By two o’clock that wee hours we were awaken. Cell phones rang incessantly, acting as awakening ruffians to the disturbed sleep we have grown so accustomed to. God forbid we dream of paradise lost. The arousing words: El Comamdante en Jefe will not accept the reelection as president of Cuba.

Pundits, national media, “newspapers” whose entire staff consist of “writers” and the intelligentsia sprung into action. Ah, the sound bites; “Finally an opportunity for change” or “Maybe that is the beginning of a return to paradise” or “Let’s be positive about the new leadership”. Some were pathetic to the point of being comical: “After fifty years [49 actually], now what? A change perhaps?”

Not so in Cuba or in any self-proclaimed paradise where governments are ruled by syndicates. The election (yes, opposite to popular belief there are elections in Cuba) irrespective of candidate would have merely put forth those who will perpetuate the syndicate’s existence – the benefit of the special interests. Hence the fact that the moribund in chief opted out of some internationally enigmatic role means nothing. Shuffle the deck, deal and see what comes out. It’s the same deck – it the same syndicate. In that case, the brother will do just fine. In other decks, they all come from the same deck, the same purpose. The jokers will

Those of us accustomed to disenfranchisement at the hands of the syndicates react by simply not reacting. Here as well as there, denizens of the real island paradise exhibited a collective yawn via no celebration, no hope, no fun thing to say. At the capitol, the revolutionary plaza was empty not for the lone soldier whose loyalty is to the four pesos per day. At the heart of the capitol in exile there is no dancing, no horns blaring, nada. The airwaves continue the reminders of the transgressions of that syndicate lest no one think that the “new” head will be any less effective in perpetuating a scam.

And the syndicate rubs it in, knowing full well the change makes no real difference, promises of a better tomorrow never seems to come invariably considering of some chimerical boogeyman (malcontents, the Miami Mafia, the Imperialists, etc…). And the “be positive” campaign was expanded ago relegated to the puerile semantics of the infirm. Don’t go absent mad, just go absent. next we will marginalize your contributions to humanity as we pilferage your property and prostitute whatever rights you thought you had.

Relatively speaking, it seems to form no difference where these hijacked paradises exist.

Original post by Mario R. Sanchez, Ph.D.