Happy Valentine's Day Message from The Herald

A Happy Valentine's Message from The Miami Herald:

Change from Fidel to Raúl is a-coming
BY MICHAEL PUTNEY

The more things change , the more they stay the same.

According to Putney, who's talked to all sorts of "Cuban Experts", The change will be........................

More of the same, lies, propaganda and smoke and mirrors

Here are some of the changes:

Babun says Cuba has received 130 new buses from China but has only 40 in general operation. Another 40 buses ferry members of the Communist Youth Union around the country doing various tasks. Raúl is also sitting on six big electricity generators that were imported from Europe, but none has gone on line. They will, along with those 50 new buses, Babun predicts, when Raúl believes the time is right. When he needs to show the Cuban people that he can deliver things they desperately need -- electricity and transportation. Very clever.

What it has recently allowed are new rules (La Ley de Cultos) that spell out when churches can expand their operations, proselytize, hand out literature, even use microphones at services. This works in favor of the growing evangelical movement in Cuba and against the Catholic Church, which is the only viable nongovernmental institution on the island.

What else might Raúl do to secure his place as the líder máximo? Release a group of about 130 dissidents, which would send a symbolic message to Washington about his position on human rights

He might also tell Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo, the former Miamian and Cuban political prisoner who returned to Cuba a few years ago to start an opposition political party, that he can open an office, hand out pamphlets, maybe even get his name on a few local ballots. Cuba would remain a one-party country in practice and theory, but even this small political opening would send Washington another signal.

Now, what would be the result of these "symbolic" propaganda tricks?

Better U.S.-Cuba relations:

Fidel thought the doors were opening too wide and closed them. I'd bet that Raúl, with a few positive signs from Washington, will allow them to nudge open again.

Which is the obsession of all Castro "likers", sympathisers, useful idiots and apologists

Sheesh and they call US hardliners !

Read the Whole Piece Here

Cuba's Apartheid

The subject of Cuba’s social apartheid is usually not covered anywhere except in the anti-Castro web sites and blogs.

Within the past year, with the renewed interest in Cuba, we have seen some movements in that direction.

This Article in the U.K.’s The Telegraph goes a long way to exposing the social apartheid and inequities that Fidel Castro’s regime has instituted on the island.

Cubans in their own words:

"They watch us and we watch them," he said with a resigned laugh as the tourists turned their cameras to capture the image of a young boy optimistically fishing in the oily waters.

"It's a little like being in a zoo," sighed Carlos, a 24-year-old literature student. "But that is the reality of life here. We are caged while the world looks on."

"Fidel has starved us," he whispered. "Yes, there is a lack of food but it is more than that. We are starving for information, for opportunity, for freedom. We want to enjoy the same things as those people over there," he said as a fresh batch of tourists spilled out of the doors of a tour bus.

The Rest of this Poignant Piece Here

Media exposure to the social apartheid that exists in Cuba's supposedly classless society is essential to exposing the truth about Cuba. That this article, titled "Cubans feel betrayed by tourist playground" was published in the U.K. where thousands go to Cuba every year on holiday is very positive.

I'm sure that the thought of going to a "quaint Caribbean island" where the population is dehumanized to the point that they feel like caged animals in a zoo being gawked at, doesn't appeal to most in England.

Let's hope this new trend in reporting the "truth about Cuba" continues.

A Love Letter?

This E-Mail from a "fan":

?

Something for your blog:

"Law school gets first Cuban dean"

St. Thomas University has appointed Alfredo Garcia as dean of its law school, making him the nation's only Cuban-born dean of an American Bar Association-approved law school and one of only 7 Hispanic law school deans in the U.S. (etc. etc... found in the Florida Catholic papers)

http://www.thefloridacatholic.org/

Hoo-hoo! Global warming, black football coaches in the Super Bowl, Cuban deans...Somebody call Billy Joel to update the "We Didn't Start the Fire" song!

Love you, B.

Thank You, B.

Love You Too.

Communist Pretzel Logic

Cuban official calls for controlling 'wild colt of new technologies'

Here’s a perfect example of Communist Pretzel Logic from Ramiro Valdes’ mouth.

At an international communication technologies conference being held in Havana, Valdes, The Cuban Minister of Disinformation and Tall Tales, who’s more comfortable at shooting off his pistol than his mouth, confounds us with his philosophy on the internet.

Recently, repression in Cuba has been highlighted by reports exposing that only 2% of its citizens have access to the internet. Cubans have costly internet access that is more like and “intranet” allowing most citizens access only to an island wide local network. In typical Cuban-Apartheid fashion, tourist and the “more equal” government "big-wigs” have real internet access, though censored.

In this AP: Article Valdes “explains” why:

"The wild colt of new technologies can and must be controlled," he said.

Internet technologies "constitute one of the tools for global extermination,"

Valdes expressed dire suspicions of U.S. intentions for the World Wide Web, citing post-Sept. 11 security measures and press reports that technology giants Microsoft and Google have cooperated with U.S. intelligence agencies.

"These actions bring the destabilizing power of the empire to threatening new levels," he said.

It’s Washington’s fault. Somehow the Empire and its agents get in the through the wires and “poof”…Truth. No we can’t have that “wild colt”. We need the tame colt of lies and repression.

BUT

He also blamed the US for Cuba’s lack of reliable internet access saying it does so to impede the Island’s development:

they "are also necessary to continue to advance down the path of development."

So let’s see if we can follow his “reasoning”. The evil Americans are blocking Cuba’s access to a medium (the WWW), that the empire is using as a tool to destabilize and destroy the Revolution. And he says with a straight face.

He’s also quoted saying that these are the problems with the world-wide web:

"the diffusion of pornography, encouragement of terrorism, racism, fraud, spread of fascist ideologies and any kind of manifestation of cybernetic crime."

That must really anger Ramiro. You know how mobsters are, they don’t like anybody muscling on their territory.

more

The Man, The Myth, The Fraud.

El Pive Guevara

Way back in ’67, before he became a t-shirt Icon worshipped by the chic rebels without a clue world-wide, el pive Guevara was shot, burned and buried in an undisclosed location in Bolivia. (unfortunately, in that order)


Fast forward 30 years to 1997. His ex-partner in crime, Fidel, who never met a lie he couldn’t tell, decided to put together an expedition to go find el pive’s body and have it brought back to Cuba for burial. The body was miraculously found in a common grave near the Vallegrande airport.

Fidel had ordered that the body be found to give the floundering Cuban revolution a needed morale lift and to “re-launch the revolutionary mystique” (and T-Shirt Business). Guevara’s remains were placed in a mausoleum in Santa Clara with much revolutionary fanfare on the 30th anniversary of his “martyrdom”.

Fast forward again to ’07 where journalists Maite Rico and Bertrand de La Grange, ex reporters covering Latin America have written an article for the magazine “Letras Libres” exposing the operation to find Guevara’s body as a hoax and claiming that the body buried in Santa Clara cannot be Guevara’s.

According to Rico and La Grange there’s no way that the remains found in Bolivia can belong to Guevara.

First of all, they claim that it is common knowledge that Guevara’s remains were incinerated and not buried with any other remains, but either buried in a separate location or scattered throughout the jungle.




