Cubans are a very aesthetically oriented people. “Cute child”/“ugly child” is the basic dichotomy and the starting point for the “values” instilled in the majority of Cuban children. At least that’s the case in the urbanized western part of the island.
When people find out that I have a dual ethnic identity, that I share Russian and Cuban origins, and that I had a childhood and adolescence that were also shared between the two countries, they often ask, “What language do you think in?”
On YouTube it looks like a porn movie. “But who cares! – they’re Arabs. Those are their customs…” (as was thought in 1994 in Rwanda: “They’re only a few African tribes going at it”).
The videos that show what appears to be Gadhafi being lynched are impressive, and they’re sickening. A human being who is slaughtered is a human being who is slaughtered, even if they were a serial killer.
The last time my brother came to Cuba with his family from Russia, we went to see some friends of the family out here in Santa Cruz. Once at their home, my little Russian niece saw a turkey for the first time in her life.
When I go down the street and look up, what I see are dogs. Up to now I haven’t seen any of them jump on anybody, leaping from the roof to the sidewalk. If I’d have seen that, I’d be afraid of those dogs barking from above. But I never have.
The heralded tabloid sized pamphlet “Customs norms that all travelers should know” went on sale a few days ago at Cuban newsstands and post offices. The customs tabloid “flew out the door” in a few days.
One of the recent court cases revolving around corruption and the embezzlement of government resources involved people who worked at the Havana airport and in the modern bio-pharmacy industry.
One of the new changes that took place with the recently ended summer was the elimination of the involvement of Cuban students in rural labor over their vacation months.
The essence of the matter is that all “self-employed workers” will now be able to hire employees (wage-laborers). Previously, only those who carried out a few specific occupations were authorized to do this.