By Anthony L. Hall:

In a deft and enlightened move, Martelly declared from the outset of his presidency that he wanted to make peace -- not just with Aristide but with every other former Haitian leader as well. To this end he made quite a public show today of meeting with both Aristide and Baby Doc. 

Implicit in this of course is that he will discourage any attempt to prosecute Baby Doc, and that Aristide will now be loath to challenge the legitimacy of his presidency. Beyond this, Martelly’s move is deft and enlightened because it lays the foundation for the kind of political certainty that is sine qua non for the foreign direct investments Haiti will need to rebuild.

I made the observations above in an October 12, 2011, commentary, “New Haitian president seeks reconciliation”. Now comes this: 

Haiti’s judicial authorities have dealt yet another blow to the victims of former leader Jean-Claude Duvalier, Amnesty International said this week after the criminal case against the former ‘president-for-life’ for grave human rights violations was dropped. 

An investigating judge in Port-au-Prince on Monday announced that Jean-Claude ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier will not stand trial for alleged crimes against humanity—including torture, disappearances and extrajudicial executions…. (amnesty.org, January 31, 2012) 

But let me hasten to clarify that nothing could be further from my mind than gloating here about my prescience; especially since nobody was initially more anxious to see Duvalier prosecuted than I. It’s just that, given the way President Martelly and the Haitian judiciary are being pilloried in the press, I think it’s important to put this decision to spare the country a war-crimes trial into context. 

I fully appreciate the criticism that Haiti is opting for political expediency at the expense of criminal justice. But Martelly can point to similar criticisms that were leveled at South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which granted outright amnesty to many Whites who had the blood of the brutal Apartheid regime on their hands. 

Clearly Haiti could do a lot worse than to follow South Africa’s principled example. Moreover, Martelly was undoubtedly mindful that prosecuting Duvalier for war crimes would probably incite more factional violence in the streets of Haiti: believe it not Baby Doc still has rabid followers who would die for him. And in that event, nobody doubts that self-righteous organizations like Amnesty International would not be able to lift a finger to stop the bloodshed. 

Alas, putting Duvalier on trial for embezzlement of public funds (as the government intends to do) will provide little or no consolation. Especially since he probably has more than enough from the billions he embezzled to settle whatever damages are assessed. 

All the same, my thoughts and prayers go out to all who were affected by the brutal reign of the Duvaliers. Even more, though, I wish the longsuffering people of Haiti an extended period of peace, happiness, and prosperity. I am convinced that foregoing a war-crimes trial will help this wish come true.

February 10, 2012

caribbeannewsnow

Caribbean Blog International

 

 

By Keith Noel:

MY FATHER-IN-LAW rarely uttered the word 'Rasta' without prefacing it with the word 'dutty'. He loved my younger daughter dearly and as far as he was concerned, she was the perfect child. He must be revolving in his grave now to see her with locks flowing down her back.

This to me images the marked difference in the perception of Rastafari over the past 30 years. I remember in the 1960s the fear with which people spoke of these cultists. They were sometimes described as 'blackheart' men and spoken of as if they were the spawn of the devil. They were berated and scorned from many a pulpit and many parents suffered paroxysms when their children showed even a mild interest in the movement.

From the very outset, Rastafari had a firm commitment to the struggle for black dignity. What particularly fascinated me was their absolute rejection of the idea of white superiority and even their rejection of any values they considered white. They gave the generation of the '70s the base on which to build a world view that was not a mirror of that of the metropolis.

Brutalise them

Society saw the threat of the Rasta to the status quo and gave licence to their agents in the police force, the teaching profession, and the civil service to brutalise them physically or psychologically. And the rest of 'decent' society stood by in tacit acceptance of this abuse. I remember one day at a football match in the stadium, seeing a policeman search a Rasta for ganja, forcing him to kneel and cutting a couple of his locks in the process. There was no outrage. In fact, at the time, local pop songs had jokes about policemen beating Rastas for speaking their particular dialect!

Then there was the chilling story of Peter Tosh stepping out into the yard of the studio in Half-Way Tree where he was recording what was to be a classic LP. He was smoking a spliff and a policeman saw him and, although he had flicked the spliff away, began to beat him, and as Tosh said "when him lif up de batten to deliver the fatal blow" to his head, he parried it with his forearm, which was badly broken. There was no real outcry and, as far as I know, the policeman did not lose his job.

The aggression was psychological as well. Under the guise of 'proper grooming' any efforts by teenage blacks to adopt hairstyles that shouted their blackness to the world were outlawed in schools. There was tremendous opposition to the 'afro'. A young friend of mine was prevented from going to her exams at Immaculate High unless she agreed to forego her afro. A namesake of mine lost his job at Knox College for being too afrocentric in his teaching, and one reason given for my being fired from my post at Haile Selassie Junior Secondary, where I was acting head of English, was that I had become too obviously sympathetic to the Rasta movement (there is an irony there somewhere).

Black assumption

There seemed to be a reason for this fear. Rastafari, with all its apparent strangeness, delivered a message of black assumption of full personhood and of rejection of the perception of himself as inferior. This would mean a revolution in thinking that would result in the white world relinquishing much of its power over the black man. And who wants to relinquish power?

The Rastaman's message was delivered through his music. Bob Marley, its leading exponent, was a creative genius, but his creativity found its roots in his Rastafarianism. His message is possibly the most important delivered to the world by any entertainer, maybe any man, in the 20th century.

It is a tribute to the steadfastness, the courage, the vision, the clearheadedness and the creativity of these 'ancient Rastas', as Morgan Heritage calls them, that they are now a prominent part of our society. We owe them a great deal. Their vision of Jamaica's and the black man's "emancipation from mental slavery" has not been fully achieved, but we would have been so much further back were it not for them.

Keith Noel is an educator. Send comments to columns@gleanerjm.com.

February 9, 2012

jamaica-gleaner

Caribbean Blog International

by Caribbean News Now contributor:

CARACAS, Venezuela -- The Commonwealth Caribbean countries of Antigua-Barbuda, Dominica and St Vincent and the Grenadines are among ALBA members that have agreed to block any ships flying the Falkland Islands flag from docking in their ports.

At the 11th summit of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our Americas (ALBA), made up of Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, Ecuador and St Vincent and the Grenadines, participating heads of state and government on Saturday approved a special agreement to back Argentina's call for the restoration of the British Overseas Territory claimed by Argentina as Las Malvinas to Argentinean sovereignty.

President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, said, "It is time for Latin America to decide sanctions against this mistaken power that pretends to be imperialist and colonialist in the 21st century. I think we have to apply more forceful things. We have to talk about sanctions."

Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela, said, "If it should occur to the British empire to attack Argentina militarily, Argentina won't be alone this time. Venezuela is no power, but we've got some weapons and the will to face any imperialist aggression."

Tensions have risen over the Falklands as the 30th anniversary of Argentina's 1982 invasion nears. Celebrations are planned in the UK for the anniversary of the Falklands War starting from May 20.

Britain has recently sent to the area HMS Dauntless, a Type 45 destroyer armed with enough firepower that one navy source told the Daily Mail newspaper, could “take out all of South America’s fighter aircraft, let alone those of Argentina”.

A British nuclear submarine is also reportedly being deployed to the area.

During the ALBA summit, Chavez praised the economic potential of several Caribbean nations such as Dominica, with its coffee production, and St Vincent and the Grenadines, with its tourist industry, and agricultural and fishing production.

He also referred to the bloc’s decision to maintain Haiti as a permanent guest of their meetings and to have Saint Lucia and Suriname as special guest-members.

February 7, 2012

caribbeannewsnow

Caribbean Blog International

Esther Tyson , Jamaica-Gleaner Contributor:

 

There is a wind blowing across our nation, Jamaica, which threatens to destabilise the Christian world view that we accept as the norm in our country. This wind has swept in from countries such as Germany, England, Sweden and North America.

It brings with it the view that posits that homosexual rights must be seen as paramount at this time. This is so because it comes under the agenda of human rights. All well-thinking individuals agree that all persons must have the rights that are due to all citizens of a nation, including homosexuals, bisexuals, transgender, et al.

What the country needs to be aware of, and stand its guard against, is that in many instances, once homosexuals have been granted their rights to practise their 'alternative lifestyle' openly, along with it come other demands which infringe on the rights of persons with a Judaeo-Christian world view.

