The Scavengers

All the coverage of recent events in Cuba has not only been political. Money magazine focuses on how to profit from the embargo lifting they see as more likely now, remarking on the recent rise of stocks which may profit from the political nonchange. They discuss the Herzfeld Caribbean Basin Fund (CUBA) which is set to benefit from ancillary businesses if trade commences. Some of the purported beneficiaries of the speculation: possibly Starwood Hotels which is owed about $50.7 million by the Cuban government, the reprehensible Office Max which as Boise Cascade owned the electric company, and Imperial Tobacco which through Altadis controls many of the Cuban cigar brands. Read it here.

Cuba Held Hostage – Day 17,955

The Cuban regime continues its propaganda offensive.

Felipe Perez Roque just signed two Human Rights Covenants that Cuba had refused to sign.

But in typical Castrist fashion, he quickly announced that:

United States' economic embargo and hostility to Cuba's government "constitutes the most serious obstacle to the enjoyment by the Cuban people of the rights protected by the covenants".

So basically, Perez Roque is saying that unless the United States agrees to their conditions, the regime will have no choice but to continue to oppress, starve and enslave the Cuban people.

Hmmm…

This is a hostage situation. It always has been.

Since its inception, Fidel’s 26 of July movement, has employed terrorist methods to achieve its goals. Hell, they even “invented” air hi-jackings, so it’s no surprise.

After taking the island over, they held the whole population with a gun to their heads-once even a nuclear gun.

Every so often they release a few hostages, some escape. The former hostages feel pity on the ones with a gun still to their heads and send help which helps the criminals because that’s one less hostage to feed. Some develop the “Stockholm Syndrome” and begin to identify with the hostage taker. (there’s a lot of that going around in Miami lately)

This hostage drama has gone on for so long now, that the ringleader is dying-of old age. It seems the rest of the gang is starting to panic. The hostages are starting to revolt. The pizzas and cigarettes that the cops were sending in isn’t enough anymore. They want more.

Pretty soon, they might ask for a plane to fly out of the country-perhaps to “Wyoming”

"We are convinced that the lifting of the embargo will come in the future" said Perez Roque who added that it must be lifted "without any conditions whatsoever".

Thinking of Voting Donkey?

Might as well send a check straight to Hugo Chavez:

The House passed the Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act of 2008 on a vote of 236 to 182. Senate Democratic leaders have indicated they would fast-track the bill to try to avoid a Republican filibuster…”It actually carves out tax breaks for Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez - courtesy of American taxpayers,” said Boehner. “This is unacceptable, and the Democratic leadership is irresponsible for bringing the bill to the House floor.”

All of this, of course, while raising taxes on the domestic oil industry. Those brilliant Democrats in congress, as some kind of moronic punishment, are taxing US Oil Companies because of our recent high gas prices. I suppose it would make sense if youre an idiot, but we all know that the oil companies will just pass along those tax costs to the consumer.

Round-up of must reads

Alfredo takes on Cardinal Soprano Bertone at El Cafe Cubano.

Seton Motley tells us about Mad Magazine's latest cover at News Busters.

Gusano weighs in on Bertone who came from "the land of Machiavelli" at La Contra Revolución.

Luis M. Garcia, the Aussie Cubiche gives us his take on Cuba's signing of human rights accords at Child of the Revolution

A look at the media's coverage of Cuba by Tomas Estrada Palma at Cubanology's Cuba Report.

The Twelfth Man on the Field

You hear that term every Sunday during football season: "the twelfth man in the field." Despite that the game is played with only elleven men, sometimes it's that twelfth man that's given the kudos for a team's victory. That twelfth man is, of course, the crowd. The fans that are there not just to take in a game, but to support their team. To that team on the field, fighting and scratching for every inch, the twelfth man is inspiring. Whether it's a first and ten or a third and twenty, when that team hears the roar of the crowd, that twelfth man, they get fired up. That team gets just that much more courageous, just that much more hopeful, just that much more inspired, just that much closer to victory. It is amazing what encouragement and support mean to the human spirit.

It's time for you to be that twelfth man.

Not too long ago, Blackfive readers, joined by thousands of readers from other blogs, sent over 30,000 emails of support to Marines in Iraq. The Marines had to shut down the email address because you all were causing bandwidth issues with the support we were sending.

Now, as if the Taliban and Al Qaeda, bad weather, and lack of support here at home weren't bad enough, the New York Times has published a one-sided view of the paratroopers tour in Afghanistan.

And so now we have cause to band together again and send massive support down range.

Those are our men and women over there, giving their all and making incredible sacrifices. They arent over there to garner bragging rights or win us a trophy. They are over their in service to their country, you and me, putting it all on the line and under the most deplorable of conditions, to protect our way of life:

This winter has been particularly harsh. Many of the Soldiers are living in mud huts and tents with little or no heat, no running water, intermittent use of generators, supply drops via air to drop zones that require a hike of up to 40 minutes each way in order to retrieve the supplies, 30+ days out on missions at the firebases without showers or daily hot meals before rotating back to the KOP or Camp Blessing for hot showers, hot meals and the ability to communicate with their families and friends.

The Sky Soldiers have trudged through up to seven feet of snow on patrols day in and day out often at altitudes of 7,000 feet and higher. Each Soldier carries between 60 and 100 pounds of gear on these patrols. They Soldier-On each day despite the loss of many friends and comrades and substantially high numbers of wounded.

It's time to do the wave for our guys out on the field. It's time to let them know we're behind them 100%. It's time to thank them for those sacrifices and let them know we got their backs:

Let's show these Soldiers how much support they have from home to help them through the spring and the remainder of this long and dangerous deployment.

Americaatroopers are in the fight of their lives and they need to hear that America loves them.

Please send an email of support to skysoldiers173rd@gmail.com

Or you can mail cards to:

Leta Carruth
P O Box 100
Cordova, TN 38088

Due to security reasons in Afghanistan please do not put addresses or phone numbers on any correspondence. All emails will be printed out here in the US and mailed to Afghanistan as they do not have the resources to receive a large number of emails. All letters and emails will be vetted to make sure there are no negative comments. These are letters of support, so please keep them positive and uplifting.

Folks, please take a few minutes of your day to send our men and women in Afghanistan a few words of support and solidarity. Be that twelfth man that gives them the hope and encouragement to keep going. Let them know their sacrifices are appreciated.

Norm!

Letter to the editor of the Arizona Republic:

Cuba still deserves tough sanctions
Feb. 29, 2008 12:00 AM

Regarding Mary Sanchez's column on Monday, "With Castro out of way, time is ripe to end sanctions":

Apparently Sanchez and many of the current presidential candidates do not understand that the genesis for the sanctions was that Fidel Castro nationalized more than $2 billion in American assets in 1960 with no compensation.

Once Cuba pays that money back, with interest, and then shows meaningful democratic change, it will be time to talk about the easing of sanctions. - Norm Healy,Prescott

There's still some people out there with their heads screwed on straight. For the record I don't think Cuba will ever pay for the expropriations much less interest, but the Cuban government should acknowledge the debt and attempt to settle it like any debtor would. That's what China and Vietnam did under similar circumstances BEFORE the U.S. began wide-open trade with those countries.

El Estatus Quo

I was interviewed last week for local publication City Link Magazine on raul castro's "ascension" to power:

But here in South Florida, the mood was more pessimistic. There were no sudden street celebrations and Castro death-watch parties like those that had greeted the news of Raul's then-temporary takeover in 2006. Val Prieto, founder and editor of popular anti-Castro blog Babalú (Babalublog.com), voiced a typical reaction to the news. "Those that say Raul is a reformer don't know the man. He was trained by the KGB and the Stasi. He's even more brutal than his brother," Prieto says, sounding far calmer over the phone than in the brash, bravado-laden language of his blog. "Perhaps he realizes he doesn't have the charisma that his brother does, and so he may have to institute changes. … But I don't think the guy is going to do anything. As long as there is a Castro in power in Cuba, there is no freedom."

Read the whole thing right here. I like the last line of the article best.

Friday Open Thread

OK let's hear it. Best stuff gets promoted.

Up to?

This Radio Netherlands article states that Cuba "has signed up to two United Nations human rights treaties."

This leads me to wonder just what does "up to" mean? Did they indeed sign two treaties? Did they sign one and are thinking about signing the second treaty? Have they not yet signed any of the two treaties but are thinking of signing both? Are they going to sign both treaties, but erase the signature on one of them, and then later sign it again?

Regardless of what they meant by that ambiguous declaration, the Cuban people should not break out their demonstration banners and walking shoes yet. According to Felipe "Cara de Mono" Perez Roque, the signing of these two treaties, or maybe one, or maybe none, or maybe both now and then only one later, or maybe both tomorrow, or only one the day after, or maybe both the day after tomorrow and none the week after, will mean little to the Cuban people. You see, according to Perez Roque, these treaties are just a formality.

Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque describes the move as a formality, saying the rights enshrined in the documents have been respected in Cuba since the 1959 revolution. At the signing ceremony, he took the opportunity to repeat calls for the United States to lift its trade embargo of Cuba in force since 1962.

Now we have a little more context.

I think that what he means to say is that once the dictatorship signs one, or both, or one but not the other, or the other but not this one, or both today but only one tomorrow, or none today but both a week from last Monday, or one on the third Wednesday of March (only if it isn't a leap year--in the case that it is, then it would be the first Friday of April), or both on the anniversary of the great Giant Strawberry harvest, unless, of course, that anniversary happens to be an even year, which in that case the signing of none, one, or both treaties would be scheduled on the eve of the druid equinox with real, imitation midget druids dancing around a miniature model of Stone Henge, the regime would show the world how it is complying with the UN's request that it respect the Cuban people's basic human rights.

Of course, by El Monito's own admission, the regime has no intention on changing any of its repressive ways, nevertheless, they expect to be rewarded for this act that agrees to provide rights that will not really be provided, but the language says it will, although everyone knows they don't really have to, but for the sake of expediency everyone will smile and act like it means something, even though everyone knows it won't change anything, but it will, however, make great headlines across the world of how "Cuba" has agreed to treat their citizens like humans, which Cuba will reply that "hey, we've always treated our slaves well--we've taught them how to read and write communist propaganda and have given them free health care." With such a convincing argument, how can the UN do anything else than exert its colossal political pressure on the US to lift the embargo? Maybe this gesture will finally convince the Bush administration to change its policy towards the newly christened king of Cuba; raulito, the earl of Pato (can I get a quack-quack?).

The answer from the Bush administration, I have heard, will be coming tomorrow, or maybe a week from the second Friday in June, unless it is raining that day in which case the date will be moved to the first night with a full moon in July, providing, of course, that the real, imitation midget druid dancers are available.

Suck it, McCain

George Will on McCain's campaign finance conundrum:

There are two ways for a candidate to get on Ohio's primary ballot -- comply with complex, expensive rules for gathering signatures, or simply be certified to receive taxpayer funding. McCain's major Republican rivals did the former. He did the latter.

Democrats, whose attachment to campaign reforms is as episodic as McCain's, argue that having made such uses of promised matching funds, McCain is committed to taking them and abiding by spending limits -- which would virtually silence his campaign until the September convention. This would be condign punishment for his argument that restricting spending does not restrict speech.

Poetic justice.

Hollywood Needs a New Hero

After Michael Moore made his stupid comment about having castro give his acceptance speech, I got even angrier about Hollywood's (and public figures, etc.) worship of the bearded thug. So, I put together this little movie to make me feel better. Some images are graphic.
Many photos from the RealCuba.com

Enjoy.

Raul Martinez: a real statesman

Please observe how the Democratic candidate for the 21st Congressional district, Raul Martinez, solves a crisis: by attacking a man half his size who isn't even looking. Watch the video (especially the first few seconds) several times. Martinez claims he was hit first. But observe how he appears from off-camera to assault this guy. Martinez is clearly a liar.

Better yet, here's the sequence in still pictures:

Stay classy Raul.

H/T: raulmartinez08.com

Revenge of the Cubanologists

No offense to Jose Reyes whose web site is called Cubanology. The Cubanologists I'm talking about are the retard academics who think they know so much but don't know jack.

The latest stupid statement comes from Paolo Spadoni an "assistant professor of political science at Rollins College."

"Instead of things getting out of control, what we saw was Fidel Castro supervising his succession..."

Really? fidel supervised his succession. How does a professor in the suburbs of Orlando Florida know whether fidel is coherent or even conscious? How does he know that fidel isn't drooling out of his Parkinson's mask all over his pillow while a nurse pumps baby food into his stomach through a tube and another changes the shit bag attached to his side?

Of course the succession was uneventful. Who was going to stop it? The international community, those hypocritical douchebags? Pulease? The Cuban people? Double puhlease. They don't call it a totalitarian regime for nothing. This is the caliber of person teaching in our colleges.

The rest of the piece is just as idiotic. A mindless congratulatory fellatio of castro for having the foresight to realize that he was in fact human and would eventually die.

