May 26, 2004
What do you do...
...when your political party has no platform, no issue of merit, no solution, and no clear direction?
Why, you resort to nothing more than schoolyard name calling of course.
The Democratic party, the party of the people, the party of the little guy, has no problem with this. It has no qualms about denigrating Americans.
Think this country is fucked up now? Elect a Democrat in November and watch the American ideal become nothing more than a trivial anecdote.
Cuban Dichotomy
There's really not much commentary I can give for this:
SANTA CLARA, May 24 (Cubanacán Press / www.cubanet.org) -The sign at the door of La Pastora church, in Santa Clara, reads: "After June 1, no more medicines will be donated since the church is not authorized to provide that service."Every Tuesday and Friday, missionaries had been distributing soup, bouillon cubes, crackers, medicines and soap donated from Spain and Malta. The Catholic charity Caritas had also been involved in the distribution of medicines to those that showed an appropriate medical prescription. The medicines are either not available in pharmacies or are available only in the dollar market, to which many Cubans don't have ready access.
Last Tuesday, Father Fidencio, himself a Spaniard, came out at the usual time and announced to all that were waiting for the distribution that he had been told Cuba is a world power in the medical field and that there was no scarcity of medicines or any need for them to give away medicines, which only caused unnecessary public gatherings. He said the last distribution will take place May 30.
Father Fidencio quoted the Public Health official who came to see him as saying: "In Cuba we have a surfeit of medicines and large public gatherings are forbidden." (Emphasis mine.)
And then theres this:
HAVANA, May - Dr. Dulce Leonor Torres slapped her hand to her forehead; she had just written seven prescriptions for an older patient and not one had been filled: the medicines were not available in the pharmacy.Lupe Rabala, 75, who suffers from diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, and nervous disorders, said she is tired of hearing "we don't have..."
Yet the government guarantees her the medicines needed for her treatment, as the ration card she recently received attests.
"It's a contradiction," she says. "How is it possible that they run out of a medicine that I have guaranteed by the card? Where do these medicines go? To the black market, to the resellers! There, you can buy it for 15 times its price. They have everything that they don't have at the pharmacy."
It sure is a good thing Castro came along and got rid of Batista and all that corruption.
May 25, 2004
Confessions of a cluttered blogmind....
The Swan more important than the President's speech? Perhaps GW should have had breast implants and worn lingerie and pumps to do his speech.
The French arming the Pallies? Nah. Heresy, n'est pas?
Naked, green and wandering through the neighborhood doing the Hamsterdance song? FOR THE LOVE OF LIFE MAN!!!!
You mean I'm not a member of the respected media? Guess it's back to drag link whoring. (Zomby's essay is truly a must read)
Respected member of the media slanted? I'll believe it when I see it on the 6 o'clock news.
Michael Moore gets 15 minute standing ovation at Cannes? Maybe it just took him that long to waddle up to the stage.
Kerry flip-flops on nomination NO-mination? How out of character.
Mr. Wonkonian? Some things are just too sick to imagine....
Getting older? No way girl. Better. Getting better.
Bumper Sticker Hypocrisy
Big, black, brand new Ford Expedition in front of you at a light.
2" ball trailer hitch (for pulling a big boat, a really big boat).
Tinted windows.
Yacht Club parking sticker on rear window.
Green bumper sticker that says: Cut the Bushes, not the trees.
Some people just don't get it do they?
Tuesday Cubanism
Today's Cubanism is one I have not heard very often. It probably originates from the early sixties, around the time after the Bay of Pigs Invasion.
Cubanism:
Vamos a la americana.
Literal translation: Let's go ala American.
Actual translation: Let's go halfway.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
I get to the office after having done a couple inspections this morning and as I sit down at the computer to write my reports, my cellphone rings. It's my wife and she sounds a bit flustered.
"I'm Ok" she says. "But this guy just hit my car."
"Where are you?" I ask.
"I'm at the bank parking...NO I AM NOT MOVING MY CAR FROM HERE!!" She's screaming at someone over there.
I ask her what's going on and as she tells me the guy that hit her is screaming at her. I can hear the guy yelling in the background. "Call the cops right now," I say. "I'm on my way."
I fly out of the office, get in my truck and haul ass to the bank. My mind is reeling. I'm thinking I'm gonna have to get into with this guy becuase not only did he hit my wife's car, but he has the audacity to scream at her as well. In the middle of a parking lot.
I'm driving through the streets like a madman imagining this guy berating my wife and possibly even getting physical. I can picture myself getting there, jumping out of the truck and beating the guy to a pulp for disrepecting my wife. No one screams at my wife. No one. Not me, not her bosses or parents or irate clients. No one. I'm ready to pound on this guy.
Adrenaline is shooting through me when I get there. I throw the truck into a space, get out and quick time it towards where the guy is close to my wife's car. She sees me and immediately comes to me. She is one pissed off woman. She starts to tell me about the guy screaming and all the nasty shit he's just said to her and I just stop her. I calmly tell her "Wait here."
I walk up to the guy and say "A ver, why don't you scream at me?" fully expecting that I would have to bitch slap the guy in the middle of a parking lot.
There I am not 2 feet from the guy's face, waiting for him to just utter one wrong little word before I take 12 years of martials arts training to him and he turns into syrup.
"Oye," he says to me. "I'm sorry man. You know how sometimes you are having a bad day and..."
"That's no excuse." I tell him. "I heard you screaming at my wife over the phone. Why arent you screaming now?"
"I'm really really sorry about that. You know sometimes when you 're having a bad day and something like this happens you just lose it," he says. I'm about to lose it if he gives me this excuse again.
"You disrespected my wife and she deserves an apology."
He looks over to her, offers a meek sorry and by my wife's eyes I see that it just isnt acceptable to her. She starts to lay into him and I just cut her short. "Relax babe," I say. She walks away to the cops that have arrived by then.
I ask the guy if he has insurance. He says yes. "Ok. Ya esta bueno (thats enough). Let me just tell you one more thing," I tell him. "Imagine if it were your wife and some guy hits her car and then starts screaming at her. You wouldnt like that at all would you? You need to learn a little fucking respect."
I turned around and walked away. I really did want to beat the crap out of the guy, God knows he deserved it. But he just wasnt worth it. Why make a bad situation worse.
I'll just let our attorney to the damage to the fucking asshole.
I am no economist but...
...and bear with me here but....
If the Bush administration's recent changes to the to the remittance amounts allowed to Cuba means less money goes to family on the island from Cuban exiles, then why is Castro's government raising prices in the dollar stores?
If there are less dollars in hand, then there are less dollars available to buy things, no? And, since Cuba is a Marxist/Socialist system where the government is supposed to provide all for it's people, then why didn't the lower prices at the dollar stores?
HAVANA, May 21 (Ariel Delgado Covarrubias / www.cubanet.org) - The Cuban government has finally specified the extent of the price increases it proposed to impose in dollar stores after U. S. president Bush announced new measures his government would adopt regarding Cuba.A circular addressed to the managers of all dollar stores on the island dated May 17 and signed by the Vice-Minister of Internal Commerce stipulated the increases by product lines, with most prices rising 10 to 15%, and some up to 50%.
Foodstuffs, such as oils, baby food, cereals, preserves, sausages, crackers, honey and syrups, milk derivates, soups, sauces and dressings, soft drinks, candy, and meat products except for chicken which already went up recently, were all to increase in price by 10%.
Others, such as vinegar, cooking wine, dried fruits, olives, capers, and spices go up by 15%.
All cosmetics and personal hygiene products will increase by 10%, except for soap, which will go up between 14 and 33% depending on quality, and laundry soap which will go up between 12 and 20%.
Clothing will go up between 10 and 15%. Baby and children's clothing will increase 10%; adult clothing 12%; underwear 15%. Shoes mostly will go up 15%; children's shoes, sneakers and slippers 10%.
Hard lines, including appliances, accessories and parts; furniture and bedding; hardware and most household goods; foreign books; video tapes and audio cassettes; all go up by 10%.
All office supplies, including the likes of calculators and telephones, their accessories, parts and supplies; photographic equipment and supplies; toys, and bicycles, increase 15% from their prices as of May 10.
Automotive goods, spare parts, batteries, and tires; as well as construction materials go up by 10%.
Domestically-made tchotchkes usually bought as souvenirs increase 30%, imported ones 20%. Imported cigarettes are up 20%; domestic alcoholic beverages (except for Havana Club rum) go up 10%, imported ones 25%.
All items-one price stores also will increase their prices as follows: what used to be one dollar will now be 1.50; what used to be 2 goes up to 3; 3 goes up to 4; 5 increases to 7; and 10 dollar items will be 12. The increases here go from 20 to 50%.
The regime surely made no money from those remittances right? So the regime could leave prices as they were becuase, you know, they never benifitted from the remittances in the first place. Then why raise prices? It makes no sense.
Unfortunately, it does make sense. Raising prices in dollar stores serves to not only further repress the Cuban people, but now Fidel and cronies can point the finger at the US and say it's all the big bad imperialists fault.
I hope the Cuban people realize that the US doesnt own those stores, the Cuban state does.
May 24, 2004
Politics-Free Monday
Welcome to Politics-Free Monday here at Babalu Blog. There will be no Fidel bashing, moonbat hazing and ideology criticizing here today. It's just a regular ole Monday.
Tomorrow we return to our regularly scheduled program of ranting and raving, but today, please enjoy the post below.
Dreams
You ever had a dream that felt so extraordinarily real that you wake up still in that dream? I had one of those about my grandfather this morning. In the dream he had passed away and the family was making arrangements for the funeral. Everyone was there, my mom, dad, aunts and uncles. Even my wife, whom my grandfather never met was at my side. It was surreal. I woke up and not only did I think I was supposed to go to his funeral this morning, but my heart ached. I felt the same dread I felt at his passing years ago. I woke up crying.
The feeling wore off after a few minutes, once I realized when and where I was, but I felt heavy, burdened.
My grandfather was a great man. He helped raise me when I was a kid, when both my parents worked two jobs each upon our arrival to the US. He and my grandmother pretty much had me all day, every day. They were both such incredibly noble and good people. They did not just babysit me, the tutored me, cared for me, taught me things I would need to know in my new country.
This morning, while I was getting ready for work, for a lingering moment I could have sworn I smelled his English Leather. I miss him.
The following is a piece I wrote about my grandfather a few years back. I had posted it here before but it was lost when my site crashed a few months ago. So, being that I feel him close to me today, this post is for him.
Benchmarks
"Don't call me that. I don't like being called that, makes me feel old . . . Call me something else, anything. Pick a name for me."
I was confused. What else was I going to call him? I didn't know that many words. 'Semaforo'. No. 'Ambulancia'. No, that didn't sound right either. We had been standing on the corner waiting to cross the street when he had pointed these things out to me and taught me what they were. I couldn't call him either of those.
The bus bench was uncomfortable. The green two-by-fours running lengthwise were too far apart and my small, skinny butt felt like it was slipping through, wedging into the cracks. I kept having to push myself up using my arms because my legs didn't reach the sidewalk.
"Why don't you call me 'Chu', like your father does?"
I shook my head. Eso no. I was mad at my father, he's the reason I was here. It was his fault that I had to get on that plane that hurt my ears. It was his fault I had to go into that big white room by myself with that fat lady that poked me with all those needles. My arm was still hurting. "Esa vacuna esta infectada (That vaccination is infected.)," Mami would say. I couldn't even go play outside because she said I'd get fever again. Now my father wanted me to go with him to get a haircut and I didn't want to go. That's why I threw the tantrum. That's why abuelo took me with him, to calm me down. 'Gua-gua', I thought. No, not that either. He's my grandfather, why couldn't I call him 'Abuelo?'
Continue reading "Dreams"May 21, 2004
*crickets chirping.....
Where the hell is everybody?
Nothing but tumbleweeds here in blogdom today......
Hey! Let's go vacation in Cuba!
It's the summer! We are Americans! We can freely travel about without repercussions! I have two weeks in June, let's go spend them in Havana!
They encarcerate Cuban journalists and human rights activists in Cuba?
Who gives a shit, we are Americans! Fuck'em!
Irie mon.
Jamaican resort chain Superclubs owns properties in Cuba which were confiscated from American interests when Castro came to power. Superclubs makes money from tourism with these properties. Superclubs and others, along with Castro's regime, are responsible for the tourist apartheid system in Cuba.
So what can be done to curtail this apartheid in Cuba?
Deny officers of Superclubs entry into the United States.
That's kind of harsh you say? But, is it really? Superclubs denies Cubans entry into their resorts in Cuba, so, basically, it's tit for tat, no?
May 20, 2004
20 de Mayo
On May 20th, 1902, a small island in the Caribbean known as Cuba declared her independence from Spain. La Republica de Cuba was officially born on this day 102 years ago.
Today, El 20 de Mayo, is Cuba's Independence Day.
Yet, despite the hard fought battles of her history, despite the blood and sweat of a noble and brave people, she remains a country under seige. She is an independent country controlled by her self-imposed dependency on one self-imposed man.
One-hundred two years later she remains a country where individual freedoms are foreign. A country where progress is just a word and desperation is a bedfellow. She still lives in chains.
Cuba, the Pearl of the Antilles, land of extraordinary beauty, where palms spring from her like a silken mane. Where ripe oceans caress her silhouette. Where the soil whispers and the air carries a million flowers.
Cuba, land where the warmth of her people hides the frigid despair of their souls. Where hope is the food of millions.
Cuba, land that subsists on tomorrows.
Today's Cubanism
I realized I used a very ubiquitous Cubanism yesterday in this post about artists and their love for the dictator.
...Castro is the big guy, the head honcho, el que mas mea...
It's fairly easy to figure out what it means: el que mas mea means the head honcho, the big cheese, the man in charge.
We Cubans are a bit colorful but we sometimes cross the good taste line with our sayings.
El que mas mea literally means He who pees the most.