by Ramin Mazaheri
It is with great regret that I have to leave Havana after 1 month of special-assignment reporting for Press TV in order to return to Paris.
That may surprise a lot of people, but think of what type of work I am returning to: Stories about unabashed capitalism, chauvinistic neo-imperialism, anti-Muslim xenophobia and the upcoming presidential contest in which the only 2 serious contenders are a right-wing candidate and the far-right National Front.
Why is reporting in France (leftist reporting) considered easy? I cannot count the number of times I have been tear-gassed in the last year while covering on France’s anti-government protests, due to ineffective austerity policies.
Let’s not forget that France is still (14 months now) a police state of emergency, one step short of marital law. The government’s power grab due to just 2 terror attacks continues to undermine France’s claim of democracy (the Nice tragedy was a crazed lone wolf and not organized by any terror group).
And yet it was Cuba which was described as “militarist”, “tyrannical” and “dictatorial” across the West following the recent death of Fidel Castro.
Well, working in Cuba has been totally free of the reactionary violence which is a daily occurrence in France. It has been a celebration of leftist resistance, and the honoring of amazing advances in the face of the genocidal US-orchestrated international Blockade.
I was quite happy to spend 1 month of my life to defend the modern democratic will of the Cuban people and thus the ongoing Cuban Revolution. About all I am looking forward to in France is the bread.
Cuban bread – the type the average person eats and which I regularly bought at local, state-run panaderías – is an offense to bread everywhere. Cubans rightly pointed out that it was the best they can do when the Blockade makes things like oil, butter and salt scarce. Sure, a piece of the subsidized “staff of life” costs just one-fourth of one US penny, and it did keep me from hunger many nights, but I will remember it only as the bitter taste of omnipresent US imperialism, which tastes bad even when dipped in evaporated milk.
In France I defend more than just the culinary endowments of Western Europe’s geographical breadbasket, I defend the democratic will of the people (when France isn’t being reactionary and racist). However, I am part of a very small minority, both socially and as a journalist. In Cuba, I am not, and it has been wonderful.
Why is it like this? Why is France so rich and yet so troubled? Why do I have such trouble finding positive stories there? I have an idea:
In Cuba a far-right simply does not exist – racism, xenophobia and such reactionary stupidities are banned. If you call that “tyranny”, all I can say is that I side with the Cubans in refusing to defend to the death your right to spread inequality, hate and regression.
And what I cannot stress enough is the enormous effect the absence of a right-wing clearly has on the hearts, minds and daily bearing of the Cuban people.
You cannot simply chalk up to the weather the yawning difference between the open-hearted Cubans and the cold, unfriendly, excessively forma and pessimistic French. Surely it is more due to the corrosive cultural effect of tolerating right-wing thought.
Just imagine for yourself what your Western nation would be like if there was no far-right influence? If the goals of racial solidarity and economic equality simply could not be questioned, and had to be promoted?
That’s what Cuban culture has that the West does not, and such cultural gold is both beyond measure and incredibly rare anywhere in 2017.
It clearly gives many French the jollies to insult, denigrate and promote competitiveness, but I assume this is why the silent majority is nauseated, depressed and reportedly adulterous.
But right-wing thought is more than just tolerated across the West, it is avidly promoted by both government and media. From chauvinistic nationalism to capitalist neoliberal dogma which has no factual grounding in reality to “on what moral ground could you possibly claim” humanitarian interventionism – with such ideological tent poles, how can any Western nation claim to be more “modern” or “humanistic” than Cuba?
And yet, the total war against leftist thought means that it’s the French who are considered “modern” and “advanced”. Paris is city full of rich old people who can afford to live in the past – Havana, so close to the belligerent United States, cannot afford such illusions.
People said I could not “report from Cuba”
The idea was something like that I would be prohibited, spied on, redacted and thought-controlled.
Nothing like that happened remotely. It was quite simple, and here is how you do it: You work with the government, not against it.
You don’t sneak into the country on a tourist visa and do a halfway job – you get a formal journalist visa and follow their laws. You provide the government with a list of story ideas and be upfront about what type of journalism you want to do. You meet with them a few times. You talk with them as equals. You remind them that they know more about their own society than you do, and welcome their ideas. You act like what you are – a guest, and not some zealot missionary there to spread light and truth amid darkness and lies.
This is all to show the government that…you are not one of the very many advocating the destruction of their society and culture.
If you cannot understand why Cuba would be vigilant in this respect, you are not smart enough to be permitted to report from here and I hope your visa request is denied!
If you say “such governmental oversight proves the press is not free”, I encourage you do just a bit of research to find out how Iran’s Press TV, to give one example, has been banned, hounded and subverted in places like France, the UK and the US.
There is a crucial difference here: I don’t ever recall Cuba claiming to be a beacon of free press. I have heard the same false claims from the three Western countries just mentioned.
Bottom line: The Cuban Center for International Press was only helpful in my work, and never once did they do anything which I considered remotely infringing on my press freedom.
They permitted me access wherever I wanted to go, helped find me appropriate analysts, and if I had more time here they would have been even more help. They did not redact anything, nor did they have the chance to as they never even asked to see my final products – my work was published without any oversight from the Cuban government whatsoever.
What did I learn from 1 month reporting in Cuba?
If you only read one paragraph, read this:
I talked to dozens of people here, maybe over 100, and from all ages and backgrounds: What seems rock-solid to me is that Cuba is not changing, post-Fidel. He gave up power 9 years ago anyway, so there is no huge sea change due to his death, just a profound sadness for a national hero. I repeat – if you think Cuba is an island adrift, come visit and talk to the people.
Let’s make one key idea clear: The Cuban Revolution is clearly supported en masse.
Their wrong hypothesis is: That the Cuban Revolution was the work of just one exceptional man, Fidel, instead of the combined, sustained efforts of millions of people.
My hypothesis: Not one but two generations have grown up under a total Blockade, so how could they not support the Revolution? Who could go without so long under the gun of a blockade, being deprived of so many basic opportunities, and not be converted? They have no illusions here that the US can or should be trusted; they are committed to independence, anti-imperialism and solidarity with and for all.
This is the main point I take away from Cuba: The Cuban Blockade is an absolute crime against this noble, modern culture.
If you had to rank it, you could place slightly behind the Nazi genocide against Jews, and the Israeli genocide against Palestinians. But the Cubans justifiably call the blockade “The longest genocide in history”. Are not all three the attempt to kill an entire people and destroy an entire culture? This is exactly what is going against Cuba.
Let’s dispense with another idea: The Cuban government/Communist Party also has widespread support because Cuba has been able to do so much despite such total aggression.
Gaping tourists appear slightly more idiotic in Cuba than elsewhere, because the lack of infrastructure is a surprise. This is a poor country, and that is obvious everywhere.
This country is so impoverished that there should be widespread famine – there isn’t, as the people appear very robust. There should be widespread begging in Havana – there is literally none, save one or two drunks. They should be illiterate and jobless and sick – they aren’t.
The lack of these things amid such poverty perfectly explains why Communist Party has justifiably earned the support of the people.
