Here we go again.
The incomparable Michael Weissenstein of the Associated Press continues to play the Castro fiddle with genuine virtuosity.
Call him the “maestro” of stealth propaganda, that is, of Castronoid propaganda disguised as real news.
This time the lying concerns an “independent” group that has supposedly challenged Castronoid orthodoxy.
This “independent” group is headed by none other than the two Castronoid apparatchiks who were fired from their posts as editors of Cardinal Ortega’s boot-licking propaganda rag “Espacio Laical” (Lay Space).
Never mind the fact that “Espacio Laical” never, ever called for an end of the Castro tyranny or the dissolution of socialist totalitarianism. According to Weissenstein, that publication offered a “rare and influential” challenge to the Castro regime.
Never mind that the new so-called “independent” group headed by Castronoids Veiga and Lenier is not calling for any real change, but simply discussing ways of perfecting Castroism and making it a little more efficient.
Never mind the fact that the leaders of this group define themselves as ” fierce defenders of Cuban sovereignty” who “want to improve the current system rather than see it overturned in a return to its pre-revolutionary past.”
Never mind the fact that greedy Castro-loving “exile businessman” Carlos Saladrigas and his anti-embargo Cuba Now and Cuba Study Group propaganda machines are involved in this farce.
According to Weissenstein and the AP, this is a major, major step towards “open debate.”
How such ordure ends up being peddled as “news” is one of the most galling mysteries of life on earth. As galling as the existence of the devil and his minions, and of idiots who open their car doors on passing bicyclists.
From AP via other disreputable sources:
Rare Independent Group Aims to Open Debate in Cuba
The former editors of one of Cuba’s few non-government controlled media outlets have quietly restarted efforts to spur debate about the nation’s future, launching a series of public forums and plans for a new journal addressing the island’s most urgent problems.
The project, known as “Cuba Posible,” joins a handful of others in the small space between the uncritical state-run media and fiercely partisan dissident websites that have little reach inside Cuba.
Lawyer Roberto Veiga and journalist Lenier Gonzalez gained renown among Cuban intellectuals by transforming the Catholic church magazine Espacio Laical into a rare and influential forum for sociopolitical debate before the two men left last year amid an apparent church backlash over the publication’s aggressive coverage of current affairs.
The two men and their small circle of close collaborators say they are confident the project can provide a space for dialogue between government supporters and critics without running afoul of the island’s communist leaders.
“We hope that we’ll be heard and paid attention to in the world of politics,” said sociologist and project backer Aurelio Alonso. “We hope that what’s said won’t remain in a void, but will affect institutions and political players.”
Funded by Norway’s University of Oslo, Cuba Posible is based out of the Christian Center for Reflexion and Dialogue, an ecumenical church group focused on community projects that occasionally publishes newsletters and magazines from Cardenas, a sleepy mid-sized city about 95 miles (155 kilometers) east of Havana. Basing the new group there means it can use the center’s existing government permits rather than seek permission for a new independent publication.
“There have always been people inside the government who don’t like what we do and people who care about what we do,” Veiga told The Associated Press this week. “There are a variety of opinions but there’s no policy aimed at disrupting or battling us.”
The first public forum attracted dozens of academics and intellectuals and gave a hint of the group’s approach. Its central theme, “Cuba: Sovereignty and the Future,” was uncontroversial enough to avoid the risk of official ire. Participants avoided direct criticism of President Raul Castro or the island’s single-party system in place since the 1959 revolution. But some speakers, particularly those who rose from the audience to question speakers on panels, were unsparing in their evaluations of Cuba’s poor performance in a variety of sectors ranging from expanding the economy to updating educational curricula.
Gonzalez said the project’s founders were fierce defenders of Cuban sovereignty and wanted to improve the current system rather than see it overturned in a return to its pre-revolutionary past.
“We don’t think that’s a possibility for Cuba and we don’t want that,” he said. “We’re working to pose important questions, to maintain the ideal that a better country is possible, and it’s possible to achieve that among Cubans who think differently but have common values.”
Prominent Cuban exile businessman Carlos Saladrigas, who participated in forums organized by Espacio Laical, said he believed that Cuba Posible could gain more influence than the two men’s former publication.
Carlos, at least Weissenstein is not Cuban, which makes him better than Saladrigas. As for the “independents,” well, the sad fact is that such creatures are par for the course and will always be with us, certainly as long as the course exists. Still, one wonders how far anybody would have gotten with a plan to “improve South Africa’s apartheid system rather than see it overturned.” We are the victims of condoned and enabled hypocrisy; I suppose we just have to accept it and go about our business anyway. Outfits like the Associated Press are not going to change their tune if they can help it–and from their perspective, it must seem easier and safer to remain fashionably “progressive.”
“Fierce defenders of Cuban sovereignty.” Which one? The one that was turned over to Soviet Russia for 30 years until it could no longer provide for the Castroite parasite? Or is it the one that would have been similarly turned over to Venezuela if Hugo Chávez hadn’t been a crude slug who worshiped Fidel and counted on Cuba’s totalitarian expertise to stay in power indefinitely? Lord have mercy.
“Cubans who think differently but have common values.” Right. Values like the continuation of the Castro system with some cosmetic changes, sort of like Brezhnev’s Russia compared to Stalin’s–you know, Castro, Inc. Lite. But going back to a situation where even the poorest and humblest Cubans never thought about leaving the island, as opposed to now, when practically everyone either wants to leave or to be maintained from abroad, is absolutely out of the question. With logic like that, who can possibly argue? Same as trying to reason with a lunatic, except that the lunatic can’t help it.