Burson-Marsteller, Alan Gross, and the light at the end of the tunnel

The lesson at the Salpêtrière (1887), by Pierre-André Brouillet (1857 - 1914)

PR as Valium - español, traducido por Manuel Talens, de Tlaxcala

Machetera

Saltpêtrière is a legendary Parisian hospital.  Built in the 17th century, it was known as the cradle of neurosciences for having hosted great teaching doctors such as Charcot, Babinski and Freud.  In the image above, a famous painting by Pierre-André Brouillet, the French doctor Jean-Martin Charcot is portrayed explaining how to diagnose hysteria in a female patient whose name has gone down in the annals of medical history: Blanche Wittman.

The scene is unmistakably sexist: a roomful of men deciding how to treat a woman for a condition whose very etymology reveals its sexism.  Simply by virtue of the fact that she is a woman, she is at the mercy of their decisions. A victim.  The two nuns waiting to catch Blanche as she collapses are mere voiceless spectators.  The men in this image know everything, the women, nothing.

A century and a quarter later, the story behind this painting suggests nothing so much as the case of Judy Gross, the wife of the USAID contractor imprisoned in Cuba. Paternalism remains very much alive, and both The New York Times and Washington Post confirm this through their participation in the inane media campaign to pressure Pope Benedict XVI to counsel Cuba to exchange Rene González for Alan Gross.  Counseling Cuba, as though it were an unruly child, not a sovereign country, is offensive enough.  But it’s nothing new.  The counsel that Judy Gross is receiving on the other hand, is another matter.  Instead of being treated as an active subject, capable of taking her future into her own hands, Judy’s campaign to bring her husband home is being managed and reported by people who have their own, very different priorities.

Sticky fingers at “Ladies in White” in Cuba

Cuban “Ladies in White” Suspect Recently Deceased Leader of Embezzling $20,000 – español

Jean-Guy Allard
Translation: Machetera

Rumors in Havana circulate at lightning speed.  Sources close to the “Ladies in White” [Damas de Blanco] reveal that upon taking charge of the mini-group and reviewing its finances, Berta Soler had the disagreeable surprise of learning that some $20,000 was missing from the organization which is openly funded by the United States.

The “Ladies” founder, Laura Pollán, died on October 14 at the Calixto Garcia Hospital, at the age of 63, victim of cardiac arrest “aggravated by diabetes, hypertension and dengue.”

The discovery of the group’s missing funds came about in a meeting where the 48 year old Soler, who’d acted as second in command until Pollán’s death, was confirmed as the new leader.  The rivalry between the two women who competed for favors from the U.S. diplomatic post in Havana (known as the U.S. Interests Section – USIS) was well known.

Ted Henken rolls snake eyes

Ted’s Excellent Adventure

Long story short.  Ted Henken, the quite white chair of the Black and Hispanic Studies department at Baruch College who calls himself “El Yuma” and writes a blog under the same title, recently returned from a trip to Cuba where he had gone to interview bloggers of all persuasions, but most especially his close personal friend, “La Yoa,” (Yoani Sánchez) whose cherished interview he saved for last.

Wikileaks: Five illustrative cases of prisoners at Guantánamo (+ Video)

Wikileaks: Five illustrative cases of prisoners at Guantánamo (+ Video) - español

Iroel Sánchez / Cubadebate

Translation: Machetera / Tlaxcala

New evidence of the upside down world that governs the United States is found in the Wikileaks documents which reveal information about the treatment of prisoners at the concentration camp in Guantánamo – maintained by Washington on territory it is illegally occupying against the will of the Cuban government and people.

The files say that 60% of the more than 700 prisoners were imprisoned by mistake.  Here are five cases that reflect the humanity of the USAmerican authorities at the prison opened by Bush that Obama promised to close.

• Mohamed Sadiq.  An 89 year old prisoner with senile dementia, prostate cancer and osteoarthritis.  Captured because of “suspicious documents” found on his son.  Repatriated to Afghanistan.
• Haji Faiz Mohammed.  Arrested at the age of 70, in a mosque where he had spent the night after going out in search of some medicine.  His file says that “there is no reason” for having transferred him to Guantánamo.
• Jamal al-Harith was in Guantánamo solely because he’d been arrested in a Taliban prison and it was thought that he knew something about their interrogation techniques.
• Naqib Ullah.  Captured at the age of 14, he spent a year at Guantánamo.
• Omar Khadr.  Captured at the age of 15, he has spent nine years at Guantánamo for being the son of a supposed Al Qaeda leader in Canada. Video of his interrogation:

It’s worth remembering that the country that has behaved in this arbitrary manner in the name of a war on terrorism is the same that refuses to try people such as Luis Posada Carriles, the man behind numerous terrorist actions against Cuba, as a terrorist, and who has ended up being feted in Miami.

Iroel Sánchez is a Cuban journalist, frequent Cubadebate contributor and editor of the blog La pupila insomne. Machetera is a member of Tlaxcala, the network of translators for linguistic diversity.This translation may be reprinted as long as the content remains unaltered, and the source, author, and translator are cited.

Jimmy Carter urges release of Cuban Five

Interview with former U.S. President, Jimmy Carter, by Arleen Rodríguez Derivet, Cuban Television journalist - español

 

Translation: Machetera

Arleen Rodríguez: Hello!  A greeting to all of those who are watching Cuban Television right now.   I welcome all of you, along with the former President of the United States, James Carter, who just moments before leaving to return to his country has graciously agreed to give us an interview, and an exclusive statement for our television broadcast.

Welcome.  Thank you for accepting our invitation.

Jimmy Carter: It’s a great pleasure to return to Cuba, to Havana.

Rodríguez: It’s a great pleasure to have you here as well.  You told me that you’d like to say something to the Cuban people before our interview.

Carter: Yes.

Rodríguez: The camera is yours.

Carter: To the people of Cuba I would like to say that I am very grateful for the chance to return to your wonderful country once again. 

The USA: Scarecrows on the March

The USA: Scarecrows on the March - español

Atilio Boron

Translated from the Spanish by Machetera

Those rulers whom the gods wish to destroy are first overwhelmed by a crisis, then coaxed into promising the suffering a radical and effective cure for the maladies of the age and finally damned because their policies are lukewarm and ambivalent.  Obama was a victim of these vicious and vengeful gods who decided to give him an exemplary thrashing in this Tuesday’s elections, taking away control of the House of Representatives, a number of governorships, and reducing the Democratic majority that remains in the Senate to its absolute minimum.  More seriously, the doors to the loft that holds the worst scarecrows in U.S. society, the angriest and most agitated of them all, were thrown open wide, catapulting a number of them to the Senate or the House thanks to a vote from a public that has grown increasingly imbecilic thanks to the patient work of the great media of mass confusion.  For some time now they’ve been working to turn a large part of the U.S. population into those “trained thugs” of which the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci spoke.  Thanks to all this, the U.S. public has accepted as valid and reasonable, affirmations that would have provoked incredulity or hilarity among the most backward and superstitious people in medieval Europe.