Manuel A. Tellechea

Evil is something which is ingrained in people's characters and cannot be uprooted any more than goodness can. Repentance is possible but always unlikely since self-justification is of more importance to most people than self-correction. In modern times there is no more remarkable an example of this than Herbert Matthews, who knew Cuba at its apex and helped it to reach its nadir. Matthews, more concerned about his feeble place in history than the great harm which he had done to generations of Cubans, died in Australia defending his Frankenstein's monster to the last. I did not know but should have supposed that there had to be a Canadian Matthews. There is always a Canadian equivalent of anyone who is odious and grotesque in the U.S. Being derivative is their identity (mark that sentence; it is the entire history of the Canadian people). Much as they try to differentiate themselves from their Southern neighbor, Canadians always manage to be more of the same, only blander, in that supernumerary, surplus kind of way.

The Canadian Herbert Matthews is called Michael Maclear. He was born in London and you can't get more Canadian than that. He was a tv correspondent in Cuba at the time of the triumph of the Revolution and his reportage from there "launched a hugely successful career as a foreign correspondent and documentary filmmaker," according to the Montreal Gazette, which interviewed him. So Maclear has good cause to say "Gracias, Fidel" and he still does. At 77, he returned to Cuba to survey the cost of his "hugely successful career." He even filmed, wrote and narrated a documentary about his return trip, which will premiere tonight on Canadian television. Cuba is still grist for his mill.

His hatred for the U.S., which is as ingrained in the Canadian MSM as in its American counterpart, enables him to still see Castro as a "hero," although having been there at the beginning he knows that being a revolutionary "hero" has nothing to do with heroism and everything to do with propaganda (i.e. using tools like Matthews and Maclear himself). He acknowledges that Castro used him and others more notable than him during his ascent to power to foster the myth of "Fidel Castro as poet/warrior." Castro is no more a poet than he is a warrior, but it is the warrior part that Maclear rejects: "Really, it wasn't like there were any great battles then. Batista's army basically laid down their arms, and Batista fled the country." That's good. There was no revolution; only random terrorist acts. This is the only myth about the Cuban Revolution that Maclear is, well, mac-clear about, much clearer in fact than Matthews, who saw mighty legions in the Sierra Maestra where there were only a handful of campers in camouflage. In the 1950s, Maclear was young and cynical and could see through such ruses, while the besotted Matthews, who shilled for Franco in the Spanish Civil War, was too invested in siding with the "angels" this time to realize that Lucifer was an angel too. Also, Castro and his henchmen were Maclear's contemporaries, and this also gave him an advantage over the sexagenerian Matthews.

But let us not give more credit to Maclear than he deserves. With the passage of time, he has become Herbert Matthews and now sees Cuba as dimly. He claims to still have a "fondness for the Cuban people" and "empathy" for their situation. He shows it by dismissing the 48-year tyranny that Castro has exercised over them as the cause of their woes, preferring, instead, to see them as victims of the "the world's longest-lasting David and Goliath confrontation." In Cuba's case, however, David has been aiming his slingshot at his own people rather than at the giant. Although he claims to have interviewed Cubans critical of the regime for his documentary, Maclear does not deny his bias, which is all the more shocking because he doesn't pretend that Cuba is something it is not. Elections there, he effortlessly concedes, are no exercise in democracy. Still, they are all the Cuban people deserve or want: "Cubans well know theirs is not a democracy, but it is theirs, no longer some colony for sale. It is a nation, hard won." Well, not so "hard won," as Maclear earlier admitted; more like ceded to them. Maclear does not say who "won the nation." The answer, of course, is the Castroite oligarchy. It is they who took Cuba, all of Cuba, 48 years ago as booty and have never relinquished "their" prize. If Cuba was an "American colony" before the Revolution, it was not by Cuba's doing. The fact that Cuba was made into a Soviet colony for 30 years and now into a Venezuelan province is entirely Fidel Castro's doing. When colonialism is imposed by a stronger state on a weaker one, it is a tragedy. But when it is agreed to by small clique in order to control a majority of the population, then it is treason.

In the documentary, Maclear uses archival footage of an interview which he conducted with Fidel Castro in 1959. In it he is told by Castro that "Cuba would have free elections, a multi-party system and not nationalize foreign companies." He does not blame Castro for lying to him or the Cuban people. He blames the U.S., instead, for not "reaching out to Castro when he was eminently reachable," that is, for not bribing him out of his Communist convictions and anti-American fanaticism. Maclear believes that Cuba was auctioned in 1959 and the Soviet Union was the top bidder. If so, it is Castro who closed the bidding.

