Author: Circles Robinson

Sharp Drop in Cuba’s Farm Production

Agricultural production reported strong decreases in the first quarter of this year as compared to 2009 in key food products in Cuba, according to a report by the National Office of Statistics (ONE). While the collection of tubers in general increased 4.5 per cent and rice, essential in the island’s diet, the production of beans and vegetables fell by 40.5 and 35.1 per cent, respectively. Moreover, citrus fruit decreased 21.6 per cent.

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Tremor (4.1 Richter) Near Havana

An earthquake of 4.1 degrees on the Richter scale was reported Friday evening in the Havana municipality of Artemisa, some 50 kilometers west of the Cuban capital, reported the Network of Stations of the National Seismological Service. The unusual earthquake was followed by aftershocks of between 2.8 and three degrees.

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The Cuban Adjustment Act 44 Years Later

In the middle of the night off the coast of Caibarien, Cuba, Miakiel Gonzalez waded the waist-deep Caribbean water until he stood a mile from the shore. Carrying nothing more than a bag packed with two changes of clothes, some drinking water and his Cuban ID, the 31-year-old waited several hours in the sea for the smuggler boat to arrive.

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Being Homosexual in Cuba

In the beginning, I didn’t have the luck of having someone to tell me what to do. Fortunately, in 98, a friend began to support me. She’s heterosexual but we forged a friendship that continues today. She understood me, and I’ll thank her eternally for being there, because she was on my side in very difficult situations and without her I’m sure I wouldn’t have been able to continue.

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Indian Musical Instruments in Cuba

Once inside and among the instruments, I could appreciate flutes of different sizes and styles; the Sitar, an instrument of traditional strings; and the harmonium, an instrument possessing a sound similar to that of the accordion and which was introduced by the British during the colonization of northern India.

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Contemporary African Art in Havana

“The plurality of speech allows us to recognize diversified aesthetic experiences that nurture new re-conceptual readings of cultural legacy.” In this way we can enjoy everything from the most artisanal creations to technological advances traveling across dissimilar spaces of art in Africa, a pluri-cultural continent.”

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Percussionist

———————————————————————————————— spot eight differences (click here to enlarge the image)————————————————————————————– Answers

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Farmers’ Congress Kicks Off

The 10th Congress of the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP) began Friday in the Cuban capital, reported IPS. The representatives of the cooperative and small farmer sector will debate the means to increase food production, substitute imports and increase exports.

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EU Common Position Prevents Dialogue

The European Union (EU) Common Position toward Cuba prevents the 27 member nations “from having the possibility of establishing a serene and respectful dialogue and backing the changes that the Cubans want to make when they decide to make them,” said Juan Pablo de Laiglesia, Spanish secretary of state for Iberian America. De Laiglesia denied that Madrid’s wish to establish a new framework of relations with the island means relegating “the political and especially the human rights demands.”

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Cuban Intellectuals Reject Manifesto

A group of Cuban intellectuals at the International Poetry Prize rejected the manifesto of their Spanish counterparts asking for support for “the democratization of Cuba,” according to a declaration released in the island’s capital. The signatories of the document released in Madrid “take on a position that attempts to wound the sovereignty of our country and plays along with the eternal enemies of the island who in the last 200 years have not ceded in their annexationist and colonial dreams.”

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