Reflections of Fidel

The baseball and football classics fill the stadiums and amuse the masses all over the world. Obviously we all consider ourselves experts on the subject –myself included- and get involved in heated arguments with anybody…

However, when it comes to the economy, where there are certain events that are crucial for the world, those who get interested on the topic can be counted on the fingers of one hand. I browsed our press looking for news about a particular event and I could not find a single word about the G-20 meeting to begin in London within two days.

Yesterday, the evening television news referred to the meeting to emphasize on the spectacular security measures adopted by the British authorities. Reportedly, Obama will travel accompanied by 200 security service agents who are experts in protection. Incidentally we also heard news about the sophisticated four-engine Boeing that will take them there, which is equipped with 80 TV channels, almost 100 telephone lines and an equipment that contains the codes required to order the shooting of nuclear missiles, which are always ready to take off. We also learned about the helicopter specially designed to carry him by air to the meeting room as well as the invulnerable perforation-proof tank-like automobile on which he will move while on the ground. Those are the state-of-the-art military science and technology devices placed at his disposal.

Not a single word has been said about the significance of the Summit. This is not a criticism of our media; it is simply the way we react to the international economic issue. The same occurs in all other countries. However, the near future of billions of modest people who live on their work will depend on the agreements adopted in that Summit by the big economic powers.

Through the information published by the international cable news agencies and specialized magazines, or contained in the speeches and interviews of heads of State and leaders of UN agencies, I will try to follow the evolution of the meeting, which will witness the sharp economic and ideological contradictions that characterize today’s complex world that has plunged into a profound crisis.

In a statement made to a BBC International program, Kevin Rudd, the Prime Minister of Australia, who belongs to the Labor Party, said that the heads of State and Government of the G-20 countries will not approve a fiscal stimulus plan at the London Summit. He pointed out that during the former Summit they had already approved 1.5 trillion Euros, and now it will be up to the IMF to decide what kind of additional support the economy would need.

The UK government disproved the content of a draft communiqué that will supposedly be issued by the G-20 leaders, that was leaked to the German magazine “Der Spiegel”.

A spokesperson for Gordon Brown said that it was an old document from the previous G-20 meeting.

The Bank of England stated that the British economy is not in the position of becoming even more indebted.

According to another cable news, the G-20 leaders hope that the support to the financial sector, the increased public expenditures and the extra financing to the IMF will bail the world economy out of a recession by the end of 2010, as was pointed out in the draft communiqué published by the Financial Times on Sunday.

“We are determined to ensure that this crisis is not repeated.”

President Dimitri Medvedev told the BBC that Russia, one of the most strongly export-oriented countries, has suffered enough as a result of the present financial crisis. He added that the G-20 leaders should reach an agreement at the Summit “because the future of our countries and our peoples depend on our agreement and our determination to introduce fundamental changes into the world financial architecture.”

The heads of State and Government of the 20 biggest economies of the world issued a draft declaration previous to the Summit whereby they commit themselves to shun protectionism and conclude negotiations for international trade.

Official sources have declared to the Financial Times that the text of the communiqué should not change before the Summit. “A global crisis requires a global solution”, the draft reads. The G-20 leaders are determined to ensure that this crisis is not repeated and look for “an open world economy, based on market principles, effective regulation and strong global institutions.”

The head of the British chancellery said that London and Washington will not push the G-20 leaders into the announcement of promises of specific expenditures. He minimized the importance of the estrangement that exists between the countries that support higher stimulus, like Great Britain and the United States; and those recommending prudence, like France and Germany.

President Obama, for his part, stated yesterday, March 30, to the same British press agency, that he had called for unity within the G-20. He ensured that the world leaders know that they should send a “strong message of unity” for the sake of the global economy. He played down the importance of the split that exists between the United States and continental Europe countries, particularly the objection by Germany and France to the introduction of higher fiscal stimuli. He conceded, though, that some in his own country have turned their backs on him towards increasing expenditures as a way to reactivate the world economy, which will make it difficult to offer more economic stimulus at this moment.

He added that in all countries there is a certain tension between the steps that need to be taken to reactivate the economy and the fact that some of these steps cost lots of money and taxpayers feel skeptical about spending more.

