Clinton meets wife of US aid worker jailed in Cuba

Clinton meets wife of US aid worker jailed in Cuba
(AFP)

WASHINGTON — US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with the wife of
Alan Gross, an American aid contractor jailed in Cuba on espionage
charges, and pledged to keep up efforts to secure his freedom.

"We have used, and continue to use, every appropriate diplomatic
channel, publicly and privately, to press for Mr Gross's release," said
State Department spokesman William Ostick in a statement after Clinton's
talks with Judy Gross.

Describing Gross's incarceration as "unjust," it said the United States
had urged governments around the world, prominent figures traveling to
Cuba, and religious leaders to press for Gross's release.

"We call on people around the world to raise this issue with the Cuban
government, because Mr Gross deserves to come home to be with his
family," the statement added, without giving any further detail about
Tuesday's meeting.

Gross, who is 63, was arrested in December 2009 for distributing laptops
and communications equipment to members of Cuba's small Jewish community
under a US State Department contract.

He was found guilty in March 2011 of "acts against the independence or
territorial integrity" of Cuba and sentenced to 15 years prison.

Gross has always denied the charges against him and said earlier this
month that he had lost about 100 pounds in weight since his arrest.

Cuba has indicated that they would consider releasing Gross if the
United States frees members of the Cuban Five espionage ring.

Those five men were found guilty in 2001 of trying to infiltrate US
military installations in southern Florida and were given long prison
terms, ranging from 15 years to life.

Cuba has acknowledged the five were intelligence agents, but says they
were gathering information on "terrorist" plots by Cuban expatriates in
Florida, not spying on the US government.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hNK_N0oDRSvC3EbWRxmedoRjPvoQ?docId=CNG.626f878eaade536b2345aadd8ac89e00.11

Blow to Cuban hopes for oil as well proves dry

Posted on Tuesday, 05.29.12

Blow to Cuban hopes for oil as well proves dry
By ALAN CLENDENNING
Associated Press

MADRID -- Spanish oil firm Repsol said Tuesday it will stop looking for
oil in Cuba after hitting a dry well drilled at a cost of more than $100
million, a blow to the island nation desperate to find its own energy
sources amid deep economic hardship.

Speaking to investors and reporters about the firm's plans over the next
four years, Repsol Chairman Antonio Brufau said the company "won't do
another" well in Cuba. "The well we drilled turned out dry and it's
almost certain that we won't do any more activity there," Brufau added.

Cuba's last chance for hitting oil in the near future could come from
Malaysian state oil company Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas), which
started drilling last week in an area of the Florida Straits known as
the Northbelt Trust, about 110 miles southwest of Repsol's drill site.
Results are expected in July.

Experts say it is not surprising that Repsol's 3-mile deep exploratory
well was a bust. Four out of five such wells find nothing in the
high-stakes oil game, and petroleum companies are built to handle the
losses.

The Scarabeo-9 platform that Repsol used is the only one in the world
that can drill in Cuban waters without incurring sanctions under the
U.S. economic embargo, but it is scheduled to head to Brazil after being
used for one to four more exploratory Cuban wells.

A delay in finding oil would hurt Cuba because 80-year-old President
Raul Castro is trying to lift the country's economy through limited
free-market reforms, and has been forced to cut many of the subsidies
islanders got in return for salaries of just $20 a month.

It could also make Cuba more dependent on Venezuela, which provides $3
billion of subsidized oil each year. Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez is
suffering from cancer, and the deal might disappear if he dies or
doesn't win re-election in October.

Industry experts have said Repsol YPF SA was under contract to drill a
second Cuban well but could get out of the deal by paying a penalty to
an Italian company that owns the drilling platform used for Repsol's well.

Brufau didn't mention the penalty, and Repsol spokesman Kristian Rix
said he could not immediately provide details on how the arrangement
would work.

The Scarabeo-9 was built in Asia with less than 10 percent U.S.-made
parts to avoid violating Washington's embargo.

