IN AND OUT of the Christmas season, Bajans routinely use cricketing metaphors to get their points across.
“Leave that ball alone outside the off-stump,” they advise when urging caution.
But Kofi Annan, an unquestionable foreign affairs superstar, who led the United Nations with aplomb almost a decade ago, opted for a boxing phrase when he spoke in Barbados a decade or so ago about the small state with a mountain of international influence.
Barbados, he said, often “punched above its weight,” meaning its influence far outdistanced its size.
If asked today to explain what he had in mind, chances are Annan would point to the part Barbados and its neighbours played in the dramatic and historic step taken the other day by US President Barack Obama to normalise relations with Cuba after more than a half century of a failed effort to make the Spanish-speaking republic an international economic and social pariah.
For it was Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, and their neighbours that first began the long and arduous campaign in the 1970s across the Western hemisphere to bring Cuba back into the region’s economic mainstream. And they did that in the face of stiff opposition from several South and Central American countries, which are now taking the credit for getting Washington to change its economic course.
The hard part is that outside of the English-speaking Caribbean, few institutions and people are giving the island-nations any credit at all for the recent developments.
As Gaston Browne, CARICOM’s chairman and Antigua’s prime minister, explained immediately after Obama’s dramatic announcement about the shift in US policy, it was the “relentless calls” by CARICOM leaders dating back to 1972 that eventually helped to pushed Washington from its Cold War diplomatic cocoon and into a more pragmatic stance, showing that Cuba didn’t pose a threat to America’s peace, security and economic prosperity.
By any measure Cuba under Dr Fidel Castro and now his brother Raul Castro has been a strategic and generous ally of the Caribbean. It has provided vital technical assistance to the Eastern Caribbean and others in the region.
It has helped to train doctors and other health care professionals; provided engineers to plan infrastructural projects; and never sought to use its muscle to impose its political will and policies on the countries next door.
In turn, the islands and a succession of their leaders, beginning with Errol Barrow, Barbados’ first Prime Minister, and the other English-speaking Caribbean heads of government of that era consistently rejected Washington’s heavy-handedness aimed at getting the region to abandon its Cuban neighbour.
The established diplomatic ties with Havana argued for Cuba’s involvement in the Inter-American Development Bank and spoke out against the immoral and unfair economic embargo Washington imposed against Cuba.
A hallmark of Cuba’s economic policies has been consistency, even after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War deprived it of much the financial support from Moscow that was needed to keep its Cuban economy afloat.
Yes, times became tough but Cuba offered a helping hand in education and health, not simply to the Caribbean but to African states which were fighting poverty, disease and internal strife.
Right now, Cuba remains the largest single provider of technical and other assistance to African states which are in a life and death struggle against the ravages of the Ebola virus. Had it not been for the doctors, nurses and technicians from Cuba, more people would have died.
The 50-plus year trade blockade is a case in point. It has done considerable damage to the Cuban economy and the 11 million nationals on the island.
The Cold War relic made little sense and when Obama spoke about the major shift in Cuban policy, he conceded that Washington’s approach hadn’t worked. What the US couldn’t effectively explain was why it had agreed to economic détente with Vietnam where at least 50 000 Americans died fighting a tragic war but couldn’t bring itself to accept Cuba as a trading partner.
Washington embraced China and its communist government; agreed to allow American investors to put their money into Russia; but couldn’t bring itself to remove Cuba from the diplomatic deep freeze or dog house.
For his part, Obama has moved in a comprehensive way to change the course of history. He could have adopted baby-steps, if you will, but instead has agreed to expand commercial banking ties; boost communications systems; promote private sector investment; eliminate many barriers to travel; and is giving the green light to Americans interested in buying some Cuban-made goods, especially its cigars. These will help Cuba, the US, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Clearly, though, we shouldn’t underestimate the depth of the opposition from America’s right-wing forces in and out of the Republican Party and on Capitol Hill to Obama’s plans.
We can expect Republican attempts to cut off funds for the proposed American embassy in Washington and may even block the confirmation of any nominee for the ambassador’s position in Havana.
It wouldn’t come as a surprise if they attempt to use existing law to keep the economic embargo in place. In addition, they may even attempt to block any relaxation of the restrictions placed on travel to and from Cuba to the US.
But the administration must show the intestinal fortitude which encouraged it to change the long-standing policy. Public opinion polls show that a significant majority of Americans want better relations with Cuba and like-minded people from the Caribbean who live and work in the US must let their Congressional representatives know that Obama’s policies are in the country’s best interest.
Caribbean immigrants must write to their federal and state representatives urging them to back the White House in its campaign of change that would benefit the Caribbean.
