How Low Can We Stoop?

Cuba: How Low Can We Stoop?
October 4, 2013
Warhol P

HAVANA TIMES — I recently read an article by a fellow Havana Times
blogger which mentions how the renowned Cuban actress Ana Luisa Rubio
was beaten up as part of a government reprisal. When I first read her
name, I had the impression I didn't know the actress. After doing a
Google search and seeing her photos, I immediately recognized her and
felt profound pain.

I was horrified by the photos of her swollen, blood-stained face and the
actress' agonized look. From the very sharp images, I could tell they
had been particularly brutal with her face.

I don't know why but, for a moment, I thought of my mother. This actress
is probably the same age as her, I thought. What would I have done if
something like this had happened to my mother? What would I had done if
it had happened to anyone I knew, be it a woman or a man?

Things like these make me realize this revolution is an enormous pile of
trash, and I say "trash" to avoid using another word that might be more
appropriate here.

How could we even talk about human rights when situations as sordid as
this one are still taking place?

Something similar could happen to any one of us who write for Havana Times.

That also crossed my mind, that, for the simple reason I have different
ideas, my face could be used like a football by anyone who disagrees
with me. Let it be said in passing that these are my ideas and I believe
that every human being is independent and has their own way of thinking
and seeing things. Accordingly, they should have the right to choose
between what they consider to be good and bad.

Those responsible didn't even care to notice the woman they were beating
was once a well-known actress we had followed and enjoyed on Cuban
television. What's more, I recall that, not long ago, she was
interviewed on a Cuban show, Medio Dia en TV ("Noon TV"), where she
spoke of her portrayal of a character known as "Captain Storm" and told
the audience she was currently working on children's literature.

Then, we hear this unpalatable story that the perpetrators were members
of the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) on her block.
How can something like this even happen in Cuba? We've been combatting
violence against women, year after year, and now this terribly shameful
thing happens, throwing everything we've been trying to achieve in terms
of human rights out the window.

These are the kinds of things that make my stomach turn. I am repulsed
by these excesses and lies. I wonder what will happen with the people
who attacked her.

Everyone knows that no one has the right to go to someone's home and
force the owner outside to beat them up, let alone take delight in
disfiguring their faces.

In Cuba, we've gone from yelling the slogan: "one, two, three, four, out
with the worms!", from throwing eggs at the disaffected, to violence and
brutality. Yes, we've changed, but for the worse. Am I wrong?

The eighties are well behind us and, today, things can be different. To
begin with, the world is privy to everything, and news like this one
spread through the Internet and reach all corners of the globe and many
different places (save, of course, Cuba's television and press).

Thinking about this incident, I've come to the conclusion that we're
wrong in saying "Our Homeland is Humanity." If loyalty to one's homeland
was ever a sign of one's humanity, today, for me, this expression has
lost all meaning.

I can only resign myself to saying: fellas, we've had it.

Source: "Cuba: How Low Can We Stoop? Comments on the beating of an
actress." - http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=99220