Rejecting the derogatory term "Gringos" and the accusatory epithet "Yanquis," Cubans prefer to refer to us, their North American neighbors, as "Yumas." This blog is simply one Yuma's way of sharing his thoughts on all things Cuban, a subject that often generates more heat than light.
When I did my field research for the dissertation I met and interviewed scores of Cubans just like Yoani's neighbor Humberto.
Luchando, always luchando.
Let's hope that there is rapid follow through on this announcement and that this little corner of entrepreneurial spirit can flourish once again.
I also wonder if great places like La Guarida and El Huron Azul will be allowed to reopen - or perhaps it's too little, too late for them.
Readers might also want to re-read Yoani's post from the winter/spring of 2008 entitled, "The hidden energies". There she describes the "boom in creativity and ingenuity" that Cuba saw in 1994 after Self-Employment was last expanded.
Let's hope that boom returns and that the government can accept that new economic freedoms inevitably bring with them a new political autonomy.
That will be the longer term test for Raul. Will a Half Million Laid Off Cubans Find Work in Private Enterprise?
Yoani Sanchez, September 14, 2010 - Exclusive to The Huffington Post.
It is not in devising a system,
That the fearful dangers lurk;
It is not in devising a system,
But in making the system work.
For the working out of the system
Is not in the hands of the great;
But rests on the shoulders of poor little clerks
Like Mary and Jane and Kate.
— Fred Marquis, 1920 (cited in Ritter 1974: 224)
* * *
Last week Fidel told the reporter Jeffrey Goldberg that the "Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore." Then he denied that he really meant all that. Today's announcent from Raul's Havana, the actual government that makes and implements political and economic policies, indicates that the right hand does indeed seem to know what the left hand is doing.
Back from a month-long break from his blog, Phil Peters reminds us of why The Cuban Triangle is the go-to place for news and no-spin analysis about U.S.-Cuban relations and economic/political goings on in the island. Phil's latest posts, Now it gets serious and Cuba's soon to expand private sector, share the big news that the Cuban government seems to have pulled the trigger on a major reduction in state sector employment with an anticipated doubling or more of the non-state, private, cooperative, and self-employed sectors.
The news as announced in Grandma is here. MSNBC's take on it all is here in a Reuters story written by the Havana-based financial reporter Marc Frank.
Can someone out there in cyberspace please explain to me (as if I were a little child) the logic behind Fidel's most recent statement on Friday that though he did in fact say, “The Cuban model doesn’t even work for us anymore,” when asked of the "Cuban model" should be exported, that what he REALLY meant was the the capitalist model doesn't work.
I've heard a few theories that attempt to explain his first statement - some quite plausible (see here for a few options) - but no one has yet explained to my satisfaction how saying that Cuban socialism doesn't work was meant to convey that capitalism is bankrupt.
The blogosphere is crackling with 1,001 different interpretations of Fidel's famous (or perhaps infamous) words, "The Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore."
My favorite analysts, as usual, are Phil Peters (welcome back, Phil), Tracey Eaton (Tracey's got a running commentary on the whole polemica), and Ernesto Hernandez Bustos herehere, and here (not to mention La Flaca herself). You can also get links to official spins on his statements at all three of these blogs, and of course at the oficialisimaCuba Debate.
My favorite discovery, besides the original Goldberg blog posts themselves (links to all three below), is this 15-second Simpsons outtake posted on Penultimos Dias (after originally appearing on the NYT Lede blog).
What follows is a media advisory from the COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS about an upcoming on-the-record conference call with Julia Sweig herself. It says that the call is open to members of the press only - but as a blogger, I hope El Yuma can listen in. If so, I will report on the call here next week.
-----------------------------------------------------
*On-The-Record Media Conference Call*
Fidel Castro and the US-Cuba Relationship
CFR Senior Fellow Julia Sweig and The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg travelled to Cuba recently where they had lengthy meetings with Fidel Castro and discussed a number of topics, including international diplomacy, the Middle East, and Cuba's history.
In this special media conference call, Sweig will answer questions about her impressions from the meetings and their significance for Cuba and US-Cuban relations.
Date: Monday, September 13, 2010
Call Time: 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. ET
Dial-in Information:
U.S. callers: 1.800.311.9402
International callers: 1.334.323.7224
Passcode: CUBA
Speaker: Julia E. Sweig, Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies and Director for Latin America Studies, CFR Bio
If I'm Raul, I'm thinking "Can't you just shut up for once Big Brother?"
Each time he has opened his big mouth over the past week (at least on domestic politics), he sounds more and more like La Flaca Yoani Sanchez.
Next he'll be shouting: "Internet para todos!" from the Plaza de la Revolucion.
Castro says Cuban model doesn't work
PAUL HAVEN, September 8, 2010
HAVANA (AP) - Fidel Castro told a visiting American journalist that Cuba's communist economic model doesn't work, a rare comment on domestic affairs from a man who has conspicuously steered clear of local issues since stepping down four years ago.
