Economix 101

Take a look below at the NYT article on some fairly significant economic changes (for Cuba at least) coming to the island.

Speaking of the Cuban economy, I just got back from sunny Miami where I attended the 20th annual conference of ASCE (The Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy).

Perhaps the most interesting and enlightenning panel was on recent changes in Cuban agriculture, 'absurdly' entitled, "Waiting for Godot."

The most revealing paper presented was by the Havana-based Reuters/Financial Times correspondent Marc Frank, who shared his soundings of Cuban farmers as they assessed their experience working under Raul.

I'd say they gave him a collective C-, meaning that they have seen encouraging changes that give them much greater flexibility in planting, growing, transporting, and selling their produce. What Frank described were experiments in slowly phasing out the acopio (the requirement that farmers sell a large portion of their crop to the state at a fixed price).

While this is indeed encouraging, the downside is that for every positive development farmers can cite 2-3 continued bureaucratic or political obstacles in their way.

In other words, they appreciate the changes but point out that there's a LONG way still to go and that the government moves painfully slowly with any reforms.

I'll see if Frank shares his assessment with readers in the coming days.

Cuba to Cut Workers and Relax Business Rules

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: August 02, 2010

HAVANA (AP) - The Cuban government will scale back controls on small businesses, lay off unnecessary workers and allow more self-employment, President Raúl Castro said Sunday, major steps in a country where the state dominates nearly every facet of the economy.

But Mr. Castro, speaking at the opening session of Parliament, also scoffed at what he said was media speculation that Cuba planned sweeping economic changes to dig itself out of a financial crisis. "With experience accumulated in more than 55 years of revolutionary struggle, it doesn't seem like we're doing too badly, nor that desperation or frustration have been our companions along the way," he said.

About 95 percent of all Cubans work for the government, a sector Mr. Castro called "considerably bloated." Those who are laid off, he said, will be retrained or reassigned.
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Race in Cuba: The Eternal 'Black Problem' - Leonardo Padura

When it comes to race, Cuba is far from the utopia that black intellectuals like to think it is.

As part of The Root's series exploring the island's color complex, Cuba's best-known novelist weighs in.

By Leonardo Padura
July 27, 2010

After almost five decades of Marxist revolution, the official romantic idea was that, with the elimination of certain onerous economic and social practices that promoted racial discrimination, the last vestiges of racism would be vanquished.

Given the usual silence with which Cuban governmental institutions deal with the thornier issues in Cuban society -- as might be expected -- the deepest roots of prejudice remain embedded in time, the country's social structure and the Cuban people's very soul. Racism -- like prostitution, corruption and religion -- didn't disappear because of a socialist magical spell: Although diminished and quiet, it survived among the people, and today, in fact, in certain nonofficial circles, its incidence in the complex narrative of contemporary Cuban society is openly debated.

It doesn't seem necessary to go over the reasons that forged racism in Cuba. They're the same that, with European conquest and colonization, were imposed on the rest of the Americas with the hegemonic focus on the metropolis, which, as we know, depended for three long centuries on the importation of African slaves to sustain the economies of extensive regions in which the indigenous Amerindian populations had been or were being extinguished.

Cuban society was thus built with a strict code in which skin color placed human beings in certain social classes and even within varying degrees of humanity: Black, in many cases, was synonymous with beast.

"The black problem" is so fundamental, the matter of ethnic origin among the island's inhabitants so dramatic, and racism so persistent among those with decision and economic power that Cuba's independence from the Spanish empire was delayed by almost a century precisely because of its large number of blacks. (At certain points in the 19th century, blacks made up 60 percent of the resident population.)

They were a people who had been exploited and who, in a moment of institutional disorder, it was feared might try to vindicate their rights and their humanity, as had happened in the neighboring colony of Saint Domingue. If, as certain historians and sociologists have claimed, "the black problem" marked the Cuban political landscape at the birth of the nation in the beginning of the 19th century, its essence returned a century later when the island, having recently achieved its tarnished independence, continued its confrontation with "the black problem" by treating blacks with particular violence in a series of pogroms that took place mainly on the eastern side of the island, where the majority of the African-descended population lived.

The curious, contradictory and painful part is that various historians and sociologists also agree that the persistent "black problem" is still with us today, in the 21st century, urgently and tensely waiting for a definitive solution that never comes, in spite of laws, decrees and official edicts that paternalistically (but that are, deep down, racist) try to stipulate ethnic representation in certain affairs of state, government and the Communist Party. As if a few more dark faces in the official apparatus could really be an answer to the profound problems that have so much to do with economics and social thought and so little to do with the utopian volunteerism of our leaders who, in the end, are simply practicing politics with their "anti-discrimination" decrees.

The painful truth is that, in Cuba, the vast majority of the prison population is black or mixed-race.

The most physically ruined parts of the cities are those where most black and mixed-raced Cubans, weighed down by spiritual burdens and secular misery, have lived for generations.

They are also the ones who, in the economic and social climbing of the last few decades, are least represented ...

and let's not mention certain attitudes, repressive attitudes -- in other words, the attitude of the Cuban police, where blacks are mostly concentrated at the bottom of the pyramid -- that treat dark-skinned persons with much greater rigor ... precisely because of the color of their skin.

In its culture and idiosyncrasies, Cuba is a mestizo nation: a mix of spiritual and ethnic elements brought from Europe, Africa, China and neighboring Caribbean isles that contributed at a cellular level and can be seen on the skin, in the values and cultural expressions of Cubans.

Cubanness is mestizaje.

Nonetheless, the old prejudices live on in the minds of many people, while the social system, with its egalitarian laws, hasn't been able to liberate black people from the poorest margins of society.

Now, at the beginning of the 21st century, the definitive answer to this problem demands new and more dynamic policies that, unfortunately, mostly depend on an island bereft of economic possibilities for white, mulatto and black Cubans so in need of improvements in their real and everyday life.

Leonardo Padura, Cuba's best-known novelist, is the three-time recipient of the Dashiell Hammett Award given by the International Association of Detective Writers. His most recent novel, El Hombre Que Amaba a Los Perros (The Man Who Loved Dogs), features Leon Trotsky and his killer, Ramon Mercader, as its main characters. He lives in Havana and can be reached via Achy Obejas.

Translation by Achy Obejas.
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Race in Cuba: The Politics of Power and Hypocrisy (The Root)

When it comes to race, Cuba is far from a utopia. Last year a group of black Americans, including Cornel West, wrote an open letter to Cuba decrying racism there.

As part of The Root's series exploring the island's color complex, one of Cuba's esteemed social scientists writes about the aftermath of that letter.

By Inéz Maria Martiatu Terry
July 28, 2010

The letter signed by 60 African Americans about the state of racism in Cuba, which ended decades of silence on Cuba's racial policies, was the first shot.

Naturally, certain sectors of the foreign press, representing interests that had always been racist, tried to take advantage of the situation. A good number of intellectuals on the island responded immediately, denying the accusations and the results of studies on the subject that they themselves had published -- a response provoked by the fears of criticism from abroad.

The most important internal response came a month after the letter (from African Americans), on Thursday, Dec. 21, when Cuba TV broadcast A Cuban Battle Against Racism (the title plays off A Cuban Battle Against Demons, a seminal book on national identity by Fernando Ortíz, the island's first significant post-colonial critic) on "Mesa Redonda," one of the most coveted prime-time slots.

Various specialists appeared on the show, and it was finally publicly recognized that prejudice, racism and racial discrimination persist in Cuba. This contradicted statements that had hastily been made to deny the situation.

And yet this happened on TV -- the mass medium par excellence in our country, and where the most pointed evidence of this very racism continues, especially in the lack of black actors in featured programming that frequently uses them only in police procedurals to play delinquents who practice Afro-Cuban religions.

What erroneous policies have allowed such an important issue to Cuban society to go without resolution in these 50 years of revolution?

The triumphalism that decided the problem was solved in 1962; the imposition of a single Cuban subject that did not take differences into account; and the fear that a public discussion on the matter would produce schisms before enemy threats from abroad.
These were the pretexts used to keep the dialogue and/or discussions about these and other important matters to society as a whole from ever taking place.

The exclusion of blacks from the halls of power and from the most advantageous economic sectors can be explained in part by the historical consequences of slavery and the inequalities of the black and mulatto population to whites in the first years of our socialist project, but it is no longer justifiable.

Other things -- such as the near total absence of textbooks at all levels of learning about the history and culture of Africa and of blacks in Cuba, continued emphasis of European aesthetic values, the degrading representation of black and mulatto women in touristic propaganda and police harassment -- continue to batter the self-esteem of the country's population of color.

A growing number of scholars have engaged with these questions for years, going against the tide of partisan opinions trying to put off discussion and analysis of the issue. The hip-hop movement has opened a space in which to confront matters of interest to youth, particularly black and mulatto youth. The inclusion of women in a decidedly masculine endeavor such as rap is particularly notable. Young people of color struggle against racial discrimination and patriarchal oppression.

They're interested in family, the vindication of beauty, the relationship between the sexes, violence, prostitution, drugs, the double morality/hypocrisy, corruption, racism, police harassment, conformity and the defense of diversity, including homosexuality/lesbianism. There's still much to do.

Although the answer lies in education and a strong involvement in cultural work, it's still a long ways off. The hegemonic sectors of our society that have historically benefited from this inequality will not give up their privilege after a mere bout of conscience. It will be necessary to seek the help of the courts.

If we don't keep in mind that racism is linked to the exercise of power, it will continue to play out as a consequence of its obvious economic, social and cultural benefits to the hegemonic sectors.

Inés María Martiatu Terry is a Cuban writer and cultural critic whose many books include Over the Waves and Other Stories, published in the United States. She has received various awards, including the Ministry of Culture's distinction for national culture.

Translation by Achy Obejas.
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The Latino Digital Divide - Pew Hispanic Center

The Latino Digital Divide: The Native Born Lead the Foreign Born

When it comes to the use of technology among Latinos, nativity plays an important role.

Internet use and cell phone use are much higher among native-born Latinos than among foreign-born Latinos.

And among young Latinos ages 16 to 25, the native born are more likely than the foreign born to use mobile technology to communicate daily with their friends.

These findings emerge from two new analyses of a nationwide survey of Latinos ages 16 and older by the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center.

Fully 85% of native-born Latinos go online while just half of foreign-born Latinos do so. And when it comes to cell phone use among Latinos, 80% of the native born use one, compared with 72% of the foreign born.

Results also reveal that use of a cell phone or the internet among adult Hispanics still significantly lags behind non-Hispanics. Among those ages 18 and older, only 64% of Latinos go online, compared with 78% of non-Latinos.

An ethnic gap exists in cell phone use as well--about three-fourths (76%) of adult Latinos use a cell phone, compared with 86% of non-Latinos.

These findings are in the "The Latino Digital Divide: The Native Born versus The Foreign Born <http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103589056880&s=10515&e=0017bhRxdz1UXy1-7uxe4zpMyDqfn4zV0c19GJON8Gusxbz7KL_EwOLne_ar2Q9pGXtwYtqdkDC7luUogymSJftX3Vhgg2i8Ny4pSt--cyySvGFuOPFqe9Dh4iUGkku6VMDTp6i6pRAF1A6rJHNwswJkXyRIWGzzbrd> " report.

A second report that focuses on Latino youth, "How Young Latinos Communicate with Friends in the Digital Age <http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103589056880&s=10515&e=0017bhRxdz1UXzkIvjB74ffpVqRYdB4SXVdqFCrr-LTLJY9akbhZgJ_F5aB9Ycm2QiQbm-7pVPCyT-qz0-C6K-Z02T3YoocGMjf5P1DOtrdb7CiXjgdq0JfethoBKcY9m9icx7kWOIpRL31uUvsSLrgICQN6Vb_qsJ0> ," finds that Latinos ages 16 to 25 use mobile technology to communicate and socialize with their friends more than other technologies. However, the native born are far more likely than the foreign born to send texts (65% versus 26%) and to use a cell phone (55% versus 29%) to communicate daily with their friends.

Both reports are based on the 2009 National Survey of Latinos, which was conducted from August 5 through September 16, 2009 among a randomly selected, nationally representative sample of 2,012 Hispanics ages 16 and older. The survey was conducted in both English and Spanish, on cellular as well as landline telephones.
 
Hispanics are the nation's largest and youngest minority ethnic group.

In 2008, there were 46.9 million Hispanics in the U.S., representing 15.4% of the total U.S. population.

Among young people, Hispanics represent an even larger share. Some 18%, or 7.5 million, of those ages 16 to 25 are Hispanic.

The reports, "The Latino Digital Divide: The Native Born versus The Foreign Born <http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103589056880&s=10515&e=0017bhRxdz1UXy1-7uxe4zpMyDqfn4zV0c19GJON8Gusxbz7KL_EwOLne_ar2Q9pGXtwYtqdkDC7luUogymSJftX3Vhgg2i8Ny4pSt--cyySvGFuOPFqe9Dh4iUGkku6VMDTp6i6pRAF1A6rJHNwswJkXyRIWGzzbrd> " authored by Gretchen Livingston, Senior Researcher, Pew Hispanic Center, and "How Young Latinos Communicate with Friends in the Digital Age <http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103589056880&s=10515&e=0017bhRxdz1UXzkIvjB74ffpVqRYdB4SXVdqFCrr-LTLJY9akbhZgJ_F5aB9Ycm2QiQbm-7pVPCyT-qz0-C6K-Z02T3YoocGMjf5P1DOtrdb7CiXjgdq0JfethoBKcY9m9icx7kWOIpRL31uUvsSLrgICQN6Vb_qsJ0> " authored by Mark Hugo Lopez, Associate Director, Pew Hispanic Center and Gretchen Livingston, are available at the Pew Hispanic Center's website, www.pewhispanic.org.
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More on AZ Immigration Law from NPR

AZ Immigration Law Would Be A Challenge For Police

While many law enforcement officials support the new Arizona immigration law, others worry it will hurt relations with the community.

