{"id":508,"date":"2006-11-27T03:39:45","date_gmt":"2006-11-27T08:39:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=508"},"modified":"2018-08-20T00:19:28","modified_gmt":"2018-08-20T04:19:28","slug":"monday-november-27-2006-fix-this-image-in-your-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=508","title":{"rendered":"Monday, November 27, 2006 \u2014 Fix This Image In Your Head"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fidel Cas\u00adtro is final\u00adly dying. It\u2019s obscene that he dies of old age, in lux\u00adu\u00adry, still in pow\u00ader, after a life\u00adtime of suc\u00adcess\u00adful slave-trad\u00ading, mur\u00adder, tor\u00adture, exploita\u00adtion, racism, and homo\u00adpho\u00adbia. I expect to have to endure the effu\u00adsions of thug-wor\u00adship (mixed with a lit\u00adtle strate\u00adgic mild crit\u00adi\u00adcism) that will come when he dies. They will turn my stom\u00adach, as they should any decent per\u00adson, but they are cus\u00adtom\u00adary when any long-lived crim\u00adi\u00adnal dies. But before the cir\u00adcus parade of mythol\u00ado\u00adgy starts rolling, it is impor\u00adtant that good peo\u00adple remem\u00adber, and fix in their minds, the truth\u00adful image that sums up Fidel. This image is espe\u00adcial\u00adly impor\u00adtant for the world\u2019s Gays to remember.<\/span><\/p>\n

All Marx\u00adist regimes have per\u00adse\u00adcut\u00aded gays, start\u00ading with Lenin, who sent many thou\u00adsands to tor\u00adment and exe\u00adcu\u00adtion in the spe\u00adcial White Sea Canal death camps. But no Marx\u00adist dic\u00adta\u00adtor was as obsessed with abus\u00ading gays as Fidel Cas\u00adtro. Even when he was first becom\u00ading known to jour\u00adnal\u00adists, at a peri\u00adod when homo\u00adpho\u00adbia was almost uni\u00adver\u00adsaly accept\u00aded, they were shocked by the para\u00adnoid fanati\u00adcism of Castro\u2019s hatred for gays.<\/span><\/p>\n

Once in pow\u00ader, Cas\u00adtro wast\u00aded no time round\u00ading up gays, or any\u00adone who appeared gay. Truck\u00adloads of par\u00adty zealots combed the streets look\u00ading for any\u00adone who looked like a fag. They were arrest\u00aded and sent to the infa\u00admous UMAP<\/span> slave labour camps. The UMAP<\/span> [Mil\u00adi\u00adtary Units to Aid Pro\u00adduc\u00adtion] camps were usu\u00adal\u00adly sug\u00adar plan\u00adta\u00adtions. Any\u00adone whom Cas\u00adtro deter\u00admined to be a \u201cclass ene\u00admy\u201d did hard labour in them. This includ\u00aded any\u00adone who crit\u00adi\u00adcized Marx\u00adist ortho\u00addoxy, was open\u00adly reli\u00adgious, com\u00adplained of Com\u00admu\u00adnist greed or bru\u00adtal\u00adi\u00adty, or who belonged to some minor\u00adi\u00adty. But there were spe\u00adcial camps for gays, usu\u00adal\u00adly with a harsh\u00ader regime, and in which crude exper\u00adi\u00adments with elec\u00adtroshock and brain\u00adwash\u00ading were perpetrated.<\/span><\/p>\n

The UMAP<\/span> camps were described in detail by a doc\u00adtor, Jos\u00e9 Luis Llovio-Men\u00e9n\u00addez, who was sent to one, and was required to act as camp medic. Even the weak\u00adest and most seri\u00adous\u00adly injured were forced to go back to the cane-fields, but he could usu\u00adal\u00adly admin\u00adis\u00adter some med\u00adi\u00adcine, and in a few hero\u00adic con\u00adfronta\u00adtions he man\u00adaged to get lenien\u00adcy for some of the most wretched vic\u00adtims. Inmates at the camps worked at exhaust\u00ading phys\u00adi\u00adcal labour, usu\u00adal\u00adly cut\u00adting sug\u00adar cane, from 4:30 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. Lunch was a slimy bowl of chick\u00adpeas. Latrines were fetid hells, swarm\u00ading with flies. Dis\u00adci\u00adpline was severe in all the camps, but it was met\u00aded out to gays with spe\u00adcial sadism and fury. They were rou\u00adtine\u00adly beat\u00aden in the cane fields, as they worked, were made to stand in the hot sun for eight hours, or were placed overnight, naked, in pits of filth while mos\u00adqui\u00adtoes fed on them. Worst of all was the dread\u00aded \u201crope pun\u00adish\u00adment\u201d, whip\u00adpings with a coarse rope of aguave. If you know the plant, you know it is the ide\u00adal mate\u00adr\u00adi\u00adal for torture.<\/span><\/p>\n

One image is fixed in the good doctor\u2019s mind:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>As I was leav\u00ading the office by the back door, reflect\u00ading on the good for\u00adtune of my trans\u00adfer \u2015 no more work in the fields \u2015 I saw one of the most degrad\u00ading and depress\u00ading sights I\u2019ve ever wit\u00adnessed. In the cen\u00adter of the court\u00adyard, tied by both hands to the top of the flag\u00adpole, there hung a boy of about twen\u00adty, his body sway\u00ading in the breeze just below the raised flag.<\/em>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The young man was chopped down just in time to save him from los\u00ading his hands.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, I want read\u00aders to fix this image in their minds, and when Castro\u2019s death is announced, to remem\u00adber it. This is what he should be remem\u00adbered for. All else is unimportant.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fidel Cas\u00adtro is final\u00adly dying. It\u2019s obscene that he dies of old age, in lux\u00adu\u00adry, still in pow\u00ader, after a life\u00adtime of suc\u00adcess\u00adful slave-trad\u00ading, mur\u00adder, tor\u00adture, exploita\u00adtion, racism, and homo\u00adpho\u00adbia. I expect to have to endure the effu\u00adsions of thug-wor\u00ad\u00adship (mixed \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-blog","category-au-blog-2006"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=508"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9339,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508\/revisions\/9339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}