My
daughter Stephanie had her 43rd birthday (yikes!) this
month and posted a photo of herself at age one with her late brother Andrew, out at a rural property we owned and where I
used to take the children on weekends. In December, we will be 21 years since
we lost Andrew. And here is my youngest grandchild, Kingston, with father Jonathan
and aunt Stephanie in Honolulu.
Surely,
there will be repercussions from the Paris
attacks on the willingness of European nations, as well as the US and
Canada, to take in Syrian migrants
and asylum seekers.
Only
two people survived a crash in South
Sudan of an old Soviet cargo
plane, a man and a stranger’s baby whom he held in his arms. [photo of similar
plane] Such planes are a common form of transportation in South Sudan, which
has few roads and other means of transport. I flew in them myself when I was in
Sudan in 2006, sitting either on actual cargo or on benches along the sides of
the aircraft. In hindsight, such a plane was not the most airworthy—likewise
with the old Soviet transports being used by Cubana Airlines when I was
traveling to Cuba in the 1990s. The one that took me from Santiago to Santo
Domingo, on my last flight out in 1997, was certainly lacking in interior
amenities, like air conditioning and intact seats.
Correction: the Peace Corps has not left Ecuador, as I had thought before. I
don’t know if I had mentioned that here. It did pull out of Bolivia at the
request of the president. Lawmakers on
both sides of the aisle have given lip-service for some years now to the idea
of having 10,000 Peace Corps volunteers, but never put the necessary money
behind it. As a result, the numbers have hovered around 7,000 and countries asking
for volunteers are not being accommodated and qualified applicants are being
turned away.
Writing
in the Washington Post, 11-8-2015, a deputy
editorial page editor, argues that President
Obama’s gentle and generous overtures to Burma, Iran, and Cuba have only
allowed the dictatorial leadership of those nations to reap advantages that
will actually help them consolidate their rule and maintain their positions. That’s
a position that many in Congress and in the voting public also endorse.
In Haiti, international observers, led by the Organization of American
States, which monitors elections across Latin America, acknowledged some voting
irregularities, but has largely sanctioned the first round of voting.
But eight presidential candidates
have called for an investigation into the voting that put Jovenel Moise, who is
backed by President Martelly, in the lead with 32 percent of the vote.
Initially, 54 candidates were vying for the presidency.
A runoff election is scheduled for
Dec. 27 between Moise and Jude Celestin, which is expected to be the final
round of voting that will determine the next president of the Western
Hemisphere's poorest country.
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/11/12/violence-grips-haiti-after-contested-elections.html
Fidel Castro’s youngest son, Antonio, is quite the jet-setter, being
photographed (with some difficulty) at various watering holes with his
entourage and security apparatus. His
exploits are detailed in “The travels of Gulliver, Jr.” and published in the Tribuna
de la Havana (Havana Tribune) weekly. Read more here:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article43872561.html#emlnl=The_Americas#storylink=cpy
The Double Life of Fidel Castro by Juan Reinaldo Sanchez, in his security service for 26 years and his personal body guard for 17, I found quite credible in its wealth of detail. Sanchez must have an excellent memory or else kept good notes, since he long had the idea of possibly writing a book about his extraordinary experiences. His co-writer was a French journalist. As a fellow writer and nitpicky former editor, I found a few glitches, a mis-translation of either Spanish or English and a French word thrown in, perhaps because the book was written originally in French or Spanish—not sure which—with the English version only published later, coming out this year just when the author suddenly died. But, at least, he got it all down on paper and managed to see his book in print. He escaped Cuba by a raft to Mexico in 2008 after he had been imprisoned for asking to retire—though probably the real reason he was jailed was that his brother and daughter were living in Miami. The book only confirms what an egomaniac Fidel was (and still is?), insisting on the most extravagant secret luxuries, including trips to a private resort island, inviting special guests, like Garcia Marquez, while keeping his subjects in degradation. We all knew the execution of General Ochoa was carried out for fake reasons, but Sanchez confirms it. Fidel even had their executions filmed, a film that Sanchez saw. It’s also not surprising to learn that Fidel intervened aggressively in Chile.
I’d heard before that Fidel had counseled Daniel Ortega not to run
for election in 1990, where I was an election observer and witnessed his
ignominious defeat. But the UNO parties that united then around Violeta forgot
that lesson and let Ortega win more recently with only a one-third majority.
Once he got his foot back in the door, he rigged things so he could continue,
even though the Nicaraguan constitution presumably forbade consecutive terms,
and the presidents of Ecuador and Bolivia have followed his example
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