Diaries Archives - Page 588 of 639

The Phantom Letter

Once again, I ask myself how I can think about one letter if I don’t know the content of the other. I would like to read it, but I already know that I will have to look for it via other media.

When anyone talks about violence against women in Cuba, it’s important to note that those who live outside of the capital are in the worse situation. There, machismo is stronger (among both sexes), customs change less than in the city, there are fewer job opportunities, and there exist a series of socio-economic and cultural conditions that enable aggressive behavior toward females.

Copenhagen: A Fatal Summit

We lack the necessary “international safeguards” capable of protecting and assisting countries at risk of being destroyed by climate change or confronting emergency situations in cases of disaster. At the summit we witnessed only rhetoric, an absence of vision and flimsy commitments to the future.

The 31st Havana Film Festival

One of the most impressive events organized every year in Havana is the Festival of New Latin American Cinema (aka-Havana Film Festival) – and this year was no different. To walk Havana’s streets during the Festival is quite different from the rest of the year. Instead of tired faces, I saw excited ones. It was as if most people had rid themselves of the complexities of daily life.

If They Shoot You, You Bleed

I grew up in a neighborhood of Havana far from downtown. It was one of the neighborhoods made up of dozens of simple and uninspired apartment buildings constructed to deal with the housing needs of thousands of poor people back in the 1970s.

Between Pain & Shame: A Dignified Death

My grandmother’s illness took the whole family by surprise. After we got the news, it was only a question of days. Her cancer had already spread far along, so much so that it was impossible to eliminate it.

The Airport Tax

“Look compadre, I know you from somewhere. I don’t remember from where, but I’m in a big jam,” I explained. “My friends need fifty pesos to pay the airport tax. They didn’t know they had to pay it, but if they don’t, they’ll miss their flight.”

Two Decades That Are Three

At midnight on December 31, the world will enter the second decade of the 21st century – but we Cubans will enter the third. And it’s not that Cuba opted for a calendar different from the Gregorian one; other pressures forced us to change two for three.

Insufficient Arguments against Yoani

Ubieta tosses Yoani into that same sack, an accusation of extreme seriousness in a country where to explicitly or publicly oppose the government can land you in jail. Precisely because of the considerable weight of the accusation, we would expect that the journalist’s justifications for these charges were solidly founded.

The Dilemma of the Havana Handicrafts Fair

When other Cubans hear me say I work in handicrafts, their faces immediately light up. They exclaim, “Ah! So you don’t have any problems then, you’re economically secure.” That always leaves me staggered because it doesn’t reflect reality.