---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2002 10:18:57 -0800 From: David Mozer <[log in to unmask]> Reply-To: [log in to unmask] To: an WASAN <[log in to unmask]> Subject: [WASAN] Monterrey Conference I am forwarding the following pieces because, while not specifically about Africa, the International Conference on Development Financing, which is discussed, affects Africa and the information presented below is not likely to be covered in the US media. dm -----Original Message----- March 21, 2002 Granma International In Monterrey, Fidel urges an end to conditions for development funding MONTERREY, Mexico.- President Fidel Castro stated today Thursday that allocating funds for nations’ development should be carried out with the democratic support of all, and without sacrificing any countries’ independence and sovereignty. When speaking at the International Conference on Development Financing, the Cuban leader commented that resources for providing direct help to countries should be in the hands of the United Nations, and not disastrous institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He considered that the forum’s planned resolution, called the Monterrey Consensus, should not be imposed at the conference by the world’s masters, thus delegating us to humiliating, conditional and interfering charity. Fidel Castro affirmed that the rich world should forgive foreign debts and offer new, soft loans for development financing, while traditional offers of aid, always miserly and very often ridiculous, are insufficient or not fulfilled. In that regard, he urged that all the international finance organizations that had been created since the Bretton Woods Conference until today, should be rethought. The Cuban president highlighted that in the face of the current serious crisis, we are being offered an even worse future, where an increasingly ungovernable world’s economic, social and ecological tragedy will never be solved, where poverty and hunger increase daily, as if a large part of humanity were superfluous. This is the time for politicians and state leaders to reflect calmly, suggested Fidel. He called the current world economic order a system of plunder and exploitation, the like of which history has never seen before, and which has led to the underdevelopment of 75% of the world’s inhabitants. Every day people believe less and less in statements and promises, and the prestige of international financial institutions has dropped to below zero. Cuba’s president referred to the world economy as a gigantic casino, when explaining that according to recent analysis, for every dollar used in world commerce more than $100 USD are used in speculative ventures that have nothing to do with the real economy. He also pointed out that 1.2 billion persons now live in extreme poverty in Third World nations, while the abyss is growing, not getting smaller. In 1969, rich countries had 37 times more income than poor nations; the figure currently stands at 74. He indicated that we have reached such extremes that the world’s three richest persons possess assets equivalent to the combined GDP of the 48 poorest countries, while in 2001, the number of hungry people was 826 million. Currently, there are 854 million illiterate adults, 325 million children who do not attend school, two billion persons who lack essential low-cost medicine, 2.4 billion who have no basic sanitary conditions. At least 11 million under five’s die every year from preventable causes and 500,000 go incurably blind due to a lack of vitamin A. He stressed that the inhabitants of developed countries live 30 years longer than sub-Saharan African people, calling that true genocide. Fidel stated that poor nations should not be blamed for the tragedy, because they had not conquered or looted entire continents for centuries, nor established colonialism, nor re-introduced slavery or created modern imperialism. They are its victims. The main responsibility for financing development belongs to those states which today, for obvious historical reasons, enjoy the benefits of such atrocities. Thus he proposed that the rich world should forgive foreign debts and gives new, soft loans to finance development. The belief that the economic and social order that has shown itself to be unsustainable could be imposed by force is a crazy idea, he emphasized when calling on humanity to say a farewell to arms once and for all, as something has to be done to save the human race, and that a better world is possible. During his six-minute speech, the Cuban president received several rounds of applause. &&&&&&&&&&&&& Cuba's Castro attacks West on poverty at UN summit. By Kieran Murray MONTERREY, Mexico, March 21 (Reuters) - Cuban President Fidel Castro on Thursday ridiculed efforts by rich nations to reduce global poverty, saying they were masters of a "genocidal" economic system that condemns billions to misery and deprivation. In a brief visit to a major U.N. aid summit, Castro said the West now lorded over the rest of the world because it had plundered entire continents during centuries of colonial rule. "The existing world economic order constitutes a system of plundering and exploitation like no other in history," a combative Castro said in an unusually short speech. The communist leader then excused himself before the more than 50 heads of state present, saying he had to return to Cuba immediately because of a "special situation" there. He gave no details. His rapid departure meant he would not cross paths with U.S. President George W. Bush, due to arrive at the summit in Mexico's northern city of Monterrey