Cuba on the Brink

 A Sink-or-Swim Island 

  The great London-based newspaper The Guardian does the best job of reporting on Cuba from Cuba. The photo above illustrated an article by Oliver Wainwright in which he called Havana "one of the world's great cities on the brink of a fraught transition." Discussing the overflow from President Obama's historic efforts to normalize relations with Cuba, Mr. Wainwright wrote: "Cuba for Sale: Havana is now the big cake -- and everyone is trying to get a slice." He then updated Cuba's efforts to "open its doors to the world." Being British, Oliver Wainwright can write fairly about Cuba; being American, U. S. journalists are either too intimidated or too politically correct to do the same.

       This Reuters/Claudia Daut photo shows run-down buildings in Havana. In his article, Oliver Wainwright said such buildings are "undergoing a spate of restoration" but he wondered "if the city of Havana can cope with the commercial storms ahead." Those eclectic storms include an influx of tourists and investment dollars on the heels of President Obama's historic efforts to normalize relations with the nearby island.

       The journalist Oliver Wainwright took this photo of Havana Harbor and explained that Cuba planned to invest in sharply improving the waterway...at least till Venezuela, in dire straits itself, was forced to curtail its oil shipments to the island by 20% with bigger reductions looming very ominously for both nations.

    Cuba has curtailed upgrades to this elevated railway system.

      While the renovation work in Havana is a mammoth undertaking, The Guardian used this Oliver Wainwright photo to point out that all around the city improvements are surely but slowly being made.

      With the financial assistance of Brazil, Cuba's all-important Mariel Port has received a billion-dollar upgrade and its deeper waters can now handle much larger container ships than Havana's port. The splendid Mariel Economic Zone is vital to Cuba's economic future as it tries to diversify its financial focus.

Ana Teresa Igarza is the Director of the Mariel Port.

        U. S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker visited the Mariel Port and was "awesomely impressed." She is shown above talking enthusiastically to Charlie Baker. He is the Director of the Mariel Container Terminal. That is Mariel's overall boss, Ana Teresa Igarza, in the white jacket. Ana told Secretary Pritzker, "This port is vital to us and the Caribbean. The biggest challenge and threat to it is the U. S. embargo of Cuba. I know it is Miami and the Congress that keeps the embargo in place but I appreciate your understanding."

       This excellent map shows the strategic location of the Mariel Port, just 30 miles southwest of Havana and 90 miles southwest of Key West, Florida. Further to the south is the newly deepened and expanded Panama Canal that links two oceans and is now taking much larger container ships through Panama.

      But this updated Reuters photo shows the two-sides of the Cuban equation. In the background is that spanking new, billion-dollar Mariel Port. In the foreground is what to this day is a common means of travel in Cuba -- a horse and buggy. Most people in the world, such as Penny Pritzker and President Obama, hope Cuba's future revolves around such things as a successful Mariel Port. But there remains in Miami and Washington a small but powerful contingent of Cuban-Americans who hope to dictate, as they have since 1959, that such things as the horse-and-buggy -- or worse -- remain as the dominant forces in Cuba." 

And by the way: 

        This is a very iconic Reuters photo related to the recent history of Cuba's Mariel Port. It was taken on January 27, 2014 as President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil and Cuba's President Raul Castro were arriving to celebrate the billion-dollar overall of the vital port. President Rousseff's Brazil had invested $900,000.

Presidents Rousseff and Castro led the Mariel celebration.

        Dilma Rousseff has twice been democratically elected President of Brazil, Latin America's largest, richest, most populated and most important nation. As noted above, her approval rating has soared as high as a phenomenal 91% because the majority of people in Brazil are poor. Dilma dearly loves Brazil's poorest, most maligned people. All of her adult life she has paid, and is paying, a steep price for that love.

       As a girl in Brazil, Dilma was appalled about the treatment the Brazilian peasants were receiving from a U.S.-backed dictatorship. Inspired by the Cuban Revolution, she became a fierce guerrilla fighter.

   Dilma was captured and became prisoner #3023. After a rigged military trial, she was unmercifully tortured in prison for many months. After becoming the democratically elected President of Brazil, the United Nations, as trials of such dictators and their collaborators are still underway in Latin America, asked her to painfully recount the details of her torture, which she tearfully and painfully did. 

