Cuba's Fidel Castro Ruz - Has history absolved him?

By Rebecca Theodore



“But I do not fear prison, as I do not fear the fury of the miserable tyrant who took the lives of 70 of my comrades. Condemn me. It does not matter. History will absolve me.”

In a speech that rang synonymous with Socrates at the portico of Athens for the alleged charge of impiety, or with Dr King fighting for the civil rights of African Americans, or even Saint Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica, Dr Fidel Castro, is still cleverly checking his adversaries, both from within and abroad.

Since that fateful arrest in 1953 for assaulting the Moncada military barracks in the eastern city of Santiago in southern Cuba, Castro still controls his mind although nearly subdued by collapsing health.

Fidel Castro Ruz is the world's longest-serving head of government and the leader of the Americas' only communist country. Since he seized power in a 1959 revolution, El Comandante as he is affectionately called by his countrymen, still commands the admiration of the world.

He endured the fall of the Soviet Union, the culmination of communism in Eastern Europe, antagonized ten American presidents and outwitted dozens of assassination attempts.

It is true that the Cuban Revolution is probably one of the most theatrical, polarizing political events of the twentieth-century. Critics and proponents alike may someday eulogize Castro on the pages of history as a tyrant who suppressed freedom, equality, and social justice.

Nonetheless, education and the intelligence of a human being in a revolutionary society have immensely prevailed over instinct. Castro has without doubt offered every Cuban and many Caribbean citizens the opportunity of an education free from discrimination.

Today, Castro’s 1959 revolution provides a compelling picture of Cuba in relation to the rest of the world. Cuba’s influence on Latin America and the Caribbean, its coalition with the Soviet Union from the 1960s until the downfall of the Soviet bloc in 1989, and its riotous relationship with the United States cannot go by unnoticed.

For someone who has reiterated that “all of the world’s glory fits in a kernel of corn,” Castro is now preparing his people politically and psychologically for his absence through the power of his pen.

Adhering to his own thoughts that “a revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past and that a revolution is a dictatorship of the exploited against the exploiters,” his name will forever be printed on the pages of history and will again be read overtime for “one just man deserves more respect than a rogue with a crown.”

He has justified his point of view by proving that “revolution is the source of legal right” in Cuba and there is indeed, according to French writer, François Hotman, “a bond or contract between the government and its subjects.”

Yet, assuming all this as truth, John Locke, in his essay on government, seems to refute this socio-politico principle with his assertion “that when the natural rights of man are violated, the people have the right and the duty to alter or abolish the government.”

Hence, stunning doubts persist on who will be the leader who brings Cuba out of decades of seclusion? Who will be Raúl Castro’s heir?

Castro’s retirement draws the curtain on a political career that traversed the Cold War, survived US animosity, and a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. As one of the most controversial, combative, and charismatic rulers in history, the assessment by political scientist of how his illness and departure will transform politics continues to raise doubts about the future of the western hemisphere's only communist state.

His wishes have always been to discharge his duties to his last breath for he believes that one has to be consistent right up to the end. After all, it is suffering and death that defines our humanity and as mortals we must die.

As to whether his policies will play a major role in a post Fidel Castro Cuba or continue to plague the US beyond the grave remains to be seen.

Notwithstanding, Fidel Castro Ruz continues to fight in the battle of ideas. That’s all he can now offer his people. His pen has become mightier than his sword after so many years of struggle but that too is irrelevant.

The question is - has history finally absolved him?

June 15, 2011

caribbeannewsnow

Haiti under the Martelly era, one month after

By Jean H Charles



I flew to New York one day after the inauguration of Michel Martelly as the 56th president of the Republic of Haiti. I returned to the island nation one month after to gauge and taste the change on the street and in the spirit of the people. I have not seen any change yet. The president has been facing gridlock on all sides.

The former president Rene Preval on his last day in power may have orchestrated a constitutional subterfuge, sending to the national printing house an amended version of the constitution that was not approved by the parliament.

This malicious maneuver is creating all types of setback that the new president finally has rescinded the entire project of constitutional amendment. It took two weeks for him to do so.

