Newspaper Page Text
— Griffin Daily News Friday, Jan. 28,1972
Page 12
Antirevolutionary is a ‘gusano 9 (worm)
‘People are very unhappy’
(EDITOR’S NOTE: NEA
Reporter Ira Berkow is
the second accredited
American journalist —and
the first news service rep
resentative — to report
from Cuba in nearly two
years. He was permitted
to travel freely through
out the country. His per
sonal report takes the
form of a diary.)
(Sixth of Seven Articles.)
By IRA BERKOW
tCnpyright © 1171 by Umpoptr
tnt.rprin Ann.)
HAVANA - (NEA) -
“Were you followed?” he
asks me. “Are you sure you
weren’t? Did you tell any-
raßSi
one you were coming here?
Saturday
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There are informers, you
know.”
I have walked up the ill-lit
stairs of a peeling apart
ment building in the middle
of Havana, and am met at
the door of a one-room
apartment by a married
couple in their mid-30s. I
shall call them Pedro and
Berta. I had met Pedro at
his work this afternoon and
we talked briefly. He invited
me to dinner tonight, say
ing he would tell me what
life was really like in Cuba.
“People are afraid to talk,”
he said. “They are afraid to
tell the truth.”
He tells me that his dream
is to return to the United
States. He had gone to
school in New York City for
a few years, then had to re
turn to Cuba for personal
reasons. When the revolution
broke out, he was stuck in
Havana. Soon afterward, he
was imprisoned for several
years for “hanging out
with antirevolutionaries,” he
says.
“In Cuba, if you are not a
Castro revolutionary, you
are called gusano. It means
‘worm,’ ” he says. “That’s
what they called me.”
Because he was in jail, he
was not able to get on the
two-a-week flights that
transported some 600,000 dis
affected Cubans to the
United States. And he was
not able to get on the future
flight list—which still has
some 30,000 Cubans who
have been on it for more
than three years. Chances of
Pedro and Berta leaving
Cuba are especially remote
now since all flights have
been canceled.
“We call it the sugar cane
curtain,” he says.
“They tell us here that
American immigration re
fuses to allow any more Cu
bans,” he says. “But I know
the real reason. Castro can’t
afford to let any more work
ers out of the country. They
need us.”
He apologizes for the
small, close quarters. “Here
is our bedroom,” he says,
pointing to the mattress on
the floor. “There is our din
ing room.” A small table for
two against the wall. “Our
library.” Several rows of
bookshelves piled with books.
“My wardrobe and, here, my
proudest possession: a pair
of jeans I bought in the
States in 1954. We cannot
buy blue jeans here.”
He brings out a bottle of
rum. “A special occasion,”
he says. The rum cost 22
pesos ($22), because of Cu
ban inflation. (A like bottle
sells for $2 in the United
States). The cost of the rum
is nearly one-sixth of his
monthly salary.
“Do you hear in the
United States about the sui
cides in Cuba?” asks Berta.
“They do not print about
them in the newspapers
here. I know of at least four
in the last two months. Peo
ple are very unhappy.
“Everything is rationed.
Everything else is exported.
There is nothing. And you
have to compromise your
soul to get anything. You
know these block leaders,
these Committee for the De
fense of the Revolution lead
ers? They can get you things
on the black market, or
through some kind of smug
gling. But you have to be
a party man.
“You have to be a stool
pigeon,” said Pedro. “Like
it was in prison. You hear
that in Cuba some prisoners
can go home on weekends?
Well, only the stool pigeons.
Me, every day I eat for a
meal, a few beans, about 16
grains of rice, a piece of
bread. But all the water I
could drink.
“Work is not much better.
You have to be at work at
eight o’clock sharp. Come a
few minutes late and you
begin to get in trouble. And
they care not for how much
you yield, but how correctly
you punch the clock.
“Absenteeism is a major
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problem here. They have
just made a new law, called
an antivagrancy law. If they
think you are not doing your
work, they bring you up be
fore a labor court. It is a
court of your fellow work
ers. They pick the stool
pigeons to sit on the court.
They can sentence you to as
much as 10 years in prison.
“Have you read 1984? Do
you know about Joe Stalin?
That’s what life is like
here.”
Pedro blames much of the
internal economic problems
of Cuba on inept central
planning. “I have seen a
farm boss sent from Havana
order avocado trees cut
down,” he tells me. “The
man who used to own the
land said, ‘Why, they are
good trees?’ The new boss
said, ‘I was told to cut them
down because we are to
plant new ones.’ So it will
take 15 years for the new
trees to produce what the
old ones were producing.
And you wonder why we
have the disappointing sugar
cane crop, and that our
banana production and to
bacco production have fallen
way off?”
He asks me about the
United States, then quickly
says how much he misses it.
“In America, if you are
good you get ahead,” he
said. “Here, if you compro
mise yourself you get ahead.
I will not do it.”
He said he knows some
writers and actors and tele
vision people who have not
compromised. “The writers
do not get published, the ac
tors get bit parts and the
TV people, well, one I know
who tried to tell the hard
life of workers in a docu
mentary, he is nothing more
than a glorified secretary
now.”
He offers me a cigar, one
of the two he is rationed
each month.
“Why this tragedy here?
And it is a tragedy,” he
says. “Four reasons, I think.
One, the U.S. blockade. Two,
it is still an underdeveloped
country. Three, dirty Soviet
politics: The Russians give
us poor goods for high prices
—and we must buy from
them because we borrow
more than one million dol
lars a day for them. And
four, Castro.
“He is a mad genius. His
principles are fine but his
methods are terrible. He has
dreamed of making life bet
ter for all Cubans. But he
goes about it like someone
who is crazy.
“Cubans are beginning to
tire of him. We hate stand-
"Castro is a mad genius. His
principles are fine but his
methods are terrible."
