The Harvest of 2012 or the Last Call / Dimas Castellano

“It seems that every year is the first harvest the country has ever done. Every year we start fresh, even though we’ve been producing sugar for more than 200 years. If we are talking about the need for change, the first thing we have to change is the routine.” So begins, “Attacking the problems and not waiting for the autopsy,” a report by Sheyla Delgado Guerra, published on Monday, May 30th, in the newspaper, Granma.

The Guidelines of Economic and Social Policy, adopted at the Sixth Congress of the Communist Party in April last year, set out among the central tasks, to increase the production of sugar and the derivatives of the cane, a branch of the economy where it is assumed Cuba has long experience. However, the results of the 2011-2012 harvest confirmed the failure of that purpose.

The harvest, programmed to produce 1.45 million tons of sugar (a figure that was produced in the late nineteenth century), finish milling on April 30th. There was enough sugar cane and 98% resources needed to produce the programmed amount of sugar but, according to Sheyla, the same problems occurred as in previous years: industrial breakdowns, operational disruptions, difficulties in the supply of cane, unstable grindings, aging of the raw material, poor quality of repairs of agricultural machinery, late harvesting, poor technical skills of staff and poor utilization of potential capacity. As a result the milling did not end on the date set by central planning, not was the programmed figure for tons of sugar achieved.

This was confirmed at the meeting to review the results, held 29 days after all the plants should have completed the milling. Although as in previous years, the amount of sugar produced has not been published, in the meeting it was admitted that the setbacks of this season were higher than results obtained. According to Sheyla’s report, the cane not ground because of the late harvest in 21 of the 46 centers participating, together with the low capacity utilization and failure of planned efficiency are among the main causes of the terrible result.

This time, although all the cane needed was grown, to the point where they could have crushed more than the planned amount, the production of sugar fell short again. In the industrial phase only 60% the capacity is used, a figure even lower than the harvest of 2010-2011, and of course lower than was planned for this crop. While there was a modest over-fulfillment in the production of white sugar, in terms of direct target it barely reached 8%. In addition, seven of the mills which after being inactive for several years, produced 54% of their potential, which is why some 27,500 tons of sugar was not produced.

To this is added the low yields due to weather conditions in May, for 29 days after the scheduled closing several plants were still milling in the rainy season, which accentuates the sugar decline, which is nothing new, the same thing having gone on more than two decades; the 1998-1999 harvest could not exceed 3.8 million tons of sugar, a figure lower than that produced in 1920, when it exceeded 4 million tons.

The failure is higher if one considers that the country has dozens of schools and agricultural research centers throughout the country, which have graduated thousands of engineers and technicians in these fields, and that this time, from the beginning of the harvest, nearly all the resources were available to fulfill the plan, all of which indicates we should look elsewhere for the source of the failures.

Reforms related to sugar production, like the rest of those that have been implemented, do not have the depth required, nor do they move at the speed that the situation demands. Clearly, the lack of interest of the producers — the workers because of low wages and the proprietors because of the constraints imposed on them — is present in the results of the current harvest as in the previous failures.

The essence of the problem is that the reforms introduced by the Cuban government start life subordinated to the ideology and the interests of power, so the proposals therefore perversely preserve an obsolete model that has consistently proven to be nonviable.

Adverse outcomes of central planning, manifested in the 2011-2012 harvest, should be the last call, which will definitely draw attention to the aspects that the reforms have ignored so far. I am referring to the urgent need for profound changes to include, once and for all, the ownership structure. Since half a century seems sufficient to indicate the gap between managers and owners, between command and control and employee participation, aspects which in turn imply reforms in the area of rights and freedoms, to validate the previous.

It would be useful to proceed with these changes and not continue pointing fingers at the “deadbeats” as one of the senior officials did when he appeared on May 29 on Cuban television. Having participated in the meeting to review the harvest, he said, “I’ve told you, they have to change,” something that has become the custom year after year.

Posted in June in Diario de Cuba.

Translated by: Hank Hardisty

June 11 2012

Letter from Priest Mario Félix Lleonart Barroso to the Villa Clara Provincial Prosecutor / Mario Félix Lleonart Barroso

April 23, 2012

Year of the Lord.

From: Priest: Mario Félix Lleonart Barroso.

To: Villa Clara Provincial Prosecutor’s Office and Management of the Protection of Citizen Rights of the Prosecutor General of the Republic.

In so far as: Within just a few days, on May 8th, it will be one year since the controversial death of Santa Claran citizen Juan Wilfredo Soto García.

In so far as: By petition of the undersigned, the General Prosecutor of the Republic delegated to the Santa Clara Provincial Prosecutor, the opening of an investigation thereon, as I was notified by a letter dated July 19, 2011, on behalf of the highest body, by Prosecutor Raul Lopez Pertierra, Chief of the Department of Penal Matters.

In so far as: In evidence that the Villa Clara Prosecutor’s Office attended the request of the Prosecutor General of the Republic, initiating an investigation, September 8, 2011, Prosecutor Osmel Fleites Cardenas took my declaration with regard to everything of which I am certain in relation to the passing of Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia, for which he opened a case countersigned by both of us, and informed me that there existed sufficient elements to initiate an investigative-penal process.

In so far as: In the interest of colaborating with the development of said process, on October 7, 2011, I personally hand delivered to Prosecutor Osmel Fleites Cardenas, in the main offices of the Villa Clara Provincial Prosecutor, a list with sufficient facts so as to immediately locate other indicated witnesses, all willing to also make declarations before said attorney.

In so far as: None of said witnesses has received up to the present time any summons to make declarations, placing in doubt that the process has continued or worse yet, that there does not exist a true willingness to clarify the facts, which deal with the loss of a human life, which in my point of view can only be taken by God.

In so far as: Moreover, one of the witnesses has since died without being called to testify (Santiago Martinez Medero, December 21, 2011), and as time goes by, due to various reasons, others may become unable to do so, which works against a rigorous investigation, as should correspond in relation to serious doubts about the true causes of the death of a Cuban Citizen.

In so far as: The serious declaration made to me by citizen Soto Garcia before dying, generated in me a responsibility in my condition as a human, Cuban, Christian, Baptist and pastor.

