Unbiased Cuban News Is Available

Even In the United States
Friday, November 7th, 2014

Fidel Castro is 88-years-old, and unwell.

              He spends almost all of his time these days inside his modest home in western Havana. He still loves to read, write, and watch television news and documentaries, including YouTube videos. His very protective wife Dalia allows selective visitors, which recently have included the leaders of China, Russia, Brazil, Vietnam, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Venezuela, Bolivia, etc. This past weekend his visitor was not quite that renowned but, from a personal standpoint, one of Mr. Castro's oldest and most loyal friends. They reminisced for about two hours, monitored from the doorway by Dalia and/or their son Alex. The friend gushed over the old revolutionary's remarkable career, labeling it, among other things, "earth-shaking because of the changes you wrought." The fawning eventually evoked a more modest summation by Mr. Castro and, perhaps, it reflects insight concerning how he himself views his life in the twilight of its days: "Mi Pasado es imperfecto, pero es mejor que los criminales que sustituzen."  {"My past is imperfect, but it is better than the criminals I replaced."} Back in 1953, just before he was sentenced to 15 years in Dictator Fulgencio Batista's prison, Mr. Castro had famously said, "History will absolve me." In the six decades between these two quotations, much has happened to Mr. Castro and, as his visitor last weekend opined, much has also happened to the things he "wrought" -- in Cuba, the U. S., and the world.

          Margaret Chan was born in 1947 in Hong Kong. Today she is the highly respected Director-General of the World Health Organization. She is a big fan of Fidel Castro, having praised him for Cuba's having the world's largest medical school, one that awards full scholarships to poor students from many countries, including the USA. She also has praised Operation Miracle, a project whereby Cuban eye doctors restore or improve the eyesight of poor people who otherwise would probably never see even a regular doctor. This week Time Magazine had an article entitled "Why Cuba Is Good At Fighting Ebola." The article quoted Margaret Chan as saying, "Cuba is world-famous for its ability to train outstanding doctors and nurses." The article pointed out that Cuba has 50,000 doctors and nurses serving in 66 needy countries around the world. Ms. Chan pointed out that, presently, 165 Cuban health care workers are fighting Ebola in West Africa and a total of 460 will soon be doing the yeoman's task to combat the dreaded, deadly plague.

       Of course, in stark contrast to Margaret Chan and other international admirers of the Cuban Revolution, there is a vast cottage industry of rich and powerful anti-Castro zealots who, through two generations since 1959, have mostly controlled the Cuban narrative in the United States. Take, for example, Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart, one of the Miami area's four visceral anti-Castro members of the U. S. Congress. At times, it appears that the Cuban zealotry dominates the congressional energies of the Miami politicos as if neither Miami nor the U. S. as a whole have any problems other than the 88-year-old Fidel Castro. Recently, for example, the U. S. sent a representative to Havana to discuss the Ebola crisis. Of course, that provoked a vicious attack on the Obama administration from Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart, who had just assailed the United Nations for allowing Venezuela, Cuba's dear friend, to be seated on the UN's Security Council. The Miami contingent in the U. S. Congress has recently sent scathing letters to the President of Panama, which is still a sovereign nation, because Panama invited, actually begged, Cuba to attend the Summit of the Americas that will be hosted by Panama next April. Miami members of Congress have urged U. S. sanctions against Argentina, whose President, Cristina Fernandez, is a huge admirer of Fidel Castro. Michelle Bachelet, recently re-elected President of Chile, complained about Miami and Washington supporting her opponent; Dilma Rousseff, recently re-elected President of Brazil, complained about Miami and Washington supporting her opponent. Both Ms. Bachelet and Ms. Rousseff are also huge admirers of Fidel Castro. In their anti-Castro zealotry that warps U. S. influence in the Americas, the Diaz-Balart family for two generations now has been among the handful of Cuban-Americans who have dictated America's Cuban policy. Rafael Diaz-Balart was a key member of the Batista dictatorship that was overthrown by Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959. Then Rafael Diaz-Balart became one of the richest and most powerful Cuban exiles influencing U. S. policy towards Cuba. His oldest son Lincoln, born in Havana, was in the U. S. Congress from 1993 till 2011 when he resigned to pursue other Cuban-related projects. In addition to the U. S. congressmen Lincoln and Mario, Rafael Diaz-Balart had two other sons -- Jose, a powerful news anchor at Telemundo and NBC, and Rafael Jr., a very rich banker. Because of the unique wealth and political connections of Cuban exiles such as Rafael Diaz-Balart and his four sons, the U. S. today has laws that pertain only to Cuba and Cubans, no one else. One might say they are self-serving laws. That's why this week the Director-General of the World Health Organization lavishly praises Cuba for its help in fighting Ebola while Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart lambastes President Obama and the U. S. government for sending a representative to Havana to discuss the Ebola crisis. This beat has been going on since 1959. When Fidel Castro dies, many in Miami and Washington will be losing a lush cash cow as well as a sturdy political platform. But with Fidel Castro now 88-years-old and unwell, it is for sure that plans have already been formulated in Miami and Washington to find another Cuban cash cow and also to revise that Cuban political formula based on the tired old refrain -- "You know, the revolution chased all the good Cubans to Miami but we were lucky enough to take over Miami and then advance to Washington. We came to America pennyless but, uh, we've done alright."

        By the way, Fidel Castro's first wife, Mirta Diaz-Balart, is the sister of the late Rafael Diaz-Balart, the ardent Batistiano famed for his wealth and power in the U. S. Therefore, Mirta is the aunt of the four rich and powerful Diaz-Balart sons. It should also be noted, perhaps, that Mirta today is on friendlier terms with Fidel and their son Fidelito than she is with her nephews in Miami. Cuba, you see, is both fascinating and paradoxical. Love, hate, money, and politics. A volatile and toxic mix. That's why, with the Mafia and a world-famed revolution adding to the intrigue, Cuba is and will forever remain utterly irresistible.

And now, some sad news from Cuba..........

.............Franklin Reyes is dead. He was the greatest photo-journalist in Cuba and a superstar with the Associated Press since 2009. Anyone familiar with Cubaninsider is aware that most of the topical photos I have used on this blog were fully credited to AP/Franklin Reyes. Mr. Reyes was born 39 years ago in Havana. This week he drove to the port of Mariel 28 miles southwest of Havana to report on the Cuban economy. On his drive back to Havana, his car hit another car. Mr. Reyes died at the scene and the two occupants of the other car died later. He is survived by his wife Gricell, his parents, and a brother. Gary Pruitt, the President and CEO of the AP, said, "Franklin Reyes was a vibrant and enthusiastic member of our team in Cuba, and he was proud to be working for the AP." I am an unapologetic admirer of great photographers and great journalists. Franklin Reyes was a great photo-journalist. I will miss him.

This recent photo of Mariela Castro was taken by Franklin Reyes for the AP.

       Bob Schieffer represents an endangered species in the United States of America. For over a half-century, he has been a great journalist, reminiscent of former CBS-TV giants such as Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow. But Mr. Cronkite and Mr. Murrow died years ago. Bob Schieffer, the last of his breed, was born 77 years ago in Austin, Texas. As anchor of the long-running Face the Nation program on Sundays and the best of the post-Cronkite Evening News anchors on CBS-TV, Bob Schieffer still reigns supreme when it comes to America's electronic journalism. Sure, because easily propagandized Americans are quite vulnerable to hype, Fox News, an unabashed right-wing propaganda machine, today dominates the "news" ratings with would-be journalists such as Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, and Megan Kelly. Fox News personifies the downward spiral of American journalism in an era when television and the digital age reign supreme. That, most unfortunate of all, corresponds to the downward spiral of the American democracy in which the archaic two-party system comprises Republican and Democratic parties that are both bought-and-paid for by a handful of rich and power special interests. Bob Schieffer understands that. Sunday he closed "Face the Nation" very appropriately leading up to the Congressional election on Tuesday, November 4th, 2014. Almost with tears in his aged eyes -- tears for the U. S. democracy that he once knew -- Bob Schieffer said: "Congress hasn't done anything in years, yet these midterm elections will be the most extensive in history, just like the last one. $4 billion this time around. That's billion with a B. The right to vote is our proudest possession, but the way it has become debased by money shames us all."

