People waiting, with a stick or a knife under the bed for a day they can use them. Entrenched hatred against those who betrayed them, denied them a better job, or made sure their youngest child couldn’t study at the university. There are so many waiting for possible chaos to give them the time necessary for revenge, that one would wish not to have been born in this age, when one can only be a victim or victimizer, when so many yearn for the night of the long knives.
We can only hope it never comes to this. It’s too horrible to contemplate.
Fidel and Raul Castro are murders that are killed thousands of persons, and more than 200 are suffering prison only for think different. They and others communist and murders have to pay and they will.
Peter —
My ‘gut’ agrees with with you by my mind does not. First of all Fidel and Raul are going to ‘pay’ by dying… as we all must in the end. If, for a moment, they can realize everything they worked their whole lives for will come to nothing… that without them Cuba will come to everything — they everything they stand for and stood for is going to end up in the dustbin of history, and them along with it, that one moment of awareness would be enough. Although really they stood for nothing but their own craziness and greed… so you know really — who cares about them. who cares at all. let them die and be remembered only as a past horror, now gone.
As for the rest… what would be accomplished. There is no end to revenge. It is never over. Think about the future. Think about the young people.
Think not of an environment of hatred and revenge… think only of an environment of peace and freedom where people can live out their lives and achieve their dreams.
If there are people responsible for the deaths of others, let them go to prison and live out their lives away from everyone else. Let that be punishment enough.
But do not try to build a new world on hatred and revenge. It kills those who exact it just as much as it kills those who are its victims. Victim, victimizer…there is no difference in the end.
this is such a beautiful photograph
This is a decidedly pessimistic web posting by Yoani.
For anyone thinking of revenge after the fall of the Castro regime, I would remind them of what Mahatma Gandhi said about revenge: “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” Or Sir Francis Bacon: “In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior.”
In cuba it is the young. in miami it is my parent’s generation that is filled justifiable hate… and a fear of their brethren that is tragicomic.
This is the COMMUNIST WAY!Whether is cubans in Cuba or cubans on the US and abroad we need to stop wanting REVENGE! THIS IS HOW CASTRO DIVES FAMILY AND THE PEOPLE!! When you divide peope you DIVIDE POWER! I dont want to vote on Cuba’s free elections (if they ever happen), its the cubans in the island who shoud decide their destiny but without revenge in their harts! IF I COULD VOTE in the future, I would VOTE for YOANI FOR PRESIDENT, SI SE PUEDE CONO!!!
Humberto Capiro
Those of us who live in a free society and not expose to what is happening inside Cuba at this time, we can condemn this last message from Yoani as full of hate and revenge, however when you have been mistreated for so long and lets say that either your son, daughter, mother father, brother or sister had been murdered by supporters of the system, how could you not harbor this kind of thoughts and who are we to judge them as to how they feel?
You may say it is unproductive to think this way and instead we should forgive those who had done us bad, but you have to be in their shoes and perhaps you may harbor the same feelings toward your enemies.
Think about it.
I don’t think the MESSAGE is full of hate and revenge… and I’m not sure that’s what other people are saying either.
I think if this happened it would be a symptom of hate and revenge… understandable, but tragic.
I don’t judge people who feel this way… I’ve felt hateful and wishing I could get revenge on people for a LOT LESS THAN CUBANS HAVE HAD TO PUT UP WITH!!!
But I do hope this doesn’t happen. At least not in any large scale way.
I know in my own life, harboring and nursing my hatred hurts me and my life more than it hurts my ‘enemies’.
The riverboat “XX Aniversario, the “13 de Marzo” tugboat, How many boats have been sunk by the bloody Castro’s tyranny during the last 50 years, causing the death of innumerable innocents children, women and men? Only 10% of the floating mass of the icebergs is visible above the water, the rest below the water isn’t. The same thing happens with these mass murders, where only 10% is of public knowledge, the rest below the water isn’t know yet.
One thing that is unavoidable is change, and when it happens will not be possible to pardon and forget. It is absolutely necessary to judge and condemn the crimes perpetrated by the high-ranking officials of Castro’s tyranny. ¡Justice most be done!
This is a heartbreaking one. Like “Uterus on Strike” and the one about your friend in the hospital (can’t remember title) where you describe the lack of everything at the Cuban hospital.
