Cuba or California...Can you tell the difference?

Born and raised near San Francisco, CA, and having spent a lot of time in Cuba, I can say that the distinctions between Cuba and CA (or the US for that matter) are not so stark as they once were. For those of you who haven't been following the story, this is of great concern to my homeland...er...state as well as our country as a whole.

In short, a San Diego pastor and his wife were recently told that the Bible study consisting of 15 people which they've held in their home for the past 5 years is now illegal. Reportedly they were interrogated by a San Diego County official, and threatened with growing fines if they refused to cease and desist. The pastor's attorney has stated that the couple was questioned about the Bible study. "'Do you have a regular meeting in your home?" The pastor's wife replied, "Yes." "Do you say 'amen'?" the official asked. "Yes," she replied. "Do you pray?" Again she said, "Yes." "Do you say 'praise the Lord'?" Another "Yes." This line of questioning lead to a citation claiming that the couple was in violation of county rules.

Shortly thereafter they received a written warning claiming that the home Bible study was an "unlawful use of land." They were required to "stop religious assembly or apply for a major use permit," which reportedly would cost them thousands of dollars.

A few questions spring to mind: What about all the other weekly gatherings that take place around the county? Are they going to bust grandmas sewing circle as well? How about weekly mom's and munchkins meetings, Monday night football or Saturday afternoon gatherings for "good 'ol American Baseball?

Then bringing it closer to home, how about the weekly "home group" (Bible study) that meets in my home and numerous other's homes from our church; or the countless mid week gatherings in homes of church members throughout the city, state and country.

Over the years I have begun to see many more correlations between stories such as this and those I have personally witnessed in Cuba. Yet I've also seen how in Cuba, as well as other countries around the world, that when there is a cost to following Christ, He shines all the more through those willing to take a stand and accept temporal sufferings in light of His eternal glory. May we choose to glorify Him no matter what the future holds and His providential hand leads us through.

News 10 San Diego story link.

The Latell Report: Tensions in the Leadership

The Latell Report from the University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies (ICCAS) has a very interesting insight/perspective on the current power structure within Cuba. I’ve included some excerpts below. Please visit: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dfh84558_278gccpx8ct for the full article. Eventually it will be available on their own website at: http://ctp.iccas.miami.edu/

The Latell Report May 2009

Tensions in the Leadership

It is no easier today than it was fifty years ago to gauge the state of play within the Cuban nomenclatura. In fact it is now even more difficult to assess how decisions are being made, how power is shared and delegated, and who in the leadership tiers below the Castro brothers may be rising or falling in influence. Yet there are numerous reasons to postulate that tensions are greater now than at any time since the Ochoa-de la Guardia purges of 1989.

Most importantly, confusion may well be rampant about Fidel Castro’s evolving role. Almost three years since surrendering Cuba’s presidency --but not his position as Communist Party First Secretary-- he has reasserted some of his historic decision making prerogatives. His health has apparently improved and with it perhaps his dissatisfaction with the quality of leadership that his brother Raul, Cuba’s president since February 2008, has been providing.

Fidel recently overruled Raul by repeatedly expressing intransigent positions regarding the prospects for improving relations with the United States. In numerous commentaries, or “reflections” as he and the Cuban government prefer to describe them, he has insistently voiced strident anti-American views that are rarely repeated with the same acidic spins by other Cuban officials. It seems reasonable to speculate, therefore, that Fidel may be at odds with policy prescriptions developed within the leadership since Raul’s assumed the presidency. Yet, Fidel’s manifestos, now emanating almost daily from his convalescent quarters, carry enormous weight and have never been contradicted or repudiated…

(Please visit: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dfh84558_278gccpx8ct for the full article).

What Embargo?

 Although I do not agree with everything in this article, it gives a good picture of the circular tourist economy that exists and how the Cuban citizens are excluded.

 

Opinion:  What Cuba Embargo?

Posted 05/19/2009 06:05 PM ET at www.investors.com

Original Article:  http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=477329

 

Trade: Many Americans favor ending the trade embargo on Cuba, saying sanctions don't work and Cubans' lives will improve. But a recent AP report unwittingly proves that trade only props up the oppressive regime.

Some 34,000 American tourists sneak into Cuba illegally each year, determined to get an "authentic" Cuban experience on Varadero Beach or in old Havana.

In Cuba's old hotels, they sip daiquiris, a pre-revolutionary Cuban cocktail, like Ernest Hemingway. These travelers kick in a share of the $1.2 billion tourist income to the Cuban economy.

The Associated Press found the experience they get is largely Made In America. The daiquiri mix used in Havana, for instance, is the same stuff you get in an Atlanta fern bar.

The AP also found the Communist Party's propaganda "newspaper" in the tourist hotel is made from genuine Alabama wood pulp.

Meanwhile, the Cuban bureaucrats who deny that same Alabama newsprint to a free press go shopping in special stores for the party elite brimming with goods stocked from — you got it — Uncle Sam's empire. Ordinary Cubans get nothing.

The whole tourist experience is bogus, with U.S. businesses telling AP that since Cubans are too poor — making $18 a month, on average — to buy their goods, they want more U.S. tourists to do so.

This shows that what passes for an embargo on Cuba really isn't one. The U.S. sells $718 million in goods to Cuba through a 2000 legal loophole that permits the sale of food, medicine and lesser-known goods like chemicals, crude materials, machinery and transport equipment, according to the Census Bureau.

The goods do nothing for average Cubans. No, these goods merely prop up the Castro regime through the circular dynamic of tourists and goods. The daiquiris come from the U.S., the tourists follow to drink them, and Castro's regime skims the profits.

No end to the embargo will stop that, because there is no consumer market for goods or services in Cuba; there's only bureaucratic distribution. The one thing Cuba's regime cannot create is a real economy that produces things of value, like tasty daiquiris.

For an authentic Cuban experience, tourists would need to experience rationing, shortages, long lines and bureaucratic indifference, because that's the real product of Cuba's regime.

The tourist activity is pernicious, because for outsiders it creates an illusion of a nation that only needs goods. The AP report shows that goods are plentiful — or potentially so.

The real problem is communism — not lack of trade. The only people the embargo's end will help are the party's oppressive elites.

Their first interest is in perpetrating their hold on power. If U.S. goods and tourists achieve that, then goods and tourists it will be.