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*Gerontocracy: governing body composed of old people; government ruled and controlled by old men.

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK (May 4, 2011) – Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez was denied permission by the Cuban government to travel to Denmark and collect the CEPOS Freedom Award—a $50,000 prize that she was granted by the independent Danish think tank, CEPOS—at the official award ceremony tomorrow night in Copenhagen. Sánchez, author of the world-renowned blog Generación Y and a speaker at the 2010 Oslo Freedom Forum, was nominated for the award by HRF president Thor Halvorssen, who will give the keynote speech at the ceremony in Copenhagen.

THINK TANK: (Noun). organization or institute or company that serves as a center for carrying out research and analyzes complex and significant public issues; group of experts that enters to debate a certain topic; consultative committee

TO CARRY OUT (this is a typical phrasal verb – TO CARRY means “carregar” – OUT means “para fora” – Together, TO CARRY + OUT means “realizar”).

Pay attention to the fact that the verb TO REALIZE is a false cognate (falso cognato – parece uma coisa mas significa outra) because it does not mean “realizar” – its meaning is “dar-se conta de”.)

“The CEPOS Freedom Award is granted to individuals who demonstrate a principled and steadfast commitment to the values and ideas of individual freedom and basic human rights. Through her blog, which is available in 21 languages, Sánchez exposes the harsh reality of life for everyday Cubans,” said Halvorssen.

Sánchez’s outspoken criticism (unreserved criticism) of the Cuban dictatorship earned her the 2008 Ortega y Gasset Prize for Journalism and the 2009 Maria Moors Cabot Prize.

She was named one of Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World” in 2008, and was selected as a 2010 World Press Freedom Hero by the International Press Institute.

On December 17, 2010, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands awarded Sánchez the Prince Claus Fund Award for her role as a “leading figure in the use of social networking technologies to breach imposed frontiers in Cuba.”

Sánchez was denied permission to be present at that ceremony.

“Cuba’s totalitarian dictatorship—with its billions of dollars, guns, secret police, soldiers, tanks, planes, and network of horrible prisons—is so afraid of being exposed that it must keep Yoani Sánchez trapped in Cuba rather than allowing her to speak her mind abroad. All she has are a few books, a blog, and an indomitable will to write about her experience and clamor for her individual rights. Ultimately, her ideas will win,” said Halvorssen.

HRF (Human Rights Foundation) is an international nonpartisan organization devoted to defending human rights in the Americas. It centers its work on the twin concepts of freedom of self-determination and freedom from tyranny. These ideals include the belief that all human beings have the rights to speak freely, to associate with those of like mind, and to leave and enter their countries. Individuals in a free society must be accorded equal treatment and due process under law, and must have the opportunity to participate in the governments of their countries; HRF’s ideals likewise find expression in the conviction that all human beings have the right to be free from arbitrary detainment or exile and from interference and coercion in matters of conscience. HRF does not support nor condone violence. HRF’s International Council includes former prisoners of conscience Vladimir Bukovsky, Palden Gyatso, Václav Havel, Mutabar Tadjibaeva, Ramón J. Velásquez, Elie Wiesel, and Harry Wu.
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Contact: Thor Halvorssen, Human Rights Foundation, (212) 246.8486, info@thehrf.org
Watch Yoani Sánchez’s speech from the 2010 Oslo Freedom Forum here.

E pensar que mais de 400.000 gaúchos re-elegeram uma moça (muito bonita, por sinal) para deputada federal, que defende o regime das duas múmias comunistas cubanas. Se o nazismo foi oficialmente banido da face da terra, como é que o excremento mental produzido por Marx, Engels, Lênin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot e outras bestas ainda vigora neste planeta? Somos todos malucos?

For the ones that do not remember who Pol Pot was:

Pol Pot in 1968

General Secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea

In office: February 1963 – 1981 (party dissolved)
Preceded by Tou Samouth

Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea

In Office: from May 13, 1976 to September 27, 1976
Preceded by Khieu Samphan

Succeeded by: Nuon Chea

In Office: from October 25, 1976 to January 7, 1979

Born May 19, 1925Kampong Thom Province, French Indochina

Died April 15, 1998(aged 72) Anlong Veng, Kingdom of Cambodia

Political party Communist Party of Kampuchea

Spouse(s) Khieu Ponnary

Saloth Sar (May 19, 1925 – April 15, 1998), better known as Pol Pot, (Khmer: was a Cambodian Chinese revolutionary who led the Khmer Rouge from 1963 until his death in 1998. From 1976 to 1979, he served as the Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea.

Pol Pot became leader of Cambodia in mid-1975. During his time in power, he imposed a version of agrarian socialism, forcing urban dwellers to relocate to the countryside to work in collective farms and forced labor projects, toward a goal of "restarting civilization" in "Year Zero."

The combined effects of forced labor, malnutrition, poor medical care and executions resulted in the deaths of approximately 21 percent of the Cambodian population. In all, an estimated 1,700,000–2,500,000 people died under his leadership.

In 1979 after the invasion of Cambodia by neighboring Vietnam in the Cambodian–Vietnamese War, he fled into the jungles of southwest Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge government collapsed.

From 1979 to 1997, he and a remnant of the old Khmer Rouge operated from the border region of Cambodia and Thailand, where they clung to power, with nominal United Nations recognition as the rightful government of Cambodia.

He died in 1998 while under house arrest by the Ta Mok faction of the Khmer Rouge. Since his death, rumors that he was poisoned have persisted.

Have a good weekend and let us struggle to keep communists away from our beloved country.

Roberto Henry Ebelt é professor, escritor, produz uma coluna semanal para o Jornal do Comércio de Porto Alegre deste 2001 e é diretor do curso HENRY'S BUSINESS ENGLISH desde 1971.

Seu mais recente livro, O QUE VOCÊ DEVE SABER ANTES DE ESTUDAR INGLÊS, pode ser encontrado nas livrarias Disal, Cultura e SBS ou à rua Hoffmann, 728 em Porto Alegre.

E-mail: roberto@henrys.com.br
Fone (51) 3222-3144
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