The Challenge of a Government without Fidel / Dimas Castellano
Diario de Cuba, Dimas Castellano, 15 December 2016 — Fidel Castro spent
decades leaving his personal imprint on Cuba. Wielding absolute power
and imbued with a high degree of of messianism, populism and
voluntarism, he determined the fates of several generations. He
undertook important social projects but hampered the economy and rolled
back civil liberties. The government under his leadership anchored the
country in the past and missed the opportunities for change provided by
his various and continued failures. His death, given the time and
conditions in which it occurred, will undoubtedly have a strong impact
on Cuban society.
Due to their limitations, slow pace and the contradictions inherent in a
kind of power sharing arrangement, the reforms implemented since 2008
under the leadership of Raúl Castro did not yield positive results. A 1%
drop in GDP in the first half of 2016, a projected recession in 2017 and
an increase in the mass exodus of Cubans in recent years are
confirmation of their failure.
These timid and limited reforms did, however, give birth to an embryonic
private sector that the government cannot afford to ignore. Relations
with the United States, even if tense under the incoming administration
of Donald Trump, established areas of mutual interest that preclude
their being reversed. Finding a new godfather in the international arena
to replace Venezuela is not an option. And the package of measures put
together by the Obama administration, which breathed life into Cuba's
relations with the West, revived tourism and created expectations that
will not continue without changes in Cuba itself.
Under this scenario, the government has only two options: to slam on the
brakes, which amounts to leading the country into total ruin, or to go
forward. The latter is the more likely choice since choosing the former
means we would all be losers, including those in power. Even if the
political will is lacking and this turns out the be the chosen option,
change will come soon enough. We will then see if the current leadership
is capable of handling the complexities of getting the country out of
stagnation and moving it forward. In any event, any chosen path will,
sooner or later, inexorably lead to the democratization of the country.
Given the magnitude of the challenge, what is most important and urgent
now is to refrain from judging the actions of the past. Though
necessary, the results are already clear for all to see and will, in
time, be subject to the implacable judgement of history. Instead, the
task at hand is to define the path ahead and to move forward. It is this
path that, in the absence of alternative forces capable of imposing
rhythm and direction, the Cuban government will have to first define.
With no maximum leader or two heads of state, it alone has the resources
to initiate any transformation.
With the exception of the fledgling private sector, very little in the
economy is working. Dependent on tourism, the Port of Mariel Special
Development Zone and a few factories, it is concentrated in the hands of
the Business Administration Group (GAESA) under the direction of Major
General Luís Alberto Rodríguez López-Callejas.
As for the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), the Cuban constitution
stipulates that the president of the Council of State is supreme
commander. His principal deputies are army generals Leopoldo Cintra
Frías, Álvaro López Miera, Ramón Espinosa Martín, Joaquín Quinta Solas.
There are also Brigadier General Lucio Morales Abad, Raúl Rodríguez
Lobaina and Onelio Aguilera Bermúdez, who trained under the command of
Raúl Castro when he led that institution. All of them are members of the
Communist Party Politburo and Central Committee.
Additionally there is the National Defense Council, which can be
summoned by the president of the Council of State at will. In special
circumstances, it can become the main organ of governmental and and
political power, to which even the provincial and city party secretaries
are subordinate.
As a result, the current President holds all the reins of power,
allowing him to take Cuba down the necessary path with little or no
opposition.
Since the unfeasibility of the current political and economic model is
the root cause of people's apathy and despair, of the mass exodus and of
economic inefficiency, any reform that is implemented must attack this
fundamental cause. Adopting measures aimed at changing things in order
to avoid change, as happened before, would be totally useless today.
Time has completely run out. Although it holds all the reins of power,
the government cannot afford to use them for anything other than to
effect profound transformation. This is as necessary for resolving the
crisis as it is useless for making cosmetic changes or trying to hold
onto power in the long term.
Time has been lost but the new scenario, though more complex than those
before, offers one last chance for those in power to effect significant
change to in a orderly fashion. Totalitarianism is utterly spent.
Therefore, regardless of what the government wants, change is inevitable
for the government itself. This is the unique feature of the new
scenario, which is the ultimate outgrowth of process begun in 1959.
Among the many difficulties are the need for large investments and,
therefore, a large influx of foreign capital, which would require new
revisions to the country's investment law; implementing constitutional
changes to give legal legitimacy to successors who did not participate
in the 1959 revolution; an economy capable of reassuring a dissatisfied
populace; changes to property laws to allow producers to own their means
of production. For these transformations to be beneficial, they have to
be accompanied by transformations in the area of human rights and freedoms.
One of the most feasible possibilities is for the government to take the
Vietnamese route. The dilemma of such an approach is that Vietnam's
reforms did not address civil and political freedoms. Given Cuba's
history and culture, this is something that will be impossible to ignore
once economic reforms are under way.
In the short term, what happens from this point on will be decisive for
Cuba and its society but also for the current government. It is a
difficult but inescapable challenge in a landscape without godfathers,
without Fidel, with an economy in freefall, and for a people without hope.
Source: The Challenge of a Government without Fidel / Dimas Castellano –
Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/the-challenge-of-a-government-without-fidel-dimas-castellano/
Sunday, January 1, 2017
The Meteoric Rise Of Susely Morfa González
The Meteoric Rise Of Susely Morfa González / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Havana, 28 December 2016 — The political career of the
psychologist Susely Morfa González has been meteoric. This Tuesday she
was chosen to be a deputy in Cuba's National Assembly of People's Power
and a member of the Council of State, barely two years after she burst
on the public scene.
Morfa was born in 1982 in Cienfuegos and as a teenager was the president
of the Federation of Middle School Students in the town of Rodas. She
also held various positions within the Young Communists Union (UJC), and
before turning 30 was the first secretary of that organization in her
native province.
