A Beautiful Caribbean Beach
Erasmo Calzadilla
HAVANA TIMES — I’ve had it up to here with the toing-and-froing of news and comments about the re-establishment of relations between Cuba and the United States.
Capitalism in its imperialist stage, the main culprit behind the worldwide crisis, isn’t going to give us what we couldn’t get ourselves. The totalitarian rulers who have lied to and subjugated the Cuban people for over fifty years aren’t going to budge unless the people don’t put their foot down and demand respect. What good could possibly come of this new alliance between Scylla and Charybdis?
I feel pity for those who gave their lives to the revolution and see it turned into its opposite today.
How profoundly disgusting are those who believe the United States, as an avowed champion of human rights, represents the interests of Cubans.
How depressing it is to see people believe that they will be able to preserve the advantages of “socialism” and have better salaries and shops full of products.
What contempt I feel towards those “organic” intellectuals (those we see on the Round Table program, for instance) who were vociferating anti-imperialist slogans till yesterday and now have to stick their tongues where the sun don’t shine.
I think I’m simply going to change the channel and start writing bucolic and erotic poetry. Here’s a sneak peak at my first story:
“On a beautiful Caribbean beach, in the shade afforded by the lush coconut trees, a shepherdess with slanted eyes and a wide-smiling mulatto (who turned out to be a prince from a dying empire) met by chance. As she was a woman of chaste disposition, the Chinese woman covered her private parts with a thick goatskin, but the heat had become so intense because of climate change that she…”
I still don’t know whether to use these characters or to make it a bit more homoerotic…you tell me.
Are you saying that 100% of Americans are interested in profits only and oppose human rights in all cases? I disagree. There are many Americans who support human rights & democracy around the world, and who work to improve those aspects at home.
In the current case of Obama’s new Cuba policy, it strike me as ironic that the pro-Castro camp has embraced this overture as a victory for the Revolution. While Obama makes the usual rote statements in support of freedom & human rights in Cuba, given how he lied to the Cuban dissidents about his ongoing secret negotiations, his statements ring false. Those around him who loudly champion the cause of dropping the embargo openly admit their interest is in finding new markets and business opportunities. Obama’s motivation is to stake his legacy as the Most Progressive President ever. He doesn’t care much what is in the final agreement so long as he gets an agreement. Raul knows this and will play him like a fish.
Meanwhile, those Americans who have been most vocal and principled in supporting democracy & human rights in Cuba, such as Senators Rubio & Menendez, have been shunned as “Miami Mafia Rightist” who are only interested in making money.
There’s a bitter irony in all that.
The almighty dollar trumps human rights and democracy in the foreign policy of the United States government in every instance I know of and to the point that supporters of the GOUSA cannot come up with a valid instance of that alleged support for human rights and democracy in the 70 or so interventions perpetrated by the GOUSA in the past half century or so.
For the details on 53 of these you can Google up the “Killing Hope website and read the evidence
This to say that your post is total shit given this ludicrous and unsubstantiated claim of U.S.G. efforts in behalf of human rights and democracy .
The American people are a majority of totalitarian- minded sheep and will go along with any sort of atrocity perpetrated by the government against people demonized by the government and the corporate media.
To claim that there are effective humanitarians as opposed to murderous imperialists always running the show is simply not true and fantastic.
The history is written, plain and available on this .
…could not have said it better!
The people fought one revolution and deposed one criminal tyrant only to be lumbered with another tyrant in F.Castro who instead of liberating his people and providing them with a better lifestyle enslaved them once again. The people of Cuba will never know proper freedom whilst Castro and company continue to enslave the country. Do not sell your soul to the Americans either. The good people of Cuba deserve so much better. They can govern themselves because they have so much to offer the world.
I agree with your assessment of the nature of the US-Cuba rapprochement. It is driven by US capitalists’ desire for markets and raw materials, and the Castro regime’s desire to hold onto power.
Among the Americans, there are those who truly value human rights and democracy. And there are those who put profits ahead of everything else. The terrible irony is that Cubans such as yourself, Erasmo, shunned the Americans who wanted human rights for Cuba, while pinning your hopes on the others.
As the old fable goes: Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it.