Obama's Cuban Imprint

Huge Till Trumped!

        Back on January 12th, just 8 days before his 8 years as America's two-term President ended, Barack Obama signed a final Executive Order that concluded his massive effort to normalize relations with Cuba, defying the United States Congress and the cabal of Cuban-American hardliners who effectively use their Congressional and Republican ties to dictate America's Cuban policy, one that currently is condemned by a 191-to-0 vote in the United Nations. Obama's January 12th decision ended, at least for now, the controversial and discriminatory Wet Foot-Dry Foot congressional law that legalized the entry of Cubans into the U. S. the moment their foot touched U. S. soil, an incentive that was not available to non-Cubans.

      This photo was used by the Jamaica Observer to update President Obama's decision to end the Wet Foot-Dry Foot incentive for Cubans to exercise their unique invitations to enter the United States and immediately begin enjoying an array of special discriminatory residence and economic privileges.

     The Jamaica Observer reports that since January 12th, 2016, 683 Cubans have been deported back to Cuba following Obama's ending Wet Foot-Dry Foot. The Cubans have been returned from Mexico, the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands where they had ended up, often aided by human traffickers, on their way to the U. S. Mexico deported 264 Cubans and turned back 144 more; the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands deported a combined 156. In 2016 a total of 56,082 Cubans entered the U. S. -- 38,310 via Wet Foot-Dry Foot while 11,772 had legal visas. Anticipating that Obama might end the special rules for Cubans, 2016 had the highest number of Cuban migrants to the U. S. since 1980 when Fidel Castro himself allowed 125,000 Cubans to go to Florida from the Port of Mariel in what history calls the Mariel Boatlift, with some historians claiming that Castro wanted to get shed of burdensome dissidents, imprisoned criminals, etc. The Jamaica Observer, like the rest of the media in the Caribbean, is waiting to see if U. S. President Trump will use his own Executive Orders to overturn the massive changes former President Obama made in U.S.-Cuban relations with his own series of Executive Orders, such as the last one just before leaving office that currently equates Cuban migrants on a par with others seeking entry into the United States.

         President Donald Trump at a scathing pre-election speech in Miami before Brigade 2506 veterans seemed to foreshadow his Cuban imprint that would surely please and excite the most fierce Cuban-American hardliners. Trump assured Brigade 2506 veterans he would reverse Obama's entire Cuban policy.

       Brigade 2506 led the ground attack to complement the air and sea assault on Revolutionary Cuba in April of 1961. To this day -- Feb 20th-2017 -- the Brigade 2506 veterans in Miami blame "U. S. Miscalculations" for their long-ago failure to recapture Cuba. In the decades since, the Brigade 2506 veterans have erected massive monuments in Miami celebrating their 1961 attempt and, via strong representation from Miami in the U. S. Congress, they have played a huge role in America's Cuban policy.

      But as of today -- Feb. 20-2017 -- President Trump has not lived up to his pre-election Brigade 2506 rants and that is now leading to massive anti-Trump protests in Miami and other South Florida cities, such as the volatile pro-migrant demonstration depicted above. Democratic presidents, especially Barack Obama, tend to support normalizing relations with Cuba, so the anti-Cuban zealots await Republican administrations -- such as Trump's -- to accentuate their stern counter-revolutionary Cuban desires.

       The current Chairman of the Miami-Dade County Democratic Party is Juan Cuba. Yes, that is his real last name and that is Juan Cuba shown above with America's former Democratic President Barack Obama.

      This photo shows Juan Cuba campaigning with Hillary Clinton, who was supposed to be the Democrat that would easily trounce Republicans in the President sweepstakes. It didn't happen, of course, because millions of Americans were tired of bought-and-paid-for establishment and dynastic politicians -- Republicans OR Democrats -- so the voters...at least in the decisive Electoral College forum...opted for the non-politician but unqualified contender, the billionaire businessman Donald Trump. But so far President Trump has neither nuked Cuba nor reversed President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with the island. That led to a major USA Today article today -- Feb. 20, 2017 -- entitled "Miami Goes From Apathetic to Anti-Trump." The article was written by Alan Gomez, USA Today's primary and obligatory anti-Cuban/Cuban American journalist. The democratic leader in Miami-Dade County, Juan Cuba, told Gomez he welcomes the anti-Trump protests. He said, "I think they make us stronger as a party." {Juan Cuba IS his actual name}.