Published: July 28, 2010 by Alan Greenblatt

Even the people who would be charged with enforcing Arizona's controversial new immigration law can't agree on the question of whether it's a good idea. The law takes effect Thursday -- but only after a last-minute judicial ruling that blocks some of its most controversial provisions, including the requirement that officers check a person's immigration status while enforcing other laws if they have reason to suspect that person is in the country illegally.

According to the Associated Press, U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton today put that part of the law on hold while courts consider challenges to its legality. She also put on hold provisions requiring that immigrants carry their legal papers at all times and barring undocumented workers from soliciting work in public places, the AP says.

The Arizona Sheriffs' Association supports the law and the controversial provision about checking a suspect's immigration status, saying it will give deputies needed tools to combat crimes associated with illegal immigration, such as human smuggling. "If we can remove them from the community with an immigration charge, we'll do the community a favor," says Cochise County Sheriff Larry A. Dever.

But rank-and-file opinion is mixed and many police chiefs -- inside the state and around the country -- say the law would prove a costly distraction. "It drives a wedge between us and the community, where we have to get our information," says Roberto Villasenor, Tucson's chief of police.

Race As A Factor
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed the law, known as Senate Bill 1070, in April, saying that the state had been overwhelmed by an influx of illegal immigrants and could no longer wait for Congress to address the issue. That is the argument numerous states have made in recent years in passing dozens, if not hundreds, of laws relating to immigration.

But none has gone so far as Arizona. The Justice Department has sued to block SB 1070, arguing that it infringes on federal authority over immigration matters. Several immigrant and civil rights groups have sued as well, saying it will inevitably lead to abuses such as racial profiling.

Supporters of the law dismiss such concerns, noting that it specifically precludes local law enforcement officers from using race or national origin as a factor in determining whether they suspect someone of being an illegal immigrant.

Police and sheriffs can't stop people to question them based solely on immigration concerns, but once they are investigating other violations they are required, if suspicious, to check. Dever, the Cochise County sheriff, says the law will aid law enforcement officers in dealing with serious criminals -- notably those who cross the border repeatedly with impunity. "This gives cops tools to get these guys off the streets," says Ira Mehlman, media director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which supports SB 1070 and stricter immigration laws in general.

"They may not be able to prove a felony just yet, but if they can get a guy off the street before he commits a crime, that works to the benefit of the community."

Breaking A Bond?
But the potential ill effect on community relations is something many police chiefs are warning about. If people come to fear the approach of law enforcement officers, they say, individuals are less likely to come forward with information about crimes.

"Any beat cop will tell you that the number one asset in preventing crimes or apprehending criminals is cooperation from the community," says Antonio Gonzalez, president of the William C. Velasquez Institute, which conducts policy research on Latino issues. "When that bond is broken, it's difficult to recover."

The other specter that SB 1070's opponents raise concerns racial profiling. The law's potential for triggering civil rights violations has already provided fodder for lawsuits -- and will lead to more once it actually takes effect.

"Without a doubt, we're going to be accused of racial profiling on this, no matter what we do," Villasenor, the Tucson police chief, says in a training video sent to officers throughout the state. The video, produced by the Arizona Peace Officers Standards and Training Board, seeks to guide officers on ways to avoid racial profiling.

But SB 1070's critics say it treads awfully close to the line anyway. "Even though the law says that racial profiling is not to take place, the reality is that it's going to be very difficult for officers to aggressively enforce the law without crossing the line," says San Francisco Police Chief George Gascon, who previously headed the police department in Mesa, Arizona.

Factors that officers may consider when enforcing the law include inability to speak English; avoiding eye contact; traveling in a crowded vehicle; and wearing layers of clothing in hot weather, which suggests chilly desert crossings at night. Dever, a sheriff whose county shares borders with Mexico and New Mexico, says that simple demographics will determine who is most likely to be charged under SB 1070.

