The conditions for dialogue and peace have been built
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ATERCIOPELADOS
The conditions for dialogue and peace have been built
The Colombian rock duo Aterciopelados will play in Cuba next November
Author: Michel Hernández | michel@granma.cu
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
Aterciopelados. Photo: Courtesy of the group
In the three interviews that I have done with Aterciopelados in recent years, the Colombian rock duo repeated like a mantra their desire to perform in Cuba. Finally, they will succeed in November when they will lead, together with Chilean rapper Ana Tijoux, the roster of the Patria Grande Festival to be held in Havana and other provinces from 17 to 26 next month. The duo, composed of vocalist and composer Andrea Echeverri and bassist and also composer, Hector Buitrago, will premiere new themes on the island and perform the classics of their repertoire included on the DVD Reluciente, rechinante y aterciopelado (Gleaming, Screechy and Velvety) (2016).
Aterciopelados has a 20 year-plus career, seven studio albums and a handful of songs like “Bolero Falaz” and “Florecita Rockera”, which have become cult themes for their thousands of followers on the Latin scene.
These Colombians, responsible for the expansion of Latin rock on the international stage during the 1990s, will come to Havana after taking part in a historic moment for their country and Latin America. The duo went on stage a few days ago at a concert in Bogota to celebrate the peace agreements between the Government of José Manuel Santos and the FARC-EP.
“It was a great privilege to be part of this historic moment for the country; we were very excited. We all cried, it was emotional, but there was always the specter of what might happen in the plebiscite. Now the question is how to avoid this pitfall; that will be the ultimate test of the dialogue: the real ability to agree among abysmally opposed thoughts,” said Andrea about the triumph of the NO in the plebiscite, in this new interview with Granma, responding by e-mail together with her companion, Héctor Buitrago.
Since its foundation, Aterciopelados has taken sides for the end of the war in Colombia. What did it mean to you to have witnessed the peace agreements?
Andrea: We’ve spent sad and confused days. After being present and excited at the signing of the agreement between the Government and the FARC-EP, the YES lost in the referendum. Without fully understanding the implications of this setback yet, we think that despite the frustration, the conditions for dialogue and peace have been built anyway. The FARC-EP have said that their only weapons will be words, and the government has confirmed that another agreement will be sought that would be agreeable to the majority of Colombians.
Did you think that these agreements would someday materialize?
Andrea: We were really losing hope because the conflict has lasted practically since we were born; there were several attempts and no agreement had been reached. In some way, we became desensitized.
In several of our past interviews you have told me about your interest in playing in Cuba and you will fulfill that wish during the Patria Grande Festival dedicated to great female voices of the region. What are your expectations in those upcoming concerts which, coincidentally, will be held on this historic moment?
Andrea: – We are happy to go to Cuba, happy to accompany female singing, and despite the results, we remain committed to a life project, with an ideology, with a pacifist lyricism of gender, ancestral and ecological.
You’ve just released the CD DVD “Reluciente”. What stage of Aterciopelados does this album summarize?
Hector: It’s a retrospective. It is the celebration of our mileage; it’s like suddenly looking at the past through the eyes of those for whom our songs have been important, and to feel happy, honored, and grateful. And to also feel willing to see it as a new beginning, to continue learning and finding new stuff, errors and bets, wins and losses, risks and creation.
What differences do you perceive between the current Latin scene which gave birth to the band and the present?
Hector: It has grown a lot, the infrastructure, the technical and musical level have greatly improved, which is reflected in the large number and diversity of bands and projects currently on the scene.
Do you feel that Latin rock bands have lost the social activism that, for example, has always characterized Aterciopelados?
Andrea: I think that political militancy should not be imposed. We found it on the road, and it has accompanied us, nurtured us, and strengthened us. But I also feel that it should not be imposed, should not be forced upon; sometimes you want to denounce, criticize, sometimes you’re angry, but sometimes you feel serene and want to dance, sometimes you’re even in love, and you have to write about what you feel and respect that which you are breathing and express it.
In the new album there is the theme “RE”. Can it be seen as a tribute to the eponymous album Café Tacuba?
Hector: Yes it can. The song came up because Ruben himself, the singer of Cafe Tacuba, asked Andrea how Aterciopelados could contribute to the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the “RE” album. So Andrea decided to write that song.
The Duo has always maintained a strong stance in favor of women’s rights. Do you think discrimination against women in Latin America has decreased?
Andrea: I think we have certainly conquered spaces, but there’s still a long way to go. There’s too much inequality, too much patriarchal structure dominating the scene. In fact I think the hyper-sexualization and trivialization of culture (sexualized capitalism, reggaeton, pole-dancing in gyms and, in general, the realm of appearance over substance), has resulted in a setback in some respects. Furthermore, it has strengthened the vision of women as sex objects (a small piece of meat with a barbie-song complex, as we sing in “Oye mujer”), and the impoverishment of the many subtle dimensions of femininity.
What are you working on now after releasing “Reluciente”?
Hector: The idea is to make a new record in 2017. We have material from our solo albums “Conector” and “Ruiseñora”, each in its own house, but the idea is also to compose collectively.
The band has always experimented with rock and the native sounds of Colombia and Latin America. Will you keep that creative spirit in your next albums?
Andrea: The idea is that the high-risk creative spirit is never lost. We have included not only rock and folklore, but also electronics, reggae, disco, blues, music from the Atlantic, music from the Pacific, beach and mountain music; we have even mixed different things in one song, we welcome everything that comes our way, even reggaeton!!! I would love to make anti-reggaeton reggaeton.
ATERCIOPELADOS
Las condiciones para el diálogo y la paz han sido construidas
El dúo colombiano de rock, Aterciopelados, tocará en Cuba el próximo noviembre
Aterciopelados. Photo: Courtesy of the group
En las tres entrevistas que le he realizado a Aterciopelados en los últimos años, el dúo colombiano de rock ha repetido como un mantra su deseo de tocar en Cuba. Finalmente lo lograrán en noviembre, cuando encabecen junto a la rapera chilena Ana Tijoux el cartel del festival Patria Grande, que se celebrará en La Habana y otras provincias del país del 17 al 26 del próximo mes. El dúo, integrado por la vocalista y compositora Andrea Echeverri y el bajista y el también compositor, Héctor Buitrago, estrenará en la isla nuevos temas y presentará los clásicos de su repertorio agrupados en el DVD, Reluciente, rechinante y aterciopelado ( 2016).
Aterciopelados lleva más de 20 años de carrera, siete discos de estudio y un puñado de canciones como Bolero Falaz y Florecita rockera, que han sido asumidas como un objeto de culto por sus miles de seguidores en la escena latina.
Estos colombianos, responsables de la expansión del rock latino en los escenarios internacionales durante la década de los 90, llegarán a La Habana después de participar en un momento histórico para su país y América Latina. El dúo subió a los escenarios hace pocos días en un concierto en Bogotá para celebrar los acuerdos de paz entre el Gobierno de José Manuel Santos y las FARC-EP.
«Fue un gran privilegio ser parte de este momento histórico para el país, estábamos muy emocionados. Todos lloramos, fue emocionante, aunque siempre estaba el fantasma de lo que podía suceder en el plebiscito. Ahora la pregunta es cómo sortear este escollo, esa será la máxima prueba del diálogo, de la verdadera capacidad de ponerse de acuerdo entre pensamientos abismalmente contrarios, dice Andrea sobre el triunfo del No en el plebiscito en esta nueva entrevista con Granma, respondida vía correo electrónicojuntoa su compañero de ruta, Héctor Buitrago.
—Desde su fundación Aterciopelados ha tomado partido por el fin de la guerra en Colombia. ¿Qué significado le otorgan al hecho de haber sido testigos de los acuerdos de paz?
Andrea:—Hemos pasado días tristes y confusos. Luego de estar presentes y emocionados en la firma del acuerdo entre el gobierno y las FARC-EP, perdió el Sí en el plebiscito. Sin entender a cabalidad todavía las repercusiones de este revés, pensamos que de todas maneras, a pesar de la frustración, las condiciones para el diálogo y la paz han sido construidas. Las FARC-EP han dicho que su única arma serán las palabras, y el gobierno ha afirmado que se buscará otro acuerdo con el que la mayoría de los colombianos esté de acuerdo.
—¿Pensaron que estos acuerdos se concretarían algún día?
