Fall flowers
My interpretation work does offer me some interesting variety,
giving me glimpses into other lives in other places. I went back recently to
the children's specialty hospital where a Central American first-time mother
whose baby was born at 2 lbs. was now getting ready to take him home and was a
bit apprehensive about being on her own without all the supports she had been
offered while staying at the hospital with him, a baby now at 6 1/2 lbs. with
no more feeding tube who was going home on his previous due date. The next day,
I was at a school meeting with a mother from Mexico who was holding a squirming
2-year-old on her lap, while a bevy teachers and therapists discussed her
7-year-old child and his supposed academic deficiencies and how they were
planning to help him overcome them. The mother admitted she knew nothing about
math and certainly didn't know English. I think some of the so-called below
average scores of a child from such a family who enters an English-speaking
school for the first time are to be expected and, with proper help and
coaching, that child can catch up. But, it seems the problems are being
over-pathologized to some extent, making parents anxious. This boy may need
remedial help, but, I suspect, he is a normal kid. In Mexico, nothing unusual
would be noticed about his school performance.
Cuban Democracy Leader Avila
Disappears As most of you know, I met Sirley Avila in April in Miami at
Amnesty Int'l USA's annual conference, wrote about her in the Huffington Post, talked with her by phone several times
since. Now there was fear that Avila may have been arrested upon her return to
Cuba as she was not found at the airport. She had left Miami on Sept. 8. The
day before, when I wasn’t home, she’d left a farewell message on my answering
machine, saying she was going back to Cuba and thanking me for my support. I
had hoped her Congressional testimony would protect her, but maybe it had the
opposite effect. She is still disabled and has limited mobility. (For those who
need a reminder of weho she is, click on https://www.google.com/?ion=1&espv=2#q=huffintonpost.%20barbara.e.joe
to find my Huffington Post Cuba articles--the one about her is
called a "A Revolution with Promises to Keep.")
Later, thankfully, Avila was
found at her mother’s home, as her own place had been occupied by unauthorized
individuals. She reported that her attacker is still free and threatening “to finish
the job.”
In Cuba, there are probably
many secret activists opposing the government afraid to be “out,” but if they
could feel solidarity and support, they would reveal their true feelings, just
as kids do now who come “out” as gay. I know when I was in Cuba, I was always
on guard about what to say and where to go. For many Cubans, such habits are
almost second nature.
Most people, whether in Cuba, the US, the UK, or elsewhere, are less
interested in voting, rights
of free speech and assembly,
and in humanity's overall wellbeing than in their own family’s immediate needs
for food and shelter. However, they need to realize that freedom of expression
and assembly and, yes, voting, do impact on their own access to food and
shelter. Just look at Venezuela now. Of course, that message has not penetrated
here in the USA either, as too many millions of Americans seem ready to
sacrifice their own interests and that of the rest of the world by voting for Donald
Trump. Hillary, for all her failings, can still carry out the duties of
president adequately, but Trump cannot. Do voting and democracy really result
in the best system of government?
Sorry that Hillary fell ill--she has
had a punishing schedule. Already, some Republicans are suggesting that she
is seriously ill and will drop out (hope that’s not a real prospect). Many of
us would agree with her "deplorables" remarks, a characterization that
may have hurt her, though, perhaps, only with people already against her, whom
many of us would actually put into that “deplorables” category.
I suspect that Trump does not want to
release his tax returns because he may not have made as much money as he
claims, may have paid very little in taxes, and probably has barely given
anything to charity. Apparently, he has had the habit of collecting charitable
donations from others, then funneling them to charities in his own name without
putting in any of his own dimes and dollars. Trump Hotel, here in DC, is now open for
business.
Perhaps the impulse to vote for The Donald springs
from the idea that jumping into the unknown might actually improve our
situation, that we can always start over with something new. If “life sucks,” if
our existence is dull, dreary, and exhausting, then a blind leap into the
unknown probably wouldn’t be worse and might even be better—or so we might hope.
That’s often the impulse behind decisions to move to a new city, marry, have a
baby, get divorced, change gender, travel, and foment revolution. Surprises and
gambles are exciting and change holds out the promise of improvement. As Trump
would say, “What have you got to lose?” Of course, once American voters of any
stripe take that leap toward Trump, they will find out soon enough what they
have to lose.
From Yahoo News,
9-17-2016: While campaigning in South Florida, which has a large Cuban-American
population, Trump also said that if he's elected president, he will reverse
Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba — unless the country abides by
certain "demands." Among those, he said, would be religious and
political freedom for the Cuban people and the freeing of all political
prisoners.
Trump says he'll "stand
with the Cuban people in their fight against communist oppression."
The comment marks yet another
reversal for the GOP candidate, who previously said he supported the idea of
normalized relations, but wished the U.S. had negotiated a better deal.
After Venezuelan oil subsidies to
Cuba have been reduced, Raul Castro is appealing to Putin to help make up the
shortfall. Algiers has stepped in,
volunteering to help Cuba with oil.
Cuba’s internet phone service is
reportedly blocking text messages containing the words “democracy,” “hunger
strike,” and “human rights.” https://www.engadget.com/2016/09/06/cuba-has-been-filtering-texts-containing-political-dissent/
Not surprisingly, the Cuban military is kicking so-called
“self-employed” licensees out of heavily visited Old Havana to take over the
profits generated there by the flood of American tourists. (Still, at the UN, a
Cuban government spokesman complained of massive losses from the US
embargo—losses from imagined profits if the embargo were completely eliminated.
Despite the surge in US tourism and oil from Algiers, the Cuban economy is
still reeling from the reduction in Venezuelan oil. It is not a productive and
self-sustaining economy and is surviving now mainly thanks to American tourism
and remittances, but the government likes to bite the hand that feeds it and
tell its people and the world—still—that the big bad USA is at fault for
everything that goes wrong. )
https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/ea22976e-2932-3ec8-afc8-cd2612b70cd5/ss_cuban-military-expands-its.html
Raul Castro is moving to assure
continuity by means of a family dynasty in control of military power.
First, he named his son head of the army, then he named his son-in-law head of the
Cuban military arm which now controls 80% of the Cuban economy, and his latest
move was to name his eldest grandson head of the Cuban equivalent of the Secret
Service in charge of all bodyguard duties.
Switching geography, a friend has told me about
an apparently successful volunteer program working with youth in Progreso, Honduras called OYE (the
name means “Listen” in Spanish). Volunteers can participate for a week or more.
After the Peace Corps and other
established organizations have left Honduras, it’s good to see new ones
springing up. http://www.oyehonduras.org/en/volunteer/http://www.oyehonduras.org/en/volunteer/
Venezuelans banging pots and pans from front doors and balconies as a form of protest for not having enough to eat is an action to register similar complaints in Cuba, where food scarcity goes back more than 60 years to when Fidel Castro first came to power and tried to collectivize agriculture despite its failure elsewhere around the world.
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