The Jogging Class
Sunrise on 5th Avenue. The cars traveling fast and on the diplomatic license plates white letters stand out against a black background. The trees of the central promenade display their pruned leaves and the former Soviet embassy looks like an Excaliber stuck — without architectural pity — in Havana’s chest. It’s not hot yet, but some are already sweating as they run along the boulevard. Wearing Adidas, bottles of water, and white earbuds. A blue sky — but with a touch of exclusivity – hangs over the largest sports area of the city, which begins just beyond the tunnel under the Almendares River. A race track for the social class that has already accumulated pounds, but that prefers to jog outdoors, not on a treadmill in the gym.
A meet-and-greet place that is also called the Avenue of the Americas, with its source of sirens at one end and its luxurious mansions on both sides. At that corner the retired colonel and the new corporation manager have just run into each other and talk about the weather, their children… how beautiful the morning is. Here comes an official’s daughter, with a childhood friend with whom she shared games and barbecues. Also, just crossing the street — carefully — the white-bearded poet with his purebred dog. And the actress who has returned from touring Europe joins the early morning calorie-burning procession. Because by ten in the morning the sun will want to offer them a free sauna, and none of them will be outside any longer.
Compared to the rest of Cuba, 5th Avenue stands as a rarity. And not because such urban beauty is scarce on this Island, not at all, because even the destroyed mansions of Central Havana maintain some of their former beauty. What is strange is this case is not the perfectly trimmed trees, the intact white granite benches, or the mansions with fences and gardens, but the people themselves. The most anomalous thing that strikes the eye is the behavior of these passersby who jog or walk their pets. There is a touch of comfort in them, an attention to their bodies and attire, a tranquility derived from the lack of daily annoyances. They are like some caricature of the bourgeoisie that official discourse tried to make us hate from the time we were little. But, there they are, with their relaxed trot, their athletic clothes, and those extra pounds gained through privilege that the diversion of resources or power have given them, behind our backs, and on our backs.
Marzo 11th, 2012 at 16:21
D.A.M.I.R.
Marzo 10th, 2012 at 09:30
So, where are the answers on my questions the team “yoani”?
Still scared to death to answer my questions?
No surprise there.
Febrero 26th, 2012 at 13:45
GUESS THE CASTROFASCISTS AGENTS ARE TRYING A NEW TACTIC! A TOUCHY-FEELY APPROACH SPAM! GUESS IS WORTH A SHOT, THEY HAVE TRIED MANY WAYS BUT FAILED TO CAUSE DISRUPTION AND TO TAKE DIALOGUE IN THIS BLOG SECTION IN OTHER DIRECTIONS!
Febrero 26th, 2012 at 13:25
I WONDER IF THE EVERYDAY CUBAN WILL BE ABLE TO PLAY GOLF IN THIS FACILITY! JE JE JE! MAYBE THEY CAN PAY IN PESOS?? MAYBE THEY CAN GET THE CLUBS ALSO FOR LESS THAN $20? OR MAYBE THEY CAN ALSO BUY SOME OF THAT REAL ESTATE FOR $20 PER MONTH?? VIVA EL COMUNISMO!!! VIVA!! JE JE JE! I MEANT CAPITALISM WITH A LOT OF OLIGARCHY THROWN IN COURTESY OF THE CASTROFASCIST FAMILY!
YOUTUBE: Punta Colorada Cuba Golf Marina 3D 17 06 11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....ture=share
Febrero 26th, 2012 at 13:07
Symbol of the key in Cuba’s coat of arms may be related to gate of west key,which was the island north of Cuba cllecting bones of dead bodies…and thedead body is put in a box,cube and is symbol of underworld,sunset…which rises,reborn in east like Mal-asia,Thai-land etc in South Asia where is the east gate…other key,silver,moon….and you find many towers there built too
Febrero 26th, 2012 at 10:34
I assume Damir and Cube Libra are bona fide ignoramuses and Marxists, but can’t be sure of anything on the internet. I’d love to know what the orders are in Havana with regard to this site.
Febrero 26th, 2012 at 10:30
John, he’s either doing it as a joke or following orders or both. he won’t stop. he’s been posting his graffiti here for years.
Saboteurs of free speech like che/anton/viva, and the bona fide nutcases and ignoramuses like Damir and Cube Libra, make up Fidel’s army in the “battle of ideas”
It would be fun if we could comment on one of their websites.
Febrero 26th, 2012 at 07:54
How much more of this drug addled, incoherent nonsense do we have to get on this blog? Generation Y, Che, cut the crap and get off the site if you can’t write anything sensible, or in English.
Febrero 26th, 2012 at 04:21
…in the new millenium the world will change as Obama said…
Cuba flag is with the Y shape like generation Y or Yoani and many other Y..s
Cuba is like a cubic shape stone…but for what rituals…sacrifices…or is a corner stone…or a capstone…so what is going to open in Cuba…some 3 dimension or stargate….and aliens will land or what?…Some revelation will take place maybe
Febrero 26th, 2012 at 03:53
VIA TWITTER OF @OLPL Orlando Luis Pardo
+Rocker Gorki Aguila and graffiti artist El Sexto arrested in Havana Saturday 11pm in full view
+ Gorky resisted the attack and wanted to fight in self defense and yelled his civilianattacker shouting: DOWN WITH FIDEL & STOOL PIGEON
+ A man assaulted Gorky in his building today and warned him that HE WOULD MESS HIM UP if he continued with his provocations. Gorky resisted …
+ Porno Para Ricardo suffered threats and asaults all day Saturday 25 so they would stop their provocations q, it was at the home of musicians Renay and Gorky.
+ URGENT! Gorki Aguila of Porno Para Ricardo arrested and graffiti artist El Sexto in middle of street G, Vedado, about 11pm by mob @ idolidiadaria
+ URGENT! Arrested musician Gorki Aguila of Porno Para Ricardo and graffiti artist El Sexto in middle of street G, Vedado, about 11pm, by civil mob.
+Gorki y El Sexto arrestados en plena Habana sabado 11pm
+Gorki se resistio del ataque a traicion y quiso fajarse en legitima defensa y ofendio a su agresor de civil y grito: CHIVATON y ABAJO FIDEL
+A Gorky lo asalto un hombre hoy en su edificio y le advirtio QUE LO IBAN A DESPINGAR si seguia filmando provocaciones. Gorki se resistio…
+Porno Para Ricardo sufrio todo el sabado 25 amenazas y asaltos para q dejaran las provocaciones, fue en casa de musicos Renay y de Gorki.
+URGENTE! Arrestados Gorki Aguila d Porno Para Ricardo y grafitero El Sexto en plena calle G, Vedado, sobre 11pm por turba @idolidiadaria
+URGENTE!!! Arrestados musico Gorki Aguila de Porno Para Ricardo y grafitero El Sexto en plena calle G, Vedado, sobre 11pm, por turba civil.
Febrero 26th, 2012 at 03:51
Obama signs with sun …rising or setting…had been copied the Cuba’s coats of arms to show they are friends….but why on top of the russian tower…stick buildingis not a hat…like the santa claus…red like mushroom or p..head?
Similar erected …p..towers,pillars…are build everywhere in this sex mentallity planet…but why?
Febrero 26th, 2012 at 03:21
HAY DIOS MIO QUE GENTE TAN BOBA!! YEAH, THAT MEANS YOU CHE!
The area associated with Cuba has been lived on in excess of thousands of years through Amerindian peoples the Taíno and Ciboney. The actual Taíno had been considered to be mainly farmers while the Ciboney had been hunter-gatherers. The actual name Cuba actually is derived from the Taíno word cubanacán, which means “a central place”.
http://www.cubano1.com/category/history/
Febrero 26th, 2012 at 03:15
Cuba is an island 11,000+ sq.m with a popullation 11+ mill. = 11:11
and has a jacobin-freemasonic coat of arms simmilar as in the russian tower in Havana…united sticks with one up or top of tower…pyramid…lighthouse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F.....f_Cuba.svg
cuba means cupola or top head,hat,dom…and comes from jews-arabs of Spain (sun,water,two mountains,key,jujuba tree) and also relate with word cubit as arm measure=52,3-9 cm (1959-2012) and it is related with measures between sun-earth-mars,roal cubit and is related with Platos cub=6 squares,8 corners,12 lines where w8th centre creates doublecross,stars; 6 and 8,14… and 3 dimensions like cube shape of the pyramide stones,tablets,ark,,room etc
Febrero 26th, 2012 at 00:33
Griffin, what I meant is the last thing they want want is honest open government, which is why I put Canada or Chile in last place. Far from perfect, but still less corrupt than Russia or China.
Yes, it’s all about power. I hope there are enough honest people in Cuba to prevent the worst. The dissident movement gives Cuba hope.
Febrero 26th, 2012 at 00:30
The falling Old Tree…full info and story is here;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_life\\
and maybe has to do also somehow with the Christ’s Thorn Jujube trees;
The Christ’s Thorn Jujube is considered a sacred tree in Israel. When the tree reaches its 40 th year, the saints sit under it; therefore, the saints will destroy anyone who dares to cut down the tree or one of its branches.Here some info;
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pm.....MC1277088/
Febrero 26th, 2012 at 00:06
Help,
Um… rather than Canada? How does Canada fit in a list with Chile, Russia and China? Chile was only briefly with a Marxist govt, but Canada never was.
Castro wants to transition from a Stalinist past to a stable oligarchy like China. Russia was the lesson on what not to do. The Castro regime is struggling to find a way to keep the game rolling, keep the perks & privileges coming, but not risk loosing power. Never loose power!
They never believed in the “Revolution”!as anything
More than a path to power.
Power. That’s what it’s all about. That’s what it’s always been about.
Febrero 25th, 2012 at 23:56
Cuba is now a colony of Spain again and so is all south America as North America and the Common Wealth are all the colonies of England. EU is run by the kiss of the German-France connection so this trio of the main European powers run together in the west united with all their colonies for 300 years…
Communism was used like another opposite hand of putting in the net all colonies.
What about Russia and China? They are also financed and used to colonize the rest of the world where now the main world powers and all their satellite colonies as a flock of ship are returning home…which is Rome,but not the old small empire but the big world empire…And the story ends here and this was the story of the old world tree which did collapsed and the last thing to come out is the root which is the Middle East and Iran and that root will come out too so the tree is all down…fallen as Babylon;gone as old rainbow…The new one is coming or the Sun..!
Febrero 25th, 2012 at 23:12
Griffin, I think the old days are over, not even Raul believes in them. And if he still does a bit, his fellow communists don’t and many want him gone.
These modest reforms mean a lot more than people think, they mean socialism is completely finished in Cuba. The same small reforms were seen in East European countries before Gorbachev and in China right after Mao. They only seem small to us, they are huge to a hard-boiled communist like Fidel or Che or Mao.
The only question concerning Raul is how he saves face and power while Cuba becomes capitalist. He probably prefers a future like China rather than Russia, and a future like Russia rather than Chile or Canada.
