No Surprises Here!
Speaking today in Barbados about Cuban human rights violations, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said that he will not be visiting Cuba and that the current and previous governments of Canada have often “expressed concerns about certain aspects of governance and human rights in Cuba.”
In contrast, Barbados Prime Minister Arthur expressed the opinion that the Cuban people chose the murder, torture and totalitarian rule. In response to Harper’s comments about human rights in Cuba, Owen Arthur delivered this message…
Barbadian Prime Minister Owen Arthur responded by underlining Cuba’s right to choose its own path.
He said “civilized relationships” between civilized countries were not based on teaching lessons but on “respect for people’s sovereignty and non-interference and the right for people to pursue alternative paths to their development.”
… from News1130 (Canadian Press link here)
Prime Minister Owen Arthur previously staged a photograph holding hands with Fidel Castro – to show public support to the communist dictator who enslaved Cuba and jailed, tortured and murdered citizens for their political and religious beliefs for the last 47 years. Owen Arthur proudly received the Cuban Order Of Jose Marti and has taken Barbados ever closer to Cuba without any mention of human rights issues in that country.
Prime Minister Harper and his government continue to engage both China and Cuba in economic relationships, but that hasn’t prevented Harper from mentioning human rights abuses in those countries.
The Barbados PM on the other hand goes out of his way to remain silent about both Cuba’s and China’s murderous regimes.
Stephen Harper is obviously a realist, but he stands tall as a man who at the very least does not remain silent about the oppression of his fellow human beings.
28 Comments
July 20, 2007 at 12:28 am
I’m looking at the news feeds from around Canada and most Canadians are applauding Harper for taking his tougher stance. Its nice to see everything isn’t for sale in Canada including morals and values.
February 21, 2009 at 7:26 pm
Well put!
July 20, 2007 at 10:44 am
[...] WeblogBahamas.com and Barbados Free Press have concerns about their respective countries’ support for the Cuban regime. Share [...]
July 20, 2007 at 10:44 am
[...] WeblogBahamas.com and Barbados Free Press have concerns about their respective countries’ support for the Cuban regime. Share [...]
July 20, 2007 at 1:05 pm
SO based on the rhetoric of this post would the editor have us in the CARIBBEAN beleive that Barbados has taken an unfavorable stance by supporting our regional counterpart?
July 20, 2007 at 1:26 pm
based on your logic we should also move away from close relations with the US because they have a murderous president who approves torture and the erosion of civil liberties in his country!
i find it hypocritical that you can always be on about cuba and venezuela but never utter a word of criticism about US government policy-internal and external.
July 20, 2007 at 1:41 pm
We live for the USA, to have their materialistic lifestyle and their gangster ways and we admire the gun toting idiot for a president what more can we ask for.more, more, more, more.
July 20, 2007 at 2:23 pm
true stupz, time has come for the caribbean to more agressive take a stance agianst countries who hide their own unfavorable activities by focussing on speculative situations in others like cuba.
July 20, 2007 at 3:36 pm
I am not holding my breath, but I hope to see the day that Bush and Blair are charged before the International Criminal Court for the willful murder of thousands upon thousands of Iraqi people as a result of their illegal war. I don’t know how they can sleep. My conscience surely would prevent me,
July 20, 2007 at 3:43 pm
Bush took the world to war in Iraq based on a lie that he Rumsfeld and Powell concocted to destoy Iraq.
Do we remember Powell displaying pictures of nothing but supposely showing sites where weapons of Mass distaction were located ?
He knew what he was doing from day one he misled and lied to the world to get a war started so that he can control the oil supplies to the world.
July 20, 2007 at 4:03 pm
Viva Cuba.
July 20, 2007 at 4:07 pm
yes but despite all this all bfp can do is moan and groan about cuba and venezuela. the one time i saw something they said about the iraq war was that they didnt support it because it was unwinnable. not because it was wrong to kill innocent people or based on lies and warped intelligence!
castro’s abuse of human rights is miniscule compared to what the us has done, from vietnam to supporting right wing dictators all over the world to invading iraq and guantanamo. let us not forget what the us government does to its own citizens! imprisonment without trial happens everyday in the us. the us government legally justifies torture!
tell stephen harper to condemn that!
bfp lives in a glass house but wants to throw stones!!!!
July 20, 2007 at 4:15 pm
haha stupz? you attacking the bfp?
July 20, 2007 at 5:07 pm
On March 13, 1979, the New Joint Endeavor for Welfare, Education, and Liberation (New Jewel) movement ousted Sir Eric Gairy, Grenada’s first prime minister, in a nearly bloodless coup and established a people’s revolutionary government (PRG), headed by Maurice Bishop, who became prime minister. His Marxist-Leninist Government established close ties with Cuba, the Soviet Union, and other communist-bloc countries. In October 1983, a power struggle within the government resulted in the arrest and subsequent murder of Bishop and several members of his cabinet by elements of the people’s revolutionary army.
Is the type of “civilized” relationship the PM wants Barbados to enjoy with Cuba?
July 20, 2007 at 5:37 pm
BFP might as well shut down this site if its going to regurgitate the narrow and agenda driven views of first world nations who DO NOT have this regions well being at heart.
The US makes no qualms about suspending habeas corpus and imposing indefinite custodial sentences on anyone when it feels it’s security is at stake. The Canadians are still to compensate the native indians whose lands and way of life they stole.
Castro may be a sob but at least he is our scholarship and healthcare providing infrastructure building s.o.b. Cuba is no different from the US/Iran /Israel/the Sudan in terms of dealing with its domestic or foreign enemies, so why single it out for unfair critisism
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BFP Replies
BFP sometimes has a focus on Cuba and true hatred of communist despots because our own Cliverton lived and studied in Cuba for a time. The Committee For The Defense Of The Revolution (CDR) beat his girlfriend because he gave her students crayons, pencils and a VCR with nature tapes – but in that case the descendant of slaves got off mildly compared with some.
Still a slave, but at least still alive.
A VCR Travels From Barbados To Cuba – In Vain
July 20, 2007 at 7:07 pm
BFP Replies to Jodiperry….
BFP sometimes has a focus on Cuba and true hatred of communist despots because our own Cliverton lived and studied in Cuba for a time. The Committee For The Defense Of The Revolution (CDR) beat his girlfriend because he gave her students crayons, pencils and a VCR with nature tapes – but in that case the descendant of slaves got off mildly compared with some.
Still a slave, but at least still alive.
A VCR Travels From Barbados To Cuba – In Vain
July 20, 2007 at 7:29 pm
Oh come on Gadfly dont insult the intellect of the barbadian people. the difference between the grenada situation and the barbados relation with cub is that during then you had a serious inflow of foreign investments from the communist regime of cuba and it has been even recrded that grenada has some $13 million dollars of receipts from the soviet union. this was simply a case of adjusting to get more dollars for grenada…dont misguide my people and let them think that because the government shakes hands with an individual that its autonomy is undermined. if that were so then perhaps the chant of a 7% unemployment rate would have been invalid. so if we shake hands with germany tomorrow during a vist from the chancellor does that mean that we (predominantly black) will become Nazis?
July 20, 2007 at 7:35 pm
This is one time I agree with Owen…tell Prime Minister Harper and Bush to go treat with China in the same manner in which they do with Cuba.
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BFP Replies
Canada has long standing economic ties with Cuba and China, but this does not stop Harper from speaking out on human rights issues. Barbados remains silent.
July 20, 2007 at 7:38 pm
No-name you hit the nail right on the head.
July 20, 2007 at 8:38 pm
Last time I looked, Germany was no longer under the control of Nazis. But closer to the point, the intellect of the Barbadian people is not being questioned — at least not by me. As you suggest, a simple case of adjusting foreign investment “to get more dollars” is justification for murder and the overthrow of a democratic government by a coup of communist Cuban thugs. This method of governmental change does not respect “people’s sovereignty” and is completely contrary to the “non-interference and the right for people to pursue alternative paths to their development” as proclaimed by the PM. The PM, my friend, is questioning the intellect of the Barbadian people by suggesting that they are unable to differentiate the “right for people” to pusue government by democratic means from a government that is run by a dictator and recognises no rights at all.
July 20, 2007 at 10:53 pm
By the way, Canadian visitors many of whom came to Barbados in the 1970s are not going to Cuba. Harper should tell us why they are going to Cuba. In 2006 trade between Canada and Cuba was almost $1 billion. About 22 per cent of Cuban exports go to Canada, second only to the Netherlands with about 24 per cent. Canada ranks fifth in exports to Cuba, behind Spain, Venezuela, the U.S. and China.
July 21, 2007 at 6:49 am
[...] here, so you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!Both WeblogBahamas.com and Barbados Free Press have concerns about their respective countries’ support for the Cuban regime. No [...]
July 22, 2007 at 8:46 am
What is Human Rights for God’s sake. Still can get it ornstan’.
July 22, 2007 at 1:28 pm
banned, check out the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
July 22, 2007 at 1:55 pm
Interesting excerpt from The Economist.com. Full article here.
http://www.economist.com/world/la/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9441617&CFID=11966998&CFTOKEN=83807356
“Cuba has one of the lowest rates of return visits in the travel business. Most visitors go there once, enjoy the colonial architecture and pristine beaches, and never go back. Tour operators say they get many complaints about poor food and indifferent service.
Many tourists also find Cuba expensive. To buy anything they are obliged to change their money into “convertible pesos”, which are worthless outside the island. In 2005 President Fidel Castro revalued the “convertible peso” by 8%. That did nothing for tourism. Canadians, for example, do not visit because “they love Cuba” but because it is cheap, says one industry source.”
July 22, 2007 at 2:39 pm
Justasking…
A very interesting article, thank you.
‘Many tourists also find Cuba expensive’.
So our tourism planners cannot use that excuse again, can they?
According to the CTO, Jamaica, the Bahamas, St. Lucia and Barbados visitor arrivals are all down for the first quarter of this year.
Suprisingly, not deemed as a cheap destination, Bermuda is up 18% for the same period with the largest increase coming from the United States.
Can we learn anything from this?
July 22, 2007 at 3:30 pm
Vote Loveridge for Senator
July 23, 2007 at 2:38 am
Article 1. All human beings born free and equal in dignity and rights…act …in a spirit of brotherhood. Major Violators – Canada, Australia, USA, UK
Article 2. Entitlement to all the rights and freedoms ..in this Declaration, without distinction … such as race, colour, … political, jurisdictional or international status of the country … Major Violators – USA
Article 3. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person. Major Violators – USA
Article 4. No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms. Major Violators – Every damned country undre the sun
Article 5. No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Major Violators – USA/Guantanamo Bay
Article 6. ..recognition everywhere as a person before the law. Major Violators – USA/Guantanamo Bay
Article 7. equality before the law …entitled ..to equal protection of the law. ..entitled to equal protection against any discrimination..etc. Major Violators – USA (CUBA/Guantanamo Bay)
Article 8. ..effective remedy by the competent national tribunals etc. Major Violators – USA/Guantanamo Bay
Article 9. ..No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile. Major Violators – USA/Guantanamo Bay
Article 10…entitled ..to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, etc..Major Violators – USA/Guantanamo Bay
Article 11. (1) ..right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law etc. Major Violators – USA/Guantanamo Bay
Article 11. (2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence …which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, etc. Major Violators – USA/Guantanamo Bay
Article 12…arbitrary interference with his privacy,etc. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks. Major Violators – USA
Article 13. (1) …right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.Major Violators – USA
Article 13. (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country. Major Violators – USA, BARBADOS
Article 14.(1)…asylum from persecution. Major Violators – USA
Article 14.(2) ..may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes (like Louis Pasada). Major Violators – USA
Article 15. (1) & (2) Everyone has the right to a nationality. Major Violators – Everyone