Calle 13 Performs in Cuba, Sings Querido FBI

Calle 13 one of the few conscientious artists of today takes the stage in Cuba with his pro-independence, anti-imperialist anthem written in 2005 after the assassination of Filiberto Ojeda Rios, leader of the Puerto Rican Macheteros.

Bush Policy: Aid to Cuba Depends on Politics

On Friday October 10, President Bush met with leaders of the Cuban American community in Coral Gables, Florida to discuss his the Bush Administration's response to Hurricane Ike in Cuba. In the process Bush made a few remarks that are, at the very least, interesting for their hypocrisy.



As part of his remarks Bush said:

"You know, recently Ike hit Cuba very hard and all Americans, whether they be Cuban Americans or otherwise, grieve deeply about the damage done to the average Cuban citizen. And so my government, under the leadership of Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, offered aid from the United States to the Cuban people. But that aid was rejected by the Castros, which should tell the people of Cuba and the people around the world that the Castro people are only interested in themselves and their power, and not to the benefit and welfare of the Cuban people."

First of all lets address the hypocrisy in this here statement. According to Bush, the denial of American aid is proof of Raul and Fidel Castro's selfishness and indifference towards the people of Cuba. If that logic is correct then we can only assume that back in 2005 when hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and FEMA was nowhere to be found, that Bush's decision to reject Cuban medical aid was similarly selfish and proof of Bush's own indifference towards the people of New Orleans. After all, the US seemed utterly incapable of managing the situation and while people drowned, Cuba had a ship with 500 medically trained personnel ready for deployment offered to the US without preconditions. An offer rejected by the Bush Administration.

So either Bush and Castro are equally heartless towards their people or they both placed national security concerns above the immediate crisis. Either logic can be applied, but only hypocrisy leads you to assign logic to one but not the other.

In other remarks Bush hints at something more important from his point of view:

"You know, our government has been very clear about our strategy, and that is, is that we will change the embargo strategy only when the government of Cuba lets the people of Cuba express themselves freely. We will change our policy when the people running Cuba free people of conscience from the prisons. But until then we won't change, because our message is to the Cuban people, you're being repressed by a handful of elites that are holding back your great potential. And we will not put policies in place that allow them to benefit personally at the expense of the Cuban people."

Here he is referring to an issue that has been at the forefront of Cuban American issues, while being careful not to betray the image of the US for American voters while equally addressing the complaints of the group. What is he referring to?

Immediately after Hurricane Ike hit Cuba, the Cuban American community sprang into action amassing aid packages for the people of Cuba. Everything from clothing to building supplies and food were carefully collected and prepared for shipment to the island. This was however a futile effort as the Bush administration moved to block all aid from Cuban Americans to Cubans in the island. This is the policy Bush is referring to when he speaks about not changing the Administration's Cuban Policy which has limited the ability of Cubans to communicate and send money or aid to the island nation.

In short what Bush was saying to this group of Cuban Americans is that 1) despite the crisis in Cuba, American foreign policy is more important than the people's welfare, 2) that aid can only be sent to Cuba by the hand of the American Government or its agents in the island, 3) that change to this policy as well as others will only come once Cuba accepts American preconditions.

It is true that Cuba rejected aid, aid from the American government that is, not aid in general. In fact, not only did Cuba appeal to the US government to allow the Cuban American community to send aid, but it asked the international community as well. In all Cuba has thus far received over 2,500 tons of relief from 230 international relief aid shipments worth 17 million dollars out of the 478 offers worth 51 million dollars.

Cuba asked for aid, the Cuban American Community responded admirable, the International Community responded as well, however it was the United States, Bush's Administration specifically, which turned this crisis into a political volleyball by offering aid only if it came under the name of "USAID". Now Bush takes a victory lap in Cuban neighborhoods while playing to the well-worn ears of the Cuban American elite in Miami who seem at times more interested in a photo-op with Bush than calling him out for his hypocrisy against their own brethren.