       Dilma Rousseff is crying today too. As the two-term, democratically elected President of Brazil, she has been impeached. As Brazil prepares to host the Olympics in a few days, she is fighting that impeachment just as she fought those brutal dictators in her youth. As the appeals process continues, she is confined to her quarters. Ironically, it seems the impeachment leaders against her are similar to those dictators she fought long ago. Those impeachment leaders, backed by a cabal of very rich Brazilians, resent all the resources Dilma as President has devoted to the needy majority poor as opposed to the greedy, minority rich. She calls her impeachment "a coup perpetrated by criminals." Many observers agree with her.

      As an unbiased, internationally renowned newspaper, London's The Guardian has covered the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff fairly. She has not been charged with a crime but many...some say most...of the impeachment leaders in Brazil's Lower Congress have been charged with crimes such as taking bribes from the rich elite. Dilma herself remains a fighter and she is not an easy sacrificial lamb. She says, "I will never regret what I have done on behalf of the poor people in my beloved country, even though it put me in a terrible prison when I was young and has impeached me as President now. One thing I do regret is that anti-Cuban elements in the United States supported the dictatorship I fought against and, I believe, are again supporting those who have now impeached me. Many of my democratically elected friends in Latin America have told me the same thing -- including the Presidents of Venezuela, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Nicaragua in particular. The Cuban Revolution ushered in hopes for democracy in my country and throughout Latin America. Now don't ask me why so-called fringe or minority forces in the U. S. were allowed and are allowed to hurt poor people in other countries. You should ask the U. S. that question. As for the particulars related to my Presidency and to my impeachment, you can ask me. I believe I am well-versed on the particulars." It is tough to see a great lady cry, especially when the tears are caused by greedy fiends.

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Cuba Is Trying

 But So Are Its Enemies
 {Updated: Sunday, July 31st, 2016} 

        This weekend a major article in the London Daily Mail used the above photo to illustrate a topical revelation that "Cuba and Bulgaria are the two top hotspots for tourists trying to avoid terror attacks." It's okay for Brits to know such things although propagandized Americans are not supposed to comprehend Cuban positives. But, yes, Cuba is one of the safest spots on a troubled planet. The article also revealed a Catch-22 situation: Since President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with the island, Cuba's economy and infrastructure -- severely weakened by the massive, malicious, and ongoing U. S. embargo since 1962 -- is being overwhelmed by a fresh burst of tourism.

      Royal Caribbean has just spent $50 million refurbishing this magnificent ship, Empress of the Seas, with plans to begin regular cruises to Cuba. The itinerary included 4-and-5-night trips from Miami. But those plans are on hold because Cuba has so far refused permission to allow the 1,840-passenger ship to visit.

       Royal Caribbean's Senior Vice President Vicki Freed worked hard arranging the expected cruises to Cuba and is disappointed with Cuba's refusal. She says, "The Empress of the Seas is the right sized vessel for Cuba and our intention is still that someday we will be going there. We're just waiting for the nod from Cuba." 

        On the surface, Cuba's refusal to allow 1800 well-heeled visitors to the island aboard Empress of the Seas is hard to fathom. It affords its enemies in the United States more anti-Cuban fodder to further their long-standing agendas, which are to destroy Revolutionary Cuba. Sovereign since 1959 but shackled since then by military attacks, assassination attempts, terrorist acts, and history's all-time longest and cruelest embargo, Cuba is having trouble adjusting to President Obama's efforts to challenge a second generation of revengeful Batistianos by trying to normalize relations with the neighboring island. Cuba is effectively blocked from routine international financial operations because nations and banks are afraid of being sanctioned or fined by the superpower U. S. if they deal with Cuba. That infringement on the island's hard-earned sovereignty would have long ago doomed much larger nations and may finally doom little, pugnacious Cuba. Meanwhile, Cuba's frayed infrastructure has already been overly taxed by the Obama-orchestrated increase in tourism. It is using its limited resources to increase and improve its hotel accommodations, for example, but also is direly worried about having enough energy to avoid power outages and blackouts that have been forecast for the second half of this year. Those tourists expect hotel rooms with electricity and air conditioners, expectations that Cuba may not be able to provide. Back in June Cuba allowed Carnival Cruise Lines to begin regular trips to the island, but the excited influx of visitors strained Cuba's capacity to accommodate them. The much larger Empress of the Seas would do the same. By refusing or delaying Vicki Freed's plans at Royal Caribbean, Cuba is not shooting itself in the foot. The island is still being shot in the back by forces hiding behind the skirts of the world superpower.

