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

Bahamas makes top 10 ethical countries list

By Krystel Rolle - Guardian Staff Reporter - krystel@nasgaurd.com

Nassau, The Bahamas:

The Bahamas has been voted among the top 10 ethical countries in the developing world by Ethicaltraveler.org.

This is a first for The Bahamas, which is one of two Caribbean countries to make the list this year.

The report rates countries based on issues, including environmental protection, social welfare and human rights.

“It’s worth noting that island states are again a strong presence in this year’s top 10 list,” said the report. “These include The Bahamas, Dominica, Mauritius and Palau.

“One reason for this is their strong environmental efforts. These states understand that islands will be very severely impacted by climate change, and are therefore taking the vanguard in a progressive environment.”

Specifically, in the environment category, the report noted that “in 2011, The Bahamas made the important step of banning shark fishing — protecting one of the most rich and diverse shark populations in the world.”

Minister of Agriculture and Marine Resources Larry Cartwright signed off on the legislation prohibiting commercial shark fishing in 243,244 square miles of the country's waters as well as the sale, importation and export of shark products in June last year.

At the time, Cartwright said, “This is in keeping with the government’s commitment to pursue appropriate conservation measures and strategies in order to safeguard the marine and terrestrial environment.

“This also responds to concerns expressed by citizens and by local, international and non-governmental organizations to the Government of The Bahamas, calling for strengthened protection of sharks in The Bahamas.”

As it relates to the social welfare category, the report considered the welfare of the country’s citizens and visitors using combined “well-respected” resources to conduct research.

“To gauge issues such as access to safe drinking water, sustainable water management, responsible sanitation practices, and agricultural management, we considered the 2011 Human Development Report, compiled by the UN Development Program (UNDP). The Bahamas was the highest ranked ethical destination country on the index this year, followed by Chile,” the report said.

Finally in the human rights category, the report evaluated sources such as Amnesty International and Freedom House among others to gauge the effort made towards improving known situations and the preservation of the basic human rights.

Despite the government’s failure to pass the Freedom of Information Act, The Bahamas, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominica, Palau and Uruguay received the highest possible scores from Freedom House in the categories of political rights and civil liberties and received the highest press freedom score of all ethical destinations countries.

However, The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is on the government’s agenda now. National Security Minister Tommy Turnquest, who is leader of government business in the House of Assembly, told The Guardian last month that the government hopes to deal with that before the end of the term.

The bill was tabled in the House of Assembly in October, but debate has yet to begin.

Ethical Traveler is a nonprofit organization founded in 1996 by Greenwald, which seeks to use “the economic clout of tourism to protect human rights and the environment”.

Other countries included on the list are Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominica, Latvia, Mauritius, Palau, Serbia and Uruguay.

Ethical Traveler said that while it understands that no country, particularly those facing significant economic limitations, is faultless, “our goal is to encourage the behaviors we see as creating a safer and more sustainable world”.

Jan 17, 2012

thenassauguardian

By John Rapley:

In the last few months, Canadian journalists with long memories have been decrying what they see as an authoritarian tendency in Canada's government. Armed with the majority mandate it had long coveted, and which it finally obtained in last year's federal election, Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been remaking the country's politics, and the national government, in a new image. Traditionalists can't stand it.

Some of it looks like it was lifted from a United States Republican playbook. Despite little evidence of worsening crime, for instance, the government is changing the criminal code to adopt a US-style, tough-on-crime approach. There has also been more use of dirty tricks and negative advertising than Canadians have been accustomed to in the past.

Perhaps most worryingly, there has been a shift towards a presidential type of politics, with the prime minister increasingly concentrating policy and decision making in his own office. Information is tightly controlled, and even Cabinet ministers are given talking points drafted by aides in the PM's office.

I recall a conversation I had years ago with a former Canadian prime minister, Joe Clark. Over breakfast during a visit of his to Montego Bay, Mr Clark had warned that the Conservative Party was then forging close ties to right-wing think tanks in Washington. He detected a foreign agenda in the party's drift. Himself a former Conservative leader, Mr Clark had broken with the re-formed party, and had become a lonely voice of Canadian tradition in the wilderness.

Anti-democratic trends

Still, defenders of Mr Harper could just as easily retort that centralising tendencies had started three decades before under a Liberal prime minister, the late Pierre Trudeau - as it happened, another man for whom Mr Clark had held little regard.

Moreover, the PM's centralising trend has been counterbalanced somewhat by a devolution of powers to the provincial governments, in keeping with the Conservative vision of greater provincial autonomy. Mr Trudeau, in contrast, really would have liked to have held all the marbles himself.

