8.12.17

The U.S.-Cuban Boomerang

Aiming at Cuba and Then Ducking!!
{Saturday, December 9, 2017}
     In America's world of science, the boyish- looking Dr. Alex Berezow is actually a very BIG man. He got his Ph.D in microbiology from the University of Washington. He is the Founding Editor of RealClearScience and the Assistant Editor of RealClearWorld. In May of 2016 he joined the American Council on Science and Health. A journalist and author, Dr. Alex Berezow, in addition to his books, has contributed major articles to media giants like The Wall Street Journal and BBC News, and he is a highly paid contributor to America's largest newspaper, USA Today. He also hates Revolutionary Cuba about as much as Marco Rubio.
    In a major article published by his various outlets on Dec. 6-2017, Dr. Alex Berezow seemed to make the case that the Superpower U. S. should go ahead and just destroy Revolutionary Cuba and then remake the Caribbean island in America's 1950s image, meaning a return of the Batistiano remnants now firmly ingrained in Miami, in the U. S. Congress, and in the Trump White House. The article by Dr. Berezow is entitled: "Sonic Attack: Cuba Plays US for Fools." His widely published one-sided appraisal of the mysterious "sonic attacks" against United States personnel attached to its embassy in Havana could have been written, it appears, by vicious U. S. Counter Revolutionaries like Rubio who sense that Cuba's current economic woes provide a perfect scenario for renewed attacks. Dr. Berezow summed up his anti-Cuban rage this way:
                    "Yesterday, a panel of Cuban scientists declared that  there was no sonic attack; instead, they blamed stress and mass hysteria. The fact that the Cubans would issue such an insultingly stupid report means that they aren't taking America's concerns seriously. That also means that the Trump administration was completely justified in its decisions to downsize the U. S. embassy in Cuba and to expel some Cuban diplomats."
      Of course, Dr. Alex Berezow's slanted views on the "sonic wave mystery" doesn't address the fact that, so far, the winners are the Counter Revolutionary extremists in the U. S. and the losers are the Cuban people suffering anew from the vast array of new sanctions from the Trump administration based on the excuse created by the still unsolved sonic mystery. Dr. Alex Berezow's conclusion was this: "The Obama rapprochement is off. Cuba's failure to cooperate is a shame. The U. S. isn't even holding them responsible for the attack. If there really was a sonic weapon, the most likely culprit is Russia. Maybe the Cubans will care if one of their own is the next victim." Wow!! This guy is America's scientific genius at the forefront of rendering an unbiased assessment of a mystery that the Trump-Rubio team is using as a trigger to justify shooting fresh bullets at Cuba? Are there any real scientific geniuses? If so, just where are they hiding?  
        Meanwhile, on the island itself Cubans are forced to navigate in minefields unique only to them. Bright, young, well-educated, innovative, and creative young Cubans -- like Idalia del Rio -- have more obstacles than most success stories but Idalia is symptomatic of why Revolutionary Cuba, against imposing odds, is still standing. In an insightful article written by Tyler Wetherall, even the London-based The Guardian seems awed by Idalia's accomplishments. The article is entitled: "Meet the Fashion Brand Bringing Cuban Design to the World." The sub-title says: "One Innovative Designer Has Found a Way Around Both the Regime and the U. S. Embargo and Become the First Cuban Clothing Company to Shop Anywhere in the World."
       Idalia del Rio was actually in Mexico, circumventing Cuban and USA obstacles, trying to replenish her color ink supply when The Guardian's Tyler Wetherall finished talking to her. The outfit worn above is one of Idalia's designs and on her popular website -- Clandestina.co -- she sells a vast array of her creations and productions.
      The Cuban Supermodel Karina Valero models some of Idalia del Rio's most dazzling, best-selling fashions on her Clandestina.co website. How Idalia created a company in Havana that sells her designs around the world is told by The Guardian, the London-based media giant that covers Cuba fairly. So, the article chronicling how Idalia del Rio expanded her fashion brand internationally is worth reading.
