Notes on the recent developments on the Cuban economy

 

 Very recently the Cuban government passed a new package of legal reforms opening up more of the economy to foreign investment.

 

Cuba has announced it will allow private businesses to operate in most sectors, in what is a major reform to its state-controlled economy.

Labour Minister Marta Elena Feito said the list of authorised activities had expanded from 127 to more than 2,000.

Only a minority of sectors would be reserved for the state, she said.

The communist country's economy has been hit hard by the pandemic and US sanctions introduced by the Trump administration.

Last year its economy shrank by 11% - its worst decline in almost three decades - and Cubans have been facing shortages of basic goods.

BBC 

 The news has not gone down well, with reactions being a mix of downplaying it entirely to blaming the US embargo yet again. I'm not sure why this time it provoked a reaction, even if you define socialism as state control of the economy or "the government doing stuff" as its commonly phrased in the US, Cuba has been trying to find a role for the global market for many years. I remember reading a collection of speeches by Fidel Castro from the 1980s and being surprised that he talked about private ownership still being a feature of Cuba, though mainly confined to about 10% of agricultural labourers who owned their own plots and small markets for commodities made by one person or by families. 

And if you go on the Cuban Chamber of Commerce website you'll find two PDFs written up explaining the 2014 investment reforms, one being a translation of the law and the other being a step by step guide for investors. 

INTRODUCTION
Foreign investment in Cuba, as part of the updating of the Cuban economic
model, is aimed at the diversification and expansion of export markets,
the access to advanced technologies, the replacement of imports, the obtainment
of foreign financing, the creation of new sources of employment,
the attraction of new managerial methods and their connection with the
development of productive chains, and the change of the country’s energy
matrix through the use of renewable sources of energy.
This Guide has been prepared with the purpose of helping foreign investors
interested in doing business with Cuba. The guide does cover the
most relevant aspects and answers the main questions investors may
have, including social and economic information about Cuba, and the
Mariel Special Development Zone, as well as practical information to facilitate
the establishment of businesses in the country.
In addition, this guide also refers to other laws, regulations and resolutions
adopted in the country for foreign investment.

 And oh yeah the Mariel Special Development Zone, the port built specific to cater to international trade was started in 2009 and is now home to several foreign business ventures, including German and other European companies.

The office of the Mariel Special Development Zone (ZEDM) announced that the enterprise PASI Mariel Service S.A. (PAMAS S.A.) was approved and constituted, thus concretizing the first German investment in that “strategic enclave” for the Cuban economy.

PAMAS S.A is an enterprise created with 100 percent foreign capital and is authorized to operate for a period of 30 years.

The enterprise will be dedicated to the construction of a factory for the production and assembly of industrial valves, hydraulic and pneumatic systems, dynamic equipment and its components.

It will also offer diagnostic, repair, maintenance and training services by technical personnel associated with these products.

Authorized to operate for a period of 30 years, PAMAS S.A. will use modern technologies for the development of its productions and renewable energy sources to generate electricity.

With this enterprise, the number of authorized businesses amounts to 48 ​​ and 21 countries have been represented in the ZEDM since five years ago, when it was inaugurated.

https://oncubanews.com/en/cuba/first-german-investment-in-mariel-special-development-zone/ 

Though with that said much of the previous opening up to the global market was regulated to Mariel and tourism and its adjacent industries, so assuming the reforms are carried through it will open up much more access to a lot more of the Cuban economy. 

This raises some questions, why now? Well the typical response is US embargo, which makes no sense at all since the embargo applies to private companies trading with Cuba. If the embargo is strangling the Cuban economy these reforms would do nothing to help, but that's really the thing its not the 1960s any more and the US embargo is not the crippling blow it was when it was applied to a Cuba whose entire economy was an appendage of the United States. 

That Cuba's economic activity with the USA is still heavily limited (though not non existent) is a constraint, especially being banned from buying American goods and services through credit, but its had decades to reorientate its economy. During the Cold War it essentially replaced the USA with the USSR, which is why the economic turmoil of the 1960s was repeated in the 1990s when that trade block disintegrated. But since the early 90s the Cuban economy has successfully re-orientated again, its biggest trading partner is China, but that's closely followed by multiple European nations and overall the EU seems to be the largest trader and investor. 

Graph source World bank

 The problem was much of that growth was in tourism and the export of luxury goods which due the COVID-19 pandemic have done incredibly poorly. It makes no sense for an economy under effective siege to tinker with investment policies, the source of the economic ruin is external and will remain unaffected, but it makes perfect sense for an economy already integrated and active in the world economy to pursue other opportunities once its main economic pillar is in trouble.

I know this is hard for people in the US to understand, but in the rest of the world Cuba is just another nation. Its not especially liked or especially condemned in the mainstream. Its a popular tourist destination and I've bought Cuban goods over the counter, though not often, they're usually well outside my price range. 

To be frank even during the Cold War the United States had a poor record of getting its allies to abide by the embargo, both Mexico and Franco's Spain ignored repeated attempts to pressure them into cutting off their trade with Cuba. And as the Cold War has ended that failure has only multiplied.

Unlike North Korea which the target of sanctions by many nations around the world and not just the United States, most countries have no issue with establishing a firm or booking holidays, or trading industrial commodities with Cuba. It doesn't bode well for the Cuban planned economy, this is probably the beginning of the full transition from state planning to market capitalism. In fact this seems to be proving Felix Abt correct, that far from undermining planned economies strict international sanctions actively prop it up and hold back the transition to market capitalism, since the measures put in place to damage state enterprises can easily break and cripple private ones.

A Strange Record

I just finished reading Setting the Record Straight by Richard Hart.

A book about the Grenadian Revolution, I found a scan of it online, it was a very surprising read. Hart was the Attorney General for the New Jewel Movement and his booklet is openly pro the revolution.

Curiously though Hart seems to be a fairly mild labour party social democrat at heart, so many of the things he praises Bishop and the NJM for run counter to the narrative of them being another Cuban style regime.

He talks about the NJMs desires to restore parliamentary government, their commitment to a mixed economy, etc. He even talks about how there was two powerful businessmen in the cabinet, how their investment law was being updated to attract foreign investment and how they would give interest free loans to large rural estates to stop them going under and details the time the NJM broke up a successful workers co-op at the Coca cola plant and gave it back to the franchise holder as good things proving their revolutionary commitments.

