Raúl Castro: Cuba ready 'to discuss everything' with U.S.

[Judi Lynn]

Source: CNN

updated 35 minutes ago
Raúl Castro: Cuba ready 'to discuss everything' with U.S.


(CNN) -- The Cuban government, long the object of a U.S. economic blockade, is prepared to meet with the Obama administration, Cuba's leader said.

"We've told the North American government, in private and in public, that we are prepared, wherever they want, to discuss everything -- human rights, freedom of the press, political prisoners -- everything, everything, everything that they want to discuss," Cuban President Raúl Castro said Thursday at a summit of leftist Latin American leaders in Venezuela.

The response came days after President Obama lifted all restrictions on the ability of American citizens to visit relatives in Cuba as well as to send them remittances. Travel restrictions for Americans of non-Cuban descent will remain in place.

This week's move represents a significant shift in a U.S. policy that had remained largely unchanged for nearly half a century. The U.S. government instituted the embargo three years after Fidel Castro came to power in 1959.



Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/17/us.cuba/index.html

[bemildred]

1. Obama heads to Americas summit with Cuba focus

MEXICO CITY (AP) — After backing Mexico's ongoing battle against drug cartels, President Barack Obama is heading to a Western Hemisphere summit with a sudden spotlight on Cuba. The president is to fly Friday to the island of Trinidad for the 34-nation Summit of the Americas, a gathering to which Cuba, as the region's only non-democracy, is not invited. Venezuela President Hugo Chavez, a staunch ally of Cuba's communist government, vowed to torpedo a final summit communique in protest of the country's exclusion.

But Obama's move this week to ease travel and some other restrictions for Cuban-Americans brought an unprecedented reply from Havana. Raul Castro, who took over from his ailing brother, Fidel, a year ago, offered to talk to the Obama administration about all outstanding grievances.

Speaking from a meeting Chavez hosted in Venezuela, Raul Castro declared: "We have sent word to the U.S. government in private and in public that we are willing to discuss everything — human rights, freedom of the press, political prisoners, everything."

Previously, Cubans had insisted their domestic politics were their own business, and administration officials were trying to determine what to make of the development.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jnp5o6f7sbCCvHBAVdsf38VK0CxgD97K6JEG0

[ohio2007]

2. Obama said "The ball is in Cuba's court" ie "show me something"

"Previously, Cubans had insisted their domestic politics were their own business,

and administration officials were trying to determine what to make of the development".



free the political prisoners held during the Fidel regime would be a "show of goodwill"

[Mika]

3. Releasing Cuban political prisoners in US jails would be a good show of goodwill.

After all, Cuba never did anything to harm the US. It has been the US, for 50+ years, that has been fucking with Cuba, not the other way around.

It is the height of American arrogance to demand that Cuba make changes.

[ohio2007]

8. Obama says Cuba should make next move on relations ( for change we can see )

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3836139

Mariel boat lift was an opportunity for fidel to empty out his own jail cells. Criminals hit the US mainland. I doubt they are being held for their demand for democracy
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/16/us/cuban-inmates-maintain-tense-hostage-standoff-in-louisiana.html


Obama demands Cuba to "change" before congress acts

[EFerrari]

9. Obama knows he will lose Latin America if he doesn't do something.

He's in quite a spot, isn't he? :)

[Bacchus39]

39. looks like Obama is pretty popular in Latin America

compared to some other leaders. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/columnists/andres-oppenheimer/story/1005568.html

[Warren Stupidity]

12. Ending our unilateral state of war with Cuba would be a start.

Oh wait, no of course not, we aren't going to budge.

[Billy Burnett]

13. Correct. Cuba, the victim, must concede defeat.

Never!

[Mika]

4. Hypocrisy?

Obama said:

"What we're looking for is some signal that there are going to be changes in how Cuba operates that assures that political prisoners are released, that people can speak their minds freely, that they can travel, that they can write and attend church and do the things that people throughout the hemisphere can do and take for granted," he said.

