The Black Informant | African American Commentary, News and Community Building

I just came across this article recently and I must say it almost made me want to puke. I have covered quite extensively on this site the part of Cuba that we normally do not hear about from our so-called black leaders who will use almost anything as an example to show the world just how racist and unjust America really is while they themselves pocket millions from the very country they claim to despise—please don’t get me started.

First, the article:

‘As an African-American, I feel free here’

BY ROSE ANA DUEÑAS—Special for Granma International

(excerpted)

HOW does it feel to be the first person from the United States to get a medical degree in Cuba?

The answer comes easily to Cedric Edwards, a thoughtful 34-year-old African-American from New Orleans, Louisiana, who received his diploma along with 1,600 other graduates of the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) in Cuba on August 20.

“It’s a little scary, but I’m very happy. I want to do my best to be a good example.”

Like his classmates from Latin America and the Caribbean, Edwards’ studies were completely free; his modest room-and-board, textbooks and tuition were all paid for by Cuba as part of the Revolution’s efforts to bring medical care to those who need it all over the world.

Here is where the propaganda chip implanted in his neck becomes activated:

“There’s a lot of propaganda against Cuba. My parents were scared. They thought it was dangerous. I was scared to death, but I wanted to get my medical degree no matter what, and I also thought it would be a good opportunity to learn about another country, since I had never traveled outside of the States.”

“As an African-American, I don’t feel the racial tension that I feel in the States. That feeling is completely new to me. I feel like I’m free, like I can do whatever I want without fear. This place is very safe. You have a lot more young African-American men dying violently in the States than other races; also, there is a huge drug problem. Here in Cuba, though, that is not the case. For example, I would feel safer raising a family here.”

Okay, so I have never been to Cuba. Beside comparing this young brotha’s account of the “greatness” of Cuba to the thousands of Cubans that are willing to float on a piece of wood across the Atlantic to get to America, let’s also read the accounts of these same people who have been there. Fair enough?

Here is what Agustín Blázquez, a Washington-based documentary film producer and director had to say regarding this “medical” program:

According to an article by Steve Miller published in The Washington Times on July 16, Kweisi Mfume, “recounted a fall trip to Cuba during a press conference over the weekend: ‘We met with African American students who matriculated from Cuba — by the way, at no cost — from all over the U.S. because they couldn’t get into medical school here because of this system that still sometimes creates impediments.’”

Finally, a humanitarian program owned and operated by Castro! Free scholarships for poor students from underdeveloped and poor areas of the world. It’s actually more than humanitarian and its a classic!

Let’s take a look at it.

Bring these students to Cuba and treat them well. Not great, just a little better than they were being treated at home. Take advantage of the young minds of people, who, for economic reasons, feel a bit abandoned by their society. Their vulnerability gives them the tendency to feel resentment toward their own culture and thus open to accepting all sorts of help, influence and new ideas. Young people in this state of mind are easily captured by the propaganda and have the mind-set for political indoctrination.

The technique was developed early in the 20th Century in communist countries to create admirers and supporters where there were none, and to form future cadres to spread the philosophy throughout the world. Castro began his international scholarship program in the early 1960’s.

It does not take a genius to realize what happens when those students return to their countries of origin after graduation in Cuba. Castro and his revolution have become their role models. And, as planted in their minds by their teachers in Cuba, they begin to spread their new beliefs developed in the sheltered environment especially created for their “education.” Their stories about the ideal Cuba they experienced brings sympathizers into Castro’s sphere of influence. The new converts repeat the tales to others and so on, like a cult. This communist technique of spreading propaganda has proven very effective for decades across many continents.

Oh, it gets better…

And in a new scheme to further manipulate public opinion in his favor and to create future problems and unrest in the U.S., Castro is now offering his infamous scholarships to U.S. students.

Our “benevolent” tyrant to our south, in May 2000, offered to a group of visiting U.S. lawmakers from the Congressional Black Caucus, to provide free “medical training” to 500 Americans, mostly minorities. And in September 2000, revealing the other side of the same coin, he offered to send “doctors” to Mississippi and other states where trained medical personal are in short supply. Which reminds me of his offer to send “election experts” to the U.S. to help count votes in Florida. Cuba has not had a free and democratic election in 44 years!

The irony of Castro’s offer of “doctors” and his well-publicized donations of medicines to other countries is that common, vital medicines in Cuba are not available to the citizens. Cuban Americans – called “Miami Mafia” by Castro and the U.S. media – have been sending their relatives in Cuba medicines and prescription eyeglasses for decades. And after the legalization of the dollar in Cuba, they have been sending millions of dollars to their relatives so they can purchase their own medicines at Castro’s dollar-only stores.

And some of the medicines donated to Cuba by charitable organizations from the U.S. and many other countries are sold in those dollar-only stores. Also, Cuban citizens have to pay for some medical treatments and procedures made available to them in dollars only – in spite of Castro’s claims of free health care.

In spite of all those facts, the members of the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus have accepted Castro’s offer and are excited to send low-income minority students for his free “medical” study scholarships. Half of them (250) are blacks and the rest will be distributed among other disadvantaged minorities. (more…)

Other links and testimonies

Here is a HUGE list of people that have been assasinated by Castro

Here’s something else:

It was an incident that went all but unnoticed in the US media.

The Cuban-America community protested but they protest a lot and as I say, we in the mainstream media all but ignored it…

…What happened occurred at night at sea in the middle of July in 1994. The time is important because it wasn’ t at all that long ago, not, in other words, in the bad old days of mass arrests and widespread executions. Seventy two Cubans, men, women and children, slipped out of this harbor aboard a tugboat. They were bound for Florida. Their boat was followed out to sea by three Cuban fire boats. What happened next we learned from some of the survivors, two of whom ultimately made it to Miami, while the other two risked arrest by talking to us here in Havana…

A letter of condolence speaking in the name of the Pope was sent by the Vatican’s secretary of state to Jaime Ortega, the Archbishop of Havana, who passed it on to the survivors of the incident and to their families. And that created a ripple which caused a ground swell, the full impact of which is still building.

Ted Koppel

Live Broadcast from Havana, Cuba, on January 21, 1998

What happened

In the early morning hours of July 13, 1994, three boats belonging to the Cuban State and equipped with water hoses attacked an old tugboat that was fleeing Cuba with 72 people on board. The incident occurred seven miles off the Cuban coast, outside the port of Havana. The Cuban State boats attacked the tugboat with their prows, while at the same time spraying everyone on the deck of the boat, including women and children, with pressurized water. The pleas to stop the attack were in vain, and the old boat-named the “13 of March” – sank, with a toll of 41 deaths, including ten children. Thirty one persons survived.

About the tugboat

Circa 1879 (Rebuilt and inspected, see below)

Last Inspection May 9, 1994 (Cuban government Issued a Navigation Certificate)

Certificate IV

Hull Wood

Motor One, 300 HP

Overall length 17 ms.

Beam 3.85 ms

Speed 9 knots

Current 1.5 knots

Captain Fidencio Ramel Hernández Prieto (Murdered)

Location of bodies 23 15″ 08″N 82 15′ 34″W 23 15″ 08″N 82 20′ 36″W

(Quadrant) 23 15″ 35″N 82 15′ 34″W 23 15″ 35″N 82 20′ 36″W Weight (passengers) 4,5 tons, estimated, based on age and sex of passengers

Weather: Category 3, Seas 4,5 ft., wind 25 to 35 kms. per hour, Cuban Weather Bureau Report.

Government version of events:

Conflicting reports of the incident appeared in the state-controlled Cuban media, some alleging that the “13 of March” sank because it was very old and not seaworthy and others saying that it sank because it had accidentally collided with the pursuing vessels.

“Capsized tugboad robbed by anti-social elements” was the title of the article which described what happened as an “irresponsible act of piracy promoted and stimulated by counter-revolutionary radio stations, the most reactionary elements of the (Cuban exile) nest of maggots in Miami, and by the well known failure of the United States to abide by immigration agreements.” Granma, the Official Communist Party newspaper, on July 14, 1994,

“…it had taken place as a result of a collision between the “13 of Marzo” and another tugboat which was attempting to catch up with it” Note from Ministry of Interior, Granma newspaper July 16, 1994.

