Useful Idiots (UPDATED)

A Crash Course

I was going to do a proper fisking of this post about an Omnipotent Tourist's recent trip to Cuba, but the sheer ignorance and willing myopea of the writer pretty much does it for me.

You cant look up the term "useful idiot" anywhere and get a better definition.

UPDATE by George Moneo (June 30 at 10:48 PM): I had to do this. The gentleman tourist who took so much offense to our criticizing him for praising that wonderful communist -- er, socialist -- system in Cuba changed the title of his post:

"New Title to Avoid More Crackpots"

Nick, Nick, Nick! How tawdry! I take umbrage at being called a "crackpot"; I am a charter member of the crazy cuban anti-castro mafia™! Please, get it straight, will ya?

Nick also closed comments on this post and deleted the old ones. Nice, eh? They are so tolerant of debate aren't they?

Amanda Christine

Just got off the phone with our good friend Robert (26th Parallel) who's been at the hospital all day waiting for the latest addition to the family to arrive.

Im honored to say that Robert is the proud papa of beautiful Amanda Christine!!!

No complications, both mother and baby girl are doing well and the frazzled daddy is exhuberant!!!!

Felicidades to the Molleda family!!!

Que Dios la bendiga.

An anniversary I'd rather forget

On Tuesday, when Babalú Blog turned two, there was also another celebration going on. This one most certainly an orchestrated one, taking place in Cuba, marking the fifth anniversary of the return of Elian Gonzalez to his father.

Havana, Jun 28 (Prensa Latina) Five years ago today, Tuesday, little Elián González, the boy who survived a shipwreck and became the center of a legal dispute between his father in Cuba and distant relatives that held him in the United States, returned to Havana.

The happy ending of this drama, the return of the child to his father in Cuba, was headlined in local press, recalling the mobilization of the people of Cuba and world support on his behalf.

I remember there being much ado by certain elements of the US population, the world population and the MSM about the boy belonging with his father. (This despite evidence in hand by a certain local metropolitan newspaper, that the father did, indeed, want the boy to remain in the US):

Elian´s retention in Miami by distant relatives, helped by anti-Cuban sectors in southern Florida, provoked an outcry and huge demonstrations on the Island that sparked what is today known as the "Battle of Ideas".

The first victory of those ideas, Elian´s return, was the fruit of group effort by all Cubans, international solidarity and the majority of the people in the United States, Granma daily proclaims on its front page.

The Battle of Ideas?

Well, I have an idea, too. How about the MSM and those that were oh so vocal in their zeal to have the boy returned to his father and all those that were oh so vocal about parental rights, get on their podiums and pulpits, start their letter writing campaigns, write their congresspersons and media outlets to help these two boys travel to be reunited with their father:

Why hasnt the MSM taken up the cause for allowing these boys to travel to see their father? After all, the MSM was the leader of the parental rights brigade back during the Elian crisis. The MSM spearheaded the effort to reunite the boy with his father.

Why hasnt the MSM said word one about these boys not being allowed to travel to see their own father?

I know why. Do you?

De Oppresso Liber, Sic Semper Tyrannis!

I've been responding to each person that commented or emailed me with congratulations on Babalu's two year blogiversary the day before yesterday. I've been rather busy these past few days and Iknow I havent gotten to everyone, but there's one response to a thank note I sent that I want to share with you all.

I responded to a nice note of congrats from Sgt B of The Gun Line as follows:

Gracias, Sgt B! For your support and kind words about Babalu. And a heartfelt thanks for your service to this country, our country, that has taken me in and let me be part of the family.

Cuban by birth, American by the Grace of God.

Siempre fiel,

Val

Sgt B responded with what, to me, was a profoundly touching note:

Val,

Every human being has the right to freedom in his or her own country of origin. There are cultural aspects that come from these countries. Some bring their culture to this Nation by choice, other because they cannot live in the country of their birth. These things you know. The fact the Cuban culture is so vibrant and exotic, especially to those of us who see it from the outside, simply increases the anger felt when such a beautiful people are oppressed, especially by a tyrannical and out of touch entity as that bearded ape who sits in Havana.

I want to celebrate your culture with you, and I am thankful that you have brought such passion (as a people) to THIS Nation. It is a delightful thread of the American tapestry...

But Cubans are not here by choice, but by tragic happenstance, and while this country reaps the benefits of such culture, I shall not be satisfied until a Cuban patriot can stand upon the shores of Cuba, and hold in his or her hand a handful of sand, and say, "This is the soil of a Free Nation."

I wish this for every culture whose primary goal is to allow its citizens to prosper, find their fortunes during the day, and, in the evening hours, teach the rest of us yet another way of living life to the fullest!

Siempre Fiel,
Semper Fidelis,
De Oppresso Liber,
Sic Semper Tryannis!

Very Sincerely Yours,

"Sgt. B."

Gracias, Sgt B! For your understanding and your solidarity. It is an truly honor.

Arroz! Que carne no hay! (UPDATED)

Perhaps those newfangled rice cookers fidel is selling to the people have some newfangled attachment thingie that sifts the gusanos out?

SANTA CLARA, Cuba - June 28 (Félix Reyes Gutiérrez, Cubanacán Press / www.cubanet.org) - The government food distribution network sold wormy rice in Caibarién under the food rationing plan. Consumers complained the worms were so big they could be mistaken for grains of rice.

At the La Estrella establishment, one unhappy consumer, Yakenia Hernández, said: "This is more worms than rice; they are going to kill us."

At the Unidad 35 outlet, Yanet Bermúdez said: "Any day now, they'll give us worms instead of rice."

The quota rice, sold at 25 centavos a pound, is five pounds per person per month.

Rice is a staple in the Cuban diet.

UPDATE (by George Moneo): In comment to this post, Eleggua wrote:

Well there are people in the U.S. who think that Cuba is the future in the "post peak oil world." Absolute must read, Val. This is what happens when American "scientists" study Cuba and travel there.

I want to urge all of you read this document because it is the single most idiotic load of horse dung I have read in a long time. Let me give you one long quote so you can get the flavor. These are the closing paragraphs:

Mostly the people are not dour or bleak. They are discovering (or maybe they always knew) the importance of community and community values. They told us that things were very difficult but they also told us what they were proud of – quality education, free health care with a focus on prevention, long life expectancy, excellence in sports, and their survival in spite of the U.S. embargo. Some even said they thought the embargo had made Cuba stronger.

Machines in Cuba are not gone, but there are far fewer of them than there were before 1990 and the ones left are not used near as much.

We would invite you to visit Cuba, but we also know that our government wouldn’t allow it. And we can understand this policy: Cuba is a threat to the American way of life... for which we at Community Service are grateful. The Cubans’ agrarian, low-energy, cooperative life style is more in line with our values than is the modern consumer society of growth, competition and consumption, based on using an ever-shrinking supply of fossil fuels.

We wish Wendell Berry and Wes Jackson could visit Cuba as we did and see an agrarian way of life being reborn. Wendell’s poem notes, “I don’t like machines... Some day they will be gone, and that will be a glad and a holy day.” Cuba is well on the way to that glad and holy time.

Friends, how do you answer this? This is a love song to a way of life created because one evil man refuses to join the community of nations and let his people freely enjoy the fruits of modernization, progress, and technology. And the dolts that wrote this tripe actually thinks it is a good thing!

F***ING INCREDIBLE

From this article in the NYT about clothing for the elite at the Hamptons, we get this:

For men, a custom-painted blazer is $650. On the sample blazer, Fidel Castro smokes a cigar under the word Cuba in 70's disco lettering. It is another example of the artist - in this case not a rapper but a Brooklyn painter - refashioning and reclaiming a starchy white man's classic.

It snores the testicles.

No kidding... (Updated)

The castroite press is reporting:

Havana, June 29 (AIN) The visit by Cuban President Fidel Castro to Venezuela to participate in the First Energy Meeting of the Caribbean Heads of State, PetroCaribe, is being widely covered by the Venezuelan and foreign press.

No kidding, castro shills. So let's take a look at what that foreign press says:

BLOOMBERG reports that the summit was a miserable failure because castro turned up. His appearance repelled Barbados and Trinidad whose leaders could barely stand to be in the same room with the Beast.

DANIEL IN YARACUY in two remarkable posts, calls it disgusting and pathetic, notes the Dominican Republic and cites recent history and forecasts the blackmail nature of this venture doomed to failure. He was right.

INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY says it was all about castro blackmailing the Dominican Republic. And they'll probably ship Cuban doctors too - as this BLOOMBERG quote also suggests: ...seeking to foster energy and social development, Ramirez said.

REUTERS reports that Chavez got angry a lot about a lot of things.

XINHUA reports that castro hurled the word 'crazy' around a lot and then the bearded market genius forecast oil at $150 a barrel. What an ass.

Maybe the castroite press shouldn't announce this kind of coverage of castro too loudly, it gives us too many horselaughs.

UPDATE: For the final punchline, the castroite press is now bitching about all the press coverage it's getting. What did these clowns expect?

Heh! heh!

Havana, Jun 30 (AIN) The presence of Cuban President Fidel Castro at the Caribbean energy summit that concluded on Wednesday even made headlines in Venezuela’s right-wing newspapers.

El Nacional ran an article titled “Fidel Shows Up at Energy Summit in Puerto La Cruz.”

OK, who wants to take a stab at this email? (Updated)

I tried to respond to the following email I recieved last night, but...well...see for yourselves:

Hola Val--A friend just turned me on to your blog. I really enjoy reading it. I guess you could call me an anti-Castro, anti travel-ban patriotic American. I just read the article by the couple who traveled there, became disgusted, and got fined. I think all of us should be able to go there and see for ourselves and have the freedom to be disgusted. What disgusts me is this paternalistic "we know what's best for you" attitude. I feel there is no justification for it. My Cuban friends who hate Fidel still manage to get money to their relatives. Pure hippocracy! Why can't I go there, see for myself, and give money to anti-Castro relatives of my Cuban-American friends?

One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. From what I know, the travel ban has been in place more-or-less for 46 years through ten US presidents. If you have rational, no-BS answers to my comments, I'd love to hear them. Maybe I'll change my mind!

I'm looking forward to your answer. Keep up the good work and great blog. --(name withheld)

Update: I thought Id post my response:

Thanks for your kind words about the blog. If I may, I would like to respond to the rest of your email, sano y sin malicia, sanely and without malice.

I think all of us should be able to go there and see for ourselves and have the freedom to be disgusted.

What about the freedom of those in Cuba, who are second class citizens next to tourists that feel the need to travel there and have the freedom to be disgusted? A freedom the Cubans themselves dont have?

What disgusts me is this paternalistic "we know what's best for you" attitude.

I dont think we are claiming to know whats best for you nor being paternalistic. But why is it that some are arrogant enough to even contemplate the idea that through a short, two week trip they have the ability to understand a whole culture and country and ideology and history? What will you gain from visitig Cuba? To see it for yourself? Why dont you take my word for it? Do you think we are trying to pull the wool over your eyes? For what purpose?

I feel there is no justification for it.

Justification for what, exactly? Is the suffering and exiling of 2 million people not enough to justify to you that we know what we are talking about? What would you want us to justify? Are you being presumptuous enough to tell me, a Cuban that you understand Cuba and her situation better than I?

My Cuban friends who hate Fidel still manage to get money to their relatives. Pure hippocracy!

If concern for your family, and the channeling of a few dollars here and there to feed them is hypocrisy, then every single Cuban exile is a hypocrite. How many letters do you recieve from relatives asking for aspirin? Or begging for a couple bars of real soap? Or tampons? Do you know what cuban women use for tampons, (name withheld)? Cuban women who dont have access to tourist and dollars stores that is? Dont you think that Cubans in exile learned anything from enduring over twenty years of not being able to communicate with their families much less than send them trifles?

Do you know that now, as of last year, fidel castro takes 20% off the top of every single remittance sent to the island? Do you know who runs the tourism industry in Cuba?

Why can't I go there, see for myself, and give money to anti-Castro relatives of my Cuban-American friends?

Question is, why would you want to go there and see for yourself? How is your going there going to change your Cuban friends lives in the long run? What about after you leave? What happens to them after your two weeks furlow? You think they need you to travel to Cuba to teach them about what life is like in the US?

The rafts only go one way, (name withheld). They already know.

Shave and a Haircut

Two bits

I cut my hair at a Cuban-owned barber shop. With the exception of a time frame of about 5 years during my twenties, when I was more concerned with the "look" and what was "in", I pretty much have always cut my hair at small Cuban barber shops. There's a certain familiarity to these small barber shops, a certain feeling of home, a certain nostalgia to them. Each and every time I go to one, I remember my grandfather, who took me to my first barbershop here in Miami and accompanied me on every subsequent haircut thereafter when I was a kid.

You go to any barbershop here in Miami and it's always like stepping into some kind of time warp. The mirrors running down the opposing walls. The radio on with a local Cuban station blaring the news or Tres Patines. Los barberos snipping away at someone's hair. The big tube of blue liquid holding all the combs and brushes.

There are usually only two things the old men talk about while waiting their turn or waiting for a customer: la pelota, baseball, or Cuba.

Today, as I sat awaiting my turn, a couple of the barbers were in between cuts and talking to a customer who had just had his haircut. The conversation was about, of course, Cuba and how fidel castro has ruined a once great nation. I sat there quietly, eavesdropping but not really eavesdropping as every word they said was meant for my ears too. These old Cubanos feel they must pass down their knowledge and their love for Cuba to my generation as well as others.

The gentleman who'd just had his hair cut mentioned how the castro regime has been cracking down on individual businesses in Cuba. Mind you, Cubans cant own stores or shops or whatnot in Cuba. Individual businesses are such things as casa particulares - kind of like inns - or street vendors or a guy shining shoes. Small, individual enterprises.

"I suspect," I chimed in. "That there's one business in particular that must be thriving."

The three men looked at me rather surprised. They were having this conversation for my benefit, but they certainly weren't expecting me to participate.

"El turismo?" one of the barbers asked.

"El jineterismo," I responded. Prostitution.

Have you ever stated something during a conversation that makes everyone involved in that conversation just completely sit there in an almost stunned silence? As if theyre mulling around in their minds exactly what you just said, trying to come to terms with it?

We all stayed quiet for a minute or so. The three old men's countenance had changed though, from one of anger to one of sorrow. Regret mixed in there as well.

"Well," one of the barbers siad. "That's changing a bit too. Ask Maite. She just got back from Guanabo."

Maite is the girl that cuts my hair. Ordinarily, I would have one of the old pros cut it, but she was the only one available one time I was in desperate need of a trim and she did a damn good job that day. She's been my barber ever since.

