Juventud Rebelde 150
Youth and Beauty At All Costs?
Youth and Beauty at All Costs?
Since 2011 there has been an increase in the number of people attending plastic surgery services in Cuba, who should be aware that this type of intervention is not without risks.
Posted: Saturday 29 September 2018 | 10:15:43 pm.
Author: Ana María Domínguez Cruz
digital@juventudrebelde.cu
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
Since 2011 many people have turned to plastic surgery services. Author: Falco Published: 29/09/2018 | 10:03 pm
Aesthetics and health. The debate is still endless because the search for beauty, beyond the superficial, can also be a guarantee of emotional health, psychological stability, high self-esteem and general well-being.
Plastic surgery professionals also work in the field of reconstructive surgery and caumatology, and say that in the first place the safety of the procedure and the training of the professionals who put it into practice should be paramount.
According to data released at the 2nd Congress of the Cuban Society of Plastic Surgery and Caumatology, held from September 5 to 7 on the Island, from 2001 to 2016, 309,469 plastic surgeries were performed in Cuba The majority (200,508) were aesthetic and the rest reconstructive.
They added that there is a considerable increase every year starting in 2011, which places us in line with the rest of the world, where each time the number of people who come or need this specialty grows.
Dr. Ariel C. Prada, a third-year resident in Plastic Surgery and Caumatology at the Hermanos Ameijeiras Clinical Surgical Hospital, recently arrived at the Multimedia Editorial Office of Juventud Rebelde to answer questions related to the discipline in the country, its potentialities and perspectives, as well as its risks and complications.
The professor instructor and editor of the magazine Cirugía Estética y Reparadora [Esthetic and Reparative Surgery] clarified not a few doubts of our readers -some teenagers and young people-, from whom we offer a selection.
Dr. Ariel C. Prada, third year resident in Plastic Surgery and Caumatology, Hospital Clínico Quirúrgico Hermanos Ameijeiras. Photo: Roberto Ruiz
Lissa: What are all the plastic surgery services that we can access for free?
Ariel C. Prada (ACP): You can access all plastic surgery services (including cosmetic surgery and reconstructive surgery) free of charge, after a medical assessment to determine whether or not you qualify for that intervention. There are procedures in which alloplastic materials are used (breast implants, buttocks, etc.) that in the case of cosmetic surgery must be acquired by the patient, having first the indication of its model and volume by the plastic surgeon.
Susel: Is it necessary to be of legal age to access an operation or is it only possible with the authorization of the legal guardian?
ACP: Like any medical-surgical procedure it has a legal background and risks. If you are a minor must have the approval of parents or legal guardians. We do not know the nature of the procedure you wish to be performed, but we always recommend that, if it is not strictly necessary, you wait until the age of majority, either to seek better aesthetic results or because they are purely elective surgical interventions (cosmetic surgery), not essential for your life. Remember that undergoing surgery, in this case, is a very personal decision that requires full awareness and maturity.
Hope: I want to remove the “crows feet”, a little fat from my belly, my neck wrinkles … How many cosmetic surgeries can a person do, and how long should you wait between one and another?
ACP: There is no specific number of cosmetic or reconstructive surgeries that can be performed on a person. Above all, it must be evaluated by a specialist, who will determine, according to his opinions, which is the best aesthetic option, according to factors as varied as the type of patient, age, basic diseases and magnitude of the procedure, among others.
“Our specialty is a complement to improve the quality of life of people. Thus, it in no way replaces healthy habits such as a good diet, avoiding toxic habits or frequent physical exercise. In fact, many times our intervention is not necessary or its magnitude decreases, with much better results. The patient must be aware and responsible for their own health, to have lifestyles that maintain the results of the procedure performed.
Yaima: I have black skin, am 52 years old… Does race influence this type of surgery?
ACP: In medicine, and particularly in plastic surgery and caumatology, one of the elements taken into account is the racial biotype. Age is also a factor that is considered depending on the patient’s desire.
Iris: How is the procedure so that a woman who was operated on a radical breast can have access to the reconstruction of this part of her body? Where should she go?
ACP: Surely you were seen in a center with oncology service. Your oncologist, after considering that you are free of the disease (at least for a year) can refer you to a reconstructive surgery service, either in an oncology hospital or clinical-surgical, to begin the process of breast reconstruction which can be done in several stages.
“The National Breast Cancer Program contemplates the free reconstruction of all women affected by this pathology, with quality and first-class breast implants in centers such as the National Institute of Oncology and Radiobiology (Havana), Hermanos Ameijeiras Clinical-Surgical Hospital (Havana) and Conrado Benítez Oncological Hospital (Santiago de Cuba). You should consult with your oncologist in which center, according to the regionalization of health services, you should be treated.
Carmen: Those of us in our third age can opt for simple procedures, such as, for example, one that allows us to lift our drooping eyelids?
ACP: Although there are “simple procedures”, all require the expertise, experience and “aesthetic vision” of a plastic surgeon. We mean that there are sick people, not diseases (an old medical adage). Therefore, each treatment must be individualized, because what a patient requests is not always the best aesthetic or technically possible option.
“In the elderly, we must take into account the compensation of their basic illnesses, because we are talking about purely elective procedures, in which the risk must be minimal and the benefit, the highest possible.
Yeny: What practices should a patient follow after having a lipectomy*? How long should she wait to perform physical exercises and which are the most recommended? Is it normal to feel punctures in the abdominal region two years after this type of surgery has been performed?
ACP: First of all, you must have followed the indications of the plastic surgeon who operated on you, because s/he knows the characteristics of the patient, the details of his procedure and therefore the limitations and possible evolution, among others.
“Generally, three months after the operation, as long as they have not been complex dermolipectomies, patients can gradually resume themselves into their lives fully, without excesses. Physical exercises should be dosed and increased progressively. Aerobes and any activity that tones the muscles improve the results of the procedure. Consult your surgeon about the symptomatology presented, because s/he will surely offer you a more exact explanation and a solution.
The returning breast
Surgeries do not replace healthy lifestyle habits, but they are a choice many make.
When we speak of plastic surgery, the term also includes reconstructive surgery, which guarantees not only an aesthetic result, but also the return of function to the affected area.
In this sense, Dr. Yamilé León Rodríguez, who works at Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital, tells Juventud Rebelde that oncological, traumatic or congenital deformities in the face, in the breast due to cancer and ulcers in dissimilar parts of the body, among others, are treated in this way.
“We have a multi-disciplinary breast cancer care group that includes oncologists, mastólogos, radio-oncologists, imageologists, psychologists, psychiatrists and specialists in reconstructive plastic surgery, who enter the process after it has been decided how the ablative surgery of the patient will be conducted.
“The defect to be corrected may be in the breast, when a partial or total removal of an organ or body tissue is performed in a radical mastectomy, or to correct a defect that remains in the chest wall, as a result of an ablation of a large tumor.
“We have developed several techniques, including reconstruction with the local tissues of the breast, with muscles, especially the abdominal rectum and the broad dorsal, as well as through flaps obtained from the abdomen, or the novel technique applied in the country of the sentinel ganglion, which determines the degree of spread of cancer.
León Rodríguez points out that patients of different ages, from 18 to 85 years old, have been treated with this type of aesthetic reconstruction. “The results show that it is not mandatory to perform total exeresis and that the subsequent reconstruction, with or without the use of prostheses, gives the woman back one of the classic attributes of femininity”.
Perfect face!
Rhinoplasty is a complex but generally not life-threatening procedure.
Dr. Julio Cesar Galvez Chavez recognizes that in the desire to look younger, more and more patients come to his office. They should know that there are also selection criteria for cervicofacial rejuvenation surgeries.
“If there are signs of aging, then we can consider this type of surgery. We can find these elements in young people, perhaps because they have very white skin. In general, however, we perform them in patients over 40 years and up to 60, although the age limit is not as determinant as physical conditions and health.
“Many people believe that this is a magical intervention that will return them to the freshness they had at 15 years. This isn’t so, because, although it is guaranteed to make you look younger, you can’t turn back the clock.
The fundamental motivations for performing a surgery in the environment of cervicofacial rejuvenation are related to the fall of the eyebrows, the appearance of horizontal or transverse wrinkles in the eyebrows, the excess of skin on the eyelids and the appearance of fat pockets in that area, the loss of the contour of the jaw and the presence of the so-called marionette lines, the fall of the chin and the loss of angularity in the neck, among others.
Gálvez Chávez is also an expert in rhinoplasty, an aesthetic procedure indicated for those who wish to modify the size and shape of their nose as well as to improve their respiratory function in case of deformities in their septum.
“We perform reductive rhinoplasty in those noses of large dimensions and augmentative for flat or underdeveloped. In addition, we can make other procedures to model or perfect the features according to aesthetic patterns worldwide, either in the tip of the nose, the wings, the back, the nostrils and in general in all regions of the nose.
“Rhinoplasties are not recommended for people over 40 years of age because the skin’s ability to adapt to structural changes is important. This is most noticeable before the age of 30,” says the specialist, who notes that, although vital rules of care must be respected after rhinoplasty, it is not a life-threatening surgery.
Molding the body
How many people yearn for an aesthetic surgery after which they will look slim and slender? Dr. Heizel Escobar Vega, a specialist at the Hospital Clínico-Quirúrgico Hermanos Ameijeiras, states that this is the main reason why patients come to her practice. They ignore the fact that liposculpture is not a method for treating obesity.
“Liposculpture is the surgical treatment we perform to treat the areas of the body where fat deposits are found, such as the abdomen, the trochanteric regions and the arms, among others. Not only is it a question of removing those fat accumulations, but also of performing the lipo-injection in other areas in which they are desired.
“With this procedure, we obtain a corporal mold, as much in men as in women. Lately, they want to lose fat, in the abdomen and lumbar regions. They also request high definition surgery to obtain the well-known “squares”, an increased request also in recent times in the female population”.
Escobar Vega insists that not everyone can be a candidate for this surgical intervention. “We are rigorous in the selection of patients. Although people generally think that it is a simple surgery, due to the fact that it is among the most performed globally, it is certainly one of the riskiest and has the highest mortality associated with it, depending on the time and volume of fat extracted. Moreover, its realization leads to the modification of the metabolic, biochemical and hepatic mechanisms of the organism.
“Follow-up after surgery is essential, and the patient must respect the measures indicated by his attending physician.
Dr. María del Carmen Franco Mora is a specialist at the Juan Bruno Zayas General Hospital in Santiago de Cuba. She explains that the demand for gluteal lipo-injection has grown, a procedure that requires prior liposuction or liposculpture, from which the fat extracted is injected into that area of the body.
“The most frequent general complications are associated with the most feared, ranging from fatty and pulmonary thromboembolism, septic shock and severe anemias, to local infection and hematomas, among others.
“The criteria established for the classification of the patient must be very respected. We do not operate on people with a body mass index above 30 until they lose weight before, nor on those with a history of thrombotic diseases in lthe ower limbs or with the presence of varicose veins, nor on those who take oral contraceptives, among other exceptions”.
An American Tragedy Multiplied
An American Tragedy Multiplied
Ex-marine kills 12 people in a California bar and apparently commits suicide.
Posted: Thursday 08 November 2018 | 10:17:27 pm.
By Juana Carrasco Martin
juana@juventudrebelde.cu
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
The National Rifle Association champions like Pedro for his house. Author: wp Published: 08/11/2018 | 10:05 pm
It’s not Theodore Dreiser’s novel, An American Tragedy, but murder is in the plot and it’s a real tragedy that shakes American society almost daily. Thirteen people, including the attacker, died when the victims assumed that on Wednesday night they would celebrate with country music at the university students’ favorite bar in the town of Thousand Oaks, a suburb of affluent residents northwest of Los Angeles, considered the third safest in the United States.
In cold blood, as Truman Capote’s documentary novel is titled, the Borderline Bar & Grill killer, a 28-year-old ex-marine suffering from post-traumatic stress, indiscriminately fired at least three extended magazines of his Glock 21, 45 caliber automatic pistol after throwing smoke grenades. The gun had been legally purchased…
Twenty-two other people were injured by bullets or injuries during the hasty escape to avoid the shots of Ian David Long, a young man described as angry and irrational by the police who came to his house last April for complaints of disturbance of order and were already known to the authorities by two other violent altercations.
At the first call for help, at 11:20 p.m., a sergeant from the sheriff’s office and an officer from the Road Patrol came immediately to try to “neutralize the threat. They were shot and Sergeant Ron Helus fell, with 29 years of service and only five months to his retirement.
“It’s a horrible scene. There’s blood everywhere,” Sheriff Dean told reporters. Some of the celebrating students were known to have survived the massacre at the Harvest Music Festival in Las Vegas, a massive country concert in which 58 people died and more than 500 were injured on October 1, 2017, under the gunfire of Stephen Paddock, a sober and healthy 64-year-old man.
Just ten days before the new massacre, the “safe” Thousand Oaks, an ultra-massacre of 11 faithful at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Oct. 27; and just a week ago another individual fired on a yoga gym in Tallahassee, Florida, killing two women, injuring others.
According to the Gun Violence Archive – a nonprofit group that tracks these incidents on a daily basis – between January 1 and October 31, 2018, there have been 47,467 firearm incidents and 12,183 people killed, 23,759 injured, 560 of the fatalities were children, 2,370 teenagers, 1,701 were armed home invasions, 1,502 incidents used weapons as a defense, 1,332 were unintentional shootings and 301 mass shootings.
Already those numbers are history past, the numbers have increased. In the first eight days of this November, the United States has witnessed six mass shootings (description for those occurrences in which four or more people have died, not including the gunman), bringing the mass shootings to 307.
Alarms ring again and again, an increasing proportion of Americans are calling for laws that effectively limit or control gun ownership – there are at least 310 million in the possession of the nearly 325 million people, approximately 89 weapons for every 100 people, and a total of 48 percent of the 650 million weapons held by civilians worldwide.
Only 27 words of their Constitution give them that “right” and justify a culture of extreme violence, which is officially deployed with organization and participation in almost every war that occurs in today’s world.
However, President Donald Trump and many of the legislators are deaf to the petition.
After the Thousands Oaks event, Trump, in his usual way of “facing” the problems, immediately tweet: “I have been fully informed of the terrible shooting in California (…) God bless the victims and relatives of the victims. Thanks to law enforcement.
The National Rifle Association champions like Peter for his home. In 2017 weapons were sold in the United States for $41.93 billion, the same revenue as Facebook. Everything is resolved.
At Least 11 Killed in Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting
At Least 11 Killed in Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting
Trump calls for strengthening the death penalty and says if the temple had had armed protection, the tragedy would not have occurred.
Posted: Saturday 27 October 2018 | 07:05:43 pm
By Juventud Rebelde digital@juventudrebelde.cu
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
The attack is considered a hate crime and constitutes a federal violation. Author: Taken from the Internet Published: 27/10/2018 | 06:58 pm
Trump calls for strengthening the death penalty and says that if the temple had had armed protection, the tragedy would not have occurred.
The gunman also shot at the police officers who came to face him and four of them were also wounded, local KDKA reported. It described the suspect of this hate crime as a white man with a beard, 48 years old, who was wounded in his confrontation with the SWAT team.
The attack occurred during Shabbat services at the synagogue that was filled for that weekend ceremony, and the perpetrator apparently lives in a nearby apartment. Police are also investigating whether Bowers announced his intentions in social media on Saturday morning. His account appears to have been withdrawn.
One of the messages on that account said, “HIAS [the Hebrew Immigrant Help Society] likes to attract invaders to kill people. I can’t sit back and watch my people get killed. Screw on your optics, I’m going in.
The Gab.com website, which describes itself as “The Home of Online Freedom of Expression,” rejected claims that it was responsible for the shooting after it confirmed that the name identified in media reports as the suspect matched the name of an account on its platform.
The site’s statement states that “Gab.com’s policy on terrorism and violence has always been very clear: we have no tolerance for it. Gab unequivocally disapproves and condemns all acts of terrorism and violence. This has always been our policy. We are saddened We are saddened and disgusted by the news of violence in Pittsburgh and we keep the families and friends of all victims in our thoughts and prayers.
The FBI is spearheading the investigation into what happened because it is considered a hate crime and a federal violation.
According to KDKA Pittsburgh, President Donald Trump, who advocates the possession of weapons in civilian hands and refuses to endorse any legislation that limits it, said that if the synagogue had had armed protection, things would have been different.
The president added, “It’s a terrible thing that’s happening with hatred in our country and, frankly, all over the world, and something must be done.
Speaking to reporters at Andrews Air Force Base on the way to Indianapolis, Trump added, “I think one thing we should do is strengthen our laws on the death penalty. When people do this, they should get the death penalty and not have to wait years and years.
HispanTv cites statistics provided by the Gun Violence Archive (GVA) on gun violence in the United States so far in 2018, with 11,980 people killed and 23,332 injured in shootings.
Youth Forum on Cuban Revolution’s History
Youth Forum on Cuban Revolution, 60 Years of History
The Forum will be organized around keynote speeches, central panels and workshops.
By Juventud Rebelde digital@juventudrebelde.cu
Posted: Friday 09 November 2018 | 10:06:51 pm.
Updated: Friday 09 November 2018 | 11:15:13 pm.
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
The triumph of the Cuban Revolution in January 1959 opened a new stage for national liberation movements. On an international scale, the humanist, anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist content, present in the important work of social transformation, modified collective images, reshaped politics and showed a cultural horizon that aspired to the complete emancipation of women and men.
Returning to the origins of that thought and practice is fundamental. Sixty years after that significant January 1st, the Young Communist League, student organizations, youth movements, with the support of the Publishers Abril and Ocean Sur, announce the Cuban Revolution Youth Forum, 60 years of history.
In a note sent to our editorial office, the 11 main themes of the meeting are specified, among which they are: The thoughts of José Martí, Fidel Castro, Raúl Castro, Ernesto Che Guevara and other figures; the United States-Cuba conflict; the historiography of the Cuban Revolution in power; the evolution of economic thought within the socialist transition, and the social policy of the Cuban Revolution.
The other topics of the forum will be: The international politics of the Cuban Revolution; the impact of social transformations in the last 60 years; institutionality, participation and socialism; social sciences in the Revolution; Marxism in the Cuban Revolution, and revolutionary journalism.
The event, which will take place on January 16, 17 and 18, 2019, in Havana, will be open to social scientists, teachers and university students, as well as other professionals who are linked to the topics they intend to address and have up to 35 years of age.
Those interested in participating should take into account the following requirements: send the abstracts of the works by e-mail (forojuvenil@ujc.cu), for evaluation by the organizing committee, before November 30, 2018; the abstracts will not exceed 250 words. They will be accompanied by the author’s general data including his location, the title of the paper and key words, and if accepted, before December 15 the papers will be sent for inclusion in the proceedings of the event.
It is also required that the Publishers Abril and Ocean Sur have the materials presented for the edition of a printed volume with a selection of these, while the Organizing Committee reserves the rights of admission to the Colloquium and will bear the costs of food and lodging for participants who are not from Havana.
The Forum will be organized from master conferences, central panels and workshops.
Big Fires in Los Angeles
Big Fires in Los Angeles Force Hundreds to Evacuate
For his part, U.S. President Donald Trump has reacted by blaming Forest Services for not managing the fire well and threatened to withdraw funds for this type of services in his country.
Posted: Saturday 10 November 2018 | 09:57:08 am. Updated: Saturday 10 November 2018 | 09:41:33 am.
By Juventud Rebelde
digital@juventudrebelde.cu
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
Two major fires, one at the gates of Los Angeles and another in the Malibu area, have forced the evacuation of hundreds of people in the area, international media report.
In the north, at least nine people have died in a fire that has destroyed 36,000 hectares in the town of Paradise. Five of the victims were surprised by the flames inside their vehicles as they tried to flee the lit area.
More than 6,400 houses had been destroyed as of Friday night, more than 50,000 people had been evacuated, according to the Spanish daily El País.
On the coast of Los Angeles, a fire that began Thursday morning has forced the evacuation of the entire population of Malibu.
US President Donald Trump, for his part, has reacted by blaming Forest Services for not managing the fire well and threatened to withdraw funds for this type of service in his country, reports PL.
Welcome, war criminals!
Welcome, war criminals!
Activists welcome with protests world leaders who will celebrate in Paris the centenary of the end of World War I.
By Juventud Rebelde
digital@juventudrebelde.cu
Posted: Saturday 10 November 2018 | 11:05:19 pm.
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
FEMEN protests against the war in Paris. Author: AFP Published: 10/11/2018 | 11:02 pm
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
PARIS, November 10. – Three activists from the radical feminist organization FEMEN were arrested in this capital last Saturday after an action under the Arc de Triomphe in which they accused the world leaders gathered in France to commemorate the end of the First World War of “hypocrisy” and “war criminals,” including U.S. President Donald Trump.
The women, with their breasts in the air -characteristic of the demonstrations of this group that was born in Ukraine-, jumped from a car in the Place de l’Etoile and climbed the barriers of the platform where 70 high international guests are expected to attend the ceremony this Sunday, November 11, which marks the centennial of the armistice.
Beneath this famous Arc de Triumph lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier – an anonymous human being among the ten to 31 million people who died in that global conflict. The signing of the armistice between Germany and the Entente countries that took part in that holocaust is commemorated there every year, and this year 2018 acquires a special connotation.
With flowers in their hair and the accusatory phrase “False pacifists, royal dictators” painted on their torsos, the women raised posters with the legend in red blood: “Welcome war criminals”.
Another sign cited the famous mantra in George Orwell’s 1984 novel: “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.
President Donald Trump, who has already met at the Elysée Palace with French host Emmanuel Macron, and the media say differences arose, also received a response on Twitter this Saturday from British politician and Winston Churchill’s grandson, Nicholas Soames, because the American president canceled his scheduled visit to the American cemetery and memorial of Aisne-Marne, in northern France, under the excuse of “logistical difficulties caused by the climate,” according to a White House statement cited by The Hill.
@NSoames was categorical in his tweet: “They died in the face of the enemy and this pathetic and inadequate @realDonaldTrump cannot even defy the climate and pay his respect to the fallen,” to which he added this hashtag on Trump: #hesnotfittorepresenthisgreatcountry.
Apparently, instead of Trump and his wife Melania, the White House Chief of Staff, John Kelly, and the Joint Chief of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, will attend the Aisne-Marne memorial. This cemetery is at the foot of the hill where the Battle of Belleau Forest was fought, in which some 2,000 U.S. Marines died in June 2018.
According to The Guardian, among veterans groups, a progressive organization, VoteVets, responded angrily in a tweet: “Donald Trump complained that he had to stand in the rain to talk about the Pittsburgh massacre, because he ruined his (more) hair,” referring to Trump’s comments after a massive shooting in a synagogue two weeks ago in which 11 people died. “Today, he will fail to honor the fallen American heroes of World War I and stay in his hotel room because of some rain.
When French President Macron visited the White House in April of this year, he brought Trump a tree from the Belleau Forest as a gift, but the shoot was briefly an object of intrigue when it disappeared from the White House lawn where Trump and Macron had planted it, The Guardian reported, but it was later revealed that they had been temporarily removed for quarantine.
As for the differences demonstrated in the meeting now in Paris, the Spanish daily El País quoted Trump on his arrival at the Elysée: “We want to help Europe, but it has to be fair. We have to share the burden. Today it’s the US that pays to protect Europe, and it’s not fair. There are limits.
A few hours earlier, he had heavily charged his host via his favorite, Twitter: “Macron has just suggested that Europe create its own army to protect itself from the US, China and Russia,” Trump wrote as soon as he landed in Paris on Friday night. “Very insulting, but perhaps Europe should first pay its share to NATO, which the United States largely subsidizes!
In Defense of the North American Working Class
From Cuba:
In Defense of the North American Working Class
Trade unionists from the US will participate in the 12th International May Day Workshop.
By Leyanis Infante Curbelo
leyanis@juventudrebelde.cu
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
Last week, between April 23 and 26, the 12th International May First Workshop took place at the Palacio de los Torcedores, in the Cuban capital. It is an event organized by the Cuban History Institute (IHC) and the Central de Trabajadores del país (CTC) that brings together researchers, sociologists, historians, professors and trade unionists from various countries to exchange views on the current economic and political situation, and the role of workers and trade unions in the search for a global balance where relations of equity and social justice are paramount.
Willie Head, small farmer in South Georgia, veteran of many battles of black farmers to keep their land. Author: Maykel Espinosa Rodríguez Published: 02/05/2018 | 02:53 pm
As in previous editions of the event, many of the foreign participants are also part of the First of May Brigade, which at this time comes to the island to join the celebrations for the International Workers’ Day that we hold in Cuba.
Foto: Maykel Espinosa Rodríguez
This is the case with a group of trade unionists from the United States, mostly members of the Socialist Workers Party in that country. This May Day, they packed their backpacks and headed to the Plaza de la Revolución. They joined thousands and thousands of Havana residents in saluting the continuity of the Cuban Revolution. But a week ago, invited by the IHC, they shared, in a panel entitled From Clinton To Trump: How The Working People Of The United States Are Responding To The Anti-Worker Offensive Of The Bosses, their parties and their governments, their most vivid experiences in the struggle for class rights in the heart of the flagship country of world capitalism.
As a reflection of its social structure, this panel attempted to cover representatively the most disadvantaged and discriminated groups in its country: women, blacks and immigrants, and among them, members of those economic sectors that have been historically most oppressed and beaten, and who have therefore had to wage long struggles for their labor rights.
This is the case of Alyson Kennedy, a long-time coal mine worker and member of the first wave of women who broke the barriers that excluded them from jobs in underground mines. In the controversial 2016 U.S. election, she was a Socialist Workers Party presidential candidate.
Alyson Kennedy. Photo Maykel Espinosa Rodríguez
Or Willie Head, a small farmer in South Georgia, veteran of many battles of black farmers to keep their land. Their struggle is part of a history that dates back more than a century and a half.
For these Americans, who defend the principle that a socialist revolution within their country’s capitalist system is possible, the Cuban Revolution represents the most concrete and current example of these aspirations.
In the opinion of Martín Koppel, journalist for the weekly El Militante, sharing these experiences in Cuba has been very important because, outside the United States in general, the situation of its workers and their struggles is not known; rather, the media conveys the idea that everything is fine with them.
Mary-Alice Waters, a member of the Political Bureau of the Socialist Workers Party, president of Pathfinder Publishing and organizer of the panel, told JR that the idea was to try to answer two main questions from each participant’s perspective: whether after Donald Trump came to power the working class that gave him his vote had also experienced a movement to the right; and whether it was actually possible for a social revolution to triumph in the United States.
Mary-Alice Waters. Photo: Maykel Espinosa Rodríguez
On the first, Waters and the other panelists mentioned the teachers’ strike that has taken place in West Virginia recently and that has achieved a significant wage increase in this state’s public sector. Coincidentally, it’s one where Trump won with an overwhelming majority (68 percent) and where the unemployment rate is double the national average. The workers organize demands, she pointed out, because their situation has not improved at all.
In the recent history of our country, we have seen how the working class has waged its struggles at different times in our history and we have gained confidence in what it is capable of doing, said Waters. To illustrate, she mentioned the workers’ struggles of the 1930s, the mass struggle of Black people to overthrow the system of racial segregation in the 1960s, and the popular demonstrations against the Vient Nam war. All of them, she points out, have shown us how the class struggle does have the potential to change governments.
In his closing remarks of the XII International May Day Workshop, René González Barrios, President of the IHC, thanked the American delegation for its participation and affirmed that every time the American people become freer and more independent, the world will be too.
Uri Avnery: “no fear, no prejudice”
Uri Avnery and a legacy “without fear, without prejudice”
The Israeli fighter for the Palestinian cause died in Tel Aviv on Monday.
By Marylín Luis Grillo
digital@juventudrebelde.cu
Posted: Monday 20 August 2018 | 09:11:00 PM
A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann.
Avnery leading a march for the two states, Israel and Palestine. Author: Gush-Shalom Published: 20/08/2018 | 09:04 pm
This August 20, the Palestinian cause has lost one of its greatest defenders. Uri Avnery – a journalist, intellectual, former member of parliament, a man of the left and of peace – died at the age of 94, ten days after suffering a stroke, in a hospital in Tel Aviv.
As a Jew in Nazi Germany, he had to flee in 1933 to Palestine, then a British colony. He saw Israel born, and, at the dawn of a mad youth, he was a Zionist guerrilla against the Arabs and fought with the Israeli army. However, his whole subsequent life was spent trying to create a stable territory in the Middle East and he strongly advocated the two-state solution within his own country.
“There were less than a hundred of us in the world who defended this idea in 1949,” he said in 2011, referring to the proposal to create a Palestinian state that would coexist with Israel, “but today the whole world supports it, as do the majority of Israelis.
“No fear, no prejudice.” With this slogan and from the strength of journalism, Avnery broke the taboos of Israeli society with his weekly Haolam Haze (This World), in which he defended peaceful coexistence with Palestinians and Arabs.
For his country’s own government, its lyrics were “public enemy number one”, as the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, put it. The newsroom suffered several attacks with firebombs and explosives, and was the victim of censorship and personal attacks.
In 1965 he established the left-wing political movement Haolam Hazeh-Koah Hadash, known as Meri, with whom he became a member of the Knesset (Parliament) from 1969, and in 1979 he regained a seat as a founding member of the left-wing Sheli party.
His political activities defended religious freedom in the Jewish state, civil marriage, appealed for the denuclearization of the Middle East and the rights of homosexuals, who were then forced to conceal their identity. He advocated a formal constitution.
Then, with the Oslo Peace Accords, he created Gush Shalom (Peace Bloc) in 1993, which distinguished itself from other Israeli peace movements by demanding the return of Palestinians expelled during the creation of Israel in 1948.
As a politician and journalist he was a person who took risks. Therefore, in these days when many remember him, Uri Avnery will be particularly remembered for his interview with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, in 1982, in Lebanon, during the Israeli siege of Beirut.
Avnery went through his own ranks to talk to Arafat for about two hours. They would meet on other occasions. It would be a clear sign that peace knows no ethnicity, religion or nationality. Avnery would defend him (Arafat) as a companion, it would even be willing to give his life for him, in 2003, when he did not hesitate to serve him together with another compatriot as a human shield in the face of the imminent danger of an attack on the Palestinian leader.
His struggle, that of the man of letters and strength, was the struggle of a discontent with injustice and, above all, of a convinced “optimist”, the title he would give to his autobiography. He published a dozen books and received many international awards. He was also beaten up by his own country, which he criticised with the conviction of believing in “the capacity of these people to change course”.
He laid the foundations for critical journalism in Israel, for political dissent, the Tel Aviv press has had to acknowledge. “Ideological rivalries are disappearing in the face of their will to build a free and strong society,” said Israeli President Reuven Rivlin of the conservative Likud party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. While Ayman Odeh, leader of the Joint Arab List party in Israel, honored the memory of “a man who dedicated his life to peace and the creation of a Palestinian state”.
His death occurs in dark moments of heavy repression in Gaza and the West Bank, of apartheid and extermination. It may seem like goodbye, but Uri Avnery was an eternal optimist and his struggle continues on both sides of the wall.
Beauty at Any Cost?
Beauty at Any Cost?
The alarm is triggered when health risks are evident when taking on styles and habits that are, far from guaranteeing beauty, touching us with danger.
By Ana María Domínguez Cruz
digital@juventudrebelde.cu
Posted: Tuesday 07 August 2018 | 09:06:12 PM
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
When it comes to a haircut, a bold nail polish or a bold piece of clothing, it’s not as worrisome, because of the ephemeral nature of fashion, in the end. The alarm is triggered when health risks are evident when assuming styles and habits that far from guaranteeing beauty, touch us with danger.
Beauty, idealized perfection, belonging to a social group that makes them feel accepted, respected and proud are pursued. Author: Twitter Posted: 07/08/2018 | 08:42 pm
Several blogs dedicated to fashion and pseudo beauty, as well as photos, have multiplied in social networks, promoting a series of aesthetic fashions, based on extreme thinness and non-professional criteria. Examples: the bikini bridge, thigh gap, diastema, belly-button challenge and ab-crack, among others.
During the summer, in particular, the fashion of slimming the belly until the rubber on the bottom of the bikini becomes so tight between the hips has spread so far. The textile piece then forms a bridge over the navel that can only be achieved when adolescent girls practice arbitrary diets without any balance or with excessive fasting periods.
When we talk about a thigh gap, it is because we also test our body’s strength by trying to make the upper part of the thighs so firm and thin that it leaves a clear space between them and the pubic area. Specialists warn that this is very dangerous, because, to obtain this separation of the calves from their inner faces, depends on the anatomy of the hips and not on the amount of muscle or fat in the leg, girls often resort to anorexic behaviors that put their nutritional needs at risk.
The furrow of separation between the two muscles of the abdomen in a well-marked way is another tendency between adolescents and adults, called the “ab-crack”. They do not take into account the risk of obsessive hyper-musculation from unbalanced protein intake, or in some cases, from abuse of vitamin supplements and other less-desirable substances.
As if that weren’t enough, there are plenty of images on Instagram and Facebook of teenagers who want to show off their slender bodies, running one arm behind their backs to try to touch their bellybuttons with their hands, while with their other hand they take on a selfie. The belly button challenge also certainly flirts with dangerous diets and eating disorders, as does the so-called collarbone challenge, another challenge for teenagers who want to demonstrate that they can fit a string of coins in the gap between their collarbone and their neck.
For both the female and male sexes, the diastema is now spreading as a fashion, which is nothing more than the search for the separation of the upper denture into two halves after a widening of the central teeth. It is then valued to undergo an expensive dental operation to wear what is not naturally available.
In the area of cosmetic surgery, we note with concern the fact that some teenagers between the ages of 13 and 16 want to undergo labiaplasty, an aesthetic operation that seeks to resize the vaginal lips and leave them shorter, more even or more turgid.
The followers of this surgery for aesthetic purposes consider preventive reasons regarding hygiene or pain when having sexual intercourse, as well as psychological reasons when the lips are asymmetrical and when sexual acceptance and self-esteem disorders are associated, but what is alarming is that this type of operation is not recommended before the age of 18, since the vaginal lips during adolescence are in full growth phase.
Also not without risks, and also associated with high prices is the pubic lifting, another practice used by girls and boys who want to attract more from a sexual point of view to their partners. They are exposed to lightening the adipose tissue of the Mount of Venus in women and the lower abdomen in men to rejuvenate the urogenital area.
How many wrong associations with beauty! Imitating aesthetic models that are far removed from what is healthy only shows the vulnerabilities that those who do not feel completely satisfied with their physique and way of being suffer during adolescence.
It is a complex period in life, say psychologists and sociologists, because adolescents need to build their identity and value the opinion that others have of them. However, this is the best time to alert them to the health consequences of certain behaviors and, above all, to the importance of accepting themselves and cultivating what may be invisible to the eyes, but which is ultimately the most valuable.
Bikini bridge: Girls often engage in anorexic behaviors that compromise their nutritional needs.
Diastema: In search of the unnatural separation of the teeth the person undergoes the risks of dental surgery.
Collarbone challenge and Belly button challenge, flirt with dangerous diets and eating disorders
Ab-crack: Teens do not take into account the risk of obsessive hypermusculation from unbalanced protein intake.
Thigh gap: This widespread “fashion” among girls can have serious long-term consequences.
Chucho Valdés album dedicated to his father
Chucho Valdés will release an album dedicated to his father
Chucho Valdés: I dedicate the album to my father because this year is the centenary of his birth, he was the first one to insert the batá drums in a Big Band, creating the so-called batanga rhythm.
By Juventud Rebelde
digital@juventudrebelde.cu
Posted: Thursday August 9, 2018 | 12:39:36 PM
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
Cuban jazzman Jesús “Chucho” Valdésut confirmed on Wednesday that he will release the album Jazz Batá II, a recording dedicated to his father, also a jazzman, Bebo Valdés, in October.
“I dedicate the album to my father because this year it is the centenary of his birth. He was the first to insert the batá drums in a Big Band, thus creating the so-called batanga rhythm”, said the multi-awarded pianist in a press conference, according to PL.
One of the songs I include in the recording, he said, “I played it when I was a kid, and many years later I played it for him and I didn’t remember it, I called it 100 years of Bebo.
Another new development from the Cuban jazz musician is the project “Chucho en buena compañía” (Chucho in good company), a series of concerts that he will offer in August each year, starting in 2019, in Havana with special guests.
It will be something special, he said, and I already have plans to start with Wynton Marsalis, Herbie Hancock, and Chick Corea, said the winner of six Grammy Awards and three Latin Grammy Awards.
Valdés is in the capital of the island to present in concert the album “Once. Concierto para dos”, which he recorded with the Argentine singer Patricia Sosa.
Both of them will take to the stage of the Gran Teatro de La Habana “Alicia Alonso” on Saturday, August 11 to perform the songs on the album. The Cuban will also present solo themes, and with a special character they will share a few themes with Omara Portuondo.