My patient
readers have indulged my actual and speculative wanderings into all sorts of
byways, large and small, so thanks. Among those generous readers are my kids
for whom this blog serves as a sort of running diary of their mother’s life.
So, perhaps, I’ll be excused for mentioning that when I was first in Honduras,
I marveled that eggs were left out
of refrigeration indefinitely no matter what the outside temperature, yet in
the US we always refrigerate them. It
turns out that eggs here are washed with a disinfecting solution that removes a
protective coating, making it necessary to refrigerate them afterward, while in
many countries they are stored just as they came out of the hens. Under both systems, eggs can keep quite a
long while.
Recruitment of
volunteers is now underway for IHS (ihsmn.org) all-volunteer medical brigades
in Honduras for Feb. 13-27, 2015. (See photos above from last Feb.’s
brigade.) I’ve participated now since 2005 and plan on going again for my 11th
return trip to Honduras since leaving the Peace Corps there in 2003. We still
need volunteer doctors, nurses, physicians’ assistants, pharmacists, dentists,
Spanish interpreters, and short-wave radio operators for 6 clinic sites and 3
surgery sites. Although Honduras has a well-deserved reputation for being a
risky country, IHS takes very good care of its volunteers, escorting them in
special buses and vans from city airports to safe rural communities where their
work takes place. Interested parties may either contact me, Barbara E. Joe (barbaraj100@yahoo.com), or John
Kirckof, IHS communications & recruitment, 320-634-4386 or cell
320-219-0368.
Jose Manuel is a former
Cuban rafter librarian depicted in my new book, Confessions of a Secret Latina:
How I Fell Out of Love with Castro & In Love with the Cuban People. He had spent over a year in Guantanamo
and stayed with me years ago when he first arrived in DC. We just celebrated
his 50th birthday at a local Cuban restaurant where he once worked
when he lived with me. He was 30 when I first knew him, bewildered and trying
to get his footing in this new country with a different language. He has now come out with a commemorative book displaying
artwork produced by rafters when they were at the G’tmo refugee camp before
President Bill Clinton finally allowed them entry into the US. (Our photo is at the end of this blog.)
So-called “tiny” dwellings, the smaller, the better, especially in
urban cities, are now in vogue. It’s become a challenge for architects and
designers to come up with space-saving amenities, like pull-out beds and dining
room tables. Certainly, practical living spaces no longer need to be McMansions
surrounded by large yards that need to be tended, watered, and mowed. I’ve
learned this myself after living since 1969 in a huge old house in Washington,
DC, built before 1900 and which, at one time, housed my husband, myself, our
four kids, and our faithful dog Claire. Now I live alone except for visitors mostly
from abroad, none of whom none are staying
with me right now, my Argentine visitor having gone home to deal with the debt
default crisis there, leaving me rattling around alone in my home right now.
I’m very fond of my convenient neighborhood, blocks from the US capitol, and of
my lovely unique house, if one can be said to be fond of a house, with its 4
working fireplaces, original woodwork, and pocket doors. But it needs constant
repairs and upkeep and is really too large for just one person. It has three
floors and its stairs are hard on my arthritic knees. Yet, I hesitate to part
with it and face sifting through belongings accumulated over a lifetime.
Meanwhile, during 3 ½ years in the Peace Corps in Honduras, I lived quite
comfortably in a cozy space, most of the time without running water, reliable
electricity, or a flush toilet. That taught me that a big house can be a
liability, as well as a luxury. Media stars and other wealthy people often
build an enormous “dream house” containing all conceivable amenities, then end
up putting it on the market. Even they may come to feel burdened by “too much.”
Someone
urgently needs to make a credible placebo
for rhino horn to peddle to aging Asian men trying to recover lost strength
and sexual prowess. It’s ironic and even more terrible that rhinos are being
brutally sacrificed for their horns when consuming rhino horn has no actual
impact on the human body beyond the aforementioned placebo effect.
I spoke too
soon last time in observing that Pyongyang’s
buildings seemed well-maintained. Indeed, they may have looked
well-maintained, but apparently a 23-story apartment building there has just collapsed.
Someone’s head will roll for that.
The Salvadoran consul here in DC has warned
the US government that his country will only receive mothers and children being
deported who are returning of their own free will, as has happened with a few
already. Those asking for a judicial process must be allowed to wait for that,
he said.
On the topic
of child deportations, jpmassar, who blogs
on various sites, comments:
Between five and ten migrant children have
been killed since February after the United States deported them back to
Honduras, a morgue director told the Los Angeles Times. San Pedro Sula morgue
director Hector Hernandez told the Los Angeles Times that his morgue has taken
in 42 dead children since February. According to an interview with relatives by
the LA Times, one teenager was shot dead hours after getting deported. Hugo
Ramon Maldonado of the Committee for the Protection of Human Rights in Honduras
believes that about 80 percent of Hondurans making the exodus are fleeing crime
or violence.