I was genuinely surprised, I'm used to most pro Bishop narratives being written by Castro worshippers who know very little about Grenada. This on the other hand is full of information from anecdotes to statistics and champions them as moderate social reformers who openly defended investment and moderate dealings.

Their were a few bits that I found odd, the first section is a detailed explanation about the NJMs plans to revive "normal" government via elections and parliament. But the second section is about the NJMs mass meetings they were famous for, and their Hart makes the case that they were open and lively, got thousands of people to participate and were successful in amending laws and getting investment.

But after reading those sections I had a strong question, if that's true and this system was so astounding, why were the NJM pushing for bringing back representative government? They appear to already have a superior democratic system so why the regression?

And some very interesting parts are glossed over. According to Harts account of the in fighting that destroyed Bishop, the reason it got so serious wasn't that Bishop and the rest of the NJM leadership had a rift, its that they had this rift while Bishop was visiting Eastern Europe and Cuba, so apparently they were afraid Bishop would come back with a load of Cuban commandos and kill them. Obviously that didn't happen but the fear that it would escalated the situation from a struggle between Maurice Bishop and the New Jewel Movement party over who had ultimate authority into a potentially bloody fratricide. Which it quickly became once Bishop's moves against the rest of the leadership were uncovered and he tried to seize Fort Rupert.

Which to me is really interesting, why did they think that was a possibility? In public the NJM and Cuba had a great relationship so what does this tell us about the reality? but Hart just moves on. Still on other subjects the details are quite exhaustive, anything with a legal angle will have pages of information and explanation, including trade in nutmegs, and the legal grounds for the trials of the NJM leadership for their murder of Maurice Bishop by the US installed government. 

I think its worth reading, and according to Hart's introduction this was supposed to be the beginning of a much more expansive work, hopefully that will appear and answer some of these questions on lightly touched on. 

RMT Joins up with North Korea

Regular readers will know that I'm a Wobbly so I'm not really too surprised when I hear of some bad news concerning the mainstream Trade Unions but this particular development is kind of hard to swallow. It seems the Rail and Maritime Transport union (RMT) arguably Britain's most militant mainstream trade union and one I personally quite admire has found some new rather dodgy friends.

From Workers Liberty

Why link with North Korean “unions”?

Author: 

Luke Taverner 

The Council of Executives of the RMT, at its June 2013 meeting, decided to affiliate to the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU).
The WFTU traces its history back to the end of the Second World War, when an attempt was made to revive the old trade union international. Soon, opposition to the Marshall Plan by unions in the Stalinist bloc, and the anti-Communism of many Western unions, made the organisation untenable. Most big union centres outside the Stalinist world left, and set up what is now the ITUC.
The WFTU continued as an organisation of state labour fronts and unions historically linked to or led by their national Communist Parties (like the French CGT) around the world. Its biggest remaining affiliates include the Vietnamese General Confederation of Labour, the Cuban CTC, and the General Federation of Trade Unions in North Korea. These are not unions in any meaningful sense, but the state-run labour fronts of totalitarian regimes, often used to police and repress working-class self-organisation and dissent.

Recently the WFTU has experienced a slight revival, in part by placing itself to the left of the ITUC, which it criticises for being in favour of social partnership. The WFTU has rebranded itself as “class-based” and “democratic.” Some unions in South Africa have affiliated to it and are pushing COSATU to do so.

The RMT say they will “seek to facilitate a meeting between the ITF (International Transport Workers Federation) General Secretary Steve Cotton and the transport section of the WFTU.”
But the move may also be shaped by people in the RMT who have some sympathy for the sorts of regimes for which the WFTU provides cover.

Regardless of the motive, the sad fact is that the leadership of a militant industrial union in Britain seems to have no problem aligning themselves with an organisation which includes within it representatives of some of the most repressive, anti-worker regimes in the world.

Commandante Hugo Chavez has Died

El Presidente Hugo Chavez has died aged 58, after spending nearly two years battling cancer. The news doesn't surprise me anyone who has family or friends suffering from cancer knows how fragile it leaves them. Even if the treatments go well and they're "cured" it doesn't take much to floor them years after.

His death ends fourteen years in power (1999-2013) and was undeniably an important figure in Venezuelan and global affairs. I imagine the next few weeks we'll see a lot of back and forth as admirers and enemies battle it out to try and capture his legacy for their own purposes just like they do for the death of every major political figure regardless of beliefs and deeds. Speaking on purely personal grounds I'll miss the energetic demagogue and his trademark Red Beret. The man was an important influence on my political maturity from angry teen shaking his fist at news bulletins into something approaching a coherent thinker. Though I've definitely moved away from his orbit since then Chavez's actions did at least give me a direction to focus my energies and for that I will always remember him and be grateful. 

I first became aware of the Commandante of Caracas when watching an Irish documentary on BBC Four. That documentary was "The Revolution will not be Televised- Chavez: Inside the Coup"



I still watch the above video now and then. That documentary blew my mind, it clearly showed me that the old levers of control the United States government over Latin America were still there and ready to activate when ever any challenge to that control occurred. And reminded me that the ruling cliques of Latin America were just as ruthless and unethical in assisting the domination of Latin America that they personally profit from.

It also showed me that Chavez unlike the populist Latin leaders of the past had a genuine base of support amongst the poor and working class of Venezuela. The army and the media had moved against Chavez during the coup, in fact all the institutions of power in Venezuelan society had thrown their weight behind the movement to depose Chavez, and his political allies were weak and disorganised(1) with most of their leaders under arrest by the pro coup army and police. Even the country's established trade unions (whose leaders were closely tied to Chavez's political opponents) were against him.

The only power in Venezuela that did come out for Chavez and did face down the riot police and tanks on the streets were the people. The streets of Caracas and the major cities were full of angry citizens from the Barrios demanded his safe return. This groundswell of anger seems to have court the coup plotters completely of guard (understandably so, since they controlled the media completely and had spent months demonizing Chavez) and derailed their attempts to create a smooth transition of power before the rest of the world could react. I've never subscribed to the view that the working class is stupid or easily mislead so the fact that so much of Venezuela's working class mobilised to defend Chavez said a lot to me about his popularity and the sections of society he chose to represent.



"Those who have served the cause of the Revolution have ploughed the Sea" Simon Bolivar


1: The massive United Socialist Party of Venezuela wasn't formed until 2007 long after the coup.

