Cuba

[blindpig]

For the health of wetlands
Sesiona this Monday International Wetlands Symposium 2017

Author: Ventura de Jesús | corresponsales@granma.cu
November 7, 2017 07:11:13
The Ciénaga de Zapata, located in the south center of Cuba, occupies the entire peninsula of the same name and is the largest wetland in the country and the Caribbean.


Ciénaga de Zapata. Photo: Elio Delgado

CIÉNAGA DE ZAPATA.-The deep-rooted certainty that to protect natural resources is necessary to gain knowledge and environmental culture, is the guiding idea of ​​the International Wetlands Symposium 2017 which is here since Monday.

Sponsored by the provincial delegation of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (Citma), the event is attended by experts of various nationalities with the purpose of exchanging experiences on the management and conservation of ecosystems, particularly how to care for and protect health of the Zapata Peninsula, the largest and best conserved wetland in the insular Caribbean.

According to Citma executives in the territory, this time the Symposium appreciates the advantages of ecosystem services and the valuation of goods and services, in addition to addressing other issues such as water management in watersheds.

The Symposium began with a keynote address by the distinguished environmentalist Rudolf de Groot, who spoke on how to coordinate efforts to manage ecosystem services at all scales, something substantial to consider for conservation and sustainable management.

Another of the topics discussed during the day had to do with the coastal peat bogs, true hidden treasures according to the specialists' precision.

The researchers use this event very skilfully to share views about the water imbalance, the main environmental problem of the Zapata Swamp, and especially about the Life Task and how to mitigate the impacts of climate change in a region very vulnerable to their effects.

This natural paradise holds two international honorific categories, the Biosphere Reserve, awarded by Unesco, and the Ramsar Site, a convention related to wetlands of international scope.

Hence the importance of agreeing in the most sensible way possible socioeconomic development with the conservationist aims of the Ciénaga, according to the local scientific community.

http://www.granma.cu/cuba/2017-11-07/po ... 7-07-11-13

Google Translator

[blindpig]

Victoria de Girón Institute of Basic and Preclinical Sciences
A model for medical education

Author: Nuria Barbosa León | internet@granma.cu
november 13, 2017 09:11:38


Photo: Ricardo López Hevia

“AND today the Revolution has strengths and resources and organization and people – people! Who are the most important element – to begin a plan to train as many doctors as necessary,” Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro Ruz, on inaugurating the Victoria de Girón Institute of Basic and Preclinical Sciences, October 17, 1962.

Dermatologist Fernanda Pastrana Fundora has clear memories of that October 17 of 1962 and of the Comandante en Jefe during the inauguration of the Victoria de Girón Institute. She enrolled on that first course, after the revolutionary government called on citizens to study medicine given the lack of healthcare professionals to provide full coverage to the population.
Before January 1, 1959, there were 6,286 doctors in Cuba, however 3,000 emigrated from the country in the years following the Revolution, encouraged by the U.S. government in its attempts to destroy the new and just political system that was being constructed on the island.
Originally from the municipally of Cárdenas, Matanzas province, Fernanda received one of the scholarship programs created at the time, with accommodation provided in a mansion abandoned by the island’s bourgeoisie. As such she met and spoke with Fidel on many occasions during his frequent visits to the Institute.


Photo: Ricardo López Hevia

“One day they told the Comandante that I wasn’t doing well in my studies because I never went to gym class, which was an obligatory subject. He sat down with me and explained the importance of physical exercise for one’s health. When he finished, very embarrassed, I told him that I understood but didn’t like the subject. So he asked me to go to my gym teacher and tell them that the Revolution couldn’t afford the luxury of losing a doctor because they failed to attend physical education classes, and that I must convince the teacher to let me make up the classes as quickly as possible. And that’s just what I did, and I passed and was able to graduate.
“I think that Fidel helped twice, first by giving me the opportunity to study medicine, and then by giving me some necessary life advice. He taught me that in order to build a humanist social project, we must assume certain tasks even if not to our liking,” stated Fernanda.

Dr. Ernesto Bravo Matarazo, meanwhile, was one of the first teachers on the program. He explained that “biochemistry was always a very difficult subject and the students didn’t like it. In truth you needed to have some prior knowledge of chemistry to understand it.
“During one of his visits, students asked Fidel to speak to the professors and ask them to be more flexible. Fidel asked when the date of the exam was and began to study with the students in the days leading up to it. We teachers thought he was going to tell us to go easier on the students, but all he said was ‘How beautiful is biochemistry!’ He praised the subject saying that it was important for society. His words motivated the students and they began to apply themselves to their studies and the exams never got any easier.”


Photo: Ricardo López Hevia

The professor, originally from Argentina, noted that the Victoria de Girón Institute emerged at a very convulsive time for the Revolution, following the defeat in April,1961, of mercenaries sent by the United States at Playa Girón, after the completion of the national literacy campaign, and during the October Crisis.
Also a consultant professor, Matarazo noted: “We implemented many of the objectives outlined in the University Reform program approved in the Argentine city of Córdoba in 1918 regarding setting up scientific groups and student aides so that the students could become involved in research and teaching. Our main task has been to develop study habits based on an updated bibliography in order to respond to the academic demands and increase students’ knowledge.”
The doctor described Victoria de Girón as a laboratory to test out the teaching programs to be implemented around the country and praised the highly-qualified teaching staff, many of whom hold Masters or PhDs, who have supported the work of the institution over the last 60 years.

