Cuba Si, Yankee No! Last night, I had the good fortune of shaking hands with the good man who coined this phrase - Max Lesnick.
Lesnick was inspired by Eddie Chibas and was student leader of the Cuban Orthodox Party at the University of Havana in the 50s. He was the voice (over radio and in the papers) of the party and played a significant part in the Cuban Revolution. He was one of the student leaders and Castro was 4 years younger and member of the same party. Both were close friends and spend 2 weeks living alone together when hiding from the military government. Lesnick left Havana for Little Havana in Miami when Fidel joined hands with the Soviet Union in 1961 because he didn't believe in communism and felt that the move was not right for Cuba. He says he's a Moderate - he's not a communist, he's a friend of Castro even if they have their disagreements, and will fight to his death for lifting the ruthless US trade embargo on Cuba and for reconciliation between the Cubans on the island and those in Miami. Lesnick's daughter has made a movie on her dad's struggle for peace and I caught it at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. Lesnick was there and took questions from the crowd after the movie. He's an amazing guy. He's fought for peace and equality for the people in his country all his life. When he moved to Miami, just because he didn't want to kill Castro, he was labeled a communist and his family was targeted. He started a local magazine called Replica and tried to air his opinions on the local radio. His offices were bombed 11 times and many drive-by shootings were attempted. His neighbour and good friend was assassinated. All this of course was done under the eyes of the cops and the FBI by people like Orlando Bosch and what's his name Posada (the two who planned the bombing of Cubana 455 in Barcelona in the 70s). (Lesnick, when asked in the movie why he thinks he's still alive says, "I was very lucky".) But he refuses to give up for what he believes in, and that for me was inspirational. In the 90s when he first returned to Cuba, he was greeted by his old friends and taken straight to Castro. Apparently Castro's first question to him was "why did you leave Cuba?" When Lesnick gave his reply about the Soviets and Communism, Castro responded "you would have done the same thing if you were in my position." After the movie we asked him how he feels about what Castro had said. Lesnick said Castro was right. He said, if Fidel hadn't taken support from the Soviets, the US would have crushed Cuba. He had no option. This reminded me of the dissussion on Zest about Lama (a.k.a LLama) and the need for protection under a stronger state. Lesnick himself seemed to comment repeatedly about how he'll fight for peace for the cubans, cuban americans, and americans - he kept emphasising the "and also people of america" part. I didn't know if including "americans" is again political. Seriously, what's the spin with that? Anyway, it was a good movie. It's called The Man of Two Havanas. I think Lesnick is good man and he's fighting for things like coexistence. He's 76. Hope he sees the ruthless trade embargo lifted in his lifetime. Catch the movie if you get a chance. On 13 Mar 2007 05:20:23 -0700, Thomas Victor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Dear ZESTAlternative, For once, an Ashis Nandy article I dislike. I liked his "Plato gets away with his blatant advocacy for buggery of children; Emmanuel Kant and Karl Marx, with their open and unalloyed racism; and Milton, with child abuse." Other than that, this article is quite bogus. Nandy must be living in a dream state if in March 2006 he imagines that any country could follow Gandhi's ideals and still survive! Either a country has to be able to defend itself or it has to be under the protection of another strong state. The strange 'pacifism' advocated by Gandhi is actually actively promoted by the West. They tell everyone how great Saint Gandhi's pacifism was while at the same time they attack and occupy other countries, killing lakhs of people, torturing thousands more! Of course they would love for the third world people to not resist, that's why they pay lip service to Gandhi, while doing the opposite of what he believed. And we, the English speaking stupid Indians, are foolish enough to believe it!. Ashis Nandy is thrilled that Einstein was a fan of Gandhi. Really? Einstein actively petitioned the US Governmant to develop the first atomic bombs which were then soon dropped on Japan inspite of the fact that Japan was contacting the US regarding terms of surrender. And what why 2 bombs - wasn't the first one enough? Hiroshima and Nagasaki were possibly the worst war crimes of all time.So much for nonviolence-loving Einstein. Basically the British, very few in number, conquered vast India using superior weapons and superior tactics of divide-and-conquer. Gandhi loved the common Indian people and they united behind him. That was what defeated the British, not nonviolence. Their divide-and-conquer tactics didn't work any more so they couldn't hold India down with just a few people. If Gandhi had joined forces with Netaji and organized a massive VIOLENT overthrow of the British, they would have been thrown out much sooner and there would have been no partitioning of India. So Gandhi is great for having united us, not for his crackpot nonviolence ideas. He had a lot of crackpot ideas, by the way. Just look at nature. Every surviving organism has strong defence mechanisms. Within our bodies are huge defence forces that actively patrol every nook and corner of our bodies, actively searching for and destroying foreign invading organisms. What do you think our immune system is? It's a several billion strong standing army! Without it we would die very soon, same as advanced AIDS cases whose immune systems don't function any more.. And Nandy is quite wrong about "the three greatest Gandhians today are neither Indians nor Hindus: Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi and the Dalai Lama." Nelson Mandela was great when he was leading the ANC struggles against the whites ruling S Africa. After release from prison he has sold out, having made a secret agreement to not take back any of the land, gold and diamond mines and other resources seized by the white conquerors who continue to hold 80% of the wealth of S Africa. Aung San Suu Kyi is being promoted by the West because Burma has slipped out of it's grasp and is friendly with China. She would presumably open up Burma to the multinationals. The Dalai Lama is on the CIA payroll. He supports the US attack and occupation of Afghanistan and the prior US war on Vietnam. Re. the relentess bombing and occupation of Iraq "it is too early to tell". Check out this article on Mr. Lama "Felonious Monk" http://www.mickeyz.net/news/mickeyz/fullarticle/felonious_monk/ So Nandy dislikes Indira Gandhi's "political authoritarianism". Although I am anti-BJP I agree with RSS chief K.S. Sudarshan who in a burst of candor condemned Vajpayee and Advani and opined that India's best leader had been the "lady of firm determination" Indira Gandhi. Very interesting views on Nehru too, as the handpicked choice of the British o protect their interests. http://www.tribuneindia.com/2005/20050620/main3.htm I'm beginning to suspect that Nehru's alleged affair with Lady Mountbatten was in fact promoted by the British, to keep Nehru in their fold. All the while dupe Nehru fondly believed that she had been irresistably smitten by his charms! - Thomas Though i disagree with your dismissal of gandhi, i agree that whitey uses him conveniently, as do the congress and the bjp, whenever they see fit (not that it takes away from from the man and his work - in fact he must have been saying something truly meaningful to be despised by both the Left and the Right). Nature - well i see many more examples of sharing, coexistence, altruism and benevolence than of competition. This theory of an agressive competitive nature can only come from a colonising mind like Darwin's - the goras needed a theory to justify their conquests, and he gave them one. The Dalai is playing politics, he thinks gora will help him against the Chinese - what a moron! In deference, we should spell him with 2 lls - Dalai Llama. (I thank my friend Sunil for this suggestion, made in another context.) About Nehru and Edwina, you may put your mind at rest, its well documented - for instance, check out Maulana Azad's India Wins Freedom - she was sent expressly for that purpose. In fact, an Azad notes, she had done the same job once before in another country, in the service of the Empire. - ZESTAlternative Desk Jogesh Motwani <[EMAIL PROTECTED] <jogeshmotwani%40hathway.com>> wrote: The ambivalence about Gandhi Southasia's difficulties with Gandhi's legacy by Ashis Nandy [Himal Southasia | March 2006] http://www.himalmag.com/2006/march/reflections_3.html
