Americans Need to Keep Up
I'll Try to Tell You How to Do That!
If Americans are to ever understand Cuba or U.S.-Cuban relations, they need to know great journalists such as Will Grant. Brilliantly reporting from Cuba, he will honestly tell you the pros and cons of what is happening on the island. He works for the BBC, the London-based biggest and best worldwide news organization. With extremely rare exceptions, American journalists -- print, television and online -- simply do not have the freedom that Will Grant has to tell you the truth about Cuba. That has been so since the 1898 Spanish-American War when the U. S. wrested imperialist control of Cuba from Spain, and then maintained that control until Jan. 1-1959 when the Cuban Revolution finally achieved independence for the island. Lies about Cuba in the U. S. media have been particularly prevalent since 1976 when the honest Cuban-American journalist in Miami, Emilio Milian, was car-bombed because he criticized Cuban-American terrorists for harming innocent Cubans, such as with the deadly bombing of Cubana Flight 455.
After the demise of Flight 455, the Miami media was effectively used for such celebratory chants as, "It's the biggest blow yet against Castro!!" To this day, well-known anti-Cuban terrorists, including those attached to the Cubana Flight 455 bombing, are heralded citizens of Miami. Since the ill-fated Emilio Milian car-bombing in 1976, as far as I know only one U. S. journalist -- Jim DeFede -- has had the integrity and the guts to criticize such things. Jim WAS the top columnist for the Miami Herald when he wrote a famous column excoriating Cuban-American members of Congress -- Ros Lehtinen and the Diaz-Balart brothers -- for their lavish support of the most well-known Cuban-American terrorists. I underlined Emilio and Jim in case you want to Google their bravery and judge it for yourselves. And please note, I make these points not because of a passion for Cuba but because of my passion for America and Democracy, both of which I believe have been severely harmed by America's Cuban policy since the 1898 Spanish-American War and especially since the victory of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 when former leaders of the ousted Batista-Mafia dictatorship reestablished themselves on U. S. soil -- particularly in Miami and especially deeply within the confines of the United States Congress and the Republican Party.
Meanwhile, permit me to explain why Will Grant of the BBC is the best bet for Americans to know the truth about what is happening in Cuba as the island tries to survive the lingering vestiges of America's Batistiano-imposed Cuban embargo as well as the future requiems of America's Trump rule. {requiem means hatred, rancor, hostility, animus, antipathy, acrimony, etc., in the above usage.}
While Americans are programmed to hide behind the lie that little Cuba has no major consequence for America, it had enough consequence in 1959 when it ended the Mafia's and America's rule of the island. It had enough consequence to become the only nation that mounted a successful revolution against a vile U.S.-backed dictatorship. In 1962 it had enough consequence to bring the world the closest it has ever been to a nuclear holocaust. It later had enough consequence that the Cuban Revolution inspired many other Latin American nations to get shed of U.S.-backed dictators like Trujillo, Somoza, Videla, Pinochet and even Mobutu in Africa to make way for dear Castro friends such as the democratically-elected leaders of many Latin American nations plus Nelson Mandela in South Africa, etc. AND today Cuba has enough of a unique consequence to have the U. S. condemned by a 191-to-0 vote in the UN for its Cuban policies.
So, that's why democracy-loving Americans, I believe, need to get their Cuban news from fair-minded, highly respected, and unbiased journalists such as the BBC's Will Grant. This last week in April of 2017, for example, Will Grant authored a refreshingly brilliant BBC article that tells you all about what's really happening in Cuba. It's entitled: "Cuba's Slick TV Channel That Supports More Revolution." As Cuba marches on in the Trump era, that is a major new development on the nearby island that Americans should know.
Will Grant and the BBC this week used EFE photos like the one above to tell the world about a major new development in Cuba. Its an ultra-modern television channel called "Canal Caribe," which means "Caribbean Channel." It airs 18 hours a day with mostly live news for Cubans. The anchors are superb young journalists like Cristina Escobar, who is perhaps the very best news anchor in the entire region. The BBC points out that the anchors and reporters are very well-educated and speak fluent English too.
The BBC says Canal Caribe has state-of-the-art studios, features live link-ups with international correspondents via Skype, and that it makes good use of topical social media sites such as Twitter.
The Canal Caribe network is Cuba's answer to America's controversial 24-hour cable news channels -- the extreme left-wing MSNBC, the extreme right-right Fox News, and the extreme anti-Trump CNN.
