A Day of National Shame for Cuba
By Alberto N Jones
HAVANA TIMES – June 16, 2017, will be recorded in Latin America and world history as a sad, frustrating day, in which Cuba was seen vacillating, insecure, having lost the initiative, vision and ability to strike back, that characterized the Cuban Revolution since the days of the rebels in the Sierra Maestra mountains.
Hoping to express his gratitude to right-wing Cuban Americans who gave him substantial political support in the recent elections, president Donald Trump mounted a two-prong show in Miami, where hurling bravado and threats against Cuba dominated his speech, as he tried momentarily to deviate attention from serious legal issues haunting his administration.
Missed opportunity
Fifteen months ago, hundreds of observers, researchers and critics in and outside of Cuba, were dismayed by a senseless diatribe that was unleashed by a poorly expressed or worse understood sentence that was included in president Barack Obama conciliatory speech that was delivered in the beautiful Grand Theater in Havana, nearly derailing the objectives of the visit.
Honest and opportunist writers, commentators and thinkers alike, could not stop feeding on this issue and a few went as far as uttering offensive expressions against a visitor, who was an example of modesty, humility and a people’s person, who was genuinely interested in advancing the bilateral relations between the US and Cuba.
Cuba missed a precious and critical moment, in which some preferred to continue to mix excretions with a stick instead of adding effective, complementary actions that would expand and strengthen new areas of distension.
The miniscule scratch that this diplomatic opening did to the embargo was obscured with grandiloquent, self-gratification speeches demanding the lifting of the embargo, knowing it was codified into US law as jurisdiction of Congress and out of reach of the president.
In spite of this, travel to Cuba was liberalized and commercial, health, agriculture, scientific, cultural and other exchanges was widely encouraged. Inexplicably, Cuba did not take advantage of this small opening.
Cuba could and should have promoted the formation of large Cuban-American Joint ventures in potato, rice, corn, citric, fruit, poultry, pig and cattle industries, instead of holding on to millions of fallow acres, while having to import the majority of its foodstuffs.
Cuba should have promoted the creation of Cuban-American joint Hotel Enterprises with hundreds of dilapidated hotels and villas in the hands of Isla Azul, the Camping sites, and new nationwide investments.
Cuba could and should have removed stifling Customs rules that prohibit the entrance of all sorts of goods as permitted by Customs in the US and around the world, which would have turned it into a source of material supplies, where products, equipment, spare parts and other unavailable items could have been satisfied while earning millions of dollars in taxes for the country.
Cuba could have saved millions of hours lost. due the disastrous state of public transportation, by allowing to import of used trucks, buses and automobiles without market demand in the US, the same ones that were allowed into the country in small qualtities as donations in the past.
It is imperative the Cuban government recognize its mistaken calculations and modify the survival and development strategy of the country, by relaxing and liberalizing labor, commerce, services and other productive activities in dysfunctional state hands.
And now Trump
The spectacle that took place in Miami, as we watched president Donald Trump lecture Cuba like primary school children by demanding the implementation of verifiable policies by his government, the same ones he is incapable of demanding from any municipal government in the US, was depressing, repugnant and instructive.
It was painful to watch other Cubans in Miami cheer the threats of hunger, desolation and deaths with which a US president about to be questioned by the judicial system of his country, used to try and intimidate a heroic people that have spilled their blood in defense of their independence and sovereignty and that of other brotherly people.
Cuba can knock down this momentary set-back by using the massive support it has received from dozens of presidents, prime ministers, the Pope, kings and foreign ministers that have visited the country in recent years and favorably renegotiated Cuba´s external debts, leaving substantial amount of investment and development funds in the country with which, little or nothing has been done so far.
The future of Cuba and that of dozens of small, weak and underdeveloped nations depends of the survival of Cuba. No measure that leads to the preservation and the future of millions of islanders should be debated, doubted or its implementation postponed.
Who except you Kennedy Earle Clarke could invoke God in supporting the Castros and Mao Ze Dong. Who but you could “Thank the Supreme Being for the Creation of such men. ”
You blaspheme!
To describe the peoples of Cuba and China as being “liberated” is a self evident
nonsense! Remember the history of Fidel Castro and Mao Ze Dong regarding religion!
