Sunday, November 09, 2014

Las viudas de Berlín

Hoy celebramos la libertad del pueblo alemán, el día cuando cayeron los primeros pedazos del muro de Berlín, el infame muro que separó las democracias occidentales de la tiranía comunista. Que los resultados no hayan sido todos los esperados no es el punto: nadie discute que Europa y el mundo no hayan mejorado en estos últimos 25 años. Pero si Europa es más rica y prospera que en ningún momento de su historia, pese a una crisis coyuntural que afecta a algunos, no todos se han podido librar todavía del yugo comunista, yugo que ha adquirido otros nombres pero que sigue teniendo el mismo objetivo final.


En China todavía existe la dictadura comunista con nombre pero con apellido nuevo. Para retener el poder los comunistas chinos entendieron que tenían que cambiar, si no iban a ser el ultimo dominó en caer, al final de la hilera que empezaba en la Alemania del Este. Hicieron un pacto con su pueblo, un pacto que después de siglos de hambruna el pueblo chino podía aceptar. Todos iban a ganar plata con una condición, que no se toque el poder político de Pekín. El cambio de apellido funcionó y hoy en día China es una economía capitalista salvaje que a cuesta de una explotación humana salvaje ha permitido la emergencia de una clase media y rica que vemos hoy en día sustituyendo los autobuses otrora llenos de japoneses en las capitales europeas.

Pero hay otras viudas de Berlín. Algunas han aceptado entrar en concubinatos difíciles, otras sencillamente no se han vuelto a casar, algunas tratando de pretender que son felices en una nueva vida de comunismo "light". Muchas de las viudas de la Unión Soviética no aceptan su viudez. Puede ser que tomen amantes, pero no aceptan los cambios. Es el caso de Belarús, Azerbaiyán y una que otra tiranía de Asia Central. Los rusos fueron más consecuentes. Siempre amantes de esposos rudos han aceptado un concubinato con un tal Putín.

Pero de todas la viudas de Berlín la mas patética fue Cuba. Claro, hay que entender que la pobre vivía alejada del único marido que tuvo y que la mantuvo por años. Encerrada en una isla depauperada sencillamente no pudo aceptar su baja de estatus y empezó a chulearse otros por ahí. Cuba ha tenido varios hijos ilegítimos, todos fracasados o destinados al fracaso. Es más, hasta una asociación tienen, establecida en un tal Foro de Sao Paulo. En esa escuela les enseñan que no son bastardos de una lujuria salvaje sino nietos legales de Karl Marx, hijos de Fidel y que la Unión Soviética fue un tío que no tuvo suerte en la vida. China es una prima lejana, algo loca, que se mata trabajando y a quien se le saca plata pero que sería de muy mal gusto imitar.

El problema con esa cuerda de bastardos es que han salido muy parecidos a la Mamá y todos son chulos. Sacan o roban la plata a quien sea y terminan todos como dictatorzuelos disfrutando en pleno la plata que se robaron.  Por lo menos los tíos de ellos no tenían escándalos como la niñera de Elias Jaua, agarrada en Brazil con armas y papeles comprometedores. O como Antonini pasando maletas de dólares como si fuesen chocolates de regalo.  Hasta los mas educados de ellos terminan siendo corruptos como en Brasil vemos el Mensalao o Petrobras. Todos sabíamos de las dachas de los jerarcas soviéticos o de los yates de Fidel, pero ellos tenían una cierta discreción y nos se les podía agarrar in fraganti como cayeron los chavistas a cada rato o, con menor frecuencia, corruptos morales como Correa, Cristina, Lula o Dilma.

De todas las viudas de Berlín los hermanos Castro han resultado ser las peores, logrando propagar el mal que nació en la Alemania del Este y la Unión Soviética a todo un continente que pagará muy caro haberse acostado con esos viejos morbosos.


7 comments:

  1. Charly6:26 PM

    Nostalgia for the old Soviet Union is not yet dead, far from it. I just got out this morning of a city previously known as Stalinabad. Quite a few old folks around here long for the good old days when no one was very rich but they had all the necessary, no inflation, 40% of local budget comig from Moscow. And obviously, Stalin was a good guy. Plus çà change......

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  2. Tremenda entrada. Daniel, te la comiste.

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  3. Boludo Tejano10:23 PM

    De todas las viudas de Berlín los hermanos Castro han resultado ser los peores, logrando propagar el mal que nació en la Alemania del Este y la Unión Soviética a todo un continente que pagará muy caro haberse acostado con esos viejos morbosos.
    The apologists for the Castro Bros will as their first line of defense point out their accomplishments in health care. For example, in 2011, Cuba was third in Latin America & the Caribbean [developing countries] in Life Expectancy, behind Chile and Costa Rica. That, say the Fidelistas, would point to superior accomplishments in health care. Guess what? In 1960, Cuba was ALSO third in Life Expectancy, behind Argentina and Uruguay. That would suggest that the Castro bros inherited a good health care system, and improved it, more or less as much as did the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean. Inheriting a pretty good health care system and apparently improving it about as much as did the rest of Latin America is no indicator of the superiority of Fidelista health care.
    Or, the Fidelistas might say that Cuba's Life Expectancy in 2011, of 78.9 years, 4.7 years above the Life Expectancy of 74.2 years for Latin America and the Caribbean [developing countries], is an indication of the superiority of Fidelista health care compared to the capitalists countries. Guess what? In 1960, Cuba's Life Expectancy of 63.9 years was 8.0 years higher than he Life Expectancy of 55.9 years for Latin America and the Caribbean [developing countries].

    If Fidelista health care were superior to that of the so-called capitalist countries, we should expect to see that in the half century plus of Fidelismo, Cuba would have sprinted ahead of the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean in Life Expectancy. On the contrary, in the half century plus of the rule of the Castro bros, the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean has narrowed the Life Expectancy gap with Cuba by about 40%. So much for the superiority of Fidelista health care. Fidelistas might say, and with reason, that this narrowing of the gap occurred because the rest of Latin America was so far behind. Well and good, they have a point. But this also shows that, contrary to Fidelista mythology, the Castro brothers inherited a health care system that was, compared to the rest of Latin America and the rest of the Third World, pretty good.
    In summation, contrary to what Fidelistas may claim, Cuba inherited a pretty good –not perfect- health care system. During the half century plus of the rule of the Castro bros, both Cuba and the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean have improved their health care systems. Not just Cuba. The numbers do not indicate that a totalitarian system is necessary for improving health care in a Third World country.
    From the World Bank's World Development Indicators.

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  4. Boludo Tejano10:34 PM

    I knew a German grad student- in Physics- attending university in the US. A West Berlin native, he had been a schoolboy when the Wall fell. He took a piece of the Wall for a keepsake.The piece of the Wall meant more to him than it would have to most, because his Bulgarian father had been smuggled inside the trunk of a car from West Berlin to East Berlin.

    Like North and South Korea, East and West Germany served for many as a comparison between the two systems. For many, East Germany was an example of Socialism That Works. At least its economy worked better than other countries behind the Iron Curtain. I did purchase an East German gas stove during my backpacking days in South America, and found it inexpensive and a good piece of workmanship. After the fall of the Wall, an objective comparison between the economies of East and West Germany showed us that , "como el autoTrabant, ni anda el economía de Alemania Oriental." Perhaps because of all the resources that the Stasi consumed. I recommend reading Stasiland.

    But the writing- widows of Berlin...illegitimate sons of Cuba- a pleasure to read in either Spanish or English. Not a pleasure for me in French, as "yo no parlee vou."

    I may have taken more pleasure in the Fall of the Wall than most, because I knew a fair number of refugees from the Iron Curtain from my home town. And when you note that I came from an elementary school graduating class of 27 and a regional high school graduating class of 170, the number of Iron Curtain refugees I knew was certainly disproportionate.

    But it appears that for those not of adult age when the Wall fell, it means little or nothing. The US has not done a good job of teaching history.

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  5. Reunification took so much time. I think the wounds have healed faster the last years. Unemployment in the East went down. Sachsen and Thüringen have overtaken Bayern in performance of pupils. Still in PIB per capita they are 2/3 of the west and medium wages are also 2/3.

    I have worked this summer for 3 month in a project for a company in Brandenburg. To be honest the building was only 200 meters from the former wall between West Berlin and surrounding Brandenburg. The workforce was in its majority Eastern. It was a pleasant experience. One guy was complaining that westerners often react irritated, when he told them that he had a lucky childhood in the GDR. I found that somehow characteristic for the many misunderstandings of the last 25 (!) years. GDR was over and a dictatorship, but part of their identity and their life there wasn't less worth than our "glorious" lifes in West, the Best.

    In Thüringen one guy from the successor of the successor party of the Socialistic Unity Party of the GDR may become head of that Bundesland Government with votes from his party and the Green and the Social Democrats. Though Thüringen is in the east, the guy is from the west. I have my problems with that party. For example they still publicly state that Cuba and Venezuela have great Governments. For a german I may be over-interested in Latin American politics, but it shows me that their process of coming to terms with their past still isn't serious enough. They already participated in the bundesland Government of Berlin, where they acted responsible and cooperatively, which alienated a not small part of their voters.

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  6. Two years ago during a holiday in Canarian Islands my 70 year old mother heard a comment by a guy of her age from the east: I can't stand westerners as they have no cojones. Those opinions from both sides are in the minority, but they still exist.
    In my early studies I sometimes worked in blue collard jobs to make some money. It was short after reunification. I spend some time with a neonazi from the East. There were also guys from Northern Africa working and he told me, that for him these guys were "camels", but due to his "tolerance" he accepted my different view point. In the 80ties neonazi was one of the options to express an opposition to their regime. Of course, the most stupid and dangerous option. He was the only guy who was some time in a GDR jail I have ever known. For political reasons.
    Nevertheless over the years I knew a lot of great people from the East.

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  7. Boludo Tejano4:33 PM

    Lemmy, thanks for the reports on reunification. At a high school reunion in the late '90s, my sister chatted with a high school classmate who had married a German and had been living in Germany for years. She told my sister that reunification would take a generation- which appears to have been the case.

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