Today, he knows directors of prestigious medical universities from around the world who are surprised to learn that Cuba has a faculty dedicated to basic and preclinical sciences, given the international focus on theoretical training from first through fifth year, with little opportunity to practice with patients.

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

In the early years of the Institute, Bravo Matarazo recalls the arrival of students from Vietnam, which was at war with the United States at the time; as well as the departure of the first group of internationalist doctors who went to serve in Algeria. “Today we teach hundreds of international students at the institution and faculties based in other countries,” he stated.

Meanwhile, MHSc. María Elena Fernández Roque, director of the International Relations Department of Havana’s University of Medical Sciences, noted that this educational institution currently has over 6,000 students from other nations studying degrees in medicine, dentistry, nursing and health technology, as well as mid-level courses in these specialties. The university is currently working on nine projects with seven countries, and has 22 agreements with 22 universities in 14 countries.

According to the healthcare professional, students are either self-financed, government-sponsored, or receive one of the full scholarship programs Cuba offers.
“They all receive the same study plan, have the same tasks and rights as Cuban students and even wear the same uniform,” stated Fernández Roque, who is also an assistant professor.
“The students feel very at home with us,” she explained, before recalling the words of Fidel when he stated that Victoria de Girón would train doctors for Cuba and the world.
“We have students from dozens of different nations in our classrooms; which helps with integration, and who offer help and support to one another. We say that the A - for Angola - to Z - for Zimbabwe - of nations is represented with us,” she added.
Fernández Roque went on to note that international students receive specialized and conscientious care, but never receive preferential treatment over the Cubans. They are tended to by support professors, who help them to adapt to the way of life on the island. The non-Spanish speaking students take a preparatory course to learn Spanish and standardize their knowledge so that they can assimilate the university-level content.
“These students participate in approved research projects in our country, attend scientific events, can choose to become student aides, and even participate in sporting competitions and in amateur arts festivals at the university. They can also volunteer to join the Federation of University Students and take on positions and responsibilities within the organization, she added.

Dr. Nidia Márquez Morales, deputy rector of the University of Medical Sciences, shares a similar opinion, noting that international students continue to practice their customs and traditional cultures. “Several are affiliated with the African Union and organize inter-cultural encounters where they wear traditional dress, make traditional food, and present their national art forms. Everyone comes together, even the Cubans.”
MEDICAL SCIENCES IN CUBA

According to Fernández Roque, the Victoria de Girón Institute is the leading faculty in the country for medical sciences education, as it is the top institute for methodological work and management of the different subjects within the Cuban academic model.
The faculty is one of the thirteen that make up Havana’s University of Medical Sciences which features a roster of almost 17,000 students, with some 21,000 studying technical courses. Students can either enroll after completing middle school, or 12th grade, which is why a polytechnic institute dedicated to healthcare exists.

The establishment also offers a wide range of postgraduate courses, 37 Masters degree programs and trains 4,000 residents across 62 specialties.
“This university is undergoing a quality assessment process, undertaken and directed by the Ministry of Higher Education through its regulatory body, the National Accreditation Board,” explained the deputy rector.
“All our university’s medical degrees are accredited, 50% of which are rated excellent; as well as 17 Masters programs, 11 of which are also rated excellent,” she added.
Meanwhile, the capital’s 54 hospitals function as the main teaching spaces of the University, while its staff roster features 7,443 healthcare professionals, 80% of whom are doctors, nurses, or technicians who work at these institutions.
From 2015 to 2017, the University underwent repair and refurbishment works. The 13 faculties currently have basic sciences laboratories, some with multi-purpose classrooms featuring microscopes, and new study resources.

“We insist,” the director noted “upon the use of uniform and adequate physical appearance when offering medical services. We place a lot of emphasis on the ethical behavior of our students because starting from first year they work with patients in doctors’ surgeries, polyclinics and hospitals. They interact with relatives and society in order to acquire the skills and understanding they need to do their job well.”
An example of such is clinical biochemistry resident, Javier González Argote, who graduated top of his class in teaching, research and history in 2017, and has received various awards for his scientific work and research into neuroscience, principally disorders caused by diabetes in pregnant women.
Undertaking similar investigations is fifth year medical student Alexis Alejandro García Rivero, who works as a student aid to help teach Physiology. “Being a medical sciences student and specifically from the Victoria de Girón faculty is a privilege. I’m very proud to be studying on this university campus,” he stated.

http://en.granma.cu/cuba/2017-11-13/vic ... l-sciences

So, I am given to understand that this is what a betrayed revolution looks like...

