- 5 Reasons to Look on the Bright Side

Yesterday the Cuban government released video footage of their dictator who for all intents and purposes looks to still be among the living. In order to prove this, he spoke of recent events (last few days) and curiously held in his hands a copy of Alan Greenspan’s new book just released this past week during this taped interview. The book appeared to have one of those Barnes & Nobles book club stickers on the cover advertising the discount members receive which made me wonder: Is he a member of the Barnes & Noble book club and does this membership include discount shipping to Havana?

His book club membership status notwithstanding, I watched pieces of the video yesterday on the news and noticed it was heavily edited. King castro seemed to be doing his usual rambling and it appeared obvious that intellectually, the despot is not all there. The footage leaves any objective viewer wondering how much make-up was used and how many hours of video were shot for the few minutes that were released.

Nevertheless, the release of this footage temporarily lay to rest the rampant rumors that the dictator of Cuba had died. As much as I would have preferred to have this bloody and sad chapter of Cuban history come to an end, it seems that the dictator continues to remain among the living. Although it may seem difficult, all of us who love freedom and dream of a free Cuba must remain positive. Death for the man responsible for the death of so many innocent Cubans will come soon enough, but below I give you five reasons to look on the bright side which might help make each day he remains alive a little easier to deal with.

Reason 1—Stay of Execution: There is undoubtedly a group of people in Cuba right now whose very existence depends on the dictator remaining alive. These are people that nobody else likes except for fidel himself and have enjoyed his protection for many years. Every morning these people must wake up to the uncertainty that they will live to see the end of the day. Just like the prisoners in La Cabaña who were psychologically tortured when mock executions were carried out in order to break their spirits, these people never know when their last day on this earth as privileged members of the totalitarian regime’s elite will be. After so many years of living off the sweat and suffering of their Cuban brethren, these people deserve to spend their last days in anguish. Every day castro remains alive is another day for them to fret their eventual demise. It could not happen to a more deserving group of human scum.

Reason 2—Keystone Cops: Every day castro remains undead we are entertained with another comical quote or press release from the Cuban dictatorial monarchy’s propaganda machine. One day you will have prince raul say one thing only to have king fidel contradict it the next day in one of his rambling essays. Just as laughable is watching the court jesters, Lage and Roque, trying to appease both the prince and the king without getting themselves thrown out of either of the royal courts. The uncertainty and sheer indecision you see in them makes it plain to see that their so-called revolution is nothing more than a two-bit dictatorship run by a tin pot despot and his merry band of thieves.

Reason 3—Coitus Interruptus: The mainstream media is all set up for a love fest when the tyrant who would be king kicks the bucket. You will hear of all the great advances the revolution brought the Cuban people thanks to him. They will also wax poetically about what a brave and misunderstood revolutionary king castro was. Just thinking about this, let alone writing it, makes me queasy. But prepare yourselves my friends, it will come and when it does they will hold nothing back. Even though it would be a signal that the end finally arrived, at least we do not have to hear all that crap today. If castro manages to continue breathing for the next few days, weeks or months, we at least have the comfort of knowing it will be at least that long before we have to witness the media’s lovemaking session with the dictator’s memory.

Reason 4—Unrealized Dreams: Although he never had the intellectual ability to achieve anything resembling the amount of power he holds now, prince raul has been the grateful recipient of his big brother’s generosity. Still, every day his big brother remains alive is another day that his dream of being Comandante en Jefe is delayed. Of course, if it were the other way around and raul stood between fidel and complete power, raul would have been dead a long time ago. But raul is not fidel, and without his brother’s death, raul cannot realize his dream. So, with each passing day with his brother still alive, raul cannot help but to be reminded of just how inadequate he is.

Reason 5—Another Day: Although hell awaits fidel with open arms and promises to torment him for all eternity, every day he stays alive is another day he gets to suffer here on earth. Hell will give him his just desserts, but every day he remains among the living is an extra day he gets to suffer. Eternity is eternity and lasts forever, but every minute fidel stays alive is an extra minute of pain and suffering on top of the eternal damnation and torment that awaits him.

There you have five reasons we can use to look on the bright side of an otherwise sad reality. I am sure there are more, so please feel free to add your own in the comments section below.

- El Intransijente II – Meet us for Lunch Sept. 20 at Noon!

I received a call today from Juan Amador, owner of El Intransijente restaurant expressing his gratitude to Val and me for all the new customers our post on his restaurant has brought him these last few days. I want to thank all of you for taking the time and making the effort to support a Cuban business whose owner has dedicated so much to Cuba’s freedom.

Although neither Val nor I have been able to make it back to El Intransijente since our first visit, we will be having lunch there tomorrow, Thursday, September 20th, at noon. Although I realize it is short notice, we invite all of you who will be in the area or can make it there to join us for an excellent traditional Cuban lunch and to help a fellow Cuban get the message out.

The address to El Intransijente is:

8827 Bird Road, Miami, FL.
Their phone number is 305-226-1408

Val and I hope to see a few of you out there tomorrow at noon.

- Pure Blue Sea and Beach

In my almost daily masochistic ritual, I came across this article from a UK newspaper regarding a British couple’s “holiday from hell.” If you are guessing they vacationed in Cuba, you guessed right!

The story is full of some very entertaining quotes, such as:
 

“We went to Thomas Cook for them to recommend a good holiday. We wanted somewhere with a pure, blue sea and beach. They said they had a good deal on Cuba, and a guy came up and said he’d had a good holiday there, so we paid the money right away…”

“We pulled back the bed covers, and there was blood all over the bed. My girlfriend was crying. We went and asked for another place, but everything there was damp. There was mosquitos spraying out through the air conditioning. When we went for a meal, there were birds flying around the restaurant and eating the food and it was covered in flies. Water was pouring through the roof of the bar.”
 

What a travesty! This poor couple after waiting so many years to have a holiday in a pure blue sea and beach were given inhospitable accommodations, fly infested food, dirty bed linens and a mosquito infested room by the Cuban government run resort! What a horrible thing to do to these poor tourists! I am sure that when they signed up for their Cuban holiday they were expecting a Cuban Tourist Holiday, not a Cuban Native Holiday! Then again, what can you expect when you invest your money in a vacation spot that is ruled by a totalitarian monarchy? Did this poor couple think they were 100% exempt from the misery the Cuban people live under day-in and day-out?

As long as people continue to exploit the dire situation in Cuba, they will continue to have these experiences. You cannot take away every shred of hope and dignity from the Cuban people and expect them to acquiesce to these insensitive tourists who are there to take advantage of their situation.

Babalublog has a great post by CubaWatcher regarding this interesting phenomenon going on in Cuba with its tourists titled, Your Camera—My Meal.
 

- Heating up the Atmosphere

Anyone who has taken their dog out on a cold morning to do its business has seen the steam rise from a freshly released mound of excrement. This is the vision I got when I read this AP story on how reducing the world’s consumption of red meat would help curb “man-made” global warming. The purpose of my post has nothing to do with global warming however. It has to do with how the AP inserted a little bit of castro propaganda into a totally unrelated article in the form of a photograph showing a Cuban meat market with a caption detailing the wonderful changes raul has made in regards to farmers on the island.

Nowhere in the article, outside of the photo and caption, will you find a mention of Cuba or the fact that the per capita meat consumption on the island is well below that of the region and the world as a whole. So, I failed to see how if indeed the increased consumption of meat was a major contributor to “man-made” global warming, why they chose to run a picture of a Cuban meat market with a caption describing the “new and improved” dictatorial monarchy in Cuba.

Here is the hook my friends: It has nothing to do with global warming and everything to do with advancing the propaganda put out by the castro monarchy. Your typical uninterested observer will read this article and the accompanying photograph and caption and even though it has nothing to do with global warming, it will subliminally register in their minds that not only do the people in Cuba have all the meat they can eat, they have an overabundance of it.

Even though there are hundreds, if not thousands, of political prisoners rotting in Cuban jails, when the topic of Cuba comes up, they will remember this photograph and its caption.

This journalistic stretch—for lack of a better term—is a blatant example of how the MSM has become, now more than ever, the official mouthpiece of castro and his henchmen. They have used a completely unrelated story to put forth the misinformation propagated by the communist monarchy in Cuba. This deliberate insertion of propaganda is their way of setting the stage for the big Cuba discussion that we see coming on the horizon. They are heating up the atmosphere with unadulterated lies in order to help secure the continuation of the dictatorial monarchy that has subjugated the Cuban population for almost half a century.

Just when I thought the MSM could not stoop any lower they come back and prove me wrong.

Read the propaganda laden article HERE.

- Freedom BAD — castro GOOD

I am sorry to say that those of us that have been waiting for the eventual fall of the oppressive dictatorial monarchy in Cuba have got it all wrong. You see, as it is detailed so eloquently in this article in the Canadian Press, freedom for Cuba would be bad and castro ruling Cuba is good.

How can we be so selfish to want to deprive these young and vibrant American youths from experiencing the old-world charm of Cuba’s dilapidated buildings and barefoot children playing in the streets? For what—the freedom of eleven million Cubans? Not if it is going to infringe on Bridget and Erik’s rights to enjoy watching poor Cubans struggling everyday to feed their children!

The most amazing thing to me is that neither the writer of this article nor Bridget or Erik even realizes the significance of what they are writing or saying. To them, Cuba and its people are nothing more than a vacation stop. When they walk through the streets of Havana and see the old cars, the shoeless and shirtless children playing with empty cans, the rundown buildings and the homeless beggars, they see a quaint little village of natives who don’t know any better.

They don’t see the human suffering because deep down inside, they don’t see humans.

- El Intransijente

A few days ago, Val Prieto and I had the pleasure of having lunch at a local Miami Cuban restaurant named El Intransijente. The food was great and the portions were huge, but the story behind this restaurant and its owner is what makes it special. Val and I sat with the owner for a long while as he told us about his life in Cuba and the reasons he decided to use his restaurant as a means to get the message of Cuba’s suffering out to the world.

Juan Amador Rodriguez, the proprietor of El Intransijente, escaped Cuba on a raft several years ago after serving time in various prisons in Cuba—including the notorious Taco Taco prison—for voicing his desire for freedom and the end of oppression through his paintings. He brought up an interesting point in that he never felt freer in Cuba than he did when he was incarcerated. He told us the story of the time he informed the guard that stood outside his cell that it was he the prisoner in Cuba, and not him. When the guard asked him how he came to that conclusion, Juan illustrated his freedom by yelling “Abajo Fidel!” and dared his guard to do the same. The guard, unable to do so, pleaded with him to keep his voice down for fear that he would be reprimanded for not keeping his prisoner in check. It was then that Juan asked his guard, “Who is the free man here and who is the prisoner?”

Throughout the restaurant there are various posters calling for a free Cuba and many photographs of political prisoners. He also has a television on at all times showing documentaries of the real life in Cuba. Wherever there is free space on the walls, you can see where people have signed their names in support of Juan’s restaurant and his quest for a free Cuba. He showed us where Dr. Tony de la Cova signed his name and then pulled out a black marker and gave us both the honor of adding our names and best wishes.

Another interesting aspect of Juan’s restaurant is his menu. There you have a full compliment of your typical Cuban meals, but with some interesting names. For instance, you can order the Raul Castro a la Plancha (Cherna a la planha), or maybe some Felipe Pérez Roque (Guanajo Estofado). The fun never ends with this menu as you can see below.

I ask all of you in the South Florida area to do your best to help support this great Cuban-American who is using his business to promote freedom in Cuba—something most people would not be willing to do. Not only will you have a great meal at a reasonable price, but you will enjoy the atmosphere and you can sign your name on the wall.

The address for El Intransijente is 8827 Bird Road, Miami, FL. Their phone number is 305-226-1408.

- Fanning the Flames

I am sure most of you have been reading the numerous articles and editorials written lately about the custody case playing out in a Miami court involving a four-year old Cuban girl, her mentally unstable mother, the “wealthy” foster family who wants to adopt her, and her Cuban father who is here in Miami and wants to take her back to Cuba. As expected, none of these reporters are questioning how this poor farmer from Cuba is paying for his attorneys or his expenses while here in Miami. Even though it is obvious that the dictatorial monarchy in Cuba is funding him, no mainstream reporter has found this important or a relevant fact worthy of mention. Nevertheless, plenty of information abounds in regards to the foster family’s economic wherewithal and rarely are they mentioned without the prerequisite “wealthy” or “rich” connotation attached.

What really seems to be bothering these journalists, however, is that no matter how hard they try to incite a reaction from the Cuban-American community regarding this issue, their efforts have come up empty. They are sitting at their desks scratching their heads in befuddlement over the fact that the Cubans in Miami have not poured out into the streets to protest another “Elian-like custody battle,” as they are touting it. They are so baffled by the apparent acquiescence of the Cuban-American community that they are throwing out anything they can think of to try and get a reaction.

Some are saying that perhaps the Cuban community in the US has matured, or maybe we all learned our lesson from the Elian custody battle and do not want to be cast in the same negative light. Not one of them, though, mentions the fact that this little girl is receiving her constitutional right to have her case heard in court. Elian never received his day in court. Instead, his case was decided by an Attorney General who circumvented the constitution and took the law into her own hands. It was that gross violation of the US Constitution, my dear friends in the mainstream media, which got the Cuban-American community incensed, and rightfully so.

The only similarity this case has with the Elian tragedy is the Cuban despotic monarchy that is backing it. Otherwise, it is completely different from the Elian tragedy. I am sorry to inform the journalists out there that smell blood that regardless of the judge's decision in this case, you will probably never see Cuban-Americans pouring into the streets in protest. All we wanted was for Elian to have his case heard in a court of law. Fortunately, this little girl is receiving that chance.

If I may be so bold, I would advise all the journalists out there seeking out a juicy headline to delve a little deeper into who is financing this legal battle for the father. There, I am sure, they will probably find some interesting characters lurking in the shadows. It really is not that difficult: Just follow the money.