How About Some Suggestions?

Now for what I really think.

Somehow with all the reading I've done, I've never read The Art of War, but I do know the concept of a strategic retreat. I think that's what we need to do now. Let's pretend that we don't mind how they're going to try to take apart the Cuba policy. Messrs. Flake and Rangel are at it again, you know. And as they say about terrorists, they only have to get through once. Besides, our present attempts to hold the line make us look intransigent.

A while back at Killcastro, the idea was raised that a sort of Free Cuba be established in Guantanamo for those who are fleeing the dictatorship. I thought it was a great notion. Picture a model town where Cubans can work and live and even eat. Let's provide air conditioning. Build a Cuban Mayberry. What better demonstration of the joys of capitalism and democracy?All of this can be funded with some of that money designated to help bring democracy to Cuba. Anyway, this discussion got me to thinking that there are all sorts of ideas out there.

I may be wrong, but I think that we need to retreat to the nearest hill, preempt those who would steamroll over us by presenting our own ideas for policy before we face what I fear will be a humiliating rout, one which will strip us of whatever credibility we have left after Elian. So let's collect ideas. I'll even start with some of my own half-baked propositions, this being a warm up exercise. I'm really counting on someone else to come up with something good.

• Let's start with the hardest nut to crack- political prisoners. No matter which way I parse it, this will be the toughest. Why would the regime make itself vulnerable? Only thing I could come up with is greed. So why not dangle the biggest carrot? If Cuba releases it's political prisoners, it can have access to our markets. Even if they don't accept it, we look like good people. I mean who can root publicly against political prisoners?
  
• How about tourism? Okay, American enterprises will be allowed to join with the regime to build hotels, run tourist companies, etc... as long as they pay full salary directly to employees in American dollars. We could also get fancy and say they have to allow Cubans also. At the slightest hint that the regime is playing games, a moratorium on American tourism will be imposed.


• Speaking of tourism, all Americans will be allowed to visit Cuba. However, they can only stay at approved hotels, those that pay employees directly in American dollars. That'll learn the Europeans, as well as steer American tourists to American-owned hotels.


• Oh, and about seized American corporate assets, impose a surcharge on travel to and transactions with Cuba and set up a fund to pay back claimants.
  

I'm sure there are many objections, so tell me about them. Tell me your own ideas. I'll even try to disable the comment moderation for this one. All I ask is that while we may not agree, (and being Cubans, we won't) we be respectful of each other's opinions. Agent provocateurs will be removed.

In the Manda Madre! Department...

Cuba is celebrating what would have been Beny More's 88th birthday. According to the article, which is in Spanish, Beny died of cirrhosis of the liver at age 43, as if we didn't know he died of a beating for trying to escape Cuba.
Read it here.

Enlightened Liberals and Cubanophobia: Updated

This is the current comic at The Washington Post, brought to you by the same enlightened types who would not think of publishing a cartoon about African-Americans being sent back to Africa, or Jews being sent back to Nazi Germany. Heck, they wouldn't print one about Muslims being sent somewhere to the Middle East. But somehow, this is acceptable. Imus loses his job for using "nappy headed hos," yet this piece of detritus is published by one of the major newspapers in the United States.

I've often wondered why Cuban Americans are the only minority group that can be attacked with impunity. And, I suspect, there are many factors, envy, xenophobia, etc... But there's a clue in this abomination. Take a look at what the soon-to-be exiles are saying. They won't be allowed to "interfere' in the next election. It's about politics, folks. What they cannot forgive us is that we are in the main politically conservative, tend to vote Republican, and have the power of numbers in the very important state of Florida. Yup, that's it. We're not cool.

Why should it be a surprise that Cuban Americans vote Republican? Cubans arrive here fleeing a ubiquitous totalitarian state. They do not see government as the beneficent doler out of entitlements. It then makes sense that they would like to see the least government possible. And which party has traditionally stood for less government, for the right to bear arms? Then there is the question of taxes. Being of an entrepreneurial bent, firmly planted in the bourgeoisie, they are very sensitive to questions of taxes and regulations. Any question as to why they would be conservative? Finally, there is the question of history. I'd say at least half of Cuban Americans remember the men that were left to die on the beach at Playa Giron, facing Russian tanks, when the promised air support didn't arrive. Is that enough to keep voting Republican in perpetuam? No, but it doesn't make one feel very Democratic.

Mas Canosa once supported a Democrat, Bill Clinton. And how was he repaid? With Wet Foot/Dry Foot, with paratroopers busting into a family home, guns drawn, to forcibly send a child back to a Stalinist state to be with his father, the father who had suddenly desired custody of his son, AFTER Castro demanded Elian's return. And so it goes. I wouldn't count on a mass exodus to the Dems anytime soon.

By the way, Mr. Oliphant, the most wonderful thing is that I am as American as you are. I'm probably even more American than you since I live in the real world and not in the rarefied air of circles where no one has ever earned a buck by the sweat of his brow. And before, you put me in that row boat, you'd better get the Mayflower out of mothballs, honey.

Update: It is not enough to practice hate speech in the pages of the Washington Post, they have the offending scribble as the featured cartoon on Slate.

H/T Babalublog

Literary Interlude: Shakespearean Ruminations on Mortality

It was exciting and frustrating while it lasted, but alas it's last weekend redux. This weekend's literary interlude comes from Hamlet.

First, on the vanity of power:

No, faith, not a jot; but to follow him thither with
modesty enough, and likelihood to lead it: as
thus: Alexander died, Alexander was buried,
Alexander returneth into dust; the dust is earth; of
earth we make loam; and why of that loam, whereto he
was converted, might they not stop a beer-barrel?
Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay,
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away:
O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe,
Should patch a wall to expel the winter flaw! (Act 5, scene 1)

Then on the subject of death itself:

... If it be now,
'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now;
if it be not now, yet it will come:
the readiness is all. (Act 5, scene 2)

All are taken out of context, but somehow they say something to the present situation.

Spoof

Interesting article, but it is just a spoof

Cuba Sí

I feel like telling the story of my one and only foray into the world of protesting. I would have protested more, but I never had the opportunity. I think I was in my early twenties, just guessing here, when I heard that Cubans were protesting at the Cuban Mission to the UN. Even then, I felt the pull of my Cuban roots.

I dragged my mother, on the assumption that the more bodies the better, hopped on the Staten Island Ferry, and off we went. We never got near the UN. New York's Finest held us back blocks from the mission. So there we were, hundreds, maybe a thousand or two strong, corralled on a side street, hidden from view and away from the UN and its missions. I couldn't figure out how people got to demonstrate across the street from the UN. I mean, it seemed like there were always three Cambodians with placards in front of the place. I guess the powers that were didn't like us.

No matter, it was a boost anyway. We stood and chanted "Cuba Sí, Rusia No" over and over again, the catalyst for said demonstration having been something the Russians had done. Alpha 66 was there with a flatbed truck, which was a good thing, because they had a sound system. It was intoxicating. For the first time in my life, I was in an assemblage of people who shared my pain, people like me. I cannot tell you how empowering it was. Yes, they had tucked us away out of sight in that canyon, but we were together, and we were angry. For a fleeting moment we were telling the world we existed. In the end, we all went home, having accomplished nothing tangible. New York being the way it is, I don't even think we got press coverage.

Yet within me was a certain satisfaction, a taste of what it was to matter. I had no military skills, no money, no connections. If truth be told, I was not particularly brave unless angry- that might be a national trait. I wasn't going to go tumbar Fidel. The only thing I could do then is what I try to do now, bear witness to the truth. And maybe, just maybe, someday the truth will set us free.