      This gorgeous Wikipedia photo shows the west front of the U. S. Capital Building in Washington. It is the home of the once hallowed U. S. Congress. Today Congress has an approval rating in the single digits. One recent poll put it at 7%, presumably the 7% that have purchased it, leaving the other 93% essentially without a democracy, as Bob Schieffer expressed Sunday when he echoed the sentiments of most Americans.

      This Wikipedia image of the U. S. Congress evokes the pride democracy lovers once had in their government. But now the word that Bob Schieffer used Sunday -- "shame" -- is the prevailing depiction. Totally enmeshed in money, congressional incumbents are almost permanent fixtures but their war-chests -- PACs -- bulge with special interest money. Recent reports reveal that the prime motivation to be a member of the U. S. Congress is certainly not to serve democracy or their constituents but, instead, to get rich. While serving, members of Congress serve the special interests that have filled their PACs. In Washington the U. S. Congress revolves around K Street, which is where tens of thousands of lobbyists do the business of special interests, both domestic and foreign. Time and again members of Congress have family members who are lobbyists that take advantage of their kin's sold-out congressional votes. Time and again members of Congress resign from their lucrative positions to take more lucrative spots as lobbyists, often for the very companies they represented while in office! All that is why great newsmen like Bob Schieffer are a dying breed. Having the insight and guts to report this "shame" is actually over-shadowed by self-serving "news" operations that are a significant part of the problem. For example, during Congressional, Presidential, or State elections, special interest money purchases billions of dollars -- billion with a B -- of noxious, puerile television ads that insult the intelligence of Americans who cannot escape such deluges. That insult to democracy will not cease because of the vast amounts of money involved for ad agencies, television stations, and such -- all of whom have enough ad money to easily purchase lobbyists on K Street who, in turn, have the power to purchase the American government.

       This is a beautiful Wikipedia image of the U. S. Supreme Court, once the most respected component of the U. S. democracy. But recently the 9-member John Roberts Supreme Court has, in the view of many democracy lovers, pounded the final nail into what was once the cherished American democracy. That's because, in the last few years, the Roberts Court has sanctioned virtually unlimited amounts of often undisclosed special interest money to purchase that democracy, putting it securely in the hands of a rich, greedy minority. In that milieu it now costs billions of dollars to campaign for the U. S. presidency. In that milieu a mere Senatorial race in North Carolina spent over $100 million in noxious ads to determine which Republican or Democrat landed the lucrative spot in the U. S. Senate. As helpless democracy lovers looked on in shame, the vast majority of that $100 million that defamed the North Carolina senatorial race came from unknown usurpers from out of state, not from North Carolina residents. And with both the Republican and Democratic parties bought-and-paid-for, special interests have plenty of money to make sure no decent Third Party ever becomes a factor in American politics. ON THE EVE OF THIS WEEK'S CONGRESSIONAL ELECTIONS, DID BOB SCHIEFFER USE THE WORD "SHAME" TO LAMENT THE DEMISE OF THE U. S. DEMOCRACY THAT OUR FOUNDING FATHERS CRAFTED AS THE GREATEST FORM OF GOVERNMENT EVER KNOWN TO MANKIND? Yes, he did. And he was 100% correct in that assessment. Twice in recent years the John Roberts Supreme Court had chances to put a finger in the dike and at least postpone the "For Sale" sign that now fronts the U. S. democracy. But twice the Supreme Court refused to do so. Thus, today the U. S. democracy is what it is -- "shameful," as Bob Shieffer aptly stated.

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      Glen Ford {right} is an international journalist and blogger who writes for such global giants as The Guardian in London. On November 2, 2014, his column was entitled "For Moment, the World Embraces the Cuba Model -- And Slaps the Empire." The sub-title of that article was: "For Cuba, Service to Oppressed and Exploited Peoples Is A Revolutionary Act of the Highest Moral Caliber." Even more explicit plaudits followed in the long article, such as this in reaction to the 188-to-2 UN vote against the U. S. embargo of Cuba: "Although the list of American allies on the Cuban embargo issue could not possibly get any smaller -- Israel, after all, can only exist if joined at the U. S. hip -- this year's political environment was even less deferential to the reigning military colossus. In recognition to its singular commitment to the fight against Ebola in Africa, Cuba soared again -- the hero nation! The island nation of 11 million people has made itself a medical superpower that shares its life-saving resources with the world."

         This World Health Organization/S. Gborie photo was used to illustrate that gushing article by Glen Ford. It shows 165 Cuban doctors and nurses arriving in Sierra Leone to battle the Ebola crisis. I use it not to jump aboard the fawning pro-Cuban bandwagon but to point out how a U. S. Cuban policy, dictated by revengeful exiles from the ousted U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba in the 1950s, has severely hurt the image of the U. S. and democracy for six decades now. For example, at any point in the past six decades when control of the Cuban narrative appeared to be slipping from the grasp of the Batistiano exiles, furious campaigns waged from powerful podiums are unleashed to refurbish the self-serving anti-Cuban agenda with verbal or physical attacks on Revolutionary Cuba. U. S. Senator Marco Rubio from Miami, for example, just unleashed a stinging letter, on U. S. Congress stationery, to the President of Panama because, alas, he insisted on inviting Cuba to the Summit of the Americas that Panama will host next April. Havana-born U. S. Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen from Miami also blistered the eyes of the President of Panama with a similar letter. United States Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart from Miami {Mario's father Rafael Diaz-Balart was a key minister in the Batista dictatorship} unleashed a barrage of attacks in the last few days on the U. S. government for sending a U. S. representative to Havana to discuss the Ebola crisis. Such things, to the gross detriment of democracy, are regularly produced daily by Miami-based operatives in Washington. And such things always get re-invigorated in Miami and Washington when positives about Cuba, such as its role in the Ebola crisis, make headlines or when all of the best American friends around the world loudly remind the U. S. via their United Nations votes how cruel and undemocratic its Cuban policy really is, exacerbating America's image as a bully. For the most part, the Batistianos control the Cuban narrative in the U. S., aided by a mostly intimidated or incompetent media as well as a rather unpatriotic citizenry. But it's now a global, digital world we live in and therefore Americans, too, have access to fair, unbiased, and unafraid journalism.

