Cuba Cherishes Americans

Especially Their MONEY!!

          This photo is courtesy of The Associated Press and it was taken last week -- on Sept. 1st -- in Santa Clara, Cuba, by Ramon Espinosa. If you study it carefully, you'll be up to date on President Obama's newly orchestrated relations with Cuba. The young lady shopping in Santa Clara on September 1st is Sophia Compton from Chicago. The day before -- on Aug. 31st, 2016 -- jetBlue airlines had made the first U.S.-to-Cuba commercial flight in 55 years, reflecting Mr. Obama's courageous campaign to cut into the Batistiano-loving U. S. embargo of Cuba that has existed since 1962. The AP caption to this photo pointed out that Cubans particularly welcome American tourists because "they're the ones that buy the most." Cuba's much-maligned entrepreneurs also consider Americans the biggest tippers.

      JetBlue made the first commercial U. S. flight to Cuba in 55 years.

Passengers in Fort Lauderdale eager for the historic flight.

Airline workers celebrate the last boarding passenger.

It was a 51-minute flight from Florida to Cuba.

       On the heels of jetBlue's inaugural flight to Santa Clara in central Cuba, seven other major U. S. airlines with soon begin regular service to the intriguing island. United on Saturday will begin flights from Houston to Havana. Yesterday United announced that its first flight from Newark to Havana will be on November 29th. Eight major American airlines have been approved for flights to no less than ten Cuban cities.

        This photo from the Corbis/Bettmann archives gives you an idea of the propeller-powered U. S. airplanes that legally could fly to Cuba six decades ago -- you know, during the Batista-Mafia dictatorship.

Image of a Pan-Am airplane in Havana in 1955.

        Back in the 1950s U. S. airlines made fortunes flying Americans to Cuba. From 1952 till 1959 during the Batista years, prime lures to the gorgeous tropical paradise included gambling, prostitution, and drugs.

        During the Batista dictatorship -- 1952-1959 -- some people considered Miami the capital of Cuba. After the Jan. 1-1959 triumph of the Cuban Revolution, Miami became the hub for anti-Castro zealotry with an ongoing zeal to regain control of the coveted island. Now in this year of 2016, the year Fidel Castro turned 90-years-old, Miami-to-Cuba commercial airplane flights will resume for the first time in over 55 years.

Meanwhile:

     Revolutionary Cuba, after all these decades, is still...Revolutionary Cuba. On a recent very cloudy night in Havana, this REUTERS/Enrique de la Osa photo shows the Cuban flag very proudly flying at the Palace of the Revolution.

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U.S.-Cuban Reality

Batistianos Still Rule!!

       The first weekend of September in the year 2016 is now history, and so is the first commercial flight from the U. S. to Cuba in 55 years. As with many other historic overtures to Cuba orchestrated since December of 2014 by U. S. President Barack Obama, last Wednesday's Fort Lauderdale-to-Santa Clara commercial air venture was heralded by the vast majority of democracy-loving people around the world. But when it comes to Cuba, majority opinion has never been truly factored into the bowels of the sainted U. S. democracy -- at least from 1898, the year of the Spanish-American War, till today, when a second generation of Batistiano-remnants eagerly await the imminent end of Obama's two-term presidency. The above photo taken by Ramon Espinosa on a street in Havana is a reminder of those facts. The photo was used yesterday to highlight an Associated Press summary of last week's history-making airplane flight to Cuba from Florida. The old man above is a street vendor named Antonio Bauza. He is shown heading out at the crack of dawn to sell his bananas and trinkets to tourists, whom he hopes will show up. Mr. Bauza is 90-years-old, which happens to be Fidel Castro's age, and he is a prime example of how Cubans like him...everyday Cubans...have been severely hurt every day since January of 1959 by a U. S. Cuban policy dictated by the remnants of the ousted Batista-Mafia dictatorship, which unfortunately quickly resettled on nearby U. S. soil. When the combined might of the Batistianos, the Mafia and their allies in the U. S. government was unable to assassinate or overthrow Fidel Castro from 1959 till 1962, the exiles and right-wingers in Washington devised the embargo that was, according to declassified 1962 U. S. documents, designed to starve & deprive Cubans on the island for the purpose of inducing them to rise up and overthrow Fidel Castro. As with the record number of assassination attempts, the Bay of Pigs attack, etc., the embargo also has not done the trick...or the dirty deed...even though from 1962 till today it is history's all-time longest & cruelest economic embargo ever imposed by a strong nation against a weak one. While the Batistiano-directed U. S. Cuban policy has actually enhanced the stature, influence and legacy of the still-living Fidel Castro, it has shamed the U. S. and democracy {the UN vote against it is 191-to-2} in the eyes of the world. That's because, in the guise of hurting the now 90-year-old Fidel Castro, it has mostly hurt the now 90-year-old Antonio Bauza and millions of other Cubans on the island just as innocent as he is.

