Desmond Tutu called Mandela a gift to humanity. I believe this is the best description I’ve heard of a man who – in prison, in power or at home – has accompanied us a good part of our lives. Mandela was, quite simply, immense and, thanks to his tenacious company, we are all in one way or another better people.
Read MoreThe Dominican Republic’s Constitutional Court’s recent xenophobic and discriminatory decision of depriving thousands of Haitian-born immigrants of their Dominican nationality had a collateral upside to it: that of gathering the most valuable members of Dominican society – intellectuals, activists and common citizens – in a single resistance front. But what is there stance regarding Cuban policy towards its emigrants?
Read MoreThe United Nations has once again gone through the motions of condemning the blockade/embargo imposed on Cuba by the United States. Though this gesture is very ineffective, I am happy it was repeated, for the blockade/embargo has increasingly become a stumbling block devoid of any evident advantages for anyone.
Read MoreThe announcement that the Cuban government plans on eliminating Cuba’s two-currency monetary system has awakened numerous concerns among common citizens and analysts. This was to be expected, for, even if we assume the simplest and most vulgar point of view on Cuban reality, it is clear that this is a serious issue that is going to change many of the rules of the game on the island’s playing field.
Read MoreAn authoritarian system that draws very clear limits for public expression comes at a high cost for society as it hinders the maturation of the ideologies that will be called on to take Cuba’s future political stage. And an ideology is not simply a corpus of more or less interconnected ideas. It is also an interpretation of society, a way of interacting with the subjects the ideology is aimed at.
Read MoreAs we might have expected from an incident as talked-about as asking for political changes in Cuba during a massive official function, musician Roberto Carcasses has become a kind of test case for political militancy on the island.
Read MoreWhen I heard Cuban musician Roberto Carcasses sing at a massive concert in Havana organized as a kind of tribute to the four Cuban agents imprisoned in the USA, the first thing I thought was that I was losing my sense of hearing and confusing wish with reality.The television cameras, all aimed at the stage, didn’t afford me a glimpse at the audience’s reaction, not even that of those standing at the front row: the relatives of the imprisoned agents, high government officials and a number of young girls who seemed to have been made to stand there to look happy.
Read MoreCuban society has to address serious economic and political questions that cannot be answered through doctrines or reading the classics. Neither can we set our hopes on formulas that have been enshrined by political tendencies.
Read MoreAn ad for a private day care center in Havana has been posted on the Internet (including Cuba’s classifieds page, Revolico) for some days now. The owner, Zulema Rosales, is reportedly the daughter of General Rosales del Toro.
Read MoreFor the good of the country, of the people who eke out a life on the island, day after day, sometimes I even wish Cuba’s leaders were compulsive liars who are hiding a secret agenda but ultimately know what they’re talking about.
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