Gustav Hits Cuba [Video]

Hurricane Gustav hit Cuba as a category five before quickly dropping back to category four. This Associated Press Video shows the damage left by Gustav. So far 81 people have died across the Caribbean, no deaths were recorded in the Caymans or in Cuba. Our best goes out to all lifting themselves from the rubble. Stay safe.

Che: El Argentino [Film Trailer]

Che: El Argentino [Poster & Scenes]

Haiti under Hurricane Gustav [Video]

Video from the Associated Press shows Hurricane Gustav's landfall upon the nation of Haiti. The storm threatens Cuba, Jamaica, and the Cayman Islands. A Hurricane Warning has already been issued in Cuba.

Cuba defeats Puerto Rico in Olympic Boxing

In what has turned out to be another disappointing performance at these Olympics, McWilliams Arroyo was defeated by Cuba's Laffita ending Puerto Rico's hopes to break the ongoing medal drought. The last medal won by a Puerto Rican Olympian was in 1996, twelve years ago in Atlanta.

With a score of 11 to 2 Andris Laffita Hernandez of Cuba moves on into the semifinals. Arroyo however felt cheated by the scoring which only awarded him two points for the entire match. Speculation is that Arroyo may turn professional as soon as he returns from Beijing.

These are the breaks. Hope it wasn't so, but Puerto Rico is officially done in these Olympic games. ***UPDATE-Asuncion Ocasio has advanced to the quarterfinals of the Women's 67kg Taekwondo tournament, and Angel Roman will get his chance a few hours from now in the Men's 80kg Taekwondo, thanks for the heads up.***

Cuba's Olympic tradition is nevertheless as strong as it ever was with 13 medals thus far. Cuba is the only Latin American or Caribbean country with double digit medal totals.

Latin American & Caribbean Olympic Medal Standings

These totals will be updated daily and expanded.
Last Updated on SUN. August 24 --Final Update.

Latin America & Caribbean Medal Standings	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
Jamaica	6	3	2	11
Brazil	3	4	8	15
Cuba	2	11	11	24
Argentina	2	0	4	6
Mexico	2	0	1	3
Dominican Republic	1	1	0	2
Panama	1	0	0	1
Trinidad & Tobago	0	2	0	2
Bahamas	0	1	1	2
Colombia	0	1	1	2
Chile	0	1	0	1
Ecuador	0	1	0	1
Bahamas	0	1	1	2
Venezuela	0	0	1	1

***Proper Olympic rankings are in medal value order, not the total number of
medals***

Congratulations to all of our brothers and sisters from Latin America and the Caribbean for the great performances. 2012 will be even better.

Latinos at the Olympics - Live Blogging JUDO matches

3:35 AM EST- Argentina's Albarracin versus Iran's Akhonzadeh. Iran is victorious.


3:00 AM EST - Yanet Bermoy (CUBA) defeats - Germany

2:53 AM EST - Houkes (Denmark) defeats Guedes Sanchez (Venezuela)

2:51 AM EST - Venezuela's Guedes Sanchez is currently fighting Denmark's Houkes.


2:48 am EST - Paula Belen Pareto of Argentina was just defeated by World Champion and very scary fighter Ryoko Tani from Japan.

Venezuela's Petrocaribe expands to 18 members with Guatemala, shows strength & influence

Last weekend's 5th Petrocaribe Summit held in Maracaibo,Venezuela saw the expansion of the oil alliance with the addition of Guatemala. This is a particularly important development for the regional group as it shows a continued dismissal of American diplomatic efforts to block Petrocaribe's growth.

With the founding of the group in June of 2005, the first expansion came just months later in september when the original founders were joined by the Dominican Republic, in effect adding the region's most dynamic economy into the group. Haiti, the region's most depressed economy joined in April of 2006. The group expanded once again to include Honduras in December of 2007. With Guatemala rounding out the group's membership.

As Petrocaribe's membership grows, the groups influence in regional affairs also grows and by extension the influence of Venezuela. For the United States, whose relations with Venezuela are often strained, Venezuela's growing influence has not been welcomed.

