Democracy According to Obama

By Dr. Néstor García Iturbe, 2016

A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.

I recently received an objective and interesting note published by “CUBA NEWS” where academician Nelson Valdés explains Obama’s views on democracy and gives us an insight into how a single topic can get a different treatment depending on the surrounding atmosphere.

The note in question pointed out that in his speech of June 4 in Egypt, Obama said: “So let me be clear. No system of government can or should be imposed by one nation on any other”.

However, on April 13, just 52 days before, he had remarked the following: “The promotion of democracy and human rights in Cuba is in the national interest of the United States and is a key component of this nation’s foreign policy in the Americas”.

Among the explanations the scholar tried to give to the President’s contradictory approach to this issue in such a short period were:

This gentleman has either a poor memory or two speechwriters. In his opinion, Cuba is not an independent nation, but a part of U.S. territory.

As I see it, both of Obama’s phrases are nothing but a confirmation of the way his country has practiced foreign policy ever since it was founded. Besides, they throw light on the ambivalent stance the U.S. often takes on terrorism (the good one and the bad one), human rights (who violates them and who doesn’t), immigration, children’s rights, and everything they use to boast the “good things” of a system which, truth be told, becomes more corrupted by the day.

Bad guys in the movies?

IN THE CRUSADE AGAINST SQUANDERERS THE ENERGY SUPERVISION GROUPS IN THE COUNTRY HAVE DONNED THE “SEVEN LEAGUE” BOOTS.

By Ortelio Gonzalez Martinez
June 23, 2009

A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.

CIEGO DE AVILA.- There are good, silent men who move quietly, without arrogance, and do not see themselves as important, but in fact they are important manuel, to the center, and francisco (left) advise an interested client on how to diminishing the electricity cost of their company. 

This is how those who are fighting the battle against excessive electricity expenditure behave as members of the Energy Supervision Groups in the country (ESG). They were created in Sancti Spíritus in February 2007 and later in the rest of the country. 

Those in my province don’t monopolize the press, yet many know them, and think about them, especially when they arrive at the companies and insist on saving measures, key positions, load redistribution, expenditure plan, energy balance…fight against fraud intensifies in the residential sector  

ANOTHER TURN OF THE KEY IN FAVOR OF THRIFTINESS

For electric engineer Manuel Sánchez Fernández, head specialist of the Group in the Basic Electric Organization (OBE) in Ciego de Avila, it is time to give another turn to the key in favor of thriftiness; because, there is a hidden source of energy that needs to be found and exploited for the good of all. “The thing is to avoid spending more energy than the one planned. Reserves appear and it is our duty to find them, by organizing work better, and changing for the better the disposition of those that squander it”, he declared.

He said that Load Distribution Manuals had appeared since the ’70s. . Companies were supposed to follow them to determine their saving policy. However, those books were kept in the drawers and very few mangers – and fewer workers – consulted them.  

Nowadays, when the world crisis threatens us, the country spent during the first four months of this year 40 000 tons more fuel for electric generation than planned. These groups are necessary – I would say crucial – to discover anomalies and provide counsel when needed. 

“In the beginning – Manuel asserts -, company managers resented us, especially the squanderers. This is changing, although we have to sensitize many managers. There are still places which don’t even have an expenditure plan. For this reason up to June 19, 42 companies had been denied electricity service. Most of them belong to MINAZ, MINAGRI and Trade and Gastronomy.” 

In our province the Group is formed by four experienced specialists and, contrary to what some people think, they aren’t snipers. Yet, they are uncompromising with those who disregard the saving policy indicated by our country’s maximum leaders. There is no alternative. 

Real life shows us that there are leaks of electrical energy, caused by lack of control, and irresponsibility.  

What should we call those that do not study the company load, do not read the counters and care more about the expenditure of fuel than that of electricity?

 Inspections made (more than 100 in the province) discovered anomalies everywhere. It is no laughing matter, for example, that in certain workplaces they ignore the existence of an expenditure plan, or that in a store of the Interior Trade Ministry the inspection detected a large expenditure of electricity even when the freezer was not in working order. Further investigation revealed that several nearby homes were connected to the store and the residents did not pay for electricity. 

In the opinion of Thermo-energy Engineer Francisco Ramírez Díaz, also member of the ESG, saving is not possible without management supervision. Thus, he brings another problem out on the open; the ineffectual analyses made countless times by Management Councils, Party committees, Young Communist organization committees, and union representatives at workplaces.

