LA TIMES - Cuban Americans can go home more easily under Obama rules

Los Angeles Times, 3/15/09
FULL STORY HERE

...Cuban Americans' travel to the communist island nation just got easier under guidelines issued last week by the Obama administration.

The Treasury Department confirmed that Cuban Americans may visit extended relatives as well as close family members once a year and spend as much as $179 a day without fear of prosecution, effective immediately.

The guidelines signal a trend toward looser enforcement of the U.S. embargo on Cuba.

"I know people are celebrating today," said Silvia Wilhelm of Miami, director of the Cuban American Commission for Family Rights, who wants all Americans to be able to visit Cuba.

"I'm sure we'll see an increase in travel, maybe by 20% or 25%," she predicted. "But the main thing is that this addresses a human need for people to see their families."

I think for me the most special thing about this decision is that it's a step closer toward a new economic and trade relationship with Cuba, a country that threatens our very capitalist society, that its mere existence is a perpendicular disagreement with the US economic perspective and ideals of which gave us the distinguished nickname "The Land of the Free."

Though I think both America and Fidel Castro VIA Cuba hurt each other for their own "justified" reasons, it might be about time to start to squash the beef little-by-little for the sake of the Cuban-Americans that are away from their family, friends and "patria."

I hope that these government decisions will be the first of more decisions to reform the American global reputation into a better one =)

-gs1r-


LISTENING TO:

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World Away
by: From First to Last
From First to Last

Because this is an objective blog, after all...

This is a trailer called The Obama Disception. One of my best friends showed me this video and we discussed how the other side of the story should be considered.

She asked me "Do you trust Obama?"
After giving the question some thought, I answered her:
"I have a great attitude and hope about him but time will tell if he comes through or not..."

Though I am VERY enthusiastic about my President, I still am waiting to see if he's going to fulfill his "HOPE" campaign promises. I was compelled to put up this vid, though it's obvious propaganda against Obama, this is an objective blog and I have to keep it real!

Thanks to my friend Queenbe Monyei =)
I miss you bud!!!
http://tiffabee.wordpress.com

-gs1r-


LISTENING TO:

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Eat the Meek
by: NOFX
So Long and Thanks for all the Shoes

SiCKO - by Michael Moore

SiCKO by Michael Moore is a documentary about the US Healthcare system and the INCREDIBLY unjust policies and practices by both the private sector and the government. He explores the reasons for it, comparisons with other countries, and many important interviews from respectable people in their fields related to their health care systems.

An issue that I have passionately in my heart is the US healthcare system. It's one of the most frustrating things for me to know that the strongest nation in the world doesn't have universal healthcare, where almost all of the leading 1st world countries have it! We are the only high-income, 1st-world industrialized nation without universal health care, and that's America's gigantic shame! There are even developing countries that have or are implementing this system, like Brazil, Cuba, and Mexico planning on setting it up by 2011.

I hope you watch this, for it will shake and rattle your mind and heart up, for sure!

This movie changed my life...
-gs1r-


LISTENING TO:

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Give Ya
by: Drake
Comeback Season

Obama Promises Health Care Reform in his State of the Union Address

President Obama promising swift health care reform for America in his State of the Union last night.

I love Obama even more now =)
-gs1r-


LISTENING TO:

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State of the Union, Feb 24th, 2009
by: President Barack Obama
CNN

Bowling For Columbine - Michael Moore

OK, I know that this documentary has been out for a while now but sometimes when I ask my friends if they've seen it, many still say no! So knowing this I decided to recommend to you this amazing doc, Bowling for Columbine, by Michael Moore.

The film is about gun control in America, the factors contributing to the shocking statistics involved and an exploration of the US mass media as a major perpetrator for gun violence and racism.

