Osric wrote:
> <Jhaerlyn@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
> news:1179948227.790821.298160@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> On Apr 1, 8:23 pm, Defendario <Defenda...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
>>Nice post with an interesting rant for a preface.
>>
>>For the archive
>>
>>2B-Clear wrote:
>>
>>>Agee's article is one of the clearest and concisest to appear on my
>>>screen in some time. If only our so called "liberal" media would share
>>>this guy's work/observations with their audiences, then perhaps the
>>>people would begin to wake up and see the same reality that people
>>>outside the USA have been seeing for years. The American people are
>>>told that they're free, but that is a filthy lie. The American people
>>>are NOT free, they are like slaves, who are drowning in a cesspool of
>>>lies and deception. Their (our) nation is not great, it is the
>>>greatest obstacle to world peace and there's nothing great about that!
>>
>>> ---------------------------------
>>
>>>Orwell Rolls In His Grave
>>>1 hr 45 min -"Could a media system, controlled by a few global
>>>cor****ations with the ability to overwhelm all competing ... all »
>>>voices, be able to turn lies into truth?..."
>>>This chilling do***entary film examines the relation****p between the
>>>media, cor****ate America, and government. In a country where the "top
>>>1% control 90% of the wealth", the film argues that the media system
>>>is nothing but a "subsidiary of cor****ate America."
>>
>>>http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1925114769515892401
>>
>>>On Mar 31, 8:46 pm, "RH" <halcon7r...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>>
>>>>Please share this article with others who like to know what's going on
>>>>in the world:
>>
>>>>http://www.counterpunch.org/agee03142007.html
>>
>>>>A Stunning Contrast
>>>>TheDescent of the US; the Rise of Latin America
>>>>By PHILIP AGEE
>>
>>>>Havana.
>>
>>>>Anyone following the news in recent times cannot be unaware of the
>>>>wave of progressive change sweeping Latin America and the Caribbean.
>>>>For many lonely years Cuba held high the torch through its exemplary
>>>>programs to provide universal health care and education, both gratis,
>>>>along with world class cultural, s****ts and scientific achievements.
>>>>Although you won´t find a Cuban today who says things are perfect, far
>>>>from it, probably all would agree that compared with pre-revolutionary
>>>>Cuba there is a world of improvement. All this they did against every
>>>>effort by the United States to isolate them as an unacceptable example
>>>>of independence and self-determination, using every dirty method
>>>>including infiltration, sabotage, terrorism, assassination, economic
>>>>and biological warfare and incessant lies in the cooperating media of
>>>>many countries. I know these methods too well, having been a CIA
>>>>officer in Latin America in the 1960´s. Altogether nearly 3500 Cubans
>>>>have died from terrorist acts, and more than 2000 are permanently
>>>>disabled. No country has suffered terrorism as long and consistently
>>>>as Cuba.
>>
>>>>All through the years, beginning even before taking power in 1959, the
>>>>Cuban revolution has needed to have intelligence collection
>>>>capabilities in the U.S. for defensive purposes. Such was the fully
>>>>justified mission of the Cuban Five, jailed since 1998 with long
>>>>sentences after conviction for various crimes in Miami where they had
>>>>no chance for a fair trial. Convictions were for conspiracy to commit
>>>>espionage to murder. Nevertheless their sights were exclusively set on
>>>>criminal terrorist planning in Miami for operations against Cuba,
>>>>activities ignored by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. They
>>>>neither sought nor received any classified U.S. government
>>>>information. Their cases are still on appeal, and will be for years to
>>>>come, but their completely biased convictions rank with the legal
>>>>lynching in the 1920's of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, the
>>>>anarchist immigrants, as among the most shameful injustices in U.S.
>>>>history. Freedom for the Cuban Five should be the cause of everyone
>>>>for whom fairness, human rights and justice are im****tant, both in the
>>>>United States and around the world, joining in the activities of the
>>>>300 Free the Five solidarity committees in 90 countries.
>>
>>>>Current U.S. policy with its means and goals can be found in the
>>>>nearly 500-page 2004 re****t of the Commission for Assistance to a Free
>>>>Cuba together with an update published in 2006 that has a secret
>>>>annex. A fundamental goal, the same in 2007 as I remember it was in
>>>>1959, is isolation of Cuba to keep this bad example from spreading,
>>>>and the current policy if successful, would mean no less than Cuban
>>>>annexation to the U.S. and complete dependence, in fact if not in law,
>>>>as Cubans rightfully claim. Other fundamental goals from 1959 are
>>>>still, nearly 50 years later, to foment an internal political
>>>>opposition and to cause economic hard****p in Cuba leading to
>>>>desperation, hunger and despair. It is no exaggeration to call these
>>>>goals genocidal.
>>
>>>>Yet, U.S. economic warfare of nearly 50 years against Cuba hasn't
>>>>worked even though the Cubans who keep book estimate its cost at more
>>>>than $80 billion. After the Cuban economy's free fall in the early
>>>>1990's, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, it began to recover in
>>>>1995. By 2005 growth was 11.8% and in 2006 it was 12.5%, the highest
>>>>in Latin America. Some sectors have surpassed their development levels
>>>>of the late 80's, before the collapse, and others are nearly back.
>>>>Cuba's ex****ts of services, nickel, pharmaceutical and other products
>>>>are booming, and try as it may, the U.S. has not been able to stop
>>>>this.
>>
>>>>In the end U.S. efforts to isolate Cuba have also totally failed. In
>>>>September 2006 Cuba was elected, for the second time, to lead the Non-
>>>>Aligned Movement of 118 countries, and two months later, for the 15th
>>>>consecutive year, the United Nations General Assembly voted to condemn
>>>>the U.S. economic embargo of Cuba, this time 183 to 4. In 2007 Cuba
>>>>has diplomatic or consular relations with 182 countries. Havana
>>>>meanwhile is the site of seemingly endless international conferences
>>>>on every imaginable theme with thousands of people from around the
>>>>world attending. And not least, Cuba in recent years has been hosting
>>>>more than 2 million foreign tourists annually at its world-class
>>>>resorts. Far from isolating Cuba, the U.S. has isolated itself.
>>
>>>>More than 30,000 Cuban doctors and health workers are saving lives and
>>>>preventing disease in 69 countries, many in the most remote and
>>>>difficult areas where few or no local doctors will go. Meanwhile
>>>>30,000 young foreigners from dozens of countries are studying medicine
>>>>in Cuba on full scholar****ps. All were selected from areas lacking
>>>>doctors, and all are committed to return to these areas in their home
>>>>countries to practice.
>>
>>>>In education the Cuban literacy program known as "Yes I can" has been
>>>>adopted in nearly 30 countries on five continents where thousands more
>>>>Cuban volunteers are teaching. Through this program, in Spanish,
>>>>****tuguese, English, Creole, Quechua and Aymara, some 2 million people
>>>>have learned to read and write, most of whom continue their education
>>>>afterwards through a variety of other programs.
>>
>>>>Thanks to these international assistance programs, Cuban prestige and
>>>>influence, and international solidarity with Cuba, have never been
>>>>greater. It was to defend these worthy programs that the five Cubans,
>>>>unjustly convicted, went to Miami in the 1990's.
>>
>>>>Then in 1999 came Hugo Chavez, the U.S.'s latest worst nightmare in
>>>>the region, admittedly following the Cuban example in Venezuela, with
>>>>its enormous income from petroleum, to establish what he calls a
>>>>Socialism for the 21st Century with a foreign policy of regional
>>>>integration under his innovative Bolivarian Alternative for the
>>>>Americas, ALBA, excluding the United States altogether. The program is
>>>>already underway through institutions such as Mercosur in trade,
>>>>Petrocaribe, Petroandino and Petrosur in the energy sector, the Banco
>>>>del Sur in finance, and Telesur in electronic media.
>>
>>>>Another program under ALBA is Operación Milagro (Operation Miracle)
>>>>for offering free eye surgery to people unable to afford it for
>>>>cataracts, glaucoma, diabetes and other vision problems. It began in
>>>>2004 as a joint Cuban-Venezuelan effort to bring Venezuelans by air to
>>>>Cuba cost free for operations. Within two years 28 countries of Latin
>>>>America and the Caribbean were participating, and operations restoring
>>>>sight numbered 485,000 of whom 290,000 were Venezuelans. Jet liners
>>>>loaded with patients come and go from Havana everyday, but by early
>>>>2007 thirteen modern eye clinics were being built in Venezuela, and
>>>>several had already performed thousands of operations there. Other
>>>>clinics were being established in Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala,
>>>>Honduras and Haiti, all with Cuban planning and staffing. The ten-year
>>>>goal of Operación Milagro is to restore sight to 6 million people of
>>>>Latin America and the Caribbean, and the program is expanding to
>>>>Africa.
