Tagged: Cuba
Fidel, Israel, and Iran
Do not miss Jeffrey Goldberg’s continuing posts about his surprise command audience with Fidel Castro last week. First instalment here; second here.
Goldberg is a perplexing figure, a former member of the IDF, quick to call anti-semitism against anyone who balks at his lockstep advocacy of troubling Israeli policies. He caused a stir recently with an Atlantic cover story speculating about an impending Israeli nuclear strike against Iran. Many regarded the article as thinly disguised tub-thumping for such an attack (see here and here), while others demurred. In the end, the Atlantic held an extensive, online print debate about the issue — which may turn out to be the most important of the decade.
Turns out Castro was reading, and two weeks ago, Goldberg got a phone call from Jorge Bolanos, head of the US State Department’s Cuban Interest Section.
“I have a message for you from Fidel,” Bolanos said. “He has read your Atlantic article about Iran and Israel. He invites you to Havana on Sunday to discuss the article.”
Goldberg and Castro, who is clearly worried about the prospect of war in the Middle East, chatted for three days, and while he might not be my choice for an interlocutor, he was Fidel’s, and the results are fascinating.
Cuban agents rough up blogger
Yoani Sánchez, the dissident Cuban blogger Contrarian featured last month, reports that she and three associates were briefly detained and roughed up by Cuban security agents while en route to an anti-violence demonstration Friday. In the face of Cuba’s police state, Sánchez’s behaviour is what you might call ballsy.
I just managed to grab, through his trousers, one’s testicles, in an act of desperation. I dug my nails in, thinking he was going to crush my chest until the last breath. “Kill me now,” I screamed, with the last inhalation I had left in me, and the one in front warned the younger one, “Let her breathe.”
Contrarian readers can convey their dismay at Sanchez’s mistreatment directly to her excellency, Ms. Teresita de Jesús Vicente Sotolongo, Cuba’s Ambassador to Canada, at 388 Main St., Ottawa, ON, K1S 1E3, by telephone at (613) 563-0141, by fax at (613) 563-0068, or by email: cuba@embacubacanada.net.
Hat tip: CC.
Generación Y
A few months ago, a friend and I spent a week in Cuba—not the usual Canadian stay in a beachside resort, but a week spent tramping the streets of Havana seeking out baseball games, opera, and the wonderful music that is the island nation’s rightful trademark.
We enjoyed the music and the weather, but the overwhelming impression was depressing: grinding poverty, decayed buildings, and the leaden air of a police state.
Last week, Yoani Sánchez, a 34-year-old Cuban writer, editor, and linguistics scholar, won the Columbia University’s Maria Moors Cabot Prize for journalism that advances inter-American understanding. Cuban authorities exercise tight control over Internet access, but Sánchez somehow manages to write a critical blog, Generación Y (also available in an English version), cataloging with wit and grace the spirit-crushing quality of life under totalitarianism.
The Cuban government refused Sánchez’s request for permission to travel to New York for the award ceremony, but she managed to post a YouTube video of her acceptance speech. She also recounted her conversation with the functionary who denied her request for an exit visa. Moneyquote:
Clerk: At this time you cannot travel.
Yoani: Why don’t you want me to put one foot on a plane? What are you afraid of? What can this 110 pound person do? Create a tsunami? Why then won’t you let me leave the country?
Clerk: I already told you…
Yoani: You are being ridiculous. But no, I don’t want to repeat. You are making a travesty of life. This institution, that you represent, this permission to leave, some day this is going to end. My grandchildren are not going to live under these conditions. When I tell them the story of how the institutions of my country violated my rights, my right to travel, they’re not going to believe me. What will you tell your children? That you dedicated yourself to violating the rights of Cubans? Is that what you’ll say? Because really, I feel sorry for you for what you are going to have to tell your children in the future.
Capitalism fails again: why you can’t get a Kindle in Canada – updated
The Globe and Mail’s Omar El Akkad has the skinny on why Amazon’s hugely successful Kindle book reader, now available in more than 100 countries, still can’t be purchased in Canada. Moneyquote:
Sources say the delay may be due to newly discovered competition. Until recently, the wireless technology used by the Kindle was available only through Rogers. This week, however, Bell and Telus announced a new next-generation network that will go live in November, giving Amazon more options to choose from for their device. The two carriers announced this week that they will use the new network to begin offering Apple’s iPhone, previously only available through Rogers.
Neither Telus nor Rogers would comment for the story, and Bell said little. One has to wonder whether Rogers played too cute by half, trying to hold Amazon (and Apple) to ransom when it was the only game in town, and now suddenly finding itself with eager competitors for Kindle and iPhone customers. Says El Akkad:
There seems little doubt that Canadians will eventually get their hands on the Kindle, the only question is when. If Amazon does decide to partner up with Bell or Telus, then Canadian customers can expect the device as early as next month – only a few weeks after the Cook Islands.
Mike McKenzie responds:
You should pick up a Kindle on your next trip to Cuba. If you take a few cases of toilet paper, a set of wrenches, and some fish hooks you could barter for one.
