Graham Sowa’s Diary

I’ve entered my second year at the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) in Cuba and I can’t say with any certainty at which stage (or stages) of cultural adjustment I’m currently in.

Few voices in the aid and development industry are speaking out for radical change in how the Haitian government, and thus the Haitian people, should take control of the fruitless reconstruction process from the multinational NGOs.

Americans seem to be addicted to individual privacy. We are paranoid about ownership of our information, as if everything we have gleaned from life was of our own doing to which we retain exclusive rights.

In the United States television shows about Cuba have two constants: first, they usually pick a side politically even though they try to seem like they are impartial; second, the video shots of Havana and the accompanying narration is almost always the same.

The celestial and earthly powers that be have proclaimed that it is summer in Cuba. But when I travel home to the USA in a few days I won’t be missing the summer in Cuba. I’ll be missing the summer in Haiti.

I don’t talk to the US media about Cuba because I have seen what the media produces about Cuba. Even the best efforts to put something down often produce results and readers that are left wanting. The worst are blatantly malicious.

Explaining the importance of something to a person who never has used it is a nearly futile task. Anyone who grew up with the internet and has tried to explain it to a grandparent should know what I am talking about.

The slow drone of idling diesel engines and their steady exhaust serve as a backdrop for all other sensations at Terminal Playa, the main city bus interchange in western Habana.

College students in the United States must be one of the most marketed to groups in the history of consumers. I remember the weeks leading up to spring break were particularly filled with propaganda for the drinking, fornicating masses.

I have one request that is pertinent to my current situation: That the United States government cease funding democracy promotion and U.S. Interest Section projects within the Cuban opposition.