Economic prosperity in The Bahamas and the Overseas Territories

By D. Markie Spring
Turks and Caicos Islands


The Bahamas and the overseas territories, especially the British Territories -- British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands and the Turks and Caicos islands -- have always declined the idea of regional integration -- sometimes from an individual prospective and at times from governmental concerns.

In fact, The Bahamas is mostly dependent upon tourism to grow its economy. This country’s proximity to North America has placed it in an ideal position, which ignites, propels and escalates the tourism industry there. Furthermore, its tourism industry accounts for about 60 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), whilst other important sectors of the GDP, such as tax and the financial sectors, make up the other 40 percent of GDP.

Let me stress that, although the economy there seemed vibrant hitherto, in years to come The Bahamas tourism industry will not be able to sustain its economy. From an economic prospective, The Bahamas economy is not diverse enough for future sustainability.

Recently, the global economic downturn has resulted in the loss of thousands of jobs in The Bahamas alone. Because its economy relies heavily on visitors’ arrivals, which experienced a sharp decline, hoteliers were then forced to lay off workers. Some hotels had more employees than guests in-house.

The government of The Bahamas has an obligation to further diversify its economic environment through regional integration. When the tourism sector is affected, whether by natural disasters or by an act of terrorism or by challenges derived from social, environmental, political and economic factors, The Bahamas must be able to turn to an alternative sector for economic sustainability.

Similarly, the overseas territories -- especially Britain’s -- have also illustrated lack of support for regional integration. With much focus on the Cayman Islands, this country’s economy relies heavily on its humongous financial services industry, which is ranked fifth in the world’s banking centers. In addition, the government also piled up revenues from its taxation system. This together has placed the Cayman Islands at the top in the region, relative to the standard of living.

Looking at Cayman’s economic environment allows me to conclude, hitherto, that this country’s economy is not diverse enough to maintain viability in the long run. With the financial challenges faced by the United States and the European Union, the financial sector there is gravely affected.

Additionally, the Cayman Islands were forced to regulate its banking operations under the principles of the European Union Savings Directives (EUSD), coupled with intense pressure from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to prevent Cayman Islands’ offshore financial centers from becoming a tax haven. In addition to this, the current US president has disclosed his intention to exert severe pressure of the use of Cayman’s financial centers by multinational corporations.

Moreover, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has set up programs that regulate the money laundering regime, and the country’s banking, securities and insurance industries. Similar environments exist in the other overseas territorial states.

Constructively, I looked at the lack of interest in regionalism from a Bahamian and from the prospective of the overseas territories and I understand the reason. Picturing the many people who would move from countries with weak economies and high unemployment rates to seek jobs in those places; figuring the movements of other Caribbean national – creating mass migration – I do understand. However, if the situation is being looked from a wider prospective then it should be known that there will be many benefits to gain and that rules and other stipulations will be in place, which would govern the movement of foreign citizens, such as having an assigned job before taking up residence in another country where more jobs are available.

The Bahamas and the Caymans Islands along with the other overseas states must join the rest of the Caribbean to integrate their efforts in making the Caribbean a region a region to reckon with. I stress that individually we won’t be able to sustain our economy and these countries’ economies are not diverse enough to stay strong for much longer. Some citizens purported that too many Caribbean countries are economically disabled to have successful integration; this does carry some concerns; however, the EU has successfully integrated with only the countries in Western Europe having strong economies.

Interestingly, the US, the world economic power, has established many regional bodies to enhance the country’s economic sector.

December 15, 2010

caribbeannewsnow

Bahamas Blog International

Nassau's immigration detention centre versus Guantanamo Bay detention camp

Our Gitmo?
Tribune242 Insight
Nassau, Bahamas


There are few places in the world more notorious today than the detention camp attached to the US Naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Described by Amnesty International as "the gulag of our times", it has become a symbol for arbitrary detention, abusive treatment, degradation, torture. For many who esteem America's role as a promoter of human rights, it also represents betrayal and hypocrisy.