Trinidad & Tobago and Barbados are the only two regional players who have thus far abstained from membership, though some suspect this is due to American pressure.

Petrocaribe's growth now means that its members hold a majority vote in some of the most important regional groups: In CARICOM, thirteen of the fifteen members are members of Petrocaribe. In the Asociation of Caribbean States (ACS) eighteen of the twenty-five members belong to Petrocaribe. In the Organization of American States (OAS) eighteen of the 35 members are part of Petrocaribe, or 51% of the votes. And four of the six PARLACEN members are also Petrocaribe members.

If oil is power in today's world, Venezuela is positioning itself to play the game much like the U.S. did 60 years ago.


Petrocaribe's 18 members now include:
Antigua and Barbuda
The Bahamas
Belize
Cuba
Dominica
The Dominican Republic
Grenada
Guatemala
Guyana
Haiti
Honduras
Jamaica
Nicaragua
St. Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
San Vicente and the Grenadines
Suriname
Venezuela

184 Countries call for end of Cuban Embargo

For 15 years, every year, the United Nations General Assembly has voted on the issue of the Cuban Embargo imposed unilaterally by the United States. This year's vote was no different with 184 countries calling the embargo an illegal act that must come to an end.

Voting for the measure has become a tradition at the United Nations where Cuban and American dignitaries trade barbs like in a game of ping pong. This year was no different with the US calling for democracy in Cuba and Cuba calling out the hypocrisy of American policies around the world. The vote carried only one abstention and four votes against. Micronesia abstained, while the United States, Palau, the Marshall Islands, and Israel voted against lifting the embargo.

The vote also reminds us of the innate inequalities present in the United nations as a democratic body. When 184 countries, which include Russia, China, and EU members, are unable change such an obvious act of imperialism as is the embargo, there is no more proof needed to say that the United nations must be changed. However that change must come from the bottom not from the top.

Calls for reform are now being fielded by the Secretary General, but only that one proposed by the United States is being given any attention or hopes for ratification.

The Non-Aligned Movement must step forward and reclaim its sovereignty, by first withdrawing from the UN as a form of protest until the General Assembly is given the right to veto the Security Council, as any congress or parliament gets to veto its executive. Only then will a palpable change come to the affairs of the world. And if the United States is truly interested in democracy it must allow this change to occur.

Appeasing America

Appeasement is one of those dirty words we learned from World War II history. Often it is used to denote cowardice, as in the cowardice of 1930's Europe in refusing to confront the expansionist campaign of Hitler and his Nazi Party as they began swallowing up countries left and right. The appeasement of Nazi Germany came to an end when the government of Great Britain decided to draw a line in the proverbial sand by announcing that they would fight to defend Poland. The rest is, well, history.

Today a similar obligation now falls upon the world as the United States pushes forward to attack, possibly invade, the country of Iran. And while folks like Dick Cheney and Norman Podhoretz confuse the issue talking of Iran's President as a Middle Eastern Hitler, it falls upon the international community to ask whether it is time to stop appeasing the United States?

Martin Luther King once described the United States as "a society gone mad with war". Today that seems prophetic under the leadership of the current American Administration. Since 2001, the United States has invaded two countries and deposed their governments, and it has engineered two coup d'etats, one against the elected government of Venezuela and another against Haiti. All the while the world governments have stood aside and allowed these actions and their accompanying crimes against humanity, to happen with little opposition.

There should be no question that if the United States is allowed to attack Iran, there will be others who will be attacked subsequently. Syria and Cuba immediate spring to mind. At some point someone must draw a new line in the sand and proclaim these actions to be criminal. Self-determination and human freedom cannot be allowed to be dictated by Washington, D.C., for their interests are not those of a peace loving nature. The Bush Administration is a leviathan that seeks to impose itself as the sole absolute sovereign over the earth, and is quickly moving to that end.

