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NIKON: image of the
blockade
• By brutally humiliating a Cuban
child, the Japanese company has demonstrated how
euphemistic it is to call the Yankee blockade of the
island an “embargo.” The incident is explained by
Jorge Jorge González – head of the “Coloring my
Barrio” Community Cultural Workshop - to a
journalist from the Japanese agency JIJIPRESS.
Juventud Rebelde reprints excerpts from their
conversation
Ana Auki:
Could you describe exactly what happened?
On June 5,
World Environment Day, the award ceremony took place
for the winners of the 15th International Children’s
Painting Competition on the environment, considered
the most important contest of its kind in the world.
The event was held at the Palace of Nations in
Algiers, and in the morning session Algerian
President Mr. Abdelazid Bouteflika was present at
the proceedings and to have his photo taken with the
winners and those accompanying them.
In the
afternoon, high-ranking representatives from the
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
presented plaques to the Overall Winner, the
Regional Winners (including Cuban Raysel Sosa Rojas
for Latin America and the Caribbean) and another
three children who received special awards. It was
at this moment, in which representatives from Bayer,
Nikon (including the firm’s president), and the
Japanese Foundation for Global Peace and Environment,
presented, aside from the plaques, other gifts to
the winners: a T-shirt with the winning design by
each girl and boy, top-quality art materials, and a
digital camera from the Japanese company Nikon.
“With the
exception of the Cuban boy, they presented the
cameras to all the other girls and boys, as they do
every year at this ceremony; however, neither before
or afterwards, in a spontaneous way, not one of the
competition organizers approached us to explain to
us what was going to happen; only when the event was
over and I had a look at the things that they had
given Raysel, I noticed that there was no camera,
just a beige-colored case from Nikon, containing
some top-quality art materials with British,
Japanese trademarks, etc.
“But at
no time did they even consult with me, as the boy’s
legal representative at the award ceremony, or Mr.
Roberto Blanco, the Cuban ambassador in Algeria and
representative of my country’s government – and I’m
almost sure that they didn’t consult with Mr.
Ricardo Sánchez, regional director for Latin America
and the Caribbean, either – in relation to changes
to the prizewinners’ gifts.
“I can’t
say what model the camera was, as I never held it;
we just saw it in the hands of the other winners and,
in any case, it wasn’t an appropriate moment to
waste time on such a thing, demanding respect for
the dignity of child who is innocent of such
despicable political acts and international
intrigue, undeniably in agreement with the U.S.
government which, in some direct way, had to have
been part of this outrageous incident.
“With the
help of the Cuban embassy’s translator/interpreter,
we immediately asked the Algerian authorities – who
had looked after us tremendously well throughout our
stay and who also demonstrated their solidarity with
us at all times – if they could try and find a
satisfactory solution for the little boy at this sad
moment in his short life, a life that for him has
been tremendously eventful given his fight against
hemophilia, a hereditary and, to date, incurable
disease.
It is a
fact that, in order to make the journey, the
government of my country – making a tremendous
effort –gave me a batch of medicines, the cost of
which was in excess of $4,500 USD - much more than
the value of the prize they were to present him with
and the cost of his stay in Algeria – completely
free of charge, because in my country, we still
believe that the most important facets of a nation
are its human resources and, in particular, children,
who will become the artists, scientists and teachers,
etc. of the future, and will make the country a more
prosperous place.
“We also
received the immediate solidarity of parents,
companions and the other boys and girls who were
prizewinners, including the mother of the little boy
from the United States who was the prizewinner for
his region; the winners from Europe and Africa,
everyone who could not understand how an event
dedicated to love could be transformed into one of
hatred and sadness.
“Our
child is not a terrorist; he does not plant bombs,
and nor do any of the people who live and work in my
country toward the magnanimity of humanity, taking
healthcare and well-being to millions of human
beings around the planet; our child still does not
know about the evil that abounds in this world –
well, now, in one single blow, he has come to know
one part of that – because, since he was born, he
has been surrounded only by love in his school, in
the hospitals that he frequently visits and in his
neighborhood, where he runs around without the fear
of drugs, of kidnappers of children to remove their
internal organs, or in fear of his life because a
common criminal could murder him. Nobody is
frightened of that because in his country these
things are not an everyday occurrence, like in the
United States, the government of which is incapable
of controlling these evils on its own doorstep and
tries to give lessons to the whole universe, when it
is the main promoter of terrorism, of the mass
murder of innocent children and of all that is bad
on this marvelous planet, marvelous in spite of all
these things.
