[permaculture-oceania] DVD on Cuban Permaculture
Mick Marston
fcfcg at mickmarston.plus.com
Fri Sep 8 22:04:58 EST 2006
HELP sorry if this has been aswered but I am keen to get hold of copy of this DVD please could someone point me in right direction thanks mick
----- Original Message -----
From: Duroyan Fertl
To: permaculture-oceania
Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 7:35 AM
Subject: Re: [permaculture-oceania] DVD on Cuban Permaculture
Hi Russ,
Apologies for the long post - it could have been longer.
The problem in the 'West' is that we are too dependent upon whatever the corporate media feeds us in order to determine the 'truth' about things such as Cuba. And as long as Cuba maintains a social system which is dedicated to the provision of human needs instead of assisting corporate profiteering, they will remain biased against it as it denies them another market. That needs to be borne in mind first and foremost.
However, in the age of the internet, it should be possible for a person to go beyond these lies, and sift throught the disinformation and propaganda.
A couple of points, then:
1. Reporters Without Borders
RSF are not to be compared with anything so high-minded as the medically-minded MSF. Despite their objections that "they don't take money from the CIA", they are now admitting that they get money from the NED. Oh, that's ok then! Right? Wrong! Here's some examples of what NED gets up to...
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/03/04/1554235
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1169
2. One might also ask, when the whole country is run from the bottom up by the people, what need is there for 'independent' media? There is already press freedom in Cuba - mass press freedom. The only "independent" media that I can think of is that which is funded by the US, one way or another, to further their political project against Cuba, or the media that used to be owned by the rich Cuban elite who fled to the US with their 'protector', the dictator Batista. Too often, people assume that, like in our own countries, the views of the Cuban media don't accord with the views of the Cuban people but are the organs of some kind of repressive state, and that what is needed is "independent" media to 'allow' people to "have their voice heard". The problem is that they don't understand that the Cuban state is itself an expression of the Cuban people. The issue, therefore, is really one of whether you support Cuban independence or US intervention and the reintroduction of a system of mass exploitation in Cuba.
People in Cuba who disagree with the system or parts of it are not persecuted, and in fact are allowed to organise, are welcomed into the mainstream debate. There are regular debates in the papers, on the radio and television, about everything from the deathpenalty, to economics, to discrimination against afro-cubans, women and gays and how to overcome it, to just about anything you want to name. Check out the "Varela Project", a 'dissident' project aiming at transforming Cuba into a multi-party, US-style 'democracy'. People like Oswaldo Paya, who headed the V. Project up, weren't thrown in jail arbitrarily. He remains free in Cuba, criticising the Government (and getting very little support), while his friends who decided to take up the illegal offer of money from the US government are in jail. Where they belong.
If you actually want to get an accurate picture of what the reality is in Cuba, you have to go beyond US-funded black propaganda outfits. Ideally, you could go there, but even this would be useless unless you understood the history of the Cuban people and the Cuban revolution, the attacks the US has launched against it for more than four decades (and against the cuban people for over a century). And why? Because Cuba dared to say "no" to a US-backed dictator who murdered and tortured tens of thousands of people. Against this backdrop, the cuban people, lead by Castro, took control of their own affairs, for which they've been paying the price ever since.
3. Some figures to think about:
Assassination attempts against Castro: 638
Invasions by US or US proxies: 1 (Bay of Pigs), although if you go back a century you actually get a few more.
Ongoing illegal occupations: 1 (Guantanamo Bay)
Financial cost to Cuba of a 45-year economic blockade: over $80 billion.
Cost of blockade to people unable to access vital imported medicines, etc in that time: incalculable
No. of Cubans allowed to legally leave Cuba for the US every year: 25,000
No. of Cubans allowed to legally enter the US: 0
No. of Cubans allowed (and encouraged) to illegally and dangerously enter the US on small, unsafe craft: unlimited
No. of Cubans lacking access to adequate nutrition: 0
No. of Cubans lacking access to healthcare: 0 (U.S.: 73 million)
No. of homeless people in Cuba: 0 (U.S.: 3.5 million, incl. 1.35 million children)
Persons per doctor: 280 (U.S.: 470)
Persons per hospital bed: 190 (U.S.: 280)
Infant deaths per 1000 live births: 6.7 (U.S.: 7.1)
Doctors working in underdeveloped countries at no cost: 5,000+ (U.S.: 0)
Cuban youth literacy rate: 99.8%
Literacy Before & After The Revolution - 1952: 54%, 2005: 97%
Life Expect. Before & After The Revolution - 1955: 59.4 years, 2005: 75.7 years
Current Cuban economic growth rate thanks to assistance from countries like Venezuela: 11.8% p/a.
