Or Listen to Lies!
The Governor of Colorado, John Hickenlooper, just returned home after visiting Cuba this first week of February, 2017.
In other words, Governor Hickenlooper can judge Cuba for himself and not have to depend on six-decades of self-serving and usually uncontested lies from America's Castro Cottage Industry, which, among other mendacious things, has allied with a few self-serving U. S. Congressmen to deny everyday Americans the freedom to visit the gorgeous Caribbean island, lest they might challenge their Batistiano distortions. Governor Hickenlooper, like many prior U. S. leaders, was in Cuba to primarily benefit the citizens and businesses of Colorado. Back in Denver, he said, "The Cuban people are wonderful, friendly, and anxious to engage with Americans. They are also well educated and quite capable, especially a new breed of entrepreneurs spawned by former President Obama's historic efforts to engage with them. Engagement with those entrepreneurs will help Colorado workers and businesses. This is not the Cold War. This is 2017. Punishing innocent people is un-American and undemocratic, as is punishing American entrepreneurs in order to punish innocent Cubans."
I have been to Cuba, so I can understand Governor Hickenlooper's reaction to his visit. But even after President Obama bravely and astutely loosened as many of the restrictions on American visits as he possibly could, many millions of everyday Americans in 2017 remain the only people in the world without the freedom to visit Cuba, one of many U. S. laws designed purely to sate the revenge, economic and political appetites of a few beneficiaries still unhappy with the Cuban Revolution that overthrew the vile Batista-Mafia dictatorship way...WAY back in 1959. Americans who have allowed such laws to exist decade-after-decade are currently denounced 191-to-0 in the United Nations. The photo above is a reminder of a typical scene that Governor Hickenlooper may have seen in Cuba this week. The photo was taken by Linda Klipp and is used courtesy of Circles Robinson, the editor of Havana Times.org. It shows a very old Cuban man who has been punished all his adult life by the Castro Cottage Industry in the United States. So have his adult children. And so has the Cuban boy shown above playing with the scooter. When such punishments of innocent people in a foreign, sovereign nation are meted out in the name of the American people, decade after decade, those Americans richly deserve the unanimity of the glaring 191-to-0 vote in the UN.
If the U.S.-based and Congress-entrenched Castro Cottage Industry and an intimidated U. S. media distort Cuba, a Cuba Travel Show might be in order, even if everyday Americans are still the only people in the world prevented from visiting the island to judge it for themselves. Yes, there are some Travel Shows and Travel Writers who will actually tell you the truth.
An adventurous young lady named Jenn Brown has emerged as a world-class travel writer as attested by her blog Jetsetter Jenn and articles in international forums such as The Huffington Post.
This month of February-2017 Jetsetter Jenn Brown has told us all about Cuba after jetting over to the island and then riding and hiking all over it to provide us the "Beginners Guide to Cuba." Replete with colorful photos and interminglings with everyday Cubans, it is very interesting and quite informative.
To view Cuba first-hand, as Jenn Brown is doing in the above photo, is the only way to know and understand the mysterious island and its intriguing people. That is especially true for Americans, I believe, because for half-a-century everyday Americans have been the only people in the world without the freedom to visit Cuba, an injustice dictated by remnants of the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship that was overthrown by the Cuban Revolution in 1959, only to quickly reestablish its counter-revolutionary apparatuses on U. S. soil first and then in the U. S. Congress. Preventing Americans from seeing and judging Cuba for themselves, of course, has conveniently permitted the transplanted Batistianos to much more easily influence the Cuban narrative in the United States and help forge a repulsive Cuban policy that currently has saddled the United States with a stark 191-to-0 condemnation in the United Nations.
In the first week of February-2017, Jenn Brown used the above Cuban photo in an insightful article in the Huffington Post that is entitled: "8 Things to Expect When Visiting Cuba." Her first two sentences establish this preamble regarding the fast-changing island: "Cuba is the hot spot for travelers in 2017. With recently relaxed political relations, an uncertain future, and a rich history, plenty of adventurous travelers are putting this Caribbean nation on their must list." Indeed, in 2016 for the first time tourism to Cuba exceeded 4 million thanks to brave and heroic efforts by President Obama to confront the Batistianos and attempt to normalize relations with the island. However, at the start of 2017 the Cuba-friendly Obama administration has been replaced by the Batistiano-friendly Donald Trump presidency, so expectations of further increases in tourism to Cuba is quite "uncertain" in 2017 like so many other things, as Jenn Brown stated.
This photo courtesy of Jetsetter Jenn shows Jenn Brown and two friends during their hikes and drives around Cuba. The photo was used in the aforementioned Huffington Post article. I believe that Americans, especially those who still do not have the freedom to visit Cuba, should carefully read and study Jenn Brown's closing paragraph that summarized her "8 Things to Expect When Visiting Cuba" article:
"Of all the places I have traveled, no group has stolen my heart quite like the Cuban people. Despite financial hardships, they are some of the friendliest, kindest, and most gregarious people I have ever met. They shrug off their difficulties and genuinely love connecting with foreigners, from impromptu salsa lessons, passionate discussions about politics, and an eagerness to show off the natural beauty of their homeland. Some of my most treasured memories of Cuba revolve around my new Cuban friends."
Prior to that closing paragraph depicted above, Jenn Brown documents her conclusions about the island with photos, videos and discussions with everyday Cubans. The entire article and the documentations reminded me of what I saw and detected in Cuba, but most of all it reminds me of why a mere handful of extremely biased Cuban-Americans, many with easily documented family ties back to the Batista dictatorship, through two generations now, have insisted that everyday Americans are the only people in the world without the freedom to visit Cuba, lest they judge the island and its people for themselves as opposed to being told how to judge Cuba itself and the Cuban people themselves.
The American democracy that permits, decade after decade and generation to generation, a mere handful of obviously self-interested individuals to dictate America's Cuban narrative and America's Cuban policy is an American democracy that deserves the unanimous 191-to-0 denunciation in the United Nations.
And that's why I heartily recommend that pusillanimous and/or unpatriotic Americans who, generation to generation, accept their lack of freedom to visit Cuba and judge it for themselves at least study Jenn Brown's "Beginners Guide to Cuba." After all, she eased through a loophole in the Batistiano maze and actually got to see, observe and experience Cuba and its "friendly, kind and gregarious" people for herself.
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