Media complicity with the brutal Castro dictatorship is why we are bombarded with articles promoting Tourism to Cuba, Healthcare in Cuba, Gay Rights in Cuba, et al, while members of the "Ladies in White" and other peaceful dissidents are attacked and beaten in broad daylight, under the watchful eyes of A.P., CNN, and other  MSM outlets.  They enjoy their Havana desk perks in exchange for ignoring the brutality that surrounds them. Instead of their pundits at least expressing hope for a "Cuban Spring" for the long suffering Cuban people, they spew out endless dictator approved propaganda. Why??? Are Egyptians, and Libyans somehow more deserving of freedom and human rights than Cubans?  More likely, they share the dictators disdain for the people they claim to represent.  Sound familiar?

  Thank you Thor and Pedro, from the Human Rights Foundation for speaking the truth for Cuba.

More PR Shame: Associated Press Cooperates With Dictatorial Propaganda Machines

August 15, 2011

by Thor Halvorssen and Pedro Pizano

Fidel Castro just celebrated his 85th birthday. One would think that after 52 years of running a police state in Cuba, the media would accept that Castro is a brutal oppressor and tyrant. Comparable, no doubt, to any of the totalitarian despots still alive today. For example, Bashar al-Assad in Syria (41 years of dynastic tyranny) or Teodoro Mbasogo Obiang in Equatorial Guinea (31 years of bloody oppression). Yet, surprisingly, when it comes to North Korea and Cuba, one of the most trusted wire services in the world, the Associated Press (AP), cares more about business than about journalistic ethics and the truth.

Evidence of the vicious nature of these regimes, and the lack of civil liberties and political rights that their citizens are granted, are more than well documented. Barbara Demick, in her latest book, Nothing to Envy, paints a harrowing picture of the "ordinary lives of North Koreans." By tracing the lives of six defectors, Demick chronicles the effect of government propaganda and the harsh realities of survival. Human rights abuses in North Korea spread far beyond violations of freedom of expression: government-orchestrated poverty and starvation are responsible for the deaths of millions. Yet, the ruling Kim dynasty is so successful in covering up their crimes that, during the 1990s famine, many North Koreans believed government propaganda that the United States was responsible for food shortages. One woman Demick interviewed even blamed herself for the deaths of her family members. "It never occurred to her to blame the regime," Demick writes.

We had the chance to listen to Demick's stories first hand at this year's Oslo Freedom Forum. You can watch her speech here.

Compare this to what the AP has said about North Korea in its efforts to cater to the regime, and, consequently, its announcement that it will be the first western wire service to have a bureau there. Then read what Michael Calderone of the Huffington Post and Isaac Stone Fish of the New York Times have to say. Isn't it striking that the AP would partner with the Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) without even once mentioning that it's a state-run propaganda tool? Are the AP stringers in North Korea suffering from the same brainwashing as North Korean citizens?

Now consider this recent press release from the AP commemorating Fidel Castro's birthday:

Castro is proclaimed by the AP as an "iconic" leader and a "source of inspiration for many people throughout the world." Ché Guevara is lauded as a "revolutionary hero" in the picture captions. Castro is no more "iconic" than Hitler, Mussolini, Mao, or Pinochet in historical context. However, it is highly unlikely that the AP would try to sell pictures and collections of Hitler as an "enigmatic" historical figure who is "still a source of inspiration." Castro and Ché may, indeed, be a source of inspiration for ignoramuses, washed-up ideologues, tendentious institutions, or people who still believe that he accomplished some "good things," (much as Hitler "created jobs" or Mussolini "made the trains run on time" or Pinochet "saved Chile from communism") but it is shocking that the AP would sink this low to make a buck.

Again, the AP has partnered with an official state news agency of Cuba, Prensa Latina, without offering any caveats. As Tom Blumer quipped recently on BizzyBlog, "the guess here is that the AP would have more of a problem cooperating with anything or anybody associated with Fox News than it does in cooperating with the island nation's equivalent of the old Soviet Union's Tass."

Please consider, dear reader, that in Cuba, ordinary citizens cannot invite their friends over, or hold any kind of meeting, for fear of being accused of subversion. Cubans cannot even host something as innocuous as a book club. Few of them even own books—leading to the creation of underground "independent" libraries whose operators risk prosecution and prison for such subversive acts as owning a copy of a banned novel or history book.

There is no freedom of speech; internet access is severely restricted; there is no freedom of press in Cuba; property rights do not exist (your stuff isn't yours—it can be confiscated at the whim of the regime); Cubans have one currency while party leaders and tourists have another; you aren't allowed to switch jobs without government permission (and the government is the dominant employer); and most jarring, you are forbidden to leave Cuba without the government's written permission. Even the ignorant executive or venal cog in the AP machine should draw the line between the free and unfree world where you cannot vote with your feet and leave. Those who try to leave Cuba often end up drowning or eaten by sharks after days on a raft in the ocean.

Is any of this undeniable reality of life under Castro mentioned in a single caption of the thousands of photographs offered by the AP? Not once. Castro, they repeat, is a "revolutionary hero."

Fidel Castro and Che Guevara are offered by the AP as sources of inspiration. Hitler, Mussolini, and Mao, all cold-blooded killers, are also inspirations. But for whom? A new generation of psychopaths and dictators? For shame.

Thor Halvorssen is president of the New York-based Human Rights Foundation and founder and CEO of the Oslo Freedom Forum. Follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.

Pedro Pizano is the global media liaison for the Oslo Freedom Forum and the Public Advocacy Coordinator for Human Rights Foundation . Follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.

Our good friend George Utset of The Real Cuba , is going to be on Periodismo Punto Com, aired on Radio Martí this afternoon at 4:30 EST. He'll be talking about his important new website, Cuba Search, lanched two weeks ago to help Cubans around the world locate their relatives and friends with whom they have lost contact.

Cuban Search has already helped two persons find their missing relatives.  One of them was able to find an aunt, who left Cuba seven years ago and has been trying since then to get in touch with her relatives.  The other one was also able to find her missing relative through an old schoolmate of the person being searched.

You can listen to the program live on the Internet here: Radio Marti and click where it says "En vivo"

To visit Cuban Search click here for the English Version Y aqui para la versión en español.

When you seek to have the State completely control commerce, production, consumption, and capital this is what it produces. People always find a way to survive, even if it is outside the restrictions of a system, especially communism. And imagine how it will be here when such policies take full command over our healthcare (see: ObamaCare), energy (see: outlawing lightbulbs, the cost of energy/oil-gas), and the push to control what and how much we eat ... Just to name a few.

HAVANA - Want some paprika-infused chorizo sausage? How about a bit of buffalo mozzarella? Or maybe you just need more cooking oil this month, or a homemade soft drink you can afford on paltry wages. Perhaps you are looking for something more precious, such as an imported air conditioner or some hand-rolled cigars at a fraction of the official price.
In a Marxist country where virtually all economic activity is regulated, and where supermarkets and ration shops run out of such basics as sugar, eggs and toilet paper, you can get nearly anything on Cuba's thriving black market—if you have a "friend," or the right telephone number.

A raft of economic changes introduced over the past year by President Raul Castro, including the right to work for oneself in 178 approved jobs, has been billed as a wide new opening for entrepreneurship, on an island of 11 million people where the state employs more than four in five workers and controls virtually all means of production.

In reality, many of the new jobs, everything from food vendor to wedding photographer, manicurist to construction worker, have existed for years in the informal economy, and many of those seeking work licenses were already offering the same services under the table.

And while the black market in developed countries might be dominated by drugs, bootleg DVDs and prostitution, in Cuba it literally can cover anything. One man drives his car into Havana each day with links of handmade sausage stuffed under the passenger seat. A woman sells skintight spandex miniskirts and gaudy, patterned blouses from behind a flowery curtain in her ramshackle apartment.

Economists, and Cubans themselves, say nearly everyone on the island is in on it.

"Everyone with a job robs something," said Marki, a chain-smoking 44-year-old transportation specialist. "The guy who works in the sugar industry steals sugar so he can resell it. The women who work with textiles steal thread so they can make their own clothes."

Marki makes his living as a "mule," ferrying clothes from Europe to Havana for sale at three underground stores, and has spent time in jail for his activities. Like several of the people interviewed for this article, he agreed to speak on condition he not be further identified for fear he could get into trouble.

Merchandise flows into the informal market from overseas, but also from the river of goods that disappear in pockets, backpacks, even trucks from state-owned warehouses, factories, supermarkets and offices.

There are no official government statistics on how much is stolen each year, though petty thievery is routinely denounced in the official news media. On June 21, Communist party newspaper Granma reported that efforts to stop theft at state-run enterprises in the capital had "taken a step back" in recent months. It blamed managers for lax oversight after an initial surge of compliance with Castro's exhortations to stop the pilfering.

"Criminal and corrupt acts have gone up because of a lack of internal control," the paper said.

An extensive study by Canadian economist Archibald Ritter in 2005 examined the myriad ways Cubans augment salaries of just $20 a month through illegal trade—everything from a woman selling stolen spaghetti door-to-door, to a bartender at a tourist hot spot replacing high-quality rum with his own moonshine, to a bicycle repairman selling spare parts out the back door. He and several others who study the Cuban economy said it was impossible to estimate the dollar value of the black market.

"You could probably say that 95 percent or more of the population participates in the underground economy in one way or another. It's tremendously widespread," Ritter, a professor at Carlton University in Ottawa, told AP. "Stealing from the state, for Cubans, is like taking firewood from the forest, or picking blueberries in the wild. It's considered public property that wouldn't otherwise be used productively, so one helps oneself."

Cubans even have a term for obtaining the things they need, legally or illegally: "resolver," which loosely translates as solving a problem. Over the decades it has lost its negative connotations and is now taken as a necessity of survival.

"Turning to the black market and informal sector for nearly everything is so common that it has become the norm, with little or no thought of legality or morality," said Ted Henken, a professor at New York's Baruch College who has spent years studying Cuba's economy. "When legal options are limited or nonexistent, then everyone breaks the law, and when everyone breaks the law, the law loses its legitimacy and essentially ceases to exist."

Continue...

I had one of those 'I laughed so hard I cried' laughs ... Ya know?

HAVANA – Raul Castro proposed term limits for Cuban politicians on Saturday — including himself — a remarkable gesture on an island ruled for 52 years by him and his brother. The 79-year-old president lamented the lack of young leaders in government, saying the country was paying the price for errors made in the past.

Castro told delegates to a crucial Communist Party summit that he would launch a "systematic rejuvenation" of the government. He said politicians and other important officials should be restricted to two, five-year terms, including "the current president of the Council of State and his ministers" — a reference to himself.