He said that if voters realize this is a one-way street and that they are only giving more money to institutions to avoid a catastrophe, it would be very difficult to convince them to do more.

More than 180 countries of the world will not be present at the London gathering. No wonder it is said that the meeting will only be attended by the representatives of the 20 biggest economies in the world. However, there are profound contradictions among them, both between the western countries and between them and the emerging countries, which are waging a battle against the financial crisis in favor of their right to development.

A summary is not an analysis. This is simply about conveying to my fellow countrymen the essence of the G-20 debates in London, always being afraid of having been boring or having expanded too much on the subject.

Fidel Castro Ruz
March 31, 2009
1:29 p.m.

Most of the international cable news referred only to my criticisms of Biden’s statements in Viña del Mar contained in my Reflection aired by CubaDebate and published by our press on Monday 30 under the title: “China, the future great economic power”. Only EFE included a few lines at the end of its news report that referred to the main topic covered by the article. To recognize the increasing role played by China in the world’s economy is like a rough patch for the West.

However, the big media continues to speak about China’s booming economic power. Yesterday, March 29, the news agency DPA reported that China had taken the U.S. by surprise when it submitted its bold proposal of replacing the dollar as the main international currency with a new “super-currency”. Furthermore it stated that China is struggling against the US dominance in the world’s financial system; it echoes the opinion of China’s Central Bank which believes that the crisis and its impact on the whole world is a reflection of the internal fragility and of the risks inherent to the international monetary system that its country intends to change with the creation of the new reserve currency. To further support its thesis it claims that the famous British economist John Maynard Keynes had already proposed the creation of a global currency in the 1940’s.

It also points out in the same news service that China looks forward to the position of Director of the IMF, an agency that has been so far controlled by the United States and that, according to the G-20 predictions, should take care of the national financial systems.

The report states that China, being the biggest among the emerging countries, demands more influence for poor states which have been particularly affected by the crisis.

It reiterates in its argument the well known fact that China, with a total amount of 740 billion dollars in U.S. Treasury bonds, is the main US creditor.

We should not forget that Germany, the DPA news agency headquarters, is worried about the ruinous role that the US economic policy is playing in Europe. Germany is currently the country that exports the biggest share of its GDP. The economic crisis affects it more than any other country. The world public opinion have the duty and the right to know more about the economic problems deriving from a crisis that is affecting today all peoples of the world.

Fidel Castro Ruz
March 30, 2009
1:20 p.m.

These days, many news cables are talking about China’s economic potential.

Yesterday, March 28th, it was the main U.S. news agency which was acknowledging that

“China is the only major economy still growing at a fast clip…

“In his second rebuke of U.S. leadership this past week – the cable continues, not very kindly at the end of the paragraph- the central bank governor, Zhou Xiaochuan, said China’s rapid response to the downturn — including a stimulus package equivalent to $586 billion— proved the superiority of its authoritarian, one-party political system. ”

The AP agency immediately releases the verbatim version of the governor of the central bank of China:

“Facts speak volumes, and demonstrate that compared with other major economies, the Chinese government has taken prompt, decisive and effective policy measures, demonstrating its system advantage…” a statement that, according to the press agency, were taken from Zhou’s remarks posted on the People’s Bank of China’s Web site.

“Two weeks away from the summit of 20 leading economies (G20) to be held on April 2 in London, Zhou called on foreign governments to give their finance ministers and central bankers broad authority so that they can “act boldly and expeditiously without having to go through a lengthy or even painful approval process.”

“China has made its agenda clear: It wants a stable U.S. dollar, and has even advocated the creation of another global currency altogether. Beijing is leery of protectionism. And it is demanding a larger say in how financial systems are regulated and rescued, while holding back on any promises for new rescue or stimulus measures of its own.

At the end of the cable, it states:

“…Wen Jiabao, the Chinese Prime Minister, has urged the United States to remain “a credible nation.” In other words, Beijing wants Washington to avoid spurring inflation with excessive government spending on bailouts and stimulus packages.”

As one can see, the influence of the Peoples’ Republic of China at the London meeting will be enormous from the economic point of view vis-à-vis the world crisis. That would have never happened earlier when the power of the United States used to prevail totally in this field.

On the other hand, it is amusing to see the unrest at the entrails of the empire, full of insurmountable problems and contradictions with the peoples of Latin America which it intends to dominate forever and ever.

Those reading the statements made by the pious Catholic Joe Biden in Viña del Mar, ruling out the lifting of the economic blockade against Cuba and longing for an internal transition which in our country would be frankly counter-revolutionary, will be amazed. It is so sad to hear his plaintive laments, especially when there is not a single Latin American and Caribbean government that doesn’t perceive a millstone from the past in that antediluvian measure. What kind of ethic subsists in United States policy? How much of Christianity remains in the political thinking of Vice President Biden?

Fidel Castro Ruz
March 29, 2009
3:43 p.m.

Yesterday Reuters headed the list of the international news agencies that mention Pedro Miret and Osmany Cienfuegos as two historical figures who have been dismissed from their posts by Raul Castro.

The EFE Agency follows stating, verbatim:

“Last March 2nd, they were dismissed as Vice Presidents of the Council of Ministers.”

The excuse for this thriller, widely circulated throughout the world, was the March 24th publication in the Official Gazette of the Decree about the restructuring of the Council of Ministers of the Government of Cuba, passed on the 2nd of this month.

Pedro Miret is a magnificent comrade, having great historical merits and whom we all respect and for whom I have a lot of affection. For several years now, for reasons of health, he is unable to occupy any post. The slow progress of his illness led to the gradual cessation of his political activities. It is not fair to describe him as having been “fired”, without any consideration whatsoever.

Osmany Cienfuegos, the brother of Camilo, carried out important tasks not only as Vice President of the Council of Ministers but also as Party member or fulfilling my instructions while I was Commander in Chief. He has always been, and still is, a revolutionary. His functions were gradually ceasing from a time much earlier than that of my illness. He no longer held the post of Vice President of the Council of Ministers. Comrade Raul Castro, President of the Council of State, has absolutely no responsibility for any of this. In both cases, it was a matter of purely legal procedures.

Reuters and EFE are two of the western news agencies closest to the United States’ imperialist policy. The latter behaves more poorly even though it is much less important than the former.

In another cable on March 24th, making use of a customary technique, EFE takes the words of Joaquin Roy, director of the European Union Center in Miami, to print the following: “Spain has been rediscovered as a key country in certain regions of the world that are of interest to the United States such as Latin America, and in two countries in particular: Cuba and Venezuela”.

Right away, EFE adds: “The expert believed that the United States’ major interest, more than pressuring for an opening, changes, etc, is the stability on the Island.

“For years now, he explained, studies made by the U.S. security agencies do not indicate Cuba to be a military threat, but they remain alert to the development of changes in order to avoid eventual internal friction destabilizing the region.

“The United States is not interested for the result of an opening to be civil war in Cuba”.

The European Union and Spain, according to Roy, have no problem working alongside the United States but, ‘with caution’ so that from Cuba it is not understood to be, or is accused of being, following Washington’s lead.

It couldn’t be more crystal clear: the ideas of the old Spanish empire on crutches, trying to assist the corrupt, tottering and genocidal Yankee Empire.

Nothing has been learned by the United States superpower and the Spanish mini-power about the heroic resistance of Cuba

Fidel Castro Ruz
March 25, 2009
3:02 p.m.

On Tuesday March 17th I wrote: “The Classic was organized by those who administer the exploitation of sports in the United States…” I immediately added: “The three best teams in the Classic and the Olympics, Japan, Korea and Cuba, were placed in the same group so that they might eliminate each other. Last time, they placed us in the Latin American group; this time in the Asian group.

Therefore between today and tomorrow in San Diego, one of the three will be irremissibly eliminated…”

On the subject of players on the Republic of Korea’s national team, I stated in that very same article: “They are the main adversary because they are also methodical and their batting is stronger than that of the Japanese.”

Two days later on March 19th, I explained: “In the game between the teams from Japan and Cuba that finished today at almost 3 in the morning, we were unquestionably defeated.

“However, I doubt that any team from the west can defeat Japan and Korea in the group of competitors who will be playing in Los Angeles in the next three days. With its quality, only one of the two Asian countries shall decide who will take the first and second spots in the Classic”.