Still, things have not turned out so badly for the Cubans, who are now the happy subjects of their homegrown tyrants, which Maclear confuses with the triumph of nationalism. He doesn't want Cuba to be judged by "First World standards" though he should know that Cuba was once a First World country like his own. He is transfixed by the fact that Cubans supposedly pay no taxes, though their blood and sinew bankroll the regime. Rents in Cuba are a nominal $1 per month, or so he claims. He fails to mention that although Cuba's population has doubled since 1959 its housing stock has decreased by one third and much of what remains is in a state of near-collapse. University is "free" he also claims, but fails to note that it was free before the Revolution for poor students and that no political test was ever applied for admission there before Castro. And, of course, universal [bad] health care is the Revolution's greatest achievement.

Most horrific of all, Maclear purports that Cuba is not a police state, or not so bad a police state. He rejects "the usual stereotypes of police being on every corner, of everybody being oppressed and downtrodden and in revolt. Cuba may be far from perfect, but it's just not like that, either." Of course, it is exactly like that and worse. He blames "the U.S. media" and the "anti-Castro faction in Florida" for perpetrating this image of Cuba on innocent Canadians like himself. "Westerners," he explains, "tend to look at Cuba through the standards of a first-world nation, but we have to accept the fact this is a very poor country trying to survive."

Though he lives very comfortably in the First World and would never approve of a Cuban solution to Canada's congenital colonialism, which is no less a national obsession for being largely illusory, Mr. Maclear is quite content that Cuba be governed by Third World standards, which requires it to forgo democracy and the Rule of Law in exchange for plutocracy and the rule of tourists.

Maclear's documentary, After Fidel, which should have been entitled "After Fidel, Raúl," airs this Friday in Canada on History Television at 8:00 PM. No doubt it shall find its way to some PBS channel soon.

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/preview/story.html?id=e792c3e3-f939-4746-a2b6-cad461343acd&p=1

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The "honest" ones amongst the Red Brigades admit 10 percent of the horrors they have personally witnessed in Castro's Cuba; the dishonest ones deny 100 percent.

fish_fanatic

It's interesting that you've formed such a strong and negative opinion on a documentary that you haven't even seen yet. If ignorance is bliss, then you should be one happy puppy.

Manuel A. Tellechea

fish fanatic:

One doesn't have to sample pornography in order to condemn it. Mr. Maclear's quotes show exactly who he is and what he thinks about tyranny in Cuba. He likes it. Do you?

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The "honest" ones amongst the Red Brigades admit 10 percent of the horrors they have personally witnessed in Castro's Cuba; the dishonest ones deny 100 percent.

fish_fanatic

You make a good point. Why would you want to actually learn something about what you are condemning? It might compromise your polarized position on everything.

I like the way you managed to condemn the entire nation of Canada in a few sentences. Another brilliant display of ignorance. Anyways, there was always a good reason why I never bothered to post on this site. You are a shining example. Adios.

Manuel A. Tellechea

fish fanatic:

Sometimes no answer is answer enough.

Since you are a "fish fanatic" as opposed to a people fanatic, it will please you to know that Cubans still are not legally permitted to own their own boats. The fish are safe even if the people are trapped. Raúl Castro, incidentally, just signed a decree allowing Cubans to own airplanes. Yes, airplanes. This will enable him and his henchmen to make a hasty departure should the occasion present itself. And you Canadians support with your tourist dollars this barbarous apparatus of repression. You should be as proud as Mexicans to lick Castro's boots and for the same reason — to spite the United States. At least Cubans don't have an inferiority complex in relation to the U.S.

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The "honest" ones amongst the Red Brigades admit 10 percent of the horrors they have personally witnessed in Castro's Cuba; the dishonest ones deny 100 percent.

Rick

Fish Fanatic, I'm guessing he's not a happy puppy at all. I hope you continue to post here in your non-frothing manner.

cubavida

The last time I checked, my money was going to the Cuban people in Cuba, not Fidel. I just can't remember having a drink with him. lol

__________________
No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

What other people think of you is none of your business.

Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

Written by Regina Brett, 90 years old, of the Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio.

gallofino

Well, well. Your rear your head occasionally and I see you are still using your adopted country's arrogant (just ask anyone who travels to vacation spots frequented by Americans) and "mightier-than-thou" tactics in some twisted hope that you will garner the wrath of Canadians and justify your festering hatred? Sad really. It is no mystery that you both abhor us for our ability to stay neutral and envy us because our government does not stop us from exercising our irrefutable right to travel wherever, whenever we wish. Its called freedom Manny. The Canadian government only issues bulletins warning of the danger of traveling to certain destinations. You are entitled to envy us, I suppose insult us too.

After decades of making absolutely no progress in you "cause", I empathize with your need to lash out in your own impotent little way... and of all people to lash out at, Canadians...lol!!! Just shows how you are really scraping the bottom of the barrel. Either that or you need to see your shrink and tell him to change your meds. Anyone who sees Canada and Canadians as overtly aggressive, puppets or supporters of wicked regimes must have their meds checked. NOW! You accuse Canadians of propping up Castro's wicked regime with tourist dollars (spent from the individual's free will) while the US props up (to the tune of over $10 Billion of tax payer money) Musharaf as he arrests thousands that oppose him and declares war on his own people to maintain his grip on power. Yeah, good one Manny.

Then of course, through all your first hand Cuba experience, you come up with little gems like this; "it will please you to know that Cubans still are not legally permitted to own their own boats." That would mean that private boats in Caibarien and Corralio (and the hoops I had to jump through to get permission to board them) are all a figure of my imagination and the photos all doctored? Thanks for clarifying that Manny. I thought I was on privately-owned (albeit pre-1959) fishing boats in Cuba. According to you, I must have been imagining the whole thing because Cubans cannot own boats. Even the fantastic, fresh fish feasts at fishermen's houses afterwards. All not true in Mannyland.

Thanks for setting me straight. And my Friday morning chuckle. Oh and for the heads up on the documentary. I'll try to watch it then form my opinion.

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"Reality is invisible" Jorge Luis Borges

"They must find it difficult...
Those who have taken authority as the truth...
Rather than truth as the authority..."

G. Massey - Egyptologist

“What heart is not set aflame by the promise of freedom?” - Fidel Castro, 1953.

Manuel A. Tellechea

Really? That's like saying that you buy at the company store but all your money goes to the workers.

Every cent that you spend in Cuba eventually finds its way to Fidel Castro's pocket. That drink that you bought your Cuban friend, unless you brought the bottle from Canada, was manufactured by Castro's slaves in Castro's distillery and sold in either a store or bar owned by Castro. You are lucky if he didn't charge you rental for the glass, because he "owns" that too like everything else in Cuba.

Can you really be that naive?

Apparently so.

__________________
The "honest" ones amongst the Red Brigades admit 10 percent of the horrors they have personally witnessed in Castro's Cuba; the dishonest ones deny 100 percent.

Manuel A. Tellechea

gallofino:

Yes, yes, the Canadians are the "Good Americans." That's part of your national mythology. You don't intervene militarily in other countries; you are just content, like carrion, to scrape the bones clean. All hail Canadians, scavengers of the world's misery! Yes, I do "abhor you for your ability to stay neutral" before an unmitigated evil. Your "irrefutable right to travel" is not shared by the Cuban people, who not only cannot travel abroad without the regime's permission but even require its assent to move from province to province or city to city. In fact, Cubans even require permission to move from house to house on the same street or for an overnight stay at a friend's. You exercise your "irrefutable right to travel" at the expense of the Cuban people whose tyrannical regime you underwrite by your meanderings in a police state where you feel especially empowered because you can pretend, somewhere in the world, that you are Americans.

What you are saying is that an octogenerian Cuban, who owned a boat before 1959, may still hold title to it. The overwhelming majority of Cubans were born after 1959. But we know, of course, why Castro doesn't want Cubans to own boats. Cuba needs its impressed slaves to people your amusement park.

__________________
The "honest" ones amongst the Red Brigades admit 10 percent of the horrors they have personally witnessed in Castro's Cuba; the dishonest ones deny 100 percent.

grichf

So what is the problem? We are not involved in your embargo, nor are we trying to force a change in government. That is the business of cubans, not our problem. China, and Saudi Arabia are far worse countries for abuse of human rights and you choose to have normal relations with them.
You have a bilateral issue with Cuba. Solve it, but don't involve us.

gallofino

M.A.T. is inherently incapable of getting his point across without broadcasting insults outside of where they belong, which is just as often with the regime he props up as the one he attacks. That's when and why he gets nasty. Typical mentalista attitude (much like Fidel's) is to deflect blame onto others, even third parties in order to cover the fact that your own arguments do not stand up to scrutiny or as in Manny's case, his need to exaggerate the negative aspects of day to day Cuban life because reality doesn't cut it while he conveniently ignores counterpoints much like the Musharaf one I made earlier. Not sure how it would feel to rant for decades on end about what Fidel (or any other regime) did to his country and countrymen, yet in those decades not be able to, despite unlimited pocket depth, political and individual will, topple the cruel and unfair regime and "liberate" his people and probably change the name of the fair land to Mannylandia.

