Uncommon Sense

After almost 50 years of revolution ...

... this is all the Cuban people get for their food budget every month:

-Rice, 6 pounds.

-White sugar, 3 pounds.

-Coffee, 4 ounces.

-Eggs, 10

-Bath or laundry soap, 1 bar.

-Dried pasta, 8 ounces.

-Fish, 10 ounces.

-Chicken, 8 ounces.

-Bread rolls, 30 a month.

-Potatoes, 4 pounds.

-Liquid detergent, 1 plastic bottle.

It looks like Anita Snow, who apparently has run out of real stories to report from Cuba, will be losing some weight.

But here's guessing she won't be losing any of her arrogance:

During this month of living on the libreta, I'll track my spending and post the results in an AP blog. I hope to develop healthier eating habits out of necessity: cutting down on red meat and dairy products, planning meals ahead, buying fresh produce at the agros.

But come July 1, I'll also be ready for a big, juicy steak.

If Snow wants to live as a real Cuban, why doesn't she do like a dissident and see what happens if she protests against the government?

Why doesn't she turn off her computer, and equipped only with a pencil and a few scraps of paper, like an independent journalist, see how hard it is to get her stories to the outside world?

Why doesn't she, like the Ladies in White, march in solidarity with political prisoners?

But no, she rather give up her steak, and eat it, too.

Child of the Revolution has more on Snow's silly stunt.

No news is bad news

The Spain-Cuba talks in Havana this week on human rights ended with a dud with this week, with no major announcement, with no news, with nothing to suggest it was anything more than a diplomatic shadow dance. Yes, it looked like they were doing something, but when you poked at the figures doing their dance to see what they might reveal, there was nothing there.

As the Associated Press reported:

HAVANA: Spain said Thursday it held "frank and cordial" discussions about such thorny issues as human rights, the death penalty and treatment of prisoners in Cuba, despite U.S. complaints it has been too friendly with the communist island.

In a joint statement, Spanish and Cuban authorities did not report any major agreements in the two days of closed-door meetings, and leading Cuban government critics were barred from attending.

Both sides said the meetings remained friendly, despite delving into human rights topics that usually make Cuban officials bristle.

No news from the talks, of course, is bad news for the Cubans stuck with their "bristling" officials.

Matt Lauer's record on Cuba

I am not sure what new things we will learn about Cuba, when Matt Lauer and the rest of the crew from the "Today" show head to Havana next week.

But we already know what Lauer thinks about Cuba and the Castro dictatorship: It's not so bad.

At least that's the impression he left more than seven years ago while interviewing Cuban-born actor Andy Garcia in the height of the Elian Gonzalez story.

Media Research Center reports on the interview with Garcia:

Lauer made the case that fatherhood should trump communism: "You shared a little of your personal story about coming here when you were about to turn 6. Let me ask you to take this and make it a personal issue. You've got three children, is that right?"

Garcia: "Yes, yes."

Lauer: "So if you were in Cuba and Elian was your child here in the United States could you honestly say that you'd rather have him stay here than be reunited with you in Cuba?"

Indeed, Garcia affirmed the answer Lauer found baffling: "With complete conviction Matt. I would never, it's a fate worse than hell to have my children, to think that my children would be growing up in that system over there. I mean I was a product of that. I was singing the International when I was about to turn six years old before we left Cuba and I can tell you first hand by many experiences the situation in Cuba for a young man is not a good one. We had a terrible issue in 1994 with 72 Cubans who left on a tugboat from Cuba and the Cuban fireboats or coast guard approached this vessel and with fire hoses proceeded to drown and to capsize these boats where 41 of the 72 died and amongst them were ten children. So this personal obsession that Fidel has over this child is obviously for political reasons. And this child if he goes back will become sort of a pendant around, you know, Fidel's, you know, neck as his trophy and his anti-American sort of mantle."

Finally, Lauer tried to apply the same criticism to Cubans in Florida: "Isn't it also possible though Andy that he becomes somewhat of a trophy to Cuban-Americans living in Florida if he remains here?"

Garcia suggested maybe Cubans in Miami have a better understanding of things than do the media: "You know the people who feel passionate about this are people who know the reality of life in Cuba. Those who do not know the reality of life in Cuba would obviously side with the child reuniting with his own parents. But I speak to you, not only as a friend, but, with, from the deepest sentiments in my heart, I know for a fact that this child is in my own heart, in my own opinion. This is my opinion. This child deserves the civil liberties that we so enjoy here in the United States."

Read the whole story here.

Watch the video here.

