Mary Beard has three blog posts on a trip to Cuba
I made the following comments:
First:
Mary's right to get in quick - before the Deluge [ie to visit Cuba Cuba as fun centre of the US Miami Cuba may well be carried out with the same respect for national treasures as the liberation of Iraq
Pity she didn't visit the other countries ofCentral America to see what kind of classical tradition they have.
Oh, I forgot to mention trafficking, drugs and HIV, didn't I? And the dispossession and ejection of most of the people from their homes and jobs.
Mary! Book a trip for 10 years from now, then we'll get a clear-eyed check on what's going on.
Pity she didn't visit the other countries of
Oh, I forgot to mention trafficking, drugs and HIV, didn't I? And the dispossession and ejection of most of the people from their homes and jobs.
Mary! Book a trip for 10 years from now, then we'll get a clear-eyed check on what's going on.
Second:
Paulo writes: "A comment on some of the commentators. You destroy their economy, and permanently threaten invasion with your superior weapons etc. Then you sneer at them for their failures and their poverty."
Not only this - which is spot-on - but according to imperialist ("Western", capitalist, officially sanctioned) economistsCuba should have sunk into the Caribbean about ten seconds after the expropriation of the Batista bourgeoisie. The received wisdom of this crowd is that such economies cannot and will not function or survive. And five decades later Cuba
Not as the sanction-mongers and sabre-rattlers (and de facto incompetent invaders) would like (ie a hell-hole), but as an attractive (and SAFE) destination for foreign visitors.
If need was an automatic trigger for revolution the Cuban regime would NOT still be in charge (nor would theUS
InSao Paulo Cuba Sao Paulo
Not only this - which is spot-on - but according to imperialist ("Western", capitalist, officially sanctioned) economists
Not as the sanction-mongers and sabre-rattlers (and de facto incompetent invaders) would like (ie a hell-hole), but as an attractive (and SAFE) destination for foreign visitors.
If need was an automatic trigger for revolution the Cuban regime would NOT still be in charge (nor would the
In
Third:
1) "positive and negative freedom". We won't have to worry about that distinction much longer as our negative freedom shrinks and our positive freedoms get more and more constricting. In fact it's ages since I saw anyone using that notion seriously.
2) for an example of how to analyse and relate to a country as riddled with contradictions asCuba Soviet Union under the rule of the Stalinist bureaucracy.
He distinguishes between the non-capitalist (let's call it proto-socialist) mode of production, with astounding advances to show, and the bureaucratic regime which came to power in the mid-20s and had state power firmly in its grip by the early 30s.
He characterizes the Stalinist regime as quasi-fascist and counter-revolutionary. Leaden chains holding down the potential of the new society.
You don't have to be a fellow-traveller to appreciate what's good in places likeChina or Cuba
Society is contradictory. Contradictions can't be handled with unilateral either-or ideas. Some dialectical understanding is applied to ancient history and feudalism (and even to some elements of early bourgeois history), but none to our own historical epoch.
The philosophers have stopped interpreting the world - let alone changing it.
2) for an example of how to analyse and relate to a country as riddled with contradictions as
He distinguishes between the non-capitalist (let's call it proto-socialist) mode of production, with astounding advances to show, and the bureaucratic regime which came to power in the mid-20s and had state power firmly in its grip by the early 30s.
He characterizes the Stalinist regime as quasi-fascist and counter-revolutionary. Leaden chains holding down the potential of the new society.
You don't have to be a fellow-traveller to appreciate what's good in places like
Society is contradictory. Contradictions can't be handled with unilateral either-or ideas. Some dialectical understanding is applied to ancient history and feudalism (and even to some elements of early bourgeois history), but none to our own historical epoch.
The philosophers have stopped interpreting the world - let alone changing it.
2 comments:
Good sum up of Cuba I'd say. Judging by the way things have turned out in the former Soviet Union I can imagine only worse things for Cuba. Eastern Europe today has the miserable distinction of being an imperialist football being kicked around by either Russia or Germany ( and the US and Britain in case of Poland and the Balkans respectively ) . It's been reduced from an economic and political power center of the old Deformed workers state to a depo of foreign exploitation most atrociously brought out in the sex trade that goes through that region. Russia's sub-imperialist transformation contrary to the government propaganda has given back none of the old respect that the Soviet Union had neither has it been able to bring back ( and never will it be able to bring back ) the social advancements achieved under the USSR. One of the aspects of this yet again has been the degradation of the position of women in modern Russia. I have had the chance of interacting with quite a few Russians ( and Kazakhs too but that's of a different mold. thanks largely to India's new found partner in expanding it's resource base ;-) ) one of the striking features of all the people's of a DWS that catches my attention is the fatalism that shows in them. For them the world has simply ended. From a hopeful period of industrial , societal and scientific advances ( the CCCP was the first to start a space programme for God's sake! ) they are now thrust into a hopeless world of drudgery and hopelessness that has it would seem sucked out the very life essence from them. It's perhaps even worse in the case of Eastern European ( excluding Russia which I till date consider an Asian country ! XD ) because they've been re incorporated into the fold of imperialism. Back to square 1 before i.e where they were in 1914 :P . And why I made an exception for the Central Asia is because of Islam. But that's for another discussion not this one :P.
Equally interesting than the fmr DWSs I feel are the places of "failed" struggles. Chile, Iran, Spain ( defeat in 1936 ) , Indonesia ( 1965 ) . Of course one cannot forge Post Fascist Germany or Japan after the failure of the 1947 uprising ( led by the JCP ) . Oh and how could I forget Bolivia :) . The difference between the crass fatalism of the old Soviet republics and these places as is evidenced by the emerging struggles today . The relative power of Quasi fascist regimes in the old former DWS bureaucracies compared with the denuded strength of the negative impact of Fascism in the countries which have passed through such regimes. They can't hold down the people as well as the bureaucracies could. Ironically these non-capitalist regimes ended up being more damaging for the workers struggle than the iron-fisted capitalist fascist regimes themselves. :P . Ironically they served the purposes of the world bourgeoisie better than the fascists . Who were quite explicit in their support for the Capitalist system. At a certain level I'm more attracted to the societies that emerged out of the struggles against fascism than the ones which emerged from the destruction of the old Soviet Republics. A constant zeal of struggle is something that always attracts Bengalis :D .
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