Category: Translator: GH

No-one Knows What Fish They are Buying / Ernesto Garcia Diaz

Fishermen at Playa de El Chivo - Photo Ernesto Garcia
Fishermen at Playa de El Chivo – Photo Ernesto Garcia

Havana, Cuba – At la Playa de El Chivo (El Chivo beach ), on the northeast coast of Havana, at the foot of the Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro (Three Kings Castle), people carry on fishing for sport and business, between the marine waters and sewage, without the health authorities, environmental authorities or the coastguards taking a responsible attitude. The zone receives thousands of cubic metres of polluted water and its sand dunes are deteriorating as a result of the man’s actions.

The grunt, snapper and barber fish, among others, turn the rocky beach into both a centre for boats which arrive every day to seek their economic support; and at best, some people who are enjoying their leisure and are fishing for sport.

This is going on in the mouth of the submerged sewage outlet pipe which runs from the Havana sewage treatment plant, which filters the solid waste coming from the northern and southern collectors of the capital. A concrete pipe of about 375 metres in length crosses Havana Bay, as far as Casablanca, where they pump the dirty water up to La Cabaña, so that it then falls by gravity down to the El Chivo beach, about 150 metres along the coast.

The most astonishing thing is that many fishermen enter into the area of the lower reefs, without any protection, on the edge of where they are fishing in a contaminated area, breathing in the fetid smell from the drain, which keeps the coastal water cloudy with its permanent discharge from the Havana sewers, whose pipes and canals are not lacking in cracks and leaks. continue reading

When it comes to the end result of the activity, various fisherment indicate that they eat the fish themselves, and that they also sell some, but they don’t say where the fish come from.

These citizens, impelled by their desperate need to support themselves and their families, imperil the health of people who are unaware that they are buying a product of uncertain or unknown origin, as many are offered as skinned fillets, or say that they are deep sea fish, which prevents the consumer seeing the physiognomy of the species, so they can at least identify them, in order to avoid the “ciguatera” (tropical fishfood poisoning syndrome ) which is transmitted by the picúa or the aguají, among other species which it is forbidden to fish.

Murky waters at Playa de El Chivo – photo Ernesto Garcia

Additionally, on this beach’s rocky and sandy coast, the environment is being damaged by the dumping of plastic handles, fish-hooks, fishing lines, and other discarded items, which are thrown away by people living there or those passing through the area who don’t take any notice of the prohibitions.

Alberto, an ex-fisherman, known as “The Wizard”, admitted that he used to sell fish for a while, but that it was very hard work, always running the risk of a consumer falling ill, because the species caught in this area end up eating the discarded rubbish in the sewage, or a shoal of sardines who have also come over to eat toxic residues.

Concrete drain pipe in El Chivo beach – photo Ernesto García

El Chivo Beach, by the Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro, classified by UNESCO in 1982 as a World Heritage site, has been converted into a contaminated focal point of bacteria and micro-organisms which can affect the health of those who fish in its waters, pass through there, or consume its fish.

The authorities would be perfectly able to preserve the cleanliness and health of the ecosystem of this sandy coastline, which has been abused and is hardly a good example of sustainable development of a zone of natural, historical and cultural value which should be cared for.

Cubanet, 22 January 2014,

Translated by GH

An Old Method / Fernando Damaso

Photo Peter Deel

In relation to the ongoing tense situation in Venezuela, the Cuban government and its Government Organisations unceasingly make declarations of support and solidarity with the government and the people of that country, bundling them up together, as if those who are protesting and joining in demonstrations are not a part of that people. It is worth remembering that in the last elections, 5,300,000 voters endorsed the official candidate and 5,000,000 the opposition candidate.

What’s more, our official communication media only show one side of the coin; the Chavista*. The opposition demonstrations, as numerous as the government ones, are hidden. This distorts the reality of a country in crisis, and creates confusion.

It’s an old method which the Cuban authorities don’t stop repeating: in the old Czechoslovakia, they supported the Soviet invaders and the Treaty of Warsaw, in Poland, the Communist coup d’etat, in the old USSR those who opposed Gorbachev, in Iraq against Saddam, in Libya against Gaddafi and now in Syria against Assad and the pro-Soviet government in the Ukraine.

