West and selective perception


Reason Wafawarova – Opinion


POLITICS in general and global politics in particular is an art centred on perception and there is an inherent tendency for politicians to selectively perceive political developments on the basis of self-motivated interests.




This trend has notoriously gone on for a long time and even decent terms like democracy, humanitarianism and peace have not been spared the adulteration.



Equally, inherently evil terms like torture, terrorism, dictatorships and totalitarianism have also not been spared the bias.



The Western ruling elite prefer to call non-compliant political leaders from weaker countries everything else except anti-imperialists.



The preferred terms often include such awful and calamitous terms as dictator, tyrant, authoritarian, despot or anything that resembles Satan.



In May 1986, a freed Cuban prisoner by the name Armando Valladares published memoirs detailing his life in prison.



These memoirs immediately became a media sensation in the West, not because of the merit of their content but purely because the memoirs painted Commandant Fidel Castro in bad light.



It is like any Zimbabwean asylum seeker claiming that the rest of their family were cut to pieces by "Government militias" and they are the sole survivors with no known relative surviving.



The memoirs of this single man were taken as Bible truth and were described by the Washington Post as "the definitive account of the vast system of torture and prison by which Castro punishes and obliterates political opposition".



The New York Times called the memoirs "an inspiring and unforgettable account" of "the hell that was the Cuba that Valladares lived in".



Purely on the basis of the memoirs of one man Commandant Castro was factually labelled "a dictatorial goon".



So numerous were Commandant Castro’s alleged atrocities that the Washington Post concluded "only the most light-headed and cold-blooded Western intellectual will come to the tyrant’s defence".



The unchallenged and untested truth earned Valladares guest status at a White House ceremony to mark Human Rights Day in 1986.



Ronald Reagan emotionally praised this "brave and decent" man for his courage in enduring brutalities, horrors and sadism of this bloody ‘‘Cuban tyrant’’.



So touched was Reagan that he immediately appointed Valladares the US representative at the United Nations Human Rights Commission.



Valladares returned the unmerited favour by shamelessly performing signal services in defence of the US-sponsored rightwing dictatorships in El Salvador and Guatemala.


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 http://www.talkzimbabwe.com/news/130/ARTICLE/3457/2008-10-02.html