Radio joke over refugee going too far

Radio joke over refugee going too far
Thursday, February 16, 2006

Dr Luis Luarca, the Cuban refugee who is on hunger strike in front of
the Glass House in George Town, said that X107.1FM, a subsidiary of dms
Broadcasting, which has been running skits on its morning programme
making fun of his situation, is going too far.

Dr Luarca began his hunger strike on 30 January to protest human rights
abuse in the Cayman Islands and in Cuba. Since he began his protest, the
radio station has been making fun of him.

One of the skits included someone who was imitating Dr Luarca appealing
to the public for food and that he wants to come off the hunger strike.

This has caused some confusion as a number of people had contacted
Cayman Net News claiming that Dr Luarca had ended his hunger strike.
“[dms] owns three radio stations and I am going there to tell them that
they should tell anyone who calls that I am on the hunger strike, and I
will not give in until my demands are met,” he said.

He said that skits are causing much confusion and are not helping to
make people aware of his cause.

Meanwhile Jim Radford, operations manager at dms, told Cayman Net News
that the skits were meant to be fun.

“We were not being mean-spirited. It was all done in good fun like the
time when we bought patties and brought them for him and asked him if he
wanted them to eat,” he said.

Mr Radford said that if the radio station did not take his case
seriously they would not have invited him to Straight Talk, a radio
programme aired daily on 104.1 FM last Monday.

However, Dr Luarca felt that the radio talk show did nothing to help
educate people about his cause. It mainly focused on the fact the he
lived here between 1994 and 1995 rent-free and got subsidised food from
the Government.

Dr Luarca came here in 1994 by boat and received refugee status that
same year. Although a qualified neurologist in Cuba, the authorities
here told him that he could not practice medicine in the Cayman Islands
because his medical degree from Cuba was not recognised.

Dr Luarca and several other Cuban doctors who arrived here about the
same time had to seek other jobs to eke out a living here.

He said that other Cuban doctors who became well-connected with
Caymanians got jobs in the hospital but the others were not helped.

He also pointed out that his refugee status gave him the same rights as
any Caymanian with the exception of the right to vote and to start a
business without a Caymanian partner. He said that he was refused jobs
at government agencies because of his nationality.

In his demands he said that he wants monetary compensation from the
Ministry of Health for not being able to practice his profession, and a
job at the George Town Hospital for which he had applied; and the
improvement of human rights in the Cayman Islands.

http://caymannetnews.com/2006/02/1031/joke.shtml