Circles Robinson, Author at Havana Times

Cuba Cuts Spending on Top-Level Sports

The Cuban government decided to cut spending on high-performance sports and concentrate on the mass practice of physical activity, as part of the reduction of expenditures in the state budget, José Ramón Fernández, president of the Cuban Olympic Committee, announced. Fernández recognized that for the island, an underdeveloped country blockaded by the United States, it is difficult to maintain the economic allotments required for high-level competitions.

Cuba-US Confer over Alan Gross

While the US State Department claims it is a top priority to achieve the release of Gross, the Castro government appears in no hurry to please Washington, which maintains a half century economic blockade on Cuba, stiffling its development.

My Soap Opera

We’d already sung happy birthday and served cake and an improvised cold salad when Manuel, one of the guests, told me: “The Brazilian novel’s starting. Please, why don’t we take off the music and watch it?”

Viva Palestina Still in Syria

Yesterday, Sunday October 17, spirits in our refugee camp in Lattakia, Syria, were high as a Greek cargo ship sailed towards Lattakia to pick up our 150 vehicles filled with five million dollars worth of medical and educational aid destined for the besieged people of Gaza. Hopes were high that all 380 convoy participants from more than 30 countries would have an early-morning Monday departure.

Cuba Soccer Star Struggles in Alaska

In 2008, one of Cuba’s top young players decided to abandon his country’s squad and try his luck at professional soccer in the United States. Two years later he is in Alaska, of all places for a Caribbean native, still kicking the ball but struggling to make inroads in US soccer.

The Environment on Stage in Cuba Low-Budget Cinema

“It’s important to realize that low-budget cinema, which is resource-poor but rich in ideas and enthusiasm, is a major ally in the defense of the environment and the search for solutions to environmental problems,” Teresita Tellería, vice president of ProNaturaleza, a Cuban environmental organization.

Biodiversity at the Cliff’s Edge

What nature gives us is often taken for granted, but if its basic elements disappear, human life on Earth would not be possible. The mission of the biodiversity summit under way in Nagoya, Japan is to reverse the headlong rush towards the precipice.

Baracoa, Cuba Recovers from Hurricane

Baracoa, the first city founded in Cuba by the Spanish colonizers, has recovered 90.4 per cent of the homes affected by Hurricane Ike and the March 2008 coastal flooding, Alicia Licet Noa, director of the Housing Investment Municipal Unit, announced. The hurricanes that hit the country two years ago damaged more than 300,000 homes throughout the Caribbean island nation.

Gov. Wants to Dismantle Opposition, Ladies in White say

The Cuban government is determined to “do away with the opposition” by sending political prisoners and other dissidents to Spain, Laura Pollán, the spokeswoman for Ladies in White, a group of wives and relatives of those inmates, said. According to Pollán, the island’s authorities have started offering the possibility of leaving the country to other opposition members not linked to the 2003 trials.

Cuba Hopes to Equal Bleak Sugar Harvest

Cuban authorities hope the upcoming 2010-2011 sugar harvest’s production will be similar to last year’s, the worse since 1905, Adrián Jiménez Fernández, deputy minister of that sector, affirmed. Thirty-nine sugar mills throughout the island, a former sugar exporting power, will be operating in this harvest, which will begin on December 1.