Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Cuban women will always be at the side of the Revolution, in defense of the principles and rights conquered for more than six decades. This was emphasized by Teresa Amarelle Boué, member of the Political Bureau and secretary-general of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), an organization that, with that conviction, as part of its essence, will reach its 61st anniversary.
In the midst of the media misrepresentation campaign against Cuba, she referred to Granma that fighting it is among the Federation’s priorities: “We are an organization that has legal authority, a non-governmental organization, but that does not mean that we are against the Government or the leadership of the Revolution, because it was the Revolution that dignified Cuban women and that is what we defend.
“We defend the Revolution because we want that in Cuba women have the right to employment, that there are schools, free education and that our women can be more than 62% of university graduates,” she said.
In another moment of her statements, during a meeting held with the press, she highlighted the importance of the National Program for the Advancement of Women. “Women have to know what the Program proposes; this work we are doing in the communities, the laundromats we are increasing, the strategy itself on violence, which should come out in the next few days with a legal norm; the work we are doing in the Women and Family Guidance Houses.
“We must start in the communities a workshop on gender violence, and we are also working on training the Police and legal personnel on everything that has to do with women’s rights so that they are in a position to exercise a better role in this regard.”
She said that next August 23 the FMC will reach its 61st anniversary with the motivations left by the 8th Party Congress. She pointed out that they will organize dialogues among women in each of the municipalities, and the Fidel and the Revolution of Women workshops, on the occasion of the 95th birthday of the Commander in Chief, always respecting the epidemiological norms.
Among the actions to be carried out in the coming days are a process of deep community intervention to stimulate citizen participation in the communities, as well as volunteer work, special matinees and recognitions to artists, founders and outstanding women in the fight against the pandemic.
The tribute to Vilma Espín Guillois will take place on August 23 at the Second Front, in the mausoleum where her remains rest. The commemorative day will also include the presentation of the Mariana Grajales and Ana Betancourt orders, the August 23 distinction and the 60th Anniversary stamp.
Yisell Rodríguez Milán | internet@granma.cu
July 29, 2021
The paradoxes of imperialism are beyond absurd. Just as the U.S. movement in solidarity with Cuba announces the shipment of six million syringes for vaccination against COVID-19, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) reports that, in order to access the latest two million dollars allocated for subversion in Cuba, counter-revolutionary mercenaries must adapt their “proposals” to reflect the events that occurred here July 11.
The U.S. government seeks to fuel confrontation, division among Cubans, and promote the many lies about Cuba circulating on the world’s principal media platforms, especially social networks.
Now, a little more than a week after that Sunday of disturbances, the USAID – the public face of the CIA – discloses that it will not change its objectives with respect to the island, and that, in addition, those requesting funding must design their proposals taking into account the current political situation, the Cuba Money Project reported.
Last June 30, USAID announced that it would allocate two million dollars to projects that “encourage” democracy and human rights in Cuba, one of the most obvious U.S. interventionist strategies around the world, and historically used against the Cuban Revolution.
In the meantime, as of July 17, some two million syringes have reached the port of Mariel, just west of Havana, from the Cuba solidarity movement in the United States – an act of love organized by Global Health Partners, with the participation of Cuban-Americans and several solidarity groups, who are continuing to collect funds to send medications, including antibiotics, painkillers, contraceptives and vitamins.
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
To suppose that we revolutionaries are satisfied with the situation of the country, that we have resigned ourselves and lost our dreams, is a blunder. We are not addicted to shortages, we do not applaud the shortages, we do not ignore the empty shelves or the crowded lines of which we are also part. We long for the bonanza, the good food, the well-stocked market, the full pantry; but we do not shoot at the target with our problems nor do we stay on the random surface of the crisis.
It is up to us revolutionaries to go deeper, to discover the root of the evils, to understand that it is necessary to act against those that are truly ours (the evils) in order to put a stop to them, without necessary self-criticism rising up, like a dense smokescreen, to play the game of those who have become skilled in placing all the evils in the bag of their own inefficiency.
We revolutionaries must have a greater quota of analysis, which will allow us to put the faults in the right place, without forgetting that the tactic of our enemies will always be to knock down our bush and then hold us responsible for not having the fruits. In the human instinct to find the guilty, it is not always easy to discover the real ones.
It is up to us revolutionaries to proclaim that there will be a better future, with the enormous difficulty of doing so from a stormy present. This includes the imperial harassment of our Island; and in that difficult mission, we cannot allow the waters of discouragement to sink our ship, so that others may appropriate our destiny.
We revolutionaries must resemble much more those who sacrificed themselves for the Revolution than those who gave up in the effort. There are many people in our history who overcame more complex moments than those of today without losing hope and optimism.
No one forces us, revolutionaries, to be so, and if we have assumed it, we must understand that it is not a cyclical conviction or a ship that only sails with the wind in our favor. If we are, it must always be with the same face and ready to face more than one storm.
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
A few days ago, on Tuesday 27th and for a couple of hours, more than a hundred people (most of them young) exchanged ideas about the events of July 11th in the country. In a panel -organized by the La Manigua collective and transmitted in its voice chat under the leadership of psychologist and activist Karima Oliva Bello- we listened to the remarks of Verónica Medina (actress and vice-coordinator of La Madriguera), Iramís Rosique (member of the Editorial Board of La Tizza and specialist of the Network in Defense of Humanity) and José Ernesto Nováez (journalist and writer, coordinator of the Cuban Chapter of the Network in Defense of Humanity). I don’t know if they have participated in a voice chat on Telegram, a messaging application that (like the popular WhatsApp or the Cuban Todus) which allows the gathering of communities in a virtual “living room” in which they “converse” in real-time, thanks to the exchange of audio messages.
After the initial comments by the panelists, the exchange was open to the participation of more than a hundred listeners who gathered for the occasion. Then a range of ideas flowed that covered, among many other issues, aspects as diverse as the pointing out of errors in the political and/or cultural work within disadvantaged populations; assessments of the relevance or error of having eliminated spaces for collective development such as the scholarship system or the pioneer camps; the substitution of political work (discursive, explanatory, dialogic, pedagogical) for superficial administrative vision (which stops at the management of figures, flows and operations); the need to undertake a profound renovation of structures of popular power such as the CDRs, the FMC and the Poder Popular itself; the obligation for the state and political apparatuses to continuously revive their interactions with the citizens. This is needed so that, in the midst of a relentless economic, political, ideological and cultural war against Cuban socialism, any sign of estrangement, distance or alienation between the population and these directive bodies is prevented.
In addition, there is the need to reinvent the discourses and ways of communicating; the request to eliminate any demand for an active revolutionary policy that continuously rectifies problems of vulnerability, poverty, marginality and their cultural, behavioral, social and educational consequences, social integration and personal fulfillment; the need to increase the participation and, in general, the leading role of young people in society, whether in concrete actions or in the reflection and dissemination of new ideas; the demands on the mass media regarding the importance of showing a more active role, as well as greater immediacy and depth in the analysis and dissemination of the country’s problems, the continuous presence of such problems/demands in the various party instances, the efforts bu State agencies to solve or mitigate them and, most importantly, the placement in the foreground of the communities’ responses; the need to change models of action and/or communication to make the fight against corruption, state bureaucracy, “campaigning” and the weaknesses of the media itself more transparent.
A day earlier, on July 25, this same voice chat had connected us live with the arrival at the Capitol in Washington of the members of Puentes de Amor, a project of solidarity with Cuba and the fight against the blockade, coordinated by Carlos Lazo in the United States. Weeks before, in another transmission, also made from the space of social networks, the collectives of Bufa Subversiva, Brújula Sur, Cimarronas, Horizontes Blog and La Tizza met to create the “collaborative broadcasting channel” Malas compañías. There they developed another very interesting discussion, which they titled Comunidad lgtbiq+ en Cuba. Where are we and where are we going?
These are names of new spaces for the presentation and discussion of ideas, as well as actors to postulate them. In communicational terms, the transformation leads to the obligation to assimilate and produce for a world in which greater speed, diversity and integration between text, audio, still images and video messages are imposed. In addition to the above, a world where exchanges become more challenging, captivating and interactive the greater the dialogicity.
On the one hand, I am interested in listening, and I confess to having enjoyed these exchanges of opinion in territories that require me to abandon my clumsiness in the handling of digital communication technologies, and to quickly incorporate myself into the many options offered by the universe of social networks, blogs, websites, podcasts, voice chats and other alternatives for establishing contact. I believe that there is an enormous potential that political and mass organizations, state entities, neighborhood structures and the most diverse projects of social transformation need to assume, integrate into their work and daily practices, and make the critical analysis of problems, communicative transparency, participation and social dialogue in the country increasingly diverse, extensive, deep and significant in its transformative character.
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
The spread of more contagious and virulent genetic variants of SARS-COV-2, together with other factors related to the non-compliance with sanitary protocols and the loss of risk perception, caused in the month of July an epidemiological scenario unprecedented in the entire stage of the COVID-19 pandemic in Cuba.
In the 31 days of the finalized month, the nation counted 200,398 positive cases of COVID-19, which represents 149,776 cases more than in June, which had been the worst period until then.
On average, 6,464 positive patients were registered per day, with a peak of 9,747 confirmed cases on July 31 and figures exceeding 8,000 cases for several days, which strained the health system in some parts of the country, with the consequent shortage of medical supplies.
In July, 1,553 people died of the disease (1,216 more than in the previous month), also the highest number reported, including the unfortunate deaths of pregnant women, postpartum women and a 12-year-old girl.
At the end of July 31, the island had a high incidence rate of 1,056.3 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. The province with the highest incidence rate was Matanzas (2,861.4), a territory that went through the worst health crisis of the period, with over 3,000 cases, but which, with the efforts that have been made, has already begun to control the situation.
It is followed by Ciego de Avila (2 500.1), Cienfuegos (2 423.4) and Guantanamo (1 625.7). The rest of the provinces, although they have an index below 1,000, report high numbers of transmission, with the exception of the special municipality Isla de la Juventud, which maintains control of the disease.
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