Posted on 09/29/2003 2:47:48 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
NEW YORK - Cuba's foreign minister made an impassioned appeal for the lifting of the trade embargo against his country, saying the blockade has cost the Caribbean nation $72 billion in the last 42 years.
In a 75-minute speech at a Harlem church, Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said the Cuban people do not hold any hatred against the American people.
He stressed that Cuba was against terrorism and has been combating drug trafficking, but despite overtures the Americans have refused to lift the embargo.
"The blockade is a major obstacle to our development. (It) prevents and curtails our development," Perez Roque told a sympathetic audience of more than 800 people, many of whom repeatedly interrupted with chants of "Viva Cuba."
The embargo has cost Cuba $72 billion setting back its development, affecting education, trade, industry, business transactions and its ability to receive international assistance, the minister said.
The embargo was imposed by the United States in 1961 to punish Cuba's Fidel Castro, then a Soviet ally. The United States has also imposed sanctions on companies that do business in the communist island.
Perez Roque is in New York for the annual ministerial session of the U.N. General Assembly. In a speech on Friday, the Cuban criticized the U.S.-led war in Iraq. He hit that theme again Saturday.
American entertainer Harry Belafonte introduced Perez Roque to the audience.
Belafonte, who said he frequently visited Cuba, hoped the event would move Americans to push for lifting the embargo.
"So far things don't look so good. But I think the more we display our willingness to be open...more people will support the idea," he told The Associated Press.
When his supporters visit him in Cuba, Castro gives them a standard tour of facilities that the state approves for foreigners to see. During the Holocaust, Hitler's Nazis also gave standard tours of concentration camps that the state approved for outsiders to see. One reason that the Holocaust lasted as long as it did is that the outsiders accepted those state-approved tours as proof that nothing inappropriate was happening in Germany.
The regime courts the individuals below, because Castro knows he can advance his propaganda more efficiently through Hollywood celebrities and other famous persons. ………..
………Harry Belafonte:
Mr. Belafonte, who is known as the "consummate entertainer" and humanitarian, claims to be a crusader for social justice, even gaining global respect for his activities wherever human rights are in danger. However, he befriended Castro and actively supports the oppressive regime, even though the regime's human rights abuses have been condemned by international human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (see Reports)
Mr. Belafonte is a prime sponsor of New York City's Center for Cuban Studies. Along with Pastors for Peace, National Council of Churches, and other such organizations, the Center for Cuban Studies is what many call a "front" organization for Castro. The Center is headed by Sandra Levinson, the executive director.
The Center for Cuban Studies provides public relations service for Dictator Castro. Among the PR projects are "health resorts" and a theme park, all of which are open only to tourists. Castro has imposed tourist apartheid, which forbids the citizens of Cuba (the majority of whom are Afro Cuban) from entering any tourist establishments. Before the civil rights movement in the United States, Blacks were forbidden from using "White" facilities--the Blacks in Cuba continue to be segregated for more than 40 years. (See Racism and apartheid).
Belafonte looks the other way in relation to the absence of blacks in high-ranking positions on his comrade's island, as well as the overwhelming black prison population in Castro's Cuba.
The Center for Cuban Studies acts as a clearinghouse for Cuban art to be sold in the United States. Members of the organization travel to Cuba collecting art and then sell the art in a New York gallery at substantial markup costs. The regime does not allow the Cuban people to sell their own artistic creations or make any profit from them. Therefore, the Center for Cuban Studies supports Castro, working to keep him in power, because if the people of Cuba were free, then the Center could no longer exploit Cuban artists for such a profit. (Go to Dissident writings and art to see more about Cuban artists.)
Other members of this front organization are Noam Chomsky, Francis Ford Coppola, Grace Paley, Sydney Pollack, and Pete Seeger.
Please read the additional information about Belafante and other supporters of Castro, in Articles and more info.
TRADE WITH PLANTATION CUBA?***The matter of Cuba's benighted revolution continues to grip the interest of Americans-or so one might conclude from the fact that a recent panel discussion on the U.S. embargo against Cuba drew a lunchtime crowd of some 400 persons to the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco.
The large audience had mostly come to show support for relaxing the current laws against commerce with Cuba. The embargo, its opponents aver, has not brought positive changes to Cuban society. An American economic presence in Cuba, they say, can only be more beneficial than its absence has been.
An abundant irony is that many people who make this argument are those who still sentimentalize Castro. At the San Francisco meeting, the loudest applause went to a speaker who restated the very litanies the regime has employed for nearly fifty years to justify itself. And in the face of conventional wisdom, one must clarify that the embargo law was never meant to cause reform in Cuba. Its purpose was to turn away from a regime that-under the guise of "socialization" -had just stolen about one billion dollars in U.S. properties.
The heart of the current anti-embargo stand is a plea for "constructive engagement." Its advocates posit that when American citizens come face to face with Cuban citizens, mutual understanding will flower and democratic tendencies will spread. Actually, some of that did happen when Castro's regime opened the door to family visits by Cuban exiles; but business-to-business relations are much more doubtful, because independent enterprise does not exist in Cuba. American companies would be dealing not with Cuban counterparts but directly-and whether they know it or not-with Castro's security forces; a prospect that offers no hope of amelioration to ordinary Cubans.
Unlike U.S. companies, Cuba's enterprises are completely dominated by government officials and informants. Any sign of disloyalty can bring the gravest consequence. Workers have no right to collective bargaining; any attempt to organize among workers is met with ostracism, demotion, dismissal, or with arrest and lengthy imprisonment. Foreign businesses that employ Cuban workers do not pay those workers directly. Payments are made to the state, which keeps nearly all the money and doles out a pittance to workers who receive, on average, about fifteen dollars a month. The fact that even so small an amount is paid in dollars makes the deal attractive to Cubans, who gladly accept jobs in foreign companies.
This setup is a potential boon to offshore investors who can acquire the services of skilled workers without labor troubles, and without concerns about how workers are treated. A further irony-given the extensive support Castro's regime has enjoyed in the West-is that such arrangements, far from fostering a general welfare, have led to the kind of hyper-exploitation that once occurred in pre-capitalist, feudal societies.
Even if our Western countries have no current experience in this regard, we do have words for a condition in which people must do as they are told, say and think as they are told, work as they are told, consume as they are told, live where they are told-with one's only chance for a self-determined life residing in escape. One of those words is serfdom; another is slavery. ***
Sen. Coleman Pays Cuba Human Rights Call - Reverses call for unrestricted trade*** HAVANA - Sen. Norm Coleman, visiting Cuba on Sunday, backed away from earlier calls to end sanctions on the communist country, saying that lifting the restrictions now would send the wrong message.
Coleman cited the Cuban government's crackdown on the opposition in March, when 75 dissidents were rounded up and sentenced to prison terms of between six and 28 years. "I think about the folks in prison and what message that gives them," the Minnesota Republican said.
American moves to eliminate the 40-year-old trade and travel sanctions have "been building for some time, but it's not there yet," Coleman told a small group of American reporters in Havana. "And the March actions create a problem." Coleman, however, said releasing some or all of the 75 dissidents "would be a good gesture," and would "increase the prospects" for American support to end the trade embargo and travel restrictions.
Coleman arrived here Friday for a four-day visit to study human rights and trade issues. Coleman is chairman of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee. He is especially interested in future business for Minnesota farmers.
Coleman met with parliament speaker Ricardo Alarcon and other communist officials and could meet President Fidel Castro before leaving Monday. Coleman in the past has said he believes that eliminating the trade and travel restrictions could help nurture democracy and human rights in the Caribbean nation. But after meeting Saturday with dissidents and the relatives of jailed opponents, he said the timing is wrong.***
The people in Cuba realize that many are naïve fools that are being used and others are die-hard Marxists and Stalinists. They all seem clear about what they think is best for the Cuban people while they visit as pampered guests of the Cuban elite. They are seen, however, as collaborators of Castro's repression and their activities are noted.
They are also seen as bricks in Castro's foundation that they help extend all over the world. After leaving Cuba, they talk about the fraudulent accomplishments of the revolution as if they were real, thereby misleading and misinforming others abroad and recruiting more for the constant pilgrimage to the island of Dr. Castro.
The effort is broad - extending also to journalists. Recently the deputy editor of the Commentary pages of The Washington Times, Benjamin P. Tyree, visited Cuba as part of a group of journalists. Tyree, by just quoting Castro's officials repeating propaganda without any analysis, made his resulting series published in the Times nothing more than more duly laid bricks.
As in former communist countries, Cuba began drawing these fools in 1959 and has developed and perfected the technique of attracting and making the most of them. The structured visits make it almost impossible for the guests to see through the propaganda. In the communist inside jargon these people are classified as "useful fools." Indeed, they are.
In the article Harry Belafonte's Havana Farewell, published on July 18, 2000 on FrontPageMagazine.com written by Ronald Radosh, he says "Most American admirers of Harry Belafonte probably don't realize that the popular singer and actor is an unreconstructed Stalinist." Among other information he says, "In April 1997,
Belafonte was the featured speaker at the 60th Anniversary celebration of the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, where he honored the efforts of these self-proclaimed 'premature anti-fascists' who in reality served as Stalin's brigade in Spain, the enforcers of Soviet policy."
