"The birth and death of a fake man-made feud"
Alberto N. Jones
June 20, 2011
In 1999, it became evident that the United States through its Cuban-American surrogates in south Florida, was introducing a new strategy in their efforts to undermine the Cuban government.
Having identified a substantial demographic shift in favor of Afro-Cubans in the early 90’s, a growing economical crisis following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the existence of only a nominal amount of Afro-Cubans living abroad able to help family members with remittances, created the perfect mix for their proselytizing projects to take root in Cuba.
Aggravating these factors, was a forceful push by Cubans of Hispanic ancestry to co-opt every job earning hard currency in Cuba, monopolize most promotions, travels abroad, improved living conditions, cars and all other material benefits, further deepening the racial and social divide.
Coincidentally, a well intended program in the 2000’s with an unforeseen adverse consequence, consisted of providing emigrants and descendent from Spain, China, Arabs and Israel with humanitarian assistance from their respective countries or organizations abroad, while no similar humanitarian assistance existed for those of African ancestry.
These combined factors created the right broth in which, a number of anti-Castro Afro-Cubans in and outside of Cuba proliferated exuberantly, some of whom, were recruited as US-AID operatives and front foundations, all with a multiprong, heavily funded, subversive program, determined to exacerbate racial divisions, civil unrest and to erode the Cuban government support base.
Tens of unknown Afro-Cubans until then, such as Dr. Elias Biscet, Dr. Darsi Ferrer, Jorge Luis Garcia Perez, Vladimiro Roca, Guillermo Farinas and others, replaced well established White Cuban dissidents Osvaldo Paya, Elizardo Sanchez and others.
Suddenly, the Cuban American National Foundation, Alpha 66, Unidad Cubana, Cuban Liberty Council and other lily white counterrevolutionary groups, failed the melanin litmus test and were pushed aside by the US State Department.
Many Afro-Cubans living in Cuba, were acutely aware of these growing inequalities, which they confronted initially through intellectual gatherings, writings and visual arts, as they navigated a slippery slope, by avoiding all confrontation with the Cuban government or for creating a perception of being a resonance box for those bent on fomenting internal conflict.
Tens of thousands of people in this hemisphere, who may have escaped death or injury in a potential race war, shall forever be grateful to the vision and tireless work of Dr. Wayne Smith, Senior Fellow at the Center For International Policy, Washington, D.C., who organized a number of educational seminars on these burning and potentially dangerous issues in the United States.
The first International Conference on this matter, “Views of the Afro-Cuban Community, was organized at Barry University, Miami, 1998.
An expanded and more complex second International Conference, “Afro-Cubans in Cuban society, Past, Present and Future” took place at the John Hopkins University, Washington D. C. in 1999.
The Third International Conference, “Questions on Racial Identity, Racism and Anti-Racist Policies in Cuba Today“, was hosted by the Center For International Policy at the University of California, Washington Center on June 2, 2011, which lived up to the highest expectation of participants from Cuba and from across the United States, after a twelve year hiatus.
A profound and thorough historical description about the evolution of racism in Cuba by two excellent, well documented visiting Cuban scholars, was enlightening and defining. A myriad of questions from the audience followed each panel, requiring at times, that questions had to be grouped, in order to fit within our tight time constraints.
The past was discussed, the present was dissected and the future has begun to be plotted with all factors in Cuba, knowing that it success is contingent on our ability to bring together every person of goodwill from around the world, in this unprecedented, corrective, transformative, far reaching project, which will inexorably turn Cuba into a beacon of social equality and road map for others to follow.
Cuba, like no other country in the world, have contributed enormous human and material resources for the development of health, education, sports and culture in tens of countries in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and on Blacks in Cuba.
Much, much more must be done, if the victims of slavery, colonialism, ignorance, segregation and other forms of injustices, are ever to achieve their full emancipation, development and equality, new concepts must be developed and implemented immediately.
The new economical development direction that was presented and approved by the VI Congress of the Communist Party in Cuba, laid out the groundwork for what may become, a complete restructuring of its political, administrative and management of the nation’s economy.
The convergence of these separate national and international interests, may become the catalyst our nation needs to achieve its full potential, by joining forces with the underdeveloped world in unleashing the enormous human resource capabilities accumulated in Cuba and elsewhere, on behalf of millions of people who have been victimized for five centuries.
For years, millions of our nation most loyal and unconditional supporters, have been overlooked and ignored, presumably because of their limited financial resources and therefore, their inability to participate in large joint ventures with which, the country has been engaged for more than two decades.
Today, these new development opens our country, to its most interesting development opportunity ever, in which, tens of thousands of minorities from around the world, who have stood steadfast by our nation during its most challenging times, are enthused, willing and waiting to be called upon, to share their modest resources and expertise, with our incipient Mom and Pop, small and medium size enterprises in Cuba.
Here too, Cuba can conceive a new transnational, minority enterprise development in which, the forgotten and excluded of this world, may find a head-start, a true affirmative action that is capable of breaking the yoke of dependency for themselves and their country, by turning this fake, sick, man-made racial feud into a true international solidarity movement.
Unable to thank publicly thousands of intellectuals and ordinary peace loving people in and outside of Cuba, who dedicated their lives to this just cause of building bridges of understanding, harmony and respect among the US and Cuba, they can rejoice, as the fruits of their sacrifice is now within reach.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Saturday, May 14, 2011
My African Pilgrimage. Part I
"My African Pilgrimage, Part I"
Alberto N. Jones
May 14, 2011
On Saturday April 23rd, I began a lifetime dream at the Miami International Airport, as I departed on a long journey to Africa from where our ancestors were forcefully kidnapped five centuries ago.
Kept in bondage for over three hundred years in their newly acquired country in the new world, they were never compensated for their sweat, tears, blood and deaths, building everything visible and invisible around us and finally released into racism, segregation and ignorance 150 years ago.
Our seven-man delegation arrived at 5:00 AM at the Leopold S. Senghor International Airport in Dakar, Senegal after an 11 hour flight, where we were warmly greeted with a Welcome Home!! by an efficient and friendly immigration and customs personnel.
After picking up our bags, we got our first taste of the country financial ills, as a number of people struggled to carry our bags, begged for money and the general environment was in urgent need of upkeep.Before arriving at our hotel, we stopped at the enormous, 27 million dollar, 170 foot-tall bronze statute on a hill top with three superimposed figures representing the fresh start African countries made when they declared independence 50 years ago, which have drawn criticism from every sector, especially for not evoking African themes and for having outsourced this entire project to a Korean construction firm, in a country with 50% unemployment.
The hotel was nice with a number of amenities, but once you stepped out beyond its boundaries, there were tens of thousands of people huddled against buildings walls with huge assortment of handcrafts, garments, food, supplies, parts or equipment for sale, where potential customers negotiated, bargained, coerced or left, pressuring for better prices.
Some basic statistics:
Independence April 4, 1960
Area 198,840 Km2
Population 12.3 Million
Without reliable drinking water 31%
Undernourished 17%
Longevity 59 years%
Infant mortality 58%
Illiteracy 59%
Secondary school enrollment 11%
GDP 12.6 Billion
Annual Per Capita 1,900 dollars
Employment, primarily in service 56%
Below poverty line ($1.25/day) 34%
USAID 2009 119.9 Millions
Socio-economic world standing 144 among 169 nations
As dramatic as these numbers are, they represent a national average. If these were applied solely to the countryside or the periphery of Dakar, which are overflowing with crowded huts without running water, sewer, electricity, open drainage filled with rotting, stagnating water, garbage and every hazardous microorganism, these stats would be far worse.
A visit to a Fulani village in the desert, took us back in time to the X century. Scattered thatched huts in a barren terrain headed by a chief, while most adults are engaged in survival agriculture, fishing or worst, working at the Pink Lake, the most horrendous job on earth.This shallow body of water takes a pink hue under bright sun light in which, hundreds of wooden boats with 2-3 men on board, armed with long shovels, digs up a very salty sand which is deposited into their boats and when they are full, are rowed to the shoreline.
There the cargo is transferred into large tubs weighing over 100 pounds each, that an army of women haul on their heads and deposit on dry land forming mounds that are left to dry in the sun and for which they are paid in kind, one bag of salt for every ten delivered.
This is how, this cruel, sub-human enterprise, which has never been investigated by the United Nations Human Right Commission, enables wealthy, powerful, self-righteous Europe to acquire all the salt they need to deice their slippery, snow laden roadways in winter, without ever asking at what human cost.
Senegal has had a longstanding close relations with western countries and it is France key ally in Africa. Senegal was an anti-Communist bastion during the cold war and have contributed Peace Keeping forces to Haiti, Democratic Republic of Congo, Darfur, Liberia, Ivory Coast and others.
Tens of thousands of Senegalese soldiers fought and died alongside France in WWI whose efforts and courage was not recognized nor paid veterans benefits until 2006.
A shocking visit to a fishing village, revealed hundreds of brightly colored canoes beached or unloading tons of the day catch, as thousands of people buys, clean, puts in carts or on their heads in frightening unsanitary condition, loads of fish that are rushed out of the area, hoping to find buyers who can help them survive their financial crisis.
But worse was yet to come. The following morning after a 30 minutes ferry ride from Dakar, we landed on the infamous Goree Island, one of the 3 or 4 similar slave concentration camps that under orders of the United Nations, are preserved and serve as a grim reminder of the estimated 20 millions slaves that were forcefully ripped away from their lands, incarcerated, beaten, raped, died or were sent through the Door of No Return.
As we tour this 23 hectare island of unpaved roads and ally, government buildings, numerous churches of various denominations, business, defensive forts and the slave holding fort, it is easy to recreate the wicked mind of those who conceived this monstrosity.
After crossing a lift bridge over a body of shark infested waters, one enters a hall that leads to an open courtyard. Surrounding this courtyard were a variety of cells for males, females, infants, recalcitrant, death, a chapel and a tunnel leading to the Door of No Return.
Males cells appeared to be approximately 20x10 feet, with no lighting and a single ventilation opening of approximately 1 ½ x 1 ½ feet for 150 slaves. A shallow gutter close to the wall doubled as a toilet. All slaves would be taken out for one hour in the evenings while the area was flushed out with sea water. Slaves weighing less than 60 kilos were not shipped out, assuming they would not endure the two months journey.
Females cells were larger for 400 slaves. Recalcitrant cell was a small hole in the wall with no ventilation, which was used for any slave difficult to handle, who would refuse orders or talk back. Any slave who fought back was forced into a similar but smaller cell, where he would be locked-up without food or water and condemned to a horrible death from thirst in 3-4 days. All slaves severely ill or dead, were thrown in the shark infested sea outside the walls of the fort.
Because of a host of tropical diseases, most Europeans were single males, leading to widespread rape by the prison guards. The governor’s living quarters was large, spacious, airy and located on the second floor, from where he occasionally would stand on the balcony to review all nude slave females, choose one, who would be bathed and sent up a back stairs to his room.
Those who got pregnant were released from the dungeon into farm-type camps, where their mulatto offspring would be born, sent to school and later allowed to work in the household as “house slave”, further dividing the slave community.
My personal assessment of the socio-economic situation of Senegal is a that of a very complex, intractable social stagnation, that whatever political, social, economic or religious policies have been in place since 1960, have proven to be incapable of addressing the basic needs of its society.
Rampant hunger, poverty, illiteracy, lack of healthcare, widespread transmissible diseases, unemployment and lack of development demands a different approach to fulfill the hopes and expectation of its population.
Because tens of thousands of slaves shipped to all Caribbean islands may have been held in these infamous dungeon at any given time, Cuba has a moral obligation to share its solidarity and expertise with the descendents of those victims, by helping them improve their health, education, sports and culture.
Equally important could be an economical boost that Cuba could provide to Senegal, by importing its surplus fisheries with insufficient market and/or by installing a fish sub-product plant, which could provide employment to hundreds, as we set an example for the rest of the world and begin erasing our unpayable debt of gratitude to Africa.
But worse was yet to come. The following morning after a 30 minutes ferry ride from Dakar, we landed on the infamous Goree Island, one of the 3 or 4 similar slave concentration camps that under orders of the United Nations, are preserved and serve as a grim reminder of the estimated 20 millions slaves that were forcefully ripped away from their lands, incarcerated, beaten, raped, died or were sent through the Door of No Return.
As we tour this 23 hectare island of unpaved roads and ally, government buildings, numerous churches of various denominations, business, defensive forts and the slave holding fort, it is easy to recreate the wicked mind of those who conceived this monstrosity.
After crossing a lift bridge over a body of shark infested waters, one enters a hall that leads to an open courtyard. Surrounding this courtyard were a variety of cells for males, females, infants, recalcitrant, death, a chapel and a tunnel leading to the Door of No Return.
Males cells appeared to be approximately 20x10 feet, with no lighting and a single ventilation opening of approximately 1 ½ x 1 ½ feet for 150 slaves. A shallow gutter close to the wall doubled as a toilet. All slaves would be taken out for one hour in the evenings while the area was flushed out with sea water. Slaves weighing less than 60 kilos were not shipped out, assuming they would not endure the two months journey.
Females cells were larger for 400 slaves. Recalcitrant cell was a small hole in the wall with no ventilation, which was used for any slave difficult to handle, who would refuse orders or talk back. Any slave who fought back was forced into a similar but smaller cell, where he would be locked-up without food or water and condemned to a horrible death from thirst in 3-4 days. All slaves severely ill or dead, were thrown in the shark infested sea outside the walls of the fort.
Because of a host of tropical diseases, most Europeans were single males, leading to widespread rape by the prison guards. The governor’s living quarters was large, spacious, airy and located on the second floor, from where he occasionally would stand on the balcony to review all nude slave females, choose one, who would be bathed and sent up a back stairs to his room.
Those who got pregnant were released from the dungeon into farm-type camps, where their mulatto offspring would be born, sent to school and later allowed to work in the household as “house slave”, further dividing the slave community.
My personal assessment of the socio-economic situation of Senegal is a that of a very complex, intractable social stagnation, that whatever political, social, economic or religious policies have been in place since 1960, have proven to be incapable of addressing the basic needs of its society.
Rampant hunger, poverty, illiteracy, lack of healthcare, widespread transmissible diseases, unemployment and lack of development demands a different approach to fulfill the hopes and expectation of its population.
Because tens of thousands of slaves shipped to all Caribbean islands may have been held in these infamous dungeon at any given time, Cuba has a moral obligation to share its solidarity and expertise with the descendents of those victims, by helping them improve their health, education, sports and culture.
Equally important could be an economical boost that Cuba could provide to Senegal, by importing its surplus fisheries with insufficient market and/or by installing a fish sub-product plant, which could provide employment to hundreds, as we set an example for the rest of the world and begin erasing our unpayable debt of gratitude to Africa.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
A Macabre Assault on the Poor
"A Macabre Assault on the Poor"
Alberto N Jones
April 10, 2011
On August 11, 2006, the Department of Homeland Security announced, in conjunction with the Department of State, that it would allow Cuban medical personnel conscripted to study or work in a third country under the direction of the Cuban government, to enter the United States under a new program known as the Cuban Medical Professional Parole (CMPP) program.
Among the aspects contained in its guidelines are:
- What is the statutory authority that allows the Department of Homeland Security to parole Cubans into the
- How does Cuban Medical Professional qualify for consideration of parole?
- Who are Cuban Medical Professionals?
- Are family members eligible to enter the
- What should interested persons be required to submit?
Although there are precedents of similar despicable attacks against the Cuban people such as, the Peter Pan Program which literally kidnapped 14,000 teenagers out of Cuba in the early sixties and the revolting efforts to keep six year old, shipwreck Elian Gonzalez against the wishes of his father and grandparents in Miami, most refused to believe, that such a revolting conspiracy could be enacted forty years later.
Once this sinister plan began to yield its first fruits, Cuban medical professionals who had defected from a number of countries in the Caribbean, Latin America or as far as
Most if not all of the new emigrants, expressed their profound gratitude to the
Because I was born and lived in a thatched roof hut without electricity, running water, sewer, jobs, schools or healthcare in Banes, our Cuban Soweto, I could relate easily to the harm that was being done to the poorest and weakest of the world.
Independent, reputable institutions such as the Pan American Health Organization, the World Health Organization, MEDICC, ex President Bill Clinton and others, have written tens of reports, which reflects how tens of millions of people in four continents have received clinical, surgical, maternal, dental, physical rehabilitation, genetic, eye surgery, immunizations, high tech diagnosis and others, free of charge.
Horrified by this criminal enticement of Cuban healthcare workers around the world with all sorts of inducements for them to abandon their patients and migrate to the US and become part of the American way of life with all of its wealth, glamour and freedoms, led me to publish "A Monstrous and Wicked Worldwide Attack on the Poor" 3/11/07.
Although hard figures are not readily available of the success or not of this well funded project, some reports suggests that between 1000-1500 physicians and 3 times as many other healthcare professionals have joined and most are living in south Florida.
The other tragic side of this horror story, is that once these professionals arrive in the United States, the ringleaders are no where to be found and then it is when they are confronted with the intractable American Medical Association or AMA requirements, Florida Medical Association and the State Regulatory Institutions with their near insurmountable legal barriers, regulations, boards exam, language barrier, hospital residence, financial supports, living quarters etc., which many have not been able to overcome in 10 or 15 years of struggle, frustration and bitterness.
Granted that no job should be seen as demeaning, it is nevertheless heartbreaking to see highly qualified and respected professionals, researchers, professors in
The US Department of State has proven once again, its absolute ignorance of historical facts and an ingrained recidivist character flaws. In 1962 and in order to create havoc, this department orchestrated the migration of 3500 physicians out of a total of 6000 in
And today, when
An article entitled "Hush, Hush the Scandal: US Program against Cuban Medical Assistance," Ichirino worldpress.com 4/3/11 just adds to other failures in the month of April, in which the
Saturday, April 9, 2011
No Justice for Latin America's Most Wanted Terrorist
"No Justice for Latin America's Most Wanted Terrorist"
Alberto N Jones
April 9, 2011
In a regrettable travesty of the United States judicial system, Luis Posada Carriles, a long time CIA operative with an extensive curriculum in torture, terror, conspiracy and murder in the United States, Honduras, Guatemala, el Salvador, Venezuela and Cuba, was acquitted yesterday in El paso, Texas, adding another blot to US battered image in its war against terror.
Since entering the
Yet, his most heinous crime, revolves around masterminding the mid-air explosion of a Cubana airliner off the coast of
Although these issues were made public during his trial through ample documentation, eye witnesses and legal findings, Judge Kathleen Cardone and the Jurors chose to ignore all 11 counts of illegal entry and his well documented crimes.
Prior to his trial, Posada Carriles spoke openly of his deeds on every Spanish speaking AM radio stations and TV talk shows in Miami, gave interviews to national media, provided tape recorded interviews for books and investigative journalism, confident of his protection and of the positive outcome of his day in court.
It is extremely difficult to reconcile shoe bomber Richard Reed life sentence with no possibility of parole and threeconsecutive life sentences in his failed terrorist attempt, while Posada Carriles was found not guilty, in numerous successful terrorist attacks.
Monday, July 12, 2010
A Museum with a Tarnished Past
"A Museum with a Tarnished Past"
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Alberto N Jones
July 12, 2010
“Museum plans recovery” (7/12/10), is a beautiful letter to the editor of the Daytona Beach News-Journal written by Ms Barbara C. Coleman, President of the board of directors of the Museum of Arts and Sciences of Daytona Beach, in which she deplores an act of vandalism that took place in the month of June against this important cultural institution, where several items were damaged, including a painting of Thomas Paine.
Ms. Coleman also argued strongly in favor of the museum’s mission to inspire and serve the citizens of this community, which will not be stopped by the acts of one thoughtless individual.
Apparently Ms. Coleman is not aware of the full fledge, detailed, front page article “A bit of Cuba in Daytona” written by Ms. Laura Stewart in the News-Journal on June 13, 2008, painfully describing how tens of pieces of paintings, ceramics, photo-murals and sculptures by some of Cuba’s most renowned artists, which are valued at tens of millions of dollars, have been illegally and cruelly withheld by MOAS for over 50 years, depriving millions of children in Cuba of their culture.
How can this institution attempt to enlighten our community by providing monthly free admission to our residents over a cool glass of lemonade, while trafficking in stolen pieces of arts that have generated millions of dollars for this institution, forced law enforcement institutions to ignore this crime and turned our intelligentsia into accomplices?
Central Florida and the world for that matter, will not be a better place until we garner the courage, moral values and principles, to apologize, return these ill-gotten items to their legitimate owners and become a beacon of dignity to our peers and our children.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Regret - "It has always been easier to identify a liar than a lame."
Dear editors,
It is with deep regret, that I read this morning "Activists Use the Blogosphere to Fight Racism Against Afro-Cubans" in the American Chronicle by Ms Deborah Gabriel and "The Fight Against Racism in Cuba goes Viral" by Ms Marlie Hall in the Grio.
Although I am not a journalist, lecturer or an employee of any of the US government agencies, masked or unmasked foundations bent on unleashing a race war in Cuba, I would like to share with you, a bit of my personal experience, having lived 60% of my 70 years of age in Cuba and the rest in the US.
For the past 20 years when segregation and racism, -which most had presumed dead since it was outlawed in 1959-, raised its dirty head again in Cuba, many, including myself have steadfastly denounced its presence in a positive, constructive fashion.
Since the late 90's, when hostile forces to the Cuban government identified a substantial demographic shift in Cuba, in which some studies have placed blacks and mixed race as high as 62%, all counterrevolutionary efforts in south Florida geared at overthrowing the Cuban government, re-directed their strategy of using the All White Cuban American National Foundation, Alpha 66, CORU and hundredes of similar groups, which had rejected and denied the participations of any blacks willing to join their groups.
In fact, prominent Radio Talk Show host, the late Agustin Tamargo said on his highly popular Mesa Revuelta on Radio Mambi 710 AM in Miami, that Fidel Castro government had survived thirty years of relentless warfare, only because of the strong presence of blacks in the Cuban Armed Forces and in his personal security, for which he demanded a Three Days License upon the collapse of that government, to dole out retribution to the Afro-Cuban community for their past deeds.
In order to achieve their goals, many Afro-Cubans with apparent leadership capabilities in the US, were recruited and trained in civil dissobedience, human rights and other teachings in some predominantly Black Universities in the US and even at the Martin Luther King Center in Atlanta. These individuals in turn, were instructed to recruit predominantly Afro-Cubans in Cuba and with endless funds coming from US-AID through numerous foundations, they created hundredes of groups with flashy names such as Independent Journalist, Independent Farmers, Indepenednt Librarians and Independent Everything Else.
Are any of these writers, Afro-Americans, Caribbean and Latin-America intellectuales who signed the spurious letter "Acting on our Conscience" aware of these strategy, statements, plans and developments of these apparently innocuous groups fighting racism in Cuba, who are all on the payroll of foreign governments and institutions?
Are any of these very objective, investigative journalists willing to interview members of the Afro-American and Central America inmigrant community in Miami, in order to determine the virtues and values that governs the elitist, racist mentality of the Cuban-American community in Miami?
My deep concern and opposition to this divisive strategy stems from our Afro-Cubans bitter life experience. Similar to many of today's concerned Afro-Cubans, who are supposedly angry with many ongoing inequalities in Cuba, were others in the past, whose actions led to tragic consequences.
Martin Morua Delgado, an Afro-Cuban intellectual, who occupied a high ranking position in the neo-colonial government in the early XX century, assumed a policy that mimicks much of what we are seeing today, which lead to the enactment of laws by the racist government of General Jose Miguel Gomez, that deprived Blacks of many of their rights, which, with the support of the United States Department of State and Defense, enabled that government to launch a retallatory attack against members of the Independent Party of Color in 1912, where 6000 of its members and innocent bystanders were brutally murdered, mutilated and their bodies desecrated in Guantanamo, Santiago de Cuba and Songo-La Maya.
These are irrefutable facts, not gossip. There is nothing personal in my opposition to Dr. Carlos Moore et. al., divisive tactics, except a well founded fear, that his actions may lead to the re-enactment of the race war that took place in Cuba 100 years ago, in a country without any clear racial demarcation. We, on the other hand, are demanding this horrific act be made public in its entirety, the victims honored and an apology is overdue.
These very broad injustices are what we must defend with our pens and intellect! Anyone hoping to rise to prominence or wealth, should earn that with his/her personal attributes, not by turning our pain, suffering and abuses into ladders to reach undeserved heights.
The plight of Blacks is worldwide and not limited to Cuba. What have motivated and suddenly kept awake so many black intellectuals over the sufferings of Blacks in Cuba, while totally ignoring the viscious murder of 500 of our youths last year in Chicago?
I am further annoyed with some of the of Dr. Carlos Moore behaviour because, like myself, we both were born on sugarcane plantations owned by US corporations in Cuba, where we were forced to live in thatched huts without electricity, running water, sewer, schools, healthcare or jobs and to see his thinking coincide with policies of some of our former slave-masters, be it the Diaz-Balart, Ros-Lethinen, David Rivera, Bacardi's, Fanjuls, Mel Martinez and thousands of others, who did not allow us to walk on their streets after dark, created a separate aisle for us in public squares and barred us from holding only menial jobs of picking up their trash, cooking, cleaning and raising their children, is beyond my imagination.
Many, many wrongs has to be fixed in Cuba, but our country should never return to that nightmarish, oppresive society.
Facts, not word will help to put things into perspective. While the Cuban Army fought for the independence of Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe, demolished Apartheid in South Africa and freed Nelson Mandela and his brothers in Arms from Robin Island, tens of Cuban-Americans in south Florida brag about their stoic battle flying helicopters and fighter jets against "Cuban Mercenaries" in the southern cone of Africa and it is said, that Dr. Carlos Moore, was on the other side of this battle field, as an aide to Holden Roberto, a known CIA operative.
As our small organization travelled tens of thousands of miles across Florida begging and collecting unwanted, but usable discarded personal, medical and educational goods, which we have sent primarily to Afro-Cubans and emigrants and descendents from every Caribbean islands living in Guantananamo, Santiago de Cuba and Banes , none of those denouncing the Cuban government, have ever responded to our numerous pleas for an aspirin, a walker, a wheelchair or a blanket for our brothers in dire need.
Actions, not words is what I have learned to believe in. Writing articles, selling books, lecturing or going on TV is great, if your concerns are not about a hungry baby, a dying elderly or an illiterate person.
If this sounds like a defense of the Cuban government, let it be. But until these theoriticians are unwilling to spend some time helping the needy in Cabrina Greens, Liberty City and Overtown in Miami, North Jacksonville in Florida, Detroit, earthquake ravished Haiti, Ruanda, Soweto or willing to assist victims of Katrina, where our people are suffering and dying, I will continue to question their beautiful preaching and writings coming out of their air-cooled mansions.
In closing, let me remind readers of these poorly written thoughts in anger, that the paymasters of many of these individuals, live in posh Coral Gables, Palm Beach, Plantation and many other secluded areas in south Florida, New Jersey and elsewhere.
Most of them were here in the 60's at the height of the Civil Rights struggle. None of them can present a newspaper article they wrote in support of those being hosed-down or chewed-up by attack dogs in Alabama or Tennessee, nor anyone of them can produce a picture marching alongside the victims or refusing to sit at counters or using restrooms where they were welcome because of their Hispanic ancestry and where Afro-Americans living in this country centuries before them were denied such basic rights.
It has always been easier to identify a liar than a lame.
Alberto Nelson Jones
It is with deep regret, that I read this morning "Activists Use the Blogosphere to Fight Racism Against Afro-Cubans" in the American Chronicle by Ms Deborah Gabriel and "The Fight Against Racism in Cuba goes Viral" by Ms Marlie Hall in the Grio.
Although I am not a journalist, lecturer or an employee of any of the US government agencies, masked or unmasked foundations bent on unleashing a race war in Cuba, I would like to share with you, a bit of my personal experience, having lived 60% of my 70 years of age in Cuba and the rest in the US.
For the past 20 years when segregation and racism, -which most had presumed dead since it was outlawed in 1959-, raised its dirty head again in Cuba, many, including myself have steadfastly denounced its presence in a positive, constructive fashion.
Since the late 90's, when hostile forces to the Cuban government identified a substantial demographic shift in Cuba, in which some studies have placed blacks and mixed race as high as 62%, all counterrevolutionary efforts in south Florida geared at overthrowing the Cuban government, re-directed their strategy of using the All White Cuban American National Foundation, Alpha 66, CORU and hundredes of similar groups, which had rejected and denied the participations of any blacks willing to join their groups.
In fact, prominent Radio Talk Show host, the late Agustin Tamargo said on his highly popular Mesa Revuelta on Radio Mambi 710 AM in Miami, that Fidel Castro government had survived thirty years of relentless warfare, only because of the strong presence of blacks in the Cuban Armed Forces and in his personal security, for which he demanded a Three Days License upon the collapse of that government, to dole out retribution to the Afro-Cuban community for their past deeds.
In order to achieve their goals, many Afro-Cubans with apparent leadership capabilities in the US, were recruited and trained in civil dissobedience, human rights and other teachings in some predominantly Black Universities in the US and even at the Martin Luther King Center in Atlanta. These individuals in turn, were instructed to recruit predominantly Afro-Cubans in Cuba and with endless funds coming from US-AID through numerous foundations, they created hundredes of groups with flashy names such as Independent Journalist, Independent Farmers, Indepenednt Librarians and Independent Everything Else.
Are any of these writers, Afro-Americans, Caribbean and Latin-America intellectuales who signed the spurious letter "Acting on our Conscience" aware of these strategy, statements, plans and developments of these apparently innocuous groups fighting racism in Cuba, who are all on the payroll of foreign governments and institutions?
Are any of these very objective, investigative journalists willing to interview members of the Afro-American and Central America inmigrant community in Miami, in order to determine the virtues and values that governs the elitist, racist mentality of the Cuban-American community in Miami?
My deep concern and opposition to this divisive strategy stems from our Afro-Cubans bitter life experience. Similar to many of today's concerned Afro-Cubans, who are supposedly angry with many ongoing inequalities in Cuba, were others in the past, whose actions led to tragic consequences.
Martin Morua Delgado, an Afro-Cuban intellectual, who occupied a high ranking position in the neo-colonial government in the early XX century, assumed a policy that mimicks much of what we are seeing today, which lead to the enactment of laws by the racist government of General Jose Miguel Gomez, that deprived Blacks of many of their rights, which, with the support of the United States Department of State and Defense, enabled that government to launch a retallatory attack against members of the Independent Party of Color in 1912, where 6000 of its members and innocent bystanders were brutally murdered, mutilated and their bodies desecrated in Guantanamo, Santiago de Cuba and Songo-La Maya.
These are irrefutable facts, not gossip. There is nothing personal in my opposition to Dr. Carlos Moore et. al., divisive tactics, except a well founded fear, that his actions may lead to the re-enactment of the race war that took place in Cuba 100 years ago, in a country without any clear racial demarcation. We, on the other hand, are demanding this horrific act be made public in its entirety, the victims honored and an apology is overdue.
These very broad injustices are what we must defend with our pens and intellect! Anyone hoping to rise to prominence or wealth, should earn that with his/her personal attributes, not by turning our pain, suffering and abuses into ladders to reach undeserved heights.
The plight of Blacks is worldwide and not limited to Cuba. What have motivated and suddenly kept awake so many black intellectuals over the sufferings of Blacks in Cuba, while totally ignoring the viscious murder of 500 of our youths last year in Chicago?
I am further annoyed with some of the of Dr. Carlos Moore behaviour because, like myself, we both were born on sugarcane plantations owned by US corporations in Cuba, where we were forced to live in thatched huts without electricity, running water, sewer, schools, healthcare or jobs and to see his thinking coincide with policies of some of our former slave-masters, be it the Diaz-Balart, Ros-Lethinen, David Rivera, Bacardi's, Fanjuls, Mel Martinez and thousands of others, who did not allow us to walk on their streets after dark, created a separate aisle for us in public squares and barred us from holding only menial jobs of picking up their trash, cooking, cleaning and raising their children, is beyond my imagination.
Many, many wrongs has to be fixed in Cuba, but our country should never return to that nightmarish, oppresive society.
Facts, not word will help to put things into perspective. While the Cuban Army fought for the independence of Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe, demolished Apartheid in South Africa and freed Nelson Mandela and his brothers in Arms from Robin Island, tens of Cuban-Americans in south Florida brag about their stoic battle flying helicopters and fighter jets against "Cuban Mercenaries" in the southern cone of Africa and it is said, that Dr. Carlos Moore, was on the other side of this battle field, as an aide to Holden Roberto, a known CIA operative.
As our small organization travelled tens of thousands of miles across Florida begging and collecting unwanted, but usable discarded personal, medical and educational goods, which we have sent primarily to Afro-Cubans and emigrants and descendents from every Caribbean islands living in Guantananamo, Santiago de Cuba and Banes , none of those denouncing the Cuban government, have ever responded to our numerous pleas for an aspirin, a walker, a wheelchair or a blanket for our brothers in dire need.
Actions, not words is what I have learned to believe in. Writing articles, selling books, lecturing or going on TV is great, if your concerns are not about a hungry baby, a dying elderly or an illiterate person.
If this sounds like a defense of the Cuban government, let it be. But until these theoriticians are unwilling to spend some time helping the needy in Cabrina Greens, Liberty City and Overtown in Miami, North Jacksonville in Florida, Detroit, earthquake ravished Haiti, Ruanda, Soweto or willing to assist victims of Katrina, where our people are suffering and dying, I will continue to question their beautiful preaching and writings coming out of their air-cooled mansions.
In closing, let me remind readers of these poorly written thoughts in anger, that the paymasters of many of these individuals, live in posh Coral Gables, Palm Beach, Plantation and many other secluded areas in south Florida, New Jersey and elsewhere.
Most of them were here in the 60's at the height of the Civil Rights struggle. None of them can present a newspaper article they wrote in support of those being hosed-down or chewed-up by attack dogs in Alabama or Tennessee, nor anyone of them can produce a picture marching alongside the victims or refusing to sit at counters or using restrooms where they were welcome because of their Hispanic ancestry and where Afro-Americans living in this country centuries before them were denied such basic rights.
It has always been easier to identify a liar than a lame.
Alberto Nelson Jones
Saturday, May 15, 2010
A Worldwide Battle of Life & Death, 3d Chapter
"A Worldwide Battle of Life and Death. Third Chapter"
Alberto N Jones
May 1, 2010
I hope most of those who read the previous chapter are as persuaded as I am, that there is no valid evidence to demonstrate the existence of segregation or racism in Cuba that is promoted, instigated or tolerated by the highest level of the Cuban government. What has been clearly established is a marked increase of racial prejudices coming from whites towards Afro-Cubans, which is more evident, open and brutal than at any time in the past 20 years.
These negative expressions have manifested themselves most vividly since the introduction of the Special Period, characterized by an absolute lack of the most basic means of survival, the failure to create job opportunities for Afro-Cubans with access to hard currencies in Havana and Varadero Beach, an intensified struggle for survival and a threat of competing forces that some saw in an increased migration from the eastern provinces to the west, which many attempted to counter through segregation, defamation and racial slurs.
It is a well established fact by psychologists and others engaged in behavioral studies, that in all herds, human groupings, inter-ethnic or inter-species relations, there are always those attempting to prey, subjugate, isolate or eliminate others deemed weak.
For these reasons and as early as January 1959, Fidel Castro declared “We could not be Revolutionaries or Democrats, if we do not rid ourselves of all type of discrimination“.
In March 1959, Fidel Castro gave a speech to a workers gathering, which turned out to be a proclamation against racial discrimination, in which he made a detailed analysis of how racism expresses itself in job exclusion, educational segregation and the forceful opening by law, of all facilities and services for the fulfillment of all citizens, without discrimination.
During the V Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba in October of 1997, Fidel Castro reiterated the need of consolidating the fair policy of promoting blacks and women to leadership positions, just as had happened for youths without being dogmatic, which guarantees the moral authority of the party with the people.
During the World Conference on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Intolerance, which took place in Durban , South Africa in September 2001, President Fidel Castro endorsed the idea that “the United States and western nations must pay reparations to descendents of black slaves”.
In the last session of the National Assembly of the People’s Power on 12/21/09, the president of Council of State and Ministers, Raul Castro, said: “Personally I think it is a shame the insignificant advances that we have achieved in this”. “ I will use all my influence to make sure that these harmful prejudices continue to yield space until they have been definitively eliminated and women and blacks are promoted to leadership positions at all levels, based upon their merits and professional level.
On January 5th. 1993, Congressman John Conyers introduced a bill to “Acknowledge the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery in the United States and the 13 American colonies between 1619 and 1865 to establish a commission to examine the institution of slavery”.
The bill, which did not ask for reparations for the descendents of African slaves, won from 435-members of the U.S. House of Representatives only 28 co-sponsors, 18 of whom were black. (The Debt, Randall Robinson, p 201-10, 2000)
In the early 1970’s Boris Bittker, a Yale Law School professor wrote a book, The Case for Black Reparations, which made the argument that slavery, Jim Crow and a general climate of race-based discrimination in America had combined to do grievous social and economic injury to African Americans.
Ibrahim Gassama, a law professor of the University of Oregon in response to a question from Mr. Randall Robinson said, “ It is the strangest thing, we law professors talk about every imaginable subject, but when the issue of reparations is raised among white professors, many of whom are otherwise liberal, it is met with silence”.
Derrick Bell, another professor at Harvard Law School concluded his view of Bittker’s book in a way that may explain the reaction Ibrahim Gassama got from his colleagues: “Short of a revolution, the likelihood that blacks today will obtain direct payments in compensation for their subjugation as slaves before the Emancipation Proclamation and their exploitation as quasi-citizens since, is no better than in 1866, when Thaddeus Stevens recognized that his bright hope of forty acres and a mule for every freedman had vanished”.
Confirming this presumption is the fact that for 6-8 years, Nazi Germany inflicted horrific pain and suffering on European Jews in their concentration camps. Post WW II German governments readily paid to individuals and to the government of Israel 88 billion Marks and created a trust fund of a few billion Marks for the victims, coming from enterprises that benefited from slave work.
In February 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed executive order 9066 which forced 120,000 persons of Japanese and Korean ancestry into internment camps for the duration of the war, although approximately 65% were US citizens.
In 1988 president Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberty Act, granting $20,000.00 to each survivor or beneficiary. In 1992 president George W. Bush appropriated another 400 million dollars to cover a $20,000.00 compensation for 82,210 Japanese-American citizens. Canada compensated a total of 1,434 Japanese-Canadian citizens, with a total of $1.3 billion dollars and both governments apologized for their past deeds.
At the end of WW I, the Allied countries successfully demanded compensation from Germany . Korean women forced into prostitution by the Japanese occupying forces during WW II were rightfully compensated.
Although the United States and Europe inflicted far greater horrors upon Africa and its people, they have not only refused to pay compensation to Africa, instead, at the end of the slave trade, they re-arranged the map of Africa to continue exploiting the continent and have steadfastly refused to return thousands of pieces of arts stolen from Africa.
Both president Abraham Lincoln in the US and Carlos M. de Cespedes in Cuba offered during the Civil War and the War of Independence in Cuba to compensate slave owners for “property” (slave) loss during the conflict.
Is it necessary to present additional evidence to prove beyond any doubt the horrific crimes that was inflicted upon innocent people for centuries or the massive wealth that was derived from such tainted procedure?
That’s why it is so outrageous, disgusting and counterproductive to see a handful of opportunists attempting to capitalize on known failures, shortcomings and deficiencies in Cuba’s race-relations, in which, rather than putting forward an honest critique, offer suggestions or design ways to alleviate the suffering of the Afro-Cuban community, they have intentionally chosen the path of inciting our people, fanning the flames of anger, exacerbating their suffering and encouraging physical confrontation.
Can anyone in their right mind imagine that any of these individuals is reading these damming examples for the first time?
Once again, history has placed on Cuba’s lap, the unavoidable, moral obligation of pioneering and leading this just drive for reparations, by becoming the first nation to publicly admit its collective responsibility in the world most heinous crime, committed against millions of helpless slaves for over 350 years.
