Click here for EPA in the media 2007-2008

Webmaster’s note: The news of ‘massive irregularities‘  in the November 28 elections in Haiti, in a study by the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research,  has come as a further embarrasment to the OAS/CARICOM observer mission which, while reporting many such irregularities, nonetheless endorsed the electoral process, Kevin Edmonds, who is St. Lucian, took part in an informal election observation mission with several Haitian grassroots organizations in November, 2010. He is a freelance journalist and graduate student at McMaster University’s Globalization Institute in Hamilton, Ontario.

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Text of Letter from Haitian IHRC members (PDF file)

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On December 25, 2010, the Organization of American States announced the dismissal of its Special Representative in Haiti, the distinguished Brazilian diplomat, Ricardo Seitenfus. This dismissal followed the publication of an interview with Seitenfus by the Swiss Newspaper, Le Temps. In this commentary, the Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, quotes extensively from the Seitenfus interview; and gives new information on the Cuban medical programme in Haiti and the fight against cholera.

The OAS Secretary General, decided, at the beginning of 2009, to appoint as his personal representative in Haiti a Brazilian intellectual, Ricardo Seitenfus who at that time was working in his country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Seitenfus was enjoying well-deserved prestige in diplomatic and government circles in the Haitian capital because of the seriousness and openness with which he was dealing with the problems. In 1993 he had written a book called “Haiti: Sovereignty of the Dictators”. He visited Haiti for the first time that year…

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Haiti in the hands of the NGOs Christophe Wargny, Le Monde Diplomatique

They are the real heroes of the Haitian earthquake disaster, the human catastrophe on America’s doorstep which Barack Obama pledged a monumental US humanitarian mission to alleviate. Except these heroes are from America’s arch-enemy Cuba, whose doctors and nurses have put US efforts to shame…

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Brazil funds Cuban aid programme in Haiti with $80 million Cuba News

By far the more potent explanation of our lack of self-esteem, our self doubt and mistrust of, and lack of confidence in, each other is the 300-year colonial experience. And if you want an explanation for the opposition to the abolition of the Privy Council and its replacement by a Caribbean Court, this is it: the feeling that we are not good enough and cannot be depended on to be just and fair and deliver justice in the way that an English court can…

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Answers to questions posed by Havelock Brewwster in his comment. It is not known how many of the 15 CARIFORUM states and how many of the 27 EU states have ratified the EPA. The EPA has been traditionally applied, but it is not known when it will come into force.

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This update discusses the current state of play regarding the implementation of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the CARIFORUM (CF)States and the EU, referred to as CF EC EPA. It aims to address the following questions: What has been done thus far and how can both EU and CF representatives demonstrate a stronger commitment to providing public access to information concerning EPA-related developments? It shows that there is a serious public information deficit regarding the EPA and its implementation…

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Cuba’s proposed economic reforms have attracted much attention, the focus falling on plans to redeploy up to one million employees from the state sector to self-employment and small business. The comments mostly reflect a particular ideological perspective; or interpret the reforms through the lens of neoliberal adjustment programmes of the kind familiar to us in the Caricom Caribbean. The proposals, which are contained in 291 points in the Draft Economic and Social Policy Guidelines published in November, need to be considered in their totality; and set in context…

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Also published in Stabroek News 20/12/10

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DRAFT Economic and Social Policy Guidelines for the Party and the Revolution (ENGLISH) PDF Format

DRAFT Economic and Social Policy Guidelines for the Party and the Revolution (ENGLISH) HTML Format

Raul Castro’s Speech at Closing Session of the Cuban National Assembly December 18, 2010 (English, illustrated, PDF Format)

‘We are producing a Bonsai in this small island’ An interview with Professor Hugo Pons, head of the Economics Department at the University of Havana

Cuba’s Socialist Renewal

This blog opens a window to the English-speaking world on the debates and changes taking place in Cuba. Regular postings of original translations of selected documents, commentaries and letters to the editor published in Cuba’s revolutionary press; readers’ comments; and a space for discussion and debate among supporters, however critical, of the Cuban Revolution.

PBS Series on Cuba’s Economic Reforms, Health Care system and Medical Diplomacy