Tag: Cuba

Standing in Solidarity with our Cuban Brothers and Sisters

On By Dr. Y.In Great Moments, Great People1 Comment
Flag of Cuba

Our hearts go out to our Cuban brothers and sisters who are currently getting strangled alive! Yes… alive! Through no fault of their own, except standing for their freedom. Cuba has been struggling, facing embargo for over 64 years (the US imposed embargo on Cuba on February 3, 1962), and now, since January 3rd when the US kidnapped the Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and his wife (Pirates of the Caribbeans in Venezuela, or the Renewed Face of the Far West), Cuba has been denied any oil imports. Until then, Venezuela had been providing 50 % of all of Cuba’s oil. Since then, all other countries, like Mexico, which were providing oil to Cuba have stopped after getting threatened by American president Donald Trump with tariffs. On Monday, the power grid collapsed, and on Wednesday power was partially restored to the island of 11 millions. Faced with years of embargo, Cuba’s power grid is aging and now with the recent oil blocade, it is falling apart. Highways are deserted, hospitals suffer, doctors operate with candle lights, and mothers give birth in darkness.

Whatever happens, Cuba is a beacon to the ‘small’ people of the world, and we stand with them. Cubans with Fidel Castro (Fidel Castro: Ideas cannot be Killed!) have shown us that the size of a country or its people does not matter when fighting for freedom and principles. Cuba is a small country, but its actions, its help, has been immense to Africa for the past 50 years. Even to this day, doctors across Africa have been trained in Cuba, and Cuban doctors have vastly supported the health-care services of many countries including Ghana. We stand with them!

Excerpts below are from Al Jazeera.

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Fuel

Cuba has reconnected its power grid and brought online its largest oil-fired power plant, energy officials said, putting an end to a nationwide blackout that lasted more than 29 hours amid a United States move to choke off the island’s fuel supply.

After the country’s 10 million people had been plunged into darkness overnight, the Caribbean island’s national power grid had fully come back online by 6:11pm (22:11 GMT) on Tuesday. However, officials said power shortages may continue because not enough electricity is being generated.

In addition to cutting off oil sales to Cuba, US President Donald Trump has escalated his rhetoric against the Communist-run island, saying on Monday he could do anything he wanted with the country.

A US State Department official blamed the Cuban government for the grid collapse, calling blackouts a “symptom of the failing regime’s incompetence”.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel fired back at Washington, criticising its “almost daily public threats against Cuba”.

“They intend to and announce plans to take over the country, its resources, its properties, and even the very economy they seek to suffocate in order to force us to surrender,” Diaz-Canel wrote on social media on Tuesday night, shortly after power returned nationwide.

Cuba has yet to say what caused Monday’s nationwide grid failure, the first such collapse since the US cut off the island’s oil supply from Venezuela and threatened to slap tariffs on countries that ship fuel to the nation.

By midday on Tuesday, grid workers successfully fired up the Antonio Guiteras power plant, a decades-old behemoth that underpins the country’s power grid.

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The Far West Continues ?

On By Dr. Y.In Great Moments1 Comment
Flag of Iran

Since last Saturday, we have been witness to joint Israeli-US attacks on Iran, which killed the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, over 100 little girls, and others. At the beginning of the week, the US also engaged in a joint military effort with Ecuador against narcotrafics in Ecuador and carried out air strikes. We also know about the deployment of some 200 American troops in Nigeria. Yesterday, the American president announced that Cuba would be next. Brothers and sisters… there is no letting up! To each one of us, this is a signal to stay alert!

Flag of Venezuela

As it stands now, what the US has done with the blatant removal of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, and now the murder of the Ayatollah Khamenei in Iran (during Ramadan) has united the people of the global South in general and Muslims of all board in particular, against the United States. How long can a giant stay (over)stretched? The people of Iran are fighting for survival… while the United States are fighting to help a friend (Israel)… there is a difference! The geology of the Iranian territory makes it an almost impenetrable fortress. Remember that this is the same Iran which fought tirelessly against Iraq’s Western-backed invasion. Why does the West think that it is okay to decide for the people of a country? Why not let them decide for themselves: throw out whoever they want whenever they want without western intervention? Wouldn’t it be arrogant to want to change their condition without their participation? Who is to say what is good! We all know Western media lied about Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, claiming he was killing his own people, and that the Libyan people needed democracy… look what is left of Libya now! Is there one Libyan out there (except puppets) who can look at their country now and applaud the NATO attacks?

We will note that, as always, the West cannot be trusted. Iran was at the table of negotiations on Friday and got bombed the next day! This is so reminiscent of so many situations in the world: the recent DRC-Rwanda peace agreement treaty where the country is still occupied and attacked by Rwandan-backed M23, and countless others. Would you blame Iran for not wanting to sit at a negotiation table?