Happiness is Cuba’s Path
By Jorge Dalton
HAVANA TIMES — With the death of Fidel Castro, in the face of such tension… and especially in the face of so much silliness, it is impossible to make out our island’s future. Amid so many blind passions, I’m driven to call for peace among us. Because if I don’t, I’ll consider myself riffraff, a comfortable and miserable spectator who doesn’t give a crap about the fact that Cubans are bleeding to death in the dark and thorny sea that divides us.
I’ve had the opportunity to understand different people on both shores and I know how much pain and resentment there is. My feelings of reconciliation have of course brought me bitterness, a lack of understanding, sadness, social exclusion, marginalization and even exile, but I continue on firm in my belief that it is something that has been worth fighting for.
The future is something that we Cubans haven’t known how to determine or discern because we were too stuck in the past. In the middle of this battlefield of ideas and disagreements, insults and impositions, time has been passing us by and we’re getting older, leaving us fewer opportunities to begin to build this future that depends solely and exclusively on the Cuban people, here and abroad, people from the only Cuba that has ever existed on the face of the earth, as there isn’t another one my brothers and sisters: THERE IS JUST ONE CUBA!!!
In spite of this and in the midst of such uncertainty, believe me when I say I continue to have the same hopeful dream that Cubans will stop hating each other and that we will have the skill and wisdom to steer the nation, for the sake of a better Cuba which is for every Cuban and the well-being of all Cubans, for our children and grandchildren’s sake.
Let’s leave behind our philosophy of hate, authoritarianism and separation once and for all. Somebody once wrote: “Hate is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die” and that has unfortunately been a philosophy that has eaten away at us to the core.
Let’s cast out this hate before it’s too late, let’s prevent hate from becoming a signature that defines us in a world that is becoming more and more inhuman, violent and unequal. I would like to repeat the wise words of Cuban writer Eliseo Alberto Diego (Lichi) which were written in 2004. As you can see, time is flying by and it’s been several years now since he wrote this. Lichi passed away in 2011 and he left me this thought and ideals as my inheritance.
“Santeros´ drums, doctors’ wisdom, politicians’ impartiality and the most clearheaded dissidents, Catholic priests’ masses and, even, Andean shamans’ spells, all want the same thing: that our divided Cuba doesn’t suffer too much.
“Every Cuban needs to wake up: some from a heroic dream, others from an extremely long nightmare. And it’s already been said by somebody: there is no path to happiness, happiness is the path. If we need to dream, we need to dream with our eyes open, my father wrote when he woke up one day from his afternoon nap.
“I’m going to add my confused creed to this cause: I believe in the piety of patience, I believe in the union and communion of Cubans on the island and in exile: all of our options will cross this two-track bridge without fail, one of understanding and the other of resentment.
“Let’s meet in Cuba, embrace each other, helping one another will be our best defense and shield, even though it might seem like an act of weakness to the Trojans and a bold gesture to the Tyrians. I believe, I wish, I suppose that we deserve a century of peace, a time of peace, a little while in peace after so much war. And I, who doesn’t believe in anything much, ask for this.”
Jorge Dalton: [email protected]
See the answer given above.
That jhardin is an interesting response. Was you father involved in those convoys that took the essential armaments to supply to the Russians to Murmansk? So many brave merchant seamen died on that route. You indicate that somehow your parents were given some form of hell because he was of Russian extraction. Where was that?
One of my friends is of German blood and experienced being bombed by Britain’s Bomber Command, just as I experienced being bombed by the Nazis Luftwaffe. But we do not hold each other responsible.
When I was a child at school, one of the regular hymns sung every week at morning prayers was “For those in peril on the sea.” We knew as children that feeding us was costing lives.
The Cold War did indeed cost many lives as those imprisoned by the USSR endeavored to escape by risking their lives to cross the Iron Curtain. Let us who are alive today, never forget the actions of the USSR in endeavoring to keep thirteen other countries in thralldom or that when eventually liberated and given the opportunity for open free elections, that not one of them chose communism.
jhardin, you ask about who defines the definition of freedom. The origin of the word is actually Old English and is defined as:
“the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint”
That is the definition given in the Oxford Dictionary of English which is used by the Courts as the correct definition. How others endeavor to twist the meanings of words is another matter,
But you will note that Cubans are denied “freedom” as legally defined being unable to act speak or think as they want because they are restrained from doing so be the laws imposed upon them by the communist dictatorship of the Castro regime.
The full Internet has yet to arrive in Cuba although it is now more than 25 years since it was invented by Tim Berners-Lee.
my view on Cubans freedoms. i suppose this depends on whom is defining freedom. I have met Cubans very happy with what they have. have met some whom are not. I hate being judged, why should anyone else?
like i answer down below…Who decides the definition of freedom…the party with the most money? In regards to freedom of media…do you mean freedom to spread lies like the alt right did in the un united states of america…guess what with the arrival of the internet in Cuba the amplitude of malarkey is about to get ramped up even more…..
sorry was attending to my life…i am in favor of eating and having a shelter…i am in favor of not needing to live in fear. Simple questions seldom exist.
my dad was born in Canada to Russian immigrants. Dad did time in the merchant marines during the war risking his life to keep the munitions flowing. Life was hell for my parents for the decades that followed…why? dad had Russian blood flowing in his veins… the cold war ruined many lives globally…and we talk about freedom…free elections…welcome to 2016 liars and cheaters win bigger than ever….donald trump…..lance armstrong……
so far freedom is all about money….i doubt many Cubans will gain that form of freedom!
jhardin, I on these pages have expressed the view that the US could have reduced their financial support of Israel by $1 million per year, every year per house for those buiilt on Arab land in the West Bank.,
My invitation was for folks to put their hands up if in favour of open free elections, freedom of the media, freedom of the media and human rights as defined by the UN, in Cuba. Are you in favour or against? Prevarication is useless.
Cuba needs free elections or another revolution leading to that.
?the un has become nothing more than sabre rattling suits of hot air and zero action…illegal settlements in Palestine are going up at an alarming rate…you see their powder blue helmets hanging at 5 star hotels after the sun sets , when Israeli occupation forces round up rock throwing teens…my hand is up for the removal of armchair interventionists who think Cuba and it’s people want to become the unfree divided climate change deniers who drool over gun ownership and eat macdonald fast food because they owe too much money for their overpaid prefab houses constructed close to unaffordable health care and some of the worst education globally…..oh yes America leader of the free world…America needs to fix it’s own issues before another failed war…hands up everyone who supports Cuba and it’s happy people’s..free from Western lies and manipulation