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The United States, Europe and Human Rights
Related to country: Cuba

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Reflections of Fidel:



The discredited way in which the European Union suspended its sanctions on Cuba on June 19 has been reported in 16 international press dispatches. It has absolutely no economic effect on our country. On the contrary, the United States' extraterritorial laws and, thus, its economic and financial blockade are still fully in effect.

At my age and given my state of health, one cannot be sure of the time one has left to live. Nevertheless, I want to express my contempt for the immense hypocrisy of that decision. Such hypocrisy is made all the more evident by the brutal European measure to expel illegal immigrants from Latin American countries, some of which have populations which, in their majority, are of European origin. Immigrants are also the fruit of colonial, semi-colonial and capitalist exploitation.

In the name of human rights, Cuba is asked to grant impunity to those who would bind the feet and hands of the homeland and its people and hand them over to imperialism.

Even Mexican authorities have to admit that the Miami-based mob, at the service of the U.S. government, used force to snatch from the hands of an important contingent of migratory agents, or bought, dozens of illegal immigrants who had been arrested in Quintana Roo, including innocent children transported by force across risk-laden seas and mothers obliged to emigrate. Traffickers of human beings, like drug traffickers, who take advantage of the largest and most coveted of the world’s markets, have undermined the authority and moral statute needed by any government to lead the State, spilling Latin American blood everywhere, to say nothing of those who die trying to emigrate by climbing over the humiliating border wall erected over what was once Mexican territory.

The food and energy crises, climate change and inflation are scourging the world's nations. As political helplessness prevails, ignorance and illusions tend to flourish. Not one of these governments, let alone those of the Czech Republic and Sweden, which were firmly opposed to the European Union’s decision, was able to give coherent answers to the questions that have been put on the table.

All the while, in Cuba, the mercenaries and traitors at the empire's service are at their wit’s end and throw up their hands in horror, defending the right to treachery and impunity.

I have many more things to say, but let this suffice for today. It is not my intention to trouble others with these words, but, as long as I am alive, I continue to think about these things.

I shall publish this reflection on the Internet only, today, June 20, 2008.

Fidel Castro



1:55 p.m.
(Translated by ESTI)

June 29, 2008 | 10:15 AM Comments  {num} comments



Truth and Diatribes
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Reflections of Fidel:



We know that people living in industrialized and wealthy countries spend, on average, 25% of their income on food. Those who live in nations which were condemned to economic underdevelopment by the former devote up to 80% of their income to this end. Many go physically hungry and endure immense social disparities. Unemployment rates are usually two to three times higher; infant mortality rates are even higher, and life expectancy is as little as two-thirds that which is reported in rich countries. This system is simply genocidal.

In the reflection I wrote three days ago, I stated: "Our country has demonstrated that it can stand up to all pressures and help other peoples”. Could Europe affirm the same thing?

A UNESCO report published yesterday, June 20, states that a 2-year study conducted with over 200,000 children from 16 countries places Cuba as Latin America's number one country in terms of third grade mathematics and reading and sixth grade mathematics and science, with over 100 points above the regional average. This is the second time Cuba is thus recognized by UNESCO.

It is reasonable to assume that no country where human rights are systematically violated can reach such high educational levels.

Why has Cuba been blockaded for 50 years?

Why is it the object of slander?

Why is it barred from all access to technical and scientific information?

Why do they seek to take it back to an unsustainable economic and social system which offers no answers whatsoever to humanity's problems?

There is a reason millions of Bolivian, Ecuadorian, Uruguayan, Argentinean, Brazilian, Central American and other Latin American citizens have immigrated to Europe, from which they can now be brutally returned to their countries of origin if they fail to meet the requirements set by the new anti-immigrant laws.

What's worse: figures several times larger of Mexican, Central and South American citizens have emigrated to the United States, crossing borders, walls and seas, without any kind of documentation or any Adjustment Act that privileges them or encourages them to emigrate. Of them, 500 die each year. In addition to this, thousands perish every year in Mexico and Central America, victims of organized crime, in the struggle to control the drug market in the United States, where its highest authorities are unable and unwilling to combat drug use.

Assistant attorney José Luis Santiago Vasconcelos declared that human trafficking is the second most profitable illegal activity in the world. In the case of Cubans, profits are comparable to those of drug-trafficking: "They charge as much as 10,000 dollars per person.”

The money comes from the United States. I don't believe Mexico can become a haven for the trafficking of immigrants, as even US coast guards intercept and return those who are captured at sea.

Mexico is not obliged to accept having a version of the dry-foot wet-foot policy imposed on it.

There is no organized crime in Cuba or any kind of impunity for drug-trafficking. It has combated both efficiently, without resorting to a blood bath. Only hypocrisy explains why the United States hasn't acknowledged this fact.

I did not write an anti-Europe diatribe, I simply wrote the truth. It is not my fault if the truth proves offensive.

To keep yesterday's reflection short, I did not even mention weapons exports, military spending and NATO's military adventures, let alone the secret flights and Europe's complicity in the acts of torture perpetrated by the United States.

I have no knowledge of anyone having been arrested anywhere in the country for breaking the law. That has nothing to do with the reflection which I asked be published exclusively on Cubadebate. Any connection is totally arbitrary. I will make use of this Internet site as I deem appropriate. I shan't try anyone's patience. I don't make a cent doing this, I work for free.

I am not, nor will ever be, the leader of a faction or splinter group. No one has any reason to assume, therefore, that there are inner struggles in the Party. If I write, it is because I continue to struggle, in the name of the convictions I have defended all of my life.

Fidel Castro Ruz



June 21, 2008
1:34 p.m.

(Translated by ESTI)

June 28, 2008 | 9:57 AM Comments  {num} comments



Bahamian Parliamentarians Updated On The Bahamas Government’s Position To The Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) With The European Union (EU)
Related to country: Bahamas

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Parliamentarians Get EPA Update:
By Sasha L. Lightbourne -
Nassau, Bahamas:



However, some – including members of Bahamians Agitating for a Referendum on Free Trade (BARF) – have argued that it amounts to The Bahamas giving up its sovereignty.

Minister of State for Finance Zhivargo Laing explained to members of parliament during a luncheon at British Colonial Hilton Hotel on Wednesday what the government’s position is on the EPA.

"We are trying to brief parliamentarians on the development, the history, the status of the Economic Partnership Agreement to date," he said.

"We need to have them understand what the consultation process is with the Trade Commission, to understand what the structure of the agreement is, to understand what the commitments and obligations The Bahamas might have in the agreement, what the commitment and obligations on the part of the European community will be, and also to try to speak to some of the concerns and fears that Bahamians may have expressed."

Mr. Laing said more consultation will be done in informal settings between the government and opposition and then the public will be duly informed.

"We are organizing town meetings for the public and expect for them to begin as early as July," he said. "Those meetings will be extended into August and September, so the public needs to listen out for the dates and locations."

He said target areas for the government are Over-the-Hill communities as well as some of the Family Islands, including Grand Bahama, Abaco, Eleuthera, Andros and Long Island.

Telecommunications, construction, real estate, fisheries and agriculture are all areas that will be reserved for Bahamian citizens under the EPA, the minister said.

Leader of the Opposition and former prime minister, Perry Christie, shared his initial reaction to Mr. Laing’s presentation.

"We welcome the presentation because we really wanted to see what had developed since we left office on the EPA," he said.

"It was informative to hear what the minister had to say because we realize that the government has yet to make a final decision based on its own considerations and considerations of the private sector groups who they are consulting."

Mr. Christie told the Journal that the Opposition is looking forward to a determination by the government on the EPA.

"We anticipate that determination as to what is going to evolve because a lot of people are on edge in the services sector to see whether or not their own interests will be protected as they seem to suggest here," he said. "The Opposition will still have to take a wait and see approach."

Mr. Christie said however that he was pleased that the presentation took place.

"This is the kind of thing we tried to do in our term where there is parliamentary consultation as well so that we can minimize the extent to which we divide on a matter of this kind or not divide at all," he said. "The level of consultation that takes place between opposition and government needs to increase.

"This is a countrywide matter and this was a very good step taken by the government of The Bahamas."

The Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM) has indicated that it completed its own internal reflections on the EPA negotiations with the aim of identifying core elements of the EPA process that have worked for the region and those which may be improved and incorporated into future negotiations.

