31 October 2006

Iternet Marti

INTERNET MARTI

From Radio Marti---

The US ambassador to the OAS, John Maisto called the latest report to the Interamerican Commission of Human Rights on the human rights violations committed by Cuba’s communist regime “forceful”.

Maisto, also said that the serious report, also signaled countries other than Cuba.

He praised the objectivity and the credibility of the OAS panelists.

In Cuba’s case, he pointed to the lack of free and just elections that impede the political participation of the Cuban people, a right that is consecrated in the American declaration of rights and duties.

Maisto told Radio Marti that it was dealing with a pretty strong declaration that also highlighted the seriousness and the objectivity of the regional body.

Listen to Radio Marti

Watch TV Marti

Estados Unidos ante la Organización de Estados Americanos, OEA, John Maisto, calificó de contundente el último informe de la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos sobre las violaciones perpetradas por el régimen comunista de Cuba.

Maisto dijo también que es muy serio el informe que, además de Cuba, trata sobre otros países.

También destacó la objetividad y la credibilidad del grupo de juristas de la OEA.

En el caso de Cuba, la comisión señaló que la falta de elecciones libres y justas vulnera la participación política de los cubanos, un poder consagrado en la declaración americana de derechos y deberes del hombre.

Maisto le dijo a Radio Martí que se trata de una declaración bastante contundente, que además destaca la seriedad y la objetividad del organismo regional.

Oiga a Radio Marti

Vea a TV Marti

New Wave Communism Swim Agaisnt the Current

Via Cubanology:

Adio Clip from Brasil

Where Does The Money Go?

Bloomberg has an article today that analyzes the Cuban economy and details how it is being propped up by Hugo Chavez. Although 80% of Venezuelans live in poverty, Chavez continues to squander Venezuela’s vast oil wealth on an anti-American crusade that’s meant to spread Castrism throughout Latin America.

These are prosperous times for the economy of the Republic of Cuba, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez does indeed have a lot to do with it. Gross domestic product grew at 12 percent last year, according to Cuba's Economy and Planning Ministry, the fastest rate since President Fidel Castro took power in 1959 and turned the island into a communist state.

The Article by Guillermo Parra-Bernal delves into different sectors of the Cuban Economy:

Booming Tourism
The government says foreign investment was up 39 percent in 2005. Officials say
tourism is booming: A record 2.5 million visitors will fly into Cuba in 2006 from Europe and from other Latin American nations


Chavez's Project
Under an October 2000 accord engineered by Chavez, Venezuela, the world's fifth-biggest petroleum exporter, agreed to sell up to 100,000 barrels of oil a day to Cuba at a discount of as much as 40 percent. Some $5 billion worth of oil has been delivered since 2003. Jose Toro Hardy, a former board member of state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) and a critic of Chavez's oil policies, says Cuba has been reselling oil it doesn't immediately need at market prices to bolster its budget.

Spreading the Revolution
The flood of new money pouring into Havana has allowed Castro to revive his effort to spread his revolution -- and his anti-Yanqui ideology -- to the rest of Latin America and to Africa. Cuba, a nation of 11.3 million people, claims to have stationed thousands of doctors, nurses, engineers and social workers in 68 developing ountries.


Whole article here

30 October 2006

Give Me Chads Anytime! UPDATED


Remember the 2000 elections here in Florida with the hanging chads and the pregnant chads? Well, give me that system of voting anytime.

Back in 2004 Hugo Chavez had a recall election in which electronic voting machines were used. It is widely believed that these voting machines were rigged by Cuban computer programmers. These allegations along with the names of the two head programmers come from within the Castro regime.

And now comes this from the New York Times:

The federal government is investigating the takeover last year of a leading American manufacturer of electronic voting systems by a small software company that has been linked to the leftist Venezuelan government of President Hugo Chávez.

The inquiry is focusing on the Venezuelan owners of the software company, the Smartmatic Corporation, and is trying to determine whether the government in Caracas has any control or influence over the firm’s operations, government officials and others familiar with the investigation said.

Needless to say, this is of tremendous importance and urgency. The integrity of American elections cannot be compromised in this manner.

Escalofriante

UPDATE :

In an article in Today's Sun Sentinel the Company in question denies ties to Hugo Chavez, BUT the company, Sequioa, admits that its software partner, Smartmatic, based In Boca Raton, is owned by three Venezuelans:

According to Smartmatic, the company is owned primarily by three individuals and
their families: Antonio Mugica, a dual-Spanish-Venezuelan national who is the chief executive officer (78.8 percent); Alfredo Anzola (3.9 percent); and Roger Pinate (8.5 percent). Investor Jorge Massa as well as Smartmatic employees and other friends own the remainder
.

Fiends?!? What Friends?!? Yikes!

Like Orlando said: We may go vote next tuesday and wind up with Hugo Chavez as a U.S. Senator, altough he'd probably wind up voting with the Republicans since he's not Left -Wing enough for the Democrats.

UPDATE:

O.K. , Here's more evidence for the paranoid:

Aleksander Boyd fills us in on the Nefarious Voting Machine plot at VCRISIS.

Now, I'm kind of toungue and Cheeking this, but think about it: Given the United State's Electoral Vote System, you only need to fix the major population centers in a few key states to electronically garner enough electoral votes to win in a relatively close election.

Cuba's Dissident Movement

Italian freedom fighter Stefania continues her crusade to enlighten the world about Cuba's dissident movement. The tireles activist's latest article in town Hall tries to shift the focus from the ailing Cuban dictator to the democratization efforts taking place .

Cuba's Dissident Movement Grows Stronger as Castro
Weakens
By Stefania Lapenna
Sunday, October 29,
2006

Despite the official claims from the communist regime in Cuba that the tyrant Fidel Castro is recovering, and could soon return to power, the reality on the ground is that he has terminal cancer, as a TIME article wrote quoting US intelligence officials, and will never see his throne again.

However, when it comes to Cuba, most of the media's focus has been on Castro's illness and his brother's handling of power. Very little attention, if any, is put on the unprecedented activities being carried out by the internal opposition.

The Assembly to Promote the Civil Society is a coalition of 365 political parties, movements and independent libraries. Its leader is the 60-year-old independent economist Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello. The majority of the opposition groups in the island are members of or support
the Assembly. Unlike more soft coalitions such as the Oswaldo Paya's Varela Project, which demand reforms to the constitution of the communist regime, the groups belonging to the Assembly look for democratic regime change. They don't believe in the possibility of any democratic change coming from the Cuban rulers.

Read the rest here.

If you get a chance while you are at Townhall, drop Stefenia a line and thank her for her hard work towards Cuba's freedom.

29 October 2006

El Cero a la Izquierda

Ex-Dictador/Actual Cero a la Izquierda Fidel Castro Ruz
------

Como han cambiado las cosas en la isla.

Desde 1959, el tirano que secuestro a Cuba ha jugado un juego con EEUU y los amantes a la libertad en cual el siempre perecía hacer la mejor jugada. Siempre saliéndose con las suyas, siempre ganándoles.

