Governors criticized for Cuba visits

[Judi Lynn]

Governors criticized for Cuba visits

Tuesday, August 16, 2005; Posted: 1:13 p.m. EDT (17:13 GMT)

Governors and other politicians often must first confront letters and calls discouraging their trip, generally from Florida lawmakers fiercely opposed to Cuban President Fidel Castro and from other Republicans supporting long-standing U.S. trade and travel restrictions against the island.

Criticism of their visit then continues, often long after the governors return to their home states.

Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman -- who in Cuba to secure sales of his state's beans, corn and wheat to the island -- has carefully steered clear of anything smelling of politics since his arrival last weekend.

"The products we are negotiating are legal; we are not engaged in international politics," he told The Associated Press in an interview early Tuesday. "We're keeping focused on what the mission is."

Heineman, the fifth U.S. governor to travel to Cuba on business, declined to express any opinions about the U.S. trade embargo, saying that the policy is in the hands of U.S. President George W. Bush and Congress.
(snip/...)

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/08/16/cuba.usgovernors.ap/index.html

[Vogon_Glory]

1. Those Governors Come From States With Two Senators...

Considering that the governors (and the senators) were elected to represent their states' interests, there's no rational reason why the cosmic commie-bashers of South Florida should expect these out-of-state governors to be at their beck and call.

I wonder at the exiles' political calculus, too. Each of those farm state governors come from states with two US senators. I don't see why they should be expected to vote against their states' prosperity any more than their predecessors should have been expected to vote against the wheat sales to the old USSR back in the 1970's and 1980's.

Besides, what has Bacardi done for the state of Nebraska lately?

[Judi Lynn]

2. Info. on Cuban embargo shows it goes back to Dwight Eisenhower

Lotta people don't know that!

Before the embargo
The United States and Cuba have close geographic, economic and historical ties. Cuba was a Spanish colony for 400 years until December 1898, when Spain ceded control of Cuba to the U.S. after it was defeated in the Spanish-American War. The U.S. subsequently granted Cuba its independence in 1902. There was substantial U.S. investment in Cuban production of sugar and tobacco for export, and in tourism, and preferential access for Cuban imports to the United States.

The U.S. government initially supported the Cuban Revolution, formally recognizing the new government of Fidel Castro on January 7, 1959, after Batista fled on January 1. However, relations rapidly deteriorated when the new Cuban government passed the first Agrarian Reform Law to begin expropriation of large-scale (largely American-owned) land holdings on May 17, 1959. The compensation offered (based on 20-year bonds at 4.5% interest for the tax-assessed value) was seen as inadequate, and was rejected by American interests.

Embargo
A U.S. arms embargo had been in force since armed conflict broke out in Cuba in 1958. In response to the nationalizations and expropriations, the U.S. reduced the Cuban import quota of sugar by 700,000 tons in July 1960; the Soviet Union responded by agreeing to purchase the sugar instead, and further Cuban expropriations followed. A partial economic embargo was imposed by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower on October 19, 1960, and diplomatic relations were broken on January 3, 1961—two years after Castro's rise to power. The Soviet Union again stepped in to provide economic subsidies to Cuba.
(snip/...)

http://www.answers.com/topic/united-states-embargo-against-cuba

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Many people also aren't aware that compensation was offered to the owners of Cuban land at the very beginning of the nationalization, and it was refused. The myth has been spread that Cuba stole Cuban land from the landowners.

Cuban landowners who live in other countries accepted the terms of the compensation long ago, and concluded the matter. American businesses and Cuban "exile" landowners believed they'd just seize it at a later date and bypass negotiations.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Cuban musician gives hope to Latin America

Posted on Tue, Aug. 16, 2005

Cuban musician gives hope to Latin America

VANESSA ARRINGTON
Associated Press

HAVANA - In his 58 years, Silvio Rodriguez has watched wars come and go, ideologies blossom and wither, love emerge and evaporate. Yet even as the Cuban musician struggled with disappointment and his own faith in the underlying beauty and magic of life, his poetry put to guitar planted hope in millions of fans and turned him into Latin America's icon of idealism.

Rodriguez is a dreamer, a visionary, the Bob Dylan of the Latin world. Though not well known in the United States, generations of Mexicans, Argentines and Cubans have marked important moments in their lives to his haunting melodies: a first kiss, and ensuing heartbreak; protest marches in college, and subsequent political disillusionment.
(snip)

"I see in Silvio a voice constantly trying to bring hope, and belief in a future humanity that we could all enjoy," entertainer Harry Belafonte, Rodriguez's friend for some 30 years, told the AP.
(snip)

Belafonte recalled a Rodriguez concert in Cuba in the late '70s and being struck by the reaction of the audience, which was filled primarily with young people.

"It was not only the extreme reverence with which the young viewed him, it was the way they began to sing the songs," Belafonte said. "It was more than just mouthing the lyrics - they became deeply connected to his poetry."

Earlier this year, Rodriguez performed to youthful throngs in an open-air concert in front of a Havana university. The audience stayed and sang along for hours despite an intense downpour throughout.
(snip)

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/living/12397166.htm
(Free registration required)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Found music samples. The first one has bad acoustics, the rest seem very interesting:

http://silviorodriguez.calabashmusic.com/