14ymedio, Orlando Palma, Havana, 9 September 2015 — The contract of the director Juan Carlos Cremata has been cancelled by the Cuban cultural authorities, as explained by the author himself on Wednesday via email. Cremata has made public the details of meeting he was called to last Monday at the Havana Theater Center, in which he was told of the Ministry of Culture’s National Council of Performing Arts Resolution No. 10, in which his theater project El Ingenio [The Genius] was canceled and his contract as a theater director was terminated.
In the body of the resolution it says the director provoked an ethical-professional conflict with the management of the Theatre Center and the National Council for the Performing Arts, who legally represent and sponsor him.” According to the official explanation, Cremata made intemperate attacks on these institutions through the foreign press and social networks, incompatible with the social object for which the above-mentioned project was created, leading to a lack of confidence in the artist, all of which disqualified his projects as institutional interests.”
The authorities resolved to halt project El Ingenio Project, ending its sponsorship by the Theater Center. Furthermore, they added, the employment contract in the artistic branch of the Director Juan Carlos Cremata Malberti, will be terminated.”
In light of this opinion, the artist states, “Thus is censorship and the exercise of ‘freedom of expression’ legally consolidated in our country, in the 21st century.”
Cremata adds that, The measure was taken without consultation with the National Theater Awards or with other artist guilds. It was a simple vendetta. A calculated summary execution.”
The document is signed only by Marvin Yaquis, director of the Theater Center as employer of the artist, although Cremata identifies as directly responsible Gisela Gonzalez, president of the National Council for the Performing Arts.
“And so there is no mercy for those who think differently. “To the wall*” for those of us who refuse to remain silent. What will be the next step to finish burying me?” asks the film and theater director.
Open Letter from Juan Carlos Cremata, Havana, 9 September 2015
Dear Friends:
On the morning of Monday, September 7, I was summoned to a meeting at the Theater Center of Havana to have communicated to me Resolution No. 10 (the corresponding document is attached) of the Ministry of Culture, the National Council for the Performing Arts and the Theater Centre of Havana itself, where our theater project El Ingenio [The Genius] is cancelled and my contract is a theater director is terminated.
It also means: I am eliminated from any possibility of doing theater in Cuba.
For those who do not have the calm to read the entire document, here is a summary in the style of trending topic or news highlight: continue reading
WHEREAS: In the months of July and August 2015, the theater director Juan Carlos Cremata Malberti, who directs the El Ingenio Project provoked an ethical-professional conflict with the management of the Theatre Center and the National Council for the Performing Arts, who legally represent and sponsor him, by undertaking intemperate attacks on these institutions through the foreign press and social networks, incompatible with the social object for which the above-mentioned project was created, leading to a lack of confidence in the artist, all of which disqualified his projects as institutional interests.
And further (…)
RESOLVE
FIRST: The Project El Ingenio, given its representation by the Theater Center’s performing branch, will be halted.
SECOND: By way of the necessary document, the employment contract in the artistic branch of the Director Juan Carlos Cremata Malberti, will be terminated.
Thus is censorship and the exercise of “freedom of expression” legally consolidated in our country, in the 21st century.
The measure was taken without consultation with the National Theater Awards or with other artist guilds. It was a simple vendetta. A calculated summary execution.
And so there is no mercy for those who think differently. “To the wall*” for those of us who refuse to remain silent.
It is a sad time and space in which we have had to live.
What will be the next step to finish burying me?
Draw your own conclusions.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The outrageous document is signed only by the Director of the Theatre Center in his role as an employer, but everything was done to cravenly avoid criticism of the real person responsible for this offense: Mrs. Gisela Gonzalez, president of the National Council of Performing Arts. The Director of the Theater Center, Marvin Yaquis even expressed his deep regret at having to do something he did not like, which he was forced to do.
Please, do not blame him.
He is only the spokesman for the ignominy, the one who carries out the sentence of death “in life” to which I have been condemned.
*Translator’s note: Paredón! – meaning “to the execution wall” – was the infamous shout from the crowds at the show trials against its “enemies” with which the Castro regime inaugurated its taking power in 1959.
Long lines to board a bus in Havana. (Aitor Herrero Larrumbide)
14ymedio, Regina Coyula, Havana, 8 September 2015 – The September 7 news broadcast included a report about public transportation in the Cuban capital. Apart from the curiosity of observing the incipient or frank obesity of almost all the leaders who appear on television, they and other workers in the sector are concerned about the vandalization the buses are subjected to, the frequent breakdowns because they are so overloaded every day, the seven million dollars destined for the purchase of new equipment and spare parts, and the efforts of the company and the country’s leaders to improve service. Although it wasn’t mentioned, the city’s fleet was renovated in 2007 and has now experienced eight years of overuse.
For longer than I thought they would, the buses maintained their good appearance, unmarked and clean. I expected to see these buses prove the “broken window theory” and, indeed, when signs of deterioration began to appear it was unstoppable. In addition to filth, the accordions on the articulated buses are cracked, many of the windows are jammed, the sealing strips are missing and if not dealt with in time those strips that are loose will follow the path of the missing. continue reading
The agency buses, added a few years ago to ease the crisis, now pass up bus stops, already full, despite the desperate signals of their would-be passengers. How much do these buses cost their respective agencies to make only two daily trips which require a driver, gas and a mechanic. How much does it cost?