Su gran talento parecía ser el de irritar a los americanos con sus absurdas aventuras y campañas dentro y fuera de la isla y así manteniendo a los lideres americanos a la defensiva, reaccionando. También se deleitaba en halar los hilos del exilio, manipulándonos como marionetas.

Después de pasarse tres largos meses anunciándole al mundo que a la revolución cubana no le hace falta la presencia de Fidel para seguir adelante, en cuanto empiezan a surgir rumores que el ex líder esta moribundo o muerto, lo sacan. El “Cero a la Izquierda” de Cuba, el ex – gobernante, maquillado y enmorfinado, de mascota entrenada haciendo humillantes trucos en la televisión como un chimpancés amaestrado, vestido en un traje deportista de Adidas. ¿Y, por que? Para comprobarle al la Mafia de Miami que el “Cero a la Izquierda” esta vivito y coleando aunque es tan irrelevante como un cero al izquierda.

Reaccionado, a la defensiva.

Como han cambiado las cosas en la isla.

28 October 2006

It's Alive! It's Alive! It's Castrostein




He walks, He Talks. He's Alive. Ex-Cuban dictator and current cancer victim, Fidel Castro Ruz, was shown on Cuban state TV on Saturday reassuring Cuban citizens of his continued breathing and taunting his very succesful ex-slaves in exile.

Reuters was not clear how the video of the now irrelevant, newspaper reading Fidel got on Cuban state TV or if the bearded old guy on TV was actually Castro, since they have had recent difficulties in verifying images.

Since suffering an undisclosed ailment at an undisclosed location Castro underwent an operation in an undisclosed Havana hospital with an undisclosed prognosis. The Cuban government now headed by his brother ReCastro has repeadtedly stated that the Cuban revolution does not need Fidel in order to continue and that they can finish destroying the once beautiful Pearl of the Antilles and beat its people into submission without him.


Thank God he's still alive. There's still hope somebody will put a bullet in him so he can die the kind of death he deserves.

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban television showed images on Saturday of convalescing leader Fidel Castro walking and reading the day's newspapers.

Castro, defying enemies whom he said had declared him dead, said he was following government policy discussions and using the telephone as he recovers from emergency surgery in late July. They were the first images of Castro released in six weeks.

UPDATE: ABAJO FIDEL HAS THE VIDEO HERE!

Exporting Cuban Slavery


The Cuban regime has found a new way to profit from the exploitation of the workers held captive in their “Workers Paradise”. Cuba’s program of indentured servitude where medical professionals are sent abroad to work in exchange for hard currency or goods is apparently more widespread than we had imagined.

The Miami Herald has reports that the Cuban government had contracted with a Curacao drydock ship repair company to supply laborers to repair ships. A civil suit has been filed on behalf of three Cubans who managed to escape their indentured servitude.

The Highlights:

  • According to the suit, the men often worked 112 hours a week.
  • Their wage amounted to 3 ½ cents an hour
  • ''They always told us if we didn't work, they'd throw us out of the country, fire us and send us to jail,'' Rodríguez one of the plaintiffs said. ``Really, we were slaves. We didn't have a voice or a vote.''

The Cubans were also tortured:

  • On time off, Rodríguez said, they were forced to watch videos of political speeches, marches and the Cuban government Mesa Redonda -- Round Table -- TV news shows.

The Cuban government had a joint venture with Curacao Drydock, who are of course, shocked and appalled at the allegations and are “investigating” while at the same time trying to get the suit dismissed because of lack of jurisdiction.

There is, of course, little difference between the indentured servitude that these 3 Cubans endured in Curacao and the captivity endured by all Cubans living on the island. The Cuban government, the only employer, pays meager wages to all workers and allows them to buy meager rations from the government, the only supplier. The only real difference is that the abuse and exploitation of these 3 Cubans occurred outside of the island.

The whole sad tale here. Frances Robles of the Miami Herald/Nuevo Herald continues to impress with her bi-lingual by-lines on Cuban issues

27 October 2006

Reuters Fooled by MapQuest

Notice that Santiago de Cuba is NOT in the "Cone of Truth"
------

Are they handing out degrees in Journalism in WalMart these days? What Gives?

I come across an article in the Washington Times from Reuters . The reporter, gleefully, describes how TV Marti has failed again in Broadcasting some “reality TV” to the captives in Cuba.

It seems that ReCastro and his goon Valdez have foiled the nefarious efforts of the Empire , ruled by the Devil himself, to broadcast game 3 of The World Series to baseball loving Cubans.

Here’s an excerpt:

an informal survey of Cubans who tried to watch the shows that included baseball's championship series.

"A friend told me they were going to broadcast the World Series, so I got together some people to watch and all we saw was static," Eduardo, a 33-year-old eastern Santiago resident who does odd jobs for a living, said on Friday.

"I went next door where there is a better television and looked until 11 p.m. On Channel 20 it seemed like some signal was trying to get through, but it was jammed," Havana resident Eddi Machin said.


My head is about to explode upon reading this. Now, imagine you’re a Cuban in Havana who hopes to watch a major league World Series game for the first time in your life. Imagine some American comes over to take an “informal” survey and asks you if you were able to receive the illegal broadcast. What in God’s name are you going to say? If you say the reception was great, the next day they come with a sledgehammer and smash you and your TV to smithereens. Are these guys serious? How about doing some informal research to find out what they do to Cubans caught watching foreign propaganda?

I was so out of my mind, I didn’t even catch it till I was downloading the article: They did part their informal survey in Santiago. As in Oriente. Eastern Cuba. Again, a little informal research like looking at a map would have yielded the revelation that TV Marti’s new plane is targeting Western Cuba, Where Havana is, not Oriente which is in the Eastern tip of the Island.

You can’t make this up this is in the article:

The leased G1 twin turboprop, based in Key West, Florida, and loaded with millions of dollars worth of new equipment, was to be airborne between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. every night except Sunday in yet another attempt to bypass government jamming, especially in western Cuba, TV Marti officials said.

In some of the area that TV Marti is targeting, they couldn’t block the signal, so they cut the power. No juice. No TV. No TV Marti. No World Series. No Survey. Brutal but effective like everything they do.

You know, a good angle for this story would have been to focus on the fact that even after 47 years of being shut out from the outside world, the Cuban populace still yearns for contact with its neighbors, especially its neighbor to the north with which they still share some common ground: love of baseball.

A better angle would have been to report that even with the information blockade that the Cuban people must endure 24/7, news that Radio Marti was planning to air game 3 of the fall classic still mamaged to reach the Cuban people somehow.

But no, we are treated to Bush , the Devil, is wasting tax payer money to placate the Cuban reactionary right-wing nut jobs in Miami better known as the Miami Mafia.

Someday, like a famous Cuban used to say, "you have a lot of splaining to do", MSM.

Another Cuban in the House

Albio Sires
-----


Come January 2007, regardless of which party controls the house, there will be another Cuban in congress.