They claim that the Guevara’s remains were positively identified by the forensic team because the remains had amputated hands, like Guevara’s, and because of cranial and dental features.

The forensic team also based its identification of the remains on articles found in the grave. One such article was a green shirt similar to the one worn by Guevara when his body was exhibited in the laundry room of the Señor de Malta Hospital in Bolivia. The other article was a belt. There was no mention of a beret or feces stained trousers.

According to Rico and La Grange, the shirt found in the grave could not be Guevara’s because his shirt was kept as a souvenir by Dr. Moisés Abraham Baptista, director of the hospital. Do they Have eBay in Bolivia, eCoca-Bahia?

DNA test will not be forthcoming.

Why is this important, you ask?

Because , in the not too distant future, when we go visit Santa Clara, we will only be able to piss on Guevara’s Memorial, not his grave.

BUMMER!

The Nuevo Herald Article HERE (in Castillian)

Economic Opportunity and Freedom

The series of economic sanctions commonly referred to as the “embargo” are used by the Regime as a scapegoat for every single shortcoming and inequity in Cuba.

When Reporters Without Frontiers sited Cuba s one of the countries with the least amount of citizens with access to the world-wide web, Cuba blamed the “embargo”. It’s not that they want to control every aspect of everyday of every person’s life. No, it’s the “embargo”.

Cuba has basically isolated itself from civilization because the isolation fits the needs of its tyrant to hold on to power.

Economic opportunity, as a reader reminded me today, goes a long way to create a truly free society. It is the last thing Castro and his thugs want.

In another eye-opening article form the Sun Sentinel’s Doreen Hemlock the subject of economic opportunities in Cuba is explored

The grim outlook for Cuba

The London-based Economist Intelligence Unit ranks Cuba among the world's worst
business environments -- No. 80 of 82 nations surveyed, with only Iran and
Angola rated lower for the past five years.

Even managers of Chinese companies favored these days by Havana cite headaches.

"Our company does business with 46 countries, and Cuba is the only one where we can't have a commercial representative to find clients and service them," said a Chinese executive who declined to be named for fear of Cuban reprisals.

Most U.S. companies can't do business with Cuba because of Washington's four-decade embargo aimed to squeeze the island's communist regime. But those few with permission -- like U.S. food exporters -- also face obstacles, from reams of U.S. paperwork to Havana's prodding that U.S. suppliers lobby on Cuba's behalf.

"And you've basically got one customer: the Cuban government," said Jay Brickman, vice president of government services for Jacksonville-based Crowley Maritime Corp., whose shipping service hauls authorized U.S. food exports from Broward County's Port Everglades to Cuba.

Havana cracked open the door to foreign capitalists in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of generous Soviet subsidies sent the island's economy crashing. But foreign investment has always been more tolerated than embraced by authorities, analysts said.

And, in a new trend in MSM that’s VERY refreshing, A dissident’s opinion:

"It's seen as bitter medicine, like castor oil," said independent economist Oscar Espinosa Chepe in Havana. "Some hardliners call it `ideological contamination.'"

Nowadays, as hefty Venezuelan oil subsidies and Chinese loans lift Cuba from its economic hole, the government is getting more selective about what foreign investment it approves and what foreign companies can do.
Decline in partners

Numbers tell the story. The tally of Cuba's foreign "economic partnerships" fell to 236 last year from more than 400 in the year 2000, authorities have said.

Cuba now seeks foreign partners mainly for large, costly projects, such as oil exploration and mining. And it gives priority in joint ventures to Venezuela and China, nations with a fellow leftist bent, said Paolo Spadoni, a teacher at Rollins College in Winter Park. who specializes in Cuba.

Smaller European firms once welcomed even for limited retail operations are now being turned away, as Cuba's government expands its own restaurant and store network.

"Every day, Italians come in and say they want to put up a pizzeria or clothing store. That type of business, the government says, we generally don't need," said Miriam Martinez, a spokeswoman at the Cuban Chamber of Commerce.

Once approved, operations in Cuba are increasingly centralized in government hands, foreign executives said.

Though Cuban law permits 100 percent foreign ownership, most foreign companies operate through partnerships with the government and hold only minority control.

Even foreign embassies generally can't hire their own staff, but must hire through government staffing agencies. Some foreigners bemoan nepotism at the agencies.

Foreign businesses pay their staff through the government agencies, but employees get only a sliver paid to them in local currency. The government pockets the bulk,
saying it needs the cash for Cuba's free education, health care and welfare programs.

Local salaries don't stretch to pay the bills, so foreign employers generally pay a bonus to their employees, sometimes up to $1,200 a month, executives said.

Then, there's the delay issue, especially long waits to obtain imported supplies. Few imports are warehoused because Cuba faces foreign currency and credit shortages and won't tie up its cash.


And Cuba offers some advantages envied elsewhere in Latin America: high literacy rates and low crime.

Effects of the Embargo:

Those gains clearly don't outweigh the problems, especially when business faces a unique external pressure exerted by the U.S. embargo both on American and international companies.

U.S. scrutiny and sanctions against banks and other companies that do business both with Cuba and the United States have become so tough that some international firms are opting not to work with Cuba and to safeguard their larger and more lucrative U.S. operations.

At least two Swiss banks, UBS and Credit Suisse, and one American money transfer company, MoneyGram International of Minneapolis, announced an end to financial operations with Cuba in recent months amid the U.S. crackdown.

Amid all the hurdles, many foreign executives are focusing outside Cuba to more attractive spots for business.

Read The Whole Article HERE

The Cuban regime, because of its totalitarian nature, has to control everything. Its only motive for allowing any kind of foreign investment is to continue to get the funds it needs to carry on its repression and stay in power. It pays workers 4% of what it charges the foreign partners for labor and pockets 96%. It uses the excuse that the funds are needed for social programs, yet the real reason is that it wants to deny the Cuban citizens the economic opportunities which will eventually lead to social changes.

The communist regime doesn’t care about the welfare of its people. Its only purpose is to stay in power. That is why they will never negotiate, they have nothing to gain or lose.



UPDATE: Charlie Bravo from KILLCASTRO made the Following Comment:

"Every day, Italians come in and say they want to put up a pizzeria or clothing
store. That type of business, the government says, we generally don't need," said Miriam Martinez, a spokeswoman at the Cuban Chamber of Commerce."In a quick
phrase: que se joda el pueblo.

That's the only embargo that is in Cuba, the internal embargo and apartheid impossed by the KKK (kasstro kommunist klan)They do not want any business that
can give any service or comforts to the population because they destroy the basis of their control over Cubans: the socialization of misery. For the same reason, they don't want Cubans owning any businesses who can produce enough to support a family withuot headaches, it would break that basic tenet of socialized misery. One hungry man with one hungry family has only one priority in life: to feed his family. The commies understand that well, and they know that survival instinct and conservation instinct put that need first. If people didn't have those needs, well they would have more energies and TIME to devote to destroying the tyranny. I think this is clear, or should be clear enough....

Perhaps you think Charlie is just another" hard liner " spewing out anti-Castro venom, well, he may be, but that doesn't mean his wrong. Charlie is backed by experience, knowledge and Science.