To draw a comparison with Nassau's immigration detention centre might seem a bit far fetched. One was for several years at the very heart of the global War on Terror, a testing ground for the acceptability of new "interrogation" techniques, and a powerful challenge to the standard interpretation of the Geneva Convention. The other is a modest facility on a little island, designed to hold a few hundred illegal immigrants until they can be repatriated.

But as I considered the latest accusations of abuse and poor conditions at the Carmichael Road Detention Centre, it occurred to me that they are both underwritten by the same fundamental attitude toward human rights - that they are optional, and can be dispensed with in certain situations or for certain people.

Consider Deputy Prime Minister Brent Symonette's response to last week's reports of overflowing and stinking toilets, insufficient food and bedding, and sexual assault at the Detention Centre. Promising he would investigate only some of the allegations - specifically, the part about the toilets - Mr Symonette added that "if conditions are uncomfortable then people shouldn't break the law."

Then consider Dick Cheney's 2005 comment that no other country would treat people "determined to kill" its citizens as well as America had treated Guantanamo detainees.

The assumption in both cases was that the people in these camps are guilty as charged - despite the fact that not a single one of them had actually been formally charged with anything and certainly hadn't been convicted.

The Bahamian constitution establishes that all persons accused of a crime are innocent until proven guilty. It also says every accused person has the right to a public trial. Yet every suspected illegal immigrant detained in this country is denied both these rights, and subjected instead to the murky procedure known as "processing" - which, if it entails anything at all beyond immediate deportation, is presumably even less impartial than, and certainly just as secret as, Guantanamo's much vilified military tribunals.

In assuming the guilt of detainees at their respective camps, Messrs Cheney and Symonette not only ignored the law in their own countries, but also long established international law - not to mention the tradition of individual rights that stretches back to the very foundations of western civilisation; presumption of innocence was enshrined in ancient Greek and Roman law, and established in the Book of Deuteronomy.

Biblically inclined readers will know this is also the book which established retributive justice, the concept that the punishment should fit the crime - another cornerstone of our ethical heritage. Mr Symonette's seems happy to ignore, unless he actually believes those guilty of fleeing terrible conditions - including, in Haiti, a cholera outbreak - have committed a crime heinous enough to deserve the alleged conditions at the centre, including hunger, severe beatings and rape.

Mr Symonette again echoes the former US vice president in his insistence that conditions are better than we have been led to believe. When last interviewed, he said there are "no outstanding issues at the detention centre." According to Mr Cheney, Guantanamo detainees were "living in the tropics. They're well fed. They've got everything they could possibly want."

Both men could feel safe in making these claims, even in the face of sustained condemnation by international human rights groups, as there was no way for average citizens to uncover the definitive truth for themselves.

What cannot be hidden so easily, however, is the fact that both facilities trample on another right of historical pedigree: namely habeas corpus, the right of an imprisoned person to demand that the legality of his or her incarceration, and in particular its length, be examined by a court.

DIFFERENCES

So much for the similarities between Guantanamo Bay and the Carmichael Road Detention Centre; what of the differences?

One particularly telling distinction concerns the reaction of the public in each case. The Bush administration suffered a huge backlash over the treatment of Guantanamo detainees, as many Americans agreed with-soon-to-be president Barack Obama that it represented a "sad chapter in American history."

In the Bahamas, by contrast, the public seems to have no problem whatsoever with the way immigrant detainees are allegedly treated.

Whenever claims of abuse or neglect are raised, they are either met with silence, or worse, with cheers of approval.

This explains the attitude of virtually every local politician who ever fielded questions about detainee treatment. The public's reaction leads them to believe the average Bahamian is petty, insular and viscous enough to actually enjoy the brutalisation of another human - man, woman or child - provided that person is a foreigner.

It also explains why, of all the claims that surfaced last week - underfed detainees being offered vermin-infested porridge, overcrowding and lack of beds, rapes and denial of medical treatment - the only one which animated Mr Symonette into promising an investigation was our source's "horrifying experience" in the men's bathroom, where faces was "everywhere".