"Most of the people we encounter in the drug smuggling and human smuggling trades are of Mexican nationality. Most of the people we arrest are going to be Mexican," he says. "Is there anything racist about it?"

Does ICE Have The Capacity?
Assuming SB 1070 works as intended and local law enforcement agencies detain more illegal immigrants, that raises the question of what will be done with them. Sheriffs and police already complain that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) can barely handle the caseload it now has, leading many illegal immigrants to languish in local jails -- or be released.

ICE officials have told local law enforcement officials that, at best, they have the capacity to deport 400,000 individuals a year. Last year, they deported 387,790. "We don't always take action on every individual that's referred to us," says Gillian M. Brigham, an ICE spokeswoman.

"In a world of limited resources, we have to prioritize."

A Rock And A Hard Place
Police chiefs worry not only about how likely the feds will be to take a rising number of illegal immigrants off their hands and out of their facilities, but whether the law will prove a further drain on their resources due to the need to defend against legal challenges.

Whatever its potential benefits, it's clear that SB 1070 places local law enforcement between a rock and a hard place. The law gives any citizen standing to sue if he or she feels that local police or sheriffs are not enforcing the law with sufficient vigor. On the other hand, strict enforcement will be bait for further lawsuits alleging racial profiling.

The one thing critics and supporters of the law seem to be able to agree upon, in fact, is that it will offer a field day for lawyers. "Because of the posture of our own Department of Justice," says Dever, the Cochise County sheriff, "with the federal government threatening to file suit against officers for civil rights violations, you know there's going to be a flurry of those complaints."

[Copyright 2010 National Public Radio]
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BREAKING: Do I Look Illegal?

NPR News

Judge Blocks Parts Of Arizona Immigration Law A Day Before Its Implementation

Published: July 28, 2010

by The Associated Press

A judge has blocked the most controversial sections of Arizona's new immigration law from taking effect Thursday, handing a major legal victory to opponents of the crackdown.

The law will still take effect Thursday, but without many of the provisions that angered opponents -- including sections that required officers to check a person's immigration status while enforcing other laws.

The judge also put on hold a part of the law that required immigrants to carry their papers at all times, and made it illegal for undocumented workers to solicit employment in public places.

U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton put those controversial sections on hold until the courts resolve the issues. Opponents say the law will lead to racial profiling and is trumped by federal immigration law.

[Copyright 2010 The Associated Press]
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Achy Obejas on Race in Cuba (from The Root) with commentary from Walter Lippmann

Race in Cuba: Yes, Virginia, There Is Racism on the Island

When it comes to race, Cuba is far from the utopia that black intellectuals like to think it is. Today, on the 57th anniversary of the start of the Cuban Revolution, The Root launches its series exploring the island's color complex.

By Achy Obejas, The Root, July 26, 2010

In 1998, when President Bill Clinton was allowing Cuban artists to travel relatively easily in and out of the United States, I invited a well-known Cuban visual artist to visit my graduate class at Columbia College in Chicago. I wanted her to show the students her work and talk a little about what it was like to create art -- such a personal endeavor -- in a society that focused on the collective rather than the individual.

The visit to Columbia, an urban school with a strong arts focus, went well until the question-and-answer session. An African-American student, eyes misty with hope, asked, "Is it true that there's no racism in Cuba?" My friend, a red-haired and white-skinned Cuban, nodded enthusiastically. "No, there's no racism," she affirmed, and there was a collective sigh in the class over the very notion that such a utopia could really exist.

Like my friend, I am also light-skinned -- white in Cuban society -- but unlike her, I didn't grow up in Havana hearing, and thus believing, in this human-relations miracle. I was born in Cuba but grew up outside Chicago in the 1960s and '70s; I'd lived through the U.S. civil rights movement and worked for Harold Washington's mayoral campaign. I'd struggled with racism all my life -- racism directed at me as a Cuban-Latina by white and black Americans, racism by Cubans and other Latinos of all colors directed at anyone darker, and, of course, my own racism. And instinctively, I rejected her assertion that racism had been vanquished on the island -- and I said so right there in class.

This didn't go over well. My students preferred her version of events -- she was the Cuban from the island and had the edge on credibility by virtue of residence -- but perhaps more importantly, they wanted to believe her. The idea of a racism-free space was intoxicating.

My friend was also upset. She felt that her credibility had been publicly assailed and I had failed to understand the real achievements of the Cuban Revolution. I had gone back to Cuba and missed the point; I had been obviously brainwashed by my years in exile in the United States.

We remained friends but agreed to disagree on this issue. She went back to Cuba and told her friends her stories about her first visit to America, including the tale of this silly Cuban-American who'd suggested that there was still racial discrimination in the homeland.