       One of the world's best journalists, Michael Voss, this week had an 8 minute, 30 second report on CCTV-AMERICA entitled: "Exclusive: Elian Gonzalez Reveals Life Experiences Since Returning to Cuba." It is brilliant and important for two reasons: {1} It updates one of the most searing and famous episodes in U.S.-Cuban relations; and {2} it provides an unbiased and topical insight into the fascinating, ongoing U.S.-Cuban saga. Back in 2000, as the world watched, Elian was forcefully removed by the FBI from anti-Castro zealots in Miami so he could return to Cuba with his father. Well, this week the now 20-year-old Elian discussed in length with Mr. Voss both his memories of that traumatic incident as well as his thoughts today about being a Cuban on the island as opposed to being a Cuban in Miami. Extremely articulate and well educated like most Cubans his age, Elian is now a University student studying industrial engineering. He worships the now 88-year-old Fidel Castro, whom he calls "my grand-father." He told Mr. Voss he is quite aware he would have "many more material things" if he had been kept in Miami but that he would not trade being a Cuban on the island "for millions of dollars." He relishes his future military career because of his passion "to defend the revolution." Elian's updated views on his life and his island is not why Michael Voss's insightful report from Cuba this week is important. If Voss had revealed that Elian hates Fidel Castro and the revolution and longs to be in Miami, that too would have been highly significant. The point I makes is, both Cubans and Americans have the right to get their information about U.S.-Cuban relations from unbiased sources, not from government propaganda and not from either pro-Castro zealots or anti-Castro zealots. As a pro-democracy zealot, and one who recognizes -- as did Thomas Jefferson and Joseph Goebbels -- the power and significance of the media, I am aware that, since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, the richest and most powerful remnants of the ousted U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship on the island have, on U. S. soil, largely dictated both the the U. S. policy regarding Cuba and the U. S. media's depictions of everything Cuban. If that anti-democratic procedure required silencing fair-minded Miami newsman Emilio Milian with a car-bomb or the Miami Herald's top columnist Jim DeFede with a firing, then such typical and uncontested processes have occurred on a daily basis since 1959. With extraordinary sums of money and enough numbers to predicate Florida's decisive electoral votes, anti-Castro zealots in Miami astutely realized that aligning themselves with self-serving politicians -- the Bush dynasty, Robert Torricelli, Jesse Helms, Dan Burton, etc., etc. -- they could flood the U. S. Congress with enough anti-Castro Cuban-exile zealots to dictate Cuban policy via vehicles such as The Torricelli Bill, The Helms-Burton Act, etc., etc. And, of course, in a political arena dominated by lobbyists, rich and clever anti-Castro lobbyists such as Mauricio Claver-Carone can control the Cuban narrative in the United States all by themselves. Michael Voss's update on the Elian Gonzalez saga is a reminder of all that. The historical and topical aspects of Cuba remain fascinating.

      This epic photo from 2000 showing the U. S. government being forced to rescue 7-year-old Elian Gonzalez in Miami is but one of countless images seared into the U.S.-Cuban saga. In 2014 Americans still deserve the right to get unbiased updates from journalists like Michael Voss on the ramifications of that episode. The forceful removal of Elian Gonzalez in 2000, the terrorist bombing of the civilian Cubana Flight 455 in 1976, the car-bombing that murdered the beautiful American Ronnie Moffitt within sound of the White House in 1976, the car-bombing of Miami journalist Emilio Milian in 1976, the escape/release from Latin American prisons to Miami of the famed Cuban exile/CIA terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, the indelible creations of the Torricelli Bill and the Helms-Burton Act, the Brothers to the Rescue Shoot-down, lawsuits against unrepresented Cuba in Miami courtrooms, and all other Cuban-U. S. involvements since the 1950s have sharply sliced into the sanctity of the U. S. democracy, with the assistance of an intimidated or ineffective U. S. media, exacerbated by two post-World War II generations of Americans who are not too interested in standing up for the superb democracy they were bequeathed by their forebears. 

        This photo, courtesy of Cathal McNaughton/London Telegraph, shows British Minister of State Hugo Swire in Havana the last week of October, 2014. Mr. Swire hailed "Cuba's economic changes," "Cuba's leading role in the fight against Ebola," "Cuba's leading role in hosting the peace talks between the Colombian government and FARC," among his myriad critiques of Cuba. While in Havana, Mr. Swire signed British-Cuban agreements related to sports, business, and investments. Such positives involving America's best ally, Britain, were conveniently unreported by the U. S. media. However, other major Cuban positives in the last few weeks filtered out even in the U. S. media -- such as Cuba's role in the Ebola fight, the UN vote that revealed the entire world strongly opposes the U. S. embargo of Cuba, etc. Any Cuban positive, or in this month's case a multitude of Cuban positives, are sure to fire up the vast anti-revolutionary cottage industry in the United States. Mr. Swire's salient trip to Cuba, for example, was widely covered in Britain but, of course, Britain never teamed with the Mafia to support a cruel Cuban dictatorship in the 1950s and thus Britain's Cuban policy and media are not dominated by a visceral Cuban-government-in-exile. That's why Britain and the other nations around the world were free to exercise their sovereignty and use their votes in the United Nations to oppose the U. S. policy regarding Cuba.

      All Caribbean and Latin American nations now strongly condemn the U. S. policy regarding Cuba, but that was not always so. From 1999 till 2004 Mireya Moscoso was President of Panana. She was born in Panana in 1946 but had extremely close ties to all things Miami, including Miami Dade College. During her presidency she worked hand-in-glove with anti-Castro zealots in Miami and in the George W. Bush presidential administration. That's how, as she left office, she shocked all of Latin America when she pardoned Luis Posada Carriles and three other famed anti-Castro terrorists who had been imprisoned in Panama for orchestrating an attempt to assassinate Fidel Castro when he was visiting Panama.

        Jim DeFede was the top columnist for the Miami Herald. He wrote a scathing column excoriating Miami's members in the U. S. Congress -- Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and the Diaz-Balart brothers Lincoln and Mario -- for what he alleged and documented as their incredible support of anti-Cuban terrorists such as Luis Posada Carriles who remains to this day a heralded and celebrated citizen of Miami since his release from the Panamanian prison. Jim DeFede was not long with the Miami Herald after that column. He concluded it by saying he had begged, in vain, for Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen to at least reply to his documentations about the Carriles release and what Mr. DeFede's called "terrorism" against innocent Cubans -- such as all those teenage athletes aboard Cubana Flight 455. Very Bravely, Mr. DeFede boldly maintained that there was no difference between "terrorism" against innocent Cubans than against people in London, England or New York, America. Jim DeFede is a brave, judicious, and honorable man.

And times have changed concerning Cuba, at least in Latin America

       Juan Carlos Varela, not an anti-Cuban U. S. proxy, is now the President of Panama. He took office on July 1, 2014, and one of the first major statements concerned how "harmful" the U. S. policy regarding Cuba is to Cubans or the island "and everyone else." Panama will host the Summit of the Americas in April of 2015. Cuba, at the behest of the U. S., has never attended those sessions. In the last Summit, in 2012, President Obama attended and was loudly berated for the U. S. policy towards Cuba. President Obama is scheduled to attend the Summit in Panama next April. So is Cuban President Raul Castro. Many countries threatened to not attend if Cuba was excluded. President Juan Carlos Varela of Panama personally begged Raul Castro to attend, assuring him that both he and his island would be treated with the "utmost" respect, a reminder that the U. S. position at the Summit would be "far removed from being the over-riding influence when it comes to how we treat Cuba." Hey! Juan Carlos Varela is not Mireya Moscoso. In fact, neither the Caribbean nor Latin America presently have any U. S. presidential proxies, and that's a good thing.

Alvaro Uribe was President of Colombia from 2002 till 2010.

       President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia worked hand-in-glove with President George W. Bush of the U. S. in their anti-Castro, anti-Cuban zealotry. Both men were regular Miami visitors with anti-Cuban agendas.

But since 2010 Juan Manuel Santos has been President of Colombia.

        President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia, shown here warmly embracing Cuban President Raul Castro, is not a U. S. puppet when it comes to Cuba in 2014. Now that both Panama and Colombia no longer have anti-Cuban U.S.-puppets as Presidents, all of the the Caribbean and Latin American nations now possess the freedom and courage to demand that the United States treat Cuba fairly. That message was loudly registered again in unanimity in the UN vote in October, 2014, and will be loudly proclaimed again in April when President Obama attends the Summit of the Americas in Panama, a nation in which Mireya Moscoso is no longer the U.S.-friendly, Cuban-hostile President and Alvaro Uribe is no longer the U.S.-friendly, Cuban-hostile President of Colombia. That means Cuba is now friends with all the Caribbean and Latin American Presidents, and all are sovereign enough to be able to resist and resent being overly influenced regarding Cuba by the omnipotent financial and military power of the United States.

    There is today even a member of the U. S. Congress from Florida that possesses the courage, integrity, and patriotism to fight to bring about a sane and decent American policy regarding Cuba. Her name is Kathy Castor. The 14th District of Florida that she represents in Congress includes Tampa.

