Cuba
Mon, 19 Jul 2004Weapons of Malnutrition
[www.csmonitor.com...] -- The Christian Science Monitor talks with, among others, a Mennonite pastor with family in Cuba.
Posted at 22:39 #
Sun, 20 Jun 2004
Cuban music
[www.afropop.org...] -- Afropop Worldwide has been covering Cuban music (among other things) for the better part of the last decade. An excellent intro to trends in recent Cuban music
Posted at 23:52 #
Tue, 25 May 2004
Fidel's anti-hero: Gorbachev
[archive.salon.com...] -- Ann Louise Bardach argues convincingly that Castro's refusal to allow more of a political opening in Cuba may grow out of the lesson he took from Gorbachev who "lost his country" with his policy of perestroika.
Posted at 10:27 #
The real effects of tighter restrictions The new measures of the Bush administration include reducing visits by relatives in the U.S., reducing the amount folks in the U.S. can send to relatives, and $18 million for flying C-130 aircraft aircraft to broadcast Radio and TV Martí in to the country. These measures are all, in some senses, much more appearance than substance: Cuban Americans may just have to join the other U.S. citizens on the path through third countries to get to Cuba (via Mexico, or Jamaica). Money can also be transferred through third countries. If there is real potential for an "international incident" in these policies it is the possibility of one of these broadcasting aircraft being shot down
(as pointed out by somebody else, who's article I can no longer find...) The Helms Burton law followed close on the heels of just such an incident when the Cuban airforce shot down an aircraft from a Miami group "Brothers to the Rescue" which was flying over Cuban airspace to distribute leaflets in ... 1998 if I recall correctly.
If Bush really wanted to get TV Martí to Cubans, he should use the existing media channels inside Cuba. Huh, existing channels? Some Cubans already own clandestine satellite dishes. Taping shows from satellite, and then distributing them via "video clubs" is a flourishing cottage industry in the informal economy.
"El Show de Christina" (think Geraldo Rivera and Jerry Springer rolled together) is a popular one. If the U.S. would offer TV Martí via satellite to all dish subcribers in South Florida then, incidentally, Cubans might actually be able to watch it.
Posted at 09:26 #
Mon, 24 May 2004
New travel restrictions may backfire on Bush in FL
[www.sptimes.com...] -- The new recommendations that Bush approved will restrict family visits to once every three years, (currently once a year).
"I was a Republican. Today, I am a Democrat," said Carlos Chediak, who voted for Bush in 2000. "I am 75 years old. To have to wait three years to go to Cuba to see my grandson? He lost many thousands of votes here."
...Almost point for point, the plan followed recommendations by the Cuban American National Foundation, the exile group's strongest and oldest lobby, whose president is a major Bush fundraiser. But executive director Joe Garcia said the group did not recommend the new travel restrictions, and it's unclear why the Bush administration included them.
Posted at 23:19 #
Miriam Leiva on current tensions She points out that the money to be channelled to dissidents will, if anything, be used as evidence to arrest more dissidents.
This is precisely what happened while we were there in 2003--The head of the U.S. Interest Section, James Cason, offered his residence to host a meeting of "independent journalists". These folks were arrested, and pictures of them, in the residence, were plastered all over Granma as proof that they were "on the take" from the U.S. In contrast a European diplomat told me that despite their sympathy with the dissidents, for their own protection, they won't even do photocopying for them.
Ms. Leiva despairs that neither the Castro regime nor the Bush folks have bothered to seek input from Cubans, other than the most extreme in the Miami exile community. But points out that Castro has consistently used U.S. opposition to mobilize support for the revolutionary government.
[www.salon.com...] -- Dissidents, even those inside of Cuba such as Miriam Leiva, seem to despair at President Bush's latest recommendations for tightened sanctions distasteful. This plan will not punish Castro; it will punish dissidents and their families.
The irony of the situation is this: Extremism in Miami and extremism in the White House ultimately serve to fuel extremism in Havana.
Posted at 22:48 #
Mon, 12 Apr 2004
Pope's visit to Cuba in 1998
[www.cnn.com...] -- CNN's coverage of the pope's 1998 visit has a lot of accessible background articles about Cuba at the time.
Posted at 11:30 #
Sat, 10 Apr 2004
Give us this day our "dependable daily bread"
[www.jrebelde.cubaweb.cu...] -- An interview with one of the women responsible for designing the ration card system in Cuba, reflecting on what it's meant to Cubans. [In spanish in Juventud Rebelde]
Posted at 09:03 #
Thu, 30 Oct 2003
Raul Suarez comments on Cuban Culture
[us.f111.mail.yahoo.com...] -- October of 2003.
Posted at 17:38 #
Thu, 11 Sep 2003
Radio Habana
http://www.radiohc.cu/ingles/portada.htm -- Short news stories from a Cuban perspective.
Posted at 11:47 #
Fri, 21 Mar 2003
Christmas What does this mean to "ban Christmas"?
[NYTimes] --
HAVANA, Dec. 24 (Reuters) — Despite government efforts to rein in Santa Claus, people seeking food, gifts and trees jammed shops in Havana today in a last-minute buying spree, signs of a capitalist Christmas in Communist-run Cuba.
Plastic trees made in China were a top selling item for Cubans reviving the tradition of decorating their homes. Five-foot trees were $14.40, more than an average monthly wage.
Advertisement
The Christmas holiday was banned in 1969 by President Fidel Castro's government and only restored in 1997, on the eve of Pope John Paul II's visit to Cuba, as a concession to the Catholic Church.
Posted at 23:21 #
Thu, 20 Mar 2003
Otto Reich Otto Reich is President Bush's unconfirmed assistant secretary for Latin American affairs. His family, Austrian Jews, fled the Nazi sphere for Cuba, where Mr. Reich was born. The family once more fled Cuba for the US when Castro came to power (Mr. Reich was 15). After an education in the US, he was noticed for his anti-Communist views by President Ronald Reagan.
[NYTimes] -- From 1983 to 1986, he was head of the Office of Public Diplomacy, which promoted the contra guerrillas fighting Nicaragua's Marxist government. This brought him into the periphery of the Iran-contra scandal, and in 1987, the United States comptroller general issued a report saying the office had "engaged in prohibited, covert propaganda activities."
Mr. Reich, who was not accused of breaking laws, calls the report flawed and the Iran-contra investigation a political "inquisition."
Posted at 10:00 #
Sugar continues slide
[NYTimes] -- In June, the cash-shy government closed 71 of Cuba's 156 mills; more than 100,000 of the 400,000 workers in the industry have lost their jobs. High oil prices and low sugar prices made the industry unprofitable and it was holding back the country's development, which now depends on tourism and other services, Mr. Castro said.
Posted at 09:59 #
International food fair opens in Havana When I visited in July, I saw only quail eggs in the grocery stores.
[NYTimes] -- Mr. Castro lauded "heroic Cuban chickens" who work hard to produce eggs under difficult circumstances. Cuban officials had just signed with Radloe Foods LLC to import 30 million eggs for $1.5 million.
In 2000, Cuba rated last among the 228 countries that buy food and agricultural products from the United States. By the end of this year, Cuba is expected to make $165 million in purchases, jumping to 45th place.
Posted at 09:58 #
US Agriculture selling to Cuba Quoting:
[NYTimes] -- A United States law passed in 2000 created an exception to the four-decade American trade embargo against Cuba, allowing American companies to directly sell food and agricultural products to the Caribbean nation. At first, the Castro government refused to buy "a single grain of rice" under the law because it barred American financing for the sales, making them more difficult. But the government began taking advantage of the law in November after Hurricane Michelle devastated central Cuba and it was forced to dip into its food reserves to feed storm victims. Since then, Cuba has purchased more than $120 million of American food under the law, including beans, peas, rice, wheat, chicken and apples.
Posted at 09:57 #
Castro visits China
[AP story at Yahoo] -- When Cubans think of China, they've got to be wondering if they're seeing any hint of their own future.
Posted at 09:49 #
dissidents rounded up, US Interest Section restricted When he offered his residence as a meeting place for
a group of independent Cuban journalists
(what were they thinking??) the government arrested the
journalists and slapped travel restrictions on US Interest Section personnel: They must now ask permission to travel
outside of the province of Havana.
[story.news.yahoo.com...] -- Since James Cason arrived in Havana as the new head of the
of the US Interest Section (there is no US Embassy in Cuba), his
office has been distributing short wave radios, and ostensibly to promote American culture, democracy and human rights.
Posted at 09:48 #
Sun, 9 Mar 2003
Cuba SST 2002
http://www.goshen.edu/sst/cuba02/ -- Website from the Cuba 2002 group.
Posted at 14:47 #
GC: Guagua 90
http://www.goshen.edu/news/bulletin/02dec/gaugua.php -- Tom Kelley writes about waiting for a bus.
Posted at 14:46 #
GC- Bulletin article on Cuba SST
http://www.goshen.edu/news/bulletin/02dec/ingenuity.php -- Written by Andrew Clouse, no less.
Posted at 14:45 #
Sat, 8 Mar 2003
Paseo del Prado - NYT
[www.nytimes.com...] -- ...A very loooong boulevard for walking and much more through the heart of old Havana.
Posted at 20:31 #
Sat, 1 Mar 2003
HIV in Cuba Report from a sympathetic US NGO at the AAAS meeting in Denver...
[news.bbc.co.uk...] -- Cuba's 0.03% infection rate is one of the lowest in the world.
The country now produces enough anti-retroviral medicines to supply the country's patients. As a result, the 25% predicted mortality rates for patients with Aids in 2002 were instead 7%.
While mother-child transmission is a huge problem in African countries, for example, in Cuba, the government ensures that all HIV-positive mothers are treated with prophylactic AZT therapy up to delivery and then the babies are delivered by caesarean section [which prevents infection in the birth canal].
Posted at 23:06 #
Wed, 19 Feb 2003
Air travel to Cuba
http://www.nashtravel.com/gateways.asp -- Canadian travel agency
Posted at 16:48 #
Sun, 26 Jan 2003
Cecilia Valdes An excerpt is available at cubaliteraria.com.
http://www.cubaliteraria.com/esp/libros/libro.asp?id=283 -- Many current writers refer to the character of Cecilia Valdes from the novel of the same name by Cirilo Villaverde. One short synopsis praises it as "The most important romantic novel of 19th century Latin America", and that, in its themes of love across class and race lines rival any modern telenovela (soap opera).
Posted at 21:43 #
Mon, 13 Jan 2003
Cuba SST group convo
http://media.goshen.edu/cc/16_oct_02.ram -- Recording (Real Audio) of 2002 Cuba SST convo
Posted at 21:50 #
Tue, 7 Jan 2003
CNN on US students in Cuba
http://www.cnn.com/2003/EDUCATION/01/07/cuba.studies.ap/index.html -- Quotes GC student Sarah Phend.
Posted at 16:09 #
Sun, 29 Dec 2002
Yahoo Cuba News Summary of Cuba stories from a number of news services
http://news.yahoo.com/fc?tmpl=fc&cid=34&in=world&cat=cuba
--
Posted at 21:55 #
Wed, 11 Dec 2002
What the US wants...
Christopher Dickey, Editor at Newsweek, has covered the Iran/Contrascandal,and angles on the 9-11 terrorists. In an interview on NPR he said:
My rule of thumb is that what the U.S. public wants from the rest of the world is to forget about it.
Posted at 14:56 #
Mon, 2 Dec 2002
"Nada Mas"
http://www.citypages.com/filmreviews/detail.asp?MID=4251 -- Is this available in the U.S.? Tim Nafziger made me aware of this movie by Juan Carlos Cremata Malberti that was apparently released in 2001.