Yet, there have been other developments in Canadian politics that have been a little unsettling to those attached to the country's middle-of-the-road tradition. For one thing, the government's disdain of parliament seems palpable, and the government has even been found to be in contempt by the speaker of the House.

Mr Harper also seems to have a low estimation of his own bureaucracy. Long seen by prairie populists - from which Mr Harper hails - as a den of liberals (does this sound vaguely familiar?), Conservatives do have a history of sometimes tense relations with the Ottawa administration. Nonetheless, since its modernisation half a century ago, Canada's bureaucracy has had a reputation for professionalism and propriety.

Costly bureaucracy

Increasingly, though, Mr Harper relies on hand-picked consultants, working out of his office, to devise policy. This has added a new, and costly, layer of bureaucracy in the capital city. Meanwhile, critics argue that government websites are being used to promote the Conservative agenda, and refer not to the government of Canada but to the "Harper government".

Old-time journalists, especially members of the parliamentary press corps, who no doubt feel neglected and unloved, splutter with incredulity at what is happening to their country. But then, Mr Harper's supporters will say that nothing succeeds like success. There's not much evidence yet that Canadians further removed from Ottawa share the same degree of concern. Were Mr Harper to retain his majority in the next election, he could well say he did what the people wanted.

With the next election several years off, we won't know that verdict for a while. It may be that Canada's changed demography is leading to the evolution of a new kind of federal system. Or it may just be that one man read too much into his mandate, to be brought to book in time.

John Rapley is a research associate at the International Growth Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and rapley.john@gmail.com.

January 16, 2012

jamaica-gleaner

Caribbean Blog International

•  Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gives master lecture in University of Havana’s Aula Magna

By DALIA GONZÁLEZ DELGADO 

"CAPITALISM is in decline. The world needs a new outlook which shows respect for all human beings," the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said during a master lecture given at the University of Havana within its Aula Magna, where the visiting leader was also awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Political Science.

"My presence in Cuba is evidence of the solidarity between our two revolutionary peoples," he affirmed.

According to the President, the most basic human objective is to be happy and there are three necessary prerequisites to achieving happiness: knowledge, justice and love for one’s neighbors.

As for the first, he defended the importance of scientific knowledge, but denounced its use to kill and humiliate human beings.

He blamed capitalist economic theory for having condemned millions of people to poverty and for the continuing exploitation of peoples.

"The roots of all wars lie in injustice. Only justice can guarantee security. Only justice can guarantee true peace. The project we share is the struggle against injustice," he emphasized.

Ahmadinejad emphatically condemned the United States wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in a clear reference to the current U.S. government, he criticized, "those who make war to win Presidential elections."

He asserted that the capitalist system inherently leads to injustice. "When they lack logical arguments, they resort to weapons, to kill and destroy. Today all that is left to the capitalist system is to kill. It is a failing system, in decline." In some areas, he said, capitalism finds itself "with no way out."

Thus, he called for a new world order based on justice, which respects all human beings. He encouraged Cuba and its universities to work together with Iran to create it. "We are with you in this struggle to achieve dignity for human beings."

"We have to be astute, alert. If we don’t propose a new future world order, we will inherit one created by slave owners and capitalists, who will impose and control the new system," he added.

The Iranian President condemned imperialism as an inhumane school of thought. "Justice will be done."

In attendance at the ceremony during which Ahmadinejad was awarded an Honorary Doctorate were Esteban Lazo Hernández, Vice President of the Council of State; Gustavo Cobreiro Suárez, University of Havana Rector; José Carlos Vázquez López, Dean of the Philosophy and History Faculty; and representatives of the diplomatic corps accredited in Cuba.

Cobreiro explained why the important distinction was granted Ahmadinejad. The Iranian Revolution of 1979 was an historic landmark. During his two administrations, since 2005, Ahmadinejad has strengthened his country’s relations with Cuba and promoted ties with Latin America. Additionally he has defended his people’s right to self-determination against foreign aggression.

Carlos Vásquez reviewed Ahmadinejad’s political career and recalled that he joined his people’s struggles as a very young man.

With the triumph of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, he became one of the founders of the Islamic Student Association at the University of Science and Technology.

Following the lecture, Ahmadinejad placed a wreath at the José Martí Memorial Monument in Havana’s Plaza de la Revolución, accompanied by Deputy Foreign Minister Marcelino Medina. He visited the museum and was offered an explanation of the life and work of José Martí.

The Iranian leader arrived in Cuba January 11 and was received at José Martí International Airport by Vice President Esteban Lazo.

Cuba was the third stop on Ahmadinejad’s tour of four Latin American countries.

