One of those snatch-n-grab runs
for the weekend, soon to become
second-nature to us all, unless
some benign quota is imposed on
the ransacking hordes of devel-
opment consultants. All of this
represents less of a volte face
than it would seem. The politic-
al zealotry to exploit expatri-
ate resentments is, naturally,
indistinguishable from the one
most avaricious to assist our
former satrapy in resembling
its accommodating, passive past.
A reasonable deference to do-
mestic sugar interests, banana
and tobacco lobbies, union pen-
sion funds, distilleries, and
an export-import bank or two,
and Cuba should swap present
crutches for some hand-me-down
prosthetics any day. For now,
who wouldn't take a weekend
to discover the native dance?
I admire this voyage, and I
respect it mightily. It re-
calls a journey I took to a
nearby island, Jamaica, when
she was being ground beneath
the heel of another bland em-
bargo, against bauxite, cen-
tered very near to Coward's
Firefly, insulting the master,
to destroy a peaceable gov-
ernment led by a socialist
Anglo-Jamaican patriot schol-
ar from the LSE. Kissinger
triumphed in that noble con-
test, and pointedly, the
neo-Tory who came to power
next, was the first to be
hosted by Ronald Reagan at
a State Dinner in the East
Room.
Yes; that's what I thought.
If the Obama government's
rapprochement with this ex-
traordinary State; if, in-
deed, her people's willing-
ness to endure such genera-
tions of such cruel offense
for their undiluted taste of
sovereignty, should precipi-
tate, upon a weighty iron's
cautious lifting, a 3rd Nobel
Peace Prize -- the one for
Iran may come first -- then a
swindle would proclaim itself.
But, should this government
defer to native pride, native
values, native genius, then in
every school from the Keys to
our Back Bay, Cuban-American
children might demonstratively
restore the dignity of a smile.
Its pleasure, its warmth, its
glorious dispelling of inhibi-
tion, are that close. And its
claim to share our provenance,
and gain a joyful chorus, a-
wakens every buried prayer.
This, we've traveled for.
Michael Manley
The Politics of Change
A Jamaican Testament
André Deutsch, 1974©
Michael Manley
A Voice at the Workplace
Reflections on Colonialism
and the Jamaican Worker
André Deutsch, 1975©
Adam Kuper
Changing Jamaica
Kingston Publishers, 1976©