But contrary to what some have suggested, which is to provide each of the victim’s descendent with a fixed money value, which shortly after would have been spent in consumer driven societies, we are proposing a massive education, health, sport, cultural development and empowerment as the only viable way of equalizing racial differences, removing prejudices and overcoming centuries of subjugation and ignorance.
Cuba is hereby calling upon every government in the world, whose country benefited one way or another from slave commerce, slave traders derivatives, shipping and insurance companies, plantation owners, the church and to those governments who, although they were not participants in this horrendous crime, are ashamed of the deeds of others, to step forward, come clean, join hands with us and together, let’s pay our dues, clear our conscience and rid the world of this un-payable debt.
Our proposal is simple. Pool all reparations resources with a reputable international agency -UN, UNESCO, FAO, WHO and/or others, and turn Cuba into the world’s largest Healthcare, Education, Research and Development Center in the world, where hundreds of thousands of Africans, descendents and others from the developing world, can be received, educated and returned to their place of origin, equipped with specific knowledge for their personal and community development .
Segregation, racisms and other forms of prejudices derive from having power over others. Laws or decrees, can only mitigate but never eradicate these perversions. Equalizing individuals knowledge and empowerment, is the only remedy available to humans. Some thoughts follow:
Develop and lease across the former province of Oriente 200,000 lots of 100x100’ for 20 years to retirees and others interested in living in a beautiful, safe and peaceful environment, where they can build their homes, free of the urban decay in which they may now live. Leasing fees can range between $3000.00 and $10,000.00 per year, depending on location, beauty etc. Upon maturity of the lease or if it is preceded by death, both land and home will revert to the Cuban patrimony. It is anticipated that each nucleus of 5000 homes can generate $20,000,000.00 per year, excluding construction, maintenance and personal cost of living, while generating approximately 1000 related jobs.
Build a 1000 bed, high tech, Caribbean Medical Center in Santiago de Cuba in collaboration with the 30,000 member Afro-American Medical Association, the Caribbean Medical Association and the Cuban Ministry of Health, to provide the highest level of medical services to patients from our region, that is comparable to their counterparts in Canada and the United States, at 50% of their cost. It is anticipated this facility can generate $75,000,000.00 per year and create 2000 well remunerated jobs.
Quadruple the capacity of the Neurological Behavioral Center in Holguin, to offer specialized treatment to millions of Hispanics afflicted by alcoholism, drug addiction and post traumatic battlefield disorders without treatment in their communities, due to a severe lack of Spanish speaking professionals in that field. Anticipated income $40,000,000.00 per year and 1000 employees.
Develop in the municipality of Paraguay, Guantanamo, adjacent to its underutilized airport, the Industrial and Home Appliances Distribution Center for Latin America and the Caribbean, from where dealers from around can export their goods with a crucial advantage of two hours less flying time to most markets, perfect year round weather, low operating cost, safe environment, a large pool of technical support, and trainable personnel capable of generating Five Billion Dollars per year and employing 15,000.
Organize a high level Development Commission to visit China, Malaysia, India, Viet Nam and others, to promote the wonderful, low cost, secure environment and benign weather conditions in Guantanamo, for the creation of industries or subsidiaries, which would position them 7-10,000 miles closer to a powerful and growing industrial market in Latin America and the Caribbean, which can easily require 25,000 employees and billions in income.
Transform the Avenue of the Americas, Victoriano Garzon, Enramadas, Aguilera, and Michelsen Avenue in Santiago de Cuba into the Caribbean, Central and South America Pavilion, where their history, culture, arts, cuisine, education center, handcraft and commerce can be highlighted and become an additional source of friendship and brotherhood, celebrating each country’s national holidays and festivities, which can create thousands of jobs and generate millions every day.
Salvage approximately 10,000 homes in Guantanamo , Santiago de Cuba , Bayamo and Holguin city center and an unspecified number of closed former hotels urgently in need of refurbishing to preserve their architecture and cultural heritage, thereby creating hundreds of joint ventures with Afro-Americans, Caribbean and Latin America businesspeople specialized in hospitality. Hundreds of these facilities could be converted into economy Hostels for regional family tourism and Assisted living for retired persons. These simple, easy to implement projects could generate millions of dollars and create employment opportunity for tens of thousands.
Refurbish and equip 300 secondary schools in the countryside in the five eastern provinces in Cuba and offer its use to tens of thousands of Haitian school children earthquake victims, where they could receive adequate shelter, meals, education and medical care, if any or all international institutions, humanitarian groups and governments, would be willing to finance its operating cost.
This partial description of the enormous untapped resources available in eastern Cuba, is more than sufficient to begin cleansing our past history while it double the country’s GNP, create well remunerated full employment for all its citizen, stem the exodus of thousands of young, educated citizens in search of a better life abroad, re-energize the nation’s pride in its accomplishment and satisfy all its socio-economic needs, by applying any of the previous and following suggestions:
Re-open, revise and start the Salcines Project, consistent in re-directing part of the course of the rivers Toa, Duaba, Miel and others in Baracoa to solve once and for all the water needs of the Caujeri valley, Guantanamo , Santiago de Cuba , San Luis and Palma Soriano. Assign 100 million per year until completion.
Construct Water Purification Systems and Waste Water Treatment facilities in Baracoa , Guantanamo , Santiago de Cuba , Palma Soriano, Holguin , Manzanillo and Las Tunas , that are capable of purifying and treating 150% of today’s requirement. Funding 500 million dollars per year until completion.
Begin prospecting the feasibility of a Rapid Transit Rail System between San Luis and Camaguey , which will have branches going to Guantanamo , another going to Bayamo and Manzanillo and another touching Holguin and Moa. If proven effective, this system could be extended to the length and breath of the island. Funding 500 million dollars per year until completion.
Create in Guantanamo , a 10,000 student English and Creole University , staffed by high level educators from English Speaking and French Creole Speaking islands, where every Cuban enlisted in collaborative team to work in any of these countries, must have had to successfully approve and be proficient in said language. Assign 2 million operating cost per year.
Construct in Guantanamo, a modern, high-Tech Environmental Health and Safety University for 30,000 national and international students, an important solar, eolic, bio mass, water resource and regulatory research center, with a number of environmental related factories, which may double as students laboratory and production of a variety of environmental products, generating tens of millions of dollars in income from the national and international sales of environmental products.
Build in Guantanamo , the largest and most modern Cricket Sport Complex, to attract tournaments from around the world and thousands of visiting sports fans generating millions in income.
Create the Agriculture and Industrial Bank, to provide low-interest, mid-term micro-loans to everyone interested in developing all enterprises promoted by the Central government. Start up funds, One Hundred Million Dollars.
Transform the port of Santiago de Cuba into the most active and important commercial port in the Caribbean receiving all sorts of produce, livestock, handcraft, garment and industrial production from the rest of the Caribbean and Latin America and exporting Cuban goods, generating tens of millions of dollars in sales, purchase, taxes etc., of its vibrant commerce.
Create a number of specialized stores, selling agricultural supplies, seeds, fertilizer, pesticide, animal feed, livestock, veterinary medicine service, reproductive services, trucks, tractor, trailer, plows, work clothing, personal protective gears and spare parts. Start up funds, Five Hundred Million Dollars. Encourage 100,000 citizens with agricultural training, to apply for plots of lands, bank credit and machinery, to begin the development of agriculture and livestock.
Prior to the environmental disaster that is taking place in the Gulf States , Black Farmers were facing extinction. It is now a fact of life. In order to extend a helping hand to our brothers and sisters in distress, we are proposing to offer a 25 year lease to 25,000 rice farming families, to relocate to Cuba rice producing region of Cauto-embarcadero/Vado del Yeso. Similar offer can be extended to another 5,000 fishing families, suffering the effect of the oil pollution.
Promote an orderly migration of 50,000 Haitians families from earthquake ravished Port au Prince to northern Oriente sugar cane plantation complex, where each family will lease 40 acres of land for the cultivation of sugar cane, produce and livestock for the next 25 years. Additionally they will receive bank credits to build a home, purchase agriculture equipment and live lease-free the first two years.
Organize an orderly migration of 50,000 Haitians earthquake victims to Cuba and lease each family a 40 acres plot of land on Guantanamo and Santiago de Cuba mountain range for the next 25 years, for the development of coffee, cacao, produce and small livestock. They will receive bank credits for the purpose of purchasing agriculture equipment, personal income until the land begin to yield results and will live lease-free, the first two years.
Promote the migration of 20,000 Palestinian families from the Gaza Strip, West Bank and Jordan, to relocate to southern Oriente semi-arid region and lease to each family 40 acres plots of lands for the development of olive, palm, nuts, goats and sheep as they did in their native Palestine , reducing their hellish overcrowding. Additionally, they will be able to use the lands lease-free for the first two years, receive bank credits to build their homes and purchase agriculture instruments.
Upgrade the deficient fuel, lubricant and cooking gas service in Cuba , which is plagued by corruption, antiquated system and time consuming, irritating service, by creating a Joint Venture with CITGO, a giant, efficient, high-tech Venezuelan fuel distributor with over 20,000 macro service stations in operation, who is capable of bringing this service in Cuba into the XXI Century.
As we can see, with courage and moral determinism, we can honor the pain of the victims, salvage the vision of those who sought to remedy a notorious crime and begin to create a better world for all.
Alberto N Jones
May 1, 2010
I hope most of those who read the previous chapter are as persuaded as I am, that there is no valid evidence to demonstrate the existence of segregation or racism in Cuba that is promoted, instigated or tolerated by the highest level of the Cuban government. What has been clearly established is a marked increase of racial prejudices coming from whites towards Afro-Cubans, which is more evident, open and brutal than at any time in the past 20 years.
These negative expressions have manifested themselves most vividly since the introduction of the Special Period, characterized by an absolute lack of the most basic means of survival, the failure to create job opportunities for Afro-Cubans with access to hard currencies in Havana and Varadero Beach, an intensified struggle for survival and a threat of competing forces that some saw in an increased migration from the eastern provinces to the west, which many attempted to counter through segregation, defamation and racial slurs.
It is a well established fact by psychologists and others engaged in behavioral studies, that in all herds, human groupings, inter-ethnic or inter-species relations, there are always those attempting to prey, subjugate, isolate or eliminate others deemed weak.
For these reasons and as early as January 1959, Fidel Castro declared “We could not be Revolutionaries or Democrats, if we do not rid ourselves of all type of discrimination“.
In March 1959, Fidel Castro gave a speech to a workers gathering, which turned out to be a proclamation against racial discrimination, in which he made a detailed analysis of how racism expresses itself in job exclusion, educational segregation and the forceful opening by law, of all facilities and services for the fulfillment of all citizens, without discrimination.
During the V Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba in October of 1997, Fidel Castro reiterated the need of consolidating the fair policy of promoting blacks and women to leadership positions, just as had happened for youths without being dogmatic, which guarantees the moral authority of the party with the people.
During the World Conference on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Intolerance, which took place in Durban , South Africa in September 2001, President Fidel Castro endorsed the idea that “the United States and western nations must pay reparations to descendents of black slaves”.
In the last session of the National Assembly of the People’s Power on 12/21/09, the president of Council of State and Ministers, Raul Castro, said: “Personally I think it is a shame the insignificant advances that we have achieved in this”. “ I will use all my influence to make sure that these harmful prejudices continue to yield space until they have been definitively eliminated and women and blacks are promoted to leadership positions at all levels, based upon their merits and professional level.
On January 5th. 1993, Congressman John Conyers introduced a bill to “Acknowledge the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery in the United States and the 13 American colonies between 1619 and 1865 to establish a commission to examine the institution of slavery”.
The bill, which did not ask for reparations for the descendents of African slaves, won from 435-members of the U.S. House of Representatives only 28 co-sponsors, 18 of whom were black. (The Debt, Randall Robinson, p 201-10, 2000)
In the early 1970’s Boris Bittker, a Yale Law School professor wrote a book, The Case for Black Reparations, which made the argument that slavery, Jim Crow and a general climate of race-based discrimination in America had combined to do grievous social and economic injury to African Americans.
Ibrahim Gassama, a law professor of the University of Oregon in response to a question from Mr. Randall Robinson said, “ It is the strangest thing, we law professors talk about every imaginable subject, but when the issue of reparations is raised among white professors, many of whom are otherwise liberal, it is met with silence”.
Derrick Bell, another professor at Harvard Law School concluded his view of Bittker’s book in a way that may explain the reaction Ibrahim Gassama got from his colleagues: “Short of a revolution, the likelihood that blacks today will obtain direct payments in compensation for their subjugation as slaves before the Emancipation Proclamation and their exploitation as quasi-citizens since, is no better than in 1866, when Thaddeus Stevens recognized that his bright hope of forty acres and a mule for every freedman had vanished”.
Confirming this presumption is the fact that for 6-8 years, Nazi Germany inflicted horrific pain and suffering on European Jews in their concentration camps. Post WW II German governments readily paid to individuals and to the government of Israel 88 billion Marks and created a trust fund of a few billion Marks for the victims, coming from enterprises that benefited from slave work.
In February 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed executive order 9066 which forced 120,000 persons of Japanese and Korean ancestry into internment camps for the duration of the war, although approximately 65% were US citizens.
In 1988 president Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberty Act, granting $20,000.00 to each survivor or beneficiary. In 1992 president George W. Bush appropriated another 400 million dollars to cover a $20,000.00 compensation for 82,210 Japanese-American citizens. Canada compensated a total of 1,434 Japanese-Canadian citizens, with a total of $1.3 billion dollars and both governments apologized for their past deeds.
At the end of WW I, the Allied countries successfully demanded compensation from Germany . Korean women forced into prostitution by the Japanese occupying forces during WW II were rightfully compensated.
Although the United States and Europe inflicted far greater horrors upon Africa and its people, they have not only refused to pay compensation to Africa, instead, at the end of the slave trade, they re-arranged the map of Africa to continue exploiting the continent and have steadfastly refused to return thousands of pieces of arts stolen from Africa.
Both president Abraham Lincoln in the US and Carlos M. de Cespedes in Cuba offered during the Civil War and the War of Independence in Cuba to compensate slave owners for “property” (slave) loss during the conflict.
Is it necessary to present additional evidence to prove beyond any doubt the horrific crimes that was inflicted upon innocent people for centuries or the massive wealth that was derived from such tainted procedure?
That’s why it is so outrageous, disgusting and counterproductive to see a handful of opportunists attempting to capitalize on known failures, shortcomings and deficiencies in Cuba’s race-relations, in which, rather than putting forward an honest critique, offer suggestions or design ways to alleviate the suffering of the Afro-Cuban community, they have intentionally chosen the path of inciting our people, fanning the flames of anger, exacerbating their suffering and encouraging physical confrontation.
Can anyone in their right mind imagine that any of these individuals is reading these damming examples for the first time?
Once again, history has placed on Cuba’s lap, the unavoidable, moral obligation of pioneering and leading this just drive for reparations, by becoming the first nation to publicly admit its collective responsibility in the world most heinous crime, committed against millions of helpless slaves for over 350 years.
But contrary to what some have suggested, which is to provide each of the victim’s descendent with a fixed money value, which shortly after would have been spent in consumer driven societies, we are proposing a massive education, health, sport, cultural development and empowerment as the only viable way of equalizing racial differences, removing prejudices and overcoming centuries of subjugation and ignorance.
Cuba is hereby calling upon every government in the world, whose country benefited one way or another from slave commerce, slave traders derivatives, shipping and insurance companies, plantation owners, the church and to those governments who, although they were not participants in this horrendous crime, are ashamed of the deeds of others, to step forward, come clean, join hands with us and together, let’s pay our dues, clear our conscience and rid the world of this un-payable debt.
Our proposal is simple. Pool all reparations resources with a reputable international agency -UN, UNESCO, FAO, WHO and/or others, and turn Cuba into the world’s largest Healthcare, Education, Research and Development Center in the world, where hundreds of thousands of Africans, descendents and others from the developing world, can be received, educated and returned to their place of origin, equipped with specific knowledge for their personal and community development .