It's all about the Spam

Spam: The Official Fake Meat of the Fake Embargo

Where in the hell is ... Matt Lauer?

This could get sickening: NBC's `Today' Show Is Going to Cuba

Especially this part, which might suggest NBC is heading to Cuba with a particular point of view to sell:

Besides examining Cuba's political future, "Today" plans stories on the impact of the U.S. embargo on both countries.

To be seen is whether "examining Cuba's political future" includes talking to dissidents, or talking just with government officials working to ensure the commies stay in power.

Spain-Cuba news blackout continues

There's still no word on whether human rights discussions in Havana between Spain and Cuba this week is anything more than exercises of appeasement, denial and/or futility. (I'm betting on all three.)

However, EFE reports that officials Thursday will release a joint statement.

Here's a related story, in English.

Good reading

One of the real treats of my recent visit to Miami for the Cuba Nostalgia convention was the chance to meet in real life some of my fellow Cuba bloggers. The moments we spent together at the Babalú Blog booth confirmed that the comradeships and friendships we have built online, are real and powerful.

Reading one of our blogs is not the same as reading another. We share a common goal — liberty for Cuba — but just as exciting are the different approaches and styles we bring to our blogs. We each have our particular focuses, and sometimes we do disagree. But taken together, we represent a powerful front in the struggle against tyranny.

I have learned so much from my fellow bloggers, but more than their command of facts and figures, I frequently am envious of their passion. They might not follow the admittedly dispassionate "just the facts" style of Uncommon Sense — a product of almost 18 years in the newspaper business — but I often believe they are more effective because of the strong points of view they bring to their work.

Two of the best are El Gusano and Alfredo, whom I had the good fortune to meet in Miami. Today, they dissected two of the more interesting Cuba-related news stories found on the Internet:

El Gusano, of La Contra Revolución blog, on a Cox News Service story about how free market capitalism is thriving in some very narrow corners in Cuba:

There’s no doubt that Castro’s reign of terror has destroyed Cuba and its society.

Documentary after documentary, movie after movie, picture after picture all chronicle the crumbling of what once was a thriving and progressive country. The truth is out. And all the propaganda in the world is not going to get that wild colt back in barn.

The Cuban economy is virtually non-existent. The once fertile land no longer yields enough crops for self sufficiency. The infrastructure, neglected and overused, is crumbling.

And sometimes I wonder: Was this by design or by incompetence?

Certainly, Castro is the responsible party, but was plunging Cuba into a modern day Sparta an accident or deliberate?

Fidel was enamored with totalitarian fascism, copying the oratory styles of Hitler and Mussolini, but the brutality and economic deprivation that he found in Stalin gave him the tool to exert total control over the Cuban people.

By instituting the ration card, nationalizing all businesses and confiscating all private property, he found the vehicle to keep people both subdued and dependent on the state (him) for their survival.

That is why he has always fought any attempts at private property or private enterprise - Because he realizes that an economically independent Cuban has no use for his tyranny.

Alfredo, of El Cafe Cubano, on meetings in Havana between government officials and U.S. business executives itching to make new deals with the dictatorship:

Here we go again with the same old song and dance about the embargo. No mention in the article about 48 years without elections. What about the political prisoners? What about all those insignificant Cubans to the media that the apartheid dictatorship have executed?

Don't you love the title: "U.S. executives blast Cuba policy." I love these sound bite quotes:

"We in Mississippi are absolutely committed to ending the political barriers that separate our countries," said William Hawks, a Mississippi farm executive and former undersecretary in the U.S. agricultural department. "It is time that we move forward."

Ending political barriers? O.K. why don't you ask for the immediate removal of the dictator, ask for FREE elections, and the release of political prisoners! Cuba is not FREE because of the dictator, not because of the embargo Mr. running rebel. Blast everyone and everything because you can't peddle more products in Cuba, but silent on all the atrocities?

Also, check out everyone's favorite Cuban Australian, Luis M. Garcia — he is forgiven for skipping Cuba Nostalgia — who writes the New York Times — yes, that New York Times — may have gotten it right with a story about Cuban health care:

That great newspaper of record points out that even if the official figures provided by the regime on infant mortality and life expectancy are accurate (a big "if"), they fail to take into account other factors, such as the extraordinarily high abortion rate on the island.

Furthermore, the paper acknowledges what Cubans have known for decades - that there are in fact, two separate health systems in Cuba.

The first system, which has the best hospitals, the best medicines and the best doctors, is reserved for senior Communist Party officials and important foreigners. That's the system depicted in Michael Moore's controversial new film.