In so far as: Just as I declared in my testimony to Prosecutor Osmel Fleites Cardenas, on September 8, 2011, in the legal condition of Indicated Witness with which the Applicable Laws identify me, I am offended and alluded to by diverse publications which prior to any investigation took place in the official press, in the days following the death of Soto Garcia; most notably in the the “Informative Note of the Revolutionary Government” (first page of Granma, May 10, 2011), in the article “Cuba Rejects Lies” of journalist Freddy Perez Cabrera (third page of Granma, May 12, 2011), in the Editorial “Fabricating Pretexts” (first page of Granma, May 16, 2011) and in the disrespectful caricature on the first page of Granma dated May 17, 2011.

In so far as: I am sheltered by my status as plaintiff and the full duties and rights thereon attendant for the simple innate reason of being a Cuban Citizen.

As a Cuban Citizen under protection of the Law I demand various matters:

Demanding: That I be informed of the state of the investigation , which on July 8, 2011 I requested of the General Prosecutor of the Republic and which was thereby delegated to the Villa Clara Provincial Prosecutor’s Office.

Demanding: That in said investigation all details stated herein be taken under consideration.

Demanding: That the general Prosecutor of the Republic will carry out that which is legislated, as it should be.

Without further matter and grateful beforehand in anticipation for the attention I hope will be given (this matter), as corresponds to me by right.

Mario Félix Lleonart Barroso

Baptist Priest

Translated by: Maria Montoto

April 24 2012

The Real "Achievements" / Fernando Dámaso

Photo: Rebeca

More than half a century ago, when the model was implanted in our country, its later promotion was achieved on a base of present sacrifices (all former governments had been very bad) and a luminous future (the new government would be very good). Sooner rather than later, the horizon of promised happiness and well-being for which to aim, started getting further until, between speeches and new promises, like kites when their string is cut, it flew away in the wind.

Today, if there really are any, few are those who truly believe in it, the majority of citizens weary of surviving (by whatever means!) in the present, forgetful of the future. Since this is a dangerous situation, the authorities unable to offer material incentives, have opted to offer moral ones. Therefore, in speeches and the media, are repeated ad nauseam, as primary achievements of the model: maintaining independence, sovereignty and national identity, to create an internationalist sentiment among citizens, having elevated patriotism and strengthened the ability of resistance in the face of adversities. In support of this new promotion, paradigms are created, inflating pre-fabricated heroes, as if they were aerostatic balloons, and placing them in the national firmament, as examples to be followed by present and future generations.

If we weigh objectively the achievements of this model in this more than half a century, we should not leave out, among others: the destruction of agriculture and stockbreeding, the dismantling of urban, highway and railway transportation systems, the constant shortage of food and general use products, the power black-outs, the double currency, the double moral standards, the deficient citizen education, the increase in domestic and social violence, the deterioration of housing, the disorganization of commercial networks, the disappearance of industries, the censure, the repression of difference, the prohibition of free travel, etcetera.

These achievements are due, not to the existence of the embargo, but to the incapacity of the model of preserving that which was attained in fifty-six years of the Republic, to develop it and make the country move forward, resolving the problems still in existence, the main reason for the struggle and sacrifices of the majority of the Cuban people.

The path chosen (making tabula rasa of all that came before and building over its ruins the new society) failed spectacularly. It constituted a mistake and a costly historical error, of which, until now, no one has taken responsibility, trying with silence to make believe they never existed.

It is a shame that in the various biographical books, anecdotes, memoirs and interviews published, only the so-called heroic events are described, there exists not a single line dedicated to these achievements, nor the reasons that motivated them, which could be interesting to present and future generations, with the objective of never again repeating them.

Translated by: Maria Montoto

June 15 2012

LORD ENZO GARCIA VEGA / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

What might the United States be?

A little Chinese box, camera oscura of liberty, a crazy car.

A wholesale parking lot, something Publix, democratic boarding home where we can take refuge from the horror: that is to say, of the politics Made in Cuba.

Lorenzo Garcia Vega (LGV) has died.

This occurrence doesn’t warrant a single line more.

He will cease writing his zen paragraphs. Only that. It will remain a bit truncated, the Cuban folly of the Transition.

For everything else, it had already been centuries that he was a man of another time, of other barbarisms, of other anguishes that would disfigure his face in that Havana where Lezama would get cars. And ass (or would pay to give it, as if to publish prepubescent poets.)

Cuban poetry will show no awareness of the case of LGV, like it shows no awareness of anything else, just like it has not seen that the end of the Revolution is written.

In some official venues they will publish a respectful announcement, funerary spit without sense of draft, of the dirty trick, without the least bit of style of our dilapidation.

Homages. Dossiers. Idiocies of suit and tie, with almost a derby hat.

How outdated we are, how timid, how frail, what Originists.*

In waiting he left an unbuilt Disneyland in the Sierra Maestra, our albino Alps. Little Trojan horses and catacombs of props, pop-up “Castricos”, little friction rifles, tiny wind-up tanks, tinplate books in exchange for a good tip under the outrageous sun.

It had already been centuries, since the prick-severing decade of the seventies, LGV was already the last of his generation. No one survives him. At least not a witness.

A young writer friend, privileged reader and the only one to take notice in Cuba his death, desired to deliver a common ground, almost a headline of a Republican court, pronouncing through our telephones which are grossly spied on by the government: “each day we are more alone…”

From that constitutional isolationism, that balkanization at this point in the debacle, from that sub-socialist silence, from that insufferable un-solidarity, we populate the helplessness of our barren lot. From those bedbugs is the habitat of our mat composed.

Each day we are more alone because each day we are closer to those salaried by the Castro Klan, because there are no intermediaries left, nor survivors, because those uniformed in olive green will leave us no option but to emigrate and let us be exploited by a First World capitalist, pushing the groceries of another in a mall, turning into octogenarians in an illegible state of unediting, like babies who don’t yet know how to read (and much less how to write).

Each day we are more sordid. Lorenzo García Vega won’t learn of our gallows, will think nothing of our literature to come, untranslatable texts with which we ingratiate ourselves with no one.

We are condemned at the canon of the triumphant, of the erudite scholars, of the contributors with their integral work in the big editorial houses of Spain.

We were no more cunning than the political police. We did not know how to timely part with our biography . We panicked. We were cowards. We have left only swallowing pills and publishing.

Translator’s note:
*”Orígenes” was one of the most important Cuban literary journals of the 1940’s.

Translated by: Maria Montoto

June 5 2012

OUR SHARE OF REPRESSION FOR THE VISIT OF BENEDICT XVI / Mario Barroso

The 103rd Annual Assembly of the Baptist Association of Western Cuba, to which I belong, concluded Saturday the 24th at 6:00pm. That was why my wife Yoaxis and I found ourselves in Havana from the Monday before, the 19th of March, separated from our two girls and from the churches in which we work in the center of the island.  Nevertheless the news that arrived from there was not very promising for our return.  Because of the visit of Benedict XVI something inconceivable was launched throughout Cuba: a true human hunt that trapped as common criminals and fearsome terrorists peaceful people who simply worried about the deplorable human rights situation in their nation.  Detained friends, whole families fenced in, telephones cut off, people disappeared; this was the news we got, and it was really happening behind the scenes in contrast with the striking order on the plazas where the Pope said mass.  In such a situation and assuming that some of these repressive variants or several at once could befall us, we decided to stay in the capital against all risk.

We planned as varied as possible an itinerary that on one hand would keep us moving constantly without any fixed site and that on the other hand offered us the possibility of carrying out advantageous activities in the midst of true secrecy.  One of the most outstanding moments was the religious service we participated in on the Havana Malecon with the street church Victory Reach that as part of the international ministry Victory Outreach rescues treasures in the midst of such darkness.

In our very own pilgrimage, giving time for the Pope to leave, and trying to survive without being captured, at nightfall on Tuesday the 27th, we went to the home of a fellow pastor who took great pains in preparing a tasty supper that we shared in lively fashion with his family in his house full of neighborhood children as they prepared for what they call a night of sleepover, completely outside the presence of a Pope in Cuba.

As part of our rigorous schedule we did not permit ourselves to stay more than three hours in the same place and from the house of our brothers in faith we planned to move to an unfixed point on the Havana Malecon from which we could try to contemplate the presence of the other Cuba that also desired to be present amidst so much euphoria, that of the diaspora, through a self ordained Lights of Liberty, that like the other realized in December on the eve of the International Day of Human Rights, would greet Cubans sequestered on this prison island through fireworks.

The supper was almost finished when they knocked on the door of the apartment in which we found ourselves.  It was the State Security, through two of its agents, who had found us and explicitly prohibited my wife and me from participating the next day in the mass that Benedict XVI would offer on the Plaza of the Revolution.

We explained to them that our presence in Havana after concluding the 103rd Annual Assembly of the Baptist Convention was not principally due to our desire to participate in said mass, but to avoid this repression that now finally made itself present here.  Evidently the order that the agents brought was to detain us both, as they were doing with hundreds of others.

The brother that welcomed us and his family all gathered at the door and prevented the detention by expressing to the agents that they were in the best position to offer us their home for the night and to watch the mass together the next day on television.  The agents, a little perturbed by the atmosphere of peace and harmony that was clearly observed, and which in a certain manner they had interrupted, told us that as far as they were concerned, there was no problem, but they had to consult higher authorities.

Asking me to accompany them alone to the stairs of the building, which I did without resisting, prepared for the ordained arrest, the only one of the two agents who the whole time made use of words left me alone a moment in the custody of the other and made a call, I suppose to the command center of the operation, and after receiving confirmation expressed to me that they accepted my presence in that house from which I could not move while they maintained surveillance.

So it was that we spent a fun night of sleepover in the home of our beloved brothers in faith while the agents kept watch.  I cannot count how many there were in total, but do affirm that there were many more than the two who showed their faces.  Something that powerfully called our attention is that the kind of transport they used possessed private license plates (rather than the plates identifying their vehicles as government cars) and included at a minimum two modern, white cars and another green one, plus a Suzuki motorcycle which could not be missed.

Our share of repression for the visit of Benedict XVI, in spite of everything, was not among the highest.  Just before returning from Havana an abject group of all the repressed joined us in the house of a young independent film maker, Ismael de Diego, grandson of the great man of Cuban letters, Eliseo Diego, who also was victim, and there we found out about the infinity of all kinds of abuses, even taking into account that we who met that afternoon of Thursday the 29th constituted the most fortunate as was demonstrated by the fact that we had been able to get there even with our telephones not working.

The great majority of those excluded and repudiated found themselves distant and handcuffed in provinces like ours, where commonly repression is greater and unpunished.  As a result of our meeting we agreed on a document of denunciation that we signed and delivered to the Apostolic Nuncio by means of the Catholic priest Jose Conrado, present among us, also with his cell phone cut off, who dedicated words to us that expressed his profound regret for what had happened to all of us as part of the papal visit.

If anything, the Cuban visit by Benedict XVI showed that the brutal repression within Cuba, and very alarmingly it seems for many in the world also, is seen now as a normal and tolerable phenomenon, very typical of a System considered unworkable even by its own actors, but which nevertheless is granted recognition and consent.

This time the exaggerated operation, coinciding with the fifth-third anniversary of the repressive organs of the State Security, has been baptized as the Vow of Silence, and undoubtedly constitutes the biggest exercise of this type that has taken place since the Black Spring of 2003, and many senses it is only as the preamble of future repressions through which there could very well be, in contrast with this, victims who are never found again.

Let us pray and work to prevent in Cuba a possible bloodbath so typical of decadent regimes like this one.  A peaceful transition to an authentic democracy, as perfectible as it may be, constitutes an issue of survival for many in the middle of a growing, dangerous impunity.

Translated by mlk

April 5 2012

In Defense of the Hustlers / Dora Leonor Mesa

Vices come like travelers; they visit us as guests, and stay as masters.
Confucius

In the old East Germany where I worked years ago as a German translator, I learned,through snobbery,top level cooking in a five star hotel. Later in Cuba, in my debut as a mother, I should have chosen between a promising professional career or resigning myself to being mother and wife. After choosing the longest road, I “got” the title of cook with an European experience, so I could get good jobs, those that pay in convertible currency (C.U.C.) and create on our humble table a culinary culture that would make us proud, in spite of the daily difficulties.

