[Marxism] "Fidel 1, Ivan 0" (Los Angeles Times editorial)

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Today's Los Angeles TIMES ran this truly perverse and
heartlessly cruel editorial condemning Cuba for its
successes with Hurricane Ivan! It's disgusting.

Here's the note which Cuba-L list's Nelson Valdes
sent out to introduce this trash.
----------------------------------------
Dear Cuba-L reader,

This editorial is a classic. It follows the three basic
rules when writing about Cuba. The rules apply regardless
of what the Cuban topic might be. The rules have been
outlined before, but here they are again:

1) Cuba is a dictatorship [the LAT writes about the
"totalitarian regime"],

2) people are oppressed and mention the "dissidents" {The
LAT wrote, "By the time Ivan touched land, nearly 2 million
people had been taken to shelters. It isn't as if they had
much choice." The LAT was derelict in its duty of
mentioning the dissidents}

3) Fidel has been around a long time and who will "succeed"
him. [The LAT writes about "the aging comandante" and "the
indefatigable dictator" - thus meeting rule 1 and 3, And,
"Still, there is something ghoulish about Castro trying to
rely on hurricanes to justify his people's lack of
freedom." Again rule 2 and 3.

However, the LAT was again derelict by not mentioning the
"succession."

Let's face it, the establishment media is upset because no
cubanos died while market freedom could not avoid the death
of citizens from the Lesser Antilles all the way to the
USA.

Last but not least, Fidel Castro did not reject
humanitarian assistance but, of course, precision and
accuracy are not things that can be asked of the US
mainstream media. [Not one newspaper in Latin America has
claimed that Fidel Castro rejected foreign humanitarian
aid]. -------------------

09/25/04 - Los Angeles Times - EDITORIAL: Fidel 1, Ivan 0

Say this about a totalitarian regime - it surely can
mobilize its population in times of crisis. "Against Fidel,
Ivan couldn't do it," read the headline of a
state-controlled newspaper in Havana after Hurricane Ivan
passed through Cuba without causing a single casualty. The
same storm killed at least 50 people in the United States
and at least 70 in other Caribbean countries.

It's a bit pathetic, really, that the aging comandante is
trying to score propaganda points by taking on a storm, but
that's where he is. For days, the indefatigable dictator
became the island nation's meteorologist in chief,
commandeering the airwaves to track the storm's progress
and to orchestrate preparations and evacuations. His
omniscient Communist Party turned itself into a formidable
Federal Emergency Management Agency. By the time Ivan
touched land, nearly 2 million people had been taken to
shelters. It isn't as if they had much choice, but perhaps
escaping Fidel Castro's televised harangues proved a sweet
inducement.

The party's block committees, created to police ideological
conformity, played a key role in minimizing the destruction
and loss of life, not only by overseeing evacuations but by
such things as being able to order people to clean trash
off their roofs before the storm hit. We wouldn't want to
see Cuba's Orwellian social controls exported, but perhaps
Havana's preparedness does offer some lessons for other
Caribbean nations.

Cuba's record on disaster prevention is impressive. After
October 1963, when Hurricane Flora devastated the island
and killed more than 1,000 people, the Cuban government
overhauled its civil defense system. It was so successful
that when six powerful hurricanes thumped Cuba between 1996
and 2002 only 16 people died. In 1998, for example, when
Hurricane George battered the island, only four people
died. Elsewhere in the region, about 600 people were
killed.

Still, there is something ghoulish about Castro trying to
rely on hurricanes to justify his people's lack of freedom.
He refused any outside aid, as if to equate the storms with
the U.S. economic embargo. In fact, don't be surprised if
Castro someday takes the next step and comes up with a
theory that blames hurricanes on the United States.

Copyright 2004 Los Angeles Times


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