Castro Steals Tuna from Cuban People and Babalú Rejoices

The Babalunians are beside themselves with glee and cannot contain (or, rather, conceal) their excitement. The Human Pressure Cooker is hissing loudly. The consummation of all their fondest hopes for Cuba appears to be in view. Castro has denied the Cuban people humanitarian assistance from the U.S. and 25 European countries. What aid he does allow to enter the country is not distributed to hurricane victims but sold in state stores, as was the canned tuna donated by Ecuador.

The Babalunians have seized upon this purloined tuna as confirmation that the Castro regime cannot be entrusted to distribute humanitarian assistance on the island. Of course, no one ever argued otherwise, certainly not me. For 50 years Castro has used hunger as an instrument of state control, and at a time of national emergency his efforts in that direction would naturally be expected to increase, not lessen, the general desolation. Only if one believes that Castro is sensible to the suffering of the Cuban people and anxious to relieve it can one suppose that he would do something that might threaten the survival of the regime. To make the Cuban people stronger is to weaken proportionately the regime. To keep them in a state of pauperism, without knowing where their next sip of water or morsel of food will come from, makes resistance impossible and the regime invulnerable.

That is why remittances are subversive, because they offer an alternative to complete dependence on the state, which is really what "feeds" the tyranny. Since Cubans cannot count on the state to supply their needs, or, at the very least, not to steal the baby's milk money, they must rely on their relatives for the assistance that will allow them to buy the milk or even the Ecuadorian tuna. Otherwise, they should not have them or anything else. But, of course, that's what the Babalunians want: the elimination of remittances and family visits in order to complement and compound Castro's own efforts to institutionalize hunger on the island.

The Babalunians claim that they want to starve the regime but do not realize or care that starving the regime requires and is synonymous with starving the Cuban people. Even if they had the moral right to starve them -- which no one, I think, would argue that they do -- it would have no effect other than bolstering Castro's position. Starvation will not cause Cubans to rebel (it hasn't in 50 years), but denying them money because they "don't need it" will certainly make them more dependent on the despot and less inclined to challenge him. When life is reduced to a desperate quest to accumulate enough calories so that the body will not have to cannibalize its vital organs and lose years in order to gain days, the Darwinian struggle for survival will take precedence over any other struggle: the needs of the spirit will yield to the needs to the body. Revolution is a luxury which starving men can't afford. History offers not a single example of a revolution that was waged by men in extremis.

Clearly, it is Fidel Castro, not Val Prieto, who has used the Human Pressure Cooker to his best advantage. Carefully regulating it, increasing as well as decreasing the pressure, as the occasion demands, Castro has maintained himself in power for 50 years.

It is remarkable, therefore, that Val would want to use the pressure cooker against the Cuban people as well. Can the pressure cooker both enslave and liberate Cubans at once? The answer is no. It can do only one thing and what it can do is on display for all to see and has been for the last 50 years.

Val understands the value of the pressure cooker as does Castro, he just doesn't know how it works. Nevertheless, he approves of its practical effects (starvation and disease) because he yet hopes that they will produce the change he desires. Of course, it cannot produce that change any more than throwing a defenseless people against an all-powerful tyrant would result in anything else but their complete annihilation.

So every time that Castro increases the heat on his Human Pressure Cooker, makes the lives of Cubans more miserable and hopeless, the Babalunians rejoice and pat themselves on the back as if each victory that Castro obtains over their countrymen on the island brings them closer to "Next Year in Havana." Only if an island-wide cemetery is their idea of a free Cuba can they argue that the Cuban people are an expendable part of Cuba's future.


Postscript:

Cari said...

Manuel:

I heard from a relative in Cuba that those who oppose the regime are not being allowed to buy materials to fix their homes. And they are not being given the items or money that is being sent to them from outside.

Those known for opposing the regime are being prevented and removed from buying supplies (the rapid response brigades are pulling people out of lines). I even heard a story about a family with 3 children who lost their roof and were living in a shelter, but because they are not communists, they were thrown out of the shelter and had to return to their home even though there is no roof,running water, or electricity.

I sent money to my family in Cuba (of which the regime keeps 20%)I don't believe in letting people starve.

But with all that is going on, I fear for the future. How can one just forget what these pigs are doing? How can you just turn the other cheek when they've thrown you out with your children with no where to turn. What's going to happen in Cuba when those who have been trampled upon have a chance to retaliate? The future for Cuba looks very bleak.
9/26/2008 12:22 AM


Manuel A.Tellechea said...

cari:

Imagine the fate of those outcastes if they didn't have the money from the remittances? With it they may not be able to shop in state stores, but they can still use it on the black market. If forced from shelters they will be in a better position to find someone to take them in with money than without it.

Money can correct or palliate many of the injustices created by the Castro regime. Without it one is completely exposed to its abuses and helpless.

Hence the cruelty of those like Val Prieto and Commerce Secretary Gutiérrez who claim that Cubans don't need money to survive in Castro's Cuba.

Money is, in fact, what they most need especially at this time. Not only for the very reasons that everybody else needs it but for the additional one that it will afford them some protection from the ravages of the regime.
9/26/2008 5:21 AM

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