El Baracko & Dissension in the Ranks

I could not resist that variation of Obama's name I found in the comments section somewhere. For the English speakers among us, the word sounds like another word for comemierda or dope.
But enough of word play.

The reaction to Obama's op-ed piece in the Miami Herald yesterday in the Cuban community was everything the regime could have desired, as Cubans in the blogosphere and elsewhere engaged in heated debates involving assertions of cowardice and testicular impairment. No wonder the Cuban government was delighted with his proposal, not only will it enrich their coffers and relieve pressure, but it's already fostering dissension in the Cuban/Cuban American community.

The discussions have made evident hairline fractures in a fairly monolithic community. Folks, we have differences in perspective. It don't make us bad people. We are in this together. Already, I see signs of progress as some of the posts get more conciliatory. In actuality, this is an opportunity for us. Some of us stand on the deck of the HMS Principle and are willing to go down with the ship if that's what it takes. Others are more pragmatic and will deal with the Devil if it will help. Unfortunately, we've all read those stories about dealing with the devil.

In the end, we all want the same thing: a free and well-fed Cuba. So what can we take from the discussions? These are some points I've been seeing repeated.

Position A-

• Tourist travel to Cuba is done at the expense of the Cuban people. The bulk of the money goes into government (in this case military) coffers. Cuban workers are paid a pittance.
• Exile travel aids the government in two ways: the revenue from the logistics, and the alleviation of pressure by subsidizing family members.
• When family travel and money transfer were less retricted, it became for some, an abuso, making parts of the American public question whether they were in actuality economic refugees, say like the Haitians, and demand their own access to Varadero. It was also a source of resentment for those on the island who don't have relatives to send them money or build them a new house.
• Lifting the rest of the faux embargo will further enrich the government by giving it access to American markets and credit. You know someone's greed will overmaster their business sense.
• All other qualms aside, there can be no lifting of anything until political prisoners are freed and democracy reinstituted.

Position B-

• The pittance earned by working in the tourist sector makes a major difference in the lives of ordinary Cubans. Witness the doctors working as taxi drivers and the engineers as pool boys.
• Exposure to Americans and American values, the people to people exchange, will make the populace hungry for the same.
• Exiles should be allowed to go and see their dying mothers, ailing relatives, etc... More importantly they should be allowed to help them out of their abject misery.
• Forty odd years of these restrictions have not worked, if by success you mean the fall of the regime. It seems no amount of hunger is enough to make enough people take on the machinery of repression.

My question, why not see if these points can serve as guidelines for a position? As opposite as they seem, I think it is possible, and I would love to see us play with possibilities, although I don't think now is the time to propose anything. I would have loved to have seen some sweeping gesture made upon the announcement of the tyrant's death (It sounds so Shakespearean, doesn't it.) But it is too late, I think. Who knows what Faustian bargains have already been struck? So why bother now? Because once the announcement is made, if it is to be more of the same, I think we need to provide a united front and a new perspective.

More Fifth Columnists: The Military History Channel? (Updated)

Watching the Spy Stories today on the Military History Channel, when they go to commercial. No, wait, it's one of those mini-documentaries they do. This time it's about Reagan and the contras. They end it just before the commercial on a decidedly upbeat note for Daniel Ortega. While things might be upbeat for Ortega now, at the time the Sandinistas were eventually kicked out, granted not by the contras. Some note here is off. The presentation of the data is skewed.

This reminds me of an earlier problem I had with another one of those just-before-the- commercial-break docs, this one a mini-biography of Che. At the time, I emailed them.
Below is a highlight:

The only attempt to be objectively historical came with the lip service at the end. Not for nothing is Che known as the "Butcher of the Cabaña" (a prison). Is that supposed to be answered by the sixteen year old saying, "It was a revolution, and in revolutions, people die."

So what was the upshot? I received a very snippy reply to the effect that they had no program "Sea Stories," although they did have a "Sea Tales," and she had no idea what I was talking about. Now I may be absent-minded, but I am not stupid. I knew what I had seen. Alas, in a fit of Cuban pique, I deleted it.

After today's installment, I realized it. The Military History Channel would seem to be if anything prone to flag waving, so what explains it? Simple, the liberal elite control all forms of media. Apparently, someone at The Military History Channel, limited by the patriotic tone of those WWII documentaries, has found an outlet by putting in these leftist leaning mini-docs.

My problem here is the same as that with the Smithsonian. The minute they advertise themselves as The Military History Channel, they have an obligation to adhere to fact. There are many ways to manipulate opinion: one way is to present opinions as facts; another is to selectively cull facts. In those mini-documentaries, The Military History Channel is guilty of both.

Update: They did it again. This time it was the Che biography penned by Castro's propaganda machine, the one where Che is the selfless liberator. AAAARGH!

Woe is me! Where Have All The Readers Gone?

O, woe is me,

To have seen what I have seen, see what I see!

Shakespeare, Hamlet

The sound you hear is my teacher's heart breaking. On MSNBC this morning is confirmation of my worst fears: 1 in 4 Americans did not read a single book last year. You can say it's part of an evolution in the presentation of information. But think about it: 25% of the American population gets its information from the MSM and the internet, if they are interested in information at all.

Read it here

The European Effect: Part 2 (Updated)

I promised to talk about the author's response, and here it is. I am cherry picking here, I admit, but there are a few points here I want to address:

While not wishing to offend any individual Americans, I was refering to the American big businesses who according to every book I have ever read (and there have been many) about Cuba, owned much of the Island's wealth. I am refering to the companies who owned the oil refineries,who controlled the banks, who controlled, bought and sold the sugar, who owned the hotels, the trains, the casinos, the telephone companies and just about everything else that one can think of...

“...it is very doubtful whether Cuba would have reached even the relative prosperity which it did in fact achieve had it not been for large American investments.”

With all its problems, the most important of which was political, Cuba in
1958 remained one of the more advanced and successful Latin American societies.
The revolutionary version of pre-Castro history has been so widely diffused
in the American and European media during the last four decades that
such an assertion seems preposterous on its face. It is not, however, an opinion
confined to disaffected Cuban exiles or Anglo-Saxon conservatives. No less an
authority than veteran Communist Party chieftain Aníbal Escalante is on
record as avowing that “Cuba was not one of the countries with the lowest standard
of living of the masses in Latin America, but on the contrary one of those
with the highest standard of living.”

Quotes from Cuba: The Morning After by Mark Falcoff

Before I go any further I must add that my article which was not intended to be political but which has obviously upset some of you, used the phrase about rich Americans exploiting Cuba because that is quite simply the way that it is portrayed in Britain and Europe.

Ah, my point exactly, this is the European perspective that is making its way back to Cuba.

My mother witnessed at first hand the barbarity and repression of Batista's police and the poverty which many Cubans lived with at the time. She witnessed a small boy of no more than 8 years old being shot by Batista's police in cold blood and yet you say that Cuba was more tolerant than Britain before 1959, people were not being murdered by the police in 1950's Britain!

My first source (see above) does a more than adequate job of discussing Batista.

I don't know about you, but my mother brought me up with a saying that had there been no ---------- (can't remember the date of Batista's coup), there would have been no 26th of July. But Basista's regime was a far cry from what replaced it.

One of the many books that I have read and which goes into detail about the living standards of Cubans before Castro is Dr Eric William's `From Columbus to Castro: The History of the Caribbean 1492-1969. The late Dr Williams was the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago and no communist or apologist for Castro but a well respected democraticaly elected politician and Historian. Perhaps you should read this book and the many others like it, that will tell you of what living standards Cubans had before Castro.

Here's a UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) report on Cuba circa 1957 : "One feature of the Cuban social structure is a large middle class," it starts. "Cuban workers are more unionized (proportional to the population) than U.S. workers. The average wage for an 8 hour day in Cuba in 1957 is higher than for workers in Belgium, Denmark, France and Germany. Cuban labor receives 66.6 per cent of gross national income. In the U.S. the figure is 70 per cent, in Switzerland 64 per cent. 44 per cent of Cubans are covered by Social legislation, a higher percentage then in the U.S." (Movie Critics Aghast at Andy Garcia's The Lost City by Humberto Fontova)

My father was an exile from Batista and from what my parents have told me, the ones who fled the Island in the immediate aftermath of Castro's revolution were the crooks of the Batista government and US criminals whom the FBI were arresting as they got off of planes in Miami.

Here, I take offense. Is this meant to imply that people who got out early when they saw the writing on the wall were criminals of supporters of Batista? While a striking vignette, I assure you, my parents weren't.

On the subject of de Valera, the Irish writer Tim Pat Coogan who wrote a recent biography failed to find any verification of de Valera's father's identity, although he quite possibly was a Cuban. Another connection between Cuba and Ireland that you failed to mention although there might be a reason for this is that Che Guevara's mother's family came from Co. Galway.

The father of the modern Irish republic was Eamon de Valera, who was born in New York in 1882. His father, Juan de Valera, although technically a Spaniard, was really a Cuban, born in Cuba (which was part of Spain back then), the son of a Cuban sugar planter and escaped to New York during the Independence Wars with Spain. There he earned his living as a piano teacher. He met and married Irish immigrant Catherine Coll. Juan died shortly after the birth of their son Eduardo. After Juan's death, his wife sent Eduardo to Ireland, where her family changed his name to the Gaelic version of Eduardo: Eamon. (found this quote here While not intended to be scholarly, it jibes the with what I read years ago in a Catholic publication, and the blogger picked it up in Cuba.)

Read the whole discussion on Cubanology

I'm happy to report that we came to a rapprochement of sorts in the comments section. So, if I was too harsh in this post, I apologize. Cuban Americans spend so much time battling the inaccuracies propounded as truth that we tend to get a tad strident. What, Cubans passionate? Nah.

The European Effect: Part 1

This week, Cubanology published a moving, almost haunting essay by a Cuban, born and raised in exile in Britain. The palpable sense of loss that runs throughout is something I feel myself. In the course of the essay, he mentions how Cuba was "exploited" by Americans. Immediately, comments began to fly.

"Gee," I thought, "look how they're missing the point of the essay." Well, they must have picked up a scent I missed, because when the author of the essay replied, I was floored. Never shy about commenting, I immediately set about enlightening said author. But then I was so disillusioned, thinking what I had to say would fall on deaf ears that I desisted.

Further reflection led me to thinking about the European perspective. You must understand I'm pretty contemptuous of Europeans in Cuba. But something resonated. Not too long ago, a relative of mine, one of the reasons I write under a pseudonym, mentioned a new phenomenon in Cuba. Intellectuals, virulently against the government, are becoming increasingly pro-European and anti-American. Then I read an article in The New York Times about the growing number of musicians leaving Cuba and electing to stay in Spain. Even given the exigencies of getting out of Cuba and the Times' bias, there is a "there" there.

I've come to the conclusion that the travel restrictions, imposed with the best of intentions, are creating "unintended consequences." Face it, the only contact with the outside world Cubans, the lucky ones have is with tourists. Europeans and Canadians make up the bulk of these. Are they taking their opinions of Americans and Cuban Americans from these tourists? They know better than to believe their own government, after all.

Have we essentially shot ourselves in the foot by limiting travel? I think you can tell from my previous posts how little respect I have for people who go disport themselves in Cuba while the population languishes in indentured servitude. I know 80% of every dollar spent by tourists goes to the coffers of the military which keeps the people oppressed. I don't have any answers, but I think it may be time to reexamine our position.

Oh, and the essay and the author, more on that next time.

The Case of the Homicidal Camel

Sad as it is, I couldn't resist this one. I've heard that camels are foul tempered and prone to spitting, but life threateningly dangerous is a new one. All observations aside, a sixty year old woman was killed by her pet camel when he apparently sat on her. Investigators think it was some sort of mating behavior on his part. It all presents Joe Camel in a new light.
The article here.

Arrodillado

I've mentioned how Fidel's death has been a bittersweet symphony since he was never brought to justice for the crimes he has committed, such as Pinochet was hounded in his final years. However I came across this quote by Marti and it made me feel better. There is no denying that the way he has handled his death has been an obvious example of the coward he is. He may think that hiding in his retreat he has died with dignity. I beg to differ. Cobarde!


Jose Marti said: "Es mejor morir a pie que vivir arrodillado." i.e., "It is better to die standing up than to live kneeling down

Don't Take Your Eyes Off the Ball: Media Manipulation

Since waiting for Godot has taken up all my time and attention this weekend, I almost let one of the MSM media moments pass me by. For obvious reasons, I've been running the 24hr cable news as background music in the house for the past few days. An ad for one of those CNN Presents specials comes on in the middle of the war report. Gee, Christiane Amanpour is reporting on "God's Warriors."

They launch into a teaser. I barely pay attention, figuring it's another one of those Muslim Jihad type specials. But, wait, that's San Francisco. Those are Christians. Oh, my God, this is political correctness run amok! No kidding!

When you click on the link below, you will see that they have broken the special into three installments: Judaism, Islam, Christianity. Excuse me here. I don't even have to see the special to know it is manipulative. Let's see, by breaking it into three, CNN is automatically implying equivalency betweem Islamicist bombers and some metaphorical teenybopper Christian soldiers in the US. Is the implication that these wouldbe warriors are going to establish training camps, strap bombs to their bodies and kill innocents, take up arms? To top it all off, it is the Christian Right they choose to highlight in the promo. I'm not even going to touch the Jewish angle. Just one question, how many pizza joints has a rabid Hassid blown up?

They don't fool me. This is part of the great left-wing conspiracy to paint anyone who is offended at the crass materialism, moral laxity, and general decay that has come to constitute the norm in this country as Taliban of a different stripe. And, I guess, to the "Progressives," as they like to style themselves, the Christian Right is more dangerous that any Jihadi.

How can I take exception to a documentary I have never seen? Easy. By its very structure, it implies a moral equivalency which is not possible unless you are in a mirror universe. I generally respect the work Amanpour has done. I would be less prone to take exception if the documentary was simply as it purports to be about the "intersection" between religion and politics. However as presented-with the Warrior label- all bets are off.

Click here for the promo.

Sombras, Sombras Nada Mas: And Now For A Musical Interlude

Went out for Mexican tonight. On Friday nights, they have a mariachi band. Although I grew up listening to Mexican rancheros- one of my father's favorites- I can never remember a title on the spot. So tonight I was inspired. I just asked if they played any Javier Solis who although extremely popular in the Cuba of yesteryear was Mexican. "Of course," they say, and launch into "Sombras." They must have gotten inspired with some of the old standards, because that led to "Solamente Una Vez," followed by "Y Volver, Volver."
Anyway, to make a long story short, the present climate has reminded me of the words to another song he may have recorded, although it might have been Roberto Ledesma, which seems apropos the moment, though originally romantic in nature:

Donde estas corazon?

No oigo tu palpitar.

Es tan grande el dolor

Que no puedo llorar*

*Where are you my heart. I don't hear you beat. The pain is so great that I can't cry.