She has a degree in psychology, and her entire adult life has played the
role of political cadre. Several sources in the Ministry of Public
Health consulted by 14ymedio say that she has never practiced her
profession at any hospital in the country.
She was named at the last annual session of the Parliament to fill one
of the vacancies in the legislative body, and only in this way, as
established by law, was she able to become a part of the government's
highest body.
"It's not a good sign, because it means the most hard-line are winning,"
said a retired academic who preferred anonymity. However, analyst Julio
Aleaga, author of a study on Cuban politics, considers it difficult to
know Morfa's true ideological positions. To catalog her as more hard
line or more reformist is risky, he points out.
Her new position could respond to the Government's desire to place
"women, young people and afro-descendants" in the top positions to fill
gender, age and race quotas, says Aleaga, but when it comes to
decision-making, "they behave like nondescript people," without real power.
Morfa shot to fame for her combative performance at the Summit of the
Americas in Panama, in April 2015, when she starred in several acts of
repudiation and described the activists and exiles who participated in a
parallel event as members of Cuba's civil society as "lackeys,
mercenaries, self-funded, underpaid by imperialism."
During an extraordinary meeting of the UJC in the middle of this year,
Morfa was named first secretary of the organization, replacing Yuniask
Crespo Baquero.
Last September, she affirmed that "the non-state sector can not be
stigmatized" within the island's economy, although she clarified that
entrepreneurs have to remain "within the socialist system."
At the VII Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), last April,
the psychologist was elected a member of the Central Committee of the
only political organization allowed in the country. During the conclave
she was in charge of proposing the candidacy of the ruler Raúl Castro as
first secretary of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party.
Source: The Meteoric Rise Of Susely Morfa González / 14ymedio –
Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/the-meteoric-rise-of-susely-morfa-gonzalez-14ymedio/
14ymedio, Havana, 28 December 2016 — The political career of the
psychologist Susely Morfa González has been meteoric. This Tuesday she
was chosen to be a deputy in Cuba's National Assembly of People's Power
and a member of the Council of State, barely two years after she burst
on the public scene.
Morfa was born in 1982 in Cienfuegos and as a teenager was the president
of the Federation of Middle School Students in the town of Rodas. She
also held various positions within the Young Communists Union (UJC), and
before turning 30 was the first secretary of that organization in her
native province.
She has a degree in psychology, and her entire adult life has played the
role of political cadre. Several sources in the Ministry of Public
Health consulted by 14ymedio say that she has never practiced her
profession at any hospital in the country.
She was named at the last annual session of the Parliament to fill one
of the vacancies in the legislative body, and only in this way, as
established by law, was she able to become a part of the government's
highest body.
"It's not a good sign, because it means the most hard-line are winning,"
said a retired academic who preferred anonymity. However, analyst Julio
Aleaga, author of a study on Cuban politics, considers it difficult to
know Morfa's true ideological positions. To catalog her as more hard
line or more reformist is risky, he points out.
Her new position could respond to the Government's desire to place
"women, young people and afro-descendants" in the top positions to fill
gender, age and race quotas, says Aleaga, but when it comes to
decision-making, "they behave like nondescript people," without real power.
Morfa shot to fame for her combative performance at the Summit of the
Americas in Panama, in April 2015, when she starred in several acts of
repudiation and described the activists and exiles who participated in a
parallel event as members of Cuba's civil society as "lackeys,
mercenaries, self-funded, underpaid by imperialism."
During an extraordinary meeting of the UJC in the middle of this year,
Morfa was named first secretary of the organization, replacing Yuniask
Crespo Baquero.
Last September, she affirmed that "the non-state sector can not be
stigmatized" within the island's economy, although she clarified that
entrepreneurs have to remain "within the socialist system."
At the VII Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), last April,
the psychologist was elected a member of the Central Committee of the
only political organization allowed in the country. During the conclave
she was in charge of proposing the candidacy of the ruler Raúl Castro as
first secretary of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party.
Source: The Meteoric Rise Of Susely Morfa González / 14ymedio –
Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/the-meteoric-rise-of-susely-morfa-gonzalez-14ymedio/
Bus Terminals Overwhelmed By Hundreds Of Travelers Without Tickets
Bus Terminals Overwhelmed By Hundreds Of Travelers Without Tickets /
14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez
14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez, Havana, 27 December 2016 – Hundreds of
people are crowded right now in the "last hour" bus terminals, or are on
the waiting lists. With the regularly scheduled seats sold out,
travelers sleep in the floors of these places and eat frugally, while
dreaming of a vehicle that will get them home to spend New Year's with
their families.
In mid-December, the newspaper Granma reported that the Voyager Company
would put on sale new seats for interprovincial transport for the end
the year. However, the tickets sold out in a couple of days and
thousands of customers have been left stranded at "last hour" terminals
throughout the country.
This time, unlike other years, the so-called "waiting list" was not
addressed with a greater number of vehicles. The Business Group of
Automotive Transport Services preferred to sell in advance the
additional tickets to travel between 22 December 2016 and 7 January 2017.
The state transport company sold 9,000 seats above those offered by the
regular National Bus Service, but only the most forward-thinking were
able to get the tickets. The agencies that sell the tickets experienced
days of huge crowds, and five days after the official announcement,
tickets to Camaguey and Guantanamo were sold out.
Private transport companies provide only a little relief. Their high
prices make it difficult for many travelers to use their services,
because they can only afford the state rates.
"I know the face of almost everyone here, because most of these people
have been here for many days," confides the employee who takes care of
the men's toilet in the Villanueva last hour station in Havana. Chaos
and discouragement reigns in the facilities, where the average stay is
"four or five days" according to the worker.
"The police are coercing people to get them to leave," he explained to
14ymedio freelance reporter Juannier Matos Rodriguez, who was waiting in
Villanueva Monday to travel to Baracoa, Guantanamo. Entire families have
placed cardboard on the floor to sleep and the uniformed police patrol
the place.
"Several passengers have approached the employees asking for them to
arrange extra buses so that all these families can travel, but they do
not respond," says the young man. "The waiting list for Santiago de Cuba
is not moving, it's been stuck on the same numbers for two days," he adds.
The most desperate, with the resources available, pay between 14 and 15
Cuban Convertible Pesos (CUC) for a ride on a private truck bound for
Santiago de Cuba, twice as much as the state bus. These are cargo
vehicles re-configured for the transport of passengers. The best ones
have cushy seats and even air conditioning, but in most cases they are
uncomfortable and hot.
The National Bus Company serves 132 routes and in the first nine months
of this year it moved 7.6 million people, but when holidays approach,
the system collapses in the face of high demand. Most of the state-owned
equipment is Yutong brand buses from China, with a decade of overuse and
poor mechanical conditions.
The deterioration of the vehicles has combined this year with cuts in
fuel consumption that affect the entire country. Passenger transport has
been among the sectors most affected, although the government has also
imposed restrictions on electricity consumption and a drastic reduction
in the state sector's quota for gasoline or diesel.
Earlier this year, a discussion on the Roundtable TV program confirmed
that interprovincial transportation only meets 70% of demand.
"Why doesn't 'Cuba Says' come here now?" a woman at the Villanueva last
hour station complained Monday afternoon, in an allusion to the official
television program critical of the bureaucracy and laziness. Several
passengers recorded scenes with their mobile phones and from time to
time a shout was heard over the general murmur: "A truck arrived for
Holguín!"
After an announcement like this many throw themselves into the race,
pushing and shoving to the point of small brawls, to board the vehicle.
The police pull some people out of the melee and put them in their
patrol cars. Everyone wants to get out of the hell the Villanueva
station has become.
Source: Bus Terminals Overwhelmed By Hundreds Of Travelers Without
Tickets / 14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/bus-terminals-overwhelmed-by-hundreds-of-travelers-without-tickets-14ymedio-marcelo-hernandez/
14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez
14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez, Havana, 27 December 2016 – Hundreds of
people are crowded right now in the "last hour" bus terminals, or are on
the waiting lists. With the regularly scheduled seats sold out,
travelers sleep in the floors of these places and eat frugally, while
dreaming of a vehicle that will get them home to spend New Year's with
their families.
In mid-December, the newspaper Granma reported that the Voyager Company
would put on sale new seats for interprovincial transport for the end
the year. However, the tickets sold out in a couple of days and
thousands of customers have been left stranded at "last hour" terminals
throughout the country.
This time, unlike other years, the so-called "waiting list" was not
addressed with a greater number of vehicles. The Business Group of
Automotive Transport Services preferred to sell in advance the
additional tickets to travel between 22 December 2016 and 7 January 2017.
The state transport company sold 9,000 seats above those offered by the
regular National Bus Service, but only the most forward-thinking were
able to get the tickets. The agencies that sell the tickets experienced
days of huge crowds, and five days after the official announcement,
tickets to Camaguey and Guantanamo were sold out.
Private transport companies provide only a little relief. Their high
prices make it difficult for many travelers to use their services,
because they can only afford the state rates.
"I know the face of almost everyone here, because most of these people
have been here for many days," confides the employee who takes care of
the men's toilet in the Villanueva last hour station in Havana. Chaos
and discouragement reigns in the facilities, where the average stay is
"four or five days" according to the worker.
"The police are coercing people to get them to leave," he explained to
14ymedio freelance reporter Juannier Matos Rodriguez, who was waiting in
Villanueva Monday to travel to Baracoa, Guantanamo. Entire families have
placed cardboard on the floor to sleep and the uniformed police patrol
the place.
"Several passengers have approached the employees asking for them to
arrange extra buses so that all these families can travel, but they do
not respond," says the young man. "The waiting list for Santiago de Cuba
is not moving, it's been stuck on the same numbers for two days," he adds.
The most desperate, with the resources available, pay between 14 and 15
Cuban Convertible Pesos (CUC) for a ride on a private truck bound for
Santiago de Cuba, twice as much as the state bus. These are cargo
vehicles re-configured for the transport of passengers. The best ones
have cushy seats and even air conditioning, but in most cases they are
uncomfortable and hot.
The National Bus Company serves 132 routes and in the first nine months
of this year it moved 7.6 million people, but when holidays approach,
the system collapses in the face of high demand. Most of the state-owned
equipment is Yutong brand buses from China, with a decade of overuse and
poor mechanical conditions.
The deterioration of the vehicles has combined this year with cuts in
fuel consumption that affect the entire country. Passenger transport has
been among the sectors most affected, although the government has also
imposed restrictions on electricity consumption and a drastic reduction
in the state sector's quota for gasoline or diesel.
Earlier this year, a discussion on the Roundtable TV program confirmed
that interprovincial transportation only meets 70% of demand.
"Why doesn't 'Cuba Says' come here now?" a woman at the Villanueva last
hour station complained Monday afternoon, in an allusion to the official
television program critical of the bureaucracy and laziness. Several
passengers recorded scenes with their mobile phones and from time to
time a shout was heard over the general murmur: "A truck arrived for
Holguín!"
After an announcement like this many throw themselves into the race,
pushing and shoving to the point of small brawls, to board the vehicle.
The police pull some people out of the melee and put them in their
patrol cars. Everyone wants to get out of the hell the Villanueva
station has become.