Despite the rhetoric from the Administration, there is no evidence of Iranian wrongdoing, there is no evidence of weapons of mass destruction in development, there is only the willful and continuous deception of the American people; who for all their strengths easily fall frail under fear. Fear as a manipulation, fear as a tool of government, fear as a resource of war. The people of America are stuck in this muck without any respite thanks to a press and media which refuses to discuss and denounce these actions by the government and have instead become mouthpieces for official policy.

The question then lies with the international community; who will draw the line in the sand and be the first to stop the appeasement of America's belligerent policies? Make no mistake about it, history will judge this generation on this question just as harshly as it has judged Europe in the years prior to World War II.

Castro: We reply to the false Mambí

Bush, Mambi?
by Fidel Castro Ruz

Viva Cuba libre! (Long live free Cuba!). That was the war cry throughout the plains and the mountains, forests and sugarcane fields, identifying those who began Cuba’s first war of independence on October 10, 1868.

I never imagined that I would hear those words coming from the mouth of a president of the United States 139 years later. It is as if a king of that time, or his regent, were proclaiming: Viva Cuba Libre!

On the contrary, a Spanish warship drew near the coast and with its guns destroyed the small sugar mill, just a few kilometers from the sea, where Carlos Manuel de Céspedes declared the independence of Cuba and freed the slaves that he had inherited.

Lincoln, the son of a poor woodcutter, fought all his life against slavery, which was still legal in his country almost a hundred years after its Declaration of Independence. Adhering to the just idea that all citizens are born free and equal, making use of his legal and constitutional powers, he declared the abolition of slavery. Countless combatants gave their lives to defend this idea against the rebel slave states in the country’s south.

Lincoln is said to have stated: “You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all the people all of the time.”

He died by an assassin’s bullet while, invincible at the polls, he was running for a second presidential mandate.

I am not forgetting that tomorrow, Sunday, marks 48 years since Camilo Cienfuegos' disappearance at sea on October 28, 1959, as he was returning to Havana in a light aircraft from Camagüey province, where days earlier his sole presence disarmed a garrison of simple Rebel Army soldiers whose superiors, of a bourgeois ideology, were attempting to do what Bush is now demanding almost half a century later: rise up in arms against the Revolution.

Che, in a wonderful introduction to his book Guerrilla Warfare, states: “Camilo was the comrade of 100 battles…the selfless combatant who always made sacrifice an instrument for tempering his character and forging that of the troops... he gave the written framework presented here the essential vitality of his personality, his intelligence and his audacity, which are achieved in such exact proportions in just a few figures in history.”

“Who killed him?

“We might better wonder: who eliminated his physical being? Because men like him live on in the people...The enemy killed him; they killed him because they wanted him dead; they killed him because there are no safe planes, because pilots cannot have all the experience they need, because, overburdened with work, he wanted to reach Havana in a few short hours…in his mentality as a guerrilla fighter, not one cloud could hold back or distort a line which had been charted…Camilo and the other Camilos (those who didn’t make it and those yet to come) are the indicators of the people’s strength; they are the highest expression of what a nation may give when on a war footing to defend its purest ideals and with its faith set on securing its noblest goals.”

Because of what their names symbolize, we reply to the false Mambí:

Long live Lincoln!

Long live Che!

Long live Camilo!

by Fidel Castro Ruz
October 27, 2007
7:36 p.m.
Spanish version

A Message from Fidel to Bush

[from granma.cu]
BUSH is obsessed with Cuba. Yesterday, the news was received that a White House spokesman announced the president would present new initiatives for the transition period now begun. Another spokesman from the State Department later confirmed the statement, reiterating Bush’s demanding and threatening tone.

As affirmed by Ricardo Alarcón, the president of our National Assembly, a comrade who is well-informed about Bush’s scheming and intentions, after that would come the firing squads of the Cuban-American mafia, with permission to kill everyone suspected of being a faithful member of the Party, the Youth or the mass organizations.

