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Fidel Castro Sends Message to Cuban Parliament

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Fidel Castro Sends Message to Cuban Parliament

Havana, Dec 28 (acn) Cuban Parliament, which is holding the 10th 
Ordinary Session of its 6th Legislature today at Havana's Convention 
Palace, has received a message from President Fidel Castro.

In the presence of Cuba's First Vice President Raul Castro Ruz, 
Parliament President Ricardo Alarcon said that he spoke with Fidel 
Castro before the session opened and that the Revolution leader had 
asked him to read his message to the parliamentarians.

In his message Fidel acknowledges the work of Cuban parliamentarians in 
the face of accumulated and increasing needs inherited by Cuban society 
from the US neo-colonial rule on January 1st, 1959.

"Our pride is legitimate when we are about to mark 50 years after the 
triumph of the Revolution, because we have resisted for nearly half a 
century, the most powerful empire ever in history" said Fidel in his 
message.

The Cuban Revolution leader reminds the parliamentarians that they 
could see no sign of any nepotism or usurpation of the parliament's 
functions in his proclamation issued on July 31, 2006. "In that 
difficult and promising year for the Revolution, the unity of the 
people, the Party and the State was a crucial requisite to keep 
advancing and facing the threats of a military intervention declared by 
the United States."

In his message, Fidel says that what the international media has 
underscored most about Cuba over the past few days was a phrase of his, 
contained in a letter addressed last December 17 to the director of the 
TV program "The Round Table", in which he said that he was not a person 
to cling to power. He said that he was now adding that he indeed was 
for some time, due to the excesses of youth and lack of awareness, in 
times when, without any tutor he was overcoming his political ignorance 
to become a utopian socialist. "It was a stage in which I thought I 
knew what should be done and I wished to do it," said Fidel and 
explained that life changed him as he continued to study the ideas of 
Jose Marti and the classic Socialists more deeply.  He said that the 
more he struggled the more he identified himself with those ideas, and 
that long before the revolutionary victory he already thought that his 
duty was to fight for those ideas or get killed in combat.

The Cuban President also warned of the dangers posed on humankind and 
recalled a recent book by former World Bank Vice President Joseph 
Stiglitz, who was also major advisor to former US President Bill 
Clinton, which contributes up-to-date information about the threats 
pending on the human species. Stiglitz notes that the United States is 
the country which releases the largest amounts of green-house gasses in 
the world, with 6 billion tons of carbon dioxide annually, Fidel 
explains in his message and points out that few people know this 
information about the need to protect the ozone layer that protects 
life on the planet.

Fidel also refers to world issues like the situation in Pakistan which 
he calls an example of threats pending on humankind, since it is an 
internal conflict in country with nuclear weapons; a consequence of the 
political adventures and wars unleashed by the United States to get 
hold of the world's natural resources.

The situation in Pakistan has had an immediate impact on oil prices and 
the stock market, said Fidel and recalled that no country or region may 
avoid the consequences.

"We have to be prepared for everything," he said and noted that he 
learned something new every single day of his life.

The Cuban Revolution leader also said in his message that the five 
Cuban antiterrorist fighters held in US jails are an example to follow 
by the new generations and he was sure that many young Cubans would do 
the same if necessary.

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