Cuba to send doctors to help Nicaragua's Ortega

[Judi Lynn]

Cuba to send doctors to help Nicaragua's Ortega
01 Feb 2007 03:03:43 GMT
Source: Reuters

MANAGUA, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Cuba plans to send doctors and medicine to Nicaragua, extending its so-called medical diplomacy to the new government of leftist President Daniel Ortega, a longtime ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Cuba's top diplomat in Nicaragua, Manuel Guillot, said on Wednesday the doctors would work along the Caribbean coast, the most impoverished part of a country second only to Haiti as the poorest in the Americas.

He gave no more details but said the region had been "effectively abandoned in terms of sanitation."
(snip)

Cuba backed Ortega's ambitious adult literacy drive after the Sandinistas took power in a 1979 revolution, although the civil war and a U.S. blockade eventually wrecked the economy.
(snip/...)

http://mobile.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N31430606.htm

[kenny blankenship]

1. At first i thought this would be another sphincter replacement story

what a relief!

[Vidar]

2. This speaks well of Cuba & Nicaragua. Thanks Judy.

[marshall]

4. What happens when they botch the treatment?

Will Spain be ready to step in and correct the mistake?

[Mika]

6. Botched treatment from Cuba?

Like this program?


Oh yeah.. Cuba is a big failure. :crazy:

[marshall]

7. Literacy is one thing

Medical treatment is quite another.

But I'm a librarian and while Cuba may get kudos for teaching people to read, I'm extremely unhappy with them for jailing librarians who dare to stand up for intellectual freedom.

"Sometimes certain books have been published, the number does not matter. But as a matter of principle not a single book of such kind should be printed, not a single chapter, not a single page, not a single letter!"
- President Fidel Castro, speech before the National Congress on Culture and Education, April 30,1971

[Judi Lynn]

9. DU'ers have so much info. on Cuban "independent librarians" it's hard to chose

which ones to post. We've discussed them exhaustively here. "Librarian" apparently can be used to fit a wide range of activities, obviously!

CUBAN LIBRARIES SOLIDARITY GROUP
Testimony on Cuba

January 8, 2001


To: Pat Wand
Chairperson, ALA IRC Latin American & Caribbean Subcommittee

From: Ann C. Sparanese
SRRT Action Councilor

Subject: Hearing on Charges by "Friends of Cuban Libraries"

Thank you for inviting me to speak before your Subcommittee.These notes have been prepared for your consideration.

I am the head of Adult & Young Adult Services at the Englewood Public Library in New Jersey. I have been an active member of ALA for ten years. As well as serving on SRRT Action Council and its International Responsibilities Task Force, I have been a member of YALSA's Best Books for Young Adults Committee, the AFL-CIO/ALA Joint Committee on Library Service to Labor Groups, and I am the current Chairperson of RUSA's John Sessions Memorial Award Committee. I also have a long history of interest in, and travel to, Cuba. I attended the 1994 IFLA Conference in Havana and my most recent visit was this past November, when I visited Cuban libraries and met with Havana members of ASCUBI, the Cuban Library Association. I have followed with interest, and argued against, the allegations of Mr. Kent since he began his campaign in 1999. The Social Responsibilities Round Table passed the attached resolution regarding the FCL at midwinter conference one year ago. Mr. Kent would like to present his proposal as a no-brainer, a simple question, a single pure concept: intellectual freedom. But it is not. This paper is respectfully submitted with the hope that the subcommittee may approach Mr. Kent's requests with a fuller appreciation of history, the facts and the issues.
(snip)

~snip~
2. What Are the "Independent Libraries"?

The "independent libraries" are private book collections in peoples' homes. Mr. Kent and the right-wing Cuban-American propaganda outlets, call them "independent libraries" and even "public libraries." These "independent libraries" are one of a number of "projects" initiated and supported by a virtual entity calling itself "Cubanet"(www.cubanet.org) and an expatriate anti-Castro political entity calling itself the Directorio Revolucionario Democratico Cubano. The Cubanet website describes what the "independent libraries" are, how they got started and who funds and solicits for them. The index page says that the organization exists to "assist independent sector develop a civil society…" This is the wording used in both the Torricelli and the Helms Burton Acts, both of which require that the US government finance efforts to subvert the Cuban society in the name of strengthening "civil society." You will see on the "Who We Are" page that Cubanet, located in Hialeah, Florida, is financially supported by the National Endowment for Democracy, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and "private" "anonymous" donors. The "exterior" representative of the "independent libraries" is the Directorio Revoucionario Democratico Cubano, also located in Hialeah.

3. Who are the Independent Librarians?

You will read on the pages of Cubanet about the individual "libraries" and their personnel. Not one of the people listed is actually a librarian. Not one has ever been a librarian. Most, however, are leaders or officers of various dissident political parties, such as the Partido Cubano de Renovacion Ortodoxa and the Partido Solidaridad Democratica. This is documented on Cubanet, although Mr. Kent never mentions these party affiliations in his FCL press releases. We know absolutely nothing about the principles, programs or activities of these parties, or why they have been allegedly targeted. We don't know whether their activities are lawful or unlawful under Cuban law. Kent maintains that their activities are solely related to their books - but in reality we have no idea whether this is true and in fact, one of these "librarians" told one of our ALA colleagues that this was not true! By using the terms "beleaguered," "librarians" and the buzzwords "freedom of expression" and "colleagues" Mr. Kent hopes to get the a priori support of librarians who might not look beneath this veneer. After all, isn't this the reason that the subcommittee will be considering their case in the first place? But I wonder if ALA is willing to establish the precedent that all politicians with private book collections who decide to call themselves "librarians," are therefore our "colleagues"?

4. Who funds Cubanet, the Directorio, and the "independent libraries" - and why is this important?

A recent book entitled Psy War Against Cuba by Jon Elliston (Ocean Press, 1999), reveals, using declassified US government documents, the history of a small piece of the 40-year-old propaganda war waged by our country against the government of Cuba. The US has spent hundreds of millions of taxpayers' dollars over these years to subvert and overthrow the current Cuban government - US activities have included complete economic embargo, assassinations and assassination attempts, sabotage, bombings, invasions, and "psyops." When even the fall of the Soviet Union and the devastation of the Cuban economy in the early 1990's did not produce the desired effect, the US embarked on additional, subtler, campaigns to overthrow the Cuban government from within. One element of this approach is the funneling of monetary support to dissident groups wherever they can be found, or created. This includes bringing cash into the country through couriers such as Mr. Kent, and increasing support to expatriate groups operating inside the US, such as the Directorio, Cubanet and especially, the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF)
(snip/...)

Ann C. Sparanese,MLS
Head of Adult & Young Adult Services
Englewood Public Library
Englewood, NJ 07631

http://www.cubanlibrariessolidaritygroup.org.uk/articles/1_8_01.html

[Judi Lynn]

10. More on the information you appear to need to read:

Kent's ALA Campaign Rebuked at Conference
Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2001 17:38:53 -0500
From: Mark Rosenzweig <iskraearthlink.net>
To: srrtac-lala.org, plgnet-llistproc.sjsu.edu

Dear friends,

It seems only fair that I should tell you briefly, in a timely way, what
happened with what came to be called the "Cuba issue" at the mid-winter
conference of ALA. I will leave it to others more intimately involved to
give you the blow-by-blow description.

Robert Kent and his Friends of Cuban Libraries (FCL) group made their big
play for ALA support through the ALA International Relations Committee
(IRC), more precisely, at a meeting of the IRC's Latin America
Subcommittee. He and several supporters, Cuban-Americans (non-librarians, I
believe), made their case, as you have heard it repeatedly made on our
listservs. The case against Kent was made by our friends, Ann Sparanese
and Rhonda Neugebauer, whose reports to the committee will be made
available shortly on these lists and on the PLG and SRRT/IRTF listservs.

They brilliantly, systematically and cooly laid out the case that Kent and
FCL were not independent; that the "independent librarians" in question
were not librarians and not independent,; that the FCL case was based on
rumor,hearsay, deception, and partisan campaigning; that the FCL relied
heavily --and led others to rely -- on the partisan CubaNet --a propaganda
organ of the US National Endowment for Democracy for "news" from Cuba; that
FCL had misled IFLA's FAIFE into basing its letter in support of the
allegedly independent librarians on dubious testimony which was unverified;
that the brief references to the "independents" in the Amnesty
International report were never substantiated or confirmed; that the
evidence about the nature of Cuban librarianship and the national library
assocition (ASCUBI) was a misrepresentation; and that the evidence put
forward to the IRC characterizing the independent librarians, their mission
and their plight was highly suspect and contradicted everything which
people like John Pateman, Rhonda Neugebauer, Larry Oberg, eyewitnesses who
sought out these independent libraries, observed. I can't due justice here
to the effcetiveness of their presentations.

The result was that the IRC LA Subcommittee, which had prepared itself by
examining a truly impressive amount of documentation, issued a report
which, citing the complexity of the issue and the conflicting evidence and
testimony, recommended that the IRC and ALA Council take no action, i.e.
that they reject Kent's appeal. They further condemned all attempts to
block the flow of information between nations, including equally the US
blockade and censorship in this country and whatever forms of censorship
exist in Cuba, stating moreover that heightened official relations between
ALA and ASCUBI would be a powerful force for mutual development and
encouraging librarians in the US to avail themselves of whatever
opportunities there were to meet and discuss with their Cuban colleagues.

The report of the IRC, brought to ALA Council, was accepted without
dissent. Therefore, the campaign to win recognitiuon by ALA by Robert Kent
& his FCL was soundly defeated. This doesn't meab he is necessarily going
to relent. So one shouldn't be surprised to hear more from him -- possibly
misrepresenting what occured at mid-winter. The report of the subcommitte
of the IRC is, however, available for your examination.
(snip)

9. What about our real colleagues - the librarians of Cuba?

The charges that have been spread by Kent and his FCL have deeply
offended our real colleagues, the librarians of Cuba, and our sister
library association, ASCUBI. Our real colleagues are beleaguered by
shortages of things as simple as paper, professional literature,
computers and printers - and much of this has to do with their
inability, because of the US blockade, to purchase any items from US
companies (or foreign companies doing business with the US).
Computers cannot be brought to Cuba from the US legally, even as a
donation by licensed travelers. True "friends of Cuban libraries"
would be concerned about these matters. It is time that we begin to
know our real counterparts/colleagues in Cuba. It is time that we
begin to have the kinds of conversations and exchanges on all subjects
-- including intellectual freedom and censorship. It is US policy,
not Cuban policy, which prevents us from doing so. As the
representative of US librarians, the ALA has an obligation first to
address our own country's limitation of freedom of expression and the
freedom to travel, then to criticize others. The American Library
Association cannot allow itself to be the willing instrument of a US
government/CANF-sponsored disinformation campaign. If the ALA takes
any action at all on Cuba, it should be to call for an end to the
embargo and the hostile US policy towards Cuba which harms the
democratic rights, including freedom of expression, of both the Cuban
and US people. ALA should begin in the spirit of the resolution
passed by the US librarians who attended the IFLA conference in Havana
in August 1994,
(snip/...)

http://www.libr.org/juice/issues/vol4/LJ_4.9.sup.html

[marshall]

17. Here is the American Library Association's more recent view:

http://www.ala.org/ala/iro/iroactivities/alacubanlibraries.htm

They are in my view shining the light equally on our government as well as the Cuban government.

[Judi Lynn]

20. Here's something from the A.L.A. which might be helpful:

International Responsibilities Task Force
of the American Library Association's
Social Responsibilities Round Table

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Resolution on Cuban Libraries

The following resolution was adopted by the elected representatives of the Social Responsibilities Round Table (SRRT) on January 17, 2000. SRRT is a body within the American Library Association but does not and should not be taken to speak for the Association as a whole. In this resolution SRRT speaks only on its own behalf.

Moved by Ann Sparanese. Seconded by Mark Rosenzweig
Text in Spanish
Social Responsibilites Round Table Newsletter, No. 134, June 2000 (p.4-5).

WHEREAS the United States has engaged in a documented forty-year war of invasion, assassination attempts, propaganda and economic blockade against Cuba, which has contributed to the limitation of the democratic rights of the Cuban people; and

WHEREAS this policy has also restricted the democratic rights of the U.S. people, whose access to information has been limited and whose right to travel freely to Cuba has been denied; and

WHEREAS we, as librarians, do not condone the restriction of free expression anywhere in the world -including Cuba and the United States - but we believe that, as U.S. citizens, the best way to support the extension of democracy in both countries is to end the economic blockade against Cuba and to normalize relations between the two countries; and

WHEREAS in October 1999, the FAIFE committee of IFLA published a report concerning the alleged intimidation of individuals in Cuba calling themselves "independent librarians," based on information provided by a group calling itself the "Friends of Cuban Libraries," and a United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-supported Florida website called CubaNet; and

WHEREAS, the purpose of USAID is to advance the foreign policy interests of the United States; and

WHEREAS the co-chairman of the "Friends of Cuban Libraries" is a Cuban expatriate economist, who also works for the U.S. government's Radio Marti; and

WHEREAS, this group of "independent librarians" are not librarians, but political dissidents of various professions apparently establishing centers of information in their homes or storefronts, and supported by funds and materials from such organizations as Freedom House, which is subsidized by the U.S. government; and

WHEREAS, any U.S.-based organization calling itself "Friends of Cuban Libraries" which does not forthrightly call for an end to the U.S. blockade against Cuba, is no friend of libraries, freedom of expression or democratic rights; therefore be it

RESOLVED that

1) The Social Responsibilities Round Table of ALA rejects the program and position advocated by the "Friends Libraries" as an instrument of the continuing propaganda campaign being waged against Cuba by right-wing Cuban extremists in the U.S. and financed by U.S. government agencies;

2) SRRT supports an increase of exchanges between U.S. librarians and Cuban librarians;

3) SRRT joins the British organization, Cuban Libraries Group which advocates a positive program of interaction with, and support for, libraries and librarians in Cuba;

4) SRRT calls for an immediate end to the travel ban, which restricts the right of all but "licensed" U.S. citizens to see Cuba for themselves;

5) SRRT calls for an immediate end to the blockade against Cuba as the best way to support the rights of all people in Cuba to free expression and self-determination, rights which are best exercised in a state of peace, not war;

6) SRRT further calls for the complete normalization of diplomatic and trade relations between the two countries as the best way to promote the exercise of democracy and free expression in both countries.

Page last modified July 9, 2002.
(snip/)

http://www.pitt.edu/~ttwiss/irtf/resolutions.cublibs.html

[marshall]

21. Note the dates

The links you have posted are 2001. I posted the 2004 posting to exhibit a more current view of the ALA. If you have anything more recent I would be very anxious to hear it. I was present for the discussions at ALA in New Orleans this last summer, I didn't hear anything significantly different from the 2004, other than further alarm that this hasn't been resolved.

[Judi Lynn]

23. Hmmm. Here's reference to a speech by Madeline Albright, made in 2006,

in which she criticises the A.L.A. for not supporting the U.S. funded "independent libraries." Apparently it was her believe, in May, 2006, that the current position at that time was NOT supportive of this sham operation:

July 1, 2006
Ann Sparanese’s letter to the Times-Picayune
The New Orleans Times Picayune published an article on Sunday about Madeleine Albright’s appearance at the ALA Conference. The article was focused on Albright’s comments about the Cuban “independent librarians,” which really only amounted to a couple of sentences, and provided background on the situation from an anti-Castro perspective. Clearly Robert Kent got to the Times-Picayune. Kent has a special expertise in public relations and dealing with the news media.

Ann Sparanese, ALA Council’s strongest supporter of Cuba’s professional librarians, wrote this letter in response:

6/25/06
To the Editor:

Re: Madeleine Albright speech at ALA, New Orleans (6/25/06)

Is it surprising that Madeleine Albright criticized the American Library Assocation for not supporting “freedoms” of so-called “independent librarians” in Cuba?

During Ms. Albright’s time as Secretary of State the Helms-Burton Act was passed: a U.S. law that mandates millions of US taxpayer dollars be spent on financing of “regime change” directed against Cuba. Included is funding for “independent librarians” and other dissidents activities.

If an enemy foreign government was financing political opponents for the purposes of “regime change” in the US, this would be against US law. Such people would be subject to long prison terms. Why should we expect Cuba to allow the kind of foreign intervention in their political system that we criminalize in our own country?

Ms. Albright did not note the violations of human rights at Guantanamo (Cuba) by the US, or the recent statewide banning of an innocuous children’s book about Cuba in Florida. It is apparently easier to engage in human rights hypocrisy and rhetoric than to deal with the truth. Ms. Albright has that in common with the Bush Administration, which she also criticised.

Ann Sparanese
Englewood, New Jersey
(snip/...)

http://libraryjuicepress.com/blog/?cat=24

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm getting really short on available time right now, for the evening, but this is NOT going to end with any endorsement of the U.S. paid agents operating bogus "libraries" for pay from the U.S. out of their homes, you can believe me. This activity is illegal in Cuba, and in the United States as well, in the reverse application.

I definitely intend to post more on this.

[marshall]

26. And how lucky you are ...

to be in a country where you can post such thoughts.

[Judi Lynn]

27. Oh, I'm not all that welcome to post such thoughts, as you know. It crosses my mind frequently

that I may very well be another person who gets watched by government stooges because I don't believe _Bush has done one decent thing in his life, and most particularly as the man who came into the Presidency the loathesome, treacherous way.

In case your memory is faulty, we've been reading these stories from the very first of _Bush's glorious pResidential career:

The New McCarthyism
Matthew Rothschild, USA
January 1, 2002

Donna Huanca works as a docent at the Art Car Museum, an avant-garde gallery in Houston. Around 10:30 on the morning of November 7, before she opened the museum, two men wearing suits and carrying leather portfolios came to her door.

"I told them to wait until we opened at 11:00," she recalls. "Then they pulled their badges out."

The two men were Terrence Donahue of the FBI and Steven Smith of the Secret Service.

"They said they had several reports of anti-American activity going on here and wanted to see the exhibit," she says. The museum was running a show called "Secret Wars," which contains many anti-war statements that were commissioned before September 11.
(snip)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She is a freshman at Durham Tech in North Carolina. Her name is A.J. Brown. She's gotten a scholarship from the ACLU to help her attend college. But that didn't prepare her for the knock on the door that came on October 26. "It was 5:00 on Friday, and I was getting ready for a date," she says. When she heard the knock, she opened the door. Here's her account.

"Hi, we're from the Raleigh branch of the Secret Service," two agents said.

"And they flip out their little ID cards, and I was like, 'What?'

"And they say, 'We're here because we have a report that you have un-American material in your apartment.'

And I was like, 'What? No, I don't have anything like that.'

"'Are you sure? Because we got a report that you've got a poster that's anti-American.'

"And I said no."

They asked if they could come into the apartment. "Do you have a warrant?" Brown asked. "And they said no, they didn't have a warrant, but they wanted to just come in and look around.

And I said, 'Sorry, you're not coming in.'"

One of the agents told Brown, "We already know what it is. It's a poster of Bush hanging himself," she recalls. "And I said no, and she was like, 'Well, then, it's a poster with a target on Bush's head,' and I was like, nope."
(snip/...)

http://www.wworld.org/archive/archive.asp?ID=67

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

DU'ers read and discussed these stories LONG ago, many fired teachers and office workers with the "wrong" political views ago, many beaten people (and a few killed) ago who simply looked like the people _Bush has designated as enemies, not to mention all those rounded up everywhere and tortured, and hurled into prisons for undisclosed reasons, where they remain.

[marshall]

28. Is Brown connected somehow to Cuba?

I am familiar with the story, but wasn't aware of the connection.

[Judi Lynn]

30. You know, I have to wonder!

I wonder why you give yourself complete freedom to wander here and there in your posts, but feel it'd only be right to try a "sly" kick at me!

From what I can determine, my post was a little closer to the subject at hand being discussed (freedom of expression, apparently????? :eyes: ) than was yours:

marshall (416 posts) Fri Feb-02-07 02:01 PM
Response to Reply #6
7. Literacy is one thing
Medical treatment is quite another.

But I'm a librarian and while Cuba may get kudos for teaching people to read, I'm extremely unhappy with them for jailing librarians who dare to stand up for intellectual freedom.

"Sometimes certain books have been published, the number does not matter. But as a matter of principle not a single book of such kind should be printed, not a single chapter, not a single page, not a single letter!"
- President Fidel Castro, speech before the National Congress on Culture and Education, April 30,1971

Or am I to understand YOU'll be the "Decider" of how to direct the flow of the conversation.

