Cuba: Now and Then

Forever Fascinating Then and Now
Updated: Tuesday, August 26th, 2015

         Yesterday -- Tuesday, August 25, 2015 -- the very influential Israeli media force -- "The Times of Israel" -- used the above AP photo at the top of an incredible article written by Raphael Ahren. The article, picked up by other international media outlets, was entitled: "Obama left Israel In the Cold When He Revived Ties With Cuba." Among a truly astounding litany of weird sentences was this one: "Israel was caught totally off guard by the American about-face." The article mentioned that Israel was/is the only nation in the world that supports the U. S. embargo in the UN vote each October. Mr. Ahren was fair enough to admit that the stand-alone Israeli vote in the UN is tied to the incredible financial and military support the U. S. provides Israel yearly. It is also well known, even if the U. S. and Israel refuse to admit it, that AIPAC, the ultra-rich-and-powerful Israeli lobby, dominates the U. S. Congress pertaining to any issue that concerns Israel. BUT CUBA? It's a delusion...or at least it should be...for Israel to believe America's Executive Branch, which is separate from Congress, has to get permission from Israel before it conducts foreign policy that really doesn't directly concern Israel. Cuba is in America's backyard, not Israel's. The U. S. President, even beyond Congress and certainly beyond foreign nations, is responsible for setting U. S. foreign policy. Cuba is a foreign country. Yes, an incredible article but not all that surprising because, now and then and then and now, Cuba has a role on the international stage far out of proportion to its size or its population.

      Cuba, Jamaica, and all the other nations in the Caribbean have often, over the decades, been devastated by hurricanes. But global warming and warm El Nino waters have changed things, creating major drought conditions. The Jamaica Observer is the best at chronicling the Caribbean with brilliant cartoons, such as this one begging Hurricane Danny this week not to pass them by because even a drenching from a hurricane would alleviate some of the dire drought conditions.

        Cuba, the largest and most populated island in the Caribbean, is being plagued by the twin evils of the U. S. embargo and a devastating drought. The embargo has been in effect since 1962 for the purpose of depriving the Cuban people to entice them to overthrow their Revolutionary government. The drought has been acute since 2004. The Cristobal Herrera/AP photo above shows citizens of Holguin having their buckets filled up by what are now ubiquitous tank trucks as the government tries to provide water needed for drinking, cooking, bathing, and other necessities. Holguin is a city of 300,000 located 435 miles southeast of Havana. The current drought has adversely affected Cuban cities and farms all across the island, severely testing the citizens and the government. So the drought is both then and now for Cubans, and so is the much longer duration of the U. S. embargo. Here are some more then and now highlights.

        Of course, the most devastating then and now in U.S.-Cuban relations remains the pernicious U. S. embargo of Cuba, a plague since 1962 on both the island and on the image {above} of the United States.

The Batistiano-contaminated U. S. Congress wants to continue the embargo forever.

         In the 1920s right up until the Cuban Revolution victory on January 1, 1959, America's top mobsters loved Cuba. This photo was taken in 1930 and is courtesy of the State Archives of Florida. That's Al Capone, the all-time most famous Mafia kingpin, in the middle flanked by Havana mayor Julio Morales and lawyer J. Fritz Gordon. Capone owned mansions in Havana and Varadero Beach, Cuba, as well as Miami, Florida.

         In 1946 Lucky Luciano, the all-time most powerful Mafia kingpin, called a famous Organized Crime Conference in Havana. It was held at the famed Hotel Nacional, then a veritable beehive of Mafia activity.

Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner celebrated their honeymoon in Havana in 1951.
Frank Sinatra famously adored Mafia kingpins.

        In the 1950s during the U.S.-backed Batista/Mafia dictatorship, Cuba was a playpen for rich and famous Americans, including Hollywood elite, who flocked to the island. This photo is courtesy of The International Center of Photography. Sloppy Joe's Bar in Havana was a prime watering hole. At the bar above is Barbara Stanwyck, a superstar actress in her prime. To her right is Robert Taylor, a superstar actor in his prime.

       This photo, also courtesy of The International Center of Photography, was taken in 1959. In the Havana Cubanas uniform is Camilo Cienfuegos. Camilo was just 27-years-old and his popularity rivaled Fidel Castro's as one of the most heralded Revolutionary Commanders that had overthrown the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in the first week of 1959. Camilo had commanded the rebel unit that captured Santa Clara, the last major battle, before they raced to Havana only to discover that the Havana-Mafia leaders had fled.

            This photo shows the well-armed Camilo Cienfuegos and Fidel Castro after capturing Havana, with Camilo seeming to be quite puzzled and disappointed that the Batistianos had fled instead of fighting. 

        This photo is courtesy of Andrew Moore/Yancy Richardson Gallery, New York. For decades Cuban baseball teams dominated international competition in both the Olympics and the Pan-American Games.

