Caribbean news now News from the Caribbean: Friday December 19, 2014 Back To Todays News Commentary: Bravo, Pope Francis, a new era in inter-American relationships has begun! Published on December 20, 2014 Email To Friend Print Version By Jean H Charles The anomaly, which is now five decades old (53 years), is on its way to being resolved. The normalization of relationship between Havana and Washington for the good of the United States and the rest of Americas has been sealed by President Barack Obama on Wednesday December 17, 2014, with the good offices of Pope Francis of the Vatican. Jean H Charles LLB, MSW, JD is a syndicated columnist with Caribbean News Now. He can be reached at: jeanhcharles@aol and followed for past essays at Caribbeannewsnow/Haiti More than a dozen UN resolutions, the weight of the American business community, as well as a large portion of the American Congress could not shake the fear of several American presidents to displease the influential Cuban American community of Florida. It has held steadfast that as long as the Castro brothers have been in power in Havana: a normalization of relationship between the two countries and the rest of Latin America shall not take place. The Organization of American States (OAS) should have taken the lead to solve this differently; instead it was the servant of Washington, where indeed it has its headquarters. In several columns in this journal, I have manifested my admiration for, as well as my disgust towards the Castro brothers. “Neither Haiti nor Cuba”. Maintaining an embargo against Cuba since the Eisenhower administration was detrimental not only to Cuba but also to the United States, as well as to the entire Latin American and Caribbean region. The embargo has not been lifted yet, but the veto against its lifting is crumbling. At the heart of the last minutes negotiations was the release of an American prisoner, Mr Alan P Gross, held in prison in Havana for alleged espionage. Three Cuban prisoners in the United States were swapped and the deal was sealed. Haitian President Michel Joseph Martelly played a role in the genesis of that diplomatic reversal. Tipped by Senator Bill Nelson of Florida of the significant determinant of the release of Alan Gross in the negotiation, President Martelly, in his many visits to Havana played his card with Raul Castro in obtaining the releasing of that prisoner, a contractor of USAID. In a column filed in 2007 in Caribbean Net News almost ten years ago: “A roadmap for a coordinated and integrated approach for the Caribbean islands”, I compared the Caribbean region to a locomotive, with the first engines running across the Greater Antilles, being Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. This locomotive could not roll as long as Cuba was being held captive by an embargo imposed by the United States and sustained upon the other nations with legal commercial sanctions by the US Commerce Department. “Starting with the larger Antilles, Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic and Jamaica, combined they represent some 25 million people. By pulling together their market possibility they can motorize the whole region. Raul Castro, René Préval, Lionel Fernandez and Portia Simpson Miller are men and woman of common sense and of practicality. They can accelerate that process as soon as they will understand that intelligent, creative people represent power. Starting with a daily flight from Havana to Cape Haitian and to Port au Prince, the Haitian madam Sara (Women enterprising merchants) can provide to the Cuban citizen the toiletry, the soap and the underwear that are now a luxury. The profusion of necessaries they have been missing for the past fifty years will accelerate the democratization process. In return the madam Sara will have their teeth fixed, their eyes repaired and their bags filled with new revenue. “The synergy of the creativity of some 25 million people will soon create the market place of goods and ideas that will replace the horror of communism in Cuba and the squalor of capitalism in Haiti.” The lifting of the embargo will, after 53 years, unleash the economic and social potential of the region to make the Caribbean Basin surge from its lethargic position of only sun, sand and sea for tourists fleeing the cold season in Europe and in America. Cuba has profited from the embargo to educate its population, a smart Caribbean can profit of this gold mine to mine its natural resources, so each human being of the region could become an entrepreneur happy to remain at home and enrich the legacy left by his forefathers. Credit should be given to President Barack Obama emboldened by the defeat of the Democrats in the last election (a crisis is an excellent opportunity not to be missed) to engage in a sustainable approach such as the immigration reform and the Cuban deal to bring the United States to a new plateau where growth is at the end of the tunnel. Pope Francis has already announced the colors by branding an international conference for and around Haiti in January 2015. This unfortunate and capitalist nation to the core has wasted its natural resources because it did not educate its population. It is languishing in menial jobs that perpetuate the intergenerational misery observed in the countryside and the ghettos of the large cities. Complicating the situation, Haiti is going from crisis to crisis, the last one being the political stalemate between the Haitian Parliament and the executive branch. Six senators from the opposition parties have taken the stand of a win or lose card game with the president not to hold legislative sessions to enshrine the new electoral law leading to general elections. There is a looming deadline of January 12, 2015, when the Parliament will be rendered inquorate and the president will have to rule by decree. A Commission of Consultation empowered by the president to come with recommendations has suggested and the president has accepted to form a new government with new prime minister and a new cabinet. Will this new development leads to a negotiation that will seal the deal like in Cuba? No one knows! Pope Francis might have to intervene early in the next year also in Haiti to make the prospect of the Caribbean locomotive rolling towards prosperity for all in the region. We will need, though, as I said in the article in Caribbean Net News six years ago, “Neither Cuba nor Haiti”: “Socialist Cuba must take the leap towards a true market-driven economy. Haiti – capitalist to the core – must reconcile its majority peasant population with the urban elite, by investing first in the rural sector. That will be the job of the next Haitian government; hopefully the party under which President Michel Martelly won his election – Repons Peyisan – would have learned the lesson: the peasants must come first!
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 04:13:28 +0000
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