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Romanian Author Update The complete transcript Last week we reported the comments of Romanian author Andre Codrescu to the American Library Association. He took the members to task for failing to condemn fidel's arrest and prosecution of librarians. Because of ALA's record in opposing excesses in the USA PATRIOT ACT, Codrescu said he felt "great dismay" that the organization "has taken no action to condemn the imprisonment of librarians," the banning of books, and repression in Cuba. He mentioned that other international figures, including U.S. leftists like Noam Chomsky, have joined in such condemnation. "Cuba today is the Romania of my growing up," he said. The Conductor at Cuban American Pundits emailed Codrescu and received in return the entire address. To quote from the ALA policy manual, “freedom of expression is an an inalienable human right, necessary to self-government, vital to the resistence to oppression, crucial to the cause of jusrice, and further, that the principles of freedom of expression should be applied to libraries and librarians throughout the world.”
Given these crystal-clear position it was with a great deal of dismay that I learned that the American Library Association has taken no action to condemn the imprisonment of librarians, the banning of books, the repression of expression and the torture of dissidents only 90 miles away from our shores, in Cuba. Read the whole thing here. |
