Since the “handover” of power to raul castro some weeks back and the subsequent manipulations and political goings on in Cuba Ive been reflecting – racking my brains is more like it – on the future of the people of Cuba. There is so much speculation out there from so many sources. So many what if’s, so many maybes, so many theories, so many spoons in the stew. I dont think Ive ever read as much as I have read in the past couple of months. I must have read every single editorial, article and essay on Cuba that’s been published recently.
Everyone, it seems, has an opinion. From glass half empty opinions to glass half full opinions to is there really a glass and is that really water opinions. The full spectrum of assumptions and hypotheses have been voiced by the full spectrum of “experts” and entities and agencies and governments and comittees and geniuses and dumbasses.
And, after mulling all of these over and over, ad infinitum, I’ve come to an ineluctable conclusion: Cuba is screwed. Her destiny, and that of her people, was tailspinned in 1959 and to this day, the spinning has yet to be tempered, much less halted.
I know I’ll probably catch alot of flak for saying this, and I know I’ll probably be scewered in some circles, but, you know what? So be it. Somebody has to say it and unfortunately I can no longer live with myself if I keep stifling my own opinion.
Cuba is screwed.
I’ve tried to remain optimistic, and if you have been reading this blog for some time you know that I am no pessimist, but the pragmatist in me realizes the obvious. I have the unfortunate and heartbreaking notion that Cuba will remain an oppressed, prostituted, proselytized third world nation with an unfortunately indoctrinated and propagandized and violated populace. At least, I fear, for the remainder of my lifetime.
How can you say that, Val? you may be asking. Easy. Because it’s true. Because the world doesnt give a shit about Cuba. Because Cuba is just a pawn in everyone’s chess game. Be they a governement, an individual, a business, a comittee, a “humanitarian” entity, whatever. Cuba is but $5 chip in a $1000 minimum poker game.
Some will say that saying the world doesnt give a shit about Cuba is a huge overreaction, and then point to all those humanitarian agencies and those few countries and those few government entities and people that have expressed a solidarity and worked for the freedom of Cuba. To which I counter with 47 years of hard evidence and three words: Nothing has changed.
Nothing has changed and nothing will change because the world has already accepted Cuba as-is. It’s the socialist given to the ideological geopolitical equation.
For forty-seven years the entire world save for an ulterior motived few have stood by and allowed the complete disregard for every basic civil and human right to go unchecked, stood by and allowed the complete abrogation of the dignity of a people, stood by and watched as millions fled, tens of thousands died, and even more millions were subjugated. Stood by with their thumbs up their asses while an entire culture was decimated.
Cuba, my friends, is screwed.
Do you think that all those Chomsky’s and Glovers and World Socialist Party members and Communists give a rats ass about the people of Cuba? They dont. Cuba is just their means to an end. Their beacon of their own hatred. The last pawn of their chess match. Cuba is their utopian success, regardless of the obvious failures swept under the rug.
And those humanitarian agencies, do you think their complains about Cuba’s situation are authentic, or do you think they’re merely tit for tats so that they may focus their self-righteous energies on their true ideological enemies without calls of slant or bias? Dont get me wrong, Ive appreciated their “solidarity”, but I can safely say that I am not convinced of their altruism when it comes to Cuba.
And what can one expect of governments? When most of the time they’re concerned with their power’s mortality and the rest of the time is spent pandering to those who helped put them in power in the first place.
I have come to the conclusion that noone is really going to help Cuba and the Cuban people but the Cuban people. And that being the case, Cuba is screwed. Because the majority of Cubans live without voices and most of those in exile with voices are either too damned complacent to be bothered or relegated to being extremists by the self-appointed thinkers for whom Cuba is but a perfect ideological stepping stone.
Cuba, my friends, is screwed.
But we, like Don Quijotes, inexorably and inexplicably, are compelled to keep fighting. If not for us, then for our next generation who, hopefully someday, need not battle windmills.
Val:
Courage it is always darkest before dawn.
This is what has been needed to be said in polite company for almost five decades. We will continue the fight, as Val wrote, but as I have said here, in private, to my family, and to whoever listens, is that the destiny of the Cuban people is in their hands. We can help. We will help. All they have to do is ask and we will yell, ¡Presente! But they have to take that very difficult, excruciating painful first step to freedom.
