Cohen on Cuba

I don't always agree with Roger Cohen. First of  all he's a Chelsea fan and I pull for Arsenal . I still believe he was seriously wrong  regarding the Iraq War.

I do largely agree with his cover story in Sunday's New York Times Magazine about the future of Cuba and Cuban-US relations on the cusp of a new administration. Viewpoints of individual Cubans are represented as well as Cuban exiles, some of whom favor the hard-line position that has failed, some of whom don't, veterans of Cuban policy in the US as well as Cuban government officials. A few comments I liked:

Wayne Smith, who ran the U.S. Interests Section under the Carter administration, has observed that “Cuba seems to have the same effect on American administrations that the full moon used to have on werewolves.” There is something about this proximate island, so beautiful yet so remote, so failed yet so stubborn, that militates against the exercise of U.S. reason.

[...]

“I say, ‘Lift the embargo unilaterally, put the onus on Cuba,’ ” [Bay of Pigs veteran Alfredo] Durán told me. “If we negotiate, what do we want from them? They have very little to give.”

As he spoke, a little ruckus erupted outside between Republicans and Democrats. Durán smiled: “You know, the only place Cuba still arouses passions is right outside this restaurant. Yet U.S. policy toward Cuba is stuck with old issues in Florida rather than logical strategy.”

[...]

“We’re always asking for the kindness of strangers,” [Aspiring artist Javier] Aguirre retorted. “This is not communism or capitalism, it’s a Cuban mess.”

[...]

“Revolution was supposed to mean equal opportunity for all, but it has become a word the Castro brothers own,” she [Giselle Palacios, daughter of dissident Hector Palacios] said. “Young Cubans don’t believe in the Castros’ version of revolution. They don’t believe in a world where the Internet is forbidden and your whole world is Cuba with the rest blocked out.”

This goes to the heart of the matter and why I detest the cult of the personality, regardless of the political leanings:

“You know,” [Dissident blogger Yoani] Sánchez said, “when a nation gets on its knees before a man, it’s all over. When a man decides how much rice I eat a month, or whether or not I can leave a country, that country is sick. This man is human. He commits errors. How can he have such power? Like a lot of people of my generation, I have willed myself to stop thinking about him, as a therapy. I think there will be relief when Fidel dies. We will breathe out. The mystical and symbolic weight of his presence is very heavy, for his opponents and even for his supporters. It’s hard to right his errors while he’s still there.”

I have said time and again, what brings progress to Latin America are institutions that are established and respected by all citizens. This is what makes a nation, not a common language, not mere geography, not race, not religion, not one man or woman and their sibling(s), but laws and rules respected by all.

Greg Weeks has a little more on what Obama faces.

Comments

[Steven Hunt]

Cohen is a propagandist for US imperialism, and his support for the Iraq invasion was predictable. This man's judgment is impaired, his values are compromised (as is true with almost all corporate sanctioned 'intellectuals').

I read this article and thought it pretty bad. However, at least he does allude to the US government's support for terrorism in the Ameircas.

What disturbed me is the way he tries to instill the notion that everything is Soviet gray in Cuba. Yes, there are myriad problems and smoldering discontent. Yes, the failures cannot all be blamed on US embargo and agression. However, I could paint any city or state in the US in inauspicious terms. The general and deep stupidity of the population, the dead-end of consumerism, the miserly wages and constant immiseration of the working classes....

The fact that the US is a fucking hell hole too is what bothered me most about Richard Cohen's depiction. Savage imperial agression also has been etched into the national psyche. It isn't hard to find people from every social class insist that we need to commit genocide against Venezuelans, Cubans, Iraqis, Pakistanis, etc. You get the picture.

Obviously Cohen can be counted upon to spout the current politically correct line--that's what he is paid handsomely for.

I would hope that you would learn to question your government and the corporate intellectuals that you engage as a barometer for what is the 'correct' opinion on matters of domestic and global importance.

Engaging a long article on Cuba without mentioning US support for terrorism against this island nation is pretty repugnant. But being 'American' means never having to dig too deeply under the officially sanctioned 'reality'.

Anyway, I sincerely hope that the US empire hits a dead end and slowly deteriorates. The older the apologists for US terror become, the sooner we know that they will come close to fulfilling their most important function on this planet: becoming food for maggots and worms.