January 12, 2012

granma.cu

Caribbean Blog International

REFLECTIONS OF FIDEL

(Taken from CubaDebate)

YESTERDAY I had the pleasure of conversing leisurely with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. I hadn’t seem him since September of 2006, more than five years ago, when he visited our country to participate in the 14th Non-Aligned Movement Summit which took place in Havana, when Cuba was elected for a second time to the Presidency of this organization for a three year term.

I had become seriously ill July 26, 2006, a month and a half prior to this event and could barely sit up in bed. A few of the most distinguished leaders attending the meeting were kind enough to visit me. Chávez and Evo did so more than once. One midday, four, who I always remember, came: Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General; an old friend, Abdelaziz Buteflika, President of Algeria; Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran; and a Deputy Foreign Minister from China who is now the country’s Foreign Minister, Yang Jiechi, representing the leader of the People’s Republic of China’s Communist Party, Hu Jintao. It was really an important moment for me as I was making a great effort to rehabilitate my right hand, which I had seriously injured in a fall in Santa Clara.

With these four I discussed aspects of the problems facing the world at that time. These have surely become even more complex.

In our encounter yesterday, I found the Iranian President absolutely calm and composed, completely indifferent to the yankee threats, confident in the capacity of his people to confront any aggression and in the ability of their weapons, a large portion of which they themselves have produced, to make the aggressors pay a heavy price.

In reality, he barely addressed the issue of war, he was concentrated on the ideas he expressed during the master lecture he gave within the University of Havana’s Aula Magna, focused on humanity’s struggle to "move toward achieving and maintaining peace, security, respect and human dignity as all human beings have desired, far and wide, throughout history."

I am sure that no rash action on the part of Iran, which could contribute to the outbreak of war, can be expected. If such a war should break out, it will only be as a result of the yankee empire’s congenital adventurism and irresponsibility.

I, for one, think that the political situation created around Iran and the resultant danger of nuclear war involving everyone – those possessing such weapons and those who don’t – is extremely delicate because it threatens the very existence of our species. The Middle East has become the most conflictive region in the world and is the area where energy resources vital to the world economy are produced.

The destructive power and massive suffering caused by some of the equipment used in World War II led to a strong effort to ban some weapons such as poison gases and others used in that war. Nevertheless, conflicting interests and the enormous profits gained by arms merchants led to the fabrication of even more cruel and destructive weapons, until modern technology provided the means and materials which, if employed, could lead to extinction.

I hold the opinion, undoubtedly shared by all people with an elementary sense of responsibility, that no country, large or small, has the right to possess nuclear weapons.

These should never have been used to attack defenseless cities like Hiroshima and Nagasaki, murdering and irradiating hundreds of thousands of men, women and children and causing long-lasting ill effects in a country which had already been militarily defeated.

If fascism had obliged the forces allied against Nazism to compete with this enemy of humanity in the manufacture of such weapons, once the war was over and the United Nations created, the first responsibility of that organization was to prohibit them, with no exceptions whatsoever.

But the United States, the strongest and richest power, imposed the line to be followed on the rest of the world. Today it possesses hundreds of spy satellites and polices all inhabitants of the planet from space. Its naval, air and land forces are equipped with thousands of nuclear weapons and it governs, as it pleases, the world’s finances and investments through the International Monetary Fund.

If the history of every one of Latin America’s countries is studied, from Mexico to Patagonia, through the Dominican Republic and Haiti, it can be seen that, without a single exception, all have suffered for 200 years. Since the beginning of the 19th century to date, in one way or another they have been increasingly suffering the worst crimes that power and force can commit against the rights of peoples. Brilliant writers emerged in growing numbers, one of them, Eduardo Galeano, author of the Open Veins of Latin America, which describes the aforementioned, has just been invited to inaugurate the prestigious Casa de Las Américas Prize, as a recognition of his important work.

Events unfold with such incredible speed, but the technology which disseminates them to the public does so even more rapidly. On any day, like today, important news items emerge at an extraordinary pace. One cable dispatch dated yesterday the 11th included the following information: the Danish President of the European Union affirmed on Wednesday that a new series of more severe European sanctions against Iran will be decided January 23, as a result of its nuclear program, focusing not only on the oil industry but the Central Bank as well.

"We’ll go further both on oil sanctions and on sanctions against the financial structures" in Iran, Danish Foreign Minister Villy Soevndal said during a press conference. It can be clearly seen that, in the interest of preventing nuclear proliferation, Israel can accumulate hundreds of nuclear missiles while Iran cannot produce uranium enriched to 20% [concentration of 235U].