        The aforementioned AP article told us about the still hard-working, 90-year-old Antonio Bauza and also updated the ramifications of the historic jetBlue 387 flight from Fort Lauderdale to Santa Clara, Cuba. The AP said that "by December...some 300 direct flights a week scheduled from the U. S. to 10 Cuban cities...will suddenly mean hundreds of millions of dollars...of new business related to Cuba." And that's only factoring in the partial success of President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba, and it may well forever remain partial. Cuba will never accept normal relations with the U. S. as long as the embargo is in place and, as has been the case since 1962, a handful of Cuban-American hard-liners aligned with a mere handful of right-wingers in the 535-member U. S. Congress can easily maintain the basic tenets of the embargo forever or, to use the official word that marked the 1903 U. S. theft of Guantanamo Bay, "in perpetuity." 

     The Cuban-American embrace depicted above celebrated Flight 387's historic arrival in Santa Clara from Fort Lauderdale last Wednesday. But as fortuitous as it was, it also confirmed a U.S.-Cuban fact-of-life: U. S. laws related to Cuba have only precise dual purposes: {1} To hurt Cubans on the island; and {2} to enrich, empower and sate the revenge motives of Cuban-Americans. For example, for decades everyday Americans have been the only people in the world without the freedom to travel to Cuba; and all the while...each year...about 400,000 Cuban-Americans, via totally legal charter flights, have...yes...been permitted to freely fly back-and-forth from the U. S. to Cuba. And...all the while...fully propagandized Americans -- intimidated, scared or unpatriotic -- are supposed to not object, even in the Age of Obama.

      The historic flight of jetBlue 387 from Florida to Cuba last week also underscored the sordid, discriminatory imbalance of the U. S. Cuban policy that so flagrantly favors Cuban-Americans as opposed to Americans and Cubans. With the exception of just four people, such as U. S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx, all the passengers aboard Flight 387 were privileged Cuban-Americans. And both pilots, of course, were also Cuban-Americans. Meanwhile, as has been the case since 1959, Americans are supposed to be too stupid or too afraid to even weigh-in on an unending Cuban policy that makes our democracy resemble a 1950s-era Banana Republic, as illustrated by the following Wikipedia graphic:

 Vultures began flying in right behind Teddy Roosevelt's Big Stick.

This 1898 U.S. image of the Caribbean persists to this day.

And...so does this one!! 

And...this one!!

And...well, you get the unsavory picture.

Oh! By the way:

          I respect Americans who respect the U. S. flag. On this long 2016 Labor Day weekend, I believe an NFL quarterback and a pro soccer star have been accorded too much media space for disrespecting it.

      And I respect those who died fighting for their flag.

    When I see the Navy's Blue Angels fly over, I get emotional.

    Chelsey Stimson, a Navy veteran and Gold Star Wife, loves her flag.

Chelsey Stimson, a proud American and superb barrel racer.

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By the Way, Cubaninsiders

Remember I Told You!!

        As I have said more than once in this forum, The Jamaica Observer consistently has the best Editorial Cartoons on the planet. This weekend -- on Sept. 3rd, 2016 -- the gem depicted above proves my point. Jamaica's Elaine Thompson is the world's best female sprinter. Last month in Rio she won both the 100-meter and 200-meter Gold Medals. This weekend she again defeated her competitors in the sprints in the world-class Diamond League event in Zurich, Switzerland, as indicated above. SO WHY, you ask, is Elaine crossing the finish line in Zurich mocking her top competitor, Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands? Well...it seems Elaine and The Jamaica Observer both believe she does not get the credit and accolades she deserves. And Elaine resents the acclaim accorded to Ms. Schippers, the 24-year-old statuesque Dutch beauty who is a talented sprinter but not as good as Elaine. So, study the image above and determine if it effectively makes the point that Jamaica's black beauty, Elaine, resents the Dutch white beauty, Dafne.

       In Zurich this weekend, the beautiful Dafne Schippers led much of this race but the beautiful Elaine Thompson, as usual, came from behind to win. Yet, Dafne...Elaine thinks...got more plaudits from the fans.

The beautiful Dafne is great.

But not quite as great as the beautiful Elaine.

Dafne Schippers, the Netherlands.

Elaine Thompson, Jamaica.

Elaine Thompson is miffed.

And now YOU KNOW why Elaine is miffed at Dafne.

       As you can see on this Caribbean map, Jamaica is due south of Cuba. If you wonder why this is Cubaninsider and not Jamaicaninsider, it's because I indeed have a passion for Cuba because my greatest passions are America and democracy. I happen to believe that Cuba says a lot more about America than it says about Cuba, and that belief starts with the 1898 Spanish-American War that gave America its long-craved dominion over Cuba and continued with the 1903 U. S. theft of Guantanamo Bay; 1952 when the U. S. teamed with the Mafia to support the vile Batista dictatorship in Cuba; the 1959 resettlement of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship on U. S. soil after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution; the cowardly and embarrassing {for America} attack at the Bay of Pigs in 1961; the U. S. embargo of Cuba that began in 1962 and extends to this day as the longest and cruelest embargo ever administered by a strong nation against a weak one; and a vast array of extremely discriminatory and undemocratic U. S. laws designed to hurt Cubans on the island while greatly enticing and enriching Cuban-Americans. SO, for those reasons, I am the sole contributor to Cubaninsider but I do not have a compelling reason to create Jamaicaninsider.

      But I like Jamaica too, especially Montego Bay in the northwest and Kingston in the southeast of the gorgeous island.

And, yes, I think Elaine Thompson...

deserves much more credit for her unique greatness.

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Cubans to Americans

From Rags to Riches!!

Meet Yoan Moncada

    As a teenager in the small Cuban town of Abreus, Yoan and all of his friends were extremely poor. They, and even their parents, had lived all their lives on an island unfairly shackled with history's all-time longest and cruelest economic embargo ever imposed by a strong nation against a weak one. That situation has existed since 1962, or shortly after Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution in 1959 overthrew the vile U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship -- only to have the Batistiano-Mafiosi leaders quickly resettle on U. S. soil, mostly in and around Miami, Florida. The most visceral anti-Castro zealots - - Jorge Mas Canosa, Felix Rodriguez, Luis Posada Carriles, etc. -- were quickly sent to the then secretive Army of the Americas at Fort Benning in Georgia to train for the quick recapture of Cuba, an expensive and very undemocratic process that resulted in one of America's greatest all-time embarrassments -- the colossal defeat at the Bay of Pigs in April of 1961. But from then until today {September of 2016}, remnants of the ousted Batista dictatorship, the losers to Castro in the Revolution and at the Bay of Pigs, aligned themselves with a few of America's self-serving right-wingers and...lo 'n behold...have easily dictated America's Cuban policy in the easily malleable U. S. Congress ever since. Therefore, even as President Obama finally tries to apply some decency and democracy to the U. S. Cuban policy, U. S. laws grossly discriminate against Cubans on the island while also grossly discriminating in favor of Cubans enticed to defect to the United States. And one of the most luminescent and picturesque ramifications of all that U.S.-Cuban entanglement is... Yoan Moncada.

      Cuba's Yoan Moncada is THE WORLD'S GREATEST BASEBALL PROSPECT. Even as a teenager in Cuba, Yoan was a switch-hitter with awesome power and blazing speed. He defected from Cuba in the summer of 2014. The Boston Red Sox gave him a $31.5 million bonus. Please note that I said bonus because it has nothing to do with his salary. Of course, if Yoan turns out to be one-half as good as the scouts predict, that initial $31.5 million dollars will be mere peanuts compared to what he'll make in Boston in the future.

And guess what?

      At age 21, on this first weekend of September, 2016, Yoan Moncada is making his debut with the young and powerful Boston Red Sox. Boston already has the best offense in baseball and arguably the best young players of all the 30 Major League teams. Therefore, I pick the Red Sox to beat the Chicago Cubs in the upcoming 2016 World Series. But neither Boston nor anyone else has anyone to match the talent of Yoan Moncada. Baseball aficionados will have to go back to 1951 to remember a young player reaching the Majors with the switch-hitting power and blazing speed that the young Cuban Yoan Moncada possesses.

       In 1951 a 19-year-old from a little dusty mining town in Oklahoma named Mickey Mantle joined the New York Yankees. No one had ever seen a young baseball player that possessed the combination of switch-hitting power and blazing speed that Mickey Mantle brought to the New York Yankees sixty-five years ago.

