Spanish President Pedro Sanchez visited Cuba a few days ago. It had been 30 years since the Spanish government’s head of state had visited this Caribbean island. Felipe Gonzalez was the last one to do so, a personal friend of Fidel Castro, even though they didn’t see eye to eye on many issues.
The iconic Coppelia ice-cream parlor on 23rd street in Vedado, Havana, is one of the most visited spots in the city, not only by Havana’s residents, but by people from all over the country and foreigners too. However, times have changed, and you can’t compare what it is today to the Coppelia in my memories.
Neighborhood and workplace discussions and debates about the new draft Constitution, which will govern the country after it is revised and approved, are being held across the country, from August until November. Millions of copies were sold nationwide so nobody goes without reading it.
For a while now, “ruteros” (smaller buses which substitute taxis at a much lower price) have been running in the capital of our country. The population have embraced this service with open arms as they travel a longer route to different places in the city, take pressure off the urban transport system and come quite regularly.
Mobile phones have become an essential item for us. The need to constantly communicate with others and be up-to-date with what’s going on means that we spend most of our time with our phones. However, we are unaware of the great danger that having a mobile phone in your pocket represents.
You only have to take a stroll through Havana to realize how what government media refers to as “vandalism” is growing every day. What’s going on? Not even the media can explain it. The thing is that the Cuban people are always the ones to suffer the consequences of everything.
While it’s important to be in touch with others and up-to-date, you also need to know where and when to use a mobile phone. Why? Even though I don’t have the exact figure, I do know that many fatal accidents take place because of cellphone use.
In January, I wrote about a pothole in the middle of 19th street in Havana’s Bahia neighborhood. I wrote that neighbors had planted plants inside the pothole themselves so that people could see it from afar and be able to prevent an accident from taking place…
Medicine being sold on the black market or “on the side” is a very delicate subject. We all know about the difficult situation this country has with relation to medicines, both in manufacturing or importing them.
In the Guiteras neighborhood, right on 19th street and Casa Blanca Ave., there is a pothole which continues to exist and literally seems like it has been cut out by a human hand. Everyone who travels there every day can give testament to my words.
