It came carefully wrapped in a page of the newspaper Granma, but bore no relation to that official organ of the Communist Party of Cuba. The dull wrapping was just camouflage, the mask under which a copy of The Power of the Powerless by Vaclav Havel was hidden. The friend who first brought it into our home had been ousted decades earlier and was expiating his crime in some forgotten department of the public library.
Like the Czech playwright and politician, our supplier of "banned literature" had shown his concern over the entry of Soviet tanks into Czechoslovakia in 1968. For Havel, his position had cost him the banning of his work, harassment, and even prison, while our acquaintance had better luck and only lost his promotion, the possible Soviet-made Lada car he might have earned, and his wife -- who could not stand living with someone without privileges.
This shared ordeal might have brought about the sympathy expressed by that habanero in his fifties for the man who would become the first president of the Czech Republic. He spoke of him as if they had shared space in Tvar magazine or in Charter 77, with the camaraderie of a cellmate.
Punished politicians have an immediate predisposition to solidarity among equals, and recognize and admire each other from afar. So, more than once, in informal gatherings and conversation, the gift-giving librarian declaimed fragments of Democratic Ideas: The Arms of Freedom. It was his obsession and also became ours.
Words live fighting with power, culture rarely has access to the political heights. Its creators wash their hands of it and assert -- not without a certain hypocrisy - that they aren't interested in public office, that government is something dirty that ends up paralyzing the pen and muddying the soul. And they have a good point, as the historical misfortunes of president-writers and artist-ministers confirm.
But still, we must not settle for the reign of the ordinary and the regency of the mediocre. Fortunately, once in a while creation and political office are not mutually exclusive, ideological play and the beauty of language come together in one individual. Coming from the theater, Vaclav Havel was familiar with the deceitfulness of human nature, with the certainty of its masks and its moods. Poetry provided him spiritual armor, an essential inner courage to survive in a totalitarianism whose favored weapon was the invasion of privacy.
His own literary work probably saved him from suicide, from being paralyzed by the ostracism this kind of regime directs to nonconformists. The man of letters never let the political animal get the better of him. Nor did prison manage to convert him into screaming leader demanding a rematch from the podium.
He knew that from the other side of the stage the audience could applaud or whistle when the spectacle ended, he was prepared ahead of time for the vagaries of popularity. Havel was a scriptwriter. He decided to write the libretto of his days and left the secret police nothing but the ability to scribble a few glosses on the margins of his life.
A portion of Cuban intellectuals -- who even today won't admit it -- was captivated by this rare specimen of poetic writer and activist. Few dared to publicly profess their admiration for the leader of Civic Forum, or to acknowledge that they read his texts. But the truth is that when certain breezes of Perestroika blew over the official media of this island, he was one of the most common references among journalists, novelists and playwrights.
The cult of Havel kept its voice down; only a few of the intrepid, like our ousted friend, dared to leave the house with one of his books under their arms... of course it was always wrapped. The Czech president enlarged the pantheon of banned faces and censored figures. We lost Havel, as we had lost Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Milan Kundera. Because, as he himself said, "Between the plans of the post-totalitarian system and the plans of life there is a deep abyss." We wanted to learn more of Havel, but in the Plaza of the Revolution they always had other ideas about what we should know.
Last weekend Vaclav Havel died, just at the time when he was most read in Cuba. He left and we can't hear his voice in a classroom of our University, nor listen to his extensive collection of anecdotes about the years of Soviet control. Raul Castro's government still hasn't made the slightest public allusion to the death of the Czech democrat, but it decreed three days of official mourning for the death of the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-il.
Of this latter, the official media of his country say that he wrote more than 1,500 books over the course of his life. None of them, today, is reading material for us. However, the author of The Garden Party (1963) and Temptation (1986) is increasingly well known and admired. Like missionaries of a peculiar religion, many now distribute his works, and spread his writings across the Island. But, in an irreverent and defiant gesture, they no longer hide the covers with the monochromatic pages of Granma.
Generation Y, can be read here in English translation.
Translating Cuba is a new compilation blog with Yoani and other Cuban bloggers in English.
Yoani's new book in English, Havana Real, can be ordered here.
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http://www.havanatimes.org/
"From the comments I have seen and the history of those folks against Castro, I know that Castro is a far better democrat than they are. We could only look forward to death squads and dictatorshÂip if his opponents came to power." - randyjet
YOUTUBE : CUBAN Documentary - "Wishes on a Falling Star" - Cuba, in the 50th year of the Revolution. While the Castro brothers face their certain end, an uncertain future hangs over the island. Some people are afraid, many cannot wait, but all shudder and hope that the changes will be positive. This documentary leads the audience through the discovery of this hope, through a tourist's camera which looks to be turned off and oblivious to the conversation at hand, yet is focused on candidly capturing each person's wishes. Castro's supporters and dissidents, young and old -- none deceive themselves that the star of the revolution will shine on for much longer. And this is what this project focuses on: the wishes on a falling star.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afnx7j1m6eA&annotation_id=annotation_725071&feature=iv
I agree that the Castro regime is bad in a lot of areas, but I also have to note that they have been under continuous armed assualt by the one Superpower in the world. I have to ask myself, what would the US political system do if positions were reversed and Cuba was the superpower with a history of running the US as a vassal state? I know how the US reacted in the 50 and the anti-communist hysteria against a foe that was 8,000 miles away, not 90. I am pretty sure, the US in such circumstances would make today's Cuba look like a liberal democracy.
From the comments I have seen and the history of those folks against Castro, I know that Castro is a far better democrat than they are. We could only look forward to death squads and dictatorship if his opponents came to power.
OFICINA NACIONAL DE ESTATISTICAS- Office of National Statistics of Cuba
15.3 - Visitantes por paÃses / Visitors per country of origin. Cuban americans are not counted on the US column or any other column because the Castro government does not recognize other citizenship and they want to charge more money$$$$$$$$$$$ for our visas, passports and other fees, what a MAFIA)
2003 = 1,905,682 ( US 84,529 )
2004 = 2,048,572 ( US 49,856 )
2005 = 2,319,334 ( US 37,233 )
2006 = 2,220,567 ( US 36,808 )
2007 = 2,152,221 ( US 40,521 )
2008 = 2,348,340 ( US 41,904 )
http://www.one.cu/aec2008/esp/15_tabla_cuadro.htm
WOW! Mr. randyjet! YOU ARE QUITE THE ANTHROPOLOGIST! AND WHAT'S UP WITH ALL THIS DEFAMATION/SLANDER? NOW IS THE CUBAN COMMUNITY AT LARGE? I WOULD NOT USE THE WORDS "CASTRO" AND "DEMOCRAT" IN THE SAME SENTENCE IF I WERE YOU, MIGHT COME BACK TO BITE YOU!
YOUTUBE : Documentary : "Las Torturas de Castro" ( The Tortures of Castro )- in Spanish with English sub-titles
"The Tortures of Castro" , is one of the most comprehensive documentary ever made ​​in the Cuban exile community, which includes a brief summary of torture carried out by the regime of Fidel Castro in Cuba through the voice of its own victims. These testimonies deserves to be seen and shared with the world. "The Tortures of Castro" has been under the direction of Luis Guardia and Pedro Corzo production.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sMAq5joSUsc
Of course, the other great moment is the ongoing building of the new South Africa. Isn't it amazing that people can move forward together withou having to get even for injustices of the past?
Good-by United Europe.
YOU MUST BE OUTRAGED AT THE CASTROFASCISTS FOR THIS THEN! PAYING HOMAGE TO THE FASCIST DYNASTY IN NORTH KOREA!
REUTERS: Cuba mourns death of North Korean leader
HAVANA, Dec 20 - Flags flew at half-staff on Tuesday as Cuba began three days of official mourning for late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in a show of solidarity with its fellow communist state.
The Council of State decreed the mourning period without comment and said flags would be lowered at all government buildings and military installations.
A book of condolences was opened at the North Korean embassy in Havana, with a big photo of the dead leader and flowers in the entrance.
Cuba and North Korea are two of the world’s last communist nations and have maintained good relations since establishing diplomatic ties in 1960, the year after Fidel Castro took power in a 1959 revolution on the Caribbean island.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/20/us-cuba-korea-idUSTRE7BJ2BX20111220
The North Korean famine (also known as the Arduous March or the March of Tribulation) was a famine in North Korea which began in the early 1990s.[5] Estimates state that, from a population of approximately 22 million, between 900,000 and 3.5 million people died from starvation or hunger-related illnesses, with the deaths peaking in 1997.[6]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korean_famine
GRASPING AT STRAWS :Fig. 1. To depend on something that is useless; to make a futile attempt at something. 2. Trying to find some way to succeed when nothing you choose is likely to work 3. Trying to find reasons to feel hopeful about a bad situation
moral ambivalence to human suffering. as a writer he was good and an important voice, but as
a political leader, he was out of his element, and lacking in imagination.
YOUTUBE : Václav Havel speaks about Cuba
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1si3jBduCI
Václav Havel (5 October 1936 – 18 December 2011) was a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia (1989–92) and the first President of the Czech Republic (1993–2003). Beginning in the 1960s, his work turned to focus on the politics of Czechoslovakia. After the Prague Spring, he became increasingly active. In 1977, his involvement with the human rights manifesto Charter 77 brought him international fame as the leader of the opposition in Czechoslovakia; it also led to his imprisonment. The 1989 Velvet Revolution launched Havel into the presidency. In this role, he led Czechoslovakia and later the Czech Republic to multi-party democracy. His thirteen years in office saw radical change in his nation, including its split with Slovakia, which Havel opposed, its accession into NATO and start of the negotiations for membership in the European Union, which was attained in 2004.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A1clav_Havel