      This apartment building in Matanzas, adorned by the huge Cuban flag, doesn't conceal the problems and the unknowns of the two Cuban men looking down from the balcony. Of course, they deserve less problems and less wondering about what both Cuba and the USA have in store for them. Cuba, you see, has been a sovereign nation since 1959 -- ALMOST. Independence with U. S. entanglements is actually neither sovereign nor independent. The two men in the balcony know that is true. 
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6.12.17

Cuba Adjusting to Trump

Confusion Plus Unknowns!
{Thursday, December 7th, 2017}
      The Reuters and Voice of America news agencies yesterday used the above Reuters photo of two tourists to illustrate an article entitled: "China's Exports to Cuba Slump as Island's Cash Crunch Deepens." That's good news for Marco Rubio and the Counter Revolutionaries in the U. S. trying to strangle Cuba once-and-for-all, but bad news for Cubans on the island. The article pointed out that Cuba is being hit by the perfect storm -- the U. S. transition from Obama-to-Trump; Venezuela's drastic economic troubles; a prolonged drought; devastating hurricanes; etc. Chinese exports to Cuba, the article reported, "slumped 29.8 percent down to $1 billion from January through October this year. Cuba's trade in goods last year was $12.6 billion, compared with $15 billion in 2015, but more than 80 percent is in imports, not in exports."
      The Desmond Boylan/Associated Press photo above was used in various reports yesterday and today to update the mysterious sonic attacks against U. S. embassy workers in Havana that are being used by Rubio and the Counter Revolutionaries as the latest excuse to attack the island with a new barrage of economic sanctions. The Washington Post's update concluded, "What exactly happened to two dozen Americans in Cuba remains a mystery to Cuba, science, and FBI investigators."
     The AP reported yesterday that the mysterious acoustical assaults...or whatever it was...on 24 Americans "has caused anomalies in white brain tissue" according to the U. S. but the report also stated that "most of the victims have fully recovered." That latter revelation is also a mystery, I reckon. Meanwhile, Cuba is being punished by gleeful Rubio-led anti-Cuban extremists in Washington with Trump-mandated new sanctions that continue to reverse former President Obama's decent Cuban policies.
      Interspersed among the newly punitive 180 measures the Trump administration issued on Nov. 9-2017 against Cuba are United States business interests trying to sneak into the crevices as Cuba itself adjusts to America's post-Obama Cuban policies. The Royal Caribbean Cruise Line is adding its 2,350-passenger Majesty of the Seas to its regular sailings to Cuba. The magnificent ship will begin sailing to Cuba from Tampa in April. The Royal Caribbean's 1,160-passenger Empress of the Seas is already sailing to Cuba from Miami. Royal Caribbean, in addition to Havana, is adding the Cuban ports of Cienfuegos and Santiago de Cuba to its itinerary. Later this month Holland America will become the 6th cruise line to have Cuban cruises.
     The new wave of extremely punitive Trump measures against Cuba announced on Nov. 9-2017 were orchestrated by Miami's Counter Revolutionaries in Congress led by Senator Marco Rubio, which is well-known in Washington. But significantly, Rubio complained loudly about a liberal contingent that prevented his assaults from being even MUCH MORE punitive. So Rubio apparently is unhappy with Florida ports -- Tampa, Miami & Fort Lauderdale  -- engaging in Cuban commerce.
      It appears that Trump's latest assault on Cuba is the selection of Philip Goldberg as the Top Man at the U. S. Embassy in Havana. In his last two ambassadorial assignments -- in Bolivia and the Philippines -- Goldberg has feasted on spats and entanglements. Apparently, Goldberg's antipathy towards Cuba and his combativeness earned him his new assignment in Havana...for what it's worth. After President Obama reopened the U. S. Embassy in Havana for the first time since 1961, the Trump presidency has sufficiently gutted it and the Cuban embassy in Washington. So an antagonistic charge d'affaires -- or Top Man -- like Goldberg in Havana will likely add to the bickering and hostility at the U. S. embassy in Havana.
      Of course, Jeffrey DeLaurentis was President Obama's Top Man at the real U. S. embassy in Havana. DeLaurentis was also Obama's choice to be the U. S. Ambassador to Cuba but just one man in Congress, Senator Rubio, blocked the DeLaurentis appointment from even coming before the Senate for a vote.
