Wednesday, January 05, 2005
Raúl Rivero Update
Yesterday, I wrote a review of The Motorcycle Diaries and said that instead of trying to emulate Che or praising him, it would be more appropriate if the audience joined in the struggle for the freedom of Raúl Rivero. A poet sentenced to 20 years in jail for being a dissident in Cuba. A Cuban totalitarian society that Che helped erect.
Sometimes, I wonder why we try so hard to bring democracy to an area of the world that values God's law above the will of the people, and so little time in our own hemisphere where people strive to have their voices heard over the threats of despots.
Mover Mike
I learned today that Paul Berman updated his story in Slate titled
Free at Last!What Raúl Rivero's release from prison means for Cuba.
(Václav) Havel Havel has written that every meeting, every conference, every protest on behalf of the Cuban dissidents is a step toward freedom in Cuba.Havel has been saying lately that Cuba's days as a dictatorship may be reaching an end. Is he correct? This possibility lends a tremendous drama to these struggles right now in Cuba. The poet, the librarians, the independent workers union that is sponsoring the libraries, the 62 dissidents still in jail—these people do not seem to have lost their energy. Only, how can we tell if Havel is right? We can't. Sheer guesswork. Still, let us recognize that some people do seem to have a pretty good insight into the mysterious question of when a dictatorship is about to collapse, and if Václav Havel is not one of these unusually insightful people, who is?
Sometimes, I wonder why we try so hard to bring democracy to an area of the world that values God's law above the will of the people, and so little time in our own hemisphere where people strive to have their voices heard over the threats of despots.
Mover Mike
