September 27, 2005

Jay Nordlinger: Honorary Miami Mafia Member

Not only is Jay Nordlinger an honorary member of the Miami Mafia, but his attention to and solidarity with the cause of freedom for Cuba makes him a Made Man in Mafia speak. Today he takes on the Che chic once again, and with the prestige and exposure of the National Review Online and his Impromptus column, sheds light on the plight of Cuban Political Prisoner of Conscience Dr. Luis Milan Fernandez:

And have a taste of Cuba, in the form of a report from the Coalition of Cuban-American Women:
According to the testimony of Lisandra Lafitta, wife of the physician and prisoner of conscience Dr. Luis Milan Fernandez, her husband, a man free of mental ailments, has been arbitrarily confined since February 18, 2005, to a psychiatric ward of the Boniato Prison Hospital in Santiago de Cuba. Dr. Milan, serving a 13-year prison term, is forced to share a cell with patients suffering a variety of mental disorders . . .

Dr. Milan is unable to sleep due to the incessant mosquitoes and suffocating heat (40 degrees Celsius in the shade). To escape this situation he sleeps on the floor, under his bed.

Following an inspection of the Boniato Prison on June 10, 2005, when trucks arrived and guards with dogs searched every cell, Dr. Milan lost all his maps and the personal letters he had received from different countries. . . . Also, he is prohibited from receiving any medicines or food that his family takes him.

Dr. Milan, who is 35 years old, has always been a very healthy man. When he was transferred from the Prison of Canaleta in Ciego de Avila (where he was confined along with 146 common prisoners) to the Combinado del Este Prison in Havana, where he underwent a medical check-up, penal authorities diagnosed the following illnesses: a tumor in the left humerus, loss of hearing, pulmonary emphysema (he does not smoke but was exposed to cigarette smoke in the Prison of Canaleta), hypertension, swollen nasal turbinates, and an enlarged liver. Dr. Milan refuses to undergo the required biopsies and surgical procedures required to treat these ailments since he does not trust the medical personnel in the prison.

Dr. Luis Milan Fernandez is a member of the Independent Cuban Medical Association (Colegio Medico Independiente de Cuba). In June 2001 he and his wife, a dentist, signed a document titled "Manifiesto 2001," calling for recognition of fundamental freedoms in Cuba. . . .


Friends, I get 15 or 20 of these a week, and share very few of them. Some are more gruesome or outrageous than others, but they all speak to one, central fact: Cuba is a Communist hell, made all the more sorrowful by the huge and unshakable support the regime receives from Free World elites.

Gracias, Jay! For your solidarity and your neverending support.


Hat Tip Scott.

Posted by Val Prieto at September 27, 2005 09:07 AM



Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.babalublog.com/cgi-bin/mt/hut.cgi/2289

Comments

I think the better products would be Preperation Che -- or Che-Y Jelly. To quote Frank Zappa, the slogan could "Che-Y Jelly, 'Ram it, ram it, ram it, up the Poop Shoot!'" Or for the Cuban market, the slogan could be, "Me Cago en Che"


Posted by: mike pancier at September 27, 2005 09:20 AM

I believe the purpose of the Che lip balm is to replace Ipecac as a means of making you hurl.

Posted by: Fausta at September 27, 2005 10:24 AM

This is from the column:

Then I received a letter from a reader, who said, "I was in Newport for a couple of days and ran across a new Che Guevara item: Che lip balm, made in Australia, and, according to the sales clerk, selling quite well. I asked if it was disconcerting to be selling lip balm named for a Communist book-burning murderer. She said, 'No, I admire the things he did earlier.' Great."

To see the lip balm, in all its glory, please go here. The text reads, "Exotic, revolutionary lip balm dedicated to the great, immortal icon of revolution, Che Guevara. 100% natural protection. Guava flavour." [my emphasis]

Oh, guava flavour!

If it weren't so evil, it would be the stuff of great satire: Hitler Soap-on-a-roap -- made only from the finest Juden. Or how about The Stalin Diet -- guaranteed weight loss or your life back!

Jeez.

Posted by: George L. Moneo at September 27, 2005 10:35 AM

"...I admire the things he did earlier."

Like what? Drive around on a motorcycle and keep a diary?

Once I rode my motorcycle from Portland to Pasadena to Knoxville to Massachusetts. I drove through a snowstorm in the Siskiyou Mountains, attended a wedding in the San Joaquin Valley, went to a disco in Los Angelels, caught a cold in Amarillo, got a speeding ticket from the Texas highway patrol, got stared at in Ft. Smith Arkansas, enjoyed fabulous ribs and saw Ma Rainey in Memphis, and froze my ass off in the Appalachian Mountains.

Can I be a cultural icon now? Images are being prepared. You can deposit my royalty payments in my PayPal account

Posted by: Scott at September 27, 2005 05:19 PM