@vermisste Meldungen...
NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF US-CUBA SISTER CITIES - The United States-Cuba Sister City Association (USCSCA) is sponsoring a national conference on March 14 and 15 in Washington, DC. This is an important event, and we encourage all of our members to consider attending the conference. We hope to have a strong Madison presence at the event, so please join us. Details about the conference are below.
Friends:
USCSCA is proud to join Washington D.C. based Latin American Working Group, (LAWG) Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) and Center for International Policy (CIP) in their call for an "Emergency Convergence on U.S.-Cuba Policy" to take place in D.C. March 14th and 15th. People from all walks of life who have had enough of an indefensible policy will, for the first time, converge into a united front, and assist/insist congress must grant emergency legislative relief from the changes in regulations which not only subverted the actual intent of law as legislated by congress, but have also created a profound and urgent humanitarian crisis for people with family members in Cuba. We are asking EVERYONE who can possibly do so, make whatever sacrifices are necessary to take part personally in this massive national convergence. Gandhi said, "You must BE the change you wish to see in the world." Join forces to defend our constitutional freedom of association and travel, and support the inalienable right of the Cuban people to protect their national independence. Now is the time to stand up, and for the first time, come together, for what we believe in. This is not a day for 'adversarial' politics, rather a day of mass unity when we make the largesse majority of our diverse movement evident, to ourselves, to the congress, and the world. It is the first national 'strategy meeting' session for a people's foreign policy. We are there to protect our fundamental interests. Common sense and decency must prevail.
This administration has declared war on Cuba by implementing its provocative "Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba," a thinly guise blueprint to overthrow the Cuban government. We cannot underestimate the resolve to leave among their 'legacy,' the escalating aggression aimed to forcefully reopen the battlefront to return Cuba as a U.S. 'client' state with a proxy government favorable to U.S. interests. Under current U.S. law, any 'civil unrest' in Cuba is now classified a national security threat to the U.S. worthy of forced U.S. 'peacekeeping' intervention. And the resources being used to build a mercenary 'dissident' group within Cuba to promote the appearance of social instability are mind boggling. This administration and its allies, to whom they are so entwined and indebted understand very clearly, this 'lame duck' period, when they can act with some impunity, and without much fear of repercussion or consequence, will be their best, and probably last, opportunity to overthrow the Cuban government. We can stop them in their tracks. If we exercise our will, we will get our way.
Its up to us, what will we do to win this issue? Congress is actually ON OUR SIDE! The Republicans themselves, are split on support for the administration. Many Republicans have said they need strong grassroots support to take on their party on this issue. Our gathering, is a declaration of our commitment to restore relations with Cuba, and respect both the people of the U.S. and Cuba to find diplomatic solutions to bilateral differences. We don't need to be provoking conflict designed as a 'fig leaf' for an intervention to overthrow a sovereign nation. This is not a standard street demonstration, although we will be gathering in force, nor is it an 'annual advocacy day,' although many of the activities will focus on making the point to the new congress, that we will not tolerate the corruption of our constitutional democracy by anti-democratic forces that continue to hold this policy hostage against majority will. We need people to take the threat this administration bodes, very seriously, and do their part to make sure that we have visible and irrefutable majority on this issue. Cuban Americans, academics, students, women, cultural presenters, religious institutions, business, elected officials, sister cities, and others will be making their stand. We the people.......
Monday, March 14th, Constituencies will be holding focus group meetings throughout the District. Sister City forces will gather for an afternoon strategy session. Logistics TBA.
Tuesday, March 15th, we will join all the other constituencies that have gathered that day for a united rally, and the afternoon will be various events: united press conferences, demonstrations, cultural events, advocacy strategic sessions with congressional representatives, etc.
Sister Cities need local groups to coordinate our presence and their delegations. Please contact USCSCA for details, and your closest regional coordinator or board member for up-to-date information and to volunteer your leadership. We know, those of us who have spent, some new to the work, and many of us over a decade, building sustainable relations with our Cuban neighbors, fully appreciate the importance of this gathering, and everyone will pitch in and do their share to make this a phenomenal experience. We know we have been privileged to go to Cuba and be inspired by the Cuban people. We will not accept a policy that closes off all non-censored by the U.S. government, contact with the Cuban people.
