Trafico

Noche Tenebrosa

VOTA POR LA PAZ/VOTA LIBERTARIO/VOTE PEACE/VOTE LIBERTARIAN

Britney Spears II

Archbishop of York: Mugabe On “Borrowed Time” and challenge Miltary to Say No To Mugabe

John Sentamu; Archbishop of York [England, Great Britain] and a native of Uganda has declared that Mugabe is ”living on borrowed time”. He issued a challenge to the police and military in Zimbabwe to not allow themselves to be used as ”an instrument of repression”.

In other news, Ms. Jendayi Frazer [a seniour US Envoy in Africa] has declared that “MDC was the clear winner” in the presidential elections. Ms. Frazer is trying to obtain support from Africa for a resolution to the Zimbabwe Crisis.  On the other hand, James Kircheck of the New Republic wrote in his column about the need to “arm Zimbabwe’s Opposition” saying that the “people of Zimbabwe would be ready and less afraid if they have guns to blaze”. Mr. Kirchick further added that “they [the people of Zimbabwe] do not lack a passion for freedom ; it is the necessary tools to wrest themselves from the yoke of tyranny they need”.

Ever since the news about the arms for Mugabe became public, there have been people who have been talking about arming the MDC. Allan Boesack and Braam Hanekom have called on the United Nations and the SADC [Southern African Development Community] to intervene by sending troops to Zimbabwe.

It must be remembered that Mugabe is not someone who is just going to leave power voluntarily. During the 1980 Elections which brought about the creation of the Republic of Zimbabwe, he threatened to “go back to the jungle and fight”.

SOURCE:

BBC News: “Mugabe Rival Clear Victor..US”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7365578.stm 

http://www.zimbabwesituation.com/apr24d_2008.html

Crisis Electoral en Zimbabwe

En el presente, Mugabe llamo “insignificante” El Primer Ministro de Gran Breta~na Gordon Brown como parte de su respuesta a los comentarios del mundo. Al mismo tiempo, Mugabe quiere recontar 23 distritos mientras el partido de la oposicion MDC [Movimiento para El Cambio Democratico] inicio acciones legales contra el recuento.

REFERENCIA:

BBC News: “Legal Fight Over Zimbabwe Recount”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7345097.stm

Refranes del Dia: 8-IV-2008

LOS VESTIGIOS DE LA GUERRA FRIA

Los Comunistas como Chavez no son los unicos en querer nacionalizar. Los Republicanos [bajo Bush] y los Democratas quieren nacionalizar a los Bancos en EEUU. Mira lo que paso en Zimbabwe despues de las nacionalizaciones en el 2000, Un Dolar Estadounidense [que vale menos que un Euro y una Libra Esterlina] vale 30,000 Dolares de Zimbabwe.

LOS BOICOT DEPORTIVO 

 

 

Los boicots deportivos no sirven. Lo unico perdedores son los deportistas. Un ejemplo fue las Olimpiadas de Moscu en 1980. Cuando Carter inicio el boicot, muchos residentes en Ohio cruzaron la frontera con Canada para comprar recuerdos de las Olimpiadas de Moscu. Incluso, otros viajaron a Moscu desafiando a Carter y Carter no lo pudo arrestar porque eran muchos. Este humilde servidor escribio a su familia en Cuba, Radio Polonia, Radio Praga, y Radio Bucarest para obtener sellos de Moscu 80.

 

MI SUE~NO 
 

 

Me gustaria que los pueblos del mundo podian olvidar de sus diferencias ideologicas, etnicas, raciales, para construir un mundo mejor y disfrutando de la cultura de libertad. Porque tantas clasificaciones si al final somos Hijos de Dios y somos de la gran familia humana?

Cuba Before Castro According to UN

http://www.fiu.edu/~fcf/cubaprecastro21698.html

 

Cuba Before Fidel Castro

 

 

 

 

According to Statistics from the United Nations, the World Health Organization and the International Labor Organization

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the hasty departure of dictator Fulgencio Batista [by USA and Russia], the new government

initiated a progressive control of all the media, an act that went hand in

hand with a propaganda campaign unprecedented in the history of the

island.  

As can be seen 38 years later, the purpose of the campaign was and has been to create an unfavorable image of pre-revolutionary Cuba, an image that would justify the subsequent political conduct of the dictatorship of Fidel Castro.

Some people believe that to disseminate information that demonstrates that pre-Castro Cuba was truly a developing country is to justify the acts of Batista. The truth is that the Cuban progress of that time was fundamentally a result of the efforts of all sectors of that society during 57 years of republic, after almost five centuries of life as a nation.

Because of it, in 1950, two years before Batista’s second access to power, the Cuban peso had the same value as the U.S. dollar.

Given impetus not only by the official press within the island, but also by Radio Havana Cuba, a state-run radio station that broadcasts to the rest of the world in dozens of languages, and by the official news agency Prensa Latina, the campaign made special emphasis on the economic misery under which the island supposedly lived, and on the economic control that the United States had exerted over it.

In the eyes of those who did not have concrete and accurate information at their disposal, Cuba was little more that a bordello managed by Washington.

This part of the campaign was meant to help justify the existence of a Communist regime [and the USA] whose goal, supposedly, was to bring about deep social transformations in a nation “destroyed by poverty.”

If one were to believe the Castroist propaganda, one would have the impression that Cuba was a country with a 40% illiteracy rate, with the greedy hands of multi-national US conglomerates controlling every facet of the national economy; a country without doctors,where workers and farmers were horribly exploited, with a high level of unemployment, and with houses of prostitution and gambling casinos on each corner.

Of course, Cuba was not a fully developed country, nor were its resources distributed equally among all its people -nor have they been equitably distributed during Castroism-, but in 1958 only 14% of the capital invested in the island came from the US, and there were no more than 10 gambling casinos in the country. At the same time, 62% of sugar mills, the principal sites of sugar production -which itself was the most important component of the Cuban economy- were owned by Cubans.

In 1953, Cuba was 22nd among the world’s nations in the number of doctors per capita, with 128.6 for each 100 thousand inhabitants.

The mortality rate was 5.8 -third lowest in the world-, while the mortality rate of the United States was 9.5 and that of Canada 7.6.

 Towards the end of the 50s, the island had the lowest infant mortality rate of Latin America, with 3.76, followed by Argentina with 6.11, Venezuela with 6.56, and Uruguay with 7.30, as per data provided by the World Health Organization.

Cuba was number 33 among 112 nations in the world as far as the level of daily reading, with 101 newspaper copies published per 1,000 inhabitants, which also contradicts the argument that the country was inhabited by a great number of illiterates.

Even as far as so-called luxury items, in 1959 Cuba had one radio per each five inhabitants, one television set for each 28, one telephone for each 38, and one automobile for each 40 inhabitants, according to the Annual Statistical Report of the United Nations.

As a matter of fact, even the greatest and most world-renowned Cuban writers and artists had already created their most important works before Castro’s arrival to power. Among them, their politics notwithstanding, were José Lezama Lima, probably the most outstanding Cuban man of letters of this century; poet and dramatist Virgilio Piñera, who revolutionized Cuban theater with the premiere of Electra Garrigó in 1948, two years before French-Romanian Eugene Ionesco, father of the Theater of the Absurd, premiered The Bald Soprano in Paris; the painters Amelia Pelaez, René Portocarrero, Wilfredo Lam and many others; novelist Alejo Carpentier, author of The Century of Lights, poet Nicolás Guillén; the ballerina Alicia Alonso; and, of course, an extraordinary number of composers and interpreters of Cuban popular music, such as Ernesto Lecuona, Amadeo Roldán, Alejandro García Caturla, the Trío Matamoros, Sindo Garay, Eliseo Grenet, Hubert de Blank, Benny Moré, Dámaso Pérez Prado, and many more.

What follows is some data regarding public health, the labor sector, and education:

PUBLIC HEALTH: In 1958, Cuba had a population of six million, six hundred thirty one thousand inhabitants (6,630,921, to be exact). At that time, there were 35 thousand (35,000) hospital beds in the country, an average of one hospital bed per 190 inhabitants, a number which then exceeded the goal of developed countries, which was 200 inhabitants per hospital bed. In 1960, the United States had one hospital bed per 109 inhabitants.

Also in 1958, the Cuban nation had an average of one doctor per 980 inhabitants, a number that was surpassed in Latin America only by Argentina, with one doctor per 760 inhabitants, and Uruguay, with one per each 860. Cuba had one dentist per 2,978 inhabitants then.

This data is found in the archives of the World Health Organization.

LABOR RELATIONS: In 1958, an industrial worker in Cuba earned an average salary of the equivalent of $6 US dollars per each 8-hour work day, while an agricultural worker earned the equivalent of $3 US dollars. Cuba then ranked number eight ( in the world as far as salaries paid to industrial workers, outperformed only by the following countries:

the United States ($16.80)

Canada ($11.73)

Sweden ($ 8.10)

Switzerland ($ 8.00)

New Zealand ($ 6.72)

Denmark ($ 6.46)

Norway ($ 6.10)

As far as salaries for agricultural workers, Cuba was number seven (7) in the world, outperformed only by the following countries:

Canada ($7.1

the United States ($6.80)

New Zealand ($6.72)

Australia ($6.61)

Sweden ($5.47)

Norway ($4.3

This data was published by the International Labor Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1960. In 1958, Cuba had a labor force of two million two hundred four thousand workers (2,204,000). The rate of unemployment at that time was 7.07%, the lowest in Latin America, as per data from the Cuban Labor Ministry.

EDUCATION: That same year, Cuba had three government financed universities and three others that were privately run. There were twenty thousand (20,000) students enrolled in the government run universities.

There were 900 officially recognized private schools, including the three private universities. The total number of students enrolled at these institutions was over one hundred thousand (100,000).

The public school system employed twenty five thousand (25,000) teachers, and the private school system counted with 3,500.

In the middle of the 1950s, there were 1,206 rural school houses in Cuba, as well as a mobile library system which boasted a total of 179,738 books.

Also in 1958, Cuba had 114 institutions of higher education, below the university level; among them were technical institutes, polytechnic and professional schools, which were financed by the government. Just in 1958, these institutions graduated 38,428 students. In 1958, the island’s illiteracy rate was 18%.

This data is found in the archives of Cuba’s Ministry of Education.

Cuba was the Latin American country with the highest budget for education in 1958, with 23% of the total budget earmarked for this expense. It was followed by Costa Rica (20%), and Guatemala and Chile, each with 16%. This data comes from America in Statistics, published by the Pan American Union.

(Translated by GLADYS P. MARTINEZ)

CONTACTO Magazine, a monthly publication on Cuban issues.
1317 N. San Fernando Blvd.-246, Burbank, CA. 91504
(81 842-3308 Fax: (81 557-6251
http://www.intelinet.org/contacto/

 

Mugabe & Zimbabwe [ESP]

Mugabe no quiere reconocer su derrota. Mugabe pidio recuento de los votos de las elecciones presidenciales de 2008. Mugabe no descarto la imposicion de la ley marcial. Zimbabwe atraviesa una crisis de incertidumbre con la inflacion de 100,580.2% [segun Fuentes del Banco Nacional de Zimbabwe] y con el cambio de un Dolar Estadounidense = 30,000 Dolares de Zimbabwe. No estoy sorprendido por las acciones de Mugabe y su respuesta hacia su pueblo que no puede aguantar un aumento del deficit de Zimbabwe que subio de $446,102.60 hasta $ 1,619,206,762.55 en Dolares de Zimbabwe.

