You can lead a jackass to water…
Seeing news stories about "Hollywood Celebrities" visiting Cuba and schmoozing with the dictatorship's elite is nothing new. The elite in Hollywood have a perverse fetish for brutal leftist regimes, among other things. But when I came across this particular story and saw Bill Murray's name, I was very disappointed.
Actor Bill Murray, second from right, sings after Benicio del Toro, left, accepted the Cuban Cultural Government Award in Havana, Thursday, July 30, 2009.
Not only was Murray one of my all-time favorite actors (and I emphasize was), his appearance in Andy Garcia's The Lost City gave me the impression that he was not one of your typical Hollywood jackasses that gets butterflies in their stomach every time they see a picture of Fidel or Che. Alas, it appears that Bill is one of those jackasses.
Officially, according to the news story, he and other actors are in Cuba doing "professional research," but even if we were to give him the benefit of the doubt, was it really necessary to attend an award ceremony celebrating Benicio del Toro's heroic portrayal of a psychopathic mass murderer?
One has to ask, did Bill bother to read the entire script of the Lost City or did he just read the pages that contained the lines for his character? A more pertinent question, however, would be that after reading the fact based story of the Lost City, having what I am sure of many conversations with Andy Garcia about the story, and then watching the movie, does Bill really give a rat's behind about the Cuban people and their struggle to rid themselves of the communist yoke of oppression?
From the picture above, it seems he doesn't. Goodbye, Bill.
Per Cuba travel ... this clown doesn't seem to get it
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2009512232_ramsey22.html
Hollywood cites mob crime in Cuba as bad and Commie take over as the good solution and salvation.
Easy to see why they absolutely love and adore the current government in power of this nation's highest crime rate and capitol city ...
Growing up in Youngstown, Ohio the mob was big here too. Not so big now. Oh, still some here and there, even in the local government. But there's a saying around my area:
When the mob was in control of the city there was no "crime" ...
People went downtown to shop and dine. Downtown ain't so bad these day as it was 20-30 yrs ago ... but it still ain't as good.
Oh, don't get me wrong. Not condoning the mob.
Just sayin' ...
Mob took you out they had a reason.
Che and castro killed out of sheer hate and lust for power.
Communism has murdered 10s of millions in the world. Don't think "the mob" can claim anything near those numbers
Does the fact that the mob controlled casinos in Cuba -- and they did -- make castro's revolution and his communism any less evil? You folks are playing their game. We KNOW what Cuba was; our parents and grandparent knew. THEY DON'T.
Mr Mojito, I read the book and I liked it. Humberto Fontova seems to have a different opinion of it. I remember on a post some months back he mentioned how the book mistated how much revenue the casinos were bringing in Cuba. Don't quote me on it, but maybe Humberto can help you with that.
Personally, I thought the book was informative. Humberto, please post any other inaccuracies the book may have.
George, I think we all agree that the little evil was replaced by the BIG evil. That is self evident.
Regarding the MOB in Cuba, part of the problem that Cubans suffer from is the innate prejudice, bias and preconceived notions that people have about Cuba and Cubans.
I live in NYC, what city has more corruption and mobsters than NYC? Yet no one would, ever depict NYC as this two-dimensional caricature where the mob runs the entire city. And I can assure you, NYC makes Old Havana look like child's play. Why is this? Because people think--part thanks to Castro's propaganda and part thanks to the preconceived notions that Americans have about the Hispanic world where they don't make distinctions between Cubans, Mexicans, Bolivians Dominicans, or even Spaniards---that Cuba had no culture, wealth or history. In a country so devoid of any substance, it makes sense that an outside force would dominate the entire country. To Americans, so blinded with the vision of Cubans as shirtless, disease-riddled, illiterate peasants, its hard to think of the average Cuban as leading a middle class life like my parents did and like millions of average Cubans did. My parents worries were those of any other lower middle class/working class family. Their dream was the dreams of an American family in Middletown, America: save up enough money to buy a house and raise their two children. That's all. Like 99.9% of all Cubans, they had no mob ties, but Americans find that hard to believe.
Look at Cuban Americans. We live in the USA right under their noses and yet, look at the all of the preconceived notions about us right here. It's schizophrenic. On the one hand, we are these white, wealthy millionaires, ex-batistianos, octogenarians, right winged, fascists and intolerant ingrates that run American foreign policy on Cuba to the detriment of the rest of the nation, and on the other hand we are these gang banging, brown-and-out, welfare bound, criminals and mafiosos that contribute nothing to society and turn "white safe neighborhoods," into festering ghettos.
If we are depicted as these caricatures right here in the USA RIGHT UNDER THEIR NOSES, we really can't expect them to think of us as anything other than a caricature in old Cuba: a cross between the Godfather II and Sean Connery's "Cuba".
