Yesterday Cubans woke up to a new message. Cubacel, the sole telephone company on the island, announced to its customers that the costs of certain phone services would be reduced. Calling by cellphone now costs about 20% less than before.
Obviously the health of Hugo Chavez has to be more delicate than what is being said. This can be deduced from the absence of photos of the recovery of the populist leader. That is why the Venezuelan opposition is speculating about this in maintaining their media campaign against the president.
From an early age students go through the process of recommendation, being selected from the classroom as being those who according to “certain rules” comply with the requirements to be members. But on reaching the age of 32, the young associates are expected to move on to the ranks of the PCC.
This past Saturday night, as people sat in front of their TV’s watching the Brazilian telenovela, a voice suddenly cut in. An announcement came on saying the broadcast was being interrupted for a live report with important information from the Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas, Venezuela.
“El Monumento al Cimarron” (the Monument to Runaway Slaves), a towering sculpture created in bronze and iron, was built on a hill near the town of El Cobre, in Santiago de Cuba Province, to honor one of the earliest slave revolts that took place in the country.
Our media’s obsession with justifying the unjustifiable seems to have no end, always putting the blame on the same guilty party: that consumer society; those countries where state power is based on the dispute and succession of this or that political party; those rightist governments; those class societies; that perpetual enemy, that…!
Most large cities around the globe feature at least one Big Band and a jazz club. And my Santiago de Cuba, is not the exception. The Iris Jazz Club, a newly opened space, opens its doors every night to those who like to listen to this music of virtuosos.
When I read about the changes to Cuban immigration policy, I immediately became excited and wrote the HT article Immigration Policy Changes. I realize now that I was a bit selfish and focused only on the topics concerning the situation of Cubans here on the island and didn’t think much about Cuban emigrants.
The controversial telenovela Pablo Escobar, el patron del mal (Pablo Escobar: The Ringleader of Evil), produced by Colombia’s Caracol network, has everyone here hooked. Older people still recall the details of the 1980s in Colombia, where the name “Pablo Escobar” was the highlight of each news item that referred to that country.
Cubans woke up yesterday morning with news that had been anxiously awaited by many people for quite some time. Promised changes in immigration policy will finally be put into effect starting January 14 of next year.