The {Miami-Dade} University is for Counterrevolutionaries

[Mika]

The University is for Counterrevolutionaries

A government-sponsored program to educate
visiting Cuban students at U.S. universities has
been hijacked by right-wing Cuban-American groups.

A rapper, a graffiti artist, a blogger, two independent lawyers: In all, 17 students have arrived from Cuba with U.S government-sponsored scholarships to study at Miami Dade College.

Having students from Cuba in the United States is a welcome development. Reforms to Cuba’s migration policy, in place since 2013, now allow Cubans to travel abroad, increasing their access to education, work opportunities, and information. The reform comes on the heels of modest efforts by the Obama administration to expand contacts between the two societies, including issuing more visas and allowing more purposeful travel to the island.

But what could have been a positive educational exchange has become an exercise in political ideology. The right-wing Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba (FHRC) — which runs the selection process — is only accepting students opposed to the Cuban political system. By sticking to that demographic, the program ends up reproducing in the United States the same logic of exclusion applied by the Cuban government to its citizens, in reverse. If a Cuban student wants to come to the United States, he or she essentially has to obtain support from a pro-embargo opposition group.

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The financial backing and selection process for these scholarships speak volumes about the nature of the program. The scholarships are funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which funnels the money through the anti-regime FHRC. FHRC, in turn, is a subsidiary of the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF).

http://fpif.org/university-counterrevolutionaries/

[Judi Lynn]

1. Unbelievable! I was curious about what this program was, from the first reference

which was discussed some time ago in the news.

This is so damned predictable, isn't it?

Absolutely grotesque.

Hope the DU'ers who matter will see this.

The hard-earned, much needed tax dollars of U.S. citizens are being drafted to fund this ####, when they could be used and applied to feeding the poor, healing the sick, etc. Unforgiveable it should be so wildly misspent on right-wing political crap when it's needed for honorable, and urgent purposes.

[Mika]

2. Only specially selected opposition Cubans are invited ....

... the very kind of discrimination they accuse the Cuban ed system of doing.
Typical projection, by the rightwingnuts, of their very own behavior... using our tax dollars to do so.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Clearly, an honest exchange is something they want to avoid. From the O.P.:

Not only is the funding an ethical embarrassment — so is the selection process. FHRC and Miami Dade College choose scholarship recipients based on suggestions from Guillermo Fariñas and Berta Soler, two pro-embargo activists living on the island, whom CANF selected as liaisons to recommend Cubans for the fellowships. Both Soler and Fariñas have expressed their extreme biases openly, respectively calling the Batista dictatorship “a little golden cup” and terrorist Posada Carriles “an oppositionist.” It’s an understatement to say that these two don’t constitute optimal staff for selecting students to study abroad, even if the goal is to prevent the Cuban government from sending agents to the United States. If you want to study in the United States, USAID seems to be telling Cubans, you have to buddy up with our favorite Cuban opposition activists.

This is not to say that private money can’t be used for such ends. If Jorge Mas Santos — and the CANF organization he leads — wants to spend his money on scholarships for activists who favor his goals, then that’s his business. But to funnel U.S. taxpayer money toward his pet projects amounts to opportunism, and ultimately harms U.S. foreign policy. It does no service to U.S. values or interests to partner in a public diplomacy program with supporters of terrorists and admirers of the Batista dictatorship.