Rayarena,
This is an excerpt of what I wrote to Professor Carlos Eire as a reaction to your comment about the MOB in Cuba:
It explains how easy it is for stereotypes to overshadow reality.
I truly could not understand where Oliphant was coming from in that wretched cartoon. And I could not understand why my book group did such an about face so quickly at the end of our discussion of your book. They were fine as long as your book was about a quaint childhood in a foreign culture. But when I read your letters, I guess they could not cope with the fact that communism was so irretrievably bad.
And while I didn't want to accept what you said about the racism against Cubans, I finally had to agree that that was the explanation of such resistance to understanding the essence of what you were saying. This was very difficult for me to accept. But that other book group I went to on your book and your letters brought me around. It pained me to acknowledge such a terrible truth.
Now when I read what Rayarena is saying here, I don't argue with it. I have come so far towards understanding your pain in this country. It is a journey I didn't want to make and I am sad that I have arrived to join Rayarena's conclusions.
I cannot explain it but I think there is a correlation between all of this and the worship of Obama. For liberals there is a comfort zone in liking Obama. It threatens them at their core to have to acknowledge that left wing solutions are destructive or that communism is all bad.
And another bad thing is that I can't explain what Rayarena is saying to anyone in my book group because they would call me paranoid or ridiculous and wouldn't recognize themselves in this comment. It is a terrible thing to think such bad things about oneself. (The only thing that saved me from being prejudiced is that I am an anti communist and by default I side with others who are. Otherwise Rayarena might have been describing me, too. How awful.)
The odd thing is if I use Israel about stereotypes, they might understand. All of the prejudice about Israel goes so against any reality of its achievements and all that that country has in common with ours. (Before Obama, that is.)
Honey, it's a painful conclusion to come to, but it's better to know the truth than to live in a fool's world. And I know many Cubans who just don't get it. I think that part of the problem is that Cubans on an individual basis have done very well in life. They've gone to college, gotten degrees, prospered, live in good neighborhoods and have achieved the American dream. When one is accepted on a personal level, in one's job and surroundings, it's hard to understand that as a group we are not accepted or understood. I'll give you an example, I was talking to a Cuban lady who is married to an American about anti-Cuban bigotry in this country and her reply was,
"oh, but my American mother-in-law loves me!" What kind of asinine reply is that, I thought? Like many Cubans, she was unable to see the issue beyond herself.
When I first started examining anti-Cuban bigotry, I was shocked. I couldn't help but feel frustrated that such a successful group could be seen as nothing more than ghetto rats. Remember during Elian? That's the way that we were depicted.
Part of the problem is as the late great Reinaldo Arenas said, we have an anti-country. We have a country that works against us. Most foreign nationals have the good auspices of their motherland's national embassy to fall back on and to defend them if they have any problems. We don't. The Cuban Mission to the U.N. in NYC and the Cuban Interest Section in Washington works against us. They convene press conferences and refer to us as the "Miami Mafia" and "rightwinged extremists." They hammer in the stereotypes repeated, over and over again. If a newspaper writes a positive story about us that is at the same time critical of the regime, they will request to meet the editorial staff at the newspaper, etc.... They organize one-way cultural presentations from Cuba where visiting professors come here and repeat the same lies about pre-Castro Cuba being a den of prostitutes and mobsters, and Cuban Americans being extremists.
Couple this with the notions that Americans have of all Hispanics [it doesn't help that the media and U.S. Census doesn't make distinctions and that we are all put in the same boat. Whether they are talking about Cubans in Miami or Mexicans in East L.A., they will use the catch all term "latinos"] and its easy to see why there is so much misunderstanding.
I have a theory, if Canada had become communist, instead of Cuba, I don't think that Americans would feel the same way. You see, to Americans we were a third-world backwards country run by a God-awful dictator, Batista, who ran Cuba in cahoots with the MOB. Even if they accept that Castro is a dictator, they probably don't understand why we complain so much, since Cuba before Castro was a hellhole anyway. And what's the difference, Latin Americans never had viable democracies and besides, the only thing that ever came out of Latin America were sombreros, the frito bandito, enchiladas and Cinco de Mayo. So, we really didn't lose anything. It's not as if France became communist and it lost all of its national patrimony. To them, we didn't have museums, beautiful buildings, monuments, etc.. we just had shantytowns and chickens running around on unpaved streets.
Right, George -
The "mob" is still alive and strong enough today in this country. And there are several versions of "mob crime" in this country.
But Communism IS the ultimate syndicate. They take over and control everything so that the people have to come to the 'godfathers' and ask for everything.
