Reflections of Fidel

The financial crisis is not the only problem; there is another that is worse because it deals not with the production and distribution methods but with existence itself. I am referring to climate change. Both are present and will be discussed at the same time.

Next Sunday April 5th, UN conversations on climate change will be resumed in Bonn. Around 190 countries are trying to reach an agreement about the reduction of greenhouse effect gases for the period after 2012 when the Kyoto Protocol has expired.

The United States has never signed that Protocol. The new president who has inherited Bush’s problem announced on Saturday the creation of a forum “on energy and climate” to be meeting in Washington on April 27th and 28th with 17 important world economies, among them those of Brazil, Mexico, China and the European Union.

The Bonn meeting will go on for 11 days and the United States delegation will be headed by Todd Stern who is scheduled to read a communiqué.

Ivo de Boer, the UN’s man in charge of climate issues, said: “I hope that Stern will be establishing the main guidelines for the United States.”

There are strong contradictions about the contributions the economies ought to be making.

Limits on carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere by the different countries in the world will be discussed; this is a gas which threatens to annihilate the planet’s living conditions.

There are strong discrepancies between the industrialized and emerging countries, such as China, India and Brazil; these express the desire to first see how the wealthy countries make commitments to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Meanwhile, enormous amounts of water accumulated in the glaciers of Antarctica are speedily and visibly melting as a result of the harmful gas that has been emitted until the present day and which will continue being emitted for incalculable years. “The scientists are exaggerating!” claim the skeptics and, on the basis of such flimsy hopes, they go on dreaming.

We keep on receiving news about the economic crisis from the news cable agencies, including Xinhua y TASS. These infer that in the opinion of the Asian development Bank, the Chinese economy will only grow 7% in 2009. It seems ironic if one takes into account that according to World Bank analyses that of the developed countries making up the OECD will be decreased by 3%; those in the Euro-zone by 2.7%, that of the United States by 2.4% and world trade will drop off by 6.1%.

In an article printed by The Washington Post, President Dimitri Medvedev of Russia proposes that Russia and the U.S. work together to draw up measures to combat the financial crisis and examine the need to create a world reserve currency.

President Hu Jintao of China requested that coordination between the different nations on economic policies be strengthened and that joint efforts be made against trade and investment protectionism in order to aid the recovery of the world economy. “The international financial system has to take up the necessary reforms in a comprehensive, balanced, gradual and effective manner in order to avoid a world crisis in the future”, he added.

George Soros, the famous American magnate of Hungarian background, declared: “China will come out of the recession more quickly that the rest of the world”. He pointed out that “China has a system that is more suitable for these emergency conditions.”

Similar opinions of praise can be observed among the news items printed yesterday:

“Challenging economic difficulties in the country and abroad, the Chinese stock market finished the first quarter of this year with a 30 percent rally, thus converting it by a long shot into the important Market with the best performance so far this year,” Reuters reveals in a summary of analysts’ opinions.

While China declares that it is necessary to create a new international reserve currency, Robert Zoellick, the president of the World Bank, states that “The dollar will continue being the main reserve currency…A system based on the dollar and the strength of the dollar will be crucial to get us out of this pit…We will need more than a G-20 Summit Meeting of the most industrialized and developing countries to establish a new reserve currency.”

The World Bank maintains that the world economy is facing a dangerous year and that it could sink even deeper into recession. It admitted that China would continue to grow, but at a slower pace.

In the Bank’s opinion, the more developed countries will find themselves in a worse situation since they will suffer from a clear shrinkage. It asserts that it is probable that the need for external financing of the developing countries will grow to 1.3 trillion dollars in 2009. With decreased capital flow this would generate a gap fluctuating between 270 and 700 billion dollars.

For that reason, in his opinion, nobody will escape the consequences of the global economic crisis, especially the poorest where, in many of these countries, years of progress will be destroyed. The developing world runs the risk of paying a hefty price for the crisis that originated in the North countries.

Pascal Lamy, WTO director general, urges the G-20 to resist protectionism and to avoid “low intensity” actions that are destined to protect their industries from eventual collapse.

