Researchers Say U.S. Barred Them From Cuba

[Judi Lynn]

Researchers Say U.S. Barred Them From Cuba
By KAREN W. ARENSON

Published: March 9, 2004


he United States government stopped a group of about 70 American medical school professors, doctors and other scientists from attending an international symposium on coma and death in Cuba this week, several doctors said yesterday.

Scientists say the prohibition against the trip, with only a few days' notice, is the latest step by the Bush administration to limit their work with people in countries like Cuba that are seen as hostile to the United States.

"They're trying to punish these countries they've identified as evil," said Stuart J. Youngner, a professor at Case Western Reserve University who helped organize the conference. "But the end result of this is an infringement on academic freedom, our freedom as citizens to travel and also damaging to science in the United States and around the world."

Alan I. Leshner, chief executive of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, said his group was alarmed by the government's opposition to the Cuba trip, as well as by its recent ban on the editing of papers submitted by people in countries facing sanctions and by restrictions on study by foreign students in the United States. "Their actions to restrict open communication in science work against our national interest," he said.
(snip/...)

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/09/health/09COMA.html
(Free registration required)

[not systems]

1. Bush hates science.

The ban on editing has to be the most stupid self defeating
policy since the Berlin wall went up.

This time we are behind the iron curtain.

Medical researchers are leaving because of the political
climate restricting biological science.

[Torgo Johnson]

2. Bush hates anything that makes him think.

Just look at the picture at the bottom of the post . He is either attempting to think or he is constipated. Then again, who can really tell the difference.

[Judi Lynn]

3. A scientist laments sudden crackdown on visits to Cuba

A scientist laments sudden crackdown on visits to Cuba



Tuesday, March 09, 2004


BY TED SHERMAN
Star-Ledger Staff

Medical researcher E. Roy John, a professor at New York University School of Medicine, was supposed to be in Havana today for an international conference. He's still home.

The Bush administration has cracked down on travel to Cuba, even for scientists and scholars like those who were planning to attend this week's International Symposium on Coma and Death.
(snip)

Travel to Cuba has been restricted for more than 40 years, since Fidel Castro seized power. However, there had long been exemptions for scholars, journalists, government officials and Cuban-Americans visiting family.

In addition, cultural exchange licenses introduced in 1999 allowed almost any American to travel to the island.
(snip/...)

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-13/1078816644194460.xml

[Vladimir]

4. Well it might be dangerous

they might learn about how many Cuban doctors work for gratis throughout the third world, helping save lives while multi-national pharmaceuticals get rich. It might remind them of the oath they took.

Truth hurts.

V

[Judi Lynn]

5. Another article on the new twist, refusing to allow editors to work

on manuscripts from countries _Bush doesn't like:

Creeping censorship?

Sunday, March 7, 2004


UNLIKE THE totalitarian regimes condemned by the United States, ours is a nation where we never have to fear government censorship.
Right? Or has something changed?

To the shock of publishers, editors and translators, the Treasury Department recently issued regulations that prohibit editing manuscripts that come from Iran -- and perhaps other countries, including Cuba, Libya, North Korea, with whom trade is banned without a government license.

The new regulations require editors to publish only "camera-ready copies of manuscripts" and warn that they may face serious legal consequences if they insert illustrations, correct grammar, replace inappropriate words or rearrange paragraphs or sentences. If publishers violate these regulations, they could be charged with "trading with the enemy," and receive a fine of $500,000 and a 10-year prison sentence.
(snip)

Critics wonder what has prompted these regulations. After all, said Esther Allen, chairwoman of PEN American Center's translation committee, "During the Cold War, the idea was to let voices from behind the Iron Curtain be heard. Now that's called trading with the enemy?"
(snip)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/03/07/EDGIF5CCRB1.DTL

[Judi Lynn]

6. More heavy-handed Bush prohibitions on Cubans

Posted on Mon, Mar. 08, 2004





Arts community protests Bush curbs on Cuban artists' visas

BY DAVID CAZARES AND VANESSA BAUZA

South Florida Sun-Sentinel


FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - (KRT) - The Bush administration's efforts to take a tougher stance against the Cuban government has hit what some in the arts community are calling the wrong target: cultural exchanges between the U.S. and Cuba.

The latest example is a decision by the Department of Homeland Security to cancel a visa for Cuban troubadour and rock musician Carlos Varela, days before he was to launch a U.S. tour that included a concert Wednesday in Miami.

Varela, an internationally acclaimed composer, last visited Miami in 1998 for a songwriter's event and a private concert. But unlike that year, which fell during the middle of a Clinton administration that encouraged cultural exchange between the U.S. and Cuba, the climate is no longer so inviting.

Hoping to address a growing tide of fierce criticism from Cuban-American legislators and other Cuban exiles - a key constituency for the Republican Party in a presidential election year - the administration has cracked down on travel to and from the island. Since November, when tough rules went into effect, dozens of Cuban performers - including those nominated for Grammy awards - have been denied visas on the grounds that the island's artists are representatives of Fidel Castro's government.
(snip/...)

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/world/8137198.htm
(This may be a free registration site.)

[Vogon_Glory]

7. More Boosh Regime Voodoo Medicine

You've got to hand it to the Runnin' Dubya Posse. Unlike Daddy Bush, Shrub's expanded the scope of voodoo medicine from economics (tax cuts and galloping deficits) to climatology (suppressing unpleasant facts regarding global warming) to public health (abstinence-only instruction without the discussion of contraceptives) to biological research and genetic engineering.

I should think that even deep-pocketed Americans who benefited from Dubya's reckless tax cuts might be reconsidering what Dubya's and his fellow Banana Republicans' policies will do to their future and their children's future.

Fortunately for the rest of human civilization that Dubya doesn't control all the levers as to which way future technology can go.

:thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: