-DATE-
19880101
-YEAR-
1988
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
SPEECH
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
CASTRO SPEECH AT CHILD CARE CENTER TAKE 4 OF 11
-PLACE-
HAVANA
-SOURCE-
HAVANA DOMESTIC SPANISH
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19880101
-TEXT-
REF FL062158 HAVANA DOMESTIC SPANISH 310118///DETERMINE TO DO.

Take 4 of 11--Cuba:  Castro Speech at Child Care Center

fl062347

[Text]  What makes the workers of our country happy these days?  The
assurance that we can do.  The assurance that if we put aside dumb things,
superficialities, shoddy work, tendencies, errors, and if we apply new
solutions to old problems, if we are able to look for intelligent
solutions, and if we (?start out) well, then we will be able to obtain all
that we are determined to do.  We will be making the best use of the
independence, freedom, and opportunities created and won by the revolution.
Many who visit our country are surprised, amazed, and even ask themselves
what could be the explanation for this movement, force, momentum that the
revolution is taking along this road on which we are marching and on which
we are only beginning.  These 54 centers are so useful and valuable, each
invested centavo is already immediately showing returns in a few months, a
few weeks, instead of our spending 5 years on a center, piling up
construction materials, fuels, human resources.  Instead, we are using them
immediately.

If I were asked, what impresses me is to see one of those centers with
the children already there.  It is marvelous to see the centers with those
children who are so awake, intelligent, cute.

The intelligence these children were born with is developed and
enhanced thanks to the work of these centers.  As we recently said, it is
not only the knowledge that they obtain but the intellectual capacity that
they develop.  In other words, the computer which man has in his head and
of which most only use a portion.  Thanks to this education and these
techniques, the percentage of this capacity is multiplied.  Those future
citizens of the country--or rather, citizens already but future youths and
adolescents of our county--will have this capacity at their disposal.

As I was saying, if something impresses me more than those 54 centers
it is the 436,000 citizens from the capital who have earned the 40-hour
bonus.  [applause]  The 436,000 citizens from the capital who have
contributed over 20 million voluntary hours in the construction of social
projects is what impress me even more.  This implies a complete triumph of
the ideas inspiring this effort.  This implies a full recovery of that
spirit of work and solidarity of our people for which Che worked so much,
Che who was the pioneer of voluntary work.  [applause]

We were forgetting about Che.  We would commemorate him, and little by
little we were becoming more commercial-minded.  Little by little we were
becoming invaded by economism; money was becoming the number one value.
Principles and the spirit of solidarity were weakening, as well as the
generosity without which it is not possible to build socialism and without
which it would be utopian to attempt to build communism.  There were many
tributes, pictures here and there; but I think that now this (?feat) of the
workers and citizens from our capital also constitutes record.  The figure
of 436,000 citizens who participate in this movement of 40 hours is really
incredible.  I think that it is a challenge that next year we will
overfulfill.  But it is already in itself impressive and it shows to what
extent the masses have become involved.  These hours don't even include
those of the mini-brigade workers who put in over 10 hours at their own job
and worked 12, 13, and 14 hours.  These hours don't include those of the
contingents who worked 12, 13, 14 hours daily.  The voluntary work hours
are much more.  This is a symbol of our strength, the people's strength,
the strength of ideas that become facts, the realization of the marvels
that our fellow countrymen have been building with their own hands.
-END-