Obama, Raul Castro and South Africa

Granma* did not print Obama’s speech in South Africa. It was humiliating for Raul Castro. Following the protocol of handshakes, Obama explained that we must not invoke Mandela’s name in vain. It would not be acceptable to celebrate the leader’s life and works and harass those who adhere to different ideas from the official ones. This would be called hypocrisy.

When he read his speech, without intending to, Raul gave credence to Obama. Without any reserves, he celebrated diversity as if he were presiding over Switzerland. As he was speaking, repression against democrats in Cuba raged with beatings, kicks and jail time. The spectacle embodied the platonic idea of hypocrisy.

To understand Cuba, it makes sense to look at South Africa. There are many similarities between the extinct apartheid and Castro’s dictatorship. Both systems were erected on ludicrous theories that led to abuse and authoritarianism.

The South African apartheid was inspired by the disgraceful American tradition of racial segregation, which was built upon the sophism of “two separate but equal societies,” a model that originated with the supposed superiority of whites, forged with the copious Jim Crow legislation in hand. When the National Party of South Africa made this its philosophy in 1948 and afterward fragmented the country into black territories, the horror began.

The Cuban dictatorship, in turn, sustains itself on Marxist-Leninist superstitions. The Communists have the exclusive privilege of organizing the Cuban coexistence. Even the constitution says so. They are sheltered by the certainty of “scientific” superiority. There can be no other voices because, through the Party, they are the vanguard of the proletariat, the class upon which the fabric of history articulates itself. Who knows why?

That infamous South Africa, fortunately gone, was basically divided into two racial castes: on one side, the whites, with all the rights and privileges, and on the other, the blacks and mulattoes, subjugated to second class — they were not even citizens.

Cuba is divided into two ideological castes: the Communists and their “revolutionary” sympathizers, fitted with all the rights, as opposed to the opposition, described as worms and scum and treated and mistreated with great contempt: They are even banned from university studies because it has been persistently stated that “the university is for revolutionaries.”

The defenders of racial segregation and South African apartheid legislated on people’s sentiments. One could not love someone of another race. One could not have sexual relations with them. Interracial marriage was not popular — not even caresses and kisses.

The defenders of the Cuban dictatorship decreed that one cannot have affectionate ties to exiles, political prisoners or opposition members. Ties were broken between parents and children, between siblings, between friends. Sometimes couples broke up.

Marriages with foreigners were not looked upon as good. The odd category of “hostile” was created. The political police spied on the wives of Communist, civil and military leaders in order to inform them of any adultery.

The revolution was also the owner of women’s groins.

Before the horror of apartheid, numerous nations began to push for regime change. It had to be done. It was the decent thing to do: Do away with that disgusting rubbish and peacefully substitute it with a pluralistic system based on agreement, democracy and equality under the law.

To achieve that, a United Nations-funded economic embargo was put into place. Faced with international pressure, the white government of Pretoria raised a ruckus and invoked its peculiar laws and constitution. It said it was exercising the sovereign right to self-determination, but no one paid it any mind. Above that vile, “nationalistic” alibi was decency: The black population could not be mistreated with impunity as if it were made of up animals.

Finally joining in was the United States, which was cowardly indecisive over the international embargo against South Africa. Cuba is one of the few countries on the planet that it [the U.S.] pressures in the economic field with the objective of changing a totalitarian and unjust regime to a democratic, pluralistic and inclusive one. This makes sense — to help these people be free, like what happened in South Africa. I suppose that, according to Obama, that would be the best way to honor Mandela.

*Editor’s Note: Granma is the Cuban Communist Party’s newspaper.