martes, 23 de mayo de 2023

Latin American “Wound Collectors”


the AZEL

PERSPECTIVE

Commentary on Cuba's Future, U.S. Foreign Policy & Individual Freedoms - Issue 305 B
 
José Azel's latest books "On Freedom" and "Sobre La Libertad" are now available on Amazon. 

Latin American “Wound Collectors” (Previously published)

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“Wound Collectors” is a term coined by former FBI special agent Joe Navarro in his book “Hunting Terrorism:  A look at the Psychopathology of Terror,” and further discussed in several of his Psychology Today articles. Mr. Navarro defines wound collecting as “The conscious and systematic collection and preservation of transgressions, violations, social wrongs, grievances, injustice, unfair treatment, or slights of self and others, for the purpose of nourishing, fortifying, or justifying a malignant ideology, furthering hatred, satisfying pathology, or for exacting revenge.”
Mr. Navarro, a counterintelligence and behavioral assessment expert, first used the term in the context of analyzing terrorists noting that “terrorists are perennial wound collectors” that often bring up “events from decades or even centuries past.” He cites as examples Ted Kaczynski and his “Unabomber Manifesto” condemning technology; Osama bin Laden’s 1996 fatwa reciting wounds dating back to the Crusades, and many others.

For me, the concept of “wound collectors” elicits the image of Latin American leftist intellectuals and politicians that somehow always manage to blame the United States, or multinational corporations for all the ills that afflict the region.

As a graduate student of International Relations in the 1970s, many of my professors were enamored with the Dependency Theory argument that resources flow, in an exploitative manner, from a “periphery” of poor underdeveloped states to a “core” of wealthy states. A central contention of Dependency Theory is that the core states became rich at the expense of impoverishing the periphery states. Many of the central authors of Dependency Theory were from Latin American such as Raul Prebisch (Argentina), Fernando Enrique Cardozo and Celso Furtado (Brazil), and Enzo Faletto and Anibal Pinto Santa Cruz (Chile).
 
Parenthetically, Fernando Enrique Cardozo later served as President of Brazil (1995-2002) and acknowledged that he knew little about economics when he wrote his book with Enzo Faletto “Dependency and Development in Latin America.”

Dependency Theory shares many themes with Marxist theory and Dependencia became a battle cry for the Left in Latin America and elsewhere. And Latin American intellectual and politicians became “wound collectors” of all the social wrongs, grievances, injustices, and unfair treatment that they attributed to American corporations.  To them, Latin American development was the victim of the greedy American corporations.

Hand in hand with Dependencia, from the 1960s to the 1980s, the malignant ideology of Liberation Theology, intertwined with Marxist dogma, and intensely promoted by Communist Cuba and the Soviet Union, carried out bloody “wars of national liberation” throughout Latin America. Liberation Theology began as a movement within the Latin American Catholic Church. Its iconography often included the image of a guerilla Jesus carrying a soviet weapon.

The origin of the Latin American brand of Liberation Theology is credited to Peruvian priest Gustavo Gutierrez.  In 1971, Father Gutierrez published “A Theology of Liberation” one of the movement’s defining books. For Gutierrez, poverty is the result of dependency on the developed countries, and unjust social structures. Liberation Theology authors also became “wound collectors” of all the ills presumably inflicted on the region by the United States.  Ironically, Gutierrez went on to hold a prestigious professorship at the University of Notre Dame in the United States.

For decades the United States has attempted unsuccessfully to redefine its politico-economic relationship with Latin America; most famously with President John F. Kennedy’s Alliance for Progress and with President Ronald Reagan’s Caribbean Basin Initiative. These policies turned out to be ineffective.

A byproduct of Latin America’s wound collecting is that the region has developed a sense of victimized self that manifests itself in a disdain for the private sector of the economy and particularly for much needed American investments.

Yet, today’s global economy is disrupting old development paradigms so that much can be done with little. Consider this: “Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no context. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer has no inventory. And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate” (Tom Goodwin on TechCrunch.com).

To become economically successful, Latin America needs to stop collecting real or imagined wounds, and rethink what makes up economic power.

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Abrazos,
 
Lily & José
 
(click on the name to email Lily or Jose)
José Azel, Ph.D.

José Azel left Cuba in 1961 as a 13 year-old political exile in what has been dubbed Operation Pedro Pan - the largest unaccompanied child refugee movement in the history of the Western Hemisphere.  

He is currently dedicated to the in-depth analyses of Cuba's economic, social and political state, with a keen interest in post-Castro-Cuba strategies. Dr. Azel was a Senior Scholar at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies (ICCAS) at the University of Miami, Jose Azel has published extensively on Cuba related topics.

In 2012 and 2015, Dr. Azel testified in the U.S. Congress on U.S.-Cuba Policy, and U.S. National Security.  He is a frequent speaker and commentator on these and related topics on local, national and international media.  He holds undergraduate and masters degrees in business administration and a Ph.D. in International Affairs from the University of Miami.

José along with his wife Lily are avid skiers and adventure travelers.  In recent years they have climbed Grand Teton in Wyoming, trekked Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and Machu Pichu in Peru.  They have also hiked in Tibet and in the Himalayas to Mt. Everest Base Camp.

They cycled St. James Way (
El Camino de Santiago de Compostela) and cycled alongside the Danube from Germany to Hungary and throughout southern France.  They have scuba dived in the Bay Islands off the Honduran coast and in the Galapagos Islands. Most recently, they rafted for 17 days 220 miles in the Grand Canyon. 

Their adventurers are normally dedicated to raise funds for causes that are dear to them. 

Watch Joe & Lily summit Kilimanjaro.

Books by Dr. José Azel
José Azel’s writings are touched with the wisdom of a master, and the charm of an excellent communicator. Anyone who wishes to understand why countries do, or do not, progress will find in this book the best explanations. And, from these readings emerge numerous inferences: How and why do the good intentions of leftist collectivism lead countries to hell? Why is liberty not a sub product of prosperity, but rather one of its causes?

If it was in my power, this work would be required reading for all college and university students, and I would also recommend its reading to all politicians, journalists, and policymakers. With his writings Azel accomplishes what was achieved in France by Frédéric Bastiat, and in the United States by Henry Hazlitt: Azel brings together common sense with intelligent observation, and academic substance. Stupendous,

Carlos Alberto Montaner

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Los escritos de José Azel están tocados por la sabiduría de un maestro y la amenidad de un excelente comunicador. Cualquiera que desee entender por qué los países progresan, o no, encontrará en este libro las mejores explicaciones. De estas lecturas surgen numerosas inferencias: ¿Cómo y por qué las buenas intenciones del colectivismo de izquierda llevan a los países al infierno? ¿Por qué la libertad no es un subproducto de la prosperidad, sino una de sus causas?

Si estuviera en mis manos, esta obra sería de obligada lectura de todos los estudiantes universitarios, pero además, le recomendaría su lectura a todos los políticos, periodistas y policy makers. Con sus escritos Azel logra lo que Frédéric Bastiat consiguiera en Francia y Henry Hazlitt en Estados Unidos: aunar el sentido común, la observación inteligente y la enjundia académica. Estupendo.

Carlos Alberto Montaner
                                                           
Compre Aqui
"Liberty for beginners is much more than what the title promises. It is eighty themes touched with the wisdom of a master, and the charm of an excellent communicator. Anyone that wishes to understand why countries do, or do not progress, will find in this book the best explanations. Stupendous"

Carlos Alberto Montaner

"Libertad para novatos es mucho más de lo que promete el título. Son ochenta temas tocados con la sabiduría de un maestro y la amenidad de un excelente comunicador. Cualquier adulto que desee saber por qué progresan o se estancan los pueblos aquí encontrará las mejores explicaciones. Estupendo."

Carlos Alberto Montaner

Compre Aqui

In Reflections on FreedomJosé Azel brings together a collection of his columns published in prestigious newspapers.  Each article reveals his heartfelt and personal awareness of the importance of freedom in our lives.  They are his reflections after nearly sixty years of living and learning as a Cuban outside Cuba. In what has become his stylistic trademark, Professor Azel brilliantly introduces complex topics in brief journalistic articles.
En Reflexiones sobre la libertad José Azel reúne una colección de sus columnas publicadas en prestigiosos periódicos. Cada artículo revela su percepción sincera y personal de la importancia de la libertad en nuestras vidas. Son sus reflexiones después de casi sesenta años viviendo y aprendiendo como cubano fuera de Cuba.  En lo que ha resultado ser característica distintiva de sus artículos, el Profesor Azel introduce con brillantez complejos temas en  breves artículos de carácter periodístico.
Mañana in Cuba is a comprehensive analysis of contemporary Cuba with an incisive perspective of the Cuban frame of mind and its relevancy for Cuba's future.
Pedazos y Vacíos is a collection of poems written in by Dr. Azel in his youth. Poems are in Spanish.
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