Diaries

No Books for Cuba’s Youth

Some of my son’s high-school friends often come over to my house to play video-games on our computer. Sometimes, the noise they make becomes unbearable and I want to throw them all out. On other occasions, I try to have a chat with them to find out what they’re into.

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Cuba’s Telephone Co. Cons its Users

Cuba’s telephone company monopoly, ETECSA, has admitted it is experiencing problems with its systems and that it is stealing money from users. They committed to reimbursing us the money they had charged us by mistake as soon as the problems were fixed.

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Havana is Not the Capital of All Cubans

Panelists of Cuban television’s Round Table program have been speaking in defense of the rights of immigrants to the United States for years. Shouldn’t they begin by speaking in defense of those Cubans living in Havana who are arbitrarily deported and sent back to their provinces of origin by the police?

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The Start of Classes in Cuba

Amanda smiles whenever anyone asks her if she likes going to school or not: a sincere, happy smile that reminds me of my own many years ago. Until the last school year, we would hear Amanda crying out on the stairwell every morning – she didn’t want to go to her kindergarten.

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Saving Cuban Customs

“Let us try and save Cuban Customs,” the island’s official press appears to be saying without the slightest bit of subtlety, for, in recent months, it has covered just about everything this institution is doing, to make it look very busy.

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“Poor Me”: On Life in Cuba & Abroad

My friend Paula wrote me from the United States. “People are strange here, it’s not like down there” she told me. “Where we live, people are really snobbish. No one even looks at anyone. To many, we’re just a bunch of dirty immigrants…”

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A Popular Hangout in Alamar, Havana

I called a friend. We agreed to meet up at an establishment very close to a place people call the “Curve”, in Alamar, to have something to drink and talk. The first thing that struck me when I went out was the profound darkness that envelops this part of the city.

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