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Cuba dictator Raul Castro and President Obama at the memorial service

for the late Nelson Mandela: was their proximity planned - or accidental?

 

 

U.S. and Cuba: Pragmatic Capital will Trump Rural Conservatives (O Globo, Brazil)

 

"The handshake between Barack Obama and Raúl Castro was more than simple formality. The Ceremonials Division of the Office of the Chief of U.S. Protocol could simply have removed Obama from the Castro's proximity. This is something they've always been good at. Why not this time? ... For such capitalists, communism in Cuba, as with China, is no hindrance whatsoever. When it comes to increasing the benefits to capital, there is a clarity and objectivity that egocentric philosophers and moralists fail to comprehend."

 

By André Laino

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Translated By Gemma Bouchereau

 

January 5, 2014

 

Brazil – O Globo – Original Article (Portuguese)

Just two men at a funeral?: President Obama and Cuba dictator Raul Castro.

BBC NEWS VIDEO: Cuba's Raul Castro calls for better ties with the United States, Jan. 4, 00:02:28 RealVideo

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall and September 11, the world has changed more than conservatives imagine. If communism has been taught some lessons, capitalism, too, has gone off the rails. Bill Clinton's comment that "the U.S. has to live with the fact that things are no longer what they were" affirms this fact.

 

Thus, at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela, the handshake between Obama and Raúl Castro was more than simple formality. The Ceremonials Division of the Office of the Chief of U.S. Protocol could simply have removed Obama from Castro's proximity. That is something they've always been good at. Why not this time?

 

Evidence that there was something else in the air was the immediate reaction of U.S. conservatives - Republicans, especially from the Midwest and Alaska - birthplaces of the Tea Party. The reaction brings to light U.S. domestic differences, between the center of the country and the east and west coasts. Even today, the regions feeds the polarization between conservatives and liberals. Within the center are the core beliefs in "simplicity" and "protecting values" that oppose and are in permanent conflict with the "depravity" and "permissiveness" of urban life, whether on the east in New York or the west in Los Angeles or San Francisco. We might surmise that in light of the "moral reservations" that reside within the central U.S., confronted by September 11, a paradoxical feeling of both anger and jubilation emerged.

 

And it was from these same areas that much of the "moral reservations" to the greeting of Obama and Castro emerged.

 

Obama's domestic struggle is likely a result of the victory of Obamacare, which extends health care to a significant segment of the population, a landmark that reflects the diminishing hold of the neoliberal model. Yet evidently, neoliberalism is more active than ever, and in a sense, paradoxically, the approach on the horizon between Obama and Castro form part of such a model.

 

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SEE ALSO ON THIS:
El Diario Exterior, Spain:
Why in Mandela's Name, Obama Rightly Slapped Castro
La Jornada, Mexico:
Explaining Mandela's Loyalty to Fidel and Cuba
O Globo, Brazil:
Bush, Obama, the Clintons and Mandela: 'People Like Us'
The Spectator, U.K.:
Jimmy Carter 'Talks Sense' about Mandela

 

Cuba's work force, with a reasonable level of education and health, has certainly generated interest on the part of global capital and sectors of U.S. capital alike, which are not as "pure" as their fellow citizens from the center! Moreover, the arrival of capital, along with its technology, is of interest to the Cuban government - as is job creation for its eager and well-trained youth. These young people are intellectually capable of absorbing the scientific and technological progress inherent in a wide variety of production processes. Furthermore, many of these are in sectors of production on the east and west coasts, both predominantly democratic. For such capitalists, communism in Cuba, as with China, is no hindrance whatsoever.

 

When it comes to increasing the benefits to capital, there is a clarity and objectivity that egocentric philosophers and moralists fail to comprehend.

 

Perhaps that is why, in a recent statement, Raúl Castro said that any strengthening of ties is possible, provided that both nations respect one another's unique needs and characteristics.

Posted By Worldmeets.US

 

Incidentally, before we finish, it is interesting to recall that in terms of development and expanding horizons, Brazil is much more in line with the U.S. than Europe. Our country is also seen as "morally conservative" and looks upon large metropolises as "dens of debauchery." And here too, our conservatives search the interior for ways to clear the air of such urban corruption - its ideas, and its conflicts! And as in the United States, they, too, fly to Paris to take a "dip into civilization." Clearly, though, similarities are not identities.

 

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Posted By Worldmeets.US Jan. 5, 2014, 8:45pm