Oswaldo Payá nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

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March 18 marks the seventh anniversary of the beginning of the Black Spring where 75 Cuban dissidents were arrested for their struggle for human rights. Dagrun Eriksen, deputy leader of the Norwegian Christian Democrats (KrF), has nominated Oswaldo Payá, the most prominent leader of this struggle, for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. “The Nobel Prize to Payá would be a significant contribution to a peaceful transition to democracy in Cuba”, says deputy leader of KrF Dagrun Eriksen.

Cuba has a long history of violent regime changes. Today’s regime is getting more and more unpopular, and many fear that it might end in a bloody rebellion. Oswaldo Payá has, with a clear message of non-violence, through many years been Cuba’s most prominent dissident in a peaceful struggle for human rights.

[Mika]

1. But you've said, ignoring facts to the contrary, that anyone opposed to Castro rots in jail.

And you said that only the commie party exists in the approved diaspora.

Now you have posted a story that debunks both aspects of your own made-up bullshit. :dunce:


What you know about Cuba would fit on the head of a very tiny pin, and there'd be lots of room left over.

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[Judi Lynn]

2. Oswaldo has friends in "high" places, doesn't he?

He really should move to Miami to live with his friends, but then he wouldn't be useful for propaganda purposes, would he?



http://news.bbc.co.uk.nyud.net:8090/media/images/38602000/jpg/_38602979_paya_pat300afp.jpg http://farm1.static.flickr.com.nyud.net:8090/195/522960061_2a4615e39d.jpg http://s.libertaddigital.com.nyud.net:8090/fotos/noticias/250_0_ipaya190208.jpg
Do you remember when people used to say the quickest way to kill yourself would be to go to the Versailles is Miami and yell "Elian belongs with his father?" Good old Miami, which, as reported by the Human Rights Watch, has gravely imperiled the First Amendment, Freedom of Speech.

[protocol rv]

5. He's in Cuba

Hopefully he'll become as famous as Aung San Suu Kyi.

"Suu Kyi was the recipient of the Rafto Prize and the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 1990 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. In 1992 she was awarded the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding by the Government of India.

She is frequently called Daw Aung San Suu Kyi; Daw is not part of her name, but is an honorific similar to madam for older, revered women, literally meaning "aunt".<9> Her name is derived from three relatives; "Aung San" from her father, "Kyi" from her mother and "Suu" from her grandmother.<10> Strictly speaking, she has no surname, but it is acceptable to refer to her as "Ms. Suu Kyi" or "Dr. Suu Kyi", since those syllables serve to distinguish her from her father, General Aung San, who is considered to be the father of modern-day Burma."

Or maybe he'll be like "Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn, a Soviet Army officer, primarily known as a novelist, dramatist, and historian. Through his writings he helped to make the world aware of the Gulag, the Soviet Union's forced labor camp system – particularly The Gulag Archipelago and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, two of his best-known works. Solzhenitsyn was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970. He was exiled from the Soviet Union in 1974 and returned to Russia in 1994"

Or Vaclav Havel, who signed the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism, which includes the following text:

"reaching an all-European understanding that both the Nazi and Communist totalitarian regimes each to be judged by their own terrible merits to be destructive in their policies of systematically applying extreme forms of terror, suppressing all civic and human liberties, starting aggressive wars and, as an inseparable part of their ideologies, exterminating and deporting whole nations and groups of population; and that as such they should be considered to be the main disasters, which blighted the 20th century"

"recognition that many crimes committed in the name of Communism should be assessed as crimes against humanity serving as a warning for future generations, in the same way Nazi crimes were assessed by the Nuremberg Tribunal"

"introduction of legislation that would enable courts of law to judge and sentence perpetrators of Communist crimes and to compensate victims of Communism"

"ensuring the principle of equal treatment and non-discrimination of victims of all the totalitarian regimes"

"European and international pressure for effective condemnation of the past Communist crimes and for efficient fight against ongoing Communist crimes"

"recognition of Communism as an integral and horrific part of Europe’s common history"

Hopefully you'll reflect on this which I have posted. The lesson to be learned? There's a lot of difference between progressive and socialist, and what is being practiced by the communist regime in Cuba. And we surely don't want to see that imitated in Venezuela. :-)

[protocol rv]

3. Insults are so unbecoming

I know I've said this before, but insults only degrade the quality of this forum. It would be better if you limited yourself to the subject, rather than attacking me. Now that you've given me an opportunity to respond, I'll limit myself to quoting the man:

"What the Varela Project is advocating, and will continue to advocate, is what differentiates totalitarianism from democracy, and oppression from freedom. The Varela Project is an initiative for peace and not hatred.

