Democracy in action
There has been a fair bit of celebrating in Madrid overnight to mark the 30th anniversary of the first democratic elections held in Spain following the death of Francisco Franco.
Indeed, there is much to celebrate.
On 15 June 1977, Spaniards went to the polls for the first time in more than four decades to freely elect their own government.
And talk about free and fair elections: voters had more than 100 different political parties to chose from, including the then just-legalised Communists.
But at the same time as the celebrations are taking place in Madrid, representatives of the current, democratically-elected Spanish government are in Brussels busily lobbying other European Union members to “normalise” relations with the Castro regime, as you can read here.
Which begs the question: why would anyone who celebrates and supposedly defends democracy want to cosy up to a decaying and inherently corrupt dictatorship that has denied Cubans the same rights to free and fair elections for close to 50 years?
It seems that as far as some in Madrid are concerned, what is good for Spaniards is far, far too good for Cubans.
Indeed, there is much to celebrate.
On 15 June 1977, Spaniards went to the polls for the first time in more than four decades to freely elect their own government.
And talk about free and fair elections: voters had more than 100 different political parties to chose from, including the then just-legalised Communists.
But at the same time as the celebrations are taking place in Madrid, representatives of the current, democratically-elected Spanish government are in Brussels busily lobbying other European Union members to “normalise” relations with the Castro regime, as you can read here.
Which begs the question: why would anyone who celebrates and supposedly defends democracy want to cosy up to a decaying and inherently corrupt dictatorship that has denied Cubans the same rights to free and fair elections for close to 50 years?
It seems that as far as some in Madrid are concerned, what is good for Spaniards is far, far too good for Cubans.
posted by Luis M Garcia at 8:35 am
3 Comments:
Luis,
There is nothing new in this mindset. Is the typical attitude of the Europeans towards people of the non-european world, which goes something like this: "Oh, I will never be able to live under that kind of regime because of the restriction of liberties but for them who have never known democracy and lived in poverty all their life, now they have guaranteed healthcare and free education. I agree is not perfect but you can't deny is progress. You cannot deny that".
I got to tell you that I heard this type of mindless bullshit from many Europeans of all sorts, Germans, Spaniards, Frenchmen,etc, who should know better but they don't. Is a typical racist attitude. They have not gotten over their colonial mentality yet. What might be good for a Cuban is not good for them and they hipocritically have no qualms about telling you just that. Is naked and blatant hipocrisy and racism, nothing else. When you hear them, it makes one want to puke.
This is very old news. In the 19th century, when liberals (relatively speaking) were in power in Spain, they wanted liberal reforms for Spain, but wouldn't hear of anything of the sort for their Cuban colony.
It's obviously a hypocritical double-standard, based on the assumption that Spaniards are somehow superior beings who deserve better than those primitive tropical folks. It's a classic neocolonialist mindset.
Agustin, Asombra,
Sadly, you are both right. The hypocrisy is truly breathtaking.
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