THE VINCENTIAN. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 02, 2016. 15.
14. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 02, 2016. THE VINCENTIAN
O Our ur D Dear ear F Friend riend a nd C omrade, and Comrade, F idel, iiss d ead Fidel, dead
by DR. HON. RALPH E. GONSALVES Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines IT IS WITH A DEEP and heartfelt sadness that the Government and the People of St. Vincent and the Grenadines learnt of the news of the death, last night, November 25, 2016, of our dear friend and comrade, Commandante Fidel Castro Ruz, the former President of the Republic of Cuba. Known to the people of Cuba and the world simply and affectionately as “Fidel”, this iconic revolutionary successfully led the political process to unshackle Cuba from a debilitating imperialism, and he strove to establish a just and inclusive society in his people’s interest, free of exploitation. The Cuban people loved him; and, so, too, we in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the Caribbean, Latin America, and indeed the world over. For over 50 years, Fidel led his people
and others globally in a full of a love for life and living. quest for a better world of We will miss him dearly. My justice, equality, and wife and I have lost a personal genuine freedom. Cuba’s friend. internationalism and Earlier today (Saturday, solidarity with the poor November 26, 2016), I conveyed and oppressed people orally the condolences of the world-wide were manifesGovernment and People of St. tations of his humanity Vincent and the Grenadines to the and nobility of spirit. We Government and People of Cuba in St. Vincent and the and to Comrade Raul and Fidel’s Grenadines have been family. beneficiaries of Fidel’s St. Vincent and the Grenadines generosity and solidarity. will honour Fidel appropriately In other countries, such as during this immediate period of in racist Southern Africa, mourning and thereafter. the Cubans under Fidel’s May Fidel’s soul rest in peace. extraordinary leadership His ideas and example live on. shed their blood, selflessly, Farewell our dear friend and to assist in the attainment comrade. of freedom and nationhood in Angola and South Africa especially. Fidel was an extraordinary and towering political figure of immense historical and global by RENWICK E.A. ROSE but also the birth of the significance. He stands alongside SVG/Cuba Friendship Society democratic Republic of South the 20th century titans in the Africa itself, out of the rubble struggle for people’s liberation of the racist apartheid such as V.I, Lenin, Mahatma THE ST VINCENT AND THE system, led by Nelson MandeGhandi, Mao Tse Tung, Ho Chi GRENADINES/CUBA la himself. The contribution Minh, and Nelson Mandela. He FRIENDSHIP SOCIETY joins of Cuba, under Fidel Castro’s was a magnificent son of Our with the rest of the internationleadership, to the socio-ecoAmerica, Our Latin American and al community in mourning the nomic development of develCaribbean civilisation. loss of the incomparable Comoping nations, did not stay Fidel was a warm and humor- mandante Fidel Castro Ruz, and there, for at great sacrifice to ous person, a finished personality, with progressive mankind in the meagre resources of his paying tribute to his tremencountry, Fidel insisted that dous contribution to the develCuba give practical assisopment of his country, Cuba, tance to these nations, the Caribbean, and countries particularly in the critical too numerous to mention in areas of education and Africa, Asia and Latin America. health. We too, in St Vincent We have collectively lost a and the Grenadines have true friend, a brother, father benefited in this regard. and teacher, a proven fighter on Fidel has also provided behalf of oppressed people the political leadership to developworld over. His courage in the ing countries, in the United face of adversity, fidelity to the Nations, in the Non-Aligned cause of uplifting the Movement, the Group of 77 and oppressed, and practical other such international bodies. solidarity, made Fidel Castro, His country has been in the along with the late Nelson forefront in fighting the ravages Mandela, one of the most of disease, for example ebola in outstanding giants of the 20th West Africa, and in providing century. assistance to countries struck by His role in weakening the natural disaster. We remember odious system of apartheid in for instance, Fidel’s offer of South Africa, enabled not only assistance to this country the emergence of independent following the Soufriere eruption states in Southern Africa, of 1979, even though the
FFidel idel C Castro asttro tro R Reminiscences eminiscences by SIR JAMES MITCHELL Former Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines
In tribute to Commandante Fidel Castro Ruiz
government of the day had initially been reluctant to accept such generosity. Finally, what greater manifestation of selfless internationalism can there be than the international airports at Pointe Salines in Grenada and Argyle, here in SVG, built with Cuban assistance under Fidel’s direction? For these, and countless other deeds of solidarity, Fidel Castro Ruz will long be remembered, long after the world has forgotten those who have vilified him. It is instructive to note that he has survived more than
600 assassination attempts, state-sponsored terrorism by those who had the gall to declare Cuba, and Fidel, as sponsors of terrorism. Fortunately, the passage of time has removed this dreadful slur. Fidel himself, in his defence when charged with treason in Cuba, more than six decades ago, had declared, that “History will absolve me”. How prophetic are those words! Long live his memory and magnificent example! Vincentians will treasure those memories of FIDEL!
