lunes, 24 de marzo de 2014

IDEALISMO REALISTA



A menudo soy testigo de la descalificacion y demonizacion de los opositores que radican dentro de la isla. Y me parece que hago una innecesaria aclaracion porque opositor al regimen es solo quien vive dentro. Los que vivimos fuera del infierno somos opuestos al sistema y sus cabezas mas visibles, muchos damos una mano en lo posible, pero no asumimos el innegable y a veces subestimado peligro que implica desafiar a una de las dictaduras mas sangrientas y represivas que la humanidad haya jamas conocido.

No me llamo a engano; se que muchos de los que se alinean en las filas de la oposicion lo hacen como una alternativa de vida que persigue el objetivo de mas tarde o mas temprano emigrar y mejorar su situacion. Otros tantos carecen de la necesaria claridad de juicio y articulacion ideologica y filosofica para interpretar correctamente el fenomeno que les aqueja y poderlo dicernir y explicar a sus conciudadanos. Pero aun asi los primeros realizan una labor que reviste utilidad y los otros mantienen de alguna forma la presion sobre un regimen que es mucho mas debil y fracturado de lo que podemos imaginar en nuestros mas optimistas anhelos.

No veo una gran probabilidad de camino revolucionario para Cuba y creo que si algo ocurre sera mas bien a causa de imponderables y hechos espontaneos que de estrategias planificadas y programadas. Pero este panorama negativo y poco prometedor no puede llevarme a faltar, una vez mas, a mi deber como cubano de denunciar el atropello, la desidia, la intriga, la mentira y la represion que por mas de 50 anos los hoy ancianos en el poder han aplicado sobre su propio pueblo. El trafico de drogas es un flagelo que corroe a la humanidad y muchos sabemos que no terminara jamas, pero esto no nos da derecho a ponernos a traficar nosotros tambien. Los opositores con sus limites, sus bajas pasiones y faltas (a las que yo tampoco soy inmune) son los que hay y NO son mis enemigos. Todos sabemos quien es el peor enemigo de la nacion cubana, si es que la misma alguna vez existio, y cada minuto de actividad politica debe ser canalizada contra este enemigo.

No me interesa de donde sale el dinero que quien sea que lo envie le pasa a la oposicion ni si algunos de sus miembros venden los equipos que de aqui les hacemos llegar; eso se debera dilucidar en su momento oportuno. Si vamos a ocuparnos de derroches de dinero del contribuyente americano mencionemos Solyndra, guerras inutiles, recursos que indirectamente el gobierno asigna a Mariela Castro y su falsa organizacion; investiguemos como carajo Yasser Arafat, en parte con nuestras donaciones monetarias, se hizo con una enorme fortuna mientras su pueblo padece miles de limitaciones. Es que vamos a negar lo innegable?, que edad tenian Berta Soler, Guillermo Farinas y todos los demas cuando Castro entro en La Habana en medio de los vitores de casi todo un pueblo?; que edad tenian todos estos exponentes de la oposicion cuando la burguesia cubana le paso ingentes sumas de dinero al hijo del espanol con tal de salir del mulato?; que edad tenian cuando los negros dejamos que nos cerraran nuestras organizaciones de reivindicacion de derechos, que nos exiliaran a Betancourt Bencomo y que condenaran al ostracismo a Walterio Carbonell y nos hicimos milicianos para intervenir las casas de los ricos que huyeron despavoridos al comprender el error cometido?. La respuesta es que unos tenian pocos anos y muchos no habian siquiera nacido.

Si lo anterior es cierto que posicion adopatamos cuando desdenamos a los opositores?; la posicion del avestruz porque si alguien entrego la isla al caudillo, mintio descaradamente sobre el pasado y se sometio a la voluntad de un trasnochado fueron NUESTROS PADRES que tanto veneramos. Al final pretendemos una enorme injusticia historica: que estos senores que de una manera u otra se oponen al regimen recuperen al precio de su sangre la libertad y la patria que nuestros padres con ausencia total de hidalguia y virilidad se dejaron arrebatar por la sabandija de Biran

sábado, 22 de marzo de 2014

CHRIS CHRISTIE: THE HEFTY PRICE OF BEING UNIQUE




He is not the first nor the only one; it has happened many times before: politicians once and again fall in the trap of their own ego, and remain victims of their unfathomable designs. Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey illustrates like few others that boys should be boys and girls should be girls, figuratively speaking of course.

The governor of the Garden State has for years enjoyed the luxury of being direct, crystal clear, and at times even harsh. No traditional republican can win in his state; it takes a lot of talent, maneuverability and reaching out; just across liberal New York, the state is unlikely to choose someone from the far right. Therefore, Christie has broken ranks with his party in several occasions in order to please his left to center constituency. It's called pragmatism, realpolitiks or survival and for some time it worked. He got elected twice to the highest job and became almost unbeatable.

