/** headlines: 126.0 **/
** Topic: Fidel's speech in NOAL SUMMIT **
** Written 11:55 AM Oct 19, 1995 by newsdesk in cdp:headlines **
From: IGC News Desk <newsdesk@igc.apc.orgp;
/* Written 7:00 AM Oct 19, 1995 by cubaseccion in igc:reg.cuba */
/* ---------- "Fidel's speech in NOAL SUMMIT" ---------- */
Mr. President of Colombia,
Mr. Heads of State and Government,
Distinguished Delegates and guests,
Our reason d'etre may have sustained changes but it has not ceased to exist.
Never before, since the Inception of our Movement 35 years ago, were we so rebuffed and ignored in international politics or so discriminated against and neglected when it comes to development aid and credits; never before was the international economic order so unjust and one-sided. Sovereignty and the territorial integrity of the South countries had never been so much in jeopardy; never before was our independence in such peril, nor had such a flagrant interference in our internal affairs been so devised.
The threat of war among the big powers was put farther away but instability, social violence and the ethnic conflicts have been expanding in different regions of the globe. Entire communities bound by history, economy and even blood have been divided, confronting each other and even making war on each other.
Today, insecurity and poverty are greater while globalization is intended to prevail on our peoples as a straitjacket preventing the implementation of national policies different from those dictated by the North. Total privatization and trade openings, at whatever costs, are presented as the only viable formula of success.
The hardly ever mentioned Third World external debt grows steadily and combined with unfair terms of reference constitutes today the main obstacle opposing development. Presently, it is over the hallucinating figure of 1.5 trillion dollars. Unemployment keeps growing and social development is being ruthlessly sacrificed.
Is it reasonable to accept the pretense that certain economic models imposed by the most developed societies and their specific patterns of political organization should become universal mirrors and the unique yardsticks of legitimacy and righteousness??
How long are we going to silently watch the absurd wastage of resources by the opulent societies and the criminal mortgage of our children's future in this unbridled race toward a global ecologic disaster that many are beginning to consider hopeless??
The production of increasingly sophisticated and lethal weapons goes on while their trade grows. The competition is fierce among their powerful producers. Later the Security Council, where the main weapon traders seat as permanent members, intervenes as a peace carrier on behalf of the United Nations. Has the end of the cold war, by any chance, resulted in a more noble use of the enormous resources previously committed to the arms race??
The U.S. Congress approves higher military budgets than requested by its government. What are those weapons for?? It is the emergence of a unipolar world that has aggravated the hegemonist tendencies that pretend to act above the United Nations. There is the intent to impose the will of the hegemonic power on the Security Council and use it as an instrument to subjugate the world.
That policy is still more alarming and dangerous when formulated from the positions assumed by extreme right-wing groups that seem to be gaining considerable political ground in the United States. That's how in the Nazi Germany the fanatic dreams to impose its ruling to the world emerged, albeit Hitler was not so powerful.
In the face of this danger and other threatening evil, it is our duty to resolutely strive for the democratization of the United Nations, so that the General Assembly takes its rightful place and the Security Council will cease encroaching upon its functions and acting behind its back.
The privileges should cease and the permanent member status should no longer be an almost exclusive attribute of European nation, the nuclear powers or the overly wealthy nations. Let's not hesitate. Let's fight resolutely so that, in an extended Security Council, two more permanent memberships are conceded to Latin America; two to Africa, which has none; and two more are added to Asia where 60 percent of the world population lives.
The irritating vetoes privilege should at least be amended while that obsolete and anti-democratic instrument is still in force. Let's put an end to the absurdity that among the few specially privileged one country alone can override the will and decision of the rest of the U.N. member countries combined.
United, we are a force. United, our voice will be heard. United, we have to be taken into account.
We are not just spectators. This world is our world too. No one can replace our united action, no one can take the floor for us. Only together, only united can we reject the unjust world political and economic order that some intend to impose on our peoples.
Our demands of today will not be spontaneously conceded. Compromising with the exploiters, acting with the weakness of the coward or neglecting the struggle for our most sacred and legitimate rights will not give us victory. Only the loyalty to the principles that gave life to our Movement, the firmness of our convictions and the determination of our concerted actions will lead us to the conquest of the future our people deserve.
Thank you, very much.