Diaries Archives - Page 623 of 639

To Workers of the World

I believe that despite its carrying out a socialist revolution, Cuba will have to break with its bureaucratic obstacles to develop even further. The workers should decide and direct the construction of socialism. Now is the time.

Eyeing Cuba’s Future

Born into a situation of daily shortages, equity under siege, and a discourse of intransigence, the generation of my students will be the target audience of the seduction of Obamania. The new US administration, practical and intelligent, seems determined to seek diplomatic means to a more relaxed modus vivendi with its socialist neighbor.

Jose Marti – The Person

Later, when the history of Cuba was taught in my class, they introduced me to “Marti the Apostle,” the flawless person who sacrificed everything for the cause of independence. This was a Marti distant from my childhood, elevated onto an immaculate pedestal, locked in an urn of unbreakable glass impossible to access.

Ecological Disaster Close to Home

When I was boy in the Reparto Eléctrico —a neighborhood on the outskirts of Havana, and where I continue to live today— seemed like a veritable jungle. The concerts of frogs and crickets in the silence of the night made you feel far removed from all civilization.

Snowman

The temperature was 2 degrees centigrade, the lowest temperature I’d experienced since arriving in Japan. I was in the town of Nagano, the place where my wife spent the majority of her early childhood and all of her school years up until the University.

Plan Macabre

Wow! This was a dream come true, because Alamar had become one of Havana’s symbols of poor transportation ever since the beginning of the economic crisis of the 1990s. Far from the city center, the neighborhood is made up of a huge population of which most people work outside the community.

A Sunday Walk

At lunchtime we found the La Terraza Restaurant, visited by Hemingway in his time. It was decorated with stuffed swordfish, fish tanks set into the wall, and fishing nets. At certain tables you felt as if you were eating on the sea. The menu: fish and shellfish, of course.

Our Options May be Waning

When activism is discouraged by frustrations and sanctions, where the press portrays a country that is unreal, and where personal solutions are found through illegalities or infractions, to embrace a spontaneous economic liberalism appears as common sense for a good part of my compatriots.

Fabelo’s Cockroaches

Enormous cockroaches with human heads climb out across the polished surfaces of the Museum of Cuban Art. Some have fallen, while others seem to have made it to their destination: the roof, or maybe the sky.

When Walking Is a Pain

Although I’m the first to applaud the achievements of this form of so-called socialism, every day I fear that the system -where it’s impossible to buy a decent pair of shoes on your monthly salary- is becoming unsustainable.