NKRUMAH WINS AGAIN

Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah

By Ekow Mensah

With each passing day it becomes more and more obvious that Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first President is indeed unmatched in his contribution to the emancipation of Africans everywhere.

A forum of Pan-Africanists meeting in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa has strongly recommended that Africans everywhere should celebrate Nkrumah as an African hero.

Participants in the forum were from 35 African countries, North America, the Carribean, Europe and South America.

They included political leaders, academics, journalists, musicians, gender activists and human rights advocates.

Personalities who spoke at the Forum included Major General Khahinde Otafare, Minister of Justice Uganda, Former President of Mozambique, Joachim Chisano, Former President of Liberia, Professor Amos Sawyerr, Dr Yao Graham of the Third World Network and Professor D. Tsikata of the University of Ghana.

Addressing the forum, Mr Kwesi Pratt Jnr., Editor of The Insight paid glowing tribute to Nkrumah who he described as an intellectual and activist who spearheaded the liberation struggle in Africa.

Mr Pratt said Nkrumah was not just an activist of the liberation struggle but provided the ideological framework for the total liberation of Africa from political, economic and social bondage.

He said Africa continues to suffer poverty and under development in spite of her abundant resources because those resources are being exploited for the benefit of the elite in the metropolitan countries and not the peoples of the continent.

“Part of the problem of Africa today is that our leaders are no better than the house nigers and colonial governors of old” he said.

Other African heroes and heroines mentioned for celebration included, Angela Davies, Winnie Mandela, Yaa Asantewa, Paul Robeson, Tussant O’liverture, Gamel Nasser, Ahmed Sekou Toure and Julius Nyerere.

The meeting was part of the preparatory effort for convening the 8^th Pan-African Congress.

Ghana is seriously in the reckoning for the hosting of the congress which will bring together 2000 delegates from all over the world.

Editorial

KICKING AGAINST A ROCK

For those reactionary elements in Ghana who are still desperately trying to destroy the legacy of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, they need to be told that, their dishonorable enterprise is doomed to fail.

All over the world, the masses are waking up to the realization that, Osagyefo contributed in no small measure to change the world for the better.

He and many others stood firm against colonial exploitation and oppression in Africa and elsewhere and brought down the colonial empire in more than 50 countries in Africa alone.

Nkrumah was also a strident opponent of racism in all its forms and believed firmly in the equality of all races.

In Ghana, he led the attempt to transform a Country which had suffered the gruesome effects of the Trans- Atlantic Slave Trade and Classical Colonialism into a modern industrialized State.

It does not surprise us that, once more, the Pan African Movement meeting in Addis Ababa has called on African people everywhere to celebrate Nkrumah as a continental hero.

Those who seek to destroy Nkrumah’s legacy are only kicking against a rock.

In the end, what they will manage to destroy will be their own feet.

Nkrumah will forever stand tall as a liberator and nothing can change this.

SFG CALLS FOR FREEDOM FOR WESTERN SAHARA

Kwesi Pratt Jnr.

The Socialist Forum of Ghana (SFG) has called for the liberation of Western Sahara from colonial occupation.

In a statement issued in Accra to mark African Union Day, the SFG said the continued imposition of colonialism on Western Sahara is a blot on the legacy of Nkrumah and other heroes of the liberation struggle. The full text of the statement is published below;

On the occasion of African Union Day, the Socialist Forum of Ghana salutes the founding heroes and heroines of the organization of African Unity (OAU) and those whose struggles freed the continent from the yoke of classical colonialism.

As we celebrate 5o years of the founding of the OAU by Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah and others, the SFG takes note of the fact that the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (Western Sahara) still remains under the grips of colonial occupation and its people continue to suffer blatant violations of their political, economic, and social rights. We call on the African Union and indeed all those who cherish freedom to redouble their solidarity with the people of Western Sahara in their battle against oppression.

The holding of a referendum on the question of Western Sahara as endorsed by both the Security Council and the General Assembly of the United Nations is an important first step to the liberation of the territory from decadent colonial occupation.

The SFG notes with disdain the growing poverty of the African people in spite of the abundant resources and the impressive growth rates being recorded by many countries on the continent. In our view the contradiction of huge resources and an impressive growth rate in the midst of excruciating poverty is a testimony of the fact that Africa’s resources continue to be exploited not to uplift its people but to swell up the profits of the elite in the metropolitan countries.

The process of liberating Africa from the tentacles of colonial exploitation will not be over until and unless the continent achieves economic liberation. Progressive forces in Africa need to intensify the struggle to break free from the shackles which tie us economically to the predatory forces of capitalism. The SFG insists that African resources need to be exploited for the realization of the aspirations and needs of the African people.

We are convinced that only a United Africa led by the forces of change and progress can achieve full economic independence and accelerate the development of the continent.

The SFG calls on African Peoples wherever they are to intensify the struggle against neo-colonialism and for the removal of the artificial barriers imposed by the Berlin Conference in 1884.

The struggle continues and victory is certain.

……………………………….

Kwesi Pratt Jnr,

for convener.

Hungary Destroys GMO Corn Fields

A GMO Corn farm on fire

Hungary has taken a bold stand against biotech giant Monsanto and genetic modification by destroying 1000 acres of maize found to have been grown with genetically modified seeds, according to Hungary deputy state secretary of the Ministry of Rural Development Lajos Bognar. Unlike many European Union countries, Hungary is a nation where genetically modified (GM) seeds are banned. In a similar stance against GM ingredients, Peru has also passed a 10 year ban on GM foods.

Almost 1000 acres of maize found to have been ground with genetically modified seeds have been destroyed throughout Hungary, deputy state secretary of the Ministry of Rural Development Lajos Bognar said. The GMO maize has been ploughed under, said Lajos Bognar, but pollen has not spread from the maize, he added.