[blindpig]

Experts note inconsistencies in hypothesis about alleged sonic attacks
With more than 300 contributions and broad consensus on inconsistencies in hypotheses about alleged sonic attacks on U.S. diplomatic personnel in Havana, the first day of an online forum of scientists and experts in different fields concluded - The debate will continue today

Author: Lisandra Fariñas Acosta | lisandra@granma.cu
Author: Sergio Alejandro Gómez | informacion@granma.cu
november 16, 2017 09:11:55

With more than 300 contributions and broad consensus on inconsistencies in hypotheses about alleged sonic attacks on U.S. diplomatic personnel in Havana, the first day of an online forum of scientists and experts in different fields concluded yesterday.

The Cuban Science Network's website hosted the debate that will continue today.

According to U.S. authorities, diplomatic personnel in Havana reported symptoms which they attribute to "sonic attacks." Those affected described hearing sounds within their residences, and experiencing symptoms ranging from nausea, headaches, dizziness, hearing loss, and facial pain to stomach aches, memory problems, and concussions.

The online forum focused on three basic questions. Could the symptoms described be the result of sonic agents? Could other illnesses cause such symptoms? Does the possibility exist that the symptoms were of a psychological origin?

Dr. Manuel Jorge Villar Kuscevic, Cuban otorhinolaryngologist and professor, responded to a question from Granma regarding the recordings of sounds leaked by the U.S. media, which supposedly caused health problems.

Villar, also the head of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Enrique Cabrera Hospital, explained that the process of analysis undertaken when the recordings were received, noting that none of the sounds reached 74.6 decibels, and could not cause damage to human health.

PhD physicist Carlos Barceló Pérez, professor at the Institute of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Microbiology, described the kinds of sounds that could possibly cause harm, noting that a person exposed to sounds on the order of 85 decibels, over a long period of time, could begin to experience hearing loss, while a sudden, explosive sound can damage the ear drum, and lead to permanent damage.

There is no evidence of exposure to such sounds.

Dr. Michel Valdés-Sosa, director of Cuba's Neurosciences Center, described accepted scientific principles to evaluate evidence, used to support any conclusion. The data must be shared so that it can be verified and replicated by others, "Open information, objective evidence, and independent replication are three elements accepted internationally in any investigation," he concluded.

http://en.granma.cu/cuba/2017-11-16/exp ... ic-attacks

[blindpig]

Che Guevara’s Road to Revolution
by worker
By W. T. Whitney Jr., November 6, 2017, https://mltoday.com/article/2885-che-gu ... ge-stories

“Walker, there is no road, we make the road by walking.” To these words of Spanish poet Antonio Machado, which say much about the life of Ernesto “Che” Guevara, we add: “But there is a map.” Che of course used a map provided by Karl Marx.

Che Guevara once suggested that Marx had a “capacity of love [that] reached out to the suffering people of the whole world.” Marx “carried the message to them of serious struggle, of unbreakable optimism [and] has been disfigured by history to the point of his having been cast as an idol of stone. We must rescue him so that his example may shine even more.”

Was Che, who wrote that “the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love,” presuming too much of Marx? Did Che search out Marx’s “capacity for love” among comrades of the international Communist movement? How in fact did Che, an anomalous figure within the Marxist tradition, connect intellectually with Marxist thought?

October 8, 2017 marked the 50th anniversary of Che’s murder in Bolivia, and commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution followed a month later, on November 7. So the timing may be right to explore Che’s contribution to the theory and practice of revolutionary socialism.

Theoretician Che

In his short essay “Socialism and Man in Cuba” – 23 pages long in a 1993 Cuban edition – Che looks at the process through which individuals become politically aware. (1) He thinks political consciousness develops gradually and with difficulty.

Che proposes “to define the individual actor in this strange and passionate drama of constructing socialism. In line with Marx, he says that, “In capitalist society individuals are controlled by a pitiless law usually beyond their comprehension. The alienated human specimen is tied to society as a whole by an invisible umbilical cord: the law of value.”

Che’s central concern is the problem of human alienation. He or she harbors “the residue of an education systematically oriented to the isolation of the individual… Remnants of the past are carried forth to the present in the individual’s consciousness and it takes continual work to eradicate them.”

Che blames the “persistence of merchandizing relationships, merchandise being the economic cell of the capitalist society.” They affect “the organization of production and therefore consciousness.” And, “to pursue the chimera of realizing socialism with help from the jagged tools of capitalism leads down a blind alley.”

The task is “to choose the correct instrument for mobilizing the masses and this instrument must be moral in character.” Evoking values, Che departs from Marxist theoreticians, who deal more with material realities than with abstractions. He adds that, “in moments of great peril it is easy to muster a powerful response with moral incentives. Retaining their effectiveness, however, requires the development of a consciousness in which there is a new scale of values. Society as a whole must be converted into a gigantic school.”

Individuals “try to adjust themselves to a situation that they feel is right and that their own lack of development had prevented them from reaching previously. They educate themselves.” Doing so, “They follow their vanguard [which] has its eyes fixed on the future and its reward, but this is not a vision of reward for the individual. The prize is the new society in which individuals will have different characteristics: the society of communist human beings.” Leaders must not “lose sight of the ultimate and most important revolutionary aspiration: to see human beings liberated from their alienation.”