Andrea:—Realmente íbamos perdiendo la esperanza porque el conflicto ha durado prácticamente desde que nacimos, hubo varios intentos y no se había logrado concretar algún acuerdo. De alguna manera nos insensibilizamos.
—En varias entrevistas que hemos realizado me han hablado de su interés en tocar en Cuba y ya podrán cumplir ese deseo durante el festival Patria Grande dedicado a grandes voces femeninas de la región. ¿Qué esperan de esos próximos conciertos que casualmente se celebrarán en este momento histórico?
Andrea:— Estamos felices de ir a Cuba, felices de acompañar cantos femeninos, y a pesar de los resultados, seguimos comprometidos con un proyecto de vida, con una ideología, con un lirismo pacifista, de género, ancestral y ecológico.
—Acaban de estrenar su CD DVD Reluciente. ¿Qué etapa de Aterciopelados resume este material?
Héctor:—Es una retrospectiva. Es la celebración del kilometraje, es de pronto mirar al pasado con los ojos de aquellos para los que han sido importantes nuestras canciones, y sentirse feliz, honrado, agradecido. Y sentirse también con ganas de que sea un nuevo comienzo, que siga el aprendizaje y los hallazgos, los errores y las apuestas, los triunfos y las derrotas, los riesgos y la creación.
—¿Qué diferencias perciben entre la escena latina que vio nacer a la banda y la actual?
Héctor:—Ha crecido mucho, la infraestructura, el nivel técnico y musical han mejorado bastante, eso se ve reflejado en la gran cantidad y diversidad de bandas y proyectos que se mueven en la escena.
—¿Sienten que los grupos latinos de rock han perdido la militancia social que, por ejemplo, ha caracterizado siempre a Aterciopelados?
Andrea:—Creo que la militancia no se debe imponer. Nosotros la encontramos en el camino, y nos ha acompañado, nos ha nutrido, nos ha fortalecido. Pero también siento que no se debe imponer, no se debe forzar, a veces quieres denunciar, criticar, a veces estás furioso, pero a veces estás sereno y con ganas de bailar, a veces hasta enamorado, y hay que escribir sobre lo que se siente, respetar eso que se respira, expresarlo.
—En el nuevo material aparece el tema Re ¿Se puede considerar un homenaje al álbum homónimo de Café Tacuba?
Héctor:—Si así es, la canción surgió porque el mismo Rubén, cantante de Cafe Tacvba hablando con Andrea le preguntó cómo Aterciopelados podría aportar a la celebración del aniversario 20 del disco RE. Así es que Andrea decidió escribir esta canción
—El dúo siempre ha mantenido una fuerte postura a favor de los derechos de la mujer ¿Creen que ha disminuido la discriminación contra las mujeres en Hispanoamérica?
Andrea:—Creo que sin duda hemos conquistado espacios, pero todavía falta mucho camino por recorrer. Hay demasiada desigualdad, demasiada estructura patriarcal dominando el panorama. De hecho creo que la hipersexualización y banalización de la cultura (capitalismo sexualizado, reguetón, pole dancing en los gimnasios y en general el reino de la apariencia sobre la esencia) da como resultado un revés en algunos aspectos. Además se ha ido fortaleciendo la visión de la mujer como objeto sexual(pedacito de carne con complejo de barbie-canción, como cantamos en Oye mujer), y el empobrecimiento de las múltiples y sutiles dimensiones de lo femenino.
—¿En qué trabajan ahora después de publicar Reluciente?
Héctor—La idea es hacer un disco nuevo en el 2017. Tenemos material de nuestros discos en solitario Conector y Ruiseñora, cada uno en su casa, pero la idea también es componer en colectivo.
—La banda siempre ha experimentado con el rock y sonidos autóctonos de Colombia y América Latina. ¿Mantendrán ese espíritu creativo en sus próximos discos?
Andrea:—La idea es que el espíritu creativo de alto riesgo no se pierda nunca. Hemos incluido no solo rock y folclore, también electrónica, regue, disco, blues, música del Atlántico, música del Pacífico, música de playa y de montaña, incluso hemos mezclado diferentes cosas en una sola canción, bienvenido todo lo que se atraviese, hasta reguetón!!! Me encantaría hacer reguetón antireguetón.
Bob Dylan Wins Nobel Prize for Literature 2016
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Bob Dylan Wins Nobel Prize for Literature 2016
Singer-songwriter Bob Dylan from the United States on Thursday won the Nobel Literature Prize 2016 on Thursday. He is the first musician to be honored in the category
Google translation.
Revised by Walter Lippmann.
US singer-songwriter Bob Dylan on Thursday won the Nobel Literature Prize 2016. He is the first musician to be honored in the category
The Swedish Academy, in charge of making the announcement, said it recognized the 75 year-old rock star for “having created new poetic expressions within the great tradition of American song.”
Sara Danius, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, told Dylan that “for 54 years he has been inventing himself.”
Blonde on Blonde, his seventh studio album is “an extraordinary example of his brilliant way of rhyming, to gather sayings, his brilliant way of thinking,” said Danius.
Dylan, whose real name is Robert Allen Zimmerman, was born in 1941 and began his musical career in 1959, playing in cafes in Minnesota, USA
But his best known songs are from the 1960s such as Blowin ‘in the Wind and The Times They are A-Changin, some of which became anthems of the civil rights movement turned and against the Vietnam War.
Since June 7, 1988, Dylan has linked one tour with another, so he named his activity in the last three decades as the Never Ending Tour (The tour endless).
Industry Recognition
Before being honored by the Academy, Dylan already had industry recognition.
“His work remains totally devoid of conventionality, moral sleight or pop pabulum,” wrote Bill Wyman, the former bassist for the Rolling Stones for the American newspaper The New York Times in 2013.
“His lyricism is exquisite. It is demonstrated that its themes are timeless. Few poets have been more influential” he said.
“I’m not the first to suggest it, but it’s time to take the idea seriously. The Nobel Literature Prize is not awarded posthumously and Mr. Dylan is already in his seventies. Alfred Nobel decreed that the prize should go to a writer with “highlights work in an ideal direction”, he continued.
The Nobel Prize for Literature, together with the winners of the other disciplines, will be presented on December 10.
Bob Dylan gana el Premio Nobel de Literatura 2016 (+ Video)
El cantautor estadounidense Bob Dylan ganó este jueves el premio Nobel de Literatura 2016. Se trata del primer músico en ser distinguido en la categoría
La Academia Sueca, la encargada de hacer el anuncio, dijo que reconoció a la estrella del rock de 75 años por “haber creado nuevas expresiones poéticas dentro de la gran tradición de la canción estadounidense”.
Sara Danius, secretaria permanente de la Academia Sueca, dijo de Dylan que “durante 54 años ha estado inventándose a sí mismo”.
De Blonde on Blonde, su séptimo disco de estudio, es “un extraordinario ejemplo de su brillante manera de rimar, de juntar refranes, de su brillante forma de pensar”, aseguró Danius.
Dylan, cuyo verdadero nombre es Robert Allen Zimmerman, nació en 1941 y comenzó su carrera musical en 1959, tocando en cafeterías de Minnesota, EE.UU.
Pero sus canciones más conocidas son de la década de 1960, como Blowin’ in the Wind y The Times They are A-Changin, algunas de las cuales se volvieron himnos del movimiento por los derechos civiles y contra la guerra de Vietnam.
Desde el 7 de junio de 1988, Dylan ha enlazado una gira con otra, por lo que él mismo bautizó su actividad de las últimas tres décadas como el Never Ending Tour (La gira sin fin).
Reconocimiento de la industria
Antes de ser distinguido por la Academia, Dylan ya contaba con el reconocimiento de la industria.
“Su trabajo se mantiene totalmente carente de convencionalidad, prestidigitación moral o pábulo pop”, escribía Bill Wyman, el exbajista de los Rolling Stones para el diario estadounidense The New York Times en 2013.
“Su lirismo es exquisito. Está demostrado que sus temas son eternos. Pocos poetas habrán sido más influyentes”, explicaba.
“No soy el primero en sugerirlo, pero es hora de tomar la idea en serio. El Premio Nobel de Literatura no se otorga de forma póstuma y el señor Dylan ya está en sus setentas. Alfred Nobel decretó que el premio debía ir a un escritor con “el trabajo más destacado en una dirección ideal”, proseguía.
El Nobel de Literatura, al igual que los ganadores de las otras disciplinas, será entregado el 10 de diciembre.
