The practice of teaching courses on issues related to the country’s security isn’t new, at least not in a country like Cuba. The academic transcript for the Biochemistry Major I completed – to the dismay of foreign academic peers – begins with “Marxist-Leninist Philosophy” and ends with “Military Training.”
Read MoreTanaka didn’t think he was anything special. In fact, he had never once stopped to consider whether his life was of any value or not. When he woke up every morning, nothing beyond the feeling that he needed to get out of bed, to convince himself he was still there, inspired him to draw in the first breath.
Read MoreWhile waiting for something to take me back to my neighborhood, at the outskirts of the city, I had the most pleasant surprise a poor person can have: I found a bill lying on the street – wet, dirty and crumpled. I didn’t want to unfold the bill there, fearing the owner could come back and claim it.
Read MoreIn her native English, she told me that, in Cuba, she had not yet seen a single big, yellow “M”. “No, we haven’t got any of those,” I replied, without really understanding what she had meant. My pride and my uncertainty were at a stand-off. I had to find out about that “yellow M” somehow, without appearing to be ignorant.
Read MoreFrom June 11-14, the FEU will hold the closing sessions of its 8th Congress, a gathering which, since January of this year, has engaged students in a broad debate process and an exchange of ideas and proposals regarding the workings of the organization, institutional issues and political questions.
Read MoreI’ve lived in Cuba for three years and I’ve met my share of patriots, dissidents, gusanos, and human rights activists. I’ve met Communists and Anarchists. One time I think I ran into some Surrealists…or maybe they were just homeless vagabonds…either way, my point is that in three years of living here I’ve never, ever, met a terrorist.
Read MoreHow many times have you heard someone call someone an animal because of their brutality and violence be it verbal or physical. The funny thing is calling a person an animal is not an insult because in reality we are animals, the main difference being we can reason and think.
Read MoreMy portable Wikipedia is my personal plane and time machine, and boy do I enjoy using it! The other day, I used it to look up the year 1913, to get a sense of what was happening in the world a hundred years ago. I got sucked in by the article and went on to read a pile of really interesting things. Let me tell you about some of them.
Read More“Living by one’s wits” is a Cuban idiom used to describe the behavior of people who go through life without working, finding ways to skimp off other people or to make money informally.
Read MoreAfter watching the film “One Night” by the British director Lucy Mulloy, I’ve made three resolutions for the future: I won’t be so willing to jump on a bandwagon. I will doubt the verdicts of juries. I will distrust dynamic rhythms, “natural” acting and fidelity to raw reality.
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