As for the OECD mentioned above for its opinions about the decrease in the GDP, when dealing with unemployment, it points out that this will increase dramatically and will exceed 10%, “almost doubling” in relation to its 2007 level in the G-7 countries: the U.S., Japan, Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy and Canada.

Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the Eurogroup, asked for the European members that will be taking part in the G-20 Summit to have “courage” in claiming that several states and territories of the United States be blacklisted for harmful tax havens. “Mr. Brown should tell Obama to put a stop to the tax havens on U.S. territory”, he stated at an Economic and Monetary Affairs Commission of the European Parliament.

Future regulation of the international financial system has become a source of friction between London and Washington on the one hand, and Paris on the other.

There is lots of information and facts to illustrate that friction.

José Manuel Durão Barroso, president of the European Union, more diplomatically expressed his assurance that consensus would be achieved, denying that the EU and U.S. positions were ruling each other out. He asserts that “we ought to return ethics to the system”, urging for measures against the tax havens.

OXFAM, a well-known NGO, declares that with the 8.42 trillion dollars of public money committed by the governments of the rich world to the bank bailout plan world poverty could be eliminated for the next 50 years. It also has many arguments on behalf of hundreds of thousand of poor people in the world who will sink even further into poverty and on behalf of women who are among those most severely affected by the crisis.

Through their international organizations, the unions demand that the G-20 pay due attention to the unemployment accompanying the crisis and they cry out for the Summit Declaration to refer to the dignity of labor and labor rights.

Tomorrow the Classic played out among the greatest, most developed and developing economies of the world will begin. The rules of the game are not very clear. We shall see what is being discussed and how it is discussed. Has the final declaration already been drawn up and approved beforehand? Maybe yes, maybe no. At any rate, it will be very interesting to learn about the positions adopted by every member, in the midst of so much diplomacy. One way or another, secrets will be impossible. Everything has changed.

Fidel Castro Ruz
April 1, 2009
4:35 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.

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.

I am trying to follow the events of the Baseball Classic, thanks to our national television services.

The game between the teams from Japan and South Korea, Cuba’s strongest opponents, took place on Monday March 9. The score was 1-0 in favor of the latter and Japan only had two more opportunities to bat.

The dangerous and emblematic Ichiro, who had already failed on three occasions, hit a single.

The Japanese coach ordered a bunt from the second – and without doubt first-rate – batter of the team, and as a result, presented the opponents with their second out.

I am sure that, for our experienced team, that would have seemed an error whichever basic way it is analyzed.

The Japanese team is excellent; I would like our victory in the Classic to be achieved at the expense of this team; a team that has tremendous technical expertise.

That will not happen if we slide into the carelessness that I observed during the match between Cuba and South Africa on the afternoon of Sunday, March 8.

Both Olivera and Paret were left stunned at first base and Michel Enríquez gave away an out with an irrational advance towards second base after getting a hit, possibly too agitated during his run from the base by the order of the coach.

As could be appreciated, that game would have been won as a knockout in seven innings, with six home runs – two from Cepeda – and a record in the Classics. That would have elevated the well-deserved prestige of Cuban sport.

I allow myself to make this criticism because it concerns three exceptional athletes, with tremendous self-consciousness, but also confidence in themselves.

They know that they are representing wholesome sport in this international competition. I must express my opinions with honesty and admiration.

Fidel Castro Ruz
March 9 2009
11:14 a.m.

I have carefully followed the Western media’s reaction to my Sunday reflections on the Olympic Games in China. Actually, rather sensitive events were overlooked while others were highlighted ad libitum by the advocates of world plunder and exploitation.

Let’s see:

“Fidel Castro today blamed the judges and the Mafia for the poor performance of the Cuban delegation at the Olympic Games. He also justified the Cuban tae kwon do athlete Angel Volodia Matos, who was permanently suspended after kicking a referee in the head, and expressed his full solidarity with him.”

“The former Cuban President called on Monday to make a deep analysis of sports in Cuba. He also expressed his solidarity with an athlete who was permanently suspended together with his coach for assailing a judge.”

