A young French woman living in Marbella sang “Comme d’habitude” masterfully in the 1968 edition of the Voice of Spain, a competition like Got Talent, but focused on singers with no real recognition in the world of music. “My Way” (A mi manera in Spanish) are versions of the French song that made its mark in Cuba.
The unusual invitation to Algeria as the guest country of honor of the Havana International Book Fair 2019, together with the presence of other Islamic countries such as Iran and the United Arab Emirates, all producers of hydrocarbons, but few books to offer to the public, gives a distinctive note to the February 7-17 cultural event in the Cuban capital.
“NO” to the new Constitution that will be put to a popular referendum on February 24th, is growing every day. That is if we take a look at what many Cubans are saying on social media, especially Facebook, where you can clearly see two dominant trends: #Yo NO voto and #Yo Voto NO.
The state-owned chain of hard-currency stores that sells some food items and drinks freely to the population, revealed its acute shortages on Christmas eve, while pork sellers (the only option on the private market) were charging up to 5 USD per kilogram. Only alcoholic drinks were widely available in both regular pesos and hard currency CUCs.
Dollars sent to aid workers in Venezuela are being photographed in Cuba to prevent counterfeiting. The online daily Diario de Cuba recently published a photo of several Cuban doctors surrounded by LED televisions in an airport waiting room. Both of these photos are the subtle faces of a large business: exporting labor with the label “Proletarian internationalism”.
In January this year, we published a letter by Marialys Arias Laffita to then president Raul Castro, demanding justice for her father Roberto Arias Gomez, who was sentenced to two years in prison charged with Enemy Propaganda and Contempt: “This is the last response they could have given, the last mockery,” she stated.
After a year-long absence, many Havana shopping centers are selling flat screen TVs again. Before, the most sought-after model (32-inches) had run out or under the dust of existing models, cost so much that it encouraged people to personally import them in bulk from neighboring countries.