At the recent Summit of the Americas, President [Barack Obama] suggested that the U.S. could learn a lesson of goodwill from Cuba. In 1998, Cuba's government began programs to send large-scale medical assistance to poor populations affected by natural disasters. Each year some 2,000 young people enroll at the school, which operates from a former naval base in a suburb of Havana. Cuba's 21 medical faculties all train young people of poor families from throughout the Americas, as well as hundreds of African, Arab, Asian and European students. The country sends teams of doctors all over the world to respond to natural disasters. Cuban doctors have provided medical services to the underserved in Africa for over a decade. Blacks' views of relations with Cuba differ vastly from those of most Cuban immigrants and Cuban-Americans. The former lily-white upper crust of Cuban society wield political clout in Florida and are dead set against normalizing relations with Cuba's government. Consequently most politicians have chosen to adopt Cuban-American views. From 1960 to 1979, hundreds of thousands of Cubans began new lives in the US. Most of these Cuban Americans came were from educated upper and middle classes and form the backbone of the anti-[Fidel Castro] movement. Cuban Americans are America's fifth-largest Hispanic group and the largest Spanish-speaking group of white descent.
A Congressional Black Caucus delegation, led by the CBC Chairwoman Carolyn C. KiIpatrick (D-Mich.), traveled to Haiti recently for a one-day visit as part of the group's ongoing effort to bring attention to the plight of starving Haitians.
CAFTA is also a step backward for labor rights. Under CAFTA, Central American countries are only obligated to uphold their own labor laws, which have been judged inadequate by the International Labor Organization in more than 20 ways. What's more, the enforcement of these deficient laws cannot be encouraged through the use of dispute settlement, fines or trade sanctions. Even putting labor conditions aside, CAFTA is bad the health of people of co south of the U.S. border. The countries of Central America have high rates of infection of HIV/AIDS and other diseases, rates that go up even more if you look at just the Afro-Latino communities. Provisions in CAFTA would actually delay or limit the introduction of cheaper, generic drugs to combat or cure many diseases and other health conditions. The result? Many of the 275,000 Central America living with HIV/AIDS will not be able to afford antiretroviral drugs. This impact will hit especially hard on Afro-Latinos, who make up a third of Latin America's population but represent 40 percent of Latin America's poor Maybe that's why Doctors Without Borders, the American Public Health Association and many others have come out strongly against CAFTA.
Executive president of Integrare, Maria Hyeronides Barros DeLima, was also present, and represented Brazil as a signatory on the document. She said, "This partnership will allow Brazilian business entrepreneurs to shake hands with Americans who are way ahead and have so much to teach. Brazilians will also have a chance to enter the walls of the corporate world in Brazil and to do business globally. This is a victory for CBCF, Integrare, the Black community and natives and disabled entrepreneurs. It is definitely a global victory!"
Shunning warnings that Cuban Pres Fidel Castro was using them for propaganda purposes, eight US residents have taken Castro up on his offer to grant them free medical education, provided they return to poor communities in the US. On Apr 4, 2001, the eight African-American students took part in welcoming ceremonies hosted by Cuba's Latin American School of Medical Sciences.
What even serious individuals must note is that 40 or 50 years ago, the kind of jobs that illegal immigrants migrate towards today are the same positions that African Americans were relegated to. How else can we explain highly educated African Americans, even some with Ph.D's, being forced to work at the post office or as a hotel waiter. The barriers for African Americans were Jim Crow; for Hispanics or Latinos fleeing Mexico, El Salvador, Guatamala or other South American countries, it is the wretched poverty in those countries. For them, such jobs are a "step up" from what they had to accept in their country.
A trade accord spearheaded by the NAACP worth $1.5 billion between the Cuban government and black farmers was heralded on Nov 17, 2002 by the Rev Al Sampson, who called the accord an "international window of opportunity" for African Americans. Sampson, who works with African American farmers, said this agreement gives black farmers an "international window" through Cuba into the Caribbean.
[Weldon J. Rougeau] met with Henrique Ulbrig, president of DuPont do Brazil and chair of the board on Integrare. Ulbrig embraced the idea of a summit to be held in August and indicated that the other board members would embrace the idea as well. Ulbrig talked about the value of the inclusion movement from the view of corporate Brazil. He indicated that the business case argument for inclusion had taken hold in Brazil, as it has here in the U.S. Specifically, Clarence Smith, co-founder of Essence magazine has developed a project to establish an airline between Miami, Fla. and Salvador, Bahia, in the northeast of Brazil. Bahia is the center of African culture in Brazil and a frequent tourist destination for African Americans. Currently, no direct flights occur between the U.S. and this region of Brazil. Smith's theory is that a direct route to the area will exponentially increase the number of African Americans traveling to the area.
Lauderdale Lakes City Commissioner Hazelle Rogers has been named the new president of the Broward League of Cities. She was nominated by her peers to head the organization, comprising representatives from all of Broward's municipalities. "We try to identify issues affecting municipal government in Broward. I wanted to be a part of the planning that will shape what Broward, and my city, will be in 15 years," Rogers told The Broward Times. "We are living in a global world now. Broward needs to create partnerships with Caribbean countries. I want to organize trade missions and impress upon people how important the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries are to us, as far as trade is concerned," said Rogers, a native of Jamaica.