        If THE TRUTH IS KNOWN, in the Republican primary election, the only county in Florida that Donald Trump lost was Miami-Dade and he lost it BIG because the majority of Cuban-Americans favor a sane, decent Cuban policy that would include ending the embargo. Cuban hardliners use propaganda and fake news to dispute such facts. The photo above showing Trump speaking in Miami is courtesy of Michele Eve Sandberg and The Miami New Times, which explained the above-stated truth in a Feb. 17-2017 article. 

Meanwhile, Cuba tries to remain Cuba:

        Cuba's National Coordinating Center for Clinical Trials, founded in 1991, continues to receive plaudits from the World Health Organization, the Pan Am Health Organization, American clinics, and even the World Bank for its "innovative advances in medical research and testing procedures as well as the continuous support it receives from the Cuban government," according to the WHO. The Director of the National Coordinating Center, Dr. Carlos Manuel Garcia, says, "Since cancer is the main cause of death for the Cuban population, we prioritize those clinical trials for neoplasias, although we develop many others." 

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Declaring War ON CUBA

Did Trump Do It Thursday?

       At his Thursday {Feb. 16-2017} news conference President Trump finally pointed a finger at Cuba although, for sure, his Caribbean winds are much calmer than the far more toxic and stronger tsunami-like torrents from places like...Russia, Iran, North Korea, China and the mainstream U. S. "news" media that is far more interested in destroying Trump's presidency than it is in actually delivering news. But Trump's brief but pertinent reference to Cuba essentially declared war on the Caribbean island with the almost oblique but palpable declaration that he and Marco Rubio had "similar views on Cuba."  Dismissed by most as a tiny ripple in a big ocean, to some it was more of a thunderous declaration of war against Cuba.

     Cuba's prime Minister regarding the U. S., Josefina Vidal, merely confirmed that "Yes, I heard  it" in reference to Trump's brief statement about Cuba Thursday. It was made by President Donald Trump and thus Vidal considers it more significant than Trump's pre-election anti-Cuban and war-like promises made to the fiercely revengeful Brigade 2506-Bay of Pigs veterans during a campaign appearance in Miami. 

       It turns out that President Trump and his wife had hosted Senator Marco Rubio and his wife at dinner in the Blue Room at the White House. That session, not surprisingly, prompted this exact quote from President Trump: "We had dinner with Senator Rubio and his wife, who was, by the way, lovely, and we had a very good discussion about Cuba because we have very similar views on Cuba." If Trump's views on Cuba are, in fact, the same as Rubio's, then Cuba needs to revert back to a war footing, not necessarily another Hot War such as the 1961 Bay of Pigs air, land and sea attack on Cuba but at least another Cold War, which evolved for decades after two 1962 events -- the scary Cuban Missile Crisis and the prurient U. S. embargo against Cuba, which the genuflecting U. S. Congress maintains to this day even after President Obama and other American democracy-lovers tried so hard to abolish it. For sure, if the Rubio-Trump war against Cuba is a hot one, one U. S. submarine in the Florida Straits could end it in about 15 minutes but the fallout would be more harmful to the U. S. democracy than to whatever was left of Cuba. And if the Rubio-Trump war against Cuba is merely a cold one, the drip-drop of the unending embargo would merely enhance its original premise that, according to declassified U. S. documents, was/is designed to starve and deprive Cubans on the island to induce them to rise up and overthrow their revolutionary government.

      And speaking of the embargo...as you can see from the declassified page listed above...it became effective at "12:01 A. M., Eastern Standard Time, February 7, 1962" and it remains in effect to this day in the second half of February, 2017. Most Americans, most Cuban-Americans and the entire world -- based on the current 191-to-0 vote in the United Nations -- want the embargo to end but the sheer fact that a handful of hardline Cuban-Americans, such as Rubio, can maintain it DECADE AFTER DECADE reflects servile genuflection of the 535-member U. S. Congress that bows to a few revengeful or otherwise self-serving benefactors who obviously are unconcerned with how injurious it is, internationally, to the United States.

