New Face of Cuba’s Official Online Newspaper
Isbel Díaz Torres
HAVANA TIMES — On March 13, a new version of Cuba’s Granma newspaper website went online. The most attractive feature of the new, more dynamic page design is the possibility of posting comments on published articles.
Till now, the official newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party had a website with a static and visually awful platform, far behind other Cuban government pages, such as Cubadebate, Cubasi and newspaper sites such as Trabajadores and Juventud Rebelde.
The digital version of the weekly Granma Internacional, which came online in August of 1996, was the first Cuban Internet press site. The online edition of the newspaper (which has now been fused with Granma International) became available as a digital publication in July of 1997.
According to Granma, the new staff of designers sought to make the site “modern, respond to the demands of new information and communication technologies and any platform used to convey news, in order to inform the public quickly and truthfully, sharing news content in such a way that users aren’t mere passive receivers of information, but also the main sources of such content.”
The current Internet platform of Cuba’s official newspaper relies on a “dynamic framework” that employs a modern “content manager”. This allows for updating from different places, regardless of circumstances. Tablet and smartphone versions of the site have also been released.
The new website also affords a range of editorial solutions that “allows decision-makers to act, not only expediently, but also intelligently. This holds for the editing of a given text and for the way it is presented to the user, with emphasis on the classification of the materials to be uploaded.”
In addition to improved design, better content organization, responsive design, performance, increased cache and the availability of 2.0 applications, a portion of the published news can be read in English, French, German, Italian and Portuguese.
The Face and the Body Aren’t Always the Same
Granma’s new young staff introduced itself to readers through an article titled “Granma.cu, nuestra nueva cara en la red” (“Granma.cu: Our New Face on the Internet”).
On this occasion, Granma journalists didn’t quote Marx, Lenin or Fidel Castro. Rather, in keeping with the new times, they turned to the East and invoked Mahatma Gandhi, in a phrase that reads: “We would do many things if we believed that fewer things were impossible.”
As though that weren’t enough, the communist staff of Granma shared a phrase written by Confucius in 551 AD: “whoever aspires to constant happiness and wisdom must adjust to frequent changes.”
Fortunately, the information acknowledges the fact that “these new tools facilitate the management of the site but do not of themselves write, investigate or express opinions. These, it said, require the professionalism and commitment of a higher form of journalism,” in keeping with the appeals made by President Raul Castro.
The impact Cuba’s recently appointed First Vice-President Miguel Diaz-Canel working towards a change in the methods of the national press, is fairly obvious.
That said, the newspaper continues to be prepared at Poligrafico Granma (“Granma Publishing House”), where all the country’s national newspapers, including those read in Havana, Mayabeque and Artemisa, are published.
Nor has Granma changed its fundamental objective, which isn’t to inform the public (as one would expect of a newspaper), but to “promote, through its articles and comments, the work of the revolution and its principles, the achievements reached by our people and the integrity and cohesion of our people around the Party and Fidel,” as the page “About Us” announces.
Another indication that the “body” hasn’t changed is that the initiative to modernize Granma will be extended to Juventud Rebelde, through the same team of designers, commented Diaz-Canel in a recent interview.
I must acknowledge that slightly fresher articles written by young people can now be found in the newspaper’s Opinions column. These, however, aren’t published in the privileged spaces, which are still reserved for the familiar praise for the current state of things on the island.
The Communist Party Now Accepts Comments
After two weeks online, it is clear that the editors of Granma are willing to publish comments expressing criteria opposed to those of the article and even opinions that are fairly critical of the government’s general policies.
An article that announced the appointment a new chair of the National Association of Small Farmers, for instance, showed several comments criticizing the PCC’s meddling in an autonomous farmers’ organization and the Party’s tendency to appoint leaders who had no direct experience in the field.
Flattering comments continue to be the immense majority for the time being, though a group of cybernauts seems to have discovered this new possibility and timidly begin to post their criticisms.
Generally speaking, Internet users supportive of Granma have acknowledged that the change was necessary and appear to be pleased by the opportunity to share their comments.
In addition, Granma designers have implemented a number of changes suggested by readers and replied to a number of comments, giving signs of a willingness to converse with the public (at least on matters that aren’t explicitly political).
Cuba’s extremely limited Internet access could be the reason these new spaces have been opened, in one of the few sites that didn’t allow for public participation until recently.
It is worth pointing out that several users who use Cuba’s national health network connection (Infomed) left comments expressing their dissatisfaction with the slowness of the connection and the amount of time it took to open the different news pages.
That dissenting opinions are still treated with a measure of apprehension is revealed by the fact that, once articles are published on the main page, only a selection of the comments made are left – the majority are positive and a small number of them (usually the worst arguments) are negative.
Regardless, we should pay attention to these shy steps and what they could mean for the future: a move towards an acceptable model of free press for the island, or a mere disguise used to conceal the censorship mechanism we know so well.
Im sending this email for andy van dyk. He has subscribed to the granma paper for many years, recently he has not been receiving his paper for many months. He would like to know why. Thank you
You can go read plenty of comments criticizing political parties & politicians in the US & Canadian media. The pro-Conservative National Post has comments critical of Harper. The pro-Liberal & pro-NDP Toronto Star publishes comments critical of the Mulcair & Trudeau.
You can see & hear plenty of critical commentary in US media as well, or are you seriously trying to tell me you have never read or heard any criticism of presidents Reagan, or Bush or Clinton, or Bush or Obama?
Yahoo is a private business with discussion forums on a variety of topics run by moderators. A given forum has comment rules which your comments ran foul of. However, you are quite free to run your own blog and post any offensive or extremist comments you like. Nobody will shut you down.
The Castros are not loved, they are feared. What is the value of literacy when the Castro regime bans books and throws poets in prison?
There are indeed thugs on the streets of Cuba, threatening with guns. They are the agents of State Security. They don’t threaten naive tourists such as yourself, they target the Cuban people.
Oh well, Fidel Castro denies he owns luxury property and you believe him. While any Cuban who dares to say otherwise is thrown in prison. I suggest you read “The Double Life of Fidel Castro”, written by a man who was Fidel’s personal bodyguard for 17 years. It will open your eyes.
http://www.amazon.ca/The-Double-Life-Fidel-Castro-ebook/dp/B00SRVJQP4
according to flordia news, cubans become criminals in florida. they have no work and so steal to survive. do you think they will write home about that.
i have been there several times. there are no young thugs on the street threatening with guns. it is a very safe place.
fidel castro cried because so many cubans were illerate. he had schools built and sent the high school kids out to teach. anyone who wanted to learn their letters and numbers could. he saw most cubans educated to grade three and some were in their seventies and eighties. he is a hero.
i have bought and read castros books and he denys he has any more than others. he is not rich. if you work hard you should be paid, if you dont work, then you have nothing.
great comment. you know your history.
try criticising a political party in a big newspaper and see if your comment will be shown, i dont think so.
you are abolutely right. the profits all belong to the one percent.
a really, really, good comment. thans for it.
There is no free health for the visitor who pays a small token to access health care,but the Cuban citizen has access to free medical care and free education from Kindergarten to university level. My friend, you are just sprouting undiluted propaganda about a country you know nothing about. When I type, I type historical facts which can weather the storms of criticisms because they are real facts,but, you have never been to Cuba, so you possess no first hand knowledge of what you are sprouting. I have been to both places. I have first hand knowledge of what i write.
Brother, you are wet dreaming. You do not really have the faintest clue as to what is happening in Cuba whose leaders and people are determined to build a new society built on commitment, sacrifice and determination. Yes! There will be those who will run to the Capitalist country nearby, having absorbed their propaganda as a land filled with milk and honey and you walk on streets of gold, only to be so terribly disillusioned that they want to return to Cuba immediately but are forced to stay because the truth will be told! Could you imagine a highly regarded nd respected Surgeon leaving Cuba to live in America and end up as a cab driver? Cannot enter the profession because he cannot find employment as a Surgeon? A waste of talent!!
Why dont they cite documents on the slave trade.Why dont they cite documents on the rapes the murders, the lynchings, why don’t they present documentation on the KLU KLUX KLAN which is far worse than ISIS? The capitalists want to poison our minds against communism while exalting their murderous system of capitalism, which never liberate a soul? We believe that all men were created equal. If this was really so, why is it that only BLACKS are murdered every day in America? Why is it, when Black Woman was raped she was told by the Judge that the Declaration did not mean her? Why are they treating President Obama the most educated President in the History of America with so much contempt, disdain, disrespect, derision? Is it because he is BLACK and the Declaration of Independence did not include people like him? I often times wonder what will be the fate of the white House after it has housed A BLACK PRESIDENT AND HIS FAMILY?
Brother, you are so correct of your assessment of the capitalist system. They would never expose those who have the say in the affairs of the country, because they are the financiers of the political parties. He who pays the piper calls the tune. He who pays the band, determines what songs and what music will be played.
I hate when people like you are so one sided, so sactimonious in your attempt to paint a Michael Angelo picture of capitaism. What about the millions of Black people who were hauled from Mother Africa to work on plantations against their will so that oppressors like you could rake in humongous profits from their cheap labour, tears and loss of lives? Whatever atrocities you accuse ( mind you, only accuse eh?) Mao of committing in the name of Communism can never measure up to the atrocities you committed in the slave trade. People like you always pretend to be holier than thou, when you cannot even extend you hands upward for everyone to witness its cleanliness, it is so stained, so tainted with the blood of those you slaughtered and murdered and robbed in order for you and your ilk to possess your riches, because capitalism cannot and does not play fair; cannot realize profits unless it robs,maims, plunder, murder, slaughter. Look at your hands and, when you can present them as being devoid of having any blood stains on them I will hold them up with you for the whole world to see them as being clean as a whistle. Unless and until you can present them as being clean, hush your yapping and visit the detergent factories in a vain attempt to wash the blood of exploitation off your hands. You came to the third world countries with your bibles teaching about a God of love; the natives were discriminated from reading your book on the penalty of death. You taught them to close their eyes to pray to your God of love and, while they closed their eyes to pray, you robbed them of their landand turned them into second class citizens How dare you to criticize others when your atrocities make theirs appear as like unto a grain of sand to yours? China is as powerful as America today and it is frightening to you plunderers because there is a New World Order afoot and it is worrying to you plundereres, exploiters, murderers, discriminators, robbers. China is issuing an atmosphere of peaceful co-existence while Your type want to obliterate the whole of mankind from planet earth in your foolish belief that you will survive to cotinue your plundering!!.
a wonderful comment. people should read more. 11.7 million people cant be wrong. if some of our leaders could only be loved half as much as the castros, they would be humbled.
have you been there? did you see all this or are you reading fantasy.
in the west the big corporations own the power and water, you pay what they say or you are cut off. isn’t democracy wonderful.
i disagree with you. i and many others were making comments on muslims and immigrants on yahoo, and some other internet sites and the comments now are no more. so much for freedom of speech.
newspapers in western countries are owned and run by the political parties. its all to do with money.
and do you really believe that is the way the newspapers are in the usa and other western countries. wake up, you are dreaming.
all the people killed, yet the population of the world keeps growing. there must be something wrong with the counting.
The only one posting propaganda here are you.
All communist states have exploited the people, for the benefit of the elites. The Kims sent their children to boarding schools in Switzerland while the Korean people starved. Stalin and Castro enjoyed lavish lifestyles while their people were suffering.
Fidel Castro, the “regulated” bastard of a landowner, became a rich dictator with plenty of houses, yachts, a private island, … much more than the son of a land owner in Biran could ever aspire to.
Before Castro Cuba was at par in all indicators with European countries. Without Castro Cubans might have the quality of life of Europeans. Cuba – in spite of Batista – wasn’t “backward” as even Fidel admitted:
Cuba, the “Pearl of the Antilles,” though by no means a paradise, was not, as many believe, an economically
backward country. Castro himself admitted that while there was poverty, there was no economic crisis
and no hunger in Cuba before the Revolution. (See
Maurice Halperin: The Rise and Fall of Fidel Castro, University of California, 1972, pgs. 24, 25, 37)
Confirmed by another top communist:
“Armando Hart, a member of Castro’s innermost ruling group, made the extremely significant observation that:
. . . it is certain that capitalism had attained high levels of organization, efficiency and production that declined after the Revolution. . . (Juventud Rebelde, November 2, 1969; quoted by Rene Dumont, Is Cuba Socialist?)
Fidel Castro took the third developed nation in the America&s and turned it in to a third world nation.
Note that there is no “free” health care and education in Cuba. In health care people have to pay to get help and in education they have to behave subservient to get a place.
My Friend Ernesto, Stop your propaganda! In what way does Communism exploit the masses when the masses own the wealth of the country, along with thr means of production? Castro’s parents were rich land owners, but he Fidel was touched by the plight of his fellow men under the many dictatorships supported by America. Now, If his Cuban brothers and sisters were oppressed and exploited by the capitalist system for centuries and he really wanted to liberate them, could he use the same system used by Batista to do so? With a fair and just conscience, answer me honestly? If he had done so, the people of Cuba would not be enjoying free medical attention, free Education from kindergarten to university, proper housing; they would have been as backward as they were under Batista and those before him. This just goes to show you that capitalism does not liberate; it enslaves. A system which enslaved people 400 years ago, has not changed. Yes! They have taken the chains off the feet and the wrists but they are foisting a worse form of slavery upon us. They are going after the mind with pot spoons of daily propaganda and they have already enslaved you mentally for you to be saying that communism ensures the exploitation of the masses. Explain in what way? Did you know that when Fidel was Nationalizing the land in Cuba, he nationalized his parents as well? A MAN of PRINCIPLE. A MAN OF CHARACTER.
Believe me, in Cuba the last thing the dictatorship wants is to hear the people. that is why it represses freedom of expression (as confirmed by all reputable human rights organizations and the UN).
Communism ensures the exploitation of the masses by a Stalinist elite. See how the Castros are living (private islands, houses, Gucci, Rolex, travel, … ) compared to the Cuban people.
Mike is so righy. In Cuba, thevoice of the people are heard. D the ordinary people in America have a voice in the affairs of their country? Be honest man. Stop burying your head in the sand. If capitalism is for the oligarchs, then socialism and communism are for the working class. Communisn prevents the exploitation of the massess, so that a few can enjoy the fruits of the land; under communism, everybody gets a bite of that fruit. Why is it that, under communism education and good health care are opened up to the massess of the people? Can you educate a man and still exploit and dehumanize him? When you educate him, you teach him to think; you open up his eyes. Under capitalism, people are exploited; people are kept in ignorance; people are denied proper health care; people are kept in abject poverty. In any communist country, do you see people searching the dust bins for food or sleeping on the strrets, homeless, sick and neglected?
You all always harp upon the so-called atrocities inflicted by the socialist leaders; what about the amount of black people killed by the Klu Klux Klan? What about the number of Black people lynched down South? What about the number of Black people killed in South Africa under the Apartheid system, did America ever raised a voice, uttered a concern or lifted a finger in protest? Stop being one sided man; When you are pointing fingers, look at your own hands and see if they are clean. What of the many races of people wiped off the face of the earth, all in the name of religion?
In the USA, freedom of the press is for the corporates who own the press. Some folks keep spreading the false propaganda that Mao and Stalin killed so many millions of their people. How manym slaves were killed in the sugar and cotton fields in America so that a few persons could become filthy rich? How many Chinese migrants where killed while laying the vast railroad network in the USA? (cheap labour)? How many Black people were lynched in the Southern States of the USA by the Klu KLUX KLan? How many Black women were raped and murdered in the Land of the free and that Black person could not report the rape because the Blacks were considered to be stateless and not a real human being? If capitalism is for the rich, then communism and socialism are for the working class peoples of the earth. America wants us, the working Class to believe that communism is bad for us, it is Godless, but, how many Blacks can attend white peoples church in the Southern States when there is a Black and a white church for the same religion? All the history books on Russia and China are written by persons who want us to believe that these philosophies are bad for the working class peoples of the world who must embrace Capitalism in order for the Working Class to be exploited forever and forever so that the multi- nationals could reap humongous profits while the working class remain in abject poverty, unable to access a proper education good housing and excellent health care. In the so- called richest country in the world why is there so much crime? In the so- called richest country in the world, why is there so much poverty? In the so – called richest country in the world, why are people dying from want of good medical attention? I am sure that in China and Russia, this does not happen? Today the Teacings of Mao are bearing fruit in China. In Russia, The works of Stalin are bearing fruit. How many persons in Vietnam lost their lives when America faked an attack on one of its ship in order to bomb Vietnam which did not declare war on it?. How many Iraqis lost their lives when America defied the United Nations and attacked Iraq? What about America’s Supportfor the vilest dictatorships in the world? Can America dare open its mouth to talk about other peoples atrocities when it has such a murderous record?
The self censorship exercised by the U.S. corporate media outlets begins with every entry- level reporting job .
Each reporter in his/her rise to the top gets to know precisely what he/she can say and not offend the watching public.
Offend them and they change the station, don’t watch YOUR commercials , complain, boycott….in other words ….COST THE OUTLET A TON OF MONEY .
There is NO conspiracy.
It’s really quite simple
It is the power of money shaping what can be said so as to maximize profits and for NO OTHER REASON are we deprived of the truth from the corporate media. in such a smothering and effective manner.
Cuba has censorship in part because it is being threatened by the United States which seeks to overthrow the revolution .
In the U.S. it is the dictatorship of money that censors any and every politically controversial news story.
The academically rejected books whence you get your “information” are noted for including every death in China to Mao and Maoism regardless of how that person died.
Can you cite a single accredited university that uses ANY of the books whose statistics you cite in your posts , in teaching any course on history ?
In that both Mao and Stalin were totalitarians and killers of democracy, I can say that at least all the anarchists I know have nothing but complete dislike for either man and the systems they imposed.
It served and still serves the purposes of both the Soviets and the U.S. to proclaim that the systems in use in both the USSR and China were communist when nothing could be further from the truth.
In the U.S it makes socialism and communism poisoned words and led the Chinese and Soviet people into thinking that one day they would have socialism under their Communist Parties which never had any intention of developing socialism which REQUIRES a democratic base to be called socialism.
Mao had about as good a plan for developing a socialist /communist world as did God when he decided that executing his son in the primitive Middle East would fix things. (look up the derivation of the word “scapegoat)
Yes of course. Perfect sense. He sacrificed 20 million so he could spring his trap!
….You gotta be kidding me! I won’t bother to debate WWII history but you do realize that (as with almost everything) it was Hitler meddling that cost him Stalingrad. While at the very doorsteps of the city he diverted his forces south. ..you are of course pulling my leg right?
Oh, come off it. What a sloppy attempt at erecting a strawman so you can try to knock it about with your shop-worn propaganda slogans.
I meant what I said: an independent news source free to write whatever they want without censorship from the government and the party. With the internet it is now possible for anybody to post their comments and opinions. But in Cuba one risks jail for criticizing the government.
Wrong again. Stalin made his alliance with Hitler because he believed Hitler would go to war with the Western democracies and when they had exhausted each other, the Red Army would conquer Europe.
When Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa and attacked the USSR, Stalin was stunned and hid in his dacha for days without issuing a single order. Those who saw him said he was visibly shaken and catatonic. Stalin actually believed Hitler’s promises.
The Battle of Stalingrad was not a grand strategic trap set by the Red Army. It was a catastrophe for the Russians and they very nearly lost the war there. The Germans could have prevailed but for Hitler’s disastrous interference in the battle plans which wasted hundreds of thousands of German lives.
Is that how you teach your courses, you just make up sh*t and say the first thing that comes into your mind?
I think you mean the newspapers are owned and controlled by corporate organisations, which fund the main political parties, thus ensuring that real power and wealth remain in the hands of the oligarchy. These newspapers. the ”free press”, that is, do not publish whatever they want since they have no wish to jeopardize the interest of the proprietors. In Cuba, policies, social issues and corruption are debated constantly at all levels including shop floor, workers collectives ,women and student organisations. The masses participate in political debate and in the formulation of government policies. While in the capitalist countries it is the millionaire representatives who debate on our behalf. I know ”journalism” very well.
As the late, great, H.L. Mencken used to say: “In America we have freedom of the press–if you own a press!”
As Iosuf Vissarionovich was purported to have said: “Ten millions dead: a statistic. One person dead: a tragedy!”
Stalin was just following historical precedent; those early losses were to draw the armies of the Third Reich into the endless Russian steppes, where the trap was sprung at Stalingrad, and their armies ground to a pulp, just like Napoleon’s, a hundred and thirty years before. Seems like you–and Der Fuhrer–are (and were) the real ignoramuses of history!
No, I don’t think he was being sarcastic. As a self-avowed Marxist he is deadly serious. I have no doubt if given the chance that goofy old hippy, or that glassy eyed young student in the Che t-shirt at the latest protest march will enthusiastically put us all up against the wall “when the real revolution comes”.
Believe it. They do.
I mean not owned and controlled by the Cuban Communist Party. A newspaper which is free of censorship and is able to publish whatever they want, engage in policy debate, report on corruption, criticize the Cuban government and senior officials.
You know, “journalism”.
By fully independent newspaper – do you mean fully private?
…ya think maybe he was being sarcastic? I simply can’t imagine otherwise.
….and Mao’s “Great Leap Forward” alone brought about at least 45 million deaths. People were worked, starved or beaten to death in China during those years
You heard here folks, in his own words:
The tens of millions of people murdered by Stalin and Mao were worth it and totally justified. Heroes of the proletariat.
WOW…you have a rather warped sense of history. Your lauding of Stalin’s ability to “ready” the Soviets for WWII is laughable; you have absolutely no understanding of History!
It was Stalins paranoia that led to the decimation of the soviet officer core during the “great terror” and allowed little Finland to, for the most part, to fight off the USSR in 1939.
While the estimates of death tolls vary greatly, the lowest numbers credit Stalin with killing 20 million during the Great Terror alone (but hey, what are a few million deaths as long as it advances communism). Beyond being one of the greatest examples of state-sponsored murder in history, the Great Terror demonstrated Stalin’s obsessive paranoia and willingness to prioritize it over national interests.
In fact the Red Army’s humiliating defeats at the start of WWII were due to those bloody purges of the officer corps 30’s. It allowed the Wehrmacht to make far better strategic and tactical use of their forces to overwhelm the poorly-led Soviets.
…So you are correct in at least one thing, whatever else Stalin did, it was indeed at great cost.
Whatever the cost, Chairman Mao brought China from a weak and backward power, subject to the imperial diktats and aggressions of the day, to one well on the road to First World status. (Like Tovarich Stalin did during the 1930’s, with great sacrifice, to turn Russia from an agricultural nation into an industrial one, which, by 1941 was ready for the fascist aggression. If he had been negligent in this historically vital task, then our own casualties during W.W. II would have been closer to those of the U.S.S.R., 28,000,000+/- rather than 450,000.) Whatever errors were made by Chairman Mao, the deaths and the disruption of lives resulting were far less than those of both previous and subsequent imperial aggressions and colonial occupations. Typical of apologists for imperialism, you never mention such atrocities as the murder of 3,000,000 Indonesian communists during 1965-66, but are forever harping on those of Chairman Mao and Comrade Stalin. In the end, Chairman Mao remains the reddest, Red Sun in the hearts of the world’s proletariat!
“Mao: the Unknown Story” by Jiang & Halliday is a very thorough examination of Mao’s rise to power and his numerous atrocities. The authors cite documents from the Russian archives, interviews from former top Chinese officials who were lucky enough to escape China, and even officially published minutes from the Chinese Communist Party congress, including the one where Mao explained to those assembled that the Great Leap Forward was working out just fine, “Killing does a lot of good. We need a policy of more killing.”
Mao was a monster. The continuing worship of his cult by members of the American Left is sickening and all the evidence anybody needs that the Left must never, ever get their hands on power anywhere.
You are the poster child for the useful idiot; blind as you are to the truth which conflict with your views
Karl Shaw, in his book ‘Power Mad: A Book of Deranged Dictators’ (which I would recommend for anyone interested in a fuller picture of Mao’s various atrocities) estimates that Mao was responsible for between 14-20 million deaths, “from starvation during the ‘Great Leap Forward’ and tens of thousands killed and millions of lives ruined during the ‘Cultural Revolution’”.
The hundred flowers quote, so glowingly referred to by you, was the very thing Mao used to identify those people he feared most – broadly speaking, anyone with an education – so that he might brutally pursue them.
For Mao intellectuals were a threat, and the hundred flowers speech a means of targeting them and ending their influence on society
I would welcome a debate on this. I am actually quite curious as to your thoughts
Of course, Mao only said that to find out who the trouble makers were so he could have them rounded up in the next purge.
Allowing comments is good, but that process can be easily manipulated. When Cuba actually allows a fully independent newspaper to publish, then we can talk about freedom of the press in Cuba.
There’s a saying, “Its like putting lipstick on a pig”.
Thanks for the “heads up” on this, Isbel. Just went over to the GRANMA INTERNACIONAL site, and it does look much more interesting. Until now, whenever I had insomnia late at night, I would go to the GRANMA site and, almost immediately, zzzzzzzz, I’d have to log off before I fell asleep at my keyboard. As Chairman Mao used to say: “Let a hundred flowers bloom! Let a hundred schools of thought contend!” Hope this effort turns out better than Chairman Mao’s did!