By Atilio A. Boron
June 3, 2009
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
After a 47-year ban, the OAS sealed an agreement by acclamation yesterday to revoke a 1962 measure suspending Cuba from that body. The resolution was taken without conditions, although it lays down a procedure to be set in motion in the (unlikely) event that Havana decides to join the group. However, there are some facts to be taken into account here.
First: The resolution is a telltale sign of the great sociopolitical changes we’ve seen in Latin America and the Caribbean in the last few years, marked by the United States’ decreasing clout in the region. The vote to render the outrageous move under Kennedy null and void, is at once highly revealing of an ongoing shift that the White House has reluctantly accepted and a step to make amends, if belatedly and partially, for an obviously immoral policy which has long brought unbearable shame upon both the OAS and those governments who have voted for –or at least not against– Imperialism’s plans. Unable to defeat the Cuban Revolution by force of arms at the Bay of Pigs, the U.S. chose to put up a ‘cordon sanitaire’ to keep the island’s liberating influence from spreading across the continent. They never succeeded, by the way.
Second: That the U.S.’s hegemony became weaker is by no means an indication that they give up on using other means to get hold of the region’s resources and wealth or control our governments. It would be an inexcusable mistake to believe that Imperialism will lay down its arms and start to get along with our countries on an equal footing just because its political (and intellectual and moral) ability as a leader has gone into decline. Quite the opposite: in similar circumstances in the past its response was to reactivate the Fourth Fleet in order to achieve by force what they used to get from submissive or abetting governments. And Obama has given us no hint that he intends to change that policy.
Third: Neither Cuba nor any other country in Our America have anything to do in the OAS. As we have oftentimes pointed out, this institution became a landmark of a special period in our continent’s evolution: that of the U.S.’s absolute supremacy. But those days are gone, and there’s no going back. As our political consciousness developed, governments that still look up to the White House have no choice but to vote against the U.S. blockade on Cuba and the 1962 suspension in San Pedro Sula. The OAS has been brought to the limelight for its long record as a docile instrument of the Empire, since it condoned invasions, the assassination of political leaders and presidents (like the murder of Orlando Letelier in Washington), coups d’état and campaigns to destabilize democratic governments. The OAS turned a blind eye –and a deaf ear– to the atrocities of U.S.-sponsored ‘state terrorism’ and criminal policies like Plan Condor. When in May 2008 the Bolivian conflict blew up, the Latin American countries took care of things right away without the OAS getting involved at all. There was no need for it, nor will there ever be.
Fourth: What we do need is to make our various projects of Latin American and Caribbean integration stronger and more coherent, for instance, initiatives such as ALBA or UNASUR, basically different but based on our region’s contemporary situation. The OAS, however, is an inevitably and therefore useless, anachronistic, body in that it represents a world we only find in the delirious ravings of those who yearn for the Cold War era, and that’s why it can contribute nothing to deal with our current challenges. Now that the 1962 resolution has been done away with, the OAS should do mankind a very great service by dissolving.
By Mauricio Vicent
Havana – July 19, 2009
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
Last New Year’s Eve, Spanish priests Isidro Hoyos, Mariano Arroyo and Eduardo de la Fuente had dinner together in the San Martin de Porres parish, in the workers’ neighborhood of Alamar, east of the Cuban capital. “A simple meal: vegetable soup, some chicken, nougat, and Spanish cider to celebrate”, remembers Isidro. Sharing a dinner on New Year’s Eve, he explains, “had become a tradition… “.
The three priests had been friends for years and the three were in Havana because of their religious vocation, but it was Mariano who put the idea of coming to Cuba in their heads. Mariano Arroyo Merino was the first one to arrive on January 19, 1997. Then Isidro Hoyos, in December 2000. Both were from Cantabria and knew each other since they were young.
Mariano had been a missionary in Chile. For 20 years he lived in that country, always in contact with the poorest [of the people]. Hoyos even became a lawyer for the Workers’ Commissions. He was a worker and a committed priest, for that reason when he arrived in Cuba he found it proper to take charge of the small parish of Alamar, a neighborhood built by the revolution in the ‘70s as the home of the New Man, and therefore without a church.
Eduardo de la Fuente began traveling to the island to substitute for Mariano and Isidro when they left on vacation. He did this for seven or eight years, until in 2006 he decided to stay permanently.
Eduardo, 61 years old, had a mysterious and violent death on February 13. He was found on a highway on the outskirts of Havana, stabbed and strangled. It caused a shock wave in the ecclesiastical world and it especially affected Mariano, who was also murdered later.
Mariano Arroyo was a Philosophy and Theology major from the Comillas Papal University, and a philosophy and literature graduate of the University of Madrid. He was not only a wise man; he was also “a humble, good and venturesome person”, according to those who knew him. “Father Mariano was very dear to us here, nobody had any grudge against him”, said one of the neighbors, who laments his death today in Regla, a neighborhood of Havana.
First, he was a parish priest at the Our Lady of Pilar church in the municipality of Cerro, from which he also assisted the congregation of Alamar. On occasions he made 20 kilometer trips there by bicycle and celebrated mass at people’s homes. In December 2004, Mariano took charge of the parsonage and the parish of the National Sanctuary of Our Lady of Regla, on the other side of the Havana bay. He immediately stood out.
Regla is a parish with special characteristics because its Virgin is one of the most worshiped among the Afro-Cuban cults. The Virgin of Regla symbolizes the goddess Yemayá in these cults, ruler of the waters and the sea, the fundamental source of life. Mariano didn’t repudiate these beliefs, but rather he studied them thoroughly and tried to understand them. Many bishops invited him to their dioceses to give lectures on this subject. “Mariano was very learned and very understanding and he was valued more and more in the Cuban Church”, Isidro affirms.
On the dawn of last July 13th, exactly five months after the murder of Eduardo de la Fuente, somebody entered the parochial house where Mariano lived in Regla. Before dawn, a neighbor saw smoke coming out of the priest’s room and called for help. The one who entered to help him found the priest handcuffed, gagged, and with burns in the soles of his feet and hands, hit on the head and knifed.
