U.S.-Cuban Friendship

Obstacles Outweigh Hope
Friday, February 20th, 2015

         Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in the U. S. Congress, has spent two days this week in Havana. She is shown above in a friendly conversation with Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez. Ms. Pelosi led a 9-member delegation of Democrats to the island. Almost every Democrat in Congress, except, of course Bob Menendez of Union City, desires some sanity in America's relations with Cuba. Menendez and four Republicans from Miami will not allow it to happen. Americans, of course, are not supposed to consider that undemocratic. In my opinion, Nancy Pelosi, a good and compassionate person, is not primarily concerned with a superpower punishing everyday Cubans on the island for another 55 years, nor is she campaigning to roll back congressional laws that favor, enrich, and empower only Cuban-Americans and their sycophants. But Nancy Pelosi, as a democracy lover, is direly concerned about the image America's Cuban policy presents to the region and the rest of the world, which is a discriminatory policy that harms Cubans on the island and everyone else. 

Good people have hope but, sadly, it is mostly in vain.

      This Joe Raedle/Getty Images photo was taken this week -- Wed., February 18th -- at the Doubletree Airport Hotel in Miami. The Cuban images were flashed on a huge screen at a standing-room-only forum that attracted entrepreneurs very, very interested in participating in the massive reconstruction of Cuba, which is anticipated after President Obama's announced plans to normalize relations with Cuba. If the process comes to fruition, it will cost many billions of dollars and put many thousands of people to work. The U. S. embargo since shortly after the overthrow of the U.S./Mafia-backed Batista dictatorship in 1959 has helped create and hasten the deterioration of the island's infrastructure. The whole world, including most Cuban-Americans in Miami, long for the day when the embargo will end and more normal relations between the two neighboring nations can be established. However, for two generations since the early 1960s a handful of visceral Cuban-Americans, assisted by Republican administrations and the U. S. Congress, benefit from the embargo and other hostilities against Cuba. And that's precisely why forums such as this one in Miami are not only premature but a waste of time and effort. Democracy, decency, and the majority bedamned! It's been that way for over a half-century and it will not change, at least not substantially. Democracy is strong, but not quite that strong.

     This Ramon Espinosa/AP photo shows an American flag and a Cuban flag fronting the Saratoga Hotel in Havana this week. That's where three U. S. Senators -- Mark Warner of Virginia, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, and Claire McCaskill of Missouri -- are staying. The three Senators informed Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez and the island's Minister of North American Affairs, Josefina Vidal, that the second round of diplomatic negotiations between the two countries will take place Friday, February 27th in Washington. The first round was held in Havana on January 22nd and 23rd. Senators Warner, Klobuchar, and McCaskill are among the members of Congress trying desperately to exude hope that sanity and decency will replace a half-century of indecent insanity tied to America's Cuban policy that continues, decade after decade, to be dictated by elements of the Batista dictatorship that was ousted way back on January 1, 1959. That entrenched fact is too much to overcome.

     Roberta Jacobson, shown here during last month's diplomatic sessions in Havana, will again represent the U. S. in next week's second round of meetings in Washington. Jacobson's State Department announced yesterday -- Wednesday -- some parameters prior to the resumption of talks. The United States says it direly wants to move ahead with the openings of embassies in Havana and Washington; the U. S. says it is anxious to remove Cuba from its very, very short list of nations that sponsor terrorism. Very nice but very veiled diplomacy. Such overtures are predicated on exacting concessions the U. S. fully knows Cuba will not accept. The U. S. is demanding that Cuba allow total freedom of travel for U. S. diplomats in Cuba and the U. S. is demanding that Cuban dissidents be allowed to freely visit the proposed new U. S. embassy in Havana. In other words, the U. S. State Department is merely making a show of desiring normal relations with Cuba. The U. S. knows that Cuba is tired of the U. S. Interests Section in Havana being used to foment, stir up, and fund dissident actions on the island, trying to create havoc and turmoil injurious to Cuba. Thus, Cuba wants some assurances that the proposed U. S. embassy in Cuba will not be a continuation or enhancement of providing tools and encouragement for dissidents at the expense of the other Cubans on the island. The U. S. will never give that assurance; Cuba will thus never surrender that demand. So, diplomacy ends there.

      Just as she did in Havana last month, Josefina Vidal will show up in Washington next week to represent Cuba in the ongoing diplomatic negotiations. Although she keenly desires normal U.S.-Cuban relations, neither the Obama administration nor the John Kerry-led State Department are capable of meeting Vidal's basic demands. Thus, as in Havana last month, the diplomatic sessions in Washington next week are primarily for show. The State Department can easily remove Cuba from the terrorism list and President Obama can easily open a U. S. embassy in Havana and allow Cuba to open one in Washington. And that's where things will end in these last two years of Obama's two-term presidency. Vidal will insist that the U. S. cease using its current Interests Section and its future embassy in Havana as "cesspools" designed mostly to support and recruit dissidents on the island; but the U. S. cannot even negotiate such things because of laws and policies dictated by a U. S. Congress in which a handful of members from Miami and Union City dictate America's Cuban policy. Therefore, in Washington next week the U. S. negotiators will mainly attempt to out-maneuver or intimidate Josefina Vidal. And that will not happen. Thus, normalizing relations will not happen. To think otherwise is being naive about relevant reality.