En el a~no 1981, Mugabe firmo un tratado con Kim Il Sung [dirigente de Corea del Norte 1945-1994] para entrenar una fuerza paramilitary en Zimbabwe. La Fuerza logro la denominacion La Quinta Columna. En el a~no 1982, La Quinta Columna junto con las Fuerzas Juveniles del Partido de Mugabe [ZANU-PF] hicieron una limpieza etnica de los Mat abeles [grupo etnico dentro de Zimbabwe]. La limpieza etnica llevaba como titulo Gukurahundi [el agua limpia el polvo]. En el 2005, Mugabe lanzo la Operacion Murambatsvina [Operacion Limpia Escoria] cuyo resultado fue la expulsion de 700,000 personas de Harare [la capital de Zimbabwe] hacia los campos.

Sudafrica tiene el poder para decir “Basta Ya” y el pueblo de Zimbabwe debe ponerse fuerte. La lucha comienza y continua. Mugabe parece haber adoptado los valores de “Si Me Voy, llevare a Zimbabwe y el Sur de Africa”. Lo unico que puede mover a Sudafrica es una amenaza de la FIFA para trasladar la Copa Mundial 2010 hacia los Estados Unidos o Gran Breta~na.

REFERENCIA:

BBC News: “Mugabe Party Demands Poll Recount”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7332941.stm

 

 

 

Engle, Kevin; Stanton, Gregory: “Facing Mass Murder in Zimbabwe”

http://www.genocidewatch.org/ZimbabweFacingMassMurder12August2005.htm

 

 

 

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe

http://www.rbz.co.zw/gdd/gdd.asp

 

 

 

BBC News: “Mugabe Preparing for Poll War”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7332334.stm

 

 

 

BBC News: “Brown and Mbeki in Zimbabwe Talks

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7332837.stm

 

 

 

Zimbabwe Independent

http://www.theindependent.co.zw/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=20053:polls-could-scuttle-psl-fixtures-again&catid=27:zimbabwe%20tourism&Itemid=65

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mugabe & Zimbabwe

Since 1980, the fortunes of Zimbabwe and Robert Mugabe have been tied closely together. It has been a dance of death, destruction, and desolation for the nation and people of Zimbabwe while Robert Mugabe and his cronies are living the good life. It did not have to be that way since Mugabe had promised a Zimbabwe for all people born in Zimbabwe [including those born in Rhodesia the predecessor nation of Zimbabwe]. The African American Singer Stevie Wonder in his song titled “Jammin” stated “Peace has come to Zimbabwe”.Regardless, there were people who decided to leave Zimbabwe and go elsewhere instead of risking financial, physical, and psychological stability under a guerrilla fighter who could one day show his true colours.

From 1980 to 2000, Zimbabwe was the breadbasket of Southern Africa and there was food because of people [including the white Europeans that remained because of reassurance from Mugabe] willing to work the land. Regardless, Mugabe had shown his true colours by arresting and harassing former rival Joshua Nkomo. In 1981, Mugabe signed an agreement with the Dictator of North Korea Kim Il Sung to train a group of loyal followers called the Fifth Brigade. In 1982, The Fifth Brigade, the ZANU-PF Youth Corp, the Central Intelligence Organization (CIO), and the Police Internal Security Intelligence Unit (PISI) were involved in a massacre of an ethnic group [Matabele] within Zimbabwe. The operation was known as Gukurahundi [which is Shona for cleaning up after the rain fell]. It was also the first time that food was used as an object to eliminate an ethnic group.

In the year 2000, Zimbabwe had a referendum and Mugabe lost. The response of Mugabe was to complain of foreign “colonialists” out to destabilize his government and he started a programme of nationalisation of white owned farms. While it is understood that the White Europeans unjustly stole land from Africans during their conquests, there were other ways to resolve the land issue. Unfortunately, Mugabe did not have patience for legal issues and went ahead and confiscated land even at gun point and turning the land to people who needed the training but never received it. It was during the land reform programme in which Didymus Mutesa a Minister for Mugabe once said: “”We would be better off with only six million people, with our own people who support the liberation struggle. We don’t want all these extra people.”

Robert Mugabe and the ZANU-PF continued to use “colonialism” as a pretext to repress opposition political groups including Morgan Tsvangarai of the MDC [Movement for Democratic Change] with beatings, and imprisonment. The economy of Zimbabwe which was one of the most prosperous went for a free fall with the government issuing bank notes of up to a Million Zimbabwean Dollars. At the present time [5th of April 2008], the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has 100,580.2% as the inflation rate with the official exchange of rate of $1.00 USA = $30,000 Zimbabwean Dollars.

Between the end of 16th of May 2003 to the end of the 7th of March 2008, the Gross Domestic Debt of the Republic of Zimbabwe increased fro $446,102.60 to $ 1,619,206,762.55 in Zimbabwean Dollars. All of this so that one person can impose his form of Communism on a people who want to go forward instead of backward. Robert Mugabe and company were not content to destroy the economy, expel the Europeans, commit genocide against the Matabele, steal elections, and practice the fine art of repression against the opposition.

In the year 2005, Mugabe and company practiced a new Operation called Operation Murambatsvina otherwise known as “Operation Drive out the Filth”. Operation Murambatsvina or “Operation Drive out the Filth” expelling people from the city of Harare to the country and practically leaving 700,000 people homeless and directly affecting the rest of the population.

Regardless, the people of Zimbabwe in the latest elections of 2008 told Mugabe that enough was enough. In fact, the MDC [Movement for Democratic Change] released their results which gave them an outright victory in order to avoid a run off election. The Zimbabwean Civil Society released figures that gave Tsvangarai victory as well. The response of Mugabe was to deny that he lost, send his personal guard to beat up the opposition, and arrest foreign journalists including a New York Times Newspaper Reporter.

According to BBC News, Mugabe’s Police blocked the MDC from filing a petition to Zimbabwe’s Highest Court to have the official presidential results released. According to Reuter’s News Agency, members of the police left the presidential compound in front of the court and actually blocked the MDC. Regardless, Morgan Tsvangerai have asked for a peaceful dialogue with Mugabe in order to facilitate a democratic transition. In other news, the final election results minus the Presidential Elections shows the Senate evenly split between MDC and ZANU-PF while the Parliament is dominated by the MDC.

Mugabe has to go but there is more power behind extra official forces created by Mugabe himself. In addition to the military, there is a group of war veterans who fought under Mugabe during the 1965-1979 Rhodesian Civil War and they are willing to support him. There is another group that was trained by North Korea which participated in the massacre of 1982. Last but not least, there was one group composed of homeless youths and children who were picked up by the police, placed in a rehabilitation centre [theoretically] but were turned into fanatical followers of Mugabe. These above mentioned people have terrorized Zimbabwe.

At the present time according to the BBC News Website, South African President Mbeki is meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to discuss the situation about Zimbabwe. Mbeki has declared that “Zimbabwe is not a South African Province” and Brown has promised international observers in the run off election. It must be remembered that South Africa will be the host of 2010 World Cups and South Africa has been taking measures to reassure FIFA [Football [Soccer] International Federation about South Africa being a stable and reliable host. If Zimbabwe implodes and there is a horde of refugees and the possibility of the problems of Zimbabwe spilling into South Africa [as well as Zambia, Mozambique, Namibia, and Botswana] many people will not risk their lives to go to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

What happens in Zimbabwe remains to be seen.

REFERENCE:

Engle, Kevin; Stanton, Gregory: “Facing Mass Murder in Zimbabwe”

http://www.genocidewatch.org/ZimbabweFacingMassMurder12August2005.htm

assessed on the 5th of April 2008

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe

http://www.rbz.co.zw/gdd/gdd.asp

assessed on the 5th of April 2008

BBC News: “Mugabe Preparing for Poll War”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7332334.stm

BBC News: “Brown and Mbeki in Zimbabwe Talks

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7332837.stm

http://www.theindependent.co.zw/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=20053:polls-could-scuttle-psl-fixtures-again&catid=27:zimbabwe%20tourism&Itemid=65