China commits US$50b of investment to Caribbean, Latam region

[Judi Lynn]

China commits US$50b of investment to Caribbean, Latam region
The Week In Europe
David Jessop
Sunday, February 06, 2005

IN just under three months, both the president and vice president of China have led high-powered teams of ministers and officials to the Caribbean and Latin America.

David Jessop
In doing so they have underlined the strategic importance that Beijing now places on its relationship with the region.
In November 2004, Chinese president Hu Jintao visited Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Cuba.

Then in late January to early February of this year, vice president Zeng Qinghong travelled to Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, Trinidad and Jamaica.

During these visits, China, the fastest growing economy in the world, committed itself to new investments totalling over US$50 billion.
(snip/...)

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/magazines/Business/html/20050206T030000-0500_74603_OBS_CHINA_COMMITS_US___B_OF_INVESTMENT_TO_CARIBBEAN__LATAM_REGION.asp

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Dan Carpenter
'Yanqui go home,' with M.D.


February 6, 2005


Ever since he was a little boy putting in long waits to see a doctor who wasn't even a pediatrician, Lawrence "L.T." Jones has had a problem with how the world's richest country cares for the health of its poor folks.

Jones plans to be part of the solution, thanks to a huge gift to this country from a poor and put-down neighbor.

The 23-year-old from Gary is one of 88 Americans enrolled in the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana, run by the Cuban government to supply doctors to needy areas in the Western Hemisphere and Africa.

Cuba? That hardscrabble island of repression? Turning Americans into physicians?

"I hope to get people to come see for themselves," Jones says. "I know the media accounts are absurd."
(snip/...)

http://www.indystar.com/articles/2/219996-9482-021.html

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Spider Sculptures in Havana Overcome U.S.-Cuba Chill
Sat Feb 5, 2005 10:34 AM ET

HAVANA (Reuters) - Sculptures and prints by Louise Bourgeois, including her monumental "Maman" spider, went on show in Havana this weekend in the first major exhibition in Cuba by a contemporary U.S. artist.

A U.S.-based organizer said he was surprised last year to obtain a U.S. Treasury Department license to hold the show in Communist-run Cuba in the current hostile political climate between the two countries.

The 20 sculptures and 11 prints from Bourgeois' private collection, insured for $15 million, had to be shipped to Cuba through Canada due to four-decade-old U.S. sanctions that have been tightened by the administration of President Bush.

"We thought it was really important to make this work available and show that cultural projects can continue and transcend whatever political conditions exist," said Philip Larratt-Smith, Bourgeois' archivist and co-curator of the show called "One and Others."

"This invasion of spiders is wonderful," said Cuban Culture Minister Abel Prieto at the Friday night opening at the Wifredo Lam Center for Contemporary Art in Havana.
(snip/...)

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=industryNews&storyID=2005-02-05T153333Z_01_B470184_RTRIDST_0_INDUSTRY-CUBA-USA-ART-DC.XML


Bourgeois' spiders

[bemildred]

1. Yup, the Bushites are foreign policy geniuses.

No question about it. While I'm eating my dog food by candlelight,
it's going to be fun watching these dimwits "explain" what happened.

[murray hill farm]

2. Thanks for posting this, Judi Lynn!

I wish you could post this on the front page of every newspaper in America, because Americans have just no clue at all about what it is really like in Cuba today! For all of my life as a us citizen, i was totally lied to about Cuba..and i am 64 yrs old. The first time i went to Cuba a few years ago, i was completely shocked..and then angry..that my country had lied to me.

[Judi Lynn]

3. So glad you got to go!

The opinion of someone who has actually BEEN there, outside the extremists who fled Cuba in fear of retribution after the Revolution (and their descendents living in the States) is truly valuable to those of us (almost every American) who have been BANNED from travel to Cuba.

So you had had over 50 years of nightmarish tales working as your perception of Cuba, like the rest of us brought up on ordinary propaganda, completely unaware any part of that picture could be bogus!

They are so desperate the rest of us don't find out they have made the prohibitions even more severe. It's going to be something to behold when CROWDS of Americans finally show up in Cuba. Our right-wing politicians know this already. They know we're all gonna know they've lied someday. (Wouldn't want to be in their shoes, either.)They've painted themselves into a corner. Their ONLY hope is to KEEP us out.



This is a photo a DU'er, Say What, found. It's just great.

I hope you tell everyone you know what you saw for yourself. The truth will eventually triumph. I only hope it's within my lifetime!

Really envy you your experience!

[murray hill farm]

4. I go about once a year..or as much as i can afford it!

i live basically on pension and SS..but it is easy to go from Mexico..they dont stamp your passport..so, it never shows that you went to Cuba..just issue u a visa, which you turn in when u leave. You showed the spiders..and god they are beautiful..wish i could have seen them, but the arts are alive and well in cuba..wonderful dance and ballet..all state sponsered..including the training which starts when the kids are small..art museums and music everywhere. The streets are clean..and even the roads into the country..pristine. The people are happy and proud of their country and friendly. Actually, everything...just every single thing you are told in the usa about cuba is a total lie...and you are right, the reason bush does not want you to see Cuba..is that once you see it, you will be shocked and amazed...and most of all angry..and you will feel very betrayed by your own country. My whole feeling about my own country changed the first time i saw Cuba.

[DELUSIONAL]

5. If bushie makes a move on Cuba -- people of the Caribbean

region will be pissed at bushie -- even more than they are now.

The US policy toward Cuba is just plain stupid.

Cuba has sent aid to islands -- when the US didn't even bother.

Cuba is a good neighbor -- the US is a bully.