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Cuba’s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

Re: Cuba’s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

Nostalgia For The Cage Of The ‘80s
Nostalgia For The Cage Of The ‘80s | Generation Y

Posted on April 22, 2019 by Yoani-Sánchez

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The ‘80s were also years of experiments and official programs marked by the voluntarism of Fidel Castro. Headline: “Now We Are Going to Build Socialism!” (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Generation Y, 22 April 2019 — That day I did not want to watch national television but rather some documentary on the ‘Weekly Packet’, but when I turned on the screen there was Ramiro Valdés, speaking before the National Assembly about the “diversion of resources,” the official euphemism used to talk about stealing from the State, and how “ethical values” had deteriorated in Cuban society with the arrival of the Special Period. In his tone and choice of words there was a nostalgia for the 80s, for that “golden” decade before the economic crisis.

I perceive a similar recollection in many Cubans over 40, who consider that time as the best we have experienced in the last 60 years of socialism on the island. The longing leads them to see everything that happened in that decade through rose-colored glasses. With a highly selective memory they remember markets full of products, bread and eggs for sale freely without having to go through the rationed market, an average salary being enough to feed a family, and public transport operating with numerous routes and sufficient vehicles.

They forget the shadows of those years and only emphasize the lights. Their melancholy over the lass of those times ignores the control the Plaza of the Revolution exercised over every aspect of our individual lives. Those were the years when we could shop only in state stores, watch only the television controlled by the Communist Party, and travel outside the country only on official missions. Every pair of pants, shoes or shirt that we wore had been acquired through the ration card controlling industrial products, as had been any furniture in our homes not inherited from parents or grandparents.
Click link above for full article.
The Peru Embassy crisis and the Mariel Boatlift

“On April 1, 1980, twelve Cubans traveling in a bus smashed through the gates of the Peruvian embassy with the purpose of seeking asylum.”

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A Cuban soldier stands by a refugee ship at the port of Mariel on April 23, 1980, as the refugees aboard wait to sail for U.S., where they hope to start new lives. | Jacque Langevin/AP Photo

This incident caused the stampede of 10,834 Cubans that fleeing from oppression, voted with their feet entering into the Embassy grounds, after Castro removed the guards protecting the Embassy. The social pressure became so great that Castro on April 20, announces that all Cubans wishing to emigrate to the U.S. are free to board boats at the port of Mariel. Cuban exiles in the U.S. hire boats to go to Cuba and rescue their relatives. A total of 125,000 Cubans fled the island and their arrival on the U.S. created problems for the Carter administration, forcing it to declare a state of emergency on some Florida counties. The Castro regime released around 5,000 jailed criminals and mentally ill inmates, homosexual and prostitutes, forcing them to leave with the refugees. To validate his action Castro said that that the Cubans leaving the island were counter-revolutionaries who needed to be purged because they could never prove productive to the nation. The immigration crisis contributed to Carter losing the election to Ronald Reagan.
That's how devil pays those who served him well.
 
Re: Cuba’s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

Schools in the countryside

The Education in Cuba is under the absolute control of the Communist party, and will begin in elementary school with the so-called "Cumulative School File." It measures "revolutionary integration", not only of the student but also of his family. This file documents whether or not the child and family participate in mass demonstrations, or whether they belong to a church or religious group. His university options will depend on what that file says. If he does not conform to the regime indoctrination, he will be denied many career possibilities.

It was mandatory for all Cuban children over the age of 12 to remain in the countryside school for ten months, and allowed to come home only one night per week. Away from all parental supervision the children suffer from venereal disease, as well as teenage pregnancy, which inevitably ends in forced abortion.

The government authorizes the sale of only one uniform per student when the child begins schooling, and more thereafter, but not every year, under the rationing plan.

Yet at the beginning of the school year, students and parents are told, in no uncertain terms, how grateful they should be to the Revolution for the education they are about to receive. By the way the uniform must be pay with convertible currency, not in Cuban pesos.
 
Re: Cuba’s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

The United States has put Cuba on a blacklist of countries that do not fully cooperate with them in the fight against terrorism.
It is surprising that the US still had some kind of blacklist that did not include Cuba...
 
Re: Cuba’s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

Council of Mutual Economic Assistance (CAME)

Fidel Castro speech at the First Congress of the Cuban Communist Party: “With the solidity of the Revolution, the development of our relations with the entire world, with our solid links with the CAME and the Soviet Union, guaranteeing in this country fuel, wheat, foodstuffs, equipment, industrial investments, with what are the imperialists going to threaten us?”

From 1960 to 1990 Cuba received about four billion dollars a year in subsidies from the Soviet Union. With the disappearance of the socialist camp and the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early nineties, the Cuban economy suffered a severe blow giving origin to the establishment of the Special Period.

At the beginning of the revolution Cuba was among the three most prosperous countries in Latin America. Currently, the most prosperous country in Latin America is Chile, and the penultimate place of poverty is occupied by Cuba, only surpassing Haiti. Cuba and Chile in 1958 were similar in terms of population, the racial composition of it, the economic factors and education. The gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in 1958 was $356 in Cuba and $360 in Chile, while in 2005 (last year that Cuba was included) the World Bank estimated it at $1,970 for Cuba and $12,000 for Chile. The difference between these results is attributable to the adverse effects of the Castroit regime on the Cuban economy.
 
Re: Cuba’s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

Government Strengthens Its Control Over Content on the Web
Government Strengthens Its Control Over Content on the Web – Translating Cuba

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Access to the web from Wifi sites had been a breath of fresh “informative” air for Cubans. (EFE)

14ymedio, Mario J. Pentón/ Yoani Sánchez, Miami/Havana, 5 July 2019 — The control that the Government has had over the media for years has a mirror for the virtual world. So far, online publications have been able to escape the legal censorship that weighs on analogue media, but the days are numbered for that status.

This Thursday, the authorities published a set of laws “on the computerization of society in Cuba” that have as their objective, “to elevate technological sovereignty for the benefit of the society, the economy, security and national defense” and “to counteract the cybernetic aggressions.”

One of the contraventions that has generated the most controversy so far is the penalty for “disseminating, through public networks of data transmission, information contrary to the social interest, morals, good customs and integrity of people.” Several users on social networks have expressed concern that this section is aimed at controlling opinions on the networks.
Click link above for full article.
According to a January 13, 2019 article in The New York Times documents were examined that show “Nearly 4,000 people every year are accused of being “antisocial” or “dangerous,” terms the Cuban government uses to jail people who pose a risk to the status quo, without having committed a crime." All mass media in Cuba is control by the regime, restricting access to outside information, and blocks access within Cuba to websites where independent journalists and bloggers manage to write articles.
 
Re: Cuba’s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

The state Department intends to allocate a grant of up to $ 1.2 million to train "civil society leaders" in Cuba. These "leaders" will have to spread the ideas of "democracy"among the population.
The state Department has become cheap... Having divided this money, "opinion leaders" do not even eat enough lobsters.
 
Re: Cuba’s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

According to a January 13, 2019 article in The New York Times documents were examined that show “Nearly 4,000 people every year are accused of being “antisocial” or “dangerous,” terms the Cuban government uses to jail people who pose a risk to the status quo, without having committed a crime." All mass media in Cuba is control by the regime, restricting access to outside information, and blocks access within Cuba to websites where independent journalists and bloggers manage to write articles.
Furthermore, a New Herald article says that "records show that Cuba’s prison system holds more than 90,000 prisoners.” This means that Cuba, not the United States, has the highest incarceration rate in the world.

The Castroit regime is tightening control, fearing unrest over deepening economic woes, especially since internet service was expanded, increasing access to information and the ability to mobilize. All mass media is control by the regime, and now has been extended to the web access. Many journalist posting in the internet have experienced systematic harassment and threats, including death threats, and online smear campaigns
 
Re: Cuba’s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

The ‘Puncturing’ of Statistics in Cuba
The ‘Puncturing’ of Statistics in Cuba – Translating Cuba

Yoani Sanchez - January 6, 2020

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14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 6 January 2019 — Recently, the official press announced that infant mortality in Cuba during 2019 was 5 children per thousand live births. The Communist Party owned Granma newspaper stressed that this meant that the Island continued to have better indicators than many countries in Latin America and the world, but did not mention that the data represented a significant increase in deaths compared to the previous year. Did more babies die during that time or could the Ministry of Public Health not continue to scale down the data as it has done over the past few years?

The reasons for this sad increase can be varied, from the deterioration suffered by the Cuban healthcare system, to the incidence of teenage pregnancies with their frequent complications, to the problems resulting from nutritional deficits in mothers who have grown up with difficulties in accessing basic foods. But, the worsening in the statistics points more to the fact that it was not possible to continue covering the sun with a finger.

In the last year, in social networks there have been frequent reports of the deaths of children as a result of complications at birth, obstetric errors and other medical negligence. The stories of postpartum deaths in health facilities and reports on the poor conditions of maternal hospitals have found a space to be reported on the internet, while the media controlled by the Communist Party continues to paint a health situation far removed from reality.
Click link above for full article.
Castro’s tyranny statistics conceal the results in most of the cases, manipulating or simply disappearing the information. In this specific case the manipulation take effect in the number of fatalities caused by hurricanes, as shown below in the excerpts of the article “CASTRO’S TYRANNY AND THE HURRICANES” news_english

Hurricane Flora caused havoc in Cuba. According to the Government statement 100 deaths were reported. Periódico Revolución, October of 1963.

Flora caused near 1,000 deaths. Speech by Fidel Castro May 27, 1969.

Hurricane Flora devastates Cuba: 1,159 corpses and numerous damages. Elmundo.com,
July 25, 2001.

A monument to remember the victims of Hurricane Flora, which killed more than
1, 200 Cubans. Juventud Rebelde, October 7, 2003.

The most deadly, however, was Flora in 1963, which left nearly 2,000 killed by the floods that occurred in the east of the island. Havana, September 13, 2004 (EFE).

How many years must pass to really know the material losses and loss of human lives caused by the other hurricanes? The day is not far away when we can verify the veracity of these statistics. The statistics of the Castro tyranny speak for themselves.
 
Re: Cuba’s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

In Cuba Communism has turned out to be a disaster: economic, physical, and moral. Not only have persecution, torture, and murder been routine, there is nothing material to show for it. The Castroit regime claim credit for bogus accomplishment by creating the false impression that before 1959 Cuba was a terrible place with many social and economic problems. The regime supporters claims rest in three lies:

First lie: The myth of Castro regime health care system

The Left has always had a deep psychological need to believe in the myth of Cuban health care. The myth of Cuban health care has been debunked in article after article, for the last several decades. The state of health care in Cuba is so deplorable that old-fashioned diseases are back. These include tuberculosis, leprosy, and typhoid fever. Dengue, another fever, have been very hurtful. The shortage of doctors on the island is acute, which is strange, because there are abundant Cuban doctors. Where are they? They’re abroad.
 
Re: Cuba’s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

Second lie:

The myth of the eradication of illiteracy by the Castroit regime literacy campaign.

There is a pattern from the regime to inflate the percentage of illiterates prior to 1959, by using the illiteracy rate of the 1953 census of 23.8%. Fidel Castro on December 17, 1960, in the CMQ-TV program "Meet the Press" affirmed that “The illiteracy rate in our country is 37.5%.” In the Central Report to the First Congress of the Party in 1975, Fidel said that “on the date of the Moncada (1953), 23.6% of the population over 10 years was illiterate.” [1]. In spite of what Fidel said, the document "V Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba in October 1997, referring to the period before 1959 says “a country with more than 40 per cent of illiterates.” [2]

The regime eventually acknowledge the real number, which indicated that in 1961 from a total of 929,207 identified as illiterates, 707,212 were taught to read and write; 221,995 did not acquire these skills [3].


In 1961 the population over 10 years was 5.15 million, and the number of illiterates 929,207. The actual illiteracy rate based on the regime figures was 18 %, the same percentage than in 1958. It is obvious the cooking of the figures by the regime.

[1] Fidel Castro Ruz: Informe Central al Primer Congreso del Partido. Editado por el DOR del Comité Central del PCC, Habana, Cuba, 1975, p. 27.

[2] Granma Internacional 1997, Welcome cartadecuba.org - Justhost.com

[3] Verde Olivo (Havana), August 16, 1968, pp. 40-43 - En ese año se habían localizado 979.207 analfabetos y de ellos se habían alfabetizado 707.212; de la población cubana, entonces estimada en 6.933.253 habitantes. Quedaban sin alfabetizar (stayed illiter5ate) 271.955

On a speech December 22, 1961, Fidel Castro declared Cuba a “territory free of illiteracy.” But the Cuba census of 1970 shows an illiteracy rate of 10.7% for age 15 and over. Castro in a speech at Ciudad Libertad, January 8, 1989 said: “The present generation does not have to wage a battle against illiteracy, because, for a long time, since 1961, illiteracy has been virtually eradicated.” So much for the eradication of the illiteracy; what a bunch of lies. Of him we can say that "He lies more than he speaks the truth."
 
Re: Cuba’s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

Third lie: The myth of racial equality in Cuba

Cuban blacks have many complaints about the existing racism and believe is it getting worse. Cuba’s rappers have made racial complains a major theme of their songs. Young Cubans blacks are detained and harassed by the police for no apparent reason other than their race. They are asked for identifications and interrogated. They don’t have a chance of sharing the Castroit power group. Very few blacks have high political positions.

Fidel Castro declared to the world that he had abolished racism in Cuba. Those who said the contrary were simply denigrating the revolution and were labeled “agents of American imperialism.” By denying the existence of racism in Cuba for 60 years, the regime guaranteed a safe haven for the perpetuation and growth of a rampant racism in Cuba. Cuban society continues to be today a profoundly racist society.
 
Re: Cuba’s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

The Castroit regime continued to exclude Cuban blacks from tourist-related industries, where they can earn tips in hard currencies. Blacks are systematically excluded from positions that involved contact with foreign tourists, and from managerial positions. They are relegated to inadequate housing. Racism is alive and well in the workers’ paradise. The Castroit regime has told the people of Cuba for 60 years, that the United States is a racist government. What are they going to tell them now? They were tricked 60 years ago, only to find out that all the promises of a better tomorrow were just that, promises, empty promises that the regime never intended to keep. The majority of casualties in foreign wars ware black Cubans, and 80% of prisoners in the regime gulag are black Cubans.
 
How blacks have fared under Castro? Cuban blacks, along with the rest of the Cubans, do not have the right to their own opinion if it runs contrary to the Castros regime line. The treatment in prison for the black are harsh, but even worse for those who voice their opinions against the regime. The truth is that the existence of black dissidents is a slap in the face for the Castroit regime, and that is the reason they treat them even worse that other dissidents.
 
A number of Cuban blacks made it to positions of great political power during the democratic era. Batista, Cuba military leader, President and strongman, was of mix race, Spaniard and Taino Indian. During his leadership a large number of the army officers were black and mulattos. The black population was proud of Batista mix ancestry. Under the Castroit military dictatorship blacks and mulattos, that comprised 36% of the population, hold only six seats in the 24-member Politburo, and only 15 blacks hold seats in the 150-member Central Committee. Only three backs are among the 52 most senior members of the regime government. Castro brothers’ military leadership has practically no blacks in its ranks, where 95% of high ranking senior officers are white.
 
House deficit is estimated in 1.6 million units. 75% of the units in existence are over 50 years old, and 60% of the total is in bad or average condition according to the Cuban National Housing Institute. Official estimates indicate that 457,800 homes were damage by five hurricanes in recent years, of which 76,854 were destroyed and 91,472 seriously damaged. The lack of adequate housing is the regime gravest social problem. Without sufficient capital investment to provide adequate housing this has become a nearly insuperable obstacle for the regime.
 
According to a Juventud Rebelde report in April 2008, in the city of Havana alone, 28,000 people resided in buildings about to collapse. The expansion of slums (cuarterias, shanty towns, shelters) in the city has increased 50%, housing as many as 450,000 inhabitants, 20% of the city 2.2 million. It is very common that 3 generations live in a single house. This is the fundamental reason why the people occupy terraces, balconies, porches, sidewalks, and build mezzanines, to gain space. This has created a grave social problem for the regime.
 
From 2000 to 2013 about 3,856 partial or total building collapses were reported in Havana. According to official figures the city has a deficit of in 2016. Officials estimate 28,000 people live in buildings that could collapse at any moment. Building by building, Havana is collapsing.

These buildings collapses in Havana have taking placed during 2020:

Three girls die in Old Havana due to collapse of a balcony
https://oncubanews.com/en/cuba/three-girls-die-in-old-havana-due-to-collapse-of-a-balcony/
January 28, 2020

Surprise! Landmark Cuban building collapses in Havana
https://babalublog.com/2020/05/26/surprise-landmark-building-collapses-in-havana/
May 26, 2020

Another building collapses in Havana, Cuba, woman injured
https://babalublog.com/2020/07/24/another-building-collapses-in-havana-cuba-woman-injured/
July 24, 2020

Surprise! Another building collapses in Havana, Cuba
https://babalublog.com/2020/10/15/surprise-another-buildding-collapses-in-havana-cuba/
October 15, 2020

 
A Collapse in a Quarantine Zone in Havana Leaves Several Families Living in the Ruins
A Collapse in a Quarantine Zone in Havana Leaves Several Families Living in the Ruins – Translating Cuba

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29-Teniente-Aguacate-Villegas-Habana-Vieja_CYMIMA20201117_0020_13.jpg (623×351) (translatingcuba.com)
The residents of 355 Teniente Rey Street, between Aguacate and Villegas, Old Havana, still do not believe that part of the building collapsed. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Serafín Martínez, Havana, 17 November 2020 — A week after having lived their worst nightmare, the residents of 355 Teniente Rey Street, between Aguacate and Villegas, in Old Havana, still do not believe that part of the three-story building where they have lived crowded together for years collapsed, an incident that it has left them living amid dangerous ruins and without institutional aid.

The victims remember the noise they sensed at two in the morning on Monday, November 9, when an area of the third floor roof where the water tanks were placed collapsed and fell on the building’s shared collective bathrooms. The partial collapse did not result in human casualties, but did cause significant material damage.
Click link above for full article.
In 2018 heavy rains in May caused at least 100 partial building collapses in Havana. In Havana an average of over 300 buildings partial or totally collapse a year. House deficit is estimated in 1.8 million units. 60% of the units in existence are over 50 years old, and 50% of the total is in bad or average condition according to the Cuban National Housing Institute. During the last 60 years the construction of new houses has been dismal. The regime statistics in the construction of new houses are cooked. This suspicion is in validated by former Vice-Minister Carlos Lage who in 2007 revealed that less than half of the 111,300 housing units claimed built in 2006 were in fact built.
 
Official estimates indicate that 457,800 homes were damage by five hurricanes in recent years, of which 76,854 were destroyed and 91,472 seriously damaged. The lack of adequate housing is the regime gravest social problem. Without sufficient capital investment to provide adequate housing this has become a nearly insuperable obstacle for the regime.
 
According to a Juventud Rebelde report in April 2008, in the city of Havana alone, 28,000 people resided in buildings about to collapse. The expansion of slums (cuarterias shanty towns, shelters) in the city has increased 50%, housing as many as 450,000 inhabitants, 20% of the city 2.2 million. It is very common that 3 generations live in a single house. This is the fundamental reason why the people occupy terraces, balconies, porches, sidewalks, and build mezzanines, to gain space. This has created a grave social problem for the regime.
 
The U.S. State Department has recognized Cuba as a sponsor of terrorism. I've heard a lot about terrorists in recent years - Arab, Palestinian, Afghan, Iraqi, Chechen, and even Norwegian, but I've never heard about Cuban ones.
That's why we should all be especially wary of them.
 
The United States imposed sanctions on the Cuban Interior Ministry, accusing the agency of "serious human rights violations."
Maybe in Cuba, security forces shot dead a woman participating in the protest? In cold blood and at point blank range.
Then yes, this is a serious violation of human rights.
 
The 2002 census data shows that of the new housing units built between 1990 and 2002, close to 50,000 were bohíos and adobe structures. The bohío is a primitive dwelling with palm bark walls, earthen floors and palm leave roofs; adobe, mud bricks walls, earthen floors and palm leave roofs. Those can’t be classified as adequate housing.

By contrast, from 1953 to 1858, 42,000 bohíos were upgrade bringing them to minimum standards of conform and safety (concrete floor, fiber cement roof, sanitary toilets, number of bedrooms according to family size and drinking water service), and 18,000 new peasant homes were built.
 
The Covid-19 Emergency in Cuba, Days 42-44: Without Bread There is No Country
http://translatingcuba.com/the-covi...days-42-44-without-bread-there-is-no-country/
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The products that once were the most desired and scarce, are the same again today. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 5 May 2020 — I remember that one of the first signs of the Special Period was the difficulty in buying bread. In those years in the 1990s I lived in the Havana neighborhood of San Leopoldo and near my house there was a bakery that sold unrationed goods until, little by little, only one offering remained on its shelves and it became rationed.

One day I woke up to a long line to buy bread. After that, for the next few years, I spent hours and hours in that waiting, although I rarely came home with a full bag. On one occasion, my family was so hungry that they devoured what little I had bought through the ration book while standing on that same corner.

Today, we are close to similar scenes. In the neighborhood where I live, many have gone years without seeking out rationed bread because remittances and informal vendors allowed them to avoid the crowds at the state premises on Hidalgo and Lombillo streets. But that ended. Tyrians and Trojans are now there from the early hours, in a long line.
Click link above for full article.
The lines at the markets and the food stalls are a dangerous focus for infections in Havana where people are obliged to go out every day to look for food. There is no bread, no rice, no soap, no oil, no detergent. The peak of the crisis has not been reach yet. The second “special period”, a reference to an extended period of economic crisis in the 1990’s, is looming in the horizon.
 
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