The legislature with a small majority in the Preval camp therefore not on the side of the president is lingering, taking its time before engaging the dispositions to receive, hear and approve the program of government of the new prime minister, Gerard Rouzier. Some senators had even openly demanded bribes before sitting for the session. Martelly has firmly stated that he has a popular mandate to bring about change. He will not be bought.

His detractors, mainly those with a sour grape from the Myrlande Manigat camp, his former rival, are criticizing every utterance, every move with an intensity that freezes stupidity.

Item, Martelly has brought back the custom of a national holiday on Ascension Day. He is accused of mutilating the modern republican spirit of God versus State.

Item, Wilson Jeudy the mayor of Delmas, a suburb of Port au Prince, has taken responsibility to dislodge some earthquake refugees on a park leading to the airport. That camp is suspected of being a hotbed for bandits harassing the travelers at night. The full national and international public relations system, including the American legislative Black Caucus, has been engaged to condemn Michel Martelly for this assault on democracy. The mayor of Delmas is accusing a senator from the north, Moise Jean Charles, a fierce supporter of the former president, of being the instigator of the confusion for political reasons. The citizens of Delmas, victims of the hooliganism in that camp, are grateful and thankful to the mayor.

Item, Michel Martelly is also being accused of using sexual innuendos that cannot be printed in this essay to describe his satisfaction of the shape and form of a new school building he was dedicating. Education for all is his passion. Sexual innuendos included.

The Diaspora has its grief against the new president for demanding a tax of $1.50 per international transfer and 5 cents per minute on calls to Haiti. The contribution will augment a fund dedicated to making schooling free and universal in the entire country. Privilege comes with responsibility, legislation is on the way to provide the Diaspora with voice and vote.

The hurricane and the rainy season are already creating havoc in parts of the country. Some thirty citizens have lost their lives due to flooding. There is urgency in protecting lives and limb yet the debate amongst the protagonists of the president has been around comma and style.

Haiti, like a fine flower, is in danger of extinction due to environmental negligence and the pressure of the population, accumulated through sixty years of ill governance, forcing the people to concentrate in the main cities without a proper assessment of its environmental impact.

President Martelly, as the first pilot helping Haiti and its people to take off, must focus on the big picture as well as the small details. I have often said that a nation at its transition is like an airplane taking off. The pilot must use all the power at its disposal so the plane will reach its cruising altitude.

The old guard wants nothing but the crash of the airplane and the pilot, so it can, like the vultures, enjoy the carcass.

President Martelly’s budding passion for Haiti, the genuine love and generosity of his wife for the lowly, can only augur the success of his government in spite of the odds against him. Stay tuned for an update six months from now.

June 13, 2011

caribbeannewsnow

WikiLeaks secret cable: ...the continuous arrival of thousands of low-wage Chinese workers in The Bahamas will likely lead to a significant increase in illegal migration of Chinese from The Bahamas to the United States

U.S. fears Baha Mar Chinese migration

BRENT DEAN
NG Deputy News Editor
thenassauguardian
brentldean@nasguard.com

Nassau, Bahamas


One of the major fears the United States has with the Baha Mar project at Cable Beach is that as a result of the large number of Chinese coming into the country to build the resort, the smuggling of Chinese into the U.S. from this country will increase dramatically, according to a cable from the U.S. Embassy in Nassau.

“Regardless of whatever number of workers the parties agree upon, the continuous arrival of thousands of low-wage Chinese workers in The Bahamas will likely lead to a significant increase in illegal migration of Chinese from The Bahamas to the United States,” said the November 2009 secret cable obtained by The Nassau Guardian via WikiLeaks.

“The GCOB (Government of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas) does not have the institutional capacity to effectively monitor the movements of the Chinese workers nor effectively detect inauthentic travel documents.”

The $2.6 billion Baha Mar resort is being financed by the Export-Import Bank of China. The China State Construction Engineering Corporation is building the resort.

As a part of the deal, 8,150 foreign workers will help build the resort along with 4,000-plus Bahamian workers. The majority of the 8,150 workers will be Chinese.

Citing a conversation an embassy official had with former Chamber of Commerce president Dionisio D'Aguilar, the cable said that Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham was very wary of allowing that number of Chinese into the country, hoping only 1,000 to 2,000 Chinese would be needed.

