Resisting tyranny and the liberator becoming a tyrant

"He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you." - Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 146

My first encounter with Jorge Valls was in the 1987 documentary Nobody Listened. Janet Maslin of The New York Times in 1988 reviewed this film and highlighted the formerly imprisoned poet:

Jorge Valls, a writer, on the other hand, points out that at least ''free thinking dwelt behind prison walls; it was truly the free territory of Cuba.'' As for public free expression at the time of the revolution, Mr. Valls says: ''None of that in 1959! Just extraordinary exaltation, fanatical idolatry of the victorious warrior, and rampant folly that made everything acceptable.'' 

Jorge in this documentary on the human rights situation in Cuba in the first three decades of the Castro dictatorship gave a powerful testimony in defense of freedom of expression and human dignity that remains relevant today.

Nobody Listened was the work of two filmmakers with strong ties to Cuba. Jorge Ulla, who was born in Cuba and had also made Guaguasi in 1983 and following the above mentioned documentary made Navidades en familia in 1993.

Jorge Ulla (left) and Nestor Almendros (right)

Nestor Almendros was born in Barcelona, Spain on October 30, 1930 into what would become an anti-Franco family. 18 years later they moved to Cuba. During the years of his stay in the Cuban Republic and the 1952 coup by Batista Almendros travels to study film making in Rome and New York City.

When Fidel Castro takes power in 1959 promising the restoration of democracy, Nestor Almendros returns to Cuba. However when the revolutionary government censors two of his film shorts: Gente en la Playa and La Tumba Francesa, he goes into exile in Paris. While in France he begins to collaborate with filmmakers Erich Rohmer and Francois Truffaut.

In 1970 he does the cinematography for Truffaut's 1970 film, The Wild Child.  American filmmaker Terrence Malick impressed by his work on The Wild Child hires him as cinematographer in the 1978 film Days of Heaven Almendros continues his career in Hollywood as a cinematographer in important films such as: Kramer vs Kramer (1979), The Blue Lagoon (1980), and Sophie's Choice (1982). In 1979, Almendros won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for Days of Heaven.

Towards the end of his life he directs two documentaries on human rights in Cuba. In 1984 he directs Improper Conduct that explores the discrimination and repression of homosexuals in Cuba under Castro. In 1987 he also directs Nobody Listened that interviews former comrades of Fidel Castro and other anti-Batista revolutionaries who were arrested, tortured and imprisoned after Castro took power in Cuba. 

Poet, former prisoner of conscience Jorge Valls

Former Cuban prisoner of conscience Jorge Valls presents a powerful testimony in Nobody Listened.  He also wrote an OpEd published in The New York Times on April 7, 2000 that remains important today for those resisting tyranny.

One day in 1952, there was a coup in my country against the legitimate government, and I thought -- and still believe -- that it was a real catastrophe for Cuba.

I went to fight against the Batista regime. That evening I was put in jail and badly beaten. After seven years of revolutionary struggle, in 1959, that spurious government was substituted amid a civil war by a new one, led by Fidel Castro, which from the very beginning didn't offer any guarantee that the fundamentals of law would be enforced.

Like Mr. Castro, I wanted a radical change in Cuban society, but I also knew that authority would never become legitimate unless the pure power of violence was submitted to reason, and strict respect for individual rights was guaranteed.

Without civil rights, the best intentions turn into a trap, and societies become prisons and asylums. There is a danger that we become as alienated and as fierce as the evil we think we are fighting.

That is what happened in Cuba under the Castro regime. In 1964, I was convicted of "conspiracy against the state," because I testified against the Castro government in a political trial, and I spent 20 years and 40 days in jail. I don't regret my time there, because I was defending this essential respectability of the human person.

 Below is the video Nobody Listened that is available on YouTube and in Amazon. It is highly recommended for those who want to know about the real Cuba.

Remembering the wise counsel of prisoner of conscience Jorge Valls applicable to the USA in an age of political polarization

"The noblest way to avenge an insult is not to imitate he who has offended us." - Jorge Valls

Poet, former prisoner of conscience Jorge Valls

We are living in an age of political polarization that is threatening democracy in the United States. On both sides of the political divide there have been calls by leaders to disregard standards of civility for the sake of political advantage. This is a mistake that endangers the Republic and opens the door to escalating political violence. Consider for a moment a small sampling of incidents of politically motivated violence and terror over the past two years.