Here's a representation of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs:



The lower the need, the more primitive. The communist regime goes out of its way to keep the Cuban people taking care of the first layer of needs in the hierarchy. Little time is spent on the second and even less on the third. The whole system is built to be an obstacle to the fullfillment of what Maslow would call higher needs.

Like Charlie says, this is not by accident. It's cold, caculated, "socialized misery". And, it is designed to dehumanize the Cuban citizen by keeping him focused on the more primitive and instinctual aspects of the human experience.

Freedom and Fariñas

A visitor commented the other day that freedom was a subjective term.

Freedom is a term, a word, that can have many meanings to those that have it and have the luxury of writing that middle school social studies essay “What Freedom Means to Me” by Lilly Whitebottom.

Freedom becomes a real concrete concept and an objective, measurable absolute once it is taken from you. Then, it becomes something to fight and die for.

Someone who can teach us about the longing and the struggle for FREDOM is Guillermo Fariñas. Fariñas is getting the recognition he deserves here in the US where hopefully he will become a household name like Mandela.

Fariñas fights to eliminate the apartheid that exists in modern day Cuba. He fights to eradicate the inequalities that exist in the supposed “egalitarian” society of the Castros.

Today in the Sun Sentinel, Doreen Hemlock, profiles Fariñas and his non violent struggle for freedom, justice and equality for all Cubans.

Dissident: `Down with corruption, I'm on hunger strike'
Fariñas uses nonviolence in bid to force change in Cuba

A psychologist by training, Fariñas has repeatedly stopped eating and drinking to express his dissent with Cuba's communist government and to appeal for democracy. The peaceful protests spark solidarity within the country and worldwide, he said.

Fariñas said he launched his most recent strike on Jan. 31, 2006, after the government denied Cubans access to the one Internet café in Santa Clara. Fellow independent journalists had filed an e-mail reportfrom the café, claiming authorities depleted the local blood bank to ship blood to Pakistan with Cuban medical teams. Without the café, Fariñas and his colleagues can only phone and fax reports abroad, delaying publication.

Why does he go on hunger strikes?:

"The only way I find to fight is the hunger strike because it earns admiration both from those like me who resist and others who repress," said Fariñas. "And it moves international public opinion because it's an extreme way to press for rights."

The Toll:

During the seven-month hunger strike that ended Aug. 31, Fariñas said he lost 66 pounds. One of his lungs filled with blood, he said, and doctors had to break three ribs and operate to drain it. He was in a coma for five days.

Now, he is recuperating, but remains thin and weak. With continued
physical therapy, he hopes to walk this month.

The Goal:

… he vows not to give in, just as blacks in the United States including Martin Luther King did not waver in their struggle for civil rights.

"I want pluralism in Cuba," Fariñas said, "not only Internet access."

MORE HERE

You can express moral support and to Fariñas and all Cuban dissidents by participating in the Friday Morning Fast for Political prisoners started by Alfredo at El Cafe Cubano.

The dissidents know about the fast and are very appreciative.

One man come in the name of love

One man come and go

One man come, he to justify

One man to overthrow

In the name of love

What more in the name of love

In the name of love

What more in the name of love

One man caught on a barbed wire fence

One man he resist

One man washed on an empty beach

One man betrayed with a kiss

In the name of love

What more in the name of love

In the name of love

What more in the name of love

(The bright line)

(It's all ready mate)

(It's the right time)

Early morning,

April 4Shot rings out in the Memphis sky

Free at last, they took your life

They could not take your pride

In the name of love

What more in the name of love

In the name of love

What more in the name of love

In the name of love

What more in the name of love

In the name of love

What more in the name of love

Who’s Up, Who’s Down? Down in Cuba

Gary Marx of the Chicago Tribune tries to read the tea leaves in Cuba in this article

Down according to Most Cuba watchers is Felipe Perez Roque who used to be everywhere and is hardly visible now .

Also down are Fidel’s hand-picked cronies called the Tropical Taliban. These were true Marxist and Fidel worshippers.

Notably absent from the spotlight since Castro handed authority last July to his younger brother, Raul, are Otto Rivero, Hassan Perez and other young radicals collectively known by diplomats and some Cubans here as "the Taliban."


The so-called "fourth-generation" revolutionaries were promoted to key positions by Fidel Castro but may not fit into Raul Castro's priorities, suggesting less focus on ideology and international affairs and more on governing efficiently.


"They have lost the kind of power that Fidel gave them to go everywhere giving orders and saying what should be done," said a Havana-based diplomat who asked not to be identified.


"The ministries have returned to their logical role. Raul wants an effective organization," the diplomat said.

The big winner in the shuffle appears to Lage:

One Cuban official who has benefited from the realignment of power is Carlos Lage Davila, a 55-year-old pediatrician who is credited with implementing limited reforms that rescued Cuba's faltering economy in the 1990s.

Diplomats noted that Lage was chosen to give a prominent speech during Fidel Castro's delayed 80th birthday celebrations in December. And last month, Lage - who holds the key position of secretary of the executive committee of the Council of Ministers, a top policymaking body - led a high-level delegation to Venezuela to sign a series of economic accords that farther cemented ties between the two leftist nations.


At the same time, the role of Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, the 41-year-old former personal secretary of Fidel Castro, has diminished in recent months, analysts say.

Before Fidel Castro's illness, Perez Roque was the second most visible leader in Cuba after the commander-in-chief himself. He often spoke at political rallies and ppeared as Castro's heir apparent.


"He was clearly more prominent than any minister of foreign affairs in any other country," said the Havana-based diplomat. "He was the maximum interpreter of Fidel Castro's ideas. Now, he is just the minister of foreign affairs."


"The government now is institutionally focused," said Daniel Erikson, head of Caribbean programs at the Inter American Dialogue, a Washington policy group. "It's not going to be a cult of the personality."

Cuba watchers have always point to Lage as a face of the future.

Another toted individual was Abel Prieto. I have read and heard stories of his upcoming demise, but he seems to be in with King Raul as evidence in this article

Raul Castro made a surprise appearance Thursday evening at the annual book fair _ an event his 80-year-old brother often attended in past years.


The 75-year-old Raul traded in his typical olive green uniform for a gray jacket over a pair of blue pants for the event at a Spanish fortress across the bay from Havana.Arriving at the opening in a small bus, the younger Castro was accompanied by Culture Minister Abel Prieto.

Of Course not mentiones in any of the MSM articles is the Minister of Information Ramiro Valdes, who many believe is in a power sharing arrangement with Raul.

Japanese Model?

Japanese Feudalism, maybe.

The Regime is certainly going out of its way to create high expectations both inside and outside the island about the upcoming economic reforms in Cuba.

Cuban Economists are now giving sound bites to the free press about the ongoing “dialogue” within the Cuban nomenklatura on how to reform the Cuban economy.

With Cuba’s Chief Ecomomist on Family Medical Leave, the government economists are having to earn their pay by actually coming up with a plan rather than coming up with rationalizations for the Chief Economist’s plans.

Obviously, all these comments have to be taken with a grain of salt, given the source, but remember that no one in Cuba is allowed to give anything other than the Regime’s position. There are NO personal opinions in public. So, it may be a lie, but it’s most likely the official lie.