Che regards Cuba’s Communist Party as “still in diapers” because of “scholasticism that has held back the development of Marxist philosophy.” For people to be “educated for communism,” the Party must be “the living example; its cadres must teach hard work and sacrifice.”

For Che, consciousness is influenced by community and culture, and so what works in Europe may not apply to Latin America. So, “Cuba … occupies the post of advance guard [and shows] the masses of Latin America the road to full freedom.” Che points out that capitalism’s contradictions show up first in “countries [in the global periphery] that were weak limbs on the tree of imperialism. Liberation from misery and foreign oppression causes capitalism to “explode” in such places, and “conscious action does the rest.”

Ultimately then, Che sees the mental processes of individuals as a venue for revolutionary struggle. People, he says, act according to values and material interests alike. And values are malleable, shaped as they are by the experiences, culture, and history of communities they belong to. Che calls for a narrative of Marxist theory that accepts differences among groups and individuals but, seeking unity, centers on their common values - moral in nature - and interests.

Self-education.

Che also epitomized a mode of revolutionary practice aimed at guaranteeing that changes for the better in the individual’s consciousness might take root. That he was his own teacher prepared him for a role as teacher and exemplar during a short lifetime of zig-zag wanderings. His own experiences and observations would serve as teaching tools for a curriculum of sorts. Like a scientist, Che put assumptions to the test of reality. His life became both advertisement and validation of a style of revolutionary practice ideal for expanding political consciousness.

In 1952 prior to finishing medical studies, Che and the young biochemist and leprosy expert Alberto Granados left Argentina for a long trip across South America. The two motorcycled, walked, and hitchhiked. They slept in peasants’ huts, shivered at night on mountain sides, and bedded in prisons in little towns. One cold night in the Chilean desert, they shared a blanket with a copper miner and his wife, both hungry and cold. They were members of the banned Chilean Communist Party, and Che remembered their dedication.

Che and Granados arrived in Lima, Peru. There Che came to know Dr. Hugo Pesce, famous worldwide as a leprologist and in Peru as co-founder with José Carlos Mariátegui of the Peruvian Communist Party. They talked with Pesce night after night. Pesce, says one commentator, was the first physician Che knew “motivated by Marxist ideology” rather than by “winning a piece of heaven” through being a doctor.

Dedicating his 1961 book “Guerrilla Warfare” to Pesce, Che wrote: “To Doctor Hugo Pesce who, without knowing it perhaps, provoked a great change in my attitude towards life and society - with as always the same adventurous spirit, but channelled toward goals more harmonious with the needs of America.” Che visited the scientist the following year and Pesce greeted him with great emotion.”

What Che and Pesce talked about is unknown, but “It’s not difficult to imagine that the young Guevara was … nourished with the writings of José Carlos Mariátegui, writes Argentinian Marxist scholar Néstor Kohan. That exposure bore fruit, at least according to Peruvian scholar Gustavo Pérez Hinojosa who in November 2005 presented a paper titled “Latin American Marxism, Mariátegui and Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara” at the Centennial Forum on Josè Carlos Mariátegui.

Mariátegui, as quoted by Pérez Hinojosa, critiques intellectuals who “exaggerate … the determinism of Marx and his school” thereby “declaring them to be a product of the mechanistic mentality of the 19th century, something incompatible with the voluntarist, heroic idea of life embraced in the modern world” – and by Che Guevara.

In the same vein: “The proletarian movement … from the origins of the First International to its present manifestation in the first experiment with state socialism, the USSR, [requires that] each word, each act of Marxism impart the flavor of faith, of voluntarism, of heroic and creative conviction.”

“Marxism fundamentally is a dialectical method … It’s not …a body of principles with rigid consequences, equal for all historical climates and every social latitude … Marxism in each country, in every people, operates on and affects the environment and all aspects of it.” Che and Mariátegui, each in their own era, were foes of Eurocentric modes of political thinking.

Says Mariátegui: “We certainly don’t want socialism in America to be a copy or imitation. … We have to give life to indo-American socialism with our own reality, in our own language.” The pioneering Peruvian Marxist thus joined Cuban national hero José Martí in loyalty to, in Martí’s words, “Our America.”

Pesce had firsthand knowledge of friction between leaders of world communism and Latin American currents of the movement. South American Communists allied to the Third International met for the first time in 1929 in Buenos Aires under clandestine circumstances. Mariátegui would have delivered a report from the Peruvian Socialist Party – really the Communist Party - but was sick. Hugo Pesce and another comrade represented Mariátegui. Later the Third International’s Latin American representative condemned the report which Pesce delivered; supposedly the Peruvians had confused “the national problem with the agrarian problem” and showed signs of a “revolutionary movement of the most diverse, non-proletarian tendencies.”

