The Revolution of the Opportunists / Iván García

The Revolution of the Opportunists / Iván García
Iván García, Translator: Unstated

Viviana, 34, is a good example demonstrating that the Revolution of
Fidel Castro is losing force. She has never read any work of Marxist
theorists. Not even Das Kapital.

Neither does she need to. She is very clear. She needs to get the red
card of the party to rise. Improve her harsh living conditions and have
opportunities and benefits. That is her goal. And it works for her.

There exists in Cuba a new breed of the supposed Castro brothers
faithful with an amazing glaze of cynicism and opportunism. Forget
faith. To occupy a position within the ideological sector, they see a
spiral staircase to climb the ladder to the superstructure.

Their vocation us not Karl Marx, nor even Jose Marti. A little of Fidel
Castro and great desires to travel the world in the name of tropical
socialism.

They know the prerogatives of power. "Big Brother" is parsimonious. But
he rewards fidelity. You can spend the summer in a house on the beach.
Get foods and little things without spending money in State stores.
Dance reggaeton without paying in hard currency, though perhaps a few
pesos, at some disco in Havana.

And at the end of the road, if you pass through the trustworthiness
filter, first a car, and then an address, conveyed from one of the many
houses belonging to the "State reserve."

After arriving and kissing the saint, there are other chameleon tactics.
Being in the National Assembly is important. Rubbing shoulders with
generals and ministers is a wonderful gateway. A good cover letter.

Wildly applauding the speech of the boss. Discreetly, suggesting the
possibility of filing down certain sharp edges in the Creole Bible that
is the Guidelines of the Economic and Social Policy of the Party and the
Revolution. At that time, perhaps some old military leader of a
corporation or foreign firm has his eye on you and makes you the
expected offer

It is the dream of the new grandchildren of the Revolution. A visa. And
foreign currency in your wallet. Like pigs primed with three meals a
day. Never missing the three C's in the pantry: beef, shrimp and coffee
(Carne de res, Camarones and Cafe… in Spanish). And the coffee is not
mixed with peas. It's Brazilian or Colombian.

Genuflection and bigotry are a means to ascend. Progress in the name of
an old German philosopher or that hard Russian Bolshevik whom you have
never read, or read without paying attention, and, of course,
assimilating, or pretending to assimilate, Fidelismo, that religion that
emerged in 1959.

Any methods is good to show loyalty. From the beating of a peaceful
dissident, or screaming with your veins popping out at the Ladies in
White, "to the machete," or insulting and classifying independent
journalists as "mercenaries." In pursuit of reaching the goal, anything
goes.

October 12 2011

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=15710

Pilgrims to Cuba hope pope's visit will signal change

Pilgrims to Cuba hope pope's visit will signal change
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
Saturday, February 25, 2012

MIAMI _ For the businessman who has changed his politics, the Miami
priest who tends to an exile flock, the retired college math professor
who has searched her conscience for guidance and the lawyer who has long
advocated reconciliation, the pilgrimage to Cuba next month represents
more than an opportunity to see Pope Benedict XVI celebrate Mass.

The trip signals hope. Hope that the island will open itself up to
freedom. Hope that Miami's Cuban-American community has matured enough
to consider other approaches. Hope that the pilgrims' presence, and that
of their religious leader, will show the world that change is possible.

The pope's three-day-trip, which will commemorate the 400th anniversary
of the appearance of Our Lady of Charity, Cuba's patron saint, is
bringing together faithful from all walks of life who share one belief:
Benedict's visit to the communist island, the second by a pontiff in 14
years, marks one more step in the long journey of bringing the Cuban
people together.

"This," says Cuban-born Rev. Fernando Heria, pastor of St. Brendan's
Catholic Church, "is an opportunity to break myths on both sides. This
is a pilgrimage of love."

Many agree. "Our presence is the best testimonial," says Margarita
Cuervo, a parishioner at Epiphany Catholic Church and a professor
emeritus at Miami Dade College. "I'm going to express my solidarity and
share my faith and hope with the long-suffering people in Cuba."

And from Miami attorney John de Leon, who calls his first trip to his
parents' homeland in 1992 life changing: "The pope is sending an
incredibly important message to the world, and it's a message that the
Vatican is willing to keep engaging Cuba, that the world needs to open
to Cuba and Cuba to the world."

The Archdiocese of Miami is sponsoring the trip to Cuba during the
pope's visit, March 26-28, led by Archbishop Thomas Wenski. Hundreds
have applied for the trip. Most pilgrims are from Miami, but faithful
are coming from all over the country, including New York, Los Angeles,
Boston, Tampa and St. Augustine. It's not yet clear how many other
pilgrims, both Cuban and non-Cuban, will visit the communist island on
flights through independent charters.