In one of my experiences as cook, a known painter for whom I worked sarcastically called me the English Lady. When I asked him why, his answer perplexed me:

“You cook very well, and you don’t steal or ask questions.”

The saddest thing about the situation is that after changing jobs, because of my employer’s return to his country, my excellent references did not avoid initial suspicions. You often found the house full of garments, another day, delicacies everywhere, sometimes money in unexpected places, “forgotten” digital equipment. . . In the end the favorable judgment, far from being flattering, is embarrassing: We Cubans, at least for some time now, have acquired fame as thieves, hustlers. . .

The controversial issue about the shameful reputation of Cuban as thieves and hustlers is real. You just have to read from time to time the weekly sections of Letters to the Editor of the Granma and the Juventud Rebelde newspapers. Passengers on the public bus avoid paying the fare. There are even citizens who steal electricity or domestic gas. In the stores you can find a cracked toilet bowl for $25 CUC (“La Especial” of Infanta) in a country with an average salary of $20 dollars. And in the farmer’s market, pretending to forget the price and the weight of the products on sale is the best strategy.

The country’s important companies, among them ETECSA, Enterprise of Telecommunications of Cuba, have legalized rapacity: exorbitant rates, discriminatory service. A different kettle of fish is the National Electrical Union, responsible for supplying electrical service to the nation and thus to the residential sector. Frequently, the Cuban magazine Bohemia explains in detail how to read the electric meter and make payment calculations according to the prevailing price rates.

For years my maternal grandmother kept her payment receipts (I do it, too). This habit helped us to discover how the household consumption’s numerical trends rose disproportionately even before the months of highest spending, Christmas holidays, vacations in August. The Company defended itself saying that consumption increases with an increased demand for electricity. Nevertheless, the actual analyzed data do not coincide with those of the receipt. With an Excel table and a simple statistical analysis you saw that the variations were significantly unequal yearly.

Sometimes we had problems with the “electricity” collectors thanks to our valuable table, which predicted when they would try to charge more. On top of that, we had to complain in the municipal billing office several times, where, it is fair to say, they still receive their clients in a friendly way, the bundle of payment receipts from several years, this “weapon”, had to be present, the actual readings and the table of statistical fact on Excel, printed with the pertinent data and graphics.

In our house we had no high-consuming new equipment or air conditioning, but the same two old refrigerators as always, responsible for the increased domestic electrical expense. We never changed them for the new Chinese appliances proposed by the State, very small and expensive. Apparently, there were some adjustments in the Electric Union. For some reason the current cost of domestic electricity is more reasonable.

Payment date / Amount in Cuban pesos

January 2009 $84.40          August 2009 $157.65

January 2010 $71.00           August 2010 $171.20

January 2011 $56.00           August 2011 $137.30

January 2012 $54.80

The Manufactured Gas Company has a history in our family. The charge for gas is really moderate (100 cubic meters cost 11 Cuban pesos, about $0.50), but we have little luck. We had a gas collector who, little by little, began to bring us the bill without the payment stamp, and the consumption readings did not correspond with what appeared on the receipt. Upon confronting her, she arrogantly told us that she was a “cutting edge worker,” that is to say, the best employee.

The first time I went to ask the Provincial Company of Manufactured Gas about the collection procedure, God was with me that day; the director of our corresponding office was there. In front of the clerks of the Office of Customer Service, she highlighted the “efficient collection work” and put into question the quality of my humble stove:

“That is not why! I too spend more than 11 pesos, but by leaving it burning. . .”

After the interview, normalcy returned. Nevertheless we detected that the value of the bill was always the same. The bridge collapsed when the collector told my oldest daughter:

“The next bill will come higher.”

In the rain, for the second time, I approached the Office of Costumer Service of the Provincial Company with all the paraphernalia of several years of payment. A clerk, Jorge L. Galban, compromised to investigate the case. He visited our house, reviewed the gas meter and soon after that, in the month of January, as compensation we did not have to pay the monthly bill. Our bills were being reported as if we had a broken meter.

Eighteen months later, another gas collector appears. The reading of the month of June did not coincide with the real one, the consumption climbed again without excuses. The payment receipts returned with the date of the reading without changes. I tried to convince the worker about the anomaly. I made him come into the kitchen to corroborate the reading of the meter. In truth, three pesos is nothing; we are just a mass, people. Why not clients?

Thousands of Cubans fled over the ocean, so they could feel they are treated as persons. Some made it. Others rest in the ocean. Bryan, my nephew, lives among the fish. I am sure he is happy, surrounded by freedom and beauty. We decided to stay in Cuba. We really like the idea of thinking and acting like people with rights. Previously the boss at the Gas office rejected criticisms from her exemplary collector. An announcer from a television show recommends:

“Follow the path of money.”

“Perfect. Anti-scoundrel clients, FORWARD!”

Translated by mlk

June 12 2012

Survey on Government Economic Measures / Eugenio Leal

The group Veritas of Psychosocial Investigations received a request from the Center of Socio-Economic and Democratic Studies (CESED) to carry out a public opinion poll about the economic measures implemented by the government. They developed the following questionnaire:

Veritas Group of Psychosocial Investigations

Volunteers carried out the survey, face to face, between January and March. There were 736 forms processed from the following provinces: Pinar del Río, Artemisa, Ciudad de La Habana, Mayabeque, Matanzas and Santiago de Cuba.

The total of general responses was considered for statistical analysis. Categories were: 15 to 34 years old, 35 to 49 years old, and more than 50 years old. Numbers were quantified by sex for the general total and by age-group categories.

Out of 736 people, 368 were female and 368 were male.

Citizen opinion about the changes in Cuba.

Age and gender

Total General

%

15 -34

%

35-50

%

+50

%

F

368

50

138

43

138

55

92

57

M

368

50

184

57

115

45

69

43

Total

736

100

322

100

253

100

161

100

Question 1: Do you think the government is carrying out all the changes that the country needs?

Total General

(736)

%

(100)

15-34

(322)

%

(100)

35-50

(253)

%

(100)

+50

(161)

%

(100)

Yes

66

9

20

6

21

8

25

16

No

382

52

138

43

139

55

105

65

Undecided

76

10

25

8

33

13

18

11

Don’t know

212

29

139

43

60

24

13

8

Question 2: Do you think it’s necessary to have self-employment?

