ExpresArt in Freedom’s Twitter Contest Winners

The winners, who can choose between an iPad mini, a camera or a laptop as their prize, are:

Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo
My #Cuba2013 fits into the migratory poetry of daisy petals: Do I go or do I not? Do I go or do I not? Do I go or do I not? Do I go or…

Lia Villares
I want a collective conscience that wants to change things #ForAnotherCuba, all together!

The Honorable Mentions are:

Mario Félix Lleonart
#Cuba2013 will finally be the white rose of Marti @expresarte2013 #Cuba

Walfrido López
At this time #Ihaveadream recurs. In #Cuba2013it will be as #INTERNET: universal, free, open and neutral

Rebeca Monzó
#Cuba2013 My granddaughters come home from school and ask me: Grandma, who were the Castros?

30 January 2013, as reported by ExpresArt en Libertad

There Are No Drugs in Cuba? / Yoani Sanchez

Imagen tomada de www.informador.com.mx/
Image from www.informador.com.mx/

I had pretty aggressive keratitis in my left eye. It was the result of poor hygiene in the dorm and successive conjunctivitis that was poorly treated. I was prescribed a complex treatment but after a month of drops I was not noticing any improvement. My eyes burned when I looked at white-painted walls and things in bright sunlight. The rows of books blurred and seeing my own nails was impossible. Yanet, the girl who slept in the opposite bunk, told me what was going on. “They steal your medicine to take it themselves — it gives them a tremendous high — and then they refill the bottle with something else,” she said in a whisper facing the showers. So I started watching my locker every night and saw that it was true. The medicine that was meant to cure me some of my classmates in the dorm mixed with a little water and… no wonder my cornea didn’t heal. continue reading

Blue elephants, clay roads, arms stretching to the horizon. Escape, fly, jump out the window without getting hurt… to the very abyss, were the sensations pursued by so many teenagers far from their parents, living under the few ethical values conveyed to us by the teachers. Some nights the boys went to the sports area and made an infusion from trumpet flowers — belladonna — the poor people’s drug, they said. At the end of my sophomore year powders to inhale and “grass” also started to appear in that high school in the countryside. They were brought in mostly by the students living in the slum neighborhood of El Romerilla. There were giggles in the morning classes after they ingested it, far away looks staring right through the blackboard, and heightened libidos with all those “life attractions.” With regular doses your stomach no longer burns or feels hunger, some of my already “hooked” classmates told me. Fortunately, I was never tempted.

On leaving high school, I knew that outside the walls of that place the same situation repeated itself, but on a larger scale. In my neighborhood of San Leopoldo, I learned to recognize the half-open eyelids of the “hooked,” the weakness and the pale skin of the inveterate consumer, and the aggressive attitudes of some who, after taking a hit, thought they were kings of the world. When the 21st century arrived the offerings in the market-for-escape grew: melca, marijuana, coke — this latter is currently 50 convertible pesos a gram* — EPO pills, pink and green Parkisinol, crack, poppers and every kind of psychotropic. The buyers are from varied social strata, but for the most part they are looking to escape, to have a good time, get out of the rut, leave behind the daily suffocation. They inhale, drink, smoke and then you see them dancing all night at a disco. After the euphoria wears off they fall asleep in front of the television screen where Raul Castro is assuring us that, “there are no drugs in Cuba.”

*Translator’s note: More than $50 U.S. in a country where a doctor earns the equivalent of about $20 a month.

January 30 2013

Video of Raul Castro saying “There are no drugs in Cuba”

This video links to this post, and is posted here to provide the video with an English transcript.

Transcript in English
We can also combine efforts against drug addiction, as proposed in the last two days of this meeting, and illicit drug trafficking.

It was stated here yesterday that there are drugs in every countries on the continent. I want to clarify that there are no drugs in Cuba; there was an attempt to introduce them, more than 250 foreigners from different countries on the continent have been arrested for trying to smuggle in drugs. There is marijuana, just a little marijuana, which can be grown on any balcony in any Cuban city; but there are no drugs, nor will there be.

