Fidel Castro claims Obama lives in fantasy world

Posted on Wednesday, 06.02.10
Fidel Castro claims Obama lives in fantasy world
By WILL WEISSERT
Associated Press Writer

HAVANA -- Fidel Castro speculated Wednesday that a nuclear strike on
Iran might help President Barack Obama win a second term in the White
House and also suggested the United States could attack North Korea.

The former leader of Cuba, who has not been seen in public for nearly
four years, also portrayed the U.S. president as a victim of fantasies
planted in his mind by sinister advisers.

The column published by Cuban state media floated the idea that a
nuclear attack on Iran - perhaps even without U.S. authorization - might
help Obama win re-election in 2012.

"Could Obama enjoy the emotions of a second presidential election
without having the Pentagon or the State of Israel, whose conduct does
not in the least obey the decisions of the United States, use nuclear
weapons against Iran?" he asked. "How would life on our planet be after
that?"

It's a question he did not answer, nor did he elaborate.

Castro also referred to "the current danger North Korea could be
attacked by the United States" because of "the recent incident that
happened in that country's waters" - apparently a reference to
allegations that North Korea attacked and sank a South Korean warship,
killing 46 sailors.

Castro, 83, said China might be able to block such an attack by using
its veto in the U.N. Security Council, implying that Washington was
likely to seek that body's authorization before a move against North Korea.

The government of North Korea has denied involvement in the torpedo
attack near the countries' sea border in March. During a visit to Seoul
last month, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the North
should face international consequences for the sinking.

Castro often has praised Obama in recent years, but painted him as a
pawn of the global capitalist machine on Wednesday.

"President Obama can give hundreds of speeches, trying to reconcile
contradictions that are irreconcilable ... dreaming of the magic of his
well-articulated phrases," he wrote.

But Castro said Obama "makes concessions to personalities and groups
totally lacking in ethics and draws fantasy worlds that only fit in his
head and that unscrupulous advisers, knowing his tendencies, plant in
his mind."

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/06/02/1659915/fidel-castro-claims-obama-lives.html

Better Public Transportation Is Possible

Better Public Transportation Is Possible
June 1, 2010
Daisy Valera

I'd like to say the problem was solved, that the comical and modern
articulated Chinese buses improved the situation of transportation in Cuba.

I'd like to say that I can see the digital clock with red figures at the
entrance of the bus because no one is standing in front of me.

Truly, one of my greatest dreams is to at least be able to sit down a
few times in those beautiful blue or yellow plastic seats.

However, I can't say anything even approaching that. Transportation
remains practically in the same precarious situation as in the stage
before the Yutong buses came in the last few years.

Havana workers get up every morning and face our dear "camels" (the
popular term given to the national buses).

Running behind the bus is indispensable if you want to avoid being left
behind at bus stops for all eternity. However, it's not only running,
it's also pushing everyone who's are around you, and yelling at the
person in the doorway who prevents you from getting on – it doesn't
matter if it's a senior citizen, a pregnant woman or a child.

The situations at bus stops are almost those of life or death. The
lines never get any shorter, in fact it seems like they lengthen as the
days go by.

But the problem of our "camels" doesn't end here. It's not enough to
have gotten on the bus; inside these vehicles the violence is such that
you end up regretting having made it aboard.

If you need to catch a bus in Havana, you have to learn how to
appreciate the perspiration of your traveling companions, as well as the
odors of all types of people.

To get on a bus is to expose yourself to practically not being able to
breathe, with the mass of people crushing you; a bus ride means having
to suffer the faces of bitterness, fatigue, dissent, boredom and so many
others.

I put on the expression of not being on the bus. I imagine I'm in
another place. I maintain my look fixed on some point and try not to be
susceptible to the bad moods and violence that are generated within the
picturesque camels (I say "picturesque" because we have camels in
different colors; they range from yellow to pink, though the colors
don't remedy the displeasure).

It's a fact that transportation has improved since the darkest times of
our "Special Period" crisis that began in the 90s; however, one cannot
say that the situation has radically changed.

Many workers must go through the daily hassle implied by having to take
different buses to get around in the city. No one knows if this
situation will improve, everyone supposes that it'll continue to always
be this way.

