The R Word

What is it Dylan once wrote? Something like "You don't need a weatherman to tell which way the wind blows." For me, it didn't start with gasoline prices, although I'm convinced speculators have amplified the increases (Think Enron). These although huge were bearable, and there are ways to cut back on driving. It started with ethanol. The emphasis on green and renewable fuels sent corn prices skyrocketing. They had a ripple effect on all sorts of products. Wheat prices seemed to go up in sympathy with corn, although I'm assured it's just supply and demand. Next thing you know just about everything in the supermarket is up. Seriously, over two dollars for a baguette?

Then in plein Christmas shopping season, the stores were empty. That spooked me. So I got to thinking that the definition of a recession is two straight quarters of decline in the GDP. In other words, it'll take six months for the economic powers that be to announce that we've been in a recession for the past six months. And all of this is occurring against the backdrop of the mortgage and housing debacle with its effects on the markets.

I came home from Christmas shopping that day and announced to Packrat that it would be a lean Christmas, just in case. I hope we don't wind up in a major recession, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared. To this amateur observer, the barometer seems to be falling.

Sunday Morning Rolls Around

Gored Again. Don't miss Pat Sajak's amusing read, "Gore Files Lawsuits Against Time" in which he envisions the perennial also-ran as accusing Time of "voting irregularities" on the word of eyewitness "Chad."

Don't That Beat All. Ran across this article which makes it seem as if 2 million South African tourists visited Cuba in 2007. Closer inspection reveals that the figure was the number of tourists from around the world. In any case, I'm guessing here that the South African vactioners, whatever their number, are not residents of Soweto Township, so I suspect that Apartheid might be something they're used to.

Revolting. I find the concept of revolt and a new society decreed by a few unnerving. Much of the current anti-immigration sentiment is a cover for bigotry and the like. But it's worth reading this column from townhall for its social criticism.

Happy Holidays to all! I'll be posting some old favorites for the next few days!

Updated: Numbers that Make My Head Hurt

Update: According to Carlos Lage in a report dated December 24, the number of healthcare workers is 31,000. Also in the article is the statement that bilateral trade will hit $7 billion. It might more aptly be stated that Venezuelan donations to the regime will total that amount. Oh, yeah, forgot the indentured servants.

Here’s a BBC article about “the oil and politics” at the Petrocaribe summit this week. We already know about the oil-for-bananas deal Chavez offered. But some of the article reminded me of a post this week on Primera Generación this week in which Cuban banker focuses on just how much Chavez is taking away from his own less-than-affluent people, which lead me to wonder about the actual figures involved.

Here is the deal for the 17 nations:

They can defer payment on 40% of their oil bill for up to 25 years, with interest of only 1%.

The terms for Cuba as they are usually described:

Cuba has long received all its Venezuelan oil for free, in exchange for thousands of doctors who help treat the country's poor.

Doesn’t sound like that bad a deal, really, unless you take into account that the doctors and health workers are human beings being treated as a commodity. But take a look at some statistics:

$2.6 million the amount of oil given Cuba in this exchange in 2007.

$184.00 monthly paid to doctors/regime by the Venezuelan government in addition to the 2.6 million in oil paid to the regime (2005 figure).

$25.00 monthly the salary paid to the doctors in Venezuela by the regime and consequently the value they place on the services provided.

20,000 the number of Cuban doctors and health workers in Venezuela.

Do the math, if you have more zeroes in your calculator than I have, and it doesn’t look like that rosy an economic deal for Venezuela. On the other hand, I guess there is a premium to be paid for having an army of chattel who can be forced to work anywhere in the country under any conditions.

You Give 'Em Hell, Pops!

Remember this elderly gentleman, Alfredo Guillemas, from the Human Rights demonstration? Well, there’s a coda to his story. Apparently, the regime sensed it was a PR faux pas to manhandle a senior citizen in front of cameras. So three days after the demonstration on December 13, Mr. Guillemas received a visit from State Security, ordering him to stay in his home or face another beating.

To this stick, they added a carrot. If he would renounce his activities, they would provide him economic and medical assistance. Taking umbrage, he threw the descarados, or shameless ones, out of his home and vowed to work until his dying day for the democratization of Cuba.

*Source: a report by independent journalist Lamasiel Gutiérrez here.

It Takes a Firm Hand

Signature from Penultimos Dias. Don't know where he got it.

Wow! Have you ever seen such a signature! Maybe, I'm just one of those cynical boomers, but how many ailing 80 year olds have you seen with such strong handwriting?

Some Clarity from Cuba

From ex-political prisoner Antuñez at Misceláneas de Cuba, there is no call to hold back from demonstrating:

Let this document ratify our ceaseless and sacred call to the internal opposition to continue taking to the streets, for these are the most appropriate places for struggle and resistance.

We suggest to our brothers in exile to read the call carefully and turn deaf ears to any ill-intentioned interpretation of the same.
The full text in Spanish here.

Let's Beat on the Press!

• you be surprised to learn that reporters are held in the same low regard as undertakers and insurance salesmen.... and only slightly higher than politicians?
• Did you know that two-thirds of the public believe reporters are no more ethical than the politicians they report on?
• Would it perplex you to learn that the press itself has precisely the opposite view.... two thirds of them maintain they are more ethical than the public officeholders they cover?

So begins a "Frontline" report on a survey of American attitudes towards the press. I ran into this a while back and hadn't had a chance to post it. My favorite part, but of course, the boomers again:

Analysis of the survey revealed that middle-aged people - the Vietnam-Watergate generation - were more cynical than younger people and older people. This generational pattern was apparent in both the public survey and in the survey of the press as well.

Read All About It! A Scandal

In the how low can you go department, at least if the Enquirer is telling the truth... I know, I know. The paper is out with a story of a secret affair John Edwards supposedly carried on while his wife is battling for her life. If it weren't for Elizabeth Edwards, I'd be laughing. Okay, so maybe I am enjoying it a trifle. Read it here

Keeping it Russian

This next bit comes from the Telegraph. A Russian general is threatening to target the European bases to house the missile defense shield. His comments shed light on the Russian perspective. Still, I have difficulty understanding the strident tone coming out of Moscow. I understand that to a certain extent Putin plays to nationalist pride, pride badly damaged after the fall of the USSR. But why the continued harsh cold war rhetoric and obstructionism? It's really getting dangerous out there.

And speaking of Putin. Since he can't be President any more, he's going to be Prime Minister. Huh?

Cuba: A Russian Perspective

Don't know what to think of this piece on the RIA Novosty by political commentator Pyotr Romanov. He seems to think fifo's health is improving (I beg to differ). While he hits some of the usual, the mafia and vice ridden past and the wrongness of the embargo...

This blockade is not only inhuman but also stupid, if only because it conceals better than any Cuban propaganda the main reason for Cuba's economic trouble - inefficiency of socialist economy.

Mr Romanov as a Russian knows a little something about failed socialism. It's really fascinating, and much of his analysis of the Cuban people is on target. Besides, anyone who writes:

Judging by all, Fidel is slowly getting better. Nevertheless, the best option for Cuba would be not his return but his final departure that would pave the way to reforms. If 75 year-old Raul retired together with his older brother and started cultivating roses like good old pensioners, the likelihood of serious change would only increase. Regrettably, this is too good to be true and more in the nature of wishful thinking. But the longer the reforms are delayed the harder it will be for Cubans.

It's a mixed bag, but worthy of a read. Fascinating.