He will soon tire of lashing out at us and retreat back to his festering cage where he can hone his hatred and come back for more nonsense. Must be a pretty sad existence and in the traditional Canadian way, we should be as charitable as possible for the pobre heridito...

__________________
"Reality is invisible" Jorge Luis Borges

"They must find it difficult...
Those who have taken authority as the truth...
Rather than truth as the authority..."

G. Massey - Egyptologist

“What heart is not set aflame by the promise of freedom?” - Fidel Castro, 1953.

saborami

gallo, I went to his blog site...who is this Manny and what turns his crank? Well...after reading a few of his blogs I wanted to kill myself. Whew, man oh man does that guy ever froth at the mouth...like a rabid dog. betchya he's a regular blast at a party.

__________________
Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.
__________________
Saby

Manuel A. Tellechea

Sabo:

Thank-you for your visit to my blog (which can be accessed by clicking my name). It was not, however, your first; but I appreciate the kind words. I may even use them in the masthead. Obviously, if I am driving you to the brink of suicide, I must be doing something right.

__________________
The "honest" ones amongst the Red Brigades admit 10 percent of the horrors they have personally witnessed in Castro's Cuba; the dishonest ones deny 100 percent.

Manuel A. Tellechea

gallo:

Nothing that you can say about George Bush or America's wars of aggression will ever earn a rebuttal from me except when you assert that Canadians are better than Americans. They are not. In a future Free Cuba, it is "Canadian" that will be a byword for exploiter. In fact, it already is. I won't lecture you again on how "cordially" you are hated by Cubans on the island. But rest assured, some day they will not hate you cordially.

__________________
The "honest" ones amongst the Red Brigades admit 10 percent of the horrors they have personally witnessed in Castro's Cuba; the dishonest ones deny 100 percent.

saborami

Darth darling, f.u.c.k. you and the dark horse you rode in on. Don't be so optimistic, it would take a lot more for me to kill myself than reading the rants of a narcissitic freak.

__________________
Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.
__________________
Saby

Manuel A. Tellechea

"Well...after reading a few of his blogs I wanted to kill myself." — saborami

Well, there you go again. Like every true left-winger making promises that you don't intend to keep.

__________________
The "honest" ones amongst the Red Brigades admit 10 percent of the horrors they have personally witnessed in Castro's Cuba; the dishonest ones deny 100 percent.

saborami

Darth baby, ya might want to do a little research on narcissism, & enlist the help of a professional....Narcissism is listed in the DSM as a severe psychological disorder that impedes a person's ability to function (emotionally and mentally appropriate) in the real world, you know ....with people.

__________________
Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.
__________________
Saby

saborami

Bingo! Narcissitic people believe they are entitled to lecture people. & likewise, they believe they are doing "us" a favor when they don't. LMAO...Darth, ya a freak!

__________________
Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.
__________________
Saby

Canadaianbird

I was gonna stay out of this but this one made me feel vomitous. We dont sew US flags on our backpacks when we go to Europe. Most Canadians I know do not want to be Americans.

REDNECK

EXCELLENT self diagnosis, Shabby! Folks, sometimes we need to parse her words. Notice that she didn't specify on whose behalf she suggests "Darth" enlisting the help of a professional. You see, Shabby, you have taken the first step by admitting (even indirectly) you have a disorder.

Manuel A. Tellechea

"Most Canadians I know do not want to be Americans." — Canadaianbird

That "most" is very telling.

__________________
The "honest" ones amongst the Red Brigades admit 10 percent of the horrors they have personally witnessed in Castro's Cuba; the dishonest ones deny 100 percent.

saborami

yeah, my disorder is having to share cyber space with morons like you.

__________________
Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.
__________________
Saby

REDNECK

Even though you don't own cyberspace, you insist that everyone on it meets your "needs", you're having a Narcissistic relapse!

saborami

the epitomy of dellusions is inventing things, you know Red, pulling them out of your ass, something you do with earnestness and consitancy time and time again. Where have I ever insisted that people here meet my needs? You are dellusional and predictably pathetic. You can't string two scentences together that make sence nor come even close to something that resembles the truth.

you should trade in your white pointy hat for a dunce cap.

__________________
Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.
__________________
Saby