        The democracy-loving Sarah Stephens, head of the Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas, on her February 17th website, assailed Trump's new war-like alliance with Rubio. A very powerful advocate for American and Cuban engagement, she decried Trump's "...anti-engagement position aligned with hardliners like Sen. Rubio and the other three Cuban-American representatives from South Florida."   

         While the world votes 191-to-0 to condemn America's Cuban policy, and great American democracy-lovers like Sarah Stephens agree with that unanimity, Ms. Stephens cringes at the stranglehold "Sen. Rubio and the three Cuban-American representatives from South Florida" have in the U. S. Congress.

       Cuban-American U. S. Senators Marco Rubio & Robert Menendez this week introduced legislation to "reform the human trafficker report produced annually by the State Department" because the last one produced by the courageous President Obama and his Secretary of State John Kerry reflected a positive regarding Cuba. Sometimes it appears that Rubio & Menendez -- and the other Cuban-Americans in Congress -- are only concerned with counter-revolutionary activity aimed at Cuba, indicating they feel there are no issues concerning the American people that needs their attention. Also, some democracy-lovers -- such as Sarah Stephens -- wonder when or if a moderate Cuban-American will get elected to Congress, especially considering that polls even in Miami show that most Cuban-Americans oppose the embargo and other salacious anti-Cuban bills easily rammed through a Batistiano-friendly Congress.

       Of course, any counter-revolutionary Cuban dissident, such as Yoani Sanchez, are hailed in Congress by Rubio & Menendez as world-class heroes and heroines totally deserving of U. S. support and tax dollars by the time they return to Cuba. The intended impression of photos like the one above is that most Cubans on the island are dissidents, which unbiased visitors to the island readily understand is not so. But, of course, that also is one reason that everyday Americans, SINCE 1962, have been the only people in the world without the freedom to visit Cuba because, apparently, if they did, they might not accept the Cuban narrative in the United States that, for the most part, is dictated by self-serving counter-revolutionaries.

      This rather interesting photo -- apparently orchestrated with care by Senator Rubio -- shows, left to right, President Trump, Lilian Tintori, Vice President Pence, and Senator Rubio himself. Rubio seemed to make sure that the Tintori visit duly impressed the two White House leaders. Tintori is the wife of the imprisoned Venezuelan political activist-dissident Leopoldo Lopez. Why is Rubio such a powerful advocate of Tintori and her husband? Well, Venezuela has for years been Cuba's primary supporter and at the moment its Cuba-friendly Madura government is barely hanging on in the midst of grave economic and political turmoil, which many observers believe will surely doom the Venezuelan government and, subsequently, perhaps the Cuban government too. And so, if you forgive me, I assume Rubio's interest in Venezuela is at least partially related to Rubio's ongoing counter-revolutionary activities related to Cuba.

     The current Venezuelan saga related to the imprisoned but powerful Leopoldo Lopez and his dissident wife Lilian Tintori is eerily reminiscent of the George W. Bush White House. Rubio this week making sure that President Trump and Vice President Pence got to meet Tintori evokes images of 2002 when the Bush White House was tightly tied to the coup that briefly overthrew Venezuela's Cuba-friendly President Hugo Chavez, a coup that most historians believe was promoted by Bush-appointed anti-Cuban zealots.

     Shown here with former CIA Director, Vice President and President George H. W. Bush, Otto Reich for decades has been one of the richest and most powerful anti-Castro Cuban-Americans. Born in Havana in 1945, the now 71-year-old Otto Reich, like most of the ultra-powerful and counter-revolutionary Cuban-Americans, rode the coattails of the Bush dynasty to fame, fortune, and infamy related to their mutual counter-revolutionary Cuban ideals. When Republicans control the White House, people like Otto Reich end up with appointive power directly from the White House. When Democrats control the White House, people like Otto Reich generally revert to rich, ultra-powerful anti-Cuban consultants and lobbyists.

