Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Couch surfing in Havana
Dear folks,
I’m so very sorry for missing our fourth birthday. I have been in Havana, subsisting without pants (gracias a Air Canada for loosing my bags for four days) and without confirmed accommodation (gracias a onslaught of pasty-middle-class tourists that sold out all of Cuba’s hotels). So I do apologize for not being around, and I hope that the lads saved me some birthday cake, while I was couch surfing in Havana. Mind you, I know that Yamis is a guy who likes his cake, so I won’t be disappointed if it is all gone.
By now you’ve heard the news. Fidel Castro is no longer governing the country. It’s official now. The truth of the matter is that he has not governed it for close to two years, and some of the most important economic and social programs have been deployed since 2002 without his direct supervision.
I was in Havana when the news of Fidel’s retirement came. And when it came? Nothing. Not a single thing out of the ordinary. The sun rose, people went to work, and life carried on. After all, the real good-bye Fidel party took place in December 2006 in the form of a delayed 80th birthday party.
Not to gloat, but this is exactly what I said (August 02, 2006) would happen here on this blog. Did the world pay attention? Nope.
On February 19th, a CNN reporter, at three in the morning, was seen on a deserted street in old Havana. He was bantering something to the extent that, “Yes, I’m standing here in the middle of Havana, and it is still pretty quiet, because everyone is still asleep. We are waiting for the onslaught of chaos to ensue tomorrow morning when people wake up and read the papers.”
For 50 years now the Western Media has forecasted the mass upheaval of Cuban society with the departure of Fidel Castro. The U.S. State Department has thought the same. Even the CIA believed it so, and with multiple assassination attempts against Fidel, they hoped that the entire society would fall open to the warm, and glowing, embrace of U.S. Capitalism.
These people are truly stupid. They are stupid in the sense that they have not learned a single thing about Cuban society or its politics for about half a century. And it came down to some poor CNN reporter standing in the deserted street with his dick in the wind trying to convince the world that the counter revolution was about ready to bleed out of the walls.
To me, this is a fascinating time in the sense of watching how the western media handles the normalcy of the post-Castro era. How will they manage to back-pedal on so many years of false prophecy?
And what of the public imagination? So many people in Canada tell me that they want to go to Cuba “before Castro dies.” Well, there’s still time for that. Even the loveable cab driver that took me to Montréal’s airport told me of such personal desire.
It is a little worrisome to see how unequipped media and popular perception is in understanding Cuba, and even the world we live in. We could dig deeper into this, but it largely comes down to how people see orchestrated and monumental movements as the moments of a society’s change rather than an infinite series of presents that all, in some way, create an unfolding path of change.
I’m so very sorry for missing our fourth birthday. I have been in Havana, subsisting without pants (gracias a Air Canada for loosing my bags for four days) and without confirmed accommodation (gracias a onslaught of pasty-middle-class tourists that sold out all of Cuba’s hotels). So I do apologize for not being around, and I hope that the lads saved me some birthday cake, while I was couch surfing in Havana. Mind you, I know that Yamis is a guy who likes his cake, so I won’t be disappointed if it is all gone.
By now you’ve heard the news. Fidel Castro is no longer governing the country. It’s official now. The truth of the matter is that he has not governed it for close to two years, and some of the most important economic and social programs have been deployed since 2002 without his direct supervision.
I was in Havana when the news of Fidel’s retirement came. And when it came? Nothing. Not a single thing out of the ordinary. The sun rose, people went to work, and life carried on. After all, the real good-bye Fidel party took place in December 2006 in the form of a delayed 80th birthday party.
Not to gloat, but this is exactly what I said (August 02, 2006) would happen here on this blog. Did the world pay attention? Nope.
On February 19th, a CNN reporter, at three in the morning, was seen on a deserted street in old Havana. He was bantering something to the extent that, “Yes, I’m standing here in the middle of Havana, and it is still pretty quiet, because everyone is still asleep. We are waiting for the onslaught of chaos to ensue tomorrow morning when people wake up and read the papers.”
For 50 years now the Western Media has forecasted the mass upheaval of Cuban society with the departure of Fidel Castro. The U.S. State Department has thought the same. Even the CIA believed it so, and with multiple assassination attempts against Fidel, they hoped that the entire society would fall open to the warm, and glowing, embrace of U.S. Capitalism.
These people are truly stupid. They are stupid in the sense that they have not learned a single thing about Cuban society or its politics for about half a century. And it came down to some poor CNN reporter standing in the deserted street with his dick in the wind trying to convince the world that the counter revolution was about ready to bleed out of the walls.
To me, this is a fascinating time in the sense of watching how the western media handles the normalcy of the post-Castro era. How will they manage to back-pedal on so many years of false prophecy?
And what of the public imagination? So many people in Canada tell me that they want to go to Cuba “before Castro dies.” Well, there’s still time for that. Even the loveable cab driver that took me to Montréal’s airport told me of such personal desire.
It is a little worrisome to see how unequipped media and popular perception is in understanding Cuba, and even the world we live in. We could dig deeper into this, but it largely comes down to how people see orchestrated and monumental movements as the moments of a society’s change rather than an infinite series of presents that all, in some way, create an unfolding path of change.
Labels: Cuba, Fidel Castro, media
Is John McCain dumber than George W. Bush? Bobert: “Probably so!”
The Republican front-runner, John McCain, is truly stupid. This man is so dumb that he cannot even tell who he has been tortured by. The man was a captive during the Vietnam War, and while undergoing a series of abuses, he somehow figured that Cubans had a role in beating him in a Vietnamese prison.
I don’t mean to play the race card here, but I’m pretty sure that most people, even at first glance, can tell the difference between a gentleman from Vietnam and a gentleman from Cuba. But not John McCain.
Now, we could run a quick survey through Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay, to see if torturees know who their torturers are. My guess is that it would be a unanimous, “yes, we know who is torturing us.”
And this is why John McCain is possibly dumber than George W. Bush. At least Bush can hang an Ivy League diploma on his wall and take credit for one of the greatest acts of manufactoring myth and consent in the American Public since Pearl Harbour.
McCain can’t even tell the difference between Tiếng Việt nam and Español. Because there would be no way of getting this confused in the midst of the Vietnam War. There were only a handful of Cuban doctors assisting with the North Vietnamese army in the 1970s, and no formal diplomatic relationships were established with the two countries until the mid-1970s. Hence, the exchange of Cuban personnel, which has always been grounded through diplomatic channels with foreign nations, to Vietnam began after McCain spent his time in the "Hanoi Hilton," (as it was nick-named) and even then, Cuban personnel were not in combat, or police roles.
It’s one thing for the republican front-runner to tell fibs, and have Bobert make fun of him and show him wrong, but the hypocrisy of this man and the Republican Party is certainly another thing. Pointing fingers at Cuba for torture? How about pointing your finger no further than the current administration?
It is a serious fucking mystery to me as to why the entire Bush Administration is not in jail, the U.S. society is not in a state of burning revolution and the Republican Party is not permanently disbanded.
I don’t mean to play the race card here, but I’m pretty sure that most people, even at first glance, can tell the difference between a gentleman from Vietnam and a gentleman from Cuba. But not John McCain.
Now, we could run a quick survey through Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay, to see if torturees know who their torturers are. My guess is that it would be a unanimous, “yes, we know who is torturing us.”
And this is why John McCain is possibly dumber than George W. Bush. At least Bush can hang an Ivy League diploma on his wall and take credit for one of the greatest acts of manufactoring myth and consent in the American Public since Pearl Harbour.
McCain can’t even tell the difference between Tiếng Việt nam and Español. Because there would be no way of getting this confused in the midst of the Vietnam War. There were only a handful of Cuban doctors assisting with the North Vietnamese army in the 1970s, and no formal diplomatic relationships were established with the two countries until the mid-1970s. Hence, the exchange of Cuban personnel, which has always been grounded through diplomatic channels with foreign nations, to Vietnam began after McCain spent his time in the "Hanoi Hilton," (as it was nick-named) and even then, Cuban personnel were not in combat, or police roles.
It’s one thing for the republican front-runner to tell fibs, and have Bobert make fun of him and show him wrong, but the hypocrisy of this man and the Republican Party is certainly another thing. Pointing fingers at Cuba for torture? How about pointing your finger no further than the current administration?
It is a serious fucking mystery to me as to why the entire Bush Administration is not in jail, the U.S. society is not in a state of burning revolution and the Republican Party is not permanently disbanded.
Labels: Cuba, Fidel Castro, John McCain, Republicans, torture, Vietnam