A Moment of Sanity

Or so writes Rick Aristotle Munarriz about the decline in the price of CUBA, not the country, the stock symbol for the Herzfeld Caribbean Basin Fund, the value which skyrocketed with the news of castro’s ill health. Investors flocked to the fund thinking it would benefit from the lifting of the embargo and travel restrictions. Well, we all know what didn’t happen, so they’ve apparently lost faith. Read the article on Motley Fool. But if you don’t, I’ll share this snippet with you:

I am a Cuban-American living in Miami. I raise my cafecito to the elder politicos in town who dream of a free Cuba. I just never saw the logic in paying an 80% premium for a basket of stocks that I could duplicate at face value.

We are everywhere.

Cross-posted at Babalublog

A Manifesto of Sorts

I don’t know about you, but my head is spinning. First, Fidel’s dead. Then he’s not. Then according to the MSM he’s “running” for office. Now in today’s news, he’s hinting at retirement. Personally, I like the life in death option. Anyway, Raul’s in charge. Or maybe Raul’s not in charge. Marta Beatriz Roque, noted dissident, calls for dissenters to unite but put off any marches for like two years while they run around consciousness raising, including telling ordinary Cubans how bad it is? Antuñez, another noted dissident with stronger bona fides, signs on, but then maintains he didn’t know about the hold on demonstrations. If Elizardo Sanchez, another noted dissident, was really spying on his confreres for the regime, why the sudden attack today in the press, where they call him a mercenary in the pay of the US government?

Maybe I’m confused because I just watched The Bourne Ultimatum, but maybe it’s because Cuba is as Churchill once described the USSR: “a riddle wrapped inside an enigma.” I am a simple person. I know, having had experience with at least one cunning and amoral acquaintance, that I am no match for same. You see, no matter how smart you are; if you can’t think like they do, you cannot outwit them.

So what’s an honest, well-intentioned soul to do? What’s the right course? Whom do you support? What stance can you take? Should you bother? After all, the vitriol hurled at us by some in our community makes it all too easy to turn and say, “I don’t need this grief.” Heck, I’m an American. Only I am, but then I’m not. I am Cuban. No, I am not Cuban like the poor souls who live and toil on the island. But for an amazing act of foresight by my father, I could have been. Yes, I grew up in the United States and went to bed with a full belly every night. I paid a smaller price, growing up as a second class citizen, never knowing what it was to belong, never meeting close relatives, or walking the Malecon, and always the sense of loss. I’ve earned the Cuban in front of that American, and no one is going to take it away from me.

For every attack on the Cuban American community by the MSM media, the apparatchiks, or even some of our own, there are any number of pleas coming from the island to make their stories known. So I speak for those who cannot, for those who have been silenced by the jackboot, who must live the proverbial lives of quiet desperation. I do not believe I have the corner on knowledge, or that I have the only, or any, answers.

In the end, neither speculations nor divisions matter. If I was granted the privilege of being born in, or even just living, in a free society, then I bear the responsibility of doing all I can to help those left behind. So, it doesn’t really matter who the players are, whether the coma andante is alive or dead, or how we feel about each other. My responsibility, my God-given task, is to bear witness.

And if you don’t think it makes a difference. When was the last time, the MSM paid attention to a demonstration of twelve dissidents? When did any manifestation of any size, other than the officially sanctioned ones get any press, even if it was at the end of the articles about the regime's magnanimity in signing accords (it has no intention of keeping) in two years? It is not something for which I take any credit. I am the flea on the butt end of the camel industriously making its way into that tent. But in my little space and as far as my words reach, I will attest to the truth. And no matter what they put out or the MSM picks up, in this small space I will call them on their lies.

Sunday Morning PseudoScience

The Theory of Relativity. A Christmas card arrived at Bernice Martin's home this year, 93 years after it was mailed. No one knows what caused the delay. Unfortunately, Edith Martin to whom the card was addressed was no longer alive to receive it. Brief article here.

Origin of the Species. Ever wonder where punctuation marks came from? Well, wonder no more! Learn all about the question mark, dollar sign, even the Olympic rings. Read it here.

Law of Unintended Consequences. This one is not quite so silly. On January 1, any business in Arizona hiring an illegal worker is faced with the prospect of losing the same. Passed in an effort to stem the tide of illegal immigration into the state, a first offense results in a temporary suspension of the business' license to operate. A second offense leads to a permanent loss. The new law is having a chilling effect on businesses in a state with a 3.7% unemployment rate. For the article.

Balancing the Equation. Eunice Lopez was arrested for running a cottage industry of sorts. Between 2002 and 2006, Lopez, who arrived from Cuba in 2002, married 10 men and divorced none. Despite the irregularity, Ms Lopez's marriage for papers business was not discovered until somebody tipped off the authorities. Read it here.

and from Cuba....

The regime announced that it will spend $2 billion on its transportation system. Does that mean that the powers that be are going to take a cut on their part of the skim? Or, maybe, it's that prodigious growth rate they keep announcing but ordinary Cubans are missing.
H/T Henry Gomez at Babalublog

Literary Interlude: Home Thoughts by Carl Sandburg

How about a melancholy romantic poem for this week?  

Home Thoughts

The sea rocks have a green moss.
The pine rocks have red berries.
I have memories of you.
                                  .......................
Speak to me of the drag on your heart,
The iron drag of the long days.

I know hours empty as a beggar's tin cup on a rainy day,
     empty as a soldier's sleeve with an arm lost.

Speak to me...

Wanted!

This poster is making the rounds. Let's shame these fine specimens of humanity. A horse-whipping would not come amiss, either. For a readable version, click on the thumbnail, go to Babalublog or Cuba Watch.

A Call to Unity by Dissidents

From Cubaencuentro, known dissident, Marta Beatriz Roque, has called for a "United Front" among dissident groups. According to the article, her reasoning is thus:

...the announcement [that the regime is going to sign to allow human rights monitoring in a year] is a change in "tactics" by which "the dictatorship is trying to stall for time, doing this or that to distract the world and using new methods of disinformation."

If they've changed their tactics, so should the dissidency, she posits. They should work to form a concerted internal opposition. She also asks for continued support from the exile and international community, the one constant in all opposition communications from the island.

The full text of the letter, co-authored with Antuñez, is accesible in Spanish through Penultimos Dias, one of my daily stops. It seems they advocate spending the next year informing the Cuban public and then trying to march en masse so as to avoid the goon squads.

What has to be a thought, not only for Roque but for others, is that for what seems to be the first time- in a context other than being arrested or rounded up- the opposition garnered international press coverage. I have to wonder how many more marchers would have tipped the balance, making them the lead-in in MSM coverage.

Then there's this on La Nueva Cuba. It seems the names we all know- Paya, Roque, Elizardo Sanchez, and more- were all in attendance at the US Interests Section Chief's home to commemorate Human Rights Day. The gathering seems to have taken place on the 12th(?). A name I did not note was Darsi Ferrer's. A significant omission, one would think.

Strategery

After the events in Havana on Monday, much armchair quarterbacking has been done. And rightly so. It would seem that too much was risked for too little gain. Dissidents did not seize the moment. Their only hope would have been in numbers. Alas, numbers they did not have. The fractured groups have not learned that in unity is strength. Because although we in the C/CA blogosphere followed the march, any number of small observances were held.

That written, I am not on the island. It is not my life and well-being in jeopardy. I have not lived my life gaming the system. I do not know what constitutes a victory. So I take my cue from them. If they feel some small measure of protection from international publicity, I will do what I can to make their plight known. They are in a position to know best.