Che’s boyhood home in Argentina was full of books, political books, even Marx. His parents in the 1930s supported the Spanish Republicans. On the recommendation of fellow medical student Tita Infante, a Communist, Che read Bourgeois Humanism and Proletarian Humanism by Argentinian Marxist Anibal Ponce. One of Che’s boyhood friends was the son of socialist university reformer Deodoro Roco. Che explored that family’s library which contained books on anti-imperialism and cultural diversity.

Che would add to his education in 1954, when he found himself amid the CIA-organized coup that year in Guatemala. Later, he worked intermittently as a doctor in Mexico City where he was joined by his first wife Hilda Gadea, a Peruvian Marxist with a big supply of socialist books.

Che lives

Che inserted ideas about the individual and about consciousness into both revolutionary theory and practice and thus contributed to the socialist movement. He also left his mark on the wider history of our time, especially among young people.

He spoke for and defended the humble and oppressed, while moving around, volunteering, studying, observing, and fighting. His image as a practitioner of revolution was that of a single-minded and optimistic idealist who never slackened or compromised. Che symbolized hope for change and a better world.

Ilka Oliva Corado, who migrated to the United States from Guatemala, writes about migrants’ lives prior to, during, and after their crossings. She talks with “people from countries I didn’t know existed. … They ask about Che as if he were a friend on the block.” As for herself: “Just seeing the shoes he was using the day he was captured, one understands the immortal grandeur of a human being who lives on in our epoch now and who left everything to go out in search of freedom for the peoples, and not only in Latin America but in the world.”

But Che, especially Che the Marxist revolutionary, was for real, or so says Oswaldo Martinez, president of the Economic Affairs Commission of Cuba’s National Assembly. Che, he observes, “freed us from the myth, as if from a manual, of socialism being irreversible once it was established. He offered the supreme lesson that it’s in human consciousness and not in material stimuli that socialism can be made irreversible - as long as we are educated into that consciousness and fed with the values of solidarity.”

End Note: (1) “Socialism and Man in Cuba” first appeared March 12, 1965 in the journal Marcha, published in Montevideo. Its title then was: “From Algeria, for Marcha, the Cuban Revolution Today.”

[blindpig]

A political construction in dialogue with ideas and reality
A careful reading of the speeches and interviews of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, warns that in them the concept of Revolution acquires its own entity

Author: Dolores B. Guerra López | internet@granma.cu
November 23, 2017 21:11:00


Photo: Roberto Chile

A careful reading of the speeches and interviews of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, warns that in them the concept of Revolution acquires an entity of its own, which marks, for several decades, the political life of Cuba. This definition distinguishes a macrohistorical change, constituted by the Latin American process of decolonization and independence. It is enough to remember that the Iberian conquest and colonization were followed, after the wars of independence of the 19th century, by the political and economic subjugation of the nations of the continent to the United States.

In this context, the Revolution headed by Fidel on the Caribbean island is an outstanding breaking point. The objectives and achievements are not new in any way: as I did in History will absolve me, the maximum leader draws a line of continuity between the wars for independence and the Cuban Revolution, which triumphed in 1959, understood as a process of profound change that would not end until the country not only overcome the external dangers, but also reached full social justice.

At the close of the International Conference for the Balance of the World, in homage to the 150th anniversary of the birth of our National Hero José Martí, on January 29, 2003, he said:

"Those of us who started the struggle for independence on July 26, 1953, which began on October 10, 1868, precisely when one hundred years after the birth of Martí, from him we had received, above all, the ethical principles without them. which can not even conceive a revolution. From him we also received his inspiring patriotism and such a high concept of honor and human dignity as no one else in the world could have taught us. "

For Fidel, a Revolution implies a profound shock to the political and social structures of a country, as well as to the value systems that must be modified. The world that begins with promises of freedom and happiness, especially for the most dispossessed, appears as a huge work under construction where the best collective dreams take place.

Naturally, these projects do not work, in any case, in isolation, but must be framed in larger structures, such as an ideology and a political project: the Cuban Revolution can not be understood if we detach it from the Marxist-Leninist doctrine and the project of construction of socialism.

Thus, the identity brand of the country is the Revolution that shapes Cuba as it is today and which, in addition to the historical virtues of the Cuban people, has given it the values ​​that distinguish it from others, as expressed by its maximum leader in the commemorative evening of the one hundred years of struggle on October 10, 1968:

«[...] And nothing will teach us better to understand what a revolution is, nothing will teach us better to understand the process that constitutes a revolution, nothing will teach us better to understand what revolution means, than the analysis of the history of our country , that the study of the history of our town and of the revolutionary roots of our town ».

From the set of his public speeches, in relation to the feat of 1895, the legitimacy of the need felt by him to promote a popular ideological development of his own is deduced to a large extent. It is the need to change and conserve, in balance what is necessary, with a sense of the moment and in tune with a platform of principles to constantly update in its historical functioning. That is why he defines the people as the political subject of the Revolution.

If you do not notice in Fidel's conceptions this peculiarity in the intentionality with which he seeks, for the conditions of Cuba, the trilogy history, revolution, people; his thought about it is disregarded, which is made explicit with the enhancements of one or the other concept, according to what each historical situation advises him. Likewise, in order for phrases to become a legacy, it is necessary to penetrate their essences and turn them into a guide for action.

