Obama’s promises and perils

HEART TO HEART

With Betty Ann Blaine

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Dear Reader,

The highly anticipated regional Summit of the Americas has just concluded with the usual pomp and pageantry and with heaps of flashing camera and television lights.

The American superstar president, Barack Obama, was the main event and there was no doubt that he came, he spoke and he conquered! Even the “tough to tame” Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, appeared to have been disarmed as the two men shook hands in “black-power” style and greeted one another with wide, engaging smiles.

The meeting was the complete opposite of what the American media had “ramped” it up to be – a classic cowboy western showdown between two archrivals – the United States and Venezuela. However, the civility between the two men, and Obama’s poise as he greeted Chavez, not only dispelled the “hate hype”, but would set the tone for the speech he would make soon afterwards that appeared to have put even his detractors at ease.

And the US president’s speech met all expectations. In his usual oratorical style, Obama covered all the bases – from growth stimulation, the flow of credit and job creation, to global warming, organised crime and family life, and offered a raft of measures to address the pressing problems. While the tangible promises were clearly well-received, it was the “non-tangibles” that resonated most with me, and amplified in my own mind the fact that attitude and approach are as important as policy and practice.

Obama’s assertion that “there is no senior partner and junior partner”, should put the region at ease concerning the superior/inferior modus operandi of previous administrations which tended to treat the region as an expedient archipelago with little to offer the United States and with more liabilities than assets. When he added the words, “I have a lot to learn and I very much look forward to listening and figuring out how we can work together more effectively”, it was clear from the applause that he had won hearts and minds.

And Obama didn’t come with just nice, empty words. He also brought along a basket of promises for the region. Amidst applause he announced that “I’ve asked Congress for $448 million in immediate assistance for those who have been hit hardest by the crisis beyond our borders. And today, I’m pleased to announce a new Microfinance Growth Fund for the hemisphere that can restart the lending that can power businesses and entrepreneurs in each and every country that’s represented here. This is not charity. Let me be clear. This is not charity. Together, we can create a broader foundation of prosperity that builds new markets and powers new growth for all peoples in the hemisphere, because our economies are intertwined.”

And there was more. Obama promised, “I’m proposing the creation of a new Energy and Climate Partnerships of the Americas that can forge progress to a more secure and sustainable future. and in so doing we can create the jobs of the future, lower greenhouse gas emissions, and make this hemisphere a model for cooperation.” And there was more: “I want to announce a new initiative to invest $30 million to strengthen cooperation on security in the Caribbean. because the United States is a friend of every nation and person who seeks a future of security and dignity.”

However, amidst the promises, Obama’s well-crafted speech revealed a thinly veiled tone of the residual cold war politics that in my mind points to the perils of any new US/Latin American/Caribbean rapprochement. While Obama asserted that he intends to look forwards and not backwards, he must be reminded that it is past mistakes that have created the cynicism and mistrust of the US, and that there are grievances still unresolved in a relationship that has been greatly uneven and unbalanced.

I’m not sure if Obama fully understands that the lens through which his country views Cuba is distinctly different from the lens through which the region sees its neighbour, and for many, its ally. Take Jamaica, for example. In our country Cuba is not seen as a “pariah”, but as a friendly neighbour that has stood up to the ” big, bad, US bully”, and created in all of us a sense of pride and brotherhood. As Obama waits for Cuba to make the next move, he would be well served to study the history carefully and to take note of the litany of well-documented aggressions by the United States against that country. Unconfirmed figures have cited at least 638 assassination attempts against Castro that prompted the making of a documentary entitled, 638 Ways to Kill Castro. Other well-documented acts of destabilising, including the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba by the US are all details of history that Caribbean people have not forgotten.

Countries like Nicaragua have their own stories that continue to cast a cloud over the new Obama rapprochement. In the case of Nicaragua, the United States continues to pour scorn on the decision handed down by the International Court of Justice which ruled in favour of Nicaragua and awarded reparations to be made by the United States for its role in supporting Contra guerillas in their war against the Nicaraguan government.

Although Obama is correct in asking the region to look to the future and not to the past, many of us are aware that the spirit and intent of the 1823 “Monroe Doctrine (broadly defined as “The Americas for the Americans”) is alive and well among those constituencies in his country with influence and ability.

There is no doubt that the US president’s words of unity and cooperation are encouraging to us in the region, but the sharp differences, both past and present, including issues of culture, norms and values, may very well put some states in the region on a direct collision course with his country, despite the love we have for him and his new administration.

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Full story and link can be found here:

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/html/20090420T190000-0500_149808_OBS_OBAMA_S_PROMISES_AND_PERILS_.asp

Tags: Obama