Cuba Remains A Pain in the Butt

By Merely Surviving

      To put it both mildly and succinctly, the island of Cuba has been a pain in the buttocks for the United States, especially since the Cuban Revolution in 1959 defeated the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship and particularly since 1961 when Cuba miraculously defended its revolution from a furious aerial bombardment followed by the ground attack at the Bay of Pigs. A reminder of this basic fact came this month -- May, 2014 -- when it became known that Cuba's renowned Biotechnology Center had invented perhaps the world's most effective treatment for acute hemorrhoids. Merely by surviving so long and actually thriving in areas such as medical research, the gritty little island has impressed many outside the tight confines of the United States -- such as the World Health Organization.

   The World Health Organization is located in Geneva, Switzerland. Thus, it feels free to applaud Cuba for its universal free health care as well as such things as its scientific work in discovering effective drugs to counteract such maladies as cancer, malaria, hemorrhoids, etc. The WHO has singled out Cuba for "being at the forefront in managing prevention policies and confronting global health problems." The WHO, if not the USA, salutes Cuba for its extremely low infant mortality rate, which it listed at 4.2 for every 1,000 live births in 2013. Also, the WHO saluted Cuba for presently having 50,000 Cuban doctors and nurses working in the poorest sections of some 65 nations around the world. And the WHO, if not the USA, is impressed that Cuba has the world's largest medical school, known as The Latin American School of Medicine. Incredibly, at least in the WHO's eyes, Cuba provides free medical scholarships, including room and board, to poor students from around the world, including the USA. When such students leave with their degrees after six years, they do not have to worry about repaying student loans that, in the USA, are mostly designed to enrich rich bankers. Instead, foreign graduates at The Latin American School of Medicine in Cuba are merely asked to keep their promise to return, at least for a time, to work in the poor neighborhoods from whence they came. The WHO appreciates those efforts and innovations by Cuba. Perhaps Americans, including hemorrhoid sufferers, should too. The WHO also has praised Cuba for the Operation Miracle program that provides totally free eye operations that have restored sight to thousands of extremely poor people in the Caribbean and throughout Latin America. Of course, Americans, who are told Fidel Castro hoards all of poor Cuba's money for himself, wonder how Cuba can afford such extracurricular activity as The Latin American School of Medicine and Operation Miracle, programs that would make rich nations proud if they would pay for them. 

   A company in Jamaica that had tangential ties to the U. S. was fined for shipping a box of baby aspirin to Cuba because it violated dictates of the embargo against the island. When such things have routinely happened since 1962, when the embargo was established, the American people are told that enforcement is necessary because to allow such things as a box of baby aspirin to reach the island would benefit or enrich Castro. Americans, coated with stupidity and/or cowardice, meekly accept the embargo that the rest of the world abhors. Thus the embargo, dictated by anti-Castro exiles, endures although de-classified U. S. data revealed years ago that the purpose of the embargo was to starve and deprive the Cuban people to encourage them to rise up and overthrow Castro.

   
   This photo courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library was taken on April 18, 1961. It shows a victorious Cuban soldier interrogating a captured CIA/Cuban exile attacker, Jose Miro Torra, at the Bay of Pigs. Some 1200 of the attackers were captured after the ground assault that followed a devastating bombing attack against all three of the island's military airfields.

  Cuba ended up selling the Bay of Pigs captors back to the U. S. for $53 million, which was paid mostly by the Kennedy administration with a shipload of Gerber Baby Food, as Cuba requested. Venezuelan Admiral Wolfgang Larrazabal, who had sent Celia Sanchez cash and weapons during the Revolutionary War in the 1950s, warned her that if Cuba sent the Bay of Pigs prisoners back to Florida in 1961 they would resume constant hostilities against the island. But apparently she felt the island's children needed all those bottles of Gerber Baby Food. Of course, as with the baby aspirin from Jamaica, the U. S. was "concerned" that Fidel Castro himself would consume all the Gerber products.

   As it turned out, Cuban babies like Josefina Vidal benefited mightily from those boxes of Gerber Baby Food that the U. S. reluctantly delivered to Cuba as payment for the Bay of Pigs prisoners. All grown up now, Josefina Vidal is the Cuban Minister in charge of North American Affairs, namely America's ongoing designs to unseat revolutionary rule on the island. On Oct. 20-2002 Josefina was one of four celebrated speakers, and the only Cuban, at a historical session moderated by historian James G. Blight at the Kennedy Library. That night Josefina was introduced by Caroline Kennedy as "one of Cuba's celebrated Gerber babies!" When she took the podium, Josefina recounted how much her mother "appreciated" all that Gerber baby food.

And by the way...............

       ........here's another bit of fascinating Celia Sanchez/Cuban history. In the photo above, that's Venezuelan Admiral Wolfgang Larrazabal on the left. Celia Sanchez was the most important recruiter of money, supplies and weapons in the revolutionary war against the Batista dictatorship. One of her main contacts and suppliers of money, supplies and weapons was Admiral Larrazabal. In January of 1959, just weeks after the triumph of the revolution, Celia Sanchez took Fidel Castro to Venezuela to personally thank Admiral Larrazabal and meet Venezuelan President Romulo Betancourt. Admiral Larrazabal in 1958 had led a coup that overthrew dictator Marcos Perez Jimenez, who is shown on the right in the above photo. But Larrazabal, Celia's important friend, was a good guy. Later in 1958 he ran in an honest election for President but lost to Betancourt, another good guy who would become Venezuela's first elected President to be replaced by another elected President.

     Celia Sanchez, Cuba's all-time greatest revolutionary leader, was quite adept at distinguishing between the good guys and the bad guys. After the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, she considered Admiral Wolfgang Larrazabal one of the good guys. In the above photo, she's counting some of the help that he provided her during the war. Celia famously and meticulously accounted for every peso or dollar the rebels spent. In Caracas in January of 1959 she personally presented Admiral Larrazabal a detailed accounting of the money and supplies he had provided her. "But dear Celia," he replied. "You were always the only person I fully trusted!"

And truth be know................

       .................Celia Sanchez, the petite doctor's daughter, has always been a bigger pain in America's butt than the macho Fidel Castro ever thought about being.

And by the way...............

       ........the New York Times on Monday -- May 19th -- used this image of Huon Song-wol, a beautiful North Korean entertainer, in a major article that revealed she is alive. She is the most popular singer in North Korea and is reputed to be North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's favorite "former" girlfriend. But rumors persisted for days that, on a whim, he had her machine-gunned to death. Then she appeared quite healthy on national television, above, to salute the leader "for his heavenly trust and warm care" in promoting the arts. The New York Times used the article to stress that a lot goes on in North Korea, most of it bad, but exactly what often remains mysterious.

But the sheer beauty of birds is not mysterious.

     My favorite magazine, Birds & Blooms, featured this photo taken by Marie Read. Right after he paused for the photo, he flew off to hide the acorn for a future meal.

      Marie Read for Birds & Blooms took this photo of two hard-working Woodpeckers stashing acorns for future use. Chickadees, Nuthatches and many other species also plan ahead in this manner, often with sunflower seeds or even peanuts.

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