Mr. Bush: Your genocidal blockade, your support for terrorism, your murderous Cuban Adjustment Act, your wet-foot/dry-foot policy, your protection of the worst terrorists in this hemisphere, your unjust punishment of the five Cuban heroes who exposed the danger posed to U.S. citizens and those of other countries of dying in mid-flight, must all end.

Sovereignty is non-negotiable.

Likewise, the shameful torture being carried out in the occupied territory of Guantánamo must also end.

We were never intimidated by your threats of preemptive and surprise attacks on the 60 or more dark corners of the Earth. The outcome of that has now been seen in a single country: Iraq.

Do not attack others; do not threaten humanity with a nuclear war. The peoples will defend themselves, and all would perish in that inferno.

Thank you for your attention.

Fidel Castro Ruz

October 21, 2007

Time: 6:12 a.m
[Original Spanish version]

Covering The Cuban Municipal Elections

Cuban municipal elections started today Sunday October 21 at 7AM. By the end of today Cubans will have elected 15,236 delegates for local municipal assemblies out of 37,258 candidates. By Cuban election rules candidates are forbidden from campaigning and candidates are only represented by a picture and resume. This is the first tier of the Cuban election process which is then followed by a vote cast by those elected local assembly men or women for the 609 seats of the National Assembly, after which the National Assembly elects a President, expected to be Raul Castro.

This year's elections are considered important because the Cuban government has asked for younger members of Cuban society to run as candidates and take ownership of Cuba's government. This latest move by the Cuban government is, not surprisingly, being met with skepticism by the United States which claims Cuba's system to be undemocratic. However, While Cuba's government only recognizes the Cuban Communist Party as the only legal political entity, non-communist party candidates, independents, are allowed to run for office and are often elected into municipal assembly posts.

The call for younger members of Cuban society to join the election process is a reflection of the advanced ages of many in the islands leadership circles. With Fidel Castro's health in question and with senior Communist Party members retiring due to their age, the government has asked for "new blood". In Cuba, elections are open to all citizens over the age of 16 years old. Seven million Cubans are expected to cast a ballot today, or roughly 85% of the eligible voting population.

Quick facts about the Cuban Democratic System:

• 37,258 candidates of which 28% are women.
• Voter turnout ranges from 80 to 90% turnout.
• Cuban population is 11.4 million people.
• Proportionally speaking 3 out of every 1000 Cubans are running for office this year.

Cuban elections in the news:
AFP - Castro Lauds Cuba's One-Party Elections
Reuters - Cuba holds first election without Castro
BBC News - Cuba set for municipal elections
Mathaba - Mass Participation in Cuba's elections
Diario Las Americas - Cuba's Electoral Farce
Press TV - Cuban's elect municipal councilors

Cuba's Peak Oil Story: Lessons to be learned for those who will listen

When the Soviet Union collapsed, Cuba's economy crashed as their primary source of oil suddenly disappeared. Cuba entered what was termed as the "Special Period". During this period, roughly the entire decade of the 1990s, Cuba was forced to reinvent its economy as well as its society. The economic problems were largely the result of the lack of oil, which was then exacerbated by American policies to exploit this period to bring about the final collapse of Fidel Castro's government.

American measures such as the Helms Burton Act of 1996 and its preceding policies beginning in 1992 strove to push the Cuban population towards revolution. The measures ultimately failed. The following documentary tells the story of how Cuba managed to restructure its economy and society to overcome the "Special Period". There are lessons here that every country on Earth needs to begin learning if human progress is going to continue into the future.

The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil

[Article from Green Left Weekly] One Last Favor: Australia, Cuba, and the United States

by Tim Anderson
Green Left Weekly (radical newspaper) via WorldPress.org
New South Wales, Australia
October 17, 2007

One of the last favors the Howard government in Australia will be asked to perform for the Bush administration will be to attempt to soften the crushing diplomatic defeat the United States suffers every year at the United Nations over its ongoing economic blockade of Cuba.

