With Diametrically Opposing Views
Yoani Sanchez {above}, the Cuban dissident blogger who has replaced Luis Posada Carriles as the Western World's favorite anti-Castro zealot, stopped off in Prague on her 80-day worldwide tour that is meticulously designed and craftily programmed to denounce her native country's government. The anti-Castro Czech News Agency {CTK} lavishly reported every scathing word without mentioning that the majority of Cubans on the island, including the pro-Castro/pro-Cuban blogger Rosa Baez, strongly disagree with Yoani Sanchez's ubiquitous depictions of the island. For example, in Prague Yoani Sanchez told the welcoming choir not to be "misled" by all the changes taking place on the island and she described conditions on the island as "appalling." But some see things in Cuba as "appealing."
Rosa C. Baez {above} is a lifelong Cuban who is quite familiar with the Fulgencio Batista regime in the 1950s and with the regime that replaced it from 1959 till today. She is a prolific writer-photographer on her own blog and on her massive Facebook pages. Of course, the media in the Western World is not interested in what Rosa Baez has to say. Rosa, for example, says that conditions in Batista's Cuba were "appalling" and that Revolutionary Cuba has corrected "most of those sins" although the corrections are still evolving because the sins of Batista...torture-murders of children, rampant illegal drugs, prostitution that included children, wholesale thievery that left the majority of Cubans hungry and without educational opportunities and health care, etc...were so, yes, "appalling." Cuba without Batista "appeals" to Rosa.
The above photo was taken by Rosa C. Baez, an excellent writer and photographer. She used it on her Facebook page to exemplify modern Cuba, contrasting it with Batista's Cuba. In other words, the two girls were enjoying a carefree day. They are not pampered nor are they spoiled. But they are guaranteed free educations through college and free, high-class heath care for the rest of their lives. But even more importantly, Rosa points out, the two girls above "have zero concern about their safety" because, unlike in pre-revolutionary Cuba or in the United States, "crime and brutality are not a primary concern."
On her stopover in Prague, Yoani Sanchez said only "one-tenth" of the 11 million Cubans support Fidel Castro. Rosa says Yoani says such things only because she is a puppet {see above} of the United States and that, if only one-tenth of the Cubans on the island supported Fidel he would have either "been consigned to history decades ago or living snugly in Miami about to celebrate his 87th birthday in August."
The above photo shows Rosa C. Baez in Havana flanked by her two daughters. Rosa is glad her daughters have been raised in Revolutionary Cuba as opposed to Batista's Cuba. Moreover, Rosa does not want her daughters or their children to be raised in a Cuba dominated and exploited by a foreign-backed government that is only interested in mistreating the majority and robbing the island of its treasures and resources. As far as Rosa is concerned, "We have been there and done that." Rosa does not want another Batista in Cuba.
As far as Rosa Baez is concerned, Yoani Sanchez, like Batista, was made in the USA. In Prague the CTK news agency hailed Yoani's visit: "Castro's secret police persecutes Sanchez because she maintains the independent blog Generacio Y where she criticizes the regime's practices." Rosa says, "She has a nice apartment in Havana and the main thing the authorities worry about is her creating an incident that she can use to show Cuba in a bad light." Rosa also points out that Cuba gave Yoani a passport to travel around the world denouncing Cuba while the United States, on behalf of the anti-Castro Cuban exiles, "will not permit the average American to visit Cuba to see the island for themselves because they would see an island unlike the one portrayed by her and the Miami Mafia." Indeed, Cuba allows Yoani Sanchez to post her blog, to use gigantic Western media outlets to promote her anti-Castro books, and to go on an 80-day anti-Castro speaking tour around the world. Rosa says that's a lot more freedom than the USA affords the average American when it comes to Cuba. And...perhaps she has a point.
