I became aware of Eric Hobsbawm, while preparing to give a series of lectures at the University of Havana. I had just his book: The Age of Extremes. I love historians who think clearly and are not influenced by their own ideology or the ideology of their religion (EH was Jewish) or the political leaders. You can trust Eric Hobsbawm or Bernard Lewis (also Jewish) to give you an accurate picture of the history and be comforted by the fact that they are not swayed by the fad of the day (for example: "Palestinian" and "BDS")..
I was reading an article about him today. Also remembered my good friend Roberto Gonzalez who was a professor of International Relations at University of Havana who gave me the book as a gift.
this paragraph caught my attention.
While the Soviet invasion of Hungary marked the end of Hobsbawm’s active engagement with the Communist Party of Great Britain, he never actually quit it. Indeed, Hobsbawm’s communism was longer-lived than the CPGB itself, which dissolved in 1991 following the breakup of the Soviet Union. When asked why, late in his life, Hobsbawm replied that he would rather be a communist than an ex-communist: “I don’t like being in the company of the sort of people I’ve seen leaving the Communist Party and becoming anti-Communist. … I don’t wish to be untrue to my past or to friends and comrades of mine.”
I am very devoted to CUBA.. as a country that my close friends live in, and as a lived in experience of many years and also the evolution and dissolution of the human spirit in the wake of a revolution.
My life in Cuba especially those days in Baracoa, could only be described as an EPOCA DE ORO.. a golden epoch and the current life in Havana as a Moveable Feast..
I am fully aware of the socio economic and political situation in Cuba but that does not deter me from loving the country and the people who live there (in contrast to people who emigrated and betrayed the soul of Cuba).
I have noticed that it is very difficult for me to be friends with people who had left Cuba for Miami, because the peculiar relationship between Cuba and Miami and the incessant bombardment by the de franchised Cubans in Miami to discredit their former homeland.
I have never liked to hear people talk bad about their countries. You will never hear a bad word from me about Australia, where I grew up. It is like insulting your mother or your immediate family.
I have good friends in Iran and I am not in agreement with their government but I do not hear them criticizing their country, their history, their literature. They reiterate: I cannot change my country, but I can change my way of looking at it.
I am always asked why are you so loyal to Cuba. I have great friends who live in Cuba and some of Cuban origin who live elsewhere (Buenos Aires for example). To talk bad about Cuba or be an ex-lover of Cuba would be betrayal of so many friendships, and also the comfort the ideals of Cuba gave me when I was a student, a junior doctor and then a professor.
Cuba gave me credibility as an anthropologist, cleansed my mind of certain western bourgeoisie thought patterns.
Certain gifts are given to you, without your knowing it. I am aware of the gifts and very appreciate of them on a daily basis.
Some of the gifts are no longer with me, such as good friends from Jamaica, but every one has left a footprint in my heart.
I appreciate the gifts which had been given to me, in particular order
I am a Jew
I was so lucky to be associated with Australia as my mind was growing up
The privilege of working with Native Indians of the USA and later with other indigenous peoples
CUBA
By confession, my profession is Anthropology but being a Medical Doctor gives me an opportunity to help others in distress.
There are special friends, I am lucky, all over the world and a very special one in Belgium!
So, you are not going to hear anything bad about Cuba from me!
Eric Hobsbawm was born to a British Father and a Austrian mother in Alexandria, Egypt. The family moved to Vienna where the poverty and suffering took toll and at 14 he was an orphan, looked after by family in Berlin at a time when it was not very good for Jewish People. It was at this time his ideas began to congeal and he was a lifelong communist.
His historical accounts are not influenced by his Ideology or Religion (he was very secular, even though wanted to have Kaddish, the jewish prayer for the dead, recited at his funeral)
I was reading an article about him today. Also remembered my good friend Roberto Gonzalez who was a professor of International Relations at University of Havana who gave me the book as a gift.
this paragraph caught my attention.
While the Soviet invasion of Hungary marked the end of Hobsbawm’s active engagement with the Communist Party of Great Britain, he never actually quit it. Indeed, Hobsbawm’s communism was longer-lived than the CPGB itself, which dissolved in 1991 following the breakup of the Soviet Union. When asked why, late in his life, Hobsbawm replied that he would rather be a communist than an ex-communist: “I don’t like being in the company of the sort of people I’ve seen leaving the Communist Party and becoming anti-Communist. … I don’t wish to be untrue to my past or to friends and comrades of mine.”
I am very devoted to CUBA.. as a country that my close friends live in, and as a lived in experience of many years and also the evolution and dissolution of the human spirit in the wake of a revolution.
My life in Cuba especially those days in Baracoa, could only be described as an EPOCA DE ORO.. a golden epoch and the current life in Havana as a Moveable Feast..
I am fully aware of the socio economic and political situation in Cuba but that does not deter me from loving the country and the people who live there (in contrast to people who emigrated and betrayed the soul of Cuba).
I have noticed that it is very difficult for me to be friends with people who had left Cuba for Miami, because the peculiar relationship between Cuba and Miami and the incessant bombardment by the de franchised Cubans in Miami to discredit their former homeland.
I have never liked to hear people talk bad about their countries. You will never hear a bad word from me about Australia, where I grew up. It is like insulting your mother or your immediate family.
I have good friends in Iran and I am not in agreement with their government but I do not hear them criticizing their country, their history, their literature. They reiterate: I cannot change my country, but I can change my way of looking at it.
I am always asked why are you so loyal to Cuba. I have great friends who live in Cuba and some of Cuban origin who live elsewhere (Buenos Aires for example). To talk bad about Cuba or be an ex-lover of Cuba would be betrayal of so many friendships, and also the comfort the ideals of Cuba gave me when I was a student, a junior doctor and then a professor.
Cuba gave me credibility as an anthropologist, cleansed my mind of certain western bourgeoisie thought patterns.
Certain gifts are given to you, without your knowing it. I am aware of the gifts and very appreciate of them on a daily basis.
Some of the gifts are no longer with me, such as good friends from Jamaica, but every one has left a footprint in my heart.
I appreciate the gifts which had been given to me, in particular order
I am a Jew
I was so lucky to be associated with Australia as my mind was growing up
The privilege of working with Native Indians of the USA and later with other indigenous peoples
CUBA
By confession, my profession is Anthropology but being a Medical Doctor gives me an opportunity to help others in distress.
There are special friends, I am lucky, all over the world and a very special one in Belgium!
So, you are not going to hear anything bad about Cuba from me!
Eric Hobsbawm was born to a British Father and a Austrian mother in Alexandria, Egypt. The family moved to Vienna where the poverty and suffering took toll and at 14 he was an orphan, looked after by family in Berlin at a time when it was not very good for Jewish People. It was at this time his ideas began to congeal and he was a lifelong communist.
His historical accounts are not influenced by his Ideology or Religion (he was very secular, even though wanted to have Kaddish, the jewish prayer for the dead, recited at his funeral)