I look at this situation differently, knowing that solutions and other
changes would not be so far off; if we were headed on the path to
socialism. Perhaps other people accompanying me on such an unpleasant
journey through the city do not share that hope since their suffering is
double; that's the product of having to endure the immediate situation
while lacking the long term dream that a better future is possible.

http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=24581

Diversity the Best Option for Cuban Farmers

Diversity the Best Option for Cuban Farmers
Patricia Grogg interviews HUMBERTO RÍOS, Cuban winner of the 2010 'Green
Nobel'

HAVANA, May 31, 2010 (IPS) - Cuban biodiversity scientist Humberto Ríos,
one of the six recipients of the 2010 Goldman Environmental Prize,
probably won't be able to collect the 150,000 dollars in prize money,
though that setback is unlikely to cause him to lose any sleep -- or
keep him from singing.

"I'm preparing my second album, with my children," he told IPS in this
interview. In his April trip to the United States to receive the award,
widely known as the "Green Nobel", Ríos visited the White House and the
U.S. Congress as part of the itinerary for the six laureates, who came
from Cambodia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Poland, Swaziland, and United States.

The Goldman Environmental Prize was created in 1990 by philanthropists
and civic leaders Richard N. and Rhoda H. Goldman to recognise
individuals for their "sustained and significant efforts to protect and
enhance the natural environment, often at great personal risk."

"When I greeted (U.S. President Barack) Obama, I told him that perhaps
for the first time a Cuban from the island was shaking his hand, and
that I had three things for him: my business card, my music -- I gave
him a copy of my first album -- and my heart, for all the people of the
United States," Ríos said.

In the 1990s, Ríos began promoting participatory crop improvement and
agro-biodiversity fairs as ways to recover and disseminate low-cost,
organic plant varieties -- a process in which small farmers are playing
the leading role.

The grassroots effort, channelled through the Programme for Local
Agricultural Innovation (PIAL), initially involved a handful of
scientists and three rural communities. Today, more than 50,000 farmers
and a hundred scientists from nine provinces are part of the movement.

Converging in the project are several local agencies and international
development aid institutions from Britain, Canada, Netherlands,
Switzerland and other countries. "PIAL has transformed rural productive
systems into more sustainable approaches and has also promoted changes
in the relations between rural men and women," he said.

Q: What is the key to achieving this degree of acceptance of the
programme in the rural community?

A: Diversity gives us options to choose what can grow best on the
available land and with fewest inputs. It allows doubling and tripling
of yields and multiplying the variety of crops, and each farmer can
redesign his or her productive system.

Furthermore, while organising seed diversity, it facilitates access and
each farmer who comes and makes selections at a biodiversity fair
becomes a micro experimental station. The only thing we ask in exchange
is that they replicate this effort with others. The important thing is
for this diversity to be spread among many.

Q: How has that strategy worked? There is a widespread idea that small
farmers are wary, and don't share…

A: No, there isn't a demand for recognition among the farmers, that it
be made known that what they are doing is important for society. They
want the local government to see that they have the solution right
there, that there is no reason to look elsewhere. They have the key to
designing a farm that can provide food without extra inputs or energy
expenditure.

Q: Would they want it to be part of Cuba's economic policy?

A: Exactly, but first the mentality has to change. Reformulating Cuba's
concepts of agriculture a little takes time, because if we push too fast
there's a risk that it will be abandoned along the way. Our agricultural
system is still based on industrial principles.

However, we can already see some steps, like urban and suburban farming,
which continue to gain ground, as do organic crops. It all lies in
enriching and perfecting those alternatives. In the middle to long term
we have to transform our paradigms of food production.

Q: Is there a risk that an improvement of Cuba's economic situation
would lead to abandoning ecological farming practices?

A: That would be the biggest mistake we could make. But I doubt that
Cuba could return to the chemicals used in farming as it did in the
1980s, because of costs. If that were to happen, it would mean
contracting a huge debt in order to pay for it, threatening our food
sovereignty.

In addition, crop diversity was lost with the industrial model of
farming applied at any price in that decade. Life showed us that the way
to go is small plots, grassroots participation, and a science that is
being built, in which the scientists have to play other roles.

Q: Why are you opposed to the production of genetically modified foods?

A: Cuba can produce a lot of evidence of how to seek food sovereignty
without turning to genetically modified crops. Using transgenic seeds is
a step backwards, because it implies a dependence on someone else in
order to grow maize, and we lack the capacity to have a formal seed
system that could supply farmers.

Q: Does the secret for confronting climate change lie in the genetic
diversity of crops?

A: Access to diversity and the right to experiment with it is what has
allowed us to overcome difficult times and have resilient productive
systems. The challenge is how to turn this not only into an alternative
for getting out of the crisis, but also into a genuine option for
agricultural development.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51660

Little room for love in Centro Habana

Little room for love in Centro Habana

Kurt Hollander walks around Centro Habana – 500 square blocks of
concrete dwellings containing inner patios, labyrinthine passages and
twisting stairways
Friday May 28th 2010

Although 2 million people are spread throughout the city of Havana, more
than 150,000 of them are packed into Centro Habana, the most densely
populated neighbourhood in all of Cuba.

Not one of the neighbourhood's 342 hectares is used for agriculture,
there are almost no green patches within its urban grid and no river
runs through it. Centro Habana is, basically, 500 square blocks of
concrete dwellings.

Compared to the rest of the city, there are three times as many people
in Centro Habana living in solares, huge, multifamily buildings built in
the 1950s that extend deep into the middle of the block with inner
patios, labyrinthine passages and twisting stairways. Although many of
these huge structures have art deco facades with stately columns and
classy architectural details, most are in need of renovation. Besides
the dozen or so apartments per floor on each of four or five floors, other
living spaces have been added within the courtyards, passageways and on
the rooftops, increasing by several times the original occupancy.

Whether it's a concrete cube or an ex-mansion, most people in Cuba own
their homes. Many convert their homes into moneymaking ventures, legal
and otherwise. Although people's homes are considered private property,
it's against the law to buy or sell real estate. Cubans can, however,
exchange their own home for another, a process called permutar, which
allows people to move across the country. Even though it is illegal,
people often sweeten a deal with money to improve their living standard,
and there are a lot of black market real estate agents who help with
paperwork.

People in Centro Habana tend to have little privacy. The lack of
available apartments complicates relationships, often keeping young
people from marrying, and forcing many married couples who break up to
continue living together for lack of other real estate options.

Cubans are able to rent hotel rooms these days, but the prices tend to
be set for tourists. Up until recently, however, there used to be more
than 100 posadas in Havana, love hotels where rooms were rented by the
hour. Due to the severe lack of residential units, these posadas were
converted into apartments in 2003. Since then, lovemaking, and life in
general, has become much more difficult in Centro Habana.

http://www.guardianweekly.co.uk/?page=editorial&id=1579&catID=23

Cuba's quiet revolution

Cuba's quiet revolution
By David Ariosto, CNN
June 1, 2010 -- Updated 1631 GMT (0031 HKT)
Cuban farmers to bypass bureaucracy

* Cuba relaxes some state controls in farming, tourism and the beauty
industry
* Private farmers will be allowed to buy straight from suppliers
bypassing government
* Analyst: Cuba's potential can be realized and they don't have to
abandon the socialist model

Havana, Cuba (CNN) -- At a privately run farm west of Havana, Cuban
farmer Jesus Rodriguez is looking for some changes.

Private farmers like Rodriguez would commonly wait for their supplies to
be allocated by the state, often leaving their farms short of much
needed materials that would routinely compel them to look elsewhere.

"Sometimes in order to get seeds we need it would take up to two
months," he said standing amid a thatch of corn he planted a few months
earlier. "The seeds just wouldn't get here in time."

The country's fledgling agricultural sector and massive distribution
machine have been a source of concern for many of the country's private
farms and cooperatives.

"We've used substitutions for the necessary supplies that we seldom
receive from the government because of the economic situation," he
explained while taking shade beneath the crop's thick, green stalks.

In May the Economy Minister, Marino Murillo, heeded farmers' calls for
more autonomy and announced that private farms will be permitted to
purchase goods directly from suppliers.

"It looks like [Cuba] is going to try to take apart this big bureaucracy
that's in charge of distribution and purchasing of food from the
farmers," said Phil Peters, Cuba analyst at the Lexington Institute in
Washington D.C.

"[That would] allow farmers to have a more direct connection with
consumers of all kinds."

A similar initiative in 2008 permitted some farmers to purchase supplies.

But the cash-strapped island nation faces mounting debt and routine
shortages, leaving the questions of where to buy supplies, how to
acquire credit, and how to improve transport to market largely unanswered.

Still, analysts praised Cuba's economic potential.

"That potential can be realized if their government gets out of the
way," Peters said. "And they don't have to abandon the socialist model.
They can adapt it and use more market mechanisms in a lot of ways."