Cuban born Albio Sires, 55, of West New York, will win the seat vacated by Robert Menendez. Sires will actually be there in November when congress returns, since he won a bid to fill the rest of Bob Menendez’s term

Sires, is a Cuban immigrant with staunch anti-Castro credentials and although he’s a Democrat , he will be sure to vote with the republican MAJORITY, yes that’s a prediction, in the next congress

Read more about Mr.Sires Here:

From Cuba to Congress, Sires ready for House challenge

Posada Carriles Circus is Coming to Town

Now that the Exile has set up a committee to free Oscar Posada Carriles, the MSM, doing the Anti-American bidding of the tyrant in Havana and his trained stooge in Caracas, will begin its full court press to inform the American masses about how grampa over here is the biggest most cold hearted evil terrorist to ever work for the CIA.

Two thoughts:

1)If the rest of the CIA had half the convictions and internal fortitide that this guy has , there would not have been a 9-11.

2)It is Castro and Chavez, two guys that hate your country, your kids and your pets just because they are American, that have started a propaganda campaing to extradite this man. I can understand ignoring these two bumbs when they insult America, but not when you listen to them when they try to manipulate the system. America should never let its enemies dictate its actions. There is no moral equivalent between the USA and the tinhorn tyrants that hate it.

And, by the way, Posada-Carriles was twice acquitted of planning the bombing of the Cuban plane in Venezuela back when Venezuela had a more legitimate court system than the Chavista kangaroo court system that has been set up by the Hugo Chavez regime. As a Nation of laws, we cannot allow an individual to be sent back to a hostile government to be tried a third time for the same thing. There is no new evidence agaisnt this man, only a new court, rigged to convict.

From La Nueva Cuba:

Posada Carriles is a victim of anti-democratic political interest forces that attempt to coerce the US government. The prosecutor’s arguments in keeping him detained represent an abuse of power, coupled with the apathy or lack of knowledge of a large segment of the international press that ignores many details of his background.

Maintaining Posada Carriles incarcerated is an injustice, for Posada has no felony charges against him in the United States and was twice absolved of alleged terrorism in Venezuela by both civilian and military tribunals. In spite of being twice acquitted in Venezuela, he was unjustly incarcerated in that country for nine years due to political pressure.

In the United States, the only charge against Posada is that of illegal entry, something he had to do to protect his life as he has been a target of several assassination attempts by Castro’s intelligence officers.

Being the US a nation of laws, the prosecutor’s position is not justified in delaying justice in the case of Posada Carriles. Late justice can become injustice.

26 October 2006

Reporters Without Borders Award

------

The secretary General of Reporters Without Borders, Robert Menard, was presented with the Fourth Antonio Asencio prize for journalism by King Juan Carlos of Spain.

At the awards ceremony, Wednesday night, Menard took up the plight of 24 journalists jailed in Cuba. He praised Spain for denouncing the murders of journalists in Colombia and Mexico, but complained that Spain has remained complacent with the repressive Cuban dictatorship.

Spain is one of Cuba’s most important trade partners and tens of thousands of Spaniards vacation on the Island every year. Spain’s Hotel Melia owns 23 resorts on the island nation. Cuba also is in default of $816Million in debt to the Spaniards

Reporters Without Borders has been working for 20 years for freedom of the press and human rights world-wide. According to the watch dog agency, there are 130 journalists jailed throughout the world with 24 imprisoned by the communist regime in Cuba.

Reporters Without Borders recently named Cuba the 4th worst offender in curtailing freedom of the press and was behind an investigative reporting exposé on Cuban controls on the internet.

ReCastro Recants and Cracks Down

A Cuban Bakery Handing Out Bread will have New Regulations in January
(pic form Prof DeLaCova's LatinAmerican Studies.com)
------

While making noises about restructuring the socialist economy, ReCastro has decided that the problem with Cuba’s moribund economy lies with the workers who, forced into a Les Miserables like reality, must pilfer whatever they can, to feed their families.

The official Organ of the Cuban Communist Party, Granma, announced that new regulations meant to stop the bleeding form the corruption in the Cuban economy will go into effect in January at all worksites. In the meantime, all work centers, which are owned by the Orwellian state, are supposed to develop procedures and protocols to safeguard the workplace.

“Workers are expected to adhere to their work schedules, stay at their posts and protect the infrastructure. They will be prohibited from receiving any kind of personal benefit or retribution in exchange for information or solving an issue”
Non-compliance will mean that the worker will be subject “severe measures”.
The workers will also be held accountable for not reporting any co-workers that are contributing to the demise of the socialist paradise’s economy.

On the surface, this may sound reasonable and not much different than the rules, regulations and code of ethics that are followed by all workers in the States.

In Cuba however, this is absurd. The corruption in Cuba is an official corruption. Everybody is in on it. It is the way of life and its people participate in order to survive. The solution of course, lies with allowing the Cuban people to have meaningful jobs where they can make a living and lead normal productive lives. That, of course, is impossible in Cuba. Not because of the workers , but because of the system.

The system in Cuba is designed to keep everybody worrying where their next meal is going to come form. This is not by accident, It is by design. People who have to struggle to survive on a daily basis don’t have the time or energy to plot against the tyrants in a meaningful way.

Totalitarian regimes have no middle class, only dirt poor captives on meager rations. That is the way they stay omnipotent.

On the bright side, Cuba’s lack of progress or rather its degress, has garnered it a coveted distinction. Cuba is the only country in the world to achieve sustainable development, said the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in its 2006 Living Planet report, recently presented in Beijing, China.

Cuba has reached a good level of development according to United Nations' criteria, thanks to its high literacy level and a very high life expectancy, while the ecological footprint is not large since it is a country with low energy consumption,"

So in order to garner accolades from the WWF, you have to keep the country half starved , ride around in horse-drawn buggies and don’t invest any capital into your infrastructure for 50 years.


aing sori con esquiusmi

para los 4 gatos que visitan este blog para morirse de la risa de lo mal que yo escibo:

el blogger se jodio, no se puede hacer na. asi que "aing sori con esquiusmi"

25 October 2006

Cuba Ranks 4th in Press Freedom Index

Reporters Without Borders has come out with its Worldwide Press Freedom Index for 2006.

Cuba ranks 4th, from the bottom. Fourth worse. 165th out of 168. Only North Korea, Turkmenistan and Eritrea are worse.

Cuba earns this distinction because of its tireless fight against dissent and criticism and because of its Orwellian “official” media that defines truth, reality and the world to the captive Cubans.

In an separate article in the Voice of America, the Cuban journalistic restraints are explored further:

John Virtue is the Director of the International Media Center at Florida International University in Miamihe says:

"We work with independent journalists in Cuba," he said. "There are about 100 of them who file on a regular basis from Cuba. Very few of them are able to use the Internet. There's just a handful, two or three have Internet accounts. But most of the articles they file they have to do so by telephone and somebody takes dictation in Miami."

Virtue said several independent Cuban journalists his center secretly trained are now in prison for practicing their profession. He recalls the crackdown by Cuban authorities three years ago.

