CubaNews reaches a milestone
Message Number 50,000
by Walter Lippmann, May 13, 2006
CubaNews list home page
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/
Here are the first thirty CubaNews messages sent:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/messages/1
Preparing to return to Cuba for another visit, it's time to take a broader look
at some important topics. First, it's very pleasing to note that we've reached
this landmark in the list's history. Who'd have though it would have gone this
far when we started less than six years ago! Also, we've reached and passed 800
subscribers, and keeps growing.
This is message
number 50,000 being posted to the CubaNews list. It's a time to take stock and
reflect a bit on the list's progress, goals and purposes. Readers who have any
comments or suggestions are welcome to send them in. If you want to send
congratulations, that will be very greatly appreciated. Criticism will be
listened to and carefully considered. I'm going to take some time here to
reflect a bit. CubaNews is a work-in-progress which has been my main activity for
nearly six years. It began with a few dozen activists who'd been active in the
struggle to win freedom for Elian Gonzalez to return to his home and family in
Cuba. Since then we've found an international audience looking for information
from, about and related to Cuba.
The list and the website has a simple statement of purpose and
here you can see the very first thirty messages which were sent out. Then as
now, I was and am the principal poster to the list. Other posters are welcome,
but this is a project I've worked on and nurtured all of this time. I'm more or
less the editor-in-chief. I'm happy to have contributions from other people, and
a certain amount of discussion and dialogue to clarify some of the issues which
are raised in Cuba's fascinating, complex and not-easy-to-understand societal
process.
My goal and hope is to provide the readers with a broad selection of
information, not simply to present my own thinking. After all, that's just my
opinion. Because of its Revolution, Cuba was put on the international map and
plays a role far outside of its numerical size on the world scale. It's
important for those interested in Cuba to learn what's being said about Cuba, by
friend and foe alike, which is why it's useful to be fully aware, both of the
accomplishments of Cuba's process, as well as the criticism to which it's
subjected.
Since I'm the Editor of CubaNews, and take
responsibility for the choices of what's sent out, my editorial criteria may be
of interest. Its selections reflect my individual interests. Watching a new
society being born, growing, changing, and facing its own challenges and
contradictions means looking beyond any specific moment and attempting to see
broad trends. I have specific interests in subjects like race, gender and
sexuality issues. Lately there's been a veritable explosion of interests in
sexuality and lesbian, gay and transgender issues. This has focused on a soap
opera playing three nights a week called LA CARA OCULTA DE LA LUNA (The Hidden
Face of the Moon), which focuses on a married man who has a closeted gay lover
on the side.
Like any soap opera there are numerous side plots, but this is the one which has
generated the most attention and controversy internationally. Even the New York
Times found room for a one-paragraphs story about this phenomenon. A Cuban
website, La Jiribilla, posted seven stories about it in a recent issue (Number
260) and I've created a special web-page on which I'm following the story on the
soap opera and the general discussion of these themes which has been doing on in
the Cuban media. You can find that here:
http://www.walterlippmann.com/lgbt-cuba.html
Cuba's social system and its numerous accomplishments (free health care and
education, a minimum of societal violence, and so on) might lead the reader to
think that Cuba's political and social system are a model which ought to be
followed everywhere.Cuba gives us a model of what can be done under extreme
adversity. But Cuba's situation is very specific: It's the only country on the
entire planet, on which there exists an unwanted military base which belongs to
a hostile foreign power which is committed by its own national legislation to
the overthrow of the Cuban system. And those laws aren't just on the books,
they're actively used eight days a week and 25 hours a day. Cuba is the only
country on the planet to which you must get permission from the United States
government to visit your mother, if she's Cuban. If your mother is your last
remaining relative, and she dies, you cannot obtain permission from the United
States government to attend her funeral. (Your father, too.)
Sometimes people ask me what my opinion is of the
internal political system in Cuba. While I defend the island's right to develop
its own system, I don't see its system as a model which should be applied
everywhere, or anywhere outside of Cuba itself. Indeed, the one-party political
system, which has its roots in the thinking of Jose Marti, has advantages and
disadvantages, but these, like all of Cuba's other social and political
problems, are ones which the Cuban people need to solve for themselves and on
their own. One look at the disaster which is occurring in Iraq today where
U.S.-imposed "freedom" is being practiced should give anyone reason to
understand why Cuba's problems are and should remain to be solved by Cubans
living on the island.
Another tough choice was to arrest and conduct extremely short trials of 75
oppositionists in 2003 and the execution of three armed hijackers that year.