Private transport trucks supplement some of the shortcomings of public transport, but the solution is not to transport people in trucks, not to mention the price is several times higher, given that they offer a deficient service.
Private carriers should have the option of bank loans or other methods to acquire a bus
The news report mentioned the lack of scruples of those who urinate in the buses, the graffiti “artists,” the rudeness of those who push to get on first, and even sadder, the lack of solidarity for older people or people with children. With summer vacation just ended, I have fresh images of parents who in the desire to give their children some distraction, traveled with their little ones to the beach or the zoo without other passengers offering them a seat. There are seats for the disabled, the pregnant and people with small children, clearly differentiated by their yellow color, but a great many people feel that if those seats are already occupied, too bad. Twice I have spoken up to demand a seat for women with babies, and failed.
The drivers, on more than a few occasions, are a part of the problem rather than the solution. As they are now required to pay out a sum of money before each trip, the informal fare collector has appeared who, on behalf of the driver, collects the fares and encourages the passengers to get on by the back door so as to stop as briefly as possible. The drivers are deaf to passenger complaints of excessive speed, sudden braking or the imposition of their own musical tastes; and I don’t even bother to ask them not to smoke. All this along with the previous paragraph gives an idea of how we travel and our values at the social level.
The idea of turning public transport into a cooperative has often been raised—a different way of trying to resolve some of the city’s oldest problems—but control remains in the hands of the Urban Bus Company.
Private carriers should have the option of bank loans or other methods to acquire a bus and let the trucks go back to carrying goods. These are not new ideas, they have proved their value in practice and have been aired in public forums, specialized meetings and in public opinions surveyed by the written press. There is no explanation for why, in the so-called updating of the country’s economic model, the “lack of haste*” hasn’t resulted in a viable alternative for easing the crisis in public transport.
This is perfectly captured in one of the most often heard phrases at the bus stops: Cleary the leaders don’t travel by bus!
*Translator’s note: From a phrase delivered in a speech by Raul Castro commenting that the update of the economic model would be accomplished “without pause, but without haste.”
Chilean congressman Felipe Kast marching with the Ladies in White in Havana.
14ymedio, Havana, 7 September 2015 – The congressman from Chile’s Evopoli party, Felipe Kast, who denounced this Sunday that he had been held for almost three hours for participating in a peaceful demonstration of the Ladies in White in Havana, spoke with 14ymedio about his experience from Santiago de Chile.
The Chilean party deputy Evópoli, Felipe Kast, who reported on Monday that had been held for almost three hours for participating in a peaceful demonstration of the Ladies in White in Havana, talks about his experience with 14ymedio from Santiago.
14ymedio. Why did you decide to go with the Ladies in White and other activists?
Felipe Kast. The Ladies in White have long suffered violent arrests simply for walking peacefully to demand respect for human rights in Cuba. On my visit to Cuba for family reasons, the least I could do was accompany them in their Sunday march. continue reading
14ymedio. How did you make plans to join the march?
Kast. First I greeted Father Pepe Felix, pastor of Santa Rita Church, whom I met when I studied in Cuba in 2000, and then I joined in the walk of the Ladies in White.
14ymedio. What was the march like?
Kast. It was a very peaceful walk with 49 Ladies and about ten sympathizers. Everything was going great and quiet until the official shock group showed up
The walk was attacked by an ambush of several vehicles, buses and approximately 100 people, who intervened violently against those of us who were walking. There was no dialogue, only force.
14ymedio. What was the arrest like?
Kast. It was a violent arrest. About six or seven people beat me to the ground. After immobilizing and handcuffing me, I was put in an official vehicle and was taken to a police station in Vedado.
“During interrogation, they tried to bond with US groups, but found nothing”
During the interrogation, they tried to link me with groups in the US, but found nothing. They asked me questions like, “How many times have you traveled to United States? More than five? More than ten? Then they asked me about the people who had hosted me, but I explained to them that, for fear that later they would bother them or take away their license, I preferred to remain silent. They were increasingly annoyed until in one minute there was another change in attitude. I imagine it was because the Foreign Ministry had called.
14ymedio. Was your departure from José Martí airport already planned for Monday or were you forced to leave?
Kast. From the police station they sent me straight to the airport. Coincidently my return flight was that same afternoon.
14ymedio. Did you talk about human rights with the Cuban authorities?
Kast. I talked to those who beat me, handcuffed me and then held incommunicado. I do not know whether the delegation of officials and businessmen from Chile visiting Cuba addressed the issue.
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 7 September 2015 — The old controversy between material incentives and moral incentives seems to return to the fore amid “the updating of the Cuban economic model.” According to an article published in the newspaper Trabajadores (Workers) under the signature of Gabino Manguela, the Heroes of Labor today lack the attention they received at the time when the State was the one that financed this simulation of a union.
The writer notes that “the decision was nothing short of traumatic, but certainly, it was impossible for the economy to sustain this multi-million peso level of financing, which some years exceeded 20 million Cuban pesos.”
In the first half of the ‘80s the stimuli to the “Heroes of Labor” and the “National Vanguards” still consisted of trips to socialist countries. I remember a discussion that I had with an important official of the Cuban Workers Center (CTC) when I was looking for information for a story for the magazine Cuba Internacional. The union leader insisted that these trips were a gift from the commander-in-chief [Fidel Castro] and that this should be reflected. continue reading
I tried to convince him that this was not “politically correct” in our publication (which was, preferably, distributed abroad) because it gave the impression that the commander possessed an enormous personal fortune, which he could dispose of at will. The official stood up and slammed his fist on the desk telling me that I didn’t understand anything. “The most important thing is that this trip is not to go on an excursion abroad, but a gift from Fidel. This is what makes it a moral stimulus!” he shouted.
