Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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This just in: Cuban journalist tells her story

Marc Masferrer has an interview with Aini Martin Valero

US: What is the biggest obstacle that you and other journalists face on a daily basis?

AMV: The independent press faces two obstacles. One is the harassment and persecution from State Security, which threatens us and blocks us many times from going where the news is happening. They jail us, and many times retaliate against our families.

The second obstacle is the lack of resources to do our work. Most Cuban independent journalists cannot count on having a computer, still and video cameras or even a telephone line at their homes. I consider those tools as fundamental to doing quality journalism.

US: How have the changes since July 31 (when Fidel Castro handed over power to his brother Raúl) affected your job as a journalist?

AMV: After July 31, with the news of Fidel Castro’s illness, the monitoring of me and my colleagues by State Security and the paramilitary bands got worse. Every Tuesday, we met at the house of another journalist to share ideas and review our work. Since that date, followers of the government have carried out acts of repudiation at the home of journalist Carlos Manuel Cespedes, and we have had to look for other alternatives.

Read every word.

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Hillary’s new fan club, and today’s items

The Daily Gut is starting a Hillary fan club. Via Pajamas Media, Hillary Clamps Down. She’s going to need all the fan clubs she can get; Gerard Baker sure isn’t a fan: The vaulting ambition of America’s Lady Macbeth

There are many reasons people think Mrs Clinton will not be elected president. She lacks warmth; she is too polarising a figure; the American people don’t want to relive the psychodrama of the eight years of the Clinton presidency.

But they all miss this essential counterpoint. As you consider her career this past 15 years or so in the public spotlight, it is impossible not to be struck, and even impressed, by the sheer ruthless, unapologetic, unshameable way in which she has pursued this ambition, and confirmed that there is literally nothing she will not do, say, think or feel to achieve it. Here, finally, is someone who has taken the black arts of the politician’s trade, the dissembling, the trimming, the pandering, all the way to their logical conclusion.

If Mr. Baker ever comes to Princeton I’ll buy him a beer.

Which brings me to Francis Porretto’s excellent essay, Broken Premises Part 3: Is It The Words Or The Tune That Matters?

Rare is the politician, on either side of the divide between the parties, who can be relied upon speak clearly and to the point, and always to call things by their right names. Porfessional pols and their staffs might not believe Sapir and Whorf’s conjecture that words have the power to shape reality, but their confidence in the power of words to shape popular convictions appears boundless.

George Orwell’s landmark essay “Politics and the English Language” is replete with piercing observations about the insidiousness of such rhetoric. Among its many powerful points is that we must know what a thing is to argue for or against it:

Stuart Chase and others have come near to claiming that all abstract words are meaningless, and have used this as a pretext for advocating a kind of political quietism. Since you don’t know what Fascism is, how can you struggle against Fascism? One need not swallow such absurdities as this, but one ought to recognize that the present political chaos is connected with the decay of language, and that one can probably bring about some improvement by starting at the verbal end. If you simplify your English, you are freed from the worst follies of orthodoxy. You cannot speak any of the necessary dialects, and when you make a stupid remark its stupidity will be obvious, even to yourself. Political language — and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists — is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.

Orwell’s essay should be required reading for every American who thinks himself qualified to vote, or to hold a political opinion. Much of the damage that has been done to freedom these past eighty years has passed into law under the cover of “terms of art,” periphrases and circumlocutions of the sort it describes.

The West and Islam: “Hurray! We’re capitulating” (via Real Clear Politics)

All the events of last spring are only a foretaste of something much bigger, something still unnamed. And when it ends, those who have managed to escape will ask themselves: Why didn’t we see the handwriting on the wall when there was still time? If Muslim protests against a few harmless cartoons can cause the free world to capitulate in the face of violence, how will this free world react to something that is truly relevant? It is already difficult enough to see that Israel is not merely battling a few militants, but is facing a serious threat to its very existence from Iran. All too often it is ignored that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has already taken the first step by calling for “a world without Zionism” — a call that pro-Israel Europeans only managed to condemn with a mild, “unacceptable.” How would they react if Iran were in a position to back up its threats with nuclear weapons?

Kenneth Stein’s My Problem with Jimmy Carter’s Book (Stein was a Fellow at the Carter Center; h/t Not Exactly Rocket Science) ties in well with Jimmy Carter: Too many Jews on Holocaust council. As Stephen Pollard said,

The problem is that Carter does not provide an alternative view but the view from an alternative universe, with facts which are non-facts, events which are ignored and clear justifications for suicide terrorism.

What a disgrace Jimmy is.

Dr. Krauthammer

There are three serious things we can do now: Tax gas. Drill in the Arctic. Go nuclear

Meanwhile in Cuba,
Weekend at Fidel’s
As Taranto said yesterday,

No One Can See Him, That’s How Fast He’s Running
“No Sign of Fidel as Cubans Wait, Wonder”–headline, Associated Press, Jan. 24
“Chavez Says Castro ‘Almost Jogging’ “–headline, Associated Press, Jan. 24

The Beeb found one guy blogging from Cuba. Make no mistake, that blogger has to toe the line.

If Cuban prisoner of conscience Prospero Gainza can sew his mouth shut as a defiant and symbolic gesture of protest, we can all show solidarity by fasting every Friday for our incarcerated brothers and sisters on the island.

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Pastimes
I signed up for Twitter, where you can post updates on what you are doing during your day. Since I live a pedestrian and totally uninteresting life, I’m posting short quotes from poems I’ve read over the years.

Today’s verse is the first line from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Frost at Midnight, in keeping with this morning’s cold weather.

Look at the pink box in the sidebar for each day’s verse.

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India in Latin America, and other Caribbean items

I have blogged in the past on China’s presence in Latin America, but Andres Oppenheimer says India will be big player in Latin America

It’s not surprising that 16 Latin American and Caribbean countries have set up embassies here, more than they have in Russia.

”India is in a growth trajectory,” Nath told me, noting that India is likely to grow at 10 percent annually in coming years. “And Latin America is very important to us.”

While India’s trade with Latin America lags far behind China’s, Indian officials are working overtime to catch up, as I learned after meeting R. Viswanathan, the Foreign Ministry’s head of Latin American affairs.

Unlike most Indian career diplomats, who tend to be low-key bureaucrats, Viswanathan is a highly visible Latin America promoter. His business card reads, ”Passionate about Latin America,” and he personally runs three blogs and one website, Business with Latin America [link added], dedicated to the region.

Oppenheimer notes that politically, India has an advantage over China:

America for its Buddhist history and spiritual movements that are increasingly popular in the region, and for its booming information technology and pharmaceutical companies, he said.

”While China reminds me of 16th century Spain, which was only interested in extracting Latin America’s natural resources, India is never going to be an imperial country,” agreed Abdul Nafei, head of the Latin American studies program at Jawhardal Nehru University.

My opinion: Get ready to hear more about India in Latin America. In addition to a 1.1 billion population, democracy and a booming economy, India will offer an alternative economic role model — based on exporting services rather than manufacturing — that some in the region will find more appealing than China’s. Lagos, the former Chilean president, knew what he was talking about.

In other Caribbean items,
Former tinpot dictator Daniel Noriega of Panama will be released from prison later this year:

When Noriega steps out of his specially built, apartment-like cell at the Federal Correctional Institution in Southwest Miami-Dade, he probably won’t be free. Noriega — reportedly 68 or 72, depending on conflicting birth records — is wanted in Panama and in France.

Noriega was sentenced to a 30-year term for protecting Colombian cocaine shipments through Panama in the 1980s.

At least he can still speak out: Former Chavez confidant becomes critic in Venezuela

President Hugo Chavez’s political mentor — who once persuaded the fiery leader to seek power through elections after he led a failed coup — now says the regime has “all the characteristics of a dictatorial government.”

Richard Rahn writes about the Collapsing Venezuela

Venezuela no longer has an independent central bank, and inflation is already up to 17 percent and rapidly rising. We know countries thrive with economic freedom but decline without it, and Venezuela is now down to 126 out of 130 nations in the 2006 Economic Freedom of the World the most rapid decline ever (in 1995 it was No. 75). And, finally, we know that when a state becomes totally corrupt an economic collapse always follows.

Here are some NEW DEAD CASTRO RUMORS, in case you thought I forgot.

Meanwhile in South America,
Evo replaced seven out of 16 ministers of his cabinet – a day after celebrating his first year in office.

In Spanish: Los muertos de Castro, a must-see video on The Cuba Archive:

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Blogging from the Public Library

This morning there’s no internet connection at casa de Fausta. The problem certainly wasn’t caused by the snow, which was sparse,

and therefore thousands of children had to get up early and head to school.

I left The Husband to deal with the internet problem and took my trusty laptop to the Princeton Public Library, that $18,000,000 living room where

people shop, talk and fall in love

I realize one can’t really control who one falls in love with, but I’ll do my best to refrain from all of those three activities. Right now I’m sitting entirely by myself right next to the LARGE PRINT BOOKS section. It smells of popcorn.

Last night while I was tidying up the family room I watched one of the weirdest musicals ever: In Caliente (1935), starring Dolores del Rio, whom I remember from when I used to wait for my piano teacher when I was a kid living in Puerto Rico. One of the local TV stations used to play in the afternoons old Mexican movies (mostly horrible tragedies) and Dolores starred in many of them after she left Hollywood.

In Caliente takes place in a Mexican town of the same name at the Hotel Caliente (the hot hotel) where four mariachis followed the guests singing the title song, much like Sir Robyn’s minstrels, and, while they didn’t meet the same fate as the minstrels, there was much rejoicing. Dolores del Rio managed to look impeccable while wearing evening gowns throughout the film no matter the time of day or what was happening around her, mariachi or no mariachi.

The rest of the movie’s a Busby Berkely musical, and the songs’ lyrics were written by Al Dubin, of Tip-toe Through the Tulips fame. Judging by his lyrics, Al must have been a wild and crazy guy with a Brooklyn accent, with the emphasis on crazy: here’s She’s A Latin from Manhattan

Fate sent her to me over the sea from Spain
And she is one in a million for me
I found my romance when she went dancing by
And she must be a Castillian, si, si
Is she from Havana or Madrid?
But something about her is making me doubt ‘er
I think I remember the kid, yeah!

She’s a Latin from Manhattan
I can tell by her ‘Man-ya-na”
She’s a Latin from Manhattan
But not Havana
Though she does the rhumba for us
And she calls herself Dolores
She was in a Broadway chorus
Known as Suzy Donahue

She can take her tambourine and whack it
But to her it’s just a racket
She’s a hoofer from Tenth Avenue

While the NYT reviewer said,

Perhaps its most notable factor is the restraint of Busby Berkeley’s song and dance interludes

restraint is not what comes mind when you watch eight horses running amok in a Mexican cantina while three dozen dancers drink from shot glasses and sing “Muchacha, at last I’ve gotcha where I wantcha, muchacha“, and Dolores del Rio has just smacked her suitor across the face with a crop, after which he falls down the stairs and miraculously recovers all the while keeping time with the music.

Here’s a still showing the moment just before she grabbed that crop and whacked him.

The lyrics are special,

Muchacha, tonight I’ve gotcha where I wantcha, my Muchacha.
I’ll watchcha just like a cat would watch a little cucaracha.
So, stand up and hand me your lovely charms,
Give me two red lips and a pair of arms.
I’ve gotcha and in the lingo of the “Gringo,” I’m so hotcha,
Muchacha, for you.

I can almost guarantee that no one’s going to be falling in love at the Public Library if they hear those pick-up lines, but going by what Robert Osborne said, being at the set must really have been a hoot.

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On to today’s items:
Things are getting more caliente in Venezuela now that the National Assembly has given initial approval to a bill granting the president the power to bypass congress and rule by decree for 18 months.

Also caliente, the Chinese used a ground-based medium-range ballistic missile to destroy a weather satellite that had been launched in 1999. Meanwhile in Iran, the UFOs are flying.

Venezuela and Iran are now facing reduced oil demand, and oil futures dropped to $50. Captain Ed asks, Have The Saudis Declared Economic War On Iran?

This morning’s WSJ has the latest UN scandal, the Cash for Kim, a.k.a., United Nations Dictator’s Program

The stakes are nonetheless very high because, unlike Saddam’s Iraq, North Korea has already succeeded in testing its nuclear bomb. The hard currency supplied by the UNDP almost certainly goes into one big pot marked “Dear Leader,” which Kim can use for whatever he wants, including his weapons programs. This may not violate the letter of Security Council Resolution 1718, which restricts trade in anything having to do with North Korea’s nuclear or missile programs, but it certainly violates its spirit.

Unlike Oil for Food, there’s no evidence to date that corrupt UNDP officials are in on the game–though given the U.N.’s record of late, it would be unwise to rule that out before a full investigation.