Your ignorance is no excuse for your quotation!
Take a look at the map of Syria Kennedy Earle Clarke – aquaint yourself with how much of the land area is controlled by the Bashar al-Asad regime. Long before IS joined in the fray, Syrians were fighting to rid themselves of the dictatorship.
Don’t bother endeavoring to associate my comments with any form of support for Saudi Arabia. It is in someways similar to Cuba – controlled by one family -which can be described as dictatorship, just as is the case in Cuba!
As usual Kennedy Earle Clarke you are confused. i am married to a Cuban esposa, not a senorita.
I am fortunate in that I am not bound to Cuba, but as I endeavored to explain to one of your fellow Castro sycophants, I love my wife, the country of Cuba and have a high respect for the people of Cuba.
As one who places high value on freedom and liberty, I am opposed to the current communist dictatorship in Cuba which denies Cubans those privileges.
I would advise you against assuming that I have not and do not make a worthy contribution to the planet – in case there is a comparison made with yourself! My advice is to tread carefully in case you embarrass yourself yet again!
Amazing reply. Completely loony toons but amazing. First, the Castros missed a long list of opportunities but here’s just one. Prior to the Obama visit, as an expression of “good faith”, the Castros released a group of political prisoners. The very day Obama’s plane left Cuba, the Castros began rearresting the very same dissidents. Their “Good Faith”? Not so good. Second, the problem with Cuba is not the socialist-style economy. Heck, Sweden is socialist. We love Sweden. The problem is not the dictatorship in Cuba either. Saudi Arabia is a “dictatorship”. Again, no problem there. The rift with Cuba is the lack of democracy. The lack of personal freedom. What’s worse is that the Castros have worked to infiltrate and undermine the US. Three, I could not disagree more with you regarding the Castros rationale for provoking the revolution. There is a #4 and #5 as well. But, this is the looney toons part of your comment. I think I ‘ll pass.
What missed opportunity are you parroting about brother Patterson? Who can rely on the word of any leader of the USA? I keep repeating, “Cuba is just as Sovereign as the USA! If the USA has the right to follow capitalism, Does Cuba not have the same right to adopt Socialism? If you were in the Castro’s shoes and you sacrificed your life of privilege because you were touched by the plight of your people under the Batista regime which was backed by the USA where your people were degraded, downtrodden, exploited, oppressed, dehumanized, illiterate (70%), would you have used the same system used by Batista if you wanted to bring meaningful change to your people?
Give me a direct answer to the question brother Patterson? The Castro’s were rich children. They were touched by the plight of the suffering masses. Their heart was not hardened like your heart. They, in their ivory tower of privilege looked down and saw their people wobbling in misery and despair and left that ivory tower of wealth and privilege to change the course of the lives of over 7 million inhabitants of the land who could not read nor write and you keep faulting them for that?
These two brothers will always be applauded by those of us who possess feelings of LOVE and COMPASSION for our fellow men who are wallowing in the filth of poverty and disease. The Castros, against the odds of the Batista regime and USA, the hypocritical defender of human rights abuses journeyed down into the ghetto of squalor and rescued the wretched of Cuba, wiping away decades of ignorance, disease, hopelessness, deprivation, degradation, before clothing them in the sunshine apparel of human dignity and killing the biblical fatted calf of literacy, proper health care. proper housing and you who were devoid of the testicles of Compassion and feelings for the plight of your fellow men, have the effrontery, the gall, the nerve, the just discovered bravery to denounce a humantarian effort like that?
Thank God that He CREATED Impregnable Fortesses of men like Mandela, the Castros, the Salvador Allendes, the Ho Chi Mings, the Mao Ze Dongs, the Chavists who could not be bought or sold, to bestow human dignity upon the dispossessed and the deprived peoples of the world who would otherwise be trampled under the feet of hardened and heartless people like you. Thank The Supreme Being for the Creation of such men.They need no monuments to be constructed for them, because they will always live forever in the hearts of a grateful and liberated people. Let me leave this quotation by Daniel with you, brother Patterson,. “UNLESS ABOVE HIMSELF HE CAN ERECT HIMSELF, HOW POOR A THING IS MAN?” End of quote:
What chance has Cuba missed out on? When Donald Trump was on the campaign trail, he said that he preferred to deal with Assad any day than to deal with ISIS! Today he is bombing Syria, an Independent and Sovereign Nation which did not invite him to assist it. Why does the USA wants ASSAD to flee his counrtry? Why not the leaders of Saudi Arabia?Why not the Sheik of Kuwait where no elections are held if the USA so believes in democracy?
Where do you live Sally? Manhattan, San Francisco or LA?
Each of countries you have identified have unique and tangible issues to overcome. But none of these countries is dependent upon Cuba’s survival as Dr. Jones writes.
Dear Moses, why your answers are so extreme? Why choose a huge oil producing country as TT and not think about St. Kitts, the Granadines, Haiti, tens of Pacific islands and I am not so sure as you are about the future of Guatemala, Puerto Rico and the USVI who are sinking under an unbearable mountain of debt.
Give me one reason that may motivate Trump to make a deal?
Cuba missed out on a great opportunity after Obama’s visit. Bad call on the Castro brothers and perhaps the entire regime. These guys just can’t get it!
Trump is a noise maker. Responding in kind would be a useless gesture. Best to ride out the minor turbulence for the Castro regime. They will be back at negotiating table soon enough with more gains. Trump is not an interventionist, his Cuba policy is just a domestic political gesture. He will have lots of reasons to make a deal.
Huge error, not returning the kindness that Obama demonstrated.
Every time TRUMP opens his mouth is disgusting! Nothing new here.
As a Canadian citizen married to a Cuban citizen and with our home in Cuba, I totally reject the initiative proposed by TurD Place, (For non-Canadians, that name is a play on the Franglais spoken by one Jean Chretian when Prime Minister of Canada when he described the NDP (socialist) party as “Dat turd party”)
Certainly my wife as a Cuban is opposed as she seeks to see a free independent Cuba not one dominated by another country. I oppose it because I too wish to see Cuba a free independent country able to maintain its own culture and to determine its own future and policies when released from the bonds of Communism.
Thirdly, TurD Place ought to recall the overtures made by Turks and Caicos and by Aruba, to joining Canada, which Canada rejected.
Well at least Dr. Jones now recognizes that the missed opportunity lies at the door of the Castro regime. Some of we contributors to Havana Times have previously written of the overtures made by Obama being rejected by the Castro regime only one week after his speech at the Alicia Alonso Theatre, firstly by the so-called ‘Fidel’ letter and then the following day by Bruno Rodriguez.
Dr. Jones clearly has not grasped – or has not accepted – that any form of genuine change is and will continue to be rejected by the communist regime because it represents a threat to their retention of power.
As a veterinarian, Dr. Jones must also know that the millions of acres of agricultural land which he referred to as “fallow” are actually reverting to bush. He is correct in suggesting that that good land could be return to being highly productive by joint venture – but not necessarily with US businesses.
I do know that the largest single European vegetable and potato producing company rejected that concept five years ago. The difficulty lies in the insistence by the regime that it decides who is employed and it rejects the concept of paying employees according to their worth – a measurable factor – and also the regime insists on controlling prices of product.
The photograph of a relaxed Obama casually strolling amongst a group of Cubans is unlikely to be repeated by any other US President. Raul Castro really did screw up the best opportunity given to Cuba in fifty eight weary years but by so doing maintained total power for the Communist Party of Cuba and continued penury for Cuba’s citizens.
All in all, despite my comments, the article demonstrates some good sense. Who can crticize critics of President Donald J. Trump(f)? The American political system elected him and Americans have to accept that – but their decision affected so many others.
I would like to extend to the people of Cuba an invitation from Canada to open a dialogue on a closer relationship potentially leading to a merging of the two countries as one.
This new closer relationship would allow a excellent solution to the problems in North America at this time!
Dr. Jones writes, “The future of Cuba and that of dozens of small, weak and underdeveloped nations depends of the survival of Cuba.” WTF? I think, for example, Trinidad and Tobago will be just fine regardless of what happens to Cuba. Guatemala will still be around as well. Cuba is not that important. It’s the same arrogance Dr. Jones expresses in that statement that the Castros demonstrated by not responding in kind to the former President Obama’s rapprochement. Dr. Jones is correct, however, Cuba missed an opportunity and will now suffer the consequences.