This is the pattern that has been observed in nations such as United States, Canada, Germany and England. In England, according to a report at http://www.tinyurl.com/lawforcechurches, religious groups are to be forced to accept homosexual youth workers, secretaries and other staff, even if their faith holds same-sex relationships to be sinful. Christian organisations fear that the tightened legislation, which is due to come into force next year, will undermine the integrity of churches and dilute their moral message.

important development

Christianity Today Australia makes an important point on this development:

"And that is just what the homosexual activists and the militant secularists have long been working towards. They have been very clever about this. They say that religious people are welcome to practise their faith, just as long as it is not done in public."

Christians in England are coming under increasing persecution because of their faith. Yet, on the other hand, the rights of other groups, such as gays, are being promoted. In 2011 in England, a Christian couple was banned from foster-parenting because of their views on homosexuality. They "were told by a court yesterday that gay rights 'should take precedence' over their religious beliefs". Owen and Eunice Johns heard that their values could conflict with the local authority's duty to 'safeguard and promote the welfare' of those in foster care.

This shift against Christianity is taking place not only in England but in the USA. An example of this is seen in California.

(CNSNews.com) - On January 1, the California Department of Education started implementing a new law that requires all children in the state's public schools to study the "role and contributions" of "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans" to the "development of California and the United States of America".

All public schools in California, from kindergarten to grade 12, will be required to actively teach students to admire the gay lifestyle, and refusal to do so will have teachers charged with discrimination. This means that Christian teachers will not be allowed to keep silent on the matter but are being put into a situation to go against their faith if they are to keep their jobs.

In each of these instances, what began as the 'gay' agenda being accepted as part of human rights has resulted in the rights of Christians being eroded.

Even more far-reaching are the implications of the following report.

NEW YORK, July 27, 2011

(LifeSiteNews.com) - A high-level push at the United Nations for more contraception and abortion among the world's youths has met with resistance from over 120,000 people, including 57,000 young people, who have signed a Youth Statement that says that so-called "sexual rights" cannot trump the real rights of life and family.

Campaigners at the United Nations are seeking more permissive laws and policies towards homosexuality, drug use, explicit sexual education, contraception, and prostitution on all levels of world government, framed as advocacy for youth's sexual and reproductive health and 'rights'.

Persons who hold to the traditional Judaeo-Christian values which form the foundation of our society's laws and practices need to become conscious that already such values are being eroded in nations that previously were seen as having the same philosophical foundations as we do in Jamaica.

Furthermore, this insidious destruction is continuing, as can be seen in the report concerning the advocacy of sexual rights for children at the United Nations.

The Church must be careful that while we ensure that all mankind is treated with humanity and dignity, we do not fail to see that there are many groups that are using the human-rights cover to foist upon many unsuspecting persons laws that will have Jamaicans finding ourselves being forced to accept lifestyles alien to us.

threaten Economic sanctions

Already we see the British prime minister, David Cameron, threatening economic sanctions against those Commonwealth nations that do not decriminalise homosexuality and/or buggery. United States President Barack Obama is also issuing a call in support of gay rights. These calls are being promoted as a part of the human-rights agenda. Countries are now being forced to bow to the beliefs of these superpowers. Although colonialism has ended, this situation makes us aware that cultural imperialism is still alive and rampant.

Our prime minister, Portia Simpson Miller, has promised J-FLAG - the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays - that she will review the buggery law.

As a nation, we need to be aware of this process. This issue might be decided through a vote by the people. As a nation, we are not used to voting on two issues at once, so we must be careful to see that a second matter is not being decided on in any election without the electorate's full knowledge.

In addition, it is very important that every Jamaican whose world view is based on the Judaeo-Christian teaching become aware of this debate and make his or her contribution to it. Furthermore, all such persons need to be enumerated.

Esther Tyson is an educator. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.

February 5, 2012

jamaica-gleaner

Caribbean Blog International

Gambling and human rights:

By Peter Espeut -

Elements within the Jamaican church fraternity wish to make gambling - and these days, horse racing in particular - a religious issue. If it were just a religious matter, the irreligious among us could dismiss it (as they have done) as the Church seeking to impose its religious prejudices on the whole society.

It would then become, as they might put it, a human-rights issue - the right to do with one's time and money what one wishes. And if free persons wish to engage in watching or betting on racehorses on Sunday, the Lord's Day, surely that's their right, the argument goes, even if most people lose their money.

This view may be identified with the libertarian position about which I have recently written ('Victimless crime', January 13, 2012).

Neville Duncan, in a letter published in The Gleaner of December 29 last, puts it this way: "Each individual has the basic right to do anything with her/his life that s/he chooses, including damaging oneself by using alcohol and drugs, just as s/he has the right to damage herself/himself with sugar, tobacco, religion, promiscuous sex, mysticism, suicide, etc, so long as s/he does not initiate threats, force or fraud against any other individual."

And so libertarians believe that people have the right to gamble, even if it is a certainty that the vast majority will lose their money, and might jeopardise the welfare of their families.

It must be clear to the thinking person that the gambling industry is not a gamble for casinos, gaming lounges and betting parlours; they are guaranteed to make money at the expense of their patrons because of their carefully designed business model. As I learned at university from my lecturers in mathematics, gambling is about 'odds', based on probabilities and permutations, which are mathematical operations.

Odds against most

In roulette, for example, the odds of the ball falling into your slot have been calculated by the gambling house, and the payout fixed such that the house always collects more from losers than it pays to winners. In American roulette, there are 38 numbers (1-36, as well as 0 and 00), and so betting on any number, there is a 37:1 chance of losing; and if you win, you receive a 35:1 payout. Hearing that if he wins he will get 35 times what he bets will attract persons to gamble; but sensible people know that, on average, they will win only once out of 38 times; and so over time, the gambler always loses.

At every game and at every table, the house always wins. The gambling industry has calculated the odds, and has set the rules of the game so that it will always win. No gambling house anywhere in the world operates at a loss. Only the customers gamble, and the fact is that for the gambling houses to make a profit, every day and every week, the majority of customers have to lose.

Horse racing is a particular case. If there are seven horses in a race, the odds are not set at 6:1 for a win; the odds are determined by how many people bet on a particular horse. And so the favourite might pay only 2:1, while a poorly supported horse might pay 99:1.

If the favourite wins, the bets of the losers are more than enough to cover the payout to the winners, plus a handsome profit. If the favourite loses, most of the punters have lost their bets, while a few pocket a big payout, which stimulates the losers to bet harder next time.

The simple fact is that the betting shops set the odds so that they can never lose.

Now if it is true that that almost all gamblers will lose all of the time, should not a responsible Government protect gamblers from themselves, and from mathematical pickpockets who have set the rules and the odds so that, over time, the gamblers will always lose?

This is not just a religious matter; this is a matter of human rights.

The majority of Jamaicans are weak in literacy and numeracy; the Government should protect Jamaicans from rapacious businessmen, who laugh all the way to the bank as they speak of rights, but know that the public, over time, will always lose.

The libertarians, however, will disagree; people must be free to lose their money if they are foolish enough to gamble.

Peter Espeut is a sociologist, natural scientist and Roman Catholic deacon. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.

February 3, 2012

jamaica-gleaner

Caribbean Blog International

MOSCOW,MOSCOW, (RIA Novosti):

 

Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin are Russia’s most unpopular leaders of the past century, according to a survey by Russia’s state-run VTsIOM pollster published on Thursday.

Only 14 percent of respondents named Soviet President Gorbachev and 17 percent mentioned his successor, first president of the Russian Federation Yeltsin, when asked whose policies in the past 100 years made Russia develop in the proper direction. Their results are largely similar to a VTsIOM survey held in 2007.

A total of 61 percent of Russians described Vladimir Putin’s policies during his two presidential terms in 2000-2008 as “generally positive”, down six percentage points from 2007. About 54 percent of respondents were positive about incumbent Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Russia’s last Tsar Nicholas II received a positive assessment from 31 percent of respondents.

Leonid Brezhnev, who presided over the “stagnation period” with a ruling group characterized as a “gerontocracy,” was the most popular Soviet leader with the support of 39 percent of respondents.

Best-known Communist Leaders, 1917 October Revolution architect Vladimir Lenin and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, gained 28 percent each. Nikita Khrushchev, who steered Soviet Union through the Cold War’s peak, the Cuban Missile Crisis, received the support of 24 percent of respondents.

The survey, involving 1,600 respondents, was held on October 29-30, 2011 in 46 Russian regions. The margin of error is below 3.4 percent.

13:58 02/02/2012

rian.ru

Caribbean Blog International

By Linda Petrusi:

Seems like a simple enough question. With millions of answers. How can we find peace, and once found, what do we do with it? How important is peace in our lives and the communities we live in?

