Author: Juan Juan Almeida

The document in question asserts that in the Carabobo state alone, located in the north central coast of Venezuela, in a central region of the country, in the first week of June, that is to say, from Sunday the first until Saturday the seventh, the following points were given which I quote verbatim because of their importance:

– Nine Cuban cooperators were threatened by Venezuelan nationals. Among the main causes of these threats are the relationship of a couple of married nationals and political issues.

– Two collaborators deserted, one stomatologist and one a rehabilitation technician from Valencia township.

– Five volunteer workers were attacked in different townships of the State.

– Two popular medical offices were stoned, one in the Valencia township and the other in the Naguanagua location.

– In the Bolivar and Marti CDI, located in the Guacara township, they hung posters that said, “Cubans out.”

– At the “La Libertad” stomatology clinic, ASIC Bolivar, also in the Guacara township, they opened a hole in the wall and they stole all the instruments and halogen light from the display case.

– Eight collaborators were urgently hospitalized on presenting symptoms of dengue fever.

It is a lot for only one state, and too much for a week. But before such concrete events, with clear traces of a serious conflict that looms, the directors from Havana responded with their habitual irresponsibility and, without abandoning the repeated formula of false humanism, they sent an official who travels states with the mission of recruiting personnel in order to form groups of Cuban computer experts linked to social networks who will flood Twitter uploading photos of achievements and “red Sundays.”

Come on, as if real problems could be controlled with visual solutions. We should not forget that the damages caused to people, with the sole objective of politicizing, have not only consequences but also guilty parties.

Translated by mlk.
18 June 2014

Sending doctors to the world is a charming and very wise way of creating an army of believers comprised of grateful people.  For each cured patient, there is much more than a satisfied human being.  It seems to me a false altruism that goes in search of lights, flowers, applause and followers.

It is a subtle way of manipulating the opinion of each assisted patient, his friends, acquaintances and family members, in order to capitalize on his logical and sincere appreciation.  It is investing in publicity to provide in pills “revolutionary” ideals.  Sad paradox, because such performance is much more than a simple act of charity; it is a crude strategy to increase the influence of the Cuban government in the Americas and the world, or to change the balance of forces in certain parts of the planet.

Right now, with the purpose of silencing the students who daily protest in the streets of Venezuela, in order to promote votes in favor of the ruling government, President Nicolas Maduro, with a plain loss in popularity, asked his Cuban counterpart to increase, within the next 45 days, the personnel of the medical mission with a new campaign called “Neighborhood inside but well inside,” which is forecast to place medical clinics in places of difficult access with the help of the army, mayor’s offices, and community leaders.

In this new binge of politicized healthiness, Cuban doctors will confront very adverse scenarios, and not because of dealing with going to areas in which extreme poverty reigns, but because in these zones — according to the report that Havana’s MINSAP has — there are no guarantees of security for medical personnel who will live badly in tents where there do not even exist adequate conditions for storing medicine.  Nevertheless, this month of June will be “the month of missions” with the launch and “re-launch” of social programs to buy votes and bully hopes.

Of all this, the worst is that while they send thousands of Cuban doctors abroad, domestic health is neglected.  Some days ago, the health and epidemiological group from Havana City issued an alert that they have tried to hide; but however much they persist in regulating the contents of the national press under constant censorship; “when the press shuts up, the walls speak.”  It is rumored in the halls of the Ministry of Public Health about the recent detection of at least two cases of an illness that many years ago was eradicated on the Island, rabies in humans transmitted by ferrets, bats, and/or stray dogs.

When I say it; the Revolution’s book should be entitled “55 Years of Lies and Perversion.”

Translated by mlk.

9 June 2014

Havana became another battlefield, where the leader desirous of a conflict was more excited than an egomaniac passing through a hall of mirrors.

With a strategist’s skill and the tantrum of a sodomized victim, he organized a commission of shysters who, lacking no resources, came to see the transmissions as a flagrant violation of international rights and not as a simple, alternative and informative radio service directed towards a population that, if it did not want to listen, could change the dial.

On the outskirts of Havana, and with the help of Moscow, an underground center was created in San Jose, from which was transmitted a sort of rebel signal with wide programming directed towards the United States; but this Radio Answer served only to send encrypted information to their spies. The dreadful programming was unattractive, and its hidden announcers showed themselves to be “Mr. Nobodies” with more love of money than sense of ideology.

By then, and whether because of novelty or because we Cubans are like receptive sponges exposed to the adrenaline provoked by the prohibited, plus the avidity for information and the satisfaction of curiosity, Radio Marti won space within Cuban homes.

Such a fact was demonstrated in an old study commissioned by the DOR (Department of Revolutionary Orientation) to a select group of sociologists and professors from the University of Havana.

Of all that could be heard through the dark hallways of a hermetic, Pepto Bismol-taking Central Committee, Radio Marti demystified the image of its leaders and of its Commander in Chief. Then they had to punish everyone who listened to it. Here, right here, began the big problem because many leaders, impelled by the logical shock of seeing themselves reflected, or because of the dark pleasure of knowing what is said of their political colleagues, became habitual radio listeners.

The nearest example was my own father who, although it is implausible, was a fervent follower of the prohibited broadcast; that’s why when he grew old and lost his hearing, he listened to Radio Marti at such volume that, by decision of the highest management of the country, it was ordered that his bodyguards keep their distance when this occurred and so avoid hearing news that might undermine the integrity of a Revolutionary.

But ancient history to one side and with a view to the future, I believe that today Radio Marti has an enormous task; that of being the impetus that helps us, as a people, to decide whether to continue the confrontation and all that it entails; or begin to heal the wounds of our Nation in order to found a new country on the basis of respect for diversity, justice, happiness and impartiality.

Translated by mlk.

27 May 2014

On accepting and digesting that much of what I learned in school, and by repetition at home, punished and threatened the rights of my people, I changed.  And believe me, it was not simple. I am part of the so-called “New Man” that so many people criticize for not being virtuous or moral; but he has fewer vices, because tired of partisanship he looks with equal apathy at Raul Castro’s government and the “nation savers,” those who go hollow at the mere mention of the word democracy.

And it is that both barkers, those from one corner or the other, united unfortunately by their lack of ability and their love for mirrors, are simply politicians who speak with the same despotism about the actions of the people, as if “the people” was an amorphous mass and not a set of wise people.

Trying to exclude passions, and without much effort, we could see that in Cuba conditions are created for transformation. The old structures no longer can support the growing economic, ethical, political and even legal needs.

We see it in the news, and Raul Castro himself has recognized it.  But we don’t see change, and we excuse ourselves blaming such inactivity on fear of our fellow citizens.

It may be, in fact I know from experience, that fear only stimulates the imagination to develop defense; but I do not believe that today in Cuba there exists such a dose of fear; I believe that on analyzing we must be more serious.  The Revolution is falling, yes, of that I have no doubt; but it’s going to fall on us if we don’t take a moment to review what we are doing. And before falling into the grave danger of judging blindly, why not accept that we lack the capacity to strike and that we must adapt ourselves to more real conditions?

We cannot attract and much less convince if we are not inclusive. There is a suggestive and catchy sentence that appears on some cereal boxes that says: “Publicity is based on selling happiness.” Let’s adopt it as our own, let’s forget the catastrophic language and even come to understand that a plural society is built by eliminating the words enemy, trench, violence and battle.

I am a follower of Marti and I could not overlook that a day like today, May 19, but in 1895, Jose Marti fell in Dos Rios. The greatest of all Cubans. It would be a perfect homage if from both sides of the Florida Strait we try to begin to reunify our fragmented and divided country, quoting the man we call our “apostle,” who said, “With all and for the good of all.”

 Translated by mlk.

20 May 2014