During the enquiries, Granma found out that the way the issue is discussed is boring, repetitive and, therefore in spite of good intentions, the reason for excessive electricity expenditures is not found.

 The issue of energy consumers is in the agenda of every workplace visited. We concede that. However, comments on the subject are restricted to: “How much electricity did we use? We cannot overdraw the expenditure plan. It is necessary to work in that direction… “, Discussions should dig deeper than that during collective debates.  

CUT OFF THE POWER…

It is not a matter of “cutting off the power and turning on the gas lamp” as the popular saying goes. Engineer María Antonia Valdés Alfonso, head of the Rational Use of the Energy Managerial Base Unit of the OBE in Ciego de Avila province, affirms that the maximum leaders of the country have stated this as the last option.

Without forgetting the residential sector, for the time being emphasis is put now on the state sector, the biggest consumer in the county. When companies and state units overdraw their plans service is withdrawn. “Service is withdrawn for 72 hours to those [companies] who consume electricity over the amount planned. If they recur, more severe measures are applied to managers. They put the squeeze and it has given results.”

Engineer Aidel Suárez López, who also walks with the control calendar always ready, is categorical: “Most managers think that their companies have done everything possible merely because they have turned off lights and motors; that this solves the saving problem. They push to the background very important words like energy balance, load redistribution, deviation from the real consumption, energy efficiency…, but we won that battle. The final objective is to put the cork back in the bottle.” 

At least in Ciego de Ávila, the “cork” is beginning to stop squandering. Since June 1st when saving measures began, to the 19th, the province fulfilled the 15 day plan. This result is due in part to the “bad guys in the movies”. Nobody doubts that.

But their performance should not be restricted to moments of crisis. It should be systematic and they should work every day against squanderers and the inefficient use of energy carriers. 

Honduras: A coup d’état concealed behind euphemisms

Author: ALBERTO NÚÑEZ BETANCOURT
Havana, July 7, 2009

A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.

Honduras is living proof that, if describing the violators of democracy is up to powerful mass media, we’ll never see words such as ‘coup d’état’ or ‘usurping government’, let alone phrases like ‘legitimate, constitutional president acclaimed by the majority of the people’ to talk about Honduran dignitary José Manuel Zelaya.

Once again, injustice hides behind euphemisms: ‘coup’ is replaced by ‘forced succession’, a term often used by CNN in its Spanish broadcastings, as if to make sure it ends up engraved on the mind of its large audiences.

Since June 28th, when the coup took place, CNN News has reported that a new government ‘unanimously’ approved by Congress had been legally set up and was even ‘consolidating’ its newly appointed cabinet.

That day an anchorwoman kept proudly repeating that all e-mails received in the network stated their support of the de facto regime. Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega was right when he said that CNN was the coup faction’s channel.

Just hours after the swipe, plenty of carefully edited footage showed a rally in support of Micheletti, whose actions enjoyed extensive coverage while the popular opposition was barely mentioned despite the fact that increasing numbers of people were gathering in the area around the Presidential House and all roads and highways were jam-packed with citizens who were heading for the capital city from all over the country. ‘Groups of Zelaya’s supporters’ is how CNN in Spanish prefers to call that great mass of citizens seemingly undeserving of many camera shots.

You’ve got to laugh at the argument initially employed by the CNN correspondent that she could not get anywhere near the Presidential House to take pictures of the first demonstrations in favor of the Honduran constitution. Nevertheless, she fought for, and managed to get in no time, an interview with Micheletti, whom she even called ‘President’, in clear recognition of he who had just taken the Presidency by force.

Meanwhile, a fearless Telesur network got by at best it could to transmit objective news from streets and rooftops at the cost of seeing its film crew arrested.

History repeats itself. Much like in Venezuela in April 2002, powerful media are now striving to do a real balancing act to justify the coup in Honduras. Everything goes, from blaming Chávez for the conflict caused by a stubborn Honduran oligarchy to presenting analysts who swear that Manuel Zelaya violated the Constitution, hinting at the convenience of a ‘political solution between the parties’ to help the country return to normal, or fabricating a climate in which Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba are portrayed as enemies of Honduras’s sovereignty.

No information monopoly is in the least interested in clarifying that Zelaya’s intention to hold a referendum is by no means in violation of his nation’s Magna Carta.