       In recent years, a more determined and better greased pipeline has resulted in the U. S. Major Leagues siphoning off Cuba's unique abundance of baseball talent. This photo montage shows Aroldis Chapman, the Cuban-born lefty for the Cincinnati Reds. The backdrop depicts the latest mansion Chapman has purchased in South Florida. A plethora of Cuban defectors have recently signed huge baseball bonus contracts exceeding $70 million, with all the money guaranteed whether or not they ever make the Major Leagues. Similarly talented American players would receive bonuses of only about $3 to $5 million because they would be drafted and only the team that drafts them can sign them. But all Cubans in the U. S. have had special benefits since the Cuban Revolution chased the Batista dictatorship to U. S. soil in January of 1959. All 30 Major League teams get to bid on Cubans, accounting for their exorbitant bonuses. Then if they are good Major Leaguers, the salaries, not to mention the endorsements, become really exorbitant, bordering on obscene. Giancarlo Stanton, a 25-year-old outfielder for the Miami Dolphins who has been injured much of the past two years, recently got a guaranteed $325 million added to his already multi-million-dollar contract...in a country in which one in five children have hunger problems. The vast disparity between the rich and poor is strikingly apparent to all the defecting Cuban baseball stars.

         Yoenis Cespedes is a 29-year-old Cuban outfielder with the New York Mets. A few nights ago he had five hits, including three homers, in one game. Players like Cespedes not only make huge salaries in the U. S., they often make far more from endorsements. Note the Nike swoosh on Yoenis's undershirt. The influx of Cuban defectors means Cuba is no longer the dominant baseball nation in international competition. But an all-Cuban team of U. S. Major Leaguers could beat the nationals of any other nation, including the U. S. and the Dominican Republic. Off the top of my head, this is my current All-Cuban Baseball Team:

1B -- Jose Abreu, Chicago White Sox

2B -- Adeiny Hechavarria, Miami Dolphins

3B -- Yunel Escobar, Washington Nationals

SS -- Jose Iglesias, Detroit Tigers

LF -- Yoenis Cespedes, New York Mets

CF -- Yasiel Puig, Los Angeles Dodgers

RF -- Jorge Soler, Chicago Cubs
Catcher -- Yasmani Grandal, Los Angeles Dodgers

DH -- Kendrys Morales, Kansas City Royals

Starting Pitcher -- Jose Fernandez, Miami Dolphins

Relief Pitcher -- Aroldis Chapman, Cincinnati Reds

       Aroldis Chapman and Yoenis Cespedes reuniting in the U. S. as multi-millionaire American superstars. Cuba then and now, now and then, and forever will always be tied to the United States, for better or for worse. Baseball is just one example.

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Embargo Shames America

So Does The Cuban Adjustment Act

       Ivette Leyva Martinez is one of a myriad of Miami-based journalists who write endlessly about Cuba and, although typically and vehemently anti-Castro, she's one of the best. A major article last Friday penned by Ms. Leyva began with these words: "In yet another shameful spectacle for the defenders of the Cuba Adjustment Act, 14 people stood before a Miami federal court this Thursday on charges of contracting false marriages and committing immigration fraud to take advantage of the benefits afforded by the legislation. The alleged leaders of the fraud network recruited Cuban citizens who were eligible for permanent residency in the United States under the CAA and arranged fraudulent marriages with foreigners willing to pay for the services in order to evade the immigration regulations applicable to them. The CAA has been in effect since 1966. Over 30,000 Cubans a year still use the law to obtain permanent U. S. residency..." The insightful article by Ms. Leyva points out what every brave, decent, and intelligent American already knew: A plethora of U. S. laws, rammed through an intimidated or bought-and-paid-for U. S. Congress, have for decades been designed to benefit Miami Cubans, hurt Revolutionary Cuba, and harm non-Miami Cubans.

      The Cuban Adjustment Act is purely designed to benefit Cubans and purely meant to discriminate against everyone else. It is one of an endless array of anti-democratic Cuban ventures that are consequences of two dramatic blights on the U. S. democracy: {1} Teaming with the Mafia in 1952 to support the brutal, thieving Batista dictatorship so rich U. S. businessmen could also partake of the rape and robbery of the lush, nearby island; and {2} when the Cuban Revolution overthrew the Batista-Mafia dictatorship on January 1, 1959, the U. S. allowed the ousted Batistianos and Mafiosi to reconstitute their dictatorship on U. S. soil with the Little Havana section of Miami their new capital. The Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966 came about after numerous assassination attempts, the Bay of Pigs attack in 1961, the embargo enacted in 1962, etc., etc., had failed to recapture the island. Unlike any other people in the world, Cubans who touch U. S. soil are home free as permanent residents and immediately draw monthly welfare checks, get on Medicare, are put on fast tracks to citizenship, etc., etc. Primarily the Cuban Adjustment Act was to encourage Cubans on the island to get to Miami via any possible means so as to undermine Fidel Castro's government. A secondary objective, as with all such Cuban-related laws, was/is to enrich and empower the already rich and powerful Cuban-Americans in Miami and Union City, New Jersey. A U. S. Congress that has largely become a bought-and-paid-for enterprise greatly exacerbated the greed and revenge motivations of the Miami Cubans. Discussing the Cuban Adjustment Act in Progresso Weekly, Mayte Gonzalez wrote: "The U. S. Congress is contaminated with politicking that has paralyzed the legislative process in general."