The fact that things are not working efficiently on this cash-strapped Caribbean island is hardly news. Fidel's brother Raul, the country's president, has said the same thing repeatedly. But the blunt assessment by the father of Cuba's 1959 revolution is sure to raise eyebrows.
Jeffrey Goldberg, a national correspondent for The Atlantic magazine, asked if Cuba's economic system was still worth exporting to other countries, and Castro replied: "The Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore" Goldberg wrote Wednesday in a post on his Atlantic blog.
El Yuma just received the following brief e-mail from one of his closest friends, a career Marine, who recently returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan. I also have one of my best and brightest former students currently serving in Afghanistan as a Army reservist. This is the third time he has interrupted his studies to serve in the Middle East.
While I can think of a lot of other good reasons not to burn the Koran, my old friend's point is well made.
I just have a pair of questions - Do you think this guy actually read the Qur'an first before deciding to burn it? And does he know that Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Mary, and Jesus are all celebrated as messengers of God in Islam's holy book.
Bill wrote:
"On Sept. 11, 2010, the Dove World Outreach Center, a church in Florida, plans to burn Korans. This will result in dead Americans in Afghanistan, maybe elsewhere as well.
I ask that we each offer a prayer to change the mind/heart of the pastor in Florida, Terry Jones. America does not need this. Our soldiers and Marines over there do not need this."
See here, here, and here for two related NYT articles.
Looks like Gorki (back from his trip abroad) and his Gang are at it again.
The members of Porno Para Ricardo have just put the finishing touches on their new recording studio. Now let's hope they can't be accused of "escandalo publico" when they practice.
Talk about PUNK! Go here for the original at El Auditorio Imbecil, Ciro Diaz's blog.
Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo interviews Yoani Sanchez in Diario de Cuba upon her winning the Prince Claus Award.
Among other things, she tells us:
"The prize money (25,000 Euros) will be used as the cornerstone of a free media in Cuba."
"Estos se usarán para lo que podría ser la piedra fundacional de un medio de difusión libre en Cuba."
It turns out that she has the special distinction of also having been invited to the December awards ceremony in Holland along with the grand prize winner.
I think it's high time that the government let her travel.
But if she does get out, she is sure to return.
As OLPL titles his article: "Sin odios, ni adios."
Go here for Sanchez's own reaction to this and the IPI prize announced last week. A brief interview in El Pais is here. Also see here, here, and here for more coverage.
* * *
«Soy una persona sin odios»
Lunes 06 de Septiembre de 2010
Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, La Habana
Yoani Sánchez (1975, Havana) is a leading figure in the use of social networking technologies to breach imposed frontiers. A graduate in philology, she is now dedicated to computer sciences and their capacity to alter perceptions and generate social change. She works as a webmaster, columnist and editor for Desde Cuba, an online news portal.
Determined to promote freedom of information and to speak out regardless of danger, in 2007, Yoani Sánchez set up a blog, Generation Y.
Her regular posts offer punchy accounts of the day-to-day environment. Avoiding direct criticism and global politics, her blog provides subjective insights into the practical difficulties people face.
Emphasising the vital importance of material autonomy for any form of active citizenship, her subjects include unaffordable food, shortage of proteins and vegetables, the turgid proceedings of parliament and the lack of meaningful reforms.
Sánchez operates in a context of strict control and censorship, working clandestinely, under threat of arrest.
Local access to internet is limited and filters set up by the authorities slow and block connection to Generation Y.
Local supporters circulate her writings in emails and USB memories, and volunteers translate her Spanish reports into 22 languages. Generation Y's growth has been exponential. It is now one of the most-followed blogs in cyberspace, and a compilation has been published as Cuba Libre.
Yoani Sánchez is awarded for raising global awareness of daily Cuban realities through her blog, for her inspiring and courageous example in giving a voice to the silenced, and for demonstrating the immense impact internet communications technologies can have as tools for social change and development.
Soy original de Pensacola, Florida - "La Riviera de los Redneck". Ávido de rodar por el mundo escapé a Massachusetts para hacer la universidad. Luego enfilé proa hacia el sur y vine a tirar el ancla en Ecuador, donde enseñé inglés durante 18 meses. De regreso a los EE.UU. hice escala en “La ciudad que el viento se llevó y el gobierno olvidó”: Nueva Orleans, que me acogió como suyo por 7 felices años. Ahora sin embargo soy un orgulloso neoyorquino. Mis ciudades favoritas son Nueva Orleans, Nueva York y La Habana. Actualmente imparto clases en la Universidad y me encanta enseñar. También me place mucho ofrecer hospitalidad a los amigos que llegan de visita a esta ciudad, cuyos mil y un barrios suelo explorar en mi bicicleta. @@@ I'm from the heart of the Redneck Riviera (Pensacola, Florida), escaped to Massachusetts for college (Holy Cross), and again to Ecuador for a few years. I lived for 7 blissful years in "The City that Care Forgot," New Orleans, Louisiana, and am now a proud New Yorker. My favorite cities are NOLA, NYC, & La Habana. I'm a college professor here in NYC, love teaching, hosting friends visiting the city, and exploring the 1,001 different neighborhoods on my bike.
