CAPITALISTS HAVE PROGRESSIVE IDEAS TOO

I ran into my friend Benjamin this morning at Starbucks, and we sat down for a while over a cup of expensive coffee. He had something to propose.

Here's the gist of what he said.

WHAT IF . . . we could, in one bold stroke:

- Bring democratic capitalism into Cuba within two years;
- Boldly reassert U.S. leadership in our Hemisphere;
- Offer a better solution to Caribbean doldrums than does Chavez;
- Solve our GITMO problem without losing face; and
- Give our energy needs and export trade a big boost?

Can we do all these things with one comprehensive plan? YES.
Does implementation of the plan require a specific next President? NO
Would the plan require Congress to reexamine its position on Cuba? YES
Would the plan require military intervention? NO
Is it a totally new idea? For Cuba - yes; but it's been done in other places.
So what's holding us up? It's a bold approach, and this is an election year.

"This plan, whatever it is, sounds too good to be true", I said.
"That's what the ones who didn't know what they didn't know said about the plan to bring Puerto Rico out of the poverty and injustices that existed there through the 1960's. The same people were also wrong about what we did quietly 30 years ago to change an economically backward Irish Free State into the brightest star in the European Union."

"So what does this plan entail?" I asked.
"The devil's in the details, but the concept is simple enough. It will take no more brilliance than to negotiate the normal big corporate deal, which needs to be good for both sides. There's so much for all sides to gain from success of this plan that there's plenty of give to go around.

"Can it be fouled up in the process?"
"You bet," he said. "The Russians, Chinese, and U.S. enemies like Hugo Chavez will try very hard to stop it. It will take a determined effort by Washington with no interference from those Americans who think they own Cuba and U.S. Cuban policy.

"So tell me about the devil in the details." I said.
"Tourism has its limits in building a progressive society," he began, and outlined the workings of his plan.
I was blown away.
"So when are you presenting the idea to Washington?" I asked.
"See me in January," he replied, with a wink.

Send author a comment on this post

Creative Foreign Policy

Thanks for coming here today. I've wanted to interview you for some time. I hope you don't mind my getting a bit personal.

#1 You've had a Wall Street/international law practice for a number of years. What made you decide to start writing suspense novels?
- I have a dozen draft novels and one act plays in boxes in the attic from when I was thirteen. I wrote Havana Passage in 1995 on the commuter train into Manhattan, but it didn't get published until 2006.

#2 What brought on Havana Passage?
- That's a long story, but I represented an American pharmaceutical company in negotiations with the governments of Hungary and Czechoslovakia when those nations were still under the Russian thumb. I spent time behind the Iron Curtain, and got to know some very talented people well enough to see how much they envied the freedom my clients had. It was no surprise to me they finally got out from under the tyranny imposed upon Eastern Europe.
- Later, when I looked at Cuba and realized it was American law that was keeping us from doing the same there, I wrote essays and articles drawing the comparison to the fall of the Berlin Wall. It fell on deaf ears, so I put it in novel form - at least that was fun. That's Havana Passage - Washington, Havana, and Miami in the year 2009, rather than Washington, Moscow, and Prague in the 1970's.

#3 How much time have you spent in Cuba?
- A fair amount. I went under a license from the Treasury Department, and sailed in the Havana Yacht Race before the U.S. Treasury put it off limits in 1990. I joined a "People to People" visit to Havana for 10 days in 2003, and made some final revisions Havana Passage.

#4 Your current novel, Pacific Rebound, takes place in the Western Pacific. I guess you've spent time out there as well?
- Yes, Pacific Rebound is more business oriented. I've started businesses in Japan for U.S. clients and done years of work in Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia. There's not much better evidence for the notion that free markets breed individual freedom than in this area of the world.

#5 Does that include China?
- Of course, but with a caveat. China will take its time if the people let it. It won't happen overnight there as it did in Japan and Southeast Asia. The Chinese are born business oriented, but they have some very basic infrastructure to put in place over a vast population and geographical expanse. They're off to a good start.

#6 What about the rise of Populism in places like Venezuela and Ecuador?
- And Peronista Argentina in the 1960's. That economy still hasn't risen back to its pre-Peron rank of #2 in the world. Populism is the free market's greatest enemy. Eventually, Populism decays into an East Germany, or a Cuba, and the slide is already happening in Venezuela.

#7 But there's so much poverty in the world. How do you have a free market and even the playing field at the same time?
- One thing for sure, Populism doesn't help the poor climb out of poverty. Andrew Lloyd Weber is my hero for educating the world in Evita. And it took WWII to get us out of the Great Depression.
- Free markets will pull us out eventually if we concentrate less on giving things away and more on elementary and high school education. I submit that China, Korea, and other Asian cultures are way ahead of us in preparing the young for a successful future. If you want the details of how we're losing the competition from fifth grade on, read Alan Greenspan's new book, or walk across the campus at Caltech or MIT.
- But poverty is what allows Populism to sound so good to people around the world. It's got to be dealt with . . . and that includes the USA.

#8 So what you're saying is free markets and liberty are connected.
- A secret poll was taken in Cuba several years ago and somehow secreted out to New York. It asked ordinary Cubans to rank from a list what they wanted most in life. It included all the things you can imagine, like the right to vote, freedom of religion, freedom to travel, etc. By far the first choice among these people, who haven't had a glimpse of liberty in 50 years, was being able to choose what they do to make a living.
- I should clarify one thing. My agents have used the term "Big Business" in promoting my thoughts about business and freedom. The awakening can be any form of business which an oppressed people experience first hand, but it's they're own small business effort that builds the infrastructure, and it's impossible without freedom of choice.
- Tourism is probably the exception for businesses that help foment local industry in police states. There's plenty of that in Cuba, but what they need are engineers, builders, inventors, accountants and entrepreneurs, on the ground in their community and providing a local template for success. (They already have plenty of lawyers.)

#9 What's your next novel about?
- I've always wanted to write a good murder mystery. I'm using the same lead characters as in Havana Passage, two Washington lawyers and the first woman President (no one you know). We start out nominating a new Supreme Court Justice, and end up with a good who-done-it and political mayhem.

#10 I understand you were outside counsel for the International Tennis Federation from the beginning of Open Tennis until fairly recently. How come you don't write about professional athletes?
- You sound like my agent.
- Seriously though, International sports are a business and have played a major role in helping develop the free infrastructure necessary to foster the liberty to choose your line of work in all the countries we're talking about.
- Look at professional golf and tennis today in Eastern Europe, Korea, and Japan: it's pure and simple capitalism. In Cuba, baseball and the Olympics represent the only exceptions to Cubans not being part of the real world.

Send author a comment on this post

For Immediate Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Right Step Media LLC
New York, NY
(917) - -

YAKUZA SAYS NOVELIST LIBELS JAPAN

(New York, NY, June 15, 2008) Suit was filed today in the Supreme Court for New York County alleging successful novelist and New York lawyer, Jay Lillie, libeled the infamous Japanese mob through his realistic portrayal of its activities in PACIFIC REBOUND.

PACIFIC REBOUND, the paperback edition of which hit the stores in June, projects the story of Peter White, a well known New York corporate executive, who takes on a couple of Japanese mobsters who are after his lady friend. The Yakuza follow them both to Honolulu and across the Pacific, while Peter White conducts business with one hand and holds the lady's hand with the other.

What were the Yakuza after? Why were they following the attractive woman Peter White was escorting around the Pacific Basin? This woman is the real mystery in this story. Who was she? And what was she trying to get her hands on . . . besides Mr. White?

This character, Peter White, certainly had his own hands full between the good looking lady on his hip and his company's President on his case for not attending to business. We get to know these players intimately, traveling with them across the Pacific and through Sydney, Tokyo, Alice Springs and Auckland, communing with the lost Aboriginals out back in Australia and meeting an unforgettable Maori Chief in New Zealand.