Segregation, racisms and other forms of prejudices derive from having power over others. Laws or decrees, can only mitigate but never eradicate these perversions. Equalizing individuals knowledge and empowerment, is the only remedy available to humans. Some thoughts follow:
Develop and lease across the former province of Oriente 200,000 lots of 100x100’ for 20 years to retirees and others interested in living in a beautiful, safe and peaceful environment, where they can build their homes, free of the urban decay in which they may now live. Leasing fees can range between $3000.00 and $10,000.00 per year, depending on location, beauty etc. Upon maturity of the lease or if it is preceded by death, both land and home will revert to the Cuban patrimony. It is anticipated that each nucleus of 5000 homes can generate $20,000,000.00 per year, excluding construction, maintenance and personal cost of living, while generating approximately 1000 related jobs.
Build a 1000 bed, high tech, Caribbean Medical Center in Santiago de Cuba in collaboration with the 30,000 member Afro-American Medical Association, the Caribbean Medical Association and the Cuban Ministry of Health, to provide the highest level of medical services to patients from our region, that is comparable to their counterparts in Canada and the United States, at 50% of their cost. It is anticipated this facility can generate $75,000,000.00 per year and create 2000 well remunerated jobs.
Quadruple the capacity of the Neurological Behavioral Center in Holguin, to offer specialized treatment to millions of Hispanics afflicted by alcoholism, drug addiction and post traumatic battlefield disorders without treatment in their communities, due to a severe lack of Spanish speaking professionals in that field. Anticipated income $40,000,000.00 per year and 1000 employees.
Develop in the municipality of Paraguay, Guantanamo, adjacent to its underutilized airport, the Industrial and Home Appliances Distribution Center for Latin America and the Caribbean, from where dealers from around can export their goods with a crucial advantage of two hours less flying time to most markets, perfect year round weather, low operating cost, safe environment, a large pool of technical support, and trainable personnel capable of generating Five Billion Dollars per year and employing 15,000.
Organize a high level Development Commission to visit China, Malaysia, India, Viet Nam and others, to promote the wonderful, low cost, secure environment and benign weather conditions in Guantanamo, for the creation of industries or subsidiaries, which would position them 7-10,000 miles closer to a powerful and growing industrial market in Latin America and the Caribbean, which can easily require 25,000 employees and billions in income.
Transform the Avenue of the Americas, Victoriano Garzon, Enramadas, Aguilera, and Michelsen Avenue in Santiago de Cuba into the Caribbean, Central and South America Pavilion, where their history, culture, arts, cuisine, education center, handcraft and commerce can be highlighted and become an additional source of friendship and brotherhood, celebrating each country’s national holidays and festivities, which can create thousands of jobs and generate millions every day.
Salvage approximately 10,000 homes in Guantanamo , Santiago de Cuba , Bayamo and Holguin city center and an unspecified number of closed former hotels urgently in need of refurbishing to preserve their architecture and cultural heritage, thereby creating hundreds of joint ventures with Afro-Americans, Caribbean and Latin America businesspeople specialized in hospitality. Hundreds of these facilities could be converted into economy Hostels for regional family tourism and Assisted living for retired persons. These simple, easy to implement projects could generate millions of dollars and create employment opportunity for tens of thousands.
Refurbish and equip 300 secondary schools in the countryside in the five eastern provinces in Cuba and offer its use to tens of thousands of Haitian school children earthquake victims, where they could receive adequate shelter, meals, education and medical care, if any or all international institutions, humanitarian groups and governments, would be willing to finance its operating cost.
This partial description of the enormous untapped resources available in eastern Cuba, is more than sufficient to begin cleansing our past history while it double the country’s GNP, create well remunerated full employment for all its citizen, stem the exodus of thousands of young, educated citizens in search of a better life abroad, re-energize the nation’s pride in its accomplishment and satisfy all its socio-economic needs, by applying any of the previous and following suggestions:
Re-open, revise and start the Salcines Project, consistent in re-directing part of the course of the rivers Toa, Duaba, Miel and others in Baracoa to solve once and for all the water needs of the Caujeri valley, Guantanamo , Santiago de Cuba , San Luis and Palma Soriano. Assign 100 million per year until completion.
Construct Water Purification Systems and Waste Water Treatment facilities in Baracoa , Guantanamo , Santiago de Cuba , Palma Soriano, Holguin , Manzanillo and Las Tunas , that are capable of purifying and treating 150% of today’s requirement. Funding 500 million dollars per year until completion.
Begin prospecting the feasibility of a Rapid Transit Rail System between San Luis and Camaguey , which will have branches going to Guantanamo , another going to Bayamo and Manzanillo and another touching Holguin and Moa. If proven effective, this system could be extended to the length and breath of the island. Funding 500 million dollars per year until completion.
Create in Guantanamo , a 10,000 student English and Creole University , staffed by high level educators from English Speaking and French Creole Speaking islands, where every Cuban enlisted in collaborative team to work in any of these countries, must have had to successfully approve and be proficient in said language. Assign 2 million operating cost per year.
Construct in Guantanamo, a modern, high-Tech Environmental Health and Safety University for 30,000 national and international students, an important solar, eolic, bio mass, water resource and regulatory research center, with a number of environmental related factories, which may double as students laboratory and production of a variety of environmental products, generating tens of millions of dollars in income from the national and international sales of environmental products.
Build in Guantanamo , the largest and most modern Cricket Sport Complex, to attract tournaments from around the world and thousands of visiting sports fans generating millions in income.
Create the Agriculture and Industrial Bank, to provide low-interest, mid-term micro-loans to everyone interested in developing all enterprises promoted by the Central government. Start up funds, One Hundred Million Dollars.
Transform the port of Santiago de Cuba into the most active and important commercial port in the Caribbean receiving all sorts of produce, livestock, handcraft, garment and industrial production from the rest of the Caribbean and Latin America and exporting Cuban goods, generating tens of millions of dollars in sales, purchase, taxes etc., of its vibrant commerce.
Create a number of specialized stores, selling agricultural supplies, seeds, fertilizer, pesticide, animal feed, livestock, veterinary medicine service, reproductive services, trucks, tractor, trailer, plows, work clothing, personal protective gears and spare parts. Start up funds, Five Hundred Million Dollars. Encourage 100,000 citizens with agricultural training, to apply for plots of lands, bank credit and machinery, to begin the development of agriculture and livestock.
Prior to the environmental disaster that is taking place in the Gulf States , Black Farmers were facing extinction. It is now a fact of life. In order to extend a helping hand to our brothers and sisters in distress, we are proposing to offer a 25 year lease to 25,000 rice farming families, to relocate to Cuba rice producing region of Cauto-embarcadero/Vado del Yeso. Similar offer can be extended to another 5,000 fishing families, suffering the effect of the oil pollution.
Promote an orderly migration of 50,000 Haitians families from earthquake ravished Port au Prince to northern Oriente sugar cane plantation complex, where each family will lease 40 acres of land for the cultivation of sugar cane, produce and livestock for the next 25 years. Additionally they will receive bank credits to build a home, purchase agriculture equipment and live lease-free the first two years.
Organize an orderly migration of 50,000 Haitians earthquake victims to Cuba and lease each family a 40 acres plot of land on Guantanamo and Santiago de Cuba mountain range for the next 25 years, for the development of coffee, cacao, produce and small livestock. They will receive bank credits for the purpose of purchasing agriculture equipment, personal income until the land begin to yield results and will live lease-free, the first two years.
Promote the migration of 20,000 Palestinian families from the Gaza Strip, West Bank and Jordan, to relocate to southern Oriente semi-arid region and lease to each family 40 acres plots of lands for the development of olive, palm, nuts, goats and sheep as they did in their native Palestine , reducing their hellish overcrowding. Additionally, they will be able to use the lands lease-free for the first two years, receive bank credits to build their homes and purchase agriculture instruments.
Upgrade the deficient fuel, lubricant and cooking gas service in Cuba , which is plagued by corruption, antiquated system and time consuming, irritating service, by creating a Joint Venture with CITGO, a giant, efficient, high-tech Venezuelan fuel distributor with over 20,000 macro service stations in operation, who is capable of bringing this service in Cuba into the XXI Century.
As we can see, with courage and moral determinism, we can honor the pain of the victims, salvage the vision of those who sought to remedy a notorious crime and begin to create a better world for all.
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