If Raul is successful, he can still peddle his anti-Americanism to his Che-loving foreign admirers even if he becomes more capitalist than Walmart.
Febrero 25th, 2012 at 22:01
Humberto,
Good article. It lays out the threat to the Castro regime when Hugo bites it. This paragraph sticks out,
But Cuban leader Raul Castro has been pushing modest free-market reforms and just opened the island’s waters to oil exploration. The Spanish oil company Repsol YPF began exploratory drilling last month but it would take at least three years to produce commercially viable crude if the drilling proves successful.
First thing: they’re not free market reforms. As Prof. Betancourt explained, these are tightly controlled commercial exercises designed to capture foreign exchange for the regime.
The second part about oil is very interesting. If the deposits pan out, Cuba will find somebody willing to invest in developing them. So the question will be: will the joint venture run smoothly and fund the regime survival, or will new found affluence destabilize the economy and drive a process of political liberalization, or will the cronies succumb to the temptation and fleece the foreign partners as they have before?
Febrero 25th, 2012 at 18:17
EXCELLENT ARTICLE! WORTH THE READ!
BOSTON GLOBE: Chavez’s beneficiaries gird for lost aid - By Frank Bajak
LIMA, Peru—Millions who have never set foot in Venezuela have a stake in the physical and political survival of Hugo Chavez as the once-indefatigable leftist strongman submits to surgery in Cuba for removal of a tumor he says is likely malignant.
Those most tied to Chavez’s fate inhabit Nicaragua and Cuba, which have received billions of dollars in gifts, long-term loans and cut-rate oil from Venezuela. Both countries have taken limited steps to soften the blow if Venezuelan aid were to end.
Polls have shown Capriles within striking distance of Chavez, and political analysts say his chances of unseating Chavez are apt to improve if the 57-year-old president’s condition worsens.
“I’m scared,” said Pedro Iglesias, a 72-year-old retiree living in gritty central Havana. “I don’t want to think of what could happen here if something bad happens to Chavez. It would be terrible for us.”
The communist Caribbean island nation depends on Venezuela for two-thirds of its oil, analysts say, and cash flow from Venezuela for services such as doctors and sports trainers amounts to some $5 billion a year. That accounted for about 15 percent of Cuba’s economy in 2008, the last year the island nation published figures.
Without the aid, Cuba might need to severely tighten food rationing and suffer through lengthy power outages as it did two decades ago during the “Special Period” after the dissolution of its previous patron, the Soviet Union.
Cuban officials have refused to comment on how they would adjust to an end in Venezuelan assistance.
But Cuban leader Raul Castro has been pushing modest free-market reforms and just opened the island’s waters to oil exploration. The Spanish oil company Repsol YPF began exploratory drilling last month but it would take at least three years to produce commercially viable crude if the drilling proves successful.
Michael Shifter, president of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue think tank, said Cuba’s reforms “are in part an effort to anticipate a possible reduction or cutoff.”
“The Cuban government is very well aware of the risks that their economy faces with the loss of Venezuela,” Pinon said.
“Cuba’s government is in Chavez’s pocket,” tweeted famously gutsy Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez on Friday as Venezuela’s president flew to the island. “There’s speculation here of a possible second Special Period if Chavez’s health worsens.”
Pinon said it would be “catastrophic” for Cuba if it were forced to pay market prices for oil because the island would have to cut back on food imports. Cuba imports about 70 percent of its food.
CLICK LINK FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE
http://www.boston.com/news/wor.....es/2012/02
Febrero 25th, 2012 at 16:38
WHY CUBA REMAINED A COLONY WHILE LATIN AMERICA BECAME INDEPENDENT: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE CURRENT ‘TRANSITION’.
by Roger Betancourt
Summing up, Cuba is again at a critical historical juncture. In this one the current economic situation is forcing the introduction of significant reforms that improve civil liberties associated with economic activities without much change in political rights. Prospects of an oil bonanza materializing in the next few years, however, lessen the need for further economic reforms and increase the incentives to repress political rights.
Racial differences provide a persistent social cleavage accentuated by a more recent one between the Diaspora and the non-Diaspora. Ironically, blacks are likely to feature prominently in the leadership of a move toward a democratic market economy. Unfortunately, incentives toward remaining a nondemocratic ‘mixed’ market economy suggest that this path toward ameliorating racial discrimination is unlikely to arise out of the current ‘transition’.
Meanwhile the antagonistic special relation with the US provides a convenient setting for evolving to a nondemocratic ‘mixed’ market economy. Just as it happened 200 years ago, the choices made at this critical juncture are likely to affect outcomes long afterwards. In the current juncture, however, one notable outcome of the joint operation of these three factors is delay in the enjoyment of the political rights and civil liberties associated with democracy by Cuban citizens. (Ibid., 20-21).
http://www.lcbackerblog.blogsp.....gy-of.html
Febrero 25th, 2012 at 16:22
ANother quote front he paper by Betancourt, (see link below in Humberto’s post):
Cuba’s economic ‘reforms’ are at a standstill or in clear retrogression and so are the economic
benefits that the majority of the population could derive from economic reforms. This outcome is not an accident, but the result of a conscious attempt by the Cuban leadership to maintain absolute political control. It seems to have two basic policies in the economic realm. One is adopting economic mechanisms that yield control of foreign exchange for the leadership, which allows them to buy the support of the elite that makes-up its power base and throw some crumbs to the rest (in dissident circles the crumbs are known as la jabita, la merienda and la propina). The other one is rejecting mechanisms that provide permanent and independent access to wealth creation for anyone that is not a member of the nomenclature, and even to some who think they are members. The end of February
1999 brought us a law, promulgated by the Cuban government, designed to eliminate the little political space that existed for internal dissent. Not surprisingly this law, which is known in Cuba as “La Ley Mordaza”, played a role in leading to the recent condemnation of Cuba’s human rights violations by the UN.
Febrero 25th, 2012 at 14:09
FORGOT WHICH OF THE ALIAS/AGENTS/APOLOGISTS COMMENTED THAT THERE WERE NO MORE BALSEROS IMMIGRATING FROM CUBA! PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING!
HERALD TRIBUNE: Coast Guard repatriates 13 Cuban migrants - Published: Saturday, February 25, 2012 at 11:16 a.m.
KEY WEST, Fla. - The U.S. Coast Guard has repatriated 13 Cuban migrants who were intercepted south of Key West.
Coast Guard officials say the group was taken Friday to Bahia de Cabanas, Cuba. They were initially spotted in a boat by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection aircraft on Sunday.
A Coast Guard boat took the migrants on board. They were later transferred to the cutter Nantucket to be returned to Cuba. They were given food, water and basic medical care.
Under U.S. policy, most Cubans who make it to dry land are permitted to remain. Those intercepted at sea are generally returned to Cuba.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/a.....1202250648
Febrero 25th, 2012 at 11:44
Humberto,
That is an excellent paper on the role & scope of economic reforms in Cuba. The analysis is dead on: the limited reforms are not aimed at liberalizing the economy, but at fleecing gullible foreign investors.
Given the fact the Cuban Army holding company is now the largest corporation on the island, with their fingers in every pot, the purpose of the “reforms” is regime survival.
Febrero 25th, 2012 at 11:34
DO NOT FEED THE TROLLS.
Febrero 25th, 2012 at 11:32
Help, it does seem that “anton/Che/generation y” are one & the same person. These several names all write the same sort of comments, with run on sentences and nutty ideas and obsessions. And that’s the key right there: the compulsive flood of speech and magical thinking are hallmarks of a manic episode. They ought to take their meds and leave this blog alone.
From now on, I will scroll over those comments and stick to the topic. I suggest other serious commenters do the same.
Febrero 25th, 2012 at 11:25
Yoani is the best and must be loved and respected..not stoned or beaten.
The problem is not embargo,the outsiders…but insiders; lazyness,parasites,hypocrites
There are few peasents who work hard in Cuba and the rest of 11 millions do nothing but sit,dance,sleep somewhere in an office,shop or in the army and is paid doing nothing…and that eat the country from inside as a cancer…destroy Cuba.
The conclusion is that both systems communism or socialism and capitalism are cancers who destroy the humanity…where only 10 % work,but the rest are lazy,useless eaters…doing nothing.They just eat the fruits and the tree as all parasites do…and they are against the tree blooming and disifecting, saving it
Febrero 25th, 2012 at 09:10
I’d love to know what Castro’s instructions are regarding this site?
Perhaps Castro’s workers would notice that pro-Castro sites don’t allow free comments, but that the dissident sites do. But maybe Castro’s workers are too dense or too corrupt to notice.
Febrero 25th, 2012 at 09:04
Someone who posts under dozens of different nicknames pretending to be a conversation between different people is a fraud. Why am I not surprised such people hate Yoani?
As for their latest ignorant comment, he thinks since we buy from a few “bad guys” we should buy from all “bad guys”. Somehow that would make the world a better place. Maybe we should start stoning women too, since that’s what they do in Iran?
Febrero 25th, 2012 at 08:39
CAN YOU REALLY TRUST THE CASTROFASCIST MAFIA/OLIGARCHY GIVEN THEIR PAST PERFORMANCES? THANK GOD FOR THIS AGE OF TWITTER, FACEBOOK, YOUTUBE, INSTANT MESSAGING AND INTERNET! THE KING AND QUEEN OF CUBA HAVE LOST THEIR CLOTHES AND EVERYONE CAN SEE THEIR TRUE NATURE! THE WORLD IS LOOKING, SO YOU AGENTS/APOLOGISTS CAN TAKE THAT MESSAGE TO YOUR HANDLERS!
Cuba’s Economic ‘Reforms’: Waiting for Fidel on the Eve of the Twenty-First Century.- Roger R. Betancourt* Department of Economics U. of Maryland
In this paper we provide a brief summary and evaluation of the main economic changes or
‘reforms’ undertaken by the Cuban government during the 1990’s. The thrust of our argument is that the regime does not seem to be interested in reforms that lead to a transition to a market economy or even in the more limited goal of introducing widespread market mechanisms subservient to the needs of the communist party as in China. Instead, their policies seem directed at generating mechanisms for the appropriation of foreign exchange by members of the nomenclature while keeping most citizens deprived of independent access to wealth creation activities. We develop our argument by looking separately at ‘reforms’ in two type of markets: those in which transactions are self-enforcing and those which depend on the contract enforcement mechanisms or services usually associated with market augmenting government to enforce transactions.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t.....qPukxhSJxg
Febrero 25th, 2012 at 08:26
THE CUBAN GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO SPEAK DIRECTLY TO ALL OF ITS CITIZENS IN AND OUT OF THE COUNTRY NOT JUST THE PARTY FAITHFUL! AFTER THAT HAPPENS THEN THE WARM AND FUZZY STUFF CAN START WITH THE USA! NICE TRY GUYS, SWITCHING TACTICS HERE I SEE! NOW IS THE “LETS DANCE” APPROACH!
