Cuba: Waiting for a Revolution

It`s interesting that you quote Dr King in arguing against those who question the bias clearly revealed in the vanguard article.

Those of us who were critical of the article never unilaterally supported Cuba, only suggested that Cuba was responding to a situation where they were being economically exploited by the US, and that since they have rebelled it is the US that is also having a huge affect on their growth. Dr King would not have agreed with everything in Cuba but he certainly did not equate capitalism with freedom.

Quoting King`--
.And one day we must ask the question, "Why are there forty million poor people in America?" And when you begin to ask that question, you are raising questions about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth. When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy. And I'm simply saying that more and more, we've got to begin to ask questions about the whole society...

What I'm saying to you this morning is that communism forgets that life is individual. Capitalism forgets that life is social, and the kingdom of brotherhood is found neither in the thesis of communism nor the antithesis of capitalism but in a higher synthesis. It is found in a higher synthesis that combines the truths of both. Now, when I say question the whole society, it means ultimately coming to see that the problem of racism, the problem of exploitation, and the problem of war are all tied together. These are the triple evils that are interrelated.

Hey Postor - you may be the one supporting evil, man!

Was your family one of the lucky and privileged before Castro? Or was it one of the poor getting exploited, used and abused by capitalists?

I think I know the answer to that. Interesting how you try to blur the truth even more with a reference to one of America's greatest humanitarians. Dr. King is now rolling over in his grave, because he knows the truth, free of capitalist American brainwashing propaganda!

Peter - very well expressed! I love the idea of synthesis of the two ideas - and great word choices when explaining it all. Are you hoping, as I am, that Barack Obama can bring this synthesis to our world?

It was a pleasure to read your thoughts, Peter!

>> Was your family one of the lucky and privileged before Castro? Or was it one of the poor getting exploited, used and abused by capitalists?

While I was going to give this doc a chance, every opportunity they took was to slam the current Cuban regime. Seemed like there was some spin on every little tidbit they had, never once did they let the people that were opposite in viewpoint speak for themselves without immediately jumping to the conclusion it is illegal to speak out against the government. Oh and what about that monument to Cuba's national hero Jose Marti which even Cuban Americans recognize as their founding father what did he say? Oh it looks like North Korea. Did they also mention in the dead of the night with hooligans it was perfectly safe to walk the streets? The end however just made me laugh, basic necessities involve buying adidas, using internet and driving a car? You must be kidding me. This isn't journalism, this is media pollution, this is media slander.

They say "yeah right" because the statements they refer to when the say that have been proven to not be true. The documentary might be a bit biased just like any documentary done by any Cuban American on the subject will probably be, but i still prefer this reporter doing it to someone else because the truth is that the Cuban people are not allowed to speak freely against their government, those who do are often either threatened or imprisoned. Hence they are forced to lie and say that all is well. I don't think you can say that about Britain or America or any other democratic country. I do agree with rightasra1n in something and that is that Cuba's financial situations wont improve much with or without communism.It is not exactly at the level of African nations either since communism has at least helped most Cubans attain a fairly descent level of education, which i think gives Cuba a higher percentage of skilled workers than a lot of other developing nations were extremely low paying jobs are outsourced to.

>> its made out they are being forced to say this or it cannot be so because their country is in economic turmoil

It ain't easy in Cuba. Well fuck. It ain't easy in America either.

There's two Americas, one for the rich, and one of the poor.

People here in the USA die from not being able to afford medical care. That doesn't happen in Cuba.

People here lose their houses over medical debt. That doesn't happen in Cuba.

Plus, this documentary almost totally ignores the elephant in the room-- THE EMBARGO! Things would NOT be in such short supply if the USA didn't have an embargo against Cuba. The USA doesn't have a foreign policy that makes any sense.

Their government has no reason to comply with USA demands if they have nothing to lose. We should send them money, food, and consumer goods.

Havana is falling apart? Detroit is falling apart. Bridges in Minnesota are falling down. DC is falling apart. DC has widespread poverty, homelessness, and street crime. That's our capital.

This "documentary" is utter bullshit. Totally biased.

I think asherp brings up a good point. There are problems in America too just no one notices. These are the same problems in Cuba. And while I don't doubt that some of these things happen in Cuba, its about who is telling in this story. In this case its a Cuban exile who was sent by advice of the militant CANF which has supported neoliberal schemes to root Latin America of democratically elected socialist governments. They also support terrorism in Cuba by bombing planes and hotels too if you didn't notice. Check Luis Posada Carriles Miami's favorite bad boy. Its not surprising there would be a bias. The only way is to get both sides of the story. Oh wait... the people who support Castro are all crazy or are afraid to tell the truth as you put it. Yeah the buildings in Cuba are also falling apart... those Spanish colonial buildings obviously haven't been standing for very long and are only recently tattered by brutal tropical storms. I know the reporter knows people who suffered a lot under the regime but if you so strongly disagree you should let what the Cuban people/government have to say and if you disagree then back it up with your evidence. Obviously this was the flaw of the documentary.

And really we are in a stalemate... liberal leaning non-Cubans vs Cuban exile. It's pretty much talking to a wall but well I guess it got us talking together like civilized people.

P.S No bullshit about how Cuba was better during Batista people. Many of you exiles' fought against Batista and if things were great, why would there be a revolution? And if Castro was so horrible would he not have been overthrown? You know why the Bay of Pigs failed? Because it was by Cuban-American intelligence stating that Castro's government wasn't popular and that it would easily collapse once a revolt started.

>> No bullshit about how Cuba was better during Batista people

>> Things would NOT be in such short supply if the USA didn't have an embargo against Cuba

The us is not the cause of the problem in Cuba, it is Castro and the other communist that are causing the problem do you think that Castro and his family are starving and don't have internet connection. there are videos of Castro's family party eating sushi eating stakes while the Cuban people are left with no food.

Also Cuba was more advanced than the us in the early 50's Cuba is underdeveloped because Castro keeps everything to him self if the US open trade with Cuba that will not solve anything Castro will just get more and the people will get nothing in return.

@Porfirio_Ramirez

The US has had it's fingers in Cuba's pie for years, If you read a little history you wouldn't try and blame everything on "Oh there communists and communism mean dictatorship."
Read:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba_%E2%80%93_United_States_relations

I'm not saying Castro et al are right, just that it's not black and white.

Journalism "should" be fair and as unbiased as possible, and points such as ChrisCowan's "not just to reply 'yeh, right' when someone disagrees with what you are stating."

For Investigative journalism, this was a poor piece.

@Masepack

Cuba was doing fine with the US until Castro got his greedy little hands on Cuba and turned everything inside out. Cuba back in the early 50's was doing better then the US it was not until the 1959/1960 when Castro took power and started taking business and land from the people To keep for himself and his friends that is when things started to go bad.

@Porfirio_Ramirez

Cuba was not doing fine in the 1950s. That is very far from the truth. Please read up on Fulgencio Batista.

(1950's)
Arthur Schlesinger, Pulitzer Prize winning American historian and social critic was asked by the United States government to write a report on Batista's Cuba.

"The corruption of the Government, the brutality of the police, the regime's indifference to the needs of the people for education, medical care, housing, for social justice and economic justice... is an open invitation to revolution."

Now heres where the problem comes in, the whole deal with Cuba is that it wasn't always as bad as it is now, it was once a great country, one of the most advanced in the world, as good as the U.S. and other countries. It had a rising currency that could have been equal to the U.S. dollar at the time. That's why Cuba can be compared with Countries like our own, many of the other Latin American countries have basically ALWAYS been as bad as they are now, but they have basically always been democratic, while Cuba was a thriving country that people migrated to Cuba, no Cuban traveled out of Cuba, and now it's how you saw it. It was developed as developed as our Country, and most likely they sent that reported because he knew the country and the language this is a advantage as he would not look as suspicious as if they sent the Asian reporter or the American ones.

Please know the facts before you speak so rudely of these reporters and of another country.

Im not saying Cuba was perfect in the 50 but it was doing better then it is doing with castro in command.

Hi, I used your comment in this piece for Youth Radio:
http://www.youthradio.org/news/cuba-waiting-a-revolution

agree with rightasra1n this vanguard was really biased.

Porfirio_Ramirez
You really should stop trying to say cuba was wrost with castro came in.Cuba was much much worst when it was under the US. Only the rich enjoy living in cuba.Many of them which were really poor hated the life the US made.The president of cuba befor castro was much harsher.
The cuba revolution wasn't just so they can put up a dictatorship.that just US propaganda. The people of cuba supported castro becasue he didn't ignore the poor.And what castor came in power he built many public schools gave better health care to the people
It only when the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries collapse did cuba became to suffer and the US blockade made it even worst.

This has to be the most biased and worst Vanguard they had made.

Yeah... This is kind of like reporting on something that does not exist... yet? I thought that it was an interesting story but there really isn't anything substantial about this vanguard.

Instead of reading about it, how about talking to the people that lived there during that period?