Daughter Stephanie on recent India trip
Scenes from Snowzilla
Recent visiting Zambian graphic artist Milumbe giving talk at Smithsonian Museum of African Art
A few years ago, I missed Snowmaggedon in DC because I was in Honduras, but when I came back
last time on March 5, 2015, there was a lot of snow and my daughter was unable
to pick me up at the airport, though fortunately, metro was still operating. This
past weekend, the snowstorm was called Snowzilla
and even metro was shut down. We in DC were snowbound, big time. Still, out the window,
I saw a man riding a bike out on a plowed street. Some good Samaritan
shoveled my front steps. Everything was closed, school stores, banks, and the
federal government, though a few buses were running.
As I had expected and predicted, former President Carter’s virulent cancer has not been eradicated
completely and his treatment may need to be ongoing.
Donald
Trump is
certainly a showman and an entertainer, improvisational, fun, funny, and
ridiculous. His demeanor is the opposite of what we would expect from a statesman.
If by some fluke he were actually elected president, unless he sobered up, public
life would be unpredictable and chaotic and the public would soon tire of his
antics. Other political leaders here and abroad would be flummoxed about how to
deal with him. I thought GW Bush was pretty clueless, but he at least made an
effort to appear presidential. Trump is off the charts. It’s hard to imagine
him getting elected—“When I’m elected, everything’s going to be great again.”
But if ever that happened, both Trump and the electorate would sober up pretty
quickly. Trump himself never smiles for
the camera—usually, he’s squinting and scowling, maybe trying to look serious? Even
if he’s not elected, he seems to have enjoyed his notoriety and it probably can
help his business. He has a big project underway in downtown DC, converting a
lovely historic postal building into a hotel. A huge sign erected outside the
renovations just says TRUMP!
I foresee a highly plausible political
compromise on immigration reform after the presidential election, whoever
wins (even Trump), namely that most undocumented people established here will not be deported, but also will not have
a path to citizenship (where they might become Democratic voters). For most,
that will be sufficient, as actually becoming a citizen is a fairly arduous and
expensive proposition that most would not undertake anyway. It might be better
if they did, as they would become more invested in this country, but that’s not
likely to occur politically. Their children will have to fulfill citizenship
duties.
Meanwhile, undocumented people continue arriving, including
unaccompanied minors.
People
have asked me whom I plan to vote for. Well, that depends on who the Democratic
candidate is. None of the likely Republicans attracts me in the least. Maybe a
minor one like Gov. Kasich is less objectionable, but I cannot get behind any
of them. I’m not wildly enthused about the Democratic choices either. Senator
Sanders appears to be a very honest, straightforward, likeable kind of guy with
whom I would agree in theory about the desirability of universal health care,
free college tuition, and other issues, but I also must agree with Hillary
Clinton (and, apparently, the NYTimes)that
many such measures are unrealistic given the range of opinion represented by
the actual electorate and its political representatives. Of course, saying they
are unrealistic makes that a self-fulfilling prophesy. At the same time, the
weight of current public opinion is not on Sanders’ side, alas. Unless we had
massive revolution in public opinion, a President Sanders would face even more
gridlock than Obama has. But if he should win the presidential nomination, I’d certainly
vote for him. Or how about a Clinton-Sanders ticket? Is that even a
possibility? That would be a winner.
Back to Honduras again in Feb., my 12th return trip since leaving Peace Corps there 12 years ago. I won’t be posting on this blog again until March 2016 at the earliest. If you check the weather for Choluteca and El Triunfo on line, you will see that I do not exaggerate about temperatures there at this time of year--every day, a high around 100F, even as high as 102. It's hard to even think straight at those temperatures, but I will do my best, because I need to go south to see if we can revive the library project I started there in Peace Corps. That's really debilitating heat--no wonder folks in southern Honduras don't seem very energetic. Honduras cannot tolerate additional global warming, except maybe in La Esperanza and other high elevations. Yikes, not only is there a new mosquito-borne plague, Zika, actually apparently a new form of dengue, in addition to Chikingula, so those are new risks. Also, people have been telling me about 3 Americans students participating in medical brigade not so different from mine being killed in a bus crash. Well, yes, I already know about it.
Honduran
authorities recently rescued 27 Cuban rafters off the north coast. When I was in the Peace
Corps, occasional Cuban rafters would wash up on Honduran shores. Some would
stay in Honduras, while others headed north.