[marshall]

31. I was just looking for the connection

I didn't get it. My initial post wasn't about freedom to read. I asked if Spanish doctors would be on hand to fix the job done by the Cuban doctors sent elsewhere. I found it almost comical that Cuba of all places would be sending doctors abroad after presumably the best doctors to be had in the country botched Castro's bowel surgery leading to what must have been a miserable period before he was finally flowen to Spain for life saving treatment to reverse the initial treatment. From there the conversation turned to Cuba's literacy rates--which reportedly are outstanding. But if the public can only have access to nondissenting book I believe that lessens the value of reading, at least for the individual. It would still be great for the state to have highly literate people who only read authorized material--and then we're back to Orwell's 1984.

[Judi Lynn]

32. Did you read the material written by people who had personally looked

at "independent libraries" and witnessed they had NOTHING not available in Cuban libraries?

You are attempting to distract attention from the fact these bogus "librarians" are paid by the U.S. Interests Section. READ THE MATERIAL posted above.

As for Cuba's missing medical equipment? Why is it, do you think, they don't have what is needed there?

"Denial of Food and Medicine:
The Impact Of The U.S. Embargo
On The Health And Nutrition In Cuba"
-An Executive Summary-
American Association for World Health Report
Summary of Findings
March 1997


After a year-long investigation, the American Association for World Health has determined that the U.S. embargo of Cuba has dramatically harmed the health and nutrition of large numbers of ordinary Cuban citizens. As documented by the attached report, it is our expert medical opinion that the U.S. embargo has caused a significant rise in suffering-and even deaths-in Cuba. For several decades the U.S. embargo has imposed significant financial burdens on the Cuban health care system. But since 1992 the number of unmet medical needs patients going without essential drugs or doctors performing medical procedures without adequate equipment-has sharply accelerated. This trend is directly linked to the fact that in 1992 the U.S. trade embargo-one of the most stringent embargoes of its kind, prohibiting the sale of food and sharply restricting the sale of medicines and medical equipment-was further tightened by the 1992 Cuban Democracy Act.

A humanitarian catastrophe has been averted only because the Cuban government has maintained a high level of budgetary support for a health care system designed to deliver primary and preventive health care to all of its citizens. Cuba still has an infant mortality rate half that of the city of Washington, D.C.. Even so, the U.S. embargo of food and the de facto embargo on medical supplies has wreaked havoc with the island's model primary health care system. The crisis has been compounded by the country's generally weak economic resources and by the loss of trade with the Soviet bloc.

Recently four factors have dangerously exacerbated the human effects of this 37-year-old trade embargo. All four factors stem from little-understood provisions of the U.S. Congress' 1992 Cuban Democracy Act (CDA):

1. A Ban on Subsidiary Trade: Beginning in 1992, the Cuban Democracy Act imposed a ban on subsidiary trade with Cuba. This ban has severely constrained Cuba's ability to import medicines and medical supplies from third country sources. Moreover, recent corporate buyouts and mergers between major U.S. and European pharmaceutical companies have further reduced the number of companies permitted to do business with Cuba.

2. Licensing Under the Cuban Democracy Act: The U.S. Treasury and Commerce Departments are allowed in principle to license individual sales of medicines and medical supplies, ostensibly for humanitarian reasons to mitigate the embargo's impact on health care delivery. In practice, according to U.S. corporate executives, the licensing provisions are so arduous as to have had the opposite effect. As implemented, the licensing provisions actively discourage any medical commerce. The number of such licenses granted-or even applied for since 1992-is minuscule. Numerous licenses for medical equipment and medicines have been denied on the grounds that these exports "would be detrimental to U.S. foreign policy interests."

3. Shipping Since 1992:The embargo has prohibited ships from loading or unloading cargo in U.S. ports for 180 days after delivering cargo to Cuba. This provision has strongly discouraged shippers from delivering medical equipment to Cuba. Consequently shipping costs have risen dramatically and further constricted the flow of food, medicines, medical supplies and even gasoline for ambulances. From 1993 to 1996, Cuban companies spent an additional $8.7 million on shipping medical imports from Asia, Europe and South America rather than from the neighboring United States.

4. Humanitarian Aid: Charity is an inadequate alternative to free trade in medicines, medical supplies and food. Donations from U.S. non-governmental organizations and international agencies do not begin to compensate for the hardships inflicted by the embargo on the Cuban public health system. In any case, delays in licensing and other restrictions have severely discouraged charitable contributions from the U.S.

Taken together, these four factors have placed severe strains on the Cuban health system. The declining availability of food stuffs, medicines and such basic medical supplies as replacement parts for thirty-year-old X-ray machines is taking a tragic human toll. The embargo has closed so many windows that in some instances Cuban physicians have found it impossible to obtain life-saving medicines from any source, under any circumstances. Patients have died. In general, a relatively sophisticated and comprehensive public health system is being systematically stripped of essential resources. High-technology hospital wards devoted to cardiology and nephrology are particularly under siege. But so too are such basic aspects of the health system as water quality and food security. Specifically, the AAWH's team of nine medical experts identified the following health problems affected by the embargo:

1. Malnutrition: The outright ban on the sale of American foodstuffs has contributed to serious nutritional deficits, particularly among pregnant women, leading to an increase in low birth-weight babies. In addition, food shortages were linked to a devastating outbreak of neuropathy numbering in the tens of thousands. By one estimate, daily caloric intake dropped 33 percent between 1989 and 1993.

2. Water Quality: The embargo is severely restricting Cuba's access to water treatment chemicals and spare-parts for the island's water supply system. This has led to serious cutbacks in supplies of safe drinking water, which in turn has become a factor in the rising incidence of morbidity and mortality rates from water-borne diseases.

3. Medicines & Equipment: Of the 1,297 medications available in Cuba in 1991, physicians now have access to only 889 of these same medicines - and many of these are available only intermittently. Because most major new drugs are developed by U.S. pharmaceuticals, Cuban physicians have access to less than 50 percent of the new medicines available on the world market. Due to the direct or indirect effects of the embargo, the most routine medical supplies are in short supply or entirely absent from some Cuban clinics.

4. Medical Information: Though information materials have been exempt from the U.S. trade embargo since 1 988, the AAWH study concludes that in practice very little such information goes into Cuba or comes out of the island due to travel restrictions, currency regulations and shipping difficulties. Scientists and citizens of both countries suffer as a result. Paradoxically, the embargo harms some U.S. citizens by denying them access to the latest advances in Cuban medical research, including such products as Meningitis B vaccine, cheaply produced interferon and streptokinase, and an AIDS vaccine currently under-going clinical trials with human volunteers.
(snip/...)

American Association for World Health
1825 K Street, NW, Suite 1208
Washington, DC 20006
Tel. [phone] / FAX [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

http://www.cubasolidarity.net/aawh.html

[Judi Lynn]

33. Cubans have the highest literacy rate in Latin America. You know that,

as a librarian, or you should.

Your attempt to keep the U.S. propaganda in place after it has already been debunked long ago is inappropriate. Some of us read for comprehension.

[marshall]

38. Yes, I said I know that

They have an extremely high literacy rate--and a correspondingly low freedom to access material to read.

The ALA has taken an increasingly more vocal stance against the lack of freedoms in Cuba. I find that along with M. Albright's speech (which I was present at) to be very compelling.

[Mika]

39. Link please.

Please post at least something that alleges that as to Cuba's high literacy rate that there is a correspondingly low freedom to access material to read.

I mean, does anyone really believe that the more literate Cuba became the less access to material they had?

So, by that logic, when Cuba had an oppressively low literacy/ed level, they had more access to material to read?

:crazy:




Before the 1959 revolution

75% of rural dwellings were huts made from palm trees.

More than 50% had no toilets of any kind.

85% had no inside running water.

91% had no electricity.

There was only 1 doctor per 2,000 people in rural areas.

More than one-third of the rural population had intestinal parasites.

Only 4% of Cuban peasants ate meat regularly; only 1% ate fish, less than 2% eggs, 3% bread, 11% milk; none ate green vegetables.

The average annual income among peasants was $91 (1956), less than 1/3 of the national income per person.

45% of the rural population was illiterate; 44% had never attended a school.

25% of the labor force was chronically unemployed.

1 million people were illiterate ( in a population of about 5.5 million).

27% of urban children, not to speak of 61% of rural children, were not attending school.

Racial discrimination was widespread.

The public school system had deteriorated badly.

Corruption was endemic; anyone could be bought, from a Supreme Court judge to a cop.

Police brutality and torture were common.

___



After the 1959 revolution
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43b/185.html

“It is in some sense almost an anti-model,” according to Eric Swanson, the programme manager for the Bank’s Development Data Group, which compiled the WDI, a tome of almost 400 pages covering scores of economic, social, and environmental indicators.

Indeed, Cuba is living proof in many ways that the Bank’s dictum that economic growth is a pre-condition for improving the lives of the poor is over-stated, if not, downright wrong.

-

It has reduced its infant mortality rate from 11 per 1,000 births in 1990 to seven in 1999, which places it firmly in the ranks of the western industrialised nations. It now stands at six, according to Jo Ritzen, the Bank’s Vice President for Development Policy, who visited Cuba privately several months ago to see for himself.

By comparison, the infant mortality rate for Argentina stood at 18 in 1999;

Chile’s was down to ten; and Costa Rica, at 12. For the entire Latin American and Caribbean region as a whole, the average was 30 in 1999.

Similarly, the mortality rate for children under the age of five in Cuba has fallen from 13 to eight per thousand over the decade. That figure is 50% lower than the rate in Chile, the Latin American country closest to Cuba’s achievement. For the region as a whole, the average was 38 in 1999.

“Six for every 1,000 in infant mortality - the same level as Spain - is just unbelievable,” according to Ritzen, a former education minister in the Netherlands. “You observe it, and so you see that Cuba has done exceedingly well in the human development area.”

Indeed, in Ritzen’s own field, the figures tell much the same story. Net primary enrolment for both girls and boys reached 100% in 1997, up from 92% in 1990. That was as high as most developed nations - higher even than the US rate and well above 80-90% rates achieved by the most advanced Latin American countries.

“Even in education performance, Cuba’s is very much in tune with the developed world, and much higher than schools in, say, Argentina, Brazil, or Chile.”

It is no wonder, in some ways. Public spending on education in Cuba amounts to about 6.7% of gross national income, twice the proportion in other Latin American and Caribbean countries and even Singapore.

There were 12 primary school pupils for every Cuban teacher in 1997, a ratio that ranked with Sweden, rather than any other developing country. The Latin American and East Asian average was twice as high at 25 to one.

