...or so says babelfish, anyway. The Bay of Pigs was an early attempt at war on the cheap, and the U.S. got what it paid for.

_{Turn back to the Constitution - and READ it.}

Of course you are correct, Darwin, the basic literacy rate in Cuba is over 98% (or includes all those mentally capable of learning.) The University graduation levels of the Cuban populace is also extremely high. The tiny island of Cuba, with its population of about 12 million, has 47 universities plus numerous technical colleges, etc. All higher education and university education is free although a couple of weeks of community service is required every year from each student. The goal of 100 percent literacy in all parts of Cuba was the first major action when Castro took power, with specially trained teachers sent all over the country to teach basic education skills, a task that was extremely dangerous in those days.

However, you are very misinformed about Cuban oil. Sherritt Industries in Canada is responsible for about half of Cuba's oil production. While significant this is not sufficient to satisfy Cuba's own domestic energy needs. However, for the past several years several international companies have been exploring for oil in Cuban territorial waters. Incredibly, most Americans seem to know little, if anything, about the remarkable new discoveries just 18 miles offshore, (but then it seems most American's view of Cuba is through the cracked lens of that intensely bizarre but incredibly influential Miami anti-castro fringe. Even today they continue to rant that they want Castro himself to be physically dead. There is absolutely no way this scary gang will ever allow the embargo to be lifted, no matter how much the US may lose because of it - and the US has already lost plenty.)

I'd say this Cuban offshore oil find is one of the most important, underreported stories of the past couple of years.

Fortune Magazine

Sometime later this year, less than 70 miles from Florida, a consortium of Spanish, Indian and Norwegian companies will likely start drilling for oil. It could mark the beginning of a Cuban oil rush - one that American oil companies won't be able to join, despite their proximity to the action.

And that has some U.S. oil industry executives and lobbyists seething, especially since the American Association of Petroleum Geologists calls the offshore Cuban oil deposits a "significant find."

Countries other than the U.S. stand to gain from big oil potential off the coast of Cuba.

U.S. oil companies can't play in these waters, of course, barred as they are by sanctions prohibiting them from doing business with Cuba.

-SNIP-

So far Cuba's oil production has been puny - just 68,000 barrels a day, compared with more than ten million by Saudi Arabia, the world's largest producer. With help from the Soviet Union, oil was discovered in Varadero in 1971. Production stayed at about 18,000 barrels a day until Canada's Sherritt International arrived in 1992 and started joint production with Cuba Petróleo. Currently Sherritt is responsible for almost half of Cuba's production, entirely onshore.

In 2004, Spain's Repsol YPF found signs of oil in deep water offshore. Last year India's ONGC Videsh and Norsk Hydro of Norway joined Repsol to explore its six blocks. Separately, Malaysia's Petronas won concessions for four blocks, reportedly after seeing fresh data from the Repsol-led consortium. ONGC also secured concessions for two more blocks. In January, Venezuela's state-owned PDVSA picked up rights to four blocks. China also has an exploration agreement with Cuba, and Chinese oil giant Sinopec has been leasing rigs to Sherritt and others.

Even if the choicest blocks have been taken, there would still be opportunity for U.S. companies if the embargo were lifted tomorrow. And Cuban officials say U.S. companies would receive the same treatment as others. "American energy companies and investment are welcome in our country," says Ernesto Plasencia, Cuba's commercial attaché in Washington, D.C.

Len D'Eramo, a spokesman for Exxon Mobil (Charts), whose refinery was nationalized by the Castro regime, doesn't deny interest in Cuban oil but says, "Cuba is a U.S.-sanctioned country, and we are not permitted to operate there."

The offshore blocks are in the seismic-study stage, but the Repsol consortium hopes to start exploration and drilling this year. Oil experts say production is at least three years away. "The potential for ultra-deep-water reserves looks quite promising," says International Energy Agency analyst David Fyfe. "If oil prices stay high, it keeps the frontier areas in play. But Cuba needs help to access those resources."

The Bush administration opposes any relaxation of the embargo. Last year it went to the trouble of warning the Sheraton Hotel in Mexico City that it would violate the embargo by hosting Cuban delegates to a conference on Cuban energy attended by executives from Exxon Mobil and other U.S. oil companies. The venue was changed. Getting a foothold in Cuban waters won't be as easy.

Also see Times UK story from 2006 Times

and then there's the article directly below which has them both saying essentially the same thing.

"Meantime, her husband Evaristo, seeing she didn't come home with the medicine, took the girl to the hospital, where doctors attended to her."

Looks like she got the insulin she needed in the end, eh?

I guess that makes two pharmacies assigned to her running out of the prescription and her arrest okay.

you'll see the bad and never the good no matter what.

I have friends in the US who died because they couldn't afford healthcare. At least the Cuban government tries. The US government doesn't even do that.

you'll see the bad and never the good no matter what.

Do you have it in you to overlook NSA warrantless wiretapping, the politicization of the Justice Department, etc., to see the good? I doubt you could and excuse the abuse of power in the U.S. as good intentions gone wrong. Why should I overlook the favoritism and civil liberty violations committed in Cuba?

Because the man throwing political dissidents in jail is not Bush, Franco or Hitler?

is our govt deals daily with leaders far worse than Castro. I don't agree with Castro but can't help but admire his resilience.

What I see is our govt deals daily with leaders far worse than Castro. I don't agree with Castro but can't help but admire his resilience.

I can agree with this. When Rice can hold a press conference for Equatorial Guinea's Obiang but Castro is unredeemable you know a tyrant is someone who won't respect our business practices.

I wonder if Cuba granting foreign companies rights to prospect for oil offshore will change anything.

The last year it was still legal for Americans who were part of a cultural group.

I tripped and fell (just cuts and bruises) down a dark winding staircase where a small family restaurant for tourists was on the top floor. I got a nurse immediately at the hotel- she used gentian violet, which I have not seen for thirty years but certainly did the trick and it cost me $2. I've also read about some amazing pharmaceutical products being developed in Cuba

But later in my trip a young Hispanic NYC filmmaker bled to death. It was partly because no one in the hospital was willing to admit they couldn't find the source of the bleeding without an MRI and to get one of the many Americans there to call the infamous "American Interests" office so a helicopter could be sent from Miami.

Yes, he still could have died, and maybe he couldn't have afforded the MRI in Miami, but it felt like a pointless and unnecessary death.

_{1."George Washington did not cross the Delaware for Capitalism," -Shmuley Boteach.
2.The Dems haven't punished the GOP enough, so you're going to reward the Republicans?}

Ever since Ry Cooder did Buena Vista Social Club, I have so wanted to visit Cuba.

so many will be destitute like before and become prostitutes like before

It's more like they're prostitutes now. Desafortunadamente las jineteras han vuelto.

thanks for the link.
that article was on topic and well done but also spoke tangentally about Cuba's poverty.

How particularly bizarre for an UN organization to publish such poorly researched material, especially since holidays in Cuba are enjoyed by people from all over the world - except the US, of course, a fact which itself may be partly responsible for its success as a tourist destination. Sex tourists who choose Cuba are in for a sad surprise. There are no Go-Go Bars, no strip joints, no massage parlors, no bordellos, no xxx movie houses or xxx video stores and your chances of bringing a jintero to your hotel are very limited. For starters, even if she is allowed to accompany you to you room (unlikely) she wont want to risk the 3 year jail term she might receive if anybody at the hotel wishes to report her, for prostitution is strictly illegal in Cuba. That is not to say it does not occur - but its practitioners are usually very young and easily dazzled by foreigners. It may dampen the flames of passion to discover she really wants to practice her English and introduce you to her brothers. It may also be something of a problem for you to discover, after the fact, that the girl's fee for her one time experience as a jintera will be one live chicken. Don't laugh. I once met a pathetic fool Dane in Havana who, having sampled exotica in most parts of the world fancied himself to be an experienced sex tourist - AKA the Doofus from Denmark. He felt literally in fear for his life. He had bedded the girl alright, for which she demanded the chicken. The guy was desperately scouring Havana in search of a chicken he could buy, with her entire family in furious pursuit. Cuba is a relatively small island and Havana is a very small city. They don't get out much, as we know. Consequently, many people know each other. If Senora Lopez' daughter is loitering on the Malecon, you can bet the family will promptly find out. When a crazy phoney photographer from Denmark is desperately searching all over town for a chicken, everybody can easily figure out his story. I don't mean to make light of this. Cuban families are very close and very protective. Cuban men are a pretty macho lot and this trade, small though it is, is very humiliating for them. So the Doofus from Denmark spent the rest of his 10 day holiday holed up in his hotel, too afraid to venture outside for fear of encountering the girl or some member of her extended family. Very hilarious. Anyway, I don't mean to rant, except to say there are many sex tourism destinations in the world, Cuba is definitely not one of them. To the extent that prostitution exists, to my certain knowledge it is not "professional", and not driven by drugs and, while it may be theoretically be rooted in poverty, the economic difficulties affecting these girls are not different than those affecting everybody else.

While there is no doubt that the embargo has exacted a severe economic toll on Cuba, it is not impossibly daunting. The veil of propaganda is gossamer thin on these stories that highlight the so-called desperation of the Cuban people. Baloney. I recently read one of these in which it was suggested that even physicians and lawyers in Cuba are so desperate for cash that they're forced to turn tricks. Uhm... Are you actually turned on by Doctors and Lawyers in your life? (cause that's a wee bit twisted.) Anyway, the next time you're in one of their offices, I dare you to imagine how you would raise the subject of the naughty services you'd like to them to provide. What on earth would make anybody think such exchanges happen in Cuba. Hogwash.

well run business that does not involve chickens. When I was visiting Bangkok I begged my partner to take me inside one of those sex businesses. I wanted to see for myself how it all worked but I needed a man to help me satisfy my curiosity. After much prodding he finally relented.

We stepped out of a taxi in front of a large building that had practically no windows. We entered the main entrance and found ourselves in a huge hall where we were met by several well dressed men who informed us that women don't visit here. After some explaining they took us to a few comfortable couches that were placed on one side of the long hall in front of a bar. My partner and these men were somewhat embarrassed by my presence and kept smiling (sort of) uncomfortably. So I just smiled back at them. I was happy.

The other side of this long hall was separated by a clear window behind which were about 5 rows of long carpeted steps. About 20-25 Thai girls were sitting spread out on these steps each holding a large white board with a number. My partner and I were the only ones in the hall when we arrived but soon enough a group of boisterous Asian men walked in. They huddled together at a high round table in front of the window that gave them a good view of all the girls. After much laughing and giggling one of the guys left the table and put his face against the window. He then walked to a small desk at the end of the hall where he placed his order. A number was called and the girl matching the number stood up and left the room. She met her customer at the desk and off they went up the elevator. I wanted to stay longer but unfortunately, my partner couldn't take it anymore so we left.

Maybe this is all old hat to most people here but for me it was quite an eye opening experience. I did some other 'investigations' but I'll keep those private. I wouldn't want to upset the ingrained views of female sexuality of the mainly elite white males :)

Yes, Thailand has beautiful beaches but what I missed most when I left was our daily one hour massages.

To the extent that prostitution exists, to my certain knowledge it is not "professional", and not driven by drugs and, while it may be theoretically be rooted in poverty, the economic difficulties affecting these girls are not different than those affecting everybody else.

By everybody else I presume you don't mean Americans cuz I could find a chicken in under 10 days here.

I mean other islanders. Of course you can find lots of skinny chickens in Cuba, even in La Habana Vieja . They're just not readily available to a lascivious fat old wannabe sex tourist who has become the laughing stock of the neighborhood.

They're just not readily available to a lascivious fat old wannabe sex tourist who has become the laughing stock of the neighborhood.

Is there a chicken shortage?

a CHICKEN JOKE????

_{Turn back to the Constitution - and READ it.}

How particularly bizarre for an UN organization to publish such poorly researched material, especially since holidays in Cuba are enjoyed by people from all over the world - except the US, of course, a fact which itself may be partly responsible for its success as a tourist destination.

Not bizarre at all. Who do you think runs the UN?

Prostitutes were always there but I was referring to the time before the revolution when Havana was like Thailand is now. If you go there now, you will not notice it but you will soon; that is once there are "free and fair" elections then there will be so much and so many to exploit.

"Free and fair" elections may soon return to beautiful Cuba, with American overseers to insure the elections are completely honest and everybody will be hap, hap, happy. Canosa's corpse will be instantly restored to life, his Miami follower's tormented dreams realized at last, and in the first bright, sultry Havana morning, the mafia will rise again.

Oh yes, when Cuba again embraces capitalism, the world will finally rock back on its axis. Prostitutes will charge a proper fee. People will again remember that it is very important not to ask questions about the bodies hanging from the lampposts.

And let's not forget to bring back the bloodline that made it all possible! I'm sure Batista had plenty of children, any one of which could take over as El Senor Presidente (a.k.a. Our Man in Havana). Heck, one of his grandsons was appointed to the Florida Supreme Court by none other than Jeb Bush. That's some mighty fine Bush Crime Family roots...

Apocalypse Khan

A significant edit to point # 4, though. The revolution was certainly not funded by Soviet Russia. Cuba did not turn to Communism until the coup was already a couple of years old.

It will be interesting to see how all this turns out. Why are the Venezuelans settling in Miami and not anywhere else? Because the Cubans are there? Are you saying that the animosity between these two groups and others is creating volatility? The nuances of intrigue seem to be pulling in different directions.

your last sentence nailed it right. it's not terribly complicated at all but not black and white either. both countries exile groups have their very large hard right wing contingencies that share that but are competitive with each other at the same time for local power and influence. altogether, their overt animosities are for the left wingers of course, of which there's damn few in the cuban exile community itself, and i'd suspect likewise for the venezuelan exile community, but the nature of exile communities is such that they're not completely detached from their homelands; there's very very often friends and family still back home (and home sympathy in general), some of whom either are left winger by practical necessity or by inclination. given how the charade of the US as benevolent and of unquestionable moral rectitude is blown to the degree it almost seems as authoritarian as any dictatorship or headed that way, and given all the propaganda stirred now by the whole 'southern revolution' movement, the heated political admixture between local politics and international politics is complicated to this degree. that's the crux of it. basically, the miami syndrome is to believe it's local politics matters internationally and influences things. the damnable part is that cuba-wise it has to some degree. this is the coat-tail prize for the other exile groups. and there's a bunch more than just venezuelans and cubans to lesser degree. see how it's both complicated and simple? left and right is one thing but add these fiery competitive natures and the multiplicity of nationalities such is borne of, they gotta work together while butting heads a little. i can well imagine how tightly they maintain insulation from each other even as their kids commingle together in the schools and whatnot, not to mention on jobs and in commerce. it's a mess. think of it; there's el salvadorans, colombians, peruvians, panamanians, ecuadorans, argentinians, costa ricans, puerto ricans, jamaicans, hondurans, bolivians, brazilians, of all colors and castes and persuasions sexually, politically, financially, intellectually, artistically, and so on, all commingling in one town. some are transients, some are newcomers, some of old hands. miami is an old port town that is now in one hell of a position in the new world political map. it boggles the mind to contemplate from afar, imagine being there amidst the reality. and i don't know who can really cover it all. certainly not the miami herald writers. leonard pitts jr. just recently wrote a naif column on how america is beginning to seem like 1984. well, duh! it used to be the paper of prestige. remember that sally field / paul newman movie? that was the herald of old, when it was a great investigative paper. now, i'd imagine the miami new times to be of better cred and import. and under all that, literally is the aquifer, the underground river that flows through all of south florida in it's coral rock bed -it's so contaminated with gas and jet fuel and other crap that it's been a major issue and scandal for years, and tied into the other water-related issue of the need to undo the canal drainage that the army corps of engineers had so proudly accomplished. lots of money has been granted from washington to undo all that cause it totally snafued the everglades environmentally. this infrastructure problem/scandal was one (and wellknown and written upon) before such became problems nationwide and was hugely exacerbated by the population influx. miami's import got it a priority and there's lots of federal money to be fought over. i'm telling ya, it's a mess. imagine coming off the boat and looking to make it in miami. the cost of living there has skyrocketed. i can only imagine how getting work is directly tied to who ya know. man, i never had trouble finding work there in the old days, but later it got hard, real hard. when i left the county traffic department in 1980, a buddy of mine there, a traffic engineer, lambasted the hell out of me for doing so saying i could've held that job for life. some life. um, did i get offtopic?

nuances... oh hell yeah. that was my trouble at the main offices of TAMPA, i didn't know the colombian politics nuances. i didn't know squat. i had no idea of the import of the personages i dealt familiarly with at all. i see their names in news articles now and shake my head at what i could have known. and it's gotta be a hundred times more complex now. rodrigo arboleda ran that office and was involved with more than that, networking and thinktank stuff. (he was and is a great guy, one Hell of a guy. suave as hell too, picture a better looking andy garcia.) as far as i understand, he split back to colombia and stayed there. smart man, very very brilliant guy. but i suspect he'd on the whole rather had stayed, rather had been able to rather. he was just too smart to do so, i suspect. and so on.

lastly, consider miami a 'port town' as far as banking goes too... the picture is just too big to comprehend and hold. for me anyway. whew.

namaste.

mention blackwater or infragard and the miami commando types come to mind. think alpha 66. think old dreams. & old CIA war stories and connections. & betrayals. imagine taking the tamiami trail out due west far enough, past krome, to where one might hear the far-off pop pop pop of weekend warriors... waiting for the day castro steps down... oh wait, that day came.

A difficult read but an utterly fascinating one. Sort of like hanging on to the wing of a 747 flying through turbulence. Thanks for sharing your experience, Zuma. It adds real perspective.

i can well imagine it a difficult read. horribly horribly written, but i couldn't get it out much differently. obviously if i spent considerable time (days) crafting it all together coherently, i *might* have a cogent piece worth posting.

there's many tangents and sideroads that beckon too. like the side fights i know little of, like between el salvador and who? ecuador? nor did i mention nicaragua (sp?). such things have their niches everywhere, not just miami. i more than made my small point of miami's unfortunate suffering as an international crossroad in all kinds of ways and events. the CIA's ageold activities there add to the mud of it, it's all just a mess. it's not anything i write well upon but i've been exposed to so much there, especially through my dad, that i can't let the material go untouched and so try to do my best, but am really in over my head on it all. like i said, there's no clear edge to the topic, and many tributaries branching off. thanks for your kind comment.

there's a book or twenty that may never be written about all of miami's thick and turbulent and relevent history. more's the pity.

who said (paraphrasing) "I apologize for this lengthy letter; I simply had no time to write a shorter one".

kind.

implied or intended, Zuma. Your energy and experience just comes flooding out. It's like everything keeps lining up in the machine to deliver endless jackpots. I'm fascinated by what you're writing. Please keep it up. More. More. More!!! (I'd insert Tina's bowing icons here, if I knew where she finds those things.)

ideally, i should be gathering than writing, aggregating instead of spewing.
a lot of this, for me, is about indiginous peoples. drugs, sex, politics, history, culture, ecology/environment/earth, philosophy, all of it all of it, just turns for me on one thought, one topic, one phrase; indiginous peoples.
one of the few central nuggets my father repeatedly (over and over) made a point of imprinting upon me was Don't Be An 'Ugly American'. that began coming at a time when i was encountering peoples significantly different. it meant a great many things. it meant as well simply about race too, but especially about thinking globally. that was also what he was trying imprint upon me, the world is for all of us together as a whole; feel it, travel, and represent yourself as yourself and know others as themselves, and all with equal reality.

indiginous peoples have a clearer connection somehow, no matter their true ancient roots across the bering strait or whatever mixed breeding later occurred. earth matters first, was here first, and so spranged usses lil chilluns... earth is a living personality to me, writhing in life and joy and pain and fertility and passage onward. everything's connected, and way too large for me. so i reduce it down for myself to such a central phrase and thought; indiginous peoples. of their earth. earth's spouting of they and their connection to it.

it's almost tacky, like white guilt, and male guilt, but i don't feel guilt. i feel conscious. responsible. obliged.
i should post more about the Juarez Feministicidas, for example, and keep that topic going, year after year.
i should post more about my dad's buddy Bob Greibling and his murder at the hands of FARC and keep his memory alive.
i should post more about Puerto Rico's independence movement.
i should stay apprised of all that more. and indian affairs here as well.
i should have posted on australia's recent apology to the aborigines.
i should have damn well stayed in touch with mauricio castro, son of my dad's buddy jaime castro. mauricio was my own age and visited us for a month in miami when i was about 18.
and so on.

Puerto Rico. i attended a military school there, out in the country. (i recently left a wiki type note online to anyone seeking info on it. and left a hello to pirulo, a young kid when i knew him. who shoulda coulda had his own TV show. what a little character.) while i was at the academy, i explored the dirt back roads and encountered peoples wholly unlike any i ever had before. i might as well been in appalachia perhaps but i was there. it left a great impression on me, broader than just some incountry aspect of Puerto Rico. -on weekends i'd join my dad in cargo runs to different virgin islands. i always brought a ton of comic books. i always, a little reluctantly, left them with the island kids. my dad's influence. and so on.

i am always trying to reconcile the lost, forgotten, ignored, obscure -the inequities, the imbalances -if not always the injustices... as if i am trying to demystify the foreign and 'Novel', by damn near invoking it. i am clumsy.

but the other thing my dad always always exhorted me to do was to Follow My Nose. and trust my hand and gut.
it was ironic; the Feminine had a great champion in him, yet our rather matriarchal social family was ruled by women whom were more loyal to masculine power and patriarchy. but he was a rebel who eschewed such white shirted 'business' and rather engaged the world on it's own real terms -rather than dominate it.

anyway, it all informs and guides my stupid [dinosaur] brain and hand.

just now, before logging in here again, i was [typically] reading this stuff:

http://www.libertadlatina.org/Latin_America_Machismo_p1.htm

http://www.libertadlatina.org/Latin_America_Machismo_p2.htm

http://www.libertadlatina.org/Latin_America_Machismo_p3.htm

http://www.libertadlatina.org/Latin_America_Machismo_p4.htm

this is what influences my art to some large degree.

i have a character i simply call the Matron Elder. i haven't many image urls handy of her and it's just as well i guess, but for me, she's almost earth's main emissary (rather than ruler). she's almost more a totem than character per se'. i tried introducing her in RYF but backed off... (as i back off fiction in general...)

indiginous peoples... are never well wholly represented by any one person (russell means for example) than they are by themselves...

but i continue slinging ink anyway.

my dad, my dad... and his motif of Poor Lost Souls... all of us.

http://zuma.vip.warped.com/indiginiez.jpg

http://zuma.vip.warped.com/lingua_primitivo.png

http://zuma.vip.warped.com/lost_in_the_void.png

http://zuma.vip.warped.com/como_no.png

http://zuma.vip.warped.com/planetplantplan.png

http://zuma.vip.warped.com/ancient_man.jpg

http://zuma.vip.warped.com/matronelder.jpg

http://zuma.vip.warped.com/icaro-like_auti-convo_ITZ.png

http://zuma.vip.warped.com/z/#kaiwoa

http://zuma.vip.warped.com/page.htm#island

http://zuma.vip.warped.com/page.htm#rainmaker (as protestants, do we still protest?)

http://zuma.vip.warped.com/page.htm#5thgate

http://zuma.vip.warped.com/page.htm#pls (charlie foxtrot & poor lost souls)

experiences? me? only in my saphappy and deranged head.
i don't know what more i possibly have left to say but to preach perspective drafting to young illustrators.
the only convention, and epiphany, worth pushing.

At 78 years old Muchado Ventura is another of the reovolution's loyal old guys - historicos - who are revered in Cuba. Maybe the appointment also implies a tiny little "up yours - expect business as usual" to the US, but I think even that is doubtful and requires a degree of fearful paranoia verging on absurdity. I also think the USA has far, far more important things to worry about at the moment, than the state of affairs in Cuba (despite the admonitions of Barbara Frum's hideous spawn.)