later on Thursday. Castro arrived in Monterrey on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after confirming he would take part in the summit, which is aimed at boosting aid flows to poor nations in order to slash poverty levels across the world. Castro dismissed the summit's draft action plan, saying it was imposed by the "masters of the world" who simply want poor nations to "accept humiliating, conditioned and interfering handouts." "The world economy today is a huge casino," he said, reeling off a list of statistics showing the dramatic concentration of wealth in the developed world while hundreds of millions of starving people lacked even basic medical and social services. "The life span of the population in the developed world is 30 years higher than that of people living in sub-Saharan Africa. A true genocide!" Castro said, dressed in his familiar olive green fatigues. He called on developed nations to condone the foreign debt of all poor nations and open up hefty new lines of credit to finance their development. "As I have said before, the ever more sophisticated weapons piling up in the arsenals of the wealthiest and the mightiest can kill the illiterate, the ill, the poor and the hungry but they cannot kill ignorance, illness, poverty or hunger," Castro said. &&&&&&&&&&&&& Summit braces for Castro U.S. foreign aid focus of event The Miami Herald - Thu, Mar. 21, 2002 - BY ANDRES OPPENHEIMER MONTERREY, Mexico - The expected arrival Wednesday of President Fidel Castro of Cuba for a United Nations summit on poverty is prompting worries among organizers that he will rob the limelight from President Bush's promise of major increases in U.S. foreign aid. Cuba communicated Castro's last-minute decision to attend the summit to President Vicente Fox of Mexico at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday. Expressing their concern, Mexican, U.S. and European officials said privately they fear Castro's anti-globalization rhetoric will draw attention from a groundbreaking final document expected to be signed by the United States, Europe and virtually all developing countries. Latin American officials were especially worried that Castro may want to participate in Friday's closed-door retreat for Bush and dozens of other heads of state to discuss the war on poverty. ''If Castro goes, Bush won't go, and the meeting will be worthless,'' said a Latin American official involved in the summit's organization. But Mexico's foreign minister, Jorge Castañeda, said Wednesday that Castro would address the summit in the morning session of today's meeting, and that the Cuban leader's visit to Monterrey was expected to be ''for a very brief period.'' Bush is expected to arrive this afternoon. NOT TOGETHER Castañeda's words were interpreted by Latin American officials as a Mexican hope that Castro will be gone by midday, before Bush's arrival, and that the two leaders will not be in the same room at any time. ''Castro will have it both ways: He will grab the headlines from the world, and he will do Fox a favor in not requesting to be invited along with everybody else to the closed-door retreat,'' one Latin American official said. ``It will be his way of telling Fox, ``You owe me one.'' Relations between Cuba and Mexico have been tense since an incident last month in which 21 Cubans broke into the Mexican Embassy in Havana, presumably in an effort to leave the country, and were evicted by Cuban police at Mexico's request. Mexican officials first blamed Miami Cuban exiles for instigating the would-be refugees' action, but later said privately that the Castro regime might have encouraged the embassy takeover as a subtle punishment for Mexico's policy of supporting human rights activists on the island. Asked whether Castro would meet with Fox, Castañeda told reporters, ``We still don't have the exact arrival and departure times of President Castro, so we don't know.'' FINAL DOCUMENT Even if Castro leaves before Bush's arrival, his likely statements criticizing U.S.-backed free-market policies are expected to take some of the glitter away from what U.S. and United Nations officials are calling a groundbreaking final document entitled ``The Monterrey Consensus.'' Breaking with decades of sterile arguments in which poor countries demanded more aid from richer nations, the U.S.-backed document sets new ground rules under which poor countries will adopt free-market policies, respect human rights and fight corruption in exchange for greater financial assistance from rich countries. As a show of support for the new agreement, the Bush administration has announced a 50 percent increase in U.S. foreign aid by 2006. The United States now spends about $10 billion a year in foreign assistance, and is the least generous donor relative to its economy among rich nations. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> FREE COLLEGE MONEY CLICK HERE to search 600,000 scholarships! http://us.click.yahoo.com/iZp8OC/4m7CAA/ySSFAA/DKgolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Next WASAN meeting is Wednesday, March 27, 2002. Location: Mt. Kenya Safari Club, 9415 Rainer Avenue S., Seattle 7:00 PM WASAN Annual meeting We usually meet the fourth Wednesday of the month. For a calendar of local Africa events see http://www.ibike.org/africamatters/calendar.htm . To post a message: [log in to unmask] To subscribe send a message to [log in to unmask] To unsubscribe send a message to [log in to unmask] . All past postings are archived at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wa-afr-network Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~