      As far as is known, every unbiased source in Washington believed the highly respected Jeffrey DeLaurentis was the perfect person to be the United States Ambassador to Cuba. But when a mere handful of self-serving, revengeful Counter Revolutionaries like Rubio can made America's decisions regarding Cuba, everyone else -- including Cubans, Americans, and Cuban-Americans -- suffer. So, as the Obama-to-Trump transition closes out the first week of December-2017, America does not have a decent and extremely capable man, Jeffrey DeLaurentis, as its badly needed Ambassador to Cuba. Instead, the United States has a volatile anti-Cuban Top Man, Philip Goldberg, at a Rubio-gutted and totally dysfunctional U. S. embassy building in Havana. From Obama-to-Trump and from DeLaurentis-to-Goldberg is what the American people are left with...and probably deserve for not caring enough about their democracy to let it descend into a disastrous Trump-Rubio-Goldberg morass.
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4.12.17

Rubio: USA's Cuban Dictator?

A Cruel Trump Anointment!!
{Wednesday, December 6th, 2017}
      The map & graphic depicted above reveals why, I believe, Americans have displayed little respect for their democracy since the 1950s...as revealed by not objecting to a few rogues in the Eisenhower administration supporting Mafia thugs Fulgencio Batista, Lucky Luciano, and Meyer Lansky as the brutal-thieving dictators of Cuba, a situation that also allowed rich Americans to partake in the rape and robbery of the island. When the Cuban Revolution on Jan. 1-1959 overthrew the U.S-backed Batista-Luciano-Lansky dictatorship in Cuba, it merely fled and resurfaced in nearby South Florida where the Batistiano-Mafisoi leaders were far richer than anyone else and thus able to take over that portion of U. S. soil politically. Then with massive support of self-serving U. S. operatives, such as the Bush dynasty, by the 1980s the Bush-anointed Counter-Revolutionary Jorge Mas Canosa became essentially America's Cuban dictator, amassing unlimited power in Miami first and then in Washington. And now in 2017 President Trump has essentially anointed Miami's contribution to the U. S. Senate, Marco Rubio, as America's new Cuban dictator, albeit one operating out of Washington and Miami but not in Havana. Americans, disrespecting their country, didn't object to the U. S. aligning with Batista-Luciano-Lansky in sacking Cuba also didn't object to the Bush-anointment of Canosa or the current Trump-anointment of Rubio as America's Cuban dictators. Yet, Revolutionary Cuba has pugnaciously objected to such things for over six decades and even today America's greatest democracy-lovers and America's greatest business leaders strenuously object to yet another American Cuban dictator, Marco Rubio.
           With that being said, I'll get back to explaining the map & graphic depicted above. Buoyed by the decency of former President Obama, Carnival Cruise Lines jumped at the chance to do business with Cuba that, prior to Obama, had been off-limits because of the U. S. embargo imposed in 1962 to starve, deprive, and make miserable the lives of Cubans on the island to induce them to rise up and overthrow their revolutionary government, a fact revealed by de-classified U. S. documents from 1962. So Carnival, thanks to Obama, gleefully touted the map & graphic above that hopes its cruise line is able to operate from the Port of Miami to three Ports in Cuba -- Havana, Cienfuegos, and Santiago de Cuba. In other words, Obama -- as President of the United States -- had proven to be the only U. S. president with the guts to challenge the likes of Rubio, who had to abide his Cuban cruelty till Obama left office on January 20th of 2017.
   Like former President Obama, Arnold Donald is a Democracy-loving American who believes Americans should not be the only people in the world without the freedom to travel to Cuba and Arnold Donald believes that Rubio, anointed by President Trump, should not be permitted to starve, deprive, and make miserable the lives of everyday Cubans in order to perpetuate the revenge, economic, and political goals of Rubio and his Miami cohorts. He is the President & CEO of Carnival Cruise Lines, the largest cruise line in the entire world. It was Mr. Arnold who drew up the map-graphic at the top of this update.