     This map and a contaminant comment by Josefina Vidal epitomize the impossibility of normalizing relations between Cuba and the United States. Note the extremely close proximity of Havana to Key West and Miami. Josefina Vidal is abundantly cognizant of this geographical fact. Between last month's diplomatic session in Havana and next week's meetings in Washington, Vidal has fielded a litany of questions. Perhaps the most pertinent was proffered by Reuters:  "Ms. Vidal, are these diplomatic overtures really a charade?" After a significant reflective pause, she replied: "I believe you are suggesting that it is impossible to negotiate a change in U.S.-Cuban geography and that it is impossible to negotiate a change that, for decades, has seen a few benefit so substantially from continued hostility between two neighboring countries." She paused significantly again, gazing off to the right. When she looked back at the reporter, she said, "If that was what you were suggesting, I think you are correct. Yet, on behalf of a lot of good people, I think trying as hard as we can to accomplish the impossible is worth the effort. And truth be known, I sincerely believe that my dear friend Roberta Jacobson agrees with me on that colossal issue."

Impossible.

The U. S. democracy is still strong,

but not that strong.
By the way..............................................

       ....................this handsome guy is a Baltimore Oriole. Yes, he inspired both the name and the colors for the Major League baseball team. This photo was taken by Sherry Nicholson and is used courtesy of my favorite magazine, Birds & Blooms.

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Cuba As Seen By Tourists

Seeing Is Believing
Being Told What To Think Is Not
Sunday, February 15th, 2015

         Those of us who have been to Cuba see and absorb a vibrant, resilient people who try and sometimes succeed in living their lives to the fullest, always confronting imposing obstacles such as the U. S. embargo. National Geographic Magazine {I am a subscriber} has compiled dozens of photos taken recently by travelers to the island. This lady is an exuberant dancer at a thriving cabaret club in Havana.

A young baseball player. Cuba is renowned for it homegrown baseball talent.

       A beautiful young Cuban lady. This engaging photo by Christopher P. Baker, one of two dozen spotlighted by National Geographic, shows a Quinceanera celebration in the colonial city of Trinidad, my favorite Cuban city. Quinceanera celebrates a girl turning fifteen-years-of-age. Notice the beautiful gown this 15-year-old celebrant is wearing. About ten times a day, it seems, Americans are reminded that Cubans exist on $20 a month, blaming it totally on the greedy Fidel Castro and not on such foreign evils as the half-century U. S. embargo that would have doomed far richer nations than Cuba. Such misconceptions ignore the ingenuity of Cubans. Many of them also receive nice remittances from relatives or friends living abroad. If Americans were allowed to visit, they would see scenes such as Mr. Baker saw and photographed. And seeing Cuba, as opposed to being told what to think, is the best way to judge Cuba. 

This photo shows a Cuban crossing a street and pausing to admire a vintage car.

   The most ubiquitous and most photographed subjects in Cuba are the schoolchildren. Bedecked in their distinctive uniforms, these children, on their way to and from school, are common sights all over the island. Since 1959 Revolutionary Cuba has made some mistakes, many in fact. But it has also vastly improved the education, health, safety, and longevity of its children as opposed to the gluttonous regime it replaced. Americans, since 1959, have been told differently and, I believe, that is why the self-serving perpetrators of such myths have generally succeeded in making it unlawful for average Americans to visit the island and judge it for themselves. Cuba for decades has been the only place in the world where such restrictions apply. That undemocratic process relates strictly to the fact that the remnants of the old regime, through two generations since 1959, have dictated most of America's policy regarding Cuba, including the basic freedom of Americans to visit the island. Those who do visit the island will not see a luxurious paradise, far from it. But they will see a very safe island populated with healthy and well-educated Cubans who do not deserve being punished their entire lives by a handful of rich and powerful exiles who, many believe, were booted off the island with good reason. In any case, all the other National Geographic photos are also worth checking out...in case you can't visit the island yourself. The Cuban schoolchildren above have guarantees of safety, free education through college, free heath care for life, free food if needed, and free shelter if needed. Student loans and high health premiums are not concerns. Will that change if and when rich foreigners or exiles regain control of the island? Most likely. In the U. S. a lot of already rich people get a lot richer from such debacles as the trillion-dollar student loan and trillion-dollar health industry schemes. Modern Cuba needs trade via nearby U. S. ports. But the Batista dictatorship still looms as a vivid reminder that a return of U.S.-Mafia domination is not the answer.

The shoreline on the edge of the gorgeous colonial city of Trinidad, Cuba

         On her recent visit to Havana this is Andrea Mitchell of NBC/MSNBC interviewing Gail Reed, an international expert on health issues. In this interview Ms. Reed lavishly praised Cuba for its universal health coverage and for the exceptionally high percentage of its economy devoted to health care.

        These are pre-school children photographed this week {ACN} in the city of Guantanamo, Cuba. Laura Melo of the World Food Program {WFP} lavishly praised Cuba for "providing such a high standard of food and nutritional security for its people, especially pregnant women, children and the elderly." Americans are told that the 55-year-old economic embargo against Cuba should be maintained for another 55 years because it keeps money out of Fidel Castro's non-existent Swiss bank accounts. Of course, the Cuban-exile zealots who keep pounding that message into the American psyche are living in huge mansions in Miami, Union City, and Washington while the 88-year-old Fidel Castro lives out his life in a very modest home in Havana. And of course, Gail Reed and Laura Melo wish that America spent as high a percentage of its wealth on health care and nutritional issues as the poor little much-maligned island of Cuba does.

Cuba, still the pearl of the Caribbean.
The colonial city of Trinidad, you'll note, is in south-central Cuba.

      This photo, courtesy of www.mtholyoke.edu, shows Cuban children at a choir practice in Havana. They had taken a break from their extensive music class to play ping-pong when they posed for this photo.

        Cuba, whether occupied or sovereign, has always been a treasure trove for touristic photos. This one is courtesy of old-photos-blogspot.com and it was taken it 1904. It shows a Cuban family taking a ride.

        I believe a society or a country can best be judged by how it takes care of its children. By that basic standard, Gail Reed, Laura Melo and other international experts consistently praise Revolutionary Cuba in stark contrast to Batista's Cuba.

      Peasant children, who constituted the vast majority of pre-revolutionary children in Cuba, were poorly cared for throughout the 1950s in Batista's Cuba when the gluttonous Batistic dictatorship was supported by the United States and by the Mafia.

      In 1952 when Fulgencio Batista and his Mafia friends in South Florida began their U.S.-backed dictatorship in Cuba, vast amounts of money were made by the Batistianos, the Mafia and U. S. businessmen. The three prime Mafia enterprises were casino gambling, prostitution, and illegal drugs. Huge deposits went to numbered bank accounts in Switzerland as well as Mafia-controlled banks in Miami and Union City. Taking care of peasant children on the island was never a consideration. Some were murdered to serve as a warning for the peasants not to resist the thieving dictatorship. That nuance of the Batista dictatorship was its undoing.

     The extreme poverty and brutality of the Batista dictatorship spawned the female-led street marches that spelled doom for Batista, the Mafia, and the U. S. in Cuba.

The NY Daily News headlined Batista's flight on Jan. 1-1959.

     As this Associated Press headline on May 25th, 1960 indicates, the Batistianos -- who regrouped back in South Florida after fleeing the Cuban Revolution -- have been trying desperately to recapture the island since January 1, 1959. If and when they do, I truly believe it will be a sad day for rosy-cheeked little Cuban girls on the island.

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America's Banana Republic Congress

Intent On Overwhelming Democracy
Wednesday, February 11th, 2015

      The Internet giant Netflix announced this week that it has begun service in Cuba, a reflection of a change on the heels of President Obama's plans to normalize relations with the island. Netflix streams movies, television shows, etc., for a monthly fee. In Cuba the fee is $7.99 a month. Assuming that Americans are totally disconnected from reality in Cuba, one headline and sub-headlines screamed this myth: "Netflix Launches In Cuba; Charges $7.99 A Month To Cubans Whose Average Income Is 17 Dollars!" Interesting, but like most U. S. headlines related to Cuba it is misleading.

    This Cuban woman is in Havana, not Miami. As she walks along a street near her home she is engrossed with her Smart Phone, like many rich people in Miami. She is guaranteed a small stipend from the government, about $20. She is also guaranteed free health care without paying for anything. She is also guaranteed free education through college without having to worry about student loans. If she needs help with food or shelter, she gets it free. She can also walk the safe Cuban streets even at night without fear of being assaulted. She is eligible to get cash from relatives and friends in the U. S. She can freelance and make additional money, especially via tourism. And now with new economic reforms she is encouraged to become an entrepreneur with her own business. So, yes, America, there are more Cubans than you think in the year 2015 that can afford Netflix's $7.99 monthly fee. So when you see repetitious references to "$17 or $20 a month incomes," don't believe everything you read, most especially when it involves...poor little Cuba!!!

      America's Secretary of State John Kerry is a huge baseball fan and when he was in the U. S. Senate he bravely advocated normalizing relations with Cuba. Mr. Kerry loves the Boston Red Sox and is shown in this Politico photo throwing out the first pitch for a game at Fenway Park. This spring Mr. Kerry hopes to see his beloved Red Sox play the Baltimore Orioles in Havana. Both clubs have discussed the possibility with Major League Baseball executives. It might happen if logistics and other problems can be worked out in time. Of course, anti-Castro zealots in the U. S. Congress will try to block Mr. Kerry's proposal or any other sane and positive idea related to Cuba, where baseball is the national pastime. That's just the way it is. 

  On December 17th, 2014 President Barack Obama announced his plans to normalize relations with Cuba. That is precisely what most Americans, most Cuban-Americans, most Cubans on the island, most Cubans in Miami, most people in the Caribbean, most people in Latin America, and most people around the world desire. But it won't happen. It appears that the U. S. democracy is no longer strong enough to make it happen. This is the price democracy lovers are paying because the American people have allowed the U. S. Congress to become more of a Banana Republic sideshow than what the Founding Fathers envisioned way back in 1776. With approval ratings in single digits, most Americans disapprove of the current iteration of Congress but they are unable to change it. Cuba says a lot more about the United States than it says about Cuba, as President Obama is now discovering.

      In trying to normalize relations with Cuba, the President of the United States has American, Cuban, and worldwide support but a mere handful of self-serving Cuban-Americans in the U. S. Congress dictate America's Cuban policy and they are not about to relinquish it. They benefit from a Cuban policy that has been grossly out-dated for half a century, harming everyone but them. And they seem poised to keep it in place for another half century or so, defying logic, decency, and democracy.