Peace is the essence of our existence. It allows us to express ourselves and, in doing so, creates an opportunity to relate to others with goodwill, understanding and cooperation. It is the cornerstone of our survival and, once we find peace and know what to do with it, becomes a triumph for the human species.

If peace is so essential to our survival, why is it not the central theme of dialogue? The average male thinks about sex once every few minutes according to psychologists. Yet seldom contemplates peace.

There are more porn websites than websites devoted to promoting peace.

One would think peace would be the central theme in all religious sermons. Instead, religion is used to separate communities instead of bringing them closer together. It Balkanizes communities and leads to suspicion and at times incites violence.

One would also think peace would be a central theme to any political agenda. Yet political leaders use peace as a hollow slogan, while supporting war out of a perceived danger or gain. Why are masses of people willing to support destructive wars? Is it because we are provoked to do so by crazy politicians?

And if we do not support war, we are scorned and seen as unpatriotic.

If peace is the very essence of our existence, and collective humanity, why is it so marginalized?

Lacking focus of consciousness in our minds? What are our roles as individuals, communities, societies and nations to make peace the focus of our consciousness?

There are millions around the world who suffer from lack of peace. How can we promote peace to alleviate the suffering of those from the lack of it? The very nature of peace creates a contradiction in the world we live in. It creates an appearance, but not a reality of the way peace ought to be perceived as the essence of our existence.

Peace is a paradox. The thought that peace is the essence of who we are turns into a complex topic with layers upon layers of opinions and thoughts making it difficult to comprehend. We all have our own thoughts and many people think the same when the topic of peace is discussed. Meaning, it's a good thing to strive for, but don't expect anything to come of it. So while it is positive and good on the one hand; on the other it is perceived as a noble cause with no hope in achieving it.

Well, I for one must and do believe peace will come if we commit ourselves to peace. And so must everyone in order to reclaim the reason for our existence. I will not allow myself or others to perceive me as naive. Peace is a choice. And for the sake of our existence, I choose peace.

January 30, 2012

caribbeannewsnow

Caribbean Blog International

By Jean H Charles:

 

 

I have often mentioned in this column that life is so wretched in Haiti for the majority of the population that the very fact of survival of this segment of the population is a case study worthy of a scientific sociological inquiry.

According to Leannec Hurbon (God in the Haitian Voodoo), Haitian society keeps reproducing the ubiquitous colonial model with 11% of the population controlling 50% of the national revenue. Indeed, in 1789, a decade before the Haitian revolution, the social structure was represented as such: 7% large plantation white owners, 13% small plantations owner represented by the mulattoes and 80% black slaves condemned to perpetual servitude.

The picture today in 2012 in Haiti is not much different from the colonial era, with the peasants living in endemic and abject poverty comprising 87% of the population, the middle class 11% and the bourgeoisie at 2%. Through dictatorial, military and illiberal democratic regimes, it has been plus ca change plus c’est la meme chose: the more things change, the more they remain the same. 

It seems with the government of Michel Joseph Martelly, Haiti is turning the tide to reverse the slide.

This week on Monday, President Martelly introduced the program: Give me light, give me life -- or Bam lumiere, bam la vie. Shepherded by his Secretary of Energy Dr Rene Jean Jumeau, the project plans to provide electricity to 200,000 homes in two years, in particular to those in the rural areas that have never seen electricity before.

By contrast, EDH (Electricity of Haiti), which holds a monopoly in supplying electricity to the country, has only 200,000 paying customers after 40 years of existence.

On Tuesday, in a project Aba Grangou – Down with Hungriness -- Mrs Michel Martelly, deputized by her husband, has introduced a program that will eradicate famine in Haiti through healthy nutrition, school meals for one million children, revaluation of national produce, better warehousing and distribution of crops and, last but not least, a movement of solidarity of one for the other in the nation.

I met at the National Palace with the director of the project, Mr Klaus Eberwein, on the day of the inauguration of the program to inquire what will happen on Wednesday! 

He smiled and told me the president is heading to Davos to defend the cause of the Haitian people with the illustrious gathering of kings, princesses and celebrities. The event happens every year in the mountains of Switzerland, as a way of telling the downtrodden of the world that they are not forgotten.

He added with additional smile if you want a real scoop, next year President Martelly will introduce universal medical coverage for all Haitian people. 

Indeed the tide is turning.

Even when the government was not yet functional, the president had already proposed a project of schooling for all, through a tax from the international calls and the money transfers from the Diaspora. He is still getting bad rap from that segment of the population that has infused one billion dollars into the national economy with no apparent result to the nation as a whole.

Turning the tide to bring a nation from squalor to splendor is not an easy proposition.

Lesly Pean, one of the most analytical minds in the Haitian intelligentsia, in an article published on January 24, 2012, titled Social Capital and Investment, opened the eyes on the Chinese leap forward.

During the last 35 years, the Chinese government has succeeded in bringing from squalor to a relative splendor some 800 million people. This is a feat that has never been recorded anywhere and anytime, in the history of humanity. 

It is not a canvass that all the social problems have been resolved. Li Minqui in The Rise of the Middle Class and the Future of the Chinese Revolution has catalogued during the year 2011 some 180,000 demonstrations for better worker conditions, more freedom of movement and an equitable process of privatization. 

Concurrently, President Barack Obama, in the State of the Union address, placed emphasis on the same issue: “We can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair share. We can either settle for a nation where a small number of people do really well while a growing number of Americans barely get by.”

It was forty five years ago that President Lyndon Johnson, in collusion with Dr Martin Luther King, chose the road of hospitality for all in the United States. It is a work in progress, invigorated by the determination of President Obama to reclaim American values in redistributing the peace dividend by giving a fair share to each American, black or white.

The social initiatives launched by President Martelly can be seen in the same light, as a work in progress because the headline in the Nouvelliste, the oldest newspaper in the country, is: “A budget without a plan of development”.

Eddie Labossiere, the president of the Haitian Association of Economists, decided to cry foul concerning the national budget. “Nothing has changed; there is no transition towards rationality and growth. It is a 3 billion dollars budget without a global vision of development. It is a budget of salaries; it is not a budget leading to results.”

The key sectors such as agriculture and environment have received respectively only 6.4% and 1.4% of the national budget. The goal of the government to reach 7.8% is not sustainable according to Mr Labissiere. In addition the target of 1 billion dollars in tax revenue out of a budget of 3 billion dollars is too dependent on foreign support.

Are these notes of sour grapes from an economist who is not seated at the decision making table or genuine concern of a citizen who wishes Haiti well? 

Only time will tell!

President Martelly has already demonstrated tangible results in the last four months of his government, more than previous governments have realized in the last forty years of governance in Haiti.

- $16 million collected through the National Funds for Education to send all children in school age to school. Nine hundred thousand new students are already attending.

- Relocation of 3,500 people from sordid camps into sustainable homes.

- Fabrication of 3,400 homes soon to be delivered to former camp refugees from the earthquake.

- Facilitation of the construction of the industrial park in the northern part of Haiti leading to 60,000 new jobs.

- Initiation of the Aba Grangou project to eliminate malnutrition and famine in the country.

- Launching of the project Give Me Light and Give Me Life to electrify 200,000 homes in two years, mostly in the rural areas. 

President Martelly, in spite of large outcry by legislators from the old regime who keep distracting his government from turning the tide, is steadfastly moving the ship of the nation towards safe and pleasant water. He is not confined into the capitalism or the socialism box. The interest of the nation constitutes his only guiding post. 

May Michael (his name sake) the Archangel protect his front and his back so he shall continue as a vigilant captain, leading the nation into a spot where milk and honey will be the lot of everyone!

January 28, 2012

caribbeannewsnow

Caribbean Blog International

REFLECTIONS OF FIDEL

(Taken from CubaDebate)

 

 

 

CUBA was forced to fight for its existence facing an expansionist power, located a few miles from its coast, and which was proclaiming the annexation of our island, which was destined to fall into its lap like a ripe fruit. We were condemned not to exist as a nation.

Within the glorious legions of patriots who, during the second half of the 19th century, fought against the abhorrent colonial status imposed by Spain over 300 years, José Martí was the man who most clearly perceived such a dramatic destiny. He confirmed it in the last lines that he wrote, the night before the anticipated difficult combat against a battle-hardened and well equipped Spanish column, when he declared that the fundamental objective of his struggle was, “…to prevent the United States from spreading through the Antilles as Cuba gains its independence, and from overpowering with that additional strength our lands of America. Everything that I have done up until now, and everything that I will do, is to this end.”

