Facing Difficult Conjuncture Without Fear
Cuban President Díaz-Canel addresses popular response to the country’s current energy shortage, insisting that collective intelligence and the people’s unbreakable resistance are winning this battle
Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez | internet@granma.cu
October 4, 2019 14:10:46
Photo: Granma
“Men come in two bands: those who love and create, and those who hate and destroy. And the world’s battle is that of the Hindu duality: good vs evil.”
Who has not recalled this phrase of Martí’s during these challenging days as the adversary tightens the siege with renewed hope of bringing us to our knees, and Cuba’s best step forward to confront the situation, while others profit from the discontent and shortages?
The first, the visible, powerful majority, are raising the nation’s self-esteem and providing more energy than a hundred oil tankers.
I have seen them on our tours of the country. Men and women, young people, children and the elderly, who follow the news, analyze the contexts, condemn abuse, and offer their ideas, effort, and even jokes, to face the clearly difficult moment that the arrogant, abusive empire imposes on us, tightening the screw.
They are on the side of those who love and create. Thinking of them, we have called for thinking as a country, with the conviction that the capacity of collective intelligence is inexhaustible.
We have called for thinking differently, being proactive, finding the potential within the times we are living, which are qualitatively different, as are human beings, compared to other periods, not only because the years have passed, but because during this time the world and the country have changed, and Cubans along with them.
When we call for recovering experiences from the most difficult years, to dust off savings and efficiency practices used during the Special Period, we do so thinking about everything that collective intelligence contributed at that time, and that we mistakenly discarded, as soon as the worst moments passed.
We are convinced that this search for solutions must take into account the new contexts, technological advances, the contributions of knowledge in one of the most dynamic periods of human civilization, and not only in terms of how we have advanced as a species, but also as to what we have lost, under the consumerist, predatory drive of the capitalist system.
We are not afraid of words, as we are not afraid of the challenge. Everything changes, except principles: first of all, the decision to preserve national sovereignty and independence and to defend socialism, social justice, solidarity and internationalism, to which we owe our very existence as a nation.
Something else that has not changed is the empire’s obsession with punishing "Cuba’s bad example."
Perhaps that is why some have questioned our use of the term “conjunctural” to describe the energy situation. Given the uncertain conditions in which the international fuel market operates and under the blockade’s toxic financial persecution Cuba faces, “conjunctural” may suggest excessive optimism, but not setting a time limit on the situation would have been unnecessarily pessimistic and irresponsible.
What we could absolutely not do was to remain silent, in the face of a situation imposed by an escalation of the empire’s hostility toward Cuba, in response to our solidarity with Venezuela.
What we were obliged to do, and could do, was to provide information, in a complete and transparent way, on our plan against the enemy's plan. A serious, responsible government has this duty to its people.
The situation has been addressed to date without resorting to scheduled power outages. The band of those who love and create has made this possible.
The other band, those who hate, try to undo what we do, enraged by the popular response, they complain that the ships have not arrived, that lights have been turned off, that the siege is being tightened, because independent, dignified Cuba does not bow down or die. They are happy every time another measure is adopted to reinforce the blockade. They dream of an invasion of Cuba.
Like the biblical Cain, there are people who write, talk, and shriek on social media, for a few coins from the multi-million dollar war chest for subversion in Cuba. Every minute of our resistance allows them to sell themselves.
There is no higher price than capitulating to the enemy, which, with no reason or right, assaults you, Fidel wrote. What a valuable phrase! As is Almeida's, with which we began and sustain this battle - be the attack short-lived or permanent: “No one here is surrendering.” The people will have the last word.
Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez | internet@granma.cu
October 4, 2019 14:10:46
Photo: Granma
“Men come in two bands: those who love and create, and those who hate and destroy. And the world’s battle is that of the Hindu duality: good vs evil.”
Who has not recalled this phrase of Martí’s during these challenging days as the adversary tightens the siege with renewed hope of bringing us to our knees, and Cuba’s best step forward to confront the situation, while others profit from the discontent and shortages?
The first, the visible, powerful majority, are raising the nation’s self-esteem and providing more energy than a hundred oil tankers.
I have seen them on our tours of the country. Men and women, young people, children and the elderly, who follow the news, analyze the contexts, condemn abuse, and offer their ideas, effort, and even jokes, to face the clearly difficult moment that the arrogant, abusive empire imposes on us, tightening the screw.
They are on the side of those who love and create. Thinking of them, we have called for thinking as a country, with the conviction that the capacity of collective intelligence is inexhaustible.
We have called for thinking differently, being proactive, finding the potential within the times we are living, which are qualitatively different, as are human beings, compared to other periods, not only because the years have passed, but because during this time the world and the country have changed, and Cubans along with them.
When we call for recovering experiences from the most difficult years, to dust off savings and efficiency practices used during the Special Period, we do so thinking about everything that collective intelligence contributed at that time, and that we mistakenly discarded, as soon as the worst moments passed.
We are convinced that this search for solutions must take into account the new contexts, technological advances, the contributions of knowledge in one of the most dynamic periods of human civilization, and not only in terms of how we have advanced as a species, but also as to what we have lost, under the consumerist, predatory drive of the capitalist system.
We are not afraid of words, as we are not afraid of the challenge. Everything changes, except principles: first of all, the decision to preserve national sovereignty and independence and to defend socialism, social justice, solidarity and internationalism, to which we owe our very existence as a nation.
Something else that has not changed is the empire’s obsession with punishing "Cuba’s bad example."
Perhaps that is why some have questioned our use of the term “conjunctural” to describe the energy situation. Given the uncertain conditions in which the international fuel market operates and under the blockade’s toxic financial persecution Cuba faces, “conjunctural” may suggest excessive optimism, but not setting a time limit on the situation would have been unnecessarily pessimistic and irresponsible.
What we could absolutely not do was to remain silent, in the face of a situation imposed by an escalation of the empire’s hostility toward Cuba, in response to our solidarity with Venezuela.
What we were obliged to do, and could do, was to provide information, in a complete and transparent way, on our plan against the enemy's plan. A serious, responsible government has this duty to its people.
The situation has been addressed to date without resorting to scheduled power outages. The band of those who love and create has made this possible.
The other band, those who hate, try to undo what we do, enraged by the popular response, they complain that the ships have not arrived, that lights have been turned off, that the siege is being tightened, because independent, dignified Cuba does not bow down or die. They are happy every time another measure is adopted to reinforce the blockade. They dream of an invasion of Cuba.
Like the biblical Cain, there are people who write, talk, and shriek on social media, for a few coins from the multi-million dollar war chest for subversion in Cuba. Every minute of our resistance allows them to sell themselves.
There is no higher price than capitulating to the enemy, which, with no reason or right, assaults you, Fidel wrote. What a valuable phrase! As is Almeida's, with which we began and sustain this battle - be the attack short-lived or permanent: “No one here is surrendering.” The people will have the last word.
No comments:
Post a Comment