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.
Read MoreLess 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.
Read MoreDiscrediting 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.
Read MoreLast 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.
Read MoreAside 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.
Read MoreThe “Espacio Abierto” Gallery is putting on a painting exhibition called “Las tentaciones del ingenio” (Naif temptations). The show is of the works of painter and teacher Jose Clemente Gascon Martinez. (17 photos)
Read MoreI 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.
Read MoreDuring 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.
Read MoreWhen 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.
Read More“A country’s achievements shouldn’t be defined by how many hotels are being built, but by the quality of a meal,” I heard a man say in line at the bakery. (He was referring to statistics that official media publish everywhere, which are so optimistic, biased, cynical).
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