I only wish to comment on this issue – departing from the text – so that measures can be taken. continue reading

As you know, Cuba is not an attractive country for drugs or for drug traffickers; but when tourism increases, and this past year we were getting close to three million foreign visitors, it did become a focus of traffickers. Additionally, along our coasts, especially our northern coast, packages of differing sizes and weights began to appear, which traffickers had thrown overboard when pressured or pursued by U.S. agents and, when approaching our coasts, by us.

Different currents, especially from the northeast, deposit the packages on our beaches, less so in the south. Consumption began to increase and there were citizens of some Latin American countries who began to freely provide, even to give away, individual portions.

I personally had a meeting with all the bodies related to this problem and we made a decision, “We are going to fight drug use, which was beginning to threaten us, tooth and nail.” All the relevant factors were coordinated; we used our mass organizations, closely tied to the people, our governing party and the government; that is, the Cuban Workers Federation, the National Farmers Association, the Federation of Cuban Women, the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution. And we appealed to families, we said that the entire country needs to collaborate to find and legally prosecute those beginning to attempt to introduce drugs to our youth, ranging from marijuana to a few samples of cocaine, as we said.

They were arrested. If we want to win, these are the types of problems which must be confronted when they are small, or better yet, before they emerge. This is the best time…

A Tribute to Harold of the Christian Liberation Movement / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

A tribute to Harold Cepero Escalante, the man, the friend, the liberation activist…


Tribute to Harold Cepero, a young man who lost his life while working to build the Cuban civil society he dreamed of, with rights, progress and unity. Thanks to people like him love abounds on this earth. Help us investigate the causes of his death.

January 30 2013

Forgotten: Black and Dissident

Snia Garro
FREE the Lady in White Sonia Garro Alfonso NOW! Poster by Rolando Pulido

The case of the arbitrary arrest of Sonia Garro and her husband Ramon Alejandro is confusing for several reasons. That she belongs to the well-known group the Ladies in White and he to an independent Afro-Cuban organization, highlights lack of tactics or support (or both) by our internal dissent.

Recognized international institutions have raised the alarm at such injustice, but what has happened inside Cuba? The recent case of a protest against the police for the arrest of well-known figures like Yoani Sánchez, Antonio Rodiles and Angel Santiesteban (respectively: a receiver of many awards, a new rising star and prize-winning writer) among others, demonstrated what a nonviolent force can achieve pushing back against a repressive government.

In the case of Garro and her husband there has been a lack of actions to pressure the government from the dissident circles where they were recently active before being imprisoned, that is specific actions, specific public planned demands with the idea of exposing their situation to international public opinion.

Just because they are two almost unknowns they should not be neglected, left to their fate; a demand organized in stages, starting with the issuing of letters to the authorities, appearing before every police station, and a call by a considerable part of the internal opposition could pressure the authorities with a different urgency. continue reading

Among the most common questions about the case are whether Sonia Garro is a street activist, directly confronting the dictatorship, and this has put her in a select and minority group on the island, which has undermined solidarity, or whether others take individual actions as she did, women who, finally, take a powerful weapon like a “pot-banging demonstration” to make their voices heard.

Another angle that is taken into account is whether her membership in a marginal sector, her social background of extreme poverty and her skin color have resulted in her being deserted by those who don’t feel close to her, considering her level of education, her projection as an opponent, or her open and uncontrolled challenges to daily repression.

This married couple, brave opponents, now imprisoned without a defined legal process, have left a teenage daughter without their daily care. No matter how painful the case, it is no longer uncommon. It is a damaging trend that virtually unknown human rights activists languish in the dungeons of Cuba without proper promotion and attention from the elite dissident.

What I say here may be fodder for debate, but I dare say “another rooster would crow” — it would be a different story — if the renowned photographer Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, the musician Ciro Diaz or me (why not) would have suffered a long detention. Although now I am in exile I have good reason to demand that with my brothers, both on the island and beyond, we raise our voices, but all at once to demonstrate as strongly as possible our outrage at the case of Sonia Garro and her husband, as well as those of all political prisoners.

That the political police officials are confessed racists and use the crime of racism as a weapon to try to humiliate unconquerable opponents, should alarm us even more. If it is the repressors who practice these different variants of apartheid, let it be we who fight this scourge, we should not go along sleeping peacefully, as if nothing is happened.

January 18 2013

12 Important Events for Cuba and Cubans in 2012 / Ivette Leyva Martinez

cuba-display
From CafeFuerte.com

By Ivette Leyva Martínez

CaféFuerte.com offers for the consideration of its readers a selection of 12 events that affected Cuba and Cubans during the past year.

The selection was made considering the impact of these events on the political, economic and cultural life of the country. They were organized chronologically, not according to relevance.

It is, therefore, a list open to the critiques of its readers, who might agree or disagree with the selection criteria. Other significant stories, clearly, are excluded, but that’s a risk of any effort to select and rank the news.

1. Pope Benedict XVI visits Cuba: From March 26 to 28, Pope Benedict XVI made a pastoral visit to Cuba and met with Raul Castro and Fidel Castro, The Pontiff was received in Santiago de Cuba, where he presided over the celebration of a mass in the “Antonio Maceo” Plaza of the Revolution and visited the National Shrine of the Virgin of Charity of Cobre, Patroness of Cuba. The visit coincided with the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the Virgin of Charity. The image of the Patroness of Cuba traveled on a pilgrimage of some 18,000 miles the length and breadth of the island, the first since 1959, consolidating a new era of relations between the Catholic Church and the Cuban government. It was the second visit of a Pope to Cuba since 1998. continue reading

2. Cholera epidemic: In late June the independent press reported an outbreak of cholera in Manzanillo, which was later confirmed by government authorities. It is the first epidemic of this type in Cuba since the end of the 19th century. The official press reported three deaths and hundreds of hospitalization, but independent reporters fixed the dead at between 10 and 15. The epidemic spread to provinces such as Holguin, Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo, Camaguey and Ciego de Avila. The government declared the outbreak over on August 28, but the cholera cases continued to break out in the country. The journalist Calixto Ramon Martinex, who revealed the existence of cholera in Manzanillo, was imprisoned on September 16, and still remains behind bars, accused of contempt. The epidemiological situation also worsened with numerous cases of dengue fever, which forced the authorities to launch a national offensive against Aedes aegypti mosquito.

3. Implementation of new customs regulations: The government imposed severe customs duties on the import of personal items, which took effect in August and September. The regulations established tariffs on miscellaneous non-commercial items imported by individuals via air, sea, postal service and courier. The government resolutions tightened the controls for the entry of goods to Cuba and dealt a blow to the businesses of the so-called “mules”, who carry shipments of merchandise from Miami to the island.

4. The death of Oswaldo Paya Sardinas: Oswaldo Paya Sardinas, a prominent figure of the political opposition and winner of the European Union’s 2002 Sakharov Prize, died in a traffic accident near Bayamo, in the eastern part of the island. The accident also killed the activist Harold Cepero, a member of the Christian Liberation Movement, founded by Paya. The incident triggered an avalanche of accusations, complaints and requests from family members and international organizations for an independent investigation into what happened that afternoon. The government called it an accident caused by the infractions committed by the driver of the car, the Spanish politician Angel Carromero, who was tried and sentenced to four years in prison. The saga of Carromero is not yet over. After negotiations between the governments of Cuba and Spain, Carromero was transferred to Spain last week to serve his sentence there. Meanwhile, the widow and children of Payá continue demanding a clarification of what happened.

Funeral of Oswaldo Paya Sardinas. (O.L. PARDO LAZO)

5. Approval of Tax Law: In July, the National Assembly of People’s Power approved a tax law that impose taxes on Cubans, opening an unprecedented stage for the socialist system and life in Cuba. The legislation, which will come into force gradually beginning in January 2013, covers all sectors of society and includes nineteen taxes, three contributions and three rates. Synchronized with the updating of the Cuban economic model promoted by Raul Castro, the law seeks to ensure the collection of financial support to underpin social spending, and to become a regulating mechanism for the budget, finances and the national economy.

6. Announcement of travel and immigration reform: After a long wait of the Cuban people, Raul Castro’s government announced on October 16 a new travel and immigration policy that eliminates the exit permit and the letter of invitation requirements for foreign travel for Cubans living on the island. It was also decided to extend the time Cubans can remain abroad for specific reasons from 11 months to 24 months. The new policy will take effect on January 14, 2013 and will represent the biggest change in travel immigration matters since the Migration Act in effect since 1976.

sandy_cuba_power_650x366-300x168
Sandy aftermath. From http://balconalcaribe.blogspot.com

7. The devastation of Hurricane Sandy: With a designation of Category 2 (Category 3 at times) and winds up to 400 mph, the tropical cyclone Sandy left a trail of destruction in Cuba in late October. It killed at least 13 people, devastated the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba, and caused severe damage to the neighboring provinces of Guantanamo, Granma and Holguin, in the poorest region of the country. The impact was as destructive to state buildings and homes as it was to communications infrastructure and crops.

8. Oil drilling fiasco: The wave of expectations generated by the arrival of the Scarabeo 9 drilling platform to Cuban deep waters vanished with three failed attempts to find commercially exploitable oil in unexplored blocks of the so-called Exclusive Economic Zone, an area of 43 thousand square miles divided into 59 blocks where the government of Raúl Castro placed it hopes of finding hydrocarbons to jump start the island’s economy. The fiasco ended with the withdrawal of the Spanish oil and gas company Repsol from the Cuban oil project and removal of the Scarabeo 9 drilling rig from the Gulf of Mexico.

9. Barack Obama is reelected with more support from Cuban-Americans: President Barack Obama triumphed in Miami-Dade County with more support from the Cuban-American vote than in 2008. Although the numbers of Cuban-American support ranged between 43% and 48%, it was a clear change in the trend among Cuban-American voters compared to the election of 2012, influenced by new waves of naturalized Cuban immigrants. Also o November 6 Joe Garcia became the first Cuban-born Democrat to win a seat in Congress, when he was elected to represent the Miami-Dade area.

10. Hugo Chavez’s Health Crisis: After declaring that he had eliminated cancer from his body and proclaiming himself completely cured, the Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez is facing a new health crises that has endangered his life and appears to have permanently removed him from power. Chavez, 58, underwent a fourth surgery this last December 11, and since then has not been seen in public. Official reports speak of aggravated complications from a respiratory infection, which forced the suspension of New Year’s celebrations in Caracas. Chavez could not be sworn in for his new presidential term and the political future of Venezuela is the great unknown of 2013, with eventual implications for the Cuban economy.

arprisonindex11. Increased repression and control over independent activity on the island: The year 2012 was particularly violent for dissidents, bloggers and independent journalists in Cuba, with an increase in violations of human rights, short-term detentions, and harassment of opposition organizations. Short-term detentions totaled 6,602, the highest number in the last five years. The dissident Antonio Rodiles, founder of the Estado de Sats (State of Sats) program and promoter of the Citizens’ Demand for Another Cuba, was arrested and beaten during a peaceful demonstration, and released after spending 19 days in jail for alleged contempt to authorities. Amnesty International declared his case among the 10 most absurd arrests of 2012. Also charged with contempt was independent journalist Calixto Martinez of the Hablemos Press agency, who remains under arrest. The blogger Yoani Sanchez was arrested and returned to Havana to prevent her from attending the trial of Angel Carromero in the city of Bayamo. Violent repudiation rallies were held by pro-government mobs against opponents across the country, and government controls on the use and access to the internet escalated.

12. The government battle against reggaeton: The Cuban government launched an offensive against reggaeton and its performers amid a culture war being carried out within society. The authorities announced that they were working on a legal regulation to control the use of music in public places and in the media, in order to safeguard “the ethical values of society.” Orlando Vistel, president of the Cuban Institute of Music, reported last September that a legal norm is in the “design phase” to seek solutions to the problems of musical dissemination and Cuban soundscape. The regulation should be announced in 2013 but is already a huge source of controversy on the island.

Published in CafeFuerte.com 31 Dec. 2012 | Republished in Estado de Sats 28 Jan. 2013

True or False? / Jorge Hojas Punales

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAJorge Hojas Puñales

In Cuba there are company directors but no CEOs as such. A CEO is always ready to listen to (and not just hear) his legal advisor as well as his financial advisor. They are considered both the left and right arms of the entrepreneur.

I am also of the opinion that in our country there really is no such thing as what might be called institutionality (as one might hope for in a state with the rule of law). If everyone does whatever he thinks best or what he feels like doing, what would our Apostle* say in the face of such irresponsibility, such disrespect, such indolence and complacency? Call it what you will, all this has a common denominator – contempt and disobedience.

The bureaucracy, far from being eradicated, it setting down roots like the marabou weed. In the same way that globalization is the playing field of capitalism, kicking things back and forth is what we do in socialism. continue reading

Let’s take a look at just three issues.

A CEO is free to make decisions, though not without first conferring with his management team. He listens, evaluates and makes projections based on the information provided by his advisors and specialists. He knows all too well that not doing so might inevitably lead to a costly error that could threaten the future of the company. It is rare that one of his advisors or specialists would, at the point the contract is about to be signed, express reservations after everything has been thoroughly discussed. It is appropriate to address the rights and obligations being contracted, but it is not the norm in a business setting for this entrepreneur to preside over every meeting or negotiation since he knows he must allow each person to play his or her role in the business’ operation.

The Cuban CEO is very limited in his responsibilities, even though he is recognized as a legal entity in charge of his own assets. This is a fiction, however, since he is subordinate to the decisions of his superiors. In board of directors meetings — which could more aptly described as the director’s meeting — the opinions, assessments and considerations offered by specialists are not taken into account. For example, a financial advisor might point out that company X has not paid its bill, which is long overdue. The legal advisor would then discuss the need to begin legal proceedings immediately. The director would then respond that the company or branch could not be sued because the higher-ups would not allow it.

The economic and financial situation of the company is of no significance. What matters it the the opinion of those higher up.

There has been much talk about institutionality and institutionalization. But does anyone believe in this? Is anyone even even aware of it? To whom is it directed? How to put a stop to all the disregard, the damage, the impunity? From childhood we have been taught that the law begins at home. At this stage our house is our country, a country governed by law, a law that no one respects or simply interprets as he pleases. It is rare not to encounter violation after violation of the law on a daily basis. There are violations of contracts, violations of accounts payable and accounts receivable, violations of city ordinances, price and weight violations, violations in general and of the rules that govern the country, the nation and the rights of the people.

What prevents the state from fulfilling its mandate to enforce the law when an official or director violates established legal statutes and is simply transferred, demoted or, as in most cases, reprimanded? Is it not significant when a sentence handed down by a court is not served by the person who is supposed to serve it? Is it not significant when either accidentally or intentionally milk is not delivered according to schedule? Is it not significant that every manner of signed contracts goes unfulfilled daily?

As a people we enjoy a high level of education, but the same cannot be said for the level of legal awareness. In this regard we are a third world country. We are a legally illiterate country. Or we are defenseless and helpless before the law. What hope do we have if courts and prosecutors do not play the roles for which they were created? There are situations that have been reported and broadcast in our news media, but they go unheeded. They exist only as ink on paper or in the surrounding ether. In the press one can read about Sentence no. 1322, handed down by the People’s Supreme Court on October 31, 2011, which found in favor of the plaintiff. However, as of this year, 2012, the sentence has not been carried out. If this is what we call respect, then to hell with institutionality!

If education and respect begin in the cradle, then where will education and respect for the law be born? Benito Juárez declared that “peace means respect for foreign laws.” And with good reason we might ask ourselves: Can we live in peace if our own laws are not respected? Is it true or false that extraterritorial laws subvert our peace? Why are our own nation’s laws subverted in full view and through the apathy of all of us.

*Translator’s note: a reference to José Martí.

January 22 2013

Racial Purity / Mackandal – Manuel Aguirre Lavarrere

ok 2On May 30, 1893, Juan Gualberto Gomez wrote in the newspaper Equality: “It is not possible to predict that for the colored class on this island there will ever be present, in the future, more sad and painful situations than they currently face.”

Race and skin color have always been a constant in the battle of the Cuban nation. Supremacist thinking has never ceased to be present, trying to do the unthinkable by superimposing a supposed racial purity over the other components of the ethno-racial population.

From the early nineteenth century they tried by criminal practices, to exterminate blacks and their mixed descendants. They attempted to bleach and purify the blood not only through control of the immigration of Iberians with access to privileges such as the right to acquire land, with great guarantees and privileges. This project was led by José Antonio Saco, Domingo del Monte and Gaspar Betancourt Cisneros. continue reading

The latter, known as the Lugareño, a member of the racist aristocracy of Camagüey, did not fight slavery in any of the many articles he wrote, but called for a white Cuba for whites.

So did other anti-black Cuban icons, such as Felipe Poey, the anthropologist Luis Montane, Tomás Romay, and Carlos J. Finlay, who through science achieved a eugenics movement in Cuba not comparable to any other that has taken place in America.

Not a single Cuban scientist or anthropologist who adopted the Lombroso theory — criminality is inherited — as strongly as Fernando Ortiz, along with other current and similar studies that appeared in succession during the first twenty years of the last century, practices which he agreed with.

Many names and projects involved advocating for a supposed ethnic health by taking out blacks from the coloring of social Cuba. At first he experimented in prisons against blacks and helpless people, many without any family support.

Juan Gualberto Gómez 1854-1933, Leader in the Cuban War of Independence
Leader in the Cuban War of Independence. Lived 1854-1933

Today the racial fusion  in distinct successions of racial mixing, makes the physical disappearance of blacks impossible. However, the idea of extermination is still flowing in the mind and conscience of many bearers of racism, which mainly based political power, using modern forms such as exclusion and invisibility with the marked purpose of denying their cultural and political contributions to convert them into non-persons using a sociocultural extermination.

A racism disguised by new expressions and publicly hidden supports multiple justifications, present in Cuban identity itself, expressed according to the moment and with stereotypes constructed from the sociocultural perspective, that protect the self-esteem of the discriminator through the pretext of outrage, that doesn’t exist from the personal point of view but in collectively constructed.

The rejection of blacks is present in the full range of Cuban society. Cuba remains stagnant with respect to the  inconclusive task of political, civic and cultural inclusion of black and mixed-race people.

Manuel Aguirre Lavarrere (Mackandal)

23 January 2013

Raul Castro Assumes the Presidency of CELAC / Yoani Sanchez

From: http://www.teinteresa.es/
Raul Castro at this month’s CELAC/EU summit. From: http://www.teinteresa.es/

The Cuban leader was in Chile for a few days, for the Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the European Union. Since assuming the highest office in the nation in 2008, questions have surrounded Raul Castro’s few trips abroad. This time the controversy ranged from cheering people to critics demanding the General be put on trial. Despite such an attack, the younger brother of the Commander-in-Chief was handed the presidency of this regional organization. Many believe that CELAC will lose prestige by having as its visible head, for a year, a president who was not democratically elected at the ballot box. However, it is also true that this position will force him to demonstrate a more respectful spirit towards Human Rights. continue reading

Undoubtedly, the country chairing CELAC will be watched more closely during this year. What appears to be a political victory of the Raul regime, could become an element of great pressure on his management. The economic and migratory relaxations that have occurred in recent years on the Island will be evaluated with more severity at a time when Cuba leads the Latin American and Caribbean bloc. The Cuban government’s non-ratification of the United Nations Covenants on Civil, Political and Economic Rights will now appear unforgivable. All eyes from the continent will be focused on our country. There is no honor but that it brings a cost in responsibility, no merit without commitment from he who receives it. Perhaps in the last five years of his mandate Raul Castro will behave like the reformer he so often claims to be. Now, with the presence of his brother fading and that of Hugo Chavez also losing ground, he will be taking his first steps alone.

29 January 2013

Mariela Castro Deputy of Vulgarity / Ignacio Estrada

MarielaBy Ignacio Estrada, Independent Journalist

Havana, Cuba. This coming February 3 will be the right time for another Castro family member to ascend to the Cuban parliament.

This time turn it is the turn of the sexologist Mariela Castro, current director of the National Center for Sex Education (CENESEX). An institute that has tried to distinguish itself with its uncertain efforts at the forefront of Latin America in the struggle for community of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people (LGBT). continue reading

For years Mariela has participated in every session of parliament without even belonging to it, and for years it has been the institution she directs that is charged with reforming with its group of advocates, on more than one occasion, the current code of the Cuban family to submit to the conclave of Deputies for its approval.

Approval has never been possible because of the existing institutionalized homophobia on the island. An example of this government’s homophobia is the last session of parliament’s rejection of the bid made by CENESEX to change the current family code. An amendment that recognizes the lawful union of two persons of the same sex amongst other things.

Before the end of 2012 Mariela Castro testified before the media that her father approved of and supported the work she has been developing for some time. Statements in which she also claimed that before the end of that year the new family code would be approved by parliament. Promises and discourse that were never met.

We are not aware if Mariela Castro had been proposed for this level of government in the past, but the mere fact that in this upcoming election she emerged as a candidate puts us on alert for a plot in the Cuban parliament to accommodate the wishes of the father of the whimsical girl, a father pleased with the delivery of the Cuban LGBT community as a toy.

The mere fact that the sexologist is elected, gives certainty to the fact that is is the strategy of this Cuban woman to put a vote in the next session amending the Family Code, which could   result in the approval of Parliament not because of its own will but because of the force exerted by the presence of Cuban President’s daughter.

Only with Mariela herself in parliament could the desires of the little darling be realized.

If she is not elected on Feb. 3 elected, I have no doubt the girl will throw one of those fits she’s given to, she won’t talk to anyone and those who work with her will really catch it. Things that those who work under her direction are used to.

It would be curious to see her rise before the parliamentarians when she asks to speak, and in one of those moments when she has not achieved everyone’s consent, take off her shoe and throw it at anyone within reach, an event we are used to seeing when she throws insults against anyone who disagrees with her thinking.

January 28 2013

Tabula Rasa / Wilfredo Vallin Almeida

Tomada de Internet

6-vallin_21 Wilfredo Vallín Almeida

On the 160th anniversary of the birth of José Martí, it occurs to me to say something about two of his writings. The first, extremely well-known: the letter that the Apostle* wrote to his friend Manuel Mercado hours before his death in Dos Rios.

In this letter cataloged by some as his political testament, the Maestro* says:

I lived in the monster and I know its entrails and my sling is that of David.

 This phrase has been repeated countless times by all media in Cuba since 1959, in schools and colleges and has been part of countless political texts. continue reading

The objective of dissemination of the phrase — as widely as possible — l seems clear to me. Therefore I want to dwell a little more on this other, which for some unpardonable omission, I have never heard or read in any appearance or any means of education or mass information.

About the independence of Cuba, the Apostle said in an article published in La América, in New York in October of 1883:

“… man is not guilty of being born with conditions of intelligence raised in a fair, heroic and respectable struggle, about other men, that the combined result of genius, natural talent, and perseverance, virtues more valuable to possess than that of genius, cannot respond as to a crime to he who has put to use the power of the mind and the will of nature; nor does one stop to see that whatever might be the systematic attempts at life, enjoyment and common benefits which come as proof of the remedy of evil will never be resigned to men to nullify the mind that populates the highest reaches of the cranium, nor to drown the autocratic and individual passions that boil in his chest, nor to confuse with the confused work of others, that which looks like a piece of his entrails and the wings ripped from his back, and his victory, his own idea.”

These words bring to mind the “brain drain” of the “traitors who leave for economic reasons and not for political reasons,” the Cubans who can not invest in their own country and that the standard of living of many people has always been viewed with suspicion by those who are obliged to know everything, insert themselves into everything and sink into poverty, absurdly, human nature.

At least from it says here, the most universal of Cubans do not seem very comfortable with the idea of making from all Cubans a tabula rasa.

*Translator’s note: Cubans commonly call José Martí “the Apostle” and “Maestro.”

January 28 2013

Chosen Roads. Roads to Freedom Part 3 / Agustin Lopez

Emigration: the road to freedom with no destination, shipwreck, despair and death: the price of escape.

The people of Israel, that is like saying God’s people, emigrated from Egypt. The Creator led them to “the promised land flowing with milk and honey” to deliver them from the slavery to which they was subjected for over two hundred years.

Migration is a human habit, always with the hope of a promised land. Erroneously in most cases when we emigrate we believe we are taking the the path of freedom because we freed ourselves from something that has been oppressing or subjugating.

Wars, famines causing disasters, pandemics, major droughts making vast areas of land inhospitable, and dictatorships, are causes for men, or people, to migrate.

But of all these the less justifiable and most aberrant, which denigrates the human condition, is the emigration caused by dictatorships, and the foolish, clumsy and ruthless rulers who lead them. continue reading

Fear either from instinct or reasoning is a characteristic of living things which in most cases protect themselves against physical and spiritual harm. Fear is the most powerful weapon of dictators, they sow it, cultivate it in the masses of people, inoculate it and  sow, grow it in the masses of the people, inoculate it and vitiate, root it, make it part of the culture of everyday life, one learns to live with fear, fear is drunk, fear eats, sleeps with the fear because it comes into the room, it’s on the sheets, in bed, in the bathroom and in everything related to life itself.

“Paredón, Paredon, Paredón” — “to the wall!” “shoot him” — was an order, a bloodcurdling scream of the recently begun Revolution: Wall and Presidio, there are many anecdotes, much blood was shed behind the walls of la Cabaña under the direct orders of Che Guevara, Raúl and Fidel Castro, masters of life and death for the people of Cuba. In appearances justice was done, in reality man and justice was murdered, freedom was also a victim of the executioners and the Presidio.

The first stampede was from Camarioca. The better prepared, the smartest, the most progressive and also those who were most able to run the country’s economy, deprived of liberty and their property chose to escape. Rather an expulsion, the foolish dictatorships and their fanatical dictators expel citizens nonchalantly.

They left their homes and their property, many a childhood was immersed in the silence of spaces never to return, sadness and nostalgia rather than raising hand to heart in a goodbye desperately locked in a suitcase that cried when it was opened. It was the chosen the path of freedom in the ‘60s of most who did not accept the power of the communists. A small group took or continued with arms in hand, rose or remained as rebels in the Escambray Mountains. Later they launched a great number of people against them to until they slaughtered them rather than defeated them.

This forced migration has continued for 62 years, first from the monarchical government of Fidel Castro and now of his brother Raul. Regardless of race, sex, age or mental or social status, the Cuban deprived of human rights and freedom has been launched in suicidal and desperate exodus in the landing gear of a plane, in the tank of a ship, in a inflated tractor tire, in a rustic boat, the risk is not measured, not calculated, children who will never again see their parents because they perish in the mouth of a shark or are swallowed up by fate in a foreign land, mothers weep bitter tears every day wondering why no one answer, brothers, uncles, nephews, grandparents and friends waiting a day marked in their lives for many years of despair, a face known or unknown and, in some airport of Cuba, North America or anywhere else in the world, to give one hug more than all time kills us.

The American dream attracts migration from anywhere in the world, but the Cuban is not much interested in the dream of the north without waking up from this nightmare of Castro-Communism and for this reason the emigrants go to any country following the closest path and the colony of Cubans that existed there before 1959 has swelled more and more since 1959.

Sad this path of freedom.

23 January 2013