“…Fidencio Ramel Prieto (the tugboat’s captain), stole the tugboat after knocking the night watchman with a drug which he put on his drink The boat, made of wood in 1879, was known to leak and too many people were on board.” Granma, July 23, 1994.

What Fidel Castro said:

“What we are going to do with those workers who did not want them to steal their boat, who made a truly patriotic effort, we might say, to stop them from stealing theboat from them? What are we going to say to them? Listen, let the boat be stolen, don’t worry about the boat…” (Remarks by Fidel Castro to the Cuban communication media, quoted in a letter dated March 23, 1995 from the Cuban Interest Section in the United States to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights)

Account by survivors:

“After leaving the pier boat No. 2 rammed us.” “One out to sea, we were attacked by boats 2, 3 and 5.” “The tug was hit on te port and starboard sides and the passengers were attacked with jets of water” Jorge Hernández.

“When the tugboat weighted anchor, I was below deck and could see that there was no leak anywhere” Arquímides Lebrigio

“That’s when we saw that two firefightig boats were coming after us… they hit the sides and then they began to shoot water at us.” “We told them not to harm us, that there were children on board and we showed the children and they kept shooting water.” The mothers screamed and implored the attackers too stop directing the water hoses at them. The perpetrators continued using the hoses, trying to drown them by suffocation. All those on board were submerged in the water. After nearly an hour of battling in the open sea, the other boat circled round the survivors, creating a whirlpool so that they would drown. As a result, many dissapeared into the seas and lost their lives…” “We asked them to save us, and what they did was laugh…” María Victoria García Suárez

“The boat was adrift because the captain, Fidencio Ramel, they knocked him down with the jets of water, they knocked him into the sea.” “Roman called to one operating the boat ad said: Hey, buddy, calm down, don’t do this. Look, they are kids… and he showed his three year old stepdaughter, and if someone hadn’t take the girl from him, they would have killed her with the jets of water.” Jannette Hernández Gutierrez.

“The boat which had split our stern went ahead and split us from the prow. That meant there was not way to keep the tugboat float, it was sinking. But they did not throw us lifebelts or try to help us in any war… We were already in the water, holding into anything that we could, and the three boats circled us, making swirls, causing more deaths, as the perpetrators said: Let’s see what you are going to do now, sons of whores. When a foreing cargo came to about 800 meters of the sinking point, the attacking vessels suspended their activities”. Sergio Perodín Almanza

“Two of the boats deliberately rammed the 13 of Marzo, while the third continued to direct the jets of water into the tugboat. Those on board of the three attacking vessels were dressed in civilian clothes, but were not ordinary dockworkers, specially as several of the crew of one boat suffered from sea sickness.”

Guantánamo.

Mothers of Cuban political prisoners

In 2003 the government of Fidel Castro conducted a crackdown of dissidents, including members of Cuba’s independent library movement. According to leaked Cuban court documents, among the independent library books seized and burned following raids by the secret police were classics such as George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm, a biography of Martin Luther King, and copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. All of the Cuban librarians arrested in the 2003 crackdown have been named as “prisoners of conscience” by Amnesty International, which is demanding their immediate release. Human Rights Watch, International PEN and Reporters Without Borders are also calling for the release of the jailed Cuban librarians. (more…)

Center for a free Cuba

Related postings

More racist than the old south African regime

Here is some more reality for Castro lovers

The miseducation of American Negroes on Cuba

El Diamante Negro (commentary by Val Prieto)

Castro has been “peeped out”…again!

Are some Black Americans falling for the okie doke again?

Castro and Aristide: Cousins of “The Struggle”

All the links provided above also contain 100′s of addtional links regarding the real Cuban crisis.

This posting blends with my current series entitled Tracing the roots of black Liberalism in the US. I will be continuing that series in the very near future.

I may add to this posting later today.