Without understanding this profound truth one cannot today be either a patriot or a revolutionary.

Without any doubt, the mass media, the monopoly of many technical resources and the substantial funds directed at dehumanizing the masses constitute considerable but not invincible obstacles.

Cuba demonstrated – starting from its position as a colonial yankee trading post, together with the illiteracy and generalized poverty of its people – that it was possible to confront the country which was threatening the definitive absorption of the Cuban nation. Nobody can even affirm that there was a national bourgeoisie opposed to the empire; the bourgeoisie developed in such close proximity to it that, shortly after the triumph, it sent 14,000 totally unprotected children to the United States, although that act was associated with the perfidious lie that parental custody was to be suppressed. This is what history recorded as Operation Peter Pan, described as the largest maneuver of child manipulation for political ends recalled in the Western Hemisphere.

National territory was invaded, barely two years after the revolutionary triumph, by mercenary forces – comprising former Batista soldiers and the sons of landowners and the bourgeoisie – armed and escorted by the United States with warships from its naval fleet, including aircraft carriers with equipment ready to enter into action, and which accompanied the invaders to our island. The defeat and capture of virtually all the mercenaries in less than 72 hours and the destruction of their aircraft operating from bases in Nicaragua and their naval transportation, constituted a humiliating defeat for the empire and its Latin America allies, which had underestimated the Cuban people’s fighting capacity.

In the face of the termination of oil supplies on the part of the United States, the subsequent total suspension of the historic sugar quota in that country’s market, and the prohibition of trade established over more than 100 years, the USSR responded to each one of these measures by supplying fuel, buying our sugar, trading with our country and finally, supplying the weapons that Cuba could not acquire in other markets.

The idea of a systematic campaign of CIA-organized pirate attacks, sabotage and military actions by armed bands created and supplied by the United States before and after the mercenary attack, and which would culminate in a military invasion of Cuba by this country, gave rise to events which placed the world on the brink of a total nuclear war, which neither of the parties involved nor humanity itself could have survived.

Without any doubt, those events resulted in the removal from the presidency of Nikita Khrushchev, who underestimated his adversary, disregarded opinions presented to him and did not consult with those of us in the front line concerning his final decision. What could have been an important moral victory thus turned into a costly political setback for the USSR. For many years the worst of crimes against Cuba continued and more than a few of them, like the U.S. criminal blockade, are still being committed.

Khrushchev made exceptional gestures to our country. On that occasion, I unhesitatingly criticized the non-consulted agreement with the United States, but it would be ungrateful and unjust not to acknowledge his exceptional solidarity at difficult and decisive moments for our people in their historic battle for independence and revolution in the face of the powerful empire of the United States. I understand that the situation was extremely tense and he did not wish to lose any time when he made the decision to withdraw the missiles and the yankees, very secretly, agreed to give up the invasion.

Despite the decades gone by, already half a century, the Cuban fruit has not fallen into yankee hands.

News reports currently coming in from Spain, France, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Syria, the United Kingdom, the Malvinas and countless other points on the planet are serious, and all of them augur a political and economic disaster as a result of the stupidity of the United States and its allies.

I will confine myself to a few subjects. I must note that, going by what everyone is saying, that the selection of a Republican candidate to aspire to the presidency of this globalized and far-reaching empire is, in its turn – I am serious – the greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance that I have ever heard. As I have things to do, I cannot devote any time to the subject. I already knew it would be like that.

Some news agency cables better illustrate what I wish to analyze, because they demonstrate the incredible cynicism generated by the decadence of the West. One of them, with amazing tranquility, talks of a Cuban political prisoner who, it states, died after a hunger strike lasting 50 days. A journalist with Granma, Juventud Rebelde, radio news or any other revolutionary organ might be mistaken in any interpretation of any subject, but would never fabricate an item of news or invent a lie.

A Granma informative note affirms that there was no hunger strike; the man was an ordinary prisoner sentenced to four years for attacking and injuring his wife in the face; that his own mother in law asked authorities to intervene; family members were kept fully abreast of all procedures used in his medical treatment and were grateful for the effort made by medical specialists who treated him. He received medical attention, as the note states, in the best hospital in the eastern region, as is the case with all citizens. He died from secondary multi-organic failure related to a severe respiratory infection.

The patient had received all the medical attention administered in a country which has one of the finest medical services in the world, provided free of charge in spite of the blockade imposed on our homeland by imperialism. It is simply a duty that is fulfilled in a country where the Revolution is proud of always having respected, for more than 50 years, the principles which give it its invincible strength.

It would be more worthwhile for the Spanish government, given its excellent relations with Washington, to travel to the United States and inform itself as to what is taking place in yankee jails, the ruthless conduct meted out to millions of prisoners, the policy of the electric chair and the horrors perpetrated on detainees in the country’s jails and those who are protesting in its streets.

Yesterday, January 23, a strong Granma editorial titled “Cuba’s truths,” which occupied an entire page of the newspaper, explained in detail the unprecedented shame of the campaign of lies unleashed against our Revolution by certain governments “traditionally committed to anti-Cuba subversion.”

Our people are well aware of the norms which have governed the impeccable conduct of our Revolution since the first battle and which has never been stained over more than half a century. They also know that it can never be pressured or coerced by enemies. Our laws and norms will be respected unfailingly.

It is worth noting this with clarity and frankness. The Spanish government and the shaky European Union, plunged into a profound economic crisis, must know what should guide them. It is pitiful to read news agency reports of the statements of both utilizing their barefaced lies to attack Cuba. First concern yourselves with saving the euro if you can, resolve the chronic unemployment from which young people are increasingly suffering, and respond to theindignados, constantly attacked and beaten by the police.

We are not ignorant of the fact that Spain is now being governed by admirers of Franco, who dispatched members of the Blue Division, together with the Nazi SS and SA, to kill Soviets. Close to 50,000 of them participated in the cruel aggression. In the most cruel and painful operation of that war: the siege of Leningrad, where one million Russian citizens died, the Blue Division was among the forces attempting to strangle the heroic city. The Russian people will never pardon that horrific crime.

The fascist right of Aznar, Rajoy and other servants of the empire, must know something about the 16,000 casualties of their predecessors in the Blue Division and the Iron Crosses which Hitler awarded to officers and soldiers from that division. There is nothing unusual about what the Gestapo police are doing now to the men and women demanding the right to work and bread in the country with the highest unemployment in Europe.

Why are the mass media of the empire lying so barefacedly?

Those who manipulate the media are striving to deceive and dehumanize the world with their crude lies, possibly thinking that it constitutes the principal resource for maintaining the global system of domination and plunder imposed, particularly upon victims in close proximity to the headquarters of the metropolis, the close to 600 million Latin American and Caribbean people living in this hemisphere.

The sister republic of Venezuela has become the fundamental objective of this policy. The reason is obvious. Without Venezuela, the empire would have imposed its Free Trade Treaty on all the peoples of the continent who inhabit it from the south of the United States, a region where the greatest reserves of land, fresh water and minerals of the planet are to be found, as well as large energy resources which, administered in a spirit of solidarity toward other peoples of the world, constitute resources which cannot and must not fall into the hands of transnationals imposing a suicidal and infamous system on them.

For example, it is enough to look at the map to comprehend the criminal dispossession signified by stripping Argentina of a little piece of its territory in the extreme south of the continent. There, the British deployed their decadent military apparatus to murder rookie Argentine recruits wearing summer clothing in the middle of winter. The United States, and its ally Augusto Pinochet, shamelessly supported them. Now, just before the London Olympics, its Prime Minister David Cameron is also proclaiming, as did Margaret Thatcher, his right to use nuclear submarines to kill Argentines. The government of this country is unaware of the fact that the world is changing, and the scorn of our hemisphere and that of the majority of the peoples for the oppressors is increasing every day.

The case of the Malvinas is not the only one. Does anyone know how the conflict in Afghanistan is going to end? Just a few days ago U.S. soldiers desecrated the corpses of Afghani combatants, killed by NATO drone bombings.

Three days ago a European agency reported, “Afghani President Hamid Karzai has given his backing to a negotiated peace with the Taliban, emphasizing that this issue must be resolved by the citizens of his country.” It went on to add, “…the process of peace and reconciliation belongs to the Afghani nation and no country or foreign organization can take away this right from the Afghanis.

For its part, a cable published by our press communicated from Paris, “France today suspended all its training and aid operations in Afghanistan and threatened to expedite the withdrawal of its troops, after an Afghani soldier shot four French soldiers in the Taghab valley, in Kapisa province… Sarkozy instructed Defense Minister Gérard Longuet to travel immediately to Kabul, and indicated the possibility of an early withdrawal of the contingent.”

