America's Decline: A Matter of Perspective-Part 1

As I read about the decline of America, very fashionable at the moment, I am reminded of the wave of anti-war movies a while back. When they tanked (pardon the pun) the media rushed to interpret their failure as the war's lack of popularity rather than the public's distaste for criticizing the war in medias res, so to speak.

So when I came across an excerpt from Fareed Zakaria's new book, The Post American-World, my hackles were immediately raised. Surprisingly, or not so surprisingly if you were to judge from Zakaria's body of work, he avoids the usual liberal shibboleths. His thesis is more or less that it is not so much that the US is declining, but rather the rest of the world catching up. Bully for them! The piece was thought-provoking and I look forward to reading the book.

Too often in these reflections, however, the doom and gloom crowd is really disguising yet another "blame it on Bush" exercise, as in this piece, also from Newsweek. In my finest Brooklynese, I say "Get a clue, buddy." Yes, I'm sure Mr. Hirsh is very learned and very versed in foreign relations, and he is correct in saying that much of the damage is self-inflicted. I learned all about it in high school. People tend to take you as you present yourself. If we extrapolate, one has to ask how much of our "fall from grace" has been the result of the contemptuous self-criticism emerging from our side of the pond.

How can we expect anyone else to respect us when we have lost all respect for the office of president and the interests of our nation? I am not referring to differences with policy. I am referring to personal vituperation that goes far beyond the pale, being paraded across TV screens, magazines, blogs, etc... and to the unwise and immediate disclosure of sensitive and damaging information. Not only is it unseemly, but it has conceivably had much greater impact. I was struck by a Sunni Muslim in Fallujah who speaking of the much vaunted "awakening" said something to the effect that they had "discovered" Americans weren't that bad after all. Seems they believed the press. They thought we were going to take their oil, could not conceive that we would just want out. Can we say Abu Ghraib? Blood for oil? I'm sure it's not about being liked. I'm sure they hate us. It's about being respected.

There have been mistakes aplenty made, and there is much room for criticism, but it is the form that criticism takes, as well as the time frame, that has international repercussions. Yeah, they've always grudgingly admired us, but that's because we were sure of ourselves and our place in the world. Now we are a nation in middle-aged angst unsure of ourselves and desperately trying to be liked. Is it any wonder we are losing cache?

Little Plastic Houses

Actually, I don't know what color they'll be, but the regime is touting little plastic houses as a partial answer to the housing crisis in Cuba. The government will construct 14,000 of these beauties, made of PVC left over from the petrochemical processes from the Cienfuegos refinery, originally built by Americans, refurbished at Soviet expense, and now newly redone by Chavez & C0. I'm not making it up. Read here.

Cuba Solidarity Day: May 21, 2008: Updated

A day like today helps publicize the plight of Cubans in a way that no single individual can. You can read about the global effort here. There was a speech at the White House (see post below). But even more significantly, there were numerous small observations throughout Cuba, particularly surprising in light of the rumblings afoot about an incipient crackdown on dissidents. In particular peril are said to the Ladies in White and Antuñez. God watch over them all.

Henry over at Babalu posted a link earlier today to The Task at Hand that I found very moving. Sometimes a simple story can say much more than a thousand polemics. So I'll leave you with this.

Update: It warmed my heart to find this press release from the Moroccan American Center for Policy.

White House, Cuban National Anthem, Tears

I've just posted the last part because I found it the most moving. Check Babalu for link to the whole video.

The All-Seeing Eye

It was only a matter of time before the regime began taking note of Yoani Sanchez and her Generacion Y. First she came in for some public criticism. Now, according to this post from a few days ago, come the implied threats. Seeing the art she chose to illustrate the post, reminded me of this quote from the The Great Gatsby-

This is a valley of ashes—a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. Occasionally a line of gray cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-gray men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from your sight. But above the gray land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg. The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic—their irises are one yard high. They look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose. Evidently some wild wag of an oculist set them there to fatten his practice in the borough of Queens, and then sank down himself into eternal blindness, or forgot them and moved away. But his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days, under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground.

By the bye, if you look at the latest post on the blog in which the wouldbe hikers were virtually turned into the authorities, you might be reminded of the emotional backdrop of Child 44.

Read: Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith

Set in the 1950's Soviet Union, but inspired by the much later story of real life serial murderer Andrei Chikatilo, Child 44 is in various ways a crime story, an exploration of truth, an examination of the tension between integrity and self-preservation, and the effects of fear on human relationships.

Most reviews I've read have trumpeted the novel as a thriller, but its greatest strength lies in its portrayal of the world of Stalinist Russia, one permeated by fear and falsehood. Smith is at his best in delving into the corrosive effects on human beings of the time and place, whether the horrible expedients to avoid starvation in the Ukraine, the denunciation of innocents in the basement torture chambers of the Lubyanka, or the mistrust bred into even the most intimate of human relationships.

It is the clash between these realities and the fantasy of official propaganda which fuels much of the plot. In this worker's paradise, nothing is as it seems. One of the many fictions perpetuated by the political apparatus is that there is no crime, no murder, as Leo Demidov, decorated member of the State Security Force at the beginning of the novel, prods a colleague whose son has been killed. By the end, Leo, demoted and disillusioned, comes full circle, risking his life and that of his wife in a frantic, all out hunt for a child predator. Ironically, it is in losing all that Leo gains his humanity.

Because of its setting and story, the comparison to Gorky Park is a natural. For my money, Martin Cruz Smith's novel is the better read. The plot here is too gimmicky, the characters not as developed, not to mention that Smith's protagonist is originally one of the bad guys. At the same time, Child 44 is in a different class altogether and is probably the better book. It rises above genre as it questions how far a human being will go to assure his survival.

If you like thrillers, have an interest in Russian history, or have a couple of hours to kill, you could do much worse that Child 44.

To Embargo or Not to Embargo?

I've been doing a bit of soul searching the past few days, ever since Marta Beatriz Roque asked President Bush to ease restrictions. The chorus coming from the island is nearly unanimous in asking that some aspect of the embargo and/or restrictions be lifted. I almost could have gone along, as- contrary to some opinion we are sentient beings- when I read this post by Henry, and I remembered.

I might be persuaded to back the softening of measures, even at the risk of enriching the coffers of the Havana Dons, but a few major issues stick in my craw. One is that quite a bit of American- not Cuban American- property was seized without compensation by the Cuban Capos. What are the odds that the Mendicant of the Antilles can or will pony up funds? If we lift the embargo, we are signalling other tin pot despots that American investments abroad can be seized with impunity. This I can see a way around, as long as the Havana High Commission can see its way to paying a surcharge on every commercial transaction (cash only, please) to be deposited in a fund to pay claimants. The real sticking point for me here is the release of political prisoners. Any dialogue, any softening has to be tied to the liberation of individuals languishing in Cuban jails for "thought crimes."

I can anticipate the rejoinders, what about China and Russia? It is a false parallel. In many of these countries the case could be made that bad as the government was the mass of the people were at least slightly better off. Cuba has the distinction of having been dragged back into the third world. But the real objection has to do with the level of support the criminals will get. Face it, how many people wanted to sunbathe in Siberia or really get down with Bulgarian salsa? By dint of propinquity, climate, and culture, Cuba is bound to be a hot destination. The take from the regime's "skim" will be enormous; the pressure on Cubans to play "happy natives and assorted prostitutes" despite their education and culture, inordinate; and the financially beneficial myopia; irresistible.