Right now there is a mob syndicate in control of our government. See how and how much they have 'acquired' in just 6 short months? See how much more they are about to grab control of?
I'm not condoning the mob in Cuba ... I'm saying it was NOT a reason, or the reason, checastro came in and slaughtered and stole. It's a mamby-assed argument the left/Hollywood uses at a set up to stifle opposition to the communist ruin Cuba has become. None of these beautiful people stayed in a typical Cuban home while down there. I would venture to say none of them even dared visit a typical Cuban neighborhood ... or lesser neighborhoods ... to see the damage and destruction 50 years has caused.
They play on this mob reasoning, while insisting how quaint and lovely it is that Cuba has its 'classic cars' still on the streets and the people live such simple carefree lives because the state sees to all their needs ... BLEH!. These people are vermin ... like flies and maggots to a dying body. I'd love to be able to take everything from them and control what and how much and how often they get anything. See how far Bill and Ben would get with a rice cooker and a couple pounds (if that) of rice a month between them.
Rayarena, George, et al -
As I watched the movie "The Lost City" there was an indigenous attempt to overthrow the corrupt government. They stormed Batista's compound but he managed to slip away. I never fully understood their 'leanings' but hoped they weren't the non-military version of checastro ... that they intended democracy for their Cuba, not communism. I don't have insight into that, can anyone fill me in?
oh, Rayarena -
Regarding grouping everyone into some generalized "Latino" tent ...
My Hungarian Grandparents were generally passive folks ... until someone would group them in with Romanians or "Slavs".
My college daughter's boyfriend's parents are from Thiland. He says people from individual Asian countries feel the same way about lumping them all together as "Asians" ... that it blurs and ignores the long history behind their individual struggles and divisiveness with each other. (We know about Europe in WWII ... and to some degree our concept of WWII/Pacific is limited to Japan vs us... but we generally don't have a clue as to what else Japan was doing to other Asian countries during that time. Which is another reason why "Asians" do NOT like to be grouped together. They want no responsibility, even abstract, for a country like WWII Japan's war crimes.)
Countries have a right to their own individuality and responsibility of their own history. It's another tactic to suck everyone into the "collective" ... while still setting up "groups" against each other.
drillanwr,
While I understand your Hungarian parents objections and how Asians feel, with Cuban Americans its even worst, because the catch-all category "latino" has such a negative connotation. "Latino" in this country has come to mean "down-and-out-and-brown." Have you ever noticed how pundits on TV always talk about "latinos and blacks" in one breath. It's always, "Latinos and blacks" this and that. "Latino and black" drop-out rates, "Latino and black" incarceration rates, "Latino and black" gangs, "Latino and black" welfare rates, "Latino and black" democratic party affiliation.
Recently, I was talking to a lady and she telling me what a disappointment Obama is and then as if pointing a finger, she said, OH, BUT YOU'RE CUBAN. YOU MUST HAVE VOTED FOR OBAMA. I HEARD THAT LATINOS AND BLACKS ALL VOTED FOR HIM!
This is very frustrating, because our real nature [hard working, law-abiding people], our successes, even our political affiliations [overwhelmingly conservative] is not understood by the majority of folks out there.
Rayarena -
Exactly. What I was trying to get at.
First [they] insinuate the collective ... then the 'grouping' so that groups can be pited against each other.
My Grandparents both had Mongolian blood in them from their ancestry (their wedding picture looked as if they were from Cambodia) ... but that didn't make then "Asian".
Don't forget, the "individual" is not important and must be obliterated. Only the collective should exist. Within that collective are set groups and everyone inside those groups is to remain catagorized.
Have you ever read Ayn Rand's "Anthem"? I read it in just a few hours ... Quick read, short novel ... but very important. Most cite "Atlas Shrugged" ... but "Anthem" is just as important and relevant to where this current influence within our government wants to 'design' our society ... and as you stated, the media is more than willing to help out with that.
The whole Gates/Crowley/racist cops bullshit of the last couple weeks should be a huge wake-up call to the game these people play.
drillanwr,
When I saw Lost City, what I got was that there were Cubans who wanted freedom and were unhappy with the way Batista had hijacked the country and they wanted to throw him out and get a real democracy installed. When Castro came and got Batista out some of those that had originally been anti Batista joined Castro considering him their new hope. It didn't take them long to figure out their mistake. In the movie, as I recall, one killed himself out of despair that he had committed himself to the very tyrants that came to bring ruin to his country. Garcia's character chose to go to the U.S.
It strikes me funny that no matter how this movie or Professor Eire's book or anyone else emphasizes how much they were not happy with Batista and hope Castro would mean salvation from him, just as some of you are describing the lumping together of all Hispanics to suit people's prejudices, readers will make all of that anti Batista stuff irrelevant. They much prefer the comfort of their assumptions. They give no one credit for protesting that they hated Batista. If you left Castro's Cuba, it was for some "selfish" reason. That's it.
And what kills me is so much of this comes from Jews who escaped tyrannies. You'd think they would understand. Only the politically conservative ones do.
If I bring up things like this, I am complained to because I always bring up politics. As if that wasn't what they were doing.
Honey -
After 50 yrs (and the losses at The Bay of Pigs) evident that Cuba's hope ARE those who left (and are on the outside) ... to fight another day and take back the country.
But you understand ... the 'left' in any 'group', Cubans, Jews, etc. believe in appeasement and surrender over defiance and resistance.
All one needs do is look at France in WWII and the Nazis parading easily down their main street in Paris. Hey, we're actually witnessing it here in our own country right now.
http://tinyurl.com/mdk6g8
drillanwr,
Try to tell that to them. The left thinks it is the font of all wisdom and moral greatness. If I sound any alarm, I am paranoid, to be avoided.
Honey -
I hear ya. A year ago I was telling everyone exactly what Obama meant by "change", and was told I was 'paranoid' too.
Now I have many of the same shaking their heads in disappointment at this admin. and what's going on.
I have never been a person to toss about "I told you so" ... but I do so now without hesitation.
drillanwr,
So far I still don't have liberal friends who see the light. It is most disconcerting.
What is it going to take?
Honey -
Can't take credit for "liberals" ... These are lifelong democrats who went in and voted party. Were they to take a quiz they would come out atleast moderate-conservatives. And I'm talking family members too.
Where I live it's an eternal democrat/union stranglehold ... mostly because of industry/factory ... But those industries/factories are closed or in danger of closing. I'm seeing For Sale signs on lots of homes in my neighborhood and around my town.
My older daughter is an RN in the ER of our local Catholic non-union hospital. Last year those who planned on voting Obama strutted around boldly voicing such. Those who were voting McCain mumbled it under their breath so as not to cause heated debates. Now, with the threat of ObamaCare being passed, and what it will do to their job(s) the mood around the ER social gatherings (Drs. and nurses) is doom.
She says, "I told you so" alot these days too ... and without hesitation.
In Texas, they can't understand why I don't like to eat tacos and refried beans and why I throw up when I even see barbacoa. Americans are, as a rule, culturally ignorant. Their exposure to Hispanics has always been primarily with mexicans, so they think that Cubans, Argentinians, Spaniards, etc., are also short, brown, illiterate taco-eaters. [sigh]
drillan
The attack on Batista at the presidential palace is a historical fact and was carried out by the Directorio, one of the many groups of student terrorists. Even though they were not communists, they were part of a culture at the time that was left over from when the dictator Machado was overthrown (there was also the ABC movement, Autentico, etc. etc.). Many of the participants in the various movements were certifiably psychotic. For about two decades after Machado's overthrow, the political situation in Cuba was chaotic and violent. The various groups would routinely carry out assassinations, kidnappings, bombings, etc., while the in the background the various leaders gave hysterical speeches. One of them even shot himself on the radio after one of his long harangues. The Castro bastards (literally) emerged and thrived from this environment. Hemingway in his To Have and Have Not has some of these characters in his novel. Also, Desi Arnaz's book, A Book, details some of the events upon Machado's overthrow. However, the most detailed history is Argote-Freyre's Batista (an excellent biography, incidentally, devoid of stereotypes). Hope this helps.
By the way, at times you may run across some of these psychotics in political discussion groups; they're usually in their 70s and 80s and even though they may have to use Depends, they are still as vocal as ever. If you don't agree with them in EVERYTHING, they will act like pit bulls towards you. That whole generation was rotten, rotten, rotten to the core.
Honey
You say that, "So far I still don't have liberal friends who see the light. It is most disconcerting. What is it going to take?"
I had an experience two days ago that really shook me up. I was wearing a Che t-shirt with the words "Murdering Communist Bastard" that I got at che-mart.com. A woman passed me by and said, "Che Guevara never killed anybody."
!!!!!
Have you ever come across somebody that says something so psychotic that it short-circuits your brain? I stuttered, "Where did you get your historical facts?" "From Noam Chomsky." It was then when I burst out laughing, then said, "He's a totalitarian-worshipping-"
"Oh, THIS is a totalitarian country!"
!!!!!
"If this is a totalitarian country, why hasn't the govt. executed you?" "Oh, it hasn't found out about me yet," and she scurried off.
Now, I know that such people like Ward churchill are around, but it's still a shock when you come face to face with such a psychotic---especially in a conservative state like Texas. What must it be like in California or New York? And what are we going to do with all these crazies running around?