Literary Interlude: Constantly Risking Absurdity

I was excited to learn that there's going to be a 50th anniversary edition of Coney Island of the Mind by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. It boggles the mind to think he published the volume before I was born and it still speaks to us. When I went hunting for one of my favorite poems.... I lost my copy of the book when I lent it to one of my students. That'll learn me. Anyway, it's solidly in the middle of the top 500 poems requested on the poetry website. I know that this is not the originial structure, which is a shame, because it is more important here than most. Guess I'll be buying another copy.

Constantly Risking Absurdity


Constantly risking absurdity

and death

whenever he performs

above the heads

of his audience

the poet like an acrobat

climbs on rime

to a high wire of his own making

and balancing on eyebeams

above a sea of faces

paces his way

to the other side of the day

performing entrachats

and sleight-of-foot tricks

and other high theatrics

and all without mistaking

any thing

for what it may not be

For he's the super realist

who must perforce perceive

taut truth

before the taking of each stance or step

in his supposed advance

toward that still higher perch

where Beauty stands and waits

with gravity

to start her death-defying leap

And he

a little charleychaplin man

who may or may not catch

her fair eternal form

spreadeagled in the empty air

of existence



Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of ... Toilet Paper

Sen. Victor Crist, R-Tampa, is trying to push through a bill through the Florida legislature requiring that rest rooms have toilet paper in the stalls. Now, I am as fond of toilet paper as the next person, having endured the medicated wax paper of London and the wrinkly crepe paper of Italy, but I have my doubts as to whether this is an arena into which the government should be intruding. Was a time, Florida was the last frontier. But I shouldn't be surprised. Nowadays, we are the only state with a constitutional amendment concerning the treatment of pregnant pigs. I kid you not.

Show me the Money!

I'm assailed today by headlines in the MSM. In the New York Times, it's "Cuba: Finally, Something to Buy." AFP's reads "Cuba eyes reforms; due to free up computer sales." I don't mean to be a party pooper or anything, or an aguafiesta, but the celebratory tone of the reports is a bit premature. The cost of a computer in a state store, the only legal place to buy it, is the equivalent of paying $350,000 here. So, finally, there may be something to buy, but alas, there is nothing to buy it with....

The Last Place on Earth

I think it was Mastercard that had that commercial with "the last place on Earth." I was surprised that there is a Cuban restaurant on James Island in Charleston, although I'll have to reserve judgement until I pass through again. For all I know they serve Che burgers. My friend from Mississippi informs me that in the South the ethnicity of the restaurant doesn't necessarily reflect the ethnicity of the the restaurateur. In his town the Chinese restaurant is run by a Vietnamese family, and the Japanese by a Chinese one.

Anyway, the information called to mind some unlikely places I've seen Cubiches practicing their culinary arts. In the heart of the Everglades, and I don't even mean Everglades city, even beyond there, in a little place called Chokoloskee, amidst a thicket of rusting and spiffy RV's, there is a little building on the road. About a quarter of it is a 70's wood-paneled post office; the other portion.... You guessed it a Cuban restaurant. Oh, and they don't take Master Card. In fact they don't take any cards, so you have to go back to Everglades City where the only cash machine is in the local convenience store. And if you don't feel like driving back, there's a great buffet at Captains Table in the old railroad station.

Side note: This area serves as the setting for Peter Matthiesson's Killing Mr. Watson, one of a trilogy of novels. My absolute favorite is Lost Man's River, although it's not a universal reaction to the book. I'll console myself with what the author told me as I importuned him to sign a copy for the ingrate who spurned my book, "I'm pleasantly surprised. It's my favorite, but it's the least accessible of the three." See, I have taste. The books are loosely based on historical events. That's all I'll say because I don't want to give anything away.

