As I was flying to South Africa, I was told that this speech had to be in written form because of the need to have it translated and printed for those guests who would not have access to simultaneous translation.
I tried to imagine what impression I would get when coming before this Parliament, what I could and should say that would deserve the interest and attention of all of you who have so graciously gathered to hear these words.
What I bring here, with the help of some facts that I carry with me, therefore, is only the fruit of my imagination. It is like a love letter written from thousands of miles away to a girlfriend without knowing how she thinks, what she wishes to hear, or even what she looks like. [Applause]
For me, a speech represents a frank and intimate conversation. That is why I make a habit of always looking into the faces of those I am addressing and having discussions with, to try to convince them of what I say to them. [Laughter and applause]
If at some point I leave this paper aside to add some ideas that come to me in the heat of the moment, I hope that those who have no headphones will forgive me and that the organizers and those responsible for the efficiency and formality of this event will understand. [Applause]
As you can all see, it has turned out differently; there are no headphones for anyone, there will be a direct translation (he points to the translator). We will have to do it one paragraph and one idea at a time. The interruption will be minimal. This shows us once again that there is no need to lose heart over the hardships, that everything has its solution. [Laughter and applause]
As I think about this country and its history, all sorts of developments, events, facts, realities that reflect the enormous responsibility and the huge historical task involved in creating the new South Africa you have set out to build, come to mind.
I hope that the only important remembrance left by my presence here will be my fervent and sincere desire to support the tremendous effort you are making to stanch the deep wounds that were opened over the centuries.
This promising country, that yesterday had been the object of isolation and universal condemnation, can tomorrow become an example of humanity and justice. This is made possible by the timely presence, at just the right moment, of a leader of exceptional human and political characteristics. That man was there, in the dark corners of a prison. He was not just a political prisoner sentenced to life; he was a prophet of politics, who is today admired even by those who yesterday hated and punished him mercilessly. [Applause]
Nelson Mandela will not be remembered for the 27 consecutive years he spent in prison without ever giving up his ideas [applause], but because he was able to tear from his soul all the poison that such an unjust punishment could have produced, [exclamations of "Yes!" and applause], and for the generosity and the wisdom with which he so brilliantly led his dedicated and heroic people at the moment when victory could no longer be contained, knowing that the new South Africa could never be built on the basis of hate and vengeance. [Applause]
Two South Africas: rich and poor
Today, there are still two South Africas, which I cannot call
the white one and the black one. In order to create a multiracial
and united country, that terminology needs to be uprooted for
ever. [Applause] I prefer to say it differently: two South
Africas: the rich one and the poor one, [applause] one and the
other. One in which the average family earns twelve times more
income than the other. One in which 13 per thousand children die
before the age of one, the other in which 57 per thousand die.
One in which the life expectancy is 73 years, the other where it
only reaches 56. One in which practically one hundred percent of
the population can read and write, the other which has an
illiteracy rate of more than 50 percent. One where almost full
employment exists, the other where almost 45 percent is jobless.
One where 12 percent of the population owns almost 90 percent of
the land, the other where almost 80 percent of the inhabitants
own less than 10 percent. [Shouts of "Yes!" and applause] One
that accumulated and holds almost all the technical and
management knowledge, the other that was condemned to
inexperience and ignorance. One that enjoys well-being and
liberty, the other that has only been able to conquer liberty
without well-being. [Applause]
This terrible legacy cannot be changed overnight. [Applause]
Absolutely nothing is gained by disorganizing the productive apparatus or by not taking advantage of the considerable material and technical wealth and the productive efficiency created by the noble hands of the workers under a cruel and unjust system, a virtual slavery. Perhaps one of the most difficult tasks for human society to achieve is to carry out social change in an orderly, gradual and peaceful manner, so that this wealth can bring the South African people the most benefit. [Applause] In the opinion of this bold visitor that you have invited here to say a few words, this is the greatest challenge that faces South Africa today. [Shouts of "Yes!"]
I deplore demagogy. I would never say a word to rouse discontent, much less to gain applause and please the ears of millions of South Africans who are understandably pained because their country has yet to attain the paradise of equal opportunities and justice for all that was dreamt of during the long years of struggle. [Shouts of yes and applause]
There are many countries that face similar economic and social problems as a result of the conquest, the colonization and an unbearable inequality in the distribution of wealth, but in none has the struggle to gain respect for human dignity awakened so many hopes as it has here. The contradiction between the hopes, the possibilities, and the priorities is not an internal problem of South Africa alone; but something that is being debated and will continue to be debated among honest theoreticians in many countries.
