Catholic dissidents in Cuba call for calm

[GirlinContempt]

http://www.cathnews.com/news/608/93.php

"A Cuban Catholic dissident leader has called for calm reflection and responsible action in order to foster peace and unity among Cubans both on the island and throughout the world amidst uncertainty about the health of Fidel Castro and calls for change from US politicians and Cuban expatriates.

Catholic News reports that amidst uncertainty about the health of Fidel Castro and a temporary transfer of power to his brother Raul, the leader of the Christian Liberation Movement, Oswaldo Paya (pictured), addressed his call to Cuban authorities, the international community, and peaceful opposition movements."

....

"Paya, who is also the leader of the Varela Project for a democratic transition on the island nation, likewise called on opposition movements to act with "responsibility and love toward the people of Cuba, above any particular strategies and political positions."
Meanwhile Prensa Latina reports that over 400 personalities, including eight Nobel prizewinners, urged the US to respect Cuba's sovereignty, and condemned the threats against its territorial integrity."

.....

""Due to increasing threats against the integrity of a nation, and the peace and security of Latin America and the world, we call on the government of the United States to respect Cuba"s sovereignty and prevent an aggression at all costs," the statement titled "The Sovereignty of Cuba Must be Respected" says."

http://www.cathnews.com/news/608/93.php

Related Article:
http://www.plenglish.com/Article.asp?ID={37960835-D039-4306-BF7C-BFB9CC26B71C}&language=EN
"World Celebs: Respect Cuban Sovereignty"

[whistle]

1. The gangsters will not be satisfied until they get all of their casinos

...and property back with interest.

<snip>
CUBA'S CAPONES
Top Dogs in Batista's Casinos

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Editors of this magazine have tried to present all sides of Castro, the man, the rebel, the conqueror. We were impressed with his philosophy of reform, not so impressed with his carrying-out of justice. We have grave misgivings concerning his reputed alliances with Russia. But we feel that each reader must get the whole picture for himself before making any personal judgment. And here it is, for the first time, the whole UNTOLD STORY of Cuba's Fidel Castro.]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CUBA'S CAPONES

Top dogs in Batista's casinos were the Syndicate
boys from the United States–the ones who'd been
lucky enough to stay alive during Capone's era.

Gambling was a multi-million dollar industry --
the play ran over a million a night with no bet limits.

HAVANA went berserk on New Year's Day, 1959. Wild-eyed young men and women erupted from their homes into the streets. Students poured out of the campuses. Instead of recuperating quietly from the revels of New Year's Eve, Havanans flocked outdoors in droves.

They cheered, they whistled, they danced in the streets when they heard that Batista, his family and cohorts had fled the country by plane at about two a.m. <more>

http://cuban-exile.com/doc_176-200/doc0190.html

[bbinacan]

2. And then they got Castro. n/t

[whistle]

3. Yep, 47 years, how many Cubans will want Batista back....

...or at least what Batista represented for Cuba back in the 1950's:

<snip>
Batista's Cuba Cuba in the 50's

When the Miami Cuban reactionaries speak about Cuba they often reminisce about how great it was. In a documentary entitled, Havana dreams, shown on PBS for example, we see an elderly Miami Cuban couple talk about how good life was in yesterday's Cuba. "Don't you remember honey when you broke your arm while playing tennis", the wife asked the husband in this documentary, as she reminisced about the good ole days in Cuba . This entire documentary or rather propaganda film is devoted entirely to depicting idyllic life in Cuba through the eyes of a minority of elitists who could afford a life of ease.

The good life in Cuba was mainly for a small segment of the population. To the majority of the Cubans Batista's Cuba was a hell hole, filled with vices, drugs, prostitution, the poor and American and Cuban gangsters. This is the real Cuba, the one that the reactionary Cubans of Miami adored. It is easy to understand how for the bourgeoisie and the Batista element, that fled the people's revolution, Cuba was a paradise.

