Mariam Mariam
Ever since he stepped down as the President of Cuba, Fidel Castro has maintained a regular schedule of reflections on some of the main events in the world. Fidel Castro, the journalist, has been at his lucid best unknotting osme of the main issues today: the crisis of the world capitalist system; ecology; the moral dilemma of scientific development, even world literature. Fidel brings the insight of a revolutionary who has dedicated a life time to the struggle against the inhumanity intrinsic to capitalist exploitation. I have reproduced today one of his recent reflections title The Law of the Jungel. It takes a look at the world capitalist economic crisis and the forthcoming election in the USA.
The Law of the Jungel by Fidel Castro
Trade, within a society and between countries, is the exchange of goods and services produces by human beings. The owners of the means of production appropriate the profits. As a class, they are the leaders of the capitalist state and they boast of fostering development and social wellbeing through market (forces). This they worship as an infallible God. In every country there is competition between the stongest and the weakest; the ones with more physical energy and better fed, those who learned how to read and write, who attended school and have more experience accumulated; the ones with more extensive social relations and more resources, and those within society who fail to have these advantages.
Now, as far as… countries (are) concerned, there are differences between those with a better climate and more arable land, more water and more natural resources in the area where they are located, when there are no more territories to conquer; the ones mastering technology, having greater development and handling unlimited media resources and those who, on the contrary, do not enjoy any of theses prerogatives. These are the sometime enormours differences between the rich and the poor nations. It’s the law of the jungle.
There are no differences between ethnic groups, however, when it comes to the mental faculties of the human being. This has been thoroughly proven by science. The present society is not the natural way in which human life evolved, but rather a creation of the mentally developed man without which his life would be inconceivable. Therefore, what is at state is whether the human being will be able to survice the privilege of having a creative mind. The developed capitalist system, epitomized by the country with a priviledged nature where the European white man brought his ideas, dreams and ambitions, is today in a crisis. But, it is not the usual crisis of the 1930s but the worst of all crises since the world started to pusue this growth and development model. The current crisis of the developed captitalist system is taking place when the (United States) is about to change leadership in the elections to be held in a few day); it was all that was left to see.
The candidates of the two main parties that will say the last word in these elections are trying to persuade the bewilderd voters –many of whom have never cared to cast a vote – that as candidates to the presidency they can secure the wellbeing and consumerism of what they describe as a people of middle class only, even though they are not planning to introduce any real changes to what they consider the most perfect economic system the world has ever known. The same world that, in their respective minds, is less important than the happiness of (Americans) who account for less than five percent of the world population. The fate of the remaining ninety five percent of the world population. The fate of the remaining ninety-five percent of human beings…, will depend on decisions of the leader of the empire…at a time of nuclear weapons and space shields moved by computers in circumstances…when ethical principles keep losing their value. Still, the more or less nefarious role of the President of that country cannot be overlooked millions of people can hardly reconcile with the notion that a black man, with his wife and children could live in the White House, which is precisely called White. It’s a miracle that the Democratice candidate has not met the same destiny as Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and others who only a few decades ago dreamed of justice and equality. He is in the habit of looking of his adversary with serenity and of smiling at the dialective predicament of an opponent gazing into space. The Republican candidate, on the other hand, who likes to enhance his reputation as a belligerent man, was one of the worst students in his class at West Point. He has confessed that he did not know any Mathematics; it can thus be assumed that he knew less of the complicated economic science. The truth is his adversary surpasses him in cleverness and composure. Something McCain has aplenty is age, and his health condition is not safe. If anything went wrong with the candidate’s health, in case he is elected – the lady of the riffle, the inexperienced (…) governor of Alaska could become President of the United States. It can be noticed that she does not know a thing.
Meditating on the current US public debt – $10,266 trillions – that President Bush is laying on the shoulders of the new generations in that country, I took to calculating how long it would take a man to count the debt that he has doubled in eight years. A man working eight hours a day, without missing a second, and counting one hundred one dollar bills per minute, during 300 days in the year, would need 710 billion years to count that amount of money. I could not find a more graphic way todescribe the volume of money that is practically mentioned every day now. In order to avoid a general state of panic, the US administration has declared that it will secure deposits that do not exceed 250 thousand dollars. It will be managing banks and such funds as Lenin would never have thought of counting with an abacus. We might be wondering about the contribution of Bush’s administration to Socialism. But, let’s not entertain any illusions. Once the banking operations go back to normal, the imperialists will return the banks to the private business… The peoples always foot the bill. Capitalism tends to reproduce itself under any social system because it is based on selfishness and on man’s instincts. The only choice left to human society is to overcome this contradiction; otherwise it would not be able to survive.
At this time, the ocean of meney being poured into the world fanances by the central banks of the developed capitalist countries is dealing a hard blow to the Stock Exchanges of the countries which resort to these institution in an effort to beat their economic underdevelopment. Cuba has no Stock Exchange. We shall certainly find more rational and more socialist ways of financing our development. The current crisis and the brutal measures of the US administration to save itself will bring more inflation, more devaluation of the national currencies, more painful losses in the markets, lower prices for basic export commodities and more unequal exchange. But, they will also bring to the peoples a better understanding of the truth, a greater conscience, more rebelliousness and more revolution. We shall see how the crisis develops and what happens in the Unisted States in (a few) days.
Postscript
Nigeria\a favourite “AGIP” (Fela’s “Any Government in Power”), the “never lying”, “God-fearing”, Professor Jerry Gana, returned from a spiritual exile of sorts this week to display “new insights” into the process of governance: “Nigeria has not been able to develop because it has always been plagued with leaders without ideas”. Very well said, except that Jerry Gana has obediently served Babangida, Abacha, Obasanjo and will not mind another bite of the pie under Yar’adua! A cat of many lives; that’s Jerry “AGIP” Gana.
