Totalitarian regimes of all persuasions tend to repress those who do
not toe the line. Inevitably those who oppose them are led by people
of an opposite view. This does not invalidate the highlighting of
oppression. Are those who object to Mr. Kent doing so because their
own political prejudices lean more towards those of the Cuban
leadership? In this world political prejudice is inevitable for us
all, but equally professional standards should move us to oppose any
oppression whether from right left or center, without necessarily
subscribing to the same political views of those who choose to
champion single issue causes. Incidentally, approval of the death
penalty is not purely a right wing preserve, but relies on other moral
frameworks.

Donald Mitchell
-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 17 November 2000 09:32
To: [log in to unmask]
Cc: [log in to unmask]
Subject: re: Librarian Beseiged and Threatened

Sorry, but don't have any strong feelings about the post one way or
the other. Our servers can cope with it. My pute can cope with it.
I get bombarded all day with emails of varying degrees of size and
interest and I can assure all lis-linkers my DEL key is not sitting
idle.


Marina



> Dear lis-linkers
>
> I would like to enquire of other list members as to whether
> they
> links this is an appropriate posting (Robert Kent, Friends
> of Cuban
> Libraries update (15/11/00) - text pasted below).
>
> While I personally believe it is of paramount importance to
> debate
> big issues on this list (in addition to asking to borrow
> videos etc), it
> seems to me this report is very partisan and biased and Mr
> Kent is
> seeking very much to push his own personal agenda (which it
> has
> been *alleged* is the agenda of the US government which has
> adopted an agressively hostile policy towards Cuba for the
> last 40
> years).
>
> Would it not be more appropriate to send an email with a
> link to a
> site where this kind of report can be read rather than
> bombarding
> list members with the full-text?
>
> If people would be interested to hear *both* sides of the
> story about
> Cuban libraries, a good place to look is at the Library
> Juice
> Website ( http://www.libr.org/Juice/ ) which produces
> digests of
> news items and has given good coverage to the Cuba debate
> and
> is not just the propaganda of one organisation.
>
> David Little
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Date: Wed, 15 Nov 2000 10:35:36 EST
> From: [log in to unmask]
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Librarian Beseiged and Threatened
> Message-Id: <[log in to unmask]>
>
> News Bulletin
> The Friends of Cuban Libraries
> Date: November 15, 2000
>
> LIBRARIAN BESIEGED AND THREATENED
>
> Recent news reports indicate an intensification of
> government
> efforts
> to halt the expansion of Cuba's independent library
> movement,
> especially in
> the eastern provinces of the island. In an innovative
> challenge to a
> government monopoly on sources of information, more than
> sixty
> independent,
> uncensored libraries have now opened their doors throughout
> Cuba,
> offering
> public access to reading materials which reflect all points
> of view,
> not just
> the officially-approved ideology. The government's
> persecution of
> Cuba's
> beleaguered independent librarians has been condemned by
> the
> International
> Federation of Library Associations (IFLA), Amnesty
> International,
> and a
> growing number of library associations and human rights
> groups
> throughout the
> world. This news bulletin will focus on events in the
> eastern city of
> Santiago, where the security forces have been especially
> active in
> recent
> weeks.
>
> On Thursday, November 9, the independent Antonio
> Maceo
> Grajales
> Library, located at 14 Escudero Street in Santiago, was
> scheduled
> to be the
> site of a seminar conducted by a non-government teachers'
> organization. The
> theme of the seminar was "Pre-University Education and a
> Point of
> Departure
> for Democratic Education in Cuba." Before the event could
> took
> place,
> however, a detachment of State Security police blocked off
> nearby
> streets and
> banned public access to the library, forcing a cancelation
> of the
> seminar.
> This news is contained in report filed by Ricardo Gonzales
> and
> published in
> the Nov. 13 issue of the CubaNet database
> (www.cubanet.org).
>
> Later the same day, at about nine o'clock at night,
> the director
> of the
> Antonio Maceo Grajales Library, Marcia Perez Castillo, was
> accosted by an
> unidentified man while walking in a street near the
> library. The
> man,
> dressed in civilian clothes, reportedly threatened Ms.
> Perez
> Castillo,
> telling her: "If you continue using your house and
> telephone to
> carry out
> counterrevolutionary activities, you're going to have big
> problems."
> This
> news is contained in a report filed by Milagros Beaton of
> the APLO
> press
> agency (CubaNet, Nov. 15, 2000). This incident is not the
> first
> time
> independent librarians have been threatened in Santiago.
> As
> confirmed in a
> landmark report published by IFLA in Septmber, 1999, a
> children's
> librarian, Alfredo Dennis Camps, was the target of death
> threats by
> unidentified persons. On two occasions, also confirmed by
> IFLA,
> Santiago's
> Eduardo Rene Chibas Library was surrounded by groups of
> uniformed men who
> fired volleys of gunfire into the air as an act of
> intimidation.
>
> In other recent events, the director of Santiago's
> independent
> Jose
> Mayia Rodriguez Library, Zocima Simoneau Vidal, was
> questioned
> by the State
> Security police on November 7. After an interrogation
> recorded on
> videotape,
> she was released with a warning that she could be charged
> with
> "defamation."
> In September two other independent librarians were
> arrested in
> Santiago.
> Edel Jimenez was fined after being convicted of
> "disobedience,"
> while unknown
> charges are still pending against Rolando Bestart. In in
> early 1999
> Mr.
> Bestart was arrested for allegedly "selling illegal drugs,"
> although
> he was
> not prosecuted. On December 24, 1999, Mr. Bestart was
> removed
> from Christmas
> Eve mass in Santiago's cathedral and beaten by agents of
> the State Security
> police.
>
> ACTION TO BE TAKEN: The Friends of Cuban Libraries
> ask you to send
> courteous e-mail messages to Cuban officials requesting an
> end to the
> persecution of the independent librarians. Judging from an
> unprecedented
> flurry of responses from government officials, your message
> WILL have an
> impact. President Fidel Castro may be contacted via the
> following e-mail
> address:
> [log in to unmask]
> . Please send any responses received to the
> Friends of Cuban Libraries.
>
> MEDIA COVERAGE: The government is showing a heightened
> sensitivity to
> negative publicity by the international mass media. For
> example,
> please read
> a new Associated Press article ("Independent Libraries Crop
> Up in
> Communist
> Cuba") published on CNN.COM at
> (www.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/americas/11/12/reading.freedom.ap/in
> dex.html).
>
> BACKGROUND: The Friends of Cuban Libraries, founded in
> June, 1999, is an
> independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit support group for the
> independent
> librarians. We are concerned exclusively with intellectual
> freedom
> issues,
> as defined by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
> regardless of
> whatever government may be in office in Cuba. We are
> funded
> entirely be our
> members and do not seek or accept funding from other
> sources.
> For more
> information, contact us by e-mail ([log in to unmask] or
> telephone (USA)
> 718-340-8494. Mailing address: Robert Kent, 4-74 48th
> Avenue, #3-
> C, Long
> Island City, NY 11109 USA.
>

-----------------------------------
Marina Bruce
Deputy Librarian
St. George's Hospital Medical School
University of London

[log in to unmask]
Opinions expressed those of the author and not the
institution




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