A Plea for a Cuba with Less Violence
Rosa Martinez
HAVANA TIMES — How many times have you heard someone call someone an animal because of their brutality and violence be it verbal or physical. The funny thing is calling a person an animal is not an insult because in reality we are animals, the main difference being we can reason and think.
When we look at what some men and women have done to us we start to wonder if dogs, lions and bears are really more animal than us.
Generally when we talk about violence we are referring to fathers mistreating their children, husbands their wives or one member of the family abusing another but we forget that we are also victims of violence in the workplace, at school, in the street.
The abuse we get here in Cuba from clerks at State run stores (both those that sell in hard currency or regular pesos), swearing in the streets, schools and hospitals, jostling in queues, frequent quarrels at neighborhood parties, uproar during the night and loud music at any time of day and night are just some of the many acts of violence we face daily.
People have removed from their vocabularies phrases like: excuse me, thank you, please, sorry. It seems that it is easier to push, scream or offend to get what you want from your peers.
In the local media here in Guantanamo they often talk about social indiscipline and they have appealed to families the primary educator of our children and youth. The goal is to educate men and women who are respectful, courteous, and tolerant, who know how to listen, respect their neighbors, classmates or colleagues at work.
It is a difficult task when you consider that sometimes parents are worse than their children, or that children are the way they are because of some relative or other, or because they do not want to stick out in the neighborhood where they live.
But it is never too late to educate our children, we can always teach them the magical ways of persuasion, which are no more than communication, good manners, good treatment and understanding especially when you do not agree with something.
There is always some way to express our discontent or dissatisfaction with something or someone. It is never wise to shout or threaten, much less strike someone because, as we know, violence begets violence.
Each of us can be the first to contribute to building a less violent society. I am joining the non-violent world, what about you?
To Moses and Griffin, the wisdom I glean from your to-the-point responses is that both bank-monopoly-capitalist regimes and state-monopoly-socialist regimes cannot, and do not create dynamic societies in which violence (not to mention impoliteness) is an insignificant and always diminishing factor. Too damned bad!
But I’m not a spokesperson for Marxian state-monopoly-socialism in general, or the Cuban variety, in particular. My critical support in that direction is on the side which opposes the gargantuan imperialist military machine which threatens both Cuba and many other countries in the world.
Your support always seems to come down on the side of that gargantuan imperialist military machine. Too damned bad!
My positive focus is toward a new hypothesis for future experiments in socialism, especially in my own beloved country. And that experiment will happen, if you believe it, or not.
Thanks to you both for making this response blog interesting . . . but that does not mean you are on the correct side. Cheers.
Actually Grady, violence in the US is falling. Check out countries like Honduras and Venezuela. You seem to always want to bash the US even when it off-topic. What happened, get audited by the IRS? At least get the real facts. Anyway, I am being lazy right now so you can find the links yourself but Cuba has a higher domestic violence, rape and homicide rate per 100,000 than the US. Homicide by gun is still higher in the US and because we have a free press, you often hear about it. Fidel decided he did not want his “enemies” to use this information to destabilize the revolution so the Castro-controlled media does not report violent crime. I know you have never visited Cuba but nearly everyone has iron bars on their windows and doors. There is a reason for that. BTW, what a sad case in Santa Monica.
You exaggerate. Could you please provide examples of these “almost daily” mass shootings in the US?
The violent crime rate in the US is much lower than people realize, and the violent crime that does occur is mostly limited to a few areas, all of them large urban centers.
All points true and well spoken, Rosa.
Three days ago here in Santa Monica, California, a young man shot his father and brother, then set their house on fire. He then went to the local college and murdered 3 people before being shot by campus police.
This sort of thing happens almost daily in the US.
So, Rosa, it may be a lot more violent (and impolite) in the US than in other countries, especially yours. Cheers.