In a Reuters Piece in The Washington Post, several Cuban Economists discuss the dialogue:

"There is consensus on our goals: more popular participation, the country's development and a better material and spiritual life," China expert and economics professor Evelio Vilarino told Reuters this week at a globalization conference. "Where there is no consensus is on how best to achieve that."

“A better material and spiritual life”. At least the Regime is admitting that the life of the ordinary Cuban needs some improvement and that there need to be changes in the system in order to achieve them.

Cuban economist and agriculture expert Amando Nova said agriculture reforms of the early 1990s -- when Cuba divided state farms into worker cooperatives and legalized private produce markets -- stopped halfway.

"We need farmers to participate more in production and price decisions, to be able to purchase inputs and in general enjoy more autonomy from the state," said Nova, who is involved in a report on agriculture commissioned by the government.

Luis Marcelo Yera of the National Economic Research Institute, a member of the panel looking into property relations, said Cuba is taking a path closer to one of his favorite Japanese sayings.

"Adapt, don't adopt -- we can adapt the best experiences but not adopt another's model," he said.

Marcelo said the panel was "looking at better defining property under socialism ... because experience has demonstrated it has many problems functioning."

Enigmatic words about private property. Probably means the Regime will allow for the reemergence of small business ownership.

Even more surprising bringing up the Japanese, unrepentant free marketers.

The head of parliament's economic commission, Osvaldo Martinez, told Reuters the
debate over economic policy probably would be taking place even if President Fidel Castro were not too ill to govern.

"We are not talking about the Chinese model, but a Cuban model, the best way forward given Cuba's possibilities, realities, resources and problems," Martinez said.

Some Cuban economists believe that only by adopting China's model of a capitalist market under communist political control, or at a minimum by decentralizing and developing private cooperatives and markets in nonstrategic sectors, can internal production be improved.

Others say any opening would provide the United States with a chance to topple the socialist system.

Agriculture specialist Nova said taking steps to loosen the economy would not threaten his sector.

"Decentralization and more autonomy would result in more production and food security, consolidating our economy and making us less vulnerable," he said.

There is now no doubt that Economic changes are coming. They will not be sweeping changes, just a retread of what was done 15 years ago packaged and marketed as pragmatic, candid and brave actions prompted by the collegial new king.

So there’s where they are heading. They envision an ecomomy where food production and distribution and perhaps even some transportation, which are the government’s biggest headaches would be “decentralized” and “privatized”. The government would still control all the supplies that the entrepreneurs would need to run their small businesses. The supplier, Regime, would make the higher profits and then maybe even tax the earnings. They would also be able to blame the free market for shortages.

Any sectors considered “strategic” would still be government controlled and run. Touri$m, for example, would be taboo.

No major changes here just relieving some pressure from the pressure cooker.

Of Course the Chief Economist used to do this all the time. Make promises and grandiose economic plans that never came to fruition, but it remains to be seen if the new Regime can get away with the same.

Dictatorship by Phone

Raul Castro has replaced Hugo CHavez as medical spokesman for his Big Brother , Fidel.

"He's getting better each day,''

"He's exercising much. He has a telephone at his side and uses it a lot."

"He's consulted on the most important questions,''

"He doesn't interfere, but he knows about everything.

"Luckily, he doesn't call me much,"

Translation:

Can you believe he's still alive?!? I'm in charge. My brother is a pain in the butt and I don't take his calls. He ain't coming back.

More

Thursday Night Rant

Satellite dishes in Cuba are a hot topic in the news wires.

It is, of course, illegal for Cubans to buy a satellite dish and watch whatever they they please on TV. As slaves, Cubans are condemned to watch the propaganda on state TV 24/7.

This is part of the embargo of truth that the communist regime subjects its citizens to, even in the XXI century. They don’t want Cubans to see the truth and find out how the rest of the world lives.

I came across an Associated Press article that only mentions this violation of basic human rights in the 15th and last paragraph:

But few Cubans talk openly about the dishes: They're strictly banned for homes and police raids periodically are staged to confiscate illegal antennas hidden in water tanks, behind windows or in air conditioner boxes.

The first paragraph insinuates that the hypocritical US government is the real law breaker here because:

The U.S. government strives mightily to stamp out intellectual property theft all over the world -- except for Cuba, where it tries to broadcast anti-communist messages to anyone able to see U.S. programming through illegal satellite dishes.

Being a cynic, I love that angle. You see, the Cubans that are trying to find out what is happening outside their island prison or just want to watch a dammed baseball game or escape the drudgery of their miserable existence in Castro’s socialist paradise are just “pirating” satellite signals illegally and thus ripping off Direct TV since they are not paid subscribers! ….and the US is facilitating the theft ... accomplices, if you will.

BUT the Empire isn’t the only villain. NO! There’s you know who … those people … The Miami Mafia:

By law, TV Marti is barred from broadcasting propaganda inside the United States, but anti-Castro advocates believe they've found a loophole, and that the Florida stations can be used to reach the island as long as any U.S. viewing is "inadvertent."

….And:

Miami-based commercial Spanish language stations are particularly popular, and their news and political programs -- many of them created by Cuban exiles -- are
often as stridently anti-Castro as TV Marti's programming.

BUT: fear not Direct TV, the benevolent Cuban government is putting its resources to fighting the rampant signal piracy:

Now the Cuban government is striking back, warning TV signal pirates that they
face stiff fines and jail terms.

You can almost hear the heroic background soviet music. The good guys, the Communist Jedi Council, is striking back not because it wants to repress its citizens but because:

the grass roots nature of satellite piracy in Cuba, where private business is tightly restricted to promote social and economic equality

There you have it. The Cubans with home made satellite are the bad guys here. They are pirating satellite signals. The US government and the Miami Mafia are their criminal accomplices. Only the benevolent Cuban regime stands for truth justice and economic equality.

That sounds familiar, like right out of the pages of Granma.

Come on somebody tell the AP that sticking up for the Castro regime is sooooo last year. The international press has now moved on to point out the ironies and ideological challenges and juxtapositions facing the Cuban revolution.

Read the Article here. It inadvertently compliments the ingenuity of the truth seeking "pirates"

ARRRRRR!

A Tale of Two Transitions

A Leftist Dynasty sits at the end of an era.

At the edge of the proverbial cliff.

On one side a glorious, storied and controvertial past. One the other, the abyss.

Change or Perish.

A Champion of the Left, exhaulted and glorified by millions of leftist thinkers in America and around the world.

A transition to the XXI century world of a globalized economy ,the only hope for this Dynasty.

The Castros, you say?

No, The NEW YORK TIMES.

From Haaretz.com:

"I really don't know whether we'll be printing the Times in five years, and you know what? I don't care either," he says.

Sulzberger is focusing on how to best manage the transition from print to Internet.

"The Internet is a wonderful place to be, and we're leading there," he points out.

Like another dying Dynasty facing a perilous and almost impossible transition, Sulzberger has the same recipe for economic failure:

Ignore reality by creating an artificial one:

Will it be free?

No, Sulzberger says. If you want to read the New York Times online, you will have to pay.