      President Obama is anxious to open a U. S. Embassy in Havana prior to April-2015 when he will attend the Summit of the Americas in Panama. That's because, for the past six years, President Obama has been embarrassed when attending regional and international functions only to have America's unpopular Cuban policy being constantly thrown in his face, often thwarting his primary goals at such sessions. Caribbean and Latin American countries have warned him that the same thing will occur in Panama in April unless continued belligerence towards Cuba eases or ceases. He hopes at least to have concrete plans for a U. S. embassy in Havana to show the pro-Cuban factions that await him in Panama. Of course, he is also quite aware that Senator Marco Rubio and other Miami members of the U. S. Congress have fired off scathing letters to the President of Panama for inviting Cuban President Raul Castro to the Summit of the Americas that Panama, a sovereign country, is hosting. Those letters reminded democracy lovers of how Miami's anti-Castro zealots in the U. S. Congress used their congressional power to free famed Cuban-American terrorist Luis Posada Carriles from his long prison sentence in Panama. Jim DeFede, the top columnist at the Miami Herald, sacrificed his job when he wrote about that Panamanian/Posada episode but the rest of the U. S. media pusillanimously cowered, as usual, in accepting that and all other Miami-engineered affronts to democracy. President Obama, as he looks forward to the Summit of the Americas in Panama in April, is very aware of the Panamanian/Posada congressional pressure and he is also aware that Posada, on December 18-2014 -- the day after Obama's announcement about normalizing Cuban relations -- led an anti-Obama rally in the streets of Miami. President Obama is also very aware of the letters on congressional stationery that have tried to intimidate Panama leading up to the Summit of the Americas in which President Obama would like to demonstrate that the U. S. Congress is, in fact, still a democratic body even if, in regards to Cuba, it resembles a Banana Republic dictatorship akin to Batista's Cuba or Trujillo's Dominican Republic back in the 1950s. {P.S.: I wonder if that may be because the U. S. teamed with the Mafia to support the vile Batista dictatorship in the 1950s and when it was overthrown by the Cuban Revolution the Batistianos and Mafiosi merely reassembled in nearby South Florida?}

       Beginning the first week of February, 2015 Senator Marco Rubio of Miami became the Chairman of the Senate's Western Hemisphere Committee, which includes Cuba. Not surprisingly, Rubio's very first session as Chairman became a Banana Republic-type harangue in which Rubio excoriated President Obama and everyone else for daring to express a desire to normalize relations with Cuba. Watching on C-Span as he grossly assailed helpless U. S. diplomat Roberta Jacobson, who had just returned from Havana, shamed many democracy lovers -- including Sarah Stephens, the founder and Executive Director of the Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas. I believe you would agree with that assessment if you go online and read the Feb. 6-2015 "Cuba Central" posting on the CDA website. Not only was Ms. Stephens outraged by Rubio's Banana Republic-like Chairmanship, she pointed out that he was brazenly rude to even anti-Castro Cuban dissidents he had flown in to appear before his first session as Chairman of the Senate's Western Hemisphere Committee. Yes, five of the most vehement anti-Castro dissidents were paraded before a packed Congress by Chairman Rubio and, as Ms. Stephens pointed out, he was even rude to them if they didn't immediately answer his torrid questions with appropriate denunciations of Cuba. Of course, in a Banana Republic U. S. Congress, don't ever expect to hear from America's best and most unbiased Cuban experts -- such as Sarah Stephens, Wayne S. Smith, Peter Kornbluh, Ann Louise Bardach, Julia E. Sweig, etc. That would be presenting both sides of a two-sided story, something Banana Republics are not accustomed to permitting. Rubio regularly greets Cuban dissidents from Havana in Washington. Just once, maybe, he should include a Cuban from the nearby island who is not a dissident, such as...Yulieski Gourriel, for example.

      Next to the 88-year-old Fidel Castro, 31-year-old Yulieski is the most famous Cuban on the island right now. Euphoria engulfed baseball-crazed Cuba on Sunday {February 8th} when Yulieski belted a homer to give Cuba a 3-to-2 victory over Mexico in the championship game of the Caribbean Baseball Classic in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Star-studded teams from the Dominican Republic and Venezuela had been favored over a Cuban team depleted by an unending parade of star players defecting from the island for multi-million-dollar U. S. contracts. Since he was 17 Yulieski has been the most coveted Cuban player but he doggedly has remained fiercely loyal to Cuba. He remains a superstar in Cuba's top league but also plays for the Yokohama Bay Stars in Japan, a country that is not hostile to Cuba and where he can play and not defect.

    So, what if Senator Marco Rubio, as Chairman of the Western Hemisphere Committee, invited someone like Yulieski Gourriel to the U. S. Congress to at least balance out all the anti-Castro zealots he welcomes like rock stars? Judging by Rubio's performance in his first session as Chairman, it would be a guatuitous farce, just as Sarah Stephens indicated his grilling of Diplomat Roberta Jacobson and even a moderate Cuban dissident were gratuitous farces. Therefore, assuming Rubio invited Yulieski to appear before the U. S. Senate, I think it might go like this:

           Rubio: Mr. Gourriel, welcome to America. Are you crazy? Are you absolutely out of your mind? For thirteen years, as a Cuban star in international tournaments, you have had opportunities to defect to the U. S. and you have not done so. Are you crazy, insane, out of your mind?"

            Yulieski: Well, sir, I...

        Rubio: Shut up! I'm the Chairman of this Senate Committee. I'll let you speak if and when I think you are ready to tell the Senate and America what a mean, despicable man Fidel Castro is. Meanwhile, I suggest, on your trip back to Cuba, you rent a car in Miami. You can drive all day in South Florida and see nothing but huge mansions owned by Cuban-Americans. Some have 5-car garages with cars that cost $300,000. Many have luscious yachts moored at nearby docks. Many have their own private jets with pilots standing by at the hangars. Many own their own islands in the Caribbean and even the South Pacific. And you, Mr. Gourriel, haven't followed those Cubans to South Florida. Are you crazy? Are you out of your mind?