This was one of the first documentaries that I've ever seen and since then I've been a fan of socially critical films and their producers. If you haven't seen it, you're in for a thought-provoking doc of real issues and intellectual entertainment =)


-gs1r-


LISTENING TO:

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N.Y.C Everything
by: RZA
Bobby Digital

Che: El Argentino - Steven Soderbergh

I recommend you watch this biopic movie, Che: El Argentino, directed by Steven Soderbergh. It's about the Cuban Revolution, Che's role in it as a medic eventually promoted to Commandante, how the revolution shaped and solidified his view against economic imperialism and how he got his training to be a guerrilla warrior.

Che fought for social and economic injustices in Cuba along with Fidel Castro and the 26th of July Movement to overthrow the US-recognized dictator Fulgencio Batista and the US businesses that were exploiting the land, it's people and it's resources to benefit the US.

This movie really inspired me to be a man of integrity, to keep firmly to my convictions, to live my life with purpose, to live according to what I believe and to never conform to anything I don't believe is right.

This movie is mostly Spanish with English subtitles and is one of two parts, the other being Che:Guerrilla, both running for approx. two hours.


-gs1r-


LISTENING TO:

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Wake Up
by: Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions"

This weekend a great friend took me to see this movie and it caused me to think about a man whom I give the utmost respect and deep acknowledgment to but still hold a sharp frustration towards some of his actions against my country. I also thought about all the social injustices in Cuba that spurred such a revolution to come about so I thought I'd give my two-cents about a hero of mine =)


Fidel Castro is one of the most controversial characters on the planet and of all history. Being motivated by the capitalistic injustices imposed by the US upon Cuba, he lead the Cuban Revolution and installed himself as President of Cuba, deposing the US-supported Cuban president Fulgencio Batista and cutting off unjust economic ties with the US. He fought for the indigenous, peasant people of Cuba who were voiceless politically and who were ridden of their lands by the Cuban government in favor of US businesses to use it and prosper, benefiting American interest and Cuban elites. Essentially, he fought for the marginalized people of Cuba who couldn't defend themselves.



But there is a group of people that were tremendously affected by Castro's new regime, the Cuban Exiles. A lot of these exiles were rich and prominent business owners who legitimately earned their prosperity in capitalist Cuba before Fidel, and they were forced to give up their private businesses because it contradicted with Fidel's imposed communist/socialist government. And while Fidel eliminated capitalism to make the playing field even for the educated and the peasant, the entangled Cuban middle and upper classes had all of their hard work, their education, their homes, their social lives and their connections squashed, giving them no choice but to leave Cuba and go look somewhere else to make a living, away from their homeland.


Now it's a very sticky situation because on one side the peasants who worked the land and lived off of it we forced off unjustly for the sake of capitalist Cuban and US businesses to thrive, and on the other there were many legit Cubans thriving privately, selling goods and services to the public market, buying homes and property, affording quality education for themselves and their children, investing in stock internationally, totally living the "American Dream" in Cuba. The idea to equal the slanted playing field was very worthy of praise and love but it's the communistic component that bothered the now exiled Cubans, killing their private, free market ambitions. But in the end, it's the marginalized peasants that were favored to be a part of Fidel's new Cuban national vision, but at the cost of kicking out American businesses negatively sucking economic power and resources from the island and it's people, and a lot of honest capitalist Cubans with their legit businesses and lives.

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions,"
and social injustice can still happen when you
try to be socially just.

We should judge and do
things carefully,
my friends.

-gs1r-


LISTENING TO:

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Falling Away With You
by: Muse
Absolution

I SAW THIS AND I JUST HAD TO POST IT...

From http://blog.franchesca.net
(Thank you, Franchesca... I couldn't resist!)

It reads:

Rosa Parks sat,
so Martin Luther King Jr. could walk.
Martin Luther King Jr. walked,
so that Barack Obama could run.
Barack Obama ran,
so we could fly.

This is my beloved American social progress.

-gs1r-


LISTENING TO:

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In God's Country
by: U2
The Joshua Tree

Today, I'm Proud to be an American!

