By G.A. Dwyer Astaphan

The 5th Summit of The Americas has just started.

It began on Friday, 17th April in Trinidad & Tobago where TT$ 1 billion plus might have been spent by the time the two-day affair is over.

That is a load of money!

Over the past weeks, crews have been busy cleaning up the streets, upgrading hotels, and finding shelter for the homeless, while millions upon millions of dollars have been spent on upgrading and outfitting security and emergency infrastructure and arrangements, and so on.

Meanwhile, 200 plus new cars purchased by the Government to transport the many visiting heads of state and government, and their delegations, have already arrived.

Also already in port are the cruise ships, chartered by the Government, which will be used as hotels to make up for the shortage of suitable accommodation for the over 4,000 expected visitors in Trinidad, which, I  believe, has less than 2,000 hotel rooms.

And the island will be under a security arm-lock of unprecedented tightness, as it must be. I pray that all will be safe.

There is great hope, even expectation in some quarters, that this 5th Summit of The Americas will be better than those past.

Governments are hoping that US President Barack Obama will treat hemispheric nations, and foreign relations generally, with greater care, attention, balance, intelligence, practicality, pro-activeness and respect than his predecessors have done.

Our leaders must demonstrate that they have and are placing great hope in him. And “hope” is a word and a concept with which he can easily identify.

Hemispheric leaders will need to stress upon Mr. Obama “the urgency of now”, a phrase and a concept with which he is also well acquainted, as well as the reality of, and the need to strengthen, the natural and necessary symbiosis that exists between the US and its hemispheric partners.

I remember, about two years ago, having a conversation with then Senator Biden while he was vacationing in Nevis, and I was very heartened by his understanding of, and sensitivity to, this symbiosis.

With him as Vice President today, there might be additional justification for hope.

Meanwhile, in between the photo opportunities, the histrionics and the receptions, discussion will have to touch Cuba.

For 49-years, the US has held an embargo against Cuba, allowing only limited trade, and on a cash basis, and having in place a system which impedes Americans who wish to travel to Cuba.

The arguments used by the US have to do with human rights, lack of democracy, security, etc.

There is a widely held view that US policy towards Cuba is less based on these things than it is on local politics, more especially South Florida politics, in which Cuban  Americans, who are for the most part anti-Castro, have significant influence.

People who hold this view state that the US has singled out Cuba unfairly for this treatment, because there are other nations which are not exactly beacons of democracy and human rights, such as China, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and others, but which enjoy  good relations, and in some cases, very privileged  relations, with the US.

They also argue that Cuba has done much to assist and support the region and the hemisphere in education and health care, and thus has been a stabilizing force for us, and in the process for the US, and that if the US was to treat Cuba better, the nations of the Caribbean and Central and South America would be better off, as Cuba would increase its generosity to all.

But there is a flip side to that.

Because there seems to be a lingering apprehension in some quarters in the Caribbean and Central America of a Cuba without the US embargo and the other impediments, they are worried that their economies, built almost totally on tourism, would suffer greatly if Cuba were to open up.

So some governments might speak out of the two sides of their mouths on this matter.

On the one hand, they will appreciate the great support and solidarity of Cuba in health and education in the hemisphere.

However, on the other, they might find themselves in trouble if the great tourism potential of Cuba, less than 100 miles from the US coast, was to be unleashed.

I’m thinking of places like the Bahamas, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and Mexico especially, although smaller destinations would be worrying too.

And therein lays a deep dilemma for regional leaders, as they network for regional and hemispheric solutions, yet worry, as they must, about their own politics, which is always local.

Especially in a time like this when their economies are suffering, when unemployment and restlessness are rising, and when elections are never that far away.

And it is this dilemma, and others like it, well known to all and sundry, which tend to increase the vulnerability of nations in the region, individually and collectively, and which make them easier to pick off, and compromise their chances of greater strength and stability through unity.

Already, Mr. Obama has eased up on remittances to Cuba, and the pressure in the US to free up Cuba has again started to build a head of stream.

These developments might only serve to perpetuate the talking from the two sides of the mouths of some leaders.

But the right thing is for Americans to be free to travel and do business wherever they wish (short of security issues). That freedom is one of the pillars of the great American democracy, and anything less only serves to diminish that democracy as well as America’s image in the world.

It is indeed contradictory and counterproductive for the US to have this negative policy towards Cuba on the basis of freedom, or the lack thereof, in Cuba, while the US is itself depriving its citizens of their own freedom to travel and do business.

But, as I said, this policy is based on South Florida politics and little else.

However, younger Cuba Americans are supporting it less and less, and it is just a matter of time before things change.

And I for one expect this change to come while Change Agent Number 1, Barack Hussein Obama, is the occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Meanwhile, those Caribbean and continental nations which are speaking from the two sides of their mouths need to put their own houses in order.

Just as a stronger America means a stronger region and hemisphere, so too does a stronger Cuba.

And America and Cuba are perhaps the two most natural allies in the Hemisphere, alongside Canada and Mexico.

Until Next Time, Plenty Peace.