Family violence: new views

4 years ago GranmaCuban Society, violence, violence against women

A MATTER OF LAW

Family violence: new views from the legal system

The new Family Code is one of the norms that should be born in line with the constitutional precepts regarding the approach to violence in this area

Author: Yudy Castro Morales | yudi@granma.cu

Date: January 20, 2021 22:01:51

Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.

Photo: Internet

Myths about family violence are as old as each of its manifestations. And they are absolutely false.

That only physical assaults are expressions of violence, and that nothing else occurs in low-income households in marginal places, are some of the most common beliefs.

The reality, however, confirms daily, with sufficient eloquence, that violence can also be psychological, economic, patrimonial and can occur in all types of families, regardless of their economic or cultural level.

“She (or he) asked for it”, “jealousy is a manifestation of love”, “what happens in the family, good or bad, stays in the family”, “the letter with blood enters”, are also phrases that swell the bulky list of myths that, in the opinion of specialists, make the victim responsible, harm her perception of the abuse and neutralize her reaction and denunciation.

For Dr. Yamila González Ferrer, Vice President of the National Union of Jurists of Cuba (UNJC) and of the Cuban Society of Civil and Family Law, “the Cuban Constitution gives the highest rank to the prevention and attention to violence in the family space”.

Both in this area (Art. 85), adds the also titular professor of the Faculty of Law of the University of Havana, and in what refers to gender violence (Art. 43) and against children and adolescents (Art. 84 and 86), the 2019 Magna Carta is located in a remarkable place on a planetary scale in the constitutional approach to this issue.

The Law on Laws, specifically in Article 85, states that: “family violence, in any of its manifestations, is considered destructive of the persons involved, of families and of society, and is sanctioned by law”.

Such projection, González Ferrer considers, is comprehensive of the three scopes in which the violence in the familiar space affects negatively, and that cannot be lost sight of: the individual, the familiar one and the social one. In that same sense, the precept opens its protective fan to all the manifestations in which it can appear.

Nevertheless, the expert clarifies, “except in cases where its scope requires treatment in criminal proceedings, family violence does not usually generate any palpable legal consequence in Cuba today.

“Hence the need to promote the improvement of legal mechanisms and public policies, so that there is no impunity and the highest protection is provided to the victims”.

According to González Ferrer, it is necessary to elaborate new legal provisions and to modify or perfect other existing ones, not only in substantive family matters, but also in contractual, succession, procedural and criminal matters, so that it is possible to develop the constitutional postulates.

The new Family Code, therefore, is one of the norms that should be born tempered to the precepts of the Magna Carta as to the treatment of family violence, as well as to the protection against any of its manifestations.

THE ROOTS OF PAIN

Yamila González, who also coordinates the UNJC’s Gender Justice Project, insists on defining what family violence is, and what its causes and types are, because one must always know the phenomenon in order to face it and avoid it.

According to the professor, violence in family contexts is part of the network of violence that exists in society. It is, in turn, a universal phenomenon, with its concrete historical characteristics and the peculiarities of each family group; it is a social problem that has different causes and dimensions and encompasses all types of existing families.

The very patriarchal structure of the family, recognizes González Ferrer, “makes it one of the most violent social institutions, since it develops asymmetrical power relations through gender and generation, which are the guarantors of the legitimization and reproduction of the patriarchy as a system of domination”.

Based on its interdependence with the environment, “family violence must be understood as a process. It is not casual or established overnight, but has a painful path of formation, which is established in the family climate through an endless cycle of very harmful behaviors for human beings.”

In the opinion of the Vice President of the UNJC, violence is a cultural problem, not entirely legal, so it must act on the social, educational, cultural resources that make it possible, without disregarding the use of law as and when appropriate.

In conceptual terms, she emphasizes, “family or intra-family violence is that which occurs within the family. It refers to any form of abuse that occurs among its members, and implies an imbalance of power that is exercised from the strongest to the weakest”.

The expressions of family violence are the physical, psychic, moral, sexual, economic or patrimonial abuse, either by action or omission, direct or indirect, in which aggressors and victims maintain or have maintained couple relationships, as well as the one that takes place between relatives. The same treatment must be given to acts of this nature committed between people in cohabiting relationships.

In the words of the expert, there are three significant ways in which family violence is expressed, since in the patriarchal, hierarchical family, power is exercised along two fundamental lines: gender and generation.

GENDER VIOLENCE

It is a very particular type of violence, based on a patriarchal culture, rooted in the inequality of power between men and women. It is based on sexist stereotypes, which generate prejudice and lead to expressions of discrimination based on sex, gender, sexual orientation or gender identity.

It can be physical, psychological, sexual, moral, symbolic, economic, or patrimonial, and has a negative impact on the enjoyment of rights, freedoms, and the integral well-being of people.

It occurs in family, work, school, political, cultural, and any other environment in society. Its most generalized, frequent and significant expression is that which occurs against women.

Nevertheless, gender violence against men exists, such as homophobia, for example, when they are attacked for having transgressed gender norms from the canons of hegemonic masculinity; or the mocking and questioning that those who assume co-responsibility for domestic tasks and the care of their children may receive and are then criticized by their relatives, co-workers, or friends.

VIOLENCE AGAINST THE ELDERLY AND THOSE WITH DISABILITIES

It is one that manifests itself against people because of aging, given the decrease in their physical and intellectual capacities, economic and social participation.

Its most common expressions are physical and emotional abandonment, hygienic, medical and food neglect, underestimation, financial and patrimonial manipulation, physical and verbal abuse.

VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS

This is what happens with respect to children and adolescents because of their condition as developing persons. Even if it is not directly about them, it is considered direct violence because it affects the adequate development of their personality and the feeling of security and trust in those around them, with transcendence to their social life.

On this sensitive subject, some think that, in situations of violence within the family, if it is not about the person of the son or daughter, there is no significant level of affectation, when the damage derived from living in violent environments is severe for the integral development of their personality and with very negative consequences towards the future.

Whatever the nature of the conflicts, Gonzalez Ferrer says, “their solution should not be managed in a violent way but through communication and negotiation. There is an urgent need for education and a culture of peace, of respect for human rights, based on the need to learn to live and relate in harmony.

The Antigen of Cuban Vaccines

4 years ago CubaDebateCovid-19, vaccines

Vaccines and Sovereignty (III)
The Antigen of Cuban Vaccines Against Covid-19

By Luis A Montero Cabrera
January 21, 2021

Translated by Merriam Ansara for CubaNews and other outlets.

This is the third in a series of articles.

The application of the Cuban Sovereign vaccine candidate begins. Photo: Ismael Francisco/ Cubadebate.