And one question - "How is all this, and the subject matter of the doco, possible on such a tiny island with an aggressive neighbour only 90 miles away?"
4. A few links to follow up on:
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=45&ItemID=7851
http://www.counterpunch.org/barahona05172005.html
http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2005/620/620p14.htm
http://www.ratb.org.uk/html/electoralsystem.html
http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/state_and_revolution/democracy_in_cuba.htm
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8243.htm
http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2006/676/676p21b.htm
Also, check out the book "Cuba: A Revolution in Motion", by Isaac Saney, for a good overview of Cuban legal, labour, electoral, education and other systems.
Sincerely,
Duroyan
Russ Grayson <info at pacific-edge.info> wrote:
Hi Duroyan...
Thanks for your comments below, about Cuba.
I find difficulty in accepting your comment that the "dictatorship" in cuba
isn't one at all - "Cuba has the most democratic system of government i
have reserched or experienced," you write.
My concern about the Cuban government in really focussed on their attitude
to media freedom. There's more on this at Reporters Without Borders:
http://www.rsf.org
On 3/9/06 9:43 PM, "Duroyan Fertl" wrote:
> The doco is quite neutral (it doesn;t really mention socialism in cuba, or
> the government at all). The fact is however, that many of the people
> interviewed and who play a central role in nurturing organics, permaculture
> and alternative energy in cuba are (some of them leading) members of the
> government.
I don't think the issue is socialism at all, rather for me it's the
imprisonment of critics of the regime, especially media workers who have a
critical role in influencing public perceptions and attitudes. When a regime
of whatever politics cannot deal fairly and openly with criticism then there
is something wrong - and you only have to look at how Canberra deals with
criticism as an example of this.
The Cuban's engagement with local and organic food is to be welcomed, of
course, and I intend to see the film at the Permaculture North showing and,
if suitable, obtain a copy for showing to workshop groups.
Perhaps there is something in it that will provide clues about the dilemma
addressed by a number of organic food advocates in this country - the fact
that for people with low incomes organic foods are simply too expensive.
This is an issue that I was aware of earlier but that has been reinforced by
health workers active with Sydney's Food Fairness Alliance, a coalition of
community and health workers, one or two urban agriculture and community
sector advocates, two people from different churches and one or two from
local government and the Permaculture milieu.
Poverty, often exacerbated by government policy according to some with the
Alliance, infers that although local/organic food advocates should continue
to promote greater access to organic foods, however at the same time they
have to recognise the continuing need for supermarkets and non-organics
because their decline would affect the nutritional health of those who
cannot afford organics.
We had a too-brief informal discussion on this at an Alliance meeting
recently. A community worker said that people in poverty were often blamed
for their condition - they lack a knowledge of home budgeting and of cooking
simple but nutritionally balanced meals, it is said. Yet, she said, there
have been programs to teach budgeting and cooking but these have not changed
the situation. So perhaps the problem has external sources too, in the
structure of the economy.
I wouldn't expect the Cuba video to provide anything useful on this but
perhaps - and those who have seen it could comment authoritatively on this -
it is of value in showing the potential of a local food industry based on
sustainable agricultural practice.
...Russ
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
RUSS GRAYSON
journalism, online content production, photojournalism, instructional
manuals, media services for overseas aid
PO Box 1045, Manly, NSW 1655 AUSTRALIA
info at pacific-edge.info
P: 0414 065 203
www.pacific-edge.info
TerraCircle international development team, Oceania
www.terracircle.org.au
Australian City Farms & Community Gardens Network
www.communitygarden.org.au
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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********************************************************
Duroyan Fertl
State Convenor, NSW Socialist Alliance
(02) 9690 1977/ 0403 919 377
For the millions, not the millionaires!
http://www.socialist-alliance.org
Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
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