The Culture Follies

An art exhibition and a film festival add to the innumerable cultural venues that reflect the unfortunate fascination with all things Cuban. It is a misfortune for ordinary Cubans, because the interest never seems to extend to the oppression which colors their lives. It gets to be a dance, vetting events, sponsors, content, etc…

The Havana Film Festival New York runs from April 11-17, 2008. The name is something of a misnomer, since it “celebrates” Latin American cinema. So question, why the Havana? Why can’t it be the Quito Film Festival New York? Kvetching aside, it is a “project” of the American Friends of the Ludwig Foundation of Cuba, one of those “building cultural bridges” organizations, giving me more than a few reservations. The opening night film is La Noche de los Inocentes / The Innocent’s Night, a film by Cuban filmmaker Arturo Soto. The festival is also bestowing tribute on a variety of island film types- the director of Strawberry and Chocolate, the greatest actor in all of Cuba, yada yada yada. Go at your own risk. More details here.

Feeling left out of all of these multi ethnic events, Charleston is holding the First Charleston International Arts Festival with a concentration on Cuba starting today. If there’s ever a city that doesn’t bring Cuban to mind, it’s Charleston. Love the city; love the barbecue, but Cuban? So it is with trepidation that I read

"The objective of the exhibition is to present living artists from Cuba and the hardships that they have to overcome on a daily basis in order to create their masterpieces, from making their own paper to preserving traditional values of the nation such as Santeria. Santeria, a Westernized interpretation of ancient Yoruban tribal practices, is reflected in several works that will be presented at the exhibition

Now really Santeria as a “value of the nation”? I don’t mean to be a stickler here, but as far as I now, it was a religion for a few and a quasi avocation for many, many more. This is the best they can do? And then there’s this:

“The second part of the festival will take place April 6 at El Bohio Cuban restaurant… with a movie premiere of "Sipping Jetstreams" and a Cuban fiesta.

Is a fiesta different from a party? Oh yeah, it must be the Mexican hats.

Before I get any sillier, here’s the article. And here is the website for the festival. You gotta go “Beyond the Door” where you’ll not only “enjoy” the gullibility of the curator, but you’ll also find Sandra Levinson. Think I’ll link directly there. Ah, the plot thickens.

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm getting tired of these get to know the natives events.

Rebellious Youth

Not the official government magazine by that same title, but the real young people on the streets of Havana. It's a withering portrait of the failure of the revolution, the support for which seems to be inversely proportional to the distance from the island.

Here's a priceless quote from the article in New American Media by Louis E.V. Nevaer.

But beyond all schemes, Cuban youth seemed adamantly anti-Castro. One would have thought that a million “Young Pioneers,” as school-age Communists are called, would have assembled at the Plaza of the Revolution to thank Fidel for his half a century of service to the fatherland. Yet, there was nothing, and apart from government offices, there were no portraits of Fidel to be seen anywhere. The only one visible for miles, hanging in a window near the intersection of Emperador and Aguacate streets in Old Havana, was derided by a group of teenage boys, dressed in their school uniforms.

“Look! The old man!” one says, and all they broke out in laughter. Then they chanted mockingly, “Fidel! Fidel! Fidel!”

Gloating aside, their lives come across as dismal, unless they belong to the priveleged class. Read the rest here. Don't get too excited, though, because this is yet another generation of disaffected youth. Nothing changes.

H/T Penultimos Días

A Must Read: "Standing Up for a Free Cuba"

Ziva has a great post on Babalublog on a published statement by a variety of Eastern European and European luminaries. Read it, if you haven't. Even under optimum circumstances, their solidarity is moving. But at the present moment... when every institution seems hell bent on getting in bed with the regime, when the media clamors for lifting the embargo, for granting legitimacy to the usurpers who enslave our people, when the Cuban people stand nearly friendless, it is a gift beyond price.

What's That Sound?

Listen carefully. You can almost hear it, that sound of bubbles rising. A European diplomat weeks ago described the mood of the Cuban people as being like a pot about to boil: there's a bubble here and a bubble there 'til it reaches the tipping point. Now I'm not anywhere near celebrating, but just reading through the reports coming from Cuba tonight was eye-opening.

Report after report features a title that begins with "Denunciation from." And the tone is about the harshest I have seen. Oswaldo Yanez, one of my favorite independent journalists- the one who dates his dispatches in the year of the imminent liberation of Cuba- was particularly cutting. In response to the latest desperate ploy on the part of the slavemasters, that the internet is restricted because of the American embargo, he writes-

...the length of the hypocrisy is directly proportional to the thousands of miles of submerged cable that Ramirito has ordered to connect the archipelago with Venezuela, a project that could be left unfinished before the road of no return that the red gorilla has taken since the loss of the referendum.

Not that it would matter anyway, he argues, as they are inagurating a new cable and ordinary Cubans, as usual, will have no access.

He reserves some of his harshest criticism for the international community:

The castristas continue to dupe the international community, maintaining the posture that they respect human rights and that there will shortly be changes; they have already fooled the Vatican and the representative of the European Union. I in my innocence thought that it would take more that a turn around the park to convince the Belgian diplomat, but again I was mistaken. For his emminence, a televised mass and empty promises sufficed.

The poor fellow cannot understand why the peregrinations of the "Bolivarian lunatic" get more media coverage than the farcial hearing and unjust imprisonment of Juan Bermúdez Toranzo. He's heard that we have been disheartened by recent events but urges that now more than ever our voices are needed.

Before the whole world, we should all clamor for the release of the unjustly jailed; we should forcefully declare that it is enough of tyranny, call out with a single voice that the change can no longer be stopped-together and supporting each other in the labor of liberating our patria.


May God watch over him and all the facing down the engines of repression and crying "Basta Ya!"

Cambio
(The article in Spanish here. There are other articles, equally mordant, some coming from veterans of the "Black Spring" here. Bad translations mine.)

No, Che Was Not a Hero

Today, I came across on Babalublog an email from a mother who was beside herself because her daughter’s head was being turned by a leftist teacher who idolizes Che. Well, mi hijita, I know all about Che, and Che was no hero.

Heroes are warriors, not murderers. They fight for their people; they don’t kill unarmed men, women and children who disagree with them. They kill in battle those who take up arms against them, not systematic execution in cold blood. They glory in victory, not in blood lust. Most importantly, heroes are stand for an ideal.

Who was this Che you so admire? He was an Argentinean adventurer, a child of privilege. He was not even Cuban, but he saw fit to impose his brutality and alien ideology on a foreign country. He was not even particularly brave. His one famed “battle,” the one with the armored train, was a set up, the army having been bribed. Even on his final adventure in Bolivia, what was his response when captured? “I’m Che. I’m worth more to you alive than dead.”

Your Che was bloodthirsty, presiding over the Cabaña prison where he earned the epithet of “Carnicero,” or “butcher.” He did not believe in fair trials, describing them as an outdated middle class notion. He had many, many people executed. Less than two hundred people were killed during the revolution. Afterwards, Che bears the responsibility for the deaths of near four thousand people. The regime he helped put in place, nearly two hundred thousand.

Che was a sadist. He found the deaths he ordered amusing, at times writing “give him an aspirin” as code for “execute him.” Not content to merely order the executions, he had a special window put into his office, so he could watch them. Ask yourself, why? One day, a mother came to plead for her young son’s life. Che’s response while the mother sat in front of him? He picked up the phone and ordered the immediate execution of the young man...so his mother wouldn’t worry anymore. And who were the people being executed? They included two pregnant women and hundreds, if not thousands, of young boys. You have to ask yourself why those young men, facing the fusillade of bullets, screamed out at the last, “Viva, Cristo Rey!” It is because they were staring down the barrel at the face of evil. And the face was that of your idol.

Your Che was a racist and a hypocrite. He whose face adorns the chest of the likes of Mike Tyson considered blacks “lazy;” South American peasants “animals;” and Mexicans “illiterate Indians.” The great “liberator” created the first concentration camp in Cuba. The defender of the poor expropriated for himself and took residency in one of the most luxurious homes in Cuba after the revolution, complete with one of the first large screen TVs. The great equalizer died with a Rolex on his wrist, one which the Cuban exile who witnessed his execution wears to this day.

