Cubans don’t play golf. It’s as simple as that. I’ve tried, but quite frankly, I found it boring, like watching grass grow. Unfortunately, the folks that run golf courses don’t give the grass enough of a chance to grow, so you can’t even derive any pleasure from that.

Cubans don’t see the point in hitting a little white ball around with clubs and making “birdies” or replacing “divots” (thank God for spell-check). They much rather prefer to do that at home. They can’t see the fun in following after the ball with group of (usually) guys, especially when there is no music to be heard, with or without conga drums.

What got me thinking about golf and Cubans is that I just heard that the Castro regime, after many years of prohibiting golf courses on the island, because of the capitalistic, elite and regal connotations associated with the “sport”, has finally succumbed due to its desire for even more tourism.

So if anyone has an inkling of going to Cuba for a round of golf, keep in mind that the incredible fertile soil of Cuba, which can grow anything from a chirimolla to a watermelon, is going “green”, in the sense that thousand of acres of potentially cultivated land that would otherwise feed the hungry, will be converted instead into manicured golf courses which will be frequented by clueless foreign tourists.

Cubans don’t play golf. It’s both boring to somebody like me, who has been away from the island for almost 50 years and unavailable to those there, since they are not permitted to enter the resorts, except with an “escort” – but we’ll leave that discussion for another day. No food, no liberty, no Coca-Colas, no free press, no free elections — and worst of all, no golf.

Ah, Cuban ingenuity! I can just picture golf carts transformed into taxis all over Havana.

Mariano Vidal

I’d like to invite you to a lively conversation that I’ll be part of, alongside poets Jessica de Koninck, Mark Statman and John J. Trause, at Watchung Booksellers (54 Fairfield Street, Watchung Plaza, Montclair), on Friday, July 30th at 7:30 pm.

I am talking about the panel In Other Words: A Conversation About Translation, which is part of “Writing Matters,” an initiative of Watchung Booksellers that seeks to do something a little different from a typical author’s reading or signing: these events are characterized by give and take, informal chat, refreshments and fun.

If you’re interested in the challenge of rendering words from one language to another, please come by! The panel will be in English, with Polish subtitles.

See you on Friday!

Most of the people involved in the campaign emigrated from Cuba during the 1990s and settled in the US, Canada, Europe and Latin America. Several of them were political refugees. They now work as academics, journalists, translators, programmers, photographers and artists. None is the member of a political or governmental association.

How was the campaign team formed?

Most of the team met in the Cuban blogosphere. A core group had collaborated on other human rights projects, most recently a successful fall 2009 campaign to pressure the Cuban government to release Panfilo, a man jailed for being filmed saying there was hunger in Cuba.

Why are they doing this?

The campaign team is united in their desire for a Cuba in which all fundamental human and civil rights are respected.

What are their sources of financing and other support?

The campaign receives NO outside financing or logistical, strategic or operational support. Both the hard costs (website, software, telecommunications services) and the soft costs (an enormous number of person-hours) have been assumed by the team members themselves.

What has the campaign done?

Organized a petition through which Cubans and other individuals around the world (45,000 and counting) can condemn the wrongful death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo in February 2010, demand the release of all remaining political prisoners from Cuban jails, and affirm their wish that Cuba respect the basic human rights of all its citizens.

What are its short and long-term goals?

In the short-term, to prevent the death by starvation of Guillermo Fariñas and any other hunger-striking dissidents and prisoners of conscience, as well as to obtain the release of all Cuban political prisoners. In the long term, to effect a transition to a Cuba in which there is the right to life, liberty and security of person; freedom of opinion and expression; freedom of peaceful assembly and association; and a government based on the will of the people as expressed in periodic and genuine elections.

Is the campaign being coordinated with the hunger strikers in Cuba?

No. Occasionally, we receive messages from hunger strikers conveyed by their relatives or human rights activists within Cuba. Fariñas and other prisoners of conscience are aware of the existence of this campaign and have signed the petition. That is the extent of the coordination.

Is there a set of campaign principles?

Human rights, democracy, transparency and non-violence.

How does this campaign differ from past efforts to promote human rights in Cuba?

This is the first human rights campaign to challenge a repressive regime through the use of e-democracy on a massive scale, joining the myriad voices of Cubans in and out of Cuba; important American, European and Latin American intellectuals and artists; elected officials from all political stripes; and citizens from over 103 countries. It is our hope that the campaign serves as the first step in a peaceful transition to a democratic Cuba.

What can I do to help?

Sign the petition, and ask others to sign it! And stay tuned for campaign updates.

A month and a half after the death by hunger strike of Cuban prisoner of conscience Orlando Zapata Tamayo, you have covered its aftermath in “Castro: Cuba Will Resist Hunger Strike ‘Blackmail’, 4/4/2010.” This sad event has elicited ample attention by mainstream media worldwide and is now emblematic of the plight of political prisoners in Cuba.

In the article it was reported that Zapata Tamayo is the “first opposition figure to die after a hunger strike in nearly forty years.” In fact, during the regime led by the Castro brothers at least 12 Cuban political prisoners are documented to have died by hunger strike demanding humane treatment, and 7 of them died in the last 40 years. (See www.CubaArchive.org.)

The article noted that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the European Parliament have condemned Zapata’s death. But President Obama himself had also added his support to “a growing chorus around the world in calling for an end to the repression, for the immediate, unconditional release of all political prisoners in Cuba, and for respect for the basic rights of the Cuban people.”

The campaign for the release of all Cuban political prisoners mentioned in the article is “OZT: I accuse the Cuban government.” Rather than “criticize” the Cuban government, as was reported, it accuses it. Readers who wish to sign the petition for the release of all Cuban political prisoners may find it at http://firmasjamaylibertad.com/ozt/.

Missing from the piece was Raúl Castro’s most troubling statement: that his country “would rather disappear, as we proved in 1962” [in reference to the Missile Crisis] than meet the growing demands from the international community for his regime to uphold universally recognized human rights.

Sincerely,

Alexis Romay
OZT: I Accuse the Cuban Government

For the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners in Cuban jails; for respect for the exercise, promotion and defense of human rights anywhere in the world; for the honor and courage of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, unjustly incarcerated and brutally tortured in Castro’s prisons, who died while on a hunger strike denouncing these crimes and the lack of rights and democracy in his country; for respect for the life of those who risk death such as Zapata Tamayo to prevent Fidel and Raúl Castro’s government from vanquishing their critics and peaceful opponents by sentencing them to up to 28 years in prison for “crimes” of opinion; for respect for the physical and moral integrity of each person; we sign this letter and invite to sign it all those who have chosen to defend their freedom and the freedom of others.

The letter has been translated into several languages, and has been endorsed by Oscar, Grammy and Pulitzer prize winners (Pedro Almodóvar, Paquito D’Rivera, Nilo Cruz…), prominent journalists, scientists, politicians and human rights activists, as well as by plumbers, teachers, librarians, students, among others, from around the world.

This campaign is made possible by freedoms that many of us take for granted in the US: the right to disagree; the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures;
the right to demonstrate in public; the right to congregate with like-minded people; the right to voice opposition without fear of losing one’s job, good standing, health or life. None of these rights exist in Cuba. And Orlando Zapata Tamayo died demanding those rights.

If you believe in human rights, why should Cuba be an exception? Will you spread the news about this? Please, sign the letter here!

Luigi Barzini
The Italians

Guillermo Fariñas

Guillermo “Coco” Fariñas (Santa Clara, Cuba, 1962) is a 48 year old psychologist and the director of Cubanacán Press —an independent press agency. He has been jailed in three separate occasions, for a total of 11 years behind bars, because of his ideals. He is the son of a nurse and an ex-military man who fought alongside Che Guevara in the Belgian Congo. “Coco” himself was a military cadet, a Communist Youth Union (League) member and a soldier who fought during Cuba’s war in Angola. He broke with the regime in 1989 as a consequence of the show trial of Cuban general Arnaldo Ochoa (who took the blame for the accusation of drug trafficking leveled against the Castro brothers). “Since then I have not been silent and I won’t be silent ‘till I die,” he told the Spanish newspaper El País a few days ago.

Fariñas, the director of Foro de Estudios Sociales Marta Abreu (Social Studies Forum Marta Abreu) and regional coordinator for the Liberal Democratic Party of Cuba in the central provinces, is not optimistic about the outcome of this latest challenge against the regime.  Nevertheless, and against the advice of close friends and associates, he’s decided to take it “to the end.” “The fact that you consider mine a necessary death is an honor to me,” he wrote to (Cuban dictator) Raúl Castro, whom he accuses of ordering his henchmen to let him die.

Orlando Zapata Tamayo

In 2002, Zapata Tamayo was jailed after having been arrested accused of “disrespect.” In 2003, his participation in a fast for the rights of the Cuban political prisoners, alongside Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello and other members of the opposition, lead to his been arrested around the days of the repressive raid of the Cuban Black Spring and, subsequently, he was taken to the prison “Kilo 8,” in Camagüey.

Throughout this time in prison, Zapata Tamayo maintained a tenacious attitude against the authorities of the penitentiary regarding the recognition by the regime of his rights as prisoner of conscience —recognized as such by Amnesty International in 2004. His mother has denounced insistently all the abuses he has been subjected to, including, for instance, the fact that during the hunger strike that ended his life, he was denied water for eighteen days, which lead to kidney failure.

But the abuses against this dissident go way back. In 2008, he had an emergency surgery because of a brain hematoma that was the product of a beating from the prison guards. Not even a full year had passed after this surgery when Zapata Tamayo was beaten again. His mother mentions three new beatings that left as the evidence the t-shirts with which Zapata was drying his wounds and where he wrote his testament: “[Here is] my blood to the service of freedom and democracy for the eleven million Cubans who, when trying to express themselves, because of their fear, they become more incarcerated than they already are.”

In the face of the conditions of his incarceration and demanding a dignified treatment, he started a hunger strike between December 2^nd and 3^rd, 2009. As it is usual in Cuba when prisoners declared themselves in a hunger strike, he was taken to solitary confinement. At an undetermined date, Zapata Tamayo disappeared and his case started echoing outside the island, until it was known that he had been taken to the Hospital of Camagüey, where he was given liquids intravenously against his will. On February 16^th, 2010, his condition worsened and he was taken to the hospital of the prison “Combinado del Este,” in Havana, where his condition did not improve.

Hours before dying, Zapata Tamayo was taken to Hospital Hermanos Ameijeiras, in Havana, where he died. He was buried in Banes —in the eastern part of the country— in the midst of a military deployment that involved 1,000 agents and soldiers whose objective was to prevent a gathering of dissidents in the whereabouts of his funeral. A wave of repulsion against the regime of the Castro brothers followed his death.

To Whom It May Concern:

The very prestigious Smithsonian Institution ranks amongst the most prominent cultural organizations in the United States and throughout the world. In its mission statement, it defines itself as “an Establishment for the increase & diffusion of knowledge.”

This mission statement, however, is contradicted by the fact that the Smithsonian Audio Collection distributes the entire catalog of Paredón Records. This recording company, owned by Barbara Dane, published between 1970 and 1985, “fifty albums that covered major left-wing and liberation movements on five continents during the turbulent years of the 1970s”.

Though not particularly my cup of tea, I have nothing against Ms. Dane’s taste in music or content. I strongly believe in freedom of expression, the same way I believe that we are all entitled to our own ideology, bigotry, you name it. What deeply disturbs me is the lack of sensitivity and cultural awareness of the Smithsonian Institution. I marvel at the fact that the beacon that pledges to increase and spread knowledge didn’t double check with any Spanish speaker, particularly Cuban, before deciding to carry this material in its collection.

“Paredón,” you see, is a word that has specific weight and very negative connotations. It means “Firing squad.” Paredón is a painful reminder of one of Cuba’s darkest episodes in recent memory. Starting on January 1959, Fidel and Raúl Castro, Che Guevara and their subordinates, presided over hundreds of kangaroo courts where the defendants were quickly found guilty, sentenced to death by firing squad, and executed within days if not hours of the verdict, while the masses on the streets clamored “paredón” in a blood frenzy unparalleled in Cuba’s history.

According to Cuba Archive –a non-partisan, non-profit organization that is developing a comprehensive registry of disappearances and fatalities of a political nature resulting from the Cuban Revolution– from January 1959 to December of that year, there were 770 documented cases of execution by fire squad.

Would the Smithsonian Institution carry the catalog of something called “Pogrom Records”? How about “Lynching Records”? Would they distribute those albums? The answer is probably no. And yet, if the blood to spatter the walls is Cuban and Fidel Castro is the responsible for the bloodshed, the exception becomes the rule and the ethical dilemma vanishes.

I expect nothing of Ms. Dane who “worked tirelessly to release unapologetically partisan, radical, and passionate recordings of singers, activists,” artists who probably didn’t know the meaning of the Spanish word paredón and how by recording under that label they would seem to be supporting death by firing squad without due process. But from the Smithsonian Institution, at the very least, a public apology and, moreover, a condemnation of this trigger happy esthetic seems to be in order.

Alexis Romay