Cuba any more". We became an additional reason for the imperialism to try to blow up the Venezuelan economy, although that was what they really intended to do since Chávez was sworn in as President over the moribund Constitution of the Fourth Republic, which he legally and democratically transformed into the Fifth Republic later on.
When the price of oil abruptly increased and it became real difficult to buy it, Chávez maintained and even increased our oil supplies. After the signing of the ALBA agreements in Havana on December 14, 2004, these agreements still provide honorable and beneficial conditions for both countries. Almost 40,000 selfless Cuban specialists, most of them doctors, are working in Venezuela. Their knowledge, and particularly their internationalist example, is contributing to training the Venezuelans who will replace them.
I explained to him that Cuba had friendly relations with all Latin American and Caribbean countries, whether right-wing or left-wing. We have been following that policy for long and we will never change it; we are ready to support any action in favor of promoting peace among peoples. This is a thorny and difficult issue, but we will continue to persevere in it.
Lula expressed again his respect and deep love for Cuba and its leaders. He immediately added that he felt proud for what was going on in Latin America and once again reaffirmed that it was here in Havana that we decided to create the Sao Paulo Forum and unite all the Latin American left-wing, which is taking power in almost every country.
This time I reminded him of what Martí taught us about all glories in this world, when he said that all of them fit into a kernel of corn. Lula added: "I tell everybody that in the conversations I had with you, you never gave any advice that would go against what was legal. You always advised me not to make too many enemies at the same time. And that is what's making things move forward."
Almost immediately he added that Brazil, a big country with resources, had to help Ecuador, Bolivia, Uruguay, and Paraguay.
"I have just visited Central America. Never had a Brazilian President been to a country from that region to discuss cooperation projects."
Then I asked him: "Do you remember, Lula, what I told you at that informal and familiar dinner you offered to our delegation the day after your inauguration, on January 2003? None of the children of the poor people who voted for you will ever be an executive of the big state enterprises of Brazil; university studies are here very expensive!"
In this regard, Lula explains the following: "We are building 214 technical and professional schools; we are also building 13 new federal universities and 48 campuses."
I then asked him: "Those will be free of charge, won't they?"
He was quick to respond: "We have created a program and we have already included 460,000 youths from the periphery, poor people who used to attend public schools, so that they could study at the university. The right-wing accused me of trying to lower the level of education; two years after, 14 courses went under scrutiny: the best students were those from the periphery. We are creating another program that includes 18 students as an average, with which the number of university students will be increased to 250,000."
He said to me that Brazil's commercial relations with Latin America were bigger compared to those it had with the United States. I continued to explain to him that we will certainly establish close relations between our two countries, not only as friends, but also as partners in important areas, that I needed to know the thinking of the Brazilian leaders, since we were going to be partners in strategic areas, and as a rule we always lived up to our economic commitments.
We talked about other important issues, the issues on which we agreed and those on which we don't, as tactfully as possible.
I talked to him about several other regions, the Caribbean among them and about the forms of cooperation that we had developed with them.
Lula told me that Brazil should be more proactive towards cooperating with the poorest peoples. He has acquired new responsibilities; Brazil is the richest country in the whole region.
I talked to him, of course, about the climate change, and the little attention paid by a great number of leaders of the industrialized world to this issue.
When I spoke with him on January 15 in the afternoon, I could not make reference to the article that would be published only three days later, written by Stephen Leahy from Toronto. This article announces a new book by Lester Brown called Mobilizing to Save Civilization.
"The crisis is extremely serious and urgent and requires from all nations an effort to mobilize just as was done during World War II (1939-1945)" wrote Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, a Washington D.C. based research organization.
"Climate change is happening much faster than scientists expected, and the planet will inevitably suffer a temperature increase of at least two degrees", Brown said to IPS, "which would definitely place us in the danger zone."
"None of the presidential candidates in the US elections" to be held on the first Tuesday of November-- "has referred to the urgent problem of climate change.
"The greenhouse gas emissions, which are in part responsible for global warming, should be reduced by 80 per cent by the year 2020."
This is a far more ambitious goal as the one suggested by the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which in 2007 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize together with former U.S. vice-president Al Gore, who recommended a 25 to 40 per cent reduction of the emission levels of 1990, according to the cable news.
Brown considers that the data used by the IPCC are outdated, since they were published two years ago. More recent studies indicate that climate change is speeding up, he said.
While he is confident that the IPCC will modify that recommendation in its next report, he pointed out that it would not be released before five or six years. "Too late, we have to act now", Brown reaffirmed.
Brown' Plan B 3.0 recommends some measures to reach an 80 per cent reduction in the emissions, which are strongly based on the efficient use of energy, the use of renewable sources of energy, and the expansion of the planet trees "shield".
"Eolic energy can cover 40 per cent of the world's demand with the installation of 1.5 million new 2 megawatt wind turbines. Although the figure may seem too high, the world manufactures 65 million motorcars every year.
A more efficient lighting system could reduce the world's electricity consumption by 12 per cent.
"In the United States, business and residential buildings account for 40 per cent of carbon emissions. The next step should be to resort to non-polluting electricity generation for heating, cooling, and lighting private homes.
The use of bio-fuels from grains such as corn and soy, are pushing for an increase in the prices of these foodstuffs that may lead to a food scarcity that could be disastrous for the poor peoples of the world.
"The annual addition of 70 million persons to the world's population is concentrated in countries whose water reserves are depleting, wells are going dry, forest areas are reducing, soils are degrading, and grazing lands are turning into deserts.
"Year after year, the number of 'failing states' increases, which constitutes an 'early warning of the fall of a civilization', Brown stated.
"The increase in the price of oil should add to the list of problems. Rich countries will have all they need, while poor countries should reduce consumption.
"Population growth and poverty demand special attention from the developed world.
"Time is our most scarce resource", the famous scientist concluded.
There can be no clearer way to describe the danger that ligers upon humankind.
But that was not the only news published after my meeting with Lula. Hardly two days ago, an editorial published by The New York Times, anathematizing and pulling to pieces the speech delivered by Bush before Congress, expressed this idea on a single line: "Horrifying dangers awaits the civilized world".
To Be Continued….
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