In the age of bloggers, what is the future of online newspapers and the profession in general? There are millions of bloggers out there, and if the Times forgets who and what they are, it will lose the war, and rightly so, according to Sulzberger. "We are curators, curators of news. People don't click onto the New York Times to read blogs. They want reliable news that they can trust," he says

ENJOY HERE

Polls

We're getting to the point where the country is being run by pollsters.

They dictate who runs for office.

They tell us what our domestic policy should be.

The shape our foreign policy based on foreign polls.

Here's a poll to cap "Let's do away with the Cuban Embargo Week"

Here's the only poll that counts:

Lost in Translation, Not in History

This from Cuba’s propagandist “Press” Agency:

Cuba Denounces New EU Pro-US Plot

Havana, Feb 7
(Prensa Latina) A new pro-US plot on Cuba within the European Union (EU) is planned Wednesday by some country members to undermine the island's independence.

According to Granma newspaper the anticuban plan seeks to apply the wish by George W. Bush's administration to materialize a common position aimed at threatening the Cuban sovereignty.

Prepared by the so-called "Group of Friends for a Democratic Cuba" is led by the Czech Republic and followed by Poland, among other countries of the also denominated converted group, the plot seeks the EU interference in Cuban internal affairs in order to overthrow the government.

Other nations on the group are Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania and Slovenia.

Granma states that position would even more affect bilateral interests of European countries interested in normal relations with the Caribbean island, and those of their citizens.

Granma recalls it was United States the one that, through former rightist President of the Spanish Government Jose Maria Aznar, hanged over the EU in 1996 the adopted Common Position to Havana, which has maintained since then bilateral relations in a "black alley."

In contrast, the EU follows an evasive and silent line faced with tortures and humiliations by hundreds of people illegally detained in US naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba and other secret places of the world, the daily denounces.

The same occurs, continue the editorial, with the secret flights and prisons of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the European territory.

The EU has so far demonstrated incapacity to formulate an own and independent policy towards Cuba, a fact that would make increasingly evident if US satellite countries impose Washington plans in the regional organization, Granma concludes.

WHAT?!?

Confused?

The real US plot must have been to plant a translator at Prensa Latina that doesn’t speak English.

I think what they’re trying to say is that the EU is being pushed by the Czechs and former communist Soviet Block nations to work towards a democratic transition in Cuba.
This is an opportune moment for the push since Germany, which was victimized by a cruel division after WWII by the communists now hold the rotating Presidency of the EU.

The EU’s two newest member, Romania and Bulgaria also suffered under communist oppression and having a first hand experience of what the Cuban people have been enduring for nearly 50 years, will probably also side with the “Friends of a Democratic Cuba”

Think about this: Cuba has been under a Communist Totalitarian Regime LONGER than ex-Warsaw Pact Nations like the Zcech Repuclic, Poland, Hungary among others. The Cuban Families have now been separated by Castro and the Florida Straights 20 more years than the Berliners were separated by the Soviets and the infamous Berlin Wall.




Raul’s choices are clear he can either be a Gorbachev or a Ceauşescu.

Privatazing the Contrarrevolución?

With Charlie Rangel holding the American purse strings and William Delahunt and Jeff Flake willing to make a deal with the House of Castro at any cost, The USIBB is being forced to find innovative and cheaper ways for its "product" to reach its "market"

The USIBB, United States International Broadcasting Bureau, the Federal agency that runs TV Marti, knows it has a real turkey on its hands that's about to get slaughtered and offered up as the main dish on the table of Castro appeasement.

TV Marti has never really reached large numbers of Cubans on the island because of successful jamming, reportedly personally supervised by one of Fidel Castro's sons. It has also been plagued by controversy and scandal.

This makes it an attractive sacrificial turkey to the new congress.

These set of circumstances has caused the agency towards a "market solution"

TV Marti is paying $195,000 for six months worth of broadcasts to WPMF-TV in Miami, an affiliate of the Spanish-language Azteca Americas network, for daily programing. It will be the the first time Marti programming has been broadcast on U.S. airwaves. The programing will be able to reach Cubans on the island through DirectTV.

Here's the Regime's response:

"They are trying new ways to get their meddlesome and subversive messages, designed to destabilize the Cuban revolution, seen and heard in our country," an
article in the Communist Party newspaper Granma said.

"The authorities of our country, with the support of the vast majority of the people, are taking and will take the necessary measures" to halt this new effort to bring TV Marti programming to the country, Granma said.

Read more at the Washington Post

News, commentary and lame comedy is "meddlesome and subversive and destabilizing to the Cuban revolution."

Update:

Today. In Misceláneas de Cuba we get a report form independent Cuban journalist, Juan Carlos Linares Balmaseda, informing us that the Cuba’s communist Regime is already taking measures to prevent the Direct TV broadcast from reaching Cubans.

According to Carlos Linares Balmaseda, the National Revolutionary Police in coordination with the Cuban Phone Company and other government agencies have started a campaign to eradicate satellite dishes.

Watching DirectTV or any satellite transmission is illegal in Cuba. The only legal DirectTV dishes are reserved for Hotels that cater ONLY to foreigners as it is also illegal for Cubans to stay in Hotels. Even in the Hotels the signal is interrupted daily to broadcast “Mesa Redonda”, a Cuban “news” program.

Cubans on the island refer to the DirecTV programming received through the illegal dishes as “Television by Cable” (cable TV).

The joint operation taking place in Havana is an effort to eradicate the illegal dishes and cut the homemade “networks” of cables that distribute the “television by cable”.

Rafael Carlos Núñez y Nelson Herrera, two residents of the Havana suburb of Luyano told Linares Balmaseda that they witnessed “patrols of two policemen and a bout a dozen phone company employees in four vans and sometimes on foot, that were combing Pérez street and would cut any suspicious cables capable of carrying the satellite signal.”

According to Linares Balmaseda, similar operations have been reported in other Havana neighborhoods.

UPDATE II

Read Killcastro's poignantly subversive take on this here

National Down With the Embargo Day

Did I miss the memo?

Is today "Down with Cuban Sanctions Day"?

Palm Beach Post...this one refers to Cuban Exiles as culprits of the Cold War between the Cuba and the US.

In this one a Bay of Pigs veterans criticizes the sanctions:

Roqué thinks the economic sanctions against Cuba are an ineffective policy that should be abandoned. Castro may be dying, but the Cuba he put in place will
not magically revert to a form of democracy most U.S. citizens could identify.

This one here is an ode to the bi-partisanship of Flake and Delahunt in trying to legislate the sanctions away.

In this one, Vicki Huddleston, ex chief of the US Interest Section in Havana pleads to an end to Helms Burton.

... if Congress abrogates or revises Helms-Burton, the president will have the opportunity to respond should Raul Castro begin to carry out reforms. For
example, should Raul Castro allow Cubans to open their own businesses, in order to meet the pent up expectations of Cuba's youth for jobs and better pay, Mr. Bush could remove restrictions that block the sale of computers, televisions and radios, thereby enhancing the flow of information and ideas that would prompt more and faster political as well as economic reform.

Forty-five years later, isn't it time to clear the way for a new relationship?

In this one On The Hill we learn:

Congressional supporters of easing restrictions on travel and agricultural trade to Cuba say business supporters need to offer stronger backing for several measures introduced this year if they are to become law.

