Cuba Deserves Respect, Says British Historian
Campaign News | Saturday, 24 February 2007
Asa Briggs visits Cuba
British historian Asa Briggs said Thursday that Cuba’s nearly half a century resistance to US hostility is a major and admirable political act that deserves humankind’s respect.
"It is admirable that it has been able to confront the United States," Briggs told reporters during a brief visit to Cuba, where he arrived on a cruise ship.
He told Prensa Latina that the best part of his voyage was to visit Cuba for the second time. The first was in 1983. You don’t need to be in Cuba to express interest in what happens here, he said.
I visited Cuba at an interesting time of history, I always wanted to return, but it took me too long to do so, he added.
When Prensa Latina asked him about his stance on his country’s dispute with Argentina over the Falkland (Malvinas) Islands, which led to a war in 1982, the prominent intellectual said that he never expected London would create that conflict.
"I know that upon returning to Great Britain, the media and my friends will want me to tell them about my experiences, because all eyes are set on Cuba at present," he said with emotion.
The prestigious academic, who was born in Keighley, Yorkshire, was the rector of Worcester College, in Oxford, and of the Open University. He won the Wolfson History Award in 2000.
http://www.ahora.cu/english/SECTIONS/opinion/2007/february/23-02-07.htm
