I. Analyzing the Problem
Does what affect whom.
The US policy of travel restriction to Cuba and the limiting of remittances affects primarily Afro Cubans and poor white Cubans. Cuba is a small nation, of roughly 11 million people; there are close to 2.2 million people in exile. The average monthly wage of a Cuban worker is about 200 Pesos, which is equivalent to 16 dollars (Perez-Lopez 1995). For many Cubans possessing dollars is the only opportunity to purchase food and appliances and daily use items outside the allowance of the rationing card. The rationing card is an instrument used by the Cuban government to allocate food, clothing, and any household items of necessity. Each Cuban household has one rationing card assigned to them and is the only way to access goods legitimately for Cubans with no access to dollars. The general scarcity existing in Cuba does not guarantee food or household items, it ensures only that people will have equal access as long as good and food stuff are available. The Cuban government sells foods and items of first necessity in special stores where the exchanges are made in US dollars. The limitation to $300 per year of the remittance to relatives in Cuba affect the Afro Cubans and poor whites Cubans the most since they have the least connections abroad. The limiting of travel restricts the amount of dollars coming into the island, and the ability to obtain dollars by Afro Cubans through the illegal sale of crafts and Cuban art, as well as cigars and rums. This being the primary source of income for many Afro Cubans living in the big cities, prostitution and tips as secondary sources of income.
During most of the emigration that has occurred in Cuba, the primary emigrants were the descendants of the European colonizers. Having family abroad is the key to “remesas” or remittances, the assistance in cash and foodstuff and daily use items sent to Cuba by relatives through Canada and Spain, and these are primarily concentrated in the hands of Cubans of European descendants. The major waves of emigration from Cuba to Spain, US, Mexico, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Canada and other parts of the globe were consistently composed of Cubans of European descendants, rich elites, whose properties the Revolution confiscated.
The CIA World Book classifies the population as: mulatto 51%, white 37%, black 11%, Chinese 1% (World Book, 2005). In Cuba the population is not just black and white, the mixed race people have a category of their own. From 1965 to 1973 on what was called Flight to Freedom, there were two flights daily to the US filled with emigrants. In a poll done by Institute of Public Opinion Research IPOR) interviewing 1622 Cuban Americans in Florida, 93.5% of the total considered themselves as whites (IPOR, 2004). It is believed that insisting in these divisions actually dilutes the cause of Afro Cubans, by inserting a buffer definition between descendant of African slaves and the descendants of European colonizers. In reality, the population is 67% of African and European mixed descent, the mulatto or mixed race is but a idiosyncrasy of the Spanish colonial rule aimed at developing a classist society where the Spaniards ruled everyone else.
During the Mariel Boatlift, for the first time many Afro Cubans had the opportunity to migrate to the US. According to a study, Afro Cubans wait for the lottery process to emigrate to the US, instead of being claimed by relative as many white Cubans do. The lottery is part of an agreement to allow 20 000 Cubans yearly in the US. However, 83 % of the people using the lottery are white Cubans (Aguirre, 1999).
The government with massive propaganda had always discouraged the exodus of Afro Cubans, instilling fears of racist Whites in US by exaggerating the racial tensions existing in this country. The Cuban leaders always pointed at how much better off Afro Cubans were under the protection of the Cuban Revolution, how much more educated and healthy they were compared to African Americans.
The gap once existing between Afro Cubans and White Cubans in regards to education, employment came under attack during the Revolution initial period. Afro Cubans reaped the benefits of education and health and housing, these efforts have forever merged the future of the Afro Cubans to the Revolution. While these advances were real, more Afro Cubans doctors graduated than ever before, more Afro Cubans were employed than ever before; the leadership of the country now and then is retained by the White Cuban minority. According to Blue “the question arises of whether Afro-Cubans have sustained the gains they achieved in the revolution's first 30 years” (Blue, 2007).
After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration of the USSR, the Cuban government opened doors to investments and tourist ventures with capitalists. The new policies benefited largely the Europeans descendants. Those Cubans of European ancestry had inherited the larger houses of their relatives; this extra space was critical to open up restaurants and eateries inside their homes. It also allowed them to rent space within their homes to tourists, actually competing with the state’s hotels and accommodations. These activities brought hard currency to the white Cubans and the opportunities remained closed to the majority of Afro Cubans.
II. Many sides to this coin
This policy issue is viewed by differently by different groups.
Americans Anti-embargo
The Cuban Embargo is a policy of the US aimed at the Cuban Government, and is seen by many Cuban observers as facilitating the entrenching of the Cuban leaders in an anti-American position. Philip Peters of the Lexington Institute defines five points in examining the policy
1. Any credible Us Policy towards Cuba must place human rights at the forefront to stay true to American Values.
2. American policy finds no support among Cubans, not even the dissidents.
3. Denying Cuba of hard currency also denies America’s influence in Cuba.
4. US have little to loose by experimenting with different approaches.
5. The policy violates the rights of American citizens to trade and travel (Peters, 2000).
Cuban American Florida Leadership
The White Cuban exiled elite in South Florida see the embargo as the only way to force the Cuban government to compensate them for their property confiscated. Sweeny of the Heritage Foundation writes in an article “ The United States would truly abandon the Cuban people by relaxing or lifting the trade embargo against that reprehensible dictatorship. Instead, the U.S. government must reject all pressures to ease the embargo until the objectives for which it was imposed are initiated” (Sweeny, 1995). The rich white Cubans elite of South Florida are the main supporters of the embargo. The Cuban American legislators are the sole source of anti-Castro legislation and have opposed for years any abrogation of the embargo.
This elite, white and republican, funds the coffers of republican political candidates and are suspected in delivering the presidency to Mr. Bush in 2000 by aiding John Sweeny (R.N.Y.) in stopping the recount of ballots in Miami-Dade County, which if allowed to proceed would have delivered the victory to Al Gore (Randall, 2000). When President Bush, in 2003, failed to live up to the commitment to the Cuban American community in South Florida, they send him a letter saying: “ if Bush did not make “substantial progress” toward meeting the demands of the Cuban-American community, we fear the historic and intense support from Cuban-American voters for Republican federal candidates, including yourself, will be jeopardized” (Benen, 2003). This letter exemplifies the inmense power and clout the White Cuban American elite has and how it is capable of dictating foreign policy in the US.
Cuban Leaders in Cuba.
The Cuban leaders, in public, see the embargo as an expensive burden, as a criminal act against the sovereignity of Cuba imposse by a powerful neighbor. The costs of importing food and clothing and oil from Europe, China, and other parts of the world are much greater if access to the US markets were available. In 1996 the cost of maritime for each ship by trip adds $ 215,800 from Europe and $ 516,700 from Asia, the additional expenditure compared to a similar operation from the United States. After the Torricelli Act, that prohibits ships having touched Cuban ports from entering the US for six months, the shippers began adding additional freight charges( Revist Envio, 1996)
In private, many Cubans in the island believe that the Cuban regime needs the embargo. This idea is also expressed in the US, Thomas Donohue, President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who has traveled to Cuba and met with Castro, says: "When it comes to the Cuban economy, Castro has a perfect excuse - it's the embargo's fault. In fact, Castro needs the embargo as a scapegoat for the abysmally poor Cuban economy. Lifting the embargo on Cuba would not only remove Castro's excuse for economic failure, but would also help the Cuban people by providing more economic opportunity and freedom” (Winzig, 2000).
In private the Cuban leadership is probably hoping the embargo continues, after all the embargo promoted USSR assistance to Cuba according to many commentators to an amount in excess of 6 billions dollars. This subsidy however was not used to rebuild the aging Cuban infrastructure but to support foreign wars and movements of liberations throughout the world. The embargo in Cuba has sustained the island in a permanent state of war with the US, aiding Castro in maintaining his hard line and excusing not only the failure of his economic policies, but also the isolation experienced by the Cuban people for the last 40 years. While the Cuban government blames the US for its problems, it maintains a tight fist on news from abroad, Internet access and unrestricted travel and many prohibitions such as the right to form unions, to own property or to openly disagree with the government policies.
Ordinary Cubans in Cuba
In public and in private, ordinary Cubans opposed the embargo, and resented the clockwork-like events, which have truncated any efforts by US president to end the Embargo. The series of events coincide roughly with moves towards normalization. During the Nixon administration, Cubans forces have been involved in foreign wars in the capacity of support personnel or trainers. Peru, Bolivia, Guatemala, Chile, and Venezuela all had Cuban presence in their struggle of leftist movements and indigenous uprisings. In Africa, Cuban presence in Congo-Brazzaville and the Kinshasa event is well known. The Cubans were ion Angola, Algeria and Mozambique and during the later part of the 70s there were 20, 000 Cuban regulars Army soldiers in Angola. The overture to China from president Nixon and the ping-pong diplomacy did not extend to Cuba. Nixon focused on Viet Nam and officially ended attempts to overthrow Castro. President Ford had the will to open the doors for Cuba; the escalation of the War in Angola and open support of the Puerto Rican nationalist movement by the Cuban leadership stopped his efforts. Travel to Cuba was possible for the first time since the first wave of Cubans moved out of the island during the early and mid 60s. Carter made some serious attempts to normalize relations with Cuba; Carter opened an office of interest in Havana and Cuba reciprocated and opened a similar office in DC. By 1978, the Cubans troops in Ethiopia and Somalia ended this overture. In 1980, the Mariel Freedom Flotilla with 125 000 Cubans landing in Florida stopped any good will from Carter to open up to Cuba.
For the next eight years Reagan maintained a hyper vigilance of the Cubans and the Cuban involvement in the wars of Nicaragua and El Salvador did nothing to change his perception of Fidel, as a megalomaniac bent in etching his name in the history book as a messiah. It was in Granada, during the US invasion that Cubans troops and American troops faced each other in combat. During the Bush administration, the policies established by Reagan continue and the Torricelli Act was enacted. The 34, 000 Cubans landing in Gauntanamo Base in 1994 besieged President Clinton from the beginning. The Brothers to the rescue planes downing by Cuban Migs and the Elian Gonzales’ debacle thwarted any efforts of the Clinton Administration and the Helms Burton Law was passed.
From the perspective of the ordinary Cuban people, every time an American president seeks to normalize relations with Cuba, Fidel Castro immediately provokes a situation that precludes any further commitment of the US President. In the Cuban community’s opinion, there is no one in the world more interested in maintaining the status quo, the Embargo, than Fidel Castro himself. His standing stature among the Third world population, the leadership of the Non-Aligned countries provided Castro with a platform, resolving his problems with the US, will have colluded with his own personal agenda. Among ordinary Cubans in sotto voce the relentless pursuit of this policy by the United States, is a way of punishing the nation and the government for having had the audacity of installing missiles with nuclear capabilities within 90 mils of the US. The embargo and the calamity that it brings to Cuba is a heads up to the Hugo Chavez and any other leaders of Latin America who dares to challenge the US and their Sphere of influence in this hemisphere. To subscribe to the Manifest Destiny or not is the options open to leaders in Latin America, it seems a conundrum that Castro exists because the Embargo and without Castro there will not be Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, a Rafael Correa in Ecuador, an Evo Morales in Bolivia , and a Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, nor a Sub Comandante Marcos in Mexico. The very attitudes the Americans were trying to avoid in what they called their backyard, namely Latin America, has multiplied and seems to be moving forward.
III Assessing options
What values are at issue?
This regulation, which in fact limits the freedom of Americans to travel, to do business, to import goods and services and live where they choose is unconstitutional. To circumvent this inconvenience the legislation was enacted under the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917(Us Code). It is important to understand that the embargo and the leanings of the Revolution towards the USSR appear to come in increments. As the Cuban regime became more dependent in the Soviet Union the more astringent, the embargo became. The result of the embargo has always been a negative situation for Cuban people. It has succeeded in making the Cuban people poorer and left them facing greater challenges. Even the Cuban dissidents speak of abrogation of the embargo, as a way to deny the regime the excuses to repress its people. Osvaldo Paya, head of the Movimiento Cristiano de Liberacion, and winner of the Sakharov Peace Prize explained that is it up to the Cuban people and not US foreign policy to dictate the course of the nation (Paya, 2002). Further, he commented that the embargo has, as a policy, been wrong and has not worked the way Americans intended. The values of choice, freedom, and independence so dear to Americans are denied to Cubans through the embargo. While US continues to isolate the Cuban nation, it posit itself as the moral cop of the world, removing and imposing governments all throughout the world, often times by force. The values so clear and so dear to Americans and Western Europeans are easily denied to other people.
