Lad gets scarf for neck, indoctrination for mind
By Jon E. Dougherty. © 2000 WorldNetDaily.com. May 20, 2000
The U.S. State Department has leveled an accusing finger at Cuba, claiming that Castro is using Elian Gonzalez for political ends by publishing photos of the 6-year-old boy bedecked in the blue scarf worn by the communist youth group, the "Pioneros," an administration official revealed
Friday.
Speaking under condition of anonymity, the official said that State's missive was delivered to Cuban diplomats summoned to department offices on Thursday.
The pictures, which originally appeared in the Communist Party daily newspaper, Granma, drew fire from the Cuban exile community earlier in the week, outraged that Elian would fall under communist indoctrination while still on American soil.
Even before the Justice Department's gunpoint grabbing of Elian over Easter weekend, critics were outspoken in their concern that the boy would return to Cuba to face inculcation in communist ideology, the common course for children of 5 years and above.
Their concerns have evidently been realized, in part.
"The huge irony of all of this is that one of the concerns was that the boy would have to return and be a victim of indoctrination and that they would impose their ideology; the tragic thing is that it is happening before he even goes back to Cuba," said Ninoska Perez, spokeswomen for
the Cuban American National Foundation.
"Obviously, what they're trying to do is present a child, already indoctrinated, saying that he wants to return to Cuba," said Ramon Saul Sanchez, head of the exile Democracia Movement," adding that "if this is happening on U.S. soil, imagine what can happen if the boy goes
back to Cuba."
At present, Elian and four Cuban schoolmates are being tutored by a teacher brought from Cuba to the Wye Plantation retreat -- Elian's temporary home on Maryland's Eastern Shore.
The photo of little Elian in his Pioneros scarf was taken at the retreat.
Expressing outrage at the picture, Rep. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., called the blue neckerchief a "symbol of indoctrination."
Luis Fernandez, spokesman for the Cuban mission, disagrees. While contending that Elian's tutoring at Wye is no different than the home schooling many American children receive, Fernandez said, regarding the scarf, that "Children (in Cuba) go to school in uniform, just the way they do at
private schools in the United States," concluding by saying, "I don't see what the problem is."
"The problem with the bandanna," said Perez, "is not that it is just some uniform, the bandanna around the neck of the children in Cuba is an imposition of an ideology beginning at age 5." While there have been scant details regarding the content of Elian's tutoring sessions,
Cuba's reliance on educators to inculcate communist ideology is widely known; some insist, so is the lesson plan.
Children start indoctrination along with their ABC's, said Menendez. "A is for armas (arms), B is for batallon (battalion)."
A look at the Pioneros' counterpart in the U.S., Communist Youth League USA, reveals a program designed to provide the "proper" education and political indoctrination to children growing up in socialist or communist countries.
The reason such an organization exists in the U.S. has more to do with this country's guarantee of a right to associate and speak freely. But in other countries, like communist Cuba, the organization is a very real part of daily life.
The youth group strives to promote "communist, working-class political and moral convictions" among its members, while assisting them "in becoming militant fighters for the rights of the people and youth."
Stating their task as helping members "become better communists," the group advocates in-depth study of Marxist-Leninist ideology "and active participation in day to day struggles of the working people and youth for a better life."
"We strive to promote youth's understanding that the working class is the only class capable of leading the people against big business to socialism," says YCLUSA. "The YCL develops a feeling of loyalty to the working class among young people. The object of all activities of the
League is to build the unity of the young generation with the working class in the struggle for peace, full employment, complete equality, trade union and democratic rights."
Interestingly, the question, "Is Cuba a dictatorship?" is posed in a YCLUSA list of frequently asked questions. The answer: "No. Although the Cuban people have a strong central government, they are very active in local and national democratic elections, especially through their
union activities."
The Cuban exile community begs to differ, saying that Elian will suffer the loss of traditional American liberties in exchange for the communist ideology that accompanies wearing the blue bandana. It is the society created by such an ideology that the relatives of Elian Gonzalez fear will become
the boy's future should he return to the island nation with his father.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, it is easy to see why critics of Elian's return to Cuba are flustered over a simple photo of a boy in a blue scarf.
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