Unlike several EU members, GMO seeds are banned in Hungary. The checks will continue despite the fact that seek traders are obliged to make sure that their products are GMO free, Bognar said.

During the invesigation, controllers have found Pioneer Monsanto products among the seeds planted.

The free movement of goods within the EU means that authorities will not investigate how the seeds arrived in Hungary, but they will check where the goods can be found, Bognar said. Regional public radio reported that the two biggest international seed producing companies are affected in the matter and GMO seeds could have been sown on up to the thousands of hectares in the country. Most of the local farmers have complained since they just discovered they were using GMO seeds.

With season already under way, it is too late to sow new seeds, so this years harvest has been lost.

And to make things even worse for the farmers, the company that distributed the seeds in Baranya county is under liquidation. Therefore, if any compensation is paid by the international seed producers, the money will be paid primarily to that company’s creditors, rather than the farmers.

Chinua Achebe: A Patriot and Contrarian

Chinua Achebe

By Prof (Amb) Iyorwuese Hagher

On March 22^nd this year 2013, the World lost one of its greatest story –tellers and Africa one of her most strident voices for liberation, freedom and equality. Chinua Achebe known in childhood years as Albert Chinualumogu Achebe of Nigeria is no more. We are here at the invitation of the African Leadership Institute USA and Wright State University, to celebrate his life and pay tribute to the enormity of Chinua Achebe’s accomplishments.

   

I met Chinua Achebe for the first time fifty years ago in my secondary school library. Even though we studied literature in school, the idea of an African writing a book to be considered worthy study was an alien concept. It was with guilt that I read his books, which were not yet in the syllabus. Much later when I entered the University as student of English, that I had the good fortune to be introduced to  Achebe ‘s works,. Things Fall Apart, No Longer at Ease, The Arrow of God and Man of the People. At that time I didn’t quite realize that I would be held in Achebe ‘s eagle on  iroko grip, for much of the rest of my life. He taught literature, and was a card-carrying member of the Peoples Redemption Party. During the Nigerian Civil war, he was Ambassador Plenipotentiary of the defunct Biafra. He was a great writer who enriched literature and the human capacity to fight for freedom and truth. My journey through life as a student and teacher of literature, as writer, politician and diplomat were unconscious attempts to follow in his prodigious footsteps on this less-travelled pathway.

Prof. Achebe has come to the end of this hard road to travel in glory. So many of us today are still on that road as writers because he had picked the gauntlet on our behalf, fought a good fight, and now he deserves to rest. I stand here, as proxy on behalf of other African writers, who desired to join us today to celebrate Achebe, but are unable for whatever reasons. We acknowledge the unique ability of writers to transcend time and space to mentor others who never met with them other than in their writings. This is what Achebe has been; mentor and beacon.  I never shook his hands physically, and never will. But I am in warm embrace of his vision and ideas that speak for the liberation of humankind from their oppressors.

In his life time, Chinua Achebe was a formidable voice in literature. His Magnus Opus , Things Fall Apart was translated into over fifty languages. Many of his readers who followed him around the globe lauded him for his clarity,  simplicity, brevity and humanity. The world fell in love with Things Fall Apart. To many, Chinua Achebe became Things Fall Apart, and Okonkwo; the universe which he vividly spread out on his literary canvas.

Things Fall Apart, defined Chinua Achebe as his writings resonated through the world with deepest emotions and memories that conveyed his value for candour, simplicity and dignity. But Achebe was more than Things Fall Apart., a  much misunderstood Novel. In my last life time, as Nigeria’s Ambassador to Canada, I was asked by one of Achebe’s ardent admirers if I could relate the story of Okonkwo to contemporary Nigerian politics. In my amazement I had undiplomatically answered back with a question that, why don’t we relate the story of Okonkwo with contemporary happenings in Canada, USA, Korea, Iran, Japan and else where, because Achebe wrote for the world.

There is a time in every nation when things fall apart and the centre cannot hold. When that centre within a democratic setting cannot hold, there is a change of government in a free and fair election. In despotic regimes, the centre is unable to hold when the leaders refuse to leave the stage and grind the necks of the citizens into grime. The Okonkwo character in Things Fall Apart represents the failure of a Leader to embrace change. The tragedy of Okonkwo is the tragedy of all world leaders who reject dialogue, negotiation, diversity and compromise. Such Leaders like Okonkwo rely on their wealth and power. The World helplessly watches the modern Okonkwo’s  in government, and as business leaders who suppress human emotions and empathy for the weak and vulnerable in society. They are stuck in their old ways where they live on entitlements of pillage. The race for Weapons of Mass Destruction is ultimately to endow the modern day Okonkwo in leadership position with masculinity so as to emerge as the toughest wrestler in the global village.

Things Fall Apart remains a globally focussed narrative, which defined the literary journey Achebe would take; up to the time he succumbed to the common destiny of all living things. Writing Things Fall Apart was   an act of uncommon courage and defiance against Eurocentric writing that refused to accord the voices of the subject people of Africa who had no voice and no identity except that given by the Western writers like Joseph Conrad, and Joyce Cary. He not only challenged the colonial Empire, he created opportunities for other African writers to be read around the world.

Chinua Achebe gave to the dispossessed, oppressed and silenced Africans the ability to be self-defined instead of being negatively defined. Achebe provided an alternative and new view of reality outside that of Empire. Through Achebe, the anguished cry of the colonized was distinctively heard, and their humanity held up for scrutiny. Furthermore Things fall apart was written in an English language that was authentic English; in authentic African thought. This was a brave, bold and remarkable thing for one writing on such weighty matters in an acquired language.

Things Fall Apart is however, not my favourite Achebe Novel.  No Longer At Ease is it. Achebe defined the humanity of Africa in Things Fall Apart and took sides with the African prey against Empire. In No longer at Ease and A Man of the People, he defined the African predators and took sides with the victims; the poor, the unclad, and the vulnerable who had hoped at independence that the new African elite in power would work for the common good. They were mistaken.  Obi was not  the change they had waited for. Post-colonial Africa was betrayed by the civil servants and political Leaders who wallowed in corruption and identity politics and became emperors.  While the people had anticipated change and invested with great hope in Obi, to help them comprehend and thrive in the change, Obi was a bad investment. The change agent sacrificed principles for filthy lucre and ended in Jail for taking bribes. He failed Achebe’s integrity test when it mattered most. Achebe states, “ one of the truest test of integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised”.

It is not only for his creative works that we will miss Chinua Achebe. My colleagues and I in the Leadership institute Nigeria, London and USA will miss his leadership teaching and mentoring. He was one of the world’s leading voices in leadership ethics. Despite being confined in the wheel chair for 23 years, he continued to play his iconic leadership roles, by his relentless struggle for the freedom of others. In his book the trouble with Nigeria, Achebe the ethical leader, diagnosed Nigeria’s ailment as leadership deficit. In his words, “ the trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely the failure of leadership.”

 Achebe was fearless, as he was demanding and exploratory in his search for the ideal leader, who in his mind was neither General Yakubu Gowon nor Chief Obafemi Awolowo, against whom he was so very angry. He used story- telling as pedagogy for leadership education. He declared, “ Story-tellers threaten all champions of control. They frighten usurpers of the right to freedom of the human spirit.” In his last book, There was a country, Achebe opened the wounds of identity politics in Nigeria and  plied the eyes of collective amnesia wide open to once again behold the horror of horrific Biafra, and then to deal with it. He became different things to different people. Some denounced him as an ethnic irredentist. Others even accused him of trying to start a civil war and kindling the spirit of defunct Biafra. Even his close confidant the Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka said that he had wished Achebe “had never written-that is, not in the way it was. There are statements in the work that I wished he had never made.”

There Was a Country is Achebe’s farewell song to his country Nigeria.  That there was a country named Biafra is undeniable. So also was the collective foolishness and bad leadership on both sides of the war; that led to so much loss of life and pushed Nigeria from a fast developing economy, to a fast under-developing one. There are lessons to be learnt and memories to be shared and stored. Achebe in this farewell gospel is compelling all of us to a common vocabulary and shared historical memory without which the wounds of the Nigerian civil war may not heal and real peace would continue to elude us.

Achebe is the ultimate contrarian who, having put pen to paper; not all the pleas of the world, or all the waters of river Niger, can  make him erase or change even a dot. He never apologised for any statements or words in his writings. He not only rode the storm of criticism of There Was a Country: his farewell memento. His pregnant silence, even unto to the grave said it all. He was telling his critics what he had told them before, “it is the duty of a writer to give headaches “ and to “ write to make people uncomfortable.” But many misunderstood Achebe’s deep patriotism and love for Nigeria. Many thought it was an honour to describe him as a dissident. That is after his death. These insult the memory of the Nigerian patriot, who had stated in his book The Education of a British Protected Child that if he were to re-incarnate in this world, he would love to be a Nigerian again. This wish is already fulfilled because; long after the dynasties of stolen wealth have crumbled, power extinguished and arrogance humbled, Chinua Achebe will be left standing in the human heart against injustice, stupidity and untruth. GREAT WRITERS NEVER DIE.

Achebe as an iconic leader used his skills as writer to fashion and inhabit a democratic movement where he saw a vision of a better Nigeria, a better Africa and indeed a better world. He taught the world the importance of self-esteem. Without self esteem in nations, societies and individuals; there is no growth but self-hatred, hatred of others and stagnation. Democracy cannot flourish in the absence of self-esteem because true transformation can only come to a country when the citizens obey their conscience and refuse to obey ethnic voices, the rule of corrupt enrichment and un-enlightened self-interest. He propagated the ideal that democracy fails to take root in societies where the people cannot bear to hear each other, especially the anguished voices of those that are undergoing oppression. This is the revolutionary movement, where our minds are now free to explore our anxieties, insecurities and doubts in the face of violence, and man created poverty.

Finally, Achebe is gone to rest but we the living must find the cure for the headache he has left us with. The cure must come from the desire of the leaders and the followers to pursue justice, to value honour, integrity and humility. He has ignited a moral revolution in the minds of us all to work for a turn around;

It is now time to heal and not to hurt.

Time to build and not to plunder

A time to right the wrongs we have caused one another

The time to make the small things that became too big small again

The end of time to keep silent

When the time has come on the story-teller

 Chinua Achebe to rest in peace.

The Achebe I knew 

 By Chido Onumah

Chinua Achebe in his young ages

“Indiscipline pervades our life so completely that one may be justified in calling it the condition par excellence of contemporary Nigerian society”- Chinua Achebe, The Trouble with Nigeria.

Prof. Chinua Achebe, literary giant, celebrated author, humanist and patriot par excellence, who was buried yesterday, was Nigeria’s gift to Africa, and indeed, the world. Like most people, I first encountered Achebe through his numerous books before I met him in person. I shall return to the unforgettable encounter with him four years ago.

Anywhere you go around the world, there are certain things about Nigeria that feature prominently in conversations with those who want to know about the country: corruption, the various forms of advance fee fraud or 419 as it is known locally, ethnic/religious strife, football – when Eagles were really super, and of course, Chinua Achebe or Things Fall Apart, the literary classic that has sold millions of copies and has been translated into more than 50 languages.

A decade ago, I was in the tiny Caribbean Island of Haiti where I had gone to work with and report on people living with the dreaded HIV/AIDS. Amongst the first persons I met in the rundown capital, Port-au-Prince, was a Haitian dentist. Immediately I introduced myself as a Nigerian journalist, the first question he asked, to my utter surprise, was “Do you know Agbani Darego?” I had been away from Nigeria for some time and did not know much about Miss Darego (Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria, 2001) though I had read a report of her being the first Black African to be crowned Miss World in 2001.