Before the deal was sealed Ingraham publicly expressed his concerns about the labor component of the deal.

The Americans had intimate conversations with Baha Mar senior vice president Robert Sands on the Chinese laborer issue, according to the cable.

“Sands did emphasize that Baha Mar and the GCOB were concerned with [the] legitimacy of individual [workers], or those that would come to The Bahamas solely to illegally migrate to the United States,” said the cable.

“He noted that the workers would be ‘highly regulated, close to the site in a fully contained camp,’ though the men ‘will be let out occasionally.’ Sands indicated that they were looking into biometric identifications to help manage the workforce.”

According to the cable, at the time, Baha Mar wanted to establish a large work camp for the Chinese laborers at the Cable Beach Golf Course.

“Baha Mar executives and the GCOB are clearly cognizant of the negative message they will send to tourists, as well as the Bahamian public, by maintaining a 4,000-strong Chinese laborer camp in a highly visible and affluent section of town,” said the cable.

“Still, the GCOB believes that the completion of this massive project is a vital component of its long-term plan to provide thousands of new jobs for Bahamians.”

A February 2009 cable, also labeled secret, indicated that Bahamian officials were so concerned about the laborer issue that they approached the Americans for help.

“Senior GCOB officials expressed concern to the Charge’ over the Chinese request for foreign workers. They requested U.S. assistance with obtaining background checks and mused that it would be preferable if the Chinese workers were first routed through the U.K. or U.S. so that they would be properly vetted,” said the cable.

“Of primary concern is ensuring that…adequate accounting methods are in place to track that those that enter eventually leave.”

Timothy Zuniga-Brown was, and is, the U.S. Charge d’ Affaires referred to in the cable.

WEARY PARTNERS

In 2008, Harrah’s Entertainment pulled out of an earlier joint venture deal with Baha Mar to develop the mega-resort. Chinese financing and partnership revived the Cable Beach redevelopment plan.

The Ingraham administration always appeared less enthusiastic to the Baha Mar project than Perry Christie and the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP). The last PLP administration began negotiations with Baha Mar.

A March 2009 cable, also labeled secret, said that Bahamian officials told the Americans they were not, at the time, enthused about Chinese involvement in the deal.

“Senior GCOB officials privately expressed that China is not their preferred partner and acknowledge that negotiations are difficult,” said the cable.

The Bahamian officials expressing that view were not named.

The cables also revealed that the Chinese expressed their concerns to the Americans about getting so deeply involved with Baha Mar.

“Chinese Embassy officials privately told (an embassy official) the China Ex-Im Bank would prefer another investor in the mix in order to diminish the financial risk,” said the March 2009 cable.
Baha Mar has said it will not comment on the cables.

The company has said 11,000 Bahamian jobs will be created as a result of the project. There will be 6,500 to 7,000 permanent jobs when the resort is completed; and 4,000 construction jobs for Bahamians will be created during the build phase of the project.

There will be six hotels at the property, almost 2,250 new rooms and condos, the largest convention center in The Bahamas, the largest casino in the Caribbean, a world-class golf course and a retail village.

Jun 10, 2011

thenassauguardian

Bahamas - China relations in spotlight with the high-level visit of the Deputy Secretary of Political and Legal Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) Central Committee, Wang Lequan

Bahamas, China relations in spotlight with high-level visit

BY CHESTER ROBARDS
Guardian Staff Reporter
thenassauguardian
chester@nasguard.com


The Deputy Secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) Central Committee, Wang Lequan, along with a delegation of Chinese officials began their diplomatic tour of key government sites and points of bilateral interest yesterday.

The delegates paid a visit to Prime Minster Hubert Ingraham at the Cecil Wallace-Whitfield Centre, Cable Beach, where he and Wang spoke about the similarities and differences in China and The Bahamas’ economy and people as well as trade relations and immigration.

Wang spoke about China’s rapidly increasing Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in relation to China’s 1.3 billion people. However, Ingraham explained to Wang that The Bahamas’ GDP as it relates to Bahamians, is skewed by foreigners whose cumulative income produces an unrealistic average for the country.

