REUTERS headed the list of international news agencies yesterday which presented Pedro Miret and Osmany Cienfuegos as historical figures dismissed by Raúl Castro. It was followed, in order, by EFE, which affirmed textually: "they were dismissed as vice presidents of the Council of Ministers on March 2."
The pretext for this intrigue, widely reported throughout the world, was the publication in the Gaceta Oficial (Official Gazette), on March 24, of the decree on the restructuring of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Cuba, approved on the 2nd of this month.
Pedro Miret is a magnificent compañero, with great historic merits, a man whom we all respect and for whom I feel a great affection. He has been unable to hold any office for a number of years now, for health reasons. The slow settling-in of his illness led to the progressive cessation of his political activity. It is not fair to present him as "dismissed," without any consideration whatsoever.
Osmany Cienfuegos, the brother of Camilo, undertook important tasks, not only as vice president of the Council of Ministers, but also as a member of the Party and fulfilling my instructions when I was Commander in Chief. He always was and is a revolutionary. From long before I became ill, his functions were progressively ending. He was no longer acting as vice president of the Council of Ministers. Compañero Raúl Castro, president of the Council of State, has absolutely no responsibility in this. In both cases, it concerned purely legal steps.
Reuters and EFE are two of the Western agencies closest to the imperialist policy of the United States. Occasionally, the latter behaves worse, although it is much less important than the former.
Making use of a habitual technique, EFE quotes Joaquín Roy, director of the European Union Center in Miami, to publish the following in another cable on March 24: "Spain has been rediscovered as a key country in certain regions of the world of interest to the United States, such as Latin America and, in particular, in two countries: Cuba and Venezuela."
The EFE immediately adds: "The expert stated that the greatest interest of the United States, more than pressuring for its [Cuba’s] opening up, changes, etc., is the island’s stability.
"For years now, he explained, studies by U.S. security agencies have not pointed to Cuba as a military threat, but have remained attentive to the development of changes in order to avoid potential internal frictions that might destabilize the region.
"It is of no interest to the United States if the result of the opening is civil war in Cuba.
"According to Roy, the European Union and Spain have no problem working jointly with the United States, but ‘cautiously,’ in order not to give the impression or be accused in Cuba of following Washington’s lead."
As clear as day: the ideas of the old Spanish empire on crutches, trying to help the corrupt, tottering and genocidal yanqui empire.
The U.S. superpower and the Spanish minipower have learned nothing from the heroic resistance of Cuba throughout more than half a century.
Fidel Castro Ruz
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
It had all been said
LAST night the grand finale of the Classic took place between the two Asian giants. The U.S. team was glaring in its absence. The multinationals that exploit sports lost nothing and earned a lot. The American people are complaining.
Everything was forecast. The Japanese gave their opponents a hard time, even though Matsuzaka was not having his best day. They hit the first pitch of the game, sending a homerun through center field. At that moment, those accustomed to a traditional way of seeing that sport since the days of Babe Ruth dreamed of a deluge of yanki hits.
It got even worse when Matsuzaka walked one player and the black U.S. player Jimmy Rollins hit a fly between second base and center field that was perfectly catchable but fell into the field after it was blocked by no less than Hiroyuki Nakajima, the exceptional Japanese shortstop. The same thing was happening to the Japanese team in that game as the United States the day before; the Americans had a one-run lead at the beginning of the first inning.
The Japanese manager was kind to his opening pitcher, who was announced with great fanfare, not wanting even a flower petal to graze him. He talked to him, patted him on the back a few times and left him alone.
Japan was the home team and 27 outs were to come; its famous pitcher gave it an extra go and finished the inning.
Immediately, the Japanese began their effort to eliminate that lead and in a short while they were already 4 runs ahead of the United States.
That afternoon Matsuzaka was not the invincible pitcher. After a few more pitches, he was replaced by another from Japan’s excellent collection of pitchers; the manager replaced them without the least hesitation whenever he sensed the slightest danger. He had reserves for winning that encounter and all he needed for the final game of the Classic the following day.
Every time the U.S. team shortened Japan’s lead by one run, the Japanese manager would look for and rapidly obtain the runs needed to stay 4 ahead.
Ichiro Suzuki, Japan’s leadoff hitter, had failed four times that day, but when it was really necessary, he hit a double and the lead went up to 5, with which the game ended in the ninth inning.
On the next day, March 23, at 6:30 in the afternoon, in full daylight in Los Angeles and 9:30 p.m. in Cuba, the final game between Japan and Korea was played. Korea was the home team and couldn’t resist the temptation of using a pitcher who had defeated the Japanese team twice in the Classic, in games of 1 or 2 runs, very quick, a curve-ball thrower who does not strike out much, and who had been very well-studied by the Japanese specialists and batters.
This time, the first pitch resulted in a homerun through center field, a carbon copy of the yanki homer the day before — a terrible beginning for the other Asian baseball superpower. In spite of that, as proof of the quality of both the teams, it was one of the closest games imaginable between professional baseball players. The Japanese manager did not err in his choice of pitcher.
Hisashi Iwakuma, Japan’s opening pitcher, threw 7 and two-thirds innings, several of them with less that 10 pitches per inning.
In the 4th inning Japan was still leading 1-0.
In the 5th, Korea tied with a homerun.
In the 7th, Japan batted 3 consecutive hits and moved ahead 2-1.
In the 8th, Japan got another run and the score was 3-1. In the bottom of that same inning, Korea scored a run, making it 3-2.
In the 9th, Japan’s best right-hander, Yu Darvish, walked two players in a row and, when they were just 2 strikes away from victory, a Korean hit tied the game.
In the 10th, Japan drove in 2 runs that decided its victory, 5-3.
Led by the man who is, no doubt, the best batter in the world, Ichiro Suzuki, the Japanese had 18 hits.
In a few short lines, that is how the game evolved, but it was full of complicated situations, spectacular offensive and defensive plays, hugely important strikeouts, keeping the tension and emotions high throughout all 10 innings.
I am not a sports commentator. I write about political issues which I never stray from; that is why I pay attention to sports; that is why there was no reflection yesterday regarding the very important encounter that would be taking place that day.
It had all been said and anticipated several days in advance. My friends, the reporters of the Western news agencies, will not have any material to highlight, with greater or lesser emphasis, which in their opinion are difficulties linked to socialism.
Fidel Castro Ruz
March 24, 2009 2:53 p.m.
Everything was forecast. The Japanese gave their opponents a hard time, even though Matsuzaka was not having his best day. They hit the first pitch of the game, sending a homerun through center field. At that moment, those accustomed to a traditional way of seeing that sport since the days of Babe Ruth dreamed of a deluge of yanki hits.
It got even worse when Matsuzaka walked one player and the black U.S. player Jimmy Rollins hit a fly between second base and center field that was perfectly catchable but fell into the field after it was blocked by no less than Hiroyuki Nakajima, the exceptional Japanese shortstop. The same thing was happening to the Japanese team in that game as the United States the day before; the Americans had a one-run lead at the beginning of the first inning.
The Japanese manager was kind to his opening pitcher, who was announced with great fanfare, not wanting even a flower petal to graze him. He talked to him, patted him on the back a few times and left him alone.
Japan was the home team and 27 outs were to come; its famous pitcher gave it an extra go and finished the inning.
Immediately, the Japanese began their effort to eliminate that lead and in a short while they were already 4 runs ahead of the United States.
That afternoon Matsuzaka was not the invincible pitcher. After a few more pitches, he was replaced by another from Japan’s excellent collection of pitchers; the manager replaced them without the least hesitation whenever he sensed the slightest danger. He had reserves for winning that encounter and all he needed for the final game of the Classic the following day.
Every time the U.S. team shortened Japan’s lead by one run, the Japanese manager would look for and rapidly obtain the runs needed to stay 4 ahead.
Ichiro Suzuki, Japan’s leadoff hitter, had failed four times that day, but when it was really necessary, he hit a double and the lead went up to 5, with which the game ended in the ninth inning.
On the next day, March 23, at 6:30 in the afternoon, in full daylight in Los Angeles and 9:30 p.m. in Cuba, the final game between Japan and Korea was played. Korea was the home team and couldn’t resist the temptation of using a pitcher who had defeated the Japanese team twice in the Classic, in games of 1 or 2 runs, very quick, a curve-ball thrower who does not strike out much, and who had been very well-studied by the Japanese specialists and batters.
This time, the first pitch resulted in a homerun through center field, a carbon copy of the yanki homer the day before — a terrible beginning for the other Asian baseball superpower. In spite of that, as proof of the quality of both the teams, it was one of the closest games imaginable between professional baseball players. The Japanese manager did not err in his choice of pitcher.
Hisashi Iwakuma, Japan’s opening pitcher, threw 7 and two-thirds innings, several of them with less that 10 pitches per inning.
In the 4th inning Japan was still leading 1-0.
In the 5th, Korea tied with a homerun.
In the 7th, Japan batted 3 consecutive hits and moved ahead 2-1.
In the 8th, Japan got another run and the score was 3-1. In the bottom of that same inning, Korea scored a run, making it 3-2.
In the 9th, Japan’s best right-hander, Yu Darvish, walked two players in a row and, when they were just 2 strikes away from victory, a Korean hit tied the game.
In the 10th, Japan drove in 2 runs that decided its victory, 5-3.
Led by the man who is, no doubt, the best batter in the world, Ichiro Suzuki, the Japanese had 18 hits.
In a few short lines, that is how the game evolved, but it was full of complicated situations, spectacular offensive and defensive plays, hugely important strikeouts, keeping the tension and emotions high throughout all 10 innings.
I am not a sports commentator. I write about political issues which I never stray from; that is why I pay attention to sports; that is why there was no reflection yesterday regarding the very important encounter that would be taking place that day.
It had all been said and anticipated several days in advance. My friends, the reporters of the Western news agencies, will not have any material to highlight, with greater or lesser emphasis, which in their opinion are difficulties linked to socialism.
Fidel Castro Ruz
March 24, 2009 2:53 p.m.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
The facts are proving me right
ON Tuesday, March 17, I wrote: The Classic was organized by those who run the exploitation of sports in the United States…" I immediately added: "They placed the three best teams from the (first) Classic and the Olympics — Japan, Korea and Cuba — in the same group, so that they would eliminate each other. Last time, they placed us in the Latin American group, this time in the Asian group.
For that reason, between today and tomorrow in San Diego, one of the three will be irremissibly eliminated…"
In relation to the players in the selection from the Republic of Korea, I stated, "They constitute the principal adversary, because they are likewise methodical and bat with more strength than the Japanese."
Two days later, on March 19, I explained: "IN the game between the Japanese and Cuban teams that concluded today at close to 3:00 a.m., we were unquestionably defeated."
"However, I doubt that any team from the West can defeat Japan and Korea within the group of competitors who will be playing in Los Angeles in the next three days. With their quality, only one of the two Asian countries will decide who takes the first and second places in the Classic."
In relation to the Japanese I provided some details:
"Training sessions are incredibly rigorous and methodical. They have devised technical methods to develop the reflexes required by every player. Every day, batters practice with hundreds of balls pitched by left- or right-handers. As for the pitchers, they are obliged to throw 400 balls every day. It they commit any error during the game, they have to pitch another 100. They do it with pleasure, as if it were a form of self-punishment. In that way, they acquire a notable muscle control that obeys orders sent by their brains. That is why their pitchers’ ability to place balls exactly where they want them amazes everyone. Similar methods are applied to all of the activities each of the athletes must carry out in the positions that they defend and in their activities as batters.
"Athletes are developing with similar characteristics in the other Asian country: the Republic of Korea, which has already become a powerhouse in professional world baseball."
Events have been developing precisely in that way:
Yesterday, around 12.30 a.m. Cuba time, the Korean team defeated the Venezuela team 10 to 2, despite the magnificent professional quality of that selection. They didn’t stand a chance of winning faced with the Korean sophisticated methodology of training and rigor.
The Venezuelan opening pitcher, Carlos Silva, could have spared himself an unnecessary humiliation when, after regaling a walk to first base to the opening batter and two consecutive errors in the defense, they connected three hits in succession, putting the scoreboard at 1-0 and bases full with no outs, in the first inning. The Koreans were reading the Silva’s pitches and he needed to be replaced immediately. They connected a homerun with three batters on bases, thus giving Korea a 5-0 advantage in the very first inning. With a team like that Asian one, things were already decided, although it is only fair to note that the Venezuelan selection fought without demoralization throughout the game. By the end, their objective was solely to avert a knockout.
Tonight’s game between Japan and the United States is a merely a formality.
On Monday, spectators within and outside of that country will be able to appreciate the encounter between the two Asian powerhouses in professional baseball.
It will be a hard road to re-establish Cuba’s primacy in that sports activity, where patriotism, national pride and our struggle for healthy and educational sport reached the highest pinnacles.
There are many lessons to be derived from this last Classic.
Fidel Castro Ruz
March 22, 2009
1:54 p.m.
For that reason, between today and tomorrow in San Diego, one of the three will be irremissibly eliminated…"
In relation to the players in the selection from the Republic of Korea, I stated, "They constitute the principal adversary, because they are likewise methodical and bat with more strength than the Japanese."
Two days later, on March 19, I explained: "IN the game between the Japanese and Cuban teams that concluded today at close to 3:00 a.m., we were unquestionably defeated."
"However, I doubt that any team from the West can defeat Japan and Korea within the group of competitors who will be playing in Los Angeles in the next three days. With their quality, only one of the two Asian countries will decide who takes the first and second places in the Classic."
In relation to the Japanese I provided some details:
"Training sessions are incredibly rigorous and methodical. They have devised technical methods to develop the reflexes required by every player. Every day, batters practice with hundreds of balls pitched by left- or right-handers. As for the pitchers, they are obliged to throw 400 balls every day. It they commit any error during the game, they have to pitch another 100. They do it with pleasure, as if it were a form of self-punishment. In that way, they acquire a notable muscle control that obeys orders sent by their brains. That is why their pitchers’ ability to place balls exactly where they want them amazes everyone. Similar methods are applied to all of the activities each of the athletes must carry out in the positions that they defend and in their activities as batters.
"Athletes are developing with similar characteristics in the other Asian country: the Republic of Korea, which has already become a powerhouse in professional world baseball."
Events have been developing precisely in that way:
Yesterday, around 12.30 a.m. Cuba time, the Korean team defeated the Venezuela team 10 to 2, despite the magnificent professional quality of that selection. They didn’t stand a chance of winning faced with the Korean sophisticated methodology of training and rigor.
The Venezuelan opening pitcher, Carlos Silva, could have spared himself an unnecessary humiliation when, after regaling a walk to first base to the opening batter and two consecutive errors in the defense, they connected three hits in succession, putting the scoreboard at 1-0 and bases full with no outs, in the first inning. The Koreans were reading the Silva’s pitches and he needed to be replaced immediately. They connected a homerun with three batters on bases, thus giving Korea a 5-0 advantage in the very first inning. With a team like that Asian one, things were already decided, although it is only fair to note that the Venezuelan selection fought without demoralization throughout the game. By the end, their objective was solely to avert a knockout.
Tonight’s game between Japan and the United States is a merely a formality.
On Monday, spectators within and outside of that country will be able to appreciate the encounter between the two Asian powerhouses in professional baseball.
It will be a hard road to re-establish Cuba’s primacy in that sports activity, where patriotism, national pride and our struggle for healthy and educational sport reached the highest pinnacles.
There are many lessons to be derived from this last Classic.
Fidel Castro Ruz
March 22, 2009
1:54 p.m.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Glory to the Good!
Our delegation was received early this morning with the recognition and the honors it deserves. Esteban Lazo and Frederich Cepeda spoke. Raúl, who presented the team with the national flag during the ceremony at the Palace of the Revolution, was also there.
They were given a copy of my reflection which was published today in Granma and that had already appeared on CubaDebate.
I spoke about the technology and discipline introduced to baseball by Japan; about the efforts undertaken by a nation with no less than 10.4 times Cuba’s population; where one also had to discount "those of weak conscience who let themselves be bribed by our enemies".
Of the 73 who flew to Mexico and San Diego, two poor devils did not return home.
One was editing video footage on baseball for Cuban National Television. It was pitiful to hear his lament published in the cables. He bemoaned that the only thing sad about it was that his dear mother and beloved girlfriend had not traveled with him. He had left on the very first day that the delegation arrived in San Diego.
The other one wrote for Juventud Rebelde on the same subject. This one had traveled several times but was waiting for the Classic to carry out his crime. He was with the team at every moment. He was positively ridiculous. Two hours before they left for the airport to return home, he disappeared.
What a couple of repulsive fakes they are, incubated by capitalist ideology!
Those cases are useful for turning the spotlight on the merit of the athletes in our honorable national team, prepared to give up their lives for the homeland.
Of course, individuals like those do not have a single grain of conscience. What a load of rubbish they must have published about baseball, which instead of guiding, only confuse!
Not everyone is like Bobby Salamanca or Eddy Martin, who gave such noble testimonies on our great sports victories.
Glory to those who devote their lives to building honor and love of the homeland!
Glory to the good!
Fidel Castro Ruz
March 20, 2009
4:23 p.m.
They were given a copy of my reflection which was published today in Granma and that had already appeared on CubaDebate.
I spoke about the technology and discipline introduced to baseball by Japan; about the efforts undertaken by a nation with no less than 10.4 times Cuba’s population; where one also had to discount "those of weak conscience who let themselves be bribed by our enemies".
Of the 73 who flew to Mexico and San Diego, two poor devils did not return home.
One was editing video footage on baseball for Cuban National Television. It was pitiful to hear his lament published in the cables. He bemoaned that the only thing sad about it was that his dear mother and beloved girlfriend had not traveled with him. He had left on the very first day that the delegation arrived in San Diego.
The other one wrote for Juventud Rebelde on the same subject. This one had traveled several times but was waiting for the Classic to carry out his crime. He was with the team at every moment. He was positively ridiculous. Two hours before they left for the airport to return home, he disappeared.
What a couple of repulsive fakes they are, incubated by capitalist ideology!
Those cases are useful for turning the spotlight on the merit of the athletes in our honorable national team, prepared to give up their lives for the homeland.
Of course, individuals like those do not have a single grain of conscience. What a load of rubbish they must have published about baseball, which instead of guiding, only confuse!
Not everyone is like Bobby Salamanca or Eddy Martin, who gave such noble testimonies on our great sports victories.
Glory to those who devote their lives to building honor and love of the homeland!
Glory to the good!
Fidel Castro Ruz
March 20, 2009
4:23 p.m.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
We are the ones to blame
IN the game between the Japanese and Cuban teams that concluded today at close to 3:00 a.m., we were unquestionably defeated.
The organizers of the Classic decided that the three countries holding the first three places in world baseball should confront each other in San Diego, including Cuba arbitrarily in the Asian group despite the fact being the Caribbeans that we are.
However, I doubt that any team from the West can defeat Japan and Korea within the group of competitors who will be playing in Los Angeles in the next three days. With their quality, only one of the two Asian countries will decide who takes the first and second places in the Classic.
What mattered to the organizers was to eliminate Cuba, a revolutionary country that has heroically resisted and has remained undefeated in the battle of ideas. Nevertheless, one day we shall again be a dominant power in that sport.
The excellent team representing us in the Classic, made up mostly of young athletes, is without a doubt a genuine representation of the finest athletes in our country.
They competed with great courage; they didn’t lose heart and sought victory right up to the last inning.
The line-up, suggested from Cuba by the leading bodies with expert advisors, was good and inspired confidence. It was strong both offensively and defensively. They had a good reserve of pitching talent and strong hitters, in the event of the changing circumstances of a game requiring it. By applying the same concepts, they defeated and dominated the powerful Mexican team.
I should point out that the team leadership in San Diego was abysmal. The old criteria of well-trodden paths prevailed against a capable adversary who is constantly innovating.
We must learn the relevant lessons.
Among all the sports, baseball today is the most capable of sparking off expectations given the enormous variety of situations that could arise and the specific role of each one of the nine men on the diamond. It has a reputation everywhere as a genuinely emotive show. Even though the stadiums fill up with fans, nothing is comparable to the images captured by the cameras. Baseball would seem to have been devised to be transmitted by that media. Television heightens that interest by going into great detail about every action. It even offers the possibility of seeing the stitching and rotation of a ball pitched at a speed of 100 miles per hour, a ball rolling along a white line or being caught in the glove of a defender one tenth of a second before or after the runner’s foot touches base. I can think of no other sport that could compete with such a variety of situations, except chess, where the activity ceases to be muscular and becomes an intellectual one, something impossible to televise.
In Cuba, where we practice almost all sports and have numerous amateur players, baseball has become a national passion.
We have rested on our laurels and we are now paying the consequences. Korea and Japan, two countries that are geographically at a good distance from the United States, have invested abundant economic resources into that imported, or imposed, sport.
Development of that sports activity in those two Asian nations obeys their own distinctive characteristics. Their inhabitants are hard-working, self-sacrificing and tenacious.
Japan, a developed and wealthy country with more than 120 million inhabitants, has devoted itself to developing baseball. Like everything within the capitalist system, professional sports are big business, but national will has imposed rigorous standards on their professional players.
Cuban players who have worked in Japan are very familiar with the standards imposed. The salaries paid to professionals in the U.S. Major Leagues are logically much higher than in Japan, a country which, for its part, possesses the most powerful professional league after that of the U.S. No professional Japanese player can go one to play in the U.S. Major Leagues, or in any other foreign country, until he has played in the Japanese national league for eight years. For that reason, none of the members on its international team is under 28 years old.