       Back when democracy-loving President Obama was in office, Arnold Donald is shown above signing a business deal with Cuba on behalf of his Carnival Cruise Line, the world's biggest cruise line. But Obama has been replaced by Donald Trump and thus America has a new Cuban dictator, Rubio.
     As the dynamo in charge of Carnival Cruise Lines, Arnold Donald is one of thousands of democracy-loving U. S. business executives trying to challenge Rubio's dictatorship of America's Cuban policy, a policy condemned by a vote of 191-to-ZERO in the United Nations. "Punishing America to punish Cuba makes no sense," says Arnold Donald. And, of course, it has made "no sense" for decades. But Batista-Luciano-Lansky had enough rogues in Washington to support them in the 1950s; Canosa had enough Bushes to support him in the 1980s and 90s; and Rubio in 2017 has President Trump and enough bought-and-paid-for miscreants in the U. S. Congress to support him. That leaves great democracy-lovers, even like the very powerful Arnold Donald, out in the cold. And, sadly, in America's money-crazed/two-party system, waiting for another President Obama to emerge is probably a bridge-too-far for the U. S. democracy.
      One of the great American lies dictated for decades by a few Counter Revolutionary extremists in Miami, and perpetuated by an incompetent or intimidated or politically correct mainstream media, is that  most Cuban-Americans favor the cruel, hard-line approach to Cuba. The truth is...most Cuban-Americans even in Miami favor Obama's decent efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. You cannot get anymore Cuban-American in Miami than Frank Del Rio. He is the powerful head of the Miami-based Norwegian Cruise Line and Frank wants normal U.S. and Cuban relations.
     And like President Obama, Frank Del Rio wants Cuban-American businesses even based in Miami to have the freedom to do business with Cuba and for all Americans to have the freedom to visit Cuba if that is their desire, just as all non-Americans can.
      When Obama was America's decent and brave President even while Rubio and 3 other Miami members of Congress were trying to dictate Cuban policy ALL BY THEMSELVES, Frank Del Rio's Miami-based Norwegian Cruise Line, as shown above, got approval to cruise to Cuba. But Obama was replaced by Trump on Jan. 20-2017 and that evolved into Rubio's anointment as America's new Cuban dictator, something democracy-loving Cuban-Americans like Frank Del Rio don't support.
     Another prominent Miami Cuban-American businessman is Hugo Cancio. He says Miami has "a little problem with democracy." NO KIDDING, Hugo!! What he  means is this: He believes he is among the majority 2 million moderate Cuban-Americans in South Florida but he wonders when, if ever, Miami or South Florida will elect a moderate Cuban-American from the majority to represent people like him in Congress. And my point is this: If a Cuban-American in the majority like Hugo Cancio in Miami feels that way, why in the hell don't more Americans have democratic Cuban thoughts like...Barack Obama, Arnold Donald, Frank Del Rio, and Hugo.
In other words:
Supporting these 3 guys...
in Cuba in the 1950s...
was not right.
Obama Landing in Cuba.
Obama is loved in Cuba.
Obama is hated by fiery Rubio.
Counter-revolutionaries Canosa-Reagan.
Counter-revolutionaries Bush-Canosa.
Counter Revolutionaries Rubio-Trump.
    As a decent man and a democracy-lover, former U. S. President Barack Obama is still embarrassed by the image of the United States depicted above, as are all of America's international friends. And Mr. Obama believes that all Americans should also be ashamed and embarrassed by what this image now conveys to the world.
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2.12.17

Cuba Looks Past Trump-Rubio

Friendlier Nations Respond!!
     Next month -- in January, 2018 -- 344 Lada Vesta sedans will be shipped from Russian auto-maker AvtoVAZ to Cuba. Its President and CEO, Nicolas Maure, says, "Cuba is one of our priority export markets as we aim to get more involved with other Latin American countries." Maure, like other CEOs in foreign nations other than the USA, loved the latest brand-new 180 punitive sanctions against Cuba announced on Nov. 9th-2017 by the Trump-Rubio/Miami-Washington cabal intent on finally bringing the pugnacious Caribbean island to its knees. As the Obama-orchestrated positives aimed at Cuba are being reversed, Cuba is receptive to expanding its relations with friendlier nations competing with or unfriendly to the USA.