        But for the first time since 1951, a young Cuban named Yoan Moncada -- in this first weekend of September, 2016 -- makes his debut with the Boston Red Sox flashing Mickey Mantle-like talent. His combination of power and speed will soon vault him above the current unending string of Cuban-born Major League superstars such as Yoenis Cespedes of the Mets, Yasiel Puig of the Dodgers, Aroldis Chapman of the Cubs, etc. In fact, don't be surprised if Yoan Moncada belts a 105 miles-per-hour pitch from the feared Aroldis Chapman to give the Red Sox a World Series victory over the Cubs next month. In the money-crazed U. S. Major Leagues, the Red Sox now believe that the $31.5 million bonus they gave Yoan is about the best money they've ever spent. And, as baseball fans know, the rich New York Yankees confirmed last week that they made a "huge mistake" by not topping that piddling Boston offer.

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Flying to Cuba

Courtesy of Mr. Obama!!

        More and more Americans, and not just Cuban-Americans, can now fly easier and more normally to the Caribbean's largest and most intriguing island -- Cuba. That's because, as of this first week of September in the year 2016, commercial flights from the U. S. to Cuba have resumed for the first time since 1961, thanks to President Obama's bold and audacious efforts to normalize relations with the nearby island. For decades, after the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship was overthrown only to chase the leadership to U. S. soil, regular Americans have been the only people in the world without the freedom to travel to Cuba. Mr. Obama has courageously sliced into many of those undemocratic restrictions too. The photo above was taken by Mauricio Lima and shows a not uncommon passel of red 1950s-era convertibles taking tourists around Havana's Revolutionary Square. This image was used to highlight an informative article by Victoria Barnett of the New York Times that recapped Wednesday's historic flight by jetBlue Airlines from Fort Lauderdale to the central Cuban city of Santa Clara, erasing the 55-year-old ban of commercial flights from the U. S. to Cuba. The article was entitled: "How to Go to Cuba Now." The first two paragraphs said:

                    "Once off-limits to most Americans, Cuba became just another stop on JetBlue's international network on Wednesday when the airline began operating the first direct commercial service between the United States and the island since the early 1960s.

                         "In the next few months, several airlines will join JetBlue, offering service to a handful of Cuban provincial cities and, eventually, to Havana. American travelers will no longer rely on expensive, poorly serviced charter flights to reach the Caribbean's largest and, arguably, most intriguing island." 

               Victoria Barnett's article explained in detail the new Obama-related parameters for Americans to travel to Cuba. She mentioned that the U. S. embargo of Cuba -- dictated for many decades by Cuban-American hard-liners and their acolytes in the U. S. Congress -- still places strict restrictions on American travels to Cuba, except for the many special privileges allotted to Cuban-Americans, but President Obama has created some special avenues to circumvent or at least ease the bans. Ms. Barnett wondered who would be on the look-out in Cuba to make sure Americans had complied to all the bans, and the answer she got was, "No one." Meanwhile, the hard-liners are busy trying to plug the "loop-holes." 

       But it is now an historic American fact that this jetBlue commercial airplane has flown from the United States to Cuba. Even the rich and omnipotent Cuban-American hard-liners -- never seriously challenged prior to Obama -- cannot un-ring this bell. Heck, they can't even un-ring the 1959 triumph of the Cuban Revolution or the 1961 Cuban defense at the Bay of Pigs. Congress, sabotage, provocational backlash, etc., have worked in the past but this time too many Americans and too many Cuban-Americans will benefit personally, conveniently, economically, and otherwise from President Obama's courageous and sane -- and democratic -- overtures to Cuba. Therefore, it will not be easy to totally thwart the ongoing sanity and decency that President Obama has crafted into the long-entangled quagmire of U.S.-Cuban relations.

Varadero Beach east of Havana. {CNN photo}

Cubans honoring U. S. flags. {CNN Photo}

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U.S. Gets Closer to Cuba

Even Geographically, It Seems!!

