Aguacate is a small town typical of those that abound in Cuba’s interior: peaceful and modest while haughty and proud of its former glory. I paid the town a visit a few days ago and it seemed to me that, despite its deterioration and neglect, Aguacate has managed to survive with dignity. (13 photos)
Surprisingly, the most talked-about news this month of May was not the crackdown on a supposed terrorist network operating within the country with macabre intentions. The incident that made the loudest splash this month was the academic fraud that took place during university entrance exams.
Numerosos analistas coinciden en afirmar que la actual campaña por la presidencia de Colombia es la más pobre en ideas de los últimos tiempos y, a la vez, la que más ha polarizado al país entre quienes defienden la solución política o la vía militar para acabar con cinco décadas de conflicto armado interno.
Following the massive workers’ rally in Cuba this past May 1, one could well ask how it is possible for people to continue supporting a regime that treats them like subordinates, violates and curtails their rights and continuously reduces their benefits.
Who are more important, the young or the old? Every culture and age responds to this question differently. The answer depends on how dynamic life is, the role that different age groups play and people’s general expectations about the future.
Society fits us with the chip of normality and the overwhelming fear of stepping over the line when we are very small.
Humanity comes together as a herd by casting out the black sheep. The latter react in different ways…
A political event of huge significance for Cubans will take place in 2018: President Raul Castro will step down, not without leaving someone to his liking (and not so much the people’s) on the throne. We may breathe some winds of change initially, but, as the months pass, the situation will likely get more and more tense.
Democracy could well be within hand’s reach in a future marked by the energy crisis, the only “inconvenience” is that we will have to fight for it old-school: wielding a machete, in exile or prison with a quill and some ink, through guerrilla warfare up in the mountains or clandestine cells in the city.
At the end of March, I had the immense fortune of finding a well-paying job with a construction brigade (the kind that does restoration work in historic sites around Old Havana), with a nice guy for a boss. The first day, I hammered away energetically, eager to get to the end of the month and to collect my 60 CUC.
What’s really going on with renewable sources of energy in Cuba? The island’s official press is brimming with optimism in this connection, but, do we actually have reason to be so positive? I will start this post with one of the most widely divulged “half-truths”.