Perhaps. Although that depends on the prism through which you see.
Some people want to make you believe the Cuba “issue” isnt a black and white one, but rather one of grey areas without any absolutes. And I suppose there are certain intances where such a broad statement can be, relatively, true.
And these folks will present stories to try to prove to you the value of their argument and, in some cases criticize those of us who dont exactly see to to eye with the grey area argument. They will use one or two peripherally argumented examples to prove their point.
Por ejemplo:
The “this guy was able to leave Cuba but always can back” argument.
Now, Im certainly not begrudging anyone who had the ability to leave Cuba for returning to the island to live there. In essence, “to return” is why we are all here on a daily basis. Most of us already have our lives firmly planted here and elsewhere, but the reason we are “intransigent” and “intolerant” in our outspokeness is because Cuba belongs to us all, and there is something in all of us that wants to return to Cuba, if only for a limited amount of time. For the most part, every Cuban wants to be in Cuba.
The issue here is not whether that one guy that always came back to Cuba thinks the Cuba issue is a grey one, the issue here is that for every one of those guys there may be ten, twenty, thirty or more that still live in Cuba and whose circumstances are such that they cant leave the island at all, much less return. To them, it is a black and white issue. To use one or two or three or a handful of anecdotal cases as proof that the Cuba issue is “not balck and white” is insincere at best.
The hue of Cuba “issue” simply stems from where youre coming from, as a Cuban. Certainly, for a Bay of Pigs veteran like my father in law, who survived the infamous rastra and La Cabaña, the issue is pretty darned clearly black and white, no? For Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, who lives in a putrid cell in some prison in Cuba simply because of his beliefs the issue most assuredly isnt grey, now is it? For a person like Guillermo Fariñas, who starved himself last year in order to get access to the internet and information, the issue is black and white, no?
It’s easy to adorn the Cuban issue with rosy-colored spectacled anecdotes and pretty photographs to muddy up the subject matter, while using a deliberate connivance to disparage others and their opinions simply because those opinions do not coincide with their own. I suppose it’s just as easy to convince oneself, despite all evidence to the contrary and as proven by one’s own personal history, that the black and white of the Cuba issue make a nice grey.
What’s difficult is meticulously separating the black from the white, the fact from the fiction, the heartfelt from the logical, the history from the revisionism, and ending up having to swallow the bitter black and white pill of the Cuban reality.
I suppose, though, that if the subjugation of the people of Cuba, the trampling of basic civil and human rights, political indoctrination, prisoners of conscience and every thing else that the castro regime stands for were of no moral consequence to me, then I might agree that the issue of Cuba is a grey one, too.
9 thoughts on “Grey Areas?”
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Val,
Nothing is ‘black and white’. Even a picture that is black and white picture has “grey” in it, much less alone the “Cuba issue”.
My feeling is that we should all be free to travel, and come and go as we please. We want that for Cubans in Cuba, much like we are free to do so once we arrive here. If the Castro Mafia restricts travel to our people, let us not support the same from our end. Those of us that wish to go to Cuba, let us excercise that freedom. Those of us that don’t want to go to Cuba,let us respect those wishes as well.
The example, and the principle that we should uphold and support is for FREEDOM OF TRAVEL FOR ALL CUBANS!
LaConchita,
Once again, I must disagree. The Cuban people, just like we Cuban exiles, know perfectly well who is responsible for their lot in life. As long as we continue to allow the castro governmnet to manipulate us, to hold the people hostage and we continue to send money and take money, there is NO IMPETUS for that government to change its tactic. On the contrary, this makes the castro regime even more adament about separating the cuban family and holding the cuban people hostages. As long as they know there are cubans here ready, willing and able to send money, they will not change a thing. and we will still be having this absurd conversation 20 years from now.
Anyway, the travel restrictions were not the main point of this post.
As long as we continue to allow the castro governmnet to manipulate us, to hold the people hostage and we continue to send money and take money, there is NO IMPETUS for that government to change its tactic. On the contrary, this makes the castro regime even more adament about separating the cuban family and holding the cuban people hostages.