Castro officially took over from his brother Fidel in 2008, meaning he'd be at least 86 when his second term as Cuban leader ended, depending on how the law is written.

The proposal was made the latter stage of a two-and-a-half hour speech in which the Cuban leader forcefully backed a laundry list of economic changes to the country's socialist system, including the eventual elimination of the ration book and other subsidies, the decentralization of the economy and a new reliance on supply and demand in some sectors.

Still, he drew a line in the Caribbean sand across which the reforms must never go, telling party luminaries that he had rejected dozens of suggested reforms which would have allowed the concentration of property in private hands.

Castro said the country had ignored its problems for too long, and made clear Cuba had to make tough decisions if it wanted to survive.

"No country or person can spend more than they have," he said. "Two plus two is four. Never five, much less six or seven — as we have sometimes pretended."

Dressed in a white guayabera shirt, the Cuban leader alternated between reassurance that the economic changes were compatible with socialism, and a brutal assessment of what has not worked in the past.

Castro said the monthly ration book of basic foods, perhaps the most cherished of subsidies, represented an "unbearable burden ... and a disincentive for work."

Still, he said that in Cuba, "there will never be room for shock therapy."

Of the term limits, Castro said he and his brother had made various attempts to promote young leaders, but that they had not worked out well — perhaps a reference to the 2009 firing of Cuba's photogenic foreign minister and vice president.

"Today we face the consequences of not having a reserve of substitutes ready," Castro said.

As with the proposals on economic changes, the term-limit idea does not yet carry the force of law since the party gathering lacks the powers of parliament. But it is all but certain to be acted on quickly by the national assembly.

Fidel Castro was not present for the speech, but a chair was left empty for him near his brother.

"RIBBIT! RIBBIT!"

He used to be a correspondent for Al-Jazeera English in Communist Cuba, reporting “objectively” on what is happening in Castro’s island paradise. Now, Juan Jacomino is the Second Secretary of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C., where he is coordinating “solidarity” activities for the regime. This means that he is organizing support on U.S. soil for Marxist governments and movements in Latin America.

His transition from Al-Jazeera to official Castro mouthpiece and “diplomat” demonstrates that the news channel has extremely low standards for deciding who is fit to be a “journalist.” It is another major embarrassment for Al-Jazeera, which wants to be taken seriously as a professional news organization.

But that’s not all. It turns out that Jacomino also worked for a news agency that supplied news and information to CBS News, National Public Radio and Fox News Radio in the U.S.

The Cuban Interests Section, featured on Jacomino’s business card, is considered Castro’s embassy in Washington, D.C. since the U.S and Cuba do not have diplomatic relations. But it is known to be a nest of spies for Castro. The Miami Herald has reported that Cuban spies based in the United States operate from the Cuban Interests Section in Washington and the huge Cuban mission to the United Nations in New York City.

An Al-Jazeera story about Cuba quoted “Al-Jazeera’s Juan Jacomino” as commenting about the introduction of some free enterprise in Cuba. The story added, “Our correspondent said that Cuba will continue to provide its citizens with free health-care and education: social programs which are widely seen as hallmarks of the 1959 revolution.”

So despite the introduction of some capitalism, designed to stave off the bankruptcy of the regime, the Cuban people will continue to enjoy “free” heath care and education. The cost of these “free” services, of course, is the lack of freedom to choose.

It turns out that Jacomino, who has his own Facebook page, worked for the Cuban government before he became a correspondent for Al-Jazeera. Back in 1997, during an on-line discussion of a U.S. academic trip to Cuba, Jacomino was described as “a journalist at Radio Havana Cuba who specializes in the economy and was previously a functionary at the Foreign Ministry.” This trip was being arranged by the pro-Castro group Global Exchange, headed by Medea Benjamin of Code Pink. Typically, these visits are arranged to expose American academics and journalists to propaganda from communist officials.

More...

Darn! What a bummer. The socialist paradise on the Caribbean is being sucked into a 52 year – wide black hole of its own creation and some self centered “reporter” by the name of Portia Siegelbaum, who must have graduated from the Anita Snow School of communist propaganda regurgitation, is so bummed she felt compelled to write about it for CBS News.

Poor Portia seems peeved that some of the Cubans who once had enough sense to pin their “hope” on [f]idel are now “pooh pooh-ing” the slow pace of the “second revolution” (?!?) because the “contemplated changes” are not going “far or fast enough.” The nerve of these pissant proletariats to expect their leaders to act after …I don’t know…a half century?!?!

The Cuban people just don’t get it, you see. They, unlike Portia, don’t understand that they are a burden to the state:

As the Communist Party convenes its 6th Congress this weekend its stated priority is revamping the economy to increase production and efficiency, while implementing austerity measures to ease the burden on this long-time paternalistic State.

The State is “paternalistic” not totalitarian, autocratic, militaristic or even authoritarian. PATERNALISTIC. The 52 year beating it’s been giving the Cuban people was for their own good and it hurt [f]idel more than it hurt its victims…and this of course is burdensome. Wow.

And those burdensome revolutionary fledglings that are about to kicked out of the collective nest, they are panicked:

The older generations who have been told to live a certain way for more than five decades cannot suddenly wrap their minds around a new approach to life that demands they fend for themselves.

To Portia, it’s not the unfeasibility and the illegitimacy of a system that has to force its citizens to participate in its absurdity that makes it not work and crumble under its own bloated weight. No, to her, it’s the lack of “idealism” and “sprit of unity” (oh boy…she forgot to mention lack of willingness to sacrifice-what an amateur…) of the “new man” and uncontrollable outside factors, (reality), that is perverting the ideals of [c]astro’s (forced) utopia. Gee, not falling for a tired line of crap and a bankrupt ideology is called intelligence, but to members of a cult, reason doesn’t exist. And don’t worry, Portia “papa” is still going to tell the Cuban people what to do.

Some of the outside factors are:

Cuban exiles who send money to their family in friends thus creating a new class in the classless society where only the ruling class and sycophantic foreign journalists have hard currency.

Then there’s technology…the internet…the wild colt that must be tamed… corralled… because of it those un-idealistic and materialistic young Cubans know that they’ve been forced to ingest a life long crap sandwich while the escaped friends abroad eat steak.

It must take a very special person to experience life in Cuba today, write about it, and not once mention repression, oppression, abuses, hunger, pain and suffering.

It must take an even more special person to blame the victims- the kind that feels good about herself by freely walking around a prison, going to the manicurist with a pocket full of hard cash and a belly full of fine food and resenting the inmates for wanting to change the system that makes her feel so good about herself.

Over a dozen Cuban pro-democracy activists were violently assaulted and arrested yesterday, including 2010 Sakharov Prize winner, Guillermo Farinas. Is it in the news? Nope, nada, move along, nothing important here.

How about the shootout in Havana? zzzzz.... Silence.

Capitol Hill Cubans, "The Sound of Cuba's Media Cricketts"

On Tuesday, foreign news bureaus in Havana got flustered by Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, who (in an apparent state of dementia) declared that he was no longer head of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC).

Worst yet, that he hadn't been head of the PCC since 2006.

There were dozens of news stories on Castro's (essentially irrelevant) remarks (which he has now retracted).

Apparently, no one bothered to check the PCC's website, which still has Fidel listed as First Secretary. Oops!

Meanwhile, over a dozen Cuban pro-democracy activists were violently assaulted and arrested yesterday, including 2010 Sakharov Prize winner, Guillermo Farinas.

Any stories? Nope.

Also, a prominent Havana neighborhood was essentially overrun by Cuban state security, as a policeman and civilian were killed in a shootout. It's believed the incident was the result of a corrupt, police-related business deal gone bad. Five others have been arrested.

Any news? Nope.

And if that wasn't enough, one of the regime's official journalists (from the Granma newspaper) has been arrested and held in isolation at Cuban state security headquarters for the last two months. He is accused of "counter-revolutionary" activities. Another has been fined and prohibited from using the Internet (reserved for the privileged) for interviewing sports defectors.

Crickets.

Oh holy intransigence, this expert is "gasp" Cuban!!! 

From the Yale Journal of International Affairs, via our man in Washington's  Blog,  Capitol Hill Cubans:

A Transformational Year For Cuba Policy

by Mauricio Claver-Carone

Since Fidel Castro fell ill in 2006 and transferred power to his brother Raul, members of Congress have been weighing possible options in U.S. policy toward Cuba, partially by raising the fundamental question: "is there a viable pro-democracy movement in Cuba?"

The uncertainty is not surprising. For years much of the foreign policy establishment in New York and Washington, and advocates of "normalizing" relations with Cuba, have argued there are no viable alternatives to Cuba's totalitarian dictatorship. The only answer is to "throw in the towel," unilaterally lift U.S. sanctions and engage the Castros. Somehow this engagement is supposed to alter their ruthless behavior.

That position had been music to the Castros' ears. But on February 23, 2010, it was permanently debunked. That tragic morning, Orlando Zapata Tamayo, a forty-two year old afro-Cuban plumber and pro-democracy activist, died after an eighty-five day hunger strike. He was protesting the abuses of the Castro regime, his unjust imprisonment and denial of medical care.

Literally overnight, the international community's focus dramatically shifted. All of a sudden, there was undoubtedly a concrete pro-democracy movement in Cuba, noted for its courage and resilience. Since then, there is hardly a news story about Cuba that does not mention the opposition movement. While qualifiers such as "small," "fractional," and "divided" are frequently used by foreign news bureaus in Havana as they describe the pro-democracy movement—likely to avoid being booted from the island by the Castro regime—foreign reports no longer ignore the fact that a movement exists.

These accounts highlight a highly diverse group, challenging the Cuban state in a multitude of ways. There are the quixotic efforts of the wives, sisters, and daughters of Cuba's political prisoners, known as the Ladies in White, who dress in white and parade through public plazas. New regional bases of popular support are being carved out by leaders such as Jorge Luis Perez Garcia "Antunez" in the central province of Matanzas, by Orlando Zapata Tamayo's mother and siblings in the eastern province of Holguin, and by the Rodriguez Lobaina brothers in the Castros' home province of Santiago de Cuba. These follow the historic trend of Cuba's most prevalent revolutionary movements—against Spanish colonialism in the nineteenth century and against the Batista dictatorship in the 1950s—both of which originated in the eastern provinces and expanded westward to Havana. And then there is the stinging critique of the island's ever-growing blogger movement, led by Generation Y's Yoani Sanchez.

Cuba's pro-democracy movement is becoming an increasingly difficult force to ignore. And for better or worse, everyone knows it.

