By Trevor Brown
With the international community’s attention being taken up by the recent revelation of Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, that the United States government through its National Security Agency (NSA), was ‘eaves dropping’ on her personal conversation, coupled with further allegations that Spain another ‘ friendly’ country, having 60,000,000(sixty million) conversations tapped in the space of 30 days and at least 35 other world leaders being subjected to similar monitoring by this security behemoth, a very important vote will be taken in the hallowed halls of United Nations(UN) on October 29, 2013.
The occasion will mark a resolution on ‘the necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed on Cuba’ by the government of the United States of America for over 50 years, which contains a summary of the principal damages caused by this policy on the country’s society and economy. Losses which up to April 2013 amounts to USD1.6 trillion considering the depreciation of United States dollar against the gold standard.
A blockade which according to Cuba’s deputy foreign minister Abelardo Moreno constitutes ‘the greatest violation of the human rights of an entire people’
Last year as was the case in the past 20 years, the overall majority of humanity on planet earth through their representatives, voted 188 in favor (3 against USA, Israel and Palau Islands) for the lifting of the blockade against our sister nation.
The voting which reflects an ever increasing international isolation of this anachronistic US policy of harassment towards Cuba, strengthens the position of heads of state and governments at an Ibero- American summit who called for, ‘ an end to the unilateral application of the economic and trade measures against other states that affect the free development of the international trade’. To the equally repugnant Helms- Burton law of 1966 ‘ whose extra territorial efforts affect the sovereignty of other states, the legitimate interests of organizations or persons under its jurisdiction in the freedom to trade and navigate’
embargo_caricature
This third-party extra-territorial diktat, has seen for example between January 2009- September 2013, the imposition of fines totaling USD2.446 billion by United States of America authorities on 30 US companies and other foreign entities for trading with Cuba.
Yet the United States of America champions the cause of free trade, especially through the World Trade Organization (WTO) and other institutions which they play a dominant role.
The hypocrisy of the United States position on both free trade and respect for the UN vote ,is made more palpable when in trying to rally support for the war against Iraq, former president George W Bush in addressing the same UN General Assembly said, “ We want the United Nations to be effective and respectful, we want the resolutions of the world’s most important multi national body to be enforced’ and further stated ‘ the UN will serve the purpose of its founding or will be irrelevant’
This two-face policy of successive US administrations is made even more egregious, in the promise of the current president Barack Obama, who promised a ‘new beginning’ in the relations between both sovereign states. 5 years later what do we have, a blockade that is firmly in place and in some respects even more restrictive, especially in the financial spheres.
Its interesting to note, that as early as 1960, after the Cuban revolutionaries ousted the US mafia and other imperialist interests, the US state department issued an official document( now declassified), indicating the need to impose economic sanctions on Cuba to cause ‘ hunger and desperation and the demise of the government’
This economic warfare which was roundly condemned by 47 heads of government, including our own Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller at the recently held 68th General Assembly of the United Nations in New York, is a flagrant breach of international conventions and is devoid of any legal foundation according to Item C of Article 11 of the Geneva Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of December 1948, it is considered an act of Genocide and therefore a crime under international law.
The question we need to ask ourselves, why Cuba whose leader and former president Fidel Castro has outlived 10 US presidents, surviving over 600 attempts on his life, an invasion by US backed mercenaries at the Bay of Pigs in 1961? Why is the US against a country whose only crime is for its people to benefit from the fruits of their labour and not to fatten the pockets of some foreign oligarchs? Why Cuba, which is building a society and life that is free from the debilitating effects of illiteracy, unaffordable health care corrosive unemployment, crime, drug and other social ills which are endemic to our neoliberal market system?
In the words of its Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriquez when he appeared in Geneva this year, ‘Cuba is a country without persons who are helpless or deprived from their dignity, where there are no children lacking quality education, where there are no ill persons lacking a dedicated medical assistance or senior citizens devoid of social protection. Ours is nation where there are no workers, peasants, intellectuals or students whose rights are not protected by law. A place where public safety is guaranteed, where there is no organized crime or drugs. A united people with a profound social cohesion, a state where they have not been a single case of extra judicial killing, where there are no tortured or disappeared persons where there are no kidnappings or secret prisons’.
Cuba, where despite 50 years of the most savage and pernicious blockades in the history of mankind. made worse by the collapse of the socialist bloc, indeed a double blockade, its revolution has survived defying all the odds and have made tremendous advances in a number of cases greater than its main adversary.
What are some of these gains?
The infant mortality rate before the revolution was over 100 deaths per 1000 live births, today it is 4.6 per 1000 live births,which is one of the lowest in the world and well below the USA, which is 7.1
Life expectancy before the revolution was 57 years, today its 78 in comparison to the USA which is 78.1
The total number of doctors before revolution was 344; now Cuba has 1 doctor for every 137 inhabitants. When compared to the G8 countries it is overall the best ratio in the world. According to the World Health Organization( WHO) Cubas is ’ the most gifted nation in this sector’
The Illiteracy rate prior to the revolution 40.3%, today it is 0.2%
Grammar school level attendance before the revolution was 10% of the population, with a mere 34% graduating. Presently there is 100% attendance by this cohort with 99% graduating
Noteworthy is the fact also that any of these children can attain the highest level of academic training in any field of their choice ,up to the level of doctorate, without this costing their parents even one red cent.
In addition there are Integral Youth Retraining Colleges for youths between the ages of 17-29 who had no jobs but are studying in middle and higher education, for which they receive a stipend.
Cuba ranks second in the world for number of female parliamentarians, where they account for 41.9% of the total membership and head 33.3% of all government ministries. Also for the first time 2 women have been elected as vice presidents of the Council of State.
A country where there are no elderly people abandoned on the streets, no children living in streets or forced into child labour due to economic circumstances, no child without school or teachers in short no one is left to fend on their own
12 hours of blockade
Poster in Havana reads “12 hours of the blockade is the equivalent of all the insulin needed for the 64,000 patients in Cuba”.
Countenance this with most economically and militarily powerful country in the world USA, that accounts for a little less than half of the 1.75 trillion which the entire world spend the military, with a national debt of USD17 trillion( the majority owing to communist China), where 30 million people are without health care and whose president had to ‘ stiffen his back’ in order for political partisanship not to trump this fundamental right. Where 400 of its citizens combined wealth accounts for more than the GDP of Russia which is USD2.053 trillion, yet approximately 15% of its population or 45 million of its citizens, are living below the poverty line. This includes 16.1 million of its children and 3.9 million of its elderly over the age of 65, its most vulnerable citizens.
Where one citizen owns a $64 billion fortune ,which is the income of 150 million human beings in the poorer countries, while in New York city and other places in this bastion of democracy, derelict and homeless people are living under bridges, wrapped in newspaper, at the entrance to buildings and in slums in conditions of critical poverty.
The strength of Cuba’s achievements in doubly magnified by what is termed in Marxist lexicon as ‘ proletarian internationalism’ or in other words ,the help it gives to other poor and struggling third world countries without any ‘strings’ attached.
How can we forget their self- sacrificing efforts to beat back the racist apartheid South African regime which was backed by the USA,Britian and other powerful nations, by sending troops to the Angolan frontline to deliver a decisive blow to this ‘scourge of mankind’ which accelerated the demise of the regime, when the frontline states( Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe) appealed to the world community for help.
To quote late icon of Journalism John Maxwell “ Cuba has another side which is barely known, this poor third world state has since its revolutionary foundation, undertaken a massive programme of technical assistance and cooperation world wide’. At this moment students from more than 50 countries including Jamaica are being trained in Cuba to return home as doctors, engineers, nurses, agronomists, dentists, in sports etc. This year for example they graduated over 10,000 medical doctors, 50% of which were from other countries including 68 from Jamaica.
It is also safe to say, that our elevation to the number one position as the sprinting power house in the world, is in no small measure directly related to this technical assistance through the establishment of the G C Foster College of Physical Education, where most of our local coaches are trained and the training that our students benefit through the ongoing scholarship programme in our sister country.
Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriquez sums it up succinctly, ‘ our people despite all the scarcities and difficulties have selflessly shared and continues to share what it has with other nations thus making a fraternal contribution to the exercise of the human rights of other peoples of the world. Since 2004 tens of thousands have recovered their sight thanks to the ‘Miracle’ operation. Eye surgeries have been performed on 2.4 million persons from 34 Latin American, Caribbean and African countries. Since 2005 the international contingent of medical doctors specialized in disaster relief and serious endemics Henry Reeve has offered medical assistance to more than 3 million victims. Cuba’s cooperation with Haiti, a sister Caribbean nation that needs resources for reconstruction and development, continued. More than 12,000 Cuban cooperation workers have worked in that country. Since 2004 cooperation in literacy and post literacy have expanded through the implementation of the Cuban program ‘Yes I Can’ (UNESCO King Seoina Award) “I Can Read and Write”, and “I Can Go On” Until November 2012 a total of 6.9 million persons had graduated from the “Yes I Can” program and 976,000 had graduated from the “Yes I Can Go On”
Cuba is a ‘ thorn in the side’ of the United states of America because it represents in a real way that there is another way, another world is indeed possible, free from the ‘ democracy’ of the rich and powerful over the majority of their loyal subjects. Theirs is a revolutionary approach to human development, which genuinely ‘ puts people first’ and is part of the reason why successive US administrations, have placed restrictions especially of their nationals from having interaction with our Caribbean neighbour.
Alas this ‘ wall’ is being broken down inch by inch as evidenced by the record numbers of US citizens who have travelled to Cuba, even at great risk being penalized financially and using third countries such as Jamaica, to witness and experience for themselves first hand, the reality of this peoples republic.
Not to be left out are the commercial interests from the United States ,who see the market of over 11 million persons as prime target for their products and services, which are being stymied by an anachronistic policy of their government, which belongs to the dustbin of history.
Humankind is increasingly moving forward in the direction of an inclusive world, to the peaceful coexistence of states with different social and religious systems, a situation which lessens the need for tension and is a strong foundation on which we can tackle the building of a just society.
line-rouge
Trevor G. Brown a is social activist and commentator from Jamaica. He can be contacted at trevorgbrown@hotmail.com
