Last week, according to the official Cuban press, between the First Summit of CELAC in Chile and the UNESCO-sponsored Third International Conference for World Equilibrium, the elections and homages to Jose Marti, it seemed that we were on the international hit parade. Nevertheless, if we make a dissection of each event, we show that it is not exactly so.
In the First Summit of CELAC, as is usual in this type of event, there was a lot of talk about the same as always, and the same words were allowed to be heard that are always heard: peace, justice, development, mutual understanding, consensus building, integration, sovereignty, solidarity, cooperation, dialogue, and many others. Now it remains to be seen how the gap between the words and the deeds is overcome.
In the Conference about World Equilibrium, a group of old Latin American intellectuals from the left (those on the payroll), accompanied by some from other latitudes (also on the payroll) digressed about how to resolve the world’s problems, and came to the conclusion (there could be no other), that it was necessary to banish capitalism at once, and implement a system that might or might not be called socialism of the 21st century. A pity to waste time and resources to arrive at such a genial conclusion.
Also, as in these days Jose Marti is remembered for the 160th anniversary of his birth, they felt obliged to introduce some aspects of his worldview, as much to shore up the principal thesis as to, out of the blue, condemn the Spanish daily El Pais, as an example of manipulation by the mainstream media. Also, proclaimed by one of the speakers was the process of global extinction of the written press, and he even said that, if Marti were alive today, he would be a blogger, on facebook, on twitter, with that unhealthy habit of transferring people from eras, through ideological spiritualism, and making them talk. It was not clear if forming part of the official camp or the alternative.
In case that were not sufficient, in the elections of February 3, the presence of the Apostle — as we call Martí — was not lacking, this time admonishing the young people to vote in demonstration of their Marti vocation, together with revolutionary principles. As it is easy to prove, once again, and it already constitutes an epidemic, Marti has been used and used again, according to the convenience of everyone.
Taking into account these events, the profits January left to us are quite poor. Hopefully the coming months will be more rewarding.
Translated by mlk
February 4 2013
