Así es - come nos dice un cubano que lo sabe mejor

WALL STREET JOURNAL
December 31, 2004
THE AMERICAS

A Cuban Cry for Justice

By OSWALDO PAYA
December 31, 2004; Page A11

HAVANA -- I once asked a visiting Chilean friend what he
thought of Havana. "Well, it's an impressive city," he
replied, "but it gives the impression of having been
evacuated 40 years ago by people who when they return will
find it frozen in time and in ruins."

Havana has become a giant slum, but as we celebrate the
400th anniversary of the city's founding, I feel obliged to
raise my voice in its defense.

A Catholic mass was celebrated when the city was founded.
That attests to the roots of Havana and of the Cuban
nation, which in recent years have been culturally and
spiritually ransacked. Cuba has undergone a forced
de-Christianization, one that has annihilated its
institutions and profaned its houses of worship, converting
many of them into centers of persecution and apostasy.

One must grasp the full dimensions of this pillage to
understand how Cubans have been relegated to almost slave
status in their own country while foreigners go about with
great privilege.

The government might as well post a sign: "Citizens of
Havana, this is not your city. It is a playground for
foreigners. You are merely background. If your skin is
black or you are shabbily dressed, be advised that any
policeman may ask for your papers. Your money is worthless.
Press your face against the glass and watch the outsiders
who, by despotic decree, are now your superiors."

Prostitution is one manifestation of this tyranny. The
problem is so rife in Havana today that many tourists (and
some police officers) treat all Cuban women as if they were
prostitutes. This is possible and tolerated only because
all Cubans are denied the human rights associated with
civility.

Precisely because the neo-colonialists in Cuba today know
that the government neither recognizes nor respects human
rights, they feel as free to exploit young people as they
do to exploit our labor and to assert a dominating
superiority.

It is painful to watch rich historic districts, such as Old
Havana, disintegrate into slums. Never has there been so
much petty crime, corruption and poverty or so many stark
class differences. Never before have natives of Havana felt
so discriminated against in the city of their birth or
diminished in social stature simply because they are Cuban.

The daily humiliations inflicted by the government's
fascist or Stalinist agents (there is no difference) remind
us that our senile, drooling dictator still has claws sharp
enough to maintain his repression.

A bitter joke circulates in Havana: A Cuban child is asked,
"What do you want to be when you grow up, a doctor, pilot,
lawyer, fireman?" The child responds, "I want to be a
foreigner."

Decades of humiliation and discrimination have disoriented
Cubans, and collectively we have lost our self-esteem.
Special privilege extended to foreigners has become our
nation's crown-of-thorns.

It is worth recalling that there was once another Havana,
one that possessed 10 daily newspapers and many more radio
stations. It was a place that had a huge, reliable system
of public transportation. The poor had a few pesos in their
pockets that could be used to buy something. Havana was
never a place that scorned people from other provinces,
although today the government prohibits Cubans from moving
into the city.

The government tells us that Havana is better today. Those
of us who know otherwise should raise our voices against
such denigration. We have a right to defend our parents.
Even under the Batista dictatorship, Havana was a city in
which women, old people, teachers and ordinary citizens
were respected. It is time to remind people that Havana,
including the parts now in ruins, was built before 1959.

True, Havana had "wealthy" districts. But it also had large
districts of middle-class Cubans. That was before socialism
imposed its system of "equality" and turned the city's rich
districts over to the housing of state officials and
Communist Party elites, neighborhoods that ordinary people
now dare not enter. What a spectacle it is to have the new
rich preaching "socialism or death" to the new poor.

Whatever its faults, colonial "Old Havana," was a city of
enormous vitality. It was home to thousands of small
businesses, tended by honest, hard-working families
building up restaurants, stores, small factories, print
shops, coffee shops, shoe-shine stands, and every other
kind of enterprise. The fruit of generations was swept
aside in a moment by a "revolutionary offensive" that, in
the name of Soviet-style socialism, vanquished all vestiges
of economic freedom.

