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The Battle of the Truth and Martin Blandino’s Book — October 9, 2008 Part One The international press only reports on the economic hurricane beating the world. Many present it as a new phenomenon. For us it is not new; it was forseeable. Today, I’d rather deal with another current issue of great interest to our people, too. When I wrote the reflection on Cangamba, I was unaware of the excellent book written by the journalist and author whose name I have included in the title. I had only seen the film Kagamba, which brought to my mind such touching memories. One phrase kept coming to me: Those who fell in Cangamba did not die in vain! The same purpose had inspired my message of August 12, 1983, addressed to the Chief of the Cuban Military Mission in Angola. At dawn, the enemy had pulled out of the battle field. Its troops there exceeded the figure of 3,000 men armed and equipped by the South African racists. From August 2, they had been attacking day and night the trenches occupied by 600 Angolans of the 32nd FAPLA Brigade and 84 Cuban internationalists, plus a reinforcement of 102 men sent from the military region of Luena. Cubans and Angolans fought restlessly there with no food or water and having sustained 78 deadly casualties and 204 injured; of these 18 dead and 27 wounded were Cubans. When the attackers started to pull out they lost practically every weapon and ammunition and sustained a great number of casualties. The two best UNITA Brigades had been crushed. The book by Jorge Martin Blandino was published in 2007, when due to my health condition I was not in the frontline. It was the result of a lengthy research and of talks with many comrades who were protagonists of the events, as well as the consultation of 34 books on the subject, some of them written by “South African officers from the days of apartheid” or people who were misled into becoming UNITA followers. In one of the most interesting chapters it reads:
The historian’s explanation is very clear. An embarrassing situation had already been created which was really serious for its implications any way you looked at it. Everything was at stake, therefore, the Cuban command had to be very firm and keep their sangfroid. In the same book, and taking up different moments, the essence is explained:
The author reviews the MINFAR official documents:
Colonel Amels Escalante hoped that Colonel N’Dalu, chief of the FAPLA General Staff, would understand the need to withdraw from Cangamba. The Angolan Army General Kundi Payhama, a combatant of exceptional merits, told the author: “There was brotherhood, there was fraternity and everything was done here in a different spirit. The love, friendship, sacrifices and devotion of the Cuban comrades who left here their sweat and their blood has no price. Let it be said that we are forever de facto brothers. Nothing in this world, nothing, can justify that anything gets in the way of friendship between Angola and Cuba.” We shall continue on Monday in Granma. Fidel Castro Ruz A most noble, most exceptional man 
CHE… is one of the most noble, exceptional and altruistic men I have ever known, which would have no importance if one did not believe that people like him exist in their millions, millions and millions among the masses. People who stand out in a singular manner would not be able to do anything, if many millions, like him, did not have the embryo or did not have the capacity to acquire those qualities. That is why our Revolution took so much interest in fighting against illiteracy and developing education, so that everyone would be like Che. —Fidel, in his conversations with Ignacio Ramonet, published October 8, 2008We are and we should be socialists — October 4th, 2008 Last October 2nd we discussed the international price of our fuel consumption. I am under the impression that its significance attracted the attention of many leaders and cadres. There is a general debate about the percentage of the population with access to electricity and other common services in modern life. This may vary from 40% or lower to 60% or a bit higher. It depends on the access to hydroelectric resources and other elements. Before January 1st, 1959, almost half of the Cuban people had no access to electricity. Today, with a population twice the size and a wide access to that energy, its consumption has increased several times over. In our country, as in a large part of the world –except for the super-rich nations– that electricity is brought to the people by air using electricity pylons, posts, transformers and other means, many of which were turned down by the strong winds of hurricanes Gustav and Ike throughout the island. An article in Granma signed by Maria Julia Mayoral outlines the devastation of the power grid by both natural phenomena. But, she adds that while the hurricanes were crossing the power generators provided electricity to “966 bakeries, 207 food processing centers, 372 radio stations, 193 hospitals, 496 policlinics, 635 water-pumping stations, 138 senior citizens homes, among other basic facilities.” “This means that…it was necessary to take down hundreds of emergency equipment located in production and services centers to set them up quickly in places unconnected to the National Energy Service. This was made possible by the coordinated action of the dismantling brigades of various state institutions and transportation companies with the support of local authorities. The means provisionally moved will be returned to their original centers as soon as the situation is back to normal.” The words that I have literally taken from the original text show the devotion of Party and Government cadres, both national and local, to finding solutions. The heading of the article written by Maria Julia reads: A Fortune is Spent to Bring Light to the People. I think this is the right time to recall that the power generators were set up with the following purposes: To secure crucial services such as healthcare or food preservation under any circumstances; ·To secure such industrial productions as bread, milk and others; ·To secure steel smelting whose interruption would seriously damage the industry; ·To guarantee defense services and public information which are indispensable at all times, such as the weather bureaus and their radars that follow the hurricanes’ path; ·To ensure the progressive generation of electricity with minimum consumption, much more efficiently than the available thermal plants. Having said this, we should remember that the power generators