Obama Calls for Increased anti-Cuba Budget
Despite the budget crisis that is overwhelming the White House, President Barack Obama has called for increased funding for the operations of his government against Cuba during the fiscal year 2012.
The draft federal budget for that period, which begins on October 1, 2011, increased by more than four million dollars the money allocated last year for such actions, or an increase of 34 percent, official documents show, reports Prensa Latina.
These funds are intended to strengthen the work of the Interests Section of the United States in Havana (USIS), and the Office of Cuban Affairs which directs the policy towards the neighboring island from the State Department in Washington, says website www.cubamoneyproject.org.
Uragano Sandy a Cuba: una catastrofe ignorata dai media mainstream
Pecco io di malafede a pensare che lo facciano per avere argomenti contro il governo quando tra qualche mese i problemi per la popolazione saranno ancora ingenti ma i lettori/consumatori occidentali avranno rimosso l’uragano come possibile causale?
Capriles Radonski al asedio y asalto de la embajada Cuba en Venezuela. Golpe de estado abril 2002
Castro, Baseball and the Thought Police
What a pitiful spectacle. Ozzie Guillen, the hard-partying eccentric who manages the Florida Marlins, sits weeping in the harsh glare of TV lights, forced by his bosses to recant his praise for Fidel Castro. He’s already been punished with a five-game suspension, but the baseball thought-police won’t be placated until he does a literal “mea culpa.”
So, in his wonderfully mangled English, he begs forgiveness for saying “I love Fidel Castro…I respect Fidel Castro. You know why? A lot of people have wanted to kill Fidel Castro for the last 60 years, but that fucker is still here.” But what he really meant, he now says, is ever-so-subtly different: “Everybody in the world hates Fidel Castro, including myself.”
This is one of the coolest things I’ve ever found on YouTube.
Che Guevara interviewed in Dublin, Ireland.
His interpreter was an air hostess and as you can see she is trying her best. What’s also amusing is the typically Irish question “There’s a lot of trouble in Cuba at the moment isn’t there?”
Che himself had Irish ancestry, his father being called Ernesto Guevara Lynch. One will notice the charisma that just radiates off this guy from this footage whether you entirely support or believe in his ideas.
Ay pobrecita la irlandesa, her Spanish is terrible. Still, el Che is here being a badass as always.
I assume this is the state broadcaster, RTE, interviewing Che, so it’s pretty surprising they couldn’t find anyone. Perhaps all the reactionary pro-Francoists speaking Castilian Spanish through Catholic educational and cultural links begged off.
(Fonte: un-punk)
A Cuban in Ireland: Dalai Lama, Limerick and yours truly
By Reinaldo Taladrid Herrero
The University was hosting a discussion on the “50th Anniversary of the Bay of Pigs Victory”, but a totally unexpected complication arose: a large audience had gathered at the University’s sports arena that same day for a speech to be delivered by none other than the Dalai Lama.
As I waited for my turn and the Dalai Lama spoke, the main local radio station called to ask whether I would be willing to grant a live interview about Cuba. I said yes, and a few minutes later I was on the air.
My interviewer began with the usual boilerplate topics, namely the “embargo” (that’s right, the well-known 50-year-old blockade), but no sooner had I started to answer than he interrupted me: “Sir, we’re sorry, but we must go to cover the speech the Dalai Lama is giving right here in our University as we speak. But if you don’t mind, please stay on the line. We’ll be back.”
By then the Dalai Lama was preaching “forgiveness, acceptance and serenity”. Suddenly I heard the voice of my presenter saying: “We’re back with Mr. Taladrid, the Cuban journalist, and my question is: Sir, what is Cuba like today, a brutal dictatorship or the picture-perfect paradise we see in your tourist ads?”
