Former technology consultant and ex-CIA whistleblower Edward Snowden is the man making headlines these days. At least, he is one of the people that the international media is following most closely – another informant who has joined the cyber-crusade to reveal compromising secrets to the world.
The events recently witnessed in Brazil constitute a rare phenomenon indeed: a wave of protests without ringleaders or defined political slogans which, though causing some material damage and regrettably leaving behind two dead, was, for the most part, non-violent.
In a couple week’s time, the streets and boulevards of Santiago de Cuba will once again become the stage of a colorful, popular festivity. Held every year from July 3 to 9, the province’s Festival of Fire celebrates Caribbean culture, and is one of the summer festivities that people here look forward to most intensely.
I couldn’t help but be amused by an article I came across under the title of Internet in Cuba: Good News and Bad News, where the young authors of the piece attempted to downplay the importance of certain developments – and exaggerate the significance of others – to suit their particular interests.
If public transportation within city limits is “terrible”, we would need a particularly harsh adjective, something along the lines of “disastrous”, to capture the experience of those longer journeys, known as “interprovincial trips”, which Cuba’s coach company Astro has been offering for a number of years now.
The concert had not enjoyed much publicity, at least not as much as other performers are usually given, or when the shows are conceived as part of the celebration of a public holiday or other official functions. But Pablo Milanes needs no such strategies. Singing to the public is good enough reason for him, and this is what he proved again.
With the new laws that were recently passed in Cuba, and now that the sale and purchase of certain types of property, such as vehicles and houses, has been legalized, a classifieds page is – understandably – a popular place indeed.
After the triumph of the revolution in 1959, May Day immediately went from being a commemoration of those who perished in Chicago, to the completely pro-establishment mass function it has been to this day. This year Cuban workers will march across Cuba under the slogan of “For a more prosperous and sustainable form of socialism!”
Every day, demands become louder from Cuban students for less restrictions on the Internet. This will be one of the points raised at the next congress of the Federation of University Students (FEU). Cuban young people are demanding the right to good and broad connections to the net.
The new laws recently passed in Cuba met with considerable enthusiasm. Article 81 of the Housing Law affords individuals the right to transfer ownership of their properties to blood relatives who may be separated from them by up to four degrees, regardless of whether these individuals have left the country legally or not.