“Castro manifested his full solidarity with the tae kwon do athlete permanently suspended for attacking a referee and a judge.”

“Castro in solidarity with the Cuban tae kwon do athlete permanently suspended for aggression.”

There is a long list of similar sentences. This was the prevailing line of information. I didn’t expect otherwise. I was doomed, the same as the Cuban boxers in the face of bribed referees and judges, and I knew what would be publicized.

As was to be expected, not a word was published about hunger, undernourishment, lack of medicines, sport gear and facilities suffered by 80% of the countries competing there.

I praised the merit of the country that organized the last Olympic Games. I did not hesitate to recognize the extraordinary qualities of the successful athletes. I appreciated the joy, the passion and the human feelings conveyed to millions of people by those who won medals. I specially appreciated the message of peace embodied by the Olympic Games, in the face of the endless carnage, devastation, genocide and real threat of extermination sustained by the human species every day.

What went unsaid about Cuba:

1. It is the only country where professional sport is not practiced.
2. It is the only country that years ago established a grand International School of Sports and Physical Education at the higher level, the same that has graduated thousands of youths from Third World countries and which presently accommodates 1500 students absolutely free of charge.
3. It is the only country in which its high-performance athletes study free of charge to become professors of Sports and Physical Education and which has graduated thousands of people in that specialty in higher education centers. These are now working with children, teenagers, youths and people of all ages. Many of them are also working in Third World countries as collaborators, sometimes free of charge and in some cases for a minimum fee. This way they have made a contribution to the international development of sports
4. It is the only country, among those participating in the Beijing Olympics, which is economically blockaded by the most powerful and richest empire that ever existed.
5. It is also the only country, among all those same participants, to which an Adjustment Act is applied, that, in addition to its bloody fruits, facilitates and encourages the theft of Cuban athletes.
6. Our country has devoted a specialized hospital to care for the health of high-performance athletes.

The truth cannot be hidden under the anesthesia and the fireworks of the Olympic Games.

In Barcelona 1992, in full Special Period, Cuba took fifth place for gold medals.

In the most recent Games we still obtained a total of 24 medals; that is gold, silver and bronze — a higher number than any other country in Latin America and the Caribbean.

We should not hesitate to objectively analyze our sports activity and to prepare for future contests. But, I repeat, we should not forget that “in London we shall find European chauvinism, corrupt referees, the buying of muscles and brains, a price too high to pay, and a strong dose of racism.”

As I write these lines I remember that a cyclone, Fay, paid a visit to us in the middle of the Olympics. Yesterday, coinciding with the arrival of most of our delegation, we got news that another tropical storm was heading straight for the eastern provinces. Today it is stronger, and its projected course even more dangerous. We need to strengthen not only our bodies but our spirits, too.

We are lucky to have a Revolution! It is a fact that nobody will be forgotten. If lives were lost, they would not be in the hundreds or thousands, as was the case in Santa Cruz del Sur on November 9, 1932, due to a tidal wave, and on October 3, 1963, due to Hurricane Flora which flooded the heartland of the provinces east of Cuba. At that time we had no regulatory reservoirs like those of today, which are moreover, sources of irrigation and running water. A strong, energetic and farsighted Civil Defense system protects our people and provides more security in the face of disasters than in the United States. However, every possible danger must be anticipated.

Neither should we be resting n our laurels. The growing frequency and intensity of these natural phenomena demonstrates that the climate is changing due to the faults of humanity. These times demand ever-increasing dedication, steadiness and conscience. It doesn’t matter if the opportunists and traitors also benefit without contributing anything to the safety and wellbeing of our people.

Fidel Castro Ruz
August 26, 2008

If one were to statistically work out the number of facilities, sport fields and sophisticated pieces of equipment we just saw in the recently concluded Olympic Games, accessible to every one million of the world’s inhabitants; the number of swimming pools for diving and polo, artificial underfoot for track and field competitions or field hockey, basketball and volleyball courts, rapids for kayak races, cycle tracks for speed-bike races, firing ranges, and so on and so forth, one could conclude that they are beyond the reach of 80 percent of the countries that were represented in Beijing, which is equivalent to billions of people around the planet. China, an immense and millennia-old country with over 1,2 billion inhabitants, invested $40 billion in the construction of the Olympic facilities and it will still require time to satisfy the sporting needs of a society at the height of development.

