Decorando la Noche

 

Margarita Alarcón Perea

Los niños tienen esa habilidad innata para expresar exactamente lo que ven tal y como lo ven. No hay tapujos, ni temores al ridículo de ningún tipo. Simplemente abren la boca y sueltan lo que les pasa por la mente tal y cual les pasa. No soy de esos padres que se deleita embobecida con las cosas de su hijo, es más, los que me conocen bien suelen catalogarme de “estalinista” y para nada permisiva con mi hijo; pero la otra noche me dejó boquiabierta llena de orgullo.

Habíamos salido con una muy buena amiga y su hijo de cuatro años a pasear por su nuevo barrio. Ellos ahora son parte del nuevo estrato social cubano en la isla que han llegado a un punto cumbre de sus vidas: son dueños de una casa recién adquirida con todas las de la ley. El apartamento es pequeño,  acogedor, cuarto y medio con baño, sala comedor que lleva a una cocina donde cabe un refrigerador enorme y otros aparatos para esos menesteres. Lo más increíble que tiene el lugar es la vista panorámica hacia la ciudad desde las alturas de la Avenida 26 donde el cielo de la noche es interminable y la brisa hace que haya valido la pena cada centavo ahorrado para adquirirlo.

Nos entró hambre  y decidimos salir a andar el barrio nuevo en busca de un lugar donde comer los cuatro y terminamos en una cafetería de garaje con un letreo enorme en forma de bola roja a unas cinco cuadras de la nueva morada. Ahí se ofrece una variedad de bocaditos y de ensaladas que pueden satisfacer hasta el gusto más meticuloso buscando comida saludable y llena de verduras; jugos naturales y refrescos varios y tiene mi té frio favorito.

Cuatro jóvenes atienden el lugar y se pusieron en función de nosotros cuatro en cuanto bajamos la rampa verde que te lleva al mostrador. Los dos niños jugaban correteando mientras ambas madres hacíamos los pedidos. Unos 10 minutos o más, no estaba contando, habrán pasado hasta que nuestra comida fue servida. Platos y bandeja que parecían de loza pero en realidad de plástico, con servilletas y vasos de cristal limpio. Y más servilletas.

Mientras disfrutaba de mi Club Sandwich a la cubana (nada de pavo y mucho jamón de pierna), le comentaba a mi amiga como era que estábamos en ese mismo momento viviendo las delicias de una noche en familia, tranquilas y serenas, gracias a los importantes cambios sociales y económicos que se estaban llevando a cabo en la isla. Ella coincidió conmigo y agregó que faltaban algunos cambios más; ambas concluimos que era necesario hacer cualquier cosa de manera lenta y con seguridad tal de beneficiar y favorecer al mayor por ciento de la población en el país.  

Terminábamos de comer cuando uno de los jóvenes se acercó y comenzó a prender el keroseno en unas luces en forma de pirámide invertida de metal que estaban justo limitando el jardín del muro del lugar; nos quedamos todos embobecidos viendo como nacían las llamas en aquellas CINCO  luces brillantes, algunas más fuertes y rebeldes otras más dispuestas a arder con serenidad y constancia. Todo esto ocurriendo mientras la luna se encontraba en cuarto creciente justo a nuestra vera con Venus llevándola de la mano. Cada uno de nosotros tuvo algo que decir en ese momento, sobre el lugar, el ambiente, las luces, la luna, el apartamento nuevo, el barrio, pero fue mi hijo de siete años el que considero lo dijo mejor: “…están decorando la noche.”.

Decorating the night

 

Margarita Alarcón Perea

Children have a keen way of expressing reality exactly the way they see it. No hidden taboos, no fear of embarrassment, no self consciousness whatsoever. They just blurt out whatever it is they see and feel faithfully the way they see and feel it. I am not  one of those parents who gloats on her child’s “abilities”, in fact, most who know me well, feel I am a bit too “Stalinistic” or un-permissive as it were; but the other evening my son blew me away.

We were out with a good friend and her young boy of 4 in their new neighborhood. They have just become part of the growing number of Cubans on the island who have reached a summit point in their lives and have finally bought their own home. The place is quaint, small, one and half bedrooms, bath,  a small living dining room space with an adjoining kitchen which fits a huge fridge and other kitchen appliances. The most extraordinary thing about the place is the view and the light. It overlooks most of the City of Havana right over 26^th Avenue and the night sky is visible from every angle of the place, this alone together with the breeze makes it worth every penny of their savings.

We were hungry so we decided to walk around the new neighborhood and ended up in a small garage entrance cafeteria with a huge sign in the form of a red dot four blocks from the new apartment. The place offers a wide variety of sandwiches and salads so for those of you in the US it pretty much resembles a stand up salad bar which also serves (my favorite) ice tea.  

Four young people were there in attendance of the four newly arrived customers. Our two boys were romping up and down the slope that leads to the counter while my friend and I studied the menu on the wall and placed our orders. After about 10min or so, I wasn’t counting, the food was served in lovely plates and on trays resembling china but really plastic with napkins and huge amounts of greens. The beverages were all in glass not plastic or metal and there were plenty of extra napkins to go around.

Suddenly as I was enjoying my Club Sandwich a la cubana, (no turkey, plenty of ham), I mentioned to my friend, how it was that we were enjoying the ecstatic feeling of a night on the town just before sundown and it was all prompted by the important social and economic changes that have recently been taking place on the island. She agreed and interjected that more were needed; we both agree that change takes time and in order for things to work in all of our favor it must come about slowly.   

Just as we were finishing our meal, one of the young men walked over to the garden side of the establishment and began to light with kerosene these lovely metal structures and before we knew it, dusk was full of 5 garden lights burning bright; we were all mesmerized by the beauty of the entire spectacle, watching the flames take on a life of their own, some vibrant and rebellious others willing to burn in quiet calm and serenity as the crescent moon was rising right behind us with Venus guiding her. Each one of us had something to comment,  on the place, the food, the ambiance, the lights, the new apartment, the neighborhood, but it was my 7 year old  who I believe said it best: “…they are decorating the night…”.

A Star is Born? Enter the CELAC

From The Huffington Post

By Manuel Barcia

Barely a few weeks ago heads of state of all 33 Latin American and Caribbean countries converged in the city of Caracas to launch a new initiative for regional integration, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, better known by its Spanish acronym CELAC (Comunidad de Estados Latinoamericanos y Caribeños).

The CELAC is by no means a new type of experiment. Initiatives such as the Organisation of American States (OAS), the Rio Group, and more recently the Alianza Bolivariana para los Pueblos de Nuestra América (ALBA) have previously attempted to create a block of regional states with the capacity to solve the Continent’s problems.

This time, however, the stakes have been raised. Both the US and Canada have been purposely left out of the new organisation; a move that many of these countries would have steered clear of a few years ago. More problematic for the US, Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa expressed the wish, probably shared by others, that the CELAC may eventually replace the OAS. Additionally, while the US and Canada find themselves marooned, a former pariah, Cuba, has been welcomed with open arms. This is the first time Cuba has participated in a Continent-wide forum since 1962, when it was expelled from the OAS in the Eighth Meeting of Consultation in Punta del Este, Uruguay.

By acting independently of the US, the CELAC was destined for a mixed reception. It has been straightforwardly dismissed as another vain and quixotic attempt to achieve integration among countries that are, the story goes, incapable of working together. John Paul Rathbone from the Financial Times rushed to dismiss it in predictable fashion as “a blind and one-legged colossus, with one arm tied behind its back” (5/12/11), while Tim Padgett from Time Magazine was quick to underestimate the capacity for integration among Latin American countries by ironically suggesting that the biggest challenge facing the new body would probably be surviving Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who is suffering from cancer (2/12/11).

Both opinions, typical of those circulating in cyber space, represent the familiar pattern of downplaying any sort of regional cooperation, pointing the finger at countries of the region for their violent and unruly societies and lack of respect for human rights, as if these problems were endemic to the region. The truth, however, is quite different. While the US and Europe find themselves bailing out their banks and economies, and enforcing pointless austerity measures in the hope that the markets will correct themselves following the Milton Friedman paradigm, the CELAC countries constitute a formidable block with a population of 550 million and emerging economies growing at approximately 6% in 2010 (UNCTAD). Journalists and politicians may believe that the CELAC is destined to fail, but their opinions represent nothing but a cacophony of neo-colonial fallacies disguising a real fear that for once Latin American and Caribbean countries may begin to make decisions unanimously and independently of the “friendly advice” of foreign powers.

These pundits of course blatantly disregard the extent to which Latin American and Caribbean countries have been able to work together in a sustained manner in the past. Even though it is true that from the Congress of Panama in 1826 divisions between some of these countries seemed insurmountable, the reality is that the US was the main reason why integration never materialised. Not only did they deprive Mexico of half of its territory in the 1830s and 1840s with their first imperialist wars, but they also intervened in the Cuban war of independence in 1898, and subsequently made of Puerto Rico a de-facto US colony.

Soon afterwards the US attempted to cut a deal with Colombia so that they could build a transoceanic canal in the Isthmus of Panama and when the Colombian Government refused to kneel, they resorted to their shiny new gunships and created a new nation, Panama, in 1903. They then forced upon the Panamanians the Hay-Buneau-Varilla Treaty (also known as the Treaty that no Panamanian signed) by which they granted themselves the right to build the canal and to exploit it for decades to come. Not satisfied with this, the US then occupied Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua during the Big Stick years and, when military intervention and occupation started to seem problematic, they proceeded to bring down the democratic governments of the region with CIA-backed coups (Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala, Salvador Allende in Chile, etc.) and by establishing puppet dictators, who would commit some of the most horrendous violations of human rights in the Continent’s history.

Probably the powers that be, and that includes well-established newspapers and news channels, cannot bear the fact that, as Chavez argued, there is an opportunity for Latin American and Caribbean countries to be united in their differences and to demand respect. More to the point, Latin American and Caribbean people have perhaps reached the point at which integration is finally a real possibility. It is a chance for these 33 countries to make a stand together and to demand political and economic independence.

Is the Embargo Doomed? A Fight Over the Future of Cuban American Politics

 

…like the Hindenburg, doomed from the start…

 

Originally published in The Atlantic

By Anya Landau-French

When Congress nearly failed to continue funding the government recently, one of the provisions in the spending bill that they couldn’t agree on was an obscure bit of legislation related to the almost 50-year-old embargo of Cuba.

The provision — which was eventually dropped — would have reinstated a Bush administration policy that restricted Cuban Americans to visiting family in Cuba only once every three years, and then only to immediate family and with no humanitarian exceptions — even for deathbed and funeral visits.

That policy, first adopted in 2004, was so unpopular among Cuban Americans that Barack Obama, during his 2008 campaign, promised to lift all restrictions on family travel and remittances to the island. He delivered on that promise in his first year in office. So it came as no surprise that the Cuba provision never made it into the final bill.

But, even though it failed, who championed the provision and why could reveal an important shift in how U.S. politics deal with Cuba, Cuban Americans, and our outdated embargo.

The members of Congress who led the effort to reinstate these draconian rules restricting Cuban Americans are, in fact, themselves Cuban Americans. They include the powerful chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and House Appropriations Committee member Mario Diaz-Balart. In the Senate, both Cuban American senators, Marco Rubio and Bob Menendez, also favor these restrictions on travel and financial assistance to families in Cuba. Of the four, Menendez is the only democrat; all four are anti-Castro hardliners.

They argue that the travel and remittances provide a financial windfall to the Castro government. This is true: the more money Cubans have to spend on daily necessities or on starting up small businesses, the more the Cuban economy as a whole will improve and the government will inevitably capture more hard currency in circulation. The hundreds of thousands of Cuban Americans are not generally fans of the Castro government — many came to America, or their parents came to America, to escape its political and economic policies. Yet sending money back is a trade-off that many of them believe they must make for the sake of their friends and family on the island.

So why do these Congressmen believe that denying the Cuban government some hard currency is so crucial a policy rider as to nearly allow it to bring down a trillion dollar spending bill? The Cuban government, after all, would likely manage to either replace or do without the money, as it did in financial crises in the early 1990s and again in 2008.

In fact, while depriving the Cuban government of hard currency is a high priority for anti-Castro hardliners in Congress, there is an even bigger issue at stake for these staunch embargo supporters. Senator Rubio put his finger on it when he defended the restrictions in 2008, while still a member of the Florida legislature.

“What you had was a situation where people would come to Miami from Cuba, stay for a year and a day and then go back,” he said. “And what this was doing was threatening the sustainability of the Cuban Adjustment Act itself, the U.S. law that gives Cubans who come to this country a special status as political exiles rather than immigrants.”

“What makes Cubans different from Haitians who come here or anyone else,” Rubio went on, “if they go back and forth, that is to say, if they’re not exiles at all? In that case, why should Cubans be any different? The whole structure would have unraveled had something not been done.”

Rubio is right to fear increasing awareness that Cubans emigres are no longer overwhelmingly political refugees, but rather are largely economic migrants. But if these newer generation Cuban emigres don’t act like exiles, why don’t Rubio and his like-minded Cuban-American colleagues fight instead to end the unique access to the United States still afforded to Cubans half a century after Fidel Castro took power?

As a different sort of Cuban emigre — economic rather than political, traveling back and forth between the two countries rather than permanently exiled in the U.S. — becomes more numerous in the U.S., they are asking for a different sort of U.S. policy toward Cuba, one at odds with the old ways. This growing, more moderate cohort of Cuban Americans who want to travel to and invest in the island could mean that the hardline exiles’ influence on U.S. Cuba policy might be waning.

Another member of Congress who supports reinstituting travel restrictions, David Rivera of Florida, has proposed legislation that would make it tougher for Cubans who still want to travel home occasionally to get green cards. This would, in effect, slow down the Cuban American community’s demographic transformation, which is seeing non-embargo-supporting economic immigrants gradually replace the political exile hardliners for dominance in the community.

“By the time you have critical mass,” he said in 2008, “with an ability to make a difference, we may all be back in Cuba.” Rivera’s bill would deny Cubans who come to the U.S. a speedy green card, as promised to them in the Cuban Adjustment Act, if they travel back to Cuba within their first five years in the United States. If Fidel Castro no longer drives Cubans into exile, Rivera and his colleagues would, forcing them to choose between their families on the island and their green card here in the United States.

Ros-Lehtinen said “there will always be another battle” when it comes to this policy, and no doubt she and her colleagues are prepared to fight it. Because, otherwise, it is only a matter of time until the rest of Congress and the U.S. reaches this game-changing conclusion — that Cuban Americans are no longer exiles in need of special refugee treatment, that this very Cuban American community on behalf of which our 50 year-old embargo persists has already substantially normalized relations with their brethren on the island — it could finally spell the end of the embargo altogether. And, for a few holdout hardliners, that’s a fight they refuse to lose.

Time to clean up U.S. regime-change programs in Cuba

… the beauty of agreement…

BY FULTON ARMSTRONG
fultona1@yahoo.com

As USAID subcontractor Alan P. Gross marked his second year in a Cuban prison for carrying out secret “democracy promotion” operations, White House spokesman Jay Carney demanded his immediate release and gloated: “Cuban authorities have failed in their effort to use Gross as a pawn for their own ends.” The message is simple: Gross is our pawn, not the Cubans’.

The administration’s signals throughout the Gross affair have been clear. To Havana, it’s been “no negotiation.” To Gross, “tough luck.” And to Americans who think our 50-year Cuba policy should be reviewed, it is, “Don’t hold your breath.”

When a covert action run by the CIA goes bad and a clandestine officer gets arrested, the U.S. government works up a strategy for negotiating his release. When a covert operator working for USAID gets arrested, Washington turns up the rhetoric, throws more money at the compromised program, and refuses to talk.

For three years, I was the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s lead investigator into the political operations of the State Department and USAID in Cuba and elsewhere in Latin America. The Cuba programs — designed to identify, organize, train and mobilize Cubans to demand political change — have an especially problematic heritage, including embezzlement, mismanagement, and systemic politicization. Some program successes costing millions of taxpayer dollars, such as the creation of a network of “independent libraries,” were grossly exaggerated or fabricated.

An oversight committee’s mandate is to ensure that funds — about $20 million a year but surging to $45 million in 2009 — are used effectively and in a manner consistent with U.S. law. State and USAID fought us at every turn, refusing to divulge even basic information about the programs, citing only a document of vague “program objectives.”

The programs did not involve our Intelligence Community, but the secrecy surrounding them, the clandestine tradecraft (including the use of advanced encryption technologies) and the deliberate concealment of the U.S. hand, had all the markings of an intelligence covert operation. We never requested the names of their on-island operatives, but program managers claimed that “people will die” if we knew the names of even U.S.-based “partner” groups.

The programs were not a secret in Cuba. The Cuban government had them deeply penetrated. We did not know who Alan P. Gross was — indeed, the State Department vehemently denied he was theirs after his arrest, and even some of our diplomats in Havana thought he was working for CIA. But it was clear that the Cubans had been on him. Cuban television has shown video of other contractors in action on the island.

Only Gross can say what he knew about Cuban law as he carried out his $585,000 contract, including five visits to Cuba. He has said that he was “duped.” We confirmed that State and USAID had no policy in place to brief individuals conducting these secret operations that they are not legal in Cuba, nor that U.S. law does not allow unregistered foreign agents to travel around the country providing satellite gear, wide-area WiFi hotspots, encryption and telephony equipment and other cash-value assistance.

Administration policy is that Cuban recipients not be told the origin and purpose of the assistance — unless they ask directly. Some Cubans can guess, of course, but the implications of non-disclosure, especially as new programs target children as young as 12, are significant in a country that expressly outlaws receiving U.S. funds.

USAID has emerged as a covert warrior to undermine anti-U.S. regimes worldwide — without the burden of accountability imposed on the Intelligence Community. The regime-change focus of the programs is explicit: Rather than fund them under education and cultural authorities, the Bush and Obama administrations have insisted on citing authorities in the Helms-Burton “Libertad Act” prescribing a post-Castro future for Cuba.

Fixes have been repeatedly proposed to increase efficiencies and steer funds to help the Cuban people improve their lives, such as by taking advantage of the incipient economic adjustments that Raúl Castro has begun — to help people help themselves, not just organize and mobilize them for protests. USAID’s firm reaction has been that the programs are not to help Cubans live better lives today but rather help them demand a better future tomorrow. Regime change.

Like the other millions of dollars we have spent to topple the Cuban government, these programs have failed even to provoke the regime, except to arrest Gross and hassle people who have accepted assistance from other on-island operators. Our policy should be based on what’s effective at promoting the U.S. national interest — peaceful, democratic and evolutionary change — not engaging in gratuitous provocations.

Rhetoric and actions that prolong the prison stay of an innocent American apparently duped into being a pawn in the U.S. government’s 50-year effort to achieve regime change in Cuba are counterproductive. It’s time to clean up the regime-change programs and negotiate Alan P. Gross’s release.

Fulton Armstrong has worked on the Cuba issue on the National Security Council during the Clinton administration and later as National Intelligence Officer for Latin America and senior advisor on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/12/25/v-fullstory/2559755/time-to-clean-up-us-regime-change.html#storylink=fbuser#storylink=cpy

Cuba Pardons Thousands of Common Criminals

...to err is human, to forgive... divine.

 

Versión en castellano aqui

By Fernando Ravsberg

HAVANA TIMES, Dec 25 — President Raul Castro announced in parliament the pardon of 2,900  prisoners, mostly the sick, elderly, women and youth who — despite not having completed their sentences — have the potential for reintegration into Cuban society.

Among those to be released are some individuals convicted of crimes against national security who have completed parts of their sentences with good behavior, in addition to 86 foreign nationals from 25 countries held in Cuban prisons.

Since 2008 the Cuban courts released 300 political prisoners, including those who were internationally regarded as prisoners of conscience; in addition, the government commuted the death sentences of dozens of other prisoners.

At the same time, an announcement was made concerning preparations to strengthen the prosecution of those involved in “white collar” crime, theft and scams carried out by managers and officials, who, according to Castro, have become the principal enemy of the revolution.

Regarding much awaited immigration law reforms, he said this will continue to be studied and that “the changes required concerning this complex subject” will be introduced gradually, while evaluations will be made of the pros and cons of each step.

INCLUDED AND EXCLUDED

The Cuban president said that this procedure to release inmates would begin taking place every year so that the justice system could release greater numbers of prisoners according to their conduct, the type of crime committed, and their health and family conditions.

Among those pardoned are young people, many of whom are in prison-schools, where their sentences are reduced in proportion to their progress in school as well as the possibility of them going on to college.

Castro explained that “the pardons will exclude those who were convicted of crimes of espionage, terrorism, murder, drug trafficking, violent pederasty, rape, the corruption of minors and armed robbery.”

Apparently this would exclude the possibility of pardons for the Central Americans who in exchange for money planted bombs in Cuban tourist hotels in 1997, causing several injuries and the death of a young Italian.

Nor would it benefit US citizen Alan Gross, sentenced to 15 years for participating in an operation financed by Washington to sneak communications equipment onto the island. Cuba continues to propose a “humanitarian way out” of that case, which includes its five agents (Cuban Five) imprisoned in the US.

THE RELIGIOUS TOUCH

The president explained that the pardon was in response to the requests from relatives of the prisoners, evangelical and Catholic churches, as well as for the Pope’s upcoming visit and the 400th anniversary of the apparition of the Virgin de la Caridad del Cobre, the patroness of Cuba.

Not surprisingly, Castro made these references to the churches as they have in fact become powerful allies. Since the 1990s, the government has developed closer relations with the evangelical churches – some of them even have deputies in parliament.

Among the prisoners to be pardoned are young people educated in the prison-schools and who no longer represent a danger to society. Photo: Raquel Perez

Relations with the Catholic Church were stormy for decades, but in 1998 — with the arrival of Pope John Paul II — a period of dialogue began, one whose most notable accomplishment was the release of political prisoners in 2010.

The announcement of the trip to Cuba next year by Pope Benedict XVI is another step in convergence of interests between the two sides, with the church seeking to regain its social influence and the government attempting to gain a powerful international ally.

THE PRINCIPAL ENEMY

Prisons will not be left emptied. While political and common prisoners leave through one door, in the other will be entering Castro said dozens of “corrupt bureaucrats under charges of fraud and acts of opportunism that they committed when still occupying positions for amassing fortunes and while counting on the eventual defeat of the Revolution.”

“Corruption is now one of the principal enemies of the Revolution, much more harmful than subversive and interventionist activity by the US government and its allies inside and outside the country,” said the Cuban president to the legislators.

Finally, he announced that these crimes committed by “domestic and foreign managers and officials” would be fought “with all the severity permitted by our laws just like when we successfully faced the emerging drug trafficking.”

Since assuming power, the campaign against corruption has uncovered millions of dollars in embezzlement and fraud in nickel, cigars, telephone services, civil aviation and food importing, with some foreign business executives and dozens of Cuban managers and officials — including a minister — ending up in jail.

Reality Check: Under President Obama the Economy Is Growing

 

From  US News & World Report

December 22, 2011

By Leslie Marshall

They say perception is reality; if that’s true then many Americans need a reality check.

Let’s take the guy who wrote a book (and I say that very lightly) about the president and how much he knows on the economy—it’s 200 blank pages. Cute. Actually, it’s stupid. Anyone who would purchase a book that is empty, regardless of who is in the White House is an idiot, especially in rough economic times. I’ve got a pad with paper and lines on it—how much do you think I could get for it?

 The guy who wrote it is from Chattanooga, Tenn. and he says in his area, there is a great “hatred” for President Obama. Hatred!?! Now please understand. I reserve the word hate for people like Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein, or Osama bin Laden (who is dead by the way at the command of the guy who is so hated). It sounds more like they “hate” his political party or maybe even his skin color.

Let’s look at the reality rather than people’s perception. True, unemployment is higher than it was when the president took office, but it fell sharply in December, from 9 percent to 8.6 percent. The economy is growing. We’re not in a recession. The stimulus added jobs to U.S. payrolls.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the stimulus added up to 3.6 million jobs by the third quarter of 2010 and up to 2.4 million jobs in the third quarter of 2011.

The Dow Jones is up more than 50 percent since the president took office and albeit slowly, the gross domestic product is consistently in an upward growth mode.

So, you might “hate” the president because you think he has ruined the economy, and things are only getting worse; but you’ d be wrong. Things are getting better, just slowly, very slowly. And remember, the tortoise did beat the hare!

Cuba’s Media and the “Spokespersons”

 

Fernando Ravsberg and I don’t always see eye to eye, often we may coincide on the subject matter but not on the way he interprets or projects certain topics. On this occasion I must admit I agree with him on almost everything save for having omitted that my father, as he well knows, does speak to the press and has been doing so ad nausea for quite some time now. Still, this piece below, is in my view an homage on a day like today, the 50^th Anniversary of the Culmination of the Literacy Campaign in Cuba, to a man who was a close dear friend of my family´s and who not only spoke to the press, he also taught them, and taught them well.  MAP

Versión en castellaño

From the HAVANA TIMES

By Fernando Ravsberg

“I’m not very interested in numbers,” is an acceptable phrase from the mouth of a poet or a painter, but when spoken by an official linked to foreign trade in the middle of a press conference, the matter becomes worrisome. Recently a Cuban politician not only refused to talk about numbers, he also failed to mention the names of the countries to which Cuba exports services. Instead, he recommended that we find that information on the TV news or from the Statistics Office. He told us: “2010 was an improvement over 2009, but in speaking of improvements we want to improve more and more and much more, because sometimes values are better, but you have to grow in value and quantity because the quantities get better values.” On relations with Japan he stated, “Sales are bought, and when I say that sales are bought, this is between two parties; the party that buys needs to buy, and the party that sells has to adapt to those consumers. But the seller is more responsible than the buyer.” Before the questions, he had read off a bunch of pages to us with the names of exported Cuban products, mainly pharmaceuticals, but he did so while keeping the secret as to how much money these bring in or where they’re sold. He ended his presentation with an elaborate metaphor: “I see Cuba as a hive where the bees: industrious and healthy are working alongside their beekeeper,” making a subtle reference to the people and the president, General Raul Castro.

Having just returned from vacation, I went to my first press conference and felt at home. This is the reality we journalists experience here on the island, and this is the type of official source that later complains that “we don’t write about the good things in Cuba.” That conference was a real shame because there was a great deal of interesting information that could have been released on the sale of Cuban services on the five continents, which has now become the main source of income for the island. In some press conferences little information is provided.

On top of that, our editors require more than a simple “things are good and will continue to improve.” It may be true but it’s impossible to publish information without data. But most importantly, readers demand more than the “faith” that can stirred by the words of a politician. This is not an attempt to crucify this man, because he’s no exception. I’d go so far as to say that even with his limitations, at least he was able to sit down in front of us. Others avoid the press, claiming unexpected trips or illnesses. Besides, a good government official doesn’t have to be a good communicator, though there are some. The greater truth is that Cuba today is dramatically sterile when it comes to taking advantage of the opportunities it has to make its voice heard to the world. Of course politicians in other countries can avail themselves of the advantage of being assisted by press offices and spokespeople who take the hit every time a blow is expected, an experience that works quite well,  even here.

For a while the Foreign Ministry had several spokes persons. The most outstanding was an experienced diplomat, Miguel Alfonso, who always filled the official information void, if only to say “no comment.” But Alfonso’s work went beyond press conferences. He maintained a close relationship with journalists. We knew him very well, just as he knew us, to the point of calling us at any hour to discuss any topic. Miguel spoke without fear; he wasn’t afraid of making mistakes and would say that spokespeople are “disposable,” not only as a result of their own mistakes but also for political strategies. I always had the impression that he was more concerned about his country than his individual position.

This isn’t about journalists and spokespeople giving each other flowers, to the contrary; never did so many sparks fly as in his press conferences, but he was able to sit down afterwards for a cup of coffee with any of the correspondents. Unfortunately for us, the UN hired him as an expert and an early death later took him away for good. Notwithstanding, he left behind a school, a way of doing things that should be emulated for the benefit of all.

Cubas Minister of Culture Speaks of Populisms and Alternative Arts

 

Alternative art...on fire???

Version en castellaño 

 

Cyberspace was heated up a couple of  weeks ago  over a particular incident involving a reggaeton song here in Cuba. Vladia Rubio took the opportunity during the closing ceremony of the International Workshop on Social Networks, to ask Abel Prieto, Cuba’s Minister of Culture and a writer and music lover in his own right about the genre, alternative arts and the arts in general, inclusiveness and elitism.  MAP

By Vladia Rubio

– To what extent should we adopt inclusive and non elitist attitudes, without risking blatant  populism, by which we end up with infamous characters with a shaky cultural foundation who later go around the world as representatives of Cuban culture? 

Abel Prieto

– I think that in topics like the one you approach, the song that’s been so criticized, the role of artistic critique is essential, so as to provide people with a strong sense of knowledge on the matter.  Because one of the biggest traps is to say ‘we’ll give people what they like’, accepting that this is a scenario that simply cannot be improved, modified; of course, wary of the cookie cut patterns. In those matters artistic critique plays an essential role, and I mean a criticism that while being specialized is accessible to young people.  We have to train that critic receiver, capable of consuming culture critically; that is one of the great priorities of any kind of cultural effort we attempt. 

– Alternative art seems to be in fashion as a concept. During this meeting on social networks a part of the debate rested on the concept that “alternative” was a trend towards subversion of power. How do you see Cuban art under  the label of alternative? 

– Cultural industries have become democratic. In the past you had to stand in line at EGREM (Cubas primary recording label)  to cut an album, or you had to present a script to ICAIC  (Cubas film institute) and wait for your turn so that they approved it and, later the possibility of a budget.  Today, you can make a movie and a CD in your home. New technologies favor forms that in the past were industrial. 

– But there are some who seek to take over the epithet of “alternative” to dig trenches in the antipodes of our social project… 

– That trap can also exist. Therefore institutions must have the flexibility, pay  enough attention, to the new creative processes that can be considered “alternative”. I don’t know  of any noteworthy artist in Cuba today   and I believe I’m very close to what’s being done in the provinces, who uses his or her art to attack the Revolution or follow a dissident path. I don’t know of a single one. 

– Los Aldeanos as a group of alternative music has been polemic and interpreted from very different points of view. 

– I believe Los Aldeanos are revolutionary people, they were in the United States and maintained  a consequent attitude towards their reality here and there.  In their work, as in the work of many of our rappers, there is a social and ethical criticism related to what we must discuss in Cuba.  What we called “alternative”, that is, what is done in terms of art outside institutions, if it’s authentic, if it’s worthy, it should have a space in our cultural politics. I believe we must always recognize that the cultural organizations around the country have  been always  on the lookout for those areas of creativeness  that are born and grow outside the institutional framework. That is, the barriers will never lay in the  contents of the works, in a given message, but rather in mercenary activities hidden behind any given art form which  receiving money from our enemies pertain to present themselves as art or alternative art. 

Cuba-Repsol Oil Operation Threatened

 

By Fernando Ravsberg

Version en castellaño aqui

 

From the HAVANA TIMES, Dec 20 —

 

The possibility of Cuba becoming an oil-producing country is worrying politicians in the US. They have therefore begun putting pressure on those firms operating in Cuban waters, particularly the Spanish corporation Repsol, which will be the first to start drilling.

 

While Washington says it’s afraid of an oil spill, Cuban-American lawmakers are complaining that oil finds could strengthen the Castro government, and US oil companies are alarmed by the idea of drilling competition 60 miles off their shores.

 

For years there was speculation that Cuban waters could possess deep underwater oil reserves and, paradoxically, the confirmation of this came from the US.

 

A study carried out in 2004 by the US Geological Service claimed that the Gulf area belonging to Cuba had oil reserves estimated at 4.6 billion barrels, in addition to 2.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas and 900 million barrels of liquid natural gas.

Cuban sources now claim there are actually five times more than what the Americans identified.

 

Cuba parceled its 112,000 square kilometers of offshore Gulf waters into 59 blocks and signed exploration contracts with various oil companies, which will take a percentage of any oil discovered or lose their investment if they fail to find exploitable deposits.

 

The investments are huge, while exploration requires working at a depth of 1,700 meters with sophisticated and expensive technology. An aggravating factor is that to avoid a legal problem with the United States, no oil rig can have more than 10 percent of its components made in the USA, according stipulations in Washington’s 50-year economic embargo against Cuba.

 

Repsol is the leading company working in the area and will start drilling early next month from its Scarabeo 9 platform, manufactured especially for Cuba taking into account the constraints imposed by the US.

 

Other companies are waiting in line to use that platform in the exploration of their own blocks. Operating costs are so high that for oil companies to invest, they must have prior evidence that they will find exploitable reserves.

 

Cuban-American representatives in the US Congress rapidly began pressuring Repsol and other oil companies. Thirty-four federal lawmakers, led by Miami Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, demanded that the project be halted.

 

They claimed that discoveries would only serve to “finance the repressive apparatus,” arguing that the Cuban government is looking for an “economic lifeline” while accusing Repsol of being a “partner ready to rescue it.”

 

Since this political offensive didn’t work, they returned to the attack by questioning the safety of the operation, given the catastrophe impact an oil spill would have on the coast of Florida.

 

In response, a group of US experts (led by William Reilly, the co-chair of the commission investigating last year’s BP spill in the Gulf) was invited to the island this past September. He was accompanied by Daniel Whittle, from the Environmental Defense Fund; and Lee Hunt, from the International Association of Drilling Contractors. The three were “optimistic,” stressing the willingness of Cuban experts to cooperate with the US and recognizing Repsol’s experience in this kind of operation.

 

Michael Bromwich, the head of the US Office of Environmental Safety, assured that “the exploration plan by Repsol-YPF is sensitive to the political and environmental issues of the US, which wants to protect the Florida coast from any oil spill while complying with the embargo against Cuba.”

 

He added that Washington is preparing licenses [to get around the blockade] so that US companies can “deploy equipment for collecting oil, dispersants, pumps and other equipment and supplies needed to minimize environmental damage in the event of a spill.”

 

As the blockade seeks to “weaken Cuba’s economy,” the discovery of reserves would neutralize that attempt.

 

Therefore, Cuban-American politicians are not giving up on their efforts. They presented a bill that would punish foreign oil firms if there were a spill.

 

Senator Bob Menendez, one of the bill’s sponsors, explained the purpose of this, saying, “Companies that want to drill in Cuban waters will have to think twice if they know they’ll be held responsible for any damage to the Florida Keys.”

 

On its website, Repsol says that it’s complying with “all technical requirements and any limitations established by the US government for oil drilling operations in Cuba.” In addition, the firm invited US experts to inspect areas outside of Cuban waters, the mobile platform, the tanker and the rig.

 

Informally, some officials on the island maintain that behind the expressed American “concerns” there hides the continued policy of economic siege.

 

Rafael Arias, the director of the Cuban oil company Cupet, stresses that these maneuvers also reveal “the extraterritoriality of the blockade, the existing prohibitions in the US Congress and the pressure and blackmail being exerted by the US government to curtail or prevent other countries or companies from doing business with Cuba.”

 

The Cuban fears are not simple paranoia. For five decades the island has suffered an embargo aimed at “weakening the economic life of Cuba,” according to documents from the US government itself.

 

These point out that the purpose is to deprive the island of “money and supplies, to reduce financial resources and real wages, to cause hunger and desperation, and to overthrow the government.”

 

Such a policy of hounding and harassment would be impossible to sustain if there were significant oil and gas reserves on the island. The economy would pick up even before the first barrel was pumped out, immediately improving the lives of Cubans.

 

A recent report by the Spanish Embassy indicated that if the survey results are positive, “The favorable consequences for Cuba would begin to be felt from that very moment and could be powerful.”