Total General

(736)

%

(100)

15-34

(322)

%

(100)

35-50

(253)

%

(100)

+50

(161)

%

(100)

Yes

66

9

20

6

21

8

25

16

No

382

52

138

43

139

55

105

65

Undecided

76

10

25

8

33

13

18

11

Don’t know

212

29

139

43

60

24

13

8

Question 2A: Should small and medium-sized industrial and agricultural businesses be permitted?

Total General

(736)

%

(100)

15-34

(322)

%

(100)

35-50

(253)

%
(100)

+50

(161)

%

(100)

Yes

441

60

225

70

164

65

52

32

No

111

15

32

10

33

13

46

29

Undecided

77

10

25

8

32

13

20

12

Don’t know

107

15

40

12

24

9

43

27

Question 2B: Should taxes be lowered?

Total General

(736)

%

(100)

15-34 (322)

%

(100)

35-50

(253)

%

(100)

+50

(161)

%

(100)

Yes

574

78

252

78

212

84

109

68

No

65

9

16

5

23

9

27

17

Undecided

44

6

19

6

10

4

15

9

Don’t know

53

7

35

11

8

3

10

6

Question 2C: Should wholesale markets be created?

Total General

(736)

%

(100)

15-34

(322)

%

(100)

35-50

(253)

%

(100)

+50

(161)

%

(100)

Yes

464

63

194

60

152

60

118

73

No

42

6

19

6

15

6

9

6

Undecided

50

7

17

5

21

8

11

7

Don’t know

180

24

92

29

65

26

23

14

Question 2D: Should professionals be given licenses to work as self-employeds?

Total General

(736)

%

(100)

15-34

(322)

%

(100)

35-50

(253)

%

(100)

+50

(161)

%

(100)

Yes

600

82

282

87

213

84

105

65

No

39

5

6

2

12

5

21

13

Undecided

52

7

12

4

18

7

22

14

Don’t know

45

6

22

7

10

4

13

8

Question 3: Do you think the government should ratify the Declaration of Human Rights – civil, political, economic, social and cultural – that the United Nations signed in 2009?

Total General

(736)

%

(100)

15-34

(322)

%

(100)

35-50

(253)

%

(100)

+50

(161)

%

(100)

Yes

428

58

209

65

139

55

80

50

No

61

8

21

6

26

10

14

9

Undecided

85

12

45

14

23

9

17

10

Don’t know

162

22

47

15

65

26

50

31

Question No. 4.- Do you think it’s your right to exercise freedom of ….

A) Information

Total General

(736)

%

(100)

15-34

(322)

%

(100)

35-50

(253)

%

(100)

+50

(161)

%

(100)

Yes

484

66

203

63

162

64

119

74

No

63

9

47

15

12

5

4

2

Undecided

91

12

43

13

32

13

16

10

Don’t know

98

13

29

9

47

18

22

14

B) Expression

Total General

(736)

%

(100)

15-34

(322)

%

(100)

35-50

(253)

%

(100)

+50

(161)

%

(100)

Yes

642

87

263

82

228

90

151

94

No

16

2

9

3

5

2

2

1

Undecided

47

6

29

9

11

4

5

3

Don’t know

33

5

21

6

9

4

3

2

C) Association

Total General

(736)

%

(100)

15-34

(322)

%

(100)

35-50

(253)

%

(100)

+50

(161)

%

(100)

Yes

545

74

239

74

193

76

113

70

No

30

4

16

5

9

4

5

3

Undecided

60

8

21

7

20

8

19

12

Don’t know

101

14

46

14

31

12

24

15

Question No. 5.- Do you think democracy requires a multi-party system?

Total General

(736)

%

(100)

15-34

(322)

%

(100)

35-50

(253)

%

(100)

+50

(161)

%

(100)

Yes

571

78

236

73

204

81

131

81

No

64

9

47

15

12

5

5

3

Undecided

74

9

29

9

28

11

17

11

No sé

27

4

10

3

9

3

8

5

Question No. 6.- Do you think that a citizen who puts all his resources, means and effort into starting his own business has the right to associate with and receive funds from foreign investors?

Total General

(736)

%

(100)

15-34

(332)

%

(100)

35-50

(253)

%

(100)

+50

(161)

%

(100)

Yes

598

81

275

85

207

82

116

72

No

30

4

14

4

7

3

9

5

Undecided

53

7

21

7

21

8

11

7

Don’t know

55

8

12

4

18

7

25

16

Translated by Regina Anavy

June 5 2012

Today as Yesteday….I remember you very well / Wendy Iriepa and Ignacio Estrada

Havana, Cuba. Today I’d love to invite you for a stroll with my wife and I down Avenue 42 of the beach from 41 to 34. A spacious avenue with wide sidewalks and lawns with dense vegetation.

Imagine with us that it’s one of those afternoons in which we say our goodnights to the sun when, before finishing our short walk, we come upon a salmon-colored house. A dwelling decorated by its proprietors with the purpose of opening up its front porch and taking advantage of the space in its garden for a snack bar, a business they had been cooking up for a good long time.

The brand-new trade has had had several names but the one that’s made the owners most enthusiastic is “Today As Yesterday”, recalling the need to create commercial products with the quality that our grandparents once enjoyed.

What’s certain is that according to one of the owners, when he went to register the business with the authorities of the National Tax Administration Office (ONAT), the name was changed, because the authorities did not like the one he’d submit.  After a long debate amongst the family members, they decided on the new name “Enter”.

I’d like to reflect on what’s wrong with calling a snack bar “Today As Yesterday”. Although the Cuban government permits the creation of private businesses, it maintains a control over them, control that apparently could even question the name that we give them.

I’d like to share with you the reason the owners of the new business initially decided to call it “Today As Yesterday”, a name that gives tribute to a time of economic prosperity.

The images we include in this story are some of the pieces that were used to decorate this snack bar, the same ones that remind people of their grandparents…who can separate these signs from our national identity?  Who can demonstrate to me how these signs harm anyone?   The danger can only be perceived by the minds of those who try to deprive new generations from knowing the splendor of times prior to the processes that took place in 1959.

I wish I dared to stand before this new business and shout in my loudest voice that if things could really be “Today As Yesterday”, it would be a whole new day in Cuba.

 Translated by: Rafael Gómez

May 28 2012

Urban Planning Crimes: Who Started Them? / Fernando Dámaso

Photos by Rebeca

It is right and necessary to fight against urban planning and other crimes, and to try to create a bit of order in society after so many years of barbarities. It seems as if the attention is focused on citizens who built precarious garages in the common areas of multifamily buildings, closed open spaces making them private, put bars in front of the elevator doors on each floor of tall buildings, added water tanks to each apartment, erected barriers to transit sites in shopping streets, transformed facades in their own bad taste, added absurd buildings, converted terraces and porches into rooms, etc. All of this is reprehensible and unacceptable, even if it was done in response to vital needs (e.g. lack of space in the home of a growing family, lack of access to other roomier ones, not being provided garages in new building, impunity of the criminals), or the lack of government solutions (all private ownership was prohibited), rather than for being irresponsible.

However, it is noted that it was precisely the constituted authorities, and some of their closest collaborators, who started these illegal practices, raising high walls (some up to four meters) in their new assigned homes (sometimes even with surveillance cameras) and shutting down streets and gardens around them; occupying entire buildings and even the surrounding homes, including streets, gardens and other spaces; pharaonic buildings constructed without respecting the existence of streets; fencing and enclosing the gardens and parking of government buildings in Civic Square, closing doors and original entrances, hampering, or even not allowing citizens’ free access to them. This epidemic spread like the invasive marabou weed, and involved agencies, institutions and companies, which were turned into veritable fortresses, with barriers and prohibitions and, sometimes, even with loopholes. Maybe someone alleges that it was all for protection against the eternal enemy, but as always, we went too far, far surpassing the sense of limits.

Given this reality, which is easily checked by visiting our cities and towns, the civic psyche reacts naturally: if the authorities do not respect the urban planning regulations, why should the people respect them? In this battle against urban planning crimes, are the officials’ crimes also taken into account or will the affected only be ordinary citizens? If the chain, as has happened many times, is broken by the weakest links and doesn’t touch the strongest, the battle is lost from the start. To succeed, we must lead by example. Besides, it is good to combat wrongdoing, but we must create  the material conditions to prevent these crimes from being repeated: If the  solutions to citizens’ real problems are not created (living space, new housing, protection of property and other), it will be like plowing the sea.

Translated by Rafael Gómez

June 9 2012

The Cuban League Against AIDS Report of Human Rights Violations to the LGBT Community in Cuba / Wendy Iriepa and Ignacio Estrada

Havana Cuba, Thursday, February 16, 2012.

General Report of the Cuban League Against AIDS on Human Rights violations to the community of Lesbians, Gays,Bisexuals and Transgenders.

It has been five decades from that fatal triumph led by people wearing olive green clothes coming down from the mountains, and proclaiming a society of equality for all, without discrimination by race, religion, political and sexual orientations.

Not many years went on before the first exclusions of all Cubans who had a sexual behavior — defined by the emerging government as embarrassing and as a way of life that endangered the socialist morality of the Cuban nation — started to be seen in workplaces, educational and state institutions.

Our people lived through years of confinement, forced labor camps, repudiation acts, and as if that was not enough, in many cases, some were stoned and forced to go into exile, separating them from their families and friends.

Cuban history contains the anecdotes and the suffering of Reinaldo Arena, Virgilio P., Lezama, and those others whose names remain forgotten and whose bodies are found in the waters between the Florida straits and the Cuban shores.

Fifty years later history repeats itself, and the violations of human rights continue targeting the LGBT community in Cuba. The rulers have been changing the ways in which they commit   these violations, but when you start analyzing the situation that the LGBT community faces, you see that it is the same.

The lack of public spaces, freedom of expression, freedom of association, the right to have a relationship and marry in equality of rights, and the right to decide the appropriate moment to tell their families about their sexual orientation are some of the violations that the LGBT community in Cuba is constantly facing.

While the State institutions like the National Center for Sexual Education (CENESEX) run by Mrs. Mariela Castro Espín, daughter of the current ruler of the nation, speak to the world about the certain openings that guarantee human rights for the LGBT community, the reality of the island is completely different; one that she would not hesitate to silence because of her fear of losing the large amounts of money collected for ghost projects that only respond to the interests of the Cuban State and not to those of the LGBT Cuban community.

There are daily reports on the island of the arrests of LGBT people, accompanied by heavy fines, deportations for homosexuals that are not from Havana, extortion and blackmailing by the police authorities or the law enforcement officers who want to benefit from the suffering of those who fall into their hands. There are also beatings, temporary detentions, searches in public places, among other actions of arbitrary nature.

There is evidence, from 2010, of layoffs based on the employee’s sexual orientation, layoffs of members of the LGBT community because they are following the government’s political ideology or simply because they are friends with someone who was a LGBT rights activist.

Violence caused the death of six homosexuals who died under an unknown situation. The death of a young transvestite from negligence and inattention in a police station was denounced, as well as the layoff of a transsexual woman, Wendy Iriepa Díaz, for marrying a human rights activist, and the arrests of homosexuals in public places and the removal of homosexual from the streets for supposedly harassing tourists.

We must continue denouncing the unjust prison sentences, from two to four years and the forced labor fields, for homosexuals because they are wandering around at night in the streets of Cuba, or drinking alcohol, or have decided no to work for the Cuba State because their families support them from abroad.

“Cuba is a country where the authorities are not prepared to confront radical changes like same sex marriage, adoption, and coexistence.” While the government gives this explanations, we Cubans wonder: how did they come up with this criteria? When we go out into the street, people smile at us and compliment us, not because of our sexual orientation, but because of what we stand for.

The true guilty people for the constant violations that the Cuban LGBT community faces are the State and its institutions, the real homophobic and discriminatory weapons. There is no power or people more discriminatory in this nation than its rulers.

The rise of male prostitution, within the community of men who have sex with other men, has resulted in 8 out of 10 of those infected with HIV being men, which is the largest number ever reached in the history of this community.

Despite totalitarianism, despite the fierce power of the State, the Cuban LGBT community now rises and emerges from the ashes, like a phoenix, showing a beautiful plumage and the colors of our unique flag demanding and recovering all the places usurped by the State power and the lies.

Today we demand our rights, we want to walk as a nation, as an independent community, as a community that advocates for the rights of all and not the rights of the minority in power.

The reason for our existence is to fight for the civil, political, economic and cultural rights of the LGBT community in Cuba. Our voice today demands to be heard and we want shout out that we exist and we are working to find a solution and looking forward to the future.

Ignacio Estrada Cepero
Executive Director
Cuban League Against AIDS

Posted originally on: February 17, 2012

Violence / Rebeca Monzo

Patchwork by R. Monzo

Much is publicized, even by the United Nations, about Cuba being one of the countries where less violence exists. It is true that we do not have wars or drug trafficking. But what is undeniable, in spite of the fact that the national press does not speak of it, is the domestic violence, like other kinds of violence carried out, due to many reasons.

Recently there occurred a lamentably bloody event, among members of a sector that is supposed to be cultured and refined. The media have not reported anything about it, but now it is popular knowledge, the crime perpetrated by one of the most outstanding musicians of the Philharmonic Orchestra, a young cellist,ranked among the best in the country.

Rumor has it that she had been a victim, like so many other musicians of the despotism with which the Director General of the Amadeo Roldan Complex,Mr. Chorens used to treat them. It seems that the straw that broke the camel’s back was the denial of a trip abroad,highly anticipated by this virtuoso of strings. Expressing her indignation on learning of the refusal, she made public among his companions, the vengeance that he was going to perpetrate: I am going to hurt him where it hurts most, she said.

She went to the house of the Director, knowing that the director’s mother would be there alone, and finished her off with a blade, repeatedly stabbing her until she died.

This is only one example of the many acts of violence that are practiced daily in our country, and about which the media never report.

There is a lot of contained hatred and frustration, any incident can be the trigger to make them explode with the same fury as a volcano expelling the lava contained in its interior. No one talks about it. The worst is that like everything kept hidden, no one is careful, especially not foreigners, who are sold the line about the safest tourist destination.

As long as the press is not free and transparent, we are going to be believe that we are living in a true paradise. I do not like the “police blotter,” but I also do not agree with hiding the news, that one way or another affects us all. Nor am I going to become a spokesman for the same, but this event has upset the artistic sector and still nothing has been published about it.

Translated by mlk

June 10 2012

These Are Things Which the Church Should Discuss / Wendy Iriepa and Ignacio Estrada

The Cuban Catholic Church’s press media have tried in recent days various efforts to clean up a bit the image of one who has already come to be known as The Cardinal of Ignominy or The Cardinal of Indignity.

It isn’t that I want to take up against the purple and much less against the Cuban clergy and the body of the Church founded by Peter. But the fact that the Church and its media want to excuse Cardinal Jaime Lucas Ortega Alamino in front of the world is something embarrassing and we should denounce it in front of as many media as are at the service of what we call a press without a gag and without ties.

For those of us who in one way or another have been tied to the Cuban Church and who feel ourselves to be faithful believers in her doctrine, it is difficult to imagine in the midst of the 21st century the image of a church complicit with those who stripped her of her belongings and made her feel sterile until the beginning of the 1980’s when they allowed her to make the journey of the Pilgrim Cross.

The words of no press media of the Church can, nor will ever be able, to erase the message of the Cardinal when he visited in the United States: a speech paraphrased from some leader of a fruitless revolution. A presentation in which the words that were on his lips were charged with hate and lies against thirteen Cubans who, days before the visit of His Holiness (Pope Benedict XVI) to Cuba, occupied the Church of La Caridad (Virgin of Charity) in Central Havana. I repeat again, and would not tire of testifying, that the speech given was taken from the desk of the ideological head of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba.

The press media at the service of the Church, instead of being occupied with so much collaboration and servitude to a man who hides even his own background as does Jaime Lucas Ortega Alamino, should give explanations as to why, in the last few years, the entry of foreign priests and nuns has been limited on behalf of the Cuban authorities, should give an accounting of how many temples in Cuba are in bad physical shape, and what is the exact number of new religious buildings constructed after the year 1959.

These are things of which we can talk, and not about an ill-achieved civil society set up by religious leaders full of rumors, and who fill their stomachs at tables as if they were those of presidents, forgetting the reality and the famine of thousands of Cuban homes.

If the Cuban Church wishes to defend itself from possible conspiracies, that could only exist in the minds of persons incapable of assuming the responsibility of their actions and words, it is best that it buy itself a dog that barks, bites, and scares away others.

Cardinal, I am one of those people who doesn’t hide my expression of what I feel, I love my Virgin of Charity, I love the Faith, but it would be impossible for me to love you as a person and much less to follow your teachings. On various occasions I have written about the Cuban Church and, in many of these texts, I have not doubted in saying what to me are truths that many do not know.

The moment in which we are living is a moment of radical changes; now let us not speak of dialogue, let us speak of changing all of that which must be changed. Perhaps now the Church would like to speak of dialogue, after sitting at the table of dictators and having received some crumbs. We as a people and a nation do not want any dialogue with the Church, and much less with the authorities in power. We want that each and every one carry on their shoulders what, during five decades, they have caused to each Cuban; we want that each one be seated in the bench of the accused, whomever they may be and   whatever rank they may have.

Civil Society in Cuba is all of us and not just a few. Civil Society is that which walks and rises today in the resurgence of a new nation that approaches to contemplate a new dawn already near.

The Cuban Church would be different if it gave way to new voices charged with juvenile energy, or people who are willing to revolutionize a church subject to the bribes of a corrupt and stagnant government. Let us recall that the abuse of children on behalf of clergy and the religious jumps to the forefront in any commentary and shakes the foundation of the Church the whole world over and Cuba is not the rule of the exception.

Has anyone asked themselves: Why haven’t similar cases been published in Cuba? Perchance the Cuban clergy doesn’t have the same weaknesses as those of other priests and religious persons? There is much to continue talking about and many topics that tarnish the role of the Church and its leaders and implicate it in a dark plot with a government that is a detractor of Christian faith. One should go on to ask: Might this not be one of the reasons for which the Cuban Church is subject to comply with what the Cuban government wants? There are many more questions to ask and, in reference to this last, I urge others to write and uncover these hidden truths.

As far as a possible conspiracy to destroy the Cardinal, I am convinced that it doesn’t exist, what I can assure you is that very soon we will erase that smile from the face of the Porcelain Doll: the name by which the Cuban Cardinal is known in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community who also form part of the body of the Cuban Church.

It is impossible for the press media of the Church to speak about these things so openly, but whosoever of us has the power of the word, let us do so from our podiums each time that it is possible.

Translated by: Maria Montoto

May 31 2012

When the Law is Respected / Wilfredo Vallin Almeida

A journalist from abroad asked me about the content and the implementation of something known in Law as Right of Appeal, which in Cuba turns out to be problematic.

In our case, the first problem is that our multi-awarded compatriot Yoani Sanchez brought this action against the Minister of Interior, General Abelardo Colome Ibarra.
The reason why Yoani did such a thing is that she has been invited, on nearly twenty occasions, to receive her awards abroad, but has never been given a “White card” — the permission to leave the country — so she can receive her awards in person.

The second problem is that in the XXI century the world has evolved enough, so that in any country its citizens are the most important thing. And that means we must treat these people with the human dignity that José Martí claimed for the Cubans and that is now found in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The third problem is that “according to the law” the actions of the government and the state must have legal foundations and legal procedures that are clearly established, known, and within reach of citizens, enabling them to defend their rights in any given situation.

The fourth problem is that when we act ignoring the laws and legal procedures that exist, we fall in the arbitrariness of the authorities, something not very well regarded in these times.

The fifth problem is that the people will never tolerate this arbitrariness indefinitely, and they will begin, as the well-known blogger has, to use the resources that the national law gives… to the protesters.

The sixth problem is that the problem now created (and forgive the redundancy) could have been avoided by respecting Article 63 of the Constitution of the Republic:

Every citizen has the right to make complaints and petitions to the authorities and to receive the attention or the appropriate responses on time, according to the law.

Perhaps we can find a moral in all this: Problems can be avoided … when rights are respected.

Translated by Chabeli

8 June 2012

Messages from Miss Universe and Dolls of No Color / Dora Leonor Mesa

“There exists the phenomenon of whitening, and if you being black do not proclaim yourself to be so, you are in a demagogic position, of little ethic. In Cuban culture it is fundamental to achieve that people assume and be what they are. The defiance lies in forming a conscience, in which there will be no racial prejudice, stereotype and racism.”

Dr Esteban Morales, Cuban political scientist and essayist

“Cuban Color”, Trabajadores (Workers) periodical, December 14, 2009, p. 7. Printed Edition.

The question came up by coincidence, while we were showing the nursery children the book “Barbie Anfitriona” –Barbie Hostess– (Mattel Inc., Megaediciones, 2003). Naturally, each girl wanted to be a Barbie. On the page offering recipes for a surprise lunch for the birthday of the best friend, there is a pretty photo with the three Barbies. Then a discussion began between two little ones whereby the one with very dark skin argues with her friend over the right to be the light-skinned Barbie with red hair. An incident without importance were it not for the glaring fact that the girl insisted and even cried because she was not black, but “mulata” (mestiza).

The results of the survey are not conclusive but have much in common with the experiences of North American lawyer Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993), who together with the Legal Defense Fund of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), put together a panel of experts covering the fields of history, the economy, the political sciences and psychology. Of particular significance was a study in which psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark tried to determine how segregation affected the self-esteem and mental well-being of Afro North Americans. Among other impressive determinations, it was found that children between three and seven years of age preferred white dolls over black ones, all other things being equal.

Out of curiosity we made a superficial visit to the best-stocked toy stores in the Cuban capital and the observations made demonstrated that there are for sale no black dolls, or mestizas, although the offerings improve in stores specializing in handicrafts, in terms of those dolls dedicated to religious rituals, generally crafted of cloth and dressed in traditional garb. However it is relatively easy to buy at various prices, white dolls, be they Barbie or not, with straight hair in different colors, dressed with modern and elegant clothes.

It is absurd to evaluate racial and identity problems as something foreign to Cuban childhood. It is like attempting to cover the sun with one finger. Dr. Morales has demonstrated publicly the cultural insufficiencies in Cuban grade-school books in reference to African themes. It is known that “studies of gender and the feminist vision gave way in investigations and social analyses to other dimensions of inequality, such as racial, territorial, economic and of class” (http://www.amecopress.net/ January 27, 2012).

The sociological studies carried out by governmental organizations like the Centro de Investigaciones Psicológicas y Sociales (CIPS: Center for Psychological and Social Research) among others, demonstrate that since the decade of the 90’s of the 20th century, when the Cuban government introduced the economic reforms that accompanied the circulation of a double currency, “the losers” are women, the black and mestizo population, the migrant and elderly, sectors that have been able to take less advantage of the opportunities opened up by the reform.

It is not easy to find current Cuban studies about racism and its dismal influence over childhood. Due to the rapid growth of boys and girls, we do not have the power to change from one day to the next the low self-esteem of Afro-descendant children, but it is within the reach of ACDEI (ASOCIACIÓN CUBANA PARA EL DESARROLLO DE LA EDUCACIÓN INFANTIL– Cuban Association for the Development of Childhood Education) to stimulate the self-esteem and confidence in themselves of those we educate. We gave away photos of 2010’s Miss Universe to white girls with a simple dedication:

Mom, dad and family:

Your daughter __________ is very pretty and if she studies a lot, learns to defend herself and practices sports, come tomorrow she can be as beautiful as Miss Universe 2010.

We did the same with the Afro-descendant little girls. The only difference was in the photos of different moments of Angolan Leila Lopes, Miss Universe 2011, which were distributed among the little girls with the note written over the main photo, where the recently crowned queen smiles beside Miss Universe 2010.

We do not know if, as the children of the daycare grow, they will accept their ethnic background, but at least we assume as a duty to invite their families to reflect with optimism on the subject.

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”. These are words of Eleanor Roosevelt, president of the commission that drew up the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the United Nations. ACDEI works to successfully deliver a message to children, their families and educators. Cuba is a multiracial nation, therefore the absent dolls with other features and colors of skin are necessary toys in toy stores. Besides, the dolls that are already on sale are going to be very happy with their company. Dolls are not racist!

Translated by: Maria Montoto

June 1 2012