             Yulieski: Well, sir, I would like to say...

            Rubio: Shut up! I invited you here to show the Senate and the Americans watching on C-Span what a horrible person you are for staying on that island that Fidel Castro took over in 1959, chasing the decent Cubans to South Florida. When we get control of it again, the likes of you will regret not having defected to South Florida or Union City where you too could have mansions and all those other things. Are you crazy? Out of your mind? Explain to this Committee why you are so stupid?

             Yulieski: Permit me, sir, to say...

              Rubio: Shut up....................................................!

   This is Sarah Stephens, the highly respected, democracy-loving founder and Executive Director of the Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas. If you think the hypothetical exchange above between Senator Rubio and Yulieski Gourriel is an exaggeration, go online and read the "Cuba Central" posting on CDA's website on February 6th, right after Senator Rubio's first chairmanship of the Senate's Western Hemisphere Committee in which he assailed President Obama's top Cuban diplomat Roberta Jacobson and even was rude to a Cuban dissident who apparently wasn't enough of a dissident for Mr. Rubio.

    Juan Carlos Varela is the President of Panama, a sovereign country and neither a U. S. territory nor a colony. He wasn't in office long before he got written rebukes on congressional stationery from Marco Rubio and other anti-Castro members of the U. S. Congress. They objected to President Varela's insistence on inviting Cuban President Raul Castro to the upcoming Summit of the Americas, which Panama will host in April. President Varela believed he had "the sovereign right and the moral duty to do so," especially considering that all the nations of the Americas urged him and some said that, if he didn't, they would also not attend. "Sovereign right" and "moral duty" are not anathema to democracy and the terms should not offend Cuban-Americans in the U. S. Congress, not even when it concerns the island of Cuba.

     If you watched on C-Span that first session of the Senate's Western Hemisphere Committee chaired by Senator Marco Rubio of Miami, you would have noticed that his tag-team partner in assaulting President Obama's plans to normalize relations with Cuba was Senator Bob Menendez of Union City. It was a reminder that the anti-Castro zealots in the U. S. Congress seek Committees that are most influential in policies related to Cuba. On December 17th when President Obama announced plans to normalize relations with Cuba, Rubio flocked to network news cameras to brag about his upcoming Chairmanship of the Western Hemisphere Committee, not only implying but stating how that would enable him to block President Obama's grandiose plans. Menendez has just concluded his run as Chairman of the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee. Check the Congressional Record and you'll see anti-Castro zealots adorning congressional committees, in both the House and Senate, most responsible for Cuban issues. Unfortunately, Cuba is a foreign country in the Western Hemisphere and that fact is not lost on congressional politicians from Miami and Union City.

         This photo shows Senator Marco Rubio from Miami and Senator Bob Menendez from Union City hosting dissidents from Cuba, including the famed Yoani Sanchez. As long as the U. S. government remains a democracy and not a Banana Republic, larger and more diverse groups than this din of strategists should be allowed to weigh in on something as vital as America's Cuban policy. While Cuba is a mere island, it is significant in the region and on the international stage far out of proportion to its size, population or wealth simply due to U. S. belligerence that makes the whole world cringe, especially in the Caribbean and throughout Latin America. At the very least, unless Senators Rubio and Menendez consider the U. S. Congress their private Banana Republic fiefdom, they should allow a few others to inject a thought or two on a subject, Cuba, that so mightily affects America's image around a conflicted world.     

   This National Geographic montage says Love Is in the Air.
But not in Marco Rubio's U. S. Senate.
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Cuba's No-Win Situation

Dissidents Free to Roam...Almost
Sunday, February 8th, 2015

         If you study this photo, which was taken on a street in Havana,  you can begin to comprehend a few important and topical facts about the U.S.-Cuban diaspora -- namely, why there is zero chance that the two nations will "normalize" relations. This is 46-year-old Tania Bruguera. She was born in 1968 in Havana. Her mother, Argelia, was an English-Spanish translator; her father, Miguel, was a high-ranking official in Revolutionary Cuba's government. He was Cuba's Ambassador to Lebanon and Panama before becoming Deputy Foreign Minister. Miguel supported the government. His wife, Tania's mother Argelia, opposed it. Tania sided with her mother. She received an excellent education, including a Masters in Art. Today she is a friend of Yoani Sanchez and other famed dissidents on the island, and Tania works with them hand-in-hand in fervent and well-funded efforts to overthrow the Cuban government. Tania splits her time between the United States, France, and Cuba. Cuba permits Tania and other dissidents, including Yoani Sanchez, to leave the island and fly back. Cuba assumes, when they fly back, dissidents such as Tania have more cash and other wherewithals to undermine the island's government. Many supporters and opponents of resilient but vulnerable little Cuba believe that allowing Tania, Yoani, etc., to leave and return will finally doom Cuba's hard-earned sovereignty and permit the colossus beyond its northern shore, the United States, to regain full control of it, as was the case after the Spanish-American War in 1898 till the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959. As an acute observer of the U.S.-Cuban conundrum, I agree with the doomsayers about foreign dominance inevitably returning to Cuba within the next decade.