      This photo shows Otto Reich with President George W. Bush, the son of former President George H. W. Bush. On January 11, 2002, President Bush appointed Reich Assistant Secretary of Western Hemisphere Affairs, essentially putting Reich in charge of Cuba in the Caribbean and Cuba's Latin American friends. It was a recess appointment -- one that didn't require Senate confirmation, of course -- that lasted until Nov. 22, 2002. All of Latin America cringed with Reich in such a powerful position. On April 11, 2002 Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was ousted in a coup that is tied to the Bush White House and to Otto Reich. For a few hours there were wild White House celebrations as U.S.-friendly anti-Cuban Pedro Carmona took over as Venezuela's President. But Carmona's regime lasted only a few hours until massive anti-coup street demonstrations and dire threats induced the coup-leaders to release Hugo Chavez and reinstall him as President. Latin America -- from 1953 until 1973 -- had tried desperately for democratic elections despite U. S.-backed coups that favored U.S.-friendly dictatorships. In 1973 the Nixon-Kissinger ties to the bloody coup in Chile resulted in the death of the beloved, democratically elected Salvador Allende, a dear friend of Fidel Castro. Allende's death installed the U.S.-friendly Augusto Pinochet as Chile's brutal, murderous dictator for the next 17 years. To this day the coup that resulted in Allende's death to make way for the murder-fueled Pinochet dictatorship chills Latin America, and today the twice democratically elected Chilean President is Michelle Bachelet, who was also Fidel Castro's dear friend. Michelle Bachelet's father was one of Pinochet's many murder victims. Pinochet's famed Condor international murder squads often included well-trained Cuban-American assassins {You can Google the infamous murders of Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier and his beautiful American aide Ronni Moffitt within sound of the White House in 1976, for example}. Latin America's democratically elected governments to this very day still cringe over {1} the 1973 coup in Chile and {2} the brief but memorable coup in Venezuela in 2002. And that's why the Reich-Bush photo above still haunts all of Latin America and the Trump-Rubio photo scares Latin America.

To understand U.S.-Cuba relations, study "Salvador Allende."

     Allende's best political friend was...Fidel Castro.

Pinochet & Allende prior to the bloody 1973 coup.

Pinochet & Henry Kissinger after the 1973 coup.

 Ronni Moffitt, 1976 Pinochet murder victim in D. C.

       At the start of what turned out to be Donald Trump's startling presidential election, the early favorite was Jeb Bush because of the wealth and power of the Bush dynasty but Americans, extremely tired of establishment and dynastic control of their democracy, elected the most non-political candidate, billionaire businessman Trump as their for-change, non-establishment President. But as you can see from the above graphic, Jeb Bush's "Foreign Policy Team" was dominated by famed anti-Cuban zealots led by Havana-born Lincoln Diaz-Balart whose father Rafael was a key Minister in the Batista dictatorship. And the other names on Jeb Bush's foreign policy team were also like a who's-who of anti-Cuban counter-revolutionaries -- such as Otto Reich, Roger Noriega, Paul Wolfowitz, John Negroponte, Porter Goss...all names closely tied to the Bush dynasty and anti-Cuban zealotry as any serious Googler would know. But even though Jeb Bush, the establishment and dynastic favorite, was quickly eliminated in the 17-person Republican presidential race, any Republican in the White House -- most certainly including Donald Trump -- is obligated, it seems, to appoint Bush cronies to powerful anti-Cuban positions, defying the well-known desires of American voters who long for a democracy devoid of self-serving incumbents and recycled unelected, appointed cronies.

      This photo deserves a second look. It shows Venezuela dissident Lilian Tintori and U. S. Vice President Pence sandwiched between President Donald Trump and Senator Marco Rubio. It's a reminder that Cuba, which shed itself of vile dictator Batista in 1959, doesn't deserve -- after all these decades -- a Rubio-type or Rubio-directed government on the island. However, that seems to be Rubio's plan, with the help of his old bitter Republican rival Trump. And, of course, Rubio plans on being Trump's successor in 2020 -- or sooner if the embattled Trump is impeached, a prime desire of the mainstream U. S. media. And considering pugnacious little Cuba's resilience, don't be totally shocked if the Batistianos capture the U. S. government before they recapture the Cuban government. In 2002 the brief Venezuelan coup seems to have merely been a prelude to recapturing Cuba. This week Lilian Tintori's prominent presence in the photo above seems to be a harbinger portending the fall of Venezuela's current government, which once again might be a logical step toward...orchestrating Cuba's demise. Rubio's interest in Cuban dissidents like Yoani Sanchez is understandable. But Venezuela's Tintori seems to be a key piece of his Cuban puzzle too.

And by the way:

        The above presidential photo has gone viral online this third weekend in February of 2017, punctuated by Irish comments. The jolly, neatly-attired fellow is Michael Higgins, the President of Ireland who has had "a totally fabulous and wonderful time visiting Cuba and the great Cuban people this week." President Higgins has long been an unabashed and outspoken admirer of the late Fidel Castro and the still viable Cuban Revolution, which he acutely contrasts with "the bastardly and brutalizing Batistas." 

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The EU Tests Cuba

With Warmer Relations!
{Friday, February 17th, 2017}

      The photo above shows Cuban President Raul Castro hosting Ireland's President Michael Higgins this week in Havana.

       The President of Ireland, Michael Higgins, is in Cuba this week on a very important mission. It is the first visit by a leader of the 28-nation European Union since the EU and Cuba recently signed a Memorandum of Agreement to work more closely on mutually beneficial trade and cultural issues.
        President Higgins is a huge fan of both Cuba and its revolutionary icon Fidel Castro. When Castro died at age 90 on November 25, 2016, Higgins made headlines in Europe by saying that it was with "great sadness" that he received the news. He also, rather bravely, has championed Revolutionary Cuba's sharp contrast to the Batista dictatorship that it replaced on January 1, 1959. President Higgins said, "Cuba achieved 100% literacy many years ago and built up a health system that is one of the most admired in the world. Inequality and poverty are much less pronounced in Cuba than in surrounding nations. Fidel Castro will be remembered as a giant among global leaders whose view was not only one of freedom for his people but for all of the oppressed and excluded people on this planet."
      Those are exact quotes from Irish President Michael Higgins, obviously reflecting the fact that in Ireland he has not been subjected to the Batistiano-dictated Cuban narrative in the United States since 1959. More importantly, in the pivotal year of 2017 for Cuba, the Michael Higgins influence on the European Union's relations with Cuba might bode well for the island.

        Oceania Cruises is adding six voyages to its Cuban itinerary between November 14th and December 21st, 2017.  It already has scheduled stops in Cuba beginning on March 7th on its 1,250-passenger Marina cruise ship. Oceania Cruises is a part of the Cuba-friendly, Miami-based Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings.

            The President and CEO of Oceania Cruises is Bob Binder. He says, "There is tremendous demand from consumers for voyages to Cuba and we are reacting to it." Like many U. S. executives, Bob Binder is both "hoping and assuming" that the historic openings to Cuba orchestrated by former President Barack Obama will not be "quashed" by current U. S. President Donald Trump.

       On the other hand, JetBlue Airlines is reducing its service to Cuba. Beginning on May 3rd, 2017 JetBlue will use smaller planes for routes from Fort Lauderdale and other U. S. cities to Havana, Santa Clara, Holguin and Camaguey. In total JetBlue will fly 300 fewer seats a day to four Cuban destinations. This is an adjustment to demand. Nine major airlines, as a key part of former President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba, have permission to make up to 120 flights a day to the island, the first time since 1961 that commercial flights from the U. S. to Cuba had been allowed because of the U. S. embargo against Cuba. But the embargo, which only can be lifted by the Batistiano-mired U. S. Congress, to this day still prohibits everyday Americans the freedom to travel to Cuba, although Obama sliced into some of those restrictions. Of course, Americans are the only people in the world without the freedom to visit Cuba, apparently to prevent Americans from being able to judge the island for themselves as opposed to being told what to think. With few exceptions, the Cuban narrative in the United States is dictated by the most visceral counter-revolutionaries in Miami and the U. S. Congress, a fact that the intimidated or incompetent U. S. media strictly adheres to. 