Yes, Cuba is trying but so are Cuba's congressional enemies.

Posada in Miami, now 88, still fervently hates Fidel.

Fidel in Havana, 90 in a few days, still fervently hates Posada.

While good Cubans {and Americans} can't end the feuds.

         In January of 1959 Cuban children wore fake beards to honor the island's new bearded leader, Fidel Castro. His revolution had just done, in the eyes of the world, the impossible by overthrowing a U.S.-backed dictatorship. But the leaders of the ousted Batista-Mafia regime, including Rafael Diaz-Balart and Santo Trafficante, and the most visceral anti-Castro Cubans, such as Jorge Mas Canosa and Luis Posada Carriles, quickly regrouped on U. S. soil, mostly Miami, before extending their power to the halls of Congress in Washington and to the White House, especially when it was occupied by the Bush dynasty. But since 1959, in the eyes of the world, the Cuban Revolution has pulled off another impossible feat -- by merely surviving for over five decades. Fidel Castro's beard, so black in the above 1959 photo, is now very white just a few days from his 90th birthday. But he and his beard are still intact. And that too seems utterly impossible.

  A survivor of 634 assassination attempts? WOW!! 

Not only a legend, but still a living legend as he nears 90.

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Cuba Is Teetering

In A Perfect Storm Crisis 

        This AP photo highlights the fact that JetBlue Airlines will be the first to make U.S.-to-Cuba commercial flights in over half-a-century. The regularly scheduled flights will begin next month, on August 31st, between Fort Lauderdale and Santa Clara. The fares will be $99 one-way. It will begin with three flights a week before going to daily service on October 1st. JetBlue says it will start flights to Camaguey on November 3rd and to Holguin on November 10th. Eight other airlines, including American, have also obtained permission for flights to Cuba. Ten Cuban cities will welcome the historic U. S commercial planes.

       JetBlue's executive vice-president, Marty St. George, said, "It's a new day for Cuba travelers and one we have thoughtfully prepared for." JetBlue has permission to fly to Cuba from Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and New York's JFK. Mr. St. George says he will announce later flights to Havana -- the busy, coveted capital.

      The "new day" and the new normal for Cuba also has drawbacks as reflected by the updated Reuters photo above. It shows Cuban children playing in front of a street mural with an image of Hugo Chavez that depicts him as "Cuba's best friend." He surely was as President of Venezuela from 1999 till he died of cancer in 2013. Chavez idolized Cuba's Fidel Castro and, in exchange for thousands of Cuban teachers and medical personnel working in Venezuela, Chavez sent Cuba over 100,000 barrels of oil each day. Cuba produces in excess of 50,000 barrels a day and needs about 140,000 barrels each day to provide its energy needs. So when Hugo Chavez lived, Cuba actually refined and sold some excess oil. But...no more. 

Venezuela's current President is Nicolas Maduro.

      Like his predecessor and mentor Hugo Chavez, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro also idolizes Cuba's Fidel Castro. In the three years since Chavez died, Maduro has made at least 15 trips to see Fidel.

        This photo was used this week by both Reuters and Voice of America to point out that economic conditions are so dire in Venezuela that its impact on Cuba is becoming massive. At least fifty beloved zoo animals in Venezuela have starved to death in recent days because of severe food shortages. Venezuelans have crossed the border into Colombia to purchase food, diapers, toilet paper and other necessities.

        Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Cuban President Raul Castro remain close friends but Maduro's economic and political problems are now weighing heavily on Cuba. Castro notified the Cuban people: "A certain contraction in the fuel supplies agreed upon with Venezuela is negatively affecting our energy supplies, despite the firm will of President Maduro and his government to fulfill them." That statement came after Venezuela's oil to Cuba decreased by 20 percent. Maduro's pro-U.S. political opponents, if and when they can oust Maduro, would very likely, but gradually, cease the oil shipments to Cuba entirely.

      In exchange for the oil shipments, Cuba has 31,000 doctors and dentists serving Venezuela's poorest areas, plus hundreds of teachers. But one of the last anti-Cuba acts devised by the George W. Bush administration was a regime-change program encouraging, with bonuses, these doctors, dentists and teachers to defect to the U. S., where other regime-change U. S. laws provide Cuban immigrants, and only Cuban immigrants, instant residency, financial and citizenship privileges. The government of Colombia recently said 750 of these Cubans crossed over its borders and instantly asked for U. S. visas. So, even prior to Venezuela's debilitating economic problems, the doctors-for-oil program was teetering on the brink of disaster, just as the nations of Venezuela and Cuba are now. Teetering and being pushed over the cliff. 

       The New York Times used this photo to illustrate a major article written by Victoria Burnett. It revealed that Cubans like the lady above now fear blackouts and power shortages before this year is out. In addition to the major problems in Venezuela, low nickel prices and a weather-related poor sugar harvest are among the perfect storm nuances that have converged to challenge Cuba's economy, off-setting some positive gains resulting from better relations with America since Obama replaced Bush #2 as U. S. President.

       The blog The Cuban Economy warns of a dire economic "chill" engulfing Cuba. It concludes that "warnings of rationing revive memories of post-Soviet austerity in Havana." Indeed, Revolutionary Cuba struggled but survived in the early 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union ended billions of dollars worth of subsidies to Cuba, creating a "Special Period." Now a second one looms just over the horizon.

      A close observer of the Cuban economy is Jorge Pinon, the renowned Latin American energy expert at the University of Texas. Mr. Pinon believes that Cuba's economic crisis will worsen as President Maduro's problems in Venezuela deepen. And Mr. Pinon believes that dire financial problems in Cuba will push the island politically closer and closer to the United States as a necessary and practical economic reaction.

        As the above quotation indicates, Cuba's Josefina Vidal very badly wants to continue the "constructive spirit" that she has meticulously forged with the United States during President Obama's administration.

     
     
      But suggestions that the current economic crisis will force Cuba to make "unwarranted concessions" to the United States irk Josefina Vidal. She says, "As a sovereign country since the 1959 revolution ended American and Mafia dominance of the island, Cuba has doggedly survived the 1960 Operation Mongoose assassination attempts against our leaders by the U. S., the Mafia and Cuban exiles; the 1961 military attack known as the Bay of Pigs; the American economic blockade in effect since 1962; and all other major obstacles confronting us. The so-called 'perfect storm' hitting us now includes the Venezuelan situation, low oil prices, low nickel prices, a sugar shortfall, and other normal and unexpected economic challenges. But let's not forget that the continuing U. S. blockade along with the unending array of Congress-mandated and lavishly funded regime-change programs still represent the main obstructions into the lives of everyday Cubans on this island. The so-called U. S. experts who say otherwise are pure liars, and such lies are repulsive to me."

       Recently several major American publications made headlines by suggesting that Cuba was ready to extradite Joanne Chesimard back to the U. S. as a "drastic means" of "cozying up to the United States." 

      But Josefina Vidal herself ended such speculation regarding Joanne Chesimard with this forceful statement: "We have explained to the U. S. government that there are some people living in Cuba to whom we have legitimately granted political asylum. That includes Joanne Chesimard. As a black woman, we remain unconvinced that she received a fair trial in the U. S. The U. S. has given asylum to dozens and dozens of Cuban criminals, some accused of terrorism, murder and kidnapping, and in every case the U. S. government has decided to welcome them, including the protection of Luis Posada Carriles and many others in Miami."  

       Joanne Chesimard, also known as Assatur Shakur, was the first woman placed on the FBI's Most Wanted List. There remains a multi-million-dollar bounty on her head. She was a member of the Black Panthers in 1973 when a car in which she and two male Black Panthers were riding was stopped on a New Jersey highway. In a shoot-out, State Trooper Werner Foerster was killed along with a male Black Panther. Chesimard and the other male Black Panther were wounded as was a second police officer. In six criminal procedures and three trials, Chesimard was finally convicted of killing Mr. Foerster although she always has maintained her innocence. In 1979 she escaped from prison and ended up in Cuba, where she has remained. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has recently made headlines by calling her a "cold-blooded killer" while loudly insisting that President Obama should "strongly" demand her extradition from Cuba.

