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July 27, 2002
Mokhiber / Weissman
Push Back: Women Take
on the Corporate Beasts
July 26, 2002
Jerre Skog
American
Dictatorship:
It Couldn't Happen...Could It?
Philip Farruggio
Lie,
Rob and Steal
Rep. Ron Paul
Monitor
Thy Neighbor
Ron Jacobs
Thinking
About the
Weather (Underground)
Walt Brasch
Ashcroft's War on Bookstores
July 25, 2002
Norman Madarasz
Paul
Krugman's Howl:
Populism, War and
the Melting Economy
Gavin Keeney
Van Morrison: In September
Rep. Cynthia McKinney
War
on Terrorism or
Police State?
July 24, 2002
Gary Leupp
An Islam Primer
July 23, 2002
Jeffrey St. Clair
The Battle
for Zuni Salt Lake
Ansar Ahmed
Am I with You, George?
Bill Christison
The
Disastrous Foreign Policies of the US: Oppression Abroad Means
Repression at Home
July 22, 2002
Rick Giombetti
Glaxo Raises White Flag
in Paxil Case
Wayne Madsen
Forbidden
Truth
The Press, Bush, Oil
and the Taliban
July 21. 2002
Francis A. Boyle
The Rogue Elephant
Jennifer Harbury
Why are
the FBI & CIA Targeting Me?
Joan Claybrook
Time
for a Special Prosceutor
for Thomas White
Gloria Bergen
The Struggle
of Workers
in Palestine
Dave Marsh
Mr. Big Stuff:
Alan Lomax, Great White Fraud
James T. Phillips
"I'll
Tell You No Lies"
The Human Rubble of War
July 20, 2002
Gavin Keeney
The Grave
New Urbanism
World Trade Center Burlesque
Jacob Levich
"I
Was Schooled in Hate"
Confessions of a
Summer Camp Terror Tot
Thomas Croft
Augusta,
GA
Growing Up in the Deep South
Alexander Cockburn
The
Market Hogwallow:
Popgun Populism Isn't Enough
July 19, 2002
Abe Bonowitz / SueZann
Bosler
A Discussion
with Jeb Bush on the Death Penalty
Jonathan Power
No Need
for War Against Iraq
Rick Giombetti
Qwest
Death Watch
Kurt Nimmo
Of Mice,
Bullets & Bombs
M. Shahid Alam
Through
Racist Eyes:
Is Eurocentrism Unique?
July 18, 2002
Mokhiber / Weissman
Business
As Usual
Jerre Skog
I Spy: Now
Let's be Fair,
the USA Ain't East Germany
Ralph Nader
The CEO
Crimewave:
Corporate Socialism
Mahbubul Karim (Sohel)
The Rising Tensions
Between Spain and Morocco
Alexander Cockburn
Drivel
and Squawk:
Can the Times' Jeff Gerth
Save the White House?
July 17, 2002
Philip Farruggio
The
New Role Model:
Remember Jesus, George?
Zara Gelsey
Who's
Reading Over
Your Shoulder?
Behzad Yaghmaian
9/11 and
Fotress Europe:
the Drama of the New
Moslem Diaspora
Mike Ferner
War, Incorporated
Gary Leupp
Bush, Burqas
and the Oppression of Afghan Women
July 16, 2002
Pierre Tristam
Faith--based
Capitalism in
the Ruins of the Market
Kurt Nimmo
How My
35mm Camera Almost Became a Tool of Treason
Robert Fisk
The Kashmir
Distraction
Salam al--Marayati
When
is Terrorism
Not Defined as Terrorism?
Kathleen Christison
The
Image Problem:
Anti--Palestinian Bias
from Wilson to Bush
July 15, 2002
Gavin Keeney
In One
of Safire's Ears,
Out the Other
CounterPunch Wire
Nader in
Cuba
Ralph Nader
The Secret
World of Banking
Dave Marsh
Vincible:
Michael Jackson, Racism and the Music Cartel
Rahul Mahajan
Justice
for Bhopal
Jeffrey St. Clair
Seduced
by a Legend
The Return of Jimmy T99 Nelson
July 14, 2002
Bill Christison
The
DOA (Poem)
David Vest
I'll Never
Get Out of This Band Alive
July 13, 2002
M. Junaid Alam
A Process
of Dehumanization
Gavin Keeney
Go Tell
Karl Rove!
Matt Vidal
Corporate
"Ethics" Red Herrings
Ed Whitfield
Lessons
from Independence Day
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
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Published March 15, 2002
Read Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
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This Explosive
New Book at an
Amazing Discount!
Reviews of Gore:
a User's Manual
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Weekend
Edition
July 27, 2002
Our Dinner (and Lunch) with Fidel
by Bob Geary
In the past 18 years we have found ourselves in
many different countries on tour with the Piedmont Choirs. For
those who don't know, this is one the lading children's choral
organizations in the US and is widely known internationally as
well. This year we were in Cuba and our July 4th story is pretty
remarkable.
We arrived on July 3 via Mexico City
on an all night trip from San Francisco on Mexicana Airlines.
We were exhausted but excited to be in this country that has
been so forbidden to Americans in the past.
Our American guide, Paige, met us in
Mexico City and she did a fine job of helping us adapt to the
constantly changing plans. We drove from the airport to the Copacabana
Hotel on the beach. Abel Prieto, the Minister of Culture for
Cuba, invited the choirs through our Cuban counterpart Digna
Guerra, to participate an unprecedented Cuban celebration of
US culture in the Karl Marx Theater on July 4.
We accepted the invitation. We arrived
by bus at the theater at about 7:30. The theater holds more than
2000 people and that many people were queued up in the parking
lot waiting to get in. It was very hot, maybe 85 degrees. We
went through the stage entrance receiving our security badges
and went to our seats in the theater.
At 7:25 Fidel came in and the place went
nuts. Obviously, there was a genuine affection for him. The evening
opened with some serious political speeches urging the US to
reexamine its relationship to the rest of the world; that 9/11
was related to previous activity and not very different from
the bombs that the US drops on many countries around the world.
There was a series of readings of the poetry of Edna St. Vincent
Millay, Carl Sandburg, Walt Whitman and others. There were more
political speeches urging revolution (meaning: humanitarian responses
to disagreements rather than sending troops and making more bombs.
The Revolution in Cuba has nothing to do with violence, but with
the struggle for justice, equality and peace.) There were excellent
performances by jazz and rock musicians, The Cuban National Ballet
and then it was our turn.
We were involved in the two closing acts.
We took the stage for a performance of the spiritual Ride the
Chariot. The kids were very special, very professional and did
fine, and although the amplification was not perfect, the ovation
was dramatic. For the finale, we were joined by two other Cuban
choirs for a performance of John Lennon's Imagine under the direction
of Digna Guerra's assistant Ethel. John Lennon is a much loved
figure for the Cuban people and there is a statue of him in Havana.
After the performance Sue and I were
invited with the other performers for dinner with Fidel Castro
at the Palace of the Revolution. There were about 50 people at
the dinner but we were the only non-Cuban citizens. We were with
a group of poets, other musicians, dancers and producers. We
were ushered into the marble halls and were offered drinks (Bob
had a mojito: a rum and spearmint local favorite) in a comfortable
sitting room until El Commandante entered the room. He took the
time to greet each of us individually and he started with Sue
and me. His eyes were direct and friendly and interested. He
had the smile lines of a grandfather and the aura of a philosopher
and leader who accepts his responsibilities. We went into dinner
and sat around a large rectangle of tables. The beautiful prima
ballerina sat to Fidel's left, his ministers were to his right
and Sue and I and the two Americans working with the agency that
manages Cuban tour groups sat directly across from Fidel. The
food was basic but well prepared.
The conversation varied from long philosophical
ramblings on various topics like education, international relations,
to the role of the arts, the differences between men and women,
computers, television and the media, marketing, and George W.
Bush. At the age of 74, Fidel eats a mostly vegetarian diet and
he starts with grapefruit. He has amazing endurance and skill
for conversation. When a topic would be introduced (either by
him or someone else) he would digress to the point that you had
forgotten the initial topic and 10 or 15 minutes later he would
weave his thoughts back to the initial topic. Often this was
the development of a considerable thought process; sometimes
it was a politician using the moment to forward an idea. A considerable
portion of the evening was spent in direct exchange between the
Americans and Fidel. He wanted to know specific information and
he was studying the point of orientation from which we spoke.
Many times during the evening, he was
very humorous. At one point, while eating some vegetables, Fidel
commented that one of the few good things to come from American
television was encouraging people to eat their spinach through
Popeye the Sailorman. When I began singing a couple measures
of the song, he asked me to sing it for him. So, somewhere between
3 and 5:00AM, I sang it for him and afterwards, several other
guests and ministers joined in singing the Spanish version that
had been adapted as an advertising jingle for soap in Cuba. It
was a funny moment.
I had two agenda items for Fidel: 1.
I wanted him to send Digna's children's choir to our festival
in June 03. 2. I wanted him to spend some time with our children.
By the end of the evening, following liberal amounts of red wine
and brandies; the atmosphere was sufficiently relaxed that we
were able to discuss these matters. The overt friendliness extended
to us was undeniable and heartwarming right up to the last moment
when Fidel said he would try to find time to meet with us again
before we left Cuba. The party adjourned at 5:00AM.
The day after our dinner with Fidel I
received a call from the secretary of the Fundacion Nacional
del Coro asking for the names, ages, passport numbers and complete
itinerary for all members of our party. They needed the information
to see if El Commandante could arrange to visit with us before
our departure. We had a significant performance that evening
at a small historic church where our performance was recorded
for broadcast the following week on a national children's television
show. The following day we had a very interesting tour of Finca
Hemmingway (the house Hemingway bought after he won the Nobel
for The Old Man and the Sea) and at some point we were told that
we had been invited to lunch with Fidel the following day. We
had a concert that evening with a very good children's choir,
the Cuban National Children's Choir at Teatro Amadeo Roldan.
Our final performance was scheduled as a community performance
on Sunday evening.
We started the day by participating in
a service at the Cathedral de la Habana that morning. It was
atrociously hot and several children did not feel well but all
sang. We were more than ready to leave the cathedral at the end
of the service but a few dozen parishioners gathered around us
and we ended up singing several more pieces. After the service
we were led by an official car to the Palace of the Revolution
and once again we were led to the waiting room. We were asked
to stand in a semicircle so El Commandante could individually
greet each person. We passed some time singing and then in he
came, first greeting Sue and me and then working his way around
the entire group. Sue led the kids in a song for him and we were
ushered in for lunch.
Once again Sue and I were seated directly
across the table from Fidel. This turned into one of the most
extraordinary afternoons imaginable. Castro devoted a full 6.5
hours to this lunch. For the first hour or two the atmosphere
was uncertain. The various courses of food came and went and
we engaged in some conversation but mostly we listened to the
discussion of educational reform being instituted. It seemed
that the two most important elements of the reform were based
on smaller classes and having teachers stay with the same class
for several years so there could be a personal relationship between
student and teacher. Castro talked about the legendary Cuban
medical schools and the thousands of doctors who were working
in other countries. He spoke of the AIDS epidemic in Africa where
some countries have a 40% infection rate. He spoke of the difference
between human capital (e.g. trained doctors) and monetary capital.
He spoke of the free education offered in Cuba including medical
schools and all higher education. There are now some US citizens
attending medical school in Cuba at no cost. He spoke at length
of the need for self esteem. He spoke at length of his thought
of appropriate use of mass media for education. He spoke of education
as the key to crime control as opposed building prisons and punishment.
He spoke of the extremely high literacy rate in Cuba (some say
the highest in the world) and the very low crime rate. He spoke
of diet with a knowledge of whole foods.
At that point Lindsay raised her hand
and told him that she and her friend Sarah were going to write
a book called Living Well With Fidel. Fidel had fun with that
as we all did and it led to a very supportive discussion of Lindsay's
aspiration to be a writer. He asked Lindsay what she would like
to write about and she mentioned her love of history. He spoke
of the fact that history is fiction because it is from the perspective
of the writer and that he loved history. He told the children
that history was before them. When Sue asked what we could do
to help relations between our two countries he said he felt we
had written a very small page of history by having lunch together
and bringing our choir to Cuba.
After the first couple of hours, everyone
had relaxed and adults and kids asked him quite a few questions.
Once again he demonstrated a combination of speaking with knowledge
on many subjects, having a sense of humor, making social and
political statements and expressing what a number of the children
later described as wisdom. Elliot asked him if there was anything
he regretted not having done and he spoke at length of his interest
in sports and that he would have liked to be an Olympic athlete.
As a youth he had played many sports.
He asked Elliot what his aspirations
were and Elliot was at a loss to respond so he asked him if he
had a girl friend to which Elliot responded "no". Fidel
then said, "Elliot, don't lie to me!" Everyone laughed,
including a slightly red-faced Elliott. Sydney asked him if he
had any arts education and he spoke of unsuccessful piano lessons
and of three successive Christmases when he had written to the
three wise men in the hope of receiving gifts and of having received
three toy trumpets, each better than the last but he never learned
to play them.
When Caitlin A asked him if he had traveled
much, he named some countries including Africa, and several places
in Cuba, especially a high plateau with a cathedral forest and
birds. He mentioned that it had since been cut down. He spoke
of environmental sensitivities and was interested in the environmental
movement in the US. Johanna asked him what was his favorite part
of the Revolution and he spoke at length and with pride of the
establishment of education in Cuba and having achieved the highest
rate of literacy in the world. Mimi asked him what was the single
most important piece of advice he had received and he apologized
for not being able to think of one.
When Michelle and Alice B. asked him
about literature in Cuba and to name his favorite books, he spoke
of The Old Man and the Sea (because of the inner conversation
the old man has with himself), Don Quixote, Kafka short stories,
all books by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Romeo and Juliet, among
others. He spoke at length of the high cost of books and the
family literature program they have instituted which produces
great literature for pennies a copy. These "Family Libraries"
able to be disseminated widely and he gifted a library to each
of us. At both meals we had with Castro he named education and
the arts, as being the essence of culture and that which makes
human beings something other than animals. After photo sessions
and gift giving we boarded our bus with a sense of having been
given a great and rare gift of opportunity to meet a very special
and important human being and to make our own opinions. Several
children said it had been the greatest moment of their lives.
All the children were given back packs and a stuffed animal;
the girls were given a rose. Johanna smuggled one petal of her
rose home to press it in a glass frame.
Today's Features
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