This just in from our Babalu Eyes at the courthouse:
Little “Eliana” loses future, court sides with father.
31 thoughts on “The Verdict is in”
Comments are closed.
…an island on the net without a bearded dictator
…an island on the net without a bearded dictator
This just in from our Babalu Eyes at the courthouse:
Little “Eliana” loses future, court sides with father.
Comments are closed.
Sorry, but the court is right. You shouldn’t deny a father his right to be with his child just because you don’t like the country he’s in if he loves her and wants to be with her. If that were the case, then the US court should take all children from Cuba, Venezuela, China, Africa, anywhere else. And don’t tell me it’s different because the girl had a foster family already. I’m sure if there were more children, there would be more families willing to adopt them.
yeah, Canesfan, you are absolutely 100% correct. I say ship her, and her brother back RIGHT NOW.
because if the father doesnt give a shit about his own daughter’s future and freedom, why the fuck should I?
Que se joda.
CaneFan, you have abso-fucking-lutely no fucking idea what Cuba is like for a young child (or anyone else for that matter).
Obviously with this decision, the ‘welfare’ of the child had ABSO-FUCKING-LUTLY nothing to do with the decision of the ‘court’ (with this Anti-Cuban prejudiced judge).
I have to question the love of a father who would want to pull his kid back into a hellhole with him. Sounds like a selfish love to me, like viewing the child as a possession rather than fully human. All the way back to Moses in the reed basket, real parents have shown their love for a child by being willing to part with them if that means the child will have a better life.
You’re right, I have no idea what Cuba is like. My family is cuban, some arrived a long time ago and some arrived recently. I have never spoken to them about their lives in Cuba. I don’t read stories of the atrocities that go on over there and I listen to everything the media says. Conchita, I guess you just got here from Cuba a few days ago so you know exactly what it’s like in Cuba right this minute. Also, you would rather ship your parents back to Cuba than be with them. Makes perfect sense. After all, it’s not like there aren’t studies done over the years lending credence to the notion that children not raised by their families are more prone to have problems later in life.
Also, I guess it’s better to live in Miami with a family that will parade you around in order to make a political statement and make a mockery of our justice system so that you can grow up to be materialistic than to be with your birth father.
And Val, what is her half-brother’s story? Is he from the same father or someone that abandoned him? I never said to send the half brother back, instead I said to keep the girl with her family, her birth family.
To: amenendez@MiamiHerald.com
Subject: Your column on the Cuban girl’s case.
From: Cuba News Watch
Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2007
I posted this comment in response to your September 23, 2007 column about the case of the Cuban girl:
Ana, I can’t believe you are so uninformed about, and so out of step with, the Cuban reality and the Cuban experience under the Castro dictatorship.
I’ll reply to some of the statements in your column:
“There have been no demonstrations, no public shouting matches, no prayer vigils. Why? The popular explanation is that exiles learned from the Elian embarrassment.”
The reason, Ana, is that this girl, unlike Elian is getting her day in court. Don’t forget that, after Fidel Castro became involved in the Elian case and agreed with the Clinton Administration to the unprecedented repatriation of the Cuban criminals who took over a Louisiana jail and held hostages, Clinton and Reno reneged on their original pledge and did everything in their power (and wasted far more taxpayer money in the process) to deny Elian the right to an asylum hearing and his day in a Florida family court.
“But this case is also different for concrete reasons. The first, and perhaps most important, is that Fidel has not gotten involved. Had he devoted one of his post-mortem columns to “bring the child back” the loudest of the exiles might have taken the bait again.”
Perhaps Fidel has not gotten involved personally for health reasons, but his diplomats in Washington got Magda Montiel and Ira Kurzban, whose firm has represented the Castro dictatorship, involved as attorneys for Rafael Izquierdo. Castro’s concessionaires in the travel-to-Cuba monopoly donated the airline tickets for Izquierdo, his girlfriend and his eldest daughter. Castroite “sympathizers” Elena Freyre and Mark Falcoff let Izquierdo use their Brickell Avenue condominium.
“I disagree with much of what the Cubases have tried to do. I believe the girl belongs with her father, Rafael. I believe children should be raised by their parents and grandparents and aunts.”
That is true, generally, when the parents and relatives love the child. But, how much do you know about this particular case to say that this girl ought to belong with Izquierdo? Perhaps you should have listened to the Channel 51 phone interview with the girl’s babysitter in Cuba . That’s the lady that the representatives from the Guardian Ad-Litem program (which represents the best interests of children in court) wanted to interview in Cabaiguan. But the Castro dictatorship did not allow them to enter Cuba to conduct the interview. Why? Because the Castro dictatorship has never shown the slightest interest for the truth and the babysitter would have told the guardians what she told Channel 51, that is, that Rafael Izquierdo did not care for this daughter, that he rarely went to see her or pick her up, that mother Elena Perez would often leave the daughter at the babysitter’s house and picked her up at 11:00 p.m., and sometimes the next morning, and that Izquierdo dodged his child support obligation and sometimes would only give Elena $30 Cuban pesos (about $1.25 dollars). Had Rafael Izquierdo been a good loving father in Cuba , his daughter would have missed him and would not have rejected him and treated him as a stranger when he arrived. The poor little girl, sadly, did not know Izquierdo enough to recognize him. When my own father was sent by the Castro dictatorship to a forced labor camp in Camagüey merely for applying for permission to leave Cuba , neither my sister nor I forgot him or ignored him. In fact, he wrote far more letters to us than Izquierdo ever wrote to his daughter (and that’s counting the letters that Elena Perez identified as forgeries). The Cubas are the only people who have given this little girl and her half-brother parental love and a measure of peace and security, all of which would be disturbed and turned upside down if she were to be sent back to Cuba. And of course, the stress and psychological trauma that the poor girl would suffer would be tremendous and long-lasting adding more suffering to what she has already gone through.
“Joe and Maria Cubas made many missteps. But in one important area, they did the right thing: It must have been tempting to drag the story of the cute little auburn-haired girl before the cameras.”
It was so tempting, in fact, that The Miami Herald could not resist the temptation and did it itself. Perhaps, the Herald’s need to boost readership and its time-honored tradition of sowing division and conflict in the Cuban community (and other communities as well) won out over responsibility and journalistic ethics.
“It would have been easy to make an emotional plea directly to a community still easily manipulated through ancient hurts.”
There you are applying old and insidious stereotypes and characterizing the Cuban community as “emotional” and susceptible to emotional manipulation through “ancient hurts”. Your ignorance (and I hope it’s just ignorance) of the Cuban experience and your insensitivity to the Cuban reality shows transparently through that paragraph. Ana, these hurts are not ancient. These hurts are current. These hurts have been hurting since thousands of Cubans were assassinated by Castro’s and Che’s firing squads in 1959 and continue right through today when “pragmatic” and “liberal” heir Raul Castro continues arresting and imprisoning peaceful political opponents, and when those who do not agree with the Castros’ dictatorship are subject to violent beatings and physical and psychological attacks by Brigadas de Respuesta Rapida modeled after fascist mobs and by esbirros segurosos (state security goons). That’s the reality of today’s Cuba, where state terrorism is the government’s policy, where workers are exploited by foreign corporations and the Castro government with miserable salaries, where blacks are harassed and discriminated despite being the majority of the population, where high schools are located outside the cities so that children can be forced to work the fields to pay for their “free education” separated from their families and subjected to Marxist-Leninist indoctrination and military training whether the parents want it or not. Those hurts continue hurting through the present when repression gets so evil that an AIDS victim is kidnapped by Castro’s state security thugs to burn his forehead with a hot iron in an attempt to erase the initials “USA” he had tattooed there as a form of political expression. Those hurts are neither old nor “ancient”. Right now, it hurts the Cubans to see a country full of hopelessness and collective depression and despair, where he future does not exist, a country whose national fabric has been torn to tatters by a vicious foreign ideology, where Che Guevara’s philosophy of hatred and violence is taught to children in schools that the government imposes and parents cannot choose or refuse, a country where amorality is rampant and the moral standard for any act is whether the act “resuelve” and helps to put food in the table, chavitos in the pocket, foreigners in the bedroom, or a person in a Florida beach. The hurts caused by under-age prostitution and widespread jineterismo, even by prostitutes with doctoral degrees are not ancient, they are hurting right this minute. Each and every day in the present, Cubans hurt because their relatives in Cuba suffer for lack of access to the health care that government elites and foreigners enjoy in hard-currency tourist hospitals with the latest medical techniques, wonder drugs and equipment (like where they took Michael Moore) while regular Cubans have to go to bare, dilapidated and anti-hygienic hospitals where many die and suffer through abysmal care and lack of hygiene. Cubans, right now, hurt when their families die in the Florida Straits seeking freedom in rafts and when they are returned to the dictator a few yards from U.S. shores under the shameful Clinton-Castro pact of 1994. In sum, Ana, those hurts are not things of the past but realities of the present. And, sadly, that’s the hurtful reality where you hope that Judge Cohen will send this poor little girl.
In refusing to do so, they have proved their love, for which no one can fault them. They’ve also helped move this community that much closer to maturity. For which we can all be grateful.
Maturity in the Cuban community… What do you mean by that? In case you do not know, “maturity” when used by so-called “progressives” with regards to the Cuban community is a loaded codeword that means resignation to the “reality” and “irreversibility” of Fidel Castro’s revolution and dictatorship, acceptance of the “succession” by his brother Raul and his businessmen generals, patience to await the democratic changes that will never come while the Castroite terrorist mafia continues in power, acceptance of every dirty deal ever cooked up by arrogant American, European and other political and economic elites to the benefit of their special interests and to the detriment of the Cuban people, and the turning of Cuban exiles into immigrants who do not care passionately about Cuba and its people instead preferring to focus their energies in local issues. I hope that’s not what you mean by “maturity”, Ana, and I sincerely hope that you make a sincere effort to truly understand, and learn about, the realities and experience of Cuba and the Cuban community.
—————————————————————————–
Ana, here are some websites that will help you learn about the Cuban reality and experience and will give you some perspective on the place that you’d like Judge Cohen to send the little girl to:
http://www.cubanet.org/desdcuba.html (this page features articles by Cuban independent journalists who risk jail and beatings for doing what you and any journalist in a free country do every day).
http://www.therealcuba.com/ (here you will find a large collection of photographs about daily life in Cuba, many quite shocking, and you’ll see the “bloqueo” myth debunked in full color).
http://www.netforcuba.org/ and http://www.netforcuba.org/InfoCuba-EN/CubainPictures/CubainPictures.htm (this website shows you an extensive collection of side-by-side photographs of the Cuba for foreigners and the Cuba for Cubans)
http://www.lanuevacuba.com/ (a page full of articles and insightful analysis in the Cuban situation).
Canes Fan, you’re wrong. I admit I don’t know much about this particular case but the studies show that adopted children do better than birth children. The reason is that a far, far higher percentage of adoptive parents — surprise — actually WANT AND LOVE the child. That is too often NOT the case with birth parents.
CanesFan,
Once again, I agree with you 100%. Send the girl back to daddy RIGHT FUCKING NOW.
daddy does, after all, need her now, given that with this victory over the Miami mafia, he and his family will now be elevated to some status in Cuba. maybe thy’ll get another handful of beans a month now. maybe even a coveted job in tourism.
Please man. Ive seen that father being interviewed and he is nothing more and nothing less than un sinverguenza.
But i digress. I really dont give a shit about this little girl. At least, not any more than her “father” does, asi que, pal carajo. Put her ass on the very fucking next plane and lets move on.
How sad for this little girl. Perhaps an appeals court judge will find a way to let her live in freedom.
As for the ‘law is clear’ argument, nonsense. Look at all the ‘rights’ judges have found in the US Constitution in recent years. If he looked hard enough, an compassionate judge could find a way.
Sadder though is a father who would rather have his child live in poverty and oppression than make the sacrifice and give her the gift of freedom.
This judge should be impeached. Substituting your own personal biases for the law and constitution is a violation of her oath of office. Until we challenge the judiciary’s belief that they are infallible, we will continue to lose our freedom to an unelected, irresponsible and unaccountable tyranny.
Before y’all get too down on the father, do you really think this father had any choice but to fight for the kid on behalf of the castro regime? Would the castro mafia have let this man leave well enough alone?
Did anyone really think this girl wouldnt be sent back?
This is just as sad as it was predictable. The judge, given her known past behavior regarding the Cuban-American community, should have had the decency to excuse herself from the case, but I guess that’s expecting too much in the way of integrity.
