"Irony is the bringing together of contradictory truths, to make out with a contradiction, a new truth, with a laugh or a smile. And I confess that, a truth must come with one or the other, or I count it as false and a denial of the very nature of humanity itself (chuckles)." - The character of Jane Austen, in the film 'On becoming Jane', based on the novel by John Spence.
Interview with the US Ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy, on the US blockade of Cuba and related matters.
4PR: Can you please introduce yourself?
Caroline Kennedy: My name is Caroline Kennedy and I am the US ambassador to Australia. I am proud to carry on my father’s legacy of public service … you know, my father had hoped to be the first US President to visit Australia.
4PR: Instead we got Lyndon Baynes Johnson – all the way with LBJ (sardonically). I would like to make reference to a speech by your uncle, Robert Kennedy, made on a visit to apartheid South Africa in 1966. Let’s have a listen to a speech he gave at the University of Capetown on 6 June 1966:
Robert Kennedy
I come here this evening because of my deep interest and affection for a land settled by the Dutch in the mid 17th century, then taken over by the British and at last independent, a land in which the native inhabitants were at first subdued, but relations with whom remain a problem to this day, a land which defined itself on a hostile frontier, a land which is tamed rich natural resources through the energetic application of modern technology, a land which was once the importer of slaves, and now must struggle to wipe out the last traces of that form of bondage. I refer of course to the United States of America. [Crowd murmurs and then applauds].
There is discrimination in New York, the racial inequality of apartheid in South Africa, and serfdom in the mountains of Peru. People starve to death in the streets of India; a former Prime Minister is summarily executed in the Congo; intellectuals go to jail in Russia; and thousands are slaughtered in Indonesia; wealth is lavished on armaments everywhere in the world. These are different evils; but they are the common works of man. They reflect the imperfections of human justice, the inadequacy of human compassion, the defectiveness of our sensibility toward the sufferings of our fellows; they mark the limit of our ability to use knowledge for the well-being of our fellow human beings throughout the world. And therefore they call upon common qualities of conscience and indignation, a shared determination to wipe away the unnecessary sufferings of our fellow human beings at home and around the world.
4PR: Why didn’t the United States impose sanctions on apartheid South Africa.
Caroline Kennedy: It did. You know, my uncle Robert gave his life for his beliefs.
4PR: The US did not initiate an economic blockade on apartheid South Africa until 1986, 20 years after your Uncle’s visit.
Caroline Kennedy: The disinvestment campaign in the United States took that time before it gained critical mass, you know.
FULL TRANSCRIPT is at https://4pr-voice-of-the-people.com/2022/01/09/us-ambassador-to-australia-on-her-countrys-blockade-of-cuba/
FOR INFORMATION about the 'From Australia to Cuba with Love' campaign go to https://from-australia-to-cuba-with-love.raisely.com/
