As Arnie Coro explained to me, a prerequisite for
his coming to speak at the SWLFest is his
receiving a formal letter of invitation from a
bona fide organization in the U.S. inviting him
to a speaking engagement. In other words, he'd
need formal letter of invitation from an
'Organizational Sponsor' that meets with the
approval of his employer--the Cuban government.
Separately, I was told that NASWA would not
provide a formal letter of invitation offering to
be Arnie's Organizational Sponsor. I don't know
what criteria the Cuban government uses to
determine acceptability of an Organizational
Sponsor (it's probably subjective) or if NASWA
would've met those criteria anyway.
As I mentioned earlier, my most recent attempt to
find a Organizational Sponsor was with the
University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for
Communication, which seemed likely to meet with
the approval of the Cuban Government because its
academic reputation would complement Mr. Coro's
history as a Professor of Broadcasting at the
University of Havana. So it seemed like a good
match to have Arnie scheduled to speak there the
same week as the SWLFest, and tangentially he
could be brought to nearby Plymouth Meeting to
informally meet up with some old radio friends ;-)
After some back-and-forth inquiries and
negotiation through my contact, a tenured
Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, a
sticking point of an apparently geopolitical
nature arose--not from my contact, but from Penn
administration bureaucrats. Subsequently, my
Penn contact left to teach at another university.
If anyone knows a faculty member or
administration staffer at a university in the
greater Philadelphia region who'd be willing and
able to lobby their institution to be an
Organizational Sponsor for Arnie Coro to speak
there on the same week as a forthcoming SWLFest,
and write a formal letter of invitation to Arnie
Coro for his government to review, and if it
seems that Institution would likely meet with the
approval of the Cuban government, please let me
know and I'll provide more details on how I this
can be made to work. For years I've been asking
around about a suitable local Organizational
Sponsor, and nobody has offered a realistic
proposal. You'd think this would be easier, but
for a number of frustrating reasons it's not.
The financial resources needed to pay for Arnie's
travel expenses to the SWLFest are available,
notwithstanding fickle U.S. foreign policy
complicating both travel and the legal transfer
of funds to Cuba for that purpose. Perhaps in
2021 the geopolitical winds of change will blow
in a more progressive direction. The goal to
bring Arnie Coro to speak at the SWLFest has long been a moving target.
As for this year's virtual SWLFest, Sheldon
Harvey noted below that Arnie recently told him
the Cuban government does not allow access to
Zoom meetings--the specific medium chosen for
this year's SWLFest. So any suggestion that
Arnie could call into one of Zoom's telephone
numbers to access the 'phone' channel of the
SWLFest Zoom meeting seems unworkable, as that
would still constitute access to a Zoom meeting which is disallowed in Cuba.
-Ed
At 07:51 AM 1/22/2021, Richard Cuff wrote:
For what it's worth, I don't believe either John
or I have ever received personal correspondence
from Mr. Coro. The Fest website, which has
contact information available, would be a
vehicle that Mr. Coro could use to reach out to us if he's interested.
Ed is correct -- Zoom does allow participation
via a phone call for an audio-only experience;
if someone were to participate that way and --
during the relevant time of a session -- wish to
ask a question, they could contact me (or
whomever is acting in the host capacity at that
thime) and open up their audio for the question.
RC
On Mon, Jan 18, 2021 at 3:01 PM Ed Cummings
<<mailto:bern...@panix.com>bern...@panix.com> wrote:
While the Cuban government's internet firewall
probably blocks access to Zoom's servers, it
might not block phone calls to Zoom's many
telephone numbers set up to allow people to
participate via audio only. But obviously Arnie
isn't going to violate the laws of his
government to do that. Sometimes some of us in
North America take our freedoms for granted and
assume other global citizens enjoy the same freedoms.
-Ed
At 02:42 PM 1/18/2021, Sheldon Harvey wrote:
I had correspondence from Anrie Coro last
week. He told me that the Cuban government
does not allow access to Zoom meetings. Our
club (CIDX) has monthly meetings on Zoom and
Arnie gets a complimentary copy of our bulletin
each month. He received the invitation to our
January meeting, but responded saying that he is unable to access Zoom
Sheldon Harvey
Greenfield Park, Quebec
Enjoy birds and birdwatching?
<http://www.birdprotectionquebec.org/>http://www.birdprotectionquebec.org
On Monday, January 18, 2021, 2:08:44 p.m. EST,
Mano Guha <<mailto:mano.guha.ra...@gmail.com>mano.guha.ra...@gmail.com> wrote:
I will reach out to him after the 20th.
Mostly Receiving
On Jan 17, 2021, at 15:08, Ed Cummings
<<mailto:bern...@panix.com>bern...@panix.com> wrote:
 That is my hope as well,
Mano! Interestingly, last week VOA reported
the current U.S. administration redesignated
Cuba as a "state sponsor of terrorism" just 9
days before the end of that administration. So
that's an additional hurdle to overcome in
order to get Arnie Coro to come and speak at
the
SWLFest.
<https://www.voanews.com/usa/us-returns-cuba-list-state-sponsors-terrorism>https://www.voanews.com/usa/us-returns-cuba-list-state-sponsors-terrorism
My guess is that Arnie is now an octogenarian,
and (as with all of us) time is running out...
-Ed
At 01:56 PM 1/17/2021, Mano Guha wrote:
I for one would love to welcome Arnie Coro to
the SWL Fest via Zoom. Many years ago, he
facilitated my visit to Radio Havana which was
a memorable one. With the changing political
landscape, we should be able to invite him to the fest in the coming years.
73s
Mano
Mostly Receiving
_______________________________________________
Swlfest mailing list
Swlfest@hard-core-dx.com
http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/swlfest
To unsubscribe: Send an E-mail to
swlfest-requ...@hard-core-dx.com?subject=unsubscribe, or visit the URL shown
above.
For more information on the Fest, visit:
http://www.swlfest.com
http://swlfest.blogspot.com
