Obama needs support – Belafonte

Obama needs support – Belafonte
Written by Larry Moonze in Havana, Cuba
Sunday, September 20, 2009 8:21:06 AM

AMERICAN artistes Harry Belafonte and Danny Glover have said US President Barack Obama needs support if he has to effect the change he promised.

Addressing journalists here in Havana, Cuba on Friday evening following the inauguration of the Travelling Caribbean Film Show and offices in Cuba, Belafonte said the world is in front of a crisis.

"Many people have high hopes but little of the hope is realised, delivered as promised," he said. "President Obama raised great optimism but it is not enough for us to stand back and watch him face the many complicated problems alone. All of us must get behind him and if it is necessary force him to make, execute policies to the interests of Africa and Afro-Americans, and the marginalised peoples of the world."

Belafonte said President Obama was the hope for those who looked for a better world.

"He [President Obama] spoke strongly for change and I think he meant change for everyone," he said. "We seek that he directs that change to our interests."

Belafonte said any manifestation that brought Africans, Caribbeans and Latin Americans together must be supported.

He said the Cuban initiative to showcase the Caribbean cinema talent was a strategic moment for artistes to come together.

Belafonte said he was happy that Danny Glover was selected the honorary president of the Travelling Caribbean Film Show.

"When I received the invitation to this event and saw that Danny Glover was going to attend, I said obviously selecting Danny is an act of great crisis," he joked. "I said my Cuba is in trouble. Somebody has to be there to save Cuba and the relations we have with the US.

“Danny Glover is my closest friend. We often talk of Afro-Americans plight and problems many people face."

And Hollywood film star, Glover said what Cuba had done was a beginning of an extraordinary endeavour to showcase what the Caribbean had in offer.

"It is about the Caribbean values," he said.

He said Cuba was an extraordinary country.

"And the Cuban people are exceptional," he said.

Glover, who refused to directly comment on the USA's continued embargo of Cuba and President Obama's extending of the sanctions for another year last Monday, pointed at the American Congress for the answer.

"I wanna not come on it here," he said.

Glover said he did not know the significance of President Obama's signing of the document extending the blockade adding that it was the Congress that was responsible for making that decision.

On health reforms, he said it was an opportunity for America to do what was right.

He said President Obama had support for his push for health reforms.

"We have to be careful though," he said.

Glover said he hopes to travel to Hondurus where the democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya was ousted in a military coup in June.

He said people who support the democratically elected government had to work hard.

Glover said the entire region support ousted leader Zelaya.

On Belafonte, he said their relationship was a quarter century old.

"He is my dearest friend," Glover said.

He called for continued struggle against marginalisation and all ills that degrade a human being.

"I am a son for the movement of liberation around the world including the Cuban Revolution," Glover said.

He said while there many challenges in the world today, there existed great opportunities as well.

Glover said it would also take artistes to help save the world.

"Imagination is more important than knowledge," said Glover. "We gonna need more imagination now to calibrate new relationships for life is about forming new relations."

Cuban culture minister Abel Prieto said Belafonte was a living legend.

He said Belafonte had never failed Cuba.

"He is a personal friend of Fidel (Castro)," Prieto said. "He is talented and an ethical person. It means a lot when there is a combination of these two values in one person and it is more outstanding when principles are not betrayed."

He said that was also the case of Glover.

"Danny Glover is a defender of [Venezuelan] Bolivarian revolution process," Prieto said.

He said countries of the South could not continue breaking their necks looking up to the North all the time for everything.

"We need to know each other and recognise ourselves," said Prieto.