It Happened in Old Monterrey - RESEND

Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit

source: Radio Progreso.com 
http://www.rprogreso.com


[apparently our original distribution of this item was garbled in
transmission; the original website version is full of bad code and we
did not catch it all. Here it is again, in pure ascii text (we hope).
Apologies... NY Transfer]


LIES, TRUTH, TRIVIA AND TRANSCENDENT ISSUES IN MONTERREY 

By Saul Landau 

"It happened in old Monterrey," the nostalgic love song informs us. But
unfortunately the mass media misinformed the public about the nature of the
acrimonious events that occurred in this industrialized Mexican city during
the third week of March. Once again, the banality of gossip generated by
Washington's anti-Cuba politics intruded at a summit meeting designed to
confront the leading economic issues of the world.

Mexican President Vicente Fox, host of the world summit, had announced that
his aim at the meeting was to "strengthen the policies and institutions
required to mobilize domestic resources and attract foreign investment." The
developing countries, Fox said, had "the primary responsibility ... to
implement sound economic policies, strengthen the rule of law, create fair
and impartial judicial systems, and fight impunity and corruption."

Having stated these noble goals, Fox vaguely challenged the "industrialized
nations in North America and Europe" to show "they are genuinely committed
to supporting the new drive for development by reversing the persistent
decline in official development assistance, by opening their borders to
trade, and by reducing subsidies to agriculture."

Fox also noted that "agricultural produce from developing countries often
would be highly competitive and a source of desperately needed income if
developed countries didn't impose artificial market barriers."

Ironically, Fox's foreign minister then proceeded to kow-tow to the very man
who had just re-imposed tariffs to protect US steel from market competition
and had lavished US agri-business with billions in subsidies to give them an
edge over third world producers. George W. Bush, preaching free market and
practicing protectionism, had placed a condition on his attendance in
Monterrey. Mexico had to assure him that he would not share any space or
time with Cuba's President Fidel Castro.

The White House apparently feared that even an accidental joint appearance
with Cuba's president would ruin W's pristine reputation with extremist
Cuban exile constituents who, you should recall, had donated oodles of money
to the Republican candidate and helped intimidate Florida vote counters.
These "patriots" might not understand that presidential obligations might
entail that George W. Bush share the same meeting space with the communist,
atheist Devil himself.

So, as those who conspired to keep Fidel from the Monterrey meeting should
have anticipated, Cuba's jefe turned an insult into a "newsworthy" event by
asking, just as he concluded a blistering critique of those who ran the
world economy, for the "indulgence" of the heads of state "since I will not
be able to accompany you any longer."

Castro claimed that a "special situation created by my participation in this
Summit obligates me to immediately return to my country." Apparently, the
press quickly learned from eager Cuban "leakers," this special situation
involved Jorge Castaneda, Mexico's Foreign Minister kissing US butt once
again. (Castaneda's ambiguous remarks led to Cubans crashing a bus into the
Mexican Embassy in Havana earlier this year. Last year Castaneda served US
interests by leading a move to condemn Cuba for human rights abuses in
Geneva. The United States, in turn, refused to give Castaneda any quid pro
quo on "illegal" Mexican immigrants.)

Cuban officials say that Castaneda informed them that Bush refused to attend
the Monterrey meeting "if Castro attended." Castro claims that the United
Nations -- not Mexico -- had invited him to participate in the Monterrey
Summit. Granma, the official organ of Cuba's Communist Party, claimed that
Castaneda, during his and Fox's visit to Cuba last February 3, had requested
that "Comrade Fidel be asked the favor of not attending the conference in
Mexico," but lacked the guts "to raise the subject" to Fidel's face.

However, the Granma editorial avers, only "24 hours before his departure for
Monterrey" did Mexican officials ask the Cuban President not to attend the
Summit. "After strenuous exchanges of opinion and with great difficulty the
Mexican Government consented to an agreement accepted by Cuba -- with no
other alternative -- that the head of our delegation would withdraw in the
afternoon of the 21st. The Commander-in-Chief kept his word, but could not
leave without giving a brief explanation, as much for the Cuban people as
for international public opinion."

Castaneda denies that he tried to limit Castro's participation. Yet,
according to Granma, which claims to have ample evidence to back its claims,
Castaneda "shamefully lied about events he knew only too well."

As if to rub salt into the open wound caused by Castaneda's peculiar
protocol practices, Granma absolved from blame President Fox "at a time when
serious human and economic problems are awaiting a solution on which depends
the fate of millions of Mexicans who live illegally in lands snatched from
their country." Continuing with its barely disguised attack on the Mexican
Foreign Minister who has done little to alleviate the plight of Mexican
laborers in the United States, Granma claimed sympathy with the hundreds who
"die every year crossing and re-crossing borders" and suffer discrimination
and the violation of their most basic human rights."

Castro's premature departure not only put Castaneda in the hot seat - he has
been severely criticized in Mexico's Congress and in prestigious media
outlets - but it also skewed Bush's primary goals in his brief trip to Latin
America. Instead of promoting his free trade with aid package, Bush had to
respond to the question: Did he "pressure Castro" became the issue, rather
than his lame attempt to promote his new visage as friend of the poor and
herald of the very economic model that Castro dismembered in his Monterrey
speech.