The average youth (age 15-24) illiteracy rate in Latin America and the Caribbean stands at 7%. In Cuba, the rate is zero. In Latin America, where the average is 7%, only Uruguay approaches that achievement, with one percent youth illiteracy.

“Cuba managed to reduce illiteracy from 40% to zero within ten years,” said Ritzen. “If Cuba shows that it is possible, it shifts the burden of proof to those who say it’s not possible.”

Similarly, Cuba devoted 9.1% of its gross domestic product (GDP) during the 1990s to health care, roughly equivalent to Canada’s rate. Its ratio of 5.3 doctors per 1,000 people was the highest in the world.

The question that these statistics pose, of course, is whether the Cuban experience can be replicated. The answer given here is probably not.

“What does it, is the incredible dedication,” according to Wayne Smith, who was head of the US Interests Section in Havana in the late 1970s and early 1980s and has travelled to the island many times since.

[marshall]

41. Here's one

This has two features I like--an independent source outside of the US/Cubs dynamic (from New Zealand) and it is relatively recent (2005):

http://www.listener.co.nz/issue/3383/features/3596/writes_v_rights.html;jsessionid=58677C56015A14FB13C510450808F6EE

Writes v rights

In all the ruckus over Te Wananga o Aotearoa, one aspect fascinates. The Cubans. They are here, we are told, to teach literacy. Yet, they are paid by the Castro regime that bans books and jails librarians and journalists.

According to the Wananga website, it developed a learn-at-home literacy programme with the Latin American and Caribbean Pedagogical Institute (LACPI). LACPI is a partnership of 14 higher pedagogical institutes in Cuba. UNESCO has helped it under a university “twinning” programme begun in 1992.

At least that’s what it says on UNESCO’s website.

And the aims of LACPI? One is to support dialogue.

All of this would be great news for Ramon Colas, a Cuban jailed several times before 2002 for running a lending library that includes banned works such as Animal Farm, Nineteen Eighty-Four and the speeches of Martin Luther King Jr.

Castro critics have run small libraries from their homes since 1998 in defiance of censors. Then, a year ago, 14 members of Cuba’s Independent Library project were arrested on charges that included making available the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. About 65 others were also arrested, including journalists and human-rights activists. They are held in cells a metre wide and two metres high. Many of the prisoners, reports the Washington Post, are in ill-health.

Now a drive is under way by groups and individuals outraged over the jailings. In the US, protest signatures have been collected from American Library Association (ALA) members, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, PEN American Center, various state library associations, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, Barnes & Noble, New York University Press, Random House and Simon & Schuster.

Ironically, the governing council of the American Library Association turned down a plea from independent book lenders imprisoned in Cuba to demand that Fidel Castro release them and end the crackdown on free expression.

One result of this was that Nat Hentoff, human-rights columnist for New York’s Village Voice newspaper, publicly renounced a highly prized June 1983 award that he received from the ALA for courageous and articulate advocacy of the First Amendment.

Says Hentoff: “To me, it is no longer an honour.”

He points out that the decision contradicts the ALA’s principles, spelt out by ALA president Carla Hayden the same day that the plea was voted down.

In the San Diego Union-Tribune, Hayden wrote: “ALA and other library associations around the world have a long-standing commitment to intellectual freedom and access to information. It is a fundamental value that is near and dear to the hearts of all librarians, library workers and library supporters … ALA stands committed to the freedom to read freely.”

Wrote Hentoff: “That very day, the governing council of the ALA shamed rank-and-file librarians across this country, many of whom have been vigorously and publicly resisting the section of John Ashcroft’s Patriot Act that gives the FBI the power to search library records for the names of borrowers who have taken out books the FBI thinks may be linked to terrorism.”

Those calling for the release of the people arrested in Castro’s March 2003 crackdown include Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and former President Jimmy Carter.

Hentoff added: “I have known and respected many librarians around the country as they fought, sometimes in peril of their jobs, against censorship by local politicians, library boards and right-wing and left-wing politically correct pressure groups,” he said. “It is hard for me to believe that the majority of rank-and-file librarians agree with the spinelessness of their governing council.”

When internationally respected independent journalist Raul Rivero was tried in the Castro courtroom – from which foreign journalists and diplomats were barred – he was sentenced to 20 years for being an independent journalist.

His only crime is to write what he thinks, his wife, Blanca Reyes, said in a New York Times article. “What they found on him was a tape recorder, not a grenade.”

After international pressure, he was released last November.

All 75 of these prisoners of conscience, as Amnesty International has designated them, are the subject of a report by a representative of the UN high commissioner for human rights, French magistrate Christine Chanet. She reports that she “has received particularly alarming information about the conditions of detention of these people” in Castro’s “unprecedented wave of repression”.

“The State Department and human rights groups have appealed to Castro’s government to immediately release the most gravely ill prisoners,” said Eric Olson, the Americas’ advocacy director for Amnesty International in Washington.

The New Statesman recently published an article by Joan Smith, chair of the Prison Committee of English PEN, and Adolfo Fernandez Saínz, a journalist and politician serving a 15-year sentence as one of the 75 dissidents. Smith writes: “He is being held in a minuscule cell without any running water, electricity or the most basic hygiene facilities. Even so, Saínz has managed to write an article and smuggle it out of jail … We have recently heard that Saínz was badly beaten up last month.”

Saínz, the New Statesman says, is “likely to be denounced not just by his own government but by people on the left whose nostalgia for the Cuban revolution makes them wilfully blind to the abuses committed by this dinosaur Stalinist regime”.

Has the Wananga read all this?

[Mika]

42. First of all, they are NOT librarians - by their own words, they're "dissidents".

From a link that you posted..
http://www.ala.org/ala/pr2004/prjan2004/alacounciladopts.htm

Both delegations, which included leaders from ALA and IFLA, and members of IFLA's FAIFE and staff, used the opportunity to visit Cuban libraries and librarians and to meet with individual journalists, unionists, psychologists, and writers who had opened private library collections as "independent libraries" for other Cubans to use. Among the individuals met by ALA and IFLA members were Ramon Colas and Berta Mexidor, who were the founders of the "independent library" movement.

ALA and IFLA members and staff confirmed in discussions with the Cuban dissidents who opened private libraries, that these individuals did not consider themselves librarians, but described themselves as "political dissidents."

What are we to make of your article that dismisses the words of the subjects being discussed (and defended in the article you posted).

The founders of the "independent library" movement do not consider themselves librarians, but described themselves as "political dissidents."

Why should the ALA support and/or defend an illegal US funded "independent library" movement?

The IRC/IFC Task Force has reviewed ALA and IFLA documents and several reports by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch on the matter of the arrest, trial, and detention of the 75 Cubans in March and April 2003. All the information available to us indicates that none of the prisoners were charged with violent actions; rather, they were accused of collaborating with U.S. diplomats to undermine the state, and/or receiving American government funds.

There were no such charges against these people that included "making available the Universal Declaration of Human Rights". They were charged with treason by aiding and abetting the declared enemies of Cuba. The Nat Hentoff allegation of this is just plain ridiculous, because the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in its entirety is part of the Cuban constitution, which is taught at school as well as being available in full at bookstores and libraries all over Cuba. Plus, he is attempting to draw a parallel between US librarians (the ALA membership) and fake "librarians" in Cuba who don't even claim to be librarians, but dissidents on the US payroll. The ALA and Asociacion Cubana de Bibliotecarios (ASCUBI) do have a relationship, but they don't have a relationship with US paid political agents who's agenda is to overthrow the system of government.



Its easy for Nat Hentoff and his ilk to spew this crap to an audience that has not and cannot go to Cuba to see for themselves.

I have been there, and seen it with my own eyes.

[marshall]

45. Isn't that the point--they are not allowed to be librarians

It would be difficult for librarians such as we know (in the vein of Benjamin Franklin) to exist in Cuba, so it should come to no surprise to anyone that these individuals do not call themselves librarians. Yet ALA, M. Albright, J. Carter, and others continue to speak up for their rights.

I'm not objecting to the supposition that some or most or even all are funded by US sources. I just don't think that in and of itself makes it wrong. That is one reason I try to find disinterested or at least less interested sources such as the New Zealand one I cited so that I'm not just getting the party line (from either party).

[Mika]

46. Not the point. They don't want to be librarians.

They are US paid professional "dissidents".


Try turning your house into a "dissident" library in your community with no license, no permits, etc.

BTW, Nat Hentoff is not a "disinterested" source. Similarly, neither is the NZ article..
EX (from the NZ article):

Yet, they are paid by the Castro regime that bans books and jails librarians and journalists.

Never mind that they're not librarians (or journalists). Article omits mention of their funding sources (the US gov - which is illegal in Cuba). Never mind that the ALA does have a relationship with ASCUBI.

The US is a declared enemy of Cuba. The US has staged a military attack on Cuba. The US has attempted numerous assassinations of Cuban government officials and the Cuban Head of State. The US harbors terrorists who have attacked Cuba and killed Cubans. The US is engaged in a cold war against Cuba. The US has placed an extra territorial embargo on Cuba (tantamount to a declaration of war). The US gov has placed Cuba on the hit list of Axis of Evildoers. The US government has fabricated charges that Cuba manufactures bioweapons (disproven by a UN WMD inspection). The US gov attempts to undermine Cuba's international goodwill missions.

And you think that there's not anything "in and of itself" that "makes it wrong" to be funding illegal ops (for the expressed purpose of overthrowing the government) in Cuba?
:crazy:

[marshall]

47. I don't care where the money comes from

As a librarian, and not a fake one but one that is sometimes a dissident, I don't care where the money comes from when it is used to buy people freedom to read what they choose to read. Yes, I realize that is against the law in Cuba and it would get me thrown in jail there.

[Mika]

48. Interesting. The ALA seems to care.

The reason why the ALA has no relationship with the so called (by the US MSM and anti Cuba exiles) "independent libraries" nor the US MSM/exile termed "independent librarians" is because they are not librarians nor independent.

I'm happy for you that you don't care. I do care, because it (it being the references to the legal crackdown on so called "independent libraries") is part of an anti smear Cuba campaign that does not involve truth nor the realities IN Cuba NOW.

Also, your most recent allegation is false.. these US paid "dissidents" were not jailed for operating their so called libraries, as the ALA's investigation discovered (as posted in a prior post).


