The Summit approaches, and Cuba looms large in its absence

Read this article by Norman Girvan: Fidel Castro Unseen Guest at Vth Summit.

The number of issues facing the Americas at this moment is staggering: the upcoming Summit must address the current financial crisis and global economic downturn, energy concerns, drug trafficking, migration pressures, persistent poverty and inequality, organized crime and regional violence, at least. And yet, with all of these pressing concerns looming, Cuba has shown up on the agenda of many participating countries as they seek for the United States to change policy toward the island. Girvan, a London School of Economics PhD and Fellow at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago, lists in the linked article above each incredible instance in the last week of a Latin American leader bringing the Cuba issue to “a crescendo.” And while the White House’s special adviser for the Summit, Jeffrey Davidow, states on behalf of the administration, “We do not believe that Cuba is a topic of discussion at this Summit,” Girvan’s message rings loudly in response:

Hopefully, someone in the White House will have the good sense to ‘wise up’ Barack Obama about the new realities in the hemisphere; and he will have the grace to recognise-indeed embrace– them.

Otherwise who be isolated–Cuba? Or the United States?