At least five explosive devices and suspicious packages targeting the homes of George Soros, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the New York offices of CNN were intercepted this week. The packages had the return address of  Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

On November 5, 2017 while mowing his lawn Senator Rand Paul was viciously attacked by a neighbor who is a liberal democrat. Some media accounts attempted to downplay the politically motivated nature of the attack.

On June 14, 2017 a Bernie Sanders supporter fired at least 70 rounds at Republican members of Congress while they were at baseball practice. The FBI initially claimed that the attack was spontaneous and not an act of terror, but other news contradicted this initial assessment.  CNN reported months later that the shooter had cased the area for months and had taken cell phone video of the field as far back as April 2017. Six were injured. Most seriously injured was House Majority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana.

On October 9, 2018 Hillary Clinton stated: "You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about." Congresswoman Maxine Waters in June 2018 called on Trump opponents to target members of the Trump Administration and to engage in what amounts to acts of repudiation. President Trump has engaged in name calling and will not be accused of being a practitioner of civility.

Earlier this month in Miami, Republicans copied their Democratic counterparts in engaging in act of repudiation against Liberal Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Lee when the Congresswomen visited Miami in order to support the Democratic nominee for Congress Donna Shalala.

Protesters were particularly outraged by news that Congresswoman Barbara Lee, a supporter of the Castro dictatorship, who admires the Castro brothers and saw that admiration reciprocated by Fidel Castro in 2004 would be joining Congresswoman Pelosi in supporting Donna Shalala in Miami.

This led to a protest that ironically mirrored one of Castro's acts of repudiation. However, in Cuba these type of repudiation acts are organized by State Security to silence dissenting voices. Witnessing this I was horrified and commented on it over social media at the time.

"No one is obliged to take part in the spiritual crises of society; on the contrary, everyone is obliged to avoid the folly and live his life in order.” - Eric Voegelin https://t.co/FnWAKa5C9H

— John Suarez ن (@johnjsuarez) October 20, 2018

There are other ways to send Donna Shalala a message. One is not to vote for her, and politely calling Congresswoman Pelosi's and Lee's offices to explain that Congresswoman Lee's position on Cuba and friendship with the Castros was a decisive factor in how you decided your vote. Another is to write a letter to the editor or an oped piece. How about holding a protest (but make it a non-violent one) highlighting the victims of the Castro regime and why the old tyrant needs to be condemned not honored?

What is not needed is shouting down political leaders in order to shutdown speech you disagree with. This holds politically true for those on the other side of the political divide. Former Iowa Congressman Jim Leach explained its essence when he observed that "Civility is not about dousing strongly held views. It's about making sure that people are willing to respect other perspectives." Sadly in too many cases this is not where many people are today.

Jorge Valls with Pope John Paul II

This descent into intolerance reminded me of the words of an old friend, who is no longer physically with us and that describing Cuba in the 1950s seems prophetic today in the context of the United States.

Jorge Valls, a poet and former Cuban prisoner of conscience who had unjustly spent 20 years and 40 days in a Cuban prison passed away three years ago on October 22, 2015 in Miami. He'd fought against two dictatorships and in favor of human rights and dignity and paid a heavy price for being a free man with a conscience.   He explained what happened in Cuba, and what appears relevant today in the United States.

Like Mr. Castro, I wanted a radical change in Cuban society, but I also knew that authority would never become legitimate unless the pure power of violence was submitted to reason, and strict respect for individual rights was guaranteed.

Without civil rights, the best intentions turn into a trap, and societies become prisons and asylums. There is a danger that we become as alienated and as fierce as the evil we think we are fighting.

That is what happened in Cuba under the Castro regime. In 1964, I was convicted of "conspiracy against the state," because I testified against the Castro government in a political trial, and I spent 20 years and 40 days in jail. I don't regret my time there, because I was defending this essential respectability of the human person.

My first encounter with Jorge Valls was in the 1987 documentary Nobody Listened. Janet Maslin of The New York Times in 1988 reviewed this important film at the time and highlighted the imprisoned poet:

Jorge Valls, a writer, on the other hand, points out that at least ''free thinking dwelt behind prison walls; it was truly the free territory of Cuba.'' As for public free expression at the time of the revolution, Mr. Valls says: ''None of that in 1959! Just extraordinary exaltation, fanatical idolatry of the victorious warrior, and rampant folly that made everything acceptable.'' 