The census statistics of the 50's showed the disparities in the society. For example, Cuba was 4th in literacy in Latin America, behind Argentina, Chile and Costa Rica, however it was 12th in school matriculation between the ages of 5 and 24. Other statistics taken from the 1953 census which show the inequities of the society include:

Illiteracy was approximately 25% of the population

Functional illiteracy: 70%

Matriculated in primary or secondary school: 52%

Achieved third grade or less: 60%

High School or Vocational graduates: 3.5%

University graduates: 1.1%

From 1956 to 1957:

Unemployment: 16.4%

Semi-employed (working 29 weeks or less): 13.8%

The World Bank in 1950 stated that, "Diseases is not a serious problem in Cuba, but health is."

Approximately half of all Cubans suffered from undernourishment, their caloric intake was less than the recommended daily intake.

There was a large disparity between urban Cuba and rural Cuba. The large percentage of the children in rural Cuba suffered from intestinal parasites.

Were the scenes in the Godfather II by Francis Ford Cuppola, depicting life in Cuba as a totally corrupt and rotten island, an amusement park for the gangsters and pimps, far from fact? Not at <see more including photos>

http://cubasocialista.com/batistaeng.htm

[bunyip]

4. Learn from Cuba, says World Bank

Washington, 30 Apr 2001 (IPS) - World Bank President James Wolfensohn Monday extolled the Communist government of President Fidel Castro for doing “a great job” in providing for the social welfare of the Cuban people.

His remarks followed Sunday’s publication of the Bank’s 2001 edition of ‘World Development Indicators’ (WDI), which showed Cuba as topping virtually all other poor countries in health and education statistics.

It also showed that Havana has actually improved its performance in both areas despite the continuation of the US trade embargo against it, and the end of Soviet aid and subsidies for the Caribbean island more than ten years ago.

“Cuba has done a great job on education and health,” Wolfensohn told reporters at the conclusion of the annual spring meetings of the Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). “They have done a good job, and it does not embarrass me to admit it.”

http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/learn.htm

Cuba has made astonishing progress since the 1959 revolution, despite the malign Soviet/Communist influence post-1962. Castro and his guerrilla comrades were liberals/reformists, not Marxists (Che Guevara the exception).

During the war against Batista, the Communist Party of Cuba railed against the Castrovistas more than the Batista regime, declaring them "bourgeoisie putchists". I liked Castro a lot more after I learned that. After the US blockade bit Cuba had to turn to Soviet aid to survive, but Cuba persisted in actions (like multi-party elections in 1976) that other Soviet allies were invaded for (Hungary..).

Today, Cuba has better literacy, health and life-expectancy than any comparable Latin American country. Communism is bad for the economy, but submitting to imperialist domination is even worse.

[bbinacan]

5. I don't want to live there

do you? In Cuba, if you get HIV, you're sent to a camp. Isolation!

[GirlinContempt]

6. When you say things like that

it's abundantly clear that you don't live there.

[bbinacan]

9. Yes and it's very clear that a friend

of mine escaped Cuba. If you want a lecture in Cuban politics, he can give it to you. In a hand full of conversations I've learned what a repressive regime Cuba is. No freedom of the press. No free speech. No freedom of any kind. Move there if you like. Not me.

[GirlinContempt]

12. Wow, your handful of conversations with an unknown friend

trumps anything I might possibly know :eyes:

[Judi Lynn]

16. Sounds scary!

Havana.

[1932]

27. Freedom is just another word for nothing left to sell.

Welcome to late capitalism.

[Judi Lynn]

8. Why not provide a link to your source for that information?

You'd be doing us all a great favor!

[bbinacan]

10. Judi Judi Judi

This story was on 60 Minutes 10-12 years ago. I'll try to dig it up for you when I have the time. In your idle time, maybe you should look for the story.

[Judi Lynn]

11. You should be smarter than that. If you make the charges, YOU

provide the information. That's the way it's done, in every normal case.

I, however, DO HAVE AN ARTICLE which might shed some light on the situation:

November 11, 2004

Cuba's Response to AIDS
A Model for the Developing World
By EDWIN KRALES

In April 2003, Cuba hosted FORO 2003-"the second forum on HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases in Latin America and the Caribbean." This was a crucial conference. Except for Cuba (0.7%), the Caribbean has the 2nd highest rate of AIDS in the world (2.3%) after sub-Saharan Africa (9%). During the 6-day conference, 1483 delegates, worldwide, made dozens of presentations.

There was no U.S. delegation, but there were U.S. presenters. I was in Havana delivering needed medical supplies. Since 1990, I have been a nutritionist with the U.S. HIV community. In 1993 I began collecting donated surplus medical supplies for Cuba. I presented a paper on HIV/AIDS and body composition using state of the art Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis technology (BIA). BIA measures body cell mass (BCM), water, fat and other compartments in your body. Loss of more than 46% of normal BCM is incompatible with life. A unique BIA measurement, the phase angle (PA), best indicates long- range survival potential in the HIV infected. PA measures "strength" of an individual's cell membranes by changes in electrical conductivity. Healthy cells have higher PA than sick cells.

The conference was a success, in large part due to the sense of purpose that Cuba's HIV community always displays. My Cuban hosts were part of the conference organizing committee. They told me to prepare for some surprises. The 1st was that President Fidel
Castro attended both the opening and closing plenaries. He did not make a five-minute welcoming speech and leave. He participated in both events from start to finish because of the importance of the subject. For the world,s delegates, Castro's informed participation-reinforced Cuba's centrality in the worldwide fight against AIDS.

Another surprise was the participation of the World Bank. What was Ms. Debrework Zewdie, the Caribbean regional representative, doing at a conference in a communist country? At the closing ceremony, she bluntly explained that the World Bank fears the AIDS pandemic will trigger "regional economic collapse." Their view is that economic disaster is a fate worse than socialized medicine. She suggested that the developing world adopt Cuba's medical model as the strategy for fighting the pandemic.

Ms. Zewdie from the World Bank wasn't the only world specialist who recognized Cuba's superior way of dealing with AIDS. At the opening plenary, UNAIDS executive director Peter Piot praised Cuba as "one of the first countries to take AIDS seriously as a problem and provide a comprehensive response combining both prevention and care." What is it about Cuba's medical system that both adversaries and friends hold in such high regard?
(snip/...)

http://www.counterpunch.org/krales11112004.html

[bbinacan]

13. I'll look for the 60 Mins.

story tomorrow. It's late here on the east cost. BTW, do you doubt that Castro sent people with HIV to camps to segregate them from the populace? Nice way to boost (or reduce his numbers).

[GirlinContempt]

14. I suppose it depends on how you decide to frame it.

Did Cuba set up sanatoriums consisting of duplex homes on an old estate outside of Havana to provide constant care for AIDS patients? Yes.

[bbinacan]

15. But they were not

allowed to enter society. They are prisoners.

[GirlinContempt]

17. They are prisoners?

Tell that to the 'prisoners' who walk into Havana, buy some malt liquor, visit their family and friends. And now, they're offered outpatient care, doctors have been trained in the care of HIV/AIDS + people, but they still have the option of staying in the AIDS housing and receiving constant supportive care.

[Judi Lynn]

18. Let's see some proof for your charges. Otherwise, you got nada. n/t

[GirlinContempt]

19. My friend told me his friend told him

about another friend that's brothers sisters boyfriends uncle was in one of the aids prisons.

[bbinacan]

20. Funny

[GirlinContempt]

24. Thanks

[bbinacan]

21. Judi Judi Judi

I'll get it for you tomorrow. Are you sure you want the info.?

[Judi Lynn]

22. Yep. Might as well! Let me have it! I'll wait. n/t

[bbinacan]

32. Judi

I can't find the 60 minutes story but I did learn much in my search. The sanitorium system was reformed in 1993 and offers more freedom to those with AIDS. Cuba still requires relinquishing many freedoms and rights to privacy that we hold dear here.

"In Cheo's view, life at the sanatoriums "is not a normal life, because it is very controlled. It is all about illness." People may get quality medical care, but they remain socially isolated." Though he knows that some longtimers living there have adjusted, Cheo believes, "If they could afford to, most would live outside. How can you call something a choice if you don't have another option?"

He isn't alone in complaining about the lack of privacy or consent for Cubans living with HIV. In interviews, several individuals complained of the paternalistic nature of the AIDS program, and of the prevailing stigma and isolation they suffer. "There is a lack of freedom here in Cuba, and when you have HIV, it's that much harder," explained Cheo. "You are seen as a threat to society by the authorities. These views are changing, but people still think that way."

http://www.thebody.com/amfar/cuba_aids.html

[bbinacan]

33. I also just learned

that mandatory long term confinement of AIDS patients ended in 1994. Thanks to the work of Dr. Perez.

[Judi Lynn]

35. How did you avoid noticing he said if they could AFFORD it, they would

live at home? He is NOT saying he is required to live where he is by the government.

Let me reccommend making yourself aware of the information in this article, written by "Edwin Krales, Certified Dietician/Nutritionist, is an HIV/AIDS Nutritionist and Health Educator, working and living in New York City

The purpose of going to a sanatorium is educational, not punitive. It is very important to realize the impact that "catching" HIV had on a person before 2001, when the first effective treatment, the "cocktail," came into widespread use in Cuba. Before then, HIV was considered in many cases to be a death penalty because there wasn't enough medication for all infected people who needed it. They had to rely on humanitarian aid to get what little medication they had. The cocktail came into widespread use in the industrialized world in 1996. During the first year, the death rate declined 40% in the United States and 80% in Europe. Yet, even today, the criminal U.S. embargo prevents Cuba from buying any kind of medications anywhere on the world market. Pharmaceutical companies are given a choice between selling in Cuba's market of 11 million people or in the US market of 250 million.

At the sanatoria, medical doctors, nurses, psychologists, nutritionists and people with HIV educate the newly diagnosed person. Depression and nutrition education are two areas of the illness that most lay people don't know about, but it is critical to treat them if a person is going to respond properly to medication.

Another crucial therapeutic point is that patients cannot be fired from their jobs. They continue to receive a salary while under treatment. A newly infected person feels enormous stress upon getting an HIV diagnosis. It would be exacerbated if they feared for their job and income, especially if they have a family to care for. Their sexual partners are contacted and educated about the importance of being tested.

At the sanatoria, meals are provided and food is plentiful. Food rationing, because of the U.S. embargo, is suspended for the sanitaria. Nutrition education, proper eating habits partially dictated by the medication a patient is taking, and their role in defeating HIV, are presented at every meal. After the patient graduates from the sanitarium course, he/she is free to leave and resume regular life or stay on at the sanitarium. Many chose to stay on to be trained to work within the HIV/AIDS community.

I have visited the Santiago de Las Vegas sanitarium. My first impression was that I was in a tropical resort facility. Patients live in attractive, multi-room cottages arranged along tree-lined lanes. There are medical facilities, workshops, vegetable gardens, and athletic fields. The horror stories I had heard in New York about the sanatoria were clearly lies.

My favorite recollection is an encounter there with a worker-resident that I had originally met in Brooklyn. We asked each other the same question. "What are you doing here? " She was there working, living and getting medical care. After coming to New York, becoming HIV+, and having to deal with our system as a poor person, she returned to her homeland where she was better off. Why is it that we never hear about the Cubans who live better after they return home?
(snip/...)

http://www.counterpunch.org/krales11112004.html

[bbinacan]

37. I didn't miss it

it looks like things got a lot better after 1994. But I wasn't crazy, there was a 60 Minutes segment on this.

[bbinacan]

34. I did find a reference to

the 60 minutes piece.

Rather than use the highly-developed educational system and the CDR structure to ensure that HIV+ people knew about and practiced safe sex, Cuban public health officials mandated life sentences in concentration camps (“sanatoria”) for healthy HIV+ people (three-quarters of them men, one third of whom are estimated to be “homosexuals”). There are twelve camps, only the model one of which foreign apologists (including a 60 Minutes crew) visit. Leiner is well aware that married heterosexuals receive the best treatment in the camps and are much more likely than homosexual “degenerates” to be considered “responsible” enough to be furloughed out occasionally. Ever ready to reinforce cultural prejudices, psychologists administer “objective” tests to assess maturity (with which homosexuality is prima facie incompatible).

http://www.toxicuniverse.com/review.php?rid=10004080

[Judi Lynn]

36. Here's more on your author, Marvin Leiner:

~snip~
Leiner answers these questions by examining the deeply entrenched machismo in Cuba (he quotes, from a popular Cuban movie, the statement: "Men are men and women are women even Fidel can't change that"), which has meant that many Cubans believe that sexuality, especially male sexuality, is uncontrollable, and that sexual practices cannot be changed through education. Another element of this machismo is strong prejudice against homosexuals. These attitudes, coupled with outstanding national successes in the area of health care, and a political culture which discourages dissent, have led the government to look towards authoritarian control, rather than education, and the population to accept, rather than publicly question, this path -- despite the fact that it seems to contradict the direction that the Cuban revolution has taken in other areas.

While critical of Cuba's AIDS policies, Leiner clearly has a profound admiration for the successes of the revolution. Even as he criticizes the quarantine, he contrasts the excellent medical care HIV positive people receive, at no cost, in Cuba, with the "hellish" economic and social crises AIDS creates in countries like the United States. He also provides a detailed and sympathetic account of Cuba's sex education programs, and its attempts to improve the status of women. And he notes that organized repression against homosexuals in Cuba, though it has received much publicity in the U.S., really existed only for a brief period in the 1960s. His book makes a healthy antidote to the seemingly endless discussion in the media about the Cuban revolution's failures.

In an interesting counterpoint, Farmer contrasts the experience of AIDS in Cuba and Haiti -- and challenges the still widely-held notion that Haitians are somehow uniquely susceptible to, or even responsible for, AIDS, by showing how close contact with the U.S. has brought Haiti one of the largest AIDS epidemics in the hemisphere, while isolation, in Cuba, is associated with a very low rate of AIDS. "Had the pandemic begun a few decades earlier, the epidemiology of HIV infection in the Caribbean might well be different. Havana, once the `tropical playground of the Americas,' might have been as much an epicenter of the pandemic as Port-au-Prince." He also contrasts U.S. policy towards Haitians with HIV with the comfortable and well-supplied Cuban sanitoriums which have been so criticized in the U.S. press for their infringement on individual freedom. While he agrees with Leiner that the Cuban policies probably constitute "misguided public health intervention," they are not a "crime against humanity" like the U.S. policy of "detaining the sick in concentration camps where they are denied effective care drawing blood and giving injections against the expressed wishes of the imprisoned, and using force to do so beating and imprisoning persons because they are HIV-positive" -- all policies the U.S. carried out, ironically, on its military base in Guantanamo, Cuba.

All three of these books provide much food for thought about the workings of U.S. politics and culture, and how the U.S. has shaped, and been shaped by, its Caribbean neighbors. All of them challenge standard U.S. accounts of Cuba and Haiti. They provide much-needed background and ideas for anybody working in solidarity with Cuba and Haiti, or any other third world country.
(snip/)http://zena.secureforum.com/Znet/zmag/articles/feb95avichom.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Don't have much more time available, have a full evening ahead.

Thanks for the info. AS you can see, it helps to look more than superficially.

[Mika]

29. Cuba has the lowest AIDS infection rate in the W Hemisphere.

Cuba NEVER had detention camps for AIDS victims.

They did establish treatment sanitoriums during the period before the HIV/AIDS infection pathology was understood. Facing an unknown epidemic that could have destroyed Cuba's health care infrastructure if the epidemic was not checked, the Cuban Ministry of Health created the sanitoriums specifically to focus treament methodologies on these patients. None were forced to stay there UNLESS they were endangering others by deliberately infecting others by having unsafe sex with unaware partners. The US incarcerates HIV+ persons who deliberately infect people also, but doesn't treat them in sanitoriums with high quality health care and education - in the US the infection rate is highest in prisons where HIV+ persons have unprotected sex with other inmates.


