Campaign for Another Cuba Delivers Request to UN Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon
Posted on July 31, 2014
Antonio Rodiles delivers Campaign for Another Cuba documents to Ban Ki-moon
The director of the independent project Estado de Sats, Antonio Rodiles,
delivered documents for the Campaña por Otra Cuba (Campaign for Another
Cuba) to the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon this Wednesday
in Costa Rica. The Campaign demands that the Cuban regime ratify and
implement the Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights signed by the regime at the United Nations in
2008.
The meeting between Rodiles and Ban took place at the National Theater,
where the UN Secretary-General was attending a dinner with the with the
president of Costa Rica Luis Guillermo Solís and his wife Mercedes
Peñas, according to activists of the Campaña por Otra Cuba.
They added that Ban received the documents "with interest."
During his visit to the Island last January, during the Second Summit of
the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), Ban called
on Raul Castro to ratify the Covenants.
Complaint and Petition
The activists of campaign, on the other hand, have asked that the
implementation of the human rights covenants to be included in the
current negotiations between the European Union and Havana for a
bilateral agreement.
Campaña por Otra also promotes the use of legal action of complaint and
petition on the part of Cuban citizens, as a way of demanding a response
from their government
"Cuban citizens can file the complaint and petition the State Council,
either personally or by certified mail. Those who reside outside the
Island can also participate in the campaign by directing their complaint
to the nearest Cuban Consulate," activists explained in a note sent to
Diario de Cuba.
Interested parties can use a model complaint and petition posted online
by the campaign in PDF format.
Activists who have submitted a demand to the regime can also send a copy
to info@porotracuba.org.
Mailing address for the campaign:
Por otra Cuba
www.estadodesats.org
Estado de SATS
La Habana 11300
Cuba
31 July 2104
Source: Campaign for Another Cuba Delivers Request to UN Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/campaign-for-another-cuba-delivers-request-to-un-secretary-general-ban-ki-moon/
Saturday, August 2, 2014
Nostalgia for “The Special Period”?
Nostalgia for "The Special Period"? / 14ymedio
Posted on July 31, 2014
14ymedio, JOSÉ GABRIEL BARRENECHEA, Havana, 31 July 2104 — I knew about
nostalgia for the colonial era, the Republican era and even for the
"marvelous" eighties, what I never could imagine was that anyone could
be nostalgic for the Special Period. But everything is possible on this
island and if you don't believe me, then read the June 23rd article in
Juventud Rebelde, "The happiest children in the world," by Glenda Boza
Ibarra.
This young Cuban from the east recounts with great candor her childhood
full of "good and nice" times, in which she dedicated herself – as a
form of entertainment – to counting the few cars circulating in her
neighborhood. Eventually, the journalist says: "I can't complain,
because I was born in this country, a place where children have
everything they need to be the happiest in the world."
To a great extent the conditions we are raised in determine our tastes,
needs and aspirations. A native indigenous to our island would have
perceived the disgusting Paris of 1492 as a dazzling paradise, and a
pigsty like the suite of a three star hotel.
The aspirations, tastes and evaluation criteria of this young woman from
Las Tunas were curtailed by the circumstances in which her childhood
unfolded in the midst of the Special Period, particularly bleak in
eastern Cuba. It is precisely because of these circumstances that she no
longer sees the barefoot children who once again occupy our streets,
terraces and paths, nor the tremendous cultural decline that has
occurred between my generation and hers.
However, there seems to be a glimmer of hope for Glenda. Nostalgia is
nothing more than the desire to escape a troubled present to a past in
which we had not yet suffered the difficulties we are now subject to.
She confesses the strange naivety of her childhood when she writes "we
weren't worried about the fall of the Berlin Wall, nor the
disintegration of the USSR," a reflection that she has already begin to
expand her range of expectations, that her new circumstances have raised
her cultural level and her aspirations.
Will there be such a change that Glenda will reject, outraged, the
pigsty, or on the contrary will she become one more member of the sect
of pig farmers? Only time will tell.
Source: Nostalgia for "The Special Period"? / 14ymedio | Translating
Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/nostalgia-for-the-special-period-14ymedio/
Posted on July 31, 2014
14ymedio, JOSÉ GABRIEL BARRENECHEA, Havana, 31 July 2104 — I knew about
nostalgia for the colonial era, the Republican era and even for the
"marvelous" eighties, what I never could imagine was that anyone could
be nostalgic for the Special Period. But everything is possible on this
island and if you don't believe me, then read the June 23rd article in
Juventud Rebelde, "The happiest children in the world," by Glenda Boza
Ibarra.
This young Cuban from the east recounts with great candor her childhood
full of "good and nice" times, in which she dedicated herself – as a
form of entertainment – to counting the few cars circulating in her
neighborhood. Eventually, the journalist says: "I can't complain,
because I was born in this country, a place where children have
everything they need to be the happiest in the world."
To a great extent the conditions we are raised in determine our tastes,
needs and aspirations. A native indigenous to our island would have
perceived the disgusting Paris of 1492 as a dazzling paradise, and a
pigsty like the suite of a three star hotel.
The aspirations, tastes and evaluation criteria of this young woman from
Las Tunas were curtailed by the circumstances in which her childhood
unfolded in the midst of the Special Period, particularly bleak in
eastern Cuba. It is precisely because of these circumstances that she no
longer sees the barefoot children who once again occupy our streets,
terraces and paths, nor the tremendous cultural decline that has
occurred between my generation and hers.
However, there seems to be a glimmer of hope for Glenda. Nostalgia is
nothing more than the desire to escape a troubled present to a past in
which we had not yet suffered the difficulties we are now subject to.
She confesses the strange naivety of her childhood when she writes "we
weren't worried about the fall of the Berlin Wall, nor the
disintegration of the USSR," a reflection that she has already begin to
expand her range of expectations, that her new circumstances have raised
her cultural level and her aspirations.
Will there be such a change that Glenda will reject, outraged, the
pigsty, or on the contrary will she become one more member of the sect
of pig farmers? Only time will tell.
Source: Nostalgia for "The Special Period"? / 14ymedio | Translating
Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/nostalgia-for-the-special-period-14ymedio/
What the Soviet Union Left Cubans
What the Soviet Union Left Cubans / Ivan Garcia
Posted on July 31, 2014
To this day, in the universal history books in junior high or high
schools in Cuba, the Soviet theme is handled with kid gloves.
They recall its founding father Vladimir Illych Lenin, the epic of the
Second World War with its 20 million dead (old data, it was 27 million
and more than a few died from a bullet in the neck from their own
comrade, or in a dark Gulag), and the selfless help of the USSR in the
first years of the olive green revolution.
To Zoraida, a third year high school student and a lover of history,
when I ask her about that nation made up of fifteen European and Asian
republics, without hardly taking a breath, let loose with a tirade right
out of the school books.
"The October Revolution was founded in 1917 by Lenin, and despite the
aggression of the western nations, it established itself as a great
world power. It was the country with the most deaths in World War II, 20
million (the error persists), and it had to fight alone against the
fascist hordes. The United States and its allies were forced to open the
Second Front in Normandy, faced with the rapid advance of the Red Army,"
she responds with the usual pride of a student who applies herself.
She doesn't know what her future vocation will be. But, in he,r the
Party has a good prospect of a political commissar. Wanting to
investigate other aspects less publicized in the national media, I posed
the following questions.
What could you tell me about Stalin's brutal purges, that cost the
Soviet people millions of lives? Did you know that the application of
agricultural collectivization caused a famine and between 7 and 10
million deaths in Ukraine, the so-called Holodomor? Have you read about
the Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact where in a secret clause
Hitler and Stalin shared out the Baltic republics and the Eastern
European zone?
Have you read or heard about the Katyn Forest massacre of Polish
soldiers by elite Soviet troops. Did you know that the writer Aleksandr
Solzhenitsyn, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970, like many
other intellectuals, was imprisoned in the Gulag just for thinking
differently?
Don't you think that the Soviet Union was an imperialistic nation,
because it occupied a part of Eastern Europe as a trophy of war and
installed puppet governments? Have you studied the Soviet aggression in
Czechoslovakia in 1968, or Afghanistan in 1970?
Did they ever tell you that by the decision by Nikita Kruschhev and
Fidel Castro, 42 medium-range atomic missiles that would have provoked a
nuclear war were installed in Cuba? Did you know that, just like the
United States has a military base against the will of the Cuban people,
Fidel Castro without consulting the people authorized a military
training center with Soviet troops and an electronic espionage base on
the outskirts of Havana?
To each of the questions, the young woman answered evasively, "No, I
don't know that. No, I haven't read that or they didn't teach us that in
school?"
It's well-known that the teaching methods in Cuba try to equip its
students with a Marxist vision and exalt Fidel Castro and his
Revolution. In rigorously tested subjects, the method used is not lying,
but no admitting that you have the information or not telling the whole
truth.
Although the Soviet Union disappeared from the map more than 20 years
ago, and said adios to its bizarre ideology, the education on the island
continues to zealously hold to the Soviet narrative.
Manuel, who graduated in philosophy, recognizes that in his university
history studies there was no emphasis on Perestroika and Glastnost. "The
teachers slide over that stage. They tell us that Gorbachev was a
traitor, that he dismantled the Soviet power and influence stone by
stone. Communism's undertaker. A pariah."
In the Cuban power structure there is a powerful nucleus that still
remembers the Soviet period with nostalgia. General Raul Castro, at the
head of Cubans' destiny, is a great admirer of Russian communism.
In a visit to the apartment of Juan Juan Almeida, soneof the guerrilla
commander, when he lived in Neuvo Vedado, Juan Juan told me that in the
anteroom of General Castro's office at the Ministry of the Armed Forces,
there was a painting of Stalin, the butcher of Georgia.
In the discourse of the old "apparatchiks" (leaders), raised in the
severe Party schools, the old Soviet Cuba persists.
Joel, a retired officer, longs for the trips to Moscow and visit the
Kremlin mausoleum, where Lenin lies embalmed. At his house, on a wooden
shelf, there's a collection of books by Boris Polevoi, Nicolai Ostrovski
and Iliá Ehrenburg, among others who wrote about the exploits of the Red
Army in the Great Patriotic War.
Carlos, sociologist, considers "that the Soviet Union might seem like an
old newspaper, but it is not dead yet. People no longer remember the
corned beef, the applesauce or the nesting dolls. It is in the power
structure where the Soviet era is missed.
The love story toward the USSR among the intellectual and political
sector is long-standing in the country. Many who swear to be
nationalists standing firm, accuse people who admire the lifestyle and
institutional structure of the United States of being annexationists.
But where annexationism really exists is in Communism. Not only did they
import the ideology, they also tried to clone the Soviet model in a
Caribbean archipelago 6,000 miles away.
And those who applauded the theory of a Soviet Cuba weren't stupid or
illiterate. Among them were intellectuals of stature like Nicolás
Guillen, Salvador García Agüero and Juan Marinello, members of the
People's Socialist Party.
With the coming to power of Fidel Castro, the political opportunism of
the bearded ones coupled with the communist imagery of skilled men in
labor unions and the Marxist proselytizing in various academic and
intellectual sectors of the nation.
Despite the Cuban government's affinity for the Soviets, among a wide
segment of the citizenry, the Russian culture doesn't go down well. Nor
are they cool with their fashions and customs, their food and religious
beliefs.
What the Soviet Union left was were hundreds of marriages between
Russians and Cubans. And names like Ivan, Tatiana, Vladimer, Irina,
Boris, Natasha… Little else.
Although the stale political dinosaurs treat Russia royally in the
media, and the nomenklatura endeavors to reactivate new pacts, the
Eurasian company remains a distant and exotic music for ordinary people.
But, by geography and culture, Cubans continue to look north.
Ivan Garcia
Photo: Pro-Soviet books by the English Dean Hewlett Johnson (1874-1966)
and the American communist politician Earl Browder (1891-1973), on sale
in bookstores in Havana, taken in Cuba in 1945
25 July 2014
Source: What the Soviet Union Left Cubans / Ivan Garcia | Translating
Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/what-the-soviet-union-left-cubans-ivan-garcia/
Posted on July 31, 2014
To this day, in the universal history books in junior high or high
schools in Cuba, the Soviet theme is handled with kid gloves.
They recall its founding father Vladimir Illych Lenin, the epic of the
Second World War with its 20 million dead (old data, it was 27 million
and more than a few died from a bullet in the neck from their own
comrade, or in a dark Gulag), and the selfless help of the USSR in the
first years of the olive green revolution.
