The Caribbean and Cuba: Cuba and the Caribbean--A Reflection
22/02/2012
- Opinión
[…] On this occasion* I am going to be deliberately provocative. The question I want to put is: Is the Caribbean further from Cuba, than Cuba is from the Caribbean? Clearly I am not speaking in the geographic sense. The maps are the same, whatever the language.
Or politically. Political relations are as warm as they have been in 40 years of diplomatic relations. Cuba-Caricom summits are held every three years; the most recent only a few months ago. Caricom nations routinely condemn the U.S. blockade of Cuba. And just three years ago, Fidel Castro was honoured with the Order of the Caribbean Community—the first, and so far the only, non-national of Caricom to receive this honour.
In the field of technical cooperation; hundreds of Caricom nationals are studying on full scholarship in Cuba; and hundreds of Cubans are serving in Caricom countries as teachers, doctors and other health care professionals.
People in Caricom have noted, with great appreciation, the enormous contribution being made by Cuban medical personnel in Haiti; both before and since the earthquake of January 2010.
Equally, Caricom citizens will never forget the sacrifices made by the Cuban people to defeat and eliminate the scourge of apartheid from the African continent. A sacrifice paid in the blood of hundreds of Cuban fighters. No, we will never forget that.
Rather, my question “Is the Caribbean further from Cuba, than Cuba is from the Caribbean?”, speaks to issues of identity and self-definition.
[…]
* Remarks at the Panel: “El Caribe y Cuba a 40 años de relaciones diplomáticas” and presentation of the book El Caribe a 50 Años de la Revolución Cubana, selected and compiled by Milagros Martínez y Jacqueline Laguardia (pub. Editorial Nuevo Milenio), at the International Book Fair, Havana, February 11, 2012.
- Norman Girvan is Professorial Research Fellow at the UWI Graduate Institute of International Relations at the University of the West Indies in St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago. http://normangirvan.info. Former Secretary General of the Association of Caribbean States.
https://www.alainet.org/es/node/155999
Del mismo autor
- A Tribute to Hugo Chavez—Cimmarón Bolivariano 19/12/2013
- CARICOM could politically and economically isolate the Dominican Republic 10/12/2013
- Constructing the Greater Caribbean 09/10/2013
- The Caribbean Court of Justice makes a landmark decision 07/10/2013
- Grenada—The Killing of a Revolution 01/10/2013
- Reinventing the Caricom Single Market and Economy 29/09/2013
- Real alternative to neoliberal development or just another intellectual fashion? 25/05/2013
- ‘Differentiation’, the Dependency Syndrome and the ‘Begging Bowl’ Revisited 31/03/2013
- Tiempos kafkianos: el hombre bloqueado por una autoridad que no se revela 16/02/2013
- Internet restrictions target political activism 04/02/2013
Clasificado en
Clasificado en:
