Opinion Archives - Page 385 of 501

Cuba Moves Towards Professional Sports

During a recent airing of the radio program Tribuna Deportiva (“Sports Tribune”), well-placed journalist Reinaldo Taladrid announced that a professional sports system for Cuban athletes will be created in the country.´Cuba’s National Sports, Physical Education and Recreation Institute (INDER), responsible for managing all sporting activities on the island, is being restructured as part of the reform process which the whole of Cuban society is being subjected to today.

Impossible Comparisons: Old Age in Cuba and the Movies

In Michael Hanecke’s Amour, a couple in their eighties, former piano teachers, lead a comfortable life, enjoying their twilight years together, until a terrible incident changes their lives: the wife becomes paralyzed and gradually begins to deteriorate physically. Watching this film, I began to think about my parents here in Cuba.

Manning, Snowden, Assange & Cuban 5

In the case of the Cuban Five and these three whistleblowers, the convictions are within the bounds of the law. It seems, however, that our legislations have serious shortcomings. They need to be interpreted differently and perhaps changed with new precepts that take into the account the universal and eternal value of ethical principles.

The Privatization of Education in Cuba: Kissing the Right Frog

An ad for a private day care center in Havana has been posted on the Internet (including Cuba’s classifieds page, Revolico) for some days now. The owner, Zulema Rosales, is reportedly the daughter of General Rosales del Toro.

My Days as a Volunteer at Cuba’s Center for STD Prevention

Almost by accident, I ended up working as a volunteer at Cuba’s National Center for the Prevention of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (CNP). After completing a number of courses about STDs, safe sex and other issues which gave me a whole new perspective on life, I had become a health promoter.

Cuba: Love with Less Paperwork

While nearly 200 thousand people got married in Cuba in 1992, the number barely exceeded 50 thousand in 2012. These figures appear to show that today’s generations of Cubans prefer common law partnerships over marriage. We’ll look at some of the reasons.

Havana Cats and a Sad Neighbor

When I came to live here in the capital, 17 years ago, my relations with cats were poor – I rejected them outright. My stepfather always told me that they were disloyal animals, and since childhood that was the only animal which I had difficulty getting along with.

Cuba’s Communist Party: A New Form of Discrimination

I still remember the question put to me when I applied to become a history teacher, right after finishing the twelfth grade: “Do you maintain any type of contact with relatives living abroad?” It still pains me to have written a “NO” in the questionnaire. What hurts most is that it was actually true…

Another Diatribe on my Havana Beach Club

It seems to have become something of a habit: every year, at around this time in the summer, I head over to Havana’s Otto Parellada club, where my son, Rogelio Jr., and I enjoy a good swim at the coast. Then, ingrate that I am, I write some harsh criticisms about the place.

One of the Daily Problems of Cuba’s Disabled

Cuba’s Association for the Physically Impaired (ACLIFIM) recently held an important congress. According to the association’s leaders, one of the main issues debated on during the gathering was the social integration and quality of life of disabled persons.