Cuba-U.S. Lagging Behind

Scandinavian Nations Excel!!

 Cubans unhappy with their government and Americans unhappy with their government should read and study the front page of Monday's USA Today. Yet another major article in America's largest newspaper -- on March 20th, 2017 -- revealed why five Scandinavian nations have the best governments in the world, the five that repeatedly finish in the Top Five when it comes to having the best educated, healthiest, most equal, best represented, and happiest people in the entire world. If Cubans and Americans think any or all of those categories are important, they should stop complaining about their own governments and take time to study what those five Scandinavian nations do right. AND THEN Cubans and Americans, instead of just envying those five splendid nations, should actually complain about their governments, prodding them to replicate The Big 5. The March 20-2017 Front Page article in USA Today was/is entitled "THE NORSE, OF COURSE, ARE THE HAPPIEST PEOPLE ON EARTH." Of course! The article starts off with the reminder that the U. S. Declaration of Independence "inscribed as a fundamental right 'the pursuit of happiness' but Norway has taken that most to heart." Yes, indeed!! Norway #1, Denmark #2, Iceland #3, Switzerland #4, and Finland #5.

       You don't have to leave the Front Page of Monday's USA Today to understand why the United States, the richest nation in the history of the world, doesn't remotely compete with the Scandinavian nations when it comes to having the "happiest people in the world." America's "gap between the richest and poor" is grossly astronomical because of a largely corrupt, bought-and-paid-for government easily controlled by its wealthiest citizens dictating its democracy. Such a "gap" is not allowed in the Scandinavian nations. Norwegian citizens, for example, have a GNP of $100,000, more than double that of Americans. But more significantly, that $100,000 is evenly distributed and not mostly relegated to the wealthiest one or two percent. And, as USA Today, the World Health Organizations and others have pointed out, the Scandinavian nations don't take a chance on their elected officials being bought off; major decisions are made via referendums in which the citizens themselves vote directly on issues concerning them. While the U. S. is awash with billionaires and a $20 trillion debt owed mostly to World War II foe Japan and Communist China, oil-rich Norway, for example, could cut off its oil spigots today and still have enough reserve money to take care of its citizens for the next 500 years just as well as they are taken care of now.

       On March 20-2017 the BBC used the above Getty Images photo of happy Norwegians to explain why the 5-million citizens of Norway are the "happiest people in the world," followed by the citizens of four other Scandinavian nations. Such surveys point out that nations that best distribute their natural and human resources are far better than nations that allow a few greedy miscreants to horde extreme wealth.

         The four Norwegian children above have ample reasons to be happy and to be proud of their national flags. Norway's government and culture abides by a system known as Janteloven. That means these four Norwegian children have the same advantages all other children in Norway have -- no more and no less.

 Not enough Americans worry about the above poster.

And North Carolina has a lot of billionaires.

       Meanwhile, these Cuban children are healthy and happy. They also have totally free health care and free educations through college. There is also very little crime on their Caribbean island and there is basically no gap in Cuba related to wealth disparity. In fact, there is not much wealth at all, thanks to the combination of an harassed government's inefficiencies and, in particular, a cruel and historically long economic embargo imposed on the island by revengeful exiles in the nearby superpower United States.

       And so, people the world over -- including Cubans and Americans -- should congratulate Norway for having "the happiest people in the world." All nations should aspire to be what mighty little Norway is.

This is Norway.

Norway welcomes tourists.

But don't overstay your visit.
Norway has 5 million of its own citizens to take care of.
And by the way........

         ...................did I mention that the average Norwegian speaks five or more languages? Heidi Hauge is an example. She also happens to be my favorite singer. I don't understand a word of Norwegian but even when she sings in her native language -- such as "Siste Dans" {"Last Dance"} -- I am enthralled with her voice and styling. I love watching and listening to her unique talent in any of her languages on YouTube. She's that good. But mostly I watch and listen to her sing great American songs in her perfect English. If you check her English versions on YouTube of songs like "I'm So Afraid of Losing You," "Seven Spanish Angels," "Save the Last Dance for Me," "I'm Gonna Be A Country Girl Again," etc., I think you'll agree.

