PETERS’ PIECE
WHO IS THE REAL CRIMINAL? Part 2 of Three
The world is grappling with all kinds of problems and they are becoming scarier and scarier.
Many of those problems are natural in origin. Catastrophic floods are seemingly becoming more commonplace and most areas of the world as being impacted. Similarly, droughts are devastating once flourishing farmlands and rendering theretofore reliable water bodies, little more than mudholes while volcanoes and earthquakes continue to wreak havoc.
But while humankind the world over is besieged by these natural challenges that we are catching our ‘nennen’ to deal with, man himself is compounding the issue. Not the ordinary man on the streets but governments, oligarchies, mega businesses and businessmen are making, are stomping a path of selfishness and avarice through the world, destroying whom and want they may.
As mentioned in last week’s edition of Peters’ Piece, the treatment of the people of the Republic of Cuba by the Government of the United States of America, is a perfect example of heartlessness, bigotry, selfishness and disrespect for the rights of peoples.
Just as how Americans, especially their leader have allowed themselves to be taken in and confused by the ridiculous Monroe’s doctrine of manifest destiny, American leaders seem to believe it is their manifest destiny to make the people of Cuba suffer as much as possible. Despite clear opposition from the rest of the world, they continue to maintain their archaic and criminal embargo against this Caribbean Island that has done nothing to them and has never had anything against the people of the United States.
When Fidel Castro and his band of revolutionaries took control of the island from the dictator Batista in 1959, their first priority was empowering the people, which meant putting the resources of the country into their hands.
Of course, this meant taking it back from the American oligarchs who owned it. This wasn’t to the liking of the US leadership and they started a never-ending campaign against the government and people of Cuba. Though outdated and increasingly irrelevant, they have stuck to it over all of these years even though the United Nations opposes it.
Shortly after the land reforms, the then Dwight Eisenhower administration began drawing up plans to overthrow the Cuban government. They decided that since the people of Cuba overwhelmingly supported Castro and there was no significant opposition, they could use to overthrow him; the only way was to strangle Cuba economically and make things so hard for the people that they would blame Castro for the hardships and bring about the overthrow of government.
Sixty years later, they continue to attempt this dastardly strategy, even though the Cuban people, being politically astute, have long seen right through this guile. While the American Government continues to do all, it can to stifle the people of Cuba, the American people are in significant part opposed to this treatment of the Cuban people but there is nothing much they can do to melt the hearts of their leaders.
Because of their resilience and creativity, the people of Cuba continue to survive this ordeal and although it is severely negatively affecting the quality of their lives, they continue to selflessly assist countries in need, more readily than most, despite their limited resources. With all their global power and resources, all their talk about human rights and empowerment, America has been doing far less for disadvantaged people in poorer countries than Cuba.
The ill-intentioned Eisenhower government had begun by stopping US oil sales to Cuba, forcing Cuba to turn to the Soviet Union for crude oil. Now this crude oil had to be refined and since all of the refineries were owned by the US companies, they were simply instructed not to refine the oil. This forced the Cuban government to nationalize the refineries to which the Eisenhower government responded by imposing a partial embargo on Cuba’s sugar exports, one of Cuba’s export markets, 80% of which went to the United States.
Two years later, the Kennedy administration turned the partial embargo into a fullembargo on all US trading with Cuba, under the US Trading with the Enemies act.
While countries around the world are contending with serious challenges to make life easier for their citizens, the great moral United States is busy trying to make life harder for those that would not bow down to its every whim and fancy. Is this the way to enhance and modernize international relations and bring the world together? More next week