There is no alternative but to call things by their true name. Anyone with minimal commonsense can observe without much effort how little realism remains in the current world.
When United States President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Michael Moore stated "Now please earn it!" That witty comment pleased a lot of people for its acuity, although the Norwegian committee’s decision was perceived by many as no more than demagogy and an exaltation of the apparently inoffensive politicking of the new president of the United States, an African American, a good speaker and an intelligent politician at the head of a powerful empire enveloped in profound economic crisis.
The Copenhagen world meeting was about to take place and Obama raised
hopes of a binding agreement in which the United States would join a
world consensus in order to avoid the ecological disaster that is
threatening the human species. What occurred there was disappointing;
international world public opinion had been the victim of a painful
deception.
In the recent People’s World Conference on Climate Change and the Rights
of Mother Earth, which took place in Bolivia, responses full of wisdom
were put forward by the ancient indigenous nationalities, invaded and
virtually destroyed by European conquistadores who, in their search for
gold and easy riches, imposed over the centuries their egotistic
cultures, incompatible with humanity’s most sacred interests.
Two news items that arrived yesterday express the philosophy of the
empire in its attempt to make us believe in its "democratic", "pacific,"
"altruistic" and "honest" nature. Suffice it to read the text of those
agency cables from the capital of the United States.
WASHINGTON, April 23, 2010 — "The Obama administration is considering
deploying a new group of intercontinental ballistic weapons that could
deliver large conventional warheads, non-nuclear but capable of reaching
targets anywhere in the world in approximately one hour and with a
extremely powerful explosive capacity.
"While the new super-bomb, mounted on Minuteman missiles, will not have
nuclear warheads, its destructive capacity will be equivalent, as
confirmed by the fact that its deployment is anticipated in the recently
signed START 2 agreement with Russia.
"The Moscow authorities demanded and succeeded in having inserted in the
agreement, a provision demanding the United States decommission one
nuclear missile for every missile it deploys.
"According to reports in The New York Times and on CBS News, the new
weapon, baptized PGS (Prompt Global Strike), could carry out tasks like
killing terrorist Osama bin Laden in a cave, destroying a North Korean
missile as it is being transported to the launch pad, or demolishing an
Iranian nuclear site - all without using nuclear bombs.
"The advantage of having a non-nuclear weapon with the same localized
impact effects of a nuclear bomb is considered interesting by the Obama
government.
"The project was initially proposed by Obama’s predecessor, Republican
George W. Bush, but was blocked by Moscow’s protests. Bearing in mind
that the Minuteman also transport nuclear warheads, the Moscow
authorities said, it would be impossible to establish that the
deployment of a PGS was not the beginning of a nuclear attack.
"But Obama’s government considers that it can give Russia or China the
necessary guarantees to avoid misunderstandings. The launch facilities
of the new weapon will be mounted in sites at a distance from nuclear
warhead deposits and will be open to periodic inspection by Moscow or
Beijing experts.
"The Prompt Global Strike warhead would be launched on Minuteman
missiles armed with 1,000-lb. conventional warheads, designed to strike
targets with incredible accuracy.
"Responsibility for the PGS project – which is estimated to cost $250
million just in the first year of experimentation – has been handed to
General Kevin Chilton, chief of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Chilton
explained that the PGS will fill a gap in the Pentagon’s current range
of options.
"‘Today, we can present some conventional options to the president to
strike a target anywhere on the globe, but within a time span of at
least four hours,’ said the general. ‘To act on a particular target
faster than that, the only thing we have is a nuclear response.’"
"In the future, with the new missile, the United States could act
rapidly and with conventional resources, both against a terrorist group
or an enemy country, in a much shorter time period and without arousing
international anger at the use of nuclear weapons.
"It is anticipated that the first tests will begin in 2014, and that by
2017 it would be available in the U.S. arsenal. Obama will no longer be
in power, but the super-missile could be the non-nuclear legacy of this
president, who has already won the Nobel Peace Prize."
"WASHINGTON, April 22, 2010 — An unmanned Air Force space plane was
launched this Thursday from Florida, in the midst of a veil of secrecy
over its military mission.
"The rocket carrying the reusable X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle lifted off
at 7:52 p.m. EDT (2352 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station,
according to a video distributed by the army.’
"‘The launch is imminent,’ Air Force Major Angie Blair told AFP.
"Resembling a small space shuttle, the aircraft is 8.9 meters in length
and 4.5 in wingspan.
"The manufacture of the reusable space shuttle has taken years and the
army has only offered vague explanations as to its objective or role in
the military arsenal.
"The vehicle is designed to ‘provide the environment of a ‘laboratory in
space’ to test new technologies and components before these
technologies are assigned to satellite programs in operation,’ stated
the Air Force in a recent communiqué.
"Officials have stated that the X-37B will land at the Air Force
Vandenberg Base in California, but they did not say how long the
inaugural mission will last. ‘
"‘To be honest, we don’t know when it’s going to come back,’ Gary
Payton, second assistant secretary of Air Force space programs, told
reporters this week.
"Payton stated that the shuttle could remain in space for up to nine
months.
"The aircraft, manufactured by Boeing, began as a National Aeronautics
and Space Administration (NASA) project in 1999 and was then transferred
to the Air Force, which plans to launch a second X-37B in 2011."
Is anything more needed?
Today they have found themselves with a colossal obstacle: the now
uncontainable climate change. The inevitable temperature increase of
more than two degrees centigrade is being mentioned. Its consequences
will be catastrophic. In just 40 years the world population will
increase by two million, thus reaching a total of nine billion people;
in that brief period: docks, hotels, seaside resorts, communications,
industries and installations in the vicinity of ports will be submerged
in less time than is required for the enjoyment of half of the existence
of the generation of one developed and rich country, which is currently
refusing to make the most minimum sacrifice to preserve the survival of
the human species. Agricultural land and potable water will be
considerably reduced. The seas will become polluted; many marine species
will become impossible to consume and others will disappear. This is
not affirmed by logic but by scientific investigations.
Via natural genetics and the transfer of varieties of species from one
continent to another, human beings succeeded in increasing production
per hectare of food and other products useful to humans which, for some
time, alleviated the scarcity of foodstuffs like corn, potato, wheat,
fibers and other necessary produce. Later, genetic manipulation and the
use of chemical fertilizers similarly contributed to the solution of
vital needs, but they are now reaching the limit of their possibilities
for producing healthy food appropriate for consumption.
On the other
hand, in barely two centuries, hydrocarbon resources that nature took
400 million years to form are being exhausted. In the same way, vital
non-renewable mineral resources that the world economy requires are
being exhausted. At the same time, science created the capacity of
self-destroying the planet several times in a matter of hours. The
greatest contradiction in our era is, precisely, the capacity of the
species to destroy itself and its incapacity to govern itself.
Human beings have succeeded in raising their possibilities of life to
limits that exceed their own survival capacity. In that battle raw
materials in their reach are being consumed at an accelerated rate.
Science made it possible to convert matter into energy, as occurred with
nuclear reaction, at the cost of enormous investments, but the
viability of converting energy into matter is not even on the horizon.
The infinite cost of investment in pertinent investigations is
demonstrating the impossibility of achieving in a few dozen years what
the universe took tens of billions of years to create. Is it necessary
for the child prodigy Barack Obama to explain that to us? Science has
grown extraordinarily, but ignorance and poverty are also growing. Can
anyone demonstrate the contrary?
Fidel Castro Ruz
April 25, 2010
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