Un año después - mas de la bloguera desde Cuba

Yoani comenta sobre el origen de su blog, la "carga de los emails" y la ausencia de debate real en Cuba. Una vez mas, Yoani: te sobra razon! Solo quiero comentar que me apena no solo que esta "carga" no tuvo mayores consecuencias sino que muchos cubanos no se enteraron de esta historia y menos cubanos saben quien fue Pavon y lo que significa el Quinquenio Gris y las "Palabras a los Intelectuales."

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FW: Statute of Limitations Could Decide Former Client's $20 Million Suit Against Morgan Lewis

Message from NewsGator subscriber Nacho A: Sometimes the embargo against Cuba has long tentacles.

Post from NewsGator.com:

Statute of Limitations Could Decide Former Client's $20 Million Suit Against Morgan Lewis
After more than two weeks of testimony and years of prior litigation, the $20 million case that pits water filtration company Purolite against its former law firm, Morgan Lewis & Bockius, could come down to whether the case is barred by the statute of limitations. The case revolves around advice allegedly given by Morgan Lewis to Purolite in 1993 to continue to sell its products to Cuban companies despite the U.S. trade embargo.

Foto del Che en filme gay, los comunistas se horrorizan ;-)

Si los comunistas ortodoxos tuvieran hoy su Inquisición, a donde primero enviarían al fotógrafo y controvertido cineasta Bruce Labruce es a la hoguera, e inmediatamente incluirían en el índice de prohibiciones The Rapsberry Reich (El reino de la frambuesa), una disparatada comedia pornográfica

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Oxigeno para la blogósfera cubana - Yoanis promueve nuebos blogs

Message from NewsGator subscriber Nacho A: Mas blogs desde Cuba

Post from NewsGator.com:

Oxigeno para la blogósfera cubana

Quiero anunciar la salida de dos nuevos Blogs escritos desde Cuba que están en este mismo portal. Los dos con seudónimos, aunque en uno se advierte que la autora prescindirá de la máscara en poco tiempo.

"Sin EVAsión" se anuncia así mismo como "un blog con antifaz provisional, pero con voluntad permanente" y está escrito por "Eva, una habanera de la Isla, perteneciente a una generación que ha vivido debatiéndose entre la desilusión y la esperanza y cuyos miembros alcanzaron la mayoría de edad en el controvertido año 1980. Eva ha publicado colaboraciones en el espacio Encuentro en la Red, para el cual creó el seudónimo. En el transcurso de este año asumirá públicamente su verdadera identidad". Vaya, tendremos sorepresas.

El otro Blog que viene a oxigenar la desnutrida blogósfera cubana es "Retazos" o "los dislates de un cuarentón en ciernes" que bajo el seudónimo de "El Guajiro Azul" se define como alguien "radicado –mientras no tenga otra opción- en Cuba, que sueña con no tener que trabajar en la caña, limpiar el jardín del edificio o ir a arrastrarse en el fango un domingo de la defensa. ¡Qué sueños!"

Salud y larga vida a los nuevos blogs hechos desde Cuba… y les deseo que las brigadas de respuesta cibernética contribuyan a elevar sus hits… como han hecho con "Generación Y".

UK gov't doc reveals plan to "coerce" Brits into national ID

FTA: UK campaigners NO2ID this morning enlisted the help of bloggers across the world to spread a leaked government document describing how the British government intends to go about "coercing" its citizens onto a National Identity Register.

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Carnival de Cuba in London - 2008

facebook Nacho London 5:21am Jan 29th Carnival de Cuba in London - 2008 To ignacio.abellag.blog@blogger.com   Nacho has shared an event with you. To view the event or to reply to the message, follow this link: http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=518731502&k=S2E55YU5V6TF6ECFSCZ6R Are your friends bothering you? You can opt out of emails from friends on Facebook.

Juventud Rebelde "descubre el agua con hielo"

Creo que seria mejor ese titular para el "diario de la juventud cubana"

Sera que articulos como esos son parte de la ofensiva de Raul para limpiar imagen? O es que hay un verdadero debate en Cuba?

Censura, provocación y ambigüedad en una muestra en Londres (detalles de la muestra incluidos en el adjunto) Details in English at the bottom of the message

Censura, provocación y ambigüedad en una muestra en Londres

'En Cuba todos tienen una vida oficial y otra clandestina, porque nadie puede vivir de su salario. Eso ha generado que el país entero esté corrompido', dijo el crítico Gerado Mosquera.

martes 22 de enero de 2008 13:02:00

AFP/ Londres.
El diario Granma convertido en rollos de papel higiénico, un vídeo de una joven cosiéndose la lengua: el arte producido hoy en la Isla, marcado por la provocación, el humor y la ambigüedad, invade un museo de Londres, que expone a jóvenes artistas que viven y trabajan en la Isla.
Titulada Estados de Intercambio: artistas de Cuba, esta exhibición, que abre sus puertas al público este miércoles, hasta el 22 de marzo, es la primera gran muestra organizada en el recién inaugurado Rivington Place, como se conoce al Instituto Internacional de Artes Visuales (INIVA), en el este de Londres.
"Es también la primera gran exposición de arte cubano en Londres desde la que se celebró hace nueve años en el Centro Barbican", afirmó la curadora británica Cylena Simonds, que organizó la exhibición junto al experto cubano Gerardo Mosquera.
La exposición se centra en seis artistas jóvenes: Iván Capote, Yoan Capote, Jeanette Chávez, Diana Fonseca, Wilfredo Prieto y Lázaro Saavedra, que han viajado a Gran Bretaña para asistir a la muestra en Rivington Place, primera galería de arte pública construida en Londres desde 1968.
"La exposición no es un panorama del arte actual en Cuba, sino que busca mostrar cómo estos artistas utilizan el lenguaje del arte para representar el estado de permanente negociación en que vivimos todos en la Isla, la dualidad de nuestras vidas", explicó Mosquera a la AFP.
"En Cuba todos tienen una vida oficial y otra clandestina, porque nadie puede vivir de su salario. Eso ha generado que el país entero esté corrompido. Es una necesidad para poder sobrevivir", agregó.
Los cubanos "se han convertido en expertos en negociar las complejidades del intercambio entre ellos y el mundo, en lo económico, social, informativo. Y este es el tema de esta muestra", señaló el director del museo, Sebastián López, en conversación con la AFP.
En su obra Dinero Bilingüe, Yoan Capote resume con ironía el complejo sistema cubano de intercambio de dinero, que requiere descifrar diariamente el uso de las dos monedas circulantes que se confunden en los bolsillos de la gente.
En el vídeo Pasatiempo (Dinero), en el que dos monedas de un peso se esfuman de pronto, dejando una mancha oscura en las manos, Diana Fonseca retrata también esta elusiva percepción de las divisas.
Varios artistas abordan el tema de la censura en Cuba, donde el uso de internet está oficialmente prohibido. Así, la joven Jeannette Chávez se cose dolorosamente la lengua y los labios en el vídeo Autocensura (2006).
Los vídeos de animación de Lázaro Saavedra, La gloria borra la memoria (2006) y El que no sabe es como el que no ve (2006), resumen, con mucho humor, las contradicciones entre la representación oficial de la vida en la Isla y las experiencias concretas de los ciudadanos.
Y en Speech (1999), Wilfredo Prieto muestra rollos de papel higiénico fabricados exclusivamente con el diario oficial del gobierno, Granma.
"Pero incluso hacer eso fue muy difícil, porque se le prohibió que utilizara páginas de Granma donde había una imagen de Fidel Castro, lo que es casi totalmente imposible", contó Mosquera.
El museo presentará documentales recién producidos en Cuba por 14 artistas:
Raychel Carrión, Javier Castro, Alexis de la Joya, Laimir Fano, Adonis Flores, Alex Hernández, Jesús Hernández, Luis o Miguel, Gustavo Pérez, Renier Quer, Alina Rodríguez, Lázaro Saavedra, Asori Soto y Manuel Zayas.
Los seis artistas invitados a Londres participarán también en charlas y debates programados para acompañar Estados de Intercambio.

Dirección URL:
http://www.cubaencuentro.com/es/encuentro-en-la-red/cultura/noticias/censura-provocacion-y-ambigueedad-en-una-muestra-en-londres

---

Artes Plásticas - Londres
Exposición 'Estados de Intercambio: Artistas de Cuba'
del lunes 21 de enero de 2008 al sábado 22 de marzo de 2008
Estados de Intercambio: Artistas de Cuba, la primera gran exposición de Iniva en Rivington Place, es una exploración dinámica y que incita a la reflexión de las complejidades del intercambio económico y de la información en la Cuba contemporánea. Se concentra en seis artistas que viven y trabajan en la Isla hoy: Iván Capote, Yoan Capote, Jeanette Chávez, Diana Fonseca, Wilfredo Prieto y Lázaro Saavedra. Sus obras van de la escultura al performance, así como a la instalación de vídeo. Acompañan la exposición, curada por Gerardo Mosquera y Cylena Simonds, un catálogo ilustrado y un programa de proyección de vídeo, el cual presenta cortos de los artistas y documentales experimentales, incluyendo obras nunca antes vistas en Europa.
Hay además un programa educativo y un programa de eventos, que incluyen música, charlas de los curadores y debates con artistas como Lázaro Saavedra y Jeanette Chávez. La presentación para la prensa tendrá lugar el lunes 21 de enero, a las 10:00 horas, en Rivington Place, donde permanecerá la muestra hasta el 22 de marzo.
Artistas incluidos: Iván Capote, Yoan Capote, Jeanette Chávez, Diana Fonseca, Wilfredo Prieto, Lázaro Saavedra.

Proyecciones de Raychel Carrión, Javier Castro, Alexis de la O Joya, Laimir Fano, Adonis Flores, Alex Hernández, Jesús Hernández, Luis o Miguel, Gustavo Pérez, Renier Quer, Alina Rodríguez, Lázaro Saavedra, Asori Soto y Manuel Zayas.

----------------------

"Sculpture, performance and video installation work from artists working in Cuba today. A rare, unmissable and eye-opening experience"

http://www.iniva.org/exhibitions_projects/2008/artists_from_cuba

'States of Exchange aims to show how artists in Cuba discuss contradictions, ambiguities and social negotiations in Cuban life, leading a critical culture that prevails in the country since the mid 80s'

http://www.iniva.org/press/2008/states_of_exchange1

Rivington Place , London, EC2A 3BA

Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday: 11am-6pm
Late Thursdays: 11am-9pm (Last admission 8.30pm)
Saturday: 12noon-6pm
Sunday, Monday: Closed
Admission: Free
Nearest tubes: Old Street & Liverpool Street
Rivington Place is fully accessible in all public areas

Make Your Cell Phone Battery Last Longer - wikiHow

Make Your Cell Phone Battery Last Longer - wikiHow

Escape de amoniaco en La Habana deja victimas no mortales

Un escape de amoniaco deja 50 heridos y miles de evacuados en La Habana

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HOWTO: Mind Control Customer Service Reps

It boils down to, without raising your voice, asserting control over the conversation from the beginning and then never relinquishing that power. By the time you read the true success story at the end, you'll swear the author has Jedi mind-control over customer service reps...