Maite just got back from Cuba last week, never having returned after exiling 10 years ago. She went to Cuba with her husband and her two kids, ages 2 and 8. Both kids were born here and had never met their grandparents. Maite hated every minute of her trip and hadnt wanted to go in the first place, but her husband's parents are very old and she didnt want to deny her children from meeting los abuelos.

As she snipped and shaved away at my hair, she gave me the horror stories of the trip. From her discomfort and disgust at all the milicianos in their green uniforms patrolling the airport, to her encounter with the uniformed customs guard and his disrespect for her and her family. As she combed and sprayed she told of the blackouts, the rains, the heat. The lack of everyday necessities. Her children crying because they hated Cuba: no power, no Nintendo, no cartoons. Sleeping in a bed with her husband and two kids in the tropical heat and humidity without air conditioning or even so much as a fan to cool them.

For her, as it would be for any American who refused to stay at a state run hotel, the trip was a nightmare.

The one thing that she did emphasize over and over was her surprise at the lack of tourists in the area. Guanabo is a beach town that is known as a favorite tourist attraction in Cuba. Apparently, either fidel has restricted the area to tourists, or the tourism numbers the Cuban government alledges arent up to snuff.

Maite had expected to be disgusted by all the foreigners in what was once her and her family's hometown.

"With the lack of tourists," I asked her. "Im sure there wasnt much jineterismo around."

"There were a few," she said. "I talked to one at the beach one day. Una mulatica."

"She was excited that she leaving to La Habana the next day," she continued. "And work La Catedral."

I sat there totally stunned. "La Catedral?" It's gotten that bad that they are now working the cathedral for johns?

Maite laughed and said "No. They arent looking for johns. They have a different approach."

La jinetera mulatica and her friend dress like quaint guajiras, poor country girls, take an old Polaroid with them and work La Catedral by standing next to tourists, asking them to pose with them, perhaps kissing either a man or a woman on the cheek and snapping a picture. There's no charge for the photograph, but every single tourist always offers a small gratuity. A dollar here, two dollars there. A small tip gets a tourist a quaint picture with an attractive quaint island girl in front of a quaint dilapidated building in quaint Havana.

"Take 50 or a hundred pictures in one day" Maite continued. "And that's $50 or $100. That, in Cuba, is a lot of money. And they dont have to degrade themselves by sleeping with any tourists. Resuelven."

Even though I find this particular story heartening, and I applaud la mulatica and those like for their ingenuity and attempts to live with dignity, I know there are assholes like this(WARNING, GRAPHIC IMAGES) in abundance. A world full of johns waiting to go to the big island whorehouse led by the senile pimp.

Hasta cuando?

Esa es tu casa, fidel

I had wanted to follow up on this post about Cuba hosting UN housing programs, but Juan does such an excellent job with this entry, complete with excellent editorial and photos, at Paxety that I have nothing more to add except for the following question:

How can anyone in their right mind see the "housing" conditions in Cuba and laud the Cuban example in housing development?

Le traquetea el merequetengue.

Gracias, Juan.

castro travels to Venezuela

Because, you know, it's all about the oil. The oil!!!!!

Daniel has an excellent editorial on fidelito's visit with his mini-me, Hugo Chavez:

The symbolism

First of course, the joy of Chavez at receiving Castro home finally could not be hidden. I do not know about you, but I find this image highly offensive. Besides seeing how prosperous the starved soldier has become in 6 years, his silly ingratiating smile, gawky happiness at the old tyrant that he is subsidizing to levels that have reached obscenity, makes me feel sick at heart. I must remind the readers that Chavez is constantly screaming against people like me as betrayers to the father land, and this one of the tamest insults hurled at on bolivarian Sunday School. But in fact the biggest betrayal to Venezuela is the one of Chavez, selling short our democracy, as it was, to serve the alien project of Castro, the anachronistic stalinist cum caudillo who is now the longest serving tyrant of Latin America, already rich in dictators for life.

But there is a funny part to it: the snafu about the announcement of Castro arrival. After the cancellation for the military parade (security reasons claimed), Chavez said Sunday that Castro was not coming. When rumor of Castro coming revealed too hard to contain (the security of preparations of Puerto La Cruz could not be hidden anymore) Izarra, the communication minister, became angry at the press this morning. Only to have to emit an apology this afternoon (after all, he had violated some of the clauses fo the "gag law" by promoting false information!)

Read the whole illuminating thing.

So you wanna go to Cuba, eh?

Here's a first hand account I just recieved from a reader via email:

Some years ago I got a catalog from a Canadian company offering trips to Cuba. My husband and I thought it sounded interesting and signed up. After all my family lived in Coral Gables in the winter and talked about Cuba all the time since it was a favorite destination. I have movies of Cuba. My brother learned Spanish there.

We were not in the country for an hour when we realized we had just signed up to visit a vast jail. All my parent's descriptions of Havana and their favorite hang outs were there but the streets were filled with sullen people and despite all the countries I have visited, and they are 50 in number, I have never seen such rampant prostitution. Despite some efforts to smarten up downtown it was a tired city, the Corniche was practically in ruins and the countryside was worse with those air conditioned dollar stores next to shabby tiendas offering a few onions and oil and rice rations. We visited a botanical garden which had been the summer home of a friend's family and when I mentioned it I was given a look of such hatred I still remember it. We would have gone home immediately and even thought of faking some illness to get out but ten days later we were in Toronto where American customs pounced on us. Last year the government fined us $2,000 for the visit and my husband said it was one fine he was glad to pay because we never should have gone and hated every minute of it.

So thank you Mr. Branson for adding to the vast tourist pool of eager sex tourists and for the moral degradation of having my husband accosted by two 13 year old girls offering to have sex with him.

But there is one thing I remember and it was always one of the things my family talked about. There was music everywhere, wonderful music that was pouring out from every door and window. It reminded me of Merida in the Yucatan when they sing the melodies of Cuba. Keep up the blog. It's great!

Shelby Foote, R.I.P.

I know this is off-topic, but I have to recognize the passing today of one my favorite writers, Shelby Foote, at age 88. He was a wonderful writer who has given me countless hours of pleasure with his magnum opus, The Civil War: A Narrative, a must read for any Civil War buff, history buff, or just anyone who loves good writing.

In case some of you do not know who he is, rent Ken Burns' film The Civil War; he is one of the commentators on the history of conflict throughout the twelve hours.

Goodbye, Mr. Foote. You'll be missed.

Babaluuuuuu, Babaluuuuuu

The first entries on Babalu Blog were published two years ago today. Much has been written here about Cuba and her politics and her culture in that time frame. I dont know if the words published here have had much of an impact in the greater scheme of things, but I do hope that they have reached a few people and I pray they have possibly enlightened some to the onus of being Cuban.

Thanks to my fellow bloggers for their support and guidance and above all thanks to you guys that come here everyday to listen to what I have to say.

Not much has changed in Cuba these past two years, but we still have one thing:

The photo above is of a good friend of mine who is a staunch advocate for the freedom of Cuba. Gracias for posing for the picture, Frank.

Methinks it's time for a letter-writing campaign (UPDATED)

This disappoints me because I admire(d) Richard Branson and his entrepreneurial spirit. Let's begin a letter writing campaign to Virgin Atlantic. I will find the correct address and post it later.

Branson opens Virgin route to Cuba
Havana, Cuba
June 28, 2005 - 9:11AM

REUTERS - Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic Airways inaugurated direct flights to Cuba today that are expected to boost growing British tourism to the communist-run Caribbean island.

"This is good for Cuba, because British tourism has become our second most-important market after Canada," said Cuban Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero, at the airport to meet Branson on the inaugural flight.

