Thursday, December 18, 2014

The Emperor is Bare

Much like the emperor of fabled fame, President Obama was left with no clothes on and saying thanks for the memories…
 Yesterday was another day in a week which promised to be just another week, filled with regular, routine days. Yet, we were given some news which broke this uneventful moment; news which, in a different context and parameters, would have been welcome.

As the President spoke from the podium, we were informed that there had been an agreement to exchange prisoners and to re-establish relations with Cuba, after 50+ years of diplomatic void. There would be new business avenues open, and even the status of Cuba as a terrorist sponsor nation would be subject to revision. All this, in exchange for basically… nothing.

What happened was that with one unilateral (and probably unconstitutional) decision, Obama has given a new lease on life to a tired, sagging regimen that has oppressed 11M citizens, caused massive people flight and has germinated untold deaths through their fostering of guerrillas in Latin America; Sendero Luminoso, Putumayos, Sandinistas, FARC (group which is now in Cuba “negotiating” a very one-sided peace treaty with the Col. Govt) and the list goes on. All given in exchange for nothing.

Where is the agreement to free political prisoners, to guarantee human rights, freedom of speech, freedom of expression and thought; freedom of movement. Where are the monitoring structures to guarantee that whatever comes in will -at least in part- go to the direct benefit of the people? Not just to the government and to the already bulging bank accounts of the hierarchy? Sorry Mr. Obama. You were invited to a party, were made to pay for it and got the leftovers. Bad move. This grandstanding is not the way to retake the initiative lost in the midterm elections.

A change in the relations would have been welcome, but with some of the above issues included as must-deal-with issues. The Cuban communist hierarchy is a government which has shown absolutely no intentions of leaving the country or the power it wields over its people. This is a government which has, while yelling “Foul”, completely subjugated a people, keeping them in emotional, physical and intellectual misery. They have used every excuse in the book, blamed everyone but their own actions and terrible mismanagement, accusing the very Yankees who would now become their de-facto saviors, of being the cause of all their ills and misery. All this while filling their personal bank accounts to the point of obscenity.

Maybe the midterm election debacle left a very bad taste in the mouth of our defeated president. I wonder if this is an in-your-face slap to that 65% of voters who turned their back to his own mismanagement and mistakes, and to his use of an almost dictatorial mania in decreeing what he thinks right, without really accounting to those who disagree.

If this is the case, it will be left to those who will now come to reestablish the rule of law to review and not to shelve, but to restructure what could be a positive beginning, but which must include benefits for the people of both the US and Cuba.

Be Well … Be Back!!!

Final Notes:
·       Pray for those who are fighting an illness which may take them away from their loved ones… Every request is heard, and counts!!
·       Follow us on Twitter … @RJAsPandora
·       Any comments please send to otherboxp@yahoo.com

No comments:

Post a Comment

IS “HATRED” VALID?

According to the Oxford Dictionary, hate (verb) / hatred (noun) mean: 1.       To feel ( to hate ) intense or passionate dislike ( hatred ...