To her surprise, her black and mixed-raced friends -- including close and longtime friends -- used the opportunity to express their own misgivings about the racial situation in Cuba. My friend was flabbergasted.

Why, she asked, if the truth didn't conform to the official story, hadn't anyone ever said anything before?

Click here to read more of this story.

***

I also recommend anything on race in Cuba by Alejandro de la Fuente, pictured to the left (for a start on his extensive scholarship go here and here).  Also see his excellent book, A Nation For All: Race, Inequality, and Politics in 20th Century Cuba (UNC Press, 2000).







***
Though Walter Lippmann and I rarely agree on our analysis of contemporary Cuba, his commentary below is nuanced and helpful, as is his list of links.


"A few notes on racism in Cuba"
Posted by Walter Lippmann (walterlx@earthlink.net)
July 27, 2010

Anyone who tells you there's no racism or racial discrimination in Cuba is either ignorant or dishonest. At the same time, it's very important that people from the United States when looking at Cuba try to understand that society and its problems in the island's own historical and social context. Cuban racism isn't the same as US racism. But it certainly does exist and has long existed. At the same time, the idea that the Cuban revolution's leadership ignores the issue is disingenuous. Separately I will post an extensive list of documents to indicate a consciousness of racism as a continuing problem on the island.

Those studying this topic need to explore it in depth. Here is one example, among many others which could be cited: Whereas the United States elected its first Black president relatively recently - Barack Obama in 2008, Cuba elected its first black president long, long ago: Fulgencio Batista in 1940. And also in 1930, the head of the principal industrial trade union on the island was a black man, Jesus Menendez. And the head of the main left-wing political party, the Communist Party, was a mulatto, Blas Roca. And the Communist Party wasn't a small radical fringe group. It was sufficiently influential that it had two members of the cabinet under president Batista.

THE ROOT'S discussion of racism in Cuba raises important issues, but misses some aspects of the Cuban treatment of these complex and difficult themes. U.S. readers are likely to be unfamiliar with the considerable Cuban literature on race, racism and how they play out in Cuba today. Here in the United States of America, where racism is a central facet of the social and political culture, and where ignorance of Cuban reality is maintained through a travel ban, thats not surprising.

In my opinion, people from the United States ought to be careful to avoid thinking that the experiences and lessons of life in the US can be applied to every other country on earth without taking into account that country’s history, culture and experiences. I believe

The United States didn’t elect its first Black president until 2008, in the third CENTURY after gaining its independence from the United Kingom. Cuba, which had and continues to have racial problems of its own, elected its first black president in 1940, at a time when the island had only achieved formal and juridical, but not practical nor actual independence, from the United States of America. Actual independence, I would argue, only began on January 1, 1959, with the triumph of the Cuban Revolution.

Though I am non-Black, and can’t discuss racism from the same personal experience foundation that Blacks can, I’ve attempted to follow these issues for many years. I’ve traveled to Cuba and stayed for extended periods of time. In addition, I direct an Internet-based news service, CubaNews, available at http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/CubaNews/

Part of the work of the CubaNews list is to locate Cuban materials on these themes, and to make translations of them for the English-speaking public. Even as fierce an opponent of the Cuban Revolution as Carlos Moore has found himself citing my work and my personal website regarding these issues, as you can find in his recently-published autobiography, PICHON. (see the footnotes to the book)

Among the accomplishments of the CubaNews list has been locating and translating from Spanish to English articles on racism, which is a continuing problem, from the contemporary Cuban media. I’ll cite a few examples and hope that anyone interested in these matters, will take a look at what Afro-Cuban authors have had to say about them.

Thank you,

Walter Lippmann

Esteban Morales: Cuban Color
http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs2809.html

Esteban Morales: Challenges of the Racial Problem in Cuba:
http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs2296.html

Esteban Morales: Anti-Cuban Subversion – The Race Issue
http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs1516.html

Miguel Barnet: Preserving Memory:
http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs2091.html

David Gonzalez and Walterio Lord:
Some Quick Comments on Carlos Moore’s PICHON:
http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs2346.html

The Independent Party of Color:
http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs2080.html

The Teachings and Lineage of Walterio Carbonell:
http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs1911.html

Esteban Morales: Malcolm X – An Unyielding Revolutionary:
http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs1389.html

Fernando Martinez Heredia: Malcolm X Still Speaks to Us
http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs2430.html

Fernando Martinez Heredia: The Meaning of a Centennial
http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs2127.html

Fernando Martinez Heredia:
Social diversity is not a weakness of the nation,
but a very important element of its wealth.
http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs1769.html

Alberto N. Jones: Unmasking the Promotors of Racial War in Cuba
http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs1533.html

There are many, many more, but these are a few to get an interested reader started.

