Cuba study trips face crackdown

[Judi Lynn]

Cuba study trips face crackdown

By Robert Becker
Tribune higher education reporter
Published December 7, 2003

Juliet Munoz left for Cuba on Friday, along with 26 other students and faculty from DePaul University, hoping to learn during the next three weeks about life and culture on the island nation under the regime of Fidel Castro.

"I hope with this trip to unlock the genuine spirit of the people and to try and observe what their culture and their land means to them," said Munoz, whose father fled Castro's Cuba in the late 1960s.
But the opportunity for Munoz--and thousands of other college students--to experience Cuban culture firsthand is now in question as the Bush administration clamps down on travel to Cuba.

Amid charges of election-year politicking, the administration has moved to eliminate a category of license that some universities and educational organizations use for travel to Cuba. (snip)

(snip) "There are political considerations driving this crackdown on visits to Cuba," said Terry Hartle, senior vice president of the American Council on Education, a Washington-based organization that represents 1,800 college and university presidents. "The administration is under intense pressure from leaders of the Cuban exile community to be tougher on Cuba, and this is part of this effort." (snip)

(snip) There is no substitute for walking through Havana's streets and talking to locals, educators say. (snip)

(snip) "I want to give them the opportunity to talk to people in the street, to talk to people in different organizations and make their own judgment," said Masud-Piloto, also an associate professor of history. "We don't have an agenda." (snip/...)

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0312070350dec07,1,4284833.story?coll=chi-news-hed

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[Mika]

1. Our policy is intended to stop people to people contacts. Why?

"The administration is under intense pressure from leaders of the Cuban exile community to be tougher on Cuba, and this is part of this effort."

What f-ing hypocrisy.

The only group of American citizens or residents that are allowed to travel to Cuba are the Cuba exiles who supposedly 'escaped' Cuba. And they do. Over 100,000 US based Cuban exiles return to Cuba for a trip or vacation per year.

Even Ron Raygun espoused people to people contacts with commies.

And where do the Dem party prez candidates stand?.. Aside from D Kucinich, more of the same crap,
http://www.lawg.org/pages/new%20pages/Misc/prez-candidates1.htm

[Judi Lynn]

2. You know, Mika, you can't FORCE people to think, apparently.

I knew NOTHING about Cuba when Elián Gonzalez was taken prisoner by his distant relatives in Miami, but when I heard his great uncle, the drunken Lázaro had actually VACATIONED in Cuba, where he had met Elián's family, (sleeping in Juan Miguel's own bed, while Elián's dad slept in his own car, to accomodate him) I realized I had just heard something which DOES NOT FIT IN WITH WHAT WE HAVE BEEN TOLD.

If the Cuban "exiles" flee to Miami to "escape" political oppression in Cuba, what on God's green earth would tempt them to go back, hang out in the hotel bars and restaurants, go to shows, rent cars, etc., etc.? Wouldn't they be AFRAID of getting thrown into the slammer, according to what we've been told?

Some minds seem so dulled that apparent conflicts, inconsistancies, and paradoxes like this, lie within them like dead fish floating on the water. They don't stimulate thought at ALL. Holy smokes.

I'm far, far newer to info. about Cuba than you, Mika, but I hope to make up for lost time. I can't imagine people wouldn't care about this, once they see how wildly someone's been deceiving us on this subject!

To say it's extraneous to real American politics is to be uninformed. No one has to look any farther than the last Presidential election, and its grotesque solution in Florida and Washington D.C.

[Billy Burnett]

4. Why? To keep the American people from seeing Cuba with their own eyes

Hi friends. :hi:

The day Americans can just hop on a plane and take a quick trip to Cuba, then the gig is up. Finished. Kaput. Over. The years of lies will be exposed.

[Judi Lynn]

6. So glad you pointed this out.

Once Americans can see behind the American-built curtain, and go to Cuba, also, like you, they TOO will suddenly know we've all been had.

Certain parties must be getting wild about finding a way to keep us out. We're almost at the point of no return now. There's NO WAY our Representatives and Senators, (Republicans as well as Democrats), working on behalf of U.S. citizens, are going to simply give up now. NO WAY.

[Osolomia]

8. Did you have to go to Iraq to decide the Bush Doctrine is wrong?

While the personal experience of Cuba is way beyond the imaginations of most brainwashed Americans, anyone with 2 bits of brain in their head and an iota of ethical values ought to be able to figure out by now that US policy against Cuba is a national disgrace, especially considering the mountain of evidence at your fingertips for several years now.

That Americans tolerate being travel banned and treated like second-class citizens by their own governemnt speaks volumes of the US standard of "democracy" that Americans think they have a right to demand of Cuba and the rest of the world. Revolting.

[Mika]

9. Nope. But masses of yanks who have been there denying the lies helps

Americans seem to need to hear from their own. That's why the US jackboots don't want Americans to see Cuba for ourselves.

[Osolomia]

13. "masses of yanks" have been denying the lies for years

including a steady stream of US Congress critters and other VIPs, Jimmy Carter being one of the more notable Dems to visit Cuba in recent years.

The problem seems to be that even the majority of Dem presidential candidates and Duers choose to ignore to this day what so many have been saying for so long and prefer to listen to the Batistiano minority.

[Judi Lynn]

10. I've often wondered just how stupid we seem to someone from Canada

who has NEVER had any travel restrictions facing them going to Cuba must look. I don't really need to guess. It must seem goddawful.

A Canadian can simply pack and go, just as you go to any of the other Caribbean islands.

