Cuba Expresses Solidarity with US Victims of Katrina
From Prensa Latina
The Cuban Parliament expressed on Thursday deep sorrow and solidarity with victims of hurricane Katrina in the United States.
The storm severely hit the city of New Orleans, that is in total chaos and lawlessness on Friday, as well as other towns and localities of the states of Louissiana and Mississippi. The dead are counted by the hundreds.
A declaration of tribute to US victims was the first item on the agenda of the fifth period of sessions of the sixth legislature of Cuba´s National Assembly of the People´s Power.
The text says that news from southern United States "have made the Cuban people sad."
In their name, we hereby express our deep solidarity to the US people, government, local authorities and victims of this disaster, the declaration reads.
The Island"s legislators approved the declaration as they stood up and held a minute of silence in memory of the victims.
The document stresses that the heavy burden of death and suffering of the disaster strikes the whole population of Louisiana, Mississipi and Alabama, particularly the poorer.
The most affected people are African Americans, Latin workers and US poor who make up the mass still awaiting to be rescued and sent to safe places, it adds.
The text emphasizes that the greater number of fatalities and people who have been left homeless are from these sectors of population.
"The whole world should feel this tragedy as its own," the declaration concludes.
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Cuba Undertaking Huge Construction Program
Cuba is carrying out a far-reaching housing construction project to recover from the damage caused by hurricanes and to resolve the domestic housing shortage, according to Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage Davila.
In his briefing to a special session of the National Assembly of People´s Power on Thursday, Carlos Lage said that 150,000 houses would be built and 380,000 conservation and restoration works would be accomplished in late 2005 and through 2006.
Lage stated the program requires a broad investment and resource plan in foreign and national currency to renew and increase the production of construction materials.
It is the greatest effort made in the sector and the main goal is to benefit families, who will build their own houses with the cooperation of construction officials and society, he added.
The Cuban vice president explained that the State, unions, social and workers´ bodies would distribute houses, and financial assistance would be provided to people with low incomes and economic difficulties.
In 1959, 2.2 million Cubans paid high rents and 400,000 faced overcrowding and poverty; the population paid up to 50 percent of their income for housing and 2.8 million lacked access to electricity.
Today, they a maximum of 10 percent of their income for housing, and electricity now reaches 95.9 of the population. In addition, 86 percent own their houses, a figure that is exceptional in the world, he emphasized.
He also referred to the serious damage caused in the last four years by meteorological phenomena and six hurricanes, chiefly the latest, Dennis, which hit over 174,000 houses and destroyed 20,000 last July.
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