3/16/10
I write today from Havana, Cuba, where the internet is connected through satellite because the USA blocks all cable that surrounds Cuba. Yesterday we met with trade union leaders, state diplomats, a medical doctor from Cinesex, the state sexual health department and Havana university professors. The people are intelligent and gracious, advanced in their knowledge of world events and unbelievably patient in the tasks of hosting a group from that same USA who has caused them so much suffering.
Cuba and its people are beautiful and brave. They have lived through hundreds of terrorist attacks by the USA including but not limited to: economic terrorism through an embargo that attempts to starve the people; a blockade that prevents their medical health and technological stability; military invasion and coup attempts engineered and paid for by the CIA; countless CIA assassination attempts of their leader; blocking of communication access; media smearing and false propaganda campaigns; wrongful imprisonment of their people in the USA while those who commit terrorism against them are free; and preventing and limiting cross country family visitations and communication. They are a traumatized but brave people who endure in the face of hardships imposed not by their government but by the terrorist tactics used by the USA to politically enforce a program of capitalist "democratization" that will benefit the corporate and military elites presently controlling much of the world's resources today.
Why does America and the West hate Cuba? They hate them for their way of life. What is that way of life? A unique Cuban form of social justice governance comprised of people's committees at every level (grass roots, provincial, and national). A people who established a new way of life through the blood and tears of revolution deciding together to commit to the elimination of imperialism, slavery, racism, and sexism in order to share the country for and with each other holding a specific set of anti-oppression constructs that are foundational. Property, schools, and hospitals are not privately owned here and the Western elites hate that way of life.
Why do the global capitalists hate societies that attempt new forms of social justice governance models? Because when the people around the world self-determine their own resources the capitalists are not "free" to own it, control it, degrade it and deplete it. That is the operation of freedom the capitalist wants the people around the world to endure. In fact, "own it, control it, degrade it and deplete it" is the real program of so called democracy in the USA and Europe. That is the USA's way of life that is to be imposed globally be it through a program of bribery and corruption; or programs of debt slavery with so called development programs and "aid"; or secret agency coordinated regime change; or, outright military invasion and occupation.
The Cuban people understand and articulate very well the politics of colonialism, neo-colonialism, imperialism, and globalization. Unlike the public in the USA they are not dumbed down. There are no Mac Donalds and other fast foods here to make them obese and infect them with Franken-food diseases. There are no mega shopping malls or Walmarts to keep them distracted with materialistic consumption. The people here are not obsessively attached to cell phones or screens.
The Cuban people are in the schools, the universities, the government, the fields, the parks, the cafeterias, the hotels, and the streets talking, smiling, playing, working, and loving each other. The Cuban people are defending their way of life in their thoughtful relationships with each other. The Cuban people are attentive to what is needed to survive each special period imposed from the USA and each act of sabotage engineered by the USA. The Cuban people are surviving and enjoying the ocean in walks by the sea; drinking wonderful Cuban coffee while passionately debating politics; and suffering the ignorance of fools by hosting delegations from the USA.
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