A look at this article reveals Belafonte's long history of Stalinism. Of course, in our democracy he is free to think and promote whatever he wants. But the article exposes what lies behind this seemingly harmless humanitarian. If he had been a fan of Hitler, Belafonte's reputation would have been destroyed long ago. And that is a double standard when you take into account the crimes of the Nazis vs. the crimes of the Communists. Both should be equally repudiated by all people of goodwill. There is no place for either one in a civilized world.
With the excuse of "supporting the Cuban people," Belafonte's multiple trips and speeches at communist rallies in Cuba are very much resented by those opposed to Castro inside the island, who consider him nothing less than a collaborator of the regime. His interference in internal Cuban affairs is not welcome, especially since he is an entertainer, not a Cuban and has never lived there as an ordinary citizen for any of the 42 years of suffering the most brutal regime in the 500 years of Cuban history.
What is incredible is that for the past 14 years Belafonte has been UNICEF's Goodwill Ambassador and in his constant visits to Cuba has never denounced Castro's regime for violating the United Nations Charter since 1959 as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. For example, among others: Article 3, "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person." Article 5, "No one should be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment." Article19, "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." Article 20, No. 1, "Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association." No. 2, "No one may be compelled to belong to an association."
Apparently, Castro can do no wrong in the eyes of Belafonte even though he promised to the Cuban people to restore the 1940 Constitution, to provide an entirely civilian government, to have full democratic political freedom of expression and press and to have honest and free elections. Instead, Castro installed a totalitarian communist regime, which in reality is totally illegitimate, because it violated the 1940 Constitution. But apparently, the fact that the little Cuban people under Castro do not have the same rights he enjoys is fine with Belafonte.
In 1990 and 1991, I saw on PBS, Belafonte's series Routes of Rhythm. I wrote to Belafonte agreeing 100% that Cuba was the launching ground and source of inspiration for popular music in this hemisphere. But what I could not overlook was that "for the last 32 years no more new rhythms have evolved and been launched from that island. That is very revealing indeed. I wonder if it has anything to do with freedom of creation."
After pointing out the propaganda he was exposed to in the making of his series, distortions and revisions to the history of Cuba according to Castro I continued, "Your show, with the unfortunate misinformation it contained, may fool/foul many Americans. But the eyes of a Cuban, who remembers the past and is up to date with the present reality, can see through the routes of your show Ruse of Rhythm.
"It is a shame that there is plenty of information about Cuba in public records that no one bothers to research. The lack of interest to know and hear what has really been going on in Cuba and the apathy of reporting by the [U.S.] media has made it possible to cover up the truth, to create the myth of Fidel among gullible intellectuals and political activists and help the longevity of that regime in detriment to the Cuban people trapped inside that island."
The last paragraph of my still unanswered 10-year-old letter said, "The people interviewed in your show have not possessed freedom of speech as we know it since 1959. So, in their interviews they are doing their best under the circumstances. The only free people in Cuba are the political prisoners in jails and concentration camps, and the dead."
On March 26, 2001, at the Lincoln Center in New York, Harry Belafonte, 73, will perform a concert to benefit the Center for Cuban Studies, a non-profit organization with a long history of pro-Castro activities. Founded in 1972 and headed by Sandra Levinson, this organization is dedicated to counter the effects of American policy toward Cuba. This concerned-about-Cuba veteran Calypso singer has not raised his voice before for the outrageous violations of humans rights going on in Cuba for 42 years, but now is going to raise his singing voice and collect money for a notorious pro-Castro organization.
This concert is also sponsored by the pro-Castro Artists and Writers Committee for Normalization of Relations with Cuba. Actor Danny Glover, who is the founding member of this organization, will host the evening. Glover, described in his bio as a "humanitarian," is also a frequent guest of the Castro regime. However, the humanitarian Glover has never raised his voice on behalf of the Cuban people's human rights, the existence of the shameful tourist apartheid, the disproportionate majority of black Cubans in Castro's dungeons or the absence of black Cubans in key government positions. What has Danny Glover done on behalf of the black Cuban political prisoners Vladimiro Roca or Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet?
As further evidence of what lies behind the scenes of this event, the fanatical pro-Castro "religious" organization Pastors for Peace is also promoting this fund raising.
Belafonte, an American from the U.S. says, "It would be very difficult to find a nation more committed to the culture of its people and the development of the culture than I have witnessed in Cuba.'' However, Maritza Lugo Fernandez, a Cuban political prisoner from her dungeon in a women's jail in Cuba is accusing Castro's regime of "keeping the Cuban people in complete ignorance about politics and democracy." Who has better knowledge of Castro's Cuba, Belafonte or Maritza?
Unfortunately, people like Belafonte and other true believers from the Hollywood crowd contribute with their extraordinary influence to the misunderstanding of the Cuban situation. Far from helping the Cuban people victimized by a brutal regime, they willingly serve at the side of their executioners. [End]
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.