Apartheid in the Lyric Theater of Cuba? / Miguel Iturría Savón
Apartheid in the Lyric Theater of Cuba? / Miguel Iturría SavónMiguel Iturria Savón, Translator: Unstated
On September 12, 2011, the soprano Yoslainy Perez Derrick, a member of the National Lyric Theater Choir of Cuba (TLNC) sent a letter to the State Council, with copies to the Ministry of Culture and National Arts Council, complaining of irregularities hampering her artistic development within that institution, because for 15 years she has played only secondary roles without being evaluated as a solo artist, despite her record, high professional standards and broad curriculum.
In her extensive testimony she enumerates the requests to the director of the company, the pretexts used by him, the humiliations and the constraints that favor her exclusion. "They've been closing the fence on me every day, subtly forbidding the possibility to develop myself as an artist, I'm not scheduled even in roles that previously performed… I was evaluated as a first level singer with the choir in 2003, and since that date I have not been re-evaluated."
To amend the opportunities denied to the 38-year-old black singer of it would be enough to hear some of her recordings and concerts or read her bulging curriculum, but things are not so easy with the Master Adolfo Casas Chirino, director of TLNC, who upon receiving the complaint met with the Secretary of Nucleus of the Communist Party and the Arts Council before responding to Martha Orihuela, Director of Inspection of the Ministry of Culture, who sent arguments against the applicant, dated 31 October and 2 November.
The first alleges appreciation of "the interest of the compañera in excelling since she graduated at the senior level at ISA, and her intention to progress, aspiring to roles in the various titles of the works presented in the Grand Theater of Havana." She cites the roles performed by Yoslainy Perez in La Traviata, Cecilia Valdés, Maria La O and The Magic Flute, but warns that "she has already reached the maximum level to which she can aspire as a choir singer" and that to ascend to actress singer "would require a prior audition and a vacancy that matches her type of voice," lyric soprano. After which she cites other details and describes her as "disrespectful to the approach… we have a retrograde thinking, demagogue, favoritism, insubordinate and even patronizing …"
The second letter, signed by the Director and members of the Artistic Council members, is more of the same.
Yoslainy Pérez Derrick (Havana, 1973), graduated in Music Education from the Adolfo Guzman School (1989), has a Bachelor degree, studied English and German, art direction and production, vocal technique with Ricardo Linares Fleites, director of the Lyric Theatre Chorus, and with Martha Clarke, soloist of the company and professor at the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA), where she majored in Voice.
With the Lyric, she joined the cast of Porgy & Bess, under the general direction of Maestro Manuel Duchesne Cuzán and musician Enrique Pérez Mesa, which won success in Austria and Spain in the summer of 2000. She took on the characters Estrella in the operetta Amalia Batista, of Flora in La Traviata, of the Second Lady in The Magic Flute, and was a cast member in the operetta Cecilia Valdés.
She has been a soloist in in concert-tributes to G. Gershwin, Gonzalo Roig, Mariana Gonitch, Lyrics of the Future, la Sala San Felipe Neri, the Plaza de Armas with the National Concert Band, the Amadeo Roldan Auditorium, and the Catalan Society; as well as singing in Galas of closure and Master Classes of foreign directors such as the Austrian Hartmut Krones, George Backer, from Luxembourg, the Korean Jae-Joon Lee, and the Spanish soprano Elisa Belmonte. In 2009 she won 2nd place and the award for best performer of opera Gonitch Marian Competition.
Such a record belies the disqualification about the lack of skills and other pretexts used by the Director and the Arts Council to deny the place of the TLNC singer actress where she remains in the choir since 1996. Is the color of her skin the cause of marginalization at the elite institution?
Adolfo Casas argues that his company has no racial prejudice and that the staff includes significant actors of African descent, among them one of the leading sopranos. Yoslainy Pérez Derrick expressed otherwise and considers it "segregated" because she prefers to realize her aspirations without flattery or will not remain silent about nepotism and the abuse of power practiced by Casas.
Artists requesting anonymity say that all who claimed their rights or alleged irregularities in the "fiefdom de Zulueta 253″ (seat of TLNC), were shown the exit door with little in hand.
This "bureaucratic apartheid" enjoys the complicity of the State Council and the Ministry of Culture, agencies that sent Pérez Derrick's letter back to the slaughterhouse, without subjecting it to an impartial analysis with advice or views of experts not involved in the problem.
In the aftermath, the aspirations of the black soprano continue to be held back by the unilateral opinion of the Maestro Adolfo Casas and the Arts Council who bend their necks before its draconian codes. Undoubtedly, this mechanism will continue wasting the artistry of talented professionals.
The TLNC is losing ground to companies that exhibit greater force in their development and scene settings. The easy way is to recycle the same pieces, sets, actors, stage movements and concessions, but it only manages to bore fans of the genre and divert viewers to other companies that seek excellence.
For its human material, the Lyric Theater could multiply its proposals and present them in various locations. Its professionals need practice and freshness before the viewpoints of different managers and specialists, which provide opportunities for singers like Pérez Derrick.
For such purposes a competent director is needed, and not an overseer who cracks the whip on the slaves he develops. Despotic vices and styles turn Cuban culture into a victim of these mistakes.
December 13 2011
Texas agricultural exports to Cuba continue growth
Texas agricultural exports to Cuba continue growthFebruary 6, 2012 By: Blair Fannin
COLLEGE STATION – Though tightly controlled, there are opportunities for Texas agricultural producers and businesses to capitalize on potential exports of food products to Cuba, according to a Texas AgriLife Extension Service economist.
Dr. Parr Rosson, AgriLife Extension economist and director of the Center for North American Studies at Texas A&M University in College Station, said the Cuban economy has held its own amid world economic turbulence.
Dr. Parr Rosson, Texas AgriLife Extension Service economist.
Thanks to the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000, U.S. businesses may export food, agricultural and forestry products and medicines to Cuba.
Texas supplies Cuba with several export items, including chicken leg quarters, corn and wheat. U.S. corn exports to Cuba saw more than a 200 percent increase in value in 2011 to $109 million during the January-November period as Cuba uses more corn products for poultry feeding operations and other uses.
"We've begun to see some higher quality beef cuts enter the Cuban market as well," Rosson said. Pork, cotton and dairy products produced in Texas are also exported there.
"Pears, apples, raisins and dry (pinto) beans were exported in 2011, along with corn chips and potato chips," Rosson said. "These are products that we are seeing more interest in due to the growing tourism market in Cuba."
International visitors are increasing, Rosson said, with 2.7 million traveling to the island in 2011, 7 percent above 2010 and a new record. Revenue from tourism exceeded $2 billion, providing more money for Cubans to use in purchasing imported foods. Canada is the top visitor, Rosson said, with 900,000 going to Cuba in 2011.
"They are more likely to go during the winter months," he said. "They can fly from Canada directly to the major beach resort of Varadero."
Those resorts serve many items, including chips, fresh fruit and table cuts of beef and pork.
"The downside is that Cuba is attempting to implement several economic reforms and design a new more market-oriented path for their economy," Rosson said. "It creates some instability and uncertainty."
Rosson said Cuba is "very proficient" in producing certain tropical crops such as sugar, tobacco, citrus and vegetables grown in greenhouses, but other crops such as rice, wheat and corn struggle due to high humidity, insects, disease and the high cost of production.
"And, of course, hurricanes are a threat with each season," he said.
Cuba also lacks consistent agricultural credit, so some crop and livestock production is constrained.
"They rely on joint ventures with Spain and China to finance many agribusiness opportunities," he said.
Agricultural commodities, such as dry beans for example, are shipped out of Corpus Christi. Corn and wheat grown in the Lone Star State ships out of the port of Houston, Rosson said.
The Cuban government's buying agency, Empressa Cubana Importada de Alimentos (Alimport), handles all U.S. exports to the island, Rosson said.
"Alimport is Cuba's exclusive agent for all purchases from the U.S. and negotiates purchases, handles documents and arranges logistics and transportation of goods," Rosson said.
Before a U.S. firm can take product samples or export its products to Cuba, Rosson said each product must be reviewed and licensed by the Office of Exporter Services, Bureau Industry and Security, U.S. Department of Commerce.
"The license is free and is valid for one year," Rosson said. More information on licensing requirements can be found at www.bis.doc.gov.
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Contacts
Dr. Parr Rosson, 979-845-3070, prosson@tamu.edu
http://agrilife.org/today/2012/02/06/texas-agricultural-exports-to-cuba-continue-growth/
Cuba Denies Exit to Pro-Democracy Blogger Invited by Brazil
Cuba Denies Exit to Pro-Democracy Blogger Invited by BrazilFebruary 05, 2012, 1:43 AM EST By Joshua Goodman
(Updates with Sanchez's comments in fourth paragraph.)
Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) — Cuba's best-known pro-democracy blogger said she was denied permission to leave her country after Brazil granted her a visa ahead of President Dilma Rousseff's state visit to the communist island last week.
"There's no surprise," Yoani Sanchez said in a posting on her Twitter account today. "They again deny me permission to leave. It's the 19th time they violate my right to enter and leave my country."
Sanchez, a critic of Raul Castro's government on her Generation Y blog, requested permission to travel to Brazil next month so she could attend the screening of a documentary in which she appears. While she's been barred from leaving Cuba for the past four years, expectations she might be allowed to exit this time increased after Brazil granted her a visa on the eve of Rousseff's visit this week.
After Rousseff failed to meet with Sanchez and other activists during the three-day trade mission to Havana, the blogger complained on Twitter that the Brazilian president came to Cuba "with her wallet open and her eyes shut."
Rousseff, who was inspired by Cuba's revolution to take up arms against Brazil's military dictatorship in the 1960s, said she would not get involved in what is an internal Cuban matter.
"Brazil gave the visa to the blogger," she told reporters in Havana. "The rest is not a matter for the Brazilian government."
Brazil's Foreign Ministry declined to comment on Cuba's decision when contacted by Bloomberg News.
While blocked from traveling abroad, Sanchez openly criticizes Castro's government online, and has emerged as a leader among a group of young dissidents who describe the daily travails life in Cuba through difficult-to-access social media. She was invited to Spain after winning the Ortega y Gasset journalism prize in 2008. Many of her chronicles are published by newspapers throughout Latin America.
–With assistance from Ray Colitt in Brasilia. Editors: Harry Maurer
In Cuba’s hinterland a businessman is born
In Cuba's hinterland a businessman is bornBy Marc FrankGUAIMARO, Cuba | Wed Jan 11, 2012 6:06am EST
(Reuters) – Guaimaro, just one of many small poor and dusty towns along Cuba's sparsely travelled central highway, is best known as the spot where the island's first constitution was signed during the independence war with Spain.
These days the talk of the town is about a different sort of independence in state-dominated Cuba – the privately owned Magno restaurant, the most luxurious place in Gua imaro. Its owner Tomas Mayedo Fernandez is a local boy who once did jail time for involuntary manslaughter but now, in just over a year as an entrepreneur, is a big success.
The eatery is one of more than 1,000 home-based restaurants, or paladares, that have opened on the Communist-run island since restrictions on small private businesses were loosened in late 2010, as part of a broader reform of the Soviet-style economy undertaken by President Raul Castro.
A meal at the Magno will cost you the equivalent of a few dollars for a beer and sandwich to $10 or more for steak and lobster, in a land where the average wage is less than $20 per month.
There are just two other private eateries and a few shabby looking state-run restaurants in Guaimaro, located 400 miles (650 km) east of Havana. But they cater more to the local population rather than passersby and do not boast air-conditioning, lobster, shrimp, beef, whiskey and aged rum.
"I didn't know anything about running a restaurant, but I liked the idea of going into business and so when the law changed I began, little by little," said Mayedo, a strapping young man and son of a cattle rancher in his mid-30s .
Mayedo lived in the second story of the once-crumbling, century-old building. He sold clothing from his living room to make ends meet and looked down on the ruins of the empty store front and big back yard the neighbours had turned into a garbage dump.
SEEING THE POTENTIAL
The place nevertheless had potential because it fronted the central highway, giving it access to a larger customer base than just the small town, he decided.
"We were already working to clean the place up before the law changed," Mayedo said recently, taking time off from his chats with arriving suppliers and his pacing back and forth with mobile phone in hand.
He began with a small cafeteria, but then on December 10, 2010, he opened the restaurant beside it . His plans did not stop there.
"We also have a jewellery repair shop and in two or three years I want to build a place in the back to rent out rooms," he said.
Like the rest of Cuba, many of Guaimaro's residents have family living abroad, especially in Florida, and as luck would have it, U.S. President Barack Obama lifted restrictions on Cuban Americans visiting their homeland just a few months before the Magno opened for business.
Over the recent holidays the town – where legs, bicycles and horse-drawn buggies are the main form of transportation – was dotted with rental cars, many of them driven by visiting Cuban Americans who wanted to treat their relatives and friends to a nice meal while out on the town.
There was only one place to go – the Magno, which has become a sort of destination restaurant that is well known in the area .
"December was by far the best month we have had," Mayedo said.
His wife Yaima Lopez helps run the Magno, while his aunt, a retired state economist, takes care of the books. Two cousins, with some cash earned working in Angola, where thousands of Cubans work as doctors, construction workers and teachers, lent him the seed money.
"I'm paying them back little by little, but they don't pressure me," he said.
The hardest times were when Mayedo waited for his clientele to build up and worried he might go bankrupt.
"Like all businesses the first year or two are the most difficult. And this is the countryside, not the capital where there is more demand. Here we depend on the people who pass by on the highway," he said.
THE TAX MAN COMETH
As his business has grown, Mayedo has added eight full-time employees to help operate it.
The biggest challenge has been training a workforce that is disciplined and pays attention to details, he said.
Mayedo said he has had no serious problems with the government, is grateful for the reforms underway and believes they are here to stay.
"I thank them for giving us the opportunity to demonstrate to ourselves that we are capable of doing this well," he said.
"No state can subsidize an entire population, it is impossible. Furthermore, we provide jobs, pay taxes and help the economy in a big way."
Mayedo doubted he would become a millionaire any time soon because, despite the reforms, there are still limits.
"The system is designed to allow us to keep living, not become rich. But yes, my life will keep improving," he said.
In a land where everyone worked for the state and there was no income tax until recently, one is now being levied on hundreds of thousands of small businesses and farms that have appeared due to Raul Castro's reforms.
Mayedo said his aunt was preparing his first income tax return even as he spoke.
Now that was something to worry about at a sliding scale of up to 50 percent of earnings, Mayedo admitted, but better to pay 50 percent of earnings than no tax on no earnings at all, he said with a shrug.
(Editing by Jeff Franks and Philip Barbara)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/11/uk-cuba-entrepreneur-idUSLNE80A00Y20120111
Open Letter from the Writer Ángel Santiesteban-Prats to the New President of Spain / Ángel Santiesteban
Open Letter from the Writer Ángel Santiesteban-Prats to the New President of Spain / Ángel SantiestebanAngel Santiesteban, Translator: Unstated Havana, 20 December 2011
President Mariano Rajoy, I turn to you on the day my daughter celebrates her birthday. Just thinking of the Cuban young people, I decided to write you these humble and sincere words without standing on ceremony other than to offer you well-deserved congratulations, and to cry for the young of my country whose only horizon is the Straits of Florida which cause so many deaths. But not before giving you a small account of the last two governments of my country and the impact they have had on us.
Since the absence in power of Spain's People's Party, three elections back, the freedom of Cubans has been banished. We quickly received a half-communist minister representing the PSOE (Socialist Workers Party), who came to negotiate with the Castro brothers. Since then, the silence and Spanish president Zapatero's complicity threw its dark mantle over the Cuban archipelago. The days when the freedom of the people was more important to Spain than relations with a tyrant, were long gone.
That complicity with which the Cultural Attache welcomed those of us with the intention to participate in some literary contest in Spain, and the envelopes full of stories and hopes, ended. From that time on we no longer received the latest published books from the Iberian peninsula, nor the journal Encuentro de la Cultura Cubana which had provided us with the latest cultural events in the world and, especially, in the culture of our diaspora forbidden on Cuban soil.
The literary, essay and photography contest thought up by the Spanish embassy, which was juried and where I was told there was no pressure because they would award the prize to some irreverent text despite the political system that scorns us and exists in this country, only got as far as a call for entries. The official policy of support for marginalized artists vanished. We also lost the profound and hard work of the Hispanic-American Center because the dictatorship closed it, not wanting there to be a space for the cultural freedom it supported.
Then, the meeting with the ungainly ambassador of whom I only remember his name "Lazarus," and who joked about a Bible passage, "Lazarus, arise and walk," because the Lazarus sent to us only came to lie down at the feet of the dictator. And the following meeting for Columbus Day, which we had celebrated in the ambassador's residence for many years, and Lazarus just read our group what his work plan was going to be, which was "nothing," making him the second Government of the Island. Since then we haven't gone back despite continuing to receive an invitation.
Months later the Ambassadors of the European Union wanted a meeting-dialogue with Cuban writers in the residence of the Ambassador of Austria, which chaired the EU at the time. Attending were Leonardo Padura, Amado del Pino, Pedro Juan Gutiérrez, Reinaldo Montero and me. Each gave his vision of the social reality.
Some Ambassadors wondered about the relationship between Venezuela and Cuba, and thought that perhaps, as expressed by the Spanish Ambassador, that starting with a substantion improvement in the economy, there would arise an improvement in individual freedoms. He was hoping for better times for Cuba, the raising of the national economy and social freedoms.
When I intervened I said that with reference to the possibility of "economic improvement", I found myself pessimistic, given that the years of dictatorship had demonstrated gross mismanagement of the assets of the People, and that in the unlikely event that Venezuela became what the Union Soviet and the rest of the socialist camp had been for Cuba, it would be disastrous for individual liberties, as rather than being strengthened, repression would also increase.
That the Ruler (at the time it was Fidel Castro, now it is his brother, but it has always been the same last name), had ceded his harsh dictatorship from the Special Period, when he lost credibility and followers, but there was a return to economic consolidation, which I doubted we could say for certain that it would sharpen the repression, censorship and imprisonment of opponents of the government.
After the meeting ended, while having refreshments, I was approached by Ambassador Lazaro, who told me light-heartedly, "Don't be so pessimistic." I gave him a look as impotence threatened to overcome me. "Sir," I said, "how is it possible that you dare to ask for optimism from one of the members of the third generation that this process has consumed without any benefit. Fidel Castro is a human crushing machine."
The ambassador wanted to escape but I stopped him: "Never," I pronounced, "have I seen the Cuban State prosper, not in economic matters nor in individual liberties, and unfortunately we two are going to be alive to see it."
The Ambassador raised his arms and walked away. We never met again. I did not accept his invitations. Wherever he finds himself today, he should remember the words that without being an expert in political and social matters, were offered to him, a career diplomat, most disadvantaged by our forecasts, with his failure as Ambassador and his role in a boring and submissive political party, so much so, that his own workers in the Spanish embassy in Havana let us know that they had a room full of the journal Encuentro de la Cultura Cubana, which they couldn't distribute because the government had forbidden it in secret negotiations.
In those two governments of Zapatero, we have suffered the shamelessness of both presidencies (Zapatero-Fidel and Raul Castro) and their minions. Supposed achievements in the matter of the prisoners of conscience have only served them to be accomplices in helping to take the lid off the pot and relieve the pressure and thus avoid a social explosion on the island, to procure some respite for a process that is asphyxiating at times, an that resorts to strategies intended to improve its international image, award accomplices, and ultimately ultimately extend a system which the population does not believe in, such as releasing the prisoners of conscience to Spain which agreed to receive them as political refugees, but which disengaged from them after their arrival and haphazardly left them in the hands of God. The Master of Ceremonies of this sizable circus was Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos.
In the end they demonstrated that releasing the prisoners was not done for humanitarian but for political reasons.I also pray for them and I urge you to provide them the place they deserve after suffering persecution, torture and imprisonment, it would be very kind of you to stop this escalation of agony, and end something that started ill. Ii is in your hands to do it.
Of course, we know that while the Popular Party has won, it doesn't mean it will resolve the immense problems that have shaken Spain, much less solve the dilemma of the Cubans. What we are sure of is that at least you, President Mariano Rajoy, have extended a hand in solidarity and know how to take the measure of a dictatorship that is dying, but that even in its death throes, keeps kicking and is willing to take the lives of those who confront it.
Recently Cubans have lost a friend, intellectual and former Czech President Vaclav Havel, but God has provided us with you. Having called the Czech writer to His side, he is right to leave this task in your hands.
With humility we simply ask you, President Rajoy, for an ambassador who respects us and offers a place to the thoughtful opposition, dedicated and determined to achieve the freedoms inherent in being human.
Welcome!
Sincerely,
Ángel Santiesteban-Prats
Translator's note: Slight changes have been made in this letter for English-speaking readers who may not know what positions those named hold or held in Spain and Cuba — they have been added.
December 26 2011
Housing market blooms in Cuban provinces
Housing market blooms in Cuban provincesBy Marc FrankSANTIAGO DE CUBA, Cuba | Mon Jan 9, 2012 3:53pm EST
(Reuters) – Hundreds of handwritten signs stuck on doorways and in windows announce "se vende" or "for sale" in provincial cities and towns across Cuba as the island's nascent housing market begins to bloom.
Buyers walk the streets looking at homes the whereabouts of which were passed along by word of mouth as sellers outside of Havana have limited access to the Internet or other means to advertise their sales.
There are hovels and there are splendid little places tucked between crumbling buildings. There are two-story homes in need of repair and a few in immaculate condition. Some places go for the equivalent of a few thousand dollars, others for much more.
Buying and selling homes was banned for decades in Cuba. The best one could do was trade dwellings in what Cubans call a "permuta" and expand or decrease the size of where you lived by a single room.
That all changed when the ban was lifted in November, along with much of the previous paperwork and bureaucratic tangles, though Cubans can still own just one home and vacation place and non-resident foreigners are excluded from the market.
The measure appears to be the most popular yet as President Raul Castro, who replaced his ailing brother Fidel in 2008, works to reform the Soviet-style economy and gradually lifts some of the more onerous restrictions on people's daily lives.
Trading one's home was a nightmarish process that could take months and even years under the old system, and often required bribes and under-the-table payments.
The new system requires a simple notary and payment through the bank and appears to be working relatively well according to more than a dozen people selling their homes from one end of the island to the other.
"The new law is really good because there are people who get divorced, or who have money but no place to live, or live in a big place and want a smaller one, or have big families in a little place and want something larger and now with this law they can meet their needs much more easily," Tania Vigaroa, in the process of selling her home in eastern Holguin, said.
