GRANMA: Entregan Medalla de la Amistad a John Kirk
Original Granma Article here: http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/2011/12/15/nacional/artic04.html
Dalia González Delgado
La Medalla de la Amistad que otorga el Consejo de Estado de la República de Cuba fue entregada este miércoles al canadiense John Kirk.
John Kirk agradeció el alto reconocimiento.
En la ceremonia, realizada en la sede del Instituto Cubano de Amistad con los Pueblos (ICAP), Kirk agradeció el alto reconocimiento.
“Soy martiano”, dijo, “Martí me cambió la vida. Aunque he escrito de otros temas, la influencia martiana nunca se ha alejado de mi obra”.
Asimismo, se refirió a las relaciones entre Cuba y Canadá, especialmente al intercambio académico.
John Kirk es Catedrático de Estudios Latinoamericanos en la Universidad de Dalhouisie, Canadá, y especialista en la historia política de Cuba. Ha escrito varios libros sobre nuestro país y es miembro del consejo editorial de las revistas Internacional Journal of Cuban Studies, de Inglaterra y Cuban Studies, de Estados Unidos. Durante los últimos cinco años se ha dedicado a estudiar el internacionalismo médico de Cuba.
En la entrega de la medalla estuvieron presentes Matthew Levin, embajador de Canadá en Cuba, Josefina Vidal Ferreiro, directora de la Dirección de América del Norte del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores (MINREX), y Kenia Serrano, presidenta del ICAP.
Mr Kirk has always been a loyal friend of the Cuban Government. Such a friend that not only he has tried in his writings to justify the Cuban regime policies no matter what throughout 50 years, but even a few years ago tried to head a campaign to close a Canadian program in Ottawa that presented an independent view about Cuban politics, and had “too many Cuban expatriates” in its staff. Yes, Mr. Kirk deserves that medal from the Cuban dictatorship. According to Granma, in his speech at Cuba’s ICAP Mr Kirk said that he follows Jose Marti’s doctrines. Would recommend professor Kirk to read carefully the complete works of Marti, who wanted a Republic “with all Cubans for the goodwill of all” (“con todos y para el bien de todos”), with no exclusions. In that Republic, which doesn’t look like today’s Cuba, all Cubans — socialists, liberals, demo-Christians, social democrats, US friends, or not– would be working together for the goodwill of their nation.
only add to the expressed by ms. faya that mr. kirk was confused because instead of saying i’m “martiano” he should have said i’m “castrista”. marti has nothing to do with castro. mr. kirk is a well known agent of influence of castro dictorship.
It would be interesting to see a list of individuals who received awards and recognition from the Castro government. Does anybody know if this information is easily available? Thanks YG