Applying lessons from Cuba’s 1959 Revolution to the Mid-East 2011 Revolution

Cuba's revolution of 1959 was similar to the budding revolutions that are now taking place in the Middle East in that ordinary citizens were fed up with an unfair regime. Cuban people once viewed Fulgencio Batista as Egyptians now see Mubarak. Although the Cuban Revolution was successful in ending Batista's reign, the manner in which this goal was achieved resulted in grave consequences, including tremendous bloodshed and a loss of civil liberties.

The leaders of the Cuban Revolution, including Castro and Guevara, used violence rather than peaceful civil disobedience to win their struggle and their new government ended up adopting a restrictive style of government rather than a democracy. (I realize that there are many complexities to these movements that won't be addressed in this post, however I just wanted to draw the historical link in light of the present situation.) The political unrest that many Mid-East nations are experiencing as a result of revolutionary-style protests has placed the citizens of these nations in a vulnerable position.

In addition to being fed-up with autocratic rule, demonstrators in Jordan are motivated by rising food and fuel prices, and poor living conditions; all of which many blame on market-liberalizing economic decisions implemented in the 2000's. Revolutionaries in Cuba were led by similar concerns and once their revolutionary war was over, Cuba's new government mistakenly aligned itself with the international Communist Party while implementing social justice reforms to benefit its formerly oppressed citizenry. Hopefully, this scenario won't play out in the Mid-East with new governments siding with terrorist groups or extremist elements of more pluralistic groups. Yemen is the home to Al-Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula and the Muslim Brotherhood, which has some questionable elements among its ranks, has taken a leadership role in speaking for protestors in Jordan.

History in the making is always fascinating to watch and I really hope that the United States and other nations continue to weigh-in on the Mid-East protests in the interest of peaceful democratic social change in whatever ways they can.

Power to the People of Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan and Yemen!

Recent pro-democracy uprisings in the Middle East have effectively challenged the legitimacy of autocratic rule across the region. Rulers in Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan and Yemen have agreed to make varying degrees of concessions to protesters, but these limited changes fail to meet the core demands of demonstrators in all nations except Tunisia. In Tunisia, the people's voices were finally heard and President Ben Ali left office and fled the country in what is now referred to as the Jasmine Revolution. Unfortunately, this revolution also resulted in the loss of 78 lives and even more injuries among demonstrators.

Autocratic leadership in Egypt, Jordan and Yemen has yet to completely cede power to the discontent protesters, and in Egypt, demonstrations have been infiltrated with violence. Coming days and weeks will reveal whether leaders in the other nations will acquiesce to the people's demands in the interest of peace or stay in power and risk an unknown degree of violence.

In Egypt, Mubarak has agreed not to run again in the September presidential elections, but has refused to give up power until his term is up. In Jordan, King Abdullah II replaced Prime Minister Samir Rafai with Maruf al-Bakit, who has held this office before and is known for cracking down on freedoms during periods of social upheaval. In Yemen, President Ali Abdullah Saleh followed Mubarak's lead and announced his retirement at the end of his term in 2013. Despite these political changes, demonstrations are unlikely to stop until autocratic leaders have given up their power to the people.

For a number of reasons including the sheer size of the movement in Egypt, Mubarak's actions will likely set the tone for what happens in Jordan, Yemen and beyond. Unfortunately, recent reports indicate that Mubarak has hired thugs to conduct an orchestrated violent attack on peaceful demonstrators as a possible precursor to using military-level violence to silence the opposition.

Hopefully, Mubarak will step down very soon causing a ripple effect throughout the region before it's too late and violence has reached unconscionable levels.

High School Graduation Rate

I know that this blog space is entirely too small to properly address this issue, so I'll just give my two cents in a few paragraphs realizing that I'm not going to get past the tip of the iceberg. The issue of the extraordinarily high rate of high school drop-outs is concerning because it means that new generations of Americans aren't even finishing high school in shocking numbers. And while I understand that college may not be for everyone, I definitely believe that high school should be, especially in such a developed nation with comparatively high standards of living to most of the world. The education reform debate, like many other policy debates, is split between progressives and hard-liners. Education progressives are more likely to support increased funding for schools and community improvement initiatives, while hard-liners favor Rhee-style measures that fire ineffective teachers and close down underperforming schools.

Not surprisingly, I happen to side more with the liberals on this issue. Part of the reason is because I have enough hard-working teacher friends who are clearly undervalued and underpaid. Firing them based on performance measures would be unjust and more of a reflection of the conditions in the communities in which their schools are located than on their own effectiveness as instructors. Unfortunately, real life is not a Hollywood studio and replacing a principal in an actual low-performing school will never have the same consequence-free wide ranging success that Mr. Clark achieved in Lean on Me. Teachers are real people who work hard to earn a living.

I do, however, think it's important to provide teachers with incentives to continue their education and learn strategies that can help promote student engagement. Teachers with advanced degrees have mastered proven teaching techniques that can help even the most challenged students. Academic concepts like accountable talk, which helps to develop students' reasonable discourse skills while simultaneously keeping them engaged in their studies, are central to improving the quality of education in our country's schools.

In the end, however, education reform in itself may not be enough to reform education. This sounds counter-intuitive, but we all know that there are pervasive systemic problems in society that lie at the root of the drop-out crisis that cannot be solved by replacing faculty or even closing schools.

Birthers

After several hours of studying the website Birthers.org, I’ve come to the difficult conclusion that they are in fact correct. There is no way that Barak Hussein Obama could have been born in America! His mother likely gave birth to him in Kenya or Canada and then slipped him across the border as a knowingly willing complicit illegal alien baby. It’s clear that he doesn’t even have a birth certificate and if he does have one, it was forged by a sophisticated network of organized thugs. Besides, what true American mother would give her son such a Muslim African name?

On a more serious note, I think that most conspiracy theorists are paranoid and/or ignorant. As described in the DSM IV (psychology Bible), Paranoid Personality Disorder is one of the ten personality disorders commonly present in adult humans. People with this condition may have unwarranted and widespread suspicions that other people present a threat to their existence. Ignorance, as defined by yours truly, indicates a genuine lack of education and information making it impossible for one to make clear arguments based on logic and facts.

My take on every tongue confess

Thanks to the wonderful discount ticket lottery at Arena Stage, I had the privilege of seeing acclaimed playwright Marcus Gardley’s every tongue confess starring Phylicia Rashad last night. Gardley graduated from the Yale School of Drama in 2004 with a Master of Fine Arts degree and has been showered with awards and recognition since. every tongue confess is the first performance on the Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle Stage, a new stage built during the recent $135 million renovation of Arena Stage.

The play is set in a small Alabama town during a time of racially motivated black church burnings. On the surface, the setting seems trite for a black play, but the fact that it takes place in the 90’s adds an element of uniqueness. Most characters in the play are modern and anti-racist and one character even jams her headphones while rigidly adhering to a vegan lifestyle. This interesting contradiction of a seemingly outdated phenomenon happening in modern times ignites feelings of curiosity and confusion in the audience. (I was on the edge of my chair trying to figure out who the heck would burn down black churches in the 1990’s)

every tongue confess provides opportunities for both black and white actors to play complex roles that develop slowly over the course of the performance. A mute quietly evolves into a loud vocalist and a blues singer seamlessly becomes a savior. Phylicia Rashard’s character, Mother Sister, is a mother, preacher, widow and healer. She is by far the most captivating of the actors and eloquently displays her deep roots in live performance art.

Without spoiling the show, I’ll conclude by saying that the play really does a good job of demonstrating how hypocrisy fuels bigotry and how hate is passed down inside families. I definitely recommend this new play and hope to see it travel the country and maybe even get featured on Broadway. Be sure to use your imagination to embrace the magic realism in the show and don’t be afraid to laugh at the punch lines.

NAACP is slippin

Wow! I felt so disappointed to learn that the NAACP supported the Tea Party in their push to fire a black woman from her job for reverse racism. Of all groups, I would have thought the NAACP would be more critical of Tea Party and extremist right wing claims, especially those made against African-Americans. After all, it was barely a week ago when the NAACP called out the Tea Party for harboring racist elements among its factions. And for the record, anyone who's been near a Tea Party protest and seen their swastikas and heard their racist chants can attest to fact that some of their supporters are racist.

Why then, would the NAACP rush the Tea Party's aid at the expense of a hard working black federal employee? The answer is politics. The political pendulum is shifting to the right and conservatives are gaining popularity and credibility, even in the eyes of race-based social justice organizations like the NAACP.

During the late days of the Bush Administration, progressives had a powerful grassroots political voice and were able to succeed in securing the election our nation's first African-American president. However, now that Obama has been getting things done as president, conservatives have begun a spirited movement in opposition to his policies. The passage of health care reform legislation and other big government initiatives has fired up fiscal conservatives and the fringe elements that follow their lead.

Hopefully this incident will serve as a wake-up call for the NAACP and other progressive groups. Tea Party accusations may be hyped up by the media because of their current level of political hotness, but media coverage doesn't always equate with legitimacy so it's still important to investigate the validity of right wing claims before backing them.

The Kids are All Right

Last night, I had the pleasure of viewing the film, The Kids are All Right, which tells the story of a family of four as they face life's challenges. Interestingly, the two teenage kids in this family have two moms instead of a mom and a dad. They were conceived through an alternative insemination process with the assistance of a sperm donor. The movie begins with the teens becoming curious about their donor, seeking him out and ultimately bringing him into the family.

I must say that it was refreshing to see a realistic representation of a family with two moms given the scarcity of these types of on-screen depictions. However, I worry that the storyline was compromised in an effort to reach a larger audience. In the plot, the more feminine of the two moms immediately begins a steamy affair with the sperm donor only to be caught and cause a tremendous disruption to her whole family. While I do agree that gender and sexuality are very complex aspects of human identity that are often oversimplified by society, it still irks me that most of the sex scenes in The Kids are All Right were heterosexual. I just wonder if the script would have been able to attract such great actors and if the movie would have been released so widely had it been gayer.

All and all, this was a really good movie -- and I rarely say that about films these days.