Excellent article on Cuba
Dear Editor,
I wish to commend Lance Robinson for his article on Cuba in the November 14 Observer, “The long-suffering people of Cuba”.
He identified the root problem with the statement, “Here in Jamaica we have among us many of leftist ilk from academia, journalists from the print and electronic media – veteran and otherwise – and an across-the-board intelligentsia who always have supported and still do support this cruel and anachronistic dictatorship in Cuba. Shame on them.”
The issue goes beyond this observation. We in the Caribbean (I lived in Jamaica but am from another Caribbean island), with our negative values somewhat resulting from our slavery background, have also compounded the issue by our wholesale adherence to the left-wing liberalism and secularism of the Amercan intelligentsia and media.
More and more academic research proves conclusively that the welfare state and liberal policies in the USA are destroying black family life and contributing to delinquency and the maintenance of black culure as a sub-class in that country, beholden to the Democratic political elite. Yet we in the Caribbean, led by our intellectual and political class, adhere to all these policies, and even our ideas as to the role of government are determined by this philosophy. The myth of Cuba is part of this liberal bubble and folklore and no amount of fact will convince our political and intellectual class otherwise.
Since independence in our various territories it has been “one step forward and two steps backward” in our development and the worst is yet to come unless we can do the impossible and recognise the values in a more conservative philosophy.
Excellent article, and I shall look out for more of Mr Robinson’s submissions.
Clive Beaubrun
beau1955@hotmail.com