Shops were closed in buildings that were then destined to
fall into ruin and, as if that were not enough, the former
entrepreneurs were scorned and hated. Among the thousands
of families destroyed were immigrants who had cast their
lots with the Cuban people. Jews, Arabs, Chinese, and above
all, Spaniards were treated with special contempt.

For what purpose? So that a few self-appointed leaders
could some day transform themselves into "managers" and
"capitalist entrepreneurs," who are really front men for
the government's joint-ventures with foreign investors.
Just as the one-party state permits no competition in the
political realm, we now have a new class of capitalists
that permit no competition in the economic realm. Cubans
are told, "Yes, capitalism for the state, but not for you.
For you it's 'socialism or death.'"

High on a hill overlooking the harbor is the Cabaña
fortress, a building with walls pockmarked by bullets that
have snuffed out the lives of many political prisoners, and
a statue of a contemplative Christ. Many of us are afraid
to look up at Him, to speak to Him, or to invite Him into
our city. When we turn loose of such fears and invite Him
to join us then, perhaps, Havana will be free and Cuba as
well.

Mr. Payá heads Cuba's Christian Liberation Movement, which
sponsored the Varela Project and gathered 11,000 signatures
on a petition calling for free elections and the protection
of human rights. In 2002, the European Parliament awarded
Mr. Payá the Sakarov Prize for Freedom of Thought. This
article was adapted from a longer version that appeared in
Spain's ABC newspaper.

@ Jemen

In Antwort auf:

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Squealer

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Du scheinst allzu häufig in den Spiegel zu schauen, anders sind Deine Aussagen nicht zu verstehen.
Ausserdem solltest Du nicht so viel Schwein essen, sonst siehst Du am Schluss selbst noch so aus wie eins.

In Antwort auf:

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die Schuld an Allem

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Offenbar zweifelst Du nicht an den Fakten, aber an der Verantwortlichkeit des "Bärtigen".
Wie ja bekannt sein sollte, ist Herr Castro seit 1959 ununterbrochen Diktator in Kuba, da ist die Zuordnung der Verantwortlichkeit noch nicht ganz von der Hand zu weisen.

In Antwort auf:

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Dem gelingt es dann (nach eigener Aussage) auch nicht mehr zwischen Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini und Castro zu unterscheiden.

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Payá kann das sehr wohl unterscheiden, da er im Gegensatz zu Dir Kubaner ist und nicht Jemenit und ausserdem einen Schulabschluss nachweisen kann.
Akllerdings gibt es da bei Diktatoren einige Parallelen, was natürlich nicht zufällig ist.

In Antwort auf:

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"Der Sabbersack muss hängen", oder so ähnlich, würde Quesito wohl dazu sagen.

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Payá tritt ausdrücklich für einen friedlichen, gewaltsamen Übergang ein, wie übrigens die gesamte innerkubanische Opposition. Der "Sabbersack" soll nicht hängen, sollte sich aber einem unabhängigen Gericht stellen, das ist die übereinstimmende Forderung der Opposition.

In Antwort auf:

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an den Fakten zweifle ich nicht, aber für mich sind Schwarze in ehemals bürgerlichen Wohnvierteln etc. kein Grund zum Jammern.

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Offensichtlich war Leseverständnis nie so Deine Stärke in der Schule. Solltest doch noch in kubanische Lehrinstitute gehen um die schwerwiegendsten Mängel zu beseitigen.

Wie dem Nicht-Analphabeten beim Durchlesen klar wird, hat dies Payá weder gemeint noch gesagt.
Er bemängelt vielmehr, dass die Villen der kubanischen Elite durch unfähige Bonzen aus der kubanischen Nomenklatura besetzt wurden. Dass die wiederum überwiegend weiss ist und keinesfalls ethnische Minderheiten Macht einräumt, ist wohl auch klar.

In Antwort auf:

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Dass dabei die Bausubstanz über die Jahrzehnte etwas leidet, hat auch mit der US Blockade zu tun, wie du wissen solltest.

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Ja natürlich, und damit dass in China ein Reissack umfällt.