My answer: “Cuba is not a paradise; no country on Earth is. We have as many and diverse problems as any other country, although I’m glad to see that you’re familiar with our tourist industry. I suggest to your listeners that they should visit the Island, where they will find a very beautiful, safe, cultured and honorable nation. Whatever made you think that Cuba is a brutal dictatorship? What happens sometimes to honest, albeit misinformed, people is that they overlook the fact that Cuba is constantly examined in minute detail through the Hubble telescope, but those who describe it usually do it after a simple look through a pair of low-strength glasses that give you blurry, mistaken images.” But all of a sudden, as I was about to mention specific examples…
“Sir, I’m sorry, we’re going live again with the Dalai Lama’s speech, but please hold the line, because it seems our listeners are calling to ask questions about Cuba.”
The first publication in any language of Che Guevara’s controversial and critical analysis of the Soviet economic model. As minister for industry and head of Cuba’s National Bank, Che Guevara prepared this manuscript to compare the Cuban experience with that of the Soviet bloc. With extensive appendices, this is the complete anthology of Che Guevara on political economy.
Writing in 1965, Che explained his critique was necessary “because Marxist research in the field of the economy is proceeding along dangerous routes. The intransigent dogmatism of the Stalin era has been succeeded by an inconsistent pragmatism.” He justified what he described as his “heresy” by pointing to Marx’s statement in the first few pages of Capital, about “capitalism’s inability to criticize itself, using apologetics which now, unfortunately, can be applied to Marxist political economy.” He argued for doing away with capitalist concepts and formulas and concentrating instead on the motivation and development of individual human beings.
Published in association with the Che Guevara Studies Center in Havana.
Santago de Cuba: The former Moncada Army Barracks, now the 26th of July Historical Museum.
May Day 2011 - Havana, Cuba
Cosa succede a Cuba?
Periodicamente i media occidentali parlano di Cuba per metterne in luce questa o quella mancanza e annunciare l’imminente crollo del sistema socialista e il passaggio ad un’economia di mercato. È un gioco che si ripete abbastanza di frequente, ma – purtroppo per i cartomanti dell’economia nostrana – il tanto atteso crollo del sistema non accade mai, e ogni volta che si annuncia il passaggio al capitalismo, puntualmente i fatti smentiscono la propaganda. Propaganda, perché proprio di questo si tratta, e della peggior specie per giunta, il cui fine fondamentale è quello di dimostrare nell’immaginario collettivo che il sistema capitalista è l’ultimo orizzonte della storia dell’uomo, negando la possibilità stessa dell’esistenza di un’alternativa.
Young Cubans demonstrate their commitment to the revolution, February 2011.
Castro and Gagarin in Cuba, 1961
Si scopre che Europa-Press e altre agenzie riproducevano menzogne sulle Damas de Blanco
I cosiddetti “giornalisti indipendenti” cubani creano costantemente false accuse contro il governo cubano, che i media internazionali trasformano in notizie certe. L’agente Carlos Serpa smaschera il modus operandi delle agenzie internazionali.
Cuba and Venezuela Moving in Cooperation against the Media War
Authorities in Venezuela and Cuba on Thursday highlighted progress in bilateral cooperation to face the media war from powerful groups pushing against the two nations.
Cuban Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Ana Teresita Gonzalez said that the first of several inter Foreign Office sessions taking place in Caracas for communication and information issues was very valuable because at present both countries are being attacked by the big international media, Prensa Latina reported.
And the reality of Venezuela and Cuba is distorted, manipulated and often ignored, said Gonzalez told Prensa Latina.
She explained that during this conference, which will conclude tomorrow, they will develop a comprehensive program of visits and discussions with Venezuelan news media and institutions like the Ministry of Communication and Information.
Our countries must unite in the battle against all forms of media attack, considered the deputy minister, who yesterday gave a lecture on the Projection of Cuban politics today, at the Institute of Diplomatic Studies.
Gonzalez stressed the need to continue spreading the benefits the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our America has brought and its potential in economic and social integration.
For her part, Venezuelan Deputy Foreign Minister for Latin America and the Caribbean, Jacqueline Mendoza, stressed the importance of unity to face systematic attacks seeking to de-legitimatize the social, economic and political advances of the two nations.
Also in the meeting at the Yellow House, headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Edgar Padrón, director of the Office of Communications and Institutional Relations of the Foreign Ministry and Amenothep Zambrano, Executive Secretary of ALBA.