The crime, or rather, the crimes against two priests in such a short space of time and on the same day of the month February 13 and July 13 , the fact that they were friends and that both were victims of violent attacks, generated numerous rumors. Mainly because in Cuba there is no crime chronicle and news is spread from mouth to ear. Some thought that the two crimes could be connected.
Isidro Hoyos himself admitted, shortly after hearing of Arroyo’s death, that he was afraid. “I am not superstitious, but yesterday was exactly five months after Eduardo’s death, and it seems the procedure is the same: torture, savagery… “.
And, he added, still excited: “The first one, the second… what is behind this? Who are they? What are they looking for? This is something the people in charge of the investigations need to clarify. Are they some kind of mafia? I don’t know “. But, he warned himself: “There are not two, without three.”
The following day in Spain, Agustín Arroyo, brother of the murdered priest, stated that “to steal it is not necessary to kill”. And, he suggested other possible causes: “In Cuba, priests are a nuisance. My brother was very much loved in the community, he had influence over the people and maybe that caused a certain mistrust.”
The Church had to take a stand on this and Cardinal Jaime Ortega himself discarded such arguments last Friday in the homily he gave during the Exequial Mass for Father Mariano Arroyo, denying any “anti-religious or anti-Spanish significance.”
In truth, it was the mystery and the secrecy surrounding the investigation of the first death, that of Eduardo de la Fuente, which fueled speculation. Neither the Church nor Spanish authorities revealed the results of the police investigation, even though they had conclusions, detainees and confessed perpetrators.
If truth be told, Father de la Fuente died at the hands of another man who was his significant other, and to whom the priest had passed himself off as a foreign CEO. This is why, in the Friday homily, the cardinal said that in his case, “the criminals ignored that they had killed a priest”. Police sources informed the Church and the [Spanish] Embassy of what had happened. They also informed them that the perpetrator and his accomplices had been captured and that because it was such a delicate matter they had treated it with the utmost discretion.
Priest Mariano Arroyo’s death was absolutely different. The motive of the crime was robbery, something more and more frequent on the island. The safe that Arroyo had in the house, which apparently had things of little value, was found open. Sources at the Church indicated that the murderer, already in custody, was the guardian of the parish, who acted in complicity with others.
In the homily in memory of Mariano Arroyo, Cardinal Jaime Ortega remembered the priest’s words explaining why he remained in the country: “The Cuban people have a warmth, a sympathy toward the Church and toward the priest in his search for God that, although they don’t know almost anything of religion, shows an interest and an avidity that is enthusiastic”. On Friday, people filled the cathedral of Havana and said goodbye to Mariano Arroyo with tears in their eyes and songs of love.
[At noon yesterday the remains of Arroyo arrived at the Madrid airport. The funeral one will take place this afternoon at Cabezón de la Sal (Cantabria)].
By Manuel E. Yepe
May, 2009
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
Paulo Nogueira Batista, an executive director representing Brazil and a group of eight Latin American countries in the International Monetary Fund, stressed during a world tourism conference held a week ago in the Brazilian city of Florianopolis that “U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration should work to bringing Cuba back into international bodies such as the IMF”.
His appeal is anything but exceptional. In fact, it adds to the chorus of many in the United States and other countries against an economic blockade that year after year the international community condemns almost with one voice in the United Nations General Assembly, as well as to the widespread criticism leveled at the U.S. anti-Cuban policy, as with the variety of statements made in the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad in favor of restoring Cuba’s right to join the Organization of American States, even if the host nation is known to be opposed to the idea.
It all reveals a lack of consistency with the promise of change that helped the new U.S. president win the election: to the voters, it means a high number of social rights denied to them despite their country’s wealth, whereas to the elite who truly hold the power these are merely necessary corrections to prevent the collapse of a seriously endangered imperial order.
However, that the superpower has managed to get away with the manifest crime against humanity that its fifty-year-long blockade on the small neighboring island represents throws into relief the wickedness and absurdity of the world order imposed on our planet and proves that it extends beyond economic issues to leave a deep mark on the political leanings of plenty of people and social groups.
Obviously, many strong forces are currently in motion in the United States to lift the blockade, end the travel ban and reestablish official relations with Cuba, but it’s also undeniable that the effects of half a century of malicious slander compel most of those who fight to get things back to normal between both countries to justify their efforts to correct this wrong by arguing that the Cuban revolution has successfully overcome every aggressive wile so far and therefore other, more subtle ones are needed.
I believe those who claim that all people in the world have the inalienable right to a revolution and that the Cubans have been forced to exercise such right under constant, unjustifiable pressure from its nearest neighbor –the greatest military and economic power on Earth– are still a minority in the United States.
Small wonder, then, that zealous defenders of the U.S.’s worst terrorist acts against Cuba are now challenging the blockade, including Cuban-Americans who made a living from the attacks on the island using the considerable financial aid earmarked by Washington for overthrowing the Revolution and are now saying that violence must be replaced by ideological influence without giving up the ultimate purpose.
This idea of trying to undermine the Cuban Revolution from the inside is not only typical of the new political currents up north or the Cuban counterrevolutionaries at their service. It’s common knowledge that almost every northern nation whose government has long advised world capitalism’s leading superpower to lift the blockade on Cuba is as fearful of the former’s example as they are of the latter’s.
Yet, the Cuban Revolution, whose people and leaders have been so determined to and capable of fighting the hardest battles for their identity and rights, would not be worthy of its name if it shied away from the challenge of engaging the enemy in the battlefield of ideological confrontation.
Funded by the U.S., anti-Cuban propaganda coined the argument that Cuba took advantage of the blockade to explain its mistakes or flaws while shamelessly trying to isolate, starve and discourage the Cubans from their efforts to carry on with a beautiful revolutionary project that they will never give up until they make it come true.