I answered my interlocutor in the affirmative. He gushed about how beautiful Miss Darego was and Nigerian women were in general. He said he had met a few while studying dentistry in the US. Next question, Chinua Achebe. Of course I knew Achebe. I had read Things Fall Apart, but had not met its celebrated author. My friend then went on to tell me his Things Fall Apart story.

I have had many such encounters, the latest being during a study tour of Kenya in June 2012. It is mark of the greatness of Achebe and the impact of his literary prowess. There are a few Nigerians I grew up admiring. Achebe was one of them. The others being the literary genius, Prof. Wole Soyinka, the iconoclast Prof Chinweizu, and my ideological mentor, Dr. Edwin Madunagu. I read most of their work and followed their activities closely.

For some reason, in my young mind, I felt Achebe was not “political” enough. Then I read The Trouble with Nigeria. It reminded me of my political bible, The Communist Manifesto. You could read it a million times over and it would appear fresh each time because of its eternal verities. Achebe believed in Nigeria. That much was evident in his statement that, “There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian character. There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else”.

However, Achebe did not let his love for Nigeria blind him to the fact that, “Nigeria is not a great country. It is one of the most disorderly nations in the world. It is one of the most corrupt, insensitive, inefficient places under the sun. It is one of the most expensive countries and one of those that give least value for money. It is dirty, callous, noisy, ostentatious, dishonest and vulgar. In short, it is among the most unpleasant places on earth”.

Three decades after Achebe wrote those words, Nigeria remains a country adrift, a soulless nation where rulers pervert justice and babies are bought and sold like commodities. Today, ethnic bigots, religious zealots and all manner of charlatans and imbeciles bestride our political, economic and social space.

Four years ago, my organisation, the African Centre for Media & Information Literacy, launched a project titled “Make Your Votes Count” as part of efforts to conscientize Nigerians, particularly our youth, on the need for active participation in the electoral process by voting and protecting their votes. We had gotten permission from some of the personalities we used in the promotional posters and banners, including Profs. Wole Soyinka and Pat Utomi. We needed to get in touch with Prof. Achebe whose image we had also used.

So when I received information that Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, USA, was hosting the first ever Achebe Colloquium on Africa in December, 2009, I went in search of Achebe. I arrived New York City in early December 2009, in a whirlwind tour of the US which took me to Washington DC, Maryland, Boston and Providence, to promote our project. That was when the Turai Yar’Adua cabal in Nigeria was running amok.

Omoyele Sowore, the irrepressible publisher of Saharareporters.com hosted me. An interview at Saharareporters’ studios was followed by a joint interview on the situation in Nigeria at the National Public Radio (NPR). I left Sowore to pursue my other programmes. We connected again at Boston’s Logan International Airport a few days later on our way to the Achebe Colloquium.

We were joined in the one hour drive from Boston to Providence by Prof. Richard Joseph, the John Evans Professor of International History and Politics at Northwestern University, Illinois, USA.  Known as the “father of prebendalism”, Prof Joseph, an expert on African governance, political economy, and democratization, was at one time a lecturer in political science at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and University of Khartoum, Sudan.

Expectedly, our discussion focused on the situation in Nigeria; how a country with so much promise had been brought to it knees because of bad leadership. I arrived the Achebe Colloquium with so much foreboding. I didn’t know if I would be able to see Achebe and present my “gift”. I shared my apprehension with a former schoolmate, E.C. Osondu, an assistant professor of literature and resident of Providence who said he felt Achebe would like the poster we made in his honour.  I also talked to Sowore who agreed to introduce me to one of Achebe’s sons, Chidi. As it turned out, my worry was misplaced.

The introduction done, Chidi, who obviously was impressed with what I wanted to share with his famous father, asked me to wait for an opportunity to approach Achebe once the crowd around him had thinned out. Getting the crowd around Achebe to ease off was not going to be an easy task, but I was prepared to wait. Prof. Soyinka, Achebe’s archenemy in the eyes of “literary hustlers and motor-park intellectuals”, walked in and exchanged pleasantries with Prof. Achebe who was in a wheelchair at the back of the hall. Other dignitaries followed as participants trickled in.

I did eventually get a chance to introduce myself and my mission to Prof. Achebe. I told him how honoured we were to have his words and image as one of the faces of our electoral project. I presented the colourful posters to him and just as I was thinking of the right words to convey our apology for not seeking his permission, he looked up at me and in a measured tone said, “I like this. I’ll keep it”. I handed him extra copies which he placed on the table in front of him. He talked briefly about why we needed to get our electoral process right. I was elated. Of course, I didn’t miss the photo opportunity, a request Achebe graciously granted. I knew how busy he was and I did not want to abuse the privilege. Mission accomplished, I took my seat amongst other participants.

The 2009 Achebe Colloquium on Africa with the theme “A Nation in Crisis and the Urgency of National Reform” was well attended and a huge success. Nigerians at the event included Prof. Okey Ndibe, Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu, former Senate President, Senator Ken Nnamani, Gov. Peter Obi of Anambra State, Prof. Bolaji Aluko, VC, Federal University, Otuoke, Bayelsa State and Emeka Ihedioha, deputy speaker of the House of Representatives. The communiqué at the end of the Colloquium noted that “elections in Nigeria have become progressively worse in quality over the years, and that this fact has gravely affected the country’s international strategic significance”.

I left the Achebe Colloquium fulfilled. Achebe was a dogged fighter. He taught us courage, sacrifice and optimism even in the face of adversity; he taught us love for country, not in the manner our rulers have debased the term and made us a laughing stock around the world. We should, therefore, celebrate Achebe in death rather than mourn him. While celebrating Achebe, we need to discover “where the rain started beating us” as a nation. We need to have a genuine and peaceful national dialogue which Achebe so eloquently espoused rather than the current monologue of threats and bombs.

