tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4166373147417754257.post5189351200104015399..comments2024-01-02T07:12:39.616-05:00Comments on El Yuma: What to make of Raúl's recent declarations? Or, how are "normal" relations different from "diplomatic" ones?El Yumahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14100978974463973370noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4166373147417754257.post-35776340256218787462015-01-30T10:03:41.708-05:002015-01-30T10:03:41.708-05:00Regarding renewal of diplomatic relations, is it a...Regarding renewal of diplomatic relations, is it any surprise that Raul "refuses to take 'yes' for an answer?" Hatred of the Empire is the regime's fuel, its oxygen, its stock in trade, internally and internationally. It cannot give it up. And abolition of the embargo would be seen by Granma as the Empire's most insidious form of attack against the "first Free Territory of the Americas." As the poet Cavafy noted, enemies can be very useful people:<br /><br />"What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum? <br /> The barbarians are due here today.... <br /> What’s the point of senators making laws now? <br />Why don’t our distinguished orators turn up as usual<br />to make their speeches, say what they have to say? <br /> Because the barbarians are coming today<br /> and they’re bored by rhetoric and public speaking.<br />Why this sudden bewilderment, this confusion?<br />(How serious people’s faces have become.) <br />Why are the streets and squares emptying so rapidly,<br />everyone going home lost in thought?<br /> Because night has fallen and the barbarians haven't come.<br /> And some of our men just in from the border say<br /> there are no barbarians any longer. <br />Now what’s going to happen to us without barbarians?<br />Those people were a kind of solution."<br /><br />Cavafy, "Waiting for the Barbarians"Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4166373147417754257.post-81932669638662098842015-01-29T18:57:28.345-05:002015-01-29T18:57:28.345-05:00It is so obvious, they need the enemy to blame.It is so obvious, they need the enemy to blame.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com