Still, they may wish to rethink their strategy. What if, as someone suggested in a column, they had ambush demonstrations, a low tech flash mob? The locale could be a closely held secret until the last minute. Passersby and park goers could turn into marchers. They could infiltrate the mobs sent to harass them. In my dream scenario, they would ambush that one obnoxious specimen of humanity who appears in all the pictures. But I'm getting a bit physical here. Smaller gestures, safer, but more widespread could be an option. I suppose all sorts of variants are possible.

Credit Where Credit is Due

Take a look, these young ladies, mostly from Spain, who joined the ladies in white, are the heroines of this weekend, along with Manuel Benito del Valle Ruiz, a Spaniard who undertook the gauntlet/march with Dr. Ferrer on Monday. The true heroes are, of course, the Cuban men and women who take their lives into their own hands and face down a brutal regime. But for the first time I can remember, instead of reposing on their lounge chairs, sipping mojitos, or attempting to make a buck off the backs of the oppressed masses, foreign nationals have stood in solidarity with the Cuban people. Although the potential repercussions they faced were considerably less than those of the Cuban nationals involved, excepting the beating Manuel took, their actions took courage. And I applaud them for it.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A number of thoughts arise. Out of all of the millions around the world who have visited the island, these are the only tres gatos who gave a damn about the people? What if all those wonderful social justice types stopped serving as shills for the regime, what if the scales fell from their eyes? What if Pastors for Peace stood in solidarity with the Cuban people and not with their oppressors? Can you imagine if the do-good wing of activists were unleashed? Where were those who willingly served as human shields for Saddam? Why was there no cordon of well-meaning peace lovers interposing their bodies between the faux mob and Darsi?

*Pardon the line, but blogger is deconstructing itself as it periodically does.

State of the Union: Dismal

And I'm not talking politics here. I've posted before on my bete noire-the boomers- and the America they have wrought. This morning, I woke up to the news that smoking is banned on all Sarasota beaches. So now they will write $97.00 tickets to normally lawabiding citizens, while addressing none of the social ills in this town. You see, modern morality consists of not smoking, wearing your seat belts, and getting flu shots for your children. Any violation of the same is now pursued with the same zeal once reserved by the Puritan fathers for adulteresses.

So it is with real appreciation, I've come across conservative columnists who are feeling the same thing about a world gone horribly astray. Each has a different perspective and a different aim in writing. But read all three, and you will pick up the sense of wrongness that pervades all.

Last week, I came across Dennis Prager's column in which he feels the boomers owe the succeeding generations an apology for the world they've created. Then a week or so ago, I ran into this column by Michael Medved, which comments on the mechanism that helped create this mess, namely, the Vietnam War, and its societal consequences. Although Medved is a lot more optimistic than I am, he also sees the civic decay.

I also read this column about the problem of "selling morality to an amoral public." Here the author discusses the political ramifications of a culture where vulgarity is the norm. The columnist begins her recent experiences with current entertainment. She reminds me of a situation that came up with my mother. Recently, my mother has taken up reading again. I get her Spanish language books from the library. Not knowing any but literary types, I rely on well-know authors. Time after time, she tells me she is shocked by the frequency, graphic detail, and, shall we say, unusual nature of sex acts. And she is no prude.

In the end, although repulsed, I will not be tainted. But what will happen to the children?

Quote of the Day

In honor of election season. Here's a quote from a former CIA man:

To my dismay, I would find that the tentacles of big oil stretch from the Caspian Sea to the White House. And to my anger, indeed to my rage, I would see how money, not lives or national security, skews so much of what takes place in the very places most charged with protecting us all.
from See No Evil by Robert Baer

You think it's the Bush White House, huh? Nope. Try the Clintons.

They've Done it Again!

As far as I can tell, there are only two things at which the regime in Havana has excelled: oppression and propaganda. Both were in evidence yesterday. The first we have been witnessing for weeks. And yesterday's pictures tell that story. Their other strong suit is reflected in the reports filed by the MSM reporters.

Weeks ago we heard of the arrangements the Capos in the capital were making to counter the march. One stratagem involved staging their own newsworthy item at the same time as the march. How successful were they? Here are some headlines. You be the judge.

The New York Times: Cuba: U.N. Rights Pacts to Be Signed
BBC News: Cuba makes human rights promise
Newsday: Cuba says it will sign civil rights accord
Reuters: Cuba to allow U.N. human rights monitoring

Each of these articles makes reference to the march. I suspect the Michael Corleone moment was impossible to ignore. Even as they made the announcement, thugs were manhandling and hectoring the protestors. The headlines, however, went to the regime.

The Faces of Oppression: More from Today

top two images from Los Miquis de Miami. The last from Henry Gomez at Babalublog.

The Faces of Oppression: Today

Pictures from Penultimos Dias. Some appear in other sources.

The Faces of Oppression: Yesterday

Top: from Babalublog, Cuban soldier citing Darsi to military headquarters. Taken a few days ago.

Middle: from Babalublog, two security operatives maintaining surveillance at the Ferrer home.

Bottom: Reuters photo of group assailing the Ladies in White at their demonstration yesterday.

The Faces of Oppression

Much as we like to blame leaders like the Castros, systematic governmental oppression is impossible without the active cooperation of legions of ordinary folk. It is these armies of the night that terrorize their fellow man. For them, there is no excuse, and they will have to answer to their maker if no one else.

It is my editorial policy to refrain from using other people's pictures. In this instance I am making an exception in the interest of our shared goals. I will try to give credit where it is due.

Updated: News of the Moment

Update: Henry, who has been doing a yeoman's job of getting the word out, at Babalu has posted the phone conversation with Darsi in Spanish. Darsi hints that many others were taken up before they could reach the park. He also says that press and diplomatic representatives witnessed the events. Let's see if we hear more from that. Here for the recording.


Here is what I have been able to piece together from various sources. More as the information becomes available.

Their campaign of pre-emptive intimidation having proven successful as usual, a mere dozen or so dissidents made it to the park in Havana this morning. They were accosted and were advised that they would be killed if they entered. A Spaniard who was with Darsi Ferrer and the demonstrators was encouraged to leave and later whisked away. Word has reached the states that they were then beaten by a group of 200 or so armed with clubs and crow bars. This is the ugly face of tyranny. The next post will include more of these.

Read accounts in English at The Real Cuba here.
And in Spanish at Penultimos Dias here.
Babalublog is working on getting audio from Dr. Ferrer. Check here.

From The Real Cuba

A quote from Dr. Darsi Ferrer in a post on The Real Cuba today:

"My home is surrounded by state security security forces. The entire neighborhood has been under siege since Saturday.

Our neighbors, who sympathize with the cause of a free Cuba and are concerned for out safety, have helped identify several of the officer who are participating in this operation.
The headquarter for the state security officers has been set up about three blocks from our house. There are abut 4 dozen officers in there.

Neighbors have also reported that they have seen trucks carrying troops of the so called "special forces" wearing camouflage uniforms and others with soldiers wearing civilian clothes.

This is the situation we are facing. We are determined to exercise our rights no matter what happens.

May God bless our nation. Dr. Darsi Ferrer"

Latest Info from Cuba

10 Dissidents picked up yesterday, including Antuñez, who released earlier this year from 17 years in prison has continued his activities and has been hauled in on a number of occasions- including Dec.6 when he was beaten, held for 8 hours, and released. This time he was arrested as he was leaving the demonstration held by the ladies in white.

