The South African Civil Society Information Service
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
The White House has announced that President Obama intends to remove Cuba from the U.S. government's list of nations that sponsor terrorism. This issue was discussed by presidents Obama and Castro on the sidelines of the Summit of the Americas that took place in Panama City last week. Aviva Chomsky, author of The Cuba Reader and A History of the Cuban Revolution comments on diplomatic developments between the two nations. She argues that the presence of Cuba on the list of state sponsors of...
In a historic move late last year, President Barack Obama issued an executive order, which set in motion a series of measures to dismantle the U.S.’s trade embargo against Cuba and normalise diplomatic relations. Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, argues that the embargo was a “dumb policy”. In this interview, he talks about why the change in international relations has come about at this particular moment in history. Indeed,...
Mandisi Majavu -
Cuba is reportedly sending the largest foreign medical team from a single country to West Africa to help fight the Ebola virus. Cuba's contribution to the development and progress of African countries is often unacknowledged in the mainstream public discourse. One is more likely to read about the United Nation’s condemnation of Cuba’s human rights record than about the vital role Cuba has played assisting African countries establish public health systems. Cuba has helped establish...
Alana de Hinojosa -
Just before I left to study in Havana, Cuba for three months, a Cuban friend of mine pulled me aside and whispered in my ear: “Any ideas you had about race are going to be totally blown out of the water.” I had no idea what she meant, and was skeptical considering Cuba’s high praise from the progressive left, but my friend turned out to be right.
From the first day at the airport in Miami and throughout the three months I lived there, it seemed race was all around me. In...
"U.S. Secretly Created 'Cuban Twitter' to Stir Unrest." That is the name of an explosive new article by the Associated Press detailing how the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) created a fake Twitter program to undermine the Cuban government. The communications network was called "ZunZuneo" — slang for a Cuban hummingbird’s tweet. It was reportedly built with secret shell companies financed through foreign banks. According to AP, the United...
Arturo Lopez-Levy -
Just before Thanksgiving, Cuban-American families who had hoped to spend the holidays with their Cuban relatives got some bad news.
On November 26th, Cuba suspended consular services — including the issuing of passports and visas — at its interest section in Washington. The move came after the Buffalo-based M & T Bank announced this summer that it would stop providing Cuba with banking services in the United States. The Cuban government could not find another bank to take...