Kim Jong Unbelievable the Red Dawn Remake

Well I finally got round to watching the Red Dawn remake, and many things come to mind. Since I believe a work should stand separate from its baggage like intended messages and the people attached to it I'll try to break up my criticism and praise into individual sections.


The Film

If your a reader of this blog you can probably guess what will be in the following sections so it only seems fair to start by dealing with the film as piece of cinema in as much of a vacuum as possible.

I fully believe these are battle hardened teens scarred by the horror of war

Unfortunately the film doesn't really shape up. It uses obvious CG which isn't to bad in itself but the execution is quite poor. The invasion involves a massive fleet of air planes depositing the CG paratroopers, this is very noisy and some of the planes are shot down and crash near are main characters. They flee but the following scenes have extras strolling down the streets while the CG paratroopers are just above roof height. The Korean soldiers when they do become real are incompetent fools whom just mill about despite being under fire. The first time they actually do anything they manage to get one of themselves killed by a panicky teen while the rest of them just stand and watch the killer of their comrade escape. We also meet are main villain Captain Cho (Will Yun Lee) who is quite possible the worst officer in non comedic film history.

He keeps that confused expression throughout

After our hero's escape by driving away past several Korean riflemen, Cho decides that despite being in charge and having captured the Mayor (presumably the most important object at the moment) to take off after our hero's in a car chase with only a driver. Oh yeah despite parachuting in minutes ago the Koreans have fully fuelled and prepared armoured vehicles. Anyway he quickly crashes and our hero's make their way to the woods to begin planning their Guerilla counter-offensive and practice there chant of "Wolverines"!

And Cho and the Koreans maintain that level of incompetence throughout. Part of the problem is that Cho in particular is written as a movie villain and not as real military officer. The first explicitly evil thing we see him do directly hinders his own plans. He's in charge of this district and wants the kids whom injured several soldiers to turn themselves in. To do this he tracks them down and gets two of the kids dad's to talk to the woods were they're hiding with a megaphone. He promises if they turn themselves in no one gets hurt, but the cop dad of (ex marine) uses the opportunity to tell his kids to fight back. So Cho like a bond villain shoots him meaning there's no chance the kids will turn themselves in. He then leaves making no attempt to search the woods for them.

The Korean soldiers from that point on become storm troopers only from Star Wars, they never hit anything, their armour is useless and they spend the film running or driving around aimlessly becoming perfect ambush material. But sometimes they also just stand their letting obviously suspicious individuals get right up to them before they do anything even after several attacks have occurred. Nothing kills the tension in a film like having the main enemy force be completely useless. Oh and Cho's superiors don't appear much better, we get a standard dressing down from your superiors scene after Cho completely fails to deal with that gang of meddling kids. Cho assures his boss it'll be other soon, which pleases him, but when Cho actually tries to tell him what he's planning the Boss yells "Enough talk"! and storms off.

 The acting was, well it was functional I guess. No one stuck out as doing a poor job but no one really shined either. In fact I honestly can't remember any of the Wolverines names other then Daryl (because he was the Black one), and I could only tell the girls apart by their hair colours. At about the middle point one of the male wolverines was shot and honestly I couldn't remember which one had been killed. I couldn't remember who else had been hanging around with them prior to his death. Cho isn't scary; he's just there not really doing much, I only remember his name because everyone else kept mentioning him as if he was some sort of threat despite spending most of his time in an office and showing no military skills whatsoever.

The story copies most of the events from the original only it manages to make them worse. For example the death of the traitor, now despite my problems with the original Red Dawn I can at least watch it and as a film it was very good, characters even the bad guys had if not depth then layers, they did a reasonable job of explaining how the kids were able to take on the new Red Army, and did a very good job juxtaposing the jubilant Wolverines with the repression of the occupation. I still find the premise absurd but I did believe the kids were struggling to cope with an extremely bad situation and the film did a very good job of portraying the bleak existence in an occupation and in capturing a sense of dread and frustration as the occupation developed.

And again this is something the remake botches, in the original it was made clear that the group hid in the wilderness for at least a month getting to know the territory and perfecting their survival skills and accuracy with a gun. The remake has a fast paced montage and makes it seem like only a day or two has passed since the Koreans invaded making there ability to take on the army so easily ludicrous. In Red Dawn Colonel Bella is shown to be a very good commander, he's cool under fire and he defeats the American forces despite equipment shortages and very quickly establishes the new regime. He's also not afraid to challenge his superiors when his instincts tell him their wrong. But since he's Nicaraguan his entire military experience has been fighting with insurgents not against them(1) so by his own admission he's out of his depth. And his superiors don't help him they just keep instructing him to squeeze and kill the population under his control. Cho on the other hand displays no expertise in any capacity and has no justification for failing to contain the rebellion.

In particular the subplot with the traitor, its probably my favourite part of the film since it deals with probably the most complex and ugly aspect of conflict, how do you deal with a friend and fellow fighter whom turns, and what exactly causes them to turn. His reasons for what he did were perfectly understandable, even more so when you remember his age and the execution was depicted very brutally and managed to avoid glorifying his death as a victory for Patriotism. In fact in addition to being traumatic it was unnecessary there was no reason to kill the prisoner and the traitor his tracking device meant the Soviets were following him. All the Wolverines had to do was leave (which they had to do anyway since Daryl had given away their position) and leave them both for the Soviets to find. Not only is there murder unnecessary but they can't even come up with a convincing argument to shoot either of them, they just do it.

In the remake the traitor kid is an arrogant prick from the start, sells out his "friends" immediately (about 20 minutes in) and dies with without much comment after one of the "loyal Wolverines" gives him the middle finger. Not exactly on the same level of emotional drama is it?

And what about the strategic situation scene, you know the one were the Wolverines meet up with some soldiers whom tell them all how screwed up the situation actually is and how the Soviets were able to do all this. That was an important scene in Red Dawn not only did it give some credence to premise by giving a detailed operation involving multiple forces and points of attack. It also added to the atmosphere of grim defiance, basically the war is in a stalemate but every front is deep within American territory.

