COPENHAGEN. DENMARK. MARCH 12, 1995.
Mr. Chairman, Excellencies,
Centuries ago Calderon de la Barca, a famous Spanish playwright
said:"All of life is but a dream and all dreams are not but dreams."
The noble intentions of the people gathered here notwithstanding,
there cannot be social development in a world where the rich are
richer andthe poor are poorer and where lower prices are paid to some
countries for their raw materials and basic commodities while other
countries'finished products are sold at increasingly higher prices. A
world, that is, where the external debt of the least favored by
fortune constantly grows and already amounts to the incredible figure
of 1.5 trillion dollars and interest rates are arbitrarily raised day
after day.
Social development is not possible when the population grows
unchecked in the poorest areas, when there is an increasing flight of
capital from the poor to the rich nations, when brain drain is a
pervasive scourge for the neediest, while women, indigenous people,
blacks and other ethnic groups are discriminated against and anarchy
and chaos prevailunder the blind and cruel laws of the market.
There cannot be human rights where there is no compassion, or
solidarity where selfishness prevails. The environment cannot be
preserved, nor can the natural resources be protected from pollution
and depletion and social development be made possible, while consumer
societies and wastefulness are portrayed as models for a population
that by now exceeds 5.7 billion human beings.
Social development cannot be realized when the arms race and the
armstrade persist in spite of the end of the cold war and not a penny
of what yesterday used to be, and still today is, wasted in weapons
is devoted to human progress; when the military blocks are being
recklessly expanded and sophisticated weapons continue to be produced
and improved.Where hegemonism prevails, with all sorts of
interventions carried out under any pretext-albeit in small Third
World nations in contempt of every country's sacred right to its full
independence and to stand on equal footing in international
relations,-- neither peace nor social development can exist.
That is a lie, a mere deception.Neoliberalism, a fashionable doctrine
imposed on todays' world, forces ruthless budget cuts on the
underdeveloped nations' programmes for health, education, culture,
sports and social security, low-cost housing and drinking water as
well as other primary needs of the population,thus making social
development impossible.
It is indeed shameful that in the industrialized nations there are
people living in poverty and that growing unemployment resulting from
technological progress cannot be reduced. This is one proof of the
irrationality of the prevailing system while the irrepressible
increase of drug abuse, xenophobia and violence show its moral
decadence.Though subjected to a criminal blockade if only because it
does not share the ideas of its powerful neighbour to the North,
Cuba-which lost 70 percent of its imports as a result of the demise
of the Soviet Union and the socialist camp-has not had one school,
one hospital, one elders'home, one day care centre closed and in
spite of being a poor nation, when compared with other countries in
the world, it is nowadays counted among those with the highest number
of teachers, physicians, as well as art and sport instructors per
capita. Our infant mortality rate is under 10 per one thousand live
births. We no longer have illiterates and life expectancy is 75
years.We have lived through an experience, so we can talk about it.
What all of us present in this gathering want is possible but
something more than promises, resolutions and declarations is
required: political will andj ustice, not only inside every country
but also amongst all countries.Let the wealth of this world be better
distributed amongst all nations and inside them all! Let real
solidarity take root amongst all peoples;only then, our dreams of
today might become tomorrow's realities.