       It has been cogently argued that George H. W. Bush -- as Vice-President under Ronald Reagan and then as President himself -- anointed anti-Castro zealot Jorge Mas Canosa as the leader of the Cuban government-in-exile in the 1980s. From that point on Mr. Canosa not only became a reputed billionaire in Miami but the architect of an extraordinary stream of anti-Castro/pro-Cuban exile laws. That Bush-Canosa connection is best understood by reading two seminal books: Julia E. Sweig's "What Everyone Needs To Know About Cuba" and Anne Louise Bardach's "Cuba Confidential: Love and Revenge in Miami and Havana." The most cogent advice the newly anointed Mr. Canosa ever got, according to Julia E. Sweig, was to study AIPAC, the ultra-powerful Israeli lobbying arm, and replicate it. Mr. Canosa took that advice and created The Cuban-American National Foundation. The rest is history. Since then both Israel and Miami have had firm grips on the U. S. Congress when it comes to any and all laws affecting those two entities.

          This cogent photo shows George H. W. Bush handing out souvinir pens to anti-Castro zealots Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Jorge Mas Canosa after yet another cogent anti-Castro/pro-Cuban exile bill was officially signed into law. Cogent is indeed the applicable word to describe the Bush-Canosa connection, but there are other more damnable words. Once anointed, Mr. Canosa had no trouble at all gaining sycophants in the U. S. Congress such as Robert Torricelli, Jesse Helms, Dan Burton, etc. Perhaps you have heard of the Torricelli Bill and the Helms-Burton Act. If not, read the two aforementioned Sweig and Bardach books and you'll comprehend how such cruel laws started and have kept the U. S. democracy on a downward spiral.

       While Cuban-born Jorge Mas Canosa was George H. W. Bush's favorite anti-Castro Cuban, Cuban-born Mel Martinez was/is George W. Bush's favorite anti-Castro Cuban. A political power in Miami, Mel Martinez became a national power thanks to the Bush dynasty. He became a U. S. Senator, a member of George W. Bush's cabinet, head of the Republican Party, etc. The Bush dynasty has accounted for much of the extreme power of the Miami Cubans and they want the Bush dynasty to continue for future decades, such as with Jeb Bush and Jeb's son George P. Bush, already the ultra-powerful Land Commissioner in Texas.

         This photo explains why Jeb Bush became the two-term governor of Florida and why, in 2015, Jeb is the top Republican candidate to succeed Barack Obama as President of the United States. In this photo, that is Jeb standing next to Mel Martinez, the Cuban-born former U. S. Senator from Miami and former key cabinet member in the George W. Bush presidency. Jeb's bid for the Presidency is fueled by rich and powerful long-time supporters of the Bush dynasty, such as Mr. Martinez. Standing behind Jeb and Mel Martinez in this photo are the Diaz-Balart brothers of Miami, Lincoln and Mario. They are the sons of Rafael Diaz-Balart, a key Minister in the Batista dictatorship who quickly became one of the richest and most powerful of the anti-Castro Miami Cubans. Rafael's Havana-born son Lincoln Diaz-Balart was elected to the U. S. Congress from Miami but gave up the safe seat to re-build the White Rose anti-Castro movement that his father had started in Miami shortly after the revolution changed things in Cuba, Miami, and Washington. Mario, Rafael Diaz-Balart's son born in Miami, has also been elected to the U. S. Congress from Miami and Mario remains there as one of the prime anti-Castro zealots. Anti-Castro Bush zealots and anti-Castro Miami-Cubans believe they alone should dictate America's Cuban power. And they have done so.

        This photo shows Jeb Bush in 1989 putting a halo around the head of Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Miami's anti-Castro zealot who had just been elected to the U. S. Congress. Jeb Bush had been her Campaign Manager. It was one of the things that endeared himself to the Miami Cubans and later accounted for his two-term stint as Florida's governor. Ros-Lehtinen has been entrenched in the U. S. Congress since 1989.

       There are now five members of the U. S. Congress from the two old Mafia strongholds of Miami and Union City, with these three -- Marco Rubio, Bob Menendez, and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen -- being the prime anti-Castro zealots along with Mario Diaz-Balart. The Cuban-Americans all try to become head of congressional committees that most affect Cuba. Ros-Lehtinen, for example, has been Chairwoman of the House Foreign Relations Committee. Menendez has been Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. and Rubio is now the Chairman of the Western Hemisphere Committee. Unfortunately, Cuba is a foreign country and is in the Western Hemisphere. It is also interesting to note that Rubio is sacrificing his first term in the U. S. Senate to be a Republican presidential candidate. Rubio is a protege of Jeb Bush, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Mel Martinez, and other powerful political brokers; plus he is Cuban-American. But guess what? Ros-Lehtinen, Martinez, etc., are strong supporters of Jeb Bush's presidential bid. The Bush-Cuban exile connection has reshaped the U. S. democracy, and not in a good way. Both Jeb and George P., with strong support from the Cuban-American elite, could block Mr. Rubio's path to the White House.