MIAMI HERALD: Cuban dissidents tell US visitors that human rights must be respected- Seven government critics tell US visitors that Cuba’s main problem is the government- Juan Tamayo
Critics of the Cuban government told a U.S. congressional delegation in Havana on Friday that the island’s main problem is its own government, and that respect for human rights must be the first item on the table for any Cuba-U.S. negotiations.
Led by Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. and Richard Shelby, R-Al., the delegation also met with Cuban ruler Raúl Castro and Alan Gross, a U.S. government subcontractor whose 15-year prison sentence in Havana has stymied efforts to improve bilateral relations.
It was the first time that senior U.S. visitors had met with Cuban dissidents since former President Jimmy Carter was in Havana in March of 2011. Cuban authorities in the past have rejected visits by U.S. delegations that insisted on meeting with activists.
Attending the meeting were Ladies in White leader Bertha Soler and husband Angel Moya; Catholic activists Oswaldo Payá and Dagoberto Valdés; activist Antonio Rodiles; and dissident Oscar Elias Biscet and wife Elsa Morejón. Moya and Biscet were freed last year after spending nearly eight years in prison.
Moya said the visitors made no declarations, asked several questions and listened attentively as the seven government critics laid out their own views.
“We brought them up to date on the real situation in Cuba, and I said that they must be careful, because if 40 years ago (Cuban authorities) were not interested in commercial relations with the United States, today they are,” Moya said.
“This is a government that uses the resources of the people to strengthen and equip its repressive forces,” he added. “So it is very important for us that respect for human rights would be the first framework for any negotiations.”
CLINK LINK FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE!
http://www.miamiherald.com/201.....rylink=cpy
Febrero 25th, 2012 at 04:16
I enjoyed the story, and as a former Imperialist and current Capitalist I realize that every society has those who benefit more than the average person and is that bad in and of itself?
I don’t think so.
Last year was the 50th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs and Brigada 2506 was honored in Little Havana in Miami. There are still heros “Presente!” in Miami, and the new is ready for change and for a new era.
The first step on our side should be the removal of the Blockade, Embargo, or whatever. Cuba should be one of our largest trading partners and a good friend just like Canada, Mexico, and The Bahamas.
Now that the Catholic Church and Cuba are breaking down barriers that have existed for decades the American Government and President Obamba should take action and open up more trade with Cuba.
It would be good for both economies. We are the natural customer for each other’s products and materials.
We should coordinate our miltary efforts, Coast Guard, weather technology, and really become partners. We buy from other “bad guys” like China, Vietnam, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, etc so why not Cuba?
To show our sincerity and wllingness to start a new relationship with mutual respect we should allow Cuba to share Gitmo for a period of a few years and then turn it over completely to Cuba. It is no longer strategically vital and would be a positive step to show Cuba we don’t want Cuban territory.
When asked about foreign land that America craved Colin Powell said the only foreign land America wanted was land to plant our dead American soldiers who died overseas defending liberty. Now that is a policy! We don’t need Gitmo, and it could be an Olive Branch.
What was acquired in an old war for Expansion could be used to end a new cold war with Cuba.
We don’t have any right to dictate to Cuba what form of government it chooses and we are friends with other Socialist nations so lets get on with it! I want some Havana Club and Cohibas and mi amigos in Cuba could use some comida and coca cola.
It is time for Americans to meet Generation Y in person and to start healing old wounds.
Our policy with Cuba has failed and it can’t be all Castro’s and Cuba’s fault. Let’s try some real change.
Febrero 25th, 2012 at 03:47
Post 151, asking a question that s/he should be asked too… Hypocrites abound. They are all called usanians.
In the meantime, how about the immigrants LEAVING the “some kind of pragmatic capitalism” paradise in droves.
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/US.....s.economy/
And with them millions of local population too. It seems that for all teh gory… sorry, glory of the self-destroyed “some kind of pragmatic capitlaism”, even the locals find it better to go and fight for food scraps in Guatemala or Argentina than to watch rich feasting on the food 99% of usanians cannot even afford any more.
That they can watch it in 3D is of little comfort…
What do you say to that, the team “yoani”?
Oh, I’m forgetting who I am talking to…!!! Hypocrites who dare to demand others respond to their questions, but deny the answers when someone asks them a few things.
I think they are still dirty for me calling them traitors.
You know, the people who sell their own people and home for a fistful of foreign money.
And a pepaid mobile phone…
Febrero 25th, 2012 at 01:17
Why has generationY posted under che and anton and dozens of other names? Who are these creatures who spray graffiti on this site?
Febrero 25th, 2012 at 00:11
I am watching the interesting video with Cuba in 21 century http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BPStR1PqYo
and I have the solution or the formula to bring the lover back in the dancing floor…to show to the world their skills;
USA should reduce the embargo 20% and give more beans to Cuba so she can dance faster salsa…and is better thi8s to happen before pope come to see their show.
Cuba should eat the beans and try to dance faster so we have the good result that we all want. And if they both do that they may end back in the bed together again as before when they were lovers…(I approve their union now)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related
Febrero 25th, 2012 at 00:10
I am watching the interesting video with Cuba in 21 century http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BPStR1PqYo
and I have the solution or the formula to bring the lover back in the dancing floor…to show to the world their skills;
USA should reduce the embargo 20% and give more beans to Cuba so she can dance faster salsa…and is better thi8s to happen before pope come to see their show.
Cuba should eat the beans and try to dance faster so we have the good result that we all want. And if they both do that they may end back in the bed together again as before when they were lovers…(I approve their union now)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related
Febrero 25th, 2012 at 00:02
I am watching the interesting video with Cuba in 21 century http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BPStR1PqYo
and I have the solution or the formula to bring the lover back in the dancing floor…to show to the world their skills;
USA should reduce the embargo 20% and give more beans to Cuba so she can dance faster salsa…and is better thi8s to happen before pope come to see their show.
Cuba’s Castro’s should eat the beans and try to dance faster so we have the good result that we all want. And if they both do that they may end back in the bed together again as before when they were lovers…(I approve their union now)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related
Febrero 25th, 2012 at 00:00
Gen y: you are an idiot. Food production in Cuba is down this year over last.
Febrero 24th, 2012 at 23:11
generationY CLONE !! THE DOOR WILL OPEN ONLY AFTER THE CASTROFASCISTS AND THEIR OLIGARCHY CLOSE THEIR DOOR ON THEIR WAY TO HELL! CAPISCE??
Febrero 24th, 2012 at 22:57
If the windows are now open why dont the two old friends meet…!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BPStR1PqYo
Maybe is a need to open now the door also…
Febrero 24th, 2012 at 21:23
MY GRANDFATHER ON MY MOTHERS SIDE WAS FROM THE CANARY ISLANDS IN SPAIN SO I CAN RELATE TO THIS STORY! MY GRANDMOTHERS LEONOR & MARIA (la santa) WERE EVEN CUTER! SORRY JOAQUINA!
FROM RADIO PERSONALITY Viviam Maria: Very touching story. Beautiful Don~a Joaquina is now 107 years old. She left Cuba at age 66, hoping to one day go back…that was 41 years ago. I am joyful to have been also interviewed by the wonderful Immigrant Archive Project which everyday grows more, sharing our stories.
About the Imigration Archive: The Immigrant Archive Project is an independent national initiative dedicated to preserving the life stories of America’s immigrant population. We accomplish this by recording, in their own words, the intimate stories of immigrants of all nations. The content of these interviews will be shared with listeners via radio, television, internet, and traveling educational as well as art installations. Through this initiative we hope to preserve the struggles, dreams and accomplishments of America’s vast and diverse immigrant population so that future generations may learn from their collective experience. The Immigrant Archive Project has been established by Latino Broadcasting Company (LBC), a minority owned, nationally syndicated radio network.
http://www.immigrantarchivepro.....s/view/739
Febrero 24th, 2012 at 20:38
WHEN I ASK THE CASTRO AGENTS/APOLOGISTS ONLINE OR IN PERSON (we have in LA a Cuban 5 group whose members I have met) WHY DONT THEY FIGHT FOR UNJUSTLY INCARCERATED AMERICAN IN US JAILS THEY CLAM UP! WONDER WHY?? I FIND THEIR CAUSE TOTALLY IRRELEVANT AND NAUSEATING WHEN THEY CAN HELP AMERICAN CITIZENS WHO DESERVE IT!
Not “5″ but 12.
The “Five Cuban Heroes” proclaimed by the Cuban regime were actually part of a network of 12 spies that infiltrated the U.S. In addition to the five spies who maintained their innocence but were convicted in a jury trial (with no Cuban-American jurors), five pleaded guilty to charges of spying in exchange for reduced sentences, one was deported, and one fled to Cuba to escape arrest. The trials cost U.S. taxpayers
one million dollars to provide the defendants with a free legal representation. An appeals court is reviewing the five spies’ conviction.
THE CUBAN 5 (actually 12 total) “WASP NETWORK” A SUMMARY OF HISTORY AND TRIAL!
In 1995, after obtaining FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) Court approval, the FBI obtained warrants to surreptitiously search apartments and monitor telephone communications by a group of Cubans who were Cuban intelligence operatives. The group, through its principal agents or illegal officers, communicated directly with the Cuban Government about its activities and received specific missions and taskings from the Cuban Government. The instructions were subsequently relayed to the other members of the spy ring as appropriate.
During the searches, the FBI uncovered and read the contents of the communications from and to the Cuban Government. This information was concealed in hidden files on computer floppy diskettes kept in the residences of three of the principal agents.
At Cuban Government direction, the Cuban spy ring collected and reported information on domestic, political, and humanitarian activity of anti-Castro organizations in the Miami-Dade county area; the operation of US military installations; and other US Government functions, including law enforcement activity. The spy ring also carried out tasks in the United States as directed by the Cuban Government, which included attempted penetration of US military installations, duplicitous participation in and manipulation of anti-Castro organizations, and attempted manipulation of US political institutions and government entities through disinformation and pretended cooperation. The spy ring received financial support from the Cuban Government to carry out its tasks.
CLICK LINK FOR ENTIRE DOCUMENT!
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/do.....d=94546591
Febrero 24th, 2012 at 20:35
I just wish the UN was a real freedom fighter organization, not the rats it is. It should have a mandate to forceful remove all dictators from the planet. NOT KILLED, take them all to a deserted island together the Castros, Asha from Siria. In the meantime just observe how latin america goes, sk far those were elected democratic but they may try to stay beyond their terms. Correa, Morales, Ortega and jackass Chavez
Febrero 24th, 2012 at 20:32
I COULD NOT FIND THIS EPISODE ON YOUTUBE IN ENGLISH, SO I PUT THE SYNOPSIS HERE! JE JE JE! LOOKS LIKE THE SAME WILL HAPPEN TO THE VENEZUELAN GOLD!! NO MATTER, ALL THAT GOLD IS FOR THE CASTROFASCIST GETAWAY! JUST LIKE BATISTA! POETIC JUSTICE! JE JE JE!
