BB reader Donal says,
My girlfriend recently heard an interview on Irish public radio about US Charity "Send a Piano to Havana", a charity setup to send pianos to Cuba to help musical children get access to pianos, another on the list of item prescribed by the US embargo. I had a piano that my daughter learned on, my sister prior prior to that, but which I can't play and is now surplus.
Anyway, they're chock full of donated pianos, but according to their website, seeking funds to build a piano tuning school in Cuba.
I have the normal European dislike of the economic embargo imposed on Cuba (and hence the rest of the world's ability to deal with Cuba) by the US. I'm pitch deaf but all my kids are musicians. I can't imagine them not being able to be themselves because the US said no one could sell guitars, drums or pianos to Ireland.
Check out the website. I particularly like this line: "The Office of Missile and Nuclear Technology gave final approval, under the sole condition that the pianos not be used for "torture or human rights abuse."
Image: It's only a torture device if it's out of tune. Project participants Abel and Alexis in Cuba learn tuning techniques on a Steinway donated by Jim Wintner. Photograph by Benjamin Treuhaft, courtesy Send a Piano to Havana.
In related news, also in Cuba:
The U.S. military transferred the first group of detainees on Thursday to a new maximum-security prison at Guantanamo Bay designed to restrict contact among the prisoners and prevent attacks on guards. More than 40 detainees were brought to the $37 million prison perched on a plateau overlooking the Caribbean Sea from another maximum-security facility at the U.S. naval base in eastern Cuba, said Navy Cmdr. Robert Durand.
Link to "Guantanamo Detainees Going to New Prison" (Forbes).
