Monday, October 29, 2012

The nightmare of hurricanes

Hurricanes have become my worst nightmare, since in 2008 I saw, for the first time in my life, the destruction that these natural phenomena can cause, after the passage of Hurricane Ike through the province of Holguín. Economic losses, thousands of homes destroyed, power lines totally destroyed, flooding, families living in pain because they lost everything.
I hoped not relive that ordeal, until the morning of Thursday 25 October, when Sandy began lashing the island as a Category 2 hurricane. Then I felt a lot of fear and pain at the thought that when we had managed to recover from the ravages of Ike, history repeated itself.
The fury of wind and rainfall from Sandy let painful images of Holguin flooded, houses floating in water, homes destroyed, power lines on the ground, thousands of hectares of crops almost lost, the sugar cane we worked so hard planting, lying down, filled with water and the sugar mills whistled fulfilment in the last harvest, without the protective covers of our irons are still active, thanks to the ingenuity of this noble people working hard to produce sugar. Sandy left us destruction and billions economic losses, but the will of our people is unwavering. We will turn our pain into effort and will work hard to recover, we will build, plant, produce. That's the way Cubans are.

Monday, October 22, 2012

Article “Fidel Castro is Dying"

Granma and Trabajadores newspapers published, on Monday, an article written by Cuban Revolution leader Fidel Castro rejecting ill rumors recently launched about his health. In his article, the Cuban Revolution leader says that as soon as his message addressed to the first graduates from the Victoria de Giron Medical Science Institute was published, the imperialist propaganda and news agencies began to unleash their lies, even adding the most unexpected and stupid arguments. Spain’s ABC newspaper said that some Venezuelan doctor revealed that Castro had suffered from a massive stroke and that he was about to undergo a neuro-vegetative condition, Fidel explains in his article. Though many people in the world are misled by the media, most of which are in the hands of the privileged and the rich, the people increasingly disbelieve this press, says Fidel Castro and he goes to recall that in 1961, everybody believed some news agencies saying that the Bay of Pigs mercenaries were about to reach Havana, when in fact some of them were actually trying to return to the US warships that had escorted them. Fidel Castro also recalls in his article that just few days before the 50th anniversary of the Missile Crisis, the news agencies pointed to three guilty ones: Kennedy, who had just taken the Imperial power, Nikita Khrushchev and Castro, and he notes that Cuba had nothing to do with the nuclear weapon, or with the unnecessary massacre in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which was perpetrated by US President Harry S. Truman, an action that established the tyranny of nuclear weapons. Cuba was defending its right to independence and social justice, Fidel points out. “We accepted the Soviet assistance in terms of weapons, oil, food and other resources to defend ourselves from Yankee plans of invading our homeland, submitted to a dirty and bloody war imposed by that capitalist country since the first months, which cost thousands of lives and mutilated Cubans.” Fidel says that when Khrushchev proposed Cuba to install mid-range missiles similar to those the U.S. had deployed in Turkey, as a necessary gesture of solidarity, Cuba did not hesitate in accepting the risk. “Our behavior was ethically irreproachable. We will never apologize for what we did. The fact is that half a century after that we are still here holding our head high.” Fidel said that he likes to write and he does, that he likes to study and he does, and that there are tasks to meet in the area of knowledge; for instance, sciences had never advanced at such an amazing speed, he says. Finally, Fidel Castro explains that he stopped publishing his Reflection articles because he did not want to use the pages of the press, which are dedicated to other duties required by the country. And he concludes by stating: birds of ill omen! I do not even recall what a headache feels like. As a proof of how much you lie, here I give you the photos that go with this article. www.granma.cubaweb.cu

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Cuba updates migration policy

As part of the work undertaken to update the current migration policy adjusting it to prevailing conditions in the present and the foreseeable future, the Cuban government has decided to forgo the required Travel Permit as well as the Letter of Invitation. Therefore, as from January 14th, 2013, it will only be necessary to submit the ordinary passport, duly updated, and the visa issued by the country of destination, in those cases when it is required. The ordinary passport will be issued to the Cuban citizens who meet the requirements of the Migration Law, as modified in compliance with these provisions. Such Law will come into effect ninety days after its publication in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Cuba. Those already in possession of an ordinary passport, issued before this decision is valid, should request from the corresponding authorities of the Ministry of the Interior its updating absolutely free of charge. Likewise, those with a valid Travel Permit will be able to depart without any additional procedure. It has also been decided that Cuban residents travelling overseas on private affairs will be permitted to remain there for a period of twenty-four months, counting from the date of departure. For a longer stay, they will be required to obtain the corresponding evidence of extension of stay from a Cuban consulate.
The updating of the migration policy takes into account the right of the revolutionary state to defend itself from the aggressive and subversive plans of the US government and its allies. For this reason, those measures aimed at preserving the human capital created by the Revolution from the theft of talents practiced by the powerful nations shall remain in force. In due course, other measures related to the migratory issue will be adopted that will certainly help in the consolidation of the efforts being made by the Revolution towards the full normalization of Cuba's relations with its emigrants. Today, the Official Gazette of the Republic of Cuba is publishing the Law Decree of the State Council modifying the current Migration Law as well as other supplementary regulations. Additional information on the procedures required by the law and other specificities concerning the country's migration policy are available to the people at the Dirección de Inmigración y Extranjería and its voice message through phone number 2063218; Portal del Ciudadano Cubano: www.ciudadano.cu; and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba: www.cubaminrex.cu.

Monday, October 15, 2012

The Top Ten Censorship of U.S. Media

The increasing encroachment upon freedom and the transformation of the U.S. into a police state, the "legal" decrees in conflict with the Constitution of the Homeland Security Department, the new laws that criminalize the Occupy protests, encouraging new business of "incitement and betrayal" sponsored by the FBI that reports earnings of $ 100,000 per each prefabricated case per 15,000 internal spies" authorized ", the slavery that exists today in U.S. factory-prisons with wage of 23 cents per hour of work , the untenable situation of life in the oceans, the war crimes of NATO in Libya, Fukushima radioactive dusts still killing people in U.S. territory, an investigation of Zuyrich revealing that 147 U.S. and European transnational corporations have the control of world economy, the 16 billion printed dollars that the Federal Reserve granted to the biggest banks responsable of the crisis and a called on the UN to turn entrepreneurs workers into cooperatives, are the top 10 news less disseminated by Censored 2013. The Top 25 censored news by the U.S. corporate media during the last academic year 2011/2012, investigated for nearly four decades by teachers and students of sociology at Sonoma State University in California, were just released in the book Censored 2013, published in New York by the Seven Stores publishing house. The book will be launched in December in Santa Rosa, California. 1. USA: Police State Since the Patriot Act 2001, the U.S. has increasingly domestic political surveillance and militarization at the expense of civil liberties. The adoption in 2012 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) allows the military to indefinitely imprison, without trial, any U.S. citizen that the government label of "terrorist" or "accessory to terrorism." President Barack Obama issued the decree National Resources Defense Preparedness Executive Order, authorizing the broader military and federal control of the national economy and its resources under "conditions of emergency and non-emergency." Since 2010, the campaign of the Homeland Security Department "If you see something, say something" urges the public to report any suspicious activity to local authorities, but what Homeland Security identifies as " suspect "are often critical of the government or non-violent protests, which are rights guaranteed by the Constitution. 2. Oceans in Danger The sea is not infinite and inexhaustible. The total rise of ocean temperatures led to the largest movement of marine species in two to three million years. A research carried out February 2012 on 14 protected and 18 unprotected ecosystems in the Mediterranean showed that their resources are rapidly depleting. A three-year scientific study found that marine reserves that meet the population of fish have five to ten times more marine life than the unprotected areas. 3. Fukushima kills even in U.S. The consequences of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011 are greater than those recognized, to the extent that scientists estimate 14,000 deaths in the U.S. due to the fallout from Japan, according to a December 2011 report of the International Journal of Medical Services. The radiation detector array of the Environmental Protection Agency (RadNet) has maintenance failure and often poorly calibrated equipment. 4. The FBI is responsible for most terrorist plot in the U.S. The Federal Bureau of Investigation implemented an unusual method to prevent future terrorist attacks by developing a network of nearly 15,000 spies to infiltrate various communities in the search for terrorist plots. But those “Topos” are really helping and encouraging people to commit crimes to denounced them and collect cash rewards of up to $ 100,000 per case. 5. Federal Reserve printed 16 trillion dollars to save big banks An audit of the First Federal Reserve reveals that it provided an emergency and secret assistance for 16 billion dollars to the largest U.S. and European banks at the height of the global financial crisis, between 2007 and 2010. Of these 16 million billion, Morgan Stanley received 107.3 billion, 99.5 billion Citigroup and Bank of America 91.4 billion, according to data obtained by invoking the Freedom of Information Act, months of litigation in courts and a law passed by Congress. 6. 147 corporations control the economy of the Western world A study carried out by the University of Zurich revealed that a small group of 147 large transnational corporations, mainly financial and mining, in practice control the global economy. The study was the first to analyze 43,060 transnational corporations and the web of ownership between them, identifying 147 companies that form a "super entity" that controls 40 percent of the total wealth of the global economy. The small group, interconnected through corporate boards, is a global power network vulnerable to breakdowns and prone to "systemic risk" ... but manages the world. 7. 2012: International Year of Cooperatives United Nations declared 2012 as the International Year of Cooperatives, which remain active in the world to nearly a billion people as members or group owners. According to the UN, the cooperative model is the fastest growing company in the world in 2025 and ensures that worker-owners cooperatives provide an equitable distribution of wealth and an authentic connection to the workplace, key components of a sustainable economy . (Venezuela rejected this model because once successfully work, workers-owners of cooperatives often sell them -under pressure or tempting offers- to corporations the same branch. 8. NATO war crimes in Libya The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) justified its intervention in Libya by invoking "humanitarian principles", but its catastrophic actions for humans are now known, such as destruction by bombing in July 2011 of the main facility of drinking water in the country, which supplied about 70 percent of the national population. And, in a failed attempt to appear impartial and objective, the BBC revealed, almost a year after this information was released by independent media, that British Special Forces played a key role in monitoring and lead to victory the so called "fighters of freedom "in Libya. 9. TODAY: Slavery in U.S. Prisons U.S. has at least 5 percent of the world population, but its prisons hold more than 25 percent of all people imprisoned on the planet. Many of these prisoners work for 23 cents per hour, or similar fees in private prisons contracted by the Bureau of Prisons UNICOR, a corporation quasi-public, nonprofit, ranked the 38th among large U.S. government contractors. Just thousands of prisoners in solitary confinement are beyond these rates of work-imprisoned, often confined by disciplinary punishments for offenses of low importance. 10. HR 347 Act criminalizes Occupy protests President Obama signed March 2012 HR 347 an act that considers "criminal offense" participating in demonstrations in areas defined as "restricted", such as vicinityof certain parks and federal buildings. Lawmakers violated the rights of the First Amendment to criminalize the Occupy protests, which are emerging as a global threat to the superclass of 1% that controls the U.S. economy and the world, while facilitated the secret service to use more or misuses laws to arrest legal protesters under the false pretext of criminal activity.