Regarding the Japanese, I provided details:

“Training sessions are incredibly tough and methodical. They have devised technical methods to develop the reflexes each player needs to have. Every day, batters practice with hundreds of balls thrown by left and right-handers. As for the pitchers, they are made to throw four hundred balls every day. It they make any mistake in the game, they must then throw one hundred more. They do it with pleasure, as if it were a form of self-punishment. Thus they acquire notable muscle control which obeys the orders sent by their brains. That’s why their pitchers amaze everyone with their ability to land their throws at the exact spots they choose. Similar methods are applied to each of the activities each of the athletes must carry out at the positions they are defending and in their batting activities”. “Athletes in the other Asian country, the Republic of Korea, are developed with similar characteristics, thus turning it into a powerhouse in professional world baseball”.

Events have been happening exactly like that:

Yesterday, after 12:30 at night Cuban time, the Korean team defeated the Venezuelan team by 10 to 2, in spite of the magnificent professional qualities of that country’s national team. They didn’t have a chance of winning in the face of the Koreans’ sophisticated preparation methodology and their rigor.

Carlos Silva, the opening pitcher for Venezuela, could have been spared an unnecessary humiliation when, after walking the first batter and two consecutive errors in the defense, there were three hits one after the other, thus making it one to zero with bases loaded and no outs in the first inning. The Koreans were deciphering Silva’s pitching and he had to be replaced with no hesitation. Korea hit a grand slam giving them a 5 to 0 advantage all within the first inning. With a team like this Asian one, the game had already been decided in the first inning even though it is fair to point out that the Venezuelan national team fought hard and didn’t lose heart throughout the game. At the end their aim was to avoid a knockout score.

The game tonight between Japan and the United States is a mere formality.

On Monday spectators both inside and outside that country will be able to watch the encounter between the two Asian powerhouses of professional baseball.

It will be a rough road to reestablish Cuba’s supremacy once more in that sport where patriotism, national pride and our struggle for healthy and educational sport has attained the highest of levels.

Many are the lessons we must learn from the last Classic.

Fidel Castro Ruz
March 22, 2009
1:54 p.m.

Our delegation was received early this morning with the recognition and the honors it deserves. Esteban Lazo and Frederich Cepeda spoke. There was Raúl, who had made them standard-bearers during the ceremony at the Palace of the Revolution.

They were given a copy of my reflection which had been printed today in Granma and inserted in CubaDebate.

I spoke about the technology and discipline introduced to baseball by Japan, about the efforts a nation with no less than 10.4 times Cuba’s population, where one also had to discount “the weak of conscience that let them 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 material on baseball for Cuban National Television. It was pitiful to hear his lament published in the cables. He sighed that the only thing sad about it was that his dear mother and beloved girlfriend hadn’t traveled with him. He had left the very first day that the delegation arrived in San Diego.

The other one was writing in Juventud Rebelde on the same subject. This one had traveled several times but he was waiting for the Classic to carry out his felony. He was constantly glued to the team. 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 to put the spotlight on the merit of the athletes making up our honorable national team, prepared to give their lives for the Homeland.

Of course, guys like those cannot sow a single grain of conscience. What a load of silliness they must have published about baseball; instead of guidance, they only confuse!

All of them are not like Bobby Salamanca or Eddy Martin, who offered such noble testimony about our great sports victories.

Glory to those who devote their lives to building the honor and love of the Homeland!

Glory to the good!

Fidel Castro Ruz
March 20, 2009
4:23 p.m.

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.

At the beginning of the Revolution the Olympics were an event for amateurs.

When the concepts of developed capitalism managed to penetrate the Olympic Games, athletic activity ceased being an issue of health and education, its objectives throughout history.

The only country in the world where that character was preserved was Cuba which, over many years, attained the highest per capita rate of gold medals in terms of its population.

Our finest and most worthy athletes, those who have not become corrupt, have not sold themselves, nor betrayed their people and their homeland, are the ones who represent us with honor in international competitions.

Those countries in which new revolutionary processes have emerged, such as Venezuela, and which consider sports a sacred right of the people, are now unable to participate in highly prestigious events with their professional athletes, given it requires the authorization of the private companies which have acquired rights over those athletes. Athletes are bought and sold like any other commodity. Many of them are serious people who love the country in which they were born, but who cannot decide for themselves.

