Last Updated on March 1, 2022 6:11 pm by Editor
Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s condemnation of the Putin’s war on the Ukraine is seen as hypocrisy of the highest order by some on social media. Some are of the opinion that it would have been far more prudent not to have said a single word. Regrettably we must agree.
Our concurrence has everything to do with the fact that never once has Ms. Mottley or any member of her government issued a single word of condemnation of Xia Jinping’s declared intent to take over Taiwan, an independent, democratic country like ours in South East Asia where elections are duly held without the imprisonment or poisoning of opposition leaders as occurs in Russia or the banning of opposition parties outright as in mainland China or Cuba.
Never once has she or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement decrying the threatening and terrifying flights of China’s military planes over Taiwan’s airspace or its belligerence and bullying of the fishing fleets of several South Sea countries such as Viet Nam, the Philippines and Japan.
Never once has she or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or this country’s parliament issued a condemnation of the harvesting of organs of the Falun Gong in China even though this has been well-documented by international rights groups and panels. Never.
And never once has PM Mottley issued a single condemnation of the CCP’s destruction of democracy in Hong Kong which is on mainland China but which has been an independent territory with a democratic tradition.
If the cowards in Beijing ever actually lay a finger on Taiwan Barbados Uncensored will be the first to hold this government’s feet to the fire, assuming it is still in power, of course.
But there is no reason why we should expect anything different from this government. After all, this is the same leader that was willing to put millions of Barbadian taxpayers’ money into the company of a local oligarch to procure covid-19 vaccines when the principal has no track record of dealing with pharmaceuticals.
Fortunately, a spanner (with which the oligarch is much more familiar) was put into those works and he has had to fight to recover millions of his own money invested in the procurement debacle.
“And Who is My Neighbour?”
The story of the Good Samaritan was told by Jesus because someone in his audience asked that question. If we understand this story at all, we know that the Ukranians are our neighbours afar.
But in July 2021, neighbours quite near, the people of Cuba, took to the streets to protest conditions in the country. The Cuban ambassador in Barbados quickly issued the expected, tired, sophomoric, communist propaganda lines blaming the uprising on so-called “foreign agents” by which is always meant the United States.
Equally swiftly, the then Minister of Foreign Affairs of Barbados, Dr. Jerome Walcott, blamed the United States followed by a similar condemnation from the languid CARICOM Secretariat.
Use of social media in Cuba was criminalized and shortly thereafter, the unrest died down. Or so it would appear. What Barbadians and Caribbean people should know is that there were and probably still are Chinese security agents “assisting” the Cuban regime at that time. You can read between the lines.
Apparently, the people of Cuba, who like us are flesh and blood, have no right to freedom of expression or to be able go to the supermarket at their leisure and make a free choice of food rather than be limited to the rations from their caring communist government.
Things in Cuba are so bad that according to Tim Padgett, the Americas editor for Miami NPR affiliate WLRN, Cuba did not even have enough paper to print the food ration books, Control de Venta Para Productos Alimenticios (Sales Control For Foodstuffs) for 2022!
If you think we are exaggerating or making this up, take the time to quick-read this short independent report by Latinoamerica21 which also describes the food rations.
So CARICOM’s warming up to Cuba in recent years is not as unselfish as it might want you to believe. What Cubans are good for is their medical assistance, student scholarships, cultural exchanges and tourists. Not freedom and democracy!
If CARICOM wants to do something deep, wide and lasting for Cuba it needs to help pressure the Cuban government to free the people. It is that simple.
Sanctions
What is also very interesting is the Barbados Today Saturday 26 editorial implying condemnation of Donald Trump and Mike Pompero for their attempts to pressure Cuba by implementing stiff sanctions against the Cuban Government.
The editorial’s simultaneous implicit praise of Obama for attempting to ease those sanctions simply tells us that someone has drunk deeply of the freely available “Kool Aid” distributed by CARICOM secretariat.
Furthermore, we know that the editorial is one-sided when we see how Obama’s lifting of sanctions against Iran emboldened their nuclear belligerence in the middle east until Trump and Pompero took a different stance.
Let us be frank, the solution for Cuba is for its people to have free and fair democratic elections and a mixed economy as other Caribbean states enjoy. When CARICOM exerts pressure on the Cuban government to do so is when we will give the regional grouping some praise.
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Communism has failed everywhere; in Russia as can now be seen, in Venezuela, even in China despite what you may hear and see. It is really bare boo! Therefore, to whom it may concern in Cuba, we adjure you by the living God: let my people go!
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Now let it be clear that we know that sanctions have and will hurt the people of Cuba. But sanctions are exactly what Europe now must impose to try to bring Russia to heel since it (Europe) has failed the Ukraine by trying to appease Putin for all these years.
The ordinary people of Russia will suffer from sanctions to some extent although Putin, according to some European analysts, has spent the last eight years “sanction-proofing” Russia. On the other hand, depending on their nature and implementation, the Russian elites and oligarchs may encounter minimal pain from such sanctions.
“Walk softly and carry a big stick”
Those who listened to the addresses by the Chancellor of Germany, Olaf Scholz and the opposition leader Friedrich Merz to the special sitting of the German Parliament today Sunday 27 February, must concede that both Obama and Trump were right in demanding that Europe pay a fair share for its military security rather than rely on the military might of the US and its taxpayers’ money.
Had the EU listened and got off its false-bottomed hope that diplomacy, détente and appeasement would restrain bullies and immunize tyrants, the situation in the Ukraine might have been different today.
Appeasement never works; it just emboldens the oppressor!
From Ms. Mottley’s perspective, I am inclined to agree with those in Barbados who are saying that we should just drink water and shut our mouths on the Ukraine. Some left no doubt that that is what they understand the PM to be doing with regards to China and Taiwan. We understand them to be calling for consistency or more bluntly, the elimination of hypocrisy.
The only problem with that approach is that SILENCE IMPLIES CONSENT OR WEAKNESS OR BOTH! While we may not want to see it that way, that is how oppressors will perceive it!
Pacifism is perhaps an understandable over-reaction to two world wars; especially for the Germans who have not forgotten the Nazi era under Adolf Hitler. But only wishful thinkers and slow learners fail to comprehend that pacifism is seldom a viable strategy. “Walk softly and carry a big stick” is still very prudent advice as the German Chancellor and Opposition Leader both now realize.
But the host in Heaven certainly understand it. As the Scripture duly records in Revelation, there was war in heaven! So in the limit, when the oppressor does not listen and wants to snuff out our very existence, we must take up arms and defend ourselves.
Regrettably, many young people today have no clue about and no appreciation for the hefty price tag in blood that has been paid for our freedoms. Would they be willing to take up arms as many young people in Ukraine are now forced to do today?
The peace-makers will always be blessed but that is why the Bible is very careful to say:
If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Romans 12:18. New International Version.
People should spend more time reading the Bible carefully as it has everything to do with the real world in which we live and the events up ahead. The picture it paints of human beings is often too realistic for the do-gooders and often uncomfortable for the pious.
What we need to understand urgently is that peace is not the same as the absence of war, spiritual or otherwise and that it never will be while there are evil forces out there whose sole reason for existence is to impoverish, enslave and extinguish life itself.
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Dr. Aldon Tull, the author, is a retired educator who holds a Master of Science in International Marketing and the Doctor of Education.
He can be reached at editor@barbadosuncensored.com at 246-228-3720 or on Whatsapp at 246-846-3191
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