After the disappearance of the USSR and the socialist bloc, the U.S. government imagined that Cuba would be unable to sustain itself. George W. Bush had already prepared a counterrevolutionary government to govern our country. On the very same day that Bush initiated his criminal war on Iraq, I asked our country’s authorities to end the tolerance afforded the counterrevolutionary capos who, in those days, were hysterically demanding the invasion of Cuba. In real terms, their attitude constituted an act of treason against the homeland.

Bush and his stupidities prevailed for eight years and the Cuban Revolution has already lasted for more than half a century. The ripe fruit has not fallen into the empire’s lap. Cuba will not be one more possession with which the empire spreads through the lands of America. Martí’s blood will not have been spilled in vain.

Tomorrow I will publish another Reflection to complement this one.

 

Fidel Castro Ruz

January 24, 2012

7:12 p.m.

Translated by Granma International

Granma.cu

Caribbean Blog International

granma.cu EDITORIAL:

 

 

 

OVER the last few days, the media and representatives of certain governments traditionally committed to anti-Cuba subversion have unleashed a new campaign of accusations, unscrupulously taking advantage of a lamentable event: the death of an ordinary prisoner, which possibly only in the case of Cuba, is converted into news of international repercussion.

The method utilized is the same one as always: fruitlessly attempting, through repetition, to demonize Cuba, in this case through the deliberate manipulation of an incident which is absolutely exceptional in this country.

This so-called political prisoner was serving a four-year sentence after a fair legal process during which he was at liberty and a trial in accordance with the law, for a brutal physical attack on his wife in public and violent resistance to arrest by police agents.

This man died from multi-organ failure due to an acute respiratory infection, despite having received appropriate medical attention, including specialized medication and treatment in the intensive care room of Santiago de Cuba’s principal hospital.

Why did Spanish authorities and certain members of the European Union hasten to condemn Cuba without any investigation into the incident? Why do they always utilize pre-fabricated lies in the context of Cuba? Why, in addition to lying, do they censor the truth? Why is the voice and truth about Cuba openly denied the smallest space in the international media?

They are acting both cynically and hypocritically. How would they describe the recent manifestations of police brutality in Spain and a large part of "educated and civilized" Europe against the indignadosmovement?

Why is there no concern over the dramatic situation of overcrowding in Spanish jails with a high immigrant population – in excess of 35% of total prisoners in the country – according to the most recent report by the ACAIP prison union, dated April 3, 2010?

Who has made any effort to investigate the death in July of 2011 in the Spanish penitentiary of Teruel, of Tohuami Hamdaoui, an ordinary prisoner of Moroccan origin after a hunger strike of several months? Who has reflected the fact that he has insisted he is innocent?

Has the Chilean spokesperson slandering us by asserting that the dead man was a political dissident on his 50th day of hunger strike lost his memory and sense of reality? He must remember his days as a student leader linked to Pinochet’s troops, who massacred Chileans and instituted disappearances and torture throughout the Southern Cone via Plan Condor, while there have been no statements about the harsh repression of students peacefully demonstrating in defense of the human right to universal and free education. Is he one of those who supported re-labeling the Pinochet dictatorship a military regime in school textbooks? Has he made any statement about the repressive and arbitrary Anti-Terrorist Law implemented against Mapuche prisoners on hunger strike?

The United States government, the principal instigator of any effort to discredit Cuba in order to justify its policy of hostility, subversion and the economic, political and media blockade of Cuba, could not be missing from this campaign.

The hypocrisy of spokespersons for the United States, a country with a poor human rights record at home and abroad, is staggering. The UN Human Rights Council has acknowledged frequent serious violations in this country of women’s rights, in the treatment of persons, racial and ethnic discrimination, inhuman conditions in prisons, neglect of inmates, a differentiated racial standard and frequent judicial errors in imposing capital punishment, and the execution of minors and the mentally ill. This is compounded by abuses of the migratory detention system, deaths along the militarized southern border, atrocious acts against human dignity and the killing of innocent civilians by U.S. army troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and other countries, not to mention arbitrary detentions and acts of torture perpetrated in the illegally occupied Guantánamo Naval Base.

It is barely known that three people died in the United States last November 2011 during a mass hunger strike of prisoners in California. According to testimonies from prisoners in adjoining cells, prison guards offered no assistance whatsoever and ignored their cries for help, as opposed to the abusive practice of force feeding hunger strikers.

A few weeks previously, African American Troy Davis was executed despite a large body of evidence demonstrating legal errors in his case. The White House and the Department of State did nothing about this case.

A total of 90 prisoners have been executed since January 2010 to date in the United States, while a further 3,220 remain on death row. The government frequently brutally represses those who dare to expose injustices within the system.

This new attack on Cuba is clearly politically motivated and has nothing to do with legitimate concerns for the lives of Cuban men and women. It is fuelled by the complicity of the financial-media corporations such as the Prisa Group and the corporation running CNN en Español, in the finest style of the Miami Mafia. It is irrationally accusing the Cuban government without having made any investigation into the facts. Condemnation and judgment are made a priori.

It is apparent from the immediate and crude response of authorities and the apparatus in the service of media aggression against Cuba that they did not even take the trouble to confirm the information. The truth is unimportant if the intention is to fabricate and sell a false image of alleged flagrant and systematic violations of civil liberties in Cuba which could one day justify an intervention in order to "protect defenseless Cuban civilians."

The attempt to impose a distorted image of Cuba meant to indicate a notable deterioration in human rights, to construct an allegedly victimized opposition dying in prison, where health services are denied, is evident.

The humanist vocation of Cuban doctors and health personnel, who spare no effort or the country’s scant resources – to a large extent the result of the criminal 50-year blockade imposed on the Cuban people – to save lives and improve the health standards of their own people and in many other nations is well known.

Cuba is respected and admired by many peoples and governments who recognize its social undertakings at home and abroad.

Deeds speak louder than words. Anti-Cuban campaigns will not inflict any damage on the Cuban Revolution or the people, who will continue improving their socialism.

The truth of Cuba is that of a country in which human beings are most valued: a life expectancy rate at birth of 77.9 years; free health coverage for the entire population; an infant mortality rate of 4.9 per 1,000 live births, a figure exceeding that of the United States and the lowest on the continent along with Canada; a literate population with full and free access to all levels of education; 96% participation in the 2008 general elections; and a democratic process of discussion of the new economic and social guidelines prior to the 6th Congress of the Communist Party.

The truth of Cuba is that of a country which has taken its universities and schools to penitentiaries holding inmates who had fair and impartial trials, who receive the same wages for work undertaken, and enjoy high levels of medical attention without any distinction in terms of ethnicity, gender, creed or social origin.

It will be demonstrated yet again that lies, however much they are repeated, do not necessarily become truths, because, as José Martí stated, "A just principle, from the depths of a cave, can do more than an army."

Translated by Granma International

January 23, 2012

granma.cu

Caribbean Blog International

 

By Hania Sholkamy:

 

The Egyptian elections delivered a parliament that has one of the lowest rates of female representation in the world. Yet this is the parliament that expresses the political will of the people of Egypt. It may also be one that ignores the social realities of gender and of women’s political participation, says Hania Sholkamy

 

 

The mostly free and somewhat fair elections held in Egypt over the past two months have given the Freedom and Justice Party of the Muslim Brotherhood an overwhelming majority in parliament (approximately 40 %). The runners up are the Salafis who did very well at the ballot box and hold up to twenty percent of seats. Trailing behind, but with heads held high are the liberals, the revolutionaries  and a number of highly respected individuals who profess a secular creed. Almost all of these newly minted representatives of the people are men. In this protracted battle of multiple voting days, legal challenges, re-runs and complicated allocations of seats across proportionate party lists and individual seats only 8 of the 480 + seats went to women. (There are still ten seats to be allocated by presidential fiat )

But if we bracket yet unallocated seats the final result would give women less than 2% of parliamentary seats and make their representation in Egypt one of the lowest in the world. According to the UN the world average for women’s parliamentary representation is 19%. Even more revealing is the average for the Arab World, which stands at 13%. So what explains this dismal outcome of an election for which Egyptians have waited for decades?  No other Arab country has failed to deliver a modicum of gender balance to its elected institutions to the same extent. Morocco for example has just had an election in which 16.7 % of successful candidates are women and in which the overwhelming majority of seats went to the Islamic opposition.

