Protect Your Own, Steal From Others
At night he watches over the rows planted with malanga and the flock of lambs, with a short homemade shotgun. It is the work of an improvised gunsmith who welded a small diameter piece of pipe to a rustic chamber, with an irregular hammer sticking out. The sound of the ingenious device is enough, in the early hours of the morning, to send running anyone who tries to steal the harvest. When the sow gives birth, he calls his brother who lives in the village, and with this contrivance, created by necessity, they keep watch until sunrise.
Many farmers use illegal weapons that have been purchased or produced in an alternative way. Without them, the fruit of months of labor could end up in the hands of the “predators†of grain, elusive shadows who move in the darkness. Poverty has increased the stealing in the Cuban countryside and forced the villagers to safeguard their own resources. Hence the proliferation of aggressive dogs and manufactured shotguns, particularly on farms where there are cows. The pound of beef that sells for two convertible pesos in the black market feeds the thefts and illegal slaughter, despite the lengthy prison sentences that these crimes entail.
For the guardians of their own property, an official announcement has come as a surprise: …â€in exceptional circumstances and only once (…) people native to and residing legally on the island, and who have in their control unlicensed firearms, will be able to obtain the required registration.†There exists, however, the tacit conviction that whomever publicly admits such possession, will find the response to be confiscation. Given this fear, few will confess to keeping the cold metal anywhere in their house, preferring the risk of not having papers to the insecurity of being left without protection. To our alarm, these rustic instruments also serve those who have neither farms nor animals to protect, lying in wait on the other side of the fence, inclined to shoot to take what belongs to others.
Marzo 3rd, 2010 at 23:02
Les mando una nota de un periodico Americano Todavia no he podido ver ni oir a nadie que hable del tema
19/08/2009 GMT 1
Son cubanos mayorÃa de presos muertos en EEUU bajo custodia de Inmigración, dice hoy The New York Times
polillabaez @ 19:47
ArtÃculo original de The New York Times: Officials Say Detainee Fatalities Were Missed
El Servicio de Inmigración (ICE) la llama “la lista de la muerteâ€. Incluye los nombres de 104 detenidos que han fallecido en las cárceles de Inmigración desde octubre de 2003. La mayorÃa de los que han muerto en la custodia de Inmigración son cubanos.
El New York Times reportó hoy que más del 10 por ciento de los fallecidos en custodia de inmigración durante los últimos seis años no aparecen en la lista oficial de difuntos que Inmigración le entregó al Congreso en marzo de este año.
LISTA OFICIAL DE DETENIDOS FALLECIDOS, ENTREGADA AL CONGRESO
El rotativo informa que la admnistración Obama añadió los nombres de 10 vÃctimas a la lista, más una persona que falleció el viernes pasado.
Durante el año pasado, más de 407 000 personas pasaron tiempo detenidos bajo la custodia de Inmigración, entidad que ha estado renuente a divulgar información especÃfica sobre el trato de los presos y los nombres de los que han fallecido en estas cárceles.
“El sistema carcelario de Inmigración es un sistema fallidoâ€, dijo a Cubadebate vÃa telefónica el abogado de Inmigración José Pertierra, desde Washington. “Es muy difÃcil obtener información sobre los presos y tenemos que recurrir al lento y engorroso trámite de la Ley de Libre Información (Freedom of Information Act) para destapar los secretos detrás de las paredes carcelariasâ€, añadió.
El Jefe del Departamento de Inmigración y Aduanas, John Morton, anunció el sábado que sus oficinas deben divulgar la información de los fallecidos. Sin embargo, muchas de las prisiones donde están los inmigrantes e indocumentados pertenecen a compañÃas privadas, con sus propias reglas. Algunas no aparecen en los listados de prisiones de inmigración, confirmó The New York Times.
“Las cárceles deberÃan ser del Estado, y no de los empresariosâ€, dijo Pertierra. “Es la única manera de asegurarnos que los carcelarios rindan cuentas por el tratamiento que le dan a los presosâ€, concluyó. “La meta debiese ser la justicia y20no la gananciaâ€, concluyó el abogado, especialista en temas migratorios.
El rotativo no explica la razón por la cual la mayorÃa de los que aparecen en la lista de la muerte son cubanos
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Marzo 2nd, 2010 at 16:12
Honestly I think it’s sad how people have to own firearms with out a permit to protect their own land.
Everything happens for a reason,this reason we may not know yet but sooner or later we will find out.
Don’t lose any hope. Life will get better no matter what you are/may be going through.
Febrero 25th, 2010 at 21:05
#yep something you clearly excel at FatAlbert.
Febrero 18th, 2010 at 01:53
if one doesn’t resort to gun’s & steel bars,then one is left defenseless,if one does, they become part of that image that confirms to you the country is in its worst of times.To give up these arms & pursue peace is out of the question for many,including those here;we must protect ourselves,or die & suffer,it is as if we have no choice… it really makes me wonder where we’re heading as human beings,& as nations
______________________________________________________________________________________
HELP HAITI!
http://cnn.com/impact
-_-
Febrero 15th, 2010 at 05:04
juan:
where are your answers boy?
Still waiting for your “intelligent debate”
Febrero 14th, 2010 at 06:40
“I am very serious about my statements if within a month the Cuban government does not give us any signal of change we will proceed to request legislators here to take punitive action on exports to Cuba from the USâ€
Ah so it was just hot air! Why am I not surprised.
Febrero 12th, 2010 at 06:44
Juan:
I have been around long enough to “see” when a discusion is started for the betterment of all & when a discusion is started just to prove who is right & who is wrong.
Lets be constructive, lets agree to disagree to start with.
The idea of nitpicking at every single little item to prove a point … come on …
is that how you solve problems in “your” land? in your life? … pick pick pick?
Before we talk about the way people looks & eats … lets talk about “your” perception of the Cuban economy & infrastructure.
There are only 5 or 6 countries who are considered your trading partners, these countries have a limited liability consideration towards the regimes financial responsalbilities.
The infraestructure in “your” country is in disrepair, actual decay … but nithing is been done …
The potholes have names, the transportaion for the commun people is terrible …
Now, are (just a few) these things related?
Is the state of just a few of these things a consecuence of 50 years of mismanagement? who’s fault is it?
I presume the people of Cuba, the people that surrounds you, the ones you live with everyday are the lazi ones, the traitors; very few of you are there to do the right thing for the revolution, for your companeros …
Now if is not the people’s fault … it must be someone elses fault …
Try & use the old escuse, the 50 year old one … it is the US fault …
How long are you going to play the same old song?
Every country that wishes can “do” busines with “your” Cuba … if they expect not to get paid their debt, if they expect to be nickle & dimed for every transaction.
What happened with your trade pacts with Uruguay & Argentina? what is going to happen to Spain & the accumulated debt that today’s regime has reneged on?
Your EU partners have economic problems of their own & a partner that does not hold its promises …
“Your” Cuba is not entitled to a free ride … I didn’t see that clause in any treaty … do you get me boy?
Febrero 12th, 2010 at 00:26
Simba, in regards to your question in #40, I am no expert, but in my trips to Cuba the last two summers, I’d have to agree with Andy (41). Yes, you do see heavy people in Cuba. I think that’s because their diet is very starchy - bread and lots of root vegetables. They have very little protein - meat, eggs, cheese and milk are rare, at least for the rural folks in the west. I’m not a dietitian, but I guess there’s a fair amount of protein in the beans. But, again, it’s not a balanced diet.
And, FWIW, from one summer to the next, several friends of mine had noticeably lost weight, because even the food they’re “entitled” to with their ration system wasn’t always available.
Then there are the parasites in their water, from the hurricanes of ‘08, which flooded and contaminated their systems. But that’s another topic…
Febrero 11th, 2010 at 21:58
unlike the regime. Senators and congressman and even president do listen to what people tell them here. Because we elect them.
The difference with Cuba is that the Cuban government is not elected by the people.
Febrero 11th, 2010 at 21:55
Juan changes in this country do not happen in a day or a month. It takes time and effort to gather people and signatures. The process is already started if you must know. We will see what happen.
Febrero 11th, 2010 at 20:36
Still waiting a response to this??!! You made such a song and dance about what you were going to do. More hot air?
AS for my post #53. Why don’t you respond to what I actually said. ANYONE who actually lives/travels in Cuba would testify that homelessness is a very small problem. Once again you write many words but squirm away from the original posts which paint Cuba in a dishonest way.
juan
Febrero 9th, 2010 at 20:57
Hey Julio de la Yncera could you please report on the Cuban governmnet’s response to your powerful threat of 10 January 2010?
Remember your words “I am very serious about my statements if within a month the Cuban government does not give us any signal of change we will proceed to request legislators here to take punitive action on exports to Cuba from the US†and as you say repeated several times?
So a rapid change to Cuban monetary policy occurred? I must have missed it please post one of your usual useful links to where the news of this cave was announced.
What is next - I am sure that US legislators are similarly quaking in their boots at the prospect of a ‘request’ from you. je je je je!
BTW is the foto above of your house in the USA??
Febrero 11th, 2010 at 19:43
Juan you go ahead and write something positive. I have written positive before. Like the quick decision of the regime to allow Americans to fly over Cuba. Like sending doctors to Haiti, like the education I got.
So…
are you saying there is no homelessness in Cuba?
Juan you sure have some good filtering eye glasses that color everything rosy when it comes to Cuba for you.
I am sorry but I see reality. I saw how the regime was selling chocolate for example and candy made by Cubans in dollars when I visited. That was outrageous because not only they are pay very low salaries they are later asked to pay hight prices for the same things they produce!
Would you not think such a system is similar to slavery?
Again would you agree with me that at least recognizing problems is a first step to solve them?
If we hide them. Then there is no need to solve them.
But the problems in Cuba are so visible that can not be hidden anymore. They are in plain view to everyone that wants to see them.
Yes I do want the best for Cuba. Why do we have to be happy with only what they have?
I want them to have what I have.
Freedom to speak their mind at any time without fear of government persecution.
Freedom to be as critical as they want about the government and not been afraid of loosing their job or their education.
Freedom to travel in and out of Cuba at any time.
Freedom for like minded individuals to joint to get elected and to find solutions to problems of Cuba.
You see I want the best and I am certain that the regime is not the best for Cuba.
The problems they have can be solve. But I do not see the desire on the part of the regime to change the status quo. Why change what has kept them in power for 50 years?
It seems to me is got nothing to do even with ideology. If you ask me.
I do care for Cuba and I will love to see Cuba be a prosperous country where citizens have the health care and the education but also all the freedoms I was talking about.
Febrero 11th, 2010 at 18:28
Juilo still awaiting a response to #10.
Interesting how you people slide when confronted with facts.
One minute starvation, homelessness, lack of clothing are real issues then it is well perhaps that is not true but we should be striving for perfection.Who would argue with that.You people never write anything positive. If you did it might give some credence to your criticisms.
Febrero 11th, 2010 at 16:46
I heard about this blog and its owner on CBC radio in Canada. It makes me very sad that access to the internet is so restricted in Cuba. I visited your country twice in the 1970’s (the era in which you were born–the Y generation) and while there were restrictions I was so impressed by the superior health and education opportunities given Cuban children as compared to those in Mexico. Now, it seems, the restrictions on the internet to average Cubans mean that educational opportunities are severely and intentionally restricted by the same government I had admired for its strength in opposing American hegemony. I encourage you to continue trying to open up this blockade to information so that your youth can move into the 21st century armed with the information that can help them survive–and thrive.
Febrero 11th, 2010 at 12:36
Juan where are you?
am I wrong for wanting the best for Cuba?
Febrero 11th, 2010 at 11:41
Is there any time frame to archive this results?
Are we expecting to have this problem solve in 2 3 years or 5 or 50 years more?
Do you understand my point?
Is got nothing to do with ideology
Is got to do with inefficient government unable to provide solutions that solve problems.
And that one is just one of many many problems that Cubans have.
I could go on with the inability to buy or sell homes in Cuba. Why?
Why is the government unable to provide materials for repair and construction?
I could place a long long list of why but your answer is (Cuba does better than the basket cases!!)
No Juan you can not measure Cuba against the worst of the worst. You have to measure Cuba against the best.
Because we want and expect the best from Cuba.
To give you an analogy
Assume you have a child and he comes home and tells you he fail in some class.
You go on and tell him that he needs to solve that problem and study more but then he gets defensive and tells you that there were two other students that fail and got less points that he did.
Don’t you think that is exactly what you are doing?
Do you understand me?
Febrero 11th, 2010 at 11:33
When I visited notice the lack of nourishment on children. Children did not appear to have the normal size for their age. Those are the problems the government should acknowledge and solve. And tell the Cuban people what are the efforts done on each of them. How are they planning to solve them.
Tell me Juan.
Do you know what the Cuban regime is doing to provide milk to children older than 7?
Do you know when will they give milk to adults? What are the solutions?
Who is pursuing them? Why the lack of transparency where the citizens know so little about what the regime is doing to solve problems?
Is it even trying to solve them?
Febrero 11th, 2010 at 11:28
Juan
one other thing
“Anyone who travels widely in non first-world countries would aknowledge that the poorest in Cuba are well fed/clothed/housed/educated compared with the poorest in central/south america/SEasia/africa etc etc etc”
Cuba can do better than comparing itself to the worse countries. Cuba needs to compare itself to the best not to the worst. That is the standard if Cuba wants progress if it wants to advance.
The fact that are countries worst performing than Cuba in no way will justify the Cuban regime inability to provide sufficient nourishments for children.
Milk only until 7?
Why
Why can they not provide milk for all ? Why are they unable to do so?
Let us focus on the problem not the ideology.
How about letting the farmers set the price and sell the milk and cheese they produce and sell in the black market but this time totally legally. Or even better providing incentive for them to do so.
I think the problem will be solve in a few years if something like that is done.
Febrero 11th, 2010 at 11:06
MIAMI HERALD: DEMOCRACY IN CUBA-Europe might take another step back
Posted on Thursday, 02.11.10
“Until June 30, Spain holds the presidency of the European Union. Madrid has always taken the lead on Cuba, and so it has been since the Socialists won the 2004 election. Under José Luis RodrÃguez Zapatero, Spain prodded the EU to lift sanctions imposed after the Black Spring of 2003. By March 2009, the EU had normalized relations with Havana.
After the Popular Party eked out the Socialists in 1996, Spain moved the EU to adopt the Common Position, laying out the objective of encouraging Cuba to launch a democratic transition, respect human rights and open the economy while rejecting “coercive measures.”
Instead, the CP offers Havana incentives to mend its ways. Now Madrid hopes to persuade the EU to eliminate or dilute the Common Position.
Europeans may be Venus to the American Mars, but democracy and human rights lie at Europe’s core. The EU takes the Universal Declarations literally: Human rights are ours no matter what our politics.
Rescinding the Common Position won’t be easy. All EU members must agree to it, and there’s resistance from Germany, Great Britain, Sweden and the Czech Republic. Last November German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Zapatero that the CP’s fate was entirely in Cuba’s hands. It’d be lifted only if Havana showed meaningful progress.”
http://www.miamiherald.com/opi.....73825.html
Febrero 11th, 2010 at 10:16
Juan
This serial poster is grateful for your infrequent posts. Why don’t you further educate Simba and the rest of us whith your “non political” views. Please tell us why the people in Cuba should be grateful for their sub-standard of living that puts them just above the Haitis and Angolas of the world. By-the-way, what does Batista have to do with the castastrophic economic, political and social condtitions in todays Cuba?Non-political statement, that’s cute. I haven’t seen a single person in this blog or any other forum I’ve participated in describe the Batista era as “utopian”. That statement amounts to cheap, recycled political sloganeering.
Febrero 11th, 2010 at 10:12
Juan
I take issue with your statements.
“These same people NEVER post anything positive about contemporary Cuba. Of course life under Batista was Utopian.”
You do not have to visit a country to know.
I know because I still have family and friends there. I was even born after Batista so the little I know about his regime I know thru my parents.
One thing I can tell you for sure is that Cuba was much much worst in 1998 than in 1989 the year I left.
I know many that have visited recently and I always ask them how are things over there and the stories I listen to of corruption etc plus all the reading I do about Cuba and I can tell you the picture is not pretty.
Let me ask you this. Would it not be wise to recognize that things are bad even worse ?
Why do you try to hide the regime’s inability to govern? what is your vested interest? I am sure you are not on the side of those many poor people in Cuba that do not have a roof on their heads or that do not have food to eat other than the ground soy beans and maybe some rice.
It is not a problem of attacking its a problem of recognizing and inefficient government unable to do its duties. Their duty as a government is not to export communism to other places. Their duty as a government is not to export doctors to other places etc etc. The last one is commendable but at what cost?
How much does it cost to have that school of medicine in Cuba providing free education to Latin Americans? Obviously Cuba can not afford it.
Yes I have been 20 years out of Cuba and have not visited in more than 10 and will not do so. Because as I explained before I found extremely repulsive the way the Castro regime enslave Cubans. With the miserable salaries that are equivalent to slavery.
10 to 20 dollars a month!
Even for a doctor!
So is socialism a more or less exploitative society than capitalism?
Who keeps all the surplus produce by the 11 million.
I have explained before that the per capita in Cuba should be around 400 dollars a month not 20 dollars a month. So the difference is to pay for all the so call “free” things like education and healths.
So as you can see the revolution, the regime have been telling lies in all these 50 years. We are the ones paying for those “free” things. And the regime have been mismanaging all our productive surpluses. Think how much is 20 dollars as a percentage of 400?
The regime needs 380 dollars to pay and this is until the end of one’s life!
Horrible!
We can place better governments that will be focus on solving problems and dealing with them. Instead of what Cuba has now.
A regime that is on denial and defensive about problems.
To solve a problem you need to acknowledge it first. Then listen to many solutions and pick the most efficient one.
This is what the regime never do. Because their solutions are always color with ideology.
Ideology for them is convenient since it guaranties that they will keep power and will stay in power even against the will of the people of Cuba.
Febrero 11th, 2010 at 09:50
… and los negros en Cuba …
The regime can’t accept the equality of its citizens, it would be a contradiction to their philosophy of value been the equalizer of a society.
Yet I never gave this monster credit for their sophistication of thought.
None, the argentinian butcher included had an original idea about their leftist ideas.
They only parroted half read lines & plagiarized the rest to serve their “tunneled’ vision purposes.
Just remeber the aregentinian butcher’s position about all central american & caribbean people, their way of expressing themselves, so uneductaed, so “low class” … this from the enlightened one, the brains for the revolution …
But the castros, from awell to do family … well educated ideologs … they the cubans of the outfit never considered their racism because they never felt it themselves & where they came from it was a matter of life.
So the problem they don’t see … does not exist.
Febrero 11th, 2010 at 09:37
Poverty is a matter of perception, what “looks” poor to some, acustomed to their views from where they are may not be poverty some place else.
Nevertheless poverty is poverty, specially when individual freedoms are curtailed or repressed.
In the course of my life I have visited & lived in a number of countries, from the “dust” hut from africa to the adobe homes in some southamerican countries to the tin houses in the fabelas of Brasil, to the bayous of Louisiana …
Most people has a tv, a satelite dish & a vehicle as well as a cell phone … yet they are poor by someone’s standards.
Its all in the perception …
What I noticed (not that I am claiming to be an expert) the “happiness” of the poeple is related to their freedom to move, think & express themselves.
Having the “right” & freedom to complain about their problems, having the right to pick up & go to search for a better future if they so choose … than makes a difference to them.
Perhaps this helps someone or nobody … but at least needs to be mentioned … to be considered since not all poverties are meassured & defined by political stands, intelectual definitions or the imagination of any self serving reality
Febrero 11th, 2010 at 06:48
Simba you have to realise that most of the serial posters here have not been to Cuba for many years if at all. These same people NEVER post anything positive about contemporary Cuba. Of course life under Batista was utopian.
Anyone who travels widely in non first-world countries would aknowledge that the poorest in Cuba are well fed/clothed/housed/educated compared with the poorest in central/south america/SEasia/africa etc etc etc
That is not a political statement although the serial posters will see it as such.
Febrero 11th, 2010 at 03:06
Regarding whether people in Cuba have enough to eat. It appears to me (from the time I spent there and from videos and photos) that most people manage to take in enough calories.
The questions then are: Is it a balanced diet with enough NUTRIENTS. At least one person I talked to in Cuba said they had permanent health problems because of vitamin deficiencies they’d suffered in the 90s after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
And the other question that comes to mind is: Why would a regime that wants people to be more “productive” design a system that requires them to spend SO MUCH TIME every day arranging to eat. Going to the bakery first thing for the daily bread… checking what’s available at the ration stores, buying this that and the other thing on the black market, seeing what has come in at the agro markets.
I do not go to big box stores and stock up my refrigerator and shelves, I barely even go to chain supermarkets. I probably have enough “balanced” food in my house for at most 3 days at a time. But I can walk out, cross the street to the neighborhood market, get what I want knowing whatever it is will be there in abundance, and be home again in a few minutes. It’s not rare for me to go twice a day. It takes almost no time and no thought.
I can’t imagine what it would do to my quality of life to spend so much time every day thinking about how to get food… and “resolving” it so I can eat.
Febrero 11th, 2010 at 02:02
Hank # 28 I’m old enough to remember when the Castro brothers overthrew Batista in 1959. In fact I was in the United States military at the time. I was yet in the military, in Florida, when missiles were discovered in Cuba in 1962 and the Cuban Missile Crisis came about. From mid 1963 through the end of 1966 I was stationed at Guantanamo Bay. It was during this time that Fidel cut off the water supply to the base apparently in hopes the United States would abandon the base. The United States is still there. I’m no authority on the country, but I do understand fairly well the political situation in Cuba. My only question dealt with the fact that the Cuban citizens in the photographs appear rather well-fed, while at the same time Yoani and others detail how difficult it is to obtain a proper diet. They also appear to be decently well-dressed. Do only the well-dressed go out on the streets? The ladies in white I understand are all relatives of those being held in prison for political reasons. It might seem the government stooges would make it difficult for them, but like most others they also seem amply fed, and certainly are not dressed in rags as one might expect. I’m not stupid, nor do I think anyone making comments here is, but I merely asked if anyone could explain the seeming differences.
Febrero 11th, 2010 at 00:05
Yubano,
Holding them responsible is exactly what must be done. Let’s see to it. I especially want to go after the prison guards and the CDR members. They were all “just following orders.” That excuse doesn’t fly.
Febrero 10th, 2010 at 23:15
Hank
I absolutely agree, no need to beat this dead horse any longer. Discussing this topic again makes me feel I like I just tried reconciling the check book for the nth time and the numbers still don’t add up. I don’t understand your logic but respect your opinion.
As far as the unfortunate Mr. Tamayo and all the other political prisoners past and present that have suffered under the criminal actions of this regime are concerned the least we can do is to make sure that those responsible are some day held accountable to the fullest extent.
Febrero 10th, 2010 at 22:31
This is how upside-down our world has become — thanks to fidel and raul, the progenitors of death and expropriation. Long live the revolution.
A mother stands vigil tonight over her own son’s unnatural death.
Thanks fidel. Thanks raul.
She is watching him melt away.
Thanks fidel. Thanks raul.
She will not see him in her old age.
Thanks fidel. Thanks raul.
She will not see him at her bed when she is sick.
Thanks fidel. Thanks raul.
Orlando Zapata Tamayo
Thanks fidel. Thanks raul.
Take this with you to your graves — thanks fidel and raul.
Febrero 10th, 2010 at 20:43
UNIVISION (Noticias Mundo)-”No soy racista, pero…”: Cuba desnuda sus prejuicios contra los negros
“Medio siglo después de que la revolución de Fidel Castro dio el racismo por superado, los cubanos comenzaron a debatir en público la discriminación que solapadamente persiste contra los negros, sobre quienes pesan prejuicios que los vincula con bronca, vagancia, delito, sexo y ron.
“No soy racista, pero no quiero que mi hija tenga un novio negro. ¡Qué va!. Cuando llegó a señorita, le dije: ‘yo me casé con tu papá para adelantar, no para atrasar’”, expresó a la AFP Celia, una ex docente mulata de 52 años.
Un “racismo de peros” prevalece en la Cuba mestiza, antigua colonia española y destino de cientos de miles de esclavos africanos, según los expertos que abordaron recientemente el problema, por primera vez en la televisión local.
“Si pasan 20 negros, la policÃa le pide el carné de identidad a 18. Si pasan 20 blancos, se lo piden a dos”, dice Yeimà Mora, ama de casa de 35 años, al ilustrar la situación cuando caminaba por una céntrica calle con un amigo, de contrastante blancura.
Daniel Casanova, un mulato delgado de 29 años que trabaja en una cafeterÃa, y Carmen León, una rubia española de 41 con quien paseaba de la mano por La Habana, se quejan de que la policÃa los pare en la calle “por ser pareja blanca-negro”.
“Le piden a él los documentos y nos preguntan cuánto años llevamos de conocernos o si estamos casados. Además en una esquina y a la siguiente, y asà cinco veces. Pero en mi paÃs serÃa peor”, dice Carmen, que trabaja en España en un laboratorio y está de novia a la distancia desde have un año.
Daniel asiente y agrega: “Por el problema económico aquà todo el mundo roba, pero le echan la culpa a los negros. Tengo amistades bastante racistas que me dicen: a ti porque te conozco, pero sino…”.
En el argot cubano, de quien tiene una relación amorosa con un negro se dice que tiene “una mancha en el expediente” o “quema petróleo”. A Olga, lingüista de 50 años, ni siquiera le pasa por la mente. “A los negros no los veo como sexo opuesto”, afirma a la AFP.
“Es un racismo de baja intensidad, más diferencialista que excluyente, difuso”, explicó Pablo RodrÃguez, del Instituto de AntropologÃa de Cuba; mientras el etnólogo Miguel Barnet, presidente de la Unión de Escritores y Artistas, anotó que son prejuicios que están “en el subconsciente y para eliminarlos hay que educar”.
Have unas semanas un documento firmado por personalidades de Estados Unidos acusó al gobierno de Raúl Castro de acosar a los negros, lo cual Cuba rechazó.
Según académicos cubanos, al triunfar la revolución de 1959 eliminó el racismo institucional con leyes y polÃticas de igualdad -como educación-. El problema se dio por resuelto e inició un largo silencio sobre el tema para evitar la división nacional frente al conflicto con Estados Unidos.
Pero en la crisis en que cayó Cuba en los 90 al desaparecer el bloque soviético, quedó en evidencia la marginación de la población negra, golpeada con mayor rigor.
Bienvenido Contreras, cochero desde have 10 años, lo sufrió: “Por ser negro no califiqué para trabajar en un hotel de Varadero”, principal polo turÃstico de la isla.
“Tenemos que agarrar el toro por los cuernos y debatir el tema. SerÃa tonto imaginar que a pesar de los 50 años de revolución no existen estereotipos raciales, discriminación o racismo”, opinó Esteban Morales, politólogo de la Universidad de La Habana y tenaz defensor de los derechos de su sangre africana.
Con una canasta de flores artificiales, batón azul, aretes grandes y moño amarillo, Anita Montero, una negra pizpireta de 37 años que distrae a los turistas en La Habana Vieja, lamenta que “apenas” comienza a verse “un poquito más a los negros en ciertos trabajos importantes y en la dirección polÃtica”.
Según Morales, más del 60% de los 11,2 millones de cubanos son negros y mulatos, pero en el censo el 65% se declara blanco. Los expertos destacan que el peso de la raÃz africana es innegable en la Cuba pluricultural, muchas de cuyas glorias del deporte y la música son negros.”
http://www.univision.com/conte.....0730.shtml
Febrero 10th, 2010 at 20:30
THIS MAKES DEALING WITH THE DMV LOOK LIKE A CRUIZE TO THE BAHAMAS!
WASHINGTON POST: In Cuba, license plates tag drivers, not the car
By WILL WEISSERTThe Associated Press
Wednesday, February 10, 2010; 3:34 PM
HAVANA — It’s Cuba’s twist on “you are what you drive”: Here, you are your license plate.
A rainbow of colors and an alphabet soup of codes tell the discerning eye how important you are in the egalitarian revolution as you whiz by - your nationality, what you do for a living and often how high you rank at work.
“The kind of car you drive says something,” says Norberto Leon, a retiree who collects pocket change for watching parked cars. “The license plate, it says more.”
Cuba’s painstaking color-coding of license plates - a system copied from the former Soviet Union - is one way authorities have kept tabs on people and their vehicles for decades.
The government owns most cars. They have blue plates with letters and numbers that indicate when and where the vehicle can operate and whether the driver can use it for personal as well as professional reasons.
Inspectors wait along highways out of town and other high-traffic areas, stopping official cars to check their route sheets and to make sure they aren’t being used for a jaunt to the beach.
Executives at government-run firms - who get caramel-colored plates - have more leeway. But even they may only be allowed to use their cars to get to and from work.
“It’s a form of control,” said Weichel Guera, a National Office of Statistics chauffeur who is assigned a government sedan that he can use only to ferry top officials during business hours. He and his Lada spend most of their time parked outside the statistics building.”
“In Cuba, the first letter in the license plate indicates which of 14 provinces the car hails from, such as “H” for Havana. The letter “K” means the car is privately owned - either by a person or by a foreign firm.
Military vehicles have mint-green, rear-only plates; olive-green plates are for vehicles issued by the Ministry of the Interior, including Fidel Castro’s fleet of armored Mercedes 280s, which were built between 1982 and 1984.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....02626.html
Febrero 10th, 2010 at 20:14
I just heard that Orlando Zapato Tamayo’s mother is going to be interviewed tonight on WJAN in Miama at 8:00 pm on Amano Limpia. I don’t know if it is true, just wanted to pass this along.
Febrero 10th, 2010 at 20:12
WASHINGTON POST: Cuba sharply reduces US food imports amid hardship
By PAUL HAVENThe Associated Press
Wednesday, February 10, 2010; 4:31 PM
HAVANA — “Cuba has slashed food and agriculture imports from the United States - its largest food supplier despite decades of sour relations - as the communist government tightens its belt in the face of a crippling economic malaise.
Imports fell 26 percent in 2009 to $528 million, after peaking at $710 million the year before, according to a report Wednesday by the New York-based U.S.-Cuba Economic Trade Council, which provides nonpartisan commercial and economic information about the island and claims to have no position on policy.
“The decrease has nothing to do with U.S. regulations, U.S. law or U.S. policy,” said John Kavulich, a senior policy analyst at the council. “It is a function of Cuba not having the resources.”
Kavulich said Cuba has increasingly turned to other countries like Vietnam that will sell it lower-quality food and not ask for payment for as long as two years.
Despite the half-century feud across the Straits of Florida, the United States is the largest seller of food to Cuba: Food and agriculture products have been exempted from the 48-year embargo since 2000.
Cuba waited more than a year after that to start importing U.S. food - angered by a provision requiring it to pay cash upfront before delivery.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....02843.html
Febrero 10th, 2010 at 19:46
Yubano,
Friend, I did not re-open the can of worms. You asked me a question and I answered it:
Question: “How would you go about doing this? What ’situation’ could outsiders possibly create to bring attention to Cuba in the proper context?”
Answer: “In my opinion, the way to do “it†is to lift the embargo immediately and also lift the travel restrictions. Unilaterally, right now.”
You have my answer. We can go around and around endlessly with your credit questions and doubts about injecting the regime with tourist dollars. I am not going to do it anymore.
Where does that leave us when Orlando Zapata Tamayo dies? It leaves us at disgusting, pathetic and ineffectual Square One. Another person dead for absolutely NO REASON. This is insanity.
Febrero 10th, 2010 at 18:22
Simba,
I take your question at face value. It is an honest and good one. Thank you for asking it.
Most of the contributors to this comment section attempt, I think, to illuminate some of the issues you raise. I’ll try to address a few of these with examples that I know about.
Imagine a place where there are neighborhood watch organizations called Committees for the Defense of the Revolution or “CDRs” for short. These are not the Neighborhood Watch Groups that are common in the US. No — the CDRs track your every move and document who you are from the time you are born until the time you die. The people who are members of the CDRs have tangible power over your life from day one.
They take their jobs very seriously. They can determine whether you get a job or where your children go to school. Their decisions are not merit-based, but ideology-based. They have the power to denounce you as a counterrevolutionary if they don’t agree with the way that you think. This can land you in jail. Being labeled a counterrevoluntinary in Cuba is bad, because in Cuba, you are either with the revolution or you are against it. There is no middle ground. No grey area, just black and white.
And if there is nothing definitive which you might be accused of, you can still be accused of something called “dangerousness.†If you have read George Orwell’s book, “1984†you’ll understand how utterly oppressive this is. You will see the phrase “Orwellian†mentioned here frequently. That term is a reference to his book, “1984.â€
Imagine also a place from which you may not voluntarily exit without a permit. You cannot leave to visit other places because the so-called government says you can’t. And this so-called government does not have to give you any explanation if it chooses to deny you your exit permit. You can’t take a cab to the airport and get on a plane. You simply can’t, even though you may have the means to do so.
At the other extreme, suppose you grow a tomato — a beautiful red tomato that ripens on the vine. You decide, instead of eating that tomato, you want to sell it because you would prefer to buy something else, like a screw driver, or a wrench. You can’t sell your tomato because you will go to jail for engaging in “unauthorized economic activity.” Why? because the tomato doesn’t belong to you in the first place! Neither do the fish in the sea or anything else. You live in a society in which you own nothing. How absurd is that?
Here’s more. If you have some extra space in what your regard as “your” home and you want to rent it out — you can’t. Likewise, you can’t buy cement to repair damage to “your” house after a hurricane, because you will go to jail. For a very long time.
And what about that so-called government? The island of Cuba has been run by a single man for close to 50 years. Now his younger brother is running the place. Does that seem to you like a healthy thing? To be perfectly blunt, I think that the people in Cuba and those coming from that place are completely dysfunctional, through no fault of their own. It is the fault of the criminal regime they have been subjected to for 50 long years. That is my experience.
Lastly, there is the issue of the political prisoners in Cuba, who are also known as prisoners of conscience. They languish away in jails for the simple fact that they disagree with the megalomaniacal ruler of the Island. He puts people away for decades in jails without access to clean water, sunlight or food so that he can silence them. That’s how he stays in power.
Simba, you tell me, isn’t that the definition of evil?
I could go on and on and on, Simba. I like the fact that you are asking questions, I take them at face value. If you have more, please ask and I am sure people here will do their level best to answer them.
Febrero 10th, 2010 at 17:50
Simba
You are welcome, it is always a pleasure to acknowledge enlightened comments.
Febrero 10th, 2010 at 17:47
Hank
You are right, we have been over this before. You chose to open that can of worms up again and I will have to throw my two cents in for the uninitiated. In my opinion, the embargo cannot be lifted unilaterally it is not possible politically or practically no matter how much you and others continue to push for it. I may be wrong but I believe most people on our side of the Cuba issue see regime change as the only solution for Cuba. So my question to you and others who may agree with you is, how does giving financial credit to the castros, establishing commerce with them, injecting Cuba with American tourist money hasten the fall of the regime? By all indications including reports coming out of Cuba from the Catholic church and an independent economist, the government is insolvent and close to if not already bankrupt. American money will only marginally at best improve things for some, not all, and all that will be accomplished is to prolong the misery. Without concessions from the castros, release of political prisoners, respect for human rights, multiparty elections etc. there should be no unilateral actions taken by the US, no lifelines. The castro regime needs to be put in the history books not propped up.
Febrero 10th, 2010 at 16:33
Mr. Yubano, Thank you for your wonderful explanation of my question in #21. I can see that you put a lot of thought into your answer. With information from commenters like yourself, I will become a very informed member of Yoani’s blog. You are a credit to the Cuban blogosphere.
Febrero 10th, 2010 at 15:51
Yubano,
Thank you for the complimentary post. I appreciate it. The ideas you bring to this forum are, without exception, well expressed and honorable.
However, we have been over this territory before and I am not interested in debating with you again.
Since you asked me a question, I will answer it as directly as I can.
In my opinion, the way to do “it†is to lift the embargo immediately and also lift the travel restrictions. Unilaterally, right now.
More contact means more interest. More interest means less apathy. Less apathy means people caring about what is happening in Cuba because they will be personally invested in that place – just like you and I are.
And as you said, lack of self interest is the thing that explains why no one in the media or elsewhere pays the slightest bit of attention to a man who is starving himself to death in a fight to the finish with the bastards who run Cuba. I agree with you that most Americans could not point to Cuba on a map. That is part of the problem. We have our own personal North Korea — right here in this hemisphere. Ninety miles away — and no one gives a shit. That is astounding.
The embargo means separation, division and, ultimately, isolation. Maintaining the status quo, in which no one in the US beyond our Cuban exile community — and now second generationers like me – cares, because it does not affect them personally; How many people in Iowa, Ohio, Nebraska or Kansas know where Cuba is? The Orlando Zapata Tamayos of Cuba will continue to languish and die without the outside exposure from here that could help him and them.
I know where you stand. You know where I stand.
Febrero 10th, 2010 at 15:23
Simba I guess those of us that talk about the deplorable conditions in Cuba because we still have family and friends there that tell us what the conditions are must be liers or propagandist. Afterall those pictures prove everything in Cuba is just peachy…
Febrero 10th, 2010 at 15:23
Simba @21
They might not starve because of hunger but they definitely starve because of oppression. Their liberty to do whatever they wish to do has been taken away some decades ago. They are starving and waiting to taste the freedom.
Febrero 10th, 2010 at 15:07
There are times when I do not know what or who to believe. I read on this blog on a regular basis how bad times are in Cuba, yet when I go to this http://vocescubanas.com/boringhomeutopics/ blog the photos do not seem to prove what is being said is the complete truth. It seems that almost every citizen in Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo’s photography are healthy, if not happy. Most appear well-fed if not nearly obese. Are there problems in Cuba? Probably without a doubt yes, but starvation does not seem to be one of them.
Febrero 10th, 2010 at 12:46
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HI HANK #14. Good comment on how the internet blogs can educate people. And on how many traditional news organizations do not care about abused people in other countries. Many in the U.S.A. never read GENERACIONY or read National Geographic articles on Cuba.
***
I did not like the way the U.S.A. Congressional Black Caucus seemed to support the Castro government. They seemed ignorant of conditions in Cuba. Other examples are the poor traditional news coverage of the Iran protesters and the abuse of prisoners there.
***
HOLA HANK #14. Buen commentario en como los “blogs” del internet puedan educar la gente de condiciones en otras paises. Muchos en los Estados Unidos nunca leen GENERACIONY o leen National Geographic articulos de Cuba.
***
No me gusto como miembros del U.S.A. Grupo Congressional Negro paracian apollar el govierno de Castro. Parecian ignorantes de los condiciones en Cuba. Otros ejemplos son el mal reportes del protestas en Iran y del abuso de los prisoneros alli.
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John Bibb
***
Febrero 10th, 2010 at 12:02
Hank
“if it really is about self interest and the perception that nothing is to be gained — then wouldn’t one way to change this be to create a situation where peoples’ interests were truly affected by what happens in Cuba?”
How would you go about doing this? What “situation” could outsiders possibly create to bring attention to Cuba in the proper context? The only thing that can be done from outside the country is to continue to dessiminate information about the reality in Cuba. To continue aiding bloggers like Yoani and the dissedents within the island to get the word out. This might give some the feeling that what they are doing is nothing more than tiliting at windmills but it I don’t believe that. I think it is self-evident what impact the blogging community has had on public opinion outside of Cuba not to mention the pressure it has applied to the regime. This is the only thing that we can do. Unforetunately the only way for the world to take notice is for something dramatic to happen within Cuba. Only the people within Cuba have the possibility of “creating a situation”. What you, Capiro and others do to dessiminate information is to be applauded, keep it up, it’s the best we can do.
Febrero 10th, 2010 at 11:15
FINANCIAL TIMES: Cuba slow to ease its grip on shopkeepers
By Marc Frank in Camagüey
Published: February 10 2010 02:00 | Last updated: February 10 2010 02:00
“Three years after Cuba’s Rebel Youth newspaper published “The Big Old Swindle” - a scathing series calling for reform of a state-managed retail sector beset by poor management, corruption and abysmal service - debate is still raging over liberalisation. The authorities have yet to act.
Rumours abound in Havana that the state will soon cede control over its thousands of barber shops, cafeterias, bakeries and domestic appliance and car repair businesses, opting to regulate and tax rather than administer, along the lines of the Chinese or Vietnamese model.
Yet the state appears to be doing the opposite, remodelling and opening numerous restaurants, shops and other retail outlets in city after city.”
“For the first time since all retail activity - right down to shoe-shine boys - was nationalised in the “revolutionary offensive” of 1968, licences are being handed out to food vendors in the interior who have played cat-and-mouse with police in city streets for decades, saving residents a long walk to state markets.
But that appears to be part of reform already under way in the agriculture sector, where decision-making and food distribution has been decentralised and state lands leased to more than 100,000 farmers.
Authorities, in an apparent concession to popular frustration, are also granting family farms and cooperatives permission to sell a part of what they produce directly using kiosks and horse and bicycle-drawn carts. But not a single state-run retail outlet has been handed over to employees as a co-operative, let alone privatised.”
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/afb2.....ab49a.html
Febrero 10th, 2010 at 11:04
I sent the article on “Uncommon Sense” and “The Huffignton Post” (see #3) to this outfit I get e-mails from, Democracy in Americas (see link below). They are very connected in Washington but never run stories on dicidents or Yoani for all I know.
http://www.democracyinamericas.org/cubacentral/
info@cubacentral.com
Febrero 10th, 2010 at 10:56
Yubano,
So how do we change this? I have sent emails to a couple of news organizations. Not surprisingly, no response from any of them. If what you say is true — if it really is about self interest and the perception that nothing is to be gained — then wouldn’t one way to change this be to create a situation where peoples’ interests were truly affected by what happens in Cuba? I am not looking to re-hash prior discussions with you or anything like that. It just seems to me that your observation about self interest is a good one that leads to some interesting possibilities.
Febrero 10th, 2010 at 10:38
The Bobby Sands comparison is a good one. However, how Ireland and Cuba are perceived as nations (historically, politically, culturally) is quite different and changes the dynamics of the issue a bit.
Many countries around the world and their people unforetunately sympathize politically with the Cuban government and in those that don’t there is a generalized disinterest or apathy towards Cuba. I would venture to say that in the US a large part of the population doesn’t even know where Cuba is. In the eyes of most governments (the US included) Cuba issues are just not worth addressing because there is nothing to be gained. It is all about self-interest. Nations and people around the world view Cuba as either a synpathetic underdog always nipping at the heals of the big dog or as a nuisance not worth paying attention to any significant degree. Sadly the results are that dignified and principled men like Tamayo, Biscet, Antunez and many others are left to languish in fetid conditions with only some of their own countrymen paying attention and the rest of world oblivious or disinterested.
Febrero 10th, 2010 at 09:46
Posted today on Uncommon Sense, does anyone reading this have ANY suggestions, ANY at all?
Orlando Zapata could use the luck of the Irish
Aggravating the frustration over the general lack of news coverage of Cuban political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo’s now-69-day hunger strike against the Castro dictatorship, is that almost 29 years ago, an identical protest by Irish prisoners making an identical demand - respect for their human rights - sparked sympathetic uproar as one prisoner after another, starting with Bobby Sands, died because of their protest.
In the spring of 1981, CNN wasn’t even a year old, and most in the world had never heard of the World Wide Web. Yet, the story of the protest by the 10 prisoners who eventually died - all of whom were more terrorists than political prisoners - dominated the news and eventually forced the hand of British officials.
The disparity between the Northern Ireland of 1981 and the Cuba of 2010 reveals many things, including how too many people in the media and the wider world, couldn’t care less about what is happening in Cuba, even when the information is readily available at their fingertips. Breaking that indifference and ignorance is a challenge not easily overcome.
If only Zapata could generate at least a fraction of the attention Sands and the others generated, maybe it would be enough to save his life and more importantly - at least from Zapata’s perspective - force the Castro regime to give its political prisoners the respect to which they are entitled.
http://www.marcmasferrer.typepad.com/
Febrero 10th, 2010 at 06:13
Andy #12,
Your last post sent me scrambling to my dictionary looking up the meaning of “churlish.†Although I know the word, I have never used it. Good word and nicely used!
I agree with what you say. Stealing the intellectual property of other people, and then having the unmitigated gall of criticizing it is something reserved only for the Castros and the Chavezes of this world. People who have no respect for property except their own.
And blatantly showing pirated movies on state-sponsored television is about as dumb as it gets, if that is in fact what happened. The damages calculation is pretty simple. One way to do it would be to take the number of working TVs on the island and reduce that by the number actually turned on, then divide by the number of working channels (is it two?) and then multiply by the general price of admission to the movie. My guess is that the number would be in the millions of dollars.
Febrero 10th, 2010 at 01:19
I read somewhere (the Penultimos Dias blog? can’t remember) that Avatar was being shown on Cuban TV this weekend… clearly pirated and of course without the 3D glasses. Or maybe they passed them out with the weekend ration of pot roast, what do I know?!)
Ah yes… here it is.. Saturday night;
http://www.penultimosdias.com/.....el-sabado/
I think it’s rather churlish to complain about the quality of movies from Hollywood after you steal them. If you want to slamthem the least you could do it pay the admission price.
Febrero 9th, 2010 at 22:08
Stealing is common in Cuba to make end meet. Our grand lider Maximo stole the famous F1 Cows to feed his famly and stock his pantry. If you lend me that single shot “escopeta cartucho”, I can put it to good use and trigger some changes on the Island. Thank you everyone who makes this blog possible. The truth about Cuba is finally being exposed.
Does anyone know how many jails exist in Cuba today??????
Febrero 9th, 2010 at 21:55
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by juliorey: @yoanisanchez Protect You Own, Steal From Others http://tinyurl.com/y8ljsby #fb…
Febrero 9th, 2010 at 21:45
Here is a link, posted by Yoani on her twitter feed to the right a few hours ago, of The Ladies In White. The mothers, wives, sisters, cousins, aunts and daughters of Cuban political prisoners. This is a short video of these brave women marching through the streets of what I believe to be Havana on Sunday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....7cdf4bb5c4
Febrero 9th, 2010 at 21:06
Hey Julio de la Yncera
Where are we at with you much repeated threat “I am very serious about my statements if within a month the Cuban government does not give us any signal of change we will proceed to request legislators here to take punitive action on exports to Cuba from the US.” Gen Y Comments January 10 2010
Somehow I missed the report of the Cuban government’s monetary policy cave-in. Please post a link to the announcement - you are so good at doing this.
And what is next a “request” to US legislators - they must be quaking at the knees at the prospect of a ‘call’ from you!
Febrero 9th, 2010 at 20:57
Hey Julio de la Yncera could you please report on the Cuban governmnet’s response to your powerful threat of 10 January 2010?
Remember your words “I am very serious about my statements if within a month the Cuban government does not give us any signal of change we will proceed to request legislators here to take punitive action on exports to Cuba from the US” and as you say repeated several times?
So a rapid change to Cuban monetary policy occurred? I must have missed it please post one of your usual useful links to where the news of this cave was announced.
What is next - I am sure that US legislators are similarly quaking in their boots at the prospect of a ‘request’ from you. je je je je!
BTW is the foto above of your house in the USA??
Febrero 9th, 2010 at 20:48
Hey Julio de la Yncera - remember this statement you made a month ago and repeated several times “I am very serious about my statements if within a month the Cuban government does not give us any signal of change we will proceed to request legislators here to take punitive action on exports to Cuba from the US.”???
10 January 2010
So did the Cuban government quake in their boots? Did they announce a change in monetary policy??!!
So what’s next?? More serious statements? je je je je!
Febrero 9th, 2010 at 18:47
I caught most of Avatar on Cuban TV (Free-to-air satellite) and it was interesting, although predictable. I would imagine it would be appealing to the Castros, as an example of “destructive imperialism”. The quality sucked, and there were some German subtitles, but then it was pirated, as is so much on Cuban TV. More info: http://www.dialoguewith.us/11.html
Febrero 9th, 2010 at 18:05
NOW IN A LIGHTER NOTE!
MIAMI NEW TIMES:Guess Who Hates Avatar? Communists, Fidel Castro
“Over the weekend, a Cuban movie critic became the last person in the world to see Avatar.
His verdict: meh.
In a review in Granma, the official daily of the Cuban Communist Party, Rolando Pérez Betancourt pooh-poohs the money-minting, Oscar-nominated movie as a dumb action flick.
Dramatically speaking, Avatar is predictable and lacks imagination in plot development, as is expected of many others of its ilk conceived in Hollywood.”
Zing! Unmentioned in the review is how Betancourt managed to catch the 3-D spectacle. Are there state-of-the art IMAX theaters in Havana we haven’t heard about? Was it a gift from James Cameron to Fidel Castro, from one trend-bucking iconoclast dictator to another?
One can only assume the critic saw it on a projector powered by a couple of hungry wheel-spinning mice, or through a scrambled TV signal like bad porn. Sans 3-D glasses, of course.
http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com.....r_root.php
Febrero 9th, 2010 at 13:30
John B @#5
Now that is a story worth telling, I hear what I hear when I say “the evil that man do”
Whereas is because of greed, ego or sheer cruelty … this justifications are the same, empty.
Your father-in-law’s sens of justice does more than support the belief in love of family, tradition & property.
My most respectfull admiration goes to him!
To you goes my thanks for sharing the story with all of us!
Febrero 9th, 2010 at 13:07
***
HI ALBERT #1. A Mexican history story. Many years ago my Mexican father-in-law showed me a small pistol. He was old and going to sell it–he asked me what it was worth. Then he told me why he had it.
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In the 1940’s he lived in a small town with his family a few kilometers from his fields. Every morning the farmers went to the fields to work. One morning they found the road blocked by a pickup truck and some men with pistols and badges. They told the farmers that they no longer owned their land–that they had been sold to a rich man–and that they were now part of his big ranch!
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They went to the corrupt local police–who told them the sales (which never happened) were legal. The rich man had bribed them. When they went to the federal police in Chihuahua city the same thing happened.
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A few of the older farmers had been soldiers with Pancho Villa in the 1912 revolution many years earlier. When the war was over they did not return their Mauser rifles–they hid them. The next morning–when it was still dark–they went to the roadblock and hid in the bushes. Then when the sun came up they shot the hell out of the rich man’s “police” and took back their land.
***
For many years after they bought and carried illegal arms so they could not be “picked off” one by one by the rich man’s thieves. And they also slept in the fields when the crops were ready to be picked so thieves would not steal their incomes.
***
John Bibb
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HOLA ALBERTO #1. Una historia Mexicana. Hace muchos anos mi suegro Mexicano me muestro una pistola chica. El fue un viejito y iba venderlo–me pregunto cuanto valio. Despues me dijo porque tuvo la arma.
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En los anos 1940’s vivio en un pueblito unos kilometros de sus labores. Cada manana los agricultores fueron a sus labores a trabajar. Una manana encuentraba el camino cerrado por una troca “pickup” y unos hombres con pistolas y credentiales. Dijieran a los agricultores que ya no estaban duenos de su propriedades–que han sido vendido a un hombre rico–y ya estaban parte de su rancho grande!
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Fueran a la polica local–quines les dijieran que las ventas (que nunca occuieran!) estaban legales. El hombre rico ha pagado “mordidas” (sorbornos) al policia corruptos. Paso el mismo cuando fueran a la policia federal en Ciudad Chihuahua.
***
Unos de los agricultores mas viejos han servido en en erjercito de Pancho Villa en la revolution de 1912–muchos anos antes. Cuando termino la guerra no regresaban sus rifles Mauseres–les escondieran. La proxima manana–cuando ya fue oscuro-fueran al bloqueo del camino y escondieran en los chaparrales. Cuando levantaba el sol tiraban los “policias especiales” del rico y tomaba possesion de sus terrenos.
***
Despues–por muchos anos–compraban y cargaban armas illegales a evitar que puedieran ser “pescado” uno por uno por los ladrones del rico. Y tambien duermian en los labores cuando la cosecha fue madura a preventar que ladrones robarian sus ingresos.
***
John Bibb
***
Febrero 9th, 2010 at 12:03
AFP-Cuba releases all dissidents arrested last week
HAVANA — “Cuba has released the last five of a group of 35 dissidents it arrested last week for demonstrating on behalf of a conscientious objector, a Cuban human rights group said.
“The last three dissidents that were jailed since Wednesday were freed on Sunday” and another two were released Friday and Saturday, Committee for Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN) director Elizardo Sanchez told AFP.
Cuban police arrested and jailed 35 political dissidents in the eastern city of Camaguey, when they were marching in support of Orlando Zapata, whom Amnesty International has declared a prisoner of conscience. He has been in prison since 2003.
The protesters were briefly jailed, then 30 were released.
The demonstrators were protesting “the cruel and inhuman treatment” of Zapata. The CCDHRN said it was concerned over Zapata’s health, and called for his unconditional release.
In its January annual report, the group said that there are 201 political prisoners in Cuba.
Authorities on the communist island insist there are no political prisoners, but rather US-financed “mercenaries” jailed for threatening Cuban national security.”
http://www.google.com/hostedne.....FMyjKCbk4w
Febrero 9th, 2010 at 11:55
THE HUFFIGNTON POST:A Cuban Political Prisoner Nears Death, Is the World Watching?
Today’s guest post is from the blog, Crossing the Barbed Wire, by Luis Felipe Rojas, a free and independent writer, journalist and poet from the town of San German in Holguin, Cuba.
They Are Killing Orlando Zapata Tamayo, a Black Cuban
The old saying that a lie always returns as a banner against the one who told it came to pass, and this time not in favor of the current Cuban regime.
The hoax that the revolutionary state of Fidel Castro ended racist practices falls apart before the case of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, a Cuban political prisoner of the renowned Group of 75, arrested during the Black Spring of 2003, in the days when the world’s attention was distracted by the American invasion of Iraq. Zapata was condemned to 25 years, and during the seven years he has been imprisoned he has been summarily tried on several occasions so that with the time added he is now sentenced to 47 years.
Now the authorities, acting together and in collusion with the courts and the attorney general of the republic, have handed down a new sentence that leaves him at 25 years again, but without credit for the seven he has already served. This, among other reasons, is why today he is on a hunger strike and is at the point of death in a room in the Amalia Simoni Hospital in Camaguey.
But … who is Zapata? Why has he been subjected to such torture? Why should his punishment be so long?
Zapata Tamayo is a black Cuban and a front-line opponent of the Castro dictatorship — clear enough reasons for him to be punished. He is a member of the illegal Alternative Republican Movement whose work focused on taking to the streets and explaining person-to-person about the atrocities of the Cuban military regime against its people. But for the Cuban government, all black people, supposedly, ought to pay homage to Fidel Castro, “the liberator of the black race, and the good master who came to free us blacks.” And that was exactly the lesson that Zapata did not want to accept.
Since his incarceration he has led strong protests, which, although peaceful, were intolerable to the prison authorities, and for this he has suffered beatings, humiliation, prolonged solitary confinements, and has since been subject to the maximum prison severity in his first phase.
Before being transferred on December 3, 2009 from the Holguin provincial prison to another special regimen in the Kilo 8 prison in Camaguey he was subjected to a huge beating. He told his mother during a brief visit weeks after the punishment that they handcuffed him and beat him to bring him down; they struck him with an iron bar on the knee where the imprint is still visible. During the transfer he was stripped of his cold-weather clothes, food, water purifying implements and other utensils. Then they threw him in a punishment cell where he was kept without food until he had to be taken urgently to the nearest hospital where he was barely breathing.
On several occasions when they beat him, the guards yelled “black!” as if it they were spitting out an insult. They want to bring him down, but he is still standing proud of the color of his skin - he said- and firm in his ideas about true justice, freedom, and respect for the right of all Cubans to live a different life.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....54572.html
Febrero 9th, 2010 at 11:54
REUTERS:Cuba travel bill buried in political agenda-
Tue Feb 9, 2010 1:05am EST
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bipartisan drive in Congress to end a Cold War-era travel ban on Cuba was buried during the healthcare reform debate but its supporters hope to dig it out this year.
“Co-sponsor Jeff Flake, a Republican representative, said the votes were there to pass the Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act this year but the Democratic majority in the House was divided over whether to take it to the floor for a vote.
This is not an issue that is at the top of their agenda or anywhere close and it’s also an issue that splits part of their caucus,” he said. “I still think it could happen this year.”
The bill has 178 backers in the House, 40 votes short of the 218 needed but still a “big number,” Flake said.
If passed, the act would be a bold step toward ending the 48-year U.S. trade embargo against Cuba and likely would flood the communist-run Caribbean island with American tourists attracted by its beaches and revolutionary mystique.”
“MONEY TALKS”
“The explanation may lay, in part, in a strategy change by Cuban-Americans opposed to the Castro leadership. In the last few years, they have given Democratic lawmakers generous donations in the hopes of preventing any relaxation of the U.S. trade embargo.
Public Campaign, a non-partisan group, estimated hardline Cuban-Americans gave more than $10 million in contributions to politicians since 2004.
Mauricio Claver-Carone, director of the pro-embargo U.S.-Cuba Democracy Public Action Committee, sees a clear link between those money flows and the apparent stall of the bills.
“There is undoubtedly a connection,” he told Reuters. “One of our goals was to break the political barrier and make Cuba policy a bipartisan issue.”"
http://www.reuters.com/article.....PP20100209
Febrero 9th, 2010 at 05:16
The proliferation of weapons, homemade or otherwise for self defence has been a practice as old as history.
The poignat difference is: when owning a weapon becomes a threat to a political regime.
Perhaps is a sign of the times; perhaps is the hope of an old fool like myself reading into it.
Either way: mixing lack of basic necesities, frustration towards a fruitless way of life, a crumbling system, a represive political atmosphere is bringing things to a head.
The time is comming for change & do not belive the head turd & co. are capable nor willing to bring changes to the table, I am begining to think in terms of their “own” military taking over the political power.
I do not believe the head turd: raul, posseses the carisma nor the intelligence to mantain power, but the situation may change since fidel will not be there.
We suffer (I think) from the “caudillo syndrome” hence people may not rebel against fidel the symbol … until the caudillo is dead.
Once out of the picture, once only im memory … there is no one to turn to for raul.
raul’s own paranoia will acelerate the process since he wont be able to trust anyone … he’ll see smiles but he’ll have to watch his back …