       Study and comprehend this photo. It was taken in Revolutionary Square in Havana on December 30, 2014. Since 1960 anytime Democratic U. S. Presidents -- Kennedy, Carter, Clinton, and now Obama -- have attempted to normalize relations with Cuba, Cuban-exile zealots in the U. S., aligned with sycophants in the U. S. Congress, conspire to thwart those efforts. They worked against Presidents Kennedy, Carter, and Clinton and they will work against Obama. Whenever it appears U. S. Presidents are making headway in normalizing relations with Cuba, the Cuban exiles and Congress markedly increase both the anti-Cuban rhetoric and anti-Cuban physical actions. Such historic tactics succeeded against Presidents Kennedy, Carter, and Clinton; and thus it surprises no one that similar duplicitous tactics are currently in play. The above photo is an example and is an offshoot of President Obama's December 17th announcement that he planned to normalize relations with Cuba. That promoted a return trip to Cuba by Tania Bruguera. She announced to the media world that she was holding a demonstration in Revolutionary Square. The media promoted her announcement and eagerly anticipated it. But, as you can see above, only the media showed up. Tania herself was a no-show. Reportedly, she was "detained" by Cuban security forces who "allegedly" released her when the media had exited Revolutionary Square. Such tit-for-tat episodes are regular features of Cuba's defensive mechanisms. Almost always, no one is ever harmed. Cuba believes that such dissident tactics are primarily designed to provoke Cuba into doing something that the Cuban exiles and Congress can use against the island to thwart any attempt by any President to ease the harsh and one-sided Cuban policy that most in the entire world, including the majority of Cuban Americans, deplore.

         This profile photo of Tania Bruguera is courtesy of Nashashibi Skoer/yo Tambien Exijo. A major article about her this week was written by Carlos Suarez De Jesus and entitled "Artist Tania Bruguera Is A Thorn in the Cuban Government's Side." The article, in the Miami New Times, began with these exact words: "Cuban authorities watch Tania Bruguera closely. They listen in on her phone calls. They constantly tail her. 'I can move around Havana, but I have a car following me everywhere I go,' the curly-haired 46-year-old artist says. 'I know they are listening to my calls, because recently, during a phone conversation with a friend, I mentioned I was going to pass out fliers that the government might find alarming. Then, 20 minutes later, a government blogger wrote, 'Tania is on her way to distribute inflammatory leaflets here.' Bruguera, who divides her time among Cuba, the United States and France, became a celebrity this past December 30th." Via the photos at the top of this essay I explained how Tania's anti-Cuban activity made her "a celebrity" on December 30th in Havana's Revolutionary Square although she didn't quite make it to her planned demonstration. Of course, as Tania and her friend Yoani Sanchez and many others have found out, one sure way to become a celebrity and probably a rich one is to let Cuban exiles and their friends in the U. S. Congress know that you will help them undermine, demean, and upend the Cuban government. Also this week, the Los Angeles Times had a major article on Tania Bruguera written by Caroline A. Miranda. The article featured the above photo of Tania with this caption: "Artist Tania Bruguera to remain in Cuba at least 60 more days as officials weigh performance-related charges against her." That photo-caption prefaced the long LA Times article by Ms. Miranda that typically excoriated Cuba, just as Tania Bruguera and the Cuban exiles intended. Of course, if they can indicate that Tania has been injured or otherwise mistreated, all the better for propaganda purposes. For five years, the incarceration in Cuba of Alan Gross was explained to the American people by biased benefactors that, for no reason whatsoever, Mr. Gross was scooped off the street and sentenced to 15 years in prison even though, of course, he was nothing more than a totally innocent tourist in Cuba. And, of course, Tania Bruguera has done nothing to provoke the ire of Cuba, according to the American media. And, of course, neither did the terrorist bomb that brought down Cubana Flight 455 in 1976. And, of course, neither did those airplane overflights in 1996, etc.

   Josefina Vidal is Cuba's Minister of North American Affairs. She is shown here defending Cuba brilliantly, by all accounts, in last month's diplomatic meetings to discuss normalizing relations with her American counterpart Roberta Jacobson. As Cuba's primary asset in trying to defend the island against being swallowed up again by its northern neighbor, Ms. Vidal is the ultimate David against a whole bunch of Goliaths -- the U. S. government, the CIA, the U. S. media, and America's Cuban policy that is fully dictated by only the most vicious Cuban-exiles in Miami, Union City, and Washington. Eventually, she will lose. But not before her guts and determination prolong the denouement another decade or so. She has the backing of every Caribbean nation, every Latin American nation, and the nations of the world. According to recent polls, she even has the support of most Cuban-Americans in Miami. But a handful of Cuban exiles have total control of the U. S. Congress on Cuban issues, and that negates any sanity a Democratic President, such as Mr. Obama, tries to bring to the cauldron that benefits a few and harms everyone else, including Cubans and Americans. Ms. Vidal monitors the U. S. media, so she probably has read every line of the aforementioned Miami New Times and LA Times articles that lauded Tania Bruguera and lambasted Cuba this week. In defending Cuba, Ms. Vidal has said that her main concentration is on being aware of the continuing and well-funded efforts from the U. S. to provoke Cuba into doing something that the Cuban exiles and Congress can use to hurt Cuba, and maybe even getting the U. S. government to invade or attack Cuba once and for all. "Yes," Ms. Vidal says, "over a half-century of the longest and cruelest blockade ever imposed by a strong nation against a much weaker one has not put the Batistianos, the Mafia and the U. S. businessmen back in control of Cuba. The Bay of Pigs military attack and many acts of terrorism also have failed to bring Cuba to its knees. So, what's next? I must think about that each day. Like we have done for so long, we can't forget that the U. S., just to our north, is the strongest nuclear power in the world, by far. Align that fact with the other fact, which is that the Cuban policy of the unmatched nuclear power is in the hands of a few individuals that most desire to regain control of Cuba. The synergy of those two facts indicate what an underdog we are and also reveals the U. S. hypocrisy when it preaches democracy. Determination helps us. Being innovative, which is doing what we have to do when pushed against a wall, helps us. Being lucky, I guess, helps us. Having regional and world opinion on our side helps us. But we are still an island and the forces aligned against us are mammoth and unlimited. And nothing lasts forever, including sovereignty. Cuba for Cubans may not last forever. I understand and live with that."

