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From Dimmock Report (no longer
online), April 2, 2002
On saving
humanity... Today we listen to what the Bush administration didn't
want to hear.
On March
22, United States delegates at the International Conference on
Financing for Development in Monterrey, Mexico, left their seats
and walked away when Fidel Castro stood to deliver this speech.
If they
had stayed, this is what they would have heard:
By Fidel Castro
Not everyone here will share
my thoughts. Still, I will respectfully say what I think.
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 prestige of the international
financial institutions rates less than zero.
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.
The Consensus draft, which
the masters of the world are imposing on this conference, intends
that we accept humiliating, conditioned and interfering alms.
Everything created since Bretton
Woods until today should be reconsidered. A farsighted vision
was then missing, thus, the privileges and interests of the most
powerful prevailed. In the face of the deep present crisis, a
still worse future is offered where the economic, social and
ecologic tragedy of an increasingly ungovernable world would
never be resolved and where the number of the poor and the starving
would grow higher, as if a large part of humanity were doomed.
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!
Canadian broke Cuba embargo,
U.S. jury rules
By JOHN IBBITSON and STEVEN
CHASE, Globe and Mail, April 4, 2002
Washington, Ottawa - A Canadian
citizen who sold water-purification supplies to the Cuban government
while living in Canada could face years in prison after he was
convicted Wednesday night in a U.S. court for trading with the
enemy.
James Sabzali, 42, was found
guilty Wednesday by a Philadelphia jury on 20 counts of violating
the U.S. Trading with the Enemy Act, and one count of conspiracy.
He is believed to be the only foreign national ever prosecuted
for violating the longstanding U.S. embargo against Communist
Cuba.
While Mr. Sabzali faces a total
of 205 years in prison on the many counts, prosecutors have recommended
a sentence of up to 51 months.
"I'm simply shocked and
confused," a visibly shaken Mr. Sabzali said after the jury
of seven women and five men delivered their verdict, ending four
days of deliberations. Two senior executives at his Pennsylvania-based
employer, both U.S. citizens, were also convicted.
The verdict could give pause
to Canadian executives involved in sales to Cuba - Canada's largest
trading partner in the Caribbean - and who consider moving to
or even entering the United States.
At least seven of the convictions
against Mr. Sabzali are for violations that occurred while he
was living and doing business in Canada.
Andre Lemay, a spokesman for
the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in
Ottawa, said Wednesday evening the department was "still
taking stock of the decision. We have to see what our next course
of action will be."
However, he pointed out that
"in Canada, commerce with Cuba is lawful, and we've always,
always objected to U.S. attempts at prohibiting Canadians from
trading with Cuba."
Liberal MP John Godfrey, a
vocal nationalist, said the verdict was "outrageous.
"It's none of the Americans'
damned business. . . . To get nailed for that is totally inappropriate,"
he said.
"How would Americans feel
if we convicted an American for violating Canadian law while
living in the United States?" he asked.
From 1992 to 1996 Mr. Sabzali
lived in Hamilton, frequently travelling to Cuba to sell goods
on behalf of the international subsidiary of an American firm,
Bro-Tech Corp.
Not only were the sales legal
under Canadian law, Canada's Foreign Extraterritorial Measures
Act restricts Canadians from honouring the U.S. embargo in dealings
with Cuba.
In 1996, Mr. Sabzali, who is
42 and married with two children, moved to the company's Philadelphia-area
head office. In 2000, after a five-year investigation, he and
company executives were charged with 77 counts of trading with
the enemy and with conspiracy.
The prosecution of Mr. Sabzali
appears to signal a new American determination to go after anyone
who is resident in the United States and who has traded with
Cuba, even while living in another country.
"Foreign nationals cannot
aid and abet violations of U.S. law," Assistant U.S. Attorney
Joseph Poluka told the jury in his summation last week. Wednesday,
he praised the jury's decision.
Prosecutors contended that
Mr. Sabzali and Bro-Tech funnelled U.S.-manufactured chemicals
to Cuba through Canadian and U.S. subsidiaries.
But company executives said
the sales themselves were made entirely through Canadian, British
and Italian subsidiaries, after receiving legal advice. They
argued that Bro-Tech had never intended to expose itself to criminal
action, since Cuban sales netted less than $48,000 (U.S.) in
profits and made up less than 1 per cent of the company's business.
Before the trial began on March
15, prosecutors had already recommended prison sentences of 41
months to 51 months, based on the indictment. U.S. District Judge
Mary McLaughlin has scheduled a sentencing hearing for June 28.
With a report from Reuters
News Agency
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Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