"There just looked like so much potential for disease to spread throughout the place," the detainee told us.

The minister's reaction was presumably influenced by the outbreak in Haiti of a strain of cholera so potent that if untreated, victims can die in as little as two hours.

Overflowing toilets in an area shared by many people is exactly the kind of situation in which cholera is spread. If this were to happen, it is unlikely the disease could be contained at the centre.

Now that would be a real political disaster with a general election approaching, unlike a handful of foreigners being mistreated.

Those sensitive to spiritual explanations might feel a plague of Biblical proportions could indeed be on the cards - a just punishment for our callous disregard for our fellow man.

To the more practically inclined, it should be obvious that all those who are unwilling to accept this characterisation of the Bahamian people must stand and be counted, must make our politicians aware we will not accept the stain on our collective conscience which the detention centre represents.

We must demand the release of a report on conditions at the centre commissioned more than a year ago but never made public, and push for the establishment of a truly independent investigative commission that includes journalists and human rights activists, and is empowered to inspect the facility and speak with detainees.

What do you think?

email: pnunez@tribunemedia.net

December 13, 2010

Tribune242 Insight

Bahamas Blog International

...the revenue losses The Bahamas will suffer from signing on to the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Europe...

WTO to force 50% Bahamas tariff reduction

By ALISON LOWE
Business Reporter
alowe@tribunemedia.net

A CARICOM trade specialist warned yesterday that the revenue losses the Bahamas will suffer from signing on to the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Europe will be little compared to the "much more significant impact" that will be felt from new free trade deals with the US and Canada.

Sacha Silva also suggested that the most significant revenue loss to the Government under the EPA will not come from dropping tariffs on imports coming into The Bahamas from Europe, but on those imports from the Caribbean and Dominican Republic.

The economist, a consultant with Caricom's Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN), argued that between $2 million and $3.8 million each year in tax revenues from trade with the Caribbean could be lost by this nation on the 5,000 tariff lines that will become duty free not only for Europe but for the Caribbean community, too, under the EPA.

"The Bahamas is for the first time liberalising trade with CARICOM and the Dominican Republic under the EPA - the same 5,000 lines to be liberalised with the Europeans," said Mr Silva.

"The fiscal implications here are a little more significant (than with respect to losses stemming from droppin tariffs on trade with Europe). There is relatively speaking quite a bit of trade (between the Caribbean and the Bahamas)."

Meanwhile, Mr Silva warned that while the loss of revenue from tariff reductions on imports from Europe is "highly unlikely to have a significant impact, given the Bahamas' small trading relationship with Europe", another development which will have "a much more significant impact on development" will be the Bahamas' accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and deals soon to be signed between Caricom, Canada and the US on trade between our nations.

He was addressing a technical workshop on the EPA organised jointly by the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce, Caribbean Export Development Agency (CEDA) and the Caricom EPA Implementation Unit yesterday.

Speaking of the WTO accession and the Canada/US trade deals, Mr Silva said: "These are things that the Chamber and the Government need to keep a very close eye on because there is likely to be a much more significant impact. Those coming in (to the WTO) at this late stage pay a very high price. Tariffs will have to come down in the Bahamas by about 50 per cent. And the people on the other side, particularly in the US, negotiate very, very hard.

While Europe, which held Caribbean states as former colonies, has a "special understanding" of the region, which may make it more prone to offer concessions in trade negotiations, "this does not exist anywhere else - the Canadians and the Americans do not have this understanding," contended Mr Silva.

Challenged on the premise that Canada would take a harder stance with the Caribbean in its ongoing negotiations over a new trade deal with the region, Mr Silva said his position is based on analysis of previous trade deals Canada has struck.

