Raíces de Esperanza (Roots of Hope) held our eighth national youth leadership conference entitled: "Trans(Formación): Inspiring Hearts, Empowering Minds” hosted by Boston College’s Cuban American Student Association (CASA) this past weekend, April 7-10, 2011. The event was a huge success and included more than 100 university students and young professionals from the Roots of Hope network focused on empowering youth in Cuba.
Unfortunately, it was brought to our attention after the conference that one of the panelists, Rob Sequin of the "Havana Journal," owns a web site related to sex in Cuba. Conference organizers were not aware of this site nor of its ties to the panelist. This site is absolutely not in line with Roots of Hope's values, and we strongly condemn it.
Had the organizers been aware of the circumstances, Mr. Sequin would not have been invited to participate in the event. After being informed of the existence of this site, the organization strongly urged Mr. Sequin to take it down. At the time of this post, the site was disabled.
4 comments:
The site mentioned is but one of 40 Cuba information websites that we have developed and although some text on the site was in bad taste, the main purpose of the site was designed to be more educational featuring You Tube videos and main stream news articles.
The site has been taken down with respect to the Roots of Hope organization.
I deeply regret offending anyone.
Thank you Raices for the quick condemnation of the site; once again it is clear that although we are young, we stand behind solid values and principles. Thank you havanajournal.com for your prompt attention to this delicate matter.
The site is still up as of 8 am, April 12, 2011, in all its incarnations, including the "Jineteras in Cuba" page (http://sexincuba.com/Jineteras.html), the sex in Cuba page (http://sexincuba.com/Sex-in-Cuba.html), the Cuban girls page (http://sexincuba.com/Sex-in-Cuba.html) and others. Mr. Sequins comment here is more than insulting as one need only look at the content of these sites to see that there isnt anything even remotely educational about them. these sites are plainly and purely promoting sex tourism in Cuba.
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