Osmel Ramirez

On October 10th, while Parliament and its Communist Party lawmakers met in a special session to elect or appoint the president and vice-president of the country, with the new nomenclature promulgated in the renewed Constitution, I was marking 700 days of being “regulated” (grounded).

There might not be many examples in the world of a government that remains totally indifferent to the grave fact that its citizens are emigrating en masse, except for Cuba that is.

According to official statistics, Cuba’s Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) are the largest social organization in the country, with nearly 8 million members currently (out of a total population of 11.2 million), although they are more nominal than real.

Now, overdrawn because of expenses and with low expectations of making a profit, dreaming instead about making up my initial investment, I am clearing the grassland so we can plant again. I can’t give up.

On September 9, the chief of European diplomacy, Federica Mogherini, concluded her trip to Havana, where she co-chaired the second EU-Cuba Joint Council and reviewed the current situation of the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement between Cuba and the EU.

While the media and ministers of governments in other countries dedicate their time and space to issues such as the environment, duty on market products, taxes, or whether leaders are doing what they said they would on their political agenda, in Cuba, the trivial takes the spotlight.

As an encouraging sign of unity among Cubans in favor of democracy this media campaign is received online, where many people participate denouncing the existence of “regulated” (grounded) people in Cuba.

I’m from the countryside; the Guayabo community in the Mayari River valley. My neighborhood is named after one of its tributary streams, which creates the highest waterfall in Cuba when it comes down off the mountains. There is really good land here, among the most fertile in the country.

My eldest daughter, who is only ten years old, doesn’t really live with me, although she is with me quite often. Awfully enough for her, her mom and I divorced when she was just two years old.

You can feel the crisis in the air. In reality, it is a renewed “Special Period” crisis, which can still get a lot more intense. Market fridge-freezers and shelves are empty.