soL English

soL spoke with the President of José Marti Friendship Association, Oğuz Kavala regarding the “concert” and the activities of the organisation about the forthcoming “Solidarity with Cuba Concert” to be held on Sunday, 27 September.

“Let’s support Cuba so people do not die from the rains. We are organising this concert to show that it is possible for a world where floods do not take lives and to support this example.”

Would you share with our readers the aim of organising this concert?

Cuba is a country constantly exposed to tropical hurricanes and has experienced several major hurricane disasters every couple of years. However, Cuba experienced three very strong hurricanes last year. Hundreds of thousands houses were destroyed. All of the harvest on the land was destroyed. The electrical system suffered major damage. Cuba survived this disaster with only seven Cuban citizens losing their lives. In the same hurricane neighbouring countries especially USA suffered the loss of thousands of lives. Cuba, suffering such little damage and success in combating disasters received the attention of the world. The United Nations declared Cuba as an exemplary country for all types of disasters.

However a disaster of this magnitude, as well as Cuba's biggest threat, the U.S. blockade for 50 years, it has been very difficult to recover. Cuba managed to meet the basic needs of its citizens such as housing, food, education and health with the mobilization of all the citizens, but to a large extent, the need for support still continues especially the repair and reconstruction of housing.

We are organising this concert to help with the supply of roofing materials in particular. In fact, this help is a very assistance of our highly valued artist friends Erkan Oğur, İsmail Hakkı Demircioğlu, Gökhan, Burhan Şeşen and Şevval Sam. As an Association we are only a medium for them. The people attending the activities will provide support to our artist’s contribution.

Therefore, once again we will remind all our friends and the people of this country who lost 30 lives in a two-day’s rain that there is another possibility; surviving without losing any human lives or survive with very little loss from much bigger disasters.

As an organization have you had other activities in order to support outside of the concert?
We have no other activities on this matter. However, we are trying to make the sympathy for Cuba already existing in our people to be established as real friendship. We pay a lot of importance to publishing the Granma and Prensa Latina in Turkish, in this regard.

We bring the voice of the Cuban revolution to our country with its own voice. For more than two years Granma is being published in Turkish on a monthly basis, even before the widely spoken other languages. A source of pride, Cuban news agency Prensa Latina has been published for close to two years on a daily basis over on the Internet.

Did the Association have a similar support campaign in the previous years?
We have not organised a campaign like this before. But every year we regularly carry out Solidarity with Cuban Revolution Week which is an important vehicle to tell our people about the Cuban revolution. In addition, we are able to organise seminars and panels few times a year with the participation of Cuban specialist guests.

Can give some information about recent activities of the organisation?
This concert will actually start a new period in our activities. As you know, the summer months are the times activities are slowing down. Every year, we are starting our work again in autumn with a renewed energy.

We start this year with greater energy than the last one. Firstly, there will be a new web-site within a month and we will work with the aim of making it a portal for Cuba and Latin American politics and culture.

Later, we will be continuing to work to ensure that we reach more people and increase the quality of our publications, starting initially with Granma and Prensa Latina.

And probably we will start a new era in a new building with much better conditions. If we are successful; we will be able to reach many more people.

Finally, is there anything do you wish to add?
I must say this. In recent days, we've knocked many doors seeking support for our concert. We had positive responses almost everywhere. But we were always asked the same question. I've talked a little bit above. The floods disaster in our country was discussed along with the hurricanes in Cuba. Although nobody asked this question but some implied it. Is this the right time?

It is the right time now, we responded each time. We believe this sincerely. First let me say this. We, as individuals and as the organisation will continue to assist the victims of floods in Istanbul.

However, firstly we think it was wrong to bring the two issues side by side. In Cuba no one has experienced the suffering as the people here. Assistance and concert has nothing to do with this.
The issue is: loss of 30 lives in one day to a flood disaster which was not even a big one is not a crime of nature or god’s will or the crime of global climate change. This is entirely a management issue. Cuba has temporarily relocated three million people during the hurricanes, so lives are not lost and met the people’s needs such as food, shelter, education and health. Human lives were saved with this temporary relocation of nearly 30 percent of Cuba's population. When compared with the actual situation we have, we see that the real solidarity is contribution to promote this example.

And finally ... we have very little time left. We call the soL readers to not just support but we invite them to gather support. We are calling soL readers to come to the concert bringing with them their friends.

Humanity is more powerful than hurricanes...