Cubans can and do speak their minds freely - go there and see for yourself! OH, that's right.. Americans can't freely go to Cuba to do that. Americans are travel banned just as Obama accuses Cuba of banning travel (which isn't true - demonstrated by the large Cuban expat enclaves in many parts of the world who do travel back and forth to and from Cuba, and that used to include travel to and from the US prior to Bush's banning of Cuban visitation visas).

How about universal health care, like Cuba has? How about free higher ed, like Cuba has? How about free child care for working parents, like Cuba has? These things reflect the level of freedom and political discourse the Cuban people enjoy - that is how and why they have these things (and Americans do not).

The Cuban people have done these things under austere conditions (brought on by the US embargo). Cuba should make some demands of us too, then.

[14thColony]

5. Universal health care, free higher ed, etc...

Don't worry. American Democracy(tm) will get rid of all that free stuff.

[EFerrari]

10. Maybe Raul will insist we close our secrets prison in the MidWest

“Little Guantanamo”–Secretive “CMU” Prisons Designed to Restrict Communication of Jailed Muslims and Activists with Outside World

With little public scrutiny, the Bush administration opened two secretive prisons in Indiana and Illinois known as Communication Management Units, or CMUs, that are designed to severely restrict prisoner communication with family members, the media and the outside world. Dozens of Muslim men are still being held at the CMUs, as well as other prisoners, including environmental and animal rights activists. We speak with attorneys for two men being held there, as well as a reporter covering the story.

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/4/17/little_guantanamo_secretive_cmu_prisons_designed

Or he could demand we stop harboring terrorists



I hope he demands that we embrace democracy and that Al Franken gets seated! lol

[Billy Burnett]

14. How the hell can Obama suggest that Cubans can't go to church.

Someone has told Mr Obama a LIE, and he has regurgitated it for the rest of us. How many thousand times has that BS been debunked here on DU?

Many members of parliament attend church in Cuba. I've attended church with Cuban friends!

:puke:



NOT a church in Cuba


Not a church in Cuba.


Another not a church in Cuba.


http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Cuba+churches&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2&aq=f&oq=

[Mika]

15. Plenty of seriously uninformed Americans believe that crap (thanks to the MSM).

Too bad there's an information blackout in America on anything about Cuba.

Do Americans even remember that the Pope went to Cuba to commemorate new churches. Cuba has a R-C Archbishop also, not to mention an active Russian Orthodox church. Plus, there are small Baptist churches all over Cuba.

This is such a load of horse shit from President Obama that it is embarrassing.

[Judi Lynn]

16. Cardinal Jaime Ortega, Archbishop of Havana was one of the serious candidates

the last time a Pope was chosen, too.

I just discovered when he visited Miami he was treated poorly. Figures!

Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega Mistreated in Miami
Mar 02, 2005
US immigration authorities humiliated Havana Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino, who was held for three hours at Miami International Airport, El Nuevo Herald daily reported.

Washington, Feb 26 (Prensa Latina) The daily quoted sources who requested not to be identified as saying that the prelate was ill-treated and his political views regarding the Island questioned by immigration authorities.

Immigration authorities doubted the Vatican-issued prelate´s passport validity as well as the reasons for his trip to the US and even commented on his possible deportation to Cuba, the sources added.

Ortega arrived in Miami on Friday on board a charter flight from Havana and immediately headed for an immigration control hut reserved for diplomats.

After Ortega´s release, a government source said his was a visitor visa rather than a diplomatic one, and in such a case "he has no right to be treated as a diplomat."

Cuban-American activist Max Lesnik said this incident worsens Cuba-US conflict even more as this is a humiliation of a Cuban citizen and a lack of respect for his status.

http://www.cardinalrating.com/cardinal_71__article_753.htm

I remember seeing him in many photos with the Pope during the Pope's visit to Cuba. He looked overjoyed to be able to participate.

As soon as John Paul II arrived in Havana, and you recall there were TONS of American pilgrims who got permission to make the trip to be there when he landed, the great powers that be suddenly released the trashy story of Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton, and all the US reporters, as well as regional other reporters stampeded DIRECTLY to Washington, D. C., so U.S. citizens were completely in the dark concerning the Pope's visit, the enormous crowds which followed him everywhere he went, and the island-wide reception he received, and the statements he made, like his statement the embargo was dead wrong, and should be removed.