If one calculates the total number of people living in India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Vietnam, the Philippines and other countries, not to mention the world’s nearly 900 million Africans and more than 550 million Latin Americans, one will have an idea of the number of people around the world who have no access to these kinds of sport facilities.

It is in this light that we ought to analyze the news that surrounded the Olympic Games in Beijing.

The world enjoyed the Olympics because it was something it needed, because we wanted to see the smiles and emotions of the athletes who participated, particularly those who came in first place, whose perseverance and discipline were duly acknowledged.

Which one of them could be blamed for the colossal inequalities that exist in the world in which it is our lot to live? How can one forget, on the other hand, the hunger, malnutrition, lack of schools, teachers, hospitals, doctors, medications and basic means of sustenance that the world endures?

We are aware of what those who pillage and exploit the world we live in evidently want. Why did they unleash violence and make the risk of war more imminent, on the same day that the Olympic Games were inaugurated? That happened only 16 days ago.

Now, when the anesthesia has worn off, the world must again face its distressing and growing problems.

Some days ago, I wrote about Cuban sports. I had long been condemning the repulsive, mercenary-like maneuvers perpetrated against this revolutionary activity and writing in defense of the courage and honorable conduct of our athletes.

In the course of the competitions, I reflected on these matters. Perhaps I would not have decided to write something on the issue so soon if there had not been the incident involving the Cuban tae kwon do athlete, Angel Valodia Matos, Olympic champion in Sydney eight years ago. His mother died when he was competing there and winning a gold medal, 20,000 kilometers away from his country. Taken aback by a decision that struck him as utterly unfair, he protested and threw a kick in the direction of the referee. They had tried to buy off his trainer. He was already ill-disposed and angry. He couldn’t hold back his anger.

The athlete was used to bravely endure the lesions that frequently arise in a tae kwon do match. The referee suspended him during the match when he was winning 3-2. It wasn’t the only incident. In these types of matches, the referee has all the power and the athlete has none. The two Cubans, the tae kwon do athlete and trainer, were barred for life from participating in international competitions.

I saw when the referees shamelessly robbed two Cuban boxers of their victory during the semifinals. Our boxers put up a dignified and courageous fight, they were constantly on the offensive. They had their hopes set on winning, in spite of the referees. But to no avail: their fate had been sealed beforehand. I didn’t see Correa’s fight, where he was also robbed of his victory.

I feel no duty to remain silent about the deeds of this mafia. The latter has managed to make a mockery of the Olympic Committee rules. What they did to the young members of our boxing team, to complete the work of those who make a living out of stealing Third World athletes, was criminal. In their malice, they denied Cuba even one Olympic gold medal in this discipline.

Cuba has never bought an athlete or referee. There are sports in which referees are very corrupt and our athletes have to fight both the adversary and the referee. Cuban boxers, whose prestige is internationally recognized, have had to face bribery and corruption attempts aimed at violently snatching gold medals from the country, at buying highly trained and experienced boxers, as they try to do in the case of baseball players and other prominent athletes.

The Cuban athletes who competed in Beijing and, instead of gold medals, brought home silver or bronze medals or any kind of acknowledgment are to be commended as representatives of amateur sports, which rekindled the Olympic movement. They are without parallel in the world.

What dignity they showed during the competitions!

Professional athletics were introduced into the Olympics because of commercial interests which turned sports and athletes, as we’ve said, into mere commodities.

Cuba’s Olympic baseball team showed an exemplary conduct. In Beijing, they twice defeated the U.S. selection, the country that invented that sport which, because of the commercial interests of big companies, was excluded from the Olympics. This year, 2008, is, for now, its last in the Olympics.

The final match against South Korea was dubbed the tensest and most extraordinary that the Olympics have ever known. The game was decided in the last inning, with three Cubans on base and an out.

