I am not saying to anyone that they should NOT necessarily vote for Mr Obama, Amos. If you believe in him, and you think he's the better alternative to someone else, then by all means...vote for him.

What I am saying, however, is that ALL the western democracies...not just yours...need to reform their electoral systems in such a way that we don't get just "the best candidate money can buy" instead of the person who really IS the best candidate. To do that, our electoral systems have to be set up very differently from the way they are now, and I'm suggesting that the Cubans have a model with some very good features in it, features that we could just as well work into our own electoral systems if people had the vision and the will to do it.

If people are kept ignorant of possible alternatives to the electoral status quo, then they'll be just like a monkey who cannot see the bars of his own cage. He imagines himself to be "free", but he is not.

Cubans are not free either. No one in this world lives in a truly free system, everyone's inside a sort of cultural cage with bars they can't see...or they refuse to acknowledge...but the Cubans HAVE managed to create a simple, honest, nonpartisan, and open electoral system that is not corrupted by hidden payoffs and corporate funding of the candidates. That is one thing they have that we ought to pay very close attention to.

People can't pay attention to it if they are never even told about it.