Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Odds and ends

  • The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops endorses a bill to allow all Americans to travel to Cuba without restriction: “Improving the lives of the Cuban people and encouraging democracy and human rights in Cuba will best be advanced through more, rather than less, contact between the Cuban and American people.” The letter to the bill’s sponsors from Bishop Howard J. Hubbard, chairman of the Conference’s Committee on International Justice and Peace, says the restrictions on Cuban American family visits are “particularly objectionable.” The text is here.

  • Prensa Latina: The Cuban team for this year’s World Baseball Classic is in training now, ready to rip.

  • During the UN Human Rights Council’s proceeding last week, seven countries called for Cuba to release political prisoners. Cuba’s response: No. To do so, the Cuban government says, would help advance “a policy designed by a foreign superpower with the objective of destroying the legitimate constitutional order freely chosen by its people.” I can understand how one would make that argument about the Bush policy. But does it apply to Obama, three weeks in office? (Reuters coverage here.)

  • Fidel Castro’s latest reflection concerns White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. I didn’t know what to make of it so I didn’t write about it. Others didn’t know what to make of it either, but wrote about it anyway, and linked to it. See here and here.

3 comments:

leftside said...

I can understand how one would make that argument about the Bush policy. But does it apply to Obama, three weeks in office?

Has there been a policy change in regards to Cuba that I don't know about Phil? Did the US drop its official policy of regime change? Are we no longer supporting people committed to counter-revolution? Did the criminal blockade designed to smother Cuba get lifted without me realizing it?

Anonymous said...

No,Lefty,
the counterevolutionaries are well in check. The criminal blockade is in place and it was just augmented by the commercial trade of $710 millions dollars, so have no fear the blockade is in place. And the people committed to counter revolution are still rotting in jail. So you can sleep happy tonight in your California home. All of your dreams and wishes for the Cuban people are still in place.

Anonymous said...

"LA HABANA (Reuters) - El valor de las importaciones cubanas de alimentos desde Estados Unidos aumentó un 61 por ciento en el 2008 hasta un récord de 710 millones de dólares, debido al alza de los precios, dijo el miércoles un grupo que da seguimiento al comercio entre ambos enemigos.

Según las cifras del U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, un grupo independiente con sede en Nueva York, Estados Unidos es el mayor proveedor de un tercio de los alimentos que Cuba importa".

So much for the famous blockade imposed by the mean old US govt. that prohibits the Cuban people access to its goods and wants to make them surrender by hunger.