CONTRA EL PINGALISMO CASTRISTA/
"Se que no existe el consuelo
que no existe
la anhelada tierrra de mis suenos
ni la desgarrada vision de nuestros heroes.
Pero
te seguimos buscando, patria,..." - Reinaldo Arenas
He was a Montreal kid who grew up to win three world boxing championship titles, millions of dollars in prize money and legions of fans around the world. But Arturo Gatti was also a troubled man. Outside of the ring he loved to party as hard as he fought. In July 2009, Gatti was found dead in a hotel room in Brazil where he was on a second honeymoon with his wife. He was apparently strangled with a bloodied purse strap found near his body.
His wife, Amanda Rodrigues, claims she found him dead on the floor. Brazilian police initially charged her with murder, but freed her less than three weeks later, deeming Gatti's death a suicide. His family maintains he was killed — and now a pair of private investigators they hired say they have the evidence to prove it.
Was it a tragic love story, or a murder mystery? As the fifth estate has discovered, it all depends on whom you believe.
With new evidence and first-hand testimony from Gatti's family, friends, associates and Amanda Rodrigues herself, the fifth estate reveals what's behind the accusations and allegations surrounding the state of Gatti's mind, marriage and financial situation. While the battle over the fighter's $6-million dollar estate heats up in a Montreal courthouse, the fifth estate's Bob McKeown travels to Brazil, New Jersey and Montreal to meticulously reconstruct Arturo Gatti's path to destruction.
Climate change will alter the mix of vegetation on 49 percent of Earth's land surface by the end of this century, scrambling and shifting existing ecosystems, according to a new study.
Researchers at NASA and the California Institute of Technology say the changing climate will also convert 37 percent of the world's land ecosystems from one type -- such as tundra, forest or grassland -- into another by 2100.
Those vegetation shifts are likely to affect animals and insects that have evolved to live among particular plant species and within certain temperature and precipitation ranges, said the study's lead author, independent scientist Jon Bergengren.
"Animals that are dependent on plants will either have to migrate with the plants, if the plants can successfully migrate, or hang on with plants that are struggling to survive," said Bergengren, who conducted the research as a postdoctoral fellow at Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "Either way, there are problems."
Bergengren said that widespread human development will complicate and in some cases prevent plants and animals from migrating to new habitats as climate change alters existing ecosystems.
"A lot of times, when a plant or animal wants to migrate, it runs into a monoculture agricultural zone, or it runs into a city," he said.
The study, published by the journal Climatic Change, is based on the output of a computer model of vegetation change. Researchers used the model to project how the world's vegetation would shift over the next three centuries under the "middle of the road" greenhouse gas emissions scenario developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It assumes the world's greenhouse gas emissions will double by 2100, then stabilize.
Researchers in nanomedicine have long dreamed of an age when molecular-scale computing devices could be embedded in our bodies to monitor health and treat diseases before they progress. The advantage of such computers, which would be made of biological materials, would lie in their ability to speak the biochemical language of life.
Several research groups have recently reported progress in this field. A team at the California Institute of Technology, writing in the journal Science, made use of DNA nanostructures called seesaw gates to construct logic circuits analogous to those used in microprocessors. Just as silicon-based components use electric current to represent 1’s and 0’s, bio-based circuits use concentrations of DNA molecules in a test tube. When new DNA strands are added to the test tube as “input,” the solution undergoes a cascade of chemical interactions to release different DNA strands as “output.” In theory, the input could be a molecular indicator of a disease, and the output could be an appropriate therapeutic molecule. A common problem in constructing a computer in a test tube is that it is hard to control which interactions among molecules occur. The brilliance of the seesaw gate is that a particular gate responds only to particular input DNA strands. More >>
It’s difficult to come up with a snappy intro to a story like this: Kim Jong-il is dead of a heart attack at age 69. It’s also hard to deny that he was fascinating to watch, somewhat like a train-wreck writ large. But as interesting as Kim himself was as a world leader, it is the society that surrounded him that has always captured my attention. As a nation, it is reclusive, oppressive, and nearly self-supporting, with information only dribbling in and out; Kim’s North Korean society, described as a “cult of personality” around the Supreme Leader, was (and is) characterized by a totalitarian leadership, a Communist economy, and restrictive social structures like the censored state-run media. Now, at the news of Kim’s death the question that has always bugged me about North Korea comes up again: how do such societies evolve and maintain themselves?
Many scientific fields have something to say about this issue, including (but not limited to) sociology, psychology, media studies, political science, and economics. However, the topic has been a current event in behavioural ecology and evolutionary biology as well, and I think that recent work might offer some insights. In particular, there has been a push in behavioural biology to study both group dynamics in animals and the leadership of those groups. A recent paper by Andrew King, Dominic Johnson, and Mark Van Vugt reviews this topic in some detail and makes a great starting place for anyone looking to explore these themes. In their paper, King et al. pose the two questions that we might ask of Kim Jong-il: who leads groups, and how do they lead? There are many reasons why some individuals in a group may lead while others follow; in animals, these include:
* Motivation. For example, the hungriest fish take point position in a foraging shoal.
* Personality. Traits such as boldness can lead exploratory individuals to push forward and direct the movement of the group (a theme that I touched on in my own Ph.D. work on social foraging).
* Dominance. Many species, including primates and wolves, assort themselves by means of a dominance hierarchy. Individuals rank themselves in some way, such as intimidation or aggressive conflict, and the leader is the individual at the top of the hierarchy. Given that Kim suffered a heart attack it is worth noting that – as the brilliant nueroendocrinologist Robert Sapolsky has pointed out – being at the top of a dominance heirarchy in a despotic regime can bring with it a lot of stress and negative health consequences. Sapolsky argues persuasively that the trends seen in animal societies may apply quite well to human hierarchies as well, which is something that North Korea’s new leader Kim Jong-Un might want to pay close attention to!
* Knowledge. Informed individuals in a group, such as those with information about predators or food sources, can emerge as natural leaders simply by virtue of having that information and acting on it.