          Displaying Herculean guts and decency, President Obama -- in the homestretch of his two-term presidency -- has used his executive powers to defy a money-contaminated U. S. Congress to attach some sanity to America's Cuban policy. The reopening of embassies in Washington and Havana for the first time since 1961 seemed impossible, but he accomplished it. Yet, Miami Cubans and right-wing Republicans still control Congress and that's why the U. S. embargo and other hostilities against Cuba remain in effect.

         This graphic not only embarrasses President Obama but it embarrasses all democracy lovers around the world. The embargo against Cuba is the longest and cruelest in history. It dates back to 1962 when it was created for the purpose, according to declassified U. S. documents, of starving and depriving Cubans on the island to entice them to overthrow Fidel Castro. Except for hurting millions of totally innocent Cubans as well as the U. S. democracy, it hasn't worked. The embargo is now 53-years-old and Fidel Castro is 89-years-old. Like the Cuban Adjustment Act, Wet Foot/Dry Foot, Torricelli, Helms-Burton, and the rest of the contaminated Congressional laws related to Cuba, the embargo is designed to hurt Cuba and benefit a handful of Cuban-Americans economically, politically, and revengefully. The embargo has shamed democracy-loving Americans for over five decades. It should not be allowed to shame our children.

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Cuba Beware: A Trojan Horse

May Target Havana!!!

      This image of a Trojan Horse is courtesy of Void Magazine/voidlive.com based in Jacksonville, Florida. According to historical and mythological legends, in 1194 BC the Greeks had fruitlessly tried for a decade to capture the city of Troy during the Trojan War. The Greeks finally devised a stratagem: They built a huge wooden horse and put it on wheels. They made a faint at the fortified city walls, and then retreated, purposely leaving the horse behind. The soldiers defending Troy were intrigued and rolled the horse through the opened gates. Inside the horse, hidden in its belly and neck, the Greeks had planted 32 of their best soldiers, who exited the mammoth wooden horse and created havoc that included reopening the gates so the returning Greek army could enter. In that manner, very famously, the Greeks captured the city of Troy. A "Trojan Horse" has metaphorically come to mean any trick or stratagem that causes a target to foolishly allow a hostile force into its well-fortified bastion, such as a fort or a supposedly impenetrable city. In this digital age, a malicious computer program that salaciously tricks users into clicking onto a fake ad or email and thus allows thieves to access the computer is called "a Trojan Horse." Is Havana, like Troy, susceptible to a Trojan Horse because of improved U. S. relations? It's a theory well worth pondering.

         Not for a second am I suggesting that President Obama's Herculean efforts to normalize relations with Cuba involve a Trojan Horse strategy. But, there is no doubt that counter-revolutionaries in Miami and Washington, and a handful of well-heeled dissidents on the island, are well aware that having greater and less transparent access to the island, a byproduct of Obama's welcoming-hand approach to Cuba, is providing them a Trojan Horse-type opportunity after six decades of being unable to crack the Castro veneer. Luckily for Cuba, the island's most important American expert knows all about Trojan Horses.

        Josefina Vidal is Cuba's Minster of North American Affairs and her decision-making authority is stronger than even that title would indicate. She was Cuba's prime negotiator over the course of the past 25 months, enabling President Obama to use his executive power to bring some sanity to U.S.-Cuban relations despite the self-serving hostility of a Batistiano-loving U. S. Congress. Among other things, Vidal knows all about Trojan Horses. She doesn't want Havana to be equated in history or mythology with Troy. She is, however, aware that some powerful Americans and Cuban-Americans are as anxious to capture Havana in 2015 as the Greeks were to capture Troy in 1194 BC. With that in mind, the last two things that Vidal conceded prior to the re-opening of embassies in Washington and Havana for the first time since 1961 were: {1} very reluctantly she agreed to allow U. S. minsters to leave their embassy in Havana and travel freely around the island; and {2} very reluctantly she agreed to allow U. S. ministers to bring un-inspected diplomatic pouches into Cuba. Remember, Vidal for over a decade has been Cuba's primary monitor of the unending regime-change programs, lavishly created and funded in Miami and Washington. She is aware that the reopened U. S. embassy in Havana can be like the Trojan Horse was in Troy. As much as Vidal desires normal relations with the U. S., as epitomized by the reopened embassies, she is fully capable of "battening down the hatches," which to her means "sacrificing U. S. relations altogether in favor of a defensive posture that relies on much more friendly foreign support, especially when it comes to trade."

