Email

Print

Godfrey Smith, SC, Former Foreign Minister
"It is my view, my argument, that he ranks easily among the greatest world leaders - and listen to this - of all time. You hear da statement? I'm not saying he's of relevance to the region, or the Americas or the Caribbean…I'm saying I rate him among the greatest leaders of all time. So when you throw out the list of leaders, I'm sure few people would dispute, when you ask popped you'll hear names like the Mahatma Gandhi, you'll hear Nelson Mandela, you'll hear Churchill, you'll hear Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, going back in time you'll hear Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Mao Zedong, Napoleon, Hitler…my argument is that he can easily be ranked and rated among these men. And I'd like to offer three heads for examination: I'll lock at the personal aspect, what; they've done for humanity and the military aspect, as an argument. So let's take the top two who nobody would argue about: Gandhi, Mandela. Saints. I'm not saying Fidel is a saint. All three had a vision for the liberation of their people. All three decided to fight for that even if it meant death, putting themselves personally at the risk of death, through armed struggle in Fidel's case, through armed stifle in Mandela's case, armed and peaceful. And in Gandhi's case, peaceful only. Having achieved the liberation of their people, all three in different ways dedicated their entire lives to the principle to the principle for which they were fighting. All three personally non-corrupt. I mean you've seen Fidel in his late years, he's an old man, nothing going on. There's no scandals of bank accounts any part of the world. Swiss bank accounts, that is the bug bear of so many leaders and an absolute lifelong commitment to egalitarianism and helping people. I would want someone to step forward and challenge which world leader has done as much for peoples of the world."

"So that's only on a personal level."

"Let's turn to what is done for people. I would wish to say that in terms of Mandela and Gandhi, their struggles were internal. Naturally, they inspired people all over the world. They motivated people all over the world. But their struggles, Mandela's was for an internal problem, Apartheid. In Gandhi's case it was to fight off British Colonialism. In Fidel's case, not only has he helped people in Cuba, through the UNESCO acclaimed educational system that they have, and the medical system, but it's gone beyond that to assisting through medical internationalism, I would say hundreds and thousands of people all over the world. Jules, the Cuban medical program boasts some 40 odd thousand people in over 100 countries of the world I mean we take these things for granted."

"Now, people will hasten to say, ok, Gandhi was a virtual saint, Mandela too. There were lots of people in the world who hate Fidel. Again that is only because while Gandhi fought of only British colonialism, and was a spiritual man and all that. And Mandela fought off apartheid in South Africa, our brother Fidel from this region, tiny poor country, took on the entire world economic system, guarded and protected by the NATO alliance, so that has to provoke huge controversy, huge dissent, and hatred."

"Again Cuba under Fidel Castro not only fought off the Americans in the Bay of Pigs, but was able to deploy I think it must have been a force of 25 thousand Cuban soldiers into Angola in the mid-70's when Angola was on the verge of Independence to help fight off invasion, backed by the US, from then, the then South Africa and Namibia, and did it again later in the 80's."

"And so, I think if you were to actually think of the undisputed world leaders - the ones at the very top, and you make a list of the reasons why you think they are great and then putting aside whatever subjectivity you may have about capitalism and socialism, you lay out what the man has done, starting with a vision, his personal lifestyle what he has committed, what he has done for humanity, or even if you wah seh militarily, since these days a lot is gauged by what you have done in military might. I for those reasons believe he has earned his place easily greatest of all time."

Tomorrow, we'll have more on the Castro legacy in Belize and the world. There are currently 69 Cuban medical professionals in Belize in the Cuban medical Brigade.