The Alberto Jones Column VI - 2003

This gentleman who most likely is not Black and knows nothing about what it meant to be Black in "Democratic" Cuba, is just another mouthpiece of the Cuban-American National Foundation and tens of other rabid anti-Cuba organizations, bent on faning the flames of hatred and exacerbating the plight of Blacks in Cuba, in hopes of re-creating the race-war of 1912.

Having failed miserably in their 40 year old dirty war of sabotage, invasions, blockade, terrorism, biological and economical warfare against the Cuban people, they finds themselves demoralized and reduced to an amorphous human mass, pleading with President Bush to imprison US citizens who dares to travel to Cuba or to send in the Marines to do, what they have proven to be genetically unfit to accomplish.

If Mr. Suarez was honestly concerned with the pain and suffering of Blacks, he could spend some quality-time with the people of Watts, Cabrina Greens, Harlem, Overtown, Soweto or Haiti, who are in dire need of moral and material support and less worn-out, cheap politicking.

The tragic events that occured recently in Cuba, leading to the executions of three armed Afro-Cubans-would-be hijackers of a ferry in Havana's harbor, is just another reflection on the disastrous economical consequences of the 40 year old embargo imposed upon that country, that is causing many citizens to attempt to flee, using whatever means is available to them.

Compounding this factor is the existence of a powerful legal magnet since 1964 known as the Cuban Adjustment Act, which entitles every Cuban who arrive on US soil or its territories through whatever means, will receive one year after a permanent resident card.

The anti-Piracy Accord of 1975 and the Migratory Agreement of 1994 between the US and Cuba, which ended the plague of airliners hijacking in the early 1970's and the later agreement geared to promote an orderly and safe migration of those willing to emigrate from Cuba to the United States, have been flagrantly violated by the administration of President George W. Bush.

Still, no argument, rationale or evidence, can ever be invoked to explain or justify the loss of these three lives of otherwise innocent people, victims of this ongoing international strife, that has brought so much depravation, pain and suffering to our country.

But, to allow ultra-right-wing Cuban-American Frank Calzon, the Cuban American National Foundation or President George W. Bush to re-make themselves as born-again advocates of black Cubans wellbeing, is revolting.

Having failed in their 40 plus years of subversive conspiracies to overthrow the Cuban government through assassinations attempts, invasions, terrorisms, political and economic warfare, demonizations etc., they have now identified and redirected all of their financial resources to the creation of a race war in Cuba.

That is why, special effort has been made by the USAID, CIA, US Interest Section and others, to recruit, promote and dissiminate so called "dissidents" on their payroll, who happen to be black.

Yet, when a race war was justified and happened in 1912, these upper-class hispanic Cubans joined forces with the United States occupying forces and massacred over 6000 members of the Independent Party of Color in Oriente.

In the early 1900's when the United Fruit Co., Manati Sugar Co. and other US enterprises were in their early transnational development, they lured tens of thousands of emigrants from the english-speaking Caribbean islands and Haiti to Cuba, as cheap labor for their sugar industry.

These emigrants were forced to live in thatched roof huts without electricity, running water, sewer, schools, healthcare or jobs. Hunger and malnutrition was rampant and no family in our community of 8-10,000 did not lost a family member before the age of 5, due to preventable diseases.

Another hallmark in our community, was an infamous gully with its putrid drainage of those living on the other side of the tracks, winding its way through our community and spreading all sort of diseases.

A viscious racism did not allow blacks to work in banks, department stores or large enterprises except in the most menial jobs. Public parks in many towns and cities were divided in three sections for Whites, Mulatos and Blacks on the outside.

Beaches were for whites and reef for blacks. Even certain religion created a separate order and a different dress code for black female wanting to become nuns. Yet, the cornerstone of this oppressive "free" and "democratic" society rested with the educational system, which made sure no member of our community ever went beyond 6th grade.

World War II brought an unprecedented expansion of the United States Naval Base in Guantanamo. Again, hundreds of english speaking members of our community, were lured to the Base, where the provided their loyal services for 10, 20, 30 or more years, during and after all military conflagration this country was involved in.

With the worsening of relations between the US and Cuba, in 1964 the commanding officer of the US Naval Base presented his Cuban employees with a draconian ultimatum:

Those who decided to abandon their families in Cuba, would be allowed to live on the Naval Base and keep their jobs. Those who decided to return to their families in Cuba, would loose their jobs and be on their own.

Those who decided to stay with their families, have seen their retirement benefits arbitrarily frozen and witheld by a cruel decision of the US Treasury and State Departments for the past 40 years.

Many of these ex-employees, frustrated by an unsurmountable dilatory tactic of the Treasury Department, have decided to break up their families, travel to a Caribbean island, where they receive their benefits, with which, they can now support the rest of their family in Cuba.

A horde of foreign lawyers, with apparently well established connections within the US Treasury department, are hounding these victims across Cuba, promising they can extract their frozen retirement money from the United States, in exchange for 50 or 60% of its face value. Is the FBI so busy or so incapable, that they are not aware of this brutal extortion?

Those who heeded the suggestion of the commanding officer and stayed on the Naval Base, had to wait at least 15 years before seeing their families again.

That is why listening to so called Conservatives, Religious Fundamentalists and Moralists preach about family values, right to life or redemption, in face of the suffering of others, sound so callous, so hypocritical.

Some may wonder, why then are these right-wing Cuban-Americans and the US government embarked on this uplifting Afro-Cuban cruzade? The answer is simple.

With all its imperfections, failures and mistakes, Cuba have created in the past 40 years, the largest or second largest pool of blacks with higher education in the world, and that must be stopped!

Empoverished, harrassed, demonized, and yet, Cuba have been able to provide higher and technical education to over 40,000 sons and daugthers of Africa, 10,000 from Latin America and 5000 from the Caribbean, all free of charge, and that must be stopped!

Threatened, intimidated, Cuba was still willing to allign itself with Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe, by sending over 300,000 of its sons and daughters to share their blood and lives on behalf of the independence and these nations and the dismanteling of Apartheid, and that must be stopped!

Although Cuba is suffering its worst financial crisis in its history, it has managed to provide thousands of healthcare professionals, educators, sport trainers, cultural and engineering professionals to over 35 countries around the world, most of them free of charge, and that must be stopped!

Although Cuba suffers from a chronic shortage of food and other material goods, in the world-wide battle against HIV-AIDS, Cuba have offered the World Health Organization, a minimum of 10,000 healthcare providers, to serve anywhere they may be needed around the world, and that must be stopped!

Although Cuba suffers from a severe shortage of energy, transportation and other material means that are commonly used to measure the level of development of a region or nation, Cuba has a top-notch research and biotechnology infrastructure, that is developing and producing a host of front line medications at low cost, against some of the world most aggressive diseases, and that must be stopped!

That is why, the Cuban government could care less about what Mr. Frank Calzon and his ilks, the Cuban American National Foundation and some retrograde voices coming out of the State Department or the basement of the White House may say about Cuba.

Conversely, Cuba is very concerned about what Amilcar Cabral, Sekou Toure, Antonio Maceo, N’krumah, Jesus Menendez, Sisulu, Toussant, Mumia, Bishop, Mariana Grajales, Ghandi, Malcolm X and thousands of others, may think of what and how that country acts everyday.

Why did this happen and was a Revolution neccessary? Shortly after Christopher Columbus and his crooks landed in Cuba in 1492, they abused, maimed, imposed forced labor, raped and infected the natives with deadly diseases that were unknown in this hemisphere, which lead to their demise. Then, they re-directed their attention to Africa, from where they forcibly removed millions of men, women and children in what remain as the largest human displacement in world history and was followed by 400 years of enslavement on these shores.

Many slaves conspired, rose-up, fought or ran away. Most were captured, tied to a ladder and beaten to death or burnt alive. In 1812 Cuba had its first organized slave uprising. In 1868, rich slave owners and other independent minded Cubans, freed their slaves, rose-up against the crown and fought a bitter and bloody war for 10 years, that succumbed to regionalism and racism.

General Antonio Maceo, the greatest son of Africa ever to live in that country and head of the Army of independence in eastern Cuba, proclaimed one of Cuba’s most important historic document, "The Protest of Baragua," in which they refused to surrender and vow to fight to the end. One year later, exhausted, without material support and the entire Spanish occupying army against them, he and his men were forced to migrate to Jamaica. In 1895 and under the leadership of Jose Marti, the intellectual father of the Cuban nation, who studied carefully and removed the flaws that lead to failure in 1868, he put forward among other crucial unifying principles, the concept of : "More than White, More than Black, More than Mulato, Say Cuban!"

By the end of 1897, the Spanish occupying forces were literally defeated, when the battleship USS Maine entered Havana harbor, where it later blew up in questionable circumstances, killing over 250 crew members and paving the way for the Spanish-American war.

This skirmish lasted less than 3 months and approximately 5000 US casualties, most of which was caused by malaria and yellow fever. The Cuban Army of Independence was not allowed to take part in the surrendering ceremony of the Spanish forces or in the Conference of Paris months later, in which the United States demanded and received from Spain Puerto Rico, the Phillipines, Guam and for all purposes Cuba, in what Teddy Roosevelt described as Our Best Little Dirty War!

Occupation and corrupting of a society.

Cuba remained occupied for the next four years by a segregated army under Gen. Teddy Roosevelt. Fearful of the fully integrated Cuban army with a large cadre of seasoned Afro-Cuban generals that led victorious battles against Spain most decorated generals, this institution was quickly dismantled and a rabid racism was re-introduced in Cuba, despite 70% of the Cuban army and 80% of its casualties were Afro-Cubans.

Blacks were not allowed in the Police force and no Black could rise above the rank of lieutenant in the newly created Rural Guard. Schools, jobs and neighborhoods were segregated. Political corruption, nepotism, prostitution, gambling and racketeering became the norm.

Fed-up with the prevailing conditions, Afro-Cubans organized in 1906, the first-ever all-black political party, "The Independent Party of Color," whose ranks grew rapidly, sending shivers down the spines of those in power, who in turn, responded with a vicious scare tactics campaign, suggesting the creation in Cuba, of a Black Republic like Haiti. In 1912, the US army intervened once again in Cuba, occupied numerous communities throughout eastern Cuba, relieving the Rural Guard from many posts and enabling them to organize a strike force that slaughtered over 6000 Afro-Cubans. Badly mutilated bodies were displayed in public parks or paraded on horse back through communities, sending a clear message to Blacks to conform or else!

Again in 1933, a broad base insurrection deposed another hand picked US despot who had governed with an iron fist, who created the largest political violence, killing and dissapearance in the country’s history. The outspoken leadership of this movement did not get the blessings of the US State Department, which was followed by a number of threats and unrest, until an obscure sergeant, Fulgencio Batista -our man in Havana- came to power in a coup d’etat and was rapidly anointed by the US government.

This period was followed by two pseudo-democratic governments, that instantly allowed US enterprises to engulf all remaining infrastructure, industries, banking, commerce and turning Cuba into a US playground, plagued by drugs, prostititution and all other social ills.

This partial summary of Cuba’s convulsive history, may help to explain why the movement that was started by Fidel Castro when he and another 164 men attacked on July 26, Cuba’s second largest military garrison with over a thousand soldiers camped inside, in which most of his men were captured, murdered, imprisoned, released, migrated to Mexico, trained in guerrilla warfare, 82 of them returned to Cuba by sea, were strafed, ambushed and most were killed after landing in a swamp in eastern Cuba. Weeks later and with the help of the peasantry, twelve survivors were able to regroup in the Sierra Maestra hills, where Fidel exclaimed: We Won!

Since, it has been a battle of epic proportions against Batista’s well supplied army by the US Department of Defense. The victory of the Revolution in 1959, was quickly presented with even a greater set of military threats, invasions, sabotage, assassinations attempts, economic and biological warfare, embargo, isolation and all other imaginable means of overthrowing the government.

Yet, in the midst of this incredible adverse environment and a long list of mistakes that were made by a young, inexperienced and in many cases, illiterate leaders that were placed in crucial management positions in 1959, that government have been able to achieve social, cultural, educational, sports and scientific advancement, that far exceed not only the previous 500 years of our history, but also, have placed Cuba ahead of all Latin America countries while it rivals many social indexes in first world developed nations. Additionally, even under such dire conditions, Cuba did not focus solely on itself. Over forty thousands Africans from across that continent have received mid level and higher education training, free of charge in all fields of knowledge. Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia have similar experience, albeit less extensive.

Thousands of Cuban physicians have worked and continue to do so, in the most intricate rural areas in over 40 countries around the world saving the lives of millions. Teachers, construction professionals, sports instructors, cultural educators, engineers can be found everywhere, helping to improve the quality of lives of those less fortunate.

Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Angola independence and sovereingty is closely related to Cuba military intervention in Africa, at the cost of thousands of lives of its own people.

Can anyone assume that Cuba is a panacea, utopia or a perfect society? Far from it. On one hand, they have different social system that many of us do not understand and others who have visited for a week, become Cubanologists overnight and are ready to prescribe shock therapy for their ailing economy.

It is said that all roads leads to Rome. If mankind would simply be more tolerant, less imposing, less self-righteous, I can imagine what our world could be, if the billions of dollars that have been pityfully squandered in this senseless 40 year old US-CUBA strife, had been applied to heal some of the world terrifying maladies, even if we continued not speaking to each other.

Two months after the Bush-Blair-Aznar triumvirate and a few poorly known, geographically hard to find countries around the world became part of the Coalition of the Willing, it is abundantly clear that this man-made conflict is nothing more than a spurious conspiracy of the Chenneys, Wolfowitz’s, Perles and others, who knew they could lead our intellectually challenged President. Those who dared to confront the administration, by writing articles in the press, by standing up, walking and speaking out against this foreseeable debacle, were labeled as un-patriotic, traitors and worse. Yet, it will the entire nation -- those for and against this war -- who will have to bear its tragic consequences.

Never before in the history of mankind has any single individual aligned so many people and created so much hatred against any one nation in the world! The horrific pictures of the senseless destruction of Baghdad, the thousands of maimed bodies, the tally of the dead, the daily suffering of the people without water etc., that most of the media in open complicity with the administration have intentionally withheld from the public, is nevertheless circulating the globe through a host of alternative media. This sad and irresponsible decision of the administration, that was supported by a number of people we assumed to be trustworthy and yet, were willing to twist, distort, massage and lie deliberately to the UN and the world; are now part and parcel of this monstrosity. One thing we can be sure of is that the picture of the perpetrators and that of the charred and limbless body of 10 year old Ismail Ali, have all become an integral part of world history.

Dear Friends,

I need not to bring to your attention, the very dangerous political environment that is been carefully built around Cuba, in order to lay the ground work to justify unleashing a devastating Iraq-type Blitzkrieg, with unpredictable consequences for our country.

Irrespective of our personal views of the recent events in Cuba, I ask you to please focus on the Big Picture: The preservation of the Sovereignty, Integrity and Well Being of the Cuban People. We will be able to debate the tactics, ethics or morality of this matter at a future date .

The Caribbean American Children Foundation is extremely concerned about the future of the children in Cuba. We do not need any of our children to live through the harrowing experience of the ten year old naked girl, ablaze by napalm in My Lai or that of 8 year old Ali’s charred and limbless body in Iraq. No child should be traumatized forever, because of "smart bombs" bursting through the skies.

We need your help! We will be making post cards that depicts school children in Cuba and what could happen to them, if we do not try to stop this madness.

Please send us a short sentence or Poem, whatever financial support you can afford, and important names on your mailing list to:

Caribbean American Children Foundation
PO Box 353593
Palm Coast, Fl., 32135

Thank You,

Alberto Jones  cacf2@aol.com

Some facts:

Since the inception of the Bush administration, the United States Interest Section (quasi Embassy) in Havana, has been turned into a command and control center for most dissident groups in Cuba, which are organized, directed, financed and effectively turned into mercenaries who execute parts of the master plan of the CIA and similar institutions, and whose activities are funded by a number of front organizations and foundations in the US.

Many of these "Independent Union, Independent Libraries, Human Rights Organizations, Independent Journalists and News Agencies, etc.," have been infiltrated by the Cuban Government and all of their actions, including audio and visual taping of their meetings with US officials, payments to dissidents, receipts, evaluations, printing and distribution of subversive materials etc., were all presented as evidence of an open conspiracy to destabilize the country, create unrest, and invite the US Government intervention.

Another important aspect that was presented was what was described as the "Pressure Cooker" procedure, by which only 750 visas have been granted so far this year out of a minimum 20,000 yearly visas that were agreed upon between Cuba and the US following the Raft Crisis of 1994, in order to expedite family reunion of Cubans living in this country.

US and Cuban-American counterrevolutionary groups have constantly and openly encouraged people desperate to emigrate from Cuba to resort to guns, box cutters and knives, and threaten the lives of airline pilots and maritime vessel crews. There has been an unprecedented number of hijackings to South Florida, and the hijackers have been confident that they will be released by the Immigration and Police Departments, subject only to minor charges.

Was it not the commission of similar actions on 9-11 that led the US Government not to apply the death penalty against three individuals, but to unleash a devastating war in Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries that are on the waiting list?

As further encouragement for such heinous acts, all airplanes and maritime vessels that have been hijacked from Cuba to south Florida have been confiscated by the US Government, in a clear expression of their complicity in this act.

It should be noted that such increased hostilities toward Cuba started 5-6 months ago, in order to "build" a case to be presented at the Human Rights Commission meeting in Geneva, where many third world countries were pressured, blackmailed, threatened or bought, in order to secure a condemnation of Cuba, so as to make a military intervention in Cuba more palatable.

Did any of those countries presenting the resolution on behalf of the United States Government or those who voted for it, ever question the 152 executions that took place in Texas while President George W. Bush was Governor?

How many minors (when they committed their crimes), mentally challenged persons, women, Mexican immigrants without proper legal representation, or the large number of Blacks have been executed under President Bush's watch who may have qualified for the shocking DNA findings in Illinois and elsewhere?

How can we in good faith oppose this sad, terrible, and last resort decision of ending the lives of three people, who had clearly committed a serious crime and punishment that is contained in the Cuban Penal Law, when this could have lead to another mass exodus from Cuba, which the United States Government has already declared to be an act of war, paving the road and justifying the Department of Defense sending its WW III bombers to drop "smart" bombs in the middle of the night over Cuba?

Historical events such as the Maine, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Gulf of Tonkin, Panama, Grenada, the USS Pueblo or the ever changing arguments and lies that were presented in order to bomb Iraq into oblivion, have revealed to the world the dangers of a misjudgment in this unipolar, superpower world.

Cuba and its people MUST be eternally grateful to everyone who have understood and supported its plight in this never ending 40 plus year war of attrition imposed by the United States. The horror of eight year old Ismail Ali charred body with his blown off upper limbs, the killing of his entire family in seconds and the nightmare of millions of children in Iraq who will be afraid of nights the rest of their lives, is just one of the many things your support, understanding and commitment, have shielded the Cuban people against.

Lift the Embargo, nullify the Torricelli and Helms-Burton Bill and revoke the Cuban Adjustment Act, the underlying cause of this malady. Please search for the truth and make an educated decision on this very thorny issue.

On March 19, 2003, six individuals armed with kitchen knives, hijack a Cuban airliner that landed in Key West and are captured in a newspaper article, smiling and flashing a V sign, confident that hijacking a Cuban airliner is not a crime, rather an act that is lauded by the local authorities.

The CIA, DIA, FBI, Pakistan Intelligence department and tens of other similar institutions around the world, are hailed as heroes for tracking down and bringing to justice, everyone allied with Al Qaeda or any other terrorist group.

Five Cuban Intelligence agents that infiltrated numerous Cuban-American terrorist groups in South Florida, who have wreaked havoc through invasions, bombing, murder etc in Cuba for the past 40 years, and whose clear objective was to alert the Cuban government of terrorists activities in the making, were captured and sentenced by a Miami kangaroo court to multiple life sentences.

A disgruntled Cuban-American Miami female, who was abandoned by her double agent Cuban husband, was awarded 29 million dollars for pain and suffering from Cuban assets frozen by the US Treasury Department.

Thousands of ex-employees of the United States Naval Base in Guantanamo Cuba, who provided over 80,000 years of loyal services, have seen their retirement funds frozen by the US Treasury Department and are today, old, sick, hungry or dead.

Justice is clearly a subjective issue.

For those who have followed the tragic development between the governments of the United States and Iraq, it becomes abundantly clear, the President Bush and his closest aides, will continue to search for or create arguments, discoveries, assumptions, super secrets or undisclosable evidence, in order to declare Iraq in "material breach." This legal phrase, "material breach," has been introduced to confuse those they have labeled as uneducated, untrained or underclass, incapable of deciphering their language of death. During the past months, the center of attention of the UN inspectors in Iraq, was centered around the discovery of nuclear, chemical and biological materials, or proof of its destruction. Nothing was said about missiles! Then suddenly, Iraq is once again in "material breach." this time for having missiles with a range slightly beyond 93 miles. Could this very unique and highly suspicious range limit, have anything to with with Iraq’s powerful neighbor, Israel? Once the people and government of that country was faced with this new crisis that could easily evolve into a "material breach" and become a reason for our strategic bombers to be airborne, it was only logic that they would agree not to measure, test or question this ruling, but to start dismantling immediately the culprit. Many in the administration prayed, hoped and remained glued to their phones, hoping that Saddam Hussein would have challenged Mr. Hans Blix. Later, listening to President Bush, his aides and many of the media pundits, their frustration, anguish and pain was evident, after learning that Iraq had started destroying its missiles. It was for them, once again, back to the drawing board, creative thinking and develop a new confrontation. So far, the only good that have come out of this dragged out killing experiment, is that the world has seen and is convinced that the present administration will stop at nothing and that they will relentlessly continue to search for gimmicks, misteps, or arguments capable of justifying this premeditated attack, that will bolster their childhood.

If President Bush, Mr. Blair, Mr. Aznar, the Bulgarian and other obscure personalities that have joined, or are in the process of joining the War Wagon, had irrefutable proof that would justify war against Iraq, why are they running around the world like cheap bazaar merchants, trying to bribe morally questionable leaders? What we see happening today in Turkey reminds us of a used car auction - this was exactly the same in 1960, when the United States wanted to oust Cuba from the Organization of the American States. Papa Doc, then President for Life of Haiti, openly demanded for his critical vote several millions of dollars in cash and a substantial portion of the sugar quota that the US purchased from Cuba and was now offered as incentives to others. How can we continue to call ourselves Democracies, when 70, 80, 90% or more of the citizenry of the countries of the so called Coalition of the Willing (Coalition of the Billing?) opposes all military action against Iraq? Where are the virtues of leadership in Mr Bush, Aznar and Blair, who only talk among themselves, but refuse to do so with those who disagree or opposes their actions? Since Mr. Bush, Mr. Blair and Mr. Aznar seems to be convinced that their poor standing in the polls is because they have not been able to get their message across; that Hollywood and other lefties are distorting the facts, why are all three of them unwilling to call a mass gathering in New York, London or Madrid, where they can lay out the facts to their people? We were taught by an illustrious thinker, that you can lie to most of the people most of the time, but not to all of the people, all the time.