To Zoraida, a third year high school student and a lover of history,
when I ask her about that nation made up of fifteen European and Asian
republics, without hardly taking a breath, let loose with a tirade right
out of the school books.
"The October Revolution was founded in 1917 by Lenin, and despite the
aggression of the western nations, it established itself as a great
world power. It was the country with the most deaths in World War II, 20
million (the error persists), and it had to fight alone against the
fascist hordes. The United States and its allies were forced to open the
Second Front in Normandy, faced with the rapid advance of the Red Army,"
she responds with the usual pride of a student who applies herself.
She doesn't know what her future vocation will be. But, in he,r the
Party has a good prospect of a political commissar. Wanting to
investigate other aspects less publicized in the national media, I posed
the following questions.
What could you tell me about Stalin's brutal purges, that cost the
Soviet people millions of lives? Did you know that the application of
agricultural collectivization caused a famine and between 7 and 10
million deaths in Ukraine, the so-called Holodomor? Have you read about
the Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact where in a secret clause
Hitler and Stalin shared out the Baltic republics and the Eastern
European zone?
Have you read or heard about the Katyn Forest massacre of Polish
soldiers by elite Soviet troops. Did you know that the writer Aleksandr
Solzhenitsyn, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970, like many
other intellectuals, was imprisoned in the Gulag just for thinking
differently?
Don't you think that the Soviet Union was an imperialistic nation,
because it occupied a part of Eastern Europe as a trophy of war and
installed puppet governments? Have you studied the Soviet aggression in
Czechoslovakia in 1968, or Afghanistan in 1970?
Did they ever tell you that by the decision by Nikita Kruschhev and
Fidel Castro, 42 medium-range atomic missiles that would have provoked a
nuclear war were installed in Cuba? Did you know that, just like the
United States has a military base against the will of the Cuban people,
Fidel Castro without consulting the people authorized a military
training center with Soviet troops and an electronic espionage base on
the outskirts of Havana?
To each of the questions, the young woman answered evasively, "No, I
don't know that. No, I haven't read that or they didn't teach us that in
school?"
It's well-known that the teaching methods in Cuba try to equip its
students with a Marxist vision and exalt Fidel Castro and his
Revolution. In rigorously tested subjects, the method used is not lying,
but no admitting that you have the information or not telling the whole
truth.
Although the Soviet Union disappeared from the map more than 20 years
ago, and said adios to its bizarre ideology, the education on the island
continues to zealously hold to the Soviet narrative.
Manuel, who graduated in philosophy, recognizes that in his university
history studies there was no emphasis on Perestroika and Glastnost. "The
teachers slide over that stage. They tell us that Gorbachev was a
traitor, that he dismantled the Soviet power and influence stone by
stone. Communism's undertaker. A pariah."
In the Cuban power structure there is a powerful nucleus that still
remembers the Soviet period with nostalgia. General Raul Castro, at the
head of Cubans' destiny, is a great admirer of Russian communism.
In a visit to the apartment of Juan Juan Almeida, soneof the guerrilla
commander, when he lived in Neuvo Vedado, Juan Juan told me that in the
anteroom of General Castro's office at the Ministry of the Armed Forces,
there was a painting of Stalin, the butcher of Georgia.
In the discourse of the old "apparatchiks" (leaders), raised in the
severe Party schools, the old Soviet Cuba persists.
Joel, a retired officer, longs for the trips to Moscow and visit the
Kremlin mausoleum, where Lenin lies embalmed. At his house, on a wooden
shelf, there's a collection of books by Boris Polevoi, Nicolai Ostrovski
and Iliá Ehrenburg, among others who wrote about the exploits of the Red
Army in the Great Patriotic War.
Carlos, sociologist, considers "that the Soviet Union might seem like an
old newspaper, but it is not dead yet. People no longer remember the
corned beef, the applesauce or the nesting dolls. It is in the power
structure where the Soviet era is missed.
The love story toward the USSR among the intellectual and political
sector is long-standing in the country. Many who swear to be
nationalists standing firm, accuse people who admire the lifestyle and
institutional structure of the United States of being annexationists.
But where annexationism really exists is in Communism. Not only did they
import the ideology, they also tried to clone the Soviet model in a
Caribbean archipelago 6,000 miles away.
And those who applauded the theory of a Soviet Cuba weren't stupid or
illiterate. Among them were intellectuals of stature like Nicolás
Guillen, Salvador García Agüero and Juan Marinello, members of the
People's Socialist Party.
With the coming to power of Fidel Castro, the political opportunism of
the bearded ones coupled with the communist imagery of skilled men in
labor unions and the Marxist proselytizing in various academic and
intellectual sectors of the nation.
Despite the Cuban government's affinity for the Soviets, among a wide
segment of the citizenry, the Russian culture doesn't go down well. Nor
are they cool with their fashions and customs, their food and religious
beliefs.
What the Soviet Union left was were hundreds of marriages between
Russians and Cubans. And names like Ivan, Tatiana, Vladimer, Irina,
Boris, Natasha… Little else.
Although the stale political dinosaurs treat Russia royally in the
media, and the nomenklatura endeavors to reactivate new pacts, the
Eurasian company remains a distant and exotic music for ordinary people.
But, by geography and culture, Cubans continue to look north.
Ivan Garcia
Photo: Pro-Soviet books by the English Dean Hewlett Johnson (1874-1966)
and the American communist politician Earl Browder (1891-1973), on sale
in bookstores in Havana, taken in Cuba in 1945
25 July 2014
Source: What the Soviet Union Left Cubans / Ivan Garcia | Translating
Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/what-the-soviet-union-left-cubans-ivan-garcia/
Imagining Cuba’s future
Imagining Cuba's future
Aug 01, 2014 by Philip Jenkins
Cuba is nothing like as central to U.S. policy as it once was, but that
may change when the current regime either implodes or accelerates its
tentative steps toward liberalization.
At present, Cuba survives only on massive handouts from Venezuela,
which could be curtailed overnight. If and when Cuba leaves its bubble,
it will undergo a rapid social and political transformation. What
intrigues me is the question of how the nation's religious landscape
will change and how much we can learn about that from the experience of
comparable societies.