The Castro regime knows it.

It is no coincidence that Fidel and Raul have spent the better part of 2010 doing back-flips to divert attention from the opposition. They have brought Fidel "back from the dead"—as he himself now boasts—for an ongoing series of speeches and interviews in which he has neurotically predicted nuclear holocaust and admitted the failings of Cuba's socialist model (though he later recanted). The Castros have extended land-leases for foreigners to build sailing marinas and golf courses—for the use of foreigners only, of course. And most importantly, they began a crisis management campaign to clean up their image by announcing the release of dozens of political prisoners to Spain, although they will never be allowed to return to Cuba. Throughout the world, the Castro regime is now seen as making concessions in order to draw attention away from the pro-democracy movement.

The Catholic Church knows it.

At the peak of a summer standoff led by the Ladies in White and a hunger strike by a former political prisoner, Guillermo Farinas, the Catholic Church quickly saw an opportunity to become relevant, after decades of religious oppression and institutional silence. Catholic leaders volunteered themselves to intercede with the Castro regime to negotiate the release of political prisoners. What remains to be seen is whether the Church's intervention strengthened or weakened the pro-democracy movement by downplaying their role in the negotiations. Regardless, it represented an acknowledgment of the movement's existence—and the potential power to be derived from it—by the Church.

The Spanish government knows it.

Just as the Catholic Church moved to intercede, the Spanish government weighed in as well. But unlike the Church, it was not motivated by its waning influence. Instead, it intervened as part of its ongoing effort to protect billions in investments on the island. Nothing is worse for business than instability and unpredictability. Again, this is a nod to the power of the opposition to disrupt business as usual.

Now finally, the U.S. Congress also appears to recognize it.

Instead of asking: is there a viable pro-democracy movement, members of Congress are asking: how can the United States support it?

In a July 14 letter to the U.S. Congress, some 500 pro-democracy leaders in Cuba explained how the United States might help, or at least avoid setting the movement back:

"At a moment such as this, to be benevolent with the dictatorship would mean solidarity with the oppressors of the Cuban nation. [We] believe that the freedom of Cuba will not arrive by means of the pocket-book or the lips of libidinous tourists, who are aseptic to the pain of the Cuban family. Rather, it will come through the efforts of those who, from within and abroad, fight for democratic change in Cuba."

Plainly stated, the message of these pro-democracy leaders is simple: we are here, we are strong, and there is no reason to bail out the Castro regime.

Mauricio Claver-Carone is a director of the U.S.-Cuba Democracy PAC and founding editor of CapitolHillCubans.com in Washington, D.C. He is an attorney who formerly served with the U.S. Department of the Treasury and has served on the full-time faculty of The Catholic University of America's School of Law and adjunct faculty of The George Washington University's National Law Center.

Wow, it's a busy night at the BBC Havana bureau.  The article is in Spanish:

Se producen fuertes explosiones a las afueras de La Habana

Un polvorín de las Fuerzas Armadas cubanas (FAR) habría estallado en Santiago de las Vegas, poblado ubicado en las afueras de La Habana, muy cercano al aeropuerto capitalino, según versiones de los vecinos del lugar.

 Decenas de policías de tránsito impiden el tráfico vehicular en la avenida Boyeros que une la capital con la zona del siniestro. Dicha avenida solo está siendo transitada a toda velocidad por camiones cisterna con agua y ambulancias.

 Según versiones dadas a BBC Mundo por vecinos del lugar, la explosión ocurrió en una unidad militar ubicada en la carretera del Rincón, cerca del templo de San Lázaro y del hospital de leprosos administrado por el Estado y la Iglesia Católica.

 Informan que en un primer momento las explosiones fueron muy fuertes y que los vecinos fueron evacuados pero aseguran que ya la situación está bajo control, aunque la presencia de ambulancias hace sospechar que existen victimas.

 I'm on PST, so it's still early.  I'll update if I find more info.

 H/T:  John O'Donnell Rosales

Wow! Must really suck having your best ballplayers defect to other countries so that they can actually be paid for busting their asses to perfect their skills and talent on the diamond ... and count their professional contract and paycheck as their own in a professional league as free men in a free market system. It also must suck finally realizing Communism fails as an economy (among other things), but the government simply just can't let go of its people so that they can strike out on their own and become successful and productive businessmen and workers in order to build an economy that works. Also sucks, despite the belly-aching of the left in America, that the US embargo on Cuba still hangs on and Cuba can't "farm-out" its brightest baseball players as exported slaves to the USA in the MLB so they can send home those big professional American bucks for the commie castro coffers ...

[...]

Over the last two years, major league teams have spent more than $75 million on Cuban defectors for whom a life with new cars and sparkling jewelry and freedom was too much to ignore. Nearly half the sum went to Aroldis Chapman, who in his first season with the Cincinnati Reds threw the fastest recorded pitch in history and showcased the highest-end talent available in Cuba.

Chapman’s defection, along with that of shortstops Jose Iglesias (Boston signed him for $8.2 million) and Adeiny Hechavarria (Toronto signed him for $10 million), has compelled Cuba to reconsider its policy on restricting players from plying their trade professionally elsewhere. The Baseball Federation of Cuba, headed by Fidel Castro’s son Tony, is discussing a plan that would allow baseball players to leave the country in exchange for a proportion of their salary going to Cuba, according to two sources familiar with the proposal.