A REVOLUTION WITH A SENSE OF THE HISTORICAL MOMENT

The greatest ideological inheritance of Fidel is in his last concept of Revolution, publicly expressed the 1st. May 2000, a historical fact consummated as a process, in which a group of human beings, composed of the majority, intends to achieve great objectives or goals. If each point is analyzed carefully, it is obvious to us as a political testament to the people of Cuba. Each one of its definitions, raises not only what is Revolution, but how a revolutionary must be, what are the values ​​that must have and it shows us the way to continue the work.

At the beginning of his enunciations, it is striking that the Commander in Chief places the story in first place. Then it comes to mind how he turned the reverse of the assault on the Moncada barracks into victory, as the driving force of the Revolution. Also how the late disembarkation of the Granma and the defeat of Alegría de Pío, did not prevent them from regrouping in Cinco Palmas, where with few rifles and men he sentenced "now we won the war", against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista and he succeeded. These are some initial examples of the struggle, of what it is to make sense of the historical moment for the revolutionaries.

And that is what the Revolution has conceived, over the years, in every moment what has been done, even when the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics disappeared and we are facing the Special Period, under its guidance, what was done In that historical moment it was required and despite the difficulties the Cuban people resisted heroically.

At present it is necessary to conceive a coherent political strategy, to assess the circumstances and realities that are occurring in Cuba and in the world, the dangers and opportunities, what men and women without exception, think and do, desire or reject; that is to make sense of the historical moment.

From this perspective, the historical guide of the Cuban Revolution manifests a permanent concern for the future and future of the political process, because the present makes the future viable through an orientation towards the constructive transformation of the existing state of things, directed at the time to encourage an active attitude towards the great objectives to be achieved. Hence, stress the importance of arming themselves with ideas, revolutionary concepts for the future; raise ideological trenches without underestimating at the same time, the trenches of stones, making the young standard-bearers of these ideas.

He is an architect in the use of the educational function and strives to reason the political-moral behaviors that are related to the political positions he assumes. And it does so with the particularity of presenting that content as historical-concrete proposals that embrace in themselves the revolutionary doctrine that participates in the national tradition.

Tributes to the transmission and precision of concepts of revolutionary politics in the interests of shaping public opinion, to the best disposition of mind and, closely linked to this, to the delineation of self-awareness about the distinctive nature of the revolutionary process from historical analysis

For this reason, the meaning of the historical moment for Fidel, in a general way, shows a political construction in dialogue between ideas and reality, between aspirations and present demands, between doctrinal attachments and the specific problems of the nation and the people . But at the same time there is a permanent thinking about the national and international situation and reviewing history, creating a reservoir of ideas with value to guide social practice.

Likewise, Fidel Castro does not stop trying to push the course of history in the sense that those ideological and doctrinal matrices mark him, which is why he does not close his political effort in thinking about the immediate whatever the force that bears, since he tends to to do so in connection with the near and distant future that is on the horizon of the ideal; what makes him profoundly consistent in the ideologically and politically responsible.

This concept of Revolution is telling us that the only way out is success. Fidel goes to immortality with the thought and the certainty that the Revolution will continue triumphant. It is an expression of confidence for his people, who will not let down the flags that he taught us to defend.

http://www.granma.cu/fidel/2017-11-23/u ... 7-21-11-00

Google Translator

[blindpig]

Cuba and Timor Leste next to fulfill medical training agreement
Havana, Nov 23 (Prensa Latina) Cuba and Timor Leste are nearing today the fulfillment of an agreement signed in 2003 for the training of a thousand doctors in the Asian country by physicians from the Caribbean nation.

According to sources from the Timorese Embassy in Havana, with the arrival this week in the largest of the Antilles of 29 doctors from Timor Leste graduates thanks to cooperation with Cuba and the completion of studies this year of another 50 will reach the figure of 957 .

currently the Asian country has one of the highest rates of doctors per capita in the region, which contrasts sharply with the reality of the nation in 2002, when it achieved independence. At that time it only had 30 doctors for a population of one million inhabitants.

The note adds that the historical leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, responsible for signing the aforementioned agreement, promised to train a thousand doctors, but also had the vision of Timor Leste as an exporter of medical services in the future.

Precisely, the Timorese government is studying the possibility of sending a mixed team, together with Cuba, to provide services in Guinea Bissau.

On several occasions the authorities and diplomats of Timor Leste thanked the Caribbean island for all the support given in the most difficult moments in order to overcome the diseases and other ills such as illiteracy.

Cuban solidarity, they say, was decisive for the country, one of the poorest in the world at the time of its independence, to climb 60 places in the human development index of the United Nations in just 15 years.

http://prensa-latina.cu/index.php?o=rn& ... de-medicos

Google Translator

This is what communism can do with so little, while the capitalists spread poverty and death.Smash them!

