Darby Etienne MA Diplomacy
Diplomatic visits by Caribbean leaders to Libya or Venezuela were never made public however on the death of the two former leaders attending the funerals became a public pronouncement.
While it may be true that these two astounding leaders are not walking the earth any longer their spirits will live on for generations in the minds of the people whose hearts and lives they touched.
Not surprisingly, both leaders upheld great support for the poor, both arose from humble beginnings. Gaddafi was born the son of an impoverished Bedouin goat herder then became involved in Arab nationalist politics and Chavez born to a working class family, became a military officer.
In honesty and fairness, there is good and bad in all men, however, why is it that when leaders with the dual gift of supporting the poor and standing up to the mighty rich and greedy are demonised to the extent of being termed “human rights violators extraordinaire”?
Three questions emerge here. Secondly, must leadership always be based on the bench mark set by the West? Thirdly, again, “Are leaders born or made?
Yes! These leaders were certainly born to lead. These two leaders are proof in answer to these questions which have confronted generations of analysts. Politics has bad publicity especially in developing countries.
Alex Castellanos. Photo courtesy alexcastellanos.com
It is not considered to be a good career choice. Most parents in the Caribbean are mistrustful of the profession and will not encourage their offspring to enter the field. Therefore our natural leaders seldom get the opportunity to lead as they are put off by the fowl stigma associated with politics.
Failure to encourage natural leaders like Gaddafi and Chavez leaves a gap for opportunists with the mentality of elitism a syndrome of capitalism with little regard to social-wellbeing / welfare returns.
So when US Republican political media consultant and former media adviser to George Bush and Mitt Romney twitted: “Alex Castellanos ?@alexcast: I have no respect for hitlers, do you? MT” in response to someone saying to him even if you do not like Chavez be respectful.
This highlights the hatred many native refugee Cubans like him who hated Castro so much even HIS friends are disliked. Thereby comparing Chavez to Adolf Hitler whose atrocities against the innocent are well documented.
Former Libya President Muammar Gadaffi
Again proving that the elitist American Republicans must have learnt nothing and still haven’t realised that control of the world’s natural resources are not theirs to manipulate – the resources should be that of the indigenous peoples.
Caribbean Governments, – Cuba being the exception, are made to feel guilty in demonstrating appreciation for the financial assistance received from those leaders. In contrast to the unfulfilled financial assistance to Haiti, Gaddafi and Chavez were consistent in making contributions whenever major hurricanes affected the Caribbean.
During the tenure of both leaders there were 1,000s of trips by political parties of various countries seeking help for political campaigns. However when they do gain power in their respective countries they shunned those very leaders in favour of western ideology.
Capitalism has an illness called “Greedy Joe syndrome” which is a Caribbean colloquial term which symptoms include conniving, blocking, hunger, inflated ego and boastfulness.
Here are some Gaddafi/Chavez pros. The setting up of similar organizations to assist developing countries. The nationalization of their oil companies and taxing foreign oil companies created revenue to fund the Mathaba conference organised and hosted by Gaddafi in 1986 and 2000 for developing countries to better understand public issues and positive development.
Chavez formed PetroCaribe, an energy cooperation agreement where Venezuela provided access to energy resources via a new, favourable, equitable and fair exchange scheme for Caribbean and Central American countries.
Other priorities included social and economic development based on unionism, solidarity and cooperation. Chavez vision was for the Caribbean and Latin America to strengthen their energy supply and food sovereignty which was a fundamental ingredient of their independence.
Hugo Chavez. Photo courtesy trome.pe
In collaboration, Cuba provided medical support with doctors and nurses to an aid package of around US$8 billion. Jamaica benefited under the PetroCaribe Development Fund with a $177 million new sanitation blocks program in 26 schools.
After years of demonising Gaddafi and Chavez, it is very interesting that the Western powers improved relationship with Libya and Venezuela prior to the passing of these leaders.
The Western World’s psychological bullying techniques, hangovers from the cold war period, have been brought to bear on the minds of developing nations while it was convenient for their oil giants to continue their businesses.
Here is the first question. Was this smart diplomacy or was it bowing to Western cries to isolate these two nations?