Speaking of the ladies in white. They were joined yesterday by about 15 young European women, mainly Spanish tourists. Today, word comes that immigration officials were waiting for them when they arrived back at their hotel. They were taken away and could be deported today. For the story, including why the ladies in white march, read here.

In addition to preemptive arrests, the figure has to approach a hundred if not surpass it, word is that the homes of known dissidents have been surrounded by groups of as many as 50 thugs to prevent them from attending the march.

More as I come across it.

Dis-ingenuous

AP article via The Baltimore Sun. They're at it again. This gushing article about the largesse of Cuban authorities in including American films, a number of "experimental" films and a couple of films by Hollywood types, in their film festival has to be deliberately cynical. The two films highlighted in the article are the Man of Two Havanas about Max Lesnick and Redacted. For the uninitiated, Lesnick has been much vilified in the exile community and a film about him would be a natural fit for the regime types. And Redacted, which casts American soldiers as rapists and murderers, well, I'm not going to get started on that one.

In the "I can't believe they could be this disingenuous" department, the article would have us believe that it is the US that limits films going to Cuba.

But the U.S. government makes it difficult for American directors to present their work on the island.

Sure it does, since the Cuban government doesn't limit all forms of media access. Gee, so that's why Andy Garcia's The Lost City hasn't played in Cuba! It's those Americans again.

Tell Everyone You Know and Update X's 2

IMPORTANT: Reminder, if you are going to send to anyone involved in any way in any country in opposition to the Cuban regime, make sure to use the blind copy feature in your e-mail. Otherwise everyone's address will appear.

Update: It works. I'm already getting positive responses back.

Below is a copy of an email I sent to everyone in my address book. I would ask that my readers do the same, as far as they feel comfortable doing, that is. I get untold bad jokes and cutesy articles daily in my inbox. Let's give them something else to read. Copy mine or write your own. I think it is particularly important to get the word out to our American friends.


Tomorrow, December 10, 2007, dissidents in Cuba will attempt a peaceful march to commemorate the anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights and protest silently the apartheid system under which they live. I use the term "attempt" because the regime has released a wave of intimidation to forestall the march since November 21. Dr. Darsi Ferrer, who has called for the protest, has been threatened with death by an official of the state. When the threat failed to intimidate him, he was summoned to military headquarters an hour before the event. The regime has also put in place measures to make sure that no one can reach the venue.
I ask your prayers for those who will attempt it. I also ask that you spread the word among your acquaintances. The greatest protection dissidents have is notice of the international community.

Sunday Snippets: Odds of Ends

Memoirs of a Geisha? Reuters article on the disappearing world of the Geisha feautres Kokin, the world's oldest at 98, who reminisces about the glory days and laments the passing of her world. Geishas, it seems have fallen on hard times, forced lift their exclusivity and (shudder) perform for tourists. Karaoke?

The Name of the Continent. Library of Congress is displaying the 1507 Waldseemuller map that labeled the continent America. Seems a later version of the same map, omitted the name. In another map by the same monk, created in 1516, North America is labeled "Terra de Cuba."
Read it here.

Pride and Prejudice. The New York Times got around to reviewing The Boys from Dolores by Patrick Symmes. Guy Martin gets it right in the main about the tome, although the heavy insistence on privilege is a bit superfluous. And we weren't "gallegos," as he maintains, despite having been descended from them. Remember, you read about it here first! Now you can read about it there.

Gone with the Beards. A write-up of the "Masterpieces of Cuban Painting" exhibit in Daytona. Laura Stewart's take seems to be that its scale, both physical and emotional- she uses the word bombastic to describe a painting- conveys a "mythic" Cuba. Of course, that means I'll probably like it just fine. She makes me want to undertake the five hour car ride to see it.
Read it here.

Oh, and here are this morning's headlines about Cuba:

"Cuba allows foreign firms to pay in hard currency" from Reuters. Isn't that nice? The regime is now going to allow Cubans to get paid in something other than the near worthless currency the rest of Cuba has to use. Before you get all weepy at their munificence, they are doing it so they can tax the earnings. No word on whether the employees can now be paid directly or whether the powers that be are still going to absorb 80% or so of the same salaries.

"Cuba apologizes for police raid on Catholic church," another entry from Reuters. They said they were sorry to the church. Still awaiting an apology are the twenty plus, not seven as the report indicates, dissidents who were pepper sprayed, beaten, and hauled off.

Literary Interlude: An Excerpt from “Shield of Achilles” by WH Auden

Reading Havana Noir this week brought this poem to mind. Although it uses a scene from the Illiad to comment on war, particularly WWII, I think it really touches upon the dehumanizing effects of brutality, especially the last verse I’ve excerpted. You can easily get the complete poem on the internet or at your library.

Barbed wire enclosed an arbitrary spot
Where bored officials lounged (one cracked a joke)
And sentries sweated for the day was hot:
A crowd of ordinary decent folk
Watched from without and neither moved nor spoke
As three pale figures were led forth and bound
To three posts driven upright in the ground.

The mass and majesty of this world, all
That carries weight and always weighs the same
Lay in the hands of others; they were small
And could not hope for help and no help came:
What their foes like to do was done, their shame
Was all the worst could wish; they lost their pride
And died as men before their bodies died.

She looked over his shoulder
For athletes at their games,
Men and women in a dance
Moving their sweet limbs
Quick, quick, to music,
But there on the shining shield
His hands had set no dancing-floor
But a weed-choked field.

A ragged urchin, aimless and alone,
Loitered about that vacancy; a bird
Flew up to safety from his well-aimed stone:
That girls are raped, that two boys knife a third,
Were axioms to him, who'd never heard
Of any world where promises were kept,
Or one could weep because another wept.

I have come to the conclusion that blogger hates poetry. I can't tell you what I go through. The beginning of some of the lines is idented. I've tried to rectify it twice. I hope it goes through as entered this time.

FLAMUR's Call to Women in Exile

Having submitted their petition with 10,738 signatures demanding that they be allowed to use the currency in which they are paid in any establishment in the country, and in effect end the current two tier apartheid system, FLAMUR, the organization of rural women behind the "Con la Misma Moneda" campaign asks a question. Why have they not received support of Cuban women living in free countries?

What starts out as something of a challenge at the beginning of their communiqué ends on a plea for help, reminding us that they are from the interior of the country where there is no international press, there are no diplomatic offices. Their only protection lies in the notice we in free countries can bring them. These brave women with the help of young people have been collecting signatures throughout the country for months, and whatever shelter my poor words can offer, I will gladly give.

For the entire article in Spanish at Misceláneas de Cuba, click here.

Lost Time in Miami

Recently in a post about an upcoming art show, I mentioned a Cuban museum that is part of MOAS in Daytona. Immediately, I received a comment like "isn't that the artwork Batista stole?" Then in response to the recent publicity about Eusebio Leal, blogs have featured his role in stripping Cuba of its cultural patrimony, most notably an open letter written to the King of Spain by well-known author Armando Valladares this April. In this letter, he basically tells the King that the painting gifted him by the regime, through the auspices of Leal, is stolen from the Cuban people.

Finally yesterday, you may have noticed, I didn't post. That's unusual, because I have a compact with my readers. I feel that if you are gracious enough to pay us a visit, I promise to have timely and interesting, as far as my and Lou's humble talents allow, material for you to read. I didn't post because I was in Miami, a trip that involves a considerable amount of driving. At lunchtime, I paid my very first visit to the Versailles. In all these years, I had never gone. I've been to the original La Carreta across the street many a time. I'm a sucker for the cart thing they have going on there, as well as the food. But, never, the Versailles. And I can't tell you how I would like to be there this morning.

