Cubans march against homophobia

[Judi Lynn]

Cubans march against homophobia
By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ
The Associated Press
Saturday, May 15, 2010; 3:22 PM

http://media3.washingtonpost.com.nyud.net:8090/wp-dyn/content/photo/2010/05/15/PH2010051502524.jpg

Mariela Castro, daughter of Cuba's President Raul
Castro, front row second from right, participates
in events leading up to the International Day
Against Homophobia in Havana, Saturday, May 15, 2010.
International Day Against Homophobia is celebrated
annually on May 17. Mariela Castro directs the
National Sexual Education Center.
(AP Photo/Franklin Reyes) (Franklin Reyes - AP)

HAVANA -- Hundreds of gay and lesbian activists, some dressed in drag and others sporting multicolored flags representing sexual diversity, marched and danced through the streets of Havana on Saturday along with the daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro as part of a celebration aimed at eliminating homophobia around the world.

Some of the marchers played drums and others walked on stilts as they made their way down a wide avenue in the capital's hip Vedado neighborhood, where they have held a series of debates and workshops ahead of the May 17 celebration of the International Day Against Homophobia, which participants say marks the day in 1990 when the World Health Organization stopped listing homosexuality as a mental illness.

"We have made progress, but we need to make more progress," said Mariela Castro, a campaigner for gay rights on the island and the leader of Cuba's National Sexual Education Center. She is also the daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro.

Cuba has come a long way in accepting homosexuality. In the 1960s, shortly after the revolution, homosexuals were fired from state jobs and many were imprisoned or sent to work camps. Others fled into exile.

But that began to change in the 1980s, in large part to the work of Mariela Castro's center. Recently, the government has even agreed to include sex change operations for transsexuals under its free national health system, another project championed by the center.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/15/AR2010051502522.html

[Mika]

1. They all look pretty fat 'n sassy after some hearty dog soup.

Took 'em weeks to catch the damn dog.

:sarcasm:

Can't believe that Castro allowed anyone to celebrate anything.

:sarcasm:

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[Judi Lynn]

2. They probably ate his guard dog! He's probably in shock.

It's be just a matter of time before he sends out some of his forces from the Cuban "police state" to drag them all off, and send Mariela to her room!

I wonder if he'll ask the people at Guantanamo to torture them....

[subsuelo]

3. these people look miserable

clearly we need to do something about the human rights situation in cuba.

:sarcasm:

[protocol rv]

4. Nah, you don't have to do anything about the human rights situation in Cuba

I'm sure that, in time, the Cuban people will take care of their problem. As they like to say, there's no evil that lasts 100 years, nor body that can stand it. :-)

[Mika]

5. Rare, I know, but on this very point, I agree with you.

Unfortunately the US government (the self declared enemy of Cuba) doesn't agree with us. They pour money into and provide logistical support for some of the most hated lackeys in Cuba - traitors aiding and abetting the enemy. Even more hated than the commie bureaucrats. This activity pretty much ensures the continuation of the standoff.

As you well know, I am not saying that all opposition parties and movements in Cuba are US supported traitors. They aren't. But the US supported "dissidents" tend to taint and take up most all of western corporate media's (as well as some dubiously funded NGOs) coverage of Cuba's political climate. It is that very media manipulated platform that the mewling Cubaphobes stand on.

If you really think that Cubans are quite capable of creating the changes they need and want then it would be hypocritical to claim support for and solidarity with the foreign backed "dissidents" who are working against the interests of the capable indigenous political movements.

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[protocol rv]

6. it's a matter of degree

I don't think most of those dissidents are "US agents" as you imply. You can't pay people enough to starve themselves to death, as those guys are doing. I also happen to see too many Cubans who tell me they really dislike the regime. And I did read the Cuban constitution, it is designed to entrench the communists in power. Also, I have studied in detail the evolution of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and I've talked to them about it. The overall trend is for communism to lead to economic inefficiency and lack of freedom for the individual, because it concentrates too much power in a few hands, and human nature is very clear: absolute power corrupts absolutely. This is what happened to Stalin, Castro, Kim, and the others. Thus, because the wiring of a communist system is flawed, it leads to these horrible outcomes we have observed, with the consequent damages to the environment, poverty, large gulags full of prisoners, and so on. My conclusion: that Cuban regime does not deserve support, and I'm sure the Cuban people will get rid of it some day.

[Mika]

7. Huh?

".... because the wiring of a communist system is flawed, it leads to these horrible outcomes we have observed, with the consequent damages to the environment, poverty, large gulags full of prisoners, and so on."

This comment describes American capitalism to the letter. I have no idea how you attribute this to Cuba.

Anyway, back to disagreeing with your simplistic conclusions.

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[Judi Lynn]

8. What are we to make of those awards to Cuba over the years from the UN

regarding their phenomenal conservation programs, etc.?

I'm sure you well remember the interesting remarks made about Cuba by the former World Bank President, James Wolfensohn, way back in April, 2001:

Learn from Cuba, Says World Bank
By Jim Lobe, IPS, 1 May 2001

WASHINGTON, Apr 30 (IPS) - World Bank President James Wolfensohn Monday extolled the Communist government of President Fidel Castro for doing "a great job" in providing for the social welfare of the Cuban people.

His remarks followed Sunday's publication of the Bank's 2001 edition of 'World Development Indicators' (WDI), which showed Cuba as topping virtually all other poor countries in health and education statistics.

It also showed that Havana has actually improved its performance in both areas despite the continuation of the US trade embargo against it and the end of Soviet aid and subsidies for the Caribbean island more than ten years ago.

"Cuba has done a great job on education and health," Wolfensohn told reporters at the conclusion of the annual spring meetings of the Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). "They have done a good job, and it does not embarrass me to admit it."

His remarks reflect a growing appreciation in the Bank for Cuba's social record, despite recognition that Havana's economic policies are virtually the antithesis of the "Washington Consensus", the neo-liberal orthodoxy that has dominated the Bank's policy advice and its controversial structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) for most of the last 20 years.

Some senior Bank officers, however, go so far as to suggest that other developing countries should take a very close look at Cuba's performance.

"It is in some sense almost an anti-model," according to Eric Swanson, the programme manager for the Bank's Development Data Group, which compiled the WDI, a tome of almost 400 pages covering scores of economic, social, and environmental indicators.

Indeed, Cuba is living proof in many ways that the Bank's dictum that economic growth is a precondition for improving the lives of the poor is over-stated, if not downright wrong. The Bank has insisted for the past decade that improving the lives of the poor was its core mission.

Besides North Korea, Cuba is the one developing country which, since 1960, has never received the slightest assistance, either in advice or in aid, from the Bank. It is not even a member, which means that Bank officers cannot travel to the island on official business.

The island's economy, which suffered devastating losses in production after the Soviet Union withdrew its aid, especially its oil supplies, a decade ago, has yet to fully recover. Annual economic growth, fuelled in part by a growing tourism industry and limited foreign investment, has been halting and, for the most part, anaemic.

Moreover, its economic policies are generally anathema to the Bank. The government controls virtually the entire economy, permitting private entrepreneurs the tiniest of spaces. It heavily subsidises virtually all staples and commodities; its currency is not convertible to anything. It retains tight control over all foreign investment, and often changes the rules abruptly and for political reasons.

At the same time, however, its record of social achievement has not only been sustained; it's been enhanced, according to the WDI.

It has reduced its infant mortality rate from 11 per 1,000 births in 1990 to seven in 1999, which places it firmly in the ranks of the western industrialised nations. It now stands at six, according to Jo Ritzen, the Bank's Vice President for Development Policy who visited Cuba privately several months ago to see for himself.

By comparison, the infant mortality rate for Argentina stood at 18 in 1999; Chile's was down to ten; and Costa Rica, 12. For the entire Latin American and Caribbean region as a whole, the average was 30 in 1999.

Similarly, the mortality rate for children under five in Cuba has fallen from 13 to eight per thousand over the decade. That figure is 50 percent lower than the rate in Chile, the Latin American country closest to Cuba's achievement. For the region as a whole, the average was 38 in 1999.

"Six for every 1,000 in infant mortality - the same level as Spain - is just unbelievable," according to Ritzen, a former education minister in the Netherlands. "You observe it, and so you see that Cuba has done exceedingly well in the human development area."

More:
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43b/185.html

[subsuelo]

9. Pure communism is classless and stateless

your argument that "the wiring of a communist system is flawed" due to a concentration of power is therefore not accurate.