An Olive Branch of Sorts

In a BBC article, dated 8/16, Ricardo (Slimy) Alarcon takes a cautious approach to the maximum leader's health:

"I hope that he will continue recovering and I look forward to him continuing to play the leading role that he has always played in our country"

Please note, he now "hopes." The article ends with an interesting tidbit:

"Mr Alarcon also said that an end to the US trade embargo against Cuba, which has been in force for almost half a century, was not a precondition for talks. "

Interesting.

Interesting Tidbit: Dissent in Camaguey: Updated Again

Reading Payo Libre when I came across a campaign, Con Una Misma Moneda, which roughly translates to "With the Same Coin." It seems a group of twenty or so women is roaming the streets of Camaguey collecting signatures and, according to them, getting a good response. The campaign started earlier in other provinces. The gist is that Cubans get paid in Cuban pesos. However, many of life's staples are only available in "dollar stores," so unless you have access to dollars through relatives in the States or by working in tourism, you need to depend on your ration card and are essentially screwed. A fuller explanation in Spanish is available here.
The headline reads "Con Gran Interes," with great interest. According to activist Marta Guzman

“No queremos seguir siendo cubanos relegados a ciudadanos de segunda clase, mantendremos nuestra lucha contra la discriminación económica”

My translation-
We do not want to continue being Cubans relegated to second class citizens, we will continue our fight against the economic discrimination.

The article in Spanish here.

Whenever I read of these dissenters- there's usually a handful in the pictures- I am amazed at their courage. God keep watch over them, because we know the government already is...

Update:
The story was picked up in India and El Paso, in English and Spanish, respectively.
Click here and here for the articles.

Book Thoughts

Although still in the throes of the Disraeli biography, this week I read the latest from two bestselling authors, Janet Evanovich and Randy Wayne White. Although I read all sorts of stuff, my preference is mindless entertainment.

Lean Mean Thirteen is the latest entry in the Stephanie Plum series. I think the word here is rollicking, as we follow the antics of this most unlikely bounty hunter. In the past, these books have had me laughing out loud, not an easy feat. This one has the requisite calamities. I lost track of the number of cars Stephanie trashed. There was exploding roadkill art, stapled genitals, and the perennial tensions between the usual love interests in her life. One of her wouldbe lovers and babysitters is the mysterious, black clad, and according to Stephanie and others incredibly sexy Ranger, who we have learned in the past few books, is Cuban. Not one of the best, but if you're already into the series, good enough. If you haven't already read them, do it.

Randy Wayne White's novels I enjoy because they're good thrillers set in the Gulf Coast near where I live, and there's a lot of local color here. His protagonist, Doc Ford, is always good for some nonstop adventure. And Hunter's Moon is no different. The plot here was particularly novel, pardon the pun.

Some more Florida/Suspense/Mystery/Cuban Angle type writers I find enjoyable include

Carolina Aguilera Garcia whose early mysteries, i.e. Bloody Waters, Bloody Shame, add a Cuban American slant to pretty engrossing mysteries. Not to be missed is the bodybuilding, healthnut cousin her family forces her to hire as office help.

Edna Buchanan, former police beat reporter for the Miami Herald, who practically pioneered the genre with her half-Cuban heroine news reporter, Britt Montero. These novels are a little grittier but very well-written.

Barbara Parker whose more glitzy entries feature attorney Gail Connor and her on and off again love interest Anthony Quintana, scion of a Cuban family worthy of this fall's Cane.

Strange Doings Are Afoot At Babalu Today: Updated

It started with a post. Val asks what would happen if the trade restrictions and the embargo were lifted upon the death of Castro? He may be on to something. Today is chemo, and I have to leave. More, hopefully, when I get back.

The question of what should be the American policy toward Cuba is a complicated one, fraught with unintended consequences. Just when I am convinced that the only slim chance of effecting change is to seize the moment of Castro's death and introduce a dramatic new factor, I read Penultimos Dias which leads me here to an article aptly entitled "When Should the US Change Policy toward Cuba," which has a different perspective to what I've been thinking. I'm familiar with and respect at least one of the authors, so I have to stop for a minute, especially since
it makes two very good points among others-

Principles play an important role in American foreign policy and we should not callously abandon them in Cuba in the pursuit of mollifying a domestic constituency for minor economic gains or in the hope, some would argue quixotically, that trade, tourism and investments will soften a hardened dictatorship and produce a regime change toward democracy...

... If anything, the easing of economic sanctions on Cuba without major concessions from the Cuban government would send the wrong message “to the enemies of the United States” in the Hemisphere and elsewhere: that a foreign leader can seize U.S. properties without compensation; allow the use of his territory for the introduction of nuclear missiles aimed at the United Sates; espouse terrorism and anti-U.S. causes throughout the world; and eventually the United States will “forget and forgive,” and reward him with tourism, investments and economic aid. Moreover, one could argue that Cuba has an even higher burden to meet in a post September 11, 2001 world since it has clearly chosen to side with the likes of Iran and other terror states, individuals, and groups.

Food for thought.

There You Go Again: Fighting the Good Fight

Engaged in another tussle with the unbelievers. Reading an article on roaming gnome getting his hand slapped, when I made the mistake of reading the comments. The most offensive was someone posting as Mike Deal. The highlight below:

The only people being hurt by this total embargo on Cuba are real American workers who lose sales to places like Communist China just so the Cuban colonists in South Florida can vent their spite in a perfectly meaningless way, no mater what the cost to the people who gave them refuge. The ingratitude and disdain of the Cuban colonists for native-born Americans (not to mention native Americans, just ask my cousins among the Seminoles), coupled with their unearned sense of entitlement just boggles the mind.

Now, I ask you, could I let that stand? Henry Gomez had already engaged, but I had to chime in. My comment-

Mr Deal:From whence this vitriol? Cuban colonists?

First, Cuba expropriated millions of dollars of American, not Cuban American, property. Are you going to tell large American corporations like OfficeMax, which has one of the largest claims, to just forget about what they are owed?

Second, to whom are you going to sell American wares? The average Cuban makes twenty dollars a month. You are going to sell to a government that doesn't pay its bills. Just check the financial papers. It essentially defaulted on its debt in 1986. Ask Mexico, India, Russia among others about selling on credit to Cuba. And you will have to sell on credit.

Third, I seriously doubt that companies give up doing business with a market the size of the United States because it would interfere with a market of eleven million impoverished souls.

As a Cuban American, I have no sense of entitlement. In actuality, I grew up as a second class citizen because of it. As to ingratitude, you can not be more mistaken. I once read that you have never seen an American flag being burned by a Cuban exile or a Cuban American. And it's true. Finally, if in its largess this country provided refuge for the Cuban diaspora, it is no more than it provided for your forbears, so get over it.

H/T CUBAWATCHER

Wrestling With The Better Angels of My Nature

TheTwilight Zone is what I intended to post today. But as I wait to hear of the inevitable... maybe... although more likely... there is no pure joy in it.

There would be the satisfaction that I have lived to see the day my two sets of grandparents, those who lost everything and the one who stayed behind to correct the hideous mistake he had made by running guns for the revolution; my uncle, bumped from the last flight by Alicia Alonso, plucked from Anguilla Cay in flagrant violation of international law, and imprisoned for wanting to be reunited with his family; and my father, forced to leave the island for telling anyone who would listen Fidel was a communist long before Castro came clean, did not ... nor did Olga, Andres, Nena, Jacobo, Ventura, Delfin, even Celia. I can hear my father now. He would have gotten a kick out of saying "Ese desgraciado de verdad esta moliendo vidrio con el culo."