On behalf of the USCSCA executive board,
Sincerely,
Lisa Valanti, President
US-CUBA Sister Cities Association, Inc.
National Office:
320 Lowenhill Street Pittsburgh, PA 15216
Tel: 412-563-1519 Fax: 412-563-1945
Email: USCSCA@aol.com
Website: http://www.USCSCA.org
Havana - (AIN) - The first round of nationwide municipal elections is set for April 17 and preparing the voter registration rolls has begun for the country's 15,000 polling places. Granma newspaper's web page outlined the vital importance of the registration lists to guarantee each citizen the right to vote or be nominated as a candidate to the People's Power municipal assemblies there where they reside. The electoral authorities of each voting precinct have until January 25 to complete the lists with the support of those in charge of the registry of addresses in each neighborhood. That information will then be sent to the respective Municipal Electoral Commissions, charged with preparing the registration rolls for the entire municipality. The initial lists will be exhibited in easily accessible public places for a period of 30 days starting February 15 so each citizen can check for errors in their personal data.
(AFP) - With the arrival in Havana last Wednesday of 76 patients on the 118th flight of the program, more than 8,000 Venezuelans have been treated in Cuba thanks to an agreement signed by Presidents Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez in October 2000. During this period, there have been 3,100 major operations, basically in ophthalmology, orthopedics and heart surgery, and 147 transplants of corneas, bone marrow, kidneys and muscles. In October 2000 Cuba and Venezuela signed an integral cooperation agreement via which Caracas would send the island 53,000 barrels of oil per day. The agreement marked the beginning of a close cooperation between the two governments in the fields of health, education and sports, which currently involves 25,000 Cuban doctors, sports advisors and teachers working in that South American country.
The agreement was reviewed in the last quarter of 2004 and enriched with more than 150 new cooperation programs. Both countries reinforced their integral cooperation agreement in December, with a wide-ranging and unprecedented integrationist agreement and a statement to apply the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), a Chávez version of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) being pushed by Washington. Signed by Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez the agreement covers virtually all the spheres of economic and social life. From this point Caracas-Havana cooperation will be based not only on principles of solidarity - which will always be present - but, to the highest degree possible, on the exchange of goods and services most beneficial to the economic and social needs of both countries, the agreement notes.
(Yale Daily News) - This winter vacation, University Chaplain Frederick Streets lent his services to the suffering worldwide. After helping to write a book on mental health in Rome, Streets joined in a service trip to Cuba. From Jan. 1 to Jan. 9, Streets made a visit to Cuba with 26 members of Yale College, the Yale Graduate School and the Yale Divinity School; the First Presbyterian Church of Hamden; and the Make A Difference Foundation. There, they helped to build a vegetable garden in the city of Guasmias to feed needy Cuban children. One of the group members, Gabriela Bernadett '08, said she was glad to visit a country with a very different culture. "The trip was amazing," Bernadett said. "It gave you a different view of what a communist country is really like. It didn't seem as Americanized as so many other places." Led by Sarah Garcia, the co-founder of Make A Difference Foundation, the group also visited a variety of other cities and events in Cuba. They attended the National Championship baseball game, spoke with a member of the Cuban Parliament and visited the cities of Havana, Mantanzas, Verdado and Peric.
Luis Vasquez '07, another of the group members, said he was glad the visit was not limited to Havana. "Because any tourists usually stay in Havana, it was good actually getting out to another principal city of Cuba," Vasquez said. "It was more reflective of the rest of the country." Vasquez, who has visited the Dominican Republic several times, said one of the biggest differences between Central America and the United States is the lack of commercialism. Elizabeth Jordan '06 said its absence was refreshing. "It's very different -- an entire lack of commercialism," Jordan said. "It was replaced by propaganda, but there was no obsession with marketing and branding." Jordan said she liked the experience and would like to return someday. "I feel like I learned as much about myself and the group as I did about Cubans," Jordan said. "It was enjoyable and I would love to see relations get better between our two governments."
