Fear and Loathing in LH
There is plenty of both fear and loathing in La Habana, Cuba.
We've witnessed the loathing: dissidents and bloggers getting picked up by regime thugs and harassed, threatened and beaten. Dissidents and bloggers getting attacked by planned and purchased mobs.
Thanks to the internet, we have seen, almost in real time, the loathing via the attacks on Yoani Sanchez, Claudia Cadelo, Reinaldo Escobar, Orlando Pardo and others. The true face of the regime has been exposed for all the world to see.
The fear can be gauged by what we haven't seen.
Mobs vociferously and violently attack a man in Havana, Cuba's most densely populated city, and what we didn't see were ordinary Cuban citizens coming to the aid of those being attacked. No one came to even bear witness, much less lend a hand to one man - one man - being viciously acquainted with brutality.
There has been a lot of talk and debate and arguments back and forth over the public lynch mobs attacking Reinaldo but I've yet to see any mention, any criticism, of the Cuban citizenry who, out of fear, preferred to stay in the safety of the shadows, while others took the beatings for them.
No one came to push back.
He who fears something gives it power over him. ~Moorish Proverb
This is much like what I tell my kids about the US. In Cuba they will never be free for the same reasons. You can't will freedom for those who are not willing to fight for it. While some might enjoy a change if it happens it will never happen unless you hunger and fight for it. The average Cuban is just that...average.He has chosen to be in bondage as he once chose to allow castro in power. Cuba's freedom is a decision. Regrettably the necessary majority are not willing to make that decision. We are in the same boat here in the US. In opposition to Obama we have plenty of people who are fighting his socialism as well. But we can't make a change and stop his direction until the people are willing to make sacrifices. The saddest thing is that what we see in Cuba is just a precursor to what we will be living here. Shame on the Cuban citizenry. Shame on the American citizenry. If you can just sit by and watch you are no different than the animals that are abusing. You are just not as visible.
We have an opportunity to change things in slightly less than a year from now; unfortunately, the Cubans don't have that opportunity.
There is another saying that I believe goes something like this:
"dime de lo que presumes, y yo te dire lo que te falta."
Aren't Cubans always taking about cojones?
In all fairness, part of the problem lies not in the falta de cojones, but in the fact that Cubans can not function as a unit. We are not institution builders, we don't have a sense of civic duty. Just look at us, here, in exile: we don't have an anti-defamation league, we don't have any real English language newspapers to promote our interests, any viable publishing houses to publish our books, etc... the Cuban American National Foundation is for all intensive purposes dead. Why is it dead? Because Jorge Mas Canosa died and CANF was Jorge Mas Canosa. A stable institution survives the death of its founders: it doesn't become so intrinsically associated with its founder.
In a sense, we are a mirror image of the Cubans inside Cubans. Let me explain:
Someone like Reinaldo is attacked in Cuba and nobody does anything, over here, we are constantly attacked by the mainstream media, by people like Oliphant and nobody does anything. [And I know that people on the Blogsphere are doing something, but I'm talking on an organizational, institutional level]
Because as long as a Cuban is not personally attacked on an individual basis, I suspect most of us don't care.
Our movers and shakers, our millionaires, our VIPs who have the power to found powerful institutions to protect our interest, if they wanted to and had the will to, wouldn't stand for an editorial in the NY Times that would personally attack them and their families, but they don't care if the entire community they belong to is vilified.
The sense of civic duty simply does not exist.
That's what I like about Jews, Gays, Blacks, and other groups. You attack them and you're dead meat.
Cubans on the other hand, its open season on us! And I don't blame anyone anymore. Its our fault.
Both inside Cuba and out. It's time we started owning up to this and stopped always blaming others. That's why I think that someone like Reinaldo is attacked without anyone stepping in.
Based on our past history of inaction we can expect the US to mimic Cuba is a very short time.
Donde Esta Hunter Thompson quando nececitamos? -S-