Generations

Had a great deal of fun at this weekend's "Cuba Nostalgia" where I finally got to meet a number of my fellow bloggers, picked up some reading material, and was introduced to some interesting authors. There were all sorts of experiences: watching the lines at the terminals to sign the petition to free Cuban political prisoners grow at least five deep, glancing at the same screen and seeing a gentleman's signature with his prisoner number appended, seeing the younger generations- even those who have raised well outside the Cuban milieu- helping the old codgers to sign, the same elderly who demanded to be allowed to register their voices.

Much has been said about younger generations of Cubans. I say, what caring, and well-mannered young people! My daughter has that sweetness, which I used to erroneously attribute solely to her character. Yesterday I realized that in part it is her upbringing. Ours is a culture that cares for our elderly, that values their wisdom, tolerates their ill-humor, and respects their experience. Our children absorb those values and act accordingly.

I suspect that the same can be said of the sense of loss and righteous anger over Cuba. True, there is a difference, even with the older generations. The anger now is more muted, buried under the strata of years, even lifetimes, of living in the United States, but still there waiting to be unearthed. Now it is expressed with a quiet dignity, with a purposeful tread, a defiant angle to the head, but it is still there and still being passed on to younger generations.

I was privileged to witness this mechanism first hand. A father in his late thirties, early forties, brought his son to the Babalu booth. The young boy, intent on showing off his computer savvy, sat down to enter his father's name as this gentleman looked on indulgently. They had turned to leave when the boy murmured something. His father led him back to the terminal and asked "What does it say there?" Bingo! I thought as he began to instruct the boy in terms a seven year old could understand. That's how it's done.

Very, Very Early Sunday Syllables

Since I'll be in transit and in nostalgia mode mañana, thought I'd share today.

Uh-Oh. Heads up, my Venezuelan friends, guess who's coming to train your police? You guessed it. I'd hazard to say the Miranda type rights are not on the agenda. According to this Herald report, members of the Cuban police are going to Venezuela to help set up their "community policing." I say, a CDR by any other name smells as rank. Here's another Chavez news item. He says Cuba can join OPEC because they're going to produce oil someday, somehow, maybe. There was an even better story, but I lost it somewhere.

Uh-Huh. In this article from the CNA, the good news is that assimilation is alive and well. Leading the getting to be American quickly charge? Cubans and Filipinos. Lagging behind: Mexicans. Face it- the cultural elite don't like us because we're just too bourgeois.

Tsk, Tsk. Chuck Colson, one of the few figures to rise phoenix-like from the ashes of Watergate, writes a piece condemning the junta in Myanmar not only for its refusal to allow in humanitarian aid after the devastation of the recent cyclone, but also for its "ethnic cleansing of Christian minority groups."

Huh? First it was the seed museum; now we have a feature on the museum devoted to the male members of species. Seems there's an Icelandic Phallological Museum. The only specimen missing is Homo Sapiens. Not to worry, there's a description of "Elmo." By the way, what's with the nicknames?

Literary Interlude: House of Cards

Recently, I had occasion to mention Charles Simic’s poetry. Here’s a small offering of his verse. If you like it, you might want to pick up a copy of his Selected Poems at the library, or better yet the bookstore.

House of Cards

I miss you winter evenings
With your dim lights.
The shut lips of my mother
And our held breaths
As we sat at a dining room table.

Her long, thin fingers
Stacking the cards,
Then waiting for them to fall.
The sound of boots in the street
Making us still for a moment.

There’s no more to tell.
The door is locked,
And in one red-tinted window,
A single tree in the yeard,
Leafless and misshapen.

Tiny Bubbles

A while back, an unnamed European diplomat likened Cuba to a pot being heated. There are bubbles here and there, their number increasing. To read Miscelaneas de Cuba today is to be reminded of the analogy.

On Wednesday of this week, the Junta de Coordinadores de la Agenda para la Transición, loosely the committee for the transition agenda, met for the second time. This small conclave is worth noting for a variety of reasons. First, it represents a concerted effort to unite opposition groups on the island, a seeming necessity if they are to accomplish anything. Second, the list of those attending reads like a who's who of same:

Félix Antonio Bonne Carcassés, Margarito Broche Espinosa, Francisco Chaviano González, Guillermo Fariñas Hernández, Jorge Luís García Pérez (Antúnez), René Gómez Manzano, María Antonia Hidalgo Mir, Roberto de Miranda Hernández, Vladimiro Roca Antúnez, Néstor Rodríguez Lovaina, Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello, Elizardo Sánchez Santa Cruz Pacheco, Juan Francisco Sigler Amaya e Idania Yanes Contreras.

You can read about it here . Third, it was the inspiration for this by José Luís García Pérez (Antúnez), Guillermo Fariñas Hernández (Coco) and Francisco Chaviano González. In it, they go through a lengthy examination of the term dialogue because they feel that it is dialogue that is needed. It is not a dialogue with the regime, because as they quote if "politics is the art of the possible," then the regime as authors of the Cuban tragedy, given to all species of treachery, would not seem to be an appropriate interlocutor. Instead, they would have Cubans speak with each other. They would have those in exile form their own group to then work with them.

In a separate entry, dissident Oswaldo J. Payá Sardiñas of Varela Project fame, forced to send closing remarks to a conference in Brussels, makes the point that Cuban destiny is a Cuban thing. In the full text of his remarks here, he touches eloquently on the whole gamut of issues. Read it in English here. If you follow no other link, follow that one.

I cannot agree with him on the question of dialogue with the regime. Sit down with thieves, murderers, and tyrants without any true overtures on their part? I do think that we can soften the tenor of much of our commentary without giving an inch. It's all about face. We have it; they don't. About the embargo, more later.

Finally, this declaration from Miami where Hector Palacios finds himself describes the current state of things in Cuba and offers hope.

(All text unless otherwise indicated is in Spanish.)

Business and Pleasure: Updated

Sign the Petition: Please sign a petition for the freedom of Cuba's political prisoners. Tell everyone you know and have them sign. The eventual goal is one million signatures. Read about it on Babalu here. More on the website here. You can navigate from there to the actual petition.

Cuba Solidarity Day: Another effort to publicize the plight of the people of Cuba. Visit the website. Read about it. See if there is anything you can do to help.

Letters to Biscet: One of the most heartbreaking, yet inspiring, figures of the Cuban opposition is Dr. Elias Biscet who remains imprisoned for his beliefs. For info here. His daughter Winnie would like to send him letters from well-wishers for father's day. The catch is that they have to be in Spanish. I'll translate brief notes to the best of my abilities.

Cuba Nostalgia. Getting my dancing shoes ready for this weekend. Unfortunately, I can only go down to Miami for the day, after my little jaunt to LA last weekend...both physically and economically spent, you see. Of course, I'll have to make a pit stop at La Carreta. If you've never been to one of these events, you've got to go. It's basically a Cuban convention, a celebration of all things Cuban: food, fuel, and fun, as well as a bit of cultural history and a smattering of literature. Info here.

A Growing Chorus?

