Remember Gabriel Latner, the Cambridge student who stunned the world with his defense of Israel at a debate? My transcript of the speech went viral with over 9000 hits.
He is now working at UN Watch, and here you can see him take on the UN Human Rights Council's hypocrisy.
The topic is a debate on racism and discrimination. When Latner mentions human rights abuses in Cuba and China, he is interrupted by those countries' representatives and the Council president warns him not to continue to bring up cases of council members!
Showing posts with label Cuba. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cuba. Show all posts
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Castro Moves to Correct the Discourse on Israel
The "delegitimization" of Israel is not to be taken lightly - professional agitators make the case that while Israel may have some theoretical "right to exist," nothing that Israel does to protect itself, advance itself or enhance itself is legitimate. [JINSA long ago rejected begging the Arabs to give Israel what no other country requires - permission.] Israel is legitimate by its history, the circumstances of its birth as a modern country and its defense of its territory and people. But, while the problem is real, two incidents remind us that there are circles and cycles to international affairs as there are to everything else; one made us smile.
1. [....] Castro criticized Ahmadinejad for denying the Holocaust and talked about the "unique" history of anti-Semitism. "I don't think anyone has been slandered more than the Jews. I would say much more than the Muslims. They have been slandered much more than the Muslims because they are blamed and slandered for everything. No one blames the Muslims for anything... The Jews have lived an existence that is much harder than ours. There is nothing that compares to the Holocaust."
Castro is an old dictator and a liar - and he's already recanted his comments on Cuban economics. But, in fact, in the early days he was far from an enemy of Israel or Jews. In the journal Cuban Studies 23 (University of Pittsburgh press), Jorge Perez-Lopez relates that Jews who left Cuba for Israel in 1961 were called "repatriados" (people returning to their native lands) although, he notes, most were of Eastern European origin. Other Cubans fleeing the revolution were called "gusanos" (anti-revolutionary worms). Israeli agricultural workers were common in Cuba and when Israeli president Yitzhak Ben Zvi died in 1963, Castro declared three days of official mourning. Algerian dictator Ahmed Ben Bella subsequently canceled his trip to Havana. Castro said he didn't care.
Only in 1974, when seeking leadership of the Non-Aligned Movement did Castro break relations with Israel. Which itself is a reminder that "delegitimization" is an old art form: after the Yom Kippur War, 29 African states severed diplomatic relations with Israel under severe pressure from the Arab states. And only two brave countries - Costa Rica and El Salvador - maintain embassies in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel. Israel is the only country the United States considers unable to determine its own capital.
1. [....] Castro criticized Ahmadinejad for denying the Holocaust and talked about the "unique" history of anti-Semitism. "I don't think anyone has been slandered more than the Jews. I would say much more than the Muslims. They have been slandered much more than the Muslims because they are blamed and slandered for everything. No one blames the Muslims for anything... The Jews have lived an existence that is much harder than ours. There is nothing that compares to the Holocaust."
Castro is an old dictator and a liar - and he's already recanted his comments on Cuban economics. But, in fact, in the early days he was far from an enemy of Israel or Jews. In the journal Cuban Studies 23 (University of Pittsburgh press), Jorge Perez-Lopez relates that Jews who left Cuba for Israel in 1961 were called "repatriados" (people returning to their native lands) although, he notes, most were of Eastern European origin. Other Cubans fleeing the revolution were called "gusanos" (anti-revolutionary worms). Israeli agricultural workers were common in Cuba and when Israeli president Yitzhak Ben Zvi died in 1963, Castro declared three days of official mourning. Algerian dictator Ahmed Ben Bella subsequently canceled his trip to Havana. Castro said he didn't care.
Only in 1974, when seeking leadership of the Non-Aligned Movement did Castro break relations with Israel. Which itself is a reminder that "delegitimization" is an old art form: after the Yom Kippur War, 29 African states severed diplomatic relations with Israel under severe pressure from the Arab states. And only two brave countries - Costa Rica and El Salvador - maintain embassies in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel. Israel is the only country the United States considers unable to determine its own capital.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
When the KGB Fights the CIA
After 47 years, the Organization of American States has lifted its ban on Cuba's admission from the group, with most member states restoring ties with the island nation. The United States, which still maintains a trade embargo against Cuba, was the notable exception, as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham-Clinton advocated for democratic and human rights reforms in Cuba as pre-requisites to the island's readmission. But the opinions of other hemispheric leaders, some of which were previewed at the recent 5th Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, won out. Cuba is free to be part of the OAS - despite its leadership's statements suggesting that it has no interest in returning.
When the KGB fights the CIA, the police always win in the end.
Joaquin Sabina
This is not the first time I’ve heard that MSN Messenger is blocked for Cuban users. Almost three years ago a friend furtively sneaked me into a state office where she worked so I could connect to the Internet. I wanted to write an article and I was missing some data, so I asked for a few minutes in front of an obsolete computer at her company. Those were the days when I pretended to be a tourist to connect to the network at hotels, and that week I didn’t have the convertible pesos to pay for an hour of access.
My friend read me the list of what was prohibited on that institutional connection and added that MSN wasn’t working because it had been blocked for months. “You can’t use any email or chat services that aren’t local,” and “don’t even think about going to El Nuevo Herald,” she said, eyes open wide. When I asked about the limitations on chatting with Microsoft software she explained that I should not use any interface that the network administrators couldn’t control. Hotmail was banned because it was almost impenetrable to the recording software that kept a record of all the employees’ correspondence. A little bit later Yahoo and GMail would also be banned at work and educational connections for the same reason.
