Photos: YouTube
For the last several days, America’s corporate media have been showing us “coverage” of protests from the island nation of Cuba.
In typical superficial American fashion, devoid of any historical context, we are now hearing hypocritical hysteria in American media and politics about the need for “democracy” and “freedom” in Cuba. And at this opportune time, the white wealthy elitist Cuban contingent in Florida–who support MAGA wannabe dictator Donald Trump–are railing about the evils of “communism” in Cuba.
The traditional Washington and Capitol Hill stance on Cuba, which continues today, is another example of American duplicity in foreign policy.
We’re told Cuba is bad because it is “communist,” but, regardless of all the hullabaloo, Washington still does business with communist China, at the behest of corporate America, in contrast to their behavior against Cuba. Our misleaders say they hate Cuba because it’s a dictatorship. If that is the case, why does America have so many dictatorial countries as allies–like the murderous bloody regimes in Saudi Arabia and in Uganda?
The supposed current concern for the Cuban people is nothing more than a new phase in the ongoing attempt to attack the merits of the Cuban Revolution which has been an embarrassment and frustration for Washington and Capitol Hill–which, in bi-partisan fashion, has been trying to bring the Cuban government to its knees ever since their puppet Fulgencio Batista was toppled by the Castro brothers over six decades ago.
When Batista was running Cuba like a whorehouse for American big business, mobsters and gangsters, the corporatocracy was fine with it. Those who now decry the current Cuban leadership want to wish away that history. The white Cubans of wealth and property saw no problem then. But the Cuban Revolution was bad for the elite primarily because it nationalized big business interests and tried to help a cross-section of citizens including the most marginalized: Cubans of African descent.
Isn’t this a truly democratic ideal? But America’s “democracy” is in total conflict with the novel idea of helping everyone including the “least of these.” Isn’t this why here in the U.S. Black Americans have been demonized, criminalized and victimized even after they told us that we were free?
In this moment, what is largely being ignored is the critically stifling embargo that Washington has imposed on Cuba for the last sixty years–which is now being exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis. Cuba is even being denied COVID vaccines from the U.S. while it develops its own.
But neither the unjust economic embargo, or COVID’s impact along with the embargo are being discussed by the political punditry and talking heads on our tv screens. The broadcast babble we hear now is similar to what we heard when American politicians were pushing for the removal of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. Regime change in Cuba is what American politicians have wanted every since the rise of Fidel Castro. Some now see a chance to have that long illusive dream realized during the chaos of this COVID period.
We now hear a lot of false pretense pontificating about worries for the people of Cuba. But if the American government was really worried about the Cuban people they would’ve ended the crippling embargo long ago. And why keep it in place now given the added stress caused by the COVID-19 crisis?
Another irony here is this: despite their economic problems, the Cuban government, in the early days of the pandemic, helped multiple countries with medical COVID assistance. Of course, the Cuban doctors are world renowned and had early success with their own COVID medicines.
The Cuban government even offered early help to the US. But Donald Trump wasn’t about to agree to that since he is supported by white elitist Florida Cubans, which is another reason why he reversed the relaxation policy of President Obama.
Even worse, OECS Ambassador Sir Ronald Sanders denounced the efforts of Sen. Marco Rubio, Sen. Rick Scott and Sen. Ted Cruz in proposing legislation that sought to punish nations, like the Caribbean countries, from taking medical assistance from Cuba.
Ambassador Sanders made several important points including this: “The Senators also show a remarkable indifference to the critical public health emergency confronted by all Caribbean countries, particularly now in the seemingly endless era of the COVID-19 pandemic and its disastrous effects.” Sanders also said, “Cuba has provided Caribbean countries with medical assistance for over 30 years…Caribbean doctors have trained in Cuba on scholarships that richer neighbouring states have not offered.”
Over the last few days, there has been a lot of deceitful double talk about “freeing” Cuba. What the Cuban people really need is freedom from American imperialism.
It is indeed galling to hear American politicians, and American media, talking about freeing anybody when the freedom of millions of Americans–particularly Black people–remains, even now, in 2021, still a fleeting illusion.
What about freeing African-Americans from being murdered on the streets of America by state-sponsored terrorists called “peace” officers? What about freeing Black America from all of the Republican voter suppression bills that are popping up all over the damn country? What about freeing us from systemic racism and the impending threat of white right-wing minority rule?
In the Bible, in Matthew 7:5, it says, “Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”
America has long suffered from a national cognitive dissonance. America likes to talk about freedom while still denying basic freedoms for certain humans, especially non-white ones.
Now, Cuba is far from a utopian society. There are problems that need addressing to be sure. However, America is in no position to lecture Cuba about the proper political way in which a society should engage with its citizens, while maintaining the cruel sanctions.
For all of its economic problems, Cuba still manages to provide education, medicine, and housing to all of its people. But, somehow, in the richest nation on the face of the earth, America reduces these basic human rights to the whims of the “marketplace.” So, in this “land of the free,” we are faced with sobering statistics of mass homelessness, mass sickness, high unemployment or under employment, high illiteracy, and other woes. Worse of all, this situation is apparently just fine for many of the same politicians in Congress who are now passing judgment on the leadership in Cuba and who give us all this ridiculous rhetoric about democracy.
True democracy means that a society should be delivering peace and prosperity for all the people–not just the wealthy and white-skinned minority. Until America can do that they have no business criticizing anybody, least of all Cuba.
