I saw an ad on the Underground for an upcoming tour of the UK by a Cuban dance troupe beginning next month. My advice to any of my readers who wish to view it, is : GO AHEAD if you wish to , but don't let the dancers' moves blind you to the less than salubrious aspect of the Castro government, namely its abysmal human rights records, as the courageous women known as "Damas De Blanco"( "Ladies In White") remind the outside world( esp those liberals/leftists who would prefer to talk about the"imperialist embargo/blockade" rather than the continuing human rights violations by the Castro Communist regime)with their non-violent protests. Perhaps you could contribute the cost of your theatre tickets to Amnesty International or the International Society For Human Rights. Personally I would favour AI- as the ISHR(see its Wikipedia entry) seems to have a marked bias against countries(esp when ruled by Communists)which are clearly no friends of the West in general and the US in particular unlike Amnesty which plays no ideological favourites and has NEVER done so since its 1961 inception!

It may be argued that Cuba( much as Neville Chamberlain argued in 1938) is "a far off land of whom we know little", but as President Jimmy Carter pointedly observed in 1977 in a celebrated riposte to the late unlamented Leonid Brezhnev- "human rights are EVERYBODY's business!"

Go see the Cuban dance troupe if you wish to, but I beg you, do NOT forget the sufferings of the "Ladies in White" and their fellow inmates of the Cuban Gulag!(full disclosure: I'm NOT planning to go; I am not a fan of dance anyway)

Terry