On Cuba

Being informed is a duty

I was out with some friends when I was introduced to a woman from Cuba. ‘It’s so horrible what’s happening in Cuba,’ I said, meaning the US imposed oil blockade that has resulted in a severe energy crisis, shutting down hospitals and leaving people in the sweltering dark.

The woman nodded sagely. ‘At least Trump is doing something.’

‘Trump is doing the blackouts,’ I said to her.

‘Yes finally,’ she smiled, ‘one good thing…maybe things will change.’

Now, I often meet stupid people, and I have come across plenty of people ignorant about world politics, and I’ve learned through time not to waste my energy on them. I’m not interested in changing people’s minds, especially when they are plainly empty. When I come across people who say things like ‘Oh I’m so happy about our new president’ (Argentina) or ‘Immigration is good, but you know, there’s a limit’ (white people in general) or ‘I think MBS is doing exciting things’ (usually white people again) I tend to just turn away from them and talk to someone else. But when I come across callous people, I fight.

‘What’s the good thing about shutting down electricity so that babies in incubators die?’ I asked her. ‘Hospitals can’t function. How do premature babies survive?’

This was being done purposefully to punish the Cuban people and to try to make the government fall. More than six months ago, after the US kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro, Venezuela stopped their oil shipments to Cuba. Just like that, over night, they severed a lifeline to Cuba. The oil that Venezuela had been sending to Cuba - cut off by a criminal US blockade - was then diverted to? Yes, Israel. Now, Cuba was isolated, and without fuel had no electricity. Tens of thousands of surgeries had to be postponed, patients couldn’t receive dialysis, cancer patients were endangered and most fatally and cruelly of all, premature babies could not receive the lifesaving urgent care that incubators provide.

US empire and imperialism isn’t complicated. It’s clunky and obvious and cruel. They wanted and have wanted for decades to drop Cuba’s government. It’s not hard to connect dots, it’s actually really easy. Trump can’t be a bad guy at home because he’s a racist and fighting women’s rights and then suddenly and magically be a good guy abroad because Castro took your family’s plantations away from them.

After kidnapping Maduro, Trump promised that he would be the president to finally destroy Cuba. Speaking to reporters he said,

“Whether I free it, take it, I think I can do anything I want with it,”

You don’t need to have lived through the US’s invasions of Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, etc to know that when the US ‘takes’ a country, it doesn’t improve. It falls to dust. The lady tried to tell me I didn’t understand and that there was a lot of corruption, I should visit and see for myself.

I told her that I’d been, as a journalist no less. I hadn’t been hindered or censored. I interviewed the Cuban Minister of Health, gone to the Foreign Ministry, visited hospitals and met the doctors who make up the extraordinary life saving delegations that travel all over the world. I had a translator during the interviews because I didn’t speak Spanish then, but had no minder. I traveled freely and alone across the island. The lady couldn’t compute. ‘Where are you from?’ she asked. When I told her Pakistan, she said Oh, right, well that makes sense.

Besides the fact that it didn’t make any sense, I think she was trying to imply that a country of over 200 million people wasn’t important enough to try and manipulate.

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I’d like to do a video conversation about Cuba soon but in the meanwhile wanted to share the following with you so you never find yourself sounding like that silly lady.

• Is the CIA starting a new division to bring down Cuba? Why, yes, thank you for asking. They are. And you know that the CIA only does good things. Right? Right?

• This video made me cry. Have you ever had a premature baby whose life depended on an incubator?

• Destroying healthcare is a war crime. When you destroy healthcare, you destroy lives. But consider that Cuba’s healthcare was universal. Their healthcare was superlative enough to make them a leader in medical emergencies and they sent doctors to save lives all over the world, including to Pakistan after the horrendous 2008 earthquake.

• The US and Israel have used violence, pressure, and godknows what else to bribe, regime change, and put their stooges in power in plain sight. This year alone, Columbia went from Gustavo Petro, a staunch defender of Palestinians fighting Israel’s genocide to this clown who chose to issue a statement saying Israel had the right to the Golan Heights the day his country was hit was a horrendous earthquake. Venezuela, who had no relations with Israel since Hugo Chavez, now has its president taking photos with the butchers of the IOF :

  

  And they are coming for everyone else too. Cuba, Spain, you name it.

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