      Helen Aguirre Ferre is one of the most ubiquitous journalists in South Florida, often dominating the anti-Castro delirium across the board -- on radio, television, newspapers, online, social media...you name it...and she's effective in fluent Spanish or English. Of course, all that has been ratcheted up since President Obama's December 17th announcement about trying to bring some sanity to U.S.-Cuban relations. In scathing op-eds in the Miami Herald  -- such as the one entitled "Castros The Beneficiaries of Perilous Policy Shift" -- she excoriates President Obama and heralds U. S. Senator Marco Rubio of Miami as the savior of America's ills, especially Cuba! In ratcheting up her rhetoric and extending her forums far beyond South Florida, Helen Aguirre Ferre is showing up on national and international venues, such as the worldwide Aljazeera television network. Of course, outside of South Florida she is not speaking just to the choir. In fact, all recent polls show that, even in her Miami-Dade County area, most Cuban-Americans agree with President Obama and not with her prolific attacks that demean the President and his exalted office.

A fiercely coveted island since its discovery in 1492.

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Cuba and the U. S. Congress

A Shameful and Toxic Combination
Thursday, February 5th, 2015

      The U. S. Congress stands tall as the greatest exemplar of democracy, the greatest form of government ever devised by humankind. It deserves and has one of the world's most famed and most beautiful structures. This Wikipedia photo shows the Western Front of the U. S. Capital Building in Washington, D. C.

      The U. S. Congress consists of two chambers, the House of Representatives and the Senate. There are 535 democratically elected members, 435 Representatives and 100 Senators. Representatives are elected every two years and Senators every six years, with major advantages tilted toward incumbents. Each of America's 50 states has two Senators, meaning sparsely populated Wyoming has the same number of Senators as hugely populated states like California, Texas, New York, and Florida. Thus, the state of Florida has two Senators but the Miami area alone has three Representatives. Therein lies the Shameful and Toxic Combination that involves the U. S. Congress and the island of Cuba. Since the Spanish-American War in 1898, when the U. S. easily wrested control of Cuba from Spain, and especially since the Cuban Revolution overthrew the U.S.-backed and Mafia-backed Batista dictatorship in 1959, Cuba has been a major player in the Americas and on the international stage, far out of proportion to its size, wealth, or population. That's because of the island's tumultuous and continuous desire to be a sovereign nation, not a Spanish or American colony. The leaders of the overthrown Batista-Mafia dictatorship fled mostly to safe havens in the U. S., especially the Mafia-plagued cities of Miami, Florida and Union City, New Jersey. Today there are five Cuban-American members of the U. S. Congress from Miami {4} and Union City {1}. On the surface, in the world's greatest democracy, there is nothing wrong with that. Nothing at all. But beneath the surface, there is something wrong. Those five Cuban-Americans seem to believe that they alone reserve the right to dictate America's Cuban policy. Unfortunately, that's the way things now stand in the U. S. Congress.

      This week {February 3rd, 2015} Senators Marco Rubio from Miami and Robert Menendez from Union City, in my democracy-loving opinion, shamed the U. S. Congress with their flagrant, self-serving, anti-Castro zealotry as opposed to addressing other issues, such as sanity towards Cuba or priorities towards a multitude of other vital issues affecting and confronting Americans. The tirades by Mr. Rubio and Mr. Menendez on Tuesday in the U. S. Congress would have been suited for the Cuban National Assembly in Havana, except that since January 1, 1959 hurling grenades at the island from the sanctity of the U. S. has been a lot safer and much more rewarding. Yesterday Mr. Rubio and Mr. Menendez dominated a packed Senate subcommittee examining the impact of President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba, something that is desired by most Americans, most Cuban-Americans, most Caribbeans, most Latin Americans, and all democracy loving nations around the world. But yesterday as many times before Mr. Rubio and Mr. Menendez reveled in the fact that a handful of zealous Cuban-Americans can dictate America's Cuban policy. We American people, for allowing that to happen, are as much to blame as they are. Even so, I believe any American who watched on C-Span what unfurled at that packed Senate hearing yesterday would or should have been ashamed. As usual, during such sessions when Cuba is the topic, the exalted Cuban-Americans shame and demean important and decent people summoned before them. That seems to be why Cuban-Americans in Congress make bee-lines to serve on and lead the Foreign Relations Committee, the Western Hemisphere Committee, etc. Mr. Menendez recently chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Mr. Rubio is now the Chairman of the Senate's Western Hemisphere Committee. Unfortunately, Cuba is a foreign country and also is in the Western Hemisphere.