What might be done?
Presidential candidate Barack Obama said in one of his speeches in South Florida that he will retain the embargo, but will lift all the travel restrictions and eliminate limits on remittances (Wides-Munoz, 2007), The US law as it stand will not lift the embargo until both Castro’s brothers are completely out of leadership roles in the nation.
By allowing American the freedom to travel to Cuba, the US will enable the democratic ideas to travel freely with people to the island. It will enable the opportunity for many people to reach their potential educationally and professionally, by exchanging with colleagues in an environment free from fear. In addition, that could be a start, in undoing 45 years of a decidedly onerous treatment of a smaller, poorer nation. Re-establishing diplomatic relations at embassy level will be a way to open up means to work on the problems brought about by nationalization of the industries and the payment due for confiscating the property of many individuals now residing outside and inside Cuba .
The total lifting of the Embargo is the only rational choice, the only moral choice the only humane choice, for the Cuban families now separated by ideological walls.
What is the anticipated outcome of this option?
The manipulation of fear by the Cuban regime will not longer be an issue for the Cuban people. The people will be able to express themselves and begin living a normal life without double speak or simulating adherence to communists principles to get ahead and reap benefits. The nations of Cuba and the US can go on and establish a friendly course that will conclude once and for all the militarization of the island and the expenditure of many resources now dedicated to the defense of a nation expectant of a US invasion. Cuban families can be reunited without the great expenses that the process now entails, and be able to visit each other when they please as everyone else in the world could.
Cuba is now purchasing 500 million dollars of US agricultural products; this amount could double if the restrictions were not in place. Cuba is a producer of pharmaceuticals, which can definitively cheapen the drugs and vaccines used in the US by purchasing from Cuba, By allowing Cuba access to financial resources the country with its wealth of trained and educated personnel could march into the XXI and join the brotherhood of nations. With a 0.6% illiteracy rate in the nation, Cuba presents a formidable work force and untapped talent, now forced to linger in a planned economy.
The recent changes enacted in Cuba after the retirement of Fidel Castro are inspiring events that should be met with in kind effort by the US authorities. Raul Castro, while subservient to his older brother’s whimsical and unpredictable temper is considered a pragmatic and a capable organizer. The measures recently enacted respond to a increasing clamor of the population, mostly born during the revolutionary process, for more openness, more freedoms and less government control of the day to day economic activities of the population.
IV Supporting and evaluating policy choice
Embargo or Trade embargo as it is known is defined as a government order imposing a trade barrier, any regulation or policy that restricts international trade. This concept probably dates back to medieval time sieges that armies laid to fortified and walled city-states to win by attrition. Thirty years after its creation the United States declared the Trade Embargo of 1807 against Britain and France, and has used embargoes as a tool of foreign policy ever since. Whether is a grain embargo against the Soviet Union for the invasion of Afghanistan or the embargo against Libya, or against Saddam Hussein, invariably the poorest people of said nation are affected negatively the most. According to the Report on the Impact of the UN Sanctions against Libya “is worth noting that the Health and Human Welfare sector has been the most affected by these sanctions” (1996 Report by Libyan Delegation to UN Secretary General). In this report, which covers from 1993 to 1996, the combined losses are about 50 billion dollars for a nation that can hardly afford that amount for that time.
In Iraq, while the numbers of infantile death (given at 500, 000) has not been proved, Garfield states based on comparative data from other countries, that in five or six years Iraq would have returned to its pre-Gulf War level of around forty deaths per thousand births of children under five. Instead, we can observe not just an increase, but also a sustained increase. This is remarkable”(Garfield, 1999).
· Does the policy still make sense?
The Embargo, after 46 years, is equally responsible for the deteriorating conditions of the economic, and psychosocial of the people of Cuba. One troublesome and critical aspect of this confrontation between US and Cuba shows up in a grim statistic. Cuban people commit suicide more often and are more successful than anywhere in the world. According to Tamayo, Cuba’s suicide rates “ have clearly swung with history: From 2.2 per 100,000 in 1907, soon after Cuba won independence from Spain, it rose to 13.1 in 1957, in the thick of Castro's guerrilla war against President Fulgencio Batista.
With hopes riding on the fledgling Castro revolution, suicides plummeted in the 1960s and averaged 8 to 10 per 100,000 people, but after 1970-harvest failure, the rate rose, peaking at 23.2 in 1982 -- two years after the crisis unleashed by the Mariel boatlift. That figure made Cuba fourth in the world at the time, behind Hungary, Denmark, and Austria”. Cuban suicide rates like the health of the Comandante en Jefe became state secrets and the deaths due to suicide were classified as other (Tamayo, 1998). The sheer struggles a Cuban family has to endure to obtain the basic needs on an everyday basis, is akin to a nation under siege. When the Iraqis, or Libyans or South Africans made it known to the world what kinds of hardships they had to endure because of the embargo imposed upon them, the Cubans understood, they had endured and still do an embargo of monumental consequences longer than anyone else.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
La mala memoria corta del Cubano
Por que va Espaňa a contravenir sus propios intereses?. Leyendo a Osvaldo Paya hoy en la Revista Encuentro en la Red me parecio se sintio casi obligado a decir algo sobre lo que ocurre entre el oportunista de Moratinos, Canciller del gobierno de Zapatero y el Gobierno de Cuba y el berrinche que esto causa a muchos Cubanos por el tenor de estas audiencias. Es necesario decir algo, me imagino, penso Osvaldo, Lastimosamente peco de ingenuo cuando asevero que las naciones que mantienen relaciones “ politicas, economicas y culturales con otras, deben ser consequentes en sus relaciones con los valores y principios de la democracia y de los derechos humanos? En la historia que podemos hoy leer toda relacion entre naciones fue concevida en tramas, ventajas y desventajas e intereses. Los mas nefastos regimens de la tierra siempre tuvieron padrinos y quien los apoyaran.
La Espaňa de Franco resolvio por sus propias razones mantener las relaciones con el regimen de La Habana, debia decir el regimen de Oriente, y durante muchos anos fue la valvula de escape y modo de comunicacion con el mundo Occidental. Aunque ahora no se sabe a ciencia cierta si fue Franco o si fue Fidel quien quizo mantener las relaciones con Espaňa.
La Carta de Espaňa fue la primera fuente de informacion extranjera que lei que no fuese imprimida en alguna parte del imperio sovietico. Claro las leia e inmediatamente despues las recortaba para poder enrollar los tupamaros del dia.
La Espaňa de Moratinos, la de Franco o la de Maria Cristina o Alfonso XIII, han codiciado su glorioso pasado y lo que perdieron cuando dejaron de ser un imperio.
Ahora cuando en Cumbre tras Cumbre Espaňa, busca reintegrarse en la vida economica de las naciones de Sur y Centro America, casi como una reconquista. Como si la verguenza de 400 anos de crueldad e infamia se les borrara de la mente a los descendientes de las victimas.
Es especialmente vergonzoso en Cuba donde el Gobierno paria les ha dado entrada para dominar la industria del turismo. Esto al parecer tiene a los Espanoles tan preocupados por que un nuevo gobierno en Cuba sin los Comunistas al mando podria intervenir todas las propiedades y negocios Espaňolas en la Isla catalogandoles de hacer negocios con el enemigo o haber conspirado con los comunistas para esclavisar al pueblo Cubano que es en estos momentos exactamente lo que esta pasando.
A todas vistas los Espaňoles quieren quedarse con sus pedazos de Cuba Comunismo o no, ya le echamos de casa una vez, le echaremos una vez mas.
La Espaňa de Franco resolvio por sus propias razones mantener las relaciones con el regimen de La Habana, debia decir el regimen de Oriente, y durante muchos anos fue la valvula de escape y modo de comunicacion con el mundo Occidental. Aunque ahora no se sabe a ciencia cierta si fue Franco o si fue Fidel quien quizo mantener las relaciones con Espaňa.
La Carta de Espaňa fue la primera fuente de informacion extranjera que lei que no fuese imprimida en alguna parte del imperio sovietico. Claro las leia e inmediatamente despues las recortaba para poder enrollar los tupamaros del dia.
La Espaňa de Moratinos, la de Franco o la de Maria Cristina o Alfonso XIII, han codiciado su glorioso pasado y lo que perdieron cuando dejaron de ser un imperio.
Ahora cuando en Cumbre tras Cumbre Espaňa, busca reintegrarse en la vida economica de las naciones de Sur y Centro America, casi como una reconquista. Como si la verguenza de 400 anos de crueldad e infamia se les borrara de la mente a los descendientes de las victimas.
Es especialmente vergonzoso en Cuba donde el Gobierno paria les ha dado entrada para dominar la industria del turismo. Esto al parecer tiene a los Espanoles tan preocupados por que un nuevo gobierno en Cuba sin los Comunistas al mando podria intervenir todas las propiedades y negocios Espaňolas en la Isla catalogandoles de hacer negocios con el enemigo o haber conspirado con los comunistas para esclavisar al pueblo Cubano que es en estos momentos exactamente lo que esta pasando.
A todas vistas los Espaňoles quieren quedarse con sus pedazos de Cuba Comunismo o no, ya le echamos de casa una vez, le echaremos una vez mas.
Friday, February 1, 2008
Cuban Characters
There is in Cuba a number of people that were able to transcend time and space just by the virtue of being themselves. By far the most famous was " El Caballero de Paris", a self styled vagabond moving through the streets of Old Havana like a spectrum in exile from the nether lands. He never panhandled or beg for anything according to those who knew him. His matted hair and dirty clothes were part of his personna. His life shrouded in mistery added flavor to the Havana of old. A statue I am told was erected in his likeness to make his existance an eternal memory.
There were others, my favorite was CHORI. A few yeras ago I heard about Chori's identity, apparently he was known. His deal, as we would say in America was rather simple. All over the city of Havana he would print his name, eye level, in white chalk and in the type of print that we all learned in workshop in High School. CHORI, every bus stop every corner in the city, just like a Nike sign.
I had the opportunity to personally meet two of these character, I met " Dorsalito" , he would have won many a Mr. America titles, his named after the muscle latissimus dorsi, which in his case was overdeveloped, not just the dorsi, but the deltoid and trapezius were also overdeveloped giving Dorsalito a vague resemblance to a butterfly with the wings spread. A tall and built AfroCuban Dorsalito made his way in the beaches of Havana, where everyone recognized him, walking , arms to his side like he was carrying a 13 inches TV under his arms.
I also had the opportunity to meet "EL Patinador de la Muerte", This fellow travelled all of Cuba in skates. I met him in the Guanajay Park one afternoon, in his way to Cienfuegos. Is told in Havana that this fellow really had some cojones and was a daredevil in Skates. Others less kind have him begging by attaching himself to moving cars.
Also I met Tanquecito.http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y99/feb99/16a10.htm This fellow I saw use a 55 gallons metal barrel like a toy, bouncing it, throwing it to make it stop or wobble at his whim, a total genious with his toy barrels.
There were others, my favorite was CHORI. A few yeras ago I heard about Chori's identity, apparently he was known. His deal, as we would say in America was rather simple. All over the city of Havana he would print his name, eye level, in white chalk and in the type of print that we all learned in workshop in High School. CHORI, every bus stop every corner in the city, just like a Nike sign.
I had the opportunity to personally meet two of these character, I met " Dorsalito" , he would have won many a Mr. America titles, his named after the muscle latissimus dorsi, which in his case was overdeveloped, not just the dorsi, but the deltoid and trapezius were also overdeveloped giving Dorsalito a vague resemblance to a butterfly with the wings spread. A tall and built AfroCuban Dorsalito made his way in the beaches of Havana, where everyone recognized him, walking , arms to his side like he was carrying a 13 inches TV under his arms.
I also had the opportunity to meet "EL Patinador de la Muerte", This fellow travelled all of Cuba in skates. I met him in the Guanajay Park one afternoon, in his way to Cienfuegos. Is told in Havana that this fellow really had some cojones and was a daredevil in Skates. Others less kind have him begging by attaching himself to moving cars.
Also I met Tanquecito.http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y99/feb99/16a10.htm This fellow I saw use a 55 gallons metal barrel like a toy, bouncing it, throwing it to make it stop or wobble at his whim, a total genious with his toy barrels.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
the great Mimic
The effect of the April 2nd, 2007 tsunami in the Solomon Island uncovered sunken ships that dated back from WWII. Among these ships were one similar to the one navigated by the late President Kennedy while a young Lieutenant in the Pacific theater of the war. As a collateral of these news and the public fascination with JFK, some old photographs resurfaced in the news media. An old photograph showed a replica of the PT 9 boat similar to the one sailed by Kennedy. This replica was being drawn in a float along a Parade on an unidentified American street.
This picture seemed all too familiar to me, and I recalled the fanfare surrounding the yacht Granma, today housed in a museum in Old Havana. This yacht had brought to Cuba from Mexico a young Castro and 81 of his followers in December of 1956. It occurred to me that the idea of transforming an old boat into a shrine was not original.
Another old American historical item; the Liberty Bell, traveled the American countryside from 1855 to 1915, attempting to foster national unity. In 1947, Fidel Castro a student at Havana University traveled to the eastern part of the country with other opposition leaders to obtain, on loan, the bell that had ushered with its tolls the Cuban Independence War in 1868. In the decade of the 60s, a cruel creation: UMAP imitated the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. In these Cuban camps, unemployed, antisocial elements, homosexuals and others considered in need of rehabilitation worked in the fields from sun up to sun down. The inscription on the entrance of these camps: “ Work will make you free”, taken right out of one of the darkest hour of mankind. The entrance to the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz I, in Poland also read: “Arbeit Macht Frei” the German version of the same phrase. Long before that the great mimic had already used another Spanish version of condemned Nazi leader. The phrase History will absolve me, used at the end of his defense in the trial for the armed assault on the Moncada Garrison is similar to the phrase used by Adolf Hitler during his trial for the Beer Hall Putsch in Germany on 1923. Like the fuehrer Castro occupied all the leadership positions as to eliminate any doubt or question regarding his total control.
This picture seemed all too familiar to me, and I recalled the fanfare surrounding the yacht Granma, today housed in a museum in Old Havana. This yacht had brought to Cuba from Mexico a young Castro and 81 of his followers in December of 1956. It occurred to me that the idea of transforming an old boat into a shrine was not original.
Another old American historical item; the Liberty Bell, traveled the American countryside from 1855 to 1915, attempting to foster national unity. In 1947, Fidel Castro a student at Havana University traveled to the eastern part of the country with other opposition leaders to obtain, on loan, the bell that had ushered with its tolls the Cuban Independence War in 1868. In the decade of the 60s, a cruel creation: UMAP imitated the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. In these Cuban camps, unemployed, antisocial elements, homosexuals and others considered in need of rehabilitation worked in the fields from sun up to sun down. The inscription on the entrance of these camps: “ Work will make you free”, taken right out of one of the darkest hour of mankind. The entrance to the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz I, in Poland also read: “Arbeit Macht Frei” the German version of the same phrase. Long before that the great mimic had already used another Spanish version of condemned Nazi leader. The phrase History will absolve me, used at the end of his defense in the trial for the armed assault on the Moncada Garrison is similar to the phrase used by Adolf Hitler during his trial for the Beer Hall Putsch in Germany on 1923. Like the fuehrer Castro occupied all the leadership positions as to eliminate any doubt or question regarding his total control.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
El mundo de lo real
En nuestro pais hoy en dia exiten las condiciones necesarias para un milagro real. Son varias, por brevedad mencionare solo dos: La nacion y su gente. Una condicion que continuara manifestandose en nuestras vidas es el nacionalismo Cubano. La existencia de un patrimonio nacional, capaz de trancender el criollismo, la republica mediatizada y las forzadas influencias de las ideologias politicas Europeas legitimiza al nacionalismo Cubano. A juzgar por nuestra historia este nacionalismo se mantendra como un deseo de emerger como una nacion libre y soberana,, libre de injerencias extranjeras y lo suficiente soberana para permitir el discurso publico a cualquier nivel sin que sea impregnado de caprichos, alianzas o demagogueria. El triunvirato del patrimonio , la cultura que emana de este patrimonio y el nacionalismo como base de una nacion, esta indiscutiblemente establecido, simplemente somos una nacion. No somos un partido, ni un movimiento, ni un gobierno, pero una nacion con voces y matices tan diversos, cada cual con su razon cada cual clamando ser escuchado. Pero el verdadero y ultimo examen a pasar es el de gobernabilidad. Nuestra isla ha sido gobernada por Reyes, Marqueses, Condes, Caciques, Generales, Sargentos, Capitanes, Presidentes, Comandantes, Secretarios y Doctores cada cual en su turno, en su mayoria jamas elegidos, en su mayoria totalmente ineptos o corruptos o respondiendo a agendas otras que el bienestar y el porvenir del pueblo Cubano. La nueva gestion de gobernabilidad en Cuba no sera tan dificil como se proscribe actualmente. Y me refiero a la nueva por que estamos al final de una era, casi en preterito una era herida de muerte no por la fisica desaparicion de sus representantes pero por la entropia a la que esta sometida.Esta nueva gestion contara con la gente Cubana como otra condicion para la realizacion del milagro. Una gente educada, con la mente llena de los peligros de la demagogueria, desosos de que Cuba se abra al mundo y que el mundo se abra a Cuba sin la intencion premeditada de tragarle. Una gente que ha tenido que acceptar la double moral como metodo de sobrevivencia y no como modo de comportamiento acceptable socialmente. Un pueblo con dignidad cuyo crucial error fue una fe en sus gobernantes de turno y la infusion de miedo, combinado con actos de malabarismos y una estable sobredosis de propaganda masiva. Esa gente que ama la paz a peasar de haber vivido en Guerra, conpiraciones, amenazas de Guerra e invasions desde que el primer explorador sento pies en la “ tierra mas fermosa”, en Guerra de tainos y caribes y siboneyes, en guerras para doblegar el espiritu de negros forzados a trabajar sin descanzo, en guerras de cimarrones, de poetas, de Rayos Y Soles, de Escaleras, de Vegueros, de Ingleses, de piratas y bucaneros, de Liberacion, de Guerrita de los Negros, de Americanos, Argelinos, Vietnameses, Sirianos, Namibianos, Angolenos, Somalies, Peruanos, Bolivianos , Montoneros Tupamaros, CIA, FNFM, ANC, FARC, IRA,ETA, PLO, UNITA,FSL,FRELIMO, FBI, DEA y quie sabe cuantos mas. En este milagro por ocurrir la gente tiene la obligacion de definir el gobierno que dirigira su nacion por un tiempo limitado y atravez de un proceso tranparente e igualmente accessible a todos. El obstaculo es que los exiliados y los residents estan mirandose con un lente empanado por el miedo, la apatia, el desgazte politico y la inmobilidad. El choque vendra inevitablemente cuando los residentes y los exiliados, concluyan que es su responsabilidad agilizar el proceso, no pidiendo limoznas y apoyo financiero, pero estableciendo un gobierno de transicion y al tiempo que buscan que el mundo reconozca la ingobernabilidad de Cuba y el potencial desastre que puede ocurrir si las condiciones se continuan deteriorando , comenzar a derogar leyes que minimizen el terror paralizante que sufren los que aun no se han identificado abiertamente con la oposicion
Pedro Dupre
En nuestro pais hoy en dia exiten las condiciones necesarias para un milagro real. Son varias, por brevedad mencionare solo dos: La nacion y su gente. Una condicion que continuara manifestandose en nuestras vidas es el nacionalismo Cubano. La existencia de un patrimonio nacional, capaz de trancender el criollismo, la republica mediatizada y las forzadas influencias de las ideologias politicas Europeas legitimiza al nacionalismo Cubano. A juzgar por nuestra historia este nacionalismo se mantendra como un deseo de emerger como una nacion libre y soberana,, libre de injerencias extranjeras y lo suficiente soberana para permitir el discurso publico a cualquier nivel sin que sea impregnado de caprichos, alianzas o demagogueria. El triunvirato del patrimonio , la cultura que emana de este patrimonio y el nacionalismo como base de una nacion, esta indiscutiblemente establecido, simplemente somos una nacion. No somos un partido, ni un movimiento, ni un gobierno, pero una nacion con voces y matices tan diversos, cada cual con su razon cada cual clamando ser escuchado. Pero el verdadero y ultimo examen a pasar es el de gobernabilidad. Nuestra isla ha sido gobernada por Reyes, Marqueses, Condes, Caciques, Generales, Sargentos, Capitanes, Presidentes, Comandantes, Secretarios y Doctores cada cual en su turno, en su mayoria jamas elegidos, en su mayoria totalmente ineptos o corruptos o respondiendo a agendas otras que el bienestar y el porvenir del pueblo Cubano. La nueva gestion de gobernabilidad en Cuba no sera tan dificil como se proscribe actualmente. Y me refiero a la nueva por que estamos al final de una era, casi en preterito una era herida de muerte no por la fisica desaparicion de sus representantes pero por la entropia a la que esta sometida.Esta nueva gestion contara con la gente Cubana como otra condicion para la realizacion del milagro. Una gente educada, con la mente llena de los peligros de la demagogueria, desosos de que Cuba se abra al mundo y que el mundo se abra a Cuba sin la intencion premeditada de tragarle. Una gente que ha tenido que acceptar la double moral como metodo de sobrevivencia y no como modo de comportamiento acceptable socialmente. Un pueblo con dignidad cuyo crucial error fue una fe en sus gobernantes de turno y la infusion de miedo, combinado con actos de malabarismos y una estable sobredosis de propaganda masiva. Esa gente que ama la paz a peasar de haber vivido en Guerra, conpiraciones, amenazas de Guerra e invasions desde que el primer explorador sento pies en la “ tierra mas fermosa”, en Guerra de tainos y caribes y siboneyes, en guerras para doblegar el espiritu de negros forzados a trabajar sin descanzo, en guerras de cimarrones, de poetas, de Rayos Y Soles, de Escaleras, de Vegueros, de Ingleses, de piratas y bucaneros, de Liberacion, de Guerrita de los Negros, de Americanos, Argelinos, Vietnameses, Sirianos, Namibianos, Angolenos, Somalies, Peruanos, Bolivianos , Montoneros Tupamaros, CIA, FNFM, ANC, FARC, IRA,ETA, PLO, UNITA,FSL,FRELIMO, FBI, DEA y quie sabe cuantos mas. En este milagro por ocurrir la gente tiene la obligacion de definir el gobierno que dirigira su nacion por un tiempo limitado y atravez de un proceso tranparente e igualmente accessible a todos. El obstaculo es que los exiliados y los residents estan mirandose con un lente empanado por el miedo, la apatia, el desgazte politico y la inmobilidad. El choque vendra inevitablemente cuando los residentes y los exiliados, concluyan que es su responsabilidad agilizar el proceso, no pidiendo limoznas y apoyo financiero, pero estableciendo un gobierno de transicion y al tiempo que buscan que el mundo reconozca la ingobernabilidad de Cuba y el potencial desastre que puede ocurrir si las condiciones se continuan deteriorando , comenzar a derogar leyes que minimizen el terror paralizante que sufren los que aun no se han identificado abiertamente con la oposicion
Pedro Dupre
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Cuba, una nacion dos gobiernos, no se permiten negros por favor
Cuba, A Nation; Many Governments, No Blacks Allowed, Please
By Pedro Dupre. Guest Commentary. The Black World Today. Article Dated 7/23/2001.
In a recent speech in Havana, Fidel Castro seemed to have faltered. His slurred speech, speaking of six provinces in Cuba, where for the last 20 odd years there have been 14 provinces. A strange reference to some weird plan to provide each municipality with a school all preceded what was referred to as a fainting spell by the gagged Cuba press. There is no doubt in anyone's mind that the years have taken its toll and that Fidel Castro is no longer in his prime. The usual sharp mind and haranguing tongue were all but gone. A few hours later a rejuvenated Fidel Castro conducted yet another of his lengthy speeches as if to prove that he was still in charge of his faculties. Quoted in his tirade he stated that he was " playing possum."
No one knows with certainty what would happen after Castro passed from this world. The "Historicos"; rebels from the 1959 rebellion, turned generals and ministers have degrees of control over the nation. Raul Castro, seen by many as the successor and rightful heir to his brother, has positioned many of these historic figures at the helm of industries and ministries. Gaviota SA is the front office for the communist controlled conglomerated that is the only real capitalists in the Island. This militarization of the government posts initiated after the Ochoa affair has strengthened Raul Castro's bid for power and paved the way for a similar situation observed in Russia, where former communist became the new capitalists.
The Miami elite represented by the Cuban American National Foundation, CANF, whose job is to be ready for Castro's final hour, ignored this second act of Fidel's fainting. They want to believe the maximum Leader is on his way out. After all, they too have a government in exile they very much would like to see in place in a post Castro Cuba. This institution is not the only one; there are other organizations that see themselves as the future Cuban government.
The Centro de Estudios para una Opcion National (Center of Studies for a National Option) has been busy in a series of workshops to create a Cuban Constitution to be implemented once is OK to do so. White Cubans from academia, exile organizations and government agencies gathered and plan among themselves preparing the groundwork for a future Cuba.
Other people and institutions have a stake on what would happen when Castro dies. The City of Miami and Dade County have in their vaults emergency plans for when Castro dies. One can understand that this is a preventive measure given the long awaited moment and the unpredictability of what would happen. One may not be able to understand why are these plans are secret, especially if it is assumed that the plans are solely for the implementation of safety measures and to maintain celebrations within order.
Is it inconceivable that the US. government does not have plans of their own, they do. Although similar to the Dade County plans, they are also secret. This information comes from a recent article in the Miami Herald. Apparently not even Ross Lethinen, the Cuban American Congresswoman from Florida was able to get in on the details of this plan.
History,retiring US Armed Forces presented the Cubans in the first decade of the 1900, more likely will be the expected scenario. The US will be not only threading familiar waters by establishing familiar and loyal people in other nation's government, but it will find its position more than justified by claiming potential chaos and even potential civil strife in the beleaguered island. Law and order will be the strategic cry to impose quarantine, or even to disembark troops on Cuba. The legacy of the Monroe Doctrine is alive and well in Latin America, even when there are no American lives, interest or holdings in Cuba now, there are weapons in Cuba that may warrant an US invasion to maintain the calm.
The Afrocubans who by all account comprise 50% of the population will be again left out. They do not form part of the Historicos for the most part, nor do they have any organized political force to demand an inclusion in the leadership of their nation. Inside Cuba, Cuesta Morua one of the most vocal Afrocuban leaders of the dissidents is a socialist in essence. Dr. Biscet, the newly found poster child of the would-be politically correct Miami elite may be the only one included in a transitional government post-Castro, his social politics being more in tune with the GOP than with the realities of Cuba and Afrocubans.
The lack of political will of the Afrocubans in exile to form their own political organizations, the lack of representation on the actual Cuban government and the abdication of their rights to vocalize their concerns as a separate and distinct issue may be in the end what perpetuates their exclusion from the life of the nation as participants.
Afrocubans in exile who accepted the handouts of the Miami elite and thus compromised their ability to speak for the rest of the Afrocubans have become an antithesis to the movement they should have been leading. Unable to bite the hand that feeds them and fully dependent on the benevolence of their patrons, they have once again colluded with the people who have no good design or plans for their future, allowing the postponement the redemption of the Afrocuban people.
Copyright © 2001 The Black World Today.
By Pedro Dupre. Guest Commentary. The Black World Today. Article Dated 7/23/2001.
In a recent speech in Havana, Fidel Castro seemed to have faltered. His slurred speech, speaking of six provinces in Cuba, where for the last 20 odd years there have been 14 provinces. A strange reference to some weird plan to provide each municipality with a school all preceded what was referred to as a fainting spell by the gagged Cuba press. There is no doubt in anyone's mind that the years have taken its toll and that Fidel Castro is no longer in his prime. The usual sharp mind and haranguing tongue were all but gone. A few hours later a rejuvenated Fidel Castro conducted yet another of his lengthy speeches as if to prove that he was still in charge of his faculties. Quoted in his tirade he stated that he was " playing possum."
No one knows with certainty what would happen after Castro passed from this world. The "Historicos"; rebels from the 1959 rebellion, turned generals and ministers have degrees of control over the nation. Raul Castro, seen by many as the successor and rightful heir to his brother, has positioned many of these historic figures at the helm of industries and ministries. Gaviota SA is the front office for the communist controlled conglomerated that is the only real capitalists in the Island. This militarization of the government posts initiated after the Ochoa affair has strengthened Raul Castro's bid for power and paved the way for a similar situation observed in Russia, where former communist became the new capitalists.
The Miami elite represented by the Cuban American National Foundation, CANF, whose job is to be ready for Castro's final hour, ignored this second act of Fidel's fainting. They want to believe the maximum Leader is on his way out. After all, they too have a government in exile they very much would like to see in place in a post Castro Cuba. This institution is not the only one; there are other organizations that see themselves as the future Cuban government.
The Centro de Estudios para una Opcion National (Center of Studies for a National Option) has been busy in a series of workshops to create a Cuban Constitution to be implemented once is OK to do so. White Cubans from academia, exile organizations and government agencies gathered and plan among themselves preparing the groundwork for a future Cuba.
Other people and institutions have a stake on what would happen when Castro dies. The City of Miami and Dade County have in their vaults emergency plans for when Castro dies. One can understand that this is a preventive measure given the long awaited moment and the unpredictability of what would happen. One may not be able to understand why are these plans are secret, especially if it is assumed that the plans are solely for the implementation of safety measures and to maintain celebrations within order.
Is it inconceivable that the US. government does not have plans of their own, they do. Although similar to the Dade County plans, they are also secret. This information comes from a recent article in the Miami Herald. Apparently not even Ross Lethinen, the Cuban American Congresswoman from Florida was able to get in on the details of this plan.
History,retiring US Armed Forces presented the Cubans in the first decade of the 1900, more likely will be the expected scenario. The US will be not only threading familiar waters by establishing familiar and loyal people in other nation's government, but it will find its position more than justified by claiming potential chaos and even potential civil strife in the beleaguered island. Law and order will be the strategic cry to impose quarantine, or even to disembark troops on Cuba. The legacy of the Monroe Doctrine is alive and well in Latin America, even when there are no American lives, interest or holdings in Cuba now, there are weapons in Cuba that may warrant an US invasion to maintain the calm.
The Afrocubans who by all account comprise 50% of the population will be again left out. They do not form part of the Historicos for the most part, nor do they have any organized political force to demand an inclusion in the leadership of their nation. Inside Cuba, Cuesta Morua one of the most vocal Afrocuban leaders of the dissidents is a socialist in essence. Dr. Biscet, the newly found poster child of the would-be politically correct Miami elite may be the only one included in a transitional government post-Castro, his social politics being more in tune with the GOP than with the realities of Cuba and Afrocubans.
The lack of political will of the Afrocubans in exile to form their own political organizations, the lack of representation on the actual Cuban government and the abdication of their rights to vocalize their concerns as a separate and distinct issue may be in the end what perpetuates their exclusion from the life of the nation as participants.
Afrocubans in exile who accepted the handouts of the Miami elite and thus compromised their ability to speak for the rest of the Afrocubans have become an antithesis to the movement they should have been leading. Unable to bite the hand that feeds them and fully dependent on the benevolence of their patrons, they have once again colluded with the people who have no good design or plans for their future, allowing the postponement the redemption of the Afrocuban people.
Copyright © 2001 The Black World Today.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Requiem para los ahorcados
Requiem para los ahorcados
Los que se cansaron, y cesaron; para los que les lloraron y los que no perdonaron, la sacristia que no llego, por el pecado en contra de el Todopodero.
No mas dudas
No mas maldad
No mas absoluciones
No mas complejos de culpa.
La celda oscura sirviendo de antesala al infierno, la esperanza perdida, la fe debilitada ante la insistencia de vivir de recuerdos. Escape total.
EL ultimo aldabonazo,el ultimo angustioso grito aceptando la muerte, desafiando a vida que se disipa en calvario.Eutanasia personal, protocolo de tratamiento prognosis morbida auto diagnosis.
No mas vejaciones
No mas violaciones
No mas jejenes.
No mas golpizas
No mas hipocrecia.
Reto frustado a los pretorianos despotas , estruendoza acusacion en negro silencio.
El calabozo,
vomito y orine se mezclan
ahora libremente con la fetida permanencia del miedo ,
la erecion penil como dedo acusatorio
final insulto a cancerberos idiotas esperando su turno a cuentas rendidas.
No mas pueblo
no mas colas
no mas doblegarse ante la bota hedionda de seres mezquinos , sin traza de humanidad.
En kilo cinco, en kilo seis en kilo siete y en Ceiba seis.
No mas jabas que no llegan,
no mas cartas de doble sentidos,
No mas Aguica no mas Melena,
No mas Combinado,
no mas chinchas,
no mas mosquitos,
no mas esperanza.
Villa Marista como argumento indigno de finalidad, logica desbaratada que apresura decisiones caras, egoistas , impotentes.
En la Cabana y en Guanajay muertos de sobra alli los hay.
Las que en una pira mortal se convertieron
por los amores o por los celos
Las que tomaron la extrana dosis de algun veneno, las que vencida por el temor
Cortaron el hilo de la existencia, ya sin paciencia, ya sin paciencia.
No mas tormento
No mas amenazas
No mas compromisos.
Los defraudados, ingenuos avergonzados, los maricones al descubierto los que llegaron a la ultima parada, desesperados todos. Los tronados, los incurables, los confundidos los indomables. hermanos todos. Que vean en sus tinieblas la luz que no llegaron a ver en vida, RIP.
Los que se cansaron, y cesaron; para los que les lloraron y los que no perdonaron, la sacristia que no llego, por el pecado en contra de el Todopodero.
No mas dudas
No mas maldad
No mas absoluciones
No mas complejos de culpa.
La celda oscura sirviendo de antesala al infierno, la esperanza perdida, la fe debilitada ante la insistencia de vivir de recuerdos. Escape total.
EL ultimo aldabonazo,el ultimo angustioso grito aceptando la muerte, desafiando a vida que se disipa en calvario.Eutanasia personal, protocolo de tratamiento prognosis morbida auto diagnosis.
No mas vejaciones
No mas violaciones
No mas jejenes.
No mas golpizas
No mas hipocrecia.
Reto frustado a los pretorianos despotas , estruendoza acusacion en negro silencio.
El calabozo,
vomito y orine se mezclan
ahora libremente con la fetida permanencia del miedo ,
la erecion penil como dedo acusatorio
final insulto a cancerberos idiotas esperando su turno a cuentas rendidas.
No mas pueblo
no mas colas
no mas doblegarse ante la bota hedionda de seres mezquinos , sin traza de humanidad.
En kilo cinco, en kilo seis en kilo siete y en Ceiba seis.
No mas jabas que no llegan,
no mas cartas de doble sentidos,
No mas Aguica no mas Melena,
No mas Combinado,
no mas chinchas,
no mas mosquitos,
no mas esperanza.
Villa Marista como argumento indigno de finalidad, logica desbaratada que apresura decisiones caras, egoistas , impotentes.
En la Cabana y en Guanajay muertos de sobra alli los hay.
Las que en una pira mortal se convertieron
por los amores o por los celos
Las que tomaron la extrana dosis de algun veneno, las que vencida por el temor
Cortaron el hilo de la existencia, ya sin paciencia, ya sin paciencia.
No mas tormento
No mas amenazas
No mas compromisos.
Los defraudados, ingenuos avergonzados, los maricones al descubierto los que llegaron a la ultima parada, desesperados todos. Los tronados, los incurables, los confundidos los indomables. hermanos todos. Que vean en sus tinieblas la luz que no llegaron a ver en vida, RIP.
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