The ALA investigation yielded this observation..
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2712640&mesg_id=2714967

The existence of the "independent libraries," their holdings of radical rightwing anti-Castro material, their association with operatives from the U.S. Interests Section and the Miami community who are intent on overthrowing the Cuban government disproves their main argument (…) --that of censorship and severe restrictions on intellectual freedom. (…)

They do continue to operate; they continue to contribute reports to Radio Marti, Cubanet and other media; they continue to speak to foreign press and to foreign visiting librarians and diplomats. Hence, they continue to be well paid for services rendered. (11)

The American Library Association (ALA) also denounced the "independent library fraud. Mrs. Ann Sparanese, librarian at the Englewood Public Library and ALA member made the following statement, "They aren't librarians at all. They are paid by the United States government (…) who tries to buy dissidents in Cuba."(12)

[marshall]

49. Further clarification on the ALA's debate

The ALA continues to debate the conditions in Cuba, but I've never heard even the most Castro apologetic take the view you suggest. There is the contention that they are not librarians, and those in the ALA sympathetic to their plight took to calling them library workers--since by the standards of the ALA they would have no access to becoming librarians.

The crux of the debate is not over what is happening, where the money comes from, whether Cuba is a misunderstood utopia, but is on the status of the library workers as not librarians and therefore the ALA doesn't want to take a stand as an organization. It is left to the members themselves to organize against what they might perceive as an outrageous affront to freedom.


Source: Chronicle of Higher Education; 2/10/2006, Vol. 52 Issue 23, pA41-A41, 1/3p

Speaker Castigates Library Group for Its Stance on Cuba
Section: INTERNATIONAL
A debate within the American Library Association over whether to condemn Cuba for jailing dissident librarians grew fiercer last month, after a keynote speaker accused the group of failing to defend free speech.

"Am I hallucinating? Is this the same American Library Association that stands against censorship and for freedom of expression everywhere?" Andrei Codrescu, a Romanian-born writer, asked members gathered in San Antonio for the group's midwinter meeting.

Mr. Codrescu, a professor of English at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge, had been asked to talk about "libraries in the future." But he included an impassioned defense of Cuba's independent-library movement, which he likened to the underground book exchanges of his youth in Communist Romania.

The Cuban library movement was founded in 1998 by a married couple of professors, Ramón Colás and Berta Mexidor, who later fled to Miami. The movement seeks to give Cubans access to publications deemed "counterrevolutionary" by the island's Communist government, such as George Orwell's Animal Farm and the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights. There are now more than 100 independent libraries on the island, each one usually comprising several hundred books kept in someone's house.

The Cuban government has responded by confiscating thousands of books and jailing more than a dozen independent librarians, who have been accused of treason for collaborating with the U.S. government. (The librarians say only some of their books come from the U.S. Interests Section in the Swiss Embassy, the highest-level U.S. government office in Cuba.)

Despite vehement protests from some of its members, the ALA has refrained from defending the independent librarians. Association officials argue that the Cuban movement — whose leaders it calls "so-called librarians" — is more political than scholarly.

"There is some evidence to suggest that it's really the U.S. Interests Section who is leading the effort … in a bid to destabilize the Cuban government, and that alone causes many members of ALA to want to stay a little bit clear of the politics of this situation," said John W. Berry, a former president of the group, who led fact-finding missions to Cuba in 2001 and 2002. Mr. Berry, who runs a network of community-college libraries in Illinois, said he had found no evidence of censorship at Cuba's state-run libraries.

Mr. Codrescu argues that such a position is hypocritical, given the association's outspoken opposition to censorship provisions within the USA Patriot Act.

"I pointed out what to me seemed very obvious, which is that the ALA should take a stand with their fellow Cuban librarians who are in prison," he said in a telephone interview last week. He added that he had received dozens of letters from ALA librarians in support of his position.

Members of the Cuban movement acknowledge that they are not trained librarians. But that fact, they say, should not stop the association from supporting their efforts to reduce censorship.

"It's true that every independent librarian is a dissident," Elizardo Sánchez, one of Cuba's leading dissidents, who runs an independent library in Havana, said in a telephone interview last week. "The fact that someone decides to have books and lend them to his neighbors is for the government a 'counterrevolutionary act.'"