On January 1, right after New Year’s Eve, Ned completes his yearly taxes. Later that year on April 15 everyone else in town is in a rush to get their taxes in before midnight, in fact just before midnight Homer realizes he did not do his own taxes not realising that he has to do them every year. He rushes and provides false information before driving to the post office. At the IRS, however Homers overstuffed envelope gets jolted from a container for ‘Tax refunds’ into one labeled ’severe audit’. The IRS discovers Homer’s fraud and arrests him. Held by the government, Homer says he will do anything to stay out of prison. Agent Johnson of the FBI decides that Homer can be useful. With a hidden microphone under his shirt, Homer uncovers that his co-worker Charlie leads a group planning to assault all government officials.
With his superiors impressed, Johnson sends Homer on a secret mission. They reveal that in 1945, President Harry Truman printed a one trillion-dollar bill to help reconstruct post-war Europe. He handed the vital cargo over to Charles Montgomery Burns to transport to the Europeans. However, the money never arrived, this is made out to be why Europeans are snotty to Americans. and the FBI suspects Burns still has the money with him. As satellite photography can only confirm that the trillion-dollar bill is not on the roof, Homer is sent in to investigate. Arriving at Burns’s estate, Homer searches for the money before Burns, who believes Homer is a reporter from Collier’s magazine, reveals that he kept the bill on his person. Johnson and Agent Miller burst in and arrests Burns for grand-grand-grand-grand-larceny. Burns shouts how the US government oppresses the average American and tells Homer to write, “Don’t let the government push you around!” in his article. Moved by Burns’s speech, Homer knocks out the FBI agents and frees Burns.
The two men hurry to obtain Smithers for help, who suggests they leave the country. Burns takes Smithers and Homer in his old plane, setting off to find an island and start a new country. Over the Caribbean, Burns finds a fine island, although it already has a name and is in fact a country, Cuba. Going before Fidel Castro (after learning, much to the surprise of both Burns and Homer, that Batista is no longer leader of Cuba), Burns fails to buy the island when Fidel asks to see the trillion dollar bill, and is handed the bill. When Burns asks for it back, Castro immediately responds: “Give what back?”. Then, the episode immediately cuts to a scene where Burns, Smithers, and Homer are on a make-shift raft. Burns announces he will merely bribe the jury when Smithers, Homer, and himself are put on trial, prompting Homer to exclaim “God bless America!” and salute.
YOUTUBE: Fidel Castro en los Simpson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related
Febrero 24th, 2012 at 20:22
I saw The Heiress, Mariela Castro saying that they had hoped for the exchanged between Gross and the 5 informers/spies. These mothers are the most arrogant mafiosi ever.
Febrero 24th, 2012 at 19:09
There are reports that Chavez is shipping Venezuelan gold from banks in Europe to …guess where? To Cuba! I’m sure the Castros will keep it nice & safe for him.
http://www..babalublog..com/20.....and-fidel/
Febrero 24th, 2012 at 17:47
I don’t know about the rules of posting here, but it seems there is someone who has posted under dozens of different names over the past few months, the last two being generationY and che.
Yoani’s detractors all seem to be compulsive liars obsessed with her blog.
Febrero 24th, 2012 at 16:52
“Cuban officials have stopped short of linking the cases, but have said no one should expect the island to free the 62-year-old American in a “unilateral gesture.”"
HOW MUCH MORE CLEAR CAN WE GET ABOUT THE GROSS CASE AND WHY HE WAS ARRESTED AND HELD AS HOSTAGE FOR THE CUBAN 5 SPIES!! DO THE CASTROFASCISTS THINK THAT THE WORLD CANNOT SEE THRU THEIR CONTINOUS ATTEMPT AT EXTORTION? AND THE CUBAN 5 SPIES HAVE HARDLY BEEN FORGOTTEN IN THE USA AND THE WORLD! THERE ARE HUNDREDS OF AGENTS AND APOLOGISTS ALL OVER THE WORLD TALKING UP THEIR CAUSE! FUNNY, THEY NEVER MENTION ABOUT THE OTHER 7 SPIES WHO GOT LIGHTER SENTENCES IN EXCHANGE FOR COOPERATION! OF COURSE THEY ARE NEVER MENTIONED IN CUBA, WONDER WHY?? JE JE JE!
The senator said Castro brought up the case of five Cuban agents sentenced to long jail terms in the United States, including one who was released last year but has not been allowed to return to Cuba while he serves out three years probation.
Leahy said Castro never explicitly linked Gross’ fate with that of the agents, who were jailed in 1998, but “he made it very clear that while we may be concerned for Mr. Gross and have humanitarian reasons to be, they are very concerned about the five (agents) and have humanitarian and family reasons too.”
Cuban officials have stopped short of linking the cases, but have said no one should expect the island to free the 62-year-old American in a “unilateral gesture.”
In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner flatly ruled out any prisoner exchange.
“We’ve bee quite clear on this,” he said.
Toner said U.S. diplomats had briefed Leahy ahead of the trip and asked him to press Gross’ case, but had not given him any special message to pass along to the Cuban government beyond that.
Cuban state-run media carried images of the meeting between Castro and the senators, though they gave no details of what was discussed. Cuban media said Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez was also present.
CLICK LINK FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE!
http://www.google.com/hostedne.....c616a2f59c
Febrero 24th, 2012 at 16:33
DIE YOU FASCIST SAPO! I HAVE NO PROBLEM SAYING THAT! MANY THOUSANDS OF LIVES WILL BE SAVE BY HUGO CHAVEZ KICKING THE BUCKET!
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Is Chavez sacrificing cancer care for privacy?- By BRADLEY BROOKS,
SAO PAULO — As Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez flies to Cuba Friday for surgery to remove a possibly cancerous growth, top doctors say he could be taking a risk by skipping more respected cancer centers in Brazil or the U.S. if his illness proves more complicated.
What muddies that assessment is the miserly amount of detail the firebrand leftist president has revealed about his condition. Since first disclosing his cancer in June, he has only said doctors removed a baseball-sized tumor in his pelvic region last year, and that the new growth discovered this week was two centimeters (one inch) in size and found in the same area.
He had earlier said his cancer was in remission after completing weeks of chemotherapy.
But late Thursday Chavez, 57, said he’s “preparing to face the worst.”
Referring to the new growth, he said: “The possibility that it’s malignant is greater than it not being (malignant).”
Medical experts said that if Chavez has a “standard” cancer, or one that hasn’t spread or isn’t a rarer and deadlier type of tumor, seeking treatment in Cuba is likely as good as anywhere else.
But if his cancer is more complex, many said he’s at risk in not opting for treatment in the U.S., Europe or Brazil — which has Latin America’s most advanced cancer centers with specialized radiation equipment.
“If you have a ‘common’ cancer, that of the breast, colon or lung … then it’s going to be easy to find standards of care that are the same in the U.S., Brazil or Cuba,” said Dr. Julian Molina, an oncologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. “The problem comes when you have a tumor that’s not one of the common ones, and that’s what most of us suspect Chavez has.”
Latin America’s top cancer doctor Paulo Hoff, who heads the cancer center at Sao Paulo’s Sirio-Libanes hospital, considered the region’s best, would not talk specifically about Chavez’s case. But he did say that a cancerous tumor in the pelvic region would be mainly limited to four types: prostate, rectal, bladder and sarcoma, the latter being a rare and deadly form of tumor.
Mayo clinic cancer specialist Molina said the consensus among doctors in Latin America and the U.S. he’s spoken with is that Chavez has a sarcoma tumor because those tend to come back in the same site where a previous tumor was removed, which appears to be the case with Chavez.
The leader made a live television appearance from a hall in the Miraflores government palace Thursday night. Shouting “I will live! I will live!” he pounded a table and said he would undergo surgery early next week. It’s not clear if Chavez would then have radiation therapy after surgery; if so, it normally begins between three and six weeks after the procedure.
CLICK FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE!
http://www.google.com/hostedne.....3dec9c2fff
Febrero 24th, 2012 at 16:12
THE CASTROFASCISTS THINK THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH THESE HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES! GUESS WHAT! THE WORLD IS WATCHING!
JOSE DANIEL FERRER TWEET: me acaban de liberar.fui dtnido violentamente,3 dias en huelga d hambre.si no liberan a los que quedan dtnidos,sigo en huelga - They have just released me, was violently arrested and held for 3 days while in hunger strike. If they dont released those wrongly detained I will continue it. 48 minutes ago
@jdanielferrer ON TWITTER
Febrero 24th, 2012 at 15:32
CUBA: EX PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE BELIEVED DETAINED: JOSÉ DANIEL FERRER GARCÍA- Index Number: AMR 25/005/2012- February 24, 2012
URGENT ACTION: EX PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE BELIEVED DETAINED Former prisoner of conscience José Daniel Ferrer García’s whereabouts are unknown following his alleged arrest in central Havana, Cuba, on 21 February. Former prisoner of conscience José Daniel Ferrer García, who is on conditional release from prison, is believed to have been re-arrested in central Havana on 21 February. He had travelled to Havana from Santiago de Cuba province to meet with diplomats, human rights activists and dissidents in connection with his work as the coordinator of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unión Patriótica de Cuba, UNPACU), an umbrella group of dissident organizations based in eastern Cuba. On 21 February, José Daniel Ferrer García was travelling by taxi with Elizardo Sánchez, coordinator of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and Reconciliation (Comisión Cubana de Derechos Humanos y Reconciliación Nacional, CCDHRN), whose office he had just visited. Elizardo Sánchez exited the taxi in the central neighbourhood of Vedado and five minutes later received a text message from José Daniel Ferrer García which stated he was being detained by police. On 22 February, the Elizardo Sánchez contacted the police information service and was informed that there was no record of José Daniel Ferrer García being held in any detention facility. There has been no news of his whereabouts since then. José Daniel Ferrer García was granted conditional release in March 2011, having served eight of his 25 year sentence. Under the terms of his release, he could be sent back to prison to serve out the remainder of his sentence - 16 years. Amnesty International believes his arrest is an attempt to repress the peaceful dissident activities he and members of UNPACU are undertaking in eastern Cuba. Please write immediately in Spanish or your own language: Calling on the authorities to provide information as to the circumstances of José Daniel Ferrer García’s arrest on 21 February and immediately reveal his current whereabouts; Urging them, that if detained, to immediately release José Daniel Ferrer García, unless there is sufficient evidence to charge him with an internationally-recognizable criminal offence; Urging them to immediately cease the harassment and intimidation of members of the Patriotic Union of Cuba and all other citizens who seek to peacefully exercise their rights to freedom of expression and association.. PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 5 APRIL 2012 TO:
click link for more information & addresses etc!
http://www.amnesty.org/es/libr.....05/2012/en
Febrero 24th, 2012 at 14:43
YOUTUBE: Exiliados cubanos dan a conocer nombres de asesinos de ciudadanos norteamericanos -Video Cortesía Telemundo 51- Cuban exiles give name and addresses of the persons behind the shooting down of “Brothers to the rescue” plane On February 24, 1996- spanish only!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kA8N9fJwMRs
Brothers to the Rescue (Spanish: Hermanos al Rescate) is a Miami-based activist organization headed by José Basulto. Formed by Cuban exiles, the group is widely known for its opposition to the Cuban government and, then President, Fidel Castro. The group formed in 1991 and describes itself as a humanitarian organization aiming to assist and rescue raft refugees emigrating from Cuba and to “support the efforts of the Cuban people to free themselves from dictatorship through the use of active nonviolence”.[1]
The Cuban government on the other hand accuses them of involvement in terrorist acts.[2][3] In the course of many flights throughout the early 1990s, the group’s planes made repeated incursions into Cuban territory. While these were widely considered airspace violations, Brothers to the Rescue believes that these were acts of legitimate resistance against the government. In 1996, ignoring a final warning by Cuba, two Brothers to the Rescue planes were shot down by the Cuban Air Force, leading to international condemnation.
