• $25
  • $50
  • $100
  • other
  • use Paypal



Fight Remote-Control Journalism!
These are tough times. Regardless of the political rhetoric bantered about the airwaves, the recession hasn’t ended for most of us. We know that money is tight for many of you. But we also know that tens of thousands of daily readers of CounterPunch depend on us to slice through the smokescreen and tell it like is. In the age of remote-control journalism and lesser evil politics, many of you have told us that the kind of sharp analysis and quality writing you find on CounterPunch is a life raft in fraught times. There’s no safety net for us. Every dollar you can manage is crucial to our survival. So, please, help as much as you can. All contributions are tax-deductible.

FacebookTwitterGoogle+RedditEmail

The Cuba of Africa

by

The Cuba of Africa? Authentic journalist Andre Vltchek, writing for CounterPunch, was the first person I heard using the expression and it started me thinking about the small east African country of Eritrea that he was refering to.

The similarities are striking. Both Cuba and Eritrea are small, independent, socialist and revolutionary. Both are suffering under sanctions by the USA and both have been maliciously accused of supporting “terrorism” by the enforcers of Pax Americana.

Cuba and Eritrea have been hit hard by western industrialization precipitated climate change with Cuba being increasingly hammered by hurricanes and Eritrea, lying at the eastern end of Africa’s Sahel, plagued by record breaking droughts.

Both countries have a strong committment to their peoples health and education with Cuba’s public health system the envy of its neighbors and Eritrea leading the way in preventing malaria mortality and HIV/Aids in Africa.

Cuba and Eritrea are both unique to their geographic regions in their refusal to accept demands to impose western style “democracy” on their people. Cuba is the only country in Central and South America that doesn’t hold “elections” and Eritrea is the only country in Africa not to do so.

But what is probably the most important similarity is that the governments of both country’s came to power through the armed struggle, through “the barrel of a gun”. This puts both in the ranks of a mere handful of such countries that successfully liberated their country’s in the 20th century.

Many tried but few succeeded, starting with the victory of what became the Soviet Union in the Russian civil war. This was followed two decades later by the Chinese revolution under the “Peoples War” strategy of Mao Tse Tung. Next came Vietnam, following the same “Peoples War” doctrine under the leadership of Ho Chi Minn. Then came the Cuban Revolution under the leadership of Fidel Castro in “Peoples War” short version.

The last successful armed struggle for national liberation in the 20th century was the Eritrean peoples 30 year independence war that saw Africa’s first military defeat of a colonialist power resulting in independence.

Today both Cuba and Eritrea are faced with very serious challenges, both military and economic. Sanctions aimed at crippling their economies and hurting their people have hit both countries hard. Both countries are facing military threats either directly by the USA or via is proxies.

And especially important, both countries are lead by an aging leadership and are struggling to come up with a strategy that will see the next generation of leaders keeping their countries on the path of development that will lead to what the Eritrean President described as “a rich Eritrea without rich Eritreans”.

Cuba has been liberated for over half a century and Eritrea this week will celebrate is 23rd year of independence. As Pax Americana finds it’s role as the only superpower increasingly challenged the role models Cuba and Eritrea represent are becoming more and more of an ideological threat to the “paper tiger” that might describe how the USA is being viewed more and more in today’s world.

If the planet is to survive the climate change catastrophe we are facing it would seem that a radical, revolutionary change is needed. Maybe its time to start  examining just what can be learned from two small countries that have been at the forefront of resisting the growing threat of the global warming juggernaut the world is facing.

Thomas C. Mountain is a life long revolutionary activist and educator, living and writing from Eritrea since 2006. He can be reached at thomascmountain_at_gmail_dot_com

Thomas C. Mountain attended Punahou School for six years some half a dozen years before “Barry O’Bombers” time there. He has been living and writing from Eritrea since 2006. He can be reached at thomascmountain at g_ mail_ dot _com

October 22, 2015
Yoav Litvin
The Violence, Crisis and Tragedy of Israeli Propaganda
Diane Roark
Classified Politics: a System and a Clinton in Disrepute
Jonathan Cook
The Chaos in Jerusalem: a Warning of Things to Come
Ellen Brown
Killing Off Community Banks: Intended Consequence of Dodd-Frank?
Jeff Klein
The Colonial Roots of Middle East Conflict
Sheldon Richman
Is Instability the Goal of U.S. Mideast Policy?
Pepe Escobar
Dr. Strangelove (Gen. Philip Breedlove) is Naked
Ramzy Baroud
Recasting the Rules over Palestine: An Intellectual Intifada in the Offing
Jack Rasmus
The TPP: Priority #1 of US Multinational Corporations
Cesar Chelala
China’s Public Health Challenges
David Macaray
Labor Unions Need to Grow Up
Alex Scrivener
Toxic Trade: TTIP and “Regulatory Cooperation”
Dean Baker
Jeb Bush’s Health Plan: Only the Healthy Need Apply
Gabrielle Lafayette
In 1492, Globalization Made Its Debut
October 21, 2015
Mike Whitney
Putin Forces Obama to Capitulate on Syria
Gideon Levy
The Single-State Solution is Already Here
Ron Jacobs
Get the Hell Out of Afghanistan Already!
Peter Phillips
Twenty-First-Century Fascism
Colin Todhunter
Monsanto’s Hand of God: Planned Obsolescence of the Indian Farmer
Jesse Jackson
Separate and Impoverished: America’s Black Poor
Glenn Reedus
Black in Blue: the Troubled Legacy of Chicago’s Black Cops
Richard Pithouse
Universities: a Moment of Possibility in South Africa
Rick Sterling
Faulty Analysis and Conclusions on Syria
Binoy Kampmark
The Collapse of Canada’s NDP
Mitri Raheb
Palestinian Lives Matter
Norman Pollack
America’s Self-Imposed Iron Curtain: Denial of Global Aggression
Sam Husseini
The Need for Real Strategic Voting
October 20, 2015
Garikai Chengu
Libya: From Africa’s Wealthiest Democracy Under Gaddafi to Terrorist Haven After US Intervention
Paul Street
Bernie and Hillary: the Sheepdog and the She-Wolf in Vegas
Stephanie McMillan – Vincent Kelley
The Useful Altruists: How NGOs Serve Capitalism and Imperialism
Jamie Davidson
Pillars of Wisdom: Britain’s Saudi Arabia Problem
Robert Fisk
The Return of the Syrian Army
Colin Todhunter
Mining, Capitalism and Gandhi, a Catalyst for Agriculture and Rural Development in India?
Mark Hand
Tony Mazzocchi Lives: Blue-Green Organizer Takes Up ‘Just Transition’ Mantle
L. Michael Hager
Does Netanyahu Really Deserve a “Reward?” An Open Letter to President Obama
Paul DeRienzo
The Fire This Time in Ferguson
Stephen Lendman
Canadians Reject Harper, But Hold the Cheers for Trudeau
Jonathon Porritt
China Syndrome: Meltdown Time for Pro-Nuclear Greens
Binoy Kampmark
Using Refugees: Merkel’s Turkish Gambit
Curtis FJ Doebbler
Cochabamba: A Growing Hope
Ann Garrison
​Burundi is Africa’s Syria: an Interview with Didas Gasana
Rip Rense
The Last Mexican of Venice
October 19, 2015
Cillian Doyle
Here Comes the Next Global Recession
Vijay Prashad
Palestine’s Intifada: the Process of Liberation is Irresistible
Gary Leupp
Why Hillary Won the Debate (Even Though She Didn’t)
FacebookTwitterGoogle+RedditEmail