"The Cuban government arrested 75 dissidents. It did that on March the 18, 2003. And of those, 27 were journalists," he added. "And 24 journalists still remain in prison, serving sentences of up to 28 years. And the charges are more or less charges of treason for having cooperated with a foreign government."

Reporters without Borders says you can get a 20-year prison sentence in Cuba for writing articles for foreign websites and a five-year sentence just for connecting with the Internet in an illegal manner. John Virtue says the surveillance by state security is intense.

The propaganda that is force-fed to the captive Cubans 24/7 doesn’t convince anybody of anything. The only real weapon the totalitarian regime has against the truth is their brutal oppression because they cannot compete with ideas. Their ideas are as empty as Cuba’s coffers and the Cuban people’s cupboards.

24 October 2006

Harlem Night(mare)s

As you probably know an “artist” named Daniel Edwards whose claims to fame include an obscene sculpture of Brittney Spears giving birth and another of Suri Cruise’s baby poop, has outdone himself and made a “dying Castro” sculpture. The huge bust of the tyrant will unveiled within eyeshot of the Apostle’s statue at central park.

Links:

Babalu

Killcastro

Cuban American Pundits

Inspiration comes from Harlem “perhaps the only community in the U.S. that proclaims an admiration for Castro - the Central Park unveiling of his portrait is an attempt to bring Harlem's adoration for Castro to the rest of the world"

Meanwhile back in the real world, “a broadcast that brings together Afro-Cubans and Afro-American civil rights leaders together for the first time to discuss the plight of Afro-Cubans in Cuba” will air on Radio Marti next Monday night.

Dr. James Meredith known as the first African-American student at The University of Mississippi will take part in the show.

Miami’s CBS4 reports that Mr. Meredith had this to say. "The Cuban blacks are probably as bad off as any blacks that there are in the whole world," said Meredith. "That's why I say that the improvement of the conditions for blacks in Cuba will result in the improvement for blacks in all of Latin America." Here’s a link to the report including a video in case you doubt my words.

Some of Cuba’s most important dissidents happen to be of African descent. Among them are Oscar Biscet, Darsi Ferrer and Guillermo Fariñas. Blacks in Cuba have complained about the lack of support offered them by their African-American counterparts who tend to dislike Cuban-Americans and admire the dying tyrant in Havana. Meredith blames this notion on a lack of communication between and among the various black communities.

UPDATE: if your're looking for the latest on this saga click here

Resolviendo con Wilma


Hace un año hoy, Wilma me llevo tres tejas. Vaya, no mes las llevo, me las aflojo.Sin electricidad, sin gasolina, sin agua. Viviendo como en la Habana pero con comida, libertad y esperanza.

Wilma fue una jodienda pero lo que mas recuerdo de esos días es a un muchacho llamado Raúl.

Raúl, un cubano recién llegado, se apareció como a los cuatro días dando vuelta en una camioneta con su padre pues estaban arreglando techos. Me dijo que teníamos un montón de tejas flojas y me dio un precio. Les dije que si.

Cuando la gente del barrio vieron a los cubanos encaramados en el techo, empezaron a contratarlos porque había una gran escasez de “rooferos”.

Lo que mas cómico de Raúl y su familia es que me confesaron que ellos en si, no arreglaban techos, pero hacían hasta rayo encendido. Así es que me “resolvieron” el techo. Tenían a un amigo que si arreglaba tejas, y por un celular se comunicaban con el amigo quien le baba instrucciones y ellos así iban resolviendo.

En los días, semanas y meses después de Wilma, era imposible conseguir tejas pero no para ellos, que por resolver, consiguieron lo inconseguible en la republica de Hialeah.

Y cuando vino el tipo del seguro y vio el trabajo que hicieron Raúl y su familia quedo impresionado. Si le hubiéramos hecho el cuento , talvez se hubiera caído del techo.

Raúl y su Familia arreglaron casi todos los techos de mis vecinos. Y esos techos, que veo todos los idas, son un monumento a Raúl , los miles como el, mi pueblo, que hacen hasta rayo encendido, consiguen lo inconseguible y resuelven.

Mas de Raúl y su historia otro día.

Hang In There, Joe

Still no word form Yuliet. No one knows where she is.

From the Pittsburgh Tribune

Star-crossed couple still separated

By Justin Vellucci
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, October 24, 2006


A Bethel Park man met with FBI agents Monday to discuss his thwarted plans to reunite with his Cuban wife. Joseph Papp, 31, said he wired two people a total of $6,600 to safely and legally usher his wife, Yuliet Rodriguez Jimenez, into the United States this fall. The money changed hands, but Rodriguez, 29, who hid in Venezuela after an attempt in the summer to meet Papp in Europe, never appeared.

"What I wanted to do was bring her to me, safe at my side, by any means necessary," said Papp, who, like Rodriguez, is a competitive cyclist. "I'm just interested in finding my wife."

Now, he waits.


23 October 2006

Tyrants Make Strange Cellmates

From Gusano's old stomping grounds in the Swamps of Jersey we get the following heart warming story of two sets of exiles coming together to fight tyranny.

Unlikely alliance forged in N.J.
Monday, October 23,
2006

By ELIZABETH LLORENTE
STAFF WRITER


Like many in his native Venezuela, Hector Contreras of Fort Lee saw Cuban leader Fidel Castro as a romantic figure – a Robin Hood in military fatigues who wanted to take from Cuba's privileged and give to its poor.

They admired Castro for condemning the United States as a meddler in Latin American affairs, a global bully that looked down upon its neighbors to the south.

But now, Contreras and many other Venezuelans are denouncing Castro with a disdain that perhaps is second only to that of Cuban exiles.

"He's nothing but a dictator," Contreras said. "His grand promises were only propaganda. He's caused a lot of suffering in Cuba, and he has achieved no real improvement for the
country."

And so, Venezuelan and Cuban immigrants have formed an alliance that was unthinkable just a few years ago.

The catalyst was leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a Castro protege who Venezuelans
fear is going to turn Venezuela -- with its long-standing democracy and U.S. ties -- into another Cuba. They fear that Chavez is stripping away freedoms by cracking down on dissenters and media outlets that criticize his policies and actions.

The similarities between Chavez's restrictions on civil liberties and the erosion of rights in the Castro regime have bred a political and social affinity among Venezuelan and Cuban immigrants. Venezuelans attend anti-Castro rallies in significant numbers, and Cuban exiles abound at anti-Chavez demonstrations. Cuban exile organizations have allowed Venezuelan groups to operate out of their offices, many of which now display Venezuelan flags and other symbols of the South American nation on their walls.

And just as Castro has mentored Chavez, Cuban exiles are showing Venezuelans how to become a potent lobbying group in the United States. They are introducing Venezuelans to their many friends in the U.S. Congress and the media. They are also helping anti-Chavez groups in Venezuela by providing funding, political campaign advice and firsthand stories to the media about oppression in Cuba and the ineptitude of the Castro regime.


Read the rest here.

Important Things

From Reuters:

Cuba ponders how to fix socialist economy

From Gusano:

Free Market Sytem, Human rights, Free Elections.


HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba has begun debating how to correct rampant theft and inefficiency in state-run services, from pouring beer to shining shoes, that could signal a step toward economic reform under acting President Raul Castro.

In a scathing three-part series on graft in shops and bars entitled The Big Old Swindle, the Communist Youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde said on Sunday a team of university experts will investigate ways to improve services.

"The important thing, to me,
is that they are asking the questions. "Why doesn't it work?" a European diplomat posted to Havana said.

"My doubt is whether they are brave enough to start asking themselves questions without trying to confine the answers to Marxist philosophy," he said

The important thing to me is that the people in Cuba are enslaved by speudo-socialist thugs who have kept their people on the verge of starvation for 47 years. They prop up a system that doesn't work because it is designed not work. The system is designed to corrupt the morals of the individual and the family. The system is designed toterrorize its citizens into submission. The important thing is to bring about change, freedom and food to these captive people.

22 October 2006

Dollar Si, Yankee No.


Para conmemorar el 40 aniversario de la marca Cohíba, la tiranía a confeccionado una caja de tabaco hecha a mano por Norma Fernández, la torcedera de la factoría Cohíba del Laguito en la Habana.

La pobre Norma enrollo 4,000 tabacos ella solita. Cada “Behike” cuesta $400 y solamente se venden en cajas de 40. Cada caja es un humidor especial, vendiéndose por $18,860. Así es que el humidor especial cuesta $2,860.

¿Cuanto le pagarían a Norma?

What Media Bias? The Story of Two Headlines

The Sun-Sentinel, not to subtly, shows its bias towards the Democrats. This is nothing new and is to be expected from the MSM , but what is comically surprising is that they placed the two headlines in such close proximity on their digital edition and it stands out all too clearly:
.....
For the benefit of those that don't have super-human eyesight and can't see the screen Capture above here are the headlines:
......
......
If you can't see the bias in the two headlines, I'm sorry , but you're beyond help. If you can, enjoy the chuckle.

Heroe de la Contra Revolución

Hay muchos héroes de la Contra Revolución, cada uno haciendo lo puede por la patria.

Siempre, cuando veo que un cubano se supera en el mundo, es una pequeña desquita al tirano y me agrada. Otro Contra Revolucionario.

Es una demostración más que los problemas ecómicos y sociales que existen en Cuba son la responsabilidad del régimen castrista-totalitario y no del pueblo.

Aquí tenemos otro ejemplo de un cubano más, que se ha esmerado en su profesión y siempre ha hecho ese poquitico más para ayudar al mundo a destapar la mentira castrista.

Carlos Eire, profesor de Yale, no se quedo ahí. Escribió un libro sobre su niñez en Cuba y su triste exilio, sin sus padres, bajo el programa “Pedro Pan.” Eire dice que se sintió inspirado a escribir su libro “Waiting for Show in Havana” por el caso del balserito Elian, otro pequeño héroe de la Contra Revolución.

El profesor Eire también nos comprobó el prejuicio ante-cubano-americano que existe en El New York Times al hacer publico una serie de correspondencias con ese periódico izquierdista que solicitaba un editorial de Eire criticando al exilio por celebrar en las calles de Miami que el tirano haya dejado el poder el pasado 31 de Julio. Las interesentes revelaciones vía Babalu, mas héroes, aquí.

Este fin de semana el profesor Eire viajo a SaltT Lake City, Utah para participar en festival de libros donde dará una conferencia sobre las creyencias de los españoles del siglo dieciséis hacia la muerte. El reportaje en ingles aquí. Critica de su libro auto biográfico Aquí

21 October 2006

Joe's Saga

Empesamos otra semana en el exilio con la esperanza de que el cambio viene pronto para la patria.

Pero existe en mi una gran tristeza por un caso que esta dando vueltas en mi cabeza desde la semana pasada. Es el caso de Joe Papp y su esposa Yuliet Rodríguez, ciclista cubana.

La historia de amor de estos muchachos deberia de aver sido la de un romance como el de las películas pero se ha convertido en una verdadera pesadilla.

Nuestro amigo Joe , desesperado, no ha oido de su esposa que, según el, habia de ser deportada de Venezuela hacia Cuba el pasado Miercoles.

Para los que no estan familiarizados de el saga de esta pareja aquí estan dos links de blogs que estan tratando de ayudar.

Babalu

Killcastro

Con el favor y ayuda de Dios espero algun dia ver la película de este romance en un cine y llorar de alegria cuando se termine.

20 October 2006

Controlled Surfing

This is the third in a series of posts outlining the Orwellian reality forced upon Cubans. Information is Power. Ignorance is Control. The Country that is always boasting about its World Class Educational system's, real goal is to keep its people ignorant.

In today’s Miami Herald Frances Robles sheds some light on the bandwidth challenged Island’s Web Surfing dilema. It seems that a French Journalist decided to conduct an investigative report and test the censorship of the Cuban access to the Web and found that

Internet cafes at hotels and the post office allowed mostly unfettered access to websites, even those considered ''subversive.'' But prices were excessive and security warnings popped up when the names of well-known Cuban dissidents appeared on the screen.

''But when when I opened an e-mail that had the names of dissidents on it, this pop-up warning came on saying the program would switch off in a few seconds,'' she added. ``I thought, `No way!'

``It was like a spy movie.''

Not like a spy movie more like an Orwellian nightmare, actually.

Internet cafes are run and supplied by the government, obviously, so unless you get a computer with software on the black market and are able to pirate an internet connection, you have to use their machines which run a word recognition program that shuts down the computer for ``national security reasons.''

''I have never heard of that anywhere in the world,'' said Julien Pain, head of Reporters Without Borders' Internet Freedom program. ``I don't even know how they do that. They scare people off the Web.''


The Regime exists to scare its people. Its sole purpose is to control. Everything revolves around that premise. I don’t understand how this comes as a shock to University educated professional journalists, but I’m glad that they’re getting the word out, anyway.

Again, we support an American Government Funded program to spread truth to the Island. “Internet Marti”. The Internet Marti program should also include the distribution of older, recycled PC’s to the Cuban people. We need to allow unfettered access to the Web, to truth and real information. Information is Power.

19 October 2006

Internet Marti


Now, how good can a modern education be when there’s no access to the internet? American children begin searching on line for information by the 4th grade and in some schools even sooner. By the time American children reach high school they have access to the collective knowledge of mankind with the click of a mouse. Granted that most prefer to go on my space, download games and music and cruise for sexually explicit material, but hey it’s a free country and the internet is instant freedom.

Which brings me, as most things do inevitably do, to a captive island in the caribbean. According to Reuters, Reporters Without Borders,(RSF), accused Cuba of preventing its citizens from connecting to the World-Wide Web. RSF claims that less than 2 % of Cubans connect to the Internet and when they do, they do so at closely monitored Internet acces points.

With less than 2 percent of the population online, Cuba is one of the world's most backward countries as regards Internet usage," RSF said.

"This is quite surprising in a country that boasts one of the highest levels of education in the world," it added.

