Have Hurt Cuba But...
They Have Hurt America Much More
{Friday, July 8th, 2016}
{Friday, July 8th, 2016}
Yesterday, July 7th, U. S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx announced that eight major U. S. airlines will begin round-trip service to Cuba beginning this fall from ten U. S. cities, including Los Angeles. Such commercial flights from the U. S. to Cuba have been illegal for over five decades, during which only special charter flights were allowed. Since 1962, everyday Americans have been the only people in the world without the freedom to travel to Cuba, apparently to assure that a few Cuban exiles could dictate the Cuban narrative in the United States. Foxx's announcement reflects yet another example of President Obama boldly slicing into the long-time Batistiano dictation of America's Cuban policy, a situation easily mandated with the concurrence of the U. S. Congress, at least prior to President Obama.
The upcoming U.S.-to-Cuba commercial flights will be historic.
This recent but historic photo shows The Adonia, the beautiful Carnival Cruise Line ship, arriving in Havana Harbor -- LEGALLY, thanks to President Obama. U. S. cruise ships are now allowed to dock in Cuban ports for the first time in five decades. Carnival pioneered but faces competition from other cruise lines.
This Airbnb photo shows how Cuba, like it has since 1492, is trying to survive as it takes advantage of historic efforts by U. S. President Barack Obama to normalize relations with the vulnerable but feisty island. The Havana home above is one of the 4,000 listed by Airbnb. And the innovative Bed & Breakfast company based in San Francisco only started listing in Cuba in 2015. Airbnb this week told the Los Angeles Times that Cuba is the fastest growing market in its 8-year history. This year Starwood Hotels & Resorts became the first U. S. hotelier to sign a deal in Cuba in six decades. Now Marriott International and other powerful competitors plan to do the same. Meanwhile, the home-sharing Airbnb has already acquired a powerful niche in Cuba that is the envy of the traditional hotel powerhouses in the United States. Meanwhile, reacting to the startling overtures provided by President Obama, Cuba plans on saving what it considers the best of the Cuban Revolution without seriously changing the essence of it as the most famed of the few remaining revolutionary elders, including Fidel, reach or approach their 9th decades on the island.
This is an Associated Press photo taken by Ramon Espinosa. It and the next two photos illustrated a major AP article this week {July 6, 2016} by Havana correspondent Michael Weissenstein. It is entitled "The Children of the Exiles Discover Cuba." It is an excellent report from Cuba and it precisely parallels the theme of my previous Cubaninsider essay this week entitled "Journalism: Cuba vs. America." That pertinent and correct theme is this: Since the overthrow of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship by the Cuban Revolution on Jan. 1-1959 the transplanted Batistianos have dictated the Cuban narrative and America's Cuban policy to the detriment of Cuba but even more to the detriment of America and democracy. The Weissenstein article revolved around a 20-year-old Cuban-American named Miranda Hernandez. That's her in the center of the above photo. She is now a senior at the University of California-Berkeley. Miranda's grandparents came to the U. S. in the 1960s and she grew up in Miami. Like almost all Americans and Cuban exiles, she says her image of Cuba was "a North Korea with beautiful beaches." That's because, like all Americans, she was thoroughly propagandized -- lied to about Cuba, the revolution, the exiles, and the U. S. government's role in Cuba from 1952 till today. After, at long last, President Obama sliced deeply into those lies, Miranda and other college-age U. S. daughters of Cuba, shown above, traveled to Cuba to see the island and judge it for themselves. Like Linda Ronstadt depicted in the previous essay, Miranda was literally blown away when her own eyes and ears revealed a Cuba far different from the lies that had dominated the first 20 years of her American life. She told the AP's Michael Weissenstein: "I will say outright, in all honesty, that Cuba is not so bad. Many people think that Cuba is a terrible place where people are not happy, but that's not the case." She and the other daughters of Cuba who traveled to the island via the Obama-blessed CubaOne program will, back in the United States, not be so easily lied to about Cuba, the revolution, the exiles, etc. Miranda and her friends reveal precisely why the self-serving orchestrators of America's vile Cuban policy since the 1950s have used the U. S. Congress to mandate their agendas, such as making everyday Americans the only people in the world without the freedom to travel to Cuba. Visiting Cuba, like Miranda, Americans could judge it for themselves, meaning downright lies would be rendered less effective.
This AP/Ramon Espinosa photo shows 20-year-old Cuban-American Miranda Hernandez standing next to the apartment that was the former home of her grandparents before they defected to Miami. Miranda had long talks with the Cubans living there now free of charge and with their friends in the neighborhood. She discovered that was a better way to learn about Cuba than being force-fed lies all her life back in the U. S. by rich Cuban-Americans and their easily acquired and self-serving political allies in the U. S. Congress.
This AP/Ramon Espinosa photo shows Miranda Hernandez and her Cuban-American friends exploring Havana's Malecon waterfront. That's Miranda in the white shorts, the 6th person from the left. Just think how remarkable this photo is: After being bombarded with propaganda about Cuba for the first 20 years of her life, Miranda got to visit Cuba so she could make free judgments about the nearby, very important island. It's an island that unwittingly says a lot more about the United States of America than it says about Cuba.
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A basic fact:
The thieving U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship brutally ruled Cuba from 1952 till the Cuban Revolution overthrew it in 1959.
From 1959 till the current Obama presidency, the transplanted Miami Cuban Mafia easily dictated America's Cuban policy. And Mr. Obama's two-term presidency lasts only a few more delicate months.
As cogently reflected each October by a 191-to-2 vote in the UN, America's worldwide image before and perhaps after Obama has cast more of a negative impact on the U. S. than any other topic. Yet, there remains in Miami, New Jersey and Washington a rich and powerful lobby that doesn't care one iota about the above Cuba-related image. Prior to Obama, most Americans were either too timid or too propagandized to even engage the issue. This week's AP article about 20-year-old Cuban-American student Miranda Hernandez visiting Cuba for the first time, along with recent polls, indicates that most young Americans and Cuban-Americans are becoming much less timid and much less propagandized. And that's very good for Cuba, and America!
Legal travel to Cuba even for Americans!!!
Wow!! What a concept.
This photo was taken by Mel Melcon for the Los Angeles Times. It was used to illustrate a Times article yesterday -- July 7th, 2016. The article is entitled: "Latino Gang Members Firebomb Black Residents To Drive Them Out..." The Los Angeles residence is Boyle Heights. The scared boy in the doorway of his home is 12-year-old Marc Anthony Garcia; his worried grandmother is 68-year-old Irena Vega. The photo and article in the LA Times comes during the hours that other great American cites -- Dallas, New Orleans, St. Paul, Chicago, etc. -- are being roiled by unspeakable crimes and protests related to racial and inequality issues. The vast disparity between the haves and have-nots is a mammoth American problem, perhaps a fatal one. As he glances around the corner, what is Marc so afraid of? As she sits in her doorway and ponders, what is Irena thinking? Was the obvious injury to her left arm caused by a firebomb?
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