What truly provides food for thought is the complacency with which these election results have been received. Few politicians, officials or commentators have voiced any concerns or found these outcomes remarkable, despite the importance placed on these elections as one of the first real gains and achievements of the revolution.

For example Dr. Manal Abu el Hassan (FJP member and spokesperson for women’s affairs) sees no problem in the low number of successful female candidates from her own party, She indicated that the new parliament, even if made up of only men, will do the right thing and deliver social justice in line with the Party’s programme so there is no need to be concerned by the absence of women. Indeed she further confirmed this trust in her male colleagues in a television interview on the 14 January 2012 when she condemned the women’s protests against the brutality of attacks by the military police against the very brave young women who were challenging the armed forces across a barricade in downtown Cairo. She said that women should not march in the streets to protest and protect their honour, since "it is incumbent on their ‘fathers, brothers and husbands to march and protest on their behalf!” So as far as her party is concerned the concept of welaya or guardianship is a robust one that negates the need for gendered representation. It makes one wonder if the FJP would have bothered to put any women on their lists if they had not been forced to do so by the new constitutional declaration, which imposed a quota for women on party lists, mandating that each list has one woman but without specifying the position of the woman on the list (the higher up the more likely a candidate will win a seat). Unlike the quotas for workers and peasants, where the candidates are given slots on the lists that give them a fair chance of success, women candidates’ placement suggests their inclusion is merely a gesture and their chances of success minimal.

It also explains why one of the Salafi parties in one constituency placed the picture of a candidate’s husband on their posters instead of the fully face veiled candidate herself.

One of the FJP’s successful female candidates speaking at a meeting  recently said “One woman is enough in Parliament!” She meant that a freely elected woman was better than tens appointed or foisted onto the people via quotas or corruption. The point is well taken, and does express mass resentment at the imposition of female quotas that were introduced in the discredited elections of 2010. When the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) cancelled these quotas for women people were happy that a wrong had been put to right. The result was that all parties, with very few exceptions, kept their women where they thought they belong; well below the men, thus guaranteeing unequal opportunities for women!

On the other hand the youth of the revolution, the radicals and the left also see no problem with this outcome as they reject the whole narrative of gender equality as a figment of a Western imagination. The denigration of legal reforms that have benefited women in the past decade, and have guaranteed their free mobility, right to unilateral divorce, and political representation through a quota system, are collectively known as Suzanne’s laws in reference to Mrs Mubarak and as such rejected and even deplored. These formal indicators are meaningless since policies matter, but individuals do not. 

Young activists and socialist parties are not sympathetic to gender as a political category, or as basis for rights and entitlements. The hundreds of frontline fighters in their midst who also happen to be women have attained their credentials as political leaders and foot soldiers without having to make claims based on their gender. They are keen to distance themselves from the language of gender equality and the recipes and prescriptions of old political and developmental paradigms. Interestingly, the world famous bloggers of the revolution are mostly women – like Israa Abdel Fatah, Nawara Negm and Asmaa Abdel Rahman. The most striking images from the new confrontations between people and the state portray women, and the marches and protests that forced the military to back-down and apologize were by women. Moreover the elections were decided by the overwhelming participation of women, millions of whom were mobilized onto the streets and towards the ballot box.

Elections aside, there are growing fears and worries about the future of pluralism in Egypt, and many of these fears focus on questions of women’s rights and liberties. A petition organised by independent women on facebook is currently going around demanding the prosecution of one of the potential presidential candidates who has made statements about women that are in contravention of our constitution - or rather what is left of it. Hazem Salah Abu Ismail has asked for the expulsion of non-veiled women from Islam- thus making them apostates, which is a crime. He has also said that women’s work leads to crime as a woman’s place is within the home. The press has reported recently that other Salafi groups have started a morality police that allegedly pays young men five hundred Egyptian pounds a month to impose morality on the public, including forcing un-veiled or rather improperly veiled women off the streets . Happily these attempts were foiled thanks to media and public outrage. One group of women even attacked this morality police in Sharqiyah. These zealots are a minority and may not be the worst enemies of women.

At stake, and in a serious fashion, are the possible changes to be made to the constitution that will limit women’s rights as individuals – the rights to public office, to guardianship of children, to all work, to some forms of mobility - and impose a state of dependency whereby women are considered parts of families and are therefore the responsibility of patriarchs. It is as yet not clear what the agenda of the religious majority is vis-à-vis legal reforms that pertain to women and families. One stated reform is the changes in custody law which will once again give custody to fathers in the case of divorce of children from the age of 8 years. The law now lets mothers retain custody for boys till the age of 15 years, and for girls until they marry or choose to live with the father. Yet despite the astounding importance of women as political leaders, activists, communicators, voters and as the focus of anticipated political, constitutional and social changes, they remain absent from parliament - although present, vocal and important outside it.

Egypt would be better off if it could continue to shed the oppressions of the past, including the hegemony of state sponsored spokespersons for women’s rights. The attempts to whitewash the failure of equitable social policies by imposing gender justice as a fig leaf not only failed, but created public antipathy towards women’s rights to social justice. But these sceptres from the past need not haunt the present and future of Egypt, and must definitely not provide an excuse for our current state of denial in which women are actually at the heart of the political process, but are formally hidden behind all -male structures and institutions. Shame on the religious, secular and all other parties for their complicity in this affair!

24 January 2012

opendemocracy.net

Caribbean Blog International

 

PARIS, January 24 (RIA Novosti):

 

 

France’s upper house of parliament, the Senate, passed a bill late on Monday making the denial of genocide a crime punishable by a 45,000-euro fine and a year in jail.

The bill that sets the country on a collision course with Turkey was approved 127 to 86 after a seven-hour discussion. It is yet be ratified by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The bill, initially criminalizing the denial of the Armenian genocide in the early 20th century, had been amended to outlaw the denial of any officially recognized genocide, partly in the hope of appeasing Ankara. So far, French laws classify only two mass killings as “genocide” - the Holocaust (the 1990 law) and the deaths of more than 1 million Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1917, recognized by France as genocide in 2001.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edvard Nalbandyan welcomed the move as an important contribution “to the record of worldwide human rights protection” and a worthy addition to the existing mechanism of preventing crimes against humanity.

Ankara, in its turn, threatened “grave consequences,” including diplomatic and economic sanctions.

“Turkey’s response to the adoption of the bill had long been decided. These measures will stay in place as long as the law stays in force,” Hurriyet Daily News quoted Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu as saying shortly before the bill was voted on.

Omer Celik, deputy leader of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), threatened “permanent sanctions” if the bill is approved.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday he would abstain from visiting France in future, accusing French President Nicholas Sarkozy of attempts to distort history for gaining political capital. Turkey has earlier suggested that the law is an attempt to play up to France’s 500,000 ethnic Armenians and secure their votes in the upcoming presidential election.

The Turkish genocide in Armenia was first recognized by Uruguay in 1965 and many countries, including Russia have since followed suit. Although it has been recognized by 42 U.S. states, the U.S. government has yet to pass a bill on the issue.

Ankara dismisses the genocide allegations, saying that many Muslim Turks and Kurds were also put to death as Russian troops invaded, often aided by Armenian militias.

Turkey and Armenia have had no diplomatic relations since the latter became independent following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. Turkey closed its border with Armenia in a show of support for Azerbaijan following a bloody conflict over Nagorny Karabakh, in which some 35,000 died on both sides.

03:14 24/01/2012

rian.ru

Caribbean Blog International

 

LONDON, England (AP) — Interpol's chief sounded an alarm Thursday that countries are still failing to check identity documents against its database — a warning that comes just months ahead of the 2012 Olympics.

Ron Noble, secretary-general of the international police agency based in France, said out of the 1.1 billion travellers last year, ID documents of some 500 million people were not checked against Interpol's database, which is one of the world's most detailed.

"It will take a tragedy — a specific kind of tragedy — for behaviour to change," Noble told The Associated Press after speaking to foreign correspondents in London.

Noble has said Britain is the only EU country to systematically check passports against those registered with Interpol as missing worldwide. Britain carried out 140 million checks last year against the database — more than the rest of Europe combined.

Last year, he said more than 11,000 people were caught trying to enter the UK using lost or stolen passports.

France carried out the second-highest number of checks at 10 million.

"The only problem the UK appears to have is the number of people at immigration posts," Noble said. He was not voicing concerns over the Olympics.

A special Interpol team will be sent specifically for the Olympics, helping British authorities determine whether anyone trying to enter the UK is wanted, whether their documents have been listed as lost or stolen and whether they are considered a threat.

"We know terrorists use fraudulent ID documents," Noble said.

The UK Border Agency faced intense criticism last year after passport checks were relaxed during the height of the summer tourist season to lessen lines at London's Heathrow Airport, Europe's busiest. A government report on Thursday blamed poor communications, a lack of supervision and other shortcomings for the problems.

Olympics security has been a primary concern since 1972, when 11 Israeli athletes and coaches were killed at the Munich Games.

Noble said while there was no specific intelligence that the games would be targeted, such events provide an array of opportunities for criminals, including pickpocketing, forced prostitution, illegal Internet betting rings and hoaxes.

And then there is still the threat of terrorism. Noble said while al-Qaida's ranks had been depleted, affiliates were actively recruiting in places like Somalia.

Another fear that Noble said "keeps him up at night" is the threat of a nuclear or biological attack. Interpol has been alerted to some 2,715 instances where there were questions of whether there had been illicit trafficking of nuclear material.

Noble stressed, however, that didn't mean there were more 2,000 cases of trafficked nuclear material.

While most of the cases involved non-nuclear radioactive material cases — 2,535 — there were 200 cases involving nuclear material. Only four cases involved the attempted sale of highly enriched uranium, Noble said.

The United States, he said, had the most cases in the database — mostly because of its reporting through the US Nuclear Regulatory Council. After that, Eastern Europe has had the most and some of the most significant cases of concern in terms of criminality, Noble said.

As for whether terror groups were becoming more capable of unleashing biological attacks, Noble pointed to advances in both technology and biotechnology. He said the risk was increasing — partially because technology can be misused — but that did not mean there was an increased likelihood of a bio-terrorist attack.

"It's so easy to think about how an attack can be carried out because the screening of passengers doesn't focus on that at all," Noble said. "That's why it's important to identify people who are engaged in conduct that is suspicious or illegal."

Noble is American and a former head of the US Secret Service. Interpol is based in Lyon, France.

January 21, 2012

jamaicaobserver

Caribbean Blog International

 

By Din Duggan:

"If it falls to our luck to be street sweepers, sweep the streets, like Raphael painted pictures, like Michelangelo carved marble, like Shakespeare wrote poetry, and like Beethoven composed music. Sweep the streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth would have to pause and say: 'Here lived a great street sweeper.'"

- Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr, June 20, 1965, Kingston, Jamaica

 

Jamaicans often quip that no matter what we do, we tend to do it better than anyone else. Just take a look at Usain Bolt and Veronica Campbell-Brown tearing up tracks across the world, or the countless melodies of artistes from Shaggy to Sean Paul imprinted on the minds of people everywhere, and the veracity of that statement becomes readily apparent.

The rolls and registers of medical schools and law schools in colleges and universities across America and the UK reflect a disproportionately large number of students of Jamaican heritage.

It's no surprise that of the mere handful of black billionaires in the history of the world, one - Michael Lee-Chin - is a Jamaican, or that a Jamaican - Gordon 'Butch' Stewart - revolutionised the resort hotel experience.

But we've taken Dr King's directive to more perverse levels, extending our prowess beyond business and entertainment to more nefarious activities. Christopher 'Dudus' Coke was among the world's most notorious drug lords. David Smith directed one of the largest Ponzi schemes on earth. And 'Capone', from Third World Cop, was quite possibly the coldest crime fighter ever.

Visiting Trinidad

On January 12, Caribbean Airlines flight BW459 touched down in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. On-board were scores of passengers, mostly Jamaicans. After disembarking then clearing steely-faced immigration officers, weary travellers confronted the same choice that countless airline passengers face each day: take the green channel (no goods to declare) or the red channel (goods to declare).

I was among the passengers on this flight, and having decided against bringing down a crocus bag filled with bun and cheese, patties, and Julie mangoes to higgle on the streets of Port-of-Spain, I chose to proceed to the green channel with my one carry-on bag.

The customs officer, of course, decided that I represented a potential threat to the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and thus sent me to the X-ray scanners and search tables for additional security screening.

Having grown accustomed to 'random' security screenings and understanding that these inconveniences are simply part of travel, I was completely unfazed. That is, until I realised that behind me, every single Jamaican was being subjected to the same treatment. I was appalled.

I thought: How could these people, with their skyrocketing crime rate, deep social discord between Indo-Trinidadians and Afro-Trinidadians, corrupt politics, and more corrupt business industry, have the nerve to act as though it was some grand luxury for me and my compatriots to visit their drab country?

If a flight was immediately returning to Kingston, and if I didn't have business to attend to, I might have turned around and left that place, right then and there.

Eliminating Prejudice

Prejudice can be defined as 'unreasonable feelings, opinions, or attitudes, especially of a hostile nature, regarding a racial, religious, or national group'. In Port-of-Spain, a single, misguided customs officer placed me in a line that evolved from the unreasonable impression that Jamaicans are all like Dudus or Vybz Kartel. In my ire - and despite my many friendships with Trinis - I was willing to dismiss Trinidad as a country not worth knowing. I'm glad I didn't.

I met some of the warmest, most gracious people in Trinidad. My hosts were amazingly generous and welcoming. In eating shark and bake and 'doubles' on the Savannah, drinking rum downtown at Jenny's, and watching steel bands at Phase 2, it grew clear that the ties that bind us as West Indians far outweigh the rifts that divide us - we must reinforce these bonds through freer markets and more equitable trade arrangements.

Of course, Jamaicans will continue facing prejudice at airports in Trinidad and elsewhere. But I believe in a 'Jamaican exceptionalism': an ability to dominate any activity we conscientiously attempt. It is up to our policymakers to generate responsible strategies to direct this enormous Jamaican talent towards areas such as science and technology, arts and entertainment, and business and industry. It is through distinction in these areas - rather than crassness and criminality - that we will change common misperceptions and unleash on the world the true spirit of Jamaica.

Din Duggan is an attorney working as a consultant with a global legal search firm. Email him at columns@gleanerjm.com or dinduggan@gmail.com, or view his past columns at facebook.com/dinduggan and twitter.com/YoungDuggan

January 18, 2012

jamaica-gleaner

Caribbean Blog International

 

Strike that stirred the nation

 

From tribune242

Nassau - NP - The Bahamas:

 

LAST Friday marked the 54th anniversary of the 1958 general strike, one of the seminal events of the modern Bahamas. On January 13 of that year, hundreds of public and private sector workers walked off their jobs, shutting down New Providence for almost three weeks and forcing some much-needed social and political change.

The key labour leaders of the time are no longer with us, but both have left behind a rich legacy in the form of their personal memoirs. Those leaders were Sir Clifford Darling, who died last month at the age of 89, and Sir Randol Fawkes, who died in 2000 at the age of 76.

Sir Randol's 1977 book, The Faith that Moved the Mountain, gives his personal (and what historian Michael Craton described as "somewhat self-serving") perspective as a leader of the Bahamas Federation of Labour, the umbrella union which called the strike. A memorial edition is available online at http://sirrandolfawkes.com.

Sir Clifford's 2002 book, A Bahamian Life Story, provides much of the background necessary to form an appreciation of this unique event. In addition to his personal perspective as leader of the Taxi Cab Union, which instigated the strike, his account includes secret communiques written by the colonial authorities, as well as contemporary newspaper reports.

The story begins in 1955 when Sir Randol, a young lawyer, returned from a brief self-imposed exile in New York to become a union organizer, eventually establishing the Bahamas Federation of Labour. He was elected to the House of Assembly the following year - along with another young lawyer named Lynden Pindling - as one of the first six PLP parliamentarians.

The PLP had been formed only three years earlier and it was the first party to win parliamentary seats, which led to large demonstrations of support when the legislature opened following the election. According to a contemporary article in the London Daily Mail, the 1956 election marked "the first time the coloured people (of the Bahamas) have ever started putting up a fight for their rights."

In an interview shortly before his death, Sir Randol said the Bahamian progressive movement was fully united in the mid-50s. "(Pindling) took care of the political arm and I took care of the labour arm - bread and butter economics. So LO became leader of the PLP and I became leader of the labour movement."

By 1958, the classic battle lines were drawn between an unyielding authoritarian regime controlled by a monopolistic business elite (who happened to be white), and a majority of deprived citizens who yearned for democracy and social change (who happened to be black).

Fifty years ago, the Bahamas had just begun its development as a tourist playground and offshore financial centre. In fact, only a few years before, the colony had been on the verge of bankruptcy with little prospect of economic advancement.

But air travel was making a big difference, and the government began spending heavily on tourist promotion. In 1957, a new international airport opened at the wartime Windsor Field air base, and about 194,000 tourists arrived, many staying at the dozen or so hotels that had sprung up in lil' ole Nassau.

