Let reason shine through
When it comes to Communist dictators, whether from radicals within the Obama administration, do-gooder useful idiots, or the ideologically challenged, all reason seems to disappear.
Read Capital Hill Cuban's reaction to Chilean-born novelist and Duke University Professor of Literature, Vladimiro Ariel Dorfman’s advice to President Obama:
When Ideology Blinds Reason
And no, this post is not about Castronomics.
It's about a novelist and scholar, whose ideological goggles are so tinted that they blind obvious contradictions.
Writing in the L.A. Times this week, Chilean-born novelist and Duke University Professor of Literature, Vladimiro Ariel Dorfman, makes the following hemispheric policy recommendations to the Obama Administration:
Building on his creative engagement with Latin America after the George W. Bush years of blindness and neglect, there is much the president can accomplish immediately. Lifting the senseless blockade against Cuba, followed by full diplomatic relations, would be a good beginning. Another sore spot is Honduras, where the United States has not done enough to isolate and punish the de facto government, which came to power through a coup against the country's elected president. And Obama should rethink his approach to hemispheric security (canceling, for instance, Plan Colombia) as a way of defusing tensions in a Latin America threatened by a new arms race.
Dorfman's use of the word "blockade" -- terminology used by the Castro regime to refer to U.S. sanctions -- should have been an ideological give away. Therefore, we'd first like to remind him that the U.S. provides more humanitarian aid to the Cuban people than the rest of the world's nations combined -- not very "blockade-like" behavior.
Yet, the most striking contradiction is his recommendation to isolate and punish the government of Honduras for its undemocratic behavior, while simultaneously advocating to lift commercial sanctions and establish full diplomatic relations with Castro's Cuba.
Why does Dorfman believe that Cuba should be the only country in this hemisphere condemned to a dictatorship?
Is it because it is a left-wing dictatorship? Surely he didn't feel the same way about the right-wing Pinochet dictatorship in his native Chile.
Finally, notice how he blames problems in the Andean region on the Colombian government and U.S. policy (Plan Colombia), but doesn't say a word about narco-terrorists or Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.
It's time to let reason shine through
Corre la bola | 
>>Dorfman's use of the word "blockade" -- terminology used by the Castro regime to refer to U.S. sanctions -- should have been an ideological give away<<
Actually, the name "Vladimiro" should have been a dead giveaway. There is no cultural or social reason for a chilean (or cuban, for what that matters) to be named "Vladimiro" unless his parents had a fixation with either a)Count dracula, or b)Vladimir Illich Lenin. I'm guessing it was "b". Those two (the professor and the president) probably have a lot in common.
Ziva:
Well said
I know this asshole! He's the Communist who declared 20 yrs ago that Mickey and Donald represented a sadomasochistic representation of capitalism and his psychotic proclamation was echoed by all of the European leftists.
It amazes me that all the Chilean Communists came to the United States for protection when Pinochet was cutting off their heads (obviously, he didn't do a thorough job).
You say his reference to the "blockade was a giveaway; I had him at "Vladimiro". There is no cultural or social reason for a Chilean (or a Cuban for what that matters) to be named Vladimiro. To give such a name to a child the parents must be enamored with either a)Dracula, or b) Lenin. I vote for "b". I'm sure the professor and the president have a lot in common, as fellow red diaper babies.
Indeed, amigos. This nangara, Dorfman wrote the Time article commemorating Che Guevara as: "Hero and Icon of the Century!"
http://www.time.com/time/time100/heroes/profile/guevara01.html
Unreal
When you need advice on foreign policy or economics, be sure to turn to the literature professors first!
I think Dorfman was shot in an Allende protest as well if I remember correctly.
What a swell guy
from Humberto's link above ...
"I will allow myself a prophecy. Or maybe it is a warning. More than 3 billion human beings on this planet right now live on less than $2 a day. And every day that breaks, 40,000 children — more than one every second! — succumb to diseases linked to chronic hunger. They are there, always there, the terrifying conditions of injustice and inequality that led Che many decades ago to start his journey toward that bullet and that photo awaiting him in Bolivia. The powerful of the earth should take heed: deep inside that T shirt where we have tried to trap him, the eyes of Che Guevara are still burning with impatience." ~ Ariel Dorfman
So this tool advocates cancelling Plan Colombia, which would obviously give the FARC some breathing room from Uribe's magnificent, relentless ass-kicking.
Somehow, giving these vicious bastards a chance to murder more Colombians would "defuse tensions."
There is an entry on him in the Wikipedia, praising him. Maybe he wrote it himself? Anyway, anyone can include statements, comments, etc., as long as they are documented and written diplomatically. You can get the message across without sounding like a demented pitbull. In other words, why don't everybody in this blog put in a contribution? (hint hint)