In the aftermath of hurricane Sandy, however, the governor appeared to have pandered a little too much to the left segment of the electorate with his almost subservient praise of the president's role and alleged diligence to face the catastrophic event. He didn't only appeared to have bowed too low, but managed to alienate a chunk of his independent followers who had already felt disillusioned by Mr. Obama's performance and saw Christie's chummy demeanor almost as a betrayal to then candidate Romney. Suddenly, his controversially maverick ways became too strident, too deferential, and even prematurely conceding. To some it indicated that he had already seen the victorious aura over Obama's head and was doing everything to gain his favors. That didn't go well with the Republican base and, ironically enough, it didn't gain him much support in the left. Not to mention that recovery in the area was not as swift as expected and did not meet the degree of shameless adulation the otherwise unbreakable "lighting rod" had dispensed to the Commander in Chief.

But the governor was still popular; regardless of isolated rants and sporadic episodes of poor anger management, he was still liked and managed to handsomely win a second term. Sandy was behind and 2016 was ahead; no doubt he was one of the darlings in his party, until the unexpected happened and he was all over the news due to the lane closure that we all have come to know as "Bridgegate". His approval numbers dropped overnight; as it is usually the case he was convicted by the main stream media before arguments were made public and reporters started digging; and dig they did!!! it was not only the lane closure in the bridge but all of a sudden news came that he had used money supposedly assigned to Sandy victims for an ad promoting his work as governor. The left was out for blood and while the Malaysian plane and the Russian invasion of Crimea have taken some of the heat off his back hounds are likely to go back to their prey once the present helter-skelter subsides.

The lesson is clear: one can reach out across the aisle only so much; if you're a Republican you must act like one, especially during the elections. One can stray a bit but not too much. Pandering won't pay in the end and the left has a proverbial sense of opportunity and unscrupulous use of fellow travelers who sooner or later are dumped before the train gets to its destination. Whether we have seen the last of Christie as a potential presidential nominee for the GOP remains to be defined but one thing seems to be certain: when the time comes you stick to your own. Drifting away, even in New Jersey, can prove irreversibly detrimental.

domingo, 16 de marzo de 2014

UNEARTHING THE TRUTH BENEATH THE MYTHLIKE LIE

These are some of the talking points used by the Cuban regime over the last five decades and dutifully relayed in academia and the media by its minions all over the world. My purpose is not to excuse the inexcusable nor rewrite history, but to shed light on dangerously darkened corners that have been used by Castro and Co. to mask their true tyrannical face:

!- Fidel Castro and his revolutionary youths entered Havana in 1959 after an effective military surge. LIE. Fulgencio Batista, the retired general that had violated the constitution and seized power in a bloodless coup d'etat in 1952 was forced to leave by the Americans who claimed to have 25,000 marines ready for invasion if he refused to flee. The fall of the city of Santa Clara was not due to the skills and the braveness of the rebels, but the fruit of a purchase, the Cuban bourgeoisie gave Castro a briefcase full of money, as it is the case of the most somber and sinister corporate crimes nowadays, to buy his way to Havana. The derailing of the armored convoy yet another myth. Che Guevara lacked the military knowledge to pull that one up. As his calamitous performance in the Congo and Bolivia later showed, his guerrilla expertise was more literary than real.

2- Cuba was a backward society until 1959 and black Cubans were fiercely discriminated against. LIE or better, a MANIPULATION OF THE TRUTH. No honest scholar would deny that the racial issue was never solved in Cuba, the black slaves and their "offsprings" were shamelessly used in the independence war to be later denied social recognition and their place at the table. Moreover, attempts were made to "whiten" the Cuban population and a massacre of back Cubans was launched in 1912; however there were black leaders who conveyed their message of dissent and protest at all levels. Betancourt Bencomo and Walterio Carbonel, just to name two leaders, were among those who struggled and to some degree achieved, the creations of spaces for the black Cubans. Much still needed to be done, but the Castro regime hijacked the cause of the black people and swept it under the rug forcing the leaders to exile or to remain in anonymity for the rest of their lifes. Who knows Betancourt Bencomo? or Gaston Vaquero, one of Cuba's best poets? or Walterio Carbonel?. The so called revlution not only did nothing to achieve racial integration, but made it a point to delete all sorts of diversity from the school texts and the intellectual debate. The racial tensions in Cuba has reached critical mass and no solution of the country's drama can avoid a serious, honest and all out dialogue on such a delicate issue. It is no coincidence that the most outstanding leaders of the opposition are black.

3- Cuban soldiers were in Angola in the 70s and the 80s to avoid the return of racist colonialism to that African nation. LIE. It appears ironic that a regime sends troops half way around the world to prevent a malady to which it had helplessly succumbed at home. After tens of thousands of casualties, basically among the black segment of the nation. Cuba's only real impact in Angola was the establishment of a new elite (the former communists are the new millionaires) that does very little to develop their country and eliminate the stark disparities between the haves and the have nots. Eduardo Do Santos's daughter is one of the richest entrepeneurs in Angola; something hard to explain given the president's presumed humble origins. Was he part of the proletariat or not?; ah, sorry, my bad. Now I remember that convenient postulate of the Marxist ideology that explains how bourgeois elements always end up leading and ruling the cause of the proletariat. Give me a break!!!!!

If we want to fight all kinds of discrimination and oppression let's do it, but DO NOT, I REPEAT DO NOT do a hand picking of causes and realities if we are to be considered honest