By Dr Tennyson Joseph
This is the 2nd occasion in about three years on which I have been invited to serve on a Panel organised by the Cuban Embassy to mark the occasion of Cuba-CARICOM day. On each occasion whilst the overwhelming which I feel is one of elation at the celebration of a deep and fraternal friendship, at the same time there is always a feeling of embarrassment that we in the Caribbean have not developed the consciousness which has allowed us to attach an equal level of meaning to dates and occasions of national significance as our Cuban counterparts have been able to do.
I remember feeling this deep embarrassment when as a young Attaché to the Prime Minister of St. Lucia Kenny Anthony, I was part of the St. Lucia delegation which visited Cuba as part of the celebrations to mark the 30th Anniversary of Cuba-CARICOM reIations, and I was struck as how important the moment was to Cuba and how deeply the government and people felt their appreciation to the CARCICOM countries for defying all odds and establishing diplomatic relations with their country.
I remain confident and optimistic however that our progressive growth and development is an ongoing and permanent never-ending project, and in this effort the historical lessons and examples of Cuba remain a shining beacon to us. I wish to thank therefore the Cuban Ambassador of Barbados for inviting me to be part of this important celebration. Despite the underlying embarrassment I am pleased to be here.
I am also pleased that the National Union of Public Workers has partnered with the Cuban embassy in this celebration by offering its headquarters as a venue for this important activity. In a context where in recent times the Caribbean labour movement has been showing signs of forgetting its historical and ideological roots, I see this partnership between the Cuban embassy as an important step in the right direction, and I wish to congratulate the leadership of the NUPW for signalling its intention to reclaim its spiritual source, in this era of unprecedented challenge and hostility to the regional labour movement. May your efforts grow from strength to strength, despite the determined hostility of your detractors.
Now today, we have three broad themes before us. The first is the CARICOM-Cuba historical background, which our distinguished statesman and retired diplomat Sir Shridath has been most qualified to address. The second is Barbados-Cuba relations, which His Excellency Bobby Morris, in his capacity as Barbados’ CARICOM ambassador is best placed on this panel to speak.
I will therefore wish to address very briefly, the third sub-theme of the Challenges and Opportunities in the new regional scenario.
Let me speak first on the challenges of the present scenario. In doing so I wish to offer a word of caution. There is a terrible danger in the celebration of the Cuba-CARICOM relationship as if it were a past event which has no direct bearing on the present. This is always the intellectual response of the opportunist who wishes to study history as an exercise in bourgeois intellectualism for its own sake, while simultaneously denying the full implication of these historical experiences for the present. Indeed, I take particular note of the tone and message of the final sentence in Sir Shridarth’s presentation, when he asked whether the heroic history which he just shared with us, of CARICOM’s role in establishing relations with Cuba, is only relevant as history.
I say this particularly in light of the ongoing process of the normalisation of relations between CUBA and the United States of America which is already leading to a situation in which all the historical Caribbean enemies of Cuba are now opportunistically presenting themselves as Cuba’s new friends after having spent several decades ignoring all the possibility of investment and mutually beneficial relations which were existent there in the country.
One of the things which has always struck me over the years has been the way in which Caribbean small businessmen have been able to tap into investment opportunities in areas such as pesticides, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, arts and cultural industries, while the larger sources of capital were content to stay on the side-lines in slavish conformity to the wishes of the regional hemispheric power. The Economic relations that have emerged in Cuba-CARICOM relations have always been carried by Caribbean small and medium sized business persons.
The challenge which I sense in the present is the possibility of these groups being brushed aside as the normalisation of US-Cuba relations opens up new spaces for those groups which had been ideologically hostile to Cuba. Hilary Beckles in the closing pages of his book on the Mutual Affair in Barbados has warned us that his “grasp of history has always shown that those who initiate a struggle are frequently brushed aside by those who came through the back door and appeal to the oppressors and are given assistance to rise to their positions”. It is those who ride on the struggles of earlier generations who usually reap the benefits.
The first challenge I see in the current environment is the possibility of the extension of all the historical prejudices of the Caribbean business class entering into the new relations with Cuba, rather than the other way around, with the new relations with Cuba deepening the opportunities for the historically marginalised sections of the Caribbean business class. I therefore wish to use this platform to urge the Caribbean small business sector to view any normalisation of the relations with Cuba as their achievement and to move with haste to seize the moment and not to allow themselves to be crowded out by those who never stood in solidarity with Cuba.
I say so with supreme confidence that the Cubans will never forget who stood with them in their moment of adversity. I was quite heartened to hear the announcement of Ambassador Peña of the decision by Cuba to host a CARICOM –Cuba business forum. I humbly urge that the regional small business sector, be invited to the business forum.
Secondly, and relatedly, this concern which I have identified in terms of the internal class relation of the region, is also extended to the wider international relations. That is, just as there is a possibility of those groups who were always historically hostile to the Cuban revolution seeing the present moment as one which allows them to jump ahead of those who always stood in solidarity with Cuba, then similarly am I concerned that the normalisation of relations with the US, may allow the Caribbean region to be brushed aside by those states who were at the forefront of placing the embargo on Cuba and retarding her development for more than fifty years. Only yesterday the BBC was reporting that Cuban and US officials were meeting to discuss the question of compensation for US property lost since the 1959 revolution. Our concern is that in this process of normalisation, any special advantages which the Caribbean might have had in its early recognition of Cuba, might be lost once the floodgates open and all the historically countries begin to tap into the new arrangements.
Already, we have seen some expressions of concern from the tourism sector in the Caribbean. However, I am heartened by what we heard form Ambassador Francisco Peña earlier, of the impending visit by the Barbadian Minister of Tourism to Cuba, to discuss the issue of multi-destination tourism.
Also there is a concern that with the new relations some groups will benefit from Cuban sacrifice and generosity without translating the progressive examples to the region. The clearest examples of this weakness can be seen in the hundreds of Cuban trained doctors, who return to the Caribbean without any sense of responsibility to the communities from which they have come. Whenever I have the opportunity to do so, I always remind the Cuban trained doctors that they received their Medical degrees on the backs of the sacrifice and effort of the Cuban people, who have suffered a fifty-plus year economic blockade.
I urge these Cuban doctors who have earned so much at the sacrifice of the heroic Cuban people, find in themselves the consciousness to offer subsidised or free medical assistance to the poor and elderly people of the Caribbean. I see no difficulty in a Cuban trained doctor who earns a healthy salary by looking after the health of the rich people in the urban sector, deciding to open a small clinic in a rural community every Wednesday afternoon to offer free medical advice and checkups to the poor and the powerless, the elderly and the senior citizens of our society.
In the old days of the 1970s, when the scholarships to Cuba were being offered to the small left-wing parties, there was a kind of “natural selection” that took place to ensure that ensured that he most progressive and conscious of our young people benefitted from the scholarships. Today, and since the 1990s, with the new openness of our government with Cuba, the new Cuban students are chosen on the basis of academic merit only, and perhaps rightfully so. But they no longer show the conscious commitment to the poor and the powerless, they no longer show a commitment to history as the old students in the small left-wing parties.
I want to use this platform to encourage our regional and Cuban Governments to include a bond or community service clause to the Caribbean students who benefit from free medical education in Cuba.
Despite these challenges however, there are many useful opportunities in the present environment.
1. The Business opportunities. Even the challenge from tourists which I have just identified may not necessarily be a challenge as Caribbean tourism officials are already discussing the possibility of multi-destination tourism
2. The Challenges of neo-liberalism and the collapse of the traditional economy, may open up the possibilities for the new economy. As we continue to grapple with the collapse of the trade and economic arrangements with Europe in the post-colonial era, and as we continue to struggle with collapsing economies, the opportunities offered to us by Cuba in the area of Arts and Culture, creative industries, technology and services upon which we can erect a new economy, should never be underestimated.
3. Further, Cuba’s brave, heroic and supreme political example of alternatives to the free market can assist in the defense of Caribbean social democracy.
4. At a much lower level, Cuba offers us immense possibilities in the area of education. Today there is much talk about the teaching of STEM subjects in schools, There is much talk about our young people being trained in science and technology to prepare them for the new jobs of the 21st century. We in the Caribbean continue to grapple with the high failure rates in Math and the lack of interest in science among our students. Cuba is the formerly colonised country in our Americas that has made the greatest strides in Science and Medicine. I am certain that given the commitment of our Cuban brothers to the practice of fraternal internationalism that if our Ministries of Education made a call to the government of Cuba for the provision of Science and Math teachers in our primary schools that they will answer the call. I am sure too that if we make a call for Spanish teachers in our primary schools that Cuba will answer the call too. These are imperatives, if we are serious about our claims to advancing in science and technology, and if we are serious about our claims about deepening our links with Latin America, these are imperatives that we must pursue with urgency.
5. The opening of new possibilities of contact. One of the dangers of the embargo is that it cut Cuba off from the rest of the Caribbean. Many of Cuba’s lessons and examples remain hidden from the rest of the Caribbean. I am certain that with more contact, Cuba’s lessons will assist the Caribbean region to grow.
For my part, I will never forget the lessons which I learned from the 19 year old liaison who was assigned to me during my last visit to Cuba. She spoke four languages, including English, and I was very interested in how many countries she had visited to furnish her with such linguistic competence. Her reply was that she had learned her English “like anybody else by reading Shakespeare, by reading Hamlet”. I could only smile. But later I was forced to reflect that the sort of deep, progressive and meaningful discussions that I was able to have with this 19 year old Cuban young lady, would hardly ever be replicated within my own English-speaking Caribbean space, among my peers. How many Caribbean people can survive one month of embargo, far less 50 years.
Finally, I want to conclude on the current global economic crisis which is not going away. I want to propoe that our links to Cuba can offer us a way out of the crisis.
I do not share the delusion of dreamers who try to wish away the current crisis of capital. The crisis is deep and enduring and it will not be resolved without a fundamental overturning of the economy, of our politics and of society.
The crisis cannot be wished away by mere tinkering with social and political systems. It cannot be overcome by taxation. It cannot be overcome by the crude cutting back of social services. These can only deepen the crisis.
Only a radical and qualitative transformation of the existing order will resolve the problem. The example of Cuba is the only one which I know which has been able to opt out of the dominant economic arrangement, and as the crisis deepens, the symbolism of Cuba will guide us, as things will not get any easier.
So, despite the challenges, I am very very optimistic about the continuation and deepening of our links with Cuba. I am confident too, that we can give a positive answer to Sir Shridath’s concern, and assure him that lessons of the History of Cuba-CARICOM relations will never remain an episode of the past, but will remain alive and active in the present.
Dr Tennyson Joseph is a Senior Lecturer in Political Science at the University of the West Indies, Cavehill Campus. He also writes a weekly column in the Nation Newspaper in Barbados.-