Yet, it is not a happy occasion. My mother who belongs to an earlier time feels it's bad form to celebrate anyone's death. It's probably bad karma, too. Neither carries much weight with me.
But, shockingly, I wonder what it's like? If you really relive your life in those last moments, does the denial still hold, or is there no equivocating with the truth at the last? And if not, imagine it. How do you come to terms with not only having wasted the precious gift of your own life, but having used it to cause untold misery to your fellow man? I don't think I can revel in that, even in Fidel's case.

Although I will shed no tears for the murderous, egomaniacal buffoon, I will not feel the euphoria I felt last year, when I thought his death might end the long Cuban nightmare. Now, I fear that those on the island will be forced to accept one dictator in place of the other. Even the attainment of freedom, although infinitely preferable, would not be without its hazards: how do they relearn representative government, dismantle the failed economic apparatus of near fifty years? I have no desire to see Cuba turn into the former Soviet Union. The Cuban people have proven they are survivors, a people of great spirit and enterprise. In the end, I believe they will triumph. I worry for their immediate future.

I might not make the long anticipated pilgrimage to Miami when his death is announced. No, my celebration will be more subdued. I might partake in a bit of the bubbly, but in a suitably solemn manner, of course.

In The Twilight Zone

All this speculation about Fidel as Mr. Life in Death has reminded me of a Twilight Zone episode from when I was a child. A man in a clinical setting is confronted and driven mad by a legion of his victims. The memory is in black and white for obvious reasons, and I only remember that scene.

Little wonder, as some research yields an episode entitled "Deaths-Head Revisited" broadcast in 1961. I must have seen a rerun; I wasn't that precocious. In this, an SS officer is tried by those he killed. Can you see it now? Languishing in a bed, comatose to the world, except for the nameless, numberless dead besieging him, unable to speak, unable to communicate, "Oh, the horror! The horror!"

Images of Cuba

There are absolutely haunting images of Cuba on MSNBC.com today. Surprisingly, given that I refuse to watch their TV coverage, I find the news on their website pretty comprehensive. While I was on, they made the mistake of asking me to answer an online survey, which I gleefully assented to do. After giving them an earful (?) over the Today Show in Cuba coverage. I indicated that they should look at their own slide show and see if their reporting was accurate.

Remember the painting? Take a look at the view of the Capitol, or the lady lowering her basket for supplies. If you pick it up on this page there are other interesting slide shows and videos.

Fidel's EKG

This is a normal EKG:






This is Fidel's EKG:
(Hopefully)

Good-Bye

81st birthday and the bionic track suit is nowhere to be seen. Reminds me of a song:

na-na-na-na na-na-na-na
hey-hey-hey
good-bye!

na-na-na-na na-na-na-na
hey-hey-hey
good-bye!

na-na-na-na na-na-na-na
hey-hey-hey
good-bye!

Beware the Comments: Deja Vu All Over Again

I should know better, but I made the mistake of reading the comments after an article in the Miami Herald Tribune. Here are four pretty representative

• Hey, you forgot to mention the crap about how they all owned huge ranchos in Cuba but arrived here with just five dollars in their pocket and started over from nothing by working three jobs...
  
• Send her butt back, and send the rest of em while your at it. Way to go Bush. Time to start deporting all these illegal immigrants.
  
• The U.S. cubans steal children
  
• The Cuban community in Miami must give up its ways of intimidation and understand that the rights of parents come first. They are still too fixated on Castro. Never mind, even when he goes, you won't get your farms and estates back. Send the child home.
  

Many of these characters, sitting in the basement in their underwear as one presidential candidate is wont to describe their ilk, were just making sport, and this is the type of case Anastasio Blanco was writing about in Babalu not so long ago:

For too long, many of us in the Cuban community have exerted vast amounts of energy in countering the nonsensical claims of a bunch of raving madmen.

Still, the mad emailer could not resist and stooped to commenting on a Miami Herald Tribune article. Aside from compulsion, there is the question of whether that type of filth should go unchallenged. The discussion was so beyond the pale that it didn't merit any type of reasonable response, and I felt it impolitic to question their parentage, so I fell back on my teaching experience with just a touch of Brooklyn.

I cannot believe the level of vitriol in these comments, most of which seem to range from unenlightened to just plain nasty. I detect the strong scent of sour grapes in the air. By the way, while I'm taking the raft back, I hear Ellis Island got fixed up real pretty.

It's a subject I've written about before.

H/T To Babalublog for the original story.

The Yard Sale That Would Not Die

It all began on a sunny Friday morning with the arrival of Packrat Jr and her crew of twentysomething friends to man the yard sale. The sale was to help fund her graduate film studies. My husband, Packrat Sr, using his many connections, had been saving stuff for this all year. This was no ordinary yard sale: this was a one man flea market. The picture I posted was but one portion of the whole. The temperature rose to 103 degrees (according to the car). The sweat soaked our clothing, our heads, our bodies. The hordes descended. Then the rain came. Fortunately, it was not too bad, and we managed to cover up most things.

That evening, an all-time first, some miscreant in a little pickup attempted to steal the treadmill. If they could have moved it, the wheels were firmly planted in the grass, I might have let them take it. The wouldbe theft broke our hearts, since on a lesser scale, this is a yearly event around here. And no one had ever taken anything. It was the end of innocence.

On Saturday, we repeated the whole procedure, only this time it rained harder. On Sunday morning, some of the clothes were a little moist, but overall, we were in good shape, until the monsoon came that is. At this point, the moisture had wicked into everything. So this morning, I went into reclamation mode, sorting the dry stuff, bagging it, sending it off to Goodwill. Packrat Sr came home and informed me that he and his henchmen would take care of it tomorrow. Fortunately, he thought to call the nice Haitian family that had bought so much to offer them whatever they could take. They were in the midst of this when torrents of rain began to fall.

So now I am looking at day six of this debacle, hundreds of pounds of sodden designer clothing, fortunately only a few pieces of very nice, very wet furniture, and the treadmill bought on Saturday by an elderly Oriental man who never picked it up. I only have two words: never again.

A Different World

Somewhere between 1960 and today, something at the UN has seriously gone wrong. The speech by Dag at the end is impressive.

What? Don't Have to Blow a Gasket?

Was reading about the release of a single political prisoner at Uncommon Sense, the kind the Cuban authorities say don't exist. Then I hit Reuters, and for once I was relatively happy with the report. Here are some tidbits included:

He [the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National
Reconciliation spokesman Elizardo Sanchez Santa Cruz] said Cuba has
the world's highest per capita ratio of political
prisoners.

... the [Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation] report said the human rights situation had not improved since ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro handed over power to his brother Raul Castro more than a year ago.

*I know it's a little awkward, but I want to be fair in ascribing the source.

Yard Sale of the Century

Light posting today...on account of the "Send me to Film School Yard Sale" that has taken over this weekend. Of course, it's rained for the past two days. Hope Lou can pick up the slack.

"Sicko" Banned in Cuba

Yup, that's right! Considered subversive. Just emailed Anderson Cooper's "Keeping them honest," but we all know how "honest" CNN and the mainstream media are. Anyway, here's Dr Darsi Ferrer's take on the matter. It's in Spanish, so among the highlights.

• The film is subversive because it is filled with "lies" that do not accurately reflect the "drama" of healthcare in Cuba.



• Fidel Castro resorted to a Spanish surgeon. Vice minister Ramirez turned to France for surgery on the gastric cancer that killed him. Fidel Castro's physician reached out to British doctors for ocular surgery. Dr. Ferrer maintains that they who had access to the best facilities demonstrated very little confidence in the competent "revolutionary medicine."



