Castrobama

Castrobama
Posted on March 17, 2015

LET THE OLD DEAD GIVE WAY TO THE NEW DEAD

Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

The title is, of course, a quote from the Czech, Milan Kundera, an
obsolete reference for the rest of a world, which believes it is living
in the post-communist era. But in Cuba, it continues to be something
referring to the future.

Just as in global capitalism, "time is money", in twenty-first century
Castroism time is the essence of totalitarianism itself. Because of
that, Cubans don't have lives, only, barely, biographies. And because of
that Cubans don't live in human time, but buried, with the dismal defect
that it could last for all eternity. And because of that, for the first
time, the White House is so interested in co-opting us. Because of that
Fidel Castro's funeral fascism is rescued by the tyrranical resolutions
of Barack Obama and his Democrat mates who hate democracy, in Congress,
just as in the Plaza de la Revolución (before his disappearance as the
Chief many of them travelled to the island to take supportive selfies
with our dictator).

After his 20 January 2015 State of the Union Address, the United States
was ready for his presidential winding-down. The American union's voters
are awaiting his demagogic dissolution. To survive in a stable fashion,
the democracies which are going to remain on the planet should now do it
not just in opposition to fundamentalist conservatives or lefties, or
both, but also in opposition to the United States. And the Cuban case
feels like a valuable precedent.

As a part of the secret pact between the two elites, it was obvious that
nobody was demanding anything from anybody, except mutual recognition of
legitimacy. The 5 or 55 "heroes" or "brothers" of the horror-show
arrived in Havana threatening that they were keen to carry out new
assassination and infiltration missions, like the informant doctor who
theatrically returned to Africa to challenge Ebola again. David and
Goliath nowadays are only money and abuse.

The first attracts the second to the island with no Commander, where
time stands still, but where there are a thousand and one "decent"
descendants of degenerate generals. The second is the mechanical
gesturing of the most unknown North American civil president: his public
programme is based on springing a private surprise. Even physically, he
seems crafty. We don't matter to him in the slightest, on the contrary,
we irritate him. He has a different agenda and Obama is not going to
miss out on the legal impunity he can enjoy in his last two years.

In the case of Cuba, the communists' revenge for Cuba's exile has
finally been accomplished. They fought for that for decades. They bumped
off their libertarian leaders with sudden post-soviet diseases. They
empowered those who were interested in investing – and inventing – with
a "Plattismo" economic model. They collided with North American public
opinion using little Elian dolls and "sperm spies." (It was easy to do
this as they were dealing with an infantile and detestable audience).
And now comes the grand orgy of reconciliation between the victims of
post-revolutionary repression – without the orgasm. Today there is not
one sensible Cuban, whether in exile or on the island, who believes in
the changes. Castroism ended. And, for that reason it is never-ending.

Nobody will ever ask the Castros anything about their more or less
famous deaths. In her conspiratorial path to Havana, Roberta Jacobson
must have gone cursing the plane from Washington DC on which she met
Rosa María Payá when she felt obliged to lie to the martyr's daughter:
"it's something we can always put on the table" (the translation is
mine, the deceit is hers). Always say always.

Do me a favour. If nobody is against this farce. This disingenuous
vaseline applied by the victors is unnecessary. Do less of the LGTB
posturing, be less culpable, with fewer dirty needs, and come out of the
Castro closet with the oppressor's pride (the shame assumed is ours).
The old dead are not yet good luck charms for our memory. The new dead
can now wait to be recycled into the future dead, who are coming.

The obsolete Castroism – except in the rest of the world – manages to
survive because it knows many things. But the Czech Milan Kundera had
the weakness of only knowing one thing. My fellow countrymen, you can
finally hang up your Cuban passports. Now, the nation of the Castros, by
the Castros and for Castros has finished being embargoed forever.

Translated by GH

21 January 2015

Source: Castrobama | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/castrobama/