The opposition, without any kind of distinction, are referred to as mercenaries, employees of the Western powers, antisocials, delinquents, etc. It’s a cracked record, which we always hear in Cuba. For many years the Cuban government has only known how to ally itself with similar governments and to support the worst causes: the reactionary and anti-democratic.

Now, with Venezuela, you have to be able to read between the lines and find the censored pictures, in order that what might happen does not catch us by surprise, as happened when the notorious Berlin Wall fell and pulled European socialism down with it.

An old song goes: God creates them and the devil brings them together. Sometimes it isn’t necessary for the devil to unite them: they do it all by themselves.

*Translator’s note: Chavista refers to supporters of the late Hugo Chavez and his party, which remains in power.

Translated by GH

18 February 2014

A Good Solution / Juan Juan Almeida

In his first decision of this year, published in the Gaceta Oficial Extraordinaria (Special Official Gazette) dated February 7th, the head of MININT (Ministerio del Interior de la República de Cuba – Cuban Ministry of the Interior) Army General Abelardo Colomé Ibarra, ordered the General Management of the General Revolutionary Police to exchange information, such as the co-ordination of criminal actions and investigations, with the General Management of the department of Bank Financial Operations Investigations, in order to combat money laundering, financing of terrorism and moving illicit capital out of the island.

The challenge is large and high-cost; but the solution is very easy. For starters, build a wall around the boundary of the present location of the Central Committee, leave the guards outside, and convert it into a high-security prison. And whatever else is needed.

Translated by GH

13 February 2014

Long-running Problems / Fernando Damaso

Photo Rebeca

In Cuba, it’s not a secret to anybody, problems enjoy a long life. As there is no organised civil society able to insist on its rights, you always have to wait for the decisions of the authorities, and, like the problems, they also take their time.

And the official press isn’t bothered about them either, unless it is no longer possible to hide them or the government decides to address them. Then you see articles and reports considering what they are doing to resolve them, without mentioning what it was that caused them, what they failed to do to prevent to prevent their development, who was responsible and, most importantly, how the people have been affected by them.

In spite of the update and the briefing about which the press may feel critical, it seems that they go forward fearfully, afraid to go beyond what is authorised. There have been too many years of censorship. Here are some examples taken at random.

Banes has its new water pipeline, reports the newspaper Granma. The town of Banes, in Holguín province, had its aqueduct, which delivered water to its inhabitants. With the passing of the years and lack of maintenance, the steel pipes and the original concrete deteriorated to the point that out of the 150 litres a second of water to be delivered, only 32 came through, with delivery cycles of 32 days.

Now, after dozens of years, the pipework has been repaired with polyethylene tubes, reducing the delivery cycles to 9 days. A complete success. With not a word about the suffering and annoyance caused to the people by this situation, or saying why the restoration was delayed so long, much less who was responsible for doing nothing for so many years.

In Havana – the TV tells us — some apartment blocks are under construction, to be offered to families in temporary housing, and to others who were living under the La Lisa bridge. The buildings are low cost quick-build, poor quality and unfinished, ending up as a call on the resources (?) and the labour of the new tenants.

Some of the beneficiaries passed some 15, 20, 30, or nearly 40 years living in hostels, or under the La Lisa bridge, in precarious conditions. The journalist did not say one word about the effect this long-drawn-out situation had on the lives of the members of these families, and devoted his time to relating the gratitude of the beneficiaries to the Revolution. End of story.

The Casablanca cinema reopened its doors – Juventud Rebelde tells us. The cinema, located in the city of Camagüey, remained shut for over a decade. Not a word about how the situation came about nor about who was responsible. Nor did it indicate how much the locals were disadvantaged culturally by this prolonged closure.

This all sounds like the report of the story of the patient who, having died of hunger due to lack of provisions, enjoyed the expert and magnificent medical attention in his final hours.

Translated by GH

11 February 2014

From the Cosmos to the Absolute Limit / Juan Juan Almeida

One 29th of January, but in 1942, Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez was born in the city of Guantanamo, Cuba, the first Cuban, and the first Latin American, cosmonaut.

What Cuban doesn’t remember the joint Cuba-USSR flight undertaken in the Soyuz 38 space craft commanded by the Russian Yuri Romanenko on 18 September 1980?