are of different sizes, from those with small engines that can produce 40 KW/h or less up to those generating over 1,000 KW/h. Sometimes it becomes necessary to put together several of these engines, for example, in a hospital with advanced technological equipment and an indispensable air conditioning system which are high energy consumers. These engines operate with diesel and their efficiency grows as their capacity for electricity generation increases to a certain point. They require a certain type of grease, a stock of spare parts, maintenance, etc. A growing number of power generators are made up by uninterrupted energy-producing engines which use another fuel. The ideal thing would be for each of the abovementioned production or services units to receive electricity from the National Energy System. This is produced with more efficient equipment working on fuel oil, which is less expensive than diesel, obtained from oil refining, a fuel increasingly used for transportation of passengers and cargo, tractors and other farming equipment. If for whatever reasons the power generators that operate with diesel are used to produce electricity for houses and placed under a 20 hours operation regime this can have a negative impact. This equipment has been intended for emergencies and, under Cuba’s present development, to operate for a limited number of peak hours. Among the hydrocarbon consuming generators nothing compares with the sets of power generators that operate on fuel oil, even if the investment is more costly. Due to their weight and complexity, they cannot be moved from one place to another at will. In this sense, it is second only to the combined cycle plants that use gas, previously cleaned of sulfur and other contaminants. We should be mindful that no cadre forgets the advisability of not wasting a minute to return all the diesel consuming engines to their specific function in the neighboring provinces and municipalities as soon as the emergency is over. There is a serious deficit of that fuel; the country spends too much and it has been necessary to reduce the demanded allocations. I insist that the production and distribution of food and construction materials are absolutely prioritized at the moment. We are not a developed capitalist country in a crisis, one whose leaders go insane looking for solutions amidst a depression, inflation, a lack of markets and unemployment; we are and we should be socialists. Fidel Castro Ruz A subject to reflect on — October 3, 2008 Under normal circumstances, Cuba is a country where electricity is provided to 98% of the population. There is one single energy production and supply system. The use of power generators ensures supply to crucial centers under any circumstances. And this will again be the case as soon as the power grids are restored. It is worthwhile giving some thought every day to the cost of electricity; civilized life in today’s world would be impossible without it. The situation is still more challenging at the upcoming time of the year as nights grow longer and all lights and equipment are turned on at the same time, especially since most homes have several electrical appliances. Reflecting on the subject would enable us to understand the predicament of many countries in the world that have import fuel. In Cuba water energy never abounded; it never could since we don’t have large rivers. Solar energy, a renewable and non-contaminant form of energy, though costly, is already being used at several thousand points to meet social needs. Finally, there is the wind energy, whose tests began under the destructive danger of the hurricanes. However, efforts to seek a response to growing energy needs will not stop on account of that. Our electricity production basically depends on thermoelectric plants built throughout the country under the Revolution –they barely existed before—together with the extensive power grid required in a long and narrow island to compensate for regional deficits and for indispensable repairs. Nevertheless, it is up to us to save fuel used daily not only to produce electricity but also in other national activities such as industry, transportation, construction, land cultivation, etc. I will not list them all because there are scores of activities where fuel is consumed, often more than necessary, both in Cuba and elsewhere. However, it is worse in our case because we have grown used to receiving from the Revolution many things that for which we have not worked. We even tend to forget that hurricanes exist, in combination with climate changes and other phenomena created by so-called civilization. One piece of information that would help us illustrate such situation: the cost of Cuba’s annual energy consumption, at this year’s prices, is in excess of $8 billion. On the other hand, if we add up the value of nickel, sugar and the production of the Scientific Complex, which are the three main export items, at current prices it would barely amount to $2 billion; and from these we have to deduct the expenses and necessary input to produce them. Of course, these are not our only sources of hard currency income. Our homeland is receiving today a higher income from exporting services than it does from material exports. Perhaps, in a relatively short period of time, we might become oil exporters. We are already partly so, but of heavy crude oil that cannot be refined in Cuba due to our present limited capacity. One conclusion that can be drawn from what has been said is that, faced with the excessive fuel demand of some state institutions, the response has been categorical: reduce the activities that you have thought or dreamed about. Some of our comrades really dream of meeting all the “unbridled” demands of our people. What we need in our state is a strict discipline and an absolutely rational order of priorities. We should not recoil from establishing what should or should not be done based on the principle that nothing is easy, and that material goods can only be honorably created through intensive and quality work. What must never be lacking under any circumstances, are the available means of transporting material, foodstuffs and resources for the most crucial productions and services. I insist on the indispensable and crucial necessity – not of useless and ineffective bureaucratic work, but of indispensable and essential physical work. Not just being intellectuals, but also being workers, working with our hands. Fidel Castro Ruz |
Fidel Castro Ruz is the President of Cuba. |
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