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        Kathy Castor was born in Miami although now she represents Tampa in the U. S. Congress, which has 535 members and an aggregate approval rating way down in the single digits. But not because of Kathy. She is not bought-and-paid-for by special interests. She is not intimidated by Cuban-exile zealots in her home state. She actually works in Congress in the best interests of her constituents and democracy. Kathy Castor is a powerful advocate for an American Cuban policy that would benefit all Cubans, all Americans, and all citizens in the region -- not just a handful of profiteering anti-Castro zealots and their self-serving sycophants. She is the reason Catholics in Tampa are funding a new Catholic Church in Cuba; she is the reason Tampa business people went to Cuba in 2013 to judge the vastly improved business climate in Cuba; she is the reason Cuban officials were permitted to visit Tampa in 2014 to participate in business conferences; she is the reason those affiliated with the largest deep-water U. S. port nearest to Cuba, which is the Tampa Bay Port, have dire hopes of engaging in significant trade with Cuba; she is the reason that the Tampa International Airport has sharply increased its flights to Cuba; etc; etc. Kathy Castro has the guts, the integrity, and the patriotism to stand up in Tampa and in the U. S. Congress and demand that the U. S. democracy finally release the "decades-old shackles" of a Cuban policy designed solely to benefit the revenge, financial, and political motives of a few at the expense of everyone else.

       The days when Havana-born politicians in Miami align with self-serving politicos like the Bush dynasty should no longer be allowed to shackle the U. S. democracy that the rest of the world, when it comes to Cuba, emphatically disagrees with. In 2014, polls repeatedly show that even Cuban-Americans in Miami -- which Havana-born anti-Castro zealot Ileana Ros-Lehtinen has represented in the U. S. Congress since 1989 when Jeb Bush was her Campaign Manager -- now favor normal relations with Cuba and an end to such abominations as the U. S. embargo of Cuba. But with Cuba as a powerful barometer, the U. S. democracy continues to appear vulnerable to the dictates of a few rich and powerful extremists in a two-party system in which both parties can easily be purchased with relatively little cash and serious Republican or Democratic presidential bids can be obtained for a mere billion dollars or so.

     Since 1959, even Democratic Presidents have been forced to succumb to a Cuban policy dictated by a handful of right-wing Cuban exiles aligned with a handful of right-wing U. S. politicians. This photo encapsulates that fact. That's President Bill Clinton signing the dreadful Helms-Burton Bill into law only days after he expressed his "sincere" desire to normalize relations with Cuba. Yes, peering over President Clinton's right shoulder are Senator Bob Menendez from New Jersey and Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen from Miami. And standing second from the right is Cuban-born U. S. Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart from Miami. And, of course, standing at the far left is the right-wing congressman Jesse Helms who was in the U. S. Congress about five decades too long with the Cuban exile-directed Helms-Burton Bill being the most harmful of all his egregious contributions to American politics.

And guess what? Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush are sifting out as the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates in 2016. That's because both are bought-and-paid-for by special interests and thus have the billion-or-so dollars to craft millions of noxious television ads that will, in the next two years, begin to plague and diminish the lives of 315 million Americans. Both, of course, are from political dynasties that, because of money and celebrity, continue to transform the U. S. democracy into dictator-like monarchies. Hillary Clinton's claim to fame is based on her husband's controversial two-terms as Governor of Arkansas and two-terms as President of the United States, coupled with the tons of money that those elections entail. Jeb Bush's claim to fame was initiated by his great-grandfather Prescott Bush whose political connections helped establish, very controversially, the Bush fortune prior to World War II. That fortune coupled with its political connections spawned a two-term Vice Presidency and one-term Presidency for Prescott's son George H. W. Bush; a two-term Texas governorship and a two-term Presidency for George H. W. Bush's son George W. Bush; and a two-term Florida governorship for George W. Bush's brother Jeb Bush. And now Jeb Bush is busy, if subtly, claiming the Republican presidential candidacy for 2016, pitting him against the equally sainted and dynastic Democrat Hillary Clinton. 

And, uh, guess what? George P. Bush is being groomed as the U. S. President beginning in about 2024. Yes, he is the son of Jeb Bush. And, yes, the P. stands for his great-great grandfather Prescott Bush. {Remember him?} The 38-year-old George P. Bush is currently running for the ultra-powerful position of Land Commissioner in Texas. {Uh, guess who's gonna win?} Then his bulging war-chest will have plenty of Cash left over for his presidential bid. George P. believes the White House is a Bush vacation home.

          The matriarch of the Bush political clan is Barbara Bush, the wife of George H. W. Bush. She thinks the United States of America has "had enough Bushes" in politics. Barbara Bush is one Bush I tend to agree with...wholeheartedly!! May her saintly wisdom prevail and help refurbish the U. S. democracy.

       And as a democracy lover, I wholeheartedly wish the out-dated, bought-and-paid-for two-party system could allow for at least a third presidential candidate in 2016 to oppose the Bush and Clinton dynasties.

     The President of the United States in 2016 should be Kathy Castor. Here are her credentials: She was born in Miami and she represents Tampa in the U. S. Congress; and she has the guts, the integrity, the patriotism, and the intelligence to tell the truth about Cuba and about U.S.-Cuban relations. In 2014 those facts separate her from all other potential candidates. Of course, Kathy Castor will never be elected President of the United States. That's because she is not for sale and she would never sell-off precious components of the U. S. democracy to the highest bidders, domestic or foreign. And she didn't spring from a rich political dynasty that lavishly spawns unworthy politicians generation after generation. But, far above all the Bushes and all the Clintons that mar America's severely wounded political landscape, Kathy Castor should be hailed and supported by those of us who still love and cherish the U. S. democracy.

On a lighter note..............

............................this Getty Images photo shows Jennifer Hernandez Alvarez playing for Cuba in the recent FIVB World Volleyball Championships in Bari, Italy.

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Embargo Against Cuba LOUDLY Condemned

Again...By The Entire World
Friday, October 31st, 2014

**The whole world opposes the United States treatment of Cuba.**
**The President of the United States is powerless to correct the insult to democracy.**

**The U. S. President is forced to enforce the U. S. embargo against Cuba.**
**While U. S. citizens lack the courage or patriotism to care.**

   This week, for the 23rd consecutive year, the entire world expressed its outrage over the U. S. embargo against Cuba. The Reuters photo above shows Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez addressing the United Nations in New York. He minutely described how the embargo is the longest and cruelest ever imposed by a powerful nation against a small nation. The innocent Cuban people, he said, are the primary sufferers and the embargo has cost the island economy well over $1 trillion. After other nations spoke in support of Cuba, the UN voted on the "Necessity of Ending the Economic, Commercial and Financial Embargo Imposed By the United States of America Against Cuba." The vote once again was 188-to-2. In all the world only Israel supported the United States and the rest of the world discounts that vote because of the billions of dollars in military and economic aid the U. S. Congress routinely gives Israel every year. For the same reason, three other tiny nations -- Palau, Marshall Islands, and Micronesia -- abstained from voting so as not to anger the U. S. But all the other sovereign nations in the world -- big and small, including America's very best friends -- condemned the embargo, and they did so very emphatically.

      U. S. envoy Ronald Godard this week had the unenviable task of defending the indefensible at the United Nations. The rest of the world, except for bought-and-paid-for Israel, ignored his embarrassing words before casting their votes.

     As illustrated once again this week, this is the image of the United States of America that permeates around the world because of the U. S. embargo against Cuba. It was first imposed in 1960 and then, after the failed Bay of Pigs attack on the island and numerous failed assassination attempts, it was strengthened in 1962, as registered by de-classified U. S. documents, to starve and deprive the Cuban people to entice them to rise up and overthrow their revolutionary government. Two generations of U. S. citizens -- because of stupidity, cowardice, intimidation or a lack of concern for their democracy -- since the early 1960s have allowed the embargo to continue to besmirch the image of the United States just to appease a handful of zealous Cuban exiles motivated by a fusion of greed and revenge that has been allowed to trump the decency and principles of democracy. The image above, as well as the UN vote this week, also reminds the world that teaming with the Mafia back in the 1950s to support the brutal, thieving Batista dictatorship in Cuba was not exactly a decent or principled act by the world's most powerful democracy; and neither was allowing the leaders of that overthrown dictatorship to establish an unchecked government-in-exile on U. S. soil. Americans are not supposed to comprehend those two points, but the rest of the world does...as revealed yet again by a pro-democracy vote in the United Nations. Propagandized, compliant, and pusillanimous Americans are supposed to ignore that UN statement, even as the rest of the world does not.