Because Saddam Hussein has not come "clean" or have not disclosed where he is hiding his weapons of mass destruction seems to be sufficient reason for the President to exude his wrath and unleash his WW III devastating killing machine, on people who had nothing to do with 9-1-1.

If this were a universally accepted legal practice, in which, all accused who refuses to confess, must be killed; why is it, that similar procedure has not been applied against Congressman Condit, Scott Peterson, O J Simpson, the Ramseys and others, all of whom have serious unanswered questions looming around them?

By shamefully manipulating established norms, the administration may achieve its goal, it can revel in instant gratification, but it will have introduced at the same time irreversible self destructive principles in our fragile world.

His near paranoiac fixation with Iraq and its leaders does not leave the President with much room for reason, analysis and conclusions. Killing, mutilating, macerating and evaporating every living object in that country seems to him the only way of erasing the horrendous crime committed against this country on 9-11 by people who have nothing to do with Iraq.

In the midst of this impending human disaster, I can only imagine the feelings of the ordinary Iraqui citizen; knowing they are in a large shooting gallery with nowhere to go, waiting for the angels of death to come bursting through the clouds, spreading desolation and death by blowing to bits children, women, elderly, handicap.....everyone, with absolute disregard for human life.

How can we pretend to be hurt by what was done to us by a deranged group of sub-humans, when we are ready to do the same, a thousand time over?

The horrors to which mankind was exposed to during WW II, the brutal inferno we jumped into on the Korean peninsula, the Viet Nam quagmire and its tragic legacy that continue to haunt thousands of our uniformed men, the irreversible psychological trauma that was imprinted in the minds of thousands of our veterans from desert storm who witnessed tens of thousands of fleeing Iraqui soldiers mercilessly incinerated on the highway of death is clearly not the way of creating a better world.

What else should we do to each other, in order for us to feel and relate to the pain and suffering of others?

The Kinder, Gentler world that President George H. Bush spoke about, has been slow making its way to the halls of the new administration. How sad!

When President George W. Bush assumed the Presidency, one of his big concern was how to distribute the large surplus left by the previous administration. Endless debate about who should receive what, became routine.

Twenty five months have been sufficient for this administration to have squandered the surplus, created a large deficit, paralyzed most social programs, alienated most of our allies, weakened the United Nations and seriously fractured NATO, both of which had survived intact for 50 years.

From his first appearances on the campaign trail, many people expressed their concerns about the President questionable intellect, knowledge of history and decision making capabilities. His apologists took comfort in saying, that all he needed was the first class cabinet that he had put in place.

Ms. Condoleezza Rice has turned out to be the most inept, unconvincing and blunder prone National Security Adviser in recent history.

Mr. Donald Rumsfeld, with his viperous behavior and invective language, has added more ill feelings toward this nation than any country that we have labeled as our enemy.

And then, there was General Collin Powell, the trustworthy, charismatic and able Secretary of State, shamelessly demoralized in front of the world on February 14, 2003, for concocting stories, lying and creating scenarios, all in order to justify killing more innocent Iraquis, after he had "bombed them back into the stone age" in 1991.

Other Cabinet members are so irrelevant and inconsequential, that, much like the Vice-President, they are neither missed nor sought.

Add two more years of this spiral of destruction, incubating enemies, exacerbating hatred, creating orphans, widening the social gap, forgiving corporate crooks, fanning religious and ethnic divisions, and the South Florida Cuban-Americans, the Supreme Court and the rest of the nation, will forever regret, that fateful January 20, 2001.