Papayas and Bananas Banned / Leon Padron Azcuy

HAVANA, Cuba, November 2013, www.cubanet.org – The ban was issued by the Director of Farmers Markets just a month ago, because the vendors were making excessive use of chemicals (fordimed and carbide) to advance the ripening process in fruits, which in turn brought several complaints by customers who claimed that the uncontrolled use of these chemical altered the taste and texture of the fruits and was bad for one’s health.

Although the intention is to “protect the population,” it’s contradictory that this measure has only been applied to farmers markets, when the practice is a common one among most vendors operating in almost all points of sale, whether its one belonging to the Ministry of Agriculture, or a roving vendor.

The prohibition on the sale of bananas and papayas in the farmers markets in the capital, has only been strictly maintained in the market at 160th and 51st in La Lisa.

Julio Castillo Martínez, a vendor at one of the stands at the La Lisa market, and the source of this information, offered ripe bananas and papaya there, and said, “I was selling around 2,200 pounds of papaya a week and the same amount of bananas, and never had any customer complaints,” and he added, “the use of flordimed in small quantities diluted in water has been used for years by all the papaya producers at the time the fruit is picked and sold. In the case of bananas, I don’t use the chemical because they ripen quickly. This ban has affected my income.”

A truck driver who refused to identify himself, transports these fruits from the rural village of San Antonio in Mayabeque Province, to 114th Street in Marianao, where almost all the vendors of agricultural products get their supplies, said, “The fruits can’t be transported ripe because they get crushed and the measured or exact use of flordimed is not harmful, it facilitates the sale and has always been used.”

At the markets at 19th and B in Vedado and at Elgido in Old Havana, they’ve stopped selling papayas and bananas for more than 15 days, but they’ve started to offer them again in the last few days. One of the vendors at the market at 19th and D said, “Now we have to have papers that support the phytosanitary control of bananas and papayas in order to have them at our stands, although my products have always been high quality and no one has ever complained.”

The truth is that the absence of these products in the markets can’t be justified by the inefficiency of phytosanitary controls which the State itself should guarantee, or at least create conditions for others to guarantee it. And that must necessarily start from the same field the fruits come from.

Beyond this, the problem lies in the lack of reviews of some irresponsible sellers who, eager to sell, sprayed the precious products with chemicals. This nebulous situation is annoying both the serious sellers, as is the case of Castillo, who have nothing to do with this, and who are now unable to sell their most popular products — papayas and bananas — as well as consumers who like these precious fruits and have to look for them in far off places.

For some, the measure taken by the director of the farmers markets, and so far maintained at the establishment at 160th and 51stin La Lisa, is not appropriate. A solution other than prohibition — so abundant on the island — should be demanded. Especially when we know that papayas and bananas are the only fruits Cubans can count on year-round. Don’t even talk about canistel, cherimoya, soursop, cashews, mandarins, star apples, and much less about good quality oranges.

Leon Padron Azcuy
Cubanet, 11 November 2013

The Revolution Hasn’t Been Well Done But It’s Been Excellently Edited / Eliecer Avila

HAVANA, Cuba, November www.cubanet.org- Today no one doubts that much of the knowledge (still rare) that people in Cuba have about the people and projects of civil society, opposed to the political system, has been possible thanks to the dissemination of alternative materials in all formats, but especially in video. Thousands of discs, flash memories and other digital media have circulated from hand to hand in recent years, spontaneously creating the largest truly citizen network covering every corner of the island.

That’s why today we proudly present to Claudio, someone who has long been in the shadows, working tirelessly in the editing of the majority of the programs such as Estado de SATS, Citizens’ Reasons and many other initiatives.

Until yesterday Claudio had to be divided into little pieces, often using the wee hours of the morning to dedicate to us some time for each one us who lined up looking for his help to conceive, film and edit some material. This noble and intelligent young man deserves a gold medal for patiently enduring the demands of ao many friends who tried to be “Directors” of videos.

But he does not want to be irreplaceable, on the contrary, he is promoting a project that will give voice to more people and raise the quality of what is generated within the heart of a society that takes on, from the independent side, the tasks that State media should be developing to sustain us and instead deceive us.

His project is to provide digital editing workshops in several provinces. So far 11 students have passed the course in Havana and Santa Clara; in a few days four more will be ready.

“I’m doing nothing more than making a small contribution to democratize access to audiovisual media, technologically empowering citizens to develop their civic activism or sometimes, simply, so they can make a living without depending on the State, which always asks for something in return …  says the Prof.

In my experience, I can say that in learning to edit I have learned to observe, to decipher and therefore to understand the intentionality of what we Cubans are shown daily and what I see now on Telesur, the Venezuelan TV station that is now broadcast in Cuba.

In the case of Cuba, I can now affirm that the Revolution has not been well done, but it has been excellently edited.

Eliecer Avila, Leocuba001@gmail.com

Cubanet, 13 November 2013

Assaults Demonstrate Insecurity at University of Sciences University / Veizant Boloy

UCI_Cuba-300x168HAVANA, Cuba, November 12, 2013, Veizant Boloy / www.cubanet.org.- On November 4, at 10:30 PM, at the University of Information Sciences (UCI), located in the capital municipality of La Lisa, a group of more than several people, armed with a knife, threatened and beat a student, determined to take his laptop, according to information from workers there.

“A friend who was with the student at the time, had to give his cell phone to the criminals, in the face of their threats,” they said.

“They threw one of the guards on shift to the ground and were arguing with each other whether or not to kill him threatening him with a gun,” said a nurse who asked not to be identified. “Eventually they let him live,” she added.

Also, in UCI complex 1, a robber threatened a 4th year student of the faculty, named Manuel Ruiz Aguilera, a native of Marianao. He sustained injuries for not giving up his laptop and is recovering favorably.

There was a police operation, involving senior managers of the UCI and the Chief of the guards.

They managed to catch 8 suspects, in El Cano, a nearby neighborhood, which were located through a telephone call to the phone they had stolen. These citizens were armed and two of them wore shirts that said “UCI.” They had taken some laptops but the exact number could not be specified by any source.

According to some statements made by workers and neighbors of the place, the UCI is the target of numerous and constant thefts because of security weaknesses.

As a result, they’ve gone back to posting policemen to guard the surrounding area and promised that they will fence the perimeter.

In June last year, a theft of equipment theft occurred in the same place .

Veizant Boloy, veizant@gmail.com
Cubanet, 12 November 2013

Unreachable / Luzbely Escobar

100_3594My TV is more than 20 years old and still looks like a movie theater. I don’t have a convenient remote control but we’ve found some pliers that are very useful for changing channels. It’s annoying because in the era of zapping I sometimes resign myself to see myself whatever they’re showing so I don’t have to get off the couch. I hope someday to have this little gadget in my hands to be able to change channels without inconveniencing myself.

Things always come to us with a huge delay and almost always after they’re out of date, or the government has prohibited them before we can enjoy them. The list is long but the most recent case is 3D movies. Suddenly these little rooms started to pop up everything, operated by private hands and I always tell myself, “next weekend.” As I was always slower than the fast hand of censorship, I never managed to try one of these.

If we continue like this the world will be unreachable and after a while we won’t even understand new developments. Of course it might sound exotic to some, but it’s very sad that we’re living in the 20th century. If it’s very nice to see how the clotheslines of Cuban women are full of blindingly white diapers when a woman in the house has given birth, and it’s very sweet that we inherit many things from our cousins or aunts. What doesn’t excite me is that we do it out of obligation and not out of love of this treasure. We all would like to buy new things for our children and we would also love to enjoy the magic of disposable diapers.

Luckily I found a piece of the 21st century that has changed my life. The possibility of having the internet for at least two hours a week is a milestone in my reality. Posting my photos in the blog and tweeting gives me a chance to enter the century that is showing on the calendar. But when I go and put my feet on the ground I’m back where it all becomes unreachable.

100_35948 November 2013

Medical Services for Prisoners Delayed in Ciego de Avila / Ada Olimpia Becerra Fuentes

SANTA CLARA, Cuba , November 12, 2013, Ada Olimpia / www.cubanet.org.- Alberto Pérez Oliva, an inmate in Moron prison in Ciego de Avila, said by telephone that in the past 10 days an injured inmate did not receive medical attention due to negligence of the prison management.

Laine Sanchez Toledo was injured during the course of the night in a settling of accounts; in the morning he was taken to the medical station and later they sent him to  the hospital in Morón, where he was admitted in prison ward, given the severity of his injuries, Perez Oliva said.

Alberto, who is serving a sentence of five years in prison, said that he too is a victim of inadequate medical care in that prison, because he has gastric problems and they have not taken him to see a specialist.

He added that “Papito,” a prisoner who died of respiratory failure at Camp Trust, known as Pitajones, did not receive medical care at the right time.

This reporter, in verifying the report via telephone with Morón prison, was attended by the duty officer, who declined to give their data and information.

Before this refusal, the Sánchez Toledo family was contacted, in the person of Leonardo Sanchez Roman, and so it was possible to learn, with certainty, about the events.

By Ada Olimpia Becerra Fuentes

Cubanet, 12 November 2013

Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo / From peoplefascinateme, Christine Moukazis

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By Christine Moukazis

To Castro loyalists, Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo is considered many things: a clown, a worm, a counterrevolutionary and a cyber mercenary. But to hopefuls that would like to one day see Cuba take strides toward democratization, Lazo is a hero. In his writing, he serves as a loudspeaker broadcasting the concerns and private whispers of Cuban citizens afraid to exercise their own voices. Through his photography, Lazo is a conduit for Cuban exiles, looking for images to placate nostalgic yearnings for their lost country.

“When I don’t have to speak of something that happened to me, but rather somebody else, I feel more courageous,” Lazo said. “It’s like saying they can do whatever they want to me. I am talking about something that happened that is important to me…to help this person. And in that feeling of helping, I get gratification.”

The 41 year-old dissident –in opposition to official policy- blogger, with brown hair as unruly as his political disobedience, is the founder and editor of Cuba’s first digital magazine, Voces.

He is currently residing in Queens, N.Y. on a temporary academic exchange visa. This trip marks his first ever stay in the United States and is also the first time he has ever been separated from his mother, whom he lives with back home in Cuba.

Although the separation has been difficult for Lazo’s 78 year-old mother, she has conveyed, over the phone, that she is actually happy that he is currently away from Cuba. Last month, a political police officer in Havana was seen and heard on Lazo’s block, asking questions about the dissident blogger. The police officer was investigating into Lazo’s current visa status to make sure he was not seeking political refuge in the United States.

Lazo’s mother is terrified of the path her son has chosen, in opposing the Castro regime. When raising Lazo, his parents were always mindful of protecting their son from political influences.

Although he was a child in Cuba during the 1970s, in what he calls “the hardest period of ideology in my country,” Lazo recalls his childhood as one filled with happiness and surrounded by lots of light.

“I didn’t have the impression that my country was an oppressive country,” Lazo said. “Maybe as a boy, I was only part of the iconography. The flags. The heroes. I could not speak evil of José Martí or Fidel Castro. Fidel Castro was God. It was eternal. It was going to be Fidel forever and for me that was normal. It was national logic. You do not interfere with that.”

However, the government started to interfere with Lazo’s life plans. He had earned a degree in biochemistry at the University of Havana. As a biochemist, Lazo had the expectation of traveling outside of Cuba. Many of his friends were already traveling abroad to further their research. But the Center of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology revoked the possibility of traveling outside of Cuba because researchers were not returning to their homeland. Lazo’s colleagues were applying to doctorate programs in the countries where they were conducting research and remaining there.  As a solution to this problem, this special privilege was rescinded.

Feelings of hopelessness started to take over. In addition, to losing traveling privileges, Lazo’s institution did not have distilled water. Yes, they were biochemists without distilled water. Havana University was in ruins.

“Oh my God, is this my career?” Lazo would ask himself. “The adventure of this career and progressing were gone.”

By 1999, Lazo was no longer a biochemist.

He had been a writer since high school and always told himself that if he could not make it to the top in biochemistry, he would explore opportunities that involved writing.

Dr. Ted Henken, the president of the Association for Study of the Cuban Economy, admires Lazo’s approach to writing.

“Orlando Luis is a brilliant, irreverent wordsmith who loves to give his words new and surprising meanings and connotations by creating provocative hybrid words or phrases such ‘newrrative’ or ‘Revolution Evening Post’,” said Henken. “He is also a passionate and eloquent cyber-activist who enjoys debunking the often facile myths that ill-informed outsiders hold dear about the Cuban revolution.”

Lazo did not start publishing his dissident views of the Cuban government until 2008. He said there was no real breaking point, causing him to suddenly make his adversarial criticisms of the Castro regime public knowledge.  It was just “Okay, I will publish this.” The decision was as simple as that. Lazo felt there would be no consequences to this public denouncement of the government. He describes the decision as a feeling of impunity. He was untouchable in his own eyes. In Cuba, there was little access to the Internet, so who was going to notice? He had no idea that feedback could be so fast and the Cuban government would be so quick to censor him.

In February 2009, Lazo had a book deal that was compromised by the Cuban government. His book, “Boring Home”, was all set to print when the government hijacked the entire operation and halted all manufacturing of the book. At this point, Lazo was already considered a dissident because of his close relations with Yoani Sánchez, a world-renowned Cuban blogger and dissident.

As provocation after an injustice by the Castro regime, Lazo announced that he would publicly make an independent demonstration of his book amidst all other official book presentations at the Havana Book Fair.

A government response to Lazo’s announcement was immediate. The political police started calling his home warning the dissident not to proceed with the book demonstration. Anonymous calls were made to Lazo’s mother threatening her. Lazo also received more than 100 anonymous cautionary emails.

As a precaution, Lazo invited the international press to the book fair. Under the close eye of the foreign press, the state was forced to acquiesce to Lazo’s presentation of “Boring Home”. However, a week later, he received a citation from the government calling him in for an interview, which he would later learn was really an interrogation.

From 3 p.m. to 8 p.m., Lazo was subject to questioning by the political police. He received vitriolic threats of rape by the officer, whose name was Adiel.

“If you threaten me with that, I should go to the street and put a bomb and try to topple the system, ”Lazo said. “The government is trying to radicalize you all the time because they cannot cope with civil behavior or civil resistance. They want you to throw a punch.”

Lazo made a declaration to the officer that his interview was now over. His friends had been protesting outside of the police station and Sánchez was on her way, so the police decided to release the dissident from their custody.

From that point on, Lazo would remain a constant target for the political police.

On November 6, 2009, the blogger was en route to a nonviolent march to protest brutality against dissidents in Havana when, ironically, men dressed in civilian clothing forced Lazo, along with the two women writers accompanying him, into a vehicle with yellow-colored private license plates. The three of them were beaten. Lazo recalls his face being pushed against the floor of the car.

“I was really worried about it because my feeling was they were taking us to a place they didn’t want us to see,” Lazo admitted. “And for me, this was a scene completely from movies, not from real life.”

As it turns out, the kidnapping was a precautionary measure taken by the government to remove the three dissident bloggers from the scene of the ongoing protests. If they were not present, stories could not be made and pictures could not be taken.

Lazo would later be arrested two more times, as precautionary measures. One could infer that the state is intimidated by his exercise of freedom of speech, despite totalitarian policies.

Dissidents are treated as outcasts in Cuban society. As a result, Lazo has lost numerous friends to his adversarial political beliefs. Some of them have gone as far as to publicly denounce him. Former friends would accuse him of improper behavior.

“Well, maybe I am a bad boy, but you are not the police,” Lazo asserts. “You can be my friend. You will not be contaminated. In Cuba, that’s the problem. You will be contaminated. Going to Yoani Sánchez’s place and publishing in my magazine, Voces, will contaminate you.”

Lazo’s remaining friends are supportive and confident in his social activist efforts. Sometimes his friends bring forth information and personal concerns for him to address in his writings, but they prefer to remain under the guise of anonymity. However, there are certain friends that are afraid to have personal contact with Lazo, in fear that he is being monitored. It is not that these friends are any less supportive, but they have to remain in good graces of the Cuban government so they can maintain approval for travel visas.

“In Cuba, they say paranoia is not a disease,” said Lazo. “It’s an instinct of preservation. Paranoia is like drinking water. If you don’t drink water, you die. So, if you are not paranoid, you die.”

Although, Lazo is set to return to Cuba next month, he does not have any qualms about it. Even under the rule of a totalitarian regime, the dissident blogger does not succumb to oppressive behaviors or ways of thinking.

“I do not feel repressed. I feel like I am paying the consequences. But that person that is afraid to talk to me is repressed. The writers that stopped calling me are repressed. Not me. I am like a fugitive running against the wall.”

Link to original article

El Critico Stops Hunger and Thirst Strike / UNPACU

Free Critico poster created by his supporters during his hunger strike.
Free Critico poster created by his supporters during his hunger strike.

The political prisoner Ángel Yunier Remón Arzuaga, the rapper known as El Critico (The Critic), decided to abandon his hunger and thirst strike after authorities committed to “do justice” in the case, according to the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) the opposition organization to which he belongs.

Remón Arzuaga began the protest nearly a month ago in Las Mangas Prison in Granma province. At the end of October he was admitted to the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Hospital in Bayamo, due to a serious health condition.

In a press release, UNPACU explained that agents of the regime agents traveled from Havana to Granma to “negotiate” with Remón Arzuaga.

“The commitment of the authorities is to do justice which in his case had not been done, and  in his case had not been made and Ángel Yunier has taken the word of the authorities, who under heavy pressure from the international reaction and acceleration of the popular uprising in Cuba,” said the organization.

Remón Arzuaga’s wife, Yudisvel Roselló Mojena, was able to visit him in the hospital after he ended the strike.

“He will live to keep fighting for the rights ( … ) There is much still to do and he will do it with his life,” she said.

The UNPACU warned, however, that two other activist prisoners Roilán Álvarez Rensoler and Marcelino Abreu Bonora, are still on hunger strike and their situation worsens.

Álvarez Rensoler is in “critical condition” and hospitalized, said the organization.

Source: DiariodeCuba, 12 November 2013

Cuba and the Association for Freedom of the Press / Luis Felipe Rojas

The Association for Freedom of the Press (APLP) is an organization to disseminate the work of independent journalists in Cuba. Recently I spoke with José Antonio Fornaris, one of its officers, and with Juan Carlos Linares Balmaseda, manager of public relations and it’s well worth taking a tour of its site.

Recently they gave out the awards for their contest: Newsprint. The winners were Augusto César San Martín, in the genre reporting; Filiberto Perez del Sol, chronicles; Ernesto Santana (member of the government-sponsored Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba), in interviews; and Dimas Castellanos, in op-ed. Special mention went to Sergio Esteban Vélez in interviews.

The prize for the winners consisted of a certificate, 250 convertible pesos ($225) and a statuette carved in wood, which — according to the artist Iley of Jesus — its Greek column represent democracy, the wings represent freedom and the pencil,  freedom of expression. For the honorable mention the award consisted of the certificate and the statue.

In conversation with the public relations person, Linares Balmaseda, he said: “We are driven primarily by desire to tell the world what is happening in our environment, in a dictatorship that blocks our right to freedom of information. But most important is to say it from within the island, because they are the ones who are reporting on the changes that must occur on the road to democratization, that is what makes the APLP,” he said.

12 November 2013

These Are Images From the 2nd Grade Reading Book / Lilianne Ruiz

“An exemplary Combatant / Cuban history is very beautiful because it is full of examples of men, women and even children who fought for independence and freedom for our country. The combatant we are talking to you about is an example of one of the young men who shaped part of our history.”

I tell my daughter that being responsible is a privilege. I don’t know from what deep part of me this form of rebellion emerged. I find that it is not something I’m fully aware of. It is not the education I received in school, nor at home, where the most important thing was to be obedient. To be guided by others.

In the blink of an eye she’s turned 7. In the same period that we have spent together — unquestionably the best part of my life — she will be 14, then 21… By then I will have taught her the best I have to give. I’m not sure about having been free. And I think you can only be happy from there.

Amid the crap that goes on in Cuba today, my daughter and I are really lucky that her teacher from the first grade is pretty good. But you can’t teach someone to be free, and so, she can’t be educated to be truly responsible. The teacher, whether by conviction or obedience I don’t know, but undoubtedly because here we all play down the importance, must teach my daughter about other heroes who are not her mother’s, if I ever had any.

And she must indoctrinate her from the time she’s little in the political religion, and I swear no one has ever asked me if I agree with this model of children’s awareness. And it’s taken for granted that if the education is free I have to accept that the values they teach my daughter are the same ones that have brought about the profound crisis in human rights of our country since the seizure of power by the Castros, who have made it a place that most people dream of escaping from.

Can we do nothing other than play down the importance of the the way others, whom we did not choose, educate our children? Content ourselves with their learning to read and write and perhaps one day going the University and becoming members if they annul their consciousness, their will, their responsibility and their freedom? Who comes out ahead with the education offered free from the State. The family or the State dictatorship?

The day my daughter was born I understood that I could not continue to disengage myself from my responsibility. She taught me the rudiments of freedom with her first cries. That day, in the room where we were waiting to be discharged the next day, Palms and Canes was showing on TV, a program from time immemorial, after the State News. And I told myself I did not want anything like that for her, that her life was going to be different from mine, that all the times I had shut up about my small truths, I had lost the opportunity to carve out a future. But I didn’t realize I would have to do my part to give her a better life.

A few years ago I opened the blog Jeronimo, falling under the spell of an engraving by Durer, and in the act of finding my own expression I started to listen to my heart, the same voice that tells her that being responsible is a privilege that she earns and that she should do so, for love of herself.

A country where people are silenced in so many ways, that blocks the path to the internal truth of each person, cannot produce individual growth, flourishing, creativity, wealth, happiness.

“Read: amicably, supportive, long-lasting, revolution, Soviets, happiness. Answer: What did Lenin’s wife ask of the children?”

A friend has a 3-year-old daughter in daycare. She told me one day the girl came home with directions to paint Che’s cap. So she took the black crayons and as best she could painted a cap with a star. The following day the girl was supposed to paint Camilo’s sombrero. And the same thing happened. On the third day, while she was climbing the stairs to the house, the little girl announced that that night she was supposed to paint, for the following day, Fidel’s trousers. My friend looked at her husband and the two of them, in chorus, said, “Don’t fuck with us!”

But outside of pretending to be demented and forgetting a task that carries so much political weight, and arriving late for the morning assemblies which are also political, there’s not much more you can do as long as the school system belongs to the State. Every day that passes I ask myself what is the path to regaining the freedoms our parents sold and without wanting to, postponing their responsibility, they passed it on to us.

“Vladimir Ilich Lenin led the revolution that gave power to the workers. He is one of the greatest men who ever lived. Lenin fought with all his might for the happiness of”

12 November 2013

The Ideology of Prohibition / Luis Cino Alvarez

Havana, Cuba, November, www.cubanet.org — With regards to the absurd and prudish limitations imposed on some students by the Communications Faculty, Elaine Diaz recently wrote on her blog:  “. . . the policymakers are scandalized by things from the students as if the Revolution were going to fall apart next week. They should ask themselves what kind of Revolution falls apart for so little.”

The answer is simple: a revolution like that of Fidel Castro, which long ago stopped being one in order to become a racketeering and mean dictatorship, which, if it has managed to continue in power for 54 years, it is precisely because it fears everything different, it is closed tight and does not waver in repressing a fractious student who thinks with his head like the Ladies in White, who, for the henchmen of State Security are all the same: dangerous enemies of a revolution so fragile that it cannot tolerate anything that differs one iota from official decrees.

Besides, in their aberrant paranoia, they fear books, songs, visual arts, blogs, Facebook and the Internet in general.  And also 3D films.  The private mini-theaters whose projections have been prohibited without it mattering that the people lose money that they have invested or that they will be left without work. They alleged that these theaters had never been officially authorized, so they did not even give them time to close.

There the fools who thought that prohibitions had been left behind for ideological reasons!

Some think that behind the prohibition on 3D cinemas, as in the case of clothing imported from Ecuador or Miami and sold by individuals, is the desire of the State to eliminate competition by those individuals.  But let’s not fool ourselves:  the reasons are more ideological than merely commercial.  As ideological as when in the ’60’s they prohibited North American music and by extension British also, The Beatles included, no less.

The prohibition on mini-theaters was seen coming.  Several days ago, a long article (3,260 words) in Rebel Youth, the newspaper of the Communist Youth, showed the official preoccupation with it.  It cited Fernando Rojas, vice minister of Culture, who accused these cinemas of showing video to promote “frivolity, mediocrity, pseudo-culture and banality.” In spite of the vice minister declaring himself in favor of regulation before prohibition, finally the regime decided on the latter.

So, once more, a handful of meek and submissive eggheads, on behalf of their obsolete, uneducated bosses without a drop of class, who have Haitianized and what is worse, barbarized, the country, claim the right to be the arbiters of cultural quality and good taste.

It is not that the cultural commissars are wrong when they say that banal and low quality products prevailed in these cinemas.  But those products are not very different from the films and pirated series that pass for Cuban TV or that are shown in the few and deteriorated State theaters that remain.  Because the high brow cinema (ay, Huxley) that some foreign correspondents say is seen in Havana is quite scarce.  Only arthouse and films of a certain quality are seen on some television programs, in a few film festivals to which very few go and in the Festivals of the New Latin-American Theater, which keeps getting worse and which now, without Alfredo Guevara, it remains to be seen what will happen.

The commissars’ interest in cultivating our taste (always within the moral and ideological coordinates of the system) in order to make us “the most cultured people on the planet,” for lack of organicity and coherence, but above all sincerity, has failed down the whole line. From the punks who slide down the shell of the University for All, the ballet, the symphony and chamber music, jazz and arthouse theater. They prefer reggueton, Manga comics and films about vampires and Jackie Chang.  And if they have the money, “to put on the spectacles” they prefer to see Avatar and Ice Age in 3D.

The prohibitions are not going to manage to tidy up Cubans or cultivate their taste. They will only make their lives more boring and miserable. Particularly those of the young. Maybe the bosses think that they will be easier to control so. To hell with their ideas!

Luis Cino Alvarez, luicino2012@gmail.com

Cubanet, November 10, 2013

Translated by mlk

Brigadier Alejandro Castro Espin / Juan Juan Almeida

Brigadier Alejandro Castro Espín (Raul Castro’s son)

Last Monday, in a diligent and articulate article in Martinoticias.com I wrote, and I quote: “The question is, ’Where are we going?’ The answer: this coming December 2, when the military promotions are made known, and with whether or not Colonel Alejandro Castro Espin will rise to General or not. A promotion that, on one hand, could create discontent and division in the military hierarchy; and, on the other, reveal to us if the so-called “measures for updating of the model” is the road towards the aftermath of the so-called Castro era, if there are openings that lead towards a (militarized) social democracy where they go on imposing little by little on the liberties of each individual or if there have only been subtle maneuvers directed at the reshuffling of the State structure which only guarantees a succession in which Cuban power passes from hand to hand, from Castro to Castro.”

That was written, and I repeat: to understand that I continue to hold onto the hypothesis of the ascent of Castro Espín to brigadier as “the key” to the future of Cuba, or the next island president, misinterprets what I write.

If things continue as they are, in order to know who the next tenant of the Cuban presidential chair will be, it’s not necessary to be subtle, not to have a lot of information, nor to manage the art of divination with precision. It’s enough to take a look at Article 94 of the Constitution that, for good or ill, is in force and although the leader himself frequently dismisses it, it’s well established that in the case of absence, illness or death of the President of the Council of State, he will be replaced by the First Vice President. That is, yesterday José Ramón Machado Ventura, today Miguel Díaz-Canel, and tomorrow it could be Joe Blow anybody. The State superstructure is well cemented (or one might say, handcuffed) so that no one can compete with the ghost of Fidel.

Real power is something else. It is not the visibly frayed tapestry of the throne, but the shining scepter, which is already fixed so that after Raul there will be no substantial changes nor unexpected surprises, falling into the hands of Alejandro. To deny it would be something like ignoring the Cubanness of the royal palm or the Majesty of a Cuban sunrise. Cuba is not only a society ruled by a single party, but also by a family dictatorship. Is it necessary to recall the relationship between Fidel, Raul, Vilma, Mariela, …..?

The Council of Ministers is the highest executive and administrative organ and, by law, it constitutes the Government of the Republic of Cuba. Why then does Alejandro, without being a member, participate and have a critical voice in the meetings of the Executive Committee and the boards of the National Defense Council?

The ascent, or not, to General of Colonel Castro Espín, only allow us to see clearly enough what the Cuban government has doled out to us and designed as a future, it’s what is called “reforms or measures to update the Cuban model.” He already has the power and it does not depend on a simple promotion.

Many in the military hate him, others criticize him, and others mock him; the rest simply tolerate him. But all obey him and he knows it, because it it’s true that in an accident in Angola he lost the vision in one eye, it’s also very true that the visual acuity of his healthy eye is 20/20.

Translator: RST

11 November 2013

3D Censorship in Cuba / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

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3D movies in Cuba are not afforded the same enjoyment due to government regulation. Photo: Trash World via Flickr

Earlier this year a popular new entertainment business cropped up in Havana: 3D movies! And, as with anything new that happens in Cuba, even if it’s commonplace in much of the world, it’s taken the form of a private initiative (without official license), functioning outside the state institutions that still use obsolete equipment in their movie theaters and video stores.

The government’s reaction—always reactive to the point of reactionary—came without delay: The vice-minister of culture, the renowned censor Fernando Rojas, ruled that this was an “illegal activity” in “poor taste” since it “promotes much frivolity, mediocrity, pseudo-culture and banality” (most of the movies were comedies, horror movies, adventure movies, and children’s movies, almost always from the USA, such as Star Trek, Ice Age, and World War Z). Therefore, according to Rojas, they must be “regulated” according to “the principles of the cultural policy of the Revolution.”

Just a week later, that “regulation” has been revealed as total censorship with no means of protest.

In reality, the theaters were just rooms in private residences (20–100 seats) where you could book a spot in advance and choose the movie you wanted to see. They were open almost all day, with tickets priced between one and four convertible pesos (a local currency where one peso is equivalent to one dollar), and included culinary offerings like popcorn, sandwiches, and drinks. They featured 47-inch TV sets or 200-inch screens, tinted 3D glasses, 5.1 hi-fi sound systems, and air conditioning.

This technology is not available in Cuba. The tools for these theaters were bought off of the island and imported privately, with start-up costs reaching thousands of dollars. In addition, the owners ran promotional dancing, singing, costume, and stand-up comedy competitions. This was already far more than the state had to show for itself, after having ruined, for example, the hundreds of cinemas that once existed in Havana. (Today there are only around 20 working movie theaters in the city. The majority have poor facilities, look run down, and are places where sexual harassment is not uncommon.)

The totalitarian logic of control over information in Cuba once again left nothing to chance. Everything under the dictatorship. Outside the dictatorship, there is nothing.

From Sampsonia Way Magazine

11 November 2013

Prison Diary LXV: Ode to Pedro Pablo Oliva / Angel Santiesteban

That the essential Cuban painter Pedro Pablo Oliva (National Plastic Arts 2006 Prize Winner) was expelled in May 2011 from the Popular Assembly of the province, Pinar del Rio, is the best thing that could have happened in his life. Since then, the admiration he has won for his work has grown infinitely. A great artist should not tarnish his name or his work with a dictatorship.

Many biographies, however small, highlight the relationships and defenses of the many artists drawn to fascism led by Adolf Hitler, their names tarnished for the rest of human existence; and the same thing happened to the intellectuals who stuck to the Latin American dictatorships. Unfortunately, the same will happen to those involved with the totalitarian regime of the Castro brothers. Luckily, most of them tend to be mediocre types who earn their flattering salary.

I remember I attended the Home Workshop of Pedro Pablo Oliva in company with Dagoberto Valdes, when paying my humble service as a jury member of the Vitral magazine contest. Then he spoke to me about the painting “The Great Blackout,” of extensive dimensions. Really to watch him, I felt part of the story of the Cuban nation was laid out in front of me, in a genuine and original manner.

His family kindly saw to us, invited us to explore the spaces. Minutes Later Oliva arrived and we offered him a brochure given with the intention that he would dedicate it to us. He did so with the humility that characterizes him, and jokingly, given the quantity of fans, he commented only Ricky Martin was allowed that. I, who was one of the last of the group, replied, “Don’t be fooled, if the singer was here, and without reproach, I, at least, wouldn’t ask for his autograph.” He smiled.

Thereafter, each time I went to the capital of Pinar del Rio, I took the time to get to his workshop and delight in his latest creation. There I saw the picture of Fidel Castro supporting a large stone on his head, which greatly alarmed the then Minister of Culture Abel Prieto.

For several years his daughter visited my house because she was a classmate of the daughter of a cousin of mine. With her I could exchange views on his work, season with family anecdotes that enhanced his stature as a human being.

Days after expulsion of the provincial parliament which acted as a delegate , I went to the Colegio San Geronimo in Old Havana . It was raining , and quickly walked past the restaurant La Mina, where upstairs, Oliva has his workshop. He crossed in front of me, also in a hurry, seeking shelter in the doorway of the restaurant, and I could not resist the excitement and shouted, “Maestro, Cuba never admired you so much,” then, surprised, with those eyes of a laughing child he knows how to offer, he stopped and looked at me excited.

I smiled and continued my quick step to take shelter in the portal of the Palace of the Captains and he in turn continued and avoided the rain. I knew that rain was a way to clean your history, away from all the official events and artists supporting  the dictatorship, and that thereafter he would have less space in the media, but more time to do his work. He had that feeling of the lone ranger who supports any artist relegated by the totalitarian regime, and subjected to the nation’s cultural ostracism, although as in Oliva, his nails are sunk in the island where he is rooted.

In any event, an artist creates for the rest of humanity and for all time. That is the advantage we always gave over the politicians in power, no matter how late they are in abandoning their prolonged season.

All Cubans, like you Pedro Pablo, dream of a better Cuba. And we have the unquestionable right to demand it.

Ángel Santiesteban-Prats

Lawton Prison Settlement. November 2013.

11 November 2013