Cuba has just been ranked among the 5 least corrupt countries in Latin America – behind only Uruguay, Chile, Puerto Rico and Costa Rica – on the basis of the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) developed by the German NGO International Transparency. Despite this perception, the issue appears to worry Cubans.
Read MoreThe Chinese bank conglomerate “Unionpay”, began earlier this year to offer its services in Cuba, after petitions by Chinese students studying on the island. Having automatic tellers and exchange locales that accept Unionpay cards on the islad also has a collateral benefit for the small Cuban community in the Asian country.
Read MoreBeing a mother has been the greatest, most beautiful experience of my life. I feel proud of the sacrifices – both joyful and sad – that I’ve had to make over these past 12 years, trying to give my Carlos Adriel the best, shield him from the worst and give him a childhood happier than the one I had.
Read MoreThe Dominican Republic’s Constitutional Court’s recent xenophobic and discriminatory decision of depriving thousands of Haitian-born immigrants of their Dominican nationality had a collateral upside to it: that of gathering the most valuable members of Dominican society – intellectuals, activists and common citizens – in a single resistance front. But what is there stance regarding Cuban policy towards its emigrants?
Read MoreIf you are reading any other book on Cuba right now, close it. If you were thinking about giving another title as a Christmas gift to a beloved Cubaphile, don’t. Make better use of your time and money with Marc Frank’s Cuba Revelations. You won’t find ideology or an agenda in here, but rather a comprehensive composition covering the multilayered, and often quite complex, reform process that has been underway in Cuba since at least 2006.
Read MoreDe tarde en casa (“Afternoon at Home”) is the name of a Cuban television program aired every Sunday at 5 in the afternoon and hosted by Rakel Mayedo. I’ve seen the program a couple of times and found it interesting every so often because of the guests invited on the show. But on this occasion I was totally bewildered.
Read MoreMy friend Celestino was denied a happy childhood. Born in the Cuban countryside, his father had to support the family doing the only thing he knew how: working the land. He had to work someone else’s land, because he didn’t own any – that is to say, he sold his labor to someone who needed it. But jobs in the countryside were few and far between.
Read MoreHe doesn’t look like a former sailor. He is too big, he seems to have lost his gracefulness at sea, along with all of the hopes he had in his youth. Jose Manuel is now forty-two. He lives on Campanario (“Bellfry”) street, in Havana’s neighborhood of Centro Habana. Those bells, however, no longer toll for him. The only thing he thinks about is how to leave the city of his birth, how to escape his country, which he calls “hell”.
Read MoreA great many Cubans express concerns over the rise in misdemeanors, public vulgarity, vandalism and other phenomena associated with people or groups whose conduct suggests social exclusion. The media have also been showing much interest in delving into the causes of the problem and have set a broad campaign in motion to somehow contain this ill, which seems to be growing unchecked.
Read MoreLet us begin to express our viewpoints about how we should debate without offending or excluding those who think differently. In theory, we all agree about the importance of freedom of expression. Some insist socialism guarantees the people’s participation and others claim that Western democracy is the only system that affords people this freedom. Well, let us begin to practice what we preach.
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