One thing appears certain, though. The opposition that bedeviled Pope
John Paul II's historic visit to Cuba in January 1998 is not as large or
as vocal. Back then, the Archdiocese was forced to cancel a cruise ship
charter that was scheduled to take thousands of the faithful to the
island. Now, 14 years later, "we as a community have matured," says Andy
Gomez, a senior fellow for the Institute for Cuban and Cuban American
studies at the University of Miami. "I think we're more realistic."

Much has changed, too, on the other side of the Florida Straits. Fidel
Castro is no longer in power, having ceded the reins to his more
pragmatic brother Raul. And the Catholic church has become a social
force in the island's society, brokering the release of political
prisoners and lobbying to halt the harassment of some dissidents.
"Democracy is not going to happen overnight," says Gomez, who will be in
Cuba for the pope's visit. "But the church also realizes it can play an
important role in the changes that are going to come."

In Miami, Gomez, adds, some of the entrenched hard-liners have either
died or evolved in their stance. A growing number of Cuban-Americans are
questioning a 53-year-old failed policy of isolation. What's more, the
sight of enthusiastic throngs greeting Pope John Paul 14 years ago
proved to be an eye-opening experience for some exiles _ those who were
there to witness it and those who refused to go but watched from Miami.

Businessman Carlos Saladrigas was one of them. He spearheaded the
opposition to the church-sponsored cruise in 1998. But "after I saw the
images on television and I heard what was being said, it was clear to me
that I had made a mistake. I realized I wanted to be there," he says.

Those powerful images got him thinking _ and talking. He spoke at length
with Father Jose Conrado Rodriguez, an outspoken priest from a parish in
Santiago de Cuba. Father Rodriguez is best known for the 2009 open
letter he sent Raul Castro condemning the restrictions on freedoms and
the harassment of his parishioners. "He convinced me it was necessary to
seek a neutral process," Saladrigas said _ a process the Catholic church
could facilitate.

Saladrigas and wife, Olga, practicing Catholics who met as teenagers
teaching catechism classes in Miami, will be in Cuba for Benedict's
visit. He defends the church's position against those who claim that a
religious institution should not play into Castro's hands. "The church
is doing what it always does," he adds. "It provides moral guidance. It
spreads the gospel. This is about evangelization, about hope."

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

Saladrigas echoes the words of other pilgrims, who say the gradual
opening of a totalitarian government bodes well. De Leon, president of
the Greater Miami Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, says
Benedict's trip _ the second by a pope to the small Caribbean nation in
less than 15 years _ signals an opportunity to engage the Cubans on the
island. De Leon also went to Cuba for Pope John Paul's 1998 visit., a
trip, he says, that made an impact on the island.

"The pope is serving as a force for reconciliation," says de Leon, who
will be representing la Asociacion Cubana de la Orden de Malta, a
charitable Catholic group. "I'm very much a believer that when you open
up doors to faith and religion, miracles happen."

That's also the message Cuban-born Felipe Estevez, bishop of the Diocese
of St. Augustine, is spreading to the dozen faithful who will accompany
him to the island in March. He calls the visit a viaje de re-encuentro,
a trip of reunion. "It's time to heal the separation between families,
between Cubans," says Estevez, who has been back to Cuba as a priest
several times. "Cuba is more than a political party. It's a people, a
society."

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

Estevez says he understands why some exiles have vowed to never return
to the island as long as the Castros are in power. "There's been a lot
of oppression, a lot of hurt. But at the same time, the island doesn't
belong to the party or to one man. It belongs to the people."

For some pilgrims, the trip back is expected to be very emotional.
Cuervo, for instance, hopes to visit a cousin, whose son is now a
priest. She also hopes to stop in on the nuns from Religiosas del
Apostolado, the religious order who taught her in Cuba. "This is a
religious pilgrimage," she says. "It's an opportunity to find out how we
can be of help and to be blessed in a special way by Our Lady of Charity
and our Pope."

In 1998, she debated whether she wanted to return to the island. Wenski,
at the time not yet a bishop, gave her this piece of advice: "Let the
spirit guide you." She did and applied to go on a one-day charter
flight, but a visa mix-up kept her stranded in Miami. When she finally
went several months later _ the first time she had returned to her
homeland in more than 35 years _ she distributed rosaries and prayer cards.

"There was such a spiritual hunger," she recalls, tears welling. She
expects to see the same in March.

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

Not all pilgrims going to the island are Cuban. Ralph Gazitua is is
Chilean, a devout Catholic ordained as a deacon 25 years ago.
Accompanying him will be his wife, Maria Elena "Cookie," a Cuban whose
parents came here before the revolution, and one of his two sons, Luis
Andres, a lawyer. Though they have no family on the island, they hope to
connect with the Cuban people through their faith.

"The real focus of the trip for me is to bring a spiritual message,"
Luis Andres says. "This can be the start of a cultural, political and
economic renaissance on the island."

Ralph Gazitua, has led the prison ministry for the Archdiocese of Miami
for more than two decades and sees some similarities between his work in
those institutions and efforts to spread the gospel in Cuba.

"I've seen amazing things happen through the force of prayer," says
Gazitua, who has visited the Vatican several times. "Our message as a
group of pilgrims should be clear. Through strong faith, everything is
possible."

http://www.wenatcheeworld.com/news/2012/feb/25/pilgrims-to-cuba-hope-popes-visit-will-signal/

Cuba: One Photo, Please

Cuba: One Photo, Please
February 25, 2012
David Canela

HAVANA TIMES, Feb 25 — Apparently, taking a simple photo in a public
place in Cuba represents a threat to state security, as if it were a
bomb or a massive riot.

This leads me to pose some problems. The first is that of freedom, and
its unequal interpretation with respect to the rights of citizens and
foreigners.

Tourism is one of the three mainstays of the Cuban economy, discounting
of course remittances, which contribute the largest amount of the net
revenue to the government treasury.

However, no tourist in the world — except in North Korea — is ever told
when they come to a country that it's forbidden to take photographs in
any institution or property or environment relating to the state.

It appears to be like a curfew or a perpetual ban on information which
could originate from independent media.

It means that taking a photo in a hotel or on a city street could be
considered a subversive act, unless it's inferred that you took it for
your personal recollection, or that you state its purpose (sometimes
this is done indirectly, if it's known you're are a "simple tourist,"
for example, or a government approved reporter, a painter, a
photographic artist or an architect).

Where Are the Prohibitions Stated?

They sell cameras in Cuba, but nowhere are there instructions — not in
the store or in the manual for the camera (which of course isn't made in
Cuba) — as to which places or objects of photos are or aren't allowed,
except perhaps after they've been snapped.

Suspicion and fear of the truth spread like shadows in the minds of the
pursuers. Likewise, the paranoia that's so intrinsic to the police
system begins to sink into the mind of the photographer, as if they were
a spy who was endeavoring to steal some military or industrial secret
tucked away in some remote office.

I know Cubans who have been forced to delete their photos simply for
photographing a police officer or a "strategic location" (the outside of
a bus terminal or a bank), and even for taking photos of street
performers who were being photographed by other tourists – foreigners,
of course.

So why do people take pictures? First, a photo is a testimony – as once
were sculptures, paintings and engravings. It's a story frozen in time
and preserved for our memory.

If concentration camps had not been photographed after the end of World
War II, revealing the skeletal bodies of those who existed in them and
the piles of corpses dumped in mass graves, many people today might have
doubted the gravity and scale of the genocide, even its very existence.

Thanks to the thousands of photographs taken during and after the war,
there now remains tangible evidence for future generations who may have
a better idea of it, beyond subjective reports of the magnitude of the
crime. Without them, there would not have been a Universal Declaration
of Human Rights.

Hiding such a profound story, like now trying to hide a reality that is
so evident, to me seems like committing fraud against the future, like
giving people a massive dose of amnesia.

In addition, photographs can be art, even when they capture those sordid
and sad images of life, as demonstrated by Che Guevara himself.

The Public Domain in Cuba

The second problem is that of property, the connotation acquired by the
so-called "public domain." In Cuba there's a role reversal: public space
serves as the private domain of ??the state ("the street belong to the
revolutionaries"), and the individual domain (one's home) is more like a
public space, in the eyes of one's neighbors.

Until there is recognition, through legislation, of the right to own
individual property, the whole country will behave like a private area
of ??the state. The state is the owner of a huge company, a huge
monopoly called the state, which administers through capricious,
draconian and unilateral laws, and sometimes through none at all.

The ban that doesn't allow the photographing of state institutions comes
from a directive of the Communist Party, which claims that photos could
be used for what it calls "counter-revolution" or the "bad-mouthing of
the government."

Conducting counter-revolution would be not only be making an objective
analysis of the Cuban environment, but simply showing it. This is
especially the case when and where reality has been silenced and
banished from the official media, at least when it's not used for
demagoguery.

In addition, the fear of the repercussion that their publication could
have is obvious. They must feel deep shame; they don't want to admit
that they were wrong.

