---------- From: "Walter Lippmann" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "CubaNews" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [CubaNews] CubaNews Summary 10-23-2001 CubaNews Summary 10-23-2001 ========================== ANTHRAX AND THE BIOTERRORISM ISSUE. The death of two Washington, DC postal workers, attributed to anthrax, has caused an escalated feeling of panic among many. As yet no link to organizations described as terrorist has been indicated, but such implications are widespread in the media coverage. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/ POSTAL WORKERS UNION LEADER NOTES: Two postal workers, Joseph Curseen and Thomas Morris, have died of what appears to be anthrax, after reporting to emergency rooms only hours earlier. Two others have also contracted inhalational anthrax, and nine other people are suffering from anthrax-like symptoms and are awaiting results. As the House closed and several Senate buildings shut down after some thirty people were exposed to anthrax spores from a letter to Senator Daschle, many postal workers wondered whether they should be tested and take antibiotics. But their bosses told them that the risk of exposure to the bacteria was minimal and that there was no need for antibiotics. Now the Brentwood Road mail center, which processes all letters sent to Congress, has become the newest epicenter of the letter-borne anthrax. Local postal union leaders said the two deaths might have been prevented if officials had respected workers' requests for earlier testing and antibiotic distribution. Guest: William Smith, President of the New York Metro Postal Workers Union. Listen to the interview at Democracy Now in Exile's War and Peace Report: http://stream.realimpact.org/rihurl.ram?file=webactive/exile /dn20011023.ra&start="2:19.4" Radio Havana Cuba's English broadcast dealt with the anthrax issue yesterday, October 22, explaining that the solution may well be more dangerous than the problem itself. Read their comments here: http://www.radiohc.org/Distributions/Radio_Havana_English/ ====================================== CENTENNIAL OF CUBA'S NATIONAL LIBRARY A photo and short commentary is up at Granma's website today noting the celebration of this library's centennial, celebrated this year. http://www.granma.cu/seccionfotos/058-biblioteca-i.html ====================================== WRITER ARTHUR MILLER DISCUSSES "FOCUS" Sixty years after its first publication as a novel, Arthur Miller's FOCUS has been made into a feature film. Initial buzz is highly enthusiastic. The playwrite gives some personal reflections on this in an essay for the paper's "Writers on Writing" series. The picture's focus is anti-Semism in the US during the 1940s, a blatant and widespread phenomenon at that time. I've seen the trailer for the picture and it packs quite a wallop. Laura Dern and William H. Macy star as a couple mistakenly taken for Jews in a Brooklyn neighborhood at the end of World War II who are subjected to anti-Semitic attack. Then they are compelled into an alliance with a local Jew to fight for their own, and thus everyone's human rights. Steven Holden's New York Times review includes: "A period piece set in a Brooklyn neighborhood near the end of World War II, "Focus" (which was filmed in Toronto) conveys the eerie claustrophobia and choked-back panic of an especially grim and creepy episode of "The Twilight Zone." Its view of 1940's America is pointedly opposite from today's prevailing gung-ho nostalgia about World War II. It pointedly reminds us that prejudice and xenophobia are the flip sides of unity and togetherness. READ THE FULL REVIEW: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/19/movies/19FOCU.html Writing in the Village Voice, critic J. Hoberman says: "Not altogether unconscious of its anachronistic premise, Focus fine-tunes the novel's original ending for greater optimism and universal uplift. Still, recent events have helped this period piece even more. In its flat-footed warning against guilt by association and blunt evocation of vigilante Americanism, Miller's antique has taken on an unexpected topical relevance. FULL REVIEW: http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0142/hoberman.php MILLER WRITES (excerpt) More Jews than not were on the left side of the political spectrum, but here was the Soviet Union lying down with the Jew-hunting Nazi. And Roosevelt, friend of Jews, had denied landing privileges to the St. Louis, the ship carrying a couple of hundred of the Jews allowed to leave by the Germans. The ship's captain first tried landing in Cuba and, turned away, headed back to Germany. There were not many protests within or outside the Jewish ranks. In fact, that ship disappeared over the horizon going east in a bubble of silence, probably the largest crowd to leave the Statue of Liberty behind. Along with a lot of others, what I made of the silence was that everybody, not excluding myself, was afraid of an outbreak of open anti- Semitism in America should that shipload of refugees be allowed to disembark. (This was a fairly prosperous, middle-class group of people and not what "refugee" seemed to connote, but even that seemed not to count.) Meantime one of the biggest radio audiences in the United States waited eagerly every Sunday for Father Coughlin's harangue against Jews on a national network. The writing of "Focus" was an attempt to break through the silence; just putting the words down was a relief. But I had no idea whether the subject itself would make publication unlikely, and so it indeed appeared from the moment it was offered to publishers. No one I talked to could think of any fiction on the subject, although the widespread existence of anti-Semitism, from the universities on down through the large corporations and professions, was of course known to everyone. It was like some sort of shameful illness that was not to be mentioned in polite society, not by gentiles and not by Jews. ------------------------- NOTE FROM WALTER My father and his parents were forced to live in Cuba from 1939 to 1943 because the United States gov- ernment refused to permit him and his parents to enter these United States, despite the fact that his brother, my uncle Henry, had already come to the US. They had to wait until 1943 to enter this country. I was born in New York City in 1944. Readers of this list may remember that my interest in Cuba stems from these traumatic and transformative events. ===================================== SINN FEIN RECANTS ON COLOMBIA ARRESTEE BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) - The political party associated with the Irish Republican Army admitted Monday that a man arrested in Colombia was its representative in Cuba, reversing repeated earlier denials. The Sinn Fein representative, Niall Connolly, was one of three people arrested in Colombia in August on suspicion of training rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. The Cuban government had identified Connolly as a Sinn Fein official, but the party had denied it. Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Fein, has acknowledged that one of the other men, James Monaghan, used to sit on Sinn Fein's executive committee. British and Irish police say Monaghan is the IRA's ``director of education'' responsible for developing new weapons and training IRA members in their use. Adams said Connolly had been appointed to his post in Cuba by a senior party member. ``This decision was taken without the knowledge or authorization of the international department or any other party structure including the party chairperson or myself,'' Adams told reporters. ``Niall Connolly, for his part, acted in good faith in his dealings with the Cuban government and in lobbying and information activities. I regret and apologize for the embarrassment caused by our initial response to the issue of Niall's role.'' ----------------------- Meanwhile, CNN reports... Adams said on Monday that he had spoken to the paramilitary group [the IRA] urging it to make the move to "save the peace process from collapse and transform the situation." Gerry Adams in the LA Times: "We have put to the IRA the view that if it could make a groundbreaking move on the arms issue, this could save the peace process from collapse and transform the situation," Adams said. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/ Gerry Adams in the Christian Science Monitor: "It is a time for clear heads and brave hearts," says Mr. Adams, president of the Irish Republican Army's political wing. "The IRA must stand out as an example of a people's army, in touch with the people, responsive to their needs and enjoying their genuine allegiance and support." An announcement from the IRA was expected within 24 hours. Analysts say it is highly unlikely Adams would have spoken without being assured of the IRA's cooperation. http://www.csmonitor.com/ MORE DETAILS ON THE IRISH STORY: http://www.1stheadlines.com/ireland.htm =============================== MANNY DIAZ CREDITS ELIAN Miami attorney Manny Diaz credits his role as one of the army of lawyers representing Lazaro Gonzalez in trying to prevent the family reunification of Elian with his father in Cuba for his decision to seek higher elective office. Diaz is running for Mayor of Miami in a several-sided primary now. According to the Miami Herald: Although candidate Jos� Garc�a-Pedrosa was also on the Eli�n legal team with him, Diaz was the only mayoral candidate in the house when federal agents seized the child. And in his mind, he is the only candidate who can build on the ashes of the Eli�n controversy. He has raised more than a half-million dollars, far more than any other candidate, including veteran public figures like former Mayor Maurice Ferre and incumbent Mayor Joe Carollo. http://www.miami.com/herald/content/news/local/ ==================================== TORTURE ISN'T ACCEPTABLE [this is from an editorial by the Miami Herald] Yes, law enforcement should use every legal means to investigate the Sept. 11 attacks and possible future terrorism. No, we shouldn't resort to torture and inhumane treatment. The issue arises in connection with four key suspects held in New York's Metropolitan Correctional Center. The FBI reportedly is convinced that these four men have information critical to the investigation. http://www.miami.com/herald/content/opinion/ MAX J. CASTRO: A CLASH OF THEORIES The liberal Cuban-American columnist writes: What intellectual debate pits Osama bin Laden, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and one of the premier political scientists in America against Bill Clinton, George Bush and Arab leaders? The idea that brings together odd bedfellows and divides longstanding allies is the ``clash of civilizations,'' a thesis coined by Samuel P. Huntington, a renowned Harvard professor described by Henry Kissinger ``as one of the West's most eminent political scientists.'' http://www.miami.com/herald/content/opinion/ LITTLE KNOWLEDGE OF MIDDLE EAST IN MEDIA CONTRIBUTES TO RACISM: Looking for understanding Elias Khoury says racism against Arabs reflects how little the West knows the Middle East Jim Quilty Beirut Daily Star staff The bookcase in Elias Khoury's office is framed by two black-and-white prints. To the right is Che Guevara. To the left is Charlie Chaplin. The books and papers between these are in good order at either extreme, but gradually collapse into chaos where they meet in the middle. Khoury himself has turned his back on this bookshelf symmetry just now. He is considering the latest episode of the West's great misunderstanding with the Middle East. "On Sept. 11," he says, "America became part of the world." For some years now the Lebanese novelist, leftist activist and editor of the cultural supplement of An-Nahar newspaper has played a role in trying to clear up this misunderstanding. During a recent trip to France he was assigned a rather different role, when local police burst into his hotel room, thinking he was a terrorist. "What we are witnessing now around the world � this racism against Arabs and Muslims � reflects how little the West understands the Middle East. This whole 'war on terrorism' is based on misunderstanding. "It highlights again the significance of (Edward Said's) Orientalism. The book was less about the Middle East than it was a tool