I was thinking of approaching Achebe to write a blurb for my new book, Nigeria is Negotiable, when I received the news of his death. For Nigeria, Africa and humanity in general, Achebe’s death is a huge loss. It is sad that many of those whom Achebe had nothing but contempt for while he was alive for the way they desecrated our nation are the ones crying loudest and lining the streets to honour him in death.

My utmost hope is that nobody will mourn all those who have brought us to this sad end; those who make our women die at childbirth and children from preventable diseases; those who have turned our young men to drug addicts, kidnappers, militants and terrorists and our young women to victims of the sex trade.

For those who have made a vocation of “explaining” why Achebe was not awarded the Nobel Prize and diminishing him in the process, I have just three words: shame on you!

conumah@hotmail.com

Sudan gives South Sudan ‘last warning’

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir

Sudan has given South Sudan a ‘last warning’ that it will close an oil pipeline running from the South if Juba supports the ‘traitors’ in Sudan.

“I now give our brothers in South Sudan a last, last warning that we will shut down the oil pipeline forever if they give any support to the traitors in Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile,” Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir said on state television on Monday, referring to rebels operating in some regions of Sudan.

On May 26, the Sudanese army clashed with an armed group of Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) in the Dandor area of South Kordofan. Khartoum says Juba supports the SRF, but South Sudan denies the allegation.

South Sudan’s Information Minister Barnaba Marial called for the resolution of tensions over oil and land disputes through an African Union panel.

“Any problem can be solved through dialogue. We are ready to continue the dialogue. Our president has said several times that we do not support any rebels in Sudan,” the South Sudanese information minister stated.

In March, Sudan and South Sudan struck a deal to resume the flow of southern oil exports through pipelines in the north. They also agreed to withdraw their troops from contested border areas to ease tensions and facilitate the resumption of oil exports.

In January 2012, South Sudan stopped its oil production following tensions over pipeline fees and disputed territory.

South Sudan seceded from the Republic of Sudan on July 9, 2011, after decades of conflict with the north. The new oil-rich nation is one of the least developed countries in the world, with one in seven children dying before the age of five. 

GUANTANAMO: A ghost from the Bush era pursues Obama

By Dalia González Delgado

Guantanamo is robbing Obama of sleep. Ten years after the opening of the prison, on illegally occupied territory in Cuba, the issue had been forgotten by many until a hunger strike by hundreds of prisoners returned it to the public consciousness.

Referring to Guantánamo, The New York Times wrote in an editorial that the detention center "became the embodiment of his [Bush’s] dangerous expansion of executive power and the lawless detentions, secret prisons and torture that went along with them."

Obama, hoping to indicate that he had not forgotten his campaign promise, recently said, "I continue to believe that we've got to close Guantanamo. I think it is critical for us to understand that Guantanamo is not necessary to keep America safe. It is expensive. It is inefficient. It hurts us in terms of our international standing…

"The idea that we would still maintain, forever, a group of individuals who have not been tried - that is contrary to who we are."

Not everyone agrees with the President. Washington Post journalist Benjamin declared, "Even if Guantanamo itself miraculously closes, we’ll have to build it again somewhere else."

"Guantanamo Bay prison does not serve American security interests," according to Ken Gude, from the Center for American Progress (CAP), a Washington think tank.

But his reasoning, like Obama’s, is pragmatic, not humanitarian. Even BBC Mundo stated that there was no need to keep the prisoners in Guantánamo, commenting that the site would inevitably be closed at some point.

The reality is that no steps have been taken in the direction suggested by Obama. In fact University of California professor Raúl Hinojosa commented to Russia Today that the hunger strike has made clear that the U.S. is not in control of the situation, given that the administration "has no answer at this time."

According to General John Kelly, of the U.S. Army Southern Command and the commanding officer at the prison, the detainees had hope that Obama would close the facility and "were devastated... when the president backed off." 

The prison was opened after the September 11, 2011 attacks, to house those suspected of terrorism, although no evidence existed against them. The indefinite detentions, and testimony given by those released, have earned the detention center an appropriate reputation as a concentration camp. Different forms of torture are practiced there, including isolation within cells at extreme temperatures and waterboarding.

Guantánamo is one of the worst legacies of George W. Bush, who showing no sign of remorse, recently stated that he felt fine about the "hard decisions" he had made "to protect America."

The legal limbo in which 166 prisoners live – there had been more than 700 – has generated criticism internationally, from countries as well as human rights organizations.

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California), president of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has requested that the administration re-start the process of transferring and releasing 86 prisoners who, three years ago, were granted permission to return to their countries of origin.

Although Obama may not have the political will to close the prison, he could at least exert pressure to reinitiate this process halted two years ago. 

Fidel congratulates President Rafael Correa

President Rafael Correa

Dear Rafael:
I congratulate you on your courageous speech today and the great moral and political authority with which you are once again assuming the Presidency of Ecuador.
I noted the firmness in your voice when, irrefutably, you condemned the economic blockade of Cuba. However long the hazardous history of our species lasts, nobody will ever be able to demonstrate that crude material interests are capable of creating more virtuous and honest citizens.
The young girl who presented the presidential insignia demonstrates the contrary.
"A just idea, from the depths of a cave, can do more than an army," stated José Martí, our independence hero.
I also congratulate you on your just and heartfelt tribute to Hugo Chávez, who so much loved Ecuador.
A strong embrace

Fidel Castro Ruz
May 24, 2013
8:32 p.m.
 

A look at Cuba’s model of wellbeing

A happy Cuban people

By Dr. Patricia Arés Muzio

ON many occasions, I have asked my students what might be the principal reasons to support for saying that it’s good to live in Cuba. The majority of the responses refer to universal health care, education, social security. These are precisely the pillars of our socialist model, but they constitute, for many young people, common realities of our daily lives, thus becoming altogether customary, frozen in the popular discourse, practically irrelevant as a result of constant repetition.

I would go so far as to say that there is a Cuban model of wellbeing that has been incorporated with such uncritical familiarity that it has become invisible to us, paradoxically more often noted by those who are no longer here, after having lost it, or by visitors who live in other realities in their countries of origin. In daily life in Cuba, most conversation is generally about the difficulties, above all those of an economic nature. Very rarely is there talk of our assets or strengths.

Some of my professional experiences have led me to think a great deal about our socialism, seen as an alternative culture and civilization. When, as psychologists and other specialists, we were involved in the process of securing the return of Elián González [2000], this issue emerged as a significant one.

More recently, ideas about Cuba’s model of wellbeing have reemerged in my practice as I have conversed with older Cubans who have returned to the island; with children who, as a result of their parents’ decisions, must leave to reside in another country, and young people who have returned from Spain after having experienced being thrown onto the streets there, without money to pay their rent.

I recall that when Elián was in the United States, his grandfather Juanito told him over the phone how he was making a chivichana (an improvised box-car on skate wheels) for the boy to have upon his return. The next day, Elián’s Miami relatives appeared on our television screens giving Elían a life-like remote control car. When his father told Elían his dog missed him, the next day the boy appeared with a Labrador puppy. If he said he had bought Elían a little Elpidio Valdés book, the next day there was Elián dressed up as Batman. Nevertheless, his family’s affection, the love of those waiting for him here, the solidarity of his young classmates and teachers, were more powerful than all the material things in the world.

Conversing recently with an older man who made the decision not to return to the United States after living there for 19 years, he told me, "It’s true, Doctor, you can live more comfortably there, but that's not all there is to life. Over there, you’re nobody, you don’t exist for anyone." 

He told me he spent long hours alone in the house, waiting for his children and grandchildren to return from work or school. He was left imprisoned because they told him not to go out, since, according to them, he was too old and they wouldn’t let him drive. The neighborhood, he said, looked like a deserted model town, he hardly saw anyone at all, and no one would take the time for a conversation. 

On a visit to see a daughter living in Cuba, he decided to stay. He told me he was exercising in the park, playing dominoes in the afternoons, helping his grandson and two little friends with their homework. He had found some mates from the "old guard" and with money sent from the States, he helped his family here and had enough to cover his expenses. Here are his very words, "Some acquaintances told me I was coming back to hell, but in reality, Doctor, I feel like I’m in heaven." Clearly the lifestyle he is now living is not heaven, but it does offer greater wellbeing.

One day, a young boy was brought to see me, the son of two diplomats, who was on vacation here. He didn’t want to return with his parents to the mission where they were working. He was rebelling, on strike, saying that they should leave him here with his grandmother, that he didn’t want to leave, didn’t like being there. When I asked the parents about the boy's life abroad, they explained that he lived locked up, for reasons of security, and hardly had any friends to play with after school. His cousins, who he adored, weren't there. Since he had been back in Cuba, he was as free as a bird, his parents said, going to the corner park with his neighborhood friends, going out with his cousins, playing baseball and football in the street. He spent the day surrounded by his grandparents, aunts, uncles and neighbors. During my interview with the boy, he told me that his cousins said he was a fool for wanting to stay in Cuba, passing up the opportunity to live in another country. He said, "When I'm here, I really miss the pizza with pepperoni, but I would trade a million pizzas to stay and live right now in Cuba."

A young man who had returned from Spain told me that he had been left without work and, of course, didn't have the money to pay his rent. The landlady gave him three months to come up with it and when he couldn't, he was evicted onto the street. But the saddest thing was that no one, none of his friends lent him a hand, saying that given the economic crisis, "he would have to figure something out as best he could." He was obliged to return to his parents’ home in Cuba, since his only other option was sleeping in the subway. "In the end, it’s your own people who are willing to take you in," he affirmed.

I've been thinking about this testimony which could very well serve many young people who see nothing good whatsoever about living in Cuba, who only imagine a better life abroad, overvaluing life there as successful, with great opportunities. 

I ask myself: What do we have here that is lacking in other places? What did the diplomats' boy, the older man and the young one who returned from Spain, discover during their time abroad, that those of us living here don't see? 

Does the lifestyle offered by contemporary capitalist societies truly constitute a model of wellbeing, despite being sold in the mass media as the promised dream of progress? Are we talking about the good life or living well? Of a life full of things or a full life? Is it necessarily economic and technological development which guarantees personal and social wellbeing?

I will attempt a synthesis of these professional experiences to shed light on what I believe are some of the fundamental elements of Cuba’s model of wellbeing.

FIRST PLACE: THE FEELING OF INCLUSION, OF NOT LIVING ANONYMOUSLY

This is an issue of profound spiritual and ethical connotations. When you arrive in a Cuban neighborhood and ask for someone, generally you are told, "He lives in that house."

All Cubans have a name and a life story because we all belong someplace, be it a family, school, community or workplace, and have social participation. We have all assumed responsibilities during our lives, attended neighborhood meetings, visited the family clinic, voted in the same locale, bought our food at the same markets or had the same person pick them up for us. Surely, at some point, we've all said, "The same faces everyday..." but that is precisely where a vital element of great solidarity and humanism resides.

Social anonymity - which the grandfather I interviewed described when he said "You don't exist" - is far removed from the way we live in Cuba. It is the experience of living without a place of your own, without being recognized or noticed. The opposite is not necessarily a physical place, but rather a symbolic one where there is belonging and participation, a place that gives meaning to life. Living 'nowhere' is feeling isolated, alone, strange and this is one of the problems the world currently faces. Even places where many people co-exist are no longer meeting places, but rather true nowheres. It is incredible that in a subway where hundreds of people see each other everyday, few say a single word, most showing more interest in their technological media than in human interaction.

Other non-places are airports and malls, cathedrals to consumerism. Many people around you and absolutely no contact. If you fall, people hesitate to help you up, since so many laws exist to supposedly protect people, from an individualistic point of view. People are afraid of being charged with sexual harassment if they touch you. Non-contact and indifference are legislated.

Today, the social reality in other countries has left people more excluded than included. Given the existence of social inequality as a consequence of Cuba’s current economic reality, our policies promote social inclusion in an effort to overcome differences of gender, ethnic origin, physical ability and sexual orientation. Cuba, as a social system, is attempting to construct a world in which we all belong and in which spontaneous human reciprocity is promoted by the very conditions of life. In other geographical locations on the neoliberal world map, people are divided by class, interpersonal relations are eroded by a variety of differences and some are separated from others by invisible borders, which damage cohesiveness and participation.

DIVERSE AREAS OF SOCIALIZATION

Areas of socialization are important in life, social structures are a resource and support for everyone, given that it is within them that people can develop their full potential. Currently, families live in isolation in many parts of the world, and the higher the standard of living, the greater their cloistered lifestyle. Nobody knows their neighbors, who is who; within the home members do not have much interaction, given that the technological invasion is such that a father can be chatting with a colleague in Japan and not have the least idea what is happening with his son in the adjoining room. Studies in various countries have revealed that the daily average of direct conversation between parents and children (particularly fathers) does not exceed 15 minutes.

One of the major impacts of the current hegemonic capitalist model is lack of family time or other community areas; during the week the family as a group does "not exist." Long and intensive working days, multi-occupations in order to meet ever-growing consumer demands have banished former family rituals and traditions. Psychologists and sociologists have stated that the greatest impact of this reality is infant isolation and the absence of links with older adults. Many middle or upper class children arrive home from school without seeing an adult face until late in the evening, or have a child minder who provides food but who cannot supplant the affection and attention of parents.

Technology has appeared as an antidote to solitariness, but lacking restrictions imposed by adults, this can lead to an addiction to video games, increase violence and stimulate early eroticism. Access to public places, streets and parks as meeting places are infrequently available for children and adolescents, given the lack of citizens’ security. Space and time universes in the urban network directed toward youth are perceived by adults as places of threat and danger rather than places for recreation and the construction of social ties. In Cuba, parks and plazas continue being areas of socialization for different generations.

Cuban families are interwoven within social networks of interchange, with neighbors, organizations, schools, relations, and including the émigré community. Characteristic of the Cuban way of life are socialization areas, or a social network in which nobody is excluded or unnamed. I would say that, in addition to the family as home, the basic nucleus of Cuban society is the social and neighborly interchange network, which represents one of the major and invisible strengths of the Cuban model of wellbeing. It is here where the greatest success of the social process is located, taking the form of social solidarity, social containment, constant social interchange. This capital is only perceptible to those who lose it or embark on a different lifestyle outside of the country.

In spite of unresolved economic difficulties and problems, the family exists in Cuba. Family life becomes intensive after the school or college day, when children and students begin their family-community life. Family life in Cuba does not take place behind closed doors. Those doors are also frequently opened to fumigators, neighbors, family nurses, grassroots leaders or self-employed vendors. People have to leave their homes daily, to go to the store or collect food items from a neighbor, dispose of the garbage, visit the pharmacy, fetch the children from school. Family life in Cuba is multi-generational, persons from all age groups interact and older adults do not live in senior citizens’ homes, their real place in general being the community.

SOCIAL SOLIDARITY AS OPPOSED TO INDIVIDUALISM

In the present day international arena, individual wellbeing is given greater importance than social wellbeing. The predominant economic development model places people before the desire to live "better" (at times to the cost of the rest) and above collective wellbeing. The discourse is, "I’m not doing anyone any harm, I don’t want anyone interfering in my life, I like it, it’s good for me, it’s my body, my life, my space," and electing a conduct which will maximize their benefits and income. "We" has been replaced by "I." Egoistic conduct in the present hegemonic world is identified and praised as "instrumental rationality," when in real terms what this rationality conceals is great social insensibility.

Social solidarity exists in Cuba, although we are currently living in a kind of parallelism between solidarity conduct and the insensibility of certain persons. The socialization of transport, or the botella (hitching a ride), for example; plus making neighbors part of one’s family, sharing neighborhood private telephone lines, passing on school uniforms and certain medicines, offering one’s house as a temporary classroom in the wake of a hurricane, are all examples of cooperative interchange. A young girl studying at the Lenin Senior High (a weekly boarding school) told me that her group of friends equitably shared out everything they brought from home and thus all ate the same, independently of whether some brought more and others, next to nothing. The most important aspect was friendship and sisterhood. This was a generalized practice.

CREATIVITY AND COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE

In Cuba, in addition to conversing and having multiple social interchanges, we have the luxury of serious discussions with a number of people. Everyone knows something about something, everyone can express an opinion or have good ideas. Cubans have a political culture, a sports culture, and others are well informed about art. We have an accumulated cultural capital, part of our social heritage and invisible wellbeing. We are not an ignorant people, given the educational levels attained. Cuban men and women are impressive in their capacity to converse, express ideas and beliefs. One of my major problems as a clinical psychologist attending to patients is that time flies, because we are used to conversing. Some people bring me a written list so as not to forget something they want to say. We are used to giving ourselves time and this has become a luxury in an age when nobody has spare time, where the hurried syndrome is apparent.

During visits to give lectures in Latin American countries or in family study classes I have taken there, students express a family-social reality which leaves me perplexed, on account of the burden of accumulated social problems which cut across social class. From what I hear, I have realized that we are light years apart, because the issue is not an economic one, but one derived from ignorance; accumulated mental poverty; social stigmas; class, gender and race prejudices; violence against women; magical solutions to problems which lack any scientific basis; child sex abuse; polygamy; genetic defects resulting from irresponsible sexuality or incestuous relationships; all of these are daily problems. They are problems associated with social neglect, the absence of social prevention programs. What is daily life for them is the exception for Cubans.

