I 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.
Read MoreCuba’s national media had already lost the confidence of many Cubans and run the risk of alienating the most left-leaning of the lot as well, which can now see the two sides of the coin in programs “above all ideological suspicion.”
Read MoreMay Day parades ought to have special meaning for me, a worker. I assure you it did, at one point, but not so much anymore. I don’t believe that parading all the way down to Revolution Square, carrying banners with phrases that evoke the occasion, or portraits of revolutionary heroes or leaders, means anything for the world’s proletariat, much less that we support socialism or not.
Read MoreSince my early adolescence, I have been more aware about what goes on in the world around me. One of the things I’ve seen in Cuba is that human development has had a destructive impact on the lives of animals.
Read MoreIn clear contrast to what took place before 1959 and continues to take place in most capitalist countries, Cuban workers do not raise banners on May Day making their demands, or rally in protest over budget cuts to public health and education. Nor do they demand that jobs be made available to them, so as to lower unemployment rates.
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