Why don’t they explain in one of their many news programs that the current chaos in this Central American country is a result of a crystal clear conspiracy planned by the brass hats, the judiciary and power-thirsty congresspeople? Why not remind us that the Hondurans were peacefully getting ready to take part in a plebiscite? Why not decry the gag order given since day one by the de facto government?

Countless questions come to mind on what the big media have to say now about their much-trumpeted concepts of democracy and freedom of the press, because their outrageous attitude makes their words sound empty or funny, to say the least.

No less noticeable is the fact that some networks would rather broadcast the latest jet-set gossip or cartoons for entertainment and misinformation than what’s going on in Honduras today.

Euphemisms as masks: that’s some lesson we’re receiving these days from the media at the service of oligarchs and liars!

 Alberto Yarini: Legend and mystery of a pimp

07/29/09 – Cubarte: News Service (Havana)

By Graziella Pogolotti

A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.

Among my most distant memories, the name of Alberto Yarini comes to mind. Grown-ups would mention him with a wicked smile, which aroused my curiosity. I gradually came to learn that he was a famous pimp who had been killed in a fight by his French rivals in the San Isidro neighborhood. Supremely elegant, he projected a singular image, that of an aristocratic pimp riding around the city. Later Carlos Felipe turned the legend into myth. With his famous Requiem, he gave a tragic flavor to the announced death of a hero of a nocturnal and marginal Havana, a recurrent obsession of the author, who also wrote El chino. The director Gilda Hernández, however, provided quite a different perspective of the production on the occasion of the premiere of the play. The realistic approach showed the character-portrayed by Helmo Hernández-in his underpants in a sordid setting. Social referents were emphasized by this point of view, including the stage curtain which served to project obituaries of the family of resounding names and of the Conservative Party, signed by generals and commanders of the Liberation Army as well as by notorious San Isidro pimps.The character has come back to the present in the recently premiered feature film, Los dioses rotos (The Broken Gods).

The second edition of San Isidro 1910, by the researcher Dulcila Cañizares, was launched at a recent book fair. Supported by numerous testimonials and a conscientious exploration of archives, the book reveals the character’s environment, located in the limited urban universe where he exercised control. The examination is intentionally made from the bottom in a republic which had hardly freed itself of colonial ties.

The neighborhood is brought back to life by a meticulous reconstruction of squalid tenements, cheap eateries, small stores, movie houses where musicians, who would some day be famous, play, places where pornographic images are viewed. From the background of this sordid everyday life emerges the indistinct figure of Yarini, settled in his house on Paula Street, surrounded by his harem, flanked by his staunch friend Basterrechea, an ambiguous bond of unknown origin.

Self-contained, the neighborhood lies on the city’s fringes, just as Carlos Felipe sensed it in his classic Requiem. But strong and subtle steel threads connect him to the ruling classes of the newly-formed republic. Barely a silhouette designed in the background, Yarini represents the link between these two worlds. Hence the reason for his actual strength and his lasting symbolic image. Deep down, beyond any differences imposed by social conventions, a common substratum converges in the field of values, a trap that subjugates whoever gets involved in politics, where no one manages to avoid the mud stains on their white attire. Yarini goes through the concentric circles of the Havana society of the time. Born into a well-established family, both financially and professionally, he stops by the bohemian and semi-parasitic scene of the “Louvre sidewalk”-also suggested by Estorino in some of his plays-where white slave trade and the commerce of journalism subsist, to establish his personal domain in San Isidro.

Coinciding with the pattern devised by Carlos Felipe, the anthropological perspective adopted by Dulcila Cañizares constructs the character as seen through the eyes of others. Unlike the playwright, the researcher places the neighborhood and its memories at center stage. The main character will grow and will be recognizable following his death with the significance of his remains and complicities extracted from the impersonal prose of legal documents. Here, as on the stage, class differences are noted in the refinement of the wardrobe and the value of the pendants, in contrast to the vulgar striped shirts and pants worn by small-time pimps. The quick execution of the French victim takes place by way of a pearly pistol and an accurate shot to the middle of the forehead.

The search for the truth is carried out through the disclosure of successive layers that hide new, perhaps unfathomable, mysteries. In Dulcila Cañizares’s book a key character, unknown until now, is outlined. Basterrechea, the inseparable shadow of the famous pimp, the handsome young man with green eyes who lacks trade and lineage will be his avenger. A shadyarea in his sexuality is sensed in the “San Isidro macho” with his harem of women that never included virgins. The documents of the period hint at actions taken by powerful political authorities to abandon the legal process and wipe Yarini’s avenger’s record clean. Jail will be for others, for the second-class perpetrators in the settling of scores with the French pimps. Basterrechea survived the republic in total obscurity, living on small government positions that were always available to him despite the frequent dismissals, hurricane winds that were inseparable from every electoral process. His silence was, without a doubt, part of the commitment made to the people who ultimately freed him from the administration of justice. At the time of the outcome, he left the scene in the same manner as the mysterious lady in black restored by Carlos Felipe. They left no trail. Memory and legend preserved only the reminiscence of the surprising social pact represented in the funeral where the neighborhood prostitutes and the representatives of the so-called active classes of the nation, representatives of high politics and high society, converged. The great show removed the stains, dressing the most sordid complicities in clean clothes. From a multiple set of voices and documents, Dulcila Cañizares opens up the silent zones and gives us back a disturbing vision of a past that is also a part of our cultural heritage. Because the yesterday that is within us has dazzling luminosities of struggle, generosity and creation. Inscribed in a context of values forged in the needs of survival, the memory of a sordid past, the source of a corruption that permeates society, interacting with the high and low strata of society, still lives on. These are the ones that are revealed in Carlos Felipe’s universe and, with more restrictive precautions, in Miguel de Carrión’s as well. Let us welcome then this necessary evocation of San Isidro 1910.

An Interview with Camilo Guevara, Son of El Che
10/16/98 – HUMO (Belgium)

A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.

Q: You didn’t really know your father. You where five years old when he  died. You probably know him like we all do: out of books.

Guevara: I have a few memories, but vaguely, things I’m not even sure off  that they really happened or that I dreamed them, fantasy. I know him  through the stories that my mother, family and friends of my father have  told me.

Q: For believers in the free market and the Americans, he is a devil.

Guevara: That’s their problem, not mine. He is a devil for the U.S.  government and American multinationals. Not for the North-American people. I  am convinced that many North-Americans admire and respect El Che, that they  love him and that they fight injustice in American society under his banner.  In the U.S. there is a movement that declares its solidarity with Cuba and  tries to lift the economic blockade.

Q: Your father’s life ended in controversy. He left Cuba because the Soviets came, whom he did not trust, so they say, and had problems with Fidel Castro  who became more and more a pragmatic head of state.

Guevara: That isn’t true. My father left Cuba because he was an eternal  revolutionary. He wrote as much in letters that might soon be published. He  had no quarrel with Fidel at all. Fidel and Che stayed friends, brothers and  comrades until the end. That they had problems with one another is a lie  which was already launched before El Che’s death. The period he was in Congo  during the sixties and the capitalist countries didn’t know where he was,  the Western press wrote some crazy stories: he was dead; he was locked up in  a Cuban jail. With these lies they wanted to harm the Cuban revolution and  Fidel Castro as one of the international leaders of the left and of the poor  in the world, still eighty percent of the world population today. On the  other hand they tried to convince people that the revolutionary Guevara,  this great symbol, wasn’t all that, but a man who had to flee from Cuba  because he had problems with his colleague – revolutionary Fidel Castro.

Q: How is life for the son of El Che in Cuba?

Guevara: You want to know if I’m privileged? Children of ‘the symbol’ have  one advantage: a great part of the Cuban people still loves El Che. I often  feel awkward about it, but a lot of Cubans treat us, the children of El Che,  more warmly than others. I feel that the Cubans convey the affection that  they had for my father onto me and my family. In that way we are indeed  privileged.

Q: How are things in Cuba today? The economic situation seems to improve  gradually?

Guevara: 1994 was rock-bottom for us. After that the Cuban economy gradually  began growing again, which was a miracle, really. And El Che had nothing to  do with it! (Laughs) Or maybe, a little. That year made a great impression  on us all. Imagine: a country which is the victim of a rigorous economic  blockade all of a sudden also loses eighty percent of its trade due to the  collapse of Eastern Europe. At the same time the blockade is even tightened,  and the prices of Western goods, which we desperately needed just like any  other Third World country, keep on rising. And still we managed to let our  economy grow. That is the miracle. A very dangerous example. We achieved  this without one cent from the International Monitary Fund, nor of any other  international financial institution whatsoever! We have showed that you can  achieve a lot without money, but with a great political will. I suspect that  capitalists around the world are a bit anxious that this example might be  followed in other countries. That’s why they try to destroy us with even  greater vigour.

Q: El Maximo Lider Fidel will sooner or later disappear from the scene. He  is 72 now. What will happen then? In Florida huge groups of Cuban exiles are  waiting for the day they can reclaim Cuba.

Guevara: There are few thing of which one can be sure in this world.  (Laughs) The Cubans in Florida where already convinced back in 1959 that  they would re-conquer Cuba quickly. Ha! We are forty years further now, and  they are still in Florida. When Eastern Europe collapsed, they knew for  certain: we take Cuba back! In the meantime that’s nine years ago.

For sixty years, from the beginning of the century until the end of the  fifties, Cuba was a colony of the U.S. . We know capitalism, we have  experienced its deeds. Until Fidel and a group of youngsters launched the  revolution. What do you think the Cuban people are going to do after Fidel’s  death? Do you think that everybody wants to go back to the period before  1959; that the people will allow the U.S. to come and boss us around?

Q: Wouldn’t it be possible that the Cuban regime imploded? The consumption  goods of capitalism are very seductive. One notices it these days in Havana.

Guevara: In the West capitalism seduces many people, yes. And maybe a few  ignorant people in the Third World too . . .

^ Back To Top

Q: Oh come on, the Cuban youth wants Nikes and Marlboro’s, Coca-Cola and  walkmans too.

Guevara: Without a doubt, without a doubt. But that isn’t the majority of  youngsters. Never! The Cuban people have reached a level of political and  cultural awareness that cannot easily be ignored. The Cubans have seen what  has happened to Eastern Europe: before the collapse of the Berlin Wall they  had promised these people heaven, but what did they get? Nothing, absolutely  nothing, except chaos and exploitation. We Cubans know this, we see it and  we don’t want it to happen to us. OK, there are still some people that want  to sell us out to the U.S. . But they are a minority.

Q: Wouldn’t it be wiser to completely ignore the U.S. and tighten the  economic ties with Europe?

Guevara: The Europeans aren’t philanthropists either, hey. You have to be  realistic: our relationship with Europe depends on what we can earn from one  another. But the U.S. executes pressure onto Europe, a lot of pressure.  Northern-Europe resists the Helm-Burton law (American law that tries to  prevent non-American industry to trade with Cuba) and we are glad about  that. But is that because the Europeans are in love with Cuba? No, its a  question of sovereignty. How can one country accept that another country  forbids it to trade with the rest of the world?

Q: Until recently Cuba was a isolated socialist ‘paradise’. Now you receive  thousands of tourists and businessmen from Europe and South-America. Is that  positive?

Guevara: Cuba has never been as isolated as you think. We have always had  good contact with Europe. With Eastern-Europe, sure. But we have always been  open to the European culture. In the past we have never promoted mass  tourism from Western-Europe because we didn’t need it. Now it has become our  most important source of income and a way to attract foreign investments.

Q: But mass tourism has a shadow side too: prostitution.

Guevara: For me it has more to do with the crisis of human values all over  the world, than with tourists coming to Cuba.

Q: You really believe that?

Guevara: There’s prostitution in Belgium as well. I have seen it with my own  eyes. People who have enough money to live on don’t prostitute themselves.  People who lack money, do. Why?

Q: Because they want money?

Guevara: No! If I had no money and would go hungry every day, I would not  prostitute myself! It is a question of values. So, what can we do about it?  Must we throw out all tourists, or do we have to make sure that people do  not only have enough money, but also have respect for the essential human  values? In any case we are working hard to force back prostitution.

Q: You work for the Ministry of Fishery. Strange that you have such  ministry. Cubans hardly eat fish.

Guevara: That’s true. But there is improvement. In the past, eating fish was  for the poor. Or food for cats and dogs. Now we try to promote the fish  consumption through fairs and feasts.

Q: Even Fidel seems to interfere?

Guevara: Yes, he once did an advertisement on TV. One saw an empty table in  an empty room. Fidel entered and sat himself behind the table, looked into  the camera very seriously but didn’t say a word. After a while a waiter  entered and served him a plate of fish. Fidel ate the fish in silence. This  took a few minutes. When only the fish-bones where left on his plate, Fidel  rose up, looked imperatively into the camera, and spoke to his people the  historical words “And now, YOU” And now we all eat fish.