The adversary’s professional baseball players were like batting machines. They had a left-handed pitcher who threw varied speed balls with surgical precision. An excellent team. Cubans do not practice the sport for profit. They are trained, as all our athletes are, to serve their country. Were this not the case, the country, small in size and of limited resources, would lose them forever. It would be impossible to calculate the value of the recreational and educational services they offer the nation in the course of their lives, in all provinces and the Isle of Youth.

In volleyball, Cuba’s team defeated the U.S. selection in the qualifying round. They had been climbing from the lowest end of a more than 50-rung ladder. Even though they returned with no medals, this is a feat that will go down in history.

After a difficult match against a Russian rival, Mijaín proudly won Cuba’s first gold medal in the discipline.

Dayron Robles won the gold by a wide margin. The rain had soaked the brand-new track. Without the rain, he could have easily broken the Olympic record, let alone the world record he had set weeks earlier in the difficult 110-meter hurdles, which requires pinpoint accuracy. He is a disciplined and tenacious 21-year-old with nerves of steel.

Yoanka González won Cuba’s first Olympic cycling medal.

Leonel Suárez, who won a bronze medal in the decathlon, will turn 21 in September. The results obtained in each of the 10 competitions in their extremely difficult sports are indeed impressive.

There are many athletes of great merit, men and women I cannot mention here but who cannot be forgotten.

More than 150 athletes from our small island participated in the 2008 Olympics and put up a fight in 16 of 28 sport disciplines there.

Our country does not practice chauvinism or commercialize sports, which are as sacred as the people’s education and health. What it practices, rather, is solidarity. Years ago, it created a Physical Education and Sports Training School, with capacity for more than 1,500 students from the Third World. With that same spirit of solidarity, it celebrates the triumph of the Jamaican sprinters, who won six gold medals, the Panamanian jumper who won a gold medal, the Dominican boxer that won the same medal or that of the Brazilian volleyball players who dealt a crushing defeat to the U.S. team and came in first.

In addition to this, thousands of Cuban sports trainers have worked in Third World countries.

These merits do not exempt us in the least from assuming present and future responsibilities. In world sporting competitions, for the reasons we pointed out, a qualitative leap has taken place. We no longer live in the time in which we managed to become the world’s first in gold medals per inhabitant in relatively little time, and that isn’t going to happen again, of course.

We account for around 0.07 % of the world’s population. We cannot be strong in all sports like the United States, which has at least 30 times our population. We cannot have access to even 1 % of the facilities and different types of equipment that they possess, nor avail ourselves of the varied climates they have. The same holds for the rest of the rich world, which has at least twice as many inhabitants as the United States does. They account for around one billion inhabitants.

The fact that more nations are competing and competitions are now tougher attests, in part, to Cuba’s victory as an example to the rest of the world. But we are resting on our laurels. Let us be honest and recognize this, all of us. It doesn’t matter what our enemies are saying. Let us be serious about this. Let us go over every discipline, every human and material resource we devote to sports. We must analyze this deeply, apply new ideas, concepts and knowledge. We must distinguish between what is done for the sake of our citizens’ health and what is done for the sake of competing and making this instrument more accessible for the wellbeing and health of everyone. We could abstain from competing outside the country and the world would not end because of this. I think the best course of action is to compete both inside and outside the country, to face all difficulties and make better use of all human and material resources available.

Let us prepare ourselves for important future battles. Let us not be taken in by London’s smiles. There, we will find European chauvinism, corrupt referees, the buying of muscle and brains (an incalculable loss) and a strong dose of racism.

Let no one even dream that London will achieve the level of safety, discipline and enthusiasm that we saw in Beijing. One thing is certain: there will be a Conservative government that is perhaps less belligerent than the current one.

Let us not forget the decency, honesty and professional prestige enjoyed by our international referees and internationalist sport workers.

All of our solidarity accompanies the tae kwon do athlete and his trainer. For those who are returning today, the ovation of all Cubans.

Let us give a warm welcome to our Olympic athletes in all parts of the country. Let us extol their dignity and their merits. Let us do for them everything in our power.

