Travel To Cuba 6
Bahamian Charter Flights to Holguin
Bahamian Airline to Start Charter Flights to Holguin Connecting the United States and Cuba
March 11, 2020
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews
Charter flights will arrive at Frank Pais International Airport in Holguin, operated by Bahamasair, which will connect the U.S. with the interior of Cuba
Holguín – With no regular flights and the imminent cessation of charters – both from the United States – the Frank País International Airport in the City of Parks will receive the Bahamasair airline, whose aircraft will arrive at this facility from the 19th of this month, with two weekly frequencies connecting Miami with the interior of the country.
The aircraft on this route will always make a stopover in the Bahamian capital, Nassau. They will fly here Thursday and Sunday, arriving at 12:30 p.m., returning to the southern Florida city an hour later, said Miguel Peña Peña, director of “Frank País.
“This is the first time that flights from Bahamasair are taken to our airport, although it has links with Havana for some years. Two days before their planes land here, something similar will happen in Santa Clara, Villa Clara (in central Cuba). To complete their charter flight, the national airline of the Bahamas will use Boeing 737-700 planes, which have 138 seats,” added Peña Peña.
Since last December, the U.S. government eliminated the access of regular U.S. airlines to cities in the interior of Cuba and next March 10 something similar will happen with the charter modality, thus hindering family ties and the normal flow of passengers between both countries, under the pretext of depriving Cuba of any kind of economic income.
At present, aircrafts from Canada, the United States, Panama, Haiti, Jamaica, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Russia are arriving at the “Frank País”. The largest number of travelers comes from Canada and there has been a rise in Russian visitors in the recent past.
>Since last December, the U.S. government eliminated the access of regular U.S. lines to cities in the interior of Cuba and next March 10 something similar will happen with the charter mode, thus hindering family ties and the normal flow of passengers between both countries, under the pretext of depriving Cuba of any kind of economic income.
At present, aircraft from Canada, the United States, Panama, Haiti, Jamaica, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Russia are arriving at the “Frank País”. The largest number of travelers comes from Canada and there has been a rise in Russian visitors in the recent past.
Benefits and Dangers of North-South Tourism
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- Español
Benefits and Dangers of North-South Tourism
By Manuel E. Yepe
September 2009
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
As a source of foreign currency, international tourism is thirty times bigger than it was 60 years ago, with more than 700 million tourists hopping from one country to another every year.
Several rich and highly industrialized nations among the destinations most favored by foreign visitors, and some of them also happen to be top issuers of tourists not only to other no less developed countries but also, and increasingly so, to poor countries where they can enjoy a better climate, a cleaner environment and a richer cultural diversity.
International tourism should be used by the richest countries as a vehicle to repay the poorest ones for the plundering of resources they suffered for centuries as a result of colonialism, neocolonialism, unequal exchange and other forms of sacking and exploitation leading to the dramatic disparity facing mankind today.
However, capitalism has its own set of rules, imposed by big business even to the practice of North-South tourism. Given that the conditions to be met by international tourism are more and more sophisticated, the poor nations find it harder and harder to fulfill them by themselves. Placing the building and management of your hotels and the rest of the tourism infrastructure in the hands of foreign investors is no longer enough to be as competitive as the industry demands nowadays.
For instance, the cruise ships and all-inclusive resorts give the target markets very little chance to make a profit, as the foreign visitors have already paid to the tour operators back home all their travel expenses, including meals, drinks, local transport and leisure activities. In the case of the former, the tourists sleep, eat and enjoy various amenities on board. “All they do when they put into port is damage the environment and get rid of the waste generated during the trip”, grumble those who naysay of this major part of the tourism industry in poor countries. On the other hand, travelers who choose all-inclusive results pay for almost everything in advance: accommodation, meals, soft and alcoholic drinks, sports, entertainment, even the tips. Critics in the recipient countries argue this form of tourism barely helps the local economy and damages the environment to boot. Indeed, most of these resorts are in relatively distant locations far from any major urban center, which prevents tourists from shopping around or enjoying local attractions, mainly because they have paid beforehand for everything their lodgings have to offer. These resorts are owned and/or managed by big corporations that leave the local small or medium-sized enterprises hardly any room to breathe.
At first they offered three daily meals and the clientele would pay for the drinks, but the common practice in the Caribbean made it more comprehensive as a function of developing tourism and making it more social.
In the late 1970s Canada saw the birth of a new mass tourism industry generally aimed at skilled workers who were not as well paid as the traditional tourists from rich countries –which suited the all-inclusive system down to the ground– that provided charter flights, more economic hotel operations and affordable prices that made demand hit the roof.
These all-inclusive resorts promise a vacation without surprises, as the tourists who buy a value pack know that at checkout time they won’t be handed a bill in excess of their calculations.
By the mid-1990s the all-inclusive resorts had become popular throughout the Caribbean and thus forced the big beach hotel chains to jump on the bandwagon.
Nonetheless, the mass tourist operations run by the top corporations in recipient countries have also brought with them serious social damages that the clientele’s few collateral and almost accidental expenses can hardly compensate for. There’s over-exploitation of the local workforce, whose employment insecurity virtually turns them into the foreign company’s slave labor. Consequently, poor areas spring up rapidly around the tourist parks where there are no hospitals or health care centers and corruption and tax evasion, among other scourges, are rampant.