       Cuba's permanent United Nations representative is Anayansi Rodriguez. She is one of the UN's most outspoken anti-terrorism experts and perhaps the UN's most vocal critic of "a few powerful nations, including leading democracies, who arm and fund proxy soldiers to fight continuous wars in which civilian children and women are the primary victims." Also this week at the United Nations, Anayansi Rodriguez commanded center-stage at one point when she railed against "terrorism in all its forms and shapes committed by unspeakable groups of hellions that defy all the charters we at the UN stand for. My country, as small as it is, is happy to be a leader in this august forum to condemn all aspects of terror against civilians or against those who try to protect civilians against terror activities and plots." If you Google Anayansi Rodriguez's comments at the UN this week, you will note that she mentioned Cuba "as a victim of known but unpunished terrorism," specifically referencing the Oct. 6-1976 bombing of a Cuban civilian airplane -- Cubana Flight 455 -- in which all 73 on board perished. Anayansi Rodriguez, by the way, exemplifies the fact that most...not all, but most...of Cuba's day-to-day affairs are conducted by strong, dedicated women.

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China Is Rescuing Cuba

Its Latin American Pathway!

        This photo is courtesy of REUTERS-Alexandre Meneghini. It chronicles a metaphor for what's happening in Cuba right now as the island monitors the U. S. transition from Obama to Trump. The photo shows vintage 1950s-era U. S. convertibles sharing a Cuban highway with a long fleet of modern Chinese-made buses. If Russia is America's primary military competitor, China is its biggest financial rival. The Chinese economy is second only to the United States but China has a lot more ready cash for international investments. And China, while competing with the U. S. in the South China Sea and elsewhere, is seeking to overtake the U. S. when it comes to influencing the Caribbean and Latin America. China currently views Cuba as the pathway to competing with America in the Americas and looks forward to U. S. President Donald Trump living up to his promise to roll back President Barack Obama's historic Cuban detente.

        London-based REUTERS is the best news agency reporting from Cuba. It's major article this week, written by its top Cuban expert Marc Frank, used the above Alexandre Meneghini photo to illustrate this headline: "China Piles Into Cuba As Venezuela Fades and Trump Looms." The first sentence makes this point: "From buses and trucks to a 500 million dollar golf resort, China is deepening its business footprint in Cuba..." Cuba is understandably concerned that its long-time "oil benefactor" Venezuela is mired in massive economic and political turmoil while the island is also trying "to insulate against a possible rollback of Obama's U. S. detente." China, flush with investment cash while ratcheting up its competitiveness with the U. S., is anxious to rescue Cuba to bolster its Latin American credentials, especially in light of the expectation that the Trump presidency will "reverse" former President Obama's historic and significant efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. Marc Frank this week concludes that "China's growing presence gives its companies a head start over U. S. competitors in Cuba's opening market. It could leave the island less exposed to the chance U. S. President Donald Trump will clamp down on travel to Cuba and tighten trade restrictions loosened by his predecessor Barack Obama." Marc Frank asked the U. S. State Department about China's burgeoning interest in Cuba but got no response from the U. S. government. However, Marc Frank did get a very enthusiastic response from the Chinese government.

       The leading spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Geng Shuang, told Marc Frank, "All countries have consistent expectations about Cuba's vast potential for development." He also indicated that China is willing and able to be at the forefront of Cuba's economic survival "first" and "then participate" in the island's revival. China is assisting Cuba's oil production; the Chinese company Haier has opened a computer assembly plant in Cuba that will produce 120,000 laptops and tablets in its first year; China has invested $120 million in a container terminal in Santiago de Cuba; China has invested $460 million in a golf resort just east of Havana; Shanghai Electric is providing funds and equipment to build bioelectricity plants related to increasing Cuba's sugar production; etc. Also, Geng Shuang confirmed that China is sending dozens of young entrepreneurs to Cuba to learn Spanish to facilitate the burgeoning Chinese interest in Cuba, the Caribbean and Latin America. American antagonism towards Cuba sharply benefits China.