King et al. also explore the way in which individuals actually lead groups once they have formed. In particular, they draw a distinction between passive leadership that is an emergent property of the group structure, and active leadership where leaders signal their intenta and give their fellows a chance to follow or not. Passive leaders lead simply by virtue of their actions, and as the authors point out, tend to be seen in homogenous groups where individuals have little conflict of interest. This is an exciting theme underlying the work of Iain Couzin’s group, who do fascinating work on collective animal behaviour showing that a small minority of informed individuals can have powerful effects on the movement of groups; they’ve also managed to show the same effectsoccuring in humans. Active leaders, on the other hand, attempt to take control of the group’s movement and provoke an active choice on the part of their followers; an example comes from bottlenose dolphins, who try to influence the travelling behaviour of their group by performing acrobatic signals.More >>
De acuerdo con Terra Perú Elizardo Sanchez Santacruz afirma que: "Ellos (los hermanos Castro) están ahora mismo hace tiempo bajo el efecto de la tentación norcoreana, o sea la tentación Kim, de la familia Kim, (que>) no es viable en Cuba..."Mas >>
Hasta lo que todavia puedo entender cuando leo, Raul Castro Ruz es hermano por padre y madre de Fidel Castro Ruz, y no hay fuerzas politicas ni internas ni externas que hayan impedido la sucesion dinastica entre ambos, ni habra, siguiendo el analisis de pruebas documentales que expone Ichikawa con el que comulgo, oposicion contundente a que el sucesor designado para continuar el Clan Biranico no ostente los apellidos Castro Espin o Castro Ruz. Sencillamente pondran al que mejor les convenga o les salga de los cojones para decirlo mas claramente.
with averysmilingfacefor such atragicanniversary ---------------------
By Louise Boyle
He was perhaps Cuba's most famous American resident and the preservation of Ernest Hemingway's home lead to a rare collaboration between the U.S. and its communist neighbour.
The author lived in Cuba between 1939 and 1960, writing The Old Man And The Sea at his home Finca Vigia for which he received the Nobel Prize in 1954. He donated the award to the people of Cuba in gratitude.
His granddaughter, actress and author Mariel Hemingway, 50, returned to his Cuban home last month after a restoration project which took two years.
Step back in time: Ernest Hemingway's granddaughter, actress and author Mariel Hemingway, tours her grandfather's property with Msnbc reporter Natalie Morales
Following in his footsteps: Mariel Hemingway returns to the Bodeguita del Medio, one of her grandfather's favourite haunts
al emerito catedratico y doctor que fuera de los pioneros en el dialogo con la dictadura y de rodillas suspiraba ante el mesias de algunos como el [recordar a marifeli perez-stable probada agente de los servicios de inteligencia cubanos -y ahora de influencias- de acuerdo con el ex teniente coronel del fbi chris simmons que capturo a la sra. ana belen montes, el grupo del instituto de estudios cubanos del que fuera fundador junto a maria cristina y otros], no le cuestiono sus simpatias politicas porque es su derecho, pero academicamente es ciertamente lamentable que continue empleando las estadisticas oficiales que son manipuladas, metodologicamente erroneas y arrastran grasos errores en el registro del dato primario, para elaborar conclusiones a nivel academico [el mismo hace apenas unos meses y luego de anos utilizandolas como sus fuentes primarias, senalo sus inconsistencias]
cito a su eminencia: “…los elementos analizados en este artículo indican que existe un disenso en la cúpula del poder, así como en los niveles intermedios…”
la cupula de poder en cuba y los niveles intermedios sin precisar exactamente a que se refiere con ello pues existen diversos “niveles intermedios”, tienen dinamicas y comportamientos grupales distintos y eso lo saben desde punto 1 hasta el bobo del poder popular de alto songo.
me permito citar nuevamente al emerito pues el se gasto sus buenas 10 cuartillas sin aportar una idea o un dato o al menos una sugerencia que no mostrara indigencia conceptual concreta:
“Con el diseño actual, las reformas podrían alcanzar mejoras modestas, pero mientras no se resuelva el disenso en la dirigencia para expandir y profundizar estas reformas, no se conseguirá resolver los problemas económicos y sociales fundamentales de Cuba. Dos alternativas se perfilan en el futuro: a) una lucha en la dirigencia para impulsar las reformas o b) la continuación del statu quo con el riesgo de provocar una mayor erosión económica y social de imprevisibles consecuencias”.
las “diferencias” en una cupula que no tiene absolutamente vocacion suicida se resuelven cuando raul castro pone una pistola encima de su buro e incita al “intranquilo” a que si es hombre la emplee -claro no contra raul, sino contra si mismo, pues 4 canones de ak-47m se incrustan contra su craneo-.
el modelo economico que el doctor no aprecia y las reformas insuficientes que transcurren a ritmo de rana hervida, constituyen una tropicalizacion kubiche del “zhuanda fangxiao” ["mantener lo grande, deshacerse de lo pequeño"] y eso tambien lo saben desde los “cupulosos” de marras hasta el vendedor ambulante de mani del parque de la fraternidad. y es que toda sociedad para conservar su integralidad requiere de un paradigma social [el viejo contrato social para rosseau] y la transmutacion del kaxtrizmo en neokaxtrizmo supone la modificacion a nivel de conciencia empirica individual y sicosociologia social del obsoleto e insustentable “papa estado que alimenta a los pichones” por el de “lucha tu alpiste pichon”.
ay mesa-lago! cada dia se me hace mas nitido el sendero “victorioso” al “emeritus status”.
-------------------------------------- nota: pido disculpas por afirmar que mesa-lago considero las estadisticas oficiales que emite el regimen cubano como inconsistentes. no fue el sino oscar espinosa chepe, el ekonomista en jefe de la "disidencia" en cuba que tambien las habia empleado durante anos para fundamentar sus conclusiones. las similitudes en el empleo de sus fuentes de informacion, la metodologia de la investigacion y las conclusiones en ambos no es razon -suficiente- para faltar a esa regla de oro que recordaba el viejo marx que "al cesar, lo que es del cesar".
Royal Bank Financial Group's Headquarters in Toronto
National Bank of Canada has operated an office in Cuba for 16 years, making it a rarity of sorts among Canadian banks, but it may soon have some company.
At least two other Canadian banks are said to be looking at setting up shop in Cuba, according to a report in the London-based Financial Times on Sunday night.
Amid economic reforms on the island, Bank of Nova Scotia has reportedly applied to Cuban authorities to set up a representative office in the capital. Royal Bank is also considering opening an office in Havana, the report said.
Scotiabank, which has extensive operations across South America and the Caribbean, and RBC, Canada’s largest bank, both had branches in the country before the 1959 Cuban Revolution ushered in Communism, and a subsequent U.S. embargo, which slowed foreign investment.
However, economic reforms in Cuba, stemming from the handover of power from long-time president Fidel Castro to his brother, Raúl Castro, are changing the country as the government looks for ways to boost Cuba’s economy.
If RBC and Scotia return to Cuba, they would join Montreal-based National, Canada’s sixth-largest bank, on the island. National opened a representative office in Havana in 1995. The small operation is not a bank branch though, and mostly handles trade finance.
Banco Central de Cuba, the country’s central bank, lists National as having a relationship with the country that dates back more than 28 years, including financing export development, securities and insurance businesses there.
The Cuba Trade and Economic Council lists more than 80 companies in Canada with business ties to Cuba, including Bell Canada, Bombardier, and dozens of oil and gas companies. More >>
The Obama administration says it remains committed to stability on the Korean peninsula and is closely monitoring developments there following the death of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il and the apparent transfer of power to his son. Officials said the U.S. was concerned about any changes Kim's death might spark in the military postures of North and South Korea, but were hopeful calm would prevail. Full Story >>
Hoy, a las 9 a.m, fallecio el legendario catcher cubano Andres Fleitas. Su cadaver sera velado manana entre 6-12 de la noche en Memorial Park, 98 y Coral Way; contaba 95 anos de edad, q.e.p.d
Científicos cienfuegueros y expertos de la Sociedad Espeleológica de Cuba, consiguieron la iluminación de una de las formaciones cársicas más célebres del mundo. Los trabajos se inscriben en la segunda expedición de un programa de estudio de la delegación provincial del CITMA, en la cueva Martín Infierno, para completar el expediente de propuesta como Area Protegida de esta gruta, Monumento Nacional.
La cueva Martin Infierno está en pleno corazón del macizo montañoso Guamuhaya. Ubicada en la Provincia de Cienfuegos, en el municipio de Cumanayagua y específicamente en el lugar conocido como "El Colorado", esta caverna y su entorno constituyen un sitio natural de encanto inigualable; no sólo por la atractiva belleza que muestra, sino también por el potencial que para las ciencias geográficas y espeleológicas representa; pues el accidente geográfico atesora en su interior una estalagmita de proporciones considerables; la que ha sido corroborada por muchos expertos como una de las mayores del mundo.
PRAGUE — Vaclav Havel, the dissident playwright who wove theater into politics to peacefully bring down communism in Czechoslovakia and become a hero of the epic struggle that ended the Cold War, has died. He was 75.
Havel died Sunday morning at his weekend house in the northern Czech Republic, his assistant Sabina Dancecova said. He was comforted in his last moments by his wife Dagmar and several nuns, Reuters reported.
Havel was his country's first democratically elected president after the nonviolent "Velvet Revolution" that ended four decades of repression by a regime he ridiculed as "Absurdistan."
As president, he oversaw the country's bumpy transition to democracy and a free-market economy, as well its peaceful 1993 breakup into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Even out of office, the diminutive Czech remained a world figure. He was part of the "new Europe" — in the coinage of then-U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld — of ex-communist countries that stood up for the U.S. when the democracies of "old Europe" opposed the 2003 Iraq invasion.
A former chain-smoker, Havel had a history of chronic respiratory problems dating back to his years in communist jails. He was hospitalized in Prague on Jan. 12, 2009, with an unspecified inflammation, and had developed breathing difficulties after undergoing minor throat surgery.
'Truth and love must prevail' Havel left office in 2003, 10 years after Czechoslovakia broke up and just months before both nations joined the European Union. He was credited with laying the groundwork that brought his Czech Republic into the 27-nation bloc, and was president when it joined NATO in 1999.
Shy and bookish, with wispy mustache and unkempt hair, Havel came to symbolize the power of the people to peacefully overcome totalitarian rule.
"Truth and love must prevail over lies and hatred," Havel famously said. It became his revolutionary motto which he said he always strove to live by.
Havel was nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize, and collected dozens of other accolades worldwide for his efforts as a global ambassador of conscience, defended the downtrodden from Darfur to Myanmar.
Among his many honors were Sweden's prestigious Olof Palme Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest U.S. civilian award, bestowed on him by President George W. Bush for being "one of liberty's great heroes."
David W Cerny / Reuters file
Vaclav Havel and his wife Dagmar arrive at the premiere of his film "Leaving" in Prague on March 22.
An avowed peacenik whose heroes included rockers such as Frank Zappa, he never quite shed his flower-child past and often signed his name with a small heart as a flourish.
In an October 2008 interview with The Associated Press, Havel rebuked Russia for invading Georgia two months earlier, and warned EU leaders against appeasing Moscow.
"We should not turn a blind eye ... It's a big test for the West," he said.
Havel also said he saw the global economic crisis as a warning not to abandon basic human values in the scramble to prosper.
"It's a warning against the idea that we understand the world, that we know how everything works," he told the AP in his office in Prague. The cramped work space was packed with his books, plays and rock memorabilia.
Uploaded by AlJazeeraEnglish on Dec 17, 2011[Al Jazeera's Roza Kazan reports].
A Russian fishing boat is stuck near the Antarctic. Underwater ice tore a hole in it which caused water to rush in. 32 crew members were on board the ship but most of them are now on lifeboats waiting for help.
Segun fuentes del episcopado cubano, el Papa Benedicto XVI visitará Cuba en 2012, en fecha aún por determinar, lo que ha sido confirmado por el Vaticano. Sería la segunda visita de un Papa al país, después de la realizada en 1998 por Juan Pablo II, que tanto impacto causó y, lo que es más importante para la Iglesia Católica, tantos frutos produjo para romper el aislamiento al que había sido sometida durante cuarenta y cinco años por la dictadura y abrir una puerta a su acción pastoral.
En contra de lo que el ministro Moratinos afirmó en junio de 2010, las relaciones entre la jerarquía de la Iglesia y las autoridades cubanas vienen de largo y eran conocidas en Cuba por los disidentes del régimen, que no siempre las vieron con buenos ojos. Desde hace años, los encontronazos entre algunos de ellos y la jerarquía han causado más de un problema al cardenal Jaime Ortega y a algunos obispos miembros de la Conferencia Episcopal cubana, como señalaré más adelante. Pero cuando el Gobierno español se ofreció, hace casi dos años, para acoger a algunos presos políticos liberados de las cárceles castristas, Moratinos quiso atribuirse el éxito. Algunos medios llegaron a publicar que "la mediación de la Iglesia en Cuba con el régimen castrista ha sido posible gracias a Moratinos y su buena relación con el cardenal Bertone". Poco después, cuando en agosto de 2010 Leire Pajín y Elena Valenciano visitaron Cuba y se entrevistaron con el cardenal Ortega, estas joyas de la diplomacia internacional del zapaterismo hicieron público un comunicado afirmando que "su visita se produce en un momento importante de transformaciones en Cuba, que el gobierno español quiere acompañar para seguir estrechando y avanzar en las históricas relaciones entre el PSOE y el gobernante Partido Comunista de Cuba (PCC)".
Las relaciones entre la Iglesia Católica y las autoridades cubanas comenzaron de manera discreta en los años 80, pero ya se sabe que para la diplomacia vaticana su reino no es de este mundo y trabaja siempre más en el largo que en el corto plazo. A finales de los 90, antes y después de la visita de Juan Pablo II, mantuve diversos encuentros con representantes de la Iglesia, a los que me he referido en algunas ocasiones en distintos foros. En febrero de 1998, días después de la histórica visita papal, mantuve un discreto desayuno con monseñor Emilio Aranguren, por entonces obispo de Cienfuegos y secretario de la Conferencia Episcopal, en la residencia del embajador de España en Cuba, que me hizo un relato muy pormenorizado de la visita de Su Santidad y de los resultados que la Iglesia cubana esperaba obtener de ello. Antes y después de aquella ocasión, había charlado largamente con el sacerdote Carlos Manuel Céspedes, por entonces párroco en una pequeña iglesia de La Habana. El padre Céspedes, tataranieto del que fuera primer presidente de la República de Cuba, es hoy una figura notoria de la Iglesia cubana, cuyas buenas relaciones con algunos prohombres castristas han hecho que en algún momento se le haya llegado a acusar de connivencia con el régimen comunista. Intelectual de prestigio, es autor de numerosos libros, entre otros "Pasión por Cuba y por la Iglesia", un documento esencial para conocer algunas claves de las relaciones Iglesia-Estado cubano que hoy comento. Por él conocí interioridades y anécdotas que ilustran la realidad cubana y la salud del régimen. Mientras Fidel viva, no hay evolución posible, me dijo proféticamente. En 2008, el Gobierno español le condecoró con la Cruz de la Orden de Isabel la Católica. Mas >>
People walk past a statue depicting Tunisian produce seller Mohamed Bouazizi's cart, who set himself on fire last December in an act of protest that triggered the Arab Spring revolution. (Zoubeir Souissi/Reuters)
msnbc.com/ By BOUAZZA BEN BOUAZZA, PAUL SCHEMM/
TUNIS, Tunisia — Exactly one year ago, in a hardscrabble town in Tunisia's arid interior, the death knell sounded for the decades-old system of dictatorships across the Arab world.
With a desperate act of self-immolation, a 26-year-old Sidi Bouzid fruit-seller unwittingly unleashed a year of turmoil that toppled at least three autocrats in a region once thought to be immune to democracy.
Tunisia's new leaders together with thousands of others took part in a festival starting Saturday in the town honoring the vendor, the revolution, and the protesters whose anger snowballed into a nationwide and then region-wide phenomenon.
The changes in the Arab world over the past 12 months cannot be overstated. A region synonymous with stagnant authoritarian republics and monarchies is suddenly rife with change — for better or worse.
The biggest winners so far appear to be the long-repressed Islamist parties, which didn't always lead the revolts but in subsequent elections in Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco were the best organized and least tainted by the old regimes.
Tunisia's transformation As the country that started the Arab Spring, Tunisia appears to be the farthest along in its transformation, having held its freest elections ever that brought to power a moderate Islamist party that most had thought had been oppressed out of existence.
Previously, Tunisia under former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was renowned among European tourists for its sandy beaches and cosmopolitan ways. But for most of its people, Ben Ali's presidency was 23 years of suffocating iron-fisted rule.
Now a human rights activist is president, and an Islamist politician who was jailed by Ben Ali for 15 years is the prime minister at the head of a coalition of left, liberal and religious parties. More >>
A look back on what has been an extraordinary year of global events. The Arab Spring saw the collapse of governments across the Middle East; the eurozone crisis continues; and the secret operation to kill Osama bin Laden.
Bradley Manning, the US soldier accused of giving massive troves of classified US documents to WikiLeaks, has appeared in a military court for the first time at a pre-trial hearing into his case.
Is Moscow buckling under international pressure, or is it trying to lessen the impact of a future resolution on Syria? With guests: Sergei Strokan, Ezzedine Choukri Fishere, and Christopher Swift.
Short and incredibly depressing. The "indefinite detention" bill is actually the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
Even though the NDAA passed the Senate, Obama has been saying (i.e., using words to assert an actual intention) that he would veto this violation of the Bill of Rights.
Wrong. Is it Cave Week again? Looks like words aren't all they're cracked up to be.
In one of the least surprising developments imaginable, President Obama – after spending months threatening to veto the Levin/McCain detention bill – yesterday announced that he would instead sign it into law (this is the same individual, of course, who unequivocally vowed when seeking the Democratic nomination to support a filibuster of “any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecom[s],” only to turn around – once he had the nomination secure — and not only vote against such a filibuster, but to vote in favor of the underlying bill itself, so this is perfectly consistent with his past conduct).
As a result, the final version [pdf] of the Levin/McCain bill will be enshrined as law this week as part of the the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
I wrote about the primary provisions and implications of this bill last week, and won’t repeat those points here.
The ACLU said last night that the bill contains “harmful provisions that some legislators have said could authorize the U.S. military to pick up and imprison without charge or trial civilians, including American citizens, anywhere in the world” and added: “if President Obama signs this bill, it will damage his legacy.”
Human Rights Watch said that Obama’s decision “does enormous damage to the rule of law both in the US and abroad” and that “President Obama will go down in history as the president who enshrined indefinite detention without trial in US law.”
Tell me again why I should support the Democratic party — I forget.
I will say, on a more general note, that regardless of how any individual feels, Obama is systematically crossing Dem lines of conscience, Dem after Dem after Dem.
At some point, there simply won't be enough Dems who can, in conscience, vote for him, no matter what drek the other side spits up. A huge opportunity to cement party gains, thoroughly wasted.
A second scheme to bring him to a property near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, was also planned but Mr. Peters told the Post last week it was scrubbed in June because the necessary travel documents could not be legally obtained from the Mexican government.
Tyler Anderson/National Post
10 Navy Wharf Cr.
An associate of Mr. Peters, Cynthia Vanier, was arrested in Mexico City a month ago. Mexican authorities have not charged her, but they have detained her for being the alleged ringleader of a plot to smuggle Mr. Gaddafi and his family to Mexico using false documents.
Mr. Peters said while Ms. Vanier was involved in the Mexico operation, it was all being done legally. Her family says the mother of two and mediation consultant from Mount Forest, Ont., is innocent or is being used by others.
The allegations of fleeing to Mexico have overshadowed Mr. Gaddafi’s ties to Canada. “He loves Canada,” Mr. Peters told the Post in an interview in October. “That’s why he keeps coming back here every year. He’s got investments here, he’s got property here.”
Mr. Gaddafi fled to Niger in September. The government there has granted him asylum and says it will not hand him over to Libya, which wants to try him for alleged abuses he committed while he headed the Libyan Football Federation. He is wanted on an Interpol warrant but has denied any wrongdoing.
Residents of the condo tower were stunned to hear the high-profile playboy and late dictator’s son could have lived among them. Showed a photo of Mr. Gaddafi, they said they had not seen him around the building.
Ryan Singh, who has lived there since 2005, was intrigued but not surprised. “They probably own places all over the world,” he said. Added Golnaz Tajewdin, a resident for some two years: “It may be a surprise that he has a unit in this building, but I’m not surprised he has an apartment in Toronto.” Another resident, who gave only his first name, David, also expressed little shock. “I mean, it’s an investment, right,” he said. A 26-year-old resident who declined to give her name said if she were as rich as the Gaddafis, she would have bought a more luxurious home. “They should just seize the unit if it was bought with funds against human rights.”
Read it first in the National Post
The National Post’s Stewart Bell also reported exclusively on the plot to smuggle the Libyan dictator’s third son Saadi Gaddafi into Mexico.(Saadi has since fled to Niger.)
Below, in chronological order, Stewart Bell’s complete coverage of the story.
October 29, 2011: A private security contractor and former soldier from Canada admitted he helped Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s son Saadi flee Libya in September as Tripoli was falling to anti-Gaddafi rebels.
Gary Peters, president of Can/Aus Security & Investigations International Inc. in Cambridge, Ont., was also Saadi Gaddafi’s longtime bodyguard and admitted he was part of a team that drove the late dictator’s third son across Libya’s southern border to Niger.
The convoy was ambushed after it had crossed back into Libya and Mr. Peters was shot. He returned to Toronto’s Pearson airport in September, bleeding heavily from an untreated bullet wound to his left shoulder.
Gary Peters was offering $1,000 a day to security contractors who would help extract Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s son Saadi to the Caribbean earlier this year, a source told Bell.
The source said that after the start of NATO air strikes in Libya, the head of a Cambridge, Ont.-based security company tried to assemble a team to transport Saadi Gaddafi to Barbados or Venezuela.
November 10, 2011: Cynthia Vanier, a Canadian who led a fact-finding mission to Libya last summer, is arrested in Mexico. (On December 7, Mexican authorities announced Ms. Vanier was the accused ringleader of a plot that included opening fake bank accounts and acquiring various properties in Mexico that would act as safe houses for the Gaddafi kin.)
November 29, 2011: During the final weeks of the anti-Gaddafi revolution in Libya, an Ontario consultant who specializes in mediating First Nations disputes assembled a small team to travel to Tripoli for a 10-day, fact-finding mission.
Cynthia Vanier of Vanier Consulting hired a private jet from Veritas Worldwide Security, a San Diego-based company that advertises, among other services, “clandestine operations,” “armed combat” and provision of weapons.
While Ms. Vanier has declined to disclose who paid for the dangerous and costly expedition (Veritas said its contract alone was worth more than US$80,000), the National Post has learned SNC-Lavalin hired the firm, although the company said it was unaware Gary Peters, a former Australian soldier from Ontario who was working as a bodyguard for the Gaddafi family, was involved.
The report of a privately-funded Canadian fact-finding mission that traveled to Libya last summer as Colonel Muammar Gaddafi was clinging to power was one-sided and reflected a view of the conflict that the regime was actively promoting, according to those familiar with its contents.
The Vanier Consulting study was impartially titled “Fact Finding Report — Mission Date July 17, 2011-July 26, 2011,” but several people who have seen it called it pro-Gaddafi and said it claimed NATO forces and Libyan rebels had committed atrocities and war crimes.
December 7, 2011: After Libyans turned against Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in February, his playboy son Saadi made plans to flee to a Mexican beach resort whose celebrity visitors include Kim Kardashian, Charlie Sheen and Lady Gaga.
Although the United Nations had frozen Saadi Gaddafi’s assets and banned him from crossing borders because of his close ties to the Libyan dictatorship, a multi-million-dollar refuge awaited him in Punta Mita, a posh development near Puerto Vallarta on Mexico’s Pacific Coast.
To get him there, a Canadian company, Can/Aust Security and Investigations International, approached private security contractors in Ontario, offering $1,000-a-day to join the team that would pick up the 38-year-old Gaddafi and fly him, his wife and children out of Libya.
December 7, 2011: The Montreal engineering and construction company SNC-Lavalin footed the bill for Saadi Gaddafi’s private security team when the Libyan dictator’s son spent three months in Canada in 2008.
Asked why it had paid for Gaddafi’s Garda security contract, SNC-Lavalin spokeswoman Leslie Quinton responded, “For certain diplomatic guests, we provide complete hospitality and other services as needed.”
December 8, 2011: After a career of working in First Nations communities such as Ipperwash and Attawapiskat, mediating conflicts over land and resources, Cynthia Vanier ventured overseas last summer and waded into the conflict in Libya.
“She’s very kind,” said Mahmod Razwan, a Libyan-Canadian who accompanied her on her visit to wartime Tripoli. “She cries when she sees certain people getting hurt and she’s really genuine when she talks to people.”
But on Wednesday, Mexican authorities offered a less humanitarian view of Ms. Vanier, naming her as the suspected ringleader of a plot to smuggle Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s playboy son Saadi to Mexico using fraudulent travel documents.
Nice place, shame about the neighbours: A condo building at 10 Navy Warf Cr. where Saadi Gadaffi owns a 40th-floor penthouse in Toronto.
By Stewart Bell and Natalie Alcoba
TORONTO — The Gaddafi family owns a $1.6-million penthouse apartment in downtown Toronto that has apparently gone unnoticed by the Canadian and Libyan governments, the National Post has learned.
The luxury condo atop the Harbor View Estates building on the Toronto waterfront comes with a view of Lake Ontario and access to a 25-metre swimming pool, squash, basketball and tennis courts and a bowling alley.
Although the United Nations Security Council ordered countries to freeze the Gaddafis’ worldwide assets in response to Libya’s crackdown on demonstrators, Ontario property records still list the condo’s owner as “Saadi Kaddafi.”
Three sources confirmed the condo is owned by the late dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s third son, Saadi. Ontario government land records also list him as the owner of four other units in the same building, but they appear to be storage lockers.
Provided
Click to enlarge this property document
He bought the condo for $1.55-million on May 7, 2008. At the time, he was spending three months in Canada, protected by a security team paid for by the Montreal firm SNC-Lavalin, which has significant construction contracts in Libya.
The Security Council imposed an assets freeze on the entire Gaddafi family, including Saadi Gaddafi, on March 17. It described him as a commander of “military units involved in the repression of demonstrations.”
But nine months later there is no indication any action has been taken against the Toronto condo, and the monthly maintenance fees are up to date, paid out of a Swiss bank account. The UN assets freeze should make such payments impossible.
While the condo apparently sits unused, last week senior members of Libya’s new government made an urgent appeal for money to pay public-sector workers and rebuild state institutions following the anti-Gaddafi revolution.
Tyler Anderson / National Post
The lobby at 10 Navy Warf Cr.
Mustafa Abdel Jalil, chairman of the National Transitional Council, was among those who signed a letter asking the United Nations to speed up the release of the estimated $150-billion in Libyan funds frozen during the conflict.
The Gaddafis owned properties and businesses around the globe during their heyday. The condo at 10 Navy Wharf Ct., near Front Street and Spadina Avenue, is legally owned by Saadi Gaddafi rather than a Libyan state institution. But the Canadian Libyan Council wants the federal government to investigate.
“It should be returned to the transitional government, and through them it would be redistributed appropriately in the rebuilding of the country,” said Amal Abuzgaya, the Council spokeswoman.
She said Col. Gaddafi had centralized Libya’s economy, and pocketed much of its wealth. Gaddafi’s children, in particular, were known for their lavish lifestyles. “And you see things like this which are just disgusting, where they’re spending millions,” Ms. Abuzgaya said. “I mean, how often did he come to Canada, really, to have a $1.5-million penthouse?”
AFP PHOTO/Vincenzo PINTO
Saadi Gaddafi in 2003.
She said there is a dire need for cash in Libya and Canada should be tracking down the money and assets stashed away by the regime. “It’s very important that the Canadian government looks into every single asset that is here and returns that, by all means.”
The tall building, in a shell almost exclusively made of glass, is a stone’s throw from the Rogers Centre, home field of the Toronto Blue Jays, and the burgeoning CityPlace community. Next door to Mr. Gaddafi’s building, there is a Montessori daycare and a Dairy Queen.
The entrance has wood-paneled accents and the lobby is simply decorated, with boxy, cream-coloured couches, red poinsettias on the tables and a decorated Christmas tree beside a box for toy donations.
Saadi Gaddafi, 38, once a professional soccer player and later a businessman, was never as keenly involved in his father’s regime as his brother, Saif Al-Islam. He visited Canada about once a year to talk business, take courses and enjoy the Toronto nightlife, and once threw a party during the Toronto International Film Festival. Despite owning a condo, he preferred staying at hotels.
After the Libyan revolution began in February, Mr. Gaddafi allegedly looked into moving to Canada. His North American security chief, Gary Peters, said he spoke to the RCMP about it and was told Mr. Gaddafi would be arrested upon arrival.
habiendo seguido atentamente el despliegue de la operacion "fuegos fatuos" frente a un malecon en mal tiempo y que permitio el despliegue existoso de la operacion "maleconcito" por parte de las tropitas anti-motines, aunque se deduce de lo que cuenta orlando luis pardo lazo, solo requirieron movilizar algunos mete-miedo de la retaguardia para neutralizar a cualquier curioso despistado, deja ver si me embulo y cuando entre la primera gran tormenta de nieve, me subo en la cn tower de toronto y desde el edge walk tambien lanzo unos fueguitos artificiales "para que todo el mundo dentro de Cuba pueda participar y movilizarse"
Washington, D.C., December 5, 2011 – India's "peaceful nuclear explosion" on 18 May 1974 caught the United States by surprise in part because the intelligence community had not been looking for signs that a test was in the works. According to a recently declassified Intelligence Community Staff post-mortem posted today by the National Security Archive and the Nuclear Proliferation International History Project, Nixon administration policymakers had given a relatively low priority to the Indian program and there was "no sense of urgency" to determine whether New Delhi was preparing to test a nuclear device. Intelligence "production" (analysis and reporting) on the topic "fell off" during the 20 months before the test, the analysis concluded.[i]
In early 1972, however—two years before the test—the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) had predicted that India could make preparations for an underground test without detection by U.S. intelligence. Published for the first time today, the INR report warned that the U.S. government had given a "relatively modest priority to … relevant intelligence collection activities" which meant that a "concerted effort by India to conceal such preparations … may well succeed."
The post-mortem [see document 21], the INR report [see document 2] and other new materials illustrate how intelligence priorities generally reflect the interests and priorities of top policymakers. The Nixon White House was focused on the Vietnam War and grand strategy toward Beijing and Moscow; intelligence on nuclear proliferation was a low priority. Compare, for example, the India case with that of Iraq during 2002-2003, when White House concerns encouraged—some say even compelled—intelligence producers to cherry pick raw information to demonstrate the development of WMD by the Saddam Hussein regime.
INR prepared its India report at a time when secret sources were telling U.S. intelligence that New Delhi was about to test a nuclear device. The "small spate" of reports about a test had such "congruity, apparent reliability, and seeming credibility" that they prompted a review of India's nuclear intentions by INR and other government offices. In the end, government officials could not decide whether India had made a decision to test although a subsequent lead suggested otherwise.
According to the intelligence community's post-mortem, obtained through a mandatory review appeal to the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel (ISCAP), one of the problems was that intelligence producers were not communicating with each other, so the "other guy" assumed that someone else was "primarily responsible for producing hard evidence of Indian intentions." The analysis was especially critical of an August 1972 Special National Intelligence Estimate for its "waffling judgments" on Indian nuclear intentions.
Other declassified documents reproduced here from 1972 through 1974 illustrate the range of thinking on this sensitive topic: More >>
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Trombay, the site of India's first atomic reactor (Aspara), the CIRUS reactor provided by Canada, and a plutonium reprocessing facility, as photographed by a KH-7/GAMBIT satellite during February 1966. Provided under lax safeguards, the CIRUS reactor produced the spent fuel that India converted into plutonium for the May 1974 test (the heavy water needed to run the reactor was provided by the United States, also under weak safeguards).
Raja Rammana, director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Center at Trombay, played a key role in the production, development, and testing of the May 1974 Indian "peaceful nuclear explosion." In the Spring of 1973, John Pinajian, the Atomic Energy Commission’s representative in India, became suspicious that India was preparing for a nuclear test in part because Rammana rebuffed his requests for access to BARC so he could conduct an experiment which had been approved by the Indian Atomic Energy Commission (see document 17A)
Washington, D.C. , December 16, 2011 - A Colombian army general acquitted today in one of the country's most infamous human rights cases "actively" collaborated with paramilitary death squads responsible for dozens of massacres, according to formerly secret U.S. records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the National Security Archive.
Once the third-highest-ranking officer in the Colombian military and later a top adviser to President Álvaro Uribe's Department of Administrative Security (DAS), Iván Ramírez Quintero was acquitted today in the torture and disappearance of Irma Franco, one of several people detained by the army during the November 1985 Palace of Justice disaster.
The exoneration comes despite substantial evidence, including declassified U.S. embassy cables, linking Ramírez to the disappearances. Among the documents are reports that the missing individuals were "tortured and killed" by members of the Charry Solano Brigade, the unit led by Ramírez at that time.
Two former senior army officers, Col. Alfonso Plazas Vega and Gen. Jesús Armando Arias Cabrales, have already been convicted in the Palace of Justice disaster and remain the only people sentenced in the now more than 25-year-old case. More than 100 people, including 11 Supreme Court justices, perished during military operations to retake the Palace of Justice from M-19 insurgents who seized the building in November 1985.A document previously published by the Archive blamed "soldiers under the command of Col. Alfonso Plazas Vega" for the deaths of individuals detained by the army following the raid.
The declassified file on Gen. Iván Ramírez Quintero, the so-called "godfather of army intelligence," portrays him as a shrewd and corrupt spymaster who shared sensitive intelligence with illegal militia groups, cultivated relationships with drug traffickers and notorious paramilitary figures, and engaged in "scare tactics"to take down his political enemies.
"Portrait of a Corrupt General"
The declassified reports focus on ties between Ramírez, narco-traffickers, and the country's illegal paramilitary groups in the 1990s, particularly while he was in charge of the army's First Division, along Colombia's Atlantic coast, where he maintained "direct links with paramilitaries," according to intelligence sources cited in a 1996 Embassy cable. The following year, a special Defense Intelligence Agency report pictured Ramírez beneath the heading, "Portrait of a Corrupt General," and next to a picture of "Drug Trafficker-Backed Paramilitary Forces."
U.S. Ambassador Myles Frechette spoke with at least two different Colombian defense ministers about the general's "suspected ties to narcotraffickers and paramilitaries." In a November 1997 meetingwith Colombian minister of defense Gilberto Echeverri, Frechette cited "more evidence suggesting that Ramirez is passing military intelligence to the paramilitaries, and that the intelligence is being used against the guerrillas." Frechette had good reason for concern. A new U.S. law linking foreign military assistance to human rights performance had heightened the embassy's focus on abusive officers, and Ramírez, despite pressure from the U.S. over his human rights record, had just been designated as the next army inspector general. Frechette bluntly told the defense minister "that if Ramirez were to attain higher rank or position, it would seriously compromise the USG's [United States Government's] ability to cooperate with the Colombian military."
"Godfather of army intelligence"
U.S. contacts in the Colombian military took a similarly dim view of Ramírez. One former colonel said he was "convinced [that Ramírez] has gone far beyond the passive phase with paramilitaries and is actively supporting them." The colonel was "concerned about the potential direction the Colar [Colombian army] could take if Ramirez abuses his position as IG [inspector general] or, worse, if he is allowed to rise to even higher positions in the armed forces hierarchy." Ramírez is repeatedly characterized as the "godfather of army intelligence" with influence "so pervasive within the military intelligence community" that he maintained control over intelligence assignments even from non-intelligence posts.
Another retired Colombian officer told the Embassy that Ramírez had been the "godfather" of Colombia's "intelligence mafia" for more than 20 years. The general "surrounded himself with loyal subordinates who 'covered up for him'" and was connected to "shady elements" inside the army's 20th Military Intelligence Brigade," according to a cable reporting on the meeting.
The 20th Brigade was established in 1990 on the recommendations of a U.S. intelligence team, and Ramírez was its first commander. "Fundamentally designed for covert operations," the brigade's members were attached to army units across the country, according to a U.S. Army report (See page 79.). Personnel worked "undercover and in civilian clothes," reporting only to division commanders and other intelligence officers.
The brigade became the most visible symbol of Colombia's corrupt and abusive intelligence establishment, and was tied to political assassinations, the torture of suspected guerrillas, and Colombia's brutal paramilitary forces. The State Department's human rights report for 1997 singled out the intelligence brigade for "death squad activity," a charge also leveled by Ambassador Frechette as he left the Bogotá post late that year.
Pulling the strings was the "godfather" Ramírez. One report addressed to the State Department's under secretary for political affairs, Thomas Pickering, asserted that "Ramirez and some elements of the Bogota-based 20th Intelligence Brigade actively collaborate with paramilitaries by providing intelligence and other support." The CIA connected Ramírez to Carlos Castaño, notorious head of the powerful United Self-defense Forces of Córdoba and Urabá (ACCU). A U.S. Embassy report from 1998 noted the army's "new-found effectiveness in curbing the paramilitaries" since Ramírez had been removed from the First Division, adding that it seemed "more than coincidental that the recent anti-paramilitary actions have all taken place since the departure from northern Colombia of military personnel believed to favor paramilitaries."
In May 1998, shortly before Colombia announced plans to dismantle the 20th Brigade, the State Department cancelled Ramírez's U.S. visa. In an unusually passionate memo on the moral dilemma faced by U.S. policymakers in Colombia, the State Department's desk officer for Andean Affairs, David Passage, made a rhetorical plea for self-reflection on the part of the Colombian army and the military intelligence system in particular. Colombia needed to develop "credible and defensible intelligence gathering techniques instead of 12-volt batteries and rubber hoses," Passage asserted, strongly implying the Colombian military's penchant for torture techniques.
¨Saturno jugando con sus hijos¨/ Pedro Pablo Oliva
Seguidores
Carta desde la carcel de Fidel Castro Ruz
“…después de todo, para mí la cárcel es un buen descanso, que sólo tiene de malo el que es obligatorio. Leo mucho y estudio mucho. Parece increíble, las horas pasan como si fuesen minutos y yo, que soy de temperamento intranquilo, me paso el día leyendo, apenas sin moverme para nada. La correspondencia llega normalmente…”
“…Como soy cocinero, de vez en cuando me entretengo preparando algún pisto. Hace poco me mandó mi hermana desde Oriente un pequeño jamón y preparé un bisté con jalea de guayaba. También preparo spaghettis de vez en cuando, de distintas formas, inventadas todas por mí; o bien tortilla de queso. ¡Ah! ¡Qué bien me quedan! por supuesto, que el repertorio no se queda ahí. Cuelo también café que me queda muy sabroso”. “…En cuanto a fumar, en estos días pasados he estado rico: una caja de tabacos H. Upman del doctor Miró Cardona, dos cajas muy buenas de mi hermano Ramón….”. “Me voy a cenar: spaghettis con calamares, bombones italianos de postre, café acabadito de colar y después un H. Upman #4. ¿No me envidias?”. “…Me cuidan, me cuidan un poquito entre todos. No le hacen caso a uno, siempre estoy peleando para que no me manden nada. Cuando cojo el sol por la mañana en shorts y siento el aire de mar, me parece que estoy en una playa… ¡Me van a hacer creer que estoy de vacaciones! ¿Qué diría Carlos Marx de semejantes revolucionarios?”.
