Who really won, who really lost

by Garth A. Rattray:

Although the People's National Party (PNP) emerged victorious last night and, barring any unforeseen situations, the prime minister for the next five or so years will be Portia Simpson Miller, I am left to wonder, who really won and who really lost in this election? Did the politicians win as usual, and did the people lose once again?

December 30, 2011

jamaica-gleaner

Caribbean Blog International

Sir Clifford Darling Passes Away

I mourn the passing of our esteemed former Governor-General, Sir Clifford Darling, one of the major builders of the modern Bahamas and a true national hero.

Sir Clifford was credited with many diverse distinctions in the public life of The Bahamas. He was a parliamentarian for more than a quarter of a century, during the course of which he served as a Minister - most notably as Minister of National Insurance - and then later as Speaker of the House of Assembly before being elevated to the office of Governor-General, the highest office in the land.

However, as impressive as those achievements were, it was Sir Clifford's courageous leadership during the 1958 General Strike that constituted his greatest single accomplishment. As the leader of the Bahamas Taxi Cab Union at the time, it was Sir Clifford who instigated and led what is rightly regarded as the largest and most successful struggle in the entire history of the labour movement in The Bahamas, a struggle that began with the blockading of the airport by Sir Clifford and his fellow taxi-drivers.

Of even greater significance than that, however, it was the General Strike that sparked the final phase of the political struggle that would lead to the attainment of Majority Rule in 1967. Clifford Darling was a major figure in that political struggle as well under the banner of the Progressive Liberal Party.

At a more personal level, Sir Clifford will be remembered by all who knew him as a man of exceptional modesty and uncommon humility. Indeed, it is largely because of that that his achievements, especially in relation to the 1958 General Strike, are not as well known as they should be. Sir Clifford was also a true Christian gentleman from the old school who treated everyone with kindness and courtesy. He was a wonderful example of civility, even towards his political foes.

Above all, Sir Clifford was a man of tremendous compassion, courage and integrity. He was determined to play his part in the alleviation of human suffering and the upliftment of a long oppressed people. In all his endeavours towards these noble ends, he succeeded grandly, and as a nation we are all the richer for it.

On behalf of the Progressive Liberal Party and on behalf of my wife, Bernadette, and on my own behalf, I extend heartfelt condolences to Sir Clifford's widow, Igrid Lady Darling and to all his children and wider family.

May the soul of this great Bahamian rest in peace.

December 27^th, 2011

myplp

Caribbean Blog International

By Horace Williams:

He must stand on record as being the most disliked presidential candidate to ever make a run for the presidency of the United States.

Presently, Newt Gingrich still has a lead over his Republican challengers to oppose President Obama in November's presidential elections, despite a reversal of his fortunes during the last couple of weeks. He may very well win the nomination, and the democrats would prefer him as an opponent, despite the fact that he is a far stronger candidate and debater than Mitt Romney is. The reason is simply this -- Gingrich has too much baggage! Gingrich has so much baggage that even those who know him best are desperately attempting to destroy him before he commits political suicide, and takes the Republican Party with him.

Newt Gingrich was Speaker of the House of Representatives when Bill Clinton was president, and Gingrich's performance left much to be desired. As Speaker, he presided over the infamous government shutdown. The government closed most non-essential offices during this shut-down, which was the longest in US history. This conflict between him and President Clinton arose as a result of the Republican majority's promise to slow the rate of government spending on Medicare, education, the environment and public health. During the crisis, Gingrich's public image suffered from the public's perception that his hard-line stance against the budget was purely partisan and nonsensical.

In January 1997, Gingrich was disciplined by the House of Representatives for ethics violations, although a full hearing was avoided. Eighty-four ethics charges were filed against Speaker Gingrich, and by a 395-28 house vote he was sanctioned with a $300,000 charge. This was the first time in history that a Speaker was disciplined for ethical wrongdoing.

Gingrich himself acknowledged, "In my name and over my signature, inaccurate, incomplete and unreliable statements were given to the committee." The House Ethics Committee concluded that inaccurate information supplied to investigators represented "intentional or reckless disregard of House rules."

Special Counsel James M. Cole concluded that Gingrich violated federal tax law and had lied to the ethics panel in an effort to force the committee to dismiss the complaints against him. On November 5, 1998, he resigned from the house under pressure from his republican colleagues.

Newt Gingrich was recently ripped and blasted by his own Republican fellow candidates for his ties to Freddie Mac. He claimed that he never "lobbied" but was merely a "consultant" for the company, which paid him $1.6 million. Ron Paul, who put out a web-ad attacking Gingrich for his ties to Freddie Mac, said that the $1.6 million was "literally coming from the tax-payer." Rep. Ron Paul of Texas was furious, and claimed that "after Gingrich's advice to Freddie Mac, they still went broke, and we had to bail them out."

Gingrich has had a long-standing problem dealing with women, so he simply married some of them. He actually stopped at number three, after divorcing the first two when they were terribly ill. I do not believe there is anything wrong with having three wives, as long as you are not husband to all three at the same time, or their terms being Mrs Gingrich, do not unceremoniously overlap.

This is what his first wife, Jackie, had to say about the end of their marriage: "He walked out in the spring of 1980. By September, I went into hospital for my third surgery. The two girls came to me and said, 'Daddy is downstairs. Could he come up?' When he got there he wanted to discuss the terms of the divorce, while I was recovering from my (cancer) surgery."

The hospital visit wasn't the end of it either. Jackie had to take Newt to court to get him to contribute to the household bills, as utilities were about to be cut off.

Those who know Gingrich best, (even staunch Republicans) do not paint glowing references for him.... and that's a problem. Here is what some of his colleagues have had to say about Mr Gingrich:

Former New Hampshire Governor, and George H. W. Bush Chief of Staff, John Sununu told The Wall Street Journal last week: "Listen to just about anyone who worked alongside Gingrich, and you will hear that he is inconsistent, erratic, untrustworthy and unprincipled."

From 1993 to 1999 Jim Talent served with Gingrich in the house, and in a conference call on Thursday said, "He is not a reliable leader."

Senator Tom Coburn, a member of the house class of 1994, called the former Speaker's leadership, "lacking," and told Oklahoma constituents, "Mr Gingrich is the last person on earth I would vote for for President of the United States."

Senator Lindsay Graham told a reporter that "Mr Gingrich could be a historic president if he has matured as a person, and is, for lack of a better word, 'calmed down.'" That is the closest we got, as far as being a compliment is concerned.

Many who know Newt feel that "he is usually destabilized by success; he becomes dizzy by the thin air at the top; he has an inner urge to be tragic; he goes too far, and his rhetoric becomes too slashing." A common comment is that Newt is actually his own greatest enemy, and one who is actually a human hand-grenade who walks around with his hand on the pin, saying, "Watch this!"

What those who know Newt fear is that he will show just enough discipline over the next few months, just enough focus to win the nomination. And then in the fall of 2012, once party leaders have come around, and the GOP is fully behind him, he will begin baying at the moon. He will start saying wild things, and promising he will bomb Iran.

Gingrich has deservedly received his fair share of criticism, some of which are as follows: he has frequently disregarded the poor; he was criticized for his role in crafting the 1990s’ welfare reform; his vilification of people as shiftless and unwilling to work; and his disgusting suggestions that we bring back child labour.

Despite Gingrich's obvious positive qualities, his problem is that his liabilities massively outweigh his assets. His baggage is just too heavy and overwhelming, and that is precisely why the polls show that presently, there is no way he could defeat President Obama in 2012.

Gingrich is polling well in the swing states, he is a great debater and he has guts, but his down-side is tremendously negative. President Obama's job approval rating is not impressive, but Newt is so abominable, atrocious, deplorable, disgusting, offensive and repulsive as an individual and as a leader, that the president is still leading him by double digits.

December 27, 2011

caribbeannewsnow

Caribbean Blog International

By Jean H Charles

My dream around Christmas is to be in the Dominican Republic for Noel. Last year, passing through Santiago en route to New York, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Noel in the Dominican Republic was a spectacular affair, with fireworks at each corner and a desire to enjoy felt by anyone present due to the communal bacchanal spirit.

This year my Christmas is in Haiti. I am nursing my father of 99 years old who just lost his wife of 100 years old. You may recall in my essay: The art and the process of a long life, I warned my sisters not to give a big fiesta to my mother. It is a sure way to send her to the eternal life. 

My prediction did happen. My mother passed away some six months after her last birthday. May those who care to learn, do!

The night before Christmas Eve, I was woken up by fireworks at midnight sharp in my neighborhood. I went out to seek the spirit of Noel. At the small plaza near the giant Natcom building (Natcom is the new national/Vietnam phone carrier that tried to dispute with Digicel the first place in the hearts and the mind of the Haitian people) a group of socialite ladies were putting the finishing touch in decorating the park with Christmas ornaments.

To my query as to who is sponsoring such a Christmas manifestation, the lady in charge told me it was a mayoral initiative. It is time that Haiti starts smiling again, she said. President Michel Joseph Martelly is full speed ahead, circuiting the country, delivering cars and mottos to lucking winners seeking to establish the Christmas spirit. Eleven million dollars has been provided to mayors in the different cities of the republic for the traditional popular bouillon made with yellow pumpkin, and for cleaning the streets and the sewers.

The Haitian superstar cum politician Wyclef Jean is in town, adding his touch to the Christmas spirit by providing a free concert on the main plaza of the capital still encumbered by the refugees of the earthquake of January 12, 2010.

The plaza of the bucolic suburb of Petionville, disencumbered by the refugees, is the focus of the village of the artists with chef d’oeuvres that set Haiti as the premiere destination for pieces of art that cannot be found anywhere else in the world. 

The children of Haiti are the most fortunate ones in the world around Christmas time. If they miss their Christmas gifts during Noel they have another chance one week later on January 1. It is a tradition in Haiti to give gifts to the children on Independence Day, which is January 1.

Christmas in Haiti, as in the rest of the world, is a festive moment made of religious manifestation mixed with bacchanal spirit. I went on the town seeking both.

Haiti, after sixty years of illiberal governance, is slowly realizing it has the right to enjoy happiness as such. In my meander through the town I did not find the exalting spirit I found in the Dominican Republic last year.

The fervor was more ardent at the church where the Catholic service took place at midnight commemorating the coming of the Man made God, who came to redeem mankind for his state of sin. Christmas came this year on a Sunday (it will come again in 2016), as such the day service as full as the midnight one.

Noel in Haiti is Christmas without snow, without pine-trees and with a sky bright and filled with stars. It is the dawn of an era, where perhaps 10 million people who went so much in pain and suffering, starting from the recent earthquake, are hoping of a better tomorrow where peace on earth and prosperity in the land will be the lot of each and everyone.

December 26, 2011

caribbeannewsnow

Caribbean Blog International

by Candiss Shumate, Research Associate at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs:

 

The Catholic Church’s historical influence on authoritarian regimes in Latin America has been decidedly controversial, particularly in regards to its interactions with youth. The Catholic Welfare Bureau (CWB) in Miami, now known as Catholic Charities, played an active role in “saving children from communism” during the early years of the Cuban revolution through the covert Operation Pedro Pan, which consisted of a mass exodus of young people who were transported to Miami from December 1960 to October 1962. Similarly, during Argentina’s Dirty War, members of the Catholic Church conspired with the brutal military dictatorship led by the military junta head, General Jorge Rafael Videla (1976-1981). In an act of what they called good faith, Church members took away the young children and babies of leftist prisoners and found them “more suitable” parents. On February 28, 2011, a televised trial began in Buenos Aires which has focused on the cases of at least 34 children who were born to mothers being held as prisoners or that had been killed. Charges against the defendants include: “taking, retaining and hiding minors and changing their identities”. Recent testimonies of these covert adoptions’ victims have further hinted at the involvement of the Catholic Church in collaborating with the brutal authoritarian regime in relation to the “stolen” babies. Many people are beginning to ask whether or not the Catholic Church acted ethically in an attempt to protect children from the extreme leftist policies of the past.

During the Dirty War in Argentina (1976-1983), the military dictatorship carried out mass purges against political opponents of the regime. The government’s repressive actions, including torture and imprisonment, resulted in the disappearance of 30,000 Argentines, which left a large number of young babies and children unaccounted for. In cooperation with officials of the Catholic Church, President Videla coordinated 500 covert adoptions by who he deemed as more appropriate parents, which were usually military or police couples.

Over a decade earlier in Cuba, between December 1960 and October 1962, several anti-Castro Cuban dissidents worked with Father Bryan Walsh of the CWB in Miami to spirit away as many as 14,000 Cuban children to Miami as part of Operation Pedro Pan. The evacuation was implemented in response to the fear that children would be subjected to communist indoctrination by the newly established Castro regime. These irrational fears felt by a number of Cuban parents were made possible because of the widely influential use of propaganda instilled by the looming presence of the CIA on the island that coordinated efforts to arrange for the children to be sent to Florida.

