Preaching to Cuba

A Cuban-American Pastime
{Wednesday, August 3rd, 2016}

      Because of intimidation or political correctness, the mainstream U. S. media shies away from any positives related to Cuba, especially since 1976 when Cuban-American journalist Emilio Milian was car-bombed in Miami after complaining about anti-Cuban terrorism such as the bombing of a Cuban civilian airplane. But there are exceptions and there was one Tuesday -- August 2, 2016. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's medical expert, posted an in-depth six-minute+ report from Cuba entitled: "A Lung Cancer Vaccine Was Created In This Lab." Dr. Gupta was "impressed" not only with the vaccine but with Cuba's renowned biotech center. He was also blown away by Cuba's Latin American School of Medicine and interviewed officials as well as students. Dr. Gupta pointed out that Cuba not only pays for the 6-year course but "in fact" gives "a stipend" to the future doctors. He was shocked to learn that many of the students are from countries like the U. S. and they return to those countries after their training, owing Cuba nothing except a promise to provide medical care in the poor areas from which they came.

      This photo is courtesy of CNN. It shows Cuba's dedicated medical researcher Camilo Rodriguez holding vials of the cancer drug that so impressed Dr. Sanjay Gupta. There are many positives related to Cuba and Dr. Gupta's detailed report Tuesday on CNN reveals Cuba spends a hefty amount of its limited resources on medical care and educational needs. The revengeful Cuban-Americans in Congress maintain that the cruel embargo against the island should exist for another half-century because "every dollar that gets to Cuba goes into Fidel Castro's foreign bank accounts." That, of course is a bald-faced lie but one that Americans have been forced to accept since 1959. And by the way, thanks to CNN for daring to report on a positive aspect of normal life in Cuba. If you dial up his report, you'll notice that Gupta even took a joyful ride in a 1950s convertible.

       These are some of the happy and appreciative future doctors, including Americans, at Cuba's Latin American School of Medicine. Cuba educates them free of charge and, as Dr. Gupta told his CNN audience yesterday, they also receive an allowance or what Dr. Gupta called "a stipend." Amazing, huh?

      Since the Cuban Revolution in 1959 chased the leaders of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship off the island, Americans have gotten their information on U.S.-Cuban relations as well as U.S.-Cuban policy almost exclusively from visceral anti-Castro Cuban-Americans. But a superb young Cuban broadcast journalist named Cristina Escobar has some opinions that, as her regional fame increases, is gaining more and more traction. Her three primary contentious but apparently heartfelt points are: 

                    ***"I believe Cuban journalists have more freedom to tell the truth about the U. S. than U. S. journalists have to tell the truth about Cuba. I believe it was in Miami that Cuban-American broadcast journalist Emilio Milian got car-bombed for opposing terrorism against innocent Cubans. As a broadcast journalist in Cuba, I don't worry about such things." 

          ***"Cuba's fate is up to Cubans on the island, not right-wing Americans or gluttonous Cubans in Miami and Washington." 

               ***"Since 1959 the United States government has defied world opinion by allowing two generations of the most vicious Cuban-Americans to attack and terrorize Cuba while also making whatever laws in Congress they can come up with to hurt Cuba and enrich and empower themselves." 

                *** "I am tired, and so is the region and the world, of the United States sanctimoniously preaching to Cuba while also funding regime-change programs. Cuba has free education through college and free healthcare for life. Does the U. S.? Cuba last week was named one of the two safest nations in the world for tourists to visit, but how safe are U. S. cities from street crime and guns? Cuba, like all nations, has problems but ours is for Cubans, not Americans or the Miami Mafia, to correct. After 500 years of trying, Cuba in 1959 became a sovereign nation and our intent is to remain so. We are not an American colony, or Territory like Puerto Rico. We are sovereign and we will strive to remain so, come hurricanes and high water or another Bay of Pigs."  

       When she was in Washington to cover the 4th and final Vidal-Jacobson diplomatic session, Cristina Escobar gained some notoriety with her calm but fervent defense of Cuba. In the above photo, she is asking White House spokesman Josh Earnest if the U. S. plans to "continue its regime-change programs." 

Escobar speaks in Spanish on her Cuban broadcasts.

        Escobar speaks in English on her regional program where her opinions on Cuba-U.S.-and-International relations -- relaciones -- are key topics. Her revelations that she is tired of the U. S. preaching to Cuba regularly bubble to the surface: "The U. S. sicced the Mafia on Cuba in 1952 when it could have showered the island with democracy. The revolution corrected that and by doing so shocked the world. For half-a-century we have managed, if barely, to keep the U. S. and the Mafia off our island. Meanwhile, more and more, the U. S. democracy has become a rich man's game at the expense of everyone else. I do not want the United States to bring me democracy. That is a project for Cubans on the island. The U. S. has enough U. S. problems." 

      Cristina Escobar also has a presence on YouTube. The image above is taken from an interview Tracey Eaton, a respected American journalist and Cuban expert, got with her in Havana. A 15 minute, 22 second video and a 3 minute, 29 second video of that interview is posted on YouTube and other venues such as the Pulitzer Center. On those videos you can see and hear Cristina make such points as, "Cuba's fate is up to Cubans, not Americans" and "I don't want the U. S. to bring me democracy. That is a project for Cubans on the island." It was during her journalistic trip to Washington in which she garnered some headlines with stern comments such as, "I believe journalists in Cuba have more freedom to tell the truth about the U. S. than U. S. journalists have to tell the truth about Cuba." Whether she is right or not, she is well educated, awesomely intelligent, and very much in a position to make judgments about U.S.-Cuban relations. 

