Social Justice

     Some WAISers have criticized Linda Nyquist's concern for social justice and her lingering admiration for Fidel Castro. On the first charge, let me say that at least her heart is in the right place. It is a worldwide problem. Our webmistress Astrid Usong, who left Indonesia when she was a baby, went back there and was appalled by the poverty.
     I rate compassion very highly, or, as some Bible translators call it, charity or love. The most telling passage in the English language may well be Saint Paul´s Epistle to the Corinthians: "Though I speak with the tongues of angels, and have not love, I am become a sounding bronze or a tinkling cymbal."
     Is this true of Fidel Castro? Certainly he loves the sound of his own voice, but is he motivated by love of self or of the disinherited? I suspect the former dominates. But we must always be careful. In the C-Span program on President Lyndon B. Johnson, he comes across as a man of immense and sincere compassion, but his "Great Society" was the target of bitter attacks.
     It is hard to know what Europeans think of Castro or of that cult figure Che Guevara. This week the Ibero-American summit will be held in Cuba, and Castro has allowed his critics to hold meetings. They have dutifully said they oppose Cuba's isolation. King Juan Carlos I of Spain is scheduled to go. How will this all work out? No one knows. Even if Cuba merges into the Western system, it will be as resentful as East Germany.
     Castro is similar to Allende of Chile, who loved the sound of his own voice but had real compassion. He was Moscow´s "useful idiot". With the Soviet empire gone, Castro may be his own useful idiot.

Ronald Hilton - 11/13/99