"When I look at what they have granted and what Europe has granted, the difference is enormously large. If you look at the negotiating stances Canada has taken in free trade agreements it's not appreciably different from the US. Traditionally, they ask for liberalisation of agricultural items and a lot of non-agricultural items. The EPA did not go this far," said the economist.

Mr Silva added that while the EPA will be a "spur" to the process of internal tax reform in the Bahamas, "the WTO will be a more serious kick to that", as the Bahamas seeks to finds means to replace the revenue sources that will be phased out with the tariff reductions the two trade-related processes demand.

December 10, 2010

tribune242

Bahamas: Members of the financial industry are concerned about the lack of information on the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) - between the European Union (EU) and the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States...

Concerns raised about lack of awareness on EPA
By JAMMAL SMITH
Guardian Business Reporter
jammal@nasguard.com


Awareness needs to be raised about the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiated between the European Union (EU) and the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, and its impact on the local private sector, with several members of the financial industry raising concerns about a lack of information on the agreement.

Investment specialist for the CARICOM Implementation Unit Allyson Francis told Guardian Business yesterday that the private sector needs to increase its knowledge about the EPA given the important role of that sector.

“In terms of challenges my major concern is awareness from the private sector about what the EPA involves,” Francis said. “It’s a challenge for the region in terms of changing our mindset and being more proactive, and understanding the global environment we’re living in now and to position ourselves, we can’t necessarily sit back and wait on government to do things for us.

“I hope that at the end of the day a better understanding of the agreement will help the Bahamas business sector to be able to do that.”

Discussions on the EPA were conducted yesterday at a technical workshop hosted by the Caribbean Export Development Agency, the CARICOM EPA Implementation Unit and The Bahamas Chamber of Commerce at the Sheraton Resort. Various speakers presented an overview of the EPA, and discussed opportunities and challenges facing The Bahamas and the region as a result of the agreement.

The EPA creates a free trade area between the European Union (EU) and the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP). It’s a response to criticism that the non-reciprocal and discriminating preferential trade agreements offered by the EU don’t comply with rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The Bahamas signed the EPA agreement as a part of the CARIFORUM sub-group within the ACP on October 15, 2008, however Article 63 of that agreement allowed The Bahamas and Haiti to have their commitments on services and investment incorporated into the EPA following a decision of the CARIFORUM-EC Trade and Development Committee. Negotiations related to services were completed on January 25, 2010.

Francis added that upcoming meetings with the government will give her a better feel for what the country’s plans are in terms of the EPA.

Members of the local business community were also present during the seminar, including CEO of the Bahamas Financial Services Board (BFSB) Wendy Warren. She expressed her concerns about the amount of information available to the country and the need for communication to be improved.

“To even take advantage of the EPA you have to first of all understand what the offers actually provide for and what the conditions are, and if it’s possible to meet those conditions,” Warren said. “I would [like] to see us analyze those offers, particularly financial services in far greater detail to understand what market access have we actually achieved in Europe.”

She added that a proactive approach has to be taken in terms of those relationships between the European countries and The Bahamas, which will enable the EPA to be more effective.

Francis believes that the EPA can be enormously benefical to the country and the rest of the region.

“The EPA will have some great potential for [the Caribbean] if we could clearly understand where we are and where we want to go, and utilize the agreement the best we can,” she said.

12/10/2010

thenassauguardian

Bahamas Blog International

Perfecting the Dominican Republic while pulling the Republic of Haiti into nation building

By Jean Herve Charles


The Dominican Republic on the island of Ayti (made up of the Republic of Haiti and the Dominican Republic) has been for the past ten years the darling nation for investors, tourists and travelers. Its budding infrastructure is equal to or even better than any developed country. Santo Domingo has a brand new subway metro system; the highway from Santiago to Santo Domingo is smooth, large and efficient. The Dominican Republic has achieved food security for its people while feeding Haiti with all types of produce from coconut to plantain, including eggs and macaroni.

It is led by Leonel Fernandez, a savvy New York based lawyer with the street smart of a Manhattan cab driver, yet draped with the finesse of a well bred gentleman issuing from a proud and good family. He is forging the Dominican Republic ahead according to the defined Renan Doctrine repeated so often in my essays on nation building process.

