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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9 comments:
Where can I get some duct tape? About 10 big rolls of it.
Manuel, only two blogs RCAB & BSoE have indicated that Castro is still (or back) in control in Cuba.
And yes, you're absolutely right, the Pressure Cooker has been used by castro at his own advantage, such, that he has come back to power (he actually never left) and people have fail to notice it. One of this days he will take the mothballs of his olive green fatigues, just to thanks those who have made his task "easier" from abroad in terms of propaganda.
In the mean time, the people who are punished are not the historic fidelistas -they are mainly dead- but two new generations of Cubans who were not even born when the "revolution" took place: claiming that the limitation in cash remittances punish fidelistas is just a bad name to a fake excuse: Cubans living in Cuba now are in the vast majority under 50 years old. So, they were too young -if they had been born- when castro raped the nation 50 years ago. Therefore, they are victims of fidelismo, not its enablers -the majority of them- the geriatric component of the tyranny in Cuba is well taken care off. The younger (two) generations are simply their victims.
Interestingly enough, there was a generation divided, in 1959 and the early sixties, that is responsible for installing castro in power. Ask those who were the main bankrollers of castro, the higher class and the elite of the moneyed of the Cuban nation. They funded castro's terror career, and they left Cuba as soon as their interests were touched, leaving the Cuban middle and lower class behind to suffer the monster.
Half of it can be found hidden among the bonafide exiles in Miami, and part of that generation were the first spies, the first traitors. Curiously, among the newest generations of exiles -the balseros- one cannot even find a castroite. How many ex-fidelistas are calling today for the starvation of the Cuban people? I would say that as many of them as fidelistas in Cuba pushing for the same objective. In the meantime, they have been successful driving a wedge among different generation of exiles, and also between exiles and Cubans in the island. To claim that Cubans living in the island are all fidelistas that deserve to be starved is consistent with castroite propaganda, which presents the world with the fallacy that all Cubans in Cuba support the revolution.
Also, there's a special sector -both in Cuba and in exile- that one has to consider: the children of the real hardcore fidelistas.
Many of them have left the country, and they have rebelled first against their families and then against society, since they refuse to carry the burden of the fidelista guilt -they are not responsible for what their parents did. To accuse all Cubans in Cuba of being closet fidelistas is tantamount to accuse the populations of Austria and Germany of being closet Nazis, since their elders most likely were involved with that party and system.
On the other hand, one should ask himself ho many early days fidelistas are walking today -free and unpunished- in exile unbeknown to their children and neighbors.
Again, starving the Cuban people with the excuse of defeating the tyranny is immoral.
The remittances are just a drop in the bucket for the tyranny: a lot of more cash is generated by the fruits of the business done under an "embargo" with more holes than a colander, because those goods rarely reach the Cuban people. Instead remittances are wholly subversive, the empower people, they fuel the most anticastroite of the activities: the blackmarket.
Remittances also make people independent from the castroite economic control, they let them escape the socialized misery that is used to control Cuban society. Denying them to the Cuban people achieves only one objective: keeping castro in power, for the politicians to keep reaping the paltry benefits of the anti-castro industry.
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.
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 Cuban 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.
That's why I believe that money have subversive power, and that should be send by unorthodox means, not through state agencies as the only option. Cari, as per dissidents not being allowed to buy in state stores (the only ones) it's difficult on these days to determine who is a dissident and who is not -for the Cuban police of thought, whoever is not a member of their repressive club is a dissident (full fledge or in the making) and they would have a huge problem with that. Dissidents are hurt by that very same police and their net of chivatos, when their houses are not evaluated or tagged to receive materials for the states, therefore making for us even more important to be able to supply money for them to buy what they need from the black market.
To be anti-castro, Cuba has to have a healthy black market, where people are less and less dependent on the government. Why would you buy let's say a hammer or onions from the state when (one of the many) your friendly neighborhood offers them for substantially less?
Of course, if the limitation in travels were to be eliminated, Cubans would be able to send and carry undeclared money, and it has a subversive value that is even higher than its face value. But the people who impede this flow, and who prevent you from traveling back and for to the island are interested in keeping castroism in place, since it's their raison d'être in Cuba, and their job security in the USA. Without castroism there won't be industry of castroism or industry of anticastroism.
I would rather send the money even if 20% is taken off the top by the scum and not starve a people over politics. This whole issue is ridiculous and the pressure cooker theory is a joke. I suppose the pressure cooker theory worked in Buchenwald and Dachau, huh?
Manuel, Charlie, Calabaza...well said. The only pressure cooker worth using is the one in Val's new kitchen...have him sit on it with full steam ahead. Cacho de cabron!
Cari's report is too horrible for words, "Con fidel todo sin fidel nada" remember those words? they still ring true today, I don't care how much the regime takes off the top, my family and friends will survive with what I send.
Val and company have chosen the regime's side, they laugh with glee at the abuses our countrymen suffer, they are despicable, someday life will make them pay, pay back is a bitch!!
I loved your blog. Thank you.
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