La Gaceta Newspaper

Below is a transcript of Patrick Manteiga’s opening speech before his debate over ending the Cuban Embargo on Tuesday, June 30, at the Poynter Institute. (published in La Gaceta on July 3.)

“I believe most Americans don’t even understand the embargo.
“One of the big issues to address is the language used by embargo supporters. What is commonly called an embargo here is labeled by the Cubans as a blockade. An embargo is ‘an official ban on trade or other commercial activity with a country,’ while a blockade is ‘the act of sealing off a place to prevent goods and people from entering or leaving a place.’
“If U.S. policy was just focused on our trade activity with Cuba, embargo would be an accurate description, but years of study and listening to people in the U.S. and Cuba have led me to believe blockade is a more accurate word to describe U.S. policy.
“The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, the Torricelli Act of 1992 and the Helms-Burton Act of 1996, in combination with placing Cuba on the list of terrorist nations and a host other policies, legislation and rules have combined to stifle trade and travel by U.S. companies and citizens. This spider web of sanctions was also designed to intimidate foreign countries, foreign banks and foreign companies from trading with Cuba, hence the blockade.
“A provision of Helms-Burton requires our trading partners to certify the products they sell to the U.S. don’t contain Cuban raw materials or intermediates. This trade sanction discourages countries from buying anything from Cuba. Why risk the ability to sell goods to the United States, one of the largest consuming countries in the world, by buying anything from Cuba?
“Another brick in our blockade is a rule that allows U.S. companies and individuals to sue, in U.S. courts, foreign entities that have profited from the use of confiscated U.S. property in Cuba. Of course, this confiscated property dates back to the early 1960s. So it’s really unclear to foreign countries and companies if trade or investment in Cuba could somehow be linked to these ‘confiscated properties.’ The goal of this provision is the same as the last, to scare foreigners from doing anything with Cuba.
“Our laws even prohibit foreigners from entering this country if their companies have somehow trafficked in U.S. property confiscated by Cuba. An example is the Toronto-based Sherritt Corporation. Its officers, executives and their families are not allowed a vacation at Busch Gardens or a visit anywhere in America because part of its nickel mining operations in Cuba is located at an old U.S. owned mine.
“Part of our blockade, dating back to the 1960s, is a rule that requires ships that visit Cuban ports to stay out of U.S. ports for six months after that visit. Imagine the extra fees charged by shipping companies to Cuba because of this. Your ship is 90 miles from the largest importer in the world, yet you can’t continue to a U.S. port.
“Until just recently, the U.S. falsely placed Cuba on the list of terrorist nations. That placement caused foreign and U.S. banks that handled Cuban transactions to prove that the Cuban money in their banks wasn’t linked to terrorist activities. How do you prove that? The chilling effect of this rule was recently demonstrated in February of 2014 when M&T Bank stopped handling the banking for Cuba’s UN office and the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C. Only in the last few weeks did a US bank agree to take Cuba as a client.
“Our efforts raised the price of goods, shipping and banking for anything Cuba imported, resulting in Cuba paying more for everything compared to its island neighbors. These laws also hurt Cuba’s exports, handicapping this poor country in building its economy. The U.S. has made a concerted effort to slow foreign investment.
“Our superpower of a nation has squeezed this small country of 11 and a half million people. The U.S. has tried to destabilize and remove the Cuban government at every opportunity. We twisted the arms of allies to back us in our efforts to crush the Cubans but after more than 55 years, they can no longer stomach our failed, vengeful and ugly policies. For 18 years, the U.N. has overwhelmingly voted for the U.S. to end our disastrous policy. The world wants us to drop this blockade. They know, as I do, that Cuba is poor not just for its economic decisions but because of the U.S. blockade and sanctions.
“Our policy has been to starve the Cuban people until their level of dissatisfaction and discomfort is so great that they overthrow their government and replace it with one of which we approve. Besides the fact this policy hasn’t worked, its cruelty should compel our great nation to end it. America is better than this.
“A small and ever-shrinking number of the self proclaimed Cuban exile community and their political friends still support the embargo-blockade but have run out of ways to defend it. They are now only left with telling you that Fidel Castro is too evil to trade with; that he is an absolute dictator who will somehow become more absolute if we sell him Florida strawberries, milk, tomatoes and orange juice. Don’t they know Fidel Castro hasn’t led Cuba since 2008?
“For decades, this group has controlled the information disseminated in America regarding Cuba. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba was no longer our natural political enemy, yet our Cuba policy became more draconian. Americans were told that Cuba’s human rights record was so miserable compared to everywhere else in the world that we had to punish them. We were led to believe that Cuba kept its people in line with machine guns and tanks. Cuba was sponsoring worldwide terrorism. They were our enemy.
“The deception required that U.S. citizens couldn’t travel to Cuba. Cubans who immigrated here for economic reasons had to swear the reasons were political. People who questioned these intricate fabrications were attacked, shunned, politically challenged and were always called communists. Even our media was afraid to challenge this story line.
“Thousands of U.S. citizens have now been to Cuba and the genie is out of the bottle. The reality of Cuba is not what we were told. Cuba’s human rights record is better than many of our good international friends. Women and Afro-Cubans are treated as equals to light-skinned men.
“Gays are not persecuted. Religious diversity is allowed. Education and health care are offered for free to everyone. Does Cuba offer an independent press, no; freedom of political expression as we know it, no. Do we blockade other countries that have these deficiencies, no.
“After visiting Cuba, who comes away believing it is worse than Saudi Arabia, China or El Salvador?
“Cuba’s inclusion on the list of terrorist nations was due to the extremists in the Cuban-American community exercising totalitarian control on U.S. policy on Cuba. Now that the president is no longer following the lead of these extremists, Cuba has been removed from the list.
“I have met the Cuban government from Fidel Castro to the head of the Cuba National Assembly. I’ve listened to ministers from foreign affairs, tourism, healthcare, imports and the economy. I’ve met with all of the head diplomats assigned to the U.S. since 1999.
“I can tell you these people aren’t our enemy, even though current U.S. policy is to remove them from power. These people want to be America’s friend. They also want America’s acceptance that Cuba is a sovereign nation that will make its own future.
“The benefits of trade, travel and normalized relations with Cuba are big for America and the Bay Area. Cooperation on issues of drug interdiction, the ecology of the gulf and Florida Straits and oil exploration will help safeguard Florida’s shores.
“The poor condition of Cuba’s infrastructure offers opportunities for Florida businesses to help build a new electrical grid, cell towers and port facilities. Florida agriculture will benefit. Our construction industry will be able to compete to develop new hotels, condos and golf courses.
“Travel to Cuba adds many more flights out of Bay Area airports. More cruise ships will call Tampa home as they add Cuba as a port of call. Container traffic will increase
“Best of all is that our area will reunite with its closest foreign neighbor. We have been separated for so long that few really remember just how important and special that relationship was.”

