I just read the following interview and although its hardly breaking news I thought I'd post it up and at the same time try launching a new thread for the first time on the new babble.
In Terms of Human Rights, Nobody Teaches Anything to Cuba - PRAVDA.RU
PRAVDA.Ru: On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the adoption and proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human rights by the UNO (on 10th December 1948), it is necessary to remember that Cuba was invited to join the UN Council of Human Rights by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 9th May 2006, against the will of Washington. For some reason it was…
Jorge Castro Benitez: Yes, and precisely this question of human rights has been systematically manipulated by the United States of America against Cuba. In the course fifty years, the governments of the USA have been launching diplomatic, military and commercial attacks against Cuba, a constant aggression that has not been seen in any other part of the world. They manipulate the sources of information in such a way that information agencies rarely say the whole truth about Cuba.
For example, the great social failings that existed before in Cuba demanded on the part of the Revolution a very strong answer on behalf of human rights and the elimination of attacks on the human condition. The Cuban Revolution removed racial discrimination that was strongly taking root in Cuban society. The Cuban Revolution removed nepotism, removed discrimination against women, removed political corruption, removed illiteracy, removed the lack of health care and the lack of access to public utilities and removed chronic unemployment in Cuba. Well, so now they are going to point the finger at Cuba and talk about human rights?
PRAVDA.Ru: Who, in the international community, remembers being told of these great victories of the Cuban Revolution? Little or nothing is said in the western press on the political system in Cuba for example.
J. Castro Benitez: Neither do they say anything on the financial and logistical support to organizations and terrorist attacks perpetrated by the USA on Cuba over the years, the hundreds of attempts made on Fidel’s life, the use of mercenaries to destroy the social and civil life in Cuba, to spread disorder, the inhuman and illegal blockade and the use of the diplomatic machine in Washington to influence partners in the international community against Cuba, entirely because of the first military defeat suffered by the United States of America in the Bay of the Pigs in 1961.
Cont...
Now I've heard President Elect Obama say a few things about positive as opposed to (the classically American) negative rights, and I know that he's supposedly big on addressing racism, etc. but does anyone think that Cuba will finally be getting the respect it deserves under the new US administration?