Wars and Condoms

Dmitri Prieto

On September 1 the anniversary of the start of the Second World War was commemorated (when Germany attacked Poland in 1939, though that date is somewhat euro-centric since Japan had already invaded China, and Italy had done the same in Ethiopia).

To mark this date, the news on Cuban TV presented a report (or rather a piece of oratorical journalism with tragic background images) on “Wars and the Environment.”

Beyond what is “common place” —recognized as such by the same journalist— it was shown how wars damage the environment.  The conclusion was clear and explicit: the only way to prevent war is to “change the minds of rulers.”

Almost an hour later they put on a public service program titled Cuidemos el amor (Let’s Be Careful with Love).  This romantic sounding name pointed to the purpose of the program: to promote the practice of safe sex.

Though a dramatization related to “love,” the show teaches how it is important to use physical barriers when —for X reason— a part of one person’s body is introduced within another person’s.

The case showed a couple where, before practicing such an introduction, the female partner admitted to her male counterpart that she suffered from an “incurable sexually transmitted disease.”

The male, without exhibiting any concern when sprung with the news of his partner’s irremediable condition, quickly resolved the dilemma by assuring her that he would use a condom.

Thus with love, it implies, there is no more problem.

But to what point in hell have we reached if we’re not devastated by the announcement of a tragic future for the person we love?

What we have is a system of ideas that professes unyielding faith in the “minds” of ruling circles to eliminate a social materialist fact —such as war— and at the same time appeals with that same faith in the most pathetic form (latex) to uphold the defense of a primordial spiritual (and social) act such as love.  To me it is totally obvious that such a system of ideas is rotten down to its very core and is condemned to perish.

Materialism? Idealism? The answer that they provide us is the clue to how the Cuban TV orchestrates tragic occurrences with notions of oratorical “common sense” or with latex properly covering a penis.

Their basic aim: try to minimize the deep and expansive abyss that lies ahead of us.

My remedy (both material and spiritual): Revolution.