Pedro Pans Reflect on CIA Propaganda

María de los Ángeles Torres, a professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago, is one of the many children (known as Pedro Pans) who were exiled to the U.S. during this period of covert warfare against Havana. She describes the CIA’s role in the operation in her book The Lost Apple: Operation Pedro Pan, Cuban Children in the U.S., and the Promise of a Better Future. She explains that the CIA operated a radio station known as “Radio Swan,” which effectively manipulated the notion of patria potestad[1], a “Roman legal concept regarding the authority to make decisions for children.” This notion of patria potestad introduced in Torres’ book, successfully convinced Cuban parents to send their children to the U.S. This type of CIA operation allowed for the U.S. Church, in conjunction with the Catholic Church, to play a major role in swaying well-intentioned parents to send their children to the mainland. On the other hand, the CWB has claimed it made every attempt to avoid making use of the propaganda and that these activities merely fulfilled the wishes of the children’s parents in sending them to the safe haven of Miami.

COHA recently conducted an interview with Dr Raúl Galván, a Pedro Pan and current production manager with Milwaukee Public Television. Dr Galván was ten years old when taken from Havana and relocated to the U.S. where he lived with distant relatives. Before leaving the island, he distinctly remembers the rumors being circulated by the CIA throughout Havana. He recounts hearing the news that was spreading shortly before the Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961 “of a flight which would leave the Havana Airport with only kids, and my parents packed my bags and rushed to the airport where there was a mad traffic jam amongst all those others who had heard the same rumors. It had indeed been only a rumor.” Such lies perpetrated by the CIA were with a similar motive after they proved to be extremely effective at terrifying a number of Cuban parents and convincing them to send their children away to a “safer” place.

Similar Justifications for the Church’s Covert Activities

The justifications made by the local Catholic Church for its silent, yet critical roles in the cases of both Cuba and Argentina are strikingly similar. According to Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, a Nobel Prize-winning human rights advocate, officials in the Catholic Church in Argentina have “justified their support of the government, on national security concerns, and defended the taking of children as a way to ensure they were not ‘contaminated’ by leftist enemies of the military.” Moreover, Father Bryan Walsh, the mastermind behind Operation Pedro Pan, has rationalized his involvement by claiming it was simply a response “to the desire of Cuban parents to protect their children from Marxist-Leninist indoctrination after the experience of the literacy campaign in the summer of 1960 and the closing of Catholic and private schools in June of 1961.” Operation Pedro Pan and the stealing of babies during the Dirty War also both occurred during the heart of the Cold War era, when the Red Scare was at its peak and U.S-backed right-wing governments proliferated in Latin America.

In the case of Cuba, it should be noted that the CIA still has not released some 1,500 documents addressing Operation Pedro Pan, and has been heavily criticized for this by many Pedro Pans living in the U.S. Such secrecy also poses the question of whether the CIA and the Catholic Church have been hiding any additional information regarding the full scope of the operation. Moreover, Operation Pedro Pan continues to be seen as a questionable covert operation from the past, which may shed light on current covert USAID programs in Cuba that continues to bedevil everyday life on the island, doing damage to the U.S.-Cuba relationship.

Future US Diplomatic Obligations

There is no question that Operation Pedro Pan could not have been successful without the full participation of the Catholic Church in Miami. With Father Walsh’s backing, the CIA was better able to convince parents that they were doing the right thing by sending their children to the U.S. Some are now arguing that the Obama administration has the duty to urge the CIA to release any missing information so that the displaced Pedro Pans may make peace with their past, while also proving the accountability of the U.S. government. Moreover, if this information were made public, it could help to repair the tense diplomatic relations between U.S. and Cuba, as Castro still refers to Operation Pedro Pan as “one of the most repugnant acts of moral aggression carried out against our country.”

In the case of Argentina, both individual Catholic Church officials and the Vatican itself refuse to comment on any allegations of involvement in the “stealing” of young children in the country. As more evidence is unveiled in the ongoing trial, it will become increasingly important for those following the issue to remain suspicious about the role played by the U.S. and the Catholic Church in the Dirty War chapter. While the U.S. must respect the sovereignty of Argentina, its officials should pressure Buenos Aires to deny impunity for any Church official convicted of playing a role in this squalid episode from several decades ago, or whether any good purpose can be derived from full disclosure, thereby revealing all of the grim facts surrounding this horrendous event.

[1] Maria de los Angeles Torres, The Lost Apple: Operation Pedro Pan, Cuban Children in the U.S., and the Promise of a Better Future. Published in 2003.

The Council on Hemispheric Affairs, founded in 1975, is an independent, non-profit, non-partisan, tax-exempt research and information organization. It has been described on the Senate floor as being "one of the nation's most respected bodies of scholars and policy makers." For more information, visit www.coha.org or email coha@coha.org

December 21, 2011

Caribbeannewsnow

Caribbean Blog International