       The 344 Lada Vesta sedans heading to Cuba from Russia next month will be followed by many more, or at least both Cuba and Russia hope that will happen. Reportedly, these sedans are high-quality vehicles that first Cuba and then other Caribbean and Latin American nations will embrace. In Cuba, of course, they would clash with the ubiquitous and tourist-loving 1950s-era U. S. cars on Cuban streets and highways still fine-tuned somehow by creative and expert Cuban mechanics.
      The Swiss food & beverage giant Nestle this week -- Nov. 28th-2017 -- began building a $55 million factory at Cuba's ultra-vital, deep-water Muriel Economic Zone 28 miles southwest of Havana. On Nov. 9-2017 the new 180 vastly punitive measures against Cuba issued by the Trump/Rubio-led counter-revolutionary U. S. cabal had specifically prohibited U. S. companies from being involved at the Muriel Port, which underwent a billion-dollar modernization with lots of financial help from Brazil. Its significance to Cuba's financial viability is obviously something Trump & Rubio want to destroy. But companies like Nestle building factories at Muriel is like a life-preserver for Cuba as Rubio devises new methods to reclaim the island for a few enormously rich Rubio-supporters in his hometown -- Little Havana in Miami. Rubio perhaps didn't know it, considering he's never been to Cuba, but Nestle already had three successful factories operating on the targeted island. 
       The Cuban in charge of the Muriel Port Economic Zone is a brilliant lady named Ana Teresa Igarza. She has reached agreement with 30 foreign companies. Since November 9th, she has ceased what had been encouraging talks with a bevy of U. S. companies to concentrate on non-U. S. companies. Now that Trump-Rubio has out-lawed U. S. companies participating in the expansive Muriel Port zone, Ana says she has "begun to notice an uptick in interests from foreign companies not under Washington's yoke. The U. S. is the only nation hostile to either Cuba or the Muriel project as far as I know. I am receiving calls from U. S. competitor-enemy nations."
       The little guy above gesturing with his right index finger is saying, "Wait, there's more!" And, indeed, there is. Far above its size, population, and economy, the resilient and pugnacious island of Cuba has proven it could be a ferocious and influential American enemy but for its own sake it wants to be America's ferocious friend. Yet, a small minority of second-generational Cuban-Americans, to sate their personal whims, want Cuba to be America's ferocious enemy so Superpower America will reclaim the island for them. At the moment, with Trump in the White House and unchecked Miami-Cubans like Rubio in the U. S. Congress, Cuba as America's ferocious enemy has the upper-hand over Cuba as America's ferocious friend.
For example:
      One of the great Cubans Trump-Rubio hurt on Nov. 9-2017 is Maria Guadalupe Guzman, a renowned virologist at Cuba's Pedro Kouri Institute of Tropical Medicine. During the Obama presidency, top U. S. scientists worked closely with Maria and her colleagues on such vital issues as dengue immunity and the Zika viruses. Also, Cuba has developed advances with cancer and diabetic medicines that have some Americans traveling even illegally to Cuba for treatments. Maria was expecting an important visit and collaboration from two key U. S. researchers from the U. S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention a few days ago, according to the renowned Science Magazine in an article written by Richard Stone. But they called Maria and said they had to cancel...because of the new Trump-Rubio sanctions. Of course, even IF such U.S.-Cuban collaboration cured some of the world's most alarming diseases and viruses, the American people are programmed to not question Trump-Rubio decisions that Maria calls "a crying shame for Cuba, America and all the countries that our collaborative work was benefiting in both medical and environmental sciences."
    Prior to the Trump & Rubio cruelty replacing President Obama's decency, America's medical and scientific researchers relished opportunities to collaborate with Cuba's renowned scientists such as Maria Guadalupe Guzman. As the article above documented, Maria's monumental work in areas such as "Deciphering Dengue" is known worldwide. Yet, seldom will anyone in America have the courage or decency to question Trump & Rubio for punishing millions of innocent people by punishing Maria just because she's a Cuban in Cuba. Americans who allow Counter Revolutionaries like Rubio to dictate Cuban policies are shaming America but, more importantly, also hurting countless millions of people who are susceptible to deadly viruses like the dengue plague. Calling Maria an enemy and not allowing U. S. scientists to work with her is a sin that the decent President Obama tried so hard, in confronting the likes of Rubio, to correct. The U. S. media that paints Rubio as a choirboy is simply lying, perhaps because it is too afraid to upset Little Havana.
      This week on Dec. 1-2017 Reuters, the great London-based news agency, had a major article entitled: "Cuba Battling Medicine Shortages In Wake of Cash Crunch." I provide that data in case you want to dial it up online and read it. The article, as you could see, quotes Cuba's Pharmaceutical Director Rita Maria Garcia Almaguer as saying: "The production of some forms of pharmaceuticals was stalled because the resources were not available on time, which means we were unable to fulfill the high demands of the national health system. But the industry has been recovering and most production is stable now." She said she was most concerned with shortages in cancer and HIV medicine. Unlike U. S. media sources, Reuters is not afraid of Counter Revolutionary forces in Miami and in Congress, so this Reuters article, as you can readily see, said: "Cuba's health system is one of the revolution's most treasured achievements, having produced results on a par with rich nations using the resources of a developing country and in spite of the decades-old U. S. trade embargo." An American with guts might want to re-read that long sentence because gutless Americans believe MARCO RUBIO when he bellows that the Superpower U. S. must keep every dollar from reaching Cuba because it all goes into "the Castros' Swiss bank accounts." Such RUBIO lies are accepted only by propagandized American cowards. No one else believes them, yet they punish innocent Cubans daily.
  This is Cuba's Pharmaceutical Director Rita Maria Garcia Almaguer that Reuters featured in that Dec. 1-2017 article. Rita has devoted her life to helping Cuba's health system, free to all Cubans, do the best possible job taking care of everyone on the island despite, as Reuters pointed out, having to confront "the decades-old U. S. trade embargo." Only a non-U.S. news agency would have the guts to say that. Thus, in the U. S., the media portrays Rita as America's enemy while portraying RUBIO, the Little Havana choirboy, as just a Mother Teresa-like saint. 
      Thus, as Little Havana's "choirboy" Rubio is allowed to craft new U. S. rules and laws in his attempt to starve and deprive the Cubans on the island. He could rejoice at an article this week in Granma, the island's leading newspaper. It advised the Cuban people that there is a shortage of certain medicines due to such things as the tightened U. S. sanctions since Obama's departure, the financial problems in Venezuela, the water drought that has afflicted the island, the devastating hurricanes that have destroyed valuable cotton and tobacco crops, etc. When Marc Frank, the great Reuters journalist on the island, reviewed that article in Granma this week, Frank mentioned that even a temporary shortage of medicine is particularly disheartening because "free medical care and medicines for all its citizens is a hallmark of the Revolution." In years past, unbiased journalists like Marc Frank have reported on such things as a company in Jamaica being successfully fined by the U. S. for shipping a box of BABY ASPIRIN to the island. And now in December of 2017, because such U. S. laws haven't totally deprived Cubans on the island, Rubio seems intent on expanding such cruelty simply because another generation of cowardly Americans allow him to do so...on their behalf and on the behalf of democracy.
      Meanwhile, the rest of the nations in the world are not afraid of Rubio. Thus, America gets condemned 191-to-Zero in the United Nations for its Cuban policy. But, of course, Rubio obviously doesn't care...as Cuba looks far afield elsewhere.
        Vietnam, for example is currently shipping thousands of tons of free rice to Cuba, ostensibly to help Cubans still recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Irma but presumably to remind Cuba that the thriving Vietnamese economy is eager to invest more of its assets in Cuba. That's interesting. The above shipment to Cuba at the Haiphong Port was being prepared when President Trump was in Vietnam saluting the Vietnamese economy and seeking more Vietnamese trade with the United States. Trump's presidential predecessors -- Clinton, Bush, and Obama -- had done the same thing. Back in the 1960s-70s Communist North Vietnam had won a long, bloody war against the U. S. and South Vietnam and then united all of Vietnam into a Communist state. But that's been no problem since for the U. S. because, unlike the U. S. loss in the Cuban Revolution in 1959, the losing U.S.-backed Vietnamese militants didn't regroup as a rich and powerful entity on U. S. soil determined to recapture their country. The same thing can be said regarding the bloody 1950s Korean War, especially when a half-million Chinese soldiers intervened against over-matched U. S. soldiers. No problem. Like with Communist Vietnam today, Communist China is a powerful and even favorable trade partner with the United States. Again, unlike the Cuban Revolution, no Chinese dictatorship ever resettled on U. S. soil.
      Today resurgent Communist Vietnam, a rising power that is being increasingly wooed by the United States to increase trade, is anxious to tighten its ties with Cuba. The photo above shows Vietnam's Deputy Finance Minister Nguyen Huu Chi handing a symbolic sack of free rice to Cuba's Vietnamese ambassador Hermino Lopez
    But "wait there's more!!":
      In a few weeks -- in Feb.-2018 -- 57-year-old, non-Castro Miguel Diaz-Canel will be Cuba's new President. The quiet-spoken, education-minded Diaz-Canel -- who grew up on the island a big fan of the Beatles and motocycles -- is generally well-liked and admired on the island. Last week when 24,000 polling places hosted the voting in island-wide municipal elections, Diaz-Canel's prominence was highlighted. And on Nov. 25-2017 at key ceremonies marking the one-year anniversary of Fidel Castro's death at age 90, Diaz-Canel was the primary speaker. He used that occasion to assail, far more acutely than ever before, the 180 new Trump-Rubio sanctions on Cuba issued on Nov. 9th-2017. "At some point, and it may be upon us," he said, "we must distance ourselves as far as possible from the United States, despite the close geographical permanence. When the only nation in the world that is your enemy and the only nation trying to destroy a close-by much weaker nation, perhaps the primary...or sole, if possible...emphasis should be directed elsewhere."
       Cuba's emerging leader Miguel Diaz-Canel has already cultivated close ties with China's omnipotent leader Zi as Diaz-Canel looks "elsewhere" beyond the USA.
      Reportedly, Miguel Diaz-Canel has already been offered some intriguing propositions by Russia's Putin, who is purposely exceeding Chinese overtures.
   But Cubans on the island consider their next leader, Miguel Diaz-Canelto be "more a lover than a fighter." Thus, they expect to see him cutting red ribbons with foreign companies although Cubans on the island are keenly disappointed that American companies will not likely be among the ribbon-cuttings that Cubans want to see.
     Unlike the Little Havana choirboy Marco RubioMiguel Diaz-Canel is not backed by the world's biggest economy and the world's largest nuclear arsenal. But if that sounds totally lop-sided, remember that Cuba has been David to America's Goliath since 1959...and it's still standing. That takes us to December-2017, close to 2018. And what Miguel Diaz-Canel is thinking in Cuba by necessity in 2018 must counter what Marco Rubio is planning in the USA. David vs. Goliath? Absolutely.
But surely NOT impossible:
     Miguel Diaz-Canel simply has more foreign friends than Rubio has and, for sure, Diaz-Canel continues to look "elsewhere" than the U. S. for some more friends.
        Barack Obama, America's two-term former President, has been the only U. S. leader since the 1950s with the guts, decency, and intelligence to desire normal as opposed to abnormal relations with Cuba. Trump & Rubio on Nov. 9-2017 convinced Cuba's next leader, Miguel Diaz-Canel, that waiting for the U. S. to have another Obama-like leader is no longer worthwhile. So, Diaz-Canel is gazing "elsewhere" and there are other "elsewhere" nations gazing back at him.
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cubaninsider: "The Country That Raped Me" (A True Story)

cubaninsider: "The Country That Raped Me" (A True Story) : Note : This particular essay on  Ana Margarita Martinez  was first ...