A United Nations vote is expected on a motion by Cuba at the end of October. In 2006, the motion passed 183 to four (United States, Israel, the Marshall Islands, and Palau) with one abstention. Australia voted for the motion, but not before an unsuccessful attempt at an amendment that sought to criticize Cuba.

In breach of a range of international laws—from telecommunications to trade to the Genocide Convention—the United States has blockaded Cuba for nearly half a century, as part of a campaign to overthrow the elected government and the Cuban constitution.

The United States blockade, an executive act of President John F. Kennedy (after a failure to agree on compensation terms over the nationalization of United States companies), was set in United States law by the 1996 Helms Burton Act.

Under this "trading with the enemy" law, United States companies are banned from trading with Cuba and United States citizens cannot visit Cuba without United States government permission. United States citizens are regularly fined for visiting Cuba, or being caught with Cuban cigars. Cuba receives more than 2 million tourists every year, but very few are United States citizens.

Cuba says the economic blockade has cost it at least $89 billion in damages, denied important medical equipment, blocked scientific and cultural exchange, stolen the assets of or intimidated trading companies and constitutes a form of genocide, designed quite simply to re-colonize Cuba. The blockade has been accompanied by terrorist actions (including one C.I.A.-backed aircraft bombing) that have cost the lives of more than 3,000 Cubans.

The United States says its measures only constitute an "embargo," that the Cuban government alone is responsible for any economic problems and that this "embargo" is a bilateral matter that does not concern any other state.

However, United States subsidiaries in other countries are also banned from dealing with Cuba and this has widened the net, since the wave of takeovers and mergers during the 1990's and 2000's. Under United States law, technology with more than 10 percent United States content cannot be traded with Cuba, regardless of the nationality of ownership. Vessels carrying goods from Cuba cannot enter United States ports. And even the families of business people who trade with Cuba may be (and have been) denied United States visas.

In 2007, two Australian banks were drawn into this campaign because of their United States shareholdings and operations. In February, ANZ said it was ending all transactions with Cuba, to ensure compliance with United States law. In September, the National Australia Bank was fined $100,000 by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (O.F.A.C.) of the United States Treasury, for a number of small transactions that allowed transfers to Cuban interests. One of these was a payment of $452 to a Canadian credit card owned by a Cuban citizen. Banks are generally "apolitical" when it comes to business, but in this case, Washington calls the shots.

The Howard government has consistently voted in favor of anti-blockade motions at the United Nations. "Free trade," after all, is a major element of Australian foreign policy, as successive Australian governments have tried to expand their exports of agricultural goods, especially to the United States.

However, the practice of Australian "free trade" is a much dirtier affair. In November 2006, the Australian ambassador to the United Nations, Robert Hill, moved an amendment to the Cuban motion, seeking to add a clause that called on Cuba to "release unconditionally all political prisoners" and to respect human rights treaties. The Australian role only emerged because even the most pro-United States Latin American governments would not agree to take up the task. Hill's amendment was roundly defeated and the Cuban motion was passed overwhelmingly.

South African diplomat Sivu Maqungo, on behalf of the Group of 77 (a coalition of Third World countries), supported the Cuban motion "because this relentless and unilateral action has caused untold suffering to the people of Cuba." The motion was a way to exert pressure on United States actions that are "contrary to international law, international humanitarian law, the United Nations charter and the norms and principles governing peaceful relations among states."

What did the Australian "human rights" amendment have to do with a motion over the United States trade blockade of Cuba? Very little. Opposition to the United States blockade has steadily grown at the United Nations, and it was clear the amendment would fail. However, the United States wanted to save face and needed "allies" to pretend a little legitimacy.

The major "human rights" accusation the United States aims at Cuba concerns political prisoners. Cuba does have several dozen political prisoners, but almost all have been convicted of taking money from United States government programs that aim to overthrow the Cuban government and constitution. The United States claims that these United States-paid agents have special privileges as "independent journalists" or part of "civil society."

