Maravi

Haitians not to blame for poverty - Fidel

Haitians not to blame for poverty - Fidel
Written by Larry Moonze in Havana, Cuba
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 1:51:42 AM

HAITIANS are not to blame for their current state of poverty, Cuban Revolution leader Fidel Castro has said. Fidel on Monday said the history of Haiti and its tragedy was far more complex.

"Haitians are not to blame for their current status of poverty. They were rather the victims of a system that was imposed on the whole world," said Fidel. "They did not invent colonialism, capitalism, imperialism, unequal exchange, neo-liberalism or any of the forms of exploitation and plundering that have prevailed in this planet during the last 200 years."

He said he had read that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon was to appoint former US president Bill Clinton his special envoy for Haiti.

Fidel noted the same report stated that Clinton had maintained a remarkable philanthropic commitment with Haiti through the Clinton Global Initiative.

But Fidel said Haiti had an area of 27,750 square kilometers and, according to some reliable estimates in 2009 the population reached nine million.

He said the number of inhabitants per square kilometer of arable land had increased to 885 making it one of the highest in the world without the existence of any industrial development or resources that would allow it to acquire a minimum amount of material goods indispensable for life.

"Fifty three per cent of the population lives in the countryside [where] firewood and charcoal are the only household fuels available to most Haitian families, which hinders reforestation," Fidel explained.

He said the absence of forests, where the soil gets spongy with the leaves, twigs and roots and helps to retain water, facilitated the human and economic damages that heavy rains cause to neighborhoods, roads and crops.

Fidel said hurricanes, as was known, cause significant additional damage, which would be ever greater if the climate kept on changing so quickly.

"This is a secret to no one," he said. "Solidarity is a good evidence of what the world has lacked. Nothing can be improvised in Haiti and nothing will result from the philanthropic spirit of any institution."

Haiti was the second country in the Americas to attain independence after the USA.

Cuba offers hundreds of scholarship to Haitian students apart from providing medical personnel to that country currently standing at 413.

Fidel disclosed that some 533 Haitian youths had graduated from Cuban medical schools as specialists in General Comprehensive Medicine.

He said another group of 527 are filling the vacancies that were granted to the Republic of Haiti.

"The Cuban doctors are present in all 10 departments [provinces] of that country and in 127 of the 137 communities," Fidel said.

"More than 400 Haitian doctors who have been trained in Cuba as well as the students from the last year of the career who are doing their practice in Haiti are also offering their services side by side with our doctors which make up a big total of 800 Haitian youths devoted to offer medical assistance in their homeland. That force will grow ever bigger with the new Haitian graduates."

Fidel said far more important than the resources that could be mobilized by the international community were the human beings that make use of those resources.

He said Cuba's modest support to the people of Haiti had been possible despite of the fact that the hurricanes mentioned by Clinton battered Cuba as well.

"The Haitian youths who are being trained in Cuba are becoming the priests of health required more and more by that sister nation," said Fidel.

"What matters the most is the creation of new forms of cooperation so much in need by this selfish world. The UN agencies can attest to the fact that Cuba is contributing what they describe as Health Comprehensive Programs. By helping others we have also developed ourselves in that field and we have become an important force. That, and not the brain drain, is what we practice! Could the rich and super-developed G-7 countries say the same? Others will follow our example! No one should ever doubt that."

Labels: FIDEL CASTRO, HAITI, NEOCOLONIALISM

posted by MrK @ 12:54 AM