The regime he helped install has lowered the standard of living for all Cubans, lead the entire nation backward, created of the island a prison where it is illegal to voice opinions contrary to the government’s, for more than three Cubans to gather, for Cubans to go to tourist hotels and beaches, to speak to foreigners. It is a regime which imprisons anyone with the audacity to ask for freedom, convicting, when they bother with any pretense of jurisprudence, people of "precriminal dangerousness." It is a cynical regime that touts its advances in health care and literacy, while ordinary citizens suffer from lack of the very basics, even aspirin; at the same time the country they inherited had the highest literacy rate of Central and South America, where now seventeen year olds “teach” in classrooms and where indoctrination is the main subject.

No, I don’t need anyone to tell me about Che. Heroes are measured in character and deeds. Che qualifies for neither. His philosophy was about shedding blood, taking from others. Can one of his defenders point out his beneficence, some good deeds? An occasion when he gave or created? Good question. And in that answer lies the truth about Che. There are many misguided people who will try to tell you differently, but ask them for the facts, not the old fictions about what Cuba was like, but true facts and figures. Ask what specific actions did Che take that made him heroic? Then you will see that your parents and grandparents, crazy as they may seem on the topic, are the ones telling the truth.

Yet Another Embargo Lifter and A Question

This one a representative from Minnesota, according to this report. Rep. Phyllis Kahn, a Democrat from Minneapolis has written congress, hoping to get "momentum" in the move to lift the embargo. Another Minnesotan politico, Keith Ellison, another Democrat, shares in the anti-embargo sentiment.

Well, I for one, have had it and have been thinking of how to strike back. Personally, if I can in any way identify the products that come from those places with officials whose greed outstrips their ragged morality, I will not buy them. For instance, if growers in Idaho agitate for the lifting of restrictions, I will not buy Idaho potatoes. It becomes difficult with the Dakotas, but I'll find a way.

Now they won't feel it, if I stop buying, but what if our entire population boycotted? Our numbers are small, but we are concentrated in certain areas. Would they feel it?

Sunday Preps

In the Pink. On the obligatory election front, Star Parker asks why education has not been raised in the current campaign as part of the workers' problems everyone is so concerned about. Well, Star, the current campaign is not about what you can do for yourself but rather what can be done for you. Read it here.

On the Money. Regarding the present political discussion, "media expert" and Hillary supporter cries foul over the coverage bestowed on Obama. And in the TMI department, in the halcyon days of my youth I possessed a very flattering French cut T with "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore" on it. Ah, life. Figure out the connection here.

From the Divine. In the alarmist coverage of natural phenomenon, we have the headline on this press release from the University of Sydney. Yes, folks, the death star could be nigh. Oh, no, gamma rays! Read the whole thing. It's actually quite interesting. And if you want to see the menace, go here.

To the Sublime. Michael McFaul has an incisive analysis of Putin's legacy in Newsweek. And with the added information from news reports that workers were pressured to vote openly in their workplaces, a certain parallel comes to mind.

In the End. Seems Reuters only recently discovered Cuba is no shopper's paradise. I've been holding on to this one for a few weeks. And I'm sure Belka Martinez never said, "we have knickers." I'll bet on it. Read it here.

A Bit of Prose for You

"We live in an unhappy period when the government wants to use its legislative powers to tell us how to lead our live. It wants to tell us what to eat and drink, what to smoke and how we cross the road. Children are not allowed to grow fat and if they do they are snatched from their families and put into a home. If you smoke cigarettes, you won't be treated by the doctor.

'There are plans afoot to turn us into a nation of vegans who drink carrot juice and go on hiking tours to the Lake District. This case is an object lesson in the form of tyranny. It's geared to send a man to prison for eating a slice of pie.

-Horace Rumpole in John Mortimer's latest, Rumpole Misbehaves

There's a Book in There Somewhere

"He brought joy to my mother when he was around," .... "Only my grandmother called him the devil."

-Alina Fernandez on her mother's relationship with Fidel Castro, quoted in an article about her recent visit to a local school by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Reading this brief report reminded me of Havana Dreams: The Story of a Cuban Family written by Wendy Gimbel, who if memory serves is half Cuban herself. It's been nearly ten years since I read it, but I remember its haunting quality. Ostensibly the story of the Revuelta family- Alina, her mother, and her grandmother- it is so much more.