Before heading to Cuba, Streets met in Rome with 32 ministers of health from around the world who shared their experiences working with people suffering from the affects of war and natural disasters. Sponsored by the Caritas Initiative of the Vatican, the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma and the mayor of Rome, the group has been meeting for the past several years, with the meetings designed to culminate in a book to be published in a year and a half. "It's a very worthwhile project with a particular dimension of mental health," Streets said. Streets said his chapter focused on spirituality in mental health care, taken from his experiences in Colombia with the Connecticut Conference of the United Church of Christ.
The Baltimore Sun - Buena Vista Social Club Presents Manuel Guajiro Mirabal (Nonesuch and World Circuit Records). From the opening minor cadence of haunting trumpets, this work from Cuba's Manuel Guajiro Mirabal is a sensual walk through tropical pathways. This solo album debut from the 71-year-old trumpet virtuoso is a tribute to a maverick of Cuban music, Arsenio Rodriguez, who transformed the island's music in the '40s and '50s with the introduction of new instrumentation and a bend toward African influences. Mirabal's homage is a lush presentation of intoxicating rhythms brought to life by some of Cuba's finest musicians, notably Mirabal's trumpet section, which includes his longtime partner, Luis Alemany, and the late Alejandro Pichardo Perez. Recorded almost entirely live in Havana's famed Egrem studios, the album cannot escape the distinguishable echo of times past. And the listener cannot avoid being carried to an island far removed from today.
Granma International - Havana - Three women, carrying six kilograms of heroine in their stomachs, tried to pass unnoticed through Havana airport, but were detained. The journey for these "mules" was very long. They had to travel around the world to shake off the police. But their journey ended in Cuba. Briefcases lined with drugs, cans filled with narcotics, pills hidden in facial cream or shampoo containers? or more sophisticated methods of wrapping these substances, so that the "mules" can ingest them and sneak them in by carrying them in their digestive tracts. José Ramón Otaño Guevara, deputy director of the General Customs Office of the Republic, revealed such cases to the national and accredited foreign press in Cuba. Because of its geographic location, Cuba is a transit point for drug trafficking from the region to Europe. Two new digital machines to detect drugs and explosives have been acquired by the General Customs Office in order to combat drug trafficking more effectively.
One of these machines has already been installed at the Havana Port, in the form of Chinese radiological equipment designed to inspect containers and render digital images of both the load and the complete truck. This new equipment expedites scans, previously done with older methods. The other one is a digital machine called Ionscan, being currently tested for its installation in Terminal Three of the José Martí International Airport in Havana. In the period 2000-2004, the Cuban customs service reported 92 cases of drug trafficking, and confiscated 162.7 kilograms of different types of drugs. Likewise during this period, 706 tourists were found in possession of small quantities of drugs, especially cocaine, for personal consumption during their stay in Cuba. Most of the drug dealers arrested on the island come from Central and South America, but a number of others are from different parts of the world. Going back to the installation of the Chinese equipment at the Havana Port, it was stated that this is the first of its type in Central America and the Caribbean, and that in Latin America only Venezuela, Argentina and Brazil possess this expensive machine. The Cuban customs service has 102 canine teams to detect narcotics. Otaño Guevara pointed out that trafficking mostly occurs in situations involving connecting flights. The methods used to sneak in narcotics are always changing and becoming more sophisticated, he observed.
He explained that in the case of the "mules," the method has changed. Now, they are ingesting smaller amounts of drugs, but, at the same time, are utilizing more people in these operations. The Cuban government has proposed cooperation agreements with the United States to combat drug trafficking, but this government has not responded, according to Otaño Guevara. Regarding designer drugs, such as Ecstasy, he pointed out that they are training dogs to detect them. The best method of scanning posted letters and packets is to utilize dogs, but this is very costly. A trained animal can cost up to $17,000. The General Customs Office cooperates with several national and international anti-drug services and has signed custom cooperation agreements with 10 countries. Cuba has 1,200 custom inspectors, trained to recognize the presence of drugs and explosives, affirmed Moraima Rodríguez Nuviola, chief inspector of the Operative Department of the General Customs Office. Referring to the launch in Madrid of the book Havana Connection, by two Spanish journalists, Otaño Guevara stated that it attempts to link Cuba to drug trafficking operations. He affirmed that its authors were liars and lacking in professional ethics. With respect to their charge against Cuba, Otaño Guevara said that it was as false as it was underhand. "I can refute these accusations because I am fully informed of the situation. I've worked at the Customs Office for 20 years, and am constantly aware of feeling the pressure of my government to confront drug trafficking." Regarding the testimonies from a supposed Cuban mafioso documented by the Spanish journalists, Otaño Guevara claimed that they were false because "this mafia does not exist, and because drug trafficking and consumption is virtually nil within Cuba."
HAVANA - Near the end of his brief battle with cancer, Humberto Reyes longed to travel from Miami to his childhood home in Havana so he could die with his mother by his side. But the travel visa he requested from the Cuban government arrived 10 days too late. Reyes' last wish would be fulfilled in death. Like a growing number of Cuban-American families who choose to bury loved ones in their homeland, Reyes' wife in Miami paid a funeral parlor $3,000 to transport his body back to Cuba in a sealed, gray coffin. It had been only 14 months since he left Cuba, eager to begin a new life in South Florida after receiving a coveted U.S. visa. Reyes' family never expected he would return so soon only to be buried in a crypt at Havana's stately Colón Cemetery. His mother, Eugenia Estrada, said having Reyes' body back in Havana provided some comfort in her grief. "I feel more at ease because I know I have him here. I know I can go to the cemetery and sit there, place flowers, talk to him," Estrada said recently as she sat by her son's coffin during a daylong wake at a Havana funeral parlor. "He aspired to other things he thought he couldn't achieve here, but he wanted to be buried in his homeland," Estrada, 55, said as relatives and childhood friends offered condolences and bouquets of sunflowers and carnations.
Where immigrants choose to bury their dead is one of the ultimate measures of their identity. Across the United States, in cities with heavily Latino populations, funeral parlors cater to Mexicans, Dominicans, Ecuadorans and others who routinely transport their dead back to the remote villages or bustling cities where they were born. In the case of Cuba, many exiles refuse to return to their homeland, even in death, until after President Fidel Castro is no longer in power. Some have left wills requesting that their bodies be disinterred from Miami cemeteries and sent to Cuba after a democratic transition occurs. Others, however, are not waiting for a political change. Funeral directors in Miami and Havana say demand to ship bodies to Cuba, though modest, is growing gradually as the first wave of Cuban exiles who arrived in the 1960's grows older. Many will be cremated, then the ashes shipped to Cuba. "We're seeing the volume increase annually and the biggest increase has probably been in the last three years," said Brian Gargis, owner of the Florida Funeral Home in Miami. Several years ago Gargis was shipping about a dozen remains to Cuba annually. He estimates he shipped about 25 bodies in 2004.
At a popular Havana funeral parlor, José Soris, who processes all burial petitions from Cubans émigrés around the world, said he received about 125 requests for burial last year from Cuban-Americans, more than from Cubans living in any other country. "People want to rest where their families are," said Soris, who has worked in the funeral business for nearly a quarter century. "Even if they lived abroad for 10, 20 or 30 years, even if they were balseros [rafters] or counterrevolutionaries when they arrive here, they are like any other Cuban." Some Cuban-Americans who are buried here maintained close ties with their relatives on the island, rekindling ties with frequent visits. Others never returned. They were reunited with their families only in death.
Cuban émigré Americá Siré left Cuba for Miami in the 1950's and never returned, losing touch with her Havana family. One day her niece, Eva Caridad Siré, received a phone call from a long-lost cousin with the news Americá had died in Miami. "He identified himself and told me `I want to take [Americá's] remains back to Cuba.' Her last wish was to be buried with her parents in the family mausoleum," Eva Caridad Siré, 62, said at her Havana home. The estranged cousins who had not seen each other in more than 50 years placed Americá Siré's ashes in the family crypt built in 1918 at the Colón Cemetery. The funeral became a bittersweet family reunion. Raul Justo Juan García left Cuba in 1957 but he visited his sister here often, becoming her lifeline during hard economic times. After retiring, he dreamed of splitting his time between Havana and his home in the Orlando area. Still, García's sister, Piedad, was surprised to find that after a lifetime in the United States he had no plans to make his adopted country his final resting place. "I found out the night he died that he wanted to be buried here," Piedad García, 81, said as she held a picture of her brother. "I don't know if it was his love for Cuba or his love for us. I imagine he felt nostalgia for his family." Less than a dozen U.S. funeral parlors are licensed to ship bodies to Cuba for burial according to the U.S. Treasury Department, which oversees the trade and travel embargo. Processing the paperwork can take weeks.
