"The Logical Rotation of Leaders"

Raul Castro, in his first official speech as King Fidel's Prince Regent, might have misspoken slightly, or perhaps not considered his words carefully.

discussing the appointment of Salvador Valdes as the new head of the Cuban Worker's Committee, in place of Pedro Ross, who held the post for the past 17 years, Raul stated that the change was due to the "logical rotation of leaders."

oh really?

so if 17 years in charge leads to the logical conclusion that a particular leader should be rotated, then wouldn't 47 years be an even stronger logical argument that King Fidel and his Prince Regent need to be rotated too?

i can hear Raul answering, "we're not that logical."

Granma Comments on Alfredo Diaz, Jr.

Granma has published a brief article regarding Alfredo Diaz, Jr.'s trip back to Cuba to be with his mother. here is a complete translation:

Miami, US (EFE): A Cuban adolescent aged 14 escaped from his home in Miami last week and boarded a plane in that city's international airport to fly to Havana.

Alfredo Diaz, a student in a school in Miami-Dade (Florida), was able to fool American Airlines personnel, who require that passengers under 15 years of age be accompanied by an adult, and boarded a plane to Nassau (Bahamas).

Once in the Bahamas, Diaz probably used his Cuban passport, which he had taken from his father's safe, and took a flight to Havana.

Diaz's father expressed his disbelief to the Miami Herald that no one with American Airlines thought to ask his son why he was traveling alone. Apparently, Diaz was going through a phase of angst typical of adolescents and had come to know a Cuban girl during a visit to the island last summer.

The young man's father was irate with the negligence of the airline and stated that they would have to explain how such a thing could happen.

"Our agent reviewed the year of birth (1991) but did not check [the boy's] actual birth day," according to American Airlines spokesperson Martha Pantin's statement to EFE.

In fact, "there is no federal law that mandates that procedure, but it is an internal requirement" that minors not fly without an adult companion, stated Pantin.

Diaz's mother contacted the boy's father this past Thursday to let him know his son was with her in Cuba.

She also let him know that the boy had used his father's credit card to buy plane tickets on the Internet to Nassau for $157 and to Havana for $315.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

i believe that this acknowledgement means that the Cuban government will not treat this issue as a political question, and will allow the boy to travel back to the US if he so chooses.

i hope i am right.

14-year-old Florida Boy Flies Back to Cuba

apparently upset over his loss of computer and music privileges, a 14 year old Cuban-American boy bought a plane ticket over the Internet and traveled to Cuba via the Bahamas to live with his mother. the boy had been accused of cheating while running for class president, and his father had cancelled his computer privileges and confiscating his iPod.

See Full Story.

Alfredo Diaz, Jr. had come from Cuba to live with his father (with the boy's mother's consent) six years ago, and had visited his mother this summer.

the boy was also apparently involved in a budding relationship with a girl his age while in Cuba.

the Cuban official press has been silent on the subject thus far.

i hope that if the boy decides to come back to the US, the Cuban authorities will allow him to become reunited with his father.

Dissident Harassed and Jailed for 12 Hours

a translation from the Spanish:

Havana, Cuba, September 25, 2006
by Ahmed Rodriguez Albacia, of Youth Without Censorship

Opposition member William Cepero Garcia was subject to a number of threats this past September 15 by State Security agents. At that time, Cepero Garcia was in the process of leaving the residence of this reporter.

As Cepero Garcia walked home, an officer of the National Police detained him in Zanja street, and led him to the Seventh [Detention] Unit of the Playa municipality.

In the Detention Unit, a State Security agent identified as Machado demanded that Cepero Garcia cease his anti-government work or he would be arrested and jailed and would not see his children grow up. Cepero Garcia answered that he would continue with his work as it was not a crime to defend human rights.

Subsequently, Cepero Garcia was led to a cell and was kept there for twelve hours. Eventually, he was allowed to leave. He refused to sign a warning document offered to him by the officers present.

William Cepero Garcia is 42 years old, and is the representative for the City of Havana province of the Cuban Foundation for Human Rights (FCDH in Spanish).

UN Watch Praises UN For Efforts Documenting Human Rights Violations in Cuba

UN Watch, a non-governmental human rights watchdog organization, today issued a press release praising the UN for its work in documenting human rights violations in Cuba.

here's an excerpt from the report:

UN Watch applauds Ms. Christine Chanet, the Council expert on Cuba, for her persistent work under difficult circumstances, given the Cuban government's refusal to allow her to visit the country or to otherwise cooperate. We fully endorse her call on the Cuban government to stop prosecuting citizens, and to free those already imprisoned, for exercising their basic civil and political rights --such as the 60 pro-democracy activists still sitting in jail from the government's March 2003 crackdown. UN Watch also endorses Ms. Chanet's calls for the Castro regime to end restrictions against non-governmental organizations, to allow for dissenting views in trade unions, press, and political parties, and to lift the travel ban that prevents Cubans from leaving the island without permission.


christine chanet

UN Watch condemned the Cuban ambassador [to the UN] for resorting to personal insults against Chanet. "We will send your report to the same place as your previous reports, i.e., to the circular file," he said. "Among your many occupations, Ms. Chanet, this is not one of your honorable jobs. No one will remember your illegitimate mandate. There is a significant contribution that you might make -- by quitting." Referring to the U.S., Cuba said "we struggle for survival as a nation against the most powerful and aggressive empire in history, this fascist clique trying to destroy us."

"That Fidel Castro's Cuba, one of the world's most repressive regimes, is a member of the Human Rights Council is an outrage," said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer. "Cuba uses its Council seat not to promote human rights, but to shield itself and fellow dictatorships from criticism. For months, council delegates have been subjected to Castro-style political theater, with Havana's ambassador lambasting its political enemies, such as the U.S. and the E.U., and standing in the way of needed reforms. Cuba's refusal to cooperate with Ms. Chanet is just another example of its obstructionist policy vis-a-vis the Council."

it's worth saying it again:

That Fidel Castro's Cuba, one of the world's most repressive regimes, is a member of the Human Rights Council is an outrage.

he's got that right.

Cubaland Hassles Foreign Press

one of the stories that "got lost" during King Fidel's recent illness (my prediction: he'll be back in charge by the early part of 2007) was the harassment that the foreign press trying to cover the story was subject to.

nothing new there. Cuba harasses foreign journalists that it feels it can't control (freedom of the press? qu'est-ce que c'est?). these are some quotes from Lori Robertson's Cuba Countdown, featured in the American Journalism Review:

Valentin, Robinson and many other[] [foreign journalists] who didn't have the pleasure of sleeping in the airport [while waiting for a flight out after being expelled from Cuba] were turned away by Cuban immigration authorities, who said the visitors couldn't enter the country without journalist visas. These had turned out to be impossible to obtain quickly from the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, an office that had not responded to many phone calls or e-mails or an in-person visit by Robinson.

Some reporters did slip in. One, tipped off that journalists were being deported, stashed reportorial gear in a Cancun airport locker and walked through Cuban immigration at the same time Robinson and Valentin were pleading for entry. The New York Times' Ginger Thompson flew in from Mexico without a hitch, until she was asked to leave the country a week later and escorted to the airport. Miami Herald reporters, veterans of working in Cuba without the journalist visas they're regularly denied, were still contributing to stories in late August.

...

[After hearing the report of Castro's illness on television, Gary Marx] scrambled and wrote the story. About midnight, Marx ran downstairs to get some quotes from people on the street. A block later, he was detained by police. Marx had forgotten his press credentials. It was the fourth time he had been detained in three weeks.

"They can hold you anywhere from an hour to five hours," he says. "Fortunately I was able to call in my quotes that I already had."

...

Reporters are still expelled – or simply not allowed in – for what is deemed to be critical or unfair journalism. Reuters, which has continued to operate a bureau since the 1960s, has had people "pressured out," says Alistair Scrutton, the British company's editor for political and general news about Latin America. Three or four years ago, a Reuters stringer was publicly criticized by Fidel Castro, a sign that the stringer might not be able to stick around much longer. "We decided it was best that he leave," Scrutton says.

so, next time you read or listen to Cuba's carefully crafted and controlled press statements, remember, these guys don't like competition when it comes to their version of the truth.

heck, these guys don't like the truth at all

NPR Features Cuban Artists

National Public Radio has just featured some up-and-coming Cuban artists (still living in Cuba) in a piece titled New Island Sounds from Cuba's Young Guard

among the featured artists are Descemer Bueno (something like rap meets guaguanco), Haydee Milanes (Enya meets Yoruba chants), and Juan-Carlos Formell (pseudo jazz meets Brazilian roots -- but he's Cuban ... oh well).

none of those artists particularly impress. the packages seem designed to appeal to the American or European markets, rather than to truly move forward the state of Cuban music, and the results, while mildly interesting, fall far short of the kind of musical brew for which Cuba is rightly famous.

this is the country, after all, which produced conga, rumba, mambo, cha-cha-cha, and guaracha -- the last of which went on to become the dominant musical form of the Latin world under its export name, "salsa," the result of Cuban and Puerto Rican immigrants working in New York which then spread back into Latin America.

perhaps less known is the habanera, which eventually landed in Argentina and became the mother of tango. and that leaves out such vibrant Cuban musical styles as danzon, son, son montuno, and guaguanco.

at any rate, the above-mentioned artists miss the essence of Cuban music, which is hard to define, but which comes down to an irresistible beat (whether fast or slow), powerful melodies, and layered and nuanced lyrics. even older artists working with ballads and slow compositions never forgot those basic elements, and thus you end up with awesome pieces that deviate from the Cuban norm but somehow embrace it, such as Silvio Rodriguez's Ojala and Pablo Milanes's Yo Pisare Las Calles Nuevamente. (yeah, they're commies ... but they're talented commies).

of the above groups, no one seems to have caught the fire. they do try, and they go through their motions, but the whole is never greater than the sum of the parts.

one group does command attention. they are called Habana Abierta (Open Havana), and they sing of social taboos such as drug use and (one wonders if the censors have been on the job lately) emigration, the relationships between emigrants and those left behind, and the hopes of the Cuban people in general. they have just recently released their second album, Boomerang; their first album 24 Hours, was released in 1999.


habana abierta

and did i mention their music rocks? they manage to look back to Cuba's classical rhythms and melodies, and yet streamline them and, dare i say it, modernize them, in such a fashion that they do create something new. their song-writing is still not there 100% (even 7 years after their first release), but if this is signs of things to come, this is one group I'll be keeping my eyes on.

this song Asere Que Vola? (street slang for "What's happening, my friend?") really promises much from these guys. i hope their song-writing improves and the censors don't notice them any time soon.

Branding Cuba

i read a somewhat puzzling article from South Africa's MarketingWeb, where the author discusses Cuba's marketing strategy.

it's a flawed article, as it does not seem to recognize that Cuba sells two products -- hard currency earners (such as cigars, vacations, nickel, and sugar) to foreigners and the idea that there is no alternative to King Fidel's regime to local Cubans.

and they do a good job at both. despite the U.S. embargo, Cuba's economy is growing, and hard currency is pouring in through tourism and remittances from Cubans abroad (mostly in Miami -- a bit of an irony there, i'm sure).

let's talk about the internal hard sell first. says the author:

It is a rare advertising- and commercial-free zone, with stores filled with generic products and services that strive only to be on a par with "competitors". Advertisements for beer and soap are non-existent. The triumphant system has replaced the dominant capitalist competition with its promotion of citizens’ revolutionary education and an ethical emulation among enterprises.

ah, but he misses the point. there's advertisements in Cuba everywhere you look. from every available space, slogans cry out "DO MORE FOR THE REVOLUTION" or "FIDEL, WE'RE BEHIND YOU ALL THE WAY," and a gizzillion other ads telling people how they feel, how they must feel, the only way to feel: support for the regime.

what is being advertised is the regime -- and at the same time it advertises itself, it makes its presence felt everywhere, and it tells you how to behave, how to be, who to be, and what to think.

it's also, in a way, like gang colors or tagging buldings. the Revolution "tags" every block, every open space. it marks it with a slogan, saying "this is my turf; you are in my turf." every day, Cubans are reminded that they are in the government's turf the minute they walk outside. and when you are in someone else's turf, you tend to tread cautiously.

brilliant.

there's a nice collection of recent Cuban billboards here, and here's a couple of the best examples:


fatherland or death
we shall be victorious



cuba: against terrorism and against war
(but terrorism and war against your own people is ok)


we are on the right path ("we are going well," literally)
(yeah... that's why the last time you could afford a car was 1958)


here's a particularly loaded billboard. it "advertises" the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR):



the text reads, "in every neighborhood, the revolution," and it shows the logo of the CDR (a man wielding a machete behind a shield painted in the colors of the Cuban flag). that's quite literal, you see. every block has a CDR representative whose job it is to report on suspicious activities, people who don't belong, who's spending money freely (where did they get it?), you name it. they are civilian snoops who keep tabs on everybody else.

this billboard celebrates them, and at the same time reminds everyone (as though they needed a reminder) that the revolution is everywhere, watching. and if you step out of line, the man comes and takes you away.

alright, let's talk about the foreign hard sell now. says the author:

As a result, its local brands (Romeo y Jiulietta, Cohiba, Corona, Havana Club and even Castro), riding on the wave of the national unity and culture, have become strong, if not luxury brands internationally, based on the sensory idea of what Cuba represents. Even Bacardi, which abandoned the Cuban ship decades ago, still rides on its origins in Cuba.

clearly, Cubans living in Cubaland can't afford fancy cigars, or even Bacardi's equivalent, Havana Club. you need hard currency to buy those. what dollars Cubans get from abroad or earn from tourists, must be converted to the new Cuban peso (the convertible currency), and most of that goes to food and other basic necessities.

no no no.... those brands are aimed at foreigners who will buy them either at home or when they come to visit Cuba. and that branding pretty much takes care of itself. Cuban cigars had been world-famous since before the 1959 revolution, and even years of neglect during the early part of the revolution (before Castro realized what a gold mine cigars were) couldn't kill the world's appetite for Cuban cigars.

the writer goes on:

Amazingly, this communist country that has vilified capitalism and consumerism for decades has managed to:

maintain a single message,
promulgated by senior management consistently,
bought up and lived by all the citizens,
without stripping away creativity and imagination,
been bundled into an alluring brand essence,
and disseminated through sensory cues that cover touch, taste, smell, sight and sound.


well, not if you ask your average Cuban in the street. yes, the message is mind numbingly single-minded (there is no choice other than the revolution), and yes, it is promulgated by everybody in power all the time, along with all state-owned media (and there's no other kind in Cuba), and the innumerable billboards and slogans everywhere.

but "bought up and lived by all the citizens?" hardly. there's no choice, pal. the alternatives are jail, winning the US visa lottery, getting in a raft and daring the Gulf Stream, or playing along. a few dissidents speak up and go to jail; many young people opt for the lottery or the raft (last year, Cuba's population grew by less than 3,000 total people, and emigration played a large role in that). but most Cubans have little choice (family or age ties them to Cuba), and so they must go on, as best as they can, complying with the wishes of the regime.

it's an easy sell because it's aimed at a captive audience. from time to time (such as during the Mariel Boat Lift and the Balseros mass migration of the late 1990's) the cracks open up and the people vote with their feet. most of the time, they just make time.

which is probably why Castro insists on a single-party government (he wrote it into the Constitution). no choice for Cubans, my friend. they get the hard sell on the one and single government they get. and if they don't buy it, the CDR is watching, patiently, and waiting.

Chavez is Castro's True Heir

Raul Castro is his brother's heir within Cuba. but that seems to matter little. Cuba is a small country with a non-existent economy and very little real power in the world.

enter Venezuela's (oil rich) President Hugo Chavez. for a long time Fidel's student, Chavez is now stepping up to the role of Anti-American Knight In Shining Armor.


hugo looking huge ... a bit plump
for a champion of the hungry?


just this week, he launched a direct attack on President Bush, something even Iran's president did not do while at the UN:

"Yesterday, the devil came here," Chavez said, referring to Bush's address before the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday. "Right here. Right here. And it smells of sulfur still today, this table that I am now standing in front of."

He then made the sign of the cross, brought his hands together as if praying and looked up at the ceiling.

Lest anyone wasn't listening, Chavez continued:

"Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, from this rostrum, the president of the United States, the gentleman to whom I refer as the devil, came here, talking as if he owned the world. Truly. As the owner of the world," Chavez said.

See Full Story

This, of course, must be understood in the context of Venezuela's campaign to become a member of the UN's Security Council (the US, of course, has openly opposed it). This has become Chavez' first real test of head-to-head lobbying against the U.S., and in so doing, he has taken up the mantle that Fidel wore for so many years.

this will, at the very least, be interesting to watch.

From the Ground Up, Cuba Is Crumbling

from an LA Times story:

[Cuban] homes are also in a sad state, with at least 500 buildings in the capital collapsing each year, by the government's own count. Their utilities are decrepit too: Water and power distribution systems are corroded patchworks predating the 1959 revolution, and olfactory evidence of the state of the sewer system wafts throughout the city.

Cuba is falling apart -- literally.

Even as its economy booms thanks to a thriving tourism industry, brisk nickel exports and cheap oil from ideologically aligned Venezuela, the social benefits are difficult to see at street level. Except for a few high-profile historical restoration projects such as the Art Deco buildings of Old Havana, the country's structural decay seems to worsen with each month.

"It's not a question of repairing anymore. Everything needs to be rebuilt," says Julio, a construction worker who spends more time as an unlicensed cabdriver than on state building sites. "There is no material and no money to buy it, so nothing has been maintained."


buildings crumble under their own
weight in Havana


welcome to the desert of the real ...

some layers here:

no one can take care of a building like its owner (no one can take care of ANYTHING like its owner). do away with private property, and you do away with the incentive to take care of property ... heck, it's not property any more, it's just stuff you use that doesn't belong to you.

when the government says it's going to take care of the people, it can't do it. it can't be everywhere at once; it can't get the resources to where they are needed. it does things arbitrarily, or myopically, by the book. at best, it solves some of the problems some of the time. at worst (as in Cuba) it solves nothing all the time.

without a market system, without supply and demand, consumers can't get what they want. building materials and building services should be in extremely high demand in Cuba. in a market economy, that need would be met (cause you can make a buck). in a controlled economy such as Cuba, no one steps in to take up the slack when the government fails to do so (as it will fail, sooner rather than later)

why are things falling apart in Cuba? because the Cuban government made a promise that it would take care of things. it couldn't keep that promise. rather than let others (private enterprise) step in and fill the demand, it makes such things illegal (so that it can keep the monopoly on services, keep the people looking to it for solutions, rather than to themselves and the market).

welcome to the desert of the real, Cubaland style

While Non-Aligned Leaders Pontificate, Cuban Repression Continues

it's fine and good to pay lip service to equality and human rights, but to do so while violating those very same ideals at home is cynical hypocrisy.

while Cuba gets the NAM to badmouth the US for its "interference" in Cuban internal affairs (such as, perhaps, Cuba's nasty little political prisoner problem?), Cuba has no problems interfering in the lives of its citizens that the government does not deem deserving.

here are excerpts from one such story while the NAM meeting was going on, translated from Spanish:


Havana, Cuba, September 14, 2006
by Roberto Santana Rodriquez.

State Security kept dissidents Julio Antonio Valdes Guevara, his wife Cruz Delia Aguilar, his sister and another friend from visiting the Cobre Church, where they were going to pay homage to the Virgin of Charity, Patroness of Cuba.

Their car was stopped en route to the church, and Vales and his relatives were arrested and taken away in a patrol car. Valdes is an ex-political prisoner, one of 75 currently on parole for his delicate state of health.

A peaceful rally was held that night by dissidents at the local church to demand the freedom of political prisoners and the people of Cuba. A heavy security contingent was present.


alas ... Raul Castro rails against the US "bullying" poor Cuba, but thinks nothing of having his security forces bully elderly, sick, unarmed, and peaceful dissidents.

and the NAM leaders will surely condemn the US embargo against Cuba, but I haven't seen anybody speak up against the political repression inside Cuba.

oh well. we all know life isn't fair.

Oswaldo Paya Sardinas Calls for Release of all Political Prisoners

in a message directed at the delegates of the Non-Aligned summit now being held in Havana, Oswaldo Paya Sardinas, leader of the Christian Liberation Movement, and winner of the Sakharov Price for Freedom of Thought, calls for the release of all political prisoners in Cuba.


oswaldo paya


the following are excerpts from his statement, published by the Miami Herald:

The nations that belong to the Non-Aligned Movement, now at their summit here in Cuba, have proclaimed that the most important mission for this event is the defense of the international rule of law; the right to peace, sovereignty and self-determination of peoples; and the recognition of the right of every nation to provide to its own economic, social and political system. Also a priority is the necessity of a new international economic order.

But these aspirations cannot be disconnected from the aspiration and the right that the citizens of the world have to be free beings whose rights are respected in their native countries.

Yet in Cuba, host for this summit that proclaims these noble goals, peaceful citizens remain imprisoned for defending human rights and advocating changes so that all citizens may enjoy political, social, economic and civil rights.

How can the goals of respecting the right of nations to sovereignty and to choose their own political, social and economic systems be achieved if the citizens of some countries cannot freely express themselves, elect their own government, travel, enjoy all human rights, or if they cannot democratically change the political or economic system because the system has been declared irrevocable?

There is no legitimacy for a nation that does not embrace all of its citizens without exclusions. It is not valid, either, to pit a nation's right to self-determination and sovereignty against the fundamental rights of the peoples and individuals. On the contrary, those rights are inseparable. A nation cannot honestly aspire toward some rights without aspiring toward others.

We are asking the honorable Secretary of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, and all delegates attending this summit, to advocate for the liberation of all nonviolent Cuban political prisoners -- at this event, at the U.N. General Assembly and U.N. Human Rights Council. Requesting the Cuban government to comply with this act of justice contributes to reconciliation and peace among Cubans and to the international peace and justice that the Non-Aligned Movement proclaims.

In the "OooooooooK" Column

his KO days perhaps in jeopardy, ESPN reports that Thai boxing chiefs have sent Olympic boxing champion Manus Boonjumong to Cuba in an almost penniless state to try to wean him off of his extravagant Bangkok lifestyle in time for the Asian Games. Apparently he's been spending his time and money on booze, girls, and gambling.


boonjumong in happier days


Boonjumong must shed 15.4 pounds in the next month and has been sent to Cuba without any money to stop him going out at night.

hmmmmm......

he'll fit right in

Non-Aligned Movement Nations Called to Task on Human Rights

Nobel Peace Price nominee Elizardo Sanchez, the President of the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN in Spanish), has pointed out in a statement that several dozen governments that are full members of the Non-Aligned Movement are among the worst and most fanatical civil and political rights violators in the world.

He listed North Korea, Myanmar, Cuba, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Zimbabwe as among the worst violators, noting that human rights are not a real and effective priority of the Non-Aligned Movement. See Full Story.


Nobel Peace Price nominee Elizardo Sanchez

The CCDHRN is technically illegal in Cuba (it is considered a political party by the government, and under the Cuban Constitution, the only legal party is the Communist Party). Its officers and members are routinely harassed by security forces.

Hi, I'm Barb Wood ... I'm a Curious Artist

Barb Wood calls herself a "curious artist." no kidding. beware of anyone who calls him or herself a "curious artist." it's like going around saying, "Hi, I'm a curious genius." if you are, i'll notice, but chances are you aren't.

(can you imagine Georgia O'Keeffe going around calling herself a "curious artist?")

anyway...

so this Barb Wood, Curious Artist, goes to Cuba and writes about it for Canada's The Gazette.

but before she can tell us about Cuba, she has to, you know, tell us she's an artist:

so off we went, my patient husband, Don, my well-travelled son Roger and I, the curious artist who can't take the sun ...

alright ... so what did her artist sensibilities reveal to her about Cuba?

well, first, she realizes it's hard for a tourist to buy stuff:

Do not assume you can just pick up things in Cuba. Often you can't, or they are very hard to get, or outdated.

so far so good. so does the Curious Artist stop to wonder why things are very hard to get or outdated in Cuba? nope ... on to the next thing.

We enjoyed using the lovely pool, chatting up other guests and our first walk along the perfect beach. The white sand is like fine powder, the currents are friendly, and there were life guards, along with security people.

"along with security people." does the Curious Artist wonder what the security people's job is, exactly?

well, to keep Cubans out of the resorts, of course, lest they pester the tourists with local-made items for sale or propositions of marriage (one of the few safe ways out of Cubaland). on we go to the next revelation:

We had been told that the only TV would be Castro's nightly speech but were amused to receive CNN in several languages.

no, Barb. tourists get CNN. Cubans get their satellite dishes confiscated so they HAVE to watch Fidel (no choice, comrade).

then, i get to this line:

Varadero is fun, but not Cuba, it is restful, predictable, quiet and mostly tourists. Havana is Cuba.

and I'm thinking, alright! Barb the Curious Artist has got it figured out! maybe she IS curious after all. so what does she do next? where does she go? does she head out to talk to the people waiting for visas outside the US Interest Section? alas ...

We immediately booked into the famous floor show at the Caberet Parisienne. About $50 a head and one of the best memories. We were all jammed into a small colourful club. Our fellow travellers were from Israel, Chile, Angola, Sicily. The floor show was truly spectacular -- colourful costumes, incredible contortions by dancers. Beautiful multi-ethnic faces. Voices. History. Colour.

no security guards needed there, Barb ... the $50 cover charge takes care of keeping the locals out, who earn on average less than $5.00 per month (five bucks. per month).

anyway, after doing the usual tourist stuff, Barb the Curious Artist concludes:

We backtracked to the wonderful Monserate Bar, with the best music yet. In my next life, I will be Latino.

alas, Barb, not of Cuban extraction, since you clearly have no clue, despite your curious artist nature, of what the life of a real Cuban is like.

Much Vaunted Health System Continues to Crumble

Cuba's once much touted health system (supported by billions in Soviet aid) has long been a shadow of its former self, and it continues to crumble now that the Soviet funds have long dried up.

from a story in Spanish, from the center of Cuba:

Ranchuelo, Cuba, September 11, 2006
by Fleix Reyes Gutierrez, Cubanancan Press

Patients can not be diagonsed in clinics and hospitals of the province of Cienfuegos due to broken medical equipment and lack of personnel.

Approximately 20 persons suffering from neurological ailments were turned away from the Ranchelo municipal clinic this past September 6. They were told the diagnostic equipment was inoperative...

A few patients in critical condition had to be transferred to hospitals [in other cities].


i have previously described the acute shortage of doctors in Cuba.

as the Conference of Non-Aligned Nations meets in Havana, Cuban officials are sure to brag about their advances in, among other things, the health of the Cuban people.

of course, when the Cuban people themselves are allowed to speak, the story they tell is a different one, isn't it?

Cubaland's Population is Shrinking

excerpts from an interesting article from inside Cuba, originally in Spanish:


HAVANA, Cuba - September, 2006 (www.cubanet.org)

The continued negative trend of Cuba's population growth has taken a dramatic step, according to the 2005 census results published by the National Statistics Office (ONE in Spanish). At the end of 2005, only a 2,545 person growth was reported. That is an annual growth rate of 0.2 per 1000 inhabitants.

The greatest factor for the low growth rate is the low birth rate (10.7 per 1,000 inhabitants). This birth rate is 66% lower than during the 1960's. This trend can be explained by lack of minimum housing conditions, low salaries, difficulty in obtaining proper nutrition and basic care for infants, and a continued emigration flow amongst young people...

Another significant statistic is deaths by suicide, with an index of 18.8 suicides per 100,000 inhabitants [from 1971 to 2004]...


first, that suicide rate. Cuba is the ONLY country in the Western Hemisphere to have a suicide rate greater than 13 suicides per 100,000 inhabitants (2002 figures), according to the World Health Organization. Second, the Cuban government knows it has an embarrassment on its hands, so it has been under-reporting or simply not reporting deaths by suicide either internally or to international agencies (people simply don't kill themselves at this rate in a worker's paradise, comrade). Bottom line is, you can be sure the real suicide rate is a lot higher than this.

at any rate, let's see if i get this straight. Cubans don't want to have babies because they can barely take care of themselves and know they won't be able to take care of babies; the younger people continue to leave the country whenever possible, and Cubans are killing themselves at a rate greater than any other country in the region (heck, the whole Western hemisphere).

don't Cubans love King Fidel? don't they want to hang around his tropical socialist paradise? aren't they happy with what the Revolution has given them for the past 47 years?

if the census figures provide an answer, that answer is a resounding "No."

Cubaland Boycotts Ahnold

in a cheap attempt to cash in on Ahnold's latest gaffe, Cubaland officially condemns whatever it was he said that pissed off Cubans and Puerto Ricans.


ahnold's big sword

it had something to do with both being a mix of Latin and black blood and having very hot personalities.

hmmmm....

last time i checked, both Cubans and Puerto Ricans WERE a mix of Spanish and African blood ... and ... our tempers ... well, Swedes we ain't

oh, never mind.

down with Ahnold

Castrating the Castro Brothers

or:

is Raul Castro gay?

(in the words of Seinfeld, not that there's anything wrong with that)

since the coming to power of the Castro Brothers (not quite as funny as the Marx Brothers, and with far less pedigree), rumour has it that Little Brother Raul is gay. is there any truth to the rumours? lately, the rumour has been given new airing, such as in this rather well-done piece.




rumours of raul castro's homosexuality
probably began as a result of his
boyish looks and somewhat effeminate
deportment. note his inability to grow
a full beard (he's never had one).


is there any truth to the rumor?

first, a bit of history on the Great Cuban Sexual Paradox. first, Cuba is a typical (and stereotypical) macho society. men are men's men. men don't cry. men don't eat quiche (or much of anything else, given the shortages and rationing).

on the other hand, there is a known practice where Cuban men engage in homosexual sex with gay men, but do no think of themselves as gay. there is even a word for this type of men (it's not a polite word, but here it is: "bugarrones"). Bugarrones are manly man, and not gay ... they just have sex with gay men.

i kid you not.

(the word "bugarron" should sound familiar. it likely comes from the English "buggerer." how it ended up in Cuba's lexicon is a mystery, but a good guess is through the hired Jamaican sugar cane cutters that brought their slang to Cuba in colonial days. "Buggerer" became "buggeron" which became "buggaron" which became "bugarron." i am guessing, however.)

anyway, on the subject at hand, Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas (himself gay) stated (and I paraphrase), that Cuban gay men don't want to sleep with other gay men. They want real men. And real men they get. Enter the bugarron. These are men who claim they are not attracted to other men, but will have sex with them simply to relieve their sexual tension ... at any rate, that seems to be their story (and they stick to it).

being gay in Cuba is bad. not macho at all. in the early days of the revolution, lots of gays found themselves in labor camps where the macho Rebels swore they would make men out of them (through working them half to death). it's not so bad now, but it's still not nearly as accepted as it is in the US.

being a bugarron, while not exactly ok, means that at least you're not gay. it's not so much something you tell others about you ("Hi, I'm Raul the Bugarron"), but more something you tell yourself ("Yeah, I have sex with other men, but I'm not gay, I'm just a bugarron.")

the construct of the bugarron sounds like a fictitious category (the gay who is not gay) that allows macho men to be gay and still be macho.

oy vey.

anyway... so is Raul Castro either gay or a bugarron, in Cuban parlance? rumours have been around for years that he is.

i don't think the rumours are true. a concurrent rumour had it that Big Brother Fidel had been castrated by Batista's forces during his imprisonment and torture. this rumour persists to this day even though King Fidel has fathered at least four children since -- oh, ok ... it COULD be an enormous (no pun intended) cover up.

these types of rumours, in my view, are not so much about the truth but about wishful thinking on the part of an oppressed people. having no way to defy the authority of the authority figures, they use rumours to emasculate the patriarchs (note how both rumours involve questioning the manhood and virility of the Castro Brothers).

i have other more tangible reasons to believe Prince Regent Raul is not gay.

first, after 47 years in power, NOT ONE JILTED LOVER, NOT ONE DISATISFIED PARTNER of Raul's has come forward despite the hundred of thousands of Cubans who have fled Cuba. one would think the odds are slim that no one who has had a gay relationship with Raul has not had a chance to come forward to tell their story in all this time.

second, many since-exiled Cuban observers, including Carlos Franqui, have written about the sex lives of the Rebel leaders during the early days of the Revolution. none of them documented any homosexual hanky-panky on Raul's behalf. any of them would have loved to break that story, as it were.

so, you heard it here in Cubaland first. Prince Regent Raul is not gay. though Cuban sexual culture is, to say the least, bizarre.

Granma Lies

... big surprise there, right?

well, my heart was warmed by an article in Granma detailing what the Cuban population in the United States is (average age, education levels, income, etc.), taken from the American Community Survey.

After rattling off a number of statistics, which I did not check, the article comes around to its main point, it's raison d'etre, as it were:

Por ultimo, significativamente, la Encuesta del Buro del Censo demuestra que en el 2004 el 56% de los cubanos apoyaban un dialogo entre Estados Unidos y el Gobierno cubano para resolver las conflictos existentes entre ambos paises. Un claro rechazo a la intransigente y desnaturalizada postura de la extrema derecha cubano americana.

Finally, and of significance, the Census Bureau's Survey shows that in 2004, 56% of Cubans supported a dialogue between the United States and the Cuban government to solve the conflicts that exist between both countries. This is a clear rejection of the intransigent and denaturalized position of the Cuban-American extreme right.

ok ... well... the Survey didn't ask nothing about how people felt about the relations between Cuba and the U.S. you check for yourself. look up the site and see if you can find any questions relating to foreign policy, towards Cuba or otherwise.

in other words, Granma just made up some figure, or more likely, borrowed the figure from some other source but attributed it to the more prestigious Survey.

oy vey...

and what the heck does "desnaturalizada" ("denaturalized") mean anyway? what is a denaturalized position? a position against nature? a position in spite of nature? I guess it means a position contrary to their nature as Cubans. well ... Cuba is not the Cuban government, and to hate the Cuban government is not to hate Cuba.

and, by the way, even assuming the figures are correct, one must object to Granma's characterization of 56% as a repudiation of anything. that means that 44% agree, a sizable minority.

King Fidel's Own Blog

well, not really ... he has a whole newspaper that prints whatever he wants to print. and so King Fidel prints his note to the people of Cuba, along with pictures of himself looking quite the old Conquistador that he is by blood. even after losing quite a lot of weight, he looks better than your average Cuban in the streets, who has precious little to eat.


king fidel

at any rate, this past September 4, the message was that King Fidel was getting better, in control, and working his illusions.

because, ultimately, his "note" to the Cuban people is a work of illusion. self-illusion, perhaps (in that he thinks the people of Cuba actually love him), but one doubts it.

no, it's rather just plain illusion, trying to convince the people of Cuba that they DO IN FACT love him and care about him getting better rather than dying. a double illusion, perhaps: trying also to convince the world that the people of Cuba care for him.

it's an interesting note, which I reproduce in full. the original in Spanish, as published by the party-mouthpiece Granma can be found here. The original text is in italics; my comments are underneath.


Dear countrymen:

In recent days, certain filmed images and various photos were published, and these pleased our people very much.

Note he doesn't mention whose images and photos. He could only be talking about himself. Likewise, the people of Cuba can only be thinking of him at this time. Conceit? Hubris? Wishful thinking? Subtle conditioning that, in fact, they must not be thinking of anyone else?

King Fidel then says that the images pleased "our" people very much. Very nice slip into the royal "we." One wonders, again, whether the people are being told that the images pleased them, whether this is the reality or not. In other words, officially, the people were pleased.
That's all that counts in Cubaland.


Some thought, with reason, that I was a bit thin, but that was the only unfavorable element. I am very glad that they had perceived it thus. This allows me to send you certain recent photos, and at the same time, inform you than in a few days I lost 41 pounds.

That last sentence is bound to become an icon of grim Cuban popular humor. "How does Fidel lose 41 lbs? He gets gastric surgery. How does the average Cuban lose 41 lbs? He picks up his ration book and tries to find food in the stores." Or something like that ...

Again, the message: you care that I am thin. This is important to you, trying to feed yourselves and your wives and husbands and children and parents ... but put aside your own malnutrition ... I was a bit thin, but it wasn't that bad.

Note his shift from third person ("some thought") to second person ("send you certain recent photos"). Now King Fidel is speaking to each and every Cuban that reads the note: I am sending YOU recent photos. I care about YOU. Therefore, you should care about ME.


I add that only recently my last suture was taken out, after 34 days of convalescence.

Like the Cuban people really care. Oh wait... the point is that this stuff is supposed to be what they care about. They are being told that this is important; this is what they should concern ourselves with. This is the tone they should adopt, a hushed, caring tone: "Fidel was convalescent for 34 days. Then they took the last suture out."

Not for one day, not even the most difficult ones since July 26, did i stop trying to ease the adverse political consequences of such an unexpected health problem.

Ah, yes... a reference to the anniversary of Fidel's suicidal attack against the second-largest army garrison in Cuba, on July 26, 1953. These are the good old days. These are the days Fidel wants the people to remember: when he was a revolutionary in his 30's, not a dictator in his 80's.

Also of note: he calls his health problem "unexpected." In other words, he implies it's not a long-running illness, not something he has dealt with for quite a while. No, it's unexpected.
He does not elaborate, but the implication is that this is a passing problem, an unexpected illness from which one recovers, not cancer or something of that nature. Note he doesn't say that. He just implies it.


The result [of my efforts] is that, for my tranquility, I made advances on several important issues. I can tell you that as to the book One Hundred Hours with Fidel, by [Ignacio] Ramonet. for which I was revising in detail each of my responses on the days in which I became ill, is practically finished, and soon it will be published, as I promised.

Oh solipsism. Nothing exists outside King Fidel's ego. From his sick bed, King Fidel assures his captive audience that his illness has but little delayed the publication of a book ..... about King Fidel. I am sure the publication date of that book is what every Cuban wants to know about. Of course, it isn't, so they must be told that it is.


Despite [my efforts] I did not fail to comply strictly with my duties as a disciplined patient. I can affirm that the most critical moment is over. I am recovering with a satisfactory rhythm. In the next few days I will receive distinguished visitors; that does not mean that each activity will be accompanied by film or photographs, though news of each such activity will be offered.

King Fidel the soldier: he carries out his duties; he has a duty to heal; even in his illness he serves the Cuban people by carrying out his duties to heal. This is both another reminder of his glory days as a soldier and an imposition of their own duty on the Cuban people, which is to follow their leader who is trying so hard to recover the better to lead them.

We all should understand that it is not convenient to offer systematic updates regarding, nor to provide images of, my health. We all should understand equally, with realism, that the time for a complete recovery, whether we want to or not, will be prolonged. At this moment, I am not in a hurry, and no one should be in a hurry. The country marches well and moves forward.
Today, the school year began, with more students and hopes than in any other moment in our country. What a wonderful accomplishment!

King Fidel looks to the future. He wraps himself in the school uniforms of Cuban boys and girls. He proclaims that the country marches well and moves forward (who in their right mind would say this of Cuba, whose per-capita caloric intake is lower than it was in 1959?)

And of course, he asks for patience from the Cuban people. As if they had a choice. This is all illusion ... illusion .... "I beg your patience, I who have ruled you for 47 years without elections."
It's farce of the lowest order.

Only a detail is left: to ask each honest countryman, who constitute the immense majority of the people, not to blame anyone for the discretion that, in the name of the security of our country and our Revolution, I have asked from everyone.

Infinite thanks.

so .... if you want more information, you're not honest. that's always been King Fidel's way, "With the Revolution, everything. Against the Revolution, nothing." To disagree with him is to be on the wrong side. To want different things than he wants is to be "dishonest," an enemy. And everyone in Cuba knows what happens to King Fidel's enemies.

And he has the gall to say "Infinite thanks."

You want to thank the Cuban people, Fidel? Resign all your posts effective immediately and open free elections to be held in one year. Invite the UN to supervise the elections.

Let the people speak for themselves and stop putting words in their mouths.

A Hard Habit To Break

lured by the high prices of sugar lately (about 19 cents per pound earlier this year, as opposed to 5 to 7 cents per pound in the early 2000's) Cubaland decided to get back into the sugar business earlier this year.

this after Cubaland dismantled most of its mills and demobilized the huge work force needed for the labor-intensive sugar crop a few years back, convinced it could never make sugar pay off (can we say, "Ooops"?).

earlier this year, the drive to rebuild got started. back then, prices were 19 cents per pound of sugar. since then, they have fallen further, to 13 cents per pound.

nevertheless, as recently as last week, the sugar minister (an old army general and associate of Raul Castro) vowed to increase sugar production by at least 25 percent this year and to triple production to 3 million tons in the next few years (damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead, right?)

wow ... three million tons of sugar per year. sounds like a lot, doesn't it?

not if you consider than in 1958, the Cuban sugar harvest was 5.8 million tons. and that was with a guerilla war on.

so much for progress.

Jailed Journalist is Brutally Beaten

translated from the story in Spanish published by Young People Without Censorship, inside Cuba:

HAVANA, Cuba - September 1, 2006, by Ahmed Rodriguez Albacia

Prisoner of conscience and independent journalist Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta was savagely beaten this past August 29 by prison guards when he demanded he be allowed to make a phone call, a request that had been denied several times previously.

Without warning, Herrera was beaten by guards Maikel Zuniga la O and Nelson Domenech, who, kicked Herrera brutally, beat his hands, caused a swollen eye and bruises all over his body, and then dragged him away through the prison hallways.

Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta was charged with acting as an independent journalist and is serving a 20-year prison term in the maximum security prison Kilo 8, in Camaguey province.



herrera acosta with his wife
ileana d. hardy in happier times

Long Day's Descent Into Night

former Cuban political prisoner Jorge Valls, in his book Twenty Years and Forty Days:

Night was no time for rest. On the contrary, that was when the horrors began. At nine or so the executions would start.... Although we couldn't see the shootings from my galley, we could hear even the slightest sound. The still of the night and the echo of the pit made them even more pronounced.


Ramon Vidal Fuentes, interviewed by the Palm Beach Post:

I must have heard more than 700 or 800 executions during those years. Prison in the 1960s was a very, very difficult thing. Beatings. Killings. Torture. The things I've seen... It still hurts.


Jorge Valls and Vidal Fuentes are but two of many:

Among the executed there have been children, pregnant women, nuns, priests. It is a tremendously diverse population: blacks and whites, old and young, gay and straight, white collar and blue collar, liberals and conservatives.

Their stories take on a new dimension as the world awaits news of an ailing Castro and the transition of power in Cuba.

These witnesses tell stories of being kept in shuttered cells and drawerlike quarters, of being forced into labor camps for being homosexual, of watching their loved ones die at sea when Cuban gunboats attacked them.

In any other place and time, they might have had little in common. In revolutionary Cuba, they are united by one overriding condition: They beg to differ with Castro.

Raul Castro Goes A-Saber Rattling

in what appears to be his first official "comments" printed by party hack newspaper Granma, Raul Castro has vowed to prepare his Armed Forces for a U.S. invasion.

yeah ... listen, Raul, if the U.S. really did invade Cuba, it would all be over in two weeks, ok? let's drop the pretense.

all the mobilizations going on is about internal dissent. using the excuse of a U.S. invasion, the Cuban armed forces make a show of force directed at ... the people of Cuba, the one foe Raul Castro's boys in uniform can take on and beat easily.

as for the readiness of the Cuban Army:

Cuba's troop strength is believed to be somewhere between 50,000 and 60,000, according to the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London and others.

The Revolutionary Army (Ejercito Revolucionario) is comprised primarily of armor and artillery units that military analysts note lack significant training and are not capable of mounting effective operations above the battalion level.

As for the country's militia, it remains a part-time force that is equipped with light arms issued only for specific occasions. Analysts at Globalsecurity.org in Alexandria, Virginia, note that the militia is not "capable of sustained combat" though they are "effective for controlling or coercing the general public," echoing Latell's sentiments.

The country’s navy is said to be comprised of nearly two dozen ships in the Osa-I and II and Komar class, with a range of 800 nautical miles and armed with Styx missiles that have a range of 18 miles (28.8 kilometers) and carry a 1,100 lb warhead. Cuba is believed to have three submarines once capable of operating within the Caribbean basin, though are thought to be inoperable now.

As for its air force, the country is said to have less than two dozen operational MiG fighter jets and little in the way of fighter pilot training, leaving the country particularly vulnerable to air assaults.

See Full Story

ah, yes ... the myth that it is Cuba's military that is keeping the U.S. from invading goes on.

but you have to hand it to them, the Castros know how to milk an issue: they unite the people behind a feared U.S. invasion; use the same excuse to show the people they better not mess with the Army; and further use the same excuse to clamp down on dissidents as "enemy agents" in a time of impending attack.

beautiful.

Navajo Nation Signs Trade Deal With Cuba

from the article Navajos, Cuba, Negotiate Trade Agreement

Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. praised Tsosie Lewis for entering into the agreement, and described it as a trade agreement between two sovereign nations. ''We are a sovereign nation and we need to do everything we can to get back on our feet,'' Shirley said, expressing appreciation for the new source of trade.

During the New Mexico Agriculture Trade Mission to Cuba in August, NAPI signed a letter of intent with Alimport, Cuba's state food purchasing agency, to sell yellow corn, wheat, apples, onions, pinto beans and other farm products.

If finalized, the cash-only trade agreement could bring millions of dollars to the Navajo Nation, due to exceptions to the U.S. trade embargo of Cuba. Under provisions of the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000, Alimport is allowed to negotiate the purchase of agriculture products directly from U.S. suppliers on a cash-only basis paid in advance by Cuba.

Since passage of the act in 2000, 35 states have entered into agreements to sell American products to Cuba, resulting in incoming revenues of about $1.8 billion


selling to Cuba is ok, one guesses ... but buying from Cuba, or more precisely, spending tourist dollars there, is not ...

nevertheless, this was a step in the right direction by the Clinton Administration, which the Bush administration did not follow (instead, it chose to tighten the economic sanctions against Cuba).

Change Without King Fidel?

since

the chances of change in Cuba while King Fidel is alive are zero, nil, none, zip;

it would follow that

the chances of change in Cuba after King Fidel is gone for good have got to be better than that.

it is well known that King Fidel allows change only to the extent necessary, and only to the extent that they can be controlled. for example, during the crisis period following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of subsidies to Cuba, King Fidel allowed enough economic (i.e. capitalist) activity to keep the country going. as soon as the new economy (based on tourism and remittances from abroad) became sufficiently strong, King Fidel reigned back all the promising economic change.

back to square one.

while King Fidel is alive, no meaningful change can come to Cuba.

after King Fidel dies, there is an opportunity for change. Cuban dissidents certainly feel that way. their hopes are somewhat reinforced after Raul's comments that he supports normalization of relations with the US (so long as the US stops interfering in how Cuba is governed).

Raul Castro was instrumental in the economic reforms later swept back by King Fidel. his armed forces run 60% of the tourism industry in Cuba, the backbone of the new economy. he has long admired the Chinese model of a mixed communist-capitalist system.

another promising sign is that Carlos Lage, a long-time Fidel protege and member of the elite few in Cuba who have access to Fidel, has been featured more and more in the news, signaling he is stepping up in his assumed duties.


carlos lage

why is that significant? Lage helped create other limited reforms that helped Cuba survive economic crisis after the Soviet Union collapsed — allowing trade in U.S. dollars and foreign investment, spinning off state farms into cooperatives and legalizing hundreds of small private businesses. certainly, Lage is no stranger to reforms.

if, as more and more observers seem to be realizing (I covered this very theme a while back), the death of Fidel will result in "reformists" coming to power (within the context of communist Cuba), things can only be heading for a change, and in Cuba, that can only mean good things.

that change, we predict, will result in a more open economy, which will result in more political freedoms, slowly but surely.

and after Raul is gone (he is 75, after all, has a bad heart and is rumored to be a heavy drinker), the even younger generation will come to power. those younger men and women (mostly men, despite Cuba's talk about the equality of women) would have been groomed to manage, and would have gone on to manage, the tourism industry, Cuba's cash cow, and as a result will be familiar with the principles of a market economy.

it's not much of a stretch to believe that they will push for more, not less, economic autonomy.