      She rarely leaves her beloved Norway, but when Heidi Hauge takes her unique musical talent to other countries, her performances are memorable. The photo above shows her in Berlin, Germany, where she received standing ovations after every song and then was besieged with repeated requests for encores. She is, many believe, the best singer -- in English -- of American country songs but sternly resists requests to visit the United States, UK, Canada, Australia, etc...because she hates leaving lovely Norway.

A Norwegian named Heidi Hauge.

She loves singing, but loves Norway even more.

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Female-Powered Cuba

Women at the Forefront!

    The Cuban Revolution and Revolutionary Cuba have both always been star-studded with fearless female guerrilla fighters and prime decision-makers. In Cuba today one such power is Ana Maria Mari Machado. She is one of the most vibrant Vice Presidents in Cuba's National Assembly, and one of the most admired Cuban officials with the general population. No trio of males in Cuba's Revolution matched the overall contributions of Celia Sanchez, Haydee Santamaria, and Vilma Espin...which is a basic fact whether on not the Cuban narrative in the United States admits it. Today in Revolutionary Cuba, the most powerful judicial judge is a woman; the top diplomat related to all issues involving the U. S. is a woman; the most popular news anchor on state television is a woman; the leader of the Federation of University Students and the island's most virulent defender of sovereignty is a woman; the leader of Cuba's vital Mariel Port Economic Zone is a woman, and the beat goes on in Cuba. 

     
    A powerful Vice President in Cuba's National Assembly, Ana Marie Mari Machado is a top strategist and one of the island's most popular leaders according to everyday Cubans. She says, "We are now traveling to all the municipalities to get feedback from our people. Popular rule is something I will always champion. What is best for all our people is my goal."       

       Significantly, Ana Maria Mari Machado has discovered that the "prime concern" of everyday Cubans across the island remains the economic embargo first imposed by the United States back in 1962.  

        Very influential and popular with everyday Cubans across the island, Ana Maria Mari Machado also often represents Cuba at important international forums, such as the one above in Belgium that involved the European Union.

Ana negotiated & signed the Brussels agreement. 

       Ana Maria Mari Machado is the Cuban leader most involved in the "No More Blockade" campaign. Her dire condemnation of it on behalf of the Cuban people now also gets a unanimous 191-to-0 condemnation in the UN.

 Ana calls the U. S. embargo "a crime." 

       Ana Maria Mari Machado blames "the cowardice of the America people" for the embargo. "The few in America who benefit from it," she says, "are one factor but the biggest factor is the cowardice of the American people who sit back and let it happen while they show no respect, certainly not for precious Cuban children, but also not even for the scorn it causes their democracy." 

      At international forums, Ana Maria Mari Machado has no trouble convincing U.S.-friendly world leaders that the embargo of her island "is the longest and cruelest blockade ever imposed by a strong nation against a weak nation."

And yet.....

.........easily intimidated or propagandized Americans, decade after decade after decade, are successfully told that anti-embargo stalwarts on the island -- like Ana Maria Mari Machado -- are the "bad guys" while.........................

...............prime pro-embargo benefactors like Miami-based Cuban-American U. S. Senator Marco Rubio are the "good guys."

The result is this worldwide image of America.

Photo courtesy: TravelingWithTom.com
These Cuban children deserve Ana charting their future.
Not Rubio!

More TravelingWithTom.com Cuban children.
Destined to be embargoed all their lives?

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Cuban Good Deeds Reported

Even in the U. S. Media!
{Saturday, March 18th, 2017}

      These two photos are courtesy of AFP and the World Health Organization. This week -- Thursday, March 16, 2017 -- even some in the mainstream U. S. media -- including the Associated Press and the Washington Post -- reported on another nice gesture made by Cuba to Colombia. Cuba is awarding Colombians an additional 1,000 medical scholarships to attend its famed Latin American School of Medicine totally free of charge. It is in honor of the rebel Group FARC and the Colombian government finally ending 52 years of its bloody Civil War that killed 260,000 Colombians and displaced over 7 million more. The scholarships will be evenly divided between former FARC guerrilla fighters, like the ones shown above, who have laid down their weapons and government soldiers who once fought them. All of Latin America hailed the ceasefire.

