July 23, 2008
Miami: The Rotten City
By Max Lesnik
A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter
Lippmann.
Whenever political
corruption is mentioned in the U.S., the city of Miami comes to everybody’s
mind. Present-day Miami is matched with 1930’s Chicago back in Al Capone’s day
or, by way of a more illustrative example, seen –when you go beyond Florida– as
New York’s Little Italy of days gone by, when the five Italian Mob families
shared out the profits of the illegal dealings they ran in the Iron Babel by
bribing crooked politicians into serving their purposes.
It’s hard to find in Miami a
politician who can be considered as an honest man. Hardly any of the so-called
lobbyists and elected public officials can be trusted or deemed honorable,
because the system has become so corrupted that many men and women whose noble
conduct is held in high regard by the community are rarely willing to run for
public service as elected officials, either as Mayors or as Commissioners for
the various cities of the populous Miami-Dade County.
When asked about their
readiness to enter political life to help find a remedy to the current state of
things, most local businessmen or community leaders who are concerned about
Miami’s rampant corruption and the mismanagement of public affairs in that city
will say no, as they mostly have in the past.
What’s the point? To risk
going through what the American businessman Norman Braman did when he found
himself targeted by a smear campaign instead of earning public recognition after
he challenged the wishes of the Great Miami’s professional politicians who
wanted to have a scandalous three-billion project rubber-stamped which smacked
of shady dealing?
Norman Braman’s example says
more than any words could. His attempts to spare the city another disgraceful
and immoral covenant which Miami tax payers will pay dearly for have brought him
nothing but insult and indignity. May no one complain from now on when told that
Miami is a rotten city! It reeks like a sewer. Yuck! What a stink!
Miami: La ciudad podrida
MAX LESNIK
Cuando se habla de corrupción
política en Estados Unidos la ciudad de Miami es la que viene a la mente de
todos. Hoy a Miami se le tiene como al Chicago de la época de Al Capone en los
años treinta, o para ser más ilustrativos, se le percibe, cuando se va más allá
de La Florida, como antes se veía la Pequeña Italia de New York, cuando las
cinco familias de la Mafia italiana se repartían los negocios ilegales de la
Babel de Hierro, sobornando a políticos inescrupulosos que estaban a su servicio.
Hoy
em Miami se le tiene como al Chicago de la época de Al Capone en los años
treinta.
En Miami cuesta trabajo
encontrar un político a quien se le pueda considerar un hombre honrado. Entre
los llamados "lobistas" o cabilderos y los funcionarios públicos electos, es
raro encontrar a uno de ellos en quien confiar y garantizar su honestidad,
porque el sistema se ha corrompido tanto, que los hombres y mujeres que gozan
del respeto de la comunidad por su conducta elevada, raramente están en
disposición de saltar a la vida pública aspirando a cargos electivos, ya sean de
alcaldes o Comisionados de las distintas ciudades que integran el populoso
Condado Miami-Dade.
Si se le pregunta a un
empresario local, o a cualquier dirigente cívico de la comunidad preocupado por
la situación política de Miami plagada de corrupción rampante y malos manejos de
la cosa pública, si estaría en disposición de saltar a la vida política para
tratar de poner remedio a la situación, la respuesta será negativa, como ha
sucedido siempre en la mayoría de los casos.
¿Para qué? ¿Acaso para que le
suceda lo que al empresario norteamericano Norman Braman que por oponerse a la
pretensión de los políticos profesionales del Gran Miami, interesados en que se
apruebe un proyecto escandaloso con tufo de negocio sucio de 3 000 millones de
dólares, lo que se ha ganado, en lugar del reconocimiento ciudadano, ha sido
toda una campaña de difamación contra su persona?
El ejemplo de Norman Braman
es más que elocuente. Por pretender salvar a la ciudad de otro escandaloso
negocio inmoral, que bien caro le va a costar a los miamenses, lo que ha ganado
el señor Braman es que lo llenen de insultos e improperios. Luego que no se
queje nadie cuando se diga que Miami es una ciudad podrida. Huele mal. Tan mal
como el olor de una cloaca. ¡Fo! ¡Qué peste!
http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/2008/07/23/interna/artic02.html
It’s
not often that the Cuban communist party newspaper Granma publishes
an article written by a Cuban American living in Miami. But that’s
exactly what Granma did Wednesday. On Page 5 under the headline
Miami: The Rotten City, maverick Cuban exile radio commentator Max
Lesnik writes about what he describes as rampant political
corruption in Miami and cites the case of local auto dealer Norman
Braman.
Braman has filed a lawsuit against a $3 billion development
plan. Braman is suing Miami, Miami-Dade and the Marlins over the
public-works project to build a ballpark and other downtown
projects, including a tunnel to the Port of Miami
.
In the article Granma published Wednesday, Lesnik defends
Braman from what he says is a campaign of “insults and taunts’’ and
ends his piece with a blunt statement: “Let no one complain then
when it is said that Miami is a rotten city. It smells bad, as bad
as the smell of a sewer. Phew! What a stink!’’
While a Lesnik article in Granma may not come as a surprise
to many Cuban exiles who perceive him as sympathetic to the Cuban
revolution, Lesnik says he did not write the piece for Granma. (The
photo shows the article as it appeared Wednesday in Granma with a
picture of the area around the Miami-Dade county hall building
downtown).
Lesnik told The Miami Herald Wednesday that he wrote the
article for his Radio Miami Internet website (http://www.laradiomiami.com/)
and then Granma reprinted it – without his knowledge. Lesnik
is not upset but noted that other media should also print the
article including The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald.
-- Alfonso Chardy
It’s
not often that the Cuban communist party newspaper Granma publishes
an article written by a Cuban American living in Miami. But that’s
exactly what Granma did Wednesday. On Page 5 under the headline
Miami: The Rotten City, maverick Cuban exile radio commentator Max
Lesnik writes about what he describes as rampant political
corruption in Miami and cites the case of local auto dealer Norman
Braman.
.