It concluded that strengthening the consultation components of the negotiating process is "inextricably linked to ensuring the optimum engagement with and participation of key stakeholders, particularly the private sector, whose input is critical to the formulation of the negotiating agenda and strategy."

The CRNM also urged increased emphasis on increasing the allocation of resources to facilitate private sector engagement and to build the capacity of firms to identify and articulate defensive and offensive interests in external trade negotiations.

June 26, 2008

June 26, 2008 | 9:44 PM Comments  {num} comments



Alan Greenspan Spurs Concerns About Bahamas Tourism
Related to country: Bahamas

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Greenspan spurs concerns about Bahamian tourism:
By INDERIA SAUNDERS, Guardian Business Desk -
Nassau, Bahamas:



WASHINGTON, DC — The Bahamas may have missed out on the Caribbean's most bullish tourism market ever, with no one other than Alan Greenspan telling industry insiders a record numbers of Americans headed south in March — the same month Nassau saw a decrease in the number of visitors.

Still the most revered man to hold the U.S. Federal Reserve's top post, the economist told Caribbean leaders Monday that the latest American flight data shows the highest level of traffic to the Caribbean in history.

The news came as quite a surprise, he admitted, considering the decline in the U.S. economy and the tightening effect it's had on the purse strings of Americans.

"We don't publish the data within [specific destinations in] the Caribbean, but the suspicion is its dispersing over the wide Caribbean," Greenspan explained. "I was surprised to see latest data shows it's only marginally below one previous month in 2006 [and] I would have expected to find numbers down a bit."

Even a casual look at Bahamian reports for last March suggest the destination was not among those on the receiving end of that step-up in business.

While visitor arrivals were not down per say in The Bahamas, according to the Ministry of Tourism's latest data, in March The Bahamas saw a mere 0.1 percentage increase in air and sea arrivals, roughly 300 more tourists than those who touched down or sailed in during the same period a year earlier.

The hike from 500,086 visitors in March 2007 to 500,388 arrivals the same month this year considers visitors to all of the islands in the archipelago. It also illustrates the problems facing New Providence and Grand Bahama, which registered overall declines that month of 0.6 and 18 percent, respectively.

Greenspan, who served under the last four presidents and is increasing drawing blame for failing to prevent the subprime mortgage meltdown, argues March's increased traffic is an outlying blip. April actually marked a further deterioration of the U.S. economy, growth in job losses and a retreat from consumer spending.

American consumer confidence has also since fallen off. In fact, new Conference Board numbers suggest that key barometer of economic health fell in June to its lowest in 16 years as inflation rose. All and all, it suggests The Bahamas may ultimately face a summer season marked by further challenges to the country's bottom line. That's despite a whack of new money — the bulk of $4 million — thrown into marketing early this year. About $9 million more is on the way.

Greenspan's analysis may run counter to the opinions of many Bahamian hoteliers who, according to Frank Comito of the Bahamas Hotel Association, are looking forward to a strong summer. That season is traditionally the slowest for the destination.

Still, the possibility of arrival declines is a trend the famous American economist believes may extend beyond that narrow window.

"These are extraordinary times for most everybody, especially those involved in trying to attract tourism to the Caribbean," Greenspan said. "I think you're having troubles now and will continue to have them, but tourists will find a way to your area."

One of the things that the region would have to work on to achieve this, he said, is to improve the price of tickets to Caribbean destinations, which have recently undergone unprecedented hikes due to soaring oil prices.

"If you cannot get the cost per mile travel down, it will impact negatively on Caribbean tourism," Greenspan said. "[Getting that in order] may not happen as quickly as everyone would like."

June 25, 2008 | 4:04 AM Comments  {num} comments



The Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) Extended Two Years... It Will Ultimately Be Replaced With A Reciprocal One In Keeping With World Trade Organization (WTO) Standards, Forcing Caribbean Nations To Lower Or Remove Duties On U.S. Goods
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

PM—CBI extension won:
By INDERIA SAUNDERS, Guardian Business Desk -
Nassau, Bahamas:



WASHINGTON, DC — Bahamian exporters can now breathe a sigh of relief with Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham announcing a two-year extension to the Caribbean Basin Initiative, likely just enough time for the creation of a reciprocal trade pact to replace it and satisfy South American countries calling for a level-playing field.

