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Grotesque disparity between Castroite repression compared to Apartheid repression

Canada’s Hypocrisy on Cuba



"We emphasize the importance of maintaining sanctions. Sanctions were imposed to help us end the apartheid system. It is only logical that we must continue to apply this form of pressure against the South African government." That's Nelson Mandela addressing (and thanking) the Canadian Parliament in June 1990 for imposing, and championing in every international forum, economic sanctions against South Africa.

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Need I mention that for over 40 years Canada has been among Fidel Castro's most generous business partners? Need I mention how for the past 40 years, every Canadian administration from whatever point on the political compass, has consistently bashed the U.S. for it's "cruel and counter-productive" Cuba policy while joining the rest of the world's hypocriocacies in voting against these U.S. sanctions? This “cruel and counter-productive” U.S. policy involves sanctions similar (but actually, not nearly as draconian) as the sanctions Canada and the rest of the world's hypocriocacies imposed on Botha's South Africa. "Sanctions which punish Cuba are anathema to the international order to which we aspire!" That's Nelson Mandela in Sept '98 while decorating Fidel Castro with "The Order of Good Hope," South Africa's highest civilian award. Yet probably no world figure is more associated with economic sanctions than Nelson Mandela. According to UNICEF statistics, infant-mortality rates for South African blacks were much lower and life-expectancy rates much higher, during the Apartheid regime than afterwards. Yet I search the world's media, academic and political circles in utter vain for the same “objectivity” these circles employ when discussing Cuba. I simply cannot find anything like: "True, South African blacks could not vote and many were jailed for political offenses— but by golly that segregationist regime sure achieved great gains in healthcare! And that beleaguered but plucky regime somehow maintained those health achievements—the absolute best on the entire African continent!—while suffering a cruel embargo imposed upon them by most of the world!” A little perspective: According to Anti-Apartheid activists (none denounced as "extremists!" or "crackpots" or "hard- liners!" in the MSM, as are those who campaign for black Cubans to enjoy the same rights as black South Africans) a grand total of 3000 political prisoners passed through South Africa's Robben Island in roughly 30 years under the Apartheid regime. Usually about 1000 were held. These were out of a South African population of 40 million. In its day, the regime responsible for these incarcerations weathered a relentless campaign of vituperation from every political, press and academic pulpit on the face of the earth until economic sanctions by practically every nation on the face of the earth battered, crippled and finally finished it. According to the Human Rights group, Freedom House, a grand total of 500,000 political prisoners have passed through Stalinist Cuba's various prisons and forced labor camps. At one time in 1961 300,000 Cubans were jailed for political offenses. This is out of a Cuban population in 1960 of 6.4 million. Among these were the longest suffering political prisoners in modern history including the black, Mr Eusebio Penalver, who suffered longer in Castro's prison's than Nelson Mandela suffered in South Africa's. A calculator will easily reveal the grotesque disparity between Castroite repression compared to Apartheid repression. The regime the Canadian government treats as a democratic equal and Canadian citizens lavish with tourism and trade while millions attempt to flee it (Cuba's) was roughly TWENTY TIMES as repressive as the one Canadian governments condemned as diabolical and the world self-righteously blacklisted and sanctioned while blacks from neighboring nations attempted to enter it (South Africa's.) Castro's Stalinist regime has found some of its most enthusiastic partners in crime among Canadian companies. In a joint venture with Cuba's Stalinist regime, for instance, Canada's Sherritt International occupies and operates the Moa nickel mining plant in Cuba's Oriente province, stolen at Soviet gunpoint from its U.S. managers and stockholders in July 1960 (when it was worth $90 million) by Castro gunmen. But Sherritt's criminality hardly stops as a traffiker in stolen property, and hence, accessory to theft. Sherritt's workers are chosen and assigned by the Cuban regime who sets their wages and dictates the payment schedule. After Sherritt pays these wages (not to the workers, but to the Stalinist regime) the latter dribbles .5 percent of the total to the workers, pocketing the rest. (As dreadful as they make life for their subjects, the Red Chinese and Red Vietnamese regimes dictate nothing of the sort when hosting western companies as business partners.) By the way, prior to the glorious Cuban revolution, which is to say, during Cuba’s unspeakable tenure as a playground for Yankee land-barons, robber-barons, playboys, gangsters, racists, fascists, and other such swinish exploiters, Moa nickel plant’s workers enjoyed the 8th highest industrial wages — not in the hemisphere — but in the world, higher than those in Britain, France and Germany. And these wages were paid in Cuban dollars, convertible, in those dark and dreadful ages, one to one with the U.S. dollar.


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Humberto Fontova -- Bio and Archives

Humberto Fontova is the author of four books including “Exposing the Real Che Guevara and the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him.” Visit hfontova.com.

 


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