I woke up this morning with the urge to read "that story about the Cuban spies" that everyone has been mentioning to me over the past few days. I'm interested for multiple reasons, the first of which is that this is America. That means there is very rarely any truth whatsoever in stories contained in the mainstream media about Cuba and especially about US-Cuba relations. {Let's face it, we are the most unapologetically capitalist country in the world, to the point of being quite imperialistic about it. Cuba is decidedly the most anti-capitalistic country in the world, save for North Korea, and unlike North Korea, Cuba has little to no urge to obtain nuclear weapons and it lies a mere 90 miles off the coast Florida.} The second reason I was interested to read the story, or at least one of the versions of the story, is that I wanted to see what the slant is. After all, this story is miraculously popping up only a few days after the announcement that Cuba has been re-admitted into the OAS (Organization of American States), something it was voted out of in 1962. You can read about that here:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/cuba/5439937/Cuba-admitted-to-OAS-after-47-years-in-overturn-of-Cold-War-landmark.html
As it turns out, not to my surprise, Fidel Castro also thought is was a little opportunistic for the United States to catch two spies in it's ranks right now. According to the Associated Press:
"Castro called the case of two Americans accused of spying for Cuba "strange" Saturday and questioned whether the timing of their arrests was politically motivated.
"Doesn't the story of Cuban spying seem really ridiculous to everyone?" Castro asked, without commenting on its validity.
"Without commenting on its validity." Like he or anyone in his position would actually comment one way or another. Anyway, it's interesting.
In any case, here's a link to the story, so you all can read it for yourself
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/06/why-cuban-spies-are-so-di_n_212216.html
What I am interested in is why anyone would be surprised that Cuba would have spies in the United States. After all, America has done everything in its power to marginalize the country ever since the Castro regime took power in one of the most successful revolutionary coups in the history of the world. Furthermore, why they would be surprised that someone who works deep within the American governmental apparatus just might be one of the "true believers" (see above article) that the Castro regime routinely tries to recruit as foreign spies on their behalf. I say this not because I am personally a true believer in the ongoing revolutionary example that is Cuba, but because it actually makes perfect sense that a highly regarded, uber-intelligent, State Department worker like Walter Kendall Meyers and his wife Gwendolyn, would be believers in the polar opposite of capitalism, and that they would be admirers of the leadership of Fidel Castro. Why? Because, the evidence is in folks.
American style free-market capitalism is a historical dismal failure, and the most highly regarded internationally recognized scholars in the fields of economics and social politics have long agreed that the world's life expectancy has been drastically lowered by the hegemonic use of American capitalism across the globe. I know, I should be providing evidence here for that kind of blanket statement. But, this is just my morning blog entry. If you want evidence, read the following: Your Money or Your Life, Confessions of an Economic Hitman, Why American's Hate Welfare, The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein, and anything else from a vast and ever growing list of exhaustive exposes of how exactly American free-market capitalism has wreaked havoc on the rest of the world, while duping Americans into believing they will someday achieve the "American dream" if they just continue to spend, spend, spend.
Here's the point: You can't be an idiot and work through retirement at the State Department. Well, okay, maybe under certain administrations you could have been. However, you certainly couldn't be an idiot and spend 30 years spying for the Cuban government while working at the American State Department, which is what the Meyers did. So I ask, is it really that surprising or shocking or unanticipated to find supporters of an economic system like that of Castro's Cuba alive and well in the upper echelons of the American government? The smartest people in the world, at least from the academic perspective, exist within the American governmental system and that of the academy. And there is an overwhelming consensus among them that free-market capitalism has failed. They may never admit it, but they know it is true, and what they don't want to talk about - what they can't ever talk about for fear of retribution - is that the only other system that has continued to work well, when judged by the equality of access to services and goods among given populations, is that of socialism in it's many different forms. It is very easy for hegemonic American capitalists to say that Castro's Cuban form of Socialism has failed, but that opinion is baseless when you consider the massive embargo that Cuba has operated from under for all of these decades. In Cuba (as a percentage of the population), more people read, more people graduate from college, and everyone has access to adequate health care. Take away the embargo and the stigma that has been tied around Cuba's neck by American propagandistic forces around the world, and Cuba's Socialism stands as the poster child for a healthy economic blueprint.
So, am I surprised that there are intellectuals working for the State Department that believe Cuba's model makes more sense than America's? No. And I don't think Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Naomi Klein, nor most of our other most celebrated intellectuals would either. What does surprise me, however, is that the American government contains within it people who are progressive and courageous enough to actually become part of the international movement to help Cuba get itself out of the proverbial doghouse that America has worked so damn hard to put her in. But, it gives me hope. May the rest of the patriots of equality and human rights come out of the woods and challenge American free-market capitalism to a dual. I, for one, am ready to fight with you.
In Solidarity,
-Chris Robin Cox
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