The Elian Gonzalez saga
What the people say
Much international publicity has been given to the custody battle over the six-year-old Cuban boy, Elian Gonzalez, who was shipwrecked off Florida some five months ago. At the time of the shipwreck Elian's mother was one of 11 persons who drowned after the boat carrying them capsized. In view of the saga which has gripped international media attention we asked the men/women-in-the-street this week to share their views on whether Elian Gonzalez should be sent back to Cuba with his father or not. Their views follow. (These interviews were done two days before US federal authorities removed the boy from his Miami relatives and reunited him with his father.) Leyland King - private sector employee: `People were leaving Cuba for decades now. Whenever they are caught they are placed in detention and then deported back to Cuba. Why the fuss now? Is it because of the media hype. This whole thing has been politicised. If this child was a Guyanese, African or Asian, he would have been deported ever since. I think that apart from Miami exiles trying to get back at Fidel Castro, the American political hopefuls are exploiting the situation by hoping they will get the minority votes. The boy is a political sacrifice in an America that boasts about being the bastion of democracy. America should bow its head in shame by what is being done.' Bibi Zorina Menzies - housewife: `I feel very strongly that the child should go back to Cuba with his father. The child is very young and the court should not say that because Elian says or his relatives in Miami say that he wants to stay in America that the court must rule in favour of him staying in America. That is nonsense. Children in the Third World have a close bond with their parents no matter how poor we are. In addition we are better able to discipline our children which includes caning them for wrongdoing. In America you cannot do that or you would get locked up. Because of that parents do not have parental control and many children there are free to do as they please. Every child needs a biological parent.' Gillian: - `While I think that the right thing is that he should go back to Cuba with his father where he belongs I think that the Miami relatives knowing the situation that exists in Cuba is the real reason why they are fighting for him. In addition I think that the bond that exists between a parent and child is necessary for healthy growth. However, I think I can empathise with the Miami relatives because they could be compared to the many Guyanese who try all means, through the `backtrack' or whatever, to get away from Guyana because of political, economic and social conditions that now prevail.' Mark Anthony Reid: - `The boy should be allowed to return to Cuba with his father. He has lost his mother and he has a father who obviously cares about him so that the right place would be with his father. It is not a case where the child had not known his father. He had already bonded with him. I think that the Miami relatives and their supporters are using the little boy for their own means and he is being brainwashed. Even if he had wanted to go back to his father I feel they are trying to put him against his father. Even if the father has to do whatever it takes he should get his son once he wants his son. I have no children but I would feel the same way. The father also has a wife who can take care of him. I think the Miami should put aside politics and hate for Fidel Castro and give up the son.' Francis Persaud - senior education official: `The child should be returned to Cuba with his father if that is what his father wants. He is the next of kin and has the organic connection. What the Miami relatives and other Cuban exiles are trying to say is that there is no democracy in Cuba, that there is a dictatorship and there is severe hardships. As such they are using Elian Gonzalez as a political tool to show their opposition to Fidel Castro and what the Cuban government stands for. The American Government, too, I think is somehow using the situation by prolonging it as well because of their opposition to communism and the Cuban Government. In spite of all the `isms' I think that it is the quality of life that matters in a country. For instance I do not think that there is any `freedom' where virtually everyone has a licence to carry a gun.' Curt Cliff - self-employed: `Returning with his father to Cuba is a must. His immediate family is his father's family. The saying that his mother sacrificed her life for him to get to the USA should not be used as an argument. What she did was illegal. Her family in Miami would have encouraged that I am sure. As far as I am concerned the US government should have returned the child to Cuba already instead of prolonging a court battle. They are placing too much stress on the little boy. If they should keep him in the USA then everybody who goes to the USA illegally should be allowed to stay. The American press is saying that he is happy with his Miami relatives and that he gets everything he wants. Pampering to his every want amounts to a bribe.' Sookhu - private sector employee: `The best place is with his father at this stage in his life, especially since his mother is no longer there. Every father would like his kid to be with him. Mom is always first priority in every child's life and we accept that because dad is generally seen as the provider. The problem though with the Miami relatives is that they are Cuban exiles and for them everything Cuban under Castro would be bad for them. Even though Elian's parents were divorced the child had had a bonding with his father. Now the Miami relatives are trying to put a wedge between the father and son. It is easy to spoil a child and as far as I can see that is what they are trying to do with him by infusing him with their ideas at whatever cost. The boy is definitely being manipulated and the relatives are using underhand and dirty tactics. In the long run the child will be the sufferer. I am not concerned about the political aspect. The child should be placed with his father.' Gary Moses - public servant: `I feel very strongly that in spite of what people think about Cuba that the boy should return there with his father. What the Miami relatives are doing is depriving the father of his rights to have his son. That is morally and legally wrong as the father is of a sound mind. The father knows what he says when he said on `Sixty Minutes' that he will not be worried about his son being shot at in Cuba in classroom because children are not allowed with guns and weapons in Cuban schools. And he has a point. America is now seeking to enforce a gun law because of killings in American schools.' Cecil Whitney - musician: `The boy should be handed over to his father and he should be made to return to Cuba as soon as possible. The father would be losing out on his job the longer he stays in America. The father should also not leave America without his son on no account. If the relatives in Miami had really wanted the boy to stay with them they could have made compromises with the father back in Cuba. It would have been easier in the long run. What the relatives have done is politicise the case while the government dragged its feet on it. Regardless of who the relatives are and what they want, the boy's father is his legal guardian, unless he gives up his right, until the boy is 18 years.'
|