Cuba has the lowest AIDS infection rate in the W Hemisphere primarily because of their highly lauded safe sex public education program and world class antiretroviral treatment programs (that are free to any and all Cubans who need them).

Here's a post relating this info that I put up on another thread for another uninformed Cubaphobe.

Cuba has the lowest AIDS infection rate in the W Hemisphere.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2453856&mesg_id=2459384

[1932]

23. Did John Stoessel produce that segment?

Or, perhaps, it was some other porn-mustachioed gentleman with a committment to using network TV as a vehicle for delivering the, ahem, truth?

[Judi Lynn]

25. This may be the show he's thinking of:

[1932]

26. That's some wild, weird, wacky stuff.

[Say_What]

28. The world's ONLY AIDS detention camp was GITMO

<clips>

...Joel Saintil* never even had the luxury of post-traumatic stress. He died just days after he was freed from the camp, at the age of 26. For months, human rights attorneys had begged the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to send Saintil and other gravely ill Haitians for treatment in the United States, but the agency had refused until a federal district court judge ordered the sickest released. Saintil was flown to his father's house in Florida, but it was already too late. He became one of the camp's first casualties.

This June marked the tenth anniversary of the closing of the Guantánamo HIV Camp, one of the world's first, and only, detention centers for people with HIV/AIDS. Today the story is all but forgotten, but at the time it captured people's conscience, and its demise made headlines.

On June 8, 1993, US District Court Judge Sterling Johnson Jr. declared the camp unconstitutional in a scathing opinion. "The Haitians' plight is a tragedy of immense proportion, and their continued detainment is totally unacceptable to this court," he wrote. It was a David-beats-Goliath victory--the culmination of a legal and grassroots battle waged by refugees, human rights attorneys and a coalition of Haitian immigrants and AIDS activists--and its impact was immediate. By June 18, the last of the refugees had arrived in New York and Miami to cheers and champagne.

Ten years later, however, few people remember this victory--or recognize that the complicated legacy of Guantánamo lives on. "The process has not been easy," says Dr. Marie Carmel Pierre-Louis, the director of the HIV/AIDS program of the Haitian Centers Council, who has been working with the refugees since their arrival. "A few people were able to pull their lives together. a lot of them are still struggling."


http://www.thenation.com/doc/20030721/ratner

[Judi Lynn]

7. Wonder why our own corporate press overlooked an opportunity

to tell us about this! They are usually so conscientious! Well, maybe not.

From the first link in the original post:

Numerous Catholic activists, theologians and others were among 400 signatories to an appeal for respect of Cuba's sovereignty. They included numerous Brazilians such as theologians Frei Betto, Leonardo Boff, World Social Forum co-founder and director of the Justice and Peace Commission of the Brazilian bishops, Chico Whitaker and emeritus Bishop Pedro Casaldáliga.

The message was launched by Belgian Catholic sociologist of religion, Fr François Houtart, member of the International Council of the World Social Forum in the presence of the international press accredited in Havana, in the company of the outstanding intellectual Roberto Fernández Retamar, president of Casa de las Américas, and Andrés Gómez, a publications editor located in Miami.
(snip)

Very, very interesting!

Thank you, GirlinContempt.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Speaking of Catholics and Cuba, many people were convinced the Bishop of Havana, Cardinal Jaime Ortega was on the very short list for consideration as the successor to the Pope. He was summoned to Rome during the time they were debating the problem of choosing.



Jaime Ortega

[GirlinContempt]

30. I remember that!

Thanks, Judi Lynn

[flordehinojos]

31. they are delusional if they think george bush is going to listen to their

plea for, respect to cuba's sovereignty:

""Due to increasing threats against the integrity of a nation, and the peace and security of Latin America and the world, we call on the government of the United States to respect Cuba"s sovereignty and prevent an aggression at all costs," the statement titled "The Sovereignty of Cuba Must be Respected" says."


all of us know bush does not listen. all of us know bush does care. all of us know bush is a power crazed dictator whose hands hold even more blood than fidel castro's ever did.

and yet cuban/americans are blind...and they want bush to smear his bloody hands all over the cuban landscape...