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Fra: Companero [mailto:companyero@mindspring.com]
Sendt: 29. december 2000 05:34
Til: kenito@worker.com
Emne: [Cuba SI] Petition to End the Blockade, Cuba Trains Doctors, Granma,
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?ECoC
Petition calling upon William Jefferson Clinton to normalize relations with
Cuba in these waning days of the Clinton Presidency PetitionTo
unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
CubanAmericanAliiance-unsubscribe@egroups.com
Petition calling upon William Jefferson Clinton to normalize relations with
Cuba in these waning days of the Clinton Presidency
To: President William Jefferson Clinton Whereas It was 40 years ago, in
January 1961, that a "lame duck"
President Dwight D. Eisenhower broke diplomatic relations with the island
nation of Cuba.
And Whereas This decision set in motion a series of actions that would
lead to the current state of embargo and restricted rights of United States
citizens to trade with or travel to, or having dealings with Cuba and its
people.
And Whereas This state of affairs has created an economic and social
burden on the people of Cuba and the United States.
And Whereas By its geographic proximity to the United States, Cuba is a
natural trading partner; the current state of embargo perverts what ought to
be the normal ordering of business and contact between the two nations.
And Whereas The Unites States stands condemned by world opinion, and
by the opinion of a growing number of US citizens, for its continued
adherence to the state of embargo against Cuba, heedless to several and
repeated calls from a growing number of national bodies and dignitaries for
its end.
Resolved That we, the undersigned, call upon President William Jefferson
Clinton, in the waning days of the Clinton Administration, to instruct the
Secretary of State to initiate the necessary steps to re-establish normal
diplomatic relations with the Government of Cuba.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?ECoC
***********************************************************************
A MECCA FOR MED STUDENTS: CUBA TRAINS
DOCTORS FOR THE
WORLD
By Sharon Eolis
Registered Nurse/Nurse Practitioner
Havana
Imagine living in a country with free accessible health care
and education, including medical school. If you lived in
Cuba, this dream would be a reality. In spite of the four-
decade U.S. blockade, Cuba has one physician for every 168
people. Since the 1959 revolution some 67,500 doctors have
been trained.
After the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, leaders like
Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and others were faced with many
problems related to health care. About half of the doctors
left the country. The vast majority of the people,
especially the campesinos who lived in rural areas, had had
little or no access to health care. Infectious diseases and
malnutrition were rampant.
The newly formed Ministry of Health had to create and
develop a comprehensive health-care program.
One of the organizations called upon to help was the
Committees to Defend the Revolution. The CDRs are
grassroots
organizations of block associations. They defend Cuba from
counter-revolutionaries and take on the day-to-day problems
of the people.
The Ministry of Health brought the CDRs into its campaign to
eradicate infectious diseases and other health problems. CDR
members went house to house educating the people about the
need for immunizations, checkups and prenatal care.
Their campaign was so effective that many diseases were
eliminated. Prenatal care became the routine for all
expectant mothers.
MEDICAL SOLIDARITY
Over 25,000 Cuban health-care workers have volunteered to
provide medical care in countries throughout Latin America,
the Caribbean and Africa. These health-care workers have
saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of children in the
Third World.
Many years ago Cuba established a medical school in Guinea-
Bissau. It was destroyed in a recent civil war and the
government has sent the medical students to Cuba to finish
their studies.
When Hurricanes George and Mitch devastated Haiti and
parts
of Central America, these countries called for emergency
assistance and Cuba answered by sending medical brig ades.
At the end of the emergency it became clear that there was a
general crisis in health care in these countries.
The Cuban leadership decided to open a medical school for
students from the Caribbean, Latin America and Africa. The
program was oriented to students with a bachelor's degree
who lived in poor rural areas with no doctors.
The Ministry of Health opened the Latin American School of
Medicine. Today it has enrolled 3,400 students from 23
countries. The Latin American and Caribbean nations
represented include Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El
Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, the Dominican Republic,
Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, Brazil,
Uruguay and Argentina. The African nations are Equatorial
Guinea, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau and Nigeria.
Fifty-six percent of the students are women. When the school
reaches capacity there will be 10,000 youths in the program.
The Cuban government pays all tuition, room and board, and
an allowance. The students also receive one paid trip home
to visit their families each year.
This is a six-year medical training program. The first two
years are a pre-med program. Then the students are
integrated into Cuba's 20 medical schools.
CUBA OFFERS TO TRAIN AFRICAN AMERICANS
In a speech at New York's Riverside Church last September,
President Fidel Castro stated, "Cuba has reduced its infant
mortality from 60 per 1,000 live births in the first year of
life to less than 7 deaths per 1,000." How does this compare
with U.S. infant mortality?
Take Washington as an example. The U.S. capital is a tale of
two cities. One part is the home of the administrative
branch of U.S. imperialism. The other is the home of an
impoverished, super-oppressed African American community.
The rate of infant mortality in Washing ton is twice as high
as in socialist Cuba.
There are other examples. According to Harper's Index, 79
countries, including Cuba, have a lower infant mortality
rate than Harlem, New York.
While Castro was in the United States he met with members of
the Congressional Black Caucus. He spoke with a
representative from Mississippi who stated that in his
district there were areas with no doctors.
Castro responded, "I see you are the Third World of the
United States... We are prepared to send you a few doctors
free of charge, the same as we do for other countries of the
Third World.
"And," the Cuban president added, "we are prepared to grant
a number of scholarships to poor youths in your district who
cannot afford to pay $200,000 to get the degree. It should
be noted there are many ghettos, barrios, Native
reservations and rural towns in the U.S. without doctors, as
well."
At this meeting, Castro offered 500 scholarships for
indigent students from the U.S. to go to medical school in
Cuba.
EMPHASIS ON PREVENTIVE MEDICINE
In the early days of the revolution, Che Guevara gave a
speech to medical students. He said: "Medicine will have to
convert itself into a science that serves to prevent disease
and orients the public toward carrying out its medical
duties. Medicine should only intervene in cases of extreme
urgency, to perform surgery or something else that lies
outside the skills of the people of the new society we are
creating...
"The work of the Ministry of Health is to provide public
health services to the greatest possible number of people
and to institute a program of preventative medicine and
hygienic practices..."
The people of Cuba have put these words into practice--and
not only in Cuba. They have sent thousands of doctors to
Latin American and Africa and are training new health-care
workers from those countries to help them develop modern,
comprehensive health-care programs. This effort is based on
Cuba's invaluable experience in building a revolutionary
socialist health-care system.
The writer visited the Latin American School of Medicine in
November as a delegate to the Second World Meeting
of Friendship and Solidarity with Cuba.
- END -
====================================*NATIONAL ASSEMBLY RECOGNIZES WORK OF
CUBANS IN 2000
Havana, December 26 (RHC)--The National Assembly of the
People's
Power approved a resolution to recognize the Cuban people's
struggle
during this past year.
In an article published in Tuesday's Granma daily, the National
Assembly says that with days away from the 42nd anniversary
of the
triumph of the Cuban Revolution - when the country's
independence was
finally achieved - the Cuban people over 2000 continued their
struggle, in patriotic unity and resistance.
The battle for the return of Elian Gonzalez to the custody of his
father, when millions of men, women and children expressed
their
condemnation over the illegal detention of the Cuban child,
was a
concrete example of the country's unity.
The Cuban people, cites the National Assembly resolution,
maintained
their struggle during 2000 with their continued condemnation of
Washington's anti-Cuba policy and demanded an end to the
criminal
Cuban Adjustment Act.
The island's continued economic recovery is also attributed to
the
Cuban people's efforts in developing the country.
This and many other reasons prompted the National Assembly
to
congratulate its people for the historical victories achieved
during
the year.
The National Assembly Resolution ends by saying that the
Cuban
Revolution enters a new millennium firm and secure. The
Cuban people
walk confident towards the future.
*CUBA'S TRADE EXCHANGE SURPASSES $5 billion
Havana, December 26 (RHC)--Cuba's trade exchange
surpassed $5 billion
with the involvement of over three thousand firms from 50
countries,
according to the President of Cuba's Chamber of Commerce
Antonio Luis
Carricarte.
He added that among some of the sectors that have improved
on the
island are oil, nickel, gas, steel and electricity. The Cuban
official pointed out that there are currently over 4500 economic
joint ventures with foreign investment, mainly with Spain,
Canada,
Italy, Britain and France.
Referring to foreign trade the capacity to purchase increased
although the figures that the island had in the 1980's still
surpass
the current situation. He said that ties with Latin America and
the
Caribbean represent between 25 to 30 per cent of the total
exchange
although priority is on CARICOM member nations.
*TORRENTIAL RAINS KILL 2, CAUSE SERIOUS DAMAGE
Havana December 26 (RHC)--The recent torrential rains that
hit Cuba
over the last four days have provoked the death of two people,
injured four, and brought about the collapse of 135 homes
rendering
over 600 people homeless in Havana alone.
In the central province of Villa Clara some 400 homes and
multifamily buildings were damaged due to serious leaks.
Potato and
tobacco plantations were also damaged in the province.
According to the island's Meteorological Institute the major rain
fell in the town of El Santo in central Ciego de Avila province
with
509 millimeters, Cayo Coco with 321 millimeters, Sagua la
Grande with
306, and Baracoa Beach with 2477 millimeters.
In Havana strong winds registering up to 60 kilometers per
hour have
also inflicted damage to the city. Experts predict less rain in
the
coming days.
*CUBAN SONG CONTEST BEGINS
Havana, December 26 (RHC)--The Adolfo Guzman Song
Contest kicked off
on Monday at Havana's Karl Marx Theater with the
participation of
Cuban composers and singers.
During the first night of the competition 17 singers performed
the
songs of Cuban newcomers and professional composers,
which were among
over 800 pieces that competed to reach the finals.
For the Radio and Television Institute, which co-sponsored the
national contest along with the Karl Marx Theater, the contest
was a
complex challenge after having been postponed for a period
ten years.
This national song contest gives newcomers as well as
renowned
composers the chance of having their songs first heard among
the
Cuban people.
The Adolfo Guzman Song Contest will resume Tuesday night
and the
winners will be announced on Wednesday.
*CUBAN WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL TEAM SELECTED
BEST TEAM IN 2000
Havana, December 26 (RHC)--Cuba's women's volleyball
team, which is
three time Olympic champion and Grand Prix winner, was
selected as
the island's Best Team for the year 2000.
Awards also went to volleyball as sports of the year, individual
sports with relevant results were boxing, track and field, judo and a
special mention to wrestling and taekwondo.
The Cuban Sports Institute and Sports Journalists Association also
awarded Olympic gold medallist boxers Felix Savon, Jorge Gutierrez
and Mario Kindelan, as well as track and field stars Ivan Pedroso and
Anier Garcia as best athletes of the year.
The President of the Cuban Sports Institute, Humberto Rodriguez
presented, Tuesday, the award on Tuesday during an activity in the
sports center.
*CUBAN JAZZ ALBUM "INVITATION" PROMOTES CUBAN MUSIC
Havana, December 26 (RHC)--It arrived and it stayed. Cuban music took
a trip around the world and made itself richer. With these words
begins the note on the album "Invitation" featuring pianist composer
Roberto Carcasses and a great band that groups his father Bobby
Carcasses, the creator of the Havana International Jazz Festival
since 1980, and other guest stars from Habana Ensemble and Clave y
Guaguanco.
This CD is the first of a series entitled "The Cuban Jazz
Project"
produced this year (2000) under the lead of Rodolfo de
Athayde for
Velas Records in Brazil. This is also the vision of another
pianist
Ivan Lins, a recognized singer and songwriter and pianist from
the
Amazon giant who has fallen in love with Cuban rhythms.
"Invitation"
by Roberto Carcasses is a highly recommendable album with
the newest
of the new in Cuban Jazz. You can meet him often playing live
with
his quartet at La Zorra y el Cuervo Jazz Club in Havana on 3rd
St.
between N and O Vedado,, Tel (537) 66 224 02.
(c) 2000 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights
reserved.
=======================================The Miami Machine: Cuban American Terrorists Triumph in
Election 2000
by Felix Martinez 12/13/00
The terrorist minority in the Cuban American community have
long had an
influence disproportionate to their numbers and this has proven
especially
true in Election 2000. One major event they helped engineer
was the
decision of the Miami Dade Canvassing Board to stop the
recount -- this
proved to be at the heart of the case in front of the Supreme
Court and
was
thus decisive for Bush, who asked the court to enforce that
decision.
The Cuban right wing is very close to Jeb Bush, who has
maintained ties
with major Cuban American criminal figures, including the
author of the
largest HMO fraud in US history. The building that houses the
all-powerful
Cuban American National Foundation's headquarters
happens to be owned
and managed by IntrAmerican Investments, whose president
is Jeb Bush.
Bush and the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF)
are allies in the
effort to end affirmative action in Florida, the "One Florida"
intiative.
After the
Elian affair, the Cuban right had it in for the Dems and vowed
to seek
revenge
for what they perceived to be a massive insult to their cause.
There was substantial Miami Cuban right wing involvement in
the Miami
Dade
Canvassing Board decision to stop the recount: the mob
which intimidated
the Board was urged on by no less than two Cuban American
members of
Congress over the radio and on-site, in effect giving them the
green
light.
The
Gully reports that Congresswoman "Ros-Lehtinen, who is
Cuban-American,
was protesting against the recount outside the Miami-Dade
county
building
last week while Sweeney was getting ready to utter his fateful
phrase
inside.
Both she and Representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart, the other
Cuban-born
Republican in the U.S. Congress, had called on Cuban-
Americans to join
the
protest, in on-site interviews granted to Radio Mambi, Miami's
biggest
Spanish-language station." Both members of Congress
support and are
supported by the all powerful Cuban American National
Foundation, the
CANF.
The mob consisted of a mix of Cuban American thugs and
Republican
politicos from out of town, a mix reminiscent of Watergate.
Whether they
actually intimidated the commission or not is of course
disputed but it
is
irrelevant for as the Gully reports, "two of the three canvassing
board
members ... county judges Myriam Lehr, an Independent, and
Lawrence D.
King, a Democrat, were re-elected to the bench thanks to the
cut-throat
political consultant Armando Gutierrez, last spotted as the
'spokesman'
for
Elian's Miami relatives." You'll remember Gutierrez as the
political
consultant
who was paid $10,000 by the Family Court judge who ordered
Elian into
the
custody of his Miami relatives. Gutierrez was very busy citing
human
rights
abuses in Cuba as a reason for Elian to stay in Miami, land of
the free.
We also have word from Peter Dale Scott that "Elections
supervisor David
Leahy of the Miami-Dade Canvassing Board, one of the three
who voted to
stop the recount, works for [Miami Mayor Alex] Penelas."
Mayor Penelas
also featured prominently in the Elian affair, siding with the
hard
liners.
Scott
is the co-author of Cocaine Politics and of an informative
memorandum on
Jose Basulto, another CANF ally who is at the heart of the
current US
Cuba
phone dispute.
After their victory in shutting down the recount, Republican
operatives
had
a
party and Wayne Newton crooned the song 'Danke Schoen,'
German for
thank you. This victory has proven crucial for Bush, who
personally
called
to
thank the Republican operatives at that party but kept the
Cuban
American
participation in low profile.
Note the role of Radio Mambi in mobilizing the Miami mob,
the same role
it
played in the Elian case. The term Mambi is a despicable use
of the name
of
the Mambi, a Congo term that was applied to the Army of
Liberation that
freed Cuba from the Spanish crown in the 19th century. After
the 80%
black
Mambi army led by General Antonio Maceo defeated the
Spaniards, the
Spanish Cubans sided with the US and encouraged the US
intervention in
the Spanish American War in 1898 to steal the fruits of the
Mambi
victory.
After that, they worked with the US to control Cuba and
concocted the
pretext for destroying the Independents of Color, the first all
black
political
party outside of Haiti in this Hemisphere -- the 1912 massacre
in which
6,000 AfroCubans, many of them Mambi veterans, were
liquidated,
including
the entire leadership of los Independientes. This set the tone
for years
to
come. The Miami Machine is the spiritual heir to this sorry
history and
their
use of the word Mambi is the most cynical of ploys.
Persuing Election 2000, the present day version of 1898 and
1912, we
note
that Cubans in Miami transferred the skills they had in Cuba
around
elections to elections in Miami, which are replete with the
dead voting
and
numerous instances of electoral fraud. One former mayor of
Miami,
Xavier
"Mayor Loco" Suarez, an ally of the Cuban American National
Foundation
(CANF), was tossed out of office in 1998 after it was proved
he tampered
with
absentee ballots. The "derided ex-mayor of Miami, Xavier
Suarez ... now
sits
on the executive committee of the Miami-Dade Republican
party and was
specifically involved this year in helping get out the Republican
vote...
and in
filling out absentee ballot forms." Feed Daily goes on to report
on
"Mayor
Loco" Suarez's trajectory in Election 2000.
An article in the London Times on 11/13 had the Gore camp
asking the FBI
to investigate voter fraud in Miami, largely in the 440,000
strong
African
American community. This story was completely ignored in the
US.
Curious,
since the London Times is a well known and respected publication. Well,
perhaps not so curious. We hear that the New York Times newsroom, the
gatekeeper for much of the news in the US, made a conscious decision to
downplay racial issues in the election debacle. Perhaps it was said,
"We're
all Americans here!"
There may have been less than total interest on the part of the CANF and
their allies in the outcome since Senator Lieberman is a solid CANF
backer --
he owes his first senate victory over the venerable Lowell Weicker to
the
CANF and their money. Weicker, a Connecticut Republican, had come out
against the embargo... For more on this see Lieberman a close ally of
Miami's Cuban exiles, 8/11/00 and Lieberman a friend to Cuban-Americans,
8/8/00.
Nevertheless, emotions in little Havana ran very high over Elian, and
many
of
the nearly 1 million Cubans in Miami Dade voted against Gore because of
that. Interestingly enough, Gore still probably actually won Miami Dade
(if
there is ever an accurate count), as there are so many other folks
besides
right wing Cubans -- moderate Cubans, 200,000 Haitians, 700,000 non-
Cuban latinos, 440,000 African Americans, and other voters who don't
follow
the Miami Machine but have to live under its rule.
We have not even touched upon the CANF and their allies' funding of US
elections across the country, sometimes using government subsidies to in
effect bribe the government.
Nor have we tracked the moves made by CANF funded politicians to tear
down the Dems effort to contest the Bush coup d'etat. Robert Torricelli,
Democrat of New Jersey, is heavily funded by the CANF and crafted
legislation tightening the blockade against Cuba. He broke ranks with
the
Dems and called for Gore to give up a week or more before the Supreme
Court ruling. Bob Graham, the democratic senator from Florida and
another
recipient of CANF largess, figured prominently on news shows following
Gore's concession speech. Curious also how Ed Rendell, the prosecutor
who framed Mumia and later became mayor of Philadelphia and Chairman of
the Democratic National Comittee, was the first party official to call
for
Gore
to pack it in after the Supreme Court ruling. He was immediately
repudiated
by his party.
All in all, the Cuban daily Granma's editorial "Banana Republic" on
November
8th proved remarkably accurate -- the comrades know their
enemy well.
The
Supreme Court had their chance to decide whether the United
States would
continue to be dominated by the curious alliance between Cuban American
terrorists and US conservatives. Now it's on to the next made in Miami
spectacular as the artful heirs of 1912 enjoy an increased measure of
influence over the US government.
See also USA's Major Electoral Scandal Occurs in Territory of Right-Wing
Exiles, Radio Havana, 12/9/00
The article above is published on
http://afrocubaweb.com/miamimachine.htm
======================================***Cuba Information Access ***
The current events in La Republica de Cuba...
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