My friend Paolo told me that Cubans attach too much importance to money. “I know that the wages in Cuba aren’t enough,” he told me, “but at least you have things here that can’t be compared with what we have in my country.” He mentioned the facts that education and health care are free.
Read More“Cubans complain a lot about health care because it’s free.” Those were the words of a physician, who’s a friend of our family when I told her, “Maria, every day I hear more negative comments from people related to health care services, especially concerning doctors.” She added that those people who complain so much about health care in Cuba should go to any Latin American country for a few weeks.
Read MoreWith the publication of the “Guidelines of Economic and Social Policy,” the government headed by President Raul Castro has finally shown its cards. The document explains to the public where the country is going and what model the leadership seeks to build.
Read MoreThings happen to Jaime that I’d find highly improbable if I too didn’t live in Cuba. This is not the first time that I’m recounting one of his adventures in Havana Times. What I’m going to share on this occasion is what happened to him on October 14th; in fact, it was the afternoon that tropical depression Paula swept across our capital.
Read MoreI criticize the English teacher who for a final evaluation has a group of questions that, in almost all cases, the students are forced to turn to other people to answer. We all know that practice and the systemization of study are elements of vital importance for the learning of any language. One cannot learn any language by repeating over the course of one day —like a parrot— how to greet someone, how to say your name or how to say your nationality in that language, and much less by memorizing dialogues that another person has prepared.
Read MoreTo carry out the indispensably needed social adjustment and to improve the economy and their own opportunities for accumulation, the political elite is counting on two resources: political/police control as well as émigrés and their remittances.
Read MoreNow correct me if I’m wrong but doesn’t the U.S. have an embargo on the country of Cuba and not the person of Castro?
Read More“This is like getting married in paradise,” said a young Canadian couple fully dressed for the occasion. They had just gotten married amid the sand of Cayo Santa Maria, an astonishingly beautiful island of the Cuban archipelago. When people in Havana told me that last year more than 500 foreign couples had been married on its beaches, I found it difficult to believe.
Read MoreIleana Ros-Lehtinen will now head the House Committee on Foreign Affairs effectively preventing any legislation that would remotely improve US-Cuba relations from ever making it out of her committee.
Read MoreAt home I’ve duplicated all possible measures to save energy: we practically live in the dark, I wash and iron every fifteen days; when a lot of clothes pile up, I wash some by hand; I defrost the refrigerator religiously every five days and I only use the electric burner when I have absolutely no other alternative.
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