Training sessions are incredibly rigorous and methodical. They have devised technical methods to develop the reflexes required by every player. Every day, batters practice with hundreds of balls pitched by left- or right-handers. As for the pitchers, they are obliged to throw 400 balls every day. It they commit any error during the game, they have to pitch another 100. They do it with pleasure, as if it were a form of self-punishment. In that way, they acquire a notable muscle control that obeys orders sent by their brains. That is why their pitchers’ ability to place balls exactly where they want them amazes everyone. Similar methods are applied to all of the activities each of the athletes must carry out in the positions that they defend and in their activities as batters.
Athletes are developing with similar characteristics in the other Asian country: the Republic of Korea, which has already become a powerhouse in professional world baseball.
The Asian players are not as physically strong as their western rivals. Neither are they as explosive. But strength alone is not enough to defeat the reflexes that their players have developed; nor can explosiveness alone compensate for the methodology and sangfroid of their athletes. Korea has tried to find heavily-built men capable of hitting with more force.
Our hopes were based on the patriotic dedication of our athletes and the fervor with which they defend their honor and their people, starting with a reserve with several times, even dozens of times, fewer human resources in comparison, for example, with Japan, discounting from those resources those of weak conscience who let themselves be bribed by our enemies. But this is not enough to maintain our supremacy in baseball. We have to apply methods that are more technical and scientific in developing our athletes. Our country’s excellent educational and sports base allows that.
We currently have enough young pitchers and batters with magnificent athletic qualities. In a nutshell, we have to revolutionize the methods for the preparation and development of our athletes, not just in baseball, but in all the sports disciplines.
Our national team should be returning home in the next few hours. Let us receive them with all the honors that their exemplary performance merits. They are not the ones responsible for the errors that led them to the adverse result. We are the ones to blame, because we were not able to correct our errors in time.
Fidel Castro Ruz
March 19, 2009
2:58 p.m.
The organizers of the Classic decided that the three countries holding the first three places in world baseball should confront each other in San Diego, including Cuba arbitrarily in the Asian group despite the fact being the Caribbeans that we are.
However, I doubt that any team from the West can defeat Japan and Korea within the group of competitors who will be playing in Los Angeles in the next three days. With their quality, only one of the two Asian countries will decide who takes the first and second places in the Classic.
What mattered to the organizers was to eliminate Cuba, a revolutionary country that has heroically resisted and has remained undefeated in the battle of ideas. Nevertheless, one day we shall again be a dominant power in that sport.
The excellent team representing us in the Classic, made up mostly of young athletes, is without a doubt a genuine representation of the finest athletes in our country.
They competed with great courage; they didn’t lose heart and sought victory right up to the last inning.
The line-up, suggested from Cuba by the leading bodies with expert advisors, was good and inspired confidence. It was strong both offensively and defensively. They had a good reserve of pitching talent and strong hitters, in the event of the changing circumstances of a game requiring it. By applying the same concepts, they defeated and dominated the powerful Mexican team.
I should point out that the team leadership in San Diego was abysmal. The old criteria of well-trodden paths prevailed against a capable adversary who is constantly innovating.
We must learn the relevant lessons.
Among all the sports, baseball today is the most capable of sparking off expectations given the enormous variety of situations that could arise and the specific role of each one of the nine men on the diamond. It has a reputation everywhere as a genuinely emotive show. Even though the stadiums fill up with fans, nothing is comparable to the images captured by the cameras. Baseball would seem to have been devised to be transmitted by that media. Television heightens that interest by going into great detail about every action. It even offers the possibility of seeing the stitching and rotation of a ball pitched at a speed of 100 miles per hour, a ball rolling along a white line or being caught in the glove of a defender one tenth of a second before or after the runner’s foot touches base. I can think of no other sport that could compete with such a variety of situations, except chess, where the activity ceases to be muscular and becomes an intellectual one, something impossible to televise.
In Cuba, where we practice almost all sports and have numerous amateur players, baseball has become a national passion.
We have rested on our laurels and we are now paying the consequences. Korea and Japan, two countries that are geographically at a good distance from the United States, have invested abundant economic resources into that imported, or imposed, sport.
Development of that sports activity in those two Asian nations obeys their own distinctive characteristics. Their inhabitants are hard-working, self-sacrificing and tenacious.
Japan, a developed and wealthy country with more than 120 million inhabitants, has devoted itself to developing baseball. Like everything within the capitalist system, professional sports are big business, but national will has imposed rigorous standards on their professional players.
Cuban players who have worked in Japan are very familiar with the standards imposed. The salaries paid to professionals in the U.S. Major Leagues are logically much higher than in Japan, a country which, for its part, possesses the most powerful professional league after that of the U.S. No professional Japanese player can go one to play in the U.S. Major Leagues, or in any other foreign country, until he has played in the Japanese national league for eight years. For that reason, none of the members on its international team is under 28 years old.
Training sessions are incredibly rigorous and methodical. They have devised technical methods to develop the reflexes required by every player. Every day, batters practice with hundreds of balls pitched by left- or right-handers. As for the pitchers, they are obliged to throw 400 balls every day. It they commit any error during the game, they have to pitch another 100. They do it with pleasure, as if it were a form of self-punishment. In that way, they acquire a notable muscle control that obeys orders sent by their brains. That is why their pitchers’ ability to place balls exactly where they want them amazes everyone. Similar methods are applied to all of the activities each of the athletes must carry out in the positions that they defend and in their activities as batters.
Athletes are developing with similar characteristics in the other Asian country: the Republic of Korea, which has already become a powerhouse in professional world baseball.
The Asian players are not as physically strong as their western rivals. Neither are they as explosive. But strength alone is not enough to defeat the reflexes that their players have developed; nor can explosiveness alone compensate for the methodology and sangfroid of their athletes. Korea has tried to find heavily-built men capable of hitting with more force.
