Opinion

Cuban Reality According to a Miami Reality Show

I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure the reality show most watched and enjoyed in Cuba is Caso Cerrado (“Case Closed”), a Miami domestic court program hosted by Judge Ana Maria Polo. Many watch the show at home, thanks to illegal satellite dishes. Others, like me, buy or rent weekly packages on discs that include the week’s cases.

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An Elderly Cuban: Workaholic or Needy?

At five thirty in the morning, the shrill, loud noise of an obsolete lawn-mower wakes me up. At first, I am irritated, annoyed. It’s Saturday and I should be able to get a bit more sleep. On weekdays, I have to get up early to get my kid ready for school (he’s in junior high).

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Cuba’s Reform Process: A Servant of Imperialism

What could have been and never was a socialist system, the dreamed-of society of the people, by the people and for the people, became a neo-Stalinist, bureaucratic, authoritarian and counterrevolutionary mess that imperialist powers and the Cuban leadership agree to continue to call “socialism.”

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In Cuba, “Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right”

Cuban musician Roberto Carcasses’ recent declarations at a concert gave rise to a political tsunami. It is the only thing intellectual circles on the island seem to be talking about, as though they regarded the incident as something of primordial importance.

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Cuban Musician Tells It Like It Is

When I heard Cuban musician Roberto Carcasses sing at a massive concert in Havana organized as a kind of tribute to the four Cuban agents imprisoned in the USA, the first thing I thought was that I was losing my sense of hearing and confusing wish with reality.The television cameras, all aimed at the stage, didn’t afford me a glimpse at the audience’s reaction, not even that of those standing at the front row: the relatives of the imprisoned agents, high government officials and a number of young girls who seemed to have been made to stand there to look happy.

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Calls to Prevent US Strike on Syria Fall on Deaf Ears

US President Barack Obama’s intentions of launching a “limited strike” on Syria – a measure for which he has sought authorization from Congress – have prompted innumerable negative reactions around the world and no few statements from respected civilian and military personalities who do not wish these threats to be carried out.

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Cuban Workers, Strikes & the Socialist State

In the years immediately following the triumph of the Cuban Revolution (in January 1959), the island’s trade union leadership undertook to do away with the strike as a mechanism for asserting worker demands. The Cuban Workers’ Federation (CTC) was absorbed by the State apparatus.

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