I was wading through the newsstand at my local bookstore when I came across the Americas Quarterly. Lo and behold, they have a special section in the Spring 2008 Issue entitled "Cuba: Until When?" For most of us, the information is not new- the continued repression, the newly liberated and unaffordable appliances, the church’s preoccupation with its own status, and the disaffection of the people. There is an interesting discussion as to why the people do not rebel, and there are some additional sidebars of interest: moving excerpts from the prison diary of Normando Hernandez (see profile here on Uncommon Sense) who is in ill health and a write-up of Yoani Sanchez.

The one fly in the ointment, so to speak, is the position that lifting the embargo and travel restrictions will help liberate the people. They acknowledge that doing so will enrich the coffers of the regime, but they also maintain that it will be impossible for the regime to keep as tight a rein. No people to people exchanges here. Personally, if we could peacefully overrun the country, I would be all for it. Somehow, though, I don’t think that’s what the misgovernment would allow.
Unfortunately, there are only teasers available online here.

Cross-posted at Babalublog

What I Would Have Posted on Sunday: The Sin of Brevity

Webicide? This Article in Newsweek posits the question, will Steve Jobs murder the internet? Answer here.

Adultery. As a once longtime resident of Staten Island, it breaks my heart to see the morass into which Vito Fosella has dragged his family, as well as his political career. His wife, a sweet and wonderful person, certainly didn't deserve this, and my prayers go out to them all.

Alerts!
Jimmy Buffett has a new book out, Swine Not? A Novel. I can only hope it's better than that Joe Merchant thing. See him talk about the book on Amazon here.

Tomorrow, I'll hopefully have something from Americas Quarterly which has a whole section on Cuba. Unfortunately, only a preview of two of the articles is available online. Just leafing through, it looked like it was on target!

Mothers' Day: A Musical Recollection

Was out of town for the weekend, and got airline revenge, so here is the belated Mothers' Day Post:

On Mothers' Day: A Musical Recollection

When I was about seven years old, the lady who would become my fourth grade teacher decided to offer piano lessons. A few of us took her up on her offer. The one difficulty was that not a single one of us had a piano, nor as children of the working class any likelihood of owning one. Thus, we were issued wooden keyboards to use for practice, a singularly uninspiring exercise.

After a bit, I lost interest. So one day, when my mother questioned me, I replied that I wasn't taking lessons anymore. In response to her quizzical look, I told her not to worry that I had spoken to the teacher. I had told her that I wasn't taking lessons anymore because my parents couldn't afford a piano.The next thing I knew, my parents trotted me down to Abraham & Strauss on Fulton Street in Brooklyn, a store we never frequented as it was above our touch. Sure enough, we left as the proud owners of a Hammond piano. Yes, they used to make pianos, too.

It was beautiful, my gleaming new piano. I was in transports. I guess because the thing cost over seven hundred 1960's dollars, they felt I should have more serious instruction and they hired a friend of a friend.This worthy young woman had graduated from a prestigious music school in Cuba and was a purist. The bulk of my instruction consisted of scales, arpeggios, and other exercises. I was not allowed to play popular music unless it was in its original form. It was- to say the very least- tedious.

In order to lighten the mood and get some enjoyment out of their substantial investment, they wrote to relatives who would send pieces of sheet music in their letters from Cuba. In the early days, about the only one I had any chance of mastering was a song entitled "Madrecita" by Osvaldo Farrés. Day in and day out for who knows how long I dutifully and grudgingly practiced this one, until my mother used to say that the flower the child carried in his heart was a stick.

In any case, I thought I would share the words, since I am scanner challenged.

"Madrecita"

Madrecita del alma querida

en mi pecho yo llevo una flor

no te importe el color que ella tenga

porque al fin tu eres madre una flor.

Tu cariño es mi bien, madrecita

en mi vida tu has sido y seras

el refugio de todas mis penas

y, la cuna de tu amor y verdad.

Aunque amores yo tenga en la vida

que me llenen de felicidad,

como el tuyo hamas madre mia,

como el tuyo no habre de encontrar.

Repeat first stanza.

Anyway, the upshot of the whole story is that despite bribery, bullying, pleading and railing, I was never a particularly inspired piano student. I can still remember Mom threatening to bury me in that piano. In the end, I took about five years of lessons before they gave up. I still have the piano which I take with me every time I move, the emblem of my shame. Still, I can play a mean "Lara's Theme, " when I play at all, that is.

Some Statistics for a Sunday Afternoon

$400 million Value of cigars sold worldwide by Cuba in 2007

$10 million What Americans are estimated to spend annually on Cuban cigars, despite an embargo

1,200 The number of Petit Upmanns JFK stockpiled before putting the Trade Embargo into effect.

79 The number of wouldbe Cuban exiles returned to the island and to probable reprisals on Saturday.

All stats except the last taken from The Denver Post here and here. Report on the last here.

More on the EcoEthanol Follies

Here's a particularly interesting take on the situation by the author of The Really Inconvenient Truths: Seven Environmental Catastrophes Liberals Don’t Want You to Know About — Because They Helped Cause Them, Iain Murray, as well as some interesting commentary.

My favorite quote:

Yet somehow, green is still good. There is a zeitgeist about green environmentalism that has gripped us like some form of mass hysteria so that we cannot see the very real harm it is causing. Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that firms were ceasing to see any benefit from their green advertising and were now counting it as a cost of doing business. The green emperor not only has no clothes, he is oppressing the poor and burning the forests. It’s time for an anti-green revolution.

Of Petty Tyrannies

My preferred method of travel is driving, but yesterday I found myself flying out to LA. Because Sarasota is off the beaten track, so to speak, I no longer fly directly to any destination. Since I was heading out to LA, this was a good thing.

Actually I don't fly anymore if I can avoid it, just as I will never again darken Disney World's doorstep. Many entities in the name of public health and political correctness have made the decision that it is okay to torture and inconvenience nicotine addicts like myself who have very little recourse but to submit. My absolute nightmare is being stuck on the tarmac for eight hours. I literally think I would get myself arrested. I don't wish to hurt or inconvenience others, but some consideration for approximately a quarter of the population- that's more than any minority group- would be nice. How about a sealed off area somewhere? What the greatly virtuous and inordinately "holier-than-thou" crowd miss is the horribly addictive nature of smoking.

So when, it comes to flying, if you add the airport wait time to the five hours it takes to fly out, Atlanta, which has a smokers' lounge, sounds just fine to me. Alas, my first flight was late, leaving me but fifteen minutes to cross the entire length of the airport. As it was, I was literally the last person on the connecting flight to LA. So I get on the airplane after about three hours of abstinence. By the end of the flight five hours later (we got delayed a bit), I was ready to cry or kill someone.

But then that's just the general backdrop of my trip. Being something less than a dinosaur, maybe a mammoth, when it comes to technology, I booked my flight online. I didn't choose seats because I figured I didn't much care. Mistake. I check in at the Delta counter where everyone else is getting boarding passes, and I get a "request for a seat." Okay, so I don't freak, yet. They'll do it at the gate when I check in there. But when I get to the gate, they're starting to board and the guy at the counter waves the unfortunates off with "I'm working on it."

Now I'm a bit annoyed. I book my ticket months ahead of time, and here I am lumped together with the standby supplicants. You know there's going to be no room in the overhead bin by the time I get on. And, as a veteran of Sunjet, I 'm a bit suspicious that they're going to say, "Oops, no more room." So I very mildly explain my concerns to the aforementioned guy, who looks like the actor with the once shaved head on the Las Vegas franchise of CSI. Oh, he tells me "Zone 1 is just for frequent fliers." Well, 1 was followed by Zone 2, and 3 and 4. When I get my boarding pass, I'm magically Zone 9. By the time it was announced, there were three of us left. I did not complain or cause a scene, because when it comes to flying, we do not enjoy many of our rights as American citizens.

