The present model needs to be changed, but doing so top down, out of the structures of the old system, appears impossible. We need to work for grassroots democracy, from the ground up, from within the local neighborhood, from the workplaces, from the alternative press, fighting for every space available for popular participation.
Read MoreCarolina is not the first and won’t be the last Cuban woman to leave behind her roots, her family and her country by immigrating to the United States. Many have done the same over the last fifty years. Some are able to visit their country shortly thereafter; others never set foot on the island again.
Read MoreMany Cuban dissidents support Washington’s policy of economic pressure but avoid publicly expressing this within Cuba, where the majority condemns the so-called “U.S. blockade”. However, during a recent international tour, however, a number of them have spoken in favor of the embargo.
Read MoreI must apologize to the readers of Havana Times for my recent article, “Who Did Cuba’s Ladies in White Speak For?” The title, I now see, ought to have been “Who Profits from the Cuba Blockade?”, for, that is what the issue is ultimately about: who stands to benefit from the petition made by the Ladies in White?
Read MoreI have an Italian friend who’s always telling me I’ve given cell phones more importance than they deserve, but the truth is that I’ve never seen him come to Cuba without his two mobiles, which are more modern and sophisticated each time around.
Read MoreFor several decades this “miraculous” island appears to go nowhere, as though under a dark spell. It is as though something has gone motionless. The popular phrase that begins with the words “no one in the lead is safe” comes to mind. I should make it clear that I am not bothered by the prosperity of others. It’s just that, sometimes, one can’t help but make comparisons.
Read MoreIn view of Sanchez’ important individual contribution to the current struggle for greater freedom of expression in Cuba, I again want to pose a very concrete question: What specific contribution to Cuba’s future, to an economic and political vision for the country in the coming years, can the blog Generation Y make? What is Yoani’s proposal?
Read MoreIt seems unlikely that the announcement of her transformation from criminal to terrorist coincidently occurred the day after the State Department was supposed to release its annual report “justifying” the continued inclusion of Cuba on its list of countries that “provide critical support to non-state terrorist groups and repeatedly provides support for acts of international terrorism.”
Read MoreThe paltriness of Cuban salaries is the topic which is most repeatedly discussed in all gatherings on the island, formal and not. This is because basic articles of crucial importance continue to be prohibitively expensive for most of the Cuban population.
Read MoreBerta Soler, leader of the Ladies in White, said in Madrid that Cuba before the Revolution – that is, dictator Fulgencio Batista’s Cuba – was “a golden jewel.” To hear this from someone who proclaims everywhere that her group is interested in human rights, seems to me aberrant, considering all the pain that that blood-thirsty regime caused our motherland.
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