The United States also pretends that Cuba does not have elections, because the United States-funded groups are banned from contesting, and because the constitution embeds socialist principles. In fact, Cuban national elections are in October.

After Hill's motion failed, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said that Australia "does not have the moral authority to attempt to refer to the human rights situation in Cuba." Perez Roque called Australia a "lackey" and "accomplice" in United States wars of imperialism.

Indeed. Robert Hill personally, as defense minister, directed Australian bombing raids and missile strikes in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He was personally responsible for the slaughter of many thousands of innocent Iraqis. Hill also hid his knowledge of the torture operations at Abu Ghraib for over a year, and backed the closure of Al Jazeera's Baghdad television station. Hill's colleague, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, argued for the invasion of Iraq on the basis that support for the United States-led war could benefit "Australia's commercial position in Iraq." These are better credentials for war criminals than defenders of human rights.

Nevertheless, Hill feigned innocence at the United Nations, saying that "the price of speaking up and asking for nothing more than [what] is reasonable is to be abused by the Cuban minister with false allegations and offensive language."

Stay tuned for the next installment of the Howard government's spirited defense of "human rights" at the United Nations. The next anti-blockade motion is scheduled for late October. With Howard's defeat looming in the imminent Australian elections, Washington might call on one last favor.

Cuba at the United Nations: Speech by Felipe Pérez Roque

Recorded on September 26, 2007 - Speech by Felipe Pérez Roque before the General Assembly of the United Nations. [I have chosen the Spanish version (without translation) because I always find the translations to be somewhat filtered in emotion and content, nevertheless for those who would rather hear it in English I have included the links at the bottom of this post]

Part I in Spanish

Part II in Spanish


Part I with English translation
Part II with English translation

Bush declares July 15 - 21, "Captive Nations Week", --World chuckles in unison--

Here is the official proclamation:

A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America

Liberty is the path to lasting peace and the unalienable right of every man, woman, and child. During Captive Nations Week, we underscore our commitment to protecting human rights, advancing democracy and freedom, and ending tyranny across the globe.

Expanding freedom is a moral imperative, and today more people are free than ever before. Freedom is reaching around the world, and America is working side-by-side with new democracies in Liberia, Mauritania, Ukraine, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan. The people of Kuwait held elections in which women were able to vote and run for office for the first time, and the elected parliament is exercising real influence with the government. We continue to stand firmly behind the citizens of Lebanon, Afghanistan, and Iraq as they defend their democratic gains against extremist enemies. Many are making great sacrifices for liberty, and they deserve our steadfast support.

While there is progress in freedom's advance, nations such as Belarus, Burma, Cuba, North Korea, Syria, Iran, Sudan, and Zimbabwe still oppress their citizens. My Administration recently created the Human Rights Defenders Fund to provide grants for the legal defense and medical expenses of democratic dissidents arrested or beaten by repressive governments. In addition, we have nearly doubled funding for democracy projects throughout the world. The American people believe that the flame for freedom burns in every human heart, and that light cannot be extinguished by governments, terrorists, or tyrants. During Captive Nations Week, we remember that human freedom is the key to achieving respect for all human rights.

The Congress, by Joint Resolution approved July 17, 1959 (73 Stat. 212), has authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation designating the third week in July of each year as "Captive Nations Week."

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim July 15 through 21, 2007, as Captive Nations Week. I call upon the people of the United States to reaffirm our commitment to all those seeking liberty, justice, and self-determination.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this tenth day of July, in the year of our Lord two thousand seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-second.

GEORGE W. BUSH

Interesting, I guess Iraq doesn't count as a "Captive Nation", nor for that matter does Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. I also find it interesting that there is no mention of Chechnya, Palestine, Chiapas, Oaxaca, or Tibet. How about Taiwan? Hmm... I guess those didn't make the final draft of the speech. Oh, of course, Iran made the list... but not Kurdistan. What about Kashmir?

Now if your going to list Syria and Iran, what about Saudi Arabia? And if you are listing Cuba, then why not Pakistan?

Hypocrisy at its finest.

