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BOOKS LACK USEFULNESS
Nat Hentoff discusses Cuban book-burning with Fahrenheit 451 author Ray Bradbury:
Bradbury knew about the crackdowns, but until I told him, was not aware of Castro’s kangaroo courts (while sentencing the “subversives”) often ordering the burning of the independent libraries they raid, just like in “451.”
For example, on April 5, 2003, after Julio Antonio Valdes Guevara was sent away, the judge ruled: “As to the disposition of the photographic negatives, the audio cassette, medicines, books, magazines, pamphlets and the rest of the documents, they are to be destroyed by means of incineration because they lack usefulness.” Hearing about this, Bradbury authorized me to convey this message from him to Fidel Castro: “I stand against any library or any librarian anywhere in the world being imprisoned or punished in any way for the books they circulate.
“I plead with Castro and his government to immediately take their hands off the independent librarians and release all those librarians in prison, and to send them back into Cuban culture to inform the people.”
Among the books destroyed through the years by Fidel’s arsonists have been volumes on Martin Luther King Jr., the U.S. Constitution, and even a book by the late Jose Marti, who organized, and was killed in, the Cuban people’s struggle for independence.
Melbourne’s Age might remind readers of this when next promoting the books of Che Guevara’s daughter. You can guarantee they aren’t being burnt.
Fidel could stage public book-burnings and invite the Media to broadcast it live—and the Left would cheer him.
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2005 08 18 at 02:09 PM • permalinkCuckoo—They’re called The American Library Association. Big backers of Castro.
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 08 18 at 07:48 PM • permalinkThis is one thing that really bothers me about American librarians as a group. When a few libraries in the US didn’t buy Jon Stewert’s America book, they went nuts, screaming about censorship. That was due to nudity, which a lot of libraries have rules about; largely due to parents treating libraries as free daycare. However, when Castro jails librarians trying to spread knowledge to the Cuban people, they get uppity and condemn them for refering to themselves as librarians when they don’t have a MLS. I have grave concerns over the ALA, due to this and the fact that they seem permanently stuck in 1975 when it comes to technology. The head of the ALA’s remarks recently about “blog people” are a good example. They really need to get a better handle on the world around them.
Posted by MikeTheLibrarian on 2005 08 18 at 08:57 PM • permalinkIt’s not the real Cuba they love, it is some romantic vision of it. Re-writing or re-interpreting history is a necessary skill for lawyers and journos. Both groups gravitate towards politics, where this skill is also in demand.
Having things exposed as clearly and clinically as that above, is about as welcome in their narratives as a cold shower in midwinter.MikeTheLibrarian,
The ALA, like the NEA, has long since abandoned it’s original goals and has embarked on a leftist political campaign.
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2005 08 18 at 09:21 PM • permalinkIt may be useful to quote Che Guevara, after all not everyone
may know what the man was about.“Crazy with fury I will stain my rifle red while slaughtering
any enemy that falls in my hands! My nostrils dilate while
savoring the acrid odor of gunpowder and blood. With the
deaths of my enemies I prepare my being for the sacred fight
and join the triumphant proletariat with a bestial howl!”“Hatred as an element of struggle; unbending hatred for the
enemy, which pushes a human being beyond his natural
limitations, making him into an effective, violent, selective,
and cold-blooded killing machine. This is what our soldiers
must become…”
And I like these comments fromcatallarchy.net/blog/archives/2005/05/01/torture-and-tyranny-the-real-che/
In “Notes on Man and Socialism” he wrote “to build communism,
you must build new men as well as the new economic base.”
Molding the Cuban people in accordance with his own Stalinist
vision was his goal, and now he had the power to make whatever
sacrifices of other peoples’ time, energy, and lives he thought
necessary.Individual tastes and talents could not be allowed to stand
in the way of the revolution. Contrary opinions had to be
silenced, and they were. Counterrevolutionary elements were
put in “labor camps,” “re-educated,” or imprisoned without
trial, many being executed. These were not merely agitators
in the employ of robber barons. These were vagrants, drunks,
idlers, homosexuals, Christians, poets, and many other classes,
including “Cuban youth…who had to go into hiding to listen
to [rock albums] which the Revolution, and [Guevara] and
his cohorts, dubbed as ‘imperialist music’.”When they were given trials, they were showy public farces.
When those found guilty were executed, they were executed
publicly by firing squad. Their friends and families were
paraded in front of the bloody wall. Guevara is said to have
signed between 500 and “several thousand” death warrants,
though the exact number may never be known. His own count
was about 2,500. When they were not given trials, they were
bound, gagged, psychologically broken, and then perhaps shot.
The number killed without death warrants is unknown.Stevo—Well, he was probably covered by the American Network Anchor Host, I think it may have been Peter Jennings, who said, when challenged on this point, “[Castro] has the right to protect his country.”
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 08 20 at 02:09 PM • permalinkI was wondering about another paper, the Sydney Morning Herald. Do they have internet access there? Editors? A short-term memory?
While the Dixie Chicks faced a conservative backlash for saying they were ashamed of the Iraq War, every Rolling Stones date in North America is practically sold out with the best tickets having a face price of more than $US450 ($599).
That’s a nice misquote of “Just so you know, we’re ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas.”
Shoddy work from the professional journalist who wrote the article , the editor who didn’t edit, and the newspaper that printed it.
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Who the heck cares about books and libraries being burned in Cuba? Cuba has 100% literacy! That’s what is important!
/channeling lefties