They Hurt Cubans and Americans
Updated: Wednesday, July 8th, 2015
Updated: Wednesday, July 8th, 2015
The mainstream U. S. media normally is not too interested in reporting positive things about Cuba. But this week the mighty Carnival cruise line received permission from the U. S. Department of Commerce and the U. S. Treasury to begin regular commerce with Cuba. The sailings will not begin until May of 2016. For one thing, Cuba is presently handling about as many tourists as it can accommodate. The World Bank confirms that the Cuban economy is increasing at an impressive 4% clip thanks largely to a boost in tourism since the U. S. and Cuba back in December announced a thaw in their relations. Cuba is using some of that income to improve roads, streets, restaurants, bridges, railroad tracks, and hotel rooms. Carnival will launch 7-night people-to-people tours to Cuba on a bi-weekly basis out of Miami. The 710-passenger Adonia will be one of the ships utilized. $600 deposits are being accepted now but the price is $2,990 per person plus taxes and port fees. That's steep, and three times the price for similar Caribbean sailings. But...Cuba is Cuba, the Pearl of the Antilles and the whole region. Thanks to a brave and benevolent President, Mr. Obama, there are now a whopping twelve reasons Americans can visit the island, enough new reasons for companies like Carnival to salivate over Cuba's commercial potential. In January of 2017, even if a Bush or a Rubio replaces Obama in the White House and as Commander in Chief, they will not likely be able to nuke all of the advances that Obama is making. Heck, the owners of businesses like Carnival would feel nuked too, so even anti-Castro zealots like Bush and Rubio will eventually have to ease their self-serving hubris. Yes, Cuba is only an island, but it is a special island that will always be an out-sized player on American and international stages. That per-person Carnival price is too steep for me, but I'm wondering now if I can make it back to the island in a canoe or maybe on an inner-tube?
This photo is courtesy of Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization. It certainly is not courtesy of any mainstream news organization in the U. S. That's because it illustrates a positive on the island of Cuba and the mainstream U. S. media, for the most part, have neither the guts nor the integrity to report on a Cuban positive. NPR -- National Public Radio -- is not so cowardly or unethical. Thus yesterday -- July 6th -- NPR, which has over 900 stations in the U. S., used this photo online to illustrate an article written by Susan Brink that was entitled "Cuba Is First To Earn WHO Seal For Ending Mother-Baby HIV Transmission." The article started off with these words: "On June 30, Cuba became the first country to receive a global seal of approval -- the official World Health validation -- for essentially ending the transmission of AIDs from a mother to her baby. Cuba has eliminated the transmission of Syphilis as well." That meticulous research and revelation by the World Health Organization was also confirmed by the Pan American Health Organization. Of course, the mainstream U. S. media is not supposed to report such things because it simply would not compute with the Cuban narrative in the U. S. that for decades has been dictated by the most vicious anti-Castro Cuban exiles, especially the Miami Cubans now in the U. S. Congress.
NPR and its 900-plus stations in the United States are strictly non-commercial. It and its online division are supported by private donations and public taxes. It has a reputation as a liberal entity but also as an extremely high-quality journalistic operation.
This photo is also courtesy of the Pan American and World Health Organizations, certainly not courtesy of the mainstream U. S. media. It was also used in that NPR report by Susan Brink. It shows pregnant Cuban women at one of the ubiquitous "poli-clinics" in Cuba that cater to health needs of women and their unborn children. Margaret Chen, the President of the World Health Organization, has singled out these clinics for Cuba's astonishingly low Infant Mortality Rate, which is lower than that in the United States and most other far richer countries. The World Bank, which basically does the bidding of rich nations, has recently praised Cuba for the extraordinarily high percentage of its Gross National Product devoted to the health and educational needs of its 11.2 million people. Of course, Americans are not supposed to know about such reports from the World Health Organization, the Pan American Health Organization, NPR, the World Bank, etc. Such information simply would not compute with what Americans are told about Cuba, you know: "We've got to keep the embargo in place, and greatly strengthen it to make sure no money gets to Cuba because we all know it would all go into Fidel Castro's pockets or his Swiss bank accounts." The Miami Cubans in Congress -- Rubio, Ros-Lehtinen, Diaz-Balart, etc. -- can readily say that to the American people but they can't tell it to the World Health Organization, the Pan American Health Organization, NPR, the World Bank, the United Nations, etc., and they can't tell it to the pregnant Cuban women in the above photo.
