The alarm was triggered by a letter written by the school’s current director, Rafael Rosal, who affirmed that the educational institution was “on the verge of collapse” and urgently needed help “to halt the deterioration of its infrastructure.”
Read MoreHere in Cuba there’s not a single store where one can buy a simple board to fix the dinner table or replace a roof beam. This means that the only alternative left to people is the black market. To top it all off, though the authorities have just begun allowing self-employment by carpenters, they don’t sell them any wood.
Read MoreThe changes being made in the Cuban educational system are far-reaching reforms with enormous long-term implications. They involve reducing the number of university students, increasing the slots for technicians, creating schools to train skilled workers and gearing the entire system to the needs of society.
Read MoreAgainst all predictions, this law has neither unleashed rage nor triggered a booming housing market. People are taking it calmly; it’s completely new territory and they need to study carefully what they’ll do – because like a mother, we only have one home.
Read MoreThis cybernetic black market in Cuba fills a huge unmet demand for its customers, who are not served and therefore unsatisfied with the official channels. According to estimates by the Ministry of Communications made years ago, even then there were tens of thousands of illegal users of the Internet.
Read MoreHarold Cardenas and Roberto Gonzalez are two young university professors from Matanzas Province. Together they created La Joven Cuba (Young Cuba), one of the most interesting blogs in Cuba based on the number of visits, the youth who read it and its independent perspective.
Read MoreGuillermo Rodriguez, an intellectual with no history of involvement in the opposition, maintains that the press shouldn’t restrict itself to only those opinions considered “official policy. “Instead,” he commented, “they need to communicate assessments that enrich thinking and even contribute to changing what is now the ‘official policy.’ This is an approach that we cannot do without because it nourishes and develops society.”
Read MoreCubans can now buy, sell, donate, exchange and adjudicate their homes, according to a decree published in the Gaceta Oficial this week.
Read MoreA few days ago I read a story about how when home repair materials are put up for sale, all traces of those products disappear within 40 minutes, a fact that speaks to the real needs of citizens here in Cuba.
Read MoreAt 75, Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega cannot complain about his lack of recognition. Pope Benedict XVI refused his resignation and asked him to remain in charge of the Cuban Church, while Spain just gave him the Cruz Isabel la Católica award. Undoubtedly, he has played an important role as head of the church to which he was appointed Archbishop of Havana in 1979.
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