December 04, 2008
Everyone's talking
When it comes to politics, one thing you can always count on is a lot of talk. Everyone has an opinion and feels the need to express it, which is fine; we are lucky to live in a country where expressing one's opinion is not an offense punishable by a long jail sentence or execution. And when you live in South Florida, political talk sooner rather than later will turn to Cuba. Should we continue the embargo, should we discontinue it; should we open a dialogue with the Cuban regime or keep them isolated; should we allow free travel and remittances or keep the restrictions. The talk goes on and on and on and on. And with the election of Obama, there is even more talk about these topics on a national level courtesy of the mainstream media.
There is one thing about Cuban politics, however, which is rarely talked about by these journalists and pundits for a "new approach" to the Cuban dilemma; none of them is talking much about the oppression and misery suffered by the Cuban people at the hands of the monarchical dictatorship. It seems the topic of Cuba is one sided to them--it has everything to do with the US's approach, and nothing to do with the crimes against the Cuban people and humanity committed by the Cuban government.
The Brookings Institute and FIU just released a new poll that seems to indicate that the majority of exiled Cubans in Miami favor an end to the embargo (55%). For the next few months, or perhaps years, we will be bombarded by the findings of this poll. Everyone will talk about the purported shift in thinking among Cubans in South Florida, but no one will talk about the thousands of Cubans rotting in putrid jail cells in Cuba. Everyone will talk of how this may shape Obama's new policy towards Cuba, but no one will discuss the crimes that are committed daily by the Castro regime.
While everyone dissects the poll numbers and figures out how to parlay these new findings into a more practical attitude towards Cuba, there will be no time to talk about how the organization Reporters Without Borders awarded Cuban journalist Ricardo González Alfonso with their 2008 Journalist of the Year Award. Ricardo, unfortunately, will not be able to attend the awards ceremony since he is busy serving a 20-year sentence in Cuba's infamous Combinado del Este prison for expressing an opposing opinion. No one will talk about that, though, they will be too busy discussing the breakdown of respondents to the poll according to year of arrival.
Everyone's talking, they are just not talking about the tens of thousands of Cubans who are being tortured daily and the millions more who live in constant fear. It seems that the topic of Cuba is all about the US, and has very little to do about Cubans.
Posted by Alberto de la Cruz at December 4, 2008 08:14 AM
Comments
Notice how the author of that article uses the descriptive word "conservative" to describe the Cuban Liberty Council. Yet the author fails to use the descriptive word of "liberal" to describe Brookings. A little bias shown by this author, don't you think?
Posted by: Davidb1 ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.babalublog.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at December 4, 2008 08:41 AM
Great post, Alberto.
They can release poll after poll after poll, from whatever organization, institute or university they want, that states the Cuban American community wants the embargo lifted by whatever ration they want.
the proof is in the pudding folks. Who did the Cuban American community overwhelmingly support and elect this past election? Three stalwart embrago proponents.
Nough said.
Posted by: Val Prieto at December 4, 2008 08:48 AM
The BBC has a bit more than the US media has. The BBC reveals that what the Cubans were talking about was eliminating the restrictions on sending money to relatives and travel. That's quite different than ending the embargo. The idiots in the media don't know the difference.
Posted by: John Simmons at December 4, 2008 11:36 AM
Davidb1, it's worse. The Miami Herald, which certainly knows better, calls Brookings
"centrist." They also know the difference between remittances and the embargo. No agenda here, huh? I also read that the sample was six hundred people from one zip code. For what it's worth.
Posted by: rsnlk at December 4, 2008 02:56 PM
What a lot of bunk it seems that Apparently those registered to vote favor continuing the U.S. embargo of Cuba FAVOR 56% OPPOSE 44% It does seem that those engaged enough to register to vote are for the embargo.
Posted by: Larry Daley at December 4, 2008 05:38 PM