for internal critique, to make public opinion come to terms with imperialism. "Whether you're talking about old Orientalists or new Orientalists � the journalists, 'the specialists,' � it's remarkable how little they know. I believe we know them far better than they know us." The linguistic double standards of Orientalism is a problem in Western reportage on the Middle East generally, but they are especially evident in the representation of the region's most-covered country, Palestine. "I was listening to the BBC yesterday," Khoury says. "A report about shots being fired on the settlement of Gilo. They called it 'a suburb of Jerusalem'." He shakes his head. "Not a settlement, a suburb." Then there was the assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi � the nationalist renowned for his calls to deport all Arabs from Israeli territory. Pundits remarked that the PFLP gunmen had crossed a red line in killing Zeevi, declaring that a sort of gentleman's agreement had previously exempted national leaders from being gunned down. Evidently, though, the gentleman's agreement only applied to Israeli politicians, since Israel has a long-standing policy of assassinating Palestinian leaders. "Some Israeli spokesman was talking to Radio France about this the other day," Khoury says. "The journalist pointed out the assassination of Abu Ali Mustafa, Abu Jihad, all the others murdered by the Israeli state over the years. "'Oh,' he says, 'they were terrorists'!" Khoury pulls a pack of Marlboros from his desk drawer. "Terrorists. This Zeevi was the worst terrorist of the lot." Since Sept. 11, Orientalist subtleties have been superseded by a more blatant racism � despite the efforts of the Anglo-American leadership to be culturally sensitive to Islam. This is how Khoury interprets his experiences in Aix-en-Provence earlier this month. The incident is as amusing as it is instructive of the degree of paranoia that has been churned up in the wake of the World Trade Center attacks. Khoury had been invited to France to deliver a keynote speech at a symposium of Mediterranean artists. He sent an Arabic-language fax to the London-based Al-Quds al-Arabi, and received another from An-Nahar. When they saw the Arabic, hotel management grew suspicious and contacted the police. "I woke up at 6.30 in the morning to find four men in my room. I felt like I was in a film. They were all in plainclothes so at first I thought I was being robbed. When I realized they were police I tried to calm them down. I explained I was attending a symposium and the officer questioning me looked confused, but I noticed they didn't stop going through my things." The French police felt justified in their suspicions when they uncovered a book in Khoury's luggage called El Sacrificio � which they seem to have assumed was some sort of manual for suicide bombers. It's actually a stageplay. "It was collectively created by a number of Mediterranean artists who visited Beirut. It's written in French, Italian and Albanian. I opened it for him and pointed to a page in French. 'It's a play,' I said. 'Look, you can read it yourself'." Khoury pauses to light another cigarette. "When it was going on it was a little amusing, really. I had a recently translated book on my bedside table by Stendhal," he smiles. "One of the policemen picked it up, looked at the photo of Stendhal on the back cover and said, 'Oh yes, Flaubert.' We then had to have a conversation about the history of French literature. "What happened to me was marginal," Khoury shrugs. "It tells us something about the stupidity of the police, but then we already knew about that. "I think it was picked up by Liberation and Le Monde because there are people there who are struggling against this racist madness that has taken hold everywhere. It was part of their effort to show the state of their country. Compared to what's happening in the northern suburbs of Paris every day, what happened to me in Aix is quite insignificant." Though Orientalism, and bald-faced racism, has a hand in the West's dealings with the Middle East, Khoury doesn't see the present hysteria in terms of "us and them." For him it is neither a clash of civilizations nor a war on terrorism, but an outgrowth of internal contradictions within the United States itself. Nor does he see the US to be the sole enemy, or victim, of Islamist extremism. "The anger that propelled the airliners into the sides of those buildings was a response to America's role in the disasters we have seen in the Arab world. But only partly. Al-Qaeda also grew up in response to the region's secular nationalist and socialist regimes. "If you look at the ideas of Abdullah Azzam (one of the principal minds behind Al-Qaeda) you see that he was against secular governments and liberation movements. He believed that you can't fight Israel under the flags of the non-believers. That's why they took their fight to Afghanistan first. "America supported this movement, not realizing that the mujahideen phenomenon was a movement within societies under dictatorship. Islamist dissidents from the Arab world went to Afghanistan to express themselves. You encourage this, but you can't tell them to stop when it becomes inconvenient." Khoury tosses his lighter back on the desk and takes a thoughtful draw on his cigarette. "You know, the Romans put up walls to separate the inside from the outside world. It's as if America, these new Romans, wanted to rule the world the same way. But today, with these population movements and borders vanishing, the inside and the outside are one. This must change. "When those two airplanes struck the World Trade Center it was the climax of a post-modern culture based on the image." He glances out the window. "The nightmare images that have been projected by American cinema were immediately outdated. The worst-case scenario has been made a reality. "On Sept. 11 America became part of the world." http://www.dailystar.com.lb/23_10_01/art3.htm ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> FREE COLLEGE MONEY CLICK HERE to search 600,000 scholarships! http://us.click.yahoo.com/Pv4pGD/4m7CAA/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/