It is a story about Cuba, identity, and the ties that bind. A century or so of Cuban history is intertwined in the lives of these women, placed as they were in the center of the storm. From Doña Natica's immigrant roots to Naty's illicit affair with Castro to the birth of the illegitimate Alina to her defection to her elder sister's decision to repudiate her Cuban heritage, each woman's story revolves around the question of identity. The grandmother sits in the ruins of their once fine house like a Cuban Miss Havisham, a fury continually lashing out at the wayward daughter who brought them so low, the daughter who like many rolled the dice on a dashing young revolutionary and lost. The long suffering Naty is perhaps the most pitiable, having risked all for nothing. The younger generation makes their way to the United States where each chooses a different path. Even the author mulls her own identity.

Yet nothing in the book rings as true as the family dynamics here, as there is nothing more Cuban that the tolerance Naty has for the querulous Natica. One could argue it is an unconscious form of expiation, but whatever the motivation it is more than representative of the iron bonds of the Cuban family. If you missed it when it was first published, read it. There's the added bonus of fifo's love letters at the end.

H/T The Real Cuba

Yes, She Will

Got this in the mail from Human Events. It is witty: it is incisive. Monica Crowley has been on fire lately about the Clintons. How about lesson number 2 from Tuesday's results?

In order to win, she has to club the baby seal to death. And she's willing to do it. Now that she's got a bit of momentum, she must bring him low. She must attack him on every front. She must go negative. Expect more "do you really trust him to answer the red phone at 3am" ads. Expect more "Obama in native dress" photos. Expect to hear more about Tony Rezko -- who just went on trial this week in Chicago for corruption and fraud -- and his association with Obama. Expect to hear more of the fact that he's a Syrian immigrant, who made 26 trips between Damascus and Chicago from 2003 to 2006. Expect to hear additional Arab names associated with Rezko in this web of corruption -- and perhaps in the orbit of Obama.

Crowley keeps this up, and I'm starting a fan club. Read it here.

Who's Been Reading the Cubiches?

I belong to that endangered species, the Bushies. I confess, I like the President. I think he has been misunderestimated and misjudged. He has handled the economy well, shepherding us to a soft landing after the tech bubble. Can we say, Tax Cut? After years of promises, it was President Bush who finally helped seniors with prescriptions. It was the conservative Bush who got "No Child Left Behind" passed. And for all those who complain about "teaching to the test," ask yourselves what is on the tests? Basic skills every American child should have. And Iraq. Iraq was a huge gamble. And it is not lost. Every Al Queda in Iraq member who died is one less in the Western world, plotting. That does not mean that he and his government have not proven incompetent in many ways. That he has left in force wet foot/dry foot.

Now in the twilight of his presidency, he has used his bully pulpit to draw attention to the plight of Cubans, to the injustice with which they live. For this, I will be grateful. I also note that someone on the staff has been reading around the blogosphere. I leave you with this quote from an article about his comments after his meeting today:

The president said the global community has largely remained silent in recent months, even as dozens of young Cubans wearing "change" bracelets were arrested, as Cuban authorities raided a Catholic church to spray parishioners with tear-gas and drag them away. Last weekend, activists distributing copies of the U.N. Declaration on Human Rights were pushed and beaten.

"That same week, Cuba signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights," Bush said. "The international community applauded Cuba for signing a piece of paper — but on the abuses that same week, much of the world was silent."

Bush has renewed his focus on Cuba since Fidel Castro officially stepped down last month after decades ruling the island. Fidel's brother, Raul, took over as president in the ailing leader's place. He had been provisional president since his brother, who led the nation for nearly a half a century, underwent emergency surgery in July 2006.

But Bush said any speculation that the leadership shift would affect U.S. policy toward Cuba "is exactly backward."
"So far, all Cuba has done is replace one dictator with another," the president said. "This is the same system, the same faces, and the same policies that led Cuba to its miseries in the first place."