      I believe the saddest spectacle in the U. S. Senate this week, one that possibly brought tears to the eyes of some democracy lovers, was when Senator Rubio excoriated and demeaned, in my opinion, a decent American -- Roberta Jacobson. Watching a bully on a pedestal ruthlessly pick on a human or creature he deems vulnerable is not a pretty sight. {Photo courtesy: Brendon Smialowski/AFP}

      Roberta Jacobson, as this Brendon Smialowski/AFP photo shows, tried to defend herself against a cauldron of Senator Rubio's uncalled for harangues. But she was over-matched, and he knew it. After all, it was his show. He is the Chairman of the Western Hemisphere Committee in the U. S. Senate and Cuba is an island in the Western Hemisphere. Ms. Jacobson, sadly, will not get much empathy or sympathy from the proselytized or intimidated American people who are not supposed to have enough intelligence, enough guts, enough insight, or enough patriotism to support her. Mr. Rubio and his cohorts can easily sabotage Mr. Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. That's been a foregone conclusion from the start, at least in the views of those who know a stacked deck when they see it. Grilling Ms. Jacobson so callously and unnecessarily yesterday in the Senate was merely another feather in his political hat. 

       Left to their own devises, two very decent, virtuous, and brilliant women -- Josefina Vidal and Roberta Jacobson -- could have negotiated normal relations between Cuba and the United States. Ms. Vidal is Cuba's Minister of North American Affairs. Ms. Jacobson is America's Minister of Western Hemisphere Affairs. Since 1959 the unparalleled hostilities between Cuba and the United States have harmed Cubans, Americans, Cuban-Americans, Caribbeans, Latin Americans, and citizens around the world. But those animosities have also helped sate the revenge, political, and economic motives of a handful of people, and when it comes to U.S.-Cuban relations the few have maintained dominance over the many. That won't change. And that's a shame. Especially for America, the world's all-time greatest democracy.

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Cuba Ready To Halt Negotiations

Normalizing Relations A No Go

       As this forum has indicated from the start, the euphoria attached to the presidential announcements in Washington and Havana at high noon on Dec. 17th-2015 that the two nations plan to normalize relations were pie-in-the-sky buckets of hot air. There are two reasons the efforts, if they were ever considered realistic by either side, will never come to fruition. Reason #1 is based on the fact that the U. S. will never come close to meeting Josefina Vidal's most basic Cuban demands. Reason #2 is the Cuban diaspora in the U. S. Congress controls America's Cuban policy and it will never allow a normalization of relations with Cuba to happen. In 1898 after the Spanish-American War the U. S. never considered democracy for Cuba when it had sole dominance of the island; since 1959, after the Cuban Revolution chased the Batista dictatorship first to Miami and Union City and then to Washington, the U. S. vision of Cuba has centered around everything except democracy -- namely, revenge and regaining control of the island. At least, that's Josefina Vidal's view of history. 

       Josefina Vidal, Cuba's powerful Minister of North America Affairs, last week received rave reviews for her spirited and astute handling of the diplomatic sessions in Havana that were heralded as the first of a series of such meetings designed to normalize relations between Cuba and the United States. Karen DeYoung, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post journalist, seemed shocked at how deftly Ms. Vidal out-performed her American counterparts, and that was a universal opinion. She had an advantage because she can make her own decisions while U. S. diplomats often have to wait for instructions from the President or Secretary of State, leaving them weaklings in face-to-face confrontations with Ms. Vidal. In any case, Ms. Vidal has just addressed the Cuban people on state television and a study of her words -- a study that is happening today in Washington -- will indicate there is really no need for the second round of diplomatic meetings scheduled for next month in Washington. Ms. Vidal has long tired of the endless streams of U. S. schemes to support dissidents on the island and even to devise repeated efforts to create dissidents on the island. So study Ms. Vidal's exact words spoken to the Cuban people February 2nd, 2015:

      "The total freedom of movement of the negotiations, which the U. S. side is posing, is tied to a change in the behavior of its diplomatic mission and its officials. Matters of internal affairs in Cuba are not negotiable." {Josefina Vidal; February 2nd, 2015}

    Josefina Vidal has served at the Cuban Interests Section in Washington. Since 2003 as Cuba's primary U. S. expert in Havana she has proclaimed:    My main job is to protect this island from another foreign takeover. My daily priority is to monitor efforts from Miami and Washington designed to provoke Cuba into doing something that the Cuban contingents in Miami, Union City, and Washington can use as a pretext to get the United States government to recapture Cuba for them. My second priority is to monitor the incredible amount of American tax dollars that go to contractors to fund or create dissidence on this island. If China or some other big boy did such things in the U. S., how would the U. S. react? Carefully I guess because Communist China is a nuclear power that is a trillion-dollar business partner. Well, that being said...little Cuba can be wiped out by a nuclear power but such imperialist criminals will never get a surrender from us. Only cowards and criminals blow up Cuban airplanes, hotels and coastal cabins. Only cowards and criminals hide behind the skirts of a superpower and hurl darts and shout epithets. If the United States wants another diplomatic session with me, why not have some of those brave dart-throwers on the other side of the table?

    Today {Tuesday, February 3rd, 2015} the three Cuban-Americans in the U. S. Senate will set aside their 2016 Presidential ambitions long enough to have a Cuban meeting. Then they likely will tell the American people what a horrible government the island has, implying that the Batista-Mafia regime that preceded it was a sweet Mother Teresa-type operation and the Batistiano regime that will replace it will make sure the island has a world-class democracy, albeit one run from Miami and Washington with Havana merely a decoy. And however they phrase it, they will probably expect everyone to accept their dictations as gospel. Meanwhile, it's for sure some less effusive elements in the White House and the State Department will be discussing Josefina Vidal's televised words to the Cuban people yesterday. Then they should simply cancel next month's tentatively scheduled second round of diplomatic meetings in Washington.

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