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Sat, 27 Oct 2001 09:12:24 -0700
From: "Walter Lippmann" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2001 06:04:35 -0700 To: "CubaNews" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [CubaNews] CubaNews summary 10-27-2001 CubaNews summary 10-27-2001 ==================================== Protest Washington's war against Afghanistan by joining in mass demonstrations today. See: http://www.internationalanswer.org/ for places. ==================================== SOCIAL WORK TRAINING COLLEGES OPEN Fidel opened two new social work training colleges, in the eastern provinces of Holguin and Santiago. He explained their role in confronting many of the social problems existing on the island. He further analyzed the economic impact of 9-11 on Cuba's economy in straightforward. Granma excerpts: Among the missions of this great army of social workers, Fidel referred to attention, visits and follow-up for all Cuban families, with an emphasis on getting to know the problems and situations of those with children aged 0-15 years, retired persons and pensioners, the disabled and those who have been released from or are still in prison. Fidel also referred to the international economic panorama aggravated by the terrible events of September 11, although he stated that the crisis was inevitable, given that the world's three principal economic centers were on the brink of recession. He warned that this is affecting all nations, including Cuba, as the price of exports has fallen and tourism, the island's main source of revenue, is suffering. He argued that even though Cuba is not dependent on U.S. tourism, the fear and uncertainty brought about by the war has extended to all parts of the globe, along with the management of other incidents, like the famous anthrax phenomenon which, if dealt with properly, is less serious than influenza epidemics that kill hundreds of thousand of people. "We are probably the least affected, but nevertheless, the effects are noticeable, as we have closed 20 hotels and our dollar revenues have fallen," highlighted Fidel. http://www.granma.cu/ingles/octu4/44fidel-i.html and preceding article on these topics: http://www.granma.cu/ingles/octu4/43escuel-i.html CARIBBEAN NATIONS 9-11 AFTERSHOCKS Cuba is feeling them, but so is the rest of the area: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/28/travel/TRENDS.html ======================================= TWENTY MORE CHARTER FLIGHTS TO CUBA 11-1 Thomas L. Cooper, president of Continental Connection, speaks to reporters Thursday Oct. 25, 2001 in Havana, Cuba. Continental Airlines is dedicating an aircraft that will provide 20 additional weekly charter flights to Cuba, Cooper said on Thursday. (AP Photo/Jose Goitia) http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/p/ap/20011025/wl/1004035748cuba _charter_flights_hav102.html ===================================== THEATER REVIEW | 'HAVANA IS WAITING' Excerpts from the New York Times review: This three-character tale of homecoming for a spiritually homeless man is a disarmingly simple play about emotions so mixed that the word ambivalent doesn't begin to cover them. For what Mr. Machado is taking on is not only the paradoxes of his autobiographical hero's cultural identity. He is also delving, with equal parts wistfulness and anger, into the knotty confusions of the political relations between Cuba and the United States; Communism and capitalism as bedfellows in Cuban ideology; and the tortured ties between those who fled that island country and those who stayed behind. The Keane-eyed image of Elián González, the Cuban boy who became the iconic center of an international custody battle, also hovers over "Havana," reopening wounds from Federico's own childhood. Add to that the suggestion that neither sexual preference nor gender itself is ever entirely stable, and you'll have some idea of the stew that is being stirred. There are more issues for debate than even Shaw ever crammed into a single work. When Federico exasperatedly says of Ernesto (Felix Solis), his Cuban driver and guide, that "he contradicts himself every five minutes," he could just as easily be describing himself. Or the play in which he appears. Clearly, Mr. Machado is trying to find peace and pattern in living with contradictions. TEXT: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/27/arts/theater/27HAVA.html ==================================== CUBAN-BELGIAN RELATIONS EXPANDING Expanding trade, investment and cooperation are reviewed in Granma's interview with the Belgian Ambassador