White House press flak, Ari Fleischer, asked the media rhetorically whom
they believed: Bush or Castro" Bush, after all, is well known for his George
Washington like quality of never lying. Just ask him about his relationship
with Enron - En what" - or his good buddy Kenny Boy Lay, Enron's CEO - now
known as Mr. Lay. Did eating a pretzel choke him earlier this year or was he
firing up the pretzel"

Cuba's foreign ministry declared that US National Security Adviser
Condoleeza Rice had publicly and categorically declared that, "Bush and
Castro's paths would not cross at the gathering." Well, maybe Rice, not Bush
was lying.

Far more important, however, than who said what to whom or the apparent
breach of protocol, were the differences between the economic models
presented by Castro and Bush at Monterrey. Reported in less than a paragraph
by most of the prestige media, Fidel's critique cut to the core of imposing
issues that confront more than 3 of the world's 6 billion people.

The Cuban leader described Bush's model for trade and development, the
current economic order, as "a system of plundering and exploitation like no
other in history." What Castro called "a huge casino," Bush called a healthy
way of doing business. Bush's "investment" Castro labeled as "speculative
operations completely disconnected from the real economy." In Bush's mental
picture, the US dominated economic order has served the people well. After
all, the people he knows possess wealth. Indeed, most are millionaires many
times over. Castro's vision, however, includes that part of the world that
"lives in underdevelopment, and extreme poverty." Bush foresees his model as
the instrument to close the economic gap. Castro demanded attention to the
facts presented by UN statistics. The current system "far from narrowing the
gap" has widened it.  "The situation has reached such extremes," declared
Fidel, "that the assets of the three wealthiest persons in the world amount
to the GDP of the 48 poorest countries combined."

As the UN reported, Castro continued 826 million were starving in 2001, 854
million adults are illiterate this year "while 325 million children do not
attend school." 2 billion people have no access to low cost medications. 2.4
billion lack the basic sanitation conditions. "No less than 11 million
children under the age of 5 perish every year from preventable causes while
half a million go blind for lack of vitamin A."

President Bush who, after his recent meeting with rock star Bono, claims he
now understands the need to increase aid to the poor, still maintains that
only the western economic model can solve world poverty. Castro claims this
model has led to facts like life span in the developed world being 30 years
higher than those living in Sub-Saharan Africa,

Bush implicitly blames the poor for their plight. They don"t work hard
enough and elect corrupt governments. He offers more aid, but with strings
on it to ensure that no US money goes to support corruption. The Enron
affair has apparently faded into the realm of ancient history for Bush. Once
his favorite corporation, before it was discovered to have bilked the public
and US government officials of billions - far more than any of the corrupt
third world countries could have skimmed from US aid programs, Bush now
refuses to mention its name.

Compare Bush's self-righteous sermonizing approach to Castro's. "The poor
countries should not be blamed for this tragedy," declared Fidel. "They
neither conquered nor plundered entire continents for centuries; they did
not establish colonialism, or re-established slavery; and, modern
imperialism is not of their making. Actually, they have been its victims.
Therefore, the main responsibility for financing their development lies with
those states, which for obvious historical reasons, enjoy today the benefits
of those atrocities.

As the IMF and World Bank still try to figure out how to squeeze
impoverished third world to make usurious interest payments, Castro demands
that the "rich world should condone their foreign debt and grant them fresh
soft credits to finance their development. The traditional offers of
assistance, always scant and often ridiculous, are either inadequate or
unfulfilled."

Castro went on to cite the late James Tobin's suggestions "to curtail the
irrepressible flow of currency speculation" and replace "awful institutions
like the IMF," with UN agencies in order to "supply direct development
assistance with a democratic participation of all countries and without the
need to sacrifice the independence and sovereignty of the peoples."

Unfortunately, the Consensus draft signed by the Monterrey attendees
reflected little of Castro's thinking. The world's heads of state seem to
have a visionless agenda. This world political class seems to share one
desire: to govern, period, no matter what the agenda.

They preside, as Castro intoned, over a world in which ever more
sophisticated weapons [are] piling up in the arsenals of the wealthiest and
the mightiest [which] can kill the illiterate, the ill, the poor and the
hungry but they cannot kill ignorance, illness, poverty, or hunger."

Just before he announced his departure Castro called for "a farewell to
arms." People clapped. "A better world is possible," he concluded.

Delegates cheered. Castro delivered the only visionary speech at the
meeting. Then, the delegates went about their business of perpetuating the
very order that has caused such intense suffering for the world's poor,
devastated its environment and led to arguably the most dangerous arms build
up in world history. Yes, "it happened in old Monterrey."

                           *

Saul Landau is Director of Digital Media and International Outreach for the
College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences at the California State
Polytechnic University Pomona. His new film is MAQUILA: A TALE OF TWO
MEXICOS. http://www.saullandau.org

Copyright (c) 2002 Radio Progreso, Inc.

 
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