Search results for: Fernando Damaso

Fernando Damaso, 25 May 2020 — When Cuba’s President asks for “a mental shift, a return to values, and initiative implementation,” he is “plowing the sea.”*  These changes do not come from individuals, like how one changes a shirt, a tie, or a pair of shoes, but from basic objectives. Here one would need to … Continue reading “Plowing the Sea? / Fernando Damaso”

Fernando Damaso, 16 September 2020 — It has become commonplace for the authorities, starting with the present and ending with the last of his minister, when speaking about why there is lack of products that are only exported, and about the high taxes and the high prices in state stores, to justify it saying that … Continue reading “Tales Along the Way / Fernando Damaso”

Fernando Dámaso, 29 August 2020 — During the 19th century, while socialist ideas struggled on the theoretical level, the capitalist ones did so on the theoretical and practical levels, since capitalism already existed in most countries and, in others, it was about to be established. In that era, socialist ideas, like capitalist ones, were defended by … Continue reading “Something to Think About / Fernando Damaso”

Fernando Damaso, 1 August 2020 — The preaching and thought of José Martí had their greatest diffusion in the United States, among the emigrants and the participants in the War of 1868, which they knew and shared with him. It was logical: joining forces for the new war, he tried to convince them, with his words, to … Continue reading “Jose Marti, from Apostle to ‘Pret-A-Porter’ / Fernando Damaso”

Ed note: This post is from May but was not translated until August. Fernando Damaso, 22 May 2020 — Before the Coronavirus, the Cuban economy was already in a tailspin and the shortages was doing its thing. Products such as meat, oil, milk, wheat flour, detergent, soap, toiletries and fuel were in short supply. Long … Continue reading “More Restrictions on Citizens? / Fernando Damaso”

Ed. Note: This article is from May of 2020, and has just been translated in August. Fernando Damaso, 22 May 2020 — Before the Coronavirus, the Cuban economy was already in a tailspin and the shortages was doing its thing. Products such as meat, oil, milk, wheat flour, detergent, soap, toiletries and fuel were in short supply. Long … Continue reading “More Restrictions on Citizens? / Fernando Damaso”

Fernando Dámaso, 15 July 2020 — Though authorities are trying to hide it, the dollarization of the Cuban economy is moving ahead at a frantic pace. But the formula fully complies with the accepted dogma of government institutions. Instead of allowing free flow of the dollar and other hard currencies, commercial transactions now require debit … Continue reading “Dollarization with a Face Mask / Fernando Damaso”

Fernando Damaso, Havana, 29 June 2020 — I have always been struck by some state agencies and institutions that add the “surname” “revolutionary” to their functional name. I am currently referring to the National Revolutionary Police, the Revolutionary Armed Forces and, sometimes, when in a statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Revolutionary Government is improperly … Continue reading “The Absurd "Surnames" / Fernando Damaso”

Fernando Dámaso, 4 June 2020 — After the 1959 “accident” occurred, Cuban agricultural production, which had been prosperous and efficient, ensuring the population with an adequate food supply, began to plummet. Two agrarian reform laws — the second one took away what the first had provided — were carbon copies of the failed Soviet system … Continue reading “Cuban Agriculture: A Chain of Inefficiency, Bureaucracy and Corruption / Fernando Damaso”

Fernando Damaso, 8 May 2020 — Cuba’s extreme left, made up of members of the regime’s most conservative wing, has decided to hunker down in defense of its obsolete, failed policies. They are determined to hold onto of every iota of absolute power, which they have held for more than six decades of ever increasing … Continue reading “The Tenaciousness of the Obsolete / Fernando Damaso”

Fernando Damaso, 22 October 2019 — By the end of Cuba’s colonial period, the country was suffering from a high mortality rate. Malaria, smallpox, childhood tetanus, typhoid, yellow fever and other diseases were decimating the population. An interventionist government in the United States first assigned General Brooke, then General Wood, the task of quickly improving … Continue reading “Our Annual Summer Dengue / Fernando Damaso”

Fernando Dámaso, 26 August 2019 — The statements made years ago by the first secretary of the Cuban Communist Party in defense of self-employment now seem inconsequential considering how Cuba’s president, his administration, the National Assembly, provincial and municipal assemblies, and public officials at all levels now ignore them. In real life, self-employment is subject … Continue reading “Self-Employment Under Scrutiny / Fernando Damaso”