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El noticiero que usted no vio (Resumen de noticias 2007 segun humorista cubano Enrisco)

El noticiero que usted no vio

Enrisco , Nueva Jersey

 

 

http://tinyurl.com/34z9dk

 

http://tinyurl.com/2nsxpl

 

Enero

 

1- Astrólogos latinoamericanos pronostican que Fidel Castro vivirá pocos meses. No se ponen de acuerdo en cuáles meses serán: unos dicen que febrero, mayo, agosto y noviembre, y otros se inclinan por marzo, julio, septiembre y diciembre. Por su parte, los santeros cubanos auguran lluvias en verano y sequía en invierno.

 

5- Surgen nuevas especulaciones sobre la salud del mandatario, a partir de las declaraciones del doctor español José Luis García Sabrido, quien lo atendió en diciembre de 2006.

 

10- Según fuentes cercanas a García Sabrido, al Comandante se le practicó una colostomía, insertándosele inicialmente un dispositivo plástico de fabricación coreana. El hecho de que una parte tan significativa de la anatomía patria sea plástica y además extranjera, ha llenado a todos de estupefacción. No obstante, el médico ha aclarado que el dispositivo ha sido reemplazado por uno español. Como una vuelta a los orígenes, teniendo en cuenta los ancestros del paciente.

 

11- Disidentes ven la participación del médico español en la colocación del dispositivo como un caso claro de intervención extranjera en los asuntos internos de Cuba, que obliga a la Seguridad del Estado a intervenir en los asuntos internos de los disidentes.

 

12- Llega a su punto culminante la llamada "Guerrita de los emails". Comenzó a fines de 2006, con la aparición en varios espacios televisivos de figuras responsables de "pequeños malentendidos" surgidos entre los intelectuales y el poder en la década del setenta. La reacción, no obstante, es aguerrida y desafiante. Nunca la intranet cubana se había visto sacudida con tanta indignación. Ardorosos emails hacen llamados al combate e incluso llegan a comparar los incidentes de hace más de 30 años con el Holocausto. La intelectualidad se declara en pie de guerra, dispuesta a triunfar o perecer en el intento.

 

15- El cantante Issac Delgado abandona la Isla y se radica en Estados Unidos. Cuando le preguntan si sabe algo de la Guerrita de los emails, dice que él sólo usa ese medio para contactar con sus agents o enviar mensajes de Navidad.

 

16- Un grupo de disidentes es detenido y golpeado.

 

18- El periódico Granma publica una declaración del Secretariado Nacional de la UNEAC. Los intelectuales dan por concluida la Guerrita de los emails ante el peligro de que el enemigo anexionista se aproveche: "No nos dividirán ni las torpezas ni los que quieren aprovecharse de ellas para dañar a la Revolución. La política cultural martiana, antidogmática, creadora y participativa, de Fidel y Raúl, fundada con Palabras a los intelectuales, es irreversible". (Para quienes no lo sepan, Palabras a los intelectuales es el discurso en que el Comandante pronunció la famosa frase de "Con la Revolución, todo, fuera de la Revolución, nada". Quizás fue "nada por aquí, nada por allá", no estoy seguro. El caso es que "eso" es irreversible).

 

19- El escritor Miguel Barnet declara: "Los que estamos aquí y hemos vivido estos años, somos los indicados para lavar nuestros trapos, sean cuales sean". No queda claro si se refiere al debate concluido o que piensa añadir a sus múltiples ocupaciones la de tintorero.

 

23- Ante la ausencia de bajas en el bando intelectual durante la Guerrita de los emails, cobran más fuerza los rumores de que el Comandante ha pasado a mejor vida.

 

23- El Comandante reaparece en otro vídeo con el presidente venezolano Hugo Chávez. Desmiente así los rumores de que había hecho compañía a Pinochet y Strossner, entre otros colegas que se han ausentado de este mundo recientemente.

 

25- En el ámbito internacional, la célebre Paris Hilton declara que en los últimos tiempos sólo ha tenido sexo con treinta hombres, pero no logra recordar si fue el lunes o el martes.

 

Febrero

 

1- Los últimos insurrectos de la Guerrita de los emails que permanecían alzados son aislados, cercados y finalmente disuadidos de que abandonen el teclado de sus computadoras.

 

2- En el discurso de celebración del aniversario 15 del fallido golpe que protagonizó el 4 de febrero de 1992, Hugo Chávez declara que la historia lo absolverá, repitiendo las palabras de su amigo y aliado Fidel Castro. Interrogada al respecto, la Historia prefiere no opinar. Aunque tras recordar que Hitler terminó su libro Mi lucha con una frase muy similar, añadió que del juicio por plagio no los salva nadie.

 

3- Paris Hilton dice que fue el lunes, pero que ha llovido mucho después de eso.

 

4- El Ballet Nacional de Cuba (BNC) suspende una función en México por falta de vestuario, o más bien por falta de transporte, responsable de que el vestuario no llegara a tiempo.

 

4- Los trabajadores cubanos protestan airadamente ante la actitud pequeño-burguesa del BNC. Si fuera por falta de vestuario o transporte, ellos no irían a trabajar nunca.

 

9- El Ministerio de Salud Pública informa que el alcoholismo afecta al 5% de la población. Y al otro 95% más bien lo divierte.

 

12- El ministro de Comunicación, Ramiro Valdés, considera que internet es un "instrumento de exterminio global" y es imperativo que se "controle" esa "arma salvaje". Repetimos: El ministro de COMUNICACIÓN…

 

15- Según fuentes oficiales, Cuba importa el 84% de sus alimentos: la mitad llega al país por valija diplomática y la otra se distribuye en la red de productos minoristas en porciones de claro sentido ritual.

 

22- Un grupo de disidentes es detenido y golpeado.

 

Marzo

 

2- En un inesperado giro de la situación internacional, Angelina Jolie y Brad Pitt adoptan un niño vietnamita.

 

3- Detenidas más de 2.000 antenas parabólicas en diversas partes de La Habana, acusadas de diversionismo ideológico. La mayoría eran de fabricación artesanal, pero de inspiración norteamericana.

 

5- Mariela Castro, hija del presidente interino Raúl Castro, defiende el respeto a la diversidad sexual y critica la homofobia "muy fuerte, muy cruel, muy discriminatoria" que aún existe… en el mundo.

 

6- El ministro de Comunicación cubano ordena detener a internet por su condición de "instrumento de exterminio global". Internet es interrogado en Villa Marista para que diga todo lo que sabe, a lo que el detenido obedece sin chistar.
9- Líderes optimistas por el estado de salud del Comandante. Optimismo que hace pensar a los expertos que éste (el estado de salud, no el optimismo) no es bueno.

 

15- Un grupo de disidentes es detenido y golpeado.

 

23- En un acontecimiento que conmueve a Occidente y parte la historia moderna en dos, Britney Spears se corta el pelo al rape.

 

Abril

 

3- El canciller español Miguel Ángel Moratinos se reúne durante horas con su homólogo cubano Felipe Pérez Roque sin saber qué decir. Expertos aseguran que se sintieron muy presionados ante la incómoda circunstancia de que nunca antes, en ningún sitio del planeta, se había encontrado menos concentración de neuronas por centímetro cuadrado. Afortunadamente para ambos, y para las relaciones entre sus dos países, se apareció un camarero con mojitos.

4- En uno de los artículos que ya empiezan a ser habituales en la prensa nacional, el Comandante lanza un ataque contra la producción de alcohol. Los homólogos Moratinos y Pérez Roque, que se sienten aludidos, interrumpen su animado consumo de mojitos. "Creo que debemos hablar", dice Moratinos.

 

5- El canciller español se declara optimista sobre la situación de los derechos humanos en Cuba, mientras su homólogo (me gusta la palabrita: "Pérez Roque: ¡Homólogo!") agrega que en Cuba no hay presos políticos.

 

7- El Centro Nacional de Educación Sexual (CENESEX), dirigido por Mariela Castro, presenta a la Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular la iniciativa de reforma legal que reconocería plenos derechos a la unión de parejas homosexuales y la identidad transexual. El corresponsal del diario español El País, Mauricio Vicent, señala que una "mayor tolerancia sexual podría abrirse paso en Cuba si prospera el proyecto de ley".

 

8- Un grupo de disidentes es detenido y golpeado.

 

9- Moratinos declara que ningún gobierno como el de Zapatero ha llegado tan lejos con Cuba en materia de derechos humanos. En relación con los disidentes, comenta que si estos quieren disfrutar de mayor tolerancia por parte de las autoridades, deberían cambiar de sexo.

 

11- Detienen a internet por su condición de "instrumento de exterminio global". Es interrogado en Villa Marista para que diga todo lo que sabe, y obedece sin chistar. Para empezar, le preguntan: "¿Quién mató a Kennedy?". El interrogado da 9.610 respuestas.

 

13- Paris Hilton es condenada a prisión por manejar ebria y atacar a un agente del orden. El Comandante achaca este grave suceso al afán desmedido de riquezas que engendra el capitalismo, empeñado en producir y consumir etanol a toda costa.

 

15- Un estudio del sociólogo Guarione M. Díaz observa cómo "los cubanos han sabido adaptarse en Estados Unidos combinando sus tradiciones a las costumbres estadounidenses hasta integrarse de una manera exitosa". De acuerdo con Díaz, un ejemplo es la cena de fin de año, tradición cubana que al adaptarse a las costumbres del país se ha extendido al resto de las noches del año.

 

20- Angelina Jolie y Brad Pitt deciden adoptar a un niño etíope.

 

28- El presidente boliviano Evo Morales anuncia el inminente retorno del Comandante al poder: "Estoy seguro que el Primero de Mayo el compañero Fidel Castro se va a integrar a seguir gobernando Cuba y Latinoamérica".

 

Mayo

 

1- El Comandante no se presenta en el desfile del Día del Trabajo, como anunció Morales, pero en cambio envía una carta a Hugo Chávez en la que le pregunta por Paris Hilton.

 

5- La televisión cubana exhibe el filme Fresa y chocolate, catorce años después de estrenarse en los cines y a sólo dos años de proyectarse en la televisión de Nepal. En la versión especialmente diseñada para el Canal Educativo, Mariela Castro convence a última hora a Diego, el personaje homosexual, para que no se marche del país. Gracias a los esfuerzos de Mariela, quien a su vez pide ayuda a su padre, Diego recupera su empleo. Más tarde organiza el primer festival de travestís del país e ingresa en el partido comunista con el aval del CENESEX.

 

6- Un grupo de disidentes, tras ser detenido y golpeado, considera seriamente la posibilidad de declararse homosexual.

 

8- Raúl Castro y Leonardo di Caprio figuran entre las cien personalidades más influyentes del mundo, de acuerdo con la revista Time. Según fuentes confidenciales, al enterarse, Raúl Castro se puso de inmediato en contacto con la revista. No se sabe si para agradecer la inclusión, protestar o pedir el teléfono de di Caprio.

 

12- El cineasta norteamericano Michael Moore estrena su película Sicko, donde, entre otras cosas, exalta el sistema cubano de salud.

 

14- En Villa Marista, continúa el interrogatorio al peligroso agente internet. El ministro de Comunicación declara: "Ha respondido a las preguntas sin que mediara ningún tipo de presión por parte nuestra. Tiene muchísima información que nos puede ser útil. A este paso, ya no tendremos que enviar más espías a Estados Unidos".

 

17- El ministro de Cultura de Cuba, Abel Prieto, sugiere en una reunión con intelectuales bolivianos que los dueños de medios que mientan deben ser condenados a cadena perpetua. Añade que en Cuba, donde el dueño es el pueblo, no es necesario llegar a esos extremos. "Ya bastante tiene nuestro pueblo con su vida diaria", afirma el ministro.

 

20- Angelina Jolie y Brad Pitt deciden adoptar a Burundi.

 

25- Desertan en Bulgaria dos jugadores de la selección nacional de voleibol.

 

26- La corresponsal en La Habana de la agencia Associated Press, Anita Snow, decide realizar un experimento periodístico: alimentarse sólo con lo que recibe cualquier cubano a través de la cartilla de racionamiento. Las autoridades cubanas le comentan que si deseaba declararse en huelga de hambre, porque sentía que entorpecían su trabajo, pudo haberlo dicho sin tanto rodeo.

 

28- El gobierno norteamericano amenaza con llevar a la cárcel a Michael Moore por violar las leyes del embargo durante el rodaje de Sicko. En caso contrario, deberá participar en el experimento de Anita Snow. Moore dijo preferir la cárcel.

 

Junio

 

2- Se anuncia que el ex ministro de Exteriores (y ex homólogo de Moratinos) Roberto Robaina no sólo se dedica a la pintura de caballete, sino que vende sus cuadros en Miami.

 

3- El Consejo de Ministros de Cuba decide que tomará clases de pintura en su tiempo libre.

 

4- Reaparece en televisión el Comandante, luego de más de cien días apartado de las cámaras. El periodista Randy lo entrevista esta vez.

 

-Se reportan inundaciones en algunas zonas de la capital. Expertos las atribuyen al babeo continuo de Randy mientras entrevistaba al Comandante.

 

18- Muere Vilma Espín, esposa de Raúl Castro, presidente interino del país, y madre de Mariela Castro, presidenta del CENESEX.

 

21- El país toma medidas contra los efectos del cambio climático en la industria azucarera. "Básicamente, apagamos los centrales", declaró el ministro del ramo, el general Ulises Rosales del Toro.

 

22- Angelina Jolie y Brad Pitt deciden adoptar a Mariela Castro.

 

25- Un informe oficial señala que el 30% de los cubanos padece sobrepeso.

 

26- Científicos de la Universidad de Harvard dicen tener pruebas contundentes de que el aire engorda.

 

 

Julio

 

2- El cantante Silvio Rodríguez propone a la Asamblea Nacional llevar la cultura a las cárceles, aclarando que no se trata de meter a más periodistas presos. Es un plan para que los artistas que no estén cumpliendo condenas lleven su arte a las prisiones. Como parte de su proyecto, el propio diputado-cantante ofrece dar conciertos en las cárceles.

 

3- El Ministerio del Interior anuncia una caída abrupta del índice de criminalidad en todos los municipios del país, excepto en el Vedado, donde ha aumentado.

 

5- El propio Ministerio del Interior hace una propuesta para eliminarlo por completo: organizar en las prisiones conciertos del cantante Vicente Feliú. Ante las protestas de la Convención de Ginebra contra la Tortura, la iniciativa es rechazada.

 

8- El presidente del Parlamento, Ricardo Alarcón, afirma que las elecciones generales "se realizarán en total libertad…". Segundos más tarde, agentes del Ministerio de Comunicación (lema: "En la guerra como en la paz, te tendremos bajo vigilancia") detienen a Alarcón y lo interrogan. Dejan en libertad al presidente del parlamento luego de terminar la frase: "…sin los condicionamientos del dinero, la demagogia o la corrupción, que se dan en algunos países capitalistas".

 

13- Hernando Gómez Bustamente (Rasguño), ex miembro del cártel de Cali, hace declaraciones sobre el trato que recibió por parte de la Seguridad del Estado cubana antes de ser deportado a Colombia (cita absolutamente real): "Me daba contra las paredes hasta sangrar y me estaban enloqueciendo con música todo el día, a todo volumen, de Silvio Rodríguez", lo cual confirma una vez más la consigna de que el arte es un arma de la revolución.

 

16- Durante la celebración de los Juegos Panamericanos, dos boxeadores cubanos tratan de escapar. Desaparecen varios días hasta que la policía los detiene y los deporta a Cuba. Aunque los boxeadores dicen que todo fue una confusión, son acusados de haber intentado desertar, ya que el Comandante había dictaminado que los boxeadores habían sido noqueados por un puñado de dólares. Expertos se enfrascan en un encendido debate sobre la falta de pegada del peso cubano.

 

26- Se celebra un aniversario más del asalto al cuartel Moncada, con un discurso del presidente emergente y Hermano en Jefe, Raúl Castro. Además de enviar saludos a Leonardo di Caprio, el presidente interino aprovecha la ocasión para señalar que ya era hora de garantizar un vaso de leche a cada ciudadano. Expertos afirman que si, al cabo de 50 años de Revolución, se resolviera finalmente el problema del desayuno, faltarían sólo cien años más para resolver los problemas del almuerzo y la comida.

 

28- Varias revistas reportan lo que parece ser el fin del mundo, tal y como lo conocemos hasta ahora: Brad Pitt y Angelina Jolie han dejado de tener relaciones sexuales.

 

Agosto

 

15- Se anuncia la entrada en el mercado de la marca de condones cubanos de diseño propio "Vigor". El producto comienza a comercializarse en la ciudad de Matanzas, "donde su imagen y colorido han tenido buena aceptación". Analistas vaticinan que en los próximos nueve meses habrá una explosión demográfica en el país.

 

19- Una hija del Che Guevara recibe la ciudadanía argentina. En los colectivos de pioneros se discute cambiar el lema de la organización. De "Pioneros por el comunismo: seremos como el Che" a "Seremos como los hijos del Che: tendremos doble nacionalidad".

 

25- Vuelven los rumores persistentes sobre la muerte del Comandante. Varios blogs cubanos se atribuyen el atentado.

 

26- Paris Hilton dice en una entrevista que a veces le aburre el sexo. Aclara luego que se trata de un malentendido: dijo que "a veces le aburría el sexo de su novio".

 

28- Hugo Chávez expresa que Cuba y Venezuela son uno y el mismo país en la práctica. Los intelectuales cubanos reciben con desagrado la declaración, pues la confederación entre los dos países convertiría sus añoradas visitas a Caracas en viajes interprovinciales.

 

Septiembre

 

3- Reaparece Fidel Castro con un severo desmentido a los que anunciaron su muerte. Luego de disertar sobre la teoría de la relatividad, el peso del agua y la radioactividad del cobalto, confirma los rumores de que había pasado a una nueva dimensión de la existencia.

 

6- Se realiza la anunciada subasta de un mechón de pelos del Che Guevara, entre otras pertenencias. Un librero tejano vence en disputada puja a la AGC (Asociación de Guevaristas Calvos).

 

13- Evo Morales señala que pedirá asesoramiento para construir en su país una Plaza de la Revolución como la de La Habana. Ante la imposibilidad de darle los planos (sacados del país por el presidente anterior, Fulgencio Batista), las autoridades cubanas le ofrecen la Plaza de la Revolución de La Habana para celebrar sus concentraciones, y añaden que no se preocupe, que las multitudes y ovaciones correrán a cargo de los anfitriones.

 

20- A petición expresa del gobierno, la población celebra asambleas para exponer sus críticas sobre la situación del país. La primera inquietud entre los participantes es saber de qué país se pueden señalar los problemas: Estados Unidos o Cuba. El corresponsal del diario español El País, Mauricio Vicent, comenta que la referencia a que en Cuba podría haber problemas, es una clara señal de los cambios que se vienen produciendo en el país (con minúsculas).

 

23- En una decisión que sorprende al mundo, Angelina Jolie y Brad Pitt deciden adoptar una posición más cómoda a la hora de establecer relaciones sexuales.
26- Un estudio publicado en la web del American Journal of Epidemiology indica que la pérdida de peso motivada por las condiciones de vida durante la crisis económica cubana de 1989 a 2000, pudo ser beneficiosa para la salud de los pobladores de la Isla. Según los científicos, la ventaja más visible es que evitó el sobrepeso en las frágiles embarcaciones que hacían el viaje a la Florida en esa década, reduciendo así las posibilidades de muerte por inmersión.

 

27- Se inaugura en La Habana un museo dedicado a los Comités de Defensa de la Revolución. "Una copia del carné de fundador del líder cubano, la boina roja utilizada por Fidel Castro en un acto organizado por el XX aniversario de la creación de los Comités, un certificado cederista entregado por Alicia Alonso y unas zapatillas de ballet usadas por la prima ballerina en 1990 son la estrellas del nuevo museo". No se me ocurre nada que pueda mejorar lo anterior.

 

29- Médicos cubanos devuelven la vista a Mario Terán, el boliviano que ejecutó al Che Guevara 40 años atrás. Algunos afirman que, de haber estado vivo, luego de la operación el Che le hubiera dado un paseíto por los fosos de la Cabaña, como hacía en otros tiempos con gente que ni siquiera conocía. Otros niegan esta posibilidad con el argumento que si el Che viviera le habría complicado mucho a Terán toda posibilidad de ser su verdugo y la relación entre ellos sería totalmente distinta.

 

Octubre

 

4- El historiador de la capital, Eusebio Leal, afirma que la Habana Vieja no existiría sin la Revolución. Ante las airadas protestas de los descendientes de Diego Velásquez, aclara que gracias a los efectos de la Revolución en el resto de la capital, la Habana Vieja luce más nueva que nunca.

 

14- En un comunicado de prensa, las FARC llaman a Hugo Chávez "huracán político" y a Fidel Castro, "guerrero del amor". Unos dicen que con tales declaraciones intentan seguir los pasos de su compatriota García Márquez y conseguir el premio Nobel de Literatura, hace tiempo renunciaron al de la Paz. Otros lo ven como una confirmación de la calidad insuperable de la cocaína colombiana.

 

15- Sin ponerse de acuerdo, los ex atletas Diego Armando Maradona y Javier Sotomayor piden su ingreso en las FARC.

 

16- Britney Spears atropella con su coche a un paparazzi que intentaba tomarle una foto. Posteriormente, la media del papparazzi con la marca de la rueda del coche se vende en Ebay por 583 dólares.

 

20- Cuba aparece nuevamente en uno de los últimos lugares en la clasificación mundial de libertad de prensa. En cambio, ocupa uno de los primeros en cuanto a diversidad de uso de los periódicos.

 

23- Luego de dificultades técnicas que pospusieron durante 39 años el estreno de la obra Los siete contra Tebas, es exhibida al fin en los escenarios habaneros. El director de la compañía (lema de la compañía: "Nunca es tarde…") anuncia que, como parte de su trabajo con temas de actualidad, piensa estrenar versiones de Espejo de paciencia, que aborda el tema del contrabando, y los Diarios de Colón, que aborda el del turismo. El corresponsal de El País, Mauricio Vicent, comenta que el estreno es una clara señal de los cambios que se vienen produciendo.

 

Noviembre

 

7- Un estudio publicado por el CENESEX, del cual es presidenta Mariela Castro, afirma que el 5% de la población masculina cubana dice haber tenido relaciones sexuales con otros hombres, aunque sin aclarar si han tomado como referencia el concepto de relación sexual como lo entiende Bill Clinton, o han optado por uno más amplio.

 

10- El Congreso español respalda relaciones "normales" con Cuba. Mariela Castro, presidenta del CENESEX, comenta indignada que la homosexualidad no es una anormalidad.

 

10- El canciller Pérez Roque (más conocido como "El Homólogo") declara que en un futuro Cuba podría renunciar a su soberanía para confederarse con Venezuela. Todos, incluida Mariela Castro, coinciden en que Pérez Roque es anormal.

 

11- Resumiendo una de las grandes interrogantes que ha tenido la humanidad en la última década, el rey de España, Juan Carlos I, le pregunta a Hugo Chávez, presidente venezolano: por qué no te callas. El Comandante califica el incidente de "Waterloo ideológico". Los expertos declaran no entender al Comandante.

 

19- Repartición de la primera cuota de carne en Cienfuegos durante 15 años, a razón de media libra por persona, en lo que se anuncia será el inicio de entregas periódicas con carácter trimestral. "Lo hemos recibido con mucha alegría, porque es una muestra del avance que ha tenido la revolución (…) Se ve cómo el país se va recuperando", comentó entusiasmada un ama de casa, que preguntó luego qué podía hacer con la carne.

 

22- Se anuncia la pronta salida al mercado de una versión cubana del medicamento conocido como Viagra. Aunque durante las pruebas realizadas hasta ahora el producto cubano no ha pasado de provocar endurecimientos o parálisis en las piernas, sus creadores confían en conseguir que ejerza sus efectos en el órgano apropiado. "En caso contrario —comentó uno de los científicos—, ya hemos establecido contacto con la empresa encargada de producir los preservativos Vigor para que creen un modelo con las dimensiones apropiadas para ajustarlo a la pierna".

 

29- En respuesta a la pregunta del Rey de España, el Comandante menciona en una de sus habituales reflexiones escritas la única circunstancia que podría silenciar a Hugo "Por Qué No te Callas" Chávez. Básicamente, habla de planes para asesinarlo.

 

Diciembre

 

3- Votaciones en Venezuela sobre reforma electoral que dotaría a Hugo "Por Qué No te Callas" Chávez de los mismos poderes que el faraón egipcio Tutankhamen, incluido decidir la hora de salida y puesta del sol. La reforma es derrotada en todas partes, excepto en El Diario/La Prensa de Nueva York, y en La Habana, donde es declarada victoria moral. Se cumple el vaticinio del Comandante, aunque sin llegar al asesinato. Durante las horas que transcurre el conteo de votos, Hugo "Por Qué No te Callas" Chávez permanece extrañamente callado.

 

5- En las listas de candidatos a la Asamblea Nacional no aparecen los nombres de Ramón Castro, hermano de Fidel y Raúl Castro, el ortopédico Rodrigo Álvarez Cambra, el cantautor Silvio Rodríguez y el ex atleta Alberto Juantorena, quienes han sido sustituidos por un catcher de béisbol, una lanzadora de martillo y varios militares. En esta sustitución de Silvio por un catcher, el corresponsal de El País, Mauricio Vicent, ve una clarísima señal de los cambios que se vienen produciendo en el país.

 

6- Elián González, el famoso niño balsero retornado a su patria luego de una larga e intensa disputa, celebra su cumpleaños con un acto de masas en su pueblo natal. Al terminar la actividad, declara: "Acabo de hablar con el Comandante. Quiero trasmitirle a todo el pueblo de Cuba que se siente muy bien. Me trasmitió sus felicidades". Luego pidió permiso para retirarse, porque se le estaba acabando la carga de la batería.

 

10- Un pequeño grupo de disidentes, encabezado por el doctor Darsi Ferrer, se manifiesta en un parque habanero para celebrar el Día Mundial de los Derechos Humanos mientras son acosados por grupos progubernamentales. Mauricio Vicent vuelve a detectar una clara señal del cambio de los tiempos: en otra época, los habrían acosado directamente en sus casas.

 

13- El popular presentador de la televisión cubana Carlos Otero, tras huir de la Isla con toda su familia, es recibido en Miami con honores de jefe de Estado. El Consejo de Ministros de Cuba decide, en pleno, tomar clases de locución en sus horas libres.

 

20- Naomi Campbell visita Cuba con la intención declarada de entrevistar al Comandante.

 

21- La hermana adolescente de Britney Spears anuncia su embarazo y culpa del hecho al uso de los preservativos Vigor.

 

25- Brad Pitt anuncia su intención de adoptar a Naomi Campbell.

 

31- Todo el pueblo cubano espera la llegada de un nuevo año, en lo que Mauricio Vicent ve una clara señal del cambio.

Generacion Y - un blog desde dentro Cuba

 
 
 
Al menos hay que aplaudirles los cojones a esta Yoani por sus comentarios y por publicar nombre y fotos
 
Le propongo que la sigan en cada una de sus notas revisando esta pagina frecuentemente, y pasen el link a todo el cubano que conozcas!!!
 
 
http://www.desdecuba.com/generaciony/

Gay "Wedding" / "Boda" de dos chicas en Cuba

La boda de Mónica y Elizabeth - Primera "boda" de chicas en Cuba en un sitio estatal (Si, hasta yo me quede con la boca abierta)

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Millones en Cuba haran cola para nacionalidad española

Es el nuevo berenjenal en el que se ha metido España: tres millones de cubanos, de los once millones en total que tiene la isla, esperan a que pase el año de ‘moratoria’ para ‘asaltar’ los Consulados y pedir la nacionalidad española, en virtud de la ley de memoria histórica.

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Carlos Otero, presentador de TV, habla sobre su fuga de Cuba

Carlos Otero, el protagonista de la fuga más sonada de 2007, habla con ENCUENTRO EN LA RED. Cuando la noticia se conocio, todos los cubanos dijeros "Wow, ni Carlos resistia el regimen cubano"

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Kicked out of Cuba! When crime fiction is a crime, K Henkel

When crime fiction is a crime. Amir Valle's journey from success to exile - a Cuban destiny. By Knut Henkel. This story from signandsight.com discusses Cuban author Amir Valle, who was forbidden from returning home after attending a Crime Fiction festival in Spain.

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Cuba health policy: A seminar in London

Challenges at home, outreach abroad. The Cuban health care system is widely recognised throughout the world, but the controversy surrounding its portrayal in ‘Sicko’ by Michael Moore and recent revelations about its failings in the Cuban media have raised questions as to whether it really does deliver.

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Cuban Weekly News Digest

 

 

Sent: Wednesday, December 26, 2007 1:43 AM

Subject: Dec. 26, 2007

Cuban Weekly News Digest  -  "A compilation of news articles about Cuba, distributed since 1992 in order to encourage a balanced understanding of the Cuban situation and to promote investments in the Republic of Cuba"

The Daily Telegraph – UK - Fidel Castro's successor could be one of two younger officials, dubbed "good cop" and "bad cop" by US intelligence analysts. The Cuban dictator, 81, said in a letter read out on state television last week that he had a duty not to hold on to power nor to obstruct the rise of the "younger generation". It was the first time he had conceded that he might never return to power after he was taken ill with intestinal bleeding last year. Since then, his brother Raul, 76, has been in command of the Caribbean island.

American spy chiefs have now begun to rethink their previous assumption that Cuban communism will collapse after Castro's death, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt. Instead, they expect the future of the nation to be decided by a power struggle between two younger men. The "good cop" is Carlos Lage Davila, 56. As his country's economics tsar, the former doctor is credited with negotiating the favourable deal with Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, to import oil to Cuba - an arrangement that has mitigated the effects of the US economic embargo against the island.

His rival is Felipe Perez Roque, 42, the foreign minister. He is the "bad cop", regarded as a firebrand more likely to fight real reforms. An intelligence source said: "It will come down to Lage or Roque. Whoever wins will determine the speed and nature of reforms in Cuba." Dan Erikson, a Cuba specialist at Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based think-tank, said: "Lage is seen as being more sophisticated, mature and diplomatic. Perez Roque is younger and likely to play the role of attack dog. "If you want someone to do a trade deal, you send Lage. If you want someone to deliver a tirade at the UN, you send Perez Roque."

The US government remains committed to the view that Cuban communism will disintegrate when Castro dies, but CIA analysts and the state department are now preparing plans to deal with slower political change. Central to this is an assessment that Cuba's leaders have persuaded Castro that if he wants his revolution to survive his death, he needs to help the handover of power. In his letter, Castro said: "My basic duty is not to cling to office, nor obstruct the rise of people much younger."

Emirates Business 24/7 - Leisure Canada (LCN), a Vancouver-based developer of luxury resorts in Cuba, said its board has approved a deal to sell 46 per cent of the company to Profile Investments, a firm based in Dubai. The two-step transaction, announced on Friday, is valued at C$20 million (Dh74m). Under the deal, Leisure will issue 60m shares and half-warrant units to Profile at 25 cents each to raise C$15m (Dh55.5m). In addition, Profile and affiliates have agreed to invest C$5m (Dh18.5m) in the company's operating subsidiary, Wilton Properties.

Profile Investments is an investment company with global interests in real estate and related services. "This agreement will provide Leisure Canada with the backing of a vertically integrated global real estate developer," said Walter Berukoff, executive chairman of the Canadian developer. "All of the elements are now in place to accelerate development of our world-class asset base in Cuba and become that nation's premier hospitality and real estate development company."

Profile Investments is a member of the Profile Group, which has substantial interests in Dubai, including projects on the Waterfront and The World development of manmade islands. Its interests range from real estate consulting and engineering, design and architecture as well as partnerships with global real estate sales and development operations. The group is active in the UAE, Oman, Morocco, Spain and Cape Verde. In Dubai, its projects include five residential towers at Dubai Sports City; 12 residential, commercial and hotel towers at Dubai Waterfront; 10 residential buildings in International City (pictured above); four buildings in Dubailand; the development of the Island of Thailand on The World into a spa and residential resort; development of the Island of Ireland as an up-market retreat; and six villas in Emirates Hills.

The transaction envisions Profile and its associates buying 46 per cent of Leisure Canada's issued capital on a fully diluted basis at the time of closing. This will result in the issuance of 60m units at 25 cents each for aggregate proceeds of C$15m. Each unit would be composed of one class 'A' share (common share) plus one-half warrant. One full warrant would entitle the holder to purchase one additional common share of Leisure Canada for a period of 24 months after the closing date at a price of 35 cents per warrant share. The company will extend the term of the warrants for a further 24 months at an exercise price of 40 cents in the third year and 45 cents in the fourth.

Profile and its associates will also acquire a 25 per cent holding of the outstanding capital of Wilton by means of the subscription of new shares in Wilton for C$5m. Two Profile directors will sit on the Leisure Canada board, while Berukoff remains as chairman for at least the next five years. Hanif Patel, founder and chairman of the Profile Group, said his company is "extremely excited about the synergies that will arise from this investment". "We can help them market their products and, at the same time, offer this exotic market to our client base of more than 30,000 investors. With almost C$20m in new capital, and with further capital injections planned, Leisure Canada will be extremely well positioned to complete existing projects and acquire new assets in Cuba," he added. The transaction is scheduled to close on February 29, 2008.

(Reuters) - CIENFUEGOS - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez proposed extending a barter scheme used by Cuba to other Caribbean and Central American nations to help them pay for oil supplies with products and services. At a summit of his growing regional energy alliance, Petrocaribe, the leftist firebrand attacked the United States and other rich consumer nations for squandering their unfair share of world resources. "In spite of the Yankees, our oil and gas will always be at the service, first of Venezuela, and at the same time of our brother nations of Latin American and the Caribbean," he said.

"We have begun to create a new geopolitics of oil that is not at the service of the interests of imperialism and big capitalists," Chavez said in a speech. Chavez, the fiercest antagonist of the United States in the region despite being a major US oil supplier, opened a revamped Soviet-era refinery in Cienfuegos, Cuba that will supply diesel, gasoline and jet fuel to members of Petrocaribe.

The Petrocaribe alliance, which has bolstered Chavez's regional influence since it started in 2005, grew to 17 countries with the entry of Honduras, a traditional US ally. Guatemala's president-elect also wants to join. Chavez said the debts of Petrocaribe members to Venezuela has reached $1.16 billion in little more than a year of preferentially financed supplies, and is estimated to rise to $4.6 billion by 2010. He proposed debts be offset by local products and services, following the example of Cuba, which has sent 20,000 doctors and teachers to Venezuela in exchange for crude and refined products now estimated to value $3 billion a year. "We propose adding to the financed portion of the oil bill a method of payment that includes the supply of a series of local products and services," he said.

Venezuelan Energy and Petroleum Minister Rafael Ramirez said the barter scheme had worked very well for Venezuela. "It has allowed us to lift up our health system and education," Ramirez told reporters. Petrocaribe allows members to defer payment on 40 percent of their Venezuelan oil bill for up to 25 years, with interest of only 1 percent. Critics say the deal supplies oil at market prices and is increasing the indebtedness of small Caribbean states. Billboards featuring Chavez and ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro greeted the Venezuelan president in Cienfuegos, a port city 160 miles (256 km) southwest of Havana.

Chavez has helped Cuba's economically battered economy stay afloat with 92,000 barrels per day of crude oil paid for by the medical services of Cuban doctors treating Venezuela's poor. In addition, Cuba has started receiving crude shipments for the 65,000-bpd Cienfuegos refinery, a joint venture between Cuban state oil company CUPET and Venezuelan counterpart PDVSA, which has invested $166 million in restarting the plant. The refinery was mothballed 12 years ago after the Soviet Union collapsed, depriving Cuba of subsidized oil supplies and technology and plunging it into a deep economic crisis.

The Cienfuegos refinery will produce fuel oil, diesel, gasoline and jet fuel for the Cuban domestic market and for export to Nicaragua, Belize, Honduras and Haiti. At its opening, Chavez said Petrocaribe planned to build 10 refineries and refurbish another eight at a cost of $22 billion over the next 10 years to cover the region's supply of refined products. Raul Castro, running Cuba since his brother underwent stomach surgery 16 months ago, said the US trade embargo had prevented Cuba from operating the Cienfuegos refinery since 1995. "It has not been easy to keep our socialist revolution going with a fierce enemy 90 miles (145 km) away, but we are here to stay," he said.

Leaders from Venezuela, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Guyana, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Haiti, Jamaica, Nicaragua and Cuba attended the meeting, while Barbados, and Trinidad and Tobago were for a first time observers. Representatives from the Caribbean Community, the Association of American States and the Organization of East Caribbean States were also present in this port city, 155 miles southeastern Havana.

HAVANA - Fidel Castro remains on the mend, gaining weight, exercising twice a day and continuing to help make the Cuban government's top decisions, his brother Raul Castro says. The island's acting president gave the first clues about his brother's health in weeks, saying during a Monday speech that he has a "healthier mentality, full use of his mental faculties with some small physical limitations." At 76, Raul is five years younger than his ailing brother, who has not been seen in public since announcing he had undergone emergency intestinal surgery and was stepping down in favor of a provisional government in July 2006.

But the younger Castro said his brother remains a key voice in government and that Communist Party leaders support his re-election to Cuba's parliament, the National Assembly — a move that could allow Fidel Castro to keep his post as president of the Council of State. "We consult him on principal matters and that is why we the leaders of the party defend his right to run again as deputy of the National Assembly as a first step," Raul Castro said. Though Fidel Castro's condition and even his exact illness are state secrets, he has officially retained his post atop Cuba's supreme governing body, the Council of State. Parliamentary elections take place Jan. 20.

Last week, the older Castro suggested he would not cling to power forever, nor stand in the way of a younger generation of leaders. It was the first time he hinted at his political future since falling ill, though Raul's comments Monday could indicate his brother has no intention of retiring permanently. Through daily exercise, Fidel "has recovered a lot of weight and muscle mass," he said, speaking to voters in Fidel's voting district in Santiago, an eastern city where the brothers spent part of their youth. He said Fidel asked him to visit voters and trump up support for him because he was unable to personally.

In afternoon remarks that were carried nationwide on Cuban state television Monday evening, Raul said his brother "has more time, he's reading more than ever. He's meditating more than ever and writing almost more than ever." Speaking of Cuba's electoral system, Raul Castro noted that U.S. democracy pits two identical parties against one another, and joked that a choice between a Republican and Democrat is like choosing between himself and his brother Fidel. "We could say in Cuba we have two parties: one led by Fidel and one led by Raul, what would be the difference?" he asked. "That's the same thing that happens in the United States ... both are the same. Fidel is a little taller than me, he has a beard and I don't."

Raul scoffed at the notion Cuba needs to be more like the U.S. But he also acknowledged that the island's communist government has its flaws, saying "our system has to become more democratized." But he did not elaborate on what a more democratic Cuba might look like. "I want to say this: If we only have one party that represents the interests of the people, where we can have differences, we should have them," he said. "Not class clashes, but it's good to have differences."

Havana - (acn) - Cuban Government Minister Ricardo Cabrisas said in Beijing that 2007 was a fruitful year in the development of bilateral economic relations between Cuba and China. Speaking in the plenary session of the 20th China-Cuba Intergovernmental Commission that took place in the Chinese capital, Cabrisas recalled that both countries cooperate and have good relations in many fields such as trade, biotechnology, agriculture, communications, education, public health and science.

According to Prensa Latina news agency, Cabrisas and the Chinese Deputy Minister of Trade, Wei Jianguo, signed the final accord of the meeting that includes the results of bilateral cooperation in 2007 and the priorities for 2008. The Cuban Minister of Information Technologies and Telecommunications, Ramiro Valdes, also participated in the commission. Valdes is in China for a working visit that includes talks with Chinese political and government officials and also with businesspeople. The Cuban delegation also included the island's ambassador to Beijing, Carlos Miguel Pereira and the vice ministers of Information Technologies, Alberto Rodriguez Arufe, and Foreign Investment, Ramon Ripoll.

During the meeting, it was announced that there was a 23% growth in the bilateral trade in the year 2007, which makes China the second commercial partner of Cuba, only behind Venezuela, and the first client of Cuban products. For their part, the Chinese authorities noted that Cuba is their main commercial partner in the Caribbean and is among the top ten in Latin America. In this session, Cuba introduced a formal petition for the use in local projects of soft loans offered by the Asian giant during the 2nd China-Caribbean Forum held earlier this year.

HAVANA (AP) - He fled Cuba in 1961, but still calls Fidel Castro his friend. He can't stand communism, but bitterly opposes the U.S. embargo. He lives in Miami, but travels regularly to Havana, even appearing on state-run television. Max Lesnik always has an opinion, and often makes someone mad - no matter which side of the Florida Straits he's on. "It's always been up to me to be critical. I've always been with the opposition, not with one government or the other," says Lesnik, a Cuban revolutionary-turned-South Florida radio commentator, in an interview with The Associated Press. "I don't talk out of both sides of my mouth," he adds. "What I say here, I say in Miami. What I say in Miami, I say here."

'Here' is the sixth-floor executive lounge of Havana's iconic Hotel Nacional. Lesnik slouches in an armchair by a window overlooking sparkling Caribbean waters when his cell phone rings. He laughs, then hangs up. "The deputy director of my radio program says there's a rumor going around in Miami that I had an accident and I've gotten killed," he explains. "I just said, 'Don't deny anything. Say you don't know if I'm in the hospital, or what. See what happens."' There have often been questions about the well-being of Lesnik, now 76. Arriving in Miami nearly 47 years ago, he spent close to two decades publishing "Replica," a Spanish-language magazine whose offices in Little Havana were bombed 11 times, allegedly by anti-Castro hard-liners in the Cuban exile community who opposed his calls to do away with the American embargo.

Lesnik's life and politics are chronicled in "The Man of Two Havanas," a documentary directed by his 45-year-old youngest daughter, Vivien Lesnik Weisman, which screened this month at the New Latin American Cinema festival. Shot over 2 1/2 years in Havana, the Cuban capital, and Little Havana, the Miami Cuban district, the film tells of Lesnik's political activism, friendship with Castro, and early efforts to generate revolutionary propaganda when the bearded rebels took to the mountains of eastern Cuba.

Lesnik hosted a Cuban radio program after Castro's forces toppled dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959, but became disillusioned as Cuba deepened ties with Soviet Union. He finally declared on the air that he was no communist, and motored to the United States in January 1961 aboard a small boat with 13 other former rebel collaborators. His wife and two daughters arrived two months later. Lesnik founded "Replica" in his Miami garage in 1968, gaining readers and detractors as he proclaimed his continued fondness for Castro. "He was a fighter who ended up selling himself to Castroism," said Huber Matos, a former officer in Castro's rebel army who eventually quit, was charged with treason and spent 22 years in prison before seeking exile in the United States.

In a telephone interview from Miami, Matos said he and many other Cuban exiles have "zero respect for Max Lesnik." "The Man of Two Havanas" includes footage of a U.S. television interview where Lesnik shows off the pistol he once carried for protection. His daughter recalls on-screen how he always sat facing the windows in Florida restaurants to spot would-be attackers. Lesnik first returned to Cuba in 1978, and became a frequent visitor after the Soviet Union collapsed. He formally patched things up with Castro, and met many times with him - though he has not seen the Cuban leader since he underwent emergency intestinal surgery and ceded power to his younger brother Raul in July 2006.

Vivien Lesnik Weisman was supposed to have dinner with her father and Castro in 1996, but had to return to the U.S. when her then husband was hospitalized with a bleeding ulcer. Castro later used Lesnik's cell phone to call her. "I remember he made a joke saying U.S. intelligence is now trying to figure out what the code word 'ulcer' means," said the filmmaker, who returned to Havana with her father for the documentary's debut. The elder Lesnik has become increasingly friendly with Cuban officialdom in recent years. He won a Cuban journalism prize this summer, and has appeared on state television's leading news talk show.

Lesnik makes no apologies, noting that he defended the Cuban exile community during one such appearance. "I said it may look like Miami is a slave to the extreme right .. but deep down there is a current of tolerance and support for differing opinions," Lesnik said. "If it were unanimous in Miami, I couldn't live there." His daughter, still shopping for U.S. distributors, hopes her documentary will be shown at the Miami International Film Festival in February. That might enrage some exiles, she says, but "I think it's a dialogue Miami's ready to have."

South Florida Business Journal - Florida associations and their members should plan now for the day the United States lifts its embargo on doing business with Cuba, a white paper released by the Florida Society of Association Executives Foundation said. "Associations need to become well-informed about Cuba and possible future developments," author Aida Levitan said in a news release. "They should educate their membership about the challenges and opportunities that may arise in a post-embargo Cuba."  Levitan is president and chief executive officer of Miami-based public relations firm Levitan & Palencia.

The white paper lists opportunities for post-embargo businesses, including joint ventures with Cuban counterparts, training and mentoring, and promoting business opportunities in Cuba for members of Florida associations. "Given the possible window of opportunity that may arise after Fidel Castro dies, there is a sense of urgency for those organizations that already know they will want to do business with Cuba," the paper says. "These groups need to examine the situation and prepare a strategic plan that responds to different transition scenarios. Each scenario has different risks, consequences, and rewards and needs that must be examined -- with the clear understanding that there is no certainty about Cuba's future."

Levitan said other states are ahead of Florida in planning to take advantage of a transition to a new government in Cuba, and said U.S. law must be changed before Florida associations can take full advantage of opportunities to do business in a post-Castro Cuba.  The paper is based on a FSAE think tank earlier this year that discussed the impact on Florida of a post-Castro Cuba.

Santiago de Cuba - (Prensa Latina) - Three years after Vision Now program (Operation Miracle) began, one million persons have benefited from free eye surgery, said Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage on Sunday. Those free eye surgeries allowed people from 28 countries of the so called Third World to recover their vision or heal from different ophthalmological problems. Lage made the announcement after the signing 14 new Cuba-Venezuela integration agreements, which were attended by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuban First Vice President Raul Castro.

Since July 10, 2004, in which the first eye surgeries were made, Cuba boosted this project to preserve and recover vision of at least six million low income Latin American and Caribbean people. Cuban doctors and technicians, with the support of the leading edge ophthalmologic technology, create conditions to annually operate about one million patients, in the framework of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA).

Meanwhile, Hugo Chavez became the first foreign citizen to receive the replica of the machete of Cuban independence war hero Antonio Maceo, and the shield of Santiago de Cuba Hero City. Both distinctions were awarded to Chavez in a solemn ceremony held at Melia-Santiago Hotel s Libertad Hall. Raul Castro, Carlos Lage, and Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, as well as other other government officials from both countries, attended the ceremony.

International Herald Tribune - Through accidents of geography and history, Cuba is a priceless ecological resource. That is why many scientists are so worried about what will become of it after Fidel Castro and his associates leave power and, as is widely anticipated, the American government relaxes or ends its trade embargo. Cuba, by far the region's largest island, sits at the confluence of the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. Its mountains, forests, swamps, coasts and marine areas are rich in plants and animals, some seen nowhere else. And since the imposition of the embargo in 1962, and especially with the collapse in 1991 of the Soviet Union, its major economic patron, Cuba's economy has stagnated.

Cuba has not been free of development, including Soviet-style top-down agricultural and mining operations and, in recent years, an expansion of tourism. But it also has an abundance of landscapes that elsewhere in the region have been ripped up, paved over, poisoned or otherwise destroyed in the decades since the Cuban revolution, when development has been most intense. Once the embargo ends, the island could face a flood of investors from the United States and elsewhere, eager to exploit those landscapes. Conservationists, environmental lawyers and other experts, from Cuba and elsewhere, met last month in Cancún, Mexico, to discuss the island's resources and how to continue to protect them. Cuba has done "what we should have done — identify your hot spots of biodiversity and set them aside," said Oliver Houck, a professor of environmental law at Tulane University Law School who attended the conference.

In the late 1990s, Houck was involved in an effort, financed in part by the MacArthur Foundation, to advise Cuban officials writing new environmental laws. But, he said in an interview, "an invasion of U.S. consumerism, a U.S.-dominated future, could roll over it like a bulldozer" when the embargo ends. By some estimates, tourism in Cuba is increasing 10 percent annually. At a minimum, Orlando Rey Santos, the Cuban lawyer who led the law-writing effort, said in an interview at the conference, "we can guess that tourism is going to increase in a very fast way" when the embargo ends. "It is estimated we could double tourism in one year," said Rey, who heads environmental efforts at the Cuban ministry of science, technology and environment.

About 700 miles long and about 100 miles wide at its widest, Cuba runs from Haiti west almost to the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico. It offers crucial habitat for birds, like Bicknell's thrush, whose summer home is in the mountains of New England and Canada, and the North American warblers that stop in Cuba on their way south for the winter. Zapata Swamp, on the island's southern coast, may be notorious for its mosquitoes, but it is also known for its fish, amphibians, birds and other creatures. Among them is the Cuban crocodile, which has retreated to Cuba from a range that once ran from the Cayman Islands to the Bahamas.

Cuba has the most biologically diverse populations of freshwater fish in the region. Its relatively large underwater coastal shelves are crucial for numerous marine species, including some whose larvae can be carried by currents into waters of the United States, said Ken Lindeman, a marine biologist at Florida Institute of Technology. Lindeman, who did not attend the conference but who has spent many years studying Cuba's marine ecology, said in an interview that some of these creatures were important commercial and recreational species like the spiny lobster, grouper or snapper. Like corals elsewhere, those in Cuba are suffering as global warming raises ocean temperatures and acidity levels. And like other corals in the region, they reeled when a mysterious die-off of sea urchins left them with algae overgrowth. But they have largely escaped damage from pollution, boat traffic and destructive fishing practices.

Diving in them "is like going back in time 50 years," said David Guggenheim, a conference organizer and an ecologist and member of the advisory board of the Harte Research Institute, which helped organize the meeting along with the Center for International Policy, a private group in Washington. In a report last year, the World Wildlife Fund said that "in dramatic contrast" to its island neighbors, Cuba's beaches, mangroves, reefs, seagrass beds and other habitats were relatively well preserved. Their biggest threat, the report said, was "the prospect of sudden and massive growth in mass tourism when the U.S. embargo lifts."

To prepare for that day, researchers from a number of American institutions and organizations are working on ecological conservation in Cuba, including Harte, the Wildlife Conservation Society, universities like Tulane and Georgetown, institutions like the American Museum of Natural History and the New York Botanical Garden, and others. What they are studying includes coral health, fish stocks, shark abundance, turtle migration and land use patterns. Cuban scientists at the conference noted that this work continued a tradition of collaboration that dates from the mid-19th century, when Cuban researchers began working with naturalists from the Smithsonian Institution. In the 20th century, naturalists from Harvard and the University of Havana worked together for decades.

But now, they said, collaborative relationships are full of problems. The Cancún meeting itself illustrated one. "We would have liked to be able to do this in Havana or in the United States," Jorge Luis Fernández Chamero, the director of the Cuban science and environment agency and leader of the Cuban delegation, said through a translator in opening the meeting. "This we cannot do." While the American government grants licenses to some (but not all) American scientists seeking to travel to Cuba, it routinely rejects Cuban researchers seeking permission to come to the United States, researchers from both countries said.

So meeting organizers turned to Alberto Mariano Vázquez De la Cerda, a retired admiral in the Mexican navy, an oceanographer with a doctorate from Texas A & M and a member of the Harte advisory board, who supervised arrangements for the Cuban conferees. The travel situation is potentially even worse for researchers at state institutions in Florida. Jennifer Gebelein, a geographer at Florida International University who uses global positioning systems to track land use in Cuba, told the meeting about restrictions imposed by the Florida Legislature, which has barred state colleges from using public or private funds for travel to Cuba.

As a result of this move and federal restrictions, Gebelein said "we're not sure what is going to happen" with her research program. On the other hand, John Thorbjarnarson, a zoologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society, said that he had difficulty obtaining permission from Cuba to visit some areas in that country, like a habitat area for the Cuban crocodile near the Bay of Pigs. "I have to walk a delicate line between what the U.S. allows me to do and what the Cubans allow me to do," said Thorbjarnarson, who did not attend the conference. "It is not easy to walk that line." But he had nothing but praise for his scientific colleagues in Cuba. Like other American researchers, he described them as doing highly competent work with meager resources. "They are a remarkable bunch of people," Thorbjarnarson said, "but my counterparts make on average probably less than $20 a month."

American scientists, foundations and other groups are ready to help with equipment and supplies but are hampered by the embargo. For example, Maria Elena Ibarra Martín, a marine scientist at the University of Havana, said through a translator that American organizations had provided Cuban turtle and shark researchers with tags and other equipment. They shipped it via Canada. Another thorny issue is ships. "If you are going to do marine science, at some point you have to go out on a ship," said Robert Hueter, who directs the center for shark research at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida, and attended the Cancún meeting. But, he and others said, the United States government will not allow ships into American ports if they have recently been in Cuban waters in the previous six months, and the Cuban government will not allow American research vessels in Cuban waters.

One answer might be vessels already in Cuba, but nowadays they are often tied up in tourism-related efforts, Cubans at the Cancún meeting said. And even with a ship, several American researchers at the conference said, it is difficult to get Cuban government permission to travel to places like the island's northwest coast, the stretch closest to the United States. As a result, that region is the least-studied part of the Cuban coast, Guggenheim and others said. Another big problem in Cuba is the lack of access to a source of information researchers almost everywhere else take for granted: the Internet. Critics blame the Castro government, saying it limits access to the Internet as a form of censorship. The Cuban government blames the embargo, which it says has left the country with inadequate bandwidth and other technical problems that require it to limit Internet access to people who need it most.

In any event, "we find we do not have access," Teresita Borges Hernández, a biologist in the environment section of Cuba's science and technology ministry, said through a translator. She appealed to the Americans at the meeting to do "anything, anything to improve this situation." Guggenheim echoed the concern and said even telephone calls to Cuba often cost as much as $2 a minute. "These details, though they may seem trite," he said, "are central to our ability to collaborate." Gebelein and several of the Cubans at the meeting said that some American Web sites barred access to people whose electronic addresses identify them as Cuban. She suggested that the group organize a Web site in a third country, a site where they could all post data, papers and the like, and everyone would have access to it.

For Guggenheim, the best lessons for Cubans to ponder as they contemplate a more prosperous future can be seen 90 miles north, in the Florida Keys. There, he said, too many people have poured into an ecosystem too fragile to support them. "As Cuba becomes an increasingly popular tourist resort," Guggenheim said, "we don't want to see and they don't want to see the same mistakes, where you literally love something to death." But there are people skeptical that Cuba will resist this kind of pressure. One of them is Houck. The environmental laws he worked on are "a very strong structure," he said, "But all laws do is give you the opportunity to slow down the wrong thing. Over time, you can wear the law down."

That is particularly true in Cuba, he said, "where there's no armed citizenry out there with high-powered science groups pushing in the opposite direction. What they lack is the counter pressure of environmental groups and environmental activists." As Rey and Daniel Whittle, a lawyer for Environmental Defense, put it in the book "Cuban Studies 37" (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2006), "policymaking in Cuba is still centralized and top down." But, they wrote, "much can be done to enhance public input in policymaking." Rey said in the interview that Cubans must be encouraged to use their environmental laws. By "some kind of cultural habit," he said, people in Cuba rarely turn to the courts to challenge decisions they dislike. "There's no litigation, just a few cases here and there," Rey said. "In most community situations if a citizen has a problem he writes a letter. That's O.K., but it's not all the possibilities." Rey added, "We have to promote more involvement, not only in access to justice and claims, but in taking part in the decision process." "I know the state has a good system from the legislative point of view," Rey said. But as he and Whittle noted in their paper, "the question now is whether government leaders can and will do what it takes to put the plan on the ground."

Havana - (Prensa Latina) - Spanish companies are reaffirming their choice of Cuba as a favorite tourist destination, with airlines inaugurating trips to the island and companies from diverse spheres publicizing this destination in the world. Company spokespersons gave Prensa Latina the recent example of Spanish Aircomet airline's presentation in the Cuban capital and its journal "Lugares," which, in a a ceremony at Cuba's National Hotel, highlighting its trips as well to Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Italy, England and Spain.

Cuba is now a host to Aircomet, the only Spanish company to buy the new Airbus 380, the largest airplane in the world, to begin providing services by the first quarter of 2010. By 2009, the airline will have a total fleet of 19 top-drawer airplanes and will have 19 international flights by next year, up from 13. The journal "Lugares", produced by the Spanish company "Mas Viajes," intends to be the ambassador publication of Cuban culture in Spain and the world. Spain constitutes one of the main tourist markets for Cuba that for the fourth consecutive year - welcomes more than two million world travelers.

Kiev - (Prensa Latina) - Cuban Ambassador to the Ukraine Julio Garmendia stressed the work done by tourist firms and national media specialized in promoting and sending visitors to the Island. Krilia TV, a promoter of tourist materials in Ukrainian media, was in charge of covering the meeting with the said entities held at the Cuban Embassy. Garmendia, as well as Cuba's Economic-Commercial Counselor to Ukraine Nelida Guerra, and Consular Affairs Chief Miraly Gonzalez awarded prizes to six firms boasting the best results in the commercialization of Cuba as a tourist destination, including tour operators Turisticheski Club, Verano, Tez-tour, Ispatur, Megapolus and Sputnik. The number of Ukrainian tourists who visited the Island grew 36 percent this year.

Santa Clara - (Prensa Latina) - Scientists from the Central University of Las Villas are making fuel from waste of the sugar industry, in a process that does not affect production of food for human consumption. The study, currently in its lab trial phase, envisages obtaining biodiesel from a waxy waste eliminated in the process of clarification of sugarcane juice, Cuban National News Agency (AIN) reported. Director of Las Villas University Analysis and Processes Center, Gretell Villanueva, said the process differs from the normal worldwide manner of producing biofuels from vegetable oils obtained from grains, including corn and soy, which are earmarked for the human diet.

HAVANA - (AFP) - Visiting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and acting Cuban President Raul Castro signed agreements in the energy, mining and oil sectors, including a 170-million-dollar deal to build a new power plant. The agreements, closing a four-day visit by Chavez to Cuba, also include a 122-dollar loan for Cuba to buy tanker ships to transport crude oil and its derivatives. Two agreements will almost double the new southeastern Cienfuegos oil refinery's capacity from 65,000 to 150,000 barrels per day, and reopen an oil pipeline between the eastern Matanzas and the refinery, located 260 kilometers (160 miles) south of Havana.

Two agreements provide a 170-million-dollar loan to build a new power plant in northeastern Holguin and expand the existing power network supplying Havana. During his visit, Chavez met with ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro, inaugurated the Cienfuegos refinery and attended the fourth summit of Petrocaribe, a Venezuelan initiative to provide oil to Caribbean neighbors at preferential prices. Cuba imports about 92,000 barrels a day of Venezuelan oil, some of it paid indirectly by supplying Venezuela with 36,000 Cuban workers, most of them medical doctors.

COOLIDGE, Antigua - (CMC) - Cuba will not be playing in the 2008 Stanford Twenty20 Cup, organisers announced. Due to the United States embargo against Cuba, organisations and American citizens such as Sir Allen Stanford have to apply and receive special permission from the United States Government to conduct any type of activity with that Caribbean nation. Much to the disappointment of Sir Allen and the West Indies legends working with him, Sir Allen's application was denied.

"We have been anxious to include the entire Caribbean in the Stanford Twenty20 Cup, and I am extremely disappointed that Cuba will not be able to play," Sir Allen said in a news release. "Stanford Twenty20 is requesting that the denial from the United States Government be reconsidered and we are exploring every option to secure their future participation." The news comes as a huge disappointment to the Cuba team as well. It has been training intensely with the help of West Indies fast bowling legend Courtney Walsh for what was to be their first official competition outside of their homeland. "We were looking forward to seeing what the heavily baseball-influenced nation could do with a cricket bat," Sir Allen added.

Cuba was scheduled to play in the first match of the competition against St. Maarten on January 25. As a result of the team being unable to participate, St. Maarten will automatically advance to the second round to face St. Vincent and the Grenadines on February 1. The opening ceremony has been rescheduled for January 26 and will be followed by the second match on the original schedule featuring St. Lucia and the Cayman Islands.

International Herald Tribune - Catching Americans who travel illegally to Cuba or who purchase cigars, rum or other products from the island may be distracting some American government agencies from higher-priority missions like fighting terrorism and combating narcotics trafficking, a government audit to be released Wednesday says. The report, from the Government Accountability Office, says that Customs and Border Protection, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, conducts secondary inspections on 20 percent of charter passengers arriving from Cuba at Miami International Airport, more than six times the inspection rate for other international arrivals, even from countries considered shipment points for narcotics.

The high rate of inspections and the numerous seizures of relatively benign contraband "have strained CBP's capacity to carry out its primary mission of keeping terrorists, criminals and inadmissible aliens from entering the country at Miami International Airport," says the audit, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times. The audit also called on the Treasury Department to scrutinize the priorities of its Office of Foreign Assets Control, which enforces more than 20 economic and trade sanctions programs, including those aimed at freezing terrorists' assets and restricting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, but has long focused on Cuba.

From 2000 to 2006, 61 percent of the agency's investigation and penalty caseload involved Cuba embargo cases. Over that period, the office opened 10,823 investigations into possible violations involving Cuba and just 6,791 investigations on all other cases, the audit found. Critics of the American embargo on Cuba seized on the report as clear evidence that Washington's policy, which began in the Kennedy administration and has grown more stringent ever since, was outdated. "This is not good policy," said Representative Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat, who requested the report a year ago with Representative Barbara Lee, also a Democrat, of California. "It's vindictive. It's stupid. It's costly. And now we find out it's a threat to our national security."

The State Department, in a statement responding to the audit, said enforcing the Trading With the Enemy Act, which prohibits Americans from spending money in Cuba without authorization from Washington, remained an important tool to isolate the Cuban regime. Loosening the embargo, which the leading Democratic presidential candidates have called for in the campaign, would "provide increased revenue to the successor dictatorship run by Raul Castro, and prolong its tight control over all aspects of Cuban life," the State Department said. The Bush administration's tightening of the Cuba sanctions in 2004 appears to have discouraged many Americans from visiting the island. Manuel Marrero, Cuba's tourism minister, acknowledged as much in a recent interview in Havana, blaming the "blockade," as Cubans call the embargo, for scaring Americans away.

"Sooner or later, there will be justice for the people of the United States, and they will be allowed to visit and share with our people," Marrero said. Even with the number of American visitors down 37,000 in 2006, from 84,500 in 2003, according to the Cuban government - the U.S. government devotes significant resources to pursuing those who still go. Most passengers arriving in Miami from Cuba are American citizens or residents who fly on charter flights and have American government permission to visit relatives on the island. But they are forbidden to bring Cuban products back to the United States. Still, searches regularly turn up cigars, bottles of rum and pharmaceutical items in the travelers' luggage.

Most of the charter flights from Cuba arrive in Miami around midday, with five flights landing between 11:30 and 11:40 a.m. and additional flights in the afternoon. As those passengers collect their luggage, most of the three secondary inspection facilities and most of the customs personnel are focused on them. As a result, the audit found, inspection of other arrivals is sometimes delayed. Most of the Americans who visit Cuba each year do not go directly from Miami but use third countries like Canada, Mexico, Jamaica or the Bahamas. Catching them is difficult but not impossible. In some cases, American immigration officials simply observe them getting off flights from Havana at foreign airports where the United States has a presence, officials say.

Pacific Magazine - The Cuban government reports that the 20 I-Kiribati medical students studying in Cuba have done well on their first year exam. All of them achieved distinctions in all subjects and the Cuban government is very proud of them, a report from the Caribbean nation said. Because of their achievements, Cuba has proposed to take-in another 30 students from Kiribati, so they can start their study from the beginning of next year. In related news, the Kiribati team took third place in the Spanish language competition among students studying in Cuba. Winning was the Cuban team and second was Pakistan.

Periodico 26 - Cuba's successful energy revolution will continue and expand in 2008 with an additional US $2 billion in investments planned, said Basic Industry Minister Yadira Garcia and other specialists on the televised Round Table program. When Cuba's energy revolution began in 2005 under the leadership and guidance of Fidel Castro, a barrel of oil was priced at US $46 on the world market; today, that same barrel is nearing $100. The price of oil alone validates the importance of the program, Garcia told a nationwide audience.

Besides improving living standards, the energy revolution is aimed at decreasing pollution, a modest contribution by Cuba towards the serious problem of climate change. The effort includes a radical change in the concepts of energy generation and consumption with an emphasis on awareness, said Garcia in an exchange with Council of Ministers Executive Committee Secretary Carlos Lage, who was also present at the Round Table program. Garcia noted that among the main results to date of the energy revolution are the elimination of blackouts caused by a supply deficit and the delivery of millions of efficient home appliances to families throughout the island. She said particular benefit was felt by the 75 percent of Cuban families who had previously cooked using kerosene, a fuel that besides being a high pollutant is energy inefficient.

The official pointed to the need to guarantee spare parts for the new electricity generator sets as well as for the home appliances that will be repaired at workshops belonging to the Ministry of Commerce. Garcia also acknowledged some deficiencies, "There have been some tasks that we haven't handled correctly and even some problems that took us by surprise." For example, the minister said that the service at the workshops has been insufficient and pointed to bureaucracy in paperwork, delays in granting credit to pay for the new appliances and other concerns expressed by the population. "These are things that concern us and that we are trying to resolve."

Garcia praised the participation of numerous institutions and organizations in the implementation of the energy revolution and the decisive contribution of the population. In just three years since the 2004 energy crisis, Cuba has increased its electricity generating capacity to a 4,700 megawatts capacity, 60 percent of which is produced under efficient conditions, said Vicente de la O, general director of the Union Electrica state power company. De la O recalled that the first task put in practice was to install emergency electricity generators to provide power at all key services and facilities, such as refrigeration for food products, bakeries, hospitals, and food processing plants.

There are currently 6,841 such generators installed at 4,778 workplaces around the country. These generators guarantee production and services in extreme situations such as those provoked by hurricanes and other phenomena. Besides, their occasional use during peak hours lowers the demand on the national electric grid and helps avoid blackouts, said the electric company executive. A key factor in overcoming a production deficit is the generator sets using diesel and fuel oil distributed throughout the country. The diesel generators can now produce 1,320 megawatts of which 1,200 goes into the national grid and the rest serves isolated systems that provide services in places like the cays, said De la O.

The official said there will soon be a total of 696 fuel-oil generators. He said all have been purchased and their assembly is under way. By the end of this year their installed capacity will reach 500 megawatts. De la O said that never before has the country been able to install a capability of such magnitude in such a short time and with numerous advantages. This was thanks to the fact that the generators are relatively easy to install, use less fuel, help reduce losses during distribution, operate with an electric input lower than thermoelectric plants and have independent start up systems. In case of an emergency, they can be transported easily to the place where they are needed.

De la O also gave a run down on the investments to increase the use of natural gas derived from the oil extraction process and to make use of hydraulic and wind resources to generate electricity. Another effort is being made to increase the capacity of fuel storage facilities and acquiring the specialized tools and transport vehicles needed for the brigades working on the power lines. He said that since May 2006, blackouts due to a generation deficit were eliminated and losses on distribution lines reduced, resulting in a savings of nearly US $200 million. Antonio Pias, an electric company representative, gave the TV viewers a detailed explanation on the rehabilitation of the distribution networks. He said that 2.9 million breakers have been installed in private homes and an additional 250,000 are still to be installed, mainly in the city of Havana, where distribution networks are more complex.

Pias said that the work to install new electricity poles, transformers and lines going to houses and buildings has progressed considerably. He noted that both primary and secondary distribution lines are being replaced. Investments made have made possible an increase in the national production of electric cables and transformers, he added. Pias recognized that losses of electricity in the distribution process and accidental interruptions of service continue to be high due to deteriorated lines and increased demand, especially from the residential sector. Nonetheless, he said a slow but gradual improvement is beginning to be seen.

The problem of low voltage areas are continuing to be eliminated said Pias. So far, 642,000 homes have seen their voltage situation improve with 240,000 still waiting. The official also spoke on advances in the electrification of homes and settlements and announced the beginning of an effort to rehabilitate street lighting in neighborhoods, beginning in the first quarter of 2008. A total of 22.5 million home appliances are now in the hands of the population, said Enrique Gomez, a member of the directorate of the Youth Communist League, and the head of the country's social worker program. Gomez spoke on the effort of the young social workers in the different tasks of the energy revolution.

Vice Minister of Interior Commerce Maria del Carmen Martinez, reported that there are now 600 workshops around the country to repair the new electrical appliances. She said that every one of Cuba's 169 municipalities has at least one repair workshop. The government has invested US $4.9 million to fix up installations being used for the workshops and to buy specialized tools and spare parts. To date, 4.5 million pieces of equipment have been repaired, some of which required adjustments in their operating mechanisms, which highlights the importance of providing the population with information on their use, said Martinez. Electric company official Ricardo Gonzalez notes that the area with the greatest potential for further savings is currently in the state sector, which he said is lagging behind others.

HAVANA - (Reuters) - Cuba may accept more foreign investment in agriculture to try to reduce food imports and revive state lands that have fallen into disuse, an official at the Foreign Investment and Cooperation Ministry told Reuters. "We are analyzing how to increase investment in the sector with the goal of substituting imports," said Anaiza Rodriguez, director of the Department of Investment Project Evaluation and Management. Acting Cuban President Raul Castro said in July the state of the state-dominated sector was unacceptable. Up to 50 percent of arable land lays fallow even as the cash-strapped country imports some $2 billion in food products a year.

Raul Castro said in July that agriculture should be restructured and new concepts applied but he did not elaborate. Raul Castro then called for more foreign investment in the country. Communist-run Cuba has been reluctant to open agriculture up to foreign investment. There is just one venture in the sector, to grow rice with Vietnam, according to the ministry. Rodriguez said Cuba was involved in a total of 233 joint ventures. "This is a different moment," Rodriguez said when asked if policy was changing and agriculture would become more investor friendly. "Food is our biggest import and we have to produce it here," she said, pointing to Raul Castro's July speech.

Cuba imports hundreds of thousands of tons of rice, soy products, wheat, corn and other bulk foods annually, around 25 percent from the United States under a 2000 amendment to the trade embargo that allows agricultural sales for cash. Rodriguez said the ministry was looking at proposals from Argentina, Venezuela and other Latin American as well as European countries to grow soy and other grains and cereals in Cuba, but would not say when agreements might be signed.

El Nuevo Herald - Havana's famed Malecón could become the future site of seven public gathering places that could modernize the popular avenue, yet still protect its urban tradition. The idea to reconstruct seven kilometers of the Malecón -- from a castle at one end to where it feeds into the mouth of the Almendares River -- is the final chapter of ''Havana and its Landscapes,'' a study aimed at the architectural rescue of the capital city under the auspices of Florida International University in Miami-Dade County.

In charge of the project is prominent Cuban architect Nicolás Quintana, a professor at FIU who has become an expert on the way Cuba looks today by poring over textbooks, photos, illustrations, maps and virtual images of island scenes. The result will be a two-volume book of almost 500 pages. It will first be published in English and later in Spanish by the end of next year, when an exposition is planned at FIU of 32 mock-ups of the Havana of the future. It will include 28 minutes of ''virtual reality'' footage showcasing local landscapes. There is also a symposium on the subject planned for November 2008.

Last week, Quintana put the final touches to the history of Havana in 38,000 words. He also evaluated the 12 mock-ups of the face-lift planned for the Malecón, done by a group of design school alumni. ''What we have done is find the seven points where people can congregate and will allow visitors and residents to enjoy the Malecón like the great urban icon that it is, and should continue to be in the future,'' said Quintana, 82. The sections of the Malecón selected as potential popular gathering spots are those that intersect with well-known avenues: Prado, Belascoaín, Galiano, La Rampa, Línea, Calle G and Paseo. Quintana considers that this concept will allow the Malecón to continue as ''Havana's great sofa,'' a place where people gather to socialize or eat an ice cream cone.

Begun in 2004 with a budget of $325,000, the project was conceived as a ''comprehensive and multifaceted'' study dealing with what is needed to rescue the city of Havana from its ruin without impacting its architectural flavor or urban identity. The idea for the architectural probe was conceived by Cuban-American urbanization experts Sergio Pino and Anthony Seijas. ''The radicalization of reconstructing everything can be as dangerous as actual destruction,'' Quintana said, noting that was one of the disciplines of modern architecture that flourished in Cuba in the middle of the last century. The architect insists the investigation will net ''a wealth of ideas, not definitive solutions'' to rescue and protect the city of Havana once democratic change takes hold on the island.

''This will be an invaluable reference document, but we won't pretend to impose our vision on the architects and urban planners that will assume the revitalization of the that city,'' he said. For guidance, the architectural study will be based on the study of geographical plans of the city and information culled via satellite, complemented with recent photos of the facades of buildings and entire neighborhood blocks in Havana. For the historical data, they have scoured copies of the Archives of the Indies, Cuba's national library and the University of Havana, and they have numerous anonymous collaborators on the island.

Before launching the project, its supporters said they were open to input from professors, architects and individuals, but they never imagined the positive response they received from residents. ''The cooperation of the people of Cuba has been very touching,'' said Quintana, who left the island in 1960 and has never returned to his native country. ''More than 500 photographs have been sent to us by different means and sometimes in blind e-mails, or a CD is dropped in the mail,'' he said. ``We've had many people offer their help. In reality, the help of my fellow countrymen has touched me and has made me push harder for this study.''

To prepare the mock-ups of the Malecón, Quintana used photos of the area, building by building, that surrounds the Malecón in the neighborhoods that border Old Havana and the tunnel leading to Almendares. The study's promoters admit that Cuban authorities have been aware of the project since its inception. In November, the University of Alicante in Spain announced that Cuba's historical society had viewed proposals to modernize the Malecón. ''We have not hidden information about our study,'' Quintana said. ``We have only refused to cooperate with the destroyers of the Cuban way of life, because this project is to develop freedom and I believe that's how the project is viewed by the young people inside the island who are helping us.''

Havana - (Prensa Latina) - Construction of more than 50,000 houses in Cuba in 2007 is a sign of gradual recovery of the sector in the Island, reported the main Cuban TV news program. In remarks to the program, Vice President of the National Housing Institute Oris Silva highlighted the effort made by different entities and the people to achieve this number, the third highest in the country's history.

She also referred to the more than 200,000 actions carried out to renovate or restore houses damaged by meteorological events, mainly in the provinces of Pinar del Rio, Cienfuegos and Granma. Silva announced that in 2008 the number of houses constructed will be very similar to this year and actions of restoration will involve another 250,000.

(Bloomberg) - Cuba's Cienfuegos refinery, set to be inaugurated Dec. 21, will increase its capacity to 109,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day, Panorama said, citing Raul Perez de Prado, the chief of the facility's operator. An upgrade of the refinery is under way, the Web site said. It will operate at full capacity at the end of 2008 and sell 40 percent of the output to Caribbean and Latin American nations, Panorama said. Initial capacity is 67,000 barrels a day.

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In 1999, OFAC (The Office of Foreign Assets Control of the United States Department of the Treasury in Washington, D.C.) confirmed that it had previously issued an opinion in 1994 which stated that a U.S. company or individual could make a secondary market investment in a "third-country company" that had commercial dealings with the Republic of Cuba as long as that investment in the "third-country company" was not a controlling interest and the "third-country company" did not derive a majority of it's revenues from operations in Cuba. (Therefore, under that criteria, U.S. citizens and companies can invest in a private or public Canadian company doing business with Cuba)

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James
Cuban Weekly News Digest

http://www.cubaninvestments.com

Muere el coreógrafo de ballet cubano Alberto Alonso

Muere el coreógrafo de ballet Alberto Alonso

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