Cuba, on the contrary, has managed to make the most of this economy of scale and stay clear of the social effects that countries like, for example, the Dominican Republic and Mexico have suffered, thanks to the high level of social organization in the Island, the scope of its socialist project, and the fact that the State and its public bodies have full control over foreign investment issues.
Our tourist industry workers are protected and their rights and social benefits guaranteed –an utopian goal everywhere else across the region– and our mass tourism revenues are reinvested in the development and welfare of the Cuban population.
A Cruise Ship Without Tourists Arrives in Havana
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- Español
A Cruise Ship Without Tourists Arrives in Havana
By Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
“The first US cruise liner to visit Cuba in about four decades arrived in Havana on Monday, May 2nd without a single tourist on board.”
This was published by the Cuban newspaper Granma. The article explained that the 700 tourist capacity of flagship Adonia of the Phantom line belonging to Carnival Company was filled with travelers in the US “People-to-People” for Cuba exchange program , 50 journalists, and senior management of the operating company of the ship,
headquartered in Doral, Florida.
The Cuban newspaper said that Carnival is one of the major cruise ship operators in the world and, although the laws of the US blockade against Cuba remain in force, the company decided, for this voyage, to take advantage of the recent executive measures by President Barack Obama’s administration that opened new doors for maritime transportation between the two countries.
In prior coordination with their Cuban counterparts, they designed a week-long itinerary with cultural activities not described as tourism, and within the twelve categories authorized by Washington. This was the content of the voyage of the ship that touched Havana, Cienfuegos and Santiago de Cuba.
The restoration of diplomatic relations, which culminated in the official reopening of the US Embassy in Havana, has been one of the catalysts for the accelerated increase in visitor arrivals in the Caribbean country.
It is known that, before that historic moment, several thousand US citizens had travelled to the island despite the fact that the blockade’s measures did not allow them to do so as real tourists. Washington does not authorize them to visit beaches and other recreational centers so that they do not “bring their money to Castro.”
Many risked travelling to Cuba despite the prohibition, and the Cuban border authorities acted in complicity with such a “crime” by not stamping their passports. Thus, there would be no evidence of their entrance and departure from the island.
The rapprochement between the two nations has increased world interest in Cuba which, in turn, has developed various strategies to strengthen its tourism industry and expand its hotel capacity. It also works on several fronts to improve the quality of services to visitors.
The avalanche of US citizens who have been coming to Cuba since mid-December 2014 reaches figures that far exceed the number of US visitors to the island at any stage before the triumph of the Revolution and the breakdown of diplomatic relations decreed by Washington and the ban on travel of their citizens to Cuba.
In one way or another, the US corporate media wrote, “Tourists flock to Cuba before the Americans come.” “This phenomenon is nothing but a sign that the aim is to see Cuba now, before –as many predict– the US mega-corporations are set in the island.”
The US government’s ban on travel to Cuba by US citizens, has been in place for more than half a century, as part of the blockade. This unjustifiable hostility against Cuba has been in place since the triumph of its popular revolution against the Batista dictatorship. Now you can see it is being turned against the enemies of the Cuban government like a boomerang.
But what worries many US Americans who admire the great popular conquests achieved by Cuba since1959 to the present is that these may be affected by the temptations of capitalism, in the new conditions of non-hostile relations between the island and the world’s only superpower.
Obviously, they think that some main features of capitalist relations, such as the fracturing of society, selfishness, consumerism and corruption, could make a dent in the order of priorities that has led the country from 1959 to the present.
It is understandable that the US public –that has been for more than half a century subject to the slanderous media campaign against the political, social and economic situation of the Cuban revolution– has a distorted image of the reality on the island. This is the case, even among those who see Cuba’s unique achievements sympathetically.
Cuba has been isolated from the US capitalist system but has continued to co-exist with capitalism in the rest of the world. This has not eroded Cubans’ will to build a socialist future infinitely more democratic than that offered by capitalism, a system which Cubans already know and from which they have suffered.
May 6, 2016.
Llegó a La Habana un crucero sin turistas
Por Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
“Sin un solo turista a bordo llegó a La Habana el lunes 2 de mayo el primer crucero estadounidense que visita la isla en cerca de cuatro décadas”.
Así lo publicó el periódico cubano Granma, y explicó que las 700 capacidades para turistas del buque insignia Adonia, de la línea Phantom de Carnival, fueron ocupadas por viajeros del programa estadounidense de intercambio con Cuba “pueblo a pueblo”, unos 50 periodistas y altos directivos de la compañía operadora del navío, cuya sede está en Doral, Florida.
Expuso el diario cubano que Carnival es uno de los operadores de cruceros más importantes del mundo y, aunque las leyes del bloqueo de Estados Unidos contra Cuba siguen vigentes, la com-pañía decidió aprovechar las recientes medidas ejecutivas de la administración del Presidente Barack Obama que abrieron nuevas puertas para la
transportación marítima entre los dos países, para realizar este viaje.