Read: If you want to go take advantage of the slaves in Cuba and make some profits, give campaign contributions to those who are trying to fight the Miami Mafia. From our best bud Charlie Rangel:

Rangel acknowledged that President Bush may veto the legislation for political reasons. “The president will probably veto it,” Rangel said. “For the president, you know, it’s not a trade thing, it’s a Miami thing.”

Even at Babalu we have an anti-sanction post from Marc at Uncommon Sense.

I did have mushroom pizza last night.............you think?......nah!

Law limiting research travel to Cuba upheld


A federal judge upheld a Florida law that bans students and professors from using university money to travel to Cuba or any nation deemed a "terrorist state."

U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan rejected the challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union to stop enforcement of the law.

Who and Why

Miami 's Mega TV's Polos Opuestos with Maria Elvira Zalazar is reporting that the Doctor who operated on Fidel Castro is

Dr. Julian Ruiz Torres

who is currently under house arrest in what is referred to in Cuba as "Plan Pijama"

According to Zalazar's sources there were complications after the operation because of an infection caused by an opportunistic bacteria called Pseudomonas aeruginosa .

This bacteria occurs in medial facilities that haven't been properly sanitized!

Apparently, Castro was operated in an operating room in the presidential palace where he has his offices and they didn't have the necessary equipment to sterilize the room and or equipment.

Halftime

Ño……….Se la Comió

My Favorite Prince Song:

Is it About Cuba?...

It is for me.

7

All 7 and we'll watch them fall
They stand in the way of love
And we will smoke them all
With an intellect and a savoir-faire
No one in the whole universe
Will ever compare
I am yours now and u are mine
And together we'll love through
All space and time, so don't cry
One day all 7 will die
All 7 and we'll watch them fall
They stand in the way of love
And we will smoke them all
With an intellect and a savoir-faire
No one in the whole universe
Will ever compare
I am yours now and u are mine
And together we'll love through
All space and time, so don't cry
One day all 7 will die

And I saw an angel come down unto me
In her hand she holds the very key
Words of compassion, words of peace
And in the distance an army's marching feet (1,2,3,4 - 1,2,3,4)
But behold, we will watch them fall

And we lay down on the sand of the sea
And before us animosity will stand and decree
That we speak not of love only blasphemy
And in the distance, 6 others will curse me
But that's alright, (that's alright)
4 I will watch them fall(1,2,3,4,5,6,7)

All 7 and we'll watch them fall
They stand in the way of love
And we will smoke them all
With an intellect and a savoir-faire
No one in the whole universe
Will ever compare
I am yours now and u are mine
And together we'll love through
All space and time, so don't cry
One day all 7 will die

[(Just how old)]

And we will see a plague and a river of blood
And every evil soul will surely die in spite of
Their 7 tears, but do not fear
4 in the distance, 12 souls from now
U and me will still be here - we will still be here

There will be a new city with streets of gold
The young so educated they never grow old
And a, there will be no death 4 with every breath
The voice of many colors sings a song
That's so bold
Sing it while we watch them fall

All 7 and we'll watch them fall
They stand in the way of love
And we will smoke them all
With an intellect and a savoir-faire
No one in the whole universe
Will ever compare
I am yours now and u are mine
And together we'll love through
All space and time, so don't cry
One day all 7 will die

[(Just how old)]
[(Just how old)]
[(Just how old)]

La Novela de Fidel

Fidel’s soap opera is about to get canceled according to Marifeli Perez-Stable, FIU Professor.
Though the theme for the new show seems to be more of the same Fidelista genre, the new show seems to have a different style and focus:

In the meantime, life -- such as it is -- goes on in Cuba. We can argue endlessly about the significance of the past six months. The succession -- not a transition, which can only be to democracy -- is happening before our eyes. On the regime's terms, it is a success. For now. Cubans are said to be fearful and anxious about what lies ahead, yet also relieved. Interminable speeches and ideological battles are receding. The nightly soap opera often starts on time at 8:30, sparing viewers the soporific Roundtable on current events.

There's more but, on the whole, not much yet. Still, we're getting inklings of what might be. In six months, Raúl Castro has paid more attention to the economy than his brother did in six years. Sure, talk about results isn't earthshaking anywhere except for Cuba. Even the modest economic reforms of the early 1990s were long ago frozen, curtailed or retrenched. In 2004, for example, the regime pared back self-employment licenses for 40 private gainful activities, including clowns, magicians, masseurs/masseuses and vendors of sundries like soap, mousetraps and funeral wreaths.

The Professor also brings the very real of internal changes within the party itself that could bring sweeping changes to Cuba’s economy if not its politics.

A few days ago, the Financial Times reported that the Communist Party is finally preparing the long-delayed congress for late this year or early 2008. As far as I know, it is the first instance of an official mention of the blessed event, even if attributed to unnamed party insiders. Why is this significant? Castro, the elder, has long resisted the serious discussion of economic reforms that the congress could not avoid. A year from now he'll likely be dead or so deteriorated that the successors can go about their business unhindered. If he's alive and recuperated, then they're in trouble.

Like a true Novela what ultimately will happen is anybody guess. Perez-Stable's advice:

Stay tuned!

The Whole Letter Here

Keep The Bubbly On Ice

The Castro Deathwatch Continues.

How much longer?

What does he have?

Why doesn't he die already?!?

Some answers from Dr Tim at Blogcritics.org

What next for Castro? First, he will never return to power. At his age, with so many complications, he will never fully recover. A study done several years ago on healthy medical students confined to bed for one week showed that it took months to return to their baseline weight, muscle mass, and conditioning. For 80-year-olds who are six months into a severe illness, there is only a downward spiral. How long will it take? That depends on his condition at the moment. Once a person with severe illness such as this gets to a point of disability where he cannot move his own body weight without assistance, survival is measured in days to weeks. As long as he is still able to move as he appears to be in the October video, he may have months to years. But, the complications leave him fragile and highly susceptible to a sudden event such as a heart attack, meaning he could go any day. And he has no realistic chance of being able to return to his former power, except in the most limited way.

There's even some Political Commentary:

Not that anything is likely to change that much in Cuba any time soon anyway, whether Castro survives or not. The 76-year-old Raul, who has been with his older brother since the beginning of the 26th of July Movement began and has been his close confidant, has shown no sign of changing Cuban policy and is unlikely to make radical changes any time soon. More likely, major change in Cuba is to have to wait until a new generation of politicians moves into power. For the moment, the death watch continues.

Enjoy the Whole Thing Here

Cuban Corruption: Les Miserables

Castro made them do it.

Now that the new Cuban dictator has decreed that the the corruption that plagues the dysfunctional Cuban "Economy" is systemic, the MSM in Havana has decided it's OK to tell the rest of the world that the Cubans stuck on Communism (read Stupid) have no choice but to steal from the State in order to survive.

Remember ,working in Cuba is a struggle. Getting to work requires navigating through the country's dismal transportation system and it can take hours to get to your job. No matter where you work, you've got the same boss as everybody else; the Regime. Its a despotic and humiliating work-life that has reduced the average Cuban in a modern day Jean Veljean.

From Sunday's Sun Sentinel. (the Tribune Co. )

Can desire to subsist be called corruption?

