New York, May 21st. - In addition to the serious effects caused by the current crisis, Cuba has had to face the application and tightening of the United States blockade. Only in 2020, the culture sector reported damages and losses in the amount of 14 million 463 thousand 300 dollars, as a result of this policy, denounced today the Minister of Culture Alpidio Alonso Grau, at the high-level event on Culture and Sustainable Development that took place at the United Nations.
Alonso Grau said that the country has resisted, at the same time, an exponential increase in the cultural and media war articulated from Miami, especially against artists, the vast majority of whom have defended their right to suffer the same fate as their people.
He added that during 2020 and so far in 2021, a comprehensive approach to cultural work has been developed and consolidated in Cuba that includes the efficient use of new technologies and design, and numerous alternatives for the circulation of art have been practiced. and literature, aimed at encouraging the cultural use of free time, especially among adolescents and young people.
"The improvement and training at different levels for the organic articulation with the new virtual scenarios, is an unavoidable challenge for everyone, but fundamentally for developing nations, deprived of great resources and, in cases such as Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, segregated from the great circuits of circulation dominated by the hegemonic cultural industries, ”said Alonso Grau.
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Speech by the Minister of Culture of Cuba, Alpidio Alonso Grau, at the high-level virtual event on Culture and Sustainable Development.
Mr. President:
Distinguished Heads of Delegations:
These are unprecedented difficult times for everyone. The epidemiological crisis that we are facing has violated our civilized world and has given us a truth: we need each other to face these obstacles, act and begin to rebuild.
The current international political order has demonstrated its inability to respond efficiently and fairly to the current health and socioeconomic crisis, which has also had a broad impact on culture. The experience of this last year reveals the imminent need to join forces, to seek creative solutions and to implement comprehensive policies in which the human being is the priority and not economic gains.
Cuba, in addition to the serious effects caused by the current crisis, has had to face the application and intensification of the United States blockade, which considerably affects the living conditions of all Cubans, lacerates our cultural and scientific development, and hampers the material possibilities for expand cooperation between our nations and cause human harm. Only in the year 2020, the cultural sector in Cuba reported damages in the amount of 14 million 463 thousand 300 dollars, as a consequence of this policy.
We have had to face, at the same time, an exponential increase in the cultural and media war articulated from Miami against our culture and especially against our artists, the vast majority of whom have defended their right to suffer the same fate as their people.
We denounce in this framework and in the current circumstances, the application of the blockade, and its marked extraterritorial nature, as well as the infamous inclusion of Cuba in the list of State sponsors of terrorism, and the maintenance of subversive actions that seek to destroy the political order. , economic and social that our nation has chosen freely and sovereignly.
In our country, the pandemic challenged institutions to continue promoting art and expressions of cultural heritage among the broadest sectors of the public. As a sign of the political priority that the Cuban State gives to culture, our government has allocated more than 300 million pesos from the state budget to date to protect salaries of professional musicians and performing artists from all over the country, as far as today it continues to apply.
Given these circumstances, during 2020 and so far in 2021, a comprehensive approach to cultural work has been developed and consolidated in Cuba that includes the efficient use of new technologies and the design and implementation of numerous circulation alternatives. of art and literature, aimed at encouraging the cultural use of free time, especially among adolescents and young people, and contributing to their education and entertainment.
In the future, once COVID-19 is over, the cultural life of our peoples will no longer be as we knew it until today, but on the one hand it will require increasingly creative solutions for its realization and sustainability and, on the other, it will not be able to do without its complement on the internet and social networks. The improvement and training at different levels for the organic articulation with the new virtual scenarios is an unavoidable challenge for everyone, but fundamentally for developing nations, deprived of great resources and, in cases such as Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, segregated from the great circuits of circulation dominated by the hegemonic cultural industries.
These are moments of innovation and solidarity, and of new global scenarios characterized by challenges that can only be faced and reversed through international cooperation. Today, as never before, that phrase of our Apostle and National Hero José Martí comes true: "Come together, this is the word of the world."
Thank you!
(Cubaminrex- Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations)