In case you didn’t notice, January 1st was the 50th anniversary of the day Fidel Castro and his band of guerillas rolled into Havana to finally seize the reins of the Cuban government. The beginning of Cuba’s long nightmare. Reading the Associated Press‘ account of life in Cuba today, I was struck by a few things. For example;
The austere celebrations, including dances and concerts across the island, belied the start of a year infused with possibilities for increased cash and visitors, and other changes that might ease Cubans’ daily hardships.
Why should Cubans come to depend on cash from relatives in the United States? Isn’t the Communist government supplying them with everything they need? Isn’t that the whole point of communism – from each according to his abilities and to each according to his needs? Is someone going to admit that communism isn’t working?
Cuba trades with every country in the world except one, and they blame that one country for all of their ills. It hardly makes sense to anyone who thinks about it for more than a minute.
Another thing; in the article, they call the head of the government that preceded Castro’s, Fulgencio Batista, a dictator. Never once in the whole article do they refer to either of the Castro brothers as dictators – even though it’s widely known and an accepted fact that the Castros have oppressed the people worse than Batista.
No foreign leaders were expected at the evening speech on a small, leafy plaza, with little fanfare beyond invitations to 3,000 Communist Party faithful.
So that’s what a classless society looks like, huh? A special party for a relatively small group of party faithful while the rest of the country scrambles around trying to find some black beans and rice for their austere feast?
The Washington Times recounts the times US presidents have tried to warm relations with the Castros;
In 1980, softhearted President Carter tried to improve relations, and he got the Mariel boatlift as an embarrassing thanks. President Clinton tried 20 years later, and he got the Elian Gonzalez custody debacle. This month, the Russian navy sent three ships on a visit to Cuba, as those two nations tweaked the U.S. Raul Castro recently opened a Caribbean summit by vowing to fight the United States for another half-century if necessary. The brutal government holds at least 219 “political” prisoners.
And we’re the meanies.
Read Humberto Fontova’s account of media bias in relation to Castro’s Cuba at American Thinker and Henry Gomez’ grades the New York Times and Associated Press articles. DId I mention that Henry made me a honorable Cuban?
When voting starts next week, don’t forget that Yoani Sanchez, the brave young lady who blogs Generation Y from inside the island prison, is a finalist in the 2008 Weblog Awards Best Latino, Caribbean, or South American Blog. If you’re not familiar with her story, Nat Hentoff wrote today in the Washington Times;
And I expect that at least some in the multitude of American bloggers are worried about the safety of Cuba’s best-known independent blogger, Yoani Sanchez, who has been warned by police that she had “transgressed all the limits of tolerance with your closeness and contact with elements of the counter revolution.”
If they are such a workers’ paradise, why aren’t THEY sending money to relatives up here struggling in our failed capitalist system? If they admittedly need their America families to send THEM money…..
Great post. I’ve been blogging for years at places like Liberty Pundit and elsewhere and have finally moved back to my own place where I started (http://pfbblog.com). Would love to exchange links (I’ve put you on my sidebar). Happy New Year!
“Raul Castro recently opened a Caribbean summit by vowing to fight the United States for another half-century if necessary.”
…if necessary? Epic fail.
Just sad — the world yawns as true monsters destroy countries and ruin the lives of people…no, they’re exercised over the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, but couldn’t care less about people in Korea, Cuba, or Zimbabwe.
The most pathetic thing is that idiots like Penn and Moore extol the virtues of such evil men — tells you all you need to know about their moral compass, or lack thereof.
I meant, North Korea.
One of my good buddies here in Rachacha (a 13 year former Marine, BTW) is from Cuba. His grandfather owned a sugarcane plantation as was mayor of a town in Cuba. Castro and his thugs (including Che) took everything from his family and “redistributed” it to the state. My friend was less than a year old when his family was driven out of Cuba, but because he was less than two years old, he had to be left with a cousin because the Communists weren’t allowing children under 2 years old out of Cuba. His cousin brought him out of Cuba after he turned 2 years old and to the United States.
I’m really hoping for the sake of my friend and his family that the Communists are eradicated in Cuba and restitution is finally made to the many families who had their property confiscated from them. My friend’s father has the deeds to the land that was taken from them and deserve to get their property back.
Is this the Richard Romano of Panama fame?