Febrero 24th, 2012 at 14:30
I aprove also that the two old friends to be in love again and the pope sent from our friend,Italy to bless their new love which will be like in the old times again;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUzgq35MnLY
Febrero 24th, 2012 at 14:00
IN MY OPINION, By Portia Siegelbaum IS THE BEST JOURNALIST THAT HAS REPORTED ON THIS STORY! SHE WAS THE ONE THAT REPORTED THAT THE JEWISH COMMUNITY KNEW AND MET GROSS PRIOR TO HIS ARREST WHILE MANY IN THE COMMUNITY WERE UNDER DURESS TO SAY THAT THEY DID NOT! THE CASTROFASCIST OLIGARCHY OF FIDEL AND RAUL CASTRO STILL THINK THAT THEY CAN USE EXTORTION AGAINST THE U.S.A. BY USING ALAN GROSS AS A CHIP TO TRADE FOR THE CUBAN 5 SPIES! THE WORLD IS WATCHING AND THEY GET IT!
CBS NEWS: Leahy and Shelby meet with Raul Castro in Cuba- By Portia Siegelbaum
HAVANA — Sen. Patrick Leahy met with Cuban President Raul Castro Thursday, but the Vermont Democrat was unable to convince the Cuban leader to release jailed U.S. contractor Alan Gross currently serving a 15 year sentence in Havana for smuggling in illegal communications equipment and attempting to set up an Internet network that could escape government detection.
“I told him I had a plane and could take Gross out with me,” Leahy told CBS News by phone after what he said was a “very active give and take” with Castro.
Leahy said he was told something to the effect of “nice try” for his effort to get Gross released.
Leahy and Delaware Sen. Christopher A. Coons, a fellow Democrat, met earlier in the day for an hour with Gross at the military hospital where he is being held.
The younger brother of longtime leader Fidel Castro “conceded that Gross wasn’t a spy but when I spoke about releasing him for humanitarian reasons, Castro raised the case of the so-called Cuban Five” who were convicted of spying in the United States, Leahy said. The Cubans insist that the five men were only trying to gather information on terrorist activities by Miami-based anti-Castro groups.
The Vermont senator, who along with his wife once dined with the former president and even maintained, he says, a correspondence with the elder Castro, says he told Raul Castro he should release Gross because “it’s the right thing to do” without asking for a quid pro quo.
Leahy told CBS he asked Castro if he could bring Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama along with their wives to their Thursday night meeting because he wanted to have a conservative Republican along so that the discussion would be more broad based. The topics discussed ranged from outstanding issues between the two countries to grandchildren.
Also present at the meeting was Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez.
The two senators also raised the issue of Cuba’s drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico, according to Leahy who says Castro was receptive to his suggestion that the two countries take steps to cooperate in the event of an oil spill. Leahy recognized that there are obstacles to this happening. Restrictions under the U.S. economic and trade embargo against the island inhibit cooperation in this area.
President Castro, Leahy says, referred to steps taken along the border between the U.S. and Cuban military bases in Guantanamo where there is regular contact military to military contacts that both men agreed should be expanded to other areas.”
“They are going to be drilling for oil,” said Leahy, “and I hope they find it and will not be dependent on Venezuela for oil,” and that’s also why he’s encouraging cooperation between the two countries.
Leahy said he would be meeting with President Obama on his return to Washington and asked Castro if he had any objection to his sharing the contents of their conversation with the him.
“Absolutely not,” was his response, said Leahy.
The delegation goes to Haiti later today.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-50.....o-in-cuba/
Febrero 24th, 2012 at 13:38
UnHinged said: “@Humbertito Culito, no poponito today?? are you controlling your enourmous Anonimous desire to dump on others what you inhale?? With you if a Russian film-maker talks bad about Cuba that is good if the same Russian talks bad about America that’s bad!!”
SOMEONE HAS A CRUSH ON ME!!!!! BUT PLEASE UnHinged, I KNOW THAT SCAT IS YOUR THING BUT NOT MINE! ALL THAT PSYCHOLOGICAL PROJECTION GIVES YOU AWAY, A MILE AWAY! JE JE JE!
Febrero 24th, 2012 at 13:35
FYI!! Cuba libre (La MENTIROTA & HOMOPHOBE & REDUNDANT CONSPIRACY THEORIST!SLOWLY BUT WE WILL GET THERE!
Six state governments (along with the District of Columbia, the Coquille Indian Tribe, and the Suquamish tribe) have passed laws offering same-sex marriage and currently offer same-sex marriages: New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, and New Hampshire. In all six states, same-sex marriage has been legalized through legislation or court ruling.[19] Same-sex marriage has been legal in Massachusetts since May 17, 2004; in Connecticut since November 12, 2008;[20] in Iowa since April 27, 2009;[21][22] in Vermont since September 1, 2009; New Hampshire since January 1, 2010; and New York since July 24, 2011.[23] In 2009, New England became the center of an organized push to legalize same-sex marriage,[24] with four of the six states in that region granting same-sex couples the legal right to marry.
Febrero 24th, 2012 at 13:32
Cuba libre (La MENTIROTA & HOMOPHOBE & REDUNDANT CONSPIRACY THEORIST) said: “Strange isn`t it, that in the land of “democracy and freedom”, they still are against gay marriage, but the so “intolerant” government of Cuba, though there is no law to allow it yet, they tolerate it. That is how intolerant they are.”
C.L. ! I DONT RECALL THE U.S.A. SENDING GAYS TO CONCENTRATION CAMPS LIKE THE CASTROFASCISTS DID WITH THE U.M.A.P. CAMPS!
According to the World Policy Institute (2003), the Cuban government prohibits LGBT organizations and publications, gay pride marches and gay clubs.[14] All officially sanctioned clubs and meeting places are required to be heterosexual. The only gay and lesbian civil rights organization, the Cuban Association of Gays and Lesbians, which formed in 1994, was closed in 1997 and its members were taken into custody.[15] Private gay parties, named for their price of admission, “10 Pesos”, exist but are often raided. In 1997, Agencia de Prensa Independiente de Cuba (the Cuban Independent Press Agency) reported, that Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar and French designer Jean Paul Gaultier were among several hundred people detained in a raid on Havana’s most popular gay discothèque, El Periquiton.[16]
Mauvaise Conduite or Improper Conduct is the title of a 1984 documentary film directed by Néstor Almendros and Orlando Jiménez Leal. The documentary interviews Cuban refugees to explore the Cuban government’s imprisonment of homosexuals, political dissidents, and Jehovah’s Witnesses into concentration camps under its policy of Military Units to Aid Protection. The documentary was produced with the support of French television Antenne 2 and won the Best Documentary Audience Award at the 1984 San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.
Conducta Impropria - Improper Conduct (Part 5)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related
Febrero 24th, 2012 at 13:29
Cuba libre (La MENTIROTA & HOMOPHOBE & REDUNDANT CONSPIRACY THEORIST) said: “Then there is “El Ciber Rata” who is fighting hard to get the same sex marriage laws passed. He and his boyfriend have been trying for a few years now to get pregnant, but strangely haven`t succeeded yet, lol.”
C.L.! SORRY BUDDY BUT I’M SERIAL SINGLE GUY! NOT INTERESTED IN MARRIAGE, AN OVERRATED INSTITUTION! AND IS THE TRYING OF RATHER THAN GOAL OF GETTING PREGNANT THAT IS THE FUN PART!! BUT IF I DECIDE TO GET MARRIED, PUT YOUR REAL PICTURE, NAME AND ADDRESS HERE SO I CAN SEND YOU AN INVITATION! MAYBE YOU WILL CATCH THE BOUQUET! JE JE JE!
Febrero 24th, 2012 at 13:21
generationY , che , Un Soricel , Cuba Libre !! COME ON BOYS AND GIRLS! THIS CHANGING THE SUBJECT AND RAMBLING ON ABOUT OTHER SUBJECTS IS A BIT OVERUSED BY YOU ALL! USE SOME FRESH APPROACH, CUBA OR CUBAN RELATED! IM REALLY GETTING BORED, YOU ARE NO CHALLENGE AT ALL!
Febrero 24th, 2012 at 12:08
If I went to slave Cuba and buy cheach its good and make money with its people and beach…
I just need to put right people in the government…to work for me as friends or as enemies…
I prefer them as enemies….because it will cost less…and that’s mean good business…
I buy cheap Cuba’s natural resources…sugar,oil,…cheap tourism…with big profits for me…
I can controll all the areas around Cuban waters and beyond…pretending I am fighting a danger enemy which I created
I feed and keep alive my enemy-friend playing…without knowing that works for me…
Febrero 24th, 2012 at 11:58
I see you are fighting each other…like two swords…but whos hands or arms hold them…and to whom they both belong?
evil system=capitalism=communism=corporation=business=controll=world elite=despotism=slavery=destruction=hell=fear=death……rebirth…!
Febrero 24th, 2012 at 10:13
Un Soricel, Yoani is talking about you. Have you ever looked in a mirror?
Febrero 24th, 2012 at 10:12
Cube Libra says: “I wonder what miracles the Revolutionary government of Cuba would perform for its people if it were given what it costs for a Presidential election in the US. ”
They were given that amount every year by the Soviet government, and are now given more than that by capitalist visitors. So we’ve all seen their “miracle”.
When are you going to donate your Adidas to a poor Cuban?
Febrero 24th, 2012 at 08:45
What a pure example of the bourgeiosie class that exists in the great USA. Imagine that, paying 30,000 for a dinner to help fund the re-election campaign of Obama Bin Laden. A presidented who under his stay at the White House has allowed his country to sink into the worst financial crisis since its existence. Yet the good bourgeios are there to back him up for one more term.
http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....n-orlando/
I wonder what miracles the Revolutionary government of Cuba would perform for its people if it were given what it costs for a Presidential election in the US. All that money waisted on fine dining, wining, and not to forget the orgies. Oh yes the orgies. It seems to be the favourite passtime for the last 8 or 9 presidents. And then the ostriches in here dare to complain about the Revolutionary government who uses all the money it earns to see to the needs of its citizens. The truth will be heard.
