Education is the answer, says Castro
01-Sep-2003: By GUY ROGERS
THE gap between rich and poor is getting wider and “the looting is getting worse”. But mankind has the ability to overcome, and education is the way to do it.
That was the message from legendary Cuban President Fidel Castro, speaking yesterday at the plenary of the heads of state at the 6th Conference of the Parties to the Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in Havana, Cuba.
Dr Castro, the world’s longest reigning head of state, said “a Dante-esque drama” of catastrophic proportions was looming.
“The real drama lies in ignoring the signs with have lived with for so long, the accelerated, blind and relentless destruction of the natural bases of our own life.”
Lambasting the “neo-liberalist” International Monetary Fund he said huge damage was being done by the agricultural subsidies supported by them which allowed farmers in the developing world to flood international markets with cheap goods, relegating the Third World
to a role as providor only of raw materials and cheap labour.
Led by the US, the developed world had used resources in just 150 years that it had taken three million years to create, he contended.
“This is a completely irrational way of life that will be inherited for the estimated ten billion people that will be left when the petroleum era is over. It is at odds with the laws that govern life and culture and the morals that guide these cultures. And the gap is getting wider and the looting is getting worse.”
The impasse could be solved, however, and the way to do it was with a grassroots education network that would cost a fraction of the
funds already pledged by donor countries, he said.
Referring to Cuba’s considerable success in this field, he said programmes should include deployment of equipment to towns and villages. Solar panels for electricity could be installed in country areas to facilitate literacy education and communication by radio and television of environmental and related matters effecting desertification.
“The cost in the first five years would be less than the US occupying forces have spent in Iraq in 15 weeks.
“Despite its collosal mistakes, mankind is capable of immense generosity and nobility, Despite the huge obstacles there is a great deal that can be done.”
In his address, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, introduced by Dr Castro as “a symbol that has much to say”, said “people centred” government and “rule by love” were the only way to address the challenges of the developing world.
In a whimsical introduction, recalling an earlier visit to Cuba, he described how he was taken by Dr Castro to visit a new state dairy, and had been shown a cow with prolific milk producing qualities.
“He said to me he would like to build a monument to this cow that had served so many children with its milk. If Napoleon, who killed people, could be honoured -- then why not this cow, he told me.
“Now, that’s socialism.”
The Zimbabwean leader, whose country is facing ruin following the expulsion of white farmers and who is accused by human rights groups of orchestrating savage state violence to suppress political opposition, said his government was tackling desertification.
“We have a home-grown land reform programme aimed at re-establishing sovereignty and ownership and bringing the previously mrginalised into the economic mainstream.”
Referring to his schooling by Jesuit missionaries, he said they had instilled in him the importance of principal.
“Adherance to principal, and the interests of your people, must become the focus of your leadership.
“The world is split at this time between the rule of power and rule by the love that binds society and those that need to be assisted. Unless we employ a people-centred strategy it will be well-nigh impossible to address the challenges that we face.”
Referring again his government’s land reform programme he said, to applause, that it was based on “establishing sovereign rights for Zimbabweans over our resources”.
Questioning whether the UN could recover from the blow it was dealt with the unilateral action by the US and its allies in the recent Iraq war, he said the Third World should look to strenghening its regional, national and inter-continental ties.
ends