In the course of years – and for different reasons – I’ve ended up living in First, Second and Third World countries. The first label continues to refer to developed capitalist countries, the second was used to refer to developed or quickly developing socialist nations and the third is still used to describe underdeveloped or slowly developing societies.
Read MoreFidel Castro was back on the front pages of the Cuban press on Monday with his latest writing on the world situation. He devotes space to criticize NATO warmongering, recalls the days of the Soviet Union and reminds us of the history of United States intervention in Cuba. He gives special mention to US Republican Senator John McCain.
Read MoreTouring workplaces and repeating the same old working class and populist discourse that “it is crucial to listen workers in order to know their concerns and suggestions for overcoming many of the problems that affect them in their workplaces,” Cuba’s Communist Party leaders expect to obtain different results.
Read MoreSo as the summer break was coming to an end, I decided to take my son to the Isla de Coco (“Coconut Island”) amusement park. The park was built where the renowned “Coney Island” was once located, in Havana’s neighborhood of Playa.
Read MoreUncertainty is what makes many Cubans think that neither they nor their children will have any future in their country. It drives many to leave the country in search of a train with a clearly-defined destination, even if that involves cleaning houses for a living.
Read MoreThough I was prepared for the enormity of the stores and was not hugely impressed by the range of products that would be unthinkable in Cuba, a simple fact made a deep impression on me: I was able to access Havana Times on-line using a tablet that was on sale at an electronics store.
Read MoreI want to begin by reminding readers of what the prestigious Cuban essayist Guillermo Rodriguez Rivera said of Joseph Stalin, referring to the notorious communist leader as a “master of decontextualization.” Let me say, from the outset, that I am speaking of a well-known anti-Batista activist who holds a PhD in philology from the University of Havana.
Read MoreFor some August 20 is just another day. For me it’s a date that’s been marked forever as the end of the period known as the Prague spring. It was on this fatal day that 200,000 soldiers from the Warsaw pact, principally from the “Glorious Red Army of the Soviet Union”, equipped with 2,300 tanks invaded Czechoslovakia.
Read MoreThe Cuban press is out to get re-sellers, as though their existence were news to anyone, as though they just now realized there is a black market that’s on every street corner in the country, selling just about everything one can sell. However, the reporting remains on the surface, addressing the effects but not daring to go to the root of a problem.
Read MoreIn a popular Cuban joke, one fellow says: “Havana, a city of two million people.” The phrase is left hanging in the air, in anticipation of the reply. The reply finally comes: “Yeah, two million: one million citizens, one million cops!” According to statistics, there are some 5 million people living in Miami’s metropolitan area. In this post, I will tell you about the number of police officers I ran into in the downtown area.
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