You recognize, but a lot of Americans still don't apparently, that we are fighting forces within our own country. They range from rightwing politicians, like the departed Jesse Helms, Bob Smith, and the current Dan Burton, and the obscenely devious ones from South Florida, who move behind the scenes to destroy the careers of American politicians, like Colorado Democratic Rep. David Skaggs, who try to throw the brakes on their control games they run at the American citizens' great expense, to the easy-to-bribe or intimidate Congressdolts.

I also wonder if very many Americans recognize the REST of the world, as close to us as Canada or Mexico, simply travels to Cuba often and easily.

Don't blame you for feeling sick. Some of us do, too.

[Osolomia]

11. Then how do you account for the MAJORITY of Americans who do know enough

for the Cuba votes in Congress and State Legislatures to have gone the way they have for 4 YEARS in a row now?

There's no excuse for the ignorance of the Dems, no excuse whatsoever.

[Osolomia]

15. Thoughts on a trip to Cuba 44 years after the revolution

By Barb Guy
Salt Lake Tribune, Utah
7 December 2003

Forty-three people, most of us from Utah, went to Havana on a legal trip sponsored by KUER, the public radio station in Salt Lake City.

... At least equal to the need for dollars and soap, there seems to be a need for the Cuban people to be heard, to be understood, and to be seen by Americans as equals with important ideas and with a society worthy of respect.

... We're full of contradictions in the United States as well. What do we have against Cuba really? Sure, there's an argument to be made, but compared to Iraq, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, China? We've kissed and made up with a lot of countries that have done some pretty bad stuff to us (and/or to their own people), but will we ever forgive Cuba?

We don't economically punish anyone like we do Cuba. The embargo (Cubans call it el bloqueo, the blockade) makes no sense to me. In 44 years it hasn't improved one thing in Cuba, but everyone has stories about how it hurts them.

... Right now, so much is blamed on the embargo. If we removed it, the revolution could triumph or fall flat on its face on its own, and Cubans could be responsible for their own circumstances, with all the challenges that brings, and they wouldn't have us to blame for their problems.

More...
http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Dec/12072003/commenta/117570.asp

[MuseRider]

3. This is very sad.

My son went last summer for 2 weeks on a Latin Percussion study trip. He grew up there I think. He became a much more balanced person because of the experience. No parents there, out among the people. We have taken the boys to many places all over the world, what we could afford anyway. Russia was a big experience but nothing like being in Cuba fending for himself. He is desperate to go back. He learned so much in the study and he adored the people he got to know. He was adventurous, went out to the street parties and beach parties with only a little spanish to communicate with. On the whole they were gracious people who wanted to share experiences. This is very sad.

[Billy Burnett]

5. I'm glad your son got to go.

There's nothing like the musical experience that can be had in Cuba. Truly a home for world music.

I've been to Cuba a few times. Once, years ago with some SMPTE* associates, to exchange ideas with a Cuban recording engineers association. (I'm in the music biz.) Boy, did I get a real learning experience. What those recordists could do with a modicum of equipment is mind-blowing. Vintage 'old school' techniques and classic original microphones older than the Chevys there. Pristine vintage recording methods - some direct to vinyl disc. Its a classic analog lover's heaven... and among audio 'purists' the 'old school' analog recording methodologies are making a comeback worldwide. But, there are many advanced digital recording studios in Cuba as well.

It is sad indeed that we can't just go there and see for ourselves, freely.


* - Society of Motion Picture and Television Editors

---

[MuseRider]

7. My son

wrote an article for the Music Department magazine at K State. He was also stunned by what they could accomplish with so little. He told me that if he goes again he knows what the students there need and plans on taking a bunch of those things to hand out to them. He adored the people there and never once felt unsafe when quite the opposite had been told him by so many other people. He wished he had been able to go farther than Havana but that is where the University was and his classes so he never really got away from that city. Yes, he told me that the music there is nothing short of an amazing combination of everything from everywhere with its own distinctive latin influence. There is no better way to understand other cultures and other countries than to go there and be one with the people who live there. I

[MasonJar]

12. This is sophistry

This is sophistry plain and simple. There is no way that Bushie is going to make the Florida Cubans mad before the elections.

[Osolomia]

14. Bush eased the travel restrictions on the Cuban-American "exiles"

so that more of them are free to go. Bush also raised tenfold the limits on the amount of money they can send or take to Cuba. But at the same time he tightened the travel restrictions on American-Americans by eliminating educational tours which were the only avenue most Americans had to go there legally. Meanwhile the Dem prez contenders and their supporters cling to their sophistry and silent complicity and hope no one notices.

[Billy Burnett]

16. Cuban-American voters are only 4% of Fl. voters and not all are Repubs

Not all Cuban-Americans voted Bush. Plenty of C-A's hate Bush and his warring policy.

If Dems would actually turn out to vote in droves, then we wouldn't need to worry so much about the stark minority of extremist right wing anti Cuba Florida voters... unless the Dem political hacks are just as deranged on this issue.

[Mika]

17. Dream on. The Dem hacks are just as deranged.

"... unless the Dem political hacks are just as deranged on this issue."


They are.

How many politicians actually have the balls to run in S Florida on a "pro Cuba trade" platform?

Billy, the Dem candidate you worked for got whipped soundly, and Ms Betancourt was a Dem "moderate" on Cuba. Did any of the Dem leadership support her run in S Florida? Nope, they essentially supported her opponent Mario Diaz Balart by not supporting her.

I know you learned your lesson, sorry to rub it in. ;-)