"This Job Is Not To Make Money"/ 14ymedio
14ymedio, Havana, 9 March 2017 – The Cuban state has begun a gradual
process of privatizing the sale of the official press in kiosks. Without
announcing the measure in the official media, the kiosks operated by the
"self-employed" have recently been authorized to engage in this activity
under a "postal agent" license (which is among the 201 private
occupations legalized in 2013), as reported by 14ymedio in an extensive
article by Miriam Celaya this Thursday.
"We have five kiosks, but they are already occupied by self-employed
workers," says an employee at the Post Office located at 26th Street in
Havana. The worker explains that "an interested party should locate a
kiosk where they want to work and request it… Once hired, the kiosk
operator should come and get the press here before eight in the
morning," she adds.
"For every newspaper I sell I earn 10 centavos in Cuban pesos (CUP) (a
fraction of a cent US) and if it's the Orbe I earn 20 centavos,"
explains a kiosk operator on 26th and 41st streets. "The problem is that
almost all the other publications are not available," he complains.
"Bohemia has not arrived, there is no Palante or Muchacha," he says in
relation to several missing publications.
"I get between 150 and 200 daily newspapers so I don't earn much,"
explains the self-employed operator. "This job is not to make money," he
said. The three-day course that entrepreneurs must take to occupy one of
these places is "a routine thing," he says. "Almost everything they told
us was to show us where to get the papers and the details of the prices."
The self-employed woman at the Tulipan and Loma street kiosk supplies
"many teachers, because they are required to have the paper but it's not
given to them." She complains about the low profits due to the "lateness
of the press." For her, it's important "that the publications come on
time, but by the time most of them arrive they are already old news."
The woman has to go to a nearby post office to get the dailies and says,
"I have to transport them myself, because most of those engaged in this
work are elderly* and they can't carry very much."
For each copy of Granma, Juventud Rebelde and Trabajadores, the kiosk
operators pay 19 centavos for a paper that sells at retail for 20
centavos (roughly one cent US). According to a calculation made
by 14ymedio of the number of copies received each day or, when
applicable, each week (181 Granma, 116 Juventud Rebelde, 199 Tribuna,
169 Trabajadores, in addition to the magazines: 27 Orbe and 41 Bohemia),
the kiosk operators would earn about five Cuban pesos a month, if all
their papers and magazines sold at the stated prices.
However, the private operators have to pay a monthly fee of 10 Cuban
pesos for the license and the same for the use of the kiosk. Once these
expenses are deducted, it is clear that the kiosk operators pay the
state to sell the official press, not the reverse as would be normal.
The self-employed are able to assume these expenses because they
commonly collect more for each copy sold – in general buyers will offer
one Cuban peso instead of 20 centavos** – but that is entirely up to the
willingness of the buyers.
Translator's notes:
*It is common for the elderly to informally buy a stack of papers and
then walk around reselling them – providing a convenience for customers
by making the papers available everywhere. They earn a little money
because the customers willingly "overpay" for the papers, in exchange
for the convenience and as a way to help out old people with very meager
pensions.
**In this example the entrepreneur would earn a "profit" of about 3-4
cents US on each paper sold.
Source: "This Job Is Not To Make Money"/ 14ymedio – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/this-job-is-not-to-make-money-14ymedio/
Monday, March 13, 2017
Rio Mar, a Restaurant Under Surveillance by Alejandro Castro
Rio Mar, a Restaurant Under Surveillance by Alejandro Castro / Juan Juan
Almeida
Juan Juan Almeida, 28 February 2017 — An unusual combination of powerful
forces has conspired to put Río Mar, a privately owned restaurant, in
the defendant's dock. Who has broken the rules this time?
Río Mar occupies an enviable location on the western bank and at the
mouth of the Almendares River, right across from the former St. Dorothy
of the Moon of Chorrera Fort, erected in 1646, which currently houses
the Mesón de la Chorrera. This small detail gives you some idea of the
cost that comes from having a pedigree like the owners: the stigmatized
and closely watched family of former military men, Antonio and Patricio
de La Guardia, who were convicted in 1989.*
Located on Third Avenue between C Street and Final Street in the Miramar
district, Río Mar has become a favorite of local and international
customers who consider it one of the best of its kind in Cuba. Opened in
2012, the restaurant maintains an unbeatable offering that combines
gastronomic quality, superb service and a delightful environment in just
the right amount. It also offers a fabulous view of Havana and its
seaside promenade.
In this case, it is not the total subordination to military authority
that exists on the island that is so troubling. Rather it is the
astonishingly placid acceptance of how the judicial and legislative
branches serve as a private law firm for the executive — a branch which
in Cuba is synonymous with the Castros — and how this hinders the
performance of the private sector and society as a whole.
Neighbors indicate that Río Mar is not violating rules covering legal
hours of operation for this type of business or regulations governing
noise levels. It cannot be accused of fraudulently transferring
ownership because the building has always been in the family. Instead,
sources close to the investigation indicate the business's problem is
not with the agency that regulates all private-sector work, nor with the
courts, nor with the police, much less with the Provincial
Administrative Council.
The investigation was launched by the Committee for Defense and National
Security** — an unsettling and highly visible organization with no legal
standing — and ordered by the office of the Attorney General of the
Republic of Cuba. This office was set up to oversee the organs of
government, administer state assets, and prevent and prosecute
administrative corruption, not to waste its resources investigating
small privately owned businesses.
"It's really despicable. Look, I'm not an inspector or an owner. I don't
have access to the information the comptroller has… not by a long shot.
The only information I have is from working in this restaurant and that
tells me they are not doing anything illegal here. They obey all the
self-employment regulations because they know better than anyone that
their surname constantly keeps them under the watchful eyes of the
government and its henchmen," says an employee with real bitterness.
Translator's notes:
*Tony de la Guardia was a colonel in the Cuban Interior Ministry who
was executed after being convicted of cocaine trafficking. His twin
brother Patricio was sentenced to thirty years in prison.
** In a previous post, the author described the Committee for Defense
and National Security, an organization headed by General Raúl Castro's
son Alejandro, as an unofficial agency unrecognized by the Cuban
constitution but which nonetheless plays a role in government.
Source: Rio Mar, a Restaurant Under Surveillance by Alejandro Castro /
Juan Juan Almeida – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/r%C2%ADo-mar-a-restaurant-under-surveillance-by-alejandro-castro-juan-juan-almeida/
Almeida
Juan Juan Almeida, 28 February 2017 — An unusual combination of powerful
forces has conspired to put Río Mar, a privately owned restaurant, in
the defendant's dock. Who has broken the rules this time?
Río Mar occupies an enviable location on the western bank and at the
mouth of the Almendares River, right across from the former St. Dorothy
of the Moon of Chorrera Fort, erected in 1646, which currently houses
the Mesón de la Chorrera. This small detail gives you some idea of the
cost that comes from having a pedigree like the owners: the stigmatized
and closely watched family of former military men, Antonio and Patricio
de La Guardia, who were convicted in 1989.*
Located on Third Avenue between C Street and Final Street in the Miramar
district, Río Mar has become a favorite of local and international
customers who consider it one of the best of its kind in Cuba. Opened in
2012, the restaurant maintains an unbeatable offering that combines
gastronomic quality, superb service and a delightful environment in just
the right amount. It also offers a fabulous view of Havana and its
seaside promenade.
In this case, it is not the total subordination to military authority
that exists on the island that is so troubling. Rather it is the
astonishingly placid acceptance of how the judicial and legislative
branches serve as a private law firm for the executive — a branch which
in Cuba is synonymous with the Castros — and how this hinders the
performance of the private sector and society as a whole.
Neighbors indicate that Río Mar is not violating rules covering legal
hours of operation for this type of business or regulations governing
noise levels. It cannot be accused of fraudulently transferring
ownership because the building has always been in the family. Instead,
sources close to the investigation indicate the business's problem is
not with the agency that regulates all private-sector work, nor with the
courts, nor with the police, much less with the Provincial
Administrative Council.
The investigation was launched by the Committee for Defense and National
Security** — an unsettling and highly visible organization with no legal
standing — and ordered by the office of the Attorney General of the
Republic of Cuba. This office was set up to oversee the organs of
government, administer state assets, and prevent and prosecute
administrative corruption, not to waste its resources investigating
small privately owned businesses.
"It's really despicable. Look, I'm not an inspector or an owner. I don't
have access to the information the comptroller has… not by a long shot.
The only information I have is from working in this restaurant and that
tells me they are not doing anything illegal here. They obey all the
self-employment regulations because they know better than anyone that
their surname constantly keeps them under the watchful eyes of the
government and its henchmen," says an employee with real bitterness.
Translator's notes:
*Tony de la Guardia was a colonel in the Cuban Interior Ministry who
was executed after being convicted of cocaine trafficking. His twin
brother Patricio was sentenced to thirty years in prison.
** In a previous post, the author described the Committee for Defense
and National Security, an organization headed by General Raúl Castro's
son Alejandro, as an unofficial agency unrecognized by the Cuban
constitution but which nonetheless plays a role in government.
Source: Rio Mar, a Restaurant Under Surveillance by Alejandro Castro /
Juan Juan Almeida – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/r%C2%ADo-mar-a-restaurant-under-surveillance-by-alejandro-castro-juan-juan-almeida/
Numbers, Reason and Principles
Numbers, Reason and Principles / Somos
Somos+, Eliecer Avila, 8 March 2017 — Daily, as part of my functions as
leader of Somos+ (We Are More), I meet people who are interested in
knowing the details of the organization. In theory, these people would
become members of Somos+ if there is a sufficient match between their
ideas and the ones we promulgate.
It turns out that often, I prepare to explain our proposals, program,
explain the logical arguments about the need for changes, etc… but the
first question that I ask is, "Come here… and how many are you?"
It never ceases to amaze me, the extreme importance that many people
give to the number of people who adopt an attitude that they then adopt
as their own. I believe their it would be much more worthwhile to
concern ourselves with the number when we acquire some product for our
use or contract for some service between the number of people previously
satisfied by the same offer could be an indicator of its quality.
Instead, when it's about values, principles, ideologies, justice and
political positions, I don't believe that the priority should be the
number of people who adopt this or that position.
History abounds with examples in which great multitudes committed the
most terrible and horrible crimes. Were they right? No, but they were
many, many more joined them and the wave became so immense and
unstoppable that opposing it would seem an act of uselessness, masochism
or stupidity.
This overwhelming game between majorities and minorities is preferred by
revolutions, because they establish in advance what is the "good side"
and the "bad side" where people can position themselves, and depending
on that decision their lives will be respected or tainted.
For me, democracy will never be described by the reductionist argument
of "the dictatorship of the majorities," because this primitive
mentality is the one that always existed and does not necessarily
contemplate a civilized advance that guarantees the peace and the
participation of the whole society in decision-making. Instead, it will
be the "opportunity for minorities" to exist in dignity and to be
represented that would distinguish a democracy.
We should not be afraid to be alone or accompanied by few in the place
that we consider right. If we think that striking a woman is wrong, we
should not hit her to be in tune with the millions of men who do. Or if
we believe that animals should be protected, or that corruption affects
us all, it is legitimate to say it even though there are probably no de
facto crowds chanting in our favor.
It is thanks to the rebels of the past, those who did not care about the
number of their followers, that today we have, around the world, less
violence, machismo, corruption and oppression than in previous centuries.
A political position is above all a right, but it is also a duty, which
should never be exercised by imitation, enthusiasm, or pressure of any
kind. It must be an act of responsibility based on abundant or full
information, the product of a deep and measured analysis, strictly
attached to what we are and what we believe to be just for us, our
families, our nation and for all humanity.
Only in this way will we feel full, happy and secure in expressing our
opinions or taking action both individually and in groups, voluntarily
or remunerated, supported or rejected, blessed or repressed. Learning to
think for oneself is to be free.
Numbers, reason and principles always have been and will be three
different subjects.
Source: Numbers, Reason and Principles / Somos+ – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/numbers-reason-and-principles-somos/
Somos+, Eliecer Avila, 8 March 2017 — Daily, as part of my functions as
leader of Somos+ (We Are More), I meet people who are interested in
knowing the details of the organization. In theory, these people would
become members of Somos+ if there is a sufficient match between their
ideas and the ones we promulgate.
It turns out that often, I prepare to explain our proposals, program,
explain the logical arguments about the need for changes, etc… but the
first question that I ask is, "Come here… and how many are you?"
It never ceases to amaze me, the extreme importance that many people
give to the number of people who adopt an attitude that they then adopt
as their own. I believe their it would be much more worthwhile to
concern ourselves with the number when we acquire some product for our
use or contract for some service between the number of people previously
satisfied by the same offer could be an indicator of its quality.
Instead, when it's about values, principles, ideologies, justice and
political positions, I don't believe that the priority should be the
number of people who adopt this or that position.
History abounds with examples in which great multitudes committed the
most terrible and horrible crimes. Were they right? No, but they were
many, many more joined them and the wave became so immense and
unstoppable that opposing it would seem an act of uselessness, masochism
or stupidity.
This overwhelming game between majorities and minorities is preferred by
revolutions, because they establish in advance what is the "good side"
and the "bad side" where people can position themselves, and depending
on that decision their lives will be respected or tainted.
For me, democracy will never be described by the reductionist argument
of "the dictatorship of the majorities," because this primitive
mentality is the one that always existed and does not necessarily
contemplate a civilized advance that guarantees the peace and the
participation of the whole society in decision-making. Instead, it will
be the "opportunity for minorities" to exist in dignity and to be
represented that would distinguish a democracy.
We should not be afraid to be alone or accompanied by few in the place
that we consider right. If we think that striking a woman is wrong, we
should not hit her to be in tune with the millions of men who do. Or if
we believe that animals should be protected, or that corruption affects
us all, it is legitimate to say it even though there are probably no de
facto crowds chanting in our favor.
It is thanks to the rebels of the past, those who did not care about the
number of their followers, that today we have, around the world, less
violence, machismo, corruption and oppression than in previous centuries.
A political position is above all a right, but it is also a duty, which
should never be exercised by imitation, enthusiasm, or pressure of any
kind. It must be an act of responsibility based on abundant or full
information, the product of a deep and measured analysis, strictly
attached to what we are and what we believe to be just for us, our
families, our nation and for all humanity.
Only in this way will we feel full, happy and secure in expressing our
opinions or taking action both individually and in groups, voluntarily
or remunerated, supported or rejected, blessed or repressed. Learning to
think for oneself is to be free.
Numbers, reason and principles always have been and will be three
different subjects.
Source: Numbers, Reason and Principles / Somos+ – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/numbers-reason-and-principles-somos/
Saturday, March 11, 2017
The Useless Exercise of Rendering Accounts in Cuba
The Useless Exercise of Rendering Accounts in Cuba / Juan Juan Almeida
Juan Juan Almeida, 7 March 2017 — The days of the anachronistic "process
of rendering accounts" are approaching. This is period known as the
genuine exercise of socialist democracy because they are neighborhood
meetings in which the people and the leadership (at the base) exchange
opinions about the main problems that afflict each community, and it is
odd that today, although the circus rounds have not yet begun, Cuban
leaders, as if they were master seers, already have on the table an
eight page document issued by the department charged with compiling
popular opinion, which for more than a month have included the
approaches that the voters will take in each one of the assemblies.
An irony that, with a capital "I", escapes any expression of the logic
and respect of the citizenry. Since the end of January the Cuban
government knows that for the coming months — April and May — the voters
will express their dissatisfaction with the water supply, the sewers in
the streets, the failures in communications and public transport, social
security, the retirement age, the indiscipline on the roads, the
occupation and powers of their elected delgate, the need to separate
some functions that today belong to the state, the irregularity of trash
collection and repair of the roads and principle arterials.
We will have to wait. Certainly, no one will talk about individual
rights nor civil liberties. It seems that to govern is to assume
contrdictions. It is a vulgar script for a discordant dramaturgy where
fiction predominated. It is ridiculous to accept that, for example, in
terms of health, in each locality, throughout the island, the assembled
citizens will feel the "spontaneous" need to express opinions only on
how to reduce teen pregnancy, and to strengthen control over pregnant
women who go into maternity homes.
The most striking feature of this document is the prediction it makes
about a group of citizens who, voluntarily, will express concern about
the issue of domestic violence and, in particular, the phenomenon that
doesn't appear in the current penal code as a criminal figure and that
begins to gain space as antisocial conduct. Cases of Cuban fathers who
don't conform to the role of the divorced, and kidnap their kids to hurt
their former wives.
It is not divination, it is simple state inefficiency very eary to
predict because yesterday's problems were never solved and are the same
ones that will be there tomorrow.
Almost all of the deputies to the Peoples Power Assembly session, be
they national, provincial or municipal, are fed up and exceedingly
apathetic, along with the compulsion, attend to kill time and eat the
snacks; listen to the pre-prepared program, vote in favor of everything
and reaffirm their commitment with something that they neither
understand no care about.
Cubans who want to debate and express opinions, suggestions and demands;
but they know well that in Cuba, the Peoples Power is the power of an
entelechy.
Source: The Useless Exercise of Rendering Accounts in Cuba / Juan Juan
Almeida – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/the-useless-exercise-of-rendering-accounts-in-cuba-juan-juan-almeida/
Juan Juan Almeida, 7 March 2017 — The days of the anachronistic "process
of rendering accounts" are approaching. This is period known as the
genuine exercise of socialist democracy because they are neighborhood
meetings in which the people and the leadership (at the base) exchange
opinions about the main problems that afflict each community, and it is
odd that today, although the circus rounds have not yet begun, Cuban
leaders, as if they were master seers, already have on the table an
eight page document issued by the department charged with compiling
popular opinion, which for more than a month have included the
approaches that the voters will take in each one of the assemblies.
An irony that, with a capital "I", escapes any expression of the logic
and respect of the citizenry. Since the end of January the Cuban
government knows that for the coming months — April and May — the voters
will express their dissatisfaction with the water supply, the sewers in
the streets, the failures in communications and public transport, social
security, the retirement age, the indiscipline on the roads, the
occupation and powers of their elected delgate, the need to separate
some functions that today belong to the state, the irregularity of trash
collection and repair of the roads and principle arterials.
We will have to wait. Certainly, no one will talk about individual
rights nor civil liberties. It seems that to govern is to assume
contrdictions. It is a vulgar script for a discordant dramaturgy where
fiction predominated. It is ridiculous to accept that, for example, in
terms of health, in each locality, throughout the island, the assembled
citizens will feel the "spontaneous" need to express opinions only on
how to reduce teen pregnancy, and to strengthen control over pregnant
women who go into maternity homes.
The most striking feature of this document is the prediction it makes
about a group of citizens who, voluntarily, will express concern about
the issue of domestic violence and, in particular, the phenomenon that
doesn't appear in the current penal code as a criminal figure and that
begins to gain space as antisocial conduct. Cases of Cuban fathers who
don't conform to the role of the divorced, and kidnap their kids to hurt
their former wives.
It is not divination, it is simple state inefficiency very eary to
predict because yesterday's problems were never solved and are the same
ones that will be there tomorrow.
Almost all of the deputies to the Peoples Power Assembly session, be
they national, provincial or municipal, are fed up and exceedingly
apathetic, along with the compulsion, attend to kill time and eat the
snacks; listen to the pre-prepared program, vote in favor of everything
and reaffirm their commitment with something that they neither
understand no care about.
Cubans who want to debate and express opinions, suggestions and demands;
but they know well that in Cuba, the Peoples Power is the power of an
entelechy.
Source: The Useless Exercise of Rendering Accounts in Cuba / Juan Juan
Almeida – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/the-useless-exercise-of-rendering-accounts-in-cuba-juan-juan-almeida/
Embezzlement Today
Embezzlement Today / Regina Coyula
Regina Coyula, 17 February 2017 — The long laissez faire of the
government with the "if you behave well, I look the other way" has given
birth to a generation (just one?) of the cheerfully shameless, known
generically as "fighters." The nice denomination that began by being
applied a few, no longer has color, sex or occupation. The common
denominator is a very short wage for very long prices. Yes, those same
people who cried in front of a photo with flowers* not yet three months ago.
Poles as distant as commerce and culture converge on this news that can
only be half-confirmed because the official press never covers it
without prior permission, and the friends, family, or co-workers of the
enthroned acquired long ago the Pavlovian reflex of "not getting
involved in things."
The first of the cases, is in the Puentes Grandes Shopping Center, not
yet three years from its opening and it already seems like a place in
decline. There is an internet navigation room equipped on its opening
with five computers and air conditioning. Something happened there that
we have already become accustomed to. The PCs didn't always work, the
air conditioning didn't either. In the room itself there was a counter
with electronic devices such as USB memories, keyboards, headphones and
the like, which was a point of sale for ETECSA, the Cuban
Telecommunications Company that runs the place and maintains the
monopoly of communications and as such keeps its users in a state
between dissatisfaction and disgust.
And I speak about this in the past because no one can tell me if it will
ever operate again; just very hastily in the parking lot an employee
with a corporate image in a uniform one size smaller than necessary,
acrylic nails, keratin-strengthened hair, and black-lace leggings,
without raising her eyebrows or her voice, told me there had been a
"tremendous explosion." An informal taxi-driver on the hunt for a home
refrigerator, was the one who told me that she was very pleased to be
selling articles privately, much more cheaply than in the store.
It's not just the stores. I remember, many remember, some fifteen or
twenty years ago, the scandal in the International Relations Department
of the Ministry of Culture, where artistic delegations were assembled
without artists for the modest price of 500 CUC. Now it was the turn of
the Council of Scenic Arts, and the information came from Colombia,
Mexico or Central America with all the migratory connections, where some
of the vigorous claimants of rights overseas, both university professors
and lowlifes, learned to act although they never made it on stage. They
demanded a red passport, that is an official one, authorized by the
aforementioned Council that is supposed to authorize the travel of
actors and theater groups.
Before, the same or similar matters had been in Heritage and Cultural
Welfare and because of something missing in the works of art and some
surplus in the construction works, appears to have been the reason for
the exit through the back door of the previous Minister of Culture.
Even an octogenarian revolutionary fighter had amassed a modest fortune
for the future, the future that was supposed to belong entirely to
socialism. Barely two months after an anodyne article in the '90s by
Fidel Castro in the already anodyne newspaper Granma.
Nothing astonished Cubans, and from time to time we notice that
corruption accompanies us wherever we go. The employee with the
corporate image and the cultural officials as I already said, share the
salary as a symbol. In the other case, I don't know about you, but to me
to the affair of the octogenarian fighter (for the uninformed his name
is Héctor Rodríguez Llompart), tells me something about how things go
among "the historicals" — as the original leaders and fighters of the
Revolution call themselves.
*Translator's note: A reference to Fidel Castro's death
Translated by Jim
Source: Embezzlement Today / Regina Coyula – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/embezzlement-today-regina-coyula/
Regina Coyula, 17 February 2017 — The long laissez faire of the
government with the "if you behave well, I look the other way" has given
birth to a generation (just one?) of the cheerfully shameless, known
generically as "fighters." The nice denomination that began by being
applied a few, no longer has color, sex or occupation. The common
denominator is a very short wage for very long prices. Yes, those same
people who cried in front of a photo with flowers* not yet three months ago.
Poles as distant as commerce and culture converge on this news that can
only be half-confirmed because the official press never covers it
without prior permission, and the friends, family, or co-workers of the
enthroned acquired long ago the Pavlovian reflex of "not getting
involved in things."
The first of the cases, is in the Puentes Grandes Shopping Center, not
yet three years from its opening and it already seems like a place in
decline. There is an internet navigation room equipped on its opening
with five computers and air conditioning. Something happened there that
we have already become accustomed to. The PCs didn't always work, the
air conditioning didn't either. In the room itself there was a counter
with electronic devices such as USB memories, keyboards, headphones and
the like, which was a point of sale for ETECSA, the Cuban
Telecommunications Company that runs the place and maintains the
monopoly of communications and as such keeps its users in a state
between dissatisfaction and disgust.
And I speak about this in the past because no one can tell me if it will
ever operate again; just very hastily in the parking lot an employee
with a corporate image in a uniform one size smaller than necessary,
acrylic nails, keratin-strengthened hair, and black-lace leggings,
without raising her eyebrows or her voice, told me there had been a
"tremendous explosion." An informal taxi-driver on the hunt for a home
refrigerator, was the one who told me that she was very pleased to be
selling articles privately, much more cheaply than in the store.
It's not just the stores. I remember, many remember, some fifteen or
twenty years ago, the scandal in the International Relations Department
of the Ministry of Culture, where artistic delegations were assembled
without artists for the modest price of 500 CUC. Now it was the turn of
the Council of Scenic Arts, and the information came from Colombia,
Mexico or Central America with all the migratory connections, where some
of the vigorous claimants of rights overseas, both university professors
and lowlifes, learned to act although they never made it on stage. They
demanded a red passport, that is an official one, authorized by the
aforementioned Council that is supposed to authorize the travel of
actors and theater groups.
Before, the same or similar matters had been in Heritage and Cultural
Welfare and because of something missing in the works of art and some
surplus in the construction works, appears to have been the reason for
the exit through the back door of the previous Minister of Culture.
Even an octogenarian revolutionary fighter had amassed a modest fortune
for the future, the future that was supposed to belong entirely to
socialism. Barely two months after an anodyne article in the '90s by
Fidel Castro in the already anodyne newspaper Granma.
Nothing astonished Cubans, and from time to time we notice that
corruption accompanies us wherever we go. The employee with the
corporate image and the cultural officials as I already said, share the
salary as a symbol. In the other case, I don't know about you, but to me
to the affair of the octogenarian fighter (for the uninformed his name
is Héctor Rodríguez Llompart), tells me something about how things go
among "the historicals" — as the original leaders and fighters of the
Revolution call themselves.
*Translator's note: A reference to Fidel Castro's death
Translated by Jim
Source: Embezzlement Today / Regina Coyula – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/embezzlement-today-regina-coyula/
Very Little Unites Us
Very Little Unites Us / Fernando Dámaso
Fernando Damaso, 9 March 2017 — The Electric Union (UNE), the Cuban
State Electric Company, plans blackouts for repairs, maintenance and
tree pruning that affect its aerial networks. Generally, the extend from
8:00 in the morning to 5:00 in the afternoon, directly affecting
citizens in their homes, and the production of state and private services.
The extended times planned, generally don't correspond to the work done;
it's common to see some workers working and the rest wasting time,
sitting around in the streets and sidewalks, paying homage to
unproductivity or, as a foreign friend ingeniously told me one day,
"Those who don't work, are most of them, and they honor those who do
work, which are the few."
Sometimes the repairs, due to their poor quality, have to be repeated.
On my block, one entire day, they spent time replacing the wires and, a
month later, came back and did it all again. I questioned the brigade
chief about it, and answered that the previous ones weren't adequate. A
similar situation is frequently repeated. It seems that UNE legalizes
the unproductivity and the irresponsibility.
If they had to compensate those affected for all the affects generated
by these "planned blackouts," I'm convinced that they would be much more
careful and productive.
Perhaps they should take account of the experience of the former and
antiquated Cuban Electricity Company which, with much less sophisticated
resources, undertook all these works without affecting the consumers and
with little impact.
The difference is that the previous company was an efficient capitalist
monopoly and UNE is an inefficient socialist monopoly.
Source: Very Little Unites Us / Fernando Dámaso – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/very-little-unites-us-fernando-dmaso/
Fernando Damaso, 9 March 2017 — The Electric Union (UNE), the Cuban
State Electric Company, plans blackouts for repairs, maintenance and
tree pruning that affect its aerial networks. Generally, the extend from
8:00 in the morning to 5:00 in the afternoon, directly affecting
citizens in their homes, and the production of state and private services.
The extended times planned, generally don't correspond to the work done;
it's common to see some workers working and the rest wasting time,
sitting around in the streets and sidewalks, paying homage to
unproductivity or, as a foreign friend ingeniously told me one day,
"Those who don't work, are most of them, and they honor those who do
work, which are the few."
Sometimes the repairs, due to their poor quality, have to be repeated.
On my block, one entire day, they spent time replacing the wires and, a
month later, came back and did it all again. I questioned the brigade
chief about it, and answered that the previous ones weren't adequate. A
similar situation is frequently repeated. It seems that UNE legalizes
the unproductivity and the irresponsibility.
If they had to compensate those affected for all the affects generated
by these "planned blackouts," I'm convinced that they would be much more
careful and productive.
Perhaps they should take account of the experience of the former and
antiquated Cuban Electricity Company which, with much less sophisticated
resources, undertook all these works without affecting the consumers and
with little impact.
The difference is that the previous company was an efficient capitalist
monopoly and UNE is an inefficient socialist monopoly.
Source: Very Little Unites Us / Fernando Dámaso – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/very-little-unites-us-fernando-dmaso/
Cuba’s nascent tech industry is growing fast
Cuba's nascent tech industry is growing fast
As icy U.S.-Cuba relations begin to thaw, Cuba's knowledge economy is
waking up. But it's a delicate process
Like many Cubans, Ubaldo Huerta left his homeland during a time of deep
economic crisis following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1989,
which decimated Cuba's economy and sent tens of thousands of Cubans
looking for better opportunities abroad. The 47-year-old electrical
engineer quickly found his way to Silicon Valley, where he worked as a
software developer for numerous startups and gained his U.S.
citizenship. Later he relocated to Barcelona, founded a Craigslist-like
online classified website and sold his venture to eBay in 2005.
But despite these accomplishments, Huerta never lost sight of his
homeland. He began splitting his time between Spain and Cuba and three
years ago co-founded Fonoma.com, a small startup that enables people
outside of Cuba to make payments to prepaid cell phone and WiFi accounts
used by friends and family in Cuba. The business employs 15 people,
including seven in Havana.
"I want to be in Cuba," Huerta told Salon. "I cannot find better
developers than the ones that I've found here. I used to work in Silicon
Valley so I don't really need the money. I'm doing this because it makes
economic sense, and it's fun."
Cuba is in a better economic position today than it was when Huerta left
25 years ago. Huerta said that he amount of cell phone and WiFi account
deposits Fonoma processes grew by 40 percent last year amid Cuba's
nascent WiFi revolution. Today, the startup handles hundreds of
thousands of dollars' worth of transactions, half of them from the
United States — an online venture that would have been unheard of a
decade ago.
Huerta isn't alone. Last year, computer engineer Bernardo Romero
González came up with an idea to develop an online ordering system that
allows people outside of Cuba to pay for gifts purchased from local
Cuban businesses to be delivered to friends and relatives on the island.
"This platform helps other entrepreneurs in Cuba to grow their
market," Romero told Salon. "Businesses in Cuba are limited to their
town or city because they don't have access to e-commerce. This creates
the financial platform that allows them to put their products on the
Internet."
Expected to go live before the end of the year, Cubazon will process
credit-card payments outside of Cuba and then wire money through the
same network used by Cubans abroad to send money to relatives back home
to pay the local Cuban business, such as a flower shop or bakery, to
make and deliver the gift. This system legally circumvents current U.S.
Treasury Department restrictions on payment processing in Cuba. Romero
expects 80 percent of his business to come from consumers in the United
States.
Romero was one of 10 winners of last year's 10x10kCuba, a contest
sponsored by U.S. groups promoting Cuban tech innovation that includes
the University of Stanford's School of Engineering. The 33-year-old
programmer recently completed an intense two-week program at Colorado's
Boom Town Accelerator, a Boulder-based tech innovation incubator
participating in the program.
Planting seeds for success
Since Cuba and the United States began the process of thawing their icy
Cold War-era relations, highly educated Cubans like Huerta and Romero
have become two of a small number of tech-industry pioneers cautiously
planting their stakes on their country's future relations with the
United States. Former U.S. President Barack Obama's efforts to promote
private-sector engagement, along with a series of reforms in Cuba that
allows small businesses to operate, has made it easier for Cuba's
tech-startup economy, though many challenges still remain.
Proponents of normalizing relations between the U.S. and Cuba argue that
promoting the tech industry in Cuba would unlock a lot of unused
potential, and help prevent Cuba's young tech talent from leaving the
island. Cuba needs these innovators at home to help figure out a way to
support its increasingly aging population.
Tres Mares Group, a Miami-based private equity investment firm that
follows business activity in Cuba, estimates that about 3,000 Cubans
currently work as freelancers in the local knowledge economy — many of
them doing work for companies in Canada and Spain — and as many as
50,000 qualified university-trained computer science engineers are
sitting on the bench, unable to fully utilize their skills. Most of
these computer science degree holders are graduates of the University
Campus José Antonio Echeverría (CUJAE by its Spanish acronym) or the
Universidad de Ciencias Informáticas, which is often compared to MIT.
On the U.S. side, companies are also starting to pay more attention to
the potential pool of Cuban talent.
"There are at least a half dozen firms [in the U.S.] who are working
with Cuban coders and programmers already," James Williams, president of
Engage Cuba, a Washington D.C. nonprofit coalition of private companies
working to normalize U.S.-Cuban relations, told Salon. "The challenge is
that since we're in this new period, they're not promoting these
activities yet and keeping them quiet until this becomes more normalized
and routine. But it's something that's already happening."
Indeed, there is still a lot to be done, and a lot that can be undone,
which is why many stakeholders on both sides of the Florida Straits are
being cautious about promoting their activities.
Suspicions abound
On the Cuban side, many hardliners in Cuba's Communist government are
suspicious of U.S. efforts to promote greater Internet access,
suspicions that were confirmed in 2014 when reports emerged that the
U.S. Agency for International Development was secretly funding a project
that used social media to try to foment an Arab Spring-like revolution
in Cuba. Though the failed project ended in 2012, whispers among people
who declined to speak to Salon on the record because of the sensitivity
of the issue claim similar efforts persist through other web-based front
organizations backed by the U.S. government.
On the U.S. side is an 800-pound gorilla in the White House known as
President Donald Trump. On the campaign trail Trump criticized Obama's
Cuba policy and promised to terminate his predecessor's efforts to
normalize relations with Cuba. The president also installed Mauricio
Claver-Carone, an active supporter of the 56-year-old U.S. embargo
against Cuba, to his transition team. Congress, too, is still reticent
to remove the embargo that would be perceived to empower Cuba's
authoritarian regime with a history of human rights violations — despite
the glaring fact that Congress accepts trade and diplomatic ties with
other authoritarian governments like China and Saudi Arabia. Another
concern among proponents of closer U.S.-Cuba trade ties is the fact the
China and Cuba trade ties are growing.
Many, including Huerta and Romero, are watching to see the direction the
president will take, and they're hoping that his business-focused
disposition will encourage him to avoid disrupting efforts to promote
Cuban entrepreneurship.
Romero said he hopes that at worst Trump doesn't upend efforts begun by
Obama three years ago to help him and other Cubans grow a local tech
industry. At best he said he would like to see better access to U.S.
banking services and to be able to market his apps on sites like the
Apple Store.
"After December 2014, when closer relations began between both
countries, I had the opportunity to come to the United States to make
connections and find people to help me to develop my ideas," he said. "I
think that the United States is naturally the country that should do
this work with Cuba."
Source: Cuba's nascent tech industry is growing fast - Salon.com -
http://www.salon.com/2017/03/11/cubas-nascent-tech-industry-is-growing-fast/
As icy U.S.-Cuba relations begin to thaw, Cuba's knowledge economy is
waking up. But it's a delicate process
Like many Cubans, Ubaldo Huerta left his homeland during a time of deep
economic crisis following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1989,
which decimated Cuba's economy and sent tens of thousands of Cubans
looking for better opportunities abroad. The 47-year-old electrical
engineer quickly found his way to Silicon Valley, where he worked as a
software developer for numerous startups and gained his U.S.
citizenship. Later he relocated to Barcelona, founded a Craigslist-like
online classified website and sold his venture to eBay in 2005.
But despite these accomplishments, Huerta never lost sight of his
homeland. He began splitting his time between Spain and Cuba and three
years ago co-founded Fonoma.com, a small startup that enables people
outside of Cuba to make payments to prepaid cell phone and WiFi accounts
used by friends and family in Cuba. The business employs 15 people,
including seven in Havana.
"I want to be in Cuba," Huerta told Salon. "I cannot find better
developers than the ones that I've found here. I used to work in Silicon
Valley so I don't really need the money. I'm doing this because it makes
economic sense, and it's fun."
Cuba is in a better economic position today than it was when Huerta left
25 years ago. Huerta said that he amount of cell phone and WiFi account
deposits Fonoma processes grew by 40 percent last year amid Cuba's
nascent WiFi revolution. Today, the startup handles hundreds of
thousands of dollars' worth of transactions, half of them from the
United States — an online venture that would have been unheard of a
decade ago.
Huerta isn't alone. Last year, computer engineer Bernardo Romero
González came up with an idea to develop an online ordering system that
allows people outside of Cuba to pay for gifts purchased from local
Cuban businesses to be delivered to friends and relatives on the island.
"This platform helps other entrepreneurs in Cuba to grow their
market," Romero told Salon. "Businesses in Cuba are limited to their
town or city because they don't have access to e-commerce. This creates
the financial platform that allows them to put their products on the
Internet."
Expected to go live before the end of the year, Cubazon will process
credit-card payments outside of Cuba and then wire money through the
same network used by Cubans abroad to send money to relatives back home
to pay the local Cuban business, such as a flower shop or bakery, to
make and deliver the gift. This system legally circumvents current U.S.
Treasury Department restrictions on payment processing in Cuba. Romero
expects 80 percent of his business to come from consumers in the United
States.
Romero was one of 10 winners of last year's 10x10kCuba, a contest
sponsored by U.S. groups promoting Cuban tech innovation that includes
the University of Stanford's School of Engineering. The 33-year-old
programmer recently completed an intense two-week program at Colorado's
Boom Town Accelerator, a Boulder-based tech innovation incubator
participating in the program.
Planting seeds for success
Since Cuba and the United States began the process of thawing their icy
Cold War-era relations, highly educated Cubans like Huerta and Romero
have become two of a small number of tech-industry pioneers cautiously
planting their stakes on their country's future relations with the
United States. Former U.S. President Barack Obama's efforts to promote
private-sector engagement, along with a series of reforms in Cuba that
allows small businesses to operate, has made it easier for Cuba's
tech-startup economy, though many challenges still remain.
Proponents of normalizing relations between the U.S. and Cuba argue that
promoting the tech industry in Cuba would unlock a lot of unused
potential, and help prevent Cuba's young tech talent from leaving the
island. Cuba needs these innovators at home to help figure out a way to
support its increasingly aging population.
Tres Mares Group, a Miami-based private equity investment firm that
follows business activity in Cuba, estimates that about 3,000 Cubans
currently work as freelancers in the local knowledge economy — many of
them doing work for companies in Canada and Spain — and as many as
50,000 qualified university-trained computer science engineers are
sitting on the bench, unable to fully utilize their skills. Most of
these computer science degree holders are graduates of the University
Campus José Antonio Echeverría (CUJAE by its Spanish acronym) or the
Universidad de Ciencias Informáticas, which is often compared to MIT.
On the U.S. side, companies are also starting to pay more attention to
the potential pool of Cuban talent.
"There are at least a half dozen firms [in the U.S.] who are working
with Cuban coders and programmers already," James Williams, president of
Engage Cuba, a Washington D.C. nonprofit coalition of private companies
working to normalize U.S.-Cuban relations, told Salon. "The challenge is
that since we're in this new period, they're not promoting these
activities yet and keeping them quiet until this becomes more normalized
and routine. But it's something that's already happening."
Indeed, there is still a lot to be done, and a lot that can be undone,
which is why many stakeholders on both sides of the Florida Straits are
being cautious about promoting their activities.
Suspicions abound
On the Cuban side, many hardliners in Cuba's Communist government are
suspicious of U.S. efforts to promote greater Internet access,
suspicions that were confirmed in 2014 when reports emerged that the
U.S. Agency for International Development was secretly funding a project
that used social media to try to foment an Arab Spring-like revolution
in Cuba. Though the failed project ended in 2012, whispers among people
who declined to speak to Salon on the record because of the sensitivity
of the issue claim similar efforts persist through other web-based front
organizations backed by the U.S. government.
On the U.S. side is an 800-pound gorilla in the White House known as
President Donald Trump. On the campaign trail Trump criticized Obama's
Cuba policy and promised to terminate his predecessor's efforts to
normalize relations with Cuba. The president also installed Mauricio
Claver-Carone, an active supporter of the 56-year-old U.S. embargo
against Cuba, to his transition team. Congress, too, is still reticent
to remove the embargo that would be perceived to empower Cuba's
authoritarian regime with a history of human rights violations — despite
the glaring fact that Congress accepts trade and diplomatic ties with
other authoritarian governments like China and Saudi Arabia. Another
concern among proponents of closer U.S.-Cuba trade ties is the fact the
China and Cuba trade ties are growing.
Many, including Huerta and Romero, are watching to see the direction the
president will take, and they're hoping that his business-focused
disposition will encourage him to avoid disrupting efforts to promote
Cuban entrepreneurship.
Romero said he hopes that at worst Trump doesn't upend efforts begun by
Obama three years ago to help him and other Cubans grow a local tech
industry. At best he said he would like to see better access to U.S.
banking services and to be able to market his apps on sites like the
Apple Store.
"After December 2014, when closer relations began between both
countries, I had the opportunity to come to the United States to make
connections and find people to help me to develop my ideas," he said. "I
think that the United States is naturally the country that should do
this work with Cuba."
Source: Cuba's nascent tech industry is growing fast - Salon.com -
http://www.salon.com/2017/03/11/cubas-nascent-tech-industry-is-growing-fast/
Asylum case likely to set precedent for Cubans, following end to wet foot, dry foot policy
Asylum case likely to set precedent for Cubans, following end to wet
foot, dry foot policy
BY NORA GÁMEZ TORRES
ngameztorres@elnuevoherald.com
An elderly Cuban couple is expected to remain in detention while a judge
who presided over their asylum hearing Friday makes a final
determination on their fate.
Aquilino Caraballo and Georgina Hernández, 67 and 64, have been held in
separate facilities since they were taken into custody on Jan. 13 at
Miami International Airport, a day after the former Obama administration
announced an end to the immigration policy known as "wet foot, dry foot."
The case — the first involving Cubans facing possible deportation as a
result of the policy change — is likely to set a legal precedent, which
is why Judge Adam Opaciuch opted to issue his ruling in writing at a
future date not yet known, according to the couple's immigration
attorney Wilfredo Allen.
The case is sticky because wet foot, dry foot generally allowed entry to
those Cubans who made it onto U.S. soil without a visa.
Caraballo and Hernández, who flew to Miami to visit their daughter and
son, had entry visas but were taken into custody after reportedly
telling an immigration officer during their interview at the airport
that they "wanted to stay" in the U.S.
The couple's daughter Geidy Caraballo, whom has flown her parents in for
previous visits from their home in Batabanó, south of Havana, has said
they did not fully understand the line of questioning by immigration
authorities.
Hernández was placed at the Krome Detention Center in Miami-Dade, where
Friday's hearing — which lasted about four hours — was held. His wife
was transported to the Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach.
"This has been the worst experience of my life, to see my parents
detained," Geidy Caraballo said on the verge of tears just before the
hearing began. "How is one supposed to feel? Devastated."
Journalists were not allowed into the hearing after a request from the
prosecution to keep it closed.
According to relatives and experts called to testify, the hearing
centered on a debate about Cuba's political and economic system and the
reality of so-called reforms implemented by the Raúl Castro government.
"It is a matter of establishing a precedent that it is not only about
the people persecuted for political reasons, but rather that the system
itself denies all rights" to Cubans, said Juan Antonio Blanco, director
of the Miami-based Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba, who was called
to testify for the defense. "What is on trial today is not a person, it
is a system."
Follow Nora Gámez Torres on Twitter: @ngameztorres
Source: Asylum case for elderly Cuban couple likely to set precedent |
Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article137834113.html
foot, dry foot policy
BY NORA GÁMEZ TORRES
ngameztorres@elnuevoherald.com
An elderly Cuban couple is expected to remain in detention while a judge
who presided over their asylum hearing Friday makes a final
determination on their fate.
Aquilino Caraballo and Georgina Hernández, 67 and 64, have been held in
separate facilities since they were taken into custody on Jan. 13 at
Miami International Airport, a day after the former Obama administration
announced an end to the immigration policy known as "wet foot, dry foot."
The case — the first involving Cubans facing possible deportation as a
result of the policy change — is likely to set a legal precedent, which
is why Judge Adam Opaciuch opted to issue his ruling in writing at a
future date not yet known, according to the couple's immigration
attorney Wilfredo Allen.
The case is sticky because wet foot, dry foot generally allowed entry to
those Cubans who made it onto U.S. soil without a visa.
Caraballo and Hernández, who flew to Miami to visit their daughter and
son, had entry visas but were taken into custody after reportedly
telling an immigration officer during their interview at the airport
that they "wanted to stay" in the U.S.
The couple's daughter Geidy Caraballo, whom has flown her parents in for
previous visits from their home in Batabanó, south of Havana, has said
they did not fully understand the line of questioning by immigration
authorities.
Hernández was placed at the Krome Detention Center in Miami-Dade, where
Friday's hearing — which lasted about four hours — was held. His wife
was transported to the Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach.
"This has been the worst experience of my life, to see my parents
detained," Geidy Caraballo said on the verge of tears just before the
hearing began. "How is one supposed to feel? Devastated."
Journalists were not allowed into the hearing after a request from the
prosecution to keep it closed.
According to relatives and experts called to testify, the hearing
centered on a debate about Cuba's political and economic system and the
reality of so-called reforms implemented by the Raúl Castro government.
"It is a matter of establishing a precedent that it is not only about
the people persecuted for political reasons, but rather that the system
itself denies all rights" to Cubans, said Juan Antonio Blanco, director
of the Miami-based Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba, who was called
to testify for the defense. "What is on trial today is not a person, it
is a system."
Follow Nora Gámez Torres on Twitter: @ngameztorres
Source: Asylum case for elderly Cuban couple likely to set precedent |
Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article137834113.html
Friday, March 10, 2017
An Illegal Business Operating Under Protection of the Castro Name
An Illegal Business Operating Under Protection of the Castro Name / Juan
Juan Almeida
Juan Juan Almeida, 9 February 2017 — In Cuba being a member of the
Castro family is like having a modern-day license to commit piracy.
This inalienable right comes in handy for the dynasty's descendants,
especially those born with the compound surnames Castro Soto del Valle
and Castro Espín.* The most recent example of the prerogatives that come
from sharing a pedigree with the royal family of Cuba is a private
business in Havana's exclusive Miramar district run by Sandro Castro
Arteaga.
In addition to being a well-known DJ, the young man is the son of Alexis
Castro Soto del Valle and grandson of the late Cuban leader Fidel
Castro. In the midst of a campaign against drugs, prostitution and
fraud, the capital's municipal government "temporarily" suspended the
issuance of licenses for new privately owned restaurants on September
16, 2016. Yet in that same month it ignored directives from Isabel
Hamze, acting vice-president of the Provincial Administrative Council,
and issued a permit for a new bar and restaurant to be operated by Sandro.
Located at the intersection of 7th Avenue and 70th Street in Miramar,
the former Italian restaurant is now a fashionable discotheque, a place
where an elite young crowd enjoys Havana's nightlife with no concern for
the hour of day, the day of the month, or how much alcohol or other
substances are consumed. The establishment, which reserves the right to
admit whomever it chooses, has a maximum legal occupancy of ninety
people, far beyond the limit set by law for seats in private restaurants.
The restaurant sector grew out of a governmental self-employment
initiative known as cuentapropismo, which was an intended as a
palliative solution to families' economic problems. As a result, there
are now more than 1,700 private restaurants throughout the island. These
small businesses have benefitted from Raul Castro's modest reforms, the
noticeable boom in tourism and the rapprochement with the United States.
"If you like what's cool, what's exclusive, and you like rubbing elbows
with celebrities, Fantasy has what you're looking for. It offers
different environments, good music and a demanding clientele. The
interiors aren't anything great but it's the perfect place to organize
an event. Once inside, you are protected while at the same time you are
beyond the law. It's heaven for party-goers," says a young regular. "In
a country where everything is controlled, it's uncontrolled," he adds.
Another Cuban youth, who lives in Miami but was recently visiting the
island, says he has been to the discotheque a couple of times and claims
that the requirement for getting in is "looking like you have enough
dollars to pay. If not, you are not well received."
"You have to make a reservation beforehand but, if someone gets there
and offers them more money, you run the risk of losing your table.
Individual drinks cost an average three or four dollars and a bottle can
go for as much as eighty-five dollars," adds the young visitor from Miami.
Faced with such blatant chicanery, Havana started reissuing licenses for
new private restaurants on October 24, although it continues to warn
owners that they must comply with regulations on noise and closing times
(3:00 AM) as well as prohibitions against hiring artists, on the
consumption and sale of drugs, and on prostitution and pimping.
It also announced that there would be routine quarterly inspections of
new and established businesses in which "different factors" — a
euphemism for the regime's various agencies of repression — would
oversee compliance with regulations. It also set up groups in every
region to monitor this new form on non-governmental management.
But Fantasy manages to evade any oversight. It defies easy
categorization. By day it is a pizzeria and by night a nightclub. This
combination leads to a certain "ambiguity" in terms of its actual use
and purpose.
"Where the captain rules, the soldiers have no say. No one can go
against the son of Alexis Castro Soto del Valle. It's a scandal; it's
unbearable. They play music at full volume. Boys come and get into fist
fights. Trucks make deliveries at all hours of the day and night. The
police are here but they don't do anything. Miramar is a residential
area. We have sent a ton of letters complaining to authorities but they
don't dare take any action. Sandro is one of Fidel's grandsons and
that's all that matters," says a neighbor who, like others, prefers to
remain anonymous.
*Translator's note: A reference to the children of Fidel and Raul
Castro respectively.
Source: An Illegal Business Operating Under Protection of the Castro
Name / Juan Juan Almeida – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/an-illegal-business-operating-under-protection-of-the-castro-name-juan-juan-almeida/
Juan Almeida
Juan Juan Almeida, 9 February 2017 — In Cuba being a member of the
Castro family is like having a modern-day license to commit piracy.
This inalienable right comes in handy for the dynasty's descendants,
especially those born with the compound surnames Castro Soto del Valle
and Castro Espín.* The most recent example of the prerogatives that come
from sharing a pedigree with the royal family of Cuba is a private
business in Havana's exclusive Miramar district run by Sandro Castro
Arteaga.
In addition to being a well-known DJ, the young man is the son of Alexis
Castro Soto del Valle and grandson of the late Cuban leader Fidel
Castro. In the midst of a campaign against drugs, prostitution and
fraud, the capital's municipal government "temporarily" suspended the
issuance of licenses for new privately owned restaurants on September
16, 2016. Yet in that same month it ignored directives from Isabel
Hamze, acting vice-president of the Provincial Administrative Council,
and issued a permit for a new bar and restaurant to be operated by Sandro.
Located at the intersection of 7th Avenue and 70th Street in Miramar,
the former Italian restaurant is now a fashionable discotheque, a place
where an elite young crowd enjoys Havana's nightlife with no concern for
the hour of day, the day of the month, or how much alcohol or other
substances are consumed. The establishment, which reserves the right to
admit whomever it chooses, has a maximum legal occupancy of ninety
people, far beyond the limit set by law for seats in private restaurants.
The restaurant sector grew out of a governmental self-employment
initiative known as cuentapropismo, which was an intended as a
palliative solution to families' economic problems. As a result, there
are now more than 1,700 private restaurants throughout the island. These
small businesses have benefitted from Raul Castro's modest reforms, the
noticeable boom in tourism and the rapprochement with the United States.
"If you like what's cool, what's exclusive, and you like rubbing elbows
with celebrities, Fantasy has what you're looking for. It offers
different environments, good music and a demanding clientele. The
interiors aren't anything great but it's the perfect place to organize
an event. Once inside, you are protected while at the same time you are
beyond the law. It's heaven for party-goers," says a young regular. "In
a country where everything is controlled, it's uncontrolled," he adds.
Another Cuban youth, who lives in Miami but was recently visiting the
island, says he has been to the discotheque a couple of times and claims
that the requirement for getting in is "looking like you have enough
dollars to pay. If not, you are not well received."
"You have to make a reservation beforehand but, if someone gets there
and offers them more money, you run the risk of losing your table.
Individual drinks cost an average three or four dollars and a bottle can
go for as much as eighty-five dollars," adds the young visitor from Miami.
Faced with such blatant chicanery, Havana started reissuing licenses for
new private restaurants on October 24, although it continues to warn
owners that they must comply with regulations on noise and closing times
(3:00 AM) as well as prohibitions against hiring artists, on the
consumption and sale of drugs, and on prostitution and pimping.
It also announced that there would be routine quarterly inspections of
new and established businesses in which "different factors" — a
euphemism for the regime's various agencies of repression — would
oversee compliance with regulations. It also set up groups in every
region to monitor this new form on non-governmental management.
But Fantasy manages to evade any oversight. It defies easy
categorization. By day it is a pizzeria and by night a nightclub. This
combination leads to a certain "ambiguity" in terms of its actual use
and purpose.
"Where the captain rules, the soldiers have no say. No one can go
against the son of Alexis Castro Soto del Valle. It's a scandal; it's
unbearable. They play music at full volume. Boys come and get into fist
fights. Trucks make deliveries at all hours of the day and night. The
police are here but they don't do anything. Miramar is a residential
area. We have sent a ton of letters complaining to authorities but they
don't dare take any action. Sandro is one of Fidel's grandsons and
that's all that matters," says a neighbor who, like others, prefers to
remain anonymous.
*Translator's note: A reference to the children of Fidel and Raul
Castro respectively.
Source: An Illegal Business Operating Under Protection of the Castro
Name / Juan Juan Almeida – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/an-illegal-business-operating-under-protection-of-the-castro-name-juan-juan-almeida/
The Private Sale of the Official Press is Legalized
The Private Sale of the Official Press is Legalized / 14ymedio, Miriam
Celaya
14ymedio, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 9 March 2017 — On one of the side
walls, inside a small newspaper stand on Avenida 26, in Nuevo Vedado
(Havana), an unusual sign announces: "This stand became private property."
The event is unique. The elderly self-employed man behind the counter is
normally cautious. Survival instinct has taught Cubans to mistrust those
who ask too many questions, particularly when what's in play is the
relative security of some additional monetary income to round off the
meager retirement income.
However, when an informal conversation is established, some information
and small details always surface which, at least in principle, confirm
that a new secret experiment has been initiated by the
State-Party-Government: the process of legal privatization of the sale
of the main ideological weapon of the revolution: the press.
It is obvious, in addition, that this event is taking place barely three
months after the death of the infamous creator of the information
monopoly, as soon as the last prop tears of his faithful have dried up
and in the midst of constant invocations in the press "to his memory,
his legacy and his work." No one can ignore that the colossal Castro
press, and especially the Granma newspaper, was the apple of Fidel
Castro's eye, who commanded it for decades from his office, from where
he was taken daily through the tunnel connecting the Granma building
with the Palace of the Revolution, for his final approval, before going
to press.
The true nature of the information about the new measure that includes
the commercialization of the official press as a sole proprietorship
activity was confirmed to this publication by Yordanka Díaz, director of
the Cuban Postal Service Habana-Centro, in the Plaza of the Revolution
municipality. "It is necessary to satisfactorily complete a 3-day
course, after which the contract is made and then the worker must go to
the National Office of Tax Administration (ONAT) to try to obtain his
license."
The official director added that, in the municipality under her
management, there are at least three vacant places to negotiate a
newspaper stand. So far, those who have filled the previous vacancies
are retired workers or housewives returning to the workforce.
Although the vendor at the Avenida 26 location has misgivings that make
him seem unwilling to reveal many details, it is obvious that he is more
satisfied with his new status as self-employed, than that of his former
status as an employee of the State. "Before, the State paid me a salary
of 120 Cuban pesos a month, now I must pay 10 pesos a day. The price of
a newspaper is still 20 cents in national currency, so I would have to
sell 300 newspapers to earn 3 pesos, but people 'help me', some leave me
a peso or 50 cents The state does not have to pay me a salary, but it
charges me 300 a month; they win, I earn more now …and everyone is happy."
The vendor does not reveal that, in fact, his greatest gain is in the
established practice of selling wholesale to unlicensed street dealers,
or informal home delivery, where there is a fixed minimum monthly rate
of 30 Cuban pesos, which may be higher if the customer receives more
than one daily newspaper. It is not a business that yields significant
profits, but it does not require much effort or investment, and it helps
to put food on the table.
Something else that's new is that the State will not distribute the
papers to the sellers working as "self-employed," rather it will be the
responsibility of the vendors to pick up and transport the papers to
their individual stands, which is another advantage for the State, since
transportation costs from the printing locations to the stands
throughout the city are no longer the State's responsibility. There is
also a fixed allocation of newspapers for each seller, in order to avoid
hoarding.
The vendor becomes more talkative as the conversation progresses. "They
say they are going to repair the kiosks, which are in very bad
condition, they are going to fix the ceilings and paint them, but I'm
not sure about that. The stands are theirs, the sales, mine."
"But I can only sell newspapers, no magazines, no books, no calendars or
anything like that," the old man explains. "But it's okay, I don't
complain. It's always easier to unload newspapers; people buy them more
readily than they do magazines. They even buy old newspaper… imagine, of
course they'll sell, seeing how difficult it is to get toilet paper!"
At this point, everything has a certain logic, though it would seem, at
least paradoxical, that the airtight press monopoly – so pure, so
anti-capitalist, so Marxist – has consented, at least partially, to the
commercialization of this important "trench" to the private sector, even
if it is such a humble and low-profit activity as the sale of
newspapers, usually taken over by retirees or other low-income workers.
However, taking into account the calamitous economic situation and the
high costs arising from this archaic way of disseminating information,
the State is compelled to exploit any way of lightening the load that
results from the maintenance of a printed press monopoly in a country
where limited and costly internet access, coupled with the Government's
imperative need to control information, prevents the absolute
digitization of the media.
This way, the government is tied to its own Gordian knot: the monopoly
of the press and the country's laughable internet access are musts for
the regime if it wants to keep the population uninformed or
ill-informed, without other alternative sources of information about
what is happening in the world or even within the nation, and without
the possibility of comparing the news offered by the official media. But
this, in turn, forces the government to sustain an unaffordable industry
of the press in the middle of an economic crisis that produced negative
numbers in 2016 and threatens an even more unfortunate 2017.
In reality, the rationing process of the official press machinery has
been showing signs for a long time. Recently, the country's main
newspaper, Granma, with only eight pages (four flat sheets) renewed its
old and recharged design, not so much to improve its print quality and
presentation – which remain aesthetically deplorable – but to save ink.
For a long time there has been only one national edition in circulation.
Now, by allowing the sale of newspapers as a non-state activity, the
Government has simply legalized another black market item – a phenomenon
that has marked the entire "list" of what is regulated for the private
sector – since for many years and to date the private (illegal) sale of
the official press has existed, carried out by elderly and needy people
who, not trying to disguise the act, and with their face uncovered,
loudly yell out the headlines and sell without fuss in the middle of the
road, buying the papers at 20 centavos and selling them at the price of
one peso in national currency. In short, the black market of the
official press has been legalized.
Curiously, this new form of self-employment has not been reviewed by the
official press, although it is news of a clear symbolic meaning.
Translated by Norma Whiting
Source: The Private Sale of the Official Press is Legalized / 14ymedio,
Miriam Celaya – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/the-private-sale-of-the-official-press-is-legalized-14ymedio-miriam-celaya/
Celaya
14ymedio, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 9 March 2017 — On one of the side
walls, inside a small newspaper stand on Avenida 26, in Nuevo Vedado
(Havana), an unusual sign announces: "This stand became private property."
The event is unique. The elderly self-employed man behind the counter is
normally cautious. Survival instinct has taught Cubans to mistrust those
who ask too many questions, particularly when what's in play is the
relative security of some additional monetary income to round off the
meager retirement income.
However, when an informal conversation is established, some information
and small details always surface which, at least in principle, confirm
that a new secret experiment has been initiated by the
State-Party-Government: the process of legal privatization of the sale
of the main ideological weapon of the revolution: the press.
It is obvious, in addition, that this event is taking place barely three
months after the death of the infamous creator of the information
monopoly, as soon as the last prop tears of his faithful have dried up
and in the midst of constant invocations in the press "to his memory,
his legacy and his work." No one can ignore that the colossal Castro
press, and especially the Granma newspaper, was the apple of Fidel
Castro's eye, who commanded it for decades from his office, from where
he was taken daily through the tunnel connecting the Granma building
with the Palace of the Revolution, for his final approval, before going
to press.
The true nature of the information about the new measure that includes
the commercialization of the official press as a sole proprietorship
activity was confirmed to this publication by Yordanka Díaz, director of
the Cuban Postal Service Habana-Centro, in the Plaza of the Revolution
municipality. "It is necessary to satisfactorily complete a 3-day
course, after which the contract is made and then the worker must go to
the National Office of Tax Administration (ONAT) to try to obtain his
license."
The official director added that, in the municipality under her
management, there are at least three vacant places to negotiate a
newspaper stand. So far, those who have filled the previous vacancies
are retired workers or housewives returning to the workforce.
Although the vendor at the Avenida 26 location has misgivings that make
him seem unwilling to reveal many details, it is obvious that he is more
satisfied with his new status as self-employed, than that of his former
status as an employee of the State. "Before, the State paid me a salary
of 120 Cuban pesos a month, now I must pay 10 pesos a day. The price of
a newspaper is still 20 cents in national currency, so I would have to
sell 300 newspapers to earn 3 pesos, but people 'help me', some leave me
a peso or 50 cents The state does not have to pay me a salary, but it
charges me 300 a month; they win, I earn more now …and everyone is happy."
The vendor does not reveal that, in fact, his greatest gain is in the
established practice of selling wholesale to unlicensed street dealers,
or informal home delivery, where there is a fixed minimum monthly rate
of 30 Cuban pesos, which may be higher if the customer receives more
than one daily newspaper. It is not a business that yields significant
profits, but it does not require much effort or investment, and it helps
to put food on the table.
Something else that's new is that the State will not distribute the
papers to the sellers working as "self-employed," rather it will be the
responsibility of the vendors to pick up and transport the papers to
their individual stands, which is another advantage for the State, since
transportation costs from the printing locations to the stands
throughout the city are no longer the State's responsibility. There is
also a fixed allocation of newspapers for each seller, in order to avoid
hoarding.
The vendor becomes more talkative as the conversation progresses. "They
say they are going to repair the kiosks, which are in very bad
condition, they are going to fix the ceilings and paint them, but I'm
not sure about that. The stands are theirs, the sales, mine."
"But I can only sell newspapers, no magazines, no books, no calendars or
anything like that," the old man explains. "But it's okay, I don't
complain. It's always easier to unload newspapers; people buy them more
readily than they do magazines. They even buy old newspaper… imagine, of
course they'll sell, seeing how difficult it is to get toilet paper!"
At this point, everything has a certain logic, though it would seem, at
least paradoxical, that the airtight press monopoly – so pure, so
anti-capitalist, so Marxist – has consented, at least partially, to the
commercialization of this important "trench" to the private sector, even
if it is such a humble and low-profit activity as the sale of
newspapers, usually taken over by retirees or other low-income workers.
However, taking into account the calamitous economic situation and the
high costs arising from this archaic way of disseminating information,
the State is compelled to exploit any way of lightening the load that
results from the maintenance of a printed press monopoly in a country
where limited and costly internet access, coupled with the Government's
imperative need to control information, prevents the absolute
digitization of the media.
This way, the government is tied to its own Gordian knot: the monopoly
of the press and the country's laughable internet access are musts for
the regime if it wants to keep the population uninformed or
ill-informed, without other alternative sources of information about
what is happening in the world or even within the nation, and without
the possibility of comparing the news offered by the official media. But
this, in turn, forces the government to sustain an unaffordable industry
of the press in the middle of an economic crisis that produced negative
numbers in 2016 and threatens an even more unfortunate 2017.
In reality, the rationing process of the official press machinery has
been showing signs for a long time. Recently, the country's main
newspaper, Granma, with only eight pages (four flat sheets) renewed its
old and recharged design, not so much to improve its print quality and
presentation – which remain aesthetically deplorable – but to save ink.
For a long time there has been only one national edition in circulation.
Now, by allowing the sale of newspapers as a non-state activity, the
Government has simply legalized another black market item – a phenomenon
that has marked the entire "list" of what is regulated for the private
sector – since for many years and to date the private (illegal) sale of
the official press has existed, carried out by elderly and needy people
who, not trying to disguise the act, and with their face uncovered,
loudly yell out the headlines and sell without fuss in the middle of the
road, buying the papers at 20 centavos and selling them at the price of
one peso in national currency. In short, the black market of the
official press has been legalized.
Curiously, this new form of self-employment has not been reviewed by the
official press, although it is news of a clear symbolic meaning.
Translated by Norma Whiting
Source: The Private Sale of the Official Press is Legalized / 14ymedio,
Miriam Celaya – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/the-private-sale-of-the-official-press-is-legalized-14ymedio-miriam-celaya/
In Miami, politicians struggle with ethics of doing business with Cuba
In Miami, politicians struggle with ethics of doing business with Cuba
BY PATRICIA MAZZEI
AND MIMI WHITEFIELD
pmazzei@miamiherald.com
The panel of three local mayors discussing how the United States should
approach doing business with Cuba was going predictably Friday until
Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine, a likely Democratic candidate for
Florida governor, brought up a word that, once upon a time in Miami,
might have caused a political maelstrom: invasion.
"Why aren't we discussing the invasion of the island?" Levine said.
He wasn't endorsing the idea of a military incursion. A few moments
earlier, Levine had argued that the best way to help Cubans themselves
was to engage in open commerce with the island.
But he had no support for the expanded-business position from his
colleagues, Coral Gables Mayor Jim Cason and Doral Mayor J.C. Bermudez.
Cason, a Republican former head of the U.S. diplomatic mission in
Havana, had in fact espoused the opposite view, questioning the ethics
of any business that would enrich the pockets of the Cuban military.
So Levine made his provocative remark, predicting that a U.S.-led
military operation "would probably take 24 hours at best."
A few people in the crowd chuckled. Neither Bermudez nor Cason took him
seriously. Levine later told the Miami Herald he'd been trying to
highlight — perhaps inartfully — that opponents of the Obama
administration's Cuba opening, like Cason, couldn't offer any better
solutions.
The surprising exchange reflected how much the conversation on Cuba has
changed in Miami. The suggestion that American troops might land on
Cuban shores — a failed strategy under former President John F. Kennedy
— is now a laugh line. The question of what to do instead, however,
remains difficult for local politicians to answer.
"I want the people in Cuba to have civil rights," said Bermudez, who was
born on the island. "I certainly don't want the kleptocracy that exists
in Russia. I do not want Vietnam."
The three mayors spoke at Barry University as part of a day-long
conference organized by the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public
Trust that tried to grapple with the ethical, legal and regulatory
implications of doing business with Cuba.
While there are many conferences about how to do business with Cuba, "no
one has dealt with this ethics issue straight on," said Joe Centorino,
the ethics commission's executive director. "While much has been said
about the cultural and commercial hurdles facing American companies
adjusting to the new, open business climate after six decades of the
trade embargo, there has been little discussion regarding ethical issues."
The topic is a bit unusual for the commission, which usually explores
ethical conduct in local government. "We don't deal with international
issues here, but there are local issues that have come up related to
Cuba," Centorino said.
Asked why the commission isn't also examining the ethics of, say, doing
business with China, Centorino responded: "China isn't 90 miles away."
Gov. Rick Scott recently threatened to cut off state funding from
seaports that did business with Cuba's "dictator." Port Everglades and
the Port of Palm Beach both canceled plans to sign agreements with the
National Port Administration of Cuba that could have led to joint
marketing studies and other cooperation.
There also have been efforts to prevent companies that do business with
Cuba from winning government contracts. A 2012 Florida law that
prohibited state and local governments from hiring companies with
business ties to Cuba for big contracts never went into effect after a
federal appeals court ruled it unconstitutional because Florida was
trying to set foreign policy, a power of the federal government.
The idea that Cuban consulate might at some point in the future be
located in Miami has also been hotly debated since the U.S. and Cuba
renewed diplomatic relations in 2015, but to date the only missions Cuba
has on U.S. soil are its embassy in Washington and its permanent mission
at the United Nations in New York.
None of those specific issues came up during the mayors' discussion.
Instead, they urged Miamians traveling to Cuba to meet with independent
political voices, dissidents, regular Cubans — anyone not just spouting
the Cuban government line.
"We are all in agreement that this is a brutal dictatorship that has
enslaved the people of Cuba for way, way too many years," Levine said.
Source: Miami politicians struggle with ethics of doing business with
Cuba | Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article137694128.html
BY PATRICIA MAZZEI
AND MIMI WHITEFIELD
pmazzei@miamiherald.com
The panel of three local mayors discussing how the United States should
approach doing business with Cuba was going predictably Friday until
Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine, a likely Democratic candidate for
Florida governor, brought up a word that, once upon a time in Miami,
might have caused a political maelstrom: invasion.
"Why aren't we discussing the invasion of the island?" Levine said.
He wasn't endorsing the idea of a military incursion. A few moments
earlier, Levine had argued that the best way to help Cubans themselves
was to engage in open commerce with the island.
But he had no support for the expanded-business position from his
colleagues, Coral Gables Mayor Jim Cason and Doral Mayor J.C. Bermudez.
Cason, a Republican former head of the U.S. diplomatic mission in
Havana, had in fact espoused the opposite view, questioning the ethics
of any business that would enrich the pockets of the Cuban military.
So Levine made his provocative remark, predicting that a U.S.-led
military operation "would probably take 24 hours at best."
A few people in the crowd chuckled. Neither Bermudez nor Cason took him
seriously. Levine later told the Miami Herald he'd been trying to
highlight — perhaps inartfully — that opponents of the Obama
administration's Cuba opening, like Cason, couldn't offer any better
solutions.
The surprising exchange reflected how much the conversation on Cuba has
changed in Miami. The suggestion that American troops might land on
Cuban shores — a failed strategy under former President John F. Kennedy
— is now a laugh line. The question of what to do instead, however,
remains difficult for local politicians to answer.
"I want the people in Cuba to have civil rights," said Bermudez, who was
born on the island. "I certainly don't want the kleptocracy that exists
in Russia. I do not want Vietnam."
The three mayors spoke at Barry University as part of a day-long
conference organized by the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public
Trust that tried to grapple with the ethical, legal and regulatory
implications of doing business with Cuba.
While there are many conferences about how to do business with Cuba, "no
one has dealt with this ethics issue straight on," said Joe Centorino,
the ethics commission's executive director. "While much has been said
about the cultural and commercial hurdles facing American companies
adjusting to the new, open business climate after six decades of the
trade embargo, there has been little discussion regarding ethical issues."
The topic is a bit unusual for the commission, which usually explores
ethical conduct in local government. "We don't deal with international
issues here, but there are local issues that have come up related to
Cuba," Centorino said.
Asked why the commission isn't also examining the ethics of, say, doing
business with China, Centorino responded: "China isn't 90 miles away."
Gov. Rick Scott recently threatened to cut off state funding from
seaports that did business with Cuba's "dictator." Port Everglades and
the Port of Palm Beach both canceled plans to sign agreements with the
National Port Administration of Cuba that could have led to joint
marketing studies and other cooperation.
There also have been efforts to prevent companies that do business with
Cuba from winning government contracts. A 2012 Florida law that
prohibited state and local governments from hiring companies with
business ties to Cuba for big contracts never went into effect after a
federal appeals court ruled it unconstitutional because Florida was
trying to set foreign policy, a power of the federal government.
The idea that Cuban consulate might at some point in the future be
located in Miami has also been hotly debated since the U.S. and Cuba
renewed diplomatic relations in 2015, but to date the only missions Cuba
has on U.S. soil are its embassy in Washington and its permanent mission
at the United Nations in New York.
None of those specific issues came up during the mayors' discussion.
Instead, they urged Miamians traveling to Cuba to meet with independent
political voices, dissidents, regular Cubans — anyone not just spouting
the Cuban government line.
"We are all in agreement that this is a brutal dictatorship that has
enslaved the people of Cuba for way, way too many years," Levine said.
Source: Miami politicians struggle with ethics of doing business with
Cuba | Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article137694128.html
The case of Omara Isabel Ruiz Urquiola
The case of Omara Isabel Ruiz Urquiola
BORIS GONZÁLEZ ARENAS | La Habana | 10 de Marzo de 2017 - 09:21 CET.
This interview is important in many ways. But, if I had to choose one,
it would be how it illustrates the existence of Cuba's civil society.
Castroism has endured by enfeebling the individual, fomenting his social
diminution and geographical dispersion. The testimony of Omara Isabel
Ruiz Urquiola vividly reflects this, expressing our limitations under a
totalitarian regime ... but also our possibilities and strength as a
civil society. It also conveys the transnational nature of this civil
society thanks to the magnitude and patriotic commitment of a community
of expatriates that has developed over nearly six decades of dictatorship.
Omara Urquiola Ruiz is a professor of the History of Design at the
Advanced Institute of Design (ISDI) in Havana. She has had breast cancer
since 2005. Since 2006 she has received a successful treatment with
Trastuzumab, since 2015 combined with Pertuzumab, two drugs produced by
the Swiss firm Roche.
In November of 2016 she became famous when her brother, Doctor of
Biological Sciences Ariel Ruiz Urquiola, went on a hunger strike to get
the first of these drugs for her after, due to the negligence of the
Cuban representatives of the firm Roche and authorities at the Ministry
of Public Health, Omara had been without the medication for two months.
In parallel to that protest there began a formidable international
campaign to acquire the drug that keeps her alive. This included a
crowdfunding effort organized by friends, which raised the necessary
funds immediately. Changing her initial objective after the pressure
exerted on the Public Health authorities to acquire the drug, Omara was
able to ultimately use those funds to leave Cuba and undergo an
important diagnostic test, which, fortunately, yielded auspicious
results. This interview presents a summary of the process that began
during the hunger strike undertaken by her brother and concludes with
her return to Cuba.
How were you able to travel to Spain?
The springboard was the interview my brother, Ariel Ruiz Urquiola, gave
to Antonio Rodiles at Estado de Sats at the end of October 2016, over
the lack of Trastuzumab, a monoclonal antibody that emerged in the 90s
for patients like me, and that I have to apply every 21 days.
Antonio Rodiles asked Ariel about the approximate cost of the medication
that Ariel was urgently clamoring for. He told him that it was about
$1,200, and gave him his contact information.
That came out, and my friends outside Cuba saw it. Then Maryori Montero,
a great lifelong friend, from school and the neighborhood here, who
lives in Tenerife, contacted Antonio Fernández, who is my best friend, a
computer technician who lives in Miami. He organized the crowdfunding
(SIC) campaign.
Is he also a friend of yours from the neighborhood?
From high school, and also a friend of Maryori's. We're a tight group,
going back to that period. Tony, who works for Miami Dade County, told
Maryori: "Let me do something, and I'll call you back." He hung up and
put together the crowdfunding effort. Maryori saw it and told him she
liked it.
That was on Thursday, November 3, the day Ariel began his hunger strike.
The Estado de Sats video was a little earlier, very close to then. He
was doing the strike and, at the same time, they were raising funds,
with a lot of people involved.
I knew nothing because, without Internet, you're cut off. A close friend
of Ariel's called me, a Physics graduate at the University of Havana who
now lives in Switzerland, and asked me who Antonio Fernández was. And I
answered, "Antonio Fernández, in Miami? He's my best friend." Then she
said to me: "That's good enough for me." Then I asked her what she was
talking about, and she couldn't believe I didn't know anything. Tony
called me later, like the second day, and told me that they had raised
over $1,200.
Ariel was on the strike, and Oscar Casanella and I were organizing
companions to take care of him, with friends from here. They were
repeatedly trying to seize him, and someone I knew would alert me. Many
people gave me their support at that time.
Over the weekend, I remember on Saturday, Tony called and said, "We
Cubans are the best. We are up to over 2,000, tomorrow I'm going to
close it, whatever it´s at." And he closed it on Sunday, with $3,500.
Who do you know helped?
There were a lot of anonymous people, but it was mostly our friends who
were behind it. Neighborhood friends, from high school, from college,
people scattered all over the world: Europe, Canada, the USA. Colleagues
of mine, Art historians, who are outside the country, also donated. In
Germany, colleagues of Ariel's at the university with which he works.
And something that really touched me was that former students of mine
gave. Former students from the ISDi, who are in Cuba, who have not
migrated, were raising money and figuring out how to send it to the US.
That was so generous! So, it closed at $3,500 on Sunday, which made it
possible ... well, it wasn't necessary to buy the drug.
No, because the Cuban government was pressured by Ariel's strike and the
publicity it generated. On Saturday they announced that the drug would
be there on Monday. When the strike was over and my brother had
recovered, he sat down with me because there had been a serious advance
of the disease on my skin.
Does the lack of the medicine immediately trigger visible reactions?
Of course. With me, it is very fast. It is normal. I have to have it
every 21 days. If not, my skin immediately evidences the disease's
progression. My brother then said that was happening outside could very
well be happening inside, and I could have organs affected. My lungs,
liver ... he said that I needed to get a PET-CT, a test that I had
received in Barcelona in 2012.
What is a PET-CT?
Position Emission Tomography - Computed Tomography, which is much more
accurate than a normal tomograph.
And where did you get the PET-CT in Cuba?
No, not in Cuba. In Barcelona. In Cuba they've been installing the
PET-CT system since 2012. I say this because that year I got my first
PET-CT, in Spain, and Ariel had to go before a commission of the
National Institute of Oncology and Radiobiology (INOR), presided over by
Director Alfonso Luis Curbelo, then newly appointed to that office. He
denied the need for such an examination, without even being an
oncologist. But that's another story.
Why did you have to go before that commission?
Because I needed a departure permit, which was mandatory at that time.
One of the arguments the people used to discourage Ariel from taking me
was that the equipment had already been purchased, and that in six
months I would be able to receive the test in Cuba. But then 2012 went
by, and 2013, 2014, and 2015, and it was not until 2016 that the first
PET-CT test was performed the Oncological Centre.
Six months, in the end, were almost six years. Why didn't you do it in
Cuba this time?
Because they are running the PET-CT tests with a reagent that limits the
diagnostic scope to certain kind of tumoral expression, a very small
number of the 220 varieties of tumors detected on the planet.
And how do you know that?
Because my brother demanded the technical details of all the diagnostic
and research devices, and did research on his own.
Do you have any idea if any other provinces in the country have
installed one?
No such equipment was purchased for any other provinces. The ones they
have are installed in the Hospital Hermanos Ameijeiras, the CIMEQ and
the Oncological Centre.
Which means forcing patients from other provinces to come to Havana.
No. They don't offer it to them. I know someone in Guantanamo who never
had the tumor markers identified prior to surgery and chemotherapy,
which is the first thing to be done to define the type of treatment.
Then, with the money raised Ariel sat down with you and told you the
kind of PET-CT test you needed to rule out any progression of the disease.
Yes, patients like me around the world usually get a PET-CT twice a
year. Or every three months. Carmen Acevedo, the Spanish friend with
whom I stayed in Barcelona, gets one every three months, via the public
health system. Due to monitoring problems, they must do so when they
have an active disease, like Carmen and I do. I'm an active patient.
Do you need a PET-CT every three months?
Every three months in Spain. There are countries where it is every six
months. What is outrageous is for it simply not to be done.
Once they decided that you would go to Spain to get tested, how was the
money that had been raised conveyed to you?
When Ariel told me, and I explained it to Tony, he told me that the
people had donated money for my health, and that I could take it to go
and get tested in Spain. He sent the money here, to Cuba, for the trip,
and my brother went to the Spanish Embassy for the visa. And Coco
Fariñas was the one who told him to see the Embassy's Political Attaché.
Guillermo Fariñas?
Yes. When Ariel was on strike he had called me to express his
solidarity. Ariel contacted the Embassy and they said they were willing
to give me the visa.
Tony sent me money and I got a passport.
In dollars?
CUC, which is a little more, because when you exchange it you lose
dollars. It cost me 100 CUC. The visa was like 65 CUC. The flight was
1,036 CUC.
Did you also have to pay for the passport with the money Tony sent you?
Of course, I had no money at all.
What is your salary at the ISDI?
At the ISDI my salary is about 700 Cuban pesos, or 28 CUC. I was able to
pay for everything thanks to the fundraising. I even went to the Spanish
Embassy, where they were kind enough to propose that I have a visa valid
for a full year. So, I have a visa for Spain that is good until
November. That move by the Spanish Embassy was another gesture of
support I received.
Was your teaching interrupted?
No. My students sent me their final papers. I graded them over Christmas
and New Year's, and then I sent in the marks.
Once in Spain, how did you do get the test?
In Spain I stayed with Carmen Acevedo. My friends were very generous.
Their solidarity was amazing. I was able to get by on that money;
besides the trip and expenses in Cuba, I used it to pay for the test,
which cost 1,200 euros, in cash.
What about the treatment, the care?
Excellent, I always felt like a person.
Where was it?
Teknon, in Barcelona. It's where I had done my test in 2012, so we knew
it. The cost of the test had gone up 30 euros, to 1,200. And they,
without me asking, ran a comparative study between the PET-CT in 2012
and this one.
So, that clinic, which had only seen you twice, retained the results of
the PET-CT that you did in 2012. But at the Oncological Centre, where
they've been treating you for 12 years they lost your medical file,
Ariel told me.
Yes, and even biopsies. The comparison of the results yielded excellent
news: there have been no variations between the progress found in 2012
and my current condition. That's incredible. The oncologist who saw me
told me that it was a miracle given the aggressiveness of my pathology.
You told me that TeleMartí covered it ...
Of course. I sent them a thank you letter, not only to TeleMartí, but
also Radio Martí, as the two outlets were extremely supportive. Karen
Caballero called even before Ariel began his strike, since she saw the
contacts that Ariel cited in the Estado de Sats interview. She was
looking for a way to get the drug on her own. But you cannot buy this
kind of drug at pharmacies. Drugs like this in the world are handled by
States. For an individual it's very difficult, because of their high
cost. Health institutions have to acquire it, making large purchases.
How did this experience make you feel?
It was surprising to see something so big organized so quickly, and,
despite that speed, for it to succeed. And how people from such
different places could all unite for a common purpose. It's not
something you see often.
This is what our people are like.
Yes, it's a different civil society, but a successful one. I feel very
optimistic.
Source: The case of Omara Isabel Ruiz Urquiola | Diario de Cuba -
http://www.diariodecuba.com/derechos-humanos/1489134118_29538.html
BORIS GONZÁLEZ ARENAS | La Habana | 10 de Marzo de 2017 - 09:21 CET.
This interview is important in many ways. But, if I had to choose one,
it would be how it illustrates the existence of Cuba's civil society.
Castroism has endured by enfeebling the individual, fomenting his social
diminution and geographical dispersion. The testimony of Omara Isabel
Ruiz Urquiola vividly reflects this, expressing our limitations under a
totalitarian regime ... but also our possibilities and strength as a
civil society. It also conveys the transnational nature of this civil
society thanks to the magnitude and patriotic commitment of a community
of expatriates that has developed over nearly six decades of dictatorship.
Omara Urquiola Ruiz is a professor of the History of Design at the
Advanced Institute of Design (ISDI) in Havana. She has had breast cancer
since 2005. Since 2006 she has received a successful treatment with
Trastuzumab, since 2015 combined with Pertuzumab, two drugs produced by
the Swiss firm Roche.
In November of 2016 she became famous when her brother, Doctor of
Biological Sciences Ariel Ruiz Urquiola, went on a hunger strike to get
the first of these drugs for her after, due to the negligence of the
Cuban representatives of the firm Roche and authorities at the Ministry
of Public Health, Omara had been without the medication for two months.
In parallel to that protest there began a formidable international
campaign to acquire the drug that keeps her alive. This included a
crowdfunding effort organized by friends, which raised the necessary
funds immediately. Changing her initial objective after the pressure
exerted on the Public Health authorities to acquire the drug, Omara was
able to ultimately use those funds to leave Cuba and undergo an
important diagnostic test, which, fortunately, yielded auspicious
results. This interview presents a summary of the process that began
during the hunger strike undertaken by her brother and concludes with
her return to Cuba.
How were you able to travel to Spain?
The springboard was the interview my brother, Ariel Ruiz Urquiola, gave
to Antonio Rodiles at Estado de Sats at the end of October 2016, over
the lack of Trastuzumab, a monoclonal antibody that emerged in the 90s
for patients like me, and that I have to apply every 21 days.
Antonio Rodiles asked Ariel about the approximate cost of the medication
that Ariel was urgently clamoring for. He told him that it was about
$1,200, and gave him his contact information.
That came out, and my friends outside Cuba saw it. Then Maryori Montero,
a great lifelong friend, from school and the neighborhood here, who
lives in Tenerife, contacted Antonio Fernández, who is my best friend, a
computer technician who lives in Miami. He organized the crowdfunding
(SIC) campaign.
Is he also a friend of yours from the neighborhood?
From high school, and also a friend of Maryori's. We're a tight group,
going back to that period. Tony, who works for Miami Dade County, told
Maryori: "Let me do something, and I'll call you back." He hung up and
put together the crowdfunding effort. Maryori saw it and told him she
liked it.
That was on Thursday, November 3, the day Ariel began his hunger strike.
The Estado de Sats video was a little earlier, very close to then. He
was doing the strike and, at the same time, they were raising funds,
with a lot of people involved.
I knew nothing because, without Internet, you're cut off. A close friend
of Ariel's called me, a Physics graduate at the University of Havana who
now lives in Switzerland, and asked me who Antonio Fernández was. And I
answered, "Antonio Fernández, in Miami? He's my best friend." Then she
said to me: "That's good enough for me." Then I asked her what she was
talking about, and she couldn't believe I didn't know anything. Tony
called me later, like the second day, and told me that they had raised
over $1,200.
Ariel was on the strike, and Oscar Casanella and I were organizing
companions to take care of him, with friends from here. They were
repeatedly trying to seize him, and someone I knew would alert me. Many
people gave me their support at that time.
Over the weekend, I remember on Saturday, Tony called and said, "We
Cubans are the best. We are up to over 2,000, tomorrow I'm going to
close it, whatever it´s at." And he closed it on Sunday, with $3,500.
Who do you know helped?
There were a lot of anonymous people, but it was mostly our friends who
were behind it. Neighborhood friends, from high school, from college,
people scattered all over the world: Europe, Canada, the USA. Colleagues
of mine, Art historians, who are outside the country, also donated. In
Germany, colleagues of Ariel's at the university with which he works.
And something that really touched me was that former students of mine
gave. Former students from the ISDi, who are in Cuba, who have not
migrated, were raising money and figuring out how to send it to the US.
That was so generous! So, it closed at $3,500 on Sunday, which made it
possible ... well, it wasn't necessary to buy the drug.
No, because the Cuban government was pressured by Ariel's strike and the
publicity it generated. On Saturday they announced that the drug would
be there on Monday. When the strike was over and my brother had
recovered, he sat down with me because there had been a serious advance
of the disease on my skin.
Does the lack of the medicine immediately trigger visible reactions?
Of course. With me, it is very fast. It is normal. I have to have it
every 21 days. If not, my skin immediately evidences the disease's
progression. My brother then said that was happening outside could very
well be happening inside, and I could have organs affected. My lungs,
liver ... he said that I needed to get a PET-CT, a test that I had
received in Barcelona in 2012.
What is a PET-CT?
Position Emission Tomography - Computed Tomography, which is much more
accurate than a normal tomograph.
And where did you get the PET-CT in Cuba?
No, not in Cuba. In Barcelona. In Cuba they've been installing the
PET-CT system since 2012. I say this because that year I got my first
PET-CT, in Spain, and Ariel had to go before a commission of the
National Institute of Oncology and Radiobiology (INOR), presided over by
Director Alfonso Luis Curbelo, then newly appointed to that office. He
denied the need for such an examination, without even being an
oncologist. But that's another story.
Why did you have to go before that commission?
Because I needed a departure permit, which was mandatory at that time.
One of the arguments the people used to discourage Ariel from taking me
was that the equipment had already been purchased, and that in six
months I would be able to receive the test in Cuba. But then 2012 went
by, and 2013, 2014, and 2015, and it was not until 2016 that the first
PET-CT test was performed the Oncological Centre.
Six months, in the end, were almost six years. Why didn't you do it in
Cuba this time?
Because they are running the PET-CT tests with a reagent that limits the
diagnostic scope to certain kind of tumoral expression, a very small
number of the 220 varieties of tumors detected on the planet.
And how do you know that?
Because my brother demanded the technical details of all the diagnostic
and research devices, and did research on his own.
Do you have any idea if any other provinces in the country have
installed one?
No such equipment was purchased for any other provinces. The ones they
have are installed in the Hospital Hermanos Ameijeiras, the CIMEQ and
the Oncological Centre.
Which means forcing patients from other provinces to come to Havana.
No. They don't offer it to them. I know someone in Guantanamo who never
had the tumor markers identified prior to surgery and chemotherapy,
which is the first thing to be done to define the type of treatment.
Then, with the money raised Ariel sat down with you and told you the
kind of PET-CT test you needed to rule out any progression of the disease.
Yes, patients like me around the world usually get a PET-CT twice a
year. Or every three months. Carmen Acevedo, the Spanish friend with
whom I stayed in Barcelona, gets one every three months, via the public
health system. Due to monitoring problems, they must do so when they
have an active disease, like Carmen and I do. I'm an active patient.
Do you need a PET-CT every three months?
Every three months in Spain. There are countries where it is every six
months. What is outrageous is for it simply not to be done.
Once they decided that you would go to Spain to get tested, how was the
money that had been raised conveyed to you?
When Ariel told me, and I explained it to Tony, he told me that the
people had donated money for my health, and that I could take it to go
and get tested in Spain. He sent the money here, to Cuba, for the trip,
and my brother went to the Spanish Embassy for the visa. And Coco
Fariñas was the one who told him to see the Embassy's Political Attaché.
Guillermo Fariñas?
Yes. When Ariel was on strike he had called me to express his
solidarity. Ariel contacted the Embassy and they said they were willing
to give me the visa.
Tony sent me money and I got a passport.
In dollars?
CUC, which is a little more, because when you exchange it you lose
dollars. It cost me 100 CUC. The visa was like 65 CUC. The flight was
1,036 CUC.
Did you also have to pay for the passport with the money Tony sent you?
Of course, I had no money at all.
What is your salary at the ISDI?
At the ISDI my salary is about 700 Cuban pesos, or 28 CUC. I was able to
pay for everything thanks to the fundraising. I even went to the Spanish
Embassy, where they were kind enough to propose that I have a visa valid
for a full year. So, I have a visa for Spain that is good until
November. That move by the Spanish Embassy was another gesture of
support I received.
Was your teaching interrupted?
No. My students sent me their final papers. I graded them over Christmas
and New Year's, and then I sent in the marks.
Once in Spain, how did you do get the test?
In Spain I stayed with Carmen Acevedo. My friends were very generous.
Their solidarity was amazing. I was able to get by on that money;
besides the trip and expenses in Cuba, I used it to pay for the test,
which cost 1,200 euros, in cash.
What about the treatment, the care?
Excellent, I always felt like a person.
Where was it?
Teknon, in Barcelona. It's where I had done my test in 2012, so we knew
it. The cost of the test had gone up 30 euros, to 1,200. And they,
without me asking, ran a comparative study between the PET-CT in 2012
and this one.
So, that clinic, which had only seen you twice, retained the results of
the PET-CT that you did in 2012. But at the Oncological Centre, where
they've been treating you for 12 years they lost your medical file,
Ariel told me.
Yes, and even biopsies. The comparison of the results yielded excellent
news: there have been no variations between the progress found in 2012
and my current condition. That's incredible. The oncologist who saw me
told me that it was a miracle given the aggressiveness of my pathology.
You told me that TeleMartí covered it ...
Of course. I sent them a thank you letter, not only to TeleMartí, but
also Radio Martí, as the two outlets were extremely supportive. Karen
Caballero called even before Ariel began his strike, since she saw the
contacts that Ariel cited in the Estado de Sats interview. She was
looking for a way to get the drug on her own. But you cannot buy this
kind of drug at pharmacies. Drugs like this in the world are handled by
States. For an individual it's very difficult, because of their high
cost. Health institutions have to acquire it, making large purchases.
How did this experience make you feel?
It was surprising to see something so big organized so quickly, and,
despite that speed, for it to succeed. And how people from such
different places could all unite for a common purpose. It's not
something you see often.
This is what our people are like.
Yes, it's a different civil society, but a successful one. I feel very
optimistic.
Source: The case of Omara Isabel Ruiz Urquiola | Diario de Cuba -
http://www.diariodecuba.com/derechos-humanos/1489134118_29538.html
Thursday, March 9, 2017
Do You Want to be Free?
Do You Want to be Free? / 14ymedio, Jose Azel
In memory of Oswaldo Payá
Video:
https://youtu.be/TB0m5Euv1Ag
14ymedio, Jose Azel, Miami, 9 March 2017 – We take as a given that all
people aspire to be free, but the idea of individual freedoms is not
universally accepted.
Defenders of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes argue that a
dictatorial approach to government is moral, just, and necessary. Some
preach that a developing nation needs a strong man to effectively
promote economic growth without the complications of democracy.
Others feel that an authoritarian government is necessary to ensure law
and order. Others prefer monarchies and other hereditary forms of
government to protect the traditions and customs of their people. Others
believe that their church and government are one and the same, and that
their religious beliefs are about selfish desires for freedom. Marxists
sacrifice individual freedoms on the altar of collectivism.
If that is their decision, those believers in the permanent dominion of
a single party should be free not to be free, preferably on another
planet. But this implies the question of how a society should decide its
form of government. The dictatorial response is to remain in power
indefinitely, as we can see in totalitarian states such as North Korea
and Cuba. The democratic response is to hold free, fair, competitive,
multiparty and frequent elections.
That is why the Cuba Decide plebiscite project, headed by Rosa Maria
Payá Acevedo, seems to me to be a refreshing proposal after nearly six
decades of Castro rule in Cuba. Rosa María is the young and eloquent
daughter of the late democratic activist Oswaldo Payá, winner of the
prestigious European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for the Freedom of
Thought. Rosa María, as president of the Latin American Youth for
Democracy Network, continues her father's work to promote democracy on
the tragic island.
The Cuban Decide initiative proposes that voters respond with a simple
"Yes" or "No," to a basic but transcendental question:
Do you agree with free, fair and plural elections, exercising freedom of
expression and of the press; and organizing freely in political parties
and social organizations with total plurality? Yes or No?
It would be naive to expect the Castro regime to accept such a
plebiscite. But, at the very least, promoting the plebiscite provides a
strategic tool to stimulate in Cuba and in international forums a
solidly focused political debate and public dialogue. The plebiscite
focuses attention on the fact that deciding how to be governed is the
prerogative of the people, and no one else.
Few would reject the central postulate of the plebiscite that Cubans
should be free to decide their future. Even sympathizers of the Castro
regime would find it ideologically difficult to refuse to ask such a
simple question to the Cuban people.
The only intellectually honest way to oppose a plebiscite that empowers
the people in this way would be to argue that the people have nothing to
say about their future, and that dictatorships are the preferable forms
of government. Not many international leaders would be willing to
publicly proclaim that preference.
The Cuba Decide Plebiscite is not a political platform, but rather a
tool to begin the change that would be justified if the Cuban people
decide, by a "Yes" vote, and that offers the possibility of
alternatives. The "No" vote would legitimize the one-party permanent
mandate. To some extent the idea of the plebiscite offers the
leadership of Raúl Castro's successors an elegant and accepted way of
changing course or, alternatively, legitimizing one-party rule. In
post-Castro Cuba, the initiative of the Cuba Decide plebiscite promoted
by young people can become a key component of a legitimate transition.
Freedom has consequences, not all of them useful, but it is immoral to
deprive the people of their liberties, as dictators do. Our rational
approach is our basic way of living. If we cannot act according to our
free opinions we can not live fully as human beings. And we need freedom
to act according to our reasons.
After decades of living without freedom under a totalitarian government,
the Cuba Decide Plebiscite is an initiative promoted by citizens
presenting to the Cuban people a question with rational criteria: Do you
want to be free? "Yes or No." Who could oppose such a question? The
answer should enlighten us all.
____________
Editor's Note: José Azel is a senior researcher at the Institute of
Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami and author
of the book Mañana in Cuba.
Source: Do You Want to be Free? / 14ymedio, Jose Azel – Translating Cuba
- http://translatingcuba.com/do-you-want-to-be-free-14ymedio-jose-azel/
In memory of Oswaldo Payá
Video:
https://youtu.be/TB0m5Euv1Ag
14ymedio, Jose Azel, Miami, 9 March 2017 – We take as a given that all
people aspire to be free, but the idea of individual freedoms is not
universally accepted.
Defenders of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes argue that a
dictatorial approach to government is moral, just, and necessary. Some
preach that a developing nation needs a strong man to effectively
promote economic growth without the complications of democracy.
Others feel that an authoritarian government is necessary to ensure law
and order. Others prefer monarchies and other hereditary forms of
government to protect the traditions and customs of their people. Others
believe that their church and government are one and the same, and that
their religious beliefs are about selfish desires for freedom. Marxists
sacrifice individual freedoms on the altar of collectivism.
If that is their decision, those believers in the permanent dominion of
a single party should be free not to be free, preferably on another
planet. But this implies the question of how a society should decide its
form of government. The dictatorial response is to remain in power
indefinitely, as we can see in totalitarian states such as North Korea
and Cuba. The democratic response is to hold free, fair, competitive,
multiparty and frequent elections.
That is why the Cuba Decide plebiscite project, headed by Rosa Maria
Payá Acevedo, seems to me to be a refreshing proposal after nearly six
decades of Castro rule in Cuba. Rosa María is the young and eloquent
daughter of the late democratic activist Oswaldo Payá, winner of the
prestigious European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for the Freedom of
Thought. Rosa María, as president of the Latin American Youth for
Democracy Network, continues her father's work to promote democracy on
the tragic island.
The Cuban Decide initiative proposes that voters respond with a simple
"Yes" or "No," to a basic but transcendental question:
Do you agree with free, fair and plural elections, exercising freedom of
expression and of the press; and organizing freely in political parties
and social organizations with total plurality? Yes or No?
It would be naive to expect the Castro regime to accept such a
plebiscite. But, at the very least, promoting the plebiscite provides a
strategic tool to stimulate in Cuba and in international forums a
solidly focused political debate and public dialogue. The plebiscite
focuses attention on the fact that deciding how to be governed is the
prerogative of the people, and no one else.
Few would reject the central postulate of the plebiscite that Cubans
should be free to decide their future. Even sympathizers of the Castro
regime would find it ideologically difficult to refuse to ask such a
simple question to the Cuban people.
The only intellectually honest way to oppose a plebiscite that empowers
the people in this way would be to argue that the people have nothing to
say about their future, and that dictatorships are the preferable forms
of government. Not many international leaders would be willing to
publicly proclaim that preference.
The Cuba Decide Plebiscite is not a political platform, but rather a
tool to begin the change that would be justified if the Cuban people
decide, by a "Yes" vote, and that offers the possibility of
alternatives. The "No" vote would legitimize the one-party permanent
mandate. To some extent the idea of the plebiscite offers the
leadership of Raúl Castro's successors an elegant and accepted way of
changing course or, alternatively, legitimizing one-party rule. In
post-Castro Cuba, the initiative of the Cuba Decide plebiscite promoted
by young people can become a key component of a legitimate transition.
Freedom has consequences, not all of them useful, but it is immoral to
deprive the people of their liberties, as dictators do. Our rational
approach is our basic way of living. If we cannot act according to our
free opinions we can not live fully as human beings. And we need freedom
to act according to our reasons.
After decades of living without freedom under a totalitarian government,
the Cuba Decide Plebiscite is an initiative promoted by citizens
presenting to the Cuban people a question with rational criteria: Do you
want to be free? "Yes or No." Who could oppose such a question? The
answer should enlighten us all.
____________
Editor's Note: José Azel is a senior researcher at the Institute of
Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami and author
of the book Mañana in Cuba.
Source: Do You Want to be Free? / 14ymedio, Jose Azel – Translating Cuba
- http://translatingcuba.com/do-you-want-to-be-free-14ymedio-jose-azel/
José Daniel Ferrer “This Type Of Assault Does Not Discourage Us”
José Daniel Ferrer: "This Type Of Assault Does Not Discourage Us" / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Havana, 9 March 2017 — The leader of the Patriotic Union of
Cuba, José Daniel Ferrer, was released Thursday after being detained for
more than 24 hours. The opponent denounced an "increase in
the repression" against the activists of his movement, in a phone call
to 14ymedio a few minutes after his release.
"The search of the homes began at six in the morning," explains Ferrer,
who was taken out of his home at eight o'clock in the morning this
Wednesday and taken to the First Police Unit of Santiago de Cuba, known
as Micro 9.
The former prisoner of the Black Spring explains that the police raided
six properties of UNPACU members. They seized "food, a hard disc,
several USB memories, two laptops, five cellphones, seven wireless
devices, a stereo, a large refrigerator, an electric typewriter and a
camera."
"I spent more than six hours in an office with a guard," Ferrer recalls.
"Then they put me in a cell where you could have filmed a horror movie
for the amount of blood on the walls of someone who had been cut."
The dissident was interrogated by an official who identified himself as
Captain Quiñones, who threatened to send him to prison for "incitement
to violence," in a recent video posted on Twitter. Ferrer flatly denies
the accusation.
During the operation they also confiscated medications such as aspirin,
duralgine, acetaminophen and ibuprofen.
"Most of our activists are in high spirits," says Ferrer. "This type of
assault does not discourage us," he adds. He says that "from November
2015 to date, there have been more than 140" raids of houses of members
of the organization.
On 18 December, at least nine houses of members of the opposition
movement were searched and numerous personal belongings seized by
members of the Ministry of Interior.
Among those who still have not been released are the activists Jorge
Cervantes, coordinator of UNPACU in Las Tunas, and Juan Salgado, both of
whom are being held in the third police unit in that eastern city. The
whereabouts of opponent Esquizander Benítez remain unknown. In addition,
about 50 of UNPACU's militants are being held in several prisons in the
country, which makes the it the opposition organization with the most
political prisoners in the country.
Source: José Daniel Ferrer: "This Type Of Assault Does Not Discourage
Us" / 14ymedio – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/jose-daniel-ferrer-this-type-of-assault-does-not-discourage-us-14ymedio/
14ymedio, Havana, 9 March 2017 — The leader of the Patriotic Union of
Cuba, José Daniel Ferrer, was released Thursday after being detained for
more than 24 hours. The opponent denounced an "increase in
the repression" against the activists of his movement, in a phone call
to 14ymedio a few minutes after his release.
"The search of the homes began at six in the morning," explains Ferrer,
who was taken out of his home at eight o'clock in the morning this
Wednesday and taken to the First Police Unit of Santiago de Cuba, known
as Micro 9.
The former prisoner of the Black Spring explains that the police raided
six properties of UNPACU members. They seized "food, a hard disc,
several USB memories, two laptops, five cellphones, seven wireless
devices, a stereo, a large refrigerator, an electric typewriter and a
camera."
"I spent more than six hours in an office with a guard," Ferrer recalls.
"Then they put me in a cell where you could have filmed a horror movie
for the amount of blood on the walls of someone who had been cut."
The dissident was interrogated by an official who identified himself as
Captain Quiñones, who threatened to send him to prison for "incitement
to violence," in a recent video posted on Twitter. Ferrer flatly denies
the accusation.
During the operation they also confiscated medications such as aspirin,
duralgine, acetaminophen and ibuprofen.
"Most of our activists are in high spirits," says Ferrer. "This type of
assault does not discourage us," he adds. He says that "from November
2015 to date, there have been more than 140" raids of houses of members
of the organization.
On 18 December, at least nine houses of members of the opposition
movement were searched and numerous personal belongings seized by
members of the Ministry of Interior.
Among those who still have not been released are the activists Jorge
Cervantes, coordinator of UNPACU in Las Tunas, and Juan Salgado, both of
whom are being held in the third police unit in that eastern city. The
whereabouts of opponent Esquizander Benítez remain unknown. In addition,
about 50 of UNPACU's militants are being held in several prisons in the
country, which makes the it the opposition organization with the most
political prisoners in the country.
Source: José Daniel Ferrer: "This Type Of Assault Does Not Discourage
Us" / 14ymedio – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/jose-daniel-ferrer-this-type-of-assault-does-not-discourage-us-14ymedio/
Police Forces Assault UNPACU Headquarters, Activists Arrested
Police Forces Assault UNPACU Headquarters, Activists Arrested / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Havana, 8 March 2017 — The headquarters of the Patriotic Union
of Cuba (UNPACU) were assaulted by police forces in the early hours of
Wednesday. The troops forcibly entered five homes located in the
Altamira and José María Heredia areas in Santiago de Cuba, where they
arrested a dozen opponents, according to opposition sources.
Two buildings that operate as UNPACU headquarters and three belonging to
members of the movement were the object of a wave of searches carried
out by agents of the political police and brigades of the National
Revolutionary Police (PNR).
The homes were "looted" simultaneously according to activist Ernesto
Oliva Torres, who reported that at the main headquarters the troops
confiscated "a refrigerator, a television, two laptops, six cordless
phones, among other items."
The searches were accompanied by arbitrary arrests and the interruption
of the telephone communications of most of the UNPACU activists.
Among those arrested on Wednesday morning were Liettys Rachel Reyes,
Carlos Amel Oliva and his father Carlos Oliva, Alexei Martínez, Ernesto
Morán, Juan Salgado, Roilán Zamora, Yriade Hernández, Jorge Cervantes
and his wife Gretchen, David Fernández, Miraida Martín, and the national
coordinator of the movement, José Daniel Ferrer.
14ymedio was able to confirm that Carlos Amel Oliva was released on
Wednesday night, but several of the dissidents remain incommunicado.
Oliva's telephone line had serious problems that prevented the dissident
from communicating with the press.
Liettys Rachel Reyes, 30 weeks pregnant, was under arrest for about
three hours and then released. The whereabouts of the rest of the
detainees remain unknown.
Source: Police Forces Assault UNPACU Headquarters, Activists Arrested /
14ymedio – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/policeassaultunpacu14ymedio/
14ymedio, Havana, 8 March 2017 — The headquarters of the Patriotic Union
of Cuba (UNPACU) were assaulted by police forces in the early hours of
Wednesday. The troops forcibly entered five homes located in the
Altamira and José María Heredia areas in Santiago de Cuba, where they
arrested a dozen opponents, according to opposition sources.
Two buildings that operate as UNPACU headquarters and three belonging to
members of the movement were the object of a wave of searches carried
out by agents of the political police and brigades of the National
Revolutionary Police (PNR).
The homes were "looted" simultaneously according to activist Ernesto
Oliva Torres, who reported that at the main headquarters the troops
confiscated "a refrigerator, a television, two laptops, six cordless
phones, among other items."
The searches were accompanied by arbitrary arrests and the interruption
of the telephone communications of most of the UNPACU activists.
Among those arrested on Wednesday morning were Liettys Rachel Reyes,
Carlos Amel Oliva and his father Carlos Oliva, Alexei Martínez, Ernesto
Morán, Juan Salgado, Roilán Zamora, Yriade Hernández, Jorge Cervantes
and his wife Gretchen, David Fernández, Miraida Martín, and the national
coordinator of the movement, José Daniel Ferrer.
14ymedio was able to confirm that Carlos Amel Oliva was released on
Wednesday night, but several of the dissidents remain incommunicado.
Oliva's telephone line had serious problems that prevented the dissident
from communicating with the press.
Liettys Rachel Reyes, 30 weeks pregnant, was under arrest for about
three hours and then released. The whereabouts of the rest of the
detainees remain unknown.
Source: Police Forces Assault UNPACU Headquarters, Activists Arrested /
14ymedio – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/policeassaultunpacu14ymedio/
Renting Out Medical Specialists
Cuba: Renting Out Medical Specialists / Iván García
Ivan Garcia, 4 March 2017 — Twenty years later, Nivaldo (names changed),
43, an orthopedist, still remembers the hot morning when his parents
said goodbye to him in the old train station in a small village in the
depths of Cuba.
The economy of his native village, with narrow streets of cracked
asphalt and the small of cane juice, revolved around the sugar mill and
the usual thing was that grandfathers, fathers and grandsons worked in
the sugar industry.
It was a sugar mill town like many others. Squat brick houses half
plastered, a handful of white wood houses, guarded by five or six grungy
prefabricated buildings, built after Fidel Castro's Revolution.
The present and future of the village was to drink alcohol distilled
from cane, playing baseball on scrub ground and taming some lost mare
around some stinking green creek.
But Nivaldo wasn't a cane cutter nor a worker at the mill. He graduated
as a doctor on a rainy night in 1997 and after completing his social
service in a mountainous area of Santiago de Cuba, specialized in
orthopedics.
When he stepped in Havana for the first time, like almost all the
country people, he took a photo at the base of the Capitol, and used a
finger to count the number of floors in the Habana Libre Hotel or the
Fosca Building.
"My dream was to be a doctor. Have a family and live according to my
professional status. I'm a specialist, I have a marvelous family, but in
order to maintain it I do things I'm not proud of."
"I have been on international missions in South Africa, Pakistan and
Venezuela. Not out of conviction but simply to earn money and repair and
furnish my house. In Cuba it's hard to find a doctor who hasn't violated
the Hippocratic oath, and accepted gifts or money to maintain his
family. In the countries where I have worked, I've seen patients under
the table who have paid me. In Cuba I have groups of patients who've
given me gifts, a box of beer that costs sixty Cuban convertible pesos,
according to the seriousness of their suffering."
On the Castro brother's island a lot of things don't work. You can wait
an hour and a half to get from one part of town to another because the
chaos that is public transport.
From the time you get up in the morning the problems accumulate.
There's no water in the tank. There's no money to buy a pair of shoes
for the kids. Or you have to eat whatever there is, not what you need or
desire.
Let's not even talk about other things, also important for human beings,
like freedom of expression, the right to join a party other than the
communist party, or to elect the president of the Republic.
But healthcare, universal coverage, was the pride of the autocrat Fidel
Castro. It worked well as long as the former USSR was sending checks
worth millions and connected a pipeline of petroleum coming from the
Caucasus.
Later with the fall of Soviet Communism the deficit came. Ruined
hospitals, nurses looking like police agents and missing medical
specialists. The Raul Castro regime tried to keep the the flagship of
the Revolution afloat, but it was taking on water everywhere.
The first ones who become fed up are the doctors. If not all of them, at
least a broad segment. The causes vary, but the keys are the low
salaries and the lack of recognition for their work.
Migdalia, a dermatologist points out that "for six years I earned 700
Cuban pesos — about 35 dollars — and the salary was barely enough for me
to buy fruits and vegetables at the market. Now I get 1,600 Cuban pesos
— almost 75 dollars — and it's not enough either. So I accept patients
who give me bread and ham, or a piece of clothing, or money in cash, and
I give them personalized attention."
Joel, an allergist, wonders why, if what the international media says is
true and the government gets between 7 and 8 billion dollars from the
sale of medical services, "they don't pay us salaries consistent with
the inflation in the country. I was in Venezuela two years. The
neighbors gave me food and gave me gifts of clothing and things. Rather
than a doctor, I looked like a merchant buying stuff to sell when I came
back. I got to Cuba, after three years on a mission, between business
and the money I saved I had some four thousand dollars, not even enough
to rebuild my house. Now I'm chasing a mission in Trinidad and Tobago or
Qatar, but to get it you have to pay some official at the Ministry of
Public Health (MINSAP) some 400 or 500 bucks for them to put you on the
list. For these reasons, among others, many doctors decide to emigrate."
If we credit the statistics, a little more than three thousand doctors
have deserted in the last seven years. Venezuela is a destination that
puts their lives at risk. The delirious criminality in the South
American country has provoked, according to a statistic from 2010, the
deaths of 67 Cuban health professionals.
The lack of high-quality specialists makes it difficult to care for
patients in Cuba. Daniel has been looking for an ear specialist for six
months to diagnose and treat a problem.
"They only treat you as am emergency in a hospital if you're dying.
Diseases and symptoms that require lab tests, exams with equipment such
as cat scans or x-rays. can only be obtained quickly by paying with
money or gifts. Preventive medicine on the island is in crisis," Daniel
affirms.
Twice a month, Marta pays 10 Cuban convertible pesos (CUC) to the
dentist who sees her daughter. "It's the only way to get high quality
care. If you don't pay, and try to work through the system, they don't
fix your mouth or they do it badly."
Aida, who works for a bank, waited almost a year to get an appointment
with an allergist. "Her appointment at the polyclinic was once a month.
But she never went. With two little bites of ham, two soft drinks and 5
CUC I was able to get an allergist to see me. Then, if they see that you
have resources, then they stretch out the attention to get more money
out of you. Some doctors have become hucksters. It's painful."
When you go to appointments at hospitals, you see that the majority of
patients are bringing gifts for the doctor. But it can be a gift in
kind. Though many prefer cash.
Source: Cuba: Renting Out Medical Specialists / Iván García –
Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/cuba-renting-out-medical-specialists-ivn-garca/
Ivan Garcia, 4 March 2017 — Twenty years later, Nivaldo (names changed),
43, an orthopedist, still remembers the hot morning when his parents
said goodbye to him in the old train station in a small village in the
depths of Cuba.
The economy of his native village, with narrow streets of cracked
asphalt and the small of cane juice, revolved around the sugar mill and
the usual thing was that grandfathers, fathers and grandsons worked in
the sugar industry.
It was a sugar mill town like many others. Squat brick houses half
plastered, a handful of white wood houses, guarded by five or six grungy
prefabricated buildings, built after Fidel Castro's Revolution.
The present and future of the village was to drink alcohol distilled
from cane, playing baseball on scrub ground and taming some lost mare
around some stinking green creek.
But Nivaldo wasn't a cane cutter nor a worker at the mill. He graduated
as a doctor on a rainy night in 1997 and after completing his social
service in a mountainous area of Santiago de Cuba, specialized in
orthopedics.
When he stepped in Havana for the first time, like almost all the
country people, he took a photo at the base of the Capitol, and used a
finger to count the number of floors in the Habana Libre Hotel or the
Fosca Building.
"My dream was to be a doctor. Have a family and live according to my
professional status. I'm a specialist, I have a marvelous family, but in
order to maintain it I do things I'm not proud of."
"I have been on international missions in South Africa, Pakistan and
Venezuela. Not out of conviction but simply to earn money and repair and
furnish my house. In Cuba it's hard to find a doctor who hasn't violated
the Hippocratic oath, and accepted gifts or money to maintain his
family. In the countries where I have worked, I've seen patients under
the table who have paid me. In Cuba I have groups of patients who've
given me gifts, a box of beer that costs sixty Cuban convertible pesos,
according to the seriousness of their suffering."
On the Castro brother's island a lot of things don't work. You can wait
an hour and a half to get from one part of town to another because the
chaos that is public transport.
From the time you get up in the morning the problems accumulate.
There's no water in the tank. There's no money to buy a pair of shoes
for the kids. Or you have to eat whatever there is, not what you need or
desire.
Let's not even talk about other things, also important for human beings,
like freedom of expression, the right to join a party other than the
communist party, or to elect the president of the Republic.
But healthcare, universal coverage, was the pride of the autocrat Fidel
Castro. It worked well as long as the former USSR was sending checks
worth millions and connected a pipeline of petroleum coming from the
Caucasus.
Later with the fall of Soviet Communism the deficit came. Ruined
hospitals, nurses looking like police agents and missing medical
specialists. The Raul Castro regime tried to keep the the flagship of
the Revolution afloat, but it was taking on water everywhere.
The first ones who become fed up are the doctors. If not all of them, at
least a broad segment. The causes vary, but the keys are the low
salaries and the lack of recognition for their work.
Migdalia, a dermatologist points out that "for six years I earned 700
Cuban pesos — about 35 dollars — and the salary was barely enough for me
to buy fruits and vegetables at the market. Now I get 1,600 Cuban pesos
— almost 75 dollars — and it's not enough either. So I accept patients
who give me bread and ham, or a piece of clothing, or money in cash, and
I give them personalized attention."
Joel, an allergist, wonders why, if what the international media says is
true and the government gets between 7 and 8 billion dollars from the
sale of medical services, "they don't pay us salaries consistent with
the inflation in the country. I was in Venezuela two years. The
neighbors gave me food and gave me gifts of clothing and things. Rather
than a doctor, I looked like a merchant buying stuff to sell when I came
back. I got to Cuba, after three years on a mission, between business
and the money I saved I had some four thousand dollars, not even enough
to rebuild my house. Now I'm chasing a mission in Trinidad and Tobago or
Qatar, but to get it you have to pay some official at the Ministry of
Public Health (MINSAP) some 400 or 500 bucks for them to put you on the
list. For these reasons, among others, many doctors decide to emigrate."
If we credit the statistics, a little more than three thousand doctors
have deserted in the last seven years. Venezuela is a destination that
puts their lives at risk. The delirious criminality in the South
American country has provoked, according to a statistic from 2010, the
deaths of 67 Cuban health professionals.
The lack of high-quality specialists makes it difficult to care for
patients in Cuba. Daniel has been looking for an ear specialist for six
months to diagnose and treat a problem.
"They only treat you as am emergency in a hospital if you're dying.
Diseases and symptoms that require lab tests, exams with equipment such
as cat scans or x-rays. can only be obtained quickly by paying with
money or gifts. Preventive medicine on the island is in crisis," Daniel
affirms.
Twice a month, Marta pays 10 Cuban convertible pesos (CUC) to the
dentist who sees her daughter. "It's the only way to get high quality
care. If you don't pay, and try to work through the system, they don't
fix your mouth or they do it badly."
Aida, who works for a bank, waited almost a year to get an appointment
with an allergist. "Her appointment at the polyclinic was once a month.
But she never went. With two little bites of ham, two soft drinks and 5
CUC I was able to get an allergist to see me. Then, if they see that you
have resources, then they stretch out the attention to get more money
out of you. Some doctors have become hucksters. It's painful."
When you go to appointments at hospitals, you see that the majority of
patients are bringing gifts for the doctor. But it can be a gift in
kind. Though many prefer cash.
Source: Cuba: Renting Out Medical Specialists / Iván García –
Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/cuba-renting-out-medical-specialists-ivn-garca/
With A Pension Of 240 Pesos, Raquel Survives Thanks To The Trash
With A Pension Of 240 Pesos, Raquel Survives Thanks To The Trash /
14ymedio, Luz Escobar and Mario Penton
14ymedio, Luz Escobar/Mario Penton, Havana/Miami, 6 March 2017 — At age
67, struck by old age and a miserable pension, Raquel, an engineer
"trained by the Revolution," scavenges among the garbage for the
sustenance of each day. Her hands, which once drew maps and measured
spaces where promising crops would grow, are now collecting cartons,
cans and empty containers.
"My last name? Why? And I don't want any photos. I have children and I
had a life. I don't want people to talk about me," she says while
agreeing to tell her story with a certain air of nostalgia and
disappointment. "I never thought I would end up a dumpster diver, one of
those who digs through the cans in the corners and is the object of jokes."
Cuba has become the oldest country in the Americas, according to
official data. It has been an accelerated process that surprised even
the specialists, who had calculated that the problem would not become
acute before 2025.
With a pension system that is unsustainable in the medium term, an
economic recession and a foreseeable impact on social services as a
result of the aging population, the country is confronting one of the
biggest challenges in its history.
"I receive a pension of 240 Cuban pesos a month (less than 10 dollars).
From that money I have to spend 50 pesos to pay for the Haier
refrigerator that the government gave me [when it switched out older,
less energy efficient models] and an additional 100 pesos for the
purchase of medicines," says Raquel.
Although she is retired, the pharmacy does not subsidize the medicines
she needs for her diabetes and hypertension. The state welfare program
does not include those elderly people living under the same roof with
relatives.
"One of the affects on the country of the aging population is a
significant increase in public spending and the decline of the
population of childbearing age," explains Juan Valdez Paz, a sociologist
based on the island and author of several books on the subject.
According to the Statistical Yearbook of Cuba, health spending fell from
11.3% of GDP in 2009 to 8% in 2012.
Almost 20% of the Cuban population is over 60, and the country's
fertility rate is 1.7 children per woman. In order to compensate for the
population decline, it would be necessary to raise that number to 2.4
children for every female of childbearing age. In 2015 there were
126,000 fewer active people than the previous year.
For Valdés, no society is prepared for the demographic difficulties such
as those facing Cuba.
One solution could be to increase production or for emigrants to return,
according to the specialist. So far both possibilities seem very distant.
In the country there are almost 300 Grandparent Houses (for day care and
socialization) and 144 Elder Homes, with a combined capacity of about
20,000 places. The authorities have recognized the poor hygienic and
physical situation of many of these premises. Many elderly people prefer
to enter the scarce 11 asylums run by religious orders that survive
thanks to international aid, an example of which is the Santovenia
nursing home, in Havana's Cerro district.
The cost to use the Grandparents House facilities is 180 Cuban pesos a
month, and the Elder Homes cost about 400 Cuban pesos. Social Security
grants a subsidy to the elderly who demonstrate to social workers that
they can't pay the cost.
Cuba had one of the most generous and most comprehensive social security
systems in Latin America, largely because of the enormous help it
received from the Soviet Union, estimated by Mesa-Lago at about 65
billion dollars over 30 years.
"Although pensions were never raised, there was an elaborate system
provided by the State to facilitate access to industrial products and
food at subsidized prices," explains the economist.
"It annoys me when I hear about how well they care for older adults.
They don't give me any subsides because I live with my son, my
daughter-in-law and my two grandchildren, but they have their own
expenses and cannot take care of me," says Raquel.
"I need dentures and if you don't bring the dentist a gift they make
them badly or it takes months," she adds.
With the end of the Soviet Union and the loss of the Russian subsidy
pensions were maintained but their real value fell precipitously. In
1993, the average retiree could barely buy 16% of what their pension
would have bought in 1989. At the end of 2015, the purchasing power of
pensioners was half of what it had been before the start of the Special
Period, according to Mesa-Lago's calculations.
Raúl Castro's administration drastically reduced the number of
beneficiaries of social assistance in a process that he called "the
elimination of gratuities." From the 582,060 beneficiaries in 2006, some
5.3% of the population, the number fell to 175,106 in 2015, some 1.5% of
the population.
Several products that had previously been supplied to everyone through
the ration book were also eliminated, such as soap, toothpaste and
matches, and now are only available at unsubsidized prices.
The government has authorized some assistance programs for the
elderly. The Family Care System allows more than 76,000 low-income
elderly people to eat at subsidized prices, although it is a small
figure considering that there are more than two million elderly people
in Cuba.
Some elders receive help from churches and non-governmental organizations.
"People see me collecting cans, but they do not know that I was an
avant-garde engineer and that I even traveled to the Soviet Union in
1983, in the Andropov era," Raquel explains.
When she retired, she had no choice but to devote herself to informal
tasks for a living. She cleaned the common areas of buildings inhabited
by soldiers and their families in Plaza of the Revolution district,
until the demands of this work and her age became incompatible.
"They asked me to wash the glass windows in a hallway on the ninth
floor. It was dangerous and because I was afraid to fall, I preferred to
leave it, even though they paid well," she says.
For each week of work she was paid 125 Cuban pesos, (about 5 dollars)
almost half as much as her pension.
Raquel now collects raw material to sell in state-owned stores, although
she confesses that she wants "like mad" to get a contract with a small
private canning company to sell her empty bottles and avoid the state
company and its delays.
In the patio of her house she has created a tool to crush the cans she
collects in the streets.
"In January I made 3,900 Cuban pesos from beer cans. Of course, you have
to deduct the 500 pesos that I paid for the place in line, because I can
not sleep there lying on a porch. Each bag of cans is worth forty pesos.
It is eight pesos for a kilogram of cans."
In Cuba, there are no official statistics on poverty, and the only data
available is old. In 1996 a study concluded that in Havana alone, 20.1%
of the population were "at risk of not meeting some essential needs." A
survey in 2000 showed that 78% of the elderly considered their income
insufficient to cover their living expenses.
Most of the older adults surveyed said their sources of income were
mostly pension, support from family living in the country, something
from their work and remittances from abroad.
Many elders are dedicated to selling products made with peanuts or candy
on the streets to supplement their income. Others resell newspapers or
search the garbage for objects they can market and a significant
increase in beggars on the streets of the country's main cities has
become apparent.
"It doesn't bother me to go out in old clothes picking up cans. The one
who has to look good is my grandson, who started high school," says Raquel.
"The boys at school sometimes make fun of him, but my grandson is very
good and he is not ashamed of me, or at least he does not show it. He
always comes out and defends me from mockery," she says proudly.
Source: With A Pension Of 240 Pesos, Raquel Survives Thanks To The Trash
/ 14ymedio, Luz Escobar and Mario Penton – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/with-a-pension-of-240-pesos-raquel-survives-thanks-to-the-trash-14ymedio-luz-escobar-and-mario-penton/
14ymedio, Luz Escobar and Mario Penton
14ymedio, Luz Escobar/Mario Penton, Havana/Miami, 6 March 2017 — At age
67, struck by old age and a miserable pension, Raquel, an engineer
"trained by the Revolution," scavenges among the garbage for the
sustenance of each day. Her hands, which once drew maps and measured
spaces where promising crops would grow, are now collecting cartons,
cans and empty containers.
"My last name? Why? And I don't want any photos. I have children and I
had a life. I don't want people to talk about me," she says while
agreeing to tell her story with a certain air of nostalgia and
disappointment. "I never thought I would end up a dumpster diver, one of
those who digs through the cans in the corners and is the object of jokes."
Cuba has become the oldest country in the Americas, according to
official data. It has been an accelerated process that surprised even
the specialists, who had calculated that the problem would not become
acute before 2025.
With a pension system that is unsustainable in the medium term, an
economic recession and a foreseeable impact on social services as a
result of the aging population, the country is confronting one of the
biggest challenges in its history.
"I receive a pension of 240 Cuban pesos a month (less than 10 dollars).
From that money I have to spend 50 pesos to pay for the Haier
refrigerator that the government gave me [when it switched out older,
less energy efficient models] and an additional 100 pesos for the
purchase of medicines," says Raquel.
Although she is retired, the pharmacy does not subsidize the medicines
she needs for her diabetes and hypertension. The state welfare program
does not include those elderly people living under the same roof with
relatives.
"One of the affects on the country of the aging population is a
significant increase in public spending and the decline of the
population of childbearing age," explains Juan Valdez Paz, a sociologist
based on the island and author of several books on the subject.
According to the Statistical Yearbook of Cuba, health spending fell from
11.3% of GDP in 2009 to 8% in 2012.
Almost 20% of the Cuban population is over 60, and the country's
fertility rate is 1.7 children per woman. In order to compensate for the
population decline, it would be necessary to raise that number to 2.4
children for every female of childbearing age. In 2015 there were
126,000 fewer active people than the previous year.
For Valdés, no society is prepared for the demographic difficulties such
as those facing Cuba.
One solution could be to increase production or for emigrants to return,
according to the specialist. So far both possibilities seem very distant.
In the country there are almost 300 Grandparent Houses (for day care and
socialization) and 144 Elder Homes, with a combined capacity of about
20,000 places. The authorities have recognized the poor hygienic and
physical situation of many of these premises. Many elderly people prefer
to enter the scarce 11 asylums run by religious orders that survive
thanks to international aid, an example of which is the Santovenia
nursing home, in Havana's Cerro district.
The cost to use the Grandparents House facilities is 180 Cuban pesos a
month, and the Elder Homes cost about 400 Cuban pesos. Social Security
grants a subsidy to the elderly who demonstrate to social workers that
they can't pay the cost.
Cuba had one of the most generous and most comprehensive social security
systems in Latin America, largely because of the enormous help it
received from the Soviet Union, estimated by Mesa-Lago at about 65
billion dollars over 30 years.
"Although pensions were never raised, there was an elaborate system
provided by the State to facilitate access to industrial products and
food at subsidized prices," explains the economist.
"It annoys me when I hear about how well they care for older adults.
They don't give me any subsides because I live with my son, my
daughter-in-law and my two grandchildren, but they have their own
expenses and cannot take care of me," says Raquel.
"I need dentures and if you don't bring the dentist a gift they make
them badly or it takes months," she adds.
With the end of the Soviet Union and the loss of the Russian subsidy
pensions were maintained but their real value fell precipitously. In
1993, the average retiree could barely buy 16% of what their pension
would have bought in 1989. At the end of 2015, the purchasing power of
pensioners was half of what it had been before the start of the Special
Period, according to Mesa-Lago's calculations.
Raúl Castro's administration drastically reduced the number of
beneficiaries of social assistance in a process that he called "the
elimination of gratuities." From the 582,060 beneficiaries in 2006, some
5.3% of the population, the number fell to 175,106 in 2015, some 1.5% of
the population.
Several products that had previously been supplied to everyone through
the ration book were also eliminated, such as soap, toothpaste and
matches, and now are only available at unsubsidized prices.
The government has authorized some assistance programs for the
elderly. The Family Care System allows more than 76,000 low-income
elderly people to eat at subsidized prices, although it is a small
figure considering that there are more than two million elderly people
in Cuba.
Some elders receive help from churches and non-governmental organizations.
"People see me collecting cans, but they do not know that I was an
avant-garde engineer and that I even traveled to the Soviet Union in
1983, in the Andropov era," Raquel explains.
When she retired, she had no choice but to devote herself to informal
tasks for a living. She cleaned the common areas of buildings inhabited
by soldiers and their families in Plaza of the Revolution district,
until the demands of this work and her age became incompatible.
"They asked me to wash the glass windows in a hallway on the ninth
floor. It was dangerous and because I was afraid to fall, I preferred to
leave it, even though they paid well," she says.
For each week of work she was paid 125 Cuban pesos, (about 5 dollars)
almost half as much as her pension.
Raquel now collects raw material to sell in state-owned stores, although
she confesses that she wants "like mad" to get a contract with a small
private canning company to sell her empty bottles and avoid the state
company and its delays.
In the patio of her house she has created a tool to crush the cans she
collects in the streets.
"In January I made 3,900 Cuban pesos from beer cans. Of course, you have
to deduct the 500 pesos that I paid for the place in line, because I can
not sleep there lying on a porch. Each bag of cans is worth forty pesos.
It is eight pesos for a kilogram of cans."
In Cuba, there are no official statistics on poverty, and the only data
available is old. In 1996 a study concluded that in Havana alone, 20.1%
of the population were "at risk of not meeting some essential needs." A
survey in 2000 showed that 78% of the elderly considered their income
insufficient to cover their living expenses.
Most of the older adults surveyed said their sources of income were
mostly pension, support from family living in the country, something
from their work and remittances from abroad.
Many elders are dedicated to selling products made with peanuts or candy
on the streets to supplement their income. Others resell newspapers or
search the garbage for objects they can market and a significant
increase in beggars on the streets of the country's main cities has
become apparent.
"It doesn't bother me to go out in old clothes picking up cans. The one
who has to look good is my grandson, who started high school," says Raquel.
"The boys at school sometimes make fun of him, but my grandson is very
good and he is not ashamed of me, or at least he does not show it. He
always comes out and defends me from mockery," she says proudly.
Source: With A Pension Of 240 Pesos, Raquel Survives Thanks To The Trash
/ 14ymedio, Luz Escobar and Mario Penton – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/with-a-pension-of-240-pesos-raquel-survives-thanks-to-the-trash-14ymedio-luz-escobar-and-mario-penton/
Cuba's self-imposed embargo is hurting Cubans more than the US embargo
Cuba's self-imposed embargo is hurting Cubans more than the US embargo
By KATARINA HALL • 3/8/17 8:00 PM
At the end of January, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., introduced the
Agricultural Export Expansion Act aimed at removing restrictions on
United States agricultural exports to Cuba. Following the steps of 16
other states, Virginia also launched its Engage Cuba State Council, an
initiative of the Cuba Engagement Coalition that seeks to promote trade
and travel with Cuba and eventually lift the embargo.
Supporters of these initiatives believe ending the embargo will
alleviate Cuban poverty while helping state economies grow. The
president of Engage Cuba, James Williams, said the Agricultural
Expansion Act would "increase US agricultural exports, create jobs
across the country, and provide the Cuban people with high-quality
American food." While these efforts are an important step in improving
American relations with the Caribbean country, Cuba also needs to reform
its system of import taxation for trade liberalization to have its
desired effect.
The U.S. embargo against Cuba has been controversial since it was
implemented in the 1960s. Opponents of the embargo argue that
restricting the population's access to cheap foreign goods makes the
country poorer and gives the government someone to blame for its
widespread poverty. Proponents of the embargo believe that it is the one
thing keeping the Communist Party of Cuba in check, providing justice
for dissidents and keeping money out of the pockets of regime officials.
While they have valid arguments, advocates on both sides are missing an
important factor: whether or not an external embargo exists, most goods
will never reach the Cuban people because of a state-imposed internal
embargo.
I spent last year doing research on economic remittances in Cuba.
Throughout my time there, I conducted several interviews with Havana
residents. Like many Cuba observers, I went in thinking that the
external embargo was Cuba's main stumbling block toward development.
Through these conversations I learned that many Cubans think
differently, against the wishes of state propaganda officials.
As one of my interviewees, Jorge, put it: "The embargo that most affects
us is internal. We don't need the United States; we can buy things from
Mexico, Panama, China." The problem, he explained, is that import taxes
in Cuba are so high that it makes it impossible for anyone to buy things
from other countries. "Either that," Jorge continued, "or the customs
officials steal your goods because they can." One time, Jorge went as
far as to destroy a new microwave he had purchased in St. Martin because
custom officials would not let him keep it. "If they wouldn't let me
keep my microwave, I wasn't going to let them have it."
Even if companies are able to legally pay the taxes, the price of goods
drastically increases well beyond the reach of an average Cuban. My
Havana neighbor, Maria Elena, explained that in Cuba you do see imported
goods like refrigerators from China, anti-electricity antennas from
Spain, even your occasional Nestlé ice cream. "But I can't afford any of
these with my $20 a month salary," she said, "a $3 ice cream becomes a
luxury." A resident from the next-door building, Lismary, said that
sometimes import taxes raise the price of a good by 110 percent. With
these prices, American products entering the Cuban market could only be
sold at stores for foreigners or hotels, not your average Cuban store.
If U.S. companies were to become established in Cuba, they would run
into another problem: it takes ages for customs to process goods.
Manuel, a Havana resident who worked for a Spanish company, told me that
sometimes it took his company six months to a year to get the permits
needed for their products to be released by customs. "That is, 6 months
plus countless bribes," he said, "and sometimes we get the products too
late, when we don't need them anymore." Having products stuck so long in
customs could eventually lead to losses for Cubans importing goods and
American companies in Cuba.
Despite their intentions, efforts like the Senate legislation are
unlikely to help average Cubans. While it is true that these efforts
might help the economic growth of some states, and perhaps the communist
regime, they will not provide cheap foods for the Cuban population. As
noble as the intentions of such campaigns might be, it will not be until
the internal embargo in Cuba is removed that Cuban people will begin to
benefit from trade with the U.S.
Katarina Hall is the director of the Human Rights Center at Universidad
Francisco Marroquin in Guatemala. She is also a Young Voices Advocate.
Source: Cuba's self-imposed embargo is hurting Cubans more than the US
embargo | Washington Examiner -
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/cubas-self-imposed-embargo-is-hurting-cubans-more-than-the-us-embargo/article/2616539
By KATARINA HALL • 3/8/17 8:00 PM
At the end of January, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., introduced the
Agricultural Export Expansion Act aimed at removing restrictions on
United States agricultural exports to Cuba. Following the steps of 16
other states, Virginia also launched its Engage Cuba State Council, an
initiative of the Cuba Engagement Coalition that seeks to promote trade
and travel with Cuba and eventually lift the embargo.
Supporters of these initiatives believe ending the embargo will
alleviate Cuban poverty while helping state economies grow. The
president of Engage Cuba, James Williams, said the Agricultural
Expansion Act would "increase US agricultural exports, create jobs
across the country, and provide the Cuban people with high-quality
American food." While these efforts are an important step in improving
American relations with the Caribbean country, Cuba also needs to reform
its system of import taxation for trade liberalization to have its
desired effect.
The U.S. embargo against Cuba has been controversial since it was
implemented in the 1960s. Opponents of the embargo argue that
restricting the population's access to cheap foreign goods makes the
country poorer and gives the government someone to blame for its
widespread poverty. Proponents of the embargo believe that it is the one
thing keeping the Communist Party of Cuba in check, providing justice
for dissidents and keeping money out of the pockets of regime officials.
While they have valid arguments, advocates on both sides are missing an
important factor: whether or not an external embargo exists, most goods
will never reach the Cuban people because of a state-imposed internal
embargo.
I spent last year doing research on economic remittances in Cuba.
Throughout my time there, I conducted several interviews with Havana
residents. Like many Cuba observers, I went in thinking that the
external embargo was Cuba's main stumbling block toward development.
Through these conversations I learned that many Cubans think
differently, against the wishes of state propaganda officials.
As one of my interviewees, Jorge, put it: "The embargo that most affects
us is internal. We don't need the United States; we can buy things from
Mexico, Panama, China." The problem, he explained, is that import taxes
in Cuba are so high that it makes it impossible for anyone to buy things
from other countries. "Either that," Jorge continued, "or the customs
officials steal your goods because they can." One time, Jorge went as
far as to destroy a new microwave he had purchased in St. Martin because
custom officials would not let him keep it. "If they wouldn't let me
keep my microwave, I wasn't going to let them have it."
Even if companies are able to legally pay the taxes, the price of goods
drastically increases well beyond the reach of an average Cuban. My
Havana neighbor, Maria Elena, explained that in Cuba you do see imported
goods like refrigerators from China, anti-electricity antennas from
Spain, even your occasional Nestlé ice cream. "But I can't afford any of
these with my $20 a month salary," she said, "a $3 ice cream becomes a
luxury." A resident from the next-door building, Lismary, said that
sometimes import taxes raise the price of a good by 110 percent. With
these prices, American products entering the Cuban market could only be
sold at stores for foreigners or hotels, not your average Cuban store.
If U.S. companies were to become established in Cuba, they would run
into another problem: it takes ages for customs to process goods.
Manuel, a Havana resident who worked for a Spanish company, told me that
sometimes it took his company six months to a year to get the permits
needed for their products to be released by customs. "That is, 6 months
plus countless bribes," he said, "and sometimes we get the products too
late, when we don't need them anymore." Having products stuck so long in
customs could eventually lead to losses for Cubans importing goods and
American companies in Cuba.
Despite their intentions, efforts like the Senate legislation are
unlikely to help average Cubans. While it is true that these efforts
might help the economic growth of some states, and perhaps the communist
regime, they will not provide cheap foods for the Cuban population. As
noble as the intentions of such campaigns might be, it will not be until
the internal embargo in Cuba is removed that Cuban people will begin to
benefit from trade with the U.S.
Katarina Hall is the director of the Human Rights Center at Universidad
Francisco Marroquin in Guatemala. She is also a Young Voices Advocate.
Source: Cuba's self-imposed embargo is hurting Cubans more than the US
embargo | Washington Examiner -
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/cubas-self-imposed-embargo-is-hurting-cubans-more-than-the-us-embargo/article/2616539
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