       The photo above depicts an electronic sign yesterday -- August 31st -- at the airport in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It's an historic photo for Cuba, America and sanity. Notice the "Santa Clara, CU 387" reminder for passengers preparing to board JetBlue Flight 387 bound from Fort Lauderdale to Santa Clara in central Cuba. It marks the first time since 1961 that a U. S. commercial airplane has been permitted to fly to Cuba. MOREOVER, it reflects the monumental bravery of U. S. President Barack Obama in challenging a Cuban policy dictated for over a half-century by the remnants of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba that fled the victorious Cuban Revolution and quickly resettled on U. S. soil, primarily Miami, in the first week of January, 1959. So, indeed, study that historic sign heralding yesterday's departure of Flight 387 from Fort Lauderdale, Miami's sister city, to Santa Clara -- the Cuban city most associated with Che Guevara because that's where he led the last decisive battle of the Cuban Revolution, the Revolutionary battle that convinced the Batista & Mafia leaders in Havana to dash for their getaway planes and ships. Unfortunately, most of those planes and ships ended up in the perpetually friendly confines of Florida.

      This photo shows airline workers in Fort Lauderdale yesterday joyously waving American and Cuban flags as they watch Flight 387 taxi down the runway prior to its very historic flight to Santa Clara, Cuba.

    Passengers departing Flight 387 in Santa Clara yesterday.

        America's excited Secretary of Transportation, Anthony Foxx, was aboard Flight 387. On behalf of the U. S., he made this official statement: "Today's actions are the result of months of work by airlines, cities, the U. S. government, and many others toward delivering on President Obama's promise to reengage with Cuba." Mr. Foxx confirmed that following the historic Flight 387, other major U. S. airlines -- American, Alaska, Delta, Frontier, Southwest, Spirit, United, etc. -- will soon begin making regular flights to ten Cuban cities from U. S. cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Charlotte, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, Houston, etc. Asked about the fact that "the U. S. Congress and Miami politicians are not about to let go of the U. S. embargo against Cuba," Mr Foxx said, "President Obama's ongoing re-engagement with Cuba has opened up 12 legal and authorized categories for Americans, and not just Cuban-Americans, to travel to Cuba."

      As this pertinent Editorial Cartoon points out, a mere handful of anti-Castro hardliners have fiercely braced & dictated the embargo against Cuba for over half-a-century -- hurting America far more than it has ever hurt the now 90-year-old Fidel Castro. And the title -- "The Ironic Curtain" -- for this appropriate statement graphically illustrates that, IRONICALLY in the world's most famed democracy, America's Cuban policy for over half-a-century has done more harm to the worldwide image of America and democracy than any other continuous topic in history. Americans who deny that basic fact will have trouble disputing it.

      Almost 8 years ago when he began his transformative two-term presidency replacing the Bush dynasty, Mr. Obama was shamefully forced, in the early going, to march to the congressionally mandated dictates of an American Cuban policy that he well knew hurt and grossly shamed the world's greatest democracy.

        But President Obama threw off those Batistiano shackles and in doing so has displayed far more courage, astuteness, dexterity, and patriotism than any American president since 1952 when the American people sat back and allowed some right-wingers to align the U. S. with the Mafia to support the vile Batista dictatorship in Cuba. That undemocratic debacle was exacerbated in 1959 when the overthrown Batista regime was immediately allowed to resettle on nearby U. S. soil and, incredibly, hide behind the skirts of the world superpower in its decades-old efforts to regain control of Cuba. Those sheer facts, as politically incorrect as they are, illuminate Mr. Obama's momentous initiatives on behalf of Cubans, Americans, Cuban-Americans and democracy. One of those ongoing initiatives was Flight 387 yesterday being added to the tempestuous history of U.S.-Cuban relations, a nexus that for far too long -- dating back to 1952 -- has catered to the greed and whims of an unsavory few to the detriment of the vastly more decent majority.

      These are happy passengers in Fort Lauderdale yesterday getting ready to board Flight 387 for the ground-breaking trip to Santa Clara, Cuba. Because of draconian Batistiano-style U. S. laws, everyone of these Americans was forced to sign an affidavit swearing their travel falls within the permitted categories that allow Americans to visit Cuba -- such as educational or research trips, etc. Tourism is not permitted {uh, supposedly or, uh, legally}. Such discriminatory, anti-democratic laws have for decades made everyday Americans the only people in the world without the freedom to fly to Cuba while, at the same time, discriminating grossly in favor of Cuban-Americans via travel, immigration, economic and political matters. Despite President Obama bravely slicing into key aspects of the still "legal" Congress-mandated embargo, such affronts as the affidavit swear-ins were meticulously adhered to yesterday in Fort Lauderdale.

Passengers departing Flight 387 in Santa Clara yesterday.

 The airport in Santa Clara, Cuba.

Che Guevara memorial in Santa Clara.

Historic listing of Flight 387 at Fort Lauderdale airport.

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