Hitting the Streets in Cuba

By Warhol P.

HAVANA TIMES, Nov. 2 — When it turns 8:00 pm in Cuba, I try to sit down in front of the TV to enjoy what our television news provides the people.  What’s struck me of late is that in other parts of the world, people take to the streets to protest for their rights.

Recently reports were shown of US citizens camping out in tents in front of the White House as a form of protest.  What caught my attention, more than the story itself, was seeing that none of them were being expelled or attacked.

For many years the Cuban people have been involved in a crisis that seems eternal. Nevertheless few people have taken to the streets to protest for their rights.  To make matters worse, when they do we don’t find out about such events because our TV news only reports on what suits the party.

In videos that are not shown on television but that come to me, I’ve seen what happens to some people who feel the need to express what they think and do so publicly here.

In my mind, I’m unable to erase the pictures of the Ladies in White being driven like animals and herded onto a bus by female soldiers.

These are the same Ladies in White who march peacefully and are almost always attacked whenever they do.

But this injustice is not discussed in my country.  These attacks go virtually unmentioned on the round table programs, and if they do come up then it’s something negative, because people can’t think differently in Cuba.  We must all say yes to everything, and all the time.

No one can share different ideas because then you become a counterrevolutionary.

I’m one who believes that instead of abusing the Ladies in White, they should be invited to one of those boring round table broadcasts so that these women can explain their concerns, so that people actually know why they do what they do, since there’s a lot of misinformation.

And if this is indeed a country that claims to be free and advocates democracy, I think people should be listened to and dissimilar points of view shared.