Another news item about the issue from a well-known and expert British agency reported that China showed no sign Wednesday of ceding to United States demands to reduce its purchases of Iranian oil and described the sanctions U.S. against Iran as excessive.

Anyone would be shocked at the tranquility with which the United States and civilized Europe are promoting this campaign with incredible, systematic terrorist practices. These lines circulated by another important European news agency, "The killing, Wednesday, of a nuclear scientist at the Natanz nuclear plant in central Iran, is the fourth of its kind since January of 2010."

January 12, 2010: "A nuclear scientist of international repute, Massoud Ali- Mohamadi, a professor at the University of Tehran who worked for the Guardians of the Revolution, died when a motor-cycle bomb exploded outside his home…"

"November 29, 2010: Majid Shahriari, a founder member of the Nuclear Society of Iran and who headed one of the major Iranian Atomic Energy Organization projects […] was killed in Tehran when a magnetic bomb attached to his car exploded.

"The same day, another nuclear physicist, Fereydoun Abasi Davani, was the target of an attack in an identical situation when he was parking his car outside Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran, where the two men were professors." –He was only injured.

"July 23, 2011: Scientist Dariush Rezainejad, who worked on Defense Ministry projects, was shot and killed by unknown assailants on a motor cycle in Tehran."

"January 11, 2012: – in other words, the same day that Ahmadinejad was traveling from Nicaragua to Cuba to give his lecture at the University of Havana – scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, who worked at the Natanz plant, where he was deputy director for commercial affairs, died when a magnetic bomb attached to his car exploded close to Allameh Tabatabai University, east of Tehran." As in previous years, "Iran once again accused the United States and Israel."

This is about the selective butchery of brilliant Iranian scientists being systematically assassinated. I have read articles by known Israel sympathizers talking of crimes perpetrated by its intelligence services, in cooperation with the United States and NATO, as something normal.

At the same time, news agencies in Moscow informed, "Russia warned today that a similar scenario to that of Libya is developing in Syria, while noting that, this time, the attack will come from neighboring Turkey.

"Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev stated that the West wishes ‘to punish Damascus, not so much for repression of the opposition but because of its refusal to break off its alliance with Tehran.’"

"…in his opinion, a similar scenario to that of Libya is developing in Syria, but this time, the attacking forces will not come from France, Britain and Italy, but from Turkey."

"He additionally ventured to state, ‘it is possible that Washington and Ankara are already defining various options of flight zone exclusions where Syrian armed rebel units could be trained and concentrated.’"

News is not just coming in from Iran and the Middle East, but from other points in Central Asia in the vicinity of the Middle East. This allows us to appreciate the complexity of the problems which could emerge from this dangerous area.

Its contradictory and absurd imperial policies have led the United States into serious problems in countries such as Pakistan, whose borders with another important state, Afghanistan, were drawn up by colonialists without taking culture or ethnicities into account.

In the latter country, which defended its independence in the face of British colonialism throughout the centuries, drug production has greatly increased since the yankee invasion, and European soldiers, supported by drone aircraft and sophisticated armaments from the United States, are committing disgraceful acts of slaughter which are increasing the population’s hatred and distancing possibilities of peace. This and other atrocities are also reflected in the Western news agency cables.

"WASHINGTON, January 12, 2012 – U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta this Thursday described as utterly deplorable the behaviour of four men presented as U.S. marines urinating on corpses in Afghanistan, as shown on a video circulating on Internet.

"I have seen the images and find the behavior (of the men) utterly deplorable…"

"This conduct is entirely inappropriate for members of the United States military and does not reflect the standards or values our armed forces are sworn to uphold…"

In real terms, he is neither affirming nor denying it. Anyone could be left in doubt, possibly the Secretary of Defense himself.

But it is also extremely inhuman that men, women and children, or an Afghani combatant fighting against foreign occupation should be killed by bombs dropped from drone aircraft. Something else which is extremely grave: dozens of Pakistani soldiers and officers guarding the country’s borders have been destroyed by these bombs.

President Karzai of Afghanistan said in a statement that the desecration of the corpses was simply inhuman, and asked the U.S. government to implement the most severe punishment on all those responsible for the crime.

Taliban spokespersons stated that in the last 10 years there have been hundreds of similar acts which were not revealed.

One even feels pity for those soldiers, separated from their families and friends, thousands of kilometers from their own homeland, sent to fight in countries which they maybe never even heard mentioned as students, where they are assigned the task of killing or dying in order to enrich transnational enterprises, weapons manufacturers and unscrupulous politicians who, every year, are squandering funds needed for the alimentation and education of the countless millions of hungry and illiterate people in the world.

More than a few of these soldiers, victims of trauma, end up taking their own lives.