Speaking of Honduras, I just got a surprise call from
a Honduran father of 9, nicknamed Betio,
a threatened environmental activist, whom I helped obtain political asylum 11
years ago. He moved from the DC area to the outskirts of Houston, where the
cost of living is cheaper, and still has 5 kids living at home. He and two sons
work in construction. He is 55 years old, so I don’t know how long he can keep
it up. In Honduras, he mostly farmed and planted trees.
Not surprisingly, the Peace Corps has now suspended its program in El Salvador because of
security concerns. Probably that’s the first step in pulling out entirely, as
happened in Honduras. As in Honduras, the pressure to do so is probably a
combination of increased actual danger and pressure from parents of young
volunteers. If the history of such pullouts is any guide, most volunteers will
resist leaving their local communities and will argue that they know how to
protect themselves in that environment. In Honduras and elsewhere, some volunteers
have actually stayed on stubbornly on their own.
Someone gave me 3 Sandinista-era school textbooks, circa 1979, with exhortations to
support the revolution, “long live the FSLN” (Sandinista Party), and praise for
a revolutionary hero fighting against the imperialists, Carlos Fonseca. Photos
are shown of militant children marching in school uniforms with neck scarves, looking
much like uniforms still worn by Cuban schoolkids. Seeing those books fills me
with a certain nostalgia for a more innocent time. I remember how Nicaraguans
felt soon after Somoza’s overthrow—wildly hopeful and excited, only to fall
into despair when reality and promises did not match expectations and when the
Sandinistas began cracking down on every aspect of life, failing especially in
the economic realm. Although I wasn’t in Cuba right after the revolution, I
suspect something similar went on there, except that the aftermath and its dire
consequences have lasted so much longer, generations really. Is it any wonder
that most ordinary Cubans see no future in their country and would leave if
they could? The whole revolutionary process seems akin to “falling in love,”
whereby emotion overcomes common sense and reason, after which the parties end
up either splitting up in disillusion or making peace with a less exalted
version of reality.
The Washington Post editorial board does
not see benefit to most Cubans from the Obama/Raul
Castro accords: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/failure-in-cuba/2016/01/31/f725a6c6-c5f0-11e5-a4aa-f25866ba0dc6_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-b%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
.
A pilot internet project through a Chinese
company will allow Cuba to avoid using a US-based company. This is a big
breakthrough.
Cuba’s state-run telecommunications company,
ETECSA, reportedly announced late Sunday a pilot project to bring broadband
internet into homes in Havana. According to the announcement, cafes, bars and
restaurants would also be allowed to have broadband connections, which would be
offered through fiber optic cables. Odalys Rodríguez del Toro, director for
Havana at ETECSA, made the announcement, adding that three parks would also
receive wireless internet services, according to a report in the Cuba Journal.
The new broadband services would be made available through fiber optic
connections which are operated by Chinese telecom operator Huawei, Cuba Journal
reported. Del Toro did not provide a timeline. http://www.ibtimes.com/cuba-announces-pilot-project-bring-broadband-internet-homes-2287844
The Cuban government has approved the publication
of 1984
in Cuba, a book that has been banned—this is a definite sign of progress,
though the book will not be readily available.
(January 25, 2016) National security and
police have arrested more than 150 activists from various Cuban pro-democracy
opposition groups on Sunday, the International Society for Human Rights reports
(ISHR). Among those arrested was a German journalist [Dr. Benedict Vallendar] who observed the violent crackdown against
peaceful protesters, the ‘Ladies in White’, in Havana.
Fight brewing on latest Obama Cuba proposals:
http://www.capitolhillcubans.com/2016/01/statement-on-later-round-of-obamas-cuba.html
A Canadian
woman died recently after becoming ill during a holiday trip to Cuba. It’s
not surprising that the Cuban hospital is described as being dirty, lacking in
supplies, and using outdated equipment and treatment. (In his film “Sicko,”
Michael Moore was given access only to a showplace hospital.) The Canadian
patient was apparently staying in an outlying location, not near a facility for
foreigners paying in hard currency, where she might have gotten better care.
What she experienced is what ordinary Cubans go through in seeking health
services, despite Cuba’s reputation for providing top-notch health care.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/manitoba-woman-dies-trip-cuba-1.3402024 and http://www.brandonsun.com/breaking-news/oak-lake-family-reeling-from-cuba-tragedy-death-of-mother-364726071.html
Danilo Maldonado, “El Sexto,” the Cuban
“piglet” artist recently released from prison, says that ever since the
accords, "There have been no positive changes. The U.S. has given away too
much at the normalization talks, and that has let Cuba continue its
repression." His statement is no surprise--he said as much here in DC and
he has vowed to try his pig caper again next Christmas. If the Cuban leadership
were smart, they would just ignore it next time. When he recently won a
$25,000 prize for his art, he publicly donated it to help Cuban migrants stuck
in Central America as they attempt to reach the U.S. But he also used the
occasion to call on his fellow Cubans not to leave the island, but to work
instead towards solutions to the problems they face at home.
