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Correo del Caroni, Venezuela

If the U.S. and Cuba Can Change, Why Not Venezuela?

 

"Both in the U.S. and its hemispheric polar opposite Cuba, there are growing expectations of political, economic and social change … the oldest democracy and the longest dictatorship on the Continent are preparing for change. May long-suffering Venezuela not be left behind."

 

By Fernando Luis Egaña

 

Translated By Halszka Czarnocka

 

March 25, 2008

 

Venezuela - Correo del Caroni - Home Page (Spanish)

Both in the United States and its hemispheric polar opposite Cuba, there are growing expectations of political, economic and social change. Domestic and global reasons have resulted in this push for new directions.

 

No one knows if Barack Obama will in the end obtain the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, and even if he does - whether he'll manage to defeat Republican John McCain. But much of this feat has already been accomplished. Because the mere fact that a novice African-American senator with a Kenyan father and Anglo-Saxon mother from the Kansas plains is running head-to-head with his adversaries in the electoral preferences of American society marks a milestone in the history of the most powerful democracy on the planet.

 

It's a new stage in the march toward integration and great changes in multi-cultural assimilation that, whatever the detractors of the “Empire” may say, has been and continues to be one of the principal drivers of U.S. national progress.

 

From New York to San Francisco, nothing is discussed but change. That's Obama's campaign slogan, while his competitor Hillary Clinton proclaims the variant of “effective change.” Newt Gingrich, the notorious insurgent conservative behind the "Contract with America" in the mid-nineties, has published a best seller entitled “Real Change,” and even McCain has gotten on the bandwagon, asserting that he represents the right kind of change.

 

Everybody gives his or her own meaning to the magic word, but what really matters is the perception that on the one hand, it's necessary to alter the direction of the country, and on the other, that the time is ripe for substantial reforms in foreign policy, budgetary distribution, social programs, immigration and energy strategy.

 

In Washington and on Wall Street, many argue - and rightly so - that the global financial crisis is a time bomb that cannot be diffused with the same prescriptions that created it.

Posted by WORLDMEETS.US

 

And oh what a paradox - 90 miles south of Miami in the backward Cuba of Fidel-type communism, there is also growing hope for change that would perforate the hermetically-sealed totalitarian regime and, as predicted by Pope John Paul II on his historic visit in 1998, would will make it possible that Cuba, "will open to the world and the world will open to Cuba.”

 

Apparently, Raúl Castro and his cronies have realized that either they hop on the wagon of economic change and try and control it without losing hold of political power, like in China and Vietnam, or upon the eventual death of Fidel, the urgent need for social, labor and humanitarian improvements will engulf them like an avalanche.

Posted by WORLDMEETS.US

 

Gradually and without much fanfare, steps are being taken to loosen Cuban orthodoxy. [Brazlian President] Lula da Silva shines as Havana's principal supporter in this complex endeavor, and this at least is somewhat more auspicious than if it were Mr. Hugo Chávez alone who has dedicated himself body and soul to the process of so called “transition.”

 

The oldest democracy and the longest dictatorship on the Continent are preparing for change. May long-suffering Venezuela not be left behind.

 

flegana@telcel.net.ve

 

CLICK HERE FOR SPANISH VERSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US March 30, 2:05pm]