“Drugs are bad,” repeated Professor Garrison again and again, speaking mechanically to his students at school on an episode of South Park. Of course, not only did they not believe him, but they headed off as soon as they could to satisfy their curiosities, since they were sure the prof was lying.
Read MoreWhen I got up to the door, I realized that it was in fact open, but when I went in I found the refrigerated bins for meat products completely empty. There was nothing of anything. I asked an employee what had happened and she responded very calmly saying that for more than 15 days the freezers had been broken.
Read MoreFidel Castro has proposed a new name for people from the USA. Listening to Fidel’s “Reflections” read recently on the noon news , the Commandant used the term “Usamerican,” an adjective derived from USA.
Read MoreSeveral months ago a new resident moved into the building. At once the speculation began: “He has to be a manager,” “The Party must need him in the municipality, that’s why they gave him an apartment here,” “They say he’s going to take care of some of the problems,” and on and on… Popular imagination in the building went wild.
Read MoreNoticing her state of desperation, I invited her to step outside the office and go for a walk through Old Havana. Finally we decided to sit down on a park bench.
Read MoreOver the last few years, I’ve heard many complaints from Cubans who frequently travel abroad. Upon returning to their homeland, at the Jose Marti International Airport in Havana, they always run into new regulations, difficulties and various restrictions.
Read MoreI’ve just seen how a more than 20-year-old tree with medicinal properties has been thoughtlessly cut down. It was felled by a neighbor of mine who lives in an apartment bordering the common garden of a building on the well-known calle de Los Almendros (Almond Tree Street) in the Alamar community.
Read MoreI believe that the best thing that can happen to OFICODA is to turn it into the basis of a future retail trade cooperative in Cuba. That solution, in my humble opinion, would maintain fairness while instituting the democratic leadership of citizens in the self-management of such cooperatives.
Read MoreLa Mesa Redonda is a Cuba in miniature, full of superb specialists who arrange themselves carefully so as never to be off the mark; and where true discussion and plurality remain sequestrated. In short, it is a round fraud, so terribly bad that I thought I’d never run into anything similar.
Read MoreAs bureaucratic offices at the grassroots level, with their time-worn tables and crumpled files, the storefronts of the OFICODA branches constitute a complete symbol of a social paradigm or model. At these facilities, various officials —usually women— are in charge of keeping a list of everyone who has permanent residency in the area.
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