Posted at 12:29 #
Sat, 30 Nov 2002
Ernest Hemingway materials made available to US Scholars Interesting detail... "Hemingway spent a third of his life in Cuba and donated his 1954 Nobel Prize medal to the shrine of the country's patron saint, the Virgin of Charity."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/13/books/13HEMI.htm -- US scholars have recently been allowed access to a collection in the basement of his house in Cuba.
Posted at 23:12 #
Wed, 6 Nov 2002
The "five heroes"
http://www.antiterroristas.cu -- Five Cubans were convicted and imprisoned in the US for espionage. The government called 2002 "The Year of the Heroes Imprisoned by the Empire." antiterroristas.cu is a govt-created website that makes the post 9-11 argument that these guys were just trying to defend their country from terrorism--in this case terrorism coming from the US.
Posted at 22:35 #
"First Great Triumph" by Warren Zimmerman At the turn of the 20th century the US went from isolationist to imperial power in a few short years. Zimmerman's book is a history of this time, and bio of "the fathers of American imperialism" including T Roosevelt and four others.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/23/books/23BERN.html --
If the Cuban and Philippine revolutions against Spanish rule "had succeeded even in the absence of American support, as would probably have been the case, two weak independent countries would have emerged as a prey to domestic division and foreign penetration," Mr. Zimmermann contends. Mr. Zimmermann is not blind either to the costs of empire, including the heritage of animosity toward the United States in Cuba, or to the racist impulsiveness of the more ardent members of the imperialist camp. But in the end, he is an enthusiast for Roosevelt, Lodge and company, believing that the American rise to power is what preserved the world from Nazism and Communism, and that without the five men under his purview, our history would have been different and not as good.
Posted at 22:22 #
Fri, 25 Oct 2002
'Cubans 2001"
http://journalism.berkeley.edu/projects/cubans2001/ -- Fascinating and very recent! A group of UC Berkeley journalism grad students travelled to Cuba and wrote all about it.
Posted at 23:06 #
Alicia Alonso and The National Ballet of Cuba
http://journalism.berkeley.edu/projects/cubans2001/story-ballet.html --
"How much money do you need for the ballet company to start up again?" Fidel asked.
"I don't know comandante, $100,000," answered Fernando.
Fidel gave them $200,000.
Posted at 23:00 #
Tue, 15 Oct 2002
Cuban Missile Crisis conference (Also on NPR) On the 40th annniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis a conference in Havana brought together Cuban officials with a delegations led by Robert MacNamara and including members of the US National Security Archive.
Cuban leaders sought to place the crisis in the context of US plans (project 'Mongoose') to destabilize Cuba. Revelations included how close a Soviet nuclear sub commander got to launching his nuclear-tipped torpedo at a US destroyer enforcing the Cuban embargo.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/14/international/americas/14CUBA.html --
Posted at 01:01 #
Mon, 14 Oct 2002
Dichos y Refranes - Tomas Alvarez
http://www.cubaperiodistas.cu/refranes/presentacion.htm -- This retired journalist appears to have decorated the bricks on his house with sayings. Many are listed here on his website. Not just Cuban sayings
Posted at 22:07 #
Fri, 11 Oct 2002
culture learning
A quote from Stephen J. Gould that could also apply to learning
across cultures:
But if we laugh with derision, we will never understand. Human
intellectual capacity has not altered for thousands of years so far as
we can tell. If intelligent people invested intense energy in issues
that now seem foolish to us, then the failure lies in our understanding
of their world, not in their distorted perceptions. Even the standard
example of ancient nonsense -- the debate about angels on pinheads --
makes sense once you realize that theologians were not discussing
whether five or eighteen would fit, but whether a pin could house a
finite or an infinite number.
From 'Wide hats and narrow minds".
Posted at 12:27 #
Sun, 6 Oct 2002
historyofcuba.com
http://www.historyofcuba.com/cuba.htm -- J. A. Sierra emigrated to the U.S. in 1969 as a teenager. Later, as an adult, he created this website as a personal work to re-connect with his Cuban identitiy.
Posted at 23:49 #
Platt Amendment
http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/sidebar4.htm -- To get around the Teller Amendment...
Posted at 23:28 #
Teller Amendment
http://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/teller.html -- An 1898 amendment to the US declaration of war on Spain. The amendment said that the U.S. "disclaims any disposition of intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over said island except for pacification thereof, and asserts its determination, when that is accomplished, to leave the government and control of the island to its people."
Posted at 23:27 #
Treaty of Paris 1899
http://www.pbs.org/crucible/tl18.html -- ...it ended the Spanish-American War, ceding control of Cuba, Guam, the Phillipines and Puerto Rico to the US. The U.S. was now caught between the control over Cuba given by this treaty, and the limitations placed on it by the Teller Amendment.
Posted at 23:18 #
dmoz: Cuban History
http://dmoz.org/Society/History/By_Region/Caribbean/Cuba/ -- Good starting point for web exploration of Jose Marti, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Spanish American War
Posted at 23:10 #
Crucible of Empire -- The Spanish American War
http://www.pbs.org/crucible/ -- This is a companion site to a PBS film that is, apparently, particularly concerned with the media's involvement in inciting the US to war. Has a very useful timeline.
Posted at 23:05 #
The Spanish American War -- Small Planet
http://www.smplanet.com/imperialism/remember.html -- Textbookish re-telling of highlights of the Spanish American War with photos and supplemental material.
Posted at 23:01 #
Yellow Fever
http://www.med.virginia.edu/hs-library/historical/yelfev/tabcon.html -- Notes from a 1997 exhibit "The U.S. Army Yellow Fever Commission and The Spanish-American War: Science and Politics in Latin America, 1898-1904"
Posted at 22:59 #
Mon, 30 Sep 2002
Hurricane season
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2288014.stm -- ...is roughly June to November. In 2002 Cuba was hit by Hurrican Isidore (September) and now Lili is on the way.
Posted at 21:43 #
Latinos in the USA
[overheard from NPR:] There are more than 30 million Latinos living in the U.S. The largest number of these would have come from (in order)
Posted at 21:24 #
Wed, 25 Sep 2002
BBC - Americas section
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/default.stm -- Bookmark for BBC's news stories from the Americas.
Posted at 15:00 #
Mon, 23 Sep 2002
"Six Days in Havana" by Michener and Kings Who but James Michener could get away with writing a book based on a six-day trip? His trip there took place in 1989 as he was doing research for Caribbean. Some intriguing observations: Repeatedly, in the literature dealing with the years 1650 through 1950 I came upon statements like this: "At the height of this rebellion the wealthier and better-educated Spanish families, those who could escape, crowded into thier boats and fled to Cuba." Understandably, those who escaped rebellion ... did not want to experience another in Cuba, so the Spaniards there became increasingly conservative. This meant that Cuba was the last territory in North America to abolish slavery, in 1886, and the last by a large margin to overthrow Spanish dictatorshiop, in 1898.
Posted at 20:24 #
Thu, 29 Aug 2002
US medical students trained in Cuba
NYTimes article
20-some US students are among those scholarship recipients
for the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana.
Posted at 13:02 #
Mon, 19 Aug 2002
Cash in Cuba
cash2cuba.com
Issues the "Transcard" that you can use like a debit card
to get cash advances or pay for things directly while in Cuba.
Posted at 13:27 #
Sending mail to Cuba
Postal service can take upwards of 4 weeks. escriba.com lets you send messages to folks w/o e-mail in Cuba. You send via e-mail to Cuba, where the message is printed and mailed locally. Costs about US$1 to send an 800 word letter.
Posted at 13:21 #
Tue, 13 Aug 2002
Rap music in Cuba
Washington Post article -- Arising in Alamar, Cuban rap was inspired by good radio reception of south Florida. The party has now tried to embrace and control rather than cast out and martyr this music.
Posted at 01:23 #