His commitment has fueled El Sexto’s desire to try again to stage
his performance piece with the two painted pigs for Christmas 2016, when he is
back in Cuba. The public announcement is likely to get him arrested again if he
tries a repeat performance. But this is a man who spent almost a year in prison
for his art, without facing formal charges and without seeing a judge. If Cuban
authorities were smart next time, they would ignore him. Their response last
time in arresting him went viral.
Here’s a
blog posting whose title is self-explanatory: http://blog.victimsofcommunism.org/four-things-you-should-know-before-visiting-cuba/
Here’s a
contrary view reminding me of the position of my “nunny bunny” accuser, as
recounted in my Cuba book:http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/01/20/what-obama-really-said-about-cuba-foreign-affairs-and-the-us/
(Counterpunch is a monthly journal described as
“left-wing” in Wikipedia)
When he stated that the White House and the administration
“positioned ourselves to improve the lives of the Cuban people,” what did he
mean? An important objective of the policies designed to improve the “lives of
the people” is geared toward the 500,000 people in the expanding self-employed
sector of the Cuban economy. The immediate tactical goal of the administration
is to strengthen this sector. In developing this policy, administration
officials barely hide the policy’s long-term objective. The goal is to develop
this sector as a potential breach in Cuban society. This sector, according to
the US game plan, would become at the very least indifferent and apolitical, if
not hostile, to the Cuban government and the Cuban political system. This
tendency would go hand in hand with these 500,000 self-employed people, as the
US would like, looking to the US and its “values” (capitalism) as the savior.
Such a scenario, with its made-in-the-US branding, would be a cancer eating
away at the Cuban socialist project and even its sovereignty.
The Cuban government is very aware that the US has only
changed its tactics while maintaining its long-term strategic goal to subvert
the Cuban Revolution. In this context, the Cubans are valiantly opposing US
interference in Cuban affairs. President Raúl Castro and the Cuban Ministry of
Foreign Affairs have publicly warned the US.
World domination has not ceased to be the objective of US
imperialism. World supremacy is its very nature. Latin America and the
Caribbean, including Cuba, is one of its targets in achieving world domination.
Arnold
August, a Canadian journalist and lecturer, is the author of Democracy in Cuba
and the 1997–98 Elections and, more recently, Cuba and Its
Neighbours: Democracy in Motion. Cuba’s neighbours under consideration are the U.S., Venezuela,
Bolivia and Ecuador
One of my commentators observes about Arnold August's views:
If we isolate and boycott
Cuba, it's because we are trying to dominate them?
And if we open a policy to
engage with Cuba, it's because we are trying to dominate them? As for Cuba's
future, it may well be that the military steps out from behind the curtain and
openly assumes power, even as state socialism is scrapped in the post-Castro
era. So maybe the future regime will be right-wing, as has happened in Russia
after its brand of communism went onto the scrap heap.
I would further ask if self-employment and self-direction are
necessarily expressions of evil "capitalism" or just expressions of normal
human preferences? What, in practical, everyday terms for ordinary people, is
the "Cuban socialist project"? A dictatorship that enriches the few
over the many is what the Cuban "project" is in practice. The
self-employment sector is reportedly shrinking in Cuba as the military sector
grows, so hurrah for "socialism." I know some people believe the US
is bent on world domination. The US is already pretty dominant, so why does it
need to dominate little Cuba? At any given point in time, some country is
likely to be dominant—now it is the US, ipso facto—other nations have had their
place in the sun. Maybe US domination is waning, as it inevitably must, but, so
far, no other country is vying to take its place—maybe China?
A problem with the internet and the proliferation of on-line
sources is that anyone can find kindred souls, whether for extreme political
positions or for other rare proclivities, whether love of the Cuban
dictatorship, tattoos, guns, or odd sexual practices. And those kindred souls
reinforce each other. With my Cuba book, I had hoped to break stereotypes, but
because my book doesn't fit any recognized literary genre (sterotype), it
doesn't appeal to an identifiable interest group. As I’ve said before, my Peace
Corps book, even years later, is still selling a bit better--and is being read
by more people.
Excerpt from Cuba visit article by Barbara Demick in The New Yorker(Jan. 10, 2016, on-line):
[T]he economic fundamentals in these last bastions of Communism are much the same. Like North Korea, Cuba maintains a distribution system in which citizens pay a low cost for inadequate rations of staple foods. (At one state shop, the provisions, listed on the blackboard, were grains, washing soap, bathing soap, toothpaste, sugar, salt, coffee, evaporated milk, eggs, and oil.) As in North Korea, archaic laws prevent the private sale of commodities that have been deemed strategic to the nation. Fishing is limited in both countries on the grounds that the bounty of the seas is the exclusive property of the state.
Posted: 08 Jan
2016 06:46 PM PST
Rubio Demands Answers From Administration on U.S. Missile in
Cuba's Possession [apparently, the Cubans have had this
missile since before the accords—why wasn’t its return part of the deal?]
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, today demanded answers from the Obama Administration regarding reports of a U.S. Hellfire missile in Cuba’s possession. In a letter to the Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Roberta S. Jacobson, Rubio asks the State Department about its prior knowledge of the missile, and he warns of its significant implications on U.S. national security. Apparently, the missile went astray before the Obama/Raul Castro accords.
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, today demanded answers from the Obama Administration regarding reports of a U.S. Hellfire missile in Cuba’s possession. In a letter to the Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Roberta S. Jacobson, Rubio asks the State Department about its prior knowledge of the missile, and he warns of its significant implications on U.S. national security. Apparently, the missile went astray before the Obama/Raul Castro accords.
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Dr. Martin
Luther King said “In the End, we will remember not the words of our
enemies, but the silence of our friends.” I
spoke briefly (in Spanish) on MLKIng Day, as I was there in 1963 with my late
ex-husband when King gave his “I Have
Dream” speech and, again, 50 years later at Obama’s commemoration of
the same. Berta Soler, leader of the Women in White, was also interviewed on
the program. Dr. King said “In the End, we will remember not the words
of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” I made the case for more understanding of
the plight of Afro-Cubans by African Americans in the US, especially the
Congressional Black Caucus, and mentioned that King associate Rep. John Lewis
(D-Ga.) had broken ranks with other Black Caucus members by meeting with Cuban
Afro-Cuban democracy activist Antunez in his office—and I said I had sent a
copy of my Cuba book to Lewis who sent me a letter of thanks.
Chaos
and strife in Haiti after electoral postponement once again, in a country
that can ill afford it: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article56308950.html
Some Iraqi Christian
refugees, with Christians
becoming an endangered species in the Middle East, have resettled in Slovakia
and the Czech Republic. A friend who works with them tells me they are not in
refugee camps with majority Muslim refugees because of attacks against them,
hence are not in the usual refugee streams. https://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/u.s.-led-resettlement-of-iraqi-christians-offers-model/
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One night before a heavy interpretation
day, I woke up with hiccups. They persisted. I fretted: What can I do if they
don’t stop? I’ve heard of people in that situation who had to have surgery.
Not only was I unable to sleep, but how could I possibly be an interpreter
with hiccups? I held my breath, drank lots of water, jumped up and
down—finally, they stopped.
I’ve been doing interpretations at Workers’
Compensation hearings in a center located out in the middle of nowhere in
Beltsville, MD. Already, the name of the area gives an idea of the kind of
place it is. There is not even a bus stop nearby, so it requires considerable
walking between bus stops to get there without a car. It’s not my favorite
sort of assignments, but work is work and I won’t be doing any or getting
paid in Feb. while in Honduras. One day, I got there early and the door did
not open until 8:30 am, so I stood out in the cold. That day, I also had 4
consecutive cases and we went right through to the afternoon without a break
for me or the judge. The center has three complete courtrooms, with the
public sitting in the benches and observing, the swearing-in of claimants and
interpreter, lawyers for both sides, and lots of documents. Decisions are
sent in writing later—the same thing that used to happen when I did appeals
of unemployment compensation denials. However, in driver’s license
suspensions, which I also used to do, the decision was rendered immediately.
From what I have observed so far about workers’ comp, the decision comes
later and the situation is not always clear cut—I suppose otherwise, we
wouldn’t be having the hearing. From my observation, there usually seems to
be fault on both sides for a worker’s injury—a malfunction of equipment
coupled with a mistake in its use. Of course, the older the worker, the more
likely that an injury will have serious consequences. And employers will go
to great lengths to represent the injured worker as an independent contractor
or ay fault, so as not to have to pay compensation, though some situations
are blurry. I would not want to be a judge in such cases. And, frankly, I
still prefer to work in schools and hospitals.
However, in schools now, especially high schools,
Hispanic students are staying away for fear of immigration raids, although
the schools deny that this is allowed in the schools.
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