THE LAST TIME I met President Fidel Castro was at the Japanese reception in New York during the Millennium Summit of the United Nations. This was a memorable encounter, and in retrospect clothed in a historic dimension, Fidel came up to me with enthusiasm and said, “I’m so glad you are here. They don’t know which of us to shoot!” In my early political life, my hair and beard all too easily bestowed a communist image, a la Castro, of me. My physical likeness to Castro when I was a wanderer in Europe during the Cold War Era of the Nineteen Sixties when I never visited a barber; my height, the flowing hair, and short beard attended only by affectionate friends, seem to give Europeans quite a Castro image, even though my travels in Europe had steered me away from any Socialist orientation. The contrast in life between Yugoslavia and Italy had cured me of any Socialist orientation. Hitchhiking in Spain along the Costa Blanca, where the fishing villages were being overtaken by high rise hotels, I frequently got rides on trucks carrying building materials. My Spanish was fair and I could converse with the truck drivers. On one occasion, when we stopped at a building site, the driver got out and shouted to the workers on the hillside: “I brought along Fidel Castro.” The workers dropped their tools and descended. “Donde estan los canones?” Spain’s historic presence in the Caribbean, its literature, art, culture, bullfights and music had inspired my explorations. But I knew also about Franco’s jails and the thought of stretching my luck could not be entertained. Better to be smothered under the skirts of the delightful Castanet dancing girls. I did not hesitate to explain that this was just a preliminary surveillance exercise and that I would return! In a train station as I walked by a porter, he mumbled as he went by, “Fidel Castro bueno para L’Espana.” That was Spain in the Sixties. Next, Hamburg, Germany. Drifting into a bar with my Swedish friend, we ordered the cheapest Hungarian Goulash and some beers. We settled in the rowdy ambience. Immediately, one drunken patron attacked me, using a lot of anti Semitic rhetoric. Soon after, the other patrons at the bar came to my defense and offered to pay our bills. I was confused about their motives. My Swedish friend translated. The guy thought I was Jewish, but the other people in the bar were annoyed with him. Saying that anti-Semitism is finished in Germany. They subsequently threw him out of the bar, but he soon returned, and came after me again. Knowing that the majority was on my side, and being bigger that the assailant, I decided second time that I’d make a go at him. I was cheered on by the crowd. Then they wanted to know where I was from. “I’m not Jewish. I’m from the Caribbean”, I said. “Oh, Fidel Castro”, they shouted. Suddenly, like a flash of lightning, the Cold War descended on me. The Cuba/Russia bond anathema to Germans, not anti-Semitism, had me back in the street. When it was all over, and we going back to the hostel, my Swedish friend then concluded the evening’s proceedings, “I’m Jewish”, she said.
On my state visit to Cuba, my Delegation included representatives from our Chamber of Commerce. I wanted a wide cross-section of our society to witness life in Cuba, and the opportunities emerging there. As such, I opened up our diplomatic relations. I also brought along my daughter Louise as a present for her Honours success in Law at Manchester University. Apart from being presented to meet President Castro, she had her own pleasure at a nightclub meeting Gabriel Garcia Marquez with whose writings she was familiar. An outing to Varadario Beach was most instructive. Here was the longest beach in the Caribbean, dwarfing all Caribbean beaches, which together with the music and dance in the famous Tropicana nightclub and the architecture of old Havana, set out for me a broader perspective of the tourism comparisons we would face in the future. Fidel was fascinated with my personal family contact with Cuba. My father had vanished on his schooner in the Bermuda Triangle bringing lumber from Mobile Alabama to Cuba. I gave him a copy of an original port document. On telling him that my mother had told me her first visit to a hairdresser for a perm was in Havana sailing with my father. He issued an invitation to bring her back to Cuba. He gave me a pink Cuban marble dish as a memento for her. My official gift to Cuba was a Mustique coffee table book. Fidel went through it and questioned how we succeeded in getting such varied architecture in the islands. My answer was simple: tax incentives. Mt top priority in going to Cuba was to secure about 100 scholarships for young Vincentians. When I made this request to Fidel Castro, he simply replied that 300 were available. Today, many professionals trained in Cuba are the beneficiaries of this initiative. I am pleased that I served SVG in the Castro era. His Christmas cards are destined to our Bequia museum one fine day.