In an interview with Guardian Business yesterday, Ingraham said last week's Caribbean Heads of Government meetings with Charlie Rangel, chairman of the House of Representatives Ways and Means committee, were quite productive. Anxiety the CBI would fail to win that extra time has apparently now been eased ahead of the U.S. elections in November.

"It's been extended (and) the (change in) administration will not affect it because it's an act of Congress," he said. "CARICOM and The Bahamas continue to seek to get improvement to the benefit, but the existing arrangement will continue for another two years from here on."

Just last week, it appeared likely that it would either fall to U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama or his GOP rival, John McCain, to push through Congress an extension for that comprehensive trade pact granting Bahamian goods unfettered access to the U.S. while allowing us to tax American goods to the tune of $600 million annually. A promise by President George Bush to do the same seemed to have gone nowhere since a similar meeting a year ago, one followed by discussions with Rangel.

And while the agreement has indeed been extended during the Bush administration, the agreement will ultimately be replaced with a reciprocal one in keeping with World Trade Organization standards, forcing Caribbean nations to lower or remove duties on U.S. goods.

However, The Bahamas and the rest of the Caribbean argue they need time to fully prepare for that sea-change. They appear to have now bought themselves that time.

The news should be welcomed by Grand Bahama's Polymers, a Styrofoam manufacturer, and, to a much lesser extent, seafood exporters. The former depends on that international agreement to ensure the price competitiveness of its product on the American market. It has in fact hinted that without the preferential pact — first floated as a way of allowing Caribbean nations to deepen their economies — it would be forced to quit The Bahamas.

They're alarm bells that were first sounded last year in the build-up to signing of the Economic Partnership Agreement between CARICOM countries and the European Union.

That reciprocal agreement was considered key to protecting seafood exports to that crucial market as well as Bacardi rum shipments leaving the Nassau distillery. That company has since announced its intention to fly the Bahamian coup despite concessions won with the EPA.

It's something the government will likely study as it looks at the pro and cons of signing onto a replacement to the CBI, which would do little more than protect Polymers and a modest number of jobs at its Freeport facility while forcing this country to give up hundreds of millions in import duties on U.S. goods.

Professional associations like the Bahamas Institute of Chartered Accountants are now working toward mapping out their own individual bargaining positions for talks with U.S. negotiators. They're also looking for the government to provide them with the kind of technical expertise they now lack.

Still, with the Ingraham administration's suggestion it will seek WTO membership, which would virtually compel it to abandon its schedule of customs duties, it seems increasingly likely The Bahamas will sign onto that CBI replacement. The move would come despite comments from the Minister of State for Finance Zhivargo Laing, suggesting the country would be ill-prepared to give up those tax revenues in order to protect one or two exporters like Polymers.

The government would likely have to bring in a VAT or income tax system to make up for the revenue loss, although in its 2008-09 budget the government has already moved to protect some of that money by switching the point of taxation on some goods from the border to inland.

One thing's for certain; the clock is ticking on the current agreement, with at least two South American countries prepared to press their case for an immediate end to the CBI with WTO officials. It's unclear whether Rangel's assurances can effectively keep them at bay, considering the CBI has already formally ended. It is in fact already on an extension.

While Obama has voiced his intentions to assist his Caribbean brothers and sisters, it is unlikely he or McCain will offer unending support for the agreement in its current format. It is a deal with very obvious benefits for the Caribbean with no real counterbalance for their single largest trading partner, the U.S.

On Monday, Ingraham said the group of regional heads were in meetings for hours before coming to a decision on this and a number of other topics.

Other discussion points include investment opportunities the Caribbean has to offer Wall Street "movers and shakers."

While the exact details of these talks are still not clear, Guardian Business understands that Caribbean heads have all expressed a desire for a single CARICOM stock exchange. In the past, Laing has rejected the idea of Bahamian participation, perhaps another indication of just how up in the air this country's position on any future free trade agreements really is.

June 24, 2008 | 7:15 AM Comments  {num} comments



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