Longtime readers may be familiar with the expression “fisking”. It’s basically a point-by-point refutation of a news item or opinion column. Since the mainstream media goes to considerable lengths to sanitize Cuba’s castro dictatorship we spend a lot of time refuting their assertions. But the age of Twitter means these “journalists” or “Cuba Experts” are now accessible. So introducing the Tweet Fisk. Today we take Daniel Serwer to task for his column Politico. “Serwer is a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a scholar at its Center for Transatlantic Relations. The piece is entitled, “The Dangers of a Cuban Collapse.”
@DanielSerwer you parrot Castro life expectancy stats. Did you corroborate them or take a dictatorship at its word?
— Babalú Henry Lou (@HenryLGomez) April 1, 2014
@DanielSerwer All can read in Cuba, according the Castros, you. In 1959 80% of Cubans could read. Is totalitarianism necessary for progress?
— Babalú Henry Lou (@HenryLGomez) April 1, 2014
@DanielSerwer You don't once mention the price Cubans have paid for this "progress". Political prisoners, harassment, torture…
— Babalú Henry Lou (@HenryLGomez) April 1, 2014
@DanielSerwer You propose propping up hemisphere's longest running dictatorship in the name of "stability."
— Babalú Henry Lou (@HenryLGomez) April 1, 2014
@DanielSerwer What about human rights? Not a mention in your piece.
— Babalú Henry Lou (@HenryLGomez) April 1, 2014
@DanielSerwer You accept for others (in the name of stability) conditions you would not accept for yourself.
— Babalú Henry Lou (@HenryLGomez) April 1, 2014
@DanielSerwer You make property claims into THE issue. But how can anyone invest in Cuba knowing that regime capriciously expropriates?
— Babalú Henry Lou (@HenryLGomez) April 1, 2014
@DanielSerwer "Energetic capitalist turn"? You're kidding? The munificent prince Raul gives a few crumbs with the option to take them back.
— Babalú Henry Lou (@HenryLGomez) April 1, 2014
Good job. Professorships of “international studies” are akin to those of “feminist” studies and “ethnic” studies…… all sending chills up our collective spines thinking what they’re feeding daily to their college kids.
Henry, he’s from Hopkins, which is known to turn out beyond-dubious operators, and you’re not part of his target audience, so he doesn’t care about your issues. Still, he deserves to be fisked within an inch of his life.