I'm adding the Havana Note blog (finally) to the blog list because of the excellent commentary and links recently provided due to the news of Fidel Castro's resignation. There's plenty of information to absorb there, courtesy of Steve Clemons from the Washington Note blog, and others.
Cuba watchers, enjoy.
2 comments:
May I modestly recommend the CubaNews group, a free service through Yahoo which I have directed for the past eight years? Over eighty THOUSAND items, from, about or related to Cuba have been posted there. I'm very pro-Cuba, but I share material from many viewpoints as a service to those who seek normalized relations.
Cuba and the United States are not and cannot be equal. Cuba’s government certainly does limit democratic rights. But in a situation like David and Goliath, Cuba does what it feels it must to defend itself. Look at Iraq today and you can see what Cuba would look like if it were “liberated” by Washington.
In Guantanamo, the world can see what legal system Washington would impose on the rest of Cuba if only it could. In Guantanamo, which is United States occupied territory, prisoners are held without trial for years, and are told they could be held indefinitely even if not found guilty there. In this context, Cuba’s defensive measures should surprise no one.
My father and his parents lived in Cuba from 1939 to 1942. They were German Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany, and not political left-wingers. That family history is where my own interest in Cuba comes from. My dad met my mom in the United States and that's how I came into this world.
Cuban society today represents an effort to build an alternative to the way life was under the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, who ran Cuba before Fidel Castro led a revolution there. No one complained about a lack of human rights and democracy in those days, but U.S. businesses were protected.
Some things work, some don’t. Like any society, Cuba its flaws and contradictions, as well as having solid achievements. No society is perfect. But we can certainly learn a few things from Cuba’s experience. I think we can learn more than a few. If we want to bring freedom to Cuba, the best thing we can do is practice what we preach.
We should all be free to visit Cuba. We can visit China and Vietnam, even North Korea, Syria and Iran, why can't we visit Cuba and see it for ourselves? Cuba is our neighbor and we should simply normalized relations with the island.
Thank you for your comments Mr. Lippman. I will certainly consider your CubaNews group, and decide whether to have it listed.
I am also aware of your own site www.walterlippman.com, which I find very informative. This site I will also consider linking on my blog soon.
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