A few days ago I was surprised by a sign posted in a chopin (a hard-currency store) in my neighborhood. It was located right next to the register (as well as next to the store entrance, as I realized later).
I don’t know what the title means in that language, but those cartoons from the late 1970s and early ‘80s — popularly known as “Los Chapuceros” (The Dabblers) — are still able to generate smiles and laughter from many of us here.
I’m still not quite sure what really happened with the famous underwater cable between Cuba and Venezuela, that fiber optic line that was going to connect our country to the global broadband network.
When the TV announcer explained that the man — covered in camouflage and wearing a beret — had just come down on the site where the British Crown Jewels are guarded, I recalled my visit to that very same tower.
Recently there was a news item that struck a nostalgic chord in many people. Cuba ended one of its programs of South-South international assistance that had operated for decades: pre-university training for Third World students.
Unquestionably, the issue of rights and opportunities is seen as key to the future of Cuba. Frameworks that are more precise in the building of a more just country will be discussed in future gatherings of the Critical Observatory Network.
There was a time when the Beatles were censored in Cuba, though today their songs are almost a part of the “official discourse.” Perhaps to someone of the heroic epoch of that Liverpool band, it was a group that was never surpassed – and that someone would probably be right.
Blogs — this one, or any other one — bark into cyberspace.One can go with their laptop to a rare place in Havana where they can catch a WiFi signal. For example, Karl Marx Park, where we protested against capitalism.
Cuban TV surprised me again, this time with a report on Spain. It was about people there who sometimes have to commit a crime: the illegal occupation of dwellings.
An especially interesting feature appeared on the evening TV news in Cuba on June 5th. A reporter was trying to find out “on the ground” how prices were being set in hard-currency stores in Havana.