The utility of Cuban prisoners

Ex-Cuban prisoners color coordinated for maximum photogenic value.

For whom are the [Cuban] prisoners useful? - español

Enrique Ubieta Gómez

Translation: Machetera

So here’s the problem.  The ex-prisoners arrive in Madrid.  The press clings to them for a few days.  If they’re lucky, they’ll begin to live from their labors and not from subversive activity that was quite well paid.  Perhaps some will manage a post in cyberspace.  But, as the Cubans say, no es fácil [it's not easy], in the midst of an economic crisis.  I have no idea how much they’ll be paid for their commentary (the offensive or threatening diatribes they launch at revolutionary bloggers), but if we don’t publish them, they don’t get paid.  Little by little, they’ll be forgotten.  They’re no longer any use.  In other words, they’re no longer any use for their former promoters, for U.S. imperialism.

A future of fanatics, fundamentalists and fascists

Citizenship and Capitalism

Santiago Alba Rico – HERRIA-2000

Translation: Machetera

Let’s start with a story.

Once upon a time there was a teacher who went on a journey and became lost in the desert.  He walked and walked without coming upon either houses or food and after a few days he was so tired and famished that he sat down on the ground and began to talk with the rocks that surrounded him.  He pleaded with them, he argued with them, he lectured them with conviction and patience.  He passed many hours that way when suddenly a fairy passed by, her attention drawn by the strange behavior of our man.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

The teacher looked up proudly, a little annoyed by the interruption.

“I’m teaching these rocks to turn themselves into bread.”

“That could take quite awhile,” said the fairy. “It’ll go a lot faster with this.”

And she took a magic wand out of her bag.

The man, furious and disgusted, answered, “I’m a rational man.  I don’t believe in magic.”

And turning his head, he continued to explain to three little rocks, the molecular composition of flour.