     The very hour that UN vote was taking place in New York soundly condemning the ageless and unjustifiable U. S. embargo against Cuba, this AP/Franklin Reyes photo was taken in Havana. It shows Juan Carlos Lazo at Cuba's famed Malecon Wall with his young child. The motorized bike in the foreground is how Juan makes a living selling donuts. For over five decades, Americans have been told that the embargo and other egregious acts against Cuba are designed to hurt Fidel Castro. The rest of the world readily comprehends that excuse is a blatant lie; the embargo hurts Juan, his child, and other innocent Cubans while it exists to sate the revenge and greed motives of a handful of self-serving Cuban exiles. That is the message this week's vote in the United Nations sent around the world for the 23rd consecutive year.

      This AP/Ramon Espinosa photo was taken on October 27, 2014. It shows three pregnant Cuban women taking an elevator to a special maternity ward in an Havana hospital. This week Cuba announced a litany of plans to encourage a much higher birth rate on the island. It is concerned with its aging population, the oldest in Latin America. More than ever, pregnant women will be rewarded and coddled.

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Great Journalists Are Targets

Gary Webb Remains A Prime Example
Monday, October 13th, 2014

      For the most part, since 1959 the Cuban narrative in the U. S. has been dictated by two generations of anti-Castro zealots. But not always. The above photo is courtesy of Ladyrene Perez/Cubadebate/AP and it was used this weekend to illustrate a major report by CNBC entitled: "Cuba Joins U.S. in Ebola Fight." This photo shows Cuban nurse Dalila Martinez practicing Ebola safety techniques in Cuba before she led a contingent of Cuban doctors and nurses to West Africa to fight the dreaded virus. CNBC said: "The tiny island has responded big time to the outbreak of Ebola, sending a disproportionately large number of medical workers to virus-stricken West Africa, in personnel contrast to the paltry participation from a number of large nations with major economic interests in the region." In recent days, the New York Times, Washington Post, ABC-TV and other major news outlets in the U. S. have uncharacteristically praised Cuba's "out-sized" contribution to the Ebola fight. Of course, for years Cuba has conducted an "out-sized" and "disproportionate" use of its medical expertise to help countless other nations in times of need. It is remembered that when Cuba and the U. S. knew that Hurricane Katrina was about to pulverize New Orleans, Cuba had 1500 of the world's best hurricane-disaster medics at Jose Marti Airport in Havana begging the U. S. for permission to fly to New Orleans. That permission was denied by the George W. Bush administration, which watched, along with the rest of the world, as New Orleans was unmercifully lambasted. So, it is surprising to see the U. S. media actually saluting Cuba during the Ebola crisis.

        Cuba, by the way, has the world's largest medical school. The photo above shows a classroom at the Latin American School of Medicine outside Havana. Cuba has awarded thousands of totally free, six-year scholarships to qualified students from the poorest areas of many countries, including the United States of America that, among other things, has imposed a cruel economic embargo against the island from 1962 to the present day because a few anti-Castro zealots tell the American people that any money that reaches Cuba goes into Castro's pockets or bank accounts. Of course, there are some doctors back home in ghettos in cities such as Philadelphia and Washington that would beg to disagree, doctors who have no student loans to pay back. For their free scholarships in Cuba, all they had to promise was that, at least for a time, they would return to their poor home areas to practice medicine. As a democracy-loving American, I think it is fine for the mainstream U. S. media to criticize Cuba when it is warranted, but all too often it lacks the courage and/or the integrity to praise. That reminds me that great American journalists have paid with their lives when they tried to tell the truth about Latin America and Cuba...journalists such as Lisa Howard in New York, Emilio Milian in Miami, Charles Horman in Chile and...Gary Webb in California.

       A major movie -- "Kill The Messenger" -- opened all around the United States Friday, October 10th. It stars Jeremy Renner as Gary Webb. Earlier this week Mr. Renner told USA Today that he was overburdened with so many major projects and he longed to spend more time with his one-year-old daughter Ava on the opposite coast. However, he said he could not pass up promoting "Kill The Messenger" because it was based on an incredibly true and intriguing story. If the movie stays loyal to that story, it too with be incredible and intriguing...and one democracy-lovers should watch and remember.

        As one of America's greatest investigative journalists, Gary Webb won more than 30 literary awards. But the articles that gained him both fame and infamy also resulted in either his assassination or his suicide. Gary was born on August 31, 1955 in Corona, California. He died on December 10, 2004 in the front door of his home in Carmichael, California. He was killed by two {2} gunshots to the head from a .38-caliber pistol. While bravely working for the San Jose Mercury, Gary wrote three startling articles known as the "Dark Alliance" series. He claimed that the CIA in the early and mid-1980s was intimately involved in the crack-cocaine epidemic that mauled U. S. cities, particularly Los Angeles. He purported to document the CIA role linked to procuring unsavory money to finance the CIA's right-wing Contra army that opposed the left-wing Sandinistas in Nicaragua, including Sandinista leader {now President} Danny Ortega. 

        In addition to the articles that originated in the San Jose Mercury, Gary Webb also made some powerful enemies when he published his book "Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion." The movie that opened Friday -- "Kill The Messenger" -- is based on Gary Webb's book and on the book "Kill The Messenger" written by Nick Schou. Regardless of how effective the movie turns out to be, it is sure to revive the speculation and the mystery surrounding Gary Webb's short life.

       This historic Wikipedia photo reflects the U.S./CIA involvement in Nicaragua that resulted in the malaise, the lies, and the confusion that made journalist Gary Webb an icon. This 1971 photo shows President Richard Nixon on the left hosting Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza at a state dinner in the White House. That's key Republican/Army General Alexander Haig on the right. The Somoza family ruled Nicaragua as brutal, thieving dictators for 44 years beginning in 1936. As with other Latin American dictatorships during this era -- from Cuba to Chile to Argentina to Brazil to Venezuela, etc. -- the Somoza family in Venezuela eagerly accepted the powerful support of the United States. Such dictatorial alliances with the U. S. continued from the 1950s into the 1980s. The U. S. citizens didn't utter a peep. U. S. leaders like Nixon, when they hosted fiendish dictators like Anastasia Somoza, would simply say, "We warmly welcome this visit to the White House by America's dear friend Anastasio Somoza, the President of Nicaragua." Unfortunately, the American people had neither the intelligence nor the patriotism to defend their democracy, so they meekly accepted such state visits that fawned over vile dictators such as Somoza, Batista, Pinochet, etc. But each of those U.S.-backed Latin American dictatorships spawned revolutions that tried to overturn them. Those revolutions gained sustenance and inspiration from the Cuban Revolution, which shocked the region and the world by overthrowing the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship in Cuba on January 1, 1959. In Somoza's Nicaragua, for example, a young rebel named Danny Ortega tried to replicate against Somoza what a young Fidel Castro had done against Batista in Cuba. The threat of Danny Ortega and the Sandinista rebels created a chillingly dark and eventually self-defeating reaction from the United States. The darkest aspects of that U. S. reaction resulted in the articles and book that Gary Webb called "Dark Alliance." To say the least, Gary Webb -- the award-winning journalist -- was branded a dire enemy of the U. S. and the CIA. The movie that opens Friday -- "Kill The Messenger" -- derived from Gary Webb's eternal fame as a very great and very brave investigative journalist.