         Josefina Vidal is hoping that ultra rich and powerful Cuban-Americans like Carlos Gutierrez are not equating improved U.S.-Cuban relations with the Trojan Horse that spelled doomed for Troy centuries ago. But you had better believe that Vidal is well aware of a startling about-face Gutierrez has made regarding Cuba. He was born in Havana in 1953. His father was a wealthy owner of a pineapple plantation in Batista's Cuba. After the Cuban Revolution overthrew Batista in January of 1959, Gutierrez's father fled to Miami when Carlos was six-years-old. As an adult, Carlos became CEO and Chairman of one of America's best-known companies, Kellogg. Gutierrez also was Vice-Chairman of Citigroup, the far-flung financial giant.

        From 2005 till 2009 Gutierrez was Secretary of Commerce in the George W. Bush administration. That Bush presidency, as far as Vidal and others were concerned, turned Cuban policy over to viciously anti-Castro zealots/militants such as Otto Reich, Roger Noriega, and...Carlos Gutierrez. All of Latin America still cringes over the Bush presidency, especially Reich and Noriega, celebrating the brief coup that overthrew Venezuela's Cuban-friendly President Hugo Chavez. Vidal also palpably remembers how Gutierrez handled the U. S. reaction to two back-to-back hurricanes that devastated the island, destroying over 240,000 homes. Many countries sincerely offered aid. So did the U. S., insincerely. Gutierrez held a news conference saying x-number of U. S. tax dollars would help Cuba's recovery. It was a ruse that still irritates Vidal. He said the financial aid would not go to the government, meaning as far as Vidal was concerned it was merely an additional way to fund dissidents. Gutierrez held more news conferences, pompously raising the amount of tax dollars the U. S. was ready to provide Cuba. Gutierrez, Vidal still believes, was making fun of Cuba during a time when the people on the island were suffering from the brutal hurricanes. Vidal does not trust any American closely aligned with the Bush dynasty, economically or politically.

      Carlos Gutierrez is now 61-years-old and an extremely rich man. His power and influence resides mostly in his huge bank accounts but also in a plethora of enterprises such as the Albright Stone Bridge Group. Back on July 20th he was a very ubiquitous visitor to Havana where he attended the flag-raising at the new U. S. embassy. The photograph above was taken in front of the embassy during a long interview with Gutierrez conducted by NBC's top political correspondent Andrea Mitchell. In that interview, which you may want to dial up online, Gutierrez lavishly advocated friendly relations with Cuba. WOW! He even lavished praise on Cuban President Raul Castro, pointing out how many new entrepreneurs he was seeing on his return to Cuba. His lavish praise has been analyzed by Josefina Vidal. Is Carlos Gutierrez's about-face akin to the Trojan Horse stratagem that the Greeks used so successfully against Troy? Maybe! Maybe not?

        This photo of Josefina Vidal was taken this week as she was being interviewed by Reuters, the London-based international news agency that covers Cuba like a blanket. Thanks to Reuters, we know that Ms. Vidal knows what a Trojan Horse is. That means Cuba may remain a sovereign country a while longer.

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Cuba's Unique Beauty

Tourism Is Surging

       The renowned photographer Juan Suarez has presented a magnificent portrait of Cuba as reflected by a stunning menagerie of 25 photos, such as this one, featured on the Havana Times.org website. He wrote: "We visited the keys north of Ciega de Avila in the resort area known as Jardines del Ray, which includes Cayo Coco and Cayo Guillermo. The popular tourist destination has exuberant vegetation, exotic birds, a colony of pink flamingos, and one of the best beaches in the country, Playa Pilar."

         This Juan Suarez photo shows a crowded beach at Cayo Coco now attracting more tourists. As Presidents Obama and Castro began to ease animosity between the two nations, the number of trips abroad by Cubans increased by 23.7 percent in 2014 and that has sharply increased in 2015. Likewise, President Obama has used executive power to allow more Americans to visit Cuba in defiance of the U. S. embargo that has harmed Cuba since 1962 and prevents most U. S. citizens the freedom to visit the island.

This Juan Suaez photo highlights the pristine white sands of Cuban beaches.

      This map shows Ciega de Avila, the area photographed by Juan Suarez, on the north-central coast of the alligator-shaped island of Cuba. Just off the coast of Ciega de Avila you can also detect the white sands of Cayo Coco and Cayo Guillermo in the area known as Jardines del Ray, now a prime tourist attraction.

       This important photo was taken yesterday {August 20th} in Brasilia, Brazil. It is used courtesy of Veslei Marcelina/Reuters. That's Dilma Rousseff, the President of Brazil, pointing out something to Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany. Brazil has by far the largest economy in Latin America and Germany has by far the largest economy in Europe. The two ultra-powerful women yesterday signed an agreement on climate change ahead of the much-anticipated global climate talks that will be held in Paris in December.

