[Marxism] Brazil's Lula meets Fidel Castro, offers credit

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

It's like a conditioned reflex, like Pavlov's memorable canine. If we
get some news that some government or leader somewhere is favorable to
Cuba, will trade with or lend money to or invest in Cuba, the Militant
Army of Illusion-Busters will leap forward to warn us against any of 
this. They constitute a "tut-tut-tut" brigade. It's as if they had 
memorized Emily Dickenson's poem in which a mother warns her daughter
against swimming:

"Know-it-all" ism is one of the diseases from which radicals who live in
the so-called "advanced" capitalist countries at times suffer from badly.
It's a mental propensity which we all need to be cognizant of, I think.

There's a kind of imperial arrogance which we are all subject to as
we were raised with the idea that we live in God's own country (the
United States), the "Lucky Country" as they sometimes like to call
themselves down under in Australia, and I don't know what kind of
self-glorifying terms they use in Canadia and in the UK, but it can
be a problem. How can we learn anything if we think we have all of
the answers already? No es facil (it isn't easy), as Cubans sometimes
are known to say.

Cubans still think they have something to learn from others, which is
why they often sit down with and have discussions with people who have
ideas which aren't the same as their own. Here we have Cuban Communists
talking with a capitalist party from Chile. Below that we have Chavez
talking to Nicaraguan capitalists.

Even that old man Fidel Castro talks to reformist-minded workers like
Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva, who currently occupies an interesting
elected position: President of Brazil, a country with a population of
some 200 MILLION. Why would the leader of a little country with just
eleven million want to talk to someone like Lula? Why would Lula want
to talk to someone like Fidel, who the capitalist media repeatedly
argue is either dead or irrelevant?

AL-JAZEERA VIDEO OF LULA AND FIDEL:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSAGxJhUbi4 

There's something truly warped about the way some radicaloids jump
up to show ofF their denunciatory muscles whenever someone speaks up
in favor of doing something which could reduce the distance between
Cuba and anyone else on the planet earth. Obama wants to end limits
on travel and remittances for Cuban-Americans? Let's jump up now and
denounce Obama from hell to breakfast. China and Vietnam offer trade
and credits to Cuba? Let's denounce China ferociously. North Korea
doesn't generate so much denunciations from these circles, but if it
were more prominent, I'm sure that it would. South Africa as well as
Zimbabwe support, trade, receive doctors from, and send their youth
to study medicine in Cuba? Let's attack Mugabe and Mbeki por favor.

Lula goes to Cuba and meets with Fidel? Washington launches a fight
against Cuban business. That's Washington's response to the visit 
Lula made to Cuba this week. Details:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/message/78418 
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/cuba/story/382480.html 

These self-appointed guardians of the public consciousness claim they
are fighting hard against illusions. THEY, of course, are completely
free of illusions. They know everything. They have no illusions about
ANYTHING. Perfectly perfect perfectionists, that's what they are.

BLASÉ BONPANE'S REMINDER ABOUT PERFECTIONISM IN LIGHT OF MONCADA:
The point is that it was an attack that would be called naive; it is
an attack that would be called poorly planned; it is an attack that
was a failure, and in the history of social and political change, it
is a day of glory for the Cuban people, and for people interested in
liberation all over the world. Because what it proves to us is that
perfectionism is not part of the program. We don't wait to do the
perfect thing before we do something. Those who are waiting for
perfection will live and die without doing anything.
http://www.walterlippmann.com/bonpane-religion-and-revolution.html 


Walter Lippmann
Tlatelolco, Mexico City
in transit between two different idea center:
"un paraiso bajo el bloqueo" and "Disneylandia"
======================================================================

Cuban and Chilean Party Representatives Meet in Havana

Havana, Jan 17 (acn) Representatives of the Cuban Communist Party
(PCC) and the Party for Democracy (PPC) of Chile met on Wednesday in
Havana to exchange ideas about the reality of both countries and to
discuss ways to increase bilateral ties.

Fernando Remirez de Estenoz, head of the Foreign Relations Department
at the PCC's Central Committee, said that the PPD, of the Chilean
ruling alliance, has made history in the fight against the former
dictatorship of Pinochet and in favor of democracy.

In the bilateral aspect, he noted that the PCC and the PPD have had
fraternal ties for many years that also reflect the historic bonds of
friendship between the Cuban and Chilean peoples.

For his part, Guido Girardi, the PPD President, said they hope that
these bilateral relations will increase.

Girardi, who is also the President of the Health Commission of the
Chilean Senate, explained that he heads a progressive agenda that
includes topics such as the environment, the defense of native and
indigenous peoples and of other social sectors.

He also reaffirmed their commitment to the defense of the planet and
expressed their support of the reflections by Cuban President Fidel
Castro, particularly those related to the dangers of bio-fuels for
humanity because of their negative impact on the environment.

The visiting delegation, which will stay on the island for a week,
also includes deputy Patricio Halex and Alejandro Bahamonde, the PPD
treasurer.



Chavez Suggests Regional Food Production Project

Havana, Jan 17 (acn) In the same way Petrocaribe exists as a
mechanism to provide oil under more favorable terms for Latin
American countries, a similar effort could be made to stimulate food
production in the region, said Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias
in Quito on Wednesday.