Americans interested in their democracy should study and comprehend this recent photo. It is used here courtesy of www.timesunion.com. That's New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on the left. At the podium is Dr. Candace Johnson, the President and CEO of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York. It is one of America's leading cancer clinics and Dr. Johnson is one of America's top cancer experts. Recently, Dr. Johnson learned that Governor Cuomo was leading a group of New York business people to Cuba on an important Trade Mission. Dr. Johnson begged to go along. She is aware that Cuba's outstanding medical scientists -- such as the ones praised so lavishly above by the WHO and the Pan American Health Association -- had discovered perhaps the world's best vaccine to fight lung cancer. It is known as Cimavax and it has been successfully tested in Cuba and other nations. But not in the U. S...because of the embargo. Dr. Johnson, while in Cuba, got permission from Cuba to make the vaccine available to cancer patients in the United States. Back in the United States she is begging the U. S. government and the Food and Drug Administration to approve the vaccine in the U. S. Yet, because it's a Cuban vaccine there is a hurdle -- the embargo that was first instituted in 1962 for the purpose, according to de-classified U. S. documents, of starving and depriving the Cuban people on the island to induce them to rise up and overthrow their revolutionary government after the 1961 Bay of Pigs attack couldn't do it.
For 53 years, the embargo against Cuba has endeavored to "starve and deprive" Cubans on the island, but it has failed because, although it has caused millions of innocent Cubans to suffer, it has failed to fulfill its purpose -- which was to force the Cuban people to rise up and overthrow Fidel Castro so, presumably, the remnants of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship of the 1950s could return and reclaim the island. Also, Peter Kornbluh at the U. S. National Security Archives and Sarah Stephens at the Center for Democracy in the Americas, both based in Washington, have repeatedly stated that the cruel and archaic embargo -- in the eyes of the world, particularly all of Latin America -- makes the U. S. appear to be an imperialistic bully and, as Kornbluh very succinctly said recently, "a banana republic." A yearly vote at the UN reflects the unanimity of world opinion against the embargo. Recent polls of Cuban-Americans in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood show that the majority of Florida's 1.2 million Cuban-Americans also oppose the embargo. But those opinions don't count -- not from around the world and not even in Little Havana. That is because, since the 1950s, the most visceral anti-Castro Cuban exiles, and their right-wing sycophants in the U. S. Congress, have demanded the right to dictate America's policy in regards to Cuba. And even in the world's greatest and strongest democracy, two generations of Americans since 1959 have had neither the courage, nor the intelligence, nor the patriotism to stand up and defend their democracy against a Cuban policy that, decade after decade, is allowed to do more than any other thing to cast a negative image on the United States. The image in the Latuff graphic above is one that should embarrass all Americans. It embarrasses Margaret Chen, the head of the World Health Organization. It embarrasses Dr. Candace Johnson at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York. It embarrasses America's best friends all around the world, as indicated by the yearly vote in the UN.
But it doesn't embarrass..........