At this point,
whatever the possible past wrongs involved in its formation, Israel already exists and its people
have a right to continue to exist. After almost half a century, Israel is a
fait accompli (even though it has established itself in a hostile neighborhood),
much as are here in the United States and other countries in the Americas despite
having once decimated and double-crossed native populations. But Palestine and Palestinians also have
the same right, including not live under the domination of a neighboring power.
In a sort of chicken-and-egg dilemma, does Hamas attack Israel because of its
occupation and restrictions or are such Israeli measures made necessary because
of Hamas aggression? The answer is probably “both,” making a solution so
difficult. But at least now, while not sitting at the same negotiating table as
Hamas, Israel has been forced to acknowledge Hamas’s existence, a small but
perhaps significant reward to Hamas fighters.
Why does Hamas continue to fire rockets? And how
did Hamas get all the rockets it has fired if Israel maintains such an air-tight
blockade? (Apparently Qatar is
involved.) It’s hard right now to foresee any rapprochement between Hamas and
Israel, except perhaps a prolonged ceasefire. How can each side possibly trust
the other? The US cannot be faulted for a lack of effort in this endeavor. Secretary
Kerry has done a heroic job under
impossible circumstances. President Obama
rightly stresses that there are limits to American power, and that the chief
executive is not omnipotent. Therefore, it’s heartening that the EU has stepped
in, offering to monitor border crossings. Let’s see if the parties can accept
that.
Meanwhile, an
editorial in the New York Post, not
exactly a high-class rag, accuses the US of deserting its ally Israel in a time
of war. The US hardly deserted Israel, having provided it with the Iron Dome
and many weapons. Still, the US and the
rest of the world have a right to question the massive killing of civilians and
destruction of property through the bombarding of a small, trapped population, excessive
actions which expose both Israel and the US to future terrorist attacks and
continued resentment from the Muslim world. Some people I know cite the US atom
bombs dropped on Japan and the destruction of Dresden during World War II as
precedents for Israel. First, even as a child with a father who was an officer
in the American military in Europe then, I never accepted the rationale for
dropping atom bombs on Japanese cities, so, for people like me, that’s no
excuse for what Israel has been doing. Furthermore, world opinion has evolved
since WW II and the wanton killing of innocent civilians is no longer
acceptable. Why Hamas continues to lob
rockets into Israel is a mystery and probably does not have the support of most
people in Gaza or the West Bank. Archbishop Desmond Tutu has called on Israel
to show restraint. However, disapproval of Israel’s actions must not spill over
into anti-Semitism against Jews in general.
President Obama, like the do-nothing Congress, has often been accused
of inaction. Some think that like LBJ, he should crack heads and twist arms.
Apart from that not being his style, he is in an impossible bind, because if he
goes ahead without congressional approval, cries of “impeachment” ring out. Also,
as someone of African American heritage, he may feel he needs to tread lightly
because of genuine prejudice against him (many still believe him to be a Muslim),
both among segments of the electorate and perhaps even in Congress. As Norman Ornstein noted in the National
Journal, certainly no pro-Obama rag, “LBJ and Reagan had willing partners
from the opposite party. Obama has had none.”
Independent
blogger Yoani Sánchez, who is constantly harassed and sometimes arrested
by Cuban authorities, nonetheless has not been jailed for long periods,
probably because of her international fame. Inside Cuban, because of blocked
communications, she is not well known. In a recent column, she tells about a
foreign correspondent being cited by the press police for referring to the
Cuban government as “communist.” The surprised reported asked: wasn’t the
country governed by the Communist Party? Well, yes, but the term “communist”
has unfavorable connotations abroad, so don‘t use it.
Someone who
does not mince words in expressing his view of communism and of the Castro
regime is Antunez, an Afro-Cuban activist
mentioned in my Cuba book. He has written a long, bitter, and scathing “open
letter” to Raul Castro, recounting
his arrest as a young man followed by 17 years in prison, accusing the Castro
government of various recent murders of activists, and calling communism “the
plague of the 20th century.” He closes by saying: “Raúl
Castro Ruz, in the name of the Cuban people, of my imprisoned fellow citizens,
and of the victims of your dictatorship, I say to you no, no, and no.” If he
were ever to gain a following among Cuba’s disaffected and disadvantaged
Afro-Cuban population, Raul Castro would in big trouble. Raul is making sure
that never happens.
I’m curious
about how Cuban official media is
reporting on Michael Brown’s death and the ensuing unrest. On the one hand,
the Cuban government is always anxious to highlight American racism and other
faults, but would not want to give the increasingly restless, disadvantaged,
and aggrieved Afro-Cuban population any similar ideas. So maybe the regime reports
about it mostly on official media aimed abroad.
The Nation is a well-known progressive magazine to which I
once subscribed and which I still often read. It treats a number of issues in greater
depth than do other publications. The May 26 issue, recently passed along to me,
contains a moving remembrance of the late Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez by Ariel Dorfman, a
Chilean-Argentine author (now a US citizen) who teaches at Duke. I’ve heard him
speak at Amnesty International forums and, as a former election observer myself
for the Chilean plebiscite that defeated Augusto Pinochet, I share his disdain
for that late dictator. Since Dorfman was an Allende confident, maybe it should
not have been surprising that Dorfman avoided mention in his fairly extensive
tribute that García Márquez was a stalwart ally of Fidel Castro.