Leonel Fernández, president of the Dominican Republic, has bitterly complained about that situation and his team has been eliminated from the Classic. Chávez talks about members of the Venezuelan team with enthusiasm and fondness, while complaining bitterly that his Venezuelan star pitchers and batters in the Major Leagues are not allowed to play under the Venezuelan flag.

Cuba has an excellent national team, made up of players from all parts of the island, where every province feels proud of its contribution to the Cuban selection. Individually, their rivals may be equal to or even better than many of our players, given the economic and technical resources of the United States, Canada, Japan and others. What distinguishes the Cuban athletes is their strong motivation on account of the values that they represent.

The team selected is doubtless the best to have represented our country, given the track records, qualities and merits of each player. Opinion polls demonstrate that, given the degree of satisfaction expressed for the selection throughout the country, with a few exceptions.

Now we have to address real facts:

The Classic was organized by those who run the exploitation of sports in the United States, people who, moreover, are astute, intelligent and also as diplomatic as they need to be. However, they cannot do without our country in those Classics.

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 without having previously competed against the team of the United States, the country of the “Major Leagues.” This means that, in the next stage, two of the three will be knocked out. We are thus obliged to wage our battle and draw up strategies in the midst of those vicissitudes.

Japan’s team beat us on the 15th because we undoubtedly committed errors of management at that point, thousands of kilometers away, where it is virtually impossible for Cuba to influence the management of its team.

Currently, the views of our population are divided, but an ample majority is of the opinion that the most convenient result would be a win for Korea against Japan. They understand that the team from that great Asian country is like a precision watch. Of its 28 members, 23 play in the Japanese league. Each one of them is programmed and they have analyzed the characteristics of our players one by one.

Like all Asians, they possess a large dose of sangfroid. Thus they have beaten us twice: in the final game that decided the last Classic and in the first game between the two in this event.

On the other hand, Korea has invested major resources in facilities and technology. One the eve of the last Olympics, in which we had to adapt to a totally opposite time change, they were splendid with us and offered us their facilities free of charge, but at the same time, they exhaustively studied each and every one of our athletes, shooting film and footage of them. They know all of our pitches and the response of each one of our batters to pitches. They constitute the principal adversary, because they are likewise methodical and bat with more strength than the Japanese.

Despite the adverse circumstances noted, neither of the two is invulnerable to our team. A number of Cuban players are new. We have worked more on the weak points of our star players. There is one principle that cannot be violated: whichever is the adversary tomorrow, Wednesday, none of the habitual well-worn paths can be followed.

We possess a lineup of strong batters, almost all of whom can hit a home run — and they have demonstrated that — as well as a lineup of light, rapid and safe batters, who when combined with the strong batters can wreak considerable damage, like they did yesterday against Mexico.

Almost all the pitchers are liberated for Wednesday. We have to start from the characteristics of each one of them, their degree of control and domination of pitches in each and any of the concrete situations that could arise. One of the inviolable principles is that there can be no vacillation whatsoever when a pitcher has to be substituted immediately, if they show a tendency to lose control facing the Japanese or Koreans.

Our experts of profound experience who advise the INDER should indicate beforehand the priority order in which a lefthander or right-hander should take charge of the mound. There could be an opening pitcher, or a number of them who can play the role of an excellent opening pitcher, for which we have the necessary raw material.

There is one thing that every player should internalize. Not to feel discouraged for a single instant. Not to try to desperately hit every ball, as was the case with some of our batters in the last encounter with Japan.

In our country, unfortunately, we have the unhealthy habit of waiting for the first strike, an old custom inculcated in Cuban baseball players, a habit of which opposing pitchers are aware, calmly throwing the first strike straight over home. We have to force a hard task on them from the very first moment.

We have a model to follow in our team: the incredible serenity and security of Cepeda, to whom I wish to pay tribute in this Reflection, for his prowess. He has not in the least varied in his sports efficiency since his first time at bat in the Classic. Yesterday, when we had five runs against Mexico, he had batted in four of them. That game demonstrated that we can beat an adversary.

I greet all the members of the excellent team representing us in San Diego.

Patria o Muerte

¡Venceremos!

Fidel Castro Ruz
March 17, 2009
7:21 p.m.