   German Chancellor Angela Merkel also yesterday vowed to boost Brazil's stagnant economy and to help elevate the mood of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Cuba's and Fidel Castro's dear friend. The 67-year-old Rousseff is less than a year into her second term as Brazil's President. It's been rough. A massive scandal at the state-owned Petrobas oil firm coupled with a slowing economy has reduced Rousseff's popularity to single digits and prompted massive street demonstrations demanding her resignation or impeachment. She has always been a strong economic supporter of Cuba, so her political status in Brazil is extremely important to the island. Perhaps the boost from the Merkel visit will help Dilma...and Cuba. 

 And by the way.........

      ................I learned something new about robins this week. The photo above was taken by Roland Jardahl and is used courtesy of Birds & Blooms Magazine. The caption to this photo stated: "American robins have as many as three broods in a year, with each nesting cycle lasting about a month from egg laying to the fledgling of babies. That means they don't finish their nesting till late August. Female robins lay and incubate the eggs but both parties care for the young." I thought that robins had just one brood of babies each spring, not up to three throughout the summer.  

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Nature Targets Cuba

Along With Human Enemies

     For a lot of years, Marc Frank has been the best and fairest journalist telling the world what life is really life on the island of Cuba. That's important because, especially in the U. S. but also elsewhere, the Cuban narrative since the 1950s has mostly concentrated on making the point that the now 89-year-old Fidel Castro is a really bad man while his predecessors -- the Batistianos, the Mafiosi, and U. S. businessmen -- were Mother Teresa-like angels. Marc Frank, however, has had the guts and the integrity as a journalist and author to provide balanced images of Cuba. He is the prized Reuters journalist but many venues, even including ABC-TV in the U. S., often depend on Mr. Frank when they want unbiased perspectives of everyday life on the important but usually maligned island. He spends the bulk of his time surveying the day-to-day lives of everyday Cubans, not focusing solely on the reactions to or results of counter-revolutionary schemes concocted by the U. S. Congress, Miami exiles, and foreign-backed domestic dissidents. This week Marc Frank's insightful article was entitled: "Cuba On Edge As Drought Worsens." He focused, as usual, on how everyday Cubans were coping with that latest disaster and, secondarily, how the government was reacting to it. He wrote: "Cuba put its defense system on alert on Monday {August 17th} due to a year-long drought that is forecast to worsen in the coming months and has already damaged agriculture and left more than a million people relying on trucked-in water. Around Cuba -- from famous cigars to sugar, vegetables, rice, coffee and beans -- the drought is damaging crops. It has slowed planting and left one in 10 residents waiting for government tank trucks to survive in record summer heat." Those were the opening words in Marc Frank's article this week. He went on to explain how the drought is affecting Cubans today. That's important, yet the Miami extremists in the U. S. Congress, such as Marco Rubio, and their favorite dissidents on the island, such as Yoani Sanchez, totally ignore such aspects of Cuban life while they concentrate on their counter-revolutionary activities that are so economically and politically rewarding. Meanwhile, as the star journalist for Reuters, Marc Frank tells you about the struggles, the hopes, and the daily lives of everyday Cubans. This week -- as U. S. and Cuban flags fly high at the newly reopened embassies in Washington and Havana -- many Cubans are more concerned with getting clean water to drink, bathe, and cook...and the Cuban government is devoting considerable resources in trying to cope with the problem. Marc Frank even says that Cubans regret the scarcity of hurricanes, which are destructive but at least counter droughts.

Water tanks are used to fill up the omnipresent truck deliveries in Cuba.

        Ines Maria Chapman Waught is the Cuban in charge of surveying Cuba's water shortage. She told Marc Frank: "The drought is everyone's problem and so every state entity has to create a plan immediately." Drought conditions across the Caribbean, caused by the phenomenon known as El Nino, have left reservoirs at 37 percent of capacity. The U. S. embargo hurts Chapman's drought struggles.

          Not coincidentally, one of the best books published in 2015 is Marc Frank's latest gem -- "CUBAN REVELATIONS: Behind the Scenes in Havana." As a journalist and as an author, Marc Frank is rather unique regarding Cuba. He tells the truth. When it comes to Cuba, truth is a forgotten noun and a lost process.

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Corporate Gluttony: An Evil

Hurts Cuba and the World

       Jason Day is a 27-year-old golfer from Australia. On August 16, 2015, he received a $1.8 million check for winning the PGA Championship in Michigan. Such prize money is pocket-change for professional athletes. The endless billions of dollars showered on athletes, stadiums, universities, and other entities via corporate marketing is nothing short of a capitalist evil gone amok. It is an unchecked enterprise that harms the vast majority of the world's 7.3 billion people, merely to sate the greed and gluttony of an elite few. Multi-billion-dollar corporations get tax breaks for showering multi-millionaire and multi-billionaire athletes with millions and billions of dollars in often frivolous endorsements...in a world in which one of every five children in the U. S., the world's richest nation, have severe hunger problems, with billions of other children worldwide even hungrier or already starved to death. The sheer greed and gluttony of corporate executives, as they bask in their ivory towers, are responsible for much of that misery.

          Yes...Jason Day, the 27-year-old Aussie, got a paycheck of $1.8 million last Sunday for winning the PGA championship in Michigan; 22-year-old Jordan Spieth's check was $1,080,000 for finishing second. But such winnings are almost meaningless and surely unappreciated because they pale in comparison to the money corporate sponsors shower on athletes for such things as just adding their corporate names on hats, T-shirts, etc., that the athletes wear, making golfers like Jason Day look like Nascar clowns. Much of that greed and gluttony insults the parents of hungry children around the world. For example, gluttonous ads "CONGRATULATING" athletes for victories should be prohibited by law out of respect for hungry and ill-clad children. Right after Jason Day's PGA victory, my USA Today featured full-page color ads merely sending "congratulations" to Jason Day from two of his many corporate sponsors -- Concur and Zurich. Such ads cost about $300,000. The executives at Concur and Zurich could have congratulated Jason Day via an email or a phone call and contributed the $600,000 spent on just two CONGRATULATORY ads to feeding hungry children. Let's see now...$600,000...would feed...how many children...for how many days? 

        The billions of dollars gluttonous corporations shower each day on obscenely wealthy athletes could, if properly directed, save the lives of many innocent children. "Congratulatory" ads are particularly insulting to children like the little girl depicted above. Just two dollars of the $600,000 Concur and Zurich spent on their USA Today congratulatory ads to Jason Day could have purchased a good meal for this little girl -- maybe a sandwich, an apple, and a glass of milk. But corporations like Concur and Zurich believe Jason Day deserves those two dollars more than this little girl. I think they are wrong...criminally wrong!!

        In the 1950s during the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship, Cuban children like these had hunger, clothing, shelter, and sanitation problems. Providing these children necessities such as food and clothes was not even an afterthought. Considering the ill-gotten wealth accruing to the Batistianos, the Mafiosi, and the businessmen in Cuba during that period, I believe the fate of these Cuban children, and all oppressed children in a world in which the gluttonously rich rule, was and is wrong...criminally wrong!!

         The "CONGRATULATORY" ads directed at Jason Day this week, and other such corporate examples of gluttony, always remind me of this photo. It was taken in Batista's Cuba in the 1950s by the great photographer Alberto Korda. He would always say it was the greatest and the most haunting photograph he ever took. This little Cuban girl was not starving, Korda said. She was well-dressed, and well groomed. But the day Korda took her photograph, the little girl lovingly clutched her most prized possession -- a block of wood that she pretended was a doll. Korda learned that her parents loved her dearly, but they couldn't afford a real doll. That's why the photograph of the precious little girl haunted Korda the rest of his life. And that's why, in a world in which 40,000 children starve to death each day, I am angered by the sheer greed and gluttony of corporations who shower extremely rich athletes with extreme amounts of easy endorsement money, not to mention the expensive "CONGRATULATORY' ads that insult not only hungry and deprived little girls but also the decent adults who care about them. Societies should be judged by how children are cared for. Children deserve food, clothes, shelter, health care, educations, etc. Korda's little girl deserved a real doll. Gluttonous corporate executives deserve only scorn for insulting the lives of non-rich children while they over-indulge their own children and other rich associates, like athletes.

       This image...a hungry little girl sitting all alone on cement steps...is courtesy of ABC-TV News. She was featured in that network's documentary on childhood hunger in the U. S., the richest nation in the history of the world by far. The network began the segment featuring this little girl with these words: "One child out of every five in the U. S. suffers from hunger." ABC-News was reporting on a U. S. in which billion-dollar corporations shower millionaire and billionaire athletes with endorsements worth additional millions and billions that they don't need, not even the most gluttonous among them. And neither does this little girl. But gotdamnit!! She doesn't deserve to be sitting on those cement steps all alone...AND HUNGRY. We who care about her are as much to blame as those gluttonous corporations and those gluttonous athletes, because we allow them to get away with it and to project the image that Jason Day or a Tiger Woods doesn't have enough money and this little girl has too much to eat. Billionaire executives and athletes abound in a nation in which one little girl in five is hungry. Is there something wrong with the USA Today picture of Jason Day being "CONGRATULATED" via a $300,000 full-page ad? Is there something wrong with the ABC-TV picture of this little girl sitting all alone on cement steps suffering from hunger in gluttonous America? Did Korda's little girl deserve a real doll in gluttonous Cuba during the Batista dictatorship? Silly questions, huh? But photographs are worth a thousand words. And so are hungry, deprived little girls.