“On the question of GDP from The Bahamas’ point of view that is a great disadvantage in the international community using GDP as a source of determining the wealth of a nation,” Ingraham said. “We have high levels of international persons who are employed in The Bahams and when their income is taken into account we end up with an average that is not supported by reality.”

Ingraham also spoke to Wang about this country loosening the travel restrictions for Chinese visitors to The Bahamas. He suggested on-arrival visas for Chinese who already hold visas to gateway countries.

“We look forward to many more Chinese tourists,” he said.

“We will have discussions with your embassy to see to the extent to which we can arrange for Chinese visitors who have entry visa to the United States, Canada and the European Union, to be able to also come to The Bahamas and be issued a visa on arrival instead of having to go to our embassy in Beijing.”

Wang told Ingraham that as the wealth of China increases and favorable travel conditions are created by The Bahamas, Chinese tourist visits to The Bahamas will increase.

“In the past the Chinese did not have enough income to afford overseas trips,” he said. “Now with growing salaries and more economic welfare, they are capable of going outside for tours. If we create favorable conditions for them I am sure that more and more Chinese will come over.”

Ingraham also suggested that both countries could also benefit from the opening of crawfish exports from The Bahamas to China.

Ingraham thanked the delegation again for the gift of the National Stadium and the continued cooperation with projects such as Baha Mar and the Airport Gateway Project.

Before the Chinese visited the prime minister, they met with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Brent Symonette and Minister of National Security Tommy Turnquest at the Police Headquarter’s Command Center to talk about the similarities and differences between both countries’ border controls, especially as it relates to illegal migration, smuggling and poaching.

The delegation’s last stop yesterday was to the headquarters of the Free National Movement (FNM) where Wang and his delegation met with FNM chairman Carl Bethel.

Wang shared some history of the CPC with Bethel and spoke about his party’s upcoming five-year plan for China — the 12th five-year plan in the country’s history — which Bethel said The Bahamas could learn from. Wang said China is attempting to slow its economy’s growth from 10 percent per year to seven percent per year.

Bethel told Wang that The Bahamas has a lot to learn from China’s 5,000-year history and its rise to a global superpower.

“There is much that we in The Bahamas can learn from the wisdom and experience of the Chinese people and government,” Bethel said.

“I am particularly impressed with the success of your planning through your five-year plans and I do believe a greater attention to national planning would certainly be a great benefit to The Bahamas — not just every year a budget, but to have a vision over a longer term.”

Jun 11, 2011

thenassauguardian


Who is Wang Lequan?

44 percent of the murders committed so far this year in The Bahamas are linked to drugs and criminal enterprise says National Security Minister Tommy Turnquest

44% of 2011 murders linked to drugs

KRYSTEL ROLLE
Guardian Staff Reporter
thenassauguardian
krystel@nasguard.com

Nassau, Bahamas



An analysis of the 57 murders committed so far this year shows that 44 percent of them are linked to drugs and criminal enterprise, according to National Security Minister Tommy Turnquest.

Turnquest said yesterday there is no question that there is a strong link between the drug trade and serious crimes in general.

He said police could not determine the motives for an additional 16 murders.

However, police suspect that they may also be drug related but do not have sufficient information to officially make that declaration.

If those 16 murders are included, that would mean that nealy 72 percent of the total murders so far are linked to drugs.

Turnquest did not provide the established motives for the remaining 16 murders.

“What we are seeing today is the result of the drug trade that sadly gripped our country a generation ago,” said the minister, while contributing to the 2011/2012 budget debate in the House of Assembly.

“The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), in a 2007 report, draws a line between the illegal drug trade and other crime, including crimes such as illegal gun smuggling, illegal immigration and crimes of a very violent nature such as murder.

“The trafficking of drugs and firearms into and through our country continues and it remains a matter of concern. This is borne out by the statistics on the amount of marijuana, cocaine and illegal firearms seizures that have taken place in our country over the past five years.”

During that time period, more than 370,000 pounds of illegal narcotics were seized, according to information Turnquest tabled yesterday.

The report also shows that over the past five years authorities seized 1,211 firearms. And so far this year, 184 firearms were seized.

