Back in 2003, when Colin Powell presented “evidence” at the UN to back up the White House claim that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, major US news outlets…
President John F. Kennedy signs the proclamation of the “Interdiction of the Delivery of Offensive Weapons to Cuba” on Oct. 23, 1962. The order imposed the U.S. naval blockade on…
Well, I miss Mandela. The post-Mandela world is sadly less colourful. While all sorts of people, including reprobate politicians in Canada laud him for this and that, it’s important to…
Raúl Castro at Mandela memorial service / Nelson Mandela with Fidel in Cuba At the memorial service for Nelson Mandela, the media seized on the handshake between Barack Obama and…
The English translation of Che Wants to See You was recently published. It is a remarkable insider account by Ciro Bustos, a comrade-in-arms who was intimately familiar with Che Guevara…
It looks that relations between Russia and U.S have taken a new turn. The American government is quite upset over Russia giving refuge to Edward Snowden. Now the renewal of…
Hugo Chavez died of cancer on March 5, 2013. He represented an ideological pushback against neoliberal globalization. He pursued a progressive hemispheric trade agenda. He raised oil royalties dramatically to…
January 23, 2013: In a previous post, I compared and contrasted Cuba and Canada in terms of the opportunities for achieving one’s potential through access to information, ideas, etc., noting…
The following is one of several pieces I wrote on my Blackberry Playbook while on a recent holiday in Cuba. Because Internet access and outside information is limited there, I…
Under Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservatives, Ottawa has been openly hostile to Venezuela and leftward swing in Latin America – except in Cuba where Canada has large commercial…
There won’t be any new blog posts for the next two weeks as we begin our annual hegira to Cuba, where the climate and the people offer a soothing respite…
Frankenstorm Promo How would you feel about a news organization that treats a hurricane as a campy Halloween ratings booster? I’m appalled. Watch the above clip from GlobalTV last Thursday…
It’s rare to see depictions of Havana that don’t consist of the stereotypes: people playing music, someone sitting on the street smoking a cigar, old American cars, stunning old buildings.…
I suppose I might feel differently about Omar Khadr if I hadn’t read a particular book, A Long Way Gone, by Ishmael Beah. It provided indelible insights into both the…
Recommended reading: Jake Krzeczowski’s blog post about Nehanda Abiodun, a political exile living in Cuba; “They say I and others were involved in expropriations of armored trucks, that we were…
A new age has dawned in the Americas. The Monroe Doctrine, a policy established by the United States ostensibly to keep European imperialists out of the Western Hemisphere but which…
Holy Chiquita Banana. What an embarrassment.There he was, looking like Obama’s Sancho Panza, or the Dirty Oil Man. Making an idiot out of himself. Again. Canada and the United States…
Sports is a tribal business, and Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen has upset his tribe. The outspoken Venezuelan had the audacity to express admiration for Fidel Castro in Time magazine.…
As someone who is a regular visitor to Cuba and has seen both the good and bad of its society through friends that we visit there, I know that it…
