A new phrase has recently entered the Filipino vocabulary: “historical revisionism”. Have you looked at pictures of yourself when you were a small child? There you are giving a high-five to Lolo. What a cute kid you were. Here is another one dressed just like Mom in matching Filipiniana.
What you probably won’t find in your photo album is you taking apart several Betamax video tapes trying to find out how they work. Another missing picture is where you used the door of the brand-new refrigerator as a drawing board with permanent marker.
Those are examples of historical revisionism. We choose to remember that which we want to remember and choose to ignore the rest. We remember events in a particular way to support a particular point of view or agenda.
The recently deceased Cuban leader Fidel Castro carried the title of “President” from 1976 to 2008. But most people think of a president as someone who was elected by the people with the following conditions: two or more candidates for office, political parties that campaign and a secret ballot. None of those circumstances have been part of choosing the president in Cuba.
Circulating on social media is a checklist of all of Cuba’s social and economic accomplishments under Castro. While these may be true, they are not the whole truth. Yes, Cuba has made great enviable strides in childhood nutrition and infant mortality. But also is the fact that food consumption in Cuba declined by 12 percent between the 1950s and the 1990s. In Chile it rose by 19 percent and in Mexico by 28 percent.
Everyone knew that China was lying about its economic growth rate in the 1990s, because the economy was growing three times as fast as electricity production, which is impossible for an economy supposedly based on manufacturing that China said was the engine of said economic growth rate.
Castro is lauded for having overthrown the Cuban Mafia-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista. However, there are at least 50 other dictators that have been overthrown in the last 100 years that did not lead to a ‘No Election-President-For-Life’ leader, the Philippines being one.
A recent opinion column cites the fact that “Castro sent troops and materiel to support the revolutions in Namibia and Angola”. What is missing is that Cuba intervened twice in Angola’s war of independence, followed by a decades-long civil war marked by unspeakable atrocities against civilian by all factions, including the side Castro supported.
Remember, Vladimir Putin “liberated” Crimea as did George Bush in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Then we are told, “Castro’s government survived the demise of the Soviet Union, as well as 10 US presidencies. That is a testament to the extent to which his people supported his revolution”. What is not mentioned are the 1.5 million Cubans that fled Cuba, including 2,460 since October 1, 2016 and the thousands that died trying. And why is it that all these “paradise” countries kill or imprison citizens who try to leave?
Historical revisionism, in any form, is a sign of weak logic and the tool of those pushing an agenda. Two thoughts come to mind. In 1950 Bernard Baruch said: “Every man has a right to his own opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts”. Then there is sworn testimony in a court of law when a witness says, “I promise to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth”. That “whole truth” thing is an agenda killer and anything less defines historical revisionism.
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