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The twinkling lights seemed subtle enough, and to be sure, the concern for human rights is always appropriate. But the U.S. forgot to mention its own horrendous practices, or to understand that it, as a pot, was as black as Cuba 's metaphorical kettle.
Two can play at this game, seemed to be the insinuation, when the Cuban government last week erected large billboards highlighting American abuses of human rights, in response to a controversial "Christmas display " outside the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba.
The real winner, however, may be the increased attention to human rights abuses at the hands of both governments. And this holiday season, the people of both nations can laugh with irony together --albeit across oceans --at the hypocrisy of their respective governments.
Americans concerned about human rights abuses by the U.S. government in Guantanamo Bay and Abu Gharib can laugh for a second reason, too, since we know a billboard like that wouldn 't make it past the conservative Clear Channel corporation, which monopolizes the roadside media in this country. Some free speech we have.
Drivers on American highways are constantly bombarded with their corporate-sponsored admonishments, such as, "September 11, 2001. Stay focused America. " Whatever that 's supposed to mean. But I digress.
Ultimately, then, a common enemy emerges; not communism, not capitalism, nor indeed fascism, but a common enemy that is inhumanity, that is oppression and secrecy.
It started when James Cason of the U.S. diplomatic in Cuba included a display in Christmas lights of the number "75 " to represent the number of Cuban dissidents imprisoned without access to attorneys or having their identity or charges released to members of the public.
The Associated Press reports that the Cuban government contends that the 75 Cuban prisoners were dissidents paid by the U.S. to help overthrow the government there. Hmm, it wouldn 't be the first time; a certain Chilean incident involving Mr. Pinochet comes to mind. But the U.S. government denies providing money to the individuals.
Not to be outdone, the Cuban government put up a massive series of billboards along the populous Malecon coastal highway, to face the U.S. Interest Section as well as ongoing traffic and pedestrians. The billboards included a swastika, and the words "Made in America, " alongside huge photos of Iraqi prisoners abused by American soldiers.
This week, we learned that many of the abuses of Iraqi prisoners which occurred at the hands of U.S. military officials in Abu Gharib, have been intrinsic and continuous to our operations there, not the sporadic work of a few bad apples. Not only that, but they have been occurring at the U.S. 's highly secretive detention and interrogation facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as well.
Moreover, over the past few years, advocates for basic civil liberties in the U.S. have been aghast at the Bush Administration 's purposeful erosion even of basic standards of due process, all supposedly in the name of defeating terrorism.
The War on Terrorism --this so-called "war " --has no intention of ending any decade soon, if indeed, ever. So now is a good a time as any to bring up the fact that the "War on Terrorism, " readers may have noticed, is a major oxymoron. War, of course, IS terrorism. It 's like saying Terrorism on Terrorism, which can only self-escalate without countervailing efforts towards peace and justice. And those individuals that we call terrorists, in turn, only accelerate their war against Americans, and tragically, it is against a terrorist enemy they see characterized by the American government.
I still believe to this day --like Anne Frank said hauntingly during the Holocaust --in the ultimate good of all mankind. So, that is why, when Republican officials stand and denounce terrorists for being "killers who hate America " or "hate freedom, " I know they wouldn 't hate us, or anybody, without a really good reason. Understanding why the "terrorists " hate us would involve a serious look at U.S. foreign policy in Afghanistan, throughout the Middle East, and indeed, the world.
But to say, they 're just hateful killers, is obviously to overlook to fundamental good of humanity, the real grievances at work, and to obscure the role of American soldiers as killers too --killers with cluster bombs, depleted uranium, and apparently no moral outrage against suffering and destruction and abuse at American hands.
And so, against that backdrop, I read a comment by former Sec. of State, Colin Powell, regarding the Cuban billboard situation, with utter disgust.
Mr. Powell told the AP, the "75 " sign was an effort to show "solidarity with people who are being held and intimidated and whose rights are being denied by the Cuban government. And the Cuban government's response is to ... show the world a swastika? I don't think that is very wise."
What a gross, sweeping exaggeration by an allegedly moderate Powell. Yes, there was a swastika. As if that 's some kind of major defamation, given the horrendousness of American actions?
Powell did not mention the substance of the billboards, which were the Abu Gharib photos.
And so, that 's what reminded me of the American "War on Terrorism. " Our officials tell the media and the public about Cuban officials, "Oh, they just put up hateful rubbish. " But without any context, without any admission of substance.
I thought the boldness and honesty of the Cuban governments ' billboard was refreshing.
And with that, I do join America 's call for Cuba to honor standards of due process and to release information about its prisoners. And I simultaneously join Cuba 's call for America to end prisoner abuse, revoke the Patriot Act, end the invasion of Iraq, and stop the use of depleted uranium and cluster bombs. Not to mention ending the attack on poor and working families.
Humanity defies simple boundaries of nation and government. How remarkable that a state-sponsored Cuban billboard would be able to articulate what so many Americans, silenced by the corporate media, feel, and the grievances many Americans have about our own pot, which lately is black as night, sooty, rusting, and corroded under the Bush Administration.