The system of conquest, colonization, slavery, the genocide of native populations and the razing of their natural resources throughout the past centuries, has brought terrible consequences for the overwhelming majority of the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America. [Applause]
Seventy-million Indians were exterminated in the American hemisphere by the relentless exploitation, slave labor, and imported illnesses, or the blade of the sword of the conquerors. Twelve-million Africans were uprooted from their villages, their homes and transported in chains to a new continent to work as slaves in the plantations, in addition to the millions who drowned or died during the perilous trips.
Apartheid was universal
Apartheid, in fact, was universal and lasted for centuries.
[Applause] In our hemisphere, as early as the sixteenth century,
slaves were the first to rise in one way or another against
colonial domination. During the first decades of the eighteenth
century, long before the uprising of the U.S. colonial settlers
at the end of that same century, large uprisings took place in
Jamaica, Barbados and other counties. The first republic in Latin
America was created by the slaves of Haiti. Years later, heroic
and massive slave uprisings took place in Cuba.
The slaves of African descent showed the way to freedom in that continent. The conscience of the Christian and civilized West - as they like to refer to themselves - must bear the weight of the crimes of history. [Prolonged applause] The weight of guilt does not rest only with those in South Africa who created and implemented the system of apartheid.
Under the leadership of Nelson Mandela, the political miracle of unity, reconciliation, and peace will perhaps become an unprecedented example in history. Remembering in part the meaning of a famous line, it could be said that never have so many wished for so much for so few. You the citizens, the South African leaders of all the parties, from every ethnic origin, are those few for which we, the inhabitants of the planet, wish so much and of whom we expect so much from a political and human point of view.
An idea can give rise to another: from the new South Africa, the hope of a new Africa. [Applause] Economically, from the point of view of industry, agriculture, technology, and science, South Africa is the most developed country in the African continent. Its mineral wealth and energy resources are countless and in many cases among the first in the world. Today, South Africa produces 50 percent of the electricity of the continent, 85 percent of its steel and 97 percent of its coal; it accounts for 69 percent of all the freight moved by train; it has 32 percent of all the motor vehicles and 45 percent of the paved roads. The rest of Africa is also extremely rich in natural resources. The tremendous potential and raw talent of its children, their extraordinary valor and intelligence, their ability to assimilate the most complex concepts of science and technology, is well known to those of us who have had the privilege to fight alongside them, struggling for freedom or in peaceful construction.
Internationalist assistance in Africa
Cuba is a small island next to a very powerful neighbor, but
in spite of this, 26,294 African professionals and technicians,
have already graduated from our learning centers [applause] and
5,850 have been trained. At the same time 80,524 Cuban civilian
volunteers, of whom 24,714 are doctors, stomach specialists,
nurses, and health technicians, along with tens of thousands of
professors, teachers, engineers, and other professionals and
skilled workers, have provided internationalist services in
Africa [applause]; and throughout more than thirty years, 381,432
soldiers and officers have stood guard or have fought alongside
African soldiers and officers for national independence or
against foreign aggression in this continent. The numbers add up
to 461,956 during a brief historical period.
The only things they took back with them to Cuba from the African territory, in which they worked and fought voluntarily and selflessly, were the remains of their fallen comrades and the honor of having served. [Applause] We are therefore aware of and value the human qualities of the children of Africa, much more than those who colonized and exploited this continent for centuries.
It is with deep and wrenching pain that today we look upon its internecine wars, the economic underdevelopment, its poverty, its famines, its lack of hospitals and schools, its lack of communications. We find it awesome that Manhattan or Tokyo have more telephones than the whole of Africa.
The deserts expand, the forests disappear, the soil is eroded. And what is worse, their populations are being decimated by old and new illnesses such as malaria, tuberculosis, leper, cholera, ebola, parasites - curable infectious diseases. Relative to the rest of the world, infant mortality is reaching record rates; also rising is the number of mothers who die in childbirth; in some countries life expectancy is being lowered.
The terrible virus of HIV is spreading in geometric proportions. I do not exaggerate, as you know, when I say that whole countries of Africa are at risk of disappearing. In order to survive, each person who has the virus would have to pay $10,000 a year in medication, when the health budgets allow only $10 dollars to be spent in the health of each person. At today's prices $250 billion would need to be invested in Africa every year simply in order to fight AIDS. That is why Africa accounts for 9 out of every 10 persons who die of AIDS in the planet.
Can the world look at this catastrophe with indifference? Given the amazing scientific advances, couldn't humans cope with this situation? Why speak to us of macro-economic indexes and other endless deceits, recipes and more recipes from the International Monetary Fund, the World Business Organization; of the miraculous virtues of the blind laws of the market and of the wonders of neoliberal globalization? [Applause] Why not accept these realities? Why not search for other formulas and recognize that man is capable of organizing his life and his destiny in a more rational and human manner? [Applause]
Unavoidable crisis
Today, we are all being threatened by a deep and unavoidable
economic crisis, perhaps the worst one in history. Each day
throughout the world, which has become a casino, speculative
transactions worth one-half trillion dollars are carried out that
have no relationship whatsoever to the real economy. [Shouts of
"Yes!" and applause] Such a phenomenon has never taken place
before in the history of the world. The price of stocks in the
United States stock markets have multiplied to preposterous
levels.
It was only a historical privilege, together with a series of factors, that enabled a rich nation to become the world issuer of the reserve currencies for the central banks in every country. Its treasury bonds are the last refuge for the frightened investors facing any financial crisis.
The dollar ceased to be backed by gold when that country unilaterally eliminated the conversion that was established in Bretton Woods. As the alchemists of the middle ages had fervently dreamed, paper turned into gold, the value of world reserve currency since then is simply a question of faith. Wars like the one in Vietnam, which cost 500 billion dollars, gave rise to this huge deceit. This was followed by a colossal rearmament without taxes, which increased the U.S. public debt from 700 billion dollars to 2.5 trillion dollars in the course of only eight years.
Money became fictitious, securities ceased to have a real and material basis. In recent years, U.S. investors acquired 9 trillion dollars simply as a result of the mechanical and uncontrolled multiplying of the price of stocks in their stock markets. This brought about a giant rise in their multinational corporations' investments both in their own country and around the world, coupled with an excessive growth in internal consumption, thus artificially feeding an economy that seamed to grow and grow without inflation and without crisis.
The world would have to pay the price sooner or later.
The richest countries of Southeast Asia are now bankrupt. Japan, the world's second-largest economy, can no longer contain the recession; the yen continues to decrease in value; the yuan is staying afloat by sheer sacrifice on the part of China, whose high rate of growth this year has been reduced to less than 8 percent, a figure that comes dangerously close to the tolerable limit in a country that is rapidly carrying out a radical reform and an extraordinary rationalization of the workers in its productive companies. As the economic crisis in Asia reemerges, the economic catastrophe develops in Russia, the biggest economic and social failure in history as it attempts to establish capitalism in that country, in spite of the enormous amount of economic aid and the advice and prescriptions of the top intelligences of the West. [Laughter] Perhaps here, at this very moment, is the greatest political risk arising from the situation created in a state that owns thousands of nuclear weapons, where the operators of strategic missiles have been without pay for the past five months. [Laughter and applause]
In the last few months, the Latin American stock markets have already lost more than 40 percent of their stocks' value; Russia's, 75 percent. The phenomenon is becoming generalized everywhere. In many countries the price of commodities - copper, nickel, aluminum, oil, and many others - has dropped by 50 percent in the recent period.
Stock markets in the United States itself are teetering. As you know, they have just had a black Monday. I don't know why they call it black, [applause]; in fact, it has been a white Monday. [Applause] It is not certain when or how a general panic will set in. At this point, who can guarantee that a collapse like the one in 1929 will not be repeated? Not Rubin, nor Greenspan, nor Camdessus, nor anybody can guarantee it. They are all plagued by doubt, including the most eminent economic analysts. Except that today there is an enormous difference. In 1929 there was not 1.5 trillion in speculative transactions taking place and only 3 percent of the U.S. population owned stocks.
Today, 50 percent of the population of the United States has invested its savings and retirement funds in the stock market.
This is not something I made up, it is not a fantasy, read the news. Add to that, if you will, that the new world order is destroying more than ever the natural resources needed for the survival of the 6 billion inhabitants that already exist, and of the 10 billion who will depend on them for their livelihood only fifty years from now.
I have carried out my task. I have just presented to you everything that went through my mind while flying at 10,000 meters. [Laughter and applause] Don't ask me for solutions. I am not a prophet. I only know that great crises have always spawned great solutions. [Applause]
I have faith in the intelligence of the peoples and of human beings. I have faith in the need of humanity to survive. I trust that you, distinguished and patient members of this Parliament, will think about this issue. I trust that you will understand that it is not a question of ideologies, of races, of colors, of personal incomes, of social categories. For all of us who sail in this same boat, it is a question of life or death. [Applause]
Let us, therefore, be more generous, have more solidarity, be more human. Let South Africa become a model for a more just and human future world. If you can, all of us will be able to. [Applause and exclamations of "Fidel, Fidel, Fidel!"]
Thank you very much. [Ovation]