Ideally, one source said, Cuba would send players to the major leagues and circumvent the spate of defections that have embarrassed the country. Such a plan, the source said, is currently a non-starter. Though MLB would welcome Cuban players, the arrangement would in effect pay the Cuban government for players, a violation of the United States’ 50-year-long embargo on Cuba. That is unlikely to thaw for baseball. While the U.S. government has allowed Cuba to play in both World Baseball Classics, Cuban players were the only ones not given the prize money handed out by the International Baseball Federation.

For now, the idea is for Cubans to go to Japan, South Korea, Mexico or Europe, like doctors and entertainers who make money elsewhere, then return home eventually. Because of working agreements with the first three countries, MLB would not take defectors from them. And baseball in Europe is played at a significantly lower quality and salary, likely keeping the top-end Cuban talent from playing in the Netherlands or Italy.

Accordingly, the defections probably will continue unabated. In November, Yasiel Balaguer, a 17-year-old on the Cuban Junior National team, defected to Nicaragua. Whether Balaguer is anything more than a marginal talent seems not to matter, as MLB teams’ intrigue with Cuban players continues despite the deep risk involved with their signings. Eleven Cuban players made major league debuts in the last three seasons and 35 have done so since 1995.

[...]

Even if they’re busts, there have been enough Cuban successes in the major leagues to feed the defecting marketplace. The Angels’ Kendry Morales is among the best hitters and the White Sox’s Alexei Ramirez is among the best-fielding shortstops in the American League. Shortstop Yunel Escobar is poised for a breakout season with Toronto, and pitcher Yunesky Maya joins Washington’s rotation this season, and outfielder/first baseman Leslie Anderson could crack Tampa Bay’s opening day roster.

Despite the dozens of players who have left over the past two years, Cuba remains No. 1 in IBAF rankings. Major league teams still covet Frederich Cepeda and Yulieski Gourriel and Alfredo Despaigne and even Lazo, who, at 37 and sporting a paunch, can fire fastballs and forkballs like his old teammate in Pinar Del Rio. [...]

Oh, well ... Life sucks, and then you die:

Cuba's state-run media and bloggers are not amused at "Call of Duty: Black Ops," a new videogame in which the player can join a secret operation in the 1960s to assassinate former leader Fidel Castro.

"What the United States government did not manage to do in 50 years, now it attempts to accomplish by virtual means," said comments Wednesday on the website Cubadebate, where Castro regularly publishes opinion pieces.

The site was referring to the numerous plots to kill the Cuban president, which the government said numbers 638.

The latest installment of the hit "Call of Duty" franchise went on sale in North America and Europe on Tuesday, ditching World War II and modern-day environments for a Cold War theme.

The game's first mission is to assassinate Fidel Castro before the 1962 missile crisis, the moment when the Cold War came closest to tipping into a full-blown nuclear conflict.

Later missions take gamers inside the former Soviet Union and southeast Asia during the Vietnam War.

Castro, now 84, led Cuba from the 1959 revolution until he stepped down for health reasons in 2006. His brother Raul Castro is currently the president of the communist nation.

On one hand, the game "glorifies the attempts that in an illegal manner the United States government planned against Castro," while on the other it "stimulates sociopathic behavior among American children and adolescents, the main consumers" of those games, Cubadebate said.

US attempts to assassinate Castro were approved during the presidencies of Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. Cuban exiles were responsible for most attempts on Castro's life starting in the 1970s.

"What does not fit in the mind of sane people is how the American society allows the proliferation of these games," read a posting by a writer belonging to the pro-government Bloggers and Correspondents of the Revolution (http://bloguerosrevolucion.ning.com).

"Call of Duty: Black Ops" from the Activision unit of France's Vivendi follows "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2", last year's biggest grossing console game with more than 20 million units sold around the world.

Expectations for the Cold War chapter are high: IT marketing firm IDC forecasts that 11.7 million copies will be shifted in the United States by the end of the year alone.

Luis Felipe Rojas, and Yoani Sanchez report on Twitter that Reina Luisa Tamayo and about 40 her followers were detained after being attacked by police  lying in wait outside the cemetery in Banes.   

I'll update as news becomes available.

Update: from Radio Martí:

Drama en Banes

Dama de Blanco Reina Luisa Tamayo.

(Radio Martí, 31/10/10) - Damas de Blanco y de Apoyo, y también opositores pacíficos, asistieron a misa hoy domingo en la ciudad holguinera de Banes, para orar por la liberación de todos los presos políticos cubanos.

Mientras caminaban a la Iglesia de la Caridad, la Dama de Blanco, Reina Luisa Tamayo, relató a Radio Martí que eran vigiladas de cerca por agentes del régimen comunista, algunos de los cuales habían participado en actos de represión en su contra.

Durante la misa, no hubo problemas, y oraron en paz por la libertad y bienestar de todos los disidentes en Cuba. Pero a la salida de la Iglesia, turbas dirigidas por la Seguridad del Estado hostigaron a las mujeres y los hombres que intentaron caminar con Reina Luisa al cementerio de Banes, para visitar la tumba del fallecido preso político, Orlando Zapata Tamayo.

Pulse en audio para escuchar la declaración de Reina Luisa Tamayo, formulada al salir de la Iglesia de la Caridad en Banes.

Update #2: More bad news from Yoani's Twitter:  As reported by his wife, blogger Luis Felipe Rojas was taken from his home by state security.

