Cuba Starts the New Year

    Just a few weeks ago Cuba was reporting deaths from COVID-19 in the hundreds and the confirmed cases each day in the many thousands. But in recent weeks Cuba has embarked on a massive vaccination campaign across the island with its three own primary homegrown vaccines -- shown above -- and the numbers have drastically dropped.

     Now in its 24-hour statistics Cuba is reporting confirmed cases just in the hundreds and, in many days, Zero-0 deaths {"fallecidos"}. To be sure, the advent of the Omicron strain plus the sharply increased tourism to the island has increased the numbers somewhat, with the first two days of 2022 having one new death each day.

  

     And, meanwhile, as respected international observers like NewScientist tout Cuba's homegrown COVID-19 vaccines, big countries such as Mexico, Vietnam, etc. are beginning to use Cuba's vaccines to curb the pandemic...not to mention in the Caribbean little Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, with its population of 111,000, is using Cuba's Abdala vaccine to battle COVID-19.

     And, meanwhile, on this first weekend of 2022 the Top Headlines including the Paris-based France 24 Newwork reporting on the fascinating history of Havana's Hotel Nacional while actually this weekend the top Cuban headline in the USA finds the Washington Post reporting on the crime in Key West, Florida's nearest U. S. NEIGHBOR. Most Cubans on the island now have access to the Internet and they are appalled by the crime that seems to inundate and be rampant in U. S. cities.

    And, meanwhile, this first weekend in 2022 Floridians see the staggering statistics about their state having "58,000 infections in one day, a record number of COVID-19 cases in Florida." Of course, Florida is just across the Florida Straits from Cuba. Florida has a population of 21.7 million and Cuba has a population of 11.2 million people.

    And, meanwhile, well-educated and media-savvy Cubans in Cuba, such as Maria, have pertinent opinions about Florida and her Cuba. She even said: "Florida has so many problems with having so much money, so much crime, and so many COVID-19 cases, a sane person might think that Florida, instead of concentrating on starving Cuba, should concentrate more and better on its own problems, which include polluted beaches and waterways, which scientists continue maintaining that Florida should learn about what Cuba has long done to protect its much more pristine beaches and waterways."

     I am a Democracy-loving Virginian but I note that my state has drastically more COVID-19 cases and drastically more crime than Cuba has. Virginia has a population of 8 million+ and Cuba has a population of 11 million+.

     Cuba, as shown above, has reopened its borders to comply with much-needed tourism but with the very contagious Omicron strain of COVID-19 Cuba is now applying new restrictions.

     And, meanwhile, through it all...Cuba is trying mightily to survive the twin perils of the U. S. Blockade and the COVID-19 Pandemic. A major U. S. news sources, Forbes, sent a crew of Travel Writers to Cuba and then informed the world that American tourists should know that in the Winter of 2022 "NOW IS THE TIME TO GO TO CUBA." The huge Forbes article bravely reported that Cuba's "well developed medical structure" and the unique "warmth of the weather as winter sets in would be matched by the warmth of the Cuban people." So, incredibly, Forbes -- a prime U. S. media giant -- is brave enough to suggest that Cuba would be a nice place for Americans to visit this winter!! Folks, that is being brave in the USA.

     And, meanwhile, music-loving and dance-loving Cubans in Cuba -- as shown above -- brought in 2022 with an elaborate performance at Havana's famed Cabaret Tropicana.

     And, meanwhile, on this first weekend of 2022 Cubans in Cuba are celebrating the New Year by singing and dancing. And, also, the Cubans in Cuba were showing off some of the major renovations being made to many buildings despite the Pandemic and the Blockade. Above this weekend the singing and dancing above was in the lavish Gran Teatro Alicia Alonso Ballroom in Havana. In other words, while Revolutionary Cuba is far from perfect, many Cubans on the island at the start of 2022 believe that Cuba today is better that it was prior to 1959 when the U.S.-backed/Mafia-backed Batista dictatorship ruled the island. And as a Democracy-loving American, I believe that the U. S. media should consider the opinions of everyday Cubans on the island, not only Cubans in Florida or Cuban dissidents on the island. After all, Cuba and the U. S. are now into the 63rd YEAR of Revolutionary rule in Cuba and it is perhaps time that the U. S. media informed the U. S. people how that incredible development has endured all these decades against incredible odds!!

    And, meanwhile...as a Democracy-loving American...all I ask is that the U. S. media be fair enough and honest enough and brave enough to consider the opinions of the Cubans on the island, not just the opinions of extreme Counter Revolutionary Cubans in Miami and extreme dissident Cubans on the island. Everyday Cubans on the island obviously have opinions too and it is those Opinions, APPARENTLY, that MOST disapprove of the fact that Cubans in Little Havana dictate the USA's Cuban POLICIES that MANY consider GENOCIDAL!!

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Is Cuba Ready For 2022??

 

     For Cubans on the island, it is hoped there will be a FELIZ ANO 2022 -- A HAPPY New Year!! Of course, it was on January 1, 1959 that the Cuban Revolution -- featuring Fidel Castro and Camilo Cienfuegos -- shocked the world by defeating the U.S.-backed and Mafia-backed Batista dictatorship. So tomorrow -- January 1, 2022 -- Cubans on the island will celebrate an incredible 63rd ANNIVERSARY of revolutionary rule.

     On this last day of 2021, President Miguel Diaz-Canel addressed the Cuban people on nationwide television...and was mostly optimistic.

    Speaking in Spanish, President Diaz-Canel's words were also translated on the screen in English. He began by "inviting you all to embark on the path of the new year together."

    "Countrymen, the two thousand twenty one ends..." As 2021 ends, President Diaz-Canel today told the Cuban people that the island's two perils -- the blockade and COVID-19 -- will be with us into 2022 and we must continue to face them resolutely.

     "...inviting you all to embark on the path of the new year together." When he closed his year-ending message to the Cuban people today, President Diaz-Canel stressed that the people should be united in their twin goals of surviving their common obstacles while also continuing their determined defense of the Revolution.

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Cuba in the Winter of 2021-22

 

    This interesting photo this week, courtesy of Sulema LG, shows Cuba, Florida, and much of the United States FROM  SPACE at nighttime. The much-smaller but better-lit country in the lower-right below Cuba is Jamaica. Cuba, of course, is the largest nation in the Caribbean, and arguably its most beautiful and, potentially, its richest. But its close proximity to Florida, and especially to Little Havana in Miami, precludes Cuba from realizing its vast potential. The U. S. captured control of the always coveted Cuba from Spain after the 1898 Spanish-American War. By 1952 the U. S. thought it was a wonderful idea to share the luscious island with the Mafia during the second dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. Extreme brutality and thievery by Batista, the Mafia, and powerful U. S. businessmen spawned the Cuban Revolution that on Jan. 1-1959 stunned Batista, the Mafia, the U. S. AND the world with its Guerrilla War VICTORY. Since 1959 the U. S. and Little Havana/Miami have staunchly tried to regain control of Cuba...to no avail. Among other things, that effort included terror attacks to dissuade tourism to Cuba. Revolutionary Cuba also stunned the world again in April-1961 by defeating the U.S.-Little Havana military attack at the Bay of Pigs...and since 1962 the U. S., the strongest nation in the world, has imposed history's all-time longest and cruelest Embargo/Blockade of Cuba that any much-stronger nation has ever imposed against any much-smaller nation. So...study this nighttime view this week of Cuba from space; it still is not as well lit as Jamaica, Florida, etc., but it still holds firm to its revolutionary fervor. Meanwhile, Cuba remains, on the eve of 2022, the only nation having to try to curb a historic Pandemic as well as history's longest and cruelest Embargo/Blockade.

     Above are top U. S. headlines about Cuba heading into 2022. As usual the Miami/Little Havana media dominate the U. S. headlines, all of it...with rare exceptions...damning Revolutionary Cuba while always implying that what preceded it -- the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictators -- was the best and kindest government in the Caribbean.

  Like the Miami Herald, the rest of the mainstream U. S. media are also socially, politically, and otherwise obliged to defame Revolutionary Cuba. But a vast plethora of vicious anti-Cuba outlets have emerged since 1959, led by Radio-TV-Marti in Little Havana/Miami. For over three decades, U. S. tax dollars have lavishly funded Radio-TV Marti.

    And for over three decades Radio-TV Marti in Miami has, in the eyes and ears of many, engaged in tax-paid propaganda against Revolutionary Cuba.

    As you can see via the Google search above, even the Miami Herald has called Radio-TV Marti purely a dispenser of "bad journalism" and "ineffective propaganda." Yet...for over three decades tons of tax dollars have been regularly pipelined from Washington to Miami to fund Radio-TV Marti. Not only it is "bad journalism" and "ineffective propaganda," it is well known that the prime purpose of Radio-TV Marti is to provide a Cash Cow for politically correct Cubans in Little Havana-Miami.

    The great journalist and renowned Cuban expert Tracey Eaton has two blogs that regularly report on the pros & cons of Cuba, including the renowned and lavishly funded Cuban propaganda organ Radio-TV Marti. Now a beloved Professor at Flagler College in Florida, Eaton was back in Cuba this last week of 2021. His two blogs -- Along the Malecon and Cuba Money Project, as shown above, typically detail minutely how many tax-dollars daily fund Radio-TV Marti, and he gets the vast numbers and the names via the Freedom of Information U. S. Law. The figures and names are stunning...yet they have continued daily for the past 31 years and they continue into 2022 because no one can end it.