>>
>>>>The Cuban example of so many years, and now Venezuela, have also
>>>>recently inspired the peoples of Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina,
>>>>Uruguay and Nicaragua to elect progressive leaders. Most have rejected
>>>>the 1990´s "Wa****ngton Consensus" and the neo-liberal model along with
>>>>determined U.S. efforts to establish a hemispheric free trade zone.
>>>>All are developing grassroots social and economic programs, each in
>>>>its own way, aimed at improving the quality of life for all,
>>>>especially the long-excluded majorities of their populations where
>>>>this injustice prevailed. Although achievements in Cuba continue to
>>>>****ne, the torch of revolution in the region has effectively passed
>>>>from the towering figure of Fidel, ailing at eighty, to Chavez, a
>>>>military man and teacher inspired by Simón Bolívar and José Martí.
>>
>>>>Reflecting on these new hopes for hundreds of millions in such a vast
>>>>region, one
>>
>>...
>>
>>read more »
>
>
> Have any of you actually been to Cuba? Advances in medical health? So
> it's and advancement to NOT have bed clothes for the sick, unless they
> bring it with them? It's an advancement to not have air conditioning,
> other than the fan the family supplies? It's an advancement to make
> sure family member's keep a 24 hour vigil over patient, not for
> wellness reasons, but so that the infirm aren't robbed by other
> patients, members of other people's family's or health care workers?
> Is it also an advancement to have doctors tell patients that unless
> someone from "la Yuma" ( the US) doesn't send the medicine, they are
> not likely to live? I didn't know it was an advanced form of health-
> care to require that patients bring in their own sutures.
It's an advance over anywhere else in Latin America.
> Educational programs are excellent. Of course considering that Cuba
> has two television channels and kid programing, according to my
> cousins born there, is a choice between Gov't created "crap" and
> strange Russian cartoons that require a PhD to understand. Since
> teachers don't get paid much, like everyone else, and don't have to
> pay rent or electricity or water bills or insurance for their bicycles
> (for those lucky enough to have gotten one from money sent from an
> American relative) They stay late ours to work one-on-one with
> students who aren't getting it.
>
> Did I mention that part of the educational program in Cuba is to take
> children away from their families for whole sections of the year to
> work and learn from the State?
>
> So sure! lets have the universal health care and education like
> Cuba's-- Let's start by having all of you sell every property you own
> to the Government and let them decide what field of study you are best
> suited for, and what is best for your child, and how much rice you
> should eat in a month. :)
>
> So you know I'm not full of Bull, I was born in New York to Cuban
> parents who've never been involved in politics. My father is a Baptist
> Minister, my Mom was best friends with Cuba's Communist Party's Head
> of the E***enical Association ... or some strange name like that ...
> he'd been her paster before they left in '71. Since then my mom
> returned to Cuba, starting in '82 when my grandfather became ill and
> she finally was given permission to see her family. Later, when the
> bans on travel were lifted and people began to go, she returned
> several times. I went in '98 for 10 days. The above description of a
> hospital stay is not based on hear-say, but on my experiences the very
> first day ... hours that I arrived in Havana. I had to rush to the
> hospital with medication that was already over do that I was taking
> for a friend who's mother was very sick. Despite the medication, she
> died a few months later. I can't help but think that she probably
> could have lived a few more years with just a proper diet of regular
> food. But then, regular food is something reserved for people with
> dollars in Cuba. Just like the much talked about Health-care system.
> Dollars or Euro's.
http://www.powerofcommunity.org/cm/index.php
> Perhaps you ought to start opposing the embargo then if the plight of
Cubans
> is so im****tant to you.
That would be a good start.
--Jeff
--
We know now that Government by
organized money is just as dangerous
as Government by organized mob.
--Franklin D. Roosevelt
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