Obviously the man with the fridge isn’t Tamayo, but another Cuban who with sweat and toil is attempting to conquer his cosmos.

Translated by GH

30 January 2014

Granma Eggs / Juan Juan Almeida

The objective of the Poultry Company of the Cuban province of Granma, for the year 2014, is to increase egg production. It exceeded last year’s in the company’s balance sheet, last January 29th.

Juan Carlos Reyes, sub-director of Combined National Poultry (CAN), highlighted the support and dedication of the local Granma workers and reported that although there are material limitations, the level of resources on some lines will be higher this year which has just begun. Nevertheless this month, January, they didn’t produce more than 700,000 eggs owing to defaults in contracts and deliveries of feed.

The poultry breeders, notwithstanding their difficulties, are seeking increased efficiency, and doing the impossible in order that everyone can have eggs.

Translated by GH

30 January 2014

CELAC: Declaration of Havana and the Tibetan Book of the Dead / Juan Juan Almeida

Without doubt, the pro tem presidency of the largest of the Antilles at CELAC, has been significant in achieving influential goals, to the benefit of Cuba, going well beyond the scope of commercial and diplomatic considerations.

Not even the Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parilla himself could accept anything other than that this alliance of Latin American and Caribbean countries represents the common regional aspirations.

What’s strange is that there are gathered there serious regional political managers, famous practitioners in the art and folklore of politicking, psychedelic gurus, dictators disguised as democrats and angry favourites, a rare mixture. continue reading

During the weekend, the vice Ministers of Foreign Relations of each country, worked, or put on a show, of arriving at a consensus on the documents to be approved at the summit, among them the Declaration of Havana and the action plan for the organisation in 2014. For today, Monday, to be discussed by the Foreign Ministers and then to be signed by the Heads of State and Government which, like skilled dancers are now arriving in Havana. And, as added value, among other things, to show support for a government which says it is in a genuine period of change. To be more exact, “transformation of its economic model”.

A document which — according to what we were briefed on by Mr. Abelardo Moreno, who this time is functioning as National Coordinator on the Cuban side and vice minister of Foreign Relations — is enigmatic and manipulative in shape, more so than the famous Bardo Thodol (Tibetan Book of the Dead), because it describes as a zone of peace a part of the planet where there is no liberty.

Although, taking into account that this Comunidad de Estados Latinoamericanos y Caribeños (CELAC) is no more than a strategic grouping created in the middle of a changing international environment, the report is pretty well predictable.

The final document, after a ceremony, will agree to establish a forum of cooperation between China and CELAC which will serve to strengthen and institutionalise the relations between the Asian country and this kind of iconic structure put together by a group of different nations which, in order to demonstrate a monolithic unity as a strategic zonal partner, are inviting to the meeting the Secretary General of the OAS (Organisation of American States)   and the Secretary General of the United Nations.

Just by chance? No, The government of the island has an excellent talent for sending us its message with absolute subtlety and a total lack of merit. Anybody with half a brain and a frontal lobe is able to recall that the Panamanian president, Ricardo Martinelli, announced publicly that he would not come to the CELAC summit in Havana to make clear his unhappiness with the government for its handling of the matter of the North Korean ship Chong Cho Gang, detained in Panama, transporting Cuban arms to North Korea without declaring it, thus violating the resolution prohibiting this issued by the United Nations itself.

Now, does the name Ban Ki-moon sound familiar? Obviously. There springs to mind the excellent advice my grandmother gave me when I was a child; “Truffles can turn an ordinary dish into a culinary delicacy.”

Translated by GH

27 January 2014

An Undignified Old Lady / Regina Coyula

This weekend I devoted to music. I had told my friend Karen, a likeable Brazilian twentysomething, that I like watching films knocking around the house, but it was Karen’s last night in Cuba, and under the influence of a forecast cold front which never arrived, we went with Rafa as chaperone to the Yellow Submarine. We saw the performance of Tierra Santa, (Holy Land) a cover group with a singer who is a cross between Ozzy Osborne and Geoff Tate, and a voice which, while not approaching that of either of those performers, has a good shot at it.

On Friday, now without Karen, Rafa took me to Maxim Rock to see Ánima Mundi (Soul of the world). It is a privilege to see this group, never mind that the sound system is not very good. In the first part they did interpretations of some of their original material. While waiting for the second part, I heard Miel con limón (Honey and lemon) and the band La vieja escuela (The old school). I sang along to famous songs, the stranger in that place where everyone seems to know everyone, and with everyone else singing from memory. I enjoyed both bands, especially the second, a forward preparation for what came next.

Shine on you, crazy diamond was the start of a short trip through Pink Floyd. Only musicians like Ánima Mundi would also take on Money, Another Brick in the Wall, and Wish you were here; a little of EL&P with Lucky man, to finish off in an amazing way with Rick Wakeman’s Arthur.

After this lavish dose of rock; Saturday blend in El Sauce. I persuaded my son to take me, as my husband is impossible in matters musical. Rafa argued with me because for me present day Habana Abierta (Open Havana) is like a cover group for the original Habana Abierta, but what are these young kids going to know about that concert in the Salón Rosado nightclub of el Tropical? I enjoyed the enchantment of the live music and, despite my son’s scolding, I was able to make myself look silly without any bother.

… And don’t ask me any more about the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States Summit (CELAC) which doesn’t affect me one way or the other.

Translated by GH

3 February 2014

Generational Collision in the Alejo Carpentier Charity / Orlando Freire Santana

Havana, Cuba, December – http://www.cubanetorg – It’s not a secret for anybody that, in general, youngsters favour transformations which advance social development. As far as Cuba is concerned, the majority of young people who are academics and researchers urge that the economic changes being implemented by Raul Castro’s government be taken forward more rapidly. And journalism should not lag behind.

This understanding was corroborated in the winding up of the course entitled “Journalism is not a job for cynics”, which took place at the Alejo Carpentier charity. On this occasion, the journalists Jesus Arencibia and Ricardo Ronquillo, both from the newspaper Juventud Rebelde took part in a panel, along with Doctor Graciela Pogolotti, president of the above mentioned cultural institution.

The first one to mention it was the youngest of the panelists, Jesus Arencibia, who, to the astonishment of some of the people present, strongly criticised the present situation of the Cuban press. Responding to the question, “What journalism do we need today in Cuba?”, Arencibia stated that we lack media able to function without approval from above; and, pursuing this line, argued that editorial policy should not be the preserve of a political party. Arencibia also questioned the activities of the official Union of Cuban Journalists (UPEC), who insist on not mixing up journalism with commercial publicity, without saying anything about political propaganda which dominates the work of the news-pages, the radio and the television in our country. continue reading

Right after that, Ricardo Ronquillo, deputy director of the Juventud Rebelde daily chipped in. Although at intervals he tried to continue his predecessor’s critical comments, Ronquillo explained that his suggestions were directed at “ensuring that the Cuban press was equal to the challenge of the revolution.” According to this panelist, we are watching a structural crisis in Cuban journalism; driven by a lack of resources in terms of journalists and the press, as well as the loss of their credibility due to the role they were playing in the service of the governmental institutions.

Referring to a situation which should not be repeated, as it demonstrates the inflexibility which impoverishes the work of the press, Ronquillo recalled what happened subsequent to the revelation of the announcement that Fidel Castro had passed the leadership over to his brother Raul. According to the journalist, it was incredible that no-one in the Cuban press will comment about this significant event. Nevertheless, we can only suppose that past events like that have been brushed to one side in the heat of Raul Castro’s protest against media secrecy.

Doctor Pogolotti, the senior member of the panel, gave us the most conservative presentation. After talking about her times as a journalism student in republican Cuba, she applied herself more to the form as opposed to the substance when it came to assessing the kind of press we need. In her opinion, the Cuban media should abandon headlines which don’t invite you to read; they need to improve the image and graphical design which accompany the information; and they should also be able to count on journalists capable of investigating the most varied aspects of our reality. In essence, this representative said almost nothing about the official culture of government control of the press.

The panelists’ contributions were lengthy and there was not time for the public to express their opinions or ask questions. Notwithstanding, in the door of the institution, I was able to hear the opinion of a young student of journalism:

“We haven’t moved forward at all in eliminating secrecy and self-censorship. It seems as if Mr. Ronquillo has forgotten that, following our government’s official declaration about the capture in Panama of a North Korean ship carrying Cuban arms, not one journalist dared to open his mouth …”

Cubanet, 9 December 2013

Translated by GH

December Tells Me / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

December starts in New York.

The people don’t notice it, because they are not Cubans. But December is the month of death and of hope. The end of a year. We are still here. Another year begins. We don’t know if it will be our final date. Beauty and liberty surround us leaving us no alternative to sadness. We miss some love.

That’s Manhattan. The place where with each new life we miss the same old love. Although people don’t notice, because they aren’t Cubans, and December just appears to be another excellent commercial opportunity.

My name is Orlando Luis. I was born on the 10th of this month in 1971. I will turn 42 outside Cuba. Pardon the ambivalence. Maybe outside of Cuba I will turn 42. Perhaps it has been 42 years since my homeland deported me.

Whatever the statistics of the Revolutionary State say and their comparisons with other emigrants, there is not one Cuban outside of Cuba who has not been deported. The dreams demonstrate it, although they are not enough to take the Castro brothers to an international court. continue reading

Those recurrent nightmares of exile bring us together around the evil axis of what Castroism has meant for our bodies. We know that the Cuban people is a fascist invention from before independence. But our bodies suddenly collimated by the same sovereign dreams still permit us to recognise ourselves as a nation.

We are Cubans because we dream the same terror, because our land terrifies us so that nobody who is really Cuban really wants to return.

We are Cubans because our heads sway in communion during the mornings of sweat, tremors, sleepwalking, funny faces, halitosis, frog in the throat, pills, snoring, apnea, and awakening with tears, while we imagine we are in Havana, but what perversely persists outside is now New York.

December in Manhattan is the most desolate and uncomfortable season of the year.

We remember, also, our cadavers abandoned with the prosaic haste of the party. Well, I have bad news recently arrived from our island: in the Cuban cemeteries there is a dismal sacrilegious fraud going on. Many bones have been looted by the negruno pantheon. Others have been captured by the political police to osteoporosisize the history of their crimes and, in passing, to sabotage any future homage to their victims. Still others are in the hands of apprentice doctors and also artisans working for CUC (Cuban convertible currency) making tortoiseshell jewellery.

The rest is a mixing up of common graves with family ones. Neither Martí nor Ché nor any of the remnants of our despotic heritage are what it says on the label. The marble tells lies. Neither grandmother nor aunt nor your love are waiting for you there. Cuban cemeteries are a puzzle which our own flight has left without a code to decipher.

I repeat it but not without pain: it’s very late already, we won’t go back there where no-one is left.

The diffused December nation waits for the first snows and celebrations summing up the year. The Cubitas diaspora thickens little by little, according to the Cuban exile it disappeared. We are a will-o-the-wisp, juggling lights, an optical error of refraction.

We breathe. We swallow the free air of New York. We recognise ourselves as strange beings in front of the shop windows of almost mournful luxury. To be the phantom mannequins on this side. Not mixing with anything, because we will always be with one half of our soul on each side of the glass, violently Cuban shadows whose memory is fragile but very well fermented. We are not simply at the moment, but we are indeed half New York and half Havana.

I put up my coat collar. Stick my hands in my pockets. I look like someone out of a crime thriller, half way between private detective and serial killer. I cough. The New York cough of Cubans without a Cuba is also a lingering symptom. We cough out of sheer stubbornness. We worry about our lungs, about the rheumatic rhythm of our breathing, but in practice we hardly ever get ill unless it’s to die.

By then, by the time we suffer a New York December, we will be destroyed, consumed.  People will not notice, because they will not be Cubans. But December will again be the month of the death of hope. Another year which will not have put an end to everything. Still we will not be so many here. Another year which never stops starting, since no date would be able to finish us off.

The sadness which surrounds us makes us free and beautiful with that brilliance which is wonderful and has no alternative, implying complete truth. We do of course miss some love.

 Translated by GH

2 December 2013

Castro, Correa and Maduro Awaiting 2014 in Varadero / Juan Juan Almeida

We are almost at 31st December and in all the world people celebrate that holiday. In Cuba, the incoherence of our life obliges us, at midnight, to make a toast and express our wish that the next year, 2014, will be better and less painful for the prisoners, the ill, and for all those people who, without much choice will receive the coming year awaiting a call or a hug from those people who cannot be here. For everyone, a prosperous new year.

The president of the Republic of Cuba as you would expect, will also celebrate this date, receiving a select and chosen group of friends, the first day of January, and with that, the coming of another anniversary of the Revolution, number 55.

Yes, Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz will welcome in 2014 in his house in Varadero. In his private villa, or, rather, in the complex of houses which make up the “discreet” and modest mansion, recently done up for the occasion. continue reading

All prepared with punctilious care. The doors and windows (made by KÖMMERLING) imported from Germany and installed afterward by trusted specialists in this shameless summer house, for family recreation. Appropriate for a great leader who publicly advances a stubborn policy of austerity.

The menu is no problem, in the purest and most exquisite Parisian style, with island tweaks. The culinary offer will be professionally served by glove-wearing waiters, and supervised by an official of the FAR (Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces),whom they call Albert Einstein because he has no talent, and who authorised the music to be provided by an orchestra of such cultural ineptitude that they played recorded music instead.

And, how can we speak of the food without mentioning the guests? Right, we will take it one step at a time, because the story still has some unknown quantities.The current president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, his majesty Nicolás Maduro is expected, and, they say, the Ecuadorian head of state, his excellency Rafael Correa. Friends whom they will put up in the recently repaired guest houses, inside the private villa.

And the drink won’t be lacking, catering for all tastes, there will be drink waiters, equally trustworthy, for whatever last-minute fancy. And for those drinkers who lose it after drinking too much, they will serve a reinforcing consomme with meat and chicken and lamb. To finish the night, or start the day as the case may be, they will provide beautiful white deckchairs, in the Mediterranean style, on the sand.

If there are any snags with the party, or if at the last minute they change the plans due to my fateful indiscretion, you need to know that I was happy to break the secret, but the credit isn’t mine, rather that of an army of idiots wearing sunglasses who made it impossible to hide it.

Now I remember the braying, sorry, the speech of the comrade General when he predicted, during the recently-finished second regular session of the 8th term of the National Assembly of Popular Power, that in 2014 we hope to get to a prosperous and sustainable socialism, less egalitarian and more just, with new targets and more sacrifices. The politics of obsolete octogenarians racing against the calendar.

Tomorrow we will drink a toast to all Cubans, those who are here, those who are there, and those who are over there. And we wait for the new year with the absolute conviction that our day is just around the corner.

Translated by GH

30 December 2013

How They Banned Christmas in Cuba / Juan Juan Almeida

With a cloudy sky and rough seas which were dangerous for small craft, last Wednesday the 18th the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Cuba approved, as if by chance, the import of new and used cars into the country.

Dear God, they arranged the same media distraction when, in 1997, just before the visit of His Holiness Pope John Paul II to Havana, without any explanation, the revolutionary government, pen in hand, decreed, or re-decided, that 25th December should be a public holiday.

Since then, without fear, our grandparents dust and polish their traditions and, in spite of adversities, disguise the island with odours because, some more and many  less, on Christmas Eve they brighten up their homes with some pork, chicken, rice, beans, and food, preferably yuccas, seasoned with a delicious mojo sauce based on bitter orange and lots of garlic.  You can come across the same thing in the Christmas specials in restaurants. continue reading

A complete national calorie binge, uniting sad people, proud people, happy ones, peaceful ones, Catholics, non-Catholics, agnostics, protestants, devotees of the saints, masons, atheists, all of them, to celebrate the festivities and await the coming of a child who was born over 2,000 years ago.

They made use of all sorts of reasons to erase Christmas: The death of Ernesto Guevara, the sugar harvest period, revolutionary priorities, in the end, everything you all know perfectly well; but it was a Christmas message which paradoxically fell from the sky on December 24, 1968, which aroused the fury of the ex-commander-in-chief and after some mad cursing put an end to the celebration.

It turned out to be the Man, I am of course referring to the one dressed in olive green, seated to the right of a short wave radio tuned to VOA. Suddenly he heard the voice of astronaut Bill Anders approaching the moon’s dawn, and, instead of an announcement of war, read the opening verses of Genesis, expressing his admiration for the wonders of the cosmos and the greatness of its creator.

Fidel Castro went mad, he felt diminished, nevertheless he carried on listening, awaiting the sound of cannon fire, and received a bolt of lightning in the vein.

The transmission from the sky ended with: “And on behalf of the crew of Apollo 8 we will end by saying Goodnight, Good luck, Happy Christmas and may God bless you all on the good earth.”

His pride overwhelms him. He gets up, scowling, waves his arm in an arc and – like a Spanish dancer – stamps his heels as if the ground were Tablado de Corazones [Ed. note: quote from a poem by José Martí, El alma trémula y sola]. After a moment, they heard “………(a swear word), that’s the end of Christmas.”

That wasn’t all he suspended, from then on all religious events were victim to a bout of amnesia imposed by the triumphant young government of 1959. After about 30 years of exaggerated prohibition, it is making a comeback like a new opportunity. Our family-eclectic-religious cultural heritage and our traditions which were wounded by the Spanish conquest, cannot be erased by decree, they endure, this is the proof. HAPPY CHRISTMAS

Translated by GH

24 December 2013

Correct interpretation of the law, a problem for us all / Cuban Law Association, Yureisy Ceballos Pendones

Yureisy Ceballos Pendones

Recently I was consulted about a case in an action which seems to form part of the working style of those who are, one way or another, employed in the law. I am referring specifically to the office of the Port of Cuba.

A young man decided to leave the country illegally, he was repairing a boat on the north coast of Camagüey when he was surprised by the authorities of the said organisation and went through the administrative process with a fine of 3000.00 Cuban pesos (CUP). continue reading

The kid immediately admitted his intention, affirmed to the functionaries his intention to put in good order the boat which they found on the ground in order to set out to sea once his work was done. Nevertheless they applied Art.1 Point g of the Decree 194, which establishes, and I quote,”to enter or leave or navigate through territorial waters, without the corresponding dispatch note or authorisation from the port office or disobeying a person duly accredited.”

As you can appreciate, what he was accused of did not occur in any of the actions described and checked, to apply correctly the regulation covering such conduct they should have referred to Art. 1 Point b, which basically refers to, “to repair vessels without due authorisation from the port office,” an offence which only carries a fine of up to 1500.00 CUP, on the basis of which I am now representing this citizen, on the basis of the considerations I have mentioned.

Following these comments, all we need to do now is consider on what does the office base its action, if roughly speaking they are aware of the injustice which results from interpreting the regulation in the way they have clearly set out.

Translated by GH

13 December 2013

Downpours Emphasize the Chaos / Martha Beatriz Roque

HAVANA, Cuba, December 2013,  www.cubanet.org.- . It’s frightening the number of housing collapses that have occurred in Havana, up to the end of November and in the first days of December. Officially, there have been 227 collapses, including 26 which were total and the rest partial. 627 individual families have been affected. They haven’t listed the localities where they occurred, to enable one to check the accuracy of the figures, and whether those identified by human rights organisations are included in the official government report.

In most of the neighbourhoods of the capital, including Miramar, which is crossed by 5th Avenue, the sewage system doesn’t work. When there is a downpour, the streets flood and the traffic is affected. But the drains appear so clogged as if they were cemented up, and some houses at a higher level also flood, because the gutters in the roofs have no way to run out onto the streets.

There are streets which remain full of mud and debris. That makes getting about difficult, including on the pavements, which are already affected by trees, whose roots break the concrete and form potholes which make it difficult to pass. In some municipalities like Centro Habana, Habana Vieja and Diez de Octubre it is dangerous to pass down the streets because the balconies are at risk of collapse, and the buildings too.

Given such government apathy, most of the streets have dumpsters crammed full and overflowing, with great mountains of solid rubbish. The divers, which is what they calll the people who rummage in the dustbins, spill the rubbish and the surroundings are converted into focal points for possible disease. And when it rains, like in recent days, this trash flows down the streets with the water.

Although you don’t see cats in public spaces, because they end up as the main course on the dining table of the Cuban poor, the dogs are all over the place, covered in scabies, near food shops. They also enter into some shops and annoy the customers.

The bicycle taxis go the wrong way along the streets, especially in Central Havana, endangering the lives of passers-by. The mobile salespeople also, in accordance with their custom, move their carts along different streets, and park them on any corner, dumping the waste from their sales. Both situations produce problems when it rains.