       On July 17, 1979 the BBC used this AP photo to show Anastasio Somoza fleeing Nicaragua. The BBC headlined the report with these words: "The notorious US-trained National Guard crumbled and its surviving commanders are negotiating surrender. In the last six weeks Sandinista fighters have gained control of 27 cities around the capital as well as the southern part of Nicaragua that borders Costa Rica. President Anastasio Somoza -- the third member of the Somoza dynasty to rule Nicaragua since 1937 -- has fled to the United States." Anastasio Somoza lived in exile for just over a year. He was assassinated in Paraguay on September 17, 1980. He was 54-years-old and one of Latin America's last U.S.-backed dictators. In a reinvigorated, revolutionary-minded Latin America, waves of democracy began to replace military dictatorships, although persistent growing pains, not unexpectedly, remain to this very day.

          As a young Sandinista rebel in Nicaragua trying to overthrow the U.S.-backed Somoza dictatorship, young Danny Ortega's hero and mentor was Fidel Castro, the Cuban rebel that had earlier overthrown the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship in Cuba. Danny Ortega, like Fidel Castro, surprisingly succeeded.

      In 2014 the now 68-year-old Danny Ortega frequently visits the now 88-year-old Fidel Castro, who remains Ortega's hero and mentor. This photo shows President Danny Ortega of Nicaragua visiting Fidel Castro in Havana this year as Fidel's wife Dalia Soto del Valle smiles her approval. After ousting the 44-year rule of the Somoza family dictatorship, Ortega led Nicaragua from 1979 till 1990 and has been his country's democratically elected President again since 2007. Today many key countries in Latin America -- from Nicaragua to Brazil to Chile to Venezuela to Bolivia to Argentina, etc. -- now have Castro-friendly democratically-elected Presidents where once U.S.-friendly dictators ruled supreme. Democracy-loving conservative Republicans, like me, believe that, at long last, right-wing Republicans in Washington -- Nixon, Reagan, Kissinger, Bush, etc. -- should be held accountable for creating and/or supporting foreign right-wing dictatorships that spawned rebels like Mr. Castro, Mr. Ortega, etc., but also spawned such positive offsprings as democratic elections throughout the region and great investigative journalists like...Gary Webb! Thus, it is presumed that Mr. Castro, Mr. Ortega, etc., will enjoy the new movie -- "Kill The Messenger" -- that most Americans are neither expected to enjoy or to understand. That's because Americans, since the 1950s, have meekly and compliantly accepted such self-aggrandizing explanations as the aforementioned one from Richard Nixon: "We warmly welcome this visit to the White House by America's dear friend Anastasio Somoza, the President of Nicaragua." Oh, yes! Fiendish dictators like Somoza, Batista, Pinochet, etc., were indeed "America's dear friends," but not for the reasons right-wingers like Nixon so easily convinced the not-too-concerned American people. Even in a democracy, killing the messengers -- like Gary Webb, Lisa Howard, Emilio Milian, etc. -- can have the effect of undermining or destroying some precious pillars of democracy while also building powerful political platforms for people like Richard Nixon, Jesse Helms, Dan Burton, Robert Torricelli, etc.

  Congratulations to 17-year-old Malala Yousafzai.  {Photo courtesy: www.mirror.co.uk} Malala is the youngest person to ever receive the Nobel Peace Prize, an honor she very richly deserved. 

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Save the Children, Please

In Cuba, the U. S., and the World!!

       Melbourne, Australia {above} is one of the world's most beautiful and safest cities. With a population of just over four million, it is Australia's second largest city. The Liveability Unit, as registered by the Economic Intelligence Unit {EIU}, has rated Melbourne "the best city in the world to live" for the fourth consecutive year! Here is the Top Ten of the world's best cities to live in according to the EIU's 2014 poll:

#1: Melbourne, Australia

#2: Vienna, Austria

#3: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

#4: Toronto, Canada

#5: Adelaide, Australia

#6: Calgary, Alberta, Canada

#7: Sydney, Australia

#8: Helsinki, Finland

#9: Perth, Australia

#10: Auckland, New Zealand

       Obviously, there are no major American cities on the list of "best cities in the world to live." Two things -- huge crime rates and a huge disparity between the rich and the poor -- eliminate U. S. cities from consideration in such polls. We Americans should hail democracy and capitalism but also have enough insight and courage to admit that the rest of the civilized modern world is much better than we are when it comes to crime, income disparity, and greed -- three evils that are very closely related. 

The 85 richest people in the world have wealth equal to the poorest 3.5 billion people.

Day by day, those 85 get much richer and those 3.5 billion get much poorer.
And the 3.6 billion people caught in the middle also suffer.

        Melbourne is located on the southern tip of Australia, a huge country surrounded by the Indian and Pacific oceans as well as the Timor and Tasman seas. Just up the Pacific Coast is Canberra, the capital, and Sydney, the largest city. Notice the locations of the coastal cities of Adelaide and Perth, both of which are also in the Top Ten of "the best cities in the world to live." Australia has a population of only 23 million and is a very prosperous nation with a Gross National Product of $1.8 trillion, 12th best in the world. So why don't we Americans migrate to Australia? Well...Australia adequately polices its borders and also doesn't perpetuate a vast disparity between the haves and have-nots. Australia also does not endlessly engage in foreign wars although, since World War II in the 1940s, it has fought side-by-side with Americans in major conflicts. Below are the world's 12 wealthiest nations:

#1: United States -- $17.5 trillion

#2: China -- $10.0

#3: Japan -- $4.8

#4: Germany -- $3.9

#5: France -- $2.9

#6: United Kingdom -- $2.8

#7: Brazil -- $2.2

#8: Italy -- $2,2

#9: Russia -- $2.1

#10: India -- $2.0

#11: Canada -- $2.0

#12: Australia -- $1.8

#13: Spain -- $1.4

#14: Mexico -- $1.3

#15: South Korea -- $1.2

         Considering their meager populations, it is impressive that Australia and Canada can be listed among the Top 15 richest nations in the world. It is even more impressive, I believe, that Australia and Canada are both flush with cities listed in the Top 10 of "the best cities in the world to live." 

       Great and beautiful American cities -- such as Chicago, Detroit, etc. -- will never make the Top Ten of the "the best cities in the world to live" because of incredible rates of crime and the disparity between the rich and the poor. Chicago, with 2.7 million people, is the third most populace city in the U. S., behind New York City and Los Angeles. Such American cities are infamous for the number of citizens victimized by gunfire.

      Cuba's capital of Havana is one of the world's greatest and most beautiful cities. There is very little crime in Havana and the disparity between the rich and the poor is negligible. {Yes, Fidel Castro, now 88-years-old, was born rich but famously has never been interested in money, and he lives to this day in a very modest Havana home}. Yet, Havana, where two million of Cuba's 11.2 million people live, will never make the Top Ten of "the best cities in the world to live," at least as long as the island remains under the yoke of the hostile Cuban exile-dictated U. S. embargo, which has existed since 1962, shortly after the Cuban Revolution chased the Batista-Mafia dictatorship back to Southern Florida from whence it came.

       Declassified U. S. documents have revealed that the U. S. embargo was imposed in 1962 for the purpose of starving and depriving the Cubans on the island to encourage them to overthrow the Fidel Castro-led government. It didn't work. Neither had the 1961 air, land, and sea attack known as the Bay of Pigs. And neither have the Cuban exile-inspired Torricelli Bill and the Helms-Burton Act that have greatly expanded the embargo against both Cuba and against sovereign nations around the world that do business with Cuba. Deciphering such facts will be for historians to sort out -- beyond what great authors such as Julia Sweig and Ann Louise Bardach have already done -- but one thing is for certain: Most probably, Cuba is the only nation in world history that could have survived, decade after decade, under the yoke of the longest and cruelest embargo ever imposed by a powerful nation against a small, weak one. No other nation remotely resembling Cuba's size and population has ever remotely achieved what the Cuban Revolution and Revolutionary Cuba has done since 1959, and that is to merely survive. A "Save The Children" aspect has figured prominently in that equation. Australia, Canada and all of America's best friends around the world strongly denounce the U. S. embargo of Cuba, yet a handful of Cuban exiles and their sycophants have kept it firmly in place since 1962, defying, in the eyes of many, America's hallowed democratic and societal principles enshrined and envisioned by the Founding Fathers in 1776.

       The Cuban Revolution that startled the world by overthrowing the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship was the first and only major revolution to be started and led by women, like these.

       Fidel Castro, shown above in February of 1959 -- one month after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution -- has always said it was the female-powered anti-Batista street marches that made him believe a successful revolution was possible even against a dictatorship supported by the U. S. and the Mafia. Many times in the last half century it has been written that Fidel Castro "has out-smarted a long line of U. S. presidents," now totaling eleven. When ABC-TV's Barbara Walters mentioned that revelation to Fidel, he laughed and said, "Now, Barbara, that only applies to one detail. When I realized that one-half of the Cuban population, the under-utilized female half, was outraged against Batista and the Mafiosi, I had a thought: no revolution has utilized that half of its population. I decided if I did I could do something about Batista and the Mafiosi, even if they had U.S. backing. So, I followed through on that thought. But other than that one detail...{he leaned forward and laughed}...I guess all those Yankee presidents have been much smarter than me. So, does that answer your question, Barbara? 'Cause, knowing you as I do, I know you have a lot more." 

Barbara Walters had two famous Castro interviews, this one in 1977.

He liked Barbara and personally drove her around Havana.

Now back to "Save the Children, Please":

      More than any other revolution, Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution gave full power to the female half of the Cuban population. For that reason, the most out-raged female in Cuba, Celia Sanchez {above}, evolved into by far the most important player in the Cuban Revolution and in Revolutionary Cuba, with the full support of Fidel Castro, who to this day idolizes the ground she walked on. As the image above indicates, Celia Sanchez, a rich doctor's daughter, passionately loved Cuba's children till the day she died of cancer at age 59 in 1980. In February of 1959 she had laid down a proclamation: "The Batistianos will never regain control of Cuba as long as I live or as long as Fidel lives." In September of 2014 Fidel Castro is still alive and, therefore, so is Celia Sanchez's proclamation. Her decisive leadership in both the Cuban Revolution and Revolutionary Cuba was inspired by her fervent desire to "Save the Children" from the Batista-Mafia dictatorship and from a return of what she called "the Batistianos." Although Americans are not suppose to acknowledge her because to do so would cast less vilification upon Fidel Castro, Celia Sanchez's passion for Cuba's ninos, its children, should serve as an example around a troubled world today, a world that seems far more friendly to militant fiends than to precious children victimized by crime and militancy.

        This young lady's name is Iman Abu Aitah. The photo is courtesy of Sara Hassan/Aljazeera America. She is featured in this essay because, frankly, I am amazed she is still alive. You see, she is a Palestinian from the Jabaliya section of Gaza City, one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a child. But, somehow, she ended up in the United States as a college student. She is a rising junior at Columbia College in South Carolina where she is diligently pursuing a biology degree. This summer she frantically watched televised news reports about the latest Israeli-Gaza War, including a 24-hour cycle about Israel's devastating air, land, and sea attack on the Jabaliya section of Gaza City. Like 1.8 million other Gazans, Iman fully realized her family had no where to run because the tiny Gaza Strip has its borders tightly closed by Israel and Egypt. After seeing the utter devastation of Jabaliya, Iman got the news: She had become an orphan. Both of her parents had been killed. Two of her brothers had been killed. Her 4-year-old nephew had been killed. Later Iman would learn that U. S. Secretary of State John Kerry, as evidenced by his "open microphone" comment when he thought the mic was not on, was totally shocked at the sheer brutality of Israel's assault on Jabaliya. Later, international news reports would repeatedly confirm that hard-bitten American generals, in assessing the Jabaliya death toll, were also "totally shocked." The two top human rights officials at the United Nations -- Ban Ki-Moon and Navi Pillay -- labeled the attacks on Yabaliya as "war crimes." Yet, as a nuclear superpower with total support and funding from the U. S. Congress and always backed by the U. S. veto in the UN, Israel is far above recriminations from the UN or any other human rights organization. And none of that is news to Iman Abu Aitah, who is alive but now an orphan.

       This summer in the third Israel-Gaza War in the past six years...Israel calls it "mowing the lawn" every couple of years...about 2200 Gazans and 69 Israeli's were killed. Most of the dead Gazans were civilians, including about 500 children. Tens of thousands of Gazans were seriously injured. Much of Gaza was reduced to rubble and estimates are it will be twenty years before repairs could be made even if the billions of dollars that would require is provided. During the height of this summer's Israel-Gaza War, the U. S. Congress, not unexpectedly, quickly provided Israel $325 million to replace spent ammunition, on top of the billions the U. S. Congress yearly and readily provides Israel's unbeatable military machine. U. S. taxpayers don't object but, probably, they will object when the UN asks them to contribute to helping repair Gaza or assisting in caring for the tens of thousands of injured Gazans. But, of course, the unending Israeli-Palestinian conflict is just one of many around the world, all of which primarily devastate civilians, especially children. The Ukrainian-Russian War, the never-ending terrorist conflagrations in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria, etc., etc., fill the void between the Israel-Gaza wars. As the grandmother in Roanoke, Virginia and the U. S. college student from Gaza well know, being a child in 2014 is not easy.

        CNN's Karl Penhall described blasts on Gaza City as: "It's not like shooting fish in a barrel but, in such a confined area, it is more like shooting sardines in a barrel." Unfortunately, in a modern world saturated with far more greed and weapons than benevolence and food, children are susceptible.  

         Some people -- such as the superb actress Susan Sarandon -- actually care about the plight of children in a greedy, violent, conflicted world. Ms. Sarandon is currently starring in a haunting ad for the Heifer International charity in which she reminds us that one child will die of hunger "every five seconds" and that "17,000 children will die today for the wrong reason," meaning they will starve to death. There are a lot of other things Susan Sarandon could be doing other than starring in ads for Heifer International. But at least it is comforting to know that somebody cares, and her concern should be commended and saluted.

         This haunting but popular billboard highlights a disturbing fact: One out of every five children in the United States of America has a hunger problem. Juxtapose that fact with this one: The United States of America is, by far, the richest nation in the history of the world. Or, in another vein, compare this little girl's hunger problem with this fact.............................................................................................................

         .......in today's out-of-whack world, one athlete earns enough money in a given year to virtually wipe out child hunger in the United States. Take, for example, #35 Kevin Durant. He is the 25-year-old star for the Oklahoma City Thunder of the NBA. In 2007, fresh out of high school, he signed a $60 million contract. He now earns far in excess of $20 million a year from his team. But that is a pittance to what he earns in endorsements courtesy of the ubiquitous ads that clutter up our T-V screens. This summer Under Armour, a company based in Baltimore, offered Durant $285 million on a ten-year-contract...$28.5 million a year from one sponsor! However, Durant already had a lucrative deal with Nike, which doles out billions of dollars in athletic endorsements. So, Durant stayed with Nike and it has been reported that new deal will be worth about $30 million a year in guarantees and royalties. Of course, Durant also has numerous other sponsors. Forget the measly $20 million or so he makes each year from his player-contract with the Oklahoma City Thunder. The much more and much easier money he makes from endorsements could alleviate much of the child hunger in America, with perhaps enough left over to help combat other persistent evils such as homelessness or joblessness, which especially plague African-American communities.

Note: The problem is not Kevin Durant; it's political and executive greed.