As is usual, I am told, the place was packed. I looked around the room at all those beautiful, well-scrubbed Cuban faces, and in addition to that twinge of pride I always feel on the rare occasions when I am in a large gathering of Cubans, I experienced a moment of epiphany. Of all that Cuba has lost, of all that it has been stripped by those abominations masquerading as men, here was the greatest theft of all, in these people: well-groomed, with open hopeful faces, so obviously prosperous, most seemingly there on a lunch break. I thought back to the Miami of 1965 and how it had grown and been enriched by the presence of these people, of their parents, and grandparents, and I felt Cuba's loss all the more keenly.

All this drive, all the obvious optimism about the future, this prosperity rightly belonged in Cuba. And to me, these people were representative of the millions on the island whose initiative, drive, and ingenuity, subverted by an illegitimate regime, has been reduced to scoring some facsimile of a meal for the day by whatever means at hand. Can you imagine what they could do, if they were unleashed? I can.

Ambivalence About Lending

President Bush came out yesterday with a "compassionate" proposal to ease the mortgage woes of millions of Americans. It wasn't a bad political move, either. I would like to be a big person. I would like to be noble and say, "How Wonderful!" But I'm not.

Having once, way back in the 80's, lost everything, having been forced by a lender unwilling to work with us into selling our home at a considerable discount, a lender who then turned around at the closing and slapped us with punitive “fines” which ate up our substantial down payment, as well as the extra thousand towards the principal we had paid for years, leaving a grand total of $494.00 out of the nearly hundred thousand in those two items, I have a skewed perspective on the matter.

For years in Florida I have watched people, twentysomethings in particular, who would have scoffed at the ramshackle four room Cracker home we bought later- the one with a mortgage the size of a motorcycle payment- buy large faux Mediterranean homes with price tags they could not possible afford. Snug in my now quaint cottage, I watched an impending train wreck.

But now, it seems I was wrong. There are so many of them that letting them learn the hard lessons we were taught could torpedo the economy. The situation reminds me that not long after our financial collapse, Donald Trump found himself in a similar situation. Of course, they didn’t take him to the wall, they way they did to us. They helped bail him out. It’s kinda like that commercial where the big banks use the little guy as a matchbook to prop up a wobbly table. Oh, well, one of the things you learn early on is that life isn’t fair.

For a more positive take, read this column at Townhall.

The Roll of the Detained in Latest Wave of Repression

Here is a compilation of the new wave of arrests by Cuban authorities that started about November 21. If there is nothing next to the name, it does not necessarily mean he or she has not been released. Information is sketchy.

Date Not Specified:
Rita Montes de Oca Chirino- threatened with jail and released hours later.
Antuán Clemente Hernández- threatened with jail and released hours later.
Rancés Calzada Coba- threatened with jail and released hours later.
Vladimir Alejo Montes de Oca- threatened with jail and released hours later.
Leosdán Alejo Montes de Oca- threatened with jail and released hours later.

November 21: All arrested with Bermúdez Toranzo.
Juan Bermúdez Toranzo- still in custody at last report.
Georbis Ferrer Plana
José Luis Rodríguez Chávez
William Cepero García
Omar Osmany
Varván del Pino

November 27:
Manuel Pérez Soria- former political prisoner after hunger strike to protest gov't's failure to provide identitypapers; arrested for lack of documentation; still in custody at last report.
Vladimir Alejo Miranda- interrogated, threatened for 6 or 8 hours and released.

November 29: All three student leaders were part of the University student petition press conference.
Rolando Rodríguez Lobaina- still in custody at last report.
Eliécer Consuegra Rivas - deported to provinces Dec 4.
Gerardo Sánchez Ortega- deported to the provinces Dec.4.

November 30:All arrested outside the Lawton police station where they were peacefully protesting the arrest of Juan Bermúdez Toranzo.
Yusniel Basterechea Quintana
Miguel López Santos- held 24 hours and released at Km 17 on the national highway.
Arisnay Rodríguez Cruz
Juan Alberto de la Nuez Ramírez- held 24 hours and fined.
Yunier Piedraita Santa Cruz -held 24 hours and fined.
Alejandro Gabriel Martínez- held 24 hours and fined.
Yuris Barreras Sánchez- held 24 hours.
Carlos Michael Morales- held 24 hours and fined.
Raúl Pérez Gavilá- held 24 hours and fined.
Rogelio Hernández Mill
Aramis Sainz Sánchez
Tania Maceda Guerra- released at Km 17 on the national highway.
Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leiva- released at Km 17 on the national highway.
Jesús Cordero Suárez.

December 3: in Guantanamo
Juan Carlos Hernández Hernández
Salvador Benavides

December 4: Political Police broke down the doors of a church and using tear gas arrested 20(?) dissidents who were praying for the release of political prisoners after a march of 18 blocks
Unnamed

December 5: At the train station where they were accompanying Gerardo Sánchez Ortega.
Juan Carlos Hernández Hernández
Yorleinis Duvergel
Unnamed others

Source: Reports by Luis Esteban Espinosa, Tania Maceda Guerra, and Álvaro Yero Felipe at PayoLibre.com

Different Origins, Different Creeds, One People: Judaism in Cuba Today

The sound of wooden footwear clacking on cement as he chased them figured prominently in my mother's childhood tales of tormenting the Chino who ran a laundry. I used to ask myself, "what was a Chinese guy doing in their back of beyond small Cuban town?" The question was answered later when I discovered that the Chinese constituted one of the largest minority groups in Cuba. Still later I learned, they were lured in under harsh conditions of near indentured servitude to replace newly freed slaves. Unusual.

Then there were the Polacos. I'm not sure I'm even spelling it right. Growing up I knew people like "Joseito, el Polaco." Although I could never tell any difference between him and the other Cubans I knew, I thought it meant he was somehow from Poland. Again, I was to find out that Polaco denoted anyone from Eastern Europe or descendants of the same. In one case it extended to a guy reputedly from Syria or Lebannon. His origins are shrouded in the mists of time. Seems if you were foreign and looked European and weren't Gallego, you were Polaco.

Similarly, although the majority of Cubans were Roman Catholics, I learned there was a sizeable contingent of Presbyterians, at least around Matanzas. Nowadays, there are still Seventh Day Adventists. Didn't fifo attend the opening of their new church, or something like that? Growing up in the needle trades, I also knew quite a few Cuban Jews. So it was with interest that I read this NY1 article about Judaism in Cuba today.

I don't espouse, nor do I presume to judge, their having invited fifo to Hannukah. Who knows, he could have potentially been "enlightened." Whatever your political sensibilities, however, you have to appreciate the Cuban minyan: Seven men and three Torahs. Cubans are nothing, if not adaptable.

Reads: Havana Noir

Havana Noir, edited and translated in the main by Achy Obejas is one in a series of anthologies set in different metropolitan areas. Since I’m a fan of Chandler and Hammet and more recently Padura, it was with anticipation I cracked open the book. By midnight, after a few straight hours of reading, I was ready to slit my wrists. Havana here is a bleak, desolate metropolis, a landscape bereft of love, honor, softness, and most especially hope. The city depicted in these stories is a cesspool of moral depravity. As my mother would say, “Que despretigio.” Add to that the abject misery of life in Cuba, amplified for the form.