Silhouettes (published May 8, 2015)
by: Tiffany Razzano

Dr. Ken Atwater

When Dr. Ken Atwater first accepted the role of president of Hillsborough Community College (HCC) in 2010, he knew that before anything else he needed to learn as much as he could about his new community.
He’d held leadership positions at community colleges around the country and had nearly 30 years of experience as an administrator when he joined HCC, including his most recent role as president of South Mountain Community College in Phoenix, Arizona.
But Tampa was a unique community and HCC, an urban, multi-campus community college, was a unique school. Plus, he was brand new to the area. So he wanted to know what made it tick and how it could be better served by HCC.
Each of the previous colleges Atwater worked for “had the same values and goals, but they were still very different,” he said. “They each truly reflected the community they served.”
So for eight months, he met with anyone who would talk to him – political leaders, religious institutions, civic organizations, business owners, even administrators from the University of South Florida, the University of Tampa and St. Petersburg College.
“If you’re going to be an effective leader of any community college, then you’ve got to be in there with the community,” Atwater said. “I went on somewhat of a listening and learning tour when I got here. I spent most of my first year reaching out to all aspects of this community.”
It was also a good way to gauge HCC’s role in the community.
“I was able to get a good feeling about how people in the community felt about the college,” he said. “I also asked them if the college could do something for them, what would it be?”
Atwater grew up in Jackson, Tennessee, where his mother worked in a department store and his father worked for the Tennessee Valley Authority.
He attended Murray State University, a four-year college in Murray, Kentucky.
“I always say I would have made a great community college student,” he said.
He recalled being overwhelmed during his freshman year.
“I was a good student, but undecided,” he said.
During one class, which was rather large, a professor and graduate assistant would often walk in, assign students a number, hand them an assignment and then leave.
“I would have excelled in a smaller classroom environment,” he said.
In 1977, Atwater earned a Bachelor of Science degree in speech, theater and sociology. He stayed at Murray an extra year and in 1978 he earned his Master of Science degree in guidance and counseling.
Later in his career, he graduated from the Executive Leadership Institute of the League for Innovation in the Community College as well as the Institute for Leadership Effectiveness at the University of Tennessee. And in 1989, he earned his doctorate in higher education with a focus on community colleges from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois.
It was during his junior year at Murray that he realized what he wanted his career path to be.
“I decided I wanted to be a community college president,” he said.
He had two mentors – friends who were several years older than he – who were working toward becoming community college administrators.
“So I got to watch their careers grow,” Atwater said. “And they would talk to me about what it means to be a community college educator.”
From Murray, he returned home to Jackson and took a job as a counselor at Jackson State Community College. He worked his way up to dean of student affairs.
From there, he climbed the community college ladder.
“These moves were all made with the idea that I was gearing up to become president of a community college, to lead an institution as dynamic as this institution, [HCC,]” he said.
He spent time as dean of students at Catonsville Community College in Catonsville, Maryland, followed by a move to Midlands Technical College in Columbia, South Carolina, where he was vice president for Student Development Services.
Atwater headed back to Maryland, where he served as vice president and dean of students at Howard Community College in Columbia. This was followed by five years as vice president for student services at Kellogg Community College in Battle Creek, Michigan.
He spent nine years at South Mountain before coming to HCC.
These various roles “gave me a thorough understanding of what is needed to lead a community college,” he said.
When he applied for the job at HCC he already knew the college’s then-current president, Dr. Gwendolyn W. Stephenson, who was retiring, through a national network of African-American community college administrators.
“At the time, there were only 60 to 70 African-American community college presidents when I came on board,” he said, “and there are about 1,200 colleges. It’s a very small network.”
So Stephenson was a mentor for Atwater.
“I learned about the college from her before I was hired,” he said. “So what I had to do when I came in was learn the community.”
At HCC, he identified three pillars of success. Community collaboration and partnerships were one of these pillars.
It was something the college was already doing well, he said, working closely with various corporations and industries in the county to offer certification and specialized degrees – from the automobile industry to special programs for companies like TECO Energy and Amazon to the police and firefighter academies.
“These partnerships were already embraced by the community,” he said. “I wanted to build on that. And it’s not just me, it’s the team who constantly works on renewing these partnerships and building on these partnerships.”
The second pillar he identified was student success and graduation completion. He wanted to target not only students who are likely to drop out, but also those who take a few classes at HCC before moving on to a four-year institution. He’s encouraging students to earn their two-year degree before transferring to another school, and also reinforcing the importance of certification or two-year degrees for certain fields.
“If you’re going to work in the 21st century, a post-secondary education is a mandate,” Atwater said, whether you want to become a doctor or a welder. “Whatever choice you pursue as a career, you need that education.”
In nearly five years at HCC, he’s seen the number of students earning a two-year degree increase.
“I judge my success by the number of students whose hands I shake at graduation each year,” he said.
The third pillar for success is the use of state-of-the-art technology on campus. The college is continuously updating outdated technology infrastructure.
“We live in a tech-based world,” he said. “This is the information age. We’re constantly sprucing up our tech base here.”
Over the past several years, Atwater has also become a community college leader on a national level.
He’s currently chair of the American Association of Community Colleges Board of Directors. The organization represents the nearly 1,200 two-year, associate-degree granting colleges in the country. Initially, he was elected to serve on the 32-member board, which eventually elected him chair.
“So I’m at the forefront of advocacy for community colleges on a national level,” he said.
He’s been invited to speak at the White House on the subject and has worked directly with Vice President Joe Biden on the topic.
“It’s a very aggressive leadership role,” he said.
One of the group’s goals at the moment is making it easier for students to obtain Pell Grants by shortening the application process. It is also working to change a policy that prevents individuals who default on student loans from being eligible for Pell Grants.
“That’s the closing of the door on a lot of people who wouldn’t be able to attend community college otherwise,” Atwater said. “We hope to decouple eligibility for Pell from loan default.”
In Tampa, he serves on the board of directors of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce, the United Way of Tampa Bay, the 1844 Council of the Tampa Metropolitan YMCA, St. Joseph’s Hospital, the MOSI National Board, and sits on the CEO Council.
He’s also the chair-elect of the Tampa Hillsborough Economic Development Corporation.
“I’m really excited about doing this,” he said. “Our goal is simple: What’s best for Tampa Bay?”
He added, “I love being here at HCC and in Tampa. I love what I do.”