Most of the sellers say they would like to move to a smaller home and that permutas plus payments are now to difficult to find because people prefer to buy or sell.
In neighboring Santiago de Cuba the other day a haggard looking receptionist at the San Pedro notary office, where the waiting room was full, said the three notaries working there had no time to talk.
"This place has been overflowing since they changed the law, every day is the same," said receptionist Milaidy, who asked that her last name not be used, adding there were three other offices in the city.
Most sellers have become used to strangers on the prowl for a home. They are a hospitable lot, welcoming the passerby to come in for a look.
"I'm asking $55,000. The house has three rooms, two bathrooms, a big back yard, kitchen, dining room and living room and this is right near the center of town," said Jose Ramirez in the city of Ciego de Avila, in central Cuba.
"A number of people have come by so we will see. It's a respectable sum, but my daughter was recently divorced and lives across town and I want to be near her for support. There is a house over there that costs exactly the same amount," he said.
Some 60 miles to the east, in the city of Camaguey, bicycle-taxi driver Roberto Sosa says "no problem," when asked to peddle the Cuban version of a rickshaw around town for a look at what's on the market.
OVERSEAS INTEREST
An hour and five homes later one place catches the eye on Virgin Street. The neighborhood needs a plaster and paint job and the road needs paving, but the half-block-long, five bedroom single story house, freshly painted and with new tile floors, is splendid.
"We want $35,000 and have a possible buyer, but she is checking with her family in Miami," said the owner's son, who gave his name only as Santiago.
Bicitaxi peddler Sosa wasn't surprised.
"Most of the houses sold are (being bought) with the help of family abroad, if not it wouldn't be possible because their value is going up a lot now," he said, pointing out most local residents make only the equivalent of $20 or $30 per month.
Emilio Morales in Miami wasn't surprised either.
"A number of law firms, mainly here in the United States and Spain, have already called asking about the law for clients who want to know how they can buy property in Cuba," the former marketing strategist for CIMEX, one of the largest state-run trading and retail corporations on the island, said in a telephone interview.
Morales, now CEO of The Havana Consulting Group, a startup company specializing in potential Cuban markets, including residential real estate, said there was plenty of interest.
"Here in Miami there are a lot of people interested in buying property in Cuba for diverse reasons, some to start restaurants, cafeterias or other businesses and others to have a place to retire and live out their old age," he said.
(Editing by Jeff Franks and Cynthia Osterman)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/09/us-cuba-house-idUSTRE8081ZS20120109
The Digital Divide Between the Education Systems of Cuba and Latin America / Dora Leonor Mesa
The Digital Divide Between the Education Systems of Cuba and Latin America / Dora Leonor MesaDora Leonor Mesa, Translator: jCS, Translator: Scott
One of the most relevant initiatives put forth by the Latin American community of nations in recent years is the project "Educational Goals 2021: the education we want for the bicentennial generation" (A look at education in Latin American (2011))
Its objective is to improve the quality of education and equity in education in order to confront poverty and inequality, and to promote social inclusion. It deals with an approach to as of yet unresolved problems such as illiteracy, students leaving school early, child labour, low student achievement, and the poor quality of public school offerings. It attempts to confront, at the same time, the pressing societal demand for information and knowledge: the incorporation of information and communication technologies (TIC) in teaching and learning, and the encouragement of innovation and creativity, and the development of scientific research and progress (page 8).
With the aim of elaborating the afore-mentioned benchmarks of progress, the promoters of the project "Educational Goals 2021″ considered it necessary to begin with an analysis of the present situation, that outlines the reality in which education finds itself in the Latin American countries in the areas defined by the 2021 Goals. The base year results of the study are from 2010. Some indicators include references to previous years as it was not always possible to find the appropriate data.
The overview offered by the OEI (Organization of Iberoamerican States) are solid enough to be taken as a point of reference with respect to Cuba and the rest of Latin America. The bulk of the information in the document is available from other institutions such as the World Bank and the United Nations.
In the future, a number of diverse indicators will form the basis of a comparative analysis of the impact of the information age in Latin America and Cuba.
Average number of students per computer
The development of TIC indicators in the realm of education raises the need to quantity some dimension of this reality, beginning with a fundamental aspect of its functioning: that of structure. In this way, a common and generally accepted indicator to measure the extent of computer use in schools came to light – that is, the student-computer ratio. Among other things, comparisons between countries can be made using this ratio and one can see the extent of the gap that separates Latin America from developed nations.
With respect to the use of the computer and the ratio of students per computer, an initial observation is the existence of a general consensus as to the importance of using the TIC as learning tools. Upon weighing the present situation in Iberoamerica, however, some marked differences may be observed. Compared to countries promoting a policy of a 1:1 student-computer ratio (Portugal, Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, and Spain, among others) some countries have a very high student-computer ration. Cuba reports a ratio greater than 30:1, one of the highest rates in Iberoamerica. (Miradas sobre la educación en Iberoamérica, 2011, page 177)
A first difficulty lies in the different purposes for which computers are used in schools. In general, most Latin American countries have opted to add the total number of existing computers in schools, whether they are used for administrative, educational or both. El Salvador specifically mentioned that decision, while limiting its response to the number of computers in the schools, without reference to the number of students. As an exception to that rule, we may cite the case of Spain, which calculates considering just the computers used for teaching and learning tasks.
On the other hand, in connection with the use most of Latin American countries are making of ICTs, it shows that in many cases it is primarily aimed at achieving technological literacy of students. Despite the diversity of situations in the region, a positive fact is that no country supports never using use computers within the educational environment, but in many cases use is limited to computer rooms, as happens in Cuba.
The MIRADAS report acknowledges that there are currently no standardized assessment systems that allow us to have concrete data about impact ICTs have on learning. The absence of these data is of concern, while more than 700 research efforts in the U.S. on the subject confirm the positive effect of ICTs in the learning of students with access to computers, either when they receive their instruction through them, or use learning technology systems in collaborative groups or networks (Schacter, J., 1999)
Strong evidence exists that learning with TIC is less effective when learning objectives are not well defined and the purpose for utilizing technology is controversial. Insofar as primary education is concerned, experts recommend that we think about education first and technology later. (Schacter, J. pg. 10).
Today, indicators need to be developed that can measure the effect or impact of educational objectives, an aspect that goes hand in hand with the development of other additional disciplines, such as cognitive psychology to assess learning processes mediated by ICT. This constant reformulation is part of the digital paradigm which, linked to the learning process, is continually generating new returns in terms of applications, content, competences, action plans, and, naturally, solutions.
Translated by: Scott and jCS
November 25 2011
Former spanish ambassador to Cuba to head relations with Latin America
Posted on Thursday, 01.05.12
CUBA
Former spanish ambassador to Cuba to head relations with Latin America
Jesus Gracia Aldaz was ambassador in Havana when Cuban government jailed 75 dissidentsBy Juan O. Tamayojtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com
A Spanish diplomat who served as ambassador in Havana from 2001 to 2004 was appointed Thursday to head the Foreign Ministry section that handles Spain's relations with Latin America.
Jesús Gracia Aldaz, named as Secretary of State for Iberoamerica, was Spain's ambassador to Cuba when Havana courts sentenced 75 dissidents to lengthy prison terms during a crackdown in 2003 known as "Cuba's Black Spring."
He was appointed to the Cuba post in 2001 by the conservative People's Party government of Prime Minister José Maria Aznar and left the island in 2004, when socialist José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero succeeded Aznar. PP leader Mariano Rajoy took over as prime minister after his party won the November elections.
Joaquin Roy, who heads the European Union Center at the University of Miami, noted that while Gracia is experienced in Spanish-Cuban relations, he will have to follow the policy guidelines set by Rajoy and Foreign Minister José Manuel García Margallo.
"Everything depends on how active Rajoy and García-Margallo want to be on Cuba. I would be surprised if they start any 'harassment' (against the Cuban government) … that goes beyond the verbal," Roy wrote in an email to El Nuevo Herald.
After Cuba's crackdown in 2003, the Aznar government helped push member nations of the European Union to adopt sanctions on Havana, such as cutting back on government-to-government contacts and inviting dissidents to embassy functions.
Rodríguez Zapatero and his foreign minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, reversed course by pushing the EU nations to abandon the 2003 sanctions and trying unsuccessfully to lift a EU "Common Position" that loosely links EU assistance to Cuba's human rights record.
The socialist government also eliminated the title of Secretary of State for Iberoamerica in 2010. Gracia Aldaz' appointment to the resurrected title points to Rajoy's stated goal of warming up relations with Latin America.
The 51-year old Gracia Aldaz is currently the No. 2 at the Spanish embassy in Argentina and has served in top positions in the government agencies that are in charge of assistance to Latin American and other nations.
A post Thursday in the Spain-based blog CubaEncuentro argued that Cuba issues have a low priority for the Rajoy government because of Spain's many domestic problems and the hefty Spanish investments in the Cuban tourism and oil industries. The Spanish Repsol company is spearheading the island's offshore oil exploration efforts.
But Rajoy also is unlikely to continue the Rodriguez Zapatero government's strong push to drop the EU's Common Position, and trouble may lie ahead, added the post, signed by Tony Gonzalez.
"Somewhere along there will be confrontation, and diplomatic notes with insults and apologies," the post noted.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/05/2575578/former-spanish-ambassador-to.html#storylink=misearch
Eleven News Stories Not Reported in Cuba in 2011 / Ernesto Morales Licea
Eleven News Stories Not Reported in Cuba in 2011 / Ernesto Morales LiceaErnesto Morales Licea, Translator: Unstated
1. The Arab spring
Only when the events in Egypt exceeded the predictions, did the Cuban press note (with tweezers) some isolated incidents. Nor had it published anything earlier about the riots in Tunisia and Yemen, nor did it later dig into the deposition of Hosni Mubarak. On Libya and and the fall of Muammar Gadaffi, it limited itself to denigrating the role of NATO, without mentioning the popular movement against the dictator. On Syria, Cuban press coverage remains minimal.
2. Latin Grammy Awards
As no Cuban artist in residence in the island won a Latin Grammy in 2011, the Cuban press accolades applauded only the Puerto Rican duo Calle 13, and omitted all exiled Cuban artists who were winners: Amaury Gutiérrez, Lena Burke, Paquito D 'Rivera and the late Israel López "Cachao".
3. UN special report on Iran's nuclear program
On November 8 the International Atomic Energy Agency of the United Nations presented a detailed report which showed not only Tehran's efforts to achieve the atomic bomb, but to do so in record time, based on special designs of enriching uranium by catalysts process methods. Not one word of this report was revealed in Cuba, an ally of the regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
4. Convictions for child prostitution
Five were implicated in the death of a 12-year-old child prostitute in the eastern city of Bayamo and four subsequently arrested for ties to a child prostitution ring were sentenced in September of this year to prison terms of between 10 and 30 years. Three of those convicted are Italian. Despite the national and international turmoil after the death of the girl, in 2010, the Cuban press did not reflect on the case.
5. Sports defections
In addition to promising young players such as the pitcher Gerardo Concepción and footballer Yosniel Mesa, two major athletes fled Cuba in 2011 through risky and illegal ways. The great Yoenis Cespedes, member of the Cuban baseball team and current national home run record holder, left the island on a boat bound for the Dominican Republic in the summer, and expects to contract with the major leagues. Paralympic swimming champion at the 2011 Pan American, Rafael Castillo, crossed the border and sought political asylum in the United States. Nothing was said officially in Cuba about either of them.
6. The "cubañoles"
In 2011 Cuba set a record for requests for Spanish citizenship. According to the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, the Spanish consulate in Havana has already nationalized some 66,000 Cubans, and it is estimated that at the end of the process about 190,000 residents of the island will be citizens of Spain due to the Law of Historical Memory (qualifying requires having a Spanish grandparent). In Cuba, not only has this event been silenced, but Internet pages with information about how to apply are blocked.
7. Hugo Chavez's Cancer
With the exception of an official note on the surgery in June of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, news coverage on successive chemotherapy treatments in Havana, relapse, revenues emergency in Caracas and in general the Venezuelan president's illness has been practically nil.
8. Bill Richardson's visit to Havana
Only after former New Mexico Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson declared his frustration with the unsuccessful trip he made to Havana in September, did the official Cuban press counter with the reasons why the government had not allowed Richardson will meet with Alan P. Gross, let alone bring him back to the United States. During his stay in Cuba, Bill Richardson was ignored by the Cuban media.
9. Pablo Milanes Controversy
Nor was a a visit to Miami by one of the two most important singers of the Cuban Nueva Trova movement, Pablo Milanes, mentioned, nor was a word published about his accusatory statements against the repression of the Ladies in White and the stifling centralization of power. Only by alternative means did Cubans learn of the controversial Pablo Milanes concert at American Airlines Arena in Miami, and his public break with the regime of the island
10. Cuba's first gay wedding
An event covered by the international press found no place in Cuban journalism: the wedding of Wendy Iriepa, a transsexual, and the homosexual dissident Ignacio Estrada in August. Not even because this one-of-a-kind wedding occurred on the "symbolic" date of August 13th (the birthday of Fidel Castro) did the Cuban media report it.
11. Record for corruption
Scholars of Cuban issues classify 2011 as the "year of corruption in Cuba." Scandals in the fields of nickel (Sherritt International and Cubaníquel), telecommunications (Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba, known as ETECSA), the Cuban Volleyball Federation, the Tobacco Industry (Habanos SA), among others, led to dismissal of ministers such as Yadira Garcia (Basic Industry ) and legal actions against sports officials such as the glory of Cuban volleyball, Raul Diago. On all these scandals, the Cuban media issued terse notes, or in some cases ignored them entirely.
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