Rum & TuKola

Last week in political surprises and we-already-knew-thats:

- No one was surprised when everyone in the U.N. — except the U.S., Israel, and Palau — condemned the embargo. Except, apparently, the White House press team. Twentieth time’s the charm?

- Everyone’s shocked that Obama got so much of the Cuban-American vote, including a majority on November 8.

- And the ambivalent item of the day is that Alan Gross is suing the U.S. government. It seems that the dude’s either a spy or overwhelmingly naive. Both? Either way, he’s taking to the courts.

11/19/12

Weekend reading: "Cuba's New Now," National Geographic November cover story. Because every Saturday goes better with some geopolitical speculation.

10/26/12

Title-mongers, chill out a bit. There’s a cholera outbreak in Cuba (contained, with 158 deaths thus far). Doesn’t mean that every news story title has to include a García Márquez reference. The irony of the whole thing is not lost on any literate human. We know GGM likes Cuba and Fidel. Let’s move on, shall we?

07/14/12

Life -> art, and all that. Going tomorrow to see this film at the TriBeCa fest, and excited, particularly given the kerfuffle that’s surrounded the two defecting stars of the film.

04/23/12

“Now, has Castro done some bad dictator shit? Yes. But can we get some perspective, please, on Fidel Castro? There are worse dictators in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Equatorial Guinea, and Turkmenistan, and those are just our friends!”

Forgiving the excessive alliteration up top, great comments from Bill Maher on Ozzie Guillén’s Castro-praise-gate.

04/17/12

Ahmadinejad in Cuba: “Our interpretations are alike”

Two stories by Jeff Franks for Reuters on the diplomatic visit; here, and here. Jeff seems, in his writing, to be as annoyed as I am that this visit is looking so friendly.

01/12/12