We say to the Cuban leadership, without hatred but without fear, that with their absolute control, their privileges and affluence, their blindness and intolerance, they behave like an oligarchy toward the poor, who even in times of disaster are too afraid to denounce their poverty.

Confrontation is the result when the poor do not even dare to say that they are poor. We do not advocate confrontation; we advocate reconciliation and rights. We use the truth, and not the silence enforced by fear and lies. We say this to awaken the conscience of all, because Cuba must change now and change for real, which means: rights for all.

Cubans, let us raise our hearts and the light of hope."


Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas

Now the man has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Hopefully, some day you will understand what all of this is about, maybe you could start by reading a very interesting book called "Forever Peace". :-)

[Judi Lynn]

4. Those of us who have known you over the years most clearly trust your comments

any day, any week, any time.

The truth will ALWAYS win, in the end.

Of course, we unhappily must recall Mark Twain's (Samuel Clemmon's) remark, "The Truth is still putting on its boots while a lie is already half-way around the world."

We've got the time to wait until the truth triumphs, which it will.

[protocol rv]

6. And the truth shall set you free

But what is the truth? I don't know what is the truth. I do know I risk my life to search for it, and expose what I think is not true.

[Mika]

7. The most honest thing you've said here... "I don't know what is the truth."

So go ahead and just continue making up some bullshit on topics you know little about.

BS topic #1 for you, AFAIK, is Cuba. You know less than the truth. You know nothing. Period.

I know Cubañia well. I've spent considerable time in Cuba. I've been a student there, and later in life, I've been a teacher there. I have many friends and associates in Cuba. I also have family. I communicate with many of them regularly.


I acknowledge your right to post your anti Cuba swill here, but, especially considering that you've never set foot in Cuba and you have demonstrated considerable ignorance on the place, you are not entitled to your own facts.


As for your insults comment up-thread .... coming from you it is laughable.

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[protocol rv]

8. But I have never insulted you

Yet you insult me quite often. As your friend, I am telling you honestly this is not good for you. It ruins your mindset, and probably drives your blood pressure up. I have come to accept the reality that other people don't think the way I do, and that very often I don't know what I'm talking about, therefore I should listen very carefully. But it's not possible to learn much when all one hears is insulting commentary.

I would also like to give you a little tip: I do research before I say something. Thus you should not assume I don't know much about Cuba. Do you realize there are many Cuban doctors in Venezuela? And do you think all of them are kept under control and muzzled so they are unable to speak to us about Cuba? :-)

[Mika]

9. Lol

The flies buzzing around an outhouse don't raise my blood pressure.

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[protocol rv]

11. There you go again

That's good, I surely don't want to see you croak because I wrote something on a blog. I guess we'll just have to learn that you have to act this way because that's the way you are.

But tell me, what's the outhouse? Are you debasing Democratic Underground? I like the site, I really love those little films of the lady from NBC, Rachel, she's my favorite, and we don't get her on my cable service.

[rabs]

10. Payá is only one of 237 nominated, so his chances would appear to be slim

Record 237 Nominations for 2010 Nobel Peace Prize
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

OSLO (AP) -- The committee that selects the Nobel Peace Prize winner will consider a record 237 nominations for the 2010 award, a Nobel official said Wednesday.

Surpassing last year's record of 205 nominations, 199 individuals and 38 organizations have been nominated for the coveted prize, said Geir Lundestad, the committee's permanent nonvoting secretary.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/03/10/world/AP-EU-Norway-Nobel-Peace.html

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Another nominee this year, nominated by Argentine's 1980 Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel.

Another nominee is the Internet ...

[protocol rv]

12. Well, I guess time will tell

Those Cuban dissidents keep going on hunger strike, and the European Parliament condemned Cuba, so it must be getting press in Europe?