Menoyo: 'La reforma no se ve por ningún lugar'

Lo que dice Menoyo, es algo que no agarra de sorpresa a ningun
cubano decente y honesto que reconoce y que ademas  ha sufrido
la mas asquerosa y asesina tirania jamas  vista  en este continente...
y  hace ya 53 aciagos y sangrientos anios que lo sabemos...!!!!

"Da lástima ver a la gente que se tiene que acostar sin haber comido 
nada, da lástima ver lo niños que no...

Menoyo: 'La reforma no se ve por ningún lugar'

Posted by: "PL" pl.nospam@pandora.be   cubaverdad

Thu Nov 24, 2011 1:01 pm (PST)

Disidencia

Menoyo: 'La reforma no se ve por ningún lugar'

DDC

La Habana 24-11-2011 - 7:15 pm.

El excomandante dice que 'da lástima ver a la gente que se tiene

 que acostar sin haber comido nada'.

El ex-preso político Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo declaró en La Habana que las 
reformas gubernamentales tienen un efecto mínimo en el país, ya que uno 
de los problemas es la enorme burocracia, reportó Radio Martí.

Menoyo, quien decidió volver a la Isla en el año 2003 para trabajar en 
"reformas democráticas", dijo que las transformaciones que impulsa Raúl 
Castro "son tan mínimas" que "prácticamente el efecto es mínimo, la 
burocracia es impresionante".

"La reforma no se ve absolutamente por ningún lugar, al revés, se 
complica y la gente protesta cualquier cuestión, que si es de vivienda,
que si es de un carro. Muchos papeles, mucho lío", explicó el 
excomandante de la revolución, que estuvo encarcelado 22 años por 
motivos políticos.

Menoyo considera la situación actual de Cuba como "un total retroceso, cada día peor y peor y peor".

"Da lástima ver a la gente que se tiene que acostar sin haber comido
nada, da lástima ver lo niños que no han merendado, no tienen acceso a
la leche, no tienen acceso a nada", cuestionó.

Declaraciones de Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo

http://www.ddcuba.com/multimedia/audio/declaraciones-de-eloy-gutierrez-menoyo

http://www.ddcuba.com/cuba/8283-menoyo-la-reforma-no-se-ve-por-ningun-lugar

The United Nations: The Devil's Jury

  Hudson New York

In this mailing:

• David P. Goldman: The United Nations: The Devil's Jury
• AK Group: Court Refuses to Free Scribes
• The United Nations: The Devil's Jury

by David P. Goldman
November 24, 2011 at 5:00 am

http://www.hudson-ny.org/2607/united-nations-devil-jury

Send

Comment

RSS

Share:

  Be the first of your friends to like this.

In Stephen Vincent Benét's story "The Devil and Daniel Webster," Satan called a jury of the damned composed of turncoats, traitors, and Blackbeard the Pirate, "with the stench of hell still upon them." At the United Nations Human Rights Council, accusations against the Dutch political leader Geert Wilders will be heard by Chinese and Russian lawyers who spent the 1970s and 1980s running the "human rights" entities of their respective countries, an Egyptian-educated diplomat from Morocco, and a "human rights" specialist from Cuba, according to the UNHRC website. The Cuban died last year, but in the spirit of Benét's story, he still might be serving on the UN working group hearing Mr. Wilders's case.

Last week, three Dutch Moroccans filed a complaint against their country's government with the UNHRC, an entity that U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon in 2007 accused of a "pathological obsession with Israel," echoing similar complaints by the United States, Canada and the European Union. Under the Bush administration the United States boycotted the Council, but President Obama sent American diplomats back to it. On Oct. 1, the State Department released a statement claiming that "U.S. engagement thus far has resulted in significant improvements to the Human Rights Council as a multilateral forum for promoting and protecting human rights. Accomplishments include groundbreaking resolutions on freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, preventing discrimination against women, LGBT human rights, (and) religious tolerance."

As leader of the Party for Freedom, Holland's third-largest political party, Wilders has fought to limit Muslim immigration to his country, and demanded a hard line against "street terror" by Muslims in European cities. The former parliamentary assistant to the leading Dutch conservative politician Fritz Bolkestein, Wilders is a traditional liberal and a strong supporter of Israel. In January 2009, Dutch prosecutors accused him of "hate speech" against Islam; he was acquitted of all charges in March 2011. Wilders lives under continuous threat of murder by Islamists; he is guarded at all times and sleeps in a different location every night.

The Dutch-Moroccan complaint to the United Nations Human Rights Council claims that the Netherlands violated their human rights by failing to convict Wilders. Their complaint states:

Systematic incitement to hatred and discrimination against Muslims and other migrants has been committed over years – in different forms – by the Member of Parliament Geert Wilders. The complainants – who are Muslims and belong to the Dutch-Moroccan community in the Netherlands – feel discriminated against, humiliated and threatened by Mr. Wilders and the members and adherents of his party, resulting in discrimination and an increasingly negative attitude by considerable parts of the population. They are of the opinion that Mr. Wilders by his continued hate speech has poisoned the social climate in the Netherlands, that has become more and more anti-migrant and anti-Muslim.

The document contains no allegations about murder, torture, massacres, or imprisonment, the sort of human rights violations that routinely occur in countries that the Human Rights Council has specifically declined to consider, for example, Cuba and Belarus. The complainants state that their feelings were hurt.

Because "the District Court of Amsterdam acquitted Mr. Wilders…and subsequently dismissed the claims of the complainants," that is, followed due process, "no appeal is open to them" except to haul the Netherlands before the United Nations Human Rights Council.

This is made possible by a complaints procedure established by the U.N. General Assembly, which allows individuals to bring alleged human rights violations before the Council. Such complaints are referred to a "Working Group on Communications" composed of "independent experts." The members of the Working Group are listed on the UNHRC web site, and prove that a lifetime of promoting human rights abuses is no obstacle to a new career passing judgment on the human rights violations of others.

The Working Group members include one Vladimir Kartashkin, who was employed by the Moscow Institute of State and Law with brief interruptions between 1961 and 1992, that is, during a period when the KGB routine committed dissidents to psychiatric hospitals, and tortured and murdered political prisoners. Another member is Chen Shiqiu, the Vice-Chairman of the People's Republic of China Society for Human Rights Studies. His other affiliations show a special sort of attachment to human rights issues, including the China Association for Preservation and Development of Tibetan Culture, and the China Family Planning Association -- that is, the entities responsible for erasing Tibetan culture and forcing Chinese mothers to abort prospective second children. Stephen Vincent Benét could not have made this sort of thing up.

Also listed on the Working Group for Communications is Alfonso Martinez, a Cuban diplomat who served as the spokesman for his Foreign Ministry between 1994 and 1997. "As an expert in Human Rights he represented the Government of Cuba in numerous meetings and conferences, mainly within the UN system," according to a Taino News dispatch last year. Dr. Martinez helped persuade the United Nations Human Rights Council to take Cuba off its agenda, to the consternation of Secretary General Moon. Dr. Martinez died in 2010, but under the circumstances, that may not disqualify him from serving on the Working Group that will decide whether the Netherlands violated human rights by acquitting Geert Wilders.

Messrs. Kartashkin and Shiqiu (and perhaps the late Dr. Martinez ) are joined in the Working Group by Halima Warzazi, a Moroccan diplomat educated at the University of Cairo. To her credit, Warzazi has directed United Nations studies on female genital mutilation. How she will respond to the hurt feelings of the Dutch-Moroccan complainants remains to be seen. Americans became aware of Morocco's pattern of human rights abuse when Malika Oufkir's book Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail became a best-seller in 2001.

If the complaint is taken seriously, the Obama administration will have to explain more clearly why it praises American participation in a forum which hires thugs with decades of service to some of the world's worst human rights violators, and empowers them to judge anyone who makes Muslims "feel discriminated against," as the complaint maintains. In theory, the UNHRC might refer the Netherlands for prosecution by the International Criminal Court, although it seems unlikely that matters might go that far. The Netherlands defending itself before Russian, Chinese, Cuban and Moroccan hacks is offensive enough.

David P. Goldman writes the Spengler column for Asia Times Online. His book How Civilizations Die (and why Islam is Dying, Too) was published by Regnery in September 2011.

El Club de París invita a La Habana a retomar el diálogo sobre la deuda

El Club de París invita a La Habana a 
retomar el diálogo sobre la deuda


El organismo informó que la Isla debe a sus miembros 30.500 millones
de dólares, pero más de 20.000 millones es en rublos convertibles de
la época soviética.

Los ricos acreedores de Cuba decidieron poner a prueba la promesa de
Raúl Castro de mejorar la credibilidad financiera del país, invitando
a su Gobierno a conversar sobre los miles de millones de dólares de
deuda que tiene con el Club de París, dijeron diplomáticos
occidentales, según Reuters.

Una carta enviada recientemente al Banco Central de Cuba indagó sobre
si el país comunista quiere reanudar las negociaciones interrumpidas
hace una década, dijeron las fuentes.

"Cuba fue analizada por primera vez en muchos años en la reunión del
Club el 9 y 10 de octubre, y se decidió ver si ellos están interesados
en conversar", dijo un diplomático de Europa.

"Ellos ( los cubanos ) no han dado una respuesta oficial, pero han
expresado cierto interés a través del Banco Central", agregó.

El Club de París es un grupo informal de gobiernos acreedores
integrado por Australia, Austria, Bélgica, Canadá, Dinamarca,
Finlandia, Francia, Alemania, Irlanda, Italia, Japón, Suiza, los
Países Bajos, Noruega, Federación Rusa, España, Suecia, Reino Unido y
Estados Unidos, según su informe anual.

El Club de París informó que Cuba debía a sus miembros 30.500 millones
de dólares al cierre de 2010, pero más de 20.000 millones de la deuda
es en rublos convertibles de la época de alianza con la ex Unión
Soviética, que Rusia reclama y que La Habana no reconoce.

A diferencia del Fondo Monetario Internacional y el Banco Mundial, de
los que Cuba está excluida debido al embargo comercial que aplica
Estados Unidos, el Club de París no emite préstamos multilaterales.

Observadores, cautelosos
El Banco Internacional de Pagos, sobre la base de reportes de bancos
residentes en 43 países, informó que en marzo de este año los
depósitos de Cuba eran de 5.756 millones de dólares, comparado con
4.285 millones al cierre de 2009 y 2.849 millones de dólares en 2008.

La Habana presentó su último informe de deuda externa en 2007,
ubicándola en 17.800 millones de dólares, pero la mayoría de analistas
coinciden en que ahora supera los 21.000 millones de dólares, o cerca
del 50 por ciento del producto interno bruto y un 30 por ciento más
que los ingresos anuales de divisas.

El Banco Central informó que más de la mitad de la deuda fue
clasificada como pasivo, que se remonta a cuando el país incumplió el
pago a fines de la década de 1980, mientras que el resto de la deuda
activa se acumuló después de la desaparición de su antiguo benefactor,
la ex Unión Soviética.

En los últimos años, China se ha convertido en el mayor acreedor del
país, una deuda que expertos locales estiman en alrededor de 5.000
millones de dólares.

La Habana reestructuró su deuda con China en el último año y ha estado
buscando acuerdos bilaterales similares con otros acreedores, dijeron
los diplomáticos.

"Las negociaciones sólo pueden ser una buena cosa. Pese a que Cuba ha
llevado a cabo acuerdos bilaterales, no ha habido negociaciones
sustantivas con el Club de París en 10 años. Por tanto, sería una
señal de un cierto progreso", dijo Stuart Culverhouse, economista jefe
de Banca de Inversión de Mercado Fronterizo, con sede en Londres.
"Pero yo sería cauteloso en concluir que eso significa que es
inminente cierto tipo de reacercamiento a la deuda", agregó.

Diplomáticos occidentales parecían divididos entre los que expresaron
un cauteloso optimismo de que algo iba a salir de la iniciativa y los
que se mostraron escépticos de que la medida no tendría resultados.

Las conversaciones entre el Club de París y Cuba fueron suspendidas
por tiempo indefinido en 2001, tras dos años de discusiones. Las
negociaciones marcaron la primera vez que La Habana se sentó con los
acreedores para negociar multilateralmente desde finales de los años
1980.

"Propusimos un acuerdo similar al que tenemos con otros países de
nivel medio de desarrollo, pero los cubanos querían algo especial e
insólito. Estábamos a kilómetros de distancia", dijo un diplomático
europeo, quien entonces había seguido de cerca las negociaciones.

Junto a los términos de reestructuración, la deuda de 20.000 millones
en rublos convertibles con la ex Unión Soviética que tiene Cuba fue
considerada entonces como el mayor obstáculo para alcanzar un acuerdo
multilateral.

Desde entonces, Cuba y Rusia han acordado poner a un lado la vieja
deuda, aunque se mantiene en los libros, y trabajar para reconstruir
sus relaciones económicas. Estados Unidos acordó no participar en las
conversaciones de 2001

The Fate of the Cuban Taliban / Angel Santiesteban

Angel Santiesteban, Translator: Unstated

Reading Carlos Alberto Montaner’s book, Conversation at the funeral of 
the Comandante. What will happen after the death of Fidel Castro?, from 
the first pages I could recognize a reality that was predicted by the 
author several years before it happened.

Who could have predicted that Carlos Lage — the “majordomo” of the 
Palace who, from his youth, devoted his best efforts to comply meekly 
with every injustice and Machiavellian policy that occurred to Fidel 
Castro — would be ousted in such a humiliating and burlesque way? Only 
an expert on the psychology and ideology of a dictator, like Montaner, 
could almost prophesy so great a madness without having to wait for the 
burial of “leader.”

Just months after Raul Castro came to power, the prophecy of the author 
was fulfilled, and Lage was unceremoniously dismissed from the 
government elite. And weeks later, in the heat of the day, over 90 
degrees, I saw this character — someone might say “thrown to the lions” 
— walking, almost choking, through Red Square in Vibora (notice the 
irony of the name of the place). He was just one of the crowd. 


His 
elegant and expensive brand-name shirt completely sweaty… I still can’t 
decide whether it was pity or satisfaction I felt at that evaporated 
“grain of salt.”

I’ve always wondered how Fidel Castro forgot some of the young people he 
himself conceived, and whom later he couldn’t stand. Some were children 
when they came into to his hands and, like a potter, he shaped them in 
his image and likeness. They turned out hideous, lacking decorum, 
lacking humanity, and, right before his eyes, they looked so much like 
him that they became dangerous to him. The twin brothers Tony and 
Patricio La Guardia, in 1959 they were young boys not even twenty. He 
made them what they were, efficient Generals of his elite corps. 


And 
then he shot one of them and sent the other to prison for years. What 
could the biological parents of Tony and Patricio think of Fidel Castro, 
in whom they confided their sons, healthy in mind and heart? How much 
pain have these parents survived to see the death of one and to face the 
humiliating imprisonment of the other?

That reminds me of the anecdote told by Comandante Benigno, of the young 
boy of 14 that a peasant couple entrusted to Fidel on a night when he 
visited their hut, there in the deepest forest of the Sierra Maestra. 
“We give him to you,” said this elderly couple, “because he is our only 
treasure, we conceived him in our old age and do not want Batista’s army 
to force him into service, it would kill us.” But perhaps better the 
devil you know than the devil you don’t.

Fidel entrusted the young man to Camilo Cienfuegos who had been with him 
that night with the elderly couple, and of course with the young man. 
Shortly afterward, the teenager stole a can of condensed milk one 
morning ]. 


When he discovered it, Camilo sent a message to Fidel asking 
advice on what punishment to impose. And Fidel replied emphatically: 
“Shoot him.” Camilo, surprised, sent another message back saying that it 
was the youngster offered up by the elderly couple who stole a can of 
condensed milk. And Fidel, with the icy impulse that characterizes him, 
again answered, “I already told you to shoot him.”

The questions are my great torture because I always want to understand 
others, though I do not share their feelings or their actions. But was 
it not an act of cowardice for Camilo Cienfuegos to execute the order 
when he did not share the view, especially since we’re talking about the 
life of a teenager? And in contrast, Benigno says, Comandante Camilo hid 
in the toilet so as to not witness the shooting. Perhaps the place he 
found at that time was the most suitable to his feelings.

But back to the book of prophecies of Carlos Alberto Montaner. To be 
cautious, he predicted that once Fidel Castro was gone, the “Group 
Supporting the Comandante,” would have to make an alliance to survive, 
as their political weight would vanish because they were barely anchored 
in the institutions.

And what happened with the young “Taliban”?

Raul Castro, without delay in his brother’s absence, took steps against 
this political “alliance,” caught them one by one and unceremoniously 
deposed and expelled them like stones in his shoe: Felipe Pérez Roque, 
Otto Rivera, Hassan Pérez, Juan Contino Aslan and Carlos Manuel 
Valenciaga. 


And as he couldn’t ignore Abel Prieto, the Minister of 
Culture, he suppressed his political power but kept him on as a “lion 
tamer” to face up to the conflict-ridden and volatile intellectual 
sector, perhaps until he finds the right person to replace him. 


And if 
we look back, we understand that it has been a process of continual 
political defecation: José Luis Rodriguez, sentenced to several years in 
prison, Roberto Robaina, who came from the Federation of University 
Students (FEU) from before the Revolution and the Young Communist Union 
(UJC) after, and who was the former Minister of Foreign Affairs. 

Humberto Rodriguez, President of the Cuban Institute of Sports, Physical 
Education and Recreation (INDER). General Abrantes, whose death in 
prison remains a mystery to be elucidated. And we mustn’t forget General 
Ochoa, “Hero of Cuba,” whom he also made bite the bullet in front of the 
firing squad in 1989.

In the end, their entourages have been no more than puppets who expose 
the image and sacrifice their bodies, their hands implementing the 
designs of the brain that drives them, the hand that really frames the 
policy and reaps the benefits.

It is so true that those names, for years, occupied the spaces of the 
official media, and now no one remembers them. This is the payment for 
being part of the Government, without making their opinions known, much 
less managing to prevail against any mistaken speculation of the 
Comandante, or other member of the sacred sphere of the Government, and 
whom the people would identify as defenders of their way of life. 


Just 
following orders, never achieving their political dreams, save to suck 
from the teat of power and accept one hundred percent the Maximum 
Leader’s every suggestion. History will gather up, at some point, this 
pack of Taliban as part of the diabolical mechanism of the prevailing 
system on the Island.

What is left of those old Comandantes?

As my neighbor would say, “Just their helmets and their bad ideas.” Or, 
as Carlos Alberto Montaner writes in his book, “Elderly and inform, tied 
to the ancient legend of the Sierra Maestra.” Some of them, those who 
are still breathing in this accepted death, resigned to consume the 
benefits of the Revolution, attend the official events to present a 
false image of unity. Instead, they continue to live like millionaires 
in a country plunged into the greatest poverty of its history. 


Before 
the eyes of the people they live in their sumptuous homes which, by the 
way, they didn’t even have the decency to build themselves, they sail on 
their recreational yachts, buy in the international market with the 
people’s money, or with money confiscated from the drug traffickers who 
entered Cuban waters. Many of these characters squander the resources of 
the nation to please ex-wives or former intimate partners.

The hands of Fidel Castro, of the potter he claimed to be, contaminated 
the clay with blood, and those young people he imagined shaping, in some 
way he deformed. Under his distorted and putrid aegis he never managed 
to become a teacher and role model for anyone. All he can expect in 
future years is to be used as a symbol of death and misery.

His egotism and his caudillo’s cunning made him forget the true history, 
not that which he has tried to distort and manipulate at will, but the 
voice of the people by whom he will ultimately be judged and who will 
write the pages of the books of the future, though, for now, the fear 
before the terror he imposes prevents these people from screaming TYRANT.

November 3 2011

7.

The Obsession for Freedom / Luis Felipe Rojas

Posted by: "PL" pl.nospam@pandora.be   cubaverdad

Sat Nov 5, 2011 10:22 pm (PDT)

The Obsession for Freedom / Luis Felipe Rojas

Luis Felipe Rojas, Translator: Raul G.

What can be done to strengthen the civil society of a nation? Part of 
the answer is a polyphonic chorus among dozens of Cuban human rights 
activists. As this week begins, the engineer Librado Linares wraps up a 
course on non-violent leadership which he taught in the form of a 
workshop in Baracoa, Guantanamo. With daily 5 hour long sessions, the 
students learned of the different historical stages which non-violent 
struggle has gone through, both in Cuba and in the world. Some of the 
most notable examples of society confronting totalitarian regimes come 
from Serbia and Chile, while emphasis was also made on the teachings of 
King and Gandhi and the threats against freedom stemming from certain 
dark forces. 

It was a brief map of human will.
In a repressive setting such as Eastern Cuba, Librado Linares’ approach 
reinforces the necessity of proactive activism on the island. It also 
points out just how important it is for resistance leaders to look ahead 
and see that the social framework is more complex than what may appear 
at first glance. Linares, recently released from a 20 year sentence, of 
which he only served 8 thanks to the pressures exerted on the Castro 
regime, and also member of the group of the 75, has committed himself to 
teaching his fellow countrymen to use tools which would implement a 
strategy leading to the unfolding of a peaceful change in our country. 
Moving from the symbolic stage we are currently at to the denominated 
selective resistance and from there towards an exponential scale is the 
desire of many. Because of this, according to the evaluations of 
Librado Linares, the grand strategy course should be inclusive and avoid 
being the contrary. It should also work with international solidarity, 
through the decisive exile forces, and construct, for once and for all, 
a civil society that is autonomous and firm.
A chat, a debate enriched by experience, a determination to turn 
obsession for freedom into definite freedom.

Translated by Raul G.
1 November 2011

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=12456

The Starting Line / Yoani Sánchez

Posted by: "PL" pl.nospam@pandora.be   cubaverdad

Sat Nov 5, 2011 9:20 pm (PDT)

The Starting Line / Yoani Sánchez

Translator: Unstated, Yoani Sánchez

The Paseo del Prado has been unsettled for the last couple of days, and
not just because of the hustlers hustling and the hookers trolling for
tourists. The uproar comes from the new Decree-Law No. 288 which
establishes rules for the buying and selling of housing. A long-awaited
measure that finally sees the light of day in the Official Gazette, to
the relief of many and concern of others. In the spontaneous housing
exchange that exists on this pedestrian promenade bordered by bronze
lions, the curious ask about the details of a measure undoubtedly more
flexible, but still insufficient. They want to know if the property
title that they have in their hands grants them, starting now, full
rights to assign, inherit or sell their houses. In a nation that has
lived for decades with a frozen real estate market, they find it hard to
believe that everything will be as easy as some speculate, or as legal
as the Ministry of Justice assures us.

One of the principal fears on the street now is concern about how the
Central Bank will rule on the legitimacy of money used to buy real
estate. Because for every transaction of this type the cash must first
be deposited in an account and the distrustful clients of our banking
system fear that it could end up being confiscated if the State decides
it didn’t come from “clean” sources. But to every risk people will
respond with some kind of trick, so I imagine that from now on the funds
declared and placed in the bank will be a half or a third of the real
cost of the house. The rest will pass from one hand to another, from one
pocket to another. For too long we have behaved like outlaws in this
area, so one shouldn’t expect that starting now everything will be done
according to the 16 pages of the new decree.

There is also the possibility of a migratory stampede, because “the act
of owners transferring their housing, before permanently leaving the
country, is legal under the act.” Thousands of Cubans have been waiting
for this signal, like runners crouched at the starting line waiting for
the gun to go off. The high costs of immigration procedures will be
covered by the sale of homes that will offered for sale in the real
estate market. A house, for forty years an anchor, will become a set of
wings. It’s notable, of course, that the new measure includes the
tenuous twine that pulls the piñata out of reach, already evidenced in
the decree about the sale of cars. The wedge of the pie reserved only
for those ideologically most-trusted owners, was expressed this time in
Point 110. It states, “the Executive Committee of the Council of
Ministers and its President will be able to decide, with respect to
housing located in determined areas of the country.” We will see the map
of the Island riddled with patches where the requirements to buy and
sell will not be written anywhere. The so-called “frozen zones” will
grow and the social differences — so often denied — will flourish,
particularly that deep abyss that separates those trusted who are with
money from those citizens with resources not sanctified by power.

November 4, 2011
http://translatingcuba.com/?p=12487

Back to top               

Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post