        As a high-profile Cuban, Cristina Escobar has the gall, the audacity and the affrontery to describe the U. S. Congress as "dysfunctional" and "bought-and-paid-for." And she even maintains that America's democratic centerpiece -- its presidential election -- is now "rigged and undemocratic." WHAT IS SHE, AN ANTI-AMERICAN COMMUNIST? Uh, no. She's just a Cuban. She loves American culture, especially its movies, and she "loves the way America's democracy used to be, the way it was long before I was born."  

And you know what?

Many Americans agree with Cristina!  

       The ongoing, money-crazed 2016 U. S. presidential campaign has left Americans with two choices -- either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. As this photo indicates, millions of Americans, and not just this angry man, believe they should be allowed to vote for a third, more viable candidate -- even Mickey Mouse!! 

        More than 9 out of every 10 Americans believe viable candidate Bernie Sanders was honest and trustworthy, which swamps how Americans feel about the two final candidates -- Clinton and Trump. 

        If young American voters had their way, someone like Bernie Sanders would be elected President of the United States, especially considering that the alternative is either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump.

    Is Trump the lesser of two evils or is Clinton? 

      Most Americans do not believe that either Clinton or Trump is evil. But most Americans do believe that the uneven scales of the political system has drastically tilted that way, and that a readjustment is in order. 

        In 2010 many Americans believe the U. S. Supreme Court drove the final nail in the great democracy that the Founding Fathers crafted in 1776. In a very controversial 5-to-4 decision that pitted Citizens United vs. The Federal Election Commission, the citizens and democracy lost. Since then, unlimited political donations have slanted the U. S. democracy to the richest 1% of Americans to the detriment of the 99%.

      Protests like this by non-billionaire and democracy-loving Americans rage against that Supreme Court decision but it doesn't matter. That fact is greatly exacerbated by another fact: The mainstream news media in the United States, especially the broadcast industry, is owned by individual or corporate billionaires who have a huge stake in making sure that they, not the everyday citizens, control the U. S. democracy. Thus the media is not about to allow a person like the wildly popular but anti-billionaire Bernie Sanders to reach the White House. The biases of the network anchors and the Talking Head pundits reveal that truism.

      A bought-and-paid-for U. S. democracy trickles down from the presidency. The 535 members of the U. S. Congress and the 50 U. S. governors, for example, depend so much on political donations to get elected that those donors are often taken care of at the expense of the non-rich citizens. Once elected, those members of Congress and those governors spend an inordinate amount of their time soliciting/begging for more money so they can stay in office and later live like, uh, billionaires. Thus, doing the people's business is secondary. Virginia's outgoing governor, Bob McDonnell, was tried and sentenced for taking bribes from a rich donor. Rich donors then fought the conviction, which went all the way to the U. S. Supreme Court where, reminiscent of the Citizens United decision, the prison sentence was overturned. The U. S. government is trying real hard to prosecute Bob Menendez, the powerful Cuban-American U. S. Senator from New Jersey, for taking bribes from a rich Miami doctor accused of mammoth Medicare fraud. Menendez last week said he will fight those charges all the way to...you guessed it...the Supreme Court.

But overturned by the U. S. Supreme Court.

But likely un-indicted by the U. S. Supreme court.

       Another politically correct nuance of the American political system virtually mandates that all presidential and congressional and gubernatorial candidates must promise AIPAC that they will be more pro-Israel than their political opponents, whoever that might be. AIPAC is the ultra-powerful Israeli lobby.

Which reminds me of...Julia E. Sweig.

       Julia E. Sweig, like most Americans including me, is very much pro-Israel. She is also tied for first {with Ann Louise Bardach} for being America's two greatest experts on Cuba. For Americans who wonder how in the world a few Cuban-Americans can dictate so many anti-Cuban and pro-Cuban American laws in the U. S. Congress, reading Ms. Sweig's seminal book provides the answer. In "CUBA: What Everyone Needs to Know" she recounts the pivotal moment when the Reagan-Bush administration anointed anti-Castro zealot Jorge Mas Canosa the leader of the Cubans in exile. Mas Canosa, Ms. Sweig explained, was told to study AIPAC and then replicate it. He did. Mas Canosa was soon the most powerful Cuban-American billionaire in Miami...and in Washington. Today most Americans, most Cuban-Americans and most people in the world helplessly disapprove of both anti-Cuban U. S. laws and discriminatory pro-Cuban-exile American laws.

       Cristina Escobar ponders such things...even as she prepares, as above, to broadcast the news to the Cuban people. On air and off the air, she has lamented Cuba's undeserved and unwarranted problems, such as, "The United States will never let Cuba be Cuba. We have been a sovereign nation since 1959 and the United States still wants to impose its will on us, and some Americans and Cuban-Americans still want to rob us or just seek revenge on our revolution. Cuba is imperfect but we should be allowed to strive for perfection on our own, without foreign interference. I am so tired of the United States and its rich Cubans preaching to Cuba when the United States should be trying to correct its own imperfections such as runaway street crime as well as legalized crime that permits the rich to prey on the middle class and the poorest Americans. The street crime is appalling and the legal crime results from extremely wealthy Americans being able to purchase the U. S. democracy. When I was in California in 2014 that's all I heard Americans talking about, and I was there as a journalist, not a critic. Americans don't want to be preached to by foreigners, and neither do I. I love Cuba the way it is, the way it has fought to be Cuba. I want it to improve, and it will...if the U. S. shackles are removed."

        Cristina Escobar is 28-years-old. The future of Cuba...and the fate of Cuba...should be left up to her generation of Cubans on the island, not to Americans and not to Cuban-Americans. She says, "In the last 500 years, the good things about Cuba have been provided by Cubans on the island, not by foreigners and not by ex-Cubans. We need to be free to succeed or to fail. Outside pressure is just the last thing we need."  

 Cristina Escobar, an anchor. 

 But mostly, a Cuban.

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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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