Fidel Castro: We Are and
We Should Be Socialists
HAVANA - Cuban
Revolution leader Fidel
Castro insisted that the
production and
distribution of food and
construction materials
are absolutely
prioritized at the
moment in Cuba.
In a special article for
the website Cubadebate,
Fidel Castro warned that
"we are not a developed
capitalist country in a
crisis, one whose
leaders go insane
looking for solutions
amidst a depression,
inflation, a lack of
markets and
unemployment; we are and
we should be
socialists."
In his reflections, the
Cuban leader refers to
power generation and
electricity consumption
in the island state,
including emergency
measures taken in the
aftermath of hurricanes
Gustav and Ike, which
ravaged the island´s
power lines.
WE ARE AND WE SHOULD BE SOCIALISTS
Last October 2nd we
discussed the
international price of
our fuel consumption. I
am under the impression
that its significance
attracted the attention
of many leaders and
cadres.
There is a general
debate about the
percentage of the
population with access
to electricity and other
common services in
modern life. This may
vary from 40% or lower
to 60% or a bit higher.
It depends on the access
to hydroelectric
resources and other
elements.
Before January 1st,
1959, almost half of the
Cuban people had no
access to electricity.
Today, with a population
twice the size and a
wide access to that
energy, its consumption
has increased several
times over.
In our country, as in a
large part of the world
--except for the
super-rich nations--
that electricity is
brought to the people by
air using electricity
pylons, posts,
transformers and other
means, many of which
were turned down by the
strong winds of
hurricanes Gustav and
Ike throughout the
island.
An article in Granma
signed by Maria Julia
Mayoral outlines the
devastation of the power
grid by both natural
phenomena. But, she adds
that while the
hurricanes were crossing
the power generators
provided electricity to
“966 bakeries, 207 food
processing centers, 372
radio stations, 193
hospitals, 496
policlinics, 635
water-pumping stations,
138 senior citizens
homes, among other basic
facilities.”
“This means that…it was
necessary to take down
hundreds of emergency
equipment located in
production and services
centers to set them up
quickly in places
unconnected to the
National Energy Service.
This was made possible
by the coordinated
action of the
dismantling brigades of
various state
institutions and
transportation companies
with the support of
local authorities. The
means provisionally
moved will be returned
to their original
centers as soon as the
situation is back to
normal.”
The words that I have
literally taken from the
original text show the
devotion of Party and
Government cadres, both
national and local, to
finding solutions.
The heading of the
article written by Maria
Julia reads: A Fortune
is Spent to Bring Light
to the People.
I think this is the
right time to recall
that the power
generators were set up
with the following
purposes:
To secure crucial
services such as
healthcare or food
preservation under any
circumstances;
·To secure such
industrial productions
as bread, milk and
others;
·To secure steel
smelting whose
interruption would
seriously damage the
industry;
·To guarantee defense
services and public
information which are
indispensable at all
times, such as the
weather bureaus and
their radars that follow
the hurricanes’ path;
·To ensure the
progressive generation
of electricity with
minimum consumption,
much more efficiently
than the available
thermal plants. Having
said this, we should
remember that the power
generators are of
different sizes, from
those with small engines
that can produce 40 KW/h
or less up to those
generating over 1,000
KW/h. Sometimes it
becomes necessary to put
together several of
these engines, for
example, in a hospital
with advanced
technological equipment
and an indispensable air
conditioning system
which are high energy
consumers.
These engines operate
with diesel and their
efficiency grows as
their capacity for
electricity generation
increases to a certain
point. They require a
certain type of grease,
a stock of spare parts,
maintenance, etc.
A growing number of
power generators are
made up by uninterrupted
energy-producing engines
which use another fuel.
The ideal thing would be
for each of the
abovementioned
production or services
units to receive
electricity from the
National Energy System.
This is produced with
more efficient equipment
working on fuel oil,
which is less expensive
than diesel, obtained
from oil refining, a
fuel increasingly used
for transportation of
passengers and cargo,
tractors and other
farming equipment.
If for whatever reasons
the power generators
that operate with diesel
are used to produce
electricity for houses
and placed under a 20
hours operation regime
this can have a negative
impact. This equipment
has been intended for
emergencies and, under
Cuba’s present
development, to operate
for a limited number of
peak hours.
Among the hydrocarbon
consuming generators
nothing compares with
the sets of power
generators that operate
on fuel oil, even if the
investment is more
costly. Due to their
weight and complexity,
they cannot be moved
from one place to
another at will. In this
sense, it is second only
to the combined cycle
plants that use gas,
previously cleaned of
sulfur and other
contaminants.
We should be mindful
that no cadre forgets
the advisability of not
wasting a minute to
return all the diesel
consuming engines to
their specific function
in the neighboring
provinces and
municipalities as soon
as the emergency is
over. There is a serious
deficit of that fuel;
the country spends too
much and it has been
necessary to reduce the
demanded allocations.
I insist that the
production and
distribution of food and
construction materials
are absolutely
prioritized at the
moment. We are not a
developed capitalist
country in a crisis, one
whose leaders go insane
looking for solutions
amidst a depression,
inflation, a lack of
markets and
unemployment; we are and
we should be socialists.
Fidel Castro Ruz
October 4, 2008 |