Because of the embargo, Cuba is shut off from borrowing from
international lending institutions. An oil find could change the
situation, with Cuba using future oil riches as collateral to secure new
financing, economists say.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/29/2822783/blow-to-cuban-hopes-for-oil-as.html

Huge Question Marks On Government Sponsored Education To Cuba?

Feature Article of Wednesday, 30 May 2012
Columnist: AFAG

Huge Question Marks On Government Sponsored Education To Cuba?

Ladies & gentlemen of the press, good morning and welcome to another
important national issue of accountable governance being raised by AFAG
today. AFAG wishes to precede our statement today with Article 35 clause
6a of our 1992 constitution under the Directive Principle of State Policy

With a heavy heart today, and recognizing how dangerously divisive the
subject of our press conference is, AFAG is worried about the most
blatant discrimination by the sitting vice-president.

Ladies & gentlemen, last week, the country witnessed the sending off
dinner of 250 Ghanaian students (hosted by the vice president John
Mahama) to Cuba for six years of medical training at the cost Gh ?
50,000 per year. By simple arithmetic, this puts the total cost for the
entire program at an astronomical GHC 160 million. It should however be
stated that with superior infrastructure and training than what
currently pertains in Cuba, the cost of training a medical doctor for
the entire period of study is GHC20,000. This means the total cost of
training the 250 students here in Ghana would be GHC5.0million. This,
ladies and gentlemen, translates into huge savings of Gh? 155 million.
The amount saved, AFAG strongly believes, could be channeled in
resourcing both the Volta and Brong Ahafo Universities which have only
been given a seed money of GH? 5million, pay polytechnic teachers, who
are on strike, or use to expand the medical school facilities in four
public universities currently offering medical training for future
doctors. To this end AFAG is vehemently opposed to this deal as it only
further exposes the Mills-Mahama government to have its priorities wrong
and completely out of touch with what is in the national interest.

Background of the current Deal

Ladies and gentlemen, the point should be made, that training of persons
in Cuba is not new to us as a country. However, when the program began
under PNDC Chairman Jerry John Rawlings, in 1983, it had no cost
implication to the Ghanaian taxpayer and Ghana had not developed the
kind of training infrastructure currently available.

AFAG will therefore want you (the media) to join us in asking the
questions, what has changed for today, a government that claims to be
the offspring of the PNDC, to be today throwing scarce cash to a
programme that can be done at least four times cheaper here in Ghana?
But, this has been the stock in trade of the Mills-Mahama led NDC. They
are quick, at the drop of the umbrella, to ignore what is Ghanaian in
favor of what is foreign, whether it is Korea, South Africa, China or
Cuba. In this case, what has changed is that, His Excellency John
Dramani Mahama, under a Revised Cuban Agreement during his April 2011
trip to Cuba brokered this obnoxious deal on behalf of Ghana contrary to
what is reported on the official website of the Cuban embassy in Ghana.
And we quote some portions of the bilateral relations relative to the
scholarship agreement. It states;

'under the agreements, the Cuban government will provide scholarship for
all the 250 students who were selected from deprived communities
throughout the country and would be ready to come back to serve their
communities…'

Scholarship Distribution Ladies and Gentlemen, the cost implication of
the Revised Cuban Agreement is worrying and dangerous to the unity and
harmony of this multi-ethnic state and more worrying is the level of
discrimination that has been deliberately applied in the selection of
students for this scholarship programme to Cuba. Our random checks of
the names show that, not a single one of those selected was considered
on political party basis. The names were forensically screened to avoid
anyone connected to the Opposition.