The Cuban government, of course, blames the US embargo for its internet censoring claiming that it has to limit internet use due to limited bandwidth available because

“U.S. economic sanctions that bar Cuba from hooking up to submarine fiber optic cables and force the country to use costly satellite communications for Internet traffic.”

I sympathize with the Cuban regime on this. I understand their download plight and feel their bandwidth pain. That is why I propose that the US put aside its political grudge and help the Cuban people by aiding them in getting online. I propose “Internet-Marti” where the island is blanketed with free satellite communications from coast to coast to relieve the Cuban Government’s bandwidth problems and get all the Cuban people online so they can join the 21st century.

Berracos (Udated)

Buscando noticias sobre la isla, me encuentro con un artículo en el Miami New Times tirándoles a los cubanos. El socio que escribió la critica de una producción de la obra basada en la novela de Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451 en vez de criticar la obra, crítica a los cubanos.

Su punto de vista es de que en una ciudad “en que no denunciar a Castro en cada esquina es tan malo como decir que Gloria Estefan no sabe cantar”, la producción de la obra esta bien oportuna. Los mismos cubanos que no comprenden que su lugar es cortar los céspedes y limpiar casa como buenos inmigrantes, usan su influencia política y económica para defenderse y eso le molesta un tal Dan Renzi.

Estos anglos, y consta que yo soy mas anglo que ellos y ahí lo dejo, le tienen tirria y envidia a los cubanos. Siendo un discípulo de Freud, mi conclusión es que debe ser un complejo sexual. O estos anglos están cortos de herramientas o no se pueden ligar a una jeva Cubana.

El socio dice que “Fahrenheit 451” como “1984” y “A Brave New World” nos muestran un futuro “donde el poder gobernante lo infiltra todo, hasta los mismos pensamientos que tenemos, diciéndonos lo que hacer vía televisores gigantescos en nuestros hogares”. En el futuro de “Fahrenheit 451” los bomberos les pagan no para apagar fuegos sino para quemar libros como parte de una campana para controlar a la población.

Supuestamente, los Cubanos en Miami son como los bomberos tratando de controlar la sociedad porque no quieren dejar que los niños Americanos sean sometidos a la mentiras contenidas en un tal libro llamado “Vamos a Cuba” que están tratando de sacar del sistema escolar publico de Miami-Dade County.

Los muy berracos “anglos” no se dan cuenta que todo lo que estamos tratando de hacer es darle una educación en la verdad y la libertad. Nosotros que hemos vivido y sentido el futuro de “1984” en nuestros pellejos, que hemos tenido la desgracia de vivir en un sistema totalitario tan absurdo como el mundo Orwellianoy que desafortunadamente no necesitamos de leer un libro para conocer el mundo de Fahrenheit 451, solamente queremos proteger a este país del mismo destino.

Berracos

Aqui encontraran heroes como los intelectuales de Fahrenheit 451, lo unico que estos no son ficticios, son hereoes verdaderos viviendo en un mundo fictico y paralelo a solo noventa millas de los berracos.

The Dog days of Fall

You gotta love these guys over at the Herald. It’s been my theory all along that their primary problem with us Cubans is that we don’t act the way they expect immigrants to act.

They want to be proud pet owners. They want their little dogs to obey , do tricks, beg, roll over and play dead. Those pesky Chihuahuas! Hitting us in the nose with a rolled up, poor exuse for a newspaper hasn't worked.

So now they found themselves a new pet, a lapdog, Chihuahua like, and they’re going to train us to do an immigrant trick. They will teach us by example. Ruff!

In a Miami Herald Opinion Piece:

Why fix Fidel, anyway? The GOP has successfully pimped the Cuban vote for years. The Castro regime's survival actually guarantees the automatic delivery -- year in and year out -- of the bulk of a crucial ethnic vote in a crucial electoral state. The issue for the party is not fixing Fidel at all, but rather how to make up for his absence. He will be missed.

There are several reasons -- none of them Cuba -- why I will vote Democratic this time again. The mess in Iraq, the degradation of our civil liberties and our natural environment and, worse, a sinking feeling that the current administration is inept and, consequently, adrift. Most galling of all is what my formerly esteemed GOP has become: an electioneering machine that has turned Jesus into a mascot and pretends to be franchised by God while doing the ungodly.


This guy was given some bad Purina Chow by his owners. Or maybe his flea collar is on too tight.

Yes, no American president has done anything about Cuba because Kennedy, a Democrat, promised not to.

Some of us would love to vote Democratic again , but there a bunch of Cuban-American hating ñangaras in the party, Rangel, Serrano, two Jesse Jacksons, Sharpton, etc, etc, ad nauseum.

And talk about pimping, at least the Republicans are willing to put Cubans up in positions of leadership. The Socialist, err the Democrats, only begrudgingly appointed Menendez to a Senate seat which in NJ’s crooked political Democratic machine politics pecking order should have been his when Lautenberg was tapped to run for Torricelli’s seat after he stepped down. The real pimps come to South Florida every 2 years wear a guayabera drink a café and then spend the next two years attacking us.

And another thing: Elian. While Muhammad Atta and his murderous accomplices visas expired, Clinton’s INS number one priority was to rescue Elian from a life of freedom and send him back to Castoworld. That’s the guys I want in charge alright. The blame America First Team!

Disclousre: Gusano is a registered Democrat, Zorro is an Independent.

17 October 2006

Los Aseres

Según Prensa la Latina, vocera y cuentista de cuentos de Ada del régimen Castrista, Hoy en las Naciones Unidas, Cuba apoyo la implementación completa de La Declaración de derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas de la ONU. La declaración servirá coma un guía para las demandas que tienen estas comunidades desde sus conquistas.

La declaración de la ONU, que fue acordada después de extensivas negociaciones en Ginebra queda para ser adoptada por la Asamblea General de la ONU y ha sido muy anticipada por los pueblos indígenas así como la comunidad universal pro derechos humanos. Articulo Aquí

Curiosamente, se reporta que hoy, en el barrio Habanero de Marianao, se observaron torvas de individuos vestidos solamente con taparrabos, plumas en la cabeza y llevando rústicos tira flechas por las calles. Un intrépido periodista Sueco logro entrevistar a los individuos que estaban curiosamente cubiertos con una pintura que parecía betún. Según el periodista Sueco, los hombres afirman pertenecer a una tribu indígena de la Habana, los ”Aseres”.

El periodista Sueco informa de que los “Aseres” esperan con anticipación la implementación de la Declaración de Derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas pues la declaración les dara el derecho de participar en un antiguo rito indígena con orígenes ante de la conquista en el cual los “Aseres” navegaban hacia el Norte en rusticas embarcaciones para encontrase con la tribu hermana norteña llamada los “Yuma” para tener una alegre reunión.

Según el periodista, los “Aseres” declararon que antes de la conquista Española sus tierras ancestrales
constaban de los territorios que hoy se conocen como los cayos y se extendían hasta el actual South Beach y bajo el plan de la ONU los indígenas deben ser compensados por la deuda histórica debido al pueblo por haberles robados sus tierras.