All that news, and potential photographs giving US citizens a brand new view of Cuba, the people, the places all over the island (instead of the ancient, crumbling buildings in part of Havana) where he spoke with crowds, all that was swept right out of the picture in the rush to start reveling in the humiliation of a Democratic American President, a mass orgy of alarming crudeness, coarseness, smallness from our own media never before witnessed, which created problems for Democrats for years after.

It was crafty sleight of hand maneuver. Diverted attention from the Pope's visit to Cuba slick as a whistle, put it on a Democratic sexual scandal, neatly bypassed a view of Cuba as an island clearly open to religion, unlike all the crap we'd been told in our culture up to that point.

[Billy Burnett]

17. President Obama has just reenforced an outright lie about Cuba.

Stunning and amazing lie to tell at the OAS. :argh:

[Judi Lynn]

41. We're supposed to try to understand if he knows the truth and told it deliberately, or if he doesn't

know, which would mean he desperately needs people around who will tell him the TRUTH, and in a HURRY. The first option just wouldn't work for me, deliberately using a lie when so many of us knew the truth long ago, including many, MANY American church people who've been there, who've been in contact with Cuban congregations, who've worked there.

This does NOT make sense, does it? Not at this late date.

[Judi Lynn]

18. Here's a photo of a popular church in Santiago de Cuba: La Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Cobre

http://www.be.wvu.edu.nyud.net:8090/divecon/econ/trumbull/cuba/cobredist6.jpg

Here's the Hebrea Hatikva in Santiago de Cuba, and la Grande Synagogue in Havana:

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org.nyud.net:8090/jsource/images/shuls/synCuba1.jpg http://farm4.static.flickr.com.nyud.net:8090/3003/2701027964_0372ab37b5.jpg

[Mika]

19. As another poster has noted, this myth has been debunked for quite a while now.

Interesting that the ever-waiting-to-pounce-on-every-word-Obama-speaks MSM would quickly debunk this misstatement, but when it comes to Cuba the lies stand.

:hi:

[Judi Lynn]

20. The new Russian Orthodox church recently built for the old congregation of R. Orthodox Christians

was visited not long ago by the Russian metropolitan. That congregation was started long ago by Russians living in Cuba and it gained Cuban converts over the years. When Russia removed its personel, the congregation of Cubans and any Russians who decided to stay in Cuba used humble quarters until this big fella was built for them.

http://img.rian.ru.nyud.net:8090/images/11787/46/117874613.jpg

[Mika]

21. Why on earth would Prez Obama include that remark?

Strange indeed.

[Judi Lynn]

23. Can't possibly begin to understand how he could be that totally unaware (ignorant) of the truth.

Continuing to give lip service to a complete lie doesn't seem to make sense from any possible direction. Completely baffling, Mika.

And even if he really believed it, you'd imagine someone in the State Department would have given him a good look at the facts by now so he understands what he's dealing with. But then, the State Department has been serving the interests of anti-Cuban forces for decades, hasn't it?

[Mika]

25. Same gibberish comes from Ileana Ros, Lincoln Diaz Balart & bro, Wasserman Schultz..

.. and Hillary.

Facts don't seem to matter when it comes to US policy and Cuba. Only possible to pull this off on a travel banned populace (Americans) who have little/no free media.

[Javaman]

6. When he says everything, does he mean..."everything"?

that raul is such a tease. ;)

[Judi Lynn]

7. Cuba, US signal thaw as Americas leaders meet

Cuba, US signal thaw as Americas leaders meet
Reuters | 04/17/2009 11:29 PM

PORT OF SPAIN - Leaders from across the Americas gathered for a summit on Friday after the United States and Cuba said they were ready to talk to try to end a conflict that has marked the hemisphere for half a century.

The prospect of a rapprochement between the long-standing ideological foes dominated the buildup to the Summit of the Americas starting later on Friday in Trinidad and Tobago.

Communist-ruled Cuba is barred from the meeting but Latin American leaders say it is time to bring it in from the cold and are pushing Washington to drop its 47-year-old trade embargo against the island.

U.S. President Barack Obama, who will be meeting most of his peers from Latin America and the Caribbean for the first time, said during a visit to Mexico on Thursday he wanted to "recast" the U.S. relationship with Cuba, which has remained frozen in Cold War hostility for half a century.

More:
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/world/04/17/09/cuba-us-signal-thaw-americas-leaders-meet

[Judi Lynn]

11. Retired Military Officers: End the Cuba Travel Ban (What, no MSM coverage?)

Retired Military Officers: End the Cuba Travel Ban
Posted by Adam Blickstein

Yesterday, a group of 12 former senior military officials sent a letter to President Barack Obama urging him to support and sign pending Congressional legislation that would repeal the travel ban for all Americans who wish to visit Cuba. The retired officers--including former SOUTHCOM Commanders Gens. James Hill and Barry McCaffrey as well as Major General Paul D. Eaton and Lt. General Claudia J. Kennedy--argue that, based on national security grounds, lifting the ban would allow us to send our best ambassadors-the American people-to engage our Cuban neighbors, thus giving America a much better chance of influencing the eventual course of Cuban affairs. The letter, coordinated by the National Security Network and the New America Foundation, also examines the negative national security impact the travel ban and overall embargo has on America's interests in the region, creating a situation where our confrontational policy of isolation towards Cuba hinders, not heightens America's overall security objectives. A full text of the letter can be found after the jump.

April 13, 2009

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

As former senior officers of the United States armed forces, we are writing today to encourage you to support the Congressional initiatives to end the ban on travel to Cuba for all Americans.

The current policy of isolating Cuba has failed, patently, to achieve our ends. Cuba ceased to be a military threat decades ago. At the same time, Cuba has intensified its global diplomatic and economic relations with nations as diverse as China, Russia, Venezuela, Brazil, and members of the European Union. It is hard to characterize such global engagement as isolation.

Though economically weak, the Castro government has kept the broad support of its people by responding to economic shocks and providing universal access to health care and education. There will be no counter-revolution any time soon.

Instead, the current embargo serves more to prop up the Castro regime and shows no sign of triggering a popular uprising against the communist government it runs. When hard times fall on the Cuban people, inevitably, the Cuban government blames the U.S. "bloqueo" for the suffering. And the people, with a strong sense of national sovereignty, rally to their flag.

Even worse, the embargo has inspired a significant diplomatic movement against U.S. policy. As military professionals, we understand that America's interests are best served when the United States is able to attract the support of other nations to our cause. When world leaders overwhelmingly cast their vote in the United Nations against the embargo and visit Havana to denounce American policy, it is time to change the policy, especially after 50 years of failure in attaining our goals.

The congressional initiative to lift the travel ban for all Americans is an important first step toward lifting the embargo, a policy more likely to bring change to Cuba. It begins to move the United States in an unambiguous direction toward the kind of policy-based on principled engagement and proportional and discriminate action that was the hallmark of your presidential campaign. Combined with renewed engagement with Havana on key security issues such as narcotics trafficking, immigration, airspace and Caribbean security, we believe the U.S. will be on a path to rid ourselves of the dysfunctional policy your administration has inherited.

It is a clear cut case. During the Cold War, the U.S. encouraged Americans to travel to the Soviet bloc resulting in more information, more contact, and more freedom for captive peoples, and ultimately the end of the Berlin Wall and the Cold War itself. This idea of engagement underlies our current policies toward Iran, Syria and North Korea all much graver concerns to the United States - where Americans are currently free to travel. By sending our best ambassadors-the American people-to engage their Cuban neighbors, we have a much better chance of influencing the eventual course of Cuban affairs. Broader economic engagement with the island through additional commercial and people-to-people contacts will in time promote a more pluralist and open society. And, by actually striking down an element of the embargo, that signal will be sent to the government in Havana.

Mr. President, around the world, leaders are calling for a real policy shift that delivers on the hope you inspired in your campaign. Cuba offers the lowest-hanging fruit for such a shift and would be a move that would register deeply in the minds of our partners and competitors around the world.