So as I sat in the middle between two rather beefy fellows, one of whom had little familiarity with a bar of soap judging from the effluent he was giving off, I had to smile. I'm sure the guy who looks like the actor with the once shaved head really enjoyed that brief momentary exercise of power in what must be a pretty thankless occupation. As for me, my smokeless day was shot anyway. Thank you, Delta Airlines.

Y,Oh, Y!

Here's a brief and entertaining bit on Miscelaneas by José Manuel Caraballo Bravo from down Cuba way, a rumination on the decided aversion to all things y on the part of the Havana "Commission." Let me share the conclusion of his commentary-

Up to [now] the brief comments of a totalitarian government who is allergic to the "Yahoo", "Yankees", "Young people", "Yuletide", and the "Generation Y created by Yoani". If you'd like more information try to ask someone from the government for the reason; but be careful because WHY ends in a "Y".

Read it here. It's in English.

What They Don't See

What would a week be without at least one "in the know" report about Cuba from some tourist type? Most of them are rich in dramatic irony. Try this one:

Taxis are dirt cheap. You can go anywhere for a few bucks; better still hire a driver who can speak a little English who’ll drive you all over town for the night for $20.

My taxi-driver, Claudio, was a doctor moonlighting in his battered Soviet-era Lada. He drove me out to see DJoy play ear-blistering house music at the Jardins de la Tropical (Avenida 41, Playa), another terrific outdoor venue under a cover of giant banyan trees. Back in the day the Jardins was the place for couples dressed in all their finery to dance salsa, but on this night strobe lights were bouncing off the palm trees and trendy young things were happily waving their arms in the air.

How many doctors in any country are forced to moonlight as cabbies? Or is it a taxi fetish on the part of the medical professional? Does this erstwhile traveler even stop to think? No, he is bent on his own pleasure, on demonstrating his "cool" credentials.

There's more here.

Enter the Greek Chorus

More and more is starting to appear in reference to the ethanol boondoggle. Even Mr. Obama has commented. Here's one via Townhall. An inconvenient truth, indeed. The cyclone in Myanmar doesn't help the situation either.

Reaction to Yoani's Absence at the Awards Ceremony

Thanks to El Pais, we have some of the commentary.

Yoani (in a telephone interview): Nothing I have written in my blog is as pointed as my absence from the ceremony.

Sanjuana Martínez, Mexican winner of the prize for investigative reporting: I would like to send out a greeting to Yoani, whose absence is a symbol, no more no less, that there are no changes. In Cuba you can buy electrical appliances and cell phones, but there is no free press.

Gervasio Sánchez, winner of the prize for photography: The prohibition creates a greater media impact and has negative repercussions for the image of Cuba.

There's more, but my powers of translation fail me. Some even questioned Spain's policies toward Cuba.

No Prize for You!

Not surprisingly the Cuban regime has tacitly denied Yoani Sanchez's application to leave the country by deciding not to decide. Of course, Yoani will not be able to receive the "Ortega y Gasset Prize" in electronic journalism, a prestigious award granted by the Spanish newspaper El Pais being handed out today, in person. Yoani's blog, Generacion Y, has propelled her to well-deserved fame as she posts on her life in Cuba.

This was a no-win situation for the Havana Dons, as allowing her to accept the prize would highlight the conditions in Cuba. Refusing to let her go, on the other hand, emphasizes the repression of speech. 6 of 1, half dozen of the other. True to form, they chose the nastier option.

One consolation is that Ernesto of Penultimos Dias was asked to accept it in her stead. He has posted a moving open letter to Yoani. It's in Spanish. If Yoani can't be there, I can think of no better representative. El año que viene in la Habana.

Stories in English here and here.

Summer Reading

This summer promises books from some of my favorite authors. So my fellow bibliophiles, here are the highlights of the summer reading list:

Legally Dead by Edna Buchanan due out in August.

Swan Peak by James Lee Burke in July. It's a Dave Robicheaux novel, and I love Robicheaux.

The Broken Window by Jeffrey Deaver in June. It's the eighth book featuring Lincoln Rhyme, this time with a cyber twist.

The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston of Relic et al fame in June. This one is a true life story of his hunt for a serial killer in Florence, Italy. It sounds like a strange story.

An Advancement of Learning by Reginald Hill out in April. It's not one of the Pascoe novels, but rather number two in a series where I missed one, but I'll give it a try. There's nothing like a refined British mystery with a glass of vino on a Friday afternoon.

Vineyard Chill by Phillip R Craig due out in June. This is a sad one. It's the final Martha's Vineyard mystery because Mr. Craig died after its completion. These were always light whodunits.

Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith out now. This is one of those titles the library purchases two of and then you're on a waiting list forever. Could be because Barnes & Noble highlighted it. Last one was the Davinci Code. Anyway, sounds like a distant cousin of Gorky Park: serial killer in Stalinist Russia, official dissembling, suspense. Speaking of which, if you haven't already read Stalin's Ghost by Martin Cruz Smith you might want to do it. It doesn't disappoint.

As The Worm Turns

It warms the cockles of my heart to see the list of truth tellers grow. Who'da thunk it? This week, we add The Miami Herald, not known for being particularly fond of their own Miami Cubans. How's this for an editorial?

***

Cuba's leader tells another whopper
OUR OPINION: RAUL CASTRO'S LIE REFUTED BY A LEGACY OF SHAME

As a practical matter, it is impossible for this or any other newspaper to set the record straight every time the Cuban government tells a whopper. Orchestrating lies is the specialty of police states. Anyone who has ever listened to Radio Havana or watched a Cuban TV ''news'' program knows that Cuban leaders lie to their own people and lie to the outside world. They even lie to each other. But sometimes the lie is so blatant, so malign, so far removed from the painful reality of life in Cuba that it must be refuted, for the sake of common decency if nothing else.

That's the case with Raúl Castro's recent claim that there has not been ''one sole case of torture'' in Cuba. Even by Cuba's standards, this is an astonishing falsehood, a lie of such outsized proportions that even Raúl Castro should have been ashamed to utter it. But since he was speaking before the National Assembly, where slavish agreement is the only acceptable response to the leader's declarations, it doubtless went down like a smooth cafecito.

The truth, of course, is that torture and the humiliation of government opponents is a way of life in Cuba. The abusive legal and institutional mechanisms of the state deprive the people of Cuba of their most basic rights on a daily basis, and that extends to the practice of torture in Cuba's jails for both common criminals and political prisoners

***

The rest of the editorial here.

H/T Gusano at Babalublog

Oh, No, Not That!

Serbia will be holding parliamentary elections on Sunday. This article casts it as a contest between modernity and nationalism. Interesting to note:

Some Serbian liberal intellectuals fear a nationalist coalition government will turn Serbia into a Balkan Cuba.

"They want to bring back state socialism," said Misa Brkic, a prominent liberal economist. "They will block our joining the European Union and make Serbia a 21st-century Cuba as Cuba was for the Russians in the 1960s in its relations with the United States."

Republican Women for Hillary?

I warned that the C-word would come out of the closet to haunt McCain. Sure enough, it was brought up at a town hall meeting. See Fausta's Blog for the video. I'm telling you, if it's verified, I'm outta that camp.

What a long, strange trip it's been. I started the election cycle with "anybody but Hillary" as my mantra, although I have long admired her strength of character. It's her positions I've always objected to. But compared to Obama who? she is looking decidedly better. Maybe Anne Coulter was on to something, although I thought she was insane at the time. Now I come across this article at the Weekly Standard about how conservatives are coming to grudingly respect her. I tell you the woman is brilliant.

Who knows? If Obama doesn't finish her off quickly, we may yet see Republican Women for Hillary.

Another Perspective on Kosovo: Charles Simic

I was looking for the Mathiessen article I had read in the Digest, when I stumbled upon this by Charles Simic. Now Simic happens to be one of the few contemporary poets I like, and the hubster being originally from the former Yugoslavia meaning I've done my fair share of reading about the situation, particularly West's two volume epic, so I have to read Simic.

As I read the article, I say to myself- Simic has to be from Serbia. Now it's a novel viewpoint for me because between the Slovenski/Croatian orientation of the family and the atrocities Serbs perpetrated in the name of the "Greater Serbia," not to mention a horrible Serb in-law, I don't have a particularly good opinion of the place. Still, Simic presents a fairly complex view of the situation.

Then I go off on a link to a response by a Kosovar which in turn leads to a reply by Simic, and it hits me how similar the give and take to what Cubans go through. The same truths are seen at best through many different lenses. Just thought you'd benefit from seeing some up close info from a part of the world probably even less understood than Cuba.

Random Moments of Grace

I cannot tell you how glorious the weather is here today and has been for a few days. I've got the hot tub warming up. I'm struck by these little moments of grace that crop up unexpectedly.

The other day at work, we were having a discussion on of all things: beans. An older, almost elfin, gentleman who works in the cafe says "I don't like the way you Cubans make red beans." I suspect strongly he's Mexican which of course explains it. But as he continues, "I once spent a year in Cuba with the circus." And I know he's telling the truth, at least I know he once juggled with the circus. He still has that really erect bearing of an acrobat or drill sergeant. "Yes," he says, "in 1953, the best year of my life. I was in my prime then, and the place was a lot of fun."

Or I'm driving home today from Downtown when a man crosses the street in front of me. For a minute, I think he might be the Mexican hobo who frequents the area and makes me crazy because he tarnishes the Anglo impression of Mexicans, all of those I know being hardworking types. The pale blue striped polo co-ordinates with the shorts, but something about him spells "homeless," maybe it's the mochilla over his shoulder. Can his hair have gotten that white, I'm pondering, when I realize it's not him. At that very moment, the gentleman in question stops in midtraverse, looks at me, and winks. Then he turns and proceeds on his way with nary a look behind. Something significant has happened here. Something with no words, no intellect, just grace.

Putting the Sunday Edition to Bed on Monday

No Festival. Seems I'm not the only one lamenting the demise of the festival. It is not often that I agree with an editorial position in the Sarasota Herald Tribune, but this time they're just plain right. There have also been some letter writers. My favorite: this one which recognizes the sad reality of where Sarasota's heading.

No Safety. In a truly sad story, a young woman was raped and beaten while returning a book at the night drop at the Bloomingdale (FL) Regional Library. There is no such thing as safety anymore. Read about the arrest here.

No Shame. Yet another in what has become a tediously long line of articles, this time in the International Herald Tribune, about how younger Cuban Americans are changing voting habits. Again, Joe Garcia pops up like a political rolypoly. If he is correct, it is a case of no harm, no foul. But it occurs to me that if Garcia is soundly trounced, he will have performed a great disservice to Cuban Americans, having fed into that whole mindset about the intransigent elders. Read it here.

Wee Willie. Finally, police, yes, police, in the Congo have arrested thirteen reputed sorcerers for shrinking penises, other people's that is. This is serious stuff as there have been attempted lynchings over the matter. Read all about it here.

The Populist Reader

Managed to polish off Anne Perry's Buckingham Palace Gardens and Stuart Wood's Shoot Him if He Runs, as well as a little morsel by Mary Kay Andrews. Seems the theme this week was "how the other half lives." The upshot: Perry's latest entry into the Inspector Pitt series satisfies as usual, although the marked absence of Charlotte Pitt leaves a gap in the proceedings. Set in Buckingham Palace during Victoria's reign, although in her absence, the plot is set in motion with the early morning discovery of a murdered lady of the evening in the Queen's linen closet. Again we have the tensions between the pursuit of justice and the pretensions and snobbery of the upper classes. Perry is always at her finest in conveying the Victorian social milieu. Despite having devolved into being somewhat formulaic, her mysteries have heft, an impression made stronger by comparison to the Stuart Woods novel.

I had forgotten that I had sworn off Stone Barrington novels when I picked this one up. All that slice of upper class life in trendy New York is getting tedious- their hanging out at Elaine's in particular gets my goat. Not that I object to the rich in principle, it's just that there is just the slightest tinge of elitism in there. And then there is the sexual angle. Holly from the Orchard Beach novels reappears in this case and almost spontaneously falls into Barrington's bed. There is no foreplay for the reader. At this point, the most appealing character in the book is the villain. Having highlighted all my objections, I still have to say that it's a fair read for a sunny afternoon, if you were once fond of the Woods' novels, say like my favorite, Chiefs.

Savannah Breeze by Mary Kay Andrews also boasts a wealthy main character, at least initially. In this unabashed piece of fluff, old money Savannah native Bebe Loudermilk-that's pronounced Beh Beh- finds herself fleeced by a smooth talking con man. Left only with a broken-down motel on Tybee, one with a title in question, she sets about picking herself up with the help of an assorted cast of characters. Also with their help, she works her own con and recovers the lost loot. The one thing I found jarring was the switching of perspective in a few chapters. Definitely a girlie beach read.

On a more serious and substantial note, I came across an article in the New York Review of Books on a new/old effort on the part of Peter Matthiessen. I've posted on his Everglades trilogy before, but it seems he has reworked the material into a single 975 page book. I don't know if I'll read it. I still savor the haunting quality of Lost Man's River. Don't want to ruin the taste, if you know what I mean. The article itself by Michael Dirda, as well as the actual history, is fascinating. Read it here.

Finally, a bit of book news. Michael Connelly, a must read if you like crime novels, has edited a book of police stories- The Blue Religion. I actually met him at a reading festival. Here's a link to an interview about the same, courtesy of the National Review Online.

Today's Turn of Phrase: "Castro Shrugged"

I ran across an issue of Reason with a brief article which included the infamous picture with the Greenspan book. Brian Doherty's take on that moment goes beyond the "proof of life" interpretation many of us gave it. He maintains that it was a rare moment of honesty when Castro admitted he didn't get it (Greenspan's book). I don't necessarily agree, and it is a given that I don't agree with his conclusion. Still it's thought-provoking, because once in a while, the veil does seem to lift in one of his ramblings, and for a moment, the veriest hint of self-examination possibly comes through.

But it's the title which seized my fancy. Take a look at the allusion to the Ayn Rand novel, Atlas Shrugged, the same Ayn Rand who extolled the very philosophy incomprehensible to Fidel. Elegant. Then there is the allusion to Atlas, the Titan who held up the world in Greek mythology. Again apropos to Castro, who has always seen himself as a titan, a giant among men. If you'll pardon another literary allusion, in my mind the word hearkens to that description of Julius Ceasar- he doth bestride the narrow world Like a Colossus. Finally, there is the notion of shrugging, which here seems to be equivalent to Castro "blinks," thereby resonating with the rare admission of fallibility. How very neat.

