A GUY'S VIEW

Viva Fidel

 

The passing parade continues to march before us. This relentless march is an inescapable given, but it sometimes takes centre stage in our minds when a person of significance takes his or her place in the parade.
 
Last week, Fidel Castro, the former President of Cuba, took his place in the parade and left us. He was 90 years old and had moved away from the Presidency a few years ago, so his death was not a shock and neither was his departure devastating to his country’s governance. And yet, several world leaders acknowledged his importance and paid deserved respect.
 
Fidel Castro was probably the most significant leader to emerge in the Caribbean and Latin America since Simon Bolivar. Bolivar liberated Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Panama and Bolivia, the latter of which was named after him, from Spanish rule. Bolivar was a military and political leader. He was able to inspire the creole population in the region where he fought to support him. Castro’s fight came at a different time, in different circumstances and under the nose of his fiercest opponent, but his cause was not very different from that of Bolivar. 
 
When Castro came down from the hills in 1958, he won widespread support among Cubans because his cause was understood as being a just one. Cubans saw him as a liberator from the corruption of Fulgencio Batista, the dictator who was the then leader of Cuba. 
 
Under Batista, Cuba was the playground for the rich and famous of America, as well as underworld figures. However, life for ordinary Cubans was different. The Americans never forgave Castro for disrupting their party. As long as they had their way, it did not matter that Batista was a despot. Towards the end of his famous four-hour speech which he made in his defence after he was arrested for an earlier assault on army barracks, Castro made it clear how he saw Batista:
 
“I come to the close of my defense plea but I will not end it as lawyers usually do, asking that the accused be freed. I cannot ask freedom for myself while my comrades are already suffering in the ignominious prison of the Isle of Pines. Send me there to join them and to share their fate. It is understandable that honest men should be dead or in prison in a Republic where the President is a criminal and a thief.”
 
“History will absolve me,” he said. And it did.
 
At a time when the world was afraid to associate with Castro and Cuba, four small Caribbean countries defied the might of the United States and stood with Castro and his people. Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Barbados set an example that the rest of the world would eventually follow.
 
The position taken by then Prime Minister Errol Barrow on Cuba was nothing more than a demonstration of the philosophy extolled by him in his address to the United Nations on the occasion of Barbados’ admission to that body. In that address, he declared the following policy position by which he stood at all times:
 
“We have no quarrels to pursue and we particularly insist that we do not regard any member state as our natural opponent. We shall not involve ourselves in sterile ideological wrangling because we are exponents not of the diplomacy of power but of the diplomacy of peace and prosperity. We will not regard any great power as necessarily right in a given dispute unless we are convinced of this, yet at the same time we will not view the great powers with perennial suspicion merely on account of their size, their wealth, or their nuclear potential. We are friends of all, satellites of none.”
 
Cuba and America presented clear contrasts in the systems of governance between which Caribbean Governments had to choose. On one hand, there was the most powerful country in the world, which had millions of people who could not access proper health care because they could not afford to pay for it. The quality of education was acceptable, only for those who could pay to be educated privately. In short, the best of everything was available to those with the ability to pay. Caribbean countries were populated by large numbers of poor people.
 
On the other hand, there was Cuba. Blockaded and oppressed, it managed to give its people the best quality of health care available anywhere. All students were freely educated without discrimination based on wealth. Beyond its own people, Cuba was willing to give practical assistance to those in need, whether in Latin America, the Caribbean or in Africa. 
 
Given the history and circumstances of Caribbean jurisdictions, it is not surprising that their progressive leaders found what Castro was doing attractive. However, practicality dictated that they could not go all the way with Cuba’s model. When Cheddi Jagan tried to go that road in Guyana, the British Marines invaded and removed him from office. Small, vulnerable Caribbean states always had to live under the shadow of the powerful who would not be disinterested in the true independence of these states.
 
Almost all Commonwealth Caribbean states adopted a diluted form of socialism. They all knew that capitalism as practiced in the United States would not be beneficial for their people. They pursued a hybrid form of governance that sought to meet the needs of their people without incurring the wrath of the superpower in whose shadow they lived. 
 
In the 1970s, Castro deployed thousands of troops to fight for the liberation of Angola. A United States backed South African offensive was repelled, only because of the Cuban fighters. When Nelson Mandela visited Cuba in 1991, he said, “We admire the achievements of the Cuban Revolution in the sphere of social welfare. We note that the transformation from a country of imposed backwardness to universal literacy. We acknowledge your advances in the fields of health, education and science.
 
There are many things we learn from your experience. In particular, we are moved by your affirmations of the historical connections with the continent and people of Africa. Your consistent commitment to the systematic eradication of racism is unparalleled. But the most important lesson that you have for us is that no matter what the odds, no matter under what difficulties you have, you had to struggle. There can be no surrender. It is a case of freedom or death…
 
We are humbled and full of emotion to be here. We have come here today recognising our great debt to the Cuban people. What other country has such a history of selfless behaviour as Cuba has shown for the people of Africa? How many countries benefit from Cuban health care professionals and educators? How many of these volunteers are now in Africa? What country has ever needed help from Cuba and has not received it? How many countries threatened by imperialism or fighting for their freedom have been able to count on the support of Cuba?”
 
Viva Fidel.

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