This news should be instructive to fans of the movie, "Before Night Falls," which dramatizes the "memoir" of exile author Reinaldo Arenas in order to paint revolutionary Cuba as a repressive, antigay hellhole. Arenas, who fled Cuba for the United States in 1980, learned the reality of "freedom" under capitalism when, after developing AIDS, he was denied proper medical attention and evicted from his New York apartment. He committed suicide in 1990.

The announcement is a blow to those who defend the right of pharmaceutical companies to deny treatment to millions of people with AIDS in order to protect their profits. Apparently for them, the rights of gays and lesbians only applies if you live in imperialist countries and can afford high-cost health insurance.

For the rest of us, the above announcement only confirms the humanity and attractive power of the Cuban Revolution in today's world.

Peter Anestos
San Francisco, California
 
 
Spying on China
The map shown with the Militant story on the collision between the F-8 China fighter with the US Navy EP-3A (issue no. 15) shows the initial collision occurred within international air space. The EP-3A did not violate Chinese air space until after the collision.

No pilot would want to have a midair collision because it would be a crap shoot as far which plane survived. It could very well have resulted in the EP-3A crashing at sea with no survivors and the Chinese plane going home.

The U.S. engages in electronic spying from outside the national borders of countries it perceives as hostile. Its main purpose is to force them (in this case China) to scramble their fighter jets, allowing the EP-3A to record where they take off from, how long it takes for the Chinese to respond, what do they use for communication frequencies, and so on. The Chinese are rightfully indignant. It cost a lot of money to put jets in the air every time an unidentified plane approaches China.

U.S. corporations today engage in lots of trade with China. It's become a major importer of American tobacco products without warning labels and an exporter of numerous electronic products and parts. The U.S. captains of industry are in no hurry to give up trade with China over a Navy plane.

Kim O'Brien
by e-mail

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