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International News
Auschwitz, the place where nightmares and hope become one.
Ma. Camilia Ochoa 10B
Hope is the last thing to lose. It is easy to say when you are safe and around the people you love, but imagine you lost everything, your family, your friends, your soul mate, all you have and all for what you have had to fight through your entire life. Jews, in the Second World War, suffered this; for them there was no hope at all. Entire families were split apart completely and tortured in the concentration camps, most of the cases parents died without knowing anything about their children or the children about their parents. One of the cruelest concentration camps was in Auschwitz, Poland; there the worst tortures you can imagine were done to innocent people, for example, Doctor Josef Mengele did medical experiments with little children. Seventy years ago a very special story about two twins started in the concentration camp of Auschwitz , Elias Gottesman number A-7733 and Jeno Gottesman number A-7734 were victims of Mengele’s experiments but fortunately both survived and were taken into a foster home for children after they were liberated. Each of them was adopted by a different family; Elias was adopted by a man searching for his wife and children in the chaos of WWII aftermath. Eventually they left to Israel, where Elias was given the new name of Menachem Bodner. Whatever happened to Jeno was left unknown.
When Menachem (Elias) started to dream of a blonde boy like him sleeping beside him, he started to remember about his family, which had been split apart in the concentration camp. He remembered he had had a twin brother who was also taken to the concentration camp so he set himself to find him. Even though he returned many times to Auschwitz searching for clues to find his family or his brother, he did not find anything. After years of waiting he launched a Facebook page titled A-7734 in the hope that the social network will spread his search all around the world. Although the Facebook page did not achieve the goal Menachem wanted, he found some of his relatives, more precisely his cousins. They had no idea that Menachem was alive and had assumed that he and his entire family had perished in Auschwitz. It was an emotional reunion, and his cousins gave him a gift: the only photogrph of his birth parents. Even though he didn’t find one of his family members, he is still in the search for his brother, he still goes to Auschwitz searching for another survivor; in addition, Menachem still dreams about his brother, he sees himself walking in a forest with his brother, wearing identical clothes: black trousers and a short sleeve blue shirt. Is it a dream or does he believe it will become a reality? But standing in the snow, outside the very building he was held as a prisoner as a young boy, Menachem insists he has not given up, failing has only made him want to search for him even more.
Cuba and United States- What you need to know
Lina Marín 10A
As you may have heard by now, President of the United States Barack Obama and President of Cuba Raúl Castro, recently announced they were in talks to restart Cuba’s relationships with the United States. However, how much do you really now about these countries history?
Cuba is an island country which is very close to the Florida peninsula in the United States. It has had a quite long list of problems because of its dependence towards other countries, specially the United States. Cuba had an economy based on just one product which was sugar cane. It relied on the United States as its primary investor. However, this meant the USA had lots of control in Cuban affairs. After Cuba’s independence from Spain in 1902, a new constitution was made in which the USA had the right to intervene and supervise all of Cuba’s affairs. This right was given by the Platt Amendment. It also gave USA a lease over Guantanamo Bay, a naval base belonging to Cuba.
The United States often assigned the president of Cuba like in 1906 when they named Charles Edward Magoon as president. They also intervened constantly in Cuba’s foreign relationships and every time trouble aroused inside Cuba, the United States were ready to act.
Cuba during all this period also faced several problems like a great inequality in its population and a high-level of corruption in their governors. Yes, these have always been common characteristics of Central and Latin American countries along with unemployment and poverty. So, why did Cuba deteriorate a lot more than other countries?
For once, Cuba wasn’t able to go through the world economic crisis of 1930. Since its economy was based on the production of only sugar cane, Cuba wasn’t prepared for a crisis. During this time, investors from the United States bought terrain from Cuba at low prices. This practically gave them complete ownership of Cuba’s means of production, which led to high importation made by Cuba from the United States. Cuba started depending more and more on the USA while other countries (like Colombia) started a better development of their economies.
At the beginning of the 1950s a period of time called “The Cuban Revolution” began. Rebels like Fidel Castro and Argentinean revolutionary Ché Guevara set out to raise against President Fulgencio Batista. After several years of combat, Batista resigned in 1958 and in 1959 the revolution had finally won thus beginning a new government in Cuba. Fidel Castro had begun a strong partnership with USA’s biggest rival, the Soviet Union (URSS). They were in opposition to each other since USA was capitalist and the URSS was communist. The United States had avoided at all costs the entrance of communism to the American territory, and with the Cuban Revolution the door to communism was finally opened.
A partial economic embargo was imposed to Cuba in 1960 for several reasons, such as the expropriation of companies owned by the USA in Cuba. The embargo cancelled all exports to Cuba except for medicine and food. However, in 1962, the embargo became wider and went to include medicine and food. This was made because of the discovery of Soviet missile sites in Cuban territory. The embargo also banned any travel or exchange from any US citizen to Cuba. The embargo also forced other American countries to reduce their relations with Cuba. The US embassy in Cuba was also removed during this period of time.
Many Cubans didn’t agree with its new government even though, according to data presented, education, equality and health indicators had gotten better. However, the means of production were socialized and liberties were limited. More than 125,000 Cubans left for the United States during this period.
In 1991, the ban on travel was ended and US citizens could visit Cuba and spend money there. Also, it was allowed the visit of Cuban government officials and representatives to the US. During this year, the URSS ends and Cuba is left with huge economical problems due to its dependence to it. Cuba entered in a crisis again, this time with no other country to rely on.
The embargo changed a lot during the last 20 years, depending on the US President in charge. It became less impeditive under Clinton, who tried to generate a cultural exchange between the two countries; it became stronger with Bush, who opposed firmly to Castro’s government. The embargo depended highly on who was in charge of the USA and Cuba had to adapt to it since their leader hadn’t changed since 1959 to 2008, when Fidel Castro, resigned as president and his brother Raúl stepped in to replace him.
During 2013 Cuba and USA ambassadors had secret meetings to resume Cuba’s and USA’s relationship with each other. On December 17 of 2014 the presidents of both nations announced their agreement to begin official negotiations to take away the embargo, reopen embassies in both countries and resume political and economical relationships.
As of today, the first official meeting has already been held and the second is scheduled for the end of February. Travel limitations have become more relaxed, political prisoners have been freed, and economical arrangements have been discussed.
This is a very important matter in this moment. Cuba’s relationship with Cuba has been quite hard for more than 50 years and taking away the embargo could mean lots of changes in both countries, especially Cuba. This could also mean the possibility of capitalism and communism coexisting in a much more peaceful way. We sure hope whatever changes may come are for good. However, negotiating will not be easy since there are lots of delicate points to touch, for instance, the faith of Guantamo Bay (where the Guantamo Bay Detention Camp or GTMO was established by the US as a military prison). Right now, both countries need to put their differences aside and focus on working out their differences for the sake of their people.
So, what do you think?
