Thursday, June 23, 2005
Cuba Summit Cancelled
Courtesy of NetForCuba.org:
CONGRESSWOMAN ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN http://www.house.gov/ros-lehtinen/
FLORIDA 18TH DISTRICT PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate
Release
June 14, 2005
CASTRO'S LOVEFEST IN SPRING HILL COLLEGE CANCELLED
Although we don't know if it was the intense pressure from theCuban-American alumni community or due to the approaching hurricane,we applaud the cancellation of the National Summit on Cuba atSpring Hill College.The summit originally planned to have approximately 100 guests attending, but was only able to host about 40 visitors. They met in a lounge of the Riverview Plaza, the hotel where summit speakers and organizers were staying.
We will attempt to approach the President of Spring Hill, Fr. George Lucey, S.J., Archbishop of Mobile Oscar Lipscomp and Fr. Christopher Viscardi, S.J. to educate them on the fact that the Castro regime is a repressive regime.
"It is naive for anyone to believe that by engaging in a dialogue with Castro's supporters in the United States that they, in turn, will convince Castro to become a nice dictator after more than 46 years of oppressing the Cuban people." said Arthur Estopinan, Class of 1987 and Chief of Staff to Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.
"The lifting of the Cuban embargo and the easing of the U.S. travel restrictions to Cuba represents millions of dollars for the folks who participated in the Cuban Summit in Mobile, AL. They are willing to look the other way and ignore Castro's despicable dictatorship for a quick buck".
All of the members hosting the conference were Castro apologists who want to economically benefit from the misery and suffering from Castro's inhumane conditions towards the Cuban people. [that includes you, Larry Clayton and your padnuh, Jay Higginbotham:ed.]
In addition, Eddy Acevedo, Class of 2005 and Staff Assistant to Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, said, “ It is our job now to educate the administration of Spring Hill College on the realities thatare going on in Cuba and the injustices in the country.”
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
http://havanajournal.com/The Mobile Register [my great-great uncle John Forsyth Register is named after the editor of the Mobile Register in the 1850s,John Forsyth, & Leonia, Florida in Holmes County is named after Uncle John's first wife]Cuba summit meets for final day despite storm soaking areaAttendance was cut nearly in halfSunday, June 12, 2005By KATY WILLISStaff ReporterDespite the imminent landfall of Tropical Storm Arlene, the second day of the National Summit on Cuba met in Mobile on Saturday morning to address the influence of religion and culture on the relationship between Cuba and America."It'd be a shame if we couldn't utilize what we have here," said Lissa Winneman, an event organizer from the World Policy Institute, which sponsored the summit.
Attendance at the summit was cut nearly in half; organizers had expected 100 people, but 50 or fewer were present. The audience squeezed into the Players Lounge of the Riverview Plaza, the hotel where summit speakers and organizers were staying. {HOORAY, HOORAY, HOORAY- WHEN ARE YOU RETARDED FIDELISTAS GONNA GO AWAY?!!!!}
The original schedule ran from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and included an invocation by Mobile Catholic Archbishop Oscar Lipscomb, presentations and panel discussions by 10 participants and a tour of Mobile, including several landmarks and museums.
An abrogated tour and historical session stayed on the schedule, but many participants had either already left town in the face of the storm or were cut from the morning program, which ran from 10 a.m. until noon. Only two of the originally planned presenters spoke during that time. {PRAISE THE LORD AND PASS THE AMMUNITION!!!!}Joan Campbell Brown, former general secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ of the USA and a negotiator in the Elian Gonzales case, spoke first. In a talk titled "Behind the Elian Story," she charged American journalists with "never having been interested in the full story." The impact, she said, was to "present ordinary Americans with an ordinary Cuban family.
"That humanized Cuba," said Brown, who for many years was an advocate to Castro of the Cuban churches and a promoter of "solidarity" between churches in the two countries.
"I think that without the 75-year relationship and the trust built up between churches in Cuba and America, Elian would still be here," Brown said. {MS. BROWN, MY JESUS WOULD TAKE HIS BELT OFF AND WHIP YOUR TAIL!!!!}She told stories about her time in Cuba negotiating with Castro and the American government to bring Elian back to his "strong, connected" Cuban family. She called the move to give Elian American citizenship "insane."
Brown also remembered the visit of Pope John Paul II to Cuba in 1998 -- the first faith-related event to be permitted air time on Cuban broadcasting in more than thirty years. "He had challenges for both countries, America and Cuba, which neither country has met," she said.
Nell Johnston, elder of St. Charles Avenue Presbyterian Church in New Orleans, described her parish's outreach efforts to other Protestant parishes in Cuba. She painted a picture of an active network of prayer and assistance to the poor.
Johnston also spoke about a warming of the religious atmosphere in Cuba, which, she said, was once "discouraging" of Christianity but has become more tolerant in recent years. She outlined the history and explained that many pre-1992 restrictions of the once-atheist, now-secular state had been relaxed. {HUH...DUH, what is this brain-dead knucklehead talking about? She got too much money & time on her aristocratic hands!}"It used to be that you couldn't advertise for a church or its charities in any way," Johnston said. "Now, many churches have signs on the street. The state is offering to cooperate, even asking the churches' help for services that it used to provide."Though trade policy and the embargo of Cuba were not a focus of Saturday morning's discussions, it certainly remained in the background. The summit itself is part of an effort to thaw that longstanding policy.
Robert Schaefer, a founding member of the Society Mobile-La Habana and a political science professor at the University of Mobile, had been slated to participate in a panel on historical ties between the Gulf Coast and Cuba, but that panel was cut.
Talking in the lobby of the hotel during the lunch break, Schaefer said, "Maintaining the embargo is the perfect way to prevent democracy from growing in Cuba."['splain that to me academic shithead http://academicshithead.blogspot.comhttp://academicshithead.blogspot.com">http://academicshithead.blogspot.com>cause%20dat%20don' to from case.
He called Castro's style of government "morally reprehensible" and said he was concerned that the summit's portrayals of the situation in Cuba would minimize or ignore Castro's human-rights violations.
"Castro has destroyed and divided a very prosperous nation," Fowler said. "The people of Cuba are effectively his slaves; they have no civil liberties, no freedom of speech, no freedom of press." Fowler concluded that Castro's regime "holds the Cuban people at the point of a gun" and that "the only one who benefits from trade with Cuba is Castro."The summit has also come under some criticism because of ties to the U.S.-Cuba Trade Association, a nonprofit organization.
According to the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, USCTA leaders have jeopardized their organization's claims to neutrality and nonprofit status.
A statement by the USCTEC alleges that some members of USCTA leadership have been engaged in political lobbying and commercial consultation in conjunction with their organization.[EXPOSE THEM MY BROTHERS & SEND THEM HOME TO NURSE ON THEIR TRUST FUNDS....as well as their faculty salaries]
