Why It's Also Criminal
This photo was used this first week of March, 2016, to illustrate a major article on the Fox News Latino website. The article is entitled: "With Obama's Visit to Cuba, Doctors Hope Lung Cancer Vaccine Will Get Major Boost." Americans are not supposed to read such articles because they might deviate from the Cuban narrative that has been prevalent since the 1950s when the Batista-Mafia dictatorship was overthrown and then reconstituted on U. S. soil. But I believe even propagandized and intimidated Americans should read this article, which explains how decent people, such as President Obama, are trying to finally correct some of the cowardly and, perhaps, criminal aspects of America's Cuban policy that has so strenuously been dictated for almost six decades by only the most vicious transplanted elements of the long-ago Batista-Mafia dictatorship. For what it's worth, here's the gist of this article:
"While in political circles the historical handshake between Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro was both applauded and condemned, in aseptic hospital hallways it signaled a path to a medical collaboration that had remained untouched for more than six decades.
"And, for now, it would appear the U. S. has the most to gain.
"Cuba may be submerged in poverty and isolation, but it claims to have the first vaccine available for lung cancer, the most lethal cancer in the U. S. with an average of 432 Americans killed per day. The vaccine, which also proved to be effective to treat the existing condition, is called CimaVax. It didn't take long after the April, 2015 handshake, just a few days actually, for a high-profile U. S. delegation to set foot in Cuba and start the lengthy process that involves introducing a drug into the U. S. market.
"'We've started working on FDA approval, but we're hopeful that this year we'll start trials,' said Dr. Candace Johnson, CEO of Rosewell Park Cancer Institute, the research center that is evaluating CimaVax for U. S. use. 'Things in Cuba have gotten a lot easier. They have Verizon now and an embassy. We're having a lot of success working with the Cubans,' she told Fox News Latino. "We'd like to use it in patients with Stage I -- people with high levels of recurrence. It could also be used to prevent cancer from growing,' Dr. Johnson says. "We want to be the gateway with the Cubans. As this progresses, this will be available to everyone,' She added."
****************************************
Dr. Candace Johnson is the head of the Rosewell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York. She recently accompanied New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to Cuba so she could work with the Cuban scientists who actually discovered CimaVax, the cancer drug that she craves for her patients here in the United States. Dr. Johnson had already closely monitored the proven drug, which has been used free-of-charge in Cuba since 2011 and it is provided free to many other poor countries and has been sold to rich European nations, where it also has been proven effective as a break-through drug to fight cancer.
Dr. Candace Johnson is one of America's greatest cancer experts. She is also a beautiful, caring person. Unfortunately, she is also one of the many innocent victims of America's Cuban policy dictated since the 1950s by anti-Castro Cuban-American zealots and their right-wing sycophants in the U. S. Congress. Dr. Johnson, in her battle to obtain Cuba's CimaVax vaccine, has joined with President Obama to slice through some of the most cruel aspects of the U. S. embargo against Cuba. But she is still left to beg the powerful proponents of the embargo for the legal right to use CimaVax to help her cancer patients, which in turn would help others across the nation. {NOTE: Cuba's renowned medical scientists have also invented a diabetic drug that has been proven to prevent amputations and other dreaded diabetic complications, but it too is denied to Americans because of the embargo that Congress cruelly mandates to appease a handful of the most vicious anti-Castro zealots}. Anti-Castro zealots aside, it is the gutlessness of the American people in capitulating to such cruel insanity decade-after-decade that prevents Dr. Johnson from attaining CimaVax, the Cuban cancer drug that she so earnestly craves.
To his everlasting credit and his presidential legacy, Barack Obama has done all he can to rescue the United States from the disgrace of the Cuban embargo, which was begun way back in 1962 for the stated purpose, according to de-classified U. S. documents, to starve and deprive Cubans on the island to induce them to rise up and overthrow their revolutionary government. Since 1962, two generations of Americans have permitted this policy to remain in force as the rest of the world clearly criticizes the abject cowardice, cruelty, and stupidity of allowing it to continue. If the embargo still pleases zealots like Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, and the U. S. media doesn't have the guts to hold them accountable, where does that leave decent Americans, like Dr. Candace Johnson? Unfortunately, it leaves her and democracy out in the cold along with 11 million innocent Cubans on the island who have been starved and deprived their entire lives by what many consider an unchecked minority criminal element in a foreign country dictating to others.
This is the sentiment even in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood.
In 2016, imperialist thugs are frowned upon all over the world.
Cristina Escobar: "I don't want the U. S. to bring me democracy. It could have easily done that in 1892 when it replaced Spain as Cuba's imperialist ruler. It could have done that in 1952 when it supported Batista and the Mafia as our rulers. When and if we attain democracy during my lifetime, I want it delivered to me only by Cubans on the island, not Cubans living in their luxury mansions in Miami and Washington."
Cristina Escobar: Age 28; Cuba's superstar broadcast journalist and the leader of the young-adult generation of Cubans on the island who are determined to chart Cuba's post-Castro future. They deserve that right. Defectors in the U. S. who benefit from the embargo and other gross cruelties against Cubans on the island do not deserve to rule Cuba from their gluttonous and exalted sanctuaries in Miami and Washington.
And speaking of Cristina Escobar:
I think I know where Cristina Escobar and many other excited Cubans will be on the evening of March 25th, 2016. Mick Jagger, the charismatic leader of the world's most famous musical group -- The Rolling Stones -- is a great admirer of the Cuban people and his band on March 25th will give a free, open-air concert in Havana at the Ciudad Deportiva sports complex. The photo above was taken on October 4th, 2015, and shows Mick Jagger dancing with very enthused Cubans at the Shangri-la nightclub in Havana.
On his visit to Cuba last fall, Mick Jagger was gracious with his time, posing for photos like this one with workers at the Shangri-la. The Rolling Stones concert on March 25th in Havana will enthrall the appreciative Cubans and it will come only three days after President Obama ends his historic two-day visit to the island. Mick Jagger said, "It will be a landmark event for us, and, I hope, for our friends in Cuba too."
Hats off to Mick Jagger for understanding that Cubans on the island have been maligned and isolated by too many for too long. The still energetic Mr. Jagger is 72-years-old and for half-a-century he and his Rolling Stones have been world renowned. Their free concert in Havana on the 25th of this month will be an international statement. But mostly it will be a well-deserved and deeply appreciated gift for Cubans.
Promotional poster for the Rolling Stones Cuban performance.
No comments:
Post a Comment