Febrero 24th, 2012 at 08:26
And for all the liars and ostriches that won`t believe the truth. For all of you who claimed school tuitions were fre in Canada. That is why students decided to protest and demonstrate on the latest raise in tuition fees. The truth shall be heard.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/.....ition.html
Un Soricel,
All the liars, leeches, maggotts and rats in here have a way of doing “selective” research. They inerpret newspaper articles in their own unique way to cover up the truth. They are like ostriches with their heads buried in the sand who claim they know it all yet refuse to see what`s goin on around them.
Then there is “El Ciber Rata” who is fighting hard to get the same sex marriage laws passed. He and his boyfriend have been trying for a few years now to get pregnant, but strangely haven`t succeeded yet, lol. Strange isn`t it, that in the land of “democracy and freedom”, they still are against gay marriage, but the so “intolerant” government of Cuba, though there is no law to allow it yet, they tolerate it. That is how intolerant they are.
Febrero 24th, 2012 at 05:35
@Help - yeah maybe you should let the Cubans fight their own fight not patronise them with your paternalistic approach to everything and neither talent nor courage to even put your money where your mouth is - cos your arm is oboviously that of an old man! … The internet is ideal for your likes!… MAke a donation to the cause if you are so keen to help Cuba be free… ask you bank manager for $10.000 for the cause!!
@Humbertito Culito, no poponito today?? are you controlling your enourmous Anonimous desire to dump on others what you inhale?? With you if a Russian film-maker talks bad about Cuba that is good if the same Russian talks bad about America that’s bad!!
@Griffin … exactly my point, capitalism has done business with diktators as long as they played along… My diktator was decorated even by the Queen of England… You guys are part morally bankrupt and part cowards not to do your job where you live… meaning to speak at least against your govs doing business in your name with diktators, drugdealers and terrorists… But like any little bourgeois souls you are if Castro would invite you in Cuba today and give you a holiday for free you would all go in the name of democracy (many US senators do)…! And by the way didn’t you hear that the ‘good and mighty’ DEA has more recently trafficked drugs for the cartels… apparently to get inside information!!! haha good one!! and apparently they are not allowed to discuss it openly!!
Febrero 24th, 2012 at 04:03
WHO WROTTE THIS SONG…WHEN?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related
Febrero 24th, 2012 at 02:29
John, I suspect he or they are graffiti artists trying to get our goats. And he/she/they have posted under many different names.
But who knows, the world is full of nuts with internet access. Speaking of religious nutters, I think Cube Libra and the rest of that cult preaching the word of Che and Fidel, certainly qualify.
Febrero 24th, 2012 at 01:52
RUSSIAN DOCUMENTARY: Motherland or Death (Patria o Muerte)- the trailer is good but not much about what the film is about. See below!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxAlCXlSLRw
Febrero 24th, 2012 at 01:51
WHO ELSE BUT A RUSSIAN WHO LIVED THAT ERA OF PERESTROIKA WOULD BE MORE FITTING TO SHED LIGHT ON WHAT IS GOING ON AND MIGHT CONTINUE IN CUBA!! INTERESTING PERSPECTIVE! HOPE TO SEE THE FILM AT SOME POINT!
DOCUMENTARY: Motherland or Death -”Patria o muerte” [Rodina ili smert’], Russia, 2011
99 mins, color
Director and Scriptwriter: Vitalii Manskii
Cinematography: Vitaly Manskii, Leonid Konovalov
Editor: Maksim Karamyshev
Sound directors: Mariia Ushenina, Sergei Ovcharenko
Colorist: Iuliia Gapochkina
Producer: Gennadii Kostrov
Production: Vertov. Real Cinema (Russia)
Vitalii Manskii’s latest documentary recently had its UK premiere at the London Russian Film Festival. A broad portrait of life in Cuba, Patria o muerte introduces viewers to a wide array of people and situations rather than following a specific character or event. In this way it is similar to one of Manskii’s previous films, Broadway, The Black Sea (Brodvei: Chernoe more, 2002) in that it aims to be a depiction of a location and the specific community that dwells within it.
Introducing the film at the London Russian Film Festival, Manskii reported that due to economic problems, Cuban television’s educational output often consists of a camera panning slowly down a textbook while a voiceover reads out the text. One could imagine that a curmudgeonly Jean-Luc Godard, on hearing this news, would proudly declare that this is proof that socialism is alive and well and living in Cuba. But for Manskii, who has seen both the results of a stagnant communism and a rapacious capitalism (he graduated from VGIK in 1990, at a time when Russian film production had dwindled to almost nothing and the transition to capitalism caused widespread disarray) Cuba’s problems are familiar and troubling.
Manskii believes that Cuba is approaching a similar threshold to Russia in the l990s, so he took his crew to document the first rumblings of this predicted change. Partly due to the strictures facing journalists in Cuba, and partly due to Manskii’s idiosyncratic interests, the story he returned with (compressing 200 hours of raw footage into 90 minutes) strikes the viewer as more personal than political.
The film announces Cuba as a place of contrasting extremes: An opening montage of young girls gyrating in front of their webcams to pounding music is followed by unsettling scenes of graves being exhumed. As the exaggerated sound of bluebottles fills the soundtrack, a man shatters a ribcage on the side of a coffin. We then see scores of people waiting to collect the remains of their relatives as an authoritative voice booms from a loudspeaker.
patria o muerteLike Broadway, The Black Sea, there’s a focus on earthy corporeality that is sometimes disturbing, sometimes amusing and sometimes just reportage. Cuban men sit around telling jokes that make out Americans to be greedy and wasteful imperialists, while including a generous helping of old-fashioned leering misogyny. Extensive footage of stray dogs rutting in the street documents one of Havana’s day-to-day problems.
Manskii seems to love the community he films, and wants to pack in as many of these heady images as he can, where touch and smell almost become tangible. In order to do this, he allows his subjects to speak as the film drifts away from their image, out into the street where dogs chase each other, and sheets hung out to dry flap eerily in the wind, against a backdrop of faded Spanish colonial architecture. This disembodying of the documentary subject has a strange effect. On one level, it distances the viewer from the specific protagonist, but on another, it shows Manskii’s true aims; documenting the community, describing the place.
The film shows how the attempt at creating a Socialist utopia hasn’t stamped out old superstitions: a man explains how performing at Yoruba religious ceremonies is the only way that musicians can make money in Cuba (perhaps a retort to the simplistic exoticism surrounding the Buena Vista Social Club [Wim Wenders, 1999] phenomenon). A Yoruba exorcism follows, with a woman screaming hysterically as bright sunlight streams in through the window: “every home has a corner where spirits reside,” comments one of the witnesses of this eerie spectacle.
The film has a washed out quality to its images, created by de-saturating the color in post production. Manskii did this in order to focus attention away from the colorful and vibrant side of Havana and onto the people he filmed and the emotions they express. The muted images serve to make Havana seem more mysterious, giving the city a coiled, fractious ambience that is entirely in keeping with Manskii’s theme.
Other vignettes that make up the film include two young boys having a rap contest in the street, local party meetings, a dancer with one foot and a bakery with yet more bluebottles swarming round the freshly baked bread. We see television sets adorned with trinkets, Day-Glo Jesus effigies and trumpeters playing mournful jazz on balconies.
patria o muerteAt the end, the film returns us to one of its first stories: a woman buying a dress for her daughter’s sixteenth birthday party. Now clad in her brand new outfit, looking gaudy but glamorous, the girl rides in a cab around Havana, leaning out of the window with a smile on her face. The camera, one assumes, is fixed to the side of the car to document this cheering moment. But after the credits roll, there is a breathtaking epilogue that wrenches viewers away from the optimistic image of youth that seemed to be the film’s final word. There is a cut to a laterally tracking Steadicam shot of a man jogging by the seafront. The camera follows him as waves crash against the barrier, sending water spraying everywhere. Manskii’s warning of the coming storm in a political and economic sense, but at the same time this brief epilogue de-centers the human story, placing it in a sometimes harsh, indifferent landscape.
In Patria O Muerte, the tension between personal investment and documentary responsibility is palpable. Manskii’s aims in making the film, he told his audience, were severely limited by a desire not to lose his accreditation and be sent back to Russia with no useable footage at all. But the film is already ambitious, poignant, amusing and serious, and counts amongst Manskii’s best work.
http://www.kinokultura.com/201.....a-jr.shtml
Febrero 24th, 2012 at 00:49
Oh f…, not another religious nutter!!
Febrero 24th, 2012 at 00:31
AS WE SAY IN CUBAN! THE CASTROFASCIST SE ESTAN “CAGANDO”! THE END IS NEAR FOR ANOTHER FASCIST, TOTALITARIAN REGIME! SI SE PUEDE! AND THE RIGHT WING CUBANS SHOULD GIVE THE REST OF US THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT, WE ARE NOT CHILDREN OR STUPID!
MIAMI HERALD: Havana diplomats to meet ‘respectful’ Cubans in US- The Washington meeting is part of the Cuban government’s effort to improve relations with émigrés.
The Cuban diplomatic mission in Washington will host a meeting with “respectful” Cubans living in the United States, the latest sign of a Raúl Castro effort to warm relations with some of the estimated 2 million Cubans living abroad.
Castro’s push already has sparked a string of opinion columns praising it as a step toward reconciliation, cautiously welcoming it or attacking it as a Cuban government ploy to grab more exile money.
A statement Wednesday by the Cuban Interests Section said the 1st National Encounter of Cubans Living in the United States will be held April 28 in Washington. Details will be sent “at the proper time to those invited.”
The gathering will bring together Cubans living in the United States “who have respectful links to their country, being conscious of the need to defend its sovereignty and national identity,” the statement noted.
Participants will discuss “the normalization of relations between the nation and its émigrés, as well as the impact of the U.S. hostile policy and blockade [embargo] toward Cuba,” it added.
The announcement comes as the Cuban government still bans a large number of émigrés from returning to the island — the exact number is unknown but estimates range from 77,000 to 300,000 — because of their opposition to the communist system or because they left the country illegally.
Also on the Washington gathering’s agenda: “The situation of the ‘Five Anti-terrorist Fighters’ unjustly jailed in the United States’ ” — five Cuban spies convicted in 2001 after a trial in Miami. One of them is serving two life sentences for murder conspiracy, stemming from his role in the Cuban air force’s 1996 shootdown of two Brothers to the Rescue airplanes that killed all four aboard.
The announcement painted the gathering as part of the process of normalizing relations between Cuba and émigrés, launched with a controversial dialogue in 1978 and followed by the several “Nation and Emigration” conferences held from 1994 to 2010.