In Turkey, Hrant Dink has been shot dead. He’s the guy who had been prosecuted under Turkey’s strict laws against “insulting Turkishness.”

In lighter news,
There’s a local exhibition of diverse views on ‘What’s Sacred’. I might drop by during the weekend.

Geoffrey Chaucer got tagged with the V Thinges Meme

Al Gore, weather maker Takes on His Critics… while Instapundit links to Gore Effect in the Urban Dictionary:

The well documented phenomenon that leads to very low, unseasonal temperatures, driving rain, hail, snow or all of the above whenever Al Gore visits an area to discuss global “warming”. Hence the “Gore Effect”

Then there’s that creepy picture. Botox? Wrinkle fillers? Make-up? Or airbrush?

And from Maria
Castro Shuffling in Place

The cadaverish dictator shuffling in place is a perfect metaphoric rendering of Castro’s Cuba over these many decades. He took his country from prosperity and a place at the head of Latin America in material terms to the bottom. In practically every material measure his country is a slum. In terms of freedom it is one vast jail. Had he, when he came to power after the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista’s seven-year dictatorship, made good on his promise to return Cuba to the democratic condition in which it had existed in the 1940s, his country today would most likely be the richest and freest country south of our borders, and possibly Castro would be in the pink and deserving of the accolades now paid him by the American left’s rich and fatuous.

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Fidel fun

Yes, I know, the two words don’t belong together… until now.

WARNING: Several of these links are not work-appropriate
You’ve been warned

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, and sometimes it’s photoshopped

Is socialized medicine worth dying for? In the mind of Hillary, it’s good because it’s free health care.

Cuban Doctors: Imperialist Embargo Is Killing Fidel

Fictitious Quote of the Day

Val has Ileostomy, ileostomy, where forth art thou, ileostomy?, and The A-Z of fidel castro

Radio Chavez Plays New Tune

Why the delay in announcing the obvious? So the Castro successors keep Cuba on stable track

When the announcement finally comes I won’t attend the funeral, but I’ll write a nice post saying I approved of it, to paraphrase Mark Twain.

Yeah, I know I’m a bad person – deal with it.

Update Shoulda Gone to Miami General
Here and Now

Val wrote asking,

If you get a chance, can you post a call for your readers to vote for Sgt Hook in the VA Center Best Military Blog awards? He’s trying to win first place so that he can use the winnings to travel to DC for the Milbloggers conference in May.

Vote for Sgt Hook here: Bloggers can win up to $2,500 in our “Best Military Blog” Contest

Update 2 Castro’s Surgery, and New Jersey….

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Chastity in the news, and other items

Not Sonny and Cher’s daughter Chastity, but chastity, via The Anchoress: Casual sex is a con: women just aren’t like men
Former groupie Dawn Eden explains how she realised morality made more sense for women than free love

Our culture – both in the media via programmes such as Sex and the City and in everyday interactions – relentlessly puts forth the idea that lust is a way station on the road to love. It isn’t. It left me with a brittle facade incapable of real intimacy. Occasionally a man would tell me I appeared hard, which surprised me as I thought I was so vulnerable. In truth, underneath my attempts to appear bubbly, I was hard – it was the only way I could cope with what I was doing to my self and my body.

The misguided, hedonistic philosophy which urges young women into this kind of behaviour harms both men and women; but it is particularly damaging to women, as it pressures them to subvert their deepest emotional desires. The champions of the sexual revolution are cynical. They know in their tin hearts that casual sex doesn’t make women happy. That’s why they feel the need continually to promote it.

The article was published in the London Times. I’ll be very surprised if the NYT would carry it in their Styles section. Just a couple of weekeds ago they had a feature article about a 50-yr old porn actress. Dinesh D’Souza writes on Pornography — The Real Perversion (h/t Maria)

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Don’t miss LGF‘s videos of Dispatches: Undercover Mosque.
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Afghan civilians stop terror attack at U.S. base. As U*2 put it,

This seems to clash with the “America out of everywhere” mantra which is incessantly bleated by the French mainstream preSS.

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Say ‘ello to my leetle fren’? Well, My leetle fren’ has more fun than Hugo and Mahmoud!

Speaking of Hugo, he says Fidel doesn’t have cancer. Not if he’s dead, he doesn’t.
Update Dada lives: Elephants In Academia posts that CNN is concerned about Fidel Castro’s right to privacy.

