Antigua-Barduda Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer Comes Under Fire for Accepting a Donation from Hugo Chavez Regime

Are the islands of Antigua-Barbuda in bed with Venezuelan nutjob Hugo Chavez? Well, it seems like the opposition Antigua Labour Party said it is distressed at what it called the government’s hoodwinking of the disabled community in Antigua and Barbuda and accepting funds from Venezuela. The ALP said that the Baldwin Spencer regime is basing a program to help disabled residents on a hand-out from the Chavez government.

The ALP also drew attention to a statement from Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer that help to the disabled in a fulfillment of his party’s promise at the last general election. The ALP asked, “Does this mean that if Spencer had not received this money from Venezuela, he would not have fulfilled his promise?”

ALP political leader, Lester Bird, said, “This program, like all the other programs the UPP regime is now hustling to do, is another election gimmick that will not be sustained. It is a desperate attempt by a desperate political party to buy votes with money donated to the government.” Source: Caribbean Net News

I did some research and discovered that the Government Treasury collected $1 billion in taxes, so why couldn’t funds from that be used to fund the program? It seems that Hugo Chavez is trying to get his tentacles stuck in some of the Caribbean islands and that is a shame. I would think that the last thing a prime minister or president want is to be portrayed as a buddy of Hugo Chavez. At least in America’s eyes. As someone from the Caribbean, I remember when I was a child that former Prime Minister Michael Manley had developed a relationship with Cuba’s Fidel Castro and it made a lot of Jamaican very uncomfortable because of what Castro stood for and the mistrust of the communist ideology.

Filed under: Antigua-Barbuda, Communism, Donation, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Jamaica, PM Baldwin Spencer, Prime Minister Michael Manley, Venezuela

Cuba Enters the Beeper Age, As Cellphone Calls Go Answered

We often take many things for granted in the United States, oblivious to the outside world. I was amazed at the recent introduction of cellular phones to Cuba. I have become so accustomed to having technology at my fingertips that I found it almost unbelievable that the phenomenon is just being introduced to the communist island. According to the Washington Post, the Nokia 1112 has been introduced to Cubans and they are absolutely mesmerized. As Cuba celebrates its 50th anniversary, the rickety state-run economy struggles to feed, house and care for its people, as well as provide little niblets of the latest technology and niceties available on a global scale. Since Raúl Castro became the president, he has added new items to their island fare. Cubans can now legally purchase items such as DVD players, microwave ovens, desktop computers and yes, mobile phones. The residents have embraced this experiment, especially the cellular phone. To them, the cellphone is a badge of modernity. The government began allowing purchases last April and slashed prices 50 percent in December.

Here’s the twist….. Cubans don’t actually talk on their cellphones. They use them as pagers. Didn’t the pager craze in the United States suffer its demise quickly? Cuba has just entered the Beeper Age. According to Washington Post, the residents who own cellphones rarely answer when they get calls. Instead, they look at the number, find a land-line telephone, which is dirt cheap to use, and return the call. Or, if they are feeling adventurous, they might type a message. Still, no talk. Try telling an American not to talk on their cellphone. Sheesh, that was a scary thought!

There are estimates that there were no more than 250,000 cellphone users in Cuba, which has a population of 11.2 million. The odds are impossibly high for most Cubans to own a cellphone, however. Most cannot afford the new Nokia 1112 phone, they instead have worked out deals for used phones on the gray market, or may get an old phone from a relative living overseas. The government also makes it very hard for a Cuba to get a mobile phone account. To open an account with the state monopoly, ETECSA, the customer must go to one of the few offices in Havana, with the cellphone in hand and wait on line for hours, then pay $65 to activate the service. That may seem like a bargain to you and I, but the average monthly salary in Cuba hovers around $20. I guess the cellphone, a staple in our lives, is an expensive habit in Cuba.

The Cuban government has deliberately made it hard for Cubans to march into the new technological age. This is evidenced from the exorbitant price involved in maintaining the cellphone. Local calls between cellphones cost 65 cents a minute, with cellphone to land line costing slightly more. Calls abroad are laughable. It seems that no-one is crazy enough to call overseas with a cellphone. Let me humor you. Calls to the United States, reportedly costs $2.70 a minute, while calls to Europe will give you a nosebleed–$5.85 a minute. Texting comes in at 17 cents a minute.

I could not survive one minute under the Castro regime. For starters, there is no Web surfing, no YouTube watching, no emailing on cellphones. Cuba connects to the digital world through Italian satellite. Because of the U.S. trade embargo, there is no undersea fiber-optic cable connecting the island to Florida. I can tell you one thing, I am grateful that I live in a democratic country, where I am limited mainly by my capabilities and not the government telling me what to do and when.

Filed under: Beeper Age, Cellular Phones, Cubans, Fidel Castro, Nokia 1112, Raúl Castro

GOP Latest Campaign Strategy of Highlighting So-Called Endorsements from U.S. Enemies for Barack Obama May Backfire

The latest tactic by the Republican Party is to tell Americans that Barack Obama has received some endorsements from questionable characters worldwide. This is an eerie reminder of the Osama Bin Laden video that miraculously appeared towards the end of John Kerry’s presidential campaign. It really ruined his chances to win the presidency because it was a stark reminder of what happened on September 11, 2001. So, now we have a situation in which the GOP will continue to remind the public of the endorsements Obama has received from people who are enemies of the United States. I think that is really unfair, but I guess that’s the way the game is played.

Endorsements from our “enemies:”

Fidel Castro, a life-long enemy of the United States wrote in a column for Cuba’s Granma newspaper Monday that Obama is “the most progressive candidate to the U.S. presidency.” The column was also used to criticize Obama for wanting to uphold the U.S. trade embargo. The Florida GOP seized on it, posting an article about it on their Web site and blasting out an e-mail titled, “Fidel Castro Endorses Obama.”

In mid-April, Hamas adviser Ahmed Yousef told WorldNetDaily that “We like Mr. Obama, and we hope that he will win the elections. “I hope Mr. Obama and the Democrats will change the political discourse,” he said. “I do believe [Obama] is like John Kennedy, a great man with a great principle.” The GOP ran with this even though the Obama campaign responded that it already had rejected Hamas’ legitimacy. Obama has said he would not negotiate with Hamas unless the group renounces terrorism, recognizes Israel’s right to exist and holds to other agreements.

On March 25, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez told foreign correspondents that relations with Washington, D.C, would worsen if McCain were elected. “Sometimes one says, ‘worse than Bush is impossible,’ but we don’t know,” Chavez said.“McCain also seems to be a man of war.”

Also in March, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Spain’s El Pais newspaper he didn’t believe Obama would be elected, but that he wouldn’t have a problem meeting with him if he were. “For us, there is no difference in who wins,” Ahmadinejad told the newspaper. Tehran-based PressTV reported that Ahmadinejad afterward insisted he “never voiced support for Barack Obama.”

Obama also has struggled to shake off positive words from the New Black Panther Party and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and has come under fire for attending the Million Man March, which by the way, black men from all walks of life and professions attended.

Final thoughts

Personally, I think the damage from these people backing Obama is negligble. I seriously doubt many people will be swayed by whether someone in Cuba said something nice about him,” he said, adding that those voters probably wouldn’t vote for Obama anyway. I would caution that the Obama campaign must push back against such attempts to exploit these so-called endorsements. Barack Obama suffered to some degree from the fallout with Rev. Jeremiah Wright and they simply cannot sit back hoping these associations will fade into the sunset. On the contrary, they speak to his broader judgment and I would hate to see this being the “Swift Boat” of his presidential aspirations. Though many have said that foreign factors can sway domestic elections, I don’t see these creating an insurmountable problem for Obama as long as he fights back to dispel any doubts in the minds of the voters.

The GOP will use any tactics at its disposal to create doubt and I guess that’s part of the game, but President Bush has already created so much doubt and ill-feelings in the minds of the American people that I don’t think having these leaders back Obama in some way would create any problems for him. It is a known fact that you must talk to your enemies. I guess if President Bush had done just that, maybe we would not be in this mess today. Secondly, the economy is in such a horrible shape right now, people want to know how they are going to pay their bills, purchase gas and put food on their tables. Not that Fidel Castro said something good about Barack Obama. Just my thoughts, you be the judge….

Filed under: Barack Obama, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Iran