       Cuba's Ambassador to Colombia, Jose Luis Ponce, said, "These scholarships will begin in September and they are in appreciation for both sides in the Civil War living up to the peace treaty negotiated in Havana. Both the government of Colombia and the FARC leaders have warmly thanked Cuba for this latest gesture." 

      Cuba, of course, was the catalyst that finally ended the bloody Colombian Civil War after 52 years of relentless fighting. For four long years, from 2012 till 2016, Cuba hosted the warring factions in Havana until a peace treaty was, at last, signed. The photo above shows Cuban President Raul Castro smiling proudly as Colombia's president Juan Manuel Santos shook hands with FARC rebel leader Evan Marquez who is much better known by his guerrilla nickname Timochenk. The Colombian President and the FARC leader are shown holding the newly signed peace agreements on that historic day in Havana.

       Meanwhile this week, much of the anti-Cuban mainstream media in the United States is gloating over the fact that two U. S. airlines -- Frontier and Silver -- have decided to halt flights to Cuba. The historic photo above was taken on August 31, 2016, and it shows airline workers joyfully waving goodbye to JetBlue Flight 387 as it began to take off from Fort Lauderdale in Florida to Santa Clara, Cuba. The flight made history because it was the first commercial flight from the United States to Cuba since 1961 and, of course, was a product of former President Barack Obama's magnanimous efforts to normalize relations with Cuba.

       After JetBlue's Fort Lauderdale-to-Santa Clara flight on August 31, 2016, a total of nine major airlines quickly lined up a staggering total of 120 daily flights from the U. S. to ten Cuban cities. It is no wonder this week that the anti-Cuban zealots in the U. S. are gloating that Frontier and Silver are curtailing their flights to Cuba but it is also no wonder that these are business decisions, not anti-Cuban tactics. Cuba simply was not capable of absorbing so much sudden air traffic from the United States. The island's Obama-orchestrated tourist additions in 2016 enabled Cuba to pass 4 million visitors for the first time and already 2017 is on schedule to exceed that total. Cuba does not have nearly enough hotel rooms and other accommodations to deal with such an influx. Also, the airlines -- like so many other U. S. businesses -- are hurt by the Batistiano-driven Cuban laws easily enacted and mandated in the U. S. Congress, such as the economic embargo against Cuba that has existed since 1962. Such laws were beyond President Obama's prerogatives to end and thus remain in the purview of a dysfunctional or bought-and-paid-for segment of the U. S. Congress controlled by a few Cuban-American hardliners and benefactors. Although some 60,000 non Cuban-American Americans visited Cuba in 2016 and many more would like to do so in 2017, the embargo still dictates that everyday Americans are the only people in the world without the freedom to visit Cuba, a staunchly maintained Congressional law that apparently has been in effect for decades so that propagandized, misinformed Americans can't make their own personal judgments about Cuba.

      Even with everyday Americans still grossly restricted from having the freedom to fly to Cuba, and with Cuba not quite ready to handle the Obama-induced increase in tourism anyway, there are still seven major U. S. airlines making regular commercial flights to Cuba from Florida's two biggest airports -- Miami and Fort Lauderdale. Also, other flights are being made from cities like Atlanta, New York, Houston, LA, etc. In addition, there are nine cruise ship lines currently taking or planning to take cruises from the U. S. to Cuba for the first time since 1961. The photo above shows American Airlines workers touting a Cuban flag in their jubilation over the Obama-induced commerce with Cuba, an engagement that stands to bring joy to many thousands of hard-working people in America and in Cuba. Of course, a handful of hardliners in Miami and in Congress plan to squelch such jubilation and, with Obama's two-term presidency now over, they might well do so as they ease back into their total dictation of America's Cuban policy...you know, the one that currently gets a 191-to-0 denunciation in the United Nations. Democracy, which the airline workers shown above were celebrating, had never -- prior to Obama -- been applied to U. S. relations with Cuba.