...........Marco Rubio. Rubio is a first-term U. S. Senator from Miami. He is hailed as a "serious" and "top tier" Republican presidential candidate. His alignment with the Bush dynasty got him to the U. S. Senate with his bio still using the obligatory claim that his parents escaped the Castro tyranny in Cuba when, in fact, they had escaped the Batista tyranny in Cuba long before Castro's revolution chased the Batistianos to Florida. Four particular billionaires, including one in Miami who has pledged whatever amount of money it takes to put Rubio in the White House, are supporting Rubio in the money-crazed presidential campaign. But, in all likelihood, Rubio will have to await his White House takeover till after the Jeb Bush-Hillary Clinton duel plays out in November of 2016. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the Havana-born anti-Castro zealot from Miami, has been in the U. S. Congress since 1989 when Jeb Bush was her Campaign Manager. She and most other top-tier Cuban-American politicians in Miami support Jeb Bush over Marco Rubio, although Rubio once worked for her as an intern, etc. The Bush dynasty connection to the most visceral Miami-Cubans far exceeds what even one of their own, Rubio, brings to the table. Ros-Lehtinen, his old boss, is suggesting that young Rubio leave the Senate, serve as Florida's governor for two terms, and then, after Jeb's two presidential terms, Rubio himself would be ready for his two presidential terms. If that scenario appears far-fetched, it is not. Unlimited amounts of money now predicate presidential races in the United States. Clinton, Bush, and Rubio are amassing unlimited amounts from both savory and unsavory sources. Bush will edge Clinton in the 2016 sweepstakes, with Rubio bidding his time as Florida's governor. At least, that's the prediction of a lady in Cuba who probably knows more about U. S. politics than all the American TV pundits combined.
If Josefina Vidal, Cuba's Minister of North American Affairs {meaning the U. S.}, didn't know more about U. S. politics than all the TV pundits, it is likely that Cuba would have ceased being a sovereign nation years ago. In that milieu, it is interesting to know that Ms. Vidal would personally prefer Marco Rubio to Jeb Bush as President of the United States. She has confided to intimates, even as she has led the diplomatic efforts to normalize relations with the U. S., that Cuba would prepare "for war" if either Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio reached the White House in January of 2017. But, in her heart of hearts, she considers Rubio the lesser of the "two prime" anti-Cuban evils in the U. S., which indicates what she thinks of the Bush dynasty.
Many Americans are surprised that Ileana Ros-Lehtinen -- the firmly entrenched {since 1989} Cuban-American Congresswoman from Miami -- strongly supports Jeb Bush over Marco Rubio, her protege and now the Cuban-American Senator from Miami. Well, there is a very astute and vastly important lady in Cuba that is not at all surprised. Her name, again, is Josefina Vidal. If the Bush/Miami stalwarts ever reclaim Cuba, they would first have to out-smart or soundly defeat Vidal, and that might be tough to pull off.
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This is Cuban Minster Josefina Vidal being interviewed by 26-year-old Cristina Escobar, Cuba's top journalist. While the anti-Cuban narrative in the U. S. still focuses on 88-year-old Fidel Castro and 84-year-old Raul Castro, the two generations of women represented by Vidal and Escobar should be commanding America's primary focus. The Castros for years now have left U. S. decisions up to Vidal; Escobar has emerged as the leading voice of Cuba's twentysomethings, the generation determined to decide Cuba's future and determined to make sure that, as Escobar says, "not to let Miami and Washington rule us like it's the 1950s when a foreign Mafia force made sure Cubans on the island were voiceless and helpless."
While the Miami Cubans control the Cuban narrative in the U. S., the luminous Cristina Escobar leads the Cuban narrative on state and regional television, and more and more she is in demand for interviews by Latin American journalists. When she attended journalistic seminars in California back in December, and more recently when she covered the Vidal-Jacobson diplomatic meetings in Washington, Escobar was a stunner, and not just because of her looks and her fluency in English. Her fierce passion for Cuba was quite evident at a crowded White House news conference and in speeches around Washington. "Cuba's future will be determined by my generation of well educated, healthy Cubans on the island, not by Miami Cubans and right-wingers in Washington," she stated boldly in Washington and on state television when she returned to the island. When she was interviewed on the Telesur network, she buttressed that theme with these words: "We are an island. The Miami Cubans are backed by the strongest military and the richest treasury in the world. We may one day lose, but I believe they will respect the fight that we will have put up." In other words, if Bush-Rubio eventually get past Vidal, they still will have the gritty Escobar to deal with.