Those gatherings, tightly controlled by the Cuban government, usually lure 300-400 Cubans to Havana from as far away as Pakistan. The vast majority of Cuban émigrés live in the United States.
But the Washington gathering also fits within the Castro government’s low-key but clearly visible push to improve relations with some Cubans living abroad and overhaul regulations that have long punished those who emigrate.
Castro has said it is time to reunite and salve historical wounds, but skeptics note that Cuba would benefit from increased remittances and investments in newly opened areas, such as second homes, from citizens who live abroad.
Cubans once forced to hand their property over to the government when they left the island can now sell it or hand it over to anyone they wish, and an estimated 400,000 émigrés visited the island last year, a sizeable increase from 2011.
A report published recently in the Cuban media suggested that tourism industry officials should put together special packages to attract more émigrés, already the second largest group of visitors after Canadians.
And three Cuban authors, speaking at the International Book Festival in Havana this month, took up the thorny issue of locally publishing some of the works of artists who live abroad but have kept any criticism of the Cuban government sufficiently discreet to avoid being banned from the island.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/201.....rylink=cpy
There are also unconfirmed reports that Cuba will allow the entry of some exiles previously banned so they can take part in Pope Benedict XVI’s planned visit to Havana and Santiago de Cuba from March 26-28.
Havana’s outreach to Cubans living abroad sparked a heated exchange of opinions on newspaper op-ed pages and Web sites that focus on Cuba issues, such as Diario de Cuba, Penultimos Dias and Cubaencuentro.
Carlos Saladrigas, a wealthy Cuban-American businessman, wrote in January that the diaspora should “board the trains of change in Cuba … If one hopes to influence, or be part of the solution, one has to be part of the process.”
El Nuevo Herald columnist Alejandro Armengol, who lives in Spain, wrote that Cuban artists on both sides of the revolution should “look forward and not lock themselves in the past.”
But Cuban artist Geandy Pavon, who lives in New Jersey, argued that exiles who tone down their criticism of the communist system in order to improve their relations with the island may be guilty of “cowardice disguised as brotherhood and reconciliation.”
“It’s true that there’s nothing new in calling a dictatorship a dictatorship. It’s also true that the same old story is boring,” Pavon added. But the blame for the hostility between the government and exiles “is not on those of us who have decided to call things by their name. The blame is on the dictatorship, and those who don’t dare call it that so they can benefit as long as it lasts.”
Orlando Gutierrez, head of the Miami-based Cuban Democratic Directorate, said Castro’s approach to Cubans living abroad was a fraud and repeat of what Cuban governments tried when they were hit with economic crisis in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
“They are not very original,” he said. “Every time they need money, they milk the exiles.”
http://www.miamiherald.com/201.....ctful.html
Febrero 23rd, 2012 at 23:33
Humberto,
Thank you for the extra information in your many posts & links. I understand how these “repudiations” work. The regime goons are the ring leaders, they press the neighbours into participating and opportunists join in. Fear, hunger, ignorance and propaganda all go to work manipulating the people. The Ladies in White are incredibly brave.
Febrero 23rd, 2012 at 23:22
Griffin said: “For sure, this is the way Cuba is today.” Griffin! THE “ACT OF REPUDIATION” IS PAID WITH A SANDWICH AND A BOX DRINK! THAT IS REALITY! THESE PEOPLE GET A BIT OF FOOD AND A SUGAR DRINK! SO SAD BECAUSE THEY DONT HAVE MANY CHOICES, YOU GOT TO EAT! I DONT BLAME THEM, NO FOOD, NO INFORMATION, DOGMATIC/POLITICAL POUNCING ON THEIR BRAIN SINCE THEY ARE BORN! IM NOT A RIGHT WINGER CUBAN, IM A HUMANIST WHO HAS LIVED 52 YEARS (but look 40 years thank to my mom’s genes) AND CAN UNDERSTAND SOMEWHAT! FREE INTERNET FOR CUBANS IN THE ISLAND IS THE ANSWER, LET THEM AND THOSE IN THE DIASPORA WHO WERE BORN THERE FIGURE IT OUT WITHOUT THE CASTROFASCIST AND THEIR RICH/OLIGARCHY CRONIES BEIGN INVOLVED!
Febrero 23rd, 2012 at 23:15
Help… ah, but does he wear Lulu Lemon yoga pants with his Che t-shirt? That’s the trendy Vancouver look. Or maybe he goes for the full Black Bloc anarchist get-up? There are so many fashion options to chose from when you’re living large in the Vanguard of the Revolution!
Febrero 23rd, 2012 at 23:09
Humberto, Humberto…
Ask Cuba Liar, he will tell you. These Ladies in White are “traitors to the cause” and probably all lesbians anyway. The brave “act of repudiation” is being carried out by noble comrades doing their share for the revolution and “participating grandly in the making of Cuba, the way it is today.”
For sure, this is the way Cuba is today.
Febrero 23rd, 2012 at 22:46
I’ll wager Cube Libra wears Adidas, not Cuban shoes.
Febrero 23rd, 2012 at 22:17
YOUTUBE: Acto de repudio a @DamasdBlanco en calle Neptuno. Via @YoaniSanchez - Act of repudiation against The Ladies in White, Neptuno Street. Via Yoani Sanchez.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....=autoshare
Febrero 23rd, 2012 at 21:49
Really Cuba Liar? That’s the best you can do?
“did her share during the revolution”… “grandly in the making of Cuba”, “…nothing to be proud of”…” a disgrace to the name you carry”.
You sound like a caricature of a pompous ass. But no, I’m sure you’re the real thing. And of course, you’re doing your “share during the revolution” …or what passes for “revolution” in lovely Vancouver. Yes, you have so many revolutionary achievements
to be proud of, such as vacationing in a delightful resort in Varadaro where you picked up the chic Che t-shirt. Your friends…excuse me, I mean “comrades” back on “the Drive” were so impressed.
Compared to all you have done “for the revolution”, Yoani’s gripes and complaints are so trivial aren’t they? I mean, what does she know? She’s only living in Havana. She hasn’t seen the world like you have, or witnessed the awful messiness of the downtown East Side. You tell her, Cuba Liar. For surely, you have not disgraced your well earned name!
Febrero 23rd, 2012 at 21:30
Cuba libre (La MENTIROTA & HOMOPHOBE & REDUNDANT CONSPIRACY THEORIST)!
AND YOUR ONLINE “NAME” HERE IS A LIE AND AN INSULT TO DEMOCRACY! BUT IT WILL BE TRUE SOON, REGARDLESS OF YOUR EFFORTS HERE TO STOP IT FROM HAPPENING! JE JE JE! IM HERE FOR YOU BABY, YOU KNOW THAT! JE JE JE!
Febrero 23rd, 2012 at 21:25
JUST TO LET THE CASTROFASCISTS AGENTS/APOLOGISTS HERE KNOW THAT AS OF THIS TIME (west coast USA)THERE ARE MORE THAN 82 ONLINE AND PRINT NEWS ITEMS LIKE THE ONE BELOW ABOUT THE HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES TODAY IN CUBA!
Pro-govt crowds surround Cuban dissident home
The Seattle Times - 4 hours ago
A crowd of government supporters surrounded the home of a leading Cuban dissident on Thursday where opposition activists were quietly paying homage to a …
In-Depth: Cuban police crack down as key anniversaries approach MiamiHerald.com
all 82 news articles »
MIAMI HERALD: Pro-govt crowds surround Cuban dissident home - By ANNE-MARIE GARCIA
HAVANA — A crowd of government supporters surrounded the home of a leading Cuban dissident on Thursday where opposition activists were quietly paying homage to a hunger striker who died two years ago.
Some 200 pro-government protesters shouted slogans and insults at members and supporters of the Ladies in White opposition group at the home of Laura Pollan, the late leader of the dissident group.
“Down with the worms!” and “Long Live Raul!” the government partisans shouted, the latter a reference to Cuban President Raul Castro. The standoff began in the afternoon and stretched on for hours.
Thursday marked the second anniversary of the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, a Cuban political prisoner who died in February 2010 after an 83-day hunger strike. A Damas leader, Berta Soler, said the Ladies in White were paying homage to Tamayo by reading from his writings.
“We have a right to meet and protest despite this repression,” Soler said.
Cuba considers all dissidents to be mercenaries sent by Washington to destabilize the island’s government. Pro-government protesters occasionally show up to scream insults at Ladies in White gatherings, particularly on important dates or anniversaries. Cuba maintains the counterprotests are spontaneous, though little is done to disguise coordination with security agents on the scene.
http://www.miamiherald.com/201.....k=misearch
Febrero 23rd, 2012 at 20:49
You carry the family name of a person who did her share during the revolution. Celia Sanchez participating grandly in the making of Cuba, the way it is today. Unlike her, Yoani Sanchez, you have nothing to be proud of. You are a disgrace to the name you carry.
Febrero 23rd, 2012 at 20:15
It is good reading. Very literate and also very senseful. With cheers !
Febrero 23rd, 2012 at 18:20
hey genY troll, Your buddy Che’s government is still in power today. One of the longest running dictatorships in history.
I agree it is time to rise up against him, as Cubans are doing.
Febrero 23rd, 2012 at 16:30
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL NEWS: Cuban authorities prevent activists from commemorating death of dissident.- February 23, 2012
Authorities in Cuba are preventing members of the women’s organization “Ladies in White” from entering a building in downtown Havana for an event commemorating the second anniversary of the death of activist Orlando Zapata Tamayo.
Several “Ladies in White”, who campaign for the release of political prisoners, already assembled in the building told Amnesty International they fear they may be detained if they try to leave.
“It is unacceptable that the Cuban authorities would not allow human rights activists to remember one of their colleagues in peace,” said Javier Zúñiga, Special Advisor at Amnesty International.
Women have travelled to Havana from across Cuba to attend the event.
According to information gathered by Amnesty International, the Cuban authorities have diverted traffic from passing in front of the headquarters and have stationed police officers on the four corners of the block where they are located. They are checking the identification cards of all pedestrians passing through the area.
“Authorities must urgently stop harassing activists and preventing any of the ‘Ladies in White’ from celebrating the memory of Orlando Zapata,” said Javier Zúñiga.
Prisoner of conscience Orlando Zapata Tamayo died on 23 February 2010 after an 86-day-long hunger strike.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news.....2012-02-23
Febrero 23rd, 2012 at 15:49
R.I.P.! Orlando Zapata Tamayo (May 15, 1967 – February 23, 2010) was a Cuban mason, plumber, and political activist and prisoner[2] who died after fasting for more than 80 days.
Political affiliation
Zapata was a member of Movimiento Alternativa Republicana (Republican Alternative Movement) and Consejo Nacional de Resistencia Civil (National Civic Resistance Committee).