Nanopost

And from the Cuba’s official press and propaganda agency , Prensa Latina, we learn that today starts the 27th Latin American Chemistry Congress in Havana, Cuba.

The conference features a lecture from Nobel price winning Florida State University, (my Florida Tax Dollars at work.), professor Harry Kroto on “Architecture in Nanometric Dimensions”. The latest , greatest and hottest thing in scientific circles these days is nanotechnology .Cutting edge Cuba, is of course, way ahead of the nanotechnology curve, having pioneered the nanostate, nanorepression and nanonarcissism in the years since the nanotyrant took over and developed the na, “no hay na” society.

The conference, which runs until October 20th, will be attended by over 800 attendees form 55 nations and various world-wide terrorist organizations, will include workshops on teaching chemistry, natural products, environment, industrial chemistry, biochemistry, molecular biology and biomaterials.

Absent from the agenda, however, are any conferences, workshops or symposiums targeted to help the needs of the average Cuban since the Cuban government’s priorities are in presenting a façade of technological advancement and progress rather than dealing with feeding, clothing and housing its enslaved populous.

Most advantageous would be that the conference come up with a method for the Cuban people to nanofabricate some toilet paper. Because after 47 years of revolutionizing chemistry, biology and physics, the Cuban government is still unable to provide its citizens with toilet paper.

Article Here

Journalistic Repression

News Flash: for those who have just been thawed out after a 50 year cryogenic slumber, we have an official US government paper on journalistic repression in Cuba.

The US government may want to send a few of its keystone cops err i mean, crack agents down to South Florida to see how journalists here in the free country are harrassed and maligned from afar by a newspaper who seems to have a nefarious relationship with the press repressive tyranical regime in Havana.

Excerpt:

Washington -- Despite the temporary transfer of governmental power in Cuba on July 31, the Cuban dictatorship continues to subject independent journalists in the Caribbean nation to "constant harassment," says a human rights official for the Organization of American States (OAS).

In an October 12 quarterly report on the state of freedom of expression in the Americas, the OAS official, Ignacio Álvarez, reiterated his concern over the situation of journalists in Cuba who have been imprisoned or face other forms of repression from the Cuban dictatorship. (See related article.)

... and This:

Álvarez, the OAS "special rapporteur" for freedom of expression in the Americas, said that from the most recent period reported -- July 1 to September 30 -- independent journalists in Cuba were "arbitrarily and repeatedly imprisoned, and were physically attacked and threatened by agents" of the Cuban government

Absent from the abhorent treatment of these freedom fighting heroes was "canine metaphor" namecalling, character assassination and unemployment, which is what the Havana regime reserves for its most vociferous journalistic critics working in the free market press abroad, through its accomplices in "The Miami Herald" and others.

Here's what you already know




16 October 2006

Sorry, Chavez, no seat for you.

It seems that all the "Bush is the Devil" rehtoric as well as all the petro dollars that our bolivarian despot in training has been throwing around lately were just another waste of Venezuelan resources as Venezuela was soundly defeated for an open rotating seat at the UN Security Council in favor of US friendlier Guatemala in the first round of balloting. This comes a shock since in the international and national press were touting Chavez as a lock to be successful in his bid after his anti Bush tirade at the UN last month was recieved by spirited applause and compliments.

Lets hope Guatemala is successful in its bid.

This defeat is another in a recent string of international setbacks for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez who is trying to position himself as the leader of anti-Americanism worldwide.

Recently, Chavez backed candicates in several countries have been deafeted, (Mexico,Peru), or forced into unprecedented run-offs ,(Brazil, Ecuador), in close elections. Even in Venezuela where Chavez expected to cruise to re-election, the united oposition has been making up ground and has put him on the defensive.

Chavez will have to do without the consolation and strategic advice of his friend, the moribund tyrant of Havana, who as we know, is knocking on Hell's gate.

UPDATE: Guatemala did not win the seat, unfortunately, but after 10 rounds of voting Venezuela was 33 votes behind Guatemala. This is due in large part to John Bolton and his tireless bulldog attitude in fighting for his country and democracy worldwide.

15 October 2006

Damas de Blanco

Por vía de EFE nos viene la buena noticia que las Damas de Blanco han sido premiadas una ve más por su coraje y en luchar contra el tirano y por los derechos humanos en Cuba:

Damas de Blanco recibirán premio en EEUU

EFE
LA HABANA

El movimiento cubano de las Damas de Blanco recibirá el próximo lunes 16 en Nueva York el Premio de Derechos Humanos 2006, pero ninguna representante del grupo asistirá a la ceremonia, confirmó ayer una de sus integrantes.

El galardón de la organización Human Rights First será recogido en nombre del grupo por Yolanda Huerga, esposa de Manuel Vázquez Portal, uno de los 75 disidentes encarcelados en la primavera del 2003 en Cuba y uno de los 15 liberados con licencia extrapenal, quien reside en EEUU.


Pero, por supuesto será imposible que las Dama asistan a recibir su premio:

Miriam Leiva, una de las fundadoras de las Damas de Blanco, dijo a Efe que ella y Laura Pollán están invitadas a recoger el premio en representación del grupo por la directora ejecutiva de Human Rights First, Maureen Byrnes.

''Los trámites son muy prolongados'', dijo Leiva, fundadora del grupo y esposa de Oscar Espinosa Chepe, también del Grupo de los 75 y con licencia extra-penal.

Integrantes del grupo asisten a misa los domingos en la iglesia de Santa Rita, en La Habana y a la salida realizan una caminata por el paseo central de la quinta avenida de la barriada de Miramar. También se reúnen para hacer jornadas de oraciones y lecturas literarias.

Human Rights First, con sede en EEUU, indicó que concedió el premio a las Damas de Blanco para ``reconocer su dedicación al progreso de los derechos humanos en Cuba, su coraje y determinación, sus esfuerzos incansables por la libertad de las actividades proderechos humanos y democracia, y de los que han sido injustamente encarcelados, muchos de ellos sus esposos y parientes''.


Vamos a ver si la prensa estadounidense, que le encanta impresionar a los avestruces, saca la cabeza de la arena y empieza a contar el cuento de estas increíbles patriotas cubanas.

Léase aquí

14 October 2006

Sun Sentinel Editorial

Since the election is only four weeks away, now is the Sun-Sentinel’s turn to use Cubans to bash Bush’s Foreign Policy. Nothing like stirring up the Liberal pro-Castro, anti -Cuban-American segment of South Florida to go vote agaisnt their two enemies.

Here’s the gist of the editorial:

As the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported last month, most of the $80 million the Bush administration and Congress have earmarked for dissidents on the island will be used to pay expenses -- from phone bills to staff salaries -- at go-between organizations in the United States. It now also turns out that some funds for Radio Martí, the U.S. government's broadcasting station, have been used to pay some U.S. journalists to appear on the station.

These revelations should prompt a re-examination of U.S. Cuba policy, especially because aid to Cuban dissidents is politically sold as just that -- a helping hand to people involved in a peaceful effort to bring democracy to their country. It's also wrong for the government to be paying, and journalists to be accepting, payment for appearing on state-sponsored broadcasts. Doing so compromises any journalist's claim to objectivity and independence.


