HAVANA - A group of US lawmakers is working at easing dialogue between Washington and Havana, as President Barack Obama's administration weighs plans to drop its decades-old strategy of isolating communist Cuba. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee's top Republican Richard Lugar, who in February said decades of US sanctions on Havana had failed, wrote to Obama in a March 30 letter that: "additional (US) measures are needed... to recast a policy that has not only failed to promote human rights and democracy, but also undermines our broader security and political interests." U.S. Congressman [Bobby Rush], left, and Rep. [Barbara Lee], D-Calif, second from right, attend a ceremony in front of Martin Luther King monument in Havana, Saturday, April 4, 2009. Seven members of the Congressional Black Caucus arrived in Cuba last Friday to discuss improving relations with the communist government amid speculation that Washington could ease travel restrictions to the island.
Another question is why Shaggy's "Hot Shot" was overlooked by voters. Released last summer, the album made it under the Sept. 30, 2000, deadline and fulfills the requirements with original material. The fact the album went virtually ignored for almost a half-year probably contributed to its absence on the list of finalists. Reportedly, the single "It Wasn't Me" gained life when a KIKI-FM deejay down-loaded the tract from the Internet and put it on the radio. The Honolulu station played the track, winning appeal from all of Hawaii. These months later, BET and MTV have spirited the video to return the Boombastic Lover Lover to the charts. The album is now No. 3 on Billboard Magazine's album chart, but nowhere on the Grammy list of five selections. Favored to place, show or win, The Baha Men of the Banamas were a sure bet. Their baseball-friendly "Who Let the Dogs Out" is awaiting verdict in the dance recording category.
In 1984, the association opened an expanded Historical Museum at the Miami-Dade Cultural Center in downtown Miami. This 40,000-square-foot facility includes a permanent exhibition that traces the history of South Florida and the Caribbean, a temporary exhibition gallery that features several new exhibitions each year, a theater and classroom area for variety of educational programs, and storage areas for the museum's extensive collections of artifacts and archival materials, including books, manuscripts, maps and more than one million photographs related to the region. In recent year, the Historical Museum has directed increasing attention to Miami's role as a gateway of the Americas. To explore Miami's multifaceted connections with the Caribbean and Latin America, a new program series, Miami: The Gateway City, was introduced in Spring 1999. The objective of the 12-month series is to use the museum as a central forum for public dialogue about current issues facing Miami and as a space for related artistic presentations.
It is not surprising that the Caribbean woman pushes her daughter toward higher education, for she sees education as the greatest tool for social mobility. Education becomes more than just a means of expanding one's realm; it is seen as an armor of protection against hostile forces, an opportunity to be successful so that no one can "tek step wid yuh." Traditionally, women have been the custodians of culture. The Caribbean woman must continuously face this question: "How can I keep the culture intact, maintain our song and dance in these changing times, this electronic age of computer, when our children are struggling against the reins of our value system and often we are so perplexed, not knowing what to do? This, then, is the most valuable lesson the Caribbean mother passes on to her daughter: how to be firm in the midst of society's pressures and remain her individual self and nurture her talents and resources to love her mate and nurture her children, even while she pursues her own dreams. The songs and dance continue.
The genesis of these carnivals carries the intent of resisting on some level, by Caribbean migrants, the otherwise alienating conditions of life in migration, to "carnivalise" these landscapes with some of the joy and space commensurate with Caribbean carnival. Indeed, Caribbean intellectual contributions have had successful impact on the development of U.S., European and African thought. Still, the Caribbean in most imaginings, and in particular to those who do not know it well, is the place of "sun and fun," a vacation land devoid of serious engagement with the world. Caribbean carnival then is the climax of all those "sun and fun" constructions. Yet, there is a history and politics to carnival - a "carnival of resistance" beyond the outer face of "carnival of tourism" - that demands exposure.
Speaking of "audacity of hope," [Marcus Mosiah Garvey] burst upon the global scene at a time when the vast majority of Africans suffered under the boot of white supremacy either through ruthless, exploitative and humiliating forms of European colonialism or segregation/apartheid in the Diaspora. As his life's commitment, the Jamaican-bom national was determined to use his extraordinary gins as a visionary, orator and organizer to uplift the African race and propel Black people to their rightful place in the forefront of civilization. To achieve his goal, however, he had to find a way to "keep hope alive." One of Garvey's greatest gifts was his keen appreciation of the role that symbols play in inspiring, uplifting and motivating disadvantaged and oppressed people. There was hardly a more daunting challenge than finding a way to give hope to the ethnically disparate and virtually universally despised sons and daughters of Africa. Never one to be discouraged by the difficulty of the task, Garvey boldly declared that he would give Black people a vision of a "government," men of "big affairs and a "flag!"
Due to political infighting and wrangling between 1996 and 2008, the Caribbean Cultural Festivities Association (CCFA), was served by five different presidents. The wrangling intensified in 2009 when a feud erupted between CCFA and the Montreal Carnival Development Foundation (MCDF) in order to determine the coordinator of the parade. Caught in the middle, the City salvaged the parade by offering each group a permit under two names and $10,000 each. In "A Deeper Look At The Perils Of Our Community" (26-8-10), Dr. Clarence Bayne took a more satirical look at the situation. He likened our existence to a minority who lives in a trap and those leaders in this arena are perceived as tricksters and community leeches that employ deception and treachery that help to keep us in chains. These are those, he noted whom Bob White has given the title "poverty pimps". Such personalities, he lamented behave like crabs in a bucket (barrel). In a commentary entitled "Community Must Stand Against Disunity and Disrespecf (20-5-10), [Egbert Gaye] asserts that "blame in this situation must be placed at the unwashed feet of the collection of invalids who chose not to come together to salvage the parade and a bit of our dignity".
The CIA created a covert operation called JM WAVE which was based in South Miami. It's mission was to assassinate [Fidel Castro] and repatriate this area's Cubans back to their land. This undertaking had over 15,000 exiles on it's bankroll and had a budget of over $50 million dollars, which is worth over $350 million dollars in today's market.
"They were walking toward me on the street, then they pulled up their locks, shook them back in, and smiled," she recalled, with a laugh. "I shook my locks at them, too. They would go, 'Yo!' And I'd say, 'Yo!' It was fun to get that type of acknowledgement. It showed how we are connected as Africans. There's nothing that can make that go away." [Russo], she added, also discussed now Cubans might benefit from a more open relationship with the U.S.A., even though it may change Cuba's moral character. While [Linda Jennings] hopes better communication is achieved through the blockade's elimination, she is worried that America's dominant influence would alter Cuba's innocence. It seems like today, in our communities, the lack of material items makes Black people feel inferior. Cubans don't, seem to have that problem, Jennings said. Black people have propelled themselves to a more material, individualistic society, which has made too many of them forget who they truly are to themselves. Having seen Cuba's society in person I don't understand why a Cuban would want to defect here."
