Sunday turned out to be a flashback of the 80s. Many younger people sported bellbottoms and “speldrums” (Afros), while the older crowd dressed up like they did almost 30 years ago. They left their homes ready to jungle boogie and hum to the lyrics of the famous group Kool and the Gang, who they would see live in Havana for the first time.
Read MoreThe Cuban parliament elected seven new members to the 31-member Council of State, Cuba’s top governing body, on Sunday. Two were elected to vice president’s status, Ramiro Valdes Menendez, also the Minister of Communications and Informatics and VP of the Council of State, and Gladis Bejerano Portela, the new Cuban Comptroller.
Read MoreThere are too many issues in Cuba than deserve intensive, probing, critical assessment and debate to move the country forward toward socialism; Yoani Sanchez Inc.’s explicit championing of a push to move Cuba back to capitalism is not one of these.
Read MoreRelaxing strict housing and vehicle laws that allow only quasi ownership; the near impossibility of legally starting a small business; and the perennially unpopular exit visa law were once again heard in people’s homes, jobs and on the streets prior to the meeting. Likewise, the possibility of a single Cuban currency. In the end the Assembly met, but there was no reported movement on any of these issues. Instead, President Raul Castro set the tone for more hardship to come.
Read MoreA decrease in work productivity was registered in 2009, mainly caused by the “superfluous or excess use of payrolls in many of the country’s activities,” admitted Osvaldo Martínez, chairman of the Economic Affairs Committee of the National Assembly (parliament).
Read MoreCuba’s Gross Domestic Product will grow 1.9 in 2010, according to the state budget law approved by the National Assembly of People’s Power (parliament). According to official data, the island’s economy grew 1.4 per cent in 2009.
Read MoreCuban President Raul Castro advised the United States and “the anti-patriots in their pay” (opposition members) to stop “the provocations of all types” in his speech to the National Assembly of People’s Power (parliament).
Read MoreCuba’s Minister of Economy Marino Murillo announced in his speech to the Cuban parliament a reduction in “social spending since the economy can not withstand its substantial amounts.” “Experiments are being carried out and work is going on in others to lighten the burden for the state in some services provided.”
Read MoreCuban singer-songwriter Jorge García died yesterday in the Cuban capital at the age of 50, announced sources close to his family. With a professional career of more than two decades, this artist linked since he was very young to the New Song Movement.
Read MoreCuban President Raul Castro affirmed at the end of the plenary session of the National Assembly of People’s Power (parliament) that “there can not be space for risks in improvisation and hastiness” in the “updating of the Cuban economic model.”
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