Their problem really is that the Bush Government is spending money on Cuban American and Cuban – American issues. Therefore, there must be some nefarious, right wing and politically incorrect pro American conspiracy afoot. Please!

We don’t really think that $80 million is enough. Its chump change given the task at hand. Unfortunately, you can’t throw money out of a plane and hopes it lands in the right hands. In order for the funds to get into the right hands, some administrative expense must be incurred. They can either be folks already geared for that or it can be a new government agency. The folks at the Sun Sentinel would die if they actually knew the real amount that the US is spending on dissidents in Cuba or the amount the CIA spends on informants and other human assets on the island. Good thing its classified.

Again we have to hear the same tired tune that The Herald was playing about the journalistic objectivity and ethics of the TV/Radio Marti contributors. The editors at the Sun Sentinel must not be aware that it is the government’s policy that they MUST pay for contributors on their network. Otherwise, they get accused of coercing professionals into forced labor. The US government’s policy of paying a nominal stipend to contributors is actually a sound policy.

And…why is it that beaming the truth to captive people is not considered working towards democracy? Let’s ask these somewhat arrogant yet near sighted “professional journalists” what the most important aspect of our democracy is and they will probably scream out that it’s the free press. And we would have to agree.

We do find some common ground with The Sentinel in that we agree that more dollars need to reach the hands of the dissidents. More dollars must be earmarked specifically for that purpose now the that conduits to distribute these funds are funded and stablished.

Tough this article doesn’t go out to maliciously ruin people’s reputation like the Miami Herald did, it has the same anti Cuban-American tone.

The Sun Sentinel is going to try a lot harder to get that coveted news bureau in Havana. But hey, I hear that Oscar Corral may be looking for another job real soon.

13 October 2006

Cuban Buckeye

El cachorro de un Padre cubano esta requetebien criado.

Anthony González es un wide reciever de los Ohio State Buckeyes que actualmente están clasificados come el mejor team de fútbol americano colegial.

González, hijo de un emigrante cubano y una americana de descendencia alemana dice que esta muy orgulloso de su descendencia cubana.

Su abuelo paterno cuando vivía en Cuba era un profesor que fue maestro de Vilma Espin, la esposa de ReCastro. También lucho para derribar el régimen de Batista, participando en el ataque al palacio presidencial de Batista dramatizado en la película “The Lost City” de Andres García.

González dice que se mantiene pendiente en los acontecimientos en la isla porque anhela el fin de la tiranía castrista para que su anciana abuela pueda visitar a Cuba una vez más. Amen

El articulo en ingles aquí.

Mi Receta

Mi receta:

Yo no se que ven en mi cara mis amistades que diariamente vienen a mi a quejarse. Yo trato de ser un buen cristiano, de veras. Pero, hay veces que pienso que no puedo aguantar más.

Las quejas: No me gusta ni trabajo. Que cara esta la gasolina. Que gorda estoy. Que malo esta mi carro..blah, blah blah.

Yo me acuerdo cuando era un muchacho y nos estábamos comiendo un cable en Cuba que uno ni se atrevía quejarse. Y después, cuando llegamos Al Norte, cada vez que empezaba a dar una quejita por que fulanito tenia esto y menganito tenia lo otro y nosotros no, que me daban un grito o un cocotaso y me recordaban que todos mis primos en Cuba no tenían nada. Ni un chicharo.

Hoy me estaba diciendo una amiga de lo duro que era su vida y que aburrida estaba, etc., etc.. Y no se por que, se me fue, se me salio. Le dije : lo que necesitas es pacerte un par de semanas en Cuba y enseguida se te quita esa come meirderia.

Cruel, pero verdad, coño. Aquí a el que no le guste su vida es libre para cambiarla. No hay nadie que te lo prohíba. No hay un gobierno que esta diseñado para joderte la vida, como en Cuba.

Y cuando le estoy echando mi descarga a la amiga, y ella muerta de la risa, por cierto. Se me ocurre que la mayoria de los “problemas” que tenemos los que vivimos en EE.UU. es por la abundancia. Mi amiga, la del Lexus la de la casa en la comunidad amurallada, se “cree” que tiene problemas.

Así que estoy pensando en hacer un centro de cura-neurosis. Por una suma exorbitante, “curare” las neurosis de los estadouinidenses sometiéndoles a una terapia tiránica totalitaria intensa.

Estaba pensando en comprar un hotel bien viejo, casi al borde de que condenen, cercar el alrededor, cortar el agua, la electricidad, y las comunicaciones. Los trabajadores entonces, le venderían poca comida a los “pacientes”, racionada, por su puesto. La seguridad seria brutal. Golpes e insultos para todos. No papel higiénico. No pasta de diente. Un solo canal diciendo mentiras 24 horas al día. Un solo periódico también diciendo mentira. Y para irse, hay que escaparse.

Después de un par de semanas en mi centro de terapia, saldrían con tremenda apreciación a la libertad y le darían gracias a Dios todos los días como hago yo.

12 October 2006

De que No Van, No Van

In another example of the colossal failure of the Cuba de-evolution, we know learn that Cuba is looking for foreign investors to help it revive its once mighty industry. Cuban sugar used to be King. The cash crop as well as a source of National Pride. Not Now.
According to a an article in The Washington Times By Carmen Gentile The Cuban regime is dreaming of “restarting” its sugar industry.

The island is producing a fraction of the sugar it did just 30 years ago. During the 1970s, Cuba was producing about 8 million tons of sugar a year. The Caribbean nation will likely produce just 1.3 million tons of sugar this growing season, according to forecasts.

The factors contributing to the decline in production are incompetancy and the proven failure of Marxism and its penchant for nationalizing industries and running them into the ground with capricious beuracracies run by political cronies and aparatiks rather than experts.

Cuba is looking to get into the alternative fuels business by producing Ethanol.

In order to get its sugar industry back on track, Cuba will need an estimated $4.4 billion in capital. The problem for the regime is that there is no capital in socialist workers paradises like Cuba, only misery which can’t be used as collateral. So, they are forced to look for outside investors. Now call me crazy, but, isn’t that what the Castro’s Utopia was supposed to eradicate?

The only real solution to jumpstarting Cuba's ethanol ambitions, some analysts say, would be an end to President Fidel Castro's 47-year regime coupled with the cessation of the U.S. embargo. By that study's calculations, sugar would become Cuba's No. 1 source of revenue once production levels return to 1970s levels -- far surpassing the $2 billion Cuba now earns from tourism

Hey, I’m an analyst, honest. I have another solution: Get rid of the terror twins in Havana and the “emgargo” goes with them. It’s a win-win for everybody.

I'm tired of our women having to have to sell themselves to foreigners. I'm tired of our children being used as slave labor. I'm tired of our men being beaten and languishing in jails. This analyst says that the only real solution to Cuba's problem is getting rid of Castrism and thus the embargo.

Read it Here