YES, Colombia DOES Want Peace
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Yes, Colombia DOES Want Peace
By Darilys Reyes Sánchez and Zulariam Pérez Martí
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
In the most sensitive epicenter remain the victims: those whose missing persons, lost homes or property will not be returned. / Photo: Sputniknews
In the most sensitive epicenter remain the victims: those whose missing persons, lost homes or property will not be returned. / Photo: Sputniknews
A 50.21 percent of Colombian voters marked their ballot against what the world expected. The issue has had several interpretations, not all of them accurate.
When Colombians went to the polls on Sunday, they did it to show their position on the agreement –that is: the terms, concepts, dispositions, and benefits– not on its greater purpose: peace. Although it sounds contradictory for those who watched the process from outside, those who voted agree on the desire to bring to a close five decades of armed conflict; but they do share options on how to do it.
“YES TO PEACE, BUT NOT TO THIS ONE” [#SiALaPazPeroEstaNo], became the trends in social networks before, during, and after the vote. To disagreements, mistrust was added: “The president cannot say the war is over, the kidnappings are over, insecurity is over, and Colombia is a magical country,” argued supporters of the NO. In the midst of this argument are the years of family misfortunes, deaths, kidnappings, and deep lacerations, on either side.
The results of the referendum showed internal division. Or what we think is worse: over 60 percent of the population abstained from voting on a matter of the highest relevance and priority for the country.
As explained to the 5 de Septiembre website, by Andrei Gómez-Suárez, a political scientist at the University of the Andes: “Colombia is an abstention-inclined country. The participation of Colombian society is felt in the presidential elections (…), but even in such elections, abstention levels remain above 40 percent. In atypical elections, such as the referendum, where there is no buying or fiddling with the votes, those who vote are new voters or sectors thoroughly involved with the democratic process.”
One of the recurring questions among Cuban public opinion is why the need for the plebiscite, if days before the agreement had been signed in the presence of senior leaders of the world. Clearly it was a democratic gesture, but it did not seem to change the course of events.
“It was a reasonable decision to measure to what extent the parties could count on public support for the implementation of many complex reforms that impact the countryside, crime, political participation, reparations for the victims, and investigations into those most responsible for international crimes,” said Gómez-Suárez.
Advocates of the NO argued that “they called on presidents all around the world to sign an agreement that Colombians were still studying; Why not do so once they had the certainty? Now everyone says that Colombians want to live in war, but there is nothing further from the truth.”
As never before, the Vatican, the UN, the International Monetary Fund, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the European Union, the OAS and all governments in the region supported the process. However, the final agreement is profoundly difficult to understand in a few weeks (297 pages).
“The problem was in the short times for the countersignature, says the political scientist. It was too short a time for explaining and teaching (…) In the last week the government and the FARC signed the Final Agreement in Cartagena and that was read by many Colombians as a confirmation of the YES. Many voted for the NO to express discontent.”
The logic behind the NO describes their points: “the FARC will not return the money they accumulated illegally in these years”; “only the State will repay damages to the victims”; “justice loses autonomy”; “war criminals will not go to jail “;”the agreement does not penalize drug trafficking “;” the FARC are not governed by International Humanitarian Law (IHL)”;” there is no guarantee for total disarmament “;” it weakens the Constitution … “.
Given the complexity of the negotiations, the government of Juan Manuel Santos claimed they had reached the best possible deal after four years of talks. According to the International Criminal Court, this satisfies the demands of justice. Only under these terms, and after three failed attempts in the last 30 years, did the FARC guerrillas agree to demobilize, surrender their weapons, and submit to transitional justice.
The new scenario returns former President Alvaro Uribe, defender of the NO who was until now excluded from the dialogue table, to center stage. Thus, each side equates representatives, being now the binomial Uribe-Santos the mediatic face of the conflict.
“Santos is a rational ruler; he seeks to convince of his public policy with arguments from a technical approach. Uribe does not care to be accurate; he uses colloquialisms and repeats several times the same phrases so his listeners get the message. While Uribe was exposed to the public, Santos delegated the issue to the negotiating team and civil society. It was a wise decision, but lacked finding some great emotional translators for the agreements; he stayed with the explanations of the negotiating team. This team could not counter Uribe emotionally,”Gómez-Suárez said to this newspaper.
In the most sensitive epicenter remain the victims: those whose missing persons, lost homes or property will not be returned. Still, many backed the YES with the aim of ending a conflict that has claimed about 267,000 lives in five decades.
For now, the future path for Colombia seems difficult to predict: “There is much uncertainty, says Gómez-Suárez. They are two parallel and complementary situations. On the one hand, a meeting between President Santos and former President Uribe will take place. This meeting should lead to a meeting with Timochenko. (…) This meeting will be essential for the parties to commit themselves to make the implementation of the agreements viable.
“On the other hand, civil society is promoting actions on the streets to support a negotiated solution to the armed conflict. Youth and social organizations are seeking to involve those who voted YES and NO to make a silent march for peace. No political posturing. If the political pact does not allow endorsing the agreements, social mobilization almost certainly will trigger the realization of a Constituent Assembly. “
From inside, reality could be much more diverse than what is reflected in the media; only Colombians understand it in all its magnitude. Perhaps they failed in this political consensus because the deal was agreed upon bilaterally and civil society got involved late in its implementation. So after the NO in Colombia another lesson emerges, and it shows that the process comprises more than two parties, more than two visions on a universal right: peace.
Andrei Gómez-Suárez, Ph.D. International Relations, Master in War Studies and Contemporary Peace. He specializes on Armed Conflict Resolution. He is a Political Scientist at the University of the Andes. / Photo: Internet
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Cannibis is a Dangerous Gamble for the Caribbean
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Cannabis is a Dangerous Gamble for the Caribbean
By Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
Exclusive for the daily Por Esto!, of Merida, Mexico
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
Marijuana is having a good time in the Caribbean. With the exception of Cuba, cannabis is widespread in the insular Caribbean, although it is no longer the “ganja” that came to the Caribbean from India and was used by humble workers in Jamaica to free themselves for a few moments from their cruel jobs.
So says an article published by the Italian magazine TTC (Travel Trade Caribbean), specializing in the tourism industry of the Caribbean region, today threatened by the dangerous presence of this universal scourge.
In 2015, the growth, trade and private possession of up to 200 grams of marijuana by adults and the growing of up to 5 plants for private consumption and medicinal, religious and scientific purposes was decriminalized in Jamaica, as a celebration of Bob Marley’s 70th birthday, the extraordinary Jamaican musician who was addicted to smoking the weed.
According to TTC, the successes of marijuana have gone so far in 2016 that the Bhang Travel Inc., in Miami, Florida, the Cannabis Industries Premiere Travel and Event Agency, launched the first-ever Jamaican Cannabis Cruise setting sail departing from Miami on January 2017 with destination Ocho Rios Port in Jamaica.
Currently, in many parts of the world, the number and influence of marijuana advocates is increasing. They argue for its general decriminalization or at least for its free use in medicine. Also increasing is the number of the detractors of marijuana which is still classified in the world as a class A (High-risk) drug, together with Heroin, Cocaine, Amphetamines and ecstasy (MDMA).
Cautiously, the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) recommended to its member countries the need for further research, before accepting new programs to liberate its use. The head of the organization, Dr. James Hospedales, advises “proceed with an abundance of caution.” He emphasizes the immense importance of youth protection.
Two Caribbean nations, US protectorate Puerto Rico and Jamaica, already have a medicinal cannabis program in place and others are taking steps to decriminalize it.
According to an analysis posted in the Internet about Jamaica, “the country is trying to cash in on the multi-billion-dollar health and wellness tourism sector that several Caribbean countries are turning to. But it won’t be the use of cannabis for traditional medicine purposes alone it is contemplating. It is also planning to use products made from the herb that would play a major part in the tourism sector”.
Jamaica´s Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett said Jamaica’s lush and rustic southwestern coast is “ideally suited for the concept of “cannabis-infused tourism” where products made from the herb would play a major part in the tourism sector”.
In 2015 the countries that had the least restrictive cannabis laws were Bangladesh, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, the Czech Republic, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Germany, the Netherlands, some U.S. states, Native American Indian reservations, and cities as well as some territories of Australia.
The countries that maintain the strictest cannabis laws are China, Egypt, France, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Norway, the Philippines, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam.
The global market for a cannabis tourism stands at around US $494 billion, according to the article in TTC.
Although the flow of cocaine heading north has been reduced, violent crime and drug trafficking mean serious threats to Central America and the Caribbean. Given its
geographical location between the main producers of coca in the South and the main consumers of narcotics in the North, the region has become a drug corridor.
October 3, 2016.
“His greatest work was his own life”
“His greatest work was his own life”
By Felipa de las Mercedes Suarez
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
Posted on September 25, 2016 • 16:40 by Felipa de las Mercedes Suarez Ramos.
Trabajadores
Gerardo Abreu, Fontán, distinguished himself by his integrity, morality, austerity and personal example.
Great affection, admiration, sorrow and respect, make up the amalgam of feelings that the face of Dr. Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada reflects while speaking of Gerardo Abreu, the unforgettable Fontán, his leader in the underground struggle against the tyranny of Fulgencio Batista.
His personality came to Alarcón clad in a legend because “they all spoke of a so-called Fontán who was a great organizer, a great leader. I imagined him as a tall, strong guy, someone generally described as a “big man”, hence the impression I got when I first met him; he was rather short, black, slim, soft-spoken, very polite, refined and serious, a man of few words who gave the orders very firmly, but gently; a curious character, despite his youth.“
Alarcón was active in the Youth and Students Brigades of the 26 of July Movement, the organization initiated by Antonio López Fernández in 1955. In October the following year, when he left for Mexico to join the preparations for the Granma expedition, he gave his deputy, Fontán, the responsibility of the brigades located in the city of Havana.
“Gerardo, born in a poor neighborhood in the city of Santa Clara on September 24, 1931, began to work from very young in anything; his best known job was as reciter of Afro-Cuban poetry, which he did very well. Despite his very basic level of education, merely fourth grade, he became an educated person with a great sensitivity; he liked poetry, literature… He was not the kind of person I had imagined.“
An Unsurpassed Organizer
“It has always been said –and it must be repeated– that he had a tremendous ability as an organizer, his dedication to the struggle and work. We are not referring to a person leading an organization with resources, who had cars at his disposal … He moved on foot or by bus, those were his means of transport. That’s how they caught him on Infanta Street.”
In connection with Fontán´s organizational capacity, our interviewee points out two crucial and revealing moments, one was in November 1957 when the famous night of the 100 bombs –actually small artifacts that caused no victims– that exploded in many neighborhoods of Havana after the traditional Cannon shot at 9 pm, which caused policemen and patrol cars to move frantically from one place to another.
“The other was on February 7, 1958. He had been arrested and we were convinced that they would kill him quickly: first, by the fierce hatred that the henchmen of the regime felt for him, and second, because he would not say absolutely anything. No one had the slightest doubt that he would not talk; he didn’t even give his own address or his name.”
“They knew that a guy known as Fontán led the strongest organization, the Youth and Student Movement Brigades of the 26 of July Movement in terms of organization and number of members within the whole kaleidoscope of existing revolutionary forces. We tried to make sure his arrest became known in an attempt to save him.”
Gerardo was “an example I wish we could reproduce today in our society, because it’s what we need most,” said Dr. Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada.
Havana’s Student Response
“At that time there were constitutional guarantees, but Batista suspended them due to the student strike that the death of Fontán generated: a tremendous movement that started spontaneously. As soon as the news spread, students began to protest in several centers. After that it became organized and the Federation of Students of Secondary Education called for a strike that was already underway. This lasted for three months and two ministers lost their posts.”
He describes the paralizing of all student centers in the capital: centers of Secondary Education, the schools of Teacher Training, Commerce and Arts and Crafts; private universities like Villanueva, La Salle and the Masonic; as well as private academies, whether religious or not.
“All of them, without exception, went on strike, and it did not start because the leaders, the organizers planned it; but because people desperately tried to save him. The next day his mangled corpse was found, next to the Palace of Justice. They did horrible things to him that it’s better not to describe.”
Alarcón notes that the best proof that he said nothing is that “we are alive, because he knew where I was; also where the heads of neighborhood brigades were and others, because although for many Fontán was a legend, he knew practically everyone because he organized them step by step, neighborhood by neighborhood. Something really impressive.”
“So he was the undisputed leader of the most advanced members of that generation of youth, many of them white, supposedly more educated than he; but nobody ever questioned his leadership. He was the one who knew best, the most intelligent and educated; really a very curious phenomenon, because in such a society, people like him were doomed to misery, to the worst.”
“Gerardo was like an exception, a miracle to which no youth of his social status could aspire. I don’t think anyone has an explanation for this mystery, because he was not dragged down by the vices and phenomena that harmed a lot of people at that time.”
“There is also something that has been said about him and we should not tire of repeating: his integrity, his morals. He taught us absolute austerity, and did so with his personal example. He was incapable of using a single penny of the Movement not even to eat. He could go hungry, but the funds he had raised –by selling bonds and other ways– were untouchable, and he educated us in that spirit.”
“I think a lot about El Negro [as friends called Gerardo] at that time, when there is so much talk about certain phenomena in Cuban society, and I wonder what he would think, because in that Cuba of widespread corruption, selfishness, lack of solidarity, Gerardo was exactly a master of the opposite, not a teacher who gave you heavy spiels but because we saw how he lived, how he went around walking or by bus. It was like that all the time.”
“He was impressively austere, and had a peculiar sense of leadership.. I think none of us who knew him ever questioned his authority, and we are talking about a Cuba where racial discrimination was very strong. When he gave orders he did so with few words, very concretely, and you perceived that he knew things better than you did, that he really knew what to do, and also he spoke very gently, very serenely.”
“In Cuban society at that time, where frustration and disappointment predominated, you needed to cling dearly to the moral and spiritual values, and to the idea that there could be another world, another life, an alternative.”
“And Fontán embodied that, because he was simply the best example, who came from deep down, from the lowest ranks of Cuban society, doomed to be a failure in life, as were all the poor people of this country. The fact that he lifted himself up and became an example to all was a feat.”
“I think that was largely due to himself, who, had he not been murdered, would have become one of the main political leaders of the Revolution. Surely one of the most valuable intellectuals, because he had an artist´s vocation, but his greatest work was his own life, extracting himself out of that very hostile environment to become an example that we could hopefully reproduce in our society, because it is what we need most.”
Stanley Scheinbaum: A Quixote of the 20th Century
Stanley Scheinbaum: A Quixote of the 20th Century
By Ricardo Alarcón
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
On Monday, September 12, at 96 years of age, Stanley K. Sheinbaum died in his California home. I want to add these lines to the tribute that he will surely receive from many everywhere. Despite his advanced age and ill health his friends will never find comfort for his departure. Because Stanley belongs to the category of those Bertolt Brecht called the essential who struggle all their lives.
From his New York childhood during the Great Depression until the era of the global dominance of US plutocracy he walked a long path that led him not only to travel across his country but also to know the rest of the world. He learned to be interested, as were few of his countrymen, in the conflicts and problems of others and to get involved and take sides, “trying to create a little peace and justice in this unjust world” as he wrote in his memoirs published five years ago (A 20th Century Knight’s Quest for Peace, Civil Liberties and Economic Justice).
He discovered in 1959 that the program he led at Michigan State University was a covert CIA activity, and became the first person who publicly denounced the illegal actions of the CIA inside the United States.
In the 1960s he articulated the campaign for the release of Andreas Papandreou, imprisoned by the military junta in Greece. He led the movement for raising the necessary funds for the defense of Daniel Elsberg, arrested in 1971 for revealing the so-called Pentagon Papers on the aggression to Viet Nam. This was an iconic fight with the outstanding participation of Leonard Boudin and his disciple the young Leonard Weinglass, both brilliant human rights and civil liberties activists. If it were not for Stanley, according to Ellsberg, “the trial would have been over, Nixon would have remained until the end of his term and the war would have continued.”
He promoted the work of the American Civil Liberties Union in Southern California to end racial segregation in schools and to combat the repressive methods of the LAPD as he led efforts against the apartheid regime of South Africa.
1988 he organized a group of American Jewish leaders who, on 6 December, met with Yasser Arafat in Stockholm, Sweden to start a process towards mutual understanding and peace in Palestine. The gesture won him many enemies. “For a while I was the most hated Jew in America … by other Jews” he wrote in his Autobiography.
He took a courageous stand in confronting police brutality and the Rodney King beating. He did so from his position on the Los Angeles Police Commission of the LAPD and on the streets of the city. “He was” –in the words of Afro-American Congresswoman Maxine Waters– “an extraordinary human being.”
He also addressed Cuba. He visited us here and we kept communication at a distance to the end. He opposed the blockade, fought for the normalization of relations, and was decisive in the battle for the liberation of our Five antiterrorists whose situation he helped publicize in the United States. What was announced on December 17, 2014, was also the result of his solidarity commitment that had rarely reached the major media headlines.
At the end of his life he could say: “I’m still interested; I still get involved; I still believe that tomorrow will be better. And so, I’m still very optimistic. If I have learned something over the years it is that it is not so important whether or not we win the battles. What is really important is that we continue waging the battles for justice, for equality, for fairness. “
Stanley keeps riding on.
The Battle for Honest Journalism
- English
- Español
The Battle for Honest Journalism
By Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
Exclusive for daily Por Esto! of Merida, Mexico.
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
We live in a world with all provisions set for the benefit of the owners of money: from electoral procedures and government structures to the smallest details of public and private relations. Everything has been oriented to the buying and selling mechanisms so they favor the owning classes who have the wealth.
In Latin America, not even Cuba –with its socialist revolution but also heir to countless of the methods, traditions and practices of capitalism– escapes this global reality. Except that in Cuba, by virtue of the deep socialist revolution that began half a century ago, the role previously held by the dominant wealthy classes is now exercised by society as a whole.
In the case of Cuba, a political organization –based on the most advanced revolutionary doctrine humanity has produced: Marxism– as society’s vanguard, protects its unity and ensures the legitimacy of truly democratic relations in all areas of society.
If we fail to consider that the mechanisms which freed Cuba from the evils of capitalism are still being created, tested, or waiting to be instituted to serve a social system that is also in the process of emerging fully, we are at risk of making serious mistakes. The Cuban revolution is not a copy of any other and, like other models that proclaim themselves Socialist, Cuba to find its own way.
Globally, journalism has become –for a long time now– an essential element of power, along with the three classic powers of the State (legislative, executive and judicial). Hence the media is often identified as the fourth power.
With this as its starting point, the ruling classes have succeeded in making the mainstream media (in print, radio, television and, more recently the Internet) a commodity and a tool aimed at convincing people and promoting compliance with capitalist ideas. They have done this with such effectiveness that they have succeeded in imposing their media dictatorship worldwide.
Advertising has become the lawful resource for those with money to defray cost of operating the media and thus controling it or exercise influence over its content proportional to the potential of their own economic and political interests.
Historically, big capitalists have not been satisfied with the ascendency they can get through their ads and have moved to partial or wholly ownership of the media, often using more or less publicly-identifiable fronts.
The ideological domination of oligarchies in Latin America –who often act as figureheads for the hegemonic domination of large US corporations– has been acquiring such a high level on the continent that no one doubts that a social revolution is not feasible without destroying the counterrevolutionary control of the media.
Confirmation of this conception is the fact that today in Latin America, the media under control of the ruling classes are playing the role that, in the last century, was played by the Latin American military hierarchy. The military carried out the coups –promoted by the United States– which plunged the region into the most nefarious situation of inequality, crime and misery.
However, according to recent experiences in the hemisphere, we could say that a coup may occur with the military or without it, with parliament or without it, with the media or without it, but always with the financial resources that move the wheels.
Although the laws of technological development tend to make the media increasingly social, the owners of capital have managed to always put communications and the media in a place outside the control of centers of democratic power. Thus, they facilitate their control by the owners of financial resources: the capitalists.
The Cuban experience –with its virtues and its many flaws that today are hotly debated by journalists in the island– shows that the social ownership of communications and the media with the widest popular participation, in a society with social ownership of the major means of production and distribution, opens the possibility of the use and effective enjoyment of these media by the majority… and safeguards it from the insatiable greed of capital.
Other mechanisms could be valid, but are yet to be tested and confirmed by practice.
September 19, 2016.
Thoughts on the Eve of Returning to Cuba
Thoughts on the Eve of Returning to Cuba
by Walter Lippmann
Tlatelolco, Mexico, Saturday, September 3, 2016
Later this morning I’ll be off to Havana via Interjet, a Mexican airline which flies regularly. “Father, forgive me, for I have sinned:” It’s been nine months since my last time down, in December 2015. I’m looking forward to seeing whatever changes have taken place. I’m hoping to spend another three months, and plan to post regular reports of things done, places seen and people met.
Each time before I go, I try to post some final thoughts before leaving for the island where my impressions are altered or corrected by Cuban reality, as they always are. What follows are rough notes, and not in order of importance. I hope you’ll find them of interest. I’ll have to look back and the and see what actually happened. Will also plan to post some first impressions as soon as I’m settled in. Probably not until Sunday.
First-hand observations
It’s amazing how different Cuba is from a distance. That’s why it’s so important to actually GO to Cuba and see it for oneself. It’s also why Washington imposed, and continues to maintain, a travel ban on US citizens and residents.
The Obama administration has modified the ban, but it is still on the books. Vacationing and going to the beach remain violations of US law, even if not vigorously enforced, for now. Basically, Washington just does not want people from the US to see the country first hand, because, warts and all, it is so different from the hostile and tendentious image we’ve been fed ever since the earliest days.
You know: Cuba is a dictatorship. There are no human rights. Everyone is spied on. There is no Internet, and so on. The last example I saw was in that otherwise-objective piece about Cuba’s success in fighting the Zika virus which the main AP reporter in Cuba, in today’s Washington Post.
When I started following Cuba most closely, in the late 1990s, the problem was the lack of information, and most of what we got in the dominant capitalist media was tendentious and hostile. That’s still largely true, but, with the change toward a more formally normalized diplomatic relationship, that’s changed somewhat. Now we’re overwhelmed with information in the dominant media, and some of that is not unsympathetic, or downright friendly.
For example, the current issue of WESTWAYS, the magazine of the definitely NOT leftist Automobile Club of Southern California (AAA). It’s cover art and main headline is HOLA CUBA. The issue has eight full pages without advertising and it’s all presented in a friendly, encouraging tone.
If we can get it scanned and posted, I will share it. It must be very popular because, after standing on a waiting line and presenting my club membership, they were only willing to give me two copies. Who will be the lucky Cubans who get them?
Transportation
In Los Angeles, I more and more try to avoid driving. The driving culture has degenerated terribly, the streets are very crowded, and so on. I’ve begun to wonder if I can or should give up driving completely, but haven’t taken the plunge yet.
In LA, for example, I often walk to the markets and back with my groceries now, and they are each about a mile or so away from where I live. I’m 72 years young, by the way, but I really like getting away from the house, the phone and the computer. It’s good exercise and I feel relaxed, though often pretty sweaty, when finally I’m back home.
Mexico City is far, far worse. The local Metro system, is older but far superior in its routes to the lovely one we have in Los Angeles, and reasonably priced. But for someone not familiar with the Metro and the city, Uber, which wasn’t here during my last visit, amazed me with its efficiency.
The friend I’m staying with here is Peter Gellert, whom I met in the US in the 1970s. He moved here forty years ago, gave up his US citizenship and became a legal Mexican citizen, 100%. Here he works as a translator and is an activist in Mexican and solidarity movement politics.
Yesterday we walked down to the street, and summoned an Uber car on his smartphone. A nice, new car arrived in under five minutes, driven by a 62 year-old retired government worker who can’t afford to not work on his pension. This Uber car took me to an engagement with a friend, and another took me home later, in comfort and quiet.
Up til now, I’ve not yet learned the Uber system in Los Angeles, but I am certain that I will now. And will learn how to use a smartphone as well. I’m not a Luddite, but have avoided learning some of this modern technology. Though my crystal ball isn’t as clear as it was when I was 20 and 30, I found a lot go ponder in the current issue of the London ECONOMIST, in its cover feature, Uberworld.
The structure of world transport, and of the working class which drives it, is changing. While it’s not all for the better, there’s a something I think we can learn from this new system. Just sayin’…
There’s no Uber in Cuba, but an interesting multi-level system of state-owned, cooperative, private individuals both licenced and not, bicitaxis and hitch-hiking. Hitching is quite widespread in Cuba, and is entirely safe. (It seem to help being a pretty young woman.)
Smartphones
Same is true for those smartphones which I’ve been avoiding up to now. Last year, when I was in Cuba at the time of Pope Francis’ visit, the Cubans set up a wonderful media center for all the accredited journalists.
One day I noticed a woman talking into a smartphone which she had posted on a tripod. She was broadcasting, online, LIVE, though a hand-held personal cell phone. I’d love to be able to do that! I promise to pick up this skill as soon as I can.
Last year I wasn’t able to post materials to my website for some technical reason I never could figure out with certainty. And still haven’t, but am working on that. I’ve spent almost all of today working on that, and seem to have made some progress. I’ll let you know when (and if), that’s successfully completed. If my hands weren’t so busy writing, I’d cross my fingers…<g>
Therefore my reports and the CubaNews translations will continue to go out through the Yahoo News group to which I’ve posted most materials for over fifteen years. You can subscribe, to the news group here: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/CubaNews/info
US blockade against Cuba still very much in place
While the Obama administration’s decision to normalized diplomatic relations with Cuba was a good thing, which we can all appreciate, Washington’s goals toward Cuba and its revolutionary government haven’t changed. Not one bit.
So long as the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, the Torricelli law of 1992 and the Helms-Burton law of 1996 remain on the books, the official foreign policy of the US government can be summarized as “over throw the Cuban government and restore capitalism there.”
And let’s not forget Guantanamo, the military base and torture camp Washington has occupied for over a century. Cuba doesn’t cash the “rent” checks Washington sends Havana every year (well, they DID cash the first one in 1959, but none since then…)
There’s no way to briefly summarize just how the US blockade functions, but a comprehensive summary can be found at the report Cuba presented to the United Nations General Assembly last year. It was adopted by an overwhelming majority, with no abstentions and only two “no” votes: The United States and Israel. It’s Resolution 69/5 of the United Nations General Assembly:
“Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America against Cuba.”
Where I’ll be staying
This time I’ll be staying in a new casa particular for the first time. I’ve been there and seen it, but haven’t stayed there before. It’s conveniently located in Vedado. And, hey, WOW, my new landlady is coming to pick me up at the airport! That’s new, and different, and pleasing. It will cost $25 CUC per day. I have a private room and bath, air conditioning and adequate privacy.
Local news sources
In Los Angeles, I take the LA TIMES and the NEW YORK TIMES in print every day. They do provide a wealth of information, but are edited with a fiercely pro-capitalist slant.
Those Sunday New York Times ads offering apartments for sale in New York City for as much as $50 million dollars and those thousand dollar dresses (I don’t wear them and wouldn’t buy one for anyone I know) are part of a kind of cultural psy-war on the population.
Who wouldn’t want to have these things, but what’s wrong with YOU if you cannot afford one? And these papers are overwhelmingly filled with advertising.
Back when Gerardo Hernandez of the Cuban Five was living in the US federal prison in Victorville, California, I used to print the Cuban papers out for him every day. Granma and Juventud Rebelde, and sometimes Trabajadores, and even the humor newspaper P’alante could be downloaded from their website, and Gerardo was able to get them. Among his other talents, he’s a cartoonist as well.
Cuban newspapers are much smaller, due to their limited resources: eight pages for the daily editions and 16 pages for JR on Sunday, and Granma on Friday. And not one word of commercial advertising. The Cuban papers of course have their own slant, a Cuban revolutionary perspective, but very little fluff and filler.
Since Gerardo went home, I have only occasionally looked at the print editions, and even less frequently printed them out. Now I’ll be glad to see what Cubans see every day. It takes a lot less time to get through them and their counterpart US dailies, but sometimes it seems there’s more information in the Cuban papers.
My favorite Cuban magazine is one aimed at teens and young adults, Somos Jovenes (We The Youth). CubaNews has presented English translations of some its articles over the years. It takes up issues of burning interest to young people, as well as historical themes.
They try to to show the continuity between the the country’s struggles to defend its national sovereignty, and the challenges of today’s young people. Among these are gender, sex, sexuality, violence against women, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll as well as big political themes. Here are some samples I’m very proud to have brought: Somos Jovenes in English translation
Unlike the way people in the US (and here in Mexico) who have the money, can have high-speed Internet access for a low price 24-7, in Cuba I have to go out to an Internet access point, either an ETECSA office or a WiFi point, which are growing rapidly across the country.
In the US, I don’t watch TV at all, but in Cuba the national newscasts in the evening and early afternoon presents a succinct summary of the days’ important events, from the Cuban leadership’s perspective. I’ll miss Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now, which I prefer to listen to than watch.
The spectrum of political discussion has widened considerably in recent years with the explosion of the Internet. Many individuals for and against the government have blogs. Hostile ones, like those of Yoani Sanchez, touted all over the world by opponents of the Cuban system, in some ways predominant.
I’m not aware of many pro-revolutionary blogs, those which actively defend the revolutionary process against its critics. Perhaps the best-known is Iroel Sanchez’s La Pupila Insomne, which vigorously defends the revolutionary process. Singer Silvio Rodriguez and historian Esteban Morales also have actively revolutionary blogs.
LGBT issues Journalist Francisco Rodriquez Cruz is a militant gay rights activist, whose day job is as a journalist at the weekly Trabajadores. There are other gay activists, but Paquito, as he’s usually called, is the best-known. You’ll sense his stance the minute you see his blog: https://paquitoeldecuba.com/ It’s mostly in Spanish, but he has a nice section with some of his articles in English translation.
Marijuana, Cannabis, Ganja
Cuba has a very tough, law-and-order approach to marijuana, but with many countries, especially in Latin America, moving toward legalizing or decriminalizing the substance, will this have any effect on Cuban thinking?
While federal law continues to define marijuana as a substance with no redeeming medical value, Washington has just begun to expand research on its possible medical utility. And now most US states have made it legal under varying conditions. My home state, California, is set to legalize it for all adults without any medical necessity having to be cited. It’s a multi-billion dollar business.
When people from the US come to Cuba, some will naturally want to bring it with them. Anyone who does this at present would be crazy, but it is a subject about which I wonder if there will be some evolution in local thinking. Alcohol and smoking (in Cuba they call it “tobaccoism” are recognized today as public health problems, along with obesity and etc.
Medical uses of marijuana
I’m someone with multiple documented medical diagnoses, including Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, Myelodysplasic Syndrome, which are blood cancers, obesity, hypertension, sleep apnea, a torn miniscus and tendonitis. In recent years, I have found some relief through the use of occasional small amounts of the edible forms of marijuana, for which I have the required medical recommendation.
Naturally, I didn’t bring any along on this trip, though from what my host tells me, it’s virtually completely legal here in Mexico City in small quantities for personal consumption.
Volunteer opportunities
If your Spanish is good enough to translate, CubaNews is always looking for people willing to translate materials from the Cuban media in Spanish into English for the broader world world.
We can’t pay you in anything but gratitude, but there’s lots of that, and I promise also to send books, pamphlets and magazines from Cuba to those who’d like to help bring these Cuban ideas out to a broader audience. I’m guided by a great deal of curiosity.
There are innumerable things I’ve been wondering about and looking to see how the city has changed, if the culture is being affected by the growing number of people from the US who have been visiting, what new stores and restaurants have popped up, and so on and on and on.
My bottom line is that given the immense obstacles the Cuban Revolution faces, it’s pretty much of a miracle that it’s still here every day. Thanks to an imaginative leadership, and solidarity in various forms from many sources. Cuba is still with us.
Given recent negative trends in Latin America, this is all the more the case. US policy and Washington’s policies are the biggest factor limiting Cuba’s growth, development. The blockade makes all of these problems worse in and of themselves, and limits the country’s ability to confront its demons, some of which are home-grown.
Please remember this: When I was 20 and 30, I was a very self-. righteous young activist. I thought I had all the answers. Today, I know I don’t even have the questions. Cuba, to me, is, as Captain Hugh N. Mulzac titled his memoir, A Star to Steer By.
It’s not a model to be copied, but an example and an experience to be studied and learned from. Some of its successful experiences can help people elsewhere to learn how to build a better world for themselves and their children.
It’s now 2:00 AM Saturday morning. I have to put my stuff together and get ready to go to the airport in the morning. I’m sure there are important matters I’ve forgotten here, but readers will remind me of them. I still have to shower, shave, dress and then try to stay awake for the next few hours so I can get to the airport on time later in the morning. Thanks to all of you who have taken the time to read these thoughts. Your reactions will be of interest. I encourage you to share them. I’m very tired now.
Tlatelolco, Mexico City
September 3, 2016
2:03 AM
Some Thoughts On the Eve of Returning to Cuba
Some Thoughts the Eve of Returning to Cuba
Tlatelolco, Mexico, Saturday, September 3, 2016
Later this morning I’ll be off to Havana via Interjet, a Mexican airline which flies regularly. “Father, forgive me, for I have sinned:” It’s been nine months since my last time down, in December 2015. I’m looking forward to seeing whatever changes have taken place. I’m hoping to spend another three months, and plan to post regular reports of things done, places seen and people met.
Each time before I go, I try to post some final thoughts before leaving for the island where my impressions are altered or corrected by Cuban reality, as they always are. What follows are rough notes, and not in order of importance. I hope you’ll find them of interest. I’ll have to look back and the and see what actually happened. Will also plan to post some first impressions as soon as I’m settled in. Probably not until Sunday.
First-hand observations
It’s amazing how different Cuba is from a distance. That’s why it’s so important to actually GO to Cuba and see it for oneself. It’s also why Washington imposed, and continues to maintain, a travel ban on US citizens and residents.
The Obama administration has modified the ban, but it is still on the books. Vacationing and going to the beach remain violations of US law, even if not vigorously enforced, for now. Basically, Washington just does not want people from the US to see the country first hand, because, warts and all, it is so different from the hostile and tendentious image we’ve been fed ever since the earliest days.
You know: Cuba is a dictatorship. There are no human rights. Everyone is spied on. There is no Internet, and so on. The last example I saw was in that otherwise-objective piece about Cuba’s success in fighting the Zika virus which the main AP reporter in Cuba, in today’s Washington Post.
When I started following Cuba most closely, in the late 1990s, the problem was the lack of information, and most of what we got in the dominant capitalist media was tendentious and hostile. That’s still largely true, but, with the change toward a more formally normalized diplomatic relationship, that’s changed somewhat. Now we’re overwhelmed with information in the dominant media, and some of that is not unsympathetic, or downright friendly.
For example, the current issue of WESTWAYS, the magazine of the definitely NOT leftist Automobile Club of Southern California (AAA). It’s cover art and main headline is HOLA CUBA. The issue has eight full pages without advertising and it’s all presented in a friendly, encouraging tone.
If we can get it scanned and posted, I will share it. It must be very popular because, after standing on a waiting line and presenting my club membership, they were only willing to give me two copies. Who will be the lucky Cubans who get them?
Transportation
In Los Angeles, I more and more try to avoid driving. The driving culture has degenerated terribly, the streets are very crowded, and so on. I’ve begun to wonder if I can or should give up driving completely, but haven’t taken the plunge yet.
In LA, for example, I often walk to the markets and back with my groceries now, and they are each about a mile or so away from where I live. I’m 72 years young, by the way, but I really like getting away from the house, the phone and the computer. It’s good exercise and I feel relaxed, though often pretty sweaty, when finally I’m back home.
Mexico City is far, far worse. The local Metro system, is older but far superior in its routes to the lovely one we have in Los Angeles, and reasonably priced. But for someone not familiar with the Metro and the city, Uber, which wasn’t here during my last visit, amazed me with its efficiency.
The friend I’m staying with here is Peter Gellert, whom I met in the US in the 1970s. He moved here forty years ago, gave up his US citizenship and became a legal Mexican citizen, 100%. Here he works as a translator and is an activist in Mexican and solidarity movement politics.
Yesterday we walked down to the street, and summoned an Uber car on his smartphone. A nice, new car arrived in under five minutes, driven by a 62 year-old retired government worker who can’t afford to not work on his pension. This Uber car took me to an engagement with a friend, and another took me home later, in comfort and quiet.
Up til now, I’ve not yet learned the Uber system in Los Angeles, but I am certain that I will now. And will learn how to use a smartphone as well. I’m not a Luddite, but have avoided learning some of this modern technology. Though my crystal ball isn’t as clear as it was when I was 20 and 30, I found a lot go ponder in the current issue of the London ECONOMIST, in its cover feature, Uberworld.
The structure of world transport, and of the working class which drives it, is changing. While it’s not all for the better, there’s a something I think we can learn from this new system. Just sayin’…
There’s no Uber in Cuba, but an interesting multi-level system of state-owned, cooperative, private individuals both licenced and not, bicitaxis and hitch-hiking. Hitching is quite widespread in Cuba, and is entirely safe. (It seem to help being a pretty young woman.)
Smartphones
Same is true for those smartphones which I’ve been avoiding up to now. Last year, when I was in Cuba at the time of Pope Francis’ visit, the Cubans set up a wonderful media center for all the accredited journalists.
One day I noticed a woman talking into a smartphone which she had posted on a tripod. She was broadcasting, online, LIVE, though a hand-held personal cell phone. I’d love to be able to do that! I promise to pick up this skill as soon as I can.
Last year I wasn’t able to post materials to my website for some technical reason I never could figure out with certainty. And still haven’t, but am working on that. I’ve spent almost all of today working on that, and seem to have made some progress. I’ll let you know when (and if), that’s successfully completed. If my hands weren’t so busy writing, I’d cross my fingers…<g>
Therefore my reports and the CubaNews translations will continue to go out through the Yahoo News group to which I’ve posted most materials for over fifteen years. You can subscribe, to the news group here: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/CubaNews/info
US blockade against Cuba still very much in place
While the Obama administration’s decision to normalized diplomatic relations with Cuba was a good thing, which we can all appreciate, Washington’s goals toward Cuba and its revolutionary government haven’t changed. Not one bit.
So long as the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, the Torricelli law of 1992 and the Helms-Burton law of 1996 remain on the books, the official foreign policy of the US government can be summarized as “over throw the Cuban government and restore capitalism there.”
And let’s not forget Guantanamo, the military base and torture camp Washington has occupied for over a century. Cuba doesn’t cash the “rent” checks Washington sends Havana every year (well, they DID cash the first one in 1959, but none since then…)
There’s no way to briefly summarize just how the US blockade functions, but a comprehensive summary can be found at the report Cuba presented to the United Nations General Assembly last year. It was adopted by an overwhelming majority, with no abstentions and only two “no” votes: The United States and Israel. It’s Resolution 69/5 of the United Nations General Assembly:
“Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America against Cuba.”
Where I’ll be staying
This time I’ll be staying in a new casa particular for the first time. I’ve been there and seen it, but haven’t stayed there before. It’s conveniently located in Vedado. And, hey, WOW, my new landlady is coming to pick me up at the airport! That’s new, and different, and pleasing. It will cost $25 CUC per day. I have a private room and bath, air conditioning and adequate privacy.
Local news sources
In Los Angeles, I take the LA TIMES and the NEW YORK TIMES in print every day. They do provide a wealth of information, but are edited with a fiercely pro-capitalist slant.
Those Sunday New York Times ads offering apartments for sale in New York City for as much as $50 million dollars and those thousand dollar dresses (I don’t wear them and wouldn’t buy one for anyone I know) are part of a kind of cultural psy-war on the population.
Who wouldn’t want to have these things, but what’s wrong with YOU if you cannot afford one? And these papers are overwhelmingly filled with advertising.
Back when Gerardo Hernandez of the Cuban Five was living in the US federal prison in Victorville, California, I used to print the Cuban papers out for him every day. Granma and Juventud Rebelde, and sometimes Trabajadores, and even the humor newspaper P’alante could be downloaded from their website, and Gerardo was able to get them. Among his other talents, he’s a cartoonist as well.
Cuban newspapers are much smaller, due to their limited resources: eight pages for the daily editions and 16 pages for JR on Sunday, and Granma on Friday. And not one word of commercial advertising. The Cuban papers of course have their own slant, a Cuban revolutionary perspective, but very little fluff and filler.
Since Gerardo went home, I have only occasionally looked at the print editions, and even less frequently printed them out. Now I’ll be glad to see what Cubans see every day. It takes a lot less time to get through them and their counterpart US dailies, but sometimes it seems there’s more information in the Cuban papers.
My favorite Cuban magazine is one aimed at teens and young adults, Somos Jovenes (We The Youth). CubaNews has presented English translations of some its articles over the years. It takes up issues of burning interest to young people, as well as historical themes. They try to to show the continuity between the the country’s struggles to defend its national sovereignty, and the challenges of today’s young people. Among these are gender, sex, sexuality, violence against women, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll as well as big political themes. Here are some samples I’m very proud to have brought: Somos Jovenes in English translation
Unlike the way people in the US (and here in Mexico) who have the money, can have high-speed Internet access for a low price 24-7, in Cuba I have to go out to an Internet access point, either an ETECSA office or a WiFi point, which are growing rapidly across the country.
In the US, I don’t watch TV at all, but in Cuba the national newscasts in the evening and early afternoon presents a succinct summary of the days’ important events, from the Cuban leadership’s perspective. I’ll miss Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now, which I prefer to listen to than watch.
The spectrum of political discussion has widened considerably in recent years with the explosion of the Internet. Many individuals for and against the government have blogs. Hostile ones, like those of Yoani Sanchez, touted all over the world by opponents of the Cuban system, in some ways predominant.
I’m not aware of many pro-revolutionary blogs, those which actively defend the revolutionary process against its critics. Perhaps the best-known is Iroel Sanchez’s La Pupila Insomne, which vigorously defends the revolutionary process. Singer Silvio Rodriguez and historian Esteban Morales also have actively revolutionary blogs.
LGBT issues Journalist Francisco Rodriquez Cruz is a militant gay rights activist, whose day job is as a journalist at the weekly Trabajadores. There are other gay activists, but Paquito, as he’s usually called, is the best-known. You’ll sense his stance the minute you see his blog: https://paquitoeldecuba.com/ It’s mostly in Spanish, but he has a nice section with some of his articles in English translation.
Marijuana, Cannabis, Ganja
Cuba has a very tough, law-and-order approach to marijuana, but with many countries, especially in Latin America, moving toward legalizing or decriminalizing the substance, will this have any effect on Cuban thinking?
While federal law continues to define marijuana as a substance with no redeeming medical value, Washington has just begun to expand research on its possible medical utility. And now most US states have made it legal under varying conditions. My home state, California, is set to legalize it for all adults without any medical necessity having to be cited. It’s a multi-billion dollar business.
When people from the US come to Cuba, some will naturally want to bring it with them. Anyone who does this at present would be crazy, but it is a subject about which I wonder if there will be some evolution in local thinking. Alcohol and smoking (in Cuba they call it “tobaccoism” are recognized today as public health problems, along with obesity and etc.
Medical uses of marijuana
I’m someone with multiple documented medical diagnoses, including Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, Myelodysplasic Syndrome, which are blood cancers, obesity, hypertension, sleep apnea, a torn miniscus and tendonitis. In recent years, I have found some relief through the use of occasional small amounts of the edible forms of marijuana, for which I have the required medical recommendation.
Naturally, I didn’t bring any along on this trip, though from what my host tells me, it’s virtually completely legal here in Mexico City in small quantities for personal consumption.
Volunteer opportunities
If your Spanish is good enough to translate, CubaNews is always looking for people willing to translate materials from the Cuban media in Spanish into English for the broader world world.
We can’t pay you in anything but gratitude, but there’s lots of that, and I promise also to send books, pamphlets and magazines from Cuba to those who’d like to help bring these Cuban ideas out to a broader audience. I’m guided by a great deal of curiosity.
There are innumerable things I’ve been wondering about and looking to see how the city has changed, if the culture is being affected by the growing number of people from the US who have been visiting, what new stores and restaurants have popped up, and so on and on and on.
My bottom line is that given the immense obstacles the Cuban Revolution faces, it’s pretty much of a miracle that it’s still here every day. Thanks to an imaginative leadership, and solidarity in various forms from many sources. Cuba is still with us.
Given recent negative trends in Latin America, this is all the more the case. US policy and Washington’s policies are the biggest factor limiting Cuba’s growth, development. The blockade makes all of these problems worse in and of themselves, and limits the country’s ability to confront its demons, some of which are home-grown.
Please remember this: When I was 20 and 30, I was a very self-. righteous young activist. I thought I had all the answers. Today, I know I don’t even have the questions. Cuba, to me, is, as Captain Hugh N. Mulzac titled his memoir, A Star to Steer By.
It’s not a model to be copied, but an example and an experience to be studied and learned from. Some of its successful experiences can help people elsewhere to learn how to build a better world for themselves and their children.
It’s now 2:00 AM Saturday morning. I have to put my stuff together and get ready to go to the airport in the morning. I’m sure there are important matters I’ve forgotten here, but readers will remind me of them. I still have to shower, shave, dress and then try to stay awake for the next few hours so I can get to the airport on time later in the morning. Thanks to all of you who have taken the time to read these thoughts. Your reactions will be of interest. I encourage you to share them. I’m very tired now.
Tlatelolco, Mexico City
September 3, 2016
2:03 AM
The United States and Fateful Anniversaries
The United States and Fateful Anniversaries
By Manuel E. Yepe
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
On September 11th, the anniversaries of multiple misdeeds by the US government in recent years coincide.
On that date in 1973, the coup d’état against the constitutional government of Salvador Allende in Chile took place. It was organized, financed and led by the Pentagon and the CIA, in a conspiracy with the worst elements of the Chilean armed forces.
Between that fateful day and March 1990, Chile lived under a horrible dictatorship headed by General Augusto Pinochet (1915-2006), who led the coup against Allende’s legitimate government and headed the military junta that ruled the country. Pinochet was proclaimed president of the republic in 1974 and, in 1981, was confirmed in that position by the pseudo-constitution designed by the tyrant.
In 1988, after being defeated in a plebiscite, Pinochet announced he would retain the presidency until 1990. Although the 1989 elections forced him to give up the presidecy, the dictator remained as supreme commander of the army. In 1998 a warrant was issued for him by Spain’s judicial system for his crimes.
Between 1973 and 1990, human rights in Chile were systematically violated by the fascist military dictatorship, with the support of the country’s upper classes. Repression included arbitrary arrests, kidnappings, imprisonments, killings, forced disappearances, exile and clandestine cemeteries. Torture was both physical and psychological. The used electric shocks, sexual violence, beatings, drugs, burns, waterboarding, and even the rape of women by trained dogs.
Between 1973 and 1975 there were some 42,500 political arrests. In addition, there were 12,100 individual arrests and 26,400 mass arrests between 1976 and 1988. Then there were more than 4000 harassment and intimidation situations between 1977 and 1988 with a balance of a thousand missing prisoners and 2100 assassinated for political reasons.
Some 3200 people died or disappeared between 1973 and 1990 in the hands of repressive state agents. Of these, about eleven 1100 people are considered missing apart from the above-mentioned 2100 dead.
On September 11, 1980, in New York City, Cuban diplomat Felix Garcia, accredited to the Cuban Mission to the United Nations, was gunned down in the street by a member of a group of Cuban exiles organized, financed and directed by the CIA. The Cuban diplomat became the first foreign representative accredited to the United Nations to be killed in the United States.
According to an FBI report, hours after the crime, the Cuban-born counterrevolutionary gunman Pedro Remon made a call to New York media and took responsibility for the murder on behalf of “Omega 7”, one of the Cuban exile terrorist organizations operating in the United States under the umbrella of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Despite his long terrorist record, the murderer was not taken to trial until the mid-1980s. Meanwhile, the Cuban UN mission, its officers and families remained systematically harassed.
But for the US people the most painful September 11th was the one of the attack on the Twin Towers in New York in 2001. It left a balance of about three thousand deaths, including firefighters and other participants in the immediate rescue, who were affected by the toxic gases.
The definition of this act remains pending, given the inappropriateness of classifying the action as a classic terrorist attack due to the abundance of evidence suggesting it could have been an act of official self-aggression.
Evidence refuting the official version that was presented and used to justify the passage of USA PATRIOT Act is unquestionable. The PATRIOT Act has been seen as a state terrorism project derived from the attack which has brought horrible consequences worldwide reaching to the present.
Finally, as Néstor García Iturbe, A Cuban journalist and expert in the fight against terrorism, has rightly pointed out, the US government seemed interested in linking the date of September 11th with ignominious acts, President Barack Obama chose that very day, in 2015, to renew the inclusion of Cuba in the list of nations it sanctions under the Trading with the Enemy Act –enacted by Washington in 1917– to punish countries whose relations are incompatible with US foreign policy. This absurd list today has a single member in the whole world: Cuba.
August 27, 2016.
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