The Energy Regression / Mario Barroso / Yoaxis Marcheco Suarez

From: http://www.tiempo21.icrt.cu/

By: Yoaxis Marcheco Suarez

Two separate power outages last week, one on Monday from early morning until well past noon and the other on Tuesday night occupying the afternoon, made me reflect again on the subject that was so fashionable a few years ago while the eldest in the hierarchy still ruled over us.

The Energy Revolution, which made many believe that all our problems regarding this situation would be resolved and as if by magic we could live a hundred percent on electricity with a minimum consumption of energy — an idea that could occur only to a madman in a country with deplorable economic conditions as ours — of course this madman misjudged the higher rates that customers should pay from the moment that, happy, content and and never grumbling, we began to use “modern and comfortable” electric burners, electric pots and electric heaters.

The kerosene, oil or bright light as it is variously called in the regions of the country, would be only for emergencies or disasters such as the feared and regular cyclones.

But the madman forgot to calculate that the appliances that had been sold did not possess the quality required for prolonged durability, much less eternal; and that on the island, given the critical conditions of the old power grids, which may well tell the story of Cuba since the rise of the Republic to date, energy demand can cause unexpected, untimely and frequent failures especially in this time of year where, despite the special summer schedule that takes advantage of more sunlight, the usual storms evening with rain and wind and lightening, cause damage to networks that could be resolved quickly or, as in the previous week, can take hours and hours affect the lunch hour or dinner at home.

Like those who set something aside for a rainy day, many housewives don’t dare risk the kerosene they’ve saved, thinking that the blackout will go on for just three or four hours, when the moment of truth arrives and entire days pass without electricity, so they have nothing to cook with, and no lights.

In my house, in particularly, we don’t have a stove that uses kerosene, so on repeated occasions we’ve seen ourselves “fried and placed in the sun” or with “the double blank” (as in dominos) — that is we can’t prepare our own food and have to go with our pots and supplies and ask our near neighbors for help who, I confess, have often helped us.

On the other hand, stoves and other domestic appliances are not always in the best condition, my stove, for example, has required considerable investment to fix the wiring. Once we were in a state of siege food-wise for more than a week, because they didn’t have the parts at the little shop in my village and my stove was on a waiting list nearly three hundred stoves long, which resulted in days we don’t even want to remember.

But let’s not talk only of homes and the constant daily odyssey of trying to put something on our plates, let’s think about the huge investment made in air conditioning offices, hard currency stores, medical centers and surgical rooms, and other state facilities, of good number of which can now function only in certain hours of the day or at night, or where the equipment simply sits on the wall deteriorating and losing its useful life.

Another example of the dementia and lack of economic wisdom of the “Fathers” of Cuban Socialism.

As I write this post, it has started to rain, as is typical of May evenings, or at least it should be, as distant thunder sounds and the heat becomes suffocating. But guess what just happened. Yes, it’s easy to guess, a few minutes ago the electricity cut out.

Will this be one more afternoon that we pass “with a double blank” or parading with our belongings through the neighborhood? I don’t know. Already my little girls’ heads covered in sweat, and the youngest crying out for the fan, is enough to remind me of the madman who once mentioned the false phrase “Cuban Energy Revolution,” who never suffers blackouts nor uses  the “fragile piece of junk” he sold to the people to use in our humble kitchens.

This madman always tends to play with the same words, I’m sure that on pronouncing the term “Revolution” he laughed once again about his submissive subjects and in his mind he thought that if this illogical and mediocre plan failed, none of them would complain about it.

The truth is that we are drowning in this energy, economic, social, cultural, educational regression which many blind people still call the “Glorious Cuban Revolution”; and in the midst of this asphyxiation the people still continue mute in a lamentable way, although, in a whisper, they complain about the person or people who took their kerosene and replaced it with fragile electric stoves.

May 17 2012

The Government Guidelines for the Economy and the new Cuban Economic and Social Structure / Estado de Sats / State of Sats

By Antonio Rodiles

The government document regarding guidelines for economic and social policy seeks to outline a new design for Cuban society. This new design envisions an economy essentially separated into three distinct sectors:

1) Large Enterprises: This segment contemplates those sectors with the highest profitability. Here we find tourism, the new Economic Zones (for example, the Port of Mariel), telecommunications, transport, nickel production, and chain stores. These include State Enterprises and Joint Ventures.

1a) State Enterprises: It is important to note that within the large state enterprises we find the Armed Forces (FAR) and the Ministry of the Interior (MININT). Both institutions currently control many of the most profitable business in Cuba. In recent years, unlike in many countries, these institutions have behaved as corporations.

1b) Joint Ventures with Foreign Capital: Cuban capital is excluded from this sector. One of the countries showing increased interest in investing in Cuba for long-term profitability is Brazil. It’s clear that Brazil is betting on a future change in relations between Cuba and the United States, and is looking to position itself for that moment, hence the great interest it is showing in the Mariel Zone project.

2) Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs, or, in Spanish known by the acronym PYMEs)

2a) Cooperatives (regional collectives). Sectors of light industry, services, food production. Cuba manages this sector through usufruct – a leasing arrangement – in which the State maintains ownership of the enterprises, while allowing a certain independence to those who hold them in usufruct. So far it is not clear under what tax structure they will operate.

2b) Local Governments. These enterprises are tied to local governments and have greater autonomy. Their existence depends on their profitability.

3) Micro-enterprises (referred to in Cuba as timbiriches). Small manufacturing, small restaurants, rental homes and offices. Tax rates for these businesses are extremely high, there are limitations on contracting for labor, as well as other restrictions that will not allow the natural growth of the sector.

The State will retain control over professional services, which includes sending professionals to other nations. These professionals will continue to receive only a tiny part of the salary paid to the Cuban Government for their services.

There are two key points mentioned in the Government Guidelines document:

1. The economic policy of the new stage corresponds to the principle that only socialism is capable of overcoming the difficulties and preserving the conquests of the Revolution, and that in the updating of the economic model planning will be supreme, not the market. [1] (The document does not reference what exactly is understood by socialism under the new economic-social design.)

2. The concentration of ownership will not be permitted. [1]

This is another area that raises many questions. Is it referring only to the micro-enterprise sector? Or does it also refer to State monopolies or enterprise groups?

One very striking aspect of the document is the lack of any reference to the mechanisms of transparency in this new economic structure. There is not a single sentence that explains to us how a Cuban citizen can verify government spending, the amounts of national and foreign investment, or the financial statements of companies and ministries, including the Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior.

This roadmap seeks, undoubtedly, to approach in the medium and long term the “market socialism” model in place in China and Vietnam, but with marked limitations. The key differences are directed at private enterprise and national and foreign investment. In the case of China, the investment from Chinese in the diaspora was crucial, while in our country the very mention of this factor is taboo. The proposed model is visibly marked by the fear of losing control of the change process, as well as a strong ideological counterweight, which continues to hold back the transformations needed in the country.

In recent times, within the island, certain trends that promote “renewed socialism” have gathered strength. Some of these take as a social paradigm a system structured around Sector 2, above — small and medium sized enterprises. A product of the failure of socialism in Eastern Europe and of the profound crisis facing Cuba, the promoters of this approach advocate less centralization and a flatter power structure. They do not, however, renounce the collectivist vision as the essential framework of Cuban society, that is, they will look for collectivization on a micro-scale. This thinking continues to demonstrate a rejection of the growth of private enterprise and capital for Cubans, as well as the full development of individual freedoms. It is very important to mention that these new visions do not point to Communism as “the end of history,” or at least do not make reference to it.

I would like to mention a figure who appeared in the Economist Magazine, relating to the performance of private enterprises in China. At a conference in November of 2010, Zheng Yumin, director of the Zhejiang Provincial Administrative Bureau for Industry and Commerce, said there were 43 million companies in China, of which 93% are privately owned, employing 92% of the total workforce.[2] These statistics show the need to allow small, medium, and also large private enterprises to play their rightful roles in the economy of any nation.

A design like that proposed in the Cuban Government’s Guidelines, is clearly biased against the growth and development of the nation, in social, economic and political aspects, because it establishes strong constraints on individual initiative, a basic element of any contemporary society. While it may be a step forward in pursuit of decentralization and the possibility of new forms of ownership, it is important that the changes undertaken reflect a depth consistent with a long-term vision, and do not end up serving as a straitjacket on society.

In the 21st century it is essential to analyze the development of nations as a process that refers not only to the economic sector, but that also encompasses various social and political aspects from a more holistic vision.  Societies structured as multi-level systems in each one of their building blocks, or basic elements, should have the ability to establish a spontaneous order. This spontaneous association guarantees that properties such as “emergence” — also referred to as “self-organization,” a central tenet of Marxism — can function; that is, the system generates new forms that are not obtained as a sum of its constituent parts.

In 1999, James D. Wolfensohn presented a new comprehensive framework for analyzing development in terms of three factors[3]:

1) Development of Social Institutions (system of government, judicial system, financial institutions and social programs).

2) Human Conditions: education and health.

3) Physical Infrastructure: water, energy, transportation and environmental protection.

In the same vein, a recent article by Francis Fukuyama and Brian Levy[4] seeks to establish the essential elements, the building blocks, which make up a development strategy, assessing this as the multilevel system it is. The elements they establish are:

1) Economic growth.

2) Development of civil society.

3) The Constitution of the State.

4) Democratic political institutions, including both the rule of law and a democratic electoral system.

Let us analyze in more detail four elements that undoubtedly create the necessary basis for a nation to demonstrate a strong social dynamic:

1) Social development implies economic growth, since the latter provides the possibility of better living conditions, both individually and as a nation. Economic growth also provides the potential, for both individuals and the State, to have at their disposal the resources to develop their projects. In the specific case of the State, we are talking particularly of those projects that, in turn, allow for long-term growth: technology and infrastructure, among others. Economic growth, without a doubt, goes hand in hand with the exercise of economic freedom, which is a necessary if not sufficient condition, for the establishment of a prosperous society.

2) Civil society is the engine that generates not only new social structures, but also promotes the renewal of state institutions, managing them so that they can adjust to meet growing social demands. The feedback between civil society and the State must be a factor that works in favor of the development of nations. A vigorous civil society only occurs when individuals have the ability to interact within a framework of full respect for individual rights, governed by a rule of law. Every State should guarantee the exercise of economic and political freedoms, and should never function as a straitjacket on society. Contemporary civil society should be seen as a framework of networks with the highest connectivity, formed from the individual as an entity, to more complex social structures, and framed not only in a national context, but a transnational one as well.

3) An effective state must have as its principal objective the establishment of law and order through a state of law. This will ensure the appropriate framework to support social dynamics, in which there is majority rule with full respect for the minority. Only then is it possible that individuals can enjoy the benefits of belonging to a nation. The constitution of the State is, in itself, a multi-dimensional process[4], beginning with the ability to concentrate the coercive power of a territory, and passing through the administrative ability to offer efficient services, as well as to control corruption. The control of law and order on the part of the State is a necessary condition for a country to function as an entity. At present the vision of the Nation State has begun to fade with the appearance of supranational unions. It is very important to note that, from this perspective, an effective State is not a large State and is the counterpart of the totalitarian State.

4) The establishment of democratic political institutions plays an essential role in any strategy for development. The creation of the mechanisms of transparency, the establishment of laws that prevent unfair competition and monopolies, are undoubtedly basic elements to create a dynamic society. Any system that is based on the establishment of monopolies – be they state or private groups, protected or not by government institutions – will condemn the country to failure over the long term. Our economy is a clear example of how a State monopoly ends up smothering individual initiative and achieves high levels of inefficiency and ineffectiveness. Other cases, such as Mexico, demonstrate the results of an economy based on a combination of State monopoly associated with interest groups. This unholy alliance ends up creating, in that Aztec county, what was once called “a perfect dictatorship.” The institutions are completely at the service of specific groups and the country is very far from functioning as a state of laws. The rule of law remains weak, responding to the interests of the groups in power. We need to understand the growth in organized crime — drug cartels — as a direct result of the lack of democratic credibility.

To begin the process of transformation in our country, we must first consider all the elements that will play a part. Taking into account the previous analysis, it is clear that a development strategy implies the most comprehensive changes at the deepest levels. All transformations need to be designed to promote more effective mechanisms that stimulate the social dynamic, looking for direct support in our own experience and in that of other nations.

There are three points that can form a base for these transformations. This base guarantees a process of development over the medium and long term that would allow us to avoid unnecessary and painful situations. These three elements are:

1) Establish a legal framework that sets out clearly and transparently, the rights regarding private property as well as the ability of citizens, either individually or in association with others, to make use of their possessions for private, commercial and social ends. The establishment of private enterprise across a wide range of economic sectors is essential.

2) Undertake a modernization of the State, which has as its principal objective the creation of decentralized and democratic structures. Consider within this process, among other things, tax reform and the corresponding mechanisms of accountability and transparency, seeking the best balance between the performance of the market and the social responsibilities assumed by the State.

3) Introduce into our country the process of modernization and globalization that holds sway in the contemporary world. An introduction that leads to the free flow of information, freedom of movement for people as well as openness to investments, particularly to encourage Cubans residing both within and outside the island to be participants in the process of renewal.

In conclusion I would like to make one final comment. Starting from the vision that society can be represented as the union of a framework of networks, occupied at different levels, and responding to different structures and dynamics, it is then possible to understand why a pre-established roadmap, as a proposal for the future, is quite inadequate.

The contemporary world shows us that societies can no longer be seen only as national realities, but that we must understand them as transnational entities, which adds still more complexity to these systems. The creation of new levels in this structure will depend on the capacity for self-generation starting from a spontaneous order and its interaction with the environment. The result of this dynamic is not predicable, so to plan its emergence and subsequent evolution is, at the very least, Utopian. Our aspiration must be to establish strategies that facilitate and stimulate this spontaneous order as a generating element and driving force of society, and to ensure the existence of an open society. It is on this point where I differ completely from planned and collectivist models, because these undoubtedly end up smothering the self-generation capacity of these systems.

References:
1) Government of Cuba: Lineamientos de la política económica y social. (Guidelines for Economic and Social Policy)
2) The Economist Magazine: Bamboo Capitalism. Mar 10th 2011.
3) Bar-Yam, Yaneer. Making Things Work. Knowledge Press.
4) Fukuyama, F. Levy, B. “Development Strategies”

27 March 2011

The Most Popular Song in the Nursery / Dora Leonor Mesa

The mother, overwhelmed byhow muchwas left to do after her long work day, gathers her two-year old daughter from the private nursery that they had recommended to her. “The children are very well cared for and learn a lot,” they had told her.

In her urgency to get home, the doctor listened to the little girl murmur a melody that seemed familiar, but she barely paid attention trying to get home as soon as possible. She was observing for some time that the girl had been better behaved and followed diverse orders that they gave her. She even made demonstrations of movements that he teacher of Education taught her.

The day ended normally, and the next morning before dressing for work she again heard “the little song” without giving it great importance.

Some weeks passed, and one afternoon, while the family was watching television, waiting for the beginning of a sporting event, how great was their surprise to see the little girlsaluting the Cuban flag like the athletes at the beginning of the notes of the national anthem. Immediately, without pause and puffed with pride, the girl hummed completely and with the greatest solemnity the anthem, or the Anthem of Bayamo as it is also known.

Private Cuban nurseries can and should be educational establishments.

Preschool Education in Cuba constitutes the initial link of all the education of boys and girls; it also forms the first subsystem of all the National System of Education; it has as its objective to the maximum harmonic and complete development of the infant from six months until five years of age and consequently his preparation for school.

The system of home schooling, or education in the home is only permitted for exceptional cases, generally for sick boys and girls. Although preschool is not obligatory, Cuban families willingly acceptsending their little ones of five years to school.

Preschool Education contemplates three fundamental variants, essentially constituted under the supervision of the State: the nursery schoolfor children from zero to five years of age, the preschool grade or preparatory school for children from five years of age, and the informal channels, currentlytransformed into the program “Educate your child,” from birth until four years of age, through the cooperation of the parents and the community.

Except for the nurseries directed by religious institutions and other international organizations, the development of private Cubannurseries as educational centers is in its infancy. In order to begin tospeak of the topic we must mention that the owners of these child establishments, frequently located in their own homes, appear legally registered as “nannies” although they are supervised by diverse State institutions and are regulated by various legal regulations, they receive visits from functionaries and professionals of the Ministry of Public Health, etc.

In the private nurseries of Cuban citizens, boys and girls of different ages and social strata live together. In the places where we work, age differences are not established, provided that the little ones show sufficient maturity, discipline and motivation to participate in the activities that are carried out. This has permitted our young children of ages two to four years to acquire abilities that generally surprise parents, relatives and concerned persons.

Learning the National Anthem, recognizing the Cuban flag and other national attributes form part of a strategy to develop their identity as Cuban citizens, besides improving their vocabulary and communication skills and giving rise to their later adaptation to an educational institution, in this case the school.

The mother of the two-year-old little girl marvels that her little one sings the National Anthem. We explain to her that the main purpose of our work is that Cuban preschool education continue benefitting society and the families of the country. It makes us proud that the children learn, but we will be happier when Cuban teaching reaches the excellence of that on the continent.

Families with small children in private childcare need a place that will care for their offspring at irregular hours, secure and with great confidence for their later educational development.

Napoleon Bonaparte said: “We can always stop ourselves on the way up, but never on the way down.” A comment from a historic person that is worthy of reflection and not for nothing do the members of the Cuban Association for Early Childhood Education repeat among ourselves, “Not one step back, don’t even think about it.”

Whenever we can do something every day for the development of Cuban children, we do it with the best disposition and spend whatever time is necessary.

May 15 2012

Elderly Fired in Matanzas / Yaremis Flores

Yaremis Flores

At least 25 retirees were fired by the Chief of the Basic Unit of Cooperative Production (UBPC), located in the town Merceditas, in Matanzas, 2 weeks ago. “The reason for the dismissals was the death of one of the elderly, after being trapped in a fire in the cane-growing area of the cooperative,” said Silvia, daughter of one of the unemployed.

According to the source, the deceased worker was trying to create a backfire (the method used to prevent the spread of the flames). But a wind gust spread the fire to surround him. “The firefighters never came. When they managed to put out the fire the man was already incinerated,” he said.

Enrique, age 60, is one of those affected by the layoffs. He had a monthly salary of 700 Cuban pesos (25 U.S. dollars). “We made up more than 70% of the workforce of the cooperative,” he said and asserted that the response of the managers, before the fatal incident occurred, was to fire the retirees. “Other UBPCs (basic units of agricultural production) like Hoyo Colorado in the town of Marti in Matanzas, have also initiated some unfair dismissals.”

The laid-off worker argued that “the bosses fear that there will be another death, or we will cause losses through carelessness.” But he claimed that he has never been disciplined for any misconduct during his employment.

Enrique receives monthly support of 300 Cuban pesos, about $10, as his pensionfrom the State. Senior citizens on the island have to subsist on a “little extra work” because the pension does not cover their basic needs.

In general, retirees in Cuba are hired for a limited time period. However, the labor law does not empower the managers to end the employment relationship without legal justification.

May 18 2012

In the Absence of Bread, Circuses! / Rebeca Monzo

The purpose of the Eleventh Biennial of Havana, as in previous editions, is to show the art being made in our country as well as in the world and in other lesser-known regions. From the eleventh day of this month until June 11, the entire capital has been converted into a gallery, exhibiting works by more than one hundred eighty artists from forty-three countries.

The main objective of this Biennale, dedicated especially to the so-called third world countries, is to draw in and to interact with the viewer, in the widest reconciliation of dreams, utopias and artistic practices of popular imagination.

Now, reading in the cultural page of the newspaper Juventud Rebelde on Wednesday the 16th of this month, the article on the octogenarian Austrian artist Hermann Nitsch, I could not help but feel disgust and indignation, with his performance Aktion 135.

“It became a great spectacle that included the sacrifice of animals and the mixing to their viscera with fruit, as well as bathing with the blood of the victims, which was accompanied by music performed by the ISA Symphony Orchestra, the Ignacio Piñero National Septet and the Synthesis Group.” (Aracelys Bedevia)

This distinguished painter, writer and Austrian composer, guest of the Eleventh Biennial, on Tuesday received an honorary degree in Art.

With all due respect that this artist merits for his career in the arts, I can not at all agree with this work, which includes the useless sacrifice of animals. Of course, this happens in a country where there are no laws that protect civil societies and protect them. It is useless to raise my voice here, where there is no echo, but it would be good for the protective institutions of animal life, which exist and function in the vast majority of civilized countries, to take account of this criminal act, where art is taken as an excuse for animal abuse, in the eyes lazy and complicit officials and spectators.

It is clear once again that when a government cannot assure its citizens bread, they give them circuses, and in this particular case, one stained with blood.

May 18 2012

The Victory of the Second World War / Rafael León Rodríguez

From es.euronews.com

The Russians commemorated May 9th of this year, the 67th anniversary of victory over Hitler’s Germany, with a military parade in Red Square in Moscow, as usual. In this traditional parade the the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation marched, as they have since 1991. A new flag, a new anthem and a new political system presided over the former Soviet Union, a nation that paid the highest cost in lives during World War II.

The surprise attack in June 1941 by Nazi fascism took the Soviet armed forces unawares; their top officials had signed a nonaggression treaty with Germany in 1939 that allowed Hitler to take over most of Europe, without having to concern himself about the eastern front. The Red Army, dismantled in the Stalinist purges of the thirties recovered and, with material aid from the countries led by U.S. allies, managed to defeat the Nazi armies which had occupied much of the territory of the now defunct Soviet Union.

This is contemporary history now, but there are still those in our country who seek to forget the imperial role played by Russia in Europe and worldwide, both that of Czarism as well as the Stalinist Communism, the latter concealed under the so-called proletarian internationalism. They seem unaware that the new Russia is a result of perestroika and the Soviet Union has ceased to exist. All they have left is the nostalgic daydreams to revive the martial military parades and the pretentious speeches, trying to recover the historical memory of an almost forgotten empire.

16 May 2012

The Real "Outraged" / Eugenio Leal

No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved. Matthew 9:16-17

For some years now I have exchanged views with some of the principal apologists in Cuba, of the so-called “Socialism of the 21st Century,” and I know the members of the Group called “Critical Observatory Network,” which brings together those who proclaim the reformulation of the Socialist system.

From the first time, at a conference I attended in the now defunct Institute of Biblical and Theological Studies (ISEBIT),in my rebuttal I referred to the Gospel of St. Matthew. Because how can one conceive that a system that has proven to be unworkable, because it goes against the essence of being human, can be redesigned and supported in the XXI century?

The proposals and related approaches of the alleged “Socialism of the XXI Century,” reminds me of an experiment conducted more than forty years ago by a married couple, both psychologists, at Harvard University. It earned them the Nobel Prize for demonstrating the mechanisms of perception.

For the experiment they took a litter of newborn kittens and divided then into two groups. One group was reared in a room where all visual stimuli were horizontal. The other in which the stimuli were vertical. When both groups grew, respectively, some perceived only the horizontal elements in the environment while the others perceived only the vertical.

In Cuba, from nursery school to university, we receive a political-ideological training designed to demonstrate the benefits of socialism. Thus, many people are indoctrinated to see only the socialist forms of organizing society. In contrast to the reality. That is, they perceive what they are conditioned to see.

On Saturday, May 12, the “Critical Observatory Network” called for a rally in support of the “Outraged” of the world. It was to be held at 2 pm at Karl Marx Park, located on the corner of Carlos III and Belascoain in Central Havana. Given that the day before the 11th Havana Biennial — an Art exhibition filled with performances and other events — had begun, I decided to go to see the performance they had prepared.

On arriving, I was aware of the presence of police and people in civilian clothes around the site, which I told me that the political police was guarding the place. Knowing that my friend Miriam Celaya was also planning to attend, I looked for her and saw that the police had arrested her. I went to her.

This caused the people dressed as civilians, who directed the operation of State Security, to order me to stop me, as well, and they asked me for my mobile phone. On my refusing to give it to them, as they were in plain clothes and did not have such powers, they handed me to another one dressed as a cop, although he did not have any identifying badge, and he pushed me up against a patrol car. There I stood, and with my hands up, feet wide, while they took my backpack, mobile phone, camera and video recorder and I put me in the patrol car.

In the back seat to my right sat Miriam and on the left sat a policeman. I told Miriam: don’t worry that we go as a couple, as in Noah’s ark. We were taken to the Playa on Calle 42 and Avenida 33. where they stopped the car and told us to get out. They gave us our property and tore out of there, gone. Miriam and I wondered, what do we do? And I told her, “On the other corner is the “El Alamo” cafeteria, let’s go have a beer and cool off.

I’ve described because it happened to show that the repressors are very worried about public discontent in the streets of the city. While walking with Miriam, the police who were taking her repeated: nothing can happen here, nothing can happen here, like a mantra.

Members of the “Critical Observatory Network” were just 12 apologists for the “Socialism of the 21st Century.” Which they summarized in two separate posters: “If you think like a bourgeois you will live like a slave” and “Down with the capitalists.” It turned out, that after we were taken they sang the anthem “The Internationale”. Everything took less than 15 minutes.

What do they fear? That 68% of citizens, according to a 2011 survey by the Veritas Group, believe that we must change the economic-political-social. That the truly “outraged,” in Cuba, take the initiative and, instead of a XXI century socialism, they demand loudly on the avenues, streets and parks of the city the structural changes that our society requires.

May 15 2012

Rastafarian Community on the Island and the "Celebration" of May Day / Yaremis Flores

Yaremis Flores

Sandor Perez, A 29-year-old Rastafarian, had no reason to celebrate this May 1st. In February he was dismissed from the Communal Services of Havana East, where he worked as a street sweeper. His boss told him: “If you don’t get a haircut, you can’t keep working with us.” Sandor had bought with his savings his own little cart for picking up trash.

His long hair curled under a turban does not meet the ’good behavior and appearance’ requirement for belonging to a state entity. Graduated with an associate degree in Naval Construction; he did not exercise thattrade because of the institutional rejection of his beliefs.

“I have applied for several jobs,and generally they don’t choose me because of my appearance,” said Sandor. “The only possible optionsfor the Rastas in Cuba are to work cleaning streets, in agriculture or in construction. I don’t know anyone who is a doctor, teacher or delegate of the National Assembly,” he added.

A four-year old girl depends on the young Rasta. During the month of March he sought work on the ’Hanoi’ Organoponico in the capital neighborhood of Alamar (a place where agricultural products are cultivated and sold), but the answer was, “Come another day to see if something appearsfor you.” He went 10 consecutive days, with the hope of getting a job.

On the morning of the eleventh day, the boss of the Organoponico told him, feigning sadness, “The job vacancy is already filled; if you had come yesterday. . .” Sandor replied: “Look, don’t pay me with money; I can do with a daily bundle of lettuce for my I-tal (natural foodproper for the Rastafarian diet).” The proposal was not accepted.

Carlos Cantero, a Rasta of 36 years of age, also worked as a trash picker some weeks ago. “I was expelled because of my dreadlocks” (Rastafarian hair style). Moreover, he assured that some of his Rasta brothers have not withstood the pressure and have had to cut their hair, which goes against thecommands of the religion.

Without precise official statistics, some Cuban Rastas affirm that the unemployment rate of the community is high. In order to subsist, they are obliged to fulfill the stereotypes imposed by the socialist society. Is it for everyone, the happiness of celebrating the work of the Revolution on the International Day of the Workers?

Translated by mlk

May 16 2012

Pork a la Flies / Wendy Iriepa and Ignacio Estrada

 

Cerdo a la Mosca (4)

Cerdo a la Mosca (5)

Pork is one of the dishes most commonly served on every Cuban table. The absence of it in State stores has given rise to innumerable criticisms from the population. The little meat that is sold right now, is done so in a clandestine way in homes and patios at fairly high prices.

This past weekend on a visit to Santo Domingo, located just 20 miles outside the city of Santa Clara, the lens of my camera captured some snapshots that show how a few pieces of pork are brought someplace in this town.

The meat is transported in a cart pulled by animals, known as horse wagon, a cart that goes along with pieces of this meat hanging off one side, accompanied by a good collection of insects. The destination of this meat was an establishment known as The Blue Tent, a commercial establishment that will subsequently sell it to those who come there for the sole purpose of tasting one of the traditional dishes.

We might well call the dish made from this meat product, “Pork a la Flies.”

May 14 2012

The Clan in Power / Rosa María Rodríguez Torrado

From: “www.intereconomia.com”

Delfi is an almost obsolete computer programming language, and in reverse almost a man’s name I don’t care to mention, although in this writing I allude to one who still governs or influences the destiny of Cuba and who reappears in public on occasion talking about the end of the world. This would-be Messiah of the olive-green mentality, who became a “peaceful guerrilla” in pursuit of a Nobel Prize, took the world to the brink of World War III. Among his political priorities have been his own image, remaining at the head of Cuba and of the model he founded and built, the export of his ideological pretext — including logistical support to friends and guerrillas — to come to power, or to perpetuate himself in it, the constant criticism of the rich countries, particularly the United States. He has worn out Cuba socially, politically and economically, and he still meddles in the problems of others offering them his theories in exchange for support, even if it is just propaganda and patronage. Venezuela is the economic exception that replaced the former Soviet empire in this line.

But I refuse to attribute all national problems to him, because he is a symbol, an icon: the caudillo of a team of people who have conspired with him to keep him, for decades, in the seat where they have habitually committed the dishonor of violating the rights of a whole nation. So they insist on the illogic of the single-party system and maintain the closed circle of the clan, where there is no room for questions, only obedience.

To this working group he always gives privileges and perks in exchange for the worship of his person and he made them stewards of the current problems of Cuba and those to come. This practice is still maintained because in him is the survival of the failed, but stubbornly defended political model and the continuation of the well-being of his “friends in the cause” and family members.

I know that Delfi enjoys this widespread cult of personality that has captured headlines and he still appears in the international press with his name and surname — keeping in mind that the dauphin and current president is his brother — but it’s not enough. The Castro clan and the “Castro dynasty” continues castrating the fundamental rights of Cubans, postponing our legitimate aspirations and needs for political pluralism, and deifying the image of the dictator with appearances, historical images of the guerrillas, constant references to his person in the national media, and presentations to foreign audiences along with the local elite.

It’s not that I would like to “play with the monkey and the chain,”* the facts are the evidence that he is still there, with his group of accommodating sculptors of the myth, preventing the current Head of State from having too much prominence, or ruining it all with openings or reforms, this political monotheism and cult of his personality for which he and his stalwarts have worked for more than fifty years.

Many think it is best to ignore him, but in doing so, I feel I’m missing a fundamental part of our history, restricting my freedom of speech, and going along with those who harass us, and that is not intellectually honest.

*Translator’s note: From a popular Cuban saying: “Play with the chain but not the monkey.”

May 16 2012

Simple Human Beings / Fernando Dámaso

Archive photo

Chauvinism has been an evil that has always accompanied us, exacerbated in the last 50 years, with the objective of making us forget our small, medium and large problems, on altars of resolving those of humanity, as the different and chosen people that we are. This aims to explain and validate our direct or indirect participation in dozens of countries, as much in times of war as of peace, at the cost of human lives and material resources.

Nevertheless, if we review our history, in spite of being rich in facts and important people — like any other country — this strange self-valuation has not contributed much. Not because of caprice did Spain place on its shield its famous phrase: The always loyal Island of Cuba, without forgetting that we were one of the last colonies to free ourselves, when all the rest had already managed it.

Our first armed uprising against Spain was organized and directed by a Venezuelan, General Narciso Lopez, on disembarking in Cardenas in 1850, with the majority participation of foreigners, principally North Americans, and only five Cubans. No inhabitant of the place swelled his forces, and he had to re-embark, pursued by the Spaniards.

On his second landing, by Pinar del Rio, 10% were Cuban, but the Hungarian General Johann Pragay and North American Colonel William Crittenden formed an important part of it. It failed, being captured by a Cuban patrol in the service of the Spaniards, and the majority were executed.

In 1868, in the uprising of Yara, Carlos Manuel de Cespedes commanded; Maximo Gomez and Luis Marcano, both Dominicans,participated, Marcano was second in command (substituted for Bartolome Maso). Afterward they were joined by General Modesto Diaz, also Dominican. The post of Chief General of the Liberating Army, on producing the division of powers in the year 1869, was occupied by the Cuban General Manuel de Quesada, who had fought in the Mexican war against the French, but afterward the North American General Thomas Jordan arrested him for a short time — in the Ten Year War, and General Maximo Gomez — during all of the War of Independence.

In these suppressed wars the brigadier Henry Reeve, North American, and General Carlos Roloff, Polish, stood out in addition to some other lesser known foreigners. In more recent times, an important role in insurrectionist triumph belonged to commander Ernesto Guevara, Argentinian.

As can be appreciated, although I have only referred to the military and have not made reference to medicine, education, architecture, the arts, etc., on many occasions we have needed foreigners for the achievement of our goals. This does not diminish the role of the Cubans, but it puts us in our just place, without nationalist outbursts of any kind.

Neither is the cowardice well founded that some attribute to us in recent times for not being capable of fighting for an exit from the profound economic, political and social crisis that overwhelmed us more than half a century ago. Without a doubt fear exists in society, but it is an induced fear that has deformed a great part of the population, making it accept and even be complicit in a bad government, forgetting their most elemental duties as citizens.

Ultimately, like everyone, we have lights and shadows, good things and bad things. We are neither different nor chosen, but simple human beings.

Translated by mlk

May 15 2012

Pig in a “Box” / Yoani Sánchez

tablilla_preciosThe market is almost empty. It’s still very early and someone is writing the new prices for a pound of pork on a blackboard. It seems a simple gesture, that of the hand that has changed only one digit in the price of the ribs, the legs, or the processed fat. But in reality, what is expressed on that slate — with its numbers traced in chalk — is a real market cataclysm. The internal Cuban economy suffers from a weakness such that the slightest price increase for a pound of steak or butter is enough to disrupt our fragile commercial framework. A few centavos added to the price of a food sends the thermometer of daily anxiety upward, raises the barometer of concern.

Indeed, a certain state of alarm is running through the country lately. Pork is scarce because of the dearth of feed; its import has declined and local production barely gets off the ground. The self-employment sector suffers from a scarcity of the product which forms the basis for the so-called “little boxes,” which almost always include rice, some kind of starch, and a little meat. This lunch “in hand” is the mainstay of many Cubans who work far from home, and also constitutes the basic unit for the private businesses selling ready-made meals. When the price of this lunchbox rises it pulls everything with it. The shoe salesman adds a bit to his merchandise to recoup his loss on the midday snack; the shopkeeper who paid more for her sandals tries to make up the difference from unsuspecting customers who don’t count their change; and the retired housewife writes to her son in Frankfurt or Miami asking for a bump in her remittance, because life is very expensive. And this whole sequence of problems and angst begins in a pigsty, the place where feed and care should be converted into pounds of meat, but are not.

16 May 2012

The Double Nine / Rebeca Monzo

On my planet dominoes have been and continue to be the most popular table game.

Game played with twenty-eight rectangular tiles, generally white on the face and dark on the reverse, with each divided into two squares, each one of which is marked with from one to six dots, or with none at all.

Thus says the Volume I of the Encyclopedia Espasa-Calpe, sa. Madrid 1035 (third edition).

But we Latinos, we like to do more complicated things, we add to make it fifty-five tiles in total, and there reigns the dreaded, unwanted, hated and sometimes loved double nine.

I remember papa Manolo, Cubanized-Asturian, passionate lover of this game, who for many years proudly wore a belt with a wide buckle of silver and enamel that said champion. In the first years after 1959 he sold it, who knows for what paltry sum of money, to put food on our table, back in the seventies when we could barely manage one meal a day. All this led me to think that our country, by the work and grace of a personal utopia, was becoming a metaphor for this game:

Double Standard: To express in public the exact opposite of what you really think, and say, behind closed doors.

Double Currency: One, with which they pay our meager salaries and retirements, which has barely any value, and another which, even though it’s only good inside the country, at least can be used to acquire most of the basic necessities, and that must be gotten and spent at your own risk.

Double Health: One very precarious and lacking in resources, which is offered to the people. Another more specialized, with a wide range of medicines and better facilities for the leaders and foreigners.

Double Education: One very deficient, with schools in a terrible state and most improvised teachers. And the other with very good conditions and qualified teachers for the diplomatic corps and a very few privileged Cubans.

Double Market: One, with little variety in products and prices extraordinarily inflated (more than 250% of costs), and the other in the so-called Cuban Convertible Pesos.

And another only for diplomats and senior leaders, with more varied products and better prices.

Double Migratory Law: One, draconian and violating human rights, which is applied to the population in general, and another, more expedited and economical, that favors only the leaders and high officials.

Double Supply: Almost nothing for the people’s markets, and another with home deliveries in record time, for the ruling elite and selected officials.

Double Justice: The surprisingly cruel, pompous and media focused applied to citizens who violate the law, and another quiet, almost secret and less aggressive, applied to officials who have committed crimes against the economy.

Double Information: One, transmitted to the population through all the official media, and another of antennas and Internet, fiercely persecuted, which only a few privileged have access to.

As you see, there are various doubles. Now we just have to focus on the table, calculate how many tiles are still to come, and above all, try to guess who is crouched over the double nine, because in any moment he can play it and that’s the game!

As I told you, this may be the most uncomfortable and surprising tile, of this other twisted entertainment.

May 15 2012

The Testimony of Antunez / Lilianne Ruíz

Everything I am capable of writing, again makes me sound so naive until I translate this fury I hold onto. And this is what we can say is the real horror of the Cuban Revolution, outside the political prison, the sin of naivete. What happens when, in a society, it becomes widespread conduct to ignore responsibility, to convert the individual conscience into a collective conscience dictated by the figure of a leader with no fear of God and without respect for men.

This is the Revolution and the degrees of villainy increase from the most public spaces to the most “exclusive” which are the Cuban prisons. Jorge Luis García Pérez “Antúnez” has a book titled “Boitel Lives.” It is a testimony of his lengthy political imprisonment, of the beatings, the real hell of the Cuban prisons closed to the rapporteurs of the International Human Rights Commission, the Red Cross, and Amnesty International.

It is so easy to offer a moral discourse, as he has done all these years of the Cuban Revolution. It is so irresponsible that much of the world wants to confuse his protests against the wars of the Pentagon with support for this Revolution, which has imprisoned so many men and women… for the crime of persevering in their existential freedom, of conscience, and their responsibility for themselves and for others.

Cuba is not a good place to live. It’s terrifying in the sense of the insecurity of the individual faced with the ruthless machinery of the State that does not truly represent us and condemns us if we don’t serve the interests of keeping power in the hands of the worst plague in the history of Cuba. I can only commend myself to God, but I will not shut up. The darker this evil that plagues Cubans the more hope I have in Christ, the Son of God, Savior, who knows suffering and will always create a path of salvation for us.

May 16 2012