to Cuba, Patrick de Beyter. http://www.granma.cu/ingles/octu4/43belga-i.html ===================================== CUBA TO TRY GUATEMALAN TERRORISTS HAVANA -- (Reuters) Cuba will try next week three Guatemalans arrested in 1998 on accusations of smuggling explosives into the Caribbean island for a planned bombing campaign, Guatemala's ambassador in Havana said Friday. The trial of the men on formal charges of ``crimes against state security,'' for which the prosecution has requested jail terms of between 20 and 30 years, will begin next Thursday, Guatemala's envoy, Hugo Rene Guzman, told Reuters. Since they were jailed ``they have received the correct attention,'' Guzman said, asked about their condition. ``They have received consular and diplomatic attention systematically and their health is good.'' Havana's decision to try the trio now, more than three years' after their arrest, is probably part of a campaign, in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, to show how it has suffered from alleged terrorism planned from U.S. soil, diplomats and analysts said. FULL TEXT: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/templates/misc/printstory.jsp?sl ug=sfl%2D1026cuba ======================================= CUBA RESPONDS TO LOURDES CLOSING Translation of full text from Granma of October 26 in which Cuba begins a point-by-point response to the Russian decision to abrogate its agreement with Cuba unilaterally. http://www.ain.cubaweb.cu/english/oct26editorial.htm ====================================== JAILED CUBANS END THEIR HUNGER STRIKE They were charged with illegal departure in the case of Elian Gonzalez and the others in that tragic event. Reuters reports: HAVANA - A group of Cubans jailed since 1999 on accusations of providing a boat for the disastrous sea- trip taken by young Elian Gonzalez have ended a hunger-strike after receiving assurances they would be tried soon, activists said Friday. Five of six men, charged with ``illegal departure'' for their part in the case of the Cuban boy's migrant voyage in November 1999, had begun the protest last week to demand immediate trial or release from jail in the provincial town of Matanzas. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/templates/misc/printstory.jsp?sl ug=sfl%2D1026elianboat ==================================== SOCIALIST GARMENT WORKER FIRED from The Militant, November 5, 2001 MIAMI--On Monday, October 22, Michael Italie, a sewing machine operator at Goodwill Industries of South Florida and Socialist Workers candidate for mayor of the city of Miami, was fired from his job here. A manager told Italie at the end of the shift that he was terminated because of his views of the U.S. government, which are contrary to the company's. Italie has been campaigning since his nomination in July--joining workers' picket lines, participating in street actions in opposition to Washington's policy towards Cuba, and protesting a series of racist killings by police in the Miami area. He was fired a few days after appearing on local TV that covered a candidates forum at Miami Dade Community College (MDCC), where Italie called for an end to Washington's war on Afghanistan and to the intensified assault on workers' rights at home. The socialist candidate has been certified to be on the ballot in the November 6 elections. "I am going to fight this political firing," Italie told the Militant. "This is an attack on the right of all working people to speak their mind on government policy without fear of intimidation or losing their jobs. It's an attack on the labor movement. It's an attempt by this employer to shut down political space for freedom of expression on and off the job. It's a concrete example of the results of the patriotic, pro-war hysteria promoted by the government in Washington." FULL TEXT: http://www.themilitant.com/2001/6542/654205.html ===================================== CANADIAN CHARGED WITH EMBARGO BREACH >From The Militant November 5, 2001 James Sabzali, a salesman from Ontario, Canada, is the first Canadian citizen to be charged with violating the U.S. embargo laws against Cuba. The case may become a disputed issue between Ottawa and Washington. Working on contract to the U.S. chemical company Purolite, Sabzali traveled to Cuba numerous times between 1991 and 1995 and sold $2 million worth of Welsh-made water purification chemicals to hospitals and factories on the island. He was later promoted to an administrative position at Purolite's main office in Philadelphia. In response to the U.S. embargo laws, Ottawa passed its Foreign Extraterritorial Measures Act, which prohibits Canadian citizens from complying with U.S. measures that infringe upon Canadian businessmen's "sovereign" ability to trade with other countries. READ THE FULL ARTICLE: http://www.themilitant.com/2001/6542/654257.html ==================================== FLORIDA-CUBA TIES EXPLORED New exhibit explores Florida's ties to Cuba By Vicky Koren Sentinel Correspondent October 27, 2001 DAYTONA BEACH -- The dynamic 500-year relationship shared by Cuba and Florida is examined in the latest permanent exhibit at the Museum of Arts and Sciences, "The Cuba and Florida History Connection." The museum will host a special Cuban program today from 2 to 4 p.m. to introduce the new exhibit. It will feature a musical performance by Trio Arpeggio followed by a slide presentation and guided tour. Authentic Cuban refreshments will be offered after the tour. The new exhibit complements an already extensive exhibit of pre-revolutionary Cuban art housed in the 3,000-square-foot Cuban Museum. Tracing back to the earliest settlers in Cuba and Florida, large bilingual text panels are displayed throughout the exhibit leading visitors on a historical journey. A bilingual touch-screen interactive computer also highlights historical data. Much of the museum's Cuban art is courtesy of the late Cuban President Fulgencio Batista and his wife Mara who organized and donated the collection in the late 1950s, shortly before the corrupt dictator was overthrown by Fidel Castro's revolution in 1959. Batista died in 1973. It is said to be the best collection of Cuban art assembled during the pre-1959 period. "It hits almost every aspect -- historical, social and cultural. It shows the impact of both cultures upon each other. We point out the similarities of the two cultures. The two were like sisters," said Jessi Jackson Smith, Museum of Arts and Sciences history and science curator. Throughout the museum, various text panels co-exist with colorful works of Cuban art, artifacts and furniture. "Charge of the 24th and 25th Infantry, July 2, 1898," a lithograph painted in the first quarter of the 20th century, hangs near a panel citing the U.S. military involvement in the Cuban Independence Movement. Featured in the lithograph are African-American soldiers, coined the "Buffalo Soldiers," engaged in battle. The exchange of agricultural products and goods and services also flourished between Cuba and Florida. Florida plantation owners were influenced by Cuba's sugar mills, which had operated successfully for many years. A new display in the museum features a scale model of a working sugar mill. The exhibit, built in 1930, is courtesy of the Batistas' private collection. Smith said the one-sixteenth inch scale model has been in storage and recently was restored through the work of restoration artist and museum volunteer Judie St. Onge. Smith said the she hopes the new exhibit serves as more realistic and positive picture of the kinship between Cuba and Florida, beyond Castro. "It's so important for young people to learn about the relationship. Most think the way it is now is the way it's always been. We bring together the big picture," she said. Copyright © 2001, Orlando Sentinel ===================================== ##################################### ===================================== GRANMA COVERS WAR ON AFGHANISTAN This is only the opening summary of a detailed analysis presented in Granma newspaper: . More than 100 people, mostly patients and medical personnel, were victims of bombings by U.S. and British airplanes against an Afghan hospital . According to Taliban authorities, more than 1,000 have been killed since the beginning of the attacks . Kabul accuses the U.S. of using chemical and biological weapons . U.S. ship accidentally bombs Northern Alliance positions . Islamic organizations in Pakistan have recruited some 100,000 youths to fight U.S. aggression in Afghanistan . The first contingent of 1,550 soldiers from Australian special forces leave for Central Asia . Massive protests in Indonesia threaten government's stability . American Association of Jurists declares that military aggression against Afghanistan is illegitimate FULL TEXT: http://www.granma.cu/ingles/octu4/43afgan-i.html ANTI-TALIBAN LEADER CAUGHT, EXECUTED Washington's allies may be less enthusiastic when undertaking missions inside Afghanistan after one of their more prominent leaders, Abdul Haq, was captured and later executed by the Taliban after he had tried to call his US friends by cell phone seeking to be rescued. One NY Times description: "An irascible scoundrel, but everyone loved him," said Richard Hoagland, a senior State Department envoy to Afghanistan in the early 1990's. "He embodied the Afghan national characteristic of openness, frankness, independence. Many other Afghans would tell us what we wanted to hear and flatter us. He was never afraid to tell the United States the truth, and to tell us when we were screwing up." NY Times story: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/27/international/asia/27HAQ.h tml INTERVIEW WITH ABDUL HAQ GIVES A CLUE This may help explain why some in Washington are posthumously declining responsibility for Abdul Haq. Here are two paragraphs of a recent interview with him: But if the US keeps bombing and helps the Northern Alliance, then our work will be much more difficult. The problem is that the Americans cannot control Alliance commanders on the ground if they decide to attack Kabul or massacre people. How can they control them? By threatening to bomb them too? So instead the US should keep up the pressure, but not bomb. But the US is trying to show its muscle, score a victory and scare everyone in the world. They don't care about the suffering of the Afghans or how many people we will lose. And we don't like that. Because Afghans are now being made to suffer for these Arab fanatics, but we all know who brought these Arabs to Afghanistan in the 1980s, armed them and gave them a base. It was the Americans and the CIA. And the Americans who did this all got medals and good careers, while all these years Afghans suffered from these Arabs and their allies. Now, when America is attacked, instead of punishing the Americans who did this, it punishes the Afghans." http://www.ceip.org/files/Publications/lievendispatch-haq.as p?from=pubdate MIAMI HERALD: HAQ DEATH BLOW TO U.S. STRATEGY The New York Times posthumously disowns Haq but the Miami Herald reports on it differently: His death is a significant blow to the U.S. strategy of creating an indigenous opposition in Afghanistan that could revolt against the Taliban leadership and is also an important psychological victory for the Taliban, although Haq no longer commanded troops fighting the hard-line regime. http://web.realcities.com/content/rc/news/attack/miami/19565 92100.htm ==================================== AUDIO REPORTS ON AFGHANISTAN WAR Democracy NOW in Exile for October 26, 2001 features reports on the US bombing of the Red Cross (again) in Kabul, and US use of cluster bombs. Interviewees discuss these topics: This week US bombers and warplanes began dropping cluster bombs near frontline Taliban troops in Afghanistan. On Monday US attacks killed eight people near the village of Heart, one of whom died after picking up an unexploded "bomblet" left behind by a cluster bomb. The UN and humanitarian groups have urged the US to stop dropping the devastating weapons, and some have called for international laws to outlaw their use. To get a sense of just what cluster bombs do and the legacy they leave behind, we might look at Laos. From 1964-1974 the U.S. waged a covert war against Laos, dropping an estimated 6 million to 7 million bombs on Laos, plus huge but unknown numbers of antipersonnel bomblets and killing hundreds of thousands. Nearly thirty years later the people of Laos are still suffering and dying from US bombs. HEAR FULL PROGRAM: http://www.webactive.com and look for the Democracy NOW in Exile for October 26. ================================== FIREFIGHTERS CLEARED IN FLAG CASE MIAMI · Three Miami-Dade firefighters have been cleared of allegations that they refused to ride on a truck with an American flag on it, but say they don't feel safe returning to work. Reports that the men refused to ride on the truck because of the flag spurred many of their fellow firefighters, in Miami-Dade and throughout the country, to express anger toward them and to post online messages saying they refused to work with them. "There's safety issues we must address now," said Terry Williams, one of the firefighters. "This is not an office job. This is a job where your life lies in the hands of your co-workers." http://www.sun-sentinel.com/templates/misc/printstory.jsp?sl ug=sfl%2Ddflag27oct27 TO RECEIVE MORE INFORMATION LIKE THIS SUBSCRIBE TO CUBANEWS LIST CLICK HERE: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Get your FREE credit report with a FREE CreditCheck Monitoring Service trial http://us.click.yahoo.com/Gi0tnD/bQ8CAA/ySSFAA/xYTolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To unsubscribe from this CubaNews group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/