Airlift was pretty good back then. BOAC flew in from Jamaica, Bermuda, New York, Miami and Havana. Pan Am linked Nassau with New York and Miami, while Mackey Airlines serviced other Florida cities and Air Canada's predecessor ran flights from Montreal, Toronto, Tampa and Jamaica.

A bevy of tour companies had set up shop to service the visitors these airlines brought in. They included Philip Brown Tours, Howard Johnson Tours, Playtours, Nassau Tours, Bahama Holidays and Dan Knowles Tours. And the country's proto Ministry of Tourism - known as the Development Board - realised it was sitting on a gold mine.

But things were not as calm as they seemed on the surface. The British governor at the time described the ruling elite (which later constituted itself as the United Bahamian Party) as "recalcitrant, stubborn and politically obtuse...not very numerous, but extremely powerful in the material sense and pretty unscrupulous."

They maintained their control over the electorate by bribery, intimidation and restriction of the franchise. Women could not vote, but property owners - many of whom were white - certainly could. As another London newspaper account quoted in Sir Clifford's book put it: "The American-tourist dominated Bahamian islands represent the most Gilbertian picture in the empire...The trouble is the absence of any genuine democracy...As a consequence, the majority of members are elected by the business community, which uses its political power for its own commercial ends."

The PLP often presented the view that the Development Board was little more than a slush fund set up for the personal advantage of those big businessmen who were its members - under the able leadership of a white lawyer/politico named Stafford Sands. And it was this view that coloured the events which led to the general strike.

Black Bahamians had been operating taxis since the 1930s, picking up cruise passengers from Prince George Wharf and air passengers from Oakes Field. As tourism began to grow in the 1950s and new hotels came on stream, a conflict developed over how this business would be shared between the white-owned tour companies and the independent taxi drivers who had their own union.

The opening of Nassau's international airport in November 1957 was a significant event - but it was accompanied by an even more significant display of greed and political stupidity. A group of major hotels proposed to sign an exclusive agreement with a new taxi company set up by Bobby Symonette, the son of government leader Roland Symonette.

"It is a fact," wrote the acting governor at the time, "that the Meter Taxi-Cab firm is owned and directed by a family with considerable Bay Street interests and prominent in politics...This would have almost certainly ended in a monopoly excluding the taxi cab union entirely."

The 200 taxi drivers were understandably outraged. So on November 2 and 3 they blocked the airport with their cars, forcing airlines to cancel flights. The blockade was supported by airport workers who were part of the Bahamas Federation of Labour. But according to Sir Clifford, who directed the action as leader of the taxi union, "the blockade had nothing to do with politics or race. It was a share business deal." And, he added, "All of us were ready to go to jail if that's what it took."

After police failed to break the blockade, the authorities gave way and a two-month truce was declared to hammer out a long-term settlement. Over 30 drivers were prosecuted for assault and obstruction and given minor sentences by Magistrate Edward St George - an expatriate lawyer who later became the kingpin of Freeport.

Although agreement was eventually reached to share the airport business, the talks deadlocked over a single crucial point. The tour companies rejected a call-up system to transport surplus visitors, preferring to use taxis of their own choice. And then they tried to reopen points that had already been agreed. This set the stage for a new confrontation, and the taxi union called on other workers for support.

At an overflow meeting on Wulff Road on the evening of Sunday, January 12, 1958, Fawkes wrote that a motion was unanimously carried that the BFL "should call a general strike to aid the taxi union and to dramatize the fight of all Bahamians for greater dignity and self-respect on the jobsite through decent wages and better working conditions".

This time the politicians did get involved. Sir Randol records the dramatic start of the strike in his book: "At about 7am January 13, 1958, Brother Pindling and I entered the Emerald Beach Hotel; rested our hands on the right shoulder of Saul Campbell, chief shop steward of the Hotel Workers Union and whispered, 'NOW!' This password re-echoed throughout the length and breadth of New Providence as our comrades performed similar ceremonies in other hotels."

Hundreds of hotel and electricity workers, garbage collectors, construction workers, longshoremen, civil servants, airline and restaurant staff walked off their jobs to the slogan "not a sweat". Bay Street shops were boycotted, and within days the hotels closed and the city came to a standstill. The governor called for a warship and British troops arrived from Jamaica to reinforce the 300 policemen, whose loyalty could not be guaranteed.

"The power structure just did not see that the strike was something the people were ready for and did not have to be forced into," Sir Clifford wrote. "I believe that everyone, in every sector, had finally had enough and wanted things to change."

In Sir Randol's words, "We knew that we were witnessing the birth of a new Bahamian working together with other Bahamians for a new Bahamas."

And although Tribune publisher Sir Etienne Dupuch took a characteristically middle of the road approach, he was clear about the real cause: "The tragedy of it is that all this unnatural hatred has been produced by the greed and avarice of a few men in the community."

The strikers received moral support from the British Trades Union Congress, the American AFL-CIO and from Jamaican Chief Minister Norman Manley. Demands for a commission of inquiry were rejected by the authorities, but the strike was finally called off on January 30, following the governor's promise to set up a transport authority to resolve the dispute.

Despite the lack of an immediate clear-cut victory, the strikers had set the stage for a major shake-up of the colony's social, economic and political relations. According to Fawkes, their action marked "the beginning of the end of British colonialism...white supremacy and racial discrimination."

In Sir Clifford's words: "Little did I know on that Sunday morning in January 1958 that the stunning and unexpected aftermath of the general strike would pave the way for the turbulent decade of the sixties, ultimately leading to the freedom of majority rule for all Bahamians."

The aftermath he referred to included international pressure on the Bay Street regime to democratise the country. Within three months a senior British cabinet minister was in Nassau pushing for constitutional reforms, and that October, legislation was passed to set up a labour department and a process for industrial conciliation. The following year saw abolition of the company vote, extension of the franchise to all men over 21, and the creation of four new parliamentary seats (all of which were won by the PLP).

According to the government's annual report for 1958-59: "The transition from threatened violence and unrest to tranquility and prosperity marks a period which must be regarded as one of the most momentous in the colony's recent history. The effects of the general strike were far-reaching. The tourist industry received a severe set-back and financial loss was heavy.

"But these two years are outstanding not so much for the high level of prosperity as for the far-reaching constitutional and legislative changes which were brought about...which the general strike had shown to be vital to the progressive development of the colony."

By all accounts, public support for the strike was overwhelming. It is likely that in 1958 a great number of Bahamians would have been prepared to see the challenge through if tempers had flared. In fact, there were several arson attacks and bombings after the strike ended (including the Nassau Guardian plant and areas where British troops were housed), but no violence occurred during the strike itself, and no-one was hurt.

The aftermath also featured a split in the ranks of the progressive movement that foreshadowed things to come. As Fawkes put it: "Lurking in the wings were two strangely sinister and divisive forces: the UBP and the top brass of the PLP; the one, terribly afraid of the power I wielded as president of the Bahamas Federation of Labour; the other, envious of the free trade unions' national and international acclaim as the spark-plug of the quiet revolution."

The more radical and eccentric Fawkes left the PLP to form the Labour Party, while PLP-inclined unions broke away from Fawkes' BFL to form the Bahamas Trades Union Congress, which still exists today.

But the Labour Party had little impact until the historic general election of 1967, when Fawkes - as the party's only parliamentarian - joined with the white representative of Eleuthera, Alvin Braynen, to break a deadlock between the PLP and the UBP, which had each won 18 seats. Braynen became speaker of the House while Fawkes was named minister of labour in a new PLP government.

His taste of power was brief, however. After the 1968 election, which produced a landslide win for the PLP, Fawkes was dumped as a minister, but managed to retain his seat in parliament as a labour representative until the 1972 election. And ironically, it was Fawkes who moved the 1970 motion of no confidence in Prime Minister Pindling that precipitated a major split in the PLP and led to the formation of the Free National Movement.

Darling was elected on the PLP ticket in 1967 and joined the cabinet two years later, becoming labour minister in 1971. He remained a loyal PLP soldier until his retirement from politics in early 1992, when he was appointed governor-general. He retired from public life altogether three years later.

The events of the general strike unfolded before my time, but as a child in the 60s I can recall family members grumbling about the destruction of the country just as it began a climb towards prosperity. What stands out to me most from reading these accounts today is just how innocuous, conservative and legitimate the demands of the strikers were.

* What do you think? Send comments to larry@tribunemedia.net or visit www.bahamapundit.com .

tribune242

Caribbean Blog International