Cuba’s Friendship Medal Given Posthumously to Late Jamaican Pacifist

Jasmine Girvan, wife of prominent Jamaican academician, economist and political scientist Norman Girvan received on Monday in this capital, on behalf of her husband, the Friendship Medal given posthumously by the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba. The Hero of the Republic Fernando González, vice president of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), handed over the award given to the prominent human rights activist, who died on April 9, 2014.
   
In the presence of diplomats from various countries, Girvan said she was honored for such high acknowledgement, and recalled the words of National Hero José Martí when he said, "a real man does consider in which side he lives better, but in which side duty is."
   
She stressed that the self-determination of Cuba’s sovereignty consolidates thanks to the sacrifice of its children, and highlighted the strength of the five antiterrorist fighters during the long years of unjust sentences in U.S. jails.

She underlined the spirit of solidarity of the Cuban people, who have always shared its good experiences in different fields with its brothers and sisters in Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa.
   
Of great intellectual prestige, Norman P. Girvan served as secretary general of the Association of Caribbean States and head of the National Planning Agency of the Government of Jamaica.

In addition, in 2010 he was appointed as personal representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations on the border dispute between Guyana and Venezuela.

On several occasions he visited Cuba, where he was also given the Honoris Causa Doctorate by the University of Havana.