But, that is not all. Our greatest concern is to with the regional
distributions upon which the applicants were selected across the
country. According to official documents available to AFAG, of the 250
Ghanaians selected, a total of number of 122 was allocated to the 10
regions, whiles another 179 was distributed amongst the office of the
president, vice president, national security and the scholarship
secretariat. The regional distribution is as shown in the table below;

Region Scholarship Awards Ashanti 6 Eastern 7 Central 12 Volta 10 Gt.
Accra 17 Brong Ahafo 9 Northern 10 Western 18 Upper West 12 Upper East 21

Again, of the remaining 138 beneficiaries on the protocol list of the
vice president/scholarship secretariat/min of health, only 27(19.5%)
persons were Akans and other southern tribes. Akans make up about half
of the national population.

Ladies and gentlemen, the vice president on behalf of the Mills-Mahama
administration has several questions to answer. Questions: 1. What
criteria were used in selecting the beneficiaries? 2. AFAG wishes to
know the membership of the selection panel? 3. Is the scholarship
secretariat, under President Mills and Vice President Mahama, pursuing
an ulterior agenda as witnessed in Dundee University in the selection of
applicants for Oil & Gas courses? 4.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we expect the Vice President to respond to these
questions as you take note of unprecedented bias in the award of
scholarship to Ghanaian youth to study in Cuba and beyond. We do not
want the wrong signals to be sent.

We are extremely worried Thanks.

Signed:

Abu Ramadan 0244570006 Arnold Boateng 0244294754 Zalia Seidu 0262481240
Henry Haruna Asante 0248274646 Bright Acheampong 0545230621

http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=240435

Not All in Cuba Are Proud of Being Black / Iván García

Not All in Cuba Are Proud of Being Black / Iván García
Iván García, Translator: mlk

A drunk, off duty, enforcement agent, white, justified the racist Cuban
police archetype that turns a black or mestizo into a presumed
delinquent with an old refrain learned from his mother: "Not all blacks
are thieves, but all thieves are black."

The guy is not a bad person. He is a good father, a high caliber
criminologist, and he does not consider himself racist. But it was what
he learned in his childhood. Racial prejudices abound within Cuban
families. Then they are carried into to real life.

The Havana agent's attitude becomes that of the National Revolutionary
Police on operation and raid days: of every 10 citizens that they stop
on public thoroughfares, 8 are black. It is a mentality problem.

A couple of years ago, a friend who worked in a foreign firm told me
that he was considering buying skin whitening creams. I did not believe
him. "According to a market study, the cream would have great acceptance
among Cubans," he told me.

As I never saw them for sale in the foreign currency stores, I thought I
had heard a joke of bad taste. In the book Afrocubans, the historian and
anthropologist Maria Ileana Faguagua says that in 2009 a Spanish firm
studied that possibility.

Several consulted persons, who are dedicated to the treatment of hair
for women of the black race, said that those creams would sell like
hotcakes. "One can think what one likes. But I have spent 20 years
straightening 'kinks,' and I'm telling you that many black and mixed
women would give anything to lighten their skin and become white," said
a white Havana hairdresser.

Certainly, black pride on the island is not at its best moment. What has
happened to black people has not been slight. It is always good to
review history.

And it is that since 1886, when slavery was officially abolished in
Cuba, blacks were left at a clear disadvantage with respect to whites.
They had no property. No money. No lineage. And much less social
recognition.

Years later in the Republic, their decisive support in the fight for
independence was barely taken into account. In spite of that support,
they only got work as stevedores, cane cutters or construction workers.

Many black families did not tranquilly accept their fate to live at the
bottom. And some managed to climb the steep and difficult social ladder.

But they were few. Then, as is known, Fidel Castro came to power. And he
decided to resolve racial differences by means of decrees and
encampments where blacks and whites were mixed and would become "comrades."

At first it was not bad. But racial prejudices in Cuba were very subtle.
They were — and are — very deeply rooted in the minds of the majority.
And that cannot be legislated. If you really try to demolish barriers,
you need a systematic educational effort, in the long run, and to
include blacks and mulattoes in the power structure.

That was already most difficult. One thing was that the personal
bodyguards or soldiers sent to the Angolan civil war were the color of
petroleum, and another, that they formed part of the status quo.

