{UAH} Pojim/WBK: Cuba, US become friends, so out go the classic cars, in come Big Macs and Coke - Comment - www.theeastafrican.co.ke

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Cuba, US become friends, so out go the classic cars, in come Big Macs and Coke - Comment

Another step toward "normalisation" of the relations between the United States is being taken as American President Barack Obama goes to the Americas Summit in Panama and meets with Cuban leader Raul Castro Ruz. To make it even more complete, Obama will also meet with Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro.

Cuba and Venezuela have caused the United Sates no end of grief as they have dared tug Uncle Sam's beard by not only refusing to obey the diktats of Washington, but also by encouraging other countries in the Americas and beyond to do the same.

It's like these two countries are saying to others, look you can be free, follow your own conscience, disobey the big, bad Yankee, and still survive.

Not only survive, but serve the interests of your own peoples by protecting them from imperialist domination and exploitation. In this quest, of course, it is Cuba that has been the Americans' true nemesis, right from the early 1960s, after Fidel Castro led a band of beaded guerrillas from the mountains into Havana, overthrowing Fulgencio Batista, the minion of the Americans.

However, defying the United States in ways like Cuba has been doing comes at a steep price. By flexing its financial, military and diplomatic muscle America can and does hurt such countries. Cuba has been under an American embargo since the 1960s, meaning that for over five decades Cuba could not carry out normal commerce with the world simply because Washington did not want that to happen.

More recently, Venezuela was added to the list of naughty boys who need a spanking because the late Hugo Chavez so enjoyed thumbing his nose at the Americans, taunting them with every opportunity he got.

The man was so good at it that he even went as far as offering poor and destitute Americans — there are hundreds of thousands of those — the means to warm themselves in the biting cold of winter.

When, toward the end of last year, Obama announced that his country was talking to Cuba, much of the world heaved a sigh of relief. They say that justice delayed is justice denied, but don't they also say that it's better late than never?

Under the blockade, the people of Cuba have suffered terrible deprivations, including the inability to access basic needs such as medical supplies.

That may have helped them build the resilience and innovativeness that come with need, but when your giant of a neighbour decides to block the path into and out of your hut, it can be quite stifling. And that is what America did to Cuba, making sure that nothing got into or left the little Cuban hut without the say-so of Washington.

And you don't have to be only 150km from this behemoth to feel the heat of its hot breath. Iran sits half a world away, but it too feels the pressure simply because the Iranians want to pursue a course of action that secures its own interests.

Of course, back in 1979 the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini did his own beard-pulling against the US, including the spectacular humiliation of president Jimmy Carter.

But anyone who studies a little history will see how much of the animus between the two countries was authored by the Americans themselves, from the overthrow of premier Mohammad Mosaddeq back in 1953 and their unprincipled support of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the man eventually deposed by Khomeini.

Of course, the Americans don't give tuppence about history unless it serves their immediate interests. And they have not been minding overmuch when Iranian planes have been crashing because of the dearth of spare parts, and women and children have been dying for want of essential drugs. So the Iranians have had to talk, and to walk gingerly as they seek to establish their own peaceful nuclear programme.

On Cuba, the Americans will have to eat a little humble pie, but Cuba will have to give up a little of its virginity as the McDonalds, Starbucks, and Coca Cola invade Havana and pollute its streets, while taking away all those 1940 limousines.

Jenerali Ulimwengu is chairman of the board of the Raia Mwema newspaper and an advocate of the High Court in Dar es Salaam.

E-mail: ulimwengu@jenerali.com

Cuba, US become friends, so out go the classic cars, in come Big Macs and Coke - Comment - www.theeastafrican.co.ke
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