-Caveat Lector- from; http://www.aci.net/kalliste/ Click Here: <A HREF="http://www.aci.net/kalliste/">The Home Page of J. Orlin Grabbe</A> ----- Cuba Yankee Imperialist Dollars Undermine Castro The US dollar displacing the Cuban peso. As President Fidel Castro rings in the millennium with salvoes of anti-US rhetoric, a potent symbol of US "imperialism" is invading the pockets and minds of ordinary Cubans. Tens of thousands of Cubans spent much of December marching in anti-American protests to demand the return of a shipwrecked boy. But equal numbers paraded to the island's state shops on an unprecedented spending spree. But the currency in use was not the Cuban peso. It was the US dollar, the ubiquitous "greenback" whose global "tyranny" has been decried by Mr Castro. The president's revolutionary rhetoric has not stopped the dollar from making deep inroads in Cuba's socialist society six years after Mr Castro took the momentous step of allowing its free circulation alongside the peso. Foreign analysts view the recent surge in dollar consumer spending as a sign that the Cuban economy has weathered the worst of the recession that followed the collapse of the Soviet bloc. "It's a booming business and the money is flowing to the government," said one European banker in Havana. Apart from a tiny private enterprise sector, the Cuban government has shrewdly kept retail commerce in state hands. Official estimates indicate that annual sales in dollars by state shops have doubled in six years, approaching and passing $1bn in the process. These dollar market sales will probably have surpassed the combined value of Cuba's sugar and nickel exports in 1999. Only tourism brought in higher gross revenues, at a little less than $2bn. The proportion of the 11m population with access to hard currency rose in 1999 to 62 per cent. For most this money comes from "del norte!" (from the north) - the US. Many have family or friends living in the US who regularly send hard currency cash remittances to the island. Cuba applies no checks or controls on the remittance income so it is impossible to calculate its real value. Some analysts have estimated the annual flow from the US alone at more than $800m. Dollars are also paid to those working in the foreign tourism or business sectors and are the currency for the self-employed or those renting homes. The vast majority of Cuba's 4.6m workforce is employed by the state and paid in pesos. Life for them remains hard despite the state-subsidised food ration. Every Cuban knows that the dollar has superior buying power - at least 20 times more than the peso by the government-approved internal exchange rate. Access to dollars provides access to an improved lifestyle. Not for nothing have Cubans nicknamed the dollar "fula", the term for the greeny-grey gunpowder used to invoke the spirits in Afro-Cuban "santer�a" rituals. The growing dollar economy undoubtedly poses a potentially divisive political problem for Mr Castro. The Financial Times, Jan. 4, 2000 Privacy Hollywood Stars Turn Against the Lying Clintons Funny. I never noticed the lying before now. WARREN BEATTY and Annette Bening - Hollywood's leading liberal couple - have described President and Mrs Clinton as untrustworthy, deceitful and disappointing. Bening, who is widely tipped to win an Oscar this year for her performance in the film American Beauty, said in an interview that Mrs Clinton was impressive at first but became less so as she tried to suck up to her. "I saw how politically deft she was, and I was not completely seduced by that," said the actress. "I have a lot of mixed feelings about what she's doing now [running for the Senate]. She always appears to be doing what's politically expedient in the most transparent way." She added of the Clintons as a couple: "You feel like there's prevaricating, there's lying. You just don't trust them." Her remarks reflect a widespread feeling in Hollywood that the Clintons have pumped members of the film industry for campaign contributions and leeched off their glamour but offered little in return. One consequence is that Vice-President Al Gore is finding it hard to raise funds there. Beatty, a long-standing Democrat supporter who flirted with a campaign for the White House last year, also told Vanity Fair magazine that he would not now be running. He said he was afraid he might damage the liberal causes he espoused. Once the Democratic Party's key link with Hollywood, Beatty was a supporter of John and Robert Kennedy and later a close adviser to Gary Hart, the Democratic presidential candidate whose 1988 campaign exploded when he was caught on a boat with a woman. Now Beatty feels estranged from his party and is rarely on the Clintons' dinner party lists. "Something happened to me, gradually, which made it no longer possible to avoid the truth," he said. His 1998 film Bulworth was a satire about a politician who suddenly decides to tell the truth during his campaign. "You can't really make jokes like that unless you're willing to have your invitation to the table rescinded," he said. "And I had become more and more willing to have that invitation rescinded." Discussing his dalliance with a run at the presidency, Beatty said: "I feel good about speaking up. It seems to me that the effect has been positive, that I've not yet made too much of a fool of myself - at least I don't think I have. I have not diminished the importance of the issues." He refused to endorse any of this year's Democratic candidates, saying they were good men but were avoiding the issues he cared about, such as campaign finance, universal health care and exploitative labour practices. Mr Clinton, meanwhile, has said he is looking forward to becoming a member of the "Senate spouses' club" if his wife is elected to represent New York, and he could even join her in Congress by running for office in his home state of Arkansas. Mr Clinton, who will be 54 when he leaves office in a year's time, was asked in an interview with NBC's Today show whether he had "any Denis Thatcher issues" with Mrs Clinton's candidacy. He replied: "No, I'm thrilled about it. I am so excited. And I'm very proud of my wife for taking it on." He joked that the only way he might be able to spend time with his wife would be as a congressman. "That's maybe something I ought to think about." But his main focus was "working out how I can live a useful life". He added: "I'm not worried. I'll find something useful to do." The London Telegraph, Jan. 4, 2000 ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, All My Relations. Omnia Bona Bonis, Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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