Hopefully they’ll receive electricity soon, but meanwhile I try to make them see the positives of their situation. I warned them that their evening gatherings of the whole family under the intimate glow of a kerosene lamp are the type of things that will disappear, especially with the arrival of TV.
Read MoreThese actions, plus others produced by that peculiar atmosphere, made up what at the time was called “the billboard war”, a conflagration started by the Bush administration and just ended by Obama. “We believe that the electronic ticker was really not effective as a means of delivering information to the Cuban people”, said Ian Kelly, a State Department spokesman.
Read MoreInitially it was called the “Spare Parts Forum,” and was devoted to discussing suggestions for technological improvement and the re-conditioning of parts of various industrial machines. Many of these had become scarce following the structural crisis caused by the collapse of Euro-Soviet socialism.
Read MoreWe begin cutting the wood and it suddenly began to rain. Since it had rained for several previous days, the ground was saturated, and soon we were almost up to our knees in water. The afternoon was going by and it would soon be dark.
Read MoreFrom the very beginning of the trip, everything was new. To get the airplane tickets we had to get up early and get in a long line, which allowed us to journey through the streets of the downtown Havana’s Vedado district and delight in the dawn from the Malecón seawall.
Read MoreRight now in Old Havana there is an entire street where there are elderly people, the mentally ill, people who are injured, and amputees who lack basic economic sustenance and therefore resort to begging.
Read MoreLike on few other occasions, I presently agree with the Cuban mass media with regard to a certain political question. However, I’m beginning to feel a bit strange when I hear Cuban journalists speak with such emphasis on “respect for the constitutional order.”
Read MoreObviously Michael Jackson was not John Lennon. He was not a spirit in search of making sense of the world; he did not have that ethical-political commitment that engendered love and sometimes fanaticism from his admirers.
Read MoreTo make the walk through the dark streets of Central Havana go quicker, I began to think about what might happen to me before reaching home that could serve as subject matter for one of these diaries. Then several meters before arriving at my stop the bus came to a halt.
Read MoreAs the affected residents, we agreed to follow up on our complaints through three neighborhood committees that would attend to each phase of the complaint process, leaving an appeal to the Central Committee of the Communist Party as our ultimate step.
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