         Recent articles about Nike brushing aside Under Armour's $28.5 million-a-year endorsement deal for Kevin Durant stated that Nike still pays Michael Jordan about $130 million-a-year although Jordan hasn't played basketball for many years. It reminds some of a CNBC documentary that made many viewers actually cry as they were told and shown how those Nike products are made in sweatshops in Third World countries by grossly underpaid female workers in what could be described as slave-like conditions. It left some viewers cradling the suggestion that, perhaps, Nike should raise the wages of those poor foreign workers just a little bit instead of selling their products at very high prices and showering billions of dollars each year on already incredibly rich athletes. But, of course, that won't happen in a society that churns out billionaires like Nike chairman Phil Knight and top endorsers Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods while mostly ignoring the plight of foreign sweatshop workers, unemployed Americans, hungry children, and unsafe civilians in war-torn areas of a wicked world increasingly afflicted by heavily armed militant countries as well as powerful terrorist groups. In other words, as personified by Nike, the foreign workers, often young girls or women, making those expensive Air Jordan shoes should be paid a living wage in safe conditions. Or, perhaps, a bought-and-paid-for Congress should stop giving huge tax breaks to companies that close U. S. plants and then another huge tax break when those companies open factories in labor-cheap Third World countries. But, of course, when millionaires and billionaires are the ones who make those cash donations to politicians, Nike and other companies can essentially do as they please, an advantage that is not available to less wealthy people who can't purchase political votes. 

       Now deep into the fall of 2014, some astute prognosticators are predicting that the current bloody conflict between Russia and Ukraine could easily develop into World War Three. Russia's nuclear arsenal is second only to the United States. Ukraine is a major arms producer. Amazingly, as if to emphasize a money-crazed, power-hungry world gone mad, Ukraine is continuing to fulfill a lucrative arms contract with Russia, even as Russian arms are already opposing Ukrainian arms along the southern borders of both countries. This past summer, in the middle of nuclear-power Israel blasting densely populated Gaza City, killing about 500 children and maiming thousands more, the world is told that the U. S. Congress, not unexpectedly, sent Israel an additional $325 million to replenish its arsenal of weapons and ammunition. Many of us who hear about such things are shocked, at least initially. Then we realize the world is unfriendly to children who are no match for powerful armies, rampaging terrorists, or...greedy politicians.

        Saving children was what Cuba's revolutionary icon Celia Sanchez was all about. If Vice President Richard Nixon had not double-crossed her in April of 1959 when she took Fidel on a 12-day goodwill visit to the U. S., Cuba would have had a democracy long ago. If the U. S. had not allowed the most visceral anti-Castro Cubans, and their self-serving sycophants, to dictate America's Cuban policy since 1959, it is possible that Cuba's two largest cities -- Havana and Santiago de Cuba -- would today be listed among "the best cities in the world to live." And the reason Americans dismiss both of those points is because they have been proselytized and propagandized since the long-ago 1950s. More courageous and better informed Americans would be good for the world's children. That's because America is the richest and strongest nation in the history of the world, and history's greatest and most benevolent democracy. Beyond doubt, America remains today the nation that the most helpless people in the world continue to depend on to support their rights to live against those bent on destruction and genocide. Of all the historic people I have studied, I believe Celia Sanchez would be America's biggest cheerleader in that regard. In April of 1959, Celia Sanchez, Fidel Castro, and famed journalist Carlos Franqui were among the Cuban contingent that spent 12 days in the U. S. intending to tell President Eisenhower of Cuba's plans for a democratic election, till Vice President Nixon double-crossed both Celia and democracy. On that U. S. visit in April of 1959, Celia Sanchez, the day after Nixon's unexpected and unfortunate meeting with Fidel Castro, made this statement to Carlos Franqui: "My plans for Cuba were for a democracy that would necessarily be best friends with the United States, and that's why I'm on U.S., not Cuban, soil today. I have been double-crossed, Carlos, and it reflects my mistake in judgment. I won't misjudge the U. S. again." Back in Cuba, she reaffirmed her proclamation about the Batistianos never regaining control of Cuba as long as she or Fidel lived. And, back in Cuba, she realized that a much larger portion of the island's resources would have to go to defense as opposed to the areas she envisioned -- such as education, health, and shelter for Cuba's long-deprived citizens.

Yet, to this day Americans have no basic comprehension of this historic Castro-Nixon handshake from April of 1959. The reason: Since 1959 a handful of two generations of the most visceral Cuban exiles have dictated a self-serving U.S.-Cuban narrative. While the handshake was a photo op, Nixon's threat to Fidel predicated much of what has been hostile with U.S.-Cuban relations from April-1959 to September-2014.

     To comprehend U.S.-Cuban relations since the 1950s, Americans would also need to understand this photo that was taken by Andrew St. George and is owned by Yale University's Manuscripts & Archives department. It shows Celia Sanchez in the hallway of her U. S. hotel in April of 1959, less than four months after she had last worn her guerrilla uniform...and less than one day after Richard Nixon's double-cross. Americans not knowing Cuban history -- especially from Jose Marti to Fidel Castro to Celia Sanchez -- has harmed a lot of people for a lot of decades, including children. And that would disappoint the child-loving Celia Sanchez very, very much.

By the way..............

      I got an email today from Lisa R., a lady in Calgary. She wrote: "I was quite touched by your depiction of and explanation of Celia Sanchez's photo when she was in the U. S. less than four months after she had been the most prominent guerrilla fighter in over-throwing the Batista dictatorship. I will re-visit your latest blog tomorrow hoping you will add the photo of Celia's facial expression when she was a guerrilla fighter. That expression, and the one in the NY hotel hallway, define the Cuba that you write so emphatically about, I truly believe." In my return email I wrote: "In March of 2004 I was in Cuba, courtesy of the George W. Bush administration, to research the life of Celia Sanchez after an elderly black woman who I had come to worship startled me in the early 1980s. Nora, the black lady, told me, an anti-Castro hater at the time like most Americans, about Celia Sanchez. Nora in the 1940s and 1950s had volunteered at a Cuban hospital in Santiago de Cuba. There she met the doctor's daughter, Celia Sanchez. What Nora told me, authenticated by photos and letters Celia had written to Nora from 1959 till 1979, not only surprised me but inspired me to learn more about the Cuban woman that Nora insisted was history's all-time greatest female revolutionary. That turned out to be correct, I discovered. Also, as if it were yesterday, I remember a reminiscing Nora, the night I last visited her sick-bed, smiling sweetly as I told her how much I had begun to research Celia Sanchez. Nora, very pleased, said, "Celia's love of children inspired her. That was it. It is a fact that changed Cuba and America forever. Each hour of her life Celia's passion for Cuban children ruled her being." Remembering Nora's words, coupled with recent photos of imperiled children, inspired the title for this essay: "Save the Children, Please." And one more thing, Lisa. As I can document via well-known and highly respected Cubans who made it possible, I was shocked in 2004 when a female Cuban soldier, driving a Honda, picked me up at the Victoria Hotel in Havana and drove me to Fidel Castro's home, where three of his relatives waited in the driveway. I was later told that my session with Fidel Castro lasted "just shy of five minutes." I had taken original copies of Celia-to-Nora letters, courtesy of Nora's daughter, to Cuba with me to explain why I was there and to help make sure I could visit with three key people who intimately had known Celia -- Marta Rojas, Tete Puebla, and Roberto Salas. The Director of the Cuban Media Center, to my surprise, kept the letters. When they were returned 3 days later, worried about Nora's daughter, I minutely checked the letters. One was a copy, not the original. I assumed, and still believe, the original was kept by Fidel, perhaps because it contained a personal reference Celia had made in the letter about an incident between Celia and Fidel. Back in the U. S., I truthfully explained to Nora's daughter why one of the letters was a copy and not the original she had trusted me with. In any case, Lisa, the last sentence Fidel Castro spoke to me was: "Thank you for understanding her, and loving her." I will now attach the photo you asked for. And allow me to add this: 'Thank you for understanding her, and loving her.'"

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