The Right to Remain Silent ...

Twice last week I was confronted by Cuba’s Orwellian reality wherein “newspeak” is used to rationalize castro’s totalitarian regime.

On Wednesday night there was a debate on Polos Opuestos between a Neuvo Accion contributor and anti-castro activist, María Luisa Morales, and Dr. Elena Freyre who doesn’t think things in Cuba are as bad as us hardline, intransigent exiles like to pretend it is.

Dr. Freyre, who travels to Cuba often, claims that in Cuba people can say whatever they like. In fact ,they complain all the time. Basically, the government has not outlawed free speech just public dissent.

Then, over the weekend, there was this article in the Miami Herald. The author, AP reporter Will Wiessert, informs us “that freedom of speech in Cuba is more nuanced than may appear”.

You see, “Saying the wrong thing too loudly in this country can cost you your job. Insulting Fidel Castro or other leaders in public can mean jail.”

But, not to worry, you can go to the park and debate anything you want with your friends, but you have to be careful because of who might be listening. That's like a nuanced free speech light. You can't go on TV, Radio or the internet or form a political party, but you can go to the park and rant,(carefully).

Prieto’s post this morning on che merchandise shows a che handbag with a cheism “Silence is argument carried out by other means"

I confess that as a member of the proletarian masses, I don’t possess the Hegelian dialectical insights of che, one of the Elite’s elite, or the nuanced world-view of an AP reporter, but perhaps the slogan on the handbag meant that the regime’s silence in the face of the Cuban people’s many complaints was some kind of deep, socialist, moral argument and not indifference.

But then again, perhaps the slogan was just a blanket “Miranda” warning issued to the Cuban masses that they have the right to remain silent…

Posted by Gusano at July 17, 2007 04:00 PM

Comments

Posted by: Henry "Conductor" Gomez at July 17, 2007 05:34 PM