“With this in mind, the information gathering, research and coordination work of the National Anti-Drug Secretariat (NADS) is putting us in a better position to make the connections between drugs and crime, so that we can do more about them. It also reduces the scope for duplication of efforts of various national bodies,” Turnquest said.

The minister revealed that NADS brings together concerned government ministries/departments, non-governmental organizations and civil society, so that their combined expertise and experience can be pooled in crafting responses to the drug problem.

“To further strengthen this approach, my ministry seeks to merge the NADS and the National Drug Council, now under the portfolio of the Ministry of Health, so that the drug challenges can be more effectively and efficiently addressed,” he said.

Jun 09, 2011

thenassauguardian

The national D average in the Bahamas General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE) exams masks the tremendous lack of achievement in the Bahamian public school system

Education, failed culture and inspiration

thenassauguardian editorial

Nassau, Bahamas


It was important that Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham took time to greet 12-year-old Anna Albury outside of the House of Assembly on Monday. The girl, who is blind, was recently crowned Primary School Student of the Year over 115 candidates from around the country.

“I am like just any other child. I do not look at myself as having a disability. I just happen to be blind,” said the sixth grader from Hope Town School on receiving the award.

Fully blind from birth, Anna could have been placed in the School for the Blind, but her parents Theresa and Lambert Albury insisted that she be raised normally with other children. They wanted her to do well.

With their encouragement and the support of her teachers and classmates, Anna has maintained an outstanding 3.8 cumulative grade point average.

Here in New Providence in our public school system many children with two working eyes, two working ears, two working legs and two working arms are not doing nearly as well as Anna. And they benefit from a free education through grade 12.

The national D average in the Bahamas General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE) exams masks the tremendous lack of achievement in our public school system. If the private schools are taken out of that calculation, our public school system would be in the F average range. No nation can be great with that level of underachievement.

Many blame the government of the day and the education bureaucracy for not doing more to reform the public education system. Certainly, there is more that can be done on the policy and funding sides of the equation to reform our system. However, a major part of the education problem in this country is our culture. Governments and civil servants cannot make Bahamian parents and guardians care about education.

Too many parents do not demand enough from their children. Too many Bahamians simply do not value the free education that is offered.

Concerned parents, relatives and guardians are crucial catalysts to success when it comes to educational achievement. When families care about education and hold children to standards, those children do better. When families only care about proms and making sure children are dressed in the trendiest clothes at the beginning of the school year, those children do not do as well.

Our culture has assumed too much of the foolish commercial nonsense from the two cultural centers we are between – the United States and Jamaica. Knowledge of the latest rap or dancehall song is high, while the literacy and numeracy levels are low in The Bahamas.

We must do better.

Education is not merely about being prepared for the job market. It is about being a reasoned human being able to understand and function independently in the community you live in. It is also about being able to participate in the development and governance of that society in many different ways.

Too many Bahamians are too comfortable being uneducated. Too many Bahamians are too comfortable raising uneducated children. This must change.

What is especially problematic about this situation is that the free education system through grade 12 was something that was fought for.

The first black government of The Bahamas in 1967 had as its mandate ensuring that all Bahamians had access to education. In the ensuing decades schools were built across the country. Now, 44 years later, many of the parents and children who are the heirs to that movement show little interest in knowledge, learning and achievement.

Ignorant people are always ruled by smarter people. A people cannot be independent if they are dumb.

Bahamians must stop making excuses when it comes to learning and achievement. Yes, education reform is needed. But what is equally needed is concern about learning and knowledge by our people. A father who is not smart should, and can, have as a goal ensuring that his children do better than he did.

He can ensure that his children behave in school and do the work assigned; he can participate in the school’s Parent Teacher Association; he can seek tutoring for his children to ensure they have the technical assistance he cannot provide.

Anna Albury, a blind girl from a small school in the Family Islands, is doing well. She is inspirational. Born with a disadvantage, she still excels.

Mothers, fathers, relatives and guardians across The Bahamas must do more to ensure that their well-bodied children do better and take advantage of the opportunities given to them. We must care more about education and learning to ensure that we, Bahamians, have the capacity to govern ourselves and to command every sector of our economy.