What has happened now, it seems, is that this “petty cash” has disappeared from the nation’s budget and that in certain circles of power it was mentioned as “the commander’s account.” The final use of these funds was the investment in the Battle of Ideas, dissolved by Raul Castro.
Now it is intended that the material incentives not be considered “undue gratuities” but one more method of payment
Now it is intended that the material incentives, those that cost money, such as a week in a hotel in Varadero, depend on the resources of some company, both for the Vanguards and the Heroes; thus these expenditures are not considered “unearned gratuities” but as another method of payment, deducted from the earnings of the business and obtained thanks to the extraordinary efforts of its best workers.
Trabajadores, the publication of the CTC, wonders if it would be so difficult for entities and ministries that have in their ranks these Heroes of Labor, to finance – with their profits – one week a year with a companion, at no cost, at one of the first class tourist centers. It also suggests that those who have cars are helped to acquire spare parts and tires. There are barely 150 of these nationwide, many of them retired.
The problem is that all this remains restricted under the crass chapter of material stimulus and no longer has the charm of being “a gift from the Maximum Leader.”
Altar being prepared for the Pope in the Plaza of the Revolution in Havana (Luz Escobar)
14ymedio, Havana, 7 September 2015 — Pope Francis will meet with the Cuban president, Fidel Castro, during his upcoming trip to the island, scheduled from 19 to 22 September, as revealed on Monday on the site Vatican Insider.
In the article, it is explained that the Vatican requested the meeting, which has received the green light from the authorities of the Island. The details of the meeting, to be held in Havana are still unknown.
Sources close to the papal entourage consulted by Vatican Insider say there is a good atmosphere for the agreement to kept.
The former Cuban leader was received at the Vatican in 1996 by then Pope John Paul II, whom he met with again two years later in Havana. After this visit, then Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio led a task force to analyze the teaching of the Polish pope in the country. In 2012, Fidel Castro also met with Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to the island.
Social differences (Photo Reinaldo Escobar / 14ymedio)
Regina Coyula, Havana, 5 September 2015 — The distinguished researcher Pedro Monreal in his interesting work Social Inequality In Cuba, Triumphal March? which I recommend reading, notes that there is no scientific evidence to support that economic decentralization brings inequality. The inequalities are not the result of economic adjustments implemented in recent years. They are older; only now they are more, greater and more visible. While I do not have a scientific formula, observation of the environment allows one to also diagnose with sufficient empirical logic that Cuban society is experiencing rising inequality.
Economic policy has served to widen the gap between different income levels, more evident since the expansion of self-employment. Previous policies, in their intent to reduce this gap, had the dubious achievement of making a clean sweep downwards, that is, impoverishment. Improvisation and voluntarism still have their day and have been a constant which economists and planners have had to deal with. continue reading
Privileging the term social justice rather than the equality offers better perspectives
The full social equality, liberty and dignity that so many talk about, are relative concepts in our society; the so-called “circumstantial necessity” of inequality seems much more permanent; social equality rests in equality of opportunities, but not of possibilities. To privilege the term “social justice” before that of equality offers better perspectives.
If I understood the Palma coefficient correctly as an indicator of the degree of inequality comparing the richest 10% of society and the poorest 40%; in the study of the statistics a comparative analysis with similar strata of society before the economic crisis of the ‘90s and before the triumph of the Revolution in 1959 cannot be omitted.
Beyond production and productivity, a source of income that has nothing to do with work is remittances—money sent from family or friends abroad. Any citizen who receives just 100 CUC a month lives notably better than the immense majority of Cubans. Nor should we forget the point that remittances are received mostly by residents of the capital and by white people, and the terms of this paragraph are very important when speaking of inequality.
Let passion blind no one: mismanagement of the economy has been the responsibility of the socialist government, no matter how many attacks, “blockades” and “media campaigns against Cuba” have been generated from the exterior. It is not enough to have guaranteed health care, education and social security prior to our hitting bottom in the crisis of the ‘90s, after the collapse of the Soviet bloc.
The disappearance of Soviet subsidies exposed the vulnerability and the ineffectiveness of the domestic economy; not only had the national project that would bring welfare and justice not been achieved, but along the way, the social cost meant a loss of freedoms, moral and material impoverishment, and massive emigration. This is not the idea of a successful naitonal project.
Policy changes often create expectations that end up being disappointed
Monreal discusses the overlap between the political analysis of inequality and economic analysis. Like the academic adventure itself, policy changes often create expectations that end up being disappointed. I believe that this element, which refers directly to a criticism of the government, is intended to avoid leaving the analysis in the field of the economists.
To mention the Battle of Ideas* strikes a dissonant tone in a study of inequality, because that effort absorbed substantial economic resources for an exclusively political objective. These unknown and difficult to measure figures impede the calculation of a cost-benefit balance, but I have not the least doubt that those resources would have been much better employed had they been used for the construction and repair of houses, for one example.
It will be very hard for the socialist vision to see the workers happy to offer their skins for tanning – according to the Marxist allegory cited by Monreal – if in that way they can finish the month without “production failures” or “diversion of resources.”