Branson, renowned for his publicity stunts, posed on the wing of his jumbo jet with two dancers from Havana's famed Tropicana cabaret, and British lightweight boxer Amir Khan.

Virgin Atlantic's larger rival British Airways stopped flying to Havana three years ago. "A lot of the UK travel trade have been looking for something like Virgin flying into Cuba," said Joe Prem, director of Cuba Select Travel, a British tour operator.

The number of British tourists visiting Cuba rose 35 per cent in the first quarter of 2005, to 43,900 arrivals. British vacationers have outnumbered Italian, French and German tourists this year, Cuban officials said.

Tourism generates 40 per cent of Cuba's foreign currency earnings. Cuba hosted a record 2 million tourists last year.

Branson said Virgin Atlantic expects to carry 42,000 passengers to Cuba in the first year, flying a Boeing 747-400 twice a week from London's Gatwick airport to Havana.

"We plan to expand the market dramatically," Branson said at a news conference. The airline could be flying 150,000 to 200,000 people a year to Cuba within three to four years, he estimated.

Virgin Atlantic is 51 per cent owned by Branson's Virgin Group and 49 per cent owned by Singapore Airlines Ltd.

Here are the addresses where you can write the Chairmen of the two airlines:

Richard Branson, Chairman
Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd
The Office
Manor Royal
Crawley
RH10 2NU
United Kingdom

Koh Boon Hwee, Chairman
Chew Choon Seng, CEO
Singapore Airlines
Airline House
25 Airline Road
Singapore 819829

Thanks to Kathleen for sending the addresses along to us.

You gotta love it

What I wouldnt do to get a load of the following graffitti:

SANTA CLARA, Cuba - June 27 (Niurvys Díaz Remond, Cubanacán Press / www.cubanet.org) - Local sign makers and painters are being questioned by state security police following a rash of anti-Castro caricatures drawn on walls in the Santa Clara region.

The caricatures show a rice pot attached to the president's buttocks with a cable, an allusion to a campaign to save energy through the use of more fuel efficient cooking pots. The caricatures appeared on walls in Caibarién, Camajuaní, Santa Clara and Manajanabo.

Although wall posters are a popular form of dissident expression in Cuba, the authors of the works can be charged with the crime of producing "enemy propaganda" and face lengthy jail sentences.

Letter to the European Union

From the gulag in the Caribbean:

Ciego de Avila, Cuba. June 2005.

TO THE EUROPEAN UNION

My name is Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leiva. I’m a blind Cuban lawyer, president of the Cuban Foundation for Human Rights, presently constrained within the limited territory of the province of Ciego de Avila, after languishing 26 endless months in prison where I suffered physical torture at the hands of the military personnel of Cuban State-Security.

I send to you greetings filled with gratitude, respect and admiration for all the wellbeing that the peoples and the governments of Europe have bestowed upon the world.

The European Union recently decided to postpone, for another year, the sanctions placed against the Cuban government in 2003. Due to the implications this decision entails for me and for all those in an internal opposition that grows under great repression, I must respond from my own humble social context in Cuba in order to express to all members of the European Union the realities and dangers we face.

There still remain in prison 61 victims of the criminal wave of repression of 2003, when they were all imprisoned in good health. Two years later, the medical records of most of these detainees reveal a pathetic state of health. Four hundred political prisoners are psychologically crushed on a daily basis in Cuban prisons, where most of their human rights are denied. There, they are victims of the government’s hate and revenge. Prison conditions could not be worse: crowded cells full of insects and rodents, lack of running water, rotten food, physical mistreatments, insults, and the inability to rest and sleep, turn these penitentiaries into centers of terror and annihilation of a wide sector of the Cuban population which the authorities describe as “antisocial.”

More than 500 young men were sent to prison in the last two months accused of the hideous legal term called “dangerous conduct”. That is, the Cuban government continues to condemn hundreds of innocent young Cubans to up to four years and confines them in maximum security prisons, even in violation of the Cuban penal code, which stipulates their detention in re-education centers where they are supposed to study and work. Many of these detainees are human rights activists and political dissidents.

Far from an honest and sincere policy of opening up to the world, the government of Havana continues to bet on the martyred resistance of an entire nation, presenting a false image of our reality, which is filtered and manipulated before being projected before the world.

This resolution approved by the European Union, within the framework of its due rights, has not diminished my high esteem for Europe. Nevertheless, as a Cuban who loves his country, I highly disapprove a fatal decision that forsakes, at a crucial moment, more than 500 Cuban political prisoners. In addition, it places the Cuban government in a favorable position to attack with violence the defenseless people of Cuba who struggle peacefully for the respect of human rights, God’s liberties, democracy and the rule of law.

We are still convalescing from our “black March” of 2003, and expect at any moment the vindictive blow proposed by Fidel Castro to the Cuban dissidence in the past days before Cuban television cameras in the program “Mesa Redonda”.

May God bless the World,

Sincerely,

JUAN CARLOS GONZALEZ LEIVA
President of the Cuban Foundation for Human Rights under house arrest.

Alas, I fear these humble words will fall upon intellectually and morally deaf ears.

US Academics Call to Support Cuba

Check out the bolded passages below. They seem to have their talking points down cold.

This statement from the "17th Cuba-US Conference of Philosophers and Sociologists at Havana University" -- no laughter, please -- reminds me of the line uttered by Mel Brooks (the Stand-up Philosopher) in History of the World Part 1: "I coalesce the vapor of human experience into a viable and logical comprehension."

To which Bea Arthur retorts, "Oh, you're a bullshit artist!"

US Academics Call to Support Cuba

Havana, Jun 26 (Prensa Latina) A group of US philosophers and sociologists has issued a statement at the end of a five-day meeting here deploring the Bush Administration hard-line policy against Cuba.

The document also demands the extradition to Venezuela of terrorist of Cuban origin Luis Posada Carriles, who masterminded the 1976 mid-air bombing of a Cuban commercial plane killing all 73 people on board.

The notorious terrorist [fidel? che?], currently detained in the US just for violating immigration laws, is also the confessed organizer of bomb attacks against Cuban tourist facilities in 1997 and 1998. In one of the sabotages an Italian businessman got killed.

The academics also urged to lift the over-four-decade blockade of Cuba and to overrule travel restrictions imposed on US and Cuban-American citizens.

Another demand is the release of the Cuban Five jailed in US for collecting information on extremist Cuban-American groupings in south Florida with a beefy dossier of anti-Cuba terrorist activities.

The list of demands also includes the deactivation of the illegal naval base the US maintains in Guantanamo, east Cuba, where prisoners of Washington´s war aganist terrorism are subject to multiple abuses and tortures, according to denunciations by international organizations.

At Friday´s closing of the 17th Cuba-US Conference of Philosophers and Sociologists at Havana University, Jose Carlos Vazquez, Dean of the School of Philosophy, History and Sociology, praised the US academics for daring to come to Cuba and for their solidary statements.

Attendants discussed about globalization, ethics, politics, governability, civilian society, culture and education.

I'm dyin' to read the comments this one generates...

It Ain't Easy, Mr. Defede

I'm sure many of you have read or heard about the case of Sgt. Carlos Lazo, a combat medic with the 81st Brigade of the Washington state National Guard, a Cuban-American, that served a tour of duty in Iraq. Sgt. Lazo is lobbying congress to have the travel restrictions for Cuban-Americans lifted so that he may travel to the island to see his two sons.

