Just Another Snip

by

The news trucks have already lined up and raised their satellite thingies in front of Versailles. Local reporters are already shoving their microphones in front of mouths in search of opinions. The experts have been called and their take has been taken. The news is spreading like wildfire – all over the radio airwaves, on every TV station, scattered about the internet like spam.
fidel castro has “officially” stepped down.
I certainly dont want to rain on anyone’s parade, there is, after all, a little bit of happiness buried deep down inside because of the news, but, at the risk of sounding cliche, this is a tempest in a teacup.
We’re going to hear hopes that this is the beginning of change in Cuba. We’re going to hear arguments for the lifting of the embargo. We’re going to hear wishy washy eulogies and praise for the bearded bastard. We’re gonna hear a lot of crap today and in the next few days. Cuba experts will be coming out of the woodwork with their own particular theories and there will most certainly be editorials galore.
A commenter said it best in this post:

Much ado about nothing. What does this change? Nothing. Cubans are still oppressed, the island is still a hell hole and the man in command still bears the last name (c)astro. All this means nothing.

I wholeheartedly agree. This changes absolutely nada. For all intents and purposes, for the past year or two, fidel castro has been but a blurb in the book of Cuba’s political leadership. The man who held the world in terror in the sixties reduced to writing editorials for a mouthpiece “newspaper.”
Cuba’s prisons are still rife with prisoners of conscience. Ordinary Cuban’s are still subjected to Cuba’s system of apartheid. Dissidents are still being round up and harrassed. The UN Declaration on Human Rights remains taboo on the island.
There is going to be much ado about new “freedoms” in Cuba and “changes” in policy and what not. Some are going to point to these as proof of raul’s willingness for change. But, you know what? True freedom can’t come piecemeal. The few crumbs this “new and improved” castro regime will toss down to the Cuban people will do little to stay any true hunger for liberty.
The day there is real change in Cuba – and not a carefully choreographed one – will be the day when every single Cuban on the island is allowed to know who Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet is. When every Cuban is allowed to know exactly and truthfully why he, and so many like him, have been rotting away in putrid jail cells for years.
For fifty years, the Cuban people have been physically, mentally, spiritually, ideologically, culturally and emotionally emasculated. Today’s news is just another snip in a surreptitiously planned and meticulously orchestrated surgery.

11 thoughts on “Just Another Snip”

  2. On my blog I took exception to the use of the term “resigns” as has been pushed out by Reuters, et al.
    It seems a subtle conferring of legitimacy to his entire despotic reign to apply such a democratic term to what is clearly a “stepping down” from one’s pedestaled throne.
    It was the first thought that hit me when I read the headlines.

  3. SSDC – Same stuff different communist. I agree with Val on this. It looks like the President needs an education on the matter though:
    President Bush, in his first comments after learning of Fidel Castro’s resignation, said during a press conference in Rwanda that his thoughts are with the people of Cuba.
    ”They are the ones who suffered under Fidel Castro. They are the ones who were put in prison because of their beliefs. They are the ones who have been denied their right to live in a free society,” Bush said.
    “I view this as a period of transition and it should be the beginning of the democratic transition for the people in Cuba.”
    He words it almost as though Cubans are now free.

  4. I agree with Joan on the use of the term “resign” as it being applied to this tyrant, the more appropriate term would be abdication of the throne. Even in the communist party newspaper it sounds like an abdication.

  6. “SSDC” sums it up perfectly. The man created a dictatorship that unfortunately, will survive him, both politically and biologically. Until it meets its demise, the only appropriate response to this news, is “ho-hum,” and continued vigilance on behalf of the struggle for freedom in Cuba. It is a struggle that must continue until the final political prisoner is released, and the final ballot counted for a free election.

  7. It’s a smart move on Castro’s part, because it lessens the impact his inevitable death will have. Rather then one big shock, you have two smaller shocks.

  8. I thought it was funny as hell, a bunch of trucks to film a guy drinking Cafe Pilon and one older feller that sells flags in front of Versalles.
    The Media just wanted people screaming and blocking traffic, like something real had happened, LMAO

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