Jorge in this documentary on the human rights situation in Cuba in the early years of the Castro regime gave a powerful testimony in defense of freedom of expression and human dignity that remains relevant today.

Let us pray that his words are heeded and that there is a return to civility before its too late.

Jorge Valls (1933-2015)

 

Remembering Jorge Valls Arango: The Cuban Stoic who triumphed over totalitarianism

''The only thing that can give you joy and pain is what happens inside, not outside you.''- Jorge Valls Arango, April 20, 1986 in The New York Times

Jorge Valls Arango (on the left) March 13, 2015

 Last night I attended the wake for Jorge Valls Arango paying my respects and expressing my condolences to his family members. Listening to anecdotes from family and friends. The funeral card contained the Virgin of Charity with the three Juans on one side and The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi on the other side. This morning a Requiem Mass was held at St. Kevin Church for Jorge, who was a man of letters who rejected materialism. Jorge refused a million dollar offer from Universal Studios to make a film based on his life explaining to a shocked relative at the time that money is debasing. The conversation took place after Val Kilmer appeared at his modest apartment in New York City, since the letters sent by Universal Studios had gone unanswered, to verbally make the offer only to have Jorge respond repeatedly: No. Jorge Valls conceived happiness as the cultivation of virtue and unhappiness that which tended towards vice. In order for Jorge Valls to be happy with himself, as he perceived it, he had to reject the million dollar offer because of the negative impact the money and notoriety would have on his person.


Jorge Valls fought against tyranny and barbarism his whole life and in Cuba that meant challenging the dictatorships of Fulgencio Batista and Fidel Castro. He suffered prison and exile during the Batista regime. During the Castro regime he was arrested in 1964 and sentenced to 20 years in prison for testifying in defense of a friend who was being subjected to a show trial. While in prison he organized teach ins, taught some prisoners how to read and smuggled his poems out of prison. One of the poems is translated to English is reproduced below:

Where I am there is no light
and it is barred.
Just beyond
there lies a lighted space.
Therefore light must exist.
Nonetheless,
further on, there is an even deeper gloom.
There are no hanged men now:
all of them are on fire.
Could they be made of kerosene inside?
They go on talking,
moving from here to there,
from there to here,
unendingly.
Some are sleeping.
Someone is outside.
Somewhere there is sunshine.
Inevitably, the sun exists.
I can no longer leave:
I`ll go and sleep.
Inevitably, I`ll wake up again.
And so on, and on and on.
The kerosene burns inexhaustibly.


Having served the two decade stretch in conditions that can politely be described as inhumane, the prison commissars held him for an additional forty days. My first encounter with Jorge Valls was in the 1987 documentary Nobody Listened. Janet Maslin of The New York Times in 1988 reviewed this important film at the time and highlighted the imprisoned poet:

Jorge Valls, a writer, on the other hand, points out that at least ''free thinking dwelt behind prison walls; it was truly the free territory of Cuba.'' As for public free expression at the time of the revolution, Mr. Valls says: ''None of that in 1959! Just extraordinary exaltation, fanatical idolatry of the victorious warrior, and rampant folly that made everything acceptable.'' 

The next time I met him was at Florida International University in the early 1990s sitting near the student union and struck up a conversation with him. Traveling by bus through Miami I would occasionally run into Jorge Valls and engage with him in conversations on Cuba, the Caribbean, human rights, and theology.

Over the past 25 years had the opportunity to attend teach ins, poetry readings, and gatherings led by Jorge Valls. On a couple of occasions was honored to have him as a guest on a radio program. He was truly an original thinker and a man of great faith and courage.We often disagreed on policy questions but not on the fundamentals.

The last time I saw Jorge Valls was on March 13, 2015 at Our Lady of Charity to attend a Mass in memory of José Antonio Echeverría. We chatted briefly, exchanging pleasantries and agreed to catch up soon. Sadly, it did not come to pass.

In Book Two, Chapter 19 of The Discourses of Epictetus, one of the later Stoic philosophers, who lived at the height of the Roman empire explained the way of life of one who followed stoicism:

"Who then is a Stoic? As we call a statue Phidiac which is fashioned according to the art of Phidias; so show me a man who is fashioned according to the doctrines which he utters. Show me a man who is sick and happy, in danger and happy, dying and happy, in exile and happy, in disgrace and happy. Show him: I desire, by the gods, to see a Stoic. You cannot show me one fashioned so; but show me at least one who is forming, who has shown a tendency to be a Stoic."