       While "Made in China" exports are ubiquitous in the United States and elsewhere, those new Chinese buses and trucks beginning to overwhelm the iconic 1950s-era U. S. cars in Cuba reflect the growing "Made in China" overall domination of the struggling but influential Caribbean island. Geely is a Chinese automotive company that in rather short order has sold 20,000 cars in Cuba. Soyea is a Chinese technological company that has sold 500,000 decoders and 25,000 televisions in Cuba. Haier is a Chinese company producing laptops and tablets in Cuba. Midea is a Chinese appliance company with a substantial presence in Cuban households. And now Chinese investments in oil and sugar production, resorts, golf courses, ports and other aspects of the Cuban economy clearly provide China with a big edge over the United States, Venezuela, Brazil and all other nations when it comes to positive influences in Cuba.

 Cuba: A Chinese priority.

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Cuba's Lack of Babies

A Major Problem!!

         Nick Miroff of the Washington Post is a fair-minded journalist as well as a Latin American and Cuban expert. His major article this second week of February-2017 is entitled "Cuba Wants More Babies..." and it was so interesting and revealing it was also published by the Miami Herald and other major venues. 

        The photo above courtesy of Ramon Espinosa/AP illustrated Nick Miroff's insightful article that included these major points:

                       "Cuba is giving parental leave to the grandparents of newborns, the country's latest attempt to reverse its sagging birthrate and defuse a demographic time bomb.

                      "The island already has one of the most generous parental leave policies in the Americas, allowing mothers and fathers to take more than one year off from work at partial pay. The new degree extends those benefits to maternal and paternal grandparents.

                      "The island of 11 million has one of the lowest fertility rates in the Western Hemisphere, with 1.7 births per woman.

                     "Cuba's healthcare system makes contraceptives widely available, and abortions are available on demand. At the same time, Cuban women are a growing portion of the country's professional workforce, and many choose to delay motherhood until their late 30s.

                     "Some 60,000 to 80,000 Cubans emigrate each year...nearly one-fifth of the island's population is 60 or older...Cuba's life expectancy is 78, on a par with the United States." 

       The informative Nick Miroff article blamed most of Cuba's problems, including its lack of babies, on Cuba's own revolutionary mistakes. But the photo above -- courtesy of the Miami Herald and taken this month of Feb.-2017 -- actually is much more truthful regarding "Cuba's problems" than anything Cuba has done to undermine its own survival or its sovereignty. Miroff does mention that Revolutionary Cuba spends an extremely high percentage of its limited wealth on caring for its people -- including free education, free healthcare, etc. What Miroff doesn't mention is that this has been done since 1959 despite daily assaults from the U. S., the nearby superpower. The above photo was taken a few days ago at Miami International Airport. It shows Cuban doctor Carlos Ariel Amigo arriving in Miami, along with other Cuban doctors, after being stranded for a time in Colombia. In 2006 the massive army of unchecked counter-revolutionary zealots working for President George W. Bush concocted something called The Cuban Medical Professional Parole Program and, as always, had no problem getting the U. S. Congress to legalize it to buttress many other regime-change schemes. Cuba has long had thousands of well-trained doctors working in the poorest areas of other countries and the Parole Program encouraged and rewarded those doctors to defect to the U. S., not so unlike the egregious Wet Foot-Dry Foot law that encouraged and rewarded Cubans who defect to the United States with instant discriminatory privileges unavailable to all non-Cubans. On January 12th, 2016 -- just 8 days before his two presidential terms ended -- President Obama used an Executive Order to finally end both the Parole Program and Wet Foot-Dry Foot. But the plane-load of Cuban doctors shown arriving in Miami under the Parole Program incentives occurred just a few days ago, allegedly because these doctors had defected just prior to Obama's January 12th ruling.

      This photo shows Cuban doctors still stranded in Colombia because President Obama ended the Parole Program that was designed to entice and reward them if they defected. Many other Cubans trying to cross into the U. S. are currently stranded in places such as Nuevo Laredo near the Mexican border because Obama also ended the decades-old Wet Foot-Dry Foot law. Americans, even those who think that would-be immigrants should at the very least be seriously vetted, have long been propagandized not to object to Cubans instantaneously being OK'd and quickly rewarded by the Parole Program and by Wet Foot-Dry Foot, although such gross discriminations designed to hurt Cuba have resulted in other not-so-propagandized nations voting 191-to-0 in the United Nations to condemn such anti-Cuban U. S. policies.