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Cubans and Cuban-Americans

Still Deeply Loving Cuba!
{Updated: Thursday, March 16th, 2016}

       The historic photo above says a lot about Cuba's ageless struggles against imperialist occupation extrapolated amidst the island's centuries-old battles for independence and sovereignty. In 1898 the Spanish-American War marked the transition of imperialist rule of Cuba from Spain to the United States. The above photo was noticed by a visitor this week at the Bacardi Museum in Santiago de Cuba. If you study the captions, you'll note that the photo was taken on May 20th, 1902 -- less than three years after the Spanish-American War. More significantly, notice that the U. S. flag is flying above and very much higher than the Cuban flag, clearly signifying that the United States secured Cuba from Spain, which was what the Spanish-American War was all about. The U. S. quickly drew up imperialist papers cementing its total dominance -- such as the Platt Amendment legalizing military occupation and, in 1903, papers that legalized the theft of Cuba's plush Guantanamo Port "in perpetuity." When the Treaty of Paris was signed ending the Spanish-American War, no Cuban was in attendance -- rather fittingly. To this day in the U. S., there are right-wing references claiming the U. S. used the Spanish-American War to "bring democracy to Cuba." Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. On January 1, 1959, the Cuban Revolution stunned the world by overthrowing the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship, which quickly reconstituted itself on U. S. soil with continuous designs on recapturing the island. That hasn't happened...but neither has democracy. In the meantime, the modern-day struggles in mid-March of 2017 involve such nuances as Cubans vs. Cuban-Americans and nearby South Florida resembling a Batista/Mafia-like Banana Republic ON U. S. SOIL, which now gets a 191-to-0 UN condemnation. 

        The Teller Amendment lied to the out-of-the-loop American people prior to the 1898 Spanish-American War so the U. S. citizens wouldn't object to the desire of right-wing thugs in Washington and New York to capture Cuba.

       Right-wing thugs being allowed to capture Cuba in 1898 shames America and democracy to this day, as depicted by cartoons like the one above.

     But in was in the year 1950 that right-wing thugs in the United States government quantified the most nefarious American designs on Cuba as they conspired with the Mafia to use the power of the United States economy and military to support the brutal Batista dictatorship in Cuba, a murderous and thieving regime that existed from 1952 till the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, but then the miscreants resettled quickly in their new power-base, South Florida. Now such historic and topical facts after all these centuries and decades have grown very tiresome, especially for some rich and powerful Cuban-American businessmen based in South Florida, most of whom now want Cuba finally treated in 2017 as a sovereign nation and not as a targeted imperial pawn.

     While the ruling elite in South Florida last week talked...and laughed...about an "invasion of Cuba" now that Republicans are in charge of both the White House and the U. S. Congress, most of the 1.3 million Cuban-Americans even in South Florida support former President Obama's herculean efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. That is particularly true of almost all of the most powerful Cuban-American businessmen in South Florida, such as Frank del Rio, the Cuban-born head of the Miami-based Norwegian Cruise Line. He still loves Cuba.

        This is one of Frank del Rio's ships taking 1,250 passengers to Havana back on March 9th, 2017. Frank has scheduled nine more cruises to Cuba, including to the ports of Cienfuegos and Santiago de Cuba. In June the cruise ship Carnival Paradise with a capacity for 2,052 passengers will sail from Tampa to Havana. In all, 12 cruise lines are currently traveling to Cuba thanks to President Obama's slicing into the long-standing ironclad, Congress-mandated embargo of Cuba, an embargo that still makes most Americans the only people in the world without the freedom to travel to Cuba. Yet, Obama-inspired U. S. tourism in 2016 helped Cuba set a record with 4 million visitors and by March 4-2017 the total had already passed a million this year, much earlier than the pivotal, record-setting year of 2016.

       But Frank del Rio's giant Miami-based Norwegian Cruise Line remains a catalyst in formulating the historic first cruise ships from the U. S. to Cuba in over half-a-century. Powerful Cuban-American businessmen like Frank will be a mite angry if the Cuban hardliners persuade President Trump to reverse such commerce with Cuba. Frank was born in Cuba in 1954 during the Batista dictatorship and came to the U. S. at age 7 in 1960, soon after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution. Like most Cuban-Americans, Frank wants normal relations with Cuba and he agrees with the international 191-to-0 vote in the United Nations condemning America's Batistiano-driven Cuban policies such as the embargo, which has been in effect since 1962, as well as the easily mandated Congressional laws that strongly discriminate in favor of the Cuban elite and Cuban defectors while grossly discriminating against everyone else, including the taxpayers.