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Muslims say they’ll boycott Northwest Airlines. I predict the stock price will rise.
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Via Larwyn,
American Digest says There’s No Stopping This Insanity Now

The media as red Cell

Saudi Arabia Joins Egypt In Supporting Bush Iraq Plan

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The upcoming Socialist Republic of Venezuela

SCROLL FOR UPDATES
including today’s stock market close

First thing I saw in this morning’s news: BBC News video of Chavez’s thoroughly expected announcement, “We’re heading towards socialism”

“We’re heading toward socialism, and nothing and no-one can prevent it.”

Curiously, the BBC reporter, Daniel Schweimler, was in Buenos Aires. According to this chart Caracas is 3,168 miles from Buenos Aires. I’m in the New York City area, some 2,100 miles from Caracas, which means this blogger’s nearer to Caracas than the Beeb reporter.

The BBC article reads,

His calls for nationalisation appeared in particular to affect Electricidad de Caracas, which is currently owned by US firm AES, and CA Nacional Telefonos de Venezuela (CANTV), the country’s largest publicly traded company.

The effect was immediate (emphasis added): Chavez’s Nationalization Plans Rock Venezuela Markets

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s plans to nationalize the country’s largest phone company and utilities, gain greater control over the oil industry and seek authority to make laws by executive order are sending investors racing for the exits.

U.S.-traded shares of CA Nacional Telefonos de Venezuela plunged 14 percent yesterday and the currency fell 17 percent after Chavez unveiled his plans for the company, and the nation, in a televised speech. Traders braced for the likelihood of additional shock waves today: Cantv has the second-heaviest weighting in the Caracas Stock Exchange Index, which more than doubled last year and gained an additional 19 percent this month before yesterday.

Chavez signaled his ambition to remake the oil-rich nation along socialist lines both before and since his Dec. 3 re- election. Even so, the sweep of his plans — which include stripping the central bank of its autonomy and possibly nationalizing heavy-oil joint ventures in the Orinoco region — went beyond what many anticipated.

I can’t imagine how anyone could not have anticipated this. I’ve been banging the drum, so to speak, for over two years. Anyone following the Venezuelan economy closely must have been able to see it coming. As you can see from that link, other countries in Latin America were aware of the situation.

“Chavez seems bent on modeling Venezuela after the old Soviet economy, where the state controls everything,” said Robert Bottome, an analyst with Veneconomia, a Caracas-based research company. “If his intentions weren’t clear before, they are now.”

Chavez’s intentions all along have been very clear: consolidating power around himself.

My friend Daniel has a post on What Venezuelans voted for: socialism of the XXI century (a.k.a. rehashed communism)

In what seems to be unstoppable, Venezuela Real blog is reporting that the case of Chavez’s closing RCTV television network in Venezuela will be sent to the Organization of American States as a violation of freedom of speech. The article, in Spanish: Caso RCTV con condiciones para ser llevado a la OEA. In his latest speech, Chavez scorned the OAS Secretary General:

In the fiery address, the president also used a vulgar word roughly meaning “idiot” to refer to Organization of American States Secretary – General Jose Miguel Insulza. He lashed out at Insulza for questioning his government’s decision not to renew the license of an opposition- aligned TV station.

Carlos Alberto Montaner explains how Chávez used to muzzle his foes

Hugo Chávez intends to shut down Radio Caracas Televisión. He won’t renew its license. The reason alleged by the government is that the company supported the muddled coup d’etat of April 2002.

But that’s not true. Col. Francisco Arias Cérdenas backed the coup passionately, as anyone who takes the trouble to find the video with his statements on YouTube can see, yet Chávez appointed him ambassador to the United Nations.

What Chávez rewards or punishes is the degree of submission to his exalted person. He acts not on principles but on strategic calculations. If you kneel, he’ll bedeck you with honors and even make you rich. If you oppose him, he’ll destroy you. It’s the ”silver or lead” proposition of South American drug lords elevated to state policy.

Of course, Montaner’s article was written before President Chávez announced plans Monday to nationalize electrical and telecommunications companies. Now the game has new rules.