I was commenting on the same with my film school student daughter when she reminded me that’s characteristic of noir: alienation, violence, sex. Duh. But, wait, something is different here. To begin with there is only one detective in the whole collection, Alex Abella’s Jason Blue, who doesn’t do divorces or children because “I’ve got two of each and they’re not experiences I particularly want to relive.” Therein lies all the resemblance to the stories and movies of yesteryear. Random copulation, pederasty, you name it, all are fodder for the authors here. The world has changed.

Yet the stories in this book, each set in a different part of the capital, are “real.” They demand deliberation. Despite my disaffection, I found myself mulling the symbolic diminution of the cross-eyed narrator in the first entry, the symmetry of staring at the sun in Padura’s and the definition of Cuban in Obejas’ story, to name a few.

And then, there’s always one in every bunch, or siempre hay alguien que lo tiene que cagar. Despite Obejas’ use of the term “blockade’ for embargo in her intro, her selection was notable for its inclusionary nature, and political criticism, if any, was directed at the regime… except for Lea Aschkenas’ story, that is. Hers is the only one that has a group hissing at President Bush on TV and calling exiles "terrorists." In fact, her plot centers on the latter. I did some preliminary research, and her familiarity with Havana seems to devolve from having spent ten months there and having fallen in love with a Cuban, which experience she has already parlayed into a book.

I cannot say I enjoyed reading this book. I almost didn’t finish it. At the same time, I can’t highlight a story or two, because there were so many I did enjoy reading. There’s the pathos of Medina’s protagonist in his relentless, yet heartbreaking, quest to get to La Yuma, the charming local color of Arango’s story, the fascinating inner monologue of Correa’s, and many I don’t have room to mention. I recommend reading a story or two at a time, curled up in an arm chair, sipping a glass of red wine. I’ll be heading out to get Miami Noir and see how it compares. Could be I’m just a relic from a bygone era.

Where's the Coverage?

On December 1 at the University of Miami, an all day seminar was held, entitled "Cuba: What to Expect." Participants included some pretty notable figures in the field. You can view the program here. Inquiring minds would like to know what was discussed, what the participants had to say.

There is very little coverage to be had. There should be something in the Herald, but despite numerous searches, I could find nothing. The few articles I managed to unearth focus on Commerce Secretary Gutierrez's comments on our policy and, you guessed it, the embargo, the gist of which is our policy will not change, nor the embargo be lifted, unless there is change in Cuba.

In response to a questioner, doubtless interested in the old "we trade with China" argument for the lifting of the embargo, he reflected that in China and Vietnam have shown an interest in having good relations with the US and have made settlements of claims. Their people have some rights to travel, choose a job, start small businesses. A more accurate parallel, he indicated would be North Korea.

To read scattered quotes from the other participants, read the Palm Beach Post article here and the Nuevo Herald article here.
I guess it wasn't news.

Hold the presses! Found another one in the UK's Financial Times, strictly devoted to Gutierrez's remarks here.

The Face of Cuban Apartheid

CAMBIO

Literary Interlude: A Little Lite Verse

A bit of whimsy by Val on Babalublog from earlier in the week.

Green eggs, no ham

I do not like fidel the ham
I do not like him
Val I am

I do not like him here or there
I do not like him anywhere
I do not like him in a boat
unless of course it doesn't float

I hope that he is rife with pain
or at least squashed under a train
I might just like him in a box
under a heavy pile of rocks

I do not like him in a house
I would not, could not, he's a louse
I do not like fidel the ham
I do not like him
Val, I am

Sunday Morning Somewhat-Funnies

Attack of the Killer Jellyfish. It was no laughing matter for the owner Ireland's only Salmon farm when a swath of jellyfish miles wide killed off at least 100,000 fish. The supposed culprit. You guessed it: higher water temperatures. Article here.

Lost in Translation. Two of Sudan's "lost boys" are returning home after two decades in Cuba. The Reuters article informs us one is a veterinarian; the other, an agronomist. They're perhaps the only people on the planet who can say life in the Caribbean dictatorship was an improvement.

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. A Belgian "visual artist" opens a play(performance piece?) in Athens, I Am A Mistake, which has chain smoking performers and extols the joys of smoking. The AFP article here. Most notable for the artist's contention that smokers are the "new Negroes." To balance the presentation, a scary NYT's article about a hitherto generally unrecognized danger of smoking. No joke.

Strike Ten. The NYT's "10 Best Books of 2007" is out. I'm proud/embarrassed to say I have read nary a one, despite reading at least a book a week. I avoid this type of book like the plague. It usually involves the contemplation of someone else's navel. Actually, you can be fairly assured that these books are good, but at least one of them I have had in my hand on a number of occasions and rejected. Something about a literary movement, get my drift? So give me trash, or give me nonfiction!

H/T Penultimos Dias

Withering Fire

"Repugnant, repulsive, anti-American propaganda." Blistering review of the film Redacted at National Review Online. After complaining that the experience of watching it left him speechless, Ross Kaminsky finds his voice in time to unleash his outrage at the latest anti-war epic:

But the movie ends up being something that Goebbels might be proud of, as it repeats a “big lie”, namely that all American soldiers are murderous cretins or impotent collaborators and that the Army itself is cruel, hateful, and devious, with tedious and furious frequency.
There is much, much more. However, the review points to the real solecism of the film:

At the time of this writing, about 1,050 people had rated this film on IMDB. There is a clear trend that the older (and wiser) the viewer, the less they liked the film. More interestingly, the average vote from a US viewer is about 4/10 while Non-US viewers rate it above 7/10.

Therein lies what would have been a crime during WWII. As Kaminsky writes

The movie will be shown as a recruiting tool by Al Qaeda and will cause at least a few ordinary people to hate and mistrust America. It wouldn’t surprise me if a few of those took violent action (or financed it) as a result. That blood will be on the hands of Brian De Palma and Mark Cuban. Unfortunately, that’s probably just what they want.

To a world fed a steady diet of anti-American propaganda, coming from the Great Satan itself, this movie will serve as confirmation. We don't need enemies: we are our worst enemy.

I Can See Clearly Now

Update: It's not too late, baby. Chavez had his hat handed to him over the supposed reforms by a miniscule percentage of the voters. Inquiring minds can only suppose that the NO vote must have been much larger to force him to declare defeat. The Venezuelans have triumphed, for now. As long as he is in power, they must remain vigilant. He will not stop here.

Interesting Op-ed piece in today's New York Times by a longtime associate and former defense minister who has broken ranks with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. The money quote:

The proposal, which would abolish presidential term limits and expand presidential powers, is nothing less than an attempt to establish a socialist state in Venezuela. As our Catholic bishops have already made clear, a socialist state is contrary to the beliefs of Simón Bolívar, the South American liberation hero, and it is also contrary to human nature and the Christian view of society, because it grants the state absolute control over the people it governs.

Wow! He discovered the Mediterranean, as me good old mom would say. But he does have some interesting things to say about the forces that brought Chavez to power and especially the lack of results for the poor. Politcal parties, note he does not limit it to Chavez (one has to wonder why) have created a false properity and a notion of entitlement.

During the economic boom years, ushered in by a sustained increase in oil prices, the parties dispensed favors, subsidies and alms. In the end, they taught the people about rights rather than obligations, thus establishing the myth that Venezuela is a rich country, and that the sole duty of a good government is to distribute its wealth evenly. President Chávez has been buying and selling against this idea, continuing to practice the kind of neopopulism that will reach its limit only when the country receives what economists call an “external shock.”

Interesting, but mayhap too little, too late.