A gold medal for honor!

Fidel Castro Ruz
August 24, 2008

The Olympics will very soon begin in China. Some days ago I wrote about our baseball team. I said that our athletes were put through a very hard test and that if something went wrong they were not the ones who deserved the harshest criticisms. I recognized their quality and patriotism. They felt depressed after the criticisms that came from Cuba.

Afterwards I learned that they were all in good spirits. They had learned how to eat the spicy Korean food with chopsticks, the way it is done in eastern Asia. On July 26 they sent a vibrant patriotic message. They will no doubt face with honor that difficult test.

But, will they be on an equal footing with regards to the teams of other rich powers, such as the United States and Japan, which will be competing against Cuba? The first has almost thirty times as much inhabitants as Cuba; the second, at least eleven times as much. Neither of them is under any economic blockade and both are extremely wealthy. No one is robbing or plundering them of their athletes.

Japan has ordered its professional athletes to join the Olympic team, and they will have to; so has been the will of their masters. That has nothing to do with the athletes that have been turned into merchandise.

On the eve of the Olympics, the United States, with its mercenary money, bought Alexei Ramirez, who had been the leading home runner of the National Baseball series in our country in 2007. The coach of the team that bought him has boasted that he does not know in what base he should place Ramirez, because he had been well trained in all of them. It is disgusting to read about the details of the commercial arrangements surrounding the case, which have been disseminated by the cables, regarding the distribution of the money.

Formerly, they had bought the most promising pitcher from the province of Pinar del Rio, José Ariel Contreras, thus creating uncertainty and mistrust.

In Edmonton, Canada, just before the beginning of a match with the team of the host country at the 23rd World Youth Baseball Championship, we learned that the southpaw Noel Argüelles, who would for sure be the starting pitcher of the game, and the shortstop José Antonio Iglesias, with a batting average above 500, were missing.

The courageous youth league pitcher from Pinar del Rio, Julio Alfredo Martinez Wong, climbed the mound. He had already pitched for eight innings in a row and had one more out to make; there were men on the bases and he looked exhausted. In the bullpen, Joan Socarras Maya was warming up hard; he was instructed to be ready to take action. Esteban Lombillo, the energetic and able coach of Cuba’s youth team had already been to the box. Julio Alfredo, exploding with dignity, demanded that he be allowed to continue pitching: “I will finish this game!” –he exclaimed. Lombillo, who was also upset about the despicable betrayal, knew what he meant and trusted him. Julio Alfredo put his heart and soul into the game. He pitched for the last out of the eighth inning. In the ninth he retired the batters by three consecutive strikeouts and beat the Canadian team by one run.

The substitute shortstop, Yandy Díaz, played wonderfully and connected for a double that was decisive for Cuba’s victory.

Edmonton has become a dumping ground. The Cuban athletes were badly taken care of. That city has the privilege of hosting that championship every year. We should analyze whether it is worth attending that tournament.

Not even a single representative of the Cuban press had been sent to cover the event. All we know we have learned through unofficially.

The proud Cuban athletes of the Olympic baseball team, who have been wonderfully taken care of by their Korean hosts and will be even better taken care of in China, will have to compete under the unfavorable circumstances that I explained before. Whatever the results, they know that what really matters for us are the honor and the courage with which they struggle.

But the imperialist aggression is not only seen in baseball. Some months ago, part of our male soccer team let itself be drawn into an act of betrayal inside the United States, which limited Cuba’s prospects in that sport in the international arena. A female Olympic judo athlete, almost a sure gold medalist, was bribed. Buying our athletes they deprived us from five sure gold medals in Olympic boxing. It is like a call to slaughter against Cuba to steal brains, muscles and bones.

Why are the rich and powerful afraid of our small and blockaded island? Leinier Domínguez struggles in Switzerland at one of the most important international chess tournaments.

At the Olympics, due to begin on August 8, our athletes in different sports will struggle to win the gold with more dignity than ever, and our people will enjoy their gold medals as they never have. Then the fanatics will remember the traitors.

Fidel Castro Ruz
July 31, 2008