The Director of Canal Caribe is Ovidio Cabrera. He maintains that his new station will present news and information that Cubans need...with a powerful pro-revolutionary edge. He told the BBC: "This is a channel for more revolution. We won't shy away from criticizing what isn't working...but always through the prism of supporting the revolutionary process, not against it." Mr. Cabrera primarily aims Canal Caribe's coverage at the vital young generation of Cubans -- upper teens and young adults -- who will likely predicate the island's future. He believes Cuba's young generation prides independence and cultural traits above a return to foreign dominance and that his Canal Caribe is ready to test that resolve. Cubans on the island, he believes, are so well-educated and so well-informed that Canal Caribe couldn't mislead them.
Americans that need to know about such things as Canal Caribe also need to know what the above EFE photo represents as Cuba marches on instead of just passively waiting around to see what Miami, President Trump and the U. S. Congress in this new era have in store for the fiercely independent island.
This photo shows two young and very inquisitive Cubans in Santiago de Cuba. As you can see, they -- not so unlike many millions of Americans and other young people worldwide -- are very engrossed in whatever data they are getting from their very Smart Phone. Instead of primarily blocking access to the internet, as most Americans believe, Cuba's Etecsa communications outlet is strongly improving the availability of internet data and exchanges. It now has about 4 million cell lines and over 1,000 public navigation spaces with Wi-Fi service. Revolutionary Cuba is well aware that the Miami-Washington axis -- via the embargo, etc. -- will continue to pressure the island's youth to "get rich in America" as the key Cuban Ana Mari Machado puts it. But she also depends on enough of Cuba's increasingly powerful young generation to embrace the "historic resilience and vast potential of our proud independent Cuba."
One of the most powerful Cubans today is Ana Mari Machado, and her star is ascending at a very significant time -- with the advent of the Trump-era in America, the recent death at age 90 of Fidel Castro, and the retirement in about 10 months of the 85-year-old President Raul Castro. Ana already holds the hugely important title of Vice President of Cuba's influential National Assembly. Ana is well respected by Cuba's young generation of adults and by the few remaining, fast dwindling revolutionary icons. Ana is a prime reason Cuba is embracing such important youth-oriented projects as the new Canal Caribe news channel and the increasingly easier access to the internet on the island. Ana envisions a new revolution in Cuba BUT a revolution designed to protect the Cuban Revolution. Ana fiercely supports her Revolutionary Cuba. And Ana is a force to be reckoned with -- in Havana for sure but also in Miami and Washington.
The above photo montage was posted by Ana Mari Machado this week on her Facebook page. It reflects her two favorite revolutionaries -- Jose Marti who died on Cuban soil in 1895 fighting Spanish imperialism; and Fidel Castro who died on Cuban soil in 2016 of old age at 90 after fighting Batista, the Mafia and American imperialism. Ana Mari Machado, an ascending power in Cuba -- some say the ascending power -- wants a revolution to protect the Castro Revolution. And, significantly, she wants Cuba's young generation behind her. To know Cuba, study this montage and the lady who posted it on Facebook.
Ana Mari Machado.
If you don't know her, you don't know Cuba.
And by the way:
The new owners of the Miami Marlins Major League baseball team are Derek Jeter and Jeb Bush. There winning bid was $1.3 billion. The Marlins are the cheapest Major League team with the New York Yankees, now worth well over $4 billion, the most expensive. Jeter is in his first year as the retired New York Yankees shortstop. The website Celebrity Wealth says Jeter is worth $800 million. Yes, he was well-paid for two decades by the Yankees but that's not how athletes get on the fast track to becoming billionaires. Massive amounts of endorsement money from corporations quickly make billionaires out of athletes such as Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, etc., and that easy endorsement money continues well after such athletes have retired. In the meantime in capitalist America, there are very legitimate billboards that tell us that "one in 5 American children have hunger problems" and "one in 4 children in North Carolina have hunger problems. In a more decent and less greedy America, corporations that shower massive endorsement dollars on already extremely wealthy athletes should also be required to give, dollar for dollar, millions of dollars to help alleviate childhood hunger in America. But, of course, that won't happen because Americans are programmed to worship celebrities as the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
Also, U. S. politics is now a fast-track to becoming a billionaire. Ask Jeb Bush. He was born rich within the Bush dynasty but wanted to get rich on his own. So he went to Florida in the late 1980s and actually announced he did so "to get rich." His first major step in that direction was to endear himself with the richest anti-Castro zealots in Miami, including extremely controversial real estate moguls. {Yes, you can Google that}. The next thing Jeb did was to become Campaign Manager for Miami's most anti-Castro, Havana-born zealot Ileana Ros-Lehtinen who, thanks to the Bush dynasty, has been an anti-Castro zealot in the U. S. Congress since 1989. So, how wealthy today is Jeb, the new co-owner of the Miami Marlins? Celebrity Wealth says Jeb is worth a piddling $25 million but that's probably because ONLY ONE of his bank accounts was checked. Current and/or former politicians can and do get very, very rich very, very quickly by selling their politics to the highest bidders, including foreign entities who want to purchase America.
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