Jun 08, 2011

thenassauguardian editorial

Trinidad and Tobago, Haiti and Guyana assaulting the last vestiges of colonialism

By Jean H Charles


An election will take place in Guyana in 2012 that could assault the colonial concept of black Guyanese on one side and Indo and white Guyanese on the other side. In Trinidad and Tobago, an Indo-Trini, Mrs Kamla Persad Bissessar, the prime minister of the country has campaigned upon and may smooth further race relations in Trinidad. In Haiti, Joseph Michel Martelly the new elected president, in choosing a light skinned, able economist cum entrepreneur, Daniel Rouzier as his prime minister, is giving the signal that he has no patience for and no interest in using the skin color as the standard for conduct and services to the citizens of the nation.

Are we at the end of an era?

To rule upon a large tract of human beings, financiers, philosophers and rulers have devised for three hundred years, a principle that some human beings are superior to others because of the color of their skin, the shape of their nose and the size of their mouth.

The Haitian Revolution in 1804, the Black Emancipation in 1864, and the American Civil Rights Revolution of 1964 have assaulted the concept of race as the determinism for your station in life.

Yet, the remnant of the concept of black skin inferiority is alive and well in the Caribbean. A review of the literature in this very news network, fellow columnists Dr David Hinds and Sir Ronald Sanders have displayed the situation in Guyana: a rich and well endowed nation in terms of natural resources, it lags right before Haiti in terms of poverty index in the Caribbean because the concept of nation is not yet a reality in Guyana.

It is true that Guyana’s economy has enjoyed lately an impressive economic boom but the remnants of two societies going side by side is still the rule in the land. There has been a constant call for the PPP, the party with an Indian majority, as well as the PCN, the party with a black majority, to engage into a national unity government with intra-racial solidarity to create a nation that shall become hospitable to all.

The PCN vision under its founder, the late President Forbes Burnham, foresees “a new Guyana man and woman oriented towards the role of nation building in a spirit of mutual respect with persons of all ethnicities.” The excesses of the founder have foundered the vision.

To quote Ron Chernow in his new book “Washington, A Life”, a country at its beginning needs a leader with an “uncanny ability to lead a nation.” It implies such exemplary virtues such as unerring judgment, sterling character, rectitude, steadfast patriotism, unflagging sense of duty and civic-mindedness.

It is interesting to note that in a current essay in Stabroek news, Mike Persaud, settling the dispute between Dr David Hinds and Mr Vishnu Bisram (a former student of mine), has provided the solution for nation building in Guyana. Stop the practice of ethnic politics. The PPP as well as the PNC must engage in genuine inclusive governance not the window dressing one practiced by both parties.

May the black Guyanese or the Indian Guyanese leader with such civic mindedness step up to the plate?

Haiti, one of the poorest countries of the Western Hemisphere, is also a champion of the culture of exclusion. The rural sector that includes eighty-five percent of the population is excluded politically, socially and economically. The Diaspora (4%) is excluded socially and politically, while the mulattoes (1%) are excluded politically.

Lately, it has been discrimination in reverse. Since the mulattoes held power for the first one hundred fifty years with no benefit to the population, the dark skinned Haitians have for the past fifty years taken their revenge by excluding the mulattoes from occupying executive position in the Haitian government.

In Haiti, as well as in Guyana, the past governments, whether with dark skin or light skin, have ruled the country with a sense of unaccountability toward all sectors of the society. There has been a yearning for a government that sees itself as the custodian of the whole.

Trinidad and Tobago has the good fortune of having a founding father such as Eric Williams, who had the uncanny ability to lead a nation. Furthermore, the makeup of the population, half black, half Hindu, does not leave room for racial politics a la Guyana. There has been some fear lately of racial politics in calls for dividing the cake according to ethnic makeup.

I am optimistic about Trinidad. (Review my essay: A roadmap for a coordinated approach for the Caribbean islands)

More than a century ago another country was debating the concept of one nation under God. It took the leadership of Abraham Lincoln to settle the issue of States holding slaves and those States that refused to accept slavery to create the true United States of America. Barack Obama the beneficiary of that leadership is promising action in furthering the cause of freedom for all.

Haiti, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago should be on the high priority list. The impact of their integrated recovery will reflect on the whole Caribbean!

June 7, 2011

caribbeannewsnow