Hurricane Season: Risk of Collapse, If There is Wood, There are No Nails
/ Osmar Laffita Rojas
Posted on September 27, 2013
Havana, Cuba, September, Osmar Lafitta, www.cubanet.org — For many
Cubans, having a house or apartment, even fifty-four years after the
current rulers came to power, is an impossibility. Repairing or building
a home using their own resources remains the only option for hundreds of
thousands of families.
And the start of cyclone season is a time of great anxiety for many in
the population.
There are 3,000,000 homes making up Cuba's housing stock. Of this figure
61% are reported to be in good condition. The rest, which have not been
maintained for decades, are in poor condition.
The government's home construction programs are showing signs of
accelerated decline due to the ineffective economic model imposed on the
country, which has led to inefficiency and corruption.
The blame for everything
The official position is that the embargo is to blame for everything.
However, responsibility for the housing shortage rests with the
all-powerful State, whose micro-brigades — made up of amateur carpenters
and bricklayers — had a monopoly on home construction for almost half a
century, denying the public the chance to repair or build their own homes.
This absurd centralization is what led to the very serious housing
problem now facing the country. In 2008 Raúl Castro changed his tune.
Now houses can be bought and sold, and credits and subsidies are
available for those who do not have the money for construction
materials. But…
Most Cubans who want to repair their homes earn only twenty dollars a
month and cannot afford to pay five dollars for a bag of cement, or
three and a half dollars for a cubic meter of sand. Businesses that sell
construction material remain empty in every city in the country.
There are also shortages of concrete blocks, bricks, roofing tiles, and
flooring material. The suppliers, using various excuses, cannot
guarantee that these materials will ever be in stock.
To find what they need, customers must make pilgrimages to various flea
markets. And when they do find it, they have to add transportation costs
to the high price of the product.
The 90 points of sale and 33 stores that sell construction materials in
Havana province have very few products available most of the time.
The situation is just as disastrous in Holguín province. The shortage of
many materials poses a serious problem for its residents, who have still
not been able to repair the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy.
According to management
"The shortage of building materials is due to a lack of transportation.
The stone mills have stockpiles of different types of aggregates and the
cement factories' warehouses are packed but there are no trucks to get
the material to the points of sale."
Even a partial solution to the serious housing shortage would require
building no fewer than 70,000 units a year. Last year 26,000 were built.
Of those only 1,000 were built by the State; the rest were built by the
owners themselves.
In Havana the housing deficit is even more alarming. 5,471 families have
spent more than a decade in temporary shelters. This figure does not
include those living in buildings that have been declared uninhabitable,
some of which are in danger of collapse. To prevent their roofs from
falling in on them requires building 28,000 homes to house these people.
The effects of Sandy
Last year Hurricane Sandy destroyed thousands of houses in Guantánamo,
Holguín and Santiago de Cuba. Before the storm, Santiago de Cuba had a
total of 329,129 homes, 40% of which were reported to be in fair to poor
condition. Sandy left the city in a state of chaos. In Santiago de Cuba
171,000 homes were damaged. One year later only 44% have been repaired.
Many residents complain that "there are no materials." When there is
cement, there are no concrete blocks. When lumber arrives, there are no
doors. If there are no windows or roofing tiles, then it becomes a
veritable ordeal, which no one explains and which is never resolved.
Where are the materials that are supposed to be going to the storm victims?
What are the commissions set up to help those affected by Hurricane
Sandy in Santiago de Cuba doing?
In the three eastern provinces 26,000 homes were completely destroyed by
Hurricane Sandy. In the first six months of this year, only 4,690 were
rebuilt, an average of 130 houses per month in each of the affected
provinces.
The situation is very serious. Forty-thousand homes damaged by previous
cyclones to hit Cuba have not yet been repaired.
Among the things destroyed by Sandy were 61,310 homes, whose inhabitants
are losing hope.
Osmar Laffita Rojas
From Cubanet
September 9, 2013
Source: "Hurricane Season: Risk of Collapse, If There is Wood, There are
No Nails / Osmar Laffita Rojas | Translating Cuba" -
http://translatingcuba.com/hurricane-season-risk-of-collapse-if-there-is-wood-there-are-no-nails-osmar-laffita-rojas/
Saturday, September 28, 2013
I Like That They Call Me “Papi”
I Like That They Call Me "Papi" / Luis Cino Alvarez
Posted on September 27, 2013
Havana, Cuba, September, www.cubanet.org – Lately, with guys over the
age of 40, in addition to "Tío," "Puro" and very rarely "Señor, the
younger generation calls us "Papi."
As sexists as we still are — sorry, Mariela Castro – it is still a bit
startling.
They call the taxi driver "Papi," a guy with a criminal face who can
barely hide that he's up to no good; a young man who looks like a
metrosexual, all very ambivalent: gelled hair, waxed eyebrows, piercing
in his left eyebrow, tight top which shows his well sculpted arms, and
chest hairs showing signs of prior shaving and even the top of his
underwear showing the name of Versace that sticks out two inches above
his pants, which also, by the way, are hanging almost to his crotch.
And how about if the one calling you "Papi" is a good-looking girl made
up like a porn star? First, make sure that is not a man. If it really
is a girl, then perhaps there no need for a sweet little compliment.
Within the next hour she can ask you to light her cigarette and then
turn her back on you, shaking her assets without even thanking you. As
if everyone in the universe deserved it.
She might also be a hooker looking for clients. Chances are that
nothing will happen, because the money you have is not enough to pay her
fee; perhaps you don't have a place to take her; or you are afraid of
the place where she could take you and where two or three of her
followers could be waiting to fleece you; fear of AIDS might stop you;
or you're turned off by her warnings that you have to pay her in
advance, use a condom, not take too long, and not kiss her (the
prostitutes in Cuba do not kiss on the mouth).
In many instances, when you really look at her, you have to be a
championship pervert to overcome the weight of your conscience and do it
with a girl who could easily be your daughter and who you can tell from
a mile away is hungry.
Now it doesn't bother me when they call me "Papi." Perhaps I would feel
uncomfortable if they called me "Señor. Especially if it is a young
girl. I feel that if they don't address me in familiar terms it is
because I look as old as a Polynesian turtle. Too old for them to call
me "Papi." And that is much worse.
From Cubanet, September 6, 2013
Luis Cino Alvarrez — luicino2012@gmail.com
Translated by – LYD
Source: "I Like That They Call Me "Papi" / Luis Cino Alvarez |
Translating Cuba" -
http://translatingcuba.com/i-like-that-they-call-me-papi-luis-cino-alvarez/
Posted on September 27, 2013
Havana, Cuba, September, www.cubanet.org – Lately, with guys over the
age of 40, in addition to "Tío," "Puro" and very rarely "Señor, the
younger generation calls us "Papi."
As sexists as we still are — sorry, Mariela Castro – it is still a bit
startling.
They call the taxi driver "Papi," a guy with a criminal face who can
barely hide that he's up to no good; a young man who looks like a
metrosexual, all very ambivalent: gelled hair, waxed eyebrows, piercing
in his left eyebrow, tight top which shows his well sculpted arms, and
chest hairs showing signs of prior shaving and even the top of his
underwear showing the name of Versace that sticks out two inches above
his pants, which also, by the way, are hanging almost to his crotch.
And how about if the one calling you "Papi" is a good-looking girl made
up like a porn star? First, make sure that is not a man. If it really
is a girl, then perhaps there no need for a sweet little compliment.
Within the next hour she can ask you to light her cigarette and then
turn her back on you, shaking her assets without even thanking you. As
if everyone in the universe deserved it.
She might also be a hooker looking for clients. Chances are that
nothing will happen, because the money you have is not enough to pay her
fee; perhaps you don't have a place to take her; or you are afraid of
the place where she could take you and where two or three of her
followers could be waiting to fleece you; fear of AIDS might stop you;
or you're turned off by her warnings that you have to pay her in
advance, use a condom, not take too long, and not kiss her (the
prostitutes in Cuba do not kiss on the mouth).
In many instances, when you really look at her, you have to be a
championship pervert to overcome the weight of your conscience and do it
with a girl who could easily be your daughter and who you can tell from
a mile away is hungry.
Now it doesn't bother me when they call me "Papi." Perhaps I would feel
uncomfortable if they called me "Señor. Especially if it is a young
girl. I feel that if they don't address me in familiar terms it is
because I look as old as a Polynesian turtle. Too old for them to call
me "Papi." And that is much worse.
From Cubanet, September 6, 2013
Luis Cino Alvarrez — luicino2012@gmail.com
Translated by – LYD
Source: "I Like That They Call Me "Papi" / Luis Cino Alvarez |
Translating Cuba" -
http://translatingcuba.com/i-like-that-they-call-me-papi-luis-cino-alvarez/
Paris-Villa Clara, Cuba Flights Resume
Paris-Villa Clara, Cuba Flights Resume
September 27, 2013
HAVANA TIMES — Cubana Airlines will resume starting in November direct
weekly flights between Paris and the central Cuban province of Villa
Clara, it was announced at the Top Resa Tourism industry event in the
French capital.
This route started last year and will resume between November 21 and
April 27, the peak tourist season on the island. Another Cubana flight
travels weekly to and from France year round, with a stopover in
Santiago de Cuba.
The Top Resa Tourism Fair is an event for professionals in the field,
which just met for four days in the Exhibition Park at Porte de
Versailles, with over 1,100 tour agents attending from around the globe.
Source: "Paris-Villa Clara, Cuba Flights Resume" -
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=99090
September 27, 2013
HAVANA TIMES — Cubana Airlines will resume starting in November direct
weekly flights between Paris and the central Cuban province of Villa
Clara, it was announced at the Top Resa Tourism industry event in the
French capital.
This route started last year and will resume between November 21 and
April 27, the peak tourist season on the island. Another Cubana flight
travels weekly to and from France year round, with a stopover in
Santiago de Cuba.
The Top Resa Tourism Fair is an event for professionals in the field,
which just met for four days in the Exhibition Park at Porte de
Versailles, with over 1,100 tour agents attending from around the globe.
Source: "Paris-Villa Clara, Cuba Flights Resume" -
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=99090
The Cuban State Keeps Complaints at the Bottom
The Cuban State Keeps Complaints at the Bottom
September 27, 2013
Rogelio Manuel Diaz Moreno
HAVANA TIMES — A new short film invites Cuban citizens to take a more
active attitude towards the poor services and mistreatment caught sight
of in certain State institutions.
The entire plot unfolds in the waiting room of an unspecified government
institution, where a secretary "keeps" the order. Before her, we see a
group of people, presumably waiting in line to go through a bureaucratic
procedure of sorts. There is something strange about all of their faces:
they have no mouths.
A person enters the waiting room through a back door and hands the
secretary a package. Obviously, it's a bribe that opens the door to the
solution to his problem. Only one person among those who wait patiently,
the only one whose mouth hasn't been scrubbed off, reacts on seeing
this. He rubs the faces of the other people in the waiting room, making
their faces full again and thus rescuing them from their condition of
defenseless citizens. It looks as though justice will prevail at last.
What nerve.
The underlying thesis of this short film is that the main reason behind
such corruption and mistreatment is the indolence of lower officials,
that the problem lies at the base of Cuba's pyramidal system, and that
citizens interested in improvement have the power and the obligation to
fix the problem.
A similar viewpoint was expressed by the press in connection with the
issue of swindles at different food and other goods markets. Cuba's
official press insists that, in order to solve the problem, consumers
must simply begin to defend their rights at that level.
But it's not that simple.
Let us suppose that the secretary and all other government officials in
this short film did their jobs professionally, there, at the base of the
institutional pyramid, without accepting bribes or any kind of
compromise. Cuban citizens would continue to be just as helpless under a
totalitarian bureaucracy that subjugates them with a whole range of
laws, resolutions, circulars, prohibitions, regulations and other
provisions.
We should add that these same citizens approach these institutions
knowing that they are dealing with "higher authorities", that they are
going to trade blows with the State, who's always right, and that the
mechanisms designed to process any complaints are operated by people who
have the same interests as those responsible for the problem in the
first place.
To directly confront the government official that holds the solution to
your specific problem is, thus, something of a bad idea. To top things
off, those who have these problems and approach a government office to
solve them don't identify with one another and generally mistrust each
other. What they are thinking, rather, is that the others will do any
egotistical thing to solve their own problems.
Beyond sharing some superficial or angered comments about the problems
they have in common, they are on their own, divided. It is the exact
same dilemma prisoners face, and it is the result of the system that has
been imposed on them, where the strongest prevails, through a position
of power established, encouraged or tolerated by the State itself.
On the other hand, bureaucrats, venders and market administrators, like
functionaries who make decisions in the spheres of housing,
communications, health, education, employment and others, show
remarkable unity. In the meantime, the possibility of "pulling strings"
through friends, bribes and other measures rifts applicants, users,
customers, students, patients and others apart.
The hero who takes out a measuring scale at a market to verify the
weight of the product sold to them arouses surprise and concerns over
possible reprisals. State employees are afraid to rock the boat at their
place of work.
The poor fellow who has no connections and doesn't even have enough to
buy some peanuts on the street, languishes while waiting decades for the
system – the same system to which they have devoted a lifetime of work –
to fix their roof, which threatens to come crashing down at any moment.
In the best of cases, someone sends a letter of complaint to a
newspaper, which publishes it and makes a big fuss about the whole
business. On occasion, this gets a prompt reaction – but under no
circumstances does it get rid of the problem.
How different things would be, however, if consumers, students, patients
and applicants didn't hesitate to approach an entity that defended their
rights, or to found one, on seeing that the existing institution didn't
exactly meet their needs.
A network, or more than one network, organized by the interested
parties, a horizontal and democratic institution recognized under the
law, independent from the State or government, responding only to the
interests of the population – would be an organization worthy of any
society that considers itself democratic.
It would certainly not be a miracle cure, but the rights of citizens
would profit enormously from a structure of this nature. Its services,
sustained by debates, complaints, negotiations or, failing all that,
legal proceedings, would force the government to re-think how it treats
those who today get the run-around.
Such a process would question more than the manner in which a specific
problem is addressed or a given bureaucratic mechanism. It would
question the very validity of these oppressive mechanisms that deprive
individuals of their freedom. State and government institutions would
have no choice but to listen and abide by the people's will, offer
solutions to their daily problems, rather than create new ones.
Of course, such mechanisms are far removed from the interests of the
authoritarian strata, intent on maintaining and improving their
privileged situation. Such a threat to their position would simply be
inadmissible. Imagine citizens unsatisfied by the State services they're
getting? This could be a threat to the powers that be, but not anywhere
near as big of a threat as empowering citizens, which they clearly don't
want.
Let citizens exhaust themselves in their quibbles with corrupt
shopkeepers and inspectors, the State seems to say. It's a way of
killing two birds with one stone, for those bribable shopkeepers and
inspectors also perturb the peace and undermine the profits of the ones
at the top. Protect yourself, citizens, the State appears to be saying,
but only against those that are also my problem, not against me, mind you.
Thankfully, this cannot go on forever.
Source: "The Cuban State Keeps Complaints at the Bottom" -
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=99084
September 27, 2013
Rogelio Manuel Diaz Moreno
HAVANA TIMES — A new short film invites Cuban citizens to take a more
active attitude towards the poor services and mistreatment caught sight
of in certain State institutions.
The entire plot unfolds in the waiting room of an unspecified government
institution, where a secretary "keeps" the order. Before her, we see a
group of people, presumably waiting in line to go through a bureaucratic
procedure of sorts. There is something strange about all of their faces:
they have no mouths.
A person enters the waiting room through a back door and hands the
secretary a package. Obviously, it's a bribe that opens the door to the
solution to his problem. Only one person among those who wait patiently,
the only one whose mouth hasn't been scrubbed off, reacts on seeing
this. He rubs the faces of the other people in the waiting room, making
their faces full again and thus rescuing them from their condition of
defenseless citizens. It looks as though justice will prevail at last.
What nerve.
The underlying thesis of this short film is that the main reason behind
such corruption and mistreatment is the indolence of lower officials,
that the problem lies at the base of Cuba's pyramidal system, and that
citizens interested in improvement have the power and the obligation to
fix the problem.
A similar viewpoint was expressed by the press in connection with the
issue of swindles at different food and other goods markets. Cuba's
official press insists that, in order to solve the problem, consumers
must simply begin to defend their rights at that level.
But it's not that simple.
Let us suppose that the secretary and all other government officials in
this short film did their jobs professionally, there, at the base of the
institutional pyramid, without accepting bribes or any kind of
compromise. Cuban citizens would continue to be just as helpless under a
totalitarian bureaucracy that subjugates them with a whole range of
laws, resolutions, circulars, prohibitions, regulations and other
provisions.
We should add that these same citizens approach these institutions
knowing that they are dealing with "higher authorities", that they are
going to trade blows with the State, who's always right, and that the
mechanisms designed to process any complaints are operated by people who
have the same interests as those responsible for the problem in the
first place.
To directly confront the government official that holds the solution to
your specific problem is, thus, something of a bad idea. To top things
off, those who have these problems and approach a government office to
solve them don't identify with one another and generally mistrust each
other. What they are thinking, rather, is that the others will do any
egotistical thing to solve their own problems.