Although after 1959 blacks gained spaces, and shared carnivals, ball
games, scholarships to study at the high schools in the countryside and
university studies with whites, later no matter how much talent they
had, they remained shackled within the mediocre professional group that
retires without having been able to climb socially or politically.

From time to time a black man lands himself a high ranking government
or party job. A matter of image. But blacks continue on the lowest
social rung.

Of course, they are mostly in jail and on sports fields. With the
exception of chess or swimming: according to old racist concepts, blacks
are a failure in those disciplines.

Similarly, the dark skinned are good for playing musical instruments
beyond the drums. Or singing boleros, Cuban folk songs, salsa, rap and
reggaeton.

Now if they aspire to join the company of Alicia Alonso, they are looked
at with suspicion. Almost with sadness, an old teacher told me: "I have
nothing against blacks, but their anatomy causes them many problems in
classical ballet." She overlooked the triumphs of Carlos Acosta, a black
Cuban ballet dancer in the London Ballet.

If in music and sports black usually have the one, also they have known
how to get a slice of prostitution. Looking for something different or
because of the myth that they are good in bed, many Europeans travel to
Cuba to satiate themselves sexually with those of dark skin. Cheap pleasure.

But while the prostitutes are offered in clubs and night zones of Havana
for 20 dollars,some black men keep seeing their future in the distance,
above all in Europe.

The worst of the worst in Cuba today is to be a black, dissident woman.
Ask community activist Sonia Garro. Graduated in nursing with brilliant
grades, she suffered the racism in her own flesh from some creole mandarins.

One afternoon, proud of being the first professional in a family whose
members had been dedicated to the worst paying jobs, with her best dress
and pair of shoes, she went to the Astral theater to get her diploma.
When it came time for the group photo, a provincial director asked her
to move away: "Those of your color don't turn out well in photos."

Years later, Sonia told me that her anger was such that she left without
getting her diploma. In a short time, she became a dissident.

Some days before the arrival of the Pope on the island, last March,
forces of the political riot police entered her house as if they were
terrorists. Using rubber bullets and excessive violence they charged
Sonia and her husband, Ramon Alejandro Munoz, also an opponent. They
awaited proceedings in harsh prisons. She was in a women's jail, he in a
punishment cell in the Combinado del Este because he refused to put on
the prisoner's uniform.

Blacks in Cuba cultivate their destiny with the few opportunities they
have to triumph. Their failures are triple their successes. A high
percentage live badly and eat worse. Their patience is exhausted. And
they have decided to leave behind being culprits of their race. Like
Sonia Garro.

Ivan Garcia

Photo: President of Citizens for Racial Integration, Juan Antonio
Madrazo (on foot in the center, with pink shirt) with relatives, friends
and members of the Mystery Company of Voodoo, during a celebration of
the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, last
March. They are all proud of belonging to the black race. The woman on
foot on the left, with the pink dress and blue handkerchief, is Teresa
Luna, Madrazo's mother, who has received threats from State Security,
according to what Leonardo Calvo has denounced.

Translated by: mlk

May 27 2012

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=18728

4 Dead, 11 injured in accident in eastern Cuba

4 Dead, 11 injured in accident in eastern Cuba
Published May 28, 2012
EFE

Four people died and 11 were injured in a highway accident Monday in the
eastern Cuban province of Granma, state television reported.

The accident occurred when a small bus on the road from Bayamo, a city
in Granma, to Holguin clipped the rear wheel of a cart, went out of
control and hit a tree.

Ciro Estrada, director of Carlos Manuel de Cespedes Hospital where the
injured occupants of the bus were taken, said that 10 of them suffered
"head and thoracic injuries" and that one of the patients had to be
operated for a severe head injury.

In 2011 there were 11,604 recorded traffic accidents that left some
8,240 people injured, according to a report by the National Transit
Authority released last week.

Traffic accidents are in fifth place among the causes of death on the
island. EFE

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2012/05/28/4-dead-11-injured-in-accident-in-eastern-cuba/

Stories of Con Games and the Conned

Stories of Con Games and the Conned
May 29, 2012
Tourist Tales from Cuba
By VICENTE MORIN AGUADO

HAVANA TIMES – Here are some stories of scams in the only country in the
world with a dual currency.

From among many memories and anecdotes I have compiled, I can't forget
that man who was sitting in the park, which I cut through every day so
that I could arrive early to work and the day's first obligations.

It was evident that he urgently desired to speak with someone. You could
see it in his eyes and in the anxiety of his gesture as he interrupted
my hurried passing and asked me haltingly, "Do you speak English?" to
which I responded with an emphatic, "Yes, I do!"

We quickly covered the routine questions about his country and city –
the remote Vancouver, far from Havana – to arrive rapidly at the reason
for his urgency: it was a Cuban bill of the type known as "Convertible
Pesos," which at that time had a one-to-one equivalency with the U.S.
dollar.

Since I, too have suffered at being swindled, I quickly read in his face
that insecurity you feel when something isn't quite right, and you
realize that you may have just done something you shouldn't. For a
Cuban, one look at the bill revealed that it was a fraud, since someone
had very clearly written "One Hundred" where it previously said "One".

If you observed the front of the bill, the lack of grammatical agreement
was also evident: it spoke of "a peso", and you couldn't add the phrase
"convertible pesos" since the reference appears first in the singular
and then changes to plural. This detail plainly reinforced the notion
of a falsification.

The Canadian looked at me with expectation, and I, having noted the
details above, struggled to find a way of confronting the consummated
facts. At last I found the courage to tell him that, unfortunately, he
had been swindled.

In my best English I tried to explain the issue to him, although by now
there was no possible solution. We could only determine exactly what had
happened and come to some conclusions. This last process is like
scratching a wound, but the man lived up to the reputation of his fellow
citizens and accepted the challenge.

It turned out that one of those people of very poor scruples underneath
what may be an acceptable appearance offered him "the advantage" of a
"one to one" exchange between Canadian dollars and Cuban convertible
currency. If he had gone to an official money-changing site, known in
Cuba by the acronym CADECA, the exchange rate would have been thirty
percent less.

Speaking in the lingo of the police, the modus operandi of the con-man
was the classic "bait" offered before the swindle. It's necessary to
make the victim believe in the real possibility of obtaining a
substantial advantage as a result of the proposed transaction.

We parted ways: the tourist heading back to his hotel with only one
convertible peso, instead of the hundred that he had hoped to obtain,
not to mention the day ruined; me with the hope of restoring a bit the
bad image of our beautiful country that my fellow countryman had left
him with.

The next morning, he answered my telephone call from his hotel room with
an occasional excuse and the affirmation that he was headed for
Varadero, a paradise of white sand beside the ocean, far from Cubans and
double currencies. This time my persuasion didn't register. The Canadian
was very irritated.

"Time passed and passed, like an eagle by the sea," as go the poetic
words of José Martí, the Apostle of our Independence, whose image graces
our national money.

This time it was a young Portuguese couple, appearing to be people of
modest income. Their faces were two poems, but of a different nature:
that of the woman, an epic; that of the man, a tragedy. The woman, I
must add, was almost certain that her husband had made a mistake, while
he was still doubtful.

I was leaving the church when they approached me. The Portuguese woman
asked me to help her husband resolve his doubt, apparently dismissing
the events themselves as water down the drain. Once again I took a bill
in my hands and again the fraud was clear, but this time it was
"technically different" as we would say in police lingo.

There were two fifty peso bills, but of the denomination "National
Money;" in which each twenty-five is equal to ONE Cuban Convertible
Peso, which I mentioned in the previous story.

Once again, the use of language is curious, taking advantage of
ambiguity and lack of precision to promote the following scheme:

As it happens, even today as I write this, years after it happened,
bills circulate with a curious inscription, completely archaic and I
believe copied from the United States dollar bill.