1 —'
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VrafsnO- ’vs
j - V z !
f Ik &
W Jkl A
These Griffin business and professional men ham it up for the Utility Club Follies to the presented
Feb. 3,4, 5, at the Griffin High auditorium. They put on cheerleader outfits to boost the project
which will raise money for a new library. They are (front, 1-r) Bob Forio, Jack Robbins, Terry
Wynne, (back) Gene Robbins, Sammy Murray, O. R. Butler and George Murray.
Wrong range
ESSEN, West Germany
(UPI)—Two young men on
their way to rob a fur store
stepped behind a building to
test their pistol, police said.
When they fired the gun, they
suddenly found themselves en
gulfed by policemen. The
building they picked for a
shooting range was a police
station.
ing in those lines. There are
fights breaking out now. The
young people of 14 and 15,
who don’t remember the Ba
tista regime, want a higher
standard of living.
“There’s a joke in Cuba
now. It goes: Castro cut off
his beard and dressed in
working clothes and went
into a crowded bar. After
waiting in line an hour and
then buying a small glass of
beer for one peso, he sits
next to another worker.
They talk, After awhile Cas
tro says to the man, ‘Who’s
side are you on?’
“The working man looks
around a couple times. Then
he motions Castro to come
closer. The worker whispers,
‘I am on Castro’s side.’
“Tomorrow, Castro re
turns from Chile. You will
see thousands of people lin
ing the streets. They will be
waving flags and applaud
ing. But they will be saying
through smiling teeth, ‘Die,
you bastard.’ ”
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Thompson declares
he’s in senate race
WASHINGTON (UPI) — Rep. Fletcher Thompson, R-
Ga., declined to say flatly Thursday that he will oppose
Sen. David Gambrell, D-Ga., in Georgia’s U.S. Senate
race this year.
Thompson said only that he is carefully considering the
contest for the seat to which Gambrell was appointed by
Gov. Jimmy Carter after the death of Sen. Richard
Russell last year.
Thompson reportedly had told a group of supporters in
Atlanta Monday that he had made an “irrevocable
decision” to oppose Gambrell.
Political observers said that, at this time, it would
appear that Thompson would face no opposition for the
Republican nomination. There may be as many as a half
dozen Democrats in the primary race.
There has been speculation that factors in Thompson’s
sth Congressional District may be influencing his decision
to run for the Senate.
His conservatism may hurt him in the district,
comprised largely of Fulton County and Atlanta, but
probably would help him statewide.
The Fifth District, with a heavy black vote, went Demo
cratic in the last two presidential elections while the state
went for Republican Barry Goldwater in 1964 and third
party candidate George Wallace in 1968.
Seasonal sons
HEILBRONN, Germany
(UPl)—Doctors said three wo
men—named Frau Sommer
(summer), Frau Winter (win
ter) and Frau Herbst (autumn)
—in adjoining rooms at a
private clinic gave birth to sons
this week.
Frau Lenz (spring) was
released from the clinic last
week, they said.
Asks refund
UPPSALA, Sweden (UPI)—A
64-year-old Uppsala man who
dropped and broke two bottles
of whisky said he wrote
Swedish Finance Minister Gun
nar Straeng asking for a refund
of the sl6 consumption tax on
the bottles. He said he had not
yet heard from the minister.
CRIFFINrCA.
Last Day—Tomorrow
FINAL WINTER CLEARANCE
On Winter Fashions From
Our Every Fashion Right Department.
Fabulous Bargains, Everywhere
All sales final - Sale ends Saturday, 6:00 P.M.
OPENING
Tuesday, Feb. Ist — 6 A. M.
Mae and Grace's
Restaurant
213 North Hfll Street
Across from Newton Coal
Cooking and serving the
best food in town.
Hot biscuits and sausage our specialty.
Take out orders Call 227-5080
Mae Rider and Grace Henderson
Africa
envoys
at U.N.
By MAURICE GUINDI
ADDIS ABABA (UPI)—Two
of Africa’s elder statesmen
today opened an unprecedented
weeklong session of the U.N.
Security Council to try to
decide what to do about such
formidable problems as Portu
guese colonialism and South
Africa’s policy of strict racial
segregation.
The meeting will cost the
United Nations a minimum of
$250,000 and was held despite
the fact the world body is
nearly bankrupt.
Ethiopia’s Emperor Haile
Selassie and Mauritania Pres
ident Moktar Quid Daddah
began the meeting with
speeches at headquarters of the
Organization of African Unity
(OAU) in this Ethiopian capital.
It was the Security Council’s
first meeting in Africa and the
closest the 15-member body
ever had come to what U.N.
Secretary General Kurt Wald
heim described as Africa’s “hot
spots, areas of tension and
conflict.”
All such strife came under
the heading “Consideration of
questions relating to Africa
with which the Security Council
is currently seized and the
implementation of the Council’s
relevant resolutions.”
The broad heading covers
Rhodesia, Portuguese colonia
lism, independence for Namibia
(South West Africa) and the
policy of apartheid—strict ra
cial separation—in the Republic
of South Africa.
The African nations at the
meeting said they would insist
that Rhodesia get priority in
the discussions because of the
rioting there last week in
protest against the nation’s
independence agreement with
Britain.
The problem concerning Na
mibia is over whether South
Africa can be forced out of
what formerly was known as
South West Africa. The United
Nations has already said the
Pretoria government has no
right to govern and administer
the area and to introduce
apartheid there as well as in
South Africa itself. The South
African government has ig
nored the U.N. pronounce
ments.
U.S. Ambassador George
Bush had cautioned the Securi
ty Council more than two weeks
ago to consider carefully
whether it could afford such an
expensive meeting when the
world body already is in such
financial straits.