Lawmakers: Let Cuba play ball

Posted on Sun, Dec. 18, 2005

Lawmakers: Let Cuba play ball

The debate about which players should represent Cuba in the upcoming World Baseball Classic rages in Congress.
BY FRANCES ROBLESfrobles@herald.com

At least 100 members of Congress have weighed in on the controversial U.S. decision to deny Cuba a license to play in the upcoming World Baseball Classic. Most of them want Cuba to play ball.

Eighty members of Congress signed letters to Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Treasury Secretary John Snow urging them ``not to take international politics to the ball field.''

Major League Baseball and the Players Association organized an international baseball tournament to be played by 16 teams this March. But Treasury denied Cuba a necessary license because making money in a baseball tournament would violate the U.S. embargo against Cuba.
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New York Democrat José E. Serrano said through a spokesman Saturday that he expected to get another 20 members of Congress to sign the letter this weekend. In Florida, only Rep. Alcee L. Hastings (D-Miramar) signed it. ''The World Baseball Classic should not be tainted by our grudge against Cuba's government,'' Serrano said in a statement. ``Cuba produces some of the finest baseball talent in the world, and they deserve to participate.''
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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/cuba/13433582.htm

MAPPLETHORPE'S NUDES ACCEPTED IN CUBA

Celebrated photographer ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE is making history in Cuba from beyond the grave by becoming the first homo-erotic artist to be featured in a full exhibition in Havana.

The communist country has frowned on homosexuality in the past, but rising tolerance over the past decade has led to a better understanding of gay themes.

Art experts believe this has prompted officials to allow the Mapplethorpe exhibition, SACRED AND PROFANE, to open in Old Havana.

Even officials in Mapplethorpe's native America have had problems with his exhibitions - in 1990, the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, and its director were charged with obscenity for exhibiting his photographs.
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16/12/2005 09:58

http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/mapplethorpes%20nudes%20accepted%20in%20cuba

of the petty childish nature of this administration

selectively

Just because Castro is a Generalismo/tyrant/a-hole, the people of Cuba should not have to pay the penalty.

For some reason we just like to stick it to Fidel Castro for holding on and resisting every attempt by the CIA to overthrow him.

I think it's time for the US to officially recognize that they've been beaten by Fidel Castro. The reason is probably because he generally has the best interest of his people in mind protecting them from the giant US corporations who want to turn his country back into a sweat shop.

instead of depending on imperialist technology. I mean my God, everyone should be able to live on $10 a month shouldn't they??

but I agree that Cubans should be allowed to come and play baseball here, that way more can defect and play in the big leagues.

Well if rent is free, health care is free, and food is $1 per week, I suppose that would work out well.

And yes, the Cubans should be free to cut sugar cane any way they please. That includes buying industrial harvesters from the US.

I have no trouble trading with Cuba and Castro because they are so small they could never really impact the US. China on the other hand is a bottomless pit of slave labor that will bankrupt the entire American middle class if we don't stop this nonsense.

the problem is what are they going to buy the industrial harvesters with??

what to do about China is a good question.

Well since the farms are all collective, it's not a question of whether the average Cuban sugar farmer has enough money or available financing for a combine. With the tourism that they do have, they have enough money for sugar harvesting machines. But they cannot buy them from the US.

.. but the USs extra territorial Helms-Burton and Torriceli laws prevents any company that makes farm machinery from selling to/in both the US and Cuba. Its one or the other. Guess which market is larger and therefore more profitable.

people die in hurricanes.

its people do. This is one example of a good thing.

take support from the US to destabilize Cuba? Yeah, they don't let people do that, either.

And also, Cuba doesn't let its people die in the streets, or be homeless, or go without medical care, or be illiterate and many other things. Those are quite a few examples of quite good things.

I'll bet people are just flocking to Cuba to escape the despotic conditions that they find themselves in. I wonder how many people risk their lives to enter Cuba and declare political asylum and a chance at a better life? Got any figures on that?

The primary (sole) reason why people try to emigrate to the US is ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY. Largely because of the US siege of Cuba, the economy is struggling, and since some people want a healthy economy, where do they go? It has absolutely nothing to do with political freedom.

It is a wonder that so few actually leave. With guaranteed amnesty for Cubans on US shores, why do so many stay? Answer that yourself, and you answer a great many things.

What about Mexico? Is is among the "US-approved" countries.

I don't think that is a wonder. Are they actually free to leave if they so choose?

With economic hardship and a guarantee of amnesty, there SHOULD be MANY, MANY more people leaving, regardless of the legality of the matter. However, this is not the case. Ask yourself why this is so.

.. like these people..

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article333837.ece

The rich tourists whose luxury yachts once crowded the idyllic Marina Hemingway complex on the outskirts of the Cuban capital are shocked to find all Havana's hotel rooms fully booked until mid-2006. More than a dozen hotels have been temporarily closed to tourists to make way for a different kind of visitor. Most of them arrive nearly blind; but all will be able to see perfectly before they leave.

A remarkable humanitarian programme is under way here, which aims to restore the sight of six million people through free eye surgery. Launched in July by the 79-year-old Cuban President, Fidel Castro, and Venezuela's Socialist leader, President Hugo Chavez, Operation Miracle has brought daily planeloads of the poor from across Latin America and the Caribbean to Havana for surgery. Cuba provides the medical skills, Venezuela the petro-dollars.

People suffering from cataracts and other eye conditions that can be quickly remedied are candidates.

Cuba's comprehensive, free healthcare system has a ratio of one doctor for every 170 Cubans, compared with 188 in the US and 250 in the UK.

In addition to the millions of tourists that flock to Cuba every year, people from all over the world flock to Cuba for free or low cost treatments of blindness, cancer, AIDS, and more.
From all over the world except the USA, because Americans aren't free enough to go to Cuba. The US gov dictates that Americans can't leave for Cuba.

How many Cubans has the US killed?