INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO
Wall Street Journal article.
September 16, 2006
This note by Walter Lippmann.

A Cuban Guru's Tip:
Salad Dressing Makes
Nice Hair Conditioner

This is published in today's edition of the leading U.S. business daily. It is the third very interesting article in two days and is again written in a soft, non-sneering tone. Virtually everything in the article is realistic and appears completely accurate to me and it gives readers a good sense of some of the impact of this year's Energy Revolution on Cuban families at a micro level. Fascinating.

While the WSJ is notorious for it's hard-line hostility toward the Cuban Revolution. This article doesn't bash Cuba. Considering the frenetic way people in the United States live their lives, this article informs readers of someone who lives in a dignified and reasonably contended manner in a country where there are simply no commercials on television, no ads in its newspapers and magazines, and we've been led to believe that people live on SEVENTEEN DOLLARS PER MONTH. The anonymous author uses the word "samizdat" to describe the magazine Vitral, published by the Roman Catholic Archdioces of Pinar del Rio Province, which might lead readers to think it's somehow illegal, but it's not illegal. As long as the churches there don't get involved in opposition activities, no one bothers them.

Further, Vitral is not only legal, it even has a website which you can check out, in both Spanish and English. The unsigned article reports its subject is a retired schoolteacher and administrator. You'd have to know Cuba to know that this means she was a PUBLIC school teacher since there are no parochial school. It's also worth noting carefully that Mrs. Galvez, who is black, has three sons, all doctors. Since she lives in a country where the average salary is $17.00 per month, the inquisitive reader will wonder how that was accomplished. And it is further evident that none of her three sons have defected, since you can rest assured that the Wall Street Journal, of all newspapers in the united States, would certainly have added that to the story. Finally, as graduates of the Cuban medical education system, Mrs. Galvez's three sons enter medical service with NO FINANCIAL DEBT, only a responsibility to provide medical care as society needs it.

Website of the Pinar del Rio archdiocese:
http://www.vitral.org/vitral/english/vitral.html 

There is political discussion which both dovetails with and in some cases is very different from the political line of the revolutionary leadership. This is from the Roman Catholic church. There are many other denominations as well, and they have their own media where a range of ideas are expressed. In other words, these are evidence of a wider political space inside of Cuba than probably many people had previously presumed.

Remember also that, in Miami, when Fidel got ill, some of the rightist militants prayed that the Comandante would die. In Cuba, on the other hand, the Roman Catholic hierarchy advocated prayers FOR Fidel:

Cuban Church rejects foreign intervention

Havana Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino told journalists that the Catholic Church will not accept foreign intervention in the island's affairs and in a pastoral letter, the Cuban bishops have asked the faithful to pray for President Castro. http://www.cathnews.com/news/608/46.php
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Once you've read through this article, I urge you to compare it both in tone and in substance with an earlier article on Cuba, women and domestic issues written by the same newspaper earlier this year and you will see how radical is the political difference between them: http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs249.html

Walter Lippmann, CubaNews
http://www.walterlippmann.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews
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