      In contrast to the photo of the plane-load of specially incentivized and enticed Cuban doctors defecting to Miami with unique privileges a few days ago, the photo above shows Cuban doctors loading a Cuban airplane with boxes of supplies before they are flown to a poor, neglected region that needs them.  

      This photo shows a Cuban doctor vaccinating Haitian children. Haiti, the poorest nation in the Americas, has been ravaged by such things as hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, rampant diseases, etc. The first nation to always arrive with totally free help and the last to leave is...Cuba. Cuba's medical scientists have developed cancer and diabetic drugs that American doctors are trying to obtain despite the embargo. Cuba devoted millions of scarce pesos to finance Operation Miracle that improved or restored eyesight free-of-charge to many of the poorest people in the Caribbean and Latin America. Cuba to this day provides free medical scholarships to poor foreigners, including hundreds of Americans. The World Health Organization, the Pan-Am Health Organization and the World Bank regularly praise Cuba for such things but the U. S. government and the U. S. media, in deference to the Cuban-exile hardliners, are generally not permitted such freedoms, similar to the fact that, for decades, everyday Americans have been the only people in the world without the freedom to visit Cuba, lest they might challenge the usual anti-Cuban counter-revolutionary propaganda. However, in the closing days of the Obama presidency, the AP did mention that Cuba was the first nation in the world to totally eliminate the transmission of AIDs from "mother-to-child" and the U. S. government did praise Cuba for leading the fight against the Ebola crisis in Africa. But now, during the Trump presidency, Bush-type insanity and cruelty is expected to replace Obama's decent overtures regarding Cuba...probably meaning that such things as the Parole Program incentives for Cuban doctors will be reinstated and such things as the Cuban doctor above vaccinating Haitian children will be frowned upon by extremists in control of America's Cuban policies.

     Which brings me back around to Nick Miroff's insightful and high-profile article that originated in the Washington Post and was anti-Cuban enough to also be published by the Miami Herald and other counter-revolutionary venues. Nick Miroff explained that, among Cuba's myriad of other problems, the island is trying desperately to encourage more Cuban women to have more Cuban babies. Countering that desperation is a multitude of paradoxes -- such as Cuba's excellent healthcare that produces extremely low infant mortality rates and world-class longevity; Cuba's weak economy and its burgeoning entrepreneur opportunities for young women; and the legion of economic missteps made by the island's revolutionary government. I have no problem with that part of Nick Miroff's analysis concerning why Cuba needs more babies but Miroff's just blaming Cuba for the situation is unusual because he normally provides both sides of two-sided Cuban stories, making him a rarity among U. S. journalists. Of course, the other side of that baby conundrum in Cuba is this: Cuba is the only nation in the world that has had to spend six decades trying to survive the most concerted efforts by a super powerful nation to destroy it...including decades-old efforts to LEGALLY starve it to death and drastically encourage its best-educated young people to defect. And in conclusion, I don't think America's vital trade partners on its northern and southern borders -- Canada and Mexico -- could have survived all these decades under such Cuban-like assaults and, frankly, I'm infatuated with trying to determine how Revolutionary Cuba has actually survived since 1959.

 In other words, I believe if the four people above -- fully supported by such powerful entities as the U. S. Congress and Republican presidential Commanders-in-Chief -- had targeted Canada or Mexico the way they and their associates have targeted Cuba, I don't believe Canada or Mexico could have survived intact and sovereign. BUT CUBA...little teeny Cuba!?! I'm still wondering and if I figure it out, I'll be sure to let you know.

Meanwhile:

      I agree with that unanimous 191-to-0 vote in the United Nations, the vote that Americans are supposed to totally ignore but the vote that confirms that every nation in the world agrees that self-serving forces in a rich foreign superpower should not be provided the wherewithal to punish this sleepy little Cuban schoolgirl and her very watchful mother all their lives. 

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