Nicholas Rey, former ambassador of USA to Poland

You saw this morning at the very beginning an amazing demonstration of Polish democracy – cause you saw two presidents and a letter from the current president – all together in one room and on the same objective. That is a huge example of what this country has been able to achieve. Now as I look at Cuba that should be the objective of the exercise. How do we get to the point where the current people in power feel comfortable about what might happen to them as they become a democracy?  That’s is an ability of the Polish people to go through a huge transition without a vengeance. There was no vengeance in this country after 50 years of horror. That what made the solidity and the base of the Polish democracy. If you think of Cuba, we have to think of ways that can occur – different cultures, different peoples but a lot of similarities. There is a real cultural affinity. It seems to me that whatever Poland can provide to Cuba in the future is less in support of current dissidents which will be important – anything that can  be done for the current dissidents needs to be done, but far more important is what happens once change really begins to accelerate in Cuba.

What we need to do is to build into the Cuban society incentives on the part of the people that are currently the nomenklatura of Cuba to be willing to accept a system in which there will be life after death.  There clearly was life after death in this country for many many of the people who were involved in government. Not only were they involved in government; they had the experience in how to run government.

Who among the dissidents in the Cuban situation has the knowledge, a practical knowledge, of how to run the government and run the country, to run a central bank? So what I think Poland can do to help Cuba in the future is to provide the practical advice on post transition but during transition needs of the country; whether it’ll be in the economic sphere or whether it will be in the sphere of building non-governmental organizations, the whole efforts of civil society – Poland has a great deal of knowledge here to provide.