Raul castigates leaders of wealthy nations

Raul castigates leaders of wealthy nations
By Larry Moonze in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba
Monday July 28, 2008 [04:00]

CUBAN President Raul Castro has castigated leaders of wealthy nations for behaving passively towards global crises, terming their attitude selfish and suicidal. eanwhile, President Castro said none of the revolutionary attackers on Moncada dreamt they would be alive today.

And President Castro declared that Cuba would continue paying special attention to defence regardless of the outcome of the next US presidential elections in November.
President Castro also announced that the 50th anniversary of the triumph of the revolution would be held in Santiago de Cuba.

Addressing over thousands of flag-waving Cubans here at Moncada on the 55th anniversary of the attack on Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Cespedes barracks on Saturday evening, President Castro said Cubans should bear in mind that they were living in the midst of a true world crisis.

He said the current crisis was not only economic but also associated to climate change, the irrational use of energy and a great number of other problems.

"This situation impacts on every nation but it has a particularly dramatic effect on the third world peoples," President Castro said.
He said international agencies had issued strong alerts as to the seriousness of the crisis of unpredictable consequences.

"Meanwhile, in the light of this crisis the leaders of the wealthy nations and the big transnational corporations behave passively, an attitude that is not only selfish and irresponsible but also suicidal since we all live on this planet whether they like it or not," President Castro said.

He noted the World Bank, although not opposed to capitalism, brought pressure on the G8 to take part in the solution to the problem but that the words fell on deaf ears.
President Castro said most Cubans had shown sufficient knowledge and maturity to understand the simply inescapable realities.

"Others, however, try to stubbornly close their eyes to the world problems," he noted.
President Castro said the revolution would continue to do anything within its power to continue to advance and reduce to the minimum the unavoidable consequences of the present international crisis for its people.

"Yet we should timely explain to our people the difficulties so that we can better prepared to face them," he said. "We must get used to receiving not only good news."
President Castro called on Cubans to coordinate and increase production.
"And together with production, we shall continue paying special attention to defence regardless of the results of the next presidential elections in the United States," he said. "We are now facing an enemy which is much more powerful than the soldiers of the tyranny entrenched behind the walls of this barrack and in Bayamo Carlos Cespedes. But the strength of our people has also grown tremendously thanks to its revolutionary unity, organisation and conscience and to its education."

President Castro said 55 years ago was a short time in the life of a nation but enough to confirm that July 26 marked the beginning of a new era in Cuban history.
"When we think 50 years into the future, it seems something rather distant," stressed President Castro. "However, as I look back at the past 55 years, I feel that they have gone by very quickly."
He said when they attacked the Moncada, none of the participants dreamed of being around today.

"We did not have such dreams even when following the Commander-In-Chief's Fidel Castro orders we entered this fortress victoriously on January 1, 1959, exactly five years, five months and five days later," President Castro recalled. "Most of us were 20 or 30 years old, some were even younger, and half a century seemed to us an eternity."
He said over the years, they had learned that time flies.

"Therefore to waste it away out of inertia or hesitation is an unforgivable negligence," President Castro said. "Let's never forget that this is the socialist revolution of the people, for the people and by the people. We will never betray the memory of those who fell in combat or who were murdered in Santiago de Cuba and Bayamo 55 years ago."

He said 55 years ago, a group of revolutionaries attempted to take heaven by storm.
"We were then impelled by the decision to free our land from ignominy and to fulfill national hero Jose Marti's purpose to conquer all the injustice for the people," he said.
President Castro explained that following the attack on Moncada, there was blood everywhere, from the dungeons to the cellar.
"I will never forget the horrific image of the already clotted blood of my comrades spread throughout that terrace roof," he said.

President Castro said that dreadful image could only be watched away with happiness and smile of the tens of thousands of children who had studied in the classrooms of the barracks now turned into a school centre.

"Our battle today is the same that started on July 26, 1953," said President Castro. "It is only taking place in new scenarios, at a higher scale and now in defence of the great conquests attained in half a century."

President Castro said he was aware of the great amount of problems waiting to be solved.
He said most of them weighed heavily and directly on the population.
"There are still many things we would like our people to enjoy even though our reality today is very different from that found by the revolution," said President Castro. "Regardless of our great wishes to solve every problem we cannot spend in excess of what we have. And to make the best of what we have it is indispensable to save everything, foremost fuel.