Jorge Valls was a man that confronted cancer for over two decades, on more than one occasion all around him thought he was going to die, and went through the ordeal a happy man. He defended a friend, at great danger to himself and spent 20 years and 40 days in prison for his troubles but remained throughout the ordeal a happy man who aided others, describing prison as the one place to speak freely in Cuba. Released from prison in 1984, he was forcibly exiled for thirty years, Jorge Valls endured his separation from his homeland and continued to teach, pray, help others, and was a happy man. Epicetus would find in the life that he lived that Jorge Valls was a stoic.

His passing is a great loss for all of us lucky enough to have known this man. The Cuban Stoic who triumphed over totalitarianism in all its forms.

Poet and former prisoner of conscience Jorge Valls passed away in Miami

"The noblest way to avenge an insult is not to imitate he who has offended us." - Jorge Manuel Valls Arango 1933 - 2015: Requiescat in pace

Jorge Valls (photo El Nuevo Herald)

Jorge Valls, a poet and former Cuban prisoner of conscience who had unjustly spent 20 years and 40 days in a Cuban prison passed away last night in Miami. He'd fought against two dictatorships and in favor of human rights and dignity and paid a heavy price for being a free man with a conscience.   He explained what happened below.

Like Mr. Castro, I wanted a radical change in Cuban society, but I also knew that authority would never become legitimate unless the pure power of violence was submitted to reason, and strict respect for individual rights was guaranteed.

Without civil rights, the best intentions turn into a trap, and societies become prisons and asylums. There is a danger that we become as alienated and as fierce as the evil we think we are fighting.

That is what happened in Cuba under the Castro regime. In 1964, I was convicted of "conspiracy against the state," because I testified against the Castro government in a political trial, and I spent 20 years and 40 days in jail. I don't regret my time there, because I was defending this essential respectability of the human person.

Six years ago in 2009, Jorge Valls sat down and gave an interview in which he discussed his life, human rights and Cuba. It is available online here. In 2013 at a gathering of poets at an event called "Disobedient Poetry" he gave a reading from his collection of poems written from prison between 1967 and 1970 titled Donde estoy no hay luz y está enrejado (Where I am there is no light and there are metal bars).  Jorge Valls was also interviewed in the 1987 documentary on the human rights situation in Cuba titled, Nobody Listened giving a powerful testimony.




There will be a wake for him Monday, October 26 at Memorial Plan located on 9800 Coral Way, Miami, Florida beginning at 5pm. Mass will be celebrated for him the following day at 10am in Saint Kevin Church , on 40th street and 127 avenue. For more information contact: (305) 227-3333.

Read more here: http://www.elnuevoherald.com/noticias/sur-de-la-florida/obituarios/article41170086.html#storylink=cpy

Jorge Valls and a Conspiracy of Hope

Prisoners of conscience at a rock concert

The year was 1986. The Berlin Wall would not fall for another three years, the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen square massacre had not happened yet and the Cold War still raged on. Nevertheless, or because of it, Amnesty International organized six benefit concerts starting on June 4th and ending on June 15, 1986 to observe the 25th anniversary of their founding while seeking to attract a new generation to letter writing for the release of prisoners of conscience.

The shows were headlined by U2, Sting and Bryan Adams and also featured Peter Gabriel, Lou Reed, Joan Baez, and The Neville Brothers. The last three concerts featured the reuniting of the British rock band The Police who would not play again on stage until 2003.

At the end of the concert broadcast over MTV on June 15, 1986 former prisoners of conscience appeared on stage holding their hands together and lifting them high. Among them was Jorge Valls, a poet and a Cuban prisoner of conscience who had unjustly spent 20 years and 40 days in prison. He'd fought against two dictatorships and in favor of human rights and dignity and paid the price for being a free man with a conscience.

Like Mr. Castro, I wanted a radical change in Cuban society, but I also knew that authority would never become legitimate unless the pure power of violence was submitted to reason, and strict respect for individual rights was guaranteed.

Without civil rights, the best intentions turn into a trap, and societies become prisons and asylums. There is a danger that we become as alienated and as fierce as the evil we think we are fighting.