Source: Bus Terminals Overwhelmed By Hundreds Of Travelers Without
Tickets / 14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/bus-terminals-overwhelmed-by-hundreds-of-travelers-without-tickets-14ymedio-marcelo-hernandez/
Cuban Economy in 2016: GDP Contracted 0.9%
Cuban Economy in 2016: GDP Contracted 0.9% / 14ymedio
14ymedio, (With information from EFE), Havana, 27 December 2016 – The
Cuban economy closed the year with a 0.9% contraction in GDP, well below
the 1% growth forecast, according to an announcement from Ricardo
Cabrisas Ruiz, Minister of the Economy and Planning, during the final
2016 session of the National Assembly on Tuesday, 27 December.
The minister acknowledged that the island experienced "financial
constraints" throughout the last 12 months, due to the decline in income
from exports, the economic difficulties of some of the country's main
partners, which were related to the fall in oil prices and the reduction
in the amount of fuel supplied from abroad, as well as the ongoing trade
embargo imposed on Cuba by the United States.
In 2016, mining revenues fell by 5%, and the minister also confirmed
that there is "a tense situation with the availability of hard currency,
a shortfall in earnings predicted from exports, and an insufficient
supply of fuel," caused by the reduction in shipments of crude oil from
Venezuela.
Cabrisas, however, predicted that GDP would grow by 2% in 2017, thanks
primarily to the growth of the sugar industry and the hotel sector, as
well as transport, warehousing, communications, supplies of gas and
water, agriculture, forestry, trade and manufacturing.
The minister stressed that in 2016 electrical energy generation grew
4.2%, and he estimated that in 2017 the use of renewable resources could
grow up to 4.65%. With regards to food imports, according to official
forecasts the year's total will reach 1.75 billion dollars, an increase
of 82 million dollars compared to last year. He insisted that the theft
of fuel must be avoided, but that "unfortunately it is happening" in the
state sector in Cuba, which "comes to light in the controls."
Cabrisas acknowledged that the share of foreign investment remains very
low and represents just 6.5% of the total desired.
The Minister of the Economy also stressed the need to develop a
medium-term program to "reverse the critical situation of the food
industry" and to "avoid the payment of wages without productive support."
After growing by 4% in 2015, the Cuban government forecast a GDP growth
of 2% for 2016, a target that was lowered midyear to 1% due to
"short-term financial difficulties."
The current crisis in Venezuela caused that country to reduce
its shipment of subsidized oil to the island in the first half of 2016,
forcing the Government of Havana to contact allies such as Russia,
Algeria and Angola in search of new business partners.
Given this situation, economic analysts have predicted a probable
economic recession in the country, which could delay the progress of
Raul Castro's reforms.
However, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
(ECLAC) predicts that in 2017 Cuba's economic growth will gradually
accelerate due to the regularization of fuel shipments from Venezuela
and improvements in telecommunications, tourism, construction and farming.
Source: Cuban Economy in 2016: GDP Contracted 0.9% / 14ymedio –
Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/cuban-economy-in-2016-gdp-contracted-0-9-14ymedio/
14ymedio, (With information from EFE), Havana, 27 December 2016 – The
Cuban economy closed the year with a 0.9% contraction in GDP, well below
the 1% growth forecast, according to an announcement from Ricardo
Cabrisas Ruiz, Minister of the Economy and Planning, during the final
2016 session of the National Assembly on Tuesday, 27 December.
The minister acknowledged that the island experienced "financial
constraints" throughout the last 12 months, due to the decline in income
from exports, the economic difficulties of some of the country's main
partners, which were related to the fall in oil prices and the reduction
in the amount of fuel supplied from abroad, as well as the ongoing trade
embargo imposed on Cuba by the United States.
In 2016, mining revenues fell by 5%, and the minister also confirmed
that there is "a tense situation with the availability of hard currency,
a shortfall in earnings predicted from exports, and an insufficient
supply of fuel," caused by the reduction in shipments of crude oil from
Venezuela.
Cabrisas, however, predicted that GDP would grow by 2% in 2017, thanks
primarily to the growth of the sugar industry and the hotel sector, as
well as transport, warehousing, communications, supplies of gas and
water, agriculture, forestry, trade and manufacturing.
The minister stressed that in 2016 electrical energy generation grew
4.2%, and he estimated that in 2017 the use of renewable resources could
grow up to 4.65%. With regards to food imports, according to official
forecasts the year's total will reach 1.75 billion dollars, an increase
of 82 million dollars compared to last year. He insisted that the theft
of fuel must be avoided, but that "unfortunately it is happening" in the
state sector in Cuba, which "comes to light in the controls."
Cabrisas acknowledged that the share of foreign investment remains very
low and represents just 6.5% of the total desired.
The Minister of the Economy also stressed the need to develop a
medium-term program to "reverse the critical situation of the food
industry" and to "avoid the payment of wages without productive support."
After growing by 4% in 2015, the Cuban government forecast a GDP growth
of 2% for 2016, a target that was lowered midyear to 1% due to
"short-term financial difficulties."
The current crisis in Venezuela caused that country to reduce
its shipment of subsidized oil to the island in the first half of 2016,
forcing the Government of Havana to contact allies such as Russia,
Algeria and Angola in search of new business partners.
Given this situation, economic analysts have predicted a probable
economic recession in the country, which could delay the progress of
Raul Castro's reforms.
However, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
(ECLAC) predicts that in 2017 Cuba's economic growth will gradually
accelerate due to the regularization of fuel shipments from Venezuela
and improvements in telecommunications, tourism, construction and farming.