Am I exaggerating when I affirm that world peace is hanging by a thread?

Fidel Castro Ruz
January 12, 2012
9:14 p.m.

Translated by Granma International

grama.cu

Caribbean Blog International

jamaicaobserver editorial:

People's National Party (PNP) strategists must still be sighing with relief that there was no obvious backlash to Mrs Portia Simpson Miller's affirmation in the pre-election debate that Jamaica's buggery law needs to be reviewed.

We say 'no obvious backlash' because as we all know the PNP won the election by a 2-1 seat majority.

Like ourselves, sociologists and others with an interest in such matters must be extremely curious as to whether the election result means there is a significant softening in attitudes towards homosexuality among the Jamaican population.

It's not as if elements in the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) did not seek to profit from Mrs Simpson Miller's remarks. We recall the Observer story of Saturday, December 24 reporting on how the JLP candidate for West Central St James and former Cabinet Minister Clive Mullings "armed with a Bible" lashed Mrs Simpson Miller's comments from a political platform in Montego Bay.

As it turned out, Mr Mullings' action was of no profit to him since he lost his seat.

Yet more reason, perhaps, to suggest a softening towards the gay community? We really do not know for sure.

Perhaps the promised "conscience vote" in Parliament, whenever it occurs — following suggested consultations with constituents — will provide scope for a proper exploration of how people really feel regarding this issue.

What we do believe is that Mrs Simpson Miller deserves commendation for her courage. Not only did she speak to the need to review the centuries-old law bequeathed to us by British colonialists, but insisted that she would not "pry" into people's private lives and would appoint "anyone" to her Cabinet based on "ability" regardless of suspected sexual orientation.

In one stroke, she departed from the line taken by former Prime Minister Bruce Golding, who had declared "...Not in my Cabinet" when asked by British television three years ago if he would consider accommodating homosexuals in the Jamaican executive.

We sensed at the time, that the cautious, middling response of the then Prime Minister Andrew Holness to the gay rights question reflected a recognition, perhaps unconscious, of the possibility of a 'softening' in Jamaican public attitudes over recent years.

Of course, any Jamaican Government must also take into consideration the realities in the outside world. For in Europe and North America and many other places, gay rights are routinely considered fundamental human rights. And as Mr Golding once pointed out, the gay lobby is "perhaps the most organised" in the world. Our anti-gay entertainers have discovered that fact at great cost.

More to the point, the rich and powerful are increasingly insisting that countries like Jamaica abide by their code.

The European Union has long used aid and diplomacy as a fulcrum in its quest to influence countries like Jamaica and its Caribbean neighbours, as well as nations across Africa and the Third World to liberalise laws relating to homosexuality.

Late last year, British Prime Minister David Cameron suggested that his Government will be linking aid to recognition of gay rights.

And since that time, the US Government publicly declared its intention to use foreign aid and diplomacy to encourage reform of gay laws.

Some among our church leaders who contend that homosexual behaviour is in breach of "God's Laws" have urged Mrs Simpson Miller and her Government to resist external pressures relating to homosexuality. But it seems to this newspaper that it would be naïve for anyone to expect that Jamaica can continue to ignore such pressures indefinitely.

January 13, 2012

jamaicaobserver editorial

Caribbean Blog International

By Horace Williams:

When Barack Obama was officially sworn-in as the 44th president of the USA on January 20, 2009, the country was no longer cruising along the surplus highway which Bill Clinton handed over to George Bush.

In fact, the USA was a most scary place in which to live... apart from that new progressive light at the end of the tunnel. Americans all over the world were despised and actively sought-out to be attacked and discriminated against. The USA, as a result of its president, was considered to be the 'comedy factory' of the world, and there was no better comedian on planet earth. The biggest problem we face, though, is the fact that we are a people with exceptionally short-memories.

We have forgotten that we were at war with Iraq and Afghanistan, and the associated costs that accompanied those wars. We have forgotten that the stock market experienced its worse crash in modern history, and that we are affected even when the rest of the world sneezes. We have forgotten that this country went through a banking failure and financial crisis, the likes of which we had never seen before, and that much of this was man-made. We have forgotten that a housing and mortgage crisis affected the economy in a manner previously thought to be impossible, and that lack of governmental controls permitted unrestricted and unmitigated greed to run rampant.

We have forgotten that there was the distinct possibility of the US auto industry and associated businesses becoming history. We have forgotten that the US economy was losing jobs at the rate of 750,000 per month before Obama became president, and that even the Chamber of Commerce encouraged the shipping of jobs overseas. We have forgotten that the US congress passed 372 bills and sent them to the Senate, which did nothing about making sure those bills received the level of serious discussion and debate they rightly deserved. We have forgotten that in the US Senate, 51 is no longer a majority, which now requires 60 or 67 votes out of 100, for most bills to be passed. Yes, we have forgotten that, now the president is Obama, the rules have changed.