A suggestion – if you read our history – and I have “Cuba Mito Y Realidad” being my favorite … you will read how even before the Castro brothers and their incomparable cruelty & crimes against humanity, whenever Cuba had a change in government (by election or coup d’etat) revenge was common and killings did occur. How about something different this time? Bring them to a Nuremberg type trial and let the law decide. The Cuban people that have been murdered or harmed will get justice and NOT become murderers themselves. Just a thought.
@ JohnTwo – good quotes 😉 If I may add Mr. Lincoln’s “With Malice toward NONE and Charity to all” After the Civil War – 1 million dead.
Their time (Castro +) is coming as it normally does, nothing lasts forever. I (and my family as well as many others) have suffered a great deal do to this communist regime, but again…as an old song lyrics states…
Don’t hang on, nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky
It slips away, and all your money won’t another minute buy.
Dust in the wind, all we are is dust in the wind
Dust in the wind, everything is dust in the wind.
Change is inevitable! The end is near and I am anxious to see it live from Miami.
AND on Wednesday, april 29, at 56 S. Raymond Avenue. in Pasadena, Ca…7:30 pm…Christopher P. Baker will be hosting a love fest to the Castro Regime.
Unfortunately, we have been hearing this kind of talk, although mostly from folks sitting comfortably in Miami, for at least 30 years. I’ve always been curious to see that a nation founded on “revolution” has been sitting by (or voting with their feet) all these many years while people in less developed countries with little education and resources actually do something-or try to.
NO I’m NOT promoting insurrection!
I’m just noticing that nobody in Cuba talks to me about “sticks under the bed”.
Maybe it’s a bit like the little kid who backs away from the bully saying “oh yeah, well you better leave me alone or you’re gonna get it”.
M.
I can understand how Yoani and the people in Cuba feel about their situation. I feel guilty, living two thousand miles away in relative comfort (although cold and snowed in at times) and not sharing in the physical hardships due to chance and circumstance. I ask myself what right do we have to tell people who’ve endured such difficulties and suffering for so long how they should feel, or what they should do to release their frustrations.
Nevertheless, in reviewing history, and trying to sift which past conflicts were followed by relative peace and harmony, vs. where peace failed and war continued, I’m on the side of keeping a cool head and forgiving.
In order to build a prosperous society that will lead to prosperity and well being for all concerned and their children, everyone’s contribution will be required, including that of those who are currently misguided in their behavior.
Lucky for all concerned Cubans, this should all be resolved in a relatively short period of time and without divine intervention, – i.e. time and old age is catching up with the dysfunctional demon plagued old characters.
I can just see history repeating itself: certain people from the old guard crying as they walk past the casket of the dictators, just as when Stalin and Breshznev moved on to join Lenin. Shortly afterwards, new younger, intelligent leaders arise, denouncing the old dictators. If things stay on cue, this will be followed by the toppling of the statues and mausoleums dedicated the characters built for themselves, hopefully with many joining in. Not long after, free elections!!
Yes we have much to look forward to, all thanks to the ticking biological clock inside the coma-andante and his brother.
May be I’m wrong , but, the feeling I have from my guts, is that both brothers (Fidel and Raul) will die by “natural causes” – I would like to be wrong about it, because, that means, that both will go to hell without paying “the price down here in hearth”-, then, the rest of the “main gang” will die the same way.
The rest of the murders, some of them will be punished, some of them will escaped- in fact, a lot of them are already out of Cuba, leaving as a “political refugees” even in USA, talking by TV, Radio, etc, etc, “cleaning his past behind their new mask of defectors, after been murdered a lot of peoples”.
I hope that the “Revenge” will not be the way to punish the guilty guys, but servicing the justice will be the right one.Of course that there are thousand of them that deserve the punishment , but , if the justice is took it by revenge, then Cuba will be a very big River of Blood!!!!!,,no doubts about it!!!!
Candido
I deeply admire Yoanni and her convictions but unfortunately the knives have stayed sheathed far too long in Cuba. The reality of that is that in this life for a human being to really live they must have freedom; without freedom life is not worth living.
Therefore, freedom + liberty are worth dying for.
Sadly many Cubans have adapted to living as animals do without freedom; and doing most all the Castro masters have asked them to do. These people have given up their humanity, dignity and souls. Those things cannot be regained unless blood is spilled. Freedom is never FREE, it always exacts a price from those who want to preserve it.
Admiration for you from someone who was a Communist for many years – up to the invasion of Czechoslovakia in l968. Go strong,but go slow one bit at a time and take the changes as welcome changes, but go for more but remembering that what Cuba has is worth preserving and what you aspire for is worth fighting for, and don’t sell your country to anyone.