Quotes
¨La patria es dicha de todos, y dolor de todos, y cielo para todos, y no feudo ni capellanía de nadie¨ - Marti
"No temas ni a la prision, ni a la pobreza, ni a la muerte. Teme al miedo" - Giacomo Leopardi
¨Por eso es muy importante, Vicky, hijo mío, que recuerdes siempre para qué sirve la cabeza: para atravesar paredes¨– Halvar de Flake[El vikingo]
"Como no me he preocupado de nacer, no me preocupo de morir"- Lorca
"Al final, no os preguntarán qué habéis sabido, sino qué habéis hecho" - Jean de Gerson
"Si queremos que todo siga como está, es necesario que todo cambie" - Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
"Todo hombre paga su grandeza con muchas pequeñeces, su victoria con muchas derrotas, su riqueza con múltiples quiebras" - Giovanni Papini
"Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans" - John Lennon
"Habla bajo, lleva siempre un gran palo y llegarás lejos" - Proverbio Africano
"No hay medicina para el miedo"-Proverbio escoces "El supremo arte de la guerra es doblegar al enemigo sin luchar" -Sun Tzu
"You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother" - Albert Einstein
"It is inaccurate to say I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office" - H. L. Menken
"I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented" -Elie Wiesel
"Stay hungry, stay foolish" - Steve Jobs
"If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert , in five years ther'ed be a shortage of sand" - Milton Friedman
"The tragedy of modern man is not that he knows less and less about the meaning of his own life, but that it bothers him less and less" - Vaclav Havel
"No se puede controlar el resultado, pero si lo que uno haga para alcanzarlo" - Vitor Belfort [MMA Fighter]
Liborio
A la puerta de la gloria está San Pedro sentado y ve llegar a su lado a un hombre de cierta historia. No consigue hacer memoria y le pregunta con celo: ¿Quién eras allá en el suelo? Era Liborio mi nombre. Has sufrido mucho, hombre, entra, te has ganado el cielo.
Para Raul Castro
Cuba ocupa el penultimo lugar en el mundo en libertad economica solo superada por Corea del Norte.
Cuba ocupa el lugar 147 entre 153 paises evaluados en "Democracia, Mercado y Transparencia 2007"
Cuando vinieron a buscar a los comunistas, Callé: yo no soy comunista. Cuando vinieron a buscar a los sindicalistas, Callé: yo no soy sindicalista. Cuando vinieron a buscar a los judíos, Callé: yo no soy judío. Cuando vinieron a buscar a los católicos, Callé: yo no soy “tan católico”. Cuando vinieron a buscarme a mí, Callé: no había quien me escuchara.
Un sitio donde los hechos y sus huellas nos conmueven o cautivan
CUBA LLORA Y EL MUNDO Y NOSOTROS NO ESCUCHAMOS
Donde esta el Mundo, donde los Democratas, donde los Liberales? El pueblo de Cuba llora y nadie escucha. Donde estan los Green, los Socialdemocratas, los Ricos y los Pobres, los Con Voz y Sin Voz? Cuba llora y nadie escucha. Donde estan el Jet Set, los Reyes y Principes, Patricios y Plebeyos? Cuba desesperada clama por solidaridad. Donde Bob Dylan, donde Martin Luther King, donde Hollywood y sus estrellas? Donde la Middle Class democrata y conservadora, o acaso tambien liberal a ratos? Y Gandhi? Y el Dios de Todos? Donde los Santos y Virgenes; los Dioses de Cristianos, Protestantes, Musulmanes, Budistas, Testigos de Jehova y Adventistas del Septimo Dia. Donde estan Ochun y todas las deidades del Panteon Yoruba que no acuden a nuestro llanto? Donde Juan Pablo II que no exige mas que Cuba se abra al Mundo y que el Mundo se abra a Cuba? Que hacen ahora mismo Alberto de Monaco y el Principe Felipe que no los escuchamos? Donde Madonna, donde Angelina Jolie y sus adoptados around de world; o nos hara falta un Brando erguido en un Oscar por Cuba? Donde Sean Penn? Donde esta la Aristocracia Obrera y los Obreros menos Aristocraticos, donde los Working Class que no estan junto a un pueblo que lanquidece, sufre y llora por la ignominia? Que hacen ahora mismo Zapatero y Rajoy que no los escuchamos, y Harper y Dion, e Hillary y Obama; donde McCain que no los escuchamos? Y los muertos? Y los que estan muriendo? Y los que van a morir? Y los que se lanzan desesperados al mar? Donde estan el minero cantabrico o el pescador de percebes gijonese? Los Canarios donde estan? A los africanos no los oimos, y a los australianos con su acento de hombres duros tampoco. Y aquellos chinos milenarios de Canton que fundaron raices eternas en la Isla? Y que de la Queen Elizabeth y los Lords y Gentlemen? Que hace ahora mismo el combativo Principe Harry que no lo escuchamos? Donde los Rockefellers? Donde los Duponts? Donde Kate Moss? Donde el Presidente de la ONU? Y Solana donde esta? Y los Generales y Doctores? Y los Lam y los Fabelo, y los Sivio y los Fito Paez? Y que de Canseco y Miñoso? Y de los veteranos de Bahia de Cochinos y de los balseros y de los recien llegados? Y Carlos Otero y Susana Perez? Y el Bola, y Pancho Cespedes? Y YO y TU? Y todos nosotros que estamos aqui y alla rumiando frustaciones y resquemores, envidias y sinsabores; autoelogios y nostalgias, en tanto Louis Michel comulga con Perez Roque mientras Biscet y una NACION lanquidecen? Donde Maceo, donde Marti; donde aquel Villena con su carga para matar bribones? Cuba llora y clama y el Mundo NO ESCUCHA!!!
![NEOCASTRISMO [Hacer click en la imagen]](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_5jy0SZhMlaU/SsuPVOlq2NI/AAAAAAAAH1E/4xt2Bwd2reE/S150/ppo+saturno+jugando+con+sus+hijos.jpg)