You will recall, it includes:

– A strong army to protect, defend and enhance the territory while valuing national heritage through the veneration of heroes, and the passing through of the ancestors’ code of morality and conduct.

-- rooting the citizens in their localities with infrastructure, institutions and services as well as cultural traditions so they will not become internal nomads in their own land, moving from villages to the cities, from the cities to the capital and there seeking a better life abroad.

-- Last but not least taking all the necessary steps to leave no one behind, including the aliens and the belongers.

The Dominican Republic has a strong army visible from the border to the capital. Travelling from Port au Prince by bus to Santo Domingo, you will be scrutinized by no less than 19 different army posts that check your visa your passport and your belongings, ensuring that each visitor has been invited in. The army is also ensuring that each tree is not uprooted unless there is a permit or it is in the interest of the largest forest to do so. Last but not least the military plays its part in the development of infrastructure as well as in the protection of the civilians in case of disaster.

The government has also done its best to root its population in their localities. Whether the citizen is living in Bani or Santiago, they have easy access to decent and low cost transportation. The children of the country wear the same uniform all over the nation -- khaki pants with a blue shirt -- representing a concern of the government to provide basic education to the next generation of Dominican citizens. Services are well represented all over the country, the Dominican week-end is alive and vibrant, so vibrant that the well-heeled Haitians do not spend their weekends in Haiti, from Friday to Sunday they flock to Samana, Cabaret or Puerto Plata for fun, fete, and frolic.

The Dominican Republic needs improvement, though, with the concept of leaving no one behind. Perfecting the Dominican Republic will mean making the country hospitable to the entire population whether they are citizens, visitors or aliens. This concept is difficult to accept and to implement. Yet is the hallmark of a great nation on its way to complete fulfillment. It will imply the enforcement of strict control on the borders. The end result will be all those who are already inside the territory must receive the red carpet treatment in terms of education, health care and economic development. They are the potential citizens who will continue the process of nation building of the Dominican Republic.

To avoid the story of the battle of Sysive where victory is all always at hand but never achieved, the Dominican Republic should engage the Republic of Haiti in the process of nation building and development. While in the past it represented a magnet mainly for the Haitian farmers in the sugar field, it has now became a magnet for the young Haitians in search of a proper higher education instruction and a secure job at the end of it. We have seen earlier, it is a magnet for the Haitian businessmen who leave the Haitian capital at the weekend, avoiding the stress of, as well as the lack of a night life in Haiti.

The culture of complete indifference of the Haitian government towards its citizens is detrimental not only to Haiti but it is also detrimental to the Dominican Republic, which shares the same borders. The Dominican government must have a policy of enhancing good governance in Haiti. Its own future is at stake.

The international community, (United Nations, OAS and CARICOM) has professed good will towards Haiti. This manifestation of good will has not been translated into a minimum of welfare for the Haitian people. I met recently the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Dominican Republic in Santo Domingo while the UNICEF president was camping in the capital en route to Haiti. Looking me in the eye, the Minister of Foreign Affairs told me: ‘‘We have re-directed our policy towards Haiti.” He did not elaborate.

The fact is the Dominican Republic has been extremely generous toward Haiti after the earthquake, even offering the building of a large university in the northern part of the country. The Dominican Republic has also profited handsomely from the Haitian catastrophe, being the vendors of choice of all the necessities that are utilized for Haiti’s recovery.

The Dominican take off will be fully operational when it includes Haiti on the locomotive train. With a population of 20 million people (10 million on each side of the border) this Caribbean market, well integrated in tourism, tropical organic produce, services and industry, will have no competitor in the Western Hemisphere.

Haiti needs above all good governance that breaks away from the tradition of corruption and the lack of respect for its own people. It is the business of the Dominican Republic to foster such happenstance. Haitian civil society, the opposition must be regarded as a natural ally in bringing about that fundamental change in the country.