No spokespersons for the Yakuza were available for comment, but the complaint alleges that PACIFIC REBOUND details an ongoing course of criminal activity that Plaintiffs assert is malicious and extremely damaging to the image of Japan. They point out that Lillie is an experienced international lawyer who would know the confidences he intentionally discloses are not generally known outside Japan.

The author, reached at his country residence in the North Carolina Research Triangle, stated he was aware of the lawsuit being filed, but that his intentions in writing PACIFIC REBOUND were not malicious. Lillie quoted Mark Twain as saying the difference between telling the truth and writing fiction is that fiction has to be credible.

If anyone is libeled by PACIFIC REBOUND it's the Imperial Government of Japan. While it's highly doubtful the Japanese government would enter this case on behalf of their nation's criminals, the author admits taking liberties in exposing the tight conspiratorial relationship between industry and government in Japan.

The American Embassy in Tokyo and the Embassy of Japan in Washington both refused comment on the New York lawsuit, but an unconfirmed source suggested the Japanese government would not want to be cross-examined about their role in PACIFIC REBOUND.

The author's contemporaries in the legal community wonder where he gets all these ideas about international business and politics that he writes about. "If they're not libelous maybe they should be," one lawyer said.

"Jay Lillie has written a lot of legal fiction for his clients," said a well known lawyer and ex-partner of Lillie's in Manhattan and Tokyo, "but he outdid himself on this one."

"One of Lillie's clients in Manhattan had this to say: "Jay Lillie is fearless when it comes to exposing what few Westerners know about these cultures. I guess he'll need to sell even more books to pay for this lawsuit."

We asked the lawyer for the reputed New York Mafia what he thought of PACIFIC REBOUND. "It's a pack of lies. There's no truth in it. My clients are determined to pursue this case. If we lose they'll probably put out a contract on Lillie. Either way, this is not over 'till it's over."

We asked Jay Lillie how seriously we should take what he wrote in PACIFIC REBOUND, which after all is one of his novels. "This is a beach book that's good enough to keep you out of the water," he said.

It's true that PACIFIC REBOUND keeps you guessing and coming back for more. So go ahead and take your dip in the ocean; but hide the book under your beach towel or it might not be there when you get back.

Send author a comment on this post

CASTRO'S HEIR?
originally posted: September 24, 2007

A friend of mine sent me an e-mail on the condition I not tell anyone. No one has heard from him now in almost two months, and I'm constrained to break my pledge of silence in the hope that someone may have seen him alive. A recent picture is attached. Here's what my friend wrote:

"The corked bottle of Cuban rum that floated onto the Gulf Stream shore was empty. I had to break the bottle to retrieve the short letter from Fidel Castro that was inside. Roughly translated it reads as follows:

To the person who finds the bottle in which I place this letter I bequeath all my worldly goods and the power to succeed me as President of the Cuban State. To redeem this grant all you need to do is spend 30 days in Miami before coming to Havana to be given my blank check and sworn into office by my brother, Raul. Good luck, my prayers are with you.
Fidel.

"According to the pundits, Fidel Castro is immensely rich, so I've been giving this a lot of thought. The part that bothers me is the 30 days in Miami. Why did he insist on that? Is it a test of some kind? Frankly, I don't think I'd last a day there as Castro's heir apparent, let alone a month. If I were to get all his worldly goods in cash I might be able to buy my way out of problems in Coral Gables, but if he's not dead yet I guess there's not much chance of that.

"I'm not sure I want the job anyway. I'd have to spend a lot of time keeping that clown Chavez happy, while balancing my affections for the Cubans in Havana with the ones who now live in the States. As great people as they are I'd rather meet regularly with the Mountain natives of Borneo. I mean that's a job for insomniacs and masochists.