I hold in my hands a bill from the year 1991, series CA 80, number
411344 and here is an exact copy of the text that appears in small boxes
in the part below, just before and after the monetary sign:

"Integrally guaranteed with gold, foreign exchange convertible in gold,
and other active shares of the National Bank of Cuba. This bill
constitutes an obligation assumed by the Cuban State."

"This bill has unlimited legal course and liberating force, in
accordance with the law, for the payment of any obligation contracted or
to be completed in national territory."

The con man reads these texts to the victim with great emphasis,
assuring them that these are "Convertible Pesos", and thus implementing
the fraud.

At any rate, tourists should change their money in a bank, which abound
in Havana and the rest of Cuba, or in the Money-Changing Houses, CADECA,
as I repeat.

Nonetheless, for these visitors from Portugal, the story had a happy
ending. The meager Hundred Pesos in national money were at least enough
to reach their hotel. The couple reconciled, and on the morning of the
new day we saw each other walking down the Havana streets.

For my part, I alleviated my distress over the sin that another had
committed, by explaining to them all the beauty of my country, while I
listened enchanted to their descriptions of the excellent smoked meats
produced there in Braganza, near the Galicia of my grandparents.

I could mention the names of the people involved in both stories, but
since those who perpetrate such swindles generally disappear without a
trace, it's better to just hold on to the experience.

In addition to providing a necessary caution for any visitors, I learned
that even in the worst circumstances you can make friends.

http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=71529

Protesting in Cuba

Protesting in Cuba
May 29, 2012
Veronica Vega

HAVANA TIMES — When working with the multidisciplinary cultural group
Omni Zona Franca back in 2007, I read an essay about the phenomenon of
graffiti. Someone in the group had the outlandish idea that such an
effort set to prose could be done in the lobby of a twelve-story
building in the Alamar neighborhood – in the middle of the noise from
the wind, the cries of children and the residents' indifference.

My stage fright that day was justified. I felt so absurd in the middle
of the performance, where in trying to speed up the reading I began to
skip words, sentences and even whole paragraphs of the text.

I was convinced that there was no one there interested in what I was
reading. However, after concluding the ordeal, a pretty foreigner who
looked frail but had a sweet voice came up and asked me if it would be
possible to provide her with the essay so that she could read it. She
said the environment hadn't allowed her to hear it in full, though she
was very interested.

That was Marie Laure Geoffray, a French woman who at that time was doing
research in Cuba on alternative movements. Later I learned that in her
travels around the island she had met several groups with very promising
cultural and social initiatives.

She had also taken on the difficult task of ensuring that those who were
involved in these efforts were known to each other. With inevitable
setbacks, this pipe dream finally materialized in a meeting through
which emerged the idea of ??creating a "project of all projects," or a
network that would integrate these groups for their common goals. This
would be called Voltus V.

I didn't attend the first meeting, but in the second I was able to get a
glimpse at the complex Cuban intellectual potential in dealing with our
long tradition of intolerance, in an attempt toward understanding and
collective action.

HT: How did you begin to relate to Cuba and why?

Marie: My relationship with Cuba is a story of politics and love
intertwined. I had a communist boyfriend with whom I argued a lot about
the need to reform society, in France as elsewhere. He always ended the
discussion by pointing to Cuba as an example of the new society we needed.

I had some doubts about that because I thought that achieving social
equality shouldn't mean limiting freedom of expression, opinion,
movement. So, I decided to go to Cuba to see that society with my own
eyes. I didn't go as a tourist, but to do an internship with the
cultural department of the French Embassy. This allowed me to interact
with Cuban cultural sector, and I thought there I would have more of a
chance to meet people who were perhaps more open.

HT: What impression did you get from your first visit to Cuba?

Marie: I was struck by the energy of Cubans, despite the limitations in
terms of consumption and freedom of expression. I made friends with
young people with whom I talked with a lot concerning the Cuba of today,
yesterday and tomorrow. Many of them were quite critical. But after two
months, I hadn't succeeded in understanding how that society functioned.

Things would appear in houses and nobody could say where they came from.
They came "from out there, you know, from under the table". One person
might tell me something at home and then, suddenly in a party with
friends, they would be telling me something else about the same thing,
and then something different on the street.

One police officer — after a burglary — said they couldn't investigate
the house where the robbers were hiding because they lived with his
aunt, who was a member of the party…. This difficulty I had in
understanding how things functioned was one of the reasons why I decided
shortly thereafter to start a PhD on alternative efforts in Cuba.

HT: How did your impressions evolve?

Marie: I'm not even sure I understand Cuban life that much more now! But
I have come to understand certain logics and links between people,
institutions, practices and discourses. I realized that there were many
micro-spaces of free expression and debate where people could experiment
with artistic creation, as well as social practices (more horizontal
relationships, initiatives that were more popular). However, these
spaces were tolerated only when operating in the periphery, on a small
scale, but not when they became too visible.

At the same time, it's always difficult to analyze the reasons behind
the tolerance or intolerance of the Cuban authorities, given that there
are many different authorities with different points of view, and
sometimes the decisions they make are difficult to understand. It seemed
like they didn't have any logic behind certain decisions.

I also realized that repression was often a light repression. It works
best with individual pressure, disguised censorship, failures to respond
(after a request to use a room, for example, all activities in the room
might be cancelled for "logistical reasons," and so on). But there are
also mysteries: Why would the G2 (State Security) visit or call in
certain people and not others? Why are activists who call themselves
"revolutionaries" more pressured than activists who openly reject that
social and political identification?

HT: What do you think of the alternative movement in Cuba?

Marie: I don't know if today one can speak of an "alternative movement,"
because there's a great deal of plurality. Previously there were three
major centers: political opponents, critical artists and intellectuals,
and alternative collectives (often created by independent artists and
young intellectuals). The collectives had a very specific nature: not
only did they debate among themselves but they did things. They tried to
generate new civil, social, artistic practices and politics for
themselves and their audiences. They wanted to show that it was possible
to live and think differently.

Today the situation has changed considerably. There appeared the
bloggers, who often aren't "new players," despite what many people say.
Orlando Luis Pardo, for example, created alternative literary projects
before becoming a blogger. At that time he was related to several
groups, including being part of the Voltus V project. Claudia Cadelo was
the wife of Ciro Diaz, a member of punk rock band Porno para Ricardo,
which also had many connections with these groups and all of the
alternative cultural scene in Havana.

I believe that these movements have grown. They've become more
pluralistic and have more connections between them. What is being
created as a genuine anti-authority movement in Cuba capable of uniting
many segments and fragments that couldn't connect before.

HT: Why do you think Voltus V became diluted?

Marie: Voltus V was one of the first attempts at coordination between
alternative groups. There were previous attempts such as FramOmUno (with
Omni and Zona Franca — which at that time were two different collectives
— and Grupo Uno, the group that created the Rap Festival) and Jonas
project with the same actors but also with what is now the Haydee
Santamaria Collective.

These attempts were pioneers (in the first half of 2000, and 2007 with
Voltus V) and therefore they had difficulties. Back then, there weren't
even good coordination tools (cellphones, email access).

There was also still a lot of fear and dissension. About being socialist
or not? Being revolutionary or not? Being political or not? Saying
things openly or not? These discussions continue to take place today but
there's more tolerance for the plurality of positions. Fear has lessened
with the successful outcome of the Gorki case(*) and with the fact that
bloggers aren't being put in jail.

Perhaps there were also too many expectations of unity at that time,
while diversity is valued more today. And perhaps there was a sense of
urgency that engendered tensions and misunderstandings. But Voltus V was
probably the cradle for subsequent convergences because all of the
Voltus activists realized the importance of joining forces to influence
their situation, and most of them are still active today in a multitude
of projects.