The country's association of roughly 350,000 private farmers has been
central to recent reforms and often the focus of President Raul Castro's
attempts to address chronic food shortages on the island.

Cuba's private farmers and cooperatives use only about 40 percent of the
nation's farmland, but produce roughly 70 percent of the food grown on
the island.

"I think the reason [for the high productivity among private farmers] is
the sense of property that the person has," one farmer explained who
declined to provide his name.

"Because where you work you have the feeling that it belongs to you and
you fight and defend it because it's your own."

Raul Castro assumed power from his ailing brother and former president
Fidel Castro in 2006, at first temporarily then permanently in 2008, and
has long considered food security integral to national security.

Murillo's recent announcement also comes on the heels of a series of
small liberalization measures aimed at improving production, while
attempting to maintain the communist nation's egalitarian doctrine.

Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero in May announced plans to open up real
estate on tourism-related projects, laying out plans for new hotels
across the country.

And Cuba instituted a pilot program in April that turned over hundreds
of state-run barbershops and beauty salons to employees.

"I think both Fidel Castro and Raul Castro have both recognized problems
in the economy," explained analyst Peters. "But Fidel Castro's
prescription was always for people to work harder and for the government
to enforce the law."

President Raul Castro "is looking at incentives," he said. "He's looking
to fix the model."

Whether this latest move is a part of broader market reforms or a narrow
effort to make farms more productive is not clear. But for now Cuba
still imports a majority of its food.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/05/31/cuba.farms/index.html?section=cnn_latest

Cuban trade with China falls by a third

Cuban trade with China falls by a third
Havana May 31, 2010. REUTERS/Desmond Boylan

Further evidence of how much island is slashing spending amid crippling
economic woes

Havana — The Associated Press Published on Tuesday, Jun. 01, 2010 2:07PM
EDT Last updated on Tuesday, Jun. 01, 2010 2:20PM EDT

Cuba's trade with China fell by nearly a third in 2009 to about
$1.5-billion (U.S.), further evidence of just how much the island is
slashing spending amid crippling economic woes.

China's ambassador to Cuba, Chen Feng, told Havana's state-run weekly
magazine Opciones that his country's economic ties to Cuba were down
31.5 per cent compared to the previous year.

But in the remarks published Monday, he also announced plans to
collaborate with Cuba on a new luxury hotel on Havana's western
outskirts that will cost about $117-million and be built later this year.

It was not clear if the 2009 trade figure included $78-million in
credits, donations and hurricane relief Chinese President Hu Jintao
promised during a November 2008 visit to the island.

The drop in 2009 was consistent with sharp tumbles in Cuban imports from
other major trading partners such as Venezuela and Spain, as well as
food and farm products it is allowed to receive from the United States
despite Washington's 48-year-old trade embargo.

Cuba's economy is struggling to overcome a triple-whammy of bad news:
Three major hurricanes did more than $10-billion in damage in 2008, the
global economic crisis dampened tourism and a drop in commodities prices
hurt nickel sales for much of 2009.

China is Cuba's second-largest trading partner behind Venezuela, where
socialist President Hugo Chavez helps keep the Cuban economy afloat by
providing more than 100,000 barrels of oil per day in exchange for
island doctors, who provide free medical care in his country, and other
social services.

The economic ties to Beijing have brought many tangible benefits to
Cuba, including about 4,000 new Yutong buses that have replaced
smoke-belching, Soviet-era buses.

Chen said Cuba will continue importing Chinese goods, primarily for its
electrical industry, as well as communications, transportation and
agriculture.

Last year, Cuba's government was an investor in the construction of the
new 868-room Gran Melia Shanghai in that Chinese city.

The money for the new 650-room resort at the Hemingway Marina on
Havana's outskirts will be financed 49 per cent by Cuba's government and
51 per cent by China, the ambassador said.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/cuban-trade-with-china-falls-by-a-third/article1588219/

Cuba's largest newspaper publishes critical letters on economy

Posted on Monday, 05.31.10
Cuba's largest newspaper publishes critical letters on economy
In recent months, Cuba's largest newspaper has published letters to the
editor on how to fix the nation's economy.
By JUAN O. TAMAYO
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com

Many Cubans regard the Granma newspaper as a supremely boring propaganda
vehicle worthy of its status as the ``Official Organ of the Central
Committee of the Cuban Communist Party.''

Yet in recent months Granma has published a jarringly lively and often
critical set of letters to the editor on how to fix an economy ravaged
by decades of over-centralization, inefficiency and corruption.