      Meanwhile, Luis Posada Carriles, shown here in a photo from The Guardian, is the most notable of what Josefina Vidal called "The dozens of Cuban criminals" protected and welcomed in the United States. Posada, now 88-years-old, was born in 1928 in Cienfuegos, Cuba. Since 1959 he has made war against Fidel Castro and he admitted to Ann Louise Bardach and the New York Times that there has been "collateral damage."

        Cuba and many other nations consider Luis Posada Carriles history's all-time greatest Latin American terrorist. Indeed, in a famous New York Times interview conducted by Ann Louise Bardach, he admitted decades of anti-Castro terror attacks against Cuba, including a famously fatal hotel bombing in Havana.

       But in Cuba and across the Caribbean and Latin America, Posada Carriles is most famous for being tied to the October 6, 1976 bombing of a civilian Cuban airplane. All 73 aboard Cubana Flight 455 perished.

      Right after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution over the Batista dictatorship in 1959, Luis Posada Carriles and many other anti-Castro zealots were trained at the now-infamous Army School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia, and later were on the U. S. payroll in many famous anti-Cuban endeavors.

      Many declassified U. S. documents, such as the above Nov. 5, 1976 letter to Henry Kissinger, indicates the U. S. government was/is well aware of Posada's involvement in the bombing of Cubana Flight 455.

     In 2016 as the United States and Cuba try to enter A New Era, their mutually represented and misrepresented history -- especially since the 1950s -- has been complicated and conflicted. But it is indeed a two-way affair in which neither nation has been totally right nor totally wrong. In the past year both Josefina Vidal and President Obama have acknowledged that fact. And at long last, it is perhaps time that everyday Cubans and everyday Americans cease to be the primary victims of self-serving animosity.

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Vidal Wants Much More

       While Cuba Is Still Sovereign  

      Cuba's state newspaper, Granma, used the above photo of Josefina Vidal to illustrate a massively long Q & A session with the island's brilliant and dogmatic chief diplomat on all things involving the United States. It candidly revealed her summary of where Cuba stands one year after the U. S. and Cuba last July officially resumed diplomatic ties with the reopening of embassies in Havana and Washington. During the past historic year, she was asked what has been achieved to date. She succinctly replied:   
                "The process of negotiations took place almost six months prior to the reestablishment last July of diplomatic relations, so the process began on Dec. 17, 2014 with the simultaneous television announcements by Presidents Castro and Obama. So, I prefer to talk about what has been achieved in the last 19 months. Priority aspects for Cuba included the return of the Five Heroes who were serving prison sentences in the U. S.; the removal of Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism; and renewing the Havana Club trademark registration in the United States. In the political diplomatic sphere I would highlight the creation of the Cuba-United States Bilateral Commission providing follow-ups to the post-reestablishment of diplomatic relations agenda. To date, three meetings have taken place in alternating venues, while a further two are scheduled to be held. It was important to have a mechanism of this type to just talk, to address unresolved issues that had been willfully neglected too long. With the Bilateral Commission, we have signed 11 major agreements, the last one involving the agreement to jointly fight drug and human trafficking." 
           Vidal was then asked what remains to be achieved. She calmly and, yes, expertly said: 
                     "The dissuasive and punitive components of the blockade, and its intimidating extra-territorial effects, continue to have negative consequences for Cuba. We are still unable to make financial transfers, we are denied services of this kind and payments are withheld, while the U. S. continues to impose fines on banks and foreign financial entities that do business with our country. The blockade is an outdated policy that the world abhors and it must end. Thus far it has not been possible to normalize banking relations. All of this could be resolved if President Obama was brave enough to exploit his executive prerogatives. Thus far the U. S. has failed to issue a political statement or legal document explaining to world banks that operations with Cuba are legitimate, and that those banks or countries won't be sanctioned. So for a half-century Cuba has had to exist under an America blockade that would have doomed much larger and stronger nations. The U. S. took 56 years to recognize Cuba's legitimate government that had replaced a brutal regime backed by the Mafia and by the United States. But lifting the blockade has not been achieved. Returning the stolen Guantanamo Bay port has not been achieved. Lifting economic sanctions that would destroy most other nations has not been achieved. We are not naive. We are aware of the United States strategic objectives and we will not let our guard down. We will always remain alert. Meanwhile for the good, the bilateral process represents opportunities to advance for the first time toward resolving pending issues, not only of the past 56 years but also centuries ago." 

      Josefina Vidal made those comments in direct response to specific questions. She had no teleprompter and no notes. And she speaks for Cuba. She is formidably intelligent and the world's greatest expert on U.S.-Cuban relations. Yet, for 56 years the Batistianos and Mafiosi booted off the island by the Cuban Revolution in 1959 have dictated America's Cuban narrative and America's Cuban policy. Thus, propagandized Americans have been proselytized to discount Vidal's assessment of U.S.-Cuban relations in favor of the self-serving, undemocratic dictates of two generations of Batistianos and Mafiosi. That unending situation has and will continue to harm the image of the U. S. far more than it harms Cuba's.

        I suggest that intimidated or unpatriotic Americans, those who deny or ignore Josefina Vidal's topical and significant comments depicted above, should try to explain away her sane assessments. Merely ignoring them is the cowardly way out. And remember, my own assessments of Cuba are in defense of America and democracy, not Cuba. I happen to think that 56 years of the Batistianos and Mafiosi dictating America's Cuban narrative and policy is 56 years too much as it defames democracy and the United States.

         I noted in the above Vidal quotes that she, for perhaps the first time, was critical of U. S. President Obama. Referencing his refusal to stop the debilitating banking sanctions that indeed would have destroyed much larger nations long ago, she said, "All of this could be resolved if President Obama was brave enough to exploit his executive prerogatives." With that comment, Vidal is acknowledging that the Batistianos and Mafiosi greedily control the United States Congress on all issues regarding Cuba, but she is frustrated that Obama has not used his "executive prerogatives" even more than he has since December of 2014. Vidal is a student of Batistiano-U.S. history. Her comment seems to indicate that she thinks Obama is afraid to go further in his brave efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. Perhaps she is right there too.

      The handshake graphic above reveals that Vidal is appreciative of Obama's efforts to be the first of the last eleven American presidents to have the guts and decency to even attempt to normalize relations with Cuba. The physical and political threats are enormous. But Vidal is abundantly aware of the timeline of the U.S.-Cuban relationship that includes salacious American right-wingers dictating the Spanish-American War in 1898 and dictating the U. S. backing of the fiendish Batista-Mafia dictatorship in 1952 and since 1959 dictating America's Cuban policy that yearly gets a resounding 191-to-2 denunciation in the United Nations. Through it all, Americans are supposed to be too cowardly and too stupid to even weight in on the topic.  

But guess what!!

      Unlike the biased and intimidated U. S. journalists, Sarah Marsh has the guts and integrity to tell you the truth about U.S.-Cuban relations. Of course, Sarah is British and the Brits didn't support the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba and then, when it was overthrown, let the Batistianos and Mafiosi dictate Cuban policy for the past 56 years. And, of course, Sarah works for Reuters, the great news agency based in Britain that, unlike the U. S. media, is not obligated to distort America's Cuban policy in favor of the Batistianos and Mafiosi. Therefore, Sarah Marsh, who is headquartered in Buenos Aires as a Reuters Latin American expert, actually has the freedom to tell the truth about U.S.-Cuban relations. HOW ABOUT THAT!! And she does so in an updated article analyzing the past year in which the U. S. and Cuba have restored embassies and diplomatic relations for the first time since 1961. For the reasons mentioned, Sarah Marsh is neither biased NOR intimidated when writing about Cuba, so you may want to check out her very latest article. 

And lastly: 

        The U. S. does not have a diplomat or a politician or a journalist that can out-smart or out-maneuver the great Cuban patriot, Josefina Vidal. But she is David to their Goliath. She defends a small, vulnerable country while they are supported by the world's economic and military superpower. It is thus a lop-sided struggle. She alone just makes it less so. On a level playing field, her beloved Cuba would flourish.

And now a change of pace:

      This magnificent photo is courtesy of Linda Bumpus and my favorite magazine, Birds & Blooms. That's a male bluebird on the left and his female companion on the right. Once together, they mate for life.

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