[Marxism] Miami Herald: "Cuba imposes strict response"

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

(With massive coverage of the death and destruction
caused by Hurricane Ivan troughout the Caribbean and
on to the United States, you'd think any rational and
sensitive human being might wonder when reading about
scores of deaths elsewhere and not a single death in
Cuba, that someone might wonder how that came to be?

(Surely some people will look at the preparations and
patterns made, and not made, by the Cuban and other
governments. All the more so since the government of
the United States is hell-bent on overthrowing Cuba's
government with a US-style and US-approved government,
such as has been accomplished in Iraq.

(The MIAMI HERALD, organ of the ultra-right extremist
Cuban exile leadership has a religious committment to
bashing Cuba at virtually every opportunity. Theirs 
is the religion of "Smash Castroismo" and here we've
got a laboratory-pure example of their religion at a
revealing moment. 

(Cuba's social-political system was responsible for 
the lack of loss of human life. Other countries who
are bound by the laws of capitalism had a different,
a tragic result. Part of the purpose of all this is
to bludgeon, to intimidate, and indeed to terrorize
anyone within its readership area who might wonder
about the different approaches, and the different
consequences, which the two countries experienced 
dealing with Ivan The Terrible. It's rather rarely
that the HERALD lets its fangs show this brazenly.

(The United Nations, which has had such a bad press
so often, had an entirely different attitude toward
Cuba's success in dealing with the Ivan and I've
reproduced a report by them here for comparison.

(This shameful "report" is confirmation of exactly
what Radio Havana Cuba's Simon Wollers was talking
about YESTERDAY in writing about such comments which
we'd better call "shiticism" than "criticism".)
===================================================

MIAMI HERALD
Posted on Fri, Sep. 17, 2004   

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/weather/hurricanes/9686322.htm

STORM PREPARATIONS
Cuba imposes strict response
Cuba evacuated nearly 1.9 million people facing the wrath 
of Hurricane Ivan with remarkable effectiveness.
BY JUAN O. TAMAYO AND NANCY SAN MARTIN
jtamayo@xxxxxxxxxx

Cuba's state TV and radio monopoly was all Ivan all the
time. Volunteers went door to door announcing evacuations
for the Category 5 hurricane, and police followed them to
enforce the order. President Fidel Castro, as always, went
to the province most threatened -- before Ivan arrived.

In the end, Ivan barely brushed the westernmost province of
Pinar del Río, destroying several homes, flooding some
areas and knocking down power lines and trees but causing
no deaths.

The country's evacuation of nearly 1.9 million people from
coastal and flood-prone areas underlined the effectiveness
of its hurricane preparedness -- partly because of its
organization, partly because of the communist government's
firm control over the lives of 11 million Cubans.

After 45 years of Castro rule, Cubans understand that the
government has the last word. When state agents came, most
people did not question the orders to evacuate, to open and
staff shelters and ensure that displaced families were
accounted for and fed.

What if the people don't want to leave their homes? a
reporter asked a resident of Artemisa, just outside of
Havana. She laughed. ''They have no choice,'' she said.

The Cuban government's first line of defense against
hurricanes is the media, totally controlled by the state,
from the three TV stations to dozens of radio stations and
newspapers.

>From the day that Ivan began pointing its eye toward Cuba,
TV broadcast nonstop shows on the hurricane. Civil-defense
officials announced preparations and meteorologists gave
hurricane instruction every night before a classroom-like
studio audience.

The result was that Cubans began stocking up on emergency
supplies early and taking other precautions.

In all, the government moved 1.89 million people -- 17
percent of its citizens -- out of harm's way.

As civil defense officials announced evacuations, members
of neighborhood watch groups went door to door making sure
everyone knew. Then came the police, making sure everyone
obeyed.

All along, civil defense officials and volunteers kept
detailed lists of residents, those who were in shelters and
those in neighbors' homes.

''We are well organized,'' said a civil defense
representative at a shelter in Guanajay just outside
Havana.

''We got very lucky,'' Melardo Quintero, 54, said as he
made some minor adjustments on his thatched roof near the
town of San Juan y Martínez in Pinar del Río.

But Castro, who repeatedly compared his government's
preparations for Ivan to the island's long-standing
preparations for a possible war with the United States,
said it was more than luck. ''We've been preparing for 
this for 45 years,'' he told state television.
===============================================

GRANMA INTERNATIONAL
Havana. September 15, 2004

UN presents Cuba as an example in prevention against
hurricanes

GENEVA (EFE).?UN officials today stated that Cuba is an
example in the prevention of hurricane risks and a model
that could be applied in other countries with similar or
better economic conditions that have not been able to
protect their populations as effectively as the island.

Recently, Hurricane Charley took four lives in Cuba, as
opposed to 30 in Florida.

They also recalled that Hurricane George, recorded in 1998,
provoked the death of just four people when it crossed
Cuba, while 600 died in other Caribbean nations affected by
that natural phenomenon.

There are many reasons explaining the low mortality rate
caused by hurricanes in Cuba compared to its neighbors,
such as education, prevention and response capacity,
commented Salvano Briceno, director of the UN Institute for
the Reduction of Disasters.

In his opinion, the population of the Caribbean country is
constantly informed and prepared in schools, universities
and workplaces on how to confront natural disasters.

"From an early age, Cubans are trained in how to act when a
hurricane is approaching the island and receive two days of
training every year in ways of reducing their risks,
including simulation exercises and preparing concrete
actions," Briceno explained.

For her part, Brigitte Leoni, a spokesperson for the World
Conference for the Reduction of Disasters, which takes
places next January in Japan, highlighted the work of the
Cuban Meteorological Institute and the Civil Defense as
"two pillars" in the system of controlling risks originated
by hurricanes.

All the island?s institutions are mobilized 48 hours before
a hurricane is expected to hit the territory and immediate
measures such as mass evacuations go into effect, the
spokesperson affirmed.

In the Cuban case, she added, it is an example of how the
vulnerability of populations can be reduced with low-cost
measures, and a significant dose of political
determination.

Finally, Briceno observed that Cuba?s success in this field
illustrates that the poor nations do have options for
mitigating or preventing the consequences of natural
disasters, but at times the missing links are "concrete
action programs and the political will to implement them."


_______________________________________________
Marxism mailing list
Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism