Cuba says ready to establish "healthy" relations with US

[Say_What]

<clips>

The Cuban government said Wednesday it is ready to establish "healthy" relations with the United States, which imposed a full unilateral embargo on the Caribbean country four decades ago.

　　"We have created an economic and social infrastructure, but above all, human capabilities that make us fully trust our opportunities to develop healthy relations with the United States," said Vice Foreign Trade Minister Pedro Padron, in an interactiveInternet forum.

　　But eventual changes in relations with the United States would not change the direction, nor the "deeply human sense of our social project," he said.

　　On the embargo, Padron said despite the US blockade, Cuba was maintaining trade relations with more than 170 countries from all over the world.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2003-10/16/content_1126290.htm

[SlavesandBulldozers]

1. Cuba, dont hold your breath

In case you haven't noticed the US is governed by paranoiacs who see hobgoblins everywhere. Couple that with the fact that the Bush dynasty is reliant on the Miami cuban enclave for reliable Republican votes. NOrmalized relations? Not gunna happen.

[Judi Lynn]

2. It's good they put people on notice, officially

That there's NO WAY they're going to accept input from the anti-Cuban machine flourishing in South Florida, regardless of HOW MANY projects on planning Cuba's future they fund and offer at Florida Universities, at taxpayers' expense.

[Say_What]

3. Kucinich to keynote SVREP event in Miami

Kucinich has come out publicly against the Cuban embargo, his remarks in Miami will tell how much moxy he really has. He will be the FIRST candidate of either party to do so. As the author points out, the Cuban Miami is tired of listening to the same old tired lines.

<clips>

In his campaign website, Dennis Kucinich calls himself “The Progressive Choice.” Of all the Democratic Party candidates running for president, I tend to agree that he is.

You’ll have a chance to see for yourself when he visits Miami on Thursday, October 23, where he will offer the keynote address at the 2nd Annual SVREP Florida reception scheduled from 7 to 9 p.m. at The New Radisson Miami Hotel, 1601 Biscayne Boulevard. Other speakers that night will include candidate for mayor of Miami-Dade County Jimmy Morales, the reform-minded Councilman from South Miami Dan McCrea, and Haitian activist and dynamo Marleine Bastien.

As many of you well know, I head the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project (SVREP) effort in the state of Florida. Last year’s event featured former Attorney General Janet Reno and was held at the same location, different hotel. As they call it in the business, the property has changed flags. Used to be Renaissance, now it’s a Radisson. There’s plenty of parking; we’d love to see you there.

Actually, it offers some of our Progreso Weekly readers who live in the Miami area a chance to get together, meet each other, and listen to a presidential candidate who many give little chance of winning to, but who may be setting the presidential pace while discussing issues that have been left in the backburner for too long. Issues that are slowly driving the Party back to the Democratic side of the aisle.

http://www.rprogreso.com/

[Say_What]

4. Reactions to Bush’s speech by Cubans in Cuba

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...“This guy has a thing with our national holidays,” said Rigoberto Carmenate while waiting for his bus.

Bush had made similar declarations on May 20, a date commemorated in Miami, but not by Cubans on the island, because in 1902 the U.S. granted Cuba its formal independence after the United States intervened in the war against Spain. After defeating the Spaniards, U.S. troops remained in Cuba for almost four years.

“We have problems with food, transportation, and we have got to solve them, but the solution is here and with our people. Solutions from the outside and at gun point? No way!”

According to Carmenate, Bush insulted him when he said, “Cuba has to change.”

“What’s he saying we ‘have to change’?"

And that’s because most Cubans, when foreign words have an authoritarian ring, answer back with another mixture: an insulted dignity with macho undertones from a historical culture that the government has played up to.

“Every time he opens his mouth he puts his foot in it,” assured Carmenate.

more in the NEIGHBORS TO THE SOUTH section at Radio Progresso

http://www.rprogreso.com/