An Honorable Man

Nothing is inevitable in America. We are the captains of our fate. We're not a country that prefers nostalgia to optimism; a country that would rather go back than forward. We're the world's leader, and leaders don't pine for the past and dread the future. We make the future better than the past. We don't hide from history. We make history. That, my friends, is the essence of hope in America, hope built on courage, and faith in the values and principles that have made us great. I intend to make my stand on those principles and chart a course for our future greatness, and trust in the judgment of the people I have served all my life. So stand up with me, my friends, stand up and fight for America -- for her strength, her ideals, and her future. The contest begins tonight. It will have its ups and downs. But we will fight every minute of every day to make certain we have a government that is as capable, wise, brave and decent as the great people we serve. That is our responsibility and I will not let you down.

-John McCain in Texas after winning enough delegates to cinch the Republican nomination. Full text at Townhall.com here.

Battered Wife Syndrome

Not too long ago, Humberto Fontova jokingly used this term to describe the press’ relationship to the regime. I was reminded of it when I read this article at the Chicago Tribune website today about the “wait and see” attitude many, inside Cuba and out, are taking to the new face of the same old regime. Despite being pretty wide ranging, there were some golden nuggets, one in particular, hit me: (my boldface)

While some citizens have expressed their displeasure at the slow pace of change, including an exchange between university students and Cuban officials that showed up on YouTube, conversations on the street and U.S. analysts indicate that many suffer from a sort of Castro fatigue, the result of five decades of authoritarian rule that stifles aspirations for change.

So to Battered Wife Syndrome we can now add Castro Fatigue, a real phenomenon. What are the contributing factors? There is the very real physical fear. Even as the ink on those two human rights accords the misgovernment recently signed dried, dissidents were being beaten. Political prisoners convicted of “pre-criminal dangerousness” languished in conditions that make a resort spa of the American prison in Guantanamo. There is also the range of more subtle repercussions, like job loss, loss of rations, the inability of your children to get in certain programs, etc….

Then there is the subsistence anxiety. Like the political progeny of Josef Stalin that they are, the regime has figured out that people who spend their lives trying to acquire enough to eat have little time or energy to worry about abstractions like their rights. Remember Maslow’s triangle? To its credit, this preoccupation with the necessities of daily life is one that the report raises, quoting Martha Beatriz Roque:

"The Cuban people are very tired," Roque said. "The Cuban is worried about the problems that fall on him every day: a missing cord for electricity, a missing pipe for the sink. There isn't enough for anything else."

Of course, this could also be a happy accident of the regime’s mismanagement of the economy.

There’s another factor, though, not mentioned in the article. One can only imagine the effect of being bombarded by propaganda that denies your reality. Up is down; down is up. Bad is good; good is bad. Language loses meaning, and the reference posts human beings normally use to measure what is real are upended.

So is Castro fatigue a mass version of battered wife syndrome? It starts slowly; take away rich people’s belongings, the first slap. Close down a few newspapers, the slap that wasn’t going to happen again. Before you know it, you live in a prison. Little by little, you’ve closed door upon door in your mind. You’ve adjusted, learned to resolver. So intent are you just on surviving, you no longer know how the rest of the world lives. Their experience has no bearing on your reality. In the end, you look like Hedda Nussbaum and don’t even know it.

Something about the Internet

Caught a few episodes of “Download: The True Story of the Internet” on the Discovery Science Channel. Last night’s program, ostensibly about the development of its social networking functions, made the point that the advent of YouTube and its ilk have made inroads into the traditional gatekeepers of media. The narrator fairly beamed as he touted the creativity and the vibrancy to be found on the net.

Yeah, I thought, that’s because it hasn’t ossified yet. Soon you’ll have to be related to Bill Gates or someone to put stuff up. ‘Cause it struck me. Think about it. Books used to be hot. Yeah, yeah, TV, video games, etc…. But when was the last time, you read a good book, not a “good” book, the kind you the Times tells you to read? There are maybe twenty authors out there whose work is enjoyable. Of course, those twenty authors have been writing for twenty years, and it shows. Gatekeepers.

Do you realize that some of our greatest writers just sent their work out to publishers? Try doing that today. Oh, no, you need to have an agent. Well, try getting an agent. They won’t read your stuff either. Years ago, in an experiment, the first chapters of some “classics” were sent to publishers. Nada. Gatekeepers.