And from Dr. Darsi Ferrer, speaking to Radio Martí, we learn that police dressed as civilians detained and interrogated him and three other peaceful members of the opposition, Manuel Cuesta Morúa, Leonardo Calvo Cárdenas and Juan Antonio Madrazo Luna. They were held for several hours, and then released.

Is Cardinal Ortega going to ask the regime to stop these repressive tactics, or is he too busy looking for political prisoners willing to accept banishment to Spain?

Who would have thought two years ago the communist Cuban leadership would become private sector small business friendly while the democrat led government of the United States would line up American private sector businesses in the cross-hairs and put down suppressing fire? (For those not fans of war movies and Army lingo, "suppressing fire" is when offensive rounds are fired continually so that the "target" has to hunker-down for protection and come off the offensive, and even the defensive, so as not to expose itself. While suppressing fire is being commenced a flanking is done on the target and it is 'killed/destroyed'.) Sound about right?

I look at Cuba as a long lab experiment on America's front porch. For well over 50 years we have seen what 'nationalizing' everything within a country's economy does to said economy. We have seen what the warped concept of "spread the wealth around" means (means you'll get next to nothing ... and like it!) It doesn't bring the lower classes up. It drags everyone down. And once down the government grip over every aspect of the businesses, industries, and workers lives prohibits growth, incentive, and the much heralded "middle class" is extinct. The "middle class" is "the engine that could" of a successful society at every level. Yeah, when I hear Obama and the rest of the elected class in this country continually use the words "middle class" as their reasoning and justification for doing what they have, and what they are planning to do, I have to ask, "At some point will you be lowering the figures as to exactly what IS the middle class? Will you be re-defining that term, 'middle class'?" Because the way things are heading in this country the middle class will be lost like so much crucial data on a crashed computer. POOF! All that will remain will be the flooded "lower class" ... that, and the upper ranks of the smug political and entertainment class. You know, those guys that always praise the Castros and Cuba for their success.

It may have taken just over 50 years for the communist regime in Cuba to feel their belly grumbling, and decide to take a slight 'right turn' to loosen the chains on Cuba's people so that they can try to become productive on an individual basis. But within this news report you see the government, while appearing to make the attempt to turn toward a form of capitalism to save it's economy the government remains just as selfish and in full control with additional taxes and strict regulations.

[...] The new tax system enables the self-employed to deduct up to 40 percent from income for the cost of supplies, compared to just 10 percent under the old one.

Formerly, small businesses simply paid a graduated income tax. Now they will also have to pay a 10 percent sales tax and 25 percent social security tax, but both are deductible at the end of the year.

Castro's reform permits the self-employed, for the first time, to hire workers. They will have to pay a 25 percent social security tax for each employee, which will also be deductible, and an undefined labor tax.

ENFORCING SOCIALIST PHILOSOPHY

The Granma story made clear that despite the development of a larger private sector, the government's socialist philosophy remains in place and the labor tax is a way of enforcing it.

"This tax is regulatory in character to avoid concentrations of wealth and indiscriminate use of labor," Granma said.

"The more labor hired the more severe the tax," it said, without providing details.

The Granma story warned that those who are illegally self-employed must obtain a license and said tax scofflaws would face legal action.

"Those who continue working on their own without papers, or do not pay the required taxes, will feel the weight of the law imposed upon them by those mandated to enforce it, the National Tax Office," it said. [...]

The Castros are just putting would be private business in a choker collar. Another thing it's no longer singing the praises of is the government 'creating jobs'. In 50 years that failed miserably ... especially since Castro will be cutting roughly half a million government jobs. But that's okay. The American "progressives" (that's anglo-translation for "commies" ... okay, George?) in the USA are still firm believers in the, "Communism fails because we haven't done it yet ... and we know how to keep throwing more and more money into that fire."

Perhaps the people in Cuba ... the real 'experienced' people in Cuba, can teach Americans how to live with far far less money, food, medicine, comfort and freedom while waiting for the rice cookers to be handed out by the government ... Yeah, it's going to be THAT bad, and worse.

With all due respect and love to my adopted Babalu Family, I don't want to be Cuba ... not this Cuba.

One of the greatest tragedies of life is the murder of a beautiful theory by a gang of brutal facts. --- Benjamin Franklin

Mmm`k, who exactly down there in castro's utopia knows anything about free markets and capitalism? Cuba is not China. They obviously don't have the resources or the capital China has to go very far with this.

HAVANA (AP) — Cuba's communist leaders mapped out a brave new world of free enterprise on Friday, approving a laundry list of small-time businesses, allowing islanders to take on employees and even promising credit to burgeoning entrepreneurs.

The reforms — laid out in a three-page spread in the Communist Party-daily Granma — seem sure to create a society of haves and have-nots in a land that has spent half a century striving for an egalitarian utopia.

They follow last week's announcement that the government will lay off 500,000 workers by the end of March — or one-tenth of the country's workforce — the biggest change in Cuba's economic system since the early 1990s.

For the first time, Cubans in 83 private activities will be allowed to employ people other than their relatives, and they will be able to sell their services to the state as private contractors. Accountants, currently only permitted to work for the state, can set out on their own, keeping the books for the new businesses.

Cubans who want to rent their homes to travelers will no longer have to live on the premises and can hire staff. Even islanders authorized to live overseas — though apparently not exiles — can take part in the economic changes by renting out the cars and homes they leave behind.

And the Central Bank is studying ways to grant small-business loans that are crucial to any free-market system, but which would have been unthinkable in Cuba just weeks ago.

[...]

In an acknowledgment that the Cuban economy lacks the raw materials to support many private enterprises, Valhuerdi said some activities that rely on hard-to-get items like marble, paint for cars or soap will continue to be restricted. Eventually, the country hopes to create a system of wholesalers, but it will take several years.

Granma is the voice of the Communist Party and one of the principal ways the government communicates plans with the people. The paper promised more details in coming days, saying that the expanded private enterprise would be "another opportunity, under the watchful eye of the state" to "improve the quality of life of Cubans."

[...]

"Cubans have no capital, no credit, no experience at management — and the government is talking about imposing a new tax system, for which there is no culture," she said. "The process is positive. My concern is how it will function." [...]

While I know the Cuban government is having it bad right now, actually for quite awhile, I call BS on this BS. Just a gesture to give Obama "an out" to ease or lift the embargo. Bait and switch. Once it's lifted ... nothing changes. Refueling the commie machine. The castro brothers are back in business. Read the rest.

AFP: Cuba to allow first US dollar home rentals in 50 years

Cuba is to allow some houses to be rented in US dollars for the first time in 50 years as well as the opening up of small businesses as it seeks to shed 500,000 public jobs, state media said Friday.

"From October, the ban on renting accommodation in the Cuban convertible peso (equivalent to the dollar) will be lifted," the daily Granma said.

The move will apply to "people who have permission to live abroad, or those who live in Cuba, and leave the country for more than three months," the official mouthpiece of the ruling Communist party said.

Those people will also be allowed to rent out their cars, it added.

Cuba has been under a US economic embargo for almost five decades. And the communist authorities only permit those Cubans who are married to foreigners or who have work contracts abroad to leave the island and return when they want.

Those people who have been given state housing since 2001 or who have carried out repairs on their homes will also be allowed to rent them, but with time limits.

Cuba is preparing to embrace the free market the hard way by laying off hundreds of thousands of public sector workers in the next six months.

Cuba's main labor organization said Monday it expected 500,000 jobs to be eliminated from the public sector by March 2011 "along with a parallel increase in the non state sector."

George (and hopefully Alberto) will be on my BTR show tonight, "Infidel's Watch", to discuss the background, details, and political aspects of the developing Cuban prisoner release.

You can listen to the show here starting @ 10:00pm eastern time (7pm west coast).

If you aren't already registered @ Blog Talk Radio you can do so for free. This enables you to join in the chat room conversation ... and since George and the Babalu Boys are planning on hitting the airwaves with "Babalu Radio" again soon you should head over to BTR and register anyway.

Juan Formell of Los Van Van says about his visit to the U.S., “... this is not about sharing an idea or an ideology - you can think in one way, I can think in another. But we're talking about mu-sic.’’ And there’s the rub, he can couch it anyway he or his handlers choose, but it doesn’t change the fact that if he did not adhere to a regime approved political ideology he would not be here on the states dime. If he didn’t play the puppet he’d be just another Cuban struggling to scrounge their next meal; just another Cuban slave supporting the elite with his blood, sweat and tears.

The fact that there are fewer out there protesting the injustice doesn't provide  food or freedom to anyone on the island.

There will come a tipping point where truth and justice will prevail and the people will win.

Via Capitol Hill Cubans, watch this video showing a group of Cubans defiantly exercising their God given rights.

Cuba hasn't escaped the chilly temperatures which have invaded Florida the past several days. But that's not all that's cold in Havana.

Remember the promise of better U.S. - Cuba relations in the age of Obama? Well, according to Reuters, you can pretty much forget about that.

After a year of relative civility and cautious praise for Obama, Cuban leaders are again angrily upbraiding Washington over the arrest of an American contractor in Havana last month and over Cuba's objection to being included in a U.S. list of nations considered "state sponsors of terrorism."

Cuba protested to the top U.S. diplomat in Havana against its "unjust" inclusion on the list, which will mean extra security measures for U.S.-bound air passengers from Cuba following a botched Christmas Day bomb attack aboard a U.S.-bound airliner.

Havana has also revived accusations of hostile U.S. spying and "subversion" by saying the contractor, who it says was arrested last month for distributing satellite communications equipment to Cuban dissidents, worked for "American secret services." Washington denies the man was a spy.

Most of here weren't so naive to think that Cuba would change, even if Obama wants to do more (which so far he hasn't). No one in Cuba is that naive, either. Listen to the Cuban Foreign Minister:

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez last month slammed Obama as "imperial" and "arrogant," using terms that were often hurled by Havana at his predecessor George W. Bush.

The article continues with predictable quotes from folks like Phil Peters and John Parke Wright, but one thing (still) remains clear: no matter how much hope and change you want, if the other side isn't willing to go along, it's useless.

Let's see if Cuba really uses the five spies as a bargaining chip to release the American contractor imprisoned in Cuba. If and when that happens, perhaps the undecided out there will realize who the devil is and always has been in this 50-year dance.

The state of Cuba celebrated this day by sending in castroite thugs to do the cowardly dicatator's dirty work: the beating of women, mass arrests, and contronting diplomats and dissidents. 

From the radical's paradise, brought to you by Cubanews: