Opinion

I Hate You (Part II)

Some months ago, I don’t recall when, exactly, I published a post that prompted many comments criticizing the title and focus of my piece. I Hate You upset a number of readers and other Havana Times bloggers, who wrote me to say that hatred is a negative emotion and that my article did not contribute to the reconciliation between the people of Cuba and the United States

Read More

Yellow Ribbons in Cuba for Cuban Five

The only free Cuban Five member, Rene Gonzalez, called on every Cuban to wear a yellow ribbon, or to hang it up at home or in a tree, such that the country is filled with these, symbols of affection towards a loved one who is away, whom one awaits.. A month long campaign began last week demanding the release of the remaiing four Cuban Five members.

Read More

A Kick Start for Cuba’s Civil Society

Cuba’s system lacks the counterweights that different social sectors would need to apply pressure on the government in order to advance their interests, which are not necessarily the same as those of other sectors and do not form a harmonious whole, as Soviet manuals envisaged.

Read More

Cuba Scenes Worthy of an Absurdist Comedy

Those who read this article may accuse me of exaggerating, or maybe think that I’m stealing a scene written by the Spanish director Almodovar who is so given to mixing drama and comedy. Others might allege that I’m just a person with very bad luck; still others may believe that it’s all a fabrication and that I’m writing to get rich, or because groups from the Empire are sponsoring my articles. All of these allegations are very distant from reality.

Read More

My Childhood Fears Growing Up in Cuba

When I was a kid, my father used to take me to some of the most fantastic places I have ever been to in Cuba. At least once a month, we would go fishing at a river or dam in the outskirts of the city, with poles or just a stick with a bit of line tied to it.

Read More

The Girl, her Girlfriend and the Wish to Leave Cuba

Some years ago, “M” started going out with a girl and all eyes in the neighborhood turned towards her. “X”., her partner, has been living in a very small house with four relatives, where she is forced to sleep in the living room, since she was five. M and X tell me they have been together for three years and love each other very much. M has a house with several bedrooms and lives only with her mother. The three lived together for a while until the mother-in-law remembered her social function and everything went downhill from there. Some measure of homophobia must have had a say in that.

Read More

Cuban Doctors in Brazil: A Lack of Information

Havana Times has been publishing some very harsh criticisms of the agreement that will take four thousand Cuban doctors to Brazil. Considering the number of MDs and their monthly salaries, the agreement implies millions of dollars in revenues for Cuba in the course of a year.

Read More

Neoliberalism on the Same Old Road to Failure

So much information, so many examples come to mind when one begins to reflect on neoliberalism’s failure that one doesn’t know where to begin. It seems unbelievable that, with so much evidence before it, with so many failures behind it, the capitalist system should continue to insist on going down the same, destructive path.

Read More