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Posted: Wednesday, February 04, 2004<br>
<a href="http://www.vheadline.com/printer_news.asp?id=14788" eudora="autourl">http://www.vheadline.com/printer_news.asp?id=</a><a href="http://www.vheadline.com/printer_news.asp?id=14788" eudora="autourl">14788<br>
</a>By: <a href="mailto:hardyce2@yahoo.com">Charles Hardy</a> <br><br>
</font><font face="georgia" size=5 color="#A80000">Charles Hardy:
Castro's Cuba brain-washes innocent Venezuelan barrio-slum
dwellers<br><br>
</font><font face="georgia" size=2><b>VHeadline.com commentarist Charles
Hardy writes:</b></font><font face="georgia" size=3> I recently saw
students leaving a Caracas public school carrying rather huge red, yellow
and blue boxes about the size of three reams of paper. My curiosity got
the best of me and so I stopped one student to ask if I could see the
box. It was a Home Library<i>(Biblioteca Familiar)</i>. Each student,
teacher and aide in the school received one that day. <br><br>
Later, I was able to obtain one of the boxes ... a gift from a barrio
family that received two of them. The contents of the library are worth
studying, but, before examining them, it should be pointed out that the
outside of the box contains the following words: Impreso en Cuba para el
Ministerio de Educacion, Cultura y Deportes de la Republica Bolivariana
de Venezuela <i>(printed in Cuba for the Education, Culture & Sports
Ministry of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela)</i>. <br><br>
Seeing the word Cubasparked my interest in the box even more, since the
opposition has complained repeatedly about the <b><u>Cubanization of
Venezuela</u></b>. I suppose that the books were purchased by the
Venezuelan government in exchange for oil, which would not sit well with
Venezuelans who consider Miami their promised land ... but a bigger
concern would be the content of the material that was being given freely
to young people to take into their homes. <br><br>
</font><font face="georgia" size=2><b>Therefore, in the interests of
letting the whole world know about the "subversive literature"
that Cuba is sending to Venezuela, I would like to let the reader know
what was in the box. <br><br>
</b></font>
<dl>
<dd><font face="georgia" size=3>The first book that caught my attention
was The Little Prince</u> by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. I was in college
when someone recommended that book to me. I thought it was pretty good
and have re-read it several times. I never realized that it was Communist
propaganda</u>. <br><br>
</dl>Then I noticed Romeo and Juliet</u> by William Shakespeare, The Call
of the Wild</i> by Jack London, Robinson Crusoe</u> by Daniel Defoe, a
book of Grimms Fairy Tales</u>, The Thousand and One Nights</u>, For Whom
the Bell Tolls</u> by Ernest Hemingway, short stories by Cervantes and
The Wild Asss Skin</u> (La Piel de Onagro)</i> by Honore de Balzac.
<br><br>
There are books with childrens stories such as Cinderella</u> and
Sleeping Beauty</u>; books of poetry for adults by Pablo Neruda and
others; biographical books about Columbus, Magellan, Bolivar and Ezequiel
Zamora; documents of Simon Rodriquez (a teacher and friend of Simon
Bolivar)</i> and of Jose Marti written in 1895. <br><br>
In total there are over 2,500 pages ... printed on newsprint, but to
purchase the content of these books in a bookstore would cost a few
hundred dollars. Now they are in the hands of thousands of Venezuelan
barrio homes. I wonder how many US citizens have ever read any of the
books included in the library.<br><br>
Having now published this information, I am worried that some of the
right-wing library committees in the United States will be rushing to
their public library and public schools with a new list of books to be
put on the forbidden list. There must be something Communistic in
"Cinderella" and "Sleeping Beauty." <br><br>
</font><font face="georgia" size=2>Why else would Cuba and Venezuela be
sending these subversive, communist loaded stories into the homes of
innocent Venezuelan barrio-slum dwellers? </b></font>
<ul>
<li><font face="georgia" size=3>I also wonder if opposition leaders, who
have never read these books, are upset about ordinary people having this
literature. </font>
</ul><br>
<font face="georgia" size=5>Education is a dangerous thing.<br><br>
</font><font face="georgia" size=3>With more and more Venezuelans
learning to read and write and finishing their formal education, they may
not</u></b> be willing to accept the pious platitudes of those who have
dominated them for the past few centuries. <br><br>
</font><font face="georgia" size=2>Books for oil might not make sense to
those who only see value in money, and especially in the US
dollars.<br><br>
</b></font><font face="georgia" size=5>Personally, I like the
idea.<br><br>
</font><font face="georgia" size=3>What a shame that previous governments
never thought of it.<br><br>
</font><font face="script" size=7>Charlie<br><br>
</b></font><font face="georgia" size=3>A native of Cheyenne, Wyoming
(USA),
</font><font face="Bookman Old Style, Bookman" size=3 color="#A80000">VHeadline.com<br>
</b></font><font face="georgia" size=3>columnist Charles Hardy</u></b>
has many years experience<br>
as an international correspondent in Venezuela.<br>
You may email him at:
<a href="mailto:hardyce2@yahoo.com">hardyce2@yahoo.com</a><br><br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
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