Sincerely,


Sincerely,

Brigadier General John Adams (Ret.)
Lieutenant General John G. Castellaw (Ret.)
Lieutenant General Daniel W. Christman (Ret.)
Major General Paul D. Eaton (Ret.
Lieutenant General Robert G. Gard (Ret.)
Rear Admiral Donald J. Guter (Ret.)
General James T. Hill (Ret.)
Rear Admiral John D. Hutson (Ret.)
Lieutenant General Claudia J. Kennedy (Ret.)
General Barry R. McCaffrey (Ret.)
Col. Lawrence B. Wilkerson (Ret.)
General Johnnie E. Wilson (Ret.)

April 14, 2009 at 11:11 AM |

http://www.democracyarsenal.org/2009/04/retired-military-officers-end-the-cuba-travel-ban.html

[skooooo]

22. Just like Ms. Swan (Mad TV)

I tell you every ting!

[Judi Lynn]

24. Exactly!

MAD TV lost so much talent when Alex left. Can't bear to watch it now.

[flamingdem]

26. What about people to people exchange and Visas for musicians to come here?

Did that get left out of the discussion?

[Mika]

27. FULL normalization is what the US needs to do.

Simply "lifting the embargo" doesn't deal with the myriad of other insane policies the US has enacted - like the American travel ban, and the Cuban Adjustment Act, and Wet Foot/ Dry Foot, and nationalization compensation (Title III of Helms Burton), lifting the US's Cuban travel ban to the US, to name a few.


Full Normalization! Now! Anything less is still an injustice.

[Judi Lynn]

28. Putting that exchange back in play would at least return things to Clinton's version

of US/Cuba relations which _Bush demolished completely.

It has been so sad seeing famous Cuban musicians like Chucho Valdez, who used to come here all the time, touring the country from one side to the other suddenly refused permission to attend the Latin Grammies for which he had been nominated. The last time he was in the States was THE September 11th, the ceremonies pulled, but he and his group stayed in Los Angeles and they all gave blood before returning to Cuba, anyway.

All the scholars, scientists, union leaders, etc., blocked completely. Even books which had been written in Cuba were not allowed into the country to be edited.

Absolute Dark Ages under _{George W. Bush.} We need emergency, deep change for our honor's sake, if nothing else.

[Mika]

29. Right. The US denies them visas, then blames Castro.

Just like the embargo and extra territorial sanctions - that are specifically designed to cripple the Cuban economy. Then the US gov points to Cuba's bad economy as evidence of the failure of their system.

But, despite these sanctions...

Before the 1959 revolution

75% of rural dwellings were huts made from palm trees.

More than 50% had no toilets of any kind.

85% had no inside running water.

91% had no electricity.

There was only 1 doctor per 2,000 people in rural areas.

More than one-third of the rural population had intestinal parasites.

Only 4% of Cuban peasants ate meat regularly; only 1% ate fish, less than 2% eggs, 3% bread, 11% milk; none ate green vegetables.

The average annual income among peasants was $91 (1956), less than 1/3 of the national income per person.

45% of the rural population was illiterate; 44% had never attended a school.

25% of the labor force was chronically unemployed.

1 million people were illiterate ( in a population of about 5.5 million).

27% of urban children, not to speak of 61% of rural children, were not attending school.

Racial discrimination was widespread.

The public school system had deteriorated badly.

Corruption was endemic; anyone could be bought, from a Supreme Court judge to a cop.

Police brutality and torture were common.

___



After the 1959 revolution
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43b/185.html

“It is in some sense almost an anti-model,” according to Eric Swanson, the programme manager for the Bank’s Development Data Group, which compiled the WDI, a tome of almost 400 pages covering scores of economic, social, and environmental indicators.

Indeed, Cuba is living proof in many ways that the Bank’s dictum that economic growth is a pre-condition for improving the lives of the poor is over-stated, if not, downright wrong.

-

It has reduced its infant mortality rate from 11 per 1,000 births in 1990 to seven in 1999, which places it firmly in the ranks of the western industrialised nations. It now stands at six, according to Jo Ritzen, the Bank’s Vice President for Development Policy, who visited Cuba privately several months ago to see for himself.

