Visits to Cuba from U.S. help bring families, nations closer together

[Say_What]

The times they are a-changin'

<clips>

HAVANA, Cuba - (KRT) - When Julio Gomez spirited his family out of Cuba in 1962, he thought he'd be gone for a few fleeting months. But the months turned to years, and the Rev. Gomez never made it back - until now.

The 71-year-old retired Methodist preacher put old grudges aside and returned for a family reunion, joining a growing number of Cuban-Americans who are going back to their homeland to mend decades-old wounds. And he called the experience "delicious. I'm glad I did it."

Such trips, some Cuban-American leaders say, are the most important driving force behind an eventual normalization of relations between the United States and Cuba.

Family reunification - not American foreign policy - is what's slowly bringing the two countries closer together, they say.

http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/world/7131014.htm

[Judi Lynn]

1. So now the Cuban immigrants who came here

during the hysteria of the '60's are actually returning to Cuba to re-bond with their left-behind loved ones.

The article indicates there were some big family problems created when this happened, which have "festered" all these years, which they seek to overcome.

They are doing it with absolutely no interference from the U.S. gummint, the same entity which will chase down, enforce fines against, even imprison U.S. non-Cuban citizens for traveling to Cuba.

What's wrong with this picture? Why was a man prohibited from returning to Cuba to sprinkle the ashes of his minister father on the church courtyard where he had preached for years before retirement.

Why was a man refused permission to travel to Cuba to be at the bedside of his dying father?

It would take a dedicated fool to not recognize the offensiveness of our 44 year old cold-war policy.

[Judi Lynn]

2. A Cuban American Nat'l Foundation official out to pick up some quick cash!

Posted on Mon, Oct. 27, 2003

Network to spotlight Cuban culture in English
BY CHRISTINA HOAG
[e-mail]




GOOD START: Cubana One Network Vice President Pedro Prado, left, and President Kevin Adell hope to launch their channel in Naples, Cape Coral and Tampa at first.


A Cuban exile and a former Detroit television executive are planning to launch a cable channel that would exclusively air programming about Cuba in English.

Called Cubana One Network, the Naples-based company is currently meeting with cable providers across Florida to sign up the channel on their digital tier.

So far, three contracts are pending with systems in Southwest Florida and more meetings are scheduled, said Kevin Adell, president of Cubana One, a nonprofit organization he formed three months ago after moving to Naples. Bright House Networks in Tampa, Time Warner in Cape Coral and Comcast in Naples are all considering the channel.

Adell's partner is Pedro Prado, a former hotel executive who now runs his own hospitality consulting firm in Naples and is a member of the Cuban American National Foundation's board of directors.
(snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/special_packages/business_monday/7099091.htm

Sure hope American taxpayers aren't unknowingly helping to finance this brain stroke!

[Mika]

6. Oh boy! Yet another CANF channel

"Sure hope American taxpayers aren't unknowingly helping to finance this brain stroke!"

The cable companies mentioned are all AOL. 'Nuff said.

[caysalbanks]

3. I hope NATO isn´t planing on invading Cuba

recent NATO excercises in Colorado are feared to be a practice mission for the take over of Havana

[Mika]

4. NATO?

EVERY country that is a member of NATO (excluding the USA) has formalized and good relations with Cuba, including many substantial joint venture investments with the Cuban government. Every one of those countries votes to condemn the US sanctions on Cuba in annual UN votes.

NATO knows better than to do any such thing (besides, the Caribbean isn't even in their jurisdiction).

[Judi Lynn]

7. I've thought about what you said in this post for a little while

and can't exactly grasp how the same countries which vote against the American embargo on Cuba would at the same time even consider invading Cuba!

I tried to have an open mind, but this just doesn't sound quite right, does it?

[Say_What]

9. Must be

lunch time on Calle Ocho and the kiddies are out to play ;-)

[Judi Lynn]

10. Getting a rancid Cuban sandwich

can drain you of your ability to reason!

[newyawker99]

11. Hi caysalbanks!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Judi Lynn]

5. Some Haitian immigrants who got a ROUGH reception in the U.S.

(snip) One year later, Haitian refugee builds a new life while another waits in detention

By Tanya Weinberg
Staff Writer
Posted October 29 2003

She had no food, no water, no idea where she was headed when she crowded onto the boat about to leave from Cap Haitien. On board were her mother, her younger brothers, and her toddler daughter. She carried an unborn child but no second thoughts of taking to the open sea.

"I had to take the boat," said Murielle Dieudonne, 22. "If something happened, something happened. Because, if we stay in Haiti, it was more dangerous." (snip)

(snip) Charles is among those asking to be heard again. In February the farmer won asylum from an immigration judge who found his story of political violence against his family credible. He testified the threats sent him into a hardscrabble life in hiding for six years, sneaking visits with and support to his nine children when he could.

But the federal Department of Homeland Security, which now oversees immigration, kept him at the Krome detention center while appealing the judge's decision.

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-chaitian29oct29,0,3149559.story?coll=sfla-news-front

Hi, caysalbanks! Welcome to D.U. :hi: :hi: :bounce:

[loudnclear]

8. Just proves how wrong-headed the macho war-mongering is.

We left Viet Nam in communists hands: what has happened to the world because that happened? China is communist: is anything going on in the world that makes them more evil than the evil-doers Bush identified? Are they more barbaric than Israel? Castro still leads Cuba: did Cuba bomb us? The USSR is gone: is Russia better off, is the world? Russia is out of Afghanistan and we are in: what has improved for the Afghanis?
Saddam is gone: is the world really safer? For that matter is Israel any safer with Saddam gone? At some point we all have to stop swallowing whole what the oligarchies and press shove down our throats.
Israel a democracy: Israel is a colonial-settlementocracy. We liberated Iraq: We killed more Iraqi than all of the so-called terrorists since we overthrew Saddam. We won the war on terrorism in Afghanistan: only if you shut your eyes and keep them shut. The US economy is improving: only if you are wealthy and white. FOX News is fair and balanced: only in their dreams.