[blindpig]

Fidel will never leave (+Photos)
Fidel is present in this work of his that is the Cuban Revolution, to which the University of Havana and new generations are heir

Author: Lissy Rodríguez Guerrero | informacion@granma.cu
november 26, 2017 11:11:27


Photo: Jose M. Correa

Once again the historic guerilla brought together a multitude of grateful youth. Once again he showed us the right way, with his index finger pointing to the future. In a cultural-political act at the University of Havana’s historic Grand Staircase – where he spoke to students on many occasions – the generation in which he placed all his trust, gathered one year after his passing, to show that Fidel has not left, and that today, he is more present than ever.
Accompanied by José Ramón Machado Ventura, second secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee; Party Political Bureau members Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, first vice president of the Councils of State and Ministers of Cuba, and Mercedes López Acea, a Council of State vice president, the hearts of Cuba’s youth throbbed with every song sung that evening, and with the images recalling Fidel’s life-long connection with the new generations.
“I am Fidel,” “We hear him, we feel him, Fidel is present!” were the phrases chanted by the multitude of youth gathered on the same steps Fidel climbed every morning in his conquest for knowledge, to commemorate the day that the eternal youth began his journey into eternity; same day 60 years before when he and other expeditionaries set sail on the Granma yacht to free Cuba.


Photo: Jose M. Correa

Leading that expedition, “the man that taught us to be, the leader par excellence, Marti’s loyalist follower, our comrade in the struggle” as President of the National Organizing Committee of the Federation of Secondary School Students, Niuvys Garcés described him; Fidel, the man who transcended “the borders of his time” to “live forever among is people.”
“That’s how we feel you Fidel, more present and alive (…) Every day you call on us to attack the Moncada Garrisons, to be the Granma yacht expeditionaries, to ask ourselves what we must improve in order to be outstanding students (…) how to love our history more and defend our homeland under any circumstance.”
During the ceremony, which also saw the participation of Olga Lidia Tapia, a member of the Party Central Committee Secretariat, and Susely Morfa González, first secretary of the Young Communist League (UJC) National Committee, the young student noted that everyday Cubans must think “what would he (Fidel) do if he was here,” and reflect on his concept of the true essence of Revolution.


Photo: Jose M. Correa

Because, as Raúl Palmero, President of the Federation of University Students (FEU), “the giant” left us a noble nation and redefined the role of youth; he transformed all of Cuba into a university, and gave us the greatest gift of all: “an independent homeland built with pride and which will never surrender.”
Palmero went on to recall a message sent by the Comandante en Jefe to the FEU on January 26, 2015, in which he “warned that imperialism cannot be trusted,” and in so doing, the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution supplied students with weapons and the truth, “like just another classmate.”
The poem Canto a Fidel, in addition to songs which have become narratives of the Revolution, such as “La Bayamesa,” “La Era,” “Mi historia crecerá,” “Cualquier lugar es mi tierra,” “14 verbos de junio,” and “Cabalgando con Fidel,” were just some of the musical offerings presented during the ceremony, which also saw performances by Trova singers Raúl Torres, Eduardo Sosa, Annie Garcés and Vicente Feliú; as well as groups like the Jazz Band, Arnaldo Rodríguez y su Talismán, Moncada and La Colmenita; the company Tiempos and actor Alden Knight, among others.
The ceremony was also attended by the heads of the ministries of Education and Culture, Ena Elsa Velázquez Cobiella and Abel Prieto Jiménez, respectively; senior officials of the UJC, youth movements and other guests.




http://en.granma.cu/cuba/2017-11-26/fid ... ave-photos

[blindpig]

A program of people and for the people
The goals are increasingly higher because there is a commitment that a home can be managed, completely, from the community

Author: Leidys María Labrador Herrera | internet@granma.cu
December 6, 2017 23:12:10


Provinces of the country such as Las Tunas, already manufacture concrete slats. Photo: Leidys María Labrador Herrera

A comfortable home is, without doubt, an imperative of quality of life to which all families aspire. Irma, more recently, and other meteorological phenomena that preceded him accentuated this problem.

To reverse this difficult reality, Cuba reconsiders its strategies for the construction of real estate. In this sense, the National Program for local production and sale of construction materials acquires a central importance. During the eleventh evaluation of the same, the head of the group that leads, Tomás Vázquez Enríquez, spoke with Granma about perspectives and strategies, to guarantee from the base the components of a house.

«This is a program that has a nomenclator of 146 lines, grouped into four groups, one with natural raw materials (clays, natural sands, off-balance wood and within balance), plastics (with recycled plastics), concrete group (which receives the support of cement and steel centrally) and minors, which includes 12 lines. For the guarantee of these elements we have created capacities throughout the country, always adapting to the raw materials of each municipality ».

Productive bases located in the different localities of the national territory, assume the task of putting in the hands of the people materials of the best quality. Although the challenge is high, results are already observed.


One of the priorities is the manufacture of blocks even manually if necessary. Photo: Miguel Febles Hernández

"At this moment the priority of the program is to secure the module of a house. We are talking first of the aggregates, that our productive bases have to self-manage because the program's growth depends on their availability. The processing of the stone and other raw materials, depends on that we give to our bases of mills such as the jaw and hammer.