"The rum's not bad, but I prefer the Jamaican variety. Having an unlimited supply of Cuban cigars was worth momentary consideration, until I remembered it hurt when the smoke got in my eyes.

"I'd get to give speeches to the United Nations and in Revolutionary Square about how awful Americans from the U.S. are. But that's old hat at this point, and others do it better. My Spanish would need some major overhaul.

"The best part would be the beaches. I know they're better than this beach where I found the bottle. Imagine what I could do with thousands of miles of unspoiled shorelines and estuaries. It brings tears to my eyes.

"If power corrupts, then the temptation to become powerful is overwhelming. So I guess I'll take it to the next level and book a flight to Miami. It's an exciting town now and full of beautiful people that will no doubt surround me with excesses. I'll try it for a few days, and if it gets too much I can always return home no worse for the experience.

"Do you think I need to tell Fidel or Raul that I'm coming?"

Send author a comment on this post

CONFESSIONS OF A CUBAN COUNTER REVOLUTIONARY
originally posted: June 17, 2007

Sometimes the truth is hard to come by. In Cuba a couple of years ago in the company of a group of North American lawyers, I came across a 19 year old MAN who was complaining about the U.S. embargo against Americans doing business with Cubans in Cuba. I sympathized, but pointed to Fidel Castro's repressive regime for the embargo's rationale.

"You're a lawyer," he said, "and you tell me that?"

As I nodded a "yes," I could see him getting up the nerve to make his point.

"Would you like to know why we Cubans haven't overthrown Fidel Castro? Certainly you lawyers have heard of the Helms-Burton Act? This law, passed by your Congress in 1996, says your President and State Department cannot help Cuba form a new government until the claims against my country by those Cubans who fled to Miami are satisfied. Why should I risk my life to line the pockets of those people, who would then return and take Fidel's place in Havana?"

Back in Washington I made good on a promise to check out Helms-Burton, and in the process turned up this bit of legislative history. Senator Chris Dodd, speaking on the Senate floor in 1995 during the debate on passage of the Helms-Burton Act, argued,

"…the language, Mr. President, is pretty emphatic - No assistance may be provided . . . to a transition government in Cuba. We now have 38 countries in the world, including Cuba, where United States citizens' property has been expropriated, and we are in the process of trying to get those individuals compensated for that property. Some of these countries are very strong allies of ours. We never said before we cannot provide any assistance to those countries until those claims and matters are settled, and yet that is what we do with this legislation. . . I just think it's bad policy, Mr. President [to] absolutely hamstring not just this administration, but future administrations, from being able to move intelligently and rapidly to try to shore up a government that will follow Fidel Castro."

The Honorable Messrs. Helms and Burton are long gone from office, but the Castro's are as painfully present as ever. Meanwhile this law, and the Trade Embargo on Americans doing business in Cuba which it was designed to tighten and expand, have not only failed in their purpose to depose Castro, they have helped keep him in power.

Does anyone doubt that having American engineers, entrepreneurs, teachers, builders, technicians, and farmers on the ground in Cuba would help provide the templates and incentives for a free society to evolve in Cuba as American businessmen have provided elsewhere around the globe? Of course Castro can try to prevent this from evolving, but those behind the Iron Curtain failed in their attempts to do the same. Anyway, why should we do Castro's work for him?
Let's give all of us Americans the freedom to make happen in Havana what those Cubans who came to Florida have had the freedom to accomplish in Miami.

Send author a comment on this post

There are few countries in which Jay Lillie hasn't done business as a New York lawyer on behalf of his clients, often dealing with top leaders in these nations.
In the back of his mind, and sometimes on paper or the hard drive of his laptop, there's always been a story.
Jay's still engaged in this pastime, and from his imagination we see fiction based upon real world experience in international and corporate politics where diverse cultures meet, clash and find resolution. This is the stuff that made Hemingway's stories so compelling; seeing macro events through the eyes of real people, with their own related problems, operating at ground level.