While Washington was invading and occupying Iraq, the Cuban government decided
to take strong action against Cubans accused of serving as paid political
operatives for the United States. The U.S. media outdid itself in denouncing
Cuba's self-defensive action. Washington had told Cuba that any uncontrolled
immigration would be seen as a danger to the national security of the United
States. So Cuba, which had observed decades of U.S. welcome being given to Cuban
hijackers, going back to 1959, finally took swift and decisive action to prevent
further hijackings. Well, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and there
have been no further hijackings out of Cuba since 2003.
Looking back, I certainly think it would have been helpful had the Cuban
government provided a lot more more details and documentation of the evidence
against those people. (A book, Los Disidentes, was published at the time,
and later in English.) Some who had been sympathetic to Cuba joined the
orchestrated hue-and-cry against Cuba for the defensive actions it took. Others,
leaped to endorse the Cuban government's actions, reviling any who publicly
criticized the Cuban actions. Personally, I never endorsed, nor did I criticize
what the Cuban government did. The main function of my work and of the CubaNews
list was (as it is), to provide information and tools for understanding what
took place and why the Cubans acted as they did. Cuba's problems have
to be solved by Cubans living on the island.
Cuba's government makes political choices which have consequences, sometimes
very difficult ones. For example, the legalization of the U.S. dollar and the
opening to foreign investments. These brought economic growth, but the infusion
of troubling social problems including social differentiation and the phenomenon
known as prostitution. I'm sure that foreign critics who think they know more
than the Cuban people and their leaders can develop. Trouble is, the Cuban
people have to live on that island, and live with the consequences, good and
bad, of their decision. As a foreigner, and one who travels to Cuba often and
tries to follow its development closely, I often tell people that the more time
I spend there, the more I know how little I really know.
The way I see it, my role, and that of CubaNews, is to contribute to the process
by helping Cubans to solve their own problems. Further, I see the list's role as
helping readers to better understand Cuba and how and why the society is what it
is. Do I think Cuba has problems? I certainly do. Aside from the blockade, which
can never really be put aside since it's always in place, but at least
analytically, let's put it aside for a moment. The fact that so many things are
illegal in Cuba is definitely a problem. If I've drawn any conclusion from my
time spent there, it is that the idea that society or the state should or could
solve all the problems of society is simply ridiculous. How Cuba's going to
solve this problem is something for which I don't have an answer.
Some people living in the "advanced" capitalist countries are unable to see
things from the viewpoints of other peoples and countries. It's often thought,
by teachers, parents, by politicians and by the media that "The American Way" is
the only way. I'm not convinced of that, including in its leftwing variants.
I'm often amazed at the kinds of criticisms of Cuba which some people on the
left make, sitting in the comfort of their homes in the United States or other
so-called "advanced" capitalist countries. After a largely Saudi-originated
group led the attacks on the American people which took place on September 11,
2001, Washington invaded and overthrew the government of Afghanistan, and, after
that, the government of Iraq. The Cuban government, knowing the fury with which
Washington has campaigned to overthrow Cuba's government, knew it had to take
firm action to protect itself. Washington, after all, has long been bankrolling
oppositionists inside the island. And Cuba had to accept the consequences of
their decisions.
Sometimes I explain to people that if there were half a dozen Cubas, one could
afford to be more casual in telling Cuba what to do with itself and how to run
its society and protect it. Fact is, there's only on Cuba. Here in the United
States, where I live, some people have the idea that the United States is the
model by which, or against which, every other society on earth should be judged.
In the United States it's also often thought that
freedom means the ability to say anything we want whenever we feel like it. I
have my opinions, and they affect me and may interest some readers of e-mail
lists. The Cuban government can't afford to make too many wrong decisions in how
it handles itself. If it makes too many mistakes, the results could be
disastrous. That's why it's essential to give the Cubans the respect, and if not
that, the courtesy or simply the slack to accept them as they are. This doesn't
mean agreeing with that they do, but it does mean accepting that it's the Cuban
people's right in the end to decide what gets done there. For better or for
worse. Period.
Do I wish Cuba had more open political system, with more room for public
discussion and debate? Of course I do. I think Cuba could better solve its
various internal problems if there were more public debate. But so long as Cuba
faces the efforts of Washington to overthrow the Cuban system and impose Yankee
style freedom, such as we see in Iraq, I can certainly understand why the Cubans
feel they need to go slow with public debate.
Cuba's economic situation, which fell into a deep crisis when its principal
trading partner, and indeed its lifeline, the Soviet Union collapsed in the
early 1990s. Cuba's leaders reconfigured their system, legalized possession of
the U.S. dollar, accepting foreign investment and tourism. There's been a
turnaround in the island's economic situation. Most recently, as world oil
prices have passed $70 a barrel, Cuba's oil deposits have attracted the
interests of business people from around the world. Even here in the United
States, a growing number of companies want to do business with Cuba and they are
willing to part with the blockade, at least in part, in their efforts to find
oil not too far from the United States. This is causing some difficulty for the
Bush administration and that's why they tried to break up that meeting of U.S.
oil executives meeting with their Cuban counterparts in Mexico in February.
In the United States in recent weeks, we've seen the explosive outpouring of
immigrants coming out of the shadows and demanding legalization of their status:
the right to live and work here. May Day has been restored as a working people's
holiday, with the biggest demonstrations in the history of the country by
working people asserting their rights. I attended two of these big mobilizations
here in Los Angeles. I cannot recall another time outside of Cuba when I've
attended a demonstration where the first language of most participants was
Spanish. Cuba's National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon took a long long at
this and its importance in a speech he gave two days after the big marches.
CubaNews arranged to have his speech translated and sent it out widely. It was
picked up by COUNTERPUNCH and by PORTSIDE hope it gets an even wider
circulation. If you haven't read Alarcon's discussion. it's here:
http://www.walterlippmann.com/alarcon-05-03-2006-e.html
One of the best aspects of this movement is the attention it can draw to the
special privileges which Cuban migrants have enjoyed for more than forty years.
While immigrants who arrive in the United States without property papers are
nearly always deported, Cubans are welcomed to remain, under the provisions of
the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act. Here's a special page to take up these
immigration issues, and to discuss why it is so many Cubans want to leave their
home country. The special rights which they are granted under the Cuban
Adjustment Act makes this understandable. To read more about this, see:
http://www.walterlippmann.com/migration.html
Tom Miller, author of TRADING WITH THE ENEMY, A Yankee Travels Through Castro's
Cuba, did a commentary on this which imaginatively reframed this matter in a
commentary on National Public Radio's Latino USA program recently. I strongly
recommend that everyone listen to his commentary and share it with others. You
can read it, but it has a different and greater impact if you listen to it.
Listen in MP3
Listen in RealAudio
Immigrants want to
be treated like Cubans:
http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs608.html
Even though Cuba is little known and little followed outside of the Cuban
community and those political activists who are passionately interested in the
island, there's more interest than you might think. In Los Angeles I recently
saw a play called IT HAPPENED IN HAVANA, an imaginative production set at
Christmas of the year that Cuba's first republic had come into existence. It had
a truly democratic sensibility in that its central conflicts had to do with a
reactionary mother who had supported the Spanish colonialists and was unhappy
that Cuba had even the compromised independence it had under a constitution
including the Platt Amendment. From the theater's website: "It Happened in
Havana takes place at Christmastime in 1902 – the end of the first year of Cuba
as an independent republic. The play is set in the home of a recalcitrant
Spanish widow who has three Cuban-born daughters. One of them has met a handsome
young man who has been invited to Christmas Eve dinner. During the course of the
evening we find out the young man was born to Cuban parents who were Jewish.
This discovery triggers a series of clashes between the old Spanish intolerant
colonial ideas, and the new young Cuban independent and democratic ideals
inspired by Jose Marti."
TROPICANA NIGHTS
Last week I met and heard a presentation by Rosa Lowinger, a Cuban-American
author whose recent book, co-written with Ofelia Fox (recently deceased),
recounts the legendary Cuban nightclub which was opened in 1939. I've just begun
the book but can tell you it's a terrific read. The Tropicana, like other
nightclubs of its time made the bulk of its money through gambling, but the
Tropicana evidently wasn't run by American gangsters as others like the Riviera
were. Lowinger works as an art conservator and has written and published
materials about preservation efforts in Habana Vieja. You can read more about
Lowinger's book:
http://makeashorterlink.com/?B29C41FFC
Lowinger is furthermore part of an important new initiative by
Cuban-American scholars favoring a more normal relationship with their home
country. This is a very encouraging initiative which shows that by no means are
all Cuban-Americans united behind the failed policies of the past nearly five
decades. They recently placed a full-page ad in the MIAMI HERALD which began:
"We are a group of Cuban American scholars and artists who have coalesced as
a network of U.S. citizens opposed to current U.S. policy toward Cuba. We are
committed to promoting reasoned debate in the public arena, to countering the
stereotype of a monolithic Cuban American community, to challenging the
disproportionate influence of an unrepresentative sector out of touch with U.S.
public opinion, and to help bring about an end to a failed policy that defies
all sound principles for conducting foreign affairs." Read the full ad here:
http://www.miami.com/multimedia/miami/news/encasa.pdf
Two years ago this week, the Bush administration announced the so-called
"Transition Plan for Assistance to a Free Cuba". In essence, for those who took
the time to read it, it was a Miami right-winger's wet-dream for what they
fantasized doing to the island if they could get it back into their clutches.
Protests were organized at that time in the United States. The Bush regime,
which is in far more desperate political straits than it was two years ago, is
supposed to be announcing even MORE measures about Cuba, though the details have
been keep even MORE secret than were the plans announced in 2004. By the way,
little notice was paid at the time to the fact that there was a "secret" section
of that report, not printed in the nearly five-hundred page document itself. If
you didn't recall that secret section, it was in fact announced a week before
the official unveiling. You can see that there WAS a secret section of the
report here:
"SECRET" SECTION OF TRANSITION REPORT:
http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs019.html
PROTESTS MADE IN 2004:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/message/26108
This coming Saturday, many of us will be participating in the protests against
whatever new measures are to be announced. Whatever they are, we know they
cannot be good. Here are the details of the national protest which will take
place in Washington, DC. Another will take place here in Los Angeles.
http://www.may20coalition.org/
Los Angeles flyer:
http://www.may20coalition.org/pdf/May%2020%20Englishla.pdf
Looking back through the years, it's particularly gratifying to see how much
progress this list has made. Take a look back at the very first messages we sent
and you'll get a sense of how far we've come. Keep in mind we had but a few
dozen subscribers at that time. We're beginning to see a gratifying increase in
participation along with the increase in subscribers to the list. Anyone
concerned with Cuba is very much welcome to subscribe to CubaNews, participate
in the process of finding and sharing information about Cuba, the Cuban diaspora
and issues related to Cuba. It's an exciting time to be alive and involved in
this process. I wish to welcome you all.
Some months ago when the medical aid team Cuba sent to Pakistan got going, I
learned of three Pakistan-based lists and am placing Pakistan-related
information there those lists have something over three thousand subscribers, so
Pakistani news from the Cuban media gets a big additional circulation. There are
Venezuela and Argentina lists where materials related to those countries are
placed. People forward on some of the material to friends and acquaintances
because I hear about it frequently. In time I hope there are other list focusing
on other specific countries as well. The CubaNews list provides a good example
and I'd be happy to work with anyone else whose who'd like to establish
similarly-focused lists.
Some readers have asked how it is I can continue to travel to and from Cuba
despite the restrictions imposed on such travel by the United States government.
Let me explain. Formally, due to the famous William Worth decision of 1964, it's
still not illegal to travel to Cuba, if you meet certain requirements under U.S.
law. There are provisions for Cubans to visit their families, but only on the
most restrictive of conditions and only once every three years. There are
provisions for various religious groups to pursue their faith-based activities
as well. I assume some of these are right-wing fundamentalists, but I know that
not all of them are. Washington has cracked down hard on many religious
licenses, claiming that some Cubans have abused the religious licenses just as a
way of seeing their families on the island.
There is also a provision under the law called a General License, under which
travel to Cuba is permitted for those who engage in educational, journalistic or
other specifically-defined purposes. Under the General License, one does not
apply for permission nor receive a specific license. That's the provision under
which I go do Cuba. So far, beyond being asked rude and unpleasant questions
when returning from the island, I haven't been stopped from traveling to and
writing about Cuba. All restrictions on travel should, of course, be abolished.
No one should have to ask permission from the Great White Father to visit any
place in the world. And relations between our two countries should simply be
normalized.
TRANSLATIONS:
In addition to the collection and dissemination of lots of information, one
of the areas of CubaNews I'm most proud of is the work we do in providing
translations from the Cuban media of articles, analyses and commentaries. Cuba
provides some of these on its own. CubaNews adds to these by selecting others
for your interest to help readers get an even broader sense of Cuban reality as
it's reflected in the island's media. Readers who have the ability and
proficiency at translation are strongly encouraged to step and volunteer. We
can't pay anything but lots of gratitude and the knowledge that you're helping
people who don't speak Spanish fluently to see what is going on in Cuba, but
your help is very much needed and appreciated.
Today is Mothers Day. In the United States it's a marketing opportunity and
the newspapers are filled with advertisement for special sales opportunities.
Families will get together and share special meals. How different it is in Cuba.
There is no commercial advertising in Cuban newspapers, and it is a big day for
families to get together as well. It's always seemed to me that there's a lot
more sincere, heart-felt sentiment infused in this day in Cuba than here in the
Unite States. Thanks for your time, attention and participation.
Walter Lippmann
Los Angeles, California
May 14, 2006
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/
http://www.walterlippmann.com/