The second, parallel system is the one used daily by 11 million ordinary Cubans.

As the paper points out, this second system involves ill-equipped, run-down hospitals, poorly-paid and over-worked doctors and patients having to bring their own food, soap, bed sheets — and even their own medications.

Very impressive company, indeed.

Memories

Cindy Sheehan quits her war

Memories,
Like the corners of my mind
Misty water-colored memories
Of the way we were

Mum's the word in Havana

No news to report on the first day of talks in Havana this week between Spain and Cuba on political prisoners and other human rights issues.

The news blackout seems appropriate, considering the public positions taken so far by the two sides on human rights in Cuba:

Cuba says it doesn't have a problem. Political prisoners are just American mercenaries, blah, blah blah.

Which is perfect for Spain, which doesn't want to see a problem, especially if it gets in the way of furthering its economic interests on the island.

So it's not exactly clear why they are meeting at all. Except to somehow legitimize the Cuban regime's bad behavior on human rights, especially since the "black spring" crackdown in 2003. That's when Spain and other European nations cut Cuba off diplomatically — a position the Socialist government in Madrid has now taken the lead in abandoning.

For its part, thankfully, the United States is not supporting Spain's likely-to-be-proven-futile efforts to talk human rights with Cuba:

"I'm not sure that we see eye to eye on Cuba," said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who will meet with Spanish officials in Madrid later this week. "I'm sure we see eye to eye for the need for democracy in Cuba because especially a country like Spain that has been able to overcome its own authoritarian past and a country like Spain that has been able to therefore have democracy and freedom for its people, I certainly would hope and believe would understand that the Cuban people deserve the same thing. "But I don't see how that course is advanced by simply dealing with the current regime, a regime that seems to be trying to set itself up for a non-democratic succession when the transition takes place in Cuba and doing that at the expense of contacts with the very nascent and fragile democratic opposition that is beginning to arise in Cuba. The Cubans deserve better and I think we will talk about that."

Might the world be shocked by the results of this week's meetings in Havana?

I hope so, which will mean some, if not all, political prisoners soo will be released from Fidel Castro's gulag.

Anything short of that — even a Cuban promise to allow the Red Cross and other human rights groups to visit prisoners — will be a failure.

And, unfortunately, not a surprise.

Life in a police state

Jorge Olivera Castillo

Keep in your thoughts and prayers today, Jorge Olivera Castillo.

An independent journalist well familiar with the dictatorship's oppressive ways, Olivera has been summoned for a 10 a.m. appointment today at a police station in Havana, according to a story by journalist José Ramón Pupo Nieves, posted at Payo Libre. It is a common tactic the police use to harass and threaten government opponents, but Olivera cannot be faulted if he is scared of what might happen when he arrives, considering his history with the Castro regime.

Olivera, 45, was arrested during the "black spring" of 2003 and sentenced to 18 years in prison. In December 2004, he was granted a medical parole because of poor health.

His good fortune, however, was not the end of his activism, of his journalism, nor of his persecution by the authorities.

Olivera told Pupo he does not know why the police want to meet with him, but said he wants the world to know that he has been constantly harrassed by the authorities since his release more than two years ago. During that time, Olivera said he has felt like a hostage, since the government has denied him permission to go into exile overseas.

|—————|

There have been other recent reports of anti-government activists being summoned to police stations for questioning. At least one, Fortunato Domínguez García, was still in custody, according to a story by journalist Carlos Serpa Maceira, posted at Cuba Libre Digital.

Domínguez's wife told Serpa that her husband, a human rights activist and member of the Popular Republican Party, was detained last Thursday at a police station in Havana, but as of Sunday, she had not heard whether he had been released.

|—————|

The trouble for government opponents can be found not just in Havana.

Journalist Tania Maceda Guerra reports that Maura Iset González Jurquet, presidental of the Latin American Federation of Rural Women, and her husband, Waldimar Parra Santana, were spent more than 5 hours May 1-2 in custody after they were summoned to a State Security "political instruction center" in Santiago de Cuba.

While there, they were interrogated and threatened with prison if they continued to campaign for Cuba to adopt a single national currency, according to Maceda's story, which is posted at Cuba-Miami Information Bridge.

Currently, three currencies circulate in Cuba — American dollars, the convertible peso and the peso, which the government uses to pay workers since it has the least value. However, many items sold by the government in its stores require convertible pesos, putting those things out of the reach of most Cubans.

It is just another way the dictatorship imposes an apartheid on the Cuban people.