What comes next for Venezuela? This:

  • Venezuela’s private economy will disappear as we know it.
  • in the next 14 years parts of the economy will simply vanish. “Private health care and private education will be first in line to be scrapped by the government as part of its drive towards socialism,” said Mr Garrido.
  • The whole country will be geared towards the motto: one leader – one party – one ideology,” he added
  • Venezuela is also trying to substitute the US with China as its number one commercial partner

The article also says,

senior Venezuelan diplomats privately admitted they could envisage a completely different relationship with a Democrat in the White House, particularly with somebody from the Clinton family

Remember that, too.

Update: After reading the WaPo, Blue Crab Boulevard notices how Chavez has also purged loyalists from his administration,

The people he has removed from power are ones that had actual name recognition with within Venezuela and internationally.

Further round-up and insightful analysis at Publius Pundit, including Goldman Sachs’s grim assessments.

Update 2: XXI Century Socialism according to Hugo Chavez
Just another day in the fake revolution!

Lest there are any remaining doubts, Chavez specifically said,

On Monday, Chavez openly referred to himself and his former vice president, Jose Vicente Rangel, as “communists” and said those who wanted to understand his proposed ‘”21st century socialism” should look at the works of Marx and Lenin, as well as the Bible.

He ended his speech with the call Fidel Castro used to wind up his speeches throughout his nearly five decades in power: “Patria o Muerte, Venceremos — Fatherland or Death, We will triumph!”

Any questions?

Update 3 I received an email asking, did he really say “socialist republic of Venezuela?” The answer is categorically yes:

“We’re moving toward a socialist republic of Venezuela, and that requires a deep reform of our national constitution,” Chavez said in a televised address after swearing in his new Cabinet. “We are in an existential moment of Venezuelan life. We’re heading toward socialism, and nothing and no one can prevent it.”

Today’s stockmarket close update: The OPEC nation’s stock market lost almost a fifth of its value, debt prices tumbled to a six-week low and the currency changed hands at nearly twice the official exchange rate.
…
FIFTH OF STOCK MARKET WIPED OUT:

Chavez’s remarks sliced 19 percent off the value of the Caracas stock exchange leading index IBC
…
Currency traders said the local bolivar currency, officially pegged at 2,150 bolivars to the dollar, was now changing hands at more than 4,100 to the dollar

[As I posted last year, Iran and Venezuela joined forces to undermine the U.S. dollar. Read about Iran’s oil production problems (h/t: Pajamas Media).]

Bloomberg reports that Venezuelan stocks had their biggest drop on record and bonds tumbled after President Hugo Chavez pledged to nationalize the country’s largest phone company and utilities

A drop to an 18-month low in the price of oil, Venezuela’s biggest export, added to declines in the country’s stocks and bonds. Crude oil for February delivery fell 45 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $55.64 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest close since June 15, 2005.
…
The yield on the 6.25 percent so-called Interest and Principal Protected bonds, due April 2017, fell to 3.99 percent from 4.02 percent yesterday, according to Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA. The price, which moves inversely to the yield, rose to 119, the highest in three weeks. The TICC. which is dollar-denominated and traded in the local market, offers currency protection.

An index of Venezuelan American depositary receipts fell 35 percent.
…
The possible nationalization of Cantv may deprive Venezuelans of a means to withdraw money from the country. Since 2003, investors realized they could legally acquire dollars by buying the company’s local shares, converting them into ADRs and selling them abroad.

“Portfolio investors should try to find an exit,” said said Richard Segal, head of research at Argonaftis Capital Management in London.

January 10, Follow-up post Aftermath.
Thursday, 11 January Oil prices drop
Digg!

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Ken’s idea of a good time = celebrate tyranny’s Golden Jubilee

When he’s not using taxpayer money to pay for high-ticket lawyers to defend him from bloggers, Red Ken’s always looking for a good time.

What better, then, than to pull out all the stops in 2009 to celebrate 50 years of communist paradise in Cuba?

And it’s going to be an all-out all-city event:

The event, to be staged in 2009, will involve street parties, sports venues and some of London’s leading museums as well as the closure of Trafalgar Square.

Although the Mayor’s office refused to provide budget estimates, it could cost up to £2 million.

Even when Ken says,

“We’ve got the backing of the Cuban government for a massive festival to celebrate 50 years of justice in Cuba,”

one can’t help but realize that
1. the Cuban government’s backing won’t include financing
2. Ken’s idea of “justice” is, in a word, perverse.

However, since the celebration won’t take place for another 2 years, here’s to hoping that by then Cuba will enjoy a free society.

Now, that would be cause to celebrate: I love Trafalgar Square – I might even join in.

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