• The system of healthcare in Cuba can be summarized in one word: "chaos"
  

There are many other details. If I have the time and energy, I'll translate and post the whole thing. Isn't it rich?

(To be circumspect, I don't have an official source, but Dr Darsi Ferrer is a leading dissident, and I'll take his word for it, not to mention that anyone familiar with the regime can pretty much bank on it never being shown to the public.)

H/T Babalublog

The Story of the Painting

Is not the most exciting, but Thursday is chemo day (not mine, thank God) and I feel like telling it.

Born in Brooklyn, I grew up in Staten Island, NY. I cannot tell you what it was like to be the single Hispanic, let alone Cuban. When I was very young, you could count the number of Cubans in any geographic radius on your fingers. Even as I was growing up, we didn’t really have access to cool Cuban stuff, so unless you were going to lay the island of Cuba in gravel on your front lawn- which someone I know actually did- you were stuck with “Kiss me, I’m Irish” shirts.

An American friend once complained that no one in Miami spoke English. I laughed and told her that when I got off the plane in Miami, I felt like I was in my native country, a feeling of belonging I experienced nowhere else. Recently in response to a post, I wrote to Alberto de la Cruz that I envied him his childhood near Calle Ocho. And I do.

On one of my trips to Miami in the late 80’s, I was in a cafeteria, making inroads into my pan con lechon, when I noticed the artwork on the walls. “Wow”, I thought “How cool is that.” I was particularly taken with a lone elderly figure in a cape. “Oh, him,” my mother said, “he was a famous figure in Havana, El Caballero de Paris.”
“I’d love to have something like that,” I said.

My aunt called me a few weeks later that she had tracked down the twin sisters, the Sculls, to a studio on Washington, which was still pretty seedy at the time. Was I still interested? So I asked, sight unseen, for a painting that showed a typical Cuban scene. The building in the background is the Capitol, modeled on the US Capitol, which itself has roots in classicism. The gentleman with the numbers is selling lottery tickets to an old woman who is lowering a bag for her purchase. She lives in what my mother calls a cuarteria. On the right is the aforementioned gentleman bearing a rose before him. It is intriguing that a homeless man seized the imagination of all who saw him making his rounds and was so well known throughout the island.

And that is the story of the painting. Click on the links on this one. They are fascinating.

Fidel Castro Shaved Afeitado

Courtesy of barberohabanero.

He looks much older and less scary without the beard don't you think? LOL!!! Very cool how they did that!
-Becca*

P.S.- Listen to the music. lol

A Little Color And A Little Fun

According to my mother, green is the color of hope, so I'll do this post in green and light a candle to Santa Barbara or someone.

Let's see if anyone can answer any of the following:

Who are the artists? (There's a built-in hint)
What building is lurking in the background?
Who is the gentleman with the cape?
What is the guy with the numbers doing?
What type of building does the old lady live in?

The Anguish of an Independent Journalist

This AM, Babalu which is also waiting, published a nice roundup of different posts. Somehow I wound up on Miscelaneas de Cuba and ran across a pretty moving post from an independent journalist in Cuba. Here's the last paragraph.

Amanece Cuba cada día en un suspiro. Su tristeza es la de millones de seres, y le puedes preguntar qué le hace falta y responde que un cambio, que los gritos la asfixian, que le duele el encierro y el maltrato a sus hijos.

My very clumsy translation:
Cuba awakens each day in a sigh. Her sadness is that of millions of beings, and you can ask what she needs, and she responds a change, that the screams suffocate her, that the imprisonment and mistreatment of her children hurts her.

(Now I remember, I found it through a link from Uncommon Sense )

Waiting...

Vague rumblings are afoot...... When are they gonna 'fess up?

This is starting to remind me of a Spanish novela, not that I have a great knowledge of them. I watched "Renzo, el gitano" when I was a kid. But the other one I watched, the one that this reminds me of was a remake of "El derecho de nacer" in the 70's or 80's. The patriarch of the family, Rafael del Junco, after a series of nasty actions like ordering his daughters' illegitimate son killed, suffered a stroke and was rendered mute, just as he was about to disclose something monumental. I don't even know if it was to tell her the son was alive. Anyway, night after night, everyone would watch saying, "Esta noche va hablar Rafael del Junco." "Tonight he's gotta talk. He's got to tell her." Of course, he didn't. For weeks on end, everyone we knew was glued to the set. They milked that one a long time. See the comparison?

Cuando va acabar de hablar Rafael del Junco?

Cuban Detective Fiction

As I was perusing the new book shelf in the library, I bumped into yet another detective novel closely resembling the old pulp fiction novels. There seems to be a resurgence of the genre. Lately, I've noticed a few of these are Cuban detective novels. The first one I read, the title of which escapes me, I hadn't mentioned because, at the risk of being sexist, it was definitely a man's novel. It was like being the only woman in a sports bar, a little too much testosterone for my tastes.

However, the one I picked up the other day, Havana Blue, was fascinating. It centers around a missing person's case, set against the backdrop of Havana. The chain-smoking, rum drinking, perpetually in trouble, and very burned out police lieutenant Mario Conde, although a spiritual descendant of the PI's of old, shares the more modern sensibility of detectives like Stuart Kaminsky's Porfiry Rostnikov or even James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux. It's interesting that both Rostnikov and Conde function in socialist societies.

Part of a series of previously published novels by Leonardo Padura, who I was surprised to learn is a Cuban writer living in Cuba, it was recently translated into English. Although not glaringly political, the political situation in inextricably intertwined in both the story and the lives of the characters.

Although it was noteworthy, I haven't quite made up my mind yet. I want to read a few more. So next, after having put down Dick Morris' Outrage- I just wasn't in the mood- is a biography of Benjamin Disraeli. Told you, this summer I seem to have a bug about Victorian England, or is that just what's being published?

Bittersweet Symphony

I always hoped we would have had the opportunity to see Fifo go as did Mussolini (pictures are too graphic to post)!

Mad Emailer and CNN: Round Two

One of these days I'll be able to watch TV news without courting heart failure from excessive spleen. Watching CNN when there is a report on the lack of efficacy of TV Marti. I phrase it that way because that was the gist of the report. As part of the report, they stopped people on the street in Cuba to ask them if they watched TV Marti. They cannot possibly be that stupid to think that in a repressive totalitarian regime, they would actually get a real answer. Therefore, it has to be a cynical manipulation of an uninformed American public or shameless pandering to the regime or both. Well, it's off the email CNN. I would encourage others who've seen it to do the same.

A View of Cuba

This interesting piece appeared in a newspaper from El Salvador, I believe in 2003. It was written by a Doctor who attended a Cuban medical conference and includes his brief observations of Cuba. It is a little long but worth reading. The other interesting fact is that the writer was a roommate of mine in school for 3 years. Although not he is not Cuban, we share similar beliefs about communism. He doesn't know I translated it or put it on the blog hopefully he will not mind. I have not spoken with him in over 5 years. He must have touched a nerve: please read the spinmeisters at work at Granma after the piece came out!

A View of Cuba

By Rodrigo Siman Siri from El Diario de Hoy.El Salvador

To talk about Cuba is to talk about a beautiful paradise where natural beauty is entwined with the everyone’s dream of good and hard-working people. I am sitting on the balcony of a hotel in la Havana, watching one of the most illuminating sunsets I could have ever imagined, with a mixture of strong emotions similar to the smell of Cuban cigars.

I thought that writing a few lines about Cuba was going to be easy after having been here for one week, but it is a difficult objective when your ideas are fogged and your eyes tear constantly with the large number of vivid sensations in these days.

I was invited by the health authorities of this beautiful country to a medical conference, perfectly organized by the Cuban doctors. I had the opportunity to see the legendary Fidel Castro, who must had been a strong guerrilla. He arrived in his heavily guarded caravan which consisted of three black Mercedes-Benz's, just like the ones used by General Pinochet. “The ironies of life” I thought. We witnessed an elderly man dressed in olive green speak confusingly for more than one hour about thousands of things, loose words with no meaningful message, from the Iraq war to mosquitoes causing Dengue.

As a doctor I arrived believing that the health system was one of the best in the world. After all that is what the health statistics show and are constantly repeated by the FMLN. I’m not sure what parameters the Cuban politicians use, but yesterday I saw a child whom appeared to be 7 years old tell me he was 15, and his body had changes consistent with severe malnutrition.

We asked to visit a hospital and they took us to see a tourist hospital exclusively for foreigners. It was elegant and impeccably clean. Later we found out that the public hospitals are impoverished and that they look worse than our Rosale hospital. They are old with unending lines of people waiting to be seen with a scarcity of medicines and with health professionals suggesting under the table dollar payments to be treated faster and with better medicines. And my biggest surprise was to find that a medical specialist earns the measly sum of $20 per month. This is $20 per month when a bottle of water cost$1.00, obviously you cannot drink the tap water because it is contaminated, our Cuban colleagues warned us. If all this is happening in La Habana, what must it be like in the rural communities?

In Cuba there really aren’t beggars wearing rags or barefoot kids, but there is an overabundance of elderly and young that will approach the tourist for money or a piece of bread.

The tourists have access to the places created especially for them, giant hotels, luxurious restaurants, all paid for in dollars of course. The Cubans can only be passive witnesses of the good life that is offered to foreigners. A friendly taxi driver commented to me with tearful eyes between rage and sorrow “ Here the tourists are humans and we are aliens”.

I discovered Cuba and its heroic and valiant community that lives, or rather survives in a regime of oppression, fear and misery. Thanks goodness for tourism here because at least the Cubans can see the difference between them and the rest of the free world.

I was approached silently by a gentleman who, after asking where I was from, asked me for a newspaper from El Salvador. They are hungry for real world news, not the fantasy created by the authorities who nobody believes anymore. Many have asked about President Flores. They want to know about his personality. They are impressed with him because he is the only person to have put Fidel in his place. This has all been learned through word of mouth because none of this news was broadcast in Cuba.

Last week in La Habana, 3 youths were executed because they dreamed of freedom and tried to escape Cuba on a stolen raft. For this grave crime, they were tried in one day. And 24 hours later they were savagely executed as an example, so that the people see what happens to those who go against the regime. When I was told this by a beautiful Cuban girl, all I could say was that things will change soon. I felt really stupid when she answered that they have been waiting for 44 years and the many still die, some by rifle such as the three youths. And many live but their hope of freedom, work and improvement and exercise of rights without repression has been executed.

But, it would be unjust to talk about Cuba and only mention the misery of an obsolete regime. To talk of Cuba is to talk of its women, the most beautiful in the world, the rhythm and quality of its people, of the beautiful look of its people, of the beauty of its streets with smells of salt, tobacco and rum. To talk of Cuba is to talk of a paradise where natural beauty is entwined with the everyone’s dream of good and hardworking people that continue to wait for the true revolution.

Can-Che-Flas

I've always thought there was a resemblance. One was a comedian and the other was a murderous thug. I mean no direspect to the comedian.

Cubans in Costa Rica

My wife, who unlike myself, is not Cuban, just returned from a trip to Costa Rica. She told me that the Cubans are taking over the place. They own all the shops, restaurants, etc..... Knowing Cubans, that doesn't surprise me.

Slaves of the Caribbean

I was avoiding the story of the two boxers who attempted to defect being sent back to Cuba by BRAZIL. Let's not forget that. God only knows what hellhole awaits them. Anyway, I came across a post on La Contra Revolucion via Babalu that touched my desensitized heart. Here's some.

Whether it’s a balsero “repatriated” back to Cuba, or a Doctor
indentured to work in Bolivia, or a ship worker forced to work in Curacao or
Elian Gonzalez abducted the day before Easter or Yuliet Rodriguez, married to an
American, abducted in Venezuela and sent back to Cuba or Guillermo Rigondeaux,
two-time bantamweight Olympic champion, or welterweight world champion Erislandy Lara it doesn’t matter. If you’re a Cuban you’re Castro’s property.

Let's Give Them an Olive Branch in Return

I just had a marvelous thought. Why doesn't the United States respond to the perceived (although I missed it) olive branch, supposedly extended by Raul? I can see it now. We would be delighted to enter into negotiations (just negotiations) on an equal footing, ascribing to the Cuban government all the dignity it requires. Unfortunately by law, the United States cannot have any dealings with Raul, so in order to better the lot of his countrymen and to further the interests of his country, Raul needs to remove himself permanently. Venezuela sounds about right.

Cuba News

A couple of interesting articles yesterday and today:

Venezuelan Oil Subsidies to Cuba Top $3 Billion, Report Says The money quote-
"Cuba is probably not paying for imports of crude oil and refined products with hard currency, representing a significant loss of revenue for Venezuela, according to the report.

Venezuela plans oil search off Cuba Effort may start new debate over U.S. sanctions
Sen Craig of Idaho puts in his two cents via a spokesman:
"It's one thing when it's Canada and China, another when Hugo Chavez comes knocking," Whiting said. "This might push folks over the edge" to supporting changes in the sanctions.
Here we go again. It may be time to revise strategy.

Cuban-American group proposes fund to help private enterprise in Cuba
It would be a government fund like those used to help Eastern European countries. At first I was really excited. I said, "finally, here are Cuban American businessmen willing to give to the mother country." No such luck.
It occurs to me that in the Cuban American and Exile community, we have so much in talent, in expertise, and in resources that we could be a force of good in a new Cuba. I've fantasized about forming some sort of 'Cuba 'Corps' to help Cubans on the island join the 21st century, an all volunteer army of sorts. This would be a NONprofit organization made up solely to ASSIST people who have endured the regime in finding their bearings, not to take over or pillage the potential resources of the country. To insure efficacy and limit corruption, it could be run by one of the current or retired Cuban CEO's of major American corporations with all sorts of failsafes.
Contrary to mythology, most in this country are quite content with their lives here and have little or no designs on the property seized by the regime. Many of the lost homes are inhabited by people who were placed there through no fault of their own. On the other hand, if my family had owned a sugar refinery or a beach house in Varadero where Melia has built a hotel, that would be a different story.
But I put the cart before the horse. I don't really see great change coming. Still, I can dream, can't I?

Bridge Collapse Provides Cafferty w/ Ammo to Blast Iraq War

Bush Bashing: An Exercise in Mass Hysteria

I knew it. I knew it would happen. First, the bridge collapse has taken up the 24hr news cycle for THREE days. I realize it is dramatic and tragic, but three days? It's the summer of the shark all over again. The path of coverage was predictable. The first day was the actual news, although there were already inklings of what was to come. Then came the survey of other bridges around the country and the beginnings of the blame game. By today, it was all Bush's fault. Take today's Cafferty File. Next thing you know, they're going to say Bush and his Neocon cabal blew up the World Trade Center. But, oh, they've already done that, haven't they?

Obamarama

So, let me see if I understand this. He would sit down with our sworn enemies and talk, but he would attack in Pakistan. That's it. Musharaff's mistake, one that has led to attempts on his life, is that he's provided support for our Afghanistan operations. He should have been at the United Nations in a Che T-shirt calling Bush a devil.

But that was too easy. I sympathize with Obama's desire to get Osama and crew, but even a neophyte should know that a raid in Pakistan is much more palatable when accomplished under cover of "OOPS! The Darned GPS is broken." Threatening military action which violates the territorial sovereignty of a nominal ally is not quite the thing to do. The Pakistanis are already riled.

There is no one scarier than a politician who feels he has to prove himself.

Lighter Fare from Camaguey

Camaguey figures in so much these days- the infamous Kilo 8 prison, the site of Raul's July 26 speech- that I felt the need to find a pleasant image of the city. Nothing is as typical of the city as the tinajons.

This is just one image on Teresa Bevin's website, well worth a visit, for more from 2006.

Osama: The Musical

I kid you not. Okay, okay, so it's really Jihad: The Musical. Anyway, get a Load of this

Fontova: A Self-Defense Kit for Cuban Americans

I've been engaged in something of a difference of opinion with one of those relativists who maintain that Cuba was a third world country, comparable to those countries with starving children, BC, so it's not so bad now. I corrected him. He wouldn't believe me, so I ran for statistics. Armed for bear, I get to the website to find three people have already made mincemeat of him. I'm reading the responses, and they seem familiar. Yes, those are stats Humberto Fontova has assembled. So I thought I would post a link to his article on the reviewers of The Lost City. There are a few paragraphs in there that would make a good "re-education" kit for those who live in ignoramia. Here's a teaser-

... a UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) report on Cuba circa 1957 : "One feature of the Cuban social structure is a large middle class," it starts. "Cuban workers are more unionized (proportional to the population) than U.S. workers. The average wage for an 8 hour day in Cuba in 1957 is higher than for workers in Belgium, Denmark, France and Germany. Cuban labor receives 66.6 per cent of gross national income. In the U.S. the figure is 70 per cent, in Switzerland 64 per cent. 44 per cent of Cubans are covered by Social legislation, a higher percentage then in the U.S."

We are blessed to have Mr. Fontova. Buy the new book Exposing the Real Che: And the Useful Idiots who Idolize Him

Fifo and Mumia

This is a list of the people who support convicted cop killer Mumia Abu Jamal. It is a list of winners- that's for sure- full of our favorite people. Interestingly enough, some of these folks are the same people that support Fidel/Chavez/Che etc.... I'm not sure if Michael Moore is a fan. I wonder How many cops did Fifo kill?

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the NAACP, A prominent group of U.K. Lawyers; and the National Lawyers Guild; the Japanese Diet and the European Parliament; as well as several national U.S. trade union federations (ILWU, AFSCME, SEIU, the national postal union) and the 1.8 million member California Labor Federation AFL-CIO; bands Public Enemy, Rage Against the Machine, Anti-Flag, KRS-One, Propagandhi, Tupac Shakur (before he died), Immortal Technique, Bad Religion, Rollins Band, Snoop Dogg,Ras Kass, Talib Kweli; celebrities such as Jello Biafra, Danny Glover, Ossie Davis, Susan Sarandon, and Ed Asner; world leaders like Nelson Mandela, Danielle Mitterrand (former First Lady of France), and Fidel Castro; the Episcopal Church of the United States of America; and City Governments such as those of San Francisco, Santa Cruz, California, and Detroit.

E-Bay and the Double Standard

As if we needed further proof that Cuban Americans are the one minority group whose sensibilities may be trampled with impunity, it's official. Ebay has responded to Cubanazos which has been taking the lead in the fight against Che novelty items. Here's the money quote:

After a thorough review of the information you sent, it was determined that Che Guevara items will continue to be permitted on the site, and will not be added to our Offensive Material Policy at this time.

In actuality, the Che novelty items- stuffed dolls, finger puppets, refrigerator magnets, etc...- would seem to fall under their stated policy automatically. But, heck, I guess some animals are more equal than others.
To the Hall of Shame with Ebay!

New Nightclub Concept

I'm working on opening up a new club in NYC. It is going to be called Fascista!! Do you think anyone will mind if we put a picture of Hitler over the bar? No, wait maybe we can call it Sovietskies!! , and we can adorn the bar with a photo of Stalin. Do you think we'll have a good turnout? I wonder if people will come? I just need to come up with a signature drink. Maybe it will be called Comemierdas!

One Picture Says it All

For those of you unfamiliar with this photo, look at Che's left wrist. He is wearing a Rolex Submariner (todays cost $5,500) . Expensive taste for a 'revolutionary' who only smoked the cheapest cigars, and cared so much for the proletariat. It's ok for him to have one, but not you!

A Modest Proposal al Cubanazo

Growing up in a particularly volatile home, I heard the word cubanazo flung around often. The word is difficult to define and has a variety of meanings depending on the context. It is most often used to describe someone who is loutish, dramatic, rough, and even backwoodsy, but in my home it denoted a certain kind of behavior. For instance, my mother and father might be arguing over whether she peeled the potatoes for Bacalao a la Viscaina and he would suddenly decide not to eat dinner at all. She would say, "Ya! El Cubanazo."

In this context, it referred to someone making a sweeping gesture as a result of offense and refusing to be reasonable. I confess there was an element of machismo involved. Now, Dad could feel the brunt also, as when he waxed poetic about the papas rellenas they used to make in his hometown. It would be years before he ate another papa rellena made by my mother, even though she used to make them often. She would feed them to us before he came home. So we feminized the word to encompass her behavior, la cubanaza. Over time, it became something of a family joke and the offender of the moment was mocked. It eventually morphed into "getting your Cuban up."

Well, I've been sitting here and pondering the comments being made after any Cuba-related article. I've been mulling over our policies and realities, taking into account the barbarians at the gate and all. So with my Cuban quite firmly up, I have come up with two ideas for the Cuban question.

The cattlemen, the farmers, all want trade restrictions eased (read that they wish to extend credit to the Regime), at least that is the way the media is presenting it. Sounds fine with me. I propose that we allow these fine businessmen to do just that. After all the last time Cuba essentially defaulted on its debt was 1986, which was a long time ago . It currently owes major amounts to countries like Russia, Mexico, India, China and even Venezuela. Obviously, all these countries are getting rich from trade with Cuba; there is no reason our noble farmers and ranchers should miss out.

Then there are the wouldbe tourists: I mean it's absolutely shameful that Americans can't participate in the tourist apartheid. They've seen all those pictures. What a quaint country! Just look at the old cars and the decaying infrastructure, all the cool people who go there. And the natives are happy. They play music all day, while the government provides them food and free healthcare. Think, too, of the good that it could do. Think of all that money going into the coffers of the military types that run the tourist industry. For sure, it will convince them to relinquish power.

So I propose that we lift the travel ban- in fact, we should provide tax incentives for tourist travel to Cuba. Of course, everyone would have to travel in the same period of time, say a month. Can you just imagine the effect of a hundred thousand Americans descending on the island? That'll show the Europeans how enlightened we are. The only down side would be that it would be difficult for the machinery of repression keep up with it all. Imagine an American youth demanding his rights when hauled off to jail for attending an impromptu, unsanctioned rock concert. It makes me giddy.

Of course, if the regime ever changes, the natives might be a little peeved at us. But, heck, we lent them money, pumped money into their economy, helped their government. What else did they want, that we should support their liberation, that we should draw back from our God-given right to make money, regardless of who gets hurt, that we should deny ourselves the joy of visiting the only country in the northern hemisphere that boasts a nationwide freak show to stand on the principle of freedom. That would be terribly unreasonable of them.

In sum, I have made these two propositions out of the noblest of motives, as I was born in the United States, have no intention of doing business with the regime, or taking a Cuban vacation, and thus have nothing to gain.