Por Manuel E. Yepe
Mayo de 2009
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
“La Administración del Presidente estadounidense Barack Obama debía trabajar por lograr la reincorporación de Cuba a organismos internacionales tales como el Fondo Monetario Internacional”, manifestó Paulo Nogueira Batista, un funcionario de dicho Fondo que representa a Brasil y a un grupo de otros 8 países latinoamericanos en el FMI, durante una conferencia sobre turismo mundial que tuvo lugar a mediados de mayo en la ciudad brasileña de Florianópolis.
El llamado no es algo excepcional. De hecho, se incorpora a los muchos que, tanto en Estados Unidos como en otras naciones, se formulan constantemente contra un bloqueo económico que ha sido condenado, casi unánimemente, por la comunidad mundial en la Asamblea General de las Naciones Unidas, año tras año.
Son denuncias que forman parte de las críticas más generales a la política de Estados Unidos contra Cuba que ahora están brotando en muchos escenarios, como es el caso de los pronunciamientos a favor de la restitución a Cuba sus derechos de pertenecer a la Organización de Estados Americanos que proliferaron en ocasión de la Conferencia Cumbre de las Américas en Trinidad y Tobago, pese a que es sabido que la nación caribeña rechazaría tal reinserción.
Es tangible la incongruencia que existe entre el significado de las promesas de cambios que propiciaron al nuevo presidente de los Estados Unidos su elección. Para las masas de votantes significan muchas reivindicaciones sociales enajenadas no obstante la opulencia del país, en tanto que, para las élites que detentan el poder verdadero son las correcciones imprescindibles para evitar el derrumbe de un orden imperial gravemente amenazado.
Pero la impunidad con que la superpotencia se ha permitido mantener el evidente crimen de lesa humanidad del bloqueo a la pequeña isla vecina durante medio siglo, pone de relieve lo inicuo y absurdo de ese orden mundial a que se halla sometido el planeta y, así mismo, prueba que éste no se limita a los factores económicos sino que ha marcado profundamente la orientación política de mucha gente y grupos sociales.
Es evidente que hoy, en Estados Unidos, son muchos y muy fuertes los intereses que se movilizan contra el bloqueo económico de Cuba, la prohibición de los viajes de estadounidenses a Cuba y la ausencia de relaciones oficiales con la isla antillana.
Pero también es irrebatible que aún la mayoría de quienes abogan por el retorno a la normalidad de los vínculos diplomáticos, económicos, culturales y de todo tipo entre los dos países, se ven obligados por las huellas de cincuenta años de malintencionadas campañas de difamación, a acudir a la justificación de esta posición rectificadora con el argumento de que la revolución cubana no ha podido ser derrotada con las mañas agresivas hasta ahora utilizadas y es preciso adoptar otras más sutiles.
Son minoría aún en Estados Unidos, a mi juicio, aquellos que –al abogar o respaldar un cambio en la política de Estados Unidos respecto a Cuba- parten del argumento de que la revolución es un derecho inalienable que tienen los pueblos de todas las naciones del mundo y que los cubanos se han visto obligados a ejercer tal facultad siempre obstaculizados por una injustificable hostilidad de la potencia militar y económica mayor del mundo, su vecino más próximo.
Por eso, no sorprende encontrar ahora a furibundos defensores de las políticas más terroristas de EEUU contra Cuba abogando en contra del bloqueo. Incluso entre cubanos residentes en los Estados Unidos que han hecho de la agresividad contra Cuba su medio de subsistencia aprovechando los abundantes recursos financieros que Washington ha destinado al propósito de derrotar a la revolución cubana, se encuentran hoy nuevos propagadores de la idea del cambio de los métodos agresivos por los de la penetración, sin variar los objetivos.
Es obvio que esta idea de intentar la derrota de la revolución cubana desde adentro no es privativa de la nueva corriente política estadounidense y de los contrarrevolucionarios cubanos que sirven a Washington. Nadie ignora que los gobiernos de casi todas las naciones del Norte, que durante muchos años han aconsejado a los de la superpotencia líder del capitalismo mundial que levante el bloqueo a Cuba, temen tanto el ejemplo de Cuba como el de EEUU.
Pero la revolución cubana, cuyo pueblo y sus líderes han dado muestras de decisión y capacidad para librar las batallas más complejas por afirmar su identidad y los derechos populares, no sería verdadera si rehuyera el enfrentamiento ideológico como terreno de lucha para su reafirmación.
La propaganda contra la revolución pagada por Estados Unidos acuñó como consigna la de que Cuba se aprovechaba del bloqueo para justificar sus errores o deficiencias, mientras impúdicamente se trataba de aislar, hambrear y desalentar los bríos de los cubanos por llevar adelante un hermoso proyecto revolucionario al que el pueblo no ha renunciado ni renunciará jamás hasta verlo convertido en realidad.
By Rolando Perez Betancourt
2009
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
For several days now, the international press that covers show business and their scandals was making a lot of fuss over millionaire Paris Hilton going to Europe to “meet” soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, best man in the courts today.
FARRAH FAWCETT
Would they begin an affair? Can the Portuguese escape the seduction of this romance collector? These were some of the expectations around the young star, who was recently acquired by the Real Madrid at an unpronounceable price, and the so called blond of gold. Her merits list is larger, more because she comes from a rich family and for the scandals she never stops creating, than for her performances as actress, model and singer.
Everything seems to indicate that the boy saw her for some minutes, smiled courteously and continued on his way to training. The tall queen of the media, slighted, declared that he had looked “somewhat feminine.”
Soon after, Cristiano Ronaldo was again in the spotlight, not because he is a sports star, but for kicking the car of a paparazzo that was following him on the streets of Lisbon. The soccer star explained in a press release that up to that moment, he had put up with weeks of harassment by sheer self control. But, the image hunter had not taken into consideration that his victim was traveling with his mother. And, one doesn’t disrespect someone’s mother! Therefore, if such a situation repeated itself, he would probably react in the same way.
The almost coincidental deaths of Michael Jackson and actress Farrah Fawcett have put the topic of the paparazzi again on the table. And in passing, the fatal accident of princess Diana of Wales while escaping from a group of them in Paris is also remembered.
Jackson was constantly harassed in his intimacy and Farah Fawcett, who was a cancer victim, left a bitter testimony, days before her demise, accusing the press and the paparazzi of being decisive in the deterioration of her health. They took photographs of her in a wheelchair showing her fragile and haggard. “I asked them to please leave me to fight my illness alone, but they never heard me, they harassed me, they wanted to be beside me every step till the end and it is already known that cancer feeds on stress.”
CHRISTIANO RONALDO
Technological development –digital cameras and Internet for quick transmission—have made paparazzi proliferate and the competition is ferocious. Some of them are employed and some are independent. And, sometimes they are the ones who pay the so called “stars brokers”, who detect what public figures are doing and locate them. Then the paparazzi speed off by motorcycle, car or airplane to wherever they are. Their objectives are very specific following a unique and unalterable concept: all embarrassing situations are profitable! It doesn’t matter if they are infidelities, evident or imagined, accidents, carelessness of a physical nature (poor Britney Spears and others), being nude in the high seas or in restricted areas, and, most of all, sexual scenes.
In extreme situations, when the intrusion is of such proportion that it defies human understanding, almost all reproaches are usually made to the paparazzi and people forget that –although guilty– they are part of a mechanism that starts higher up. It begins where the owners of big businesses, generally printed media competing with each other, print just about anything “weird” about show business stars.
These are stars that they frequently help manufacture and then go after them and destroy them. All this on behalf of a reader –equally manufactured–that, without realizing he is being manipulated, pays to see what lies behind the curtains of the famous.
And of from there, the paparazzi take their share (of the blame).
Author: Pastor Batista Valdes
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
LAS TUNAS. – If everybody knew that for each peso of salary that a company pays a worker, it has to pay the wtate 25 cents tax for the use of the work force (besides the 12,5 cents for social security) maybe more people would be more conscious of the need to use every minute of their labor day correctly.
BESIDES AIMING AT TRIBUTARY DISCIPLINE, THIS TAX SHOULD ENDOURAGE A MORE EFFICIENT USE OF THE WORK FORCE.
But, for many years there has been little knowledge of ta law and an absence of a tax culture. This is true not only for the general population but also of managers of productive and service companies; so much so that many people ask themselves, taxes? What is that?
Specialists from the provincial branch of the Finances and Prices Ministry and from the National Office of Tributary Administration (ONAT) explain that this obligation, which is instituted not only in Cuba, applies to all natural and juridical persons, Cuban or foreign, that have employees, and is calculated from the wages, salaries, bonuses and other payments given to those workers (Law No. 73 of the tributary system, 4-8-1994, chapter X).
Modifications introduced in 2006 to Resolution 240/2002 included budget units in the list of tax payers (they had been excluded until then). Credit and Service Cooperatives (CCS) and state agricultural units were temporarily excluded if the personnel they hire are working directly in agricultural production or in woodlands.
Stated in these terms, there should be no problems in its enforcement. On the other hand, reality doesn’t always live up to expectations.
Audits carried out in the county last year by ONAT supervisors revealed irregularities amounting to 2,170,400 pesos, for the most part concentrated on 12 entities of the sugar industry, 23 entities subordinated to local government and ten to the agriculture ministry. From January to May (2009) irregularities amounted to more than 900 000 pesos.
One wonders: If those audits reviewed only part of the possible universe, how much money is not being paid in the territory and what are the consequences for national economy? Possibly, nobody can say.
WHO’S PAYING FOR THIS?
Supervisor Pedro Quesada thinks one thing is clear: if the tax is not paid the law stipulates a fine. But, where will the money come from to pay that fine?
The budget does not include these types of expenses, therefore the situation is “solved” by diminishing the entity’s efficiency or its budget, and this causes serious damage to our country.
“We lack culture – says Milaida Aerie, sub-director of Finances and Prices -, maybe we need more knowledge, more popularization, and more seminars. But, we also need to be stricter. If whoever is responsible for the irregularity had to pay the fine from his/her own pocket, the situation would be different. But in the end it is Liborio (the State) who pays for the broken china.”
Not all managers act like the one in the Milk Basin Company.
Fe Esperanza Álvarez, of that company says, “When we finish calculating the payrolls, we calculate the tax, prepare it quickly and deposit it in the Bank. This happens month after month. I won’t deny that at some point we had difficulties with some of our units, but they are already solved. This year we only have two CCS and a Cooperative of Agricultural Production (CPA) in trouble, not for unpaid taxes, but for old debts.”
SHORT RECKONINGS
A timely word can solve future problems. “We are not inflexible – said Velia Proll Gamboa, ONAT sub-director in the municipality -; if a taxpayer is in a difficult situation and requests a postponement, we study the case, verify with the bank, see the bank statements and if the conditions are justified, authorize the postponement.”
In fact, entities like those of the agriculture (CCS, CPA, Basic Units of Cooperative Production) have received credit and special treatment since 2005, because of the havoc caused by many years of drought (first) and then the lashing of hurricanes later. This doesn’t mean that they have been relieved from responsibilities or obligations with the revenue.
What is unacceptable is that, due to negligence, the taxes go unpaid or units are late in making bank deposits. For example, if the deposit the CCS have to make are late, this is not the responsibility of those who work directly in the fields, but of those who are part of the managing board. Although here, this is not a serious problem, it can have repercussions in other territories.
Many, as Alberto González, of the provincial delegation of the agricultural ministry, recognize that the information and conferences the Tributary Administration Office gives to the economic personnel [of the units] is very valuable. They also value the installation of the program Sentry, designed to remind personnel that the tax needs to be paid; several days before the due date a reminder pops up every time the computer is activated.
Regrettably, some do not value these alternatives, others wait until they are ‘caught napping’” and there are still others who “pull faces” if the press points them out for not paying or for being morose. But, who “pulls faces” for the millions of pesos that don’t come in, for the loss it represents for the nation and all its inhabitants?
One needs to ponder about this, especially when a company is about to violate its tributary obligations, or when managers decide to hire more workers that will increase the work force tax, without having efficiently used the capabilities of those who have conformed its payroll until that instant.
By José Luis Estrada Betancourt
E-mail: joselestrada@jrebelde.cip.cu
May 26, 2009 – 00:45:44 GMT
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
Even Hollywood shoots with caution given the undeniable problems to get loans, the fear of recession and the little confidence in Wall Street.
Such a highly topical matter as the world economic and financial crisis, whose effects we feel in life’s every sphere, has not gone unnoticed by the seekers of ideas for possible plots that might become box-office hits. In fact, the sexagenarian Michael Douglas will once again be directed by the renowned Oliver Stone to deliver a sequel to Wall Street (1987), where he made an Oscar-winning portrayal of Gordon Gekko, a powerful, roguish tycoon who became filthily rich as a stock market speculator.
Wall Street 2 unfolds against the ideal backdrop of today’s disturbing crisis, which will provide the context to throw light on the same world of greed and corruption behind the upcoming The international, starring Clive Owen (as Louis Salinger) and Naomi Watts (as Eleanor Whitman).
Based on screenwriter Eric Warren Singer’s script, the film follows an Interpol agent and an assistant district attorney determined to disclose the shady deals of a very powerful bank turned expert on illegal activities to fund terrorism and war.
Director Tom Tykwer speaks:”If the story seems to be ripped from the headlines, it’s because the headlines have shown that the banks control all aspects of our lives. The mess we’re in now started when the banks took advantage of people and encouraged them to live beyond their means ‘.
A similar concern has led the controversial and always unerring director of Farenheit 9/11 and Sicko to revisit a subject he had already brought to the fore in 1989 with Roger and Me, when he dug for the reasons why General Motors closed several auto plants in Michigan. A decade later, Michael Moore strikes again, but unlike his fellow filmmakers, with a documentary film, his favorite genre.
As usual, Moore decided to make inquiries into the root cause of the economic chaos lashing against our planet. To that end, he used his webpage to urge a few brave people who work on Wall Street or in the financial industry to come forward and share with me what they know», and adding: «Be a hero and help me expose the biggest swindle in American history”.
To the author of Oscar-winning Bowling for Columbine (2003) it is plain that “the wealthy, at some point, decided they didn’t have enough wealth. They wanted more… a lot more. So they systematically set about to fleece the American people out of their hard-earned money. Now, why would they do this? That’s what I seek to discover in this movie”, he explains.
As we wait for the famous filmmaker to delve into this issue, the economic and financial crisis keeps lashing at the entertainment industry, and of course, cinema is not an exception.
A most noticeable effect of this crisis, at least to those who are all gung-ho on whatever celebrity walks down the red carpet, is the lack of glamour in the world’s greatest movie festivals, an extravaganza the average mortal won’t give two hoots about but certainly a sign of how drastic the limitations have got to be, even in Cannes, one of the industry’s two biggest markets. Credit lines have decreased so much worldwide that smaller industries are no longer able to attract a sizeable audience –as it happens to Cuba and most independent film companies– to these contests, also affected by a reduction in the number of sales contract signed for the movies, TV, DVD and their by-products. Since the to-ing and fro-ing of 35-mm film has become so expensive, from now on it will be harder for filmmakers and actors to attend the premieres of their motion pictures, and more DVD releases are likely to hit the stalls.
Things have reached the point that corporate Hollywood, with plenty of stakes in various companies, have turned more conservative and are even having second thoughts about paying the hair-raising salaries their stars pocket –like the 20 million dollars Jim Carrey made for The Cable Guy, in the end a real turnoff– or keeping the affluent lifestyle they demand while on set, say, private jets close at hand.
Now the studios are “walking a tightrope”, what with the undeniable difficulties to get credits, the fear of recession, and the little confidence they have in Wall Street, which explains why more than a few finished movies ended up on ice until the thunderclouds get away –including eagerly awaited titles like the latest Harry Potter installment– often because of a budget too low to cover the hundreds of millions of dollars needed for marketing and advertising campaigns alone.
The DVD divisions seem to be the only ones expected to “gain” something from this mess, because people choose to watch films at home rather than pay for a theater ticket –as an average, 3.50 dollars in Mexico, and over 4.50 in Brazil and Chile. Facts: audience ratings fell 10% in Asia, 14% in the United States, and 1% in the European Union (figures for the end of 2008 have it that more than 9 million people stopped going to the movies compared with the previous year, which meant the closure of 39 theaters).
Nonetheless, filmmakers such as the Argentinean Luis Puenzo (The Official Story, Old Gringo) believe the economic crisis “may blaze a trail that the less powerful countries can use to disseminate their motion pictures more. Despite the hard times worldwide cinema is going through, shaking the system a little bit always leaves gaps through which we can slip, used as we are to dealing with lower costs of production than the big Hollywood companies. My generation was born in mid-crisis and is trained to make films regardless of the financial ups and downs”.
Life has proved Puenzo right up to a point, but the crux of the matter remains that the «peripheral» industries can truly make movies, taking into account that the studios have been compelled to make budget cuts and put off some productions for next year, as they have less money for distribution.
For instance, that’s the case of the Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC), which was forced to postpone the shooting of feature films that were almost ready to begin after two years of a steady pace that gave us movies like Los dioses rotos, El cuerno de la abundancia, Omertá, Ciudad en rojo and La anunciación.
Some documentary and full-length films are almost ready to hit the big screen, namely Esteban Insausti’s Larga distancia; El ojo del canario, Fernando Pérez’s movie about our Apostle José Martí; Juan Carlos Cremata’s El premio flaco; and Daniel Díaz’s Lisanka. Yet, we’ll have to slow down.
For the time being, the moviegoers’ greatest hope is that only those films supported by good scripts will get the go-ahead and the budget they need, at least while the crisis still goes on.
By digital@jrebelde.cip.cu
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
From early childhood we all explore our genitals to try to understand how they are, why they are there and why they are different in size and shape from those of others, whether they are close adults or other boys and girls.
Likewise, we examined the rest of our bodies, but to nobody does it seem odd that a baby touches its face or bites the arms of another child, whereas a tiny hand lowering with insistence toward the vulva or penis –their own or another’s– always generates a certain preoccupation.
Like most animals, human beings exhibit an obvious sexual di–morphism, the name given to the unequal appearance (external and internal) among individuals of the same species according to their biological sex.
Among humans that difference is just 15 per cent, and during childhood it is mostly perceptible in the genital area. Inasmuch as those parts are “coincidentally” the ones that the family most insists on covering, it is natural that children associate that minimal difference with the entire accumulation of roles and exclusions that signifies being reared as a boy or a girl in all past and present societies.
The typical curiosity of that age leads them to focus their attention on such attributes and not miss any opportunity to tune into differences between females and males, and in passing, to find out if they respond equally to touch, which in itself is pleasant.
Over the years, they understand that adults do not like such exploratory practices, and since there is so much to learn and master in this world, those doubts are left for later, until they awaken in an alluvium of hormones that makes it urgent to comprehend what is happening to them, why those “little touches” are so enjoyable and if they have some relation to the intimate secrets of mom and dad.
That is one of the challenges for which many families never believe they are well–prepared. Clearly, we all passed through that stage, but in confronting the masturbation practices of adolescence, sometimes culture weighs more understanding one’s prejudices, myths and inherited fears– than the memory of one’s own experience.
Incredibly, parental reactions range from the man who tries to teach his son to “launch” fortune afar, to the mother who knocks insistently on the bathroom door if the boy lingers a lot. There’s also those humiliating smiles of mischief at any attempt for pubescent privacy, so it is left clear that he only wants to rest, to read or to listen to music.
When it comes to girls, the subject is much more harsh. Still, there are few families which assimilate female masturbation as a path to self–recognition, a useful activity to delay the onset of coital relations –and therefore the risks of any sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) or an unplanned pregnancy– in addition to a valuable exercise to prevent anorgasmia and to learn to give more value to individual pleasure.
Autoeroticism is born from the longing to know one’s own body and its reactions, explains the Spanish neurologist Nolasc Acarín in his book, El Cerebro del Rey…, edited by the Scientific–Technical seal for the current Book Fair.
Although in both sexes explicit masturbation arrives with adolescence, in boys, it is more precocious and sometimes takes somewhat of a “sport” direction, while in girls, it requires a higher degree of fantasy and often appears after several endeavors of sexual exchange with other people.
In both cases, this habit can persist, even after the initiation of coital activity, as a way for releasing tensions, satisfying cravings and increasing self–confidence, or as a substitute for a complacent sexual partner.
An inhibition eminently cultural
Years ago it was considered the worst bad taste for a man to confess those masturbation habits to his stable partner, and of course, it was almost unthinkable the other way around. Not even among friends was the topic talked about a lot, as if it were a sin to say it and much more to do it.
This inhibition is a phenomenon more cultural than biological, says Doctor Acarín. In some way, he has sought to understand female auto-eroticism as an exponent of women’s freedom, which does not need a man to obtain pleasure.
In an obsession to prevent this “dangerous” ability to exercise the right to one’s own body, several countries turn to an ancient gender violence consisting of the mutilation of the clitoris of millions of girls each year, this organ being a type of palpable symbol of that independence of pleasure, an attribute exclusively female which many still consider unnecessary or aberrant since in her they do not encounter in her a reasonable participation in the reproductive process of the human species.
In contrast, male masturbation alone or in a group, with the purpose of “fertilizing” the earth, was common in several ancient cultures. In these times, there are few arguments against it –almost always arguments of a religious order, more than medical or moral– unless the he practices it in public places or has a compulsive behavior that affects other areas of his life, such as couple relationships, children or his performance in society.
In this matter, as in many others, gender equity still has a lot of ground to conquer. Girls as well as boys can begin to masturbate at any age and it is normal. But they can not to do it, because it does not interest them or because they prefer other forms of channeling their energy, and that too is normal.
What is abnormal is to believe that there is a single path to reach maturity, that that path has its limitations when it comes to women or men and that the road is only one way, as if beginning to give ourselves to others would imply stopping to belong to our own selves.
Ask up front
D.A.: I have been married for four years. I believe that my relationship is dying and I want to be able to act, but I cannot find the right way. Sometimes I do not feel anything for him. However, when I decide to end it, something very powerful stops me. Always there was enough confidence and communication on both sides. That does not prevent me from now seeing everything as routine, without anything new, without passion. Our sexual relations are once a month. Is that normal? On the other hand, I desire to be with an ex who I have not seen for a long time. I am 21 years old.
RESPONSE: By what you say, the relationship appears to be in a time of crisis. This does not have to lead to its extinction. In fact, it could be an opportunity to revitalize it. Everything will depend on what you both are able to undertake.
You say that you do not know how to act, but you only emphasize the separation attempts, fortunately unsuccessful. That is, your relationship still matters to you. The ties stay well–knotted despite the boredom and distancing.
On the other hand, you have in your favor a history of good communication. It is going to be time to activate it after elucidating what is happening, such as its possible causes and alternative solutions. Only the two of you will be able to gradually find your own solution.
We often grieve the positive of past loves when the current one is in crisis. This is a signal in the present situation. A call rather to recuperate the vitality of the marriage, still very young.
There are many challenges that a stable couple encounters along their path. There are multiple high and low points on any amorous trajectory. One is not happy because of the absence of conflicts, but rather by knowing how to overcome them. It is essential to define them, to understand them, to find
alternative solutions or alleviations and if necessary to accept certain realities non gratis.
On that “something powerful” that stops your impulse to break up, it is the kindling to revive the fire, still burning. Do not stop trying.
Mariela Rodríguez Méndez, Masters in Clinical Psychology, Counselor in STDs and HIV/AIDS and Psychoanalyst.
By Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
June 2009
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
The mere fact that the U.S. blockade on Cuba has remained in place even when almost all U.N. member states vote against such policy every year is a sure sign of its impudence. However, the obscene nature of the economic war that the world’s sole superpower wages on its small, poor neighboring country lies first of all in a long string of lies that violate the foremost rule of international coexistence: interference by one state in another state’s internal affairs.
Never mind that over 300 million Americans are ashamed of being taken for accessories to a siege designed to bring suffering, hunger and hardship to a nearby population thirty times smaller who defend their independence at all costs: the falseness of the arguments employed by various U.S. Administrations –using a vast media machinery financed by the taxpayers– is an affront to common sense and irrefutable proof of their contempt for the American people, whom they fooled from the outset into thinking that the “embargo” was justified as a means to put pressure on a Cuban Revolution that had seized property owned by, and paid no compensation to, major U.S. companies. Truth is, Cuba observed all international standards on the legitimate nationalization of foreign assets, whereas the U.S. government was the only one who had banned its nationals from negotiating the terms of expropriation, like investors from other nations were doing with whom a satisfactory indemnity was soon after agreed.
Then they came up with the excuse of the threat the Cuban Revolution posed to the hemispheric system, on whose behalf the U.S. masterminded a collective severing of ties with Cuba embraced by all the then-members of the OAS, with the exception of Mexico. As Latin America has been able to advance steadily toward sovereignty, all its countries have reestablished relations with the island.
Cuba’s support for the armed struggle led by national liberation movements across the continent also served to justify the blockade, but the excuse grew obsolete as insofar as the said forces managed to make themselves heard at the polls and other democratic forums, and so our links with them translated into open, plain solidarity.
Cuba’s alignment with the USSR and China was still another reason to accuse the island of violating the principles of Pan-Americanism when, in all fairness, what worried the U.S. above all else was Cuba’s status as a fully independent socialist country, its central role within the nonaligned movement and, ultimately, its great prestige and clout among the peoples and nations of the South.
Totally unconcerned for the truth, the U.S. has used its remarkable financial power to orchestrate media campaigns accusing Cuba of alleged human rights violations, trying to conceal the fact that, not counting the outrages committed in the prison that the U.S. keeps in the illegally occupied territory of Guantanamo bay, the island boasts the cleanest record of respect for such rights in the last half century.
Washington has tried all along to make people believe that the pressure exerted by the Miami-based right-wing Cuban American extremists is the reason why it has not voided its embarrassing policy of condemning a free nation to hunger and privation in order to pave the way for a popular uprising against the socialist revolutionary project. What’s certain is that these groups were created by the CIA, and they’re still filling their coffers with money from the federal budget to “promote democracy in Cuba”.
Everybody knows that when the U.S. decides to normalize relations with a ‘hostile’ country they get rid in a jiffy of the “powerful” lobby run by those opposed to the said nation. Like Rome did, Washington has hired traitors, but it despises them.
Given the undeniable evidence of the blockade’s failure, it’s the U.S.’s place to admit so and proceed to repair the offense in compliance with the principles of international law. Obviously, it has chosen instead to devise a face-saving tactics without changing its strategy. Now its discourse reads as follows: “After 47 years, the unilateral embargo on Cuba has failed to reach the goal of taking democracy to the Cuban people. The international community demands more refined and specific sanctions against unruly governments that are not so detrimental to the civilian population, because a general measure unite people around their leaders and become therefore counterproductive”.
There’s every indication that the new standpoint lays the foundations for other plans and more subtle lies –with exactly the same purposes of neo-annexation– in detriment of Cuban independence and the Cubans’ right to carry on the Revolution they have been called to achieve, since 1868 to the present day, by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, José Martí and Fidel Castro.
Por Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
El solo hecho de que la política de bloqueo de Estados Unidos contra Cuba se haya mantenido a despecho de que casi la totalidad de los Estados que integran la Organización de Naciones Unidas la condenan cada año, bastaría para demostrar su condición impúdica.
Pero el carácter obsceno de esa guerra económica que libra hace medio siglo la superpotencia global única contra la pequeña y pobre nación vecina radica, sobre todo, en que se ha fundamentado siempre en mentiras para quebrantar la primera de las normas de la coexistencia internacional: la condena de la intromisión de cualquier Estado en los asuntos internos de otro.
Más allá de la ignominia que representa para los más de 300 millones de estadounidenses aparecer como cómplices de un asedio llamado a provocar sufrimientos, hambre y miserias a un pueblo vecino treinta veces menor en número que defiende su independencia al costo de cualquier sacrificio, la falsedad de los argumentos que han utilizado las administraciones estadounidenses -con apoyo de una inconmensurable maquinaria mediática que paga la ciudadanía con sus impuestos- constituye un atentado a la razón y un grave menosprecio de la inteligencia del pueblo norteamericano.
De inicio, se le mintió a los estadounidenses alegando que el “embargo”, como instrumento de presión, se justificaba porque la revolución cubana había expropiado sin compensación propiedades de grandes corporaciones estadounidenses, cuando el hecho cierto era que Cuba cumplía todas las normas internacionales para actos de legítima nacionalización y el gobierno de EEUU era el único que prohibía a sus nacionales negociar los términos de compensación como lo estaban haciendo los inversionistas de otras naciones con quienes en poco tiempo se acordaron indemnizaciones satisfactorias.
Pasó después el bloqueo a justificarse por la amenaza que la revolución cubana constituía para el sistema hemisférico, en cuyo nombre Estados Unidos impuso un rompimiento colectivo de relaciones con Cuba que acataron todos los entonces miembros de la Organización de Estados Americanos, menos México. A medida que las naciones latinoamericanas han podido avanzar hacia la afirmación de sus soberanías, todas han restablecido sus vínculos con Cuba.
El apoyo de Cuba a la lucha armada de los movimientos de liberación nacional en Latinoamérica sirvió también de justificación para el bloqueo, pero ésta se fue haciendo obsoleta en la medida en que esas fuerzas iban logrado la posibilidad de manifestarse en las urnas y de otras maneras democráticas, traduciéndose así los nexos de Cuba con ellos en una solidaridad abierta y transparente.
El alineamiento de Cuba con la URSS y China fue otra razón para acusar a la Isla de violar los principios del panamericanismo, cuando en verdad lo que preocupaba era su condición de país socialista absolutamente independiente, su papel protagónico en el movimiento de países no alineados y, en última instancia, su gran prestigio y autoridad entre los pueblos y naciones del Sur.
Sin preocuparse en lo absoluto por la verdad, Estados Unidos ha manejado contra Cuba el argumento de supuestas violaciones de los derechos humanos, usando su formidable poder financiero como propulsor
mediático, pretendiendo ocultar que Cuba ha sido el país del hemisferio donde más fielmente se han respetado los derechos humanos en el último medio siglo, si se excluyen los desmanes en la cárcel que EEUU mantiene en la base militar de Guantánamo, en territorio ilegalmente ocupado a la Isla.
Y, en todo momento, se ha pretendido hacer ver que la presión ejercida por los grupos extremistas cubano-americanos de Miami ha sido responsable de que Washington no cancele esa política bochornosa que condena al hambre y grandes privaciones a una nación soberana, pretendiendo forzar a su pueblo a alzarse contra el proyecto socialista de la revolución popular. Lo cierto es que estos grupos fueron creados por la CIA y son aún financiados por el presupuesto federal con partidas dedicadas a la “promoción de la democracia en Cuba” que nutren arcas en Miami.
Cualquiera sabe de qué manera tan expedita es capaz EEUU de deshacerse del “poder” de los lobbies de los adversarios de sus enemigos cuando decide normalizar relaciones con un país “hostil”. Como Roma, Washington paga a los traidores, pero los desprecia.
Ante la evidencia del fracaso del bloqueo, correspondería al gobierno de Estados Unidos reconocerlo y proceder a reparar la ofensa dentro de los principios del derecho internacional, pero es evidente que se ha modelado una táctica que pretende limpiar la cara sin variar la estrategia. Su discurso hoy reza así:
“Después de 47 años, el embargo unilateral a Cuba ha fracasado en lograr el objetivo de llevar la democracia al pueblo cubano. La comunidad internacional exige que las sanciones sean más refinadas y específicas contra los gobiernos rebeldes y que afecten menos a la población civil porque las medidas generales aglutinan al pueblo en torno a sus dirigentes y por ello se hacen contraproducentes”.
Todo parece indicar que, con esta nueva óptica, prosperan en Estados Unidos -con idénticos fines neo anexionistas- nuevos planes y mentiras más sutiles contra la independencia y el derecho de los cubanos a continuar una revolución a la que, desde 1868 hasta hoy, han estado convocados por Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, José Martí y Fidel Castro.
By Kaloi Santos Cabrera
March 04, 2009 00:42:57 GMT
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
The festival “For you, Woman” will be held from the 6th -8th March concurring with the Cuban Women Federation 8th Congress.
The Young Communists League is giving the finishing touches to an extensive program called “For you, Woman”, to be held from the 6th – 8th of March, to entertain Cuban women in every corner of the country.
This festival, concurring with the sessions of the 8th Congress of the Cuban Women’s Federation that will take place Saturday and Sunday, will hold its main events at the Cuba Pavilion [in Havana]. It will start with a meeting of female soldiers. Participants will be young students from several military schools and the founders of the Feminine Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment formed by Vilma Espin.
Similar meetings will take place this day with women of other fields, like education and science. An exhibition of famous Cuban heroines painted by Antonio Guerrero will also be shown. Similarly, the [Computer] Youth Clubs will present several multimedia, like “Celia, Butterfly of the Sierra”. Singer Ivette Cepeda and her group Reflection will close the day.
On Saturday, the meetings will be held with women from the cultural sector. Therefore, music, literature and art will seize the pavilion. Children from “Bebe Compañia” and from the “Cascabelito” choir will be two of the outstanding performances that day. The presentation of the literary anthology “Spaces in the Island, 50 years of women’s stories in Cuba” and the opening of a collective exhibition of paintings from 17 artists are also included. The vocal group “Zamba” has been announced for the evening concert,
On Sunday, it’s the International Woman’s Day and the debut of our baseball team in the II Baseball World Classic. So, the main event will be a meeting with great national sporting figures. Other important events will be the performances of the Ballet of the L y 19 school, of the “Nene Traviesa” Children’s Company, and of the project “JADE” of the “Hemanos Saiz” Association.
During these three days, Pavilion Cuba will also provide food and hairdressing services and CDs, books, and craft sales in local currency.
By DPA and AFP, March 22, 2009
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
Around 56,000 peasants received plots of idle land thanks to a measure adopted by Cuban president Raúl Castro, though his government’s efforts to increase food production through this and other decrees might be doomed to failure as a result of inexperience and lack of consumables, local daily Juventud Rebelde (JR), organ of the Young Communist League in the island, reported today
To date, according to a lengthy report by National Center for Land Management director Pedro Olivares Gutiérrez and published in JR, around 56,000 people have got the land they requested and intend to make productive, a difficult endeavor if we take into account that over 80% of the beneficiaries had no land before now and only 16.7% went to experienced farmers, he said.
“If these new producers go at it untrained, there will be great obstacles to achieve any significant food production,” remarked Félix Palau, an agronomy professor with the University of Ciego de Avila, a province of central Cuba. “Land is being given to many people who have no idea how to deal with it and therefore need to start by learning the nuts and bolts of agriculture, let alone a proper qualification.”
JR pointed out that because of difficulties in handing over the plots and a number of problems facing the brand-new landowners, most of these lands are still unready for farming today.
Giving out idle land comes high on the Cuban government’s list of priorities to boost food production, a matter of national security especially after the island was hit by three hurricanes at the end of 2008 that caused 10 billion dollars’ worth of losses.
President Raúl Castro’s initiative was announced on April 2 last year, but it was in late September that the required formalities started to entitle private farmers, peasants associations and cooperatives to own 13.4 hectares of land, and up to 40.3 if they are already growing any crop.
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