by Jerome du Bois
Alex Ginsburg, a religious studies senior at Arizona State University, is an evil man. He is not misinformed, he is not a fool, and he is not an idiot. He knows exactly what he's doing and what he's saying. From the freedom and security of his home here in the United States, where nobody will break down his door and haul him off to a hellhole jail for what he writes, he extols fidel castro and laughs at the suffering of ordinary Cubans while he stuffs his face with organic food from Gentle Strength Co-op.
It is evil to know the tragic truth and yet print vicious lies. It is just as evil to do so in a smarmy tone of voice.
What's a little suppression of political dissent when people can get treatment for diabetes? What are a few innocent human rights violations when people have access to locally grown produce without toxins? What's a little communism when Cuba is contributing less to global climate change than the rest of us?
I think it's high time we lure Fidel away from Cuba and help him paint the White House red. Health and vegetables will more than make up for his $900 million compensation.
The truth about Cuba's health care system is just one mouse click away. Take a look at these pictures from The Real Cuba website, and while your stomach is churning, remember that Alex Ginsburg, that human toxin, is enjoying your discomfort and these people's pain.
No doubt the Religious Studies program at ASU, which awarded him a Jewish Studies Scholarship last year, is quite proud of him --the little grinning devil.
(Hat tip: Val Prieto, Babalu Blog. Also, here's a link to our Cuban Art Series.)
Update 8/22/06: I received a response from Mr. Ginsburg, which I have reproduced in full, with fisking, after the jump. In it, he shows that he has completely adopted the heartlessness of what I call the zombie dispositions.
In contrast to your blog post on my article, I will not resort to petty personal attacks. I neither know you, nor am I interested in knowing you.
Right back at ya, man. Your heart is a grave.
Also, being called 'evil' or a 'human toxin' does not really bother me as I am a radical relativist and I am generally in favor of anything that will lessen the human population impact on the global ecosystem (and being a 'human toxin' would do that, yes?).
Reality isn't relative, though, and doesn't care about his philosophical position. And he is saying here that he considers the highest species on this planet a kind of plague, and apparently wouldn't mind if he himself were taken out of the equation.
I looked at the Real Cuba website (which other readers also alerted me to) and, while noting some of the charges, cannot accept this website as a reputable source of information. My information on the healthcare situation in Cuba comes from the World Health Organization, which is a reputable international NGO. If my information is wrong, it is because this non-partisan group has compiled inaccurate information which has subsequently passed a peer review process.
I referred him to photographs, not "charges." Photographs of reality, not third-hand "information." Partisanship has nothing to do with it. Oliver Stone could have taken the pictures, and that wouldn't change the misery that cries out from them.
As for the information on sustainable agriculture my information comes from: Environment: The Science behind the Stories. S.R. Brennan & J.H Withgott. Benjamin Cummings, 2005.
This is a hundred-dollar textbook. I suggest he exchange it for Ben Corbett's "This is Cuba," where the case studies are much more down to earth. Corbett is a socialist, as far as I can tell, highly critical of the United States; but that doesn't stop him from looking straight at the dolorous Cuban reality.
Furthermore, I believe you misundertood the point of my article. My aim was not to deify Castro - certainly, he has supressed political dissent and injured a significant part of the population. My article was an attempt to demonstrate that we (as Americans) should not pretend to live in a perfect system and that even those political systems that we despise have created great successes (and I consciously extend this beyond Cuba). Rather than villify other regimes, we should attempt to improve our own.
But he made light of the dissent and the injury; the ongoing domestic political debates prove that nobody is pretending that we live in a perfect system; and Castro's Cuba has not created great successes. There's never enough rice, or beans, or tomatoes, or sugar, or flour, or coffee. No ordinary Cuban can live from the libreta. Nothing is sustained but hunger. And it's not a matter of "despising," it's a matter of human dignity, freedom, and justice, all of which are victims of this regime.
Finally, you note that I received a Jewish Studies scholarship last year. You have no idea under what conditions I was awarded that scholarship. At my University scholarships are awarded on the merit of scholarship, not the political opinions (published or otherwise) that a person may have.
Yet another great tradition, which includes Talmud and Kabbalah, slides down into disrepute, if they reward a man like this. Ari the Lion is roaring in his grave.
Posted by Jerome at August 21, 2006 02:20 PM | TrackBack