The other aspect that has depressed book sales is the depression factor. Why is it that so many of the books published today are about the Millicent’s hangnail and its effect on her interpersonal relationships? Forget about books for teens. Just reading the blurbs on the back is enough to send someone into therapy. Aren’t there any happy teens? Doesn’t anyone grow up in a two parent household without alcoholism, violence, and bulimia? But that’s someone’s idea of good young adult lit. Gatekeepers.

I was watching a program on England’s Royals the other night. There was Anne Liebowitz doing a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. I remembered her explanation of how she started in the photo business, hanging around with the guys from Rolling Stone and taking some pictures for them, that is before they became a real magazine and she became a real photographer. And the likes of David Geffen started out hanging around with less than famous musicians. These same musicians could send DJ’s their demos and actually get airtime, if the DJ liked the stuff. Now you only get airtime if you go through a middle man. In the meantime, music sales are down and were on the way down before napster and itunes, etc… Gatekeepers.

I could go on; the same is true of TV, movies, journalism just about all of the arts. You either go the corporate/academic route or the “my father was a big producer” route. Not so on the internet. Yes, there is chaos, and there are regular joes in their underwear, but there is life, there is talent, and there are no gatekeepers.

Academic Freedom

Yup, there goes another field trip to Cuba. When is a foray into the totalitarian state a true academic exercise and when is it an exercise in propaganda? I need to know nothing else about the trip but the bare bones. Let's see... a group of eight students from the Brooklyn College Graduate Center for Worker Education...mmm. Oh well, what are they going to study in Cuba? Ah, the health care and educational system, the twin false successes of the regime. You can bet it's not going to be the health care system that lacks the very basics or the educational system which resorts to putting 17 year olds in front of classrooms. Nope.

I'm afraid I'll have to agree with Rep. Vito Fosella from NY:

"This is going to be used as a propaganda tool for Fidel Castro," Rep. Vito Fossella said yesterday in an interview. "If anything is going to be accomplished of significance, the visitors should ask Fidel Castro when he is going to liberalize the economy, release political prisoners and dissidents, and hold fair elections."

For the story, here.

Here's a Thought

Pero existe una lógica histórica inexorable. Un régimen que confiscó ilegítimamente las propiedades norteamericanas en Cuba, y se pasó al bando comunista en la Guerra Fría, y amenazó con misiles nucleares a Estados Unidos, y ejerció de rampa de lanzamiento del imperialismo soviético en el hemisferio, y ha acogido calurosamente a los prófugos de la justicia estadounidense, y ha presidido la retórica antinorteamericana durante medio siglo, no puede pretender que Washington, nada menos que Washington, le dé respiración asistida.

Un régimen que ha obligado a cerca del veinte por ciento de la población cubana a exilarse -calificándola de “mafia”, “escoria”, “vendepatria” y otras lindezas por el estilo-, no debería sorprenderse de que algunos de esos mismos exiliados, convertidos en políticos y funcionarios del gobierno de los Estados Unidos, aboguen por el endurecimiento de las sanciones. Es como clavarse un cuchillo y esperar que no brote la sangre. Se cosecha lo que se siembra. Debería saberlo Pérez Roque.

Translation (rough):
But there is an inexorable historical logic. A regime that illegally confiscated North American properties in Cuba, which enlisted on the Communist side during the Cold War, and threatened with nuclear missiles the United States, which served as a launching ramp for Soviet imperialism in the hemisphere, and has warmly welcomed American fugitives from justice, can not pretend to the assistance of Washington, Washington, no less.

A regime which has forced close to twenty percent of the population into exile- classifying them as "mafia," "scum," "traitors" and others such like- should not be surprised when some of those very same exiles, converted into politicians and functionaries of the government of the United States, advocate for the stiffening of sanctions. It's like stabbing yourself with a knife and not expecting to gush blood. Your reap what you sow. Perez Roque should know that.

- Armando Añel in a column about the parasitic nature of the Castro regime and it's latest anti-embargo campaign. Read the whole thing in Spanish here.