And I could go on here about how Cuba’s system is, in fact, democratic, with popular votes, easy access to candidature, bans on election campaigning, mechanisms for recall, etc., but this is not a dissection of Cuba’s system of communist democracy, which is not at all a contradiction. It is, however, all there in black and white and in the law for those who want to learn more about it.
Anyway, we need space to discuss the fact that one need not even confuse the Cuban Revolution and the Cuban government: to do so is an attempt to construct a strawman argument, and this is precisely what anti-Cuban or anti-Castro forces do (and all they do).
Recall that I am coming from a place where the president has a 4% approval rating, and where his policies are so unpopular, so undemocratic, that he cannot even stand for re-election. This only confirms my thesis that nobody actually likes their government anywhere in the world and that complaining about any and every government is as natural a pastime as talking about the weather.
But despite all the people who hate Donald Trump, does anyone in the US really push for overturning the American Revolution of 1776? Of course not – it is the same here: You can be pro-revolution and anti-government without contradiction, if you insist.
If you are anti-Cuban government as well as anti-Cuban Revolution…you are just a reactionary fascist. The Cuban Revolution, undoubtedly, restored power, land and life to the people. It ended tyranny and foreign domination.
Now, if you do not realize that you should support the Cuban people’s popular choice of government in order to also give much-needed support their Revolution…well, then you are just an average Western fake leftist.
Yes, nobody here every told me that the Cuban government was the most effective, efficient group of men and women who levied taxes and monopolized the use of force, but you’ll never hear that anywhere. If you are looking for such “insights”, I suggest tuning into Washington-funded propaganda outlet Radio and TV Marti.
A government working amid the US-led Blockade genocide
Just as Sartre said that to understand communism must one first embrace its ideals, to truly understand the Cuban government (and by extension Cuban culture) one must first embrace the idea that they have provided food, health, education and security despite the orchestration of a trans-national blockade for nearly 60 years.
And what is the Blockade? Firstly, it is not what the US claims it is – simply a bilateral “embargo”. The US ruthlessly persecutes any nation which tries to do business or even aid Cuba.
It should be stunning to find out that any ship which docks in Cuba cannot dock in the US for 6 months. Cuba is an island nation, after all, hugely reliant on maritime shipping. But how many shipping companies can afford to bypass the world’s largest market just 100 kilometers away in order to work with Cuba?
The Blockade bans any 3rd party from importing products with Cuban sugar or nickel, their only natural resource. The Blockade bans half of all new, world-class drugs, causing innumerable deaths.
Cuba is locked out of the international banking system, crippling their ability to buy and sell goods.
The US even obstructs charitable donations!
This is total war against Cuba, given that invasion already failed at the Bay of Pigs.
The Cuban government deserves an incredible amount of accolades for providing the equal standard of living that they currently have.
Perhaps I am especially sensitive to all this as I am an Iranian citizen – I thought the US sanctions on our country were bad, but Cuba is another level. Iran benefits from increased distance from the US, 6 times more people, and plenty of oil, but innumerable Iranians have died due to the same lack of medication, modern technology and other aggressions against our popular, democratic revolution.
Iran’s development has skyrocketed since the end of the Iran-Iraq War, but even if you could import 10,000 Macintosh computers to Cuba you would find very few buyers because there is simply no money on the island.
It’s not just Cuban cars which are stuck in a time warp: Seemingly everything here dates from 1959, and that’s the new stuff!
That’s what happens after 6 decades of being unable to sell goods; 6 decades of having foreign investors scared off by the United States.
This is what the Communist Party has been up against for so intolerably long, and yet they still lead the hemisphere in many respects.
Obama apologists will point to Cuba as a success – don’t believe it
Opening an embassy was not gutting the Blockade, which he could have via executive order. Full stop. Obama apologists lose, alongside 11 million innocent Cubans. Please stop trying to defend the indefensible.
He also waited too long to even try – less than $400 million in goods have been exported to Cuba since 2014 – and now there are no “economic realities on the ground” which could prevent Trump from reversing everything, as he has promised.
Yeah I’m sure Cuba did go slow, but the dangerous of immediate US economic domination should be obvious. They also largely insist on productive joint ventures, not typical capitalist exploitation.
Exports to Cuba (mostly food) have actually fallen since restrictions were “eased”, and yet less food for Cuba is somehow a success?
Obama had a ton of executive power at his disposal and his main contribution will be to simply reopen communication, but there should be no doubt that he also strengthened the genocide.Even after restoring relations in 2014 his administration levied billions in fines against French and German companies for “blockade violations”.
The message was clear: there is no thaw in relations, and Cuba stays under our thumb.
Obama did not end subversive US programs, bans on imports and exports, a little torture chamber called Guantanamo on Cuban soil which he promised to close and didn’t – all could have been ended by executive order.
At the 11th hour Obama has just repealed the preferential “wet foot/dry foot” immigration policy. Kudos, better late than never. But by waiting so long he added to the US “brain drain” of Cuba for 7 years, 11 months and 51 weeks – he squeezed the most he could out them, I guess.
Try as his apologists might, Obama cannot be transformed into a leftist, because any clear-eyed analysis shows he’s not even a centrist. As is typical of his entire presidency he only represented a change in form and color, not a change in US tactics.
I was able to console Cubans with, “Iranians say the same thing”: They don’t report any changes following a so-called “historic thaw in relations”.
Getting started is always the most difficult, but going from 0 to 1 on a scale of 10 is not a major advance nor worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize.
In fact Obama just added 10 more years of sanctions against Iran, and he did it in his typical “form over substance” method: He didn’t sign the bill, but he allowed it to pass. This is the same thing but now he has plausible deniability.
Now his apologists can say that the sanctions are only the result of an “obstinate Congress”. It’s best to remember that it was assumed he would sign the bill, but this change of tactic was a surprise.
One step forward, 11 steps back, look good doing it, stress racial/identity politics – peaked on election night 2008, no doubt. No wonder many in Cuba support Trump, even though the Donald really only talked tough against Iran and Cuba.
I had so many stories left to do!
3,500 Cubans killed by Miami-based terrorists and not 1 American by Cuban revolutionaries; the occupation of Guantanamo Bay (the only far-right in Cuba, LOL); who will the US seek to assassinate now that Fidel has passed from natural causes; Raul is stepping down next year after two 5-year terms, what’s his legacy; who is Miguel Diaz-Canal, the 55-year old engineer tipped to become the new Communist Party leader; and much more!
But I am glad to have made my small reports. It is too bad that capitalism and imperialist forces dominate the West so thoroughly that pro-Cuban reports – i.e. reporting what the majority of Cuban people believe – are such an outlier in the English language; it’s too bad that so many English-language journalists are so heavily-indoctrinated that they look askance at any report which isn’t “balancing” the Blockade with accusations of tyranny and dictatorship.
I doubt I have made many friends in the Little Havana area of Miami – that’s no problem, because I don’t expect a warm reception in the Iranian-exile dominated area of Beverly Hills, either.
But enough about me and more about Cuba!
And this where Cuba deserves some criticism: They are failing terribly in the information war.
They have not realized that Cuba needs an international media presence like Iran’s Press TV, Venezuela’s TeleSUR and Russia’s RT/Sputnik.
In a place where technological development has been so forcibly retarded, I hypothesize that Cuba simply doesn’t realize that the Internet means that Cuba can finally broadcast their own story to the world; no longer is the world dominated by AP, Reuters and the New York Times.
Yes, such a media costs money, and Cuba is rightly focused on providing for the basic needs of their own people, but I know the world’s leftists are starving for information about Cuba, that Cuba has so many amazing stories to tell and that Cuba has so many fascinating programs to reveal.
Cuba is certainly the leftist leader of the Western Hemisphere – their history of resistance, geographic location and modern culture also makes them a global leftist leader. They need an international media which reflects that, for the good of international leftism. Granma is, after all, just 8 pages long.
Cuba is undoubtedly has a third-world economy – and that’s an unforgiveable crime created by the Blockade – but it is undoubtedly a first-world culture.
I leave Havana convinced that post-Fidel Cuba will not be regressing, and will remain an amazing place for so many of the right leftist reasons.
*****
One final note of interest I’d like to include:
As the longtime correspondent of Iran’s Press TV in France I take a special interest in Muslims – if I don’t cover the bottom of France’s social pyramid, who will? There are only 10,000 Muslims in Cuba, but I visited Havana’s main mosque and not one person said they had ever encountered governmental or even societal discrimination due to their religious belief. One person said he converted 13 years ago and had never heard any Muslim make such a complaint.
This is the exact opposite of what Muslims report in France, as well as much of supposedly “tolerant” Europe.
Of course, the idea that Cuba is anti-religion has been outdated for 2 decades – John Paul II was here in 1998. It’s only promoted by establishment media because it’s another form of anti-Communist propaganda.
Banning religion has clearly not been a long-term success for Communism anywhere, and Cuba recognized that and changed.
Yes, some hugely annoying (and US-based) evangelistic groups like the Jehovah’s Witnesses have been banned, but perhaps they should consider not knocking on everyone’s door to aggressively convert people. When I lived in Gary, Indiana, they disturbed my Saturday morning too many times to count.
I’m not condoning religious oppression and I didn’t care to dig that deep into it, but I was reminded that seemingly every society has some religion that gets oppressed: Scientologists are harassed in Germany (even though I doubt many even know what its tenets are – I don’t), the US killed 82 Seventh-Day Adventists at Waco, Texas, Muslims are attacked in Burma, Jews are targeted for attacks in France, and the list goes on.
The biggest religion in Cuba may be Santeria – a distinctly Cuban-African mix. I visited the homes of White/Aboriginal people who put up elaborate altars to this West African religion, with pictures of Jesus and some Catholic saints added in. It’s pretty telling about the open-mindedness of Cuban culture that non-Blacks have widely embraced a religion which started among the Yoruba of today’s Nigeria.
Ramin Mazaheri is the chief correspondent in Paris for Press TV and has lived in France since 2009. He has been a daily newspaper reporter in the US, and has reported from Egypt, Tunisia, South Korea and elsewhere. His work has appeared in various journals, magazines and websites, as well as on radio and television.
Thank you for an interesting and well researched story about your visit to Cuba. What an eye opener.
Thank you!
Also I´m always wondering about what the sanctions actually are and what would happen if france and germany simply refused to pay those fines .How can they be forced?
Then they would be sanctioned, arm-twisted in some way.
Perhaps blackmail would even come into it.
katherine
Thank you! A much needed and insightful article. Great respect for the Cubans.
Fascinating report. Unfortunately, some “leftists” in the West are pushing the silly line that “Cuba is selling out.” Good to hear confirmation that that is definitely not the case. All the Miami exiles that recently celebrated Fidel’s death will be deeply disappointed as Cuba continues marching onward without them.
Well, actually, “Gusanos” as Fidel called them are not able to march anyway.
The term means: “Worms”. Worms only wiggle and crawl. But some are deadly, nevertheless.
Also, I’d love to see some articles from the same author on Iran.
Very little is seen in English that I read, even here, on these two hyper-demonized nations, Cuba and Iran in terms of reports from inside these places.
absolutely fascinating about cuba and the cubans. i second the request
for articles about iran from an iranian.
most of what i’ve come across, although interesting
and informative have been through western visitors eyes.
“Gusanos” ( worms) was a name given by Castro to all Cubans that legally left the island whom were not in agreement with his “revolution”.
I should know as I was called that as a child ( my family included) by Castro’s Communists.
The majority of times I agree with Saker and most of those he invites to write articles in his blog and many as well, that give their opinions here. Never on his/their take of Castro, Che and Communist Cuba.
I do not have a romanticized idea of Communist Cuba for I and my family lived under Castro & Co. “revolution”..
And for the record, NO I’m not a NeoCon Zionist and very much an admirer of Putin, and Christian Russia.
P.s… Cubans are generally very warm people and not racists, therefore they don’t don’t need any “ban” not to be what they naturally are not.
We had Arabs, Chinese living among us and never a problem with them or they with us.
Well, that depends on what you mean by “right wing” politics.
Do you mean right wing in the sense that there is little government interference and optimal individual liberty, at the expense of social nets worker right and such.
Or do you mean “right wing” politics in the sense of protecting family values, national identity, religion, and opposing queer theory, gay pride, radical feminism?
Because those seems to be quite often mixed up. In the west, most that are described as “far right” are actually far left in economics, that they want worker rights and so forth. While supporting family values and opposing queery theory and what not.
If you think Cuba is leftist in the sense it support gay sex, queery theory, radical feminism, then you far off and Cuba is more like far right.
The West invented radical feminism and “gay parades”, not Cuba, China or the USSR. In fact, homosexuality was illegal in the USSR from the 1930s until Yeltsin and the other traitors legalized it in the 1990s. The idea that all the world’s socialists/communists are “pro-gay” was basically anti-Soviet propaganda from the first Cold War. While that might very well be true for most Western leftists, it is not true for most leftists in the so-called developing world who are generally more ‘traditionalist’ on family matters.
RM
“In Cuba a far-right simply does not exist – racism, xenophobia and such reactionary stupidities are banned. If you call that “tyranny”, all I can say is that I side with the Cubans in refusing to defend to the death your right to spread inequality, hate and regression.”
Hear, hear!
I finished reading this article this am, an excellent piece of journalism throughout.
[rioting/protesting]…”France’s anti-government protests, due to ineffective austerity policies.”
Sorry, no. Due to ineffective over spending for decades LEADING to austerity policies by the banks that brought these things about in the first place.
Visited Cuba on few occasions, and always enjoyed it. People are worm and nice and simply have something that rich west world have lost long ago; its soul. I hope they get a chance to gain momentum and tell their story to the world.
The fact that US fascists were able to get away with so many crimes committed around the world, some of which would put to shame old school nazis, boggles my mind. I does not come as surprise that many of US veterans become suicidal, for, they must realize at some point that blood of innocents is on their hands.
Say, I have a SPLENDID idea!
Since those horrid racist xenophobes in Europe don’t want them, let’s take about 1 million of those Muslim “refugees” and send them to live in Cuba. Surely all compassionate communist regime will welcome these adherents of the Religion of Peace into the Worker’s Paradise! It would spare those poor Muslims the horrors of European racism.
Yes, of course I’m being facetious. I guarantee you, the Muslims wouldn’t behave any better in Cuba than they do anywhere else. But I’m dying to see what Raul would do to defend the women of Cuba against the roving Muslim rape gangs now plaguing Europe. And I’m sure it would be a darn good show watching how the Cuban police deal with attempts to establish “no go zones” in La Habana.
Now that President Obama has ended refugee status for Cubans fleeing the Worker’s Paradise I’m not worried about Raul following Fidel’s example and simply emptying the prisons and insane asylums and sending all his problems to Florida along his 1 million Muslims.
Hey I have a SPLENDID idea!
Let’s sprout racist dribble about 1.5 billion people because we lack the intelligence to separate religion from individuals!
Islam can’t be a ‘religion of peace’ since some Muslims commit violence, right? I mean it’s just like since Christians committed things like the genocide of Native Americans, the horrors of colonialism and slavery, and more recently things like the invasion of Iraq and the war on Syria, Christianity can’t be a ‘religion of peace’, right?
‘Muslim rape gangs roaming Europe’? There certainly gangs of degenerates roaming Europe, but how many are ‘Muslim’, ei from Muslim countries, and how many are purely home- grown, ie ‘Christian’ degenerates? Cause I’ve lived in Germany, Spain and elsewhere in Europe, and also in Lebanon and Syria, and guess what, women are far more likely to be raped in Europe by Europeans than by Muslims in Muslim countries. ‘Rape culture’ is far more a Western problem than a Muslim problem.
But please, tell me more about your ‘no-go’ zones. I’ll set up a safe space and give you ample trigger warnings
thanks Ramin !! Wonderful article and yeah, you are so right – I hardly ever hear things like this about Cuba and have thoroughly enjoyed it. I love to think about Cuba, everyone has a university education but no shoes…the doctors….and dear dear Fidel, and his great articles and succinct comments – like on nuclear winter – that article has never left my mind again after reading it.
I know a guy, a post doctorate electrical engineer from Cuba (brain drain) and his father’s a psychiatrist – now living in Ottawa…too bad…
And the wife of the guy I know, she thinks any government is good…and when I said that no, Canada can’t be compared to Cuba, as our taxes here in Canada were funding fighter jets – unlike Cuba funding education – she didn’t ‘get it’.
Too bad.
We rarely have the opportunity of reading on the ongoing Cuban Revolution and its amazing resilience to the capitalist aggression orchestrated by the imperial US juggernaut. Yet, little Cuba has defied and defeated every attempt by the aggressor to subvert its Revolution – a reminder and a beacon to all of us that “it is possible” and that there are alternatives to hegemonic capitalism.
Regardless of one’s political view, the feat of the Cuban people to succeed and even survive the US aggression to assert their independence deserve our admiration and belie the usual capitalist propaganda of “communist oppression”, for no regime could possible survive 60 years of oppression plus the hardship inflicted by the US blockade on the people.
The lesson from Cuba is that the Revolution does not fall from without nor from the people – but from the elite within, as shown by the demise of the Soviet Union. Perhaps the Cuban leadership have learned that lesson and have not neglected the basic principles of democratic socialism.
the point of France is to be a homeland for the French, not Muslims. If that’s racist, sign me up.
The Cuban revolution was precisely a success because it institutionalized itself in alignment with Cuban culture…one could even call it ‘national socialism’ in the generic sense. Muslims as a religious minority make up less than 0.04% of Cuba’s population. Let’s see how long their ‘non-racism’ would hold if millions of foreigners were pouring into their country ever year.
I also find it funny that this Iranian, whose government is most certainly right wing in the Persian context, is critical of right wing parties Europe. The fact of the matter is Muslims don’t belong in France, and the National Front will come to power to deal with the migration situation…
those muslims are french. it was you who occupied algeria and made it french.
now suffer the consequences.
Spot on! Thanks I really appreciate your reply.
A few months back, when I was following Germany’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, both France (Ayrault) and Germany (Steinmeier) had developed proposals for building infrastructure, and raising the living standards, in some of these pillaged nations. Not in an imperial way, but by partnering with the nations — and actually picking up the tab for the cost of these improvements!! Like making reparations for harm done in the past, I guess. Not sure what the status is of these proposals at this time.
I was in Havana a year ago. Lovely country. Lovely people. The air quality along busy roads was not that great due many old (1950s US and 1970s Soviet) cars. Though that is changing for better. Around 25% of cars were brand new, mostly Chinese-made. If you can visit only one country in the Caribbean, this is the place to go.
Stayed at a private B&B that you can book via AirBnB. Food was surprisingly tasty. All food in Cuba seemed to be “organic” due lack of agricultural chemicals. The best part was that no matter where I went in Havana, I felt completely safe, which cannot be said about many other places in Latin America or, for that matter, in the US.
Many people are poor if you say that not having the latest smartphone is poverty. They do have food, health care, and education that poor people in places like Haiti, Dominican Republic, or Guatemala can only dream about.
Ramin, you ask what it’s like to live in a leftist paradise? Look up, “The Obama Era”…..
Your abuelos must be very proud.
“Look up, “The Obama Era”…..”
Wasn’t that a fascist paradise? (Clinton murders, Obama drone killings, ISIS, Syria, Ukraine, Yemen, etc.)
It’s not difficult to make tasty bread. Everyone can bake their own bread at home.
All you need is water, flour, yeast, a little bit of olive oil, salt and sugar.
Of course french bakeries have huge variety and superior quality but i wonder why cubans can’t make a simple and tasty bread.
The “superior quality” of French bakers is wildly exagerated and their, mostly white, bread (baguettes, flutes, etc.) is only a good bite when fresh. That’s why on average the French throw away over 50% of their bread, because they don’t want to eat yesterday’s tasteless concrete.
Going up north and to the east the bread becomes surprisingly better. For instance Dutch (warm) bakers bake much better bread and usually have much more variety than what I’ve been able to find during my now 23 years in southern France. The french are most of the time talking about food, it’s their dada, but la cuisine française is too often quite disappointing.
My guess is that if there were no embargo, bread and food in general in Cuba would be at least as good as here in France.
1) Cuba was never a rich country but had a very wealthy minority of land owners and businessmen.
Therefore, we should compare Cuba to other latin american countries of similar level of development. To that extent the revolution is a success as the majority of regular Cubans live better lives.
2) Even though Cuban infrastructure is outdated and there is scarcity of many consumer products, the state provides and guarantees the basic needs of the people. Free public education and health care, a state apartment, a guaranteed job, and a provision of minimum number of food products and groceries.
3) These things are not provided in most latin american nations and Western nations. In the advanced West, there are now numerous indebted graduates, rents are sky high, the prices for low quality cramped apartments are exorbitant, jobs for skilled graduates and workers are very few, there is privatisation of health services etc Of course most westerners could buy many consumer products and clothes because production is now outsourced in third world countries. But the basic needs of the population are not met.
4) The same reality of the satisfaction of basic needs existed in soviet union and most eastern bloc countries. We all know the negative social and economic consequences after the transition to “capitalism” in Russia and eastern Europe. Mass emigration, economic and industrial disintegration, falling birth rates, social inequality, the emergence of a class of oligarchs, loss of sovereignty.
5) During the cold war era, most of the eastern bloc countries (USSR, Eastern Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria etc) were far more developed than Cuba but Cuba’s standard of living was improving and was far higher in the 1980’s (than now) as there were billions of soviet subsidies and significant trade relations with eastern bloc. Cuba had the strongest military in the latin america then (and fought two wars in Angola and Ethiopia).
All of these subsidies and trade cease to exist after 1990-91 and Cuba entered the special period of austerity.
The Cuban and all of eastern european countries standard of living was seriously hurt after the fall of eastern bloc.
Indeed, most countries of eastern Europe have not reached the GDP / GDP per capita levels of pre 1989 and most social indicators are worser now. Even though almost 30 years under capitalism have passed ……
I can totally agree with you, I can only hope for the Cubans, not to follow the Eastern European countries. Could that be avoided in mid and long term ?
“The Cuban Blockade is an absolute crime against this noble, modern culture.”
No doubt. But think the other way round. Was it not exactly the blockade that allowed Cuba to develop in sane, free and unique matter – the same, by the way ,applies to a lesser, but still great degree to Russia – while the rest of the world was beyond recognition globalized and zionized?
@ _smr:
Precisely what I was thinking. Without the blockade, sooner or later, they’d be infected with the curse that is free-trade with all the ills it invariably brings. How flooding the Cuban market with imports from the rest of the world would help the Cuban people? If in doubt; all they have to do is to ask their “friendly” neighbors the Yanks, how much they’re liking it to have their industries (and therefore jobs) shipped abroad in exchange for cheap crap made in China, which they cannot afford anyway because oops… now they have no jobs! Not to mention, free-trade forces countries to purchase dollars [the WRC] to buy and sell. Why on Earth would they want that?
If anything, Cuba is the perfect example that self-sufficiency is possible and it works. More countries should aspire to be more like Cuba. It’s particularly inexcusable for those countries rich in natural resources, like, of course, Russia.
Plenty of countries in Africa should be following Cuba’s example, but their populations are too thick in the head. They’d rather send their children to collect filthy water from a pond than build a damn water-well! Something that humanity had the know-how and has been capable of doing for hundreds if not thousands of years.
It’s about time these so-called “lefties” stop blaming ALL the ills in the world on the evil ‘West’ [and yeah, the “elites” running the Western World are evil, no doubt about that, but that’s not the freaking point! Is it?] and start looking inwards at the deficiencies within the now dilapidated left ideology itself. We – those of us on the true left – need solutions, practical ones, not eternal finger pointing. Because… yeah, yeah, WE GET IT already! Capitalism is bad, globalization is bad, imperialism is bad (etc), we know! We’ve been hearing/reading about it for, what (?), 30 years now? What else you got?!? Hmmm?
When was last time the ‘left’ came out with a fresh idea designed to oppose what the neo-feudalist reactionaries are pounding us with on a daily basis?
*crickets-crickets*
^ Aaah…
… and there it is :/
Ergo; it’s about time we stop looking at what the other side is doing [mainly, because it’s been done to death, at this point – give it a rest already!], and start looking at what our side is NOT doing…
-TL2Q
Thank You very much for this insight.
Tribute to Fidel Castro Small version:
http://telemarksporten.no/Tegneserier/FidelCastro01_resize.jpg
Take Care
Kent
Why would any culturamarxist support Russia? Doesn’t he understand that Russia is not a marxist empire anymore but the opposite, Russia today is pretty much Conservative international.
Um, National Front is the traditional pro-Russian party in France, funded by Russia… You calling FN neo-nazi? Why is this site suddently flush with liberal authors?
The fantasy of the happy socialist worker’s paradise refuses to die.
It’s alright TTC.
Sometimes the Resistance to empire has a left wing flavor, while simultaneously, elsewhere, as Antti K points out, it is considered and even considers itself “rightist”.
The main thing is to usher along the demise of these oppositional dichotomies, dialectics and the manipulation of them by the occult high priesthood of Empire.
If they have their hands in both, we have to be busy cutting the puppet strings in both instead of being ideological sitting ducks in either one, stuck in our mental rigidity, ready to be played at the time of their choosing.
Sure, they don’t have far right in Cuba. They also don’t have EU-oligarchy and totally infiltrated left parties in Cuba. The author should remind himself of the fact that far right parties are THE ONLY political movement defending the national state and democratic traditions in Europe at the moment.
I do agree that islamophobia is stupid, especially once the Nice attacker, for example, was not a lonely wolf (how idiotic a view by our author) but a patsy. There is one thing that is especially praiseworthy amongst the Muslims in Europe: they do recognize obvious false flag attacks.
I would myself very much prefer the leftist parties being in the lead in defending democracy and criticizing endless false flag terror in our continent (not to mention “refugees” sent by Soros to dump wages and destroy societies), but only my wishes, sadly enough, do not change facts on the ground. Therefore I am glad that we have at least the right wing defending democracy. It is better than nothing, now is it? The fact that leftist traditions are not dead in Cuba is not a reason to demonize the right wing in Europe, who at least is doing something.
…”far right parties are THE ONLY political movement defending the national state and democratic traditions in Europe at the moment”
Multiple far-left parties in France alone want out of the EU, Eurozone and a restoration of national democracy, so it is not just the far-right.
@Parti de Gauche
Bien dit Monsieur! The problem is that most people in the US – and even in the EU to some extent – cannot not tell the difference between fake left (champagne socialism, American liberalism, cultural Marxism, Trotsyism, etc.), and the real left (those espousing complete collectivization of the economy, direct democratic socialism, ban on professional politicians and any type of elitism).
Any true left follower is anti-globalist and fights for democratic rights at grass-roots level, hence a regionalist and nationalist while practising international solidarity towards like-minded groups, regions or nations.
Reading this column and the responses from people recounting their lovely Cuban holiday memories I’m reminded of a joke:
A man dies and when he appears before St.Peter at the Pealy Gates he learns that his account is perfectly balanced, giving him the opportunity choose eternity in either Heaven or Hell.
He asks for a tour of each place.
Heaven is beautiful, lots of angels sitting on clouds strumming harps and so on. Everyone seems content but it’s rather boring and dull.
Then he goes to see Hell. Wow! What a party! Music, dancing, booze, great food, beautiful women, it’s non-stop fun. The man tells St. Peter, “send me to Hell, please!”
Poof! He arrives in Hell and finds it a very different place. Hellfire and the stench of brimstone, the anguished cries of the damned suffering their eternal torments.
The man complains to Satan, “Hey! This isn’t what I signed up for! Where is the music, the party, the beautiful girls?!”
“Oh” replied Satan, “the last time you were here you were visiting as a tourist. Living here is completely different”.
Certain subjects are excellent honey pots for drawing out the zionazi/nazi trolls, Cuba being one of them. ;D
Like most Western Mass Media humor memes, this ‘joke’ is a reworking of an old joke which addressed character, not politics. Here is a far better, original version of that joke which does both. I forget who posted it here in the last few days but they will forgive me passing it on for illustrative, educational purposes:
Obama died and went to hell.
But he was let off for one day for good behaviour – the pardoning of minor drug dealers.
So he went to a bar in Rahm Emmanuel’s home town – Chicago.
He ordered a beer and said: “So, how are things?”
“Great said the bartender. “The shooting has stopped, the drug problem is solved, we have full employment and we have had our democracy restored.”
“Wow! That’s great” said Obama, somewhat surprised.
“I have to get going now. How much for that beer?”
The bartender replied: “One ruble”.
“Zio-nazi”? Now I don’t care who you are, that’s funny.
Normally I wouldn’t comment on a topic like this one here: Frankly, when you’re dealing with people who admire the Castro brothers and the leader of Hamas it’s a pretty pointless discussion. But this column was too much.
Denouncing the France for “intolerance” while praising a totalitarian dictatorship for eradicating its opposition? And by “eradicate” I don’t mean Fidel persuaded them with his eloquence and tightly reasoned arguments. He disappeared the opposition – into jail or into the ground.
Whether you think Castro was justified in doing it or not, you can hardly celebrate him doing THAT and then express horror that the French “right wingers” are **gasp** wanting to LIMIT IMMIGRATION!!!
And if you can’t follow that reasoning then there’s really no point arguing with you.
I’m reminded of that anti-Cuban freakshow that produces george zimmermans by the puke bucketful. Scratch a nazi and 9 times out of 10 you will find a zionazi snickering underneath. For example, that psycho in norway, brevik who is portrayed as a nazi, yet is a zionist as well. Not many real nazis left any more, fortunately those evil Russian commies killed a lot of them, and set back their [in]breeding somewhat. :D
There really is little difference between a real nazi and a zionazi, anyways, the mental disorder is a manifestation of the same sort of pathological degeneracy.
Ghost, my recently deceased neighbor, an old gentleman who escaped Cuba after Castro took over, told me how the firing squads were 24/7.
The US put Castro into power. Part of their plan to stop Cuba from spearheading certain types of progress in Latin America. NYT, etc carried glowing reports about the “land reformer”. Castro visited one of the fanciest hotels in NYC– w live chickens making droppings all over their rooms.
After he was in power US “discovered” he was a communist and used that as an excuse to isolate the island. Very like North Korea today.
Or like Russia under Stalin when he wouldn’t go along with the post-WWII financial organization– Russia, USSR had to be isolated.
@vok tak…
As a Cuban I agree with him. And I think you know quite well I detest with a passion the Zio/NeoCon/Israel warmongers that heap so much violence against Palestinians and other people of the Middle East.
The troubles they daily bring to the Western nations is included.
I am a staunch defender of Putin, Christian Russia and the Russian people.
So then in what department do I fit in, according to you?
Carmel by the Sea
“As a Cuban I agree with him…So then in what department do I fit in, according to you?
Well, since you asked… You claim you are a “Cuban” living Cuba, yet you promote israeloamerican anti-Cuban propaganda views. Let’s see, I guess under those circumstances I would have to put you in the same dept. I consider the “Russians” in Russia commonly called the liberals or 5th column, who promote israeloamerican propaganda and views there. I don’t really see much difference between you and them.
vot tak,
I don’t “claim” to be Cuban. I am Cuban with an American citizenship. As I usually defend Palestinians more often than anybody else, you’d think I’d claim to be a “Palestinian”. I invite you to my home and show you photos of my childhood in Cuba, but then you’d say they were “doctored” by the Israeli Mossad.
By the way…I have never claimed to be anything other than Cuban.
My first language is Spanish. Not Hebrew. I believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, so I’m not likely to be an Israeli Jew. Not even a Messianic one. If I was like the “5th column Russians” I would not so staunchly defend Christian Russia and President Putin and praise the strength and determination of the Russian people against the Zionists infested West. So how, pray, can I be like the Liberals, or Zionists, or the 5th column? My God ! man, think.
You are one of the best posters here, but your romanticized view of Castro and his “revolution” have made your educated brain go off the train rails.
I was born in Cuba. I and my family lived under Castro. Most of my family members live there. In La Habana ( my birth place), in Matanzas (my father’s birth place) and some in Oriente ( my mother’s birth place).
It is you who is not too different from the Israeli Zionists . You have your brain entrenched in your set beliefs. And as Israeli Jews dismiss the suffering of the Palestinians, you too, dare not give credence to the sufferings my family and I, as a child, went through.
How painful it was to leave the rest of our family behind. How my mother and I were given by Castros’ regime 3 days to leave and were ordered to only take two clothing and one toy. My father was given permission to leave a few years before. I can tell you more, but what would be the use?
You claim to be an “Orthodox Christian” but dismiss the sufferings of Others.You are obviously an educated man vot tak, but the compassion Christ taught us in certainly not your forte.Work on it. Daily.
Carmel by the Sea
Carmel, you assumed a lot about me in that long exercise of hot air, and naturally, and true to form, all of it was wrong.
Note that not one of these anti-Cuban “comment writers” has produced any evidence supporting their israeloamerican anti-Cuban propaganda. What they have written is just as gaseous and substance free as the Russian hackers bs. They have had plenty of time and opportunity to write evidence sourced material here, yet instead persist in hearsay and vague generalities and personal dramatics. IE: the standard trolling techniques.
@ Carmel by the Sea + vot tak:
“[..] The troubles they daily bring to the Western nations is included.
I am a staunch defender of Putin, Christian Russia and the Russian people.
So then in what department do I fit in, according to you?”
+
“Well, since you asked…“- “ I consider the “Russians” in Russia commonly called the liberals or 5th column, who promote israeloamerican propaganda and views there. I don’t really see much difference between you and them.”
Sweet mother of dog, vot tak, you’re really going stark-raving-mad here, aren’t you?:/
And even though, I had my differences of opinion [I think… I can’t really remember right now] I had in the past with ‘Carmel by the Sea,’ here, you’re just going waaay over-board in your Quixote mad chase of Zionists hiding behind every tree. Don’t ya?
Do you have a different tune? – Really? Anything that doesn’t inevitably involve “Zionists” for once?
–
Talk about a one track-mind! *eye-roll*
And that’s not to say I like/side with the Zionists… why in hells’ name should I like ‘em anyhow?
But if f anything… IT IS because of peeps like yourself, that I’m leaning towards hoping for some extraterrestrial-race to come over, and obliterate both: Israel and *oh-gasp* Palestine/Gaza Strip.
Just so I stop listening about it already!
Over and over and over…. and just so their manufactured “conflict” stop artificially splitting the political waters else where in the world, when in most cases, like in my own: I have no dog on this stupid race whatsoever… whether it’s the Israeli, sorry, Zionist side :/ Or the Palestinian one.
F ’em both. If… if… that’s what it takes for us not to have to hear about for a few years – anymore, at least
-TL2Q
tltq (sic)
You were one of the je sui charlie promoters here after that attack on charlie hebdo, attacking Saker and those critical of that zionazi Islamophobia rag. I’m not surprised of your support for the anti-Cubans trolling here. It’s what S.W.A.R.M. does.
@ vot tak – You again (!?) *face palm*
Can you at least try…. I know it’s hard for someone like yourself, but at least try, to quit misrepresenting me? With your “Je sui” nonsense? Hmm?
I’m not a Je suis Charlie “promoter” as you put it. If anything… I’m sick to my back teeth of all these spineless libtards coming out the woodwork with endless je suis this, je suis that, hashtag: pray for Paris, Niece or whatever every time there’s a terrorist attack.
And don’t even get me started on the laying of flowers and lighting of candles….
I’m not sure you get it by now but I’m hard-liner: I think what those people should be doing instead of changing their face-book theme into whatever flag color, to whatever flag colors the latest country got hit last…, they should be flattening Molenbeek and other no-go areas in Europe rather than shedding crocodile tears and leaving teddy bears at the site of the latest atrocity.
Oh! And while they’re cleaning-house they should, at the very least, storm the EU HQ and taking Merkel out with torches and pitchforks in hand, since they are the ones welcoming these terrorists with open arms into Europe on the first place.
All, I’ve said at the time (not that I have to explain myself to you, of all people), is that I disagreed with that event being a “false-flag.” I don’t believe it was, and I still don’t ….aaaand I don’t believe most – if not all – of the attacks that followed were flag-flags either :/
So, I disagree with the going consensus this place is trying to build-up [for some reason], big deal!
So freakin’ sue me!
I disagree, in turn, you and others may disagree with me. The civilized protocol in those instances [even Saker himself mentioned it more than once] is…. I disagree; here’s why. And then proceed to explain your counter-point.
I’m extremely weary of people that just shout TROLL, neo-nazi, anti-semite [or the flip side of that same coin: Hasbara] or the new additions: islamophobe/racist/xenophobe/bigot, or my personal favorite: Russian troll and/or Putin-bot.
Those labels, as we’re now seeing them being deployed day-in-and-day-out by the MSM, are designed to just shut the opposition off.
And when that fails they just cut them off air! [RT had a piece running about that very point this week, illustrating just that]
In addition to that, back then, I’ve said I found it disgusting that four-eyed waste of space Hollande used that attack as an excuse to go and bomb Syria, when it was blatantly obvious the problem France and the rest Europe have; is NOT IN Syria but at home, and that’s where they should be concentrating their efforts rather than in far away lands…
(ad hominem attack deleted. – fk mod)
I don’t see the difference between you (accusing random people YOU happen to disagree with, of being trolls, often with zero evidence to back it up) and the “fake-news media” blaming anything and everything on Russia and/or Putin, also, with no evidence to back it up. They just say the magic words: “Russian Hackers,” and that’s the end of it…isn’t it? *eye-roll*
-TL2Q
PS: BTW, this: “tltq (sic)”; you’re at least missing a [sic] ‘2’ there, do you even know what ‘sic’ means?
tltq (sic)
“And even though, I had my differences of opinion [I think… I can’t really remember right now] I had in the past with ‘Carmel by the Sea,’ here, you’re just going waaay over-board in your Quixote mad chase of Zionists hiding behind every tree. Don’t ya?
Do you have a different tune? – Really? Anything that doesn’t inevitably involve “Zionists” for once?”
That is a rather obvious attempt to censor discussion of zionist influence. You used to do that also back when you were defending the charlie hebdo ziofascists from criticism, but I’ve not noticed you doing this more recently till your attack on myself.
I guess with the recent political developments, we’ll likely see more attempts to silence discussion of zionist influence here from others probably, also, along with more trolling, by association, attempting to associate anti-zionism with nazism and similar forms of right wing intolerance.
Also, Scott presents views of claiming there is more draconian zionist influence than I do, but I don’t see any “for the love of dog” hysteronics from you about him being obsessed too much by anti-zionism. Why is that? Could it be you realise Scott, unlike myself, is not a safe target for your censorship attempts here?
I thoroughly agree about ‘Caramelo’ but I also have to say that Scott and he are protected, almost equally, by the ‘no ad-hominem attacks rule.’ At least it appears so in my experience.
@ vot tak:
“Also, Scott presents views of claiming there is more draconian zionist influence than I do, but I don’t see any “for the love of dog” hysteronics from you about him [..]”
Daww… are you jealous of Scott? ;-)
(And – for the “love of dog” – I’m just kidding here. Can you take a joke once in while? Do you really have to be so grumpy all the time?)
–
“[..] being obsessed too much by anti-zionism. Why is that? Could it be you realise Scott, unlike myself, is not a safe target for your censorship attempts here?”
First of all; “censorship” and me, are not two things that mix. Second:
^ LoL! Yeah… [to be fair, you should be asking that question to, e-hem *cough-cough*, someone else. Not me] But!
If Scott said something I fundamentally disagree with, chances are… I’d tell him so [and I believe I did, occasionally here and there…] – or in other words; I would just say my opinion on the matter (like I did with Saker in THAT “Hebdo” episode you keep coming back-to. But for some reason you keep misconstruing that as me: “attacking” him -> Which was never my intention, btw. It’s just called: difference of opinion – That’s all there is to it) Nothing nefarious going-on, on my part… But back to Scott…
Hmm, It’s just that Scott’s stuff – no offence to him – I don’t find his stuff to be that intellectually stimulating [not for me anyways – but there are plenty of updates he brings to us that are vital to the current narrative, having said that…, and since I’m a “news” junky, I kind of know, like, 99% of the stuff he talks about already. That’s not to say I don’t appreciate his contributions here, because… you know, most people are not “news” junkies as I am, and why should they be?]
But hey! Don’t shoot me! That’s how I just happen to feel, that’s all. I’m not picking-up on “the Scott,” just like I don’t feel like answering to 95% of the posters in here, or most of the stuff “the Saker” writes himself for that matter…. :/
Some comments turn-me on (for better or… worse), while most are like… meh… *shrugging* and others are, like; bang-on-money, and it’s kind of redundant for me to just say: “yay, I’m with you bro/sis” (or whatever).
What you gonna do!?
If anything, I’m trying to save Saker some bandwidth unless I have something important to say. That’s all.
And in this case; I felt I was important to answer-to at least one of your messages, vot tak. So I hope Saker [and his mods] would indulge me here :)
-TL2Q
PS: Quit it with “tltq (sic)” – *shakes-fist*
tltq (sic)
“PS: Quit it with “tltq (sic)” – *shakes-fist*”
I could refer to you by the nick you use at the zionazi justthetalk.com website instead. Would you prefer that?
I heard that with Satan saying: last time you here we were campaigning, this is what you get after you voted.
Yes, I fear the Cubanos will find that out if they choose our way of life in the Americas.
@ The Ghost Formerly Known As Prince.
I agree. I am Cuban and as a non tourist living there I and my family know quite well what it was living under Castro and his romanticized by non Cubans, “revolution”.
Carmel by the Sea
@ Carmel by the Sea:
“I agree. I am Cuban and as a non tourist living there I and my family know quite well what it was living under Castro and his romanticized by non Cubans, “revolution”.
Yeah, and? I heard similar stuff coming from young [and shall I say: naive?] Russians wanting to live the high life the “West” supposedly has to offer. They don’t appreciate they have government subsidized fuel bills. They don’t understand they have government subsidized social housing. They don’t understand they have free or near-free health-care. They don’t understand college/university education is debt-free [etc] No! They just assume the West has all of those things, plus more… (mainly the stuff they think they can’t get/afford; like a new smart phone, or a brand new car).
How wrong they are!
This not about “romanticizing” anything. This is about that hard-to-swallow fact that the betterment of humanity as a whole might take longer than just fast-tracking everything via globalization, free-trade (etc) the kind of agenda that makes only a few a**holes super-rich at the expense of everyone of us….
–
8 richest people as wealthy as poorest half of the world – Oxfam
https://www.rt.com/news/373786-wealth-gap-oxfam-report/
-TL2Q
RM
“One step forward, 11 steps back, look good doing it, stress racial/identity politics – peaked on election night 2008, no doubt. No wonder many in Cuba support Trump, even though the Donald really only talked tough against Iran and Cuba.”
Iran Nuclear Deal ‘On Life Support,’ Priebus Says; Won’t Say Trump Will Kill It
https://sputniknews.com/politics/201701151049621578-iran-deal-life-support/
“However, the decision on what to do with the deal would be a collective one, he explained. Trump will get his Cabinet, the intelligence community and “everyone you’d want in the room making decisions about that particular document” and treaties like it.
When pressed on whether chucking the deal could still be considered a promise, Trump’s chief of staff said, “I think it’s on life support, I’ll put it that way, but I’m not here to declare one way or the other ultimately where this is going to go.”
The question is, how deeply up trump’s backside are the zionazis. Will they continue their attacks on Iran and Cuba through trump?
Not exactly satified with the Lomo version of Fidel Castro.
A bit more work, and it turns out like this:
http://telemarksporten.no/Tegneserier/FidelCastro2.jpg
(8 mb).
Take Care
Kent
I’ve already given up this topic with so many enthusiastic cheering comrades all over here. We all need some fairytales to keep going…
Reapet
Not exactly satisfied with the lomo version of Fidel Castro.
A little more work, and it looks like this:
http://telemarksporten.no/Tegneserier/FidelCastro2.jpg
Take Care
Kent
Superb and entirely convincing. It is the Cuba I know, have visited scores of times and plan to visit again in the next months.
You have given me fresh insight into why and what I have loved about Cuba all these years, in spite of seeing the ‘bad sides’ which you have also pointed out.
More views from Iran please.
As someone who has been trying to get Cuba’s story aross since the sixties, I salute you and hope your article manages to get wide circulation. I will suggest it is reprinted in The Greanville Post where I a a contributing editor.
What kind of person could write a line such as this?
” I defend the democratic will of the people (when France isn’t being reactionary and racist).”
So, you defend the right of the people to decide, as long as they make the “right” decision? Well then you aren’t exactly a paragon of intellectual honesty or rigor, are you?
Would you defend a lynch mob going after an innocent black person in 1920s US?
The people are not always right, eh?
Enough with the cartoons, please.
Popular-initiative justice was an ancestral tradition in the southern USA. Yes, Whites lynched Blacks. But Whites also lynched Whites, and Blacks lynched Blacks.
That there were grave injustices committed is not disputed. But when surveying some of the official state death penalty inflictions even today, one can only reach the same conclusion.
This is the problem with arguments like this: “Look how evil they (the other side) are/were!”
I suspect it is to distract attention from looking at how evil we (people) are.
This, I might add, is why the influence of religion must be again pervasive in society. Because without this reminder, people imagine themselves (and their society) is accurately represented in reality by their ideology.
This is never the case. Everybody’s sh*t stinks. Without exception.
I neglected to point out in my comment that those whose lives ended in this way were not infrequently, in fact, meeting justice — roughhewn, but authentic.
Uh…nooooo. That’s not what lynching of blacks was about at all. Uh, so many things wrong there. LOL, wow.
Cartoon by Ramses Morales Izquierdo:
http://www.cartoonmovement.com/cartoon/36308
I found strange that the author centers such harsh critic in Obama, obviating what Trump said about reverting all what Obama has recently done to unfreez relations with Cuba. Of course, it is few, but at least is something.
In the same line, I find it difficult to believe that there are many people in Cuba who supports Trump, my be some far right wing dissidents, but no other people.
Ramin: I loved your article on Cuba. I hope that people who don’t understand what really happens there will read it and they will surely be enlightened. Thanks.
Ah, Mr. Mazaheri,
There’s something you’re missing here.
You shouldn’t go on the blind assumption that the US blockade of Cuba has been a crime against the Cuban people.
The Americans wanted it to be a crime against them, but instead it turned out to be one of the greatest blessings in disguise.
Here’s just one reason: Big Pharma.
Cuban doctors have been forced to practice old-school medicine. They can’t reach for their prescription pads and give people some supposed chemical solution for quitting smoking (Champix, which can have a side effect of increasing appetite- even to the point of obesity) then giving them Lipitor for the obesity that is causing their high cholesterol, then giving them Vioxx for the arthritis caused by . . . I think you get the picture.
In fact, the Cuban average lifespan is 79 years, 1 year longer then the United States (78 years.) WTF! Spending billions of dollars annually on Big Pharma’s crap, hasn’t done a thing for the Americans. The Cubans really dodged a bullet by not having access to Big Pharma’s wares.
And infant mortality is 5.8 deaths per 1,000 live births in Cuba.
In the United States infant mortality is 6.2 deaths per 1,000 live births.
Another big WTF!
In the US, massive access to caesarian procedures, induced labor, drugs, and giving 17 vaccinations by 6 months of age results in more dead babies than just delivering them the old school way and letting the moms take em home and feed them organic food and hardly any drugs . . .
By creating what outsiders with their prejudices view as hardship, the Americans inadvertently sheltered the Cubans from the follies that waste massive amounts of money and kill people in the “democratic” countries.
I won’t even start to get into what a blessing the fact that Monsanto and the Agrichem companies have been prohibited form operating in Cuba has been.
The survival and continuation of Cuba’s state socialist system is an indication that USSR could have continued to exist to our days. By early to mid 1980s, no one expected that the powerful Soviet Bloc would cease to exist.
After 1991, Cuba managed to survive under a US trade embargo and after losing the support and beneficial trade relations and subsidies of the Eastern Bloc.
USSR was not only a superpower but also far more developed than tiny Cuba and had all the resources to continue to exist.
USSR dissolution was a premeditated decision of the USSR political nomenklatura and top soviet leadership. It seems that under Gorbachev, the soviet elite took the decision to introduce capitalism and to integrate into the global economy. The process backfired causing severe economic problems that led to the disintegration of USSR and the collapse of Eastern Bloc socialist regimes.
The result of the USSR dissolution are truly catastrophic and caused the total domination of neoliberal globalisation.
I just recently returned from Cuba and it struck me very similarly. Thanks for posting.