One of the most frustrating things about the recent uprising in Iran is that there was almost nothing we Americans could do to help the Iranian people. Staying current with the news and yelling (figuratively) through blog posts and comments didn’t feel constructive. But that was all we could do.
There is a nation not far from the southern tip of our country that we can help by staying current with the news and yelling through blog posts and comments. Cuba.
I have always been fascinated by Cuba. Cuba is close to the U.S. yet light years away, lost somewhere in the past, ideologically behind the now defunct Iron Curtain, though physically in the beautiful Caribbean.
Cuba is only 90 miles from the U.S. Ninety miles. I had that number drilled into my memory during some crisis with Cuba that must have occurred in the early 1970s. I don’t recall what that crisis was and it doesn’t really matter. I recall that in elementary school we watched a weekly television news program made especially for children. The newscaster explained just how close Key West, Miami, and Washington D.C. were to Cuba and then added that we hoped the Cubans wouldn’t launch a missile at us.
Cuba and Communism seemed very evil to me back then.
Last summer I stood on the deck of cruise ship and gazed at the distant mountains of Cuba as the ship sailed between the Florida Keys and Cuba. I wasn’t alone. A lot of others made a special effort to see the island. I think my interest and that of the others has to do with the image of the Cuban government as something evil, the nation itself prohibited and in many ways unknown.
Cuba and Communism seem very evil and prohibited.
Since that day on the deck of the cruise ship I have discovered that Cubans blog. They write articles on the internet for the whole world to read. Blogging is difficult in Cuba. Computers are hard to get and internet access is usually reserved for tourists. But somehow a few brave people blog. Through these blogs I have learned about the trials of daily life in Cuba, the shortages of the most basic goods, the need to not say, “No,” how a simple thing like, who gets the one of the television sets rationed by the government, can become a major controversy among neighbors.
If you think the U.S. response to hurricane Katrina was bad, go here to read about the victims of a hurricane that hit Caletone, Cuba. If you want to help, Cuban bloggers, read how here. Photographs of Havana City are here. You can even read of life in a Cuban prison here – Spanish needed.
To read their blogs is to help and to protect them.
Now that I know a little bit about Cuba, Cuba no longer seems evil. The leadership appears cruel; a kind of cruelty that arose from its recognition of its own impotence and plain silliness. If there weren’t people stuck in Cuba that wanted to leave, others that wanted to stay and be free, the rulers would be almost be funny, much as slapstick comedy is funny. As it is, the Cuban rulers are just cruel and impotent and their people desperate.
I would love to go to Cuba someday, to shake a few hands and tell the people to hang in there, and that we hear them. We are with them. I will use my blog to do that.
We can all help by reading their blogs. Regularly.
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An incredibly one-sided article. Why not mention the high quality health-care and education that all Cubans are entitled to? Why not mention the lack of extreme poverty and starvation one sees in Cuba (that you see in almost all other poor countries)? And by the way, Cuba’s response to hurricanes and other natural disasters is generally recognized as amongst the best in the world. Maybe instead of only reading the blogs of Cuban dissidents, you could think critically and investigate other perspectives as well.
You still dont know anything about Cuba. According to the United nations, Cuba is an example in how to deal with Hurricanes despite the economic blockade.