Comments on issues raised by BBC WHYS

As Israel is setting the agenda for its military action in Lebanon, ironically to pave the way for an international force after the fight is over, it seems Israel is dictating to the world what should be done. It should wait for the go-ahead from it. So diplomacy under any form is a waste or time. The international community is doing the talking under different forms, sometimes soft, another time tough, while Israel is doing the toughest actions under the eyes of an indignant but passive world.

Hezbollah seems hardened by the effect of the strikes and having its morale lifted through the support it gets inside Lebanon and from some governments and people alike. It must feel that it is remaking history through armed resistance, which , for it, Arab governments in the region have failed to do. It tries to put them to shame by indirectly waging propaganda against them as most of them are US allies and some of them have diplomatic ties with Israel.

Hezbollah must have the rare chance of being under the spotlight internationally. Now it is the subject of talks in every circle. Without such a fight, it could have remained in the dark, known just through its TV channel Al Manar.

Both Israel and Hezbollah try to capitalize on this event. But they don’t seem to have calculated its cost for the present and the future.

Now having the pictures filled with smokes from small and big guns and tumultuous voices from the actors in the scene, the spectators and the critics, the whole action is confusing, making understanding and deduction hard to reach about a scenario that daily needs re-planning.

Fidel Castro has relinquished power to his brother Raul Castro, following a medical surgery.
But under his rule, Cuba missed the chance to be a prosperous island. It has been under the dictatorship of a communist regime which sees its neighbour the USA as a giant worthy of fighting instead of becoming liberal and enjoying the benefits of a political and economic alliance with it.

Its proximity from it could have made it a tourist resort for the wealthy Americans. But Fidel Castro opted to make a pact with the Devil by allying with the Soviet Union. During this alliance Castro regime had a honeymoon period. He enjoyed full support from Soviet leaders. Cuba had good social services, for example it had the best health care, not enjoyed in the Soviet Union itself. But Cuba was only exploited by the USSR. It wanted to make of it a window/ façade for other countries to show them the prosperity communism can bring to people.

With the fall of communism, Cuba economic situation plunged. Fidel Castro became like Dr Faustus who had sold his soul to the devil, faced with economic hardship and cajoled with lip services from “progressive” regimes.

Now Cuba altogether needs a surgical operation to recover from its accumulated ills. The continuation of a dictatorship will make no difference if either of the Castros, Fidel or Raul, is in power. What Cubans need is a new era where they can get the breeze of freedom and not a bloody nose when they try to revitalise their political scene with a new, vigorous and young blood, instead of remaining under the grip of the dictatorship of an ageing elite of . An elite whose principle was to free the Cubans from a regime it had deemed reactionary. But it has ended in enslaving them under the banner of propaganda which offers too many promises but very few results on the ground.