============ ========= ========= ========= ==
WALTER LIPPMANN
Los Angeles, California
Editor-in-Chief, CubaNews
http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/CubaNews/
"Cuba - Un Paraíso bajo el bloqueo"

60 is the new 40! 60-year-old woman to swim 103 miles from La Habana to La Yuma

El Yuma just got off his bike after cycling 270 miles over the course of three days from Boston to New York in order to raise money for ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) research.

Lots of liquids, granola bars, and moral support kept me going strong up those hills, along with this pearl of wisdom from a fellow rider:

"Pain is only weakness leaving the body."

Let's hope Diana Nyad keeps this in mind as she crosses the probverbial "90 miles" (actually 103 miles) between La Habana and La Yuma.

From Walter Lippmann at Yahoo Group "CubaNews" (walterlx@earthlink.net).

LA TIMES: For ocean swimmer Diana Nyad, 60 represents a sea change as she prepares for Cuba-to-Florida swim (Monday, July 26, 2010)

Excerpt: Late last week, Nyad received permission from both governments to do this. She began her requests in January, and says that if Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had not stepped in recently, her dream might have been drowned forever in red tape. The United States government still sees Cuba as a hot potato, and Cuba, eager for this event to take place, badly wanted Nyad to complete her swim in Havana, not leave from there.

"The Cubans don't like the implication of somebody walking out on one of their beaches and swimming away," Nyad says.

She also says she would be more than happy to make the big arrival show in Havana, but that prevailing currents in the Gulf Stream make that much more difficult.

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For ocean swimmer Diana Nyad, 60 represents a sea change as she prepares for Cuba-to-Florida swim

Nyad gave up major ocean swims when she was 29, after trying (and failing) to complete the 103-mile Cuba-to-Florida trek in 1978. Now, just weeks from her 61st birthday, she aims to give it another go, in notoriously shark-infested waters, proclaiming, '60 is the new 40.'

By Bill Dwyre

Monday, July 26, 2010

Diana Nyad failed in a 1978 attempt to swim from Cuba to Florida, but is now ready to complete unfinished business.

Being in your 60s means many things. It can be the joy of getting your shoes tied every morning. For Diana Nyad, it is swimming from Cuba to Florida.

That's 103 miles, and, yes, that's nuts.

But all signs point to its happening, and Nyad, a world-renowned open-water swimmer who has been landlocked for 31 years, is as determined now as she once was when setting off on record swims around Manhattan Island, across Lake Ontario and from the Bahamas to Florida.

Late last week, Nyad received permission from both governments to do this. She began her requests in January, and says that if Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had not stepped in recently, her dream might have been drowned forever in red tape. The United States government still sees Cuba as a hot potato, and Cuba, eager for this event to take place, badly wanted Nyad to complete her swim in Havana, not leave from there.

"The Cubans don't like the implication of somebody walking out on one of their beaches and swimming away," Nyad says.

She also says she would be more than happy to make the big arrival show in Havana, but that prevailing currents in the Gulf Stream make that much more difficult.

Nyad, who will be 61 next month, stopped swimming when she was 29, but never strayed far from the spotlight. She is a nationally known speaker, author, travel expert and sports commentator on NPR. She was born in New York City, grew up in Florida and lives in Los Angeles.

Actually, for the last 10 months, she has lived both in L.A. and in various oceans. She would fly to spots off Mexico or a Caribbean island, do some ocean swimming, then return to tend to her professional life in Los Angeles.

"Last January, I flew to Mexico, hired a boat and swam for 6½ hours," she said. "I got on the plane to come home and suddenly knew I was going to do this, I could do this, I still had it in me."

Nyad says that encroaching age never bothered her, that 50 and 55 came and went with no thought. But 60 was different. She had a feeling of "being disenfranchised, of being no longer valued." That, coupled with the death of her mother, left her worried that her best days were behind, and she was struggling to find a way to disprove that to herself.

She went back to who she was, what she did. She quietly went to the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center, then other area pools, and the work began. The long-range goal was easy. In 1978, she had attempted to swim from Cuba to Florida, struggled in huge waves for nearly 42 hours and had to give up.

At 60, she saw it as unfinished business.

Now, weather permitting, she will wade into the water in Havana in the next few weeks. She has the team and equipment in place, which is no small undertaking and no small expense. She has to house and feed boat captains, kayak paddlers, trainers, medical personnel and more until the weather is perfect.

