Minnesota Symphony Orchestra to play in Cuba this week

The Minnesota Symphony Orchestra led by its director, Osmo Vanska, will be the first to perform in Cuba since President Barack Obama announced he would be restoring full diplomatic relations last December.

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The Minnesota Orchestra has just recovered from a long labor dispute. The last major orchestra to play in Cuba was the Milwaukee Symphony back in 1999. The predecessor to the Minnesota Orchestra, the Minneapolis Symphony, performed in Cuba in 1929 and 1930 to sold out concerts and cheering crowds.

In 2012 the musicians in the orchestra refused to accept severe cuts in their salary and were locked out for a total of 16 months, losing an entire season. Their renowned Finnish director, Osmo Vanska, had spent more than a decade making the orchestra into a one of the best in the US. He quit during the dispute. He has directed many orchestras during his career including the Iceland Symphony and has made many recording especially of Finnish composers. The Minnesota orchestra won a Grammy award in 2014. Vanska returned after the musicians signed a three-year contract in January last year even though he took the same pay cut as the musicians. He was able to demand a change in the top management of the orchestra however. Vanska said: "The orchestra was almost destroyed. We came to the edge,I'm so glad to say when we had the chance to start again, it came together so quickly and strongly, it was like a miracle."

The president of the Orchestra, Kevin Smith, said the orchestra saw an opening for a tour to Cuba in Mid-May during their regular vacation period. The Cuban Ministry of Culture invited the group to perform at the Havana International Cubasdisco Festival. The Minnesota Symphony was the only one invited from North America. Smith said that although the musicians had to postpone their vacations, the tour fits into their plans. The orchestra will perform in the Teatro Nacional in Havana on Friday and Saturday. On the program are Beethoven's third symphony the Eroica, and American composer, Leonard Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from the "West Side Story", and also the suite from Romeo and Juliet by Serge Prokofiev. Cuban artists will.also be featured, including pianist Frank Fernandez. The tour will last five days.

The orchestra has been invited to play in Carnegie Hall next year and next month is to continue with Sibelius recordings that have been much acclaimed. The appended video is from the last concert Vanska gave when he quit, but happily he is now back directing the orchestra again.

US and Cuba cooperate in battle against Ebola outbreak

Many countries are willing to pledge funds to help West African countries battle Ebola, including the United States, a prominent donor, but Cuba has been exceptional in the number of medical personnel the government has sent to battle the pandemic.

Even the New York Times has an opinion piece that lauds the Cuban effort and urges other countries to follow the Cuban example. The article also urges cooperation between the US and Cuba. While the World Health Organization is directing the team of Cuban doctors, it would be helpful if the US were willing to assist in the transportation of Cuban doctors and medical personnel who become ill as they have done in the case of American medical personnel from NGO's. The US has about 550 military personnel in West Africa, and built a treatment center in Monrovia. The article suggests that the US could provide access to the center for any Cuban medical personnel who become ill and help in evacuation.
The article points out the Cuban medical personnel also played a key role in treating cholera in Haiti after a disastrous earthquake in 2010. Some medical personnel returned to Cuba where there was the first cholera outbreak in a century. Cuba even offered a rapid response team of doctors to go to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, an offer that was not accepted by the US. US authorities are apparently quite happy that Cuba is offering 460 doctors and nurses specially trained in precautions necessary to treat Ebola patients. Already 165 have arrived in Sierra Leone. The long ailing Cuban former president Fidel Castro said the US and Cuba should set aside their differences and cooperate to contain the Ebola outbreak.
 The US has responded after some initial hesitation. A mid-level official from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention attended a summit in Havana. The conference was held under the auspices of ALBA or the Bolivarian Alliance for the People of Our American, a grouping of mostly left-leaning Latin American countries including Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia. Nelson Arboleda, the CDC chief for Central America put the issue quite succinctly: “This a world emergency and we should all work together and cooperate in this effort.” The US has pledged to coordinate their efforts with those of the Cuban medical personnel but so far have not offered to treat or help evacuate infected Cuban personnel. In an unusual move John Kerry invited the top Cuban diplomat in Washington to attend a speech he gave on ebola.
 Not everyone was happy with the cooperation between Cuba and the US. Republican representative Mario Diaz-Balart criticized the CDC for sending Arboleda to the ALBA meeting: “It’s a disgrace that the United States sent a representative to an ALBA meeting in Havana and praised the Cuban dictatorship for sending forced medical labor to West Africa,”
 Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen also from South Florida with its large Cuban emigre constituency claimed that the Cuban doctors posed a threat to her community: “Our community must be ready for any eventuality and that includes the possible spread of the Ebola virus from a Latin American country. The Castro regime’s decision to send Cuban doctors in a thinly disguised propaganda attempt may put the region and South Florida at risk."

Guantanamo to get 40 million dollar upgrade

      One of Obama's early promises was to close Guantanamo. Of course it never happened. Now it seems that the facility is being renovated. This is surely a sign that there are no plans to close Guantanamo in the near future.
    A 40 million dollar fiber optic cable system is to be installed to replace a single satellite that works poorly during bad weather. Navy Capt. Kirk Hibbert said: . "It only makes sense to do if we're going to be here for any period of time,"  However an Army official said that the upgrade is meant to serve the naval station to bring it up to par with other bases. He said the U.S. still plans to close the prison facility. Of course he neglected to mention when it would close!
  The project will require congressional approval. Although Cuban authorities have been notified of the project they have no say in the matter. The U.S. has a lease in perpetuity which can be ended only with the agreement of both governments. Of course the U.S. would not agree to vacate the base.
   The Cuban government refuses to recognize the validity of the lease and does not cash the checks provided annually by the U.S. American lawyer Eric Montalvo noted: “... Cuba has requested that the US leave on a number of occasions,”“And if you look at the terms of the agreement, they do not conform to real estate law because there is this rule against perpetuities. You just can’t have something that goes on forever in a lease, there has to be a defined beginning and a defined end.”Might makes right and in this case it is the U.S. not Cuba that has the might. For more see this article.