Articles of Reflections by Fidel

The fanatics were upset due to the hard setback on Sunday. But the word says it all: fa-nat-ics!

The Summit meeting of the leaders of the eight most highly industrialized powers on the planet took place on July 7 to 9 at a mountain retreat on the banks of the Toyako, a lake formed inside the volcanic crater located in the north of the island of Hokkaido, on the northern reaches of the Japanese archipelago. It would be hard to choose a site more removed and distant from the madding crowd than this.

Yesterday, on Tuesday, I had a bundle of cables with news about the meeting in Japan of the most highly industrialized powers. I shall leave that material and take it up some other time, if it does not grow cold and stale. I decided to take a rest. I chose to get together with Gabo and his wife, Mercedes Barcha, who are visiting Cuba until the 11th. How I wanted to chat with them, to recall almost 50 years of sincere friendship!

I basically drew these data from statements made by William Brownfield, US ambassador to Colombia, from that country’s press and television, from the international press, and other sources. It’s impressive the show of technology and economic resources at play.

Seven days ago I wrote about one of the great men in history: Salvador Allende, a man the world remembered with deep emotion and respect on his first centennial. However, no one quivered or even recalled the date of October 24, 1891, when the Dominican despot Rafael Leonidas Trujillo was born, eighteen years before our admired Chilean brother.

While I was preparing a reflection about McCain’s relationship with the anti-Cuban terrorist mafia in Miami and other related subjects of historical interest, fresh news was flowing about this character that is being projected by the empire’s hawks as Bush’s replacement: his visit to Colombia and Mexico which will begin tomorrow. It is not possible to avoid them since they confirm the opinions we have sustained.

He was born one hundred years ago in Valparaiso, in southern Chile, on June 26, 1908. His father, a middle-class lawyer and notary, was a member of Chile’s Radical Party. When I was born, Allende was already 18 years old. He was pursuing secondary studies in high school in his native city.

I was surprised that not one of my friends, those news wire agencies, would publish one single word on Saturday about how highly UNESCO rated education in Cuba which, in spite of the actions of the United States, surpasses the levels attained by the rest of the countries in the region, as if that had nothing to do with respect for human rights.

We know that people living in industrialized and wealthy countries spend, on average, 25 percent of their income on food. Those who live in nations which were condemned to economic underdevelopment by the former destine up to 80 percent of their income to this end. Many go physically hungry and endure immense social disparities. Unemployment rates are usually two to three times higher; infant mortality rates are even higher, and life expectancy is as little as two-thirds that which is reported in rich countries. This system is simply genocidal.

The discredited way in which the European Union suspended its sanctions on Cuba on June 19 has been reported in 16 international press dispatches. It has absolutely no economic effect on our country. On the contrary, the United States’ extraterritorial laws and, thus, its economic and financial blockade are still fully in effect.