"Once the aggregates are guaranteed, there are the wall elements, the floor elements, pressed and cast, and logically the solid covers, say joists, platelets and channel tiles. We have also proposed to the provinces that they design their roofs, as long as they are prefabricated. "

The support in carpentry requires well-thought-out strategies, since zinc galvanized can not solve all the existing needs in the country. Vázquez Enríquez referred to this aspect.

«Something we work on today is in concrete joinery. Fundamentally the window, with frame and slats of that material. We are also developing a project for the doors, because it is a bigger cloth. What we can say is that it is a carpentry with aesthetic and durable.

The hydraulic, plumbing and electrical modules are essential for the completion of a home. Many of its components are imported. However, this reality must change gradually.

«All provinces today have a workshop for the manufacture of hoses, pipes and connections. We have territories like Holguín in which the components of the water saving program are manufactured and have a long tradition in this regard.

«We are making the outlets in Cienfuegos and Villa Clara; for their high quality they are certified.

They are going to do 300,000 next year, we already have the raw material, recycled, but it is adequate. At the moment the switch is worked by the Viclar group of Villa Clara. Outside the program, it is only necessary to guarantee cement and steel, electrical cables, luminaires, sanitary furniture and veneer. That is the adjustment that the program has made ».

The growing demand for cement is still an Achilles heel for the construction of houses in Cuba. Although the program receives 125,000 tons per year from what our industries produce, there is already the alternative to multiply it in the productive bases.

"For the next year we have planned to make 36,000 tons of LC3 low carbon cement. We must say that this cement is an achievement of the Central University Marta Abreu, specifically the scientist Fernando Martirena together with a university in Switzerland. Industrially in Cuba, this cement is produced in Siguaney, Sancti Spíritus, but this scientist designed it to be able to do it at the level of the local production program.

What does this require, a ball mill (in which construction works in an accelerated way) and takes as raw materials, 30% calcined clay, 20% limestone powder, and 50% industrial cement is added. The resulting mixture does not lose its qualities, on the contrary, it improves them ».

The goals of the program are increasingly high, especially because there is a commitment that all the constructive elements to build a home can be managed from the community.

«We aspire to extend to the demarcations of the Popular Councils (CP). At first, those of more than 1,000 homes and others that define the Councils of the Provincial Administration. Our goal is to manage the house from the CP and that the local production is the main provider of that house.

As a challenge, we have to refine organizational issues and exploit many potentialities that are still inactive. We also need a greater commitment to trade, which is ultimately what puts our productions within reach of the population.

In February we will have the first national balance of the program. Today it would not be valid to say that one province is better than the other, I believe that we are fulfilling the objectives: to increase the capacities to increase production. That is why our productive process must be more efficient. This program is prioritized by the country, essentially because it is designed for the people ».

http://www.granma.cu/cuba/2017-12-06/un ... =hootsuite

Google Translator

[blindpig]

HebertPro-P and the vaccine against long cancer are two products that american people can´t use because of the blockade

[blindpig]

Life
Be born. Live. Dream ..., and perhaps the words come easy, as the continuity of something so true that we do not even doubt it, because even before birth, we have the right to our own life ...

Author: Granma | internet@granma.cu

December 11, 2017 00:12:51


Photo: Ismael Batista

Be born. Live. Dream ..., and perhaps the words come easy, as the continuity of something so true that we do not even doubt it, because even before birth, we have a right to our own life - which is more than just existing. Or at least that is how we feel about here.

Because our first steps are not only veiled by mom, dad and grandmother, they also take care of us men and women in white coats who, without asking for anything in return and with much to offer, make the road safer. There is also the other house, the school, that which is becoming bigger and bigger, with new possibilities to grow. And suddenly, when we stop being children, we still have those same rights, because in Cuba there is no age limit to learn, much less to receive medical assistance.

Unemployment is not a reason for sleeplessness either. Some will be better and others not so many, but there will always be a decent job. Nor is there the fear of going out on the street, or of feeling excluded because of our skin color, gender, creed or sexual orientation, because simply here discrimination does not determine whether we can enter a place or not, nor is it a barrier to dreaming with being a dancer, musician or engineer.

Because on this earth, everyone has the right to justice in a society attached to the defense of the full dignity of the human being. Because our opinion is respected, although it differs from the rest. Because although there are some who question the principles of respect and altruism that characterize this people, Cubans have known how to build, our country is recognized for complying with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Because only a fool would not pay attention to the indicators of life expectancy, infant and maternal mortality, care for the disabled, social security ... Because only those who do not want to hear the truth ignore international opinion and follow wielding the same unsustainable insults.

But once again, dreams win. Because even when nature makes its own, and pulls off what we had, it does not matter if it was too much or too little, we do not know ourselves unprotected. And that is only possible when the confidence in tomorrow is anchored to more than half a century of noble causes.

http://www.granma.cu/cuba/2017-12-11/ma ... =hootsuite

Google Translator

what Americans desperately need to hear and understand