Death in Havana?

Don't get excited, because it's fugitive financier Robert Vesco who "may" have died in Havana of lung cancer. There is some evidence to indicate that it was Vesco, a colorful character who apparently could not contain himself even on the lam and wound up in a Cuban jail for purportedly defrauding Castro relatives. Here's an old Fortune story with quite a few of the details of his life and his exile. And here is an article about the death(?) from Moldova. Yup. To be fair, they got their info from a Times story.

Of Heroines and Pioneers

Yoani Sanchez, whose blog Generacíon Y is linked on the brand new and unfinished blogroll next door, is among Time's 100. In an elegant little profile, written by none other than Oscar Hijuelos, a favored author of mine, she is described as practicing freedom of speech in a speech-stifled country.

Yoani's version of free speech is to write about her life and thoughts. She does not stand on a soap box, or not much of one anyway, but her honest and often witty posts make absolutely clear the realities of life in Cuba. She does what she does at her own peril. God watch over her and throw some real lemons her way.

Profile here.

A Nice Place to Live?

The average state salary is just 19.50 US dollars per month, though health care and education are free, basic food is subsided and most people do not have to pay for housing.
-from this CBS report about May Day celebration in Cuba.

Gee, sounds like they're living off the fat of the land! Talk about your oversimplification.

An Eco Fable

Just finished a post for Babalublog which reminded me of a story one of those high-priced consultants brought in just for the occasion once told at an in service day. It's also enviropolitically correct.

Once upon a time, some very happy frogs lived in a very happy little pond. But then a big, bad paper company opened a plant next door. They discharged heated toxic water into the pond. At first, it was just uncomfortable, so the frogs put up with it. But as the temperature and toxicity kept rising, some frogs started questioning whether they should leave the only home they had ever known. They eventually took off and were never heard from again. The others adapted, and adapted still more as conditions worsened. Finally, they were all killed off by the conditions. Did the other frogs make it? Who knows? But at least they had a fighting chance unlike their compatriots.

I tell the story for no other reason than to remind myself. It seized something in my imagination. I share it because I think it says something important; I'm just still haven't worked it out.

In the News: Corrected

so to speak. This month's Townhall magazine, only the second issue, has a most excellent article by Humberto Fontova, who has managed to break through to American media outlets. In it, he quotes, among others, our very own Henry Gomez. He also cites the work of Antonio de la Cova. Professor de la Cova's website has an incredible array of materials. And lest we forget who exactly we are dealing with, here is a link to the early work of those grand humanitarians, purveyors of literacy and free health care on the same website.

H/T Babalublog

Correction: It is the fifth issue. Sorry.

Sarasota Reading Festival: RIP

The Sarasota Herald Tribune reports that the Reading Festival's board of directors met, canceled the festival, and are to dissolve the corporation. Apparently, mounting the festival was getting so costly that the charity goal of the fete, the raison d'etre of the whole proceeding, could not be met.

While quite understandable, it is- like so much of what goes on in Sarasota- penny wise and pound foolish. Granted, the funds when they were available were nice. But other the years, the festival became so much more. It was a true celebration of literacy. It was positively thrilling to my old bibliophile's heart to see the excitement on young people's faces, put there by books. You can read my transports over the last one on this blog.

The festival was a private undertaking, but its demise is symptomatic of a greater malaise in town. Sarasota which prides itself on its cultural heritage and sophistication seems to be hell bent on turning into any one of hundreds of Florida municipalities, bastions of materialism. If it is not quantifiable, it is cut back, eliminated. Budget shortfall? No problem- cut libraries, parks. Libraries are a "privilege" which not everyone uses, as if raising future citizens were producing widgets. And culture, well, apparently that is the province of the well-heeled. Coming from the New York City school of cultural egalitarianism, I still have difficulty with the concept.

I'll miss the reading festival where over the years I met quite a few of my favorite authors, including fellow Cuban Carolina Garcia Aguilera, who is an extremely nice lady. More importantly there are literally thousands of children who will never know what they missed.

La Primera Agua de Mayo

I was rooting around, trying to remember that ditty about “30 days have…” because I needed to know when the month was changing, when I remembered my old Cuban granny.

I was an obnoxious preteen when my grandparents came to live with us in the United States. We lived in Staten Island, one of the outer boroughs of NYC. At the time, there were maybe two Cuban families who lived there. So when they arrived, strangers with even stranger customs, it took some getting used to.

First of all, they didn’t speak a word of English, ni una papa. Grandma insisted on answering the phone, so we had to tape a cardboard with “Ruthy, no jiar. Col leira” to it. The floors got cleaned by a wooden toothless rake with a rag on it. And Grandpa, who had never seen snow, suddenly saw himself in charge of disposing of mounds of it. Although he only had a third grade education, he was pretty sharp. In no time at all, he had created a snow plow out of one of those old summer baby carriages and a piece of tin. Unfortunately, it was too light, so my toddler brother was forced to sit in it as Grandpa plowed up and down on the sidewalk.

You could set your clock by their habits. Every day at three o’clock, they would take a bath and change into their afternoon clothes, not to be confused with their going out attire. At five, they would eat. Suddenly all sorts of tubers and the like started appearing on our kitchen counters. She would boil them or fry them up and chase me around with a little dish she had put aside for me.

So one day, I was doing something or other in the backyard, when Abuela came running out with a glass of water, thrusting it at me. “Ruthy, Ruthy, tienes que tomarte esto!” she insisted. I eyed the clear liquid with suspicion. “Que es, Abuela?’ or “What is it?” I asked. Es la primer agua de mayo, she informed me, the first rainfall in May. Now we lived across the aptly named Kill van Kull from all the petro refineries in Jersey, and it was not unusual to wake up and find the lawn furniture corroded in the night, which made me a bit hesitant. “Toma la primera agua de mayo para belleza,” or “Drink the first rainfall in May for beauty,” she iterated. I looked at the glass; I looked at her beaming face, sharing herself, her past with me; and PBC’s or no PBC’s I gulped it down. Heck, a little beauty wouldn’t hurt either.

So watch out for that first rainfall. I’m a little unclear as to whether it works for guys, but unless you live in Staten Island, it can’t hurt.

A Pithy Observation about Life and Death

On today's revolutionary menu is the the commuting of death sentences to life imprisonment. In Cuban prisons, however, the words are somewhat interchangeable. Conditions are so horrendous and medical treatment so inadequate that spending any appreciable amount of time in a Cuban prison is potentially life threatening. The handful of political prisoners from the Black Spring roundup who have been released have been let go on medical paroles. So while Raul does away with the de jure death sentence, given conditions in the prisons, he conceivably condemns them to another type of death, just a more lingering one. Story here.

More or Less Grist for the Mill

From the Washington Post, spike in wheat prices caused by switch to corn. Read it here. And don't miss their series "Global Food Crisis" here.

The Long, Hot Summer

In a post today, Rafael Martel sounds a warning bell about the summer to come, a scenario of continually increasing gas and food prices, shortages, etc.... It is a subject meriting some worry and much anger.

