The Ladies in White, wives and mothers of Cuba's political prisoners, were attacked by a mob in Havana yesterday, as they peacefully marched to mark the 7th anniversary of the "Black Spring" arrests of 75 independent journalists and democracy advocates.
The Legacy
Tough times are coming. In the long term, I'm optimistic, but a sense of apprehension overwhelms me thinking of the years ahead. The accumulated frustration is too much. They have systematically sown among us the rejection of different opinions and this will not be erased overnight. Yesterday, when I saw a housewife vulgarly screaming, "the worms are rioting" - referring to the march of the Ladies in White - I thought about the long road to tolerance that lies ahead. Learning to debate without offending, to live together with plurality and respect for differences, will have to become a compulsory subject in our schools. It is going to be a long process to make everyone understand that diversity is a cure, not a disease.
I fear that the always-present shout and slap will remain the quickest way to silence the other. I shudder to imagine a Cuba where physical - and legal - attacks against people, for their political affiliation or ideological leanings, continue. What a sad country we will have if the authorities continue to consider it normal to "teach a good lesson" to anyone who contradicts the official viewpoint. To me, a society that passively stands by as peaceful women with gladioli in their hands are bullied, as happened yesterday, is quite sick. But the sectarianism did not end there, rather they sought to justify it and to accomplish that they prepared a script for the most mind-numbing program on Cuban television: The Roundtable. Viewers, however, after two hours of stoic listening, knew that in the absence of arguments they were left only with insults, defamation, and verbal acrobatics.
Why don't they have the courage to invite, to this dreary set where they carry on a monologue every afternoon, at least a couple of people who think differently? The most timid and laconic of the dissidents I know would expose them with a few questions and with some brief phrases would shatter their conspiracy theory. But they wouldn't dare. Sheltered by power - there is no worse ally for a journalist - their words and pens sustained by their perks and privileges, they know they could not withstand the artillery of criticism. Thus, they extol the beating, resort to slogans, and show some hand-picked videos to prove that differences must be crushed. And so they feed the fanaticism, this germ that threatens to survive long past their own lives: the legacy of hatred and distrust that they intend to leave to us.
Yoani's blog, Generation Y, can be read here in English translation.
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This is the 21st century, even in Cuba, other countries that were formerly considered oppressive and authoritarian have since changed their ways and promoted civil and human rights in place of iron-fisted tactics and strategies against the People...
The government urges Cubans to get involved ONLY if they agree with the Communist party. The oppression people are facing on this island is sad, and it pains me to see that people have no clue what they go through. Cuba is a dictatorship. What the Castro regime says goes. The Cuban people do not have the liberty to voice their opinions or suggest a change in government- THIS IS WHAT STARTED THE BLACK SPRING IN THE FIRST PLACE. Journalists, librarians, human rights activists; 75 men were jailed for trying to speak their minds. To think that a government allows mobs to violently silence the Ladies in White is disgusting.
Regardless of it being the 21st century, the Cuban people are more oppressed than ever. My entire family are living in exile- they were lucky enough to escape the wrath of the Castro regime. We as free people should do something, should help this country have a democratic government. We need to help them find FREEDOM.
A regime mob on March 17 attacked the "Ladies In White", a group of women marching peacefully for the release of the political prisoners from jail. They accused the Castro brothers’ regime of the attack against unarmed women who were simply carrying flowers in a peaceful protest. Reina Luisa Tamayo, mother of Cuban Orlando Zapata Tamayo, who died on February 24 after 85 days in a hunger strike, said that the thugs who attacked them yelled racial insults at her when they were trying to force her to get inside a bus of the Interior Ministry, they kept yelling at me “S-hitty n-igger, get in the bus.”
Beautifully written, insightful, and inspirational--despite your trepidation towards unbridled optimism for the future.
Todo es posible. Si todos crean que es posible.
I believe personnally that the punitive and destabilizing policies of the United States are responsible for much of the hardship in Cuba today. For that matter in all of Latin America. I long for the day when prosperity,tolerance, and personal liberty are available for all.
This should have made clear when Obama tried to open up to Cuba and just had his hand slapped away. Unlike China where opening up markets produced freedoms for the people there, the Cuban government wants to put more money into state security, strengthening the central power of the police state and put money in the coffers of officials. This should be made obvious by all the Cuban officials with the suitcases of cash in their water tanks.
To say that US policy has nothing to do with the current conditions in Cuba is ridiculous. I don't claim that it is the sole cause of Cuba's problems but I believe if the US were to normalize relations with Cuba, as it did with China, it would ultimately be to the advantage of the Cuban people.
They drag and punch old ladies through the streets, and harass them using mobs organized by the government, for daring to step outside with a flower in their hands, asking for freedom for their sons and husbands.You know what they are shouting at them? 'Revolutionary' slogans such as: The street belongs to Fidel' (!) while they grab them by the hair and shove them into a bus to get them out of sight.
This is OK to you, because the US imprisoned 5 Cuban men on 'phony charges' ?