We have forgotten that although we are not where we need to be, that in less than three years, this country has made exceptionally significant strides and moving in the right economic direction. We have forgotten where we were, just three short years ago!

WARS WITH IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN

In March 2003, the USA launched the most modern full scale war known to mankind against Saddam Hussein and the country of Iraq. There are at least three ways to think about the economic costs of the wars with Iraq and Afghanistan: what has already been spent, what could or would be spent in future, and the comparative economic effects of spending money on war, instead of something else. Between 2003 and 2011, the USA has already spent over $1,311.5 billion, and this figure will obviously increase since we are still in Afghanistan.

The USA paid for past wars by raising taxes, and or selling war bonds. But George Bush had a brain-wave which he used to convince congress, that these wars could be put on the credit card. So that is exactly what they did! This borrowing raised the US budget deficit, increased the national debt, and had other macroeconomic effects such as raising interest rates. Then there was the little mater of paying interest on the borrowed funds... that cost so far, has been in excess of $185.4 billion.

Each and every day, more veterans continue to apply for and receive their benefits. This amount is estimated to peak in 30 to 40 years, and will reach a staggering $600 billion to $1 trillion!

The USA grossly underestimated the duration of these wars. They neglected to tally all the costs, and overestimated the anticipated political objectives by the use of brute force. For both wars, the amount already spent, or obligated to date, has already reached the staggering and mind-numbing amount of $3.2 to $4 trillion!

THE STOCK MARKET SLUMP

Most of us seem to have forgotten that when Barack Obama became president of the USA, the stock market (Dow Jones) stood at a low of 7,949 -- way down from the record high of 14,164 on October 9th, 2007. The trend's momentum continued until March 9, 2009, when it hit absolute bottom at 6,507.

By December 31, 2011 the stock market had rebounded remarkably to 12,217 -- almost two times the 2009 low mentioned above. ....And they say that President Obama has done nothing for the country! Had the stock market continued in free-fall, and was now 3,000 instead, guess who would be receiving the blame?

THE BANKING AND FINANCIAL CRISIS

A bank failure is the closing of a bank by a federal or state banking regulatory agency. The FDIC is named as Receiver for a bank's assets when its capital levels are too low, or it cannot meet obligations the next day. Between 2003 and 2008, the USA recorded 11 bank failures. In 2008, 25 banks failed, in 2009, the figure rose to 140, and they were all taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Obviously, when such a high proportion of banks fail, then that would severely affect mortgage lending and housing as a result.

The banks, which were bailed out by the government (us -- the taxpayers), have already repaid their indebtedness, and done so with interest as well. Wasn't it worth it to bail them out? The problem however, is that they have forgotten who bailed them out (US taxpayers) in their time of need.

THE HOUSING AND MORTGAGE CRISIS

During 2007 (Bush was still president), lenders had begun foreclosure proceedings on 1.3 million properties, a 79% increase over 2006. This number increased to 2.3 million in 2008, an 81% increase over 2007, and again to 2.8 million in 2009, a 21% increase vs. 2008.

By August 2008, 9.2% of all US mortgages outstanding were either delinquent or in foreclosure. By September 2009, the figure had increased to 14.4%. Between August 2007 and October 2008, 936,439 of USA residences completed foreclosure. Ten states accounted for 74% of the foreclosure filings during 2008. The top two, California and Florida, represented 41%, and nine states were above the national foreclosure rate average.

Mitt Romney was opposed to the government doing anything to aid these homeowners. He felt that the foreclosure process should proceed normally, and that the market should self-regulate, without governmental intervention. Left to Romney and the republicans, more American homeowners in financial distress would have been up a creek with absolutely no paddle.

THE US AUTO INDUSTRY CRISIS

During the third quarter of 2008 Bush was still president of the USA and, combined, General Motors and Ford burned through a staggering $14.6 billion in losses, raising the distinct possibility that Washington may have to step in to finance an historic downsizing of the US auto industry. Mitt Romney's position was, "NO WAY, let the car manufacturers fail. The government should not be in the business of bailing-out the car manufacturers."

President Obama miraculously appeared with his economic brain trust and announced that he had asked his team to work on ways to help the auto industry survive the financial crisis. He pointed out that "the auto industry is the backbone of American manufacturing and a critical part of our attempt to reduce our dependence on foreign oil."