Excerpts:

A dysfunctional economy means major problems with productivity and the delivery of goods and services, forcing many Cubans to break some law in order scrape out a living. Many steal from state enterprises and then sell items -- from air conditioners to microwaves to lobster tails and slabs of horsemeat -- "por la izquierda," or "from the left," a common phrase used to refer the black market.

Communist authorities like to point out that all Cubans are guaranteed employment and education, health care, housing and food. Still, many workers who rely on their $12 to $15 a month in earnings from state-run businesses said salaries alone are never enough to make ends meet.

"The perception is very clear among economists here that the Cuban economy doesn't function," said Pedro Monreal, a professor at the Center for Research on the International Economy. "In the end, it is difficult to imagine popular support for whatever follows Fidel if that ... government does not deliver in terms of the well-being of the people."

For many Cubans, the problems with the system include inadequate public transportation, crumbling housing, food shortages and soaring prices.

Monreal said he was encouraged by the government's willingness to at least discuss economic reforms that years ago were considered taboo, including decentralizing control in businesses, expanding the power of managers at privately owned agriculture cooperatives and increasing incentives to workers.

"What are people waiting for? Cheaper food," he said. "If the Cuban government does not provide that, nothing of what it says will be believed. If you cannot produce food at reasonable prices, you will have no credibility."

And, Eddie a Modern Day, Real Life Jean Valjean adds:

"The government calls it corruption," he said. "We call it survival, subsistence. We're not criminals. Pay us what we deserve. Put food in the markets. Watch the corruption disappear."

Article Here

ChaChaChanges?

The Raul Castro propaganda machine is slick, but not that slick.

Frances Robles has an interesting article in Saturday’s Miami Herald. With a great headline:

In Cuba, dissent by invitation only

It tells us a story of some so called Cuban Intellectuals who were invited by the new regime to go to a conference this past Tuesday and “criticize a particularly harsh era of censorship -- out loud and in the open.”

Now the intellectuals are not dissenting over human rights or lack of freedoms or the prohibition of multiparty elections, NO. The intellectuals were complaining about the TV appearances of some hard-line communists, (is there anything else?), who in the seventies cracked down on artists, writers and other Marxists intellectuals.

Now, these communist fossils were only following the orders of Fidel at the time, but this is conveniently forgotten.

Excerpts:

The flare-up was triggered when Cuban TV ran a laudatory profile last month of
Luis Pavón Tamayo, the former chairman of the National Culture Council. Pavón's
five-year reign was dubbed the ''The Gray Quinquennium'' -- The Five Gray Years- for its record of arrests and censorship.

A magazine editor convoked a conference led by writer Ambrosio Fornet and attended by Culture Minister Abel Prieto to debate the topic. But tickets were
given only to some 450 people.

Reports from Cuba say young writers who were not invited protested outside.

OK so the government who owns the TV station puts some guy on TV. It hurts the sensibility of some. Then the government convenes a conference where, those within the same government complain about the government programming. HMM? yup that’s dissent alright. Dog and Pony show is more like it. BUT nobody’s buying it anymore.

The good thing is that those “protesting” outside didn’t get harassed. Hmm?

Anyway, Robles got the opinion of some “real” dissidents:

''I don't know how important it can be, but what's true is that I have never seen anything like that in Cuba,'' Cuban writer Ena Lucía Portela told The Miami Herald in an e-mail. ``It was rudimentary, passionate, incoherent, but it was the closest thing to freedom of expression I have seen in this country in my entire life.''

''The act established a turning point that we hope will be irreversible,'' writer Reynaldo González, winner of the 2003 National Literary Prize, said in an e-mail to The Miami Herald. ``And it has created an echo that will be difficult to stifle, even if someone tries to do so.''

Portela, 34, wasn't invited, and viewed the conference as a white-wash. ''A half-century of lies is not something that can change overnight,'' she said.

Former Cuban political prisoner Manuel Vásquez Portal agreed,saying it was nothing but a political ploy aimed at identifying dissenters.

''Look, Raúl Castro is a soldier. Soldiers don't debate. They order,'' said Vásquez, a former independent journalist. ``If he wants to debate, he'd free prisoners of conscience and invite them to debate.''

HA! That’s the real change, folks. The press challenging the official party line.

Now, this whole ''The Gray Quinquennium'' is interesting.

It may even reveal a glimpse into the subtle power struggles going on within the ruling Copula in Cuba.

Ramiro Valdes, which is the new information guy and sharing power with Raul in an uncomfortable arrangement, may have put the fellow hardliners on TV to send out a message.

The ensuing brouhaha could be the Raul response to let Valdes know that he’s got the will and the means to fight Valdes

But who knows. The bottom line is that nothing has really changed for the Cuban citizen and probably wont until the Beast is gone.

While My Eyes Gently Weep

Sometimes, Songs can take on a new meaning when you listen to them with a different frame of mind.

I’ve been listening to the Beatles “Love” over and over since Christmas.

It’s a new updated Beatles.

Anyway, Charlie Bravo at Kill Castro is a true Beatles expert, and he suggested a closer listen to the version of “While my guitar gently weeps” by George Harrison, RIP, in “Love”

With a Beck’s in hand and my beloved island on my mind, I dug up the headphones and listened:


I look at you all see the love there that's sleeping

While my guitar gently weeps

I look at the floor and I see it needs sweeping

Still my guitar gently weeps

I don't know why nobody told you

how to unfold your love

I don't know how someone controlled you

They bought and sold you.

I look at the world and I notice it's turning

While my guitar gently weeps

With every mistake we must surely be learning

Still my guitar gently weeps

I don't know how you were diverted

You were perverted too

I don't know how you were inverted

No one alerted you.

I look at you all see the love there that's sleeping

While my guitar gently weeps

Look at you all...Still my guitar gently weeps.


I felt as that was written for Cuba, while my eyes gently weeped.

We’re all going to Die!

Forget Florida being invaded with refugees caused by a mass exodus from Cuba once Fidel dies, we’ve got way bigger problems than that, really.

According to a UN report and This Sun Sentinel Article, we’re doomed.

A much-debated U.N. report on climate change to be released today raises the specter of rising sea levels and hurricanes that could eventually swamp much of South Florida.

Specifically, experts are looking at predictions of sea level rise over the next 50 years from 2 feet to 10 feet.

"At that point, forget about Everglades restoration ... Most of this area is maybe 10 feet above sea level, so if you're talking about a 10-foot rise, and rising tide on top of that, then it's all over."

Whole article here

Everglades Restoration?!? Dude, my house is the red zone! Who cares about that stinky swamp being restored? Why? So it can stink more than it already does? I care about my house and my mango tree.

..and speaking of raising specters:

Needless to say, I was suicidal upon reading this. That is, until I read a Miami Herald article about the Castro- Chavez summit in Havana. All my fears melted when I read that Fidel, not only has been walking, phoning orders and almost jogging, but has also been studying Global Warming in his spare time, according to Emperor Chavez.

Chávez: Castro is looking better

''He has gained several kilograms, and I think he is walking about more than me,
analyzing, studying,'' Chávez told a news conference.

Chávez said Castro has taken to studying climate change and sent him a book on the topic. ''He is doing a master's degree on climate change,'' Chávez said.

"I think he knows more than all the scientists.''

He also knows more than all the Doctors, Economists, Psychologists, Professors, Generals, Meterologists, etc.

So now that the all-knowing dictator is working on climate change, we can all take a breath of relief since given his problem solving track record Global Warming will be totally …….

OK I’m off to buy an inflatable raft

Paranoia in South Florida

Mica: U.S. ready for Cuban exodus

South Florida can breathe a sigh of relief this morning, maybe.

Yesterday, the Sun Sentinel, in its continuing public service to ally the Cubanophobia that’s gripping South Florida, reassured the popolation that we're ready for a mass exodus out of the tropical concentration camp a few miles south of here.

The city of Miami was trying to “contain” any possible celebrations by offering up a venue where Cubans could go and celebrate quietly and out of sight so as not to “offend” anybody.

The rest of South Florida is gripped in a collective paranoia over the possibility of a “mass exodus” out of the concentration camp once Fidel dies.

Excerpts:

The U.S. government is ready to stop a mass migration of Cubans to Florida's shores when President Fidel Castro dies, two lawmakers said Wednesday after meeting with military and homeland-security officials.

U.S. Rep. John Mica of Winter Park, the top Republican on the House Transportation Committee, organized the closed-door meeting to find out whether the Coast Guard and other Homeland Security agencies are prepared.

Mica said he was satisfied with what he heard. U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, agreed. The U.S. will not lose control of its borders, Diaz-Balart said. "That's just not an option."

Et tu, Brute?

A full-scale exercise, with role-playing of migrants landing in the U.S. and being interdicted at sea will be conducted March 7-8.

O'Neil said the government has learned lessons from the 1980 Mariel boatlift, in
which Castro allowed more than 100,000 people to come to Florida, as well as smaller influxes of Cubans in 1994 and 2004.

BUT……….

But Andy Gomez, assistant provost of the University of Miami and a scholar on Cuban issues who has met with federal officials about their plan, said they may be underestimating the fallout from Castro's death.

Gomez said as many as 500,000 Cubans could end up fleeing if social and political unrest breaks out on the island just 90 miles from Florida

Upon Castro's death, Gomez said, his brother likely would be given about six months to try to improve the lot of Cubans' lives before people begin to flee en masse.

Aricle Here


Nobody asked Gusano, a Cuban Refugee from Davie, Florida, about the situation.

But Gusano would have said that the best way to have a stable Cuba and prevent a mass exodus would be to send a couple of aircraft carriers and a marine expeditionary unit.

In heavily accented English Mr. Gusano would have said “Once the Dog is Dead, The Rabies is Gone”

Venezuela 1/31/07

Approximately six months ago, a little boy was born in Caracas. He was the first son of a young couple.

In about five years, the boy will start his formal education. He will be taught that everything he has, he owes to Hugo Chavez, He will be taught to hate some people called “Yankee imperialists”. He will be taught that as a good Bolivarian Revolutionary Youth, it is his duty to report to his teacher anything that his parents or other members of his family say or do that is against Hugo’s Bolivarian Revolution.

He will learn to march, sing revolutionary songs and learn to be like men with names like Che and Fidel. He will be taught to assemble an AK-47 and to destroy his soul. He will be forced to volunteer his time and work the fields and never, ever complain.

His life will be a constant struggle to survive in a country where every institution exists to strip him of his individuality and free will. He will live in terror that the government agents will come to take his father away like they did to his friend’s dad.

He will get all his news and information from official government sources who will twist reality and he will be bombarded with Hugo’s propaganda 24/7.

If he’s lucky, his parents will find a way out of Venezuela and he will look back at his country to say goodbye, maybe never to return.

He may find himself in Miami or New York, learn a new language, and be free, but he will always dream of the green Venezuelan mountains he left behind.

And many years from now, he might even sit in a dark room at night and dream of returning to his country. Perhaps he will dream of taking up arms against the people who stole his innocence and his childhood. Perhaps he’ll use the future equivalent of a blog to spread the truth about the horrors of Venezuelan society.

Perhaps, he’ll cry for another little boy, in another part of the world that is about to suffer what he has suffered.

Reporters Without Borders on Cuba

Reporters Without Borders Just came out with their 2006 Report. As usual, In Cuba, the more things change , the more they stay the same.

Reporters Without Borders has been in the forefront of highlighting the plight for a free and independent press in Cuba and in fighting for the release of jailed journalists.

On Cuba:

Cuba, the last dictatorship in the Americas, is thus no longer the only country in the region to jail journalists but it remains the world’s second biggest prison for them, with 24 detained. President Fidel Castro’s handover of power to his brother Raúl on 31 July did not soften the regime’s attitude to dissident media and secret police hounding and summoning of journalists increased in the second half of the year.

Two journalists arrested in 2005 were freed but two others were imprisoned. They were Armando Betancourt, a freelance working with the Nueva Prensa Cubana agency in Camagüey held without trial by state security police since 23 May, and Raymundo Perdigón Brito, founder of the Yayabo Press news agency, who was given a four-year prison sentence on 5 December for “socially dangerous behaviour.” Guillermo Espinosa Rodríguez, of the Agencia de Prensa Libre Oriental (APLO), was put under house arrest for two years.

Synopsis of the report:

Cuba - Annual report 2007

President Fidel Castro’s stepping-aside in favour of his brother Raúl did not reduce pressure on the independent media and 24 journalists remain in prison. One of them, Guillermo Fariñas Hernández, staged several hunger strikes over seven months, calling for free Internet access for all Cubans. He was awarded the Reporters Without Borders Cyber-freedom Prize. Will defence minister and army commander Raúl Castro allow more basic freedoms ?

on the Inernet:

With less than 2 per cent of its population online, Cuba is one of the most backward Internet countries. An investigation carried out by Reporters Without Borders in October revealed that the Cuban government uses several levers to ensure that this medium is not used in a “counter-revolutionary” way. Firstly, it has more or less banned private Internet connections. To surf the Internet or check their e-mail, Cubans have to go to public access points such as Internet cafes, universities and “youth computer clubs” where their activity is more easily monitored. Secondly, the computers in all the Internet cafes and leading hotels contain software installed by the Cuban police that triggers an alert message whenever “subversive” key-words are spotted. The regime also ensures that there is no Internet access for dissidents and independent journalists, for whom communicating with people abroad is an ordeal. Finally, the government also relies on self-censorship. You can get 20 years in prison for writing “counter-revolutionary” articles for foreign websites. You can even get five years just for connecting to the Internet illegally. Few Internet users dare to run the risk of defying the regime’s censorship.

Guillermo Fariñas Hernández, head of the Cubanacán Press agency in Santa Clara, staged several hunger-strikes to support his demand for all Cubans to be allowed free access to the Internet. He was awarded the Reporters Without Borders - Fondation de France Cyber-freedom Prize on 12 December.

Full Report Here

I highlight the internet portion because I feel that once the internet barrier is broken, the truth will flood the island and have unprecedented results.

Don't forget:

As with every Friday , we join Cafe Cubano and our dissidents brothers and sisters in a fast to show solidarity and respect for their bravery.