Cuba
Been away for a few days to a country where everyone gets “free” health care (including abortions) and all education, including college and graduate programs are “free,” where no one (other than the police) have guns and religion is totally a personal matter. Of course, Cuba is a communist nation, with the resulting lack of the personal freedoms we have in the United States. Sixty percent of the population is, in some way, on the government payroll and private enterprise is very limited. Despite government programs including free housing, poverty and hunger are common. This is not good.
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| Just 90 Miles South of Florida |
There
is no great abundance of natural resources, like oil, to create wealth, and the
contributions of rum, cigars and tourism (Americans can visit only for
educational, cultural and humanitarian purposes.) to the Cuban economy are
limited. Yet the people seem to be
content. Their infrastructure, often
centuries-old, is crumbling and in some places beyond repair. Cuba is ripe for change. The Russians and the Chinese are well-aware
of this and have economic footholds there.
Our failure to act similarly will ultimately turn the Monroe Doctrine
into a worthless bit of history, unless we better our political and economic
relationships with that country, only 90 miles from our shores.
Note: Seventy percent of the local commuter buses used
in Cuba as well as the sleek, deluxe, modern, air-conditioned tour buses used there
were manufactured in China. Since 2005, Cuba has purchased 6,800 of these
vehicles from China. (In my opinion, Cuba couldn't afford to buy them without financial aid from China, possibly via a bond issue which was totally subscribed to by Beijing?) There’s a message
there, Donald.
Jack Lippman
Democracy
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| The Glory that was Greece |
Democracy
ran its course and did not survive in ancient Greece nor in the Roman
Empire. Historically, democracies
throughout Europe, Africa, Asia and South America, when encountering economic
and social problems, have failed and been replaced by more authoritarian
regimes. The heyday of democracy in the
United States, the periods that those longing to “Make America Great Again” seek
to regenerate, were fueled by Nineteenth century expansion westward in our
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| Wagons Westward |
country and more recently, by tremendous technological and economic growth here once the pressures of the Great Depression and the Second World War were history. They just did not “happen.” They were “caused.” But those motivations are not necessarily present today. Without them, can democracy survive in the United States or will we share the fate of Greece, Rome and so many failed nations throughout the world?
What do you think?
JL
Wisdom
Quoting
from the cover notes of a book to be described shortly, “Throughout the centuries,
mankind has produced three great, timeless “wisdom” books: Machiavelli’s “The Prince,” Sun-Tzu’s “The
Art of War” and Baltasar Gracian’s “The Art of Worldly Wisdom: A Pocket Oracle.” The last two are far easier reading than “The
Prince,” but I recommend that followers of the blog to try to at least taste
all three.
 |
| Gracian |
Gracian’s
book consists of 300 paragraphs (Aphorisms) offering words of advice. Here are two of them. Read them and try
to relate them to things going on today, politically or otherwise. Gracian, a worldly Jesuit priest, was
ultimately given a less public assignment by the Church after publishing this
kind of material in mid-Seventeenth century Spain.
- #130: Do but also seem: “Things do not pass for what they are, but for what they seem. To excel and to know how to show it is to excel twice. What is invisible might as well not exist. Reason itself is not venerated when it does not wear a reasonable face. Those easily duped outnumber the prudent. Deceit reigns, and things are judged from without, and are seldom what they seem. A fine exterior is the best recommendation of inner perfection.”
- #159: Know how to
suffer fools: “The wise are the least
tolerant, for learning has diminished their patience. Wide knowledge is hard to please. Epictetus* tells us that the most important
rule for living lies in knowing how to bear all things: to this he reduced half
of wisdom. To
tolerate foolishness much patience is needed.
Sometimes we suffer most from those we most depend upon, and this helps
us conquer ourselves. Patience
leads to an inestimable inner peace, which is bliss on earth. And the person who does not know how to put
up with others should retire into himself, if indeed he can suffer even himself.”
*Greek philosopher who advocated “stoicism.”
JL
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