Let's Talk About the "Dignity" of Cuba: A Vituperation

In his latest, the blogger in chief, aka fidel castro, ostensibly clings to the tattered dignity of Cuba by rejecting US aid, while pressing for a lifting, even if temporary (watch that camel!), of the embargo and the cash only terms of sales. He insists on the party line, which he may or may not have originated, that Cuba can not accept "charity" from a country which maintains an embargo against it. Cuba will, however, "purchase" what it needs. This posturing would be laughable if it were not so tragic, if 11 million human beings were not being held hostage to one man's vanity and a ruling cadre's obsession with power.

Memo to the uninitiated: Cuba does not pay its bills. If they could not pay in better times- better relative to, say, Haiti or Somalia- when they were still living off of the the century of development they misappropriated, how in the world will they be able to pay after having squandered those, the disaster magnified to unimaginable proportions by two hurricanes? As pointed out on Babalu, it would seem it is infinitely more honorable to steal than to accept humanitarian aid for a humanitarian crisis.

The "dignity" of Cuba would seem to be something trotted out arbitrarily. Apparently, it does not bother the regime when it goes hat in hat, begging, to countries around the world; when, infantile, it suckled on the Russian and now clings to the Venezuelan teat; when it turns its citizen-slaves into a cash crop like cattle or rice? What dignity, when he and his dim-witted cohorts have trashed one of the once premier economies of the region; when they have turned the Pearl of the Antilles into the Great Mendicant of the Caribbean? And the once yearly pilgrimage to the UN, sniveling about the embargo. What, is the UN really going to dictate to a sovereign nation with whom it can and cannot trade?

If they really cared about the dignity of Cuba, they would care about the indignities they have visited upon the Cuban people. They would free them to utilize their God-given talents. They would get out of the way and allow them the help they need to realize the most basic of living conditions, so that the people can recuperate not only from the hurricanes, but also from the half century maelstrom that has enveloped the nation. Dignity, my a__!