Elian, good little Communist
by Jeremy 'Panda Man' Weidenhof · 10/07/2005 12:16 pmRemember little Elian Gonzalez? He was the young Cuban boy found floating off the Florida coast in an inner tube nearly six years ago. His mother and others had perished at sea in an attempt to reach the United States from Castro’s Cuba. The boy became the center of a struggle to return him to Cuba from the custody of relatives in Miami.
Elian is now 11 years old, and has begun appearing in the public eye. KPRC-TV’s Associated Press story calls Elian “Cuba’s youngest celebrity.” There are some hints as to what Elian’s life is now like:
Elian lives with his father, stepmother and younger half siblings in a home protected from the press by security guards.
Authorities also keep journalists from Elian’s classroom at his middle school, where children in mustard-colored uniforms walk between two-story, blue-and-white buildings on a cozy open-air campus.
Cozy?
But while Elian has been sheltered in Cardenas, with Cuban officials saying they want the boy to have as normal a life as possible, he has been paraded at official events, often sitting in the front row next to his father Juan Miguel, now a Cuban lawmaker.
They have lawmakers in Cuba?
[During a speech] Elian thanked Cubans and Americans for fighting for his return to the island at the televised event, which commemorated the fifth anniversary of his being snatched from his Miami relatives’ home by armed U.S. federal agents.
In August, Cuban television showed Elian under Castro’s arm as the Cuban leader celebrated his 79th birthday. On Sunday, the boy called the president a friend and father in an unprecedented one-on-one interview aired on CBS’s "60 Minutes." He also said he has a girlfriend and hopes to become a computer scientist.
They have computers in Cuba?
While the Left will no doubt gush about how little Elian is getting along, and how happy he is at being returned to Cuba, those who understand communism have a clearer view of what is going on:
"It’s propaganda, the same as everything else," said Ninoska Perez-Castellon, spokeswoman for the Miami-based Cuban Liberty Council. "He is a little pawn, a monkey on a chain every time Castro has some activity."
There are doubts about the long-term future of Elian’s use as a political tool, however:
[Damian] Fernandez, a Cuban-American, said he believes the island’s government will keep using Elian as a "symbol that can still rally Cuban nationalism." But the boy, Fernandez said, is also at the age when Cuban children start questioning the system.
"We’ll have to see Elian at 15," he said.
Those who opposed returning the boy to Cuba six years ago will not be surprised that Castro has seized the opportunity to use him for political purposes. One can only hope that the aged Castro’s blight will soon be removed from both boy and country.
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Lets see, Cuba bad. Communist,repression. We isolate them and do not travel there or do business with.They are 70 miles from the US
China good. Communist,repression. We buy everything from them,open business’s there and basically fund their military.They are halfway around the world. Makes sense to me!!!
Elian is where he belongs.
Well, good grief, the Clinton Gang and frothing Janet Reno (who was it that called her ‘Janet Sterno’?) should not have been allowed* to steal and abuse a child.
And now he wouldn’t be a political tool of the Commie government, either.
*or to stay in office and do anything
Sonia, dear, the boy’s mother died trying to get him here, and for damn good reason.
My favorites are the guys that keep turning trucks and cars into boats and trying to get to Florida. It’s a shame the Coast Guard has to keep stopping them.
Sonia, it’s tough to make a case that anyone “belongs” in a nation where the average person has to get by on $15 a month, a place where satellite dishes and fax machines are subject to confiscation as “subversive materials.” I have a hard time believing that anyone “belongs” in a place where religion is allowed in limited quantities, only if the police deem that it’s not “damaging to the revolution.” It’s difficult to fathom that people “belong” in a nation where they have no choices in their political leadership, because every national official runs unopposed in scam elections.
Matt, can you tell me why the US goes all over the world trying to bring down these types of governments ie Iraq,USSR and so on but the one closest to us we ignor? Go to any US slum, the 9th ward in NO, is that better than Cuba?
I am not saying Cuba is anything good but why do we deal with China and kiss their rears but do nothing with Cuba?
Matt, also, when you really break it down a communist dictator type government operates like a US corporation. You have the President who basically is picked from inside deals to run the place. You have the high officials,mid level officials and the rest are the unwashed masses. The top people get all the goodies, the rest get the min that will sustain them.
good job gregg china is exactly like cuba *exept* they did not point missiles at us…
great analogy though…NOT
btw owned by a kid
Kid, if you dont think China has something pointed at us right now you are a fool.And i’m sure we have ours pointed at them too.
kidwittehtape
Ummm maybe you better take a look at this
I know that the story does not “say” specifically pointed at the US but ummmm do the math.
You ever wonder where they get the “free” time and materials to turn vehicles into boats.
Makes me wonder!
The propaganda coming out of Cuba isnt much different from the propaganda that spews out of our press!
I care more about things like Able Danger, not a missing hottie that is crammed down our throats.
oh i know there are missiles pointed at us from every country with misiles, but cuba is just stupid like that thinking they could sneak them in from the USSR and well 70 miles is a little closser to home than china…
and well we could blow up just about all the commie rice patties in china as soon as someone pushes the button after it is discussed in congress and a pettition is signed and talked about on crossfire and then thought about and people sir around for a while…
by that i mean things are not the way they used to be in the military, in ww2 if patton wanted to blow someone up he did it and stuff got done but by ‘nam it was something like this… “sir i think we might be attacked by a mortar attack tonight can we search the forests?” “uhh let me check” 3weeks later congress decides ok we can… “uhh we are not getting a reply from them but we told them they could attack.
too much congress not enough Military i wish patton was still in charge he got stuff done
as a result of Clinton and Janet Reno’s miserable failed fiasco to ignore the obvious implications of returning Alien Gonzales to Cuba, He will probably grow up to be another Fidel. That would be such poetic justice for the Clinton/Reno legacy.
reply to #8;
“good job gregg china is exactly like cuba *exept* they did not point missiles at us”
the missiles could be pointed at France, but still land in Iowa.
Don’t be fooled by “pointed”
rj
#6
“the 9th ward in NO, is that better than Cuba?”
Boy! are you stuck on stupid.
Those people from the 9th ward in NO, are any other ward in this Country, can pick up and leave any time they want and go anywhere. they have freedom of religion, free food in schools food stamps, a ride to and from school that you and I pay for, and the list goes on.
Friend, you need to educate yourself on communist doctrine,
your rendition of how Communism works seems remedial at best.
rj
#4 & #5. Meaning it was a toss up between his father and relatives he did not know. Circumstances are different for all people. We live where we are. I did not have a choice as to where I wanted to live. IT JUST HAPPENED! If YOU can control ‘circumstances’, then change it for Pete’s sake.