The Precolombian Rites of the Babalunians

"Five hundred years of exploitation [of Cuba] does not appear to be sufficient for the Spanish government." — Alberto de la Cruz, Babalú, November 30, 2007

To the ancient chant of "¡Cubanacán for the cubanacanos!," Alberto de la Cruz, now to be known as Alberto del Semí, has been inducted into the Order of the Black Legend by Cacique Siboney Val after having received the blessing of High Priest Enriquillo.

Quotable & Reprehensible: Alex of SotP Mourns Freedom for Elenita

"And not to put too fine a point on it, but for those who were too quick to label a Cuban father abusive just for living in Cuba [no, not for living in Cuba, but for wishing to sell his daughter to Castro in exchance for a better life in Cuba], who made up stories about him [the worst stories about Izquierdo were not told in court because the Cuban regime refused to grant visas to villagers from Cabaiguán who were willing impeach his perjurious testimony] and speculated he and his attorneys were in Castro's pockets [can anyone even dispute this?], there's no Brawny absorbent enough to wipe the egg off your faces [because there is no egg on our faces just joy in our hearts]. You will claim a "victory" because he's staying [not because "he's" staying but because she is], as if this was a war [not to those like you who wanted to surrender the child to Castro without a fight], but he's doing it in his terms [no, "his terms" would have entailed immediate return to Cuba] and with the custody of his child which you hoped to deny [it is Castro who denied him custody of his child as he does to every parent in Cuba, and Castro, also, who sent him to the U.S. to reclaim his daughter as property of the state]." — Alex, Stuck on the Palmetto, November 29, 2007

It's a victory because it didn't end with a gun pointed at the girl's face.

It's a victory because she won't be sent back to Castro's hell, which is not a fit place to raise any child, and where you have yourself admitted you wouldn't want your daughter to be raised.

It's a victory because she won't be separated from her brother, who is the only person who's been there for her all her life.

It's a victory because Joe Cubas, as he has done before, saved not one individual but an entire family from Castro's clutches to which you were more than happy to consign them.

We who always championed her cause are certainly as justified in claiming this as a victory as you were when you proclaimed Elián's repatriation at gunpoint a "victory." Our victory ensured freedom for this little girl; your "victory" turned Elián into the most used and abused child in Cuba.

In Elenita's Case, Freedom Wins

Despite his protestations to the contrary, Rafael Izquierdo has desisted in his plans to return Elenita to Cuba. He has been persuaded by Joe Cubas that it is in Elenita's best interests to remain in the U.S. Of course, it is also in his other daughter's best interests; and in his common-law wife's best interests; and, most importantly, in Rafael's Izquierdo's best interests since the most exalted lacquey in Cuba will not make as much as a busboy here. The out of court settlement is also in the best interests of Judge Jeri B. Cohen, whose earlier award of custody to Izquierdo will not now be set aside by the Appellate Court because of judicial misconduct on her part; and, also, it is in the best interests of Kurzban and Montiel-Davis, who are less likely now to be subject to disciplinary proceedings or disbarment springing from their outrageous conduct at the custody trial, which included suborning perjury and fabricating evidence. The Cubas, Elenita's foster parents and the only well-intentioned parties in this case, will continue to have visitation rights on alternate week-ends. Elena Pérez, Elenita's abusive mother, will not (unless Izquierdo wishes to risk losing custody). And Elenita's 13-year old brother, who has been her real father and protector since she was born, will not be separated from her nor she from him.

As the result of this Solomonic compromise, four people are free instead of one. Although we despise Rafael Izquierdo for abandoning his daughter and then reclaiming her for Castro, we are even glad that he has opted for freedom over slavery. Perhaps he'll learn to be a man and a father here. In any case, Elenita will remain in the U.S. and under the jurisdiction of the Florida Department of Children and Families until May 2010. Then her father will have to decide whether he wants to return to Cuba with his biological daughter or remain here. Nothing that this cretinous man might decide to do would surprise us. But I'm personally betting that the guajiro is not that great a fool since this compromise more than just assuring his daughter's safety for now is a golden parachute for her father.

The entired saga as covered by the RCAB:

Judge Jeri B. Cohen Stopped Dead in Her Tracks By Appellate Court

Judge Jeri B. Cohen Seeks the Spotlight Again

Judge Jeri B. Cohen Awaits Her Report Card

Judge Cohen: The Little Girl Is Lying

Now Judge Cohen Officially Banishes the Truth from Her Courtroom

A Letter to Florida Governor Crist Appealing for Elenita's Life

More Fabricated Evidence Exposed and the "C Word" Banned from Judge Cohen's Courtroom

Elenita's Fairy Tale: Grimm Was Never This Grimm

What Judge Jeri B. Cohen Should Take to Bed Every Night

Judge Jeri B. Cohen's Decision: We Should All Want "Marginal" Fathers

Ana Menéndez Psychoanalyzes Cuban Exiles

The Real Parents — Joe and María Cubas

Joe Cubas: Castro's Worst Nightmare (and Henry's)

Ana Menéndez & Robert Molleda: The Hag and the Gelding; Or, Love in the Stable

Notable and Hateful: No Mercy for Children Who Straggle From Castro's Knee

What Creature Do I Despise the Most in the World?

The "Elenitas" Keep Multiplying

Is Oscar Corral In Cabaiguán, Cuba?

The Saga of Babalú's Henry Gómez & Alex of SotP

Judge Jeri B. Cohen Just "Hates It; Hates It; Hates It"

Judge Jeri Beth Cohen Gets Her Man (Off)

The Guajiro Hamlet: Rafael Izquiedo

Elián's Father was "Adopted" Too

El Bitongo

The Last Redoubt of Magical Realism: Judge Jeri Beth Cohen's Courtroom

By Their Scars You Will Know Them: The Ordeal of Elenita and Her Brother

Castro's Lawyers Kurzban & Davis Face Disbarment in Cubas-Izquierdo Custody Battle

Cui Bono: The Unasked Question in Judge Cohen's Courtroom

Elena Pérez: Her Life As a Mother and a Mistress (Or Chasing Cod in Cabaiguan)

Letter to Elena Pérez: Birth Mother of the Cuban Refugee Girl

Judge Jeri B. Cohen: Love Child of Janet Reno and Doris Meissner

The Poor Little Cuban Girl that They Call "Eliana"

What "American-Cuban" Bloggers Really Think About "Eliana"

¡Viva Ziva! The Moral Conscience of Babalu Blog

Venezuela to Go on "Castro Time"

Chávez is undoubtedly crazy; there can be no doubt of that. But his original ideas are few. He is the the Great Recycler (of failed ideas). Because we are so far-removed in time from Castro's earliest bizarreries, many of these have been forgotten even by those who were there at the time. Those born, like Alberto de la Cruz, after the Revolution and raised in exile, would have no reason to be acquainted with them. Hence it astonished Cruz that Chávez had devised a unique Time Zone for Venezuela, which would put it a half-hour behind all the other countries of the world. Cruz wittily named this "The Twilight Zone."

Before I say anything else (and I think all of you know where I am headed), let me remark that Cruz's post — the genre, that is — is exactly what Babalú needs to become relevant again. Since Val realized that the well of his own hardly-fecund inspiration was running dangerously dry, he recruited fresh voices with fresh perspectives and they have worked a wonderful transformation at Babalú. Yes, Henry is still shilling for the Republican anti-Hispanic xenophobes, who left no doubt at last night's presidential debate that they had written off the Hispanic vote and were only courting the anti-Hispanic vote; and Val, when he makes a cameo appearance on his blog — which, mercifully, is rarely nowadays — is still as homicidal as ever in his plans for the Cuban people (which can be nicely summarized as "More Blood and No Butter"). Yet, like Reagan, Val has the gift (in his case, almost an imperative) of delegating authority without feeling threatened by others more talented or knowledgeable than himself. He realizes that, in the end, he'll get the credit while they harp about the "honor" of serving him. (Val, incidentally, has had to "crack the whip" — his own expression — because Babalú's new and old contributors, now numbering 15, have lately come down with serious case of "let the other guy do it" which reduces output from a potential minimum of 15 posts per day to just two or three).

But we have strayed too far afield. Alberto de la Cruz is wrong. It is Fidel Castro who first devised a new Time Zone for Cuba which was one-half hour at odds with everybody else's. It was not so children could have one more half-hour of daylight but so the cane cutters (including, of course, children) could start earlier and finish later. What Chávez is actually doing in Venezuela is going on Castro Time; no doubt another step towards the "confederation" of the two countries, that is, the destruction of Cuban sovereignty.

UN Rapporteur Jean Ziegler: On the Art of Not Giving Offense to Castro

Jean Ziegler, the United Nations Rapporteur on the Right to Food, whose recent trip to Cuba, the first by a UN rapporteur in 20 years, revealed to the world that Communist Cuba was a horn of plenty, has admitted that he intentionally avoided meeting with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) during his 10-day visit to the island from Oct. 28 to November 6, as the New York-based human rights organization U.N. Watch had charged. Although several European Union ambassadors in Havana had offered to arrange such meetings in their embassies, supposedly beyond the regime's prying eyes and ears, Ziegler declined because "it would have compromised the new spirit of openness signalled by Cuba." Besides, his itinerary had already been approved by the regime and to stray from it would have been "irresponsible on his part" and "an absurdity." Although meeting with NGOs would have been "humanly understandable," Ziegler averred that it would have threatened future visits by rapporteurs as well as a UN pact with Cuba on social, economic and cultural rights and a second pact on civil and political rights.

"Openness" on the part of the Castro regime is contingent upon lack of openness on the part of the rapporteur. The more inoffensive that Ziegler is, the more rapporteurs Cuba will allow to visit the island in the future. With each successive rapporteur competing to be the least offensive, the number of inoffensive rapporteurs could grow exponentially. Therefore, it would have been "irresponsible" and an "absurdity" if Ziegler had by his damnable lack of inoffensiveness provoked the regime to be less welcoming to other inoffensive rapporteurs. Meetings with NGOs, although "humanly understandable," would have offended those whose actions are not humanly understandable, and that would never do. Ziegler's job is to conceal and justify inhumanity, not to expose it, much less condemn it. Under such circumstances it is perhaps more prudent to avoid those who might strike notes of discordance in the perfect symphony of sympathy which has characterized the UN's interactions with Cuba in general and Ziegler's interactions in particular. It is precisely this wonderful meeting of minds that has enabled Ziegler to secure a promise from his Cuban friends, in consideration of so much inoffensiveness on his part, to agree to sign "pacts" with the United Nations regarding "civil and political rights." It is not enough, of course, that Cuba abide by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which it is a signatory. No, that could be construed as being offensive. Instead, there should be a special "pact" with Cuba wherein Castro decides what constitutes human rights and agrees to abide by his definition.

Of course, the mere fact that Ziegler was sent to Cuba in the first place was a victory for the regime because as a prior condition the UN had to abolish the position of Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Cuba. Although no such rapporteur was ever admitted into Cuba for as long as the office existed, it was nonetheless a symbolic rebuke that one did exist and was thought necessary. Well, in the era of inoffensiveness to Cuba, even an implied rebuke was too explicit. Now there will be no more rebukes, real or implied; only regurgitations of Jean Ziegler's inanities.

What Do Henry Gómez and Fidel Castro Have in Common? The Exploitation of Elián González

This morning Henry Gómez has posted on Babalú blog the Pulitzer Prize winning photograph of Elián González at gunpoint with the caption: "In 49 weeks we'd like you to vote Democrat. For old time's sake." It is not the sentiment that I object to. I should no more like to see a Democratic president than would Henry. But neither, for that matter, am I enthused at the prospect of another Republican president, especially Henry's idol Fred "Cubans Are Suitcase Bombers" Thompson. I don't like either political party and believe that both have royally screwed the Cuban people from the beginning. The Republican Lincoln wanted to annex Cuba and use it, in Martí's words, as the world's "basurero," disgorging into it America's emancipated slaves, convinced as he was that the two races couldn't co-exist in the same country and determined as always to assure white supremacy. Ulysses S. Grant denied belligerancy rights to the Cuban rebels in 1868 and did everything in his power to quell their movement, with half his cabinet in the pay of Spain. The Democrats were just as bad and had been at it longer. They were not always content to let the apple ripen, as Jefferson suggested. On several occasions they tried to pry Cuba from Spain to use as a slave colony. Lincoln's predecessor, James Buchanan, when Secretary of State, had personally betrayed Narciso López to the Spanish. Grover Cleveland had followed Grant's example by imposing a perverse "neutrality" during Cuba's War of Independence (1895-98) which allowed Spain to buy guns with which to kill Cubans while embargoing all arms intended for the rebels, nearly causing Martí's Revolution to fail even before the first shot was fired. His successor, William McKinley, did intervene in Cuba, in order to rob the Army of Liberation of their victory and impose an American protectorate over the island. In the "American Century" Eisenhower's State Department deposed Batista in order to give us Fidel; and John F. Kennedy betrayed the Cuban freedom fighters at the Bay of Pigs (betraying Cubans is America's oldest diplomatic tradition) and formerly relinquished U.S. control of Cuba by ceding the island to the Soviet Union in the Kennedy-Khrushchev Pact. In recent times, Bill Clinton introduced the "Wet Foot/Dry Foot" policy which George Bush has implemented longer than Clinton did. The Elián affaire is not an isolated incident in the history of Cuban-American relations but par for the course. Clinton and Reno, of course, bear most of the responsibility; but the Republicans are not without blame either. They controlled both houses of Congress at the time and refused to pass a relief bill that would have bestowed citizenship on the boy because their constituents, ill-served as always by the MSM, had concluded that slavery in Cuba was the best thing for the boy. That attitude, of course, was also fomented by the Republicans' anti-Hispanic xenophobia, which became a party credo under Henry's other great hero, Newt Gingrich.

Of course, Henry can be as partisan as he wishes. What he has no right to do, however, is to use Elián as a political prop because Henry was one of the few Cuban-Americans who supported Elián's return to his father before his kidnapping at Reno's orders. The prospect of sending the boy back to Cuba without the use of guns didn't in the least perturb Henry. What had him in a panic then was the prospect that those loud but peaceful protestors would tarnish by their passion and "Cubanness" the good opinion which Henry's Anglo neighbors had of him and other invisible Cubans.

This kind of shamelessness is not unknown to us. In fact, it reminds us of the modus operandi of someone we all know: it is Fidel Castro's conceit that everybody else is stupid and can be conned at will.

Not me and not here, Henry.

Tweedledum and Tweedledee

Tweedledum is the fat one.

The worst president since Carter and the only man who could have done worse than Carter.

The two met today for the first time since 2000 at a White House reception for this year's American Nobel Prize winners.

The Castro Regime Exploits a British Woman Disabled in Cuba

Most tourists manage to "do Cuba" without doing themselves much damage. 32-year old Kirsty Offord, from Wollaton, England, was not so lucky. She sustained a life-altering brain injury when she was hit by a car while training for a charity bike ride across Cuba 9 years ago. As a result of her accident, she is now spatially-impaired and has balance problems as well as difficulty concentrating and short-term memory loss. "My brain injury meant I had to let go of many of my dreams," lamented Ms. Offord. Not all, however. One dream she did not "let go of." She returned to Cuba this year to complete her cross-country bicycle tour, aided by 25 other cyclists who were there not just for moral support but to make sure she did not kill herself this time. It must indeed have been quite an ordeal to attempt such a feat on Cuba's dilapidated roads, especially for one who has difficulty walking a straight line. In recognition of her achievement, Ms. Offord has been named as one of three finalists for the title "UK Headway Achiever of the Year," which is awarded by Britain's brain-injury foundation.

A few observations.

They should really change the name of the Award.

Although we are glad that Ms. Offord appears to be recovering, in whatever measure she can, from the devastating injuries she sustained in Cuba, we cannot but observe that she would have been spared 10 years of rehabilitation as well as this no doubt honorable but hardly desirable award if she had limited her cycling ambitions to her native England and the continent. If she had known then (which we doubt she did) that Cubans are prohibited from undertaking such an excursion without government approval, that, indeed, they require internal passports to move within their own country, she would, perhaps, have arrived at the conclusion that it is neither decent nor fraternal to do in Cuba as the Cubans can't, much less to be used as a pawn by a totalitarian regime that wishes to create the false impression that Cuba is an "open island" no different from her native Britain. Open it certainly is to foreigners like Offord who can travel the island in their own movable bubble; but once they step out of the Cubatur bus, say, onto the street, they risk confronting realities for which they are wholly unprepared, such as streetlights that have been decommisioned for years, cars without working brakes or potholes that are more like craters with their own peculiar habitats.

We do not know this for a fact but it seems a fair assumption that Ms. Offord's present difficulties were aggravated by the fact she suffered her accident in Cuba. No doubt much irreversible damage was done while she languished in a Havana hostipal waiting to be stabilized so that she could be transported for treatment to Great Britain. Unlike a Cuban in her situation, she received the best that Cuban medicine could offer; but, as Castro's own recent encounter with Cuba's health care system has shown, Cuba's "best" sometimes means performing a lobotomy through the anus. A tourist to Cuba who is unaware of this fact and actually believes the propaganda may pay a price higher than he imagines for his credulity, that is, he may pay the price ordinary Cubans do.

What I find intriguing and sadly disturbing about this story is that the victim has learned absolutely nothing about her experience in Cuba and has lent herself to be exploited again by the regime. Perhaps the experience itself and its consequences put her beyond profitting from its lesson. Certainly there can be no more contemptible human beings than ones who would avail themselves of another's misery in order to increase misery among men, and here we allude not only to the Castroites themselves but their fellow travellers in Britain and everywhere.

Human Rights Activists Detained in Cuba After House Invasion

The human rights situation in Cuba continues to worsen under the leadership of Raúl Castro. The regime's assault brigades stormed the home of human rights activist Juan Bermúdez Toranzo on Thursday, Nov. 22, where a prayer vigil was being led by Pastor Yordis Ferrer on behalf of Cuba's political prisoners.

The armed troops, who numbered about 30, fell upon the family and its guests with savage fury, beating even the women and children, and then ransacked the house in the Havana municipality of San Miguel del Padrón, destroying the family's furniture and personal belongings.

Bermúdez was dragged to the patrol car with his 2-year old son in his arms, who was wrenched from him so that he could be pushed inside. Nothing is known of the child's whereabouts. Bermúdez's wife, Nery, who was not allowed to follow them, was also beaten by security forces. Pastor Ferrer attempted to come to her defense, whereupon the Pentecostal minister was also arrested. Nery Bermúdez was advised to "look for a lawyer" because formal charges were to be pressed against her husband for engaging in activities contrary to the interests of the State. These might include the holding of a religious service in a private home without a government license as well as defaming the Revolution and other singularly Cuban offenses.

The 30-year old Bermúdez founded an independent labor union for Cubans denied a permit by the government to work for themselves. He is also involved in programs to better the quality of life for the impoverished children of his neighborhood, one of Havana's most marginalized.

In an encouraging development, which is now becoming more common in the wake of such arbitrary arrests, family members and friends of the arrested men protested outside the police station to demand their release, risking, of course, arrest themselves.

News of the detention of the human rights activists was reported by Juan Carlos González Leiva, a blind lawyer who leads the Cuban Human Rights Foundation and the Human Rights Rapporteur Council in Cuba.

Juventud Rebelde Hails Metrosexuality in Cuba

"[A] short walk down the streets in Havana will suffice to be struck by the frequent sight of men with shaven arms and legs, polished nails, plucked eyebrows, earrings and other until very recently female attributes (later extended in the article to include "tight pants, long dyed hair, lipstick, facials, pierced navels," etc.). They are regular customers at beauty parlors, highly selective about their clothes, and fond of jewellery — deemed until a few decades ago by social norms as being exclusively female attributes." — Juventud Rebelde, November 11, 2007


One would think that in a country where women use sugar syrup (almíbar) for hair dressing and lightning fluid for deodorant (both excellent for their purposes if these are to catch bees or fire), the likelihood of men co-opting their "beauty products" for their own personal toilet would be slim. But, if Juventud Rebelde is to be believed, metrosexuality has taken Cuba by storm. Metrosexuality can best be defined as homosexuality without the sex. That is, it copies the habits and fashions of homosexuals as well as a certain female sensitivity. It is even said that certain women are attracted to these denatured men.

Juventud Rebelde sees metrosexuality as conducing to "men's liberation." But from what? Masculinity? If this were indeed its object, then it would certainly resonate with the capos of the regime, for that is one kind of "liberation" which they could support. Anything which emasculates the Cuban male, which deprives him of his standing within the family or society, will be received with gratitude by the Communists. The day is long past when the Revolution tried to turn effeminate males into "real men." That experiment failed for many reasons, not least of which because sexuality is destiny. You can turn a homosexual into a sadist or masochist, and the UMAP concentration camps produced many of those; you cannot, however, reorient him towards heterosexuality.

Metrosexuality is a lot easier to implement because its transformation is not essential or permanent, though its superficialities create a mindset and general attitude which fosters narcissism and a preocuppation with external appearances that masks internal conflicts. By promoting metrosexuality as a means of "social recognition" the regime is shifting the focus from the rights of man to the rites of manhood. And, of course, it is not a means of "social recognition," as Juventud Rebelde contends, but of social control.

The "new man" — Juventud Rebelde uses the term in parentheses — is no longer like "Che," brutish, homophobic and a coward. The "new man" as newly defined is "oblivious to any boundaries set up by a phallocentric culture." Since man is essentially phallocentric himself, biologically and psychologically, a culture that would encourage him to deny that fact or obscure it is depriving him of his bearings.

Juventud Rebelde claims that this trend, which has already played itself out in the West, is a phenomenon that could not have occurred during the Special Period in Cuba. By implication it is saying that this period of involuntary self-denial has been transcended and that Cubans are now living in headonistic times, where excess is, if not the norm, then at least no aberration. It compares the present time to ancient Rome at its most self-indulgent and claims that this is not a new trend but a revival of a very old one.

Now this is very strange indeed. In Cuba, a monthly bar of soap of the cheapest and coarsest type and a razor dull enough to cut but not to shave are the foundation (no pun intended) of Cuban metrosexuality. How far an obsession with one's appearance can be carried within those narrow confines is anybody's guess. Cubans do have a genius for improvisation but this supplies basic needs not extravagances. It is easy enough to look like a male on one bar of soap and one razor per month but quite another to ape a dandy (the 19th century term for metrosexual).

Juventud Rebelde claims that metrosexuality was introduced to Cuba through globalization. Funny how Cuba appears to be immured from its effects in so many areas, indeed, in almost all areas; yet this frivolous trend managed to penetrate its cordon sanitaire. Unless the government sanctioned and promoted it, it would seem highly unlikely that it could make any headway in Cuban society.

As further evidence that this trend did not casually come to moor in the Caribbean backwater there is now an Office of Ibero-America Masculinities, in Cuba, headed by a Dr. Julio César González Pajés, a professor at the University of Havana. Juventud Rebelde does not say if Dr. González Pajés is himself a metrosexual but his cosmology does seem to point in that direction: "Today’s man is much more androgynous and 'feminine' – not effeminate, but feminine from the female standpoint of socialization." And likely to become more so now that Juventud Rebelde has published a 2500-word guide to becoming a metrosexual.

While admitting that "Cubans have a variety of views about their metrosexual countrymen" Juventud Rebelde highlights only the positive ones. The most critical Cubans it surveyed contend that metrosexuality is just an imported fashion trend or manifestation of adolescent rebellion and protest (much preferable, say, to youths wearing wristbands emblazoned "CAMBIO"). The most laudatory applaud it as "a male recipe for self-esteem that men can use to undergo an aesthetic alteration [which] displays the subject’s open-mindedness like a neon sign." Expert González Pajés agrees: "What is beyond question is that Cuba is under the influence of that global movement and our youth are ever more eager to look like their peers overseas." Yes, look like their peers; the government will now gladly accept this compromise if its youth do not demand greater rights than to resemble foreigners in externals while still yoked to a superannuated ideology and denied the civil and human rights that their peers in Western countries take for granted but would not trade for the right to wear navel rings. Cuban males, on the other hand, are advised by designer Guillermo González Lezcano to embrace "aesthetic freedom" and to "preserve the country's beauty values."

So the Revolution which began by stressing, and, indeed, demanding an almost camp machismo of Cuban males ends its days by admonishing them to "tend to their feminine side" and to "preserve the country's beauty values."

http://www.juventudrebelde.cu/cuba/2007-11-11/aumentan-hombres-que-usan-atributos-femeninos/

Notable & Redundant: Still Beating Old Rocinante

"Spain has the most foreign investment in Cuba and as a result Spanish political leaders are impotent to stand up to their corporations and require Cuba to adhere to international norms of labor practices. Spain's incestuous relationship with [the Cuban] regime makes Spaniards de facto enablers of the regime." — Henry Gómez, Babalú, November 24, 2007

One would have thought that Henry Gómez, having launched a new BUCL campaign after keeping that organization in abeyance for months, in the hope, perhaps, that its epic failures would be forgotten, or that I would die — pretty much the same thing — and having received from me the closest thing to a blessing that I will ever give him for his newest and seemingly innocuous CAMBIO campaign, would, in his own interest, bury and forget forever his "Campaign Against Spanish Explosion" (he meant exploitation). But no. He resurrects again the Black Legend in his latest post about Condé Nast.

Once again he defames all Spaniards for the actions of some Spanish corporations who have become partners with Castro in the exploitation of the Cuban people. He has never named these corporations and I doubt very much whether he even could. It is easier to tar the entire Spanish nation with their misdeeds. I wonder if ordinary Americans should also be blamed for Enron's predations on them, or for the neverending assaults on the dignity of foreign laborers by America's own rapacious multinationals who taught their Spanish counterparts everything they know.

But no. Americans — according to their folklore — are the victims of their corporations, who exploit them at home and discredit them abroad. But Spaniards, according to Henry, are to blame for all the misdeeds of their multinationals in Cuba as well as the silence of its government. Henry has never blamed Americans for the "Wet Foot/Dry Foot" policy or even the U.S. government. In his heart of hearts he himself approves of the policy: it's part of his master plan to stop Cubans from fleeing to the U.S., which serves the double purpose of protecting the unbarnished name of Cuban exiles already here as well as raising the temperature on that pressure cooker which Henry and Val keep brewing in hopes it will blow up and take the whole Cuban people with it.

Still, it is Spaniards who are wanting in morality. Even when Spain's King and Socialist president, for once, find the gumption to stand-up to Castro's overlord and strike a blow for civilization amid a gathering of the worst and dumbest in the region, Henry remains unimpressed and hostile as ever. The Spanish government, ignoring the interests of its multinationals but upholding the honor of its people, did confront Chávez and in public, threatening their corporations' incestuous relationship not only with Venezuela but Cuba as well. The Spanish people responded by overwhelmingly supporting (82%) the severing of diplomatic relations with Venezuela, which would be the death knell of Spanish corporations there (and probably in Cuba as well). Monkey see, monkey do.

Still, Henry is not satisfied.

I assure you that if 82 percent of Canadians were in favor of breaking ties with Communist Cuba, I should be singing "O, Canada" right now.


POSTSCRIPT:

Killcastro has left a very important comment which I urge you all to read.

Notable & Suicidal: RCAB Makes Him Want to Kill Himself

"I went to his blog site... Who is this Manny and what turns his crank? Well... after reading a few of his blogs [i.e. posts] I wanted to kill myself. Whew, man, oh man, does that guy ever froth at the mouth... like a rabid dog. Betcha he's a regular blast at a party." — "Saborami," Cubamania Canadian Forum, November 22, 2007

Yes, I am.

Read more:

http://www.cubamania.com/cuba/showthread.php?t=20300

The Canadian "Herbert Matthews" Returns to Cuba 47 Years Later

Evil is something which is ingrained in people's characters and cannot be uprooted any more than goodness can. Repentance is possible but always unlikely since self-justification is of more importance to most people than self-correction. In modern times there is no more remarkable an example of this than Herbert Matthews, who knew Cuba at its apex and helped it to reach its nadir. Matthews, more concerned about his feeble place in history than the great harm which he had done to generations of Cubans, died in Australia defending his Frankenstein's monster to the last. I did not know but should have supposed that there had to be a Canadian Matthews. There is always a Canadian equivalent of anyone who is odious and grotesque in the U.S. Being derivative is their identity (mark that sentence; it is the entire history of the Canadian people). Much as they try to differentiate themselves from their Southern neighbor, Canadians always manage to be more of the same, only blander, in that supernumerary, surplus kind of way.

The Canadian Herbert Matthews is called Michael Maclear. He was born in London and you can't get more Canadian than that. He was a tv correspondent in Cuba at the time of the triumph of the Revolution and his reportage from there "launched a hugely successful career as a foreign correspondent and documentary filmmaker," according to the Montreal Gazette, which interviewed him. So Maclear has good cause to say "Gracias, Fidel" and he still does. At 77, he returned to Cuba to survey the cost of his "hugely successful career." He even filmed, wrote and narrated a documentary about his return trip, which will premiere tonight on Canadian television. Cuba is still grist for his mill.

His hatred for the U.S., which is as ingrained in the Canadian MSM as in its American counterpart, enables him to still see Castro as a "hero," although having been there at the beginning he knows that being a revolutionary "hero" has nothing to do with heroism and everything to do with propaganda (i.e. using tools like Matthews and Maclear himself). He acknowledges that Castro used him and others more notable than him during his ascent to power to foster the myth of "Fidel Castro as poet/warrior." Castro is no more a poet than he is a warrior, but it is the warrior part that Maclear rejects: "Really, it wasn't like there were any great battles then. Batista's army basically laid down their arms, and Batista fled the country." That's good. There was no revolution; only random terrorist acts. This is the only myth about the Cuban Revolution that Maclear is, well, mac-clear about, much clearer in fact than Matthews, who saw mighty legions in the Sierra Maestra where there were only a handful of campers in camouflage. In the 1950s, Maclear was young and cynical and could see through such ruses, while the besotted Matthews, who shilled for Franco in the Spanish Civil War, was too invested in siding with the "angels" this time to realize that Lucifer was an angel too. Also, Castro and his henchmen were Maclear's contemporaries, and this also gave him an advantage over the sexagenerian Matthews.

But let us not give more credit to Maclear than he deserves. With the passage of time, he has become Herbert Matthews and now sees Cuba as dimly. He claims to still have a "fondness for the Cuban people" and "empathy" for their situation. He shows it by dismissing the 48-year tyranny that Castro has exercised over them as the cause of their woes, preferring, instead, to see them as victims of the "the world's longest-lasting David and Goliath confrontation." In Cuba's case, however, David has been aiming his slingshot at his own people rather than at the giant. Although he claims to have interviewed Cubans critical of the regime for his documentary, Maclear does not deny his bias, which is all the more shocking because he doesn't pretend that Cuba is something it is not. Elections there, he effortlessly concedes, are no exercise in democracy. Still, they are all the Cuban people deserve or want: "Cubans well know theirs is not a democracy, but it is theirs, no longer some colony for sale. It is a nation, hard won." Well, not so "hard won," as Maclear earlier admitted; more like ceded to them. Maclear does not say who "won the nation." The answer, of course, is the Castroite oligarchy. It is they who took Cuba, all of Cuba, 48 years ago as booty and have never relinquished "their" prize. If Cuba was an "American colony" before the Revolution, it was not by Cuba's doing. The fact that Cuba was made into a Soviet colony for 30 years and now into a Venezuelan province is entirely Fidel Castro's doing. When colonialism is imposed by a stronger state on a weaker one, it is a tragedy. But when it is agreed to by small clique in order to control a majority of the population, then it is treason.

In the documentary, Maclear uses archival footage of an interview which he conducted with Fidel Castro in 1959. In it he is told by Castro that "Cuba would have free elections, a multi-party system and not nationalize foreign companies." He does not blame Castro for lying to him or the Cuban people. He blames the U.S., instead, for not "reaching out to Castro when he was eminently reachable," that is, for not bribing him out of his Communist convictions and anti-American fanaticism. Maclear believes that Cuba was auctioned in 1959 and the Soviet Union was the top bidder. If so, it is Castro who closed the bidding.

Still, things have not turned out so badly for the Cubans, who are now the happy subjects of their homegrown tyrants, which Maclear confuses with the triumph of nationalism. He doesn't want Cuba to be judged by "First World standards" though he should know that Cuba was once a First World country like his own. He is transfixed by the fact that Cubans supposedly pay no taxes, though their blood and sinew bankroll the regime. Rents in Cuba are a nominal $1 per month, or so he claims. He fails to mention that although Cuba's population has doubled since 1959 its housing stock has decreased by one third and much of what remains is in a state of near-collapse. University is "free" he also claims, but fails to note that it was free before the Revolution for poor students and that no political test was ever applied for admission there before Castro. And, of course, universal [bad] health care is the Revolution's greatest achievement.

Most horrific of all, Maclear purports that Cuba is not a police state, or not so bad a police state. He rejects "the usual stereotypes of police being on every corner, of everybody being oppressed and downtrodden and in revolt. Cuba may be far from perfect, but it's just not like that, either." Of course, it is exactly like that and worse. He blames "the U.S. media" and the "anti-Castro faction in Florida" for perpetrating this image of Cuba on innocent Canadians like himself. "Westerners," he explains, "tend to look at Cuba through the standards of a first-world nation, but we have to accept the fact this is a very poor country trying to survive."

Though he lives very comfortably in the First World and would never approve of a Cuban solution to Canada's congenital colonialism, which is no less a national obsession for being largely illusory, Mr. Maclear is quite content that Cuba be governed by Third World standards, which requires it to forgo democracy and the Rule of Law in exchange for plutocracy and the rule of tourists.

Maclear's documentary, After Fidel, which should have been entitled "After Fidel, Raúl," airs this Friday in Canada on History Television at 8:00 PM. No doubt it shall find its way to some PBS channel soon.

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/preview/story.html?id=e792c3e3-f939-4746-a2b6-cad461343acd&p=1

Barack Obama Admits to Drug Use: "Kids, You Can Be Me Too"

He only failed to mention crack, but admitted to having abused cocaine, marihuana and alcohol in his "youth." Which is when? 5 years ago? 10 years ago? Anyway, it happened when Barak was "Barry" Obama.

Substance abuse was a means by which he could "push questions of who I was out of my mind." What questions? That he was a cokehead and a pothead? No. Obama means the agony of being what was once known as a tragic mulatto, born between two worlds but belonging to none. They made a movie about it once called El derecho de nacer. Of course, the word "mulatto" is now considered politically incorrect, although the angst about being one is apparently still acceptable. In Obama's case, however, the elements which usually go into making one a tragic mulatto are wholly missing.

Obama is not a descendent of slaves since his father is an African-African, born there and living there. In fact, if "reparations" were ever distributed to the descendents of slaves, he wouldn't be on the receiving end of the line. His ancestors were the slavetrappers who sold blacks from other tribes to the slavers. On his white mother's side, Obama is descended from the family of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America. He better be careful or the Sons of the Confederacy may elect him their president.

Obama's own life seems to have been wonderfully free of discrimination. Obama admits that he was a poor student — and, we may add, he's done nothing noteworthy since — and yet this did not stop him from becoming the Senate's youngest member and a viable presidential candidate. Discrimination should be made of sterner stuff.

Obama unbosomed himself before an audience of high school students, no doubt to stress the fact that he too was (and is) young. The message that his listeners are likely to draw from this personal admission is that you can abuse drugs, put sex and sports before academics, nearly flunk out of Columbia and still end up in the While House. Well, that lesson has already been taught by the incumbant. Religion saved Bush and the race card will probably save Obama.

Fidel Castro's Heritage

"I agree with what [Chávez] said, that I am a strange blend of races. I have Taino, Canary Island, Celtic and who knows what other bloods in me." — Fidel Castro Ruz, "Reflections of the Comandante," Granma, November 18, 2007

No you don't, Fidel. Your father's people are from Galicia, in Spain, and your mother's are Sephardic Jews from Syria who immigrated to Cuba in the early 20th century. You are descended from a long line of rabbis on your mother's side and illiterate cave-dwelling peasants on your father's.

Your half-brother, Raúl, is the one who has a variegated heritage. He is a descendent of Tainos and Afro-Cubans on his father's side, though he does not advertise that fact. Standing side by side, the two of you look like anything but brothers.

The RCAB Responds to the Rebirth of BUCL

Bloggers United for Cuban Liberty (BUCL) is back. After disappearing for a respectable period and fanning everybody's hopes (especially those of its impressed members) that BUCL was no more, it has been brought back from unspeakable disgrace. Its founder Henry Gómez proudly proclaimed its re-birth on Babalu, or, perhaps, we should say reincarnation, because its coming back in a different form, with a revised history and new objectives. The calamitous campaign which launched it, the now-legendary "Crusade Against Spanish Explosion" (they meant "exploitation") has been re-baptized posthumously as "The Campaign Against Spanish Investments," thereby lifting the anathema that BUCL had placed on the entire nation of Spain. Its hagiographic and hopelessly starstruck second campaign, which sought to recruit Sting and the Police in the fight against human rights abuses in Cuba, and which memorably culminated in a BUCL streamer being flown at the Sting concert in Miami, with all the BUCLers in attendance, and, apparently, expecting to be called on stage at any moment, that deluded exercise which plumbed the depths of sycophancy in the belief that Sting could incite a youth revolution in Cuba, is now to be officially known as "The Campaign to Point Out the Hypocrisy of Would-be Human Rights Champion Sting and his band The Police." Exposing Sting's hypocrisy was an (undesired) by-product of the Campaign, not its objective.

After two such spectacular failures, the Third Campaign seeks to be more conventional than those which preceeded it. This is not going to be hard. They are looking for a campaign which everyone can rally around, one which won't offend the 90 percent of Cubans who are descendents of Spaniards and which won't puzzle the 90 percent of Cubans who have never heard of Sting and the Police. The final criterion is to choose a campaign that I won't object to.

Well, they have done it.

BUCL's new initiative is to be called "The Campaign for CAMBIO en Cuba." I hope that this involves support for the CAMBIO wristband movement there. Hopefully, the BUCLers won't launch another CAMBIO of their own to rival theirs. It would really be shameless if they were piggybacking on the campaign of civil disobedience initiated in Cuba by people risking their lives.


Past posts on BUCL at RCAB:

Does Henry Want to Resurrect the Undead BUCL?

BUCKLE

The BUCL Belt: Henry's Imagination Strikes Again

Henry Gómez Accuses Spaniards of "Exploding Cubans"

Is There Anything At All in Henry's Mind On Any Day?

BUCKLE But Don't Tighten Your Belts

BUCL's Siren Song

BUCL's Last Hurrah

BUCL Again

"BUCL Up, It's Gonna be a Bumpy Ride"

BUCL Is Killing Babalú

Dissent Comes At Long Last to Babalú

And From the Peanut Gallery...

Insanity, Homoeroticism and Xenophobia on "The Babalú [Faux] Radio Hour"

Val Praises Fidel's "Charisma" and Moneo Calls Him "One of the Smartest Politicians Who Ever Lived"

BUCL's Bizarreries to End at Versailles Restaurant

BUCL (2007-2007)

BUCL and The Black Legend: Using Racism to "Liberate" Cuba

Babaloo's Waterloos: Spain "Forced Religion" on Cubans

La Raza