HT: What alternative groups seem most representative and influential?
And why?

Marie: It seems difficult to talk about representation in today's Cuba
where you still don't hear many voices, although the number of people
expressing themselves has grown a lot. Nor can a good measure be made of
which groups are the most influential. I think there are different types
of influences in different areas. For example Yoani Sanchez (along with
other bloggers) has changed the perspective of the Cuban diaspora and
many people who are interested in Cuba from the outside.

The same thing happened with the Ladies in White. These women have shown
that other things can in fact be achieved in Cuba, even things that were
seemingly unthinkable a short time ago. But the media coverage achieved
by certain people shouldn't hide the influence of other groups.

The Critical Observatory has done an excellent job for many years
working in neighborhoods to encourage citizens' initiatives from below.
It also works with marginalized social groups like the Abakuas, fights
against racial discrimination and intervenes in the
cultural/intellectual sphere in environments such as the Juan Marinello
Center, the Felix Varela Center, etc. where everyone knows and respects
their work – to the point of imitation.

As for Omni Zona Franca, it has succeeded in transforming the image
people had of Alamar as slum into a space of cultural, civil and social
experimentation. They have also sought to forge links and solidarity
with all other alternative projects, without discrimination. Their
annual "Poetry Without End" festival was always a space of convergence
for many people, with it being more or less revolutionary, more or less
politicized, and more or less legitimate in the cultural sphere.

HT: Do you think it's possible for governmental institutions to
cooperate with these groups?

Marie: Some institutions have already worked with these groups. In fact,
Omni Zona Franca worked at a workshop in the Fayad Jamis Gallery in
Alamar and negotiated many of its activities with the Municipal
Department of Culture. The Critical Observatory has also acted in
coordination with local authorities, with the Asociacion Hermanos Saiz
and various research centers. But these partnerships aren't easy to
maintain, as evidenced by the expulsion of Omni Zone Franca from the
gallery in 2009.

I have the feeling that today there's more confrontation between
competing projects and institutions. This is why now everyone's trying
to work completely independently – without asking to be lent facilities
or given logistical support or any funding whatsoever.

HT: Tell us a little about your research (your book), what it's called,
its aim, where it will be published…

Marie: My book is called Contester a Cuba (Protest in Cuba). It was put
out by the French publishing house Dalloz in March 2012. It's my
doctoral thesis in which I sought to understand what were the
alternative groups and what were their specific modes of protest in
post-Berlin-Wall Cuba.

There appear three groups: the Haydee Santamaria Collective, Omni Zona
Franca and the hip hop movement. I analyzed the social backgrounds of
their members and their civil, cultural and political approaches to
protest, while trying to understand how their relationships with
institutions functioned.

HT: Is it possible it will be translated into Spanish? Could it be
published in Cuba?

Marie: I would love for it to be translated but I would need a
translator and funds. I imagine it would be difficult to publish in Cuba
right now, but I would like to try.

HT: What changes would you propose for Cuba?

Marie: I think the future of Cuba will come from all Cubans. I've only
tried to make today's Cuba more understandable for a foreign audience,
especially the rebellious voices and practices, which are somewhat
concealed in this period.

As a foreigner I can only hope. I hope Cubans will listen to each other
better — which will end the dogma and intolerance — and try to build a
new society where there's discussion, not insults; where there's respect
and not below-the-belt attacks, and where there's inclusion rather than
social and political exclusion.
—

(*) "In August 2008 (Aguila Gorki, the leader of the punk rock group
"Porno para Ricardo") was arrested by the Cuban police with the charge
of social dangerousness, which allows them to detain people whom they
think they are likely to commit crimes. The charge carries a penalty of
up to four years in prison. He was eventually ordered to pay a $30 fine
(two months' salary) for the lesser offense of public disorder, after
prosecutors dropped the more serious charge following intense
international pressure after broad media coverage." (Source: Wikipedia)

http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=71521