Southern trees bear a strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black body swinging in the Southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant South,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh,
And the sudden smell of burning flesh!

Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for a tree to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.


STRANGE FRUIT
by Abel Meeropol

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Today, The United States of America and the rest of the world will reach a new stage of progression in social tolerance and acceptance. For the first time in history, the US will have its first African-American president. Once a race that was considered sub-human now has one of it's own to one of the highest positions in leadership and power in the world. Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr, along with many, many other black activists, politicians, intellectuals, sports figures, athletes, academics and businessmen who have worked tirelessly to fight for justice and equality, have set up the way for Barack Obama to be the face of social progression around the world.

And for this, I'm proud to be an American today =)

-gs1r-


LISTENING TO:

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Beautiful Day
by: U2
All That You Can't Leave Behind

It's so unfair for Israeli and Palestinian civilians

Look at this picture... really look at it... and understand that this NEVER happens on a regular basis in the US! But this happens all the time in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. And it's really sad because so many civilians on both sides who have indirect political attachments to their respective countries have to take the worst of it, people whose decision was already made for them to become collateral damage.


Since I was a kid always heard I on the news about this ongoing war in Israel but I never really understood it until recently when I began to ask some of my friends what they thought about it. To my surprise I found fierce opinions, so much that I just had to find out for myself the rationale for Israel's military occupation over these territories.

One reason for Israel interest in these regions is that it draws more than a third of it's fresh water supply from a mountain aquifer, and that 83% of this aquifer is recharged in the West Bank. Other reasons are that the West Bank has many geographically strategic military positions that are favorable to Israel and that it has many biblically historic places within it's boundaries, like East Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Jericho, and the regions of Samaria and Judah, all extremely significant to Judaism. So based on these and other reasons, Israel is trying annex these areas but at what cost?

Considered a terrorist organization by the US, EU and Israel, the Palestine paramilitary outfit Hamas (meaning "Islamic Resistance Movement") is certainly not helping the cause of peace by stating in their charter the calling for Israel to be destroyed and replaced by an Islamic state! Saying things like this would provoke any nation to react like Israel is but maybe Hamas feels that they have to say over-the-top terrorist statements to defend themselves by instilling fear and intimidation. After all, Israel is trying to drive the Palestinian people from their homeland and is actively striking Palestinian land and buildings VIA aerial assaults, assassinating targeted people, cutting off food, supplies, clean water, all kinds of aid and basic human necessities, causing starvation and increased risk of diseases, all deliberately to lay siege on Palestine territory.

HOW REAL ARE THE CASUALTIES?
- Nearly 900 PALESTINIANS have now died since Jan 12th. -
- 275 of those are children. -
- Another 4,100 Palestinians have been injured. -
- The ISRAELI death toll is at only at thirteen -

It's hard for me to come up with a personal judgment because on one hand I want to say to both groups: "PEOPLE ARE BEING BLOWN UP! PEOPLE ARE DYING IN COLD BLOOD! SWEET AND TENDER CHILDREN ARE SEEING THE HORRORS OF SEEMINGLY DEVILISH MEN AGAINST ONE ANOTHER!
PEOPLE ARE LOSING THEIR HOMES AND BECOMING DESTITUTE BECAUSE OF YOUR GREEDY SQUABBLE OVER LAND AND TERRITORY! COME UP WITH A PEACEFUL SOLUTION FOR THE SAKE OF YOUR PEOPLE'S SAFETY AND WELL-BEING, NO MATTER WHAT THE STINKING COST!!!" and on the other I know that Israel and Palentine have been sincerely, in one way or another, trying to work it out between themselves since way before my birth so how can I say these things to them. Honestly, I don't have a solution, nor a solid judgment over what should be done to resolve these issues but at least we can all think about these things, be aware of the realities of life, and to uphold the personal responsibility of treating people as we ourselves want to be treated, with utmost respect, especially the children...


-gs1r-