We Cubans have a very remarkable platform for biomedical production, one might even say extraordinary for a country like ours. An infamous 2004 document from the “Commission for the Support of a Free Cuba” of a previous administration in the US described it as unnecessary and very expensive for such a poor country as ours: “Large sums were also directed to activities such as the development of biotechnology and bioscience centers not appropriate in magnitude and expense for such a fundamentally poor nation, and which have failed to be justified financially”. The only thing to be added to this is that those of us in the South with darker skin ought not to have the luxury of science. But our biopharmaceutical sector is the child of necessity, of the creative initiative of a lover of knowledge and a true revolutionary, as was our Fidel, and of an educational policy that gives everybody without distinction the right to reach the highest level of human knowledge and to with that knowledge, create. It was not begun with a specific strategy or goal but became, as it is today a bastion of the knowledge, science and culture of our country. It was and is the fruit of revolutionary thinking.

The development of a vaccine today requires the existence of today’s conditions for this kind of research. It must begin by looking at the scientific literature for antecedents and ways of doing things that can lead to the implementation of more and more exquisite laboratory procedures and rigorous tests. In our case and for the above reasons, a firm base for the research was already established when the COVID 19 emergency arose. Events such as these cannot be foreseen, but the preparation of the conditions to face them is the duty of any decent political system.

Chinese science immediately made available to the international community everything it knew about this dangerous and ultra-contagious virus and in other countries as well the information that was being generated was made available to all. Under these conditions, several of our scientific groups set to work to obtain a specific Cuban vaccine for this disease. One of the efforts, at the Finlay Vaccine Institute, is led by the same Prof. Vicente Vérez who obtained the previous milestone of the vaccine against “Haemophilus influenzae”, the first with synthetic antigens that was used and commercialized in the world. The other groups involved work at the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology with a long tradition also in the design and production of novel vaccines.

Remember that the essential component of a vaccine is the antigen that activates the immune system and leaves it ready to fight and destroy the foreign invader. Additional determining factors are both the adjuvants and the pharmaceutical forms for delivering the vaccine to humans. If you have an established and strong foundation in these last two aspects, determining the most suitable antigen becomes the heart of the creative work.

The antigen chosen in Cuba, for many reasons, was the “receptor-binding domain” of the virus (RBD). In simple terms, these are the molecules that constitute the external “spikes” so striking that they appear in the pictorial representation and the high-resolution microscopy of the viral molecular aggregate. This CoV “spike” protein (S) plays the most important role in viral binding, fusion and entry into cells of the organism attacked by the virus.

Therefore, it serves as a target for the immune system to develop antibodies, and for scientists to use them as antigens in the design of effective vaccines. An article that appeared in one of the branches of the well-known journal Nature had characterized this component as very promising as a vaccine antigen against COVID 19 as early as March 2020. The authors of the article are a very good reflection of the current internationalization of the basic sciences. Most are Chinese in origin and did extensive work in collaboration between the Lindsley F. Kimball Research Institute in New York, the Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, and the Key Laboratory for Medical Molecular Virology at Fudan University in Shanghai.

Our compañeros evaluated alternatives. One of them was to generate the so-called messenger RNA that was capable of producing the antigen in human cells. It is an ultra-modern technology that is being used in some of the COVID 19 vaccines that are already being applied. It has some advantages, but also has an important disadvantage so far not overcome for a vaccine that is intended to be administered massively throughout the world, especially the less developed one: it requires very strict cooling conditions for its transport and preservation.

Our biotechnology system, on the other hand, has at the Center for Molecular Immunology (CIM) the possibility to “ferment” mammalian cells that directly produce the RBD antigen, since the technology has been developed for other similar productions. It also has the possibility of producing a significant quantity if the antigen is viable for our vaccine. Therefore, all Cuban vaccine candidates, at least up to now, are based on this antigen, with some modification that makes it more active.

The results are exhilarating. And thus our scientists began the race to produce a variety of vaccines, in different institutions and by different scientific groups, collaborating and competing, in order to arrive at the best solutions. “SOBERANAS” 1 and 2, the MAMBISA and the ABDALA are very promising.

Vaccines are drugs. Therefore, they require measurements of their effectiveness, knowing their contraindications and risks, and finding the appropriate formulations and the most viable forms of administration before applying them en masse. Everything must proceed in a strict regulatory framework to ensure that consequences more serious than the disease itself were avoided. If they have the same antigen, how are our vaccine variants different? What state are they in their research and development?

Havana, January 20, 2021

Luis Alberto Cabrera Montero holds a Doctorate Chemical Sciences. He is Senior Researcher and Full Professor at the University of Havana. He is President of the Scientific Advisory Council of the University of Havana and is a Merit Member and Coordinator of Natural and Exact Sciences of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba. For a full biography, see http://www.academiaciencias.cu/en/node/674

What are vaccines?

4 years ago CubaDebateCovid-19, vaccines

Vaccines and Sovereignty (II):
What are Vaccines?

By Luis A Montero Cabrera
January 11, 2021

Translated by Merriam Ansara for CubaNews and other outlets.

This is the second in a series of articles.

Seventy coronavirus vaccines are in development worldwide, and three are already being tested in human trials, the World Health Organization said. Photo: iStock

The molecules of an invading biological entity that are identified and are accessible to the human immune system are often referred to as “antigens”. They are usually expressed in the outermost parts of the nanoscopic carrier and are a necessary part of its composition. They are the same when found in a virus, in a fungus, in a bacterium, or in the cells of an organ from another being transplanted into our body.

An important characteristic of the infection and self-healing process is that when an individual overcomes a disease by the action of the immune system, it usually remains prepared to defeat it in future reinfections of the same type. The system “remembers” the intruder antigen and thus we are prepared to reject its carriers again. It is a biological fabric very refined by natural selection through many generations and species.

By realizing this, and using scientific reasoning, human beings try to use this defense “memory” to ensure that people do not get sick with an infection, even if they have never suffered from the disease. It is about “teaching” the immune system of each individual to activate and destroy any morbid invasion once its antigens are detected. The challenge is great, because to invade the body with antigens from a certain infection without making the person sick requires wise processing.

The result is known as a “vaccine.” Its name is due to the fact that the first formulations were cultivated in cows. It is always a chemical-biological preparation of antigens to achieve active acquired immunity against a particular infectious disease. The first vaccines contained the organisms that caused the disease from weakened or dead forms of themselves. It was not known then that what the immune system recognized was only its antigens. These preparations thus “taught” the human body to “shoot” the actions that would destroy the invader. Vaccines can be prophylactic when they prevent and prevent the effects of future infection, as it is desired that COVID-19 be, or therapeutic when they are used to fight a disease that has already invaded the body, such as cancer.

Most likely, the first disease to be prevented by inoculation was smallpox. It seems that the first recorded use of it occurred in the 16th century in China. The scientific and reproducible vaccine against smallpox was invented and duly reported in the specialized literature in 1796 by the English physician Edward Jenner. Smallpox was a contagious and deadly disease, and it is said to kill up to 60% of infected adults and 80% of children.