It’s very hard to find a public toilet in the city. If there is one, there is someone there who charges for its use, and because of that many people have used rubbish bins on the corners, out-of-the way columns, and other uninhabited places, as toilets. Even worse, those that have some sort of shelter, because they have walls, have been converted into accommodation for sexual acts.

The water falling washes away substantial quantities of urine and excrement from those sites.

The list of problems is endless, but the most unbearable is that there won’t be a solution, not even with the 10 million guidelines of the Cuban communist party, because solving the problems requires financial resources and political will, and both things are absent in the government’s programmes.

18 December 2013

Translated by GH

Neither Fresh Milk Nor Diet Milk / Osmar Laffita Rojas

Havana, Cuba, December, www.cubanet.org – Last year 2012, the Ministry of Agriculture reported the production of fresh milk at a level of 516,246,500 litres nationally. Out of this total, the province of Camagüey occupied the first position with 96,299,600 litres. Followed, at a distance, by Villa Clara with 51,794,100 litres; Sancti Spíritus with 49,923,100 and Matanzas with 44,352,800 litres.

As part of a long list of inefficiencies and unfulfilled commitments, the state was not able to fulfill its commitment dated July 26th 2007 to guarantee a daily litre of fresh milk to every child under 7 years.

With a few days to go to the end of 2013, this year’s milk production is not known. That silence is a sign that things aren’t going well.

In most of the provinces, they are continuing with the standard sale of 3 kilos a  month of powdered milk, at the subsidised price of 10 cents a kilo. Every 10 days, children under 7 have the right to a kilo of this miik.

Not being able to guarantee the supply of fresh milk and in order to ensure the children get the diet they need, the state had no choice but to import thousands of tons of powdered milk whose price in the international market was over $4,000 dollars a ton.

That imported powdered milk is also for pregnant women and those diagnosed with chronic illness like diabetes, who get a voucher for a kilo of powdered milk a month, whose price is similar to that sold for children.

It seems like the milk production in the past year has not been what was hoped.

Last August 5th, the weekly Trabajadores, official publication of the Cuba Workers Centre (CTC) , announced the construction of a powdered milk factory in the province of Camagüey with capacity to produce 100,000 litres of milk a day, using milk from the dairies in the Camagüey area.

Production testing of the factory in question will be started at the end of September.

They are putting up the new factory in the place where the old factory was to have been in the 90’s, which would have been the first powdered milk factory in Cuba. Construction was held up for lack of funding. Since then, the state has kept on importing powdered milk, thousands of tons, paying tens of millions of dollars.

The powdered milk factory which they are putting up in Camagüey is fitted with Chinese and Italian technology and its cost has reached 528,000 dollars. It should produced 2,350 tons of powdered whole and low-fat milk a year and 1,100 tons of butter.

The newspaper Granma, on 31st August, announced that work on the project was over 70% advanced  and that at the end of September they will start assembly of the machinery and, if there are no holdups, they forecast completion for the end of December. But, up to now, they haven’t given any more information on this.

At the beginning of December, they announced that pregnant women and the chronically sick in the provinces of Mayabeque, La Habana, Artemisa and Santa Clara, who received powdered milk for their diet, by way of an experiment, will, from January, instead of that, receive a new dairy formula made up of casein, lacto-whey, water, and animal or vegetable fat with different levels of protein.

On this point, the Vice Minister of Internal Trade, Bárbara Acosta, said that this measure was taken because of the over-consumption of powdered milk and assured the deputies that it would not be extended past the date indicated

It seems like there was a setback in the production of milk in the second half of this year.

In the Foreign Currency Recovery Stores* (TRD, from its Spanish initials) they have not offered butter or condensed and evaporated milk produced locally for months.

You only find cheese in certain supermarkets, and not always. The price is about $15 a kilo, which is in fact prohibitive for most Cubans, whose salary doesn’t exceed $20 a month.

The official press keeps completely silent about the crisis in the production of fresh milk. It seems like the government has ordered that they don’t touch on such a sensitive topic.

ramsetgandhi@yahoo.com

Translated by GH

*Translators note: This interesting name makes clear the government’s interest in operating stores that sell products only in hard currency; their purpose is to “recover” the remittances sent to Cubans from family and friends abroad. Products in these stores are generally sold at significant markups.

23 December 2013 / Cubanet