They sanctified a state and a system that has let them down, one which
they cling to only for fear of seeing the little they have being taken
away. In exchange for a few crumbs, their loyalty hardened.

Today, December 14, 2011, they told me that because of my taking those
pictures I was already (with a file). So I can now expect that at any
time I'll be called in to be told that they didn't like one of my photos
very much. What's funny is that what I'd tell them is…I don't like them
either.

http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=62894

Coast Guard repatriates 13 Cuban migrants

Coast Guard repatriates 13 Cuban migrants

Migrants given food, water and medical care
Published On: Feb 25 2012 08:18:31 PM EST
KEY WEST, Fla. -

The U.S. Coast Guard has repatriated 13 Cuban migrants who were
intercepted south of Key West.
Coast Guard officials say the group was taken Friday to Bahia de
Cabanas, Cuba. They were initially spotted in a boat by a U.S. Customs
and Border Protection aircraft on Sunday.
A Coast Guard boat took the migrants on board. They were later
transferred to the cutter Nantucket to be returned to Cuba. They were
given food, water and basic medical care.
Under U.S. policy, most Cubans who make it to dry land are permitted to
remain. Those intercepted at sea are generally returned to Cuba.

http://www.clickorlando.com/news/Coast-Guard-repatriates-13-Cuban-migrants/-/1637132/9104278/-/hljn77z/-/index.html

We must prepare in case Cuban oil rigs spring a leak

Posted on Saturday, 02.25.12

We must prepare in case Cuban oil rigs spring a leak
By Dr. John R. Proni and Dr. Richard E. Dodge

Deep-water drilling for oil already has begun off the coast of Cuba,
barely 55 miles away from the United States. There is significant threat
to the U.S. ocean and coastal natural and economic resources from spills
and releases as a result of these oil drilling and production
activities. The U.S. government and scientific community have the
capacity to get ahead of this potential disaster.

Needed are appropriate funding and the political will to enable and to
coordinate an appropriate response. In the past year we have learned
much from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the largest in the nation's
history. However, drilling in Cuban waters will occur in a different
oceanographic and ecological milieu. The setting is singular in the
world and poses new and severe chronic risks to our beloved and
important shores, ecology, and coastal economy.

The locations of the proposed drill sites are very close to, or even
beneath, the Gulfstream. This major current system would transport
pollutants (introducing spilled oil, associated drilling products, and
chemical dispersants) on the ocean surface or via rising plumes of
subsurface oil. Releases could be episodic and massive or chronic and
lingering.

There would be substantial injury and damage to vital interests of the
United States, including beaches, recreational and tourism industries,
desalination plants, ports and harbors, and marine and coastal
ecosystems. The initial impact could well be to our iconic coral reef
system, important fisheries and their breeding grounds, sea grass,
mangroves, coral, and habitat for rare and endangered species (birds,
sea turtles, and marine mammals, including manatees).

The Florida Reef tract extends 360 miles from the Dry Tortugas to the
west to Martin County to the north. It comprises up to 84 percent of the
nation's coral reefs and is already under numerous environmental
stresses. Florida's coastal and ocean economies contribute $592 billion
to the state's gross domestic product.

Nearly half of that activity (and 3.4 million jobs) are from the
Atlantic Coast counties that will be most immediately impacted by a
major spill. Ecosystems off the Carolinas and northward are also at risk.

In its final report on the Deepwater Horizons event, the U.S. Coast
Guard notes that effective preparedness begins before drilling starts
and urges: "If the public and Congress expect significant improvements
in this nation's ability to respond to catastrophic oil spills,
additional funding will be needed for improvements, which include
research and development… [to] effectively address an offshore Spill of
national significance."

The proximity to the U.S. coast of the drilling operation off Cuba and
the Bahamas, and the fact that it is outside the oversight and control
of U.S. regulators or responders, makes preparation an extremely urgent
priority. We suggest the following:

• Improved monitoring. This would provide the earliest notice of chronic
impacts of drilling and production as well as from a massive spill.
Monitoring would use remote and in situ sensing for detection, mapping,
and sampling of the surface and sub-surface.

• Establishing biological and oceanographic baseline measurements. The
resulting data are critical for spill-impact assessment, associated
claim actions, and for providing data for predictive models.

• Determining toxicity levels of oil, dispersed oil, and their
degradation products. This would allow understanding of effects on
keystone reef and other organisms, including corals, octocorals,
sponges, and fishes, vital to preparing mitigation response that may use
dispersants.

Using Oceanographic 3-D high-resolution current models for the
entrainment, transport, and detrainment of spilled oil. This would be
coupled with bioecological models to predict effects to organisms under
various scenarios.

