ON THIS day before Christmas, I take the opportunity to share some brief thoughts with readers on a few of the more significant regional and international political developments that undoubtedly would impact on our own ways of life in this western hemisphere, perhaps from as early as the latter half of 2015.
Foremost would be the announcement last Wednesday by United States President Barack Obama of his authorised decision for ending 53 years of political, economic and cultural embargo by the United States against Cuba.
That’s the four-letter name of this small, proud revolutionary island nation which a quartet of Caribbean Community states – Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago – had initially succeeded in rescuing from the punishing diplomatic cold to which it had been ruthlessly relegated by superpower United States under the presidency of John F. Kennedy.
Now a sobering distinction needs to be noted, one that contrasts with President Obama’s smooth announcement last week of the accord reached with Cuba’s President Raul Castro, on the renewal of full diplomatic ties between Washington and Havana.
The distinction is that both houses of the United States Congress must be willing to lift the stifling, iron-clad legislation governing the trade, economic and financial embargo against Cuba.
The embargo, routinely overwhelmingly condemned annually at successive meetings of the United Nations General Assembly, has caused losses of billions of dollars to Cuba amid deep human suffering. Yet, to their eternal credit, the great mass of Cubans have declined to genuflect to “Uncle Sam”.
Currently, Obama is understandably the recipient of some deserved credit for resumption of diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba. This development has been enabled by Canada – which has maintained a special relationship with Cuba since the Fidel Castro-led revolution in 1959 – as well as Pope Francis, Latin America’s first pope.
However, despite the reassuring rhetoric from President Obama’s White House, the reality is that the conservative anti-Cuba Republican hawks, whose party now controls the majority in both the House of Representatives and Senate, seem anxious to demonstrate a political defeat for the current tenant of the White House by opposing any initiative to lift the embargo.
‘Non-negotiable’
For his part, President Castro has firmly declared that Cuba’s communist-oriented political system of governance will remain “non-negotiable” while “obectively” cooperating with Washington to improve relations and promote international peace and economic cooperation.
In the new year, this column will focus on another important political issue of international concern for peaceful development that dates back four decades and one about which CARICOM governments and non-governmental organisations continue to maintain active interest.
It is the elusive quest for peace between Israel and Palestine for a two-state solution, with defined borders, including the return of Palestinian territory taken by Israel during the 1967 war – a conflict that continues to remain bloody and costly and with the United States and Britain, historical allies of Israel, currently revealing sentiments in favour of new peace initiatives that could unravel in 2016, if not late next year.
Currently diplomatic envoys from both Palestine and Israel are engaged in lobbying initiatives, including with Caribbean nations, on a draft resolution by Jordan.