Cuba 'insulted' by US offer

[dArKeR]

Havana - Cuba on Sunday slammed the US offer of $50 000 in disaster assistance to help recovery efforts from Hurricane Charley as "totally unacceptable," calling the amount an insult to the hundreds of thousands of Cubans hit by the storm.

"The offer of $50 000, and above all its obvious political manipulation, is a new insult and a new offense to the hundreds of thousands of Cuban families who suffered damages in this natural disaster," the foreign ministry said in a statement published in the online edition of the Juventud Rebelde newspaper.

"The island's people and government find totally unacceptable this cynical and hypocritical offer by the United States government to ease the effects of Hurricane Charley," it said.

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1576966,00.html

[olddem43]

1. They may be right - This sounds like the equivalent of

offering a starving person a penny.

[uhhuh]

2. It is insulting

What they could do is, at least temporarily, lift the no trade sanctions with Cuba for the purposes of getting disaster relief supplies to the nation. That would be worth a whole lot more, and wouldn't cost anything.

$50,000? What's that? A Lexus and a bag of Cheetos?

If the government would have stopped treating Cuba as an enemy 20 or 30 years ago, they would probably already be almost a part of Florida by now.

[acmavm]

5. That 50 thousand is pretty generous for a bunch who need all the money

they can get their hands on for other little *ahem* projects, such as war with the entire Middle East.

I think it's hilarious that in the eyes of the Cuban people pResident Unelected is considered a cheapskate.

This administration is such an embarrassment, but at least they're consistent. Screw the victims of a natural disaster, but making sure that Halliburton gets their share.

[Bozita]

3. Half of a Hummer? -- for HURRICANE relief? ... I need a break

[poliguru]

4. Rich people throwing pennies to poor people

It reminds me of Elie Wiesel's "Night" - he tlks about how rich people would get sport out of throwing pennies to poor children, for which of course the starving children would fight like a pack of wolves. When he begged the woman not to do it, she said, "Why not? I like giving to charity..."

[Rose Siding]

6. Bushies don't get the connect between foreign aid and security

...not that Cuba is any threat, and not that it wouldn't just be the right thing to do to help a struggling neighbor, but as our leadership continues to insult and bully and invite disdain, so is our long term security placed at risk.

DU knew this was a ridiculously low offer when it was made-

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=749690

[daleo]

7. This was a calculated insult, and Cuba saw it as that

By the way, has Jeb admitted how many bodies are in those trailers yet?