palabras con luz…Señores este issue de los viajes , las restricciones, el embargo es muy complicado. Es tan complicado que el factor humano se sobrepone a cualquier politica de estado..quiere decir esto que es un juego muy bien pensado por los bandoleros que gobiernan Cuba… Nos tienen cogidos por donde quieren… Pero esto pronto acabara…Asi que tranquilos todos… Si no ha habido solucion en 48 años no habra una solucion facil ahora has ta que muera la bestia y en Cuba haya otro cantar..No tengo familia en Cuba por esta razon estoy prejuiciado a los envios etc…. Pero algo les digo estoy en total desacuerdo con gente que sale de Cuba y en dos años regresan a Cuba con lasmaletas llenas para ayudar a sus familiares… Señores un verdadero refugiado politico que escapa de una dictadura NUNCA REGRESA A MENOS QUE SEA A PELEAR O si la dictaura no existe… Cualquier otra cosa dejemosnos de cuentos SON REFUGIADOS ECONOMICOS Y DE POLITICA NO SABEN NI UN PITO–he dicho
Imagine a man lost in the desert, almost driven crazy from thirst. Someone comes along and gives him a nice big drink of water and then disappears. The man feels much much better, and is hopeful…but for how long?
Val,
Sorry if I misunderstood your main point.
But, I sense I little bit of what you’re trying to say.
The Cuba issue is “black and white” to you and to many exiles (and those in Cuba) because it is a simple equation of BAD vs. GOOD in terms of the Castro/mafia in what they have done and what they continue to do, and how all this relates as to how we are to view the “correct” Cuba policy within this prysm. A vert simple “black and white” – no? You would think so, but no.
I believe that it is safe to say that those among the sincere ones on the “good” side, will jointly agree that we desire a “free and democratic Cuba”. This is the “White” part, and this one is simple.
BUT! Beyond here, this is where the vast expanse of the “grey” part begins, which is in the “HOW” of how best achieve this.
AbajoFIdel,
Think about what you are saying:
“…estoy en total desacuerdo con gente que sale de Cuba y en dos años regresan a Cuba con lasmaletas llenas para ayudar a sus familiares… Señores un verdadero refugiado politico que escapa de una dictadura NUNCA REGRESA A MENOS QUE SEA A PELEAR O si la dictaura no existe”
The old ways don’t cut it anymore. I was one of those REAL “refugiados” (before they started calling us “migrants”). It was simple back then. By the very fact of ‘leaving’ that COMMUNIST SOCIETY, you emotionally and physically turned your back on Cuba. Because Cuba represented a “black and white” issue back then. We, the early ones, VOTED WITH OUR FEET against that Cuba. We labled ourselves, and anyone following us, with this mindset. “Communism” actually meant something to us, because we had lived under something which was not. “Communism” was something to “fight against” – “turn your back on”.
Over 60% of the population in Cuba has been born after the revolution. They don’t see nor even believe in “communism”. They don’t see a concept to turn their back on – only their families.
Communism, if it ever existed, was a facade by the virtue of Soviet subsistance. Once the Soviets died. The facade ended. You don’t even have “socialism”, what you have left is a ruthless MAFIA selling nothing but Cuban slave labor inside and outside of Cuba.
I thought I could stomach everything on what the Castros had done. Scenes La Cabana, of firing squads. But, what I could not even stomach was the recent exposes of scenes of the hospitals and the horrific treatment of those patients. That has to be one of the worst attrocities on the Cuban population that many will have to be brought to justice, without even getting into the justice for their accounting on prisoners, tortures, and firing squads.
How can we judge anyone, let alone want to prevent, those from wanting to travel back to help their families.
As long as there are NO INVASION PLANS BEING MADE TO FREE CUBA, I will not stand in the way of any Cuban returning to back to their country to help their families.
In my experience, even if a case could be made that the Cuba issue is one big gray area, at the end of the day, things that are gray almost always turn black.
It is indisputable that the Cuban regime, knowingly and deliberately, has caused and encourages emotional blackmail on a massive scale, obviously to its benefit. Human nature being what it is, those on the island go along with this because they see no better alternative, and their relatives and friends on the outside largely go along with it also. It’s basically a no-win situation.
Depending on the specific case and the specific circumstances involved, it may be practically impossible to escape this blackmail, but it is definitely possible to minimize its effects. Basically, there’s a difference between wanting or liking something and actually needing it. Those on the outside should only be meeting real needs of those on the island, not trying to maintain them as if they lived here. I estimate that a good 50% of what is being sent to Cuba is not truly indispensable, and the percentage could well be higher.
Sadly, the kind of control that should be exercised is not happening; it’s never happened, and it probably won’t. Things are much closer to the opposite extreme, where those here send as much as they possibly can, without any real discrimination or selectivity, and if anyone questions that, they immediately become defensive. Of course they’re free to do as they see fit, but at least they should recognize that they’re part of the problem.