Bush began to talk about the "blessings of Liberty" like some Chatty Kathy Doll when he heard of Fidel Castro's resignation as President of Cuba. He launched into a typically rambling riff about unfair elections and people rotting in prisons while the gods of hypocrisy smiled down on him like a proud parent upon a favored child.
No, I'm not a fan of Fidel, but many Cubans are and they see him as having provided a better life than they had when Cuba was run by a feudal corruptocracy owned by American interests, legitimate and otherwise. Many Cubans see their financial problems as something done to them out of spite and malice by our fair country and indeed our policies have hurt the common man while strengthening Castro and his party. I would hardly be surprised to hear that many Cuban patriots wonder if those blessings of liberty Bush extols are like the blessings we have afforded other countries whose resources we crave and the "fair" elections he describes would be like those we have squashed or rigged in places like Iran and Latin America and Vietnam.
It's not that I'm sad to see him step down and I'm hopeful that Cuba will be allowed to rejoin the world and its economy in my lifetime. As a lifelong fan of Earnest Hemingway I would love to follow his route from Key West to Cuba in my own boat and be free to return home without reprisals from my own government. Who knows? It may happen, but not now. The embargo will remain in place, no move toward reconciliation will be made for despite the rapturous rhetoric about liberty, it's still all about the nationalization of US owned assets that offended our sense of entitlement so badly over 50 years ago. Cubans in Miami may be cheering Viva Cuba Libre, but in Washington the unheard prayer is Viva Coca Cola and Viva Cosa Nostra.
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Washington will botch the transition with typical nationalistic self-interest. Expat Cubans, having shut down every cultural exchange concert with threats of violence, will find a way to turn the transition into a blood feud. WIth any luck, I'll finally get to see a concert before the last of the Buena Vista artists die off.
Viva Cohiba !!
I'm sure you're right. It's pathetic that we've normalized relations with Viet Nam and of course with China but Cuba is put in a category of evil all by itself.
My European relatives take vacations in Cuba and love it, but not us - oh no.
No problem getting a Cuban cigar in Paris, where I used to live. I even smuggled them in my suitcase on trips back to the U.S.
Now, if I get arrested for this admission, then I will be able prove illegal surveillance that not even the SCOTUS can refute.
I'm not a smoker - tried it once in college and got sick and that was that. I did buy a Cuban cigar in Bermuda in 1965, I believe it was, and it never made it past the first trash can I found outside the cigar store.
Maybe I've been missing something, but think of all the money I've saved over the years! :-)
Not missing a thing Fogg, Think of the better health you will enjoy in later years.
Um - I'm already in my later years!
they see him (Castro) as having provided a better life than they had when Cuba was run by a feudal corruptocracy owned by American interests, legitimate and otherwise.
Hmmmm! Now what other countries' people now feel the same way? Oh that's right - those ungrateful Iraqi's!
Re your reply to ecophotos. LOL!! Me too!
I can't think of any colony that felt grateful for being one. The US had less of a reason to resent England than Iraq resents the US.
No, I'm not a fan of Fidel, but many Cubans are and they see him as having provided a better life than they had when Cuba was run by a feudal corruptocracy owned by American interests, legitimate and otherwise.
It's interesting, the number of people in other countries that have had what we call "bad" governments, only to say things were better under them, than American control.
I think history proves that nobody likes to be occupied by foreigners - even if it's improved their lives in some way.
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