Speech by Cuban Ambassador to Australia During the Celebration of José Martí´s Brith Anniversary Excellencies, members of the diplomatic corps, guests, dear friends, and all protocol observed, Many of the distinguished persons we invited couldn’t come to our reception today due to geographic distances, but they sent us messages of congratulation and we know they are spiritually present. Thanks a lot to them. Unfortunately, this year floods are affecting Queensland for a second time in a very short period and life and properties of Australians citizens are once again menaced by the climate changes our planet is increasingly suffering. Allow me to express our desire of best wishes and good luck to all Australians. Dear guests, welcome all of you to this reception to celebrate the 53rd anniversary of the Cuban Revolution and the 159 anniversary of the birth of the Apostle of the Independence of Cuba, Jose Marti. José Marti was a man of ideas and action a poet and a writer, a Latin American hero whose thoughts rested in a deep perception of the most pure ethics and ideals of social justice. He, a man of the 19th century, has always been the soul of our nation. However, even when he was ever-presen,t 54 years ago the image of Cuba was deplorable: a marines and mafia brothel, a gambling spot plenty of drugs, rum, beautiful beaches and women. We were a country with around 40% of illiterate population; a public health system that could almost only be reached by an elite that enjoyed a glamorous social live, while the majority of the population was brutally repressed, and marginalized in a state of misery and racial and gender discrimination. Thanks to the permanent influence of Jose Marti ideals and a sustained struggle of several generations, the last one of which was headed by Fidel Castro, our Revolution placed Cuba in the map for the first time in our history as a respected and dignified country in which unity around the ideas of social justice, human solidarity and independence became the essential pillars. From then on, we have been living in a very safe environment and we developed a strong sense of enjoyment of life, confidence, enthusiasm and hope. As it is recognized by many international organizations, Cuba has a highly and equally educated population, thanks to a completely free, comprehensive and sophisticated system of education that covers every field of knowledge. One of the healthier population of the world lives in Cuba where even tropical diseases are completely controlled, due to a mature, entirely free and universal system that includes preventive, primary, and specialized medical assistance. Cuban science, and particularly the biotechnology sector, is also recognized as one of the most developed in the world, with unique products that protect human beings from many diseases: hepatitis B, certain types of cancer (including a revolutionary vaccine against lung cancer), and leg amputation due to diabetes, just to mention a few. This is the result of the passion for enhancement of human health and education that developed from the very beginning of the Revolution. As it is well known, such humanistic fervor has gone beyond our borders and is at present benefiting many people in poor countries. For decades tens of thousands of Cuban physicians, health specialists and teachers working on the basis of human solidarity are scattered in many corners of the earth, including the impoverished Haiti, and several Pacific island neighbors of Australia, Cuba is also known for having one of the most advanced and benevolent systems of social and women welfare, and for an easy access to the best cultural and sport events, originated by many highly qualified artists and athletes, educated in a network of schools that covers the whole country. Nobody in Cuba fears for the education, health or general safety of their families; nobody is fearful of police or military oppression, nobody is terrified by delinquency and crime. We know we are a safe country. The social gains of the Cuban Revolution, the national dignity and full independence we have been enjoying for years, are not supplementary or minor factors. Any of the hundreds of millions of families in the world whose children cannot attend school or are homeless, suffers or die from curable diseases, or as a result of natural disasters or hunger; or any of the countries whose politics and economies depend on foreign interest would agree with us. Despite our economic hardships none of those unfortunate world citizens and children is Cuban. Dear guests, all of these social achievements were reached despite more than half a century of an economic, commercial and financial blockade that has been maintained even though it has been rejected 20 times by almost all of members of the United Nations. However and despite of that, as you know, we are at present introducing changes in our system to make Cuban socialism more efficient and updated. In the conception and making of these transformations the entire population is being part and parcel. Yes, we Cubans are trying to improve our situation, aware that is impossible to create a terrestrial paradise but convinced also that, the whole planet should be able and must have the right, without intrusions, to find ways to improve life and create a better world for the benefit of us all. With this spirit and clear vision, dear friends, we are approaching our relationship with Australia. Though still modest, in recent years bilateral exchange has been increasing between our countries and people in the fields of collaboration, science, culture, sports and general trade. Nowadays, we are happy to say that our countries signed already an agreement to jointly support Haiti’s health system; that we are exploring ways of doing soon the same in the Pacific area; that we are working together in an experience to end with illiteracy in an aborigine community in NSW; that we are planning a trip of CSIRO to Cuba in April to work together in the field of biotech and tropical medicine and that we are developing even more our cultural exchange. By the way, let me say that few hours ago we celebrated in Cuba the Australian National Day just with an important and meaningful exhibition of Australian aborigine painting and photography supported by our 2 governments and that in April we will present a very important exhibition of Cuban paintings at the High Court in Canberra. But, of course, much more will come in the near future. Let me finish, dear guests, ensuring that Cuba will always be there and even with the changes that will make our lives more comfortable we will persist to be an essentially idealistic country in harmony with the thoughts and principles of Jose Marti. In this sense I would like to end quoting him: Barricades of ideas are worth more than barricades of stones. Thanks a lot (Cubamnrex/Embacuba Australia)
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