"The ALA should take a stand with their fellow Cuban librarians who are in prison."

~~~~~~~~

By Marion Lloyd

[Mika]

50. Misses the point. Again.

They were not arrested for operating libraries. That was the ALA's own observation.

These people, who don't even call themselves "librarians", were arrested for aiding and abetting the enemy of Cuba.

Why continue with the myth that they were arrested for being "independent librarians"?

The ALA's observations concluded that people do operate book loaning "libraries" without being shut down nor arrested by Cuban authorities.

So, the continued mewling about the US paid dissidents being arrested for being "independent librarians" is nothing more than an anti Cuba propaganda tactic based on no facts and disinformation.

[Mika]

40. From your link..

http://www.ala.org/ala/pr2004/prjan2004/alacounciladopts.htm

Both delegations, which included leaders from ALA and IFLA, and members of IFLA's FAIFE and staff, used the opportunity to visit Cuban libraries and librarians and to meet with individual journalists, unionists, psychologists, and writers who had opened private library collections as "independent libraries" for other Cubans to use. Among the individuals met by ALA and IFLA members were Ramon Colas and Berta Mexidor, who were the founders of the "independent library" movement.

ALA and IFLA members and staff confirmed in discussions with the Cuban dissidents who opened private libraries, that these individuals did not consider themselves librarians, but described themselves as "political dissidents."

The links and documents from your link inform us that the ALA and the IFLA supports the Cuban library system NOT the so called "independent libraries" funded by/for US political interests and run by "dissidents" funded by the US.

Also..

An IFLA FAIFE press release in June 2003 reiterated the call for the U. S. Government to end the economic embargo and to lift travel restrictions for Cuban and U.S. citizens alike. IFLA FAIFE cited bureaucratic difficulties with the export of information materials to Cuba despite their formal exclusion from the embargo; a severe reduction in the capacity of Cuban libraries and citizens to purchase information materials and related technologies due to the economic effects of the embargo; indirect disruption of access to information by Cubans and Cuban libraries caused by the effects on power supply, telecommunications and other aspects of life in Cuba, and inhibitions to professional interaction and exchange caused by the restrictions on travel to the U.S. by Cuban nationals and to Cuba by U.S. nationals.

And, as we know, the _{Bush 43} admin has further restricted exchanges between Cuban and US publishers and lecturers.

on edit: This just in..

Feb 2, 2007 7:48 pm US/Eastern
Judge Denies Challenge On Academic Travel To Cuba
http://cbs4.com/topstories/local_story_033181421.html

(CBS4) DOWNTOWN MIAMI A federal judge on Friday denied a challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union of a Florida law banning state-paid travel by students, professors and researchers to Cuba and four other nations labeled terrorist states by the U.S. government.

In his two-sentence ruling, U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan turned down the ACLU's effort to stop enforcement of the law. Jordan said a detailed order would follow on Feb. 9.

The ACLU filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Florida International University Faculty Senate, which contended the law violates First Amendment rights and impinges on the federal government's powers to regulate foreign commerce.

-

The measure, signed into law May 30 by then-Gov. Jeb Bush, prohibits professors, students and researchers from using money administered by a public university or college -- federal or state funds and even private foundation grants -- to travel to any country listed as a terrorist state by the U.S. State Department. Besides Cuba, the list includes Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria.

Private universities in Florida are also prohibited from using state funds for travel to the named countries.

[Judi Lynn]

12. You obviously can use more information:

Welcome to the disinformation age. Not content with financing and directing "independent journalists", and "human rights members", the United States’ strategy of destabilization of Cuban society has a new face: "independent libraries" <1> . There’s little coverage of these new centres of subversion - information transnationals still do not deign to give attention to the facts, however easily accessible and verifiable, preferring to talk about internal dissidence. And it seems that even the mighty have fallen for it.

Our story, at least this story of U.S. destabilization in Cuba, begins in 1998 with the creation by Ramón Humberto Colás Castillo, dancing to the of the United States Interest Section (SINA) in Havana, of "independent libraries". They were intended to seed the illusion of a growing opposition against the Cuban government. The birth of this new kind of library meshes nicely into the United States’ psy-ops strategy of manipulating the reality of the island. <2> With a patina of officially allowing Cubans to have access to real independent information, Washington distributes its clients’ propaganda.
(snip)

A useful chunk of evidence is to be found in a study entitiled Payment for Services Rendered: U.S.-Funded Dissent and the Independent Libraries Project, presented during the Pacific Coast Council on Latin American Studies, November 8-9, 2002 at East Los Angeles College by Rhonda Neugebauer, bibliographer from the University of California, Riverside. Neugebauer reports on a visit she made in 2000 to Cuba in the company of Larry Oberg, librarian from Willamette University, to more than a dozen "independent libraries." Neugebauer’s report is well worth quoting at length:

By interviewing the owners of these "libraries," we discovered that these "libraries" were carefully chosen drop-off and contact points for personnel from the U.S.Interests Section and others, who visited them on a regular basis, to deliver materials and money. …
In some cases, the "libraries" had ceased to exist because the "librarian" had moved to the U.S., or had given away the "library," anticipating a departure to the U.S.

In one case, we confirmed that a "librarian" listed on the "Independent Library Project" webpage, had moved to the U.S. six years earlier, although his name still appeared as a director of a library in Santiago, Cuba, and he is cited as having been "repressed" and "intimidated" in Cuba for his library work.

We found that most of the "libraries" consisted of a few shelves of books in private residences and that their titles were typical of what is owned by many Cubans and by Cuban libraries. In fact, the majority of their books were published in Cuba, by the Cuban government.

We were told that personnel from the U.S. Interests Section delivered many of the items that were not published in Cuba, and that they received regular visits from U.S. Interests Section personnel who dropped off packages on a monthly basis along with money.
Since it was the first time any mention of money had been made in reference to their work, I asked, "What is the money for?" "For services rendered," the "librarian" responded. "These libraries help the opposition in Cuba and our leadership in Miami. They tell us what to do. They receive our reports and news. They give us money so we can do what we do here, be dissidents and build opposition to the Cuban government." (…)

During our visits with the "librarians," we asked about the supposed repression, intimidation and confiscation of the materials, accounts of which had been mentioned frequently and disseminated widely in the U.S. on library listservers by a group called the "Friends of Cuban Libraries" Their press releases recounted horrendous stories where the "librarians" had been repressed, their book collections had been confiscated and the "librarians" had been routinely intimidated and harassed by Cuban security forces, if not jailed. We found no such evidence and no librarian corroborated these charges from the Friends of Cuban Libraries' press releases. Several "librarians" told us they had been arrested or jailed briefly, but immediately clarified that that was because of "opposition" activities or for breaking the law, mostly by attempting to leave the country without an exit visa. (…)

When we asked the "librarians" if they circulated books to their neighbors, they told us that they circulate books to many people who want to read about new ideas, ideas that support capitalism and liberty. However, when we asked their neighbors if they knew about the libraries, they said no.
(snip/...)

http://voiceoftheturtle.org/show_printer.php?aid=402

[Judi Lynn]

13. I found your quote, and want to put it on record for other DU'ers to evaluate in context:

From a speech made by Fidel Castro:

-DATE-
19710501
-YEAR-
1971
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
SPEECH
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
CASTRO SPEECH, RESOLUTION CLOSE EDUCATION CONGRE
-PLACE-
HAVANA'S CTC THEATER
-SOURCE-
HAVANA DOMESTIC RADIO
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19710503
-TEXT-
CASTRO SPEECH, RESOLUTION CLOSE EDUCATION CONGRESS

Prime Minister's Address

Havana Domestic Radio and Television Services in Spanish 0412 GMT 1 May 71
F/C

{Speech by Cuban Prime Minister Maj Fidel Castro Ruz closing the national
congress on education and culture from Havana's CTC theater--live}

~snip~

On our party, on the part of the leadership of our party and of the
revolutionary government, which has always been concerned with the problems
of education, which undoubtedly has given this field great resources of all
kinds--to the extent that today 175,000 workers are laboring in the fields
of education, culture, and science, as comrade Olga {Amaro} {new president
of the National Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Workers Union} said
today, and there are almost 100,000 professors and teachers, not counting
the tens of thousands of youth who are studying to become teachers--these
problems will receive the utmost attention from the party and the
revolutionary government because this congress will also provide all of us
with more detailed information about them with the splendid material that
has been prepared for work in the field of education.

Although large resources have been made available to education, we still
have been unable to see with sufficient clarity the potential resources
still remaining to support educational activities. These are resources that
the revolution possesses and although they have been used in this regard,
they still can contribute much more to education.

Of course, these resources are the mass organizations. They are utterly
identified with the tasks of the educators. But we also have other
technical resources: We have mass communications media; we have the
resources that have been pointed out; we have the book institute, for
example. It is true that as great publishing effort has been made. It is
true that the number of books published has been tripled, quadrupled. It is
true, that even if we are to meet 100 percent of all our needs, all these
presses are still limited even when we include the new press that our
friends of the German Democratic Republic provided for us and which is
about to go into operation.

But we must have a precise view as to the priorities of our book institute
and this view may be summed up in these words: Top priority must be given
by the book institute to textbooks {applause}; second priority must be
given textbooks; and third priority must be given to textbooks. {applause}
This is quite plain.

Sometimes certain books have been published, the number does not matter.
But as a matter of principle not a single book of such kind should be
printed, not a single chapter, not a single page, not a single letter!
{applause} Of course, we must take our apprenticeship into account.
Naturally, in the years that have passed we have become more familiar with
the world and its personalities were portrayed here in superlative colors,
such as those who tried to appear as sympathizers with the revolution, and
among whom there were some real characters! {crowd laughter, applause}
(snip/...)

http://lanic.utexas.edu/la/cb/cuba/castro/1971/19710501

[marshall]

18. It's even more startling in context

The term "certain books" sends chills down my spine. It reminds me of Orwell--"Right thinking will be rewarded, wrong thinking will be punished."

[Judi Lynn]

19. Would you explain what is chilling to you about this quote?

I believe I must not understand it correctly. Please elaborate.

[marshall]

22. It's the unspoken implications, read into it what wish

I don't think any of us can understand the full meaning unless we lived in that regime, and even then perhaps only those dissidents who have challenged the status quo of publishing.

For instance, take this quote, somewhat before the snippet I posted:

"Although large resources have been made available to education, we still
have been unable to see with sufficient clarity the potential resources
still remaining to support educational activities. These are resources that
the revolution possesses and although they have been used in this regard,
they still can contribute much more to education."

This speaks to me of censorship--the government seems to have in its possession a greater amount of resources that has not yet been released to the public because it has not yet been determined or seen in "clarity" whether it will be appropriate or "contribute" to education.

But the overall chill I get is that there is so much unspoken here. "Certain books", "the numbers do not matter"--this is an implication that I don't think we can understand, only the audience can. It sends a message of control to those who would protest.

[Judi Lynn]

24. In others, what is NOT communicated is what bothers you?

That opens up a lot of doors, doesn't it?

I'm hoping a fluent Spanish speaker will see this thread and give us his/her reading of the original language.

[marshall]

25. What is implied is often more important than what is said outright

I definitely think Castro's audience would understand exactly what he meant by the oblique phrase "certain books" and the off hand comment "the numbers do not matter" draws attention just by the way it is an attempt to sideline the topic.

Maybe I've been deconstructing too many texts in my studies, and I'm working on a dissertation now that is a study of the unspoken message that everybody nevertheless knows. But I see what I think are definite lines drawn in this speech, and those to whom they are directed would understand more fully (and pay the price for dissidence) much more fully than we could ever do.

[Judi Lynn]

15. Apologies offered for bogus information from propagandist/librarian Robert Kent:

August 29, 2006
Lithuanian librarians apologize for being duped by Robert Kent over Cuba

This may be old news to some, but it hasn’t gotten a lot of play.

At IFLA, the Lithuanian and Latvian delegations were planning to present a resolution condemning Cuba for imprisoning dissident “independent librarians.” Robert Kent & Co. floated news of this in advance and pressured ALA Council to instruct ALA’s IFLA delegate to support this resolution. (The resolution did not come up for a vote, but ALA’s delegate had made it clear that he would not support it.)Here is what Lithuania’s delegation wrote to ASCUBI President Margarita Bellas:

