Raul Castro doesn’t appear to be particularly amazed by having greeted Obama, or at least that is the impression he conveyed to journalists of Colombia’s RNC, who asked him about the topic, when they made him “an interview without permission,” according to the Cuban president himself.
When they told him his photo with Obama was going around the world, Raúl did not seem to give it much importance, with “I have been told something like that” he said jokingly.
“OK, we are civilized people. If you read my speech, did you see it? It addresses that. “
Raul Castro’s speech at the ceremony in memory of Nelson Mandela recalled the l anti-apartheid eader’s effort to build a country that overcame the adversity of racism.
“Nelson Mandela will not go down in history for the 27 consecutive years he lived there in jail and never gave up his ideas; he will go because he was able to remove from his soul all the poison that could create so unfair punishment; for the generosity and wisdom that in the hour of unstoppable victory he knew so brilliantly direct his selfless and heroic people, knowing that the new South Africa could never be built on a foundation of hatred and revenge.”
Raul Castro has spent years in his speeches including invitations to dialogue with the government of the United States. Seven seconds versus Obama should not be what he had in mind, but the media have made a lot of noise about it.
A handshake, smile, it’s a start. As poet Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote: “The only way to have a friend is to be one.”
You can listen to the interview with Raul Castro here: http://media.rcn.com.co/audios/lafm/RaulCastrolafm.MP3