Cubans on the island, like this swimmer, are being punished by the embargo and other aspects of a Cuban policy designed to appease the most visceral Cuban-exiles. This swimmer is in one of the world's safest countries and she has the benefit of an excellent totally free education and an excellent totally free health system. Rubio/Cruz/Diaz-Balart/Ros-Lehtinen/Menendez and their acolytes spend an exorbitant amount of government time and a vast amount of tax dollars assaulting the island from nearby safe havens or by sending agents to the island to disrupt it. Perhaps some of that anti-Cuban time and some of those anti-Cuban tax dollars could better be spent on problems in the U. S., such as crime and well over a trillion dollars in stifling student loan debt. Two top headlines to start this first full week in July were: 47 gun deaths in Chicago over the past weekend, including a 7-year-old boy caught in the ceaseless cross-fire; and an illegal Mexican immigrant protected by San Francisco's sanctuary status murdered a beautiful young woman although the U. S. government had deported him for gross crimes five times and wanted to deport him a sixth but San Francisco and other cities don't allow the federal government to do that. Protecting innocent Americans and helping deserving Americans or America's declining infrastructure perhaps should be a higher priority than harming innocent Cubans like this swimmer...or like the two dozen young Cuban athletes aboard Cubana Flight 455, the civilian airplane bombed into the ocean by a terrorist bomb. The Miami Cubans assume Americans have no knowledge of or interest in Cubana Flight 455...although citizens of every nation in the Caribbean and Latin America do.
This Wikipedia photo shows ten typical Cuban college students. They seem happy and healthy, and they are receiving a good education, with all their health care and education through college totally free. No bills for any health care. No college expenses or student loans to pay back. Their island is safe. But when Rubio and the other Miami Cubans tell Americans that life on the island resembles hell on earth and the Cuban government spends most of its time, energy, and money making life miserable for its citizens, Americans are supposed to believe every word. And, of course, Rubio and his ilk insist that everyday Americans should not have the freedom to visit one place on this earth -- Cuba. Why? Well, I guess it's so you'll believe everything Rubio and the other Miami Cubans say about Cuba and they must worry that if you could go there and make your own judgement it might differ from what they tell you. Meanwhile, why not ask Rubio if that is so or not. And you might remind him that it appears these ten Cuban college girls haven't been punished by their government in at least a week or so. But they are being punished everyday by a U. S. Cuban policy that Rubio wants to keep in place for another five decades or so, regardless of how much it hurts the U. S. image around the world. Of course, if and when Rubio becomes Commander in Chief, I assume these ten carefree college girls on the island had better duck and run for a bomb shelter.
If it has failed for 50+ years, why not try for 50+ more years??????
And by the way............
..........recent photos of Fidel Castro, and especially a video of his appearance at a food seminar over the July 4th weekend, are being scrutinized by eager Castro watchers. In the past two years, photos taken of him by his son Alex in their home as Fidel hosted several world leaders -- from Russia, China, Brazil, etc. -- it appeared he was extremely weak and tired. But at that seminar a few days ago it has been confirmed that he spoke vigorously and with a strong voice for four long hours...about cheese and other foods. In recent months, several prime pro-Castro and anti-Castro watchers have predicted he would not live to see his 89th birthday, which is August 13th. After this past weekend, those predictions are being revised. Except for food seminars and other things that interest him, Fidel seems content to leave Cuban affairs in the hands of others, including Vidal and Escobar. He's always been famously partial to women, especially his four favorite female guerrilla fighters -- Celia Sanchez, Haydee Santamaria, Vilma Espin, and Tete Puebla.
Just days shy of his 89th birthday, and about 9 years removed from his near-fatal illness in July of 2006, Fidel Castro made headlines last weekend when he appeared at the food seminar and he made some more Tuesday, July 7th. Obviously alert and attentive, he sent a note to the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. It said, in part: "I warmly congratulate you on your brilliant political victory, the details of which I followed closely on Telesur. Greece arouses admiration among Latin American and Caribbean peoples."
