I am reading Obama and the Empire, by Fidel Castro. It’s a collection of short essays, maybe even reprinted op-ed pieces from Granma.
He is a smart man, or would not still be defying the empire fifty years after taking power. On this side of the pond we have only been allowed to see the Cuban response to American aggression. Without the other half of the story what they do indeed seems like aggression, repression and tyranny. Taken as a whole, it is a story of a large and powerful country trying to retake a happenstance breakaway republic. There have been crimes, high and low. Castro is no saint. But most of those crimes originated in Langley. When others do those same crimes to us, we call it “terrorism.”
But I’m not going to spend a great deal of time with this book. Castro is interesting and well-versed, but not deep. The following snippet, slightly poignant, jumped out at me this morning, however.
Nuclear power plants are among the sources of energy [Obama] promises to hastily develop. These are already opposed by a great many people due to the high risk of accidents with disastrous consequences for life, the environment and human food. Moreover, it is absolutely impossible to prevent some of these accidents [from] occurring. (Essay dated February 4, 2009)
Piece of Mindful 