It's a heartbreaking case, really. Here we have a war hero who dutifully and proudly risked his life serving his new country, now forbidden by that very same country from seeing his family on the island.

I must admit this is a bitter pill to swallow and I am sure there are more cases where the new travel restrictions are in fact detrimental to Cuban families. As a Cuban-American, one in favor of the embargo and the travel and remittance restrictions, it's a very delicate and troubling subject to contemplate.

As Cubans, we pride ourselves in our closeknit families. And if you have frequented this blog, you know my feelings about my family. You know the admiration and love I have for each and every one of my relatives. My family has been more than instrumental in my being who I am today. I don't know what life is like without a father or mother or grandparents and I cant imagine what it must be like to be a father having to leave his children behind. It must be an all consuming longing and heartache.

I dont want to rehash this argument now, however, but I think I made my feelings on the subject rather clear in a post titled "No Es Facil" last year. The final paragraph of which read:

Still, I feel for my friend and wish there was something I could do. And if he decided to go, I would gladly give him a ride to the airport. I would gladly pick him up when he got back. I would gladly sit with him and listen to his account of his trip. I would share those moments when he first saw his grandmother of grandfather. I would ask about his aunts and uncles and how they live and how he was received. I would learn how it was when he had to leave. I would share his goodbyes. And I would cry with him.

Yesterday, Miami Herald columnist Jim Defede - who has made it a career to either discredit the exile community or use Cuban issues as a stepping stone since his early days as a New Times "reporter" - published an article about Sgt. Lazo's case. Surprisingly, Defede manages to get through almost the entire editorial without the usual snide remark on the carnivorous hard line exile Miami community. Almost.

What Mr. Defede sadly omits - as well as every other reporter, journalist and editor that has covered this story - is the obvious and underlying truth.

Yes, the new travel restrictions can be hard on some Cuban families. Yes, Sgt. Lazo's case is heartbreaking. Yes, there are quite a few Cubans in exile complaining about the travel restrictions.

Mr. Defede forgets, however, that it was the hard line exiles that got that first purgante, that first bitter taste of the separation of the Cuban family. It was these hard line exiles that first left their families behind and that for decades had no communication with them save for those emergency phone calls when a family member in Cuba had died. It was these hard line exiles that were the first to shed tears when they realized they would never see their parents again, or their children, or their siblings or grandparents.

Not to mention, of course, that many of these hard line exiles also served their new country proudly and dutifully. Many having never returned after paying the ultimate price for their freedom.

Yet the difference, Mr. Defede, the difference is that these hardliners didntr use their service to this country as a means to badmouth it. They didnt lay blame on the separation of their families on those not responsible. They knew who was to blame. They still know.

It is not the US government who is responsible for the separation of the Cuban family. It is none other than fidel castro. The US government didnt force Mr. Lazo to flee Cuba. The US government didnt force Mr. Lazo to leave his children behind.

That is just the sad and simple truth.

Lifting the travel restrictions will allow some Cuban families to see each other again. This is true. However, how about those families who lost loved ones attempting to leave the island? How about those families who have relatives in prisons? The US government didnt force those poor souls to get in a raft and attempt to cross the Gulfstream. The US government didnt put those Cubans in castro's prisons.

Lifting the travel ban and embargo and all other restrictions is like sticking a Bandaid on a cut so you dont get blood on your clothes, while your insides are still hemorraging.

I appreciate and thank Sgt. Lazo for his service to this country. His was indeed a noble and courageous deed and one worthy of reverence. And I am disheartened by his longing to see his sons, but that is not the fault of the US government. Sgt. Lazo knows very well who the culprit is.

I wonder, Mr. Defede, why you neglect to ask one thing in your article. A simple question, and one that you, as a columnist for a major metropolitan newspaper and a self-appointed crusader for what is right and just, using the power of your words and your pulpit, could help answer:

Why is it that Sgt. Lazo's sons cant visit their father?

The November 30th Seven

The indefatigable Jay Nordlinger of National Review has a superb piece in his Impromptus column today about the Cubans imprisoned in the Bahamas. Here is a highlight:

Seven members of a Cuban opposition party — the November 30th party — have been detained in the Bahamas since last September. You can read their biographies here, at the Information Bridge — an excellent source of information about dissidence and other matters in Cuba.

The detainees have undergone a terrible ordeal in the Bahamas, which you can read some about here: in a letter called "Our Truth," smuggled out of prison last January.

The role of the Bahamas in the Cuban drama is very little known. These islands are located in a tricky position, just northeast of Cuba, just southeast of Florida. Often, Cubans, when they flee, drift into Bahamian waters, and they're picked up by that nation's coast guard. From there, life gets rough — or rather continues to be rough, because life on Cuba is no picnic, and neither is a desperate flight in the sea. The Carmichael Road Detention Centre, in the Bahamas, is notorious. At least it is notorious among Cubans, Haitians, Jamaicans, and others who might land on those islands. To the rest of the world, it is unknown.

Read the entire article here.

When you erase the past...

...you are doomed to relive it.

Checkpoint Charlie, the gateway to freedom during the Cold War in Berlin, is to be razed on July 4th.

Where's the money, fidel?

According to the Cuban government Cuba had more European tourists this year than any year before. I wonder how they explain the following:

CIENFUEGOS, Cuba - June 23 (Vicente Pérez Varela, Cubanacán Press / www.cubanet.org) - Administrators of the government-operated Municipal Commerce Enterprise in Cienfuegos were told Sunday that the company doesn't have the cash in hand to pay for salaries or purchases.

The company distributes foodstuffs and was left strapped after the government leadership ordered salaries raised. The company's deputy director for finance said all income had been used to comply with the directive from above, creating a total collapse.

A member of the Board of Directors, who asked his name not be used, said there is no money in the accounts to pay salaries for the current month, if the National Bank doesn't grant a loan.

Or this:

SANTA CLARA, Cuba - June 23 (Karel Castillo, Cubanacán Press / www.cubanet.org) - Incentives based on performance for workers in the food industry were cut back effective June 20 in Santa Clara.

Administrators in charge of facilities belonging to the Enterprise in Service to Travelers received a memo indicating the maximum incentives would be reduced from 300 pesos to 225, since they couldn't exceed salaries earned.

"It's hard to believe they would reduce the incentives we earn by overfulfilling the economic plans," said Marcos Quintana, administrator of one such facility.

The incentives used to range between 300 and 400 pesos, according to the level individual performance exceeded economic plans.

Does it really cost that much to send ten or so thousand doctors and "diplomats" to Venezuela? Or is it the cash is being used to purchase stuff up front from the US so tourists can be fed?

Flowers for San Lazaro

Today's required listening.

Today's required reading.

castro's 'soaring salaries'

castro has announced 'soaring salaries' for medical professionals. From now on, doctors and other medics will be paid between 100 and 250 pesos more, in a doubling - doubling! - of their wages.

Let's look at that a little more closely: According to the Ask Jeeves currency converter, that's about four dollars and eight cents at official rates at the low end and eight-something bucks at the high end, a term the Forbes 550-Million-Dollar-Man thinks of as 'soaring.' castro makes Scrooge look like a spendthrift. A dollar a week more, and that's soaring! If you could get dollars in castro's island hellhole, which of course you can't.

Here's what I think: we know that Cuba's hospitals are empty and there are barely any doctors left. The hospitals are roach-infested dumps and not the kind of places you'd want a bandaid changed, let alone surgery. This explains Prensa Latina's weird obsession with insisting that there are more Cuban doctors per capita than any other place on earth. Yeah, right, bub. Go see Paxety about it. Perhaps there are, cheaply stamped out and utterly lowgrade. But you don't find them in Cuba. Most have been shipped off like commodity products to Venezuela and other parts of Latin America, such as Honduras, in exchange for Venezuelan oil. When I investigated how much Hugo Chavez was paying these people in Caracas, I learned that they were making the princely sum - for Cuba - of $100 to $200 a month. Versus something like $18 bucks a month in Havana. This $200 a month per smock in turn was undercutting Venezuela's real doctors, same as industrial dumping, and putting those Venezuelan professionals out of business. Meanwhile, castro's hospitals in Havana go empty. Everyone who can in Havana has bailed out for the slums of Caracas and taken those 'princely' Hugo Chavez salaries over castro's 'soaring' 20 bucks a month or whatever it now is.

Against this, castro had no choice but to raise wages at home. Or there would be no doctors in Cuba at all.

castro and Chavez are conspiring together to destroy the medical systems of both countries. You'd think one's loss would be the other's gain but these two are geniuses and have figured out how to wreck both systems simultaneously and end medical care once and for all.

The Prensa Latina "news" item if you can stand to open it is here.

Venezuela's anti-castro rebellion spreads

castro didn't show up in Caracas today, even though Hugo Chavez may have had the Popemobile all ready for him, along with military honors and perhaps the command of the army itself. He was supposed to come to sponsor the graduating military class on the anniversary of the great battle of Carabobo, which secured Venezuela's independence. castro didn't show at all. He must know how popular he is these days.

Venezuela's military cadets have resigned their commissions rather than hand over their nation's sovereignty to the foul barbudo.

Meanwhile, Venezuela's doctors have protested bitterly against castro's political incompetents, chosen for their castro loyalty in Havana rather than medical skills, but coming to professional hospitals in Caracas to rule the previously free, educated, Venezuelans.

Now, a group of veterans and unemployed people have gotten bolder: they marched into - into! - the Havana embassy in Caracas and protested the takeover of their once-vibrant country by castro's thugs. They didn't have a permit, they just did it anyway. El Universal reports:

The Military Institutional Front (FIM) Friday marched through the Cuban Embassy in Caracas to protest what its leaders call the "silent invasion" from the Caribbean island. No incident was reported.

"We are here to protest against this transition to communism by Chávez; our President controls all the State powers, and following (President fidel) castro example, (he would) be restraining freedoms and violating human rights," said Antonio Luján, 51, an unemployed engineer who took part in the protest, AP reported.

There's more from AP here:

...hundreds of demonstrators protested several blocks from the Cuban Embassy in Caracas, burning an effigy of fidel castro and saying they rejected Cuba's growing influence in the Venezuelan government.

Dozens of police halted the marchers with barricades one block from the embassy, where the crowd stood chanting "No to communism!" and "Get out, fidel!"

Venezuelans fought a war of independence 200 years ago. They aren't about to hand over their country to the evilest dictator who's ever darkened this hemisphere, fidel castro.

This is getting serious. Venezuelans can't do much about Chavez but they sure as heck refuse to be a colony of castro's Cuba. They are protesting with unusual boldness and directness now. Let us hope that this will light the fuse for Hugo Chavez's and fidel castro's inevitable shrivelling demise.

Read it here and here.

And don't miss Daniel's superb thoughts on these events from the ground in Venezuela here.

Cubanisms: Only in Miami...

Today, I was given a business card which you can see below. I have erased the name of the firm and the address to protect the innocent.

I direct your attention to the items on the left hand side of the card that read

PLASTE
NORDAWN
GUANCO
GUARETETE
POCORN

This is a typical card -- this is not the first I've seen like this -- that contains Cubanized spellings for common English construction phrases. Can you guess what they are? I know four of the five; one of them is a total mystery to me.

God, I love living in Miami!

Toma chocolate, paga lo que debes?

D'eso nada, monada.....

Cuba Closes Scores of Foreign Businesses

Welcome mat to firms rolled up

By Gary Marx Tribune foreign correspondent
Fri Jun 24, 9:40 AM ET

In a further sign of economic retrenchment, Cuban officials have closed scores of foreign businesses that were welcomed here a decade ago to bail out the nation's faltering economy.

Some of Europe's largest companies formed joint ventures or other arrangements with Cuba's state-run enterprises, including Swiss food giant Nestle, cigarette producer British American Tobacco and Spanish hotel-management giant Sol Melia.

Sherritt International of Canada also has invested heavily in boosting Cuba's oil, nickel and energy production.

But many smaller companies also took advantage of the economic opening in the 1990s, importing everything from toys to spark plugs to hospital equipment to sell in Cuba.

Diplomats and business executives say it is primarily these small and medium operators who have been asked to leave Cuba as (f)idel (c)astro and other officials express confidence the island's economy has recovered sufficiently to withstand the companies' departure.

"There is a very clear rethinking of foreign investment," said one businessman, who like others spoke on the condition he not be identified.

Restricted market

"The Cuban market is not open for foreign investment except in very specific areas, and the Cubans only want to deal now with large and important foreign firms," he said.

Several executives said about a half-dozen of the more than 350 foreign firms once based in Cuba's duty-free zones are still operating. Investment that once streamed into the country has slowed significantly.

Although Cuban officials have suggested that some foreign businesses were gouging the country and fueling corruption, the crackdown also is aimed at limiting the influence of foreigners on Cuban society, according to diplomats and other experts.

Many executives live in large, state-owned homes, send their children to one of the handful of private schools in Havana and belong to Club Havana, an exclusive beach resort closed to most Cubans.

Their lifestyle contrasts sharply with the island's 11 million residents, who struggle with frequent blackouts, poor public transportation and salaries that average $12 a month.

"It's creating an elite that is outside the control of the state," said a second businessman. "Castro doesn't like that. It creates a two-tier society. It's ideological contamination."

Rather than reaching out to European companies, Castro is strengthening economic ties with Venezuela, an important ally now providing Cuba 90,000 barrels of discounted oil daily.

Cuban officials also are counting on an economic lift from China, which has promised to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to boost nickel production, a key Cuban export.

"For the Cubans, having foreign capital and companies operating is not something that's inherently good but was a way to help them solve a set of problems from the 1990s," said Philip Peters, a Cuba expert at the Lexington Institute, a Washington-area think tank.

"They put the reforms in place and got to a point where they feel they have reversed the economy," he said. "When it came to those reforms, Castro was holding his nose and now he is scaling back."

Risky economic move

But some diplomats and business officials do not share Castro's optimism about Cuba's economic future. Local manufacturing and other activities remain severely hampered by a dearth of investment and an unmotivated workforce.

Cuba also does not have the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to repair its deteriorating electrical grid, water system and other infrastructure.

By pushing foreign investors out, Cuba risks permanently damaging its international reputation even though it may need those investors should the island suffer another economic collapse.

The U.S. economic embargo prohibits American companies from operating in Cuba, though an exemption to the embargo allows U.S. food and agricultural sales to the island.

"For the last 10 years, Cuba has carefully built up an image as a difficult but willing partner," said the second executive. "The danger for Cuba is that it's really frightening people off. It will be much harder to get them back."

The downsizing of the foreign business community is part of an ongoing effort by Cuban officials to recentralize the economy and concentrate foreign investment in several key areas, including tourism, mining and oil exploration.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc--once Cuba's main trading partners and patrons-- Havana sought to lure capital and technical expertise. Cuba not only opened its doors to Western firms but legalized the U.S. dollar's circulation, liberalized food production and allowed some Cubans to practice trades and open restaurants and other businesses.

But the number of self-employed Cubans has dropped from a peak of 209,000 in 1996 to 153,000 last year, said Peters.

Today, the number of joint ventures between Cuban and foreign companies has fallen to about 300, down from about 400 at the end of 2002, experts say.

Bad tenant, good landlord

Here's a delicious little article published in the The News-Sentinel from Fort Wayne (Indiana). Here's the gist:

U.S. only leasing Guantanamo from Fidel Castro
BY MARY SANCHEZ
Knight Ridder Newspapers

(KRT) - People who rail against the Bush administration for abuses at Guantanamo Bay are pitching an incomplete argument. We lease it.

That right, Fidel Castro is our landlord. And the United States is a bad tenant.

Under an agreement signed in 1903 and another in 1934, the U.S. agreed to pay Cuba for the area to use "as a coaling or naval stations only, and for no other purpose."

The agreements make no mention of use as a prison camp, for housing unlawful combatants.

So the United States is not complying by the original agreement. The U.S. Treasury sends a check every year to the Cuban government for $4,085. The original amount was about $2,000 in gold.

So, not only are we torturers, we are a lousy tenant violating a lease agreement with fidel. The horror. The horror.

Welcome to the mind of the left, folks. It's a pretty sad, barren and desolate place...

What it's like to be Cuban-American, Part VII (Updated)

A few Saturday's ago, while you and your husband were stuck inside the house because of some major rainstorms and were deciding what to have for lunch, your husband said "You know what I could go for? Un platillo volador." He had a craving for a sandwich like his mom and grandmother used to make. Ham and cheese and a little mayo on buttered bread pressed inside one of those sandwich presses that you heat up over the stove and makes the sandwich look like a little round flying saucer.

Your platillo volador maker had some rust on the inside so you tossed it a few months back.

But yesterday, you stopped at a local Cuban market, one that is always packed because they sell all kinds of tropical fruits and juices and homemade chicharrones, to buy a small culantro plant for your herb garden. While you're there, you ask the young lady at the counter if they have the platillo volador sandwich press.

"Ay!!" the counter girl says. "Platillo volador! Que rico. Como los de Cuba." Yes, you think to yourself, like the ones in Cuba.

"We dont have them here," the counter girl says. "I think I'll tell my mother to send me one from Cuba."

You freeze right there on the spot. Had you heard correctly? Did this girl just say she was getting something sent from Cuba? "Que te lo manden de Cuba?" you ask. You're going to get something sent from Cuba?

"Claro," the counter girl says. Of course. "My mother will send me whatever I ask for from Cuba."

"I've heard of people sending things to Cuba but I've never heard of people sending things from Cuba," you tell the girl.

"My mother will send me whatever I want from Cuba," the counter girl continues. "Just last week she sent me una balleta de trapear, a mop, from Cuba. The mops they sell here dont absorb as much as the Chinese made ones they have in Cuba."

You are stunned, but you continue with your transaction. You pay for the culantro plant and your coconut juice.

And the counter girl continues: "And the perfumes! Mami sent me all my favorite perfumes from Cuba. They smell much better than anything they sell here, and you put on just a little bit and the scent lasts all day."

The anger starts to boil inside you. Your father spent two years in prison after being captured at the Bay of Pigs. He has spent his life fighting the government of fidel castro. Your husband runs a website where he exposes the injustices of the castro regime in Cuba. He, like your father, spends hour upon hour, day upon day trying to show the world the plight of the Cuban people. He writes about the oppression and lack of basic human rights. About the lack of civil rights. About the crumbling infrastructure of the island. About how Cubans lack even the most basic of necessities. No soap, no toothpaste, no tampons. He writes about the rationing of food, and how Cubans spend their days trying to resolver food for their families, or how they stand in line for hours for their monthly ration of rice or beans or powdered milk. You remember the letters your family has received over the years, hundreds of letters, asking for medicines and eyeglasses and maybe even a little money to survive.

"Your mother sends you all those things from Cuba?" you ask the counter girl again.

"Yes," she says. "Mami sends me whatever I want."

You pick up your culantro plant from the counter, finish your agua de coco, stare the girl right in the face and say "Well, your mom must have a really high position in fidel castro's government."

The din of the place is suddenly gone. Nothing but silence from the crowd of people there. You can hear them savoring the reality. Everyone in the place chewing on a freshly served hypocrisy sandwich.

You wait just long enough, stare the girl in the face just long enough to see that she has no answer to your last comment, then you exit the market, walk to your car, get in, and cry.

Mas: I left out a couple elements of the converstaion between the Mrs and the girl on purpose. And before anyone gets the wrong impression of this post I think I need to clarify a few things.

First, the girl's mother may very well not have been affiliated with the government and second, her parents may have another source of income that other Cubans are not privy to on the island.

But there are other things that need to be considered here as well.

Yes, Cubans here in the states receive care packages from their family in Cuba. A CD with music you can't get here. Un dulce de leche made by your grandmother. Una botella de ron añejo, real rum from Cuba. Family photographs or heirlooms. Tangible things that remind you of home.

But the subtlety of this story lies in la balleta de trapear. A mop. Of all the things one could want from their homeland, of all the meaningful things as mentioned above, things you can never replace, things you could never find in exile, things that would be a scarifice on someone's part to send, a mop is certainly not one of them.

And as I stated above, while there's a possibility of the girl's family not being associated with castro's regime, there's a certain detachment from reality on behalf of the girls part. A certain indiference, not just towards my wife and those others that were appalled at her comments at the supermarket, but towards those people in Cuba who cant get out of the island and those who were lucky enough to get out but certainly dont have families able to send them such menial things as a mop to clean their floors with. Not to mention a certain indifference to her family should her parents actually have to sacrifice what little they have to send her a mop so that cleaning her floors in la Yuma will be easier.

Imagine yourself being one of her coworkers, also having recently arrived here from Cuba, working your ass off at a job so way below your education and experience, making a measely wage and sending what you cant afford to send to your family back in Cuba because they have absolutely nothing.

It's an interesting and heartbreaking thing being Cuban, n'est pas?

Take no aspirins and call me in the morning...

Cubans arent allowed to get headaches anymore:

CIENFUEGOS, Cuba -June 22 (Luis Miguel González, Cubanacán Press / www.cubanet.org) - Aspirins have disappeared from Cienfuegos' pharmacies in the last few months.

Enrique Toledo, a resident of the Pueblo Grifo subdivision, learned recently that there haven't been any aspirins sold in local pharmacies after he went looking himself. He said he has to take aspirin daily for a cardiac condition.

"If I don't find the medicine, my health will get worse," he said.

Toledo said that visiting several pharmacies, he was repeatedly told to look for aspirin in the hard currency pharmacies, a suggestion he found insulting, as he doesn't have access to hard currency.

A man who works in the medicine warehouse in Cienfuegos, who asked that his name not be used, said the reason there are no aspirins in the local pharmacies is that lately the stocks have been shipped to Venezuela, Haiti, and Perú.

Galleta sin mano

I dont know if I've ever read a better fisking.

I swell with pride.

3...2...1...

How long before the "there's torture at Gitmo!" crowd ignores the decapitation manuals in Iraq and starts harping on the "UN must visit Gitmo!" thing?

Buckle up for safety, folks.

From the beyond ridiculous department:

Otro cuento chino.

Val reads the following article from Prensa Latina while at home with the flu. Hilarity ensues:

Cuba to Host UN Housing Forums

Havana, Jun 23 (Prensa Latina) Cuba will start national activities to support UN world campaigns for good urban government and housing security.

Cuba, which eliminated eviction and made efforts to guarantee people´s possession of houses, will host several UN international housing forums.

UN Human Settlement Program Managing Director Anna Tibaijuka will visit Havana on Saturday to open the program entitled "Improving the management of our cities and the environment we live in."

The official opening will be held on June 27, in the presence of Cuban People´s Power National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon, and several UN officials.

Catalina Trujillo, from the program targeting Latin America and the Caribbean, said the main goal was to provide nations with adequate policies for proper housing.

"Cuba not only applies good urban management and security of house possession but also strives for equality and the elimination,of poverty," Trujillo stressed.

National Housing Institute Vice President Noelys Borrero praised the participation of top UN officials in the Cuban campaign.

Havana will also host the 5th World Meeting of Sustainable Cities and Local Agenda 21 Programs, sponsored by the UN and the Cuban government, with the participation of 200 delegates from 35 countries.

New approaches to the above-mentioned problems, people´s role in them and domestic capacities to resolve urban-environment problems will be examined in the meeting.

Ay Dios mio...I swear, I thought I was reading The Onion for a second there.

Of course, the sad part about this is that some simpletons actually believe this tripe.

Another nail in the coffin of property rights

As if we needed another reason to illuminate the need for Supreme Court justices that are strict constructionists (i.e., they follow the Constitution, not some touchy-feely "living, breathing document" doctrinal BS) this one is it:

Supreme Court Rules Cities May Seize Homes

By HOPE YEN
The Associated Press
Thursday, June 23, 2005; 11:13 AM

WASHINGTON -- A divided Supreme Court ruled Thursday that local governments may seize people's homes and businesses against their will for private development in a decision anxiously awaited in communities where economic growth often is at war with individual property rights.

The 5-4 ruling represented a defeat for some Connecticut residents whose homes are slated for destruction to make room for an office complex. They argued that cities have no right to take their land except for projects with a clear public use, such as roads or schools, or to revitalize blighted areas.

As a result, cities now have wide power to bulldoze residences for projects such as shopping malls and hotel complexes in order to generate tax revenue.

Read the entire article here. I cannot tell you how appalled I am at the decisions this very liberal court is reaching. These are assaults on the basic tenets of what America is. Ladies and gentlemen, we are living in interesting times, as the old Chinese curse goes...

No cellphones for you!

Venezuelan blogger Tomas Sancio has a link to a Univision audio of a conversation between a Cuban telephone operator and a Cuban in Miami who's seeking a Cuban cellphone. There aren't any cellphones issued in Cuba without government permission, she tells the man. He asks her if it was his fault that he was born Cuban?

Tomas's link is here, and if you can understand Spanish, the actual audio is here.

So you want to go to Cuba, huh?

Well, I hope this doesnt happen to you, comrade:

A vacation to Cuba ended up as a traumatic experience for Canadian citizen Onelia ' ' Nely' ' Ross, who's still looking for explanations following her five days of arrest in a jail on the island. The Canadian government has requested through the International Trade Canada (ITC) , its exterior affairs department, an explanation from Havana on what occurred, after Ross made denounced the physical abuses she suffered during her detention.

<...>

' ' They were five days of terror'', related Ross in interview with El Nuevo Herald. `` Suddenly I saw myself struck and humiliated in jail, and felt the same fear when I left Cuba for the first time''....

<...>

But the immigration employees in Holguín considered that there was an error in the date printed in the passport, and then denied her access to the rest of Cuban territory. In the middle of a confrontation that resulted, four officials came in and removed Ross from the room by force. ' ' I began to shout so that the other foreigners would realize what was occurring', she said.
They started to strike me and two uniformed women began to treat in a vulgar fashion. I then threw myself on the floor in order to defend myself."

Ross was not allowed to drink water or use the restroom for five hours. At 11 p.m. she was transferred by airplane to Havana to be processed. Ross was imprisoned for five days before being able to leave the island. The $500 that she took for vacation were retained by officials, and she also had pay for all ' ' services received' ': $16 daily for the jail stay, $12 for the food that she never ate, and $42 for round trip transportation to the airport.

<...>

Mexican citizen Eva Badillo, resident of Campeche, was in the jail at the same time as Ross, and described her experience: ''Two hours after I entered the jail, Nely arrived with bruises in her arms and legs". Badillo was being detained for suspicions of false marriage with a Cuban citizen.

Ahhh, yes! Come visit us and see the quaint, dilapidated third worldesque ruins of the island of Cuba. Our people are friendly and warm. Our tropical beaches and breezes are beautiful. We'll go out of our way for you, the tourist, unless, of course, we have to beat the shit out of you.

Injusticias?

Injustices?

HAVANA, Cuba -June 21 (Richard Roselló / www.cubanet.org) - A woman who drives a pedicab in Havana complains that police have subjected her to repeated harassment.

"Mistreatments and humiliation," is how Rosario Navalón, 47, describes how police treat her since two officers, a captain Nilvi and a second lieutenant Osmani Rodríguez, physically and verbally assaulted her at a police station in January.

Navalón said she subsequently accused the two officers before the municipal military prosecutor's office.

After lodging her charges, Navalón said a police sector chief, lieutenant Héctor Blanco, showed up at her home with a complaint that she was playing her radio too loudly. Navalón said Blanco told her "It is forbidden to play music in her house without previously advising her local police station, by orders of Fidel Castro and of the Minister of the Interior, Abelardo Colomé."

Several times, she said, she has been called into police station at Dragones and Zulueta, where a lieutenant coronel Salvá and a captain Ofelia have pressured her to drop the accusation against the two officers.

Also, she said, second lieutenant Rodríguez has threatened her in the street, saying that "if anything happens to him, she will have to face the consequences."

In April, she said, two officers of the Specialized Brigade imposed two fines that were dropped for lack of evidence after she patiently complained.

Navalón said she "is a Revolutionary" who will not yield before injustice.

Navalón has been yielding to injustices her whole life.

Sopa de pollo, o de ajo?

For about a week now I've been battling flu symptoms. Soar throat, headaches, escalo frios, body feeling heavy and sneeze and cough attacks.

It finally nailed me last night and today I fell like shit. Im staying home from work today and taking major amounts of cold meds. Blogging may be light today as I'll probably stay under the covers all day.

Aint no give and take..

Just plain old take.

The castro regime doesnt just take away children's toys, they take away everything, including men's livelihoods:

SANTA CLARA, Cuba - June 17 (Guillermo Fariñas, Cubanacán Press / www.cubanet.org) - A fishmonger jumped over the railing of a bridge into the river 12 feet below to escape as police shot at him from above.

The man finally made his getaway downstream after he climbed the bank of the Bélico river and disappeared into a marginal settlement known locally as El Chambery.

The man, who had been selling fish from his bicycle, abandoned both fish and bicycle on the bridge as he fled. The sale of fish by a private citizen is illegal in Cuba.

An eyewitness, Jesús Hernández, of the El Condado neighborhood, described
the incident: "The man was hawking his fish down Barcelona Street, riding his Chinese-made bicycle with a plastic box attached to a rear carrier." In the box he had, said Hernández, filleted amura, a fresh-water fish introduced into Cuban aquaculture from China some years back that has found some favor among local consumers.

As the fishmonger crossed the bridge over the Bélico river, c