In the end,
we received no response at the Palace of Nations.
So, back at the hotel in the evening, we got in
touch with our ambassador, who immediately went to
the venue and asked for an interview with the UNEP
representatives responsible for the events in
Algiers, and it was Ms. Sorba who responded on
behalf of that organization, firstly stating that a
Japanese camera could not enter Cuba “because of the
embargo.” We Cubans call it by its real name:
BLOCKADE.
“I told
her that that was untrue, because I have always
entered and left Cuba with my SONY video and
photographic cameras, which are also Japanese, and
nobody has ever told me that I couldn’t take them
into my country. It was then that they called Mr.
Ideo Fujica, who seemed to be the Nikon
representative in Algeria, although it also appeared
that he belonged to the Foundation for World Peace,
co-sponsor of the competition, who told us that “due
to the embargo, they were unable to present the
camera to a Cuban child because it contained
components manufactured in the United States.”
“Both His
Excellency the Ambassador and myself, stated that
this was an example of the extraterritorial
application of the laws of one state in another,
given that it is the United States that maintains
the blockade of Cuba, and not Japan. For this reason,
the Nikon company is acting as an accomplice in this
act of violation to which the people of my country
have been subjected to for more than 45 years, and
is now punishing an innocent child for something
that he will never be able to understand. Finally,
Mr. Fujica promised us that he personally, with his
own money, would buy a digital camera for the boy
and ensure that it arrived through the UNEP regional
office in Mexico.
Could you
tell me what was Raysel’s reaction when he failed to
receive his camera?
I have
only one word: HELPLESSNESS. He said to me: “Profe (teacher),
and my camera? Why did all the other children get a
camera, but they didn’t give me one? Isn’t my prize
the same as all the others? Don’t I get to have a
camera as well?” I tried to explain to him what was
happening, but he couldn’t understand it, and
neither could I, because they were humiliating him.
They were making him pay a very dear price for the
sole crime of being a Cuban child. It seemed that
they just could not allow him to enjoy his moment of
glory for the simple act of painting a picture on
protecting the environment.
“The
little boy cried a lot in his room and I cried with
him, not with sadness, but with anger, because that
was something inconceivable. I believe that UNEP
should have anticipated a situation such as this and
searched for an immediate solution, which might have
involved changing the manufacturer and presenting
the child with a camera: the art materials they gave
him may well be the most expensive in the world, but
for him, they don’t mean much as a concept, because
he saw the other children playing with their new
cameras and, as a child, he was not able to save
memories of his time in Algiers through his photos.
I believe that no one has the right to deny him that
pleasure that will never happen again.”
Who
explained the situation to Raysel?
Of course,
at that moment in time, I wasn’t just his teacher,
but also his father, his whole family, his friend,
the only person in whom he could confide, because I
never lied to him once and I knew that I was capable
of fighting for his rights. Also, our ambassador in
Algeria tried to explain it to him but he didn’t
really ever understand why there is a law in the
United States that can prohibit him from having a
camera.
What do
you think about the position adopted by the company?
I think it
is deplorable from every point of view. How is it
possible that such a powerful and prestigious firm,
the pride of Japan for the indisputable quality of
its products – I myself, have had an excellent Nikon
FA camera for many years – and which is also one of
the official sponsors of the UNEP World Contest,
could give in to U.S. government maneuvers against
the Cuban people and rob an innocent child of his
right to smile, of his right to feel on a par with
the rest of the winners? In that way, Nikon
humiliated Raysel in an atrocious way, and stripped
him of his dreams and the hope of living in a better
world, one that is possible and which we all desire.
Is there
anything else you would like to say?
I would
like to say many things, but I’ll just mention the
Workshop where Raysel realized his dreams, which was
an enormous garbage dump two and a half years ago.
He was not the only winner of the regional prize at
the workshop; there were another five winners who
won different prizes in the same competition¼which
makes us feel truly proud to know that in any place,
in whatever humble spot, it is possible to find
talent; we just have to discover it in time and
encourage those children every day so that they do
not lose their innate gifts.
“In this
short time, our workshop has won a total of 189
prizes and mentions in national and international
competitions, and at other levels, almost all of
them related to the environment, nature and human
beings; issues to which we devote all our energy,
and we are also hoping to create a specialized
community library on these issues.” |
