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By Andrew Cawthorne
HAVANA, Dec 2 (Reuters) - A jovial President Fidel Castro said on Wednesday
he would work as normal on Christmas Day -- while other Cubans enjoy only their
second Dec. 25 public holiday in three decades.
"Me? Working. That's how I spend Sundays, New Year's Days, and every
day of the year," Castro told Reuters, when asked if he would take the lead
after the ruling Communist Party decided this week to reinstate Christmas as a
permanent national holiday in Cuba.
"But really I don't work. I enjoy myself. It's like being on holiday
all year, because reading a book is a holiday, and discussing themes with
personalities is a holiday. They are nice things to do," he added, during a
break at an economic convention.
Castro said he used to take formal holidays, but since the Special Period --
the government's name for Cuba's economic crisis since the collapse of aid and
trade ties with the former Soviet Union -- he had not taken one day off.
The 72-year-old Cuban leader added that the decision to restore the
Christmas holiday, abolished in 1969 in a drive for a record sugar harvest, was
a democratic one.
"Absolutely all the religious institutions were consulted beforehand,
Christian and non-Christian, because here there are religions of African origin
created by the slaves," he added. "It has to be like that. That's what
we want, debate of ideas."
Cuba's abolition of the Christmas holiday had been interpreted by many as an
anti-religious move. Last year, the Communist Party gave the 11 million
islanders a day off on Christmas as a "special" gesture ahead of Pope
John Paul II's visit at the start of 1998.
Chatting and joking for about half an hour on Wednesday with foreign
correspondents and local media, Castro commented again on what he perceives to
be the distorted treatment of Cuba by sections of the international media.
He said that each day he scrutinized news reports from foreign news
agencies, particularly Reuters, Agence France- Presse and Associated Press,
which he said "control 80 percent of the world media."
"They are not liars," he said, pointing at the foreign
correspondents. "What happens is that they are selective ... some of them
pick up the criticisms but nothing of the positive things, which they leave out
and suppress ... The best sources of information are our media and the
self-criticism we do."
All authorized local media are in state hands, although some self-styled "independent"
Cuban journalists send news abroad for use on the Internet. They are considered
dissidents by the government.
18:54 12-02-98
Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited |