Welcome login | signup
Language en es fr
OccupyForum

Forum Post: Fidel By Eduardo Galeano

Posted 7 years ago on Nov. 27, 2016, 7:46 a.m. EST by flip (7101)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement

Except from Eduardo Galeano’s book “Espejos” (“Mirrors”), translated by Danica Jorden.

His enemies call him a king without a crown who confused unity with unanimity. And they were right.

His enemies say that if Napoleon had published a paper like “Granma”, nobody in France would have found out about his defeat at Waterloo.

And they were right.

His enemies say he ruled by speaking a lot and listening very little, because he was more used to echoes than voices.

And they were right.

But what his enemies don’t say is that he wasn’t posing for posterity when he met the invasion’s bullets chest first, that he faced every hurricane, time and again, as its equal, that he survived six hundred and thirty-seven assassination attempts, that his contagious energy was the deciding factor in turning a colony into a country, and that it wasn’t a Mandinka spell or a miracle from God that allowed this country to outlive ten United States presidents who had tucked a napkin under their chins to eat it with a knife and fork.

And his enemies don’t say that Cuba is one of the rare countries who don’t compete in the World Cup of Doormats.

And they don’t say that this revolution, which grew up under sanctions, became what it could be and not what it wanted to be. And they don’t say that the wall between wishes and reality became bigger and wider mainly because of the imperial blockade that choked the development of a Cuban-style democracy, forcing society to militarize and bureaucratize, so that for every solution there was a problem, making excuses to justify and perpetuate it.

And they don’t say that in spite of all the in spites, in spite of outside aggressions and inside injustices, this long-suffering but tenaciously joyful island has made Latin American society less unfair.

And his enemies don’t say that this great feat was created out of the sacrifice of the people, and also out of the stubborn will and old-fashioned sense of honour of a knight who always fought for the underdog, like his famous brother from the fields of Castille.

2 Comments

2 Comments


Read the Rules
[-] 1 points by ImNotMe (1488) 7 years ago

A now post-revolutionary Cuba & Fidel Castro,showed the world that people’s participation in politics and society is NOT just limited to a singular USA-centric understanding of democracy. For example, democracy as practised in U$A - is non-participatory, static and fixed in time and practice .. for now!

Cuba,by contrast - is a laboratory where the process of democratization is continually in motion, an ongoing experiment to create new ways for people to participate. There is a need to Develop Mutual Understanding of different political systems and in so doing - to NOT be satisfied with either blanket condemnation OR idealistic political illusions ... BOTH resulting from refusals to deeply analyse the actual inner workings of each process in this thing we all allude and aspire to called ... Democracy!

A very sad truth in an Oligarchy Captured USA ... is that the US 1% would rather Cuba be like Haiti than its 99% benefit from a Revolution .. like USA itself had from its Colonial Overlords! Another sad thing about Cuba's Fidel Castro's passing away is the utter reactionary drivel that some still spew in USA .. about him and Cuba!! RIP Fidel Castro ... inspiration to millions worldwide but perennial bête noire to Oligarchy's Corporate Co-opted & Controlled USA!!!

Thanx for a nice forum-post flip: Adios Fidel! Viva Cuba y Viva Los Cubanos!! Solidaridad Siempre!!!

per aspera ad astra ...

[-] 1 points by ImNotMe (1488) 7 years ago

''Reality and Dreams'' - by Fidel Castro Ruz:

Viva Cuba - Solidaridad Siempre!