Alfredo Fernandez’s Diary

.“Those who love me and those hate me won’t forgive my being distracted,” reads a line from an old song by Silvio Rodriguez. It turns out that yesterday — for the first time — I visited Claudia Cadelo’s blog Octavo Cerco.

I recently finished watching the US television drama “The Wire”, which led me to change my opinion of the United States, or at least made me shudder while I was delighted, became saddened or was even agonized by this celebrated series.

Ever since I learned of the existence of the Miami program “La noche se mueve” (The Night Moves), directed by the ineffable Cuban radio host Edmundo Garcia, I haven’t stopped asking questions.

If indeed the CIA was the sponsor of the recently concluded “Festival Clic” in Havana, as claimed by the Cuban government web site Cubadebate, the leaders of that notorious international agency should seriously consider filing for “bankruptcy” right now.

A few days ago I learned about the incipient group “Sociedad Civil Cubana” (Cuban Civil Society) having submitted a manifesto to the People’s National Assembly under the title “Citizens’ Demand for Another Cuba.”

If you are in Havana from June 21 to 23 of this month, you shouldn’t miss the “Clic Festival” (to be held at 4606 1st Street between 46th and 60th streets in Havana’s Playa neighborhood).

According to the April news summary on the Rebelion web site, “A Cuban blogger is suffering censorship in his country.” This blogger is Iroel Sanchez, who was allegedly censured by the Havana correspondent for the Associated Press, a US news agency.

As a Cuban, I’m always surprised with the way my fellow citizens refer to hunger as a “thing of the past,” since we felt it sharply back in the 1990s. The fact is, however, that this isn’t always the case.

A friend of mine from Europe asked me who I thought were the direct beneficiaries of the recent papal visit to Cuba. She wanted to know if any of the masses of people living through such rough times here received some concrete benefits — however small.