Let's stipulate that there is increasing demand for commodities from countries with developing economies. The question, though, is why has it come to a head now? Much as Sebastian Junger's "Perfect Storm" was the conjunction of three separate systems, the present difficulties with food and fuel are the result of the confluence of a number of current trends.

Start with the Global Warming idiocy. I do not maintain that there is no such thing. I do, however, maintain that this headlong and mindless rush to eco-cool without thought to consequence is partially to blame for the present dire straits of economies the world over. Take for instance, corn ethanol. From the beginning, it has been apparent that the US could not grow enough corn, that using corn is not energy efficient. Yet, and here I have to blame our leaders, it has been pushed to the point where the price of corn has risen dramatically, causing a rippling effect on other crops, as well as substantial price increases at the supermarket on everything from milk to chicken to cakes.

Then factor in the housing debacle. No longer able to leverage themselves in the credit markets, speculators, who have long been bidding up the prices on oil, have turned their attentions to commodities-everything from soybeans to rice. Under normal circumstances, having bid prices up to unrealistic levels, at some point they would have their heads handed to them. Unfortunately in this case, they not only have a pretty much captive market, but they will cause a great deal of suffering before this run-up is all over. The hedge funds in particular are a blot on the economic landscape.

In the meantime, it is the poor who will pay the freight. So where are our leaders? You know, the ones who worry about universal healthcare and factory closings. Well, while they are whistling "Dixie," Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson is the only politician I've seen address the situation in a piece entitled "Undoing America's Ethanol Mistake." Her solution of freezing the required ethanol production levels would seem to be a good, if insufficient, answer. Many more are needed.

If Truth be Told...

The Washington Post has nailed it in an editorial. Their parting shot:

Here's a fair test: Let Mr. Castro respect the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights his government recently signed, which guarantees not only freedom of assembly but the right to freely leave the country. Cuban officials recently hinted that the current ban on foreign travel by average citizens might be changed; let it be removed. Then Mr. Castro can discover just how many of Cuba's 11 million people are willing to go on enduring a regime whose idea of reform is permitting the sale of microwave ovens.

It's beautifully written, too.

H/T Henry at Babalublog

More Fishwrap

The announcement made by the organ of the Communist Party... that the newspaper Granma will be contain twice the pages on Fridays benefits humble residents, given the high price of toilet paper*, the scarcity of packaging materials to wrap and transport products acquired at the market and to collect everyday domestic garbage.
-Oscar Mario González, independent journalist

*A roll of toilet paper costs the equivalent of three days pay. Read the story in Spanish here.

Sunday Syllabus

Biography. Vanity Fair seeks to answer the question, "Is Obama tough enough?" Since it is Vanity Fair, what do you think the answer is? Still I offer it because we know way too little about the man who would be President. 7 page article here.

Economics. This article from the Times online is instructive in placing our current economic difficulties in context. Enjoy.

Biology. A few diners in Florida got more than a few burritos when they went to their local Mexican restaurant. In a scene reminiscent of the Killer Bees, they were besieged by clouds of irate bees which seemed to blot out the skies. No one was seriously hurt. That was not the case in another Florida locale where a man was killed in the first documented case of a mortal encounter with Africanized bees in the state. Articles here and here.

Anatomy. Try this depressing graphic from MSNBC on "How the Body Ages." Ah, rosy lips and cheeks within his bending sickle's compass come. But wait, that's English class.

Psychology. But before you go off in a fit of the vapors, read this one from the same source, an upbeat AP story. Yup. Unbelievably in our youth-centered culture, old people are the happiest. From my own experience I have to attest that there are consolations to growing older. Still, it was nice when my skin was actually attached to my body.

Ring around the Blackboard

This week, George Will marked the 25th Anniversary of the release of A Nation at Risk, the landmark report on the state of American education, with a melancholy column that turns into a panegyric on the late Patrick Daniel Moynihan. It's fine with me. As far as I am concerned Moynihan was an amazing man for whom I voted religiously, despite party affiliation. Anyway, Will's conclusion, more elegantly phrased, of course, it ain't gettin' any better.

There are solutions to be had, as Dr. Matthew Ladner maintains that Jeb Bush's reforms in Florida have borne fruit in this piece. It's hard to argue with the variety of statistics he unearths. Here in the Sunshine State, we remember the debate, which rages to this day, about "teaching to the test." My view: the test measures reading, writing and 'rithmethic. Something wrong with that? Of course, that's a gross oversimplification. But the point is valid.

According to the previous column, one the strengths of the Bush policies was "school choice." Speaking of same, Florida voters are being given the chance to bring back the voucher program, which was deemed unconstitutional by our progressively inclined Supreme Court. It's one issue on which inner city moms find themselves aligned with Republican preachers. Read about the November ballot here.

Let's finish the discussion with this Mary Grabar column on some of the realities in the classroom, particularly sad is the state of higher education. It's another one of those boomer indictments. And speaking of indictments, get a load of this news report. Remember the events here transpired in very law abiding Sarasota, where our criminals are mere babies in the art. One has to think there is little an educational system can do, if these are the parents.

Mas Me Ayuda

Need more. This film student's stay in Cuba is exactly why these exchanges are dangerous. Yes, it is the big, bad embargo that is hurting Cubans, not their totalitarian government with its disastrous economic policies.

And what the hey, if they have no freedom, the very freedom this erstwhile film student enjoys, they have health care. Here's a quote for you:

"The people there will never overthrow the government," thinks Wiseman. He adds, "In Cuba [they have] 98% literacy rate, there's free health care everyone has a house."

But wait, he did figure out he was in a Communist country-

Still he says what the people get for free has its price. "Their health care is not the best, their transportation is in a terrible situation," adds Wiseman. "This is still a communist society. They don't have the basic rights of freedom of speech and they can't leave the country."

If you're in the mood for simplistic, read it here.

A Rationale for Restrictions

Like I hate to be mean and all because they are young and foolish, but please explain to me what possible good came out of this little junket?

My favorite quote-

Before I went, I had some doubts because my parents and my friends were like, ‘You shouldn’t go there because it’s a Communist country,’ and all that stuff. But it was actually really friendly, and really safe.

I being the center of the universe, of course. Check it out in the NY Times here.

The Battle of Ideas

Of all of the vitriolic verbiage that is hurled at Exiles and Cuban Americans, there is one that stings. Over time, I've grown accustomed to hardline and rightwing, even intransigent. And Miami mafia is laughable. What comes close to tender places is the assertion, "Face it. You lost; they won. Deal with it." That is the general gist. It comes close that spot in the psyche where the child's objection- "That's not fair"- yet lingers.

But then I came across this opinion by a Rafael Rojas, a Cuban exiled in Mexico, in El Pais. In it, aside from highlighting the reality that revolutions have a beginning and an end, despite the pretensions to ongoing process the regime has maintained for near a half century, he asks, "When is an exile over?" In this discussion, he raises an interesting notion. To look at the Cuban population in exile all over the world and compare its lot to that of those in Cuba itself is to realize that it is the exiles who have won the battle of ideas.

I realized he was speaking true. Through their achievements, by their very lives, each and every day, those in exile- who have had nothing handed to them other than opportunity and sometimes not much of that- demonstrate the falsity and fallacy of those grandiose claims of the interminable revolution.

