US Bars Puerto Rico from Cuba Event

[Mika]

Source: Prensa Latina

The US government denied a Puerto Rican delegation permission to travel to Cuba to attend the First Regional, Caribbean and Latin American Congress on Hypnotherapy.

Cuban Alberto Cobian, founding president of the Caribbean Association on Therapeutic Hypnosis, said that "Puerto Rican delegates have been victims of an imperial edict."

Cobian lamented, particularly, the absence of Dr. Saavedra Caballero as president of the referred institution in the Caribbean.

Academics, scientists, artists, sportspeople and public figures from several spheres are every year impeded of traveling to Cuba because Washington denies them permission, as part of its policy to isolate and blockade the island.

Working link here.

Read more: http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7B35FE22FD-83A1-4B5A-BBD3-5237231D3795%7D&language=EN

[no_hypocrisy]

1. One of those nasty limitations that come with being a U.S. territory

instead of an independent, sovereign nation . . . .

[donsu]

2. wonder why Puerto Ricans don't want to run their own country?

or do they?

are the neo cons stopping them?

[Bacchus39]

4. there is no consensus on political status in Puerto Rico

about 45% want statehood, about 49% "enhanced" commonwealth, about 5% independence and the rest some thing else or the status quo.

nevertheless, those that support independence only receive at most 5% for the referendums. take "commonwealth" off the table and independence would receive more but statehood would win in a landslide.

[redqueen]

3. Why are we blockading Cuba and not China?

I keep forgetting how that works... oh yeah, it's money, right? Cuba refuses to play ball... China's willing to fly their red flag but go corporatist where it counts.

[sutz12]

5. Hypnotherapy.....isn't that like devil worship or something?

Can't let our people be exposed to evil influences.

:evilgrin:

[Mika]

6. Hypnotherapy cuts down on big pharma profit$..

.. which is the same thing as devil worship. ;)


:hi:

[Bacchus39]

8. like the ones based in Puerto Rico

n/t

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

15. YOOOOOU SHAAAAL WOOORSHIIIIIIP CAAAAAASTROOOOOO!

[Judi Lynn]

17. I'll bet these guys are hypnotizing us through this very message board,

safely beyond the reach of the law. We're so vulnerable!

[Judi Lynn]

7. Here's more on that meeting, written apparently before learning Puerto Rico

has actually been BARRED from attending by _Bush's administration:

Cuba hosts International Congress on Hypnotherapy

Havana, Mar 21.- The First Caribbean and Latin American Congress on Hypnotherapy is kicking off today in the eastern Cuban province of Santiago de Cuba.

The event, which is being attended by experts from Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Peru, Panama, Brazil, Mexico, Spain, Germany and Colombia, aims to promote scientific exchange in the field of hypnotherapy.

Participants will discuss new areas of study such as the points of contact between hypnotherapy and psycho-neuro-immunology. Parallel to the congress is taking place the 5th International Workshop on Therapeutic Hypnosis and the First National Conference on Clinic Hypnosis.

Hypnotherapy has been widely applied in the treatment of stress, anxiety, psychosomatic diseases, phobias, learning disabilities and as anesthetic complement.(ACN)
(snip)

http://www.cadenagramonte.cubaweb.cu/english/news/march_07/210307_03.asp

[Mika]

9. The Loyal Bushies had to stop this..

.. otherwise, if that godless Cuban devil worshiping hypnotherapy got to the USA it would brainwash American minds and would coerce them into wanting universal high quality health care and education.

Oh.. wait..

:crazy:

[Bacchus39]

10. maybe they can go to this one

http://www.hypnotistexaminers.org/conference.html

[Mika]

11. But then, the Loyal Bushies would ban Cuban hypnotherapists from attending.

Either way, its the US that restricts scientific/medical travel to and from Cuba.


That might be a good thing though. Gotta prevent that devil worship protcol which is Cuban hypnotherapy.

[Bacchus39]

13. so??

Cuba has its own conference. Not that the embargo is something I support, but its not like the government is banning hypnotherapy.

Cuba wouldn't let their citizens go to the US either.

[Mika]

14. Dozens of threads have been posted on the US banning Cubans from coming.

Musicians. Doctors. Scientists. Many have been denied visas by the US that prevents them from attending award events, lectures, giving presentations, etc.

There have been many DU threads on this, over the last several years. Many of which you have participated in.

[Bacchus39]

16. that is correct

and there have been dozens of defectors of Cubans once outside of Cuba. and the fact that Cuba is very restrictive of travel for its own citizens has also been discussed ad nauseum, and you have participated in those as well.

[ngant17]

18. what about the Cuban 'defectors' who voluntarily return to Cuba?

I find numerous examples of this phenonemon taking place, but no one wants to connect the dots. Compared to US social problems, Cuba might not be such a bad place to live, even for ex-pats.

Cubans who can properly follow Cuban laws wrt emigrating can go anywhere in the world they want. Providing they also meet legal entrance requirements of host country. Their shortcut is always available via the Cuban Adjustment Act (i.e., no paperwork/legal docs required for them on the Cuban side or on the US side. Amazing, isn't it?). There is no Mexican Adjusment Act, Haitian Adjustment Act, ect. If there was, the US would be flooded with immigrants taking their own legal 'shortcuts' into the USA. Only Cubans have this privledge and right. Go figure.

[Judi Lynn]

19. Former NY Times journalist and book author, Ann Louise Bardach mentioned

these immigrants in her book, Cuba Confidential:Love and Vengeance In Miami and Havana, which was published before _Bush destroyed the very tiny list of people who could come and go there:

In Cuba, one used to b either a revolucionario or a contrarevolucionario, while those who decided to leave were gusanos (worms) or escoria (scum). In Miami, the rhetoric has also been harsh. Exiless who do not endorse a confrontational policy with Cuba, seeking instead a negotiated settlement, have often been excoriated as traidores (traitors) and sometimes espías (spies). Cubans, notably cultural stars, who visit Miami but chooses to return to their homeland have been routinely denounced. One either defects or is repudiated.

But there has been a slow but steady shift in the last decade-a not to the clear majority of Cubans en exilio and on the island who crave family reunification. Since 1978, more than one million airline tickets have been sold for flights from Miami to Havana. Faced with the brisk and continuous traffic between Miami and Havana, hard-liners on both sides have opted to deny the new reality. Anomalies such as the phenomenon of reverse balseros, Cubans who, unable to adapt to the pressures and bustle of entrepreneurial Miami, return to the island, or gusañeros, expatriots who send a portion of their earnings home in exchange for unfettered travel back and forth to Cuba (the term is a curious Cuban hybrid of gusano and compañero, or comrade), are unacknowledged by both sides, as are those who live in semi-exilio, returning home to Cuba for long holidays.

Page XVIII
Preface
Cuba Confidential
Love and Vengeance
In Miami and Havana

Copyright© 2002 by Ann Louise Bardach

[Judi Lynn]

12. Calling Cubans "Devil worshipping" is closer to home than some realize.

When the Georgetown lawyer who represented Elián Gonzalez' father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, hosted a dinner for the family, right-wing "Newsmax" printed articles with photos taken over the back fence of his yard, along with the claim that he had a Santería deity statue in his back yard (voodoo), which had been placed by the air conditioning unit.

Casual observation of the photo revealed to Newsmax readers that the terrifying Santería deity was actually a LAWN GNOME.

[saigon68]

20. Yikes--- a LAWN GNOME.

Twenty-one gnomes were imported from Germany to Britain in 1840. Made of terracotta, these original gnomes were a much heavier material then their plastic counterparts of today. Lawn gnomes today cane be found made of clay, plaster, resin, plastic even fiberglass.

One such counterpart was recently lifted out of someone’s yard in North Carolina and taken on a world-wide tour. Dubbed the Roaming Gnome this little fella has appeared under many a famous landscape in photographs on the Internet and is now a spokesperson…er spokes-gnome for Travelocity. He is truly living the gnome-maddic way of life.

In response to this publicity there has sprung up in Europe a Gnome Liberation Front, whose goal is to free all the enslaved lawn gnomes in the world. The website encourages its members to steal all the gnomes they can from the indignities they suffer by being constantly exposed to the elements, becoming a bird perch, or a target for bird-droppings.