Our hopes were based on the patriotic dedication of our athletes and the fervor with which they defend their honor and their people, starting with a reserve with several times, even dozens of times, fewer human resources in comparison, for example, with Japan, discounting from those resources those of weak conscience who let themselves be bribed by our enemies. But this is not enough to maintain our supremacy in baseball. We have to apply methods that are more technical and scientific in developing our athletes. Our country’s excellent educational and sports base allows that.
We currently have enough young pitchers and batters with magnificent athletic qualities. In a nutshell, we have to revolutionize the methods for the preparation and development of our athletes, not just in baseball, but in all the sports disciplines.
Our national team should be returning home in the next few hours. Let us receive them with all the honors that their exemplary performance merits. They are not the ones responsible for the errors that led them to the adverse result. We are the ones to blame, because we were not able to correct our errors in time.
Fidel Castro Ruz
March 19, 2009
2:58 p.m.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
More News on the Agonies of Capitalism
TODAY I read the cables from March 11th. Information is continuing to rain down on the international economic crisis.
This time, it was Joseph Stiglitz, the well known economist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences speaking; the press and academia regularly quote him. The French AFP news agency refers to his statement made yesterday in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
“’President Barack Obama’s economic rescue package of $700 billion-plus is much better than Bush’s response in 2008… but it is not enough and the crisis will worsen.
“’We need to see things in perspective. (President George W.) Bush was paralyzed and things got worse every day while he did nothing.’
”Stiglitz noted that many emerging countries have become the innocent victims of the crisis. ‘The irony is that while the U.S. government was giving lessons on rules and institutions in emerging countries, its policies were a total disaster’.
“’As a result of that, the crisis today is severe throughout the world and countries like Brazil are really going to suffer’, Stiglitz informed the newspaper, which had consulted him about the 3.6% drop in the Brazilian economy in the last quarter, the heaviest since the same period in 1996, and reported on Tuesday.
”He also warned that despite the fact that ‘there is a global agreement not to turn to protectionism,’ many of the aid packages ‘have protectionist measures at their base and it will be the developing countries that will suffer the most.’”
Reuters informs us that “Severstal, Russia’s largest steel company, announced on Wednesday that it is to cut 9,000 to 9,500 jobs in its country’s steel mills in response to weak world demand, and that it is also laying off workers in its coal and iron ore mines.
“The Russian steel companies joined their rivals in other countries in cutting back production in the last quarter although, to date, they have avoided mass layoffs due to the politically sensitive nature of such a measure.
“’Additional cut-backs are in the pipeline for their coal and iron ore mines in Russia,’ Mordashov stated.
“Severstal has reduced production in several plants in Russia, Italy and the United States in the last few months, due to a decreased demand for steel. In February, it was reported that crude steel production in the last quarter fell by around 4% as compared to the previous period.”
In a cable dispatched from Dar Es Salaam, the same agency noted:
”’China can lead the world out of the economic crisis thanks to its healthy foreign exchange reserves, robust trade surplus and massive investments round the globe,’ an adviser to the U.N. secretary general said.
”China has so far withstood the economic downturn better than Europe or the United States, though the slump in the United States and Europe has hurt its export sector hard, causing factory shutdowns and job losses.
“’I hope that China can lead the world out of this crisis first,’ said Jeffrey Sachs, adviser to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday afternoon.
"’They did not have as big a bubble as in the United States or Europe. China has got lots of foreign exchange reserves, it's got a trade surplus, it's got lots of investment. China has the wherewithal to start the recovery first. If that succeeds in this year, then that would spread to other economies.’
”China, the world's third largest economy, usually runs a large current account surplus, with vast exports and relatively contained imports.
”Economic data released on Wednesday showed that China's exports tumbled in February as the world's third-largest economy felt the full force of the global financial crisis, but capital spending accelerated with the help of the government's massive stimulus package.
”The country holds about $2 trillion in foreign exchange reserves. Its current account surplus stood at $440 billion as of end of 2008, up 20 percent over the previous year, according to government statistics…”
”The United Nations has said that it would take $72 billion a year to help Africa, a fraction of what governments in Europe and the United States have put into resuscitating their economies.”
No hope for the countries of the Third World is forthcoming from New York or Washington.
Fidel Castro Ruz
March 12, 2009
10:14 a.m.
This time, it was Joseph Stiglitz, the well known economist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences speaking; the press and academia regularly quote him. The French AFP news agency refers to his statement made yesterday in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
“’President Barack Obama’s economic rescue package of $700 billion-plus is much better than Bush’s response in 2008… but it is not enough and the crisis will worsen.
“’We need to see things in perspective. (President George W.) Bush was paralyzed and things got worse every day while he did nothing.’
”Stiglitz noted that many emerging countries have become the innocent victims of the crisis. ‘The irony is that while the U.S. government was giving lessons on rules and institutions in emerging countries, its policies were a total disaster’.
“’As a result of that, the crisis today is severe throughout the world and countries like Brazil are really going to suffer’, Stiglitz informed the newspaper, which had consulted him about the 3.6% drop in the Brazilian economy in the last quarter, the heaviest since the same period in 1996, and reported on Tuesday.
”He also warned that despite the fact that ‘there is a global agreement not to turn to protectionism,’ many of the aid packages ‘have protectionist measures at their base and it will be the developing countries that will suffer the most.’”
Reuters informs us that “Severstal, Russia’s largest steel company, announced on Wednesday that it is to cut 9,000 to 9,500 jobs in its country’s steel mills in response to weak world demand, and that it is also laying off workers in its coal and iron ore mines.
“The Russian steel companies joined their rivals in other countries in cutting back production in the last quarter although, to date, they have avoided mass layoffs due to the politically sensitive nature of such a measure.
“’Additional cut-backs are in the pipeline for their coal and iron ore mines in Russia,’ Mordashov stated.
“Severstal has reduced production in several plants in Russia, Italy and the United States in the last few months, due to a decreased demand for steel. In February, it was reported that crude steel production in the last quarter fell by around 4% as compared to the previous period.”
In a cable dispatched from Dar Es Salaam, the same agency noted:
”’China can lead the world out of the economic crisis thanks to its healthy foreign exchange reserves, robust trade surplus and massive investments round the globe,’ an adviser to the U.N. secretary general said.
”China has so far withstood the economic downturn better than Europe or the United States, though the slump in the United States and Europe has hurt its export sector hard, causing factory shutdowns and job losses.
“’I hope that China can lead the world out of this crisis first,’ said Jeffrey Sachs, adviser to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday afternoon.
"’They did not have as big a bubble as in the United States or Europe. China has got lots of foreign exchange reserves, it's got a trade surplus, it's got lots of investment. China has the wherewithal to start the recovery first. If that succeeds in this year, then that would spread to other economies.’
”China, the world's third largest economy, usually runs a large current account surplus, with vast exports and relatively contained imports.
”Economic data released on Wednesday showed that China's exports tumbled in February as the world's third-largest economy felt the full force of the global financial crisis, but capital spending accelerated with the help of the government's massive stimulus package.
”The country holds about $2 trillion in foreign exchange reserves. Its current account surplus stood at $440 billion as of end of 2008, up 20 percent over the previous year, according to government statistics…”
”The United Nations has said that it would take $72 billion a year to help Africa, a fraction of what governments in Europe and the United States have put into resuscitating their economies.”
No hope for the countries of the Third World is forthcoming from New York or Washington.
Fidel Castro Ruz
March 12, 2009
10:14 a.m.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Pax Romana
I basically drew these data from statements made by William Brownfield, US ambassador to Colombia, from that country’s press and television, from the international press, and other sources. It’s impressive the show of technology and economic resources at play.
While in Colombia the senior military officers went to great pains to explain that Ingrid Betancourt’s rescue had been an entirely Colombian operation, the US authorities were saying that “it was the result of years of intense military cooperation of the Colombian and United States’ armies.”
“’The truth is that we have been able to get along as we seldom have in the United States, except with our oldest allies, mostly in NATO,’ said Brownfield, referring to his country’s relationships with the Colombian security forces, which have received over 4 billion USD in military assistance since the year 2000.”
“…on various occasions it became necessary for the US Administration to make decisions at the top levels concerning this operation.
“The US spy satellites helped in locating the hostages during a month period starting on May 31st until the rescue action on Wednesday.”
“The Colombians installed video surveillance equipment, supplied by the United States. Operated by remote control, these can take close-ups and pan along the rivers which are the only transportation routes through thick forests, said the Colombian and US authorities.”
“US surveillance aircraft intercepted the rebels’ radio and satellite phone talks and used imaging equipment that can break through the forest foliage.”
“’The defector will receive a considerable sum of the close to one- hundred-million-dollars reward offered by the government’, stated the Commander General of the Colombian Army.”
On Wednesday, July 1st, the London BBC reported that Cesar Mauricio Velasquez, press secretary at Casa de Nariño (Colombian Government House) had informed that delegates from France and Switzerland had met with Alfonso Cano, chief of the FARC.
According to the BBC, that would be the first contact with international delegates accepted by the new chief after the death of Manuel Marulanda. The false information of the meeting of two European envoys with Cano had been released in Bogota.
The deceased leader of the FARC had been born on May 12, 1932, according to his father’s testimony. Marulanda, a poor peasant with a liberal thinking and a Gaitan follower, had started his armed resistance 60 years back. He was a guerrilla before us; he had reacted to the carnage of peasants carried out by the oligarchy.
The Communist Party he later joined, the same as every other in Latin America, was under the influence of the Communist Party of the USSR and not of Cuba. They were in solidarity with our Revolution but they were not subordinated to it.
It was the drug-traffickers and not the FARC that unleashed terror in that sister nation as part of their feuds over the United States market. They caused powerful bomb blasts and even blew up trucks loaded with plastic explosives destroying facilities and injuring or killing countless people.
The Colombian Communist Party never contemplated the idea of conquering power through the armed struggle. The guerrilla was a resistance front and not the basic instrument to conquer revolutionary power, as it had been the case in Cuba. In 1993, at the 8th FARC Conference, they decided to break ranks with the Communist Party. Its leader, Manuel Marulanda, took over the leadership of that Party’s guerrillas which had always excelled in their narrow sectarianism when admitting combatants as well as in their strong and compartmented commanding methods.
Marulanda, a man with a remarkable natural talent and a leader’s gift, did not have the opportunity to study when he was young. It is said that he had only completed the 5th grade of grammar school. He conceived a long and extended struggle; I disagreed with this point of view. But, I never had the chance to talk with him.
The FARC became considerable strong with over 10 thousand combatants. Many had been born during the war and had known nothing else. Other leftist organizations rivaled the FARC in the struggle. By then the Colombian territory had become the largest source of cocaine production in the world. Then, extreme violence, kidnappings, taxes and demands from the drug producers became widespread.
The paramilitary forces, armed by the oligarchy, drew basically from the great amount of men enlisted in the country’s armed forces who were discharged from duty every year without a secure job. These created in Colombia a very complex situation with only one way out: real peace, albeit remote and difficult as many other goals Humanity have set itself. This is the option that, for three decades, Cuba has advocated for that nation.
While our journalists meeting in their 8th Congress debated on the new technologies of information, the principles and ethic of social communicators, I meditated on the abovementioned developments.
I have expressed, very clearly, our position in favor of peace in Colombia; but, we are neither in favor of foreign military intervention nor of the policy of force that the United States intends to impose at all costs on that long-suffering and industrious people.
I have honestly and strongly criticized the objectively cruel methods of kidnapping and retaining prisoners under the conditions of the jungle. But I am not suggesting that anyone laid down their arms, when everyone who did so in the last 50 years did not survive to see peace. If I dared suggest anything to the FARC guerrillas that would simply be that they declare, by any means possible to the International Red Cross, their willingness to release the hostages and prisoners they are still holding, without any precondition. I do not intend to be heard; it is simply my duty to say what I think. Anything else would only serve to reward disloyalty and treason.
I will never support the pax romana that the empire tries to impose on Latin America.
Fidel Castro Ruz
July 5, 2008
8:12 p.m.
While in Colombia the senior military officers went to great pains to explain that Ingrid Betancourt’s rescue had been an entirely Colombian operation, the US authorities were saying that “it was the result of years of intense military cooperation of the Colombian and United States’ armies.”
“’The truth is that we have been able to get along as we seldom have in the United States, except with our oldest allies, mostly in NATO,’ said Brownfield, referring to his country’s relationships with the Colombian security forces, which have received over 4 billion USD in military assistance since the year 2000.”
“…on various occasions it became necessary for the US Administration to make decisions at the top levels concerning this operation.
“The US spy satellites helped in locating the hostages during a month period starting on May 31st until the rescue action on Wednesday.”
“The Colombians installed video surveillance equipment, supplied by the United States. Operated by remote control, these can take close-ups and pan along the rivers which are the only transportation routes through thick forests, said the Colombian and US authorities.”
“US surveillance aircraft intercepted the rebels’ radio and satellite phone talks and used imaging equipment that can break through the forest foliage.”
“’The defector will receive a considerable sum of the close to one- hundred-million-dollars reward offered by the government’, stated the Commander General of the Colombian Army.”
On Wednesday, July 1st, the London BBC reported that Cesar Mauricio Velasquez, press secretary at Casa de Nariño (Colombian Government House) had informed that delegates from France and Switzerland had met with Alfonso Cano, chief of the FARC.
According to the BBC, that would be the first contact with international delegates accepted by the new chief after the death of Manuel Marulanda. The false information of the meeting of two European envoys with Cano had been released in Bogota.
The deceased leader of the FARC had been born on May 12, 1932, according to his father’s testimony. Marulanda, a poor peasant with a liberal thinking and a Gaitan follower, had started his armed resistance 60 years back. He was a guerrilla before us; he had reacted to the carnage of peasants carried out by the oligarchy.
The Communist Party he later joined, the same as every other in Latin America, was under the influence of the Communist Party of the USSR and not of Cuba. They were in solidarity with our Revolution but they were not subordinated to it.
It was the drug-traffickers and not the FARC that unleashed terror in that sister nation as part of their feuds over the United States market. They caused powerful bomb blasts and even blew up trucks loaded with plastic explosives destroying facilities and injuring or killing countless people.
The Colombian Communist Party never contemplated the idea of conquering power through the armed struggle. The guerrilla was a resistance front and not the basic instrument to conquer revolutionary power, as it had been the case in Cuba. In 1993, at the 8th FARC Conference, they decided to break ranks with the Communist Party. Its leader, Manuel Marulanda, took over the leadership of that Party’s guerrillas which had always excelled in their narrow sectarianism when admitting combatants as well as in their strong and compartmented commanding methods.
Marulanda, a man with a remarkable natural talent and a leader’s gift, did not have the opportunity to study when he was young. It is said that he had only completed the 5th grade of grammar school. He conceived a long and extended struggle; I disagreed with this point of view. But, I never had the chance to talk with him.
The FARC became considerable strong with over 10 thousand combatants. Many had been born during the war and had known nothing else. Other leftist organizations rivaled the FARC in the struggle. By then the Colombian territory had become the largest source of cocaine production in the world. Then, extreme violence, kidnappings, taxes and demands from the drug producers became widespread.
The paramilitary forces, armed by the oligarchy, drew basically from the great amount of men enlisted in the country’s armed forces who were discharged from duty every year without a secure job. These created in Colombia a very complex situation with only one way out: real peace, albeit remote and difficult as many other goals Humanity have set itself. This is the option that, for three decades, Cuba has advocated for that nation.
While our journalists meeting in their 8th Congress debated on the new technologies of information, the principles and ethic of social communicators, I meditated on the abovementioned developments.
I have expressed, very clearly, our position in favor of peace in Colombia; but, we are neither in favor of foreign military intervention nor of the policy of force that the United States intends to impose at all costs on that long-suffering and industrious people.
I have honestly and strongly criticized the objectively cruel methods of kidnapping and retaining prisoners under the conditions of the jungle. But I am not suggesting that anyone laid down their arms, when everyone who did so in the last 50 years did not survive to see peace. If I dared suggest anything to the FARC guerrillas that would simply be that they declare, by any means possible to the International Red Cross, their willingness to release the hostages and prisoners they are still holding, without any precondition. I do not intend to be heard; it is simply my duty to say what I think. Anything else would only serve to reward disloyalty and treason.
I will never support the pax romana that the empire tries to impose on Latin America.
Fidel Castro Ruz
July 5, 2008
8:12 p.m.
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