Tomas Romay y Chacón was a physician and scientist born in Havana in 1764. Having begun by studying law he switched to medicine and in 1791 at the age of 27 was 33rd medical graduate in Cuba. He became a professor at our University of Havana and co-founder of the Royal Patriotic Society of Havana, today the Economic Society of Friends of the Country. As early as 1804, just 8 years after the appearance of the vaccine in Europe, Romay implemented smallpox vaccination on our island with preparations made “in situ” with the support of the Patriotic Society. In this way, he used the local science instead of waiting for delayed arrival of the vaccine from the Metropolis. He and his collaborators followed the procedures published and described by Jenner and manufactured the first Cuban vaccine, the smallpox vaccine. A marvelous success of a nascent, Creole, nation’s innovation and wisdom.

Time passed and scientific research led to the knowledge that the key to vaccines were the antigens and not the entire infectious entities.

Vaccines have been produced in Cuba for many decades. Two of them at least have been both original and exclusive. In 1987 Drs. Concepción Campa and Gustavo Sierra led a scientific group at the Finlay Vaccine Institute to obtain a vaccine that at that time was the first of its kind in the world. This vaccine was and still is very effective against a bacterium that attacks the meninges in the brain and nervous system, called group B and C meningococcus. This type of meningitis is particularly deadly in children. Cuban science at the University of Havana produced in 2004 the world’s first efficient commercial vaccine based on an antigen manufactured in the laboratory, that is, “synthetic”. Prof. Vicente Vérez, a scientist who has dedicated his life to the chemistry of sugars, his wife Dr. Violeta Fernández (who died very young) and their collaborators were the authors of this second great feat. Thanks to the work of these scientific groups, many Cuban children and children in many parts of the world are alive and active today as adults.

Vaccines don’t just contain antigens. The immune system is not equally effective in all people and at all ages. Certain antigens are more activating than others because they are more easily recognized and “trigger” the work of the entire system that feels invaded. Vaccines are made more effective with so-called “adjuvants” (helpers) which, when given together with the appropriate antigens, cause many people’s immune systems to wake up more quickly and efficiently.

New types of vaccines have recently appeared that do not contain antigens directly but rather RNA that allows our cells to synthesize them “in situ”, recognize them and learn to fight them. While the vaccines that contain only antigens without the need to supply the infectious agent are efficient and safe, these others are as well and furthermore allow for mutations of the virus to be taken into account with much greater facility and so ensure the utility of the vaccines over time.

It can be said that vaccines are pieces of biological technology that represent a lifeline for many human beings. Without them we would be at the mercy of Darwinian natural selection and an epidemic would be survived only by the few who could overcome it thanks to some singularity of their organism. This was the case before science intervened by inventing vaccines. The cost was immense in precious lives ending early. It could also be said that without vaccines some type of infection could come along that might lead to the extinction of homo sapiens as a living species, which has happened many times before with other species in the beautiful and harsh history of life on this planet.

And what will the current vaccines against COVID and very particularly the SOBERANAS, MAMBISA and ABDALA be like? How do you prove that they serve what they have been designed for?

Havana, January 6, 2021

Luis Alberto Cabrera Montero holds a Doctorate Chemical Sciences. He is a Senior Researcher and Full Professor at the University of Havana. He is President of the Scientific Advisory Council of the University of Havana and is a Merit Member and Coordinator of Natural and Exact Sciences of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba. For a full biography, see http://www.academiaciencias.cu/en/node/674

The virus and the immune system

4 years ago CubaDebateCovid-19, vaccines

Vaccines and Sovereignty (I):
The virus and the immune system

By Luis A Montero Cabrera
December 31, 2020

Translated by Merriam Ansara for CubaNews and other outlets.

This is the first in a series of articles.

A vial of COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, on December 16, 2020. Illustrative image: Craig F. Walker/Pool / Reuters

The word we all speak today with hope is “vaccine.” We have had an absolutely extraordinary 2020’s year. An unexpected and unprecedented pandemic has changed everything, in almost every way for the worse, although there also have been some good consequences. The political defeat of some enemies of our country who did not even know how to lead their powerful country in these extraordinary conditions may have been influenced by this factor, and that is a good consequence. That and the vaccines, four of them Cuban, mean a more optimistic outlook for 2021 for us. Unfortunately, those who lalready lost or will lose their lives to this pandemic will not be able to take advantage of what little good there is in the remains of this pandemic.

We already know how life originates, how it works and how it manipulates the laws of the rest of the universe to perpetuate itself, more as a system than in its individualities. Within that system of life, viruses appear at a given moment and have their own space. The one that has caused the current pandemic is only one of the many that exist and that have existed, and it will by no means be the last that affects humanity and other living beings. They can arise anywhere and will or will not spread depending on their characteristics and how science influences where they occur.

Molecules are inanimate particles of the nanoworld since their sizes are around one billionth of a meter. Some of them act as the “bricks” and “cement” that make up living organisms. There are many types of molecules that are part of this network and the most unique and complex are proteins (which are the ones that “work” and are also part of the functional structures), fats (which “cement” and store energy), sugars (which cement and hold, but in a much more specialized way, and also accumulate and transport energy), and the so-called “nucleic acids”. The latter are very special and complex molecules whose fundamental function is to accumulate the information of the living system so that all the others can exist.

Viruses are not living beings, but relatively stable aggregates or associations of various types of vital molecules, the fundamental component of which are nucleic acids. In this case, they carry their own information, but foreign to the system of other living organisms. However, they include the ability to self-replicate at the expense of the animal or plant, including us, in which they are housed. They change (or mutate) in the environment in which they develop and out of the many ways in which this happens, the vast majority fail. However, the few mutations that turn out to be successful put the cells they invade at their service to give rise to new viruses. And in that task, it always affects in one way or another the host cell that lent it its resources. If the virus is COVID-19, it seems to affect the cell to such an extent and in such a way that even the ways we defend ourselves against them can kill us.

There is a great debate among virologists about the origin of viruses. Three main hypotheses are usually mentioned: i) The “progressive” hypothesis that states that viruses arose from genes (made up of nucleic acids) in cells that showed the ability to move or transfer to other cells; ii) the “regressive” hypothesis proposes that viruses are genetic remains of dead cell organisms that showed the ability to be assimilated by other living cells and to reproduce there; and iii) the “primary virus” hypothesis proposes that viruses precede cells in evolution: they would have appeared first. For this reason, they may have been the initiating molecular aggregates of the ability to self-reproduce. If this is the correct hypothesis, it would make them predecessors of cells and in conditions of “coevolution” with them, which are their current hosts.

A living system such as the human being that has evolved in the last 3.7 billion years has very efficient ways to defend itself against potentially harmful agents that are carriers of foreign molecules. We do this through what is known as the “immune system.” This has a complex form of action, which can be understood in a simplified way.