“We are terribly sorry for this missunderstanding. Hope you do understand that our intentions were to help you. We had no idea the Mr. Robert Kent is acting without your knowledge.”
(snip)

Lithuania’s delegation withdrew their resolution, apologizing for having been misled by Robert Kent.

Knowledge of this situation is generally shallow and prejudiced.

Here is the Lithuanian delegate’s letter to Hungarian colleagues:

Fw: Resolution on Cuba for the IFLA
De: “Emilija Banionyte”
Fecha: Tue, 8 Aug 2006 11:36:52 +0300
A:
CC: “Vida Garunkstyte” , , “LBD” ,

Dear Hungarian colleagues,

It is very strange you got our resolution - we did not send it to anybody, but IFLA. Did you also get the withdrawal of the resolution?

Let me explain the whole situation.

Last year during the IFLA conference in Oslo we were approached by American journalist Robert Kent. He wanted us to support his initiative to sign the resolution to free Cuban librarians that had no freedom, some of them were even imprisoned. He had the draft text of the resolution. But we did not sign it in Oslo, as we had to consult our library community. After we returned back after IFLA Mr. Robert Kent wanted to know immediately what our library community thinks and started bombarding us with letters. What we did not do - and this was our greatest mistake - we did not consult Cuban librarians themselves. Our library community after some discussions supported the resolution and we signed it and sent to IFLA headquarters. The text was written by Mr. Robert Kent - we only signed it. Find attached.

After a coulpe of months we were approached by the President of the Association of Cuban Librarians Ms Margarita Bellas. Her letter simply shocked us (find attached). We started corresponding with her and found out that lots of things Mr. Robert Kent claimed were not true. While Mr. Robert Kent claims Ms Margarita Bellas is lying, as she is acting under the influence of the revolutionary regime and she has to lie. To prove this Mr. Robert Kent started the whole compain - I am receiving various letters from various people. Your letter is one of his compaingn - now he is acting with the hands of some other “former soviet” librarians currently living in the “free” US.

All this seems rather strange.

Our sincere intension was to help Cuban librarians, therefore we signed the resolution. The initaitive was not ours, but Mr. Robert Kent’s. As we found out, that Cubans themselves do not need this help and this is a political game, we decided to withdraw our resolution and we did it. IFLA is informed about it via e-mail and fax.

We are very sory about all this mess. Somebody started some political game with our hands. Because of lack of experience and because of honest approach to our collegues we did believe and got involved into it. In the future we will be much more careful about such situations.

We have got invitation from Cuban colleagues to come and visit their country and see how things are there, how libraries and librarians are working. We are going to meet them at IFLA in Seoul and talk in person.

I hope I managed to explain the whole situation in short. Should you have more questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

Sincerely,

Emilija Banionyte
Lithuanian Librarians’ Association, Vice-President
Vilnius Pedagogical University, Library Director
(snip)

Cubans who accept this cash AND equipment from the US government are in violation of Cuban law. As would any US citizen be subject to arrest if he/she accepted so much as a dollar or a fax machine from the Cuban government. By US law, foreign governments are not allowed to fund the political process in our country and we have laws to make sure that they don’t. You can go to jail and there are a few people in jail right now for being “unregistered agents of a foreign power.” “Trading with the enemy” is a criminal offense in the US.
(snip/...)

http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:zBSWJvbZvxEJ:libraryjuicepress.com/blog/%3Fp%3D125+Cuban+Independent+Libraries+Robert+Kent+United+States&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us

[Judi Lynn]

16. Librarians as Spooks? The Scheme to Infiltrate Cuba's Libraries

June 18 / 19, 2005

Librarians as Spooks?
The Scheme to Infiltrate Cuba's Libraries
By DIANA BARAHONA

The U.S. has been pretty successful at mobilizing world opinion against Cuba since the late 1980s. Emboldened by the fall of the Soviet Union it has gone to considerable trouble and expense to bring down the revolution that refuses to be defeated a scant 90 miles off the empire's shore. Part of this effort has involved creating an artificial opposition movement on the island and enlisting liberal organizations and intellectuals to support it. But U.S. librarians, targeted by name in the State Department's 400-page destabilization blueprint, the Report to the President of the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, not only refuse to play the game but are trying to assist their Cuban colleagues to improve their libraries.

The rent-an-opposition has several components: independent trade union groups, independent journalists, independent political parties and independent libraries ­ all paid and directed by the U.S. Interests Section. They are also composed of the same people; one person may be an independent press agency, a political party, and run a library out of his house. The depth of U.S.-style "civil society" was evident May 20-21 at the Congress of the Cuban Dissident Movement in Havana. Financed with a special congressional grant of $6 million and featuring a videotaped greeting from Bush himself, this gathering was supposed to bring together 360 dissident organizations; it barely drew 100 people.

Cuba not only has libraries, it has a lot of them ­ 400 to be precise, plus 6,000 school libraries. So why has the State Department created a network of independent libraries there? What exactly is an independent library? Rhonda L. Neugebauer and Larry Oberg, both university librarians, went to Cuba to meet with colleagues and study the library system in 2000. But they also visited the so-called independent libraries run out of people's houses. What they found were carefully-chosen drop-off and contact points for personnel from the U.S. Interests Section and others, who visited them on a regular basis to deliver materials and money. They also discovered that by keeping bookshelves with these materials in their homes, the "librarians" qualified for a monthly stipend ­ "for services rendered," as one of them put it. They found no evidence that anyone ever checked out a book, and when they enquired of neighbors, nobody even seemed to know the libraries were there.
(snip/...)

http://www.counterpunch.org/barahona06182005.html

[Mika]

34. Cuba and the Myth of the 'Independent Libraries'

Imagine Al Queda funding so called "independent libraries" that just opened up in your residential neighborhood (no permits, no standards, outside of zoning regs), that were the meeting places for individuals who sought to overthrow the US government, and who did so in concert with foreign based terrorist organizations.

That is akin to the reality of the so called "independent libraries" in Cuba. They are funded by USAID money (the government who's stated goal is to overthrow the gov of Cuba), the "librarians" are paid operatives of the US government, the meetings are attended by persons who aid and abet the declared enemy of Cuba (the US gov and Miami based terra orgs), and who consort with and plan ops with Miami based terrorist organizations (Alpha 66, Brigade 2506, CANF, etc) against the government, persons, and infrastructure of Cuba..


Cuba and the Myth of the 'Independent Libraries'
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=54&ItemID=5960

According to its strategy of destabilization of Cuban society, the United States, in addition to financing and directing "independent journalists", and "human rights members" has created "independent libraries"(1). The main role of those organizations consists of carrying out a job of disinformation in the heart of the country, and in creating favorable conditions for weakening the nation, which is already in an extremely hostile geopolitical context. Those different splinter groups are shown in the international press as the nucleus of the future "civil and democratic society." The information transnationals still do not deign to give attention to the facts, however easily accessible and verifiable, preferring to talk about internal dissidence.

Created in 1998 by Mr. Ramón Humberto Colás Castillo according to the leadership of the United States Interest Section (SINA) in Havana, it thought that the "independent libraries" would give the illusion of a growing opposition against the Cuban government. The birth of those entities fits directly in the political maneuvering of the United States which consists of manipulating the reality of the island."(2) Indeed, those libraries should officially allow Cubans to have access to real independent information, but in reality they were propaganda groups at Washington's service.

Among the works provided by the Interests Section to those "librarians", reports were found written by the United States Department of State that supported the matter of human rights violations in Cuba, President Bush's speeches, as well as writings dealing with the functioning of American society. The Miami Herald and The Nuevo Herald newspapers considerably influenced by the extreme right Cuban exile community, also supplied the "librarians", as well as the literature produced by Florida's fascist constituents. They were in permanent contact with Mr. James Cason, head of the United States Interests Section in Cuba, and applied its guidelines in exchange for financial payment.(3) Mr. Cason arrived in Havana in September, 2002, was distinguished by his provocateur attitude, his interventionist statements and his public meetings with the "Cuban dissidence." (4)

The odd result was that none of the international press had raised logical questions. Independent libraries in Cuba? Perhaps Cubans do not have access to books? Let's leave ideological prejudices behind and use numbers.

In Cuba, close to 400 public libraries, not including those found in almost every school and university, offer completely free services. Before the Revolution, there were no more than thirty-two. (5) In 2003, more than 2,000 titles, for a print run of 30 million copies, were published. Every year, the most important cultural event in the Latin American hemisphere is the Cuban International Book Fair, which brings together the most famous writers of the world. In 2004, the Fair reached more than 34 cities, presented more than 1000 titles and sold more than 5 million works at prices incomparably lower than those of any other country in the world. Additionally, not one country of the Third World has created as many public libraries as Cuba. (6)

Illiteracy in Latin America is 11.7 % and for Cuba it is .2%.(7) The International Bureau of Education of UNESCO observed that Cuba has the lowest rate of illiteracy and the highest rate of education in Latin America. According to the same organization, a Cuban student has two times more knowledge than a Latin American child. It added that "Although Cuba is one of the poorest countries in Latin America, it has the best results in what it refers to as basic education." Juan Cassassus of the Latin American Laboratory for Evaluation and Quality of Education of UNESCO noted that "education has been a high standing priority in Cuba for the past 40 years. It is a true education society."(8) Does Cuba really need "independent libraries", or are they blowing smoke which is hiding darker intentions?

Mr. Nelson Valdés, professor of sociology at the University of New Mexico, also questioned the validity of those associations. "Why so much interest in defending the right to read of 11 million people who are almost 100% literate, while the number of people who are illiterate in the United States is 3 times higher than the number of Cubans who live on the island?" Indeed, more than 30 million Americans don't know how to read or write. "After all, illiteracy is the most important expression of censorship" observed the professor. (9)

Diverse professional American organizations carried out research with respect to the "independent librarians", and they answer that those structures were only fronts controlled by the United States.

The General Assembly of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), held in Boston August 24, 2001, urged the "US Government to share information materials widely in Cuba, especially with Cuba's libraries, and not just with "individuals and independent non-governmental organizations" that represent US political interests." (10) Indeed, the American authorities, besides financing those libraries, block access for Cubans to numerous magazines and publications, notably scientific and university. For example, in a field as vital as medicine, around 50% of the publications are American, but Cuban professionals do not have access to them.

A study titled "Payment for Services Rendered: U.S.-Funded Dissent and the Independent Libraries Project" was completely silenced. It was presented during the Pacific Coast Council on Latin American Studies, November 8-9, 2002 at East Los Angeles College by Mrs. Rhonda Neugebauer, bibliographer from the University of California, Riverside. She reported of the visit she had made in 2000 to Cuba in the company of Mr. Larry Oberg, librarian from Willamette University, to more than a dozen "independent libraries." She presented the following conclusions:

By interviewing the owners of these "libraries," we discovered that these "libraries" were carefully chosen drop-off and contact points for personnel from the U.S. Interests Section and others, who visited them on a regular basis, to deliver materials and money. We also discovered that by accepting anti-government materials and by developing "libraries" with these materials, the "librarians" qualified to be paid a monthly stipend--"for services rendered," as one of them put it.

Our interviews with these "librarians" contradicted a good deal of the PR campaign that their U.S. financiers had undertaken, and established the fact that the communiques circulated in the U.S. about these "libraries" were intentionally misleading and politically motivated. (…)

Our research proved that what the "Friends of Cuban Libraries" campaign identified as a "force for intellectual freedom" was simply part and parcel of a U.S. foreign policy strategy that disingenuously advocated the "opening civil society" in Cuba through the funding of a variety of dissident groups. Over the last few years Washington has given millions of dollars to U.S. and Cuban groups to create a "civil society," that they hope leads to destabilization of the Cuban government and ultimately to a "regime change" in Havana. (…)

In some cases, the "libraries" had ceased to exist because the "librarian" had moved to the U.S., or had given away the "library," anticipating a departure to the U.S. In one case, we confirmed that a "librarian" listed on the "Independent Library Project" webpage, had moved to the U.S. six years earlier, although his name still appeared as a director of a library in Santiago, Cuba, and he is cited as having been "repressed" and "intimidated" in Cuba for his library work.