That is what happened in Cuba under the Castro regime. In 1964, I was convicted of "conspiracy against the state," because I testified against the Castro government in a political trial, and I spent 20 years and 40 days in jail. I don't regret my time there, because I was defending this essential respectability of the human person.

 At 1 hour and 1 minute and 13 seconds into this video of the 1986 Conspiracy of Hope tour there appears among a row of prisoners of conscience on stage wearing a blue t-shirt the Cuban poet and former prisoner of conscience Jorge Valls. He reappears again at 1 hour 2 minutes and 2 seconds in the same video and briefly stares into the camera.

Jorge Valls in 2013

 This should serve as a reminder as we watch all these talented and courageous Cubans traveling the world and speaking truth to power that others have come before them. First, to appreciate the good works done in the past and also what they too can accomplish.

Finally, one should appreciate the powerful moral authority and legitimacy that prisoners of conscience have. Sadly and proudly there are many Cuban prisoners of conscience young and old that are available to tell their history and unlike at other times there are many that want to listen.

It truly is a conspiracy of hope.

 

From Nobody to Everybody Listening

From Nobody to Everybody Listening

Cuba's political prisons and the importance of International Solidarity

History has demonstrated that one cannot remain silent in the face of such injustices without catastrophic results. Tens of thousands of Cubans have suffered inside of Castro's prisons for political reasons. For the past half century Cuba's freethinkers have been free to think, and talk without fear of imprisonment only in these brutal prisons. The preceding idea was first outlined by Jorge Valls over twenty years ago in a documentary on Cuba’s political prisons: Nobody Listened.

Jorge Valls a poet and writer served 20 years and 40 days of an unjust prison sentence for speaking out in defense of a friend undergoing a Stalinist show trial. Jorge was recognized as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International. He has written both a chronicle of his imprisonment 20 years and 40 days and a book of poems Where I am there is not light and it is barred. His description of his years in prison involves the sounds of firing squads in Cuba, brutal beatings, hunger strikes and death as a constant companion.

One need not be a political or human rights activist to suffer dire consequences when you express what you think. Earlier this year Juan Carlos González Marcos, known better as “Pánfilo,” appeared on camera saying that he was hungry and that there was hunger in Cuba. Yoani Sanchez, a Cuban blogger, pointed out that he was obviously drunk because otherwise no sane person would ever speak the truth in Cuba unless he was a member of the opposition and willing to go to prison or worse. Sure enough Pánfilo he was arrested; charged with “predilection to social dangerousness” for his outburst. This charge has been used to incarcerate large numbers of Cubans over the decades.

Another case is that of Maikel Bencomo Rojas detained on May 7, 2008 brutally beaten by State Security agents and in a summary trial sentenced two years in prison for having a tattoo on his back that says “Abajo Fidel” [Down with Fidel]. 26 years old married with a small daughter he was not part of any organized opposition but merely wanted to express himself.

However, out of these prisons there has been a rebirth of spirit and hope amid all the misery and torture. The Cuban Committee for Human Rights and much of the democratic opposition were forged in prison and tempered by its brutality to confront a totalitarian system. A musician like Gorki Aguila of the Cuban punk rock band imprisoned because of lyrics critical of the dictatorship in a sham trial would meet Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet and emerge years later from prison fearless and challenging the dictatorship with scathing lyrics with no room for misinterpretation.

A medical doctor Oscar Elias Biscet in the mid 1990s began to follow the path of Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Beginning in 1999 Dr. Biscet first served a three year sentence for holding a press conference and defending human rights. Less than a month after his release in 2002 he was rearrested for organizing teach-ins on how Cubans could nonviolently exercise their rights and sentenced in March of 2003 to 25 years in prison along with scored of other non-violent civic activists and independent journalists. Earlier this year on the eve of his 48^th birthday he managed to get the following message to his wife Elsa Morejon: “When you ask me how I am doing, and I tell you that I am resisting, it is because the environment I find myself in is too brutal for any civilized man imprisoned for promoting ideas of love, the respect for human rights and the defense of life. Yet, I thank God as I awake every day, for in this dark and lonely cell, I know He is with me.”

In 1969 in a letter to Alexander Dubček Václav Havel enunciated a profound truth: “Even a purely moral act that has no hope of any immediate and visible political effect can gradually and indirectly, over time, gain in political significance.” Following the March 2003 crackdown in Cuba President Havel led a movement of international outrage over the imprisonment of human rights and pro-democracy activists. Along with President Aznar of Spain the European Union was able to denounce the human rights situation in the island and recognize the democratic opposition. Thanks to these efforts some of the 75 have had their sentences commuted to house arrest or forced exile.

