US and Spanish golfers have pledged to support the creation of a Cuban national golf federation. The question is should the National Sports Institute dedicate part of its meager budget to finance the practice of an expensive sport that almost no one plays in Cuba?
Read MoreHer name was Felicia, and she was a prostitute back when it was good business to be one in Havana. She continued to be a hooker after 1959, when all gambling establishments were shut down and prostitution was declared illegal and actively persecuted.
Read MoreSome years ago, a former vice-minister for the economy told me, keeping a straight face, that an unpublished study had revealed that the State employees who missed the least days of work were hotel bell boys and pump operators at gas stations.
Read MoreThe lifting of restrictions on visiting Cuba prompted the first doubts regarding the political nature of Cuban immigration. About half a million of those who allegedly fled communist persecution vacation on the island every year.
Read MoreThe Pope saluted the gathered crowds, kissed a number of children who had been preselected for the occasion, blessed a similarly pre-approved woman on a wheelchair, embraced his Jesuit brothers and boarded his new Pope Mobile. No one drew his attention to a bulletin board where hundreds of petitions from Cuban citizens had been posted.
Read MoreThe Cuban press appears to be re-editing that old maxim of “the selfless aid of the Soviet Union,” replacing the USSR with the Vatican. It remains to be seen whether they’ll be able to “sell” citizens the illusion of such help once again.
Read MoreI will focus on three important regulations stemming from the hard-headed, bureaucratic reluctance to raise worker salaries, “until the country’s productivity is increased,” as well as the excessive centralization of foreign and domestic trade and the insistence on egalitarianism in subsidies afforded by the ration booklet.
Read MoreIn his first intervention at the United Nations, Cuban president Raul Castro had the following words to say on Saturday at the UN Sustainable Development Summit. Castro will address over a hundred heads of state and government at the plenary session of the UN General Assembly on Monday, Sept. 28.
Read MoreA reader left a comment saying that “Cubans went into the Special Period economic crisis together, and they are coming out of it one-by-one.” The question now is whether we’ll all be able to come out of the crisis or whether the “weakest” will be left behind.
Read MoreThe best part of Pope Francis’ visit to Havana took place near nightfall, when the planned gathering with young people was held. Speaking on behalf of those present, a university student greeted the pontiff with the following words: “Cuba needs profound reforms, so that it may one day become the home all Cubans want, regardless of what they think and where they live.”
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