Imprisonment
Zapata was arrested on December 6, 2002 by agents of the Cuban police on charges of contempt, for which he was imprisoned for over three months. On March 20, 2003, 13 days after he was freed, he was arrested for a second time during a crackdown on dissidents and sent to the Kilo 7 prison in Camagüey. At the time of his arrest, he was participating in a hunger strike organized by the Assembly to Promote a Civil Society, taking place at the home of Marta Beatriz Roque Cabello.[2] The hunger strike was meant as a petition for the release of several comrades. He was charged with contempt, public disorder, and disobedience and sentenced to 36 years in prison after several judicial processes.[4] As a result, Amnesty International recognized him as a prisoner of conscience.[2][5][6]
However, an article in the independent socialist journal Monthly Review claims that he was arrested and convicted several times for “disturbing the peace, two counts of fraud, public exhibitionism, injury and possession of non-firearm weapons” since June 1990.[7] It also claims that in 2000, Zapata fractured the skull of Leonardo Simon using a machete[7] and that his criminal record did not involve any political actions. In addition, it states that it was only after his imprisonment that his mother approached government opposition groups.[7]
[edit] Hunger strike and death
On either December 2 or 3, 2009, Zapata began a hunger strike[8] as a protest against the Cuban government for having denied him the choice of wearing white dissident clothes instead of the designated prisoner uniform, as well as denouncing the living conditions of other prisoners. As part of his claim, Zapata was asking for conditions comparable to those that Fidel Castro had while incarcerated after his 1953 attack against the Moncada Barracks.[9] For their part, the Cuban government stated he refused food because authorities wouldn’t put a TV set, a stove and a phone in his cell.[10]
During the hunger strike Zapata refused to eat any food other than his mother’s, who visited him every three months. According to the U.S.-based opposition group Cuban Democratic Directorate, prison authorities then denied Zapata water, which led to his deteriorated health and ultimately kidney failure.[8]
Zapata persisted in the hunger strike and was admitted to the Camagüey Hospital at an unspecified date, where he was given fluids intravenously against his will. On February 16, 2010 his condition worsened and he was transferred to Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital in Havana,[11] where he ultimately died on February 23, 2010 at approximately 3:30 pm EST.[3]
It was the first time that an opponent of the Cuban government died during a hunger strike since the 1972 death of Pedro Luis Boitel.[12]
On March 16, 2010 an open letter condemning the Cuban government for the unjust incarceration of Orlando Zapata Tamayo and asking for the release of other political prisoners was posted in an internet blog. In less than a week the letter had obtained over 30,000 signatures. Among the signatories are prominent intellectuals from both the left and right of the political spectrum.
Cuban government’s response
President Raul Castro took the “unprecedented step” of expressing public regret about the death of Zapata. During his remarks, he said Zapata was treated by top doctors and denied he was tortured. Cuban state television also aired a report where doctors who treated Zapata, said they tried to get him to eat, with Dr. Maria Ester Hernandez stating: “We explained to him the consequences of his decision at every turn and how much he was endangering his life with this. But he kept it up.”Cuban state newspapers meanwhile described Zapata as a “common criminal falsely elevated to martyr status.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlando_Zapata
Febrero 23rd, 2012 at 15:48
MIAMI HERALD: Cuban police crack down as key anniversaries approach-Cuban authorities crack down on dissidents as activists prepare to mark the deaths of hunger striker Orlando Zapata Tamayo and four Brothers to the Rescue members.- Juan Tamayo
Cuban police and pro-government mobs cracked down on dissidents across the island Wednesday to avert protests marking the deaths of political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo and four South Florida members of Brothers to the Rescue. Security forces were besieging 40 members of the dissident Ladies in White gathered in the Havana home of their late founder, Laura Pollán, and arresting other members as they arrived to join them, the women reported. Several dozen other dissidents were detained in the eastern provinces of Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo and Holguín to keep them from marking the two anniversaries, said Havana human rights activist Elizardo Sánchez Santa Cruz. Dissidents said the crackdown appeared to be broadest since the same time last year, and was likely to expand over the next couple of days as they try to take to the streets for protests marking the five deaths. Ladies in White leader Bertha Soler said police blocked vehicular traffic from Pollán’s usually busy Neptuno Street at 5 a.m. Wednesday and had detained several group members arriving to join the 40 women already inside since Tuesday. Police also put other members under house arrest to keep them from heading to Pollán’s home and joining in a planned Thursday tribute to Zapata — singing the national anthem, prayers and sifting through old photos of him and his family, she added.
CLICK LINK FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE!
http://www.miamiherald.com/201.....qus_thread
Febrero 23rd, 2012 at 14:48
Humberto,
Did you subtract the number of state employees required to follow Fidel’s twitter? My guess is you would end up with 3. That would be Raul, Damir & Cuba Liar.
Febrero 23rd, 2012 at 14:42
FROM TWITTER COUNT WEB SITE!
YOANI SANCHEZ TWITTER ACCOUNT: 218,911 Followers (+125 yesterday, +411 on average)
“THE MUMMY” FIDEL CASTRO TWITTER ACCOUNT: 179,523 Followers (+84 yesterday, +256 on average)
THE FLACA LEADING THE MUMMY BY 39,388 FOLLOWERS! JE JE JE!
Febrero 23rd, 2012 at 13:37
ACTUALLY, UnHinged! FOR A MILITARY BUILDING THAT HAS GROWN INCREMENTALLY OVER THE YEARS THE PENTAGON HAS SOME NICE FEATURES! AND SINCE I HAVE A 5 YEAR DEGREE IN ARCHITECTURE I FIGURE MY COMMENT IS WORTH SOMETHING! BELOW IS A LINK TO SOME PICTURES WHERE YOU CAN SEE THE CENTRAL COURTYARD OF THE PENTAGON AND OTHER LIGHT COURTYARDS RADIATING FROM THE CENTER. AS YOU MAY KNOW, COURTYARDS ARE VERY MUCH USED IN CUBA DUE TO ITS CLIMATE AND HISTORY, THUS THE PENTAGON WOULD BE A MORE FITTING BUILDING IN HAVANA THAN THE RUSSIAN EMBASSY ALBEIT WITH FEWER RINGS!
https://www.google.com/search?q=ARCHITECTURE+OF+PENTAGON&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=LFy&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=imvns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=RndGT8LFGI7DgAeH2KXwDQ&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&ved=0CA4Q_AUoAQ&biw=1366&bih=637#hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=IwI&rls=org.mozilla:en-US%3Aofficial&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=ARCHITECTURE+OF+US+PENTAGON+BUILDING&pbx=1&oq=ARCHITECTURE+OF+US+PENTAGON+BUILDING&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=3&gs_upl=15863l21756l0l22230l14l14l0l11l0l2l773l1828l4-1.1.1l3l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=53a6b92f1371d664&biw=1366&bih=637
Febrero 23rd, 2012 at 13:15
AWESOME VINTAGE VIDEO FROM EARLY 1900′S LATIN AMERICA, STARTING WITH CUBA! AND UnHinged! THANKS FOR THE ATTEMPT AT DEFAMATION/INNUENDO AGAINST MY PERSON! TYPICAL CASTROFASCIST AGENT/APOLOGIST TACTIC TO DISMISS AND PUT INTO DOUBT WHO AND WHY SOME OF US COMMENT HERE! I MUST BE GETTING UNDER YOUR SKIN! I DONT NEED TO USED AN ALIAS LIKE YOU DO BABY, ITS ALL ME, ALL THE TIME! I EVEN GOT A PICTURE AND NAME WHILE YOU DONT!
YOUTUBE CUBA VIDEO- Pan Am Clipper Travel: “Flying the Lindbergh Trail” 1937 Pan Am Sikorsky S-42 Boeing 307- “Aerial travelogue of South America.” Public domain film from the Library of Congress Prelinger Archive, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied. The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....ture=share
Febrero 23rd, 2012 at 11:57
Cuba and the Drug Trade
A look at how the Cuban military helped drug traffickers do their business, and how Fidel Castro gave the orders.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/.....caine.html
Febrero 23rd, 2012 at 11:30
Un Soricel wrote “…Switzerland where bankers rob the world of taxes and hide dictators money for fat commissions”
Really? Well let’s look into that shall we?
UBS accused of laundering Cuban money
…transactions worth $3.9 billion (SFr4.9 billion) alleged to have been made between 1996 and 2003.
…the Swiss bank carried out 1,900 transactions with the government of Cuban leader Fidel Castro over the seven-year period.
…a Senate hearing found that of an estimated $4.3 billion in laundered money worldwide, Cuba accounted for a cash amount of $3.9 billion, discovered in the United Bank of Switzerland. Repeat, in cash, and to be deposited, not exchanged. There are only a few places in the world such money, in cash, could come from; and if from Cuba, as reported by defectors and investigators, it could not come from tourism, most of which is paid for in foreign countries by credit card.
My gosh you’re right! The Swiss banks are helping a dictator launder drug money!
Of course, this has nothing to do with Yoani. It’s all about your heroes, the Castros.
Please keep posting your excellent exposes on the corrupt practices of the Castros, ok?
Febrero 23rd, 2012 at 11:13
Yoani is talking about people like you, Un Soricel. I think you missed that part.
Febrero 23rd, 2012 at 10:59
In the last two posts it seem that Y is getting a sense of what is to come and (as undercurrent) somehow doesn’t quite approve of it!!… For someone who lived in the rich cookoo-land of Switzerland where bankers rob the world of taxes and hide dictators money for fat commissions, one might say Y is developing a revolutionary conscience in the underground of her ‘would-be intellectual’ mind.
That underground counscience, can only be of socialist origins, and so it might undermine the bourgeois facade she so much wants ‘all the Cuban to enjoy’ (as if)… until they are in debt to their neck to the big daddy to the North!
Practically that type sold-out intellectual that is connected is so western as sliced bread!!… As long as the privileges roll and his/her books get published nothing matters!
Stick to feminism darling I’d say… and you are safe (in the West)…and an ‘intellecutal’.
Febrero 23rd, 2012 at 10:50
yeah the Pentagon displays great architecture too… ‘messianic’ one might say!
Febrero 23rd, 2012 at 10:48
You gotta love An(al)onimo, Humertito’s alter EGO?? or more like alter boby part…. called not the polite ‘Fundo’ women habe but the ‘Culo’ so dear to his kind…
The moment Humbertito shows up the very moment IT the body part An(al)onimo opens its ‘mouth’…
An(al)omino and Humbertito are 1 and the same 1… however like any good body part An(al)omino ‘dumps’ on others what Humbertito’s mind ingests from others - no fault with the ‘culo’ but a big fault with his ‘mind’!!!
Febrero 23rd, 2012 at 10:25
A song about “Orlando Zapata” by Toronto based punk band IHAD.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....r_embedded
You can download it for free here: http://ihad.bandcamp.com/
Febrero 23rd, 2012 at 08:03
I would not be surprise to find some torture chambers in that ugly building
Febrero 23rd, 2012 at 06:51
Joanne,
Nice comparison. As Joani said, it’s a dagger in the heart of Havana.