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Cuba's Indefatigable MVP

She Prefers Peace To War
But...She Thinks Cuba Is Worth Fighting For

          U. S. Secretary of State John Kerry, like his boss President Obama, knows who Cuba's Most Valuable Player is. Her name is Josefina Vidal, Cuba's Minister of North American Affairs. Mr. Kerry and his boss trust and respect her. If that were not so, Mr. Kerry last week would not have been the first Secretary of State to visit Cuba since 1945. And if that were not so, the U. S. Embassy in Havana and the Cuban Embassy in Washington would not be open, with flags flying high, for the first time since 1961. In the photo above Mr. Kerry, at the flag raising ceremony in Havana Friday, August 14th, is pointing out something to Ms. Vidal and reminding her, "You see, Josefina, the impossible can happen. A Cuban embassy can open in Washington and this U. S. embassy can open in Havana." She responded with the diplomatic smile depicted above. But Ms. Vidal, the Cuban who made it all possible, was skeptical. Truth be known, she still is.

         This New York Times photo shows Josefina Vidal being asked a question at a news conference in Washington. The question was: "Some are saying that the U. S. is giving Cuba too much without insisting that Cuba improve its human rights record?" Her answer: "For every self-serving person in Miami and the U. S. Congress who says things like that because they revel or benefit in punishing everyday Cubans, there are probably 99 who approve of President Obama's attempts to normalize relations with Cuba. But your question doesn't surprise me. The U. S. media, with few exceptions, doesn't have the courage or the decency to care about what the majority of Americans or Cubans say. Your question might be better asked of a U. S. government official instead of a Cuban official. If I were an American citizen or an American journalist, I would be outraged over endless videos of police shooting or choking unarmed citizens. I would be appalled if that happened even occasionally in Cuba. Clean up your human rights, then you can legitimately ask about ours." 

           This ABC News photo shows Josefina Vidal telling an American audience that the opening of embassies in Washington and Havana constitute a first step, not the final step, in the normalization of relations between the U. S. and Cuba. Incredibly, over the course of two years -- in delicate discussions that involved venues in Havana, Washington, Toronto, Montreal, and Rome -- Ms. Vidal accomplished the first big step, the opening of embassies, by negotiating a lot of slightly smaller steps, such as: returning Cuban prisoner Alan Gross to the U. S., returning American prisoners known as the Cuba 5 to Cuba, getting Cuba removed from the U. S. State Department's Sponsors of Terrorism list, getting Cuba removed from the U. S. trafficking list, etc. She represented Cuba brilliantly throughout those negotiations, getting concessions no pundit believed she could obtain. But now that the embassies are opened for the first time in over 54 years, rest assured that Josefina Vidal, who made it all happen with the concurrence of Presidents Obama and Castro, is the key monitor who will determine if those high-flying flags will again come down and be put back in storage. At the moment, she believes there is only a 50-50 chance they will continue waving throughout the final 17 months of President Obama's two-term presidency. She deeply admires his guts in taking on Miami extremists and Congressional hardliners. But she knows that all Republican presidents since the 1950s have taken their Cuban orders from Miami's anti-Castro zealots and she knows the next Republican president, beginning in 2017 or later, will do the same. She also knows that the three most recent Democratic presidents -- Kennedy, Carter and Clinton -- have been forced to abandon normalization plans with Cuba based on notoriety produced by provoking Cuba into defending its sovereignty. She fully knows that the same tactics are being concocted now and will be used to derail President Obama's efforts in the coming months. And beyond all that, Josefina Vidal still has three unresolved demands that she either wants met or she herself will call for the flags to be taken down.

      Although she is willing to spend "a reasonable amount of time" finalizing them, Josefina Vidal is still demanding three things of the United States or she will throw in the towel regarding newly opened embassies and further negotiations aimed at normalizing relations between the two countries. Miami and Congress will adamantly fight all those three things. They are: {1} The return of Guantanamo Bay, which the U. S. has occupied since 1903, to Cuba; {2} the end of the U. S. embargo against Cuba, which has brutally sabotaged the island's economy since 1962; and {3} she will demand that the new U. S. embassy in Havana not be what she calls "a disguised Trojan horse." Trusting U. S. negotiator Roberta Jacobson and her bosses Obama and Kerry, Vidal very reluctantly agreed that U. S. diplomats could travel around the island and mingle freely with the Cuban people, and they could bring un-inspected pouches to their embassy. However, she fears those nuances may merely turn out to be excuses to further encourage, create, and fund dissidents on the island. If so, Vidal will object strenuously, strong enough to end diplomacy altogether. The same is true with the return of Guantanamo Bay and the end of the embargo. Miami extremists still control the U. S. Congress regarding Cuban policy and they will control the White House during the next Republican presidency. Therefore, Vidal's three remaining pillars will likely be blocked, during or shortly after the Obama presidency ends. And if that is the case regarding any or all of those three things, Josefina Vidal will simply suggest that Cuba revert back to a do-or-die defensive posture.

 Josefina Vidal

Cuba's Most Valuable Player
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On a slightly gentler topic:

       This is a Morning Dove taking care of her babies. The photo is courtesy of Lee Prince/shutterstack.com. This is typical of the photos regularly featured in Birds & Blooms Magazine.

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