Cuba Travel Book Pulled From Elementary Schools

[Judi Lynn]

Apr 5, 2006 11:08 pm US/Eastern

Cuba Travel Book Pulled From Elementary Schools

(AP) MIAMI Miami-Dade school officials say a children's book about traveling to Cuba has been pulled from a school library shelf for review after a parent complained about the book's depiction of life under a communist government.

The Spanish-language book "Vamos a Cuba" is still available at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Elementary School in Miami, just not on the library shelf pending an April 19th review.

Miami-Dade school officials say the book includes images of smiling children wearing uniforms of a communist youth group and a carnival celebrating the Cuban revolution of 1959.

School officials say the parent immigrated from Cuba and doesn't feel the book accurately represents life in Cuba. No other complaints about the book have been reported.
(snip/...)

http://cbs4.com/topstories/local_story_095223843.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. A reminder of Bush's rejection of Cuban aid after Katrina

Katrina aid from Cuba? No thanks, says U.S.
America welcomes foreign help, except from an old Cold War foe

By Mary Murray
Producer
NBC News
Updated: 8:38 a.m. ET Sept. 14, 2005

HAVANA — Dr. Luis Sauchay is the kind of hands-on physician you want in an emergency.

Though relatively young at 34, Sauchay has chalked up more than a decade of practicing hardship medicine.

Right out of medical school, he spent two years on the high seas, the only doctor for hundreds of fishermen aboard an industrial vessel.

During two other years, he cared for the sick and forgotten in an understaffed African clinic, treating countless cases of tuberculosis and cholera.

For the last five years, he has been the local family doctor for 200 working-class families in Havana’s Párraga neighborhood.
(snip/...)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9311876/

[bluestateguy]

2. One parent

One parent complained, so a whole policy has to be reversed.

This used to drive me up the wall when I was in school.

[Crunchy Frog]

3. They would have only considered it valid

if the child had been depicted narrowly escaping being eaten by Castro.

Really, this is one area where I wish immigration rules were equitably enforced.

[Mika]

4. All Cuba "experts*" know that Cuban children have to be forced to smile.

*- especially those who have never been to Cuba.


You can just tell these children are being forced by Castro himself. :sarcasm:

[Judi Lynn]

5. Secretly they're terrified. They are forced to cover it all up behind

huge smiles, grins, and laughter! They're nearly numb with fear, no doubt! :sarcasm:

[David__77]

6. We have our own Berlin Wall against Cuba.

We are not free to travel freely to Cuba. How is that different than the East Germans not being free to travel to West Europe? It is not different. Think about that...

[K-W]

7. Only Americans have the right to smile. EOM