[UPDATE:A brother or sister of the struggle commented that I left out Aztlan, thank you for pointing it out and for good measure we should include all indigenous groups currently living in reservations across the world as "Captive Nations". If you can think of others please leave me a comment and we'll try to make a comprehensive list to hand to Mr. Bush.]

Castro: Britain working towards "the holocaust of the species"

REFLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT FIDEL CASTRO

The English Submarine
by Fidel Castro

The press dispatches bring the news; it belongs to the Astute Class, the first of its kind to be constructed in Great Britain in more than two decades.

“A nuclear reactor will allow it to navigate without refueling during its 25 years of service. Since it makes its own oxygen and drinking water, it can circumnavigate the globe without needing to surface,” was the statement to the BBC by Nigel Ward, head of the shipyards.

“It’s a mean-looking beast”, says another.

“Looming above us is a construction shed 12 stories high. Within it are 3 nuclear-powered submarines at different stages of construction,” assures yet another.

Someone says that “it can observe the movements of cruisers in New York Harbor right from the English Channel, drawing close to the coast without being detected and listen to conversations on cell phones”. “In addition, it can transport special troops in mini-subs that, at the same time, will be able to fire lethal Tomahawk missiles for distances of 1,400 miles", a fourth person declares.

El Mercurio, the Chilean newspaper, emphatically spreads the news.

The British Royal Navy declares that it will be one of the most advanced in the world. The first of them will be launched on June 8 and will go into service in January of 2009.

It can transport up to 38 Tomahawk cruise missiles and Spearfish torpedoes, capable of destroying a large warship. It will possess a permanent crew of 98 sailors who will even be able to watch movies on giant plasma screens.

The new Astute will carry the latest generation of Block 4 Tomahawk torpedoes, which can be reprogrammed in flight. It will be the first one not having a system of conventional periscopes and, instead, will be using fiber optics, infrared waves and thermal imaging.

“BAE Systems, the armaments manufacturer, will build two other submarines of the same class,” AP reported. The total cost of the three submarines, according to calculations that will certainly be below the mark, is 7.5 billion dollars.

What a feat for the British! The intelligent and tenacious people of that nation will surely not feel any sense of pride. What is most amazing is that with such an amount of money, 75 thousand doctors could be trained to care for 150 million people, assuming that the cost of training a doctor would be one-third of what it costs in the United States. You could build 3,000 polyclinics, outfitted with sophisticated equipment, ten times what our country possesses.

Cuba is currently training thousands of young people from other countries as medical doctors.

In any remote African village, a Cuban doctor can impart medical knowledge to any youth from the village or from the surrounding municipality who has the equivalent of a 12th-grade education, using videos and computers energized by a small solar panel; the youth does not even have to leave his hometown, nor does he need to be contaminated with the consumer habits of a large city.

The important thing is the patients who are suffering from malaria or any other of the typical and unmistakable diseases that the student will be seeing together the doctor.

The method has been tested with surprising results. The knowledge and practical experience accumulated for years have no possible comparison.

The non-lucrative practice of medicine is capable of winning over all noble hearts.

Since the beginning of the Revolution, Cuba has been engaged in training doctors, teachers and other professionals; with a population of less than 12 million inhabitants, today we have more Comprehensive General Medicine specialists than all the doctors in sub-Saharan Africa where the population exceeds 700 million people.

We must bow our heads in awe after reading the news about the English submarine. It teaches us, among other things, about the sophisticated weapons that are needed to maintain the untenable order developed by the United States imperial system.

We cannot forget that for centuries, and until recently, England was called the Queen of the Seas. Today, what remains of that privileged position is merely a fraction of the hegemonic power of her ally and leader, the United States.

Churchill said: Sink the Bismarck! Today, Blair says: Sink whatever remains of Great Britain’s prestige!

For that purpose, or for the holocaust of the species, is what his “marvelous submarine” will be good for.

Fidel Castro Ruz

May 21, 2007

5:00 p.m.