The Editor, Sir:

As a native of a small, poor and, some would say, insignificant island in the West Indies, I write this letter after considerable hesitation, as it is critical of one of the two contenders in the race for nominee of a party at the USA election convention in November, and by implication, supportive of the other contender.

However, since I am convinced that freedom of thought and speech is a sine qua non for the development of the moral and intellectual potential in all human beings, my apprehensions were quietened. I, therefore, venture to point out that although loss of freedom for some people living in Cuba under the dictatorship of Fidel Castro may be such an undesirable consequence of that form of government as to prevent the new president of the United States from agreeing to have unsolicited conversations with the new president of Cuba without solid evidence that the latter intends to move the government of the island away from an abhorrent dictatorship and that steps have already been taken to replace it with an approved form of democracy, there are favourable results from Castro's dictatorship which should not be ignored in assessing the level of its integrity.

Results

In my understanding, these are: provision of universal health care and a guarantee of food, clothing and shelter for all the inhabitants of the island in need of that assistance; absence of corruption in the administration of the government; absence of all forms of torture to enforce the decrees of the administration; approval of the dictatorship which the majority of people living in Cuba show by the support they give to the president and his government.

If these perceptions are accurate, they should be determinative of the question of unsolicited conversations between the two presidents.

I am, etc.,

JUSTICE LOUIS B. FOX

Jamaica (retired)

ebbtidepublishing@hotmail.ca

Ontario, Canada

Via Go-Jamaica