``Let us all . . . push for new mechanisms, structures or whatever one
wants to call them. But let's do it without delay because tomorrow,
tomorrow could be too late,'' wrote J. Rodríguez Pérez.

But a shift toward capitalism, J.L. Marichal Castillo warned in another
letter, ``would no doubt generate another Revolution . . . but this time
instead of 20,000 dead it would cost hundreds of thousands.''

Raúl Castro opened the doors to the polemic when he called for a frank
debate of the shortcomings of Cuba's economy -- 95 percent controlled by
the government -- after replacing his ailing brother Fidel, who
disappeared from public view in 2006.

Academics, artists and others joined in with gusto, writing columns that
ranged from calls to ``democratize socialism'' to attacks on
``neo-stalinism.'' But the columns mostly appeared in specialized
journals or web pages where few average Cubans could read them.

Granma is Cuba's largest newspaper, however, with a circulation
estimated at 400,000, and the two pages it has devoted every Friday to
letters to the editor since March 2008 have drawn much attention.

Initially, most of the letters printed focused on mundane issues such as
gripes against neighbors' loud music, a shortage of sanitary napkins and
unruly pets.

But more recently they have focused on the market incentives -- some
call it ``privatization'' -- being considered as a fix for Cuba's
economy. They include turning over 30,000 state-run retail shops like
bakeries and cafeterias to employees or workers' cooperatives.

``To fail to recognize that we're in a critical situation is to stick
our heads in the sand. To . . . move toward fully capitalist formulas is
to betray a homeland that has cost so much blood, sweat and tears,''
wrote Marichal Castillo.

``We cannot conceive of cooperatives, associations or whatever they are
called, without rules that can swiftly `take out of circulation' those
who [engage in] unlawful or disproportionate enrichment or any other
negative social manifestation,'' he added.

A.J. Fernandez Alonso wrote that while he favored turning over the small
shops to employees, ``many people, with complete justification, are
terrified to say the word `privatization.' And the fear of someone
getting rich is latent.''

But most of the opinions have favored the ``privatization'' -- some with
daringly direct language -- although many of the writers tack on
seemingly obligatory language saying that they want to preserve Cuba's
``socialist system.''

``Competition and privatization, which so many criticize and fear, are
an engine driving good-quality services,'' wrote J.R. Cepero Donates.
``If my service is not good, I simply do not have a clientele, I do not
sell, and therefore, I do not earn the necessary income to make my
business profitable.''

``We must, without deviating from the socialist path, change everything
that needs to be changed in our economic reality,'' added Cepero, a
University of Havana student.

J. Miguel Valdés, a student at a Havana technical university, wrote that
all socialist systems ``must be dialectic and adapt to new conditions in
order to survive. It's useless to hold on to systems that perhaps worked
in past times, if they are inefficient today.''

``I reaffirm again the urgency of adopting measures to prolong our
socialism and the conquests that have cost the people so much to
achieve,'' he added.

Stronger still was J. Rodríguez Pérez, whose May 7 letter described the
two sides of the argument on economic reforms.

``On one side, recalcitrant defenders of a socialism that is dogmatic,
pure and hard, state-run, unmovable and with a lot of rhetoric . . .
pretty far from our daily reality. In sum, a socialism incapable of
recognizing that times have changed,'' he wrote.

``On the other, defenders . . . of a socialism that is dynamic,
changing, evolving like life itself . . . who tend to search for new
forms and methods, always within socialism, for [fixing] our old
deficiencies.''

But it was A. Ríos Hernández, who wrote one of the most scathing letters
to editors.

``I oppose those who defend . . . the production and organizational
schemes that have exhausted their role in history. For example, those
who believe that all [small shops] must be maintained at all costs
because that's socialism,'' he wrote. ``Lies. Socialism is the [state]
control over the means of production, but not all, only the main ones,
those that really define the economy of a country.''

``I disagree with those who believe socialism will collapse just because
a group of bricklayers form a cooperative to build a house, or a plumber
fixes a plugged drain or a mechanic fixes a car,'' he added.

``I disagree with those who believe that . . . any change will result in
[socialism's] destruction,,'' he added. ``It's the other way: The
socialism that does not change, that does not adapt to new situations,
is condemned to failure. Remember the socialism of [eastern] Europe.''

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/31/v-fullstory/1657514/cubas-largest-newspaper-publishes.html