Diaries Archives - Page 644 of 646

Visiting Revolutionaries

From a very young age my father made the effort to educate me in the revolutionary doctrine. I was clearly on the side of the good guys, those who followed good ideals, and against the bad guys, those who murdered children with bombs, blew up airplanes and did anything for money. I still remember asking my father during every movie that was shown on TV who the good guys were and who were the baddies. My father, who even today still believes that the world is divided like this, did his best to show me on which side of the divide stood each of the characters.

Loyalty to Whom?

Dogs are known for their loyalty. The question is, “Are they masochists?” The streets of Alamar have been invaded by stray dogs. At the beginning of the nineties when the peacetime economic crisis known as the Special Period was first proclaimed, there were families who began to turn their pets out onto the street. At that time there was a video clip being repeated on television. The clip featured Burble, a rock group who were touched by the situation, pleading in their song for a little loyalty towards the defenseless pets.

She Never Brushed with Pepsodent

Riding the bus from my neighborhood on the outskirts of the city to the central neighborhood of Vedado, I noticed a billboard concealed by small trees. The sign has remained unaltered since my childhood, except for a bit of wear.

Malecon: Cuba’s Wall of Lamentations

Meet my Malecon seafront, the borderline where another reality begins. The wall of lamentations, the beginning and end of illusions. Outlet for sorrows and joys, frustrations and satisfactions. Towel for tears, recipient of the good and the bad. Incubator of monsters engendered by our collective semen and the ancestral sludge from centuries of ships and blood from failed intents at conquest.

Bored Stiff

It’s very common for Cubans to receive poor service at most stores or eating establishments. To receive halfway decent attention a Cuban must go to places originally designed for tourists, where you must pay in the island’s other currency, the CUCworth a little more than the US dollar and equal to 25 regular pesos known as Moneda Nacional (MN).Considering that the minimum wage in Cuba is 225 pesos MN and the average wage is around 400, there is a large portion of the population that must make do with poor treatment and deteriorated locales.

Teaching Philosophy in Cuba

I have taught philosophy at the University of Havana for the last three years and I have learned a lot since that time. In Cuba all majors require one semester of Philosophy and Society, which is one of several social science subjects required, regardless of the career chosen. The explicit purpose of this course is the integral formation of professionals in a country where ideological issues are important in people’s lives.

Our Children: Hope of the World?

Gonzalo is a 4-year-old neighbor. What he likes most is the beach, although at night he is obsessed with reaching the moon. He fears mosquitoes because he associates them with the noise and smoke of the fumigation apparatus. He is joyful and uninhibited, although he sometimes gets upset when his uncle doesn’t let him wear his hat or the ice cream man doesn’t pass at the usual time.

You tell me…

Yesterday at work, my colleagues were discussing the expectations of the Cuban people following the election of a new US president. It made me wonder: Will Obama really be able to solve the massive financial crisis that is threatening his country?

Makarov, or the suicide of utopia

People are always searching for salvation in their future. Liberty is one of the names we give this goal, this final stopping point. Art can be viewed as a river down which you flow, guided by its course. Its waters that wrap around you, pushing your body into a whirlpool until you drown, is at the same time an elixir that saves you. Utopia is that dream of resurrection…

Six Years Adrift with the Mass Organizations

I’m a Cuban and this means that even without the least interest in joining you arrive at the age of twenty already belonging to a series of mass organizations. You become a member of these organizations without even knowing you’ve become one.