Beyond sharing some superficial or angered comments about the problems
they have in common, they are on their own, divided. It is the exact
same dilemma prisoners face, and it is the result of the system that has
been imposed on them, where the strongest prevails, through a position
of power established, encouraged or tolerated by the State itself.
On the other hand, bureaucrats, venders and market administrators, like
functionaries who make decisions in the spheres of housing,
communications, health, education, employment and others, show
remarkable unity. In the meantime, the possibility of "pulling strings"
through friends, bribes and other measures rifts applicants, users,
customers, students, patients and others apart.
The hero who takes out a measuring scale at a market to verify the
weight of the product sold to them arouses surprise and concerns over
possible reprisals. State employees are afraid to rock the boat at their
place of work.
The poor fellow who has no connections and doesn't even have enough to
buy some peanuts on the street, languishes while waiting decades for the
system – the same system to which they have devoted a lifetime of work –
to fix their roof, which threatens to come crashing down at any moment.
In the best of cases, someone sends a letter of complaint to a
newspaper, which publishes it and makes a big fuss about the whole
business. On occasion, this gets a prompt reaction – but under no
circumstances does it get rid of the problem.
How different things would be, however, if consumers, students, patients
and applicants didn't hesitate to approach an entity that defended their
rights, or to found one, on seeing that the existing institution didn't
exactly meet their needs.
A network, or more than one network, organized by the interested
parties, a horizontal and democratic institution recognized under the
law, independent from the State or government, responding only to the
interests of the population – would be an organization worthy of any
society that considers itself democratic.
It would certainly not be a miracle cure, but the rights of citizens
would profit enormously from a structure of this nature. Its services,
sustained by debates, complaints, negotiations or, failing all that,
legal proceedings, would force the government to re-think how it treats
those who today get the run-around.
Such a process would question more than the manner in which a specific
problem is addressed or a given bureaucratic mechanism. It would
question the very validity of these oppressive mechanisms that deprive
individuals of their freedom. State and government institutions would
have no choice but to listen and abide by the people's will, offer
solutions to their daily problems, rather than create new ones.
Of course, such mechanisms are far removed from the interests of the
authoritarian strata, intent on maintaining and improving their
privileged situation. Such a threat to their position would simply be
inadmissible. Imagine citizens unsatisfied by the State services they're
getting? This could be a threat to the powers that be, but not anywhere
near as big of a threat as empowering citizens, which they clearly don't
want.
Let citizens exhaust themselves in their quibbles with corrupt
shopkeepers and inspectors, the State seems to say. It's a way of
killing two birds with one stone, for those bribable shopkeepers and
inspectors also perturb the peace and undermine the profits of the ones
at the top. Protect yourself, citizens, the State appears to be saying,
but only against those that are also my problem, not against me, mind you.
Thankfully, this cannot go on forever.
Source: "The Cuban State Keeps Complaints at the Bottom" -
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=99084
Cuba will let athletes sign with foreign leagues
Posted on Saturday, 09.28.13
Cuba will let athletes sign with foreign leagues
BY RONALD BLUM
AP SPORTS WRITER
NEW YORK -- It will be up to the U.S. government to decide whether a new
wave of Cuban baseball players can quickly make their way to the major
leagues.
Cuba announced Friday that athletes from all sports will soon be able to
sign contracts with foreign leagues, a break with a decades-old policy
that held pro sports to be anathema to socialist ideals.
"I'm excited. I'm from Cuba. I'm happy for the guys from my country to
play the best baseball in the world," said Milwaukee Brewers infielder
Yuniesky Betancourt, a Cuban defector who left his homeland aboard a
speedboat in 2003.
The decision was a step toward a time when the path from Havana to
Yankee Stadium might mean simply hopping on a plane rather than
attempting a perilous sea crossing or sneaking out of a hotel at
midnight in a strange land.
But American baseball fans shouldn't throw their Dodgers or Rockies caps
in the air in celebration just yet. The Cold War-era embargo against
Cuba means it may not happen soon.
Economic restrictions were imposed by the U.S. after Cuba nationalized
American businesses and aligned itself with the Soviet Union. They have
been kept in place to try to pressure the authoritarian country to allow
its people more freedom.
"Our policy has not changed. Cuban players need to be unblocked by a
license from the Office of Foreign Assets Control in order to play for
the MLB," said John Sullivan, spokesman for the U.S. Treasury
Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control. "In order to qualify, the
players must prove that they have permanent residency outside of Cuba."
Major League Baseball said the impact of Friday's announcement can't be
predicted.
"Given that we do not have any details of this change in policy, it
would be premature for us to speculate what effect it may have," the
commissioner's office said in a statement.
"There are no provisions in the major league rules or bylaws that make
it more difficult for Cuban ballplayers to play Major League Baseball,
but MLB and its clubs have and will continue to act in accordance with
the laws and policies of the United States government."
Athletes' wages are not made public in Cuba but are believed to be
somewhere around the $20 a month that most other state employees earn —
a tiny fraction of the millions many U.S. big leaguers make.
"It's the dream of many athletes to test themselves in other leagues —
the big leagues, if at some point my country would allow it," said
Yasmani Tomas, who is one of Cuba's top talents, batting .345 last
season with the powerhouse Havana Industriales.
Under the new policy, athletes will be eligible to play abroad as long
as they fulfill their commitments at home, the Communist Party newspaper
Granma reported.
For baseball players, that means being available for international
competitions as well as Cuba's November-to-April league.
"We have seen the press reports. This is an internal Cuban matter,"
Deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said. "Generally
speaking, the United States welcomes any reforms that allow Cubans to
depart from and return to their country."
President Raul Castro's government hopes the move will stem defections
by athletes who are lured abroad by the possibility of lucrative
contracts, a practice that saps talent from Cuba's teams.
"I think this could help stop the desertions a little bit," said
Yulieski Gourriel, a talented 29-year-old third baseman who batted .314
last year for the Sancti Spiritus.
"I don't even want to talk about how much I've been offered, because
every time we leave the country, there are these offers. I've never paid
attention because I've always said I'm not interested."
A number of his countrymen, however, are interested.
Cuban defectors now in the major leagues include outfielder Yasiel Puig,
who signed a $42 million, seven-year contract with the Los Angeles
Dodgers in July 2012 and had a sensational rookie season, helping Los
Angeles win its division.
Hard-throwing reliever Aroldis Chapman signed a $30.25 million, six-year
deal with Cincinnati before the 2010 season.
Texas Rangers outfielder Leoyns Martin was surprised Friday when told
about the news.
"Really? Oh my gosh," said Martin, wearing his Cuba Baseball jacket from
the 2009 World Baseball Classic.
Martin defected after playing for Cuba's national team in a 2010
tournament in Japan.
"I don't want to talk about that," Martin said. "That's a long history
in my life."
Professional sports were essentially done away with under Fidel Castro
in 1961, two years after the Cuban revolution, and athletes became state
employees just like factory workers and farmhands.
Sport as private enterprise was deemed incompatible with the Marxist
society Castro intended to create. In 2005, he railed against the
"parasites that feed off the athlete's hard work" in professional sports.
Friday's announcement is part of a trend toward relaxing that stance
under Castro's brother, who became president in 2006.
Earlier this year, Cuba ended a five-decade ban on professional boxing,
joining an international semipro league where fighters compete for
sponsored teams and earn $1,000 to $3,000 a month.
Associated Press writers Anne-Marie Garcia and Peter Orsi in Havana, and
Luis Alonso Lugo in Washington, D.C., and AP Sports Writer Mike
Fitzpatrick in New York contributed to this report.
Source: "NEW YORK: Cuba will let athletes sign with foreign leagues -
Sports Breaking News - MiamiHerald.com" -
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/09/28/3656260/cuba-will-let-athletes-sign-with.html#storylink=misearch
Cuba will let athletes sign with foreign leagues
BY RONALD BLUM
AP SPORTS WRITER
NEW YORK -- It will be up to the U.S. government to decide whether a new
wave of Cuban baseball players can quickly make their way to the major
leagues.
Cuba announced Friday that athletes from all sports will soon be able to
sign contracts with foreign leagues, a break with a decades-old policy
that held pro sports to be anathema to socialist ideals.
"I'm excited. I'm from Cuba. I'm happy for the guys from my country to
play the best baseball in the world," said Milwaukee Brewers infielder
Yuniesky Betancourt, a Cuban defector who left his homeland aboard a
speedboat in 2003.
The decision was a step toward a time when the path from Havana to
Yankee Stadium might mean simply hopping on a plane rather than
attempting a perilous sea crossing or sneaking out of a hotel at
midnight in a strange land.
But American baseball fans shouldn't throw their Dodgers or Rockies caps
in the air in celebration just yet. The Cold War-era embargo against
Cuba means it may not happen soon.
Economic restrictions were imposed by the U.S. after Cuba nationalized
American businesses and aligned itself with the Soviet Union. They have
been kept in place to try to pressure the authoritarian country to allow
its people more freedom.
"Our policy has not changed. Cuban players need to be unblocked by a
license from the Office of Foreign Assets Control in order to play for
the MLB," said John Sullivan, spokesman for the U.S. Treasury
Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control. "In order to qualify, the
players must prove that they have permanent residency outside of Cuba."
Major League Baseball said the impact of Friday's announcement can't be
predicted.
"Given that we do not have any details of this change in policy, it
would be premature for us to speculate what effect it may have," the
commissioner's office said in a statement.
"There are no provisions in the major league rules or bylaws that make
it more difficult for Cuban ballplayers to play Major League Baseball,
but MLB and its clubs have and will continue to act in accordance with
the laws and policies of the United States government."
Athletes' wages are not made public in Cuba but are believed to be
somewhere around the $20 a month that most other state employees earn —
a tiny fraction of the millions many U.S. big leaguers make.
"It's the dream of many athletes to test themselves in other leagues —
the big leagues, if at some point my country would allow it," said
Yasmani Tomas, who is one of Cuba's top talents, batting .345 last
season with the powerhouse Havana Industriales.
Under the new policy, athletes will be eligible to play abroad as long
as they fulfill their commitments at home, the Communist Party newspaper
Granma reported.
For baseball players, that means being available for international
competitions as well as Cuba's November-to-April league.
"We have seen the press reports. This is an internal Cuban matter,"
Deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said. "Generally
speaking, the United States welcomes any reforms that allow Cubans to
depart from and return to their country."
President Raul Castro's government hopes the move will stem defections
by athletes who are lured abroad by the possibility of lucrative
contracts, a practice that saps talent from Cuba's teams.
"I think this could help stop the desertions a little bit," said
Yulieski Gourriel, a talented 29-year-old third baseman who batted .314
last year for the Sancti Spiritus.
"I don't even want to talk about how much I've been offered, because
every time we leave the country, there are these offers. I've never paid
attention because I've always said I'm not interested."
A number of his countrymen, however, are interested.
Cuban defectors now in the major leagues include outfielder Yasiel Puig,
who signed a $42 million, seven-year contract with the Los Angeles
Dodgers in July 2012 and had a sensational rookie season, helping Los
Angeles win its division.
Hard-throwing reliever Aroldis Chapman signed a $30.25 million, six-year
deal with Cincinnati before the 2010 season.
Texas Rangers outfielder Leoyns Martin was surprised Friday when told
about the news.
"Really? Oh my gosh," said Martin, wearing his Cuba Baseball jacket from
the 2009 World Baseball Classic.
Martin defected after playing for Cuba's national team in a 2010
tournament in Japan.
"I don't want to talk about that," Martin said. "That's a long history
in my life."
Professional sports were essentially done away with under Fidel Castro
in 1961, two years after the Cuban revolution, and athletes became state
employees just like factory workers and farmhands.
Sport as private enterprise was deemed incompatible with the Marxist
society Castro intended to create. In 2005, he railed against the
"parasites that feed off the athlete's hard work" in professional sports.
Friday's announcement is part of a trend toward relaxing that stance
under Castro's brother, who became president in 2006.
Earlier this year, Cuba ended a five-decade ban on professional boxing,
joining an international semipro league where fighters compete for
sponsored teams and earn $1,000 to $3,000 a month.
Associated Press writers Anne-Marie Garcia and Peter Orsi in Havana, and
Luis Alonso Lugo in Washington, D.C., and AP Sports Writer Mike
Fitzpatrick in New York contributed to this report.
Source: "NEW YORK: Cuba will let athletes sign with foreign leagues -
Sports Breaking News - MiamiHerald.com" -
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/09/28/3656260/cuba-will-let-athletes-sign-with.html#storylink=misearch
Cuba says it will pay athletes better salaries and bonuses
Posted on Friday, 09.27.13
Cuba says it will pay athletes better salaries and bonuses
BY JUAN O. TAMAYO
JTAMAYO@ELNUEVOHERALD.COM
Cuba has established an intricate set of pay scales, bonuses and
regulations for its top athletes in what clearly appears to be an effort
to stem an ongoing wave of defections by its stars and perhaps return
the island to its sports glories of old.
The new system approved by the ruling Council of Ministers and detailed
Friday in the newspaper Granma also will allow athletes to keep more of
their prize money and seemed to open the door to more Cubans playing
abroad, but gave few details.
It was not immediately clear whether the new system might affect Cuban
athletes already playing for foreign teams, such as the nearly two dozen
playing Major League Baseball in the United States.
What is clear is that the changes will hike payments to top, full-time
athletes, who have usually earned meager salaries of $20 to $30 per
month from no-show jobs in state enterprises since Fidel Castro
abolished professional sports in the early 1960s.
The new uniform system, which replaces a series of arrangements that
differ according to the sport, sets several categories, based on results
in competitions, that will determine monthly income and bonuses — all
taxable — as well as retirement and other benefits.
Olympic medalists will be paid 1,500 pesos per month, or about $60,
while Pan American Games medalists will be paid 1,200 pesos.
Participants in the National Baseball Series and the national baseball
selection will get 1,000 pesos per month.
Their respective sports organizations also will pay bonuses per medals
during the time that athletes are active in the national teams, from
2,500 pesos for an Olympic gold to 300 pesos for a first place in the
Central American games, which include the Caribbean.
And while the government now pockets more than 80 percent of the prize
money won in international competitions, the new system guarantees 80
percent to the athletes in major sports, 15 percent to coaches and 5
percent to specialists such as physical trainers.
The increased payments also will go to active and retired coaches and
specialists, but will not exceed half their current monthly salary,
according to the lengthy Granma article. Bonuses now paid to past
winners will be maintained.
Just as complicated are the pay hikes and bonuses for baseball, where
5,000 pesos will go to starting pitchers who throw for more than 120
innings and win more than 10 games in one season. The team that wins the
national series will get 65,000 pesos, or $2,600.
Granma also reported that top athletes will have "the possibility of
being contracted by teams abroad, protected by the National Institute
for Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (INDER), and the sports
federations."
It added that athletes with foreign contracts will be required to
represent Cuba in major competitions, but gave no details on which
sports will or will not be allowed to sign contracts with professional
teams abroad.
The mention of the state-controlled INDER, and a requirement that all
athletes sign contracts with their respective sports federations,
indicated that the government and not the athletes will play the key
role in any contract negotiations with foreign teams.
Three Cubans were contracted this year to play in the Mexican baseball
league, and there have been report that up to two dozen more will go
there after Cuba's own national baseball championship later this year.
And a handful of volleyball players were hired out to European teams
several years ago.
The changes will take effect in November for baseball and January for
the rest of the sports, Granma reported, but the Council of Ministers
agreed that "this is only the start of the road" and will consider
further changes and refinements later.
Granma reported that the new system was designed to "perfect the sport,
create sources of income, search for quality and discipline in
competitions, increase salaries in a gradual manner and assure that each
persons is paid according to his work."
Cuban teams, once powerhouses in the Olympics and other international
competitions, have performed surprisingly poorly in recent meets amid
reports of discontent with the country's sports hierarchy and a steady
stream of defections.
Among the two dozen or so Cubans now playing for U.S. major league teams
are Yasiel Puig, Yoenis Céspedes, Adeiny Hechevarría, Alexei Ramírez,
Kendrys Morales, José Fernández and Yunel Escobar.
Cuban baseball officials have reportedly proposed accepting the return
of those major league players who left the island illegally but did not
defect from a national team during a trip abroad, Havana resident Daniel
Palacios wrote earlier this week.
Palacios added that Antonio Castro Soto del Valle, son of Fidel Castro
and vice president of International Baseball Federation, has pushed the
idea in a talk with Yoenis Céspedes, who plays for the Oakland Athletics
Source: "Cuba says it will pay athletes better salaries and bonuses -
Cuba - MiamiHerald.com" -
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/09/27/3655558/cuba-says-it-will-pay-athletes.html#storylink=misearch
Cuba says it will pay athletes better salaries and bonuses
BY JUAN O. TAMAYO
JTAMAYO@ELNUEVOHERALD.COM
Cuba has established an intricate set of pay scales, bonuses and
regulations for its top athletes in what clearly appears to be an effort
to stem an ongoing wave of defections by its stars and perhaps return
the island to its sports glories of old.
The new system approved by the ruling Council of Ministers and detailed
Friday in the newspaper Granma also will allow athletes to keep more of
their prize money and seemed to open the door to more Cubans playing
abroad, but gave few details.
It was not immediately clear whether the new system might affect Cuban
athletes already playing for foreign teams, such as the nearly two dozen
playing Major League Baseball in the United States.
What is clear is that the changes will hike payments to top, full-time
athletes, who have usually earned meager salaries of $20 to $30 per
month from no-show jobs in state enterprises since Fidel Castro
abolished professional sports in the early 1960s.
The new uniform system, which replaces a series of arrangements that
differ according to the sport, sets several categories, based on results
in competitions, that will determine monthly income and bonuses — all
taxable — as well as retirement and other benefits.
Olympic medalists will be paid 1,500 pesos per month, or about $60,
while Pan American Games medalists will be paid 1,200 pesos.
Participants in the National Baseball Series and the national baseball
selection will get 1,000 pesos per month.
Their respective sports organizations also will pay bonuses per medals
during the time that athletes are active in the national teams, from
2,500 pesos for an Olympic gold to 300 pesos for a first place in the
Central American games, which include the Caribbean.
And while the government now pockets more than 80 percent of the prize
money won in international competitions, the new system guarantees 80
percent to the athletes in major sports, 15 percent to coaches and 5
percent to specialists such as physical trainers.
The increased payments also will go to active and retired coaches and
specialists, but will not exceed half their current monthly salary,
according to the lengthy Granma article. Bonuses now paid to past
winners will be maintained.
Just as complicated are the pay hikes and bonuses for baseball, where
5,000 pesos will go to starting pitchers who throw for more than 120
innings and win more than 10 games in one season. The team that wins the
national series will get 65,000 pesos, or $2,600.
Granma also reported that top athletes will have "the possibility of
being contracted by teams abroad, protected by the National Institute
for Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (INDER), and the sports
federations."
It added that athletes with foreign contracts will be required to
represent Cuba in major competitions, but gave no details on which
sports will or will not be allowed to sign contracts with professional
teams abroad.
The mention of the state-controlled INDER, and a requirement that all
athletes sign contracts with their respective sports federations,
indicated that the government and not the athletes will play the key
role in any contract negotiations with foreign teams.
Three Cubans were contracted this year to play in the Mexican baseball
league, and there have been report that up to two dozen more will go
there after Cuba's own national baseball championship later this year.
And a handful of volleyball players were hired out to European teams
several years ago.
The changes will take effect in November for baseball and January for
the rest of the sports, Granma reported, but the Council of Ministers
agreed that "this is only the start of the road" and will consider
further changes and refinements later.
Granma reported that the new system was designed to "perfect the sport,
create sources of income, search for quality and discipline in
competitions, increase salaries in a gradual manner and assure that each
persons is paid according to his work."
Cuban teams, once powerhouses in the Olympics and other international
competitions, have performed surprisingly poorly in recent meets amid
reports of discontent with the country's sports hierarchy and a steady
stream of defections.
Among the two dozen or so Cubans now playing for U.S. major league teams
are Yasiel Puig, Yoenis Céspedes, Adeiny Hechevarría, Alexei Ramírez,
Kendrys Morales, José Fernández and Yunel Escobar.
Cuban baseball officials have reportedly proposed accepting the return
of those major league players who left the island illegally but did not
defect from a national team during a trip abroad, Havana resident Daniel
Palacios wrote earlier this week.
Palacios added that Antonio Castro Soto del Valle, son of Fidel Castro
and vice president of International Baseball Federation, has pushed the
idea in a talk with Yoenis Céspedes, who plays for the Oakland Athletics
Source: "Cuba says it will pay athletes better salaries and bonuses -
Cuba - MiamiHerald.com" -
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/09/27/3655558/cuba-says-it-will-pay-athletes.html#storylink=misearch
Rev. Jackson in Cuba, hopes to see jailed American
Posted on Friday, 09.27.13
Rev. Jackson in Cuba, hopes to see jailed American
BY PETER ORSI
ASSOCIATED PRESS
HAVANA -- The Rev. Jesse Jackson traveled to Cuba Friday for talks with
the island's religious leaders and said he hopes to visit Alan Gross, a
U.S. government subcontractor serving a 15-year sentence in the
Caribbean nation.
In brief comments outside a seaside Havana hotel, Jackson told reporters
he intended to meet with local clergy about their concerns for the needs
of the poor, and to discuss relations between Cuba, the United States
and the rest of the Caribbean.
Asked whether he would meet with Gross, Jackson said: "I would like to."
Gross was arrested in December 2009 after authorities caught him
importing restricted communications equipment into the country.
He said he was only setting up Internet networks for island Jewish
groups, but a court convicted him on a statute governing crimes against
the state and sentenced him to 15 years.
The case threw already cool U.S.-Cuba relations into a deep freeze,
although there have been signs of some thawing this year.
Jackson has traveled to Yugoslavia, Syria and Iraq in the past to help
gain freedom for U.S. citizens jailed there.
In March 2011, shortly before Gross' trial, he appealed to Cuba to
release the man on humanitarian grounds and offered to help mediate.
Former President Jimmy Carter came to Havana later that month, but left
without Gross.
In September 2011, the former governor of New Mexico and U.S. Ambassador
to the United Nations, Bill Richardson, made a high profile visit to try
to negotiate Gross' release.
But the trip abruptly fell apart amid mutual recriminations as
Richardson wasn't even allowed to see Gross, and referred to him in
public comments as a "hostage."
Jackson has visited Cuba on several occasions and met with both former
President Fidel Castro and current President Raul Castro. In 1984, he
helped negotiate the release of 26 Cuban prisoners. Most of them went
into exile.
On Friday, Jackson said he hopes to help continue healing the wounds of
a five-decade divide between islanders and exiles.
"It's good to be back to Cuba again," Jackson said. "We've been here
over the years. We have developed kinships with many Cuban-Americans
trying to build Cuban-Cuban American family reunification."
"We hope for the day we will have the walls down, the bridges built," he
said.
Peter Orsi on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Peter-Orsi
Source: "HAVANA: Rev. Jackson in Cuba, hopes to see jailed American -
Latest News - MiamiHerald.com" -
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/09/27/3655273/rev-jackson-in-cuba-hopes-to-see.html#storylink=misearch
Rev. Jackson in Cuba, hopes to see jailed American
BY PETER ORSI
ASSOCIATED PRESS
HAVANA -- The Rev. Jesse Jackson traveled to Cuba Friday for talks with
the island's religious leaders and said he hopes to visit Alan Gross, a
U.S. government subcontractor serving a 15-year sentence in the
Caribbean nation.
In brief comments outside a seaside Havana hotel, Jackson told reporters
he intended to meet with local clergy about their concerns for the needs
of the poor, and to discuss relations between Cuba, the United States
and the rest of the Caribbean.
Asked whether he would meet with Gross, Jackson said: "I would like to."
Gross was arrested in December 2009 after authorities caught him
importing restricted communications equipment into the country.
He said he was only setting up Internet networks for island Jewish
groups, but a court convicted him on a statute governing crimes against
the state and sentenced him to 15 years.
The case threw already cool U.S.-Cuba relations into a deep freeze,
although there have been signs of some thawing this year.
Jackson has traveled to Yugoslavia, Syria and Iraq in the past to help
gain freedom for U.S. citizens jailed there.
In March 2011, shortly before Gross' trial, he appealed to Cuba to
release the man on humanitarian grounds and offered to help mediate.
Former President Jimmy Carter came to Havana later that month, but left
without Gross.
In September 2011, the former governor of New Mexico and U.S. Ambassador
to the United Nations, Bill Richardson, made a high profile visit to try
to negotiate Gross' release.
But the trip abruptly fell apart amid mutual recriminations as
Richardson wasn't even allowed to see Gross, and referred to him in
public comments as a "hostage."
Jackson has visited Cuba on several occasions and met with both former
President Fidel Castro and current President Raul Castro. In 1984, he
helped negotiate the release of 26 Cuban prisoners. Most of them went
into exile.
On Friday, Jackson said he hopes to help continue healing the wounds of
a five-decade divide between islanders and exiles.
"It's good to be back to Cuba again," Jackson said. "We've been here
over the years. We have developed kinships with many Cuban-Americans
trying to build Cuban-Cuban American family reunification."
"We hope for the day we will have the walls down, the bridges built," he
said.
Peter Orsi on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Peter-Orsi
Source: "HAVANA: Rev. Jackson in Cuba, hopes to see jailed American -
Latest News - MiamiHerald.com" -
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/09/27/3655273/rev-jackson-in-cuba-hopes-to-see.html#storylink=misearch
Beer Scam in Havana
Beer Scam in Havana
September 26, 2013
Osmel Almaguer
HAVANA TIMES — The Bucanero beer had been adulterated. It had no foam,
tasted bad and gave my friend a strong headache. I don't think we'll be
buying anything at the kiosk at the intersection of 23 and G in Havana
anymore, what with the lousy service we got and the general lack of
cleanliness there.
Such anecdotes don't seem to be news to anyone these days. These things
happen so often nowadays that talking about them seems redundant. But we
should not grow tired of criticizing things that are ultimately nothing
other than a form of abuse.
If you pay for a beer in Cuban Convertible Pesos (CUC), you have the
right to be treated by the clerk with kindness and attentiveness, rather
than peevishness and indifference.
When we got to the counter, we looked at the two clerks so as to get
their attention. The woman seemed to be doing an inventory, as though
she'd just started her shift, while the other, considerably younger
clerk, sitting in front of her, was counting a large quantity of coins
on top of a freezer.
Neither paid us any attention. My friend had to speak to them. The young
man looked at her, without stopping the coin-counting, and said: "Yes?"
"Is the beer cold?"
"Yes."
"Do you have glasses?"
"Have a seat at one of the tables."
Two minutes later, the young man came to our table with two beers – a
Bucanero for my friend and a Cristal for me – but no glasses. He opened
the cans in such a way that his fingers seemed to dip into the beer
through the holes in the cans.
My friend, who comes from a country that, though not devoid of problems,
imposes strict hygienic regulations on all food and beverage
establishments, couldn't take it anymore and went off the handle.
The young man listened to her sermon and, with something of an altar-boy
look to him, said curtly: "I'll get you some glasses."
He came back with some glasses that looked dirty, as though they'd been
used many times and not properly washed. Haven't we been told there are
cases of cholera out there?
My friend had a sip of her beer and was almost tempted to throw it out.
It didn't foam, tasted bad and, to top things off, was not even cold.
The Cristal was a bit better, though also not cold enough.
So the woman behind the counter, who seemed to be the boss and looked
even more irritated than the kid, told the young clerk not to sell any
more Cristal beer, to tell anyone who came along they only had Bucanero.
Needless to say, the coolers were filled with both brands.
Had I heard wrong? Shouldn't it be the other way around? Shouldn't they
stop selling the product in bad condition? Why was she intent on selling
the watered-down Bucanero? To screw the customers? As a
counterrevolutionary protest?
No. She couldn't have cared less about any of that. She simply wanted to
sell off the products she had brought to replace the ones she took. I'm
almost positive of this, which I know is the modus operandi in
situations like this one. I saw it with my own eyes when I worked as a
security guard in the town of Guanabo, on the outskirts of Havana.
What clerks do is buy several crates of beer of dubious origin at
lower-than-market prices and sell them, pocketing the difference.
As is the case in other areas, this is an open secret and no one does
anything about it. Someone may question the fact I am spilling the
beans, but not the practice as such. In brief, part and parcel of the
absurd system we live in.
For those who are reading this with good intentions: this happened this
past September 17th, at around five in the afternoon, on a day like any
other in Havana.
Source: "Adulterated Beer Scams are Commonplace in Cuba" -
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=99057
September 26, 2013
Osmel Almaguer
HAVANA TIMES — The Bucanero beer had been adulterated. It had no foam,
tasted bad and gave my friend a strong headache. I don't think we'll be
buying anything at the kiosk at the intersection of 23 and G in Havana
anymore, what with the lousy service we got and the general lack of
cleanliness there.
Such anecdotes don't seem to be news to anyone these days. These things
happen so often nowadays that talking about them seems redundant. But we
should not grow tired of criticizing things that are ultimately nothing
other than a form of abuse.
If you pay for a beer in Cuban Convertible Pesos (CUC), you have the
right to be treated by the clerk with kindness and attentiveness, rather
than peevishness and indifference.
When we got to the counter, we looked at the two clerks so as to get
their attention. The woman seemed to be doing an inventory, as though
she'd just started her shift, while the other, considerably younger
clerk, sitting in front of her, was counting a large quantity of coins
on top of a freezer.
Neither paid us any attention. My friend had to speak to them. The young
man looked at her, without stopping the coin-counting, and said: "Yes?"
"Is the beer cold?"
"Yes."
"Do you have glasses?"
"Have a seat at one of the tables."
Two minutes later, the young man came to our table with two beers – a
Bucanero for my friend and a Cristal for me – but no glasses. He opened
the cans in such a way that his fingers seemed to dip into the beer
through the holes in the cans.
My friend, who comes from a country that, though not devoid of problems,
imposes strict hygienic regulations on all food and beverage
establishments, couldn't take it anymore and went off the handle.
The young man listened to her sermon and, with something of an altar-boy
look to him, said curtly: "I'll get you some glasses."
He came back with some glasses that looked dirty, as though they'd been
used many times and not properly washed. Haven't we been told there are
cases of cholera out there?
My friend had a sip of her beer and was almost tempted to throw it out.
It didn't foam, tasted bad and, to top things off, was not even cold.
The Cristal was a bit better, though also not cold enough.
So the woman behind the counter, who seemed to be the boss and looked
even more irritated than the kid, told the young clerk not to sell any
more Cristal beer, to tell anyone who came along they only had Bucanero.
Needless to say, the coolers were filled with both brands.
Had I heard wrong? Shouldn't it be the other way around? Shouldn't they
stop selling the product in bad condition? Why was she intent on selling
the watered-down Bucanero? To screw the customers? As a
counterrevolutionary protest?
No. She couldn't have cared less about any of that. She simply wanted to
sell off the products she had brought to replace the ones she took. I'm
almost positive of this, which I know is the modus operandi in
situations like this one. I saw it with my own eyes when I worked as a
security guard in the town of Guanabo, on the outskirts of Havana.
What clerks do is buy several crates of beer of dubious origin at
lower-than-market prices and sell them, pocketing the difference.
As is the case in other areas, this is an open secret and no one does
anything about it. Someone may question the fact I am spilling the
beans, but not the practice as such. In brief, part and parcel of the
absurd system we live in.
For those who are reading this with good intentions: this happened this
past September 17th, at around five in the afternoon, on a day like any
other in Havana.
Source: "Adulterated Beer Scams are Commonplace in Cuba" -
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=99057
Cuba Has New Bottled Water Plant
Cuba Has New Bottled Water Plant
September 26, 2013
HAVANA TIMES – With the opening in the eastern province of Guantánamo of
a new factory for the production of bottled water, Cuba "could gain a
place in the Caribbean basin market," notes Trabajadores weekly.
The plant, with the latest Italian technology, began operations in
recent days with the trade name Sierra Canasta.
The liquid will be sold in a plastic 600 ml bottles, at a similar price
to Ciego Montero water (500 ml) , which is currently sold on the island
in the hard currency CUC .
The plant's initial goal is to produce some 144 thousand boxes of
bottles a year, which would cover the entire hard currency market in the
eastern region of Cuba.
However, specialists believe that the factory can produce 1,500 boxes a
day, or well over 350,000 boxes per year, which would allow it to enter
the Caribbean island market.
THE READERS WHO SAW THIS POST ALSO LIKE
Source: "Cuba to Export Bottled Water" - http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=99035
September 26, 2013
HAVANA TIMES – With the opening in the eastern province of Guantánamo of
a new factory for the production of bottled water, Cuba "could gain a
place in the Caribbean basin market," notes Trabajadores weekly.
The plant, with the latest Italian technology, began operations in
recent days with the trade name Sierra Canasta.
The liquid will be sold in a plastic 600 ml bottles, at a similar price
to Ciego Montero water (500 ml) , which is currently sold on the island
in the hard currency CUC .
The plant's initial goal is to produce some 144 thousand boxes of
bottles a year, which would cover the entire hard currency market in the
eastern region of Cuba.
However, specialists believe that the factory can produce 1,500 boxes a
day, or well over 350,000 boxes per year, which would allow it to enter
the Caribbean island market.
THE READERS WHO SAW THIS POST ALSO LIKE
Source: "Cuba to Export Bottled Water" - http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=99035
Friday, September 27, 2013
Political Opposition and Negotiations in Today’s Cuba
Political Opposition and Negotiations in Today's Cuba / Dimas Castellanos
Posted on September 26, 2013
Interview of Dimas Castellanos by Ernesto Santana Zaldivar, published on
April 26 and 29, 2013 in Cubanet.
Although still uttered timidly, recently you have begun to hear the word
"negotiation" in some statements by the Cuban political opposition.
Despite having diverse opinions about it, a negotiation is, in general,
a process in which two or more parties try to find a mutually
satisfactory solution to their problem, be it labor union, financial,
military, commercial, political, etc.
The American expert on the subject, Herb Cohen, believes that
"everything is negotiable" and defines negotiation as "a field of
knowledge and action whose objective is to win the consent or the favor
of the people from whom you want to get something." He also says that
the three main factors of a negotiation are power, information, and time.
In order to approach, from a Cuban historical perspective, an issue so
complex, but which has had such importance for determining fundamental
political changes in many countries and eras, we talked with sociologist
and historian Dimas Castellanos, also known for his independent
journalism in the digital magazine Consensus, in Diario de Cuba, and in
other media.
Cubanet: Do you think there is still no pressure in Cuba that requires
the government to negotiate?
Dimas Castellanos: First, this is not the case of an armed movement that
occupied a region of the country over which the government now has no
control, as in Colombia. Another thing that may force a government to
negotiate is that the opposition has such influence over a sector of the
population that it can create difficulties for the authorities.
In Cuba there is great discontent, manifested for example in the
elections: almost fifteen percent of the voters did not go to the polls
or annulled their ballots. But they did so spontaneously, by an
individual act of conscience. No one should believe that this was in
response to some opposition party that has that kind of drawing power.
So the government has no reason, nor anyone with whom, to negotiate. And
on the other hand the opposition is not strong enough to prevent the
government from doing what it wants.
Cubanet: What, in your opinion, is the reason for this situation?
Dimas Castellanos: In Cuba, there were always forces that at some point
could compel those in power to do certain things. These forces do not
exist today. When the revolutionary government took power, the first
thing it did was to dismantle the whole network of institutions that
existed, mainly civic institutions. So all the citizen organizations,
which had been here since the end of the Ten-Year War, disappeared.
Civil society, which erupted with force in the Republic, achieved
admirable results, as the strike by apprentices and masons demonstrated
in 1901 and 1902, which spread to other sectors.
By 1910, the government was forced to enact several legislative measures
favorable to the working class, such as the eight-hour day for
government workers, payment in cash and not in tokens and vouchers (as
before), and paid holidays.
The labor movement accomplished all that because it had real strength
and could, for example, paralyze sugar mills or transportation. Cubans
now are not as poor as they were, but we do not have unions and other
civil society organizations able to play that role.
Cubanet: So is it essential, first of all, to set up the network again?
Dimas Castellanos: It's hard to understand that this is a long-term
battle. And you have to pace yourself and take advantage of all the gaps
and openings to help the civic formation of citizens. Many dissidents
want change for Cuba, just as I do, who am also part of the opposition,
but I try to be as realistic as possible.
The government is sometimes forced to take some step, more for external
reasons than from pressure from within Cuba. After more than fifty
years, it has the luxury of making reforms from the same position of
power, and therefore can determine the pace and direction they take.
They can make a change in one direction, then take back a little, then
shift it forward again, and play with it, but there is no internal force
able to avoid it.
The government will negotiate when there is a force that compels it to
negotiate, and that force has to be formed over the long term.
Cubanet: Do you share the opinion of many Cuban historians that the
Protest of Baraguá represents a milestone in our history as a method of
negotiating without compromising dignity?
Dimas Castellanos: I regret that the Zanjón Compact has not received the
historical recognition that it should have, and that only the Protest of
Baraguá has been glorified, because it demobilized the rebel troops in
exchange for Spain allowing in Cuba a regime very similar to that which
existed in Spain itself or in Puerto Rico.
The laws of the metropolis governed here starting from the Zanjón
Compact, and from it came freedoms of expression, association, and
assembly, among other benefits.
Despite all the limitations that it kept, there Cuban civil society was
born and the first political parties were created. The union movement
grew, newspapers spread, there were organizations of all kinds –
political, fraternal, labor – that began to take on an enormous burden
within society.
The burden was such that you cannot understand the beginning of the war
in 1895 without the work that civil society did in the whole colony.
That was a time, in terms of freedoms, very superior to what currently
exists.
Due to the shortness of time that this form of communication offers and
at the same time, due to the interest and to the meaty responses from
Dimas Castellanos, we have divided this interview in two parts which
will be available to the readers in a coming edition.
Cubanet: In his first responses for this two-part interview, Dimas
Castellanos explained the reasons why, in his view, the peaceful
opposition movement in Cuba is not yet in a position to force the
government to sit at a negotiating table. He also set out his criterion
from examples of notable negotiated events that took place throughout
our history. Just for this aspect we return to the theme.
Cubanet: How do you assess the role played by civil society in Cuba, as
far as negotiation is concerned, in the Republican era, from its
beginnings to 1958?
Dimas Castellanos: Negotiation played a role of obvious importance. The
Constitution of 1901 is an example. The interventionist U.S. government
allowed the formation of a Constituent Assembly and created the
conditions for it, but, as it had the force of the occupation, it made
sure that the Platt Amendment was incorporated to secure their power
over the country.
More progressive Cuban forces strongly opposed the amendment and even
traveled to the United States, but failed except for a few small
changes. Although during the revolution those who signed the Platt
Amendment were condemned, the truth is that there were only two options:
either sign the addendum to the Constitution or the United States
maintained its military control over the country.
And there were no longer mambises nor the Cuban Revolutionary Party, nor
an economy; and a people, moreover, tired of wars. The best minds saw
that they could lose everything and accepted the Amendment – although it
was an insult, a humiliation – as a tactic, to then gradually remove it,
as they did.
In 1934 the Platt Amendment was finally abrogated. And it was all
through negotiation.
Cubanet: And in terms of the Constitution of 1940?
Dimas Castellanos: It was a master class in negotiating in which the
participants ranged from communists to the extreme right. They arrived
at a Constitution that provided balance, though perhaps, in my opinion,
it was above the civic potential of the Cuban people. That is why
afterward our military tradition manages to prevail.
There was not a strong civic tradition, but rather a dictatorship
tradition, which is demonstrated in the governments from 1902 until the
fall of Machado in 1933. Between that year and 1940 was very turbulent.
After 1937 they managed to calm the situation a little and finally
return to a democratic exercise that culminated with the Constitution of
1940.
Batista cleanly won the presidential election. Then Grau defeated him in
1944 with the Aunténticos, winning again in '48 with Prío, and in 1952
he looked certain to defeat the Orthodox Party, which was nothing more
than an offshoot of the Authentic Party, whose main argument was the
prevailing political and administrative corruption.
Curiously, this corruption did not affect society, because, even though
we were not very advanced in public spirit, the morality of the Cuban
people was very high. After the 1952 coup, those who wanted to overthrow
Batista were divided into two camps: on one side, the civic forces (the
Law Society, the Medical Association, the Lions Club, Rotary Club,
etc..), and on the other, those who opted for armed struggle.
Cubanet: We now know which was the winning side. What is not well
understood, especially by the Cuban population, is what later happened
with the negotiating capacity of our civil society.
Dimas Castellanos: The Revolution became the source of power, without
any compromise with what existed before and swept it all away.
Actually, the Revolution had the support of only one part of the
population (the fighting was carried out by a few thousand men in a
population of six million), mainly peasant farmers, but the massive
support occurred afterward and the Revolutionary government acted with
skill. The result: it disarmed Cuban civil society, all the autonomous
movements disappeared (of peasants, students, women, workers, etc.).
The unions were taken over in January 1959. Many who disagreed with that
course thought that if Fidel Castro had taken power by force, he could
also be overthrown by arms, but all violent resistance was defeated.
Cubanet: When can you say that Cuban civil society finally woke up,
after the long slumber imposed by the Revolution?
Dimas Castellanos: In the late 80s and early 90s opposition
organizations and political parties began to emerge, but very weakly,
because of government repression first of all, and because many of the
people continued to identify with the power, despite its failure,
because the mindset does not change very quickly. Also because of the
monopoly the government maintains over the media. It can say whatever it
wants about the opposition and it is hard to deny internally. So it
is isolated and marginalized.
From my point of view, the political parties that were created in the
90s are now worn out. That hurts a lot and no one likes to be told that,
but I personally come from one of those parties, the Socialist
Democratic, which has disappeared.
But a kind of proto civil society began to develop and there are
movements with a very stable work, although they are not talked about
much, such as Dagoberto Valdés, in Pinar del Rio, who has a method of
advancing step by step and for years has insisted on the power of the
small, with a theoretical basis for change, an accumulated political
thought that should be used at some point.
But the problem of dictatorship continues, which we have always suffered
with.
Cubanet: And what about the current conditions for strengthening the
bargaining power of the opposition?
Dimas Castellanos: Now the government is exhausted and the model has
proved unworkable.
With lack of freedoms there can be no development of anything, from the
economy to sports. Everything is damaged, and the rulers do not want to
engage in the suicide of promoting reforms that bring them to the end
of the road, and result in their criminal prosecution.
To advance the economy and get out of the disaster, the government knows
it has to connect back to the developed world, especially Western Europe
and the United States, which conditions the relationship on respect for
human rights, so it has begun to make small concessions.
In any event, the developed world believes that these reforms are still
insufficient. That's why the government is going to have to make more
changes.
Cubanet: Do you think then that the new circumstances and the new waves
of opponents are creating the conditions for a possible negotiator?
Dimas Castellanos: Whatever happens, the time for negotiation will come,
though not in a situation like now exists.
The example is in the release of political prisoners, where there was no
negotiation between the government and the opposition. Although many
criticized the Church, I find that there was no other way and that civil
society, which the Church is part of, was strengthened. Although the
Church was able to meet some of its own demands, I don't really think it
was because it has common interests with the government, except for
momentary tactical considerations. Strategically, the government and the
Church are not going in the same direction.
There are now 400,000 self-employed workers who do not depend on the
state. But what work has the opposition done among these workers? They
do not think about human rights, but about their most basic needs. What
they want is greater economic liberalization.
These 400,000 self-employed are a field in which we must work. We ought
to create many more spaces, small schools about Cuban history, political
courses, lessons about what a constitution is, about rights, because
people will gradually come around.
The opposition has not given the importance that it should to the
formation of civic society. You cannot fight for change if people do not
even know where they have come from or where they are going.
The day that the opposition can say that the fifteen percent of the
population that does not attend the elections is on its side, it will be
a minority against the remaining eighty-five percent, but it will
represent a great force because then it would be structured, and then it
would be realistic to see the possibility of negotiations.
That's what we have to work for. If we look at the history of Cuba, we
see that we have always been changing, and yet we are now more backward
in human rights than in 1878, because we backtracked on civil liberties.
The Revolution of 1959 seemed like the greatest thing, but we fell into
a trap and ended up worse than before. So our work has to be from the
ground up and with patience.
Translated by Tomás A.
10 May 2013
Source: "Political Opposition and Negotiations in Today's Cuba / Dimas
Castellanos | Translating Cuba" -
http://translatingcuba.com/political-opposition-and-negotiations-in-todays-cuba-dimas-castellanos/
Posted on September 26, 2013
Interview of Dimas Castellanos by Ernesto Santana Zaldivar, published on
April 26 and 29, 2013 in Cubanet.
Although still uttered timidly, recently you have begun to hear the word
"negotiation" in some statements by the Cuban political opposition.
Despite having diverse opinions about it, a negotiation is, in general,
a process in which two or more parties try to find a mutually
satisfactory solution to their problem, be it labor union, financial,
military, commercial, political, etc.
The American expert on the subject, Herb Cohen, believes that
"everything is negotiable" and defines negotiation as "a field of
knowledge and action whose objective is to win the consent or the favor
of the people from whom you want to get something." He also says that
the three main factors of a negotiation are power, information, and time.
In order to approach, from a Cuban historical perspective, an issue so
complex, but which has had such importance for determining fundamental
political changes in many countries and eras, we talked with sociologist
and historian Dimas Castellanos, also known for his independent
journalism in the digital magazine Consensus, in Diario de Cuba, and in
other media.
Cubanet: Do you think there is still no pressure in Cuba that requires
the government to negotiate?
Dimas Castellanos: First, this is not the case of an armed movement that
occupied a region of the country over which the government now has no
control, as in Colombia. Another thing that may force a government to
negotiate is that the opposition has such influence over a sector of the
population that it can create difficulties for the authorities.
In Cuba there is great discontent, manifested for example in the
elections: almost fifteen percent of the voters did not go to the polls
or annulled their ballots. But they did so spontaneously, by an
individual act of conscience. No one should believe that this was in
response to some opposition party that has that kind of drawing power.
So the government has no reason, nor anyone with whom, to negotiate. And
on the other hand the opposition is not strong enough to prevent the
government from doing what it wants.
Cubanet: What, in your opinion, is the reason for this situation?
Dimas Castellanos: In Cuba, there were always forces that at some point
could compel those in power to do certain things. These forces do not
exist today. When the revolutionary government took power, the first
thing it did was to dismantle the whole network of institutions that
existed, mainly civic institutions. So all the citizen organizations,
which had been here since the end of the Ten-Year War, disappeared.
Civil society, which erupted with force in the Republic, achieved
admirable results, as the strike by apprentices and masons demonstrated
in 1901 and 1902, which spread to other sectors.
By 1910, the government was forced to enact several legislative measures
favorable to the working class, such as the eight-hour day for
government workers, payment in cash and not in tokens and vouchers (as
before), and paid holidays.
The labor movement accomplished all that because it had real strength
and could, for example, paralyze sugar mills or transportation. Cubans
now are not as poor as they were, but we do not have unions and other
civil society organizations able to play that role.
Cubanet: So is it essential, first of all, to set up the network again?
Dimas Castellanos: It's hard to understand that this is a long-term
battle. And you have to pace yourself and take advantage of all the gaps
and openings to help the civic formation of citizens. Many dissidents
want change for Cuba, just as I do, who am also part of the opposition,
but I try to be as realistic as possible.
The government is sometimes forced to take some step, more for external
reasons than from pressure from within Cuba. After more than fifty
years, it has the luxury of making reforms from the same position of
power, and therefore can determine the pace and direction they take.
They can make a change in one direction, then take back a little, then
shift it forward again, and play with it, but there is no internal force
able to avoid it.
The government will negotiate when there is a force that compels it to
negotiate, and that force has to be formed over the long term.
Cubanet: Do you share the opinion of many Cuban historians that the
Protest of Baraguá represents a milestone in our history as a method of
negotiating without compromising dignity?
Dimas Castellanos: I regret that the Zanjón Compact has not received the
historical recognition that it should have, and that only the Protest of
Baraguá has been glorified, because it demobilized the rebel troops in
exchange for Spain allowing in Cuba a regime very similar to that which
existed in Spain itself or in Puerto Rico.
The laws of the metropolis governed here starting from the Zanjón
Compact, and from it came freedoms of expression, association, and
assembly, among other benefits.
Despite all the limitations that it kept, there Cuban civil society was
born and the first political parties were created. The union movement
grew, newspapers spread, there were organizations of all kinds –
political, fraternal, labor – that began to take on an enormous burden
within society.
The burden was such that you cannot understand the beginning of the war
in 1895 without the work that civil society did in the whole colony.
That was a time, in terms of freedoms, very superior to what currently
exists.
Due to the shortness of time that this form of communication offers and
at the same time, due to the interest and to the meaty responses from
Dimas Castellanos, we have divided this interview in two parts which
will be available to the readers in a coming edition.
Cubanet: In his first responses for this two-part interview, Dimas
Castellanos explained the reasons why, in his view, the peaceful
opposition movement in Cuba is not yet in a position to force the
government to sit at a negotiating table. He also set out his criterion
from examples of notable negotiated events that took place throughout
our history. Just for this aspect we return to the theme.
Cubanet: How do you assess the role played by civil society in Cuba, as
far as negotiation is concerned, in the Republican era, from its
beginnings to 1958?
Dimas Castellanos: Negotiation played a role of obvious importance. The
Constitution of 1901 is an example. The interventionist U.S. government
allowed the formation of a Constituent Assembly and created the
conditions for it, but, as it had the force of the occupation, it made
sure that the Platt Amendment was incorporated to secure their power
over the country.
More progressive Cuban forces strongly opposed the amendment and even
traveled to the United States, but failed except for a few small
changes. Although during the revolution those who signed the Platt
Amendment were condemned, the truth is that there were only two options:
either sign the addendum to the Constitution or the United States
maintained its military control over the country.
And there were no longer mambises nor the Cuban Revolutionary Party, nor
an economy; and a people, moreover, tired of wars. The best minds saw
that they could lose everything and accepted the Amendment – although it
was an insult, a humiliation – as a tactic, to then gradually remove it,
as they did.
In 1934 the Platt Amendment was finally abrogated. And it was all
through negotiation.
Cubanet: And in terms of the Constitution of 1940?
Dimas Castellanos: It was a master class in negotiating in which the
participants ranged from communists to the extreme right. They arrived
at a Constitution that provided balance, though perhaps, in my opinion,
it was above the civic potential of the Cuban people. That is why
afterward our military tradition manages to prevail.
There was not a strong civic tradition, but rather a dictatorship
tradition, which is demonstrated in the governments from 1902 until the
fall of Machado in 1933. Between that year and 1940 was very turbulent.
After 1937 they managed to calm the situation a little and finally
return to a democratic exercise that culminated with the Constitution of
1940.
Batista cleanly won the presidential election. Then Grau defeated him in
1944 with the Aunténticos, winning again in '48 with Prío, and in 1952
he looked certain to defeat the Orthodox Party, which was nothing more
than an offshoot of the Authentic Party, whose main argument was the
prevailing political and administrative corruption.
Curiously, this corruption did not affect society, because, even though
we were not very advanced in public spirit, the morality of the Cuban
people was very high. After the 1952 coup, those who wanted to overthrow
Batista were divided into two camps: on one side, the civic forces (the
Law Society, the Medical Association, the Lions Club, Rotary Club,
etc..), and on the other, those who opted for armed struggle.
Cubanet: We now know which was the winning side. What is not well
understood, especially by the Cuban population, is what later happened
with the negotiating capacity of our civil society.
Dimas Castellanos: The Revolution became the source of power, without
any compromise with what existed before and swept it all away.
Actually, the Revolution had the support of only one part of the
population (the fighting was carried out by a few thousand men in a
population of six million), mainly peasant farmers, but the massive
support occurred afterward and the Revolutionary government acted with
skill. The result: it disarmed Cuban civil society, all the autonomous
movements disappeared (of peasants, students, women, workers, etc.).
The unions were taken over in January 1959. Many who disagreed with that
course thought that if Fidel Castro had taken power by force, he could
also be overthrown by arms, but all violent resistance was defeated.
Cubanet: When can you say that Cuban civil society finally woke up,
after the long slumber imposed by the Revolution?
Dimas Castellanos: In the late 80s and early 90s opposition
organizations and political parties began to emerge, but very weakly,
because of government repression first of all, and because many of the
people continued to identify with the power, despite its failure,
because the mindset does not change very quickly. Also because of the
monopoly the government maintains over the media. It can say whatever it
wants about the opposition and it is hard to deny internally. So it
is isolated and marginalized.
From my point of view, the political parties that were created in the
90s are now worn out. That hurts a lot and no one likes to be told that,
but I personally come from one of those parties, the Socialist
Democratic, which has disappeared.
But a kind of proto civil society began to develop and there are
movements with a very stable work, although they are not talked about
much, such as Dagoberto Valdés, in Pinar del Rio, who has a method of
advancing step by step and for years has insisted on the power of the
small, with a theoretical basis for change, an accumulated political
thought that should be used at some point.
But the problem of dictatorship continues, which we have always suffered
with.
Cubanet: And what about the current conditions for strengthening the
bargaining power of the opposition?
Dimas Castellanos: Now the government is exhausted and the model has
proved unworkable.
With lack of freedoms there can be no development of anything, from the
economy to sports. Everything is damaged, and the rulers do not want to
engage in the suicide of promoting reforms that bring them to the end
of the road, and result in their criminal prosecution.
To advance the economy and get out of the disaster, the government knows
it has to connect back to the developed world, especially Western Europe
and the United States, which conditions the relationship on respect for
human rights, so it has begun to make small concessions.
In any event, the developed world believes that these reforms are still
insufficient. That's why the government is going to have to make more
changes.
Cubanet: Do you think then that the new circumstances and the new waves
of opponents are creating the conditions for a possible negotiator?
Dimas Castellanos: Whatever happens, the time for negotiation will come,
though not in a situation like now exists.
The example is in the release of political prisoners, where there was no
negotiation between the government and the opposition. Although many
criticized the Church, I find that there was no other way and that civil
society, which the Church is part of, was strengthened. Although the
Church was able to meet some of its own demands, I don't really think it
was because it has common interests with the government, except for
momentary tactical considerations. Strategically, the government and the
Church are not going in the same direction.
There are now 400,000 self-employed workers who do not depend on the
state. But what work has the opposition done among these workers? They
do not think about human rights, but about their most basic needs. What
they want is greater economic liberalization.
These 400,000 self-employed are a field in which we must work. We ought
to create many more spaces, small schools about Cuban history, political
courses, lessons about what a constitution is, about rights, because
people will gradually come around.
The opposition has not given the importance that it should to the
formation of civic society. You cannot fight for change if people do not
even know where they have come from or where they are going.
The day that the opposition can say that the fifteen percent of the
population that does not attend the elections is on its side, it will be
a minority against the remaining eighty-five percent, but it will
represent a great force because then it would be structured, and then it
would be realistic to see the possibility of negotiations.
That's what we have to work for. If we look at the history of Cuba, we
see that we have always been changing, and yet we are now more backward
in human rights than in 1878, because we backtracked on civil liberties.
The Revolution of 1959 seemed like the greatest thing, but we fell into
a trap and ended up worse than before. So our work has to be from the
ground up and with patience.
Translated by Tomás A.
10 May 2013
Source: "Political Opposition and Negotiations in Today's Cuba / Dimas
Castellanos | Translating Cuba" -
http://translatingcuba.com/political-opposition-and-negotiations-in-todays-cuba-dimas-castellanos/
Prison Diary LV A “Royal Taster” in Solidarity?
Prison Diary LV: A "Royal Taster" in Solidarity? / Angel Santiesteban
Posted on September 26, 2013
I overstepped the first six months in prison, paying for the attempt to
give the dictatorship a lesson through my opposition to its hold on
power. This is the price they found to make me pay, and this is the
response that, all things considered, I offer them.
Since my imprisonment on February 28 of the current year, I finished the
novels "The Summer When God Was Sleeping,"* and "God Plays Dice," edited
the novel "Johnny Million," and I wrote a second part, entirely in
pencil, and wrote a book of stories, almost finished, "Zone of Silence,"
with eighteen stories. I started a period novel, set at the end of 1807,
before Napoleon invaded Spain, and at the same time I'm working on a
script for television, all without abandoning the posts for my blog,
"The Children Nobody Wanted," and added to this there are two novel
projects awaiting their time to be born.
Looking at it with a cool head, I have to thank my keepers for their
injustice in having imprisoned me with the intention of breaking me. I
acknowledge that, thanks to them, I can see with my own eyes the
terrible suffering from the inhuman treatment suffered by the
incarcerated population in Cuba. And know that when it seems that hope
is extinguished, a human being approaches, suffering like you, and
offers you his hand.
A few days ago, after offering the inmates the usual egg or picadillo**,
they gave them chicken — an infinitesimal quantity if we compare to that
received by the spies imprisoned in the United States, and that they
have the luxury of criticizing if they've already been served chicken
that week***, which amuses Cuban prisoners — and after the inmates
looked for their respective scrap of chicken, an inch and a half cube,
including the bone, a gentleman who one day revealed his name, on
learning that in my six months I have never accepted food prepared in
the prison, offered to test my ration before me, imagining that I
rejected it for fear that they would add something to it that with time
would cause cancer or some other illness, as their masters in the Soviet
KGB were accustomed to doing.
Of course, I said no, but I couldn't help but be moved. "I'm already
old," he insisted, "I could die and nothing would happen; but you help
my grandchildren with your struggle, you work for their welfare, and
perhaps there is time to avoid that one of them risks their life on the
sea to get to Miami."
Again, I thanked him for his gesture, assuring him that I would never
forget it. In his eyes was a that stubbornness for saving me, from his
point of view, knowing of the mysterious and improbable deaths of Laura
Pollán, Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero among others.
"No doubt they can hurt me," I told him, "but I don't eat the food for
moral integrity." Then, against his will, he went to the dining room.
I added another friend to my harvest, a Cuban who woke up from the
alienation in which the inhabitants of this archipelago, when Fidel
Castro offered dreams in exchange for their lives, without warning them,
of the probable nightmare in which their existences would be converted.
Ángel Santiesteban-Prats
Lawton Prison settlement. September 2013
Note from the Editor: Angel sent me this post a few days before he fell
ill with dengue. His fellow prisoner, evidently, already harbored fears
about his safety. It is encouraging to know that in prison there is also
someone who is attentive to his "fate."
*Winner of the International Franz Kafka Novels of the Drawer 2013
Prize, in the Czech Republic.
Translator's notes:
**"Picadillo" means "minced meat" but in Cuba is often means "minced
mystery ingredients."
***The story circulated that the Cuban spies imprisoned in the United
States complained about the frequency with which chicken is served.
25 September 2013
Source: "Prison Diary LV: A "Royal Taster" in Solidarity? / Angel
Santiesteban | Translating Cuba" -
http://translatingcuba.com/prison-diary-lv-a-royal-taster-in-solidarity-angel-santiesteban/
Posted on September 26, 2013
I overstepped the first six months in prison, paying for the attempt to
give the dictatorship a lesson through my opposition to its hold on
power. This is the price they found to make me pay, and this is the
response that, all things considered, I offer them.
Since my imprisonment on February 28 of the current year, I finished the
novels "The Summer When God Was Sleeping,"* and "God Plays Dice," edited
the novel "Johnny Million," and I wrote a second part, entirely in
pencil, and wrote a book of stories, almost finished, "Zone of Silence,"
with eighteen stories. I started a period novel, set at the end of 1807,
before Napoleon invaded Spain, and at the same time I'm working on a
script for television, all without abandoning the posts for my blog,
"The Children Nobody Wanted," and added to this there are two novel
projects awaiting their time to be born.
Looking at it with a cool head, I have to thank my keepers for their
injustice in having imprisoned me with the intention of breaking me. I
acknowledge that, thanks to them, I can see with my own eyes the
terrible suffering from the inhuman treatment suffered by the
incarcerated population in Cuba. And know that when it seems that hope
is extinguished, a human being approaches, suffering like you, and
offers you his hand.
A few days ago, after offering the inmates the usual egg or picadillo**,
they gave them chicken — an infinitesimal quantity if we compare to that
received by the spies imprisoned in the United States, and that they
have the luxury of criticizing if they've already been served chicken
that week***, which amuses Cuban prisoners — and after the inmates
looked for their respective scrap of chicken, an inch and a half cube,
including the bone, a gentleman who one day revealed his name, on
learning that in my six months I have never accepted food prepared in
the prison, offered to test my ration before me, imagining that I
rejected it for fear that they would add something to it that with time
would cause cancer or some other illness, as their masters in the Soviet
KGB were accustomed to doing.
Of course, I said no, but I couldn't help but be moved. "I'm already
old," he insisted, "I could die and nothing would happen; but you help
my grandchildren with your struggle, you work for their welfare, and
perhaps there is time to avoid that one of them risks their life on the
sea to get to Miami."
Again, I thanked him for his gesture, assuring him that I would never
forget it. In his eyes was a that stubbornness for saving me, from his
point of view, knowing of the mysterious and improbable deaths of Laura
Pollán, Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero among others.
"No doubt they can hurt me," I told him, "but I don't eat the food for
moral integrity." Then, against his will, he went to the dining room.
I added another friend to my harvest, a Cuban who woke up from the
alienation in which the inhabitants of this archipelago, when Fidel
Castro offered dreams in exchange for their lives, without warning them,
of the probable nightmare in which their existences would be converted.
Ángel Santiesteban-Prats
Lawton Prison settlement. September 2013
Note from the Editor: Angel sent me this post a few days before he fell
ill with dengue. His fellow prisoner, evidently, already harbored fears
about his safety. It is encouraging to know that in prison there is also
someone who is attentive to his "fate."
*Winner of the International Franz Kafka Novels of the Drawer 2013
Prize, in the Czech Republic.
Translator's notes:
**"Picadillo" means "minced meat" but in Cuba is often means "minced
mystery ingredients."
***The story circulated that the Cuban spies imprisoned in the United
States complained about the frequency with which chicken is served.
25 September 2013
Source: "Prison Diary LV: A "Royal Taster" in Solidarity? / Angel
Santiesteban | Translating Cuba" -
http://translatingcuba.com/prison-diary-lv-a-royal-taster-in-solidarity-angel-santiesteban/
Cuban newspaper breaks ground by publishing names of exiled Cuban artists nominated for Grammys
Posted on Thursday, 09.26.13
Cuban newspaper breaks ground by publishing names of exiled Cuban
artists nominated for Grammys
BY JUAN O. TAMAYO
JTAMAYO@ELNUEVOHERALD.COM
Ending a history in Cuba's state-run news media of ignoring exiled
musicians who criticize the government, the newspaper Trabajadores has
published the full list of Cubans nominated for the Latin Grammys,
including exiles.
The Granma newspaper, official voice of the ruling Communist Party of
Cuba and entrenched redoubt of revolutionary orthodoxy, on Thursday
published only the names of island residents nominated for the prizes,
to be announced Nov. 21 in Las Vegas.
But Trabajadores, run by the state-controlled Confederation of Cuban
Workers, published the names of all the dozen artists on Wednesday,
reflecting both the shifts and the lack of significant changes taking
place under the Raúl Castro government.
"Well how about that! Look how much we have advanced," jazz musician
Paquito D'Rivera joked in a phone interview with El Nuevo Herald. The
10-time Grammy winner said his awards have never been mentioned in Cuban
media.
Trabajadores listed the nominated musicians living in the United States:
D'Rivera, Albita and Arturo Sandoval, who have been vocally critical of
the government, and others less critical to varying degrees: Chuchito
Valdes, Amaury Gutierrez, Jorge Luis Piloto and Leslie Cartaya. It also
listed Alex Cuba, who lives in Canada.
"It's very nice of them to recognize that Cubans outside the country are
also Cubans," said Ileana Mateu, former wife and artistic representative
of Chucho Valdes.
"These musicians were never mentioned before. They were erased from the
map," Mateu said from her home in New Jersey. "People on the street do
remember them and talk about them, but for the government, it's like
they don't exist."
D'Rivera said he believes Castro government officials are seeking a
reconciliation with exiled musicians and noted that an upcoming jazz
festival in Havana has been dedicated to the late pianist Bebo Valdes, a
harsh critic of the communist system.
"I believe in reconciliation among Cubans, but not with them in power,"
he said. "You cannot reconciliate with someone who … who stoned your
house, who separated you from your daughter for nine years."
The difference between the Trabajadores and Granma reports appeared to
reflect the clash of forces pushing both for and against an opening at
the Ministry of Culture, arbiter of all artists and artistic functions
on the island, from concerts to art exhibits.
Ministry officials indefinitely suspended fusion musician Roberto
Carcasses earlier this month for asking for freedom of information and
opinion and direct presidential elections during a concert, but
backtracked a few days later amid a wave of protests.
And last summer, the government quietly ended the blacklist of exiled
musicians banned from radio and TV for decades. Cubans have now heard
Celia Cruz and Gloria Estefan on the airwaves but never Willie Chirino,
a vociferous critic of the government.
The island residents nominated for Latin Grammys were the Septeto
Santiaguero; Miriam Ramos with Barbarito Torres, Ernán López-Nussa and
Rolando Luna; and classical music composer Leo Brouwer.
Source: "Cuban newspaper breaks ground by publishing names of exiled
Cuban artists nominated for Grammys - Cuba - MiamiHerald.com" -
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/09/26/3653015/cuban-newspaper-breaks-ground.html
Cuban newspaper breaks ground by publishing names of exiled Cuban
artists nominated for Grammys
BY JUAN O. TAMAYO
JTAMAYO@ELNUEVOHERALD.COM
Ending a history in Cuba's state-run news media of ignoring exiled
musicians who criticize the government, the newspaper Trabajadores has
published the full list of Cubans nominated for the Latin Grammys,
including exiles.
The Granma newspaper, official voice of the ruling Communist Party of
Cuba and entrenched redoubt of revolutionary orthodoxy, on Thursday
published only the names of island residents nominated for the prizes,
to be announced Nov. 21 in Las Vegas.
But Trabajadores, run by the state-controlled Confederation of Cuban
Workers, published the names of all the dozen artists on Wednesday,
reflecting both the shifts and the lack of significant changes taking
place under the Raúl Castro government.
"Well how about that! Look how much we have advanced," jazz musician
Paquito D'Rivera joked in a phone interview with El Nuevo Herald. The
10-time Grammy winner said his awards have never been mentioned in Cuban
media.
Trabajadores listed the nominated musicians living in the United States:
D'Rivera, Albita and Arturo Sandoval, who have been vocally critical of
the government, and others less critical to varying degrees: Chuchito
Valdes, Amaury Gutierrez, Jorge Luis Piloto and Leslie Cartaya. It also
listed Alex Cuba, who lives in Canada.
"It's very nice of them to recognize that Cubans outside the country are
also Cubans," said Ileana Mateu, former wife and artistic representative
of Chucho Valdes.
"These musicians were never mentioned before. They were erased from the
map," Mateu said from her home in New Jersey. "People on the street do
remember them and talk about them, but for the government, it's like
they don't exist."
D'Rivera said he believes Castro government officials are seeking a
reconciliation with exiled musicians and noted that an upcoming jazz
festival in Havana has been dedicated to the late pianist Bebo Valdes, a
harsh critic of the communist system.
"I believe in reconciliation among Cubans, but not with them in power,"
he said. "You cannot reconciliate with someone who … who stoned your
house, who separated you from your daughter for nine years."
The difference between the Trabajadores and Granma reports appeared to
reflect the clash of forces pushing both for and against an opening at
the Ministry of Culture, arbiter of all artists and artistic functions
on the island, from concerts to art exhibits.
Ministry officials indefinitely suspended fusion musician Roberto
Carcasses earlier this month for asking for freedom of information and
opinion and direct presidential elections during a concert, but
backtracked a few days later amid a wave of protests.
And last summer, the government quietly ended the blacklist of exiled
musicians banned from radio and TV for decades. Cubans have now heard
Celia Cruz and Gloria Estefan on the airwaves but never Willie Chirino,
a vociferous critic of the government.
The island residents nominated for Latin Grammys were the Septeto
Santiaguero; Miriam Ramos with Barbarito Torres, Ernán López-Nussa and
Rolando Luna; and classical music composer Leo Brouwer.
Source: "Cuban newspaper breaks ground by publishing names of exiled
Cuban artists nominated for Grammys - Cuba - MiamiHerald.com" -
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/09/26/3653015/cuban-newspaper-breaks-ground.html
Harmful Recycling - On Cuba’s Inept Officials
Harmful Recycling: On Cuba's Inept Officials
September 26, 2013
Fernando Ravsberg*
HAVANA TIMES — Since my arrival in Cuba, I've been hearing people say
that their leaders, after being dismissed for incompetence and the like,
tend to fall, not from grace, but "to new heights".
It doesn't matter how useless a "cadre" turns out to be, there will
always be another management position open to them.
This practice is so widespread that the woman now leading Cuba's fight
against corruption, Comptroller General of the Republic Gladys Bejerano,
complained because, every so often, she will run into an official who
was dismissed for incompetence at a management position in a different
company.
With such "recycling" policies in place, it comes as no surprise that
75% of all audited workplaces on the island get a bad review. The
Comptroller's Office exposed 12 cases of criminal activity and 7
incidents of corruption, but imposed sanctions on 582 managers for not
doing their jobs properly. It seems that the inept far outnumber the
corrupt.
These individuals manage to survive thanks to the complicity of the "top
leaders of political and grassroots organizations attached to their
companies, who, on occasion, are in connivance with the management of
these workplaces," a reader of Granma newspaper explains in one of the
periodical's Letters to the Editor.
This is why "many people opt not to get into trouble and to wait for
things to collapse under their own weight." Confronting an inept manager
entails antagonizing the company management, the Party representatives
and the union leadership at the workplace.
The reader adds that "cadre policy" is being violated "at several
entities", which hire inept managers because of "double standards,
camaraderie and string-pulling." That is what common Cubans are talking
about when they mockingly refer to the country's system as "sociolismo"
(in Cuban slang, "socio" means buddy. A rough translation would be:
"buddy-ism").
Some of these issues were already addressed in a previous post,
published a mere two weeks ago. At many workplaces, the management,
Party, Young Communists League (UJC) and unions act as a single
authority, to the point that they go by a single, generic name: "the
administration."
A veteran communist explained to me that the original idea was to have
each of these different bodies monitor and check one another. What
actually happens, though, is that these officials act as clan,
protecting one another from employee complaints and State inspections.
Some years ago, a worker at a fish-packing plant told me he had a few
days of intense work ahead of him, that he had to scramble to "put
everything in order", because a "surprise audit" by the Ministry of
Fisheries was about to be conducted. He explained to me that all members
of "the administration" were helping touch up the place.
Of course, with such an inspection method in place, the economy was
doing very well – State companies passed all tests, no corrupt managers
or inept bosses were ever detected and all production plans were being
fulfilled ahead of schedule, even though the country was producing less
and less.
When real inspections began to be conducted, the general manager of
fish-packing company ended up in jail. The question is: why did he enjoy
the support of the Party, UJC and union leadership for so many years?
Many were likely unaware this individual was stealing from the company,
but everyone doubtless knew the company wasn't doing well. Despite this,
they continued to pressure workers so that they would express their
criticisms "through the appropriate channels", that is to say, through
"the administration."
This is the way in which information is controlled in a number of State
companies, which is why bureaucrats are so afraid of the press. Cuban
journalists, however, are beginning to poke holes in the veil of secrecy
that covers up so many inept and corrupt individuals.
Curiously, despite the many let downs, when a "cadre" is thought to be
politically trustworthy and entrusted with a management position, it
would seem he's acquired a lifetime position that entitles him to
undertake any type of activity.
Both the government and general population concur that improving the
economy is the country's top priority. Thus, the "political
trustworthiness" of a cadre should no longer be measured by what he says
but by his actual professionalism, honesty and leadership skills.
Schools for government cadres can be useful in terms of improving the
skills of those who have already demonstrated an aptitude for the
positions they've been assigned. As for the rest, they should be allowed
to fall to the bottom, for recycling inept people only produces a fresh
batch of inept people – and they're a bit more clever the second time
around.
—–
(*) An authorized HT translation of the original published by BBC Mundo.
Source: "How Cuba's System Recycles Inept Officials" -
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=99050
September 26, 2013
Fernando Ravsberg*
HAVANA TIMES — Since my arrival in Cuba, I've been hearing people say
that their leaders, after being dismissed for incompetence and the like,
tend to fall, not from grace, but "to new heights".
It doesn't matter how useless a "cadre" turns out to be, there will
always be another management position open to them.
This practice is so widespread that the woman now leading Cuba's fight
against corruption, Comptroller General of the Republic Gladys Bejerano,
complained because, every so often, she will run into an official who
was dismissed for incompetence at a management position in a different
company.
With such "recycling" policies in place, it comes as no surprise that
75% of all audited workplaces on the island get a bad review. The
Comptroller's Office exposed 12 cases of criminal activity and 7
incidents of corruption, but imposed sanctions on 582 managers for not
doing their jobs properly. It seems that the inept far outnumber the
corrupt.
These individuals manage to survive thanks to the complicity of the "top
leaders of political and grassroots organizations attached to their
companies, who, on occasion, are in connivance with the management of
these workplaces," a reader of Granma newspaper explains in one of the
periodical's Letters to the Editor.
This is why "many people opt not to get into trouble and to wait for
things to collapse under their own weight." Confronting an inept manager
entails antagonizing the company management, the Party representatives
and the union leadership at the workplace.
The reader adds that "cadre policy" is being violated "at several
entities", which hire inept managers because of "double standards,
camaraderie and string-pulling." That is what common Cubans are talking
about when they mockingly refer to the country's system as "sociolismo"
(in Cuban slang, "socio" means buddy. A rough translation would be:
"buddy-ism").
Some of these issues were already addressed in a previous post,
published a mere two weeks ago. At many workplaces, the management,
Party, Young Communists League (UJC) and unions act as a single
authority, to the point that they go by a single, generic name: "the
administration."
A veteran communist explained to me that the original idea was to have
each of these different bodies monitor and check one another. What
actually happens, though, is that these officials act as clan,
protecting one another from employee complaints and State inspections.
Some years ago, a worker at a fish-packing plant told me he had a few
days of intense work ahead of him, that he had to scramble to "put
everything in order", because a "surprise audit" by the Ministry of
Fisheries was about to be conducted. He explained to me that all members
of "the administration" were helping touch up the place.
Of course, with such an inspection method in place, the economy was
doing very well – State companies passed all tests, no corrupt managers
or inept bosses were ever detected and all production plans were being
fulfilled ahead of schedule, even though the country was producing less
and less.
When real inspections began to be conducted, the general manager of
fish-packing company ended up in jail. The question is: why did he enjoy
the support of the Party, UJC and union leadership for so many years?
Many were likely unaware this individual was stealing from the company,
but everyone doubtless knew the company wasn't doing well. Despite this,
they continued to pressure workers so that they would express their
criticisms "through the appropriate channels", that is to say, through
"the administration."
This is the way in which information is controlled in a number of State
companies, which is why bureaucrats are so afraid of the press. Cuban
journalists, however, are beginning to poke holes in the veil of secrecy
that covers up so many inept and corrupt individuals.
Curiously, despite the many let downs, when a "cadre" is thought to be
politically trustworthy and entrusted with a management position, it
would seem he's acquired a lifetime position that entitles him to
undertake any type of activity.
Both the government and general population concur that improving the
economy is the country's top priority. Thus, the "political
trustworthiness" of a cadre should no longer be measured by what he says
but by his actual professionalism, honesty and leadership skills.
Schools for government cadres can be useful in terms of improving the
skills of those who have already demonstrated an aptitude for the
positions they've been assigned. As for the rest, they should be allowed
to fall to the bottom, for recycling inept people only produces a fresh
batch of inept people – and they're a bit more clever the second time
around.
—–
(*) An authorized HT translation of the original published by BBC Mundo.
Source: "How Cuba's System Recycles Inept Officials" -
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=99050
Cuba moves to safeguard monopoly on imported goods
Cuba moves to safeguard monopoly on imported goods
By Marc Frank
HAVANA | Thu Sep 26, 2013 4:10pm EDT
(Reuters) - Three years after opening up retail services, Cuba tightened
the reins on Thursday with new regulations aimed at stopping the sale of
imported goods at lower prices than those offered by the state.
In 2010, communist-run Cuba allowed retail services in the form of 200
individual activities from clowns, seamstresses, food vendors, taxis and
the building trades, to small businesses such as restaurants,
cafeterias, bed and breakfasts and home-based movie theaters.
Enterprising residents have taken advantage of some of the categories,
for example seamstress and household supplies salesman, to offer
imported clothing and supplies in greater variety and at lower cost than
the state.
Others buy out available supplies at state stores and resell them at
higher prices, which is also banned by the new regulations.
Cubans appeared to oppose restricting the sale of imported goods, but
support putting an end to reselling local products.
"I am against the import ban. I can't tolerate the shoddy clothing the
state stores sell, they are very expensive and of poor quality," said
Xiomara, a Havana nurse who like others did not provide her last name.
"At the same time, things like plumbing and electric supplies, that they
buy in the stores to resell at twice the price, that's unbridled
robbery," she said.
The opening to small business, along with loosened travel restrictions
between the United States and Cuba, has led to a flood of items being
brought into the island by travelers. These items, from spices, sauces
and beauty products to clothing, hardware and household goods, often are
not available locally or are sold by the state at a minimum 240 percent
markup.
Thousands of people currently sell the imported goods from their front
yards, porches and living rooms in competition with state-run outlets,
and many more go door to door without a license and avoid paying taxes.
A year ago, the state dramatically increased customs duties on travelers
with the apparent aim of protecting state-run stores from the growing
flow of merchandise imported informally.
KEEPING STATE MONOPOLY
Thursday's measures were first announced at a July parliament meeting by
the head of the Communist Party's economic reform commission, Marino
Murillo, who estimated some 20,000 mom-and-pop businesses, out of more
than 300,000, would be affected.
The measures appeared aimed at protecting the state's monopoly on the
wholesale and retail sale of goods.
The new regulations, which were published in the official Gazette on
Thursday and become law in 30 days, are aimed at "a better regulation of
this form of non-state management" opined the Communist Party daily,
Granma. It said there were now 436,000 self-employed people, of which
around 100,000 work at small businesses, according to the government.
The regulations include a new list of authorized types of
self-employment and their descriptions, with the addition of phrases to
stop the resale and importation of goods.
For example, the description of a seamstress now has added, "does not
include the sale of manufactured or imported clothing," and the
description of household goods salesman states, "does not include
articles obtained from retail stores or imported (electric appliances,
furniture, clothing and shoes, among others)."
Jose, a 45-year-old who sells household supplies from his porch in
Havana, said the measure might lead him to close down.
"I sell a lot of locally crafted things, but also stuff from abroad.
There is no doubt they have closed the door on me, and if I can't
balance the books I'll hand in my license," he said.
Since taking over for his ailing brother, Fidel, in 2008, Raul Castro
has pushed for the "modernization" of the state-monopolized economy,
promoted some types of small business and farming, including
cooperatives, and lifted some onerous restrictions on daily life in the
Caribbean nation, such as travel restrictions.
Currently, 78 percent of a labor force of 5 million works for the state
and the remainder in the non-state sector mainly work in retail services
and farming.
(Editing by Jane Sutton and Doina Chiacu)
Source: "Cuba moves to safeguard monopoly on imported goods | Reuters" -
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/26/us-cuba-reform-idUSBRE98P0WD20130926
By Marc Frank
HAVANA | Thu Sep 26, 2013 4:10pm EDT
(Reuters) - Three years after opening up retail services, Cuba tightened
the reins on Thursday with new regulations aimed at stopping the sale of
imported goods at lower prices than those offered by the state.
In 2010, communist-run Cuba allowed retail services in the form of 200
individual activities from clowns, seamstresses, food vendors, taxis and
the building trades, to small businesses such as restaurants,
cafeterias, bed and breakfasts and home-based movie theaters.
Enterprising residents have taken advantage of some of the categories,
for example seamstress and household supplies salesman, to offer
imported clothing and supplies in greater variety and at lower cost than
the state.
Others buy out available supplies at state stores and resell them at
higher prices, which is also banned by the new regulations.
Cubans appeared to oppose restricting the sale of imported goods, but
support putting an end to reselling local products.
"I am against the import ban. I can't tolerate the shoddy clothing the
state stores sell, they are very expensive and of poor quality," said
Xiomara, a Havana nurse who like others did not provide her last name.
"At the same time, things like plumbing and electric supplies, that they
buy in the stores to resell at twice the price, that's unbridled
robbery," she said.
The opening to small business, along with loosened travel restrictions
between the United States and Cuba, has led to a flood of items being
brought into the island by travelers. These items, from spices, sauces
and beauty products to clothing, hardware and household goods, often are
not available locally or are sold by the state at a minimum 240 percent
markup.
Thousands of people currently sell the imported goods from their front
yards, porches and living rooms in competition with state-run outlets,
and many more go door to door without a license and avoid paying taxes.
A year ago, the state dramatically increased customs duties on travelers
with the apparent aim of protecting state-run stores from the growing
flow of merchandise imported informally.
KEEPING STATE MONOPOLY
Thursday's measures were first announced at a July parliament meeting by
the head of the Communist Party's economic reform commission, Marino
Murillo, who estimated some 20,000 mom-and-pop businesses, out of more
than 300,000, would be affected.
The measures appeared aimed at protecting the state's monopoly on the
wholesale and retail sale of goods.
The new regulations, which were published in the official Gazette on
Thursday and become law in 30 days, are aimed at "a better regulation of
this form of non-state management" opined the Communist Party daily,
Granma. It said there were now 436,000 self-employed people, of which
around 100,000 work at small businesses, according to the government.
The regulations include a new list of authorized types of
self-employment and their descriptions, with the addition of phrases to
stop the resale and importation of goods.
For example, the description of a seamstress now has added, "does not
include the sale of manufactured or imported clothing," and the
description of household goods salesman states, "does not include
articles obtained from retail stores or imported (electric appliances,
furniture, clothing and shoes, among others)."
Jose, a 45-year-old who sells household supplies from his porch in
Havana, said the measure might lead him to close down.
"I sell a lot of locally crafted things, but also stuff from abroad.
There is no doubt they have closed the door on me, and if I can't
balance the books I'll hand in my license," he said.
Since taking over for his ailing brother, Fidel, in 2008, Raul Castro
has pushed for the "modernization" of the state-monopolized economy,
promoted some types of small business and farming, including
cooperatives, and lifted some onerous restrictions on daily life in the
Caribbean nation, such as travel restrictions.
Currently, 78 percent of a labor force of 5 million works for the state
and the remainder in the non-state sector mainly work in retail services
and farming.
(Editing by Jane Sutton and Doina Chiacu)
Source: "Cuba moves to safeguard monopoly on imported goods | Reuters" -
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/26/us-cuba-reform-idUSBRE98P0WD20130926
Cuba OKs more private businesses, new regulations
Posted on Thursday, 09.26.13
Cuba OKs more private businesses, new regulations
BY ANNE-MARIE GARCIA
ASSOCIATED PRESS
HAVANA -- Real estate agents, auto body workers and home builders can
come out of the shadows in Cuba's expanding private economy under rules
announced Thursday that allow 18 new categories of independent
employment under President Raul Castro's economic reforms.
Among the most notable of the newly allowed private professions are real
estate agents, who have long operated on the margin of the law. Even
after the communist government legalized the buying and selling of homes
in 2011 for the first time in decades, it was still technically against
the rules to make money connecting buyers with sellers.
The number of approved independent employment activities rises to 199
with the newly legalized professions, which also include rental agents,
repair and maintenance service providers, iron workers and welders.
The decision to license the latest crop of professions came about
because the country is now better positioned to supply "prime materials,
equipment and other inputs to the network of stores," Labor Ministry
official Jose Barreiro was quoted as saying by Communist Party newspaper
Granma.
In all more than 430,000 private employment licenses have been issued
since the reforms began in 2010, and 436,342 independent workers are
currently operating, Granma said. Some were already working
independently before the reforms began.
Critics have lamented that so far there has not been a push to let many
educated professionals such as lawyers, health care workers or
scientists work independently of the state.
Published into law Thursday in the government's Official Gazette, the
new rules bar the resale of imported goods such as clothing.
Many entrepreneurs who operate under tailors' licenses appear to make
more money selling garments brought into the country one overstuffed
duffel bag at a time than they generate from actual sewing.
"I'm worried, disgusted and disconcerted," said Reina Margarita Moreira,
who sells clothing and household items at a kiosk in central Havana. "We
don't agree with this measure. ... We knew a change was coming and we
thought they would modify the concept of the license and raise the
taxes, but we never thought they would prohibit us from selling clothing
brought in from abroad."
"I have children and grandchildren to support," said her colleague Diana
Sanchez. "I feel really bad. Three years ago they let us work here
legally, and now they forbid it. I don't understand it."
Mariela Carrera, a 45-year-old homemaker who was shopping at the
open-air bazaar, said Cubans want to dress in international fashions and
predicted that the measure would only push sales of imported clothing
back into the black market.
"And the state isn't going to make any money off that if nobody's paying
taxes," she said.
Also prohibited will be the "speculative" resale of goods bought in
state-run retail stores.
"The issue of goods purchased in stores for resale has generated
constant opinions among the people, who complain about shortages and the
high prices set by the hoarders," Barreiro said.
"Order will be imposed, since nobody is allowed to buy merchandise in a
state-run establishment and then speculate with it," he added.
Granma said it will be a crime to obtain merchandise "for the purpose of
resale at a profit."
Source: "HAVANA: Cuba OKs more private businesses, new regulations -
Latest News - MiamiHerald.com" -
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/09/26/3652174/cuba-oks-more-private-businesses.html#storylink=misearch
Cuba OKs more private businesses, new regulations
BY ANNE-MARIE GARCIA
ASSOCIATED PRESS
HAVANA -- Real estate agents, auto body workers and home builders can
come out of the shadows in Cuba's expanding private economy under rules
announced Thursday that allow 18 new categories of independent
employment under President Raul Castro's economic reforms.
Among the most notable of the newly allowed private professions are real
estate agents, who have long operated on the margin of the law. Even
after the communist government legalized the buying and selling of homes
in 2011 for the first time in decades, it was still technically against
the rules to make money connecting buyers with sellers.
The number of approved independent employment activities rises to 199
with the newly legalized professions, which also include rental agents,
repair and maintenance service providers, iron workers and welders.
The decision to license the latest crop of professions came about
because the country is now better positioned to supply "prime materials,
equipment and other inputs to the network of stores," Labor Ministry
official Jose Barreiro was quoted as saying by Communist Party newspaper
Granma.
In all more than 430,000 private employment licenses have been issued
since the reforms began in 2010, and 436,342 independent workers are
currently operating, Granma said. Some were already working
independently before the reforms began.
Critics have lamented that so far there has not been a push to let many
educated professionals such as lawyers, health care workers or
scientists work independently of the state.
Published into law Thursday in the government's Official Gazette, the
new rules bar the resale of imported goods such as clothing.
Many entrepreneurs who operate under tailors' licenses appear to make
more money selling garments brought into the country one overstuffed
duffel bag at a time than they generate from actual sewing.
"I'm worried, disgusted and disconcerted," said Reina Margarita Moreira,
who sells clothing and household items at a kiosk in central Havana. "We
don't agree with this measure. ... We knew a change was coming and we
thought they would modify the concept of the license and raise the
taxes, but we never thought they would prohibit us from selling clothing
brought in from abroad."
"I have children and grandchildren to support," said her colleague Diana
Sanchez. "I feel really bad. Three years ago they let us work here
legally, and now they forbid it. I don't understand it."
Mariela Carrera, a 45-year-old homemaker who was shopping at the
open-air bazaar, said Cubans want to dress in international fashions and
predicted that the measure would only push sales of imported clothing
back into the black market.
"And the state isn't going to make any money off that if nobody's paying
taxes," she said.
Also prohibited will be the "speculative" resale of goods bought in
state-run retail stores.
"The issue of goods purchased in stores for resale has generated
constant opinions among the people, who complain about shortages and the
high prices set by the hoarders," Barreiro said.
"Order will be imposed, since nobody is allowed to buy merchandise in a
state-run establishment and then speculate with it," he added.
Granma said it will be a crime to obtain merchandise "for the purpose of
resale at a profit."
Source: "HAVANA: Cuba OKs more private businesses, new regulations -
Latest News - MiamiHerald.com" -
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/09/26/3652174/cuba-oks-more-private-businesses.html#storylink=misearch
Thursday, September 26, 2013
The Fault Always Lies With the People, or the United States
The Fault Always Lies With the People, or the United States / Martha
Beatriz Roque Cabello
Posted on September 25, 2013
LA HAVANA, Cuba, September, www.cubanet.org — A new program recently
started on television at the end of the newscast at 8 pm. It is named
"Cuba says" and is listed as an investigative journalism program. There
have been four broadcasts, Tuesdays and Fridays, with the objective of
"criticizing" bad deeds.
On two of the broadcasts they addressed problems relating to
construction, and the others talked about health care and transport. But
even if they approach social and economic problems, which show the
existing apathy and corruption, in short, the blame always likes with
the people, for their lack of discipline; or the United States for the
"blockade"; or with some other entity other than the regime with its
inefficiencies.
The functionaries who have to respond to the journalists, look insecure.
Evidently they are under the pressure of those who at any cost don't
want to leave the viewers with the impression that the problems are the
fault of the government. One example: the Director of Transportation
explained that the problem of lack of buses was centered on the broken
equipment and the scarcity of spare parts, while the journalist Thalía
González pressed him to say there were also organizational problems.
In the end, the public saw the problems they already know reflected on
the screen, but without knowing how or when they would be solved.
The last program dealt with housing construction. They reported that up
to 2019, they need to build 29,400 units in Santiago de Cuba, since
there are 73 slum neighborhoods and more than 10,500 houses in difficult
conditions, as well as unhealthy settlements. However, despite the
resources they say have been allocated, after Hurricane Sandy (October
2012), they've only built 1,542 housing units, and by the end of the
year expect to have completed 1,900. At this rate, they won't build even
half of those planned.
On other occasions we have already heard criticisms of this type, and
answers that then fade into nothingness. However, we have to recognize
that the regime has seen the need to admit that the country is in a
sorry state, from all points of view.
Recently, we've sensed a tendency to look for help in the self-employed,
trying to minimize al he problems brought on the country by
centralization and the unified command. However, society, which is eager
to solve its problems of economic stagnation, has taken these small
apertures very seriously, and currently is swelling the numbers of
different types of businesses, so that the regime is grasping at straws,
reversing more than a few of their permissions.
In Pinar del Rio they withdrew the right of private sale of clothes,
because this market has been strong competition for the State, whose
prices are higher and whose customer service is greatly inferior, along
with the well-known scams where the customer is the victim.
They could show hundreds of TV programs with critiques and suggestions
from the people, but the reality is that none of the issues that they
raise are going to be solved until there is an end to the main problem,
which generates all the other problems, which is the same regime, which
has plunged the country into an acute economic, political and social
problem.
By Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello
From Cubanet
September 24, 2013
Source: "The Fault Always Lies With the People, or the United States /
Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello | Translating Cuba" -
http://translatingcuba.com/the-fault-always-lies-with-the-people-or-the-united-states-martha-beatriz-roque-cabello/
Beatriz Roque Cabello
Posted on September 25, 2013
LA HAVANA, Cuba, September, www.cubanet.org — A new program recently
started on television at the end of the newscast at 8 pm. It is named
"Cuba says" and is listed as an investigative journalism program. There
have been four broadcasts, Tuesdays and Fridays, with the objective of
"criticizing" bad deeds.
On two of the broadcasts they addressed problems relating to
construction, and the others talked about health care and transport. But
even if they approach social and economic problems, which show the
existing apathy and corruption, in short, the blame always likes with
the people, for their lack of discipline; or the United States for the
"blockade"; or with some other entity other than the regime with its
inefficiencies.
The functionaries who have to respond to the journalists, look insecure.
Evidently they are under the pressure of those who at any cost don't
want to leave the viewers with the impression that the problems are the
fault of the government. One example: the Director of Transportation
explained that the problem of lack of buses was centered on the broken
equipment and the scarcity of spare parts, while the journalist Thalía
González pressed him to say there were also organizational problems.
In the end, the public saw the problems they already know reflected on
the screen, but without knowing how or when they would be solved.
The last program dealt with housing construction. They reported that up
to 2019, they need to build 29,400 units in Santiago de Cuba, since
there are 73 slum neighborhoods and more than 10,500 houses in difficult
conditions, as well as unhealthy settlements. However, despite the
resources they say have been allocated, after Hurricane Sandy (October
2012), they've only built 1,542 housing units, and by the end of the
year expect to have completed 1,900. At this rate, they won't build even
half of those planned.
On other occasions we have already heard criticisms of this type, and
answers that then fade into nothingness. However, we have to recognize
that the regime has seen the need to admit that the country is in a
sorry state, from all points of view.
Recently, we've sensed a tendency to look for help in the self-employed,
trying to minimize al he problems brought on the country by
centralization and the unified command. However, society, which is eager
to solve its problems of economic stagnation, has taken these small
apertures very seriously, and currently is swelling the numbers of
different types of businesses, so that the regime is grasping at straws,
reversing more than a few of their permissions.
In Pinar del Rio they withdrew the right of private sale of clothes,
because this market has been strong competition for the State, whose
prices are higher and whose customer service is greatly inferior, along
with the well-known scams where the customer is the victim.
They could show hundreds of TV programs with critiques and suggestions
from the people, but the reality is that none of the issues that they
raise are going to be solved until there is an end to the main problem,
which generates all the other problems, which is the same regime, which
has plunged the country into an acute economic, political and social
problem.
By Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello
From Cubanet
September 24, 2013
Source: "The Fault Always Lies With the People, or the United States /
Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello | Translating Cuba" -
http://translatingcuba.com/the-fault-always-lies-with-the-people-or-the-united-states-martha-beatriz-roque-cabello/
Rafael Alcides about the Official Novel against Angel Santiesteban
Rafael Alcides about the Official Novel against Angel Santiesteban
Posted on September 25, 2013
I present to you here the article that writer and poet Rafael Alcides
published in the blog Penúltimos Días about the judicial farce mounted
against Angel Santiesteban with the sole and hidden objective of
silencing his critical and damning voice about the Castro dictatorship.
I ask readers to read this article knowing that Rafael expresses himself
ironically but without removing one iota of the truth from what he says
about Angel, the horrible antihero into which they try to convert him,
the false testimony and the judicial manipulation and from the proxies
and scribes of infamy that the regime knew so well how to buy in order
to execute and legitimize such a dirty objective.
I believe the clarification is necessary because of the many reactions
that his first article about the topic provoked and because he already
busied himself clarifying in another article and because such bad fury
was used by the Writers of Infamy concentrated in the Cuban Writers and
Artists Union (UNEAC) in order to criminalize their colleague (and
friend in many cases) and convert him into an example of the macho,
abusive and violent man whom they should only recognize in the Castro
dictator, his minions and those men in Cuba who regrettably are violent
with women and each day pursue and brutally beat the Ladies in White and
other brave and peaceful opponents throughout the whole island.
It remains to be said that there also exists — regrettably — a large
number of men who practice domestic and gender violence. Against these
men among whom are found distinguished members of the nomenklatura,
Justice has never done anything; it would seem as if they had assumed
that violence against women and machismo are ingredients of national
folklore.
BASIC CONSIDERATIONS ABOUT THE SANTIESTEBAN CASE
By Rafael Alcides
A novelist who would like to write the complex and diverse novel that is
hinted at behind the bulky "Santiesteban case," could begin with the
presumably frightened faces that the poor magistrates who failed in said
process to know the facts that they would judge. I get it, because of my
own fear and because of what obviously brought the Women of UNEAC to
manifest their wrath. The prize-winning author Angel Santiesteban, UNEAC
Prize, Juan Rulfo Prize, House of the Americas Prize, and who physically
only would lack the horse to seem an all-powerful rodeo cowboy (The
Novelist could not describe his character), threatened his ex-wife with
death, hit her, tied her up in order to rape her in comfort and set fire
to the house.
I, who at the beginning believed it a magnified quarrel, discord,
lovers' disagreement of the kind that so often feed the great loves
while they last (and in that respect I wrote some lines of which I now
repent), on knowing the facts in detail or supposed facts (The Novelist
will have to investigate them and take a position), I told myself: this
is not the Angel that I know. It's not him. And searching for an
explanation for the undoubted failure of the judges, it even occurred to
me to think of witchcraft. Had not Angel been a victim of the evil eye,
one of those "hazards" of the sorcerers of the Guatemalan mountains in
the time of my childhood? Also The Novelist would ask himself, but on
finding a certain video downloaded from the internet maybe he would stop
searching in the Hereafter.
Disturbed by the disconcerting mutations in the conduct of the
protagonist in the mentioned video and main witness in the charge by the
ex-wife of Angel Santiesteban, he would scrutinize the mystery of this
young, good-looking, talkative, well-presented man who on appearing
self-pitying retracts on the video his first statements in the police
station against Angel. Regret, nothing strange, The Novelist would
think, I have read Dostoyevsky in depth, but now he would draw a blank
when he learns that later, in the trial, this same loquacious young man,
generous to the point of opulence in the details in the filming seems to
be erasing feelings of guilt that would not let him sleep, suddenly, as
if suddenly exchanged for a clone, as if a power greater than all the
witches of my childhood had placed grief over his head, he returned to
being the fundamental witness for the accuser, the enemy of Angel.
Maybe The Novelist then imagines that compassion could very well be a
named protagonist in the Case, and maybe he is wrong. As he is not The
Novelist a person who believes in evil a priori, maybe he excuses
Angel's ex wife imagining her one of those poetic souls who end up
believing and swearing with hand placed on the fire what they invented
in one of those trances in which any of us, fantasy or not, would give
half our lives to be able to transform ourselves into nuclear weapons,
which would explain the eagerness of the ex-wife to erase her ex from
the memory of well-born people. Because if anything seems like life it
is radio novels. Not for nothing has Felix B. Caignet sometimes been as
medicinal as the Virgin of Charity in Cuba.
Seen this way, maybe the Novelist would stop by the office of the police
officer who, according to the young man in the video, began to visit the
Ex after her denunciation in the precinct and frequently began to stay
to sleep over in the house. In that case, at best it might give the
Novelist to create a mutual inoculation between both characters. She
passed him the bacillus against Angel and he to her those that would be
expected in a police officer who was not born tomorrow. But let's not
complicate the Novelist. Let's suppose that he has left the officer
listening at the foot of the accuser's tales about her unhappy days with
Angel, sorrows so great and of such a kind that they moved him to pity
and he couldn't avoid infecting the officials charged with opening the
indictment in the case, this solution would permit the Novelist to
explain the part of pity that seems to have decided the failure of the
Trial magistrates, in the first instance, and later those of the Supreme
Court.
Investigating as was his duty, The Novelist "knowing, from his time as a
psychologist, the best documented historian of his time, nonetheless
availed himself of apparent fictions in order to represent it," could
then be aware that a few years ago, the young prize-winning author Angel
Santiesteban started to think for himself, he was then assaulted by the
unknown enthusiasts who broke his arm for educational purposes. So they
might suspect that, the Novelist, asked to identify the educators with
rebar wrapped in a newspaper so common at the repudiation rallies but
unable to confirm it, were loose ends, adrift, down the drain (but
refusing to disappear) of the old days before the Elian case, when the
Rapid Response Brigades would go out to take back the street, a task
that, in effect, these detachments would over accomplish with a subtle
but sufficient breaking of bones, lost teeth, bleeding eyes and
so-and-so's here and there limping for weeks and some, "it's
inevitable," who knows, perhaps for life.
The Novelist wouldn't like these methods. Me neither. But shouldn't The
Novelist before judging talk to those who've been doing it? Perhaps then
he wouldn't accept it, but at least he would understand these devoted
people. Or they have fought, and sometimes shed their blood in the
numerous overseas wars waged by the Cuban government in its first thirty
years in power or had elaborated all that was said and done by his
government a mystic idea so powerful that there couldn't exist someone
on earth, in the sea or in heaven that didn't share the idea of their
leaders. Not even in heaven. "They are heretics", one of them said to me
once. Another one said "I would beat them to death", and another who was
very catholic, maybe thinking of the heat from hell, with teary eyes and
the passion of a Arab who has seen his faith attacked said to me twenty
years ago, holding my hand with fervor and staring at me at a table with
two beers "I without laying a finger on them would let them fall from a
very high roof into a pool filled with boiling oil". There was no
cruelty in the heart of those devoted people, however. There was love,
devotion and unconditional love beyond death for the government project
that constituted the reason for their life, their marrow that has
gloriously burned to say it with the poet.
In statement on the Internet, Dr. Vallín, honorable man and prestigious
attorney, claims that during the trial against Santiesteban, witnesses
were not allowed and he alleges the defense was obstructed, mentioning
laws that were not taken into account by the court. While they aren't a
justification, the rationale of government devotees explained in the
previous paragraph, might have permitted The Novelist to understand the
irregularities observed by Dr. Vallín. The pity already stated on the
one side, and on the other that these learned men with cap and gown
should have represented the free-thinker Angel Santiesteban, still
alive, was too much. They failed.
Of course, "and The Novelist knows", this mixture of sentimentality and
governmental loyalty that on our Island has reasons to work in the
garbage truck driver who has seen his son off to the university with a
doctorate degree, it would not be convincing abroad. It couldn't. Those
curious people from "outside" see things differently. They still talk
about social contracts and things like that. That's why from the
beginning I assumed, or "better, I believed in being sure" that the
government of Army General Raul Castro, looking out for the good image
of its administration in this pivotal moment in history, would do
justice to the author Angel Santiesteban. He wouldn't allow in this
case, I thought (and I hope that with me the hypothetical Novelist
believed it) to become something else. Because any person, however
humble they may be (or seem to be) can be, nevertheless, the beginning
or the end of an era. I think about the nobody in Sarajevo who stepped
out in front of a coach.
Finally (second ending to the story: you choose) The Novelist appeared
to say, obliquely, without seeming to, in his usual subtext (and if he
wouldn't say it, I'm telling you now so you won't misunderstand me
again), finally, ladies and gentlemen, enough of repeating episodes, of
different dimensions but in essence like Christ, Herod and the Pharisees
of that time.
Havana, March 19, 2013
Published by Penúltimos Días
Source: "Rafael Alcides about the Official Novel against Angel
Santiesteban | Translating Cuba" -
http://translatingcuba.com/rafael-alcides-about-the-official-novel-against-angel-santiesteban/
Posted on September 25, 2013
I present to you here the article that writer and poet Rafael Alcides
published in the blog Penúltimos Días about the judicial farce mounted
against Angel Santiesteban with the sole and hidden objective of
silencing his critical and damning voice about the Castro dictatorship.
I ask readers to read this article knowing that Rafael expresses himself
ironically but without removing one iota of the truth from what he says
about Angel, the horrible antihero into which they try to convert him,
the false testimony and the judicial manipulation and from the proxies
and scribes of infamy that the regime knew so well how to buy in order
to execute and legitimize such a dirty objective.
I believe the clarification is necessary because of the many reactions
that his first article about the topic provoked and because he already
busied himself clarifying in another article and because such bad fury
was used by the Writers of Infamy concentrated in the Cuban Writers and
Artists Union (UNEAC) in order to criminalize their colleague (and
friend in many cases) and convert him into an example of the macho,
abusive and violent man whom they should only recognize in the Castro
dictator, his minions and those men in Cuba who regrettably are violent
with women and each day pursue and brutally beat the Ladies in White and
other brave and peaceful opponents throughout the whole island.
It remains to be said that there also exists — regrettably — a large
number of men who practice domestic and gender violence. Against these
men among whom are found distinguished members of the nomenklatura,
Justice has never done anything; it would seem as if they had assumed
that violence against women and machismo are ingredients of national
folklore.
BASIC CONSIDERATIONS ABOUT THE SANTIESTEBAN CASE
By Rafael Alcides
A novelist who would like to write the complex and diverse novel that is
hinted at behind the bulky "Santiesteban case," could begin with the
presumably frightened faces that the poor magistrates who failed in said
process to know the facts that they would judge. I get it, because of my
own fear and because of what obviously brought the Women of UNEAC to
manifest their wrath. The prize-winning author Angel Santiesteban, UNEAC
Prize, Juan Rulfo Prize, House of the Americas Prize, and who physically
only would lack the horse to seem an all-powerful rodeo cowboy (The
Novelist could not describe his character), threatened his ex-wife with
death, hit her, tied her up in order to rape her in comfort and set fire
to the house.
I, who at the beginning believed it a magnified quarrel, discord,
lovers' disagreement of the kind that so often feed the great loves
while they last (and in that respect I wrote some lines of which I now
repent), on knowing the facts in detail or supposed facts (The Novelist
will have to investigate them and take a position), I told myself: this
is not the Angel that I know. It's not him. And searching for an
explanation for the undoubted failure of the judges, it even occurred to
me to think of witchcraft. Had not Angel been a victim of the evil eye,
one of those "hazards" of the sorcerers of the Guatemalan mountains in
the time of my childhood? Also The Novelist would ask himself, but on
finding a certain video downloaded from the internet maybe he would stop
searching in the Hereafter.
Disturbed by the disconcerting mutations in the conduct of the
protagonist in the mentioned video and main witness in the charge by the
ex-wife of Angel Santiesteban, he would scrutinize the mystery of this
young, good-looking, talkative, well-presented man who on appearing
self-pitying retracts on the video his first statements in the police
station against Angel. Regret, nothing strange, The Novelist would
think, I have read Dostoyevsky in depth, but now he would draw a blank
when he learns that later, in the trial, this same loquacious young man,
generous to the point of opulence in the details in the filming seems to
be erasing feelings of guilt that would not let him sleep, suddenly, as
if suddenly exchanged for a clone, as if a power greater than all the
witches of my childhood had placed grief over his head, he returned to
being the fundamental witness for the accuser, the enemy of Angel.
Maybe The Novelist then imagines that compassion could very well be a
named protagonist in the Case, and maybe he is wrong. As he is not The
Novelist a person who believes in evil a priori, maybe he excuses
Angel's ex wife imagining her one of those poetic souls who end up
believing and swearing with hand placed on the fire what they invented
in one of those trances in which any of us, fantasy or not, would give
half our lives to be able to transform ourselves into nuclear weapons,
which would explain the eagerness of the ex-wife to erase her ex from
the memory of well-born people. Because if anything seems like life it
is radio novels. Not for nothing has Felix B. Caignet sometimes been as
medicinal as the Virgin of Charity in Cuba.
Seen this way, maybe the Novelist would stop by the office of the police
officer who, according to the young man in the video, began to visit the
Ex after her denunciation in the precinct and frequently began to stay
to sleep over in the house. In that case, at best it might give the
Novelist to create a mutual inoculation between both characters. She
passed him the bacillus against Angel and he to her those that would be
expected in a police officer who was not born tomorrow. But let's not
complicate the Novelist. Let's suppose that he has left the officer
listening at the foot of the accuser's tales about her unhappy days with
Angel, sorrows so great and of such a kind that they moved him to pity
and he couldn't avoid infecting the officials charged with opening the
indictment in the case, this solution would permit the Novelist to
explain the part of pity that seems to have decided the failure of the
Trial magistrates, in the first instance, and later those of the Supreme
Court.
Investigating as was his duty, The Novelist "knowing, from his time as a
psychologist, the best documented historian of his time, nonetheless
availed himself of apparent fictions in order to represent it," could
then be aware that a few years ago, the young prize-winning author Angel
Santiesteban started to think for himself, he was then assaulted by the
unknown enthusiasts who broke his arm for educational purposes. So they
might suspect that, the Novelist, asked to identify the educators with
rebar wrapped in a newspaper so common at the repudiation rallies but
unable to confirm it, were loose ends, adrift, down the drain (but
refusing to disappear) of the old days before the Elian case, when the
Rapid Response Brigades would go out to take back the street, a task
that, in effect, these detachments would over accomplish with a subtle
but sufficient breaking of bones, lost teeth, bleeding eyes and
so-and-so's here and there limping for weeks and some, "it's
inevitable," who knows, perhaps for life.
The Novelist wouldn't like these methods. Me neither. But shouldn't The
Novelist before judging talk to those who've been doing it? Perhaps then
he wouldn't accept it, but at least he would understand these devoted
people. Or they have fought, and sometimes shed their blood in the
numerous overseas wars waged by the Cuban government in its first thirty
years in power or had elaborated all that was said and done by his
government a mystic idea so powerful that there couldn't exist someone
on earth, in the sea or in heaven that didn't share the idea of their
leaders. Not even in heaven. "They are heretics", one of them said to me
once. Another one said "I would beat them to death", and another who was
very catholic, maybe thinking of the heat from hell, with teary eyes and
the passion of a Arab who has seen his faith attacked said to me twenty
years ago, holding my hand with fervor and staring at me at a table with
two beers "I without laying a finger on them would let them fall from a
very high roof into a pool filled with boiling oil". There was no
cruelty in the heart of those devoted people, however. There was love,
devotion and unconditional love beyond death for the government project
that constituted the reason for their life, their marrow that has
gloriously burned to say it with the poet.
In statement on the Internet, Dr. Vallín, honorable man and prestigious
attorney, claims that during the trial against Santiesteban, witnesses
were not allowed and he alleges the defense was obstructed, mentioning
laws that were not taken into account by the court. While they aren't a
justification, the rationale of government devotees explained in the
previous paragraph, might have permitted The Novelist to understand the
irregularities observed by Dr. Vallín. The pity already stated on the
one side, and on the other that these learned men with cap and gown
should have represented the free-thinker Angel Santiesteban, still
alive, was too much. They failed.
Of course, "and The Novelist knows", this mixture of sentimentality and
governmental loyalty that on our Island has reasons to work in the
garbage truck driver who has seen his son off to the university with a
doctorate degree, it would not be convincing abroad. It couldn't. Those
curious people from "outside" see things differently. They still talk
about social contracts and things like that. That's why from the
beginning I assumed, or "better, I believed in being sure" that the
government of Army General Raul Castro, looking out for the good image
of its administration in this pivotal moment in history, would do
justice to the author Angel Santiesteban. He wouldn't allow in this
case, I thought (and I hope that with me the hypothetical Novelist
believed it) to become something else. Because any person, however
humble they may be (or seem to be) can be, nevertheless, the beginning
or the end of an era. I think about the nobody in Sarajevo who stepped
out in front of a coach.
Finally (second ending to the story: you choose) The Novelist appeared
to say, obliquely, without seeming to, in his usual subtext (and if he
wouldn't say it, I'm telling you now so you won't misunderstand me
again), finally, ladies and gentlemen, enough of repeating episodes, of
different dimensions but in essence like Christ, Herod and the Pharisees
of that time.
Havana, March 19, 2013
Published by Penúltimos Días
Source: "Rafael Alcides about the Official Novel against Angel
Santiesteban | Translating Cuba" -
http://translatingcuba.com/rafael-alcides-about-the-official-novel-against-angel-santiesteban/
Edmundo and Robertico - The Opportunist and the Opportune
Edmundo and Robertico : The Opportunist and the Opportune / Miriam Celaya
Posted on September 25, 2013
HAVANA, Cuba, September, www.cubanet.org – Edmundo Garcia, ardent
defender and offshore soldier of the Cuban dictatorship, hosts in Miami
— in Miami no less! — a radio program that constitutes an extension of
the Roundtable TV talk show in Havana. His insults against imperialism
and against "anti-Cuban counter-revolutionaries," like his praises
rendered to the Castro regime, are the most convincing demonstrations
that the ineffable Edmundo enjoys the opportunity that freedom of
expression permits in a democratic country, which the peaceful
opposition does not enjoy in Cuba because the regime that he defends
denies it to us.
Edmundo rants publicly against the critics of the Castro regime, visits
the Island to relax in restaurants and tourist resorts where the
majority of his "compatriots" have no chance to even poke their noses,
as cool as a cucumber, he walks through those northern and these
southern streets without being arrested or harassed, which — let me say
— seems great to me.
Many Cubans wonder what reasons pushed Señor Garcia to leave his native
land, which — to judge by his own statements — he rates as the fairest
system in the world with a government that any democratic nation would
envy, to settle in the most hellish and imperfect nation on the planet
where, to be precise, terrorists run rampant and the worst enemies of
Humanity and Cuba govern. But this seems to be a mystery that only the
bilious member of the claque himself can reveal, or — of course — the
Cuban government. Meanwhile, Edmundo continues to preach in his
underwear, because he is the living embodiment of the opportunist.
He projects this on others and he described as "unfortunate,"
"opportunistic" and "disrespectful" the performance by the artist
Robertico Carcassés at the recently held gala for the release of the
Cuban spies who are serving long sentences in the United States. In the
improvisation, Carcassés declared his desires for free access to
information, the end of the blockade and the internal-blockade, the
power to elect the president directly ("and not by other means") and
asked for "freedom for the Five and also for Maria," and also launched a
phrase that is highly radioactive in Cuba: "Neither militants, nor
dissidents, all Cubans with the same rights."
The audacity of the artist consists not only in the fact of having
expressed publicly the desires of an immense majority of Cubans, without
his suggesting he belongs to the opposition sector or is committing a
legal transgression — all a flagrant challenge to the authorities on the
Island — but in having done it precisely at the Protestdrome, in front
of the United States Interest Section, the Castro-anti-imperialist
scenario par excellence, and as part of an "activity" called with great
fanfare by the official media, at which supposedly the entire cast
should respond with absolute fidelity to the directives of the ruling elite.
And of course, for Robertico Carcassés it wasn't opportunistic. Quite
the contrary, it was marvelously opportune. So much so that — regardless
of whether at some future mediated by the figureheads of the regime,
making use of their usual resources of ideological conviction, they get
him to publicly take back his (our) truths — as great as temples; and
they were said. What's more, it's the first time that so much contained
hope and so many desires shared by millions of Cubans were spoken live
and so clearly on an official stage. And this is the most dangerous for
the owners of Edmundo Garcia. If the opposition had had the microphone,
it could not have done better.
Because, and here is what should be a lesson to us all, nothing is as
powerful and effective as simply and plainly expressing the hopes of an
entire nation, not from fiery patriotic discourse or from sectors of the
opposition — as demonized and feared by the government as they are
little known by society — without infringing upon the rights of those
attending, but rather from the courage and shame of an individual not
subject to ideological compromises. That is honesty, the exact opposite
of opportunism. We need many Robertico Carcassés in Cuba, with or
without microphones.
For a few brief minutes, this artist demonstrated, perhaps
unintentionally, that the streets, the plazas, the platforms and the
microphones do not belong to the "Revolutionaries," but to all Cubans.
For that alone his audacity had value, it was really worth it. Blessed
be his way to taking advantage of the opportunity! For the gift of those
moments of public freedom practiced from the official media we should
thank the young Carcasses, with all our hearts.
From Cubanet
24 September 2013
Source: "Edmundo and Robertico : The Opportunist and the Opportune /
Miriam Celaya | Translating Cuba" -
http://translatingcuba.com/edmundo-and-robertico-the-opportunist-and-the-opportune-miriam-celaya/
Posted on September 25, 2013
HAVANA, Cuba, September, www.cubanet.org – Edmundo Garcia, ardent
defender and offshore soldier of the Cuban dictatorship, hosts in Miami
— in Miami no less! — a radio program that constitutes an extension of
the Roundtable TV talk show in Havana. His insults against imperialism
and against "anti-Cuban counter-revolutionaries," like his praises
rendered to the Castro regime, are the most convincing demonstrations
that the ineffable Edmundo enjoys the opportunity that freedom of
expression permits in a democratic country, which the peaceful
opposition does not enjoy in Cuba because the regime that he defends
denies it to us.
Edmundo rants publicly against the critics of the Castro regime, visits
the Island to relax in restaurants and tourist resorts where the
majority of his "compatriots" have no chance to even poke their noses,
as cool as a cucumber, he walks through those northern and these
southern streets without being arrested or harassed, which — let me say
— seems great to me.
Many Cubans wonder what reasons pushed Señor Garcia to leave his native
land, which — to judge by his own statements — he rates as the fairest
system in the world with a government that any democratic nation would
envy, to settle in the most hellish and imperfect nation on the planet
where, to be precise, terrorists run rampant and the worst enemies of
Humanity and Cuba govern. But this seems to be a mystery that only the
bilious member of the claque himself can reveal, or — of course — the
Cuban government. Meanwhile, Edmundo continues to preach in his
underwear, because he is the living embodiment of the opportunist.
He projects this on others and he described as "unfortunate,"
"opportunistic" and "disrespectful" the performance by the artist
Robertico Carcassés at the recently held gala for the release of the
Cuban spies who are serving long sentences in the United States. In the
improvisation, Carcassés declared his desires for free access to
information, the end of the blockade and the internal-blockade, the
power to elect the president directly ("and not by other means") and
asked for "freedom for the Five and also for Maria," and also launched a
phrase that is highly radioactive in Cuba: "Neither militants, nor
dissidents, all Cubans with the same rights."
The audacity of the artist consists not only in the fact of having
expressed publicly the desires of an immense majority of Cubans, without
his suggesting he belongs to the opposition sector or is committing a
legal transgression — all a flagrant challenge to the authorities on the
Island — but in having done it precisely at the Protestdrome, in front
of the United States Interest Section, the Castro-anti-imperialist
scenario par excellence, and as part of an "activity" called with great
fanfare by the official media, at which supposedly the entire cast
should respond with absolute fidelity to the directives of the ruling elite.
And of course, for Robertico Carcassés it wasn't opportunistic. Quite
the contrary, it was marvelously opportune. So much so that — regardless
of whether at some future mediated by the figureheads of the regime,
making use of their usual resources of ideological conviction, they get
him to publicly take back his (our) truths — as great as temples; and
they were said. What's more, it's the first time that so much contained
hope and so many desires shared by millions of Cubans were spoken live
and so clearly on an official stage. And this is the most dangerous for
the owners of Edmundo Garcia. If the opposition had had the microphone,
it could not have done better.
Because, and here is what should be a lesson to us all, nothing is as
powerful and effective as simply and plainly expressing the hopes of an
entire nation, not from fiery patriotic discourse or from sectors of the
opposition — as demonized and feared by the government as they are
little known by society — without infringing upon the rights of those
attending, but rather from the courage and shame of an individual not
subject to ideological compromises. That is honesty, the exact opposite
of opportunism. We need many Robertico Carcassés in Cuba, with or
without microphones.
For a few brief minutes, this artist demonstrated, perhaps
unintentionally, that the streets, the plazas, the platforms and the
microphones do not belong to the "Revolutionaries," but to all Cubans.
For that alone his audacity had value, it was really worth it. Blessed
be his way to taking advantage of the opportunity! For the gift of those
moments of public freedom practiced from the official media we should
thank the young Carcasses, with all our hearts.
From Cubanet
24 September 2013
Source: "Edmundo and Robertico : The Opportunist and the Opportune /
Miriam Celaya | Translating Cuba" -
http://translatingcuba.com/edmundo-and-robertico-the-opportunist-and-the-opportune-miriam-celaya/
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