In the remakes version its revealed that the North Koreans have essentially a magic weapon that's so advanced the US had no idea such a thing could exist that disabled America's defences. Okay to be fair the weapon is a type of E-bomb which is a device that sets off a large Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) that fries electrical devices. They do exist and a lot of money is being spent on making better version, the problem is that money is Dollars and Yuans because the technology is so sophisticated and expensive effectively only America and China can  produce them. And apparently they used tactical "non-nuke"Warheads (missiles to us common civvies) to take down remaining resistance. The scene also jettisons the bleak seriousness of the original in favour of a trite "guys like you are the difference" where there's hope there's a way sentimentality popularised by children's television.

Oh and that scene informs us the Russians have invaded too. I guess the Russian market must be less profitable or less thin skinned. Why is never explained, in fact no explanation is given for the North Koreans being there. The original didn't really give a reason for the Soviet invasion(2) beyond "it was inevitable, two powerful kids on the block" but it didn't really need to. The Cold War of the time answered that question for them, USA and USSR were locked in a struggle and had the power to destroy each other. Ergo the USSR would have reason to defeat the Americans and benefit greatly if it pulled it off.

Oh and they change the ending too. Red Dawn had most of the Wolverines die its implied that the disruption of groups like the Wolverines and the hope they inspired helped turn the tide of the war but they still ended up dead. In the remake the group lead a mass insurgency on a prison camp exploiting the Korean guards fatal flaw of just standing there waiting to get shot.

Plot

 You might be wondering why plot comes after the section about the film. Well I've seperated it because films that have an explicit message have two plots, the one the actors go through and the narrative the audience are supposed to go through. And you can't get more explicit then the propaganda of the Red Dawn films.

The plot for the benefit of the Red Dawn films is quite obvious "Fear the foreign powers". The original film was in essence a 114 minute advert for increased spending on America's war programs. The fact that the invaders are a bunch of Commies is actually a footnote its the fact foreign powers can trample American soil that's supposed to frighten the audience. The Soviet Union was merely the most realistic choice of antagonists. The tag line for the film makes this clear "In our time, no foreign army has ever occupied American soil. Until now."(3)

I never really liked the original Red Dawn and I freely admit at least part of my dislike is the films propaganda message. Not only do I simply disagree with "My country tis for thee" Jingoism in reality those sentiments have been used to justify the most evil of actions. The film doesn't just ape the pro war and aggression arguments in general either the original actively presents some of the Right wing arguments for interventions and atrocities as being true. How do the Soviet Union manage to launch a surprise invasion of the United States? By using there foothold in Latin America, specifically Cuba and Nicaragua.

At the time the film was made Ronald Reagan and his national security clique were funnelling millions of dollars and weapons to the most appalling regimes and armies in Latin America, torture, rape and genocide were the norms throughout most of the continent. How could the "greatest democracy on earth" possibly justify such appalling crimes? The Russians are coming. Why invade Grenada? The Cubans and Russians were going there. Why create the Contra's, a force cobbled together from the remnants of Somoza's National Guard? The Russians might go there. Why support the Salvadoran Generals in their Genocidal crackdown on the Indiginado peasants? If they win the Russians will go there. And on and on it went.  Hell it even indulges in some immigrant bashing by claiming a bunch of illegals from Mexico managed to infiltrate a number of military installations before the attacks. In addition to the standard racist distrust of people who "aren't native" the events of the time make it even more sinister. American laws forbade the funding and support of those committing crimes against humanity which meant the tide of Latin American refugees trying to escape the brutalities of their own governments were a problem. Accepting refugee's would be an admission by the US government that their allegations of persecution and torture were true, so instead many whom applied were denied accused of lying and supporting the local "Red faction" and sent back home with the government they fled knowing who they are. So many had to flee to America illegally. So by using the arguments of the US interventionist wing Red Dawn was in effect helping their arguments be accepted by the American people.

Still It was lucky for the film makers that the existence of the Soviet Union provided the perfect example of foreign aggression. In terms of Anti Red propaganda its not the worse film I've seen, that honour goes to Red Scorpion a rather dull film that was made to support UNITA (the guys who worked with South Africa) in Angola's Civil war. In it a KGB superman is sent to kill a "Black Revolutionary" however switches sides when he sees Soviet and Cuban forces killing the local population. I remember one scene in particular were the head Soviet Officer gasses a village from a helicopter.

You could easily take the plot of Red Dawn and set it at any other time period when America was under threat and only have to change the locations, extras and props. For example set it in Hawaii in the 40's make the baddies Japanese  and replace the Hind's with Zero's. Or set it in ye olde Colonial times, have the baddies be Brits (a mix of bluebloods and cockneys, naturally) and you've got the same film. In fact you wouldn't even have to change the title, Red Dawn could easily reference the Red Sun on the Imperial flag or the Red Coats of the regulars.

Unfortunately for the remake they have no such luck. Originally the enemy was going to be the only potential candidate for threat to America China, but the studio's got cold feet so they spent a lot of time in post production changing them to North Koreans (more on this below). This change means that its propaganda message is worthless the example chosen to illustrate the point is so poor it simply discredits the entire argument. North Korea couldn't possibly invade the United States and that's evident to anyone with a working brain. They might as well have made the enemy Zambia, at least then they'd do well with the racist Turner Diaries crowd.

Possibly the dumbest decision made by Hollywood in a few years

And here we go, the decision to give the Chinese a race lift to make them Koreans is just a fundamentally stupid idea. On every front it just weakens the film even more. The decision to change the country was simply because the studio wanted access to the lucrative Chinese market which immediately kills the films artistic integrity and shows the film is purely a moneymaking scheme of no substance. The change weakens the plot drastically and contradicts the "gritty ultra serious" tone the film desperately wants to have.

It also changes the plot in other less obvious ways, the original Red Dawn had the invasion occur because America simply wasn't vigilant enough. If the enemy was still China they might still be able to pull off the same thing but not with North Korea. The very beginning of the film shows the 21st century equivalent of the spinning newspaper montage, clips of 24 hour news commentary around the world. Lots of films do this as its actually a fairly effective and unobtrusive way of ex-positing the situation setting the tone, usually tension. And to be fair to the film it does a reasonable job of presenting North Korea as a threat in the made up scenario it constructs, unfortunately it makes the subsequent invasion of America look to be the product of America's lack of intelligence rather then a lack of vigilance.

The beginning news montage makes clear that America was well aware of North Korea's danger and actively trying to restore order on the Korean peninsula and the globe. So the fact that they didn't see a military build up in particular its Navy and Air Force both of which would be needed just so the Koreans could get over to America, and then let that Navy and Air force sneak past America's Pacific fleet and monitoring stations just kind of makes Uncle Sam seem really stupid. Its the kind of incompetence that no amount of dollars in the defence budget can solve.

Oh and what makes the decision to make the baddies Koreans completely redundant is the addition of the Russians. Near the beginning the characters say the Koreans must of had help, that would've made for an interesting subplot an international conspiracy of nations and if done well could update Red Dawns "Fear the foreigner" message. But no the film drops that thread only to introduce Russians half way through without explanation. They literally just turn up half way through and then disappear until the last ten or so minutes. They call them Spetsnaz but they don't really do much thats Special. The one thing they do manage to pull off (which is one more then the Koreans) is plant a tracker on Daryl (whose traitor subplot was given to some new character) meaning the Russians rather then the Koreans are the only bad guys whom threaten are band of misfits. Why not just make them Russians in the first place, they were already remaking Red Dawn so they couldn't have been afraid of parallels with the original.

In conclusion track down a DVD of the original if your curious.

1: Apparently the Contra's don't exist in Red Dawn world.
2: Okay the opening text at the beginning does explain the specifics of why the Soviets attack but the characters don't know that.
3: Which of course isn't quite true, British forces occupied "American soil" twice if you count territory held by Washington's forces as American soil. Then there was Mexico which launched offensives during its wars with America. Hell the Canadians also occupied territory on their way to burn down the non white White house.

Enemies of the Internet

Yep this is another one of them preachy posts, once again accompanied by a nice Infographic from the good people of Open-Site, for a quick recap of similar posts click on the following links:

Technology production
Piracy
Online Activism


 Today's theme is sort of a companion piece to the one about Activism (though arguably they are all interconnected) its about those whom threaten all the good things the Internet gives us, including pornography and fan sites about obscure television shows an out of print pulp series.

From Open-site.org 

If you think that identity theft is the worst-case-scenario of Internet use, you clearly don’t live in any of the nations that make the list of top “Enemies of the Internet.” Not only do these governments monitor their citizens’ web activity, but they also make it nearly impossible for them to safely share and gather information through anonymous microblogs, Facebook pages or Twitter accounts. One nation sports a cyber police force that is larger than the city of Orlando, Florida. And when protests erupted in another country, Twitter accounts were created for the sole purpose of diverting citizens from spreading information. Although these nations represent the extremes of national cybersecurity, the measures they use are based in legislative bills like SOPA, PIPA and CISPA. Check out the following infographic to find out which nations make this list. The next time you surf the web, think carefully about who’s watching you and who’s blocking you.

 If you're finding the graphic a bit small you can get the full sized version here.

Anyway I believe this is a fairly comprehensive list of nations that have less then liberal attitudes to the world wide web. In fact do take a look at both lists in the second image, we have the usual suspects China, Burma, Belarus, Russia, Cuba etc all well known for Authoritarianism but we also have a few surprises, Bahrain, Egypt and Tunisia, all of which had until the Arab Spring been well known for tourism and an accommodating attitude to Westerners.

And yet all of them at least embraced legislation that allowed their security forces to monitor the web. Why is this necessary? Well its quite easy to co-opt mainstream or old media either nationalise it or keep it in private hands and reach an agreement with the owners. Murdoch used to be the perfect example of this in the UK before the phone hacking scandal ruined his credibility and usefulness to government. Remember private ownership of the media doesn't necessarily equal independent or free.

Of course the problem with that framework is lying about a problem doesn't make the problem go away. People whom are frustrated and not getting anywhere through official means often go "underground"  and the internet has made this much easier to do and more effective to reach a larger audience. Owning the Times and Government FM simply won't stop dissent from spreading hence monitoring programs, and criticism laws (which we'll get to later) and don't hold your breadth for the new governments in Egypt and Tunisia to get rid of these particular laws. You would be surprised how useful such measures are once someone else has done the hard work and took the flack for implementing them.

For example in South Africa the ANC kept very unpopular Apartheid era laws in case their Administration faced an insurrection. Or did you think they just forgot about the legal justifications to arrest and beat them when they were the people's Vanguard?


Bahraini bloggers have often faced arrest and fines and that was before the protests against the Monarchy kicked off in full. Now you can expect a night raid and assault.

You may also wonder why Australia and France are on the list, after all those are civilised "Democratic" Western liberal nations. So why are they playing follow the leader with the Moustachioed Despots? Put simply because the same tensions that make surveillance and arbitrary detention so attractive to Governments exist in all nations. Can you honestly think of a nation that is completely homogeneous in outlook and harmonious? I can't... well that's not true North Korea (As its government portrays it anyway) seems pretty orderly, but given that its society is heavily militarised and has an extremely powerful police and intelligence service suggests that harmony is manufactured to some extent. And even they have very restrictive internet monitoring programs.

In the UK Tory and Labour governments have been blocking sites since the 90's. Some because of allegations of terrorism promotion and child pornography but, sometimes file sharing, I can't access Piratebay.Se anymore to give a recent example. In fact if I remember correctly in the 90's most websites blocked or shut down were Scatological pornsites (I'm not checking to make sure, you do that if you want too) which while unpleasant content wise isn't exactly what I'd call and economic or societal menace.

And of course I'm sure we're all familiar with the Alphabet bills in America and the EU trying to increase restrictions on the internet in our lands. SOPA, PIPA, CISPA, ACTA and so on. This initiatives need to be fought, not because they'll take away free films and music (even though its been debunked that piracy negatively affects those industries) but because they all legalise attacks from both government agencies and corporate "Rights holders" to attack our democratic space. You are naive in the extreme if you don't realise that these measures open the door to censorship of ideas and groups. And maybe you don't care all that much when the groups being shut down are "terrorists" or of the political and social opposition, but can you honestly guarantee that that is were the line stops? Would you be so complacent if the party bringing in these policies was one that opposed your beliefs and tried to silence your activism and debate?

Again credit to the Open-Site for the infographic.

More from this series:

Technology production
Piracy
Online Activism

Stuff I've Been Doing While Away

Yes I've been away for a bit but instead of another apology post (I really need to get out of the habit) I figured I'd tell you a bit of what I've been doing whilst not updating this blog.  That way at least you can something of interest/use out of here again.

Mobbly

First up I've been writing up a few articles for Mobbly. I said before when I started writting for them that I'd do a few blog posts about articles I thought people who read this blog might be interested in, well obviously its been awhile since I did that, I have a non lazy reason though, given my slump in updates I didn't want this place to turn into a "re-blog" thing you know just advertising with no substance so I held off for a bit hoping to pick up the pace later. That obviously didn't happen so unless you follow my Twitter and not many do you'll have missed on some interesting information. So heres a recap of some of the articles I've written that you'll probably enjoy (not a guarantee).

 Castro: By Reinhard Kleist. Yes its a Comic biography of Fidel Castro, it covers everything from Fidel's childhood to his retirement and is told from the point of view of a West German immigrant journalist whom falls in love with Cuba but not necessarily with the Maximum Leader. Here's what I thought of it.

1948: By Andy Croft. Those whom know me will know I am a massive fan of George Orwell and while I had no idea at the time whom Andy Croft was (his main body of work revolves around sport) the cover and the blurb intrigued me so I picked it up and I did not regret it. Andy Croft was a member of the now defunct Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and he recently published a book about the collapse of the old CPGB that I will be reading up on soon. Review here.

Iron Sky: A film about Moon Nazi's. Actually to be fair whilst it is a modern day 1950's B-Movie complete with flying saucers it is also a very clever and accurate (Minus the living on the moon thing obviously) depiction of Nazi society as well as being coupled with some satire about modern (mostly American but you can still apply the jokes around the world) politics. It also looks amazing for the tiny budget and the cast especially the Germans work well. Click for more.

A Eulogy to Ray Bradbury and a review of Fahrenheit 451: This one combines two articles I did. As I'm sure you're all aware Ray Bradbury has died, naturally as a Science Fiction fan I was saddened and wished to convey why I felt the man was so treasured by genre fans. After doing so I felt it was a good time to review his most famous work Fahrenheit 451 for the benefit of those whom haven't yet had the pleasure and where curious about all the fuss. Read both  here.

Occupy: By Noam Chomsky. Of all the stuff I've written this probably deserved to be posted here the most. I did already blather on about the man and his opinions of the movement here. Anyway I found the book ( a collection of speeches and interviews) to be very informative, hopefully it will lead to more like it as the Occupy Movement progresses. Read about it here.












Free Speech Radio News

As you've probably noticed I've been embedding and sharing a lot of videos by the group Free Speech Radio News (FSRN). Why? well I quite like there coverage and I think its a good way to broaden and elaborate a point so your not just reading my dyslexic ramblings (thank you for spell checker). I'm also the guy who makes most of those videos so its nice to get some extra use out of the stuff you've already done.

Anyway the reason why FSRN has contributed to my tardiness, is because like most independently funded media groups they had a funding shortfall, quite a large one actually at a pretty delicate time. To spare the details the group were in trouble and had to begin aggressively touting for support and donations, readers of the Morning Star will know what I'm talking about. And I helped out as much as I could. You maybe thinking if that's the case then why the hell was this space so quiet? well I was just overwhelmed at the time and didn't get around too it. Still the good news is that FSRN is still on the air and secure for at least a little while.  And those wishing too can still donate and support it.

In fact to make up for my silence here's a few video reminders of the important work FSRN does.

Mumia Abu-Jamal's appeals for support on the behalf of the team. FSRN has been broadcasting his commentaries from Death Row, and now from the prison general population for awhile.

And here we have two reports on the ongoing escalation of violence in the Eastern Kivu (both North and South) provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Including an investigation into allegations that the M23 "Rebellions" receive support from neighbouring Rwanda. All while US and European Mining companies continue to make profits from the war torn areas.





There was also another report about Gold prospecting in Haiti and the dangers to the local population if the widespread corruption and exploitation aren't addressed.




Other Stuff

It may surprise you to learn but I do have a life outside the internet. In the fresh air and daylight I have also been quite busy. I've been undergoing training and become a Regulator of a local Housing Association. I know, those associations shouldn't exist, and the Council should be providing housing for its residents and tenants, but the Council isn't in any state to take back that stock at the moment and this way I might be able to make some difference on behalf of vulnerable tenants.

I've also been hard at work at my local boxing club shedding weight and taking a few steps on the path of the pugilist. Its very efficient way to improve your fitness levels, and it lets you eat all the delicious protein rich foods you want. Oh and I've also been tinkering away at some fiction, don't worry I won't turn this blog into my Live Journal, and if your wondering no I do not have a Live Journal. Its just something I've been working on to see what can do. If I get better at it I might start uploading some of it but that would be a ways off.

So yeah that's what I did with my mid June to early July. How was your time three and a bit weeks? Hope it was good despite the abysmal weather.

Trying to make Sense of the Falklands

I was reading the English section of Granma when I came across an article by Fidel on the curious state of affairs in Canada you know that old question about is Canada an actual independent nation or still a colony. I personally have little interest in that debate, instead I was more interested in Fidel's comments about the Falklands/Malvinas Islands.

"Likewise, the Honorable Foreign Minister of Canada does not dare to say whether or not he supports Argentina on the thorny issue of the Malvinas Islands."

Well it isn't really an issue for Ottawa, and even if Canada took a side regardless of what side I sincerely doubt either the UK or Argentina would care to do anything more then release a gloating press release or blustering denial depending on who it sided with. I've never really understood this practice Nation states have of demanding every other nation recognise them in a territorial dispute. Why should the opinions of a government with no clear interests in the dispute matter? its not like there are any consequences of choosing sides, countries that side with Britain still have diplomatic relations and trade links with Argentina and vice versa. Its not like say Palestine or Western Sahara, where the issue is about a territory wishing for independence, and the stance other nations take will have ramifications for international law and global trade.

"He has only expressed beatific wishes for peace to prevail between the two countries. But Great Britain has there its largest military base outside its territory in violation of Argentina´s sovereignty."

Remind me again weren't you supporting dozens of rebel groups throughout South America, and even Africa. Hell your best friend Ernesto (more commonly known as Che) was busy trying to set up a mutually supporting continental network of Guerrilla's to build a continent wide Revolution. I seem to remember Bolivia had quite a few armed Cubans running around in violation of that governments sovereignty.




"It did not apologize for having sunk the General Belgrano cruiser which was sailing outside the jurisdictional waters that they themselves established which led to the futile sacrifice of hundreds of youths who were doing their military service."

Well first the sinking of the Belgrano wasn't futile, its loss humiliated the Argentine Navy and caused fractures along service lines within the military Junta ruling Argentina making it less able to deal with internal enemies. Had it not been for the invasion and the subsequent conflict many of those innocent youths would have spent there military service either firing at protesters or making people "disappear" it really does astonish me how many South American Leftists seem to forget about the Military Junta and there dirty war when talking about this period, especially when some of the older ones at the time where that governments most harsh critics and provided material support to its opponents.




I will say this much, the decision by the Argentine Dictatorship to invade the Malvinas and break with the UK whom had been a close ally, especially in the war against communism carried out by the governments of South America, was an act of desperation to stave of full blown insurrection by diverting attention and igniting Argentine Patriotism by concentrating on an external enemy and its injustice to the whole Argentine nation. The conflict that followed showed not only the powerful military to be incompetent but the costs of the fighting physically weakened it snapping the stick it used to keep its people in line. As a result of this the downfall of the regime quickly followed and the full extent of its crimes where brought to light at a time when many Latin American nations still had intact Junta's shooting up opponents.



"We should ask Obama and Harper what stand they will take in the face of the just claim by Argentina to be returned sovereignty over the islands so that it is no longer deprived of the energy and fishing resources it so much needs to develop the country."

Ouch, that actually hurt to read, what he is advocating is economy over people, see what most supporters of Argentina's claim often fail to acknowledge is that the majority of the Islands current population like Gibraltar's prefer the current system over the alternatives. Unlike in other cases of disputed islands like the Kuril Islands between Japan and Russia, where there was an already existing population (in this case Japanese) whom where relocated (kicked out) for the next lot, the Argentine claim is based on the gulf of distance between Britain and the Islands compared to Argentina. That and history, but here's the problem with regards to "closeness" that's absurd, by that logic Ireland should still be part of Britain because where right next door and there's more Brits then Irish therefore are say counts more, also they do have resources that would enable the British economy to develop if exploited by British investment. In fact stating territory is yours because your bigger especially if the locals don't wish to join the fold is called annexation, and is often a product of colonialism.

And the history angle just doesn't work, virtually every nation older then a century has experienced some form of border shift, usually at there expensive. I've seen an old map that had Mongolia as part of China and Russia owning Finland and Poland, or Mexico losing most of its Northern territories. What makes these Islands in the South Atlantic special? nothing, if the historical claim holds weight in international affairs then you should brace yourself for a lot more conflict in the future.



So why then do all this Left wing politicians and thinkers suddenly so vocal about Argentina's rights? well you might think this is because Argentina has a left wing government headed by the lovely Christina Kirchner, but there's more to it then that. Certainly the knowledge that they're no longer advancing the interests of brutal right wing Generals has emboldened them certainly, but the core of the reason is simple, its good politics, just as there are no consequences for Canada choosing a side here, there is absolutely nothing to lose wagging the finger at the Queen or P.M. but they gain a little. The Malvinas for the people of South America represent a reminder of the old Colonial past when Europe (mostly Spain and Portugal) used to dominate there lands from afar. It is also thanks to the conflict a clear symbol of outside forces interfering in South American affairs. So by condemning the Brits they are reaffirming there zeal for liberation risk free. Condemning the US on the other hand despite its more prominent interference does carry some risk so its best (even for Cuba) to cool your heels and think about it first.

Also currently the second most popular trend in Latin America after Liberacion is Pan Latin American Unity, so by sticking there necks out for Kirchner Chavez and Castro and others are reaffirming there stated view that they are all the same people and are all facing the same problems and striving for the same end.
To be fair to Castro after moving on from the Falklands he does go on to criticise Canada's appalling Mining operations in the region, which have lead to environmental destruction, theft and embezzlement and even murder. Its just that business contracts are shady while a big military presence sticks out like a sore thumb. Politicians in Latin America will continue to prod the Falklands issue until the Falklanders themselves wish to accept Argentina in some form. There is a minority who wouldn't mind joining Argentina so a careful handling of the situation by Buenos Aires could in a few years build a majority, in the mean time it might be worth looking into something along the lines of an Anglo-Irish agreement over the territory to ease the process along and prevent people from getting too worked up about it.

Another Day of Life

Sorry for the quiet time, after attending the Union march on the 26th I had to work to get a lot of assignments finished. Anyway in between them I managed to find time to read Another Day of Life by Ryszard Kapuscinski Cold War journalist of much acclaim and controversy. The book is his account of both the last days of Portuguese colonialism, and the early months of the Civil War that followed.

One thing that has annoyed me greatly is the almost universal (in the west at least, maybe other regions and countries are better at this) "whitewashing" if you'll forgive the term of African history. Africa has a wealth of experience of conflict, liberation, subjugation, peace, compromise, mediation, Socialism, Marxism, Nationalism, Pan-Nationalism, Capitalism, formal and informal trade, cultural exchange, regional entities etc. Yet at best it is either depicted as a continent of passive victims, genuine lessons about the evils of imperialism and warnings of continued exploitation by the industrialised North and East are watered down by this perception that it is up to the benevolent Liberal sensibility of those nations to save the day usually ignoring the knowledge and resistance to those forces done on the ground and at high risk. Or even worse problems on the continent are seen as evidenced of native inferiority, words like "Tribal" and "Warlord" are thrown about without proper context or explanation. You could actually see a bit of this in the reporting of the earthquake in Haiti which of course is not in Africa it just shares ethnic and cultural links to it.

The most well known events of modern Africa are of course the fall of Apartheid in the South Africa, but again in the west there are some problems with the retelling of the tale. Most of the thanks goes not to the internal resistance to the regime of "Boer" supremacists or the Cubans dying to check South Africa's military expansion,but to the boycott movement, its true that the boycotting of South Africa helped and those who took part in it should rightly be proud. However as North Korea has shown an regime can survive no matter how marginalised globally so long as internal dissent is contained or non existent, also if it wasn't for the brutal repression of civil rights activists black and white like that ugly joke went "how many South African police does it take to crack an egg? none it fell down the stars" would enough people in the West care enough to say no to South African orange? I'm guessing no.

This is why I find Another Day so refreshing it like the documentary on Burkina Faso's Martyred revolutionary Thomas Sankara, seen here on Youtube and a few others get past the cultural blinkers and show us at least a glimpse of Africans acting on their own, responding to the great challenges that push down on them, sometimes successful sometimes not, but always acting like real proactive human beings.

The Civil war that forms both the "setting" and "narrative" of the book is perhaps most famous for two things first its length (late 1975-2002) and a battle outside a small southern town involving Cubans and Afrikaners , but despite that being in the 80's the events of Angola's turbulent birth as an independent nation can be seen as a dry run for South Africa's later invasion of its northern neighbour (Namibia was of coursed occupied by South Africa at this time giving it a direct land border with Angola's southern region.

The first section of this 144 page book describes the evacuation of the Portuguese from the Capital Luanda, how they stripped everything of value they could physically drag to the Airport and docks, there fears about "black primitives" coming out of there mud huts in the African quarters (a universal feature of colonialism in Africa was that the natives didn't even enjoy freedom of movement in the cities that were built by them on their own land) with sharpened knives, and their resentment at having wasted 40 or more years trying to tame these savage lands and build a new life for themselves. Many Portuguese colonists where relatively new as the then recently deposed Dictatorship of Salazar's cronies used the colonies as a dumping ground for the poor and restless. And the physical decay of Luanda as the infrastructure and services of the city one by one breakdown or leave, this was before the agreed official hand over of power to Angola in November 1975 which meant that all official state functions and property like the fire service and police where still under Portuguese control which meant that the Angolans couldn't legally replace them without violating the agreement leaving the few citizens left in the cities with a rough few weeks in the Autumn run up while the Faction (there where three) in control cobbled together its own replacements. Water pumping stations for example where kept running until fighting damaged them as an accepting feature of the war was those without water surrender or day quickly. But in the case of Luanda the Movement for the Popular Liberation of Angola (MPLA) was usually able to repair them after a counter attack.

The second section is about Ryszard's travels to the "front" unlike in Europe, the geographical features of Angola and much of Africa mean there exist a different form of warfare. Things like heat, and water scarcity meant that long lines of trenches and fortifications with clear statements of who controls what where infeasible. So a front was where ever a isolated unit happened to be stationed and territory was divided up based on who was the last faction to enter the village or town. To get to a front often meant passing through a number of checkpoints with almost no way to tell which faction held what ahead of time, since uniforms helmets and flags where pretty scarce. Given that the Civil War was from its start tied up in both African regional ambitions between Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) in the North and South Africa in the... well South and the global Cold War meant that foreigners like Ryszard from Warsaw where by default considered supporter of one Faction or another. In Ryszard's case he was sided with the MPLA due to the Soviet Union's support for that movement, in fact early anti-MPLA propaganda incited the murder of any East European in the country because of this. The trick was to call the guards either Camrada (comrade, for MPLA) or Irmao (brother for other factions) in a way that couldn't be heard properly so the guards would identify themselves asking for a repeating.

After a cross country tour of all the fronts, Ryszard while at the MPLA's most southern front hears rumours from a friendly Portuguese who initially fled to Namibia before returning after the massacres and looting long feared didn't materialise and his mother ended up baking bread for an MPLA unit, that the South Africans have been amassing across the border and have been recruiting local mercenaries, Portuguese exiles and UNITA troops for what can only be a big push straight up for Luanda and the MPLA national headquarters. The third faction the FLNA in North has an understanding with UNITA and the support of Zaire and will also be making a push down South in a coordinated attack on the MPLA. This means that Ryszard is in a unique position as one of the few journalists in Angola (the Portuguese media is more concerned with the turbulent domestic situation at the present) and who is friendly to the MPLA and has contacts with Poland which I'm sure we all know who else he has contact with by association (hint they drink Vodka) all of which add up to an immediate race by Car back to the Capital through no mans land and past several battles in a scene that would look great in a film adaptation to inform the Polish Press Agency whom will no doubt inform Moscow.

After passing on the message unaware if he is too late, remember the borders are confused and there little in the way of national communications, he is contacted by two Cuban military advisers for a chat. The airport and ports are still at this point in the hands of the Portuguese as the deadline for independence 11th November is a week or to off, which is probably why the South Africans where desperate to invade right away and finish off the MPLA before the gates where opened to economic and military assistance, after all even though Portugal is still Officially in control of the country its clearly in capable of resisting or punishing South Africa if it took offence to this technical invasion. And since the MPLA is nominally Communist the Western powers wouldn't shed more then Crocodile tears over there demise especially if South Africa generously gave power back to a FNLA-UNITA alliance, neither faction posed much threat to its regime.

You might be wondering what made Angola such a special interest for Cuba, since the 1970's where a decade of Insurgency with many Guerilla armies existing in Africa and South America why focus on Angola? well apart from first getting into contact with the MPLA during their ill fated Congo mission Angola and Cuba have an intertwined history. Angola was the capital of the slave trade, many Africans where captured and shipped over sea's when the Portuguese figured out how to exploit the inter tribal rivalries to negotiate "contracts" for captured prisoners. In fact the majority of Blacks living in Cuba, Brazil and the Dominican Republic ancestors where shipped from Angolan ports. So interlinked where these states that when the People's Republic of Angola was announced by the MPLA leader and first Native President Agostinho Neto the first country to recognise them was actually Brazil despite the vast political differences between them.

So when the MPLA began there Revolution it was the Cubans rather then the Soviets who first stepped up to the plate, in Solidarity and provided assistance. When the Airport in Luanda was relinquished to Angola the first planes to land where Cuban Airliners carrying troops and supplies.

Needless to say despite a close call the assault is repulsed and by March 76 the South Africans withdraw. They would return for a visit on occasion, officially they went into Angola the first time to protect the dam systems on the Cunene river that forms a natural border between Angola and Namibia. On aside note the South African "Defence" Minister at the time was Pieter Willem Botha who go on to lesser things in human terms. The final section of the book is an appendix for those unfamiliar with Angola and the conflict, it includes a history of the Portuguese colony and the new nation, as well as a time line of important events in regards to the forming of the three major factions, what they believed and who supported them. In fact it might be worth reading the final section first to acquaint yourself with some background information and key terms.

This book is a short and concise summary of the beginnings of Angola and the civil war and the MPLA, and I highly recommend it as a starting point for those interested in them and Africa as a whole.