As Cuba seeks to fairly distribute its energy resources to the population  and prevent excessive oil consumption, President Fidel Castro said his  government has several ideas on how to make that a reality.  

  The president spoke Wednesday evening on "The Round Table", a nightly  TV and  radio program hosted by journalist Randy Alonso and which includes  prestigious Cuban analysts on local and world affairs. The program  centered  on the salary, pension and social welfare increases and the new  electric  rates announced earlier in the day. Fidel Castro said the moment had  come to  announce the measures, and that they were crucial for the future of the  country.  

  Maybe we're the first and only country to have publicly questioned its  energy consumption habits and the risks faced by humanity due to the  uncontrolled waste of oil, a non-renewable resource, said President  Castro.   He expressed the urgency to adopt the conservation and salary measures  before the end of the year, as part of the programs being developed by  the  Revolution.  

  Fidel Castro said that some people might question why the measures were  so  long in coming, noting that a comprehensive government study had to be  completed beforehand. He added that the announcement reflects the work  of a  team that included participation from the corresponding government  entities.  

  Regarding wages, the Cuban leader said the new increases were part of a  review of the country's salary structure and that regulation of hard  currency incentives is forthcoming. He noted that the socialist  principal of  "from each according to his/her ability, to each according to his/her  needs"  is strengthened by the measures.  

  Fidel Castro recalled that salaries, pensions and social assistance had  been  raised months back, saying continuing the process could wait no longer  and  involves all sectors of society in terms of wages.  

  For some the increase in electric rates will have little or no effect,  however those that use the most energy will either have to cut  consumption  or come up with the money to pay for the service, said Fidel Castro.

   We had to make the move to raise rates for the biggest consumers  because we  are seeking a savings that is part of the country's present and future  development plans, he added.  

  This is a Socialist Revolution that seeks true equality, something he  said  has not occurred with the history of humanity over the last four or  five  thousand years.  

  MENACE TO HUMANKIND  

  Fidel Castro described the accelerated depletion of oil reserves and  their  irrational use as one of the most serious, daunting, and dangerous  problem  facing today's world. Wars like the one unleashed on Iraq have been  fought  in order to guarantee a steady supply of oil.  

  The US also worked hard to achieve the disintegration of the Soviet  Union,  with the goal of seizing its large oil wells.  

  We are witnessing the terminal stage of US imperialism: The globalized  empire. It not only unleashes military conflicts to expand its  domination,  but it also has 200 or 300 military bases scattered around the world,  including the one it maintains on the illegally occupied territory of  Guantanamo, Cuba, where horrible acts are committed on a daily basis,  which  are even worse that the horrendous acts committed by the dictatorships  of  Machado and Batista in Cuba, and in other Latin American nations by  rulers  like Pinochet and Somoza.  

  Since it is in a terminal stage, US imperialism wants to expand its  power  worldwide; so we are faced with dangers that affect everybody; let's  face  the reality, and see things just how they are, he stressed. There are  tragedies and wars for oil, he said, noting that risks have piled for  the  survival of the human kind. Right now, he said,   Washington wants to force Iran to burn all its gas and oil, with its  demand  that it does not use nuclear energy to generate electricity. France, he  added, obtains almost 80% of its power from nuclear fuel, and this has  been  occurring since the oil crisis of the 70s, when the oil price climbed  to  nearly 45 dollars a barrel in 1975, a figure which has amply been  surpassed  and currently stands above 50 dollars.  

  FOREIGN MEDIA FABRICATIONS  

  Once again, the new decisions announced by the Cuban Government to  improve  the standard of living of the Cuban people have been the target of  distortions by international news agencies. They have pegged the salary  and  pension hikes with a supposed equivalence to the US dollar without  explaining the major differences in Cuban and capitalist economic  systems.  

  The Cuba president said it was a big lie to say that a Cuban salary is  the  equivalent to 10 US dollars. That statement, he said, is at best  misguiding,  because it ignores that citizens in this country receive healthcare and  education totally free of charge, and that the basic staples,  electricity,  and medications are heavily subsidized by the state. An outing to a  museum,  a theater or a sports competition is affordable to all, said Fidel  Castro.  

  Cubans, he added, also enjoy TV broadcasts for free, without the  constant  interruption of commercial advertisements.  

  Lots of lies are written about Cuba every day, and it is done with an  all  too clear intention: giving the idea that Cuba is a downtrodden  country,  where people barely earn 10 dollars a month, said President Castro.  Ours is  the fight to rid ourselves of injustice, plundering and lies. No other  country in the world, he stated, has been able to raise the real income  of  people as we have done here in just one year.  

  He argued that money alone does not reflect the value of living with  dignity, education, security, having an infant mortality rate lower  than  six, and a life expectancy which already surpasses 72 years of age.  

  PROBLEMS WE MUST FIGHT AGAINST  

  Fidel Castro acknowledge that there are still people in Cuba who want  to  live without working, at the cost of others; "We well know that a new  class  exists today that came out of some of the trying times the Revolution  had to  go through, especially during the years of the special period when the  US  blockade got much worse and economic relations with the Soviet Union  disappeared."  

  The Cuban president said that the country needs to openly talk about  these  problems, that there is no culture of economics in Cuba and that most  people  don't understand where money comes from. He added that people must  realize  that salary increases mean nothing if not accompanied by a similar rise  in  available goods and services. He stressed that Cuba is at a point where  it  is ready to do this, with a revalued peso that will maintain its  correlation  with the convertible peso, even though he noted that the US dollar  continues  to have an unbearably high value.  

