February 9, 2004
KNOW YOUR ENEMY:
Who Speaks for Liberty in Cuba?: 'What Does Hentoff Know of the Real Cuba?' (Nat Hentoff, February 6th, 2004, Village Voice)
Years ago, at the Cuban mission to the United Nations, I asked the revolutionary Cuban icon Che Guevara, who professed not to understand English, "Can you conceive of any time in the future when there will be free elections in Cuba?"Not waiting for the translator, Guevara laughed heartily at my simplemindedness. "In Cuba?" He said, and moved on. [...]
[I] am focusing on the stunning refusal of the great majority of the governing council of the American Library Association—so safely fearless in resisting John Ashcroft and his Patriot Act—to tell Fidel Castro to release the 75 prisoners, including the librarians.
There are those on the council who claim the April crackdown was Castro's response to increasing moves by the Bush administration to bring about regime change in Cuba—ranging from the embargo and other punitive laws to statements by Bush and Colin Powell indicating the need for Castro's removal.
These administration calls for the end of Castro's rule will, I believe, lead to further Castro crackdowns on independent Cuban journalists and human rights workers, who are not agents of the United States government any more than are the individuals in a number of countries who sent books and other materials to the independent librarians in the spirit of the Varela Project and to show independent Cubans that they were not alone.
I agree with many of the Varela signers who want the embargo lifted, and I think the administration's loose talk of regime change in Cuba is counterproductive macho posturing that does no one any good.
But why do the Castro defenders on the ALA's governing council have such influence that they have placed the entire American Library Association in the humiliating position of refusing to at least demand the release of fellow librarians in Cuba who have risked—and now suffer—so much to defend the freedom to read?
But they hate Ashcroft and like Fidel. Posted by Orrin Judd at February 9, 2004 7:05 PM
And because they know that, if they were Cuban, they would knuckle under without so much as a murmur.
Posted by: David Cohen at February 9, 2004 8:37 PMSo would most all of us. Because humans enjoy being alive, and no matter how degrading your lot might be, it can always get worse. It takes an awfully exceptional person to sincerely say "Live Free or Die."
Of course, these people are truly despicable cowards because they don't have fear for their personal safety as an excuse for kowtowing before a dictator.
Posted by: brian at February 9, 2004 10:25 PMI am a law librarian, which is a different breed of cat from most of the ALA's members; in fact, I'm not a member of the ALA. The ALA is a political advocacy group, plain and simple. The article states that the ALA is placed in a humiliating position. This is nothing new, they are constantly in a humiliating position.
Posted by: pchuck at February 10, 2004 12:12 PM