“We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope”
Martin Luther King
I hope that the day of freedom for Cuba will come soon—possibly sooner than we think.
Val,
I who often have more to say than need be can add nothing to what you have said so well.You my brother have hit it on the head. We must keep the faith, fight the fight, and hope. You have nothing to apologize foe with what you said. Others do for not having said anything.
Esperanza, my friends!
When you crash against a windmill just get back on that horse. CHARGE!!!!
“I have not begun to fight.”
John Paul Jones
There was no hope that the people of Eastern Europe would see freedom when soviet tanks were aimed at their heads and where their secret police and KGB operatives made people disappear. But the curtain came down because the people demanded it.
Thus, you’re right Val, while here we take for granted freedom that is given to us by birth, in a land that is devoid of freedom, the people must demand it and fight for it if necessary. It takes a lot of courage to be willing to give everything up for the right to be free. If the folks on the island settle simply for despair and the status quo and refuse to do anything about their situation, anything we could possibly do is not going to help them.
Val,
You analysis is correct and well written. But during the mid 80’s did we ever expect the Berlin wall to fall? Did we ever expect the Soviet Union to dissapear?
Bad as things seem, we can never give up hope.
Val,
There’s a hell of a lot of truth to what you say. The particular part of your post that really got my attention was when you talked about all the theories of what will happen. I learned when I was a child that if you try to analyze every potential scenario of a given situation the true outcome invariably is complete surprise. In other words when change comes to Cuba (and change must come to Cuba because nothing is forever) it will be unpredictable, all the theories will be out the window. People don’t act according to a grand plan, they act in their best interests at a given moment in time and that creates a lot of randomness.
Cuba is certainly screwed if the measuring stick is first world countries. But the situation can’t get much worse than it is now. It’s like a drunk that has to hit rock bottom before he can recover.
Val –
As you detail, the odds against Cuba being free are long, but they are not insurmountable. What is most needed is for the Cuban people to rise up, and so far, they have not.
While I recognize the challenges facing Cuba and those of us who love it, I am also optimistic that our faith is not misplaced, that time and history are on our side. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, I will never consider the kind of change Cuba needs to be impossible. Also, the destiny of man is to be free, and not subject to a tyrant’s fist.
The worst thing we can do is give up.
As I wrote earlier this month, “To be free, Cubans must fight (their) fear with faith — faith in their hopes and dreams for themselves and for their nation. History shows that, and not surrendering to tyranny, is the path to victory.”
Keep the faith, Val. We really have no other choice.
Val; you guys have to resolve yourselves to not quiting, no matter how “bleak” the future may look.
Today, when I watch a documentary on East Germany / Berlin Wall I am SHOCKED at the reality of that situation; BUT they (and democracy…) prevailed. And so will Cuba. Someday in the future we will be watching documentaries on “the fidel era” in Cuba and we will wonder what type of idiotic US citizens could have actually supported a totalitarian regime like that…
Val,
Do not lose hope we will prevail and Cuba will be free. Remember who we are and how much we love our country and even if we are here, most of us will not hesitate to take up arms and fight for the freedom of our country and our brothers. Take it from someone that was born in the system but always had the need to be free, please don’t lose hope.
“I have come to the conclusion that no one is really going to help Cuba and the Cuban people but the Cuban people.” The other side of that coin is: “I have come to the conclusion that a lot of the blame for the screwing suffered by the Cuban people has been the direct result of foreign meddling from all quarters.” Understanding and learning this maybe is the first step Cubans need to take in order to free themselves and ensure they stay free, free from the bad influence and advice of outsiders with less than noble motives.
Max, in the 1980s we had Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. Need I say more?
I was in Helsinki, Finland last week for a meeting. I had to take a train to another city, and in the train station I found an English language newspaper. There was a truly disgusting article about Cuba. This seems typical of what they believe in Europe. I found the article on line: http://www.6d.fi/politics/page.2006-08-29.1737514116
George,
Excellent point. They were both heroic people.
Some could argue about that today we have Tony Blair and George Bush. Both of them have been courageous in the face of extreme criticism. Not so much about communism, but islamofascism.
We have one thing on our side that trumps EVERYTHING – we are right, we are on the side of justice.
We can never be defeatist.
Pelkabo,
That article sounds like something a middle school communist kid would write. I just can’t get over how stupid some people will always be.