In July 2001, when Toronto lost its chance to host the 2008 Summer Olympics, I just couldn't believe it. How in the world did the International Olympic Committee ever choose Beijing as a valid venue for the biggest party in the world? What would it happen to the cause of human rights?
The Canadian government introduced a policy of constructive engagement with Cuba in June 1994. Fourteen years later we have as a result an unprecedented influx of Canadian tourists—over 600,000 per year—and a few companies making big bucks from semi-slave labour.
The deal works this way: Canadian companies allocate money and technological expertise, while "Cuba" (read: Castro brothers) hire and pay five per cent of the labour's face value to lucky Cubans. The remaining 95 per cent of their salary is pocketed by the brothers to invest in "social infrastructure" (read: anti-riot gear, police recruitments and civic intimidation).
In both cases, the international community in general and policy-makers in particular have proven that they haven't learned from previous experiences, which taught us that the only pragmatic approach with repressive regimes is their denunciation as evil and destructive.
Our political representatives need to understand that the instant you legitimize a dictator—especially its totalitarian version in communist countries—he is the one who sets the rules of engagement, not the other way around.
Dictators are not accountable; you are. They don't face losing their job in general elections; you do. They don't play by the rules of civility, because they are the law. Those regimes will work tirelessly to subvert you, using all means at their disposal. So much so that when you realize the immensity and scope of the danger it's usually too late and a radical move is required.
After several disruptions to the Olympic torch on its journey through the world, the lesson seems to be that issues such as human rights and liberties are taken care of only when a crisis of global magnitude grows out of hand. Be it September 11th for ending the Taliban terror against women in Afghanistan or the torch disruption on its way to Beijing, the free world seems able to act only once the crisis has reached a visible breaking point.
For Cubans to trigger a global scrutiny of the island, regrettably the only way would probably be another mass exodus of rafters to neighbouring countries. The past history of global subversion through military intervention is now forgotten.
The Cubanization of Venezuela's society by means of a massive presence of military and intelligence officers seems to go unnoticed in the North American and European media. However, nothing good can be expected of the combination of Chávez petrodollars and his Cuban comrades' expertise in global subversion—not for Venezuela, its surrounding countries or, in fact, the world.
Every free nation of the world has a moral obligation to defend human rights and freedom. Besides the "rhetoric," there is a pragmatic side that can't be ignored: it is a matter of national security.
Constructive engagement with oppressive regimes is meaningless unless we demand that the voices of civic society within them are heard. Those voices, embodied by dissidents, represent the aspirations of the silent majority.
Nelson Taylor is the Ottawa Representative Director of the Cuban Canadian Foundation www.cubancanadianfoundation.com
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