and oil supplier would endanger the renewed relations with the northern neighbor, they were wrong. Now is not the time when the Cuban government resigned from attending two Olympic Games( for many Cuban athletes, it meant losing the opportunity to participate in them) in solidarity with a political ally. Now the streets were decorated to welcome the historic enemy. The color does not matter... does it? Castro and Obama held a meeting and offered a press conference that was aired on Cuban television on March 21, just the date chosen by the United Nations to commemorate the International Day against Racial Discrimination. The latter was completely ignored by the official national press. Both the Granma newspaper( Official Organ of the Communist Party of Cuba) and the TV media( except the Multi Channel Telesur) abstained from giving the slightest reference. However, it is significant that just that day the first black president of such a racist country like the United States was in Cuba. Indeed, one of the facts that the Cuban official media tried to minimize from the very beginning was the arrival of an African American to power in the United States, by stating it means nothing because black Americans continue to die at the hands of white policemen. Even so, Obama’ s ascent to the U. S. presidency( twice) shows that even in a racist country, if there is a democratic system( although imperfect), a black man can become president and even be reelected. Not only African Americans and Latinos voted for him, but also many whites who saw him as an alternative. In a radio interview recently discovered by BBC and given by Martin
Luther King Jr. shortly before receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, he referred to white Americans who advised him to wait for changes in the people ' s mind. They tried to convince him that it was better than implementing laws, since these would not change the people overnight. MLK said that perhaps he could not achieve what he wanted, but at least he could avoid being lynched with impunity. That’ s the law for: not for changing the minds, but for making things to work better. In the United States, an extremely racist country, the laws have made it possible for a black man to become president. Who will they appoint or who I ' m voting for Such a reality did not pass unnoticed and we cannot avoid to compare it with ours. President Fidel Castro announced his retirement in 2018; people on the streets wonder who would be next or who will be appointed instead of who will be elected or what the candidates will give me to improve my life. Obama ' s reference that the people should elect their president has raised comments and reflections among Cubans; it has awakened the anaesthetized minds and Cubans begin to question at least why we can only vote for our delegate in the neighborhood and for the candidates( nominated from above) to the National Assembly. In either case we don’ t vote based on the candidate ' s plan or how he or she will vote in Parliament on certain issues that affect us. We vote based only on her or his biography. Should a U. S. President come to Cuba to call attention to an electoral system designed for indefinitely keeping a political elite in power? No. In recent years, many Cubans have been
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