"I'm looking for two or three days of doldrums, where the ocean is so flat you can put your breakfast plate down on it," she says.

That's exactly the weather she had July 10, when she did a successful 24-hour training swim in Florida.

There was one small hitch: At dusk, a shark surfaced close by. Her safety diver spotted it, and it went away. Nyad will swim the entire shark-infested route without a shark cage, unlike her first attempt in 1978. A similar route was accomplished by Susie Maroney in 1997, but she did it in a shark cage and some have theorized that the cage helped pull her along. Maroney did her crossing in 23 hours 47 minutes. Nyad expects to take about 60 hours.

Nyad says she will be protected by a newly developed shark shield. She said the four-pound device, dragged along by accompanying boats, emits something that keeps sharks away.

"They tested it in Australia," she says. "They put a bloody leg of a cow on a surfboard and then watched from a helicopter. Within minutes, hundreds of sharks came and just tore the thing apart. Then they did the same thing with the shark shield device. Nearly 5,000 sharks were in the area, but none touched it."

There are doubters.

"I get e-mails from people saying they are shark experts," she says. "They say I will be like a dinner bell out there. I've started deleting those immediately.

"Whether it is true that the shield works or not, I've decided to believe it will."

Although there is obviously commercial value and ego enhancement in her incredible quest, Nyad has a revealing answer to whether just a good try will be OK.

"I'm an athlete," she says. "I don't feel that way. I didn't make it the first time, and I'm sure not going to wait another 30 years."

When she does this, Nyad says, she wants people in their 60s to feel good about themselves. She likes to say that "60 is the new 40."

There will, of course, be a day or two after she finishes when she will be too stiff to tie her shoes.

bill.dwyre@latimes.com
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times
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The general did not speak because he had nothing to say

Yoani Sanchez's analysis of President Raul Castro's non-speech today is really a gem.

Her original post in Spanish is here and in English here.

Here's my translated excerpt:

"The general did not speak because he had nothing to say, no launching of a reform package, because he knows that would be risking the power, the control, that his family has exercised for five decades. [...]


Referring to the postponed measures to address the economy and society, Machedo Ventura declared that they will be made, 'step by step at a pace determined by us.' The old confusion with the first person plural, the well-known ambiguity of the apparently consensual."


The pace, the speed, and the depth of these anxiously-awaited openings are decided by a small group which has much to lose if they apply them, and time to benefit if they delay them."


Some will say Raúl Castro’s silence is part of his strategy to avoid bluster and bravado. But, more than political discretion, what we saw today is pure State secrecy."


By saying nothing, he has sent us his fullest message: 'I owe you no explanations, no promises, no results'."

Deafening Silence from Above

This report just in from Aurelio Pedroso at Progreso Weekly

Raul Castro did NOT speak
Monday, 26 July 2010, 11:30 a.m.
By Aurelio Pedroso

Far from what was expected for the July 26 celebration, Cuban authorities did NOT announce new economic reforms and left "the study, analysis and decision-making in all sectors," to be continued.

The announcement was conveyed by Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, first vice president of the Council of State and Ministers, who served as principal speaker during the commemoration -- and not Raul Castro as many expected.

Another surprise was the absence of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez currently mired in the tension of a possible military confrontation with its neighbor, Colombia. His place was taken by Ali Rodriguez Araque, Venezuela's vice president.

In Santa Clara's Ernesto Che Guevara Plaza, presided over by waving Cuban and Venezuelan flags as well as the emblematic red and black 26th of July Movement flag, Machado Ventura referred to the "unbreakable solidarity" with Venezuela, a "country which had every right to defend itself," adding, that they could "count with the firm backing of the Cuban people."

In reference to the pressing Cuban problems, Machado emphasized that the production of food, the handover of idle lands and the perfection of urban agriculture will continue as strategic projects. He also stressed the interest in saving fuel and the reduction in costs, the rationality of forces and means.

Machado made clear that actions would be without improvisations. "We will not be led by foreign media campaigns…we will proceed step by step at a rhythm decided by us," he said.

In his 25-minute speech he reiterated, "change whatever needs changing without foreign pressure." "… we will act without populist solutions, demagogic or misleading."

A great deal of the population expected the speech to be given by Cuban President Raul Castro Ruz. Many expected the announcement of certain changes to the island's economy, currently affected by low productivity, lack of capital, centralization and a bureaucratic power capable of putting the brakes on and/or halt actions that might improve it.

But Raul Castro did not speak and this silence creates certain questions amongst the island's population.
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