  Fidel Castro also acknowledged that many of Cuba's leaders and  officials  also lack a solid economic understanding, adding that, due to the  course  that the Revolution has undertaken, what is most understood by the  population is a system of distribution, where every person has the  right to  their share.  

  Fidel went on to say that Cuba has suffered from bureaucratic mistakes  that  have lead to waste; as happened in the years when it was receiving 14  million tons of oil a year from the former USSR. He said that these bad  habits greatly exasperated the situation facing the government when it  was  all of a sudden left with nothing when the socialist camp fell.  

  He noted that at this time, which marked the beginning of the special  period, 95 percent of all homes where on the power grid and ways had to  be  found to keep these powered, along with the transportation system,  hospitals, schools and industry.  

  The Cuban president said that the current problems affecting Cuban  society  can not be fought only by legal means, and that the extent of the  problem  must be met with a sizeable force of conscientious individuals, like  social  workers, joined by another considerable corps, that of the university  students.  

  Fidel recalled that no other society in history has advanced as quickly  as  Cuba in eliminating social inequalities in order to offer all its  citizens  equity, justice and the best possible standard of living.  

  Fidel Castro said that Cuba still has a way to go in fully implementing  the  principle of social distribution but added that the new salary  increases are  another step in this direction, representing the main material  incentive for  people's contributions to society.  

  The Cuban leader said he trusted the values present in Cuban young  people  and spoke highly of the human capital developed by the island over the  years, which he described as "our most valuable resource."  

  This is why I can say with absolute certainty that our success in this  battle against waste, pilfering, and other misconducts, is guaranteed,"  Fidel said.  

  The Cuban President added that the extensive infrastructure of grass  root  community organizations, ideas and the support of the people will all  be  decisive in this campaign. "We have said that military-wise the  Revolution  is invulnerable today and striving to also be economically  invulnerable, and  we can assure as well that politically the Revolution will become  invulnerable too, and that the new generations will be better and more  capable than we have been."  

  The Commander-in-Chief spoke metaphorically comparing the efforts of  the  Cuban people to climbing the Himalayan mountain range. He added that  Cubans  are now starting to see the fruits of all their struggles during the  special  period, and are confident in the direction that Cuba is taking. He  assured  that everyone will start to benefit from the results of these efforts  and  that nothing, not even a brutal hurricane season can stop Cuba.  

  STEPS TOWARDS SAVING  

  Fidel commented how it was miraculous that the nation didn't collapse  when  the USSR and the Eastern European socialist camp disappeared, leaving  Cuba  without key supplies of all types including machinery and fuel.  

  He announced that as of December 15, Pinar del Rio will have a new  electricity generation system able to supply Cuba's westernmost  province  when it can not hook in to the national grid.  

  It also includes a back up system for vital economic and social centers  and  evacuation shelters during natural disasters like hurricanes or other  emergency situations.  

  By means of the use of more efficient equipment, new technologies and  the  nationwide installation of between 14 and 15 million energy saving  fluorescent light bulbs between December of 2005 and December of 2006,  it  would be possible to save 70 percent of the electrical energy used  today, he  affirmed.  

  The Cuban leader also made reference to the meritorious work done by  social  workers in combating the theft of fuel at gas stations. He noted that  the  sales revenues reported have doubled since the young people took over  and  have been manning the pumps.  

  The lack of controls is coming to an end, and Cuba will save between  140 and  150 million dollars a year. Those resources, he added, will then be  assigned  to improve the quality of life of the people in every aspect.  

  In contrast to Cuba's efforts to save energy, Fidel Castro was very  critical  of the irrational oil consumption patterns in the United States.  

  Talking about the need to develop an economic awareness among the  population  the leader of the Cuban Revolution informed about a recent research  project  done by the social workers in the Arroyo Naranjo municipality in the  city of  Havana, where 58,000 homes were visited by them.  

  According to the data collected during that survey project, it was  found  that the population had 35,000 domestic refrigerators that use between  180  and 200 kiloWatt hours per month, 55,000 energy inefficient homemade  electric fans, and about 7,000 old vacuum tube technology TV sets that  use a  lot of electricity to operate.  

  Enrique Gomez Cabezas, a member of the national executive of the Young  Communists, informed that, in the Arroyo Naranjo territory alone, some  138,000 incandescent light bulbs were replaced, leaving 22,000 still to  be  replaced too.  

  The youth leader emphasized that so far the Cuban capital has seen the  replacement of more than 1.7 million incandescent lamps for the new  highly  efficient energy saving fluorescent light bulbs.  

  During the final minutes of The Round Table the members of the Panel  and  President Castro reiterated the importance of the measures and the  building  of a society where each worker makes a proper living from his salary.  

  The Round Table broadcast was attended also by Carlos Lage, Secretary  of the  Executive Committee of the Council of Ministers, Yadira Garcia,  Minister of  Basic Industry, which includes energy generation, and Alfredo Morales,  Minister of Labor and Social Security, as well as other officials and  youth  leaders involved in the new social programs being undertaken by the  Cuban  Revolution.  

  Granma Daily via Radio Havana Cuba - Nov 26, 2005  

 http://www.granma.cubanews.cu  

 http://www.radiohc.cu/ingles/especiales/
noviembre05/especiales26nov.htm