The World Is Out of Joint
HAVANA TIMES — The famous phrase Shakespeare put in Hamlet’s mouth was inspired centuries ago. But every day, watching the news, I can’t help thinking the English bard was right. A crushing Renaissance verdict fits perfectly in the 21st century.
And it occurs to me that human progress is a false dream, a cruel scam. Could it be that we took the wrong path?
When I was a child, trapped on this island where strange chance forced us to live through a failed social experiment, everything that came from the First World, with its tempting and spotless aura, looked like progress.
Now Cubans are waiting to be saved by the United States. Saved or absorbed — it’s all the same, they say. As long as it means getting out from under statism.
At the same time, the neighbor to the north is convulsing with civil protests… The city of Minneapolis is demanding an end to violent and abusive ICE operations in its streets. People speak of abuse of power, intimidation tactics; two US citizens have been killed simply for documenting raids. A congresswoman was attacked in public with a substance thrown at her by a stranger.
It’s horrible, yes. And at the same time, here we are in early celebration, talking about annexation by the empire.
Sometimes I wish I couldn’t see anything, live in complete isolation like a hermit. After all, there is so little we can do to make even a bit of justice or common sense prevail… Perhaps only act within our small circle: rescue an abandoned animal, treat it, offer or find it a home, share food or medicine with those who have even less than I do. Listen to someone in distress. Comfort them. Help in some way, be useful without regard to ideologies or speeches.
Just as Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti did, whose lives were atrociously cut short. How brave, how generous they were in defending a cause that did not affect them personally. While there are vulnerable Latinos who still support Trump’s policies (policies that are already adding to the death toll in ICE custody), US citizens chose to risk themselves to defend the undocumented, condemned to remain hidden inside their homes, terrified of being hunted down and captured, the way humans hunt animals.
I can’t help thinking that this kind of solidarity is lacking in Cuba. If someone stands up to the system — even to defend the majority — they are left alone against the weight of the State. People have a fierce instinct for self-preservation about that. Perhaps US Americans do not feel the danger in its full dimension. They trust in their hard-won rights, enshrined in their Constitution… They trust in their democracy — that double-edged sword whose most macabre side some activists have seen. Because history deliberately erases memory, and each cycle spreads a dense fog over its victims.
Just today I came across a Facebook post with a photo taken on May 4, 1970, “the day many US Americans discovered that the United States is capable of killing its own children.” John Filo, a photography student, won the Pulitzer Prize for capturing the moment when 20-year-old Jeffrey Miller was shot by an Ohio National Guardsman. The protest was against President Nixon’s decision to send troops into Cambodia. The clash with repressive forces left four dead and nine wounded — all students.
I immediately googled it because there is so much falsehood on social media. I discovered the photo is real. And so were the events.
So then, where does this claim that one lives in a democracy come from? From enjoying a well-structured and functional society. From freedom of movement. From being able to work and prosper, from a legal framework where some degree of justice is practiced — as long as the interests of the government in power are not challenged. From ignoring what is done in foreign policy with your tax contributions.
I’ve seen alarming videos of crackdowns on peaceful protests in Germany, France, the United Kingdom… Protests against the genocide in Gaza. And if denouncing an illegal occupation and the massacre of children puts you at risk even in the most First-World countries… what do we call democracy? What do we call freedom?
But what am I talking about if I live in Havana, and Cubans cannot even go out to protest blackouts that obstruct domestic life, work, and basic services like public healthcare… So a friend tells me: settle for asking for a country that functions. And if the Yanks invade us, it’s a thousand times better than if the Russians or the Chinese do. Don’t forget that here life may not be lost from a bullet to the head, but it dissolves into the most crushing hopelessness. And that too is irrecoverable.
Read more from the diary of Veronica Vega here on Havana Times.