By comparison, the infant mortality rate for Argentina stood at 18 in 1999;

Chile’s was down to ten; and Costa Rica, at 12. For the entire Latin American and Caribbean region as a whole, the average was 30 in 1999.

Similarly, the mortality rate for children under the age of five in Cuba has fallen from 13 to eight per thousand over the decade. That figure is 50% lower than the rate in Chile, the Latin American country closest to Cuba’s achievement. For the region as a whole, the average was 38 in 1999.

“Six for every 1,000 in infant mortality - the same level as Spain - is just unbelievable,” according to Ritzen, a former education minister in the Netherlands. “You observe it, and so you see that Cuba has done exceedingly well in the human development area.”

Indeed, in Ritzen’s own field, the figures tell much the same story. Net primary enrolment for both girls and boys reached 100% in 1997, up from 92% in 1990. That was as high as most developed nations - higher even than the US rate and well above 80-90% rates achieved by the most advanced Latin American countries.

“Even in education performance, Cuba’s is very much in tune with the developed world, and much higher than schools in, say, Argentina, Brazil, or Chile.”

It is no wonder, in some ways. Public spending on education in Cuba amounts to about 6.7% of gross national income, twice the proportion in other Latin American and Caribbean countries and even Singapore.

There were 12 primary school pupils for every Cuban teacher in 1997, a ratio that ranked with Sweden, rather than any other developing country. The Latin American and East Asian average was twice as high at 25 to one.

The average youth (age 15-24) illiteracy rate in Latin America and the Caribbean stands at 7%. In Cuba, the rate is zero. In Latin America, where the average is 7%, only Uruguay approaches that achievement, with one percent youth illiteracy.

“Cuba managed to reduce illiteracy from 40% to zero within ten years,” said Ritzen. “If Cuba shows that it is possible, it shifts the burden of proof to those who say it’s not possible.”

Similarly, Cuba devoted 9.1% of its gross domestic product (GDP) during the 1990s to health care, roughly equivalent to Canada’s rate. Its ratio of 5.3 doctors per 1,000 people was the highest in the world.

The question that these statistics pose, of course, is whether the Cuban experience can be replicated. The answer given here is probably not.

“What does it, is the incredible dedication,” according to Wayne Smith, who was head of the US Interests Section in Havana in the late 1970s and early 1980s and has travelled to the island many times since.

Viva Cuba!

[Judi Lynn]

30. Reading the stats in your first link reminded me of an article by a Cuban,

Dr. Alfredo Jones, who lives in the States currently. It appears very clearly to agree with the conditions listed in first link:

~snip~
I was born on a hot and humid day of August 1938 in La Guira, Banes, Cuba, a community of transplanted emigrants, mainly from the English speaking Caribbean Islands and Haiti, lured to Cuba to what was billed as the "Promised Land" by the United Fruit Company, Manati Sugar Company, and others.

In this community on the "other" side of the tracks, I learned early on, that the only homes we were allowed to build were the shack-type homes with thatched roofs that defined our living quarters. Sewer, running water, electricity, schools, jobs, hospital or medical services were limited to people living on the "other" side of town.

What we did have was a pervasive infant mortality due primarily to preventible diseases that touched the lives of every family. There were rampant pre and post partum deaths; hunger and malnutrition seen predominantly in children with their disproportionate heads and distended abdomens, overflowing with such a variety of intestinal parasites sufficient to produce our own Atlas of Parasitology. Another common landmark was the infamous gully with its putrid drainage winding through our neighborhood.

The only schools in our community of approximately 8-10,000 people, were two or three mock-classrooms of 10-20 children in the living room of those slightly more enlightened members of our community. Two churches had what could be qualified as small schools, with approximately 40 children each. Because of our teachers’ own limited education, the level of training by those who were able to stay through the entire school program (3-4 years) was the equivalent of a low third grade.

But this vicious cycle gets even worse if we add that living in Cuba, a Spanish speaking country, the teaching was in English and everything that was taught to us, was either pertaining to England, Ireland, or Jamaica! We learned about Admiral Nelson but nothing about Marti, we learned about Pound, Shilling and Pence, but nothing about Peso, Peseta y Centavos. We learned about the Thames river but nothing our own Rio Cauto!

