Opinion Archives - Page 373 of 501

Speeding Up Changes in Eastern Cuba

What has sadly become a ritual in Cuba are the yearly mea culpa of the heads of the nation’s most important institutions for failing to fulfill the meager projections they had set for themselves.

Reporting in Cuba: Tomatoes Yes, Cars No

While the reaction to the price list for new and used car sales in Cuba is raging in the alternative online and foreign press, the local print media, which is what the 95% Internet-less population has access to, has skirted the issue completely.

Cuba: Trips, Cars, Wage Increases & Unsettled Accounts

Cubans will remember 2013 as the year that began and ended with the elimination of two long-standing and archaic restrictions: the restriction on travel abroad and on the sale and purchase of automobiles, maintained for fifty years in spite of the fact they were both unpopular and unnecessary.

Letter of the Year 2014 from Cuba

The Cuban Council of Elder Priests of the Ifa (Yoruba religion) published their “Letter of the Year 2014” today January 1st. The annual message is of great interest to believers of the Yoruba religion and is also widely read by the general population on the island and Cubans abroad.

Cubans Can Now Purchase Cars

The liberalization of the automobile market – just like the previous liberalization of the housing, hotel, cellular phone and other markets – isn’t aimed at the general population which remains at the margins, without social mobility and excluded from the hard currency consumer market.

Pope Francis & the Holy Market: On Cuba’s Reform Process

Ever since arriving in Cuba, I’ve been hearing Cubans say that the country’s economy cannot function properly without owners who work to protect their interests, that the government ought to let go of the reins once and for all and let the market determine the nation’s socio-economic development.

Sri Lanka Gov. “War Criminal” Promoted by Cuba’s Prensa Latina

“Sri Lanka is fully able to undertake the tasks set out by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) and to guarantee the rights of its citizens”, Foreign Minister G. I. Peiris told Prensa Latina in an interview by Alberto Salazar, published by Prensa Latina December 26 this year.

A New Year’s Wish for Cuba

My greatest wish for the New Year is for Cuba to find the peaceful means to have all Cubans, without exception, become reconciled, in a country where peace, friendship and respect towards the rights of everyone, including minorities, becomes our daily bread.

Postcards from a Horizontal World

For the past ten years I have been travelling the world and talking with people like Ana, who are creating new social movements that challenge our conceptions of collective action.

Raul Castro’s Questionable Optimism

The Cuban president closed the last legislative assembly on Dec. 21st with the mandatory New Year’s greetings. His assessment of the country’s economic performance, however, could be described with a phrase I learned at home: “gray with black backstitches.”