The immune system of our body recognizes the vital molecular structures that are our own and not those of others. Our natural “identity card” is in the genes. Once our mother’s egg was fertilized by our father’s sperm, our genes became differentiated from theirs. We constitute ourselves as a new living entity similar to but different from that of our parents. Only a certain part of our cells preserve the identity of our mother.

Among all the information that is transmitted is also that of the system that identifies its own vital molecules with respect to those of any other living entity. These characteristic molecules of bacteria, fungi, viruses and all possible living beings can be of very different types. They are called “antigens.” The wonderful human immune system is capable of identifying foreign antigens that penetrate our body and generating an arsenal of its own components that are responsible for destroying their carriers.

If the invasion is by bacteria, or any other living alien organism, then they identify their foreign antigens, design the appropriate molecules to associate with them, and from there the life span of the invading organism is counted. The intruder can win only if our immune reaction is less efficient than the intruder’s harmful action or if the action of the intruder damages the immune system specifically. Viruses and the cells they infect are identified and killed in a similar way. AIDS, for example, originates from a virus that affects the immune system, and thus it is very difficult to overcome.

How, then, can a disease caused by a virus-like COVID-19 be defeated?
Essentially in two ways: the first is to combat and neutralize the effects of the virus on the diseased organism, which has been attacked. It is achieved with effective treatments. The second is to help identify and destroy the invading species by our own immune weapons. This can be achieved by “teaching” the immune system to do its job, but without the symptoms of the disease that can be fatal. That is “to get vaccinated” against the virus.

Biden, new U.S. president in turbulent times

4 years ago Juventud RebeldeBiden, US politics

Biden, new U.S. president in turbulent times

The president called for unity to heal old wrongs and made clear the “leadership” of that country for world “democracy”

By Juana Carrasco Martin| juana@juventudrebelde.cu
Published: Thursday 21 January 2021 | 12:10:53 am

Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.

Inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris Photo: The Guardian Posted: o1/21/2021 | 12:04 am

They say that the color purple stood out at the inauguration of the 46th president of the United States, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. The purple achieved with the mixture of red and blue -which distinguishes the Republican and Democratic parties-, symbolized in this case the search for a national unity so necessary for a good internal climate in the country. The US has supposedly reached the limit of division and chaos by the one who is already characterized as the worst leader in history, Donald Trump, who in order not to lose his egomaniacal habit said as a farewell: “I will come back somehow”.

It is a show, a spectacle of “democracy,” the presidential and vice presidential swearing-in ceremony. As such – this time without the usual crowds due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but replaced by 200,000 flags from the bars and stars located from the Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol – they heard popular entertainment industry figures such as Lady Gaga, performing the National Anthem in the area outside the Capitol, to Jennifer Lopez and Garth Brooks.

In the midst of this staging to glorify the great nation, the ceremony was opened by Senator Amy Koblucher, who gave way to Missouri Republican Roy Blunt, both of whom insisted on conciliation after the events of January 6. Their status as the top members of the Senate Rules Committee gave them that task.

Sonia Sotomayor, -the first Latina Supreme Court justice-, then swore in the first African-American, Asian, American and woman to become Vice President of the United States, the then Senator Kamala Harris, as an emblematic example of the possibilities of the American dream.

The Vice President said in her pledge that she will preserve and protect the Constitution against all enemies, domestic and foreign. This is an undeniable allusion to the events of January 6, when violent pro-Trump fanatics stormed the Capitol, a matter under investigation that is likely to leave many loose ends when it is concluded.

Trump faces impeachment in the Senate, now 50/50 Democratic controlled, for inciting the white supremacist mutineers who forced their way into Congress. The former did not attend the ceremony, but traveled to his residence and golf course in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.

Joseph Biden was sworn in before Supreme Court Justice John Roberts: “I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States,” he said, with his hand on the Bible, “and to the best of my ability I will protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, so help me God.”

Hugs and kisses despite the pandemic, behind the transparent fence, which is known to be armored.

The almost widespread rejection of extremists and the presence of 25,000 National Guards members, in addition to the Metropolitan Police and Security Services, were more than enough to stop the demonstrations of those who are still declaring fraud in the elections of November 3rd. Nevertheless, Washington D.C., taken militarily, gave an unprecedented image for a presidential inauguration and suggested the climate that underlies the apparent tranquility of the first day of the Biden administration.

On the other hand, the new president does not have a single member of his future government team confirmed by the Senate, a disadvantage that he also owes to the stubborn Trump and the obstacles Trump put in the way of a peaceful and normal transition.

Even now, the Senate, which began confirmation hearings for Cabinet members and other key positions requiring such certification the day before, will also be busy impeaching Trump.

The Presidential Address
For 21 minutes the new president spoke to the American peole and the world, which is why he represents the empire. One word prevailed in his call, as often as it was pronounced: unity or union. The nation needs it, and it needs it very much in the face of the challenges that have arisen in four Trumpist years, the last of which was marked by the unusual event of the pandemic and its economic consequences, and by the bloody wound of racism, the extremism of white supremacists and police brutality.

Biden also repeated another term over and over again, intrinsic to the mask behind which all kinds of social inequalities are hidden: democracy.

“This, America’s day. This is the day of democracy,” he said from the very beginning of the speech. “Democracy has prevailed,” he emphasized.

He placed the coronavirus pandemic, which has already taken the lives of 400,000 Americans, and white supremacy on the same plane of challenges or challenges to his government. He assured listeners that he would “confront and defeat” a promise he had already made during his campaign but that it remains to be seen whether he can fulfill it in the four years ahead.

An optimistic and daring vision of the future, although he also recognized in that linear discourse that the forces that divide American society are deep, real and not new: racism, fear, demonization.

The objective is always the same, even if the instruments to implement it are different from those of its predecessor. But it is the confession of faith of the so-called “exceptionality” as a nation: to rebuild the economy so that the United States will once again be the force for good in the world. “Egg dogs, even if they burn your nose,” my grandmother would say. [“You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”, wl]

I wonder if this statement is just for internal consumption, because the United States should put it into practice in its view of the world. We can see each other not as adversaries, but as neighbors, treat each other with respect, stop the yelling, calm the anger that is a constant struggle, that the nation is not a state of chaos, that unity is the path to follow… At this moment and in this place we are going to begin again to see each other differently, to see each other, to listen to each other, to show mutual respect… Each disagreement does not have to be a cause for an all-out war.

Without mentioning him by name, the absent former president was subtly named to speak of security, freedom, respect, honor and truth as goals and to banish the lies that seek power and profit, and he gave his word not to think of power, but of the common good.

Internal and external repercussions
“Together, we must revive our economy, reassert our leadership and competitiveness in the long term, and restore good governance as we chart a course out of these crises. And we are fundamentally optimistic that we can do just that if we work in partnership,” wrote U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue and President Suzanne Clark.

However, they added: “At the same time, the Chamber strongly warns against a return to excessive regulation or anti-competitive taxation.”

Stocks opened with gains on the first day of Joe Biden’s presidency: the Dow Jones Industrial Average opened with a gain of about 100 points on Wednesday; the S&P 500 Index opened with a gain of 0.6 percent; and the Nasdaq rose 1.4 percent thanks to a 14 percent increase in Netflix stock.

The Hill reported that Biden’s inaugural speech won immediate praise from some Republican Party senators, from whom the new administration will need the support to get its legislative agenda through Congress.

Among those legislators are Senators Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Susan Collins (Maine); and Senators Mitt Romney (Utah) and Pat Toomey (Pennsylvania), the latter of whom said he is “praying” for Biden.

French President Emmanuel Macron congratulated Biden and Harris, and welcomed them to the Paris Climate Agreement.

Interestingly, Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida), acting chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, did not attend Biden’s inauguration because he said earlier that he would be working on resolving Senate objections to a quick confirmation of those chosen by the new president to lead that community.

Meanwhile, Frank Sinatra’s My Way was being heard at Andrews Base as former President Trump was leaving for Florida on Air Force One .

Joseph R. Biden – the second Catholic president of the United States – definitely takes office in turbulent times.

Taking care of my health, and yours

4 years ago Juventud RebeldeCovid-19, Cuban health, Cuban Society

Taking care of my health, I take care of yours

People over 59 years old and children under one year old are essentially symptomatic, but the rest can carry the disease without being suspected. That is why it is vital to respect to the letter the established biosecurity norms

Author:

Ana María Domínguez Cruz
anamaria@juventudrebelde.cu

Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.

Young people are the ones who most often transit as asymptomatic. Author: Abel Rojas Barallobre Published: 19/01/2021 | 12:03 am

Where were you? Who did you meet? These and many other questions make up the survey that, with rigor and specificity, is carried out on each person who, confirmed as positive to COVID-19 or as a suspect, arrives at a hospital in our country.

It seems routine, but it can be very overwhelming, both for the patient, who suffers from that indescribable mixture of fear, uncertainty and anxiety; and for the health personnel who, with the required clothing, approach him/her without wanting to violate the health protocols, although with the desire to make him/her feel better.

This is what Niurka Molina Aguila, a specialist in II degree in Hygiene and Epidemiology, tells us, who carried out numerous surveys of this type as part of her work at the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine (IPK).

“Do you know what is the most important and, at the same time, most overwhelming, especially for the patient? It is necessary to answer these questions by appealing to the memory as accurately as possible because it is urgent that the answers refer to the 14 days prior to detection. This is the only way we can properly follow the transmission chain,” she assures us.

It is hard to imagine, but this is the day-to-day work of epidemiologists and other specialists who have been working for months in the midst of a scenario as hostile as the one imposed by COVID-19 on the world.

“The greatest danger of this disease lies not only in the very act of suffering it, but in asymptomatic people who, precisely because they do not feel anything that alarms them, carry out their usual activities and have contact with others, and become carriers with the same risk of transmission as those who do manifest the symptoms.

“Who are these asymptomatic people? You, me, that one, her…, but fundamentally the young people. People over 59 years and children under one year are essentially symptomatic, the rest, adolescents, young people and adults of less age, can carry the disease without suspicion. Til/khat is why it is vital to respect to the letter the established biosecurity norms”.

I do not feel, but I suffer
Based on research carried out at the IPK since last year (which has not been published), when cases of the disease began to be reported in the country, it has been assessed during all this time that about 63 percent of the people identified as positive were asymptomatic. This figure, logically, increases as contact searches are carried out through active surveillance, that is, through research.

The also Master in Infectious Diseases specifies that this study covered Havana, fundamentally, but it will continue to evaluate the results according to a better work of prevention and control of COVID-19. “The disease has been known gradually, as people have become sick.

“Much is still unknown, and so describing symptoms is complex. We already see that sometimes the loss of taste and smell are the only symptoms, even, of the disease. Until it was proven in several patients, it could not be described as an associated symptomatology, and this has happened with other aspects.

“The main thing is to respect the established sanitary norms. We cannot get tired of repeating them and enforcing them, because it is the only way we have to make it clear that this disease will not disappear completely, but rather that we will live with it as a seasonal disease, like H1N1 or others.

-Even if they are asymptomatic, can these people suffer from the sequelae of the disease?

-Yes, it is possible. The sequelae left by COVID-19 have already been described in healthy people who suffered from it. Having symptoms or not, does not necessarily condition the appearance of the sequelae, but when in doubt it is better to avoid contagion.

-The vaccine is the hope…

-Because of our human condition, we need hope to move forward. Certainly, we are anxiously waiting for the vaccine, but the population must know that every vaccine has a time to raise the immunity of the organism. That we vaccinate ourselves today does not mean that tomorrow we are already immune to the virus, especially when new strains are reported from time to time.

“There are vaccines that require two doses, and completing the cycle is essential. However, from the appearance of new strains, it is preferred in not few cases to delay the application of the second dose, and this prolongs the immunization process”.

The doctor, also researcher and assistant professor, underlined that until there is not a high number, very high of vaccinated and immunized people, one will not be out of the greatest danger and never absent completely.

The Cuban population must be informed and correctly oriented, based on the results of the researches carried out and the patients’ reactions when they receive the vaccine.

“I do not intend to alarm, but it must be taken into consideration that another new strain of the virus may emerge and the vaccine may not have the capacity to face it, so it will be necessary to continue studying and creating.

“The health measures that are so much repeated today in the different media are for life, because from now on the world will no longer be the same as the one we knew before the pandemic.

“The family must insist on their children and demand that they respect these measures, because one of the greatest dangers of this pandemic is that health services will collapse, as has happened in other nations. Not only do they collapse because people get sick, but because they don’t avoid getting sick.

Niurka Molina Aguila, specialist in II degree in Hygiene and Epidemiology, researcher at the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine Photo: Courtesy of the interviewee

Molina Águila also mentioned the process of surrendering patients as convalescents. “Many times it is the time to complete the questionnaire that, when they first arrived at the institution, they could not continue with its completion”.

She emphasized that we should not go to closed places or places where crowds predominate, that the nasobuco should be worn correctly, that frequent hand washing should be deep, that when coughing or sneezing we should protect ourselves with our forearms, that we should maintain distance between one person and another.

“You, me, him, her… any one of us can transmit the disease without knowing it, and that’s what you have to understand. To the extent that someone who lives with other people takes better care of their health, their love and integrity cannot be questioned. These are not times to love as in the old days, but to demonstrate that by taking care of our life, we take care of the lives of others.

Polarization and a repressive environment

4 years ago CubaDebateBlack Lives Matter, racism, terrorism, US Society

United States:
Polarization and a repressive environment

By Fernando M. García Bielsa

December 23rd, 2020

Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.

The latest incidents of police brutality and racist killings in many U.S. cities are not a recent phenomenon. They are long-standing events, stemming from the days of slavery and, as now, developing alongside the violence of paramilitary and white supremacist groups.

The warlike projection of the country and its having reached the point of being permanently involved in a series of wars in various confines, has permeated the psyche of thousands of people and is reflected in a growing militarization at the domestic level. In addition to police brutality, it is clearly expressed in the proliferation of violent groups, as well as in government agencies such as the prison system, the militarization of the border with Mexico, and violence against immigrants.

In addition to the violent and racist tradition with which the U.S. nation was formed and the impact of imperial militarism, there are also the social fractures, polarization, and growing inequalities that this society has shown in recent decades. There are tens and tens of millions of people inserted in a vicious circle of residential segregation in unsafe neighborhoods lacking basic services.

Let’s look at some background

Protests in New York against racism. Photo: The New York Times/Archive

The question of race and racism against Blacks has been a major factor in shaping American culture and policy from colonial times and the formation of the republic to the present. Much of national politics revolves around them. The historical and current location of African Americans is – in many ways – central to the country’s problems.

In turn, Black political movements and activism have historically been at the forefront of struggles for progressive change in the United States, a vast and diverse country where class and other movements have been co-opted or fragmented. This is influenced by historical reasons, immense institutional obstacles, as well as the dimensions of the country, the tensions arising from the multi-ethnic character of its population, and the growing weakness of the labor movement.

In the late 1960s and 1970s, so-called “communities of color” began to understand that society, as it existed, would never address their needs as they were perceived and felt. It was in this period that exploring their cultural heritage and building their own institutions became their greatest strength. The Black Power slogan had electrified Black communities across the country.

A dramatic transformation in the self-image of Black people began, in the context of one of the most effective social movements to date in the country, of racial pride, collective consciousness and community solidarity, with enormous repercussions in society as a whole.

After the impact of the great struggles and mobilizations of the Black civil rights movement, it became evident to sectors of power that the strength of such movements was being enhanced given the serious social problems in those communities. For this reason, since the 1960s, a whole series of government programs and assistance projects for the “development” of marginal areas and Black communities had been spreading.

Among the results of these programs was the strengthening of reformist groups and economic interests, as well as contributing in the long term to the formation of a whole layer of African American and Latino professionals and politicians with possibilities of access, public presence, and supposed representation of the interests of so-called ethnic minorities.

The Black bourgeoisie, including that which developed during the Obama administration, has continued to make false promises of inclusion. Except in the recent context in reaction to the wave of killings and police violence, organized political activism by African Americans has reached this stage after a long period of ebb.

Black groups have remained atomized, uncoordinated, focused on immediate economic and social concerns, and their energies have become diffuse, marked by the needs and life emergencies of their social bases, internal divisions, and the social polarization in their communities. External manipulations of all kinds do the rest.

The appearance of greater political influence by the Black population given the access of a few of their own to positions of some visibility has been misleading. Despite some advances in participation and representation, Blacks continue to fare worse than whites in having their political preferences and interests legislated.

The increase in class diversity that has taken place within these ‘communities’ and the nefarious role played by the Democratic Party in presenting itself as a champion of the underprivileged when in fact it is subject to the interests of the country’s financial elite, were felt.

A polarized and contentious society

Black Lives Matter mural on a street in Washington Photo: CNN.

The United States shows a growing number of very deep social divisions. Racism and the dangerous ideology of white supremacy is a serious obstacle to social cohesion, and is sometimes conducive to and at the root of serious outbreaks of violence. Demographic trends, some warn, suggest that the nation will not be sustainable in the long term unless marked inequalities between populations of diverse ethnic backgrounds are corrected.

Analyst Tim Wise said (on the Truthout website, March 2, 2012) that, in 25 or 30 years when non-whites will be half the population and the majority in several states, it will not be sustainable for the country to maintain that population as it is now. Blacks today are three times more likely to be in poverty than whites, twice as likely to be unemployed, with several times less assets and with an income less than the other half of the citizenry, and with nine years less life expectancy.

Behind that reality, repressive conceptions prevail. These are not only fed by overflowing militaristic mentalities or fears of ungovernability, but they are backed up by calculations of profit generation. These are derived from the so-called wars on drugs, mass incarceration in private prisons, outsourcing to private “security” agencies, and institutionalized repression against immigrants and marginalized populations.

The focus of repressive state activity is directed against Black groups and progressive organizations, which has led to the violation of civil liberties, the criminalization of social movements, increased surveillance and infiltration of Black, Latino and poor Muslim institutions and communities, including the deployment of undercover police, informants and intimidation in homes and public spaces.

–

A woman protests in New York against the ban on Muslims in Trump. Photo: Stephanie Keith/ AFP.

Muslim communities in the country face an environment of growing intolerance and hostility since the September 11, 2001 attacks. State and local police forces gather information and spy on law-abiding Muslim citizens. They become targets of violence as an extension of racism and xenophobia to our day, virtually demanding submission and near abandonment of their cultural and identity expressions.

So far, anger and despair have replaced the organizational strength and momentum of the civil rights era.

Trapped in almost immovable racist structures

A woman affected by the tear gas launch during a protest in Boston in June. Within six nights, the agitation spread to every major city in the country and became a general protest against systemic racism in the United States. Photo: Brian Snyder/Reuters.

U.S. society is deeply fractured politically and across class, regional, economic, ethnic, religious, and cultural interests. Racial issues intersect with class differences and class oppression, and are often instrumentalized for political purposes. Levels of violence resurface; disparities are enormous. There are pockets of the population where people live in constant paranoia.

Even after the great rebellions against racism and the successes of the civil rights movement in the middle of the last century, including the partial dismantling of many of the legal structures that supported segregation, racial inequality remains a palpable fact. The racial chasm is widening and has not been altered by changes in government.

Racial prejudice in the United States has a strong negative impact on the lives of African Americans. It expresses itself in forms of discrimination in all areas and conditions of existence: segments of the population caught in a vicious circle of residential segregation, inferior opportunities for education or health services, marginality, increasing rates of incarceration, and discrimination in employment. Black workers receive 22% less than white workers in their wages, with the same levels of education and experience. The average income of African American households is just over half that of white households.

In most cities and urban areas of the country there are separate areas where the Black population resides,. This reflect the historical racial segregation that shaped the country and the policies created in the past to keep Black people out of certain neighborhoods. Many of these slums have high levels of poverty and face an intense and unwanted police presence.

In such an atmosphere and because of such deep-rooted prejudices, any activity, no matter how innocent, in which a Black man is involved generates suspicion, alarm and often danger to his life. Consider also that the rate of Black citizens in prison is five times that of white citizens. Despite being only 13% of the population they constitute 40% of all incarcerated men.

Highly peaceful neighborhoods coexist with others where violent death ravages the usually poor. Entire communities of Black, Latino, Muslim or Asian populations feel their communities are under increasing police occupation.

U.S. society has not been able to address the root causes of the outrage and anger that consume millions and are behind the recent powerful demonstrations against repression and racism. Neither politicians nor public institutions have established effective government programs to mitigate at least these gross inequalities, ultimately produced by the prevailing capitalist system.

On the other hand, what that society has done quite effectively is to divide and co-opt many of the struggles and organizing efforts that were going on in those communities.

The re-emergence of a “new Jim Crow,” that is, of a climate of brutal segregation, based on the mass imprisonment and repeated police killings of unarmed Black men, shows that the old systems of repressive control have increased in the present, always maintaining the dividing line of skin color.

In contrast, white hate groups, nationalists and racists, as well as their armed paramilitary branches, proliferate and carry out violent actions, often being overlooked or even in collusion with authorities in certain regions. Many of President Trump’s words and actions have seemed to encourage such groups.

All of this demagogic rhetoric, which has a fascist slant and is a mirror of the country’s war policies, encourages desperate sectors to organize themselves into militias to wage crusades of various kinds. It is a propitious environment when more than 300 million firearms, many of them of high caliber, are in the hands of the population, when a part of the hundreds of thousands of war veterans live with their frustrations, resentments and traumas of their war experiences.

In this context, hundreds and hundreds of right-wing armed militias throughout the country are operating, whose ideology and motivations are a combination of paranoia, fear and aggressive claims of their rights to carry firearms, receptiveness to elaborate conspiracy theories and extreme anti-government anger. Many claim that the country’s government has been subverted by conspirators and has become illegitimate, and therefore see themselves as patriotic by organizing themselves paramilitarily, confronting the authorities, and fomenting racial warfare.

An increasingly complex urban [and national] future

Stop killing us. Photo: Raul Roa/Daily Pilot

Many authorities, in conjunction with the media, continued to criminalize protests and progressive groups, going so far as to characterize minor actions as violent crimes and even “terrorism.

Raising alleged “security” interests, the so-called program to Counteract Violent Extremism (CVE) was begun under the Obama administration (2009-2017), that openly resembles the repression against radical groups and the COINTELPRO program of the 1960s and 1970s, and that was added to the actions deployed after the passage of the Patriot Act in October 2001 and other actions.

On the basis of sections of that law, federal agencies are able to make more and more inroads into areas of civil and personal life. The FBI, for example, can demand information such as telephone and computer records, credit and banking history, etc., without requiring court approval and without being subject to controls on the use that the feds make of such personal information.

Abuses and violations of the law often occur. Such is the case when attention is drawn to controversial sections of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, which allow for the conduct of mass spying on Americans communicating abroad. Recently the National Security Agency (NSA) has admitted to improperly collecting several hundred million phone calls from U.S. citizens.

According to William I. Robinson, a specialist on these issues, in his January 2018 article Global Police State, as war and state repression are privatized, the interests of a wide range of capitalist groups converge around a political, social, and ideological climate conducive to the generation and maintenance of social conflict.

For some time there have been signs that the government was anticipating the possible occurrence of serious civil problems and disturbances.

A video entitled “The Urban Future and its Emerging Complexity,” created by the U.S. Army to be used in the training of special forces, is revealing of the mentality and attitude in state entities regarding citizenship and the so-called “problems” that the government must be prepared to face through the use of martial law.

Already in 2008, a report from the Army Defense College stated that in the face of the possibility of a wave of widespread civilian violence within the country, the military establishment planned to “redirect its priorities under conditions of exemption to defend domestic order and the security of the people.

In its 44 pages, the report warned of the potential causes of such problems, which could include terrorist attacks, unanticipated economic collapse, loss of legal and political order, intentional domestic insurgency, health emergencies, and others. It also mentioned the possibility of a situation of widespread public outcry that would trigger dangerous situations and that would require additional powers to restore order.

In recent years, the U.S. state has radically expanded its punitive and surveillance capabilities. To limit protests, control dissent and popular opposition, as part of the well-known actions of the FBI and local police forces in previous decades, the system used administrative and legislative methods, espionage and covert infiltration, discrediting actions, massive “preventive” arrests, police attacks even against authorized peaceful protests, and so on.

The FBI’s budget for funding undercover agents, much of it within progressive organizations, rose from $1 million in 1977 to several tens of millions today.

People march with signs, protesting police violence and racial equality in Washington, USA, on September 5, 2020. Photo: Leah Millis / Reuters

See also:
In the United States, Black deaths are not a flaw in the system. They are the system.

Domestic Terrorism?

4 years ago Granmaterrorism, US politics, US Society

Domestic Terrorism?

This is like saying “homemade terrorism,” almost always made for export, only this time the three cups of broth were in the halls of the U.S. Congress

Author: Julio César Sánchez Guerra | internet@granma.cu
January 18, 2021 00:01:54

Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.

Photo: Taken from the Internet

This is what Joe Biden called the occupation, by force, of the Capitol in the United States. This is like saying “homemade terrorism,” almost always made for export, only this time the three cups of broth were in the halls of the U.S. Congress.

But this act of “domestic terrorism” had an agitator: Donald Trump, the president who reluctantly leaves the White House chair.

After that disaster, he called them intruders. The fact is that they played their part, or left the script; they no longer serve the game of lies; the change in attitude reminds us of the scene of the president throwing rolls of toilet paper at a Puerto Rican crowd after a hurricane on that neighboring island.

And it all happens in a country that extends the Cesarean finger to give or take life, issue certificates of democracy, or make spurious lists of countries that sponsor terrorism. Now they have no other honorable way out than to tear up the nomination sheet and sign up first.

However, President Trump only uncorked the bottle full of old demons: one of the flags that was carried by the “domestic terrorists” carried the symbols of 19th century slavery and racism.

José Martí, who lived in that country for 15 years, observed with concern the division and hatred. He learned of a marriage that was stoned to death because it was a white woman married to a black man. He saw children selling newspapers in the cold of New York. He saw the struggles between Democrats and Republicans and the role of money in the elections. He felt with pain the separation between rich and poor, and the imperial appetites for devouring other peoples. He did not hesitate to affirm that the United States of America was not the model to follow for the emerging Republics of Our America, since that giant already had feet of clay.

When he prepared for the Necessary War, he knew that this one is not only for Cuba and Puerto Rico, but “to save the already doubtful honor of English America”. Martí was not only a revolutionary for Cubans, he is also a revolutionary for the American people.

The images of the assault on the seat of American democracy confirm the future of José Martí’s thinking, that which opens the door to the spirit of Lincoln and closes the way to the dangers of the adventurer Cutting, the ancient face of those who now feed the supremacy of some men over others.

Many of those who attack Cuba, and tear their clothes in the name of freedom, now keep a strange silence. They turn their faces away, as if this matter were of minor importance, something very domestic that does not deserve to raise its voice, much less to fill its head with ashes.

Only this time, from the pages of Don Quixote, an old certainty jumps out: “The truth thins, but does not break, and always walks on the lie like oil on water”. This is one of the realities that floats: the shamelessness of “domestic terrorism”, made in the very house of the empire.

Related information
Assault on the Capitol: “democracy” in the U.S. again in question

The containment of the “popular wall”

4 years ago Granmaprice gouging, speculation

The containment of the “popular wall”

Holguin authorities take action to combat price violations

Author: Germán Veloz Placencia | german@granma.cu

January 7, 2021 00:01:00

Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.

The population feels protected every time their rights as consumers are taken care of. Photo: Ariel Cecilio Lemus

Holguín: With the COVID-19 on the prowl, a large group of rogue traders, whom Mercury himself would classify as a bunch of profiteers, have raised the prices of agricultural products and various items. In the face of this, the population is crying out to stop the mistakes of those who only think of their own pockets.

Solicitous, as it should be in times where half-baked positions are not admitted, the authorities of this province deploy actions to curtail the excesses that hurt, above all, the lowest income compatriots.

To the hard and without pause

Among the abusers sanctioned in recent days is a worker at a point of sale of agricultural products in the ccs Manuel Angulo. He was operating in the area of El Coco, near the provincial capital, and did not have the Commercial Authorization. It had been withdrawn a month ago for breaking the prices, which he ignored once again. This time, the outcome was the confiscation, among other products, of about 240 pounds of pork, valued at 5,470 pesos. Thus, what was intended for profit ended up in the 8 de Marzo maternity home.

In this effort, the agents of the National Revolutionary Police acted legally and with no ostentation. Access to reports on their work reveals that recently, in only 48 hours, they faced 111 cases related to the excessive increase in prices. These people had in their possession 4.5 tons of agricultural products and other merchandise, including coffee and animal feed. As expected, some of the violators could not justify the origin of what they were offering.

Dionisia Milagros Portelles, who heads the province’s Integral Direction of Supervision, points out that the body of supervisors works intensely in all the municipalities, which is why, in December and the first week of January, upon finding severe alterations in prices, they levied more than 1,700 fines amounting to more than 719,000 pesos.

As we proceed with absolute respect for the law, in several cases the confiscation of the goods was the result. Thus, for example, several people in the municipality of Calixto Garcia failed in their attempt to continue spoliation of the fellow citizens through the high prices at which they sold children’s shoes, socks, women’s sandals, razors and other items.

The abusive vendors frown and even blaspheme, but the people go out to stock up appreciate and applaud this action. They have had the opportunity to access, without excessive expenses, food, fruit, vegetables, ham, and sheep and pig meat, among other foods.

Ramiro Andrés Hampton agrees with this way of stopping the rampages of the abusers and speculators.

The “harassment” of the good

Abnalie Rondón says that the work of the authorities facing the price changers will not be efficient without the collaboration of those affected. “We have to let them know that we are not willing to put up with them. And since they have reached such a point of arrogance, one cannot be afraid to denounce them. We have allowed them too much until now”.

And it is true that denouncing unscrupulous procedures that affect the community is a civic attitude that needs all the support of those responsible for putting things in order. Addressing this issue at a recent working meeting attended by the media, the first secretary of the Cuban Communist Party in Holguín, Ernesto Santiesteban Velázquez, said that it would be unforgivable not to act in a hurry when the population brings to the attention of the authorities acts that hurt it.

Not believing in the power of collective vigilance was the mistake of an individual who, these days, transported in the vehicle driving packages of razor blades and blister packs of various types of medicines, among them diclofenac sodium plus paracetamol, ibuprofen, amoxicillin, tadalafil, vitamins and metronidazole and nystatin eggs. It was intended to be profitable and will now be processed by their recipients.

The same thing happened to a citizen residing in a rural area of Banes. Along with salt packs, he was taken care of by five plastic fumigation backpacks with all the attachments.

Similarly, acts of speculation and hoarding that lead to outrages continue to find a retaining wall. A resident of the Miraflores neighborhood in Moa knows this well, who was engaged in the illegal sale of a wide range of clothing for children and adults, jewelry, perfumes, wipes, USB cables, hearing aids and even nasobucos.

Staff at the Citizen’s Portal, a digital site of the Provincial Government, assures us that through this communication channel, notifications about price violations by cart drivers and other self-employed workers are constantly arriving.

It is not to prohibit, but to control and order

In view of the irregularities found in points of sale belonging to cooperatives, the ANAP in Holguín has undertaken a thorough review of the matter. This is aimed, above all, at identifying the productive forms that have fallen into the harmful game of lending their legal personality to the profiteers. “It is not a question of erasing these points from the commercial scene, but of controlling them, so that they can fulfill their true function. We must take into account that they will play an important role in the food offers in the context created by the new policy of commercialization of agricultural products”, says Amaury Velázquez Zaldívar, president of ANAP in the province.

Along with the actions of the inspectorates, dialogue with self-employed workers is also expanding, a sector in which, unfortunately, the greatest number of violations have been reported. An example of this effort to walk the right path are the meetings held by officials from the Provincial Directorate of Labor and Social Security with those who sell in bazaars in the city of Holguín to explain, once again, the regulations to be taken into account.

In the provincial capital, most of the points of sale of agricultural products operated by self-employed people show a total lack of supply, since those in charge know about the verifications in progress. But when a potential customer approaches, an attentive “public servant” appears from the vicinity with the product offers he keeps hidden.

Intelligence and perseverance are required to maintain this confrontation. It cannot be overlooked that many ask themselves if this attack against opportunism will be something specific, when avoiding inflation has to be a constant in order to achieve order in the economic environment.

Indications from the President

We can no longer postpone what the people ordered at the last Party congresses. We need to implement everything that is pending without delay, shake up the business system, ensure order, and intelligently deal with rising prices.

We also called on the necessary private and cooperative sectors. We must banish the selfishness and exclusive pursuit of personal gain that drives some to fish in the troubled river of the needs of the majority, abusively raising prices.

This people, noble and hard-working, has survived all the imperial fences and abuses with an extraordinary dose of solidarity and generosity that is now an inseparable part of the national being. Selfishness is an attitude that will not prosper in our Homeland.

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UNEDITED TRANSLATION OF COMMENTS AT GRANMA WEB PAGE:

Very well by the authorities and Holguinero police but WHAT ABOUT HERE IN HAVANA? It seems that there are only exhortations from the bosses to the rogues to behave well, and if not, why don’t they publish the cases like in this article of what they do in Holguin?

lesther veloso santos said:

January 7, 2021