       From way back in the 1950s till this very day, most of the ultra-rich and powerful Cuban-American hardliners have risen with connections to the self-serving Bush dynasty. The photo above shows President George W. Bush with his Cuban-born Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez. In that role Gutierrez embarrassed America and democracy by punishing and mocking innocent Cubans on the island, such as when horrific back-to-back hurricanes destroyed over 200,000 Cuban homes. While other nations helped out, Gutierrez held news conferences saying the U. S. would contribute X-amount of dollars, BUT not to the Cuban government. Cuba reacted by saying that the U. S. was already contributing "tons of counter-revolutionary dollars to dissidents and was only using the disaster on the island "to contribute more." 

      Meanwhile, Carlos Gutierrez was explaining that he was "not a crook" and that his extreme wealth resulted from his being CEO-Chairman of Kellogg after starting with the company as a low-level worker in Mexico. Still, his Bush connections and his mocking Cubans on the island after the devastating hurricanes questioned his claim as far as Cuba was concerned then and now.

      After serving as President Bush's Secretary of Commerce, Carlos Gutierrez became an anti-Cuban lobbyist and an adviser or executive with Washington Think Tanks like the powerful Albright Stone Bridge Group.

BUT GUESS WHAT? By 2015 Carlos Gutierrez was back in his native Cuba {above} celebrating the Obama-orchestrated re-opening of the U. S. Embassy in Cuba for the first time since 1961. Moreover, Gutierrez now, like most Cuban-Americans, advocates ending the embargo and negotiating normal relations with Cuba. Recently, Gutierrez criticized the Trump administration for being over-loaded with anti-Cuban zealots such as Mauricio Claver-Carone. So, like Frank del Rio and most of the powerful Cuban-American businessmen in South Florida, Gutierrez -- in a remarkable about-face -- is using his lobbying power in Washington to now call for normalizing relations with Cuba. It seems that some rich and powerful Cuban-Americans like Gutierrez are disheartened by other nations taking advantage of the ongoing positive changes in Cuba.

       The Executive Vice President of Nestle, Laurent Freixe, believes in Cuba's economic potential. The Swiss giant will build a factory at Cuba's Mariel Economic Zone to produce coffee, cookies and other products. Mr. Freixe says that the factory will employ at least 300 Cubans by the second half of 2019.

         If Cuba can continue to attract major international firms like Nestle to its deep-water, refurbished Mariel Port 28 miles southwest of Havana, it'll be much less dependent on the vagaries of its contentious relationship with the neighboring United States. A Nestle factory producing its world-famed products in Cuba will be a huge boost for the long-embargoed island.

And by the way:

       A life-size bronze statue of Gabriel Garcia Marquez has been unveiled in Havana. The Colombia-born Nobel Laureate is often called the all-time greatest Latin American writer-author.

      With Eusebio Leal, the Havana City Historian, looking on, the Colombian Ambassador to Cuba, Gustavo Bell, dedicated the Garcia Marquez statue to the people of Cuba. Bell said, "We want to pay homage to Gabo...Gabriel Garcia Marquez's nickname...because he is so intimately linked to Havana and the Cuban people that he loved so deeply. This is also a tribute, a show of gratitude from the Colombian people to the Cuban people for accompanying us in the peace process." For four years Cuba hosted exhaustive talks between the government of Colombia and FARC rebels, a superb gesture that ended a bloody civil war that had roiled Colombia for half-a-century.

     During his long life, Gabriel Garcia Marquez was a dear friend of the Cuban people, especially his best friend for a half-century, Fidel Castro. But Garcia Marquez, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982, mortally hated U.S.-backed Latin American dictators, especially Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, Somoza in Nicaragua, Pinochet in Chile and, of course, Batista in Cuba. 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of one of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's most unforgettable books -- "100 Years of Solitude." 

Gabriel Garcia Marquez and his dearest friend Fidel Castro.

Latin America's most acclaimed author.

        The newly dedicated statue of Gabriel Garcia Marquez in Havana was created by the great Cuban sculptor Jose Villa Soberon. His statues of John Lennon and others are tourist attractions around Havana.

A Soberon statue honoring American Earnest Hemingway.

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