There are too many issues in Cuba than deserve intensive, probing, critical assessment and debate to move the country forward toward socialism; Yoani Sanchez Inc.’s explicit championing of a push to move Cuba back to capitalism is not one of these.
Read MoreThe bureaucratic apparatuses, interested in maintaining centralized control, will oppose the development of proposals for self-management, which would develop labor and social collectives to obtain their own resources. However, this would run counter to the general strategic line of the country’s leadership, which -still with its contradictions- is beginning to lean toward the decentralization of the control of resources and decisions.
Read MoreIn a previous piece I wrote about the many tasks that a State gastronomy, or food service, worker has to perform in this country in order to carry out their job. This isn’t an isolated instance. The service and the quality of the products that are offered by the State food establishments leave much to be desired, although we should recognize that things have improved in relation to the decade of the nineties.
Read MorePepe gets up every day at five in the morning so he can use the bathroom before everyone else in the house does (three adults and a child), and he leaves before eight. His work, a cafeteria for construction workers, is four or five bus stops from his home. Most of the time he prefers to walk and gets to the job by nine o’clock at the latest.
Read MoreFormerly serving as a warehouse in the port of Havana, the facility was rescued and restored. By redesigning and dividing it into cubicles, it now has ample space for the exhibition of artwork and the circulation of visitors – without crowding. The gallery even has cafes and restaurants with views of the bay, which offer an attractive panorama for relaxation, recreation, and meetings between friends or business contacts.
Read MoreThe Copenhagen Summit is now knocking on our doors. However, due fundamentally to the irresponsibility of the major powers (those both imperial and emerging), who are the principal emitters of polluting gases, world leaders have not reached the necessary consensus prior to this conference.
Read MoreThese were nothing other than acts of volunteer labor, for which I will receive no money or medals – nor does that interest me. When participating —of my own will— in each of those activities, I felt it was worthwhile when it was really voluntary and the objective was to do something useful, without fear or opportunism behind it.
Read MoreI think that the governments of Cuba, Bolivia, and Nicaragua let down the entire Tamil population in the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, as well as the “exploited…all over the world”, by extending unconditional political support to Sri Lanka’s racist government.
Read MoreThe problem of racism was, and is, essentially a problem of power. This is especially in the sense of power being an element in the capacity for decision-making and action. In this manner, the existence of hierarchy and the concentration of power condition the possibility for the existence of discrimination. Dispersed power, distributed power and -especially- distributed and socialized economic and political power would eliminate the conditions that facilitate racial discrimination (as well as other social problems).
Read MoreAt some moment of my childhood, I learned that Cuba could be reduced to the City of Havana, and that the rest is just countryside; that those of us born here are Havanans, while those who come from other provinces are “Palestinians,” a word that puts people from eastern provinces into the same sack. Once I asked why they were called “Palestinians,” and somebody told me that it was because they were searching for the Promised Land.
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