MASSIVE AND HISTORIC JOB LOSSES BEGAN UNDER GEORGE BUSH

Mitt Romney and the Republicans continue to admit that President Obama inherited an economic mess, but made matters "worse." When that statement was fact-checked, and proven false, Romney and the Republicans still continued to repeat the lie.

The year before President Obama took office, the USA was hemorrhaging jobs. Every month, thousands of jobs were lost, and most of them were shipped overseas even with the assistance of the US Chamber of Commerce. The month Obama was inaugurated, America's private sector lost a remarkable 841,000 jobs -- and that was just in one month!

If indeed, Obama's policies made matters worse, then we would expect to see even further increasing job losses. If Obama's policies made things better, we should expect to see the monthly totals improve. That is exactly what has transpired every month since then. The economy has grown, the recession has (technically) ended, and the job market has strengthened, (not enough, but) significantly.

Job losses and job creation are the biggest obstacles the administration face, but since February 2010, nearly 2.8 million private sector jobs have been created. Obviously, the problem has not yet been solved, but at least we are headed in the right direction.

THE IMMIGRATION ISSUE

It should be clear to those of us who have eyes, that there is a distinct difference between both mainstream political parties. The Republican Party, in state after state, tries their best to victimize anyone who looks "un-American," -- whatever that means. After all these years, and through intermarriages -- through a mixture of the ethnicities, what does an "American" look like? To me, there is a marked difference between both political parties, and the manner in which they look at, and think of, the residents of this great country. Things became so heinous that even the president of the USA was asked to produce his birth certificate... and he did.

To add insult to injury, the Republicans are attempting to shrink the pool of electors eligible to vote in the upcoming presidential elections. Isn't this the bastion of democracy? So why would anyone want to reduce, place a limit on, or restrict those legally entitled to vote? Could it be that the answer lies in who the next president of the United States is likely be?

When I think of all these issues, I do not understand it when someone tells me that they cannot differentiate between the political parties. When someone tells me that they are a Republican, I must accept it. However, I shake my head and wonder, what went wrong when their brain was being wired.

January 11, 2012

caribbeannewsnow

Caribbean Blog International

Reflections of Fidel

(Taken from CubaDebate)

A well known European agency transmitted the news the day before yesterday from Sydney, Australia. "A group of Australian investigators from the University of New South Wales announced the creation of a wire 10,000 times thinner than a human hair, with the same electrical current carrying capability of copper."

"... Bent Weber, head of the project at the Australian university, in an article published by Science magazine, explained, "Interconnecting wiring of this scale will be vital for the development of future atomic-scale electronic circuits."

"The wire was created by Australian and U.S. physicists by precisely placing chains of phosphorus atoms within a silicon crystal, just four atoms wide, one atom tall.

"This finding is essential to the international race to develop the first quantum computer, super-fast machines capable of processing enormous quantities of data in a few seconds, doing complex calculations which would take current computers years or even decades.

"In a traditional copper wire, electricity flows as copper electrons move along the conductor, but as the wire or conductor becomes smaller, resistance to the flow of electricity is greater.

"To overcome this problem Weber and his team used a process called scanning tunneling microscopy which allowed them to place atomically thin layers of phosphorus in silicon crystals.

"This allowed the nanowire to function like copper, with the electrons flowing easily, without resistance problems. Weber said that with this technique makes possible reducing the size of components to the atomic level.

"If the semi-conductor industry continues to miniaturise devices then eventually they will reach the atomic scale," observed Michelle Simmons, director of the research project

These unabated technological advances which should serve humanity’s well-being reminded me of what I had just written four days ago about global warming and the increasing development of shale gas, in a world which in 200 years has consumed fossil energy produced over a period of four billion years.

I imagined Obama, very articulate with words, for whom, in his desperate attempt to be reelected, the dreams of [Martin] Luther King are more light years away than the closest inhabitable planet.

Even worse: any one of the Republican Congress members considering the Presidency or any man or woman leading the Tea Party are carrying more nuclear weapons on their shoulders than ideas about peace in their heads.

Imagine, readers, for one minute, this powerful quantum computer cable of processing an infinite number of times the data processed by modern computers.

Is it not, perhaps, obvious that worst of all is the absence in the White House of a robot capable of governing the United States and preventing a war which would put an end to human life?

I am sure that 90% of U.S. citizens registered, especially Latinos, Blacks and a growing number of those in the middle class, the impoverished, would vote for the robot.

Fidel Castro Ruz
January 8, 2012
6:18 p.m.

granma.cu

Caribbean Blog International

Republic? No problem, says Queen

Going republic will be costly...

jamaicaobserver:

PRIME Minister Portia Simpson Miller's announcement that Jamaica will replace the British Monarch and implement a republican system of Government made headlines and triggered intense debate in England last week. However, the decision is not being frowned upon by Queen Elizabeth II.