Moral acts by average citizens have had unforeseen effects such as when the musician Gorki Aguila was rearrested and threatened with four years in prison for “predilection to social dangerousness” an international campaign quickly mobilized involving all sectors of civil society inside and outside of Cuba and the dictatorship released him with a fine and a lesser charge to avoid the avalanche of international attention and public criticism. A similar mobilization around the case of Juan Carlos González Marcos “Pánfilo” led to his release from prison.

Real change in Cuba requires that the laws be changed so that fundamental human rights are no longer systematically criminalized. The Varela Project was an initiative by Cubans to do just that and more than 25,000 Cubans signed the petition and the government’s response to this plea for reform: 75 new prisoners of conscience in March of 2003.

Eternal vigilance is not only the price for preserving liberty in free societies but also for saving lives and defending pockets of freedom in unfree societies and speaking out for those imprisoned for speaking their minds.

Gandhi's Children

Gandhi's Children

Time Magazine back in 1999 published The Children of Gandhi some of the names featured in the article appear below but there are others who have followed Mohandas Gandhi's path and on the 140th anniversary of his birth it seems appropriate to highlight "Gandhi's children."

They span different continents and decades confronting injustice wherever it appears and are arranged below in no particular order and is incomplete:

Aung San Suu Kyi: Military Junta in Burma











"What is there to be discouraged about? Gandhi said the victory is in the struggle itself. The struggle itself is the most important thing. I tell our followers that when we achieve democracy, we will look back with nostalgia on the struggle and how pure we were." -Aung San Suu Kyi

"I think this is the case in the great majority of authoritarian states: on the surface, because of repression, everything seems frozen, but when the sun comes out and the ice melts, you find that there was a lot of life underneath all along." -Aung San Suu Kyi

"Please use your liberty to promote ours." -Aung San Suu Kyi
Taken from http://uscampaignforburma.org/assk/ASSKquotes.html

Steven Biko: Apartheid South Africa

"The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed."

*From White Racism and Black Consciousness

"The system concedes nothing without demand, for it formulates its very method of operation on the basis that the ignorant will learn to know, the child will grow into an adult and therefore demands will begin to be made. It gears itself to resist demands in whatever way it sees fit."

* The Quest for a True Humanity

Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet: Castroite Cuba







"To love one's neighbor is also to love one's enemy. Although in reality that qualifier-"enemy" does not exist in my vocabulary. I recognize that I only have adversaries and I have acquired the capacity to love them because in this way we do away with violence, wrath, vengeance, hatred and substitute them with justice and forgiveness."
- Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet Gonzalez,
upon completing 40 day fast in 1999 to protest 40 years of dictatorship






His Holiness The Dalai Lama: Chinese Occupation of Tibet








"Many ancient Indian masters have preached nonviolence as a philosophy. That was a more spiritual understanding of it. Mahatma Gandhi, in this twentieth century, produced a very sophisticated approach because he implemented that very noble philosophy of nonviolence in modern politics, and he succeeded. That is a very great thing. It has represented an evolutionary leap in political consciousness, his experimentation with truth."
-- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, in an interview with Catherine Ingram, from "The Dalai Lama, A Policy of Kindness", published by Snow Lion Publications.
http://www.bamboointhewind.org/teaching_dalaiquotes.html




Jorge Valls: Castroite and Batista Cuba










"Without civil rights, the best intentions turn into a trap, and societies become prisons and asylums. There is a danger that we become as alienated and as fierce as the evil we think we are fighting.That is what happened in Cuba under the Castro regime. In 1964, I was convicted of 'conspiracy against the state,' because I testified against the Castro government in a political trial, and I spent 20 years and 40 days in jail. I don't regret my time there, because I was defending this essential respectability of the human person."
-Jorge Valls
Source:http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y00/apr00/07e13.htm

Abdul Ghaffar Khan: British India & Pakistan

He was a Pashtun political and spiritual leader known for his non-violent opposition to British Rule in India. A lifelong pacifist, a devout Muslim, and a follower of Mahatma Gandhi, he was also known as Badshah Khan (also Bacha Khan, Urdu, Pashto: lit., "King Khan"), and Sarhaddi Gandhi (Urdu, Hindi lit., "Frontier Gandhi").

"I am going to give you such a weapon that the police and the army will not be able to stand against it. It is the weapon of the Prophet, but you are not aware of it. That weapon is patience and righteousness. No power on earth can stand against it."

-Abdul Ghaffar Khan

"I had to go to prison many a time in the days of the Britishers. Although we were at loggerheads with them, yet their treatment was to some extent tolerant and polite. But the treatment which was meted out to me in this Islamic state of ours was such that I would not even like to mention it to you."

-Abdul Ghaffar Khan



Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.: Racist & Segregationist United States of America











"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. ... Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."

- Martin Luther King Jr. Where Do We Go from Here : Chaos or Community? (1967), p. 62





Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas: Castroite Cuba








"There are still those who perpetuate the myth that the exercising of political and civil rights is an alternative to a society’s ability to achieve social justice and development. They are not mutually exclusive. The absence of any civil and political rights in Cuba has had serious consequences such as inequality, the poverty of the majority and privileges of a minority and the deterioration of certain services, even though these were conceived as a positive system to benefit to the people."

Taken from: http://www.cartadecuba.org/oswaldo_paya's_speech.htm

"The first victory we can claim is that our hearts are free of hatred. Hence we say to those who persecute us and who try to dominate us: ‘You are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me by fear. I do not wish to impose my truth, nor do I wish you to impose yours on me. We are going to seek the truth together’."

Taken from: http://www.cartadecuba.org/oswaldo_paya's_speech.htm





Vaclav Havel: Communist Czechoslovakia







“The spiritual ethos that came to fruition in the work of Gandhi was a thousand years in the making on the great Indian subcontinent. This work is one of the major contributions of your country to modern history. It is an inspiring contribution, the impact of which can be observed again and again in all corners of the globe.”
-Vaclav Havel

“I am one of Mahatma Gandhi's admirers, and, if I may be so bold, I believe that a reflection of his life's work might even be seen in the attempt my friends and I made, in Charter 77, to create a nonviolent opposition to the totalitarian regime in our country. This aspect of our activity later had a positive influence on the course of our anti-totalitarian revolution in 1989.”
-Vaclav Havel

“If I were to say what fascinated me most about Gandhi's life, I would have to mention his stance immediately after your country gained independence, when, entirely alone, he placed himself in the path of the bloody battles between the Hindus and the Moslems and was able in Calcutta, for example, but later here in Delhi as well to stop those merciless conflicts and compel the warring factions to shake hands.” […]Gandhi's act was a triumph of human charisma over mob passions. It was a great victory for the ideas of nonviolence, tolerance, coexistence, and understanding. It was a great victory for what I would call the moral minimum, which links people of all cultures, over mutual antipathy springing from differences of faith and cultural traditions.
-Vaclav Havel

Taken from
http://old.hrad.cz/president/Havel/speeches/1994/0802_uk.html



Lech Walesa: Communist Poland










"When I recall my own path of life I cannot but speak of the violence, hatred and lies. A lesson drawn from such experiences, however, was that we can effectively oppose violence only if we ourselves do not resort to it."

Lech Walesa, Nobel Peace Prize Lecture 1983

"The defense of our rights and our dignity, as well as efforts never to let ourselves to be overcome by the feeling of hatred - this is the road we have chosen."

Lech Walesa, Nobel Peace Prize Lecture 1983

Lech Walesa's Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1983
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1983/walesa-lecture.html






Benigno and Cory Aquino: Marcos Dictatorship in Philippines











"In a revolution there can really be no victors, only victims. We do not have to destroy in order to build." -Benigno Servillano Aquino

“Reconciliation should be accompanied by justice, otherwise it will not last. While we all hope for peace it shouldn't be peace at any cost but peace based on principle, on justice.”
- Corazon Aquino

"According to Gandhi, the willing sacrifice of the innocent is the most powerful answer to insolent tyranny that has yet been conceived by God and man." -Benigno Servillano Aquino
http://library.thinkquest.org/15816/thebeginning.article7.article1.html


“It is true you cannot eat freedom and you cannot power machinery with democracy. But then neither can political prisoners turn on the light in the cells of a dictatorship.”
- Corazon Aquino

"I have returned to join the ranks of those struggling to restore our rights and freedom through nonviolence. I seek no confrontation." - Benigno Servillano Aquino