Diaries Archives - Page 572 of 646

To Judge or Not

At once I understood that I shouldn’t think badly of people. The young woman was perhaps in a hurry; it could have been that people were expecting her, or that she hadn’t eaten anything all day, or that she had something urgent to take care of.

A Cuban Skirmish for Rice

The sale of rice on the Cuban black market has reached more than three times the price of this product in agricultural markets. Several days ago, the lack of the grain provoked a popular protest in one neighborhood of the capital.

Bhopal, Chernobyl, BP & the Gulf of Mexico

For years, there had not been a technological catastrophe comparable to those of Bhopal or Chernobyl. Thank God. Because, unfortunately, if we humans do not change the organization of our productive forces and our concept of consumption, the danger will continue – lying in wait.

The Last Leg of My Studies

To be student in the nuclear chemistry program was a complete challenge from the very first instant. It meant setting new priorities and enduring countless headaches and a level of stress that didn’t diminish over time.

Terms for Money in Cuba

Dollars were given the names fulas, dolores, los verdes (the greens) or verdolaga (purslane) for their color, as well as moneda dura (hard currency), comparing them to the “soft” value of the Cuban peso.

Here Come the Transgenics (II)

To conceal the economic, political and ethical contradictions of the cultivation of transgenic crops is unthinkable for any environmentalist. The public reality of genetically manipulated corn in our fields tells me that it’s urgent that we act.

A Strange Dream

I am in the middle of a strange dream – a collage of tropical flowers, ripe fruit and an oppressive sun that does not relent, even when the wind appears to greet me. This strange dream started when the airplane touched down in Havana.

Guaso and Carburo

When I was a little boy, I liked the Cuban cartoon “Guaso and Carburo.” It was an animated comic strip produced in the 1970s —I think— and involved two dogs, Guaso and Carburo.

An Indissoluble Trio and the Cuban People

In Cuba we all have a file. If you’re a student, you have one at your school; if you work, it’s at your workplace; and if you neither study or work, or if you study and work, you have another file at your neighborhood Committee for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR).

Here Come the Transgenics (I)

Using the triumphalist formula of our press, they want to make us believe that transgenic produce is the solution to the country’s agricultural difficulties. A little dose of information, fragmented and manipulated, is all that’s provided to the Cuban pubic. Meanwhile, most of the debate occurs in online publications.