We urge the creation of a scientific consortium to address gaps in
information and to better prepare for any problems.

Our Florida institutions have in-depth expertise, local knowledge, and
data to be most effective in our unique oceanic and coastal
environments. These institutions include Florida International
University, Nova Southeastern University, the University of Miami,
NOAA's South Florida regional science laboratories and centers, private
industry, the Florida Coastal Ocean Observing System, and the Southeast
Coastal Ocean Observing Regional Association.

This list can easily be expanded to include other Florida industries and
institutions.

Fortunately, our congressional delegation understands what is at stake,
as evidenced by its leadership and tough questions during a recent
fact-finding hearing. Federal agency will is now needed to provide
funding and true government coordination for these activities so that
the nation is better prepared and protected.

John R. Proni is executive director of the Applied Research Center at
Florida International University. Richard E. Dodge is dean of the
Oceanographic Center at Nova Southeastern University and executive
director of NSU's National Coral Reef Institute. Together they developed
testimony that Proni presented during a recent congressional hearings
held in South Florida. This piece is based in part on that testimony.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/25/2660627/we-must-prepare-in-case-cuba-oil.html

The Culture of the Big Stick / Jeovany Jimenez Vega

The Culture of the Big Stick / Jeovany Jimenez Vega
Jeovany J. Vega, Translator: Unstated
Foto: Orlando Luis Pardo

Faced with the interference of the Yankees and the European Union:
UNITY! Photo: Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

Something very serious happens in a country where people live by stealth
and avoid criticizing the decisions of their government, where the
transcendent issues are spoken in a whisper, quietly monitoring the
environment, just in case; where so many do not consider honest labor as
the only morally legitimate source to earn the bread they will put in
the mouths of their children.

Something very serious happens in a country where Parliament unanimously
supports provisions to undermine the welfare of their people and keeps
intact laws whose practicality expired long ago. Something very serious
happens where unions betray their purpose and becomes the point of a
spear capable of lodging itself in a worker's back; where,
paradoxically, beating people is legitimized as a way of ensuring the
freedom of man.

What is presented by the Cuban government as a monolithic consensus, as
unanimous support for its line of thought, is nothing more than
paralyzing fear, which reduces the individual to zero, shuts off his
voice with an overwhelming power before which he knows he is completely
helpless.

Because if something has become typical in Cuba it is the culture of
hard blow. Every time convincing arguments have failed to implement any
particular action or policy … there goes the whack that is reluctant to
accept any decision so "democratically" taken!

For what I say, my example is very illustrative. When the then Minister
of Public Health received that demand for attention from 300 workers in
his sector with respect to wages, 5 minutes would have been enough to
give a response a few paragraphs, which, regardless of its content,
would have been correct, but far from this he chose not to respond ever,
and months later along comes… the cudgel of the caves! So here I am five
years later, still disqualified, struggling to recover my profession and
denouncing the injustice.

Now, knowing the tiger by his stripes, I sense they are paving the way
to neutralize this little matter of the bloggers. As they have
demonstrated repeatedly that they do not know any other way to resolve
disputes, it would not surprise me were they to lash out at any moment,
using whatever variant of the wide spectrum they possess, be it through
the typical raid, through individualized attacks, creating diplomatic
friction with some embassy that offers a breach to the Internet to the
Cuban strictly deprived of this service by his own Government.

Any excuse will serve to get that nail out of the shoe. Something tells
me that they are about to show their big claws.

June 16 2011

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=15678

Until the End / Anddy Sierra Alvarez

Until the End / Anddy Sierra Alvarez
Anddy Sierra Alvarez, Translator: Unstated

Citizens of Havana are increasing concerned about living in dilapidated
buildings, as there have been several building collapses as the year
2012 progresses. A lady of 55 from a Havana neighborhood commented that
the cold season is running out and the rainy season looming, a dangerous
stage for buildings in poor condition as the contrast of water and sun
is a time bomb.

The news of cave-ins in these neglected areas are heartbreaking, because
we are going through the same thing, says Alberto, 21. And neighbors
have lost hope that the government will assign them a brigade for the
salvation of the buildings on the block. The delegate said that it has
been raised in several meetings and no answers have been given yet, and
this has been going on for over 3 years. Construction products are for
sale, but to get something, even to repair each one individually, is a
dilemma of long lines and the demand from the population is so great
that they can't cope.

When the month of July comes around, many buildings have fallen in
Havana and we already hear, that hopefully and with lick there will not
be people who live in fear every day of losing their homes and being
forced into a miserable collective shelter.

February 22 2012

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=15589