As a professor, I feel that our population is educated and developed and we live that almost without realizing it. Although the quotidian may seem insignificant, it is the great backdrop of history. Young émigrés usually become aware of a very distinct social reality with which they have to do battle.

HOW TO PROMOTE THE CUBAN MODEL OF WELLBEING?

The objectives of Cuba’s new economic model include increasing productivity. The major challenge of this model is to strengthen our proposal for wellbeing, which represents an alternative to the dominant anti-model, a concept shared and reiterated by virtually all indigenous peoples on the continent and in the world. This concept comes from a long tradition within diverse religious manifestations.

All of these visions, including the Cuban one, is that the global objective of development is not constantly having more, but being more; not amassing more wealth, but more humanity. It is expressed in terms of living well instead of better, which implies solidarity among all, reciprocal practices and the desire to attain or restore environmental balance and at the same time improve the living conditions of the population. However, improvements in living conditions are not going to resolve the problems of a social nature we have accumulated. The economic dimension cannot be isolated from the social, cultural, historical and political dimensions, which endow development with a comprehensive and interdisciplinary context, in order to recover the sense of wellbeing and decorous living as a fundamental objective.

One does not have to be a social scientist to notice that, apart from living conditions, there are many families in Cuba who, more than material poverty, are mired in spiritual poverty. Some families suffer from mental poverty expressed in life strategies distanced from the most elemental decent conduct, in consumer habits removed from the country’s realities, close to having surplus objects, removed from shared wellbeing in their aspirations. This is the source of the culture of banality and frivolity reflected in the current hegemonic model.

The accumulation of material problems arising from the acute economic crisis of the 1990’s has substantially deteriorated values at the social level. Values are not principles, but must be accompanied by behavior to avoid them losing their effectiveness. If practices contradict principles, then we are facing a crisis of values.

Cuba is not removed from the hegemonic influences of the current unipolar and supposedly global world. We must continue trying to build an alternative model of wellbeing, despite all the influences which generate the colonization of subjectivity; one of inclusion, despite the modulating effect of our social policies. Ideals are valueless in the market, only consumer capacity. Non-consumers become "unrecognized" human beings, excluded from any kind of social recognition.

In the present-day world, there is an over-saturation of information, some of which is very good, but a large volume which is plagued by mediocrity and superficiality. The media of the current hegemonic model foment banality with the aim of selling more. We are crammed with entertainment, soap operas, series and violent movies which possess incredible enchantment because they entrap, but we run the risk of being drawn into idleness and addiction (to drugs, alcohol, sexual promiscuity, easy money, games of chance, video games).

When the Nobel Peace prize winner Gandhi pointed to the seven capital sins of contemporary society he was precisely referring to the global context in which we are immersed: riches without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without utility, commerce without morality, science without humility, adoration without sacrifice and politics without principles.

In general terms, publicity and the market associate wellbeing with pleasure, with being successful, having status.

It is a fact that if we do not have a strong culture, the tendency to think that wellbeing lies in having and letting ourselves be ensnared by consumerism grows like a weed. We are subjecting ourselves to ignorance. The ethic of being requires a moral foundation, training, family education, an education of greater magnitude in general, and that is what we have to promote as a society.

FOMENTING SOCIAL SOLIDARITY

With the strengthening of self-employment in Cuba, the community signifies a vital area for many families. Family-community-organizations-work are fortified in their links. However, new social landscapes constitute an excellent opportunity for strengthening community life, in addition to promoting work to the benefit of shared wellbeing. Cuba contributes the difference in the context of solidarity and the social responsibility we have incorporated.

It is necessary to promote a culture of solidarity and social responsibility which will serve as an antidote to the penetration of the culture of the market. It is important that people maintain their solidarity ethics, that the collective project does not fragment.

FORTIFYING COMMUNITY AREAS

Families and the community have increased in importance in Cuba as scenes of life. When visitors observe the community way of life here, they sometimes comment that life in their country used to be like that, but for more than a decade now, people have been living behind closed doors. And houses are empty during a large part of the day. In the main, this is due to the emergence of new technologies, ever-increasing hours of work, more frequent changes of job and home, ever-growing and more densely populated cities. The exacerbated growth of individualism is making it increasingly difficult to have a sense of community. Community has been reduced to the minimal family nucleus, and in these circumstances it is very easy to fall into isolation, which brings with it loneliness and depression, creating an extensive social collapse, with results as drastic as increased violence, drug abuse and mental illness.

When people of all ages, social and cultural groups feel a sense of belonging to a community, they tend to be happier and healthier and create stronger, more stable and cooperative social networks. A strong community contributes many benefits, both individual and to the group as a whole, thus helping to create a better society in general. The great challenge is not to close the doors, not to lose sensitivity toward others, the neighborhood and the environment, to continue being concerned for the common good. 

Different forms of insertion in the economy have not noticeably deteriorated the existing social tissue, Cuban society is not a stratified one of social class, but woven together in family, neighbor and social networks, maintaining an ethic of solidarity.

One important aspiration is to find innovative solutions within the community for many existing social problems, fundamentally based on the concept of the community empowering such solutions. For this, greater community dynamism is needed at the local level.

It is important to maintain citizens’ involvement in social life, to preserve caring for these areas, respecting senior citizens, children, women, people with disabilities and above all, maintaining a sense of social responsibility in educating younger generations.

Taking into account all these aspects, I believe we have a great social responsibility to uphold the Cuban model of wellbeing, that the country has unprecedented conditions for marking the difference, which is precisely by continuing to resist the colonization of culture and subjectivity, and that the great challenge is to continue proposing other models of human beings and collectivity which genuinely lead to the paths of true humanization. • (Photo: Juvenal Balán)