|
Edited on Tue Jun-03-08 07:20 PM by magbana
(Thanks to Radio Havana Cuba's English Department for this text.)
==================================================================
Key Address by Cuba's First Vice President Jose Ramon Machado Ventura To the
High Level Conference on World Food Security, Rome, Italy
Mr. Chairman,
Two years ago, in this very hall, the international community agreed to
eradicate world hunger. The aim to halve the number of malnourished people
by 2015 was set. That modest and inadequate goal is bound to strike us as a
pipe-dream today.
The world food crisis is not a circumstantial phenomenon. Their serious and
recent manifestation, in a world that produces enough food for all its
inhabitants, clearly reveals the systemic and structural nature of the
crisis.
Hunger and malnourishment are the result of an international economic order
that maintains and deepens poverty, inequality and injustice.
The North countries have an unquestionable share of responsibility for the
hunger and malnourishment of 854 million people. They imposed commercial
liberalization upon a world with patently unequal actors and advanced
financial recipes calling for structural adjustments. They brought ruin to
many small producers in the South and turned self-sufficient and even export
nations into net importers of food products.
The governments of developed countries refuse to eliminate their outrageous
agricultural subsidies while imposing their rules of international trade on
the rest of the world. Their voracious transnational corporations set
prices, monopolize technologies, impose unfair certification processes on
trade and manipulate distribution channels, sources of financing, trade and
supplies for the production of food worldwide. They also control
transportation, scientific research, gene banks and the production of
fertilizers and pesticides.
The worst of it all is that, if things continue as they are, the crisis will
become even more serious. The production and consumption patterns of
developed countries are accelerating the planet's climate change, which
threatens humanity's very existence. These patterns must be changed. The
irrational attempt to perpetuate these disastrous forms of consumerism is
behind the sinister strategy of transforming grains and cereals into fuels.
At the Havana Summit, Non-Aligned Countries called on peoples to work
towards a peaceful and prosperous world and a just and equitable
international order. This is the only path to follow if we're to put an end
to the food crisis.
The right to food is an inalienable human right. At Cuba's instance, this
has been ratified by successive resolutions approved by the former
Commission on 2 Human Rights since 1997 and, later, by the Human Rights
Council and the UN General Assembly.
As the representative of the Non-Aligned Movement, with the support of more
than two thirds of UN member states, our country also promoted the calling
of a seventh special session of the Human Rights Council, which has just
called for concrete actions to address the world food crisis.
Hunger and malnourishment cannot be eradicated through palliatives, nor with
symbolic donations which -let us be honest-will not satisfy peoples' needs
and will not be sustainable.
At the very least, agricultural production in South countries must first be
rehabilitated and developed. Developed countries have more than enough
resources for this. What's required is the political will of their
governments.
If NATO's military budget were reduced by a mere 10% a year, nearly 100
billion dollars would be available for spending elsewhere.
If the foreign debt of developing countries, a debt they have paid several
times over, were cancelled, South countries would have at their disposal the
345 billion dollars they annually devote to service payments.
If developed countries honoured their commitment to devote 0.7 % of the
Gross Domestic Product to Official Development Aid, South countries would be
able to rely at least on an additional 130 billion dollars a year.
If only one fourth of the money squandered each year on commercial
advertisement were devoted to food production, nearly 250 billion dollars
could be destined to fight hunger and malnutrition.
If the money destined to agricultural subsidies in the North were destined
to agricultural development in the South, our countries would have around a
billion dollars a day at their disposal, to invest in food production.
Mr. Chairman,
This is the message brought by Cuba, a country ferociously blockaded but
standing proud on its principles and the unity of its people: yes, this food
crisis can be successfully confronted, but we should target the root of the
problem, address its real causes and repudiate demagogy, hypocrisy and false
promises.
Allow me to conclude recalling the words of Fidel Castro, when he addressed
the UN General Assembly in New York in October 1979:
"The noise of weapons, of the menacing language, of the haughtiness on the
international scene must cease. Enough of the illusion that the problems of
the world can be solved by nuclear weapons. Bombs may kill the hungry, the
sick and the ignorant, but bombs cannot kill hunger, disease and ignorance."
Thank you very much.
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