The Cuban Interests Section, which serves as the government's diplomatic mission in Washington, charges between $500 and $680 in consular fees to process death certificates, burial permits, embalmers' affidavits and other paperwork, according to several Miami funeral parlors. A spokesman at the Cuban Interests Section said the mission does not keep statistics on the number of bodies shipped from the United States to Cuba. Some Miami funeral parlors offer package rates of about $3,700 that include airfare to Cuba, the Cuban consular fee, a sealed metal coffin and a wake at a chapel in Miami.
The Associated Press - TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - The Honduran government announced that it was working with Cuba to halt a wave of migrants who have been leaving the communist-ruled island and arriving on Honduran shores. Immigration official Carlos Sanchez said the talks with Cuba began five months ago, although he didn't give details. Nearly 500 Cubans have arrived in Honduras in the past two years. Most ask for temporary asylum so they can later travel north to the United States. Sanchez said Honduras was willing to receive Cubans fleeing their home country for political reasons, but that it didn't want to remain a stop on the way to the United States.``Honduras should change its migration policies for Cubans, but it's hard because the country has signed human rights accords,'' Sanchez said. He added that Honduras can't afford to pay for the airfare to deport the refugees. Most Cuban migrants receive permission to stay at least 15 days in Honduras, and the majority begin looking for ways to cross into the United States, either by plane or by traveling north through Guatemala and Mexico. Many arrive between November and January, taking advantage of good weather to cross the Caribbean Sea. Honduras re-established diplomatic ties with Cuba in January 2001, 42 years after both countries broke off contact. Honduras still hasn't designated an ambassador to the island nation, however.
Associated Press - HAVANA - Cuba, known for its world-famous cigars, will soon ask smokers of those fine stogies, and the island's unfiltered black tobacco cigarettes, to step outside. Beginning on Feb. 7, smoking will be prohibited in theaters, stores, buses, taxis and other enclosed public areas under a new resolution published in Cuba's most recent National Gazette by the Commerce Ministry. Smoking will also be banned in closed restaurants and cafeterias, except in specially designated nonsmoking areas. Cigarette machines will be taken down. There was no word if smoking would be allowed in bars. The resolution said the move was ``taking into account the damage to human health caused by the consumption of cigarettes and cigars, with the objective of contributing to a change in the attitudes of our population.'' The resolution will also suspend sales of cigarettes to children under age 16 and at stores less than 100 meters (yards) from schools. People employed in education and health jobs will no longer be allowed to smoke at work, and other government workers will have to go outside the buildings where they work to light up.
At the same time, the Cuban government will launch public service campaigns aimed at encouraging people to kick the habit, and health warnings will be required on cigarette packages. According to government statistics, four of every 10 Cubans smoke, and 30 percent of 15,000 deaths from preventable cancers each year can be linked to smoking. But tolerance for the habit here has been slowly waning and even President Fidel Castro gave up smoking cigars years ago. At the same time, Castro himself has acknowledged the economic importance of cigar exports, which generate about US$200 million annually. ``We historically have been producers of tobacco and we cannot renounce that,'' Castro joked to a group of students in 2003. ``When we give a box of cigars to a friend, we say: 'You can smoke them, or you can give them to a friend who smokes,'' Castro said then. ``But the best thing to do is give them to your enemy.''
Wenn es mehr sein muss: Cuban daily news digest abonieren ;-)
Michael
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Alles was Sie hier schreiben, kann zu einem späteren Zeitpunkt gegen Sie verwandt werden :-)
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Die Tsunami ein Werk der USA???
