More Idiocy from Havana Nocturne (and the Miami Herald)
In his book Havana Nocturne, author T.J. English devotes page after page to denouncing the Batista regime, which he labels as "violently repressive!"
But perish an notion of a double standard, because (in the epilogue and in fine print) he also mentions that the Castro regime "has been criticized by U.S. authorities for a checkered human rights record." His tone is that this criticism is unwarranted bullying instigated by Cuban-Americans ("a powerful voting bloc.")
Fine, let's compare: In 1959 Cuba's Bohemia magazine--a publication that treated Fidel Castro about like Teen-Beat treated Paul McCartney in 1964-- arrived at the figure of 878 for the total number of deaths ON BOTH SIDES of the anti-Batista fight. New York's annual murder rate usually doubles, sometimes triples, the Bohemia figure for Cuban deaths. Cubans enjoyed the highest prosperity in their history during this period (as mentioned earlier this consisted of higher wages and better public health services than half of Europeans.)
The Cuban Archive project arrives at 110,000 (and counting) for the number of Cuban deaths caused by the Castro regime. And Freedom House estimates a total of half a million political prisoners jailed over the years by the Castro regime, a higher rate than Stalin's. This regime also rendered Cubans poorer and Haitians.
T.J. English scoffs that most Cuban-Americans are "in denial" about pre-Castro Cuba.
Combine these idiocies with the idiocies mentioned in my earlier post on Nocture. Now consider that the Miami Herald hails the book "as thoroughly and impressively researched!"
The Miami Herald's own research, however, stopped short of disclosing that most of English's research was in Castro's Cuba while aided by Castro regime officials.
Tragically, Cuban Americans don't have an anti-defamation league or a think tank to counter these offensive, racists publications. With the type of PR that book is getting, this is yet another nail on the coffin of the much maligned pre-59 Cuba: a country that was allegedly the whorehouse of the Americans with every vice known to mankind, an a lower standard of living and literacy than Haiti.
Have at it guys! Go to Amazon.com and any other on line store that is selling this "Merde" and leave your comments. You can also rate the book.
To be fair, T.J.'s basically an writer on organized crime, notably the Westies gang; but he does rely to much on the accounts of Curiel; the Castro apparatchik that Montero relied upon for
Son de Almendra; and that "Tropicana Nights" author who should know better. So bad sourcing all around.