Diaries

Nothing Is Easier than Destroying Something

It was going to be another routine day of signing onto the Internet at the ETECSA computer room, without anything important to report. However, on my way there, I was extremely shocked to find that a natural area had been completely mutilated…

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The Electricity Bill Goes Up and Up

A colleague at work told me that she was renting a space in her house to self-employed workers. The business consisted in the printing of documents, photocopies, etc. Before she was renting out the space, she paid, with a lot of effort, about 300 Cuban pesos of electricity, which is equivalent to 12 CUC or USD.

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Venezuela, Only Getting Worse

Less than a month after Venezuela’s “change in national currency”, things have only been getting worse, which was to be expected. Prices tripling was the only thing that happened, or maybe a statistician or economist will discover that they not only tripled, they quintupled.

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Criminalizing the Truth in Cuba

Discrediting those who question official policies is a common strategy in Cuba. Voiding these individuals or groups who react against economic paralysis or a lack of freedom, slandering them with total immunity and twisting their legitimate complaints.

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Unsafe Neighborhoods

Last Tuesday, I was on my way home at a time when the country becomes paralyzed: the sacred telenovela hour. Once again, it was dark. As taxis don’t adapt their routes to their customers, rather you have to follow the routes they impose, I had to get off at Avenida de los Cocos and walk to my house along the street with the Lazaro Pena primary school.

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Cuban Artists against Law 349 Sign New Manifesto

Aside from being a new project, writing up the “San Isidro Manifesto” against Law 349 has allowed us to see ourselves as a movement. It has given us a space to discuss our interests, and to establish a consensus about our aesthetic and political stance.

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Deciding to Stay in Cuba

I don’t believe there is a single person in Cuba who hasn’t experienced a relative or friend leave in search of a better future abroad. I believe some of them are never able to forget that feeling: bearing witness to somebody change their life radically while they remain behind, paralyzed, trapped in a country with a suffocating reality and no prospects of improving whatsoever.

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Harm by US Blockade on Cuba is Real, Not an Excuse

During his visit to Cuba, Barack Obama publicly stated that the US embargo (blockade) was a failed policy that hadn’t managed to achieve its objectives and only caused suffering and shortages for the Cuban people. “I’m sure that Congress will inevitably lift an embargo which should no longer be there,” the then US president said.

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Cuba: Etecsa Scams and Unprotected Customers

When it comes to any overly expensive service, you can only hope for two things: quality and security. However, there is no doubt Cuba’s telecommunications monopoly, ETECSA, has managed to provide its customers with the worst service possible, with incredible efficiency. A slow and unsecure connection.

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