Osmel Almaguer’s Diary

Living a stone’s throw away from Havana’s Via Blanca highway means being witness to a constant flow of buses, cars, motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians, of people who set out in search of their dreams every day. People headed to Havana’s east-laying beaches, workplaces in the city, the arms of a loved one, or the last place you would think of.

With over 2 million mobile phone users, Cuba has around half a million more cell phones than landlines. A number of “competent” authorities often speak of this proudly, as though the reality behind this phenomenon weren’t shameful.

To say that the eleven million Cubans who make up the island’s population are baseball managers is a playful way of stating that all of us know enough about the sport to take a crack at managing any team.

Faced with this situation, small, poor countries have no other alternative than to produce their food through their own efforts, without making large investments in production machinery. Cuba, whose government has recently been pursuing policies that point in this direction, is a case in point.

A new congress of Cuba’s Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDRs) is nearing and winds of change seem to be coming with it. Such change would be a positive sign, an indication that Cuban authorities are beginning to acknowledge that something in this organization isn’t working too well.

Odalys, one of my mother’s neighbors, has a niece who’s made some significant additions to her wardrobe of late. She now has some rather expensive garments, but, no, she doesn’t have a salary that would make such luxury affordable.

Sometimes, it feels like I’m living in one of those countries where parents still sell their daughters into marriage, in exchange for goats or some other kind of property, where human beings are marketable items or, worse, where loved ones can become exchange goods. But no, I live in Cuba…

My friend Leslie was recently informed by ETECSA (Cuba’s State phone company) that he cannot open a new mobile phone account. He was told that you are entitled to only one line and that one has already been activated under his name.

The intense heat of summer has only just insinuated itself and buses are already crammed to the bursting point with people bound for the beach. The difference now is that, thanks to the purchase of a great many new vehicles, people wanting to go for a refreshing dip have many more transportation options at hand.

I can summarize the Cuban performance at the WBC III as having been good. They had a great tournament at the plate. The pitching wasn’t bad, but the defence behaved discreetly, although there were some very good plays. It’s been a while since I’d liked watching them that much.