Previa coordinación con las contrapartes cubanas, diseñaron un itinerario de una semana con actividades culturales no catalogadas como turísticas e insertadas entre las doce categorías autorizadas por Washington como contenido del periplo del buque por La Habana, Cienfuegos y Santiago de Cuba.
El restablecimiento de las relaciones diplomáticas –que culminó con la reapertura oficial de la Embajada de Estados Unidos en La Habana- ha sido uno de los catalizadores para el acelerado creci-miento del arribo de visitantes al país caribeño.
Es sabido que antes de ese momento histórico, varios miles de norteamericanos viajaban a la Isla, aunque las medidas del bloqueo no les permitían hacerlo como verdaderos turistas ya que Washing-ton no les autoriza a visitar playas ni otros centros de diversión y esparcimiento “para no aportarle dinero a Castro”.
Muchos se arriesgaban a viajar a Cuba no obstante la prohibi-ción y las autoridades cubanas de fronteras se hacían cómplices en cierto sentido de tales “delitos” al no acuñarles sus pasaportes a fin de impedir que existieran pruebas de sus entradas y salidas en la isla. El acercamiento entre ambas naciones ha incrementado el in-terés mundial por Cuba que, por su parte, desarrolla diversas estra-tegias para fortalecer la industria turística, ampliar su capacidad hotelera y trabaja multifactorialmente por la mejoría de la calidad de los servicios a los visitantes.
La avalancha de estadounidenses que ha estado llegando a Cuba desde mediados del mes de diciembre de 2014 alcanza cifras que superan, con mucho, las de los turistas de ese origen en la Isla en cualquier etapa anterior al triunfo de la revolución, previa la ruptura de las relaciones diplomáticas decretada por Washington y la prohibición de los viajes de sus ciudadanos a Cuba.
“Los turistas acuden a Cuba antes de que vengan los america-nos”, escribieron de una u otra forma los medios corporativos de Es-tados Unidos. “Este fenómeno no es más que una señal de que la efervescencia es por ver a Cuba ahora, antes de que, como muchos pronostican, las megacorporaciones estadounidenses se instalen en la isla”.
Si se tiene en cuenta la prohibición de viajar a Cuba que pesa sobre los ciudadanos estadounidenses como parte de las medidas del bloqueo que el gobierno norteamericano practica contra la Isla desde hace más de medio siglo, se concluye que la injustificable hostilidad que ha caracterizado la política de Estados Unidos contra Cuba desde el triunfo de la revolución popular contra la tiranía de Batista, se está revirtiendo contra los enemigos del gobierno cubano como un bumerán. Pero lo que preocupa a muchos de los estadounidenses que admiran las grandes conquistas populares alcanzadas por Cuba desde 1959 hasta la hoy, es que éstas puedan verse afectadas por las tentaciones del capitalismo, en las nuevas condiciones de unas relaciones no hostiles entre la Isla y la superpotencia única mundial.
Obviamente, piensan que algunos rasgos destacados de las re-laciones capitalistas como la fracturación de la sociedad, el egoísmo, el consumismo y la corrupción, podrían hacer mella en el orden de prioridades que ha guiado al país desde 1959 hasta hoy.
Es comprensible que el público estadounidense, que padece hace más de medio siglo una campaña mediática calumniadora del acaecer político, económico y social de la revolución cubana, tenga una imagen distorsionada de la realidad en la Isla, incluso entre quienes ven con simpatía sus singulares logros.
Cuba ha estado aislada del sistema capitalista de Estados Uni-dos, pero ha seguido coexistiendo con el capitalismo en el resto del mundo sin que ello haya mellado la voluntad de los cubanos por construirse un futuro socialista, infinitamente más democrático que el que oferta el capitalismo, ya conocido y sufrido por los cubanos.
Mayo 6 de 2016.
Obama will visit a modest but safe country
- English
- Español
Obama will visit a modest but safe country
By Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
I imagine that a large number of people from the US are now extremely concerned about the safety of their President, Barack Obama, during the days that he will be in Cuba with his family.
It is ironic that the President has decided to be accompanied in his official trip to Cuba by the First Lady and their two teenage daughters, considering that it is a country that for over half a century has been described by the great US corporate media as a kind of ungovernable hell without democracy. A country against which the United States was forced –for these reasons– to impose a punishing embargo that has failed by not having achieved its purpose of deposing the communist regime, and therefore will have to be lifted.
The US government should have explained to its people that, when the Cuban Revolution came to power in 1959, the struggle that brought together the Cuban people against the corrupt dictatorship of Batista –a strong ally of Washington– was first and above all things a struggle for human rights and in favor of justice.
The US people need to know that Cuba is one of the few countries where, since 1959, not a single prisoner has been tortured, nor a single extrajudicial execution has ever taken place. It is a country where, since 1959, police forces have never used tanks, shock shields, clubs or other forms of excessive violence against demonstrators.
Cuba is now an exceptional democracy in the hemisphere because it is the only country where, since 1959, there have been no paramilitary forces, death squads, extrajudicial killings, disappeared persons, tortured prisoners, or violence against the people.
In Cuba, since 1959 (with the exception of the US Naval Base in Guantanamo), no prisoner has ever been killed, tortured, taken to a foreign country to be tortured, rapedlocked up without trial, or simply ” disappeared” in the style of the dictatorships sponsored by the US on the continent.
In Cuba, since 1959, only in the US Naval Base in Guantanamo there have been civilian and military leaders who allow the “breaking” of prisoners by using techniques of sensory depression, isolation, sleep deprivation, forced nudity, fear generated by trained dogs, sexual or cultural humiliation, mock execution, threats of death or violence against the detainees or their loved ones, and other inhumane practices equivalent to physical torture.
In fact (and this is something that many people will probably hear for the firsttime because of global media control by the US) in Cuba there is not a single political prisoner, if by such we define persons imprisoned for expressing their own political ideas, opposed to the government.
Cuba has a firm commitment to the promotion and protection of human rights. Cuba not only has signed and ratified all the international instruments on the matter but has also maintained a high level of cooperation with the international bodies for the promotion and protection of human rights in the world.
Cubans find particularly unfounded and insulting the media and diplomatic campaigns directed against our country based on alleged violations of human rights, because thestrict respect for the integrity of each individual has been the guideline of the Cuban Revolution and a requirement that has accompanied and served the revolutionary cause since the years of the struggle against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista who was sustained by the United States.
While the forces of the tyranny –supported trained and mentored by US military– killed, tortured and committed abuses against detainees suspected of being revolutionaries, the revolutionaries strictly respected the integrity of each member of the government’s police and other armed forces who were their prisoners.
This behavior resulted in a marked willingness of the government forces to surrender when they were asked to do so by the revolutionary fighters, in sharp contrast with the invariable attitude of patriots to always resist until death.
Strict respect for the human rights of our enemies has probably been one of the most effective resources in the struggle of Cuban revolutionaries for independence, self-determination and social justice, both throughout history, as in the present. And we Cubans are proud of this.
The streets and neighborhoods of Cuba, as well as its fields in the countryside, are humble places, but safe.
Let the US president, his family, and his entourage be welcomed! Here, they will be respected and safe!
March 10, 2016
Obama visitará un país humilde pero seguro
Por Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
Imagino que un gran número de estadounidense estén ahora sumamentepreocupados por la seguridad de su Presidente, Barack Obama, durantelos días que permanecerá en Cuba con su familia.
Es irónico el hecho de que el Primer Mandatario se haga acompañar ensu viaje oficial a la Isla por la Primera Dama y sus dos hijasadolescentes a un país que, durante más de medio siglo, ha sidodescrito por la gran prensa corporativa estadounidense como algosemejante al infierno, sin democracia e ingobernable. Un país contrael cual Estados Unidos se vio obligado por esos motivos a imponer unembargo correctivo que ha fracasado por no haber logrado su propósitode deponer al régimen comunista y por ello tendrá que ser levantado.
El gobierno estadounidense debió haberle aclarado a su pueblo que,cuando la revolución cubana llegó al poder en 1959, la lucha queunificaba al pueblo cubano contra la corrupta tiranía de Batista -fuerte aliado de Washington- era en primer lugar y por sobre todas lascosas, una lucha por los derechos humanos y en aras de la justicia.
El pueblo norteamericano debía estar informado que Cuba es uno de losescasos países donde, desde 1959, no ha sido torturado un soloprisionero, donde nunca ha tenido lugar una sola ejecuciónextrajudicial, donde jamás las fuerzas policiales han usado tanques nigolpes de escudos, toletes u otras formas de violencia exageradacontra manifestantes.
Cuba es en la actualidad una democracia excepcional en el hemisferioporque es el único país donde, desde 1959, no han existido fuerzasparamilitares ni escuadrones de la muerte, ni condenasextrajudiciales, ni desapariciones, ni torturas de prisioneros, ni seha utilizado violencia alguna contra el pueblo.
En Cuba, desde 1959, (si se exceptúa la Base Naval de EEUU enGuantánamo), ningún prisionero ha sido jamás asesinado, torturado,llevado a un país extranjero para ser torturado a distancia, violadosexualmente, encerrado sin juicio o sencillamente hecho “desaparecer”al estilo de las dictaduras patrocinadas por EE.UU. en el continente.
En Cuba, desde 1959, solo en la Base Naval estadounidense deGuantánamo ha habido dirigentes civiles y militares que permitan“quebrar” prisioneros mediante el uso de técnicas de depresiónsensorial, aislamiento, depresión por sueño, nudismo forzoso, miedoinspirado por perros entrenados, humillación sexual o cultural,ejecución simulada y amenazas de violencia o muerte contra detenidoso sus seres queridos, y otras prácticas inhumanas equivalentes a latortura física.
De hecho, (y esto es algo que probablemente muchos oirán por primeravez a causa del control mediático global estadounidense) en Cuba nohay un solo preso político, si por tal se entiende personasencarceladas por expresar ideas políticas propias, contrarias algobierno.
Cuba tiene un firme compromiso con la promoción y protección de losderechos humanos. Cuba ha firmado y ratificado todos los instrumentosinternacionales sobre la materia sino que ha mantenido un elevadonivel de cooperación con los mecanismos internacionales para lapromoción y protección de los derechos humanos universalmente.
Los cubanos encontramos particularmente infundadas e insultantes lascampañas mediáticas y diplomáticas dirigidas contra nuestro paísbasadas en supuestas violaciones de los derechos humanos, porque elmás estricto respeto por la integridad de cada individuo ha sido laguía de la revolución cubana y una exigencia que ha acompañado yservido a la causa revolucionaria desde los años de lucha contra ladictadora de Fulgencio Batista que Estados Unidos patrocinaba.
Mientras las fuerzas de la tiranía, apoyadas entrenadas y asesoradaspor militares de EEUU, mataban, torturaban y cometían abusos contralos detenidos sospechosos de ser revolucionarios, los revolucionarios,respetaban estrictamente la integridad de cada miembro de la policíagubernamental y otros militares que hacían prisioneros.
Esta conducta provocó en las fuerzas gubernamentales una marcadadisposición a rendirse cuando les conminaban a ello los combatientesrevolucionarios, lo que contrastaba agudamente con la invariableactitud de los patriotas de resistir siempre hasta morir.
El estricto respeto de los derechos humanos de nuestros enemigos hasido probablemente uno de los más efectivos recursos en la lucha delos revolucionarios cubanos por la independencia, la autodeterminacióny la justicia social, tanto a lo largo de la historia, como en elpresente. Y los cubanos estamos orgullosos de esto.Las calles y barrios de las ciudades cubanas, así como los campos delpaís son lugares humildes, pero seguros.
¡Que sea bienvenido a Cuba el Presidente de Estados Unidos, su familiay su comitiva! ¡Aquí, serán respetados y estarán seguros!
Marzo 10 de 2016
Ozzy Ozbourne: “If it wasn’t for The Beatles, I wouldn’t be here now”
- English
- Español
Ozzy Osbourne
“If it wasn’t for The Beatles, I wouldn’t be here now”
He traveled to Cuba to film the eighth chapter of the History Channel’s World Tour show.
Author: Michel Hernández | michel@granma.cu / January 10, 2016
A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann.
Ozzy Osbourne arrives in an old car at Havana’s John Lennon Park. He’s wearing a blue coat over a black T-shirt, black pants, and shoulder-length hair, as well as the famous crucifix on his chest and a thick ring on his left hand. He stops in front of the statue of the Beatle leader and says something in a very low voice. He came with his son Jack Osbourne, followed by a History Channel TV crew bent on recording the legendary Black Sabbath lead vocalist’s every movement.
Ozzy with his son Jack at John Lennon Park (Photo:Yander Zamora)
The origins of such a ritual come from Ozzy’s childhood, indelibly scarred by extreme poverty in deep England. But then his life changed, thanks to a couple of The Beatles’ records that fell into his hands when all indications were that he would be a teenager with a totally gloomy future. He is known to have always loved the dark, but his obsession with the Beatles would even lead him to form his first band along with talented guitarist Tony Iommi. At first they would play blues, but then they embraced the celebration of black magic, the occult, and the symbolic universe of human desolation.
Black Sabbath and heavy metal as a genre and philosophy were thus born.
Already in 2016, Ozzy knows that he is a survivor who got chaos into some sort of order and beat his legends in the last rounds. He is also aware of his huge influence on the world of rock and roll.
The vocalist has more plans for the afternoon. After his homage to Lennon he heads for the Submarino Amarillo (Yellow Submarine), walking unhurriedly, as if cloaked in an unusual kind of peace by no means typical of the wild and somber character that he plays on stage.
Once there, he looks with interest at the allegorical images of The Beatles, reads the excerpts of their songs printed on the walls and sits on a table at the foot of the stage. His son Jack accepts two alcohol-free drinks for him and his father. In front of them is the famous Cuban guitarist Luis Manuel Molina, who pays a little tribute to Ozzy by impeccably playing three of his songs, which Molina has included in his own repertoire: Changes, Dee and Mr. Crowley.
Surprised, the British musician thanks the guitarist and then starts a dialogue with this reporter and three famed journalists and rock music specialists: Guille Vilar, Juan Camacho and Joaquín Borges Triana. “I wouldn’t be here now if it wasn’t for The Beatles. I come from a very poor family, and when I was a young boy they captured my heart.
“When I first listened to them, it was as if all my dreams had showed up right before me. They simply captured my soul, and when I met Paul McCartney it was like meeting God”, Ozzy says, as the History Channel crew begins to tape the meeting.
I ask him about his visit to Lennon’s statue, and he confesses to feeling uncomfortable about such “memorials”.
“I met Ringo and Paul, but I never met John, although I would have loved to. I feel sad when I see his image in some memorial because it reminds me that his being shot was a very cowardly act. It is very sad that a man is murdered who gave people so much pleasure with his music”, he remarks.
In 2001 he released Dreamer, a rather mysterious song in his stock. He admits that the tune was inspired by The Beatles. “Since I’m such a fan of The Beatles, I unconsciously come up with melodies similar to theirs. It’s not that I was trying to write the next Imagine, but I care about the Earth and its places, and about people, violence and war. So it would be good if we could all get along, for we would have a much better world”.
Black Sabbath will make its farewells to the stage following their last world tour, scheduled to start in late January. Ozzy is thinking of forming a band for his new solo career, but he has not decided which musicians he will call yet. “My plan is to go on tour with Black Sabbath, and then I’ll take a short break and write a few new things. I still don’t know who will be in the band. I don’t know if the band I have now will be the same a year from now”.
Black Sabbath’s work with Ozzy as its front man summarizes most of heavy metal’s history. The 67-year-old musician puts the band’s long-lived success down to the friendly atmosphere among its members. “We’re all friends and get on well with one another. As I see it, my only cause is to respect people who pay for a ticket. I’m old enough and wiser than I used to be, so I don’t think it’s fair to have arguments on stage. It’s unfortunate to see how people become greedy, mad and divisive, which in most of the bands I have played with has spoiled the final result of the work, that is, music”.
Ozzy, whom we owed hymns like See you on the other side and I just want you, also mentions the guitarists that he has joined in the past. “When I audition a new guitar player, I send them one of my band’s songs and ask them to play it in front of me. The way I see it, if I’m in the front with my band behind me and I don’t have to say ‘stop’, I’m looking at the best one for me. Truth is, sometimes people overact, and I’m the boss of a machine that produces music, and a team that is not focused on the audience drives me crazy and bothers me”.
The reason for his trip to Cuba is the recording of the eighth chapter of a History Channel program called The World Tour, in which Ozzy describes his impressions about country he is visiting. “This is my first time in Cuba and it’s great. You feel safe here, that’s really great; if I had known I would have come before. We’re having a really good time here”. As if that weren’t enough, he rounds off his comments with a smile when asked about the chance to give a concert on the Island. “I want to come to Cuba to live here, not just to play”, he says before saying goodbye to us and hi to the heavy metal fans who were just arriving in Submarino… to see with their own eyes one of the great legends in the history of rock music.
Ozzy Osbourne
“Si no fuera por Los Beatles, yo no estaría aquí”
El motivo de su viaje a Cuba es la grabación del octavo capítulo de un programa de History Channel llamado The world tour
Autor: Michel Hernández | michel@granma.cu
10 de enero de 2016 21:01:34
Ozzy junto a su hijo Jack en el parque Lennon. Foto: Yander Zamora
Ozzy Osbourne llega en un viejo auto al parque John Lennon en La Habana. Lleva una gabardina azul, pulóver negro, pantalón negro, pelo debajo de los hombros, su famoso crucifijo sobre el pecho, y un grueso anillo sobre la mano izquierda. Se detiene frente a la estatua del líder Beatle y dice algo en voz muy baja. Ozzy está acompañado de su hijo Jack Osbourne y de un equipo de la productora de televisión History Channel, que filma cada movimiento del histórico vocalista de Black Sabbath.
Los orígenes de ese ritual yacen en la infancia de Ozzy. El músico, que vivió su niñez atrapado en las garras más feroces de la pobreza en la Inglaterra profunda, vio cómo cambió su vida gracias a un par de discos de Los Beatles que cayeron en sus manos cuando todos los pronósticos apuntaban a que sería un adolescente con un futuro completamente negro. Se sabe que nunca pudo desprenderse de su apego por la oscuridad, pero su obsesión por Los Beatles lo llevaría, incluso, a formar su primera banda junto al talentoso guitarrista Tony Lommi. En principio, se dedicaron al blues pero luego entrarían en el mundo de la celebración de la magia negra, el ocultismo y el universo simbólico de la desolación humana.
De ese modo, nació Black Sabbath y, también, nació el heavy metal como género y filosofía.
El Ozzy 2016 sabe que es un sobreviviente. Sabe que puso orden en el caos, sabe que le ganó a su leyenda en los últimos rounds y sabe, además, de su enorme influencia en el mundo del rock and roll.
El vocalista tiene otros planes para la tarde. Luego de recordar a Lennon va hacia el Submarino Amarillo. Camina con pasos pausados, envuelto en una extraña tranquilad, alejada del personaje salvaje y sombrío que interpreta sobre el escenario.
Ya en la instalación, mira con interés las imágenes alegóricas a Los Beatles, lee las frases de sus canciones impresas en las paredes, se sienta en el centro de una mesa a los pies del escenario y su hijo, Jack, acepta dos bebidas sin alcohol para él y para su padre. Al frente, el notable guitarrista cubano Luis Manuel Molina le dedica un pequeño tributo. Son tres piezas incluidas por Ozzy en su repertorio, Changes, Dee y Mr.Crowley, que Molina interpreta impecablemente.
El músico británico, sorprendido, agradece al guitarrista antes de entablar un diálogo con este redactor y con tres históricos periodistas y especialistas de rock: Guille Vilar, Juan Camacho y Joaquín Borges Triana. “Si no fuera por Los Beatles yo no estaría aquí ahora. Yo vengo de una familia muy pobre y cuando era muchacho me capturaron el corazón.
Cuando los escuché por primera vez, era como si todos mis sueños aparecieran delante de mí. Simplemente capturaron mi alma y cuando conocí a Paul McCartney fue como encontrarme con Dios”, me dice Ozzy al comenzar el encuentro grabado por el equipo de History Channel.
Le pregunto sobre su visita a la estatua de Lennon y me confiesa que no se siente cómodo en ese tipo de “memoriales”.
“He conocido a Ringo, a Paul, pero nunca conocí a John, aunque me hubiera encantado. Me pongo triste cuando veo su imagen en algún memorial porque me recuerda que fue un acto muy cobarde lo del disparo. Fue muy triste el asesinato de un hombre que dio tanto placer a tanta gente a través de su música”, dice.
En el 2001 publicó Dreamer, un tema bastante enigmático en su repertorio. Me confiesa que la canción nació bajo la inspiración de Los Beatles. “Como soy tan fanático de Los Beatles, inconscientemente me sale melodía muy similar a Los Beatles. No era que estaba tratando de hacer una canción, como la próxima Imagine, pero yo me preocupo por la Tierra, los lugares, la gente, la violencia y las guerras. Y entonces sería bueno si todos nos pudiéramos llevarnos bien, tendríamos un mundo mucho mejor”.
Black Sabbath se despedirá de los escenarios tras su última gira mundial que romperá a finales de enero. Para su nueva etapa en solitario está pensando armar una banda, pero todavía no ha definido a qué músicos llamará. “Mis planes son hacer la gira con Black Sabbath y después tomaré un breve descanso y escribiré algunas cosas nuevas. Hasta ahora no sé todavía quién va a estar en la banda. No sé si el grupo que tengo ahora será el que tendré dentro de un año”.
La trayectoria de Black Sabbath con Ozzy como frontman resume una buena parte de la historia del metal. El músico, de 67 años, asegura que la alineación ha funcionado porque existe un clima de amistad entre sus músicos.“Somos todos amigos, nos llevamos bien. Según la manera en que yo lo veo, mi única causa es respetar a la gente que paga por comprar una entrada. Soy lo suficientemente viejo y más sabio ahora de lo que solía ser y no creo que sea justo tener un argumento impostado en el escenario. Es lamentable ver cómo la gente se vuelve avariciosa, se vuelve loca, y se divide. En la mayoría de las bandas con las cuales he estado, eso ha estropeado el resultado final del trabajo, que es la música”.
Ozzy, a quien le debemos himnos como See you in the other side y Just I want you, habla también sobre los guitarristas con los que ha compartido alineación. “Cuando hago una audición para un nuevo guitarrista, les envío una canción de mi banda, y hago que toquen delante de mí. De la manera en que yo lo veo, si estoy delante y mi banda está detrás y yo no tengo que decir alto, eso es un grupo genial para mí. Porque a veces la gente quiere sobreactuar y yo soy el jefe de una máquina que reproduce música y si ese equipo no está enfocado en la audiencia, me saca de quicio y me molesta”.
El motivo de su viaje a Cuba es la grabación del octavo capítulo de un programa de History Channel llamado The world tour, en el que Ozzy va narrando sus impresiones sobre el país que visita. “Esta es mi primera vez en Cuba y es fantástico. Uno se siente seguro aquí, es realmente genial, si lo hubiera sabido habría venido antes. Realmente lo estamos pasando muy bien acá”. Por si fuera poco, remata con una sonrisa cuando se le pregunta sobre la posibilidad de un concierto en la Isla. “Quiero venir a vivir a Cuba, no solo tocar aquí”, lanza antes de despedirse y saludar a los metaleros que iban llegando al Submarino para observar, con sus propios ojos, a una de las grandes leyendas de la historia del rock.
Two Months in Cuba
BRIEF UPDATE, September 2015 Next week I’ll be returning to Cuba. This has been my longest time away since 1999 when I began regular visits. It’s been a year and a half. So much has changed since then! The Five are free and home. Diplomatic relations, broken by Washington in 1961, have been restored, and the process Cubans call “updating their economic model” has been continuing, as Raul Castro described it, “sin prisa, pero sin pausa”, which means “without rushing, but without stopping”. There’s so much to be learned and said about the process, which even the most attentive observer from abroad can barely begin to grasp. So now I’m looking forward with great anticipation to being able to catch up with friends and colleagues there, and to share with readers what I can see, hear and begin to try to understand. Below a link to my first extended commentary on Cuba, written after my second visit, fifteen years ago. Some remains valid, some has long since been resolved. Well, enough for now.
Walter Lippmann
Los Angeles, California
September 8, 2015.
TWO MONTHS IN CUBA
Notes of a visiting Cuba solidarity activist
by Walter Lippmann
These are some notes on my visit to Cuba from November, 2000 to January, 2001. Some things in Cuba are very similar to the US, but many others are very, very different.
This essay doesn’t pretend to be a full-scale analysis of Cuba. That would be beyond its scope. These are my own observations, reflections and comments on things I myself personally saw, heard and did. Before and after visiting Cuba, I spent some time visiting Mexico, to get some perspective and to make a few comparisons. I hope you’ll find it useful.
On the final page of this essay, you’ll see links to some other pictures I took, and a page of references for useful English-language sources on Cuba so you can research Cuba further on your own.
WHY CUBA? WHY ME?
My interest in Cuba has deep family roots. My father and his parents lived there from 1939 to 1942. As Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany, they were unable to enter either Great Britain or the United States, despite having close relatives in each. The Roosevelt administration strictly enforced a restrictive quota on Jewish immigration. My father and his parents had to wait in Cuba until 1943 before obtaining permission to enter the US. I was born in New York City in 1944. (A good history of the Jewish experience in Cuba is Robert M. Levine’s 1993 Tropical Diaspora (ISBN:0-8130-1218-X). There’s also a novel which eloquently evokes the time when my father lived in Cuba, Passing Through Havana, by Felicia Rosshandler (ISBN: 0-312-59779-7).
My father took me to Cuba in August, 1956. We visited his old residence and met some of his old friends. I don’t remember much about it except that Cuba was a very hot and sticky place. (I was only 12 at the time.) We stayed briefly at the Hotel Nacional, and after that we moved to a smaller hotel. We traveled to Pinar del Rio with one old friend, John Gundrum, also a German immigrant, but one who’d never left Cuba.
In November, 2000 I made my second visit to Cuba as an adult. I’d spent three weeks there in late 1999, on a delegation of yoga teachers and students meeting and practicing with our Cuban counterparts. I knew more than most in the US about this Caribbean nation. I’ve read a lot of Cuban history, and followed Cuban affairs closely. Now I wanted to take a much closer look.
How do Cubans actually live, day-to-day? I wanted to get a sense of how they work, their likes, dislikes and so on. It’s one thing to hear and read about a place, in the media (Cuba is terrible place! People are dying to leave!) or, on the other hand, uncritically favorable accounts among the few left media sympathetic to Cuba.
My Spanish is limited, so I often had to depend on bilingual friends and acquaintances for answers and directions. During my 31-year career as a social worker for Los Angeles County, I learned some simple “street Spanish,” but not enough to carry on a complex conversation. I met many who speak, and wanted to practice, English, so I was able to get answers to my many questions.
In Havana I stayed with a Cuban family I’d met in 1999. One family member had recently quit the public sector job he’d had for 13 years, and entered self-employment. He translates Cuban TV scripts from Spanish into English as an independent contractor. Cuba hopes to sell these to providers like the Discovery Channel. He also translates for visiting journalists and filmmakers. Weeks before my arrival he’d worked with Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Barbara Kopple, filming the Washington, D.C. ballet’s visit to the country. His mother is an engineer working for a government ministry. She belongs to the Cuban Communist Party. I didn’t pay rent, but bought the food and other items for the family. I often shopped and sometimes cooked for the family. I don’t think they’ve eaten so much garlic in their lives! (Fortunately, they like garlic…)
CUBA’S HISTORIC GOALS:
INDEPENDENCE AND A JUST SOCIETY
Essential to understanding today’s Cuba is the bitter history of US-Cuban relations. The two nations have had a long, close and tense connection. Nineteenth century US politicians discussed annexing the island. They tried to derail its independence, or thwart its efforts to forge a just society where the interests of Cubans was put first. Even now, most US politicians still act and speak as if they have the right to tell Cubans how to run Cuba. The revolution led by Fidel Castro and his compañeros is the most successful of Cuba’s efforts.
Backers of the overthrown Batista dictatorship were welcomed to the US. Washington opposed Cuban efforts to take control over national resources from foreign (mostly US) companies. It has opposed, and tried to turn back, the revolution at every turn. Washington and its supporters call this policy “the embargo.” Cuba calls it “the blockade.” This is because Washington relentlessly tries to bulldoze all other countries into supporting its anti-Cuban activities.
SINCE THE COLLAPSE OF THE SOVIET UNION
During Cuba’s alliance with the USSR and the states of Eastern Europe, the island received long-term contracts for its commodities at stable, and sometimes well-above world market prices. This provided the economic and military foundation for Cuba to survive Washington’s decades-long effort to starve it out. Washington had to think twice about military intervention. The island’s politics and economics were heavily influenced by the Soviet model.
Every home I visited has a system of elevated water storage. These are large tanks (think: oil barrels). Water is pumped once or twice a day, from 6 to 8 PM where I stayed, and Saturday and Sunday mornings. Each home or apartment only has a finite supply of water. Of course, this is in Havana., and from what people told me, the situation is different in rural areas and in other cities. Plumbing problems became much worse during the special period because of lack of parts to deal with age-related deterioration of the infrastructure in this cosmopolitan large city. Imagine New York City or Los Angles after a similar ten-year cutoff of maintenance. Duhhh…. post-nuclear war movies give a sense of what it would be like.
While I never experienced a cutoff of water, it did happen to some homes around the city. Large tanker trucks quickly came out and residents collected water in pails and hauled them home. Many people boil or chemically treat the water before drinking. Purification drops were considered sufficient where I stayed. Some travelers I spoke with used iodine, but many staying at hotels didn’t think this was necessary. The most cautious Habaneros continue to boil their water.
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