As for Ana Menendez, I’m afraid I may have shocking news for her. I don’t feel any embarrassment over the Elian affair, though I still feel plenty of anger and disgust. If anyone should feel embarrassed (at a minimum), that would be Bill Clinton, Janet Reno and company. However, I DO feel intense embarrassment over people like Ana Menendez. She should avoid that word altogether, just as Michael Moore should avoid the word porcine.
It’s amazing to me that our courts would send a child back to a place where she will have no basic human rights. The idea that a parent’s right susercedes the well being of the child flies in the face of the arguments used to remove children from homes here in the US.
Anyone who supports what this judge has done should also be opposed to removing ANY child from ANY situation based on the supremacy of parental rights. By sending this child back to a country where she will not have the right to leave should she do desire is tatamount to child abuse. It is shameful.
And fuck anybody who tries to sell the sob story of the poor father in Cuba. It isn’t as though he had the right to actually file suit except at the collusion or coercion of the Cuban government. Those who deny this are either stupid or liars … or both.
CanesFan,
You assume a lot of things and get a lot of things wrong. You take at face value the idea that this guy wants to take responsibility for this daughter that he fathered with some crazy lady he got into the sack with once. Given the fact that the foster family is one that the Cuban regime would really like to hurt (because the guy makes his living getting Cuban ballplayers to defect) you can’t rule out the idea that the regime dug this guy up and shipped him over here with instructions to reclaim the daughter.
Your examination of the “father’s rights” doesn’t take into account the rights of the little girl. The only stable person she’s had her entire life is her half brother, who was adopted by the Cubas family. By giving in to the father’s “rights” you are ripping her out of the arms of her closest sane relative. The girl left Cuba when she was 2 years old. She doesn’t even know this man who has parental “rights” over her.
CanesFan,
You assume a lot of things and get a lot of things wrong. You take at face value the idea that this guy wants to take responsibility for this daughter that he fathered with some crazy lady he got into the sack with once. Given the fact that the foster family is one that the Cuban regime would really like to hurt (because the guy makes his living getting Cuban ballplayers to defect) you can’t rule out the idea that the regime dug this guy up and shipped him over here with instructions to reclaim the daughter.
Your examination of the “father’s rights” doesn’t take into account the rights of the little girl. The only stable person she’s had her entire life is her half brother, who was adopted by the Cubas family. By giving in to the father’s “rights” you are ripping her out of the arms of her closest sane relative. The girl left Cuba when she was 2 years old. She doesn’t even know this man who has parental “rights” over her.
CanesFan,
You assume a lot of things and get a lot of things wrong. You take at face value the idea that this guy wants to take responsibility for this daughter that he fathered with some crazy lady he got into the sack with once. Given the fact that the foster family is one that the Cuban regime would really like to hurt (because the guy makes his living getting Cuban ballplayers to defect) you can’t rule out the idea that the regime dug this guy up and shipped him over here with instructions to reclaim the daughter.
Your examination of the “father’s rights” doesn’t take into account the rights of the little girl. The only stable person she’s had her entire life is her half brother, who was adopted by the Cubas family. By giving in to the father’s “rights” you are ripping her out of the arms of her closest sane relative. The girl left Cuba when she was 2 years old. She doesn’t even know this man who has parental “rights” over her.
CanesFan,
You assume a lot of things and get a lot of things wrong. You take at face value the idea that this guy wants to take responsibility for this daughter that he fathered with some crazy lady he got into the sack with once. Given the fact that the foster family is one that the Cuban regime would really like to hurt (because the guy makes his living getting Cuban ballplayers to defect) you can’t rule out the idea that the regime dug this guy up and shipped him over here with instructions to reclaim the daughter.
Your examination of the “father’s rights” doesn’t take into account the rights of the little girl. The only stable person she’s had her entire life is her half brother, who was adopted by the Cubas family. By giving in to the father’s “rights” you are ripping her out of the arms of her closest sane relative. The girl left Cuba when she was 2 years old. She doesn’t even know this man who has parental “rights” over her.
I have notified the Miami Herald to put back their comments section on the article regarding this case. I wonder why they won’t let people comment about it. At least Babalu supplants the Herald for free expression on this topic. I will have to educate Ana Menendez a little better on this issue. She is still resentful that her husband cheated on her years ago. I told her to forgive and forget, like Cecile did with me.
The saddest thing here is that this girl will be screwed, just as it is now perfectly clear Elian was screwed and turnned into a propaganda robot and political trophy, and it simply DOES NOT MATTER to the ever-so-righteous defenders of supposed parental rights (which don’t exist in Cuba, practically speaking).
All I need to know is that my mother, a VERY traditional wife, would have left my father behind in Cuba if he had balked at leaving the island to get us kids out, just as she would have sent us kids off by ourselves if that had been the only way to get us out of that hellhole. That’s what loving parents do under such horrible, desperate circumstances. People who have not experienced such circumstances basically don’t know what’s involved here, and they should try really, really hard not to look foolish (or worse) by arguing with those who actually know what they’re talking about.
To answer your question Val, Did anyone really think this girl wouldnt be sent back?
No, this is exactly what I expected from this judge who thinks all Cubans should be sent back. I suppose there is some hope on appeal, but what are the chances?
Chances?
Slim None.
Ziva,
Your question goes to the very core of the matter. What are the State’s chances on appeal? I think Val is right, slim and none.
Viewed strictly from the legal requirements for termination of parental rights (TPR), as the law is currently interpreted in Florida, the Judge’s ruling, from the portions I saw on CNN Live, appears correct. In other words, her ruling, based on the facts relevant to a TPR case is consistent with Florida law. Sufficient grounds do not exist to terminate the biological father’s rights over his child.
I do not at all mean that the little girl would be “better off” in Cuba. I am simply commenting on the judge’s ruling, and whether or not it is consistent with Florida law.
-“You’re right, I have no idea what Cuba is like. My family is cuban, some arrived a long time ago and some arrived recently. I have never spoken to them about their lives in Cuba. I don’t read stories of the atrocities that go on over there and I listen to everything the media says.”
Cansfan – I see. Point taken, but I miss your logic. Which makes it all the more remarkable that you would think it’s in this child’s best interest to be sent to back despite all the “atrocities that go on over there”.
-“Conchita, I guess you just got here from Cuba a few days ago so you know exactly what it’s like in Cuba right this minute. Also, you would rather ship your parents back to Cuba than be with them. Makes perfect sense. After all, it’s not like there aren’t studies done over the years lending credence to the notion that children not raised by their families are more prone to have problems later in life.
This is where I totally lose you. My parents were prepared to send me over had they not been allowed to leave. My cousin suffered this fate though he was able to be reunited much later here with his parents. However, at this point, I’m in no position to send my parents back. My father has since died here (despite his hoping that someday he could return back), and my mother would not survive long there left to the medical wonders of that island paradise.
As to these “studies” that you mention, I’m sure they took into account the alternative of living in an environment where “atrocities” go on daily.
-“Also, I guess it’s better to live in Miami with a family that will parade you around in order to make a political statement and make a mockery of our justice system so that you can grow up to be materialistic than to be with your birth father.”
The simple answer….”YES”! Because the alternative for that child is to live in Cuba with a CDR chivateon to ensure that “a family will parade you around to make a political statement and make a mockery of” your parental rights so that you can grow up a poor intellectual economic slave (or maybe a highly educated jinetera).
The decision reached today did not surprise me, considering the Judge’s prejudice against Cubans. What I find very offensive and a total mockery is that the father is given his “parental rights”, when in fact, in Cuba parents have no say or rights when it comes to their kids. Kids belong to the government, so the father is not really getting his daughter, he is delivering her to the castro mafia. How sad. As a mother, I would have done the ultimate sacrifice for my daughter’s welfare. All our parents did, some had to leave their own parents behind, never to see them again, so that they could give us freedom. My dad was not allowed to board the plane with us but he told my mother not to look back and to board the plane with us. He fortunately was able to be reunited with us a few months later, but if not, he was willing to make that sacrifice for the good of his daughters. Now, that IS a father!
When I was in FL two months ago, I saw an “interview” of little Eliana’s bio father — and then the other Pearl of the Antilles, the bio mom. And the question keeps haunting me, why is it that God allows bastards like these to have children?
Save for the fact that life is sacred, there is little explanation.
My hope is that this charade will boomerang and the castroite paternal puppet will go back to the gulag and life as he knows it, will stop — so that he’ll forever have the govt. goons watching him, stalking him, hauling him to marches and insufferable speeches under the hot sun, and if we really, REALLY get lucky (or blessed), after the bearded one is stone dead and gone, this little angel will have a second chance at life and reunite with the family that loves her.