The Dominican Republic in contrast to the international partners completely embedded with the predatory government must follow these three principles:

a) Facilitate the largest democratic forces inside the country.
b) Rely not on the functioning government but on a democratic principle ... for example: “leaving no one behind” for its policies on Haiti.
c) Speak to everybody not only to friends.

The people of Haiti are now angry over the theft of the vote in the last election. The national police as well as the MINUSTHA were totally nonexistent in protecting life and limb during the political and electoral crisis. Under a flawed or a fair election, the people of Haiti have chosen Joseph Michel Martelly as their viable leader for the next five years.

Does the redirection of the Dominican government policy toward Haiti include also facilitating the respect of the voice and the vote of the people of Haiti in the last elections?

Stay tuned for next week's essay: With friends like the UN, OAS and CARICOM, Haiti needs no enemy!

December 11, 2010

caribbeannewsnow

Bahamas Blog International

United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) and the cholera epidemic

Reflections of Fidel

MINUSTAH and the epidemic

Taken from CubaDebate

APPROXIMATELY three weeks ago news and footage came in of Haitian citizens throwing stones and angrily protesting against the forces of the MINUSTAH, accusing it of having transmitted cholera to that country via a Nepalese soldier.

The initial impression, if one did not receive any additional information, is that it was a rumor born from the antipathy that every occupying force provokes.

How could that information be confirmed? Many of us were unaware of the characteristics of cholera and its means of transmission. A few days later, the protests in Haiti ceased and there was no more talk of the matter.

The epidemic followed its inexorable course, and other problems, such as the risks associated with the electoral battle, occupied our time.

Today, reliable and credible news came in concerning what really happened. The Haitian people had more than sufficient reason to express their indignation.

The AFP news agency textually affirmed that: "Last month, the eminent French epidemiologist Renaud Piarroux headed an investigation in Haiti and came to the conclusion that the epidemic was generated by an imported strain, and extended from the Nepalese base" of MINUSTAH.

For its part, another European agency, EFE, reported: "The origin of the disease is to be found in the little town of Mirebalais, in the center of the country, where Nepalese soldiers had based their camp, and it appeared a few days after their arrival, which confirms the origin of the epidemic…"

"To date, the UN mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) has denied that the epidemic entered via its blue berets."

"…French Dr. Renaud Piarroux, considered one of the principal world specialists in the study of cholera epidemics, leaves no doubt as to the origin of the disease…"

"The French study was ordered by Paris at the request of the Haitian authorities, stated a French diplomatic spokesperson."

"…the appearance of the disease coincides with the arrival of the Nepalese soldiers who, moreover, originate from a country where there is a cholera epidemic.

"There is no other way of explaining such a sudden and fierce eclosion of cholera in a little town of a few dozen inhabitants.

"The report also analyses the form of the propagation of the disease, given that fecal water from the Nepalese camp was draining into the river from which the town’s inhabitants take their water."

As the same agency communicated, the most surprising thing that the UN did was "…to send an investigative mission to the Nepalese camp, which concluded that that could not have been the origin of the epidemic."

In the midst of the destruction wrought by the earthquake, the epidemic and its poverty, Haiti cannot do without an international force which can cooperate with a nation ruined by foreign interventions and transnational exploitation. The UN must not only fulfill its elemental duty of fighting for Haiti’s reconstruction and development, but also that of mobilizing the resources needed to eradicate an epidemic that is threatening to extend to the neighboring Dominican Republic, the Caribbean, Latin America and other similar Asian and African countries.

Why did the UN insist on denying that the MINUSTAH brought the epidemic to the people of Haiti? We are not blaming Nepal, which in the past was a British colony, and whose men were utilized in its colonial wars and are now seeking employment as soldiers.

We made inquiries with the Cuban doctors currently providing services in Haiti and they confirmed to us the news circulated by the abovementioned European news agencies with notable precision.

I will make a brief synthesis of what was communicated to us by Yamila Zayas Nápoles, a specialist in comprehensive general medicine and anesthesiology, director of a medical institution that has eight basic specialties and diagnostic tools from the Cuba-Venezuela project, inaugurated in October 2009 in the urban area of Mirebalais, with 86,000 inhabitants, in the department of Nord.

On Saturday, October 15 three patients were admitted with symptoms of diarrhea and acute dehydration; on Sunday 16th, four were admitted with similar characteristics, but all of them from one family, and they made the decision to isolate them and communicate what had happened to the Medical Mission; surprisingly, on Monday 17th, 28 patients were admitted with similar symptoms.

The Medical Mission immediately sent a group of specialists in epidemiology who took blood, vomit, fecal samples and data, which were sent with urgency to Haiti’s national laboratories.

On October 22, the labs reported that the strain isolated matched to the one prevalent in Asia and Oceania, which is the most severe. The Nepalese unit of the UN blue berets is located on the bank of the Artibonite River, which runs through the little community of Méyè, where the epidemic emerged, and Mirebalais, to which it then rapidly spread.

In spite of the sudden way in which cholera appeared in the small, but excellent hospital in the service of Haiti, only 13 of the first 2,822 sick persons died, giving a mortality rate of 0.5%; subsequently, when the Cholera Treatment Center was set up in a remote area, out of 3,459 patients, five in a serious condition died, giving 0.1%.

The total number of persons suffering from cholera in Haiti rose today, Tuesday, December 7 to 93,222 persons, and the number of patients who have died reached a total of 2,120. Among those treated by the Cuban Mission the mortality rate rose to 0.83%. The mortality rate in other hospital institutions stands at 3.2%. With the experience acquired, appropriate measures and the reinforcement of the Henry Reeve Brigade, the Cuban Medical Mission, with the support of the Haitian authorities, has offered a presence in many of the isolated 207 sub-communes, so that no Haitian citizen lacks medical attention in the face of the epidemic, and many thousands of lives can be saved.



Fidel Castro Ruz
December 7, 2010
6:34 p.m.

granma.cu

Free Julian Assange! Hands off WikiLeaks!

Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, was jailed in Britain Tuesday on charges that are nothing more than a pretext for an act of political repression dictated by the US government.

The aim of this judicial travesty is, in the first instance, to punish Assange for having made public secret cables exposing crimes and conspiracies carried out by US officials.

Second, by throwing Assange into London’s Wandsworth prison, the US and British authorities hope not only to silence WikiLeaks but also to intimidate anyone else from daring to lift the lid on government secrets and lies.

It is almost certain that the ultimate goal of the shoddy legal frame-up is to have Assange extradited to the United States to be tried as a spy or even as an accomplice of terrorism.

Given the unprecedented and shameful public outcry by leading American politicians and media figures for Assange to be declared an “enemy combatant” or “terrorist” and “taken out” or “assassinated,” not only would his ability to get a fair trial in the US be excluded, but his very survival would be in doubt.

Those leading the campaign against Assange and WikiLeaks are representatives of a government and a ruling establishment that is responsible for decades of criminality carried out behind the backs of the American people—from stolen elections, to illegal wars of aggression, to torture and other acts of international terror.

This is a country that was dragged into a war in Iraq that has cost hundreds of thousands of lives based upon outright lies—reported as fact by an obedient and complicit media—about “weapons of mass destruction” and nonexistent terrorist ties.

This and other crimes have been either concealed or justified by means of propaganda, the invocation of state secrets or outright lying to the public. This is what makes those attacking WikiLeaks hate and fear its work, and what makes this work so vitally necessary.

Last April, the WikiLeaks site made public the “Collateral Murder” videotape, documenting a 2007 massacre in Baghdad carried out by an attack helicopter in which 15 Iraqis, including two Reuters journalists, were killed. Private First Class Bradley Manning was arrested soon after, charged with leaking the video and other documents. He is presently being held in a prison cell in Quantico, Virginia.

