Whoa, Fidel Castro in the age of Twitter.
Headlines from Miami to London sound the alert. "Fidel Castro leaves people guessing as he writes cryptic, Haiku-like notes." As the Miami Herald put it:
In cryptic paragraphs of never more than 65 words, the former Cuban president has written about yoga poses, edible plants, a criticism by a Chinese leader who died 15 years ago and a former leader of communist East Germany who died even further back.
Despite even more pressing high-tech business -- such as a meeting of bloggers in Cuba or the report that U.S. sanctions prevent Cubans from using Google analytics -- it is no surprise that this development made news. What Fidel Castro says and how he communicates has been engaging some and enraging others since before the creation of the computer, the fax machine, or the U.S. embargo.
According to Lars Schoultz, political scientist and renowned Cuba scholar, the U.S. government has been tracking what Fidel Castro thinks and says since 1947 when he was in college, 65 years. That is longer than the time period extending from Morse to Marconi, from the invention of the telegraph to the invention of radio.
This preoccupation with Castro's communications skills intensified after the revolution.
In 1959, as Schoultz records in his classic history of U.S.-Cuba relations, That Infernal Little Cuban Republic, the U.S. Embassy in Havana described one of his appearances as follows:
Castro in his standard uniform of rumpled fatigues, radiating health and boundless energy, hunched over the table as he talks, waving his arms and hands, with the eternal cigar always at hand. Words pour from him like a ceaseless torrent. He appears literally capable of talking forever, on any subject under the sun.
The volume of words was astonishing. "This is, after all, the man who gave the longest speech in the history of the U.N. General Assembly," Joshua Keating observed in his foreign policy blog. But, of course, the effort to overthrow Castro and the Cuban system stemmed not from how much he said -- or how he said it -- but from his commitment to revolution and his resistance to the will of the U.S.
What followed has been decades of U.S. sanctions, and division between both countries, a collision between Cuba's immutable faith in its right to self-determination and the immoveable desire of U.S. policy to upend its system.
Reporters inside Cuba tell us that Cubans are genuinely baffled by the former president's messages on the Moringa tree, the cosmos, and yoga, published after his most recent full-length treatise on the use of drones by President Obama.
That's probably right. This interest is clearly shared by the boo-birds in Miami who've waited so long for the embargo to bring Cuba to its knees that they are now reduced to snickering about Fidel Castro's twitter length pronouncements.
One "Miami analyst" said the former president needs to stay in the limelight. "Like a mediocre starlet of cheap and superficial shows, [he] needs to feel like he's in the center of the spotlight." Prof. Jaime Suchliki, Director of Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami, sniffs, "Evidently he does not feel coherent enough to write longer pieces."
If the "Cuba wars" are now being waged with exchanges of snark and sarcasm, that's progress. But, after 65 years, if we're still worrying about how Fidel Castro, Cuba's former president is expressing himself, doesn't the policy of not talking to the current president of Cuba about matters that actually concern us merit reexamination?
Follow Sarah Stephens on Twitter: www.twitter.com/sarahatcda
They complained when he spoke too long.
They complained when he spoke not at all.
Now they complain his sentences are too short.
The revelation that Washington has announced it's spending yet another $20 million to make mischief in Cuba, that is a topic which no one seems interested in. Here's a link to Tamayo's story about that in the MIAMI HERALD, and a copy of the official State Department document detailing it:
U.S. seeks to break technological censorship in Cuba
http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs3460.html
By the way, this is why Cuba is holding onto Alan Gross, a US contractor agent caught working toward regime change on the island.
It's the CONTENT of what Fidel Castro has to say that the media doesn't want to discuss.
SAN DIEGO CHANNEL 10 : With American In Cuban Prison, Wife Hopes For Clemency- Alan Gross Convicted Of Trying To Subvert Cuban Gov't - From Jill Dougherty
"The equipment is illegal in Cuba without government permission, but a source close to the case told CNN that "at trial, the defense presented a receipt from Cuban Customs to demonstrate the Cubans were both aware of and approved what Alan brought in.""
http://www.10news.com/news/29066339/detail.html
CBS NEWS: Cuban Jewish leader knew imprisoned American-First member of Cuba's small Jewish community admits knowing and talking to American Alan Gross, imprisoned for allegedly smuggling illegal satellite communication devices-By Portia Siegelbaum
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/02/24/501364/main20036259.shtml
NPR : In Cuba, Jailed American Alan Gross Faces Trial
BLOCK: Now, foreign journalists, I understand, are not allowed into the courtroom to cover the trial. You were outside the courthouse today. What were you able to learn there?
MIROFF: That's right. He's being tried in a small municipal courthouse far away from the city center.
http://www.npr.org/2011/03/04/134272743/In-Cuba-Jailed-American-Faces-Trial
This author for example, posts the same four or five comments all over the Internet, as if repetition would prove anything. All they do is confirm that he doesn't want to discuss the ideas of Fidel Castro. It's all a big smokescreen, full of sound and fury, signifyining nothing.
Gross was installing illegal high-tech satellite equipment with obvious military capabilities. That's why the Cuban authorities stopped him from doing that. The foreign press isn't allowed into Cuban trials, but he had his own lawyer AND the US GOVERNMENT was present at his trial.
The "Five Cuban Heroes" proclaimed by the Cuban regime were actually part of a network of 12 spies that infiltrated the U.S. In addition to the five spies who maintained their innocence but were convicted in a jury trial (with no Cuban-American jurors), five pleaded guilty to charges of spying in exchange for reduced sentences, one was deported, and one fled to Cuba to escape arrest. The trials cost U.S. taxpayers one million dollars to provide the defendants with a free legal representation.
THE CUBAN 5 (actually 12 total) "WASP NETWORK" A SUMMARY OF HISTORY AND TRIAL!
CLICK LINK FOR ENTIRE DOCUMENT!
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/document-preview.aspx?doc_id=94546591
IF YOU ARE REFERRING TO ME, LET ME SAY THAT I AM NOT A BLOGGER NOR ARE PAID BY ANYONE TO SEARCH AND POST INFORMATION THAT PEOPLE CAN READ SO THEY CAN MAKE UP THEIR OWN MIND ABOUT CUBA & CUBAN ISSUES!! I WOULD RATHER THAT YOANI SANCHEZ WOULD BE ALLOWED TO APPEAR ON CUBAN T.V. TO DEBATE ABOUT FIDEL RATHER THAN I! NOT INTERESTED IN WASTING MY TIME DEBATING WITH YOU, FOR YOU ALREADY HAVE SHOWN YOU ARE ACTING AS AN AGENT OR APOLOGISTS FOR THE CASTROFASCIST FAMILY WHO FOR 53+ YEARS HAVE RULED CUBA!
FOREIGN POLICY MAGAZINE: The Castro family playground- Blake Hounshell Friday, May 2, 2008
During the past few years family members of both Fidel and Raúl Castro have come to occupy important positions in Cuba's government. This Castro clan represents in addition to the military, the security apparatus and the Communist Party, a significant force in Cuba's political and economic structures.
Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart- Relationship: Fidel Castro's son
Position: Advisor, Ministry of Basic Industry
CLICK LINK FOR ENTIRE LIST!
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2008/05/02/the_castro_family_playground
This lady, like another castro supporters, trys to present Cuba and castrofascism as the same thing.
No, no, no dear, castrofascism is not Cuba, is not Cubans, is not our country or our nation..... castrofascism is just a reduced and criminal elite responsible for numerous crimes and the destruction of a country, the division of a nation, the killing of democracy in several countries............ how can you be the director of a democracy center anywhere???????
With such democrats castrofascism will stay another 53 years and delivery a razzed land to our grandsons!!!!!
SARAH! WHAT ABOUT THE CASTROFASCISTS SANCTION ON FREEDOM OF PRESS AND INTERNET FOR THE CUBAN PEOPLE? DID YOU REPORT ON THE BLOG EVEN "FestivalCLIC"??
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: RESTRICTIONS ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IN CUBA- 2010
CONTROL OF INTERNET ACCESS
In Cuba, access to the internet remains under state control. It is regulated by the Law of Security of Information, which prohibits access to internet services from private homes. Therefore, the internet in Cuba has a social vocation and remains accessible at education centres, work-places and other public institutions. Internet can also be accessed in hotels but at a high cost. In October 2009, the government adopted a new law allowing the Cuban Postal Services to establish cyber-cafés in its premises and offer internet access to the public. However, home connections are not yet allowed for the vast majority of Cubans and only those favoured by the government are able to access the internet from their own homes.
However, many blogs are not accessible from within Cuba because the Cuban authorities have put in place filters restricting access. The blogs affected are mainly those that openly criticize the Cuban government and its restrictions on freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly and movement.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR25/005/2010/en/62b9caf8-8407-4a08-90bb-b5e8339634fe/amr250052010en.pdf
NO SARAH! CUBANS CANNOT HAVE SELF-DETERMINATION BECAUSE THEY ARE UNDER A 53+ YEAR DICTATORSHIP OLIGARCHY HEADED BY THE CASTRO FAMILY! STOP APOLOGIZING AND LETS CALL A SPADE A SPADE! OR IN THIS CASE CASTROFASCISM!
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL VIDEO: Routine repression in Cuba - Harassment and detention of political dissidents, human rights activists, journalists and bloggers across Cuba has risen sharply over the past 24 months. - Mar 22, 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyWLTbHMHmc&feature=youtu.be