This will happen with the coming of foreign businesses paying poverty-level wages, relative to their countries of origin, but yet much higher than current Cuban wages. This is what happened in Vietnam and China, now “revisionists” (a word now fallen into oblivion but so in vogue in the sixties and seventies of the last century) with respect to Marxist theory.
Without proof, I say this more as an observation and common sense, my impression is that Cubans are not entirely satisfied with the maxim “better the known evil”… and feel inclined to take risks and test their strengths in the vagaries of an open economy, and perhaps in this way, feel themselves to be less unequal.
*Translator’s note: Fidel Castro coined the term “Battle of Ideas” during the custody battle over the Elian Gonzalez, the 6-year-old lone survivor of a group of Cuban rafters, rescued off the coast of Florida in 2008.
Pope Francis I at the European Parliament last November. (Flickr / CC)
14ymedio, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 4 September 2015 – Pope Francis has just taken an extraordinary step: he has arranged for the Catholic Church to grant forgiveness to women who had abortions during the Holy Year (December 8, 2015 to December 20, 2016) provided they are sincerely repentant of it. This is a temporary authorization for the clergy to exercise love and the infinite mercy of God.
Only time will tell if such a decision, included in the changes launched by Bergoglio since his ascension to the Papal throne, will turn out to be temporary or more permanent in character. However, we must recognize that the step taken by the pontiff is, at minimum, bold. It could not be otherwise, if he really intends to carry out a process that places the Catholic Church — essentially backward — on track to assimilate the dynamics of the twenty-first century, when religious scholastic pruderies are being relegated in the presence of new realities that pose real challenges to old moral orders, such as this and other controversial issues, including the recognition of gay rights and gay marriage. continue reading
Two thousand years of successful existence suggest that Catholicism has sufficient resources and intellect to adapt to changes
Two thousand years of successful existence suggest that Catholicism has sufficient resources and wisdom to adapt to changes. In fact, no other religion has a political structure as organized as to form a State, and one of the oldest in Europe at that. Let’s hope that it will finally start moving towards this globalized world without any major setbacks.
Good for Francis, who has chosen to stick his neck out for issues so difficult to reconcile, such as the right to life that those condemning abortion proclaim, and the right of women to make decisions over motherhood and their own wombs, a battle that millions of women and Western society feminist movements emphatically defend.
As usually happens with controversial issues, the Pope’s stance is provoking mixed reactions. Those who consider this a cosmetic measure have criticized the move. Others hold that the Church has finally begun to delve into issues that are being discussed at the global level on which there is no consensus.
We females are much more than mere uterine containers over which male arrogance may decide
In fairness, it is needless to say that the Catholic Church could not do any more, especially when it is an institution so hampered by machismo throwbacks, such as the myth of virginity, celibacy, the exclusion of ordination of women to address parishioners as priests, subordination of nuns to the male clergy and other equally discriminatory practices. But the Church’s truly revolutionary position in this case means a step back in feminine objectives. What political power can claim the right to decide about motherhood?
In any case, the debate on abortion falls, first and foremost, to women, and they should be the ones who ultimately decide on their bodies and the consequences arising from their nature as receptacles for the reproduction of human life. Women are much more than mere uterine containers over which male arrogance may decide. So, the position of “forgiveness” of the stiff Catholic Church is appreciated, but it would be necessary to establish the “guilt” beforehand. It is not clear how the lords of the Church, so far removed from sexual matters and procreation of children in their celibate world could discern this particular point. By the way, perhaps ending celibacy would be a good starting place for the updating of the Catholic Church.
Meanwhile, the merciful ecclesiastical forgiveness will be barely a good gesture for the faithful who submit themselves to punishment and remorse for ever having the ability to have decided over their fertility. It will have, above all, symbolic value as a point of departure from the old dogmas. No more.
The mere word “forgiveness” contains a world of arrogance under a cloak of apparent generosity
It is not that abortion, legal or not, is good. Radical measures never are. But it is undeniable that women’s freedom of choice about motherhood is, as is the choice to terminate an unwanted pregnancy safely and with the greatest assurance for her own life. This has cost centuries of struggle and countless women’s deaths in clandestine clinics, or as a result of malpractice, often carried out without a modicum of the requirements of health and hygiene. Because there has always been and will always be women who, for countless reasons, opt for abortion in given circumstances that no one, other than they, should judge.
I think the mere word “forgiveness” contains a world of arrogance under a cloak of apparent generosity. Forgiveness presupposes the existence of a morally superior entity fully entitled to label the actions and lives of others, and so arrogant in his own narcissism that he attributes himself the virtue to absolve the supposed sins of others. If indeed there is a God in heaven, He should punish such a great vanity.
Although, on second thought, we women should be generous with the Catholic Church. Let us thank the good intentions of having had, for the first time in centuries, the delicacy of directing its eyes toward us, those eyes usually focused up on high sacred and mundane grounds. Those who have faith in God should pray, pray lots, to save the souls of those men who, with or without cassocks, continue to use our status as fertile females to carry out their politicking. Amen.
The group of Yale World Fellows for 2015, including the artist Tania Bruguera (Top row, 2nd from right). (Yale University)
14ymedio, Havana, 4 September 2015 — “When politics meets art the aesthetic defines its relevance, when art meets politics ethics can not be avoided.” So begins the announcement for Tania Bruguera’s presentation this coming September 15 at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie (New York).
Entitled ‘AEST-ethics’: Art with Consequences, it is the first public event featuring the artist outside of Cuba since her recent forced stay in that country, and is part of the Antonio Márquez Lecture Series organized by the university on the occasion of Hispanic Heritage Month.
“Political art is art that has consequences. The ethics, the conduct and the specific political moment are some of the materials that are spokesperson uses today to create an art that works politically,” reads the statement.
Bruguera is currently engaged in an year-long artist-in-residence engagement in New York and is helping that city’s Office of Immigrant Affairs recruit undocumented immigrants for the idNYC Program, which aims to provide identification cards to all residents of the Big Apple.
The artist finally obtained her passport on 11 July, after being detained by the Cuban government last December, when he was arrested before making a performance of political art in Havana, and has since suffered several clashes with State Security. On June 8 the artist was detained along with 47 Ladies in White at the exit of Santa Rita Church in the Havana municipality of Playa.
A few weeks earlier, during the activities of the Havana Biennial, Bruguera decided to pay tribute to Hannah Arendt with more than 100 consecutive hours of reading, analysis and discussion of the book The Origins of Totalitarianism. The event was hijacked by successive incidents police pressure, a noisy street repair outside the home of the artist, and the subsequent arrest of her and several companions.
Chilean congressman Felipe Kast (center right) and Antonio Rodiles (center) marching together in Havana. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Havana, 6 September 2015 – This Sunday 49 Ladies in White and 15 activists marched along Fifth Avenue in Havana’s Miramar neighborhood, surrounded by a strong police operation. At the end of the pilgrimage they were arrested and sent in a bus to whereabouts unknown.
Among those detained was the Chilean member of congress Felipe Kast, from the EVOPOLI party, who accompanied the march. The incident happened hours after the Chilean Foreign Minister, Heraldo Muñoz, ended his official visit to Cuba along with a Chilean delegation made up of officials of the Chilean government, and representatives from 35 businesses and trade associations.
According to what a source close the Chilean congressman told 14ymedio, Kast was detained for several hours before being released, around 4:00 in the afternoon local time. One released he was taken to Jose Marti International Airport where he left for Santiago de Chile that same afternoon.
Beginning early in the morning, the dissident Martha Beatriz Roque warned of “a police deployment around Santa Rita Church.” The activist detailed that the “repressive forces” were positioned on 3rd, 7th and 31st streets, to block regme opponents from accessing the place.
Meanwhile, the regime opponent Angel Moya denounced that there had been 20 arrests of the Ladies and White and other activists, hours before the beginning of the Sunday march.
In the town of Colón, Matanzas, independent journalist Ivan Hernandez Carrillo reported that 10 Ladies in White marched “for the release of political prisoners, followed by plainclothes police,” with no arrests reported.
A Cuban doctor in Pernambuco, Brazil (photo flickr)
Reinaldo Escobar, Mexico City, 5 September 2015 – A long time ago, I can’t remember where, I read a phrase that said, “When you have to choose between two betrayals you will recognize that you are lost.”
The label of “traitor” has been used indiscriminately in Cuba during the last half century, by the government propaganda machine, to “disqualify” anyone who express their discontent with the policies of the Communist Party, as well as against those officials, artists, athletes and doctors who have made the decision to abandon some “mission” abroad, with the intention to restart their lives outside of Cuba. continue reading
In most cases, these decisions involve family dramas and the relocation of the “deserter,” sometimes temporarily, other times permanently, into a workplace far from their capabilities and personal ambitions. However, the hemorrhaging of talent does not stop and at times increases in a threatening manner.
If Cuba had not lost all the creative potential that has chosen emigration, today we would be one of the countries with the greatest human capital in the world. Because, unfortunately, those who leave are the entrepreneurs, those with the necessary self-esteem to believe, right or wrong, that they can survive and thrive in a competitive environment.
All of them had to choose between two betrayals, one against the system that supposedly formed them and one which they would have made against themselves if they had remained faithful to a project they had stopped believing in.
If Cuba had not lost all the creative potential that has chosen emigration, today we would be one of the countries with the greatest human capital in the world.
After having tried every arbitrary measure possible to prevent doctors from abandoning the country, the Cuban government just announced that “Health professionals (…) have the opportunity, if they wish, to rejoin our National Health System” and in a parallel manner they let be known other immigration modifications to increase the grounds for repatriation of other emigrants who are affected by the restrictions.
Now, in a gesture promoted as an act of generosity on the part of the Revolution, they are trying to replace Cubans who once escaped in search of better destinations, in a situation to reverse what the government classified as treason but which, in the majority of cases, was simply the renouncing of wearing a mask.
The question is, why not just once and for all abolish all the absurd migratory restrictions; why can’t Cubans see in their country a safe and welcoming home to return to and leave whenever they want, and for whatever length of time best suits them.
The Cuban government is the one who is lost, not because it must choose between two betrayals, but because it cannot allow itself the luxury of choosing to respect the most elemental rights. They have no choice but to change everything or to continue to behave as vulgar dictators.
The lifeless body of Diomar Tarcisio Arenas Sanguino is transferred through the fence that separates the countries of Venezuela and Colombia. Arenas died of appendicitis in Guasdualito, Táchira, after failing to receive adequate treatment just for being Colombian, said his sister Sulbey Arenas. (EFE / Mauricio Duenas Castaneda)
14ymedio, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 2 September 2015 — The paranoid frenzy of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has reached delirium levels, and now, in the midst of the crisis taking place on the border between his country and Colombia, and in the course of his untimely visit to Vietnam, geographically removed from the diplomatic cloud of dust he provoked, he appeared on Hanoi national television and took the opportunity to accuse Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos, of “turning a blind eye” to the campaign which – he claims to have proof — is being orchestrated in Bogota to kill him.
What began a few years ago as innocent conversations with a bird Maduro claimed to be the ghost of his tutor, the late Hugo Chávez, has ended up becoming a sequence of hallucinations about a true international conspiracy to assassinate him – since he is so famous and important — and destroy the Bolivarian Revolution, as if he himself hadn’t wholeheartedly taken on responsibility for that task. continue reading
In addition to all this, he is calling for Latin American and Caribbean nations to help Colombia confront the last decade’s flow of “humanitarian exodus” of Colombians to Venezuela, as they flee “from drug trafficking, paramilitaries, war, famine, homelessness and inhumanity.” Maduro chose to be discreet about the increasing emigration of his nationals to the United States and other destinations, as well as shortages, rising poverty, violence, insecurity and the power of armed groups known as “colectivos” in Venezuela, who kill, terrorize and repress with total impunity.
Meanwhile, the Colombian President has accused his Venezuelan counterpart of causing the humanitarian crisis on the border, by deporting (“repatriating”) over a thousand Colombians settled in Venezuelan soil in that area, and also precipitating the exodus of another 7,000, who chose to return to Colombia rather than to suffer the same fate as their compatriots.
Maduro chose to be discreet about the increasing emigration of his nationals to the United States and other destinations, as well as shortages, rising poverty, violence, insecurity and the power of armed groups known as “colectivos”
At the same time, it has become known that Colombian authorities are prepared to grant citizenship to Venezuelans who are a part of the Colombian families deported by Maduro.
In the midst of such a delicate situation, which must be settled at the September 3rd meeting of the Union of South Nations (UNASUR), after Colombia’s failed request for a meeting of foreign ministers of the Organization of American States (OAS), analysts are wondering how the diplomatic conflict between the two governments will affect talks on the peace process between the Colombian Government and representatives of the guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) being held in Havana, in which the Venezuelan government is acting as mediator.
Another conjecture tat intrigues public opinion is the role the government of Cuban General-President Raúl Castro will play in the conflict, given the close relationship and influence which, according to rumors, Havana supremacy brandishes over its Venezuelan counterpart. In any case, the absence of a clear official statement on the Cuban position on this conflict raises a few eyebrows.
However, it is known that the Palace of the Revolution octogenarians are masters of conspiracy, and generally choose to wait out the course of events and possible outcomes before making statements in order to adjust the tone and commitments according to their own interests.
Presumably, in sharp contrast to the chaos of the Venezuelan president, the Cuban General-President will try to maintain a reasonable balance.
However, it has also come to light that Cuban doctors on missions in Venezuela have received guidelines to act “in defense of the Bolivarian revolution” in case of an armed conflict and, according to the official Cuban media, Cuban doctors who carry out their professional duties in the border area of Táchira are continuing to provide their services without interruption, despite the “state of emergency” declared by President Nicolas Maduro, counter to the irregularities that have taken place from this conflict.
Nor is difficult to guess on whose side the sympathies of the leadership of the Cuban power rest, especially when there are reservations about the possible role it played in the steps taken by the Venezuelan president regarding the closure of the border there. In any case, Venezuela remains an important card to the Cuban government as long as there is no verified effective progress in its new relations with the US, and as long as the long-awaited investment of foreign capital in Cuba has not taken place.
We mustn’t forget that the forces that oppose “normalization” and the lifting of the embargo between the circles of political power in the US hang, like the sword of Damocles, over the controversial process of talks between Havana and Washington. Presumably, in sharp contrast to the chaos of the Venezuelan president, the Cuban General-President is trying to maintain a reasonable balance, weighing every step. A collision against Colombia and its allies may be as risky as turning its back on Chavez’s deranged heir. Because, as clearly as an old Spanish proverb indicates: A bird in the hand is worth more than a hundred in flight.
Baker Alberto Gonzalez in front of ‘Salchipizza’s’ oven. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 4 September 2015 — I just wanted to reach Carlos III Avenue. Pass quickly through Infanta Street, avoiding the propped up arcades, to catch a collective taxi and go home. This street, named for royalty, is too woven into the memories of my childhood not to lament every pothole, every sewer leak draining across the sidewalks, every balcony on the point of collapse. However, this week the avenue had a surprise for me, in the shape of a smile and the aroma of bread.
Alberto Gonzalez is an entrepreneur, “a little crazy” say those who predicted he would never launch his artisan bakery, much less in a neighborhood where many eat this staple only through their meager portion from the ration market. Determination, stubbornness and a good dose of optimism have combined so that Salchipizza, his private business, is efficient, well run, with varied offerings in the midst of this heir without the right to a throne that is Infanta Street. continue reading
Amid the bustle of customers who come to buy, Alberto gave me a moment for this interview about his personal history, the obstacles faced by the self-employed, and his dreams for the future. It comes to 14ymedio readers with the freshness of bread just out of the oven.
Yoani Sanchez. Chemical engineer, specialist in water treatment, and emigrant living in Italy for 14 years. Why did you return to Cuba?
Alberto Gonzalez. For the values we are losing and because of the poor diet on the island. We Cubans eat anything. I think to open a business in a place as central as this, 562 Infanta Street between Valle and Zapata, I can help rescue those values, that culinary tradition that we have always had. A Cuban child today doesn’t know what an apple is, what bread tastes like… they only know what pizza is, or a hamburger.
A Cuban child today doesn’t know what an apple is, what bread tastes like… they only know pizza… a hamburger.
Sanchez. And why did you choose to open a bakery, when you trained as a chef and even achieved a Michelin star?
Gonzalez. I ask myself that question. Why bread? If someone searches the internet for the phrase “breads of Cuba” almost nothing shows up in the results. It is an offense that we don’t have on this island something that identifies us with respect to bread. When bread is identity, union, family.
Sanchez. Anything emotional uniting the flour, the yeast, the oven?
Gonzalez. When my grandmother died in 2011, the last phrase she uttered in life was “this is not bread.” She was in the hospital, very sick with cancer and I returned from Italy to see her at the hospital. She asked me for a piece of bread and I bought her one from one of the Sylvain bakeries. When I gave it to her to try she said, “This is not bread.” Then I ran home to knead her a special one, with her recipe for “whole wheat bread,” but she died before she could eat it. Because of this I told myself, “If I open a business in Cuba it will be to make bread.”
Sanchez. Why locate the bakery in Central Havana, a neighborhood with such precarious material circumstances?
“My biggest dream is to stand in a plaza and cook for thousands of Cubans. Whether in the Plaza of the Revolution with a giant kitchen, or in Infanta Street.”
Gonzalez. If someone wants to do something beautiful, they must start with the most ugly part. The values of the human being that we must rescue first are here. Here, people with a piece of high quality bread can begin to save themselves, to rediscover their values. It is not only about filling a hole of hunger with bread, but it has this personality. You have to eat a bread with dignity.
Sanchez. Is there a touch of madness in the decision to open this business?
Gonzalez. Yes, it’s crazy to go back to the raw ingredients. It is crazy to open a business as small as this, without resources, without knowing where you can find ingredients and having to deal with the amount of culinary ignorance on all sides.
Sanchez. I see on the menu you have cornbread, fine herbs, eggplant, fennel seed cookies and even whole wheat bread. How do you maintain such a range in the midst of the food shortages this country is experiencing?
Gonzalez. I am in the process of repatriation to Cuba and that only allows me periods of ninety days in my own country. After that the current law forces me to leave, so I go to Mexico and bring in many of the seeds, flours for those suffering from celiac disease, whole wheat, in my personal luggage.
Sanchez. What do you most need to bring in from abroad?
Gonzalez. Finocchietto (fennel), a very tasty seed that we put in some cookies.
Sanchez. You have an image here with a photo of Martin Luther King Jr. with his most famous phrase. And the dream of Alberto Gonzalez? What is it?
‘Salchipizza’ Bread, owned by Alberto Gonzalez. (14ymedio)
Gonzalez. My biggest dream is to stand in a plaza and cook for thousands of Cubans. Whether in the Plaza of the Revolution with a giant kitchen, or in Infanta Street. To unite all the cooks in Cuba to make a dish together and to have people come and eat for free.
Sanchez. What would you make in that case?
Gonzalez. A dish that unites Italy and Cuba: cornmeal made with cheese and crab.
Sanchez. What is the main obstacle to private sector development and entrepreneurship in Cuba?
Gonzalez. The raw materials and inspectors. They still haven’t authorized wholesale markets to sell raw materials and they don’t allow self-employed people to import commercial products. There is no stability in the quality of the products. Sometimes the flour is good, other times it’s terrible. So I go to Mexico to bring the “core” and the yeast, which lets me make a higher yield bread than we offer. It I want to maintain my offerings I have to do it this way, because it’s very clear to me that the continuity of the product makes the work excellent.
Those are the major obstacles and also the taxes. For example, I have to pay a large sum—about three thousand Cuban pesos—on electricity for the oven, but I hoped that to pay taxes and be a good contributor, this bill would come with certain benefits, with discounts, but it’s not like that.
Sanchez. Are you licensed for a “bakery”?
“My license is for ‘preparer of light food.’ There is no license for a bakery. So I am always afraid of being told, ‘You can not continue in this occupation’.”
Gonzalez. The license is very general: “preparer of light food,” not something specific to bake and sell bread. There is no a license to own a bakery. So I am always afraid of being told “you cannot continue in this occupation.” I went several times to the National Tax Administration Office (ONAT) to see if they could make any adjustment in the law, but it’s still the same.
Sanchez. This coming October 10 is Salchipizza’s first birthday. What is your assessment of the health of the business?
Gonzalez. I rate it as good, because I have made myself known to people. This coming year I will sell a little more.
Sanchez. A tip for those who want to open a business in Cuba?
Gonzalez. That they think twice: first, “think about it”; two “think about it” … Three, “see if you can open it.”
Delivered school supplies to children in primary education. (Luz Escobar)
14ymedio, Orlando Palma, Havana, 1 September 2015 – Early Tuesday morning the bell rang for the first morning of the school year in more than 10,300 schools throughout the country. All eyes are now focused on the availability of teachers at the front of the classroom, the material conditions of the schools, and the epidemiological questions in those provinces affected by dengue fever and cholera. However, the most titanic task that faces the Ministry of Education is to meet the commitment to develop values in children and young people.
Ena Elsa Velázquez Cobiella, head of the branch, has made frequent calls in recent weeks for vocational training of students, working with families, and the transmission of ethical and moral values within the school. The greatest difficulty on the path to this achievement is the limited training of many teachers and the lack of incentive provided by teachers’ salaries, say parents and teachers. continue reading
“My daughter has a Spanish and literature teacher who has never read Don Quixote,” says an astonished mother of a teenage daughter in the 9th grade at a basic secondary school in Old Havana. The family has tried to alleviate the poor training of the teacher by paying for hours of study with a tutor. “He worked in a high school and gave excellent classes, but can’t stand being in education any more,” the lady says about this particular teacher.
“In these times with the internet and technology we should have more support from these novelties in our classes,” says Mario
To cover the shortage of teachers in the capital, they have mobilized more than 3,000 teachers from other provinces. The measure doesn’t please many, nor does it resolve the situation. “It seems incredible that they have to bring people from other places, with what that costs, instead of raising the salaries of those here,” complains Roberto, a retired teacher who spent a good part of his working life in an elementary school in Central Havana.
The salary of a secondary school teacher does not exceed 600 Cuban pesos a month, less than 30 dollars. The union demands a salary increase, especially after the increase in salaries in the in Ministry of Public Health, but their demands are whispered and not published in the official press.
“The doctors care for the bodies of people, we feed their souls, so they should also increase our salaries,” explains Mario, a history teacher at Santa Clara High School, who has more than once cherished the idea of leaving the classroom. “I would leave my house to sell lollipops, which would certainly earn me more and I would have more peace of mind.”
The material situation of the schools of education also discourages professionals in the sector. “In these times with the internet and technology we should have more support from these novelties in our classes,” says Mario. “Can you imagine how I could teach my students about the scenes of historic battles through Google Earth,” he adds.
In schools across the whole the country, there is a total of 61,908 computers. There is no need to do complicated calculations to know that this means six computers for each campus throughout the Island. However, 64% of these are more than 12 years old, and so barely function with the most modern programs. And in most cases they only have access to a local intranet.
Many teaching assistants or recent graduates fill in for the absence of professionals with more teaching experience
Teachers also complain about the accumulation of extra-curricular tasks that have been added to their teaching activities. “Many meetings, too many lists and tables to prepare and reports to write. We have almost no time to prepare for classes,” says a teacher at José Miguel Pérez High School in the Plaza municipality.
The picture is not very different in higher education. This September 1st the university classrooms hosted more than 170,000 students throughout the country, 33,000 of them new entrants. Many teaching assistants or recent graduates fill in for the absence of professionals with more teaching experience.
Despite an investment of around 20 million pesos for university campus repairs, the situation of the furniture and the infrastructure still presents many shortcomings. In the worst situations there are student dorms with serious problems with the plumbing, windows and woodwork.
“Developing values is very difficult, because we have other emergencies,” concludes a teaching assistant at José Luis Arruñada elementary school. Behind her, a line of children in recently-ironed uniforms looks forward to entering the classroom. September has returned.
Building the stand in Havana’s Plaza of the Revolution for the papal visit. (Luz Escobar)
14ymedio, Havana, 3 September 2015 – The executive secretary of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), Jose Daniel Ferrer, sent Pope Francis in a letter published this Thursday on the organization’s website, to warn him that on his upcoming visit to the island he is going to find a scenario very similar in many aspects to that observed by his predecessors on previous visits to Cuba. The activist asked the pontiff for “a gesture of solidarity in defense of the oppressed.”
“From the visit of Karol J. Wojtyla to date, the world has opened itself to Cuba, but the Cuban government, in a reticent way, appears to open itself to the world, while at the same time continues to be closed to the feeling of an entire people and continues to deny rights and freedoms without which the happiness and well-being of nations and of the individual are impossible,” he writes. continue reading
Ferrer argues that those who speak of “reforms” on the island exaggerate, and that “the measures taken by the government are still insufficient, they do not go to the root of the problem.” However, he adds, that something has, indeed, changed substantially: the mentality of the people. “The majority already say that what they feel and want is profound changes. The fear of repression, little by little, is being overcome,” he added.
The UNPACU secretary argues that the Cuban people suffer not only widespread material misery, a product of decades of the centralized economy, but also, and above all, the lack “of the precious gift of Freedom.” He also regrets that the spaces of association and participation for civil society “continue to be disjointed and stranded,” and he asks the pope for a “gesture” to support the building of a nation on the basis “of freedom and solidarity.”
“You can intercede and advocate for the rights of the oppressed, and in Cuba we are the majority,” he affirms, asking support for the release of political prisoners and for the end to arbitrary detentions of peaceful activists.
In addition, Ferrer explains that many members of the organization, as well as other groups of independent civil society, wish to attend the masses that the pope will celebrate during his stay in Cuba, between 19 and 22 September, but “the secret political police will prevent it, as happened during the visit of Benedict XVI.”
14ymedio, Orlando Palma, Havana, 9 September 2015 — The contract of the director Juan Carlos Cremata has been cancelled by the Cuban cultural authorities, as explained by the author himself on Wednesday via email. Cremata has made public the details of meeting he was called to last Monday at the Havana Theater Center, in which he was told of the Ministry of Culture’s National Council of Performing Arts Resolution No. 10, in which his theater project El Ingenio [The Genius] was canceled and his contract as a theater director was terminated.