As if We Didn't Know the Fix is In

Venezuela's Chavez comes across as an object of derision. There are those who call him a monkey, even Chavez has called himself a macaco in jest. But his machinations are no laughing matter. Having created a plebiscite to remain in power indefinitely under the guise of constitutional reform, he is now faced with an increasingly restive public. If he had not already co-opted the electoral process, Carter's assertions aside, his reforms would be even now heading for defeat. Opinion polls place "no" votes 10% ahead of "yes."

But what we do know is that allegations of fraud over his last race are rife. The kicker came when he appointed the head of the electoral process his vice president once his reelection was secure. If it walks like a duck.... But all of this is prelude.

Now, it seems that Chavez has learned well from his mentor in Cuba. Yesterday, he threatened to cut off US oil supplies, signalling the Americans that any help for the pro democracy movement would land them in dire straits:

“If ’yes’ wins on Sunday and the Venezuelan oligarchy, the violent Venezuelans — the ones who play the (U.S.) empire’s game — unleash violence with the tale that there was fraud ... minister, that very Monday you order a halt to the shipments of oil to the United States,”

Barring any mass miracle, "yes" will win on Sunday. Having engineered it, he knows that. It is practically a given that those who have been demonstrating for months, who have been cheated of their electoral rights, who only now see their mirror image in the desolation that is Cuba are not going to take their marbles and go home.

So just as the Castro government did with the missile crisis, he seeks to create a potential oil crisis to keep the Americans at bay. In a real showdown, though, Venezuela would be the loser. Despite the demand for oil, Venezuela's crude is very heavy. Few can process it. Witness the "new" recycled plant Chavez is developing in Cuba. But the even the specter of losing 20% of their imports would be a remarkable deterrent to the Americans, particularly in an election year and with a cultural climate that produces the likes of Sean Penn.

So, literally, the fate of their nation is in the hands of the Venezuelan people. They need to overwhelm the polls, overwhelm the fixes with their numbers. As it is, it I fear they have slept too long. Article here.

YouTube Debate: The Republicans

Sounds like the title of an Alex Haley or John Jakes novel- The Republicans- doesn't it? Anyway, "Self," I say, "how can you possibly write about a debate you refused to watch? After all, didn't you maintain that if your society is going to hell in a handbasket, you didn't have to assist in the process?" That, I did or, more accurately, did not (watch the debate).

I have, however, enjoyed the coverage of same on our blogs. For the play by play and analysis, I heartily recommend Nelson Guirados's blog, Assymetric. I've linked to the main page because he has a few posts. Just hit the "politics" button. This AM, Val Prieto on Babalublog pokes fun at the notion that anyone should be shocked that there were Democrat plants. Duh? CNN unfair? I've saved the best for last, though. Our resident student journalist, Frances Martel, posted a delightful piece anticipating the whole extravaganza, notable for its wit. Her masterful descriptions nearly made me laugh out loud. I leave you with some snippets:

Thanks to YouTube, Sam from San Francisco has no need to depart from his commune should he want to ask Barack Obama what type of marijuana he prefers to smoke now that he’s a Senator- and where he can get some. Kurt from southern Texas can wonder aloud to millions what Bill Richardson will do about permits to hunt illegals at the border. And Pam from the Maryland suburbs can demand an answer to the heaviest question weighing on American soccer moms’ minds about their preferred candidate, John Edwards: “boxers or brief?” all while she makes the kids breakfast before she sends them out on the field.

and

Perhaps one of the most defining shifts in the debate from those of the past is the revoking of Wolf Blitzer’s out-of-coffin hours during the debate. Blitzer remains calmly as host of Ambien’s worst enemy, “The Situation Room”, and has been replaced by aging hipster Anderson Cooper. Cooper, who can be seen doing “edgy” and “totally extreme” things on his program, “Anderson Cooper 360º”, weekdays at 10 PM, is essentially CNN’s version of Steve Irwin. Cooper tries to be intrepid to the point of desperation, and makes life-or-death situations out of anything from the release of a new Kenny G album to an interview with Angelina Jolie (to Cooper’s credit, the latter could quite possibly be a life-or-death situation).

Yup, I love them all!

Open Letter to Ry Cooder

President Clinton helped us bring Buena Vista Social Club out to the world. President Bush helps his gangster buddies in Miami make more money. You be the judge!
Ry Cooder

Yesterday on Babalublog, I posted three quotes found in a press release for some new campaign to keep the Bush administration from tightening the screws on cultural exchanges. Both Sean Penn and Danny Glover I dismiss out of hand. Those two have apparently never met a leftist dictator or aspiring dictator they didn't like. But Cooder, a figure from my generation and my music, that stung. Justifiably incensed, I've written a response to Mr. Cooder. Since I am having difficulty finding an email address for him, it is at the moment an open letter I share with you.

Ry Cooder:

As a child of the late sixties, it is with great disappointment that I am driven to write this letter. I have always been something of an admirer. When the Buena Vista Social Club came out, you refrained from making uninformed political pronouncements, at least I didn't hear any, so I welcomed the opportunity you provided for Cuban musicians and went out and bought the CD. Yesterday, I was blindsided when I came across the quote above which I find not only stupid but offensive. It is exactly commentary like yours which encourages further restriction. Well-intentioned people, without prior knowledge of facts, go down to Cuba where every move and meeting is orchestrated and return regurgitating the party line, serving as stooges for the Castro regime, a regime so oppressive that per capita it rivals some of the most notorious dictatorships in history. The Cubans you met could not tell you the truth. Truth is illegal in Cuba, as are dissent, independent newspapers, and meetings on the street of more than three people.

The only "gangsters" in this case are those in the Castro regime who live in plenty, siphoning off the spoils of tourism and the national production, while keeping the populace in deliberate misery. Yes, there are people in the United States who make money. There's Western Union which charges you a hefty percentage to send dollars to your relatives. The Cuban government which takes 25% of the already reduced amount to exchange it for near worthless -even in Cuba- currency. There are those who ship packages at $13.00 a pound, packages to relatives, packages made necessary by the lack of everything from food to shoes to toothpaste. There are the pharmacies that make money off shipping everything from aspirin to vitamins to antibiotics to antipsychotic drugs, shipments which are made necessary by their scarcity in Cuba. There are whole cottage industries which have sprung up in the desperate quest of those you call "gangsters" to help their families on the island. Lest you console yourself with the lie that all this want is caused by the embargo, please note that there is no embargo on food and medicine. Further, whatever hardship on the regime the porous embargo might impose is far and away superseded by the colossal mismanagement of the economy by the Havana Mafia. Take sugar, traditionally Cuba's premier export. Production is at Depression Era levels. Cuba has to import sugar. And that is but one industry.

As a Cuban American, what I find most galling, however, is your revicitimization of a people who have been wronged. Over a million Cubans were forced to flee, the majority of whom were not rich, were not supporters of Batista, many of whom supported the revolution before it declared itself Communist a year after the fact and even some who supported it afterward. Not all of us reside in Miami. How cavalierly you dismiss our suffering. How is this possible?



For a moment, Mr. Cooder, visualize George Bush and his government taking your home, your motor vehicles, stopping your royalty payments. From this moment on, you cannot say a single bad thing about him or his government. You cannot go to the supermarket to buy what you want. You will be given a ration card of provisions you may buy in a single month, provisions which will only feed you for about two weeks, less than slaves received. If you want to continue making your music, you must compose paens to the glory of the Bush government for the sum of twenty dollars a month in a currency that is virtually useless in procuring more food. Your neighbors across the street are charged with watching you.

Faced with this new reality, you decide on freedom, escape to, say, Germany, where you do not speak the language. You arrive penniless in a somewhat xenophobic country. Years later after much struggle, washing dishes maybe, living as a de facto second class citizen, you are comfortable. Then you read an article in which some punk ass German rocker calls you a Hamburg gangster because you have the nerve to demand that your new government not treat with the Bush administration. Doesn't feel good, does it?

The problem with even well-meaning people is that they start out with the colonialist presupposition that Cuba was always on par with countries like Haiti. While freedom is something you exercise each day, it is quite acceptable that those little brown people are deprived of the same, as if they are genetically unfit to have a say in their own lives. Take a memo: the supposed compassionate talking points of the liberal left are a shameless and ignorant exercise in hypocrisy. And you, Mr. Cooder, have not only fallen for it hook, line, and sinker, but are using your celebrity to expound it.

Someday, when Cubans are free to speak to foreigners, news organizations, and the like, you will have egg on more than your face. Until then, I suspect I shouldn't wait for the apology that I and thousands more like me deserve. Don't kid yourself, the politicians and policies exist because there is more than ample support for them in the community you malign.

A Tale of Two Cities: Havana

Interesting post on Generation Y, straight from the island, contrasting the two Havanas: the one in which the officials, the diplomats, and the foreigners live, and the one Cubans inhabit. As I read Yoani Sanchez's references to the Havana where they discuss "Parmesan cheese," "Ikea Furniture," "the weekend in Cancun," while in her Havana she rocks on her grandmother's chairs, navigates the black market for food, and speaks in whispers, I am struck by how much the careless, overheard conversations must sting. She ends the post maintaining she would not want to live in the other world:

I prefer the decrepit capital, crumbling more each day, at least that one is coherent and clear about what it holds inside. We've made it in our image and likeness, or more likely, we are the ones who imitate its resignation and its misery.

Cuba News

There's quite a bit this AM, and I'm in a hurry, so I'll have to brief it.

AP is out with a story of college students and a drive to petition the government to allow colleges and universities independence from state control and free speech. Despite having collected 5,000 signatures, they don't plan to submit them yet. See, they're afraid of being expelled.

From the Sidney Herald Leader, an article on how wrong-headed Bush's policy is. According to Sanchez, the author, further restriction on cultural exchanges is in the works. Response, she says, has been swift, supported by none other than Danny Glover and Sean Penn. Perhaps if "artists" did not serve as apologists and propaganda tools for a brutally oppressive regime, this restriction would be unwarranted. As it is.... There is a connected story that has so ignited my wrath that I'll post later.

And, of course, the usual statistical shenanigans from the castro government with the announcement that Cuba expects 10 percent growth this year. If it's anything like last year's purported growth of 12.6 percent, it will be yet another example of true voodoo economics. Read it here.

Stay tuned for more later.

El Cuento de la Buena Pipa...or is that Doublespeak?

"There was no political ruse whatsoever on my part or that of the Cuban Government over the choice of dates,"

Thus spake the infamous Rapporteur Ziegler about the timing of his visit to Cuba, which happened near concurrently with President Bush's address and the UN vote. If you believe that, I have a bridge I can sell you cheaply. Perhaps the best statement in the earthtimes.org article on his answer to his critics:

The special rapporteur on the Right to Food said he had been invited by a number of European Union ambassadors to meet the NGO's secretly within their embassies.

"To meet discreetly would have been an absurdity," Ziegler said. His programme had already been arranged and approved by the Cuban Government and he wanted to respect his mandate on the right to food.

"It would have been irresponsible for my part to, in whatever way even if humanly understandable, put in danger this openness," he added.

Pardonnez moi, what openness, the same they have been showing for half a decade, openness to their propaganda? I am constitutionally unable to force myself to link to anything called "earthtimes." So go there if you want the rest of the article.

How Things Change

One of the more overlooked sins of the castro regime has been its spiritual and emotional effects on people, particularly families. I'm not going to touch the alleged 8 million CDRs on the island. They deserve their own annal of infamy. And the physical and logistical distance between family members is obvious. No, there is a hidden cost. Sometimes I am reminded of the American civil war, when I hear about x family member who is a comuñanga, as if there are any truly left in Cuba, and y family member who is a gusano.

It came to my mind today when I got word that one of the refugees on that boat in the news recently, the one in which one person lost his life, was my godmother. I don't remember seeing her in the flesh, although I'm sure she was at my baptism in Cuba. In fact, all I have is one picture of her. And therein, lies the problem. Although I bear her no ill will, I've never really communicated with her. As a child and later, I could not not get past the miliciana uniform she is wearing in the photo. My parents, remarkably for them, did not push the issue.

I'm pretty sure it was wrong to write her off, and I will go visit and see what she has to say, now that both she and I are older and wiser. But my situation is symptomatic of the greater problem. How do you effect reconciliation on a much larger scale? And where do you draw the line?

Poor Hugo: Lo Van a Callar

Fresh from the receiving end of a Royal put-down, wouldbe Venezuelan President-for-life Hugo Chavez faces the latest poll showing dwindling support for his constitutional "reforms," read that electoral coup. Despite his assertions that anyone voting "no" is a traitor, apparently 49% of the populace consists of turncoats. Another 39% favor his proposals.

In other circumstances, this would be reassuring news. Given his previous record on elections- Remember the head of the electoral process who was named vice-president after the Chavez victory- and his propensity to unleash armed thugs on the opposition, there is ample cause for worry. I only hope the people of Venezuela realize they are battling for the soul of their country and act accordingly.

Read the Reuters article

Read: The Queen of Bedlam by Robert McCammon

I had run to the library before the holiday closing because I had a line on a Cuba book I wanted to read. So, I'm browsing when I see, can it be? Yes! There is a new Robert McCammon book. McCammon had disappeared from the stacks for quite a while. After his Gone South in which the main character has cancer and takes refuge in the swamps and his disappearance, I was truly worried. I needn't have been. A new interview with the author makes clear that he was just fed up with the business.

And now he's back in the game. Originally a horror writer, McCammon began to move away from the genre in his Boy's Life, one of my personal favorites. By the time Gone South was published in 1994, he was already in a new mode. His next book, Speaks the Nightbird, which I somehow missed, was not published until 2002. When I picked up The Queen of Bedlam, I was surprised to find that it was the second in a series about the young, erstwhile law clerk, Matthew Corbett and is set in the New York City in the Colonial Era.

Corbett is a delight of a character, a former street urchin and orphanage survivor, who had the good fortune to run into a magistrate who took him under his wing and made him a law clerk. He is at the same time intellectually sharp, emotionally vulnerable, and self-consciously stuffy as he navigates the ways of the gentler folk. McCammon successfully conveys the social mores and societal mindset of the time, as young Corbett insinuates himself into a murder investigation and embroils himself in a much larger conspiracy. In the process, he learns a few things about his place in the world.

As Corbett unravels the mystery at the heart of the book, we get a glimpse of the world that was New York City, way before it was the Big Apple. It's fascinating to see it as it was in the 1700's, its physical and political landscape. And the cross-dressing Royal Governor is not be missed.

I was a bit intimidated by the length, 645 pages, but McCammon in any genre is an excellent writer. After a slow start around the holiday, I couldn't put it down. My only complaint is that it ended the mystery but hinted at another. I hate that after reading so many pages. And the book set in Cuba? Somebody had beat me to it.