And this judge ….. one more detestable robe on a bench. Took her forever to decide – which says more about her than anyone else.
If neither parent care about the welfare of their own child why should I.
The mother, Elena Perez, has been making the rounds on all the Spanish speaking stations (getting paid?) for the past several weeks, and has been asking for “donations” from the Cuban-American community for her rehabilitation. What Gull!
The father, who claims to be a “farmer” has no calluses on the palm of his hands and doesn’t sport the dark tanned completion typical of Cuban farmers who work in the fields.
The Honorable (Cuban-American hater) Jeri B. Cohen has admitted on her 47 page ruling today, that there was perjury (lies) and evidence fabrication on the part of Rafael Izquierdo and Elena Perez during the proceedings (with a little help from attorney, Magda Montiel). What is she going to do about it? The Bar Association?
The Honorable Jeri B. Cohen is up for re-election in 2008
Some “Father”… he never cared about this baby who was born of an adulterous relationship, then he signed her off to her crazy mother so that she could come to America. Now he wants her with him…how very convenient for him.
He has another daughter who is 6 years old with his wife. The 5 year old in question would be a Cuban Cinderella when she is sent back to live with her “Father” and the woman that he betrayed. How do you think this Step Mother will treat this little girl? I can not believe this situation could ever be in the best interests of this child.
How can this case be treated seriously when so many improprieties were committed in court?
I think EVERY Cuban child should be fought for…I don’t care that some people are embarrassed about Elian. I don’t care that anyone laughs and/or makes fun of me…I’m a GROWNUP and I KNOW the TRUTH. If I don’t say anything about this…those who despise me already will not like me more. What happened to Elian was a TRAVESTY and what’s going to happen to this child will be too.
I can never just say “send her back”…I say “hell no” and I’ll say it to whomever wants to listen.
Very astute observatin Mavi, if he´s a farmer, what´s his crop? He says he wants to take her home to family. Which family? The wife, one of the girl friends? His mother? Is he required to present evidence that he is able to provide a stable home for this girl? In Cuba? Please.
This twisted and screwed up case is the poster child advertisement for what happens when moral values and boundaries go to hell — personally or collectively. A society like Cuba’s — and here as well — that shows contempt for human life, marriage, child welfare, and look the other way when the basic values are broken, can only reap the results we see displayed in all their gory in Cohen’s courtroom.
Add to that a generation of judges and lawyers who’ve grown up with situational ethics and disdain for the traditions that help societies survive, and you have this crap. My reasoning may be simplistic, but all this is nothing more than a chain reaction of immoral decisions all along the way. As usual, the kids pagan los platos rotos.
And yes, that bio dude doesn’t look like he’s spent a single day out in the field.
Whenever the legal system puts the letter above the spirit of the law, it miscarries–it fails. That is what I see happening in this case. Only a judge with first-hand knowledge and real understanding of the reality of Cuba was fit to try this case, and such a judge was readily available in South Florida, but evidently the system has higher priorities than the optimal carrying out of justice.
The legal system not only failed to assign a suitable judge, it assigned one who was known to have issues with Cuban-Americans, to the point she couldn’t manage to keep her mouth shut about it, not even to avoid revealing her apparent bias. Of course she should have refused this case, but that would mean she’d have to refuse other cases involving Cuban-American issues, and in South Florida, that would hardly make her the most viable judge. I hope the voters, however, remember that the next time she’s up for re-election.
The father certainly gives every indication, visual and otherwise, of being highly dubious, and the key issue here should be what is in fact best for THIS child in THIS situation, not parental rights which the father simply does NOT have in Cuba. No parent in Cuba does.
In the Elian affair, though there was plenty of guilt to go around, the ultimate responsibility was clearly Clinton’s, since the other players basically danced to the music coming from the White House. I felt, and still do, that what Clinton deserved was for any and all harm caused to Elian to be visited several-fold on his own daughter, but I could not bring myself to actually wish that on her (for her sake, certainly not his).
I don’t know if Judge Cohen has children, but I am convinced she doesn’t understand (or won’t see) what is really involved in this situation. What makes it even worse is that she may, given her history, be blinded as much by prejudice as by ignorance, which is absolutely unacceptable, not to say abominable.