Now the prohibition comes from the other side, precisely on the part of those who built a program that helps us escape government control. “Windows Live Messenger IM has been disabled for users in countries embargoed by the United States,” reads the note that Microsoft published announcing the cut off. I feel with that once again we citizens lose out, because our government has its own channels for communicating with the rest of the world. This, clearly, is a blow to internet users, we outlaws of the web, which includes nearly everyone who accesses the Internet from Cuba. Surely at the company where my friend works the censor who monitors the connections must be delighted: Microsoft has just done his work for him.
When the KGB fights the CIA, the police always win in the end.
Joaquin Sabina
This is not the first time I’ve heard that MSN Messenger is blocked for Cuban users. Almost three years ago a friend furtively sneaked me into a state office where she worked so I could connect to the Internet. I wanted to write an article and I was missing some data, so I asked for a few minutes in front of an obsolete computer at her company. Those were the days when I pretended to be a tourist to connect to the network at hotels, and that week I didn’t have the convertible pesos to pay for an hour of access.
My friend read me the list of what was prohibited on that institutional connection and added that MSN wasn’t working because it had been blocked for months. “You can’t use any email or chat services that aren’t local,” and “don’t even think about going to El Nuevo Herald,” she said, eyes open wide. When I asked about the limitations on chatting with Microsoft software she explained that I should not use any interface that the network administrators couldn’t control. Hotmail was banned because it was almost impenetrable to the recording software that kept a record of all the employees’ correspondence. A little bit later Yahoo and GMail would also be banned at work and educational connections for the same reason.
Now the prohibition comes from the other side, precisely on the part of those who built a program that helps us escape government control. “Windows Live Messenger IM has been disabled for users in countries embargoed by the United States,” reads the note that Microsoft published announcing the cut off. I feel with that once again we citizens lose out, because our government has its own channels for communicating with the rest of the world. This, clearly, is a blow to internet users, we outlaws of the web, which includes nearly everyone who accesses the Internet from Cuba. Surely at the company where my friend works the censor who monitors the connections must be delighted: Microsoft has just done his work for him.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Cuban Blocked Wins Blog Award Anyway
'Cuba : Blocked Blogger Yoani Sánchez Receives Prestigious Award'
by Elia Varela Serra
Yoani Sánchez is probably the most famous blogger inCuba Cuba Cuba
Now Yoani Sánchez has received another type of recognition last Friday, when she was awarded the Ortega and Gasset Award in Journalism by Spanish newspaper El País, the most prestigious in Spanish language (equivalent to the Pulitzer in English language) named after philosopher and journalist José Ortega y Gasset. As Penúltimos Días [es] reported, she received the award in the category of Digital Journalism for the following reason :
... for the perceptive way in which her work has dodged the limitations of freedom of expression that exist in Cuba, her sharp information style and the impulse with which she has joined the global space of citizen journalism.
Yoani wrote a post titled "I can't believe it!" after hearing about the award:
That portion of a philologist that I have left - that knows about people of letters, philosophers and academic names- is jumping for joy over the Ortega y Gasset Prize in Journalism that I've been awarded. The blogger, on the other hand, feels that for so many obstacles to access the internet, so many flash drives that I have carried around, have all been worth it.
I can only manage to remember that it was in April - Eliot had already noticed the cruelty of spring- that I decided to exorcise my demons in a Blog. I started by expelling the most paralizing of them all, that one that makes us resort to a mask, the disguise and the silence. The second one in the line of the abandoned, was the apathy of that who knows that not much can be done. In mid August, the crowd made of the frustration, the disillusion and the doubts were already draining away with each post. What seemed like a personal therapy, to shake off those ailments, became a space for many who, funny coincidence, also had their own demons.
Readers, I'm only the face on this site's sidebar. You, polemical, incendiary, censoring and boycotting readers, are, at the end of the day, the ones that make the blog.
by Elia Varela Serra
Yoani Sánchez is probably the most famous blogger in
Now Yoani Sánchez has received another type of recognition last Friday, when she was awarded the Ortega and Gasset Award in Journalism by Spanish newspaper El País, the most prestigious in Spanish language (equivalent to the Pulitzer in English language) named after philosopher and journalist José Ortega y Gasset. As Penúltimos Días [es] reported, she received the award in the category of Digital Journalism for the following reason :
... for the perceptive way in which her work has dodged the limitations of freedom of expression that exist in Cuba, her sharp information style and the impulse with which she has joined the global space of citizen journalism.
Yoani wrote a post titled "I can't believe it!" after hearing about the award:
That portion of a philologist that I have left - that knows about people of letters, philosophers and academic names- is jumping for joy over the Ortega y Gasset Prize in Journalism that I've been awarded. The blogger, on the other hand, feels that for so many obstacles to access the internet, so many flash drives that I have carried around, have all been worth it.
I can only manage to remember that it was in April - Eliot had already noticed the cruelty of spring- that I decided to exorcise my demons in a Blog. I started by expelling the most paralizing of them all, that one that makes us resort to a mask, the disguise and the silence. The second one in the line of the abandoned, was the apathy of that who knows that not much can be done. In mid August, the crowd made of the frustration, the disillusion and the doubts were already draining away with each post. What seemed like a personal therapy, to shake off those ailments, became a space for many who, funny coincidence, also had their own demons.
Readers, I'm only the face on this site's sidebar. You, polemical, incendiary, censoring and boycotting readers, are, at the end of the day, the ones that make the blog.
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