Source: Cuban Economy in 2016: GDP Contracted 0.9% / 14ymedio –
Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/cuban-economy-in-2016-gdp-contracted-0-9-14ymedio/
Fidel Castro’s Name And Image Are Enveloped In Prohibitions
Fidel Castro's Name And Image Are Enveloped In Prohibitions / 14ymedio,
Mario Penton
14ymedio, Mario Penton, Miami, 27 December 2016 — The Cuban parliament
unanimously approved a bill on Tuesday stating that the name of the
deceased former president Fidel Castro cannot be used to designate
public spaces and it is forbidden to market his image.
"They want to keep the image of Fidel Castro with that halo of mystery
that always characterized him. They were in charge of presenting him to
the people as a superman, about whom we had little information regarding
his private life; we have to pay attention because they could be trying
to maneuver into converting him into one more national symbol," said the
columnist Miriam Celaya from Havana. "They don't want it to be the
same as what happened with Ernesto (Che) Guevara," she said.
Che's image has been indiscriminately commercialized and turned into a
symbol of rebelliousness and belonging by the entire world's left wing
movements. You can find everything from underpants to national flags
with his image. In Cuba, a good share of the handicrafts sold to
tourists bears the image of the Argentinian guerilla.
The law, the discussion of which had been announced at Castro's funeral
rites, supposedly corresponds to the will of the deceased, who asked
that his name not be used for plazas and avenues, and also prohibits the
raising of statues or the minting of coins with his image.
Although the deputies believed that Castro deserved "these traditional
forms of homage, or even greater ones," they decided to abide by his
will as proposed by his brother, Army General and President Raul Castro.
"Only the sacred respect for his will, an expression of the humility and
modesty that characterized him, and the fact that he always honored
Marti's preaching that all the glory of the world fits into a kernel of
corn, leads us to adopt a legal text of such nature," said the deputies,
according to the official press reports.
The National Assembly, however, excepts the use of the name of Castro
for the creation of some educational institution on "his invaluable
trajectory."
"They want to avoid the fact that once the tyranny is destroyed, his
statues would be torn down by a free country," says José Daniel Ferrer,
leader of the Patriotic Union on Cuba (UNPACU), an opposition
organization in the east of the island.
For Ferrer, the approved law seeks to "justify" the cult of personality
that the government has imposed on the nation, a cult that the UNPACU
leader describes as "sick."
"The country has been filled with his images and slogans for decades. As
Castro knew, when tyrants fall their symbols disappear; it seems he
wanted to avoid a spectacle like what happened in the former USSR," he
commented.
For Elisa Valdés, a housewife in Cienfuegos province, the law puts the
name of Fidel almost on a par with that of God. "It's like it's sacred,"
she says on the phone. Instead of "you will not take the name of God in
vain, we will now have to say: you will not take Fidel's name in vain,"
she says wryly.
The legislation also prohibits "the use of names, images or allusions of
any nature referring to the figure of the Commander in Chief Fidel
Castro Ruz for use as a trademark or other distinctive signs, domain
names and designs for commercial or advertising purposes."
It is not clear if all the artistic photos and images of Fidel Castro
that are sold in the tourist areas, from postcards recalling the
deceased leader to T-shirts with his effigy, will be eliminated.
According to the Cuban press, it would be a question of "avoiding the
use of the figure of the leader of the Revolution in commercial traffic
or for commercial advertising purposes," although it would not limit
artistic use or the photographs and banners used up until now in state
companies, walls, propaganda billboards, and even stones on the edges of
the streets.
"For all those who are grateful that they will always accompany
compañero Fidel, the homages they render him will be few," said the more
than 600 deputies who make up the unicameral body, speaking in the last
session of this year.
Source: Fidel Castro's Name And Image Are Enveloped In Prohibitions /
14ymedio, Mario Penton – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/the-name-and-image-of-fidel-castro-are-enveloped-in-prohibitions-14ymedio-mario-penton/
Mario Penton
14ymedio, Mario Penton, Miami, 27 December 2016 — The Cuban parliament
unanimously approved a bill on Tuesday stating that the name of the
deceased former president Fidel Castro cannot be used to designate
public spaces and it is forbidden to market his image.
"They want to keep the image of Fidel Castro with that halo of mystery
that always characterized him. They were in charge of presenting him to
the people as a superman, about whom we had little information regarding
his private life; we have to pay attention because they could be trying
to maneuver into converting him into one more national symbol," said the
columnist Miriam Celaya from Havana. "They don't want it to be the
same as what happened with Ernesto (Che) Guevara," she said.
Che's image has been indiscriminately commercialized and turned into a
symbol of rebelliousness and belonging by the entire world's left wing
movements. You can find everything from underpants to national flags
with his image. In Cuba, a good share of the handicrafts sold to
tourists bears the image of the Argentinian guerilla.
The law, the discussion of which had been announced at Castro's funeral
rites, supposedly corresponds to the will of the deceased, who asked
that his name not be used for plazas and avenues, and also prohibits the
raising of statues or the minting of coins with his image.
Although the deputies believed that Castro deserved "these traditional
forms of homage, or even greater ones," they decided to abide by his
will as proposed by his brother, Army General and President Raul Castro.
"Only the sacred respect for his will, an expression of the humility and
modesty that characterized him, and the fact that he always honored
Marti's preaching that all the glory of the world fits into a kernel of
corn, leads us to adopt a legal text of such nature," said the deputies,
according to the official press reports.
The National Assembly, however, excepts the use of the name of Castro
for the creation of some educational institution on "his invaluable
trajectory."
"They want to avoid the fact that once the tyranny is destroyed, his
statues would be torn down by a free country," says José Daniel Ferrer,
leader of the Patriotic Union on Cuba (UNPACU), an opposition
organization in the east of the island.
For Ferrer, the approved law seeks to "justify" the cult of personality
that the government has imposed on the nation, a cult that the UNPACU
leader describes as "sick."
"The country has been filled with his images and slogans for decades. As
Castro knew, when tyrants fall their symbols disappear; it seems he
wanted to avoid a spectacle like what happened in the former USSR," he
commented.
For Elisa Valdés, a housewife in Cienfuegos province, the law puts the
name of Fidel almost on a par with that of God. "It's like it's sacred,"
she says on the phone. Instead of "you will not take the name of God in
vain, we will now have to say: you will not take Fidel's name in vain,"
she says wryly.
The legislation also prohibits "the use of names, images or allusions of
any nature referring to the figure of the Commander in Chief Fidel
Castro Ruz for use as a trademark or other distinctive signs, domain
names and designs for commercial or advertising purposes."
It is not clear if all the artistic photos and images of Fidel Castro
that are sold in the tourist areas, from postcards recalling the
deceased leader to T-shirts with his effigy, will be eliminated.
According to the Cuban press, it would be a question of "avoiding the
use of the figure of the leader of the Revolution in commercial traffic
or for commercial advertising purposes," although it would not limit
artistic use or the photographs and banners used up until now in state
companies, walls, propaganda billboards, and even stones on the edges of
the streets.
"For all those who are grateful that they will always accompany
compañero Fidel, the homages they render him will be few," said the more
than 600 deputies who make up the unicameral body, speaking in the last
session of this year.
Source: Fidel Castro's Name And Image Are Enveloped In Prohibitions /
14ymedio, Mario Penton – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/the-name-and-image-of-fidel-castro-are-enveloped-in-prohibitions-14ymedio-mario-penton/
Reggaeton, Reality’s Soundtrack
Reggaeton, Reality's Soundtrack / 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez
14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 27 December 2016 — The car is about to
come apart at the seams every time it hits a bump in Havana's crumbling
streets. The passengers in the shared taxi vibrate with the rattling of
the vehicle and the reggaeton blasting from the speakers. It is the
music of the early 21st century, a genre of raw lyrics and explicit
sexuality that accompanies every minute of our reality.
With a paternity shared between Puerto Rico and Panama, this urban sound
marks the birth of the millennium. It has added a naked touch and a
certain lascivious rhythm to the times we live in. The lyrics of the
songs venerate ostentatiousness as a virtue, celebrating a world where
the size of your watch and the thickness of your gold chains are ever
more important.
Reggaeton has won out over the protest song of so many social dreams
born in Latin America, most of them failed. Its raw materiality has also
displaced those anthological boleros that had us weeping on our bar
stools, and the carols that overwhelm us at the end of the year. The
singers of this fierce music don't want to be seen as heroes nor as
broken-hearted lovers. Rather, they want to convey an image of cynical
survival, of calculated lightness.
Hence the fuss kicked up by some in response to the impudent lyrics of
Cuatro Babys, a song from the Colombian Maluma, where he brags about
having four women at his beck and call. The repulsion gets buried in the
200 million (and counting) views the video has enjoyed on YouTube. These
are times of hits… not of indignation.
Maluma's assertions do not scandalize the followers of the rhythm, who
see him as the chronicler of a tangible and known reality. It is not
reggaeton, it is life that has not taken hold as it should. The
Colombian is only the loudspeaker of such a distrubing but common
message that doesn't raise a single eyebrow around here. Blushing does
not change the environment.
Reggaeton has become a way of looking at life, in a cosmogony lacking in
delicacies or half-tones. It doesn't matter whether you follow it or
not, if you like it or not, there is no way to cover your ears and
ignore it. It is here, there, everywhere. Our children hum its choruses.
"Tengo money," repeats a seven-year-old girl in a Cuban classroom, using
the English word for cash; and her classmates complete the phrase of a
popular reggaeton song. A few minutes earlier they had been shouting a
slogan in the school's morning assembly: "Pioneers for communism, we
will be like Che!"
Speaking and understanding the codes of reggaeton is essential to
communicating with the younger generation, but also with many of their
parents. Minimizing and censoring it only strengthens it, because it has
become the compass that expresses rebellion. It has lasted longer than
any other genre pushed by record labels or cultural policies.
At the end of the last century, very few would have predicted that for
nearly two decades already this urban rhythm would dominate the music
that is played at nightclubs, private parties and on the devices we
attach to ourselves with earbuds. But it has stayed with us, grabbing us
with its wild impudence. Perhaps it only interprets what beats down
below, far from the lights of the ceremonies, the outfits for special
occasions and the opportunism.
Who would have said it? From the songs of Victor Jara to the catchy
phrases of Don Omar, from the utopian Silvio Rodríguez to the emaciated
Cuban musicians Yomil and El Dany. "My Blue Unicorn" grazes now in a
meadow of minuscule bikinis and hundred dollar bills. Those who hummed
they would "give their heart" have decided to trade it in for swimming
pool in which a thousand and one nymphs frolic and don't say a word.
To reject reggaeton, this rhythm incubated in the "New World," is like
rejecting the potato domesticated in the high plateaus. Sooner or later
you will end up eating it, sooner or later you will end up dancing. Even
at the most glamorous parties, the dresses are hitched up, the makeup
runs, and the social climbers, the nerds, the "good kids," end up
dancing doggy style, sweating in a spasm of lust and oblivion.
Fought against far too often with the dictionary, the academy and too
much café con leche, the reggaetoners are teen idols and set the styles,
the customs and the forms of speech. They do not travel in yellow
submarines but rather in luxury cars, surrounded by alcohol and kisses.
These are not the psychedelic years, but the years of touching down,
when the lower the fall and the deeper the plunge into the abyss of
excess the more tracks they will sell.
Reggaeton is also a lingua franca, a common language like Esperanto once
hoped to be, like HTML code did manage to be. All its followers descend
or ascend to the same level when they dance. The hips that touch under
its influence don't understand ideologies, social classes, the
exploitation of man or capital gains. It is the universal language of
sheer pleasure, the jargon learned before birth, which we pass on with
confidence.
Not by chance did Barack Obama, in his historic speech in Havana, allude
to the contagious rhythm when he said, "In Miami or Havana, you can find
places to dance the Cha-Cha-Cha or the Salsa, and eat ropa vieja.
People in both of our countries have sung along with Celia Cruz or
Gloria Estefan, and now listen to reggaeton or Pitbull."
A lyrical battle, where reggaetoners tackle the stage and confront the
microphones, fighting for the audience as if it were a reality show. The
crude lyrics and machine gun blasts in their productions reinforce the
sense of combat. A contest where everything is achieved with pelvic sweat.
Reggaeton has proved to be the unexpected antidote against the malaise
of a culture diagnosed by Sigmund Freud. It represents, like few
phenomena, the end of innocence. Was there any left? A workhorse that
returns us to the state which perhaps we never left, a moment when we
are only flesh and guts.
_______________________
Editor's note: This text was published on Tuesday, 27 December 2016 in
the newspaper El País.
Source: Reggaeton, Reality's Soundtrack / 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez –
Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/reggaeton-realitys-soundtrack-14ymedio-yoani-sanchez/
14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 27 December 2016 — The car is about to
come apart at the seams every time it hits a bump in Havana's crumbling
streets. The passengers in the shared taxi vibrate with the rattling of
the vehicle and the reggaeton blasting from the speakers. It is the
music of the early 21st century, a genre of raw lyrics and explicit
sexuality that accompanies every minute of our reality.
With a paternity shared between Puerto Rico and Panama, this urban sound
marks the birth of the millennium. It has added a naked touch and a
certain lascivious rhythm to the times we live in. The lyrics of the
songs venerate ostentatiousness as a virtue, celebrating a world where
the size of your watch and the thickness of your gold chains are ever
more important.
Reggaeton has won out over the protest song of so many social dreams
born in Latin America, most of them failed. Its raw materiality has also
displaced those anthological boleros that had us weeping on our bar
stools, and the carols that overwhelm us at the end of the year. The
singers of this fierce music don't want to be seen as heroes nor as
broken-hearted lovers. Rather, they want to convey an image of cynical
survival, of calculated lightness.
Hence the fuss kicked up by some in response to the impudent lyrics of
Cuatro Babys, a song from the Colombian Maluma, where he brags about
having four women at his beck and call. The repulsion gets buried in the
200 million (and counting) views the video has enjoyed on YouTube. These
are times of hits… not of indignation.
Maluma's assertions do not scandalize the followers of the rhythm, who
see him as the chronicler of a tangible and known reality. It is not
reggaeton, it is life that has not taken hold as it should. The
Colombian is only the loudspeaker of such a distrubing but common
message that doesn't raise a single eyebrow around here. Blushing does
not change the environment.
Reggaeton has become a way of looking at life, in a cosmogony lacking in
delicacies or half-tones. It doesn't matter whether you follow it or
not, if you like it or not, there is no way to cover your ears and
ignore it. It is here, there, everywhere. Our children hum its choruses.
"Tengo money," repeats a seven-year-old girl in a Cuban classroom, using
the English word for cash; and her classmates complete the phrase of a
popular reggaeton song. A few minutes earlier they had been shouting a
slogan in the school's morning assembly: "Pioneers for communism, we
will be like Che!"
Speaking and understanding the codes of reggaeton is essential to
communicating with the younger generation, but also with many of their
parents. Minimizing and censoring it only strengthens it, because it has
become the compass that expresses rebellion. It has lasted longer than
any other genre pushed by record labels or cultural policies.
At the end of the last century, very few would have predicted that for
nearly two decades already this urban rhythm would dominate the music
that is played at nightclubs, private parties and on the devices we
attach to ourselves with earbuds. But it has stayed with us, grabbing us
with its wild impudence. Perhaps it only interprets what beats down
below, far from the lights of the ceremonies, the outfits for special
occasions and the opportunism.
Who would have said it? From the songs of Victor Jara to the catchy
phrases of Don Omar, from the utopian Silvio Rodríguez to the emaciated
Cuban musicians Yomil and El Dany. "My Blue Unicorn" grazes now in a
meadow of minuscule bikinis and hundred dollar bills. Those who hummed
they would "give their heart" have decided to trade it in for swimming
pool in which a thousand and one nymphs frolic and don't say a word.
To reject reggaeton, this rhythm incubated in the "New World," is like
rejecting the potato domesticated in the high plateaus. Sooner or later
you will end up eating it, sooner or later you will end up dancing. Even
at the most glamorous parties, the dresses are hitched up, the makeup
runs, and the social climbers, the nerds, the "good kids," end up
dancing doggy style, sweating in a spasm of lust and oblivion.
Fought against far too often with the dictionary, the academy and too
much café con leche, the reggaetoners are teen idols and set the styles,
the customs and the forms of speech. They do not travel in yellow
submarines but rather in luxury cars, surrounded by alcohol and kisses.
These are not the psychedelic years, but the years of touching down,
when the lower the fall and the deeper the plunge into the abyss of
excess the more tracks they will sell.
Reggaeton is also a lingua franca, a common language like Esperanto once
hoped to be, like HTML code did manage to be. All its followers descend
or ascend to the same level when they dance. The hips that touch under
its influence don't understand ideologies, social classes, the
exploitation of man or capital gains. It is the universal language of
sheer pleasure, the jargon learned before birth, which we pass on with
confidence.
Not by chance did Barack Obama, in his historic speech in Havana, allude
to the contagious rhythm when he said, "In Miami or Havana, you can find
places to dance the Cha-Cha-Cha or the Salsa, and eat ropa vieja.
People in both of our countries have sung along with Celia Cruz or
Gloria Estefan, and now listen to reggaeton or Pitbull."
A lyrical battle, where reggaetoners tackle the stage and confront the
microphones, fighting for the audience as if it were a reality show. The
crude lyrics and machine gun blasts in their productions reinforce the
sense of combat. A contest where everything is achieved with pelvic sweat.
Reggaeton has proved to be the unexpected antidote against the malaise
of a culture diagnosed by Sigmund Freud. It represents, like few
phenomena, the end of innocence. Was there any left? A workhorse that
returns us to the state which perhaps we never left, a moment when we
are only flesh and guts.
_______________________
Editor's note: This text was published on Tuesday, 27 December 2016 in
the newspaper El País.
Source: Reggaeton, Reality's Soundtrack / 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez –
Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/reggaeton-realitys-soundtrack-14ymedio-yoani-sanchez/
Raul Castro’s Hourglass is Running Out
Raul Castro's Hourglass is Running Out / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 26 December 2016 — A popular joke
inquires about the color of a train that arrives late at the
station. The answer is a play on words: de morado.* Raul Castro has
dressed in just that tone in relation to his obligations for the end of
the year. The delay in keeping certain commitments threatens the image
of punctuality and pragmatism that the General President has wanted to
present.
The plenary session of the Communist Party Central Committee planned for
this December still doesn't have a date. The partisan meeting should
approve the expected Conceptualization of the Economic and Social Model,
as well as the 2030 Economic Development Plan, but there are only five
days remaining for it to fulfill its promise.
A telephone call to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba
(PCC) clarifies few doubts. The secretary for Olga Lidia Tapia Iglesias,
a member of the Secretariat responsible for the Department of Education,
Science and Sport, confirmed to 14ymedio that "they have not set a date"
for the pending meeting.
Both documents were debated by the PCC membership and the Young
Communist Union (UJC), as well as the leadership of the mass
organizations and trade unions. The official press emphasized that
currently there is massive agreement with the texts as presented,
although it reported several proposals to modify or add to them.
Point 104 of the Conceptualization document raised a stir; the point
reaffirms an idea raised in the PC Guidelines. The cold water for local
entrepreneurs focuses on the statement that "concentration of property
and wealth in natural or non-state legal persons is not permitted." A
proposal that must be accepted or rejected this December.
If the plenary session is not held, the seriousness that Raul Castro has
wanted to imprint on his official acts would suffer a serious blow. He
would also be obliged to publically justify the informality. Hurricane
Matthew, the surprising election of Donald Trump as president of the
United States and the death of Fidel Castro could be among the official
excuses.
The number of days remaining in December is the same as the number of
fingers on one hand. At least two of them will be used for the upcoming
session of the National Assembly of People's Power. Given the
traditional confusion of roles between the Government, the Parliament
and the Party, perhaps in the sessions with the deputies the date of the
party conclave will be reported.
But if it does not happen before the end of the year, Raul Castro will
need to show a very convincing explanation.
*Translator's note: "Morado" means purple, and "de morado" means delayed.
Source: Raul Castro's Hourglass is Running Out / 14ymedio, Reinaldo
Escobar – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/raul-castro-hourglass-is-running-14ymedio-reinaldo-escobar/
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 26 December 2016 — A popular joke
inquires about the color of a train that arrives late at the
station. The answer is a play on words: de morado.* Raul Castro has
dressed in just that tone in relation to his obligations for the end of
the year. The delay in keeping certain commitments threatens the image
of punctuality and pragmatism that the General President has wanted to
present.
The plenary session of the Communist Party Central Committee planned for
this December still doesn't have a date. The partisan meeting should
approve the expected Conceptualization of the Economic and Social Model,
as well as the 2030 Economic Development Plan, but there are only five
days remaining for it to fulfill its promise.
A telephone call to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba
(PCC) clarifies few doubts. The secretary for Olga Lidia Tapia Iglesias,
a member of the Secretariat responsible for the Department of Education,
Science and Sport, confirmed to 14ymedio that "they have not set a date"
for the pending meeting.
Both documents were debated by the PCC membership and the Young
Communist Union (UJC), as well as the leadership of the mass
organizations and trade unions. The official press emphasized that
currently there is massive agreement with the texts as presented,
although it reported several proposals to modify or add to them.
Point 104 of the Conceptualization document raised a stir; the point
reaffirms an idea raised in the PC Guidelines. The cold water for local
entrepreneurs focuses on the statement that "concentration of property
and wealth in natural or non-state legal persons is not permitted." A
proposal that must be accepted or rejected this December.
If the plenary session is not held, the seriousness that Raul Castro has
wanted to imprint on his official acts would suffer a serious blow. He
would also be obliged to publically justify the informality. Hurricane
Matthew, the surprising election of Donald Trump as president of the
United States and the death of Fidel Castro could be among the official
excuses.
The number of days remaining in December is the same as the number of
fingers on one hand. At least two of them will be used for the upcoming
session of the National Assembly of People's Power. Given the
traditional confusion of roles between the Government, the Parliament
and the Party, perhaps in the sessions with the deputies the date of the
party conclave will be reported.
But if it does not happen before the end of the year, Raul Castro will
need to show a very convincing explanation.
*Translator's note: "Morado" means purple, and "de morado" means delayed.
Source: Raul Castro's Hourglass is Running Out / 14ymedio, Reinaldo
Escobar – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/raul-castro-hourglass-is-running-14ymedio-reinaldo-escobar/
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