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News from Trinidad & Tobago as of
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Trinidadian journalist says banning orchestra from travelling to Cuba is arbitrary
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| Published on Wednesday, October 7, 2009 | Email To Friend Print Version
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HAVANA, Cuba, (ACN) -- Arlene M Roberts, an attorney and a journalist specialized in showbusiness, described as arbitrary the decision of the US government of preventing the New York Philharmonic Orchestra from performing in Havana.
In a commentary by Roberts published by the US newspaper The Huffington Post on its web site, she affirms that this refusal is disappointing.
She says that the Orchestra had planned a visit to the Cuban capital, where it would play two concerts programmed for the end of October and early November.
Roberts adds that some 150 members from the Orchestra’s board of sponsors and donors, who had promised 10,000 dollars each to cover travel expenses, would accompany the musicians.
“But the US Department of the Treasury didn’t authorize the sponsors, seemingly for not being artists”, complained Roberts, according to a note reproduced by Cubadebate web site.
The decision seems to be quite arbitrary, affirms the specialist, based on the fact that today the prestigious Orchestra is on a tour of Asia, with a stopover programmed for Vietnam.
She recalled that two years ago she wrote a think piece on the visit of the Orchestra to North Korea, and she asked herself: “Why can they travel to Korea and not to Cuba?”
The visit of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, sponsors included, would make it possible to give continuity to the tendency of the supposed easing of relations President Barack Obama spoke about, said Roberts. | | | | Reads : 578 | | | |
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