Yoani Sanchez's first stopover was in Brazil where, not unexpectedly, she encountered anti-Yoani protesters. Rosa says, "Cuba does have friends around the world, maybe more than the U. S. because of the U. S. treatment of Cuba since the Mob was chased to Miami. The UN vote each year proves that but, I guess, Americans are not told about that unanimous pro-Cuban vote." NOTE: The sign above held by the Brazilian man called Yoani Sanchez an "agent of the CIA." Rosa Baez does not believe she is but Rosa is correct to point out, I believe, that millions of Latin Americans, concerned with past history, are quick to label anyone who takes the pro-American attitude towards Cuba as "Made in the USA" or "Agents of the CIA." Latin Americans are quite familiar with Fidel Castro; they are also abundantly aware of Fulgencio Batista and other U. S. - backed Latin American dictators. Rosa Baez believes it's time Americans as well as Yoani Sanchez recognize that basic Latin America reality, one that addresses both sides of a two-sided issue.
Rosa Baez posted on Facebook the above caricature of Yoani Sanchez on her worldwide anti-Castro tour. Rosa is proud Cuba gave Yoani the freedom to make the tour but she believes it is wrong for self-serving anti-Cubans in foreign countries to finance and/or promote it. NOTE: I believe Yoani Sanchez should have the right to say whatever she wants about Fidel Castro wherever she wants to say it. But I also believe Rosa Baez, who remains quite sensitive about the foreign-backed Batista years, has a right to question whether foreign entities "created and are prolonging the Yoani Sanchez phenomenon."
Although Yoani Sanchez's 80-day tour has been well choreographed to put her in front of friendly audiences and anti-Cuban media, she has been harassed by sentiments Rosa Baez sincerely projects.
Whether or not U. S. dollar bills are flying Yoani around the world is open to conjecture.
But my point is this:
The majority of Cubans on the island probably disagree strongly with Yoani Sanchez and I believe it is fair for their opinions, as well as Yoani's, to be expressed, even in the United States. The above photo shows Rosa Baez, fourth from your right, with nine of her very adult Cuban friends. They know all about Batista; and they know all about Castro. They know which one was supported by the U. S., and why; and they know which one is opposed by the U. S., and why. Moreover, they wonder why the U. S. democracy is not strong enough to allow everyday Americans to visit Cuba and judge the island for themselves and not just through the prism of, say, a Yoani Sanchez. Rosa says, "I live modestly in Havana. So does Fidel. And no one is flying us around the world. I'm not jealous of Yoani Sanchez or her lack of modesty. But I know Cuba today is not what she and the folks in Miami say it is. Do I have a right to question why she says what she says? Jose Marti and a lot of other Cubans have fought, and many have died, for my right to question anyone supporting foreigners and not Cubans. Jose Marti fought and died; Fidel Castro fought and lived."
And that brings us back around to Rosa Baez's photo of the two carefree Cuban girls. They are a part of the Cuban youth, healthy and well educated, that will determine Cuba's post-Castro future. Yes, as Rosa admits, they would like to one day bask in the affluence that could come with the cooperation of the nearby super-power and super-rich United States. But alongside that cooperation, Rosa believes, would be ugly Batista-like accouterments such as...the Mafia, unspeakable crime, rampant prostitution, illegal drugs, greedy businessmen concerned only with what they can take from the island, and seedy gamblers over-running the beautiful island with filthy parties. Does Rosa, a Cuban grand-mother with decades of hard-earned wisdom, have a right to that opinion? And what about the two young girls Rosa photographed? Do they have a right to express an opinion? Or is that right, when it comes to Cuba, reserved for Yoani and her legion of fans that Rosa believes are self-serving, politically correct, and economically ascendant? The U. S.-Cuban conundrum is multi-faceted, not one-dimensional. Fidel Castro did not replace Mother Teresa in Cuba; he replaced Fulgencio Batista and Meyer Lansky.
There is a Cuban woman named Yoani Sanchez. There is also a Cuban woman named Rosa Baez.
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