Cuban truths
Could this be true?
A card-carrying member of the Left calling for democratic change in Cuba?
About bloody time, I hear you say …
So, I recommend this article in the Australian left-leaning webzine New Matilda by Antony Loewenstein, a Sydney-based author and blogger who is not what you’d call a great supporter of current US policy.
Loewenstein has recently visited Fidel Castro’s island paradise and it seems he has returned home feeling a little disappointed. To say the least.
True, he still repeats those old lines about the great health care system and “free” education - and he refers to the US trade and commercial embargo as “immoral”, etc.
But his conclusions can’t be faulted.
“Cuba is a police State,” Loewenstein reports.
“After spending time in Cuba, it is clear that revolutionary fervour is virtually non-existent among the younger generation; and that the genuine successes of the country … are compromised by the Castro regime’s repression of its citizens and its isolating them from information that is freely available in the West.”
And when it comes to the international Left’s silence on what's really going in Cuba, his messages are equally clear.
“If the international Left wants to do itself any favours … they should be calling for reform of the Cuban system,” he concludes.
“A truly open media, unfettered freedom of speech, and freedom of association are not merely Western indulgences. They are essential for any country to join the ranks of respectable nations.”
Buy the man a beer, I say.
A card-carrying member of the Left calling for democratic change in Cuba?
About bloody time, I hear you say …
So, I recommend this article in the Australian left-leaning webzine New Matilda by Antony Loewenstein, a Sydney-based author and blogger who is not what you’d call a great supporter of current US policy.
Loewenstein has recently visited Fidel Castro’s island paradise and it seems he has returned home feeling a little disappointed. To say the least.
True, he still repeats those old lines about the great health care system and “free” education - and he refers to the US trade and commercial embargo as “immoral”, etc.
But his conclusions can’t be faulted.
“Cuba is a police State,” Loewenstein reports.
“After spending time in Cuba, it is clear that revolutionary fervour is virtually non-existent among the younger generation; and that the genuine successes of the country … are compromised by the Castro regime’s repression of its citizens and its isolating them from information that is freely available in the West.”
And when it comes to the international Left’s silence on what's really going in Cuba, his messages are equally clear.
“If the international Left wants to do itself any favours … they should be calling for reform of the Cuban system,” he concludes.
“A truly open media, unfettered freedom of speech, and freedom of association are not merely Western indulgences. They are essential for any country to join the ranks of respectable nations.”
Buy the man a beer, I say.
posted by Luis M Garcia at 8:49 am
2 Comments:
The current Cuban system, like any hardcore totalitarian system, cannot be "reformed," because the needed changes would mean the end of the system (and would be potentially very dangerous to those responsible for it and its crimes).
That's why there has been no real reform in Cuba in half a century. It's not an accident or oversight. The system and those invested in it have no intention of losing their power and prerogatives, being dismantled and quite possibly prosecuted and penalized.
Asking the Cuban regime to "reform" is like asking the North Korean regime to do so. It's never going to happen voluntarily. Those in power are far more interested in their position and personal welfare than in the needs or wishes of the people they're totally accustomed to controlling and oppressing.
We know that the cuban gov. is not going to reform, but is very wise to ask them to, when they do not comply, distance yourself from it and stop carrying their propaganda, I think is a positive step if any left wing movement follow this advise, I remenber the embarrasment of Canadian liberals as been the last ones shaking hands with Ceacescu in Romania, days before he was executed.
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