Maria Lourdes, FLAMUR, and Economic Apartheid In Cuba

The Cuban American Actress and Singer Maria Lourdes was in the Versailles Restaurant in Miami Florida. Her purpose was to raise awareness about the organization FLAMUR and monetary discrimination in Cuba.

Imagine for one minute living in your own country and not being able to use your own money for articles of basic necessities. Imagine being unable to visit a restaurant, a store, or a hotel because the establishment accepts another form of money called "the convertible money.

Imagine being a second class citizen of your own country with tourists enjoying the sites while you are prohibited from doing the same thing. One of the official pages of the Cuban Government states the following: "The Cuban Peso is the National Money but the Convertible Peso is the Official Money used in all of the stores, hotels, and recreative sites frequented by tourists".

Many people condemned the racial apartheid in South Africa and Rhodesia [which would become Zimbabwe]. Many have condemned the inequalities in other countries including the USA that once practiced racial and ethnic segregation. Is it easy to just sit back and do nothing. It is not since ignoring the problem will not make it disappear.

FLAMUR which is the Latin American Federation of Rural Women have been working inside Cuba for the past two decades in the hope of raising awareness of this issue. It initiated a campaign called "With The Same Money" to call for an end to such injustice.

The Cuban American Singer, Actress, and Model Maria Lourdes has lent her voice to this project. The time has come for this injustice to be exposed and outlawed. Maria Lourdes has my praise and support for what she has done and is doing. For those who have ignored the problem or not reporting it, there is a saying.

Those who make a difference are part of the solution. Those who ignore, are indifferent are just as guilty of perpetrating the injustice as the people who commit them.