So in part, as one writer said recently, we cannot return to the past. That is over and done. In that our critics are correct. What's lost will not be found. But as we see the tide turning against us in the propaganda wars; in the arena where it counts, that of reality we have the small consolation of knowing we have won. They have presided over not a revolution but the devolution of a country; they have been a force of destruction, and exiles have created new identities, new lives, new families, new realities.

That is little or no comfort to those who suffer under the present regime, but it should motivate us to continue the good fight, until someday our brethren on the island can enjoy the same blessings we do.

A Pair of Short-Shorts

First is more of the genealogy of outstanding claims by American Corporations against the Cuban government for the seizure of assets. According to the Fortune story on CNN, claims now total 20 billion dollars.

Then on the heels of all those articles gushing about the long lines of Cubans waiting to buy the newly liberated cell phones, etc., comes this info from the only game in telephone town. In the first 10 days, Cubans bought 7,400 phones. Query: what percentage of a population of 11 million is 7,400?

Telling Truth

May’s Harper’s magazine boasts an article on Cuba entitled “Searching for the Cuban Opposition.” Written by the author of The Boys from Dolores, Patrick Symmes, the article in a way represents the author’s journey into the heart of darkness. For those of us who read his book, the article- the tone of which is still one of careful detachment, although he does allow himself one “dictatorship lite”- represents a further way station in Symmes’ immersion in Cuban reality, a peeling back of yet another layer of regime mythology.

If every American journalist, scholar, author who visited Cuba took the time to do the due diligence that Symmes has, the world would have a much different perception of the Cuban system. I confess that I approached the article with some trepidation, as Cuban Americans are wont to do, but figuring that with his earlier book, his opinions had earned some respect. What I found was truth. Symmes undertakes an odyssey throughout Cuba, visiting with Elizardo Sanchez, Hector Palacios, “Coco” Fariñas, and Oswaldo Paya, among many others.

The article is exhaustive. It’s all there in the pages of Harpers: the independent libraries, the Ladies in White, the Varela Project, the Church, and more. More importantly, also front and center are the grinding poverty, repression, acts of repudio, the arrests of Black Spring, and the imprisonment of many he seeks out. And truth be told, because it is impossible to read it without seeing it as a good faith effort to tell the same, Symmes finds only pockets of open opposition. Time and time again he is told that the overwhelming mass of the Cuban people are against the government, but time and time again he is told that x, y, or z group consists of a dozen or so members. The reason for the small numbers, he is informed, is fear; some say terror. Symmes takes no position on the why. His is a search.

His portrait of the opposition leads to a no-holds barred picture of life in Cuba. Isn’t it a statement about those who cover and write about Cuba that to find a single writer who takes the time and effort to find the reality behind the veil evokes gratitude? Symmes has mine.

The article is available online only to subscribers.

Cross-posted at Babalublog

Book Thoughts

Posts on books have been scarce as of late because I have been battling my way through Desert Queen by Janet Wallach. It came highly recommended, but I've been slogging through it for the past few weeks. I may yet abandon it. The story of the life of Gertrude Bell, billed in the subtitle as "Adventurer, Adviser to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia," it sounds promising enough. Right now, though, I'm in the middle of this trip to the Middle East and that trip to the Middle East. It's all very Victorian and very tedious.

So in between, I 've rewarded myself with a perfectly delightful Rhys Bowen mystery and, yesterday, with Dean Koontz's The Darkest Day of the Year. It's everything you've come to expect from Koontz- well-plotted and exciting. Still, I've enjoyed the Odd Thomas books more. Can't beat the King's presence. But tonight, I look forward to an Ann Perry. More about that one later.

Blog Alert!

Just discovered that one of my favorite Cuban independent journalists, Oswaldo Yañez, has a blog. He is learned, accurate and witty. His trademark is dating his reports in the year of imminent freedom. Alas, the blog is in Spanish, as are his reports. Today he amplifies his dispatch with a video of events yesterday, the forcible breakup of the Women in White demonstration in Havana. Take a look see here.

Credits for Video

which I forgot to include in the original post. I came across it at MiscelaneasdeCuba.net It is the product of AB Special Productions.

The Bum Rap over Elian

See for yourselves. I fantasize that when he reaches maturity, Elian will hop on a raft to the United States, write a book, and hopefully make lots of money. Then we'll get the truth.

It's the groceries, stupid!

A while back I wrote about the hyperincreases in the price of corn, wheat, and then rice. I was thinking at the time of the Asian countries where rice is a large part of the diet and where much of the population is on a subsistence level. Little did I imagine then that in scenes reminiscent of South Florida before a hurricane, people in the United States would be racing out to stockpile rice. According to the New York Sun, that's what's happening in parts of the country. They even used the "r" word: rationing.

While they who would be president are running around decrying Iraq, the lack of affordable health care, global warming, and who knows what all, there is an insidious threat out there- grocery creep-going on unremarked. There are millions upon millions of people in the United States who either rent or did not go beyond their means in purchasing a home, but every single household in the country has to buy groceries. The substantial increase in the same amounts to a regressive tax on the poor. After housing, food is their largest expense. What can the government do?

Let's start by forgetting this corn ethanol nonsense. It is a negative proposition to begin with. It sounds sexy in this politically correct world of global warming, but take a look at it. First it takes more to create than the energy produced. It is physically impossible to plant enough corn to cover our energy needs, even if we had the infrastructure in place to distribute the ethanol, which we do not, and the cars capable of using it as fuel, which we do not. Let's get real. All we are doing at the moment is allowing the vilest element in our markets to speculate at the expense of the global population, much of which can ill afford it.

What else can be done should form the topic of political discourse, not the tired old hobbyhorses which each party trots out every election year. How about true bread and butter issues, guys and gals?

Article here. By the way, rice hoarders, a reminder: gorgojos.

Reform of the Day?

"They are dying, they are dying,

-about the political prisoners in Cuba.

It was the lament of one of the handful of women in white who attempted to demonstrate peacefully in Havana today for the release of their husbands and fathers and sisters but were forcibly removed by a busload of party apparatchiks. Read the Reuters article here.

Sunday Cinematics

Return to the Future. Perhaps Obama's bittergate difficulties stem from what Jonah Goldberg sees as Obama stuck in the 80's. Yup, Goldberg writes here that Obama is essentially a holdover, self-hating Yuppie. Lends a different interpretation to Biden's "well-groomed" comment, don't it?

Invasion of the Body Snatchers. In keeping with the political theme, here's an odd report from Dana Milbank over at the Washington Post which maintains John McCain received a box of donuts and a standing ovation from a group of newspaper editors convened at an AP luncheon. Obama did not. Lends credence to the shibboleth that McCain is the "media" candidate. What happened to elitism?

Grapes of Wrath. On the economic front, the view is grim for retailers according to this one via the New York Times online. Caught up in the housing woes and tightening credit markets, such longtime retailers as Fortunoff and Sharper Image have found themselves in trouble, and Bombay is already sold off. A bit scary.

The Trial. In a bureaucratic snafu P.P. James served 50 years in in Sri Lanka for the crime of killing his father. Sent to an asylum for the criminally insane in 1958 when he was found unfit to stand trial, he spent decades in the institution, despite doctors' recommendations he be released. Lost apparently was his file. But, wait, it gets better. Had he been convicted of the crime, he would have served half the time. Biggest problem: his father was alive. The stuff of fiction. Read the AP story here.

The Omen. From Drudge, the world population will be 6,666,666,666 on May 10. Keep track here at the Census Bureau