We found that most of the "libraries" consisted of a few shelves of books in private residences and that their titles were typical of what is owned by many Cubans and by Cuban libraries. In fact, the majority of their books were published in Cuba, by the Cuban government.

We were told that personnel from the U.S. Interests Section delivered many of the items that were not published in Cuba, and that they received regular visits from U.S. Interests Section personnel who dropped off packages on a monthly basis along with money.

Since it was the first time any mention of money had been made in reference to their work, I asked, "What is the money for?" "For services rendered," the "librarian" responded. "These libraries help the opposition in Cuba and our leadership in Miami. They tell us what to do. They receive our reports and news. They give us money so we can do what we do here, be dissidents and build opposition to the Cuban government." (…)

During our visits with the "librarians," we asked about the supposed repression, intimidation and confiscation of the materials, accounts of which had been mentioned frequently and disseminated widely in the U.S. on library listservers by a group called the "Friends of Cuban Libraries" Their press releases recounted horrendous stories where the "librarians" had been repressed, their book collections had been confiscated and the "librarians" had been routinely intimidated and harassed by Cuban security forces, if not jailed. We found no such evidence and no librarian corroborated these charges from the Friends of Cuban Libraries' press releases. Several "librarians" told us they had been arrested or jailed briefly, but immediately clarified that that was because of "opposition" activities or for breaking the law, mostly by attempting to leave the country without an exit visa. (…)

They have connections to political groups outside the country, primarily to anti-Castro groups and individuals, most of which now receiving funding through various U.S.-based organizations dedicated to changing the Cuban government. (…)

They have served no jail time for library activities; rather any jail time has resulted from illegal activities and for their work to organize political operations directed from abroad (which is illegal in Cuba).

When we asked the "librarians" if they circulated books to their neighbors, they told us that they circulate books to many people who want to read about new ideas, ideas that support capitalism and liberty. However, when we asked their neighbors if they knew about the libraries, they said no. (…)

The existence of the "independent libraries," their holdings of radical rightwing anti-Castro material, their association with operatives from the U.S. Interests Section and the Miami community who are intent on overthrowing the Cuban government disproves their main argument (…) --that of censorship and severe restrictions on intellectual freedom. (…)

They do continue to operate; they continue to contribute reports to Radio Marti, Cubanet and other media; they continue to speak to foreign press and to foreign visiting librarians and diplomats. Hence, they continue to be well paid for services rendered. (11)

The American Library Association (ALA) also denounced the "independent library fraud. Mrs. Ann Sparanese, librarian at the Englewood Public Library and ALA member made the following statement, "They aren't librarians at all. They are paid by the United States government (…) who tries to buy dissidents in Cuba."(12)

With regards to the Canadian Library Association (CLA), it voted for a resolution in June 2003, during a conference in Toronto, stipulating that " CLA opposes any foreign government attempts to undermine Cuba's government through economic blockades, subversion, military adventures, assassination attempts, and outside funding of political opposition through 'civil society' organizations." By the "'civil society' organizations CLA referred to the human rights members," "independent journalists" and, of course "independent librarians."(13)

Mr. Ramón Humberto Colás Castillo left Cuba for the United States in December 2001. Currently he is a member of the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), a fascist organization composed of extremist Cubans, which in addition to their lobbying work among U.S. Congressional members, is a specialist in international terrorism. Recently, one of his associates, Mr. Luis Posado Carriles, considered an old patron "of the Latin American terrorist network,"(14) former agent of the CIA, and author of close to one hundred assassinations, was condemned to eight years in prison in Panama, for terrorist activities. (15)

Currently Mr. Colás Castillo spends his time between the United States and Europe where he tries to affiliate different institutions and governments around his project, which is in reality the intellectual creation of the United States government. In July 2003, he was even received by the highest French authority in the Quai d'Orsay in Paris. The French diplomacy, joined itself to Washington's aggressive policy against Cuba, in addition to stopping in part its cooperation with Cuban in different areas. Now it receives members of a terrorist organization with great pomp. (16)

Another fact is also worry some. The mayor of the city of Paris, Mr. Bertrand Delanoë, openly supported the project of he "independent libraries" also created by Mr. Colás Castillo. Indeed, in a letter dated March 9, 2004, Mr. Delanoë stated to the Free Cuba Solidarity Collective that it would be able to count on his support. Thus, one of the most important political personalities of the French left offered his support to a group, of which for at least one member belongs to an extremist entity, seriously implicated in international terrorism. Does the mayor of the French capital perhaps know with whom he mixes? (17)
Notes

1 See Salim Lamrani, " Commission des droits de l'homme de Genève: Cuba, le Honduras et l'histoire d'un terroriste notoire devenu diplomate étasunien ", RISAL, April 29, 2004.http://risal.collectifs.net/article.php3?id_article=941 (website consulted on April 29, 2004).

2 Rosa Miriam Elizalde & Luis Baez, "Los Disidentes" (La Habana : Editora Política, 2003), p. 56.

3 Ibid., pp. 47-66

4 Felipe Pérez Roque, Nous ne comptons pas renoncer à notre souveraineté, Conférence de presse offerte par le ministre des relations extérieures de la République de Cuba le 9 avril 2003. (Havana : Editora Política, 2003) pp. 16-18. Granma, "Le terrorisme et la société civile comme instruments de la politique des USA envers Cuba (IV). En suivant l'argent ", July 30, 2003. (website consulted on April 30, 2004).

5 Rhonda L. Neugebauer, " Payment For Services Rendered: U.S.-Funded Dissent and the Independent Libraries Project ", University of California Riverside, November 8-9, 2002. www.cubalinda.com/English/Groups/RhondaNeugebauer.htm (website consulted on April 30, 2004).

6 Ministère des Relations extérieures de la République de Cuba, Cuba et sa défense de la totalité des droits de l'homme pour tous, (Havana: Editora Política, March 2004), p. 48. http://perso.club-internet/vdedaj/cuba/minrex_droits_homme.pdf (website consulted on April 29, 2004).

7 United Nations Development Program, " Human Development Indicators 2003: Cuba ", 2003. www.undp.org/hdr2003/indicator/cty_f_CUB.html (website consulted on April 22, 2004); Comisión Económica Para América Latina (CEPAL), Indicadores del desarrollo socioeconómico de América Latina. (United Nations, 2002), pp. 12, 13, 39, 41, 43-47, 49-56, 66-67, 716-733.

8 United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), op. cit., pp. 190-95 ; Latin American Laboratory for Evaluation and Quality of Education, " Learning in Latin American ", UNESCO, September 3, 1999. www.unesco.org/education/educnews/99-09-03/latinlab.htm (website consulted on March 10, 2003).

9 Nelson Valdes, " Response to Nat Hentoff ", International Responsabilities Task Force of the American Library Association's Social Responsibilities Round, December 2003. www.pitt.edu/~ttwiss/irtf/cuba.letter2.html (website consulted on April 30, 2004).

10 International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), " Resolution Adopted at IFLA Council II Held at Boston on Friday 24th August 2001 ", August 24, 2001. www.ifla.org/IV/ifla67/resol-01.htm (website consulted on April 30, 2004).

11 Rhonda L. Neugebauer, op. cit.

12 Tim Wheeler, " ALA Rejects U.S.-Backed Libraries in Cuba ", People's Weekly World, May 24, 2003. www.pww.org/article/articleview/3480/1/164 (website consulted on April 30, 2004).

13 Canadian Library Association, " CLA's Resolution ", American Library Association, June 2003. (website consulted on April 30, 2004).

14 Noam Chomsky & Edward S. Herman, Economie politique des droits de l'homme. La " Washington Connection " et le Fascisme dans le Tiers Monde (París : J.E. Hallier & Albin Michel, 1981), p. 50.

15 Ann Louise Bardach & Larry Rohter, " Key Cuba Foe Claims Exiles' Backing ", New York Times, July 12, 1998, 1, 3, 4, 5. www.nytimes.com/librairy/world/americas/071298cuba-plot.html (website consulted on February 3, 2004) ; El Nuevo Herald, " Condenan en Panamá a Luis Posada Carriles ", April 21, 2004: 23A ; El Nuevo Herald, " Piden Pena máxima contra anticastristas ", March 18, 2004: 17A; El Nuevo Herald, " Recaudan fondos para exiliados presos en Panamá ", April 23, 2004: 17A. See Glenn Garvin, " Panama : Exile Says Aim Was Castro Hit ", The Miami Herald, January 13, 2001 ; Glenn Garvin & Frances Robles, " Panama Suspect Has Ties to Dade ", The Miami Herald, November 21, 2001 ; John Rice, " Panama : Fidel Steals Show With Death Plot ", The Associated Press, November 18, 2000 ; Fernando Martínez & David Aponte, "Anticastristas llegaron a Panamá para asesinarlo, denuncia Castro ", La Jornada, November 18, 2000.

16 Paulo A. Paranagua, " 'Si tu vas à Cuba, emporte un livre', demandent les opposants ", Le Monde, July 25, 2003.

17 Bertrand Delanoë, " Alcalde de París confirma apadrinamiento de bibliotecas independientes en Cuba ", La Nueva Cuba, March 26, 2004. www.lanuevacuba.com/nuevacuba/notic-04-03-2625.htm (website consulted on March 31, 2004).

[Judi Lynn]

35. Cuba, "It is a true education society" from UNESCO! Hmmmm!

Great article. I'd like to read some of the quoted articles, too, when time permits. Terrific.

[Mika]

36. Funny isn't it, that posters have swallowed the corporate media's anti Cuba rhetoric..

.. hook line and sinker.

The US RW MSM states that "librarians" have been arrested without mentioning (as usual) the full story on what they are really doing and how they are doing it and where their funding comes from. Even the ALA reports that these so called "independent libraries" are anything but.

The Cuban people's government has every right to defend Cuba from the largest military superpower who's stated goal is the overthrow of the system of government that the Cuban people overwhelmingly support.


More distractions from the topic at hand (Cuba's health care exports) by DU's Cuba detractor contingent.


--

[0rganism]

37. in fairness, there's only one swallowing it in this thread

I know what you mean, but it's not surprising; propaganda works. We've been well-conditioned by decades of cold war anti-communist advertising.

It will probably take another 20 years for the attitude to fade. The baby boomers have to figure out that their biases were rooted largely in lies and half-truths, or carry their paranoid rhetoric with them into the silence of the grave, before it can be discarded completely from the cultural background radiation.

[0rganism]

29. what's your concern, that Cuban doctors don't know what they're doing?

Your conversation with Judi seems to have jumped to a different track, but I'm still left wondering why you'd ask this question.

[David__77]

3. If Ortega plays it right, the FSLN will consolidate its rule.

And they can gain a parliamentary majority and rework the constitution. Central America is definitely lagging behind its southern neighbors in rejecting empire and neo-liberal economics. Hopefully Nicaragua will serve as the pivot of a regional shift.

[Say_What]

5. Remarkable...

Little Cuba, blockaded for 45 years by the planet's only superpower and greatest threat to mankind, always ready to share her resources with those less fortunate than her.

<clips>

...Cuba, a small country, besieged and blockaded, has not only been able to survive, but also to help many countries of the Third World, exploited throughout centuries by the European colonial powers.

In the course of 40 years, over 40,000 youths from more than 100 Third World countries, including 30,000 from Africa, have graduated in Cuba as university-educated professionals and qualified technical workers, at no cost to them whatsoever, and our country has not attempted to steal a single one of them, as the countries of the European Union do with many of the brightest minds. Throughout this time, on the other hand, over 52,000 Cuban doctors and health care workers, who have saved millions of lives, have provided their services voluntarily and free of charge in 93 countries.

http://www.counterpunch.org/castro07282003.html

[manic expression]

8. The internationale unites the human race

Great to hear.

[0rganism]

11. Cuba's export to the world: doctors for the poor

Not neo-Stalinism, not a cancerous dictatorship of the Supreme Soviet, but rather medical care for those who had none before. How perverse that our country should stand in opposition to Cuba when our own poor go lacking.

[Judi Lynn]

14. Especially poignant is the offer left open to qualified American medical students

to study in Cuba, work on a scholarship for their medical degree, all available to them on their agreement to return to work in underprivileged areas for a fixed number of years to help the helpless, as you mentioned.

Completely at odds with the "me first" culture, isn't it?

[EFerrari]

43. So at odds as to be nearly invisible. Funny what our cognitive frame

just can't seem to take in. :shrug:

[Mika]

44. Speaking of 'at odds'..

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N01390849.htm

Washington, which has enforced an embargo against Cuba since 1962, announced last August that as part of tighter restrictions on Havana it would offer visas to Cuban medical professionals who abandoned their programs overseas.

New ground as to how low has our gov't stooped. :puke:

[yurbud]

51. it's a commie plot. Nicaragua needs to learn to make sick people a profit center or let them die

like we do.

[ohio2007]

52. Maybe Fidel's brother should read this thread posted earlier

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2716192&mesg_id=2716192

What if this batch of MD's decide to run?

on edit, I forgot Fidel has been put politically out to pasture

[Mika]

53. As posters in that thread noted..

.. that 38 people out of at least 30,000 isn't very many.
They come here for extra perks offered to Cubans only.
The US has offered open immigration to any Cuban Drs willing to renege on their contract to serve in exchange for their med ed.
When they get to the US they can make lots-o-money in the US for-profit health care system.