I know, I hope things are different now, too--but this is funny

Nelson P. Valdes offers a wonderfully satirical Cuban "transition proposal" to Obama.

"Please note that what follows is a request to you; it is not a demand. If there is something in this statement that your American Congress does not like, we will be delighted to delete it and offer our apology - beforehand. As Tomas Estrada Palma, the first president you put in charge in 1901, we know that you understand our interests better than we do. We are so lucky to be so close to your shores, so you can continue acting like our father or big brother. The laws of political gravitation and geography have certainly turned us into diplomatic realists. [We are so happy to be learning the terminology!]"

Cuba and Obama

Read about continuing racism in Cuba and how Obama's victory has already brought change abroad: "Cubans are dizzy with excitement at Obama’s victory. 'I still feel my heart skip a beat,' Victor Fowler, a black Cuban, told Spain’s El Pais newspaper last month. 'I listen to Barack Obama … I look at my skin, I look at my children’s skin, I cry and I smile.'"

Plus, there is a practically unanimous chorus from Latin America calling for an end to the U.S. embargo on Cuba.

Now then. Will Cuba policy change?

November 10, 2008

Dear Cuba Policy Advocates,

November 4th marked an historical change for the United States of America. President-elect Barack Obama represents CHANGE on many levels, and many people expect CHANGE in a great many things: the economy, two wars, a planet in peril, etc . . . you know the list by now.

As in every post-election, there exists a window of opportunity to take our country in a new direction. And how fitting that we call for change in U.S.-Cuba policy by a president-elect whose campaign, at its very core, called for change.

There are several articles we'd like to recommend to you:

* An article in the British newspaper, The Guardian, on the hope of reconciliation between the United States and Latin America, starting with Cuba.
* An article reporting Brazilian President Lula's call to President-elect Obama to end the blockade on Cuba. His voice is part of a growing chorus from Latin America.
* A Wall Street Journal article detailing the open door for changes in U.S.-Cuba policy.
* A more sobering article in which Frank Sanchez, Obama's Latin America foreign policy advisor, reiterated the president-elect's Cuba policy: " …as president the candidate will move quickly 'within [the] possible and practical bounds of his authority' to lift the family travel and remittances restrictions. Anything more than that, Sanchez told the Miami Herald, will have to wait."

For the first time in recent history a President will take office on January 20, 2009, owing no political debt to the hard-line Cuban Americans in Miami-Dade County. After all, President-elect Obama won Florida without the hardliners' help which is an historic feat in itself and one we must use to finally change our policy towards Cuba.

President-elect Obama has several steps available to him. He can work with Congress to end the travel ban, change some travel regulations to the extent of his executive authority, while engaging diplomatically with Cuba in a way that respects its sovereignty as a nation. If we can achieve this, than we can expect that the impact on all of our Latin American neighbors will be profound. It would truly signal a new day for U.S.-Latin America policy.

This message is not a full presentation of strategy and actions, but rather a glimpse of hope and of the progress that we have yet to make. We will be back to you in the coming weeks with requests for your participation in efforts to call on the president-elect and Congress to do the right thing and open up our policies towards Cuba. This will signal that we are ready to chart a new course with the entire region.

Thanks for your partnership!

Sincerely,

Mavis Anderson
Paulo Gusmao
Latin America Working Group
www.lawg.org

Real v. Fake America

Nothing says 4th of July quite like "Confederate Amputation"

In our continuing quest to visit the strangest roadside attractions in the area, Jen and I made a pilgrimage to visit the burial site of Stonewall Jackson's left arm. Could I make this up?

Here is a dramatic diorama photo of the arm being shot up during the battle of Chancellorsville:


Here is a choice shot of one of the monuments (there are two, but the first one is just a big boulder) put up by reverent ex-Confederates near (but, as it turns out, not exactly on) the site where the shooting took place. (The bit about "mortally wounded" isn't exactly true...he died of pneumonia.)


Here is a photo of the roadside sign near the spot where the arm was amputated, in a field hospital a couple of miles from where Stonewall was shot:

Here are some photos of the bucolic spot where the arm forever rests in peace:




Okay, so it hasn't really rested in peace. They say (that's my favorite way to cite dubious historical information) that Union soldiers dug it up in 1864 when they were back near the Chancellorsville site again. They also say (even more dubiously, apparently) that Smedley Butler, a marine major general, had it dug up in 1921 when his troops were in the area, because they didn't believe it was really there (apparently it was). Some naysayers (poo on you, National Park Service guy) claim that there is little historical or archaeological evidence that the arm is still there, at least on the site where the stone is. I choose to believe.

All in all, a quality bit of quirky historical nonsense.

Blossoms and Edibles

I bought all these pots with the idea that I would grow food in them. But I just keep finding flowers that I like. Also, it occurred to me that it's important to have some attractive things among the utilitarian things in the garden (not that edibles are unattractive, but blooms are different). The latest is the salvia:

The Gerbera daisies are doing well.


Plus, my African violet inside has gone crazy with the blooming. I think it likes the direct morning sunlight in the window.


On to edibles. We did lose the cucumber, for reasons that are unclear (at least to me). The plant bible says that cucumber seedlings are susceptible to cold temperatures, even those above frost. So perhaps the cool weather got to them--although they seemed to just up and die after we got three days of rain, when it wasn't too cold at all. Hmmm. So anyway, since Kathy is a cucumber fiend, we went ahead and bought new seedlings over the weekend. There are two lemon cucumber seedlings ("lemon" apparently refers to their yellow color--they don't have a weird lemon taste or anything) and one normal bush cucumber, all in the same pot. I hope they get along.


The monstrosity below is a broken plastic planter that came with the apartment. It's all cracked on one side, but being too cheap to throw it out, I fixed it all up with duct tape so that it doesn't leak too badly. Now it is home to sage (back) and spinach (front) seedlings, as well as a whole mess of lettuce seeds that I just planted today.


I also planted a sage seedling indoors, to see which one does better. Hooray scientific method!


Speaking of indoors, I now have three rosemary seedlings going. You thought I was kidding when I said that rosemary was slow-growing. No, my friends. This is six weeks of growth.

Maybe I'll have rosemary in October. (This, I think, is why they sometimes sell rosemary in little Christmas-tree shapes for the holidays. Everyone plants them in the spring and has to wait until December to get anything out of them.)

Tomatoes, on the other hand, grow about an inch per day. Here is the beefsteak, with his accompanying basil:

And a nice close-up of the happy basil:


Both tomatoes are getting this weird dry-looking brown spot thing on some of their older leaves. I hope this is normal (transplant shock, perhaps) and not some perilous bug or disease. Anybody know?


We also bought, at the farmer's market, a few supplementals. A red bell pepper, complete with first blossom [there are also new lettuce seeds planted in there with him]...

...some mint, which I assume will soon bully the surviving pansy to death...


...and a ridiculous amount of dill. If you can believe it, I gave away at least half the dill that came in the original farmer's market pot.


The strongest spinach got his very own pot. In another experiment, three of the spindlier cousin spinaches got dumped in a pot together.


The cilantro is also doing well. I learned that cilantro will quickly go to seed, so I'll have to use this soon. In preparation, I planted four more seeds in this same pot, and also transplanted another seedling to another pot. Of course, cilantro seed is just coriander, so if some does go to seed, I'm not going to be too upset about it. I'll just have to learn what to do with fresh coriander (dry it?).


The combo lettuce-green onion pot is looking very promising. Lettuce loves this cool, wet weather.


But I am, of course, proudest of the poblano pepper. Look at how big and strong he is. If only I had planted him a month earlier, he might be as big as the bell pepper. I also planted a bunch more green onion seeds around this pot. I'm not sure why it didn't occur to me to do this earlier. Oh well.


Someday I'll write more about my archival life. I've got a whole diary about it just for myself, so maybe that's why it's been absent from the blog lately.

Some links

My good friends Versha and Jason just had a baby, Kiran. He's extremely cute, I think.

I wasted a few hours this week setting up my site on Ravelry. I'm not quite sure what the purpose of it is yet, but now I have a nifty spreadsheet-type thing of the knitting needles I have (size, color, bamboo v. aluminum, etc.), which could be useful.

Garden update coming soon. I think we lost the cucumber, which is very sad. I'll have to do a postmortem.