November 2008 Archives

SOCIALIST CUBA

The Cuban Revolution led to the overthrow of the dictatorial government of Cuban President General Fulgencio Batista on January 1, 1959 by the 26th of July movement and other revolutionary organizations. The Cuban Revolution also refers to the ongoing implementation of social and economic programs by the new government since the overthrow of the Batista dictatorship, including the implementation of Marxist policies.

CAPITALIST CUBA (TOURISM)

Cuba has been communist since early 1959, and since possibly America’s number one enemy.

Following the fall of the Soviet Union, a major source of aid, Cuba implemented tourism policies in the early 1990s, were driven by the government’s pressing need to earn hard currency. They had a major impact on the underlying egalitarianism espoused by the Cuban revolution. Two parallel economies and societies quickly emerged, their demarcation line was represented by access to the newly legalized U.S. dollar. Those having access to dollars through contact with the lucrative tourist industry (barstaff, hotel receptionists, musicians and taxi drivers) suddenly found themselves at a distinct financial advantage over professional, industrial and agricultural workers.

To insure the isolation of international tourism from Cuban society, it was to be promoted in enclave resorts where, as much as possible, tourists would be segregated from Cuban society. The government tourism policy soon began to be referred to as “enclave tourism” and “tourism apartheid”.

Tourist apartheid might become a permanent regression to the pre-revolutionary state of Cuban society. Tourism has brought exclusive resorts, segregated hotels and a general playground for foreigners swinging through the island looking for Caribbean romance. These are precisely the circumstances the revolution worked 40 years to erase.

The policy of restricting certain hotels and services to tourists was ended by the government of Raul Castro in March 2008.


USA (TERRORISM)

Guantanamo Bay is the largest harbor on the south side of the island and is surrounded by steep hills creating an enclave cut off from its immediate hinterland.

The United States assumed territorial control over Guantánamo Bay under the 1903 Cuban-American Treaty, which granted the United States a perpetual lease of the area. The current Cuban government considers the U.S. presence in Guantánamo to be illegal and the Cuban-American Treaty to have been procured by the threat of force in violation of international law.

The southern portion of the bay is surrounded by the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, established in 1898. Since 2002 the base has hosted a detainment camp for suspected militant combatants from Afghanistan and from around the world, but specifically not for captives taken in Iraq, who qualify for POW status.
Following the election of Barack Obama in November of 2008, the camp was closed.

 

States are not natural entities. The integrity of national borders depends on the existence of the nation state. The recognition of the nation state’s sovereignty must be acknowledged from outside. Globalization is often described as a phenomenon that is making the nation state obsolete. It is believed to collapse nations into a homogenized singular entity. Globalization should not be thought of as outside of the nation state, as it is not an external process. Globalization describes what is happening to the nation state; it is transforming the nation state. Globalization reinforces a series of segregated domains of logic and power that have taut boundaries. When these worlds interact, any conflict that arises identifies a site for resistance, and disrupts what longs to stay intact.

 

Rupture of a boundary can occur in the form or extraterritoriality. Extraterritoriality is the state of being exempt from the jurisdiction of local law. It is often a result of diplomatic negotiations and as such often manifests itself in the form of embassies, consulates, foreign military bases, offices of the United Nations, etc. Such spaces are sovereign territories which are accountable not to the country in which they are sited but rather to their host country.

 

Amongst the globalized worlds, there is a similar brand of spaces that are appearing which seek legal immunity as exceptional conditions, offshore islands entitled to special sovereignty and exemption from law. These come in the form of free trade zones, information technology hubs, resorts, religious and retail franchises and so on.

 

These new forms of extraterritoriality, often occur in relation to existing political enterprises. They are often used to mask a seemingly negative political condition with a seemingly innocent apolitical one. The nature of their relation to a symbiotic politicized dialogue makes it impossible to de-politicize them.

Reference: Easterling, Keller. Enduring Innocence: Global Architecture and Its Political Masquerades. (Massachusetts: MIT), 2005.

Extraterritoriality is the state of being exempt from the jurisdiction of local law. It is often a result of diplomatic negotiations. Extraterritoriality often applies to physical places, such as embassies, consulates, foreign military bases, offices of the United Nations, etc. Such spaces are sovereign territories which are accountable not to the country in which they are sited but rather to their host country.

 

When the United Nations began its search for a site to house its Headquarters, the first Secretary General Trygve Lie stated “We are searching for the center of the world” (Dudley 16). In the immediate postwar period, this was Manhattan: the definitively modern city. The  Rockefeller's kindly donated a portion of Manhattan for the worldly cause, an act sanctioned by the nation. During this exchange, the piece of land transformed from American soil to an international territory. The choice of site was influenced by American postwar dominance following their role in World War II, where the United States emerged as a superpower. The other major superpower, Russia sanctioned this decision believing that having the United Nations in the United States would help them to indirectly control the new superpower.

 

After sixty years in this location, the United Nations needs to consider the security threats resulting from its longtime association, with the United States.

 

Following numerous failed proposals to renovate the original building in an attempt to increase security, the United Nations made the difficult decision to dislocate its international territory from Manhattan.  As the territory floated down the East River, towards the high seas, delegates congratulated themselves on a decision well-made. As an island, an ideal model of fortification, the UN will be better able to defend itself.

Reference: George Dudley, A Workshop for Peace, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1994.