During an address in the Nicaraguan capital to an auditorium of
business executives, small-scale farmers and cooperative members,
Chavez reviewed the prospects for cooperation in this sector between
Venezuela and Central America, reported Prensa Latina.

The establishment of a regional integration mechanism to meet food
consumption needs of Latin America should be addressed at the
upcoming Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) summit to be
held in Caracas January 24 and 25, suggested the Venezuelan leader.

"Our calling is to convert Central America, the Caribbean into that
great union envisioned by [Jose] Marti, a true world power, which can
exist here if we join together. Separated, we remain divided and
condemned to misery, backwardness, colonialism and dependency," said
Chavez.

In his exchange with Nicaraguan business executives, Chavez spoke on
the central issues related to a world development crisis, pointing
out that difficulties faced in the energy sector are at the centre of
this crisis and would increase.

Referring to the energy crisis in Nicaragua, partially alleviated by
Venezuelan assistance, Chavez announced the arrival in the coming
days of new generators to complete the donation of 120 megawatts of
capacity.

Chavez analyzed the results of his tour of the region, which also
included Guatemala and Honduras and added that the presidency of
Daniel Ortega had opened new possibilities for Central America.
==================================================================

Chile-Cuba Friendship Highlighted
(Prensa Latina - Synthesis - January 17, 2008)

Havana.- Guido Girardi, PPD president Chilean Party for Democracy,
noted on Wednesday the links of friendship and bilateral cooperation
between Cuba and Chile. During a meeting with Fernando Remirez de
Estenoz, member of PCC (Cuban Communist Party) Central Committee,
Girardi said he shared the criticism made by the Cuban government on
the use of biofuels. Girardi added that capitalism is reviving a sort
of holocaust, in a context in which selfishness works as a cancer in
the planet, and he spoke of the achievements of Chile after the
instauration of democracy and human rights, with the end of the
dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Among these, he pointed to the life
expectancy of Chileans, now 83 years of age for women and 79 for men,
and reduction of poverty.
==================================================================

FROM MARACAIBO, BENEZUELA:
Dear list- below find my reply to the writer of the article on
Cuba/Brazil:


I am in Maracaibo, the city of big oil, although I was born in Chile, and
one of the first words I learned in English was 'Kissinger.'

Something interesting about your article's title: "Brazil's outreach to
Cuba may dilute Venezuela's influence" is that it is evidence, or proof,
of something I have always tried to tell people here- 

The Cuban MDs coming here and Fidel are NOT influencing Venezuela, but
rather, Cuba is being influenced by this culture-rich country.

I grew up in a local US overseas 'oil brats' school, and one of my best
friends was granddaughter of a lady who left Cuba on the same airplane as
Batista. The old woman was always wlaking around their gigantic apartment
dressed up as if for an Italian catwalk, complaining that Fidel had ruined
their parties- and it seems they were in a party together when the
Revolution came about. My friend and I thought she was just nuts. But
years later, when I lived in Miami Beach for some 8 months, I came to know
Miami Cubans, and they are a nasty lot! They have turned Miami into a city
of latinamerican thieves, who practically built the city from stolen
money, as Europe came out of its dirty past stealing Colombia and Peru's
gold.

Cuba used to be the USA's whorehouse- at least it isn't that anymore!

As for Chavez, I grew up and am still considered part of the squalids
because of my skin color- but then again, that's also the reason I drove
like crazy from Louisiana, where I lived in Baton Rouge, to Miami, got on
an airplane with my 3-month old baby, and in 12 years have never even
considered the idea of returning to the USA, even as my kids and mother
used to go there shopping. I guess the hurricane proved that I was right
about those Louisiana racist things!

Before, I lived in Alabama, when we got to know Florida, because before
that, my Chilena mother always said Miami was full of poor people stuffed
with money they didn't know how to handle, so we always went shopping in
NYC- Miami is a nasty 'barrio', full of 'tierruos', and sorry for using
that snobbish word, but Miami people are gross.

And BTW, most people I know from childhood contacts have at least one
house or condo in Miami, and its just a weekend place... today, I only
move among street/working children, and fight child prostitution, which is
pushed forward not by Cubans or Brazilians or Vzlans, but by USAers. They
also love coming here for the 'pure' cocaine- in fact, from what I've been
seeing since I was 13 or so, globalization is just a good excuse for
executives to move to places where they get cheap, pure drugs and easy2fck
little girls/boys. 

Vanessa Di Domenico
Maracaibo, Venezuela


====================================================================
"DR. NO" writes:
"Sometimes I wonder if you read the bullshit you post to the list."
--------------------------------------------------------------------
"Being "back in the fold" does not mean deepening the Bolivarian 
revolution."
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/marxism/2008-January/022653.html 
====================================
JOHN EDMUNDSON writes:
Raul and Fidel obviously welcome any act by a country that undermines
the blockade but I doubt they are unaware that it brings with it huge
risks. The greatest help Cuba could get, and I'm sure Fidel has made
this point before, would be the deepening of the revolution in
Venezuela, because that would truly break the blockade by bringing
about non-capitalist "trade" between those countries, and possibly
bring closer the possibility of meaningful unification within Latin
America. It's possible that at that point Lula would either become a
small mention in the history books or be driven to the left himself.
Castro and Chavez both seem to express greater faith in him than I do. 
I sincerely hope they're right.
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/marxism/2008-January/022672.html 


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