Life On The Cone (Cono)

As we laugh at Val’s Guide to Hurricane Preparedness and wait for Ike to flatten those of us who lie in his path, the Cuban victims of Hurricane Gustav powerlessly wait for the regime to do something, anything. (r)aul and (f)fidel already sent their message of revolutionary support and solidarity to the victims, which means they’re on their own.

Today, the United States offered aid to the hurricane victims in Cuba. In a normal country, the local Red Cross would get the aid and distribute it without hesitation, permission or fanfare but in Cuba, the Red cross isn’t an international non-profit that helps people in times of need, it’s what each Cuban carries on his back all the time. The US is awaiting the regime’s response. Let’s see if Mr. Pragmatic allows the aid to reach the needy Cuban hurricane victims without the regime’s total control. Don’t hold your breath.

That reminds me of a line from Mike Huckabee’s speech at the Republican Convention on Wednesday. Governor Huckabee reminded us of the evils of Socialism when he said “The government that can do everything for us is the government that can take everything from us”. In Cuba that is true. And you can also add “The government that can take everything from us will do nothing for us.”

In this International Herald Tribune article, 28 year old Cuban hurricane victim and “generación Y” member, Yanet Lopez “is convinced the government will build her a new home.” While Yanet waits for the construction to begin, she tells the reporter that she would love to slaughter one of the chickens that her husband raises, but since there’s no refrigerator, her husband, her one year-old daughter and herself would have to eat the WHOLE chicken in one sitting. The reporter doesn’t tell us how many meals the chicken is supposed to last or that the chicken, technically, is property of the state and cannot be slaughtered without permission.

What a contrast between Cubans on different sides of the Florida straights. Basically, when a storm roars through here, we are inconvenienced for a few days with the biggest concern being how to maintain a certain level of creature comforts. Cold beer thus becomes important because we know that we can take care of just about everything else, ourselves. In Cuba, the regime will not allow the people to do for themselves and won’t do it for them.

One Cuban blogger, El Compañero (f)idel, commented that Cuba looked as if it had been the victim of an atomic blast. He must have been looking out his window unto Havana, the Hiroshima of the Americas, trying to blame nature for his made-made catastrophe and lamenting it would cost him "billions."

Meanwhile, the blooger's favorite American presidential candidate was trying to capitalize on the suffering of the Cuban hurricane victims by politicizing the situation and driving a wedge into the South Florida Cuban-American community and asking the President to ease travel and remittance restrictions to the island to help his “community disorganizers” running for congress get elected.

Posted by Gusano at September 5, 2008 03:09 PM

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