The Colombian author once wrote what he described to the New York Times as “a very frank book” about Cuba that he refused to
publish because it would damage Fidel’s reputation, as I report in my new book.
As I have said before, it would be very enlightening to find that manuscript
now and finally publish it, thus revealing inside details not otherwise
available. It would also do so much more than my own book with its modest readership
to enlighten the world about the true nature of the Castro dictatorship. I can
only hope that the manuscript still exists and that García Márquez’s heirs will release it after Fidel’s own death.
That same
issue of The Nation contains a
full-page ad for a Nation-sponsored
8-day trip to Cuba leaving from Miami and costing a whopping $6,000-$6,500. Billed
as an educational tour, as required by US law, presumably the profit was being
shared between the magazine and the Cuban regime which collects all payments
from tourists, arranging their schedules and hiring only loyalists to address
and escort them.
Below is
another message from the blogosphere, about Mariel Castro, Raul’s daughter, and her unprecedented “no” vote over
a year ago in the Cuban assembly. Mariela Castro, the daughter of President Raul Castro —
and the niece of Fidel Castro — is making waves by voting "no" on a
workers' rights bill, saying it didn't protect people with unconventional
gender identities. It seems that before the December 2013 vote was publicized
recently in a Cuban blog, no one could recall anyone voting against a measure
in Cuba's legislation. Some say a dissenting vote has simply never happened in
Havana.
In
Foreign Policy, in an article entitled “Damn Yanquis-- Why is President Obama still allowing
covert operations in Cuba? It's just one failed disaster after another,” USAID former Senate staffer and CIA
analyst Fulton Armstrong cites
slanted AP stories to bolster his main
contention. It turns out that he himself planted the very AP stories he uses to make his
case against USAID's Cuba democracy programs, describing them as secretive and
bungled and a series of disasters (talk about a circular argument!). Armstrong was once a National
Intelligence Officer who worked closely with convicted Cuban “mole” spy, Ana
Montes, now serving prison time. He also once worked for Senator John Kerry. He
has a reputation for being an apologist for the Cuban regime, also for the current
Venezuelan government, and is speculated to be the original source of the leaks
of secret USAID programs in Cuba, although that’s not an official
allegation.
However, he has admitted to being the
source of derogatory articles about USAID’s Cuba missions, which are characterized
by him (parroting the Cuban government) as aggressive “regime-change” efforts. Those efforts were content neutral, simply to facilitate communication. He
is exactly the kind of guy spewing out misinformation about the Cuban
government that I am trying to counteract with my new book.
USAID’s efforts in several other countries are also less than
transparent, though USAID does not characterize them as secret, just “discreet.”
USAID simply doesn't openly tout information regarding such programs, keepimg
them mostly under wraps, not only in Cuba, but in Iran, Belarus, Syria, North
Korea, and Burma. These nations don’t welcome information they don’t directly control.
Meanwhile, the same copy of The Nation cited above features a debate about whether prostitution is an occupational choice or exploitative of women.
The magazine's discussion centers on Europe, particularly Sweden, where
paying for sex is illegal, but receiving payment is not. High-end sex workers
there argue that theirs is an individual choice and nobody else’s business, so shouldn't be sanctioned in any way.
However, a Swedish women’s advocate argues, “How can a few persons’ right or
freedom to sell sex stand above the vast majority of women who are trafficked
and exploited in prostitution?” I would agree that the “freedom” of a relative few
highly paid sex workers should not be allowed to eclipse the genuine anguish of
those who, because of trickery or poverty or drug addiction, are lured into virtual prostitution slavery. I've met quite a few of the latter both as a probation officer and in
other countries. On the high-end scale, we have Eliot Spitzer and his costly dalliances,
also a woman I once worked with years ago, who, by day, was a demure office
worker and, by night, supplemented her income acting as an elite “escort.” The
high-enders, especially with the internet, probably can remain anonymous and
their earnings are tax-free, so whether or not their activities are considered
legal, they are not likely to be found out.
Meanwhile,
whatever is Hillary up to? She
doesn’t want to peak or start campaigning too early, but she’s placed herself
in a kind of limbo, perhaps waiting until after her grandchild is born and
after the November elections to announce her candidacy? Quite understandably, she
may really have needed a break to recover her strength from her grueling
schedule and head injury and take time out to write her memoir, which,
however, has not made such a big splash. Enough already! By being so coy for so
long about her plans, she risks voter apathy and keeps other potential candidates
from coming forward. So far, no compelling dark horse, like Obama himself years
ago, has appeared on the Democratic presidential horizon. Tried and true Veep Joe Biden has expressed interest in the
job, but even more than Hillary, he suffers from voters’ fatigue and is already
age 71, five years older than Hillary, who is no spring chicken either. If she’s going to try this next time, it’s her
last chance.
Here I am last night at Jose Manuel's 50th birthday.
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