In Antwort auf:

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Na, wenn Paya zur inner-kubanischen Opposition gehört, sollte man Castro, alias Stalin-Hitler doch mal Bescheid geben, was dieser Paya über seinen Führer so denkt: "our senile, drooling dictator still has claws sharp enough to maintain his repression." - Nicht gerade schmeichelhaft! Erklär mir mal Vilmaris-Squealer, wie das einer sagen darf, der in einer Terror-Diktatur lebt, die die Menschenrechte angeblich erbarmungslos mit Füßen tritt.

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Abgesehen, dass wohl die Mehrzahl der unabhängigen Beobachter der sicher etwas nuancierten Aussage zustimmen dürfte, bleibt festzustellen, dass wohl nur die Prominenz Payá vor dem Gefängnis bewahrt hat.

Andere sind da nicht so glücklich, und müssen wegen weit geringerer Kritik Jahrzehnte in Haft.

In Antwort auf:

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Na, wenn Paya zur inner-kubanischen Opposition gehört, sollte man Castro, alias Stalin-Hitler doch mal Bescheid geben, was dieser Paya über seinen Führer so denkt: "our senile, drooling dictator still has claws sharp enough to maintain his repression." - Nicht gerade schmeichelhaft! Erklär mir mal Vilmaris-Squealer, wie das einer sagen darf, der in einer Terror-Diktatur lebt, die die Menschenrechte angeblich erbarmungslos mit Füßen tritt.

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Payá denuncia la instalación de aparatos de escucha en su casa

Uno de los sistemas de escucha fue colocado junto a la cabecera de su cama, otro en la cocina de su vivienda y un tercero en casa de una tía.

AFP/ La Habana. El opositor cubano Oswaldo Payá denunció este lunes haber encontrado aparatos de escucha electrónicos en su casa, que fueron presuntamente instalados por técnicos de la Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba (Etecsa), y que el propio disidente desmontó.
Oswaldo Paya muestra uno de los artefactos.

"Este es un ultraje contra mi familia y mi intimidad, descargando todos los recursos de un Estado contra una familia", afirmó Payá en una conferencia de prensa, en la que dijo sentirse "indignado", pero "no asustado".

Según Payá, ingeniero en telecomunicaciones, los micrófonos fueron puestos entre los meses de agosto y septiembre pasados, cuando su familia solicitó la instalación de dos extensiones telefónicas.

Uno de los sistemas de escucha fue colocado junto a la cabecera de su cama, otro en la cocina de su vivienda y un tercero en casa de una tía que vive a 100m, donde el disidente también realiza labores opositoras.

El líder del Movimiento Cristiano Liberación, promotor del Proyecto Varela y Premio Sajarov del Parlamento Europeo, mostró los pequeños artefactos, que dijo haber desmontado personalmente.

"Durante muchos años el Estado totalitario en Cuba ha descargado de manera desproporcionada todos sus recursos técnicos y un verdadero ejército de agentes para vigilar, hostigar y reprimir a mi familia, como lo ha hecho con otras", dijo Payá.

Etecsa es una sociedad mixta con capital estatal cubano e italiano, que tiene el monopolio de las comunicaciones en la Isla.

"La Seguridad del Estado interviene sistemáticamente para intimidar a mis amigos, a padres de amigos de mis hijos, a médicos que atienden a mis hijos, a compañeros de trabajo y de la comunidad cristiana", dijo Payá.

"Si han penetrado en la intimidad del hogar, poniendo una escucha junto a la cama donde dormimos mi esposa y yo, conocerán que nuestra felicidad es fruto de nuestra fe y nuestro amor", dijo con ironía el opositor.

Añadió que tal suceso "no nos asusta, no nos paraliza y vamos a continuar la lucha pacífica sabiendo los sacrificios que implica".

"No nos puede quitar la paz interior, y a todos, incluyendo los autores intelectuales y físicos, y los cómplices de esta agresión, les deseamos a ellos y a sus familias, una feliz Navidad", dijo el activista, quien habló en su casa, al lado del tradicional arbolito de Navidad.

En referencia a su trabajo como reparador de equipos médicos electrónicos, Payá dijo: "yo me dedico a arreglar equipos que salvan vidas, no a ultrajar la vida de nadie".