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Ear to the Ground

Cuban Intellectual Expelled After Attacking Corruption

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Posted on Jul 3, 2010
Universidad de la Habana

Esteban Morales, a professor at the University of Havana, has written extensively on Cuba’s relations with the U.S.

Cuba’s Communist Party has reportedly expelled an esteemed intellectual, Esteben Morales, for writing a “bombshell article” accusing senior officials of corruption. Morales was stripped of his membership in the party and has since disappeared from public view. —JCL

The Guardian:

Esteban Morales is said to have been “separated from the ranks” of the party over a bombshell article, which accused senior officials of looting the state before it crumbled.

The Playa Municipal branch of the party has stripped Morales of his membership and the historian, a frequent commentator on state television, has disappeared from public view, the Havana Times reported.

Morales broke taboos with an article in April that criticised unnamed, greedy apparatchiks. “It has become evident that there are people in government and state positions who are preparing a financial assault for when the revolution falls,” he wrote on the website of the state National Artists and Writers Union of Cuba.

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rico, suave's avatar

By rico, suave, July 4, 2010 at 10:10 pm Link to this comment

nemesis:

Congratulations, you broke the code.

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By nemesis2010, July 4, 2010 at 1:10 pm Link to this comment

Those damn commie Homo sapiens! They’re just like all those other Homo sapiens; they are greedy, avaricious, abuse power, lie, cheat, steal, and murder. They are equally oppressive, bigoted, discriminatory, prejudicial, and always hold other Homo sapiens who are beneath them in the pecking order to standards that they cannot and will never adhere to. 

Change the names, the political and/or religious ideology, the race, the country, whatever, it simply doesn’t matter, it always ends up the same –no left, no middle, no right, just different levels of “haves” and “have nots.”

How stupid a race are we that the few—who are greatly outnumbered—are allowed to oppress and dictate to the many.

Wealth (the few) dictates to society, rather than society (the many) dictating to wealth.

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PatrickHenry's avatar

By PatrickHenry, July 4, 2010 at 8:08 am Link to this comment

TV-journalists often decry general gripes we all have and are seldom critical of specific lobbyist-congressional corruption which occurs everyday.

The suprising thing for me is that his article was published in Cuban media given all the censors we are told about, it wouldn’t make it that far in the U.S. if the subject matter was related to Israel or AIPAC involvment with our congress or media, it would be squashed by editors almost immediately.

I’ve got to give it to FOX though, right after 9/11 they reported on all the Israeli “art students” captured and the bomb ladened van in NYC.  I am still waiting on the follow up story.

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rico, suave's avatar

By rico, suave, July 4, 2010 at 7:42 am Link to this comment

PatHenry:

Are you saying we DON’T have big-media-employed journalists in this country who criticize the government and still remain employed? What about almost every employee of Fox, and half the employees of the other MSM outlets?

And, “...of this calibre…” Do you know his journalistic calibre? Sounds like he is an esteemed historian who occasionally chats on TV.

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PatrickHenry's avatar

By PatrickHenry, July 4, 2010 at 7:24 am Link to this comment

Too bad we don’t have journalists of this calibre in the U.S. 

Corporate media would have sacked him along time ago.

Onc Fidel and his crew are gone the floodgates will open to U.S. companies, he is right on this.

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By bachu, July 3, 2010 at 10:58 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Some people never learn. They should do what the US does so successfully. They should have marginalized unprincipled intellectuals like they did to Ward Churchill in the US.

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By DaveZx3, July 3, 2010 at 9:03 pm Link to this comment

I am very sorry to hear that Dr. Morales disappeared from public view.  I hope he is being treated well. 

He was apparently a principled and honorable man who was not afraid to speak out about some of the ongoing problems which continue to embarass the party leaders.

I know that he spoke regularly of the significant racial problems in Cuba, in spite of the fact that the revolutionary leaders declared all racial issues to be thoroughly eradicated from Cuban society as of around 1962. 

But in typical communist fashion, when someone speaks out legitimately of problems such as racism or corruption, the speaker tends to disappear after being totally discredited. 

Proving once again that there is virtually no freedom of expression where the state bestows all rights.  Communism sucks!!

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rico, suave's avatar

By rico, suave, July 3, 2010 at 7:41 pm Link to this comment

This is an outrage! EVERYONE knows there is no corruption in Cuba! EVERYONE knows Fidel Castro’s net worth is no more than a few thousand dollars. EVERYONE knows La Revolucion is in robust health and is far from failure! Morales was expelled because he’s black, pure and simple.

I’ll tell ya, those damned academic types are a pain in the A-S-S!!

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