Odds and ends

• In Generacion Y from Yoani Sanchez, a comment on the economic debates at the grass-roots level, and an expression “between shock and happiness” among habaneros who have discovered that police are no longer stopping taxis, hence the taxis that have no license are stopping readlily to pick up passengers. This is apparently an unannounced new policy. Yoani says “no one knows with precision” when this measure took effect. The first press report that I saw was in July. I asked taxi drivers in August, they said the change happened in May or June.

• In the Sun Sentinel, the former bishop of Santiago says the church’s position is eroding, while the current bishop, visiting the United States, tells AP that the church’s reach is slowly expanding.

• According to Granma, Cuban doctors in Bolivia performed a cataract operation and restored eyesight to the Bolivian who executed Che Guevara in 1967. As Granma put it, “Mario Terán, a man educated in the idea of killing who can see again thanks to the doctors who follow the ideas of his victim.”

• An announcement of an undersea telecom cable between Cuba and Venezuela that is planned to go into operation in mid- 2009.