Unbelievable as it may sound today, most of the kids could not stay in school, either because their parents could not afford it or their helping hands were already required on the plantation. As a direct result of this horrendous environment, our community, and tens of similar ones dispersed through what was then the provinces of Camaguey and Oriente, did not produce in 60 years a single person who had achieved a mid level or higher education. An exception was a lady who was able to complete nursing school, only because her parents had the vision and could afford to send her back to Jamaica.

The only jobs available was in the zafra, the 4-5 months sugar harvest, which was virtually slave labor, because it was not only the lowest paying job, but it also kept the people in perennial debts: whatever income you made last year would be credited to debts incurred this year. This practice was so pervasive that thousands of workers never saw or received money, they would only receive promissory notes -VALES- from the landowners, who were often the same owners of the stores. That is why, 10-12 year-old boys went off to work in the fields, while girls in the same age group became maids.

More:
http://www.afrocubaweb.com/albertojonesdiazbalart.htm

[hollowdweller]

31. What would be a HUGE success for Obama

Is if he dropped all of the sanctions and other punishment of Cuba.

Then Cuba didn't change their system of gov't or anything but released any polical prisoners and sort of showed the world they were doing their sides.

The vision of the Wingnuts just spewing venom about normalizing relations on TV at the same time as videos of reunited family members and people celebrating would just be a killer image for the Democrats.

[excess_3]

32. what does Cuba have to offer? cut-rate bananas?

cut-rate sugar

there already is a huge world wide
market for those kind of things

[jmowreader]

33. Cuba has, essentially, three products to sell America

The first is sugar products, specifically Havana Club rum. This is probably the most popular rum worldwide due to its superior quality. Puerto Rican rum has nothing on it.

The second is tobacco. There are Cuban cigarettes as well as the famed Cuban cigars.

Lastly, there is tourism.

[excess_3]

34. tourism, I don't see what advantage Cuba would have

other than their lack of US tourists.
are Havana's casinos better than the ones in Miami?

the Obama administration seems to oppose the
use of tobacco

[bemildred]

35. Cuba gets a lot of tourism now.

I don't see it either, but I think being cheap is part of the appeal. I don't see why people go to Las Vegas or Cancun either.

[jmowreader]

36. It's very pretty in Cuba

The Obama administration may oppose the use of tobacco, but consider: the United States allows anyone to import and pay tax on cigars from any country except Cuba, but they spend $14 million (61 percent of the Office of Foreign Assets Control's $23 million budget is spent enforcing the Cuban embargo) to try to keep cigars from Cuba out of the US. Perhaps there needs to be a review of the government's priorities.

[Billy Burnett]

38. Maybe Cuba could send doctors to set up clinics in poor urban and rural areas.

Cuba has offered to do this many times, maybe Mr Obama should forego the Bush way and accept the offer.

[Judi Lynn]

42. People are also wild for Cuban music, and go there to hear it in person.

It's also a fantastically beautiful island, far FAR more beautiful than Florida, which has no mountains, no amazing landscape, unique biology.

I've heard from a Canadian frequent traveller that Canadians and Europeans do NOT look forward to the day hordes of Americans will be stampeding all over the place, and they have enjoyed the cleanliness, clean air, beaches, water, etc. and dread having any of it changed.

They also have maintained a brisk trade in medical treatment of all kinds. People from everywhere outside the U.S. go there for various treatments and surgeries, and health spas.

[EFerrari]

37. Wouldn't you feel better if you knew your government wasn't standing in the way

of replacement parts for dialysis machines?

[roody]

40. universal health care

class size 15 students

[Judi Lynn]

43. So close, familiar that the teachers go to each student's home for dinner,

and meet with the family each school year. I was astonished when I heard that years ago. Each student gets the teacher's
undivided attention in a way we've never known.

They've been big on teachers ever since 1959.

[Judi Lynn]

44. You should do your homework and research the history of who's selling most of the bananas.

It's a filthy, evil, bloody story, not something a sane person would be proud of.

United Fruit Company, which became Chiquita Banana.