Here at Babalú, our readers were reminded that yesterday, March 18th, was the anniversary of one of the many dark moments in Cuba's history as an enslaved nation: The Black Spring of 2003. We posted stories and links that analyzed and retold the story of the plight of 75 Cuban dissidents who were arrested, beaten, and sentenced to serve, in many cases, decades in prison. Their crime? Expressing a point of view contrary to that of the regime. The posts were informative and heartfelt, but there is an underlying fact that most of here at Babalú cannot ignore: we are only Cubans.

We as a group have experienced firsthand the brutality and the evil that is the Castro regime, so we are hardly qualified to comment on the goings-on in Cuba. If you want to read meaningful commentary on the topic of Cuba, unblemished by actual experience, you have to turn to Cuba expert Phil Peters and his blog, The Cuban Triangle. It is there where you can get Cuba news from the lofty perspective of an expert in all things related to Cuba.

His sagacious insight into Cuba is not burdened or blemished by the actual experience of living under a totalitarian regime. His reflections on Cuba are not stained with the memories of family members who were tortured and executed by the Castro regime. As Cubans, we may have lived through the dark history of Castro's Cuba and bear the scars from that experience, but that does not make us experts. To reach the elevated title of "expert" in Cuba issues, you have to achieve what Phil Peters has achieved.

Among his many accomplishments, Peters has earned his title as expert in Cuba affairs by...

Well, no one really knows what Peters has done to earn the title of expert other than to position himself to make lots and lots of money exploiting Cuba's tragedy. Nevertheless, we all know that he is the go-to guy for news organizations whenever they talk about Cuba so therefore, he must be an expert.

So in the interest of providing our readers with expert analysis from real Cuba experts, here are the Reflections of the Cuba Expert on yesterday's somber anniversary.

There was a total of three posts on his blog yesterday, and his first post was dedicated to the Damas de Blanco, which in the efficient and to-the-point manner of a true expert, Peters manages to distill the entire history of the dissident ladies group and the beating they received into two short sentences. The rest of that post is a listing of links reporting on the event, so it cannot be really considered commentary from an expert.

The first sentence made a passing reference to the anniversary of the Black Spring, but it was the second and last sentence that was a thing of beauty:

These are tactics we have seen before: a government reaction to show it controls the streets, and short-term detention instead of long-term imprisonment.

Only an expert can see beyond the trivial complaints of dissidents, like beatings, harassment, humiliation, and detentions and point to the fact that this is just the way it has always been. Nothing has changed, so let's just move along and stop wasting the time of the experts on such trivial matters.

The second post was sort of a potluck mix of links to news stories related to Cuba. Not one of them had to do with the Black Spring anniversary, however. Experts like Phil Peters know what is really important and obviously, the roundup, beating, and imprisonment of 75 Cuban dissidents is not that important. I know you may disagree with this, but Phil Peters is the expert and we are simply Cubans; we must defer to his judgment.

When we get to his third and last post of the day, Peters finally commemorates an anniversary. Not of the Black Spring, but of the 50th anniversary of Eisenhower's Program of Covert Action against the Castro Regime. If you are like me, I had no idea that March 18 marked that anniversary, but then again, we are not experts on Cuba matters, we are just Cubans. And since we Cubans are not experts on Cuban issues and therefore not enlightened enough to read Granma--the source Peters references--it comes as no surprise that we had no idea that a much more important anniversary falls on March 18.

What would Cuba and Cubans do if we didn't have these experts around to reflect on our issues and provide us with guidance on the really important matters affecting us all?