I love reading things when I find ideas that I can identify with, or reflections that could have come from me. I enjoy even more reading pieces whose contents force me to pause and consider arguments that I hadn’t thought about before, that “prod” me and leave me thinking. I include in this latter group the writing of Martin Guevara, who prefers to “show rather than judge” when he writes.
Thousands of people who believe in revolutions but lack a living, honest leader will travel to Vallegrande, Bolivia to be there on Monday October 9th. On Sunday night, the Bolivian President will lavish a privileged group of guests who instead of turning down this expense, will go ready to down sumptuous dinners, exquisite wines and alcoholic drinks, parties, hotels, appearances and everything that Che precisely fought against…
Today, I had something of a domestic dispute with an on-line acquaintance who asked me what I thought about my uncle Ernesto “Che” Guevara having been a “butcher.”
“Folks, get a nose-full o’ this!” my friend Nene said, prompting the passengers that thronged at the front of the bus to laugh and nod their heads in agreement, while the group of Russians who had gotten on at the previous stop continued to talk with the driver and ask him something to do with the address they were heading to.
I am a pacifist to the last consequences. I believe killing is immoral, cruel, anachronistic and always counterproductive as a means of deterring crime. Massive wars are for me the most criminal actions imaginable. They are followed by torture and repression, and then by violent, individual murders in general. As I see it, no one has the right to kill anyone.
I was pleasantly surprised to hear such words from Guevara. Historically, scholars and also the people of Cuba generally have identified socialism with statism. Still today, few people know of the existence of liberal (anti-authoritarian) tendencies within the left.
Martin Guevara’s article “How it felt to be a child of worms” made me reflect on where and how the distorted feelings that make people believe they have the right to publicly humiliate others originated in Cuba.
Martin Guevara comments on the reaction in Euorpe to the tidal wave of refugees landing from the Middle East, Africa and Asia, and fears the attitudes of the “New Man”, created by the Cuban system.
Nowadays, lots of people who have been living outside of Cuba for years are criticizing the poor devils that are trapped on the island…
Knowing the psyche of some of the main leaders, we have a right to wonder if there was an express willingness to hasten such deterioration.