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Wednesday, May 09, 2012

Living Among Lies / Lilianne Ruíz

Living Among Lies / Lilianne Ruíz
Lilianne Ruíz, Translator: AnonyGY

Camilo Cienfuegos seen in an artwork installed in 2009 in the Plaza of
the Revolution. The text says: "You're doing fine, Fidel."

Cuba looks like an anthill, and each one has contributed — as they say —
a grain of sand. Believing that this grain of sand is so little that it
means nothing because "nothing can change". I am reading for the first
time "El poder de los sin poder" (The Power of The Powerless), by Vaclav
Havel, what he defines as autokenesis of the post totalitarian system I
see it as this behavior of ants who sustain the commune that seems to be
Cuba today. The secret life of this Commune, what does not appear, is
not reflected in the official press.

On May 3rd, Press Freedom Day, the announcer of the Nightly News
denounced the murder of Mexican journalists, and mentioned Honduras,
denouncing these two countries as examples of places where repression
against journalists is growing. It was not mentioned in the report,
revised and corrected by the Editorial Board of the News, that Cuba was
the third country on that list. Nor was the Cuban audience made aware
that such a list, where the situation of press freedom is mentioned, was
published by Amnesty International.

In Cuba there is repression against journalists, but the knowledge of
such situation depends much on the media showing that situation from the
moment in Cuba that no one learns about what is happening watching the
News show. Then, in the consequences it has for a citizen conscious of
what is right or wrong to start expressing himself and do journalism,
independent of the interests of the State Dictatorship.

I saw the way in which Ariel Sigler Amaya left prison and it was not on
the News. I never heard of the situation of Oscar Elías Bicet from the
Cuban journalists who work for Cuban television but rather over Radio
Martí. I did not not know well who Laura Pollan was, until I went to her
house. Laura's death occurred under unclear circumstances but it is
impossible to open an investigation and that has not been mentioned in
any News whatsoever.

In the cases of Ariel and Oscar there is clear evidence of psychological
tortures and attempted murder, not to mention Zapata Tamayo who was
slandered in Granma Newspaper and in the News after he was left to die
on a hunger strike rather than recognize the demand Zapata took to an
extreme because of his freedom and that of Cuba as well.

Today I write and also make public in my blog, I live with fear, but I
know the regime has had some kind of defeat after the Black Spring of
2003, carried out by the group of 75 and the Ladies in White. I also
know if I do not express myself, feeling as I do, I would be an accomplice.

It is increasingly promoted in Cuba that youth become part of the huge
and expensive repressive system. The government, historically a
oppressor, one day could not count anymore on "the compartmentalizing"
of information and the obedience of the whole people before the threat,
and it happened when groups of Human Rights defenders appeared, and also
independent journalists.

It did not matter whether one had a degree or not, from the Faculty of
revolutionary journalism; these are people who make an effort to write a
piece of news and above all they really go for it, where the only thing
that matters is to be objective and witness an abuse, an arrest, a
beating, a humiliating social phenomenon, having no other translation
for anyone's conscience, as the so called revolutionary journalism
attempts to make us believe.

Killing isn't done in the streets like in Mexico, but the cost of being
an activist for freedom, a journalist, or a blogger, may be slow death
in one of the regime's jails. Many times, the detentions of activists
are lengthened by the regime with accusations of noncompliance with
police brutality. The Cuban reality is so treacherous that it needs the
real access of journalists without gags.

Then I try to imagine whose brain would be behind all the propaganda
that made poor people during the first years identify their greatest
welfare with the socialist Revolution, which did not start as a
socialist one. And I notice it was not only one brain, but maybe many
people who either believed they were doing the right thing, or
underestimated their small acts from the will to survive without going
against the current. And 53 or 54 years have passed, I never count them
any more.

There will be some, still within the anthill, who know all this is
buried under the lie, and will kill, every time, the hope of rescue for
this nation and therefore for us, the people who live here. Those people
who every day support the lie of the regime on many occasions only
aspire to pretend a little longer until they can leave the country.

The Communist Party uses a language that can not express human
aspirations. It is an inhuman language. Why don't people scream that it
is not exactly what they want, that they have access to? They are
terribly scared, and that generates obedience and immorality, when one
has no faith not even in the innocent fairy tales.

Why did God let such phenomenon happen? But I still trust in Him. To
find Him, still in the darkest valley, makes me fear no evil, as the
psalm says. However, I have the hope He will make a miracle soon. During
the time I have waited for Him, my God has never failed me. The lie will
fall, what I can not foretell is where they will hide from their shame,
those who have sustained it.

Translated by AnonyGy

May 7 2012

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=18176

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