This was followed by the release of some 391,000 Afghanistan battlefield reports last July, documenting killings of civilians that had been covered up by the Pentagon, including the mowing down of unarmed demonstrators and assassinations by Special Forces death squads. Then in October, WikiLeaks made available 400,000 battlefield reports from Iraq, documenting more carnage against civilians and the complicity of the US military in horrific forms of torture against Iraqi detainees.

These documents laid bare to the public information that the government had systematically suppressed, with the assistance of a self-censoring media for which being “embedded” has become a permanent state of affairs. They provide ample evidence of war crimes carried out by both the Bush and Obama administrations.

The diplomatic cables that WikiLeaks began releasing last month—with less than 1,000 out of 250,000 thus far published—have already uncovered similar evidence of crimes and conspiracies, from the confirmation of a US missile strike that killed over 50 Yemeni civilians last December, to pressure campaigns to halt prosecutions of US officials for illegal kidnappings and torture, to instructions to US diplomats to gather personal intelligence—including DNA samples—on United Nations and foreign government officials.

Those now baying for Assange’s blood, calling his actions “criminal,” are responsible for real crimes whose victims number in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions.

Not only the Republican right, but “liberal” Democrats have joined in this campaign. Among them is California’s Democratic senator, Dianne Feinstein, who called in a column published by the Wall Street Journal Tuesday for the prosecution of Assange under the Espionage Act of 1917.

Feinstein charges Assange — a citizen of Australia—with being indifferent to “national security” and “our vital national interests,” interests that she, as a US senator, a multimillionaire and the wife of a wealthy Pentagon contractor, holds especially dear.

“Mr. Assange claims to be a journalist and would no doubt rely on the First Amendment to defend his actions,” she writes. “But he is no journalist: He is an agitator intent on damaging our government, whose policies he happens to disagree with, regardless of who gets hurt.”

Dismissing claims that WikiLeaks is covered by the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech, Feinstein continues, “Just as the First Amendment is not a license to yell ‘Fire!’ in a crowded theater, it is also not a license to jeopardize national security.”

The Espionage Act invoked by Feinstein has a long and reactionary history, used to jail the legendary workers’ leader Eugene V. Debs in 1918 along with thousands of members of the Industrial Workers of the World and other working class militants.

The senator articulates the same kind of police-state, lynch-mob spirit that animated that wave of repression. According to the Orwellian logic of the current vendetta, an “agitator” who exposes the crimes of a government engaged in armed aggression and torture is a criminal. And the right to free speech can be suspended by the mere invocation of “national security.”

This will not end with Assange and WikiLeaks. A frontal assault on core democratic rights is being prepared by a ruling elite that lives in fear of the people, concealing its actions and aims because it knows that the policies of social reaction at home and war abroad enjoy no popular support.

The attack on WikiLeaks has been aided and abetted by the cowardly media and by corporations ranging from Amazon to MasterCard, Visa and PayPal, all of which swung into line at the first sign of government intimidation, joining in the campaign to silence the Internet organization and cut off its funding.

Success in this act of state repression would set the stage for a more far-ranging drive to suppress freedom of the Internet as a whole, shut down other web sites that oppose the policies of the US government, and impose an even tighter veil of secrecy over the operations of the CIA, the Pentagon and the White House.

The financial aristocracy and its political representatives feel an urgent need to impose a stranglehold on the flow of information. They know that the crisis of their economic system and their attempts to impose its full weight on the backs of the working class, both at home and abroad, are creating the conditions for an eruption of class struggles. Depriving such a movement of free information and political perspective is seen as vital by the ruling elite.

This is what makes the launching of an international campaign in defense of WikiLeaks a life-and-death question for working people in every country. Mass protests and movements of solidarity must be organized to demand the immediate release of Julian Assange and Pfc. Bradley Manning and an end to the campaign of intimidation and repression against WikiLeaks.

Bill Van Auken

8 December 2010

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