When Fidel Castro began his rule, he declared Cuba an atheist state.
Religious persecution has been commonplace ever since, though never as
bloodthirsty as in, say, North Korea, and the degree of official
intolerance has fluctuated over time. Pope John Paul II's visit in 1998
significantly improved official relations with the Roman Catholic Church.
Unregistered groups, however, continue to suffer. The best statistics we
have—and estimates vary widely—suggest that half of Cubans identify as
Catholic, 40 percent are nonreligious or unaffiliated, and non-Catholic
Christians make up 7 percent. Complicating the statistics is the issue
of dual affiliation: at least 17 percent adhere to Afro-Cuban religions,
chiefly Santería.
Just how matters would change in a postcommunist age depends largely on
how the new era comes about. Will the change involve violence? Should we
expect a massive return of exiles?
At the least, liberalization is likely to involve breakneck economic
development, the end of foreign embargoes, and the collapse of rigid
government controls and rationing. The immediate consequences would no
doubt be a huge influx of foreign investment, an epochal building boom,
and increased urbanization.
Cuba in five or ten years could pass through processes of development
and globalization that elsewhere in Latin America have taken half a
century. The winners and losers in this revolution would provide,
potentially, the membership of revived churches.
Catholicism still retains a cultural hegemony. Traditional practices and
pilgrimages—above all devotion to Cuba's special version of the Blessed
Virgin, the Virgin of La Caridad del Cobre—have never lost popularity.
But if cultural Catholicism still flourishes, that does not mean the
church will continue to attract worshipers. Attendance at mass and
religious vocations have fallen dramatically across Latin America, and
the Cuban church would have to struggle to avoid a similar fate.
By far the greatest mystery in Cuba's future concerns the evangélicos,
the Protestant and Pentecostal churches that have been so dazzlingly
successful in such countries as Brazil, Chile, and Guatemala. By all
rights, Cuba should join this list, for it possesses the conditions
often cited to explain Pentecostal growth. Pentecostal congregations
flourish during times of rapid social change and economic turmoil, and
they appeal especially to excluded ethnic groups. At least half of
Cubans claim African ancestry. And recent experience in China shows how
attractive the Christian faith can be following the sudden evaporation
of communist ideology.
Churches could play a vital role if working-class people suddenly found
themselves cut off from a rationed economy and thrust into the rigors of
a market system. Through social outreach programs, Cuban evangélico
churches could well win support by supplying economic aid. Such efforts
would likely be supported by well-funded foreign groups, chiefly from
the United States, but also from Brazilian and other Latin American
churches.
Cuban evangélico churches have grown powerfully in recent years, and
some, like the Apostolic Movement, have experienced harassment from the
government. It is likely that these groups would flourish in a free
Cuba. In religious terms, then, the best analogy for a future Cuba would
be what's happened in Brazil, where Protestant churches are thriving.
But perhaps a better model for projecting the future of Cuba is to be
found outside Latin America in a postcommunist society like the former
East Germany. Secularization advanced to such a degree there that
religious faith could not be reconstructed, and it still shows no signs
of returning. It is possible that future Cuban churches would never be
able to win back the loyalty of that sizable minority of people who
presently affirm no religion. Also pointing to a secular future is
Cuba's extremely low fertility rate, a figure that often correlates to
the decline of institutional religion.
The question, then, for anyone trying to project Cuba's religious
future, is whether to look to Pentecostals or secularists, to Brazil or
Berlin.
Source: Imagining Cuba's future | The Christian Century -
http://www.christiancentury.org/article/2014-07/imagining-cuba-s-future
Aug 01, 2014 by Philip Jenkins
Cuba is nothing like as central to U.S. policy as it once was, but that
may change when the current regime either implodes or accelerates its
tentative steps toward liberalization.
At present, Cuba survives only on massive handouts from Venezuela,
which could be curtailed overnight. If and when Cuba leaves its bubble,
it will undergo a rapid social and political transformation. What
intrigues me is the question of how the nation's religious landscape
will change and how much we can learn about that from the experience of
comparable societies.
When Fidel Castro began his rule, he declared Cuba an atheist state.
Religious persecution has been commonplace ever since, though never as
bloodthirsty as in, say, North Korea, and the degree of official
intolerance has fluctuated over time. Pope John Paul II's visit in 1998
significantly improved official relations with the Roman Catholic Church.
Unregistered groups, however, continue to suffer. The best statistics we
have—and estimates vary widely—suggest that half of Cubans identify as
Catholic, 40 percent are nonreligious or unaffiliated, and non-Catholic
Christians make up 7 percent. Complicating the statistics is the issue
of dual affiliation: at least 17 percent adhere to Afro-Cuban religions,
chiefly Santería.
Just how matters would change in a postcommunist age depends largely on
how the new era comes about. Will the change involve violence? Should we
expect a massive return of exiles?
At the least, liberalization is likely to involve breakneck economic
development, the end of foreign embargoes, and the collapse of rigid
government controls and rationing. The immediate consequences would no
doubt be a huge influx of foreign investment, an epochal building boom,
and increased urbanization.
Cuba in five or ten years could pass through processes of development
and globalization that elsewhere in Latin America have taken half a
century. The winners and losers in this revolution would provide,
potentially, the membership of revived churches.
Catholicism still retains a cultural hegemony. Traditional practices and
pilgrimages—above all devotion to Cuba's special version of the Blessed
Virgin, the Virgin of La Caridad del Cobre—have never lost popularity.
But if cultural Catholicism still flourishes, that does not mean the
church will continue to attract worshipers. Attendance at mass and
religious vocations have fallen dramatically across Latin America, and
the Cuban church would have to struggle to avoid a similar fate.
By far the greatest mystery in Cuba's future concerns the evangélicos,
the Protestant and Pentecostal churches that have been so dazzlingly
successful in such countries as Brazil, Chile, and Guatemala. By all
rights, Cuba should join this list, for it possesses the conditions
often cited to explain Pentecostal growth. Pentecostal congregations
flourish during times of rapid social change and economic turmoil, and
they appeal especially to excluded ethnic groups. At least half of
Cubans claim African ancestry. And recent experience in China shows how
attractive the Christian faith can be following the sudden evaporation
of communist ideology.
Churches could play a vital role if working-class people suddenly found
themselves cut off from a rationed economy and thrust into the rigors of
a market system. Through social outreach programs, Cuban evangélico
churches could well win support by supplying economic aid. Such efforts
would likely be supported by well-funded foreign groups, chiefly from
the United States, but also from Brazilian and other Latin American
churches.
Cuban evangélico churches have grown powerfully in recent years, and
some, like the Apostolic Movement, have experienced harassment from the
government. It is likely that these groups would flourish in a free
Cuba. In religious terms, then, the best analogy for a future Cuba would
be what's happened in Brazil, where Protestant churches are thriving.
But perhaps a better model for projecting the future of Cuba is to be
found outside Latin America in a postcommunist society like the former
East Germany. Secularization advanced to such a degree there that
religious faith could not be reconstructed, and it still shows no signs
of returning. It is possible that future Cuban churches would never be
able to win back the loyalty of that sizable minority of people who
presently affirm no religion. Also pointing to a secular future is
Cuba's extremely low fertility rate, a figure that often correlates to
the decline of institutional religion.
The question, then, for anyone trying to project Cuba's religious
future, is whether to look to Pentecostals or secularists, to Brazil or
Berlin.
Source: Imagining Cuba's future | The Christian Century -
http://www.christiancentury.org/article/2014-07/imagining-cuba-s-future
Cuba's mangroves under threat
Cuba's mangroves under threat
Tangled thickets island nation's first line of defence against rising
sea levels
BY ANDREA RODRIGUEZ, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS AUGUST 1, 2014
Many people in this hamlet on the southern coast of Cuba remember when
the shore lay about 100 metres further out. That was four decades ago.
Since then, rising waters have gradually swallowed up rustic homes, a
narrow highway that once paralleled the coast, even an old military tank
that people now use to measure the sea's yearly advance.
"There was a road there," said Jose Manuel Herrera, 42, a fisherman and
former charcoal harvester, pointing toward the gentle waves. "You could
travel from here all the way to Mayabeque."
Worried by forecasts of rising seas from climate change, the effects of
hurricanes and the salinization of farmlands, authorities say they are
beginning a forced march to repair Cuba's first line of defence against
the advancing waters - its mangrove thickets, which have been damaged by
decades of neglect and uncontrolled logging.
In the second half of 2013, a moratorium was declared on mangrove
logging. Now, the final touches are being put on a sustainable
management master plan that is expected to be in place before the end of
the year. Cuban President Raul Castro has said the plan is a top priority.
What makes the effort vital and closely monitored by environmentalists
is that Cuba is one of the few places left in the Caribbean with
extensive mangrove forests. Cuba accounts for about 69 per cent of the
region's current mangroves, the New York-based Environmental Defense
Fund says.
Mangroves act as both a barrier to the sea and a saltwater filter,
making them important for coastal health.
Even in Cuba, experts say the situation is critical.
"The situation is bad.
More than 30 per cent of the mangroves are in a critical state,"
government forest scientist Reynier Samon said on a recent tour of
Surgidero de Batabano, an area where deforestation has been extreme. The
rest, he said, are in a state of medium deterioration. Mangroves
historically have been harvested heavily, for textile dyes, tannins used
in the pharmaceutical industry, lumber for furniture and charcoal that
rural Cubans rely on to fire their kitchens.
But healthy mangrove stands are important to alleviating one of the
island's biggest headaches: Rising seas stand to wipe 122 towns off the
map and penetrate up to two kilometres inland in low-lying areas by
2100, posing a serious threat to coastal communities and agriculture,
according to a government study last year.
Efrain Arrazcaeta, who runs a local environmental non-profit, has
witnessed the phenomenon with growing alarm. His group estimates a
two-metre maritime advance each year, using the submerged tank as a
reference point. "If the mangroves are restored, the mitigation of these
effects will be notable," Arrazcaeta said.
No details of the mangrove plan have been made public. It will
apparently include sustainable exploitation measures with some logging
for the pharmaceutical industry under study, though the moratorium will
remain more or less in place.
Officials are also waging a public awareness campaign to educate coastal
residents to be caretakers of the tangled, mosquitoinfested thickets.
The campaign shows them how their homes and farms are at stake and urges
them to protect freshwater streams vital for maintaining proper saline
levels.
"The perception of the importance of this ecosystem for these
communities is low. They see it as something to exploit," said Samon.
Extensive reforestation isn't easy. There's no way of mechanizing the
process, which means brigades of workers will have to wade into the
swampy terrain and plant each mangrove by hand.
Even deciding what to plant where requires careful study. Red mangroves
thrive next to the sea, black mangroves a few metres inland, "yana"
mangroves beyond that. If you plant any variety in a place that's too
salty or not salty enough, it will die.
Financing for the plan comes from various ministries as well as a UN
program on climate change adaptation. Officials declined to give budget
figures, but said it's in the millions of dollars.
Samon said in the past year some 36,000 hectares (89,000 acres) of
mangroves have been successfully replanted nationwide. The measure
complements other programs to relocate coastal buildings, protect sand
dunes and regulate how close hotels can be to the sea.
In Surgidero, residents say the logging moratorium and some small
initial reforestation have already had a noticeable effect. Seen from
the sea, the coastline looks greener, they say.
"There is a cay that formed just from the (new) mangroves and in one
year it grew to a good size," said Alexis Duarte, a fisherman.
Studies show while mangrove loss across the Americas is about 3.6 per
cent per year, Cuba has recorded net gains in recent years.
Dan Whittle, Cuba program director for the Environmental Defense Fund,
said Cuba "is probably the model for other countries" in the region for
the coastal protection measures it has taken over the past decade or so.
However, he said, much work remains and Cuba has a mixed record
implementing its protective laws and policies.
Samon says the political will is there to address the challenge. "Now we
are in the phase of implementation and boots on the ground. It's urgent."
Source: Cuba's mangroves under threat -
http://www.leaderpost.com/Cuba+mangroves+under+threat/10085637/story.html
Tangled thickets island nation's first line of defence against rising
sea levels
BY ANDREA RODRIGUEZ, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS AUGUST 1, 2014
Many people in this hamlet on the southern coast of Cuba remember when
the shore lay about 100 metres further out. That was four decades ago.
Since then, rising waters have gradually swallowed up rustic homes, a
narrow highway that once paralleled the coast, even an old military tank
that people now use to measure the sea's yearly advance.
"There was a road there," said Jose Manuel Herrera, 42, a fisherman and
former charcoal harvester, pointing toward the gentle waves. "You could
travel from here all the way to Mayabeque."
Worried by forecasts of rising seas from climate change, the effects of
hurricanes and the salinization of farmlands, authorities say they are
beginning a forced march to repair Cuba's first line of defence against
the advancing waters - its mangrove thickets, which have been damaged by
decades of neglect and uncontrolled logging.
In the second half of 2013, a moratorium was declared on mangrove
logging. Now, the final touches are being put on a sustainable
management master plan that is expected to be in place before the end of
the year. Cuban President Raul Castro has said the plan is a top priority.
What makes the effort vital and closely monitored by environmentalists
is that Cuba is one of the few places left in the Caribbean with
extensive mangrove forests. Cuba accounts for about 69 per cent of the
region's current mangroves, the New York-based Environmental Defense
Fund says.
Mangroves act as both a barrier to the sea and a saltwater filter,
making them important for coastal health.
Even in Cuba, experts say the situation is critical.
"The situation is bad.
More than 30 per cent of the mangroves are in a critical state,"
government forest scientist Reynier Samon said on a recent tour of
Surgidero de Batabano, an area where deforestation has been extreme. The
rest, he said, are in a state of medium deterioration. Mangroves
historically have been harvested heavily, for textile dyes, tannins used
in the pharmaceutical industry, lumber for furniture and charcoal that
rural Cubans rely on to fire their kitchens.
But healthy mangrove stands are important to alleviating one of the
island's biggest headaches: Rising seas stand to wipe 122 towns off the
map and penetrate up to two kilometres inland in low-lying areas by
2100, posing a serious threat to coastal communities and agriculture,
according to a government study last year.
Efrain Arrazcaeta, who runs a local environmental non-profit, has
witnessed the phenomenon with growing alarm. His group estimates a
two-metre maritime advance each year, using the submerged tank as a
reference point. "If the mangroves are restored, the mitigation of these
effects will be notable," Arrazcaeta said.
No details of the mangrove plan have been made public. It will
apparently include sustainable exploitation measures with some logging
for the pharmaceutical industry under study, though the moratorium will
remain more or less in place.
Officials are also waging a public awareness campaign to educate coastal
residents to be caretakers of the tangled, mosquitoinfested thickets.
The campaign shows them how their homes and farms are at stake and urges
them to protect freshwater streams vital for maintaining proper saline
levels.
"The perception of the importance of this ecosystem for these
communities is low. They see it as something to exploit," said Samon.
Extensive reforestation isn't easy. There's no way of mechanizing the
process, which means brigades of workers will have to wade into the
swampy terrain and plant each mangrove by hand.
Even deciding what to plant where requires careful study. Red mangroves
thrive next to the sea, black mangroves a few metres inland, "yana"
mangroves beyond that. If you plant any variety in a place that's too
salty or not salty enough, it will die.
Financing for the plan comes from various ministries as well as a UN
program on climate change adaptation. Officials declined to give budget
figures, but said it's in the millions of dollars.
Samon said in the past year some 36,000 hectares (89,000 acres) of
mangroves have been successfully replanted nationwide. The measure
complements other programs to relocate coastal buildings, protect sand
dunes and regulate how close hotels can be to the sea.
In Surgidero, residents say the logging moratorium and some small
initial reforestation have already had a noticeable effect. Seen from
the sea, the coastline looks greener, they say.
"There is a cay that formed just from the (new) mangroves and in one
year it grew to a good size," said Alexis Duarte, a fisherman.
Studies show while mangrove loss across the Americas is about 3.6 per
cent per year, Cuba has recorded net gains in recent years.
Dan Whittle, Cuba program director for the Environmental Defense Fund,
said Cuba "is probably the model for other countries" in the region for
the coastal protection measures it has taken over the past decade or so.
However, he said, much work remains and Cuba has a mixed record
implementing its protective laws and policies.
Samon says the political will is there to address the challenge. "Now we
are in the phase of implementation and boots on the ground. It's urgent."
Source: Cuba's mangroves under threat -
http://www.leaderpost.com/Cuba+mangroves+under+threat/10085637/story.html
Friday, August 1, 2014
Cuba Copies the Eritrean Model of Closed Airports
Cuba Copies the Eritrean Model of Closed Airports
July 31, 2014
Fernando Ravsberg*
HAVANA TIMES — The Jose Marti airport administrator told Granma
newspaper that there are many other airport terminals in the world where
entry is forbidden to persons accompanying a passenger, but did not name
any of them.
A reader of this blog agrees: "There is at least one other airport that
shares this rare privilege, that of Asmara, the capital of Eritrea. The
difference there is that in front is a restaurant where you can hang out
and entertain yourself while saying goodbye or waiting for a passenger."
I'm not an expert on the subject but I guess that Eritreans must be
considered a top authority on airport administration. Otherwise Cuba
would not have decided to copy their practices and restrictions.
Copying is not shameful but copying wrong, putting the cart before the
horse, is a pain. The managers of the Havana Airport applied the
prohibition of entry first and left the opening of a restaurant for an
uncertain future.
Meanwhile, while they plan the construction of a space in front of the
airport terminal, those sending off relatives or friends have to say
goodbye in the middle of the street or wait for incoming passengers in
the same place. Something that, as we see, does not even occur in Eritrea.
They say that the restriction "is about providing better service and
attention to those arriving or leaving Cuba, as required when they pay
for a ticket. Do not forget that the airport is the first impression
that many tourists will have of the country."
However, after restricting entry into the airport building the chief
complaint of passengers has not changed, as they often have to wait for
2 to 3 hours for their bags to come out. One wonders if such delays are
within "the recommended international standards" mentioned in Granma?
Apparently the delays within the airport are not very important to the
airport administrators because it's been going on for many years.
However, they do take radical measures to eject their fellow citizens
from the facilities.
They should realize that because of their own administrative
inefficiency, the family or friends that greet visitors has to wait
those same three hours in the street without a place to sit, get a glass
of water, or without even a bathroom.
"Do not forget that the airport is the first impression that many
tourists will have of the country", they remind us and almost make us
feel guilty of the bad image of Cuba visitors would have if they see us
drinking a coffee inside the terminal.
Actually the bad impression to the traveler happens when suitcases don't
appear for hours; when they unload the baggage from the same flight on
two different carousels; when no one can find a baggage cart; and when
the baggage assistants offer to get you out of there "quickly" for
money, and nobody can explain what's happening.
Then the bad impression increases upon setting foot on the street. After
hours of a grueling wait you find hundreds of sweaty and tired people,
bunched together behind a fence like cattle, who must urinate in the
parking lot for a lack of a better place.
This situation also affects the image that the Cubans themselves have of
their country and themselves. Many wonder how they can be treated that
way by public officials when they themselves pay their wages.
The intellectual Esteban Morales went to all corners of the airport
looking for an explanation without success. He concluded that it
"appears to be a bad joke or the whim of some bureaucrat, who came up
with such a solution?"
A renowned filmmaker told me that "After two hours of waiting, my wife
and I entered the building without permission. After going to the
bathroom in shifts, we sat down at the table of one of the cafeterias
(she ordered a bottle of water and I a beer). "
He added: "An airport employee came over and told us we had to wait
outside. I responded that the waiting rooms of airports are public
places – and told the comrade that only by force could he make us leave.
Of course we stayed. "
Source: Cuba Copies the Eritrean Model of Closed Airports - Havana
Times.org - http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=105244
July 31, 2014
Fernando Ravsberg*
HAVANA TIMES — The Jose Marti airport administrator told Granma
newspaper that there are many other airport terminals in the world where
entry is forbidden to persons accompanying a passenger, but did not name
any of them.
A reader of this blog agrees: "There is at least one other airport that
shares this rare privilege, that of Asmara, the capital of Eritrea. The
difference there is that in front is a restaurant where you can hang out
and entertain yourself while saying goodbye or waiting for a passenger."
I'm not an expert on the subject but I guess that Eritreans must be
considered a top authority on airport administration. Otherwise Cuba
would not have decided to copy their practices and restrictions.
Copying is not shameful but copying wrong, putting the cart before the
horse, is a pain. The managers of the Havana Airport applied the
prohibition of entry first and left the opening of a restaurant for an
uncertain future.
Meanwhile, while they plan the construction of a space in front of the
airport terminal, those sending off relatives or friends have to say
goodbye in the middle of the street or wait for incoming passengers in
the same place. Something that, as we see, does not even occur in Eritrea.
They say that the restriction "is about providing better service and
attention to those arriving or leaving Cuba, as required when they pay
for a ticket. Do not forget that the airport is the first impression
that many tourists will have of the country."
However, after restricting entry into the airport building the chief
complaint of passengers has not changed, as they often have to wait for
2 to 3 hours for their bags to come out. One wonders if such delays are
within "the recommended international standards" mentioned in Granma?
Apparently the delays within the airport are not very important to the
airport administrators because it's been going on for many years.
However, they do take radical measures to eject their fellow citizens
from the facilities.
They should realize that because of their own administrative
inefficiency, the family or friends that greet visitors has to wait
those same three hours in the street without a place to sit, get a glass
of water, or without even a bathroom.
"Do not forget that the airport is the first impression that many
tourists will have of the country", they remind us and almost make us
feel guilty of the bad image of Cuba visitors would have if they see us
drinking a coffee inside the terminal.
Actually the bad impression to the traveler happens when suitcases don't
appear for hours; when they unload the baggage from the same flight on
two different carousels; when no one can find a baggage cart; and when
the baggage assistants offer to get you out of there "quickly" for
money, and nobody can explain what's happening.
Then the bad impression increases upon setting foot on the street. After
hours of a grueling wait you find hundreds of sweaty and tired people,
bunched together behind a fence like cattle, who must urinate in the
parking lot for a lack of a better place.
This situation also affects the image that the Cubans themselves have of
their country and themselves. Many wonder how they can be treated that
way by public officials when they themselves pay their wages.
The intellectual Esteban Morales went to all corners of the airport
looking for an explanation without success. He concluded that it
"appears to be a bad joke or the whim of some bureaucrat, who came up
with such a solution?"
A renowned filmmaker told me that "After two hours of waiting, my wife
and I entered the building without permission. After going to the
bathroom in shifts, we sat down at the table of one of the cafeterias
(she ordered a bottle of water and I a beer). "
He added: "An airport employee came over and told us we had to wait
outside. I responded that the waiting rooms of airports are public
places – and told the comrade that only by force could he make us leave.
Of course we stayed. "
Source: Cuba Copies the Eritrean Model of Closed Airports - Havana
Times.org - http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=105244
Support religious freedom in Cuba
Posted on Thursday, 07.31.14
Support religious freedom in Cuba
BY KATRINA LANDOS SWETT AND MARY ANN GLENDON
MEDIA@USCIRF.GOV.
This year marks the 55th anniversary of Cuba's current government and
July 26 commemorated the 61st anniversary of the revolution which swept
it into power. After coming to power, the Castro government broke its
pro-democracy pledges and, despite recent improvements, maintains a
problematic record on human rights, including religious freedom.
This was confirmed by the State Department's international religious
freedom annual report, which was released this week. It also was
exhibited when the government recently detained more than 100 members of
the Ladies in White, relatives of imprisoned dissidents who draw
inspiration from their Catholic faith.
Religious freedom and other rights are spelled out in international
documents — including the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(UDHR) — which most nations, including Cuba, endorsed. It was a Cuban
diplomat, Guy Perez-Cisneros, who together with other Latin Americans
helped drive its drafting and passage. Thus, whenever Havana violates
human rights, it betrays not only its past promises, but Cuba's legacy
of liberty. The world should affirm this legacy by standing steadfastly
for Cuban religious freedom and related rights.
The seeds for that legacy already were being sown in early 1945, just
prior to the San Francisco conference that founded the United Nations,
when Latin American delegates meeting in Mexico adopted a resolution
supporting a human rights declaration for the U.N. Charter. They lobbied
for it vigorously once the conference opened.
The Charter mentioned human rights seven times, along with an agreement
to establish a Human Rights Commission. This commission prepared an
international bill of rights which became the UDHR and Perez-Cisneros
spoke eloquently for the pro-freedom coalition that made it possible.
As detailed by the independent U.S. Commission on International
Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a bipartisan federal body on which we serve,
the Castro government has yet to own this heritage. Instead, it controls
and monitors religious activities and requires an invasive registration
process.
What happens when a religious community refuses to register? It cannot
receive foreign visitors, import religious materials, meet in approved
places of worship, or apply for travel abroad for religious purposes.
What happens when it agrees to register? Local communist officials must
approve its activities and the government interferes with its leadership
and internal affairs. Havana often seeks to change church structure,
freeze church assets, close churches, and intimidate pastors of churches
such as the Western Baptist Convention.
Independent religious communities often suffer the most. The
fast-growing Apostolic Reformation faces government harassment,
including arrests of leaders; confiscation or destruction of property;
aggressive surveillance of church members and relatives; heavy fines;
and potential loss of job, housing, and educational opportunities.
It is not just religious communities that authorities often target. They
also interfere with human rights activists exercising religious freedom,
denying them access to religious services and pressuring church leaders
to do likewise. They regularly detain Ladies in White members on their
way to Sunday services, block their entry, and send others to harass and
intimidate them.
As in prior years, the past year saw signs of improvement.
The government eased some restrictions, allowed registered groups to
build or expand houses of worship, and permitted churches more
opportunities for charity work. But the question remains whether it
still views religious practices as privileges to be granted or withheld,
rather than inherent rights to be affirmed or protected. At stake is the
legacy of an entire generation, led by Guy Perez-Cisneros, who helped
bring the world the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
It is time to honor this great gift that Cubans helped bestow on
humanity. While people disagree on how to deal with Cuba on various
fronts, including the U.S. embargo, all should agree that the United
States must press Havana to cease interfering with religious activities;
allow unregistered religious groups to operate freely and legally;
refrain from mistreating human rights activists and blocking them from
attending churches; and cease arresting and harassing religious leaders.
USCIRF would also welcome Cuba's allowing its members a visit. Other
countries, including Latin American and European nations, should weave
human rights, including religious freedom, into discussions with Cuba.
Cuba once stood for the world's freedom; the world should do likewise
for Cubans.
Katrina Lantos Swett serves as chair of the U.S. Commission on
International Religious Freedom. Mary Ann Glendon serves as a USCIRF
Commissioner.
Source: Support religious freedom in Cuba - Other Views -
MiamiHerald.com -
http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/07/31/4265558/support-religious-freedom-in-cuba.html
Support religious freedom in Cuba
BY KATRINA LANDOS SWETT AND MARY ANN GLENDON
MEDIA@USCIRF.GOV.
This year marks the 55th anniversary of Cuba's current government and
July 26 commemorated the 61st anniversary of the revolution which swept
it into power. After coming to power, the Castro government broke its
pro-democracy pledges and, despite recent improvements, maintains a
problematic record on human rights, including religious freedom.
This was confirmed by the State Department's international religious
freedom annual report, which was released this week. It also was
exhibited when the government recently detained more than 100 members of
the Ladies in White, relatives of imprisoned dissidents who draw
inspiration from their Catholic faith.
Religious freedom and other rights are spelled out in international
documents — including the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(UDHR) — which most nations, including Cuba, endorsed. It was a Cuban
diplomat, Guy Perez-Cisneros, who together with other Latin Americans
helped drive its drafting and passage. Thus, whenever Havana violates
human rights, it betrays not only its past promises, but Cuba's legacy
of liberty. The world should affirm this legacy by standing steadfastly
for Cuban religious freedom and related rights.
The seeds for that legacy already were being sown in early 1945, just
prior to the San Francisco conference that founded the United Nations,
when Latin American delegates meeting in Mexico adopted a resolution
supporting a human rights declaration for the U.N. Charter. They lobbied
for it vigorously once the conference opened.
The Charter mentioned human rights seven times, along with an agreement
to establish a Human Rights Commission. This commission prepared an
international bill of rights which became the UDHR and Perez-Cisneros
spoke eloquently for the pro-freedom coalition that made it possible.
As detailed by the independent U.S. Commission on International
Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a bipartisan federal body on which we serve,
the Castro government has yet to own this heritage. Instead, it controls
and monitors religious activities and requires an invasive registration
process.
What happens when a religious community refuses to register? It cannot
receive foreign visitors, import religious materials, meet in approved
places of worship, or apply for travel abroad for religious purposes.
What happens when it agrees to register? Local communist officials must
approve its activities and the government interferes with its leadership
and internal affairs. Havana often seeks to change church structure,
freeze church assets, close churches, and intimidate pastors of churches
such as the Western Baptist Convention.
Independent religious communities often suffer the most. The
fast-growing Apostolic Reformation faces government harassment,
including arrests of leaders; confiscation or destruction of property;
aggressive surveillance of church members and relatives; heavy fines;
and potential loss of job, housing, and educational opportunities.
It is not just religious communities that authorities often target. They
also interfere with human rights activists exercising religious freedom,
denying them access to religious services and pressuring church leaders
to do likewise. They regularly detain Ladies in White members on their
way to Sunday services, block their entry, and send others to harass and
intimidate them.
As in prior years, the past year saw signs of improvement.
The government eased some restrictions, allowed registered groups to
build or expand houses of worship, and permitted churches more
opportunities for charity work. But the question remains whether it
still views religious practices as privileges to be granted or withheld,
rather than inherent rights to be affirmed or protected. At stake is the
legacy of an entire generation, led by Guy Perez-Cisneros, who helped
bring the world the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
It is time to honor this great gift that Cubans helped bestow on
humanity. While people disagree on how to deal with Cuba on various
fronts, including the U.S. embargo, all should agree that the United
States must press Havana to cease interfering with religious activities;
allow unregistered religious groups to operate freely and legally;
refrain from mistreating human rights activists and blocking them from
attending churches; and cease arresting and harassing religious leaders.
USCIRF would also welcome Cuba's allowing its members a visit. Other
countries, including Latin American and European nations, should weave
human rights, including religious freedom, into discussions with Cuba.
Cuba once stood for the world's freedom; the world should do likewise
for Cubans.
Katrina Lantos Swett serves as chair of the U.S. Commission on
International Religious Freedom. Mary Ann Glendon serves as a USCIRF
Commissioner.
Source: Support religious freedom in Cuba - Other Views -
MiamiHerald.com -
http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/07/31/4265558/support-religious-freedom-in-cuba.html
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