    For sure, Jeffrey Kofman is one of the USA's all-time greatest investigative journalists, including at the CBS and ABC television networks. At ABC his report entitled "Newscast to Nowhere" remains the definitive depiction of what Radio-TV Marti is.

    As shown above, the seminal "Broadcast to Nowhere" report by Jeffrey Kofman explains that the real purpose of Radio-TV Marti was not just Cuban propaganda but that the real purpose was/is to provide bundles of tax dollars to politically favored Cubans in Little Havana/Miami. Kofman points out, as you can see above, that Cubans on the island...the supposed prime target...don't hear or see it nor would it be effective if they did. But, of course, for the past 3+ decades the tax-dollars still flow unimpeded...even though for the past three decades powerful members of Congress...such as "Jeff Flake" as quoted above...have been trying without any success to save U. S. taxpayers and the U. S. Democracy such a humiliating ripoff.

         And meanwhile, only occasionally in the USA will the mainstream U. S. media report either positively or fairly about Cuba. BUT GUESS WHAT? One of the world's greatest Travel Writers, Laurie Werner, has just returned from crisscrossing Cuba and she has penned a huge, long article about Cuba that is fantastically positive and fair about Cuba this last week of 2021. And moreover, one of America's most powerful mainstream media sources, Forbes, was brave enough to not only publish Laurie Werner's revelations about Cuba but Forbes widely publicized it.

 World-renowned Travel Writer Laurie Werner strongly suggests that Americans and other tourists visit Cuba, saying they would savor the "warmth of the island and its people."

       As shown above, the Forbes article lavishly lauded Cuba's "medical structure" that has developed successful homegrown vaccines against COVID-19. And the Forbes article this week says Cuba is "well positioned to welcome travelers back just as winter sets in...and the warmth of the weather would be matched by the warmth of the people, expressed in a palpable joy to see American travelers visit as they did in the first wave in 2015." In 2015 Barack Obama became the only U. S. President to ease the U.S. Embargo/Blockade that began in 1962 and intends to destroy Revolutionary Cuba by, among other things, trying to block Tourism to the island. But in 2016 Obama was replaced by President Trump who quickly expanded the Embargo/blockade more genocidal than ever, and starting in 2020 the current President Biden has continued Trump's genocide against Cubans on the island to appease a handful of rich and powerful Cubans in Little Havana/Miami.

     And as shown above, this week the Forbes article was brave enough to point out that the "veritable avalanche" of tourism to Cuba in 2015 thanks to President Obama contradicted Little Havana's plan to starve Cubans in Cuba into submission, so starting in 2016 both Presidents Trump & Biden have cowardly and politically resumed the dictates of Little Havana's dictates...with another generation of cowardly Americans too afraid to do anything to ease a shame that shames America & Democracy more than it shames Cuba.

    Beyond question, except for Florida's dictation of the USA's Cuban policies, Cuba would be...per capita...one of the region's richest nations, and that would also benefit many Americans. Cuba's beauty and strategic location exceeds Florida's, and Cuban beaches are more beautiful than Florida's.

    Due south of Florida, Cuba's Varadero Beach has been listed as the #One Beach In The World and in 2021 TripAdvisor, a key worldwide tourist advisor, lists Cuba's Cayo Santa Maria as the Second Best Beach in the Whole World.

   This week the great journalist and Florida professor Tracey Eaton visited Cuba and posted dozens of Havana photos on Facebook, such as the one above. This photo shows a big building going up and it provoked surprise as well as discussions on Facebook. It seems that many people can't believe Cuba is involved in such things during the tightened U. S. Blockade and COVID-19, the twin perils that were supposed to have doomed Cuba.

   Indeed, many of Tracey Eaton's Facebook photos from Havana this week showed many decaying buildings but across the city many residential and government buildings have been sharply renovated, and that work is continuing despite the Blockade & the Pandemic. This Eaton photo this week shows a snapshot of Havana tourism as it begins to revive; an entrepreneur taxi driver has stepped out of his vintage 1950s convertible to snap a photo of his two paying tourists. Revolutionary Havana is not as rich as Havana was in the 1950s when the U. S. and the Mafia supported Batista, but heading into 2022 Havana still has the unique charm and allure that Cuba's capital city is famed for.

      Meanwhile, the endless 6-decade-old U.S./Little Havana Embargo of Cuba remains firm heading into 2022!!! Its demise, apparently, will be postponed as long as Little Havana wants it to exist.

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