"The issue of the Jamaican head of state was entirely a matter for the Jamaican Government and people," the BBC reported a Buckingham Palace spokesman as saying on Friday.

The Buckingham Palace position was included in the BBC's report on Simpson Miller's inaugural address at her swearing-in ceremony at King's House — the official residence of the Queen's representative, the governor general — on Thursday.

Simpson Miller, after taking the oaths of office, told the more than 8,000 guests seated on the sprawling lawns of the colonial mansion that this 50th anniversary of Jamaica's Independence from Britain will be a time for reflection on the lessons of the past.

"I love the Queen, she is a beautiful lady, and apart from being a beautiful lady she is a wise lady and a wonderful lady," Simpson Miller said. "But I think time come.

"As we celebrate our achievements as an independent nation, we now need to complete the circle of independence. In this regard, we will, therefore, initiate the process for our detachment from the Monarchy to become a republic with our own indigenous president as head of state."

In addition to the BBC, the report was carried on SkyTV and in the Daily Mail newspaper which, in its headline, said Jamaica intended to 'ditch the Queen as official head of state'.

The headline, however, has not found favour with respected protocol expert and consultant Merrick Needham, who said the Mail "was definitely aggressive" and a bit unfair to Simpson Miller.

"The prime minister spoke kindly, even glowingly of Her Majesty, and was gracious in the manner in which she indicated her Government's intention," said Needham. "Furthermore, her announcement was nothing new, former Prime Minister [PJ] Patterson spoke similarly years ago; more recently, I believe, so did former Prime Minister [Bruce] Golding."

Needham, who holds both British and Jamaican citizenship, said he supported the planned move to sever colonial ties to Britain and is in favour of the island having a ceremonial rather than an executive president. However, he raised an important issue that will impact on the decision — cost.

"In the short term, and our present serious financial circumstances, has anyone thought of the costs?" he asked. "As someone of considerable standing said to me only last week, such a major undertaking must be executed properly or not at all."

According to Needham, apart from the more obvious legal and associated costs, "one of the major other items is, perhaps surprisingly to civilians, the headdress badges and rank insignia of all the personnel of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF), Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), Jamaica Combined Cadet Force (JCCF), and others. This could probably well amount to the better part of 20,000 uniformed personnel".

He said that when Hong Kong reverted from British to Chinese rule in 1997, he recalled hearing that the cost of changing the forage cap badges and shoulder-strap rank insignia of the police was somewhere between US$2.5 million and US$4 million.

"Even the lower figure of US$2.5 million at today's exchange rates, all of nearly 15 years later, would be in the order of J$217 million," said Needham.

"In the JCF, apart from all cap badges, from which the St Edward's Crown must be removed, the rank insignia for all gazetted officers will need to be replaced, as all of them contain British royal emblematic factors. Similarly, in the JDF, headdress badges for both caps and berets (ie double the JCF cost per person), as well as all rank insignia for all ranks above sergeant will need replacement, except for some Coast Guard personnel. The same applies to the six battalions of the JCCF," added Needham.

He also pointed to other items that would need to be changed, notably the Queen's and Regimental Colours of each of the three JDF infantry battalions.

"And don't say that these flag-like emblems are not necessary, unless you feel the same way about a preacher's Bible," said Needham.

He said he had heard recently of acceptable quality, but less expensive alternatives. However, "the last time I knew costs from the traditional UK suppliers of these complex, hand-crafted, silk-embroidered items, the six replacements for The Jamaica Regiment would, at that time, have cost about £60,000 or, at today's exchange rates, about J$8 million".

"All these costs are just lead examples," he said, adding that "there are obviously others elsewhere".

Those other costs could include legal bills incurred in what he described as a "massive constitutional change" that is easier said than done.

"My layman's understanding is that at least a six-month parliamentary timetable is required in addition to the holding of a national referendum — and all that after the Government has fully formulated the proposed new republican constitution and presented it to Parliament for debate," he said.

Despite that, Needham is optimistic about the decision which, he pointed out, has been discussed since the 1970s. "If our new prime minister can at least really get things moving, well fine," he said. "However, she has far more immediate priorities, as she has rightly indicated. I suspect that we'll be 'ditching' Her Majesty later rather than sooner."

Prince Harry, the Queen's grandson, is scheduled to represent her on a visit Jamaica in March. His visit, which will be his first to the island, is meant to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee.

January 08, 2012

jamaicaobserver

Caribbean Blog International