More cartoons

Got two more cartoon via email. Thanks M.P. (Orgullosa de ser Cubana)

Telling it like it is: The Same Old Cuba

By Alvaro Vargas Llosa, excerpted from The Independent Institute:

WASHINGTON—Raul Castro has killed all hope that a transition to the rule of law and a market economy will start anytime soon in Cuba. The appointments he has made as well as his first speech as president and his televised conversation with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez indicate that self-preservation is Castro’s paramount objective even if he understands the need to shake up the moribund communist state.

Raul Castro has managed the armed forces with a greater efficiency than Fidel has managed the rest of the nation. Not surprisingly, Raul wants to bring the national economy to be run like his army. But I fail to understand how he can go from there to Chinese-style conversion to capitalism—much less to democracy—as so many observers are anticipating. If Cuba were to open its economy to an extent comparable to China’s, the Cuban government would risk losing control of the process very quickly. Raul Castro wants to guarantee the continuity of the revolution by making it more efficient, not to change its nature by turning capitalist.

That is why, even though Raul is believed to be resentful of the Venezuelan president’s interference in Cuban affairs and jealous of Chavez’s role as Fidel’s Latin American heir, the two talked on the day of Castro’s “inauguration.” The message was clear: the alliance will continue.

Could it be that the new president simply has no choice but to move very slowly while his brother is alive? It’s possible, but where is the evidence that 76-year-old Raul Castro, who has been a member of the Communist Party since 1953 and continues to live under the shadow of his brother, is the Cuban Gorbachev? So far, such talk can only be attributed to wishful thinking.

Read the rest of The Same Old Cuba here.

The Children of Marti

I was in the middle of reading a piece in Newsweek entitled “(f)idel’s Children” when I refreshed the Babalu page to see if any new posts had gone up. And I read Ruth’s post “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother”-And I know that somewhere there’s a Cabezon with a proud smile on his face.

With the Ruth’s words still bouncing in my mostly empty head, I continued to read…"(f)idel's children" pfft.. I guess the author was trying to say “Children of the Revolution” since the article is about the Cubans who were born after (f)idel took over and their angst, anger and frustration about the lack of material comforts, not lack of freedom:

Young Cubans are starting to publicly demand that the regime make tangible improvements in their lives. Their wish lists are decidedly apolitical. Instead of pining for democracy, most are focused on things foreign peers take for granted: the freedom to travel abroad, unrestricted Internet access, enough disposable income to buy a cell phone or an iPod.

You hear that “apolitical” thing a lot when talking to newly exiled Cubans. Of course! Politics for them is the communist party, the totalitarian control of every aspect of their lives, slogans, indoctrination, intimidation and repression. They instinctively want to get as far away from this as possible. To be left alone to make their own decisions and choose their destiny. To be Free! How yearning to be free is not political is something that maybe only nuanced, highly evolved Newsweek reporters can discern, I certainly can’t .

And this where Ruth’s words of wisdom connected with the story: Try as they might to build che’s new man, to mass produce a bunch of “fidel’s children”-obedient, mind numb automotons, all they accomplish is to continue to produce Cubans. The Children of Marti.

Cuba was a paradise...

Baseball players rarely involve themselves in politics (Curt Schilling being an exception), but when Fidel stepped down from his rule last week, Cuban baseball players and coaches found themselves involved in politics. Virtually every Cuban-born baseball player in MLB was asked to give their thoughts on the news. Most were fairly apathetic.

Juan Cardenal, of the Washington Nationals, says he doesn't get involved in politics, was indifferent to the news and even said that "Castro doesn't really bother" him... I guess he hasn't been keeping up with Cuban affairs since he left in 1961.

Regardless, he does say this, which goes hand in hand with the photos Claudia posted a few days ago:

"I remember how Cuba used to be," he said. "We used to have everything we wanted to in our country and then we were free and the whole thing. It was paradise in Cuba. ... That's what I remember the most about Cuba."

He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother

The bond Cubans share on and off the island through the generations has been in the fore the past few days. The entrepreneurial bent evident in those who fled to the United States is so characteristic of the Cuban spirit that the assumption Raul is going to convert to one currency has led to an outbreak of money exchanges on the island. People are changing money on the speculation that the peso will rise. En el medio de la inopia, they think like Soros. Have to love my people. Unleash them, and we'll see about third world country.

Then there have been the remembrances for the Brothers to the Rescue pilots. This one I find particularly touching. In Cienfuegos, in Santa Clara, in Havana and other places, ceremonies were held to mark the day that the four were murdered in cold blood. Flowers were set adrift in the sea; a condolence book was started; a commemorative banner was displayed; and speeches were made. Each link represents a different report on Misceláneas de Cuba. Of all of the tributes on February 24th, I suspect these would have been the most precious to those who lost their lives.

I think those left behind know that whatever our differences in approach, in the face of their abandonment by the world, we have remained faithful. We, very nearly alone, have stood up for their dignity and their rights as human beings these long years. Would the aging prelate would have done the same. But then, he’s not Cuban.

Reuters Ridiculousness is Encouraging

From Reuters, the news agency whose Cuba beat reporter used to work for the official newspaper of Communist Party USA has this item (emphasis mine):

Bush rejects idea of negotiating with Castro
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Thursday rejected the idea of encouraging Cuba to open up democratically by sitting down for talks with new Cuban leader Raul Castro.

Asked at a White House news conference what would be lost by a meeting, Bush said: "What's lost by embracing a tyrant who puts his people in prison because of their political beliefs? What's lost is it will send the wrong message."

"It will give great status to those who have suppressed human rights and human dignity. I'm not suggesting there is never a time to talk," he said, but he added now was not the time to beginning discussions with Raul Castro.

"He's nothing more than an extension of what his brother did, which was to ruin an island and to imprison people because of their beliefs," Bush said.

(Reporting by David Alexander, editing by Lori Santos)

As if raul castro could be convinced through "encouragement" to abandon 49 years of Marxist economic and political policies. We're going to "encourage" raul to release the political prisoners and allow people to organize political opposition. He'll be so "encouraged" by our presentation about the benefits of representative multi-party democracy that he'll dismantle the repressive machinery that he helped assemble over half a century. For a president that is much maligned by the media, they sure have a lot faith in his power to encourage murderers to reform, crooks to straighten out and abusers to end their abuses.

Let's all "encourage" raul castro to do the right thing. You know, like the Vatican "encourages". Like Spain "encourages", like the UK and Canada "encourage". Yes that's what we need is one more encouraging voice in the chorus of encouragers.

I encourage Reuters to piss up a rope.

He came, he saw... (Part 2)

and he expressed his disapproval of the oppression of the Cuban people and the barriers being placed against their quest for dignity and independence.

The problem is he was not talking about the dictatorial regime that has for the past half-century beaten, jailed, and murdered hundreds of thousands of Cubans. The good Cardinal instead was referring to the US and its embargo against Cuba's oligarchical dictatorship. As a matter of fact, I have not heard Cardinal Bertone say much, if anything, about the lack of freedom in Cuba.

Thank you so much for your concern for the Cuban people, Cardinal Bertone, but really, you shouldn't have.

God knows you shouldn't have.

Cuba's chief executioner

Heralding raul castro as a reformer is not just dishonest, it is an obscenity. raul castro is an assassin, a cold-blooded killer who has shown no remorse for the five decades spent as fidel castro's executioner.

Our friend Humberto Fontova instructs, from Newsmax:

Stalinism Alive and Well in Cuba

By: Humberto Fontova

In 1956 when Fidel Castro's motley band of 82 guerrillas were training in Mexico for their "invasion" and "liberation" of Cuba from Batista, a trainee named Calixto Morales, suffering from a recent injury, was forced to briefly hobble away from one particularly strenuous training session.

He was trussed up, dragged in front of what a guerrilla leader called a "court martial," and quickly sentenced to death by firing squad.

Fortunately the "maximum" guerrilla commander showed up in time and ordered his brother to rescind his hasty death sentence. Morales, after all, had the proper "revolutionary" attitude and had merely suffered an unfortunate accident.

Raul Castro had done the hasty sentencing. His big brother Fidel ordered the pardon.

Two years later the anti-Batista "guerrilla war" (occasional shootouts and skirmishes that the Cripps and Bloods would shrug off as a slow week) was chiefly centered in Cuba's eastern province of Oriente and consisted of two "fronts." One was commanded by Fidel in the Sierra Maestra mountains, the other was commanded by Raul in the Sierra Cristal mountains slightly north of Fidel's group.

One day a teen-aged rebel soldier named Dariel Alarcon overheard Fidel sputtering complaints to his assistant Celia Sanchez about the northern front. Raul's zeal for firing squad executions of "informers," "spies," counter-
revolutionaries" etc., where he often applied the coup 'd grace himself, was hampering progress on what Fidel had always treated as the "war's" primary front.

This primary front, of course, was the media front: the almost effortless bamboozling of the swarms of gaping reporters who queued up to interview him. Thanks to these "gallant crusaders for the truth" (as Columbia school of journalism hails its students) the stirring tale of Cuba's Thomas Jefferson/Robin Hood/Richard the Lion Hearted/Saint Thomas Aquinas — all in one heroic package, sporting a beard and combat fatigues — was thrilling audiences from New York to Paris.

The New York Times ignited the process in February of 1957 with Fidel Castro on it's front page. Soon a conflagration raged, in both print and video. CBS soon ran "The Story of Cuba's Jungle Fighters," a breathtaking news-drama that ran on prime time. Look Magazine, The Chicago Tribune, Boys Life (honest, even they braved the horrendous battlefield perils for a Castro interview) all added to the blizzard of BS.

The stories leaking out regarding the "Revolutionary justice" practiced in Raul's front, though completely ignored by the foreign media throng, were causing a bit of grumbling in the Cuban press. So would Raul please cut down on the firing squad bloodbath, requested Fidel. It could hurt the image Fidel was so expertly crafting, with the eager help of media dupes and acolytes, of their "humanistic rebellion."

Raul's response is what caused Fidel's sputtering to his assistant. "Got your message and will take immediate corrective measures," Raul responded to his brother. "No more bloodbath. From now on we'll start hanging the counter- revolutionaries."

Cuban-American scholar Dr. Armando Lago who, with Maria Werlau, runs the Cuba Archive Project that meticulously attempts to document the tally of Castro regime murders have documented 278 executions in Oriente province on Raul's orders within the very first week of the Revolutionary triumph on Jan. 1, 1959. Potential contras lurked from one end of Cuba to the other.

So Raul rolled up his sleeves, spit on his hands and got to work as eastern Cuba's version of Cheka chief Feliks Dzerzhinski, while his bosom friend Che Guevara handled the matter in western Cuba by converting Havana's La Cabana fortress into a tropical Lubyanka.

Dr Lago has documented 550 executions on Raul's direct order by mid 1959. Eyewitness defectors report that Raul gleefully administered the coup'grace to at least 78 of these.

Raul's chum Che Guevara was breathing down his neck in the competition, however. Dr Lago documents 1,168 executions islandwide by that time. The best man at Che's first wedding in 1955 in Mexico City was Raul Castro. So maybe there was some friendly competition involved.

Stalinist type purges of Cuba's military have continued sporadically for decades. "In one week during 1963 we counted 400 firing squad blasts from our cells," recalls former political prisoner and freedom-fighter Roberto Martin Perez. Most of these were junior officers accused of being disloyal to the regime.

Much more highly publicized was the Stalinist show trial, confession and execution in 1989 of Gen. Arnaldo Ochoa and the attendant purge of any military man even rumored as his friend or supporter.

Arnaldo Ochoa was the Cuban general widely credited with Cuba's victories in both the Angolan Civil War and in Ethiopia's early crushing of the Eritrean rebellion. "Every officer in the Cuban armed forces admired Ochoa, " according to Cuban defector Gen. Rafael Del Pino, who was close to Ochoa both personally and professionally.
Ochoa was on especially close and friendly terms with Raul Castro, whom the general always affectionately called "jefe."

In the dawn hours of July 13, 1989 Gen. Arnaldo T. Ochoa was executed by a firing squad on Raul's orders. A sickening "trial" and "confession" had preceded his execution, all of it on camera. Cuban defector Rafael Del Pino who once headed Cuba's air force explains that "Ochoa was a pragmatic man who was flexible enough to recognize the sense behind Gorbachev's reforms of the time. Even worse, Ochoa, like many other Cuban military officers, was trained in the Soviet Union and had close ties to the Soviet leaders then involved in the reforms with whom they had served in Africa."

That Glasnost and Perestroika stuff could be contagious, in other words. Yet media and scholarly wizards keep telling us it's Raul himself who will inspire "an opening" in Cuba.

Hearts and minds

Next time Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton try to outdo each other on how fast they are willing to cut and run out of Iraq I'd like you remember this video and consider that we'll be abandoning these people to the wolves.

The problem with Obama

Well, one of the problems with Obama is how he's demonstrated an inability to reject support from unwanted quarters. The Farrakhan endorsement is just the latest incident. We know how weakly and how late Obama was to distance himself from Maria Isabel the Che Guevara worshiper. I understand that when you are running for president you want every single vote you can muster. But at some point you have to be accountable and run the risk of losing more votes than you gain when you have screwy Louie supporting your candidacy and an army of Che lovers posting stuff on your web site.

Countdown to missile detonation: 3 - 2 -1...

The rumors of my demise...

...have been greatly exaggerated.

A Little Word Play

The Sun-Sentinel prides itself on having a Havana Bureau, although they relied on AP for this one. The headline blares "US Mocks Cuban Political Transition." And my intransigent friends, guess what State Department Spokesperson Tom Casey had the audacity to quote? The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again." Perhaps if the transition/succession/acension/election/ratification were not such a mockery, the Staties might have been suitably grave. Guess our media friends didn't see the humor.

Cuba 1954

Last night I received an email from Julio P. containing these photos and a link to over 200 more. Julio was born during the revolution in Cuba and wanted to share these photos because of what he was not taught in school. No one ever talked about all the progress that was made in the country during the time of Batista. He never knew that hotels, buildings, streets, highways, sidewalks and parks were built during that time. He didn't know that blacks and whites worked side by side, gainfully employed in the development of his country. It simply was not a part of the new, re-written history taught in school. These pictures prove otherwise. When you view the slide show, notice the way people are dressed, the integration of races, the abundance of stores and the shoppers and of course, the cars and busses.

That is not to say that Batista did not committ terrible crimes and that the government was not rife with corruption. It is merely a comparison. From the development of the country- the immaculate streets and buildings, the way everything was cared for, to what you see today- dilapidated buidlings, crumbling facades, chipped sidewalks, lack of stores (and private enterprise, of course) and hungry people.... well, the cars are the same, at least. So, what went wrong?

Enjoy this beautiful trip down memory lane. It is rather sad, though, to see Cuba how it used to be. If you can identify anyone in the pictures, let me know and I'll pass it on to be included in the captions.

Click here: Cuba 1954

Reactions to monarchical succession in Cuba

The BBC's Spanish web site asks if Cuba will change, and what the succession in Cuba means. Some of the best responses (Translations are mine):

The Cuban people are demoralized, tired, apathetic, indifferent, disillusioned, tired of this dictatorship. Nobody wants to work, everyone steals, traffics, sells on the black market, drinks, prostitutes. These are the heroic people of the propaganda. But the truth is there, on the streets, in the decadence. 70% of houses are being supported artificially or otherwise collapsing. What change can be made with this 77 year old man after 50 years in power? Nobody knows since time and stopped on this forgotten island

Maite Rodriguez

There is no solution for the Cuban economy if they remain in power as they have done for 50 years. From time to time there are promises, but it is purely an attempt to soothe. It's proven that the only function of of this tyrannical system is for them to stay in power living well while the citizenry disintegrates day after day in the most brutal misery. The only thing Raul Castro might do with his 77 years is obtain a migratory agreement with the USA to escape from here. There is no other solution for a communist

Norberto Esquivel

I would like for the newspaper Granma produce a report about the economic achievements of the tyrant Castro. To recount the failures of the harvest of 10 million tons, the cordon of Havana, the micro-jet bananas, the new varieties of livestock, the production of coffee, the development of housing, transport, apartheid at the beaches and hotels, of prostitution, of the 2 million exiles. So then we could imagine the changes that Raul will make at age 77.

Ignacio Lopez

Curiously, the most anti-Americans countries in Latin America are those who never had a intervention by the USA. However the Dominican Republic, Panama, Nicaragua and Cuba that did, are traditionally less anti-American that Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay. The Cuban people (contrary to what many believe in this forum) are not and have never been anti-American. Quite the contrary. Despite 50 years of Castro today they are less anti-Yankee than ever. The rest is a fabrication.

Marcos Salas

It's a shame that because of the the anti-Americanism in the world, the Castros still have sympathizers and are not seen for what they really are: murderers, tyrants, dinosaurs that have destroyed the economy and the hope of a country that emigrates in droves. This "new" nomenclature (all military) over 77 years of age, will make the changes so that everything remains the same. Why not condemn dictatorships when they are from left? Why, please! Somebody explain that!

Marlene Sarmientos

All of these comments allegedly came from Cuba. I wish it were so. But there is no way to really know. But they are almost exact echoes of what we say here on a daily basis. At least we know where to recruit new contributors.

H/T: Pep

Food for thought...

Just got this in my email box:

FLORIDA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
EDUARDO GONZALEZ
REPRESENTATIVE, DISTRICT 102

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - February 27, 2008
Contact: Manny Cid
Phone: (305) 364-3066
E-Mail: Manny.Cid@myfloridahouse.gov

REPRESENTATIVE GONZALEZ FILES LEGISLATION TO PROHIBIT U.S. CITIZENS TRAINED BY THE CASTRO REGIME FROM PRACTICING IN FLORIDA

TALLAHASSEE - State Representative Eddy Gonzalez (R – Hialeah) filed legislation today to prohibit U.S. citizens or residents who travel to Cuba for medical training or a medical degree from undertaking medical residency, being licensed, or practicing in Florida.

“The idea that American students are receiving an education in Cuba at absolutely no cost is absurd,” said Representative Gonzalez. “No amount of so-called ‘free’ education is worth the cost of having America’s students exposed to Castro’s indoctrination machine.”

The legislation was filed partly in response to the Cuban regime’s latest attempts at currying favor with the international community and disengaged Americans through shallow publicity stunts. Theirs is a scheme to further manipulate public opinion in Castro’s favor and to export his failed ideology to the United States.

In May 2000, while addressing a group of visiting U.S. lawmakers, Castro offered to provide “free medical training” to 500 Americans. In August 2005, Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez addressed the first graduating class of doctors from Cuba’s Latin American School of Medicine.

“Despite the often repeated myth about Cuba’s ‘grand healthcare system,’ the truth is that Cuba is an utter failure, unless of course you are a foreigner paying for services in hard currency,” added Rep. Gonzalez. “Our students should not be contributing to Castro’s apartheid healthcare system, and those who turn a blind eye to such a basic human and civil rights abuses do not possess the basic judgment and character required for the ethical practice of medicine in Florida.”

This legislation would exempt Cuban natives or citizens if they received their medical training or medical degree prior to exile. Representative Gonzalez has made the passage of the Cuba Practice of Medicine Bill a priority issue for the 2008 Legislative Session.

I really didnt know what to say about this, but when I read the highlighted portion above, I have to say, it's certainly something to think about.

First, do no harm.

Dr. Oriol is a free man!

I have a huge smile on my face because I just heard from Dr. Oriol that he has arrived in Miami from East Timor!!! He and his four friends are finally free! Read all about it at his blog.

Congratulations Alexis!!!!

Ahem...

About that Global Warming:

All four major global temperature tracking outlets (Hadley, NASA's GISS, UAH, RSS) have released updated data. All show that over the past year, global temperatures have dropped precipitously.

Get your mittens out folks, this warming thing might be cool after all.

William F. Buckley Dead at 82

Read about it at the New York Slimes.

More about Buckley and what he meant to conservatism and America at National Review Online.

H/T: Jose Reyes

Am I wrong?

Predictably the "change" that occurred in Cuba over the weekend (which is no change at all because raul has been said to be governing for over a year and a half) has brought the fidelista apologists and anti-embargo blame the U.S. first crowd out of the woodwork.

But something else happened. A bunch of people also spoke out against the regime that don't normally talk about Cuba. The cartoons I posted below are a testament to the latent sentiments about castro that are out there among everyday Americans.

We are often discouraged because it seems that every American who hasn't been immersed in the issue of Cuba automatically believes in some of the propaganda put out there by the regime and amplified by the media in the last 50 years. But these last few days have shown me that there's far more people out there that "get it" than I previously thought. It's just that these people don't have a vested interest in Cuba and Cuba isn't on the top of their agenda.

Here's just one example: a Portuguese blogger living in Belgium reminding his readers that despite the "change" Cuba still has political prisoners.

Another: Reason Magazine's editor takes on the castro myth and how the media handles it.

Am I being overly optimistic? Am I wrong.

Best of the political cartoons...

Regarding the monarchical succession in Cuba.:

My favorite:

Some more:

UPDATE: More cartoons at Cubanology.

Vatican Complicit in Tyranny

I'll be frank - a great many folks will inevitably take umbrage at what I've got to say regarding Cardinal Bertone's recently wrapped-up "vacation" in Havana. I'm prepared for the bullets that may be fired across my bow and stand by today's posting 100 percent.

Vatican Complicit in Tyranny
As posted in CubaWatch

As the Catholic church’s official interpreter of the word of God, the Vatican is charged with – among other things – fostering the development of respect, brotherhood and love of humanity. The philosophy of Jesus Christ was one of love and compassion – not one of hate and political oppression.

Of course, there have been periods in the history of the church when the Vatican strayed from Christian ideals. Pope John XII was killed by the husband of his lover in 964. Pope Alexander VI was said to have enjoyed an illicit relationship with his own daughter, Lucrezia. In more recent years, the Vatican elected Eugenio Pacelli as pontiff. As Pope Pius XII, Pacelli would remain mum during Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, even refusing calls for help from the Jewish people. Stand-up guy, Pius XII.

In recent years however, the Vatican, especially under the leadership of the late Pope John Paul II, had made great strides in coming to terms with its checkered past. Over the course of the past two decades, we saw the Catholic church’s highest emissary deliver apologies for its less-than-stellar treatment of Jews, the torture and burning of those deemed to be “heretics” and acts of genocide committed against entire religious groups. Past examples of penitence by the Vatican however, seem to have been nothing more than hollow gestures however.

Upon his recent arrival in Havana, Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone was quick to condemn the United States’ trade embargo against Cuba, suggesting that the embargo, and not the Cuban government, was the source of the nation’s ills. Bertone did raise the issue of the church’s concern regarding prisoners during his meeting with Raul Castro, but failed to confront the dictatorship head-on. In short, Bertone chose to ignore the Cuban people in hopes of not raising the hackles of government officials. This, my friends, is a very weak man.

Cardinal Bertone and the Vatican hierarchy have betrayed the teachings of Christ by choosing politeness over the livelihood of over 11-million lost souls on the imprisoned island of Cuba. During his visit to the Pearl of the Antilles, our brothers and sisters saw no condemnation of the Stalinist regime that has brutally murdered thousands. They heard no calls for an end to the dictatorship in hopes of a democratic transition. Our families saw only polite handshakes and a condemnation of the U.S. trade embargo meant to – yet again – present the dictatorship as a tiny David pitted against its gigantic Goliath to the north, La Yuma. Where is the compassion for the long-suffering Cuban people? How is it possible that the Cuban Bishops Conference could perpetrate a betrayal as complete as offering a “vote of confidence” ‘to newly installed “President” Raul Castro, a man who oversaw the purges that wiped out thousands of innocent men, women and children during the revolution and the opening years of its newly formed government? How could that body express support for a pre-planned transition meant to preserve a half-century-old dictatorial dynasty? The Vatican itself exercises its own form of democracy under the Papal Conclave system. Why should we, the Cuban people, be denied that same right?

For those reasons and many more, it is time to condemn the Vatican in the strongest of terms. In tacitly supporting a regime with so much blood on its hands, the Vatican is no longer ethically or morally capable of carrying on in its self-perceived role as God’s messenger on Earth to hundreds-of-millions of Catholics. The administration of Pope Benedict XVI has chosen to ally itself with the armies of evil, turning its back on the teachings of Christ the philosopher and in effect, on its own followers.

This pontificate has shattered its sacred covenant with God and must answer for its sins. As such, do Catholics owe any allegiance to the Vatican aristocracy? I think not. Catholic church-goers worship God the Father and Christ, his son, not a human being and administration that sees fit to condemn my beloved family members to lives of misery under one of the most oppressive dictatorships ever to have been spawned in this hemisphere.

For the time being, the Vatican no longer represents the teachings of Christ. Until such time comes when the Catholic Church’s highest office is able to stand up unequivocally to tyranny across the globe, this status will remain and those of us calling ourselves Catholics will be shepherdless.

UPDATE: In the interest of fairness to the controversey surrounding Pius XII's behavior during the Second World War, readers should refer to my posting of last week regarding Bertone's then-impending visit. There are two sides to the Pius coin and readers should take this into account.

Those crackpot "Intransigentes!"--vindicated yet again.

Friends, Frontpage Magazine, besides being a superb publication, is a steadfast and trustworthy friend of our cause, and one of the precious few outlets for our side of the story. The intro to this article strikes me as overblown, but these editors are dear friends of mine and I forgive them.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/

The Real Ernesto

From The Young America's Foundation, via the ever excellent Gateway Pundit.

Gay bashing

On top of everything else about it, the Cuban dictatorship is homophobic, too.

Julián Armando Soto, a gay rights activist in Havana, reports that Cuban police Saturday rounded up 34 homosexuals for "putting in danger" security for a Mass being said by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. At the time of the arrests, the detainees were either gathered in a park or in front of a movie theater.

"We were on Prado street, and the Mass was at Cathedral Plaza, which is about 1,800 meters away," said Ángela Gorrero, 37, who identified herself as a lesbian, as she was held at a local police station. "Also, look at the ticket, I was about to enter the theater when I was detained."

Also, there is a separate report that police swept in on homosexuals enjoying a beach north of Havana.

"There is no name for the police abuse. Look at my legs. I fell while running on the reefs on the coast so that I would not be imprisoned. They grabbed me, and it didn't matter to them that I was bleeding," said Rigoberto Soto Espinosa, 23, a university economics student.

The report notes that police left fishermen and straight bathers alone.

It is tempting to dismiss these reports as nothing special. This is how the dictatorship treats all Cubans who dare deviate from the official party line.

But the recent gay bashing — which was not out of the unusual, considering that more than 4,000 homosexuals were fined or jailed last year in Havana alone — also illustrates the hypocrisy that lies in the rot of a so-called revolution.

The castros have cast themselves as champions for the little guy, and in a macho culture like Cuba's, perhaps no one is smaller than the homosexual. Well, in Cuba — even with the new dictator's daughter talking a good game — the homosexual is not immune from the worst the revolution has to offer.

You don't have to be gay or even accepting of the gay lifestyle to see that as long as gays are oppressed as described in recent report, Cuban society is that much less free. Their challenge is no greater nor no less than that before all Cubans struggling to be free.

(Cross-posted at Uncommon Sense.)

Obama's speeches are not empty

Actually, they are chock full of inaccuracies, misrepresentations, and some pretty horrendous lies.

Say What, Barrack? by Paul R. Hollrah, March 12, 2007

Tuning in to C-Span recently, I found myself listening to a speech by Senator Barrack Hussein Obama, Jr. He was standing in the pulpit of a black church in Selma, Alabama, and as I studied the body language of the dozen or so black ministers standing behind the senator, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the little head-bobbing dolls that people used to place in the rear windows of their 1957 Chevrolets. If their reactions are any indication, the new Schlickmeister of the Democrat Party is actually a pretty accomplished public speaker. However, as he spoke, I found my bull_ _ _ _ alarm going off, repeatedly. But I couldn’t quite figure out why until I actually read excerpts of his speech several days later. Here’s part of what he said: "...something happened back here in Selma, Alabama. Something happened in Birmingham that sent out what Bobby Kennedy called, “ripples of hope all around the world.” Something happened when a bunch of women decided they were going to walk instead of ride the bus after a long day of doing somebody else's laundry, looking after somebody else's children.

“When (black) men who had PhD’s decided ‘that's enough’ and ‘we’re going to stand up for our dignity,’ that sent a shout across oceans so that my grandfather began to imagine something different for his son. His son, who grew up herding goats in a small village in Africa could suddenly set his sights a little higher and believe that maybe a black man in this world had a chance.

“… So the Kennedy’s decided we're going to do an air lift. We're going to go to Africa and start bringing young Africans over to this country and give them scholarships to study so they can learn what a wonderful country America is.

“This young man named Barack Obama got one of those tickets and came over to this country. He met this woman whose great great-great-great-grandfather had owned slaves; but she had a good idea there was some craziness going on because they looked at each other and they decided that we know that, (in) the world as it has been, it might not be possible for us to get together and have a child. There was something stirring across the country because of what happened in Selma, Alabama, because some folks are willing to march across a bridge. So they got together and Barack Obama Jr. was born. So don't tell me I don't have a claim on Selma, Alabama. Don't tell me I’m not coming home to Selma, Alabama."

Okay, so what’s wrong with that? It all sounds good… but is it?

Obama told his audience that, because some folks had the courage to “march across a bridge” in Selma, Alabama, his mother, a white woman from Kansas, and his father, a black Muslim from Africa, took heart. It gave them the courage to get married and have a child. The problem with that characterization is that Barrack Obama, Jr. was born on August 4, 1961, while the first of three marches across that bridge in Selma didn’t occur until March 7, 1965, at least five years after Obama’s parents met.

Obama went on to tell his audience that the Kennedys, Jack and Bobby, decided to do an airlift. They would bring some young Africans over so that they could be educated and learn all about America. His grandfather heard that call and sent his son, Barrack Obama, Sr., to America.

The problem with that scenario is that, having been born in August 1961, the future senator was not conceived until sometime in November 1960. So, if his African grandfather heard words that “sent a shout across oceans,” inspiring him to send his goat-herder son to America, it was not Democrat Jack Kennedy he heard, or his brother Bobby, it was Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Obama’s speech is reminiscent of Al Gore's claim of having invented the Internet, Hillary Clinton’s claim of having been named after the first man to climb Mt. Everest… even though she was born five years and seven months before Sir Edmund climbed the mountain, and John Kerry's imaginary trip to Cambodia.

As one of my black friends, Eddie Huff, has said, “We need to ask some very serious questions of the senator from Illinois. It’s not enough to be black, it’s not enough to be articulate, and it’s not enough to be eloquent and a media darling… The only question will be how deaf an ear, or how blind an eye, will people turn in order to turn a frog into a prince.”

It appears that Senator Barrack Hussein Obama, Jr. is not a “fresh face,” as media sycophants like to describe him, he’s just another in a long line of Democrat snake oil salesmen.

This observation by Paul Hollrah was made almost a year ago. Isn't it scary how no one in the mainstream press has picked up on it? Isn't it scarier still that perhaps they just chose to ignore these lies? Wasn't it about 50 years ago that the world saw another young and charismatic orator that played fast and loose with the facts take a Caribbean island by storm, and then by the throat?

It's not about fidel

After the orchestrated monarchical succession that took place in Cuba over the weekend editorial boards, columnists and others have joined together in a crescendo of anti-embargo rhetoric. Now that fidel castro is no longer in power they insist that the time is right to remove sanctions against Cuba. Now is the time, they insist, though they have been insisting that now is the time for years.

The fundamental thing that these European idiots and plain old American idiots can't seem to get through their thick heads is that while fidel is evil, this isn't about fidel. It's not about raul.

Simply put, it's about Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet. It's about Antunez. It's about Armando Valladares. It's about my grandparents. It's about 11 million Cuban living in serfdom.

When the governing regime in Cuba begins to respect those people and their inalienable rights then we can talk about removing sanctions. Until then the regime and its apologists can piss up a rope.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez Gives CAMBIO bracelet to Czech Republic P.M.

Jorge Ponce, Director of Policy & Evaluation at the Department of Commerce, sent me this press release info today about US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez's meeting with Czech Republic Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek in Washington to discuss bilateral trade. Secretary Gutierrez (who was born in Cuba) today also addressed the plight of the political prisoners in Cuba. The Czech Republic stands in solidarity with them, having been under an oppressive communist regime of their own. He gave a CAMBIO bracelet to Topolanek, which I am proud to say came from me!
Secretary Gutierrez's remarks:

."...I especially want to thank the Prime Minister, and really the Czech Republic and the president for their leadership in their stance for human rights and for freedom, and very importantly what they have done to shine a spotlight on the plight of the Cuban people. And we believe that this is very much a time to shine a spotlight on the plight of political prisoners in Cuba. The fact that there are political prisoners right now who are starving to death in jail under very difficult conditions who don’t have medical attention simply for having spoken their mind and for having had a different view than the regime. We also know that the plight of Cuban people is very difficult they live under oppression; they live in constant fear, something that our friends in the Czech Republic know well because they too lived through the tyranny of communism. So, I want to thank the Prime Minister again and his country for their leadership, they have provided. I think they have provided great courage and they are a great role model for the rest of the world, and we stand with them in our support of the Cuban people in their quest to gain freedom and to gain human rights that some many people around the world deserve and enjoy.

Mr. Prime Minister, thank you and I would like to give the Prime Minister something that I wear, which is a “cambio” bracelet, which also Cuban dissidents on the island wear and I should say that there have been students who have been arrested for wearing this bracelet which simply says “change”. Quite incredibly that someone can be arrested for believing in the word change but Prime Minister I hope you wear this and thank you very much.

Prime Minister Topolanek's response:

"...And just to follow up on what has already been mentioned by the Secretary, we were discussing the situation in Cuba, also we were discussing the Czech Republic’s involvement in promoting the values of human rights in Cuba and also the Czech Republic’s participation in the strife or fight against Castro’s regime, be it Fidel’s or Raul’s, which I have clearly explained for me it is all the same. We believe that we should clearly distinguish between trading of commercial or corporation and issues of such high importance as the protection of human values, human lives and human rights."

You can read the rest of the exchange at the department of commerce website here.
cross posted at Claudia4Libertad.com

How (f)idel Ruined Cuba's Economy

One of the reasons that the World excuses castro’s atrocities in Cuba is that they assume that when he took control of the island back in 1959, Cuba was a backwater, underdeveloped banana republic with one school house, one hospital, 10,000 casinos and a Million prostitutes all run by Meyer Lansky and Batista.

But, that is not the case. And Cuban exiles aren’t victims of selective memory brought on by nostalgia.

In fact , castro took Cuba from its Renaissance back to the Dark Ages where it still is today.

I know you’re tired of reading about it and we’re tired of writing it, but I’m providing a link to a great –fact based- article in the Latin Business Chronicle to keep setting the record straight, How (f)idel Ruined Cuba's Economy :

Excerpt:

Even worse: Cuba today is far worse than it was before the 1959 revolution that swept Castro to power. Adjusted for inflation, the GDP per capita of Cuba is now only five percent of the one enjoyed in 1958, according to calculations by Salazar-Carrillo.

In 1957, Cuba’s real income per capita (national income divided by population) was $378, or fourth, in Latin America, according to Eric Baklanoff, a research professor emeritus of economics, finance and legal studies at The University of Alabama. (See Cuba Before Fidel). Even Spain ($324) and Portugal ($212), failed to reach Cuba’s level, he points out. Meanwhile, real wages in Cuba were higher than any country in the Western Hemisphere, excepting the United States and Canada, Baklanoff points out

On the castro-Care Myth:

And contrary to the widespread assumptions today, Cuba also fared well in education and health before the revolution, according to a groundbreaking overview by Norman Luxenburg, a professors emeriti at the University of Iowa. "Pre-Castro Cuba was defintely not a Third World nation in the commonly accepted sense," he wrote in an article in Encounter magazine 24 years ago. "By whatevermeasure used, whether it is the number of students in higher and secondary education, the number of physicians per capita, the infant-mortality rate, the gross national product in relation to population, or number of telephones, television sets, or cars, the Cuba of the late 1950's was far ahead of any other nation in the Caribbean and the Third World."

According to Luxenburg's investigation:
• In 1958, Cuba's 6.6 million inhabitants had more than twice as many physicians as the 19 million residents of teh other Caribbean nations combined.

• The number of medical doctors in Cuba had grown from 3,100 in 1948 to 6,400 in 1958. The ratio in the ten-year period had gone from one doctor for evry 1,650 persons to one per 1,021. But between 1960 and 1976, the number of doctors relative to population declined slightly, while increasing very greatly in the other Caribbean nations.

• The pre-Castro rate of 32 infant deaths per 1,000 births was far not only better than any other Latin American nation, but also better than that of Germany, Italy, Spain and a host od developed countries. The rate worsened during the first decade of Castro, before improving. Yet, countries like Spain, germany and Italy now have lower rates.

• Cuba had a life expectancy of 61.8 years before the revolution. That compares with 43 and less for some Latin American nations and in the 30s for several African nations in teh period 1955-60.

Luxenburg disputes the conception that Cuba's health care improved significantly under Fidel Castro as opposed to before he took power or if someone else had ruled Cuba. "To use the term "underdeveloped" to apply in terms of health both to Cuba and to these other [African] nations is stretching it somewhat," Luxenburg commented on the pre-revolution state of Cuba's health system. "With a steady increase in the ratio of physicians to population, with new treatments, improved medicines, greater hygienic awareness, increased medical knowledge, and such factors as refrigeration and education, it is only natural to suppose that there would have continued to be significant improvements in Cuban public health, and that this would be the case of who controlled the government.”

Read the Article here. It gets better.

CAMBIO

Massive Power Outage Hits South Florida

In an erie reminder of the massive blackout that hit the North-East back in 2003, South Florida residents were hit with a large-scale power outage this afternoon. Early reports from an official with the Metro-Dade Police Dept. I spoke with indicate that the grid from Miami all the way up to Ft. Lauderdale has been knocked out.

Rest assured, I'm on the case and will update this posting with any information I can get my hands on.

UPDATE - 1:43 p.m. EST

Apparently, the outage is sporadic throughout the region, and not a solid loss of service all the way up the coastline.

UPDATE - 